How teenage film director's debut explores 'definition of love'

Chloé Zhao may have just won her first best director Oscar at the age of 39 for Nomadland - but away from the awards ceremonies, a younger French woman is celebrating simply having made her first feature film aged 19.

Suzanne Lindon, who turned 21 this month, wrote the screenplay for Spring Blossom at the age of 15, and then directed and starred in the film while she was still a teenager.

"I think what gave me confidence to try directing was my desire to act," she says. "I always wanted to do it and I'm from an acting family in France. I needed to feel legitimate in choosing that path, so the way I found was to write my own role.

"As I wrote, the desire to direct it grew more and more, and I couldn't imagine giving the movie to someone else. There were images I had in my mind and I needed to create them and see them."

The character in Spring Blossom that Lindon creates is a 16-year-old Parisian schoolgirl, also called Suzanne, who falls in love for the first time - with Raphael, an actor in his 30s, played by Arnaud Valois.

The relationship the pair have on screen is platonic, with love and desire expressed through dance routines with each other.

Asked what prompted her to write the screenplay in the wake of the #MeToo scandal, Lindon responds: "We're in important times and I am 100% concerned about #MeToo, but the film does not deal with that.

"This young girl is lost and wants to discover who she is and it's the same for the man. They're not the same age but they're on the same level, and that to me is the definition of love.

"The girl is the first one who makes the move, so she makes the decisions, she's not a victim. I wanted it to be a platonic relationship that's very pure and very respectful, with no-one using the other and no one having more power. I think it's important to show a young girl that love stories can be this way.

"Yes, the age difference is important, but it's not the topic of the movie. It's to show two people in love, they're not kissing or making love, but they have their own sensuality to communicate through dancing."

The director adds that she was surprised by the reaction she's had from other teenagers. "I wrote something about the feelings I was living when I was 15 or 16, but I wasn't sure whether others my age were the same.

"But I've had messages from girls and also young men who are touched by the story. I was trying to show my generation in the purest way - there are no phones, no social media, as becoming an adult is exactly the same no matter what time you're living in."

Very few directors make a successful feature film debut under the age of 25, although Orson Welles made the classic Hollywood film Citizen Kane in 1941 at exactly that age. John Singleton, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1991 coming-of-age drama Boyz n the Hood, was 23 when it premiered.

Historically, women, especially in Hollywood, have struggled more to get opportunities to direct and have sometimes been older making their debut.

Kathryn Bigelow's first feature film, The Loveless, was made in 1981, the year she turned 30. She received her Oscar for The Hurt Locker when she was 58. Ava DuVernay's first feature film, I Will Follow, was made in 2010, when she turned 38. And Emerald Fennell, Oscar-nominated this year for her first movie, Promising Young Woman, is 35.

However, France has had a better record of giving women opportunities to direct early, according to French film critic and author, Agnès Poirier.

"She's following in the footsteps of inspired French women directors making an early splash in cinema," Poirier says. "From Agnès Varda, Claire Denis, to Céline Sciamma, they don't shy away from tackling any kind of controversial subjects.

"It looks as if Suzanne Lindon's choice to talk about adolescent boredom and the attraction between a 16 year-old girl and an older man, one which is pure seduction and not domination, may raise a few eyebrows in some feminist quarters. Lindon begs to differ, and this feels provocative and refreshing."

The director's confidence in going ahead and making her film may be explained by her family background. She's the daughter of a famous French acting couple, Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain. But Suzanne Lindon rebuffs criticism that they opened doors for her.

"My answer to critics is, 'This is my film, my way, and my parents didn't help me to do it.' So, I don't have to justify it, making it was enough for me to feel legitimate.

"The only person involved was me, from the very start, and then I found a producer, who was my first ally in this. She was always there for me. The only thing that discouraged me about the whole process was that it was very complicated to get the funding."

But she acknowledges her upbringing meant she knew a lot about cinema at a very young age.

"My parents showed me the musical Grease when I was four, that was my first film which I guess was super weird for four, but then I was watching Charlie Chaplin films at five and Ingrid Bergman movies at 11. So, it's really helped me to express myself and have very precise images in my head."

Even so, Lindon says that "until the first day of shooting I wasn't aware of what it was to direct a film".

"I knew it was a lot of work. I knew I had to do a lot of things at the same time, like acting and directing the other actors and watching if all the locations were OK. I felt really scared before shooting, but when I started, and I had a team around me, I didn't feel scared at all. I felt ready."

Spring Blossom was included in last year's Cannes Film Festival and was also the closing film at this year's Glasgow Film Festival. Screen Daily commented on its "remarkable assurance and success".

Lindon believes directors should get chances to start their craft earlier in life. "I have a lot of hopes for my generation," she says.

"If you know what you want to do, you're capable of doing anything you want, because when you're young, you have this energy that is very particular. I am never tired. The more we feel free to be ourselves and talk about topics that really matter to us, the more we'll be listened to."

Spring Blossom is available to watch on Curzon Home Cinema.

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