Céline Sciamma quotes

Céline Sciamma is a French film director and screenwriter known for her powerful, emotionally resonant stories centering on gender and identity. Her films, such as "Portrait of a Lady on Fire" and "Girlhood," have received international acclaim for their artistry and social impact. She continues to be a leading voice in contemporary French cinema and feminist storytelling. Here are 4 of her quotes:

We want people to have their heart broken and think about themselves, but enjoy this experience of this strong love story...But it's also about the memory of a love story. It's a lot about the present, the rise of desire, but it's also about what's left of a love story. What's the memory of a love story. There's these two timelines that sometimes are contiguous, contaminating one another. We are trying to propose another politic of love where it's not about possession or donation or eternal love or death or eternity or whatever. It's more about love as a dynamic that can only grow. (Céline Sciamma)

It's a very bourgeois industry. There's resistance to radicalism, and also less youth in charge. ‘A film can be feminist?' They don't know this concept. They don't read the book. They don't even know about the fact that ‘male gaze' exists. You can tell it's a country where there's a lot of sexism, and a strong culture of patriarchy.

Céline Sciamma

The last scene came really, really early, disconnected from even the idea of a woman painter...I wanted to write a love story and I thought, ‘What do I want to tell?' And that scene came up really, really quickly, alone, by itself. The weird compass of the film was its last scene. That's a compass, but it's a high pressure one.

Céline Sciamma

But what I think I like about coming-of-age stories is that there's everything in them. It's a genre that kind of contains everything: you have the chronicle, you can go into naturalism, but it's also about transforming physically, so it's kind of a fantastical genre.

Céline Sciamma