“It’s incredible! It upset me”

A standing ovation welcomed on October 20 Marlène Jobert, soon to be 82 years old, in the room at the Pathé Bellecour in Lyon as part of the 14th Lumière festival. The actress was invited there to show a selection of his films (like Don’t take God’s children for wild ducks by Michel Audiard, from 1968 or We won’t grow old together by Maurice Pialat, from 1972), as well as an unpublished documentary by Dominique Besnehard (It’s me… Marlene Jobert2022) and to give a masterclass.

When, at the start, she was invited to the festival to present the film dedicated to her by Dominique Besnehard, one of her fervent admirers and friends, Marlène Jobert “didn’t really want to”. The encounter with the public of the Lumière festival has since changed. “It’s incredible! It upset me, I didn’t expect there to be so many people, to be remembered”, confided in an interview with AFP the one who has lived in retirement for years in Normandy. Since she left the cinema, thirty years ago, she “goes out very little”devotes herself to writing, enjoys her garden – she “love nature”.

Her youngest fans grew up rocked by her storytelling voice and her children’s books: 27 books, 180 audiobooks and 20 million copies. But older people and moviegoers of all ages will have the actress in mind above all: more than thirty films, series and TV movies shot between 1964 and 1989 with famous actors and directors – Lino Ventura, Gérard Depardieu , Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Bronson, Kirk Douglas, Orson Welles or behind the camera, Jean-Luc Godard, Michel Audiard, Philippe de Broca, Claude Chabrol, Maurice Pialat. The Passenger of the Rainin 1970, was his “biggest hit”. “I missed out on this glory without realizing it, always with this concern of not being up to it”, she told the audience during the master class.

In the documentary It’s me… Marlene Jobertwe only see her but she does not show herself, between excerpts from her films, interviews and archive images. “She is very modest: when I told her about my project, she said to me: do you think it will be of interest?”explains director Dominique Besnehard. “Being in the light, that does not interest me too much”says in her soft voice the one the media now present as “the mother of Eva Green”, famous for her appearances in james bond and other major American productions.

Marlène Jobert’s own beginnings were dazzling: she was 23 years old and had not finished her first year of conservatory when she went on stage with Yves Montand. Then she made her first film with Jean-Luc Godard. She stopped at 40, to devote herself to her twins, but also because she did not feel “not cut out for this existence”. She discovers “the art of storytelling”, written for “keep the memory of the moments shared with his daughters“. Now she reads for her two grandsons, Julio and Vittorio, 9 and 11 years old.

Marlène Jobert has long accompanied her daughter on her shoots “because actors need someone close, someone to back them up”, which she regrets not having known. Today “a bit tired”, she will not follow her to Greece or Morocco for her next film. She refused to shoot for François Ozon and declined the role of a “crazy old woman”. “I want to be quiet, to stay in my corner, that’s what aging is: no longer wanting stress”, she says calmly. “I can’t stand the idea of ​​decline”she also wrote in The kisses of the suna book of remembrance published in 2014.

If she has lost the freckles that earned her a few maid roles in her early days, she has not aged a bit. And remains very attentive to her image, powders herself before a photo session, worries about the light, asks to control the images.
Cinema today? “There are good films and good directors, but I have the impression that in the past, as the old ladies say, the scripts were more detailed. And then, people prefer to stay at home, it’s sad”.

She lived #Metoo as a moment “tremendous” : “I was lucky, I didn’t have that problem, but I knew it existed and it was pathetic” says the one who pushed her daughter Eva to denounce the attitude of the American producer Harvey Weinstein. Finally, she congratulates herself on having come to Lyon: “I have locked myself in myself too much in recent years and then, this may be my last appearance”.