“Humanity seems divided into two unequal parts: those whose physique, self-confidence and radiance make them invulnerable, and the vast majority of others, characterized by want, frustration, and the secret vain obsession of what they can never attain.”
La Role de Sa Vie (The Role of Her Life), an excellent film from director Francois Favrat, deals with a premise that we’ve seen before–the working relationship between a powerhouse actress and an admirer (Backstage, for example). Even though these relationships based on huge inequities and worship usually end badly and predictably, this does not stop La Role de Sa Vie from being a fascinating film.
The famous actress in La Role de Sa Vie is Elisabeth Becker, played by Agnes Jaoui, who has directed some marvelous films of her own. The fan/underling in this case is Claire Rocher (Karin Viard) a mild, retiring but sweet employee at a magazine. One day, Elisabeth comes to the magazine’s office to give an interview, but there’s a mix up with her taxi. Claire is told to give Elisabeth a lift home. In typical Diva fashion, Elisabeth doesn’t appreciate the fact that Claire is going out of her way–in fact to her, the star treatment is expected. So while Claire can’t believe her luck that Elisabeth Becker is actually sitting in her car, the actress takes the lift for granted and even bitches at Claire that she isn’t getting to her destination fast enough.
Now if this were a story of equals, the relationship would probably end there. But Elisabeth begins to show an interest in shy, budding writer Claire and soon offers her a job as an assistant. Claire, flattered, accepts. At first, everything seems to go very well–although there are hints that Elisabeth has indulged in these sorts of relationships before. A complication arises when Elisabeth begins a relationship with Matthias, a gardener Claire is also attracted to.
A few scenes between Claire and her roommate establish that she’s a pushover and easy to take advantage of. Claire, who at times seems to lack a personality, is not, however, a typically hollow fan, content to bask in the glory of her idol. In fact, she doesn’t idolize Elisabeth at all and seems to have no illusions regarding Elisabeth’s relationships with men. While she makes an excellent and efficient employee for Elisabeth, Claire has goals of her own. Gradually, the relationship between Claire and Elisabeth becomes fraught with petty slights and humiliations.
Elisabeth seems to be in the habit of establishing personal relationships in which she has the upper hand–in fact she seems more comfortable in this role. At one point, Claire is told that Elisabeth’s behaviour can be excused as “no one behaves normally around her, so how can she judge?” And this is a fair assessment, but La Role de Sa Vie is a subtle film, so we never really know exactly what motivates Elisabeth. Sometimes she just casts a long look towards the person who happens to be getting attention at that moment, and then she acts. While motivation remains unstated, Elisabeth most certainly likes to be the star in her circle. But as Claire wryly observes, “a star can conceal a black hole.” Gradually it’s apparent that of the two women, Elisabeth is the one who lacks a centre. And this is what makes La Role de Sa Vie so different and so very interesting. Films usually portray the fan, the hero-worshipper as the hollow person who rather pathologically wishes to become one with the object of worship. Backstage portrays this sort of unhealthy relationship very well. But this paradigm does not work in the case of Claire and Elisabeth, and that’s partly because Claire never blindly worships Elisabeth, but it’s also because Claire possesses a strong centre–it was just buried deep down by all that lack of confidence. In French with subtitles.
