After the Cannes Film Festival this summer, the director Catherine Corsini is on the boards of Deauville with The divide. Presented out of competition at the American Film Festival, his new film brings together a delicious cast. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marina Foïs, Pio Marmaï, but also Assiatou Diallo Sagna, a non-professional actress, remarkable caregiver, in an extraordinary film. “She offered me a professional promotion, so I tried to do well, to find my place in this group, in this universe which was totally unknown to me”, tells the aspiring actress.
The story of The divide delves into the sometimes absurd daily life of an emergency service. Julie has just broken up with her partner Raf, who has a bad fall. They both find themselves in the hospital, while flocking in the corridors of the wounded of the biggest demonstration of yellow vests in Paris. They meet Yann (Pio Marmaï), very angry, hit by a police grenade. Tension mounts in the capital, the wounded are in excess and the hospital is overwhelmed: welcome to the longest night … “When I saw the film, I felt this electricity”, reports the actor Pio Marmaï.
The subject, serious and hyperrealistic, nonetheless makes a funny film that stages funny situations. A somewhat yellow laugh despite everything and tinged with the distress of hospital staff, widely detailed in recent months in the reports. Because The divide relates anecdotes far too realistic to be mere diversions.
This dimension close to reality takes on its full extent when we know that the history of The divide is autobiographical. The director Catherine Corsini really found herself in the emergency room on a Saturday demonstration of the yellow vests. The script of his comedy was set, all that remained was to realize it. “I only know how to do this by finding an energy, humanity and I was lucky to have completely demented actors”, she assures. In the credits, a beautiful band of actors give the answer. “On this film, I found a pleasure and a desire to impress, something from my youth as an actress and it was wonderful”, says Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.
“La fracture” by Catherine Corsini with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marina Foïs, Pio Marmai, Assiatou Diallo Sagna – 1h38 – Release October 27, 2021
