Interview: Sylvie Testud
We speak to the acclaimed French actress about her enigmatic new role as a disabled pilgrim.
One of the most intriguing films I've seen recently is Lourdes, released in cinemas this week.
Acclaimed French actress Sylvie Testud plays Christine, a quiet but determined young woman, paralysed by MS. Regarding her trip to the famous Roman Catholic shrine as just another trip that gets her out of the house, she passively undergoes the various blessings as all around her, the devoutly religious pray for their own miracles. Austrian director Jessica Hausner explores what happens when Christine, hardly the most pious of the group, is the one who appears to have been cured.
Two-time winner of the César Awards, France's equivalent to the Oscars, 39-year-old Testud is famed for her roles in Fear and Trembling, Sagan and La Vie en Rose. She brings humanity and curiousity to an ambiguous film, and I was thrilled to speak to her recently in London.
What was your opinion on Lourdes, and miracles, before you started working on the film?
I had no idea. I never asked myself about Lourdes. It was not somewhere I dreamed of, but it was not something I was against.
Did your opinion change when you were over there?
Yes, then I got one! When you arrive there, you have to admit that something is there, you know, with the stone and the big old church in the middle. In religion, they always put their best into building, music and art - in all religions, Arabic muslim, Jewish, Christian - you have to respect that. And all those people there are all concentrated on the same stuff, it's nice. But then after a while, you look at it, and are oh... it's very small - everything is there, a hill, facing another hill, the small cave, the churches and the water running through. Then you turn your head, and it's like Disneyland, with shops everywhere. What is surprising is the proximity between two staff that are so very different. I think everybody's selling something!
Did you get to speak to many of the pilgrims?
We [Testud and Hausner] went to a hospital, and there were people of all levels of illness. This was first to get the correct image of how damaged or undamaged their bodies and souls are. And then Jessica found four young girls, about 18/19 and took them under her wing. So we went out with them, and I was asking them, how do you feel in your life? And they said, like you, but in acceleration - time's running out. I wanted to understand those girls, how they were laughing all the time. They have an attack and they think they are going to die, but then they are rescued, all the time, and then they wait for another one. But in that time they have fun.
Were they happy to let you film at Lourdes?
It took three years, I think, to get to get the first person to say yes to permission. If they think there's something against it... if there's a small critique, it's that we're raised like chickens, you know. If you pray in a good way, if you eat well, if you drink water and not too much alcohol, if you ask God good in a polite way, maybe you'll be successful. Don't believe too much.
What was your opinion on Christine's background?
I think she was a normal girl, you know? Wants to have fun, a good job, a good guy, to go a drink a glass of wine with her friends. And then suddenly the illness crushes her dreams, but she's not resigned. My favourite sequence is when she's fed the soup [indicates dribbling], and the beautiful boy's going by, and she still tries to chat him up.
What was it like to work with Jessica?
We first went to the hospitals to meet the girls, then at night we'd go and drink and have fun - this was in Vienna. Then we went to Lourdes, and she wanted to have the... selfish, that's maybe a strong word, part of the character. She's there - she leaves. That was hard.
How much were you able to contribute to the character?
I think that Jessica is not so far away from the character. In fact, she's the last girl in the family, she wants [things her way]. Why can't we fly? Because we're not birds. She's a dreamer like that. She even looks like the character.
The film, and even Christine, is quite ambiguous all the way through. What's your personal take?
The film is like that. Is the girl really nasty, are those guys really praying, you never know if it's a nice area. The rest is all commercial stuff. You have the miracle, but there is judgment: ladies and gentlemen, you win, you've experienced the miracle. So it breaks your dream in a way, this human judgment on something which is spritual. The guy likes her because she is the winner, not because she can now dance. All the film was like that.
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