This project’s inspiration is a scene from Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Masculin Féminin”(1966) in which Jean-Pierre Léaud, in the role of an IFOP researcher, interviews a young girl, newly crowned “Mademoiselle 19 ans” by a women’s magazine. Ironically titled “Dialog with a consumer product”, the interview brings up various themes such as socialism, birth control, women’s rights, political commitments, love etc. The topical impetuosity of the scene, its sneering tone, the theme and also its raw production (still camera, sequential takes, abruptness) stirred Charlotte Beaudry to undertake a reinterpretation.
“Mademoiselle Nineteen” started with a photo shoot to choose five 19-year-old models with the required physique, but who were also able to express themselves freely and spontaneously. Caroline, Jessica, Noémie, Natasja, and Marissa, art students in Brussels, agreed to be filmed and interviewed by a journalist from the institute of market research IPOS. Unaware of the context inspired by the sequence in “Masculin Féminin”, unaware also that an actor was interviewing them rather than a journalist, the young models submitted candidly to the unusual line of questioning taken from the original film dialog. Five radically different personalities emerged under the cold gaze of the fixed camera.
Marissa : Marissa Seraphin.
Caroline : Caroline Dehareng.
Jessica : Jessica Quarato.
The Journalist : Stéphane Vuillet.
Art direction : Charlotte Beaudry.
Photography : Patrice Michaux.
Sound engineer : Maxime Wathieu.
Editing : Laurence Vaes.
Translation : Pierre Beaudry.
Direction and production : Marc Wathieu - X.Y.Zèbres scrl.
With the support of Cera CVBA.
B/W High-Definition video projection.
charlottebeaudry.net/mademoiselle_nineteen/
