FILMMAKER INTERVIEW: CELINE SCIAMMA ON TOMBOY
Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy screened at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival. While she was not able to attend the festival, our occasional blogger, Pamela Ezell conducted an interveiw with her via email below. The synopsis for Celine Sciamma’s Tomboy begins, ‘Laure is a tomboy. On her arrival in a new neighborhood, she lets Lisa and her crowd believe that she is a boy” but Tomboy is about so much more than that. In her moving at times funny and bittersweet coming of age film about a young woman experimenting with gender, Sciamma takes us on a journey while her young protagonist explores familial relationships, sibling love, the victory of acceptance and the pain of being an outsider .
What inspired this idea? Gender identity is such a relevant topic – do you know a “tomboy”?
I had the storyline in mind for a while, as a pitch: “a little girl pretending to be a little boy”. My work is always about girls and their identities, it’s just stories I can’t help 
telling. But I’m glad to be obsessed by such topics because they are great material for cinema with strong storytelling. When you write about childhood you have to search into your memories. I was kind of a tomboy when I was a child. I had the short hair and the androgynous clothes. Sometimes I was mistaken for a boy, even though I wasn’t looking for it. I remember enjoying it sometimes, and denying it other times. I remember the feeling of freedom it gave me.
Your film Water Lilies was another strong cinematic piece about teen sexuality. Why do you think this is such fertile ground?
I just think you have to write about something you know. Not to tell your own little story but actually to find the right distance, and create fiction. Talking about something I haven’t been through I would stick to the cliché, and be shy. As a young filmmaker, I liked the idea of working with a young cast, around problematic youth. It allowed me to be freer, and to invent my method. I grew up as a filmmaker with films about growing up.
Very few US films deal with the issue of gender identity in an honest way – especially children – although it’s a very real experience for many people. Are there many French films that tell these stories? Is “Tomboy” as unusual in France as it is here?
Tomboy is also unusual in France. Twelve years ago there was Ma vie en rose about a little boy wanting to be a girl. But in the meantime, the page on the subject remained blank. I think it’s part of the success it had in France actually. It’s a story that hasn’t been told much, and the audience responded also to that.
Is that one more way that French culture is just entirely more grown up than American culture?
Regarding childhood, France has a strong tradition of movies dealing with the subject in a frank way. Whereas in America, movies with children are made for children. But in the meantime, France is very shy about gender studies, in schools and universities, whereas America is showing the way.
I know that in The States, there’s a misconception that “it will pass” in children, it’s just a phase. You don’t seem to share that view. True?
I think what happens in childhood is very striking and leaves strong impressions. You still remember the scents, the flavors, the emotions you had at that time. Nothing passes, everything remains, the shames and the pleasures. But the movie stays open on whether this is a phase or the beginning of a radical journey toward identity for the character. It was a choice from the start to make the movie very open on the problematic, so that everyone can relate. It’s a way to be political to make the film welcoming for a wide audience. I made it with several layers, so that a transsexual person can say “that was my childhood” and so that an heterosexual woman can also say it. The movie creates bond. That’s something I’m proud of.
The parents, especially the mother in the film have a response that is atypical to what we might expect when they discover their daughter has been posing as a boy. Can you talk about your decision to have the mother respond in this even – yet emotional way?
I didn’t try to make the parents exemplary. I wanted to make the portrait of a family where things are going well, where there is friendship and tenderness, with a committed father. They know that their girl is a tomboy and they don’t have any problem with it, letting her have short hair, painting her room in blue, letting her dress as she wants. I didn’t want them to have one monolithic answer to what happens. The mother’s response has several layers: fear, violence, clumsy, and also sensitive in the speech. Why should parents have the right answer to something so mysterious? I didn’t want to avoid the violence that such marginal journeys can trigger. But also I didn’t want to make it as simple as that. I was looking for the right emotions; therefore I chose to create contrast in her reaction.
How did you find/cast Zoé? How did she prepare for such a personal, challenging role?
I only had three weeks to complete the casting because I made the movie in a great rush. I didn’t have the time to go hunting for kids in the street, schools or drama class, which would have been my method otherwise. So I headed straight to the acting children agencies, spreading the word I was looking for a tomboy. Quickly the word came back that there was this girl, Zoé, who had what it took. I met her on the first day of casting, and was amazed. Of course she had the looks, but mostly she had such an intense face, and incredibly photogenic. We didn’t have the time to rehearse as we were shooting a month later. I just cut her hair as a preparation for the part, and then all the work was on the set. To get a performance from such a young actress- I really considered her as an actress – was about being very direct, very accurate about the character state of mind and attitudes. I made her commit to the part, and tried never to be in the position of a thief. During the takes, I am constantly talking to her, creating the rhythm of the scene with her. Directing kids is a lot about the trust, and the relationship you build. And also, it’s a lot about making it a big game. Because kids shouldn’t be working anyway… I think Zoé had a lot of admiration for the part; it was an opportunity for her to express something she knew, but on a wider, fun scale. Of course there were difficult scenes where she would be challenged, but she took the film seriously and really committed.
–by Pamela Ezell for Film Independent
November 22nd, 2011 • 1 Comment
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Lovely… the film really captured the sense of angst a child feels when dealing with gender issues. Kudos!