Ariane Labed talks 'Fidelio: Alice's Journey'
The Greek-French actress discusses her career in stylised cinema and why her latest film is not feminist.
“She is a great, feminine character, which I think is quite rare in cinema”, says Greek-French actress Ariane Labed. “We’re given a very feminine point of view without a feminist statement; I think it’s much more subverted than that.”
Labed is discussing her character in Lucie Borleteau’s French dramaFidelio: Alice’s Journey. The actress portrays 30-year-old engineer Alice, who is hired as a replacement to join a freighter’s all-male ship. Leaving her fiancé back home (Anders Danielsen Lie), Alice embraces her new role until she discovers that the captain is an old flame (Melvil Poupaud).
Borleteau was inspired by the story of her best friend, real-life vessel engineer. “Part of the audition process was bringing me onto a boat. I think she needed to see me on a boat to know that it was a good idea”, laughs Labed. “She understood what situations I needed to be in to be comfortable. She brings you to some place without even realising: it just happens – she’s very intuitive and so I am.”
Many of the sequences in Fidelio: Alice’s Journey takes place on a real ship withLabed researching engineering to enrichen her performance. Labed stated that there were many challenges that came with her taking on the role, including her having to confront her claustrophobia. “Spending time on the boat was so hot; so loud; so confining but I needed to make it one with my body. It had to be something that I liked, which was not easy, but I had to learn to be something sensual in this unique world.”
Labed is best known for her roles in Greek cinema – Attenberg, Alps – as well as English-language films, including Before Midnight, The Forbidden Room and The Lobster, directed by her husband, Yorgos Lanthimos. “I had worked on more stylised films so Fidelio: Alice’s Journey was something that I wanted to explore. It’s another world and I wanted to fit in it: I tried to be honest as much as I could.”
Despite her first time experience, Labed knew from the get-go that she wanted to build Alice as her own. “It’s one language: I felt that if I could be on this boat using this machine then it’s my world. I felt that I should not think about the form of it and make it more organic somehow. I was trying to be as honest as I could and wanted it to be casual somehow because that’s how she is: very casual.”
“I thought that Alice would be a very interesting character to create. I fell in love with her and this film was something unique.” While many feminists are urging for more advanced and less conventional characters in cinema (and rightly so) Labed asserts that her latest is more of an underdog in that respect.
I asked Labed as to whether she believes Fidelio: Alice’s Journey is a feminist film. She said. “I know it’s a very feminine film, but I don’t think that she’s trying to prove something, and I like that. She’s just being honest with herself: her character could be male or female.” She concludes, “it’s a feminine character that isn’t a victim or sexual object. That is very rare [in cinema] – I hope it’s a new hope for women in cinema."