She is more radiant than ever Virginie Efira in Other people’s children by Rebecca Zlotowski, one of the most beautiful films of this season. The actress plays a teacher in her forties who, having just met a divorced architect and father of a little girl (Roschdy Zem, attractive and fragile as a sugar daddy), hears her biological clock reminding her of good memories.
“Her meeting with her very young daughter-in-law awakens in her a desire for motherhood, explains the filmmaker to 20 minutes. But the film is not just about that. It evokes the need for transmission, that of knowing that someone will remember us. The heroine takes stock of her desires at an age when, if we don’t always know where we are going, we have clearly identified what we don’t want.
To have or not)
This teacher invested in her job as in her budding couple immediately wins the viewer’s sympathy in a realistic film where each character composes as well as possible with the cards given to them. Neither the hero’s ex-wife played by Chiara Mastroianni, nor the benevolent gynecologist played by director Frederick Wiseman, nor even the sometimes cruel outspoken little girl from the height of her five years are shown as villains. “These are human beings trying to do their best,” says Rebecca Zlotowski.
The director diverts the character of the classic mother-in-law, a hateful stepmother persecuting a little princess, to show a fragile woman seeking to be loved and often succeeding. “We know today that motherhood is not essential for a woman to flourish,” she says. I wanted to show the pain she feels when she realizes that she will soon have no choice but to have a child. »
Without ever forcing the line, Rebecca Zlotowski captures this pivotal moment in the existence of her heroine and breaks the hearts of the public in passing. “We can mark people and bring them a lot other than being a mom,” she insists. This is demonstrated by this story freely inspired by a novel by Romain Gary. Virginie Efira’s bright smile and Roschdy Zem’s tender gaze are major assets for Other people’s childrenstrong work which one adopts without the least reserve.