“Denis Côté is a film anthropologist. It is in these words that Larissa Corriveau — the director’s muse — describes the continuous and dizzying experimentation that their artistic collaboration represents. “With each project, he commits himself in a new form and explores themes that allow him to put himself in danger. »
After Directory of disappeared towns (2019), fable on the quest for identity and the fear of the other, and Social hygiene (2021), a pastoral comedy about male failure, the two artists come together for another unclassifiable project, which probes — in a few simplistic words — the distress and enchantment of female sexuality.
In the space of 26 days, three women, Geisha (Aude Mathieu), Léonie (Larissa Corriveau) and Eugénie (Laure Giappiconi), are invited to a nursing home to explore their problematic or conflicting relationship with sexuality. Under the supervision of a therapist (Anne Ratte-Polle) and a social worker (Samir Guesmi) who are also steeped in contradictions, they will try to tame their demons, take a fresh look at themselves and consider the ‘coming.
The film therefore shows the thoughts, memories, impulses, fantasies of three women who are both fragile and fully assumed, broken and alive; three women pulled out of their daily lives to invent a new one, tinged with introspection and letting go.
To do one’s homework
Denis Côté has surrounded himself with women — and sexologists — to carry out this project with as much authenticity and sensitivity as possible, particularly with regard to the script and the editing. The three headliners, who are nothing short of breathtaking, continually recall in interviews with The duty the relationship of trust that was established long before filming began; a feeling essential to doing justice to the characters and getting into the areas of great vulnerability that the film demanded.
The game is a stripping: everything, from nudity to laughter, must have a justification. Here, sex is incidental to the emotional chasms that we had to explore as actresses. I immediately trusted Denis’ voice, his vision.
“The collaboration was based on dialogue,” says Aude Mathieu. We built these characters from our conversations, we had the freedom to take a critical look and make our suggestions. “I think there is a scene that I was not comfortable doing, and Denis immediately agreed to remove it,” adds Larissa Corriveau.
Sexuality is a constant, a backstory — we see the girls masturbating, offering themselves to strangers, claiming their fantasies, analyzing and experiencing their relationship to sex. Relieved of any desire for eroticization or aestheticization of the female body, sexuality becomes a judicious pretext for accessing intimacy.
“The game is a stripping: everything, from nudity to laughter, must have a justification,” says Laure Giappiconi. Here, sex is incidental to the emotional chasms that we had to explore as actresses. I immediately trusted Denis’ voice, his vision. »
Deconstruct your prejudices
Although it is still taboo for a woman to talk about her desires, to leave the monogamous framework, to become a subject rather than an object, sexuality is an integral part of identity. It is revealing of the experience, of the faults, of the wounds, of the dreams and of the loves that everyone carries within themselves and which define their relationship to others, to the executives and to the imagination. Here, sexuality is held up like a mirror to society and to everyone’s intimacy.
“It’s rare that a film on sexuality does not take a position, does not clearly indicate who is the victim and who is the executioner,” says Larissa Corriveau. By offering no response, A summer like thisforces us, both as spectator and as actor, to witness the formation of our value judgments and to deconstruct our prejudices. »
Certain scenes indeed raise a lot of contradictory emotions and questions. This is the case, in particular, when the character of Léonie participates in a session of Shibari, a sexual practice as much as an art form, in which a person is suspended in the air by his partner using ropes. , and finds himself unable to move. Or when Geisha performs chain blowjobs, by choice, to an entire soccer team.
It’s rare that a film about sexuality does not take a stand, does not clearly indicate who is the victim and who is the executioner. By offering no answers, Unété comme ça forces us, both as spectator and as actor, to witness the formation of our value judgments and to deconstruct our prejudices.
“We have the reflex to pass judgment on Geisha, to ask ourselves what must have happened to her in life for her to go there. However, we do not ask ourselves questions about the guys, about their ethics in all this. It reveals a lot of contradictions, ”points out Aude Mathieu.
full-fledged individuals
To confront their own received ideas and reach a truth in the interpretation, the actresses met sexologists, psychiatrists and prostitutes. All three came to the same conclusion.
“The professionals reminded us that we were going to interpret individuals first, that we wouldn’t find a ready-made answer by analyzing scenarios or by trying to freeze our characters in a box. It was very liberating,” says Aude Mathieu.
“Denis, as a screenwriter, does not claim to create a symbol. Léonie does not represent all victims of incest. She has her life, her individuality, her own path. As an actress, we have the responsibility to do justice to these traumas, without losing sight that there is not only one way to deal with them. We can have a reaction of rejection in front of his story, but the film forces us to dissect it, to understand where our lack of tolerance comes from. It is not moral, but intimate, since it brings us back to our own fears and our own flaws,” concludes Larissa Corriveau.
The feature film A summer like thisby Denis Côté, opens on August 19.