Was I really in control of my decisions? Is my happiness artificial?

At Todd Haynes, women didn’t wait for MeToo to challenge norms and take wrong paths. After the lesbian love affair with America in the fifties Carol or interracial romance with Far from heaven Also anchored in the 1950s, the American director tells of two elusive women with “slippery” morals. May December First, an actress (Natalie Portman), looking for a challenge, approaches another she is preparing to play. Twenty years ago, this woman (Julianne Moore) was condemned by the courts and society for her forbidden love with a teenager, who has since become her husband and the father of her children. Loosely inspired by the Marie Kay Letourneau romance, this story had everything to please Todd Haynes: a transgressive premise, two heroines impossible to classify, and a subtext on cinema, the mirror of our society.

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Madame Figaro. – This project was brought to you by Natalie Portman, who is producing it. How did you personalize it?
Todd Haynes. – The connection was made instantly. As I read the script, I realized how much the relationships between these characters examined my own morality. As the story progressed, the ground slipped from under my feet: my gaze was constantly challenged by the mirror relationships between these women, the wife’s denial of the illegality of her act, the boy’s redemption. Which starts to question his consent… From then on, I wanted to control the film, to propose a staging that would make the audience feel this disturbance.

In an age that no longer knew nuisance, was it important to center it?
Time requires that we name and stabilize everyone’s identity, but this story questions this natural instinct. It’s a gray area that I liked, Natalie liked, and it convinced me to propose the project to Julianne Moore, who has always avoided monotonous, overly readable characters.

Natalie Portman plays Elizabeth, a borderline actress. Does that reflect what you think of actresses?
Not at all, even though it is true that this job puts a strain on the ego and can weaken a person. What I find relevant to reality is the frustration of not being able to escape the straitjacket. Getting rid of her image can be complicated: in this case, Elizabeth was made famous by a very popular series, and longs for another artistic land. This is quite common for actors, but, in real life, I don’t know anyone who, like Elizabeth, doesn’t care about hurting others to achieve their goals.

There is a mirror effect between your heroines. Did your actresses have similarities?
Natalie and Julian are actually quite different, but their performances convince us otherwise. As the film progresses, Natalie becomes more integrated into her character and grows closer to Julian. At the beginning of filming, Julian and I worked to portray her character, the way she speaks, moves…strong markers that Natalie in turn needed to adopt. From there I made the mirror effect the visual manifesto of the film. My characters are constantly watching themselves and observing others. I played with this idea in directing and directing actors.

Natalie and Julian are actually quite different but their performances convince us otherwise

Todd Haynes

Are your films a mirror of your soul?
They are the mirror of social language. I hope they reflect the world we live in, with its codes, its restrictions, its morals… I try to itch, sometimes, to go beyond what we see on the surface, to get away from the archetypes. Even if it means making it. Discomfort. I want to account for multiple realities, propose other possibilities, question what has been achieved. I have always tried to represent women in all their complexities. And with this film I challenge myself. So far, my heroines have been more subservient and passive, struggling with their desires and struggling to stay true to their inner selves. In this film, it’s very different: her desire is the driving force and the men give in to her desire.

What words would you put on the relationship between the character of Julianne Moore and her husband, condemned by justice and morality?
Nothing, because that is precisely what the film refuses to do, and I hope, it becomes interesting. I could talk to you about the complexity of their bond, their happiness that is perhaps just illusory, the discomfort that this story causes, but I want to avoid any moral judgement. Instead, the film raises the questions we often refuse to ask ourselves about the choices we make in life: Are they the right ones? Was I really in control of my decisions? Is my happiness artificial? …

Where does the desire to tell stories about women come from, film after film?
The place of women in society is a particular political topic that fascinates me. My generation saw the emergence of feminist theories, which I studied at university, which permeated the art world, advancing and influencing the queer theories I studied later in life. I have always been interested in the way in which women are understood alternately as object and subject: men have the right to make themselves the subject of their desire and submission, and, paradoxically, place the burden on their shoulders alone. The family and the couple remain afloat, to raise children… but it is still difficult to imagine them active and powerful outside this local sphere, in society and by extension in fiction. In contrast, stories told by men often deal with escape – physical or mental -, the underworld, crime, in other words freedom and transgression. Women should be able to claim it in life as well as on screen.

May DecemberBy Todd Haynes, with Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman, Charles Melton… In theaters January 24.