Cinema never ceases to smile at Lola Bessis. First film made at 21 in the United States, advertisements for the world of luxury, an acting career in several independent American films as well as in the Australian series Picnic at Hanging Rock, parodies on Canal+ with Catherine and Liliane... The sequel promises to be just as exciting with two films in preparation, both co-directed with Ruben Amar: the road movie Silver Star which will be shot in New York at the end of the year and a romantic comedy, Philippine sur orbite, produced by Avenue B (filming summer 2023) in which Lola Bessis also plays the main role. This true jack-of-all-trades shares her favorites with us.

A neighborhood to get lost in

“Belleville! My neighborhood! I love walking around Buttes Chaumont, it’s an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Above all, I love its cosmopolitanism, which reminds me of the Lower East Side where I lived in New York. Belleville gives the impression of traveling without leaving home. I love the merchants like those at the Egyptian grocery store “Le Caire”. With its thousand and one spices and perfumes, you’d think you were in Ali Baba’s cave. Or the Asian supermarket “Les Halles de l’Asie”. I love cooking, so it’s heaven. And when I’m lazy, I have a “phô” (the typical Vietnamese dish) at Yu, on rue de Belleville.”

A book to devour

"Without hesitation, La Carte postale by Anne Berest. We were judges together at the Deauville Festival a few years ago. She dedicated her live Sagan 1954 to me, which I loved. I then devoured Gabriële, co-written with her sister Claire, in which they trace the footsteps of their great-grandmother Gabriële Buffet-Picabia who had a thousand lives, a real investigative work. Her latest book La Carte postale is a majestic text in which Anne Berest continues to pull the thread of the intimate investigation by awakening the ghosts of other ancestors, sadly disappeared at Auschwitz. It is a major book, both disturbing and playful. She describes a part of history that we all know, but that we have difficulty imagining because it seems so unreal, impossible... Anne plunges us right into it, as if we were there. Moreover, the book came out at about the same time as the wonderful film by my friend Frankie Wallach, Too Much Love, which depicts, with a lot of feeling and humor, her family, led by her grandmother Julia, a survivor of the camps.

A film to discover

"The last slap I took at the cinema was with I don't give a fuck by Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre. Adèle Exarchopoulos is exceptional in it. I like the documentary aspect that can be found in fiction: the impression of being in reality while surpassing it. This was already the case in Emmanuel Marre's very beautiful medium-length film, From one castle to another. I also really liked this mix of genres in The Battle of Solferino by Justine Triet, a director who also comes from documentaries. »

An inspiring series character

"I recently fell in love with Villanelle on the show. Killing Eve played by the fantastic English actress Jodie Comer. She is a strong and modern woman who assumes her desires, while being very funny and full of fantasy. This is also the case of Midge in another successful series Mrs Maisel which takes place in the 50s in the universe of " standup " in New York. But no heroine has yet dethroned Hannah Horvath in Girls in my eyes!"

A favorite perfume

"The smell of jasmine in Tunis. I'm from there and I go back almost every summer. There's a very special, indescribable atmosphere... Jasmine mixes with the smell of couscous, like that of the restaurant "l'Arbre à couscous" in La Marsa or the mint and pine nut tea at the famous "Café des Nattes" in Sidi Bou Saïd."

An iconic recipe

" The  Minestra of greenery , an Italian soup from the  poor kitchen  (poor man's cuisine in Italian, editor's note) composed of a farandole of vegetables and small pastas that my grandmother Nonna, a great cook of Tuscan origin, makes wonderfully. She is my Madeleine de Proust. This recipe and Nonna are also the stars of a short documentary that I have just made as part of the Grandma's project , a documentary series that deals with transmission through cooking. The concept? Several directors film their grandmothers around an emblematic recipe that evokes their roots, their history.

A photo to share

“I really like the Chinese photographer Ren Hang, who sadly passed away in 2017. I discovered him almost 10 years ago when he was still unknown. I bought three of his photos at the time. He has now become an essential reference in the world of contemporary photography. I like his freedom, his art of subversion and his very personal representation of nudity and desire in a China that represses freedom of expression. My favorite photo shows two naked individuals kissing in a rain of dust (or is it snow?). It sits in my living room, and looking at it does me good. Whether in the terrible context of the Covid crisis or the war in Ukraine, it reminds me of the need to continue to kiss and love each other, even in adversity.”

Music to listen to on a loop

« Where the willows don't weep, the new album by my friend Adrien Gallo is of a rare poetry. I was at his concert at the Trianon in April. He is a great artist who handles words and melodies wonderfully. Under their false airs of nursery rhymes, his songs carry a real depth and are marked by melancholy.

Photo: ©Matthieu DELBREUVE@Kaptive