Judith Godrèche is one of France’s leading actresses and one of its most outspoken supporters of the #MeToo movement, playing herself in Maria Schrader’s Harvey Weinstein downfall drama She Said in 2022. Now she has created, written, directed, executive produced and starred in Icon Of French Cinema, a six-episode semi-autographical comedy drama, detailing the fall-out from her life spent in front of the camera within a patriarchal industry.
“Although this is not a #MeToo show, it does showcase devastating real-life experiences that are unfortunately experienced far too often,” says Godreche.
She points to the flashback scenes that depict her character as a young teenager filming a coming-of-age drama with an older male director. Godrèche broke onto French screens in Jacques Doillon’s 1989 film La Fille De Quinze Ans. (A Fifteen Year-old Girl) It was filmed when she was 14 and he was in his 40s. “My purpose in making this show was not to name names. It’s my story, but a fictionalised version,” she says
Icon Of French Cinema (the title is tongue-in-cheek) is Godreche’s rebellion against a system that tarnished her own experiences as a young actress. “I wanted to show that women can be wonderful people, but they can also be fucked up,” she says. “I wanted to portray women not just from the perspective of men, [not] sexualised, idealized and objectified.”
Paris return
Following La Fille De Quinze Ans, Godreche went on to make films including The Disenchanted, Ridicule, and Pot Luck, and was regularly cast in English-language Hollywood titles such as The Man In The Iron Mask, The Overnight, and The Climb, eventually moving to Los Angeles.
Icon Of French Cinema, produced by A24, Arte and CPB Film, details a French actress who moves back home from the US with her family, intent on making a comeback with a new film in her home country. The series follows her as she attempts to adjust with her family to life back in Paris. Godreche has cast her real-life daughter Tess Barthélemy and her one-time housekeeper Gina Cailin; even the on-screen dog is her own dog.
She wrote the part for her daughter Barthelemy who works as an actress and dancer. “But she remains an invented character,” says Godreche. ”I decided to make this show now as I am now a mother witth a daughter who is the same age I was when I left home.”
Growing up as a child actor, “My refuge was writing,” Godreche recalls. “I lived an imaginary life, so writing and acting grew together and it always made sense to link both.”
As well as starring in more than 30 films, Godrèche has also written a novel (Point de Côté, 1995) and wrote, directed and starred in 2010 feature Toutes les Filles Pleurent.
She began writing Icon of French Cinema in 2021, sitting down and writing all six episodes at once. She realised using humour was how she could bear to explore the difficult issues of intergenerational trauma and anxiety. “Using humour and self-effacement made me less scared about writing it,” Godreche explains. “Self-mockery is something that allows you to pull back the curtain, to even say things with more rage or violence. To talk about dark things without adding pathos.”
And it had to be TV, she says, as she had so much to say. ”The story I wanted to tell had multiple arms. Like an octopus, each story led to another and to another.’
US indie studio A24 boarded in the summer of 2022, and Franco-German broadcaster Arte quickly followed. She was introduced to A24 through her friend, the director Olivier Assayas, who was working with A24 at the time. “I told them they would be surprised in a good way and that I was really planning to go very far with pushing boundaries,” she says of her pitch ”I explained just how much it is a mix of French and American cinema in the form of a TV series.”
“But we believed this show needed to be anchored and developed with a French partner who had a taste for an adventurous project,” says Godreche and she contacted Arte. loopinig in A24. “They really bonded over my desire to portrait female characters that use humour to say the unsayable with a transgressive touch.”
A24 is handling international sales outside France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg where Arte has rights.
The two-month shoot in late 2022 took place in Paris and on the island Porquerolles, just off the Cote d’Azur with a French crew. Godreche describes being both in front and behind the camera as “exhilarating”. “My DP Georges Lechaptois and I had in-depth conversations about my character and how I was going to wear so many hats. We agreed that, in the interest of time, I wouldn’t look at the combo after the takes when I was in front of the camera. He and my AD Mathilde Kramer really focused on my acting.”
“I was like a ‘chef d’orchestre,’ a conductor,” she continues. “I would work very late at night and arrive with drawings, images, short film clips. Every scene came with its own book and we allowed ourselves to try new things.”
Godrèche used music on set to coordinate and connect with the crew. “We carried a little speaker around and played music during certain scenes. This created a form of choreography where both the camera and the actors were in sync, almost magically.
“I had a playlist per character. For Zoé’s character [Barthélemy], we played ‘Anything’ by Adrianne Lenker or Shark Smile’ by Big Thief. I also used Nick Cave repeatedly - specifically a song called “Euthanasia”. For the audition scene, I played ’Wuthering Heights’, the cover by Cécile McLorin Salvant.”
Appetites
Icon Of French Cinema is the first TV series to be invited to screen at the Deauville American Film Festival in France, which took place earlier this month. Now Godreche is continuing her push into female-driven narratives with both a feature film and another TV series in development. “I like depicting women embracing their appetites for life and allowing them to express their grievances.”
She believes the #MeToo movement, rather than stalling, is having a positive, sustainable impact on society. “It comes down to accountability, and it’s being held to the highest standard across the globe. There’s still a long way to go, but progress has been made.”
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