Pauline Chalamet

“Fat Girl. I have never seen a film think it's one thing, like tell you it's one thing and then in the end reveal itself to be something else. The performances are amazing. Breillat is a queen. All of her movies are just unreal.”

“Definitely not the first person, won't be the last. Wanda, Barbara Loden, she made this brilliant film. She left the world way too early. This movie is such a study of womanhood. There's no glory in it, it's just the life of a woman who has reached the end of her rope. I could watch this movie over and over and over again.”

“Girlfriends, Claudia Weill. This movie is incredible. It actually reminds me a lot of Frances Ha, of Noah Baumbach's that he wrote with Greta Gerwig that she stars in. The relationship between the friends is super similar. I love Girlfriends, it's like a true New York City story. The dynamics are amazing, there's you know a little bit of inappropriate behavior by people who have more power than others, and friends who get pregnant versus friends who don't. I just love the way the story is told. It really feels like she just grabbed the camera and was like, let's make a movie, which I just love.”

“Interesting anecdote about Vagabond: I watched when I watched Maurice Pialat's À nos amours, To Our Loves Sandrine Bonnaire was in that. I think that movie is beautiful, but I also think it's really important in 2022 to be able to contextualize it, right? Sandrine Bonnaire was like 14 or 15 years old, there's like full frontal nudity, it's important conversations to have. And I watched Vagabond right after, that also has Sandrine Bonnaire, and I remember just in my head they're kind of linked, where I was like, oh she went from like that character is in Maurice Pialat's world and like little troubles and then she ends up like as a vagabond and that's what happens. Which is not true, but if I was ever asked to plan a double feature, I might put those two movies back to back.”

“Okay so, this movie for me is perfect. Truffaut made a movie that is so generous in spirit. He divulged all of his secrets, he let you in on what the process was. There's a huge montage in the middle of the film where they're setting up the day, I think, and the cranes are going up and the and the extras are getting into place, and this, and the score is unbelievable. It's also hard to find. I'm like, this I might frame it. I'll take the DVD out, but then I'll frame the box.”

“Okay, I'm just gonna pick one more and I'm gonna pick it at random. I'm just gonna close my eyes and, and my eyes are closed and I'm just going to turn around once. The Other Side of Hope. Couldn't have picked a better film, so thank you.”

“Oh well, this is a good place to start. I just remember, I mean, A Woman Under the Influence, amazing, Shadows, Faces, but Opening Night for me was just, there are scenes that sometimes I wake up in the morning and I think of them, like when they're on stage and I just, I love that movie.”

“I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Rohmer because I was kind of named after one of his movies. There's a softness to the way he tells stories that you know, the French filmmakers of the New Wave are just so incredible.”

“And here, it's like I could be holding them up together, Varda. I really love her so much. You know who she reminds me of? There's that filmmaker, Alice Guy-Blaché, who was like the first, arguably the first fiction filmmaker of all time. She was French, but then she came over to the US and was living in Fort Lee, New Jersey, before Fort Lee moved out to be Hollywood, and I feel like Agnès Varda really picked, like lived in her shoes when she was alive. Interesting anecdote about Vagabond: I watched, when I watched Maurice Pialat's À nos amours, To Our Loves, Sandrine Bonnaire was in that. I think that movie is beautiful, but I also think it's really important in 2022 to be able to contextualize it, right? Sandrine Bonnaire was like 14 or 15 years old, there's like full frontal nudity, it's important conversations to have. And, I watched Vagabond right after, that also has Sandrine Bonnaire, and I remember just in my head they're kind of linked, where I was like, oh she went from like that character's in Maurice Pialat's world and like little troubles and then she ends up like as a vagabond and that's what happens. Which is not true, but if I was ever asked to plan a double feature, I might put those two movies back to back.”