Three years ago Alba Rohrwacher already worked with Stéphane Brizé as a lead in his wry romantic comedy Off Season. Now the French director and Italian actress reunite for A Good Little Soldier. Premiering in Competition, the acerbic business satire is Rohrwacher’s second entry to the 83rd Venice Film Festival where she is also heading Anna Foglietta's relationship drama A Common Story runs in the Orizzonti slate. Just a day ahead of the awards, Rohrwacher found time for an interview with Lidanoir on her intense preparation for the role, chauvinistic workplace culture, and being always truthful to her craft.
LB: What drew you to the central role in Stéphane Brizé’s new film?
AR: I met Stéphane three or four years ago, when we did Off Season with Guillaume Canet, who was here in Venice. When I say “we met,” I mean we really met each other as human beings. We discovered that we have similar interests and ideas about what is important to us as artists. He’s always looking for something that is linked to reality. He doesn’t want to fake anything.
That’s why he has always used both professional actors and non-professionals. He uses this mix to be as grounded in reality as possible. For my way of acting and doing this work, it’s important to connect to every character, even the most difficult ones. I need this internal connection to be authentic in my portrayal of a character. If I have the feeling that something is fake, I can’t do a film. If I did, it would be a disaster.
When we met, we saw that we were on the same path. It was therefore already very beautiful to do his previous film. It was very intense, since it’s a movie with a lot of energy. When he called me again and told me, “I have a new script. I want you to read the script,” I said, “I don’t need the script to work with you. I’m happy to do it.” When I finally read the script, I was very happy with it.
At the same time, I felt sure that this new cinematic journey would be a very tough one: because it’s a controversial character, because of the duality of the character, because of the plot and the message of the film, and because of the whole method. So I had to really immerse myself in this part and its personality in a genuine way. What Carla has experienced is not easy.
LB: In the film, you play an Italian. Was this part of the authenticity for you?
AR: No. Authenticity means trying to find a space in the mind to build exactly the feelings and thoughts of this character and portray their situation with honesty.
I had a great deal of work to do on the language. I spoke French in Stéphane’s previous film, but in a very naive way. In that movie, someone would say, “You’re not speaking very well.” But because in A Good Little Soldier my character is an Italian working in a big company, it was very important to him that I spoke French perfectly, including the technical language, to be believable in the position I was playing in the movie.
So he asked me to move to France for a month to really study French in a realistic way—not as actors learning lines, not at all. And because he knows the corporate world so well and made three movies about it, he started to introduce me to this world. I started meeting people who actually work in this business.
Next we imagined her physic, which is not feminine in a conventional sense. She has forgotten that she has a female body and dresses like a man. She has no vanity at all—no hairdo, no nothing. She is a good little soldier. She’s an obedient worker. She’s a woman, she’s a mother, as well, but first and foremost she’s a good little soldier.
Another big part of the process was that, of course, there is the fantastic Vincent Lindon and other actors, but also many real professionals from the industry. Every day it was an exchange with people who are actually living in this world.
LB: What does the theme of toxic workplace culture mean to you?
AR: It’s a political movie, a contemporary film, and somehow a feminist film. This toxic world is built by men and ruled mostly by men. In the movie, the positions of power are all occupied by men. The film shows how a woman, in order to exist in this world, behaves like a man as well.
LB: Your character looses her child, her family. It seems that in films, only women are punished in this way. Would it be conceivable for a male character to have the same experience?
AR: I don’t know. I don’t think so.
LB: And what is it about women specifically that they supposedly can’t structure their lives the same way?
AR: We women fight, the men fight against us, and then we fight back again. As we keep fighting, we finally won some space. But since everything is controlled by them, it’s very difficult to defend. Now I see that there are many women who, in order to act and exist in this society, have to behave like men in order to be accepted.
When we made the movie, I met many women who do the same job as Carla. They told me, “We have to dress like men. We have to cancel our femininity, because otherwise they don’t respect us.” It was very interesting because one woman told me, “You know, in my house I have a wardrobe that is split in two. There is my professional clothing, which is all black, and then there is my private life.”
She said, “If by chance I arrive at La Défense” - which is where we shot the movie” - with my personal clothes, I head straight to the toilet, change, and then I’m allowed to enter the office.”
LB: So a work dress code serves as a uniform?
AR: Yes. That’s why, for me, the title is very appropriate. It’s like being a good little soldier.
It’s a very toxic and violent word.
LB: And in French, the grammatical term is masculine.
AR: Yes, it’s masculine, same in Italian.
LB: Do you feel a bit like a good little soldier? Even when you were a child, were you someone who obeyed rules?
AR: I’m very wild. Deep in my soul, I’m very wild. So for me, it was painful to be like Carla. If I had been Carla, I would have said, “No”.
LB: Do you ask yourself why, when faced with these moral questions, people justify decisions that harm others instead of doing the right thing?
AR: Yes, we are all part of the system, me as well. These are the rules. If you want to survive, you have to respect them. Carla’s starts the movie trapped, completely unaware of it. She believes in the system. At the end of the story, she is still trapped in it, but now she is aware of who they are. That’s very sad. It’s even worse.
LB: But there’s also a lot of dark humor in the script. How do you relate to that?
AR: I find it very intelligent since the absurdity of the system is apparent from the outside. All these things are real. Maybe if someone was looking at us from the outside, we would seem crazy too. Everybody talks about the carbonara scene. It seems like a funny scene, but I think it’s actually very dark. We laugh because they start playing a game. Then there is the moment when he tells her, “You can trust me.” But when the two of them are left alone together, her boss tells her, “You’re lying.” Then he says, “I was speaking with my wife. You did a very good job.” So finally she thinks, “Okay, I’m good. The big boss tells me I’m good.” And she opens herself up.
It’s comic, but it’s also very violent. And immediately afterwards, she wants to alert him about some critical workplace issues and has to realize he already knew about it, but didn’t care.
LB: How do you feel about having two films here at Venice?
AR: It’s very funny because one is a very violent mother figure who, when her son is 18 and leaves home, doesn’t even know who he is. The other movie is exactly the opposite. It’s a mother who is only a mother. When the child finally leave, she doesn’t know who she herself is anymore.
So it’s one absent mother and one overly present mother. Maybe one represents Italian society, which is too much, and the other is a very performative society, which could be the French one.
LB: What was it like to work with him Vincent Lindon?
AR: For me, Vincent was like God, because he had done three movies with Stéphane Brizé about corporations. We knew each other before, but had never acted together. When I first found his gaze at the table during the first big meeting, I had that feeling you get when you act with a great actor: there is a palpable energy. It’s invisible, but it gives you strength. And, of course, when we did that scene, for me it was almost traumatic because I was so immersed in it.
LB: What is your personal experience with intense work pressure?
AR: I believe in art, and I believe in it with all my heart. That’s why I’m doing this work, even if it’s difficult. I believe that art could be the answer, it can change the world. If I believe in something, it’s not a calculation. Otherwise, I become the system. If you are an artist, you have to follow your instinct, your vision and not what they want you to believe.
LB: In a scene in the film the staff is asked to recount the most joyous moment of the last 24 hours. How would you right now answer to that?
AR: The hug I shared with Stéphane, saying, “We are so happy to be here.” It had been a very difficult day because I worked on Orizzonti all day long, and then yesterday there was the Stéphane Brizé film. After Orizzonti , I was very tired, so I set the alarm very early to start working on the Stéphane Brizé film. Then I woke up, took my phone, and saw that I still had 45 minutes. Waking up before the alarm rings is a reason for joy!
LB: Thank you for the interview!