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English rose Scott Thomas in French role at Berlin fest
2008-02-15
Kristin Scott Thomas plays against type to portray an ex-convict in her biggest role yet in a French film in "I've Loved You So Long...", which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday. The story of a woman groping her way back to life after 15 years in jail for murder shows her leave behind the aristocratic English demeanour, but not quite the accent, of roles that made her famous, such as the one she played in "The English Patient". It also marks the directorial debut of acclaimed French novelist Philippe Claudel, who told reporters after a press screening that he had partly chosen his lead actress for her frosty reputation. "I believe she is an actress who is not used often enough in France, she has always played supporting roles here, but at the same time I was attracted by the reserve, by a certain coldness. "I thought it would be interesting to tap into that, to see how that works for the role of a woman who is so locked up inside herself after leaving prison." Scott Thomas teams up with French star Elsa Zylberstein, who plays the loving but traumatised younger sister who takes her into her home and bourgeois circle because she is desperate to rebuild their relationship. It is Zylberstein who nearly steals the film with a fine performance that shows her character's emotions boiling just beneath her skin. "She built her life over the gaping hole left by her sister's absence and her personality is on shaky ground. She did what she could, she found a husband and had children, but in a sense she is pretending to be a grown-up," said the actress. "When Juliette comes out of jail, it is as though the little girl in her comes to life again and she is constantly struggling to contain that. For both women there is something waiting to explode." For all the drama of the storyline, the film is full of subtly observed, even funny moments, with Claudel's writer's eye for detail and irony making the jump to a new medium with ease. "I've Loved You So Long..." is one of three French films contending for the Berlinale's Golden Bear top prize that will be awarded on Saturday and was warmly applauded here. Scott Thomas skipped the press conference but made it onto the red carpet for the premiere. Claudel paid tribute to Zylberstein, a personal friend, but hinted that his relationship with Scott Thomas was tense at times. "I would not have made this film without Elsa. She understood exactly what I wanted but with Kristin it was a bit more difficult. I did not always agree with her suggestions for the film. "And she was not convinced by the violent emotion of the last scene with her sister, she said: 'No, life is not like that'," he said. The author of "Grey Souls" said making a film was a long-held dream and it was not hard to step behind the camera. "I made short films at university that were lost, mercifully, because they were very bad. And for a while afterwards I wrote scripts but I never managed to make producers fall in love with them. "So there was a long gap between those years and this film. When I wrote the script, I immediately knew that either I would make it, or nobody would make it."
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