After I made films about Edith Piaf (The child) and actress Grace Kelly (Grace of Monaco), French filmmaker Olivier Dahan has taken on another great legend by bringing to screen the life of Simone Veil, an icon of the fight for women’s rights in France.
Her new film Simone, le voyage du siècle, which opens in Quebec from yesterday, tells the inspirational journey of French stateswoman Simone Veil, who is so focused on her difficult childhood (she survived the Holocaust after having died at the age of 16 was deported to Auschwitz but lost her father, brother and mother there) as part of her remarkable political career.
Appointed Minister of Health by President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing in 1974, Simone Veil quickly established herself as a champion of the fight against discrimination against women. It was she who passed the law decriminalizing abortion in France in 1975.
It was actress Elsa Zylberstein (Un + Une) who approached Olivier Dahan with the idea of writing and directing a biographical drama about the life of Simone Veil.
“Elsa wanted to be an actress,” confides the filmmaker in an interview granted via videoconference last January.
“It’s a project she’s been carrying around for a while. I accepted quite quickly, even though this proposal came at a time when I really didn’t feel like making films anymore. my struggles with [le producteur] Harvey Weinstein tired me out and sapped a lot of energy while editing Grace of Monaco. »
A trilogy
Though directing Grace of Monaco (with Nicole Kidman in the title role) proved frustrating for Olivier Dahan in many ways [rappelons que la famille princière a sévèrement critiqué le film]the filmmaker jumped at the chance to make a third portrait of a woman.
“From the beginning I had in mind to do three,” he reveals. I thought of these films as a trilogy. I wanted to make a film about an artist (Édith Piaf), another about an actress who doesn’t understand her role (Grace Kelly) and a final one about a politician. »
To write the screenplay for Simone, le voyage du siècle, Olivier Dahan devoured everything that was written about Simone Veil, both her biographies and the newspaper articles about her. He also watched most of the lengthy interviews she gave on TV.
“I did everything at the same time,” he describes. I wrote the film very quickly when I discovered his life. As soon as I learned an element of his life that interested me, I immediately incorporated it into my script. »
The moment of truth
As with his previous two biographical dramas, the filmmaker did not want to involve Simone Veil’s family in the film’s shooting process.
“My ambition was not to tell the life of Simone Veil. Rather, I wanted to portray him and use his discourse to speak about contemporary society,” he explains.
“Nevertheless, I still discussed with Simone Veil’s children. They were quite worried that we were going to do a film about their mother and her family, but they let me. I showed them the end result and it was sort of the moment of truth for me because they got to know them better than anyone. But they loved the film and they really thanked me for making it the way it was. »
The film Simone, the journey of the century hit theaters yesterday.