Sidonie au Japon / Sidonie in Japan

Élise Girard: Sidonie au Japon (FR/DE/JP/CH 2023). Isabelle Huppert as the author Sidonie Perceval.

FR/DE/JP/CH 2023

    Sociétés de production : 10:15 Productions, Box Productions et Lupa Film

Production : Sébastien Haguenauer

Production exécutive : Christelle Michel

Coproduction : Elena Tatti et Felix von Boehm

Réalisation : Élise Girard

Scénario : Élise Girard, Sophie Fillières et Maud Ameline

Photographie : Céline Bozon

Costumes : Dorothee Hohndorf

Son : Masaki Hatsui, Nicolas van Deth

Montage : Thomas Glaser

    Distribution

Isabelle Huppert : Sidonie Perceval

Tsuyoshi Ihara : Kenzo Mizoguchi

August Diehl : Antoine Percevel

    Langue originale : français et japonais

    Genre : Drame

    Durée : 95 minutes

    Société de distribution : Indie Sales et Art House

    Dates de sortie :

    Italie : 31 août 2023 (Venise)

    France : 3 avril 2024

    Viewed at UGC Danton, 99 bd Saint-Germain, 75006 Paris, 6 April 2024

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2023: " Japan, nowadays. Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer, is mourning her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the reedition of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyoto, the city of shrines and temples. As they travel together through the Japanese spring blossoms, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows Sidonie: she will have to finally let go of the past to let herself love again. "

" Sidonie in Japan was born of the feelings I experienced when I first discovered Japan in 2013. As soon as I started writing, I thought of Isabelle Huppert's face, and I chose the name Sidonie for its Japanese consonance, but also as a tribute to Colette, a writer I'm particularly fond of. Through this film-travel, I wanted to talk about mourning, but also about rebirth, about love coming back when it's no longer expected. Sidonie in Japan films this “connection” between past and present, the end of mourning and the beginning of love, the meeting of two characters who could embody France and Japan. My film is also a declaration of love to this country, to which I feel both close and foreign, my taste for the ancient and the ultra-modern finding a real echo, like a constant coming and going between the two, which makes Japan a country of choice for cinema in my opinion. " [Élise Girard]

AA: This week's Paris film marathon has taken me to Argentine (Los delincuentes), Iran (Atash-esabz / La Flamme verte), Mexico (El esqueleto de la Señora Morales), France (Ducobu passe au vert !), India (Agra), USA (Drive-Away Dolls) and now to Japan in Élise Girard's Sidonie au Japon.

Since the death of her husband Antoine (August Diehl), Sidonie Perceval (Isabelle Huppert) has not written a new book, but she travels to Japan to celebrate a new edition of her first novel. She meets enthusiastic readers of her work and is moved to hear that they mean much for them.

She has been in deep shock after her husband's death, and now, even more shockingly, Antoine returns as a ghost. But from her devoted editor Kenzo Mizoguchi (Tsuyoshi Ihara) she learns that in Japan phantoms are everywhere. (We also learn that Mizoguchi is not a rare name in Japan, and he is not a relative of the director of Ugetsu monogatari).

Sofia Coppola's satire Lost in Translation (US 2003) was about being insulated in an impersonal hotel world and failing to make any contact with Japan. Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car (JP 2021) was a "found in translation" saga about an Anton Chekhov production staged in Hiroshima, transcending multiple language barriers. Wim Wenders's Perfect Days (JP 2023) was, among other things, about culture becoming meaningful in translation (American novels) or without (golden oldies pop music such as Lou Reed's "Perfect Day"). Sidonie au Japon is another "found in translation" saga, being the story of a French writer and her Japanese translator-editor. Words and expressions don't match, but they can be approximated.

Kenzo is married, but his marriage has become meaningless. Why does he not have children? He refers to the sense of absurdity. Much of his family was killed in Hiroshima and in the Kobe earthquake.

Why does Sidonie not write anymore? Perhaps she will again after this voyage.

In Kyoto, they visit Tanizaki's grave at the Honen-in temple. It is extremely minimalist. There are only two words: - rien - and - silence.

They also experience the cherry blossom time in Kyoto.

Finally there is the step to the unlimited. According to Kenzo, in Japan it is not discussed in words. You just do it. The night of love is conveyed in a photo montage of tender caresses.

Élise Girard and her cinematographer Céline Bozon convey a Japan in graceful compositions. Style is character.

The elegance is reinforced by the soundtrack selections of J. S. Bach: BWV 974 (keyboard arrangement of Marcello's concert for oboe and orchester) and 855 (prelude and fugue e-Moll of the Well Tempered Clavier Part I).

The film-makers are not afraid of the familiar, bordering on the cliché (Mount Fuji, sakura... ). There are reasons why those things are so beloved. Sidonie's journey makes the familiar look new again.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: MORE DATE FROM VENICE:

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: MORE DATE FROM VENICE:

Élise Girard started out as a press attaché for Cinémas Action before becoming a director. Her first two films were documentaries: one on the Cinémas Action and the other on Roger Diamantis, founder of the Saint André des Arts: Seuls sont les indomptés, l'aventure des cinémas Action (2003) and Roger Diamantis ou la vraie vie (2005). Her first feature, Belleville Tokyo (2011), was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, as was Strange Birds (2016), presented at the Berlinale Forum in 2017. For Sidonie in Japan, she benefited from the French Institute's Louis Lumière grant, which enabled her to reside in Kyoto in 2017.