Great, great news everyone! Mélanie has made her first appearance at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. According to this article, Mélanie arrived at Cannes on Monday. Thanks to Mariana, we have the translated article. I’ll be posting it at the end of this news feed. Mélanie attended the screening of a movie entitled “Che”, looking simply radiant, and dawning a very brunette color. I’m going to try and collect more pictures from this event, but so far I haven’t been able to find too much. However, stay tuned for more updates!

At 25 years old and despite a whooping-cough that is killing her voice, Mélanie Laurent is living on a little cloud. The reason? She’s just finished a 7 minute long short film called “De Moins En Moins”, the story of a “patient who, in her psychologist’s office, starts to remember less and less”. She’s also signed for a long feature film, will play as an actress in a film this Summer, and will direct a stage play in Paris, near the Champs-Elysées. “I’m starting to get recognized but nobody bugs me. There’s no hysteria or intimate embraces. I’m at a perfect inbetween place”.

Why did you want to go behind the camera?

Since I was 5, I’ve been assembling spectacles. I made my parents sit on chairs and I wanted them to applaud in the end. I’m obsessed with directing people. I had my A levels in cinema then I directed two short films at college. In fact, I started being an actress completely by accident, but directing is another side of me that doesn’t come out of nowhere. It’s not a sudden interest to make myself interesting. The only thing that makes me wake up at 6:30 am is having 60 people waiting for me on the set. Well, let’s say 25 people, that’s no bad, I’m a little mythomaniac, there!

Where does that adrenaline that you feel when directing come from?

I have to be honest: there’s a huge part of ego in all that. When a whole crew of people between 30 and 50 arrive on the set in the morning and ask you ‘what do we do?’, we need to have an answer for everything, no matter what. We need to be a leader.

Are you writing a long feature film?

Yes, I’m writing 5 hours a day at the moment. That’s the only thing that makes me work (laughs). I have a title but nobody likes it so I won’t tell what it is. Besides, I’m at Cannes to ask Natalie Portman to play the lead role in my film, a woman, French, very beautiful, very funny, who sings.

Have you already met Natalie Portman to ask her?

Let’s say that I arrived 2 hours ago… I don’t understand why she didn’t burst into me already (laughs). But I’ll try to meet her. At Cannes everything is possible.

People say that filmmaking is more of a man job. What do you think?

Yes, Agnès Jaoui said that to me too. Some say that it’s the women who don’t assume as directors. Maybe they have a complex that I don’t have. Being a director means having so many jobs at the same time! I know what dress I want to put in a film, what wall color is necessary, how I want to film each plan, which take I want to have… Everything is clear in my head. Alain Attal, my producer, didn’t think twice before signing for my long feature film. The fact that I was a woman or a man didn’t change anything. It was the project that was important.