Charlotte Gainsbourg, a movie about mum Birkin? An excuse to get closer to her - Lifestyle

An intimate diary, a 'tête-à-tête with my mother' Jane Birkin, to tell about it and "get closer to her", but also a dialogue between women and between generations, which almost becomes a universal story that touches the viewer deeply. "We have a very affectionate but modest, particular relationship, and I wanted to film this, and I wanted to testify to an unconditional love. But if the starting point was extremely personal, a little 'selfish', I realize that today many people tell me that are deeply touched ". Thus tells his 'JANE BY CHARLOTTE', the French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, daughter of Jane Birkin and of the songwriter, director and lyricist Serge Gainsbourg. It is his first film as a director and he presented it at the Torino Film Festival, out of competition in national preview,after the premiere in Cannes 2021 and will be in cinemas in 2022 with Wanted Cinema. The director herself, in liaison with Tff, tells the story of the birth and evolution of her film, "which was also defined in the editing phase". "It started in a very vague way - she remembers -, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to get closer to her". So, about 6 or 7 years ago, she decided to follow her mother's tour starting from Japan, "a place we are in love with". "But at a certain point we stopped, she didn't want to go on anymore", he says, thus explaining the reason for that stop which seemed to be definitive: "I did an interview with her - he explains - and since it was the first time I interviewed my mother told myself she had to be as direct and sincere as possible.And she was really shocked, very impressed with my first question, which was why she didn't treat me like my sisters. She believed it was a settling of scores, that I would question her position as a mother, which was not my intention at all. So she wanted to stop. But two years later she came to New York, I showed her the images and the interview and she said 'I don't know why I was so shocked, if you want we can start again.' "Filming then resumed, choosing symbolic locations. "Initially - he says - I wanted to make a portrait of my mother in Japan and one more Parisian and in Brittany, linked to my sisters, and one in New York, more linked to me. But with Covid it was impossible,so I narrowed down the places and in the end I realized that what I was doing was a tête-à-tête with my mother, not a family portrait, and I tried to put her in situations and places that reflected the questions I wanted to ask her. " a film that he built himself along the way. "I would be lying if I said that everything was foreseen - he reveals -, so many things are accidental, it's a kind of research I did and I found the film even in the editing phase. One thing I've learned, even from my father, is that things happen by chance, and that's where the truth comes out. It's a way of working that I love. "I'd be lying if I said that everything was foreseen - he reveals -, so many things are accidental, it's a kind of research I did and I found the film even in the editing phase. One thing I've learned, even from my father, is that things happen by chance, and that's where the truth comes out. It's a way of working that I love. "I'd be lying if I said that everything was foreseen - he reveals -, so many things are accidental, it's a kind of research I did and I found the film even in the editing phase. One thing I've learned, even from my father, is that things happen by chance, and that's where the truth comes out. It's a way of working that I love. "