At the time of #MeToo and the Adèle Haenel scandal, the young real ' Quentin Delcourt puts his finger on a hot topic and signs Pygmalionnes , a documentary in which the muses of the seventh art speak.
They are actresses, directors, producers, director-operators, artists' agents or cinema operators ... Facing the camera, in front of a neutral setting without artifice, each one expresses herself and reveals the backstage of trades where, well beyond dream, glory and glitter, parity is lacking and women do not have enough say.
A subject at the heart of the debate
With a simple play on words, Quentin Delcourt feminized a term which had until then been exclusively masculine. Pygmalionnes follows the journeys and poignant testimonies of eleven superb women, committed and talented, named Hafsia Herzi , Aïssa Maïga , Stéfi Celma , Naidra Ayadi , Élisabeth Tanner , Anne Richard , Isabelle Gibbal-Hardy , Alix Bénézech , Céline Bozon , Nathalie Marchak and Laurence Meunier .
Whatever the origin, whatever the age. All have succeeded in winning despite the alarming facts: an op-director 'hardly ever has a big production', one in two women will not make a second film ...
And the director got it right, the subject hits the mark. He could not have dreamed of better: the film was shown in preview at the National Assembly , a few days before the law on audiovisual and gender parity was reformed. Smart.
A simple and efficient realization
Through this passionate and enthralling documentary, Quentin Delcourt places a curious and extremely benevolent gaze on these pygmaliones of the cinema so that the word is freed. The secret ? One-take recording. No second chance for the failures who were cut off during the editing , but a hyper spontaneous rendering, with a touch of humor, cynicism and a lot of emotion.
The beauty of the film also lies in its process' a little apart: none of the women interviewed here suspected its projection in the cinema. Verdict: a well-managed rhythm between the sincerity of the subject, the sobriety of the decor and the relevance of extracts from films in transition, to point the finger at a universal subject.
And when it's signed by a guy, young real ', we tell ourselves that the new generation is determined to make things happen. And so much the better.
In theaters on Wednesday January 22.
Also discover the feminist novel everyone is talking about and season 2 of Sex Education .
