Isabelle Huppert is one of French cinema’s most recognisable faces, but in Marc Fitoussi’s All About Corinne, she plays an actress who has spent her career going unnoticed.
Huppert stars as Corinne Maclou, a film supporting artist who is convinced her big break is imminent. Her unlikely friendship with Sandrine Kiberlain, playing an exaggerated version of herself, drives a comedy that aims to skewer the French film industry and its rigid hierarchies, hypocrisy and the often arbitrary divide between stardom and obscurity.
Fitoussi says the idea for the film grew from his 2009 documentary The Extras (Des Figurants), also produced by Avenue B Productions: “They are visible in often key scenes in films, yet at the same time they are invisible. I wanted to shift the spotlight onto them.”
He also wanted to find Huppert “a role unlike anything she had played before”, drawing on the contrast between her celebrity and Corinne’s anonymity.
“She’s an actress we see everywhere – in films, on stage, at fashion shows, in magazines. So I thought, what if I asked her to play an extra? It was the complete opposite of who she really is.”
Fitoussi approached Huppert before even starting to pen the screenplay. “She said yes immediately,” he recalls.
Kiberlain also signed on before Fitoussi started writing, although persuading her to play a deliberately insufferable – and very different – version of herself was less straightforward.
“In the film, she’s always impeccably coiffed, with a dog in her arms, whereas in real life she’s much more down-to-earth and prefers cats. At one point, we see her pour herself an enormous glass of red wine, even though she doesn’t drink in real life,” Fitoussi says.
He had previously directed Huppert in Copacabana and Paris Follies, and Kiberlain in La Vie d’Artiste and Pauline Detective, as well as both actresses in separate episodes of hit TV series Call My Agent!.
Kiberlain’s diva-like antics and other on-set absurdities draw on Fitoussi’s own experiences. “Some things are unfortunately absolutely true,” he says. “But I didn’t want to simply attack the industry. Cinema can be cruel, but it can also be marvellous and magical.”
The story unfolds in a parallel universe where Huppert plays a fictional character, but the real stars of Kiberlain, Emmanuelle Bercot, Diane Kruger, Ana Girardot and Vincent Dedienne all play versions of themselves.
“Making a film about cinema with fictional celebrities would have felt tacky and artificial,” he says.
He says the actors embraced the self-parody and did not push back on anything in the scripts, but stopped short of disparaging colleagues.
Their representatives were more wary. “Most of the agents we first approached with the scripts discouraged their clients from playing themselves for fear of looking ridiculous,” he recalls.
Fitoussi is particularly critical of how supporting artists are treated in France. “They’re kept waiting until the last minute, sometimes without anyone even explaining what the film is about. Yet they’re essential to making a scene work.”
Huppert’s Corinne is repeatedly humiliated, told things like “Whether you’re there or not doesn’t make much difference” and is relegated to separate canteens and waiting rooms.
On his own set, however, Fitoussi was determined to practise what he preached. “We couldn’t make a film denouncing the terrible treatment of extras and then treat them terribly ourselves.”
Beyond the satire, Fitoussi sees Corinne’s story as one of injustice and perseverance. “Why do some talented people succeed while others don’t? Sometimes it comes down to the choices we make, the people around us, or simply never getting the right opportunity,” he remarks.
That emotional dimension is particularly important to the writer-director, who reveals he is developing another feature with Huppert.
“The film is marketed as a pure comedy, but I’m always happiest when people tell me they were moved by it. And I want people to leave the movie thinking, ‘My God, Isabelle Huppert really can do anything!’”
Produced by Caroline Bonmarchand for Avenue B Productions, with France 3 Cinéma co-producing, All About Corinne closed Locarno’s Piazza Grande programme before a Gala premiere in Toronto and a global festival tour. It is making its US premiere in competition at the American French Film Festival (TAFFF) on November 6.
Indie Sales is handling international righs; Memento released it in France on October 7.
No comments yet