Cinema, since its conception, has been an art of the eye — from perceiving the motion of shadows and light within a frame to examining motion in a composition that results in the audience gaining a perspective of the narration; it has become a playground for artists experimenting with the sensations of sight and sound. In her directorial debut Ava, Léa Mysius used the medium to relay the experiences of a 13-year-old who would lose her eyesight and took to the camera again to trigger the audience’s relationship with the sense of smell in her 2022 drama feature, The Five Devils.
Featuring Adèle Exarchopoulos of Blue is the Warmest Colourfame in the lead, the film narrates the story of Vicky, a solitary girl who inspects her life and its conception using her supernatural sense of smell. In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Léa talks about adapting cinema as a medium to explore our primary senses, philosophies about the existential nature of life, and the signature silence of her male characters.
Léa is candid while revealing the conception of the film. “I had two images in my head: one was of an adolescent girl screaming in front of a raging fire and the other was of a young girl who developed a supernatural sense of smell that triggers memories that her parents have experienced,” she says. Bridging these images created the foundation of the script. “I wanted to explore the idea that our bodies hold the weight of memories that are not necessarily ours but those experienced by members of our family.”
A still from ‘The Five Devils’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Léa overcame the challenge of filming a story whose focus lay on relaying an invisible sensation like smell by relying on tangible objects. “We started with something physical like the pots Vicky is mixing her potions in. They all have distinctive colours and hold a myriad of peculiar things belonging to the people in her life; I worked on incorporating triggers that would evoke nostalgic memories of her childhood. Making it very carnal and physical is what helped me translate the sensations to the screen. I did not want her vaguely smelling flowers because they reminded her of someone,” she chuckles.
The French filmmaker admits to wanting to continue exploring the sensual relationship characters have with cinema and hopes to make a film inspecting the sense of hearing. “In fact, in The Five Devils, we got the chance to play with sound and used a lot of distorted animals’ sounds to heighten the audience’s experience,” she shares.
Léa’s perspective while investigating existentialism through the eyes of a school-going girl is refreshing. “Vicky is asking herself an existential question we all ask ourselves at some point: ‘Why am I on Earth as Vicky Soler and not someone or something else?’ And when she realises the fragility of existence at a tender age it scares her — if my parents did not meet at the very moment they met, I would not exist. And it is quite dizzying for her,” the director says.
A still from ‘The Five Devils’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
However, her biggest strength lies in the treatment she metes out to her male characters —in this case, Jimmy played by Moustapha Mbengue, who is deliberate in his silence. “I like it when the male characters in my film step back. They take up so much screen time and in a way their presence coupled with the history of cinema is overpowering on the screen. I really wanted women to remain the focus of my story,” she confesses.
“In the case of Jimmy, his strength lies in his passivity — agreeing to separate from his wife while trying to understand and respect her decisions is an act of true love and it is very sexy to be able to do that,” smirks Léa.
The director is sincere in citing the works that have had a role in inspiring her 2022 film. “I’m of course very influenced by a lot of films and books, but also a lot of memories and people I know. Ideas have to come from somewhere, even if my way of filming them is very personal. As for the movies that have shaped The Five Devils, I want to credit TheTin Drum by Volker Schlöndorff, Shining by Stanley Kubrick, Twin Peaks by David Lynch, Us by Jordan Peele, 3 Women by Robert Altman, Magnolia by P.T Anderson to name a few.”
Léa has already begun working on her third film as a director but says that it is too early to talk about. She is simultaneously working as a screenwriter in collaboration with choreographer Benjamin Millepied for his second feature. “I’m thrilled to discover another world through him, the world of dance,” concludes Léa.
