To play at different times Michel, the main role of “For a woman”, Diane Kurys intended to use two different actors. But Benoît Magimel insisted on embodying it in his youth as well as in his old age. Which required a lot of transformation work for the actor.
A new personal film for Diane Kurys
From her first film as a director, Mint diabolo released in 1977, Diane Kurys is inspired by her family history and her childhood memories. During her career, she regularly returns to this personal matter, particularly the meeting of his parents and the couple they formed, which she romanticizes to varying degrees in her accomplishments. And as for Thunderbolt in 1983, she resumed the story of her parents in For a womanreleased in 2013.
Pour une femme first takes place in the 80s and tells the story of Anne (Sylvie Testud), a writer who has just lost her mother. By immersing herself with her sister Tania in the business that she left behind, she then decided to write about their parents’ early years of marriage Léna (Mélanie Thierry) and Michel (Benoît Magimel) just after the Second World War. She will be interested in a specific point, the irruption in their life of Jean (Nicolas Duvauchelle), Michel’s little brother, whom he thought was dead. Jean, whose recent past remains mysterious, and Léna will gradually develop a mutual desire…
In this film, Benoît Magimel appears at several times. The 1940s, the 80s and 90s. So the actor had to be transformed to show him in his youth and old age, which required a lot of work. The bet was not won in advance, to the point that Diane Kurys initially wanted to play Michel aged by another actor. But Benoît Magimel insisted on playing the character in different periods, and finally won his case.
Extra pounds and 7 hours of makeup a day
In as part of the promotion of For a womanDiane Kurys detailed the work accomplished with Benoît Magimel.
He gained some weight for the role. For the scenes where he is supposed to be 80 years old, I had considered calling on another actor, but Benoît didn’t want to hear about it! As a result, he experienced the long hours of make-up, which was particularly trying for him because it was terribly hot: I remember that in the evening, when they were removing this sort of latex mask under which he had been suffocating all day, it was suddenly losing at least a liter of water which was gushing out like a geyser!
While aging techniques, whether based purely on make-up and prostheses or digital, have greatly evolved, in the early 2010s it was not so easy to create the illusion. This is why Benoît Magimel said to himself “anguish“at the thought of missing his elderly Michel.
It was a real gift for an actor, but also a very trying experience that I won’t be trying again anytime soon. Indeed, there was 7 hours of make-up per day since I had asked that they also put prostheses on my hands. In the end, for a week, I slept about an hour a night! But the more I played with this makeup, the more I absorbed it. Because it’s really makeup that allows you to become one with your face. As a result, you shouldn’t hesitate to move and make faces, even though you feel like your face is completely rigid when you wear a latex mask.
