Céline Sciamma says that she relates her link to cinema with her grandmother’s cinephilia: she taught her the musicals and the American comedies.
TO FILM A BREATHING
Céline Sciamma says that she relates her link to cinema with her grandmother’s cinephilia: she taught her the musicals and the American comedies. She also says that the first film that marked her was probably Bleu by Kieslowski and that it is probably related to the fact that it was the first time that she went to the cinema on her own. She explains in a really beautiful way that cinema it’s not just the films but the complete experience. For example, from this first time, she remembers her bike, the rain, a movie theater that it was on her town but kilometers away from home and that when she went out of the cinema, it was still raining and that she was wearing a blue raincoat. Blue as the film, and having a new feeling: that cinema and life are mixed. For Céline Sciamma, cinema it’s not just a state of mind. We could say that for Céline Sciamma cinema is a way to live.
One of the characteristics of Céline Sciamma is that in addition to film director, she is also a script writer that works for other directors. With this film series we would like to show both sides of her work. For that, we will screen all the feature films directed by her and we have selected two films written by her: The animation Ma vie de Courgette (Claude Barras, 2016) and Les Olympiades, Paris 13e (Jacques Audiard, 2021).
We could say that Céline Sciamma’s filmography is composed by names: Marie, Anne and Florianne; Laure that says her name is Mikhael; Mariame and her new three rebel friends; the painter Marianne and the daughter of the countess Héloïse and little Nelly. They are the protagonists of the different stories that give the spectators the opportunity to think about identity and gaze but that mostly they make us feel and get moved.
Céline Sciamma was only 29 when she premiered in Cannes her first feature film: Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres) (2007). In the film we see a sport that has some similarities with her cinema: synchronized swimming. It is a sport exclusively femenine where they show her best smile and her best face when they are out the water while below, where we can’t see, they are making a brutal and perhaps even painful physical effort. The processes of the characters of Sciamma go always inside but the director has the ability to make us feel what they are feeling. The brilliant thing is that sometimes the director achieves it through cinematographic decisions as precise and concrete as how an actress has to breathe. For example, in the last scene of Retrato de una mujer en llamas, Héloïse is very moved watching a concert of Vivaldi’s Summer and Sciamma knew that for the end of the film it was essential that the actress Adèle Haenel end the scene with an inspiration. Filming an expiration is not the same as filming an inspiration and Sciamma knew that this lesbian love film that was missing in cinema History ad to end with an inspiration. Surely, the awareness of the rhythm of a breath, the awareness of the rhythm of the scenes that composes her films and the awareness of the internal rhythm of each scene itself, will also be linked to his grandmother’s love for musicals and how well she passed it on her.
The film series Céline Sciamma it's organized in collaboration with the Institut Français of Bilbao.
PROGRAMA
6 of July, Saturday, 19:00
Water Lillies (Naissance des pieuvres), Céline Sciamma, France, 2007, 85’
13 of July, Saturday, 19:00
Tomboy, Céline Sciamma, France, 2011, 82’
20 of July, Saturday, 19:00
Bande de filles, Céline Sciamma, France, 2014, 103’ (EU + EN)
27 of July, Saturday, 19:00
Retrato de una mujer en llamas, Céline Sciamma, France, 2019, 122’
3 of August, Saturday, 19:00
Petite maman, Céline Sciamma, Francia, 2021, 73’
24 of August, Saturday, 19:00
Ma vie de Courgette, Claude Barras, Suiza, France, 2016, 66’ (EU + EN)
31 of August, Saturday, 19:00
Les Olympiades, Paris 13e, Jacques Audiard, France, 2021, 105’