The French director talks about her film, which focuses on the legendary Italian pedagogue in the early years of her career, when her famous method was still in the fledgling stages
The professional life of the legendary pedagogue and the suffering in her private life are at the heart of French director Léa Todorov’s first fiction feature film, Maria Montessori , which is due for release in Italian cinemas via Wanted Cinema on 26 September. We chatted with the director on the occasion of her film’s presentation in Villa Medici in Rome.
Cineuropa: In 2016, you collaborated on the writing of a documentary called Révolution école: l’éducation nouvelle entre les deux guerres, which explored alternative teaching methods. Is this a subject that particularly interests you?
Léa Todorov: It’s actually a topic I came across while working on that documentary, which was made on commission. I started to read what Montessori had written; I read several biographies about her, and I also found out about everything that had happened before she became a star. I was surprised by the gap that existed between the iconic figure and the woman I was learning about, and I found her more interesting as a result of it, because it made her more human. I felt it was important to show how Maria Montessori had fought against the thinking of the time. But then I had to wait until 2017, when my daughter was born with a genetic condition, because making this film then became a personal necessity.
Was it this sense of personal necessity that led you to focus on the first half of Montessori’s career, when she looks after children with disabilities? And why did you decide to highlight the moment Maria abandons her son who was born out of wedlock?
I spent a lot of time wondering which period in Montessori’s life I should focus on, but I always came back to the idea that the abandonment of her child was key to understanding who she went on to become. It all resonated with my own family story, and the story of so many women who’ve found themselves forced to choose between their personal and professional lives. In Maria’s life, there’s nothing more tragic than being separated from her son while she tends to the education of all children; it’s a contradiction in terms of this woman’s image. But the reality is, if she hadn’t given up her son, we wouldn’t have the Montessori method today.
You mentioned the texts you read to research the subject. Is the character of Lili, the woman who leaves Paris to entrust her daughter to Montessori’s care, based on anyone in real life?
Lili’s character is vaguely based on an Austrian student who Montessori talks about in her writings, but the truth is, the character has been totally reworked, all that remains of her is her first name. The Lili d’Alengy in my film is a fictional character based on real Parisian “cocotte” characters, who were very well-known and important figures of their time. When I started looking for another female figure to act as a dramatic counterpoint, I needed someone who was just as strong as Maria, and this cocotte character seemed to be a female counter-figure of that time: she’s someone who has a certain power of her own, the power of seduction that she wields over men, and I realised she could have a purpose in that respect, she could pass something on to Maria. Also, a mother who’s ashamed of her daughter is quite symbolic of our own society, which doesn’t accept difference.
The children we see in the film are real children with mobility or cognitive problems. How did you go about casting them and how did you work together to portray them so luminously?
We saw so many children, and, in those 20-minute auditions, we tried to work out if it would be possible to interact with them and experience real moments of joy together. For the children where this did prove possible, we organised dance, music and theatre training. I believe the film only explores a fraction of the joy and emotion you feel when you realise anything is possible with these children who are deemed “unable” – you just have to believe in them. As for our approach, we tried to adopt Montessori’s message. It’s crucial that audiences see the film and ask themselves how we did it: the answer is that we did it with love.