Marlène Jobert receives a standing ovation in Lyon
The 81-year-old French actress, guest star of the Lumière festival in the capital of Gaul, was very happy to find the public, “who had not forgotten her”.
Full houses and standing ovation: Marlene Jobertwho will turn 82 on November 4, known for both her career as an actress and storyteller for children, received “much to his surprisea star reception this week at the Lumière festival in Lyon. “It’s incredible ! It upset me, I did not expect there to be so many people, to be remembered“, confided in an interview with AFP the actress who has lived in retirement for years in Normandy. And since she left the cinema, thirty years ago, sheso very little“, devotes herself to writing, enjoys her garden – she “love nature“.
When she was invited to the festival to present the documentary dedicated to her by Dominique Besnehard, one of her fervent admirers and friends, she “didn’t really want to“.
Her oldest fans remember the actress: more than thirty films, series and TV movies shot between 1964 and 1989 with famous actors and directors – Lino Ventura, Gérard Depardieu, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Bronson, Kirk Douglas, Orson Welles or behind the camera, Jean-Luc Godard, Michel Audiard, Philippe de Broca, Claude Chabrol, Maurice Pialat.
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“The Passenger of the Rainin 1970 was hisbiggest hit“. “I passed by this glory without realizing it, with always this worry of not being up to it“, she named to the public during a “master class“. The youngest grew up lulled by her voice as a storyteller and her children’s books: 27 books, 180 audio books and 20 million copies.
Brilliant beginnings
In the documentary “It’s me… Marlene Jobert», we only see her but she does not show herself, between excerpts from her films, interviews and archive images. “She is very modest: when I told her about my project, she said + do you think it will be interesting? +“, explained the director.
“Being in the light, that doesn’t interest me too much“, says in her soft voice that the media now present as”Eva Green’s mother“, famous for his appearances in major American productions.
The Rain Passengerby René Clément in 1970, with Marlène Jobert, Charles Bronson, Annie Cordy, Jean Piat…
Marlène Jobert’s own beginnings were dazzling: she was 23 years old and had not finished her first year of conservatory when she went on stage with Yves Montand. Then she made her first film with Jean-Luc Godard. She stops at 40, to devote herself to her twins, but also because she did not feel “not cut out for this existence“. She discovers “the art of storytelling», written for «the memory of the moments shared with his daughters“. Now she reads for her two grandsons, Julio and Vittorio, 9 and 11 years old.
Marlène Jobert has long accompanied her daughter on her shoots »because actors need someone close, someone to back them up», which she regrets not having known. Today “a little tired», she will not follow in Greece or Morocco for her next film.
She refused to shoot for François Ozon and declined the role of a “crazy old woman“. “I want to be quiet, to stay in my corner, that’s what aging is: no longer wanting stress“, she says, serene. “I can’t stand the idea of decline“, she also wrote in”The kisses of the sun», a book of remembrance published in 2014.
If she has lost the freckles that earned her a few maid roles in her early days, she has not aged a bit. And remains very attentive to his image, powdering himself before a photo session, worries about the light, asks to control the images.
Cinema today? “There are good films and good directors, but I have the impression that in the past, as the old ladies say, the scripts were more detailed. And then, people prefer to stay at home, it’s sad“.
She lived #Metoo as a moment”formidable“: “I was lucky, I did not have this problem, but I knew it existed and it was pathetic“said the one who pushed her daughter Eva to denounce the actions of the American producer Harvey Weinstein. Finally, she is pleased to have come to Lyon: “I’ve locked myself too much in the last few years and then, this may be my last appearance“.