The two have been lovers for almost 30 years – they married in 2005 – and their age difference of 13 years has never been an issue between them. Their meeting dates back to November 14, 1996. Florence Pernel was then at a screening as she had confided to Gala and it was there that she fell in love with 73-year-old historian and documentary filmmaker Patrick Rotman.
An intellectual, therefore, with whom she immediately felt very comfortable. The moment was magical:We had started the conversation about the revolutionary Tina Modotti [photographe italienne née à la fin du XIXe siècle, NDLR]whose biography I was reading.” Chance therefore did things well and in the end, their discussion “lasted three hours“. A few years later, still so happy with her man, she continues to marvel at their beautiful relationship: “It’s so rare and wonderful to live in such osmosis, in such an intense way. Things are obvious between us.“
It’s crazy love with Patrick Rotman, the man who staged his wife several times, especially in his TV movies like Eliana (2006) or even The conquest (2011) in which the actress played the role of Cécilia Attias.
Patrick Rotman, whose specialty is French politics of the 20th and 21st centuries, has worked on several documentaries such as The Beasts (2011), which exposed the relationship between Nicolas Sarkozy and former minister Dominique de Villepin and The intimate enemye (2007) on the Algerian war. And he received the Crystal Globe for Best Documentary in 2007 for Chirac – The young wolf / The old lion.
Florence Pernel’s husband also wrote several books including You see I haven’t forgotten (1990), The intimate enemy (2002) and soul in hand (2004). Between two projects, they also made and raised two children, Tina (born in 2000) and Paul (born in 1998). There is no doubt that the actress and the historian and documentary filmmaker must, after all these years, still spend hours discussing…