Charlotte Gainsbourg plays a supervisor in the terrific series “In Therapy.” A conversation about vulnerability, mothers and the question of whether you really want to know yourself.
Interviewed by
Claudia Tieschky
On the seventh day God rested. The life of the Parisian psychotherapist Philippe Dayan in the grandiose Arte series In therapy is structured in a similarly mindful manner: After four working days, during which he receives his patients – and in which the viewers get to know the whole complicated world of Ines, Alain, Robin and Lydia in about twenty-minute sessions -, on the fifth day he goes to his Supervisor, Claire Brunet. And suddenly he’s just a wounded person. Who is this Claire Brunet who keeps the therapist reeling with friendly questions? Charlotte Gainsbourg plays Claire, adding a special shimmer to the already exceptional series. Shortly after the French presidential election, Charlotte Gainsbourg talks on the phone in Paris why she took on this small role, about her relationship with her mother Jane Birkin and about her own therapy record. Her voice is soft and sometimes slightly amused. Something rattles. You’re not cleaning up the kitchen, are you?