Martin Provost Interview: Part I
What was it like working with Yolande Moreau? What was needed to make her really get into the skin of a historical character?
For a year we got to know one another. I believe I did my best to guide her toward her own best, to something she already had within herself. And toward Séraphine as well. It's not easy to incarnate someone who was once alive. It's necessary to have decency and respect. I believe we shared the same vision for Séraphine. Yolande had to learn to sing, to paint; it was all a learning experience, something that made her very happy. And from the first day of shooting, we were in full accord. To me, the most important thing when directing an actor is to make the actor feel confident.
With Ulrich Tukur, our meeting was also decisive. The first time I met with him was in Brussels. Right away, I saw in him the character I was looking for. [Ulrich] belongs to the same family as Yolande. He's a free soul. He roams the world with his troupe, he sings songs of the 1930s, plays every musical instrument. I "directed" him much more than I did Yolande. He has loads of energy and generosity. It was necessary to find the right level and tone for the character.
How was your collaboration with Marc Abdelnour? Did you write the screenplay together, or did you work separately, each with his own duties? Did you decide on a specific thematic approach before writing the screenplay, or did the cinematic life of Séraphine de Senlis develop throughout the writing process?
Initially, I wrote a first draft all by myself, from my own notes. I create cards featuring the sequences I have in mind and then I write it all down, doing my best to visualize the actual film. After that, Marc joins in the dance. He's very good with everything that is structural, analytical. My work is based more on sensations, on intuition, on what's visual. We are extremely complementary. It was a very beautiful collaboration.
There have been other movies about great but troubled artists, for instance, Lust for Life, Montparnasse 19, Amadeus. Did any of these films serve as inspiration for your project? Or were they lessons of things to avoid?
The two films that I showed the whole crew were Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh, of course, and also a film that I consider a masterpiece of the genre: [the 1974 Swedish-Norwegian made-for-TV biopic] Edvard Munch, by Peter Watkins. I wanted the film to be like the image of Séraphine: simple, truthful, bare, and lived in. I tried to avoid the flamboyant and a little too precious historical reconstruction that we see a lot today, with a camera that moves in every direction while avoiding to make true choices.
Suffering and the great works of art. Séraphine had a very difficult life. Do you believe that one needs to suffer — or at least to be some sort of social outcast — in order to create great works of art?
I don't believe that we "need" to suffer in order to be a creator; one that gives justice to that title. I believe that suffering is part of the way, anyhow; it's part of every human life — just like happiness — and to attempt to avoid it is to deny who we really are. But most of all, I believe in the happiness that comes from painting. I believe that to paint is to love. And to be a social outcast becomes a game, because it is necessary to be somewhat of an outsider to be able to depict society and for the work of art to be appreciated as such.
Séraphine presents a mystery: a poor woman, with no formal education, with psychological problems, but also with an enormous talent. In your opinion, is artistic talent something biological? A divine gift? Or …?
I believe in the divine, in something within us that would be the supreme substance which allows all of us, if we let it, to be attuned to what's best within ourselves — be it to paint, to create music, to write, etc. But there are times in the life of a latent talent when a grandfather, a grandmother, or some other relative will influence a future choice by giving a taste of this or that artistic endeavor. And there's also work. Talent, heredity are nothing without work.