"Coline Serreau is a story-teller, or as she says herself, a clown. She is also an actress, a musician, a trapeze-artist, a successful playwright and a director of films which are always in tune with their time. In "La Belle Verte" she plays an alien who comes from a utopian world to discover the ills of our age.
Le Figaro : Why this fondness for fable?
Coline Serreau : Ultrarealist cinema doesn't interest me. I'm a story-teller. Parable and allegory are a wonderful way of getting these eternal and ever-present myths across. (...)
- How did the "alien" idea come about?
- It's a pure pretext. It's not a question of believing in extra-terrestrials, but of saying that other visions of the world exist. The same goes for our individual lives. There comes a time when you have to stop thinking you're the centre. The baby stage is fine, up to a certain point... (...)
- Are you a moralist, a militant?
- Of course not! I'm a clown. I believe the clown has a sacred function in society. That's what I was born to do and I'm very happy doing it. The clown was the king's jester. He told the truth, rocked the boat, made people laugh, gave them pleasure... (...)"
(Interview by Emmanuèle Frois - Le Figaro)