It's a sort of ideal suitcase, in the shape of a cardboard sheet. I made a list of everything that should be in the suitcase: two evening dresses so I don't have to wear the same one again, medicine in little boxes so I don't get cluttered up, scissors and my little knife that I can't live without, writing paper, a shower cap, my essential books... and even a coffee machine and a little kettle for the filming! You have to plan for everything: the festivities, the heat, the cold, the humidity... I forgot the K-way, I always take one or two from my collection!
This list is the fruit of a great deal of experience. I'm perfecting it, updating it, trip after trip. Contrary to popular belief, I think that when you're travelling you need even more comfort than when you're at home. In the end, doesn't the kitchen in a country house have to be twice as sophisticated as at home? That's where you spend time making things and where you enjoy yourself, isn't it?
The pleasure of travelling... it changes over the course of a lifetime. For young people, a taste for travel is essential: they need to get away from all those places that seem so impossible, so far away. But then... I'm more inclined these days to cultivate my garden in the Gers! I don't have that wanderlust any more, that desire to go and see things I haven't discovered yet! It has to be said that I've travelled a lot, a lot... And not just like a postal parcel: I've opened my eyes and ears wide, I've smelled things, I've talked to people... Now I feel as if I'm ruminating on all the flavours, colours and sensations of my travels. It's become my world.
Pure tourism, visiting alone, bores me: going away just to look at people... it's a bit of a zoo. I prefer to offer myself to others, to share my knowledge and culture, to exchange ideas. In Cambodia, I was taken aback: I had no reference point for this culture, which was new to me. My encounters are also sometimes gourmet: dishes, food, a way of cooking... I was overwhelmed by Cambodian food - again! -Vietnamese too, and Thai of course. Moroccan, of course, because I was born in Morocco.
Festivals are also a melting pot of encounters! I go there to compare myself with other cinemas, to discover new artists... At the Rio Festival, which no longer exists, I remember being taken by Michel Legrand, who was still relatively unknown, into the cellars, the real bars, and spending whole nights there listening to incredible jazzmen! The Moscow Festival, at the start of my career, had a profound effect on me: I was born of Russian parents, but I had never been to that country. I was born of Russian parents, but I'd never been to Russia. I discovered Russia in one fell swoop, and above all, in a way that I hadn't imagined at all... In the street, I saw young girls who looked like me: my little exceptional side was no longer exceptional here! I went unnoticed! Humility, that's what you need to travel with... a lot of humility.
Eight dates
1940: Born in Rabat, Morocco.
1960: Film debut in Gérard Oury's "Hot Hand". Jean-Luc Godard's "Une femme mariée" (1964) won him a prize in Venice.
1968: Films "Belle de jour" by Luis Buñuel.
1969: Marries an Italian filmmaker and moves to Rome, where she makes around fifteen films.
1980: Back in France, she starred in Lelouch's "Les Uns et les Autres".
1982: His novel "La Star" is published by Grasset.
2000: Begins a world tour with a show about George Sand.
2004: Publishes two novels: "Si je vous disais" and "Les mots des hommes".
