Marina Foïs, actress: “There is an immediacy that I like”
The actress shares her take on Brazil through photographs taken while filming The Salamander.
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David Fisher/REX/SIPA
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“This series of photos was taken during the winter of 2019 in Brazil, where I was shooting Alexandre Carvalho’s film, The Salamander. Some of these shots – including the one of the woman in shorts in the foreground – were taken in the colonial town of Olinda, near Recife, which is the birthplace of Brazilian cinema. For my first stay there, I was struck by the mad resistance of the country. The situation is desperate but there is a terrible festive energy, very far from the French grayness and its lamentations. I love portraits, street photography, people who carry strong things through their bodies, their gait… It tells me stories.
Winter 2019 in Brazil, on the set of La Salamandre.
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Marina Fois
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I chose to do this series in black and white because I found it stronger. I always pay attention to the frame, the background, the center, the sides… But I’m not a photographer! Maybe I’ll learn one day. And as I also like architecture, I pay attention to the lines, as in the photo by Robert Frank The Long and Winding Road. My taste for photography is eclectic: I can enjoy the fashion clichés of Guy Bourdin or the pictorial work of Antoine d’Agata, but I also like the photos of Robert Mapplethorpe retracing an era and a very strong fight . I can read an article if the photo that illustrates it interests me. I’m not that cerebral, I have a fairly limited culture and there is an immediacy in this medium that I like. An image can be artistic, historical, political, but as I find that there is, at this moment, a distance between our world and the one that the painting tells, I am more sensitive to the photo. ”
Woman in shorts yawning.
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Marina Fois
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Marina Foïs is playingHuge, by Sophie Letourneur, with Jonathan Cohen and Jacqueline Kakou.
Stacy Martin, actress: “The photo forces me out of my bubble”
“I’ve always loved people watching and I think that’s one of the reasons I became an actress. The energy is totally different depending on the cities where I am and I try to have my Leica with me, because it forces me to come out of my bubble, to look at others. I take photos to capture memories, even those that seem insignificant at the time.
In London, this trunk like a lonely friend during confinement …
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Stacy Martin
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These two images represent my life between London (where I live) and Paris (my city of heart). Place Dauphine, I photographed this very elegant gentleman who gave advice in a somewhat authoritarian manner to pétanque players. It was both funny and moving, because you could tell this man came alive when the game restarted. The other photo shows a tree in a London park, not far from where I live. This trunk was like my lonely friend during confinement. I chose to take these images in black and white because it erases the temporality. Among the artists I admire, I would cite Saul Leiter, whose very cinematographic work I like, but also Lucien Hervé, the official photographer of Le Corbusier and Ed van der Elsken, who has notably produced a series that is both overwhelming, rock’n’roll and romantic on the youth of Amsterdam. “
In Paris, the elegant man and the pétanque players.
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Stacy Martin
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Stacy Martin will soon be in the credits ofLovers, by Nicole Garcia, with Pierre Niney and Benoît Magimel.
Charlotte Le Bon, actress and graphic artist: “With film, everything becomes a bit sacred”
Charlotte Le Bon: “For ten years, I have only photographed film.”
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Shutterstock/SIPA
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“This photo was taken at Falcon Lake, a lake in Canada that is very dear to me.
Falcon Lake, in Canada, in the eye of Charlotte Le Bon, armed with her 1976 Olympus OM-1.
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Charlotte lebon
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For the second image, my little cousin played for fifteen minutes in order to invent, with me, mini-stories, like that of this creature of a man with a blanket head. The camera used belonged to my father, an indestructible Olympus OM-1 from 1976. For ten years, I have only photographed film. Some might see it as snobbery, but I don’t care. In my opinion, filming encourages more observation and patience. We capture moments in a box and we have to wait before discovering them. Besides the richness of textures and colors which are, in my opinion, inimitable in film, everything becomes a little more sacred, and I like it… ”
The blanket-headed man.
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Charlotte le bon
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Charlotte Le Bon is currently playing in Berlin, I Love You, on Amazon Prime Video.
François Civil, actor: “The idea of controlling time …”
François Civil: “It is during my travels that I feel the need to capture my impressions.”
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Jacques BENAROCH / SIPA
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This photo was taken in 2019 at the colorful fishing port of Essaouira, Morocco. It’s always quite complicated to identify what prompts you to take a photo. There is always a mystery in the moment which precedes the shooting: a scene which calls out, the eye which lingers, a motif which catches the eye, an emotion which is born … It is an intense and intimate moment . For this image, in addition to the colors and patterns, it was the nonchalant pose of this faceless man astride the rail of his boat that led me to press the shutter button. As a child, I always saw my father with a camera around his neck and he quickly made me aware of photography by talking to me about composition, setting …
Francois Civil
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I think it’s the idea of being able to capture a moment, freeze reality and keep it in memory, control time, in a certain way, that appeals to me the most. Like many amateurs, it is during my travels that I feel the need to capture my impressions. I only do film, medium format, color. I use a Plaubel Makina 67, sometimes a Mamiya RZ. Besides, I have a long-term project but it is not yet ready… I am quite eclectic when it comes to photography and the photographers I admire. I like Cartier-Bresson’s genius for the unexpected as much as the meticulous staging with a disturbing atmosphere by Gregory Crewdson, but also Harry Gruyaert, Saul Leiter… ”
François Civil plays in North Bac, by Cédric Jimenez, with Gilles Lellouche and Karim Leklou. Released November 25.
Cédric Klapisch, director: “It’s the opposite of what I’m looking for in the cinema”
“These photos were part of my exhibition Paris-New York (in Paris, in 2014) for which I associated each time two images which showed the similarities and contrasts between the two cities. My attraction to photography is linked to my family history. My maternal grandfather having died during the war, his photo albums had a role of memory and held an important place at home. My father, a physicist and chemistry lover, then set up his own photo lab. From the age of 12, I began to take pictures and develop them.
In New York, one of the photos of the exhibition Paris-New York (2014).
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Cedric Klapisch
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When I was 25, I turned to color and I discovered reference artists like Harry Gruyaert, Alex Webb or Bruno Barbey, Raymond Depardon (less known for his color work) and William Klein. During my career, I happened to make photo series for magazines – including Madame Figaro. It’s an exercise that I particularly appreciate because it puts me in another form of thought: I go in search of specific things, but it is ultimately the unforeseen clichés that win the day. The ecstasy, when we take pictures, is to meet this chance, the opposite of what I seek in the cinema after all. Because for a film, the idea is to follow the scenario we have in mind.
In Paris. One of the photos of the exhibition Paris-New York (2014).
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Cedric Klapisch
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In addition, the photo has an important function in the genesis of my projects: it is a way of imagining the framing and of thinking about the overall aesthetic of a film. But I can also be inspired by outside photographers, as I did with Harry Gruyaert and his series in the north of France for My piece of the pie.»
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