Fanny Ardant: "What I Want Is Fire Itself"

The French actress (and Truffaut's muse) loves Greek history and J S Bach. But why is she already dead?

 

What are you currently reading in bed?

I love to read so much that I'm waiting very anxiously to go to bed to read. At the moment I'm reading Bukowski, his dialogue with death - Madame de la Morte. When I go to the bookshop, I'm like a dog. Tick tick tick tick. The covers attract me. I read only novels. Never biography, never history. Never, never the newspapers.

And do you always finish the books you start?

Always. Even if it's a bad, boring book I have to get to the end to make sure that it's really bad. I never go out from a cinema. Sometimes I see people coming out from a movie and I think, ah, give it a chance.

Especially if it's one of your movies...

Well, for example, Nathalie - in this story you never know where is the truth until the end. In this film - as in Marivaux, as in Choderlos de Laclos - la fantasie is very strong. There is no real love affair apart from three. It's not always a husband, a lover and a wife. You can go down a darker corner. The third one can be invented.

What painting most resembles your image of yourself?

Van Dongen. I like the posture of his woman. I like the black eyes. I like mysterieuse behaviour like that. I would like to steal one to have in my bedroom. He is expensive, Van Dongen.

So you have to go to museums...

Yes, there is one Van Dongen in Paris that I go and visit every two years. But I prefer to see something very beautiful in a salon, in a private house. I think that is the place for paintings. Also, I don't like to queue.

But museums give us all access, which is better.

In theory! It's a double trick because art has to belong to everyone but, at the same time, museums are the death of the art. When I was very young I was living in London and I was working in an office near the National Gallery and every lunchtime I used to go to see one painting. L'Homme au Gant, by Titian. But now the world is changing and there are so many tourists everywhere and everyone suffers because I'm sure every tourist would like to see it alone.

What would you save from your house in a fire?

Fire itself. I remember Cocteau said, if there is a fire, he would save fire itself.

What would your ideal alternative job be?

Hairdresser. Not in Paris or London where the ladies are snobby. But in a village in Sicily, where you could bring joy by transforming people.

What is your secret cultural passion?

I play piano. But without any kind of talent. If I hear a piece of piano that I love, I try to do it. Alone, by the night. Always alone.
 

What do you play?

My favourite is Bach because even if you destroy it, the structure is so strong that something remains. Whenever I go abroad for filming I always ask to bring my piano too. When they see the piano coming into the hotel room, the other guests say, "Mamma Mia". But I play with headphones, to solve the problem.
 

Do you like parties?

No. I'm too comme on dit, rigide. I'm too shy. I am like a cloud in the sky. Until someone come and speak to me. Then, ahh, I can relax. But shyness is not an excuse. You can't say, oh, I am shy, so I don't say goodbye, I don't say please. Everyone is shy but you have to struggle against yourself.
 

You die, and you go to heaven...

I do? Good!
 

...who would you most like to meet? And what would you ask them?

I would like to meet Achilles, because I'm very impassioned by true history. I would like to see his beauty and his cleverness. I've just been reading L'Odyssey and I would like to ask, Why did you kill Hector? Why are you so angry? And we never know if he is in love with Patroclus, what kind of love they have. In modern times we are very transparent. But in those times we were much more interesting.
 

What genre would your Hollywood biopic be?

It would be a small off-Broadway movie - an underground movie.
 

And what would be the coup de theatre at the end?

That I was already dead.