Bad times for culture: the coronavirus interferes even in interviews with those who support it. Monday morning, at the RTS tower in Geneva, health recommendations oblige, it is with a small wave of the hand and at a regulatory distance that the Quebec actress Suzanne Clément greets us. A contrast to what we see in his series “Bulle”, where the four generations of the Aubert clan kiss, cry in their vests, shout at each other for six episodes. Like many families, no doubt. But for it, it is when leukemia is diagnosed to Alice (the revelation Elodie Bordas), 35 years old, that the balance is broken.
“Bubble” is a bursting bubble. It is also the capital of Gruyère, where the series takes place, and a housing bubble in this city whose countryside is nibbled by concrete at breakneck speed. Described as a family saga, the series offers several reading grids and an original breakdown: each episode is centered on a character. Bulle is finally the last and one of the most personal works by director Anne Deluz, who died last November of cancer.
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“I felt that she was carrying her project,” says Suzanne Clément. The one who is one of Xavier Dolan’s muses (“I killed my mother”, “Laurence Anyways”, “Mommy”), plays Jeanne, Alice’s mother, a woman who leads her life on her side. The actress tells us about her character, Claudia Cardinale, who embodies the grandmother Marthe, the authenticity of the shooting in Switzerland and the last image she keeps of Anne Luz.
How was a Quebecer, actress of Xavier Dolan, convinced to come and play in a series in Bulle?
By reading the screenplay and meeting Anne (Deluz), mostly. I fell in love with this woman, she had such a curiosity for human beings. Its authenticity did me good. In this environment, it is not always like that. And I think I must have felt that she was carrying the project. Oddly, when she started writing it (editor’s note: in 2013), she had no cancer.
Did she tell you about her cancer when you first met?
Of course. She did not hide it. But she did not present the series to me as a project that had a resonance with her illness. It is rather her love story that she put forward or the fact that she lived in Spain. I think my character is the one who most resembles him. Jeanne is the one who left Bulle and when she returns home it is the foreigner.
Jeanne has her freedom, she is an actress. Does she have a bit of you too?
Yes, that may be why Anne chose me. After twenty years of career in Quebec, I now live in Paris. I first did a sabbatical year. I had just separated and I decided to go to a friend’s house for two weeks. Finally, I stayed, I took time for myself, to read the newspapers, to make Vélib ‘, I didn’t want to be told about work. When I got home, it was Xavier Dolan who set me back in the stirrup with “Laurence Anyways”. In “Bulle”, Jeanne made her choices and takes them on. Like me. Regarding the character of Alice, it is her illness that will cause her to reconsider her choices and her non-choices.
Suzanne Clément in “Bulle”
What were your impressions of discovering the city of Bulle?
We slept in a nice little hotel with a view of this postcard decor, and I had the impression that the mountains around were false! (Laughs.) In the series, the story of Bulle plays an important part. The urbanity has an influence on the life of the characters.
Claudia Cardinale embodies your mother, Marthe, an Italian immigrant. How did you feel playing alongside him?
It was great. I said to myself: all this glamorous life she had! These are careers and icons that no longer exist. Her story is touching, too: she was raped when she was young. She talks about it all the time, she doesn’t hide it. She is a simple person in her relationship with people, and I think that’s why she has always been surrounded and very loved.
Anne Luz died of cancer last November, shortly after finishing the series. How did his illness mark the shooting?
It is incredible to think that she was then in treatment, when it was not visible. She had a pretty crazy energy. Months later, when the editing was almost finished, I wanted to come and visit him at the hospital when I felt that everything was screwing up. Her husband agreed. But she died before. I still made the trip and we had a meal with his family and the producers.
Director Anne Deluz
What will you take away from it?
Anne gave me a lot of love. I felt so valued by this woman. She had a gift for that. I made a video of Anne in Spain, in Sanlúcar, where she lived and where we shot the last scenes of “Bulle”. I paid for the champagne and Anne offered to take us back by car, Nathalie (Durand), who is the photo director, and me. I filmed her at the wheel holding her cup with her hand which had a kind of bandage. She talked nonstop. It’s the most alive image I have left of Anne.
Laurent Flückiger
Created: 12.03.2020, 09:40
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