Calamity Jane et Delphine Seyrig : A Story

Babette Mangolte: Calamity Jane et Delphine Seyrig : A Story (FR/US 2019) with Delphine Seyrig.

FR/US 2019. Prod.: Babette Mangolte. 

    Director: Babette Mangolte. Sog.: Delphine Seyrig. Scen., F., M.: Babette Mangolte. Int.: Delphine Seyrig, Stella Foote, Claire Wolverton, JJ Wilson, Duncan Youngerman, Julian Lynn Trotta. 87 min

    Language: English.

    Not released in Finland.

    DCP from: Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2024: Delphine Seyrig, Just Another Sorceress.

    Introduced by Babette Mangolte, hosted by Émilie Cauquy, with an Italian translator.

    Viewed at Cinéma Lumière - Sala Scorsese, 28 June 2024

Élodie Tamayo (Bologna Catalogue 2024): " Did you know that in the 1980s, Delphine Seyrig was working on a film about Calamity Jane? Based on poignant letters Calamity wrote to her daughter, Seyrig explored the fierce independence, free motherhood and gender fluidity of the American pioneer. In search of sources and stories, she went to Montana alongside Babette Mangolte, photographer, director and camerawoman, whom she had met when making Jeanne Dielman. Mangolte’s 16 mm camera captured Seyrig’s ballad of the Wild West with warm delight. In it, the actress took on the roles of creator and researcher in turn, curious and contemplative, as she mulled over a developing storyline. Think touching personal archives, odd sorts of anecdotes round the pool (complete with E.T. the extra-terrestrial rubber rings) and feminist meditations. Lacking support from the CNC, the film was not finished. The rushes were put to bed. Then, in the 2010s, the project was resuscitated under the auspices of the Centre audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir and as a response to Trumpism. In Babette Mangolte’s hands, the edit became a palimpsest of feminist stories. Seyrig’s documents (storyboard, screenplay, letters, rushes) connected with spoken testimonies from the likes of Seyrig’s son, Duncan Youngerman, Lebanese author Etel Adnan, and the historian Giovanna Zapperi. The incompleteness of the initial work made for an open and collaborative sequel. A polyphony that met Seyrig’s wish: to create “a friendly and loving rewrite, finally more than just a single voice.”" Élodie Tamayo (Bologna Catalogue 2024)

AA: Babette Mangolte and Delphine Seyrig on an impossible mission: in search of the real Calamity Jane. They visit women bookstores and women writers in the West. Calamity Jane: an itinerant life, a life of booze. Inspired by her letters to her daughter, Seyrig & Mangolte visit the true locations in search of her diary. It is found. Written in an old photograph album where diary remarks have been entered instead of photographs. They have been entered also around the edges. The search leads to a moving labyrinth of meta levels. Calamity Jane's authentic voice comes through. "Women came to domesticate the West." "The world does not owe anyone a living." "I'm going blind, one blunder after another". "All I have is the pictures." "Don't pity or forgive me". We feel having recognized a glimpse of the real Calamity Jane. And a real Wild West unlike in Hollywood Westerns but still present in Before Hollywood Westerns such as The Lady of the Dugout.

RÉSUMÉ (CENTRE AUDIOVISUEL SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR):

" En 1979, Delphine Seyrig est bouleversée par la lecture des Lettres de Calamity Jane à sa fille. Elle trouve dans cette correspondance cachée, les lettres n’ayant jamais été envoyées à l’enfant confiée en adoption, les mots d’une mère à sa fille absente, ceux d’une femme marginalisée parce que libre de transgresser les règles de son genre.

Delphine Seyrig a le projet d’en faire un film. Elle entreprend l’écriture d’un scénario et part enquêter, en 1983, à Billings dans le Montana, sur les traces de l’héroïne et de sa fille. Mais elle n’aura malheureusement pas le temps de réaliser son film.

En 2018, sur la base des rushes du voyage aux Etats-Unis, des documents de travail de Delphine Seyrig, de sa correspondance avec son fils, Babette Mangolte tisse un hommage à l’actrice et à son engagement pour mettre en scène cette correspondance.

La réalisatrice, à son tour, plonge dans l’univers de Calamity Jane en mêlant le projet de Delphine Seyrig et sa propre vision.

"De l’avoir mise en scène dans sa voiture, perdue dans ses pensées, ou bien dans un café en train de lire la correspondance de Calamity Jane, ou encore dans sa chambre d’hôtel au petit matin, cela m’a permis, à la fin du mois d’août 2019, de construire le monologue intérieur de Delphine. Dans celui-ci, elle sait ce qu’elle va faire. Le film devait porter sur cela précisément : ne pas renoncer. C’était la plus grande force de Delphine." Babette Mangolte - New York, 19 septembre – 2 octobre 2019 "