Paris Memories is the latest film to come from Alice Winocour, and is a moving portrait about those who survived a traumatic experience; in this instance a terror attack, evidently based on the Paris attacks back in 2015.
We had the pleasure, earlier this year in the aforementioned city, to sit down and be a part of a roundtable interview with the auteur. She talks about her very personal connection with the terrorist attack in Paris, and on the surprising reference points she had for her leading star Virginie Efira. She also talks about the delicacy when approaching a tale of this nature, and on the inspirational qualities of those who have survived such awful experiences. To note, while including questions from fellow journalists in the interview, we have flagged all questions that we asked.
HUG: I’m very happy to be here in Paris this week, and I know it’s your home. But am I right in thinking this is the first time you’ve made a movie here?
Yeah that’s true – it seems strange. My first feature took place in the 19th century, so in Paris but more in the suburbs. The second was in the South of France, and the third was in Kazakhstan, so then I thought, I have to make a film in my own city, and this film is a love letter to Paris.
HUG: The terrorist attack n Paris is one of the worst, most tragic instances I can ever recall. I wanted to ask about the sensitivity, and delicacy, in depicting these situations?
For me it was very important to not stage the Bataclan attack itself. It was not at all for me, to do a reconstruction. Also because my brother made me understand that it was impossible to present something like this, this violence is unthinkable. It was also important for me to have a fictional attack to really make it fiction, and even though this story of course was inspired by the events, because my brother was in the Bataclan attack, it’s not at all his story, it’s really a fiction. It was three years of writing, finding the right tone and meaning, but the film really was nourished by the conversations I had with my brother, and also with all the victims I met. I met many victims and psychiatrists and I think the film is really a mix between my own experience with trauma, because that night of the attack I was also not with my brother, but I sent him an SMS and he was in the theatre, so I was really with him in mind. So it’s about my own memory of this event, and also the fascination I had for the world of survivors, that I met, and the conversations that I had with them.
In more general terms, the film is not so much to do with the attack itself, but the memories…
Exactly, it is the traces after a traumatic event, not even an attack. The film has been released already here in France and it was very moving, there were many people who were attached to the events, but I also spoke to many people who were recognising things from their own experiences. From very different types of trauma, like Ukrainian refugees, or sexual traumas, because the character is limbo between two worlds, and we follow her path of resiliency, and it’s a travel, and this shows how difficult that is, even if you feel you survived a trauma. Your body is safe and you feel your mind is safe, but you not really there anymore.
Do you think that made the role tough for Virginie Efira?
Yes, very tough. First of all, this was more tough for me than it was for her, because we were shooting during the trial of those attacks, and the whole city was in this process, there were police everywhere, when we were shooting in restaurants we had candles outside and people were stopping and asking what happened. The Mayor from Paris asked us to have big signs to say we were shooting, and it was not a real attack. So there was this strange atmosphere, so to perform it was difficult. Those post-traumatised victims felt depersonalised, they felt their body was an alien, that they couldn’t connect with their body anymore, so that is what Virginie had to play, to lose her sense of sensations, basically. It’s also a film about encounters, she meets a lot of people, so she has to be present, but at the same time she has to disconnect. We talked a lot about the Christopher Walken part in Dead Zone, in which he is a kind of spectator of his own memory, sometimes his eyes get stuck and he sees, and it’s what we worked on. The way she was looking at things; to be out of the situation but present at the same time. But this is really a film about memory, and everything that is fragmented in her mind. It’s like an exploding mirror, and she has to try and patch the pieces together, but nothing comes in the right order. The film has to render this feeling of something upside down, and the editing we worked a lot on the sounds also, and the flashbacks which were more like revivals of the scenes. Sometimes she hears the sound of something, for example a birthday candle, or the sound of the rain, and suddenly images come up.
HUG: You’ve mentioned before you wrote your first film Augustine while at school – do you still have some ideas from that time, for projects you may write one day? Or are your current and future projects ideas that come to you as you are now?
Actually I am finishing the writing of a horror movie, and I always had a very intimate relationship with those kind of films, like Psycho was the film of my childhood, it’s a film I used to always watch with my brother, the one from the attack. He is now a teacher of cinema. So yes I’ve always been inspired by those kind of films, and while I was at school I watched Cronenberg films. For Augustine I watched a lot of exorcism films and I was really inspired by them. Even Paris Memories, in a way was inspired by some horror movies so now I really want to do a proper horror movie.
HUG: You mentioned Psycho, of course Gus van Sant did the shot-for-shot remake. If you could do that about any film, which would you most like to recreate?
The other film I really admire is Safe, the Todd Haynes movie, with Julianne Moore. We talked a lot about that film with Virginie Efira also for this feeling of being depersonalised, there are scenes in that film when Julianne Moore is at parties with her friends and we see she doesn’t connect anymore, she doesn’t want to be touched. Like all those portraits of women out of their minds, I think Todd Haynes tells the story which makes you feel like you are really in the body of the actress. I really like when cinema gets physical and sensorial, and becomes a physical experience.
When making the film, I felt like life would be more convenient without memories.
That’s what Thomas, played by Benoit Magimel, says to Virginie – why do you want to remember? He is the opposite of her, he remembers all of the details, and he says it is better not to remember. But thing is, she does remember in a way, because she has this involuntary memory with flashbacks, coming and coming and coming. To me, it was a necessity to do the film. I directed Proxima before and when I came back to Paris, I felt like I had to do the film. I wanted to the film to show that the city is still alive. That what terrorists wanted to destroy, the links between people, the bonds, this warmth and this feeling of living, Paris is a cosmopolitan city. I wanted to make a film that shows this feel of fraternity, and the Paris I like, that terrorists wanted to destroy by bringing fear. But they haven’t destroyed. I wanted this film to be a portrait of Paris. Of course it is a portrait of Mia, but it is a portrait of the whole city. In films we see a touristic view of Paris, I wanted to show a different side to the city.
Were you conscious that there was a certain amount of time you had to wait before tackling this subject?
Yeah. I’ve been asked several times if it was too early to do the film, or was it too late. I don’t know how to answer those questions. It was my time. It was actually a long time ago now for me as we made it two years ago, and it was released in France last September and we shot it the September before that. But yes, of course, it’s part of resilience, with those kinds of events there is a shock, that you can’t even think about it. I always had this image of a black hole. Then time passes and to have this and bring these topics into fiction, to me, is part of resiliency. You can think about it now. What those terrorists want is to bring fear, to bring terror.
HUG: In regards to time, I was interested to see how soon after the events the victims would go back to where the attacks happened. I wanted to ask, why do you think it is important to go back? Did your brother go back?
Yes, of course he did. It is part of the little details that is fascinating to me. Not only talking with my brother but meeting all the survivors, it is important to see the place which is a place of nightmares, and to see that it is real, that it exists, that it not only a place in your mind. It is part of the recovery. Most of the victims went back, just to see. There is that tour which is organised, as it says in the film. There was something amazing to me that I discovered, which is that most of the victims look for objects that they have lost in the place. For example, a shoe. They just want to touch or see things, just to make it more real, in a way. For me, there is the story of my brother but what was really inspiring to me was when I saw those people who were looking for each other. Some people didn’t know each other at all, but they wanted to meet the man they saw for just one second, just to smile at them, and to know that person survived. Is that the person who saved them, just because they look at them in a moment? It can be really detailed, a small thing like holding hands, or just looking at each other – it can save your life. I thought it was really moving.
Paris Memories is out in cinemas now.
