INTERVIEW.- In the documentary film “Our Body”, filmed in conditions of immersive stay
in the obstetrics and gynecology department of a Parisian hospital, Claire Simone films a grand story
women’s bodies, from youth to death.
Voluntary abortion, endometriosis that ruined everyday life for years,
the painful and exhausting path of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), childbirth, cancer,
mastectomy, chemotherapy… Claire Simon calls it “the epic of women’s bodies.” It covers everything from
what a woman’s body can face throughout her life, from youth to death. The director tells and illustrates this grand story in her new film “Our Bodies (1)”, which will be released in cinemas on October 4. For seven weeks, the director immersed herself in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the Tenon Hospital in the 20th arrondissement of Paris, filming her patients and their intimate experiences.
Completely removed from the narrative (except for the first few minutes of the documentary, during which she talks about the emergence of the project), Claire Simon moves among the main characters, filming consultations, operations and meetings between doctors who decide certain cases. Palpation after a mastectomy, egg retrieval, a gentle and calm conversation between a patient and her doctor who informs her that the disease has finally won… With great humanity, the director draws us into a community of bodies. A community that she herself suddenly joins during the filming of her documentary, when she is diagnosed with breast cancer, and which brings her in front of the camera. An encounter.
Madame Figaro: What were you trying to say by showing everything that a woman’s body can go through from youth to death?
Claire Simone: I felt that the life span of women’s and transgender bodies is not being told. Our bodies are put on display for their beauty, to seduce, to sell, but ultimately, what we go through throughout our lives is not being told. My producer, Christina Larsen, who owns the idea for this film, also told me about her two very difficult years in a hospital, during which she discovered a predominantly female world, with patients, nurses and surgeons – a world that is also not being told. And while you can certainly describe things through books, showing them through film allows us to understand. Take endometriosis, for example (Claire Simone films the operation in her film, editor’s note): by seeing a piece of flesh inside the body, you can understand what it is, visualize it, understand your own pain, and then treat yourself.
Does your film have an educational purpose?
If so, all the better, but above all I wanted to understand. I really appreciate the anthropological dimension of cinema. For example, while filming this section, I understood the process of IVF, a dissection of the sexual act that struck me. There is love, the partners who come to the doctor, the woman who undergoes a very strict and difficult treatment, the man who provides a sperm sample and regrets that he cannot do more, and then the egg is retrieved. Then the lab technician looks for the egg on the screen, another counts the sperm, and then they “create” the embryos. This is a human laboratory that I find wonderful, extraordinary from start to finish. Not to mention that this process reveals something about our way of thinking, about our civilization. For example, I thought that the image of the Virgin Mary with the baby would be replaced by the image of the egg fertilized by the sperm.
In your film, we see egg retrieval, a cesarean section, and a breast exam. How did you convince the women to film their intimate moments?
Once they agreed to let me film the consultation or the surgery, filming the rest was somewhat implied. And they agreed too because they felt their experience was worth filming for others.
And not without reason, you actually show the reality of the body, which is often hidden…
Yes. For example, that moment of undressing in the consulting room, during which we are always very uncomfortable, is proof that our bodies are not really understood. During the filming, I repeated to myself every day: “Shoot the body, shoot the body, shoot the body.” Depending on the women, I would come closer, go further; I wanted it to be beautiful. My goal was for people to understand the body, its beauty, a bit like sculptures. Whether it is a feature film or a documentary, the body, in my opinion, is the subject of the cinema; and I have always loved to shoot it.
You also show the pain, suffering and courage of these patients. Is the female body meant to suffer more than the male body?
Yes, and others need to realize that. Moreover, although this is not a film for men, it is important that they can imagine all these painful stages because they directly affect their personal lives. I remember a wonderful concert by saxophonist Steve Coleman that I attended when I found out I had breast cancer. I watched them play with his band, all together, and I thought they were very beautiful. I thought to myself: really, from the age of 14 to 70, nothing related to their genitals will ever be a burden for them. They can and will express themselves wonderfully in their art. And I was a little jealous (laughs). Given that, women’s bodies suffer, but the more we see the suffering of others, the better. For me, for example, filming all these women, not just those with cancer, made me feel much calmer when I was sick.
Did the film change your response to the diagnosis and your perception of the disease?
Absolutely. Seeing other women who have been affected, you learn about the treatment protocols. So I knew that breast cancer is one of the most curable. If I hadn’t made this film, I would have been completely devastated, much more than I actually was. It made me very slowly come to terms with the disease, and seeing other cases made me put my anxiety in perspective. But the opposite is also true. When I was editing the film, after chemotherapy, I watched the scenes of the oncologists meeting, and everything was so full of hypochondria. It was the worst thing I had ever seen, to the point that my editor decided to deal with those scenes himself.
After you were diagnosed with cancer, you decided to go on camera. What were your thoughts before you opened up about it?
I decided to do it because I hadn’t had the opportunity to film an announcement about the disease until then. The doctors thought it was a time when it was too difficult to look closely at the patient’s face. When it happened to me, I thought it could be useful. I tried to be recognizable, but I knew I wouldn’t be more important than anyone else. People think that directors and filmmakers are above everything, but the sound engineer and I felt like just one of these women. I filmed my fellow women while being among them.
What have you learned from working in the hospital from the medical staff, their view of the female body and women’s health issues?
Of course, some of them have a more or less strong pro-natalist ideology. When they talk about fertility preservation, for example, they seem kind, but for those who have decided not to have children, it can seem aggressive. I would also say that I find female doctors a little more attentive, with one exception. They answer questions and are less concerned about their scientific importance, although it is very high. Overall, I find all these doctors extraordinary in their knowledge and dedication; I was very impressed. When I first filmed the doctors’ meeting, I was stunned, amazed by their work, by the fact that all cases are always discussed in the meeting. What they do is very difficult; sometimes they have to deliver terrible news. And surgeons, gynecologists, radiologists, endocrinologists, I mean, in particular, a doctor who treats transgender people… All these people are very advanced in civilization, and we owe them a lot.
Which encounters were the most moving?
It’s hard to say. The sound engineer and I, who were behind the camera, cried a lot; I’ve never had that happen to me before. I think, in particular, of this extraordinary woman giving birth, of what she says to her newborn baby, how she greets him… It’s simple and beautiful. And then this cancer patient during her pregnancy… You could feel a very strong inner rage in her. Or this woman who is dying and her doctor is breaking the news to her on her hospital bed. I loved every person I filmed.