Tomboy Image
Céline Sciamma grabbed the movie world’s attention with her debut film Water Lilies back in 2008 and now she is back with a new project Tomboy.
The movie has already gained critical acclaim in France and is now set to do the same on the international stage. I caught up with Celine to talk about the film and the pressure than comes with filming a second movie.
- Your new movie is Tomboy so can you tell me a little bit about it?
It’s my second movie and it’s a story that I came upon a few years ago, but I just kept it in my mind and I didn’t write it before March of last year. I really wanted t make a second feature film but I wanted to make it in a very special energy that would be as the fastest possible film that you could make.
So I remembered this storyline of a little girl who pretended to be a little boy and it was just the perfect subject for a movie that could be made in such energy because childhood is all about the energy and the present.
So I wrote the film very fast, three weeks for the first draft, I did the casting in three week and shot the film in twenty days - it has all been this amazing race.
- You also penned the screenplay as well as directing so where did the idea for the movie come from?
Well, it’s really hard to tell people, one day I just had that in mind, I don’t remember how, a little girl pretending to be a little boy. It’s always a balance between something that touches you intimately and something that you think is going to be generous - I like to find intimate, subtle subjects and bring them into strong story telling.
I felt that this story, like my previous film, we are talking about sexual identity and gender so this is a story that I can’t help telling.
Then in this particular out-line there is an insider story, like a cop being an insider in the Mafia, there is this suspense and thriller situation - that was the thing that convinced me to go for it.
- I read in an interview that you have a great interest in identity and gender so what is it about this subject that fascinates you?
First it is just something that has been my own personal journey and I find it fascinating because it is a great opportunity for fiction.
It’s story that hasn’t been told much, especially involving girls, and so it’s really an exciting moment when you feel you can write something that hasn’t been written or shown; I think of the scene of the little girl putting playdo in her pants - and it was such a great feeling to be between being a feminist and opportunist.
- Zoe Héran is great in the central role so can you talk to me about the casting process and what it was about Zoe that made you cast her?
The casting process was part of this crazy energy and I only had three weeks to complete the casting, which is a very very small amount of time; especially when you are looking for kids.
So we couldn’t do that romantic thing of going hunting for kids everywhere I had to go through a more pragmatic process of calling the agencies where children are registered and have already been performing.
But sometimes they can already have had commercial experience and they can be like well trained little monkeys which you don’t want to see on screen, I don’t want to see it on screen.
But I spread the word with my casting director that we were looking for a boyish little girl and the word came back that Zoe existed and she had tried to be an actress for several years but hadn’t performed a lot because she was too different.
So we saw her really quickly, I met her the first day of casting; we began with her, and she had that look - that androgen that I was looking for. But she had that face that you remember and also she was really a good actress and I gave her the role right away.
Then I did the rest of the casting around her. For the little sister I tried to find the perfect match so I put her in a room with several little girls and with Malonn Levana there was a connection immediately - they were already fighting. Then the rest of the gang were Zoe’s real friends in life - so I picked all of them and that is why they have such good chemistry.
- This is a very challenging role of Zoe -, she's playing a character who is not sure who she is, so how did you find working with her. And how comfortable was Zoe with the role that she was given?
Since the beginning she connected with the part - it’s a balance as you have to find where she connects with it and then you have to work at bringing life to the character.
There was also a physical metamorphosis as we cut her hair, she had really long hair, and that was kind of a shock to her. The first time I met her I told her the whole story and the difficult stuff that she would have to do and so she knew it all and we made that deal together. So we were really clear about everything.
Plus the movie is easier to explain to a child that it is to an adult because the movie is not about psychology and the adults on keep asking why? And the movie is not about why she is doing it but how she is doing it - all the children weren’t asking why?
She really connected to the facts that she was mistaken for a boy and just goes for it and that made sense to her because she is a child and she still plays pretending. The movie was fair to childhood in the writing and that is why I was able to get the kids on board and that they felt committed.
- Did you do any rehearsing with the actors?
None, none at all. It went so fast we didn’t have time to rehearse. We shot the film in twenty days which is really fast, my first film we shot it in thirty six days, so you don’t have time to rehearse on set because you are filming two or three scenes in one day and the kids don’t have the rights to do long days of work. So it was all about the moment - so no rehearsal
- As you say you shot the film in under three weeks so what directorial challenges did you face making this movie?
Well the challenge of getting what you want, because the movie was really accurate and really written, in a very short amount of time - it is a challenge but it is also a blessing because it is all about energy. So I had to work on the energy, especially with children because they are children you can’t share the vision with them just the moment.
So I had to be in the moment without any distance and the challenge was to keep in mind the whole thing but still be in the moment and always be committed.
- Do you like working on such a tight timescale and under that much pressure does that work well for you?
Yes it did work really well - but I suppose I did do it as a strategy to avoid pressure and avoid the questions of this being the second film and feeling legitimate or not. So it was all a big strategy that I had built to beat pressure - but I don’t know if I will do it again as it was a one of a kind experience.
I wrote and built a project around the idea that it was going to be a very short time scale and if you build it on purpose then it is ok - you are not trying to fit something big into a small box you have built the box regardless so it’s well balanced. But I don’t know if I will do it again I guess you have to have the right story.
- And how have you found the reaction to the movie so far?
In France it has been amazing as the film has been a hit at the box office - far more than what I had dreamt of actually so it’s been a great surprise. It is now going to be part of the school programme and it’s going to be shown in schools which is amazing - politically it’s amazing.
It has also been bought in thirty countries to, I guess, it’s going international and I am amazed - it is a small miracle.
- Is there any message that you want the movie to convey because there will be a lot of youngster going through all of those emotions that we see in the film?
There is not a message but several messages and I guess what I really wanted was for the movie to be open so that everyone could connect and everyone could have their own hypothesis about what the message it.
And it’s really interesting because some people think that it’s a transsexual kid while others say it’s just a phase that she is going through - and that was really the point as the movie talks about everyone’s childhood. I think the fact that the movie has layers and everyone can connect with the child that they were and they are.
- Your debut movie Water Lilies brought you a lot of international attention so did you feel any weight of expectation on the second project?
Yeah, definitely. And once again that is why I did it like that - but it’s cool to be expected. But it’s easier to say now that the movie has been release. I am relieved (laughs).
- Finally what's next for you?
I don’t know. I will be promoting the movie a lot around the world and then I hope I can go back to writing pretty soon - but I don’t know what I will be writing next; not yet.
Tomboy is out now
Read our review of Tomboy here
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw