"I'm a Complicated Woman"
by Christian Gonzalez

With Nikita, she received the César for Best Actress. Upon returning from the United States, we rediscover her in a thriller where she confides in a psychiatrist played by Daniel Auteuil. She also gives herself away to Christian Gonzalez.

In her films, Anne Parillaud prefers to say nothing, to rub out dialogue, to act with expressions rather than with words. On the town, it is exactly the opposite: she speaks abundantly, passionately, impulsively. She has always been like that. We discovered her in 1978 in L'hôtel de la plage. She was still in high school and was already extremely charming. She became a very attractive young woman but she kept the same laughter and the same spontaneity.

These days, French cinema has hardly had the opportunity of putting her name in lights. It's just that, since her César for Best Actress in 1991 for Nikita, Anne left to take roles in the United States, in Ireland, here and there, even the Canadian Great White North. "For my part, it wasn't a controlled choice, but an impulsive one. In France, after Nikita, they offered me a lot of roles beneath Nikita. I waited a year to find a role that moved me. It happened that it would go to a newcomer, and that things were locked up."

We forgive her, since here is her return with Passage à l'acte, a thriller by Francis Girod, throughout which she reclines stretched out on the couch of a psychiatrist played by Daniel Auteuil. "Why did I choose this character? Because it says something, and even a lot, that she doesn't have anything else to live for than the couch, a few sentences and one emotion. When I read the script, I was afraid because it wasn't even a question of being able to play off my partner, in so far as he's behind me... And when I'm afraid, I go for it!" In our conversation, the words return in a recurring theme: "truth", "integrity", "authenticity", "honesty". "I'm opposed to total reserve, to the extent that it comprises formulas of the sort: 'Hide the things so as to not cause pain.' To what purpose is it to be artificially happy on the surface?" She says pleasantly: "I'm on course toward my self. I don't despair therefore of finding happiness." And again: "No one is truly doing very well. One surely isn't here to do well. Surely we have another purpose: Perhaps to know who one is, to know that which makes us suffer and that which causes suffering for others; maybe to love someone... Perfection is the ability to admit imperfection."

She will star in Raoul Ruiz's next film in the United States -- again! -- and she has another thriller project, this one in France. She detests talking about her private life, and doesn't put up with sweet nothings or pretence. She loves philosophy, poetry. "I adore people who ask questions and who cause others to share in their search. There is that only which would make me truly travel... I don't need distractions, even if my amusements can seem austere." She interrupts herself, resuming with a little smile: "It's true, all the same, that I'm complicated."