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Céline Bolomey

Shooting Star 2009 - Switzerland

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Discovered in 2003 in Swiss Film Prize-winner Back For More [+see also:
interview: Céline Bolomey
film profile
]
, Céline Bolomey teamed up again with director Vincent Pluss for The Noise in My Head [+see also:
trailer
interview: Céline Bolomey
film profile
]
. The performance by the actress – who divides her time between theatre and film – won over the Shooting Stars 2009 jury.

Cineuropa: How did your film career begin?
Céline Bolomey: I appeared in Michel Rodde’s Le voyage de Noémie (“Noémie’s Journey”) when I was 10. It was an incredible adventure, but also hard work for a little girl. I also practised dancing intensively: I was fascinated by the stage. Later on, I trained at INSAS in Brussels. I returned to film in 2003 in Vincent Pluss’ Back For More.

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You also appear in Pluss’ new feature.
The Noise in My Head reunites most of the team who worked on Back For More. Vincent likes to include the actors in the writing of the film. We really enjoyed the experience and wondered how we could take it further, how we could develop a common language.

The problem with improvisation is that you want to explain everything and often end up saying too much. You also have to rediscover a quality of language, a written form. For The Noise in My Head, Vincent came up with the idea of an internal voice and subjectivity. His films are about feeling and exploration. He focuses more on the construction of impressions than on the narrative construction.

You’re therefore involved in the creative process, which is rather rare in film.
My experience of film is very unusual. I haven’t made many films and I’ve only ever known this method of working, with Vincent Pluss, and on iXième, journal d'un prisonnier (“iXième: A Prisoner’s Diary “) by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud and Stéphane Bloch, and Francesco Cesalli’s AM, PM.

Which directors would you like to work with?
There are so many: Jacques Audiard, the Larrieu brothers, David Lynch, James Gray, Alejandro González Iñárritu…In Switzerland, I’d like to work with Lionel Baier, Ursula Meier and Jean-Stéphane Bron. Having said that, work emerges from encounters. I wouldn’t want to work with someone who fascinates me but with whom I don’t connect.

Are you hoping for such encounters at the Shooting Stars event in Berlin?
In theory, you meet mainly casting directors and agents there. The real encounters are with film directors. Some casting directors do an excellent job, but they’re often constrained by producers who put the emphasis on bankable actors, as we say. They also judge you on your output. I believe there’s a lot more to my profession than that!

The event in any case brings international visibility.
Shooting Stars does indeed represent an opportunity for visibility and I’m extremely touched that the jury chose me for this particular film. The show and glamour attract media attention, but I don’t care about being a star; I just want to be able to practise my profession.

I’m also sceptical about the “here today, gone tomorrow” aspect: you’re in the spotlight at a given moment and then you’re totally forgotten. I may be in for a surprise, but I need to remain upright and true to my principles, otherwise I don’t see the point in doing this job.

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