“I wanted it to be a film that could take us as much towards tears as towards laughter”
– The Belgian filmmaker talks about her film inspired by her personal experience, a tragicomedy about filial bonds
(© Mara de Sario)
Recently awarded a César for her work as production designer on The Great Arch [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stéphane Demoustier
film profile] by Stéphane Demoustier, Catherine Cosme is also a filmmaker. At the Love International Film Festival de Mons she presents, in its Belgian premiere, Picking Up the Pieces [+see also:
film review
interview: Catherine Cosme
film profile], a first feature film inspired by her personal experience: that of a daughter who discovers, at her mother’s bedside, that her mother has stolen her identity in order to take out countless consumer loans. A tragicomedy bathed in the light of the South, the film explores filial bonds, the clumsy ways in which we ensnare those we love, grief, forgiveness, and the power of returning to one’s roots. It is carried by Vimala Pons, herself a César laureate just last month.
Cineuropa: Are the origins of this project very personal?
Catherine Cosme: Yes, it is largely autobiographical. When my mother died, I discovered that she had stolen my identity in order to take out consumer loans. I was, of course, stunned when I found out – I thought it was completely mad, and that there was the makings of a film in it. But I wanted it to be a film that could take us as much towards tears as towards laughter, reflecting the way my brother and I experienced it at the time.
So it’s a story about family, grief, but also about the way we try to love those close to us, with all the mistakes, and even the faults, that can come with it?
Yes, I think in fact it’s a film about forgiveness. When Lucile discovers that her mother is also the person who has scammed her, she has a long journey ahead of her to understand what could have happened in her mother’s life for things to end up this way. I wanted to tell that journey, and to highlight the fact that people who make these choices often do so out of necessity. It was also a way of talking about all those people who take out consumer loans and find themselves caught in a spiral where one loan leads to another, where they keep believing, right to the end, that they will be able to get out of it, where they don’t dare speak about it to those around them, where they are trapped by shame and retreat into silence. That inevitably blurs the relationships we have with our loved ones. In Lucile’s case, as in my own, she had a very complicated relationship with her mother for years without understanding why. It is only on the eve of her mother’s death that she realises that these lies were what had tarnished their relationship.
It also raises questions about the place we occupy within a family, and the responsibilities we assume there.
Colette, the mother in the film, chooses to use her daughter’s name rather than her son’s because she believes her daughter is better able to bear that burden. Paradoxically, this conflictual relationship has helped give Lucile strength; it has taught her a great deal and ultimately allows her to grow. Well, my therapist told me the film was wonderful because it was like doing therapy at high speed, whereas some people spend years trying to unpack their relationship with their mother. By writing and rewriting, by having scenes performed and re-performed – scenes I would have liked to experience with my own mother – I think it ended up serving a therapeutic purpose. In the film, I finally allowed myself to confront my mother about her choices.
It’s a form of catharsis through art, expressed here more specifically through the lens of comedy – and the absurd.
I absolutely didn’t want to make a film that was only in the realm of drama. I wanted the audience to come away having crossed an entire landscape: from the shock that reconnects us to those places when we lose a parent or a friend, to the harshness of grief – I wanted to lead them towards laughter. Because yes, in those moments there are also times when we laugh, especially when faced with the absurdity of the situation. I wanted the film to be an emotional journey.
(Translated from French)
