Kristen Stewart painted a house packed with festival attendees, locals and fans at the Deauville Film Festival in France for her masterclasses organized at my French cinema and Chanel. On this occasion, Stewart curated a list of her greatest French films of all time and gave a candid discussion of why they inspired her as an actor and filmmaker.
Her choice of films, ranging from a wide range of ages and styles, has a certain boldness, ranging from Louis Mar’s The Gallows in the Elevator (1958) to Alan Renas’ Hiroshima Mon Amor (1959), Catherine Brayratt’s The Real Young Girl (1976) and Leos Carox’s The 1991 (1991). Kieślowski’s “The Double Life of Veronique” (1991) and Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Lesson” (2001).
Stewart made the audience laugh by admitting that she actually struggled to watch the entire film with her typical filtered, brave, self-deprecating fashion.
“It sounds absurd to come from me,” Stewart said.
And although she was able to discuss in detail about the film that marked her, serving Cannes Jue Chronicle (2018) and Berlin (2024), “I don’t say there’s a filmmaker who can tell everyone about this person at the bottom.”
The first film she spoke to in Deauville Masterclass is “A Real Young Girl,” written and directed by Breillat, known as the destructive French filmmaker who created the sexual awakening of a 14-year-old girl.
Stewart said he saw the Breillat film shortly before he began filming the director’s debut, “The Chronology of Water.” This is an adaptation of the memoirs of Lydia Yunavich of the same name, starring women who emerge from an abusive childhood and lead her trauma into competitive swimming, sexual exploration, and addiction.
The actor-director, who premiered her film with a certain respect for the United Nations of Cannes and won the Revelation Award at the Deauville Film Festival on Saturday, saw Brayratt’s “real young girl” and made it (her) film like 30 seconds later, so it was specifically unlocked in a very viable way.
She said she was hit by a Breilat movie. Because “I’m not used to seeing coming-of-age stories of people seeing shameful shame,” she said, and she felt the film was an “internal experience.”
“You look at it and say, ‘Oh, it’s easy. She takes the train and goes home, and she’s with her parents, but she sticks a spoon inside her under the table. And you may not. Taste it, and you are self-boring.”
“It’s so easy to be embarrassed when you’re a kid and discover yourself in all the unpleasant ways you do, I think it’s very rare in the film to see someone rap it.”
Stewart also stars as piano teacher about “The Piano Teacher,” about Haneke’s cult film, starring Isabel Happart, and embarking on a sadomasochistic relationship with her far younger students with oppressed, dark desires (Benoît Magimel). This role won Best Actress Award at Cannes.
“This is just one of my favorite movies,” Stewart said. It was “one of my favourite performances,” and added that it refers to Huppert. She explained, “Because she has no respect for anyone. She is so isolated by her genius and her intelligence that she is completely trapped in this self-engagement, so she is captivated by the singular and vague spirit of Hooppert’s on-screen character, Erika.
But at the same time, Stewart insists that “she’s not unhappy” and, “If that’s the way this woman was constructed, she’s actually doing a pretty good job.
“The Piano Teacher” was adapted by the novel Haneke by Austrian writer Elfriede Jerinek.
“I think this is one of the most genius adaptations that I’ve had the pleasure of both reading and watching,” Stewart said. “It looked very similar to ‘flew over a cuckoo’s nest.’ Because in this form of literary form there is a very clear internal experience happening. ”
“It’s a first person perspective book, and she’s consistently rattled about what she’s thinking in all of these circumstances,” Stewart said.
Kieslowski’s “Veronic’s Double Life” also forced Stewart. The film tells two parallel stories about two identical women. One lives in Poland and the other in France. Eileen Jacob, who plays both roles, won the best actress in Cannes in the film. Stewart joked, “When Jacob’s on-screen character) killed herself, she “almost fell out of her) chair.”
“It’s like you can get involved in Interior Life and make a film that’s very specific about the emotions inside and you don’t have to explain it,” Stewart said. Kielsky “draws it in a light and first-person perspective. He can achieve it without becoming strange in such pervasive and bold ways.”
The film also made her reflect herself. “Sometimes you get sad about imperfection or something, and you have killed this old version of yourself. But they still live within you,” she said.
Meanwhile, Carax’s “The Lovers on the Bridge” is another Stewart’s favorite movie.
“He’s closed. If she can see the whole world, she’s afraid she doesn’t want him. He’s chasing her. She’s very exhausted and he’s doing the act of guiding her with this waltz. “It can’t control what you like. Sorry, but if that’s the case, you don’t want it.”
The bridge is a great photor for many beauty, not only deviation and destruction, but also many other people and many other beauty, and between you two can divert you from the enormous passion that exists in this small microcosm. But you cannot live on a bridge forever. ”
While in Deauville, Stewart also participated in a flashy dinner hosted by the festival’s two major sponsors, Chanel and Canal+, along with his friend Charles Gillibert, who produced “Water Chronology” and rafts of French and American stars. Bash followed a special screening of Richard Linklater’s “Nouvel Wage,” supported by Chanel.
The Deauville Film Festival, led by Aude Hesbert since 2024, has wrapped up Sunday and awarded the grand prize for “The Plague,” the debut of Charlie Polinger starring Joel Edgerton.
