Interview: Sophie Letourneur – Voyages en Italie

Obviously it was always going to be Italy. Not Spain. Misadventures that take place in real life are matched by the very creative adventures that take place in our minds (or from the comfort of our beds) in Voyages en Italie — the fifth feature by French filmmaker Sophie Letourneur. A dramedy that follows a straight line until it doesn’t, Letourneur is a filmmaker who is marching to the beat of her own drum and in this specific case rethinks the narrative and the notion of memory. Employing situational humor and chatty banter, if this film feels scrappy — it’s a deliberate, pre-planned, very precise set-up.

Featuring Letourneur and Philippe Katerine, this began its film festival life in Rotterdam and is still touring the film festival circuit. I had the chance to speak to Sophie at the 2023 Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal – in the lengthy sit-down we learned that this is part of a very much planned trilogy, and got to get into her creative process, the film’s aesthetic look and naturally discuss how it was influenced by Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy.