Isabelle Adjani: "Neither my father nor my mother ever told me that they thought I was pretty"

Appointment is made at the Goldoni theater in Venice, where she has just performed in

A tour de force during which, for more than an hour of monologue, she dragged the audience with her into a sort of state of hypnosis, making the mind travel through the maze of the Marilyn myth and, in turn, in Isabelle's lives and experiences.

When you meet Isabelle Adjani, you meet a star.

She appears, from behind the scenes, surrounded by a cloud of admirers and a court of guardian angels, all of whom compliment her at the slightest gesture.

Pale complexion, perfect profile of a Renaissance picture, she looks solitary even in the midst of this small crowd.

There's a sudden bewilderment in her navy blue gaze that recalls Marilyn's sensual vulnerability and intelligence.

She took off the backless Dior dress she wore on stage, and is dressed in loose overalls that give her a Fellinian shift look.

A thousand faces, 56 films, major roles in the theatre, an Oscar nomination, two interpretation awards at Cannes, five César awards for best actress and so many tributes… Adjani has imposed her international stature.

Interpreter of powerful female figures, in the fight against prejudice, we can see her in the cinema in

, by Nicolas Bedos, soon at Mélanie Laurent, and she also embodies a sublime Diane de Poitiers in a two-part film for television, directed by Josee Dayan.

Read alsoMasked and gloved hands: Isabelle Adjani's outfit on the set of "C à Vous" makes people talk

In video, Isabelle Adjani masked and gloved on the set of "C to You"

of passion

Miss Figaro.

– François Ozon, with whom you shot

When you're an actress, you're necessarily a collection of projection surfaces, or something like a blank canvas on which the others, directors and spectators, project just about anything they want.

But the projection surface is also the skin;

and as a writer that I like very much, Paul Valéry, said, “the deepest is the skin”.

In your question, there is therefore what depends on me and what does not depend on me.

The artist, the actress, the star, can only unleash passions without knowing it.

And then, the Latin origin of the word passion comes from the verb to suffer, and suffering, you see, that's enough!

Patrice Chéreau said a day after the release of

 : "If suffering is bad, I'm for it!"

I regret that he is no longer here today to contradict him in this aesthetic.

Personally, I think there should be no place for suffering in the Good, the Beautiful and the Being.

Reread Plato.

I grew up not loving myself physically, it wasn't without a trace

Isabelle Adjani

You play as Diane de Poitiers under the direction of Josée Dayan.

Why are the women around him driven by extreme jealousy, to the point of wishing for his death?

Diane is above all a free woman, or who strives to be.

Free in the face of the power of men, free in the face of the religious power of his time, free in the face of time.

And the attempt to free time is tragic, because we know that it ends in death.

Does sorority have its limits?

Even if Diane does not seek to seize the power of the one who occupies the place of the dominant courtesan… Yes.

Shame.

But, alas, the darkness of jealousy that can be aroused is not foreign to my own life and my career, and I am sometimes amazed to discover

which I escaped, or not moreover…

Me who forbids me any feeling of envy or jealousy.

Too negative for karma.

Beauty

Diane de Poitiers drank an elixir of youth every morning to make her beauty immortal.

For a woman of our time, is beauty still a necessary weapon to access power?

And did you use it as a weapon?

One day, I allowed myself to be beautiful.

It's that I grew up not loving myself physically – it wasn't without leaving traces, invisible but real.

Neither my father nor my mother ever told me that they thought I was pretty.

Beauty has therefore been a weapon in the reconquest of my well-being, of my inner harmony.

But never a weapon pointed at others to conquer them, I would have been incapable of having such self-confidence.

That being said, I can understand those who use their beauty by exploiting the fascination they provoke.

Each is entitled to ensure its survival as it sees fit.

Diane, she would like the immortality of the body, it is a very epidermal subject precisely… It is even one of the great subjects of the moment;

I'

man has gone to the Moon, soon Mars, he only has infinity and eternity left!

How far will this go?

Diane drank potable gold, at the risk of poisoning herself;

today, we would rather speak of transhumanism, of genetic modifications, of the transfer of consciousness into ever younger and more solid bodies,

 !

This subject at Diane de Poitiers could not be more topical: just look at what is happening with Madonna's aggravated dysmorphism, to name but one… Where is the solution?

In the cinema, an actress often finds herself trapped by beauty (or youth, well, a certain youth), because she wants to continue to work, to live, to love, to exist, to desire, to be desired!

You see ?

I love Simone Signoret, great respect and admiration for her, but there should be lots of shades and variations between

and Mrs Rosa.

In cinema, I often have the impression that you can only be one or the other, and the other directly after the premiere.

And wham, my casserole!

“Misogynist, did you say misogynist?

Do you look like a misogynist?

The answer is yes.

There would be an ersatz moderation to engage there, right?

Full screen

Isabelle Adjani Esther Haase

In the area of ​​women's freedoms, we observe two reversed developments: on the one hand, they are becoming more and more assertive;

on the other, we cannot ignore the latest anti-abortion laws in the United States, as well as the

You've seen

, the Netflix film about Marilyn (

)?

It is a film which has many cinematographic qualities, but which leaves a very bitter taste, very embarrassing, not to say revolting.

It's completely MeToo and ProLife.

As if two opposing movements merged to create a schizophrenic ideological monstrosity.

But it's also that, America and our world… A lot of bipolarity at all levels.

It's up to us to resist by creating our own natural lithium, otherwise we're going straight into the wall.

But to be a bit optimistic, maybe this is the swan song of all the latest reactionary forces?

A last cry of fear?

After each revolution, there is a period of terror, tightening, doubts… We will see.

I would have loved to have the hoarse and even broken voice of Italian women

Isabelle Adjani

of voice

We always ask an actress what are her beauty potions for the youth of her face and her body, but we rarely talk about the voice which is nevertheless important.

Yours hasn't aged a bit.

What's your secret?

I've never smoked in my life, and that counts.

I would have loved to have the hoarse and even broken voice of Italian women, they who are born gifted with a voice sublimated by celestial angina.

Their vocal cords become a musical instrument and charm the audience.

I dream when they speak.

The voices of Carla Bruni, her sister Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, that of Monica Vitti… A hinge between the physical body and transcendence, wrote Levinas.

Just that !

You sing in two of your last films,

Yes, an album just out of its hibernation phase.

Started a while ago, produced and directed by Pascal Obispo, which we took over under the musical leadership of Cécile de Laurentis for the arrangements, recording new songs.

The climate is at once symphonic, operatic and hypnotic.

These are duets with singers, each one more magnificent than the other, duets that follow one another and tell of love in all its forms...

In video, the trailer for

Masquerade

with Isabelle Adjani and Pierre Niney

In

It's what I disliked that I liked about her, if I don't tell myself stories.

I played it cash, telling myself that when the film came out, they were going to talk to me!

“Ah, but what a plague, that one!”

It can also be fun, that, I mean defending a character that is difficult to defend, a bit like a lawyer does for a guilty client.

You are at the theater in

I am a fan of Billie Eilish.

That she says about me "They make us dream" touches me so much, but it also makes me think of the stars, and it's a little painful, because you know that while we perceive their light, these stars have gone out for so long… And as I say in

artists are often used as scapegoats… It's terrible, indeed.

But do I have the right to complain?

There are lives much more difficult than mine.

There is also this lovely story in

Marilyn's last unfinished film.

She's at the edge of a swimming pool with two children she hasn't seen for a few years, the little boy misses a dive and makes a mess… He comes out of the water quite annoyed.

Marilyn approaches and asks him if he wants her to cry for him.

He replies, “Don’t talk nonsense.”

She says no, that she knows how to do that very well.

And she tells him that, in a distant island, we can ask certain women to cry for us, and they do.

I see it as an allegory of what an actress can be, and their place in our lives.

But, beware, the one who cries, cries.

Don't forget it.

It's fake, but in the psyche it's real.

Read also“The guy would have to be catapulted to enter my house”: single, Isabelle Adjani says she has “never felt so good”

From psychoanalysis

You talk about the benefits of psychoanalytic work in this show.

Did you undertake it and what did it allow you to understand and change?

Of course, I've been there – there, when?

Analysis was crucial in my life, it saved me, I saved myself thanks to that… To put some wind in the sails of one's desire, to relearn how to say "I", to be less fooled by oneself- same and others, all the same… Perhaps not everyone is sensitive to analysis, you still have to have a certain relationship to words and their sounds, words being like the cobblestones of a road possible towards the unconscious.

Psychoanalysis was crucial in my life, it saved me

Isabelle Adjani

I now see two categories of people, those who are analyzed and those who are not.

Between analyzed, we understand each other, sometimes all it takes is a look or a smile.

With the others, it is unfortunately more complicated.

It is sometimes violent the dialogues of the deaf, or those who have a blind spot somewhere in their gaze and who, of course, do not know it.

Thanks to psychoanalysis, we are less and less affected by dark forces or other ancestral fears, we become a little more, a little better actor, actress.

Finally, the good thing is that it's a path, it has no end... So, let's walk!

Le Vertige Marilyn

by Olivier Steiner, on March 31 at the Salle Pleyel, in Paris.

by Nicolas Bedos, in theaters.

by Josée Dayan, broadcast of the second episode on November 14, at 9:10 p.m., on France 2.