“Today, the school of Nanterre, its freedom, its madness, could no longer exist”

COMPETITION — The 1980s, vibrant young actors, the school of Nanterre, the magnetic Patrice Chéreau, a vanished love… The actress and director evokes, with enthusiasm and lucidity, her youth. A period at the heart of his film “Les Amandiers” presented at Cannes.

If this Cannes selection makes her happy? “I’m already dancing on the tables”, laughs Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, 57, whose new feature film will be presented in competition on Sunday May 22. In The Almond Treesthe actress-director recounts an unprecedented episode in her life, constantly reinvented for the screen: her entry into the famous and short-lived school of Amandiers in Nanterre, in 1986, then her apprenticeship under the strange and fascinating direction of directors stage Patrice Chéreau (Louis Garrel, brilliant) and Pierre Romans (Micha Lescot, itou).

Carried by remarkable young actors – “I hope everyone will fall in love with it,” confides the Franco-Italian in her scratched voice – this troupe film is also the story of a first love who died prematurely and of a generation scarred by AIDS. We find there the cracked fantasy of the universe of the director,It’s easier for a camel… (2003) to summer visitors (2018), coupled with a heartbreaking seriousness when it comes to reviving his dear departed. While waiting for the climb of the steps, interview with a living dear.