Turn Off The Siren

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday April 24, 2008

Helen Barlow

Ludivine Sagnier is pleased to be considered a mature actress rather than a sexpot. HELEN BARLOW reports.

When Ludivine Sagnier luxuriated sexily in Francois Ozon's Swimming Pool, she was hailed as France's new Brigitte Bardot and Hollywood beckoned.

The petite redhead, who possesses a cute, girlish voice and more than a passing resemblance to Lindsay Lohan, wound up in Australia playing Tinkerbell in P.J. Hogan's Peter Pan. The movie flopped, but luckily she had a French film, Claude Miller's La Petite Lili (Little Lili), to fall back on.

Sagnier played the title character, a devious seducer of an ageing movie director. When the film became a box office hit at home, she decided to stay.

As fate would have it when making her following film, the little-seen Une Aventure, Sagnier fell for her co-star, Nicolas Duvauchelle, an actor known for his rebellious streak and for modelling for Hugo Boss. The couple modelled together for Miu Miu, the fashion house Lohan now represents, but the relationship ended after two years. It was, however, enough time for the couple to have a daughter, Bonnie, almost three.

"I had a baby because I wanted to stay out of the spotlight," the 28-year-old admits in near-perfect English. "I talked to my agent and she said, 'It's never the right moment for an actress to have a baby, so go ahead and have it.'"

Now, as Sagnier eases back into work, she is pleased she is being viewed differently.

"I get more mature parts offered to me: they are women rather than tomboys and Lolitas, you know."

In Miller's Un Secret, she is playing a mother for the first time. Sagnier is seductive in a more adult way as a superficial 17th-century courtesan in the period romp Moliere.

"Really she's a prostitute but it's not official," a spirited Sagnier says of the latter role. "She's a very precious woman who receives people in her salon and talks about literature. At the same time, she's very cruel and superficial and gets humiliated."

As an actress who chooses her movies by the director, Sagnier - who has worked with Ozon three times (her other roles were in 8 Women and her breakthrough, Water Drops On Burning Rocks) - was pleased to reunite with Miller for Un Secret.

The film stars the latest French flavour of the month, 32-year-old Belgian Cecile De France. Sagnier plays the wife of clothing-shop owner Patrick Bruel and the Jewish couple have a secret of which their son is unaware.

Un Secret, based on Philippe Grimbert's fact-inspired novel, switches between three time periods: 1985; when the adult son (Mathieu Amalric) tells the story of his parents' life in 1955; and the pre-war years when Bruel lusted after De France, a model and expert swimmer and diver, even if he was married to Sagnier.

The story held a particular resonance for Miller, who is Jewish, and despite its ultimate tragedy he focuses on beauty. The beauty of women, that is.

"I could never shoot a film without a heroine," admits the director, who had international hits with 1988's The Little Thief, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, and 1992's The Accompanist. "When there are only men on screen, I'm bored."

Another Miller regular, Julie Depardieu, daughter of Gerard, plays a family friend in Un Secret. Sagnier says she likes to be surrounded by people she knows. "With Cecile, in particular, we're part of a kind of network. It was nice at the end of this film to know that we would work together again."

Indeed, Sagnier co-stars with De France in a coming duo of French blockbusters, Death Instinct and Public Enemy No. 1, the latter about the life of France's notorious '70s criminal Jacques Mesrine. Saigner again plays the wife.

Given her fluent English - her father was an English teacher - will the actress who loves to adopt an Australian accent consider making another film here?

"I'd love that, mate!" she responds in pure Strine. "Bring the world - that's what you want from me," she screeches, bursting into one of her throaty chuckles. "OK, why not? I'm enjoying the privilege I have in France; it's good to be on the top list of your own country. Why not go overseas? But I wouldn't go to work in Hollywood just because it's an American movie.

"I've turned down a lot of projects. When I find a film by a director I like - Hitchcock, Kubrick," she jokes, "OK, maybe Scorsese or Jane Campion - then I'd be happy. I'd actually prefer to have a small part in a nice project than a big part in a shitty movie."

UN SECRET

Director Claude Miller Stars Cecile De France, Patrick Bruel, Ludivine Sagnier Rated M.

Opens May 15.

smh.com.au/metro

See the trailer

MOLIERE

Director Laurent Tirard Stars Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante, Ludivine

Sagnier Rated PG. Opens Thursday.

smh.com.au/metro

See the trailer

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home