We knew her as an actress, screenwriter, film director, director of plays.
Singer too.
Agnès Jaoui has just added a new string to her bow: writing a musical.
In a short format (15 minutes), this new creation will be performed and broadcast live on France Musique, this Monday December 14 at 8 pm, in the program “42e rue fait son show”.
We discover very beautiful pieces, between jazz and songs, which are reminiscent of Michel Legrand.
There are also themes dear to the multicésarisé artist, who sketches human comedy, couple relationships, misunderstandings like no other.
During a rehearsal, she agreed to tell us about this new project, the current crisis and her latest position in favor of gender equality.
Why this new challenge?
AGNÈS JAOUI.
The musical, I had already tasted it.
With Alain Resnais, we made this unique film
(Editor's note: “We know the song”).
During my training with Patrice Chéreau, I had also taken courses at a musical theater school for three months in New York, on Broadway and it was insane, fascinating.
It brings together everything I love, theater and music.
When it is successful, it is galvanizing, it is an infectious joy.
Why did you wait so long?
It is a genre so little loved in France, little developed, that we do not have the opportunity to write.
It costs a bit expensive, we are not sure that the public is there, that the theaters accept.
Too bad.
The same goes for comedians-singers.
We don't really like it, we always have to justify ourselves.
And this is precisely your case, you sing as much as you play.
Yes, for me, it's the same job.
When I started acting, there were no singing lessons.
It is a kind of French reluctance.
However, who cares about the notes, what touches us is the interpretation.
It has been a long time since Laurent Valière, producer of the show "42e rue", offered to write.
Why did you accept this time?
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Because he offered me billions of euros (laughs).
No, this time it was during confinement, and I had more time.
I was delighted.
This format allows me to try without putting too much financial pressure on it.
We went to the countryside with Alexis Pivot, the composer, who is a brilliant jazzman, and my assistant.
We worked a lot.
And everything could fit together.
What does this work tell about?
It is the story of a shrink who realizes that the man one of her patients speaks of may be her husband.
So she reconsiders everything.
I love stories of points of view, of misunderstandings.
And also to deal with the familiarity that can settle in the couple.
When we have been together for so long, it suffices for another gaze to appear so that we change our own gaze on the other.
Wouldn't you have liked to play in it?
I wanted to, but I thought it would be a lot.
I would have had too much stage fright and no fun.
It's only one performance, live, there were few rehearsals.
But I really admire the work of the actors we have chosen.
It is one of the few projects to see the light of day when culture is at a standstill.
How do you live these moments so complicated for the cultural community?
It's tragic.
I had never been called non-essential.
It sounds weird and it's not true.
I understand, I respect the measures, but there, a lot of things escape me.
It is an important industry in France which is being killed.
The idea that everything will not reopen on December 15th despairs me.
I myself have a lot of postponed concerts.
Movies too.
Fortunately, I was able to shoot two of them this summer, “Compagnons” by François Favrat, with Pio Marmaï, and “In the shadow of the girls” by Etienne Comar with Alex Lutz.
Does this period inspire you as an author?
I think it's too early to talk about it.
This inspires me because it is a completely crazy life experience, rich in questioning of rhythm, human relationships, questions about the meaning of life, our needs, our lacks.
There are plenty of first times in what we are currently experiencing.
It's fascinating.
But me, I need time to digest and understand all this.
It is like during the attacks.
It dries up my pen at first.
There, I am overwhelmed.
Your pen was greeted at the end of November, during a powerful speech that you gave at the Assises of the 50/50 collective which fights for equality between men and women in the cinema and the audiovisual industry.
Is this subject particularly close to your heart?
Not too long ago, maybe ten years ago, when I said I was a feminist, people would say, "What is she talking about?"
There are no more problems!
".
I would have said I was a paleontologist, it would have been the same.
Being a feminist was out of date and repulsive.
And there was the Weinstein affair.
Things are changing because the younger generations are amazing.
With regard to gender, to sexual orientation, there is a real upheaval, fabulous awareness.
What does not change are the facts.
The number of women in politics, the salaries which continue to be a third less than those of men.
We are the only majority minority!
It's crazy that things are moving so slowly.
There is real resistance, a desire not to share power.
You spoke about sexual abuse of which you were the victim.
Was it important to do it then?
Three days before this intervention, I started to write.
It came in one go.
These abuses suffered, I had never spoken publicly before.
I had the feeling that it went with my career as a woman, the pitfalls, the way to take her place or not.
If there had been more movies where girls rebel, no more cartoons where they say "fuck you!"
“, Maybe at the time, I would have known how to defend myself better.
I had successive realizations and confidence and I achieved things.
Our body, we have to hide it, show it.
We do what we can.