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The grace of every self-respecting enigma is found not so much in the solution of the mystery as in the evidence of its perplexity. Léa Seydoux (Paris, 1985) can boast at the same time of being the most brilliant and international of French stars without renouncing to the same extent to be a fetish actress (or almost) of people as diverse and exclusive as Bruno Dumont, Arnau Desplechin or, right now, Mia Hansen-Love. Her role in the miracle A Beautiful Morning, which opens now, places the heiress equally of the cinematographic empires of Pathé and Gaumont (by her grandfather and great-uncle, respectively) on the other side, of the most relevant part of auteur cinema. It also lends its image to Louis Vuitton that declares itself an enemy of luxury. She is a Bond girl with the same authority that defines herself as a feminist. And so on. This is Léa Seydoux, a French-speaking enigma.

How do you go from a Dune-type blockbuster to an almost guerrilla film like A Beautiful Morning? I guess that's the grace of being an actress: being able to do different things. In any case, my place, where I feel most comfortable, is in movies like this. I'm a person who doesn't like artifice at all. I'm fascinated by naturalness because I think that's where beauty lies. However, few worlds seem more artificial than that of his profession... Cinema is not very different from the society we live in. Nowadays with social networks everything is pose, imposture ... Everyone offers themselves to others not how they are but how they would like to be. There is a lot of cosmetic surgery literally and figuratively. We live completely obsessed with controlling the image we give to others. That's why I like to show myself completely natural, without makeup of any kind, naked ... The nude is beautiful. And it's rare because on the one hand you see countless nudes, but many of them are fake nudes. It talks about society's obsession with image and youth, and I think about the way we give up thinking about death, which, in a way, is what the film is about. Yes, that's the way it is. And I am convinced that a good part of our anxieties have to do with it, with the denial of death. I personally like to talk about it. It disturbs me, but it makes me feel more alive, more aware of my privileges. I think it's instructive and even good to talk about death. After all, it all boils down to something as basic as life is meaningless without death. The film has a lot of the director's own life and how she lived through the death of her father with Alzheimer's. I wonder if you've been through something similar in your life. Beyond the biographical coincidences, what I identify with about my character completely is his willingness to rebel. And I think that all women agree on this regardless of our privileged situation. The story of any woman, to a greater or lesser extent, is the story of a rebellion in a society that is not designed or built for us, but largely against us. Image from the film 'A Beautiful Morning', directed by Mia Hansen-Love.Elastica Film

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Cinema.

Mia Hansen-Love: "Cinema has lost forever its sacredness"

  • Writing: LUIS MARTÍNEZ Madrid

Mia Hansen-Love: "Cinema has lost forever its sacredness"

Cinema.

The latest revelation of French cinema: "Practicing sex and talking about love are the same"

  • Writing: LUIS MARTÍNEZ Madrid

The latest revelation of French cinema: "Practicing sex and talking about love are the same"Is she recognized in the image she projects of herself in the media? Not at all. The image of Léa that appears in the magazines is false, I am not that... There is a gulf between me and that. I never wear makeup. But I have to confess that I enjoy playing the role of someone I'm not at all. It's not schizophrenic if you do it with humor. Dressing up is fun; it is frivolous; It's just a game. In any case, there is always a responsibility in the image of the woman who is projected. I imagine that it is not the same to give life to a character in a Hansen-Love movie than to play a Bond girl... Yes, definitely. But the very expression "Bond girl" no longer means the same as before. Bond films have also taken charge of the change that women have experienced in society. Neither the woman is simply the mother who takes care of the children as before nor a simple object of desire as happened in many of the films that we saw before with the greatest naturalness. That is the serious thing: that all that imaginary of Bond was lived as something completely normal and admissible.What do you think we should do then with all that past, our past? I imagine that it is enough to talk about it and that we are aware of what happened. I'm not saying you should stop watching all those spy movies. They must be viewed with critical awareness. You can't pretend that nothing is happening. Without going any further, I am now reading to my son The Adventures of Little Nicholas, by Gosciny and Sempé. They're great. I grew up with them. But you realize that the woman, the mother of the protagonist, is always in the kitchen or putting on makeup, while the men are either talking about business or their things. It is clear, or at least I see it, that I cannot let it go. We cannot let it go. We love those books, but the image it gives of women is deplorable. And it must be said. To exhaust the Bond affair, it is true that the new Bond is a man who somehow discusses his own manhood, so to speak. And like him many heroes of the past. What do you think of it? I like both men to talk and discuss their virility and for women to question their most intimate essence. Both masculinity and femininity are very fragile and it is okay to question them and, if necessary, exchange them. Perhaps this is the way for us to understand each other better and to treat each other better. But all this without nullifying the differences. It is wonderful that there are men and women, that there are two sexes, that there is diversity. You have been linked to cinema since you were a child. Let's say he was born inside him. What is cinema for you? I don't want to get too serious, but it really is something I believe in. I would say it's almost a form of faith. With cinema you question the world while creating beauty. And I sincerely believe that without beauty it is impossible to live.

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  • Alzheimer
  • Paris
  • cinema
  • France