The Ways of Seeing Anamaria Vartolomei

The following excerpt was originally published in Mastermind 17. Purchase the issue to read the full interview.

Anamaria Vartolomei may have sprung to global attention when she won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival in 2021 for her role in Audrey Diwan’s L’Événement (Happening), adapted from the book by Annie Ernaux, but she was no beginner at the time. 

Vartolomei had made her screen debut 10  years earlier in My Little Princess, directed by Eva Ionesco, alongside Isabelle Huppert. In that film, she playing a young girl hypersexualized by her photographer mother, an adaptation based on a true story. She played another young objectified woman in Jessica Palud’s 2024 film Maria (Being Maria), about the life of actor Maria Schneider.  

Vartolomei’s choices speak for her, and about her, although she has allowed herself a few forays into the world of entertainment – as in The Count of Monte Cristo, which attracted 10  million viewers in France – and fashion, as an ambassador for Chanel. While she knows how to engage spectators, she also knows how to have fun – a highly contemporary way of being. 

Michel Piccoli once said, “If you don’t embrace the questions, doubts and delusions of society, there’’s no point in being an actor.” What do you think?   

AV I agree completely. We are mirrors of society, of our times. Like directors, we have a responsibility. I’m not saying that we’re obliged to make only socially or politically committed films. We can also choose entertainment, adventure or epics – like The Count of Monte Cristo, for example. But I’m a young woman who lives with the times, and I like the idea of passing on a message through each character. I also draw on the characters’ strength and commitment. I’ve retained a lot of Annie Ernaux from L’Événement, and Maria Schneider as well. It’s not just feminism; it’s humanism.  

I’ve heard that you no longer use social networks. Is that by choice?     

AV Yes, it was too toxic. I’d developed a kind of complex. I was comparing myself to others and to unattainable standards of beauty. I can understand why people are comfortable with the idea, and it can even be a way of opening up to society, but I’ll never regret my decision.  

How do you know whom to trust in this business, so that you feel free to let go? 

AV There’s no single answer to that question. It varies depending on the collaborator. The shooting of Jessica Palud’s Maria, a film about the actress Maria Schneider, and the promotion that followed, raised a lot of questions in my mind about the place of the actor, about power. Isn’t directing other people actually a form of manipulation? Maria’s situation in Last Tango in Paris was unusual. It was her first major role. [Bernardo] Bertolucci was the first director to look at her in a different way. She was acting with Marlon Brando. She had no idea they could go so far and betray her. It destroyed her. After that, she found it difficult to trust people for the rest of her life. It got me thinking, and not just about men’s violence against women. It made me wonder about freedom. And I don’t think you can be totally free as an actor, even if you surround yourself with as many kind people as possible.  

You’ve worked on several occasions with foreign directors: Tran Anh Hung in particular, and more recently Bong Joon-ho in Mickey 17, selected for the Berlin Film Festival. Are you attracted to the international scene?                

AV I’m Romanian, and I’ve spoken two languages all my life, so maybe that’s why I don’t see my career developing only in France. Also, I have dreams about European cinema. For example, I’ve often mentioned Cristian Mungiu, with whom I wanted to work. He’s just produced Reostat [Traffic], a film by Romanian director Teodora Ana Mihai in which I star. I really wanted to work in Romania, in films close to my roots, my culture, but I’m also very sensitive to Iranian and Korean cinema, to that of Bong Joon-ho. 

Did he seek you out for the role?   

AV We met in Venice, where he was president of the jury when L’Évéènement won the Golden Lion. Months later, he e-mailed me and asked me to make a video in which I talked about myself in English. I didn’t even go to a casting session. As someone who analyzes everything, I obviously wondered about legitimacy! I found filming so hard. I had the feeling that I didn’t have the right intonation, that I was acting out of tune. I’d call my mother in tears to tell her that I didn’t belong. I put a lot of pressure on myself about the English. Then I let go. Today, looking back, I can even say that I really enjoyed the experience. And I think the film is brilliant, very offbeat. Despite the fantastic aspect, Bong has managed to mark it as his own, with his political views on social classes. 

Purchase Mastermind 17 to read the full interview.