Director, screenwriter and author Fabienne BERTHAUD was a guest at ESRA's Jeudis de l'ESRA on November 3. Her film Pieds Nus sur les Limaces was screened for students prior to the event.
After studying theater, Fabienne BERTHAUD turned to literature. Self-taught, she stepped behind the camera for the first time in 2005 with Frankie, which she shot in twenty-seven days over three years. She continued her film career with Pieds nus sur les limaces in 2009, Sky in 2015, Un monde plus grand in 2019 and Tom in 2021. She defines her films as a continuity that inspires her and leads her to the next.
For this ESRA Thursday, the students asked the director about her adaptation of the novel Pieds nus sur les limaces (Barefoot on Slugs) , and in particular about the great freedom she had as the author of the book when adapting it. She wanted the screenplay to be less dark and more sunny than the novel, because in her view, the spectator's imagination in a movie theater is less free than that of the reader.
Fabienne BERTHAUD's experience in a theater company is reflected in the way she directs her actors. She suggests that they make reference to real-life events, in order to feel emotions and find the right tone. The challenge when making a film is to convince people of the story, and the director always follows her instincts and intuitions.
