Camille Cottin Talks Voluntary Missing Person Drama ‘Out Of Love’ As Studiocanal Releases First Image – Cannes Market

EXCLUSIVE:  Call My Agent! star Camille Cottin has reunited with Nathan Ambrosioni for his third film Out of Love about a woman whose sister disappears leaving behind her two young children.

It marks the actress’s second collaboration with the 25-year-old, self-taught director after starring in his second 2022 feature Toni about a single mother of five, contemplating a new life as her children leave home,

“He is writing, directing and editing everything himself. It’s all in his head. He’s really obsessed with cinema and has so many references and directors that he loves… which really enriches what he does,” says Cottin of Ambrosiani, who has cited influences such as Hirokazu Kore-Eda and Edward Yang in past interviews.

Out of Love also tackles themes of motherhood but in a more somber fashion.

Cottin plays a successful, self-contained career woman with no desire to have children, who suddenly finds her responsible for her younger sister Suzanne’s son and daughter, after she walks out on them and disappears. 

Bewildered by this act of abandonment and coming to terms with the sudden arrival of two stoic but emotionally traumatized young children in her ordered life, Jeanne is shocked to discover that the police will not investigate Suzanne’s disappearance as it appears to be a voluntary act.

The drama takes is cue from a real-life French law, which states that everyone has the right to disappear, without being pursued.  

“Some 10,000 people disappear every year in France,” says Cottin. “I was very sensitive to this script, not just for its exploration of the phenomenon of the voluntary missing, but also for its deeper exploration of a mother who cannot be a mother to her child. It taps into questions of motherhood and family but in a very different way from Toni.”

“Abandoning your own children, it happens, but it’s heavy and then in the movie, the sister abandons those children to my character, a woman who never wanted kids. Then there’s the uncertainty over what to do next, with the police not wanting to get involved due to the law around the right to disappear.”

“Jeanne goes over and over past scenes from her childhood, talking to her dad, to try fathom how and why her sister got to a point where she did such a terrible thing… the film touches on all the questions that will remain unanswered and how heavy it is for those left behind.”

Studiocanal – which originally joined the production as a co-producer and French distributor – has taken on international sales and will launch the title at its traditional buyers’ Cannes kick-off buyers’ presentation today.

The film is lead produced by Nicolas Dumont and Hugo Sélignac at Mediawan company Chi-Fou-Mi Productions, with France 2 also on board as co-producer.

Cottin is joined in the cast by Juliette Armanet as the sister, and Monia Chokri as Suzanne’s on-off girlfriend, and child actors Manoâ Varvat and Nina Birman. Armanet is at Cannes this year as the star of opening film Leave One Day, while Chokri appears in Un Certain Regard title Love Me Tender.

The actress, who has worked with children on many occasions, praises her young co-stars.

“There’s always something very surprising when they perform very well, because you don’t know where it comes from,” she says of the intricacies of working with children on set. 

“Sometimes you’re facing a depth of emotion, that’s unexpected. With the boy, who is 12 and playing a 10-year-old, there’s a scene where we’re in the laundry room, and something so deep comes out of him,” she recounts.

“The little girl was six and that’s a different dynamic. The biggest thing is to get them to forget about the camera but that’s always difficult with a six-year-old because when you say don’t look, then they want to look,” she adds. 

“These two children, who were chosen after a long casting process, were fantastic, but it’s true it always adds a pressure on set because you have shorter hours [under French laws governing for minors on set] and more unknowns… it’s a bit like shooting on film.”

Currently on the set of Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s Just An Illusion, much-in-demand Cottin will also be seen in Pierre Schoeller’s Rembrandt and Tamara Stepanyan’s Sauver Les Morts. 

She has also recently been announced for the role of the evil innkeeper Madame Thénardier in Fred Cavayé’s upcoming adaptation of  Les Miserables, alongside Benjamin Lavernhe as Monsieur Thénardier.

“That going to be an interesting duo opposite Benjamin Lavernhe,” she says.

Rumors are also rife on Cottin’s imminent return to her role as top agent Andréa Martel for a final instalment of Call My Agent!.

“I can’t really say anything but there are serious possibilities that it will come back,” says Cottin.