On the occasion of the launch of “Nona and her girls” this evening on Arte, meeting with the director and her actresses, Clotilde Hesme and Virginie Ledoyen. All three embody tripled sisters whose mother (Miou-Miou) becomes pregnant at the age of 70.
In Nona et ses filles, Miou-Miou embodies a free and independent woman living in the heart of the Goutte d’Or district in Paris. When she finds herself pregnant at 70, everything changes. Fortunately, she can count on the support of her three tripled daughters, Manu (Virginie Ledoyen), Gaby (Clotilde Hesme) and George (Valérie Donzelli), who decide to return to live with their mother to help her through this upheaval.
“I found it interesting to show that a woman who has campaigned all her life still finds herself trapped”, explains Valérie Donzelli. “Because in the end, motherhood is always the question of women, it is never that of men. It is always the responsibility of women.”
Under the guise of an apparently whimsical story, the director of Notre Dame and The Queen of Apples, who co-wrote Nona and her daughters with screenwriter Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat (Mixed), wanted to tackle the issue of sorority, through an offbeat and absurd portrait of a woman.
“When I was little, we used to say silly things like: “friendship between women doesn’t exist, friendship between men is great …” Kinds of clichés like that. JI wanted to say that it just wasn’t true. I know the women between them are strong and loving, and that was something I wanted to show off.“
For Clotilde Hesme, who plays Gaby, a falsely liberated sexologist, this theme was essential to question through fiction. “VSt is a theme today, we talk about it, but do we see fictions that really stage it? “
“With my own sisters,” she continues, “we wondered if we had seen fictions being younger that did not pit women against each other … And there weren’t many that did not feature women who are not rivals, that don’t tear themselves apart for a man.“
Virginie Ledoyen, for her part, plays Manu, “the eldest” of the triplets, and the only one of them to have chosen a tidy life. Used to carrying the weight of family responsibilities, she will find herself “faced with situations that she has spent a lot of time in her life avoiding“according to the actress. The extraordinary event represented by the pregnancy of her mother will force her to “revisiting the life she chose.”
Nona, she did not want this motherhood, which she considers a real disaster. “Often in the movies, motherhood is shown to us as a happy gift of life, but this is not necessarily the case.“A burden that she will succeed in carrying thanks to her three daughters, who decide to stand up to help their mother.”Finally, motherhood is always the question of women, never that of men. It is always the responsibility of women.“
Nona et ses filles is broadcast on Thursdays, December 9, 16 and 23 at 8:55 p.m. on Arte, and is available in full on Arte.tv
