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Michel Spinosa • Director

Anna M, just a jealous woman

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French filmmaker Michel Spinosa’s debut feature Emmène-moi dates from 1994 and was part of the Locarno selection that year. It was co-written by Gilles Bourdos, with whom he has continued to write scripts for Bourdos to direct (most recently Inquiètudes), though his own directorial efforts have since been written alone. Spinosa’s third film as a writer-director, Anna M [+see also:
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, stars the versatile Isabelle Carré as an erotomaniac woman who believes that her doctor, played by Gilbert Melkhi, is in love with her, though in reality he is happily married. The atmospheric and psychologically intense film was part of the Panorama section at the recent Berlin Film Festival (see news), where Cineuropa caught up with the director in the cozy surroundings of the Unifrance wine bar. Anna M. opens in France and Belgium on April 11.

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Cineuropa: As a Frenchman now in Berlin, how would you define European cinema?
Michel Spinosa: I don’t really know. Of course European directors have nourished me with their work and have shaped me as a filmmaker. The national cinemas of Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Denmark are all auteur-driven cinemas populated with work from poets. But I’m not sure what all European filmmakers have in common.

What was the original idea that would lead to making Anna M?
I have always been interested in difficult love stories and they have sort of been my playground. It all started with the idea of making a film about jealousy. I read a book by a psychologist about erotomania [Daniel Lagache’s La jalousie amoureuse] and became fascinated by the stories about the people who suffered from it. It inverted the whole idea of jealousy and that intrigued me; in the US this would have become another Fatal Attraction but I think that in Europe you can make a film from the point of view of a “crazy” person and stay with her throughout the film as much as possible. You have to try and be honest about the character without loosing the audience’s interest.

Anna works as a restorer of old books and is thus confronted with fiction and its idealized romance clichés every day. How much does her job inform her personality?
Her job is of course a very lonely and solitary job. She is already cut off from the rest of the world, in a way, and her world is not a world that has a specific date but is more timeless and universal. The sets, lighting and the music were all conceived with that idea in mind.

The film’s atmosphere is indeed very specific. What informed the style of the film?
There is a modest influence of the Baroque period and style of 17th century painters such as Zurbarán, Rembrandt and de la Tour. In their work an “eruption” of light often turns the profane into the mystic, and erotomaniacs likewise view the world differently. The camera always stays close to Anna’s point of view and to her body. In the film she is constantly moving but it is not really clear where she is going, as if she is walking through a labyrinth.

Much of the film’s force comes from Isabelle Carré’s fearless performance.
The choice of Isabelle was simple: she is a great actress. She seems fragile and amiable at the same time and the audience would like to somehow protect her from harm, which helps to get the audience on the side of the character. Erotomaniacs - and especially girls - interpret everything as a sign and are really inventive. With Isabelle the latter is also the case and Anna is as much her invention as mine.

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