FROM ONE OF OUR REPORTERS
VENICE – Jessica Chastain appears with her regal naturalness, her long red hair styled like a crown, on a red carpet left behind by other American stars she didn’t want to star in an independent film. Memory (which in Italy goes beyond for the second academy) Michel Franco, 44, Mexican “festival” director.
“I’m a Hollywood actress, but it seems to me that I was born in the wrong country.”. I love Isabelle Huppert because she takes roles to the limit. It’s hard for actresses in Los Angeles to work with real writers and directors.it is believed that this is no longer the kind of film they are interested in, also because of the modest budget, and they only send you scripts from superstars. Instead, I’m glad I adapted to the story rather than the story being adapted to the actress.. The story is more important than the performance.” Did you reluctantly agree to be in Venice during the Hollywood strike? “It’s easier for a successful actress to remain silent and not speak. I was emotional, I was very nervous, it was the union that pushed me to come, because independent films like this, outside the mechanisms of the majors, can become the future of cinema. There are people, workers and actors, living in cars at a protest in Los Angeles.. “I hope we return to negotiations to maintain fair wages.”
The film is the story of two souls, “broken inside”, lost in contexts close to poverty.; a story of selfishness and sexual abuse that condenses in family swimming pools. “They have always been there, but it is important that we talk about them more now, my heroine uses her trauma as a shield to protect herself and her daughter, but the shield prevents her from living. And then she meets a man who has nothing to do with this chain of violence.” A story of guilt, evaporated memories, obsessions that feel like a refuge: he for the most famous song of Procol Harum, she for the double lock when she closes the front door. But there is the courage to change, leaving your ghosts to the mercy of fate. “We have come out of the pandemic, and this film is a healing bomb. It is important that there be hope in a world that speaks only of conflict.”
Peter Saarsgard suffers from dementia and is being held hostage by his brother, his guardian; Jessica Chastain, beautiful even without makeup, half stag, half wolf, rude, grumpy, lonely, is a great single mother who works at a help center for those in difficult situations. The two are former school friends. They chase each other, get lost, find each other again. “Sometimes it is marginalization that provides a way out of the shadows of the past, a chance to build a life in the present,” says the director.
That red hair makes her unique. And yet he made his debut quietly at 31 years old.With Jolene, filmed in 2008 but released two years later. It exploded in 2011 with five films, including Help (Oscar nomination, which he then won last year with Tammy Faye’s eyes) AND The tree of Life from Malik. She’s worried and says she’s “obsessed with work and being a mother, even if I’m not very protective of her.” Beneath his defenseless skin, so transparent and translucent, lies a warm humanity., which leads her to roles that evoke compassion. She is tenacious and determined to protect her privacy with her nails. “The less you know about me, the more you remember my heroesI want to be an actress known for her performances, not her personal life. It’s more convenient for me to tell you what I’m doing.” Behind the scenes there is a wall. Jessica fights to impose a new model of womanhood, but without the extremism of radical feminists. “Men need to stop looking at us like we are in fairy tales.”
Little is known about her. She grew up with a single mother in decent California., away from the palm trees, villas and Sunset Boulevard where visitors hide in the beautiful and violent history of Los Angeles. Flying through time she married the Italian count Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo. whom she met at a fashion show in Paris, they had two children, he works in the fashion industry, was invaluable in fixing the wrong ends of her clothes: “I love Treviso, where we live, the landscape, the people, the food, I feel partly Italian.”. What else? She fights for gender equality and helps those who suffer and need help, she is a vegan, she has four brothers, and her father is a firefighter. He comes from a lower middle class background.AND; she grew up thinking she would never be invited to a party. “To get out of my condition, I went to acting school. At the audition for the Juilliard School, founded by Robin Williams, I transformed Juliet from a virginal girl into a sensual woman, I had no theater experience, I came to the audition with my ideas and told myself that a girl loves, desires and love is powerful, it physically”. Difficult start. Then everything changed. Al Pacino recruited her to Salome, who took her to Venice in 2011 and opened the door to other roles. Her talent brought her wealth and fame. Now she likes being recognized, “but then I ask myself: is this my life? If the only value you ask me to interpret is beauty, I say no thank you.. That’s what a real star says.