Alice Winocourt’s “Couture” and the Oscar-winning actor Angelina Jolie, who won the Spanish San Sebastian Film Festival, were asked timely questions at the festival’s press conference. The actor sighed deeply and took a moment to answer before saying, “That’s a very difficult question.”
“I love my country, but at this point I don’t recognize my country,” Jolie said. “I have always lived internationally, my family is international, my friend, my life. My worldview is equal, united, international. I find anything that separates or limits personal expression or freedom from anyone is extremely dangerous.
It is important to note that Jolie’s comments on freedom of expression will come just days after Disney’s ABC unveiled Jimmy Kimmel’s popular late-night schedule “indefinitely.” The decision comes after Nexstar Media, one of the largest owners of US television stations, said it was intended to pre-empt the program’s broadcast following comments made by the host on the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
This is the first time Jolie has attended the Spanish Festival. She will be participating in other A-list names such as Colin Farrell (“Ballado of A Small Player”) and Jennifer Lawrence, who will win San Sebastian’s highest honor, Career Achievement Donostia Award, on September 26th.
“Couture” competes at the Basque Festival. Set amidst the insanity of Paris Fashion Week, the drama follows the intertwined lives of three women. Jolie’s Maxine is an American film director who discovered breast cancer. Ada (Anyier Anei) is a model who escapes her designated future at her Sudan home. Makeup artist Angèle (Ella Rumpf).
Jolie was also asked about the similarities between her real life and her character in “couture,” given the actor decided to perform a double mastectomy and remove the ovaries and fallopian tubes after carrying the BRCA 1 gene.
“I lost my very young mother and grandmother, so I decided to have a double mastectomy about 10 years ago,” Jolie said. “These were my choices. I’m not saying that anyone should do that, but it’s important to make a choice. I don’t regret it. People who have experienced something feel vulnerable and alone.
The actor said the film also conveys an important message to “the person who is with the women they love.” “When I read that (Maxine) was diagnosed, I was thinking where it would go (but) I wasn’t going to finish the way it would end. I didn’t think I was part of the film yet. It’s important that it is desirable as a woman and as a woman who loves women, and as a woman to know that.”
French actor Louis Garrell (“Little Women”) was extremely straightforward when playing Jolie’s love interest in the film reflected his co-stars. Garrell said the film talks about cancer through gender, and “in general terms, when talking about cancer, and breast cancer in particular, the film uses pathetic tones.”
“And that’s not pathetic at all. It also leads to desire. We are more strangers than that as humans. Even if someone loses their breasts, it can be more excitingly erotic. You need to understand that men can be erotic in multiple ways.
Jolie held back tears when members of the audience “ask their gratitude for always talking about Palestine and the silent people. Members of the same audience raised the fact that the actor wears a necklace on “couture,” belonging to mother, actor and activist Marchline Bertrand, asking what Jolie thought her mother had to say to the characters in the film.
“It’s very difficult to talk about my mother,” Jolie said visibly and emotionally. “(Maxine) Mom loves her. She was wearing her necklace. I was wearing her ashes too. I thought about her. I thought about her. I think everyone in this room was sitting in the hospital room. Maybe some of you in the movie, I thought about these moments and I wanted this community.
The actor concluded emotionally by saying his mother “I would have told Maxine to live every day and focus on life.”
