Profile: Veysset

A key figure in the jeune cinéma français emerging in the 1990s, Sandrine Veysset
nevertheless remains a somewhat marginal figure in French cinema. Refusing to conform
either to the crowd-pleasing genres of comedies and sophisticated romantic dramas or the ‘navel-gazing’ intellectual cinema of the elite Parisian cinema school La Fémis, she affirms a realism that gives prime place to those on the margins of society. At the same time, she refuses to shore up boundaries between emotional states and the physical world, allowing dream states and fantasy to enter even her most staunchly realist works.

Her first film, the César-winning WILL THERE BE SNOW FOR CHRISTMAS? (1997) told the tale of a young mother and her seven children living an impoverished rural existence, at the mercy of their father who has a legitimate family of his own on another farm. The narrative, which reaches a climax when the father makes a pass at his eldest daughter, recalls elements of melodrama. Yet Veysset’s powerfully direct evocation of the characters’ bodily experience and the textures of the world they inhabit gives the film a more visceral impact, heightened by the strangely indeterminate ending. MARTHA… MARTHA (2001), with another ending that hovers somewhere between life
and death, again demonstrated a striking ability to convey emotional truths at the same time as capturing the tactile realities of troubled lives. As in all her films, the eye revels in a painterly sensitivity to colour and landscape, while the gut responds to the nuances of her characters’ emotions.

A thread running through her films is an affinity for the child’s perspective, capturing
their curious mixture of vulnerability and resilience. This comes to the fore in her most
recent film ONCE UPON TOMORROW, Premiering at this year’s Festival. Here the
emotional realism spills over into a fantastical narrative, with a dreamlike ambience reminiscent of Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s INNOCENCE. Veysset manages to evoke the
salty authenticity of the coastal countryside while taking us off into a metaphysical
exploration of youth and experience.

Veysset deserves more recognition for her resolutely individual approach to filmmaking and her rejection of established industry models. Cinema for her is neither a diverting spectacle nor a dry cerebral exercise but a moving exploration of inner and outer worlds.

Isabelle McNeill