Yolande Moreau brings painter 'Séraphine' to life

After her loop through Europe and North America, Moreau joined the Jerome Deschamps theatrical troupe, remaining a member for 12 years. During that time, Moreau was given her first onscreen experience, including a small role in Agnes Varda's 1985 film "Vagabond." The actress went on to play small roles in numerous French films, including "Germinal" and "Amelie."

After leaving Deschamps, Moreau set to work on a script that made use of her experiences as a nomadic actor. Employing bits and pieces of "A Dirty Business" along with memories of her time spent playing the auditoriums, concert halls and senior-citizen centers of rural France, she emerged with "When the Sea Rises," an unexpectedly tender romance that struck a chord with audiences. Moreau's middle-aged, crumpled performer, at her best on stage and at sea off of it, unexpectedly finds love with a free-spirited younger man who briefly sets her world askew. "I used it as a platform," Moreau says, "to talk about a woman getting older. This film was putting in parallel the fact that in the theater, we attempt to portray life, while in life we have to manage to live using our dreams." Moreau won a Cesar for best actress, and a star was born.

Meanwhile, a friend had introduced Provost to the story of Seraphine de Senlis. Researching Seraphine's life, Provost discovered the unusual relationship that flowered between the artist and German art dealer Wilhelm Uhde, who had served as Seraphine's first champion. Meeting Tina Verney, founder of Paris' Musee Maillol, where Seraphine's work had first been exhibited, and who had purchased Uhde's collection, solidified his growing sense that there was a film to be made here.

"I knew at the time that I wanted to construct the film around the meeting between Wilhelm Uhde and Seraphine," remembers Provost, "and immediately Yolande's image came to mind."

"Seraphine" balances on the fulcrum of the artist's relationship with Uhde (played by Ulrich Tukur). Before his arrival, she is a physical laborer, scrubbing floors and polishing furniture; after, she is granted a moment of respite from the ceaseless maelstrom of cleaning to work at her paintings of enormous, leafy trees and trembling flowers.

"I think that Seraphine, in the beginning of her life, experienced great suffering, and [the paintings] are a way to process all her suffering," Moreau speculates.