Virginie Efira Learned Japanese for Next Ryusuke Hamaguchi Film, Teases ‘Astonishing Formal Choices’
Virginie Efira picked up a new skill when working with Ryusuke Hamaguchi: She learned Japanese for the just-wrapped shoot.
Recently, she’s been heard to test it out — especially when bolstered by a bit of liquid courage. “[I can start speaking] after a few drinks,” she jokes. “Though someone recently told me it sounded more like Hungarian!”
Set for release next year, Hamaguchi’s Paris-shot “All of a Sudden” will also boast a three-hour run-time and more “astonishing formal choices,” per Efira. “He has a pretty unusual way of shooting,” she says. “We did a huge number of table reads in a space where you had to stay completely focused. I had to imagine a heavy stone in my stomach and direct everything toward it. It created a really unique atmosphere.”
Efira shared these reflections during a wide-ranging, nearly two-hour conversation with Chiara Mastroianni at this year’s Marrakech Film Festival. The two actresses swapped stories, shared working habits, revisited career milestones, and hinted at what’s next. Efira is heading back to Paris soon to finish Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales,” while Mastroianni will appear in Nicolas Pariser’s “Un Peu Avant Minuit” (“A Bit Before Midnight”), starring alongside her longtime collaborator Melvil Poupaud.
“We’ve known each other for ages and have worked together in so many ways,” Mastroianni laughs. “We’ve played siblings, spouses, cousins—pretty much every dynamic imaginable. He hasn’t played my son yet, but that won’t take long. At the pace things are going, by next year he’ll be my little baby!”
Indeed, Poupaud has been intertwined with Mastroianni’s journey for nearly as long. A childhood friend, he was the one who first nudged her toward acting, helping her carve a path beyond the dazzling legacy of her parents, Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. “My mother wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea, while my father was delighted,” Mastroianni recalls. “It was complicated, and for a long time, I didn’t know what I truly wanted—or even how to admit it to myself. Melvil really helped me break through that taboo.”
The two actresses began their careers on opposite trajectories: Mastroianni cut her teeth on rigorous arthouse fare from directors like Raul Ruiz and Manoel de Oliveira before exploring looser, more playful tones with Christophe Honoré, while Efira transitioned from a VJ on Belgian TV to a series of crowd-pleasing—if not strictly highbrow—comedies, culminating in her dramatic breakout in Justine Triet’s “In Bed With Victoria.”
“Justine brings chaos into her own film,” Efira recalls. “You watch a scene, and it’s chaotic, but her mind—and even her apartment—mirrors that chaos. She was disrupting her own film; it was like being both a mischievous student and the teacher at the same time. There was a vaguely communist atmosphere on set—not dictatorial, not Putin-like. Everyone had a voice; people didn’t just stick to their roles. We always followed the script, but it felt like constant improvisation.”
Mastroianni, by contrast, experienced the opposite approach working with Manoel de Oliveira.
“His method was rigid and mathematical, treating actors not as collaborators but as elements in a composition, like the folds of a curtain in a painting,” she explains. “At first, it felt like a straitjacket—but looking back, it was a magnificent gift. That demanding ‘mathematics’ of performance forged a muscle I never knew I had: the ability to concentrate, to embrace silence and stillness, and to truly love the long take.”
The two stars finally shared the screen in Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children,” with Efira navigating step-parenting and Mastroianni playing the child’s mother. Both praised Zlotowski for capturing a new-partner–ex-partner dynamic that is common in life but rarely depicted in cinema.
“These characters shared a powerful connection,” Mastroianni says. “They didn’t apologize for men, and they weren’t in conflict. In real life, that’s actually more common than people think. It’s not always war between an ex and the new partner. And even two women sharing a man—Rebecca shows it can bring them closer, not tear them apart.”
“She manages to explore a certain kind of feminism,” Efira adds. “Not one of loud protests, but one that operates in a broader, more precise, personal, and powerful way.”
The exchange was made all the more remarkable by the filmmaker’s presence in the audience. As luck would have it, Zlotowski had flown in to Marrakech for the previous evening’s gala screening of “A Private Life,” and sat beaming in the crowd throughout the conversation.
Recently, she’s been heard to test it out — especially when bolstered by a bit of liquid courage. “[I can start speaking] after a few drinks,” she jokes. “Though someone recently told me it sounded more like Hungarian!”
Set for release next year, Hamaguchi’s Paris-shot “All of a Sudden” will also boast a three-hour run-time and more “astonishing formal choices,” per Efira. “He has a pretty unusual way of shooting,” she says. “We did a huge number of table reads in a space where you had to stay completely focused. I had to imagine a heavy stone in my stomach and direct everything toward it. It created a really unique atmosphere.”
Efira shared these reflections during a wide-ranging, nearly two-hour conversation with Chiara Mastroianni at this year’s Marrakech Film Festival. The two actresses swapped stories, shared working habits, revisited career milestones, and hinted at what’s next. Efira is heading back to Paris soon to finish Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales,” while Mastroianni will appear in Nicolas Pariser’s “Un Peu Avant Minuit” (“A Bit Before Midnight”), starring alongside her longtime collaborator Melvil Poupaud.
“We’ve known each other for ages and have worked together in so many ways,” Mastroianni laughs. “We’ve played siblings, spouses, cousins—pretty much every dynamic imaginable. He hasn’t played my son yet, but that won’t take long. At the pace things are going, by next year he’ll be my little baby!”
Indeed, Poupaud has been intertwined with Mastroianni’s journey for nearly as long. A childhood friend, he was the one who first nudged her toward acting, helping her carve a path beyond the dazzling legacy of her parents, Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. “My mother wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea, while my father was delighted,” Mastroianni recalls. “It was complicated, and for a long time, I didn’t know what I truly wanted—or even how to admit it to myself. Melvil really helped me break through that taboo.”
The two actresses began their careers on opposite trajectories: Mastroianni cut her teeth on rigorous arthouse fare from directors like Raul Ruiz and Manoel de Oliveira before exploring looser, more playful tones with Christophe Honoré, while Efira transitioned from a VJ on Belgian TV to a series of crowd-pleasing—if not strictly highbrow—comedies, culminating in her dramatic breakout in Justine Triet’s “In Bed With Victoria.”
“Justine brings chaos into her own film,” Efira recalls. “You watch a scene, and it’s chaotic, but her mind—and even her apartment—mirrors that chaos. She was disrupting her own film; it was like being both a mischievous student and the teacher at the same time. There was a vaguely communist atmosphere on set—not dictatorial, not Putin-like. Everyone had a voice; people didn’t just stick to their roles. We always followed the script, but it felt like constant improvisation.”
Mastroianni, by contrast, experienced the opposite approach working with Manoel de Oliveira.
“His method was rigid and mathematical, treating actors not as collaborators but as elements in a composition, like the folds of a curtain in a painting,” she explains. “At first, it felt like a straitjacket—but looking back, it was a magnificent gift. That demanding ‘mathematics’ of performance forged a muscle I never knew I had: the ability to concentrate, to embrace silence and stillness, and to truly love the long take.”
The two stars finally shared the screen in Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Other People’s Children,” with Efira navigating step-parenting and Mastroianni playing the child’s mother. Both praised Zlotowski for capturing a new-partner–ex-partner dynamic that is common in life but rarely depicted in cinema.
“These characters shared a powerful connection,” Mastroianni says. “They didn’t apologize for men, and they weren’t in conflict. In real life, that’s actually more common than people think. It’s not always war between an ex and the new partner. And even two women sharing a man—Rebecca shows it can bring them closer, not tear them apart.”
“She manages to explore a certain kind of feminism,” Efira adds. “Not one of loud protests, but one that operates in a broader, more precise, personal, and powerful way.”
The exchange was made all the more remarkable by the filmmaker’s presence in the audience. As luck would have it, Zlotowski had flown in to Marrakech for the previous evening’s gala screening of “A Private Life,” and sat beaming in the crowd throughout the conversation.