Movie theater. With Without you, Sophie Guillemin goes behind the camera

On the occasion of the theatrical release of Without you, this Wednesday, January 12, 2022, we went to meet Sophie Guillemin, its director.

Without you is your first film?

I have already made two short films: the first, L'essentiel feminine, was a comedy about youthism shot ten years ago. It was topical: to be a woman, you had to be under 40 years old. And the second, Collisions, is a marital drama. I wanted to try my hand at short films and experience the reality of filming on a project that was a little less stressful and less engaging.

A family film

So, it's over, the profession of actress?

No, I start again! I shot this summer in L'école de l'air, the next film, extra, by Robin Campillo: he talks about his dad, a soldier in the Air Force, a pied-noir who, after the independence of Algeria, was transferred with his family to a military base. There is a whole community of soldiers, women, children, it's very choral. And, then, I will have the joy of playing in a film by Blandine Lenoir which adapts a graphic novel, Juliette, by Camille Jourdy...

I started with L'Ennui, by Cédric Kahn (1998) with a lot of very undressed love scenes, and then in Harry, a friend who wants you well (directed by Dominik Moll, released in 2000), I played a little silly girl. Except that I was then offered bare or ingenue roles all the time. So I stopped, twice. When I wanted to come back, it was very hollow. At least I was able to develop my desire to direct. And the films are now coming back as an actress! I'm happy.

The leading role is played by Thierry Godard, your husband...

Yes, and there are even our children who play: my two daughters and Thierry's grandson, Lino, 21, who has the fiber of an actor. And all the actors who play in it are really friends in life.