Since her arrival in Paris from the Ivory Coast, Angèle lives on schemes and expedients. Inevitably, mobsters in the sector expect to receive their share. In such a way that, when she fails to find the money that is demanded of her, Angèle slips away and goes up for a while to the upscale neighborhoods of the City of Light where she has succeeded—helped by her formidable patter—to get hired as a nanny for little Arthur, 8 years old. However, after fleeing the criminals who take advantage of immigrants, Angèle realizes that the wealthy can be just as exploitative. Faced with the working conditions of her colleagues, here she rebels. In The women of the squareby Julien Rambaldi, Eye Haïdara bites with contagious pleasure in an all too rare leading role.
“This project was born from the relationship between my son and Amina, the woman who looked after him at the time, explains the screenwriter and director. One day, he was 8 years old then, I realized that he knew her better than me, more intimately: his family, his health concerns… There was this barrier that often exists between employers and employees, and which makes that we don’t really dare to tell about his life and his problems. And so, here it is, the fact that it goes through a child, I said to myself that there was something interesting there for a film. »
The dynamic in question stimulated Julien Rambaldi all the more because it was conducive to combining two seemingly antithetical aspirations, namely a particular vision and a general vision.
“I wanted the film to be intimate, but at the same time speak to the world; that he is talking about the West. I wanted to talk about these women who come from all kinds of countries and who sometimes experience very difficult situations here, against the backdrop of these large Parisian apartments and these relationships of domination. »
A multifaceted role
Nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actress for her memorable composition as Jean-Pierre Bacri’s temperamental (albeit rightly) assistant in The meaning of the partyEye Haïdara was immediately won over by the screenplay.
“The story struck me, especially for a question of timing, because I myself had just spent a lot of time with these women for personal reasons, she confides. And so this scenario happens, and I perceive all this humanity in it, all this tenderness too… When I discovered Angèle, I took the full measure of this beautiful multifaceted role: suddenly, I could imagine myself doing call for lots of untapped colors from my palette. I told myself that this role would allow me a certain emancipation while offering me an extraordinary playing field. »
This project was born from the relationship between my son and Amina, the woman who looked after him at the time.
And obviously, she’s having fun, Eye Haïdara. Virtually from every scene she carries the film.
“Before I explore the dimension feel good, which has come to be part of the film’s identity, my early drafts of the script were really more social in content. At the same time, I very much wanted to write a female character like that, very beautiful, very rich, complete, but with an element of mystery too… I was thinking, pell-mell, of Erin Brockovichfrom Soderbergh, to Gloria, by Cassavetes, sprinkled with a bit of Eddie Murphy in humor and energy… I didn’t design the film so that it would make people laugh as such: it’s the character of Angèle who has this DNA there. »
This balance between seriousness and humor was another decisive factor in the eyes of Eye Haïdara. The idea of being the main source of comic input in deliberately dramatic situations also appealed to him enormously:
“I liked Julien’s references, and I trusted him with the tone. Julien, what he does in this film is not so much to talk lightly about serious things as to talk about them with a lot of love. »
Wonderful complicity
The sometimes serious, sometimes smiling tone also applies to the relationship that develops between Angèle and Arthur. Significant aspect: Eye Haïdara shares a wonderful bond with the young Vidal Arzoni.
“It was a fabulous meeting. He’s a born actor, Vidal. It is magnetic; magic, even. He thinks in his head, he thinks deeply, beyond his age… He is very involved. »
It is the always excellent Léa Drucker (spouse of the filmmaker in the city) who plays Arthur’s mother, Hélène. Divorced, head of a single-parent family, very, very busy with a high office that is very, very well paid, Hélène wants to be benevolent, but nevertheless shows insidious blind spots in relation to Angèle. However, this has nothing to do with other cases observed in the film, and which the “true-false” nanny will get involved in.
To conclude Julien Rambaldi: “Angèle arrives in the IXe Rounding up and swinging their four truths to sores; she tells them what the other women who work for them dare not tell them. And then, humor, it allows the public to question themselves without feeling guilty. Here it is: we laugh, we think, we are moved and we have a good time. »