She lends her enveloping and broken voice, recognizable among a thousand, to Carmen, free and flamboyant, in a lively ode to sorority and solidarity, which enchanted the Croisette. Sébastien Laudenbach revisits Bizet’s famous opera withCarmen, the rebel birdpresented at the Quinzaine des cinéastes.
Just before climbing the steps with Milo Machado-Graner, the nugget ofAnatomy of a fall that we no longer stop and who also gives voice in this project as solar as it is committed, Camelia Jordana takes a break withMarie Clairein a hidden bucolic garden, behind the commercial rue d’Antibes, where the Sacem (Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers) and the Cartel agency have installed their ephemeral stage for this 79th edition of the Festival. After the world premiere of this new Carmen, Camelia Jordana will reunite with her first love, for a concert in this warm and festive setting. Intense Cannes for those grateful to be able to make their two passions coexist. Encounter.
Climb the steps for Carmen and all victims of femicide
Marie Claire : “Climbing the steps” has become an expression. But what does this gesture represent for you?
Camelia Jordana: Climbing these steps, for me… It’s a celebration. And this time, it’s honoring Carmen, this woman victim of femicide, who chooses freedom over life. Carmen is completely universal. We know that femicide affects all ages, and all social classes, in every part of the globe.
So, climbing these steps also means honoring all women victims of femicide, and all their loved ones. All the lives that are stained, impacted and traumatized by this gesture, this societal scourge. So it’s going to be an uphill climb [des marches] quite busy.
The original soundtrack that you would have dreamed of composing?
The film’s soundtrack Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch, composed by Neil Young, with his guitar that spits fire and the rage of the strong and dreamlike character of theNative American, who advances towards death again and again… I love this soundtrack so much, this theme declined in a thousand ways by Neil Young, that I ask my guitarist to play it when we do sound checks.
In fact, I think I’m glad I didn’t compose it for the shock it was to receive it as a listener and spectator.
But the one I grew up with, obviously, is the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge. Tous ses medleysits readaptations of songs that we love, from different eras… This soundtrack therefore allows me not to make too many choices: perfect for the ascendant Libra that I am! (Laughs.)
This Baz Luhrmann romance is really not appreciated by my movie-loving friends, but I watched it every day, if not twice a day, the summer I was ten… I was in love with Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman at the same time. I wanted to be both, to be with them. I was even in love with the extraordinary Argentinian character who sang Roxanne’s Tango with his rock voice, enhanced by violins and dance. This film meant a lot to me, it left its mark on me. I love him for life.
His meeting with the essential cinema agent at 17, just after “La Nouvelle Star”
Conversely, the song you wrote that you think has cinematic potential? What would you dream of hearing in a film?
There is this song,Wild Manwhich I love, and which I created with Woodkid, an artist I love very much. I would also say, While You Breathe, co-composed with Tristan Salvati. [À notre demande, elle se met à les chanter a capella, sans échauffement, les yeux fermés, vibrante.]
When you began your career as a singer, at 16, after your participation in The New Star in 2009, do you already know that cinema is calling you? Do you feel like playing?
When I started my professional life in music, I knew that I dreamed of cinema. But at that time, I was already not really sure that my dream as a musician was coming true. It was after two years of music, of the studio, of touring, of traveling – of the artist’s life in fact – that I confided to my manager at the time: “I have another dream on the list and apparently, dreams come true… So, there you go, I dream of being actress. How do we do it?” He explains to me that I have to be represented by an agent, go through castings, that I would get yes, then no…
I was 17 years old, and I was lucky enough to come across Laurent Grégoire [incontournable agent des stars de cinéma, d’Omar Sy à Camille Cottin, en passant par Marion Cotillard, ndlr]who was very intelligent. He said to me: “You’re experiencing something extraordinary, so finish your tour. You’ll let me know afterwards.” Which I did.
