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La vie rêvée d'Elodie

Text quoted from: http://www.soirillustre.be/3456elodie.html( 31 Jul.2001)

Prix d'Interprétation ex-aequo au dernier Festival de Cannes, avec notre compatriote Natacha Regnier, Elodie Bouchez a la pêche et l'optimisme de son personnage dans La vie rêvée des anges. Rencontre.

On pouvait difficilement séparer ces deux-là. Isa et Marie, dans le film d'Erik Zonca, courent toutes les deux après leurs rêves. Et si elles ne filent pas à la même cadence, si l'une a confiance et l'autre a la rage, si l'optimisme répond au désespoir, la brune et la blonde sont indissociables du rayon de lumière que projette La vie rêvée des anges, tour à tour l'ombre, le reflet ou, au contraire, la lueur de l'autre.
Dirigées de façon diamétralement opposée par ce nouveau cinéaste qui, s'il évoque le Pialat du début, n'en représente pas moins un coup de fraîcheur dans le cinéma français d'aujourd'hui, Elodie Bouchez et Natacha Regnier ont donc reçu, à deux, le Prix d'Interprétation du dernier Festival de Cannes. Pour Natacha, c'était un rêve qu'elle n'avait jamais imaginé. Inconnue, un court et un long métrages à son actif, la jeune Belge débarquait sans espoir ni préjugé sur la Croisette et était déjà tout en bonheur de se trouver là. Pour Elodie, c'est sans doute un second tournant important, après Les roseaux sauvages d'André Téchiné pour lequel elle avait reçu, en 93, le César du Meilleur Espoir.
Une longue interview de Natacha Regnier a été publiée en juin dernier dans Le Soir Illustré. Depuis, l'actrice belge a tourné Les amants criminels de François Ozon et devrait enchaîner avec une production italienne. Elodie, elle, apparaît dans Zonzon de Laurent Bouhnik et a déjà bouclé, depuis Cannes, Les kidnappeurs et J'aimerais pas crever un dimanche. A 25 ans, ça ressemble à une carrière sacrément bien remplie. Mais Elodie n'aime pas le mot carrière:
-"C'est parce que j'ai la chance de pouvoir travailler, de faire les films que j'ai envie de faire et d'être satisfaite. Evidemment, quand un film marche, cela fait encore plus plaisir mais je n'arrive pas à penser en termes de carrière."
Pourtant, 15 films à 25 ans, c'est énorme!
- "Je n'ai fait que deux erreurs - mais en même temps, j'ai appris!: le film de Michel Deville, La divine poursuite, et un autre, suisse-allemand, tourné en Inde."
Elodie, fille unique, a fréquenté un collège catholique ("parce que c'était à côté de la maison") et tâté d'études théâtrales à l'unif avant de fréquenter les jeunes auteurs du cinéma français. Enfin, jeune... En réalité, elle a fait ses débuts dans Stan the flasher de Gainsbourg! Mais après, outre un Leconte, un Téchiné et le Deville regretté, ce sont les Lipinska, Haudepin, Klapisch ou Morel qui peuplent son univers d'actrice. Des cinéastes très préoccupés par leur réalité. Des gens de sa génération.
- "Il n'y a rien de calculé mais je m'aperçois que, quand j'accepte le film de Deville, sans vraiment être convaincue, cela ne me satisfait pas. Il vaut mieux que je suive mon instinct et ce qui me fait vibrer à la lecture plutôt que de me fier au passé ou à la réputattion de quelqu'un. Les gens avec qui j'ai envie de bosser actuellement ne sont, effectivement, pas des vedettes, comme Cédric Kahn, Olivier Dazan ou Klapisch. Mais leurs histoires me touchent."

(article de Béatrice Demol.)

The dreamlife of Elodie.

Elodie Bouchez shared the Best Actress prize at the last Cannes festival with our compatriot Natacha Regnier. She is as dynamic and optimistic as her character in The Dream Life of Angels. We met her.

It was quite difficult to keep these two apart. In Eric Zonca's movie, both Isa and Marie are chasing their dreams. Though they are not going at the same pace, though one is trustful and the other rebellious, optimism responds to despair and the blonde and the brunette are indissociable from the ray of light shaded by The Dream Life of Angels, alternatively composed of the shadow, reflection or glow of the other.
This new film director reminds one of Pialat at the beginning of his career, but nonetheless renews today's French cinema. He directed Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Regnier in opposite ways but they both won the best actress prize at the last Cannes festival. For Natacha it was a dream she had never conceived. The young Belgian actress who was not yet famous and had only appeared in a couple of movies came to Cannes with no hopes nor bias, only too happy to simply be there. For Elodie, there's no doubt it was another milestone, after Techine's Wild Reeds for which she won a César for Most Promising Young Actress in 1991. Since the long interview she gave to "Le Soir Illustré" last June, Natacha Regnier has played in François Ozon's Criminal Lovers and should go on with an Italian production. As for Elodie, she can be seen in Zonzon by Laurent Bouhnik and has wrapped up Les Kidnappeurs and Don't let me die on a Sunday since Cannes. That looks like a quite busy carreer for a 25 years-old. But Elodie doesn't like the word career:
-"It's because I'm lucky enough to be able to work, to play in movies I like, and to be satisfied. Of course if a movie is a success, it's even better, but I can't manage to think of it as a career"
All the same, being 25 and having played in 15 movies is quite spectacular!
-"I made only 2 mistakes - but at the same time, I've been learning!: Michel Deville's Divine Poursuite, and another one, a Swiss German movie that was shot in India."
Elodie, who doesn't have any siblings, went to a Catholic high school ("because it was closer to home") and took a few theatre and drama courses at the university before associating with the young French film makers. Well, young... In fact, she made her debut with Gainsbourg in Stan the Flasher! But later, in addition to movies by Leconte, Téchiné, and the lamented Deville, her actress world has been filled with Lipinska, Haudepin, Klapisch or Morel, some film makers who are very concerned with their reality. People of her generation.
-"There is nothing planned ahead, but I realize that, when I agree to the Deville movie without a real conviction, I'm not satisfied. It's better for me to follow my instinct and what thrills me when I read it, rather than to rely on someone's past or reputation. Indeed, the people I want to work with at the moment, such as Cédric Kahn, Olivier Dazan or Klapisch are no celebrities, but I am moved by their stories.


Discussion of terminology and resources used for this translation:

La vie rêvée d'Elodie:
This text mentions quite a few movies in which E. Boucher ans N. Regnier have played. To find the equivalent titles in English, I mainly used The Internet Movie DataBase (IMDB) ( 5 Aug. 2001) and Google searches on the movie title when the IMDB didn't give an English version of the title. It turns out that this site had all the movies quoted in the article, and gives very complete information for the translation of titles in English, as they say which country the English title was used in.
Other reviews and articles can also be useful (e.g.http://netau.com.au/gregking/f786dla.htm ( 31 Jul. 2001) for "Wild Reeds" as a translation of "Les roseaux sauvages")


prix d'interpretation ex-aequo, César du meilleur espoir:
http://www.insideout.co.uk/films/v/vie_revee_des_anges.shtml( 31 Jul. 2001) and http://netau.com.au/gregking/f786dla.htm ( 31 jul.2001) are articles in English about The dream life of angels that mention the price won by the two leading actresses, and provide us with a translation for "prix d'interpretation ex-aequo": shared Best actress price.
Similarly, http://www.blackrebel.com/rebelfilms/d/dream_life.html( 6 Aug. 2001) mentions the "césar for most promising young actress" won by Elodie Boucher, thus providing us with a translation for "César du meilleur espoir".


suisse-allemand :
http://www.sgu.ac.id/sgu009/photograp_President.html for swiss german ( 30 Jul. 2001) confirms that the free association "Swiss German" is used in English as a translation of "suisse-allemand".

Etudes Théâtrales:
The University of Guelph( 5 Aug. 2001) offers a course called "Essays in Theatre/Etudes Théâtrales" so it seems that the term "Etudes Théâtrales" could be kept as such. But I think that in our text it is meant in a more general sense, and the University of Toronto( 5 Aug. 2001) has a "Theatre and Drama studies" program, which seems to correspond to the "Etudes Théâtrales" refered to in the text.

unif:
The term "unif" is used here as a short form for "université". A quick search shows that this term is specific to the French spoken in Belgium (e.g. in http://www.ulg.ac.be/aee/1sem/sttore.html( 31 Jul. 2001) or http://users.skynet.be/compag/sitedujour/13052001/univ.htm( 31 Jul. 2001).The translation of this term has to be another English regionnal short form of "university". It seems that the term "uni" is used for this purpose in the United Kingdom ( 6 Aug. 2001) and Australia http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/Agedu/Tocal/artic.htm( 31 Jul. 2001), but no such short form is used in Canadian English. Therefore, as the translated text is meant to be in Canadian English, the full term "university" applies as a translation for "unif".

fréquenter:
http://sun-recomgen.univ-rennes1.fr/FR-Eng.html ( 6 Aug. 2001) Also provides "to associate with" as an unoficial translation (users' submition) for "fréquenter".
After checking the usage of this expression, (found in an official site of the government of Texas http://www.hr.state.tx.us/thread.cfm?threadid=47&messages=7 ( 5 Aug. 2001) and on a religious site http://users.aol.com/ahumanist/rgi/ip_chaptersTbl/24associatewith.html ( 5 Aug. 2001)) it appears that this expression is more formal in English than "fréquenter" in French.
But this expression also means "to make an association with", "to work with", which is what is meant here, so "to associate with " seems to be a good translation for "fréquenter" in this text.

me fier au:
http://sun-recomgen.univ-rennes1.fr/FR-Eng.html ( 6 Aug. 2001) provides "to rely on" as an official dictionary translation for "se fier a" when eurodicautom gives no useful result.


July 2001