Mona Achache resurrects her mother, the writer and photographer Carole Achache, with Marion Cotillard

With Little Girl Bluewhich comes out on Wednesday November 15, Mona Achache films her catharsis after the suicide of her mother in 2016. An unusual UFO film, between documentary, fiction, making of and initiatory quest. The director brings writer and photographer Carole Achache back to life in the guise of Marion Cotillard to unravel her mystery. A work where the act of literary and visual creation is filmed with rare accuracy.

Nesting mothers

After her mother’s suicide, Mona Achache discovers thousands of photos, letters and recordings in her apartment. Traumatized by the separation, she papered all the walls with it, then called on Marion Cotillard to film her in the exact mimetic appearance of her mother. In a millimeter reconstruction and a fictional staging, a girl films her mother who had herself written about her own, to unravel its mysteries, like nesting mothers.

The process put in place by Mona Achache is reminiscent of that used by Kaouther Ben Hania in Olfa’s Daughters, where the director introduces a mother and her three daughters to the actress who will play her on screen. The film within the film, the actress facing her model, leads to a play on fiction and reality, facts and their reconstruction, memories and testimonies, what we would like to be and is not…

Pictorial equivalents

Marion Cotillard’s progressive mastery of the role of Carole Achache is part of the dramaturgy. The mimetic obsession that inhabits Mona Achache will gradually build a wall that prevents her from unraveling the secret hidden behind suicide. This secret derives from writing, which remains her mother’s only motivation in life and which is drying up. Reason why Little Girl Blue shifts from biography towards the analysis of the literary process specific to Carole Achache, as a principle of life.

Mona Achache draws from what may seem intellectual a film of extreme plastic and cinematographic beauty. She finds pictorial equivalents to writing. The director takes care of very framed graphic shots, without ostentation, and plays a colorful soundtrack, notably during a remarkable dubbing scene, until Marion Cotillard imitates the voice of her model. Carole Achache’s secret lies in that of writing, of a novel or a film that we see in the making. It also lies in the mystery of the ties that unite a daughter to her mother, but also in these “hereditary” suicides in the family, including that of Carole Achache was born from too great an appetite for life.

The sheet

Gender : Drama / Biopic
Director: Mona Achache
Country : Francid
Duration : 1h35
Exit :November 15, 2023
Distributer : New Story

Synopsis: When her mother died, Mona Achache discovered thousands of photos, letters and recordings, but these buried secrets resisted the enigma of her disappearance. So, through the power of cinema and the grace of incarnation, she decides to resurrect it to replay her life and understand it.