[on
Ritratto di un amore (2023)] I was contacted by Marthe Bonnard's grand-niece who had seen
Séraphine (2008) and wanted me to make a film about her great-aunt. She felt Marthe hadn't been given the recognition she deserved for her part in her husband's work. At the beginning, I was not thrilled even though there was something interesting. As I had just made Séraphine, I didn't want to make another film about painting. The project began to really take shape during lockdown because, by chance, I live in the countryside next to the "caravan" where Pierre and Marthe Bonnard lived, on the banks of the Seine. Nature was so beautiful, so untouched by man, so magical that I went back to the books I had on Bonnard, to his paintings and especially to the life of Pierre and Marthe. And I told myself that I didn't want to make a film about Marthe, but about the couple.
