After working as an assistant director with Bertrand Bonello, Noémie Lvovsky and Mathieu Amalric, Parisian Elsa Amiel debuts in directing feature films with Pearl , a surprising study of the unknown female bodybuilding that addresses the drama of a competitor she abandoned at the beginning of her career to your son. Within the framework of the Seville European Film Festival we had the opportunity to talk to her about her leap to realization in a changing world.how to build your arms
Pearl deals with a very specific and original subject. What attracted you to the world of bodybuilding to dedicate your first movie to it?
Looking for a theme for my first movie, I was clear that I wanted a strong feminine character with whom to question the forms of femininity: motherhood, appearance, beauty. I felt a strong need to explore the issue of the body, something I had already dealt with in a short film and wanted to continue. Suddenly I met the work of a photographer who works the body, the contrast and the fusion between masculine and feminine: Martin Schoeller, who took pictures of women bodybuilders just before competing. I was fascinated, so I started going to the competitions myself, to see the female athletes. Obviously there is something narcissistic and obsessive about this sport, but I also found fragility. Why they do it is something that is beyond the understanding of those who do not. There is some mythology, because they are people looking for a perfection close to the gods. It is true that it is a very unknown world, explored by reports but rarely by movies. As it is a virgin topic, I decided to go for it.
What we do have are many films about competitions around the force that also focus on the fragility of their characters, as you say… Have any of them inspired you?
I am having trouble answering this question. Obviously I have fed from many films, such as The Fighter , by Darren Aronofsky, and Pumping Iron , a documentary about the training of Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is a reference in the world of bodybuilding, but for Pearl I have not been inspired by any in Particularly, perhaps because the work of each director is impressive and personal and I felt the need to test my own way of seeing things.
You have worked with very influential directors as an assistant director, how has that experience influenced you?
I have trained between very good directors, yes. I really directed Pearl with no one in mind specifically, but logically some of them fit me. And in moments of doubt I think about how they would have solved the situation, because for now their sense of accomplishment is much freer than mine. But, of course, I always have to go a little beyond that to find my own voice.
Something notable about Pearl is the quality of the cast, which almost seems to embody itself. How was the casting process?
The most difficult thing was finding Julia Föry, because it is obviously impossible to find an actress known with that particular body. Looking for a specific body for my protagonist, Léa Pearl, I traveled through the US, Canada and Europe and in the end I found Julia, but she was still not fit. However, at that time I did not have financing yet; When two years later I finally started doing it, she appeared and I already had the appropriate body. I noticed that this girl, in addition to having an impressive body, was feminine, sensitive and intelligent. It was unique. He identified with the character and knew immediately what he was talking about. So she agreed to become an actress for the film. For Al, the manager, however, needed an experienced actor that Julia could lean on, so I opted for Peter Mullen, who, Four years before filming, he had already said yes. Another great challenge was finding the child, but in the end the choice was easy. At the casting, Vidal Arzoni was the only one who proposed something different: everyone had come very cute, knowing the text, well dressed, well-groomed, but he started dancing hip hop. It is true that at the casting I saw something lost but when we started recording a year later, I noticed that he had prepared: he had thought about the character, the text. As I wanted to give a realistic and documentary tone to the film, which was not naturalistic, I looked for people from the bodybuilding world for minor roles, as the sponsor. The role of Serena, however, required a professional actress because she handles many moods, so I turned to Agata Buzek, a very special Polish actress. That is,
Regarding the latter, Pearl are two films in one: the world of bodybuilding, approached almost documentary, and the most narrative and dramatic portrait of a mother and her son …
Yes, it is already seen from the script: I start working on the bodybuilding world with documentary shots and frames, and suddenly the boy appears to dismantle this treatment. I try to turn the vision of bodybuilding around, to offer a more dreamlike and remote view of reality. The character of Léa Pearl is gaining prominence as such within that world; she is a victimized character, objectified by those around her and even by the camera; but little by little the work becomes more carnal, as the character materializes.
And for the next project, do you have plans? More bodybuilding?
Good question [laughs]. You spend so much time on a movie that you lose a lot of energy. What I do know is that I still want to work on the subject of the body, but I must find something different.
How have you lived everything for now with Pearl ?
For the moment the film has had a life in festivals: it started in Venice and it was extraordinary because the room was full, the audience was very receptive and warm, it was a pleasant surprise because we were terrified. Then he has been to festivals in France, Iceland and other places, always with a good reception. I am surprised that people are extremely touched by the film; people, in addition, of all ages. They want to know everything about this woman, who equally attracts and worries them; and it is that the question of the body is frightening for many. Perhaps at first they do not understand the character’s decision, but I think that, as she accepts her decisions herself, the viewers accept her.
That reminds me of the #MeToo movement, how did you experience it?
It’s strange because I started preparing this movie six years ago, long before the rise of the movement. Suddenly all these abuse stories have emerged, also in the world of bodybuilding and training, when curiously in the film there is an ambiguous relationship between the protagonist and the trainer … On the other hand, six years ago there was a female bodybuilding competition but four years ago it ceased to exist because it was believed that it gave a bad image of women. The category was eliminated by the bodybuilding federations and replaced by another that works more on beauty than strength: “Bikini Wellness”; and it seems that women have to be beautiful above all else. It was precisely my rebellion against that idea that led me to give prominence to a character who may soon cease to exist.
Pearl will be released in Spain in 2019 distributed by Surtsey Films.