“Jane by Charlotte”, the look of a daughter on her mother, and the reverse

Actress and musician Charlotte Gainsbourg was in Montreal to present her first film as a director. Turning her camera towards Jane Birkin, she signs an intimate documentary, Jane by Charlotte, which tells us almost more about his own relationship with his famous mother. “That’s also what Jane told me when I asked her if she was happy with the portrait I made of her. She said to me: “But it’s not a portrait of me, it’s also a portrait of you, it’s the portrait of a daughter and her mother”, comments Charlotte Gainsbourg, in an interview with The duty.

Clear, light, but poignant, Charlotte Gainsbourg’s first documentary charms as much with its little revelations as with its clumsily shot scenes giving it the air of family films. We see a few of them, of those old 8mm films of beach vacations projected on a wall, showing dad Serge and big sister Kate Barry while Jane and Charlotte exchange with nostalgia their memories of their two great deceased .

A universal mother-daughter relationship

“For me, the most moving moment in the film is when Jane talks about my sister, and there are these writings [projetées] on his face. I first said to myself: “Why did I shoot it like this? It’s boring and it lasts a long time — and why does she have her face crossed out like that? And my mother answered me: “But no, fortunately… It protects me somewhere, since you don’t see me too much.” , who has also learned this important lesson in his new career as a documentary filmmaker: “There are plenty of moments like that in the film where I say to myself: “Oh shit, but if I had filmed it like that rather than…” But Well, when you make a documentary, there’s no second take. »

Jane by Charlotte — a title in a nod to the biographical film Jane B. by Agnes V., signed Varda and published in 1988 — speaks less of Birkin’s illustrious career than of the great woman she still is at 75. Charlotte takes a look at her mother, and “that’s what touches me today: even if people don’t necessarily know us very well, this mother-daughter relationship touches her,” she continues. Where I said to myself that I was a bit alone in this complex relationship that we both have together, basically, that’s not true. Everyone has complex relationships with their parents, whether famous or not.

The idea of ​​turning the camera’s eye once again on Jane Birkin — who has spent her life seeing her reflection in the lens of a camera or a camera — came to Charlotte shortly before this pandemic that has hit her. ‘kicked out’ of New York to return to live in France in the summer of 2020. Originally, she imagined a more classic documentary in its form, closer to her mother’s career, “as general as possible “. However, from the first days of filming, the concept is called into question: in one of the first scenes of the film, we see her in a Japanese tea room, placing her questions written down on paper in front of her, nervously launching this first interview with Jane.

“But I couldn’t do an interview as if I didn’t know her! I wondered a lot what I should ask him and, suddenly, I wrote spontaneous, personal questions, to try to find an angle and get straight into the heart of the matter. And that scared her, she didn’t want that at all, she had the impression that I was taking advantage of the camera, of the presence of the team, to take her hostage. After this moment, she said to me: we stop. »

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Filming continued with his small crew. After Japan, where Jane gave her concert Birkin/Gainsbourg. the symphony (from which we made an album of the same name, released in 2017), heading to New York for a new performance, new questions, new images. “Afterwards, the editor of my film told me that there were not enough images, suggesting that I take a camera, without waiting for the rest of the film crew, and go film it. It’s really thanks to her that I left with my daughter, putting her in the spotlight in all this, and that I understood that what also interested me was to see my mother in the kitchen, on a daily basis. , her grandmother side. A new theme emerged, spontaneously. »

I wondered a lot what I should ask him and, suddenly, I wrote spontaneous, personal questions, to try to find an angle and get straight into the heart of the matter.

The spectator then becomes a witness to these very intimate scenes where the two women discuss at random, for example their relationship to sleep (Jane has been taking sleeping pills since practically adolescence) and to mourning. “Afterwards, I was asked: ‘Since you are modest, Charlotte, isn’t it shameful to make such a film? What is the limit of your modesty? But I have had to deal with this question since I was born. It’s since I was very little that there have been photographers – we organized fake breakfasts for Paris Match… And then afterwards, in the 1980s, my parents separated, so we had to deal with the paparazzi, but then it became less funny because they were stalking us. Afterwards, I started acting in films, so I give interviews, during which I am asked to talk about my parents. So I understand that this is what journalists are interested in, so I block myself and stop talking about it. »

“When I moved to New York [en 2013], I understood that I needed to take off and rebuild myself elsewhere. I took a liking to anonymity, people didn’t care who I was, it was a breath of fresh air for me. Now, on returning to France, I suddenly felt less embarrassed to talk about my parents; I also understand that our life has been spread out forever — there are so many books written about my father that people know his life — or rather the events of his life — better than I do. So yes, this film is immodest, but I’m not revealing anything new. »

Because after all, we already know Jane is gorgeous.

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