Interview: Jessica Palud – Being Maria

In 2018, political journalist and writer Vanessa Schneider released Tu t’appelais Maria Schneider (My Cousin Maria Schneider), a deeply personal memoir exploring the turbulent life and career of her late cousin, actress Maria Schneider. Offering a window into the darker, somewhat socially accepted side of the film industry, the small tome looked at Maria’s struggles with fame, exploitation, and personal demons. Far from a straightforward rise to stardom, her story is one of resilience and shattered dreams—a poignant reflection on the cost of art and ambition. Fast-forward to the 2024 Cannes Film Festival (Cannes Premiere section), French filmmaker Jessica Palud (who once worked as Bertolucci’s assistant director on the set of “The Dreamers,”) revisits what the before, during and after consequences of the “Last Tango in Paris,” with Being Maria (the film was released by Kino Lorber in March). Anamaria Vartolomei takes on the role and portrays a woman who pushed the limits and was defiant well past the infamous sequence that would tragically take a psychological bite out of her. During the 2024 Cannes festival, I sat down with Palud to first explore her present-day relationship with Maria, and then to unpack the blueprint she followed in her layered reconstruction of the sequence.