All About Actresses

Le bal des actrices

France

2009

105 Min

Color

1.85:1

French, English

Currently 3.0/5 Stars.
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PROD François Kraus, Denis Pineau-Valencienne

CAST Maïwenn, Charlotte Rampling, Karin Viard, Mélanie Doutey, Marina Foïs, Karole Rocher, Jeanne Balibar, Romane Bohringer, Julie Depardieu, Estelle Lefébure, Linh Dan Pham, Muriel Robin, Joey Starr, Nicolas Briançon, Yvan Attal, Jacques Weber, Pascal Greggory, Bertrand Blier, Christine Boisson, Charlotte Valandrey, Laurent Bateau, Emir Seghir, Boris Terral, Samir Guesmi, Yannick Soulier, Marie Kremer, Anthony Roullier

PROD DES Nicolas de Boiscuillé

MUSIC Gabriel Yared

Tribeca, Transilvania (Hungarian Day), Melbourne

Synopsis

Maïwenn sets out to resolve her own identity as a tortured actress by making a documentary about the lives of a bevy of other French actresses, including Charlotte Rampling, Karin Viard, and Julie Depardieu. As she quests for “the real” person behind the glory (or lack thereof) on-screen, the interior insecurities of these divas make Maïwenn’s own vulnerabilities clear—or maybe her eagerness to reveal them to the camera is just part of the making of her juicy documentary. In this amusing psychological portrait of actresses, Maïwenn herself is possibly the most surprising case study, treacherously slipping from the position of an actress to a director: falling in love with one of her actresses and subjected to their wrath when they realize they don’t have center stage in the doc. Indeed, Maïwenn has taken it for herself.

Fiction and reality blur as real-world footage of everyday life and divulging interviews are juxtaposed against fantastical musical sequences full of glossy colors and sparkling costumes. Following her 2006 directorial debut Forgive Me (2006), nominated for two César Awards, Maïwenn continues to indulgently, fascinatingly, and obsessively explore her place in the world—where she is always cast as the star.
–Roya Rastegar

Director

Maïwenn

Maïwenn (French pronunciation: [maiwɛn lə bɛsko]; born Maïwenn Le Besco on 17 April 1976 in Les Lilas, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France) is a French actress and film director.

Biography and career

She is the daughter of actress Catherine Belkhodja, who ushered her into the entertainment industry at a young age, an experience later chronicled by Le Besco in her one-woman shows “Le Pois Chiche” and “I’m an Actress”. Maïwenn Le Besco starred in several films as a child and teenage actress, notably as “Elle as a child” (the child version of the lead role played by Isabelle Adjani) in the hit film L’été meurtrier (One Deadly Summer, 1983). In 1991, due to her difficult relationship with her parents, she decided to use only her given name professionally.

She met director and producer Luc Besson in 1991. The two later began a relationship, after which Maïwenn, having lost her motivation as an actress, interrupted her career for several years. She lived in Beverly Hills… read more

Maïwenn (French pronunciation: [maiwɛn lə bɛsko]; born Maïwenn Le Besco on 17 April 1976 in Les Lilas, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France) is a French actress and film director.

Biography and career

She is the daughter of actress Catherine Belkhodja, who ushered her into the entertainment industry at a young age, an experience later chronicled by Le Besco in her one-woman shows “Le Pois Chiche” and “I’m an Actress”. Maïwenn Le Besco starred in several films as a child and teenage actress, notably as “Elle as a child” (the child version of the lead role played by Isabelle Adjani) in the hit film L’été meurtrier (One Deadly Summer, 1983). In 1991, due to her difficult relationship with her parents, she decided to use only her given name professionally.

She met director and producer Luc Besson in 1991. The two later began a relationship, after which Maïwenn, having lost her motivation as an actress, interrupted her career for several years. She lived in Beverly Hills raising the daughter she had had with Besson at the age of 16. During this period, she only appeared in a supporting part in Léon, in which she was credited as Ouin-Ouin. She also directed the film’s making-of. Perhaps Maïwenn’s most internationally-seen film role was her appearance as the alien diva Plavalaguna in Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element (French and UK coproduction, 1997).

After her breakup with Luc Besson, Maïwenn returned to France and resumed her career as an actress. She performed as a standup comedian in an autobiographical one-woman-show, and reentered the movie business after several filmmakers saw her comedy routine in Paris. She appeared in several notable movies, including the horror film Haute Tension (English title: High Tension), in which she starred opposite Cécile de France. In 2006, she directed her first feature film, the semi-autobiographical Pardonnez-moi.

Her latest film Polisse won the Jury Prize at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. —Wikipedia

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