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Sep 02, 2011 By Chris Tinkham Ludivine Sagnier

U.S. audiences might know French actress Ludivine Sagnier best from her work with director François Ozon. Their three-film collaboration began with Water Drops on Burning Rocks, released in 2000, and culminated in 2003 with Swimming Pool, the half-English, half-French-language mystery that featured a bikini-clad Sagnier front and center on its advertising art. In a climate that’s been increasingly difficult for foreign-language films to find distribution in the States, Sagnier, one of France’s most well-known and respected actresses, has been a fixture in U.S. art houses over the last decade, appearing in titles such as My Wife Is an Actress (2001), Paris, Je T’Aime (2006), Claude Chabrol’s The Girl Cut in Two (2007), and most recently, opposite Dominic Cooper in The Devil’s Double.

Yet, Sagnier has resisted the lure of Hollywood; her occasional forays into English-language films have been for international directors. Her dynamic, multilayered performance in Alain Corneau’s psychological thriller, Love Crime, will only amplify the overtures of American filmmakers. In the film, Sagnier plays Isabelle, a tightly wound assistant to an ambitious international corporate business exec, Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas). Their complicated relationship—marked by personal admiration and envy, office politics and manipulation—pushes Isabelle to the brink, to the point where she contemplates the unthinkable to salvage her own well-being.

Under the Radar spoke with Sagnier in June, while she was in Los Angeles to attend Los Angeles Film Festival screenings of Love Crime and The Devil’s Double.

How was your time at the Los Angeles Film Festival, having both The Devil’s Double and Love Crime screening there?

It was great because it was two different experiences. The first one was red carpet stuff, ‘cause we premiered the movie, so it was in the big theater, in the big room, and it was kind of a Hollywood experience. And the screening of Love Crime was more intimate, and I was glad, because a lot of people were curious about it. So it was a different experience each time.

In April, at the French film festival, they screened your film with Diane Kruger, Lily Sometimes. So, many of your films play here­—

—Yeah, I’m glad.

Have you spent much time here?

Not so much. I haven’t come here for seven years, I think.

Was there ever a period where you came to Hollywood to look for work?

Not really. I just came here to promote movies. I have just done that one movie with a big studio, that was Peter Pan, but it was a long time ago now.

In Love Crime, you play a businesswoman. Did the constrictive attire help you to get into character for the office scenes?

Oh yes, definitely, because she was completely tied up in little shirts, and it really helped me to feel this lack of confidence that she had. Yeah, costumes are always very important and necessary to build up a character.

Was that something new for you?

This business environment, yes. It was definitely new, and actually, before the shooting, I went to— My brother-in-law works in such a company, so I went to see him, to see how it works and to check the ambience, because it is so exotic for me. I really wanted to know how it feels to be working with such a nice view and perspective of the city. That gives you a feeling of power, but at the same time you feel completely trapped, because this tower, the windows don’t open and you’re like a fish in an aquarium.

Your character, Isabelle, she also runs on a treadmill. Are you much of an athletic person?

Kind of. Actually, it’s me who brought this idea, because he wanted me to— The director wanted the character to hike, and I thought it would be better to see her running, because running is something that I practice, and I think it’s somehow a way to go beyond yourself and to fight against yourself. So I thought that was a good idea.

Was Isabelle’s breakdown in the elevator and parking garage the most challenging scene for you?

It was challenging, especially because we didn’t shoot that chronologically. We shot that sequence throughout maybe three weeks. So it was very difficult for me to keep the continuity of the emotion. But, you know, that’s how it works, unfortunately. [Laughs] So, I didn’t really have much choice.

There’s an interesting dynamic between Isabelle and Christine in the film, one of envy and rivalry but also admiration. Is that something you can relate to given the industry that you work in, that you have admiration for some of the people you’re competing with for roles?

I wouldn’t identify personally with that relationship, but one of our references for the movie was All About Eve by Mankiewicz, which happens to be in the middle of [show] business. That was a reference, definitely. Yeah, there are a lot of contradictions with admiration. Admiration can go with jealousy and envy, and that’s what I like, because it’s so complex. But I don’t necessarily have that kind of relationship in my own life. I tend to be much more balanced and much more aware of things. Isabelle is someone who’s very good at what she does, being an executive, but otherwise, I think she has absolutely no knowledge of what human relationships are, and she’s completely immature when it relates to that. And I think that I’m much more streetwise than she is.

You haven’t had any All About Eve experiences in your career.

No, I’m glad I haven’t.

Ludivine Sagnier (left) plays an assiatnt to a corporate business exec (Kristin Scott Thomas) in Love Crimes.

What sparked your interest in acting at such an early age, to the extent that you studied it?

I did it because I wanted to escape to a classical music career. [Laughs] Because, in my dad’s family, they were all classical musicians. So, studying theater was qualified as a bit of a failure in my family, but after a while it became a necessity. It hooked me against my will. I just found that I needed that in my life.

Was there a certain movie or live performance that made you say, “I need to do that.”?

No, but I remember that there was this book I read, Letters to a Young Poet, by Rainer Maria Rilke, and so this young poet was asking Rilke whether he should go and have an artistic career, and Rilke was saying to him, ask yourself about the necessity. If you cannot live without expressing yourself and expressing your feelings and interpreting human nature, if you can’t live without it, then your duty is to achieve it. And, when I read it, I remember it was really striking, and that’s what gave me the impulse to go on.

Were you named after anyone?

No.

Do you know why your parents chose Ludivine?

I don’t know. That was a very uncommon name, and my mom had this weird idea. I resented her for many years because no one knew where it came from, and I was the only one in my class who was named that way. After a while, I enjoyed the privilege of being unique. [Laughs]

Did you find it difficult transitioning from child roles to more adult material?

No, I think that’s the way we all grow up. I don’t know. I need to be challenged, and I like my character to help me to evolve. So, I tend to choose my character in order to have a larger perspective all the time.

It can be a tricky transition for some actresses, because even when they get into their 20s, they’re repeating the teenage daughter roles, or when they’re in their teens in real life, they’re asked to be sexually mature beyond their years on screen.

You know, I’ve always looked younger than I really am, so I’ve always been older than my characters. So it never brought me things I wasn’t ready for. But, I turned down a lot of offers. I remember when I was 25, I looked like I was 18, and they would offer me teenage roles, and I was kind of saying, “Come on, I have a child. I have some other issues in my life.” So, even if the part is great, I’m not interested in exploring teenagers’ problems, because I’m over it.

I think U.S. audiences first became aware of you with Water Drops on Burning Rocks—

—I was a teenager!

How were you cast in that role?

I had not done much at that time. I had done a short movie that was very successful, and I got a lot of attention after this short movie, and the director, François Ozon, who was a very young director, who was only beginning his career, he called me to do an audition. Actually, I was considering myself a stage actor, and I didn’t really intend to do movies. I didn’t really know what was coming. So he proposed me to do this movie that was an adaptation of a Fassbinder play, and I thought that was a very good thing because it was theatrical, but it was a movie at the same time, so it was a new experience for me. And I was a great fan of Fassbinder’s work. So I was kind of unconscious when I did this, because when I watch it now, I think, “Oh my God, how did I do this?” Because, you know, she’s so free with her body, and she’s completely out of her mind, and she’s hanging around naked in the place, and she has absolutely no self-consciousness at all. And, I remember, I was a bit scared but not that much. I didn’t really care. It’s only now when I watch it, I’m like, [gasps] “My God! I wouldn’t let my daughter do this at the age of 19! It’s terrible.” But, at the same time, I’m glad because he really caught something of me, something of my youth that’s very precious, this unconsciousness, that now, as a mother of two, as a public person, I could never have again. So, I’m glad I did it at that time.

Before the film came out here, I remember the trailer, it was the dance scene, very different from what you normally see in a trailer.

Yeah, the choreography was very theatrical and completely crazy at the same time. And it was a German disco track saying, “Come and dance the Samba with me.” It was terrible, but very funny.

What was the experience like working on a big-budget film like Peter Pan?

It was cool. It was a lot of work because we were shooting in Australia, and shooting lasted for one year. So, I would go back and forth. Paris to Sydney was a long trip, but what I liked is [that] going to Neverland is quite a long trip. It’s like straight ahead until morning and second on the left, I think [laughs] that’s what the novel says. So I liked this idea to go to the end of the world to shoot a movie, and also the experience of Tinkerbell was very enriching for me as an actor because I was on blue screen all the time, and I had to create my own character, because nothing was written about Tinkerbell. At the beginning, they wanted her just to be CGI’d, and they didn’t want a living actor. I was only there to give them some ideas, and at the beginning they said, “Why don’t we take her and CGI her instead of having a robot flying around Peter?” So, it was a lot of work, but I had the feeling that I was doing a silent movie. It was very interesting in terms of exploring my own craft.

I’ve only seen a selection of your films, but something I’ve noticed about some of the characters you play is that they have an intuitive intellect that runs deeper than what the audience first might assume. What do you look for in choosing your roles?

I look for a lot of things, actually.

Your characters often seem to surprise the viewer as the film unfolds.

Yeah, true, but that’s something I don’t really look for. That’s something that’s not really conscious of me. I might be someone who’s very light and an extravert at first sight, but I might be deeper than people think, so that might have something to do with it. Otherwise, I tend to look for characters who help me to elevate myself.

www.ifcfilms.com/films/love-crime