Crash Issue 84 "Agnès Varda - Radical Cinema"

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The Spirit of Travel

OURS PUBLISHER & CREATIVE DIRECTOR

CRASH N°84 SPRING 2018

EDITOR IN CHIEF

TEXTES

FRANK PERRIN

ARMELLE LETURCQ FASHION DIRECTOR

ANDREJ SKOK ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

GERALDINE POSTEL EDITOR AT LARGE

ALICE BUTTERLIN NEW YORK FASHION EDITOR

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SUSANNA SHANNON QUENTIN HOURIE ENGLISH VERSION

BRIAN MEYER CRASH.FR EDITOR IN CHIEF

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EDITO

THE CINEMA ISSUE AGNÈS VARDA BY PIERRE SEITER AGNÈS VARDA, TRONC D’ARBRE DE MA COUR, 2018, GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS GUCCI HOODED JERSEY DRESS

LAURA HARRIER

BY JAMES MOUNTFORD LOUIS VUITTON LONG SILK DRESS, ARCHLIGHT SNEAKERS BOOTS IN TECHNICAL FABRIC, PEARL EARRINGS IN BRASS

10 CRASH

Two covers in this anniversary year for our Special Film edition, released by tradition to coincide with the Cannes Film Festival. First we meet iconic director Agnès Varda, who just received an honorary Oscar to crown her decades-long career, during which she has always placed women at the forefront of her films. Her exhibition at Galerie Nathalie Obadia, based on her magnificent film Le Bonheur, shines a light on her dreamy and engaged creativity. We interviewed and photographed the director and artist as she gears up for the re-release of her profoundly feminist 1977 film One Sings, the Other Doesn’t, which will receive a special screening at Cannes.

Our second cover features Laura Harrier, the new heroine of Spike Lee as he returns to the Croisette in full force with BlacKkKlansman, a film based on a true story from inside the Ku Klux Klan and competing for the Palme d’Or. At just 26, Laura Harrier minces no words when it comes to Donald Trump’s policies, which she calls racist and misogynistic…

We also check in with today’s most promising French actors through a portfolio produced by photographer-artists Elsa & Johanna. So much art in this issue with Jimmie Durham offering a special project based on May ’68 and Revolution. Gérard Fromanger also stops by to unpack this tumultuous period. Next, a text-manifesto by Paul Ardenne to introduce his exhibition Talking About A Revolution , which he curated for the art space 22Visconti, a platform created by the founders of Crash.

An exhibition/inventor y that sets out to answer one question: what do we mean when we talk about political art or engaged art?

Answers from the center of Paris, in the heart of the Saint-Germain neighborhood, the same ground where the revolution first took root…

Fifty years ago…

CONTENTS PORTFOLIOS

PROFILS

20 21

GAUCHÈRE

ERNEST W. BAKER

22

ANAÏS JOURDEN

23

NEITH NYER THE

24

THE SOUND OF FASHION

MEETINGS

30

JUNYA ISHIGAMI

26 34 52 44 VANESSA SEWARD

GÉRARD FROMANGER

PHILIPPE ARTIÈRES

UN MONDE FLOTTANT

74 68 118 58 126 AGNÈS VARDA

TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION! CARTE BL ANCHE

LAURA HARRIER

JIMMIE DURHAM

ANGÈLE METZGER

134 ELLA PURNELL

142 MATHILDE WARNIER

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Photograph taken at Kunsthalle Basel

SOMMAIRE FRENCH CONNECTION

82

NICOLAS MAURY

88

CHRISTA THERET

92

ANAÏS DEMOUSTIER

98

PIERRE DELADONCHAMPS

102 CORENTIN FILA

106 VICTOR MEUTELET

110 114

Participating Galleries

JULIA ROY

VINCENT MACAIGNE MUSIC

150 LAWRENCE ROTHMAN

156 MOSES SUMNEY

160 IGOR DEWE

FASHION

166 SILENCE, ACTION!

194 212 ADDICTIONS

VANITY

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# 303 Gallery 47 Canal

dépendance Di Donna Dvir

A A Gentil Carioca Miguel Abreu Acquavella Air de Paris Juana de Aizpuru Helga de Alvear Andréhn-Schiptjenko Applicat-Prazan The Approach Art : Concept Alfonso Artiaco

E Ecart Eigen + Art

B von Bartha Guido W. Baudach elba benítez Bergamin & Gomide Berinson Bernier/Eliades Fondation Beyeler Daniel Blau Blum & Poe Marianne Boesky Tanya Bonakdar Bortolami Isabella Bortolozzi BQ Gavin Brown Buchholz Buchmann

G Gagosian Galerie 1900-2000 Galleria dello Scudo gb agency Annet Gelink Gladstone Gmurzynska Elvira González Goodman Gallery Marian Goodman Bärbel Grässlin Alexander Gray Richard Gray Howard Greenberg Greene Naftali greengrassi Karsten Greve Cristina Guerra

C Cabinet Campoli Presti Canada Gisela Capitain carlier gebauer Carzaniga Casas Riegner Pedro Cera Cheim & Read Chemould Prescott Road Mehdi Chouakri Sadie Coles HQ Contemporary Fine Arts Continua Paula Cooper Pilar Corrias Chantal Crousel D Thomas Dane Massimo De Carlo

F Konrad Fischer Foksal Fortes D‘Aloia & Gabriel Fraenkel Peter Freeman Stephen Friedman Frith Street

H Michael Haas Hauser & Wirth Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert Herald St Max Hetzler Hopkins Edwynn Houk Xavier Hufkens I i8 Invernizzi Taka Ishii J Bernard Jacobson Alison Jacques Martin Janda Catriona Jeffries Annely Juda

K Kadel Willborn Casey Kaplan Georg Kargl Karma International kaufmann repetto Sean Kelly Kerlin Anton Kern Kewenig Kicken Peter Kilchmann König Galerie David Kordansky KOW Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler Andrew Kreps Krinzinger Nicolas Krupp Kukje / Tina Kim kurimanzutto L Lahumière Landau Simon Lee Lehmann Maupin Tanya Leighton Lelong Lévy Gorvy Gisèle Linder Lisson Long March Luhring Augustine Luxembourg & Dayan M Maccarone Kate MacGarry Magazzino Mai 36 Gió Marconi Matthew Marks Marlborough Hans Mayer Mayor Fergus McCaffrey Greta Meert Anthony Meier Urs Meile Mendes Wood DM kamel mennour Metro Pictures Meyer Riegger Massimo Minini Victoria Miro Mitchell-Innes & Nash

Mnuchin Stuart Shave/Modern Art The Modern Institute Jan Mot Vera Munro N nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder Nagel Draxler Richard Nagy Edward Tyler Nahem Helly Nahmad Neu neugerriemschneider Franco Noero David Nolan Nordenhake Georg Nothelfer O Nathalie Obadia OMR P Pace Pace/MacGill Maureen Paley Alice Pauli Perrotin Petzel Francesca Pia Plan B Gregor Podnar Eva Presenhuber ProjecteSD R Almine Rech Reena Spaulings Regen Projects Rodeo Thaddaeus Ropac S Salon 94 Esther Schipper Rüdiger Schöttle Thomas Schulte Natalie Seroussi Sfeir-Semler Jack Shainman ShanghART Sies + Höke Sikkema Jenkins Skarstedt SKE Skopia / P.-H. Jaccaud

Sperone Westwater Sprüth Magers St. Etienne Nils Stærk Stampa Standard (Oslo) Starmach Christian Stein Stevenson Luisa Strina T Take Ninagawa Tega Templon Tokyo Gallery + BTAP Tornabuoni Tschudi Tucci Russo V Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois Van de Weghe Annemarie Verna Susanne Vielmetter Vitamin W Waddington Custot Nicolai Wallner Washburn Barbara Weiss Michael Werner White Cube Barbara Wien Jocelyn Wolff Z Thomas Zander Zeno X ZERO...

David Zwirner Feature Raquel Arnaud bitforms Bernard Bouche Bureau ChertLüdde James Cohan Monica De Cardenas Fonti Galerist Grimm Barbara Gross Hamiltons Hanart TZ

Hollybush Gardens hunt kastner Kalfayan Lange + Pult Emanuel Layr Löhrl Jörg Maass Max Mayer Lorcan O‘Neill P420 Franklin Parrasch Nara Roesler Richard Saltoun Pietro Spartà Supportico Lopez The Third Line Upstream Zlotowski Statements The Box Sandy Brown Carlos/Ishikawa Croy Nielsen Essex Street Experimenter Freedman Fitzpatrick JTT Jan Kaps Antoine Levi Madragoa Mary Mary mor charpentier Moran Moran One and J. Deborah Schamoni Stigter Van Doesburg White Space Beijing Edition Brooke Alexander Niels Borch Jensen Alan Cristea mfc - michèle didier Fanal Gemini G.E.L. Sabine Knust Lelong Editions Carolina Nitsch Paragon Polígrafa Susan Sheehan STPI Two Palms

PROFILS / GAUCHÈRE

PROFILS / ERNEST W. BAKER

F 20 CRASH

50-Year Adventure in the Advertising Business, published in 1999.

GAUCHÈRE

TEXT : ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : MARIJO ŽUPANOV, MODELS : REID BAKER, ELIOT @TOMORROWISANOTHERDAY, INES AMORIM

TEXT : ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : MATHIEU RAINAUD, MODELS : MARIE-CHRISTINE STATZ, KERSTI POHLAK

inding the perfect name for a new clothing brand can be hard work, with many designers taking their own last name or digging up their great grandmother’s maiden name. Then there are the lucky few whose name finds them. That is what happened for Marie-Christine Statz, who as a student at the Chambre S y n d i c a l e d e l a H au t e C o u t u r e earned the nickname “la gauchère” (meaning “lefty”) from one of her professors. Needless to say, the moniker stuck and eventually became the name of the fashion line she created in 2011. From their initial focus on materials, 3D, pleating and mixing textures, her pieces have taken a more minimalist turn of late, with extra attention paid to cuts. For her Fall-Winter 2018 collection presented in March, the German designer presented looks based on raw forms. Featuring a masculine sensibility and the extreme simplicity of straight cuts, the pieces reveal an austere sensuality and a self-assured if restrained style. Riffing on the stereotype of left-handers as clumsy and backwards, she deconstructs cer t a i n pie ce s, s ew s toget her a pleated skirt and a straight skirt, and creates reversible pieces. Her aesthetic is curated without overlooking the practical and comfort able a sp e ct s t h at h ave b e come staples of the brand. Soft colors dominate in a color scheme that varies between black, white, and khaki with navy and silver touches. This is a modern and challenging take on “less is more” fashion.

Looking to the past for inspiration is par for the course in fashion.

But when a designer retraces their own family tree to create their mood board, the results can get downright unsettling. That was the tack taken by designers Ines Amorim and Reid Baker, whose brand bea rs the name of the latter’s grandfather: Ernest W Baker, a mythical ninety-one-year-old with a captivating aura. All we know about him is that he once worked in advertising in Detroit, an experience he recounts in his book A

ERNEST W. BAKER

For their third collection, pre pared for Fall/Winter 2018 and presented last January, the duo paged through Ernest’s old diaries from the 1970s and 1980s – a way to rejuvenate the yellowed moments of a bygone era. So what would we find if we were to peek into grandpa’s closet? Relics from the 70s of course: cognac-hued leather, thick hand-quilted sweaters in mustard yellow, suede bell-bottoms and butt e r f ly c ol l a r s. Nex t c om e t h e throwback 80s pieces: a purple velvet suit and oversize wool coats decked out with badges bearing grandpa’s image.

The silhouette exudes a strong We s t e r n v i b e , c o m p l e t e w i t h cowboy hats and polished boots.

Citing David Lynch’s Blue Velvet and Twin Peaks as influences, Reid and Ines have imbued their collection with a decidedly cinematic feel, both in thei r designs and choice of models, whose piercing eyes and atypical features would feel at home in any Lynch movie.

Another notable characteristic: the fusion between the European sophistication brought by Portuguese designer Ines Amorim and the rustic American style of Reid Baker, which makes for an intriguing blend of nostalgic and contemporary codes. First meeting at the Domus Academy in Milan, the pair have kept a strong connection to Italian heritage, from their first internship together with a small local designer to their vision of men sporting full suits through the streets of Milan. A few snapshots on their website – taken from their

ow n p h o t o a l b u m s o r o u t s i d e sources – provide a glimpse into t hei r c re ative u n iver se. De si gnated as semifinalists for the 2018 LVMH Prize, they will not claim this year’s top honors, though they remain one of the hottest brands to watch in coming years.

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PROFILS / ANAÏS JOURDEN

PROFILS / NEITH NYER

NEITH NYER

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TEXT: ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER: MARIJO ŽUPANOV, MODELS : DIANE GUAIS, MARINA DAMJANOVIC, FRANCISCO TERRA

ANAÏS JOURDEN

graphic quality of manga and legendary 80s musicians like the incomparable Akiko Yano. For this upcoming fall, the designer continued his exploration of vulgarity as a veh icle of soph istication, drawing inspiration from the festivals of his home country in silhouettes that are busy, colorful, and extremely spontaneous. It’s a collection that finds beauty in everyday items, from souvenir shop tee-shirts to the origami napkins fou nd i n Ch i ne se re stau ra nts.

Francisco Terra serves up an endlessly surprising kind of fashion, foretelling a future as brilliant and scintillating as the sequins sewn on his dresses.

the codes of the haute bourgeoisie by blending them with dark and romantic baroque elements, such as tweed jackets with feathers, cocktail dresses in guipure lace, and Victorian lace-up boots. The silhouettes remain feminine while tapping into a sensual power with sheer and flowing elements. The brand’s signature smocking ap pears in a long dress with scintillating silver lace and pieces in pink crushed velvet like the oversized down coat and double -breasted jackets. On top of this, sheer lace bike shorts and sequined down jackets with feathers add an element of fun to the collection, while signaling that Anaïs Jourden has entered a new era of experimentation with both textures and forms.

TEXT : ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : BENNY WOO, MODELS : ANAÏS MAK, JUSTINE LEE

J

ou rden was created in 2 012 by Anaïs Mak, a fashion designer hailing from Hong Kong and trained at Studio Berçot in Paris, when she was just twenty-two. Featuring princess dresses in buckskin leather, flounces, frills, and gold stitching, the designer’s first creations showed a very ladylike style and flirted with the conservativism characteristic of the Chinese luxury market. Nevertheless, several eye-catching details like asymmetrical cuts and clashing patterns revealed the young brand as one to watch. Last February, Jourden – now known as Anaïs Jourden – held its first runway show in Paris, rolling out a procession of strong looks suggesting that the brand has now emerged from its cocoon. The collection mocks

Arriving on Paris Fashion Week’s official calendar in 2016, Neith Nyer made an immediate splash.

Led by Brazilian designer Francisco Terra, the brand aims to reach a generation divided between nostalgia and a thirst for the future. Terra draws inspiration from his childhood spent in Brazil as well as Parisian nightlife, taking young queer artists from all across the globe as his muses. After studying at Istituto Marangoni, the designer prepared to launch his own brand while working at Carven and Givenchy. His designs offer a reinvention of luxury, in a personal style that proudly em-

braces the codes of popular culture with no fear of flirting with bad taste. Synthetic materials such as Lycra, sparkly fabrics, glitter, and sequins shimmer in each of his collections, in which disco balls rhyme with distinction. Francisco Terra has said it himself: “Neith Nyer is never pretentious, it’s funny, sometimes tragic, sometimes trashy… a bit like life.” It’s this kind of life that he showcases in his silhouettes, as is evident in his Spring/Summer 2018 collection, conceived as a tribute to his sister who passed away at the age of eighteen. His fashion also reflects his passion for Japanese culture, encompassing both the

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THE SOUND OF FASHION WOMENSWEAR FALL-WINTER 2018/19 PARIS AFTERHOMEWORKPARIS 01 DYLAN LIS / TIMAL CHANEL 01 THE LIMIÑANAS / DIMANCHE (FEAT. BERTRAND BELIN) 02 PATRICK COUTIN / J’AIME REGARDER LES FILLES 03 THE LIMIÑANAS / OUVERTURE 04 A.R. KANE / A LOVE FROM OUTER SPACE (ORIGINAL MIX) 05 EROL ALKAN; SAINT ETIENNE / A HOLD ON LOVE ; ONLY LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART CHRISTIAN DIOR 01 KATE BUSH / UNDER ICE 02 KATE BUSH / RUNNING UP THAT HILL (RE-EDIT) 03 KATE BUSH / THE RED SHOES 04 KATE BUSH / CLOUDBUSTIG (ORGANON 12’VERSION) COMME DES GARÇONS 01 NINO ROTA / THEME FROM “LA STRADA” 02 MARINE / A PROPOSITO DEI NAPOLI 03 LAURENT PETITGAND / CIRCUS MUSIC 04 NINO ROTA / LA GRANDISCA E IL PRINCIPE 05 EZ3KIEL / MONTAGUES AND CAPULETS 06 THE TIGER LILLIES / ALONE IN THE MOON (LIVE) 07 THE TIGER LILLIES / ALONE IN THE MOON 08 STEVEN BROW / IN STILL OF THE NIGHT ELIE SAAB 01 VITAMIN STRING QUARTET / COME AS YOU ARE (NIRVANA) 02 RADIOHEAD / CREEP 03 DITA VON TEESE / BIRD OF PREY 04 VITAMIN STRING QUARTET / SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT (NIRVANA) 24 CRASH

05 MICHELLE GUREVICH / PARTY GIRL

JOSEPH ALTUZARRA 01 PHILIPPE SARDE / APRES SETE 02 WINSTON TONG / IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING 03 MY MINE / HYPNOTIC TANGO INSTRUMENTAL 04 MINIMAL COMPACT / WHEN I GO 05 VANGELIS / LOVE THEME 06 WINSTON TONG / IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING JUNYA WATANABE 01 PARQUET COURTS / ONE MAN NO CITY 02 PARQUET COURTS / CAPTIVE OF THE SUN 03 PARQUET COURTS / ALREADY DEAD 04 PARQUET COURTS / DUST LACOSTE 01 ROTARY CONNECTION / WE’RE GOING WRONG 02 LETTA MBULU / NOMALIZO 03 YAEJI / FEEL IT OUT 04 RZA / OPENING THEME (IN GHOST DOG SOUNDTRACK) 05 WU TANG CLAN / A BETTER TOMORROW LOEWE 01 BIBIO / CAPEL CELYN 02 MT. WOLF / BURGS 03 BIBIO / CAPEL BETHANIA 04 GIGI MASIN / THE WORLD LOVE LOUIS VUITTON 01 WOODKID / HAUSSMAN BVD LUTZ HUELLE 01 VIVALDI / LES 4 SAISONS 02 SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES / SPELLBOUND 03 CHER / BELIEVE MASHAMA 01 SECOND SPECTRE / SAMPLE (ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK KENJI KAWAI) MIU MIU 01 TONI BASIL / MICKEY 02 KRAFTWERK / POCKET CALCULATOR

03 LAURIE ANDERSON / O SUPERMAN 04 DEVO / WHIP IT (ACAPELLA) 05 BRIAN ENO & DEVO / MASHUP 06 DEVO / I CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION 07 FRANZ FERDINAND, DEVO, RADIOHEAD VS. LCD SOUNDSYSTEM & SOULWAX / BOOT INNOCUOUS (MASHUP BY TOM TOM) 08 TOM TOM CLUB / GENIUS OF LOVE (INSTRUMENTAL) 09 TOM TOM CLUB / WORDY RAPPINGHOOD (REMIX) 10 BRIAN ENO / KING’S LEAD HAT 11 PEACHES / CLOSE UP (FEAT. KIM GORDON) NEITH NYER 01 LOVER SPEAKS / NO MORE I LOVE YOU’S OLIVIER THEYSKENS 01 KRENG / THE SUMMORING (FEAT. AMENRA) PROENZA SCHOULER 01 BEASTIE BOYS / SHAMBALA 02 ALICE COLTRANE / JOURNEY IN SATCHIDANANDA 03 LESLIE WINER / FLOVE 04 BEASTIE BOYS / BOBO ON THE CORNER ROCHAS 01 MORANDO & VILLENEUVE / NAISSANCE D’UN LIVRE (IMPRIMERIE) 02 ROB / UN CIEL RADIEUX (BANDE ORIGINALE DU FILM) 03 RAGNI / DRAGAU MIG 04 FRANCOISE HARDY / LE TEMPS DE L’AMOUR 05 BRYAN FERRY / DON’T STOP THE DANCE ROLAND MOURET 01 JOAN BAEZ / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 02 MARIANNE FAITHFULL / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 03 JODY MILLER / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 04 MARIE LAFORÊT / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 05 NINA SIMONE / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN

06 BOB DYLAN / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 07 HENRY MANCINI / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 08 JOHNNY HALLYDAY / LES PORTES DU PENITENCIER 09 ROMAN / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN’ 10 THE ANIMALS / HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 11 MICHAEL ZAGER BAND / LET’S ALL CHANT

SACAI 01 SUSUMU YOKOTA / ZENMAI 02 SUENO LATINO / SUENO LATINO (THE PARADISE VERSION) 03 LFO / LOVE IS THE MESSAGE 04 DANIEL AVERY / SLOW FADE (ACTRESS REMIX) 05 A GUY CALLED GERALD / VOODOO RAY 06 FRANKIE KNUCKLES / YOUR LOVE 07 OPTIMO / POLYRYTHMICA 08 MTV / SNOW BALL SAINT LAURENT 01 SEBASTIAN / OVERTA’ 02 SEBASTIAN / POSTDAMERPLATZ 03 SEBASTIAN / ASTORIAS 04 SEBASTIAN REMIX / RUNAWAY (AVEC UN APPORT DE VOIX DE CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG) TALBOT AND RUNHOF 01 TOBI REISER QUINTET / SONNTAGSWALZER 02 MARCUS MARR / FAMILIAR FIVE 03 FREUDENTHAL / WAVING GREEN (FREUDENTHAL VERSION) 04 HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE / LEAD THE WAY 05 FISCHERSPOONER / BUTTERSCOTCH GODDAM 06 FLORENT MARCHET; PROPAGANDE / CARRE 35 (BANDE ORIGINALE DU FILM) 07 BLACK LIGHT SMOKE DARK & STORMY / NIGHT 08 MARTIN GLASS / OKINAWA FANTASIA 09 CAR / RANDOM WORDS 10 GLOBAL KRYNER / TOXIC 11 BRITNEY SPEARS / TOXIC

VALENTINO 01 ALEXANDRE DESPLAT / THE SHAPE OF WATER (IN THE SHAPE OF WATER SOUNDTRACK) 02 BJÖRK / ISOBEL 03 BJÖRK / BACHELORETTE 04 ALEXANDRE DESPLAT / THE SILENCE OF LOVE (IN THE SHAPE OF WATER SOUNDTRACK) YAZBUKEY 01 THE BELLE STARS / SIGN OF THE TIMES 02 ATA KAK / DAA NYNIAA (NOEMA’S TRIBUTE EDIT) 03 EN VOGUE / MY LOVIN’ (YOURE NEVER GONNA GET) 04 CAROLINE LOEB / C’EST LA OUATE (EXTENDED VERSION) 05 JESTOFUNK / I’M GONNA LOVE YOU (MC TURBO SAX MIX) 06 PRINCE / CREAM

MILAN BLUMARINE 01 LITTLE DRAGON / STROBE LIGHT 02 FISCHERSPOONER / HAVE FUN TONIGHT 03 RITON, KAH-LO / RINSE & REPEAT 04 TECHNOTRONIC / PUMP UP THE JAM 05 JAYDEE / PLASTIC DREAMS (MUSIC FROM PORCELAIN) 06 DONNA SUMMER / I FEEL LOVE (PATRICK COWLEY REMIX) EMILIO PUCCI 01 MICA LEVI / CREDITS (FROM JACKIE OST) 02 EMILIANA TORRINI / SPEED OF DARK 03 MARILYN MONROE / I’M THRU WITH LOVE (FROM SOME LIKE IT HOT OST) 04 KEHLANI / INTRO 05 ANNIE LENNOX / I PUT A SPELL ON YOU 06 UNKLE / LOOKING FOR THE RAIN 07 JANE WEAVER / I NEED A CONNECTION 08 PINK MARTINI / LET’S NEVER STOP FALLING IN LOVE

ERIKA CAVALLINI 01 PJ HARVEY / DOWN BY THE WATER 02 PATTI SMITH / DANCING BAREFOOT ETRO 01 KENDRICK LAMAR / BLACK PANTHER 02 THE TEMPTATIONS / LAW OF THE LAND 03 NEIL YOUNG / MY MY, HEY HEY (COUSIN COLE’S INTO THE BLUE REMIX) 04 DAVID MCWILLIAMS / DAYS OF PEARLY SPENCER 05 THE TEMPTATIONS / LAW OF THE LAND 06 YMA SUMAC / MAMAMBO NR.1 FENDI 01 SUPERTRAMP / THE LOGICAL SONG 02 SUPERTRAMP / BLOODY WELL RIGHT 03 SUPERTRAMP / BREAKFAST IN AMERICA GIVENCHY 01 INVISIBLE CHURCH AND MARIE DAVIDSON / TEN YEARS 02 ESSAIE PAS / DEPASSEE PAR LE FANTASME 03 CLIFF MARTINEZ / WANNA FIGHT 04 SYMMETRY / THE MAGICIAN 05 PHILIP GLASS / GOING HOME GUCCI 01 VIVALDI / LONDON METROPOLITAN ENSEMBLE STABAT MATER 02 ARVO PÄRT / ALLELUJA TROPUS 03 MISSY MAZZOLI / NEW DARK AGE (FROM VERSPERS FOR A NEW DARK AGE) 04 ARVO PÄRT, THEATRE OF VOICES, PUAL HILLIER / STABAT MATER 05 VIVALDI; SIMONE KERMES / NULLA IN MUNDO PAX SINCERA RV630 06 VIVALDI; MICHAEL CHANCE / STABAT MATER RV621 (LARGO) MAX MARA 01 SINEAD O’CONNOR / YOU DO SOMETHING TO ME 02 SIOUXSIE & THE BANSHEES / SLOWDIVE 03 SIOUXSIE / DRONE ZONE 04 THE CREATURES / UNTIEDUNDONE 05 THE CREATURES / RIGHT NOW / MOSCHINO 01 MICA LEVI / CREDITS (IN JACKIE SOUNDTRACK) 02 THE PRODIGY / CLIMBATIZE 03 MYSTIC FORCE / MYSTIC FORCE 04 LUSTT / PILLOW TALK 05 SEX JUDAS / CANDY DARLING 06 THE GOLDEN FILTER / SERENITY 07 THE PRODIGY / CLIMBATIZE + INSERTS GATTACA BULLETIN FROM GATTACA MOVIE

N°21 01 CIGARETTES AFTER SEX / K 02 LONDON GRAMMAR / WICKED GAME 03 HENRY MANCINI / EXPERIMENT IN TERROR 04 EMIKA / WICKED GAME 05 CHRIS ISAAK / WICKED GAME 06 PAT BENATAR / LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD PHILOSOPHY 01 STEVIE NICKS / EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (RAYKO EDIT) 02 HEART / MAGIC MAN (IN THE VIRGIN SUICIDES SOUNDTRACK) 03 SURVIVOR / EYE OF THE TIGER (IN ROCKY IV SOUNDTRACK) 04 STEVIE NICKS / STAND BACK (ELI ESCOBAR DISCO MIX) 05 FLEETWOOD MAC / THE CHAIN (AQUILIN EDIT) 06 AL CORLEY / SQUARE ROOMS PRADA 01 RENAUD CAPUCON / VIOLON CONCERTO N°1 MOVEMENT II 02 BLONDIE & PHILIP GLASS / HEART OF GLASS (CABTREE REMIX) 03 CHROMATICS / THE TELEPHONE CALL 04 ANGÈLE DAVID-GUILLOU / MOUVEMENTS ORGANIQUES PART ONE 05 BRYAN FERRY / SLAVE TO LOVE 06 BLONDIE / HEART OF GLASS (ACAPELLA) 07 PHILIP GLASS / 1000 AIRPLANES ON THE ROOF 08 SECRET SERVICE / FLASH IN THE NIGHT 09 TOM WAITS & CRYSTAL GAYLE / ONE FROM THE HEART 10 MOBY / THE RAIN FALLS AND THE SKY SHUDDERS 11 ROXY MUSIC / TAKE A CHANCE WITH ME 12 BRYAN FERRY & TODD TERJE / JOHNNY & MARY (ULRICH SCHNAUSS REMIX) SALVATORE FERRAGAMO 01 TANITA TIKARAM / TWIST IN MY SOBRIETY 02 GYÖRGY LIGETI / MUSICA RICERCATA, II (MESTO, RIGIDO E CERIMONI ALE) (IN EYES WIDE SHUT SOUNDTRACK) 03 SADE FT YOUNG BUCK / SOLDIER OF LOVE (REMIX) (INSTRUMENTAL) 04 TERENCE TRENT D’ARBY / SIGN YOUR NAME 05 WENDY CARLOS / TITLE MUSIC FROM A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (IN A CLOCKWORK ORANGE SOUNDTRACK) 06 SADE / HANG ON TO YOUR LOVE 07 TERENCE TRENT D’ARBY / SIGN YOUR NAME TOD’S 01 PETER GREGSON / A LITTLE CHAOS (IN LES JARDINS DU ROI SOUNDTRACK) 02 THE GOLDEN FILTER / END OF TIMES

03 THE GOLDEN FILTER / HEART CONTROL 04 PETER GREGSON / WHAT HAPPENED (IN LES JARDINS DU ROI SOUNDTRACK) 05 THE GOLDEN FILTER / DUST YOHJI YAMAMOTO 01 YOHJI YAMAMOTO / JIRO AMIMOTO 02 YOHJI YAMAMOTO / JIRO AMIMOTO 03 YOHJI YAMAMOTO / JIRO AMIMOTO 04 YOHJI YAMAMOTO / JIRO AMIMOTO

LONDON BURBERRY 01 BRONSKI BEAT / PUIT D’AMOUR 02 BRONSKI BEAT / MEMORIES 03 JIMMY SOMMERVILLE / SMALLTOWN BOY (REPRISE 2014) 04 THE COMMUNARDS / FOR A FRIEND 05 BRONSKI BEAT FEAT MARC ALMOND / I FEEL LOVE MEDLEY 06 THE COMMUNARDS WITH SARAH JANE MORRIS / DON’T LEAVE ME THIS WAY CHALAYAN 01 GOOD TIME FILM / TRAILER 02 GRACE JONES / SEDUCTION SURRENDER 03 ORSON HENTSCHEL / FADE IN, FADE OUT 04 TORI AMOS / MARY’S EYES 05 COLOURBOX / JUST GIVE’EM WHISKEY 06 PETIT SINGE / KOMM WIEDER MIT 07 AJDA PEKKAN / KIMLER GELDI KIMLER GECTI 08 AUTOLUX / SOFT SCENE 09 GRACE JONES / ON MY WAY 10 ZOMBIE ZOMBIE / NIGHTCLUBBING 11 CLARK / ACID ROMP OFF 12 STIMMING & LAMBERT / TRAFIC AERIEN 13 PJ HARVEY / BIG EXIT DAVID KOMA 01 SERGE GAINSBOURG / LA HORSEN (INSTRUMENTAL) 02 FLAKO / SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME 03 ALL SEEI / THE BEAT GOES ON 04 ABORIGENES (NATIVE AMERICAN MUSIC) / DRUMS AND CHANTS OF NATIVES 05 MOODYMANN / NO TIME 2 STOP 06 RIGOPOLAR / GOLDEN MASK 07 TUNNEL SIGNS / COLONIST JW ANDERSON 01 COMPUTER MAGIC / AMNESIA 02 FEVER RAY / TO THE MOON AND BACK (AIR HORN EDIT) 03 CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG / DEADLY VALENTINE (SOULWAX REMIX) 04 FEVER RAY / TO THE MOON AND BACK

MICHAEL HALPERN 01 ADRIANO CELENTANO PRISENCOLINENSINAINCIUSOL (RUFF EDIT) 02 CHICCO DZ / EXPLORING SOUNDS IN A TRIBAL MOOD DRUMSOLO 03 TAANA GARDNER / WORK THAT BODY (SPECIAL NEW MIX) 04 DIANA ROSS / FRIEND TO FRIEND 05 FERRANTE & TEICHER / TEHAIKOBSKY SAMBA MULBERRY 01 SACHA SIEFF / MORE 80’S 02 SACHA SIEFF / SPECIAL J 03 SACHA SIEFF / FASTNESS REALITY 04 GOLDFRAPP / ANYMORE PORTS 1961 01 JONNY GREENWOOD / SANDALWOOD I 02 NILS FRAHM / A PLACE 03 JONNY GREENWOOD / HOUSE OF WOODCOCK 04 NILS FRAHM / #2 05 GENE KELLY / SINGIN’IN THE RAIN

NEW-YORK ADAM SELMAN 01 SOFT CELL / SO (EXTENDED) 02 SPARKS / LA DOLCE VITA 03 SPARKS / ACADEMY AWARD PERFORMANCE 04 VALERIE DORE / GET CLOSER (DJ OYSTER TOOL TIME) CALVIN KLEIN 205W39 NYC 01 PANGEA / HIGH 02 SIMON & GARFUNKEL / THE SOUND OF SILENCE 03 CARTER BURWELL / MILDRED GOES TO WAR 04 THE MAMAS & THE PAPAS / CALIFORNIA DREAMIN 05 SOPHIA ANNE CARUSO & ORIGINAL NEW YORK CAST OF LAZARUS / THIS IS NOT AMERICA COACH 01 INTRO 02 DANNY BROWN / REALLY DOE 03 PRINCESS NOKIA KITANA / 04 DEATH GRIPS / GUILOTINE 05 JOHN CARPENTER / FALLEN (BILL KOULIGAS REMIX) 06 VINCE STAPLES / LOCA 07 PUSHA T / NUMBERS ON THE BOARDS 08 DANNY BROWN / REALLY DOE 09 OUTRO 10 BAT FOR LASHES / WHATS A GIRL TO DO (PLAID REMIX)

PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA) 03 MADONNA / INTO THE GROOVE 04 JAY PRINCE / YOUR FAVORITE THINGS 05 BEYONCE / SINGLE LADIES (PUT A RING ON IT) 06 ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA / SWAN LAKE 07 BRITNEY SPEARS / TOXIC (REMASTERED) 08 JULIE ANDREWS & PHILIPPA BEVANS / I COULD HAVE DANCED ALL NIGHT (FROM MY FAIR LADY) 09 HENRY MANCINI / SOMETHING FOR CAT 10 RIHANNA / DON’T STOP THE MUSIC 11 DOUGLAS CUOMO / SEX AND THE CITY THEME 12 SALT-N-PEPA / PUSH IT (RADIO VERSION) 13 FRANCIS LAI / UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME 14 ELTON JOHN & KIKI DEE / DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 15 BILLY JOEL / UPTOWN GIRL 16 PETULA CLARK / DOWNTOWN 17 BRITNEY SPEARS / BABY ONE MORE TIME (REMASTERED) 18 BEE GEES / STAYIN’ALIVE 19 THE ROOTS / MY SHOT (FEAT. BUSTA RHYMES, JOEL LORTIZ & NATE RUESS) (RISE UP REMIX) 20 SIMON & GARFUNKEL / MRS. ROBINSON 21 MISSY ELLIOTT / GET UR FREAK ON 22 HENRY MANCINI / BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S 23 THE PEANUTS / CHARLIE BROWN THEME 24 MARNI NIXON (FOR NATALIE WOOD) / I FEEL PRETTY 25 PRINCE / LET’S GO CRAZY 26 LEE HOLDRIDGE / THEME FROM MAHOGANY (DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING TO) 27 JAY-Z FEAT ALICIA KEYS / EMPIRE STATE OF MIND 28 MARIA / MY FAVORITE THINGS SIES MARJAN 01 ALESSANDRO CORTINI / VINCERE 02 ANGELE DAVID-GUILLOU / V. FOR VISCONTI 03 NINE ICH NAILS / HURT (LIVE) 04 JOHN ADAMS / SHORT RIDE IN A FAST MACHINE

JEREMY SCOTT 01 MADONNA / STAY (’81) 02 SPACE / MAGIC FLY 03 GINO SOCCIO / DANCER MICHAEL KORS 01 MICHAEL JACKSON / DON’T STOP’TIL YOU GET ENOUGH 02 ARETHA FRANKLIN / RESPECT (WITH THE ROYAL CRASH 25

VANESSA SEWARD INTERVIEW : ARMELLE LETURCQ

Argentine designer Vanessa Seward has covered a lot of ground since she first arrived in Paris in the 1990s. After working at Chanel under Karl Lager feld and later at Yves Sai nt Laurent during the Tom Ford years, Seward began her eight-year tenure as creative director of Azzaro in 2003.

Since then, she designed an annual capsule collection for A.P.C., before launching her own ready-to-wear line with the help of Jean Touitou in 2014.

Reminiscent of the 1970s, her eponymous line offers a charming and elegant take on womenswear. We sat down with the enigmatic designer to learn more about her background and shed some light on her design process.

26 CRASH

AL: Can you tell us about your background?

VS: I studied at Studio Berçot.

Afterwards I interned at Chanel, and that led to a studio assistantship, and then a position as acce ssor y lead. I worke d there for nine years. I built my career in Karl Lagerfeld’s studio, first with Gilles Dufour and later with Virginie Viard. Next I joined Tom Ford’s team when he f i r s t s t a r t e d a t Yve s S a i n t Laurent. I oversaw the accessory lines for two years. After that experience I worked at Azzaro, which was a completely different environment. At the time, Chanel’s studio was cocooned in its own world. When I came to Azzaro, I worked directly with Loris Azzaro, who had terminal cancer. After a year I became creative director and I stayed there eight years. Then I sta r te d col laborati ng w ith A.P.C. and after our sixth collab orat ion , Je a n Tou itou su ggested I launch my own brand.

AL: Why did you decide to leave Azzaro?

VS: While it’s true that the brand was doing very well, there had been a change in management and I felt it was the right time to leave. The pattern maker Josie Fa i n c i n i w a s b r i l l i a n t , s h e taught me so much.

AL: H o w d i d y o u g o a b o u t launching your own brand?

VS: I was fortunate to have great partners like A.P.C., who could provide both financial and industrial support. I benefited from their expertise, infrastructure, and business vision . Work i n g for a fa s h ion house means advancing their brand, at least that was my approach. I observed how Karl reinvented some of Chanel’s codes. It’s like cooking in that you combine a few classic ingre dients with new elements that you add with each new collection. When you start your own brand, you have to create all these elements from scratch.

Yo u h ave t o p s yc h o a n a ly z e yourself in a way and gain some perspective on yourself. It can be hard to know what you are fe el i n g a nd to t a ke stock of things in an objective way. My choice was to tap into my own personal experience. In fact, inside the company I’m used to saying “VS” when talking about my brand because it’s so hard to detach mysel f from my brand. Sometimes I feel like I’m Alain Delon. (laughs) CRASH 27

VANESSA SEWARD JUMPSUIT FATE IN SILK, BELT IN LEATHER, BOOTS FAUVE IN SUEDE TALENTS : VANESSA SEWARD AND ALICE LEWIS PHOTOGRAPHER : KAREN PAULINA BISWELL STYLIST : ANDREJ SKOK MAKE UP : TIFFANY FOUQUEIL HAIRSTYLIST : MATHIEU LAUDREL

28 CRASH

I tapped into my origins, too.

I’m Argentine but I was raised in London and I’ve lived in Paris for over thirty years. Obviously there are also my professional experiences, music tastes, and other factors that make up who I am. That’s the basic formula, and then you can riff on that.

It’s also a game of back-andforth with clients and the press.

There are surprises, too. The col lection s I develop e d w ith A.P.C. showed me many things I never would have thought of otherwise. I played around with a lot of prints and denim. I also realized that eveningwear collections do not work in this price range.

AL: Did you k now what pr ice ra n ge you wa nt e d t o t a rge t when you fi r st st a r te d you r brand?

VS: I worked on that question with A.P.C. They work in a simil a r way to cer t a i n lu x u r y houses. They have an integrated studio and use only high-quality fabrics. I do a lot of work on cuts, and so that means there is lot of negotiation with suppliers to try to get more affordable prices. That is something we had trouble finding in this market. As a woman, I wanted to create pieces that accentuate the person wearing them, high-quality pieces but ones that people can wear and interpret

however they like. I also didn’t want clothing with too many connotations. However, I’m starting to see that I have a very defined clientele today. I can even pinpoint the style of the type of woman who connects with my brand. She’s the kind of woman who knows about fashion but doesn’t nee d to wea r al l the latest collections to stay up to date. She is self-assured and has strong tastes. She has an original style and isn’t concerned with appearing overly fashionable. My clientele is wonderful and I’m very similar to them.

When we were opening our first stores, I would go to every locat ion a n d c h at w it h ou r cu s tomers. I think the best cure for a creative block is to go to your stores and listen to your customers. Find out what they like and how they respond to your collections.

winter campaign was a little obvious, since it was on the theme of Argentina. Summer was even simpler, just my vision of relaxed cool. I don’t always base my col lection s on a si ngle theme. I work more on looks.

Then I choose fabrics and colors, but the most important part is the look. That may mean finding the perfect little navy sweater with the right proportions or a pleated jean skirt with a flattering cut. I work on the total look with all the accessories. I often use silhouettes from past seasons and reincorporate them into new silhouettes.

AL: Fashion houses run by men

AL: You get a lot of inspiration

o f t e n h ave a ve r y a b s t r ac t i m age of women. De sig ner s create clothes for an idealized woman and thin k about garments from the point of view of how they will appear in magazines, instead of how real women w ill wea r them. Some houses even force the press to photograph total looks including t h e i r o w n j e w e l r y, w i t h n o mixing allowed.

VS: Yes, the first one was Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent, but now it’s become common practice. One of my favorite things is to see how women fit my clothes into the rest of their wardrobe.

It ma ke s me more cre d ible.

Even t hou g h ou r pr ice s a re m or e ac c e s s i ble t h a n ot h e r luxury brands, I know it’s still expensive for people. I’m mindful of the fact that when my customers buy one of my pieces, it’s like a little investment relative to the average salary. I want to sell smart investments that women can keep in their wardrobe forever. I have a lot of customers who need clothes for professional environments or events. I don’t want to make clothes that are hard to wear in public.

AL: How do you develop your collections? Do you start with a specific idea?

VS: I start by developing more spontaneous pre - collections.

Our schedule starts long before the collections arrive in stores.

So I’m always asking myself what I want to do today. Next comes storytelling, though sometimes we save it for the end. Our

AL: Do you reuse pieces from past seasons in your own wardrobe, too?

VS: Yes, ver y often. I a lways have a few fetish pieces and update them by pairing them with different shoes.

from 1970s styles. Do you like movies from the 1970s, too?

VS: Yes, but I don’t want to make things that look like ’70s-themed costumes. It’s more of an unconscious kind of inspiration. I would never design something that looks like an outfit for a ’70s party. As soon as I notice details that scream one era or another, I lose interest. What I like about the 1970s is that there was a lot of great fashion that is timeless.

Seduction was very important, too. Fashion can have a lot of aggressive designs that are too radical in their sensuality. Not all women can pull that off. It can become too intellectualized and lose all its real sensuality.

There was a more relaxed and subtle kind of femininity in the ’70s. Since I’m an introvert, I like using clothes as a way of expressing myself. But I think I create a kind of fashion that appeals to men, too. They think my clothes make women look b eauti fu l. We tend to forget about that side of things, because we spend a lot of time with other designers in fashion.

For example, when we go out we u su a l ly on ly r u n i nt o ot h e r people in the industry… So I try to focus on real life. Not many of my fr iend s work i n fash ion.

Many of them work in movies or music. I’ve also spoken with customers who are writers, notably A l icia Dra ke who w rote The Beautiful Fall. She wore one of my dresses at a signing for her latest book I Love You Too Much.

A fter wa rd s she sent me her book with a nice message saying

that my clothes made her feel confident. I also remember a Newsweek war reporter, Janine di Giovanni. She has a very feminine style, despite the nature of her job. I let her borrow a dress when she had to present the World Press Photo Award in Amsterdam. She was delighted.

AL: Are there any classic film icons who inspire you, like Stéphane Audran who passed away today?

VS: Film has always given me a lot of inspiration, and not just from the 1970s. I like movies from the 1930s. There were so many brilliant costume artists like Adrian or Jean Louis. They worked for the actresses and had to make them feel confident. I have some good friends who are actresses and I know how ha rd of a job it can be.

They are always putting themselves in danger and so the costumes are very important. After Azzaro I did a little work w ith Valérie Don zelli on her film vvwv when I dressed Valérie Lemercier. We wanted to tap into the spirit of Saint Laurent dressing Catherine Deneuve, or Guy Laroche dressing Mireille Darc.

AL: It’s strange how that doesn’t happen anymore.

VS: Ye s, but bac k t hen t here were a lot of brilliant artistic directors, like Cedric Gibbons for example. I’m fascinated by the aesthetic and texture of movies from that time. The studios brought together all the world’s greatest talent. They had all the best writers. I have a lot of faith in teams that are refined a n d p e r fe c t e d o ve r t i m e . I really like the aesthetics of the 1930s, but also the Pre-Raphaelites. There was a lot of inspiration from the past in the 1970s, too. I remember going to Biba i n London w ith my mother when I was little. Everything was inspired by the 1930s and the Art Deco movement. I grew up in the 1970s. My mother had a sensual elegance that is timeless. Women like Jane Birkin, Bianca Jagger, and Lauren Hutton are all still relevant today.

Their style never goes out of fashion. The 1980s are also interesting for the rockabilly side and power woman silhouettes.

VS: Revolution has positive aspects and everything happening now regarding the status of women is very important. We had to change a few things. As with any revolution, some aspects m ay h ave gon e t o o fa r, b u t things had to explode. Now we need to recreate our new standards. Change is exciting in a way. That said, I’m glad I’m m a r r i e d b e c au s e s e d u c t i o n seems like a fraught enterprise today. I wouldn’t know how to react if I were in men’s shoes today. I’m deeply attached to the notion of seduction. It would be sad to see it disappear.

AL: I t ’s a t o u c h y s u b j e c t i n fashion.

VS: Yes, that’s true. I’m happy

“FASHION CAN HAVE A LOT OF AGGRESSIVE DESIGNS THAT ARE TOO RADICAL IN THEIR SENSUALITY. NOT ALL WOMEN CAN PULL THAT OFF.”

that models have started de manding their rights. It’s an issue I care about deeply. I’ve seen so many young models who didn’t get the respect they deserved. But people are beco m i n g m o r e aw a r e o f t h e s e things today. Sixteen-year-olds aren’t adults, and abusive behavior was being tolerated.

Fash ion has a st ra nge relation sh ip to sen sua l ity, but I think I managed to strike the right balance with my brand.

Charm is a notion I want to reclaim today. Everything is so formatted and polished now, but I prefer imperfections in my images. I love that your photographer shot me on actual film.

It’s magical and smooths out all the defects.

AL: Digital is so precise that it captu res al l the defects and forces you to do a lot of editing.

VS: Too much editing bothers me. I like defects because they add charm to photos. We’re forgetting about the special moment between the photographer and model.

AL: This year is the twentieth anniversar y of Crash and fi fty years since May 1968. What does revolution mean for you, both in film and in society?

CRASH 29

Junya Ishigami is a true artist of architectu re. Flau nti n g h i s asymmetrical fringe reminiscent of a manga character, he came to the Fondation Cartier to present his latest exh i b i t i o n Freeing Architecture.

MEETING / JUNYA ISHIGANI

JUNYA ISHIGAMI TEXT: YUMIKO SEKI

EXHIBITION “JUNYA ISHIGAMI, FREEING ARCHITECTURE”, PRESENTED AT THE FONDATION CARTIER POUR L’ART CONTEMPORAIN UNTIL JUNE 10TH, 2018.

House and Restaurant Project model photography of House and Restaurant. ©junya.ishigami+associates 30 CRASH

CRASH 31

PORTFOLIOS / JUNYA ISHIGANI

Since then, Ishigami’s work has veered in a radical new direction.

A fter w i n n i ng comp etitions i n countries around the world, he now develops original new projects rooted in the research he first showcased in his previous works.

It is these construction projects that visitors can discover at Fondation Cartier. Entitled Freeing Architecture, the exhibition unfolds th rough preparator y sketches, pla n s, la rge - sca le mo dels a nd 32 CRASH

Chapel of Valley, in the Shandong

province of China, is a 4 5 -me ter-high roofless concrete monument located on a massive hill.

Two elegantly curved walls leave a 1. 3 0 -met er op en i n g at t he en trance, before gradually widening as the visitor progresses towards the altar placed at the far end of the worship space. The open ceiling allows sunlight to seep into the chapel and guide the visitor down the aisle. When it rains, precipitation hits the structure and rolls slowly down the walls without falling onto visitors’ heads. Built onto a steep rocky outcrop, the structure extends upward from the surrounding valley, imposing its own scale on reality. Also located in China’s Shandong province, Cultural Center was conceived as a long promenade in the middle of water. Built on an artificial lake, the building traverses the body of water like a bridge, allowing water to penetrate under the glass partitions. Visitors are invited to stroll down the path as though it were a walk on the beach, while discovering the new landscape in which natural and constructed elements mix and mingle.

House of Peace, ordered by the Danish NGO HOPE is, as its name indicates, a place that celebrates peace. Built on Copenhagen’s northern port, this reflection and meditation space is open to people of all the world’s religions. Originally, the NGO planned to create an artificial island, but Ishigami opted instead for a building in the form of a cloud, meaning that it hovers over the sea without creating a new ground. Visitors take small boats to move about the interior of the str uctu re, as su n light reflects against the shallow seafloor to illuminate the surface before dispersing into space.

CONSCIOUS OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND ECOSYSTEMS, JUNYA ISHIGAMI LEAVES ROOM FOR NATURE IN HIS CREATIVE PROCESS, PUTTING HIS OWN SPIN ON THE TRADITIONAL JAPANESE LANDSCAPING TECHNIQUE OF SHAKKEI (“BORROWED SCENERY”)

House for Peace Exterior perspective of House of Peace. ©junya.ishigami+associates

Conscious of the environment and ecosystems, Junya Ishigami leaves room for nature in his creative process, putting his own spin on the traditional Japanese landscaping technique of Shakkei (“borrowed scenery”). In gardens of this style, distant background elements become an integral part of the composition. Shakkei gardens play on visual scale by appropriating the site’s surroundings, so that as residents or visitors move through the garden, a new and transformed landscape appears before their eyes with each step.

Table ©junya.ishigami+associates

Table, first exhibited at a gallery in Tokyo, dazzled visitors at Art Basel in 2006 (presented in the Unlimited sector) with its incredible stability: measuring 9½ meters, the table stands on just four legs positioned on either extremity. Its 6-mm top is held in place by a set of objects selected and strategically positioned to ensure its structural integrity. When touched, the enigmatic surface ripples to give the perfect illusion of water caressed by a gentle breeze.

Cuboid Balloon , a metallic mass measuring 7m x 13m x 14m and filled with helium, floated in the atrium at the MOT (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo) in 2007.

Despite weighing a literal ton, the work appears suspended in the air as if by magic. The balloon’s extraordinary shape and colossal size make it an even more enchanting construction.

Finally, Architecture As Air, presented on the the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2010, won the Golden Lion for its representation of an architectural model made of elements so thin and delicate as to appear virtually transparent. Enjoying wide international acclaim, Junya Ishigami gained fame at the time as an architect with more gallery works than buildings.

films. Every piece on display was made specifically for the exhibition. Pinned to the wall next to each piece are notes handwritten

by Ishigami to convey the spirit of each work in the form of a poem.

Junya Ishigami’s body of work is distinguished by its arresting singularity and serene audacity. Working within a climate of modernity marked by a vast array of contrasting values, the architect has no plans to stay fixated on any one style. On the contrary, he continually offers up a distinct and original form of architecture adapted to each new context.

Cuboid Balloon ©junya.ishigami+associates

Born in 1974 in Atsugi – which was then just a rural outpost in the prefecture neighboring the Japanese capital – Junya Ishigani studied at the prestigious architecture school at Tokyo University of the Arts.

After launching his career with the now widely renowned SANAA (the Louvre-Lens, New Museum of Contemporary Art, etc.), he opened his own agency in 2004. He wasted no time in making a name for himself. But though his spectacular creations met with immed iate applau se, they often re sembled contemporary art installations more so than typical architectural works.

“I wish to think about architecture freely, to expand my perspective o n a r c h i t e c t u r e a s f l e x i b l y, broadly, and subtly as possible, beyond the stereotypes of what architecture is considered to be.” He removes the boundary between int er ior a n d ex t er ior sp ac e. He breaks free from the rules of architecture. Constraints become constructive elements. Water becomes the ground in House of Peace.

Partitions become clouds in the Cloud Garden nursery playground.

Walls become cave su rfaces in House & Restaurant in Yamaguchi.

He invents new concepts adapted to each new site and need.

Taken as a whole, his work radiates an unadorned and delicate poetry. Behind this aspect of airy tranquility lies a demanding process of technical research and the artist’s endless reflection on the place of people within architecture. Several years ago, Junya said he dreamed of building a skyscraper, because it would be a chance to revolutionize conventions, while defying a multitude of constraints.

He also expressed an interest in planning an entire city, conceived as a single architectural edifice.

When I ask him if there is a city or place that inspi res him, he answers that it would have to be a place he likes to visit. The first place he thought of was Paris.

Table ©junya.ishigami+associates CRASH 33

PHILIPPE ARTIÈRES INTERVIEW : LISE GUÉHENNEUX

CONTEMPORARY HISTORIAN PHILIPPE ARTIÈRES RELATES A CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE SPREAD OVER TWO EXHIBITIONS TOUCHING ON THE EVENTS OF MAY ’68.

IMAGES EN LUTTE. LA CULTURE VISUELLE DE L’EXTRÊME GAUCHE (1968-1974), PRESENTED IN THE ENSBA FINE ARTS SCHOOL’S PRODUCTION STUDIOS, SHOWS HOW THE EXPLOSIVE CIRCULATION OF VARIOUS REGIMES OF IMAGES PROCEEDS FROM A COLLECTIVE MOVEMENT. THE SECOND EXHIBITION MAI 68. LES ARCHIVES DU POUVOIR, PICKS UP THE STORY BY DIGGING THROUGH FRANCE’S NATIONAL ARCHIVES FROM 1968 TO DEMONSTRATE HOW POWER MANUFACTURES A SYSTEM FOR MONITORING FAR LEFT MOVEMENTS. FROM ONE EXHIBITION TO THE NEXT, THE HETEROGENEOUS ASSEMBLY OF OBJECTS COLLECTED ON SITE COMBINE TO DELINEATE A COHERENT LANDSCAPE. ON THIS PERIOD MARKED BY THE THOUGHT OF MICHEL FOUCAULT, PHILIPPE ARTIÈRES HAS REFINED HIS PRACTICE OF ANALYZING POWER RELATIONSHIPS THROUGH THE EXPERIMENTAL NARRATIVE FORMS EMBODIED BY THESE TWO EXHIBITIONS.

Philippe Artières portrait, Photo FP, Rue Visconti, Paris 34 CRASH

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PORTFOLIOS / PHILIPPE ARTIÈRES

LG: In the January 8, 2017 issue of the newspaper Libération , you responded to the exhibition Soulèvements (“Uprisings”) at Jeu de Paume in Paris, curated

by G eorge s Did i-Hub er ma n, who seems to have emerged, at least in France, as the compulsory model in this area, as the researcher-curator standing in for the artist-curator, Harald Szeeman. Is your new exhibition, Images en Lutte. La Culture

Visuelle de l’Extrême Gauche (1968-1974) (“Images in Strug-

gle. Visual Culture of the Far Left (1968-1974)”), another response to this?

PA: The exhibition title elicited a reaction from me because “uprising” is a powerful concept in the work of Michel Foucault.

Uprisings are moments of rupture in historical time, when subjectification occurs, referring to the moment when individuals become political subjects.

Georges Didi-Huberman turned this into an aesthetic figure that left me feeling uneasy, and I had a hard time understanding how he could juxtapose images from concentration camps with sketches by Miró, among others, and how it was conceivable to frame and hang the press on a wall in a way that runs counter to its function of being circulated, read, and manipulated by hand. For Images en Lutte, we designed a library of some five hundred books, brochures, and magazines that visitors are free to consult and use.

We released other works that have never been shown, so still untouched by any process of heritagization, and this project is also a response to Georges Didi-Huberman in that sense. But it is also a response to Guillaume Désanges and François Piron, curators of the exhibition

Contre-cultures 1969-1989, l’esprit français (“Countercultures 1969–1989, the French Spirit”), which grafted an overarching cultural dimension onto social history. Together with Eric de Chassey, our idea was to stick to a strict line: put politics back where others had put aesthetics, or culture.

LG: I n t he ex h i bit ion Contrecultures 1969-1989, l’esprit français (“Countercultures 1969–1989,

the French Spirit”) organized in 2017 at La Maison Rouge in Paris, a lot of space was given to extracts from TV shows, notably “Apostrophes,” with a strong focus on the French scene at Le Palace in Paris.

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PA: For me, this discussion is about what constitutes the archives of the era. An exhibition involves hanging objects, therefore it is a form of writing that produces a narrative. The narrative we propose results from the encounter of two very different disciplines and knowledge bases: Eric de Chassey is an art historian and I am a contemporary historian. We try to weave together something that springs forth from today, because this is 2018, but that also endeavors to underline the complexity of this moment, its meanderings, contradictions, and tensions.

day, but the entry point is no longer the same. Let’s take the question of law. Today, we still have the GISTI, for example, the Information and Support Group for Immigrant Workers, which at the time was led solely by legal experts. That means it was legal experts themselves who said that law is not just the law of the bourgeoisie and that we have to change the law from the inside. All that is still very interesting, because obviously we are entering a new political moment born of the anticolonial struggles.

LG: This notion of complexity

lyze the importance of the Algerian War for the movements of May ’68.

PA: That’s an extremely important point because we cannot understand the mobilization of May ’68 if we do not understand t h at it f i r st a ro s e when t he UNEF decided that it would no longer fight for student life issues alone, but that the student union would become a political orga n i z at ion demon st rat i n g against the Algerian War and for Algerian independence. That produced effects of knowledge a nd t ra n sm i s sion. A nd then there was the Vietnam Wa r, wh ic h wa s a lways pre s ent through massive protests like in November 1967. Then, these collective or revolutionary struggles lad to a moment of subjectification, just as hotbeds of local struggle began to develop: the struggle in the SONACOTRA immigrant worker shelter, struggles to give women access to a Family Planning center in a specific area. So it’s an entirely different conception of power that g rows out of th is ex p e r ience. The notion of p ower changed and, as Michel Foucault noted, it became plural, meaning that there was no longer power on one hand and the dom i nate d on the other, but p ower rel at ion s, a n d it wa s these power relations that were questioned during this period: the foreman in relation to factory workers, the professor in relation to students, the father in relation to children. This is what I find so interesting about t h i s p er io d . Muc h h a s b e e n made of the question of intellectuals and their engagement, but t he qu e st ion of t he rel at ion between art and politics is often evacuated; until now the communist model has dominated; due to space limitations we were unable to show this relationship

LG: Like Kristin Ross, you ana-

seems important in your work.

PA: It’s a word that I like and one that is used by historian Michelle Perrot; “History is difficult.” Yes, the far left is not so simple in the yea rs between 1968-1974. The trajectories of the individuals are not so simple, etc. We can identify a few points and sketch a few broad lines…

They do not necessarily converge at the same point, like the self-portrait by Fromanger painting the Nancy prison revolt in January 1972.

LG: This exhibition places us within a sort of giant archeological dig, with another portion presented in the exhibition Mai 68, Les Archives du Pouvoir (“May ’68: the Archives of Power”) at the Archives Nationales. While the archives will be made public in this anniversary year, the heritagization of these archives began immediately after the events. In your narrative essay, you reference the historians, archivists, etc. who worked on this topic before you, notably Kristin Ross.

PA: History is a cumulative form of knowledge. We are at a moment in history where there is no for or against; May 1968 is part of our contemporary history. There are some interesting lessons from the archives: the Archives Nationales are made public fifty years later as determined by law, and so we had acce s s to ma ny of the p oster s seized by the police. In addition, the artists and activists have got t en older a n d m a ny p ermitted us to view their records and studios.

LG: Does that mean they have started to lay down their arms?

PA: History is not written with memories, but on the basis of the enormous archive left by the

p a st. We w r it e h i stor y w it h traces, for example with the painting by Gilles Aillaud that bears witness to the event in 1970 i n Fouqu ières-lès-Lens, where miners lost their lives.

The image of the mine is apt, I believe. We work by exploring the underground, like archeologists on a dig.

LG: A stratigraphic dig, with the s t rat a s e r v i n g a s t h e l a n d marks?

PA: As is done on dig sites, we set up guiding lines and then we observe. We come out and we take samples. And then there is the sedimentation that must not

Assemblée générale ©Philippe Vermès

“HISTORY IS A CUMULATIVE FORM OF KNOWLEDGE. WE ARE AT A MOMENT IN HISTORY WHERE THERE IS NO FOR OR AGAINST; MAY 1968 IS PART OF OUR CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.”

be lost. Sometimes it is necessar y to notice that the same layer may contain contradictory elements. So if we take the case of feminism – much has been made of women’s sexual liberation – when we look at a full spectrum of texts and publications from the time, we realize that they were made primarily by men who simply played out their fantasies, while women focused on struggles rooted in causes that are still relevant today, such as the right over one’s own body, abortion, contraception, the double burden, in order to exist as subjects, to decide what they want to do with their

salary, for example, which was not always a given. For many years, women needed their husband’s approval to open a bank account.

LG: The period considered in the exhibition shows the birth of the feminist movements within the logic of the movements of ’68.

PA: Women were part of the barricades, but they were mostly on ly a l lowe d to m a ke sa n d wiches, at least among the students. Next, there are all the strikes that the work of Xavier Vigna, Michelle Zancarini-Fournel, and others helped rescue from oblivion. These include

strikes in factories where women worked and launched their struggle. For example, consider the exemplary Lip strike filmed

by Carole Rossopoulos, in which two female workers show how people consider women when they read texts, including labor leaders, by replacing the word “woman” with the word “Arab.”

All that is complex and it’s an exhibition that also seeks to deconstruct a certain number of representations. We have shifted much of our rhetoric and discursive logic, while we also changed our regime of images.

It’s troubling because we may face some of the same issues to-

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PORTFOLIOS / PHILIPPE ARTIÈRES

through the art of the far left.

But if we had another room, I wou ld have l i ke d to pre sent what was shown at the Grand Palais in Paris at the time, a Fernand Léger exhibition, for example.

LG: What we might have seen in the exhibition Face à l’histoire 1933-1996, engagement, témoignage, vision at the Centre Pompidou in 1997, with canvasses by Fougeron, an artist who was very close to Picasso.

PA: There is the story of Picasso’s drawing of Stalin, but Rancillac is fantastic, too.

Fosse qui ferme,1970 Silk-screened poster on yellow paper 70x50cm Coll. Archives Nationales

LG: At the time, few people had any perspective on what was happening around them.

PA: Some d id though, and we wanted to show, as a sort of reminder, including in our gesture with this exhibition, that it is not about nostalgia, it’s traversed by this moment of subjectification and the somewhat tragic end to the moment. Hamon and Rotman in Générations tried to paint it as a generational crisis, but it was not twelve people who changed the face of French society. It was a movement of the masses and not of an avantgarde. That’s what I think is so exciting, that these images of struggle are born out of the collective spirit.

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IMAGES EN LUTTE, LA CULTURE VISUELLE DE L’EXTRÊME GAUCHE EN FRANCE (1968-1974) ENSBA UNTIL MAY 20TH 2018

MAI 68.

LES ARCHIVES DU POUVOIR AU MUSÉE DES ARCHIVES NATIONALES UNTIL SEPTEMBER 17TH 2018 CRASH 39

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Poing levé Silk-screened poster by l’Atelier Populaire Coll. des Beaux-Arts de Paris

Presse ne pas avaler Silk-screened poster by l’Atelier Populaire Coll. des Beaux-Arts de Paris

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Grève illimitée Clichés Union mai 1968 P, painting poster project Coll. des Beaux-Arts de Paris

3H WVSPJL Z»HɉJOL H\_ )LH\_ (Y[Z 3LZ )LH\_ (Y[Z Z»HɉJOLU[ KHUZ SH Y\L Silk-screened poster by l’Atelier Populaire Coll. des Beaux-Arts de Paris

AN EXHIBITION A COLLECTION OF POLITICAL POSTERS OF HÉDIEH AND JEAN-MARC LOUBIER AT THE BEAUX ARTS DE PARIS FROM MAY 12TH 20TH MAI 2018

TEXT : HÉDIEH & JEAN-MARC LOUBIER

German poster, early 1970s

A FLOATING WORLD

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A POINT OF VIEW. A political poster is a punch in the face. It should stop you in your tracks and catch you. It is authoritative. Is it reality?

Industrially ingested by the 20 th century, it was crafted and made available in an artisanal way. It came before and after a globalization in full swing, accelerated by wars, political utopias, national prides, consumer culture,

television, standardization and the great awakening of minorities.

This is a marker of the ’60s.

Our point of view, here, was kindled by the great exhibition Images en lutte (“battling images”). For us, it is not about “flaunting” our collection, despite its size. Nor is it a commemoration. It is the opportunity to insist on the necessary duty to decipher the images and words we receive with logic and passion.

Distance is not separation. It is the time it takes to reflect and share.

Distance between power and information is also short and perilous. Now this kind of political poster is a thing of the past. Yet, when bi l l ion s of p hoto s, videos and slogans, from multiple sources, are being digitally (virtually?) “Received” and “shared” every day, there has never been a more necessa r y time for scrutiny.

How do we find our way? How do we get through it all? How do we interact and build relationships? Too much to hope for? Undoubtedly we need it and now.

What do you think?

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Cuban poster, OSPAAL, supporting the South American guerillas led by ChĂŠ, late 1960

French antiwar poster opposing American imperialism

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The Black Panther magazine cover, October 1970

Iranian poster, a gift to the warrior people of Iran for the 40th anniversary of the start of the Pan-Iranist Nationalist Political Party, September 1982

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American psychedelic poster addressing pollution, late 1960

American poster opposing the Vietnam War during the Johnson administration

GÉRARD FROMANGER INTERVIEW : ARMELLE LETURCQ

Gérard Fromanger, Le cercle rouge, 1971 52 CRASH

Gérard Fromanger has been fascinated with painting since he was a child. Born to a family with several generations of painters, he attended Paris’s Beaux-Arts art academy in the 1960s and found himself at the epicenter of May 1968.

Almost by accident, but with the aim of supporting the movement, he and other artists founded the Ateliers Populaires at the Beaux-Arts academy, which produced many of the iconic posters from May 1968. Fromanger belongs to the narrative figuration painters, a politically engaged movement supported by major French intellectuals. Over the years, Fromanger’s work has maintained its defiant energy and remained just as relevant as ever. He draws inspiration from daily life, much like his friends including major figures like Gilles Deleuze, Foucault, and the Giacometti brothers. Fromanger, or the effervescence of the vibrant and engaged Paris scene.

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mark fifty years since May 1968, but we are also seeing new movements and revolts today. How do you view this context?

GF: I saw Daniel Cohn-Bendit on television the other day and they asked him the same question.

Since he is a pleasant, cheerful, and smart man, he answered: “I’m like a poilu because I was twenty in 19 68, and that was fifty years after World War I. Today I am a poilu of May 1968, fifty years after those events.”

Obviously, it affects all of us, so I look at what is happening in the streets with passion and without judgement. It’s like the difference between air temperature and apparent temperature.

I c a n o n ly t a l k a b o u t w h at things feel like. I’m not a police chief or riot cop or in the government. I know some young artists who are up in arms about the ZA D blockade in Nantes.

They say the situation is awful and they’re getting killed. It reminds me of when we used to say “CRS/SS” about the French riot police. Now I realize how stupid it was to say these things.

When we were young and caught up in all the fun and excitement of the moment, we liked to shout out phrases like that. This is not a fascist government.

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AL: Guy Debord and the Situationists were present during the revolts in May 1968?

GF: Yes, they were there, on the rare occasions when they mar-

It’s hard to respond to young people who say these things today. I met some of them in Marseille at an exhibition held in an empty field. It was impressive.

They thought everything happening in Calais was extraordinary, and they felt like a new society was taking root. They saw it as the perfect slum, with cafés, restaurants, hotels… I was stunned to hear them say that. They were militants in the same vein as Nuit Debout, and they have an obvious connection to the ZAD blockade movement.

A friend and I drove by Nuit Debout one night and we stopped to l isten to the sp eeches. They talked about making everything free of charge and doling out a universal income between 1,500 and 2,000 euros. We didn’t get it at all. Work can be exciting, earning a living can bring so much joy…

AL: Everything is mixed up today. For example, it’s hard to say what side Macron is on. He came from a left-wing government, but he enacts right-wing policies.

GF: W h e n e ve r at l e a s t t h r e e p eople get together, even at lu n c h w it h fa m i ly, t h e r e i s always a left, right, and center.

We can never agree and that is

ched. (laughs) We didn’t know much about them, but we saw them. Their ideas and attitude were so new that they scared people in a way. They unplugged us from the central machine.

They waved a clear nylon flag during protests. At a protest w i t h e ve r y i d e o l o g y r e p r e sented, that puzzling flag cut through the crowd. They organized their first action six months before 1968, when about ten people sat outside the Strasbou rg Cathed ral with no de mands. They created a situation. All those actions built on the texts w ritten by Debord, which are very well known today. Back then it was all so new and so the word spread fast.

AL: Were you close with Gilles Deleuze?

GF: I had a motto: “One thing leads to another.” That applies to my story about the posters. In art history, I take a baton and relay it to another. Now things have become more difficult, so I say: “Confront.” I was supposed to put on an exhibition with the art dealer Karl Flinker in 1970.

He came to see me and said my paintings were fantastic. He told me he was going to exhibit Kandinsky, Yves Klein, Paul Klee, and me. I was so pretentious that I believed him. It’s crazy how ordinary that seems at that age. A week went by, and then two. So I decided to send him a message by pneumatic post, and then I paid him a visit. He must have read up on me and feared getting Molotov cocktai ls thrown through his window and druggies coming into his gallery. I was disgusted and didn’t want to do the exhibition anymore. Eventually the gallery director, Fanny Deleuze, met with me at the café across the street. She told me her husband was a philosopher and that he wanted to meet me. She invited me to dinner at their house that same night. She thought the relationship between art dealers and painters was terrible and asked me how I managed to surv ive i n t he a r t world. It’s a fero ciou s batt le, but t h at i s always the way great friendships begin. A month after writing about my painting, Gilles sent me an official dinner invitation.

When dessert came, he handed me an envelope with Fanny’s first paycheck from the gallery and a letter from Karl Flinker.

He tore up the check, put it back in the envelope addressed to Karl, and asked me to mail it.

Gérard Fromanger, Le rouge, 1971

Anarchists, Communists… We would have had horrible arguments had we ever tried to take power. Nothing was clearly defined within our group. It was all started by the genius of the Situationists, Guy Debord and his friends, who put forward something incomprehensible but entirely new. All the other tiny groups I mentioned were factions preaching futures that we didn’t want. We didn’t want to follow East Germany, Hungary, or China, with all the deaths, trials, and show trials… Mélanchon scares me. Can you imagine him in power? It would become like Venezuela, where as soon as people protest, the police fire into the crowds. The people includes more than just farmers and the poor – it’s more complicated than that. Things won’t work if you base everything on a minority, whether it’s a very rich or a very poor minority. You won’t get very far with prepackaged ideologies.

Gérard Fromanger, Michel (portrait de Michel Foucault), 1976

AL: Not on ly d o e s t h i s ye a r

the same everywhere. I don’t th i n k th i ngs were a ny more clearly defined in 19 6 8. I att e n d e d t h e B e a u x- A r t s a r t school and we made posters, but there was no ideology behind it.

It just happened by coincidence.

All of France was occupied, so we occupied ou r school. The hallways reeked, and our professors were terrible; meanwhile there was Jackson Pollock in New York, but we h ad Yve s Brayer in Paris. He was dreadfully academic! He painted little horses from the Camargue while Pollock was reinventing everything. So we found an old machine and one night we made thirty lithographs for a sale to benefit students. But the students ended up tearing the lithographs from the machines and posting them on the walls before we could even sell them. That’s how we realized we needed to print posters! As luck would h ave it , Gu y d e R ou ge mont c a me a lon g w it h si l k sc re en printing. But to get back to your question, even at the Beaux-Arts school we had a parliament.

There were Trotskyists, Lamber tist Trotskyists, Pabloite Trotskyists, Maoists, Marxists,

Gérard Fromanger, Qui parle à qui, de quoi?, 1974

Gérard Fromanger, Gilles (portrait de Gilles Deleuze), 1993

MEETING / GÉRARD FROMANGER

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MEETING / GÉRARD FROMANGER

It was the founding act of our friendship, and it was powerful.

AL: What made you want to start painting?

GF: It’s a long story that begins before I was born. My father’s side is full of painters, the men sculpted and built statues for seven generations. My father was born in Constantinople and his father and grandfather were commissioned by Sultan Abdul Hamid to restore the palaces of Hellespont with about twenty friends from the fine arts acad e m y. T h e y b o t h m a r r i e d

Armenian Russians from Moscow who were sixteen. They fled Turkey in 1909. My grandfather told his children: “Go to Paris, great things will happen there.”

They lived through the Estates General, the Revolution, the Consulate, and the Empire. It ended in Waterloo, so they went to Sarthe where their father told them to become artists. That’s where I was born, and my father was an amateur painter. As a child I was fascinated by my father’s paintings. He painted flowers, our house, my brothers, my mother… We had turpentine,

paint tubes, rags, his palette… I saw my father as a sort of magician and I wanted to be just like him. I tried to do other things, but it never worked!

AL: Did you have success right away with your first paintings?

GF: My f i r s t p a i n t i n g s w e r e Giacometti-esque! I was represented by Aimé Maeght when I was twenty-eight. He was my first art dealer. It lasted four years until he started trying to manage me and tell me what I should paint! He tried to set the direction for my painting! He

d id n’t want to show my new works. He told me that Miró followed his advice and became a m i l l ion a i r e. I r e pl ie d : “I f I wanted to be a millionaire, I would have been an art dealer like you.” I just wanted to paint, because it was the only thing I was interested in. Relationships with art dealers can be like romantic relationships…

AL: What gallery do you work with today?

GF: I’m going to show my work at Jeanne Bucher. I already worked w ith that ga l ler y once for ty

years ago. I’m also working with an incredible young woman, Caroline Smulders. I did a solo show at the Drawing Now art fair with her. There is another great collector buying “narrative figuration” right now, a Swiss guy named Jean-Claude Gandur.

He’s acquired about five hundred paintings. He is moving from a collection of abstract painters of the Paris school to buying narrative figuration paintings, which he is much more excited about today. He just published a big catalogue raisonné detailing his collection.

AL: How did you end up meeting Alberto Giacometti?

GF: I met Giacometti by exhibiting my work at the Salon de Mai at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1964. But I couldn’t find my painting at the opening. Back then artists still had a little power because we formed juries. Now it’s the gallerists, art dealers, and financial backers who have the power and decide what gets shown. So I was invited by the artists, but when I went to the spot where my painting was supposed to be, it wasn’t there anymore. The secretary general of the art fair, Jacqueline Selz, told me: “You have to fight to keep your spot, b u t I ’m s u r e yo u r p a i n t i n g h a s n ’ t g o n e t o o f a r. K e e p looking!” Then I saw the restroom nearby, so I opened the door and there was my painting hanging in front of three squat toilets! Enter Alberto Giaco metti and Annette. He took a piss and came out complimenting my painting! I introduced myself, and he asked me to take a tour of the art fair with him a nd tel l h i m what I thoug ht about all the works and who my friends were. He must have been sixty-four at the time. All the major artists like Picasso were presented in the center of the exhibition, while the younger artists appeared in the area around them. That’s how I became friends with Giacometti.

AL: What artists are you close with today?

GF: Even though we don’t see each other as much, I’ve stayed friends with Eduardo Arroyo.

Jacques Monory, Erro, Julio Le Parc and younger artists like Er ic C or ne a nd h i s fr iend s, too…

Gérard Fromanger, Le rouge et le noir dans le prince de Hombourg, 1965

Gérard Fromanger, Première ombre au tableau, 1964

Gérard Fromanger in his parisian studio, 2018 © AL CRASH 57

JIMMIE DURHAM

CARTE BL ANCHE / JIMMIE DURHAM

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Jimmie Durham, L’Universe CRASH 59

CARTE BL ANCHE / JIMMIE DURHAM

“1968 SAW THE DEATHS OF OTTO HAHN AND LISE MEITNER. ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ AND MARCEL DUCHAMP DIED IN THE SAME YEAR. CLYDE WARRIOR AND MARTIN LUTHER KING DIED, TOO. RUDI DUTSCHKE TOOK SEVERAL BULLETS TO THE HEAD AND HUNDREDS OF YOUNG PEOPLE WERE MASSACRED DURING A STUDENT DEMONSTRATION IN MEXICO. THAT SO MANY INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE WERE BORN IN THAT SAME YEAR IS SUCH A BANAL FACTOID THAT IT RISKS LEAVING US WITH THE SAME SMUG GRIN AS A PARTICULARLY SATISFYING MEAL. BUT WHEN I THINK OF 1968 (THE YEAR IN WHICH NATIVE AMERICANS, LED BY RICHARD MOHAWK, OCCUPIED THE PRISON ON ALCATRAZ ISLAND IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY), I REMEMBER MY FRIENDS WHOSE DETERMINING MOMENT WAS THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, WHEN THE SPANISH CROWN RECEIVED SUPPORT FROM ADOLF HITLER IN ITS ILLEGAL RETURN TO POWER. I REMEMBER 1898 WHEN THE UNITED STATES SQUASHED VIRTUALLY ALL MILITANT RESISTANCE BY NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLES AND WRESTLED CONTROL OVER THE COLONIZATION OF THE PHILIPPINES, CUBA, AND PUERTO RICO FROM THE HANDS OF SPAIN. IN FRANCE, EVERYONE AND NO ONE REMEMBERS THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871.

IT WOULD SEEM WE ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT HISTORY, WHETHER WE REMEMBER IT OR NOT.

Jimmie Durham, The Monster

JIMMIE DURHAM

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CARTE BL ANCHE / JIMMIE DURHAM

Jimmie Durham, : , 2009 Stone comes from the Francois Villon’s house in Paris

Jimmie Durham, 9\TL_ :HUN\PUL\Z

CARTE BL ANCHE / JIMMIE DURHAM

Jimmie Durham, :[ -YPNV 1996 Performance art

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Jimmie Durham, :[ -YPNV 1996

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!

TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION

AN EXHIBITION ORGANIZED BY PAUL ARDENNE ADEL ABDESSEMED ANDREI MOLODKIN ARNAUD COHEN BRUNO SERRALONGUE BURAK ARIKAN DIANA RIGHINI ELENA KOVYLINA FILIP MARKIEWICZ FRANK PERRIN GERARD FROMANGER GIANNI MOTTI JEAN-CLAUDE JOLET JIMMIE DURHAM JOSEPH BEUYS MICHAELA SPIEGEL MICHEL JOURNIAC O’MAURICE MBOA OKSANA SHACHKO PETR PAVLENSKY SHADI ALZAQZOUQ VÉRONIQUE BOURGOIN 17 MAY - 17 JUNE 2018 VERNISSAGE ON THURSDAY 17TH OF MAI FROM 18 TO 21H 22 RUE VISCONTI 75006 PARIS

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Bruno Serralongue Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, décembre 2017 , porte de la Chapelle, Paris (photographic print , 60 x 50 cm) courtesy Galerie Air de Pris

Talking About A Revolution! is

an exhibition that takes its name from the famous song

by Tracy Chapman. Even if you can’t start the revolution, at least you can talk about it.

The artists invited to show their work at 22 Visconti in May 2018, exactly fifty years after May ’68, are not revolutionaries or activists so much as they are “unreconciled.”

Harboring no illusions about the sustainability of capitalism and its system of planetary exploitation, the artists convey a persistent hope for a better political and social organization, while keeping their eyes wide open to the times. Whether or not they lived through May ’68, they are careful to avoid coming across as veteran militants or freedom fighters, privileging instead an attitude and practice as concerned artists.

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PORTFOLIOS / TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION !

May ’68? Let’s not dismiss it just yet. Let’s not go the way of La Pensée 68’s main opponents, that group of fossils who are still numerous today and as eager as ever to interpret the events of spring 1968 as, at best, the pubescent freak- out of frustrated citizens or, in a much darker cast, the onset of moral decline in La Belle France. But in spite of its excesses, its revolutionary but decontextualized lyricism, and its slew of near meaningless slogans (“It is forbidden to forbid”), May ’68 still managed to “produce” a clear result in terms of its impact on politics and mentalities. To this day, the spirit of ’68 continues to purge our mindsets of outdated reflexes, putting an end to geronto cracy, puritanism, paternalism, sexual segregation, and control over culture and the media. Its goal was to cut France free from the corset of the Third Republic and the dreary detour of Vichy and 70 CRASH

the social regression of our globalized world riven by the inequality, shameless exploitation, and mass unemployment that spans all national borders. But this regression is also cultural, as religious obscurantism plays a growing role on the global scene, while the cult of experience has fanned the flames of Disneyfication and left us in thrall to Entertainment. And let’s not forget our mental regression, as mass surveillance has become an omnipresent facet of life under the triumphant regime of consumerism, leaving us no option but futile resignation in the face of Big Data’s digital policing and scrutiny of all the minutiae of our private lives – all for its own mercantile ends. In light of our “post-democratic” botch job and the crass withdrawal of liberty in recent years, the slogans of ’68 sting like a slap in the face, as France in 2018 chokes on its diet of prudence, caution and the return of hierarchies: the Great Night is no longer possible. Requiem for a Revolution.

all its corporatist and nationalistic tendencies. It aimed to liberate desire by appealing to a horizontal spirit of fraternity, free from any hierarchy. In all its fundamental tendencies, the Spirit of ’68 c a l l e d fo r a r ej u ve n at e d France, one more equal, more unified, more emancipated, and, above all, less traditional, throwing out neither the baby nor the bath water.

But preserving the Spirit of ’68 and its sociopolitical advances will require us to take a measured and lucid view of things. May ’68, to the dismay of many a do-or-die defender of Liberty at any cost, was not a turning point in civilization. Did it signal the clear expression of a new standard, the hope for a collective sigh of relief, the shift towards a cu ltu re base d on change?

Certainly. But, for the historian, it bears little resemblance to political high-water marks like 1793, the July Revolu t i o n of 18 3 0, t h e E u rope-wide Revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune, or even the Popular Front. May ’68 issued a demand for greater liberty and dignity, but – we mu st ad d – w it hout over throwing the “bourgeois” order so despised by its paving stone-waving troops. In fact, this “bourgeois” order would paradoxically come out of the disturbance even stronger than before, buoyed by the F rench R ig ht’s enor mou s march down the Champs-Élysées on May 30, 1968, led by none other than André Malraux and Michel Debré.

Fifty years later, the result is clear. Though May ’68 did much to change mindsets by inspiring an unwavering devotion to liberty, it is nonetheless true that regression still managed to carve out a niche and prosper – both inside and outside France. That includes

TEXT : PAUL ARDENNE

Fifty years on, little remains of May ’68 but a brief mention in history class. Not because time has gone by and its leading characters, the Baby Boomers, have grown old or passed on. Instead, it was the ultimately moderate nature of the event that condemned it to oblivion. We know of Nanterre’s Movement of March 22nd, the Latin Quarter’s barricades, and the trade union strikes that sparked the Grenelle agreements. But did those events add up to a global revolution? No, just a restless moment in France, one which happened to coincide with a similar sense of restlessness – fueled by a longing for emancipation among the world’s youth and everyone left behind by global development and the triumph of the marketplace – which reso nated in places like Prague, Los Angeles, and Berlin.

Adel Abdessemed, Adel Abdessemed, Je suis innocent, 2012 (C-print, framed dimensions: 238 x 186 cm ) photo : Gérard Rondeau

Though we can still applaud and admire the last remaining heroes of the true revolution for liberty – whistleblowers, wikileakers, anti-globalists, and NGOs like Hu man Rig hts Watch and Greenpeace – we also need to come to grips with the new reality in which Cristiano Ronaldo, a soccer player, has repl ac e d C h e G u eva ra , t h e erstwhile icon of revolution, screens have become as ubiquitous as the junk food making our children obese, and individualism has emerged as our preferred way of life. To be su re, these are not the kind of arguments that will have people clamoring for a free and open society.

May ’68, at its core, tells a paradoxical story: one in which CRASH 71

PORTFOLIOS / TALKING ABOUT A REVOLUTION !

Gianni Motti, I’m not on facebook, 2009 Acrylic paint on tarpaulin, 105×204 cm courtesy Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris

Frank Perrin, Barricade #01 (Happy Self Exploitation / rue Visconti) Paris, 2018 (Postcapitalism section 23) (C-print, 58 × 58 cm) courtesy Mayeur Projects, Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA

the fantasy of absolute liberty goes hand-in-hand with the loss of the conditions for this l i b e r t y. I n 1 9 6 8 , p e o p l e boarded airplanes without submitting to endless security checks, paid for things in c a s h , e x p e r i m e n t e d w it h self-management, cruised the highways in drop-top deathtraps, and skinny dipped at swimming pools in Kabul.

And in 2018? We have security portals and PIN codes, corporate ladders to climb, mass obedience to banks, and prohibitions of every kind everywhere, at a time when the personal fortune of the founder of Amazon, a global delivery service, is ten thousand times more i nteresti ng to people than the shared and sustainable experience of living in Freiburg’s eco-neighborhood. We can still cherish the world of 1968, despite its naiveté, its delusional utopian culture, and the regime of innocence that formed its ethos.

If we cherish 2 018, on the other hand, it’s because we despise liberty and because obedience has become a feature, not a flaw, of our daily lives.

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INTERVIEW : ARMELLE LETURCQ, PHOTOGRAPHER : PIERRE SEITER

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Agnès Varda in 3H JHIHUL K\ ÄST SL )VUOL\Y, 2017, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris Agnès Varda wears a hooded jersey dress by Gucci

AGNÈS VARDA

After studying at Paris’s Beaux-Arts school and the École du Louvre, Agnès Varda first set foot in the art world as the official photographer of the Théâtre National Populaire, under the direction of Jean Vilar. Before long she began to move into cinema, directing her first film, La Pointe Courte, in 1955 – a risky enterprise at a time when she had little experience and scant resources at her disposal. With this film, Agnès Varda caused the first ripples of the French Nouvelle Vague and imparted ample inspiration to many directors of her own era and subsequent decades. Last year, she received an honorary Oscar in recognition of her vast career, a consecration for a now iconic director whose filmography includes cult classics like Cleo from 5 to 7, Vagabond, and One Sings, the Other Doesn’t, which will be screened at Cannes and re-released in a newly restored version on July 4. In addition, her exhibition Une Cabane de Cinéma – La Serre du Bonheur at Galerie Nathalie Obadia presents a greenhouse built by the artist using film prints from her 1964 film Le Bonheur. With inexhaustible energy, she continues to develop her work between recycling and nostalgia in an age when technology’s forward march has rendered many of the film industry’s manual techniques and trades obsolete.

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MEETING / AGNÈS VARDA

AL: You recently opened your exhibition Une Cabane de cinéma : la serre du Bonheur (“A Shack of

Cinema: the Greenhouse of Happi ness”) at Galerie Nathalie O b a d i a . Le Bonheur (“ H a p piness”) is a wonderful film that becomes even more meaningful inside this shack created from the film prints.

AV: Plants are grown inside this greenhouse, and everything was made from a full copy of the film: 2,500 meters of prints. It’s recycling, both in a sentimental and literal sense. We recycled the actual film, which no longer serves any other purpose, and I ’ve a l s o r e c yc l e d t h e i d e a behind the film. Prints are the skin of a film, which means we created an organism that exists on its own. We can “enter” the film, even if it’s only in an allegorical sense. I also produced light boxes from the images of sunflowers shown during the credits of Le Bonheur. “Mozart” is written on one, “Claude Beausoleil” (the director of photography with a magnificent name) on another, and my name ap pears on the last one. It’s like a m i n i ve r s i o n of t h e c r e d it s

placed inside a box. The idea is to adapt the film to other forms and media.

AL: At the same time it creates a lin k between you r work as a photographer and your work as a director. We can discern all twenty-four images per second.

AV: Yes, you see them spread out. Si nce you mentione d twenty-four images per second, i n t he sm a l l bac k ro om I’m showing the piece Images Capturées (“Captured Images”), which are two triptychs made from a sequence in Vagabond. In the sequence, Sandrine Bonnaire is chase d th rough a vi l lage by monsters in animal suits.

Watching the sequence in slow motion, I extracted a twentyfourth of an image, six different times. We made a print of each captured image. I find it tremendously interesting because once again it’s a form of mental recycling. Vagabond is fully dissected. You don’t know the story, you don’t know what’s happening, but you are inside the violence, a violence with no explanation. Violence is shown in so many ways today, whether in

wa r m ov i e s o r s e x u a l r el a tionships. My interest was not in stories of violence, but instead in expressing the feeling of violence.

AL: Let’s tal k more about the film Le Bonheur.

AV: It’s a sun-film shot in the mag n i ficent su m mer l ig ht. But there is also drama and shadow, like Mozart’s dulcet works that contain their own anguish. The film is almost an exaggeration of h ap pi ne s s, or a cl iché : a handsome young man, a beautiful young woman, and children.

It’s all so cliché, but all it takes is a slight prod for everything to come tumbling down. It was a fragile and almost dangerous film. I said something very cruel at the time: “Everyone is unique but replaceable.” The family unit is important to the notion of society. If the social role is functioning, if there is a father, mother, and children, then the family unit works. If you remove an element, you have to put something in its place. You can’t have a hole… The world is full of holes today.

AL: How did you come up with the idea for the script?

AV: Very easily. Without giving it much thought. I wrote it fast – and I shot it fast, too. I went to see Jean- Claude Drouot, who was the star of the T V show Thierry La Fronde, and asked h i m to app ea r i n my fi l m. I wa nte d – I w i she d – that he would come along with his wife and children. He agreed. And his wife, too. Then we shot the film.

Agnès Varda, Triptyque du bonheur, 2018, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris

AL: Why did you want to present the shack of Le Bonheur instead of the other shacks for Vagabond or La Pointe Courte?

AV: The gallery and its glass ca-

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nopy lent itself more to installing a greenhouse. The tent of Vagabond would have been too small. I think the space inspires what we place within it. The first exhibition I put together was at the Fondation Cartier, imagined by Jean Nouvel. As soon as I saw the vast, lightf i l le d s p ac e, I i m m e d i at ely thought of installing a shack made of recycle d clea r fi l m prints. I had made a film called The Gleaners and I, a nd so I already had the concept of recycling in mind. Gleaning, by definition, refers to collecting things other people have discarded.

Our 35mm prints have been discarded, since we only screen diCRASH 77

MEETING / AGNÈS VARDA

gital files now. One or two theaters have kept the old 35mm projectors out of coyness and use them once in a blue moon.

All the prints representing the cinema we used to love have now been discarded. I just had the simple idea of recycling, along with a bit of nostalgia and a desire to revivify these films.

We used to need hundreds of iron boxes to transport the film reels and all of a sudden they became useless. I used the boxes to make an arch: L’Arche de Cinéma (“The Arch of Cinema”) is just recycling and my desire to make an entrance arch.

AL: When did you start doing art in addition to film?

AV: It started with the Venice Biennale in 2003. I was invited

by Hans Ul rich Obrist. He created a section called Utopia Station where he wanted to invite people who were not la-

belled as “artists.” He notably brought in the writer Edouard Glissant. It was pure bliss for me. I had already done some photos and videos of potatoes in the shape of a heart. I felt ready when Hans called me. So I exhibited Patatutopia. It was beautiful seeing the big screens with all the heart-shaped potatoes breathing. Now it’s okay to call me a visual artist, since I make triptychs. Fi fteenth- centu r y triptychs and altarpieces are a form of art that I adore, because I like how they open and close.

And the number three is very powerful. I’ve done several portraits with panels in video, with the middle panel displaying a silver film portrait and the side panels displaying digital images that are full of color and more current. I like combining blackand-white and color, film and photography, stationary and moving parts. It’s impossible to exercise such a visual profession without fitting everything i nt o a l a r ge r f low. A l a s, i n France people think of me as a “great filmmaker” but never as a “great artist.” Certain American museums have bought some of my pieces. There is one of my triptychs at MoMA, and LACMA bought one of my shacks of cinema and a twenty-meter mural piece. In France, the Fondation Cartier noticed me and offered a vast exhibition. Now I’ve had the good fortune to be invited to Galerie Nathalie Obadia, which is such a pleasure.

AL: When did you transition from photography to film?

AV: I don’t know, I just took the plunge and wrote a script. I never worked as an assistant, and I never had any training in film.

I had seen very few films, perhaps just a dozen. Now I have ma r velous interns who have seen over two hundred films by the time they’re twenty-three. I went to the theater and read a lot of books. But I don’t know how I transitioned from photography to film.

AL: Do you have the feeling of belonging to the Nouvelle Vague?

AV: T h e No u ve l l e Va g u e i s a name coined after the fact by Françoise Giroud. It was never a group or a general theor y, instead there were the people from Cahiers du Cinéma, the ind e p e n d e n t s… I s t a r t e d f ive years before the people from Ca h iers du Ci néma. None of that was around yet in 1954. I 78 CRASH

made my independent film, La Pointe courte, and immediately took an interest in the structure of films. Then there was a crop of stunning directors: Godard, T r u f f a u t , D e m y, R e s n a i s , Rohmer, Chabrol. They formed a spontaneous generation. And Marker was the independent.

Compared to the cinema that came before, it marked an immense change. It was related to faster film, a desire to shoot on actual locations outside and in the street. And there were new, more spontaneous actors.

Saying the Nouvelle Vague is kind of a shortcut for talking about the cinema of the 1960s.

AL: Yo u r f i l m One Sings, the Other Doesn’t from 1977 will be

screene d at Can nes i n the “Cannes Classics” section. In light of recent events, it is quite an interesting film about women.

Agnès Varda, 3H JHIHUL K\ ÄST SL )VUOL\Y, details, 2017, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris CRASH 79

MEETING / AGNÈS VARDA

AV: It has a lot in common with recent events because we were helping women dare to speak up… The feminist struggle of the 1960s was first about saying, “Every child a wanted child.”

What a wonderful slogan! People don’t realize how violent that era was. Simone Veil made the abortion debate about health. She never said the word “choice” for women. It was a shrewd move.

She kept a low-profile about women’s rights over their own bodies, and she focused on the mortality rate among women due to back-alley abortions. That’s how it happened. I protested for the right of abortion! I assisted and

aided family planning centers and accompanied women getting abortions. We did all that so we can admit today that contraception is normal and that abortion is an option. I wanted to tell the story of this struggle that I was part of. I already had fifteen years of experience in film, so I wanted to spotlight friendship and solidarity among women.

The film shows a strong friendship between two women who meet, lose touch, and reconnect.

Their story is dramatic at times.

Sometimes these dramas give rise to consciousness and freedom. The film got a lot of people talking, and many people saw it.

It cited Marx: “Within the family, the husband is the bourgeois and the wife represents the proletariat.” I have my actresses singing texts by Simone de Beauvoir, Marx, and Engels. I used song to tell the story of this new movement in the film. “When you’re almost a mother, you have to think for two.” You have to become a feminist even before giving birth. In Cannes, the film will be shown on the beach free of charge. I love it: free and for the people. I was raised on the Théâtre National Populaire, so I am in favor of culture for everyone. The film will be re-released in theaters in July.

Agnès Varda, 3H JHIHUL K\ ÄST Les créatures, 2017, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris

AL: What do you think about everything going on in film today?

AV: It’s great. When women get angr y and speak out that shakes up the system. We’re going to make a declaration at Cannes and take advantage of the festival’s notoriety to restate that in any form of labor – whether in film or other industries – women must earn equal pay for equal work, including in factories, plants, and business.

When I was younger I knew women who went to the factory at seven in the morning and endured a spanking from the foreman. There was no arguing!

Things are still hard in working-class environments, and feminism has not won the battle in the country. There is even a song in the film that goes, “Poor mom, with her double burden…”

Too often today we look at the que stion of h a ra s sment a n d lack of respect from the point of view of the privileged classes.

It’s an important question. We shou ld encou rage women to scream and shout when they have good reason to do so! And men should support them.

Things have changed among the privileged classes, but the situation i s d i fferent among other socia l classe s. It’s to gether with men that we have made progress and will continue to make progress.

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Agnès Varda, 3H JHIHUL K\ ÄST le Bonheur, 2017, Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris

AGNÈS VARDA, UNE CABANE DE CINÉMA : LA SERRE DU BONHEUR, EXHIBITION, GALERIE NATHALIE OBADIA, PARIS, MAY 31ST,2018.

AGNÈS VARDA, L’UNE CHANTE, L’AUTRE PAS, WITH VALÉRIE MAIRESSE, THÉRÈSE LIOTARD, RELEASE ON JULLY 4TH, 2018.

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FRENCH CONNECTION 82 CRASH

INTERVIEWS : ALICE BUTTERLIN PHOTOGRAPHERS : ELSA & JOHANNA STYLIST : ANDREJ SKOK

Appearing as a transvestite maid for Yann Gonzalez, a French teacher for Riad Sattouf, and a raucous acting agent in the series Call My Agent!, Nicolas Maury brings his oddball elegance and charm to every role he plays.

The new mu se of u nderground film, or the “unicorn among actors” in the words of Bertrand Mandico, Maury feels equally at home in lighter fare and has no plans to limit his career to a single

CHANEL SHIRT IN COTTON, JACKET IN COTTON TWEED CHANEL JOAILLERIE LION PEARLS NECKLACE IN WHITE GOLD WITH DIAMONDS

register or type. With a soft, lilting voice and catlike gestures, he merges masculine and feminine traits in brilliant performances delivered not only on screen, but also on stage, where he took his first steps as an actor and continues to sha r p en his craft. We met with him to talk about his background, upcoming projects, and his role in Yann Gonzalez’s Knife + Heart, opening in June.

NICOLAS MAURY

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FRENCH CONNECTION / NICOL AS MAURY

NM: Everything I learned at the

AB: You first started acting on

Conservatory was about technique. Some directors like to get a naturalistic kind of dialogue by adding “so” and “yeah” to the end of every line. Others want more of a tight and crisp text and so they work with people f r o m t h e a t e r. I h av e a c t o r friends who envy my years at the Conser vator y, but at the same time, they have other aptitudes that I don’t have. They m ay h ave le a r n e d i n a le s s structured way. There is no rule saying how you should do things.

st a ge. C a n you t el l u s a bit about your early days?

NM: I started when I was eleven with a tiny theater company c a l le d Mel i s c è n e s i n S a i n t Yrieix-la-Perche. It was amateur theater. Then in 1997, when I was sixteen, I had my first experience in film with Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train directed by Patrice Chéreau. It was shot in the Limousine region, where I lived at the time. I was on set for twenty-one days.

My first experience in film was with incredible people like JeanLouis Trintignant and Valéria Bruni-Tedeschi, who is one of my favorites. Then we went to Cannes and I became the film’s regional mascot!

AB: What kind of movies did you

AB: How did you make the jump from stage to screen?

NM: I went to the Conservatoire National and that’s where Philippe Garrel discovered me. I was in the same class as his son, so when he went to se e L o u i s , h e s a w m e , t o o. H e always told me I was an angel in the sense that I was neither man nor woman. He found it unsettling. It bothered him a lot b ecau se i n Ph i l ipp e’s fi l m s, there is no real concept of being transgender. He offered me a part in Regular Lovers which was about an angel of the revolution, a sacrifice. It was my first major experience in film.

For Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, I was just a kid.

Philippe Garel had a specific method, and he only wanted to do one take per scene. We rehearsed every Saturday for two years in a rundown hall. On the first day of shooting, he told us: “Walk through the ruins of what you have done. Forget.” It was shot on film, in black and white, and it’s like someone else was speaking in our place. It was an incredible first project.

AB: Having only one take and just one chance to deliver the text must have been like theater.

NM: Ye s, t h at’s t r ue. But t he difference was that we couldn’t go near the camera. In theater y o u h av e t o m o v e t o w a r d s what’s outside you. The camera films your thoughts, what goes on inside. That’s what Philippe Garrel taught me.

AB: Many French actors started in theater and keep a certain trace of this past in their acting style. Did theater have a big impact on you?

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“ART EVOLVES IN THE AREAS WHERE IT PROVOKES PEOPLE AND AT THE MOMENTS WHEN WE ASK OURSELVES IF WHAT WE ARE SEEING IS BEAUTIFUL OR UGLY, TRUE OR OFF THE MARK, REAL OR UNREAL.”

want to act in when you started in film? You seem to have a tendency for artistic or even avantgarde cinema.

NM: I don’t know if it’s something I actively seek out, if it’s in my DNA, or if it’s something people project onto me. I’m just lucky that the people who saw me felt I had it in me. They knew that offering me even a short scene in a movie would guarantee a weird moment. I’m a bit of an outsider.

I try to turn this weirdness into a distinct note that people will recognize. But it’s not like I wear a sign that says “weirdo” on it. I tr y to blend into stories and forms. People talk about that a lot, someone’s formal universe.

It’s a very important thing for an actor. The formal universe starts with the way you talk. When I think back to the films of the 19 6 0 s, I realize that the way people talk changes a lot. It’s a ty p e of ci nema that I real ly connect with, the art of articulation. When I talk to you, I want to be understood, so I choose my words carefully. In Rohmer or Rivette’s films, there is a strong focus on language and dialogue.

Sometimes I work with directors who want me to let go even more and forget the script.

AB: The actress Angèle Metzger, who we also interviewed for this issue, told me she was thrown off by the way she had to read her lines in Mrs. Hyde, where Serge Bozon wanted her to pronounce every syllable.

NM: Serge Bozon is the kind of g ra nd for ma l i st I’m ta l k i ng ab out. He do e s m ag n i ficent work. There is a magnificent quote by Robert Bresson, which has become my mantra: “Not the natural, but nature.” That’s how he replied to people who criticized his actors for not acting in a natural way. To his mind, if you wanted natural, you would be better off filming a tree grow.

He wanted his actors to unlearn their conscientious acting habits.

Not to depersonalize them, but simply to achieve a poetic form, almost like a form of singing. It’s funny you mention the Bozon film because I like when there is a focus on articulation in movies.

It’s like highlighting a certain area, so that every line is signed by the director. Not everyone will be on board, but you can’t deny that these films are thought out to the last detail.

AB: Do you think there is a renewal of interest in theater?

NM: I don’t think so, because the interest has always been there.

In place of new movements, I believe in sincere, true, and personal poetic acts. We have seen them before and we will see them again. Art evolves in the areas where it provokes people and at the moments when we ask ourselves if what we are seeing is beautiful or ugly, true or off the mark, real or unreal. It’s a wonderful notion today. Fascination bothers me in art, I prefer questioning. Right now I’m on stage at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint Martin in a Marivaux play.

It’s very classical, but at the same time Marivaux’s language is phenomenal. It’s about emotions, cruelty, surprise, and love.

What does it mean to be astonished? What is love at first sight?

Topics like these never get old.

What I like about theater is that it’s linked to fashion, while also having a view to eternity. It’s something that is always renewed.

I’m always amazed when I go to Avignon and see all the packed houses. There is a phenomenal demand and the theaters are never empty. I think it’s wonderful.

I can see incredible things in a ver y classic production, and very aggravating things from a troupe that’s out to topple the established order. I don’t have any particular cause. I like boldness and generosity.

AB: Do you find it easy to shift between film and theater in your career?

NM: Right now I’m filming the series Call My Agent! during the day, and I spend the evenings at the theater. I get picked up at 6:30 in the morning, and then I go to the theater at 6:30 in the evening for our performance at 8:00pm. These are two very different projects and so I keep to a very strict schedule. Since November 20 I’ve rehearsed my lines for the play every day. It’s engraved in me now. (laughs)

H

ave you ever forgotten you r lines during a perform– ance?

NM: I b l a n k e d o n my lines once, but it’s a rather lovely th i ng. I’m not afraid of forgetting my lines. In fact, I think it can be meaningful. I like t o p ay a t t e n t i o n when all of a sudden one word co mes out in place of another. I think it’s beautiful. Obviously it’s nervewracking, and there is a sense of vertigo, like standing on the edge of a cliff. (laughs) We perform in front of a thousand people, so it’s not like being alone in your room or in front of a camera.

You are performing live, like musicians playing the wrong note. It’s such a thrill.

AB: You are currently filming t he t h i r d s e a son of Call My Agent! How did the project get started?

NM: I did screen tests first. They had already seen a lot of very you n g p e ople, b e c au s e t hey thought the character would be no more than twenty years old.

Eventually they realized the actor playing Hervé would have to make the role his own and play h i s ow n cha racter. I was so happy to get this role because I had a unique chance to shape the character together with the writers. There was a lot of exchange. It was like I was designing myself. It was great how between seasons one and two, due to the reaction to my character, the writers wrote with me in mind and all the things Hervé might say. It’s something t h a t ’s e v e n m o r e a p p a r e n t between seasons two and three, because my character is going to get a love stor y. It’s ver y much alive, since it’s a story that’s written with the actor.

AB: It seems like the first time there has been so much enthusiasm for one of your characters. Was it gratifying to receive such an overwhelmingly positive response from viewers?

NM: In terms of popularity, it was certainly the first time. You end up establishing a sense of familiarity with people, in a very positive sense. People are looking forward to season three,

they can’t wait. Then there are people who tell me their wife loves me – touching things like t h at. Pe ople a r e ver y k i n d .

There is less of that in film, where people applaud you more for a specific role. Television reaches people in their homes and so the connection is almost physical. (laughs) For example, the fact that people want to take photos with me is something very new to me.

AB: Throughout your career, you have stayed loyal to a few directors, like Riad Sattouf, who directed you in The French Kissers and Jacky in the Kingdom of Women. How did you meet?

NM: Riad is a bit like Yann Gonzalez to me, even though they are very different. They both go beyond the simple “A+B=C” aspect when writing their films, they also write an entire world that remains coherent and organic. Each film by Riad Sattouf is instantly recognizable, his creative world is like nobody else’s.

Same goes for Yann Gonzalez.

Riad and I met in a funny way because I didn’t know anything about him, even though all my friends knew him and loved his work. Riad wanted to meet with me at one of his favorite cafés, and he told me he chose me for the part because his old boss got gunned down and died. I was like: “Who is this crazy person?” (laughs) When I told my friends about it, they were quick to tell me about La vie secrète des jeunes [Riad Sattouf’s comic strip that app ea rs i n Charlie Hebdo]. I read all his comics and discovered an incredible world. I laughed so hard I cried when I read the scr ipt of French Kissers .

Film scrips often contain directions li ke: “proud” or “ashamed”. But in his scripts the character names were more along the lines of “slimy big nose” and hilarious stuff like that. Riad is a great writer. He’s very original, and he uses odd metaphors.

He loves aviation, rockets, and space, and he kept comparing me to a type of plane because of the way I wou ld jet onto the scene.

AB: And how did you start working with Yann Gonzalez?

NM: Yann saw me on stage and sent me a magnificent letter with the script from You and the Night a nd h i s shor t fi l m s. I found his letter very touching, even before I read the script. He said a few words about my performance in Frank Wedekind’s CRASH 85

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“IT’S EVERYTHING I LIKE ABOUT FILM, ALL THE CONTRASTS, LIKE SAYING ’LEWD’ THINGS WITH ENORMOUS GRANDEUR AND LYRICISM.” Spring Awakening which I was

performing at Théâtre de la Colline at the time. It’s about a teenager who decides to end his life. I performed a long suicide monologue in front of audiences.

At the end of the play, I came back from the dead w ith my head u nder my a rm. When I read You and the Night, it felt like reading something published by Les Editions de Minuit, it was so much more than a script. I played the character Udo, an old transvestite maid, whom I find absolutely insane.

We did a lot of rehearsals before shooting because there were a few complicated scenes. We also had to understand Yann’s language and get into it. It demands an extreme form of truth and, at the same time, a group of clever actors. He doesn’t go in for vulgarity. It’s both obscene and also poetic, modest. It’s everything I like about film, all the contrasts, like saying “lewd” things with enormous grandeur and lyricism. I think his next film, Knife + Heart, will be visually stunning. It’s a movie that contains a lot of references to the greatest films, like an ode to cinema. It has no borders, it’s neither French nor Japanese, it’s a film by Yann. It’s structured almost like a thriller, with a scary plot. It’s like a whodunit.

He uses the structure to evoke deeply human emotions. And then, great designer that he is, Yann did all the post-production in Mexico and carefully edited all the details. He has a true passion for film.

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AB: Can you tell me about the character you play in Knife + Heart?

NM: I play Archibald, who to gether with Anne, played by Vanessa Paradis, owns a sort of porno shop in the late 1970s.

Back then people still went to porn theaters on the Champs Elysées. Movies were shot on film, crews paid attention to lighting, actors had real orgasms – nothing like the porn we see today on the web. To prepare for my part, I watched a lot of porn and other movies from that era, which Yann recommended. All the bodies are truly beautiful, a n d it wa s b efore t he A I D S years. Even though we see it coming all throughout the film, notably with all the blood. Crimes are taking place on set, and some actors start to disappear.

It’s a close look at the porn world with a lot of hilarious scenes, some scary ones, gore, giallo, blood splatter like paintings, real and fake blood, leatherette, and fantastic costumes. My character is a bleached blond, both a boy and later a woman. It’s going to be explosive, and it will make people say that we have a powerful film aesthetic in France that could launch a movement. We should stop doing so many social problem films, there are already so many. (laughs) I would like our society to be poetic, too.

fore we met, and he wrote something very nice about me in Cahiers du Cinéma. I appeared in a wonderful film directed by Shanti Masud and Bertrand reviewed it. He wrote: “Nicolas Maury is a unicorn among actors.” I thought it was a hyper-poetic image. One day he invited me to dinner with his wife Elina Lowensohn. They had seen You and the Night and enjoyed my performance. They talked about my acting in such a generous way, artist to artist. I think they understood me. Calypso Valois is an artist I adore so it made sense that he would ask me to appear in the video.

AB: Do you want to work on more underground films?

NM: I think it’s an actor’s duty to have absolutely no aesthetic morals. I recently appeared in Les Tuches 3, which is a bolder move for me. I don’t want to be the pseudo-intellectual actor, I want to go where there is desire. Film does better when there is desire.

The craziest part about Yann’s film was that the whole team was fascinated by every shot.

Ever yone was ecstatic to be there. Another part I liked is that no one took themselves too seriously, so there was a lot of humor. I like directors who are fea rless, rega rd less of thei r style. They help me get over my camera shyness.

AB: You also app ea re d i n the latest Calypso Valois music video directed by Bertrand Mandico.

Can you tell me more about it?

NM: Bertrand knew about me be-

INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN

KNIFE + HEART

BY YANN GONZALEZ OPENS ON JUNE 27.

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Discovered when she was just twelve, Christa Theret launched her film career at an early age with a role in Costa-Gavras’ The Ax. As a teen, she delivered impressive performances in Lola Doillon’s Just About Love? and Lisa Azuelos’ LOL, a film whose cult following vaulted her to stardom. With laughing eyes and a delightfully raspy voice, she continues to chart a course from one surprising role to the next, showing a vast appetite for risk and a taste for politically engaged films. On screen, her dream roles include strong, even rebellious women and charismatic female musicians who have left their mark on history. She recently blew us away in Gaspard at the Wedding, playing a young woman disg u ised in a bea r skin and caught between childhood and adulthood. We met up with this enigmatic actress who will soon appear in Non Fiction directed

by Olivier Assayas.

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AB: You started working in film at just twelve years old in The Ax directed by Costa-Gavras, then you starred in Just About Love? and LOL. Do you feel like

you grew up with film?

CT: I have no regrets. I started when I was twelve, so obviously it was hard to find my way in this world of grown-ups. At the same time, I wasn’t fully aware of it at the time. I left school earlier, so I think I had to grow up faster than others. Film is a strange world but just extraordinary enough that you want to stay in it.

AB: It’s a job that takes a lot of waiting and patience.

CT: Yes, between films there can be a lot of waiting, but I got an early start and received a lot of offers after LOL. It all came together so fast. It was only later that I started to feel time going by and the insecurity that come s a long w ith the job. But that’s also what makes it so exciting, the fact that you can never predict the future. I like having no plan and then giving it my all whenever a new opportunity comes around. I don’t have a career plan in terms of achievements and awards. I’m more focused on meeting people and discovering projects without thinking too much about recognition. Getting famous isn’t my motivation. I would much rather fight for characters I connect w it h a n d so ci a l or p ol it ic a l causes I believe in.

AB: Do you want to fight for them through film?

CT: I also do a bit of acrylic painting, sculpture, and photography. I like expressing things in different media. I’m interested in the various modes of expression.

AB: LOL was a turning point in

your career. Did you have to take more care in choosing roles after that film? Did you turn down any offers that were too obvious?

CT: Yes. I got offered parts in comedies that would have had a big impact in the media. But I don’t go to the movies for entertainment. That said, I like eccentric comedies like The Big Lebowski and absurd humor like that. I respect movies that are just there to make you laugh, but it’s not really my cup of tea.

I would rather work on more serious movies, because that’s what speaks to me. Though I’ve never really done a dark movie.

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(laughs) But I like playing women who have to fight.

AB: I s t h e r e a r o l e t h a t yo u connected with in particular?

CT: I would say Coline in Gaspard at the Wedding which came

out recently. I play a young woman who wears a bear skin. I liked playing up that wild and strange side. I also liked my character in Emmanuelle Millet’s Twiggy. To be honest, all my roles contain a part of my personality, an echo. With each new character, I showcase another side of myself. Identity is a prism and we can choose to accentuate any given side.

“I LIKE PLAYING WOMEN WHO HAVE TO FIGHT.”

AB: When you received the script for Gaspard at the Wedding ,

what image did you have of your character?

CT: I saw her as a girl who wasn’t ready to grow up. I think that speaks to part of our generation.

I’m going to be twenty-seven soon and it’s an age when you start to become a real adult, though you still feel the pull of childhood. She’s a young woman who lost her mother at an early age and so she created an imaginary world so that she didn’t have to face all the terrors of the real word. I had fun coming up with stories about my character. Antony Cordier saw Coline in a certain way, but he listened to me whenever I had suggestions. Everyone has to do things in their own way to help their character become a living person. As an actor there is always a part of your imagination that you keep for yourself. The director tells you their intention but how you get there is up to you.

AB: Yo u ac t e d i n Ol iv ie r A s sayas’s Non Fiction which will

open soon. Can you tell us a bit about the film?

CT: It’s set i n t he publ i sh i n g world and I play a well-educated young woman. It’s a very serious role and different from anything I’ve done before. In The Boss’s Daughter I also play a very serious young woman with

a top education. The more I do this job, the more I want to do roles that are more remote from my ow n l i fe, eve n t h o u g h I always find an echo. It’s funny h ow yo u c a n a lw ay s f i n d a connection between the character and me.

AB: As a woman, do you feel that many of the parts offered to you are too cliché and beneath your potential?

CT: I’ve been fortunate to work with very broad-minded directors, but it’s tr ue that many people fall back on female characters who are subordinate to a male character. Their role is based on the man’s status and that’s unfortunate. I’ve been asked at castings to play a role in a more “flirty” or “cute” way.

But I think things are changing and that there is a lot of room for younger directors. In France we have a thriving auteur cinema led by strong and openminded people. I’m thinking esp e ci a l ly of R obi n Ca mpi l lo, Alain Guiraudie, Céline Sciamma, and Robert Guédiguian. I saw The House by the Sea with Anaïs Demoustier and I thought it was wonderful.

AB: Do you want to work in politically engaged films that questions our preconceptions?

CT: Not necessarily films that question things, because I don’t force myself to take political roles. I want to play characters who are not defined solely by their position, or who at least try to fight against it.

AB: Is there any particular role you would love to play?

CT: I would love to play a suffragette or revolutionary.

AB: You have appeared in several period films. Do you like acting in that genre?

CT: Yes, it’s true. I did a series called Maximilian, which isn’t out yet in France. It’s a series of six episodes, directed by Andreas Prochaska and it’s currently being aired in Switzerland. It was a great experience, even though playing a woman in the fifteenth century can seem frustrating. But my character has her freedom. She’s an intellectual. I would like to portray an iconic feminist, someone who led the struggle and experienced oppression. Playing a rock star would be nice, too. Nico from the Velvet Underground would be amazing, and her real name was even Christa. (laughs)

AB: There’s a movie about Nico coming out soon! How much do costumes help you get into your character in a period film?

CT: I like to create characters w it h my b o dy, a n d so I felt constricted with Mary of Burgundy. My preference is to play a character who is going to revolt, so it relates to contemporary life. Period films are not an end in themselves. Mar y of Bu rgundy wore hennins and kept her head very straight. You start to feel confined inside all the clothes, even though it can help your character. I wore a corset in an adaptation of a Maupassant book and it was very hard on me physically.

I had to take lyric opera classes for Marguerite. I play a young singer who arrives in a society where everyone secretly mocks the vocal performances of Marguerite, played by Catherine Frot. My character is pure and nice, and she is very upset by the masquerade.

AB: What are your next projects?

CT: I’m going to play in Matthias Luthardt’s next film: The Fox,

about a trio during the second world war. He directed Pingpong which was presented at Cannes five years ago. I’m also doing another television series, but I can’t say anymore for now.

INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN

AB: You say you are sensitive to certain revolutionary women from the early twentieth century. How do you see revolution today?

CT: For me, revolution is about freedom of expression in art and life. There are so many countries where this right is restricted. My revolt would focus especially on protecting freedom of expression. Revolt and revolution s have always occu r re d, even though there is a backlash afterwards. We perpetuate these things. Our generation has also in herited a str uggle that we have to keep up. Of course there is a revolution today, if only in terms of women and the hybrid concept of gender that is appearing.

AB: Would you like to direct one day?

CT: I wrote a short film but since I s t a r t e d p a i n t i n g, I wo u l d rather focus on that. I’m putting off my short until later. It’s something I would like to direct one day. I’m giving myself some time to mature and not be all over the place. I wrote the script a year ago. It’s about two women who meet on the outskirts of a big city, but I thin k it might change.

AB: Did you study drama?

CT: No, never. Since I was discovere d at t welve, ever y t h i n g went so fast. I see a lot of movies and, above all, I observe people. I prepare all my roles, I work with a coach, so I show up on set ready to work. For Mary of Bu rg u ndy, for example, I spent a lot of time preparing.

For Gaspard at the Wedding, too, I had to work with a zoomorphism specialist to master all the movements of a bear.

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DOUBLES VIES

BY OLIVIER ASSAYAS WILL BE OUT SOON. CRASH 91

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AN ACTOR’S FIRST FILM CAN DETERMINE MANY THINGS: IT SETS A TONE FOR THEIR CAREER, IT MAY GUIDE THEIR FUTURE ROLES, AND EVEN INSPIRE THEIR SPECIFIC TASTES AND VALUES IN FILM. SO WHEN ANAÏS DEMOUSTIER, STILL JUST A TEENAGER FROM LILLE, FIRST APPEARED IN MICHAEL HANEKE’S TIME OF THE WOLF ALONGSIDE ISABELLE HUPPERT IN 2002, SHE APPEARED DESTINED FOR A CAREER FULL OF CHALLENGING FILMS AND UNIQUE ROLES. DON’T BE DECEIVED BY HER QUIET AND SWEET APPEARANCE: ANAÏS HIDES A DARK SIDE AND AN UNDENIABLE TALENT FOR EMBODYING DELIRIUM, NEUROSIS, AND EVEN MADNESS. FROM PASCALE FERRAN’S BIRD PEOPLE TO FRANÇOIS OZON’S A NEW FRIEND, HER CHARACTERS GRADUALLY REVEAL THEIR LAYERS WITH ALL THE GRACE AND SUBTLETY OF GREAT ACTRESSES. SHE APPEARS IN JULY IN AU POSTE, THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEXT FILM FROM QUENTIN DUPIEUX, AND IN FRÉDÉRIC TELLIER’S SAUVER OU PÉRIR OPENING THIS FALL.

ANAÏS DEMOUSTIER AB: You got your start in film at just thirteen, in Time of the Wolf

directed by Michael Haneke. Did you take drama classes to become an actress?

AD: I took drama classes before shooting that film, but I had no real intention of becoming an actress. I begged my parents to let me do drama, and then that film came along and I spent two and a half months on set. It was a long time for a first experience.

We shot in Austria with Haneke and I played the daughter of Isabelle Huppert’s character. It was thrilling. I knew I wanted to keep acting after doing that film.

But I still followed a normal path and finished high school before arriving in Paris. I’m originally from Lille.

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AB: S h o o t i n g w i t h M i c h a e l

Haneke seems like an incredible way to start working in film.

AD: What’s crazy is that I didn’t even realize it at the time, since I didn’t have anything to compare it to. Still today, I see how that experience influenced my relationship to film. Haneke is very demanding and expects a lot from his actors. The level of precision is immense and that sacred vision of film has stayed with me. Of course, I was too young to have seen his films. It wasn’t until I finally watched them that I realized what an incredible filmmaker he is. Afterwards, we went to Cannes and I remember the screening was chaotic because the film created a controversy.

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Some of the more difficult scenes sparked a strong reaction among the aud ience. People booed and left the room, while others applauded. It was like a soccer match. (laughs) My first experience taught me that film is about making choices. A true filmmaker can be despised just as much as he can be applauded.

I like that idea. Another film I did and that caused a ruckus at Cannes was Valérie Donzelli’s Marg u e r ite & Julie n . S o m e people take hostile reactions to heart, but not me. It’s another pa r t of a fi lm ma ker’s work.

That first experience taught me that my favorite parts of film are the people, the encounters, and the human contact. With a more reserved director, I may not have understood how important interaction is. I play a lot of supporting roles because my character’s position is not an essential criterion for me. What matters most is who I’m working with. All that comes from my powerful first experience…

But I also had to adjust my expectations because if I waited around to work with Haneke every year, I would be waiting a long time. (laughs)

AB: You never worked with him again?

AD: No, never. I’ve run into him a lot and he is always very kind towards me, it’s funny. He said he was watching me and he was happy that I was finding my way in this business. Obviously, he knows I’m only an actress today because of him. He opened the path.

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Films like this are exciting to me, I like when there is an element of danger in film. I like playing characters with a lot of secrets of mystery. In the end, it all works because there is a great director driving the project. If I were a filmmaker, I would love to film a paradox or contradiction in a character. I h ave a n i n n o c e n t fac e t h at p e ople of t en c a l l “ f re sh” or “young.” It’s interesting to live out things that are more complex, dense, and even dark with th is ty p e of face. I li ke portraying characters that are the opposite of what I look like. I’m at an age where I’m not going to get too excited about playing a cute young girl.

“I HAVE AN INNOCENT FACE THAT PEOPLE OFTEN CALL ’FRESH’ OR ’YOUNG’.

IT’S INTERESTING TO LIVE OUT THINGS THAT ARE MORE COMPLEX, DENSE, AND EVEN DARK WITH THIS TYPE OF FACE. I LIKE PORTRAYING CHARACTERS THAT ARE THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I LOOK LIKE.” AB: Did you always want to act in films that go to the extreme and da re to do u nconventiona l things?

AD: It wasn’t something I chose, but oddly enough that’s what comes my way. I think I’m a fairly normal girl, I don’t seem too borderline. (laughs) But I’m happy that the film world turns to me for that type of character. Many of the projects that come my way are unique. I loved the film Bird People directed by Pascale Ferran, in which I transform into a bird, as well as François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend. It’s about a girl who loses her best friend and the best friend’s husband starts cross-dressing after her death.

One day he puts on a garment that belonged to his wife and then he starts to like it. My character, who provides the film’s p oi nt of view, d i scover s the cross-dressing and starts to fantasize about the man turned woman. She becomes completely unhinged from her prim and proper bourgeois life.

I recently acted in a film directed by my brother Stéphane. My character was a district attorney, so it was an extremely cerebral style of acting. At first glance it might not seem like a role for me, but I had so much fun with that part. I wasn’t expecting it at all. It’s a role that forced me to think and reflect much more than I’ve ever had to for a part. For once it wasn’t about emotion or affect.

KAPPA X CHRISTIAN DADA HOODIE IN POLYESTER DIOR JOAILLERIE DIORAMA NECKLACE IN GOLD AND DIAMONDS

AB: How do you prepare for a role? Is it hard to visualize the character before arriving on the film set?

AD: It’s easy for me to imagine t h e d i r e c t or ’s v i sion . M a ny scripts include all sorts of directions. The films I liked the most, like with Ozon and Pascale Ferran, already indicate the direction in the script. It’s written in a way that shows you exactly what is going to be filmed and what the director is interested in. It’s not just what’s on the page, there is also a lot of i n for m at ion b e t we e n t h e lines. That’s what makes a good script, much more so than background elements or what a character looks like. I look for a rallying point between the character and me. Even if a character is nothing like me, there i s a lways a way to con ne ct.

Once I’ve found that way, then the real work can begin. Some actors say they can play any role, but I don’t feel that way.

Not every character can hook me. I like when you can still see something of the actor in the film. I thin k there are a few different schools of thought in that regard. Some actors have extremely obvious personalities and are very extroverted. So they take up a lot of space in the characters they portray. My nature is to take up little space and be available to the nature of other characters. That’s what I find exciting. All my favorite actors, whether it’s Isabel le Huppert, Gérard Depardieu, or Kate Winslet, share the same capacity to be present in the film through their role. At the same time, that doesn’t prevent them from doing a vast range of parts, but they always leave their mark. It’s nice to see actors who aren’t like machines and who do not have to radica l ly tra n sform them selve s.

They always offer a little bit of themselves in every role, even if they have little in common with the character.

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AB: Have you ever seen a performance that blew you away while on set, even when you were not in the scene?

AD: Isabelle Huppert fascinated me wh i le shooti ng Ha neke’s film, but she was also the first actress I had seen up close. Of course it moved me, Isabelle is amazing. The part I found most fascinating was her concentration, the fact that she seemed like she was in a bubble. Her acti ng made me believe i n the story we were telling. What I liked was that capacity to believe so strongly in a story that it becomes dizzying. I’ve tried to get to that same point of excitement in ever y role I’ve done since then. In Haneke’s film, there is a moment when Isabelle’s character and mine run into the man who killed my character’s father. As soon as I saw her expression, I believed it was all real until I heard “cut!”

I remember that Haneke started crying during this scene. It’s so much more powerful than drugs or sports. (laughs) Acting can contain something dangerous and reinvigorating…

AB: Did you ever see yourself in any particular role?

AD: It was a long time ago, but Isabelle Czajka’s film Living on Love Alone corresponded exactly

But to get back to your question, I don’t think I watch everyone else on set anymore. I know I don’t l i ke when my p a r t n er watches me act. I love JeanPierre Darroussin, I think he’s one of the greatest actors. The same thing happened with him, he helped me believe. Vincent Lacoste is also brilliant. I acted with him recently and I was fascinated. I had already seen him in a few films, but acting with him showed me how incredibly available and down-to-earth he is. It makes me happiest when actors are on the same level with me and there is a real exchange. Just like in life. Sometimes it looks like we’re talking, but everything just goes right over ou r heads, we don’t exchange anything. Acting is the same way.

to what I was going through in my li fe. It was just as I was leaving childhood behind and becoming an adult. I was in a liminal state between two worlds. The movie is about a young woman who arrives in Paris and encounters all the difficulties of working, love, and everything you go th roug h when you’re young and you have no money.

For Sophie’s Misfortunes, when Christophe Honoré offered me the part, I was skeptical at first about playing a mother of three and then I became pregnant right before shooting the second half of the film. I was afraid I wouldn’t be believable as a mother. Obviously that’s not so mething I worry about anymore. (laughs)

AB: You recently fi l me d w ith Quentin Dupieux for his film Au poste, which opens in July.

AD: Yes, I’m very excited about

“A LOT OF THINGS GO THROUGH YOUR MIND WHEN YOU ACT IN A FILM, A CHARACTER TEACHES YOU ABOUT YOURSELF. IT’S LIKE A LONG PSYCHOANALYSIS.”

AB: Blurring the line between fact and fiction while acting reminds me of the Japanese anim at e d f i l m Perfect Blue : a n overworked actress starts to lose her mind and can no longer distinguish between reality and fiction.

AD: It’s st ra n ge but k now i n g how to leave you r cha racter behind and return to reality is a real issue – it’s not just made up. A lot of things go through your mind when you act in a film, a character teaches you about yourself. It’s like a long psychoanalysis, as though the c h a rac t e r o p e n e d a d o or t o different facets of your personality that you never suspected were there. Sometimes you get parts that resemble your actual life. Emmanuelle Devos told me that she was offered parts all t h r o u g h o u t h e r c a r e e r t h at lined up perfectly with what she was living through at each moment. I think I understand what she meant now.

AU POSTE

BY QUENTIN DUPIEUX WILL BE OUT ON JULY 4TH, 2018.

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AB: Do you also do theater?

AD: Yes, I took a lot of classes as a child. The first time I acted on stage was in a play by Christophe Honoré. It came at just the right moment when I wanted to do theater. I thought it would be tough because I didn’t go to the conservatory or national acting school. I played in Christophe’s The Beautiful Person and then he asked me to do the play right after. That’s when I met Emmanuelle Devos. She later mentioned me to another director who was working on a play written by François Bégaudeau.

I did another play with Christophe Honoré that I absolutely loved. It was about the French experimental novelists of the Nouveau Roman and I played Marguerite Duras. It was great.

At first I was supposed to play Françoise Sagan in the play, but then he changed his mind.

it. My part is very small, I was only on set for five days. But apparently it’s a nice scene, since a few people saw it and told me it was funny. It was a total physical transformation for me. I wear a short wig of curly blonde hair and I’m barely recognizable. Quentin wanted me to play a total idiot. (laughs) It’s a fun role to play, like playing a drunk girl for the first time. You can just give into the feeling without any stress. It was the first time I played such a loud character with nothing in common with myself. I loved working with Quentin. He’s very intriguing and has gone his own way for many years. He doesn’t need anybody else. He sets up his films at home, and his wife does the sets. He put together a wonderful team. What really helps is that he does the framing and camera work in addition to directing. Including Ozon that’s the second ti me I’ve se en someone work that way. It’s rare to see a director get behind the camera. It’s usually a task reserved for the director of photography. When a director operates the camera, he becomes part of the shot with the actors.

He is fully present in the moment, l i ke there i s no fi lter between him and us.

AB: What are your next projects?

AD: I have a lot of openings co-

AB: Did you know his work before filming with him?

AD: Yes, I saw Reality, which I loved, and also Rubber. After filming, I saw Steak which is very

good! I was ecstatic that Quentin thought of me. It came as a tot a l su r pr i se, a n d I felt so lucky. He told me he saw me in Em manuel Mou ret’s Caprice and that’s what made him call me. It’s rare that people you would like to work with also think about working with you.

It’s quite a treat when that happens. I like films where the director puts a lot into it, when they do something truly unique.

AB: What director would you love

ming up for films I played in.

There is Au Poste on July 4, and Sauver ou Périr, a f i l m w it h Pierre Niney that opens in Novemb er. There i s a l so Fél i x Moati’s Deux Fils that will likely open in fall. There is my brother Stéphane’s film, which I loved filming. In August I’m going to film with Nicolas Pariser who directed The Great Game in 2015.

He does extremely well-written movies about politics. He’s very funny and smart. I can’t wait to work w it h h i m . T h e f i l m i s called Alice et le Maire. I play Alice and the mayor is Fabrice Lucchini. I think we’re going to have a good time. After that, I’m doing a film with Karin Viard where I play her daughter. It’s based on Madame de Sevigné and her daughter, the Countess of Grignan, who had a terrible almost perverted rivalry, but also a great intimacy. Another borderline role. (laughs) Next, I’m doing another period film with a director named Aurélia Georges who did The Girl and the River in 2014. Later on I’m supposed to film with Nine Antico, who does comic books. I love her work. Finally, I’m going to act in the next Guédiguian film.

to work with?

AD: I would say Matthieu Ama-

INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN

lric. He has a strong point of view that I would love to experience through acting.

“I LOVED WORKING WITH QUENTIN DUPIEUX. HE’S VERY INTRIGUING AND HAS GONE HIS OWN WAY FOR MANY YEARS. HE DOESN’T NEED ANYBODY ELSE.” SAUVER OU PÉRIR

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FRENCH CONNECTION / PIERRE DEL ADONCHAMPS

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After launching his career in television, Pierre Deladonchamps became a household name in 2013 with his highly acclaimed role in Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake, which earned him a César Award for Most Promising Actor. Set on a lakeside nudist beach serving as a nexus of male cruising, the actor plays a young man who falls in love with a killer. On the heels of this graceful and subtle performance, Deladonchamps continued with notable appearances in Philippe Lioret’s A Kid in 2016 and André Téchiné’s Golden Years in 2017. We caught up with him as he gears up for the release of Christophe Honoré’s Sorry Angel, Les Chatouilles of André Bescond and his first short film presented in Cannes.

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MEETING / PIERRE DEL ADONCHAMPS

FRENCH CONNECTION / PIERRE DEL ADONCHAMPS

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AMES SŒURS WILL BE PRESENTED AT THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL. LITTLE TICKLES

AB: How did you first get into film?

PD: As a child, I was allowed to watch movies on television on Tuesday nights because there was no school the next day. Later on, I started going to the movies on my own, which I still love to do. Time stops and you travel while watching a movie.

AB: You were introduced to audiences in Stranger by the Lake,

directed by Alain Guiraudie.

Can you talk about that experience? How did you approach the character of Franck?

PD: It was my first lead role in a film, but I didn’t grasp the sig n i fic a nce of t he fi l m r ig ht away. But a lot of people talked to me about it and I realized aud ience s re sp onde d to it i n a very unique and intense way. In preparing for the role I worked with the di rector and my partners Christophe Paou and P a t r i c k D ’A s s u m ç a o . T h a t made th i ngs easier once we were on set, and we were fort u n at e t o wo rk w it h a ve r y small team.

AB: D i d w i n n i n g t h e C é s a r Award for Most Promising Actor place any pressure on you in terms of your next roles?

PD: I wouldn’t call it pressure, but I didn’t want to disappoint people. But I always try to pick unique roles, because I never want to get bored in my job, which hasn’t happened yet.

AB: You have appeared in seve-

OPENS ON SEPTEMBER 26TH AND IS ALSO PART OF THE OFFICIAL SELECTION OF THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL.

ra l f i l m s a b o u t ge n d e r a n d sexuality. Is it important for you to work on politically engaged films?

PD: In an indirect way, I think certain films address topics that are political in the noble sense of the word. It can be important to make films that raise issues relating to worthy topics in society.

AB: In André Téchiné’s Golden Years, your character dresses

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up as a woman to escape the war. How did you manage to play a woman without falling back on caricature?

PD: I don’t know if I succeeded o r n o t , b u t i t ’s t r u e t h a t I wanted to keep it subtle, without turning the transvestism into caricature or making it ridiculous. I did a lot of work with André Téchiné and his costume de si g n er to st r i ke t he r i g ht tone. Sometimes we changed dresses after a take because the outfit wasn’t working.

AB: Does film always have a political dimension? To a certain extent, is it a reflection of our society?

PD: Not necessarily, but like I said before it can and must happen sometimes. Film reflects all the realities of our society and our humanity, with all its complexities. Sometimes it’s good for a film to enlighten people about a certain topic. It broadens minds and helps things move forward more quickly.

AB: What role demanded the most physical and mental preparation?

PD: Golden Years took the most physical preparation, because I had to lose weight to achieve an hourglass figure… I also tried to live a healthier lifestyle before and during the shoot so I would look as rested and wrinkle-free as possible. No speci fic role stands out in terms of my mental preparation. I let the character marinate in my mind after reading and learning my lines. Then the real work starts on set with the director and my partners.

AB: You have a role in Christophe Hon o r é’s Sorry Angel w h ic h

opens in May. How did you meet the director and how did the project come about?

PD: The film is in competition at Cannes and I’m very proud of it.

Honoré is a director I’ve always wanted to work with. He called me to offer the role and I accepted on that same day.

AB: What did you like about the script for Sorry Angel?

PD: I like the idea behind the meeting between these two characters. For one it’s their first love story, for the other it’s their last. I also thought it was important to talk about AIDS in the 1990s before the arrival of protease inhibitors. It’s been done in ot her f i l m s, but Ch r i st op he wanted to show it in the context of ordinary everyday life. The disease is present, it constantly reminds us of its presence, but we can breathe enough to stay standing.

AB: What is your dream role?

PD: I don’t fantasize about too many roles, but I would like to work on a science fiction or fantasy film. Not necessarily a big Hollywood production, but at least one set in a distant future.

I’m fascinated by what our world might become in forty, one hundred, or three hundred years.

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FRENCH CONNECTION / CORENTIN FIL A

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Debuting in 2016 in André Téchiné’s Being 17, Corentin Fila earned an immediate reputation as an emerging talent to watch. Featured alongside a fellow young prodigy of French film, Kacey Mottet-Klein, the pair displayed an obvious chemistry in their performances on screen. Fila next appeared in last year’s Jealous, directed by the Foenkinos brothers, playing the son-in-law to Karin Viard’s divorcée in t h e t h r o e s of a n e r vo u s breakdown. Currently ap pearing in Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s A Paris Education, Fila represents a new generation of French acting talent.

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FRENCH CONNECTION / CORENTIN FIL A

AB: Your character is seventeen

AB: You attended the Cours Flo-

HAT SPARKED YOUR DESIRE TO ACT ?

years old in the film, was it difficult for you to play such a young man? Did Tom have any similarities to you at his age?

CF: I was almost ten years older than the character at the time, it does sound crazy. I hate to look so young in real life but I’ve always had a childlike face so with a small backpack on my shoulders and a well-shaved chin, it does the trick. I am the opposite of this character at first glance, he is completely introverted, solitary, can’t express what he feels and is violent. In reality, I like being around a lot of people, partying and I think I have a certain ease in expressing my feelings with people. Nevertheless, when I was a child, alone in my room, I had the same melancholy as he did, I was sometimes very sad...

CF: I never went to the theater

AB: You’ve said you wanted to

until I happened to stumble upon a Pe t e r B r o o k p l ay a t Le s Bouffes du Nord, The Suit. That was in 2013. I was struck at the time by the almost mystical energy of these South African actors, a real revelation for me. I played in that same theater three years later, it was a very strong moment.

work with Jim Jarmusch. What fasci n ate s you i n h i s fi l m s?

More generally, what do you prefer in cinema?

CF: He is so talented. His world speaks to me, if he made a 48hour movie, I wouldn’t be bored watching it for a second, I’m not exaggerating at all. His first movie Permanent Vacation or Stranger than Paradise are so poetic.

Melancholy, rock’n’roll and beauty is inborn to him. Everything I love about cinema is in Jarmush’s movies. Ah, and he’s very funny too.

rent, it was your introduction to acting. Do you think acting is a profession that you learn, that you hone in school?

CF: The free class of the Cours Florent is an excellent formation, it is a very selective class of about twenty students selected on competition among two thousand candidates. I think you learn to work mostly. Presence, and acting is innate, what you learn is the language of a scene, you learn to trust yourself as an actor to be responsive to the feedback that your director can give you. It’s a fairly introspective job, sometimes it’s violent when you bare your soul and give everything you are and they tell you that you’re not getting it. To be able to hear criticism and bounce back on constructive proposals, are things that are acquired with work but, of course, acting can’t be taught. You know how to act or you don’t, it comes from childhood, deep inside of you. There are lots of wonderful actors who have never been to a specific school.

AB: You shot your first film with André Téchiné for Being 17, how

did that first experience go? Did you build a strong bond with the rest of the team?

CF: It was a crazy feeling, I had no experience in front of the camera and ended up shooting for months with one of the masters of French cinema. I had great chemistry with him, it was very instinctive. I was quite close to Sandrine Kiberlain too who is a radiant person with a very kind heart. Kacey became my best friend, we often go on vacation together. Even our girlfriends became quite close !

AB: In the film, you play the role of a breeder’s son, a character closely linked to nature. As a city boy in Paris, how did you prepare for this role?

CF: It’s true that I wasn’t accustomed to cows before the shoot, it’s a pretty impressive animal.

Just before shooting, André sent me to do a one-week internship in an isolated farm in the Pyrenees mountains with a family of incredible old-fashioned breeders. The life they lead is incredibly hard. Small breeders today work so hard to earn almost nothing, it’s very hard.

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AB: Your father, David-Pierre Fila, was a director and documentary filmmaker, what memories do you keep of his work?

Di d h e c onvey h i s t a st e for images to you?

CF: I have a strange relationship with my father, I haven’t seen him in years and I haven’t seen the majority of his films. Nevertheless, I have a lot of admiration for him and I think I look very much like him because of my character, we have the same kind of energy. When I was a child, evenings at home were often shared with a lot of great African artists in my living room who questioned the world in heated debates. They didn’t pay much attention to me but I was there all the time, I liked to watch them before going to bed.

A n d t h e n , w h e n I wa s ve r y young, I attended editing sessions and one of his film shootings, but I have almost no memories of that. I still imagine that it had an impact on me, one way or the other.

rient, it was crazy ! Unfortunately, I can’t speak about other proje cts t hat a re not yet shot. Otherwise I plan to have a good time in Cuba with my girlfriend Daphné Patakia (who should have been nominated at the Césars for her incredible role in Tony Gatlif’s Djam) so I anticipate a little and I started to learn salsa, I don’t want to be humiliated in a salsa club there.

All the men are very handsome over there, so if I can’t at least be a good dancer, I’m afraid to retu rn to Paris without her. Otherwise, even if I don’t really think of it as a project, with Daphne we dream of shooting a movie together. A Jim Jarmusch film would be amazing.

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INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN

AB: You played in the film A Paris Education which has been

released in April, in which was released a lot of other talented young actors. How did this experience unfold? Did the subject of the film particularly speak to you?

CF: This film by Jean Paul Civeyrac is very beautiful, very delic a t e a n d eve r yo n e i s j u s t , touching. It is a film about cinema, about art and especially about youth. My character in the film is probably closer to me than the ones I’ve been playing so far so it echoed, yes. It was a beautiful experience, a bit special for me because I was simultaneously shooting the film Jalouse by the Foenkinos brothers, with a bunch of other young talented actors. : Diane Rouxel, Sophie Verbeeck, Jenna Thiam for example, Andranic Manet who is the star of the film and Gonzague Van Bervesselès who has just started acting.

AB: What are your future projects and those you would like to accomplish?

CF: I play in Hélène Fillière’s film Volontaire with Diane Rouxel (her again!), Lambert Wilson and Alex Descas. It will be released at the end of 2018. It’s set in the world of commandos and, with Diane, we had to do a short internship with the naval commandos at FORFUSCO in Lo-

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FRENCH CONNECTION / VICTOR MEUTELET

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VICTOR MEUTELET A young actor with endless charm, Victor Meutelet is no newcomer to the silver screen – far from it. He got his start at just fifteen in We Love You, You Bastard alongside a starst u d de d c a st fe at u r i n g Johnny Hallyday, Sandrine Bonnaire, and Eddy Mitchell among many others. Landing a string of roles in television and film, he notably joined the cast of the series Clem in 2015 and notched a major role in Fanny’s Journey that same year. Just as enchanting as ever, he appears in Axelle Lafont’s comedy Milf opening on May 2.

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hat was your first experience in film and did it give you a taste for acting?

VM: It was Salaud on t’aime (“We Love You, You Bastard”) directed by Claude Lelouch and starri ng Joh n ny Hal lyday, Eddy Mitchell, and Sand rine Bonnaire. It was a small part but a wild experience that made me want to keep acting. But it was after doing Lola Doillon’s Fanny’s Jo ur n e y t h a t I k n e w I wanted to act.

AB: What fi lms and d i rectors shaped your taste in movies?

VM: Milos Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Stanl e y K u b r i c k ’s A Clockwork Orange are the two movies that

sparked my love of film. In terms of directors, I like Maïwenn, Judd Appatow, and – going farther back – Douglas Sirk.

AB: You work in both film and television. Do you approach these two mediums in different ways?

VM: There is always more time with film but the way I work is the same: portraying the character to the best of my abilities.

AB: You played the character Lucas on the series Clem . What

was that exp erience li ke for you?

VM: I wasn’t familiar with the show before, but I was thrilled to join such a wonderful team. I didn’t realize the show had so many fans! People always bring it up.

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And by any director with a profound and sincere idea driving their work.

AB: In both Clem and Les Innocents , yo u r c h a r a c t e r s l i ve

through a love story with another boy. Did you receive posit ive fe e d b ac k f r om gay au diences and was it important for you to portray a character who breaks free of heteronormative clichés?

VM: In both cases, feedback from audiences, whether gay or not, was generally positive. It’s great to see all types of characters depicted on screen, but for my part, I have a broader vision of the script and character. Sexuality is only one of many aspects and is not the sole criterion for my choice.

AB: You are starring in Milf, a lighter film than most of your other projects. What made you want to do this type of comedy?

What was it like on set?

VM: In some aspects it is a lighter film. But the emotions expressed in the different love stories add depth to the film and that’s what hooked me. Axelle Laffont, the director, was very clea r from the sta r t on th i s point: she wants sincere and touching relationships that go beyond the typical realm of comedy. We shot for two months in Marseille and the surrounding area. It was an incredible atmosphere. It was an honor to act w ith Vi rgi n ie L e doyen, a n actress I admire greatly… We can’t wait to return to the same region to present the film!

INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN

AB: In 2016, you played the lead role in the short film Respire, in

which your character suffers from cystic fibrosis. How did you meet the young director Jérôme Roumagne? Was it a difficult part to play?

VM: The director reached out to me and we met to talk about the fi lm, h is vision, and how he wanted to shoot it. As soon as I signed on to the project, I received full support from Jérôme Roumagne who gave me docum e nt s a n d v i d e o s on c y st ic fibrosis. It was certainly a role that demanded more than my usual preparations.

AB: What director would you love to work with?

VM: I would like to be directed by Jacques Audiard or Luc Besson.

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FRENCH CONNECTION / JULIA ROY

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JULIA ROY

A FRENCH FILM BUFF SINCE HER TEENAGE YEARS, FRENCH-AUSTRIAN ACTRESS JULIA ROY DEBUTED ON THE SMALL SCREEN WITH A MINOR PART IN THE SERIES MAIN COURANTE IN 2012, BEFORE APPEARING TWO YEARS LATER IN SOPHIE FILLIÈRES’ IF YOU DON’T, I WILL. HER CAREER LIFTED OFF IN 2016 WHEN A CHANCE ENCOUNTER CONNECTED HER WITH DIRECTOR BENOÎT JACQUOT AND LANDED HER A ROLE IN HIS FILM NEVER EVER. THE CHERRY ON TOP OF THIS EXPERIENCE: JACQUOT, ALREADY ONE OF HER FAVORITE DIRECTORS, ASKED ROY TO WRITE THE SCRIPT FOR THIS ADAPTATION OF DON DELILLO’S NOVEL THE BODY ARTIST. WITH HER YOUTHFUL FACE OF AN ANGEL, JULIA ROY CONVEYS A SENSE OF WISDOM AND AN UNDENIABLE PRESENCE THAT TRANSCENDS THE CAMERA – WICH WAS NOT LOST ON BENOÎT JACQUOT. THE DIRECTOR CAST HER FOR A SECOND TIME IN EVA, RELEASED IN MARCH, ALONGSIDE GASPARD ULLIEL AND ISABELLE HUPPERT. WE MET WITH THE ACTRESS TO CHAT ABOUT HER CAREER AND HER RELATIONSHIP TO FILM. CRASH 111

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FRENCH CONNECTION / JULIA ROY

an you tell me about your background, from you r child hood in Austria to your drama studies? How did you end up falling in love with film?

JR: I was always fascinated with Cha rl ie Chapl i n and it g rew from there. When I was five I would watch The Kid over and over, and apparently I would always imitate him. My parents signed me up for a drama class when I was nine because I was so shy and antisocial. I spent years doing nothing but Shakespeare translated into German

by Schi ller. A nd since I was bored at school and always had trouble sleeping, I spent many of my nights watching movies. I went to a private school in Austria where classes were taught in French, German, and English, and there was a French media library nearby. That’s how I discovered French films

by G oda rd, Chabrol, Sautet, Desplechin, and Jacquot, among others. That’s also when I decided I was going to act in movies. I must have been fifteen at the time. After high school I left Vienna to go to Paris, where I took Cou rs Florent acting classes because that’s the first t h i n g t h at c a m e u p w h e n I searched for “best drama school Paris” on the web… But I didn’t stay for long. I also took classes at the Conservatoire in the 7th arrondissement of Paris and at the R oya l C ent ra l S chool of Speech and Drama in London.

AB: What was your first experience in film and how did it go?

JR: It was in If You Don’t, I Will directed by Sophie Fillières. I had a tiny part alongside Mathieu Amalric, whom I worked with again in Never Ever directed by Benoît Jacquot. I loved working with Sophie!

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AB: What was it like meeting Benoît Jacquot? What did you like about his work before meeting him?

JR: He was giving a master class at Sciences-Po a few years ago. I had just arrived in Paris and didn’t know anyone. As I was saying, I had seen a bunch of his films in Vienna and I loved A Single Girl and Right Now, two movies that embody an open and liberated style of film in my opinion. Anyway, I went to the master class and we ended up working together afterwards. It came as a huge surprise. It was almost as if we had recognized each other, like it just made sense. We have a strong connection that I wasn’t expecting at all when we first met.

AB: Never Ever was both you r first lead role in a film and your first time writing for a major film. Did it surprise you that people had so much confidence in you at such an early point in your career?

JR: It was a total surprise. I’ve always liked writing, almost to the point of needing to do it. But I hadn’t done much screenwriting, just a short film that I showe d Benoît. I told h i m I wanted to try writing a feature, but I certainly didn’t expect him to ask me to write something right away! He thought it was such an interesting idea to have the lead actor also write the script AB: Never Ever is an adaptation of the novel The Body Artist by

Don DeLillo. Were you already familiar with the book before working on the film? How did it inspire you?

JR: I wasn’t familiar with that particular book, but I had already heard of the author because I saw Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis, which is also an adaptation of a Don DeLillo novel.

From the first time I read The Body Artist, which I first read in English, I thought it was a deeply moving story of mourning. I got interested in the various st a ge s of g r ief a n d t hou g ht about what it must be like to exist between two worlds, the dead and the living, or to exist i n a n ot h e r s p ac e - t i m e, l i ke you’re between parentheses or in suspension.

AB: What is the hardest part of adapting a novel for the screen?

Did you feel you needed to stay faithful to the book, especially for its readers and fans?

JR: It’s not the kind of book that typically gets a screen adaptation, because it’s more poetic than narrative and there are a lot of descriptions of feelings, incomplete memories, and fragments of dialogue. It’s a very abstract book, whereas a script is just the opposite. Paradoxically, that’s exactly what I found so reassuring. It helped me feel more liberated in my writing, and there was certainly less pressure than if it had been a more cinematic book. The hardest part was that I had never written a feature-length script before, and also the fact that I had to forget I was going to play the lead role while writing it.

AB: You worked with Benoît Jacquot for a second time in Eva.

How did you approach the role of Caroline?

JR: With Eva , I wanted to ap proach my role in a simpler, more modest way. On one hand because I wasn’t the one writing the script that time, and on the other because it was a supporting role behind Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, and Richard Berry, who are all actors I admire enormously. And I think my experience on the set of Never Ever taught me that overpreparing for a part isn’t always the best idea. It can actually hold me back from being present in the moment, which is the most important part of acting.

JR: My d r e a m i s t o ge t c a s t against type in a totally unexpected role. I’m not interested in playing the young woman who’s just starting out in life, probably b ecau se as a moviegoer I’m always much more fascinated by unsettling characters who are a little unhinged and possibly dangerous. Like Robert Mitchum’s character in Night of the Hunter, Jean Seberg in Lilith directed by Robert Rossen, or Isabelle Huppert in The Piano Teacher. Jack Nicholson’s role in is another one that made me want to work in film. But I’m not sure I’m the type of person anyone would think of for roles like those. I should just keep saying the same thing in every interview, and maybe one day I’ll get the offer I’m looking for. Other than that, I also like more physical roles, so why not an action movie, or a comedy… I would love to work with filmmakers who inspire me like Paul Thomas Anderson, Jane C a m p i o n , We s A n d e r s o n , Cronenberg, and Haneke be cause of our shared Heimat. I would love to act in German.

And in English. And to keep acting in French.

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INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN

AB: Did you find Isabelle Huppert’s acting and experience inspiring, despite having just one scene with her?

JR: For me, Isabelle Huppert is o n e of t h e wo rl d’s g r e at e s t actresses. She has something enigmatic, ambiguous, and enchanting about her, and I think she always picks the best roles. I loved working with her, even though our scene was so short.

She has such an intense pre sence that’s unlike anyone else.

It’s such a blessing. You have to give a great performance when you’re working with Isabelle Huppert.

AB: Do you want to focus more on acting or directing in the future?

JR: I don’t want to direct yet, but I hope I can combine writing and acting for as long as possible.

They are two very different activities, but I think they pair well.

AB: What role would you like to play in the future and what directors would you like to work with?

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FRENCH CONNECTION / VINCENT MACAIGNE

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Embarking on his theater career nearly two decades ago in Michel Didym’s staged reading of Badier Grégoire at Théâtre Ouvert, Vincent Macaigne is a versatile artist with wide-ranging interests. Known as a stage director and actor, he recently ventured into film by directing his first short What We’ll Leave Behind, released in 2011. Developed directly on the stage, Macaigne’s plays inspire equal measures of admiration and confusion, which suits the director just fine as he seeks to rid himself of classical theater conventions. Undertaking a profound meditation on the dramatic form, his plays give rise to unique and confrontational performances aiming to seize audiences and rouse them from their slumber. Building on this is his work in film, which came about almost by chance as he appeared in films directed by friends like Guillaume Brac, Sébastien Betbeder, and Antonin Peretjatko. Today, Vincent Macaigne slips with remarkable ease into every new role, each time surrendering a tiny glimpse into his soul: just small enough so that it goes almost unnoticed, but bright enough to shine into the hearts of dreamers everywhere.

VINCENT MACAIGNE

AB: You are starting another run of your play Je suis un pays (“I

Am A Countr y”) in May and June. Can you tell me a little about it?

VM: It’s a new version with some major acting changes, since I’m replacing all the men with women. The play is going to be published by Actes Sud together with Voila ce que jamais je ne te dirai (“Here is What I Am Never Going to Tell You”) which forms a diptych with Je suis un pays. I went back to a play I wrote when I was a teenager and completely rewrote everything, while incorporating political speeches and short phrases that echo the current state of the world. The end result is something like a Shakespearean play about a country on the decline. It’s all in good fun and good humor. It ends with something like a party.

AB: How is the country in de cline?

VM: The play follows two characters: Marie and Eddy, two children who survived an apocalypse.

They live in a world that needs to be built up but instead everything is collapsing. It’s very sad, but also burlesque at the same time. It’s an epic performance.

What I do is similar to écriture de plateau [“stage writing”], where the goal is to craft a story directly on the stage instead of on paper. It’s not the kind of classical theater most people have in mind. It’s more alive. The audience can come on stage, drink beers… It’s kind of punk, actually. It’s almost like a concert.

AB: W h a t m a d e y o u w a n t t o break free from classical theater?

VM: I’ve been doing it for twenty years. (laughs) 114 CRASH

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FRENCH CONNECTION / VINCENT MACAIGNE

It’s not about breaking free from anything for me, I just think it’s fun. It’s a way of reaching out to people I like, and not reaching o u t t o o t h e r s. By d oi n g s o mething so brutal, and that almost revels in violence, it scares off certain people and brings in others. It’s a way of tattooing my show and sending the message that theaters belong to younger generations, too. In my work for theater, I do all the things I would do if I owned a space where I could do whatever I wanted. It’s relentless: a long party that lasts an hour with loud music and free booze.

AB: Do people play along or are some of them thrown off by this wild type of theater?

VM: Yes, people do play along, and for the most part they like it. It’s not an interactive show at all, it’s just that it’s so chaotic.

At the same time people listen to ever y word a nd pay ver y close attention. They’re actually a very rigorous audience. But there’s none of the educational or schoolhouse atmosphere that a lot of theater can have. That said, the kind of theater I do is much less intellectual than a lot of movies.

AB: You said you wanted to replace all the male parts with women. Are there any actresses you consider as your muses?

VM: I love working with friends and people I like. I’m happy becau se i n th is play there a re some repeat roles, including Vimala Pons playing one of the characters. They’re all people I know very well, like Pauline Lorillard for example. I wouldn’t call them my muses, just people I have a lot of affection for. Rodolphe Poulain is another one of my fetish actors.

AB: What do you exp ect from your actors?

VM: I ex p e ct t hem t o p ut so mething personal into the project. I want them to reveal som e t h i n g of t h ei r a ge, t h ei r anger, and their vitality. Pauline Lorillard embodies that perfectly. She’s a great actress, on screen even more so than on stage I think. She is very cinegenic. She has a very unique face that conveys a deep melancholy.

She’s ageless: she can appear both very old and very young.

There is something timeless about her. She’s a true heroine in that sense.

AB: Speaking of Pauline Loril116 CRASH

lard, was the idea to have women playing male characters inspired by Bertrand Mandico’s work in The Wild Boys?

VM: No, it’s nothing like that actually. The parts I write are almost like energies, or music.

They cou ld a l l b e women or m e n , a n d it wou l d m a ke n o difference. A character’s gender i s not i mp or t a nt to me.

Even in my life I don’t relate to men and women differently. In Je suis un pays, there’s a very talented actor who plays the role of Eddy. At a certain moment in the play he dresses up like a woman and I got the impression that it liberated his acting. Either way, I don’t think we should pay attention to those things. Even if we were doing a love scene it wouldn’t matter, because that’s just not what I’m interested in.

AB: You’re not interested in the notions of gender fluidity that people talk about today?

VM: I’m i n t e r e s t e d , b u t t h e n again, not at all. I thin k it’s weird to get involved in a debate about gender/ungendered. I had an assistant who corrected one of my texts by making the writing more inclusive, and I didn’t li ke it. It’s crazy to do that.

These are questions that only make sense if we ask them. The real problem is asking the question. I loved working exclusively with girls for En manque, but I could have done the exact same show w ith just men. But I thought girls were better actors.

The older I get, the more I find that stage actresses are at a higher level than the actors. It must be because it’s harder for them.

AB: In what sense is it harder for them?

VM: There are very few female roles. For bit parts like soldiers, obviously they will go to men.

They’re tiny roles and hardly anyone notices them, but still they can only be played by men.

I thin k the era of inequality b et we en men a n d women i n these types of artistic performances is over. I can’t speak for all of France, but I can speak for the small group of artists I k now who don’t b other w ith questions of gender. I assemble my team of actors in the same way I would create a rock band.

The bassist could be a woman or a man and that would have no impact on how well they played.

I think Bertrand Mandico thinks much more deeply about gender.

In any case he speaks about it in a way that I don’t. I think that if someone was going to remake a movie like Breathless, Belmondo’s role shou ld probably be played by a woman. I saw Steve McQueen’s Shame and I found it interesting but super outdated.

It’s a film about male sex addiction, but it seemed miles away from reality. It would be nice to see the roles reversed with a girl addicted to sex and her depressed younger brother coming to pay her a visit. Not to mention the rest of the world who mostly do not live in places like that. It’s a shame to make a movie in New York or any other cosmopol itan big city i n the West and not question these gender clichés.

AB: You got Nova Materia to do the music for your show.

VM: Yes, they composed a few things, but I also incorporated a lot of pop and some very recognizable hits.

AB: Do you look for experimentalism in music, just as you would in theater?

VM: Not necessarily. I would love to do an entire play with Nova Materia. I would also like to do an opera with A Silver Mt. Zion and stage a story based on their music. They’re just ideas, so we would need to take a couple of months and come up with something together. Nova Materia d id m e a favor a n d c r e at e d s om e a m a z i n g t rac k s. T h at said, Je suis un pays is a pop-inflected show. I’m not a fan of pop cultu re but, in a certain sense, that’s the world we live in. I have no fascination with Rihanna. In fact, I don’t give a damn about her at all. My decision to put hit songs in my play is purely FM. They’re songs you might here in any ordinary bar.

I wanted a nostalgic dimension with music that would recall something dusty, like an outdated memory. Rihanna’s “Diamonds” is outdated. These are hymns t h at p r o d u c e a n i m m e d i at e emotional response, whether it’s a block or a moment of under sta nd i ng. Theater force s people to swallow bits of the world. I like the idea of having people swallow pop elements, having them digest Rihanna, the Bible, Nietzsche, and Thomas Bernhard. They’re totally d i fferent, but I can combine them and make something out of it, just like everyone else can.

It’s important for theater to reflect the world.

comed but it’s hard to keep them going or allow them to develop.

Things get stale fast. I don’t know why and it’s a real struggle for artists. I did a short film with a film student named Théo Hoch. Everyone in his class had to make a film, so I went to see the screenings. It was impressive. They’re only twenty but already making powerful films.

New talent is always coming up, so you just have to keep your eyes peeled.

AB: Do you approach film differently than you do theater?

VM: No, instead it’s my approach to distribution that’s different.

We refer to film as an industry, and yet a major theater production costs just as much as the average movie in France. It’s a way of putting pressure on artists and the audience, oddly enough. People go to the movies to see a specific genre or type of film. For example, a song on the radio lasts three minutes and a movie lasts an hour and a half.

Obviously Mandico’s films do not fit the standard mold, but they also have a much smaller distribution.

AB: Can you tell me about your role in Non Fiction, the next film from Olivier Assayas?

VM: I haven’t seen the movie yet, I’m on ly i n it. (laug h s) The script is very funny but also kind of sad. It reminds me of Woody Allen’s Manhattan and Chekov. It’s ver y swe et. It’s about a dying world with publis h e r s w h o h av e t o e d i t a n e-book, just like what’s happening in movies with streaming.

It’s also about the start of a new world w it h t wo couple s who cheat on each other but still manage to live happily together. In a strange way I find it relaxing and reassuring.

AB: Do you like his type of film?

VM: Yes, but it has nothing in common with what I do. I loved The Wild Boys, but it felt like I was watch i ng my friends on screen since I know Pauline Lorillard and Vimala Pons so well.

You relate to a film or play differently when you know the actors. I feel it more.

AB: A re there any actors who have impressed you on stage or on set?

VM: Pauline Lorillard was amazing when I was making the film C omfor t an d C on sol at ion . I didn’t always pay attention to those things in life. It was complicated for me to make the movie because she didn’t have the lead role, and it was a very raw film made up of many different fragments of scenes. As a stage director, I’m always impressed by the actors. When I staged Dostoïevsky’s The Idiot, I was impressed by Pascal Rénéric and Thibault Lacroix. They’re not very well known, but they’re still very impressive.

INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN

AB: Do you think there is a renewal of interest in theater today?

VM: I honestly don’t know, so I can’t say. I see more of a renewal in film. Theater is an odd world that’s very reserved in a way. You have to get around to a lot of show s to k now what’s going on. I haven’t gone to see as much theater in the past two years, so I don’t have much infor m at ion t o go of f of. New things are always coming out in the movies, but predicting how people will keep experimenting i s a n o t h e r m at t e r e n t i r e ly.

They’re two different questions.

Our system welcomes new ideas at first and then it gives up on t h e m . It’s s i m i l a r t o m u s ic where fresh new things are wel-

MAKE-UP : HUGO VILLARD @AIRPORTAGENCY HAIR : CHRISTOS VOULIOS @CALLISTEAGENCY ASSISTANT PHOTO : BRYAN MONACO STYLIST ASSISTANT : PAULINE GROSJEAN

NICOLA INDELICATO T-SHIRT IN COTTON, LOUIS VUITTON WATCH TAMBOUR ALL BLACK CHRONOGRAPH, IN STEEL WITH BRACELET IN ALLIGATOR

JE SUIS UN PAYS AND VOILA CE QUE JAMAIS JE NE TE DIRAI RUNS AT THE THÉÂTRE DE LA COLLINE FROM MAY 31ST THROUGH JUNE 14.

NON FICTION

BY OLIVIER ASSAYAS OPENS SOON. CRASH 117

LAURA HARRIER INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : JAMES MOUNTFORD, STYLIST : MELISSA LEVY

Discovered through her role as Liz Allan in last summer’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, Laura Harrier is poised to take American cinema by storm.

As one of few black women to appear in the world of superhero movies, Harrier understands the importance of promoting an inclusive film industry that grants equal representation to people of all origins. She belongs to a new generation of artists and actors who plan to inspire change in their lives and on social media, where every photo can enact a positive impact on people’s mindsets. She will return to the big screen in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, a thriller inspired by actual events within the Ku Klux Klan and selected to compete for the Palme d’Or in Cannes.

LOUIS VUITTON BELTED JACKET IN WOOL AND MOHAIR, JOGGING PANTS IN WOOL, ARCHLIGHT SNEAKERS BOOTS IN TECHNICAL FABRIC, PEARL EARRINGS IN BRASS 118 CRASH

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MEETING / L AURA HARRIER

AB: How did you start your acting career and what gave you the will to pursue it ?

LH: I acted in school plays as a child but never considered it to be a possible career. When I moved to New York, friends would ask me to be in various short films and I discovered I really loved it. I decided to go to drama school for two years and then began working from there. When I was in my last year of school, Steve McQueen cast me in his HBO pilot which was my first real job.

LOUIS VUITTON SILK DRESS, LONG DOWN JACKET, ARCHLIGHT SNEAKERS BOOTS IN TECHNICAL FABRIC, PEARL EARRINGS IN BRASS

AB: Which movies and directors shaped your taste in cinema ?

LH: For director, I’d say Gus Van Sant, Steve McQueen, Spike Lee, Paul Thomas Anderson and Sofia Coppola. My favorite films would be Do the Right Thing, Cinema

Paradiso, The Informant, Lost in Translation, My Own Private Idaho and Cléo from 5 to 7.

AB: You had your big break in

Spider Man : Homecoming which came out last year. How did you prepare for the role of Liz Allan?

How was the filming experience?

LH: I wasn’t able to prepare very far in advance since the script wasn’t disclosed to us until we were on set because of how secure Marvel needs to be. But I read a ton of Spider-Man comics starting at the beginning issues, where my character Liz Allan first appears. The filming experience was very exciting. I was nervous going into a set of that size and caliber for my first film, but Jon Watts was able to make it feel very comfortable and easy. It felt like we were shooting the biggest indie movie ever.

AB: Playing in a Marvel series means entering a whole universe parallel to the film. Were you a big fan of the comic books and did you enjoy going to the conventions?

LH: I read some comic books as a kid, but was not super aware of the entire Marvel Universe fandom that exists before entering it. Now, I love being part of it and am a big fan of the films.

The fans are all so passionate and excited about what we are making and I very much enjoy getting to meet them.

AB: How do you feel black women are represented in superhero movies and in films in general ?

Is there a lack of important roles for black women in Hollywood and is it shifting today ?

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MEETING / L AURA HARRIER

LH: I don’t think that there is enough representation of black women, or of people of color in general in film, but I am hopeful that that is starting to shift. We are seeing with the success of films like Black Panther and Get Out a n d e ve n Spider-Man : Homecoming t h at au d ience s want to see diverse stories being told on screen. Representation is so important, and I hope to continue being able to tell the stories of fully rounded black female characters.

AB: You will be starring in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman which

will be presented in Cannes.

What did working with Spike Lee mean to you ? Were you familiar with his work ?

LH: Working with Spike was an incredible and very surreal experience. I had loved his films since I first saw Do the Right Thing when I was in high school.

He has always been a role model of mine and a dream collaborator. So being able to be in his new film in such a large capacity was truly an honor. I learned so much being on set with him and hope that we have the chance to work together again.

AB: Can you tell me about your role in this movie ?

LH: I am playing an activist in the Black Power movement. She is a leader in the community and very outspoken against racism and police brutality. I drew influence from women such as Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver to create the character.

AB: Do you look up to certain fe-

LEFT PAGE LOUIS VUITTON LONG SILK DRESS, ARCHLIGHT SNEAKERS BOOTS IN TECHNICAL FABRIC, PEARL EARRINGS IN BRASS RIGHT PAGE LOUIS VUITTON DRESS IN TECHNICAL FABRICS, ARCHLIGHT SNEAKERS BOOTS IN TECHNICAL FABRIC, PEARL EARRINGS IN BRASS 124 CRASH

minist icons like Angela Davis or Kathleen Cleaver ?

LH: Yes, I have looked up to them for a long time in my personal life, and then even more so when I began researching this role. I was able to meet and interview Kathleen Cleaver, and was incredibly inspired by her and all of the work she has done for the black community. Angela Davis has long been a role model of mine, and her influence was instrumental in creating the character of Patrice.

“I WANT TO FIGHT FOR AN END TO POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA, FOR EQUAL RIGHTS FOR WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD, FOR EQUAL REPRESENTATION IN FILM. I WANT TO FIGHT AGAINST TRUMP AND THE RACIST, MISOGYNIST AGENDA THAT IS BEING PERPETUATED IN THE UNITED STATES.”

LH: To m e r e volu t i o n m e a n s creating change within flawed systems, to resist, to never become complacent w ith i n the face of oppression. These values are just as important now as they were during the civil rights movement s i n t he Un it e d States and the revolutionary movements in France. I want to fight for an end to police brutality against black people in America, for equal rights for women around the world, for equal representation in film. I want to fight against Trump and the racist, misogynist agenda that is being perpetuated in the United States. We have a lot to fight for, but I am hopeful for the future and encouraged by the spirit of resistance that has emerged in the face of oppression.

MAKE UP : LOTTIE USING NARS COSMETICS @LOWEANDCO HAIR : DALLIN JAMES @THEWALLGROUP MANUCURIST : JOLENE BRODEUR SET DESIGNER : DANIEL HOROWITZ EXECUTIVE PRODUCER : VIRGINIE PICO STYLIST ASSISTANT : EMILY DIDDLE

AB: Since it’s the fiftieth anniversary of the 1968 riots and revolutionnary movements in France and accross the world, we are focusing this issue of Crash on the notion of revolution. What does revolution mean to you tod ay a n d how h a s it evolve d through time ? What do you want to fight for ?

CRASH 125

All it takes is one glance at the enigmatic Angèle Metzger’s Instagram account to know we are dealing with a muse: the muse of her actor and musician boyfriend Lukas Ionesco, the muse of various top fashion designers, and, more recently, the muse of director Serge Bozon, who also supplied her first role in the haunting Mrs. Hyde alongside Isabelle Huppert. At just twenty years old, the young lady with the boyish haircut and arch expression seems dead set on offering up all her vintage charisma and grace to the camera. Before we catch her next performance in Marie-Sophie Chambon’s 100 Kilos d’Etoiles, we wanted to find out more about the new face of French film.

ANGÈLE METZGER INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : PIERRE SEITER, STYLIST : ARMELLE LETURCQ 126 CRASH

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MEETING / ANGÈLE METZGER

H

AB: How did you get started in

OW DID YOU GET STARTED IN FILM?

film?

AM: I was drawn to film because my fat her i s a n actor a n d I really wanted to join a talent agency. He knew a few so he let me join the Oz agency, where I’ve done a lot of castings since I was fourteen. I didn’t get any parts for quite a while. (laughs) A lot of young people want to act but few are chosen. I got a role in Mrs. Hyde in 2015 and we shot the film in 2016. That’s two years ago already! It was my ver y first role in film. I was also in a short film by my mother who is a director. She cast the whole family in the film. She is going to do a feature soon and that will be even better. It’s going to b e a fa m i ly a ffa i r. (laug h s) More recently, last September I got the lead role in a film called 100 Kilos d’Etoiles directed by Marie-Sophie Chambon and it should open soon. And I’ve also got a small part in the next Lisa Azuelos film called Mon Bébé.

AB: How d i d yo u m e e t S e r ge Bozon?

AM: I met him at the first casting for Mrs. Hyde. It’s rare for a director to get involved in the casting process at such an early stage, especially since I didn’t have a major part in the film. It must be fun for him. I came back w ith Roxane A rnal be cause Serge wanted to test the partners. She ended up acting alongside me, even though we don’t really look alike except t h at we b ot h h ad lon g h a i r.

Maybe we have the same kind of good gi rl face with freckles.

Either way, we got along really well. Even within the team, we were a real duo. There were a lot of separate groups on set who show up in the same groups on screen. There were the guys in the class, the two of us, and the film crew who were older.

There was a clear separation.

The adult actors may have interacted more.

with film sets, since your parents are in the industry?

AM: Yes, I had been to a few. I would go see my father a lot. Obviously, it made me want to act, it’s only natural. Everyone is influenced by what their parents do. Either you go in a totally opposite direction, or you want to do the same thing and discover their job. I always saw my parents in a very unique environment with no set schedule. They also passed on their film culture by showing me a lot of movies.

AB: Did any films in particular inspire you growing up?

AM: More so recently, in fact.

When I was little, I would refuse to watch sad movies, so that limited the field a bit. (laughs) On top of that, come d ie s a ren’t always the best movies. In recent years I started watching more social films and older movies. I was also allergic to “old films” when I was little, like a lot of kids. My parents didn’t force me to have any specific culture. Now I’m super curious to d i scover new fi l m style s.

When I started high school I met people who had an impressive knowledge of film. They knew about all the Nouvelle Vague mov ie s, aut eu r fi l m s, a n d I didn’t know about any of it. It motivated me to fill in my gaps.

AB: Now when you watch a mo-

kind with the actors, she has a beautiful soul. She has a very comforting way of looking at you that makes you feel confident. It was nice acting with her and Romain Duris. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to talk much off set.

AB: Did their acting style inspire

AB: Your first role (in Mrs. Hyde)

film with Isabelle Huppert?

AM: In all honesty, she was very

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AB: Were you already familiar

vie, do you take notes and analyze the acting?

AM: Ever since I was in preparator y cl a s s, I’ve t a ken not e s constantly when reading books.

E s p e c i a l ly w it h p h i lo s o p hy books, I read them while taking notes in the margin. Sometimes I do the same thing with film, it’s kind of crazy. (laughs) I always want to jot down nearly every quote. Sometimes it’s better to stick with your first instinct and not overanalyze a film.

I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time the other day.

As soon as it was over, I was already on the web looking for analyses and explanations of the film.

AB: How was it to shoot your first

PHOTOGRAPHER : PIERRE SEITER STYLIST : ARMELLE LETURCQ MAKE UP & HAIR : HUGO VILLARD

because my father is an actor and he’s my ultimate model.

That said, it’s interesting to work with very experienced actors who are great at what they do. So all the scenes flow very nicely.

you in any way?

AM: No, I don’t think so. Perhaps

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MEETING / ANGÈLE METZGER

“INSTAGRAM HAS BECOME ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE. IT’S LIKE HAVING A DOUBLE LIFE. FOR SOME PEOPLE, THEIR INSTAGRAM LIFE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THEIR REAL LIFE. IT’S SCARY. HISTORY CLASSES WILL BE VERY INTERESTING IN TWENTY YEARS.”

dent. It must have made it easier to get into the skin of the character.

AM: That’s true. We had a lot of d i rection, too. The roles re quired a special kind of acting.

The way we read the script does not come naturally. We had to talk at the same time, clearly enunciate every syllable, etc.

We couldn’t shorten any words like we do a lot in Paris. Serge wanted something very precise, but he also let us propose things, too. I would never have come up with that way of acting on my ow n. It took me by su r pr ise when he told us to talk at the same time, because that never happens in real life. In the end, you have to accept that you are stepping into a fictional world, it’s not real life. It can be hard to get a clear idea of the director’s creative vision just by reading the script, it only comes to life on set. The acting style can totally change a script. A certain passage may seem sad on you r fi r st read i ng, but then make you laugh when the actor depicts it. For example, I never suspected that Romain Duris’s r ol e wo u l d b e s o f u n ny. H e played it in a comical way and it was very well done! The film is unlike anything else, it looks like a comedy but it’s very dark.

The humor is very cringeworthy.

AB: What type of film would you l i ke to do more of i n you r career?

AM: I would like to teleport back to the 1990s. (laughs) I like road movies from that era. In fact, Marie-Sophie Chambon’s 100 Kilos d’Etoiles which we filmed last September is pretty close to what I like because it actually centers on a road trip. It’s about an overweight girl of sixteen who wants to be an astronaut, but unfortunately you need to be in top physical shape to do that job. So she decides to stop eating and her parents send her to a center for adolescents with eating disorders, where she meets my character, Amélie, who is anorexic, and two other teens, Stannah and Justine. One has a motor disability and the other has electromagnetic hypersensitivity. They all become friends even though my character never gets close to anyone, since she is reserved and lonely. They decide to escape from the center together to compete in an astronomy contest and win a flight in zero gravity. The whole story is about thei r road trip across France. It’s about girls’ relationship to their bodies and the

transition from teenage years to adu lt ho o d. They a re a l l u n comfortable in their own skin. I thought it was a touching story and I think it will be very poet i c . It’s n o t a d r a m a , e ve n though the subjects are serious, they are depicted in a light way.

AB: Did you have to prepare physically to interpret an anorexic character?

AM: No, not really. They didn’t want me to lose weight and just used a few sp ecial effects. I think it’s believable when I’m dressed. They used makeup on my body, too. It was interesting to see how anorexia isn’t just a physical condition, but a psycholog ic a l d i sor der, to o. I a l so thought about how people react to anorexia. I had already read a lot on the topic because I think it’s interesting. I can’t wait for the film to come out! It’s my first lead role so it’s very exciting.

AB: You also do modeling alongside acti ng. W hat made you want to pose in photos?

AM: I like photography and when I met my boyfriend Lu kas Ionesco, we started taking a lot of photos with film cameras.

Little by little, by posting images on Instagram, some of our friends started photographing us, and then magazines, it just took off from there. One thing led to another and now we each work on our own separate projects. It’s a valuable experience because it helped me discover fashion, which is an intriguing industry. It’s everything and its opposite, it’s artistic and commercial… but I don’t think it’s really my thing. Preparatory classes were very demanding so I had to limit my photo shoots. At the start of the school year I missed two months of literature classes and I was afraid it would be impossible to make it up. It’s such an intense pro gram… But it turned out fine and my school was very understanding. I like my studies and it keeps me structured. I don’t go out during the week, it forces me to have a certain level of discipline. With jobs like modeling and acting that have no structu re, it’s com for ti ng to ta ke classes where I love the material.

AB: For today’s photo shoot you wore Yves Saint-Laurent. What does this fashion house represent for you? Is it your kind of fashion?

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AM: I l i k e t h e a n d r o g y n y o f Saint-Laurent! There is a femin i ne side i n thei r menswea r with sequins and cinched jackets, as well as masculine forms for womenswear, notably the wide shoulders. Vacarello also develops something very feminine and sexy for women with bustiers, low neck l i nes, and short dresses. He mixes genders while keeping it classic. It’s elegant and vulgar all at once, in my opinion. And there is also something very punk and 90s about the brand with Vacarello, and that’s something I really love.

AB: There are a lot of photos, videos, and stories about you and Lukas Ionesco as a couple…

There is a lot of fascination surrou nd i ng you. Where do you think that comes from?

AM: When we first met, Lukas didn’t do any photos or mode-

ling, even though he could have with all the notoriety from the Larry Clark film. He was in a dark period in his life, kind of punk in a way. He didn’t live in Paris, so he was far from all the action. When we got together he wanted to take photos of us right away, as a way to immortalize a powerful love story. So we decided to make our romance public through images. At first it was something spontaneous, but then we started having fun with it, so we kept it going. I hope we keep working together for the rest of our lives. I hope it goes beyond photography, and I’m sure it will. I even sang a song for his band. I was on stage with him at the release party. Obviously, I would love it if we could act together in a film.

AB: Does he still want to act on screen?

AM: Yes, defin itely. Since the

Larry Clark movie, he hasn’t released anything but shorts. He stopped for a while and didn’t want to act anymore. But when we met he wanted to act again and joined a talent agency. He felt more comfortable with himself and his image. He was more at ease with showing himself in publ ic a f t er a ver y sol it a r y phase. We helped each other bloom. (laughs)

AB: The image of the couple has a long history in fashion and ad campaigns, but what’s different about you is that people want to know your story. People follow your story on social media like watching a soap opera on television. Is it hard to manage what information you want to share with the public?

AM: Fortunately I have no talent for selfies, so I only post professional photos. However, I’ve notice d t hat p e ople prefer t he CRASH 131

MEETING / ANGÈLE METZGER

more raw personal photos, that’s what gets the most reactions.

People like seeing low-quality iPhone photos. I haven’t gotten into the habit of making stories either, which means I spend less time on Instagram. I think it’s e asy to get add icte d. My b oy f r ie n d i s ve r y ad d ic t e d .

When we met, Lukas didn’t have an Instagram and I regret ever telling him to download the app. (laughs). I didn’t have many followers then and I didn’t see it as such an influential platform.

Since then, it has become absolutely massive. It’s like having a double life. For some people, their Instagram life is more important than their real life. It’s scary. History classes will be very interesting in twenty years. (laughs)

AB: At the same time, Instagram opened the door to many professional opportunities for you.

AM: Yes, it’s a good tool for work.

You have to manage your account from that angle. People reach out to me a lot through the app, so it’s useful. I don’t post just anything on my page, I censor myself a bit but that’s fine.

It’s so popular that I’m worried about the day when people will move on to the next thing, it will cause a giant crash. All the economies based on these apps will simply collapse. You are often defined by your Instagram page today, it’s a serious issue. I have an actor friend who doesn’t have an account and people always tell her she’s missing out on opportunities because of it. If your career comes down to the number of followers and photos on s o c i a l m e d i a , t h e n t h at’s a shame. But it’s also a way to stay in touch with people who like your work. And then I wonder what’s next. Instagram is much closer to our daily lives than even Facebook, so I can’t imagine what will come next.

to arrive every time. Getting up on stage and dancing is an exhilarating moment. At Lukas’s concert, I didn’t stress at all about singing with him in front of an audience. I have to hold myself back from getting up on stage at every concert I go to. (laughs) What I like about a band is their energy and the visual aspect is also very important for me. All the legendary rock groups have a style to die for.

AB: This year is the twentieth anniversary of Crash and fifty years since May 1968. What does revolution mean for you?

AM: Revolution is deleting your Instagram account! (laughs) But seriously, I would say there are two types of revolution. An ideological revolution and a physical revolution, and one brings a b o u t t h e o t h e r. I n t o d ay ’s world, we are not living through a revolution in the strict sense.

There is no visible struggle or uprising. A revolution always brings violence. I get the impression that we’re floating in a void today. It doesn’t seem like anyone wants to revolt. In any case, the ideological revolution underway today is a gender revolution. We are beginning to see beyond predefined genders and stereotypes to arrive in a world with more blending. We have to reinvent our vocabulary, too. It’s an important part of b r e a k i n g t h e m ol d s. Hom o sexuality is more accepted today, but it isn’t a fact like any other yet. Transsexuality is still a complicated topic for a lot of people. In any case, I think that all sexualities are celebrated in fashion, and I appreciate that kind of freedom.

P126 SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO BRA CROP TOP IN LACE, PETAL IN LEATHER P129 SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO JACKET WITH PATCHWORK IN SUEDE LEATHER P130 SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO PANTS IN LEATHER, ERA BOOTS IN BLACK SUEDE, MARRAKECH STUDDED BRACELET

P131 SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO JACKET WITH PATCHWORK IN SUEDE LEATHER, HIGHWAIST SHORTS IN LEATHER P132 SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO SMOCKED BLOUSE IN BLACK SILK WITH GOLD DIAMOND SHAPES, SHORT IN BLACK SUEDE, IRIS SANDAL IN BLACK LEATHER AND OSTRICH FEATHERS P133 SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO RUFFLED CAPE IN BLACK SILK MULTICOLORED DOTS, BLOUSE IN BLACK SILK WITH GOLD DIAMOND SHAPES, BELT IN LEATHER, ERA BOOTS IN BLACK SUEDE

AB: What is your relationship to music and performance?

AM: I love music, but I love the stage more than anything else. I don’t have the patience to learn an instrument. When I was little I wanted to play guitar, but I only took classes for a year and I don’t remember anything anymore. I’m a terrible singer but Lukas is nice enough to let me sing on one of his songs. (laughs) When I was younger, I took ballet lessons and we had a recital at the end of every year.

Everyone was so nervous but I loved it. I was eager for the day 132 CRASH

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ELLA PURNELL

Recently introduced to audiences in her role as Emma Bloom, a levitating young woman who must wear lead boots to walk on solid ground, in Tim Burton’s Miss Pere-

grine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Ella Purnell continued

in 2017 with Jonathan Teplizky’s biopic Churchill, in which she plays the British statesman’s stenographer.

She sat down with Crash to talk about her background, from her promising start in Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go to Sweet Bitter, a new series produced by Brad Pitt and set to premiere in May. We shot the new Chanel ambassador in the setting of the latest Chanel couture show at the Grand Palais.

INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN PHOTOGRAPHER : FRANK PERRIN STYLIST : ARMELLE LETURCQ HAIR : VALERIE BENAVIDES @AGENT LINDSEY MAKE UP : SHELLEY BLAZE

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AB: Your first acting experience was on stage with the cast of the Oliver Twist-inspired play Oliver ! How was that first experience at only eleven years old ?

EP: I got my first advert when I was n i ne. Before that I was doing auditions and baby modelling things. It was always something I did with my mum for fun and I met all my friends that way. I met so many amazing people through Oliver ! It gave me a huge amount of inspiration. I never strategica l ly planned my career at that age though. It was always just a hobby, something fun I looked forward to after school. Watch– ing the older actors who really loved their job function like a family was really beautiful.

AB: What role did you have in Oliver !?

EP: I was just in the chorus and there were a hund red-andtwenty other kids in the “orphanage”. It never really felt like a job, I was too young to understand that this was the beginning of a c a re er. I to ok so m a ny drama and dance classes after school that it just felt like an extension of those activities.

AB: At what point did you want to make acting your career ?

EP: I had always enjoyed doing it so much and it grew organically.

I’ve never had to overthink it too much. Of course, I asked myself “Do I really love this ?

Do I love this enough to spend the rest of my life doing it ?”. In t he en d , a c a re er i s not so mething that you choose when you’re sixteen and it doesn’t define your whole life. As long as I enjoy it and it creatively challenges me, I’ll do it. But I also want to do a hundred other things. I looked at the pros and cons of having a regular nine-to-five job as opposed to having mine and it was an absolute no-brainer.

Yet, I’m not one of those people who’ve wanted to be an actor since they were four. I just love b ei n g c re at ive a n d s el f- em ployed. I also enjoy travelling and meeting new people. I’m very easy-going, I take each day as it comes.

AB: T h r o u g h o u t yo u r c a r e e r you’ve played many younger versions of actresses like Margot Robbie in Tarzan and Keira Knightley in Never Let Me Go. What did you take away from each experience ?

EP: With Keira, she had to mimic me more than I had to mimic 136 CRASH

her because I was quite young.

The adults would actually imitate little things that we would do. We still payed a lot of attention to the way that they talked and their accents. Keira speaks with a soft tone. For Maleficient, I never actually met Angelina a nd ever ybo dy th i n k s I’ve played the younger version of her but I wasn’t that girl, it was actually Isobelle Molloy who is a wonderful actress. I actually play the teenage Maleficient and have a very small part in the movie. For Tarzan, I’ve worked quite a long time with Margot, about three weeks. We had a week of rehearsals and training where we would do the same scene one after the other. We tried to do it the exact same way. I picked up on little things that the actresses did while acting. Margot wet her lips before she spoke and kept her hands qu ite sti l l when she wal ke d, K e i r a w o u l d a l w ay s t u c k a strand of hair behind her ear...

It really helped, watching how disciplined they were and how they were devote d and committed to their craft. I actually just like to get to know them and see them as real-li fe hu man beings. Working with smart, driven women was a huge inspiration at a young age.

AB: A lot of your movies were based on books. Do you feel a certain added pressure to live up to the book and please the readers ?

EP: I’m glad you asked that because it’s not something people usually talk about. I do feel a large amount of pressure but actually, I’ve learned to only think about the positive aspects in l i fe. What’s sometimes ha rd with the script is that when you have questions about your character you have to fill in the blanks yourself. When there is a book, you’ve been gifted with two sources, two ways to get to know the character. When I’m given a role, I become absolutely obsessed with the character and create a whole backstory. I spend hours daydreaming about situations. When you have a book, you can get a much fuller understanding of the projet as a whole. I loved playing true-life stories like in Churchill and The Journey is The Destination . I read all the books around that time period and study the story closely, it’s like education and I love learning. What’s important for me is not trying to replicate everything, especially when it’s

“WORKING WITH TIM BURTON WAS A HUGE TURNING POINT IN MY CAREER AND MY LIFE. I HAD JUST FINISHED MY A-LEVELS AND EVERYONE HAD JUST LEFT SCHOOL. IT WAS THE END OF AN ERA, THE BEGINNING OF MY ADULT LIFE.”

based on a real-life person. You can’t put too much pressure on yourself to do it perfectly. The book shou ld n’t be you r Holy Bible but rather it should serve as inspiration.

AB: Making a movie is also an other creative proposition and it makes sense that it doesn’t try to completely copy the book.

EP: To start with, there’s no way you’re going to please everybody. If you take the movie as a copy of the book, you’ll always end up disappointed. You’re telling the same stories but through different people’s eyes.

It’s like asking four different people to tell the same story, it will automatically sound different.

AB: In 2015 you starred in Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Did it feel

like your big break ?

EP: I spend a lot of time overthinking things and I tend to get quite stressed out. When so mething like that happens, I always prepare myself for the worse so that I don’t get disappointed or freak out. I absolutely love Tim Burton, he’s always been my number one persone to work with. This being said, I

didn’t ever think of it as the end goal. That movie inspired me to do more rather than thinking that I’d made it. When you start to have that mentality, you set yourself up for failure. It was definitely a life-changing thing.

It was also a huge turning point in my career and my life. I had just finished my A-levels and everyone had just left school. It was the end of an era, the beginning of my adult life. Terrifying but equally exciting. I look back at that job and have so many fond memories. It was the longest shoot I had ever done, about six months.

AB: You starred in the play Natives last year where you em-

body a young girl at grips with social media. Was that a relatable role in its closeness to reality ?

EP: My heart flustered when I read that script, I thought it was a really cool project to be a part of. The character I play was c a l le d “A” so i m me d iately I thought it was a universal symbol for girls accross the world. It was a general idea of how so many people feel. One of the best things was being able to talk to people after the show who were glad that someone put their

feelings into words. I feel like I’ve managed to change people’s minds and open their eyes to a new perspective. It’s about how social media changes the way we deal with certain situations and how it can make our lives better or worse. It gives great power but can be very destructive, especially towards vulnerable young children. It was hugely relatable obviously, having grown up using social media. We don’t know how it is going to affect millenials, it is a completely unkown territory. I’ve watched countless talks about how our brains are affected by that and how our priorites have shifted, as well as our sense of satisfaction. Everything we have now is much more i nstant, p erhaps we’re more m ater i a l i stic or more shallow. Evolution is happening at such a fast rate, especially socially. Social media is a fantastic thing and it is hugely responsible for big social movements that we are experiencing at the moment. It allows people to be themselves and express different identities. It gives everybody a platform on which they can speak and bring up some imp or ta nt i ssue s. However for someone going through their early teenage years, if it’s not

monitored correctly it could be damaging. We need to protect them from each other first of all and the huge amount of content that is out there. The Internet is a scary place.

AB: Do you personnally ever feel sucked in by social media ?

EP: If you have a lot of followers on a certain platform or are in the spotlight in any way, people expect you have to put up with things that are normally considered unacceptable. They think they are allowed to call someone ugly because that person happens to be famous. That’s what the media does. Disrespectful media outlets will report and objecti fy women. When p eople read that, they think it must be acceptable to talk about celebrities like that on the Internet.

The media needs to change its attitude and be monitored. For a long time mean comments got me down. I felt like I had to put up with it because I was asking for it. In actual facts, I’m a human being like anybody else so I just started blocking negative people who insult or objectify me. Since then, it’s been great. (laugh) Even if I know it’s not true, these insults still hurt. No matter how many they have, CRASH 137

people do read their comments.

AB: You work for Educate2Eradicate, a women’s right charity.

What is your exact role in that organization ?

EP: My friend Amira set up the organization which provides training to teachers and schools, educating them about ho nour-based violence which is mainly female genital mutilation and forced marriage. We also bri ng awa reness to violence against women in general, with the excuse of it being engrained in a certain culture or tradition and which is done in the name of honour. What I like about this organization is that we’re not telling you how to live your life or stepping over your culture, we are simply allowing children a choice and giving them a voice.

A lot of times, they don’t have any choice regarding what happens to their genetaliae and who they end up marr ying. They don’t have the option to turn to a teacher or another trusted adult.

At the moment there is no guide and that’s where we step in.

We’ve raised a lot of money for it and we’re in the process of going to schools and talking to students. We had a big fund-raising launch and I helped with that but I’m not directly involved. I’ve been working with some mental health charities recently and opening a lot about my own mental health struggles. It’s been great to directly speak to and learn about other people’s struggles. It makes me feel linked to them in a way and more comfortable with expressing myself. It takes away the negativity of having a mental health issue. It’s common and much more people should talk about it.

AB: Is it important for you to stay grounded in a project that actually helps other people ?

EP: It doesn’t have much to do with a will to feel grounded but more about having a purpose in life. Sometimes acting can be a difficult industry, it is often a bit materialistic or just confusing.

Since I’m travelling a lot, it’s a really lonely job. It’s a nice to have an inspiring outlet that educates me. It’s very different from acting. I feel like our generation is really driven and passionate about making the world a better place. It think we are making a huge difference in terms of making the environment safer.

AB: You star in the show Sweetbit ter w h i c h w i l l p r e m i e r e 138 CRASH

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P134 CHANEL HAUTE COUTURE JUMPSUIT IN EMBROIDERED METALLIC LACE, HEADPIECE CRAFTED BY MAISON MICHEL COMPOSED OF A LACE VEIL AND A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS CRAFTED BY LEMARIÉ P137 CHANEL HAUTE COUTURE JACKET IN WHITE TWEED EMBELLISHED WITH JEWELLED BUTTONS AND BRAID EMBROIDERED BY MONTEX, CULOTTES IN WHITE TWEED EMBELLISHED WITH BRAID EMBROIDERED BY MONTEX, HEADPIECE CRAFTED

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BY MAISON MICHEL COMPOSED OF A LACE VEIL AND A BOUQUET OF FLOWERS CRAFTED BY LEMARIÉ, BOOTS IN PALE PINK LACE AND TRANSPARENT RESIN CRAFTED BY MASSARO

shor tly. How was that ex p e rience ?

EP: It was absolutely out-of-thisworld. Again, it felt like an important period of my life as I had just turned twenty-one. It was the first time I’d ever gone to New York. It all happened so quickly and suddenly I was moving there. It was also the first time ever doing TV, which is a whole different experience all together. I had no idea how the characters were going to end up and had so much trust and faith in the show-runners and the writ e r s t o n o t s c r e w m e o ve r. (l a u g h) I w a s h o p i n g t h e y wouldn’t make me walk naked th rough a sup erma rket. You have to know your character so well that they can throw anything at you and you can do it.

It’s actually a very collaborative process, I was writing with them and creating the character as we were going. I’d never worked that way before and had never been the main character of a show. It was so much responsibility and there’s a lot of pressure but I genuinely loved that job. I felt so passionate about what we were creating and it came quite easily. That project made me a woman. I feel like today I have my priorities set, I’ve got a better idea of what I want to do and who I am. I have very fond memories of that project.

AB: You’re a Chanel ambassador.

What does the house represent to you ?

EP: For me, it really is a family.

I don’t k now much ab out fashion, it’s not my world but I feel very comfortable when I’m w ith the Cha nel g i rl s. Even when I’m wea r i ng Cha nel. I don’t feel like it’s a scary big fashion house, it’s approachable.

Before, fashion terrified me.

The Chanel show I attended was the first couture show I saw in my life. Such a good introduction to couture ! The attention to detai l is out of th is world. I really d id n’t u nderstand the craft properly before. It’s amazing to see how every fabric, texture, material and color comes together and creates a silhouette. I see the clothes we wear as an extension of ourselves. Chanel seems to be such an amazing expression of self, it’s timeless. Everything is beautiful and so well-made. Classic yet young and fun. I’ve never been to a Chanel store without finding something to wear, it’s so versatile. I feel very lucky to be going on this journey and to be given the experiences that I’ve been given with Chanel.

SWEETBITTER WILL BE OUT ON THE 6TH OF MAY ON STARZ. 140 CRASH

Originally discovered on the small screen, Mathilde Warnier always dreamed of making it in the movies. A film buff ever since she was a teen, she wasted no time getting noticed on set in a pair of small but enchanting roles: first in 2013 in Antoine Blossier’s The Grad Job, then in Emmanuel Mouret’s Caprice . With her dol l-l i ke face a nd mischievous expression, it was Bertrand Mandico’s The Wild Boys that revealed all her acting talent. In this strange and beautiful film, she plays a teenage boy grappling with adolescent urges who gradually transforms into a woman.

Her performance is remarkable, while this foray into the demanding and disturbing world of underground cinema fits her like a glove.

MATHILDE WARNIER INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : KAREN PAULINA BISWELL, STYLIST : ARMELLE LETURCQ, MAKE UP AND HAIR : HUGO VILLARD

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AB: You are currently in South Africa. Are you traveling for business or pleasure?

MW: I’m here to shoot a British television series. I won’t say anymore. I’ll let you find out on your own. I was in Cape Town in January and now I’m in Durban, on the other coast. They’re two completely different places, but both very charming. My hotel is right on the beach and it’s so beautiful!

AB: How d id you d iscover the film industry?

MW: My twin sister did a film major with Thierry Méranger, who is one of the editors at Cahiers du Cinéma. I did a lot of drawing, and I love visual art.

But I never had a thing for film.

It was my sister who sparked my interest and introduced me to her classmates. That’s when I decided to pursue it and do the film major at my high school.

My professor was brilliant. He t au g ht u s h ow t o w r it e a n d helped us build a vast knowledge of film. We met a lot of directors and people from the industry through our film club. The same professor continued to help me out into my twenties and suggested I be come a producer. So I got a BTS degree in production and that’s when I got d iscovere d wh i le working on a TV set. I had never given much thought to becoming an actor. I have four sisters including one twin.

Wanting to act meant wanting to be seen, and I had to think about what that would mean in relation to my sisters. So out of humility, I never considered acting as a career. But since I always wanted to tell stories – and I’m a terrible writer – my only option was to live them.

AB: How d id you r sisters respond when you told them you wanted to act?

MW: They thought it was weird. I don’t think they really pictured me as an actor, but it makes them happy because it makes me happy.

AB: What was your first experience in film?

MW: I appeared in a film called The Grad Job, which came out in 2013. It was my first casting and I learned a lot from that movie. I had never acted outside of high school. I skipped class to act in a movie and all my friends roasted me when they saw the video. (laughs) They made it into a joke and let

144 CRASH

Today, she is photographed in Fendi to mark the launch of a capsule collection that explores and revisits the fashion house’s iconic logo, created by Karl Lagerfeld in 1965. Shedding a portion of its original rectangular form, the logo now fits snugly into a square, while a combination of black and white hues joins Fendi’s more familiar palette of tobacco and black. Hard to believe that Karl Lagerfeld has sat at the helm of Fendi for over fifty-three years now. His minimalist logo, consisting of two Fs for “Fun Furs,” is just as relevant as ever at a time when branded acronyms have conquered nearly every corner of the planet. For this capsule, the challenge consisted in translating the brand’s Italian sophistication into relaxed pieces like parkas, bombers, and sweats. Accessories become a focal point of the capsule: graphic leather bags get covered in the 3D velvet monogram, sandals undergo a furry metamorphosis, and sneakers sport a futuristic white sole.

But the collection would not be complete without a fur pompom key charm – the ultimate Fendi accessory. me know I would never be able to act in anything. But now I’m an actor, so it’s just a funny little story to look back on. The Grad Job was a teen movie, it was cool working with other young people on my first film.

It’s not really my favorite kind of mov ie, but I don’t reg ret doing it. Then I had a small part in Caprice with Anaïs Demoustier and Laurent Stocker. I also had a part in A Very Secret Service, whose second season premieres soon. It runs on Arte and was written by the writers of OSS 117. I’m so happy to be a part of this project.

AB: Can you tell me about your role in the upcoming film The Wild Boys, directed by Bertrand

Mandico?

MW: We filmed it two years ago now. Bertrand is an incredible visual artist, the kind you rarely see today. When I was paging through the script I knew I absolutely needed to get the part. It’s the kind of cinema I love. When I was in high school, I loved Guy Maddin’s films, they really spoke to me. I thought it was wild to make movies with so much fantasy. He’s one of the immediate forebears of Bertrand Mandico’s cinema. The Saddest Music in the

World is a brilliant film with

MW: I w a s i m m e d i a t e l y r e -

AB: What did you think when you

AB: He does the set decoration?

MW: I n p a r t . E v e r y o n e g e t s

Isabella Rossellini in a completely insane role. But to get back to The Wild Boys, I did a lot of preparatory work before the casting. Bertrand and I got along so well right from the start. I wasn’t familiar with his work, but he sent us all his movies. He decided to hire me because when he was going through the pictures of all the actresses in wigs, his son thought I was a boy his age. (laughs)

watched all his films before the casting?

minded of Guy Maddin, Buñuel, and the kind of cinema that’s big with fanzines. (laughs) There is someth i ng u nderg rou nd and DIY about his movies. Bertrand is someone who chooses every detail with care, including the set decoration and music. You h av e t o r e m e m b e r t h a t h e started as an illustrator. He’s an incredible person. I’m so proud I was able to work with him.

swept up in his vision. Of course we also have the director of phoCRASH 145

MEETING / MATHILDE WARNIER

tography and decorators. That part was all pretty complicated on our film, because there were a lot of surprises on the island of Reunion. But it all comes out of Bertrand’s mind, in any case.

A ll the set decorations were based on his sketches. We were working inside his imagination.

MW: Since I’m not the director, it’s hard for me to talk about the subtext. I don’t want to butcher the meaning. But I can give you my own personal interpretation.

I think it’s a kind of joke. We think that by turning into girls, boys will become nicer, but not at all, they will have all the same violence. At the premieres for t he f i l m , p e ople were shocked by the last line: “Remember girls: Never be vulgar.”

For B er t ra n d , it’s profou n d irony. We were all wondering a b o u t t h i s p a s s a ge. I t h i n k Bertrand probably likes this little misunderstanding. He probably enjoys ag g ravati n g people, in a certain way. He’s a punk after all. (laughs) He’s a total anti-conformist.

AB: Do you have any exciting memor ie s from the shoot i n Reunion?

MW: I remember the camaraderie most of all. It’s a buddy film after all. (laughs) I made real friends there and that doesn’t always happen on film sets. We formed strong bonds there. The landscape was breathtaking, but my strongest memories are my friends’ smiling faces and how kind everyone was.

AB: Do you feel at home in expe-

AB: Was it a physically demanding experience on set?

MW: There were a few directing ch a l len ge s, but for u s a s actresses, we were in a constant state of healthy rivalry, which means we told a lot of d i r ty jokes and laughed a lot. We shot for a month in Reunion and then i n t h e st u d io for t h e b oat scenes.

AB: H o w d i d y o u m a n a g e t o transform into a boy for the film?

MW: That was my dream as an actress. In my first interviews, whenever I was asked about my dream role, I would tell people I wanted to play a boy. Little did I know that it would come true one day. The universe heard my wish and granted it. (laughs) It’s important to question our notions of gender, to realize there isn’t much that separates men and women. I don’t think we’re very different when we’re you ng. Violence is the same a mong both sexe s. The fi l m talks about that, too. Camaraderie can bring along copying, p er ver sion , a n d a l l sor t s of things we experience in our teen yea rs. It’s also a fi lm about transformation, entering adulthood, desire, and puberty. As a woman, it can feel strange when you r breasts grow. When my breasts started to grow, I did everything I could to hold them in. It’s hard to accept becoming a woman.

AB: Did you look to any male muses for inspiration?

MW: I looked for the boy within myself first. He’s not so hard to find. I spent a lot of time observing my friends, too. I asked 146 CRASH

“When I was in high school, I loved Guy Maddin’s films, they really spoke to me. I thought it was wild to make movies with so much fantasy. He’s one of the immediate forebears of Bertrand Mandico’s cinema.” them a lot of questions, about being a teenager, about desire, eve n ab out p e n e t rat ion . We don’t know what it’s like to have a sensitive member that feels goo d when it enters another person. It’s a bizarre concept for us. The boy I played wanted pleasure and to satisfy his desires. I also spent time watching boys in the subway, their center of gravity, how they move in space. In the end, that didn’t really help me because I still r u n li ke a gi rl in the movie. (laughs)

physical reference. I got Mick Jagger and Anaël Skok got Sid Viciou s, for ex a mple. But Bertrand mostly just trusted us. In his casting he wanted to h ave d i fferent color s, wh i le staying true to each actress’s personality. He didn’t want to fall back on a simple kind of cross- d ressing. Many people were surprised and asked him ab out h i s choice. I th i n k he thought it would make the transition easier. I don’t recall ever seeing a movie where a man plays a real woman.

AB: E ve r y t h i n g i s m i x e d u p

AB: Going beyond the aesthetic

from the start, and the character’s gender is never clearly defined. The viewer is constantly left in doubt. Did Bertrand give you any sp eci fic i nd ication s about how to portray a boy?

MW: Yes, he gave each of us a

level, it’s the kind of film that tempts us to hunt for hidden meanings and pick apart all its symbolism. Is it a film that is rem a rk able solely for it s strange beauty or does it raise real issues?

rimental or collage films that a r e ro ot e d i n sp e c i f ic r efe rences?

MW: Yes, it’s the kind of cinema that I liked from a very young age. I have some absolutly lovely things coming out soon, not necessarily in the same genre, but that are also up my alley. In any case, the kind of movies Mandico makes are the kind I want to watch. Even if I wasn’t in the movie, I would go see it in the theater. It was screened at L’Étrange Festival, an event I love going to. They show a lot of Japanese films and a bunch of absolutely sick stuff. It’s great.

AB: I can’t wait to see what you have in store for us with your upcoming projects.

MW: I just finished a spectacular film called Curiosa directed by Lou Jeunet. It’s about the nineteenth- century writer Pierre Louÿs and the poet Marie de Régnier. Pierre Louÿs collected some of the first erotic photographs. It stars Camélia Jordana, Noémie Merlant, and Niels Scheider. Next, I’m going to do an American movie. I have a lot of roles in English coming up, which is amazing. I like it, I t h i n k it’s f u n . How yo u ac t changes when you switch languages. I’ve got a thick accent, but I speak fluently. Plus I do French roles with an accent, too.

I also shot a pilot for a comedy directed by Samuel Abrahams for YouT ub e where I play a young art student in London.

AB: Did mo del l i ng give you a sense of body awareness in front of the camera?

MW: Mo del i ng and acti ng a re very different.

CRASH 147

MATHILDE WARNIER

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“Bertrand Mandico is bringing a breath of fresh air to film. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a film with so much freedom, and that’s certainly a revolution. I hope it helps more unconventional filmmakers in their careers. ”

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I’m not sure if the best models would make good actresses. Modeling didn’t make me any more comfortable with my body. Since I’m not super skinny or very tall, modeling just gave me a bunch of complexes more than anything else. My boyfriend is a director but also does a lot of photography and I like posing for him. But it’s something I do just for fun, with my friends.

Modelling all the time seems like a sad career. When you’re an ordinary girl who’s not too comfortable in her skin, and you’re compared with all these bodies that look like aliens, it can only do more harm than good. I don’t always know why I was picked over other girls. The worst part was the atmosphere in the castings. It’s a never-ending critique of your physique.

That said, I don’t regret that period of my life because I met a lot of wonderful people.

especially in politics. Should we start the revolution like in the past, with the same tools? I’m not so sure about that. In any case, I do think about how to start a new dynamic. Activism today is not like it was in the past, that much is clear. But how should we do it? Does being an activist mean believing in a utopia that we want to see in real life? Did the utopias of the past have a positive impact on society? As far as politics go, I’m lost. I don’t connect with anything and I don’t think I’m the only one. I loved the energy of Nuit Debout, but what did it change? All these issues worry me. It was nice to see the sort of feminist revolution recently, with the “silent majority” expressing itself. Since we’re still in the thick of things, it’s hard to step back and talk objectively about it. I’m sure there will be some interesting theories about it in the future, but what I see a mostly positive energy today, despite some gaffes and missteps. I don’t like the idea of fighting, it rubs me the wrong way. But at the same time, it can be a necessary thing. The Internet age has helped advance free speech, but it has also brought along some negative effects.

AB: This year is the twentieth anniversary of Crash and fifty years since May 1968. What does revolution mean for you, both in film and in society?

MW: I think Bertrand is bringing a breath of fresh air to film. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a film with so much freedom, and that’s certainly a revolution. I hope it helps more unconvent ion a l f i l m m a ker s i n their careers. The production company Ecce Films is amazing, too. It helps a lot of original work get made. But beyond that, what is revolution? Is it wanting to be free? We all want to break with the disgusting stuff that has come before us, 148 CRASH

SEASON 2 OF A VERY SECRET SERVICE PREMIERES IN MAY 2018.

CURIOSA OPENS SOON. CRASH 149

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INTERVIEW: ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : JAMES MOUNTFORD, STYLIST : JAKE SAMMIS

LAWRENCE ROTHMAN

SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO SHIRT IN SILK, PANTS IN DENIM, JACKET IN LEATHER WITH LACING

With a rotating cast of nine alter egos appearing from one video to the next, Lawrence Rothman is virtually impossible for new listeners to pin down. What’s more, the musician names, performs, and embodies each of these characters with an actor’s knack for shapeshifting.

Darrel Bitchboy, Orion, Truman, Hooky, Aleister, Nantucket, Kevin, Elizabeth, and Christopher each represent a different facet of the American artist’s plural personality. But there is no stylistic gimmick here: these transformations represent a manifesto in an era marked by blurred gender lines and redefined boundaries between male and female. After recently coming out as genderfluid, Lawrence Rothman aims to amplify the voice of those living outside society’s norms. We met with the artist to learn more about their unique background, first album, and impressive list of collaborations.

CRASH 151

MUSIC / L AWRENCE ROTHMAN

SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO TANK TOP IN COTTON, SILK SHIRT, SKINNY JEAN IN DENIM, BRACELET JONC BERBÈRE MARRAKECH IN BRASS SILVER STYLIST’S OWN NECKLACE

AB: Do you feel like people have

Y

OUR NEW ALBUM JUST CAME OUT. WHAT WAS THE CONCEPT BEHIND IT?

LR: It was basically me having lyrics and coming from a place that was super raw. Almost like an open-journal with no barrier, which I’ve never done befo r e . I ’ve n e ve r w r i t t e n a s transparently. It explores the experiences I’ve gone through, dealing with gender fluidity and people in my family not being open to that. Where I’m from, in Missouri, I had trouble existing. I wanted to address it in m y l y r i c s , t e l l m y s t o r y. I thought possibly, somebody else was feeling the same way and would benefit from my expe riences. I didn’t feel okay when I was going through it, discovering it for the first time.

152 CRASH

been receptive to your story?

LR: Definitely. I’ve met a lot of people that have gone through the same th i ng or a re goi ng through it. They’re all different ages as wel l, some a re ver y young and some are older. I feel like I’m part of opening up this conversation. It’s ok to feel like you’re kind of somewhere in the middle of gender, it’s not bad nor weird. It’s just reality. Of course, there are a lot of people who don’t understand. I put my blinders on and try to not get too focused on negativity.

AB: Growing up, did you have cer-

AB: Even heavy-metal bands like

tain musicians that you could relate to?

LR: Prince was a big one for me. I felt like he blurred the line, how he looked and dressed... He felt very genderfluid even though he never identified as that. When I looked at him I felt like I could relate to that imagery. Even somebo dy l i ke Ku r t Coba i n, who wore dresses and played the guitar at the same time, was an inspiration to me. When I was growing up, until I got to a certain age, I’d turn on MTV, back when they played music videos in the 90s and thought: “Oh, wow there’s Kurt Cobain we a r i n g a d r e s s ! ” B ei n g s o little and watching that, you thin k there’s nothing w rong.

Then all of a sudden, you get to high school and people are wond er i n g wh at t h e h el l you’r e doing. That’s when the trouble starts, especially if you’re from the Midwest where it’s super closed-minded.

Kiss or Steel Panther were the e pitome of m a scu l i n it y, but were still very androgynous.

LR: Even Little Richard! Whenever I wou ld see A n n ie Len nox, I also felt like she was blurring the line. It’s nothing new, it’s just that now it has more of an explanation to it, so I guess it feels shocking to people who are closed-minded.

AB: You collaborated with many amazing artists on your album.

But for me, Marissa Nadler seeme d l i ke a match made i n h e ave n ! How d i d t h at c om e about?

LR: I’m a big fan of her music and my producer Justin Raisen reached out to her. We had never met but she was into the idea of coming to the studio and hanging out with us. When she was in L.A, she came by and we had a good time just talking about music. Then she got on the mic and started singing and

one thing led to another! It was amazing. Justin Raisen and I produced a song that has John Cale from the Velvet Underground and Marissa’s vocals.

We’ve b e c om e go o d f r i e n d s since.

AB: You’ve managed to bring together very well-known, established artists with more und e r g r o u n d ac t s. For a f i r st album, it’s amazing that you got to work with such legendary artists like Kim Gordon.

LR: Justin was just really good at r e ac h i n g o u t t o p e o p l e a n d showing them the music. I like the idea of bringing different ty p e s of mu sicia n s together that normally wouldn’t meet.

AB: I feel like you’ve put a lot of ef for t i n offer i n g b e aut i f u l ly-made music videos. Are visuals as important as the music?

LR: Yes. I’ll write a song and it will be done, but while I’m wri-

ting it certain images will come to me, which I’ll jot down in a notebook. When I’m singing my vocal tapes, I’ll start daydreaming about things that get me in the moo d. I l i ke when ideas come to life. I feel like, in this day and age, music and visuals are intertwined. It creates excitement. I just did a show in Los Angeles where I brought some of the scenes in my music videos to life. Everything was actually happening on stage. I like creating little worlds like that. I like going to visual concerts, not just some guy playing the guitar.

AB: What kind of imagery inspires you?

LR: I like Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Cronenberg... I love film a lot. I’ll put films on in the studio while we’re working, just playing in the background.

There’s something about film that sets the mood of a whole room, just like music can.

AB: Gender fluidity has become

AB: It was an autobiographical album from start to finish?

LR: Yes, exactly. It was really a first for me. I used to write about other people or experiences that I saw from afar, about friends.

Occasionally I’ve been autobiographical but this time I wanted every song to be true to my feel i n g s. T h e p r o d u c e r, Ju st i n Raisen, really pushed me in that direction. He told me I had to tell my story. In the beginning, I wasn’t going to produce those kinds of songs, but then I rewrote all the lyrics.

more widely known to the public, which is a good thing but also generates more hate from anonymous Internet users. What is your take on that?

LR: I feel like, even three years ago, the subject wasn’t as open and identified in a broad spectrum. Androgyny and gender fluidity has been going on since the beginning of time so it’s weird that people still think it’s not right. Online you get a lot of weird troll people saying negative shit. My opinion is that if you’re going to say anything, let’s go meet in person. Don’t hide behind your laptop. I’m all for freedom of speech but if it’s done cowardly, what’s the point?

SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO SILK SHIRT SAINT, SILK TIE LAWRENCE’S OWN RING CRASH 153

MUSIC / L AWRENCE ROTHMAN

SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO SHIRT IN COTTON VOILE, PANTS IN DENIM, SAHARIENNE JACKET IN SUEDE, BELT IN LEATHER

AB: Do you listen to a lot of movie

I’m not very familiar with 80s music because I mostly listen to 90s bands or stuff that’s much older like Marvin Gaye. Really old soul music. I’ve talked to a lot of people who get the 80s comparison sometimes, and most of the time they have no idea why.

soundtracks?

LR: Yes, I love soundtracks! Clockwork Orange ’s soundtrack is one of my favorites. I would love to dabble in movie soundtracks one day. For my own pleasure I create a lot of sonic beds, kind of like Brian Eno’s ambient music. I’ll do some with keyboards and some with guitars. It would be great to attach them to actual film pieces. I play with loops all the time, I just haven’t had an outlet to showcase it, other than during the live shows in between songs.

AB: Today,everythingtendstowards minimalism or even normcore, yet you seem to be attached to a more baroque aesthetic.

LR: I don’t ever listen to new music, unless I create playlists of stuff I like. I’m not really following where it fits. I genre hop myself all the time. When I’m creating playlists on Spotify, I’m always hopping from genre to genre, a bit all over the place. I just do whatever I like. I like things that have a sort of emotional pain, it could be in the strings or organs. I also like minimal music. I don’t force myself to do anything that doesn’t come naturally.

AB: You have showcased nine different versions of you, or alter egos, to accompany this first album. Is it something that followed you all your life or is it a new concept?

LR: My mother’s a real free spirit. My whole life, she was always naming different moods I was in.

If I was being mean or rude one day, she’d call me Aleister. I would always change my mind about my hair and my clothes and my mother always supported those decisions. She told me if I wanted to shave my head or dye my hair red I could. So I continued naming these different versions of myself in my teen years, and when the time came to release some music I thought I’d be exactly who I am to my family publicly. I wanted to have fun with it. I feel like everybody’s got versions of themselves. You show one person one side of you and another person the other side. I want to wear all my personalities on my sleeve. All the alters were created through the years, then I finally found the nine principal ones that most represent me. Everyone has multiple facets, it’s just a matter of how you define it. Some people are more expressive than others.

AB: Is there one alter ego that represents you the most?

LR: They all do because they’re all my different moods.

AB: Your music is very 80s infused, what is so musically appealing to you in that era?

LR: I think on this particular album it was a happy weird accident that it sounds like that, because I don’t have a lot of 80s references.

I like the Cure but who doesn’t? I like Morrissey as well. That’s about it. I think because of my vocals and the synths it has that 80s vibe. People told me it sounded like Roxy Music or Bryan Ferry and I’m like, “Ok, cool.”

154 CRASH

vid Bowie a lot. You have to listen to his song “Duchess.” He a lways m ade p op mu sic but with experimental elements.

Kind of like the Talking Heads where it’s kind of pop but still st ra n ge. T h at’s wh at I l i ke, much more than punk music.

AB: How did the recording process go for this first album?

LR: I micromanage everything.

“I LIKE GOING TO VISUAL CONCERTS, NOT JUST SOME GUY PLAYING THE GUITAR.”

(laughs) So I engineered the whole project and mixed it. I recorded every single instrument.

I wa nte d to do the rhy th m tracks fi rst, so the bass, the d r u m s , t h e g u i t a r, a n d t h e piano. We would get different musicians together, all in the room, and then I’d mic it all up and get my tape machines. I have a bunch of vintage tape machines. A few were owned by Steve Albini, I bought them off of him. So I get them all going and run into the room and we all play takes. Then we layer stuff on top of that. That was the most fun part of the whole project, just feeling the energy of ever yb o dy. I re a l ly l i ke d goi ng i nto the control room, getting the tape ready and running back! (laughs)

AB: You used to play in the punk band The Living Things a long time ago. What made you want to go solo and make pop music?

LR: Since it was a band, we were all involved equally in the project.

The music was a reflection of all four of us. I was never a big fan of rock music, I just sort of fell into that. I always look at things as a snapshot of time and that really represented a specific moment in my life. My personal taste is much more pop, a bit weird and experimental. I like the career of Scott Walker. He’s a very interesting guy, he actually influenced Da-

PHOTOGRAPHER : JAMES MOUNTFORD STYLISTE : JAKE SAMMIS HAIR STYLIST: PAMELA NEAL EXECUTIVE PRODUCER : VIRGINIE PICOT CRASH 155

MOSES SUMNEY INTERVIEW: ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : CROWNS & OWLS

Moses Sumney is first and foremost a voice – a pure, almost angelic voice. With a few EPs and a full album of minimalist soul jams under his belt, the artist is a relative newcomer on the music scene, but he has already surrounded himself with other talented musicians like Solange and Sufjan Stevens, opening for the latter on a recent tour.

With Aromanticism, Moses set out to tackle a delicate issue: the absence of love and the inability to experience romantic love.

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MIHARA YASUHIRO JACKET AND PANTS

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MUSIC / MOSES SUMNEY

AB: You started playing with instruments quite late. What gave you the will to start experimenting with music?

MS: I always wanted to do it and I had always planned to do it, I just never found the right time or the right support. When I went to college, I felt like it was now or never. It was always my dream, I had the desire inside me long enough until I finally pushed it out.

AB: W a s y o u r c o l l e g e v e r y music-driven?

MS: Yes, but most of all, I went to college in LA and a lot of p e ople c om e t o L A b e c au s e they’re seeking more opportunities, especially in entertainment. That’s also the reason I chose to go to this university. LA can be a motivation to achieve what you dream of achieving.

AB: Did you start making music in bands at first?

MS: Ye s, I cou ld n’t re a l ly do anything alone. I had been writing songs since I was twelve years old, but I didn’t know how to perform or play instruments.

I had to rely on other people in the beginning. I was in an indie rock band and then I played with the jazz kids. I played a little bit of piano here and there whenever I could get my hands on one, but guitar was the main instrument for me. I just bought a really cheap guitar on eBay or Amazon and started playing it.

AB: You studied creative writing with an emphasis on poetry. Did that have a strong impact on the way you w r it e you r ly r ic s today?

MS: It really helped me hone my lyric-writing skills. That’s the reason why I studied that subject in the first place. It helped me learn how to communicate meaning and be more direct or less direct. There were no music or songwriting classes, it was all about words. I wasn’t a music student. Because I didn’t have a mu sic backg rou nd, I c o u l d n e ve r ge t i n t o m u s i c programs.

AB: In college you also had a radio show. What kind of subjects did you touch on?

MS: Yes! This is so funny. I had two different shows, one was about covers where I would play different versions of a song and explore the way songs were reimagined over time. Then my other show was more regular 158 CRASH

and was called “Living in the City” or something like that. It really was just my excuse to play anything. When I was a student, every show had to have a theme, so I said m i ne was “city music” and I could pass with just about everything. Sometimes I would have local LA indie bands come out and play and I would sometimes interview them. I really thought I w a n t e d t o b e a D J at s om e point. I would love to have a radio show. There’s a band in LA called King who are amazing.

They’re three women who are pretty successful here. They wer e t he f i r st ba n d I i nt er viewed. I stalked them and begge d them to b e on my rad io show. They came on and played two songs and from that mo ment on we became really close friends. It was a friendship that really mattered because when I started performing in LA, my first shows were opening for t h e m d u r i n g a r e s i d e n c y.

Knowing them was how I got my start in music.

AB: In music, did you know right away what direction you wanted to take? How did you find your voice?

MS: It was a very long process, specifically for this album. If you go back and you listen to my earlier recordings, you’ll see that it sounds quite different from the way the album sounds.

It took me a while to find the sound that I wanted to embody. I knew I wanted to incorporate soul and folk into my project, that was the base. I also liked jazz a lot, as well as indie rock.

I needed to find a way to combine all of these elements. I was really obsessed with the idea of m a k i n g mu sic t h at d id n’t already exist. It took me three years to develop this album. I ended up working with a lot of different people whose work never m ade it i n t he a lbu m. I wrote more than sixty songs in total. I honestly discovered my sound by experimenting a lot.

AB: Did you sing in falsetto from

ted writing for the LA weekly when I graduated. The thing is, when I first started living in LA, I did everything! I was so afraid that I wouldn’t be succe ssfu l as a mu sicia n that I thought I’d do all jobs at once. I was a radio DJ, I worked for the school newspaper, LA weekly, I worked in sign language, I had a big corporate marketing job for a pizza company. (laughs) I also did so many things in music to be sure I’d still be working in that field even if I wasn’t on stage. At some point I stopped doing all that and relying on my back-up plans to devote myself entirely to music-making.

the start? Was it natural or did you have to work on it?

MS: I had been practicing falsetto singing for a long time.

When I was a kid I had a really high voice, I could sing whistle tones. Then, when I hit puberty, I lost all my range and I got really afraid. I became obsessed with practicing falsetto all the time. Also, I was very shy and would sing very quietly. It’s interesting because I also sang in choirs in college and high-school and I was a bass, I always had the lowest part in the group.

When I started my own music, I would record stuff in my low voice but it always sounded better higher. For the second album, I’m trying to use my lower voice more. People don’t know that it exists and I need to get better at that.

AB: Is there a certain pressure in

AB: You had a real thought-out

AB: S o yo u a l m o s t b e c a m e a journalist at some point.

MS: Yes, definitely. I also star-

LA to make it in the entertainment industry?

MS: There is a certain pressure but that i s the reason why people come to LA. Not everybody here works in that industry but a lot of people that you meet will assume that you do.

In this city, more than any city in the world, people love to ask you what you do. You do feel a pressure to either be successful or be constantly grinding. You feel the hunger here, which can be a good thing or a bad thing. I already had that pressure internal ly because music is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life.

MS: I think love is more confu-

sense. I wrote about the same thing on every song as a way to connect them lyrically.

sing now than ever before but also, access to the internet and the ability for new ideas to be distributed gives us the opportunity to discover new ways to love. I would never have been able to learn about aromanticism if it wasn’t for the internet.

It’s difficult to access love but we also have access to a lot of other things. (laughs) I generally think that social media is bad.

AB: What was the concept behind the album?

MS: I t w a s j u s t a b o u t l o v e lessness. Aromanticism means

the absence of romantic love or romantic attraction. I really connected to the idea in different degrees and on different levels. It is a subject that isn’t discussed a lot in our culture.

Our culture is obsessed with love, especially the French. I bl a m e t h e F r e n c h ac t u a l ly. (laughs) The export of that stereotype affects everything. Art had always been obsessed with love, which is fine, but sometimes it is talked about in very simplistic ways. I wanted to explore a concept that was complicated but that recognized that some people don’t feel romantic attraction.

AB: You are playing at Coachella this year. What are you expecting from it?

MS: My name is very small on the program. (laughs) I’m not sure I’m making it big yet. It’s definitely a big step, it’s a milestone. It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve been to Coachella so many times and I promised myself last year that I would never go again unless I was playing. Now I’m playing, so I can go again. (laughs)

AB: What do you think about the notion of love in 2018? Do you feel it is consumed by social media and hypercommunication?

MS: People have always struggled to connect with others, but it is more difficult now than ever before because of the way that, not only social media, but also the internet and technology affe c t o u r b r a i n . I t a c t u a l l y creates more barriers between us and other people.

concept for your debut album

Aromanticism . How d i d you

work around it? Was it nice to have certain guidelines?

MS: It was really nice. It was also hard, because if I wrote a song that was outside of the main theme then I knew I couldn’t use it. I had to cut a few songs in the end because they d id n’t fit the de scr iption. It guided me to keep my writing cohesive. I chose a theme because I wanted to explore so many different sounds, a style that was a mixture of so many d i f fe r e n t t h i n g s, a n d I wa s a fraid it wou ld n’t ma ke any

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BY JOSHUA PARKER AND NINA GEORGE PHOTO ASSISTANT : THEO TENNANT LIGHTING ASSISTANT : ANGUS CHINN RETOUCH : LUCY HUTCHINSON SPECIAL THANKS : EMILY RUDGE @ICONOCLAST

MIHARA YASUHIRO COAT AND SHOES

MOSES SUMNEY’S DEBUT ALBUM AROMANTICISM WAS RELEASED ON JUJUJAGUWAR ON SEPTEMBER 22ND, 2017.

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A.P.C JACKET IN DENIM STYLIST’S OWN RING

Igor Dewe is a jack of all trades: the polyvalent artist can metamorphose and don a completely new face for each solo show or performance with his crew House of Drama. Perched atop high he els a nd decke d out i n preciou s jewelry, Igor revels in Baroque pomp and splendor, the glamour of the 1930s, and hot Parisian nights spent dancing till dawn to the sounds INTERVIEW : ALICE BUTTERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHER : ERIK FAULKNER, STYLIST : DIMITRI RIVIERE of minimal techno, gabber, or disco. As the muse of queer parties like Club Sandwich and Madame Klaude, he released his first video for the more-thansuggestive track “Sexual Obsession.”

Complete with raunchy lyrics, leather, and fishnets set to 80s pop instrumentals, the art of Igor Dewe bathes in an overt sexuality unencumbered by any hang-ups. With his extravagant and burlesque style, he can transform even the sleaziest sex shop into a hub of cool, while sending out a little joie-de-vivre to everyone who crosses his path.

IGOR DEWE

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MUSIC / IGOR DEWE

AB: You first became known for your street performances during Fashion Week, where you showed up wearing high heels made from exotic fruits. Can you tell us about your background?

ID: It all started when I met the group of friends with whom I created House of Drama. I first met Aymeric Bergada du Cadet when I was seventeen and had just arrived in Paris. I went to a lot of the Club Sandwich parties and played around with extravagant outfits. I was fre ei ng mys el f f rom my sm a l l - tow n background. (laughs) House of Drama gradually started organizing parties at Chez Moune, a lesbian club that was on its last legs when the owners of Le Baron bought it. They invited us to come dance and emcee their parties. That was such a great time in my life. I was fearless and always let loose. I was also looking for another way to expre ss mysel f aside from my p e r fo r m a n c e s. S o I s t a r t e d jewelry school and worked as a stud io assistant, notably for Lanvin, Nina Ricci, and Marc Jacobs.

ID: Yes. As soon as I discovered

the Club Sandwich scene, I knew I wante d to ma ke costu mes.

Those parties introduced me to all my friends and collaborators. We wanted to create these kinds of tableaux vivants with a strong burlesque aspect. We reproduced vintage scenes, without necessarily recreating existing tableaux. I would become a horse, someone else was a bishop – we did a lot of religious scenes. We even recreated The Raft of the Medusa at Chez Moune. (laughs)

AB: Back then there wasn’t all the social media promotion that goes along with parties now.

ID: Yes, that’s true, and anyway we were terrible with communications. But people took a lot of party photos and posted them on the web. Facebook was just getting started at the time. Today you can experience a party without even being there, just by watching the lives or stories posted on social media.

AB: What do you look for in a party?

ID: Back then I just wanted to dance. I didn’t drink or do any d r ugs, but I still wanted the party to last all night. I went from club to club on my scooter.

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AB: Was the nightlife in Paris more exciting in the early 2000s?

ID: Yes, I felt a lot of excitement that isn’t quite there today, but that’s just my personal feeling.

There are still a lot of cool parties in Paris, like La Toilette and Péripate. When I go out I want to hear 80s Nouvelle Vague t r a c k s o r t e c h n o. I g av e a concert last year at La Toilette w ith F rançois Sagat, a porn star. I’m working on a project with him that should come out soon. It’s an EP that we just recorded, but I’m waiting for the music video before we release it.

L

AB: So when you went out to parties, it was mostly about style?

We went to Le Baron and Chez Régine a lot.

AST YEAR YOU SAID YOU ONLY WANTED TO DO MUSIC VIDEOS, WITHOUT FORCING YOURSELF TO RELEASE AN EP OR ALBUM.

ID: A lot has changed since then.

I have more tracks and I want to release a solo album in addition to the EP with François. He wasn’t a musician, so I had him take voice lessons. I wrote a bunch of lyrics and he helped me out with a few songs. It was all produced by a Berlin musician name d Jona Davis. It’s minimalist techno. I wanted to do something unlike anything I’d done before. François has a ver y strong image that goes with a raw and cold style of music. I love what he does and I was thrilled to work with him. I think his relationship to art is very interesting. He elevates porn almost to an artform. Porn today is mostly about amateur videos on the web and stuff that has no artistic ambition. But François Sagat’s films have an actual script with interesting lines. He’s done a few projects with Bruce LaBruce.

AB: And your album?

ID: I’ve fi n i she d eig ht of ten tracks so far. I’m giving myself

until September to finish it. It’s going to be very 80s. I’ve already released videos for three of the s o n g s : “ S e x u a l O b s e s s i o n ,” “King Size Heart,” and “Serial Lover.” Soon I’m going to release the vide o for the next single, “Gogo Boy.” I filmed it in Pigalle with model Luc Bruyère.

It takes place in a bar and I play a gogo boy surrounded by other gogo boys. (laughs) So I’m continuing my exploration of prostitution. All my songs revolve around that theme. I like dressing myself up as a luxury whore, a cheap whore, a Pigalle whore, or a transvestite whore.

Even when I do other things, I always end up as a whore.

AB: W h o i s i n t h e H o u s e o f Drama crew?

ID: There is Ylva Falk, Amélie Poulain, Aymeric Bergada du Cadet, and Dyna Dagger. I first met Aymeric over ten years ago and the girls came along a little later. We went to the Cannes Film Festival and started to get commissions, but we kept doing it for the fun without turning it into a job. We never thought it would last. We all have a specific role in the group: there’s a choreographer, a make-up arti st, I do the costu me s, a nd Aymeric is the artistic director.

We all have the same tastes and artistic ambitions. Sometimes we don’t even need to discuss things, the performance just comes together on its own. We’re a bit like a family that gets together every weekend. During the week we all have our own activities, and it’s so much fun to come toget her for ou r performances.

AB: You went from queer parties to TV and performed at a La Femme concert. What is it like p er for m i n g for a l a rger au dience?

ID: We did a lot of work with La Femme through Dyna Dagger, who knew Marlon Magnée. They i nv it e d u s t o a few of t h ei r c on c e r t s, a n d we d i d a few production designs and perform a nce s w it h t hem. We to ok inspiration from 1960s choreog r a p h i e s , p a r t i c u l a rl y B o b Fosse’s work. He was a very innovative choreographer at the time. We wanted to pay tribute to him and get inspired by his genius.

AB: Is there more queer representation on television today?

ID: No, I don’t think so. I don’t see much. There isn’t enough

open homosexuality. For example, my work is about asserting a form of homosexuality that is turned up to a fever pitch. I haven’t seen anything like that on television. Sometimes you have to cross the line before something becomes part of the culture and people get used to it. I’m fairly masculine in my lifestyle, but I like to wear dresses, too. I like wearing a dress in the street without having to worry about it. The other day my mother helped me zip up my dress, and I think it’s great that she doesn’t care at all about what type of clothing goes with what ty p e of bo dy. I w i sh it would become more normal and not shock people. But most of t he ti me I sp en d t he d ay i n sweats and sneakers.

AB: Is there a gulf between the daytime and night life in terms of what’s acceptable to wear?

ID: I would love to dress exuberantly du ring the day, but it doesn’t always match my lifestyle. It’s not very com–fortable.

I u s e d t o we a r h e el s i n t h e street, but I didn’t have much to do back then. (laughs) Getting weird looks in the street was exciting for me. It gives you an adrenaline rush, just like perfor m i ng. When I d id my c a r w a s h n u m b e r fo r Pa r i s Fashion Week, I had no idea if the driver was going to fight me or if I was going to get arrested.

All my street performances got me into trouble, but it goes with the territory. It’s confrontational. You’re combining reality w ith someth i n g su r re a l. My thing was creating weird shoes and performing in them, and I wou ld d ef i n it ely l i ke t o s e e more boys wearing heels in the street. The other day I was out in heels with friends and a man yelled: “A re you serious? ” It was shocking. I wou ld never judge someone so openly like that. I don’t like violent words, especially from people I don’t know. I think I’m old enough to decide how to d re ss mysel f.

When I was doing my Fashion Week performances, it was to provoke people and poke fun at this world that looks so perfect on the surface. People parade around in their brand new clothes and shoes, and I show up with my Guerrisol outfit and the latest Nina Ricci shoes. I’m not sure it would have had the same effect if I had worn anything other than the shoes from the last Theyskens runway show for Nina Ricci. People think you’re

STYLIST’S OWN TOP ACNE STUDIOS ARCHIVES HAT MODEL’S OWN NECKLACE CRASH 163

MUSIC / IGOR DEWE

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER ARCHIVES CORSET CARHARTT SHIRT AND SHORTS APC BELT IN LEATHER MODEL’S OWN NECKLACE

trash if you don’t have at least one fashion element. I mixed fashion and trash. Now a lot of people come to Fashion Week in costume, but they take themselves so seriously. I was trying to ridicule the whole masquerade.

Runway shows back then were attended only by invited guests.

There weren’t all the bloggers waiting to be photographed. No one would even notice me today.

If I’m lucky I might make it on Le Petit Journal [a sat i r ic a l n e w s s h o w o n F r e n c h T V] . (laughs)

AB: Do you still go to Fashion Week every year?

ID: No, it’s not my thing. Fashion shows always bored me, I don’t see the point. It must cost so much money to put them to g e t h e r. E v e r y t h i n g i s o n Instagram today any way, so why not just publish a lookbook on t he bra n d’s page? St re et styles seem to travel best, since you see them everywhere. But I admit I don’t know much about fashion. John Galliano is my idol in fashion, and I love his work for Margiela. He has an incredible culture that he blends with his instinct and extraordinary forms. When I showed up at the Dior runway show with my sign saying “The King is Gone” after John Galliano left the brand in 2011, I had no ambition of becoming famous. But I ended up on the front page of the Guardian for all of three minutes. I turned up in Madame Figaro photographed by Martin Parr, in Le Monde – even Boy George reposted the photo. I was really into debate at the time, too.

AB: Last year you told me you were a fan of Palomo Spain and Dilara Findikoglu. Who do you think are the next designers to watch?

ID: I love Nicolas Lecourt-Mansion and Sam Depauw. I did a few photos for h i m. He’s a n eighteen-year-old student and I think he’s going to go far. He’s very talented.

AB: Since this is the special film issue of Crash, can you tell me about a few films and directors that have influenced you?

ID: My favorite film is certainly Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia. I love the way it’s shot with a lot of camera movement and scenes that follow the characters.

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day. That was the first time I was moved and excited by film.

I liked The Little Mermaid a lot, too. (laughs) But my work is inspired more by photographers. The “Serial Lover” video was inspi red by Guy Bourdin photos. I’m a Carmen M i ra n d a fa n . I n Hol ly wo o d there was Marlene Dietrich who playe d t he sup er g la morou s German and Carmen Miranda who wa s t he Bra z i l i a n w it h fruit on her head. It’s crazy that Brazilians don’t li ke her be cause they think her image is reductive. My friend Aymeric prefers Marlene Dietrich and I’m more into Carmen. To each their own icon.

AB: Do you already have an idea of how you will perform your album on stage?

ID: I’d like to try working more on my choreographies. So far my c onc e r t s h ave fo c u s e d mostly on my style with more improvised choreographies. I would like to do something more planned out, but I also like the idea of surprises. As usual, I’ll be a whore. No matter what happens, there will be heels. And butts.

PHOTOGRAPHER : ERIK FAULKNER STYLIST : DIMITRI RIVIERE MAKE UP & HAIR : TIFFANY FOUQUEILH

AB: Are there any specific performers who have inspired you?

ID: Leigh Bowery is one of my inspirations, and I like the music he made, too. Oska r Schlemmer is another one, even though he’s an artist from the 1930s who made incredible costumes. His work inspired my image in my performances. His metal structures are incredible.

I do metalwork by hand and I know how hard it is, so what he m a n a ge d t o d o w a s c l e a rly ahead of its time. Same with Mugler who made robot women.

I’m also inspired by the Robert Zemeckis film Death Becomes Her and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. My jewelry line is full of influences from that film. That whole mystica l a nd e soter ic aesthetic inspired me when I was you nger. A nother fi lm I love is Santa Claus is a Stinker, especially Marie-Anne Chazel’s role. Her character of Dame Gin e t t e i n The Visitors w a s actually the inspiration for one o f my p e r fo r m a n c e s. I w a s dressed just like her. Her look is amazing! My favorite detail i s the da i sy attache d to her earring.

AB: How is your jewelry collection coming along?

ID: I’ve been working on my collection for a while. I’m going piece by piece. I make everything myself, including the wax models and glass beads. It’s a ton of work and takes up a lot of time. It felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere for a long time, both for my jewelry and my music.

Every track takes so much time to make when you consider the demo, jacket, record i ng, mixing, and mastering. But I’m about to have some fi n ishe d products ready soon.

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FENDI SHIRT IN COTTON, JACKET IN WOOL

A STORY WITH HUGO COMTE AS “THE PHOTOGRAPHER” ANDREJ SKOK AS “THE STYLIST”

SILENCE, A C T I O N !

KIM

@HAKIMMODELMANAGEMENT

SIMONA

@HAKIMMODELMANAGEMENT

GUSTAVE

@HAKIMMODELMANAGEMENT

MARYAN

@MMANAGEMENT

MAKE-UP : CÉCILE PARAVINA HAIR : CHIAO CHENET @ATOMOMANAGEMENT CASTING DIRECTOR : NICOLAS BIANCIOTTO @THEARTBOARD STYLIST ASSISTANTS : BENJAMIN GAENG & PAULINE GROSJEAN

LEFT PAGE PLEATS PLEASE ISSEY MIYAKE PANTS IN POLYESTER AND RAYON EL PASO BOOTY HAT IN WOOL FELT RIGHT PAGE LOUIS VUITTON COAT IN WOOL AND ANGORA, BAG SPEEDY DOCTOR IN CALF LEATHER AND MONOGRAM CANVAS WOLFORD TIGHTS

MARYAN PRADA JACKET IN NYLON GABARDINE, SHORTS IN NYLON GABARDINE, SOCKS IN TECHNICAL FABRIC, BOOTS IN LEATHER KIM PRADA DRESS IN NYLON GABARDINE, JACKET IN NYLON GABARDINE, SOCKS IN TECHNICAL FABRIC, BOOTS IN NEOPRENE

LEFT PAGE FORTE FORTE TOP IN MIXED WOOL JERSEY, SKIRT IN CREPE DE CHINE, DRESS IN CREPE DE CHINE FALKE TIGHTS RIGHT PAGE DIOR HOMME SHIRT IN COTTON, SLEEVELESS JACKET IN WOOL OTTOMAN, PANTS IN WOOL OTTOMAN, SNEAKERS IN CALFSKIN AND TECHNICAL FABRIC, SUNGLASSES WITH GOLD FRAMES AND PINK LENSES, SCARF IN WOOL OTTOMAN WITH CHRISTIAN DIOR ATELIER LABEL RICHARD MILLE WATCH RM 67-01 AUTOMATIC EXTRA FLAT IN TITANIUM WITH AUTOMATIC SKELETONISED WINDING MOVEMENT AND FUNCTION INDICATOR

SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO T-SHIRT IN COTTON, SHIRT IN GEORGETTE SILK, STUDDED BOMBER JACKET IN LEATHER AND PYTHON, JEAN IN DENIM STRETCH

NEXT PAGE COMME DES GARÇONS HOMME PLUS SHIRT IN POLYESTER, JACKET WITH SEQUINS, SHORT WITH SEQUINS COMME DES GARÇONS HOMME PLUS X NIKE 180 BASKETS IN POLYESTER AND SYNTHETIC LEATHER LES BRETELLES DE LÉON LARGES SUSPENDERS EBENE LA PERLA SOCKS

MARYAN BURBERRY DOWN JACKET IN POLYAMIDE, PANTS IN POLYAMIDE KIM BURBERRY KNIT JUMPER IN WOOL, POLO IN CASHMERE AND SILK, LEGGINGS IN POLYAMIDE

CHRISTIAN DIOR JACKET IN WOOL, SKIRT IN WOOL, CHOCKER DIOR OR IN METAL WITH RIBBON, EARRINGS DIOR TRIBALES IN METAL DIOR HOMME SCARF IN WOOL OTTOMAN PREVIOUS PAGE KIM GUCCI JACKET IN DOUBLE SILK SATIN, PANTS IN DOUBLE SILK SATIN, HEADBAND IN SILK SIMONA GUCCI COAT IN CANVAS GG SUPREM AND LEATHER, THIGH-HIGH BOOTS IN LEATHER, FOULARD IN SILK, IPHONE HOLDER GG IN CALFSKIN LEATHER AND SUEDE

MIU MIU JACKET IN WOOL, SKIRT IN WOOL FALKE TIGHTS STYLIST’S OWN BAG NEXT PAGE VALENTINO COAT IN WOOL AND CASHMERE VALENTINO GARAVANI SHOES IN NAPPA LEATHER AGNELLE GLOVES IN LAMBSKIN

PREVIOUS PAGE MULBERRY DRESS IN SILK MUSLIN AND FEATHERS, JACKET IN SILK MUSLIN AND FEATHERS LEFT PAGE POLO RALPH LAUREN JACKET IN LEATHER AND CALFSKIN, JACKET IN COTTON AND CANVAS RIGHT PAGE LANVIN DRESS IN SILK GUCCI SHOES IN LEATHER WOLFORD - STOCKINGS

SIMONA CALVIN KLEIN 205W39NYC FRINGE POM-POM BAG IN MULTICOLOR WORN AS DRESS, BOOTS IN SATIN WITH CRYSTALS

GUSTAVE CALVIN KLEIN 205W39NYC SHIRT IN COTTON, PANTS IN DENIM

LEFT PAGE CHANEL JACKET IN SILK AND SATIN, PANTS IN COTTON SATIN, CAP IN WOOL AGNELLE GLOVES IN PATENT LAMBSKIN LES BRETELLES DE LÉON LARGE SUSPENDERS RIGHT PAGE SPORTMAX DRESS IN WOOL, JACKET IN DENIM

LEFT PAGE CHLOÉ TOP IN JERSEY, DENIM SHIRT, DENIM SHORTS, BOOTS IN SHINY CALFSKIN FALKE SOCKS RIGHT PAGE MAX MARA SHIRT IN COTTON STYLIST’S OWN TIE AND BOXER

PAUL SMITH SHIRT IN COTTON

ADDICTIONS

PRADA BEIGE WOOL SHIRT AND WRAP SKIRT, GREEN LEATHER GLOVES AND OPEN-TOE BOOTS LOUIS VUITTON WOODCUT AND LEATHER SHOES

CALVIN KLEIN 205W39NYCRUBBER PINK GLOVES, WHITE PRINTED BAG 194 CRASH

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LOUIS VUITTON GREY BELTED JACKET

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT DIOR “DIOR 21” TOTE BAG IN DEEP AMARANTH COLOR SHINY LAMBSKIN, SANDAL IN GOLD LAMINATED LAMBSKIN LEATHER AND BLACK STRETCH MESH, “DIORDIRECTION” FLAP BAG IN BLACK SHINY LAMBSKIN, OXFORD IN OFF WHITE AND BLACK MAT CALFSKIN LEATHER

FORTE FORTE WOOL BLAZER GIVENCHY BICOLOR STRETCH PANTS FENDI “ROCKOKO” BROWN BOOTS WITH FF PRINT, LITTLE “RUNAWAY” BAG WITH FF PRINT

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LEFT PAGE FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, FRONT TO BACK ZACKARY GUCCI - SKY BLUE OXFORD TAILORED SHIRT, BLACK VINTAGE LARGE STRIPED JACKET, EARRING WITH DOUBLE G DETAIL IN METAL WITH MULTICOLORED STRASS AND GLASS PEARL YASHA GUCCI MACRAME LONG SLEEVE DRESS WITH LACE DETAILS, BLACK VINTAGE LARGE STRIPED GILET, GOLDEN EYEGLASSES SACHA GUCCI - MEDIUM GREY CHEVIOT JACKET, IVORY PRINTED TAILORED SHIRT, NECKLACE WITH RESIN TUSKS TIA GUCCI - PIED DE POULE JACKET WITH EMBROIDERY IN THE BACK, WHITE COTTON SHIRT WITH WRINKLE FINISHING, DOUBLE G DETAIL IN METAL WITH MULTICOLOR STRASS AND GLASS PEARLS, WOLF RING IN STERLING SILVER ON THE FLOOR GUCCI - DECORATED LEATHER LACED SHOES, LEATHER MINI BAG

RIGHT PAGE GUCCI - MACRAME LONG SLEEVE DRESS WITH LACE DETAILS, BLACK VINTAGE LARGE STRIPED GILET, GOLDEN EYEGLASSES, NECKLACE WITH DOUBLE G DETAIL IN METAL WITH MULTICOLOR STRASS AND GLASS PEARLS

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YASHA DIOR VIRGIN WOOL JACKET, SILK VELVET DRESS, TWEED BOUCLETTE WOOL SKIRT CÉLINE ANKLE BOOTS IN BLACK GROS GRAIN STRETCH AND BEIGE CALFSKIN TIA DIOR LONG GREY HERRINGBONE WOOL DRESS, SHINY LAMBSKIN PLEATED SKIRT

CHANEL PLEXIGLAS EVENING BAG, METAL AND RESIN BRACELETS

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT YASHA CHANEL STRIPED FLANNEL GREY JACKET AND PANTS, GROSGRAIN LACE UP SHOES

TIA BURBERRY BLACK BLAZER, RED SLEEVELESS PULLOVER AND BEIGE TROUSERS YASHA BURBERRY “CHECK VINTAGE” PRINTED SHIRT, TRENCH-COAT WITH RED KNIT DETAILS AND PVC SHOPPING BAG WITH INSIDE CHECKS PURSE 200 CRASH

SACHA CHANEL STRIPED FLANNEL GREY COAT AND PANTS SANTONI LEATHER LOAF ERS TIA CHANEL WOOL TWEED CHINE GREY COAT, SKIRT WITH MULTICOLORED STRASS, GROSGRAIN LACE UP SHOES WOLFORD TIGHTS

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FROM LEFT TO RIGHT TIA INGIE PARIS SHINY COTTON TRENCH-COAT, BICOLOR LEATHER BAG CAMPER “NIXIE” MAT LEATHER SHOES YASHA SONIA RYKIEL COTTON TRENCH-COAT PAUL SMITH FLORAL PRINT LEATHER BAG CAMPER “NIXIE” SHINY LEATHER SHOES

GIVENCHY BLACK LEATHER FLAP BAG WITH METAL DETAILS MIU MIU BLACK LEATHER LACED ANKLE BOOTS

MAX MARA POLISHED LEATHER BOWLING BAG, WHITE PANTS AND LEATHER LOAFERS SPORTMAX T-SHIRT IN TECHNICAL FABRIC

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LANVIN RED PYTHON SQUARED BOOTS, RED PYTHON SATCHEL JL BAG

SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO WHITE AND BLUE FEATHERS BOOTS

MIU MIU LEATHER BAG WITH WRINKLE FINISH

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IN ORDER FROM LEFT TO RIGHT SACHA CÉLINE LARGE “PHANTOM” CABAS IN CANVAS AMERICAN VINTAGE COTTON TANK TOP LEVI’S 501 JEANS YASHA MULBERRY BURGUNDY LEATHER BAG AMERICAN VINTAGE COTTON BODY TIA VALENTINO SMALL LEATHER SHOULDER BAG MAJESTIC FILATURES COTTON TANK TOP LEVI’S 501 JEANS ZACKARY CHLOE GREY LEATHER “NILE” BAG MAJESTIC FILATURES COTTON TANK TOP

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ZACKARY DIOR HOMME DERBIES IN MAT BLACK AND SHINY BLACK CALFSKIN SACHA DIOR HOMME “CHRISTIAN DIOR ATELIER” LEATHER ATTACHÉ-CASE

SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO BIG CANVAS BAG WITH BLACK LEATHER FINISH

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ALEXANDRE VAUTHIER X ALAIN MIKLI SUNGLASSES AMERICAN VINTAGE WOOL BRALET

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ZACKARY LEVI’S 501 JEANS SANTONI CALF LEATHER FORMAL SHOES SACHA ISSEY MIYAKE “BAO BAO” BLACK BAG LEVI’S 501 JEANS SANTONI CALF LEATHER FORMAL SHOES

ZACKARY LANVIN ZIPPED WORKWEAR JUMPSUIT, COTTON T-SHIRT SACHA LANVIN COAT WITH WRINKLE FINISH

LACOSTE “PURITY” LEATHER BAG

SACHA DIOR HOMME DERBIES IN SHINY BLACK CALFSKIN LEVI’S 501 JEANS ZACKARY DIOR HOMME DERBIES IN MAT BLACK CALFSKIN LEVI’S 501 JEANS

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LOUIS VUITTON LEATHER OVERCOAT AND “MONOGRAM” LEATHER BAG

RIGHT PAGE ZACKARY LANVIN ZIPPED WORKWEAR JUMPSUIT, COTTON T-SHIRT SACHA LANVIN COAT WITH WRINKLE FINISH 210 CRASH

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VANITY PHOTOGRAPHER : MARIJO ZUPANOV

CHANEL CHANCE, EAU VIVE, BODY OIL

HERMÈS - EAU DE CITRON NOIR, EAU DE COLOGNE RIGHT PAGE CHANEL PARIS - BIARRITZ, EAU DE TOILETTE CHANEL PARIS - VENISE, EAU DE TOILETTE 212 CRASH

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CHANEL HEALTHY GLOW NATURAL EYESHADOW PALETTE

MARC JACOBS HIGHLINER

MARC JACOBS VELVET NOIR MAJOR VOLUME MASCARA

ROCHAS EAU DE ROCHAS, ESCAPADE TROPICALE, EAU DE TOILETTE

DR.SOS SWISS + SKIN CAVIAR LIQUID LIFT 214 CRASH

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OUAI VOLUME SPRAY, AT SEPHORA

PRADA LES INFUSIONS DE PRADA, MANDARINE, EAU DE PARFUM

ISSEY MIYAKE L’EAU D’ISSEY, EAU DE TOILETTE DIOR ADDICT LACQUER PLUMP

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CHLOÉ NOMADE, EAU DE PARFUM

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BOUCHERON QUATRE EN ROSE, EAU DE PARFUM FLORALE

DIOR SAUVAGE, EAU DE PARFUM

RIGHT PAGE LOUIS VUITTON SUR LA ROUTE, EAU DE PARFUM 218 CRASH

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REPETTO DANCE WITH REPETTO, EAU DE PARFUM

NARCISO RODRIGUEZ NARCISO ROUGE, EAU DE PARFUM

CHANEL HEALTHY GLOW SHEER COLOUR STICK

LA PRAIRIE LOTION ESSENTIELLE, CAVIAR LUXE

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DR.SOS SWISS+ 111 NAC Y2, INSTANTLY REMOVE WRINKLES CREAM 222 CRASH

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