The poet’s fiancée, by Yolande Moreau | The great return

In The poet’s brideher third feature film in 20 years, Yolande Moreau takes on the role of a schemer who returns to her hometown 40 years after running away with her lover

It was only at the dawn of her fifties that Belgian actress Yolande Moreau decided to go behind the camera. With the director of photography Gilles Porte, she signed a first fiction feature film, When the sea rises (2004), inspired in part by his solo show Dirty business, sex and crime, where she plays the main character. Will follow Henry (2013), which she wrote and directed alone, and in which she plays a secondary role.

About ten years later, here she is again with The poet’s bride, which she wrote with the collaboration of Frédérique Moreau (who has no family connection with her). If she doesn’t shoot much, it’s primarily because she likes to take the time to find a subject that is really close to her heart. And maybe also because of imposter syndrome.

“Even while being an actress, I had the feeling of being usurped,” reveals the actress, met at Cinemania last November. I always saw my job as a game, but I didn’t study. At the same time, my common thread is still telling people, the century in which we live since I became an actress. »

At the same time, the filmmaker claims not to be a movie buff.

There are favorites that have left their mark on me, like Toto the hero, by Jaco Van Dormael; tulips dancing to a Trenet song, it’s the kind of scene that I find enjoyable.

Yolande Moreau, filmmaker

“I live in the countryside and I don’t go to the cinema every week,” she adds. I don’t know if it gives me greater freedom to create, but in any case, it no longer complicates me like before. I worked for 12 years with Jérôme Deschamps; there is certainly something there that allows me to write something that is not completely realistic. »

Fake deer and counterfeiters

Upon her release from prison, Mireille (Yolande Moreau) returns to live in the large family home she inherited, in Charleville-Mézières, on the banks of the Meuse. There she finds the cement deer who served as her confidant when she was a child. The idea of ​​including this “false deer” in the story came to Yolande Moreau when she discovered a bronze deer while visiting mansions in Belgium.

“What I didn’t know is that the deer is a symbol of renewal and Mireille rebuilds herself from the moment she opens up to others. In France, I came across this house that I found almost too big, but there was this room that had burned down; I then told the decorators that they should definitely not touch it. I had put in the script, but I cut it during editing, that the mother had burned down her daughter’s room after she left. It’s up to the spectators to find their own interpretation. »

Not having the means to restore the house with her salary as a waitress in the cafeteria of the art school and smuggling cigarettes, Mireille follows the suggestion of Father Benoît (William Sheller) and takes on tenants. Bernard (Grégory Gadebois), a gardener leading a double life, Cyril (Thomas Guy), a painting student who excels in reproducing paintings, and Elvis (Esteban), who claims to be an American musician, will appear at his door. Finally, the one she thought was dead will arrive, the great love of her life, André-Pierre (Sergi Lopez), supposedly a poet and plumber.

A fable or tale

“Everything is realistic at the start, but for me, it’s told like a fable or a tale. Every tenant cheats a little with reality. At the end, it even becomes a little surreal. I started with the story of a forger by telling myself that it was a brilliant theme in relation to our century, but I didn’t want to make a documentary because that’s not what interests me. There is a sentence from Paul Valéry that struck me: “Without forgers, life would be really sad.” So I started out with something happy. »

In this joyful “subversive” family that Mireille founds, who regrets not having had children, we recognize the tenderness that the filmmaker has for the marginalized: “Even though I am not a movie buff, I love Kusturica and I am a fan of Kaurismaki. What I like about them is that the faces or the beings are not smooth, but they are people who touch us. In comedy, there is something that is not smooth that I look for. »

As for whether we will have to wait another 10 years before discovering her next feature film, Yolande Moreau prefers not to promise anything: “I don’t know. For the moment, I have no idea. It’s getting harder physically to make films, I’m still seventy years old. I don’t want to make a film for the sake of making a film, I still do theater, cinema. I’ve been offered roles for this year, so that’s great. We’ll see… ”

In theaters January 26