It’s never too late to love and be loved. A doctor camped by Melvil Poupaud abandons his wife Cécile de France out of love for the retired architect Fanny Ardant in The Young Lovers by Carine Tardieu, film discovered at the Angoulême Festival.
“It’s a story that happened to the mother of Solveig Anspach, explains Carine Tardieu to 20 minutes. At 79, she had a great story with a 45-year-old doctor. Solveig was so happy for her mom that she wanted to make a movie out of it. But the director of The Aquatic Effect who died in 2015, was unable to complete this project.
“I immediately thought of Fanny when I took up the story, specifies Carine Tardieu, because I needed an actress who assumes to play a septuagenarian without makeup and they are not so numerous to be able to abandon themselves like this. . Her metamorphosis when love touched her is overwhelming: she radiates a happiness that we feel deeply through the screen. “We are all castles,” says Fanny Ardant. This story was able to open floodgates in me as it did me good. »
The heroine knows that her joy will only be short-lived because a terrible illness awaits her and she must find the courage to break up. Very close shots of Fanny Ardant’s hands and face are remarkable. “The idea was not to show Fanny naked,” says Carine Tardieu. The face and hands were enough for me. For me, there can be as much sensuality in two hands touching as in a kiss. » Sensual, The Young Lovers is with delicacy. “Showing Fanny’s nudity would have taken viewers out of the film because that’s always the case when you strip a celebrity in the cinema,” insists Carine Tardieu. A sequence in the locker room of a swimming pool where the actress is surrounded by undressed women of her age offers a moving and accurate picture of the age they have reached.
“There is no message in my film, declares Carine Tardieu. I don’t consider him a feminist. The women, including the heroine’s daughter, played by the always impeccable Florence Loiret-Caille, are at the center of a story where each tries to make the most of the cards given to her. “French cinema has made a strength out of these female roles,” explains Fanny Ardant. Carine is part of this stream of filmmakers who show that love and life are driven by women. And this is not the least of the qualities of young lovers.