コラム：パリジェンヌの東京映画レポート！ - 第9回

第9回：フランスのミューズ来日。記者会見へ潜入取材！

Two French movies with a marked historical background soon released in Japan: Faubourg 36 and Coco avant Chanel. Two actresses : the one, Nora Arnezeder, whose popularity just sprang up, the other, Audrey Tautou, who doesn’t need to be introduced anymore. Both are muses, the one for the new Guerlain perfume Idylle, the other for the mythical Chanel n5. And two promotion events, in which a French girl slid into to give you away all their secrets…

Arrival at the event place. Posters, photos, music, nothing has been left to chance. The journalists abound. In the conference room, the battalion girds its loins: rows of TV cameras at the back, an army of cameras at the front, each bigger than the next. They polish them, look for the best angle, tune the lens by taking photo after photo of a stranger. The sequence of events is stated, no stone unturned is left. They even announce that Nora is a giant... but at the other press conference, nobody says how small Audrey Tautou is! Lights get dimmed, music starts, the lady appears on the stage, radiant and dolled up. Audrey, entirely dressed by Chanel, has a fit of the giggles because her skirt and high heels nearly made her fall flat on her back! For Nora’s part, her long dress got stuck under her chair during our interview… what a pity, it was a Dior!

Audrey Tautou shows self-confidence and a deep capacity of answering all questions, even the more harebrained. Less experienced, Nora doesn’t always have a ready reply but she has reason to be in a flat spin: the staging aims at imitating Paris in the 30’s but sometimes is a bit ridiculous. First, she sings “Paris” (what else?) with Japanese boys as a chorus. Then, a charming toddler dressed like Jojo, the boy of Faubourg 36, comes on stage among women’ exclamations (“Kawaiiiiii!”) and reads her some French words. The soft-hearted star cannot help rushing at him to kiss him. I concede he was good enough to eat... but he became so successful that Nora, whose thunder he was stealing, eventually cried out: “Hey, who is the interviewee, me or him??”

What about me? Well, I thought to be only an observer, but…As an interviewer asks Nora what she planned to visit in Tokyo, she asks for a recommendation. He advises “Asakusa”, which the interpreter translates by…”Asakusa”. A long silence follows. Nora doesn’t know what Asakusa is, the interpreter confines herself to the translation, the journalist is struck dumb. On the verge of panic, people look at each other, waiting for a word. The tension is at its peak. So I took the floor in French to sing the praises of a walk in Asakusa, a traditional part of Tokyo. Everybody breathes again and gives me a grateful look. The interview can go on… as soon as Nora will stop asking questions to her compatriot… after all, SHE is the interviewee!

I had spoken to Nora, I had to behave same with Audrey. The framework had something intimidating: press conference at the Grand Hyatt, journalists’ crowd, TV cameras, questions in Japanese… However, after three questions, I finally dared putting up my hand for a micro. As the moderator saw a red-haired young woman stand up, she exclaimed: « Nihongo, daijobou ?? ». My grimace and my answer (« Sumimasen, nihongo ga chotto muzukashii da kara, furansugo de shabete imasu») made the audience laugh but I eventually asked my question. Of course, it dealt with the different perception of the movie and Chanel according the nationality, Japanese or French. I seat down and breathed deeply. I had never spoken Japanese in front of a movie camera before… and it will be a while before it recurs!

This article brings my two-months internship at eiga.com and my stay in Japan to a close. You got used to it? Me too, I confess, and I am sorry to take my flight to France.... But who knows? Maybe, you will have some news from France in the next times? Thanks a lot for those two months of pleasure and cinema!

[抄訳]

フランスのミューズ来日。記者会見へ潜入取材！

今年日本で封切られるフランスの伝記映画、「幸せはシャンソニア劇場から」と「ココ・アヴァン・シャネル」の主演女優が日本にやって来ました。1人は「シャンソニア」で人気急上昇中の新進女優ノラ・アルネゼデール、そしてもう1人は「ダ・ヴィンチ・コード」などでハリウッド進出も果たしたフランスを代表する女優オドレイ・トトゥです。奇遇なことに、ノラはフランスの高級化粧品ゲランの新フレグランス「Idylle」のミューズ、オドレイは言わずと知れた「Chanel No.5」のミューズを務めています。

今回、私は上記2作品の記者会見にお邪魔してきました。会場には、大きなTVカメラの群れと、レンズを磨きながらベストアングルを模索するジャーナリストたちが待ち構えていました。オドレイは全身シャネルで決めたものの、タイトスカートで階段を上るのに苦戦して笑いを堪えられず、ノラの方はインタビュー中にディオールのロングドレスが椅子に引っかかるなどのハプニングが発生。何が起こるか分からないのが記者会見です。

オドレイは記者の質問に対し落ち着いた様子で自信たっぷりに答えていましたが、ノラの方は経験があまりないためか質問の答えに困っている場面もありました。「シャンソニア」の舞台挨拶会場には1930年代のパリをイメージした演出が施され、ノラが「パリ、愛してる」を少年たちと合唱を披露。しかし、パリジャンの目から見ると正直少しおかしなところもチラホラ……。

「シャネル」の記者会見では、オドレイに質問をするため勇気を振り絞って挙手しました。すると司会から「日本語は大丈夫？」と聞かれたので、「スミマセン、ニホンゴガチョットムズカシイ、ダカラフランスゴデシャベッテイマス」と断りを入れると、途端に会場の笑い者に。怯まず、「日本とフランスでは映画やシャネルに対してどのような見解の違いがありますか？」と質問し、席について深呼吸をしました。私にとってカメラの前で日本語を話したのは初めてのことで、緊張のあまり内容はあまり覚えていないのでした。

今回のコラムをもちまして私のインターンシップも終了します。コラム執筆に慣れてきたところなので残念ですが、いつかはフランスから皆さんにコラムをお届けできればと思います。楽しい映画に溢れた2カ月間を、どうもありがとうございました！