So here is a translation of the first part of the article...
Sorry for the mistakes...
"Acting is my therapy."
Full of grace and courage, Vanessa is a mother of a Down's syndrome boy in Café de Flore. A most unexpected come-back at cinema which "transports" her and enchant us. A paradisiaque meeting.
She celebrated her 39 Birthday the 22th December, but the eternal "woman-child" didn't lose her feline grace, and the time goes by on her as her blond hair on her Boho-chic shawl. The famous "arc of Cupidon" has kept all his power of seduction : the pretty pout, always the pout. And those eyes, proud and searching, stay indomitable.
A nearly shy smile, and with a bewitching voice, she proposes you a little bit of her mineral water, the divine idol does what she has to do in order to "break the ice" (to be nice), even if she protects herself : we must not talk about her private life with her, namely the captain of pirates, her spouse Johnny Depp, and their two children, Lily-Rose, 12 years-old,that her daddy describes her as " a very beautiful young lady, singing very well, like her mother", and Jack, 9 years-old.
So, too bad, or so much the better.
Vanessa Paradis arrives, this time, not as a successful international star, living between Paris, Los Angeles and the Bahamas, the winning singer who continues to make dream all generations, or as a Chanel ambassador who feels comfortable on the red carpet, but as an actress who does not hesistate to re-invent herself for every movie and shooting with bold film-makers.
Even if she sometimes is doubtful. "It's the same thing when I'm going to sing, or when I give concerts, she says, I never know if I'm gonna be good, I want to make things very well, otherwise, different."
In Café de Flore by Jean-Marc Vallée, the Quebecker film-maker who produced the astonishing C.R.A.Z.Y, and won an Oscar for Victoria, a Queen's young years, she embodies a mother who brings up her Down's syndrome son alone, in 1969.
"The sixties, we think at once : miniskirts, leather boots and big buns, well, not at all !", say Vanessa with a smile. Even the title of the movie is deceitful. Café de Flore doesn't refer to the famous Parisian establishment, but to "classic-electro" from the English producer Matthew Herbert. The song connects two parallel stories, a story about this fighting and forsaken mother, and a story about a DJ who lives nowadays, who is divided between his love for the mother of his children and his new wife.
At the beginning, Jean-Marc Vallée didn't see Vanessa playing the role. " I already really liked Jean-Marc Vallée's previous films, and, above all, after reading the script, I was completely seduced and stirred by it. His script was so fluid and brilliant. I also was very moved by the way he describes the disruptions of love and by the depth of feelings. He went to France in order to meet several other actresses, we just met up and talked, and he gave the role to me." So well done. Jean-Marc Vallée will explain later his "professional love at first sight" with Vanessa, (he says : "I fell in love with her"), and the Quebecker critics are good for the Paradis' talent (the movie has a huge success in Quebec).
This complex fable, complicated but distressing, evokes all the different sides of love, the love which make you better, and the love which can destroy you, like the character embodied by miss Paradis, who appears with dark hair and without any make-up. At the beginning, this character can be not appreciated.
" This woman was left by her husband, she is both the mother and the father for her child, she's got no money and she lives without any moral support. Jean-Marc wanted her to be a "hard" mother, who is so driven by her son, who sees only her son, nothing else exists, not even herself. I had to erase all traces of seduction, my girly side. He found me ugly shoes in order to accentuate her strained walk 'cause she works all day long, she climbs tairs on foot with her errands. She always is scared, because in the sixties, the life expectancy for a Down's syndrome person was 25 years-old, and she suffers from what people think about her, their looks. She "rushes" his child, in order to give him the tools to defend himself against the world. She wants him to be strong. The public has to be able to understand this mother, to love her, and that was a real challenge. "
Successful bet. We'll remember for a long time Vanessa Paradis, touching and surprising in this bitter role, singing with tenderness "To Heaven" for her son, embodied by Marin Gerrier.
" A very funny and clever little boy who really wanted to be on the set, says Vanessa. We loved each other as soon as we met. His parents, an amazing couple, had faith in us and gave us all the keys to understand their son's personality and condition. It was important 'cause there were improvisation moments."
The rest of the article is coming soon.