09/08/2021 - A charismatic, young actress stars in the French director’s new film, dealing with divorce shown from the perspective of a child

(© Claire Nicol)

In competition at this year's Locarno Film Festival, French director Axelle Ropert presents a sensitive and touching coming-of-age film about a young girl who has to face the divorce of her beloved parents. We talked to the director about the concept and inspiration for Petite Solange [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Axelle Ropert
film profile].

Cineuropa: Why was it important for you to tell this story?
Axelle Ropert: Divorces always provoke big emotions. There are several films about divorces and how the adults deal with it, but the perspective of the children is very rarely shown. I wanted to give them a voice and to focus on their pain. 

Have you been inspired by autobiographical elements?
It is not my story I am telling. Although I am also a child of divorced parents, my idea wasn’t to transform my experience directly into the film. I take distance from it and find a new approach. 

How did you decide about the social class and context the family lives in?
This is actually very interesting, since I was confronted with a big cliché. When I said I wanted to set the film in an upper-class family, people kept saying that this wouldn't be credible, since there is supposedly no pain in this social class. I was quite angry, but had to react to it, because otherwise it would have been difficult to find funding for the project. Still, I didn't want to take a family from the working class and chose the middle class. It was important to me that the family wouldn't have to deal in addition to the divorce with material problems. I wanted to concentrate on the emotional aspects. 

How did you find the actress who plays the role of Solange?
I was concerned at first that such a young actress might be too natural, because I didn't want to give the film a documentary style. But Jade Springer had a particular charisma and very easily found her way to the character. 

How did you work together to prepare her for the part?
I do not like to torture actors and let them make three hundred takes for one scene. I prefer a more fine and subtle approach. I think of the film as a music sheet and I place the actors within it. They should be almost singing it, without a lot of pressure and as naturally as possible. I conceive each scene as a song.  

It seems that Solange's parents can't really understand their daughter, even at the end. They try to protect her from something, but do not exactly know what.
I wanted the film to be cruel and tender in equal parts. It is very cruel, since it shows some of the hardest things that exist in life. It hurts much more if you are attacked by someone you love. The parents in the story are very nice, but still they hurt their daughter very much. 

What were the biggest challenges for the film?
Even before the shooting, I was confronted with prejudices against me conceiving the film as a melodrama. There is a mistrust in France against films that make you cry. Most argued there might be something vulgar in a touching, sentimental story. Another concern from the outside was that it might also be too simple a story. But this is exactly what I wanted. In my opinion, emotions are transmitted through simplicity. It's the same as it is for songs. The most simple songs transport the biggest emotions. 

How did you develop the visual concept?
The form is very important for me. I have to visualise each scene and the film into a melody or an overall picture. For each scene, I pay attention to the décor, to the link with the space and to all the details that have to be shown and the ones that need to stay more enigmatic.