"Maria Schneider ,1983" - short film featured in Cannes Directors' Fortnight.
The Festival de Cannes Quinzaine des réalisateurs - Directors' Fortnight premiere of Maria Schneider, 1983 by Elisabeth Subrin was held May 26 featuring actor Manal Issa, 31, Aïssa Maïga, producer actor and director, 47 and Isabel Sandoval, Filipino filmmaker, 40. The film shot in 16mm is a recreation of a 1983 segment from the documentary series Cinémas Cinéma where Schneider is interviewed by producer Anne Andreu.
Together with other filmmakers, Subrin's said that her interest in Maria Schneider began when she was asked to work on an unpublished screenplay for Antonioni's film Technically Sweet in 2008. It was never made and Antonioni instead made The Passenger (1983) with Maria Schneider and Nicholson.
In 2014 Subrin started a blog dedicated to Maria Schneider called Who Cares About Actresses?.The year before media interest was rekindled in Maria Schneider's experience on the set of Last Tango in Paris (1972) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The #METOO movement got behind Schneider's story that Bertolucci used her in the film (in a part written for a young boy) to get the reaction of a 19 year old girl, not an actress, in an unscripted scene involving sexual assault. This was without her knowing about it in advance, and without knowing she could have sued Bertolucci. It is not unlike a "snuff film" in this regard circulated for the purpose of entertainment to a mass audience. Schneider's truth about Bertolucci's dishonesty and abuse gained international attention along with similar experiences of other women in the film business. Now, a TV series is in the wings to commodify a sensationalized story of a has been making money since 1972,
Maria Schneider, actor in 40 films, moved on knowing she will always be associated with this early film but that it was far from how she chose to live her life and work in film. She revealed her exploitation years ago. The truth was well known to the women who knew her and the organizers of Créteil International Women's Film Festival. Schneider was the guest of honor in Créteil 2001 and Movie Magazine International ran an exclusive interview with her at the festival where she spoke about her background and interests.
In the 1983 interview for Cinémas Cinéma Maria was 31. She explains that acting is dangerous when you consider the fate of actors such as Romy Schneider. Anne Andreu asks Maria if she wants a clip to be screened from Last Tango in Paris in the interview. For the recreations acted by Manal Issa and Aïssa Maïga they emphatically say no, but in the part acted by Isabel Sandoval filmed in English, Maria says she was raped, that her cries on screen are during the rape, and its intent was to show humiliation - all without her consent.
In contrast, an interview Maria Schneider did in 2001 at Créteil Film de Femmes where she was guest of honor was extremely powerful and shows her love of cinema and path away from inauthentic film roles for women:
"For me, cinema is closer to painting, and I like working with filmmakers who have a sense of the image. I like the idea that cinema remains a memory of our time, and when filmed, that there is a trace of it. Then I met Antonioni, who is closer to what I am in life. He chose not to sell his soul, and many actors also abstain . After the Bertolucci film, I had golden bridges to sub-Tango, roles of sex symbols ... I ended it very quickly. I also had problems because they said: "She does not want to undress, she will not do the love scenes ..." That's what we always ask young women, even in 2001, it has not changed one iota, however. I'm still shocked about the fact that men of sixty years, Serrault, Poiret, Noiret, have a continuous career, compared to women the same age. Even Girardot. Between the sex symbol and grandma, there are no other interesting roles. I'm a part of an association for those involved in difficulty called "La Roue Tourne" which has existed since 1956. I'm just their ambassador. The president is eighty years old and she helps those she calls "disasters of glory." The actors have no unemployment insurance and when they have an accident they are not covered by social security. It's incredible when you consider that this association has paid the rent for Marcel Carné in the last ten years of his life ... but also that of Abel Gance. The state did nothing. Me, I also see a time when I will have difficulty working. The president said: "But, my dear Maria, it has always existed, now you're old, you are forty ! She has known actresses of the silent era, like Jacqueline Delubac. All this has not changed, even with women directors. There is a terrible crisis of roles, and film seems locked up. Everyone has their place, and "family film" is an illusion"
- Maria Schneider, interview for Créteil Films de Femmes, 2001.
©Moira Sullivan, 2001.
Maria Schneider, Guest of honor, Créteil Films de Femmes.
Movie Magazine International
Comments
Post a Comment