«Hor already signed up for six projects by 2023. I’m working non-stop, as indeed I always have. Maybe people don’t know it”. Oh no, if it were up to her, people wouldn’t know it: Marthe Keller is the film icon (how can we forget her – for example – in Fedora or in One moment, a life with Al Pacino?) more reserved than one can imagine. It is easy to find her strolling in the mountains of her native Switzerland, in Verbier (where she will soon be staged at the festival, see box on the following page), almost impossible to spot her on the red carpet. Giovanni at the Metropolitan in New York), but understatement is his hallmark.
«I speak four languages, a great advantage: I am comfortable everywhere» she explains. «And I am privileged because they paid me well and I can say ‘no’ to anything that doesn’t convince me, I don’t have to worry about tomorrow. I’ve had a lot of luck, starting from childhood.’
What childhood was it?
We lived in the countryside, my parents loved nature (the father was a horse breeder, ed). They never explained to me who Pavese or Kierkegaard were, but they taught me the names of every flower, every shrub, every tree. I am so grateful for the simplicity and beauty and love and trust and freedom they have given me.
When did she say to herself for the first time: “Do I want to be an actress?”
Never, not even now I would tell myself (laughs). Dancing was what I wanted, I was in a corps de ballet.
Who knows the sacrifices for a little girl.
I learned discipline. I learned to smile when I was in pain. But I also learned to enjoy the joy of music without having to use words. When you were born in Switzerland you are sometimes a little shy: our country, sandwiched between giants like Germany and France, is small and counts for little. We are not very good at talking and in dance the music speaks for you. And what a joy the rhythm! Sometimes I found myself almost in a trance… At the age of 16, after a skiing accident, I was forced to leave.
Marthe Keller in 1977 with her son by de Broca. Alexandre is now an established artist. (Getty Images)
It will have been destroyed.
Terrible, at the moment. But if I fall, I get right back up. And I wasn’t really gifted anyway, I wasn’t going to be a soloist, I was already too tall. I’m positive, and fatalistic: if something happens, it must be for a reason. Who knows if I had continued, maybe today I would be an alcoholic and instead – by pure chance I became an actress: I was already in the theater and I only changed plans (the first was acting, the second dance). In the end, any mishap has brought me good. The layoff in Germany, where I had started, pushed me towards France, where I had many more opportunities than before, and from Paris I found myself in Los Angeles. Who would have expected it? I didn’t calculate anything in my career (mhmm, I don’t like the word: “career”). I am convinced that we must have faith in life.
Is it true that you studied with the philosopher Theodor W. Adorno?
Yes, but for a very short time, I went back to drama classes early. I spent a fantastic time with Jürgen Habermas and the other exponents of the Frankfurt School (a sociological-philosophical school with a neo-Marxist orientation, ed ): an experience that I will carry with me for eternity, one wondered a lot about music as well. I miss certain analyses: I think I was smarter when I was younger than now! (laughs) Being an actress you become so superficial, sometimes… (laughs heartily)
She seems to have definitely escaped this risk.
My wish was to earn enough to make a living from the profession (not an obvious possibility), not to be famous and go out wearing dark glasses followed by the paparazzi. It happened to me when I lived in America in the seventies and acted in big films. I hated it! For this reason, after the umpteenth silly script they offered me, I preferred to go back to France and play Chekhov on stage for two years. No frustration, having been on the set with the major directors and major actors in the world: Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, Marcello Mastroianni…
What do you remember about Mastroianni?
Marvelous. Like a child playing in the sand, he acted naturally. The opposite of what I’ve found in the United States, where every gesture is dissected. In The Marathon Runner Dustin Hoffman took a sauna every ten minutes to look tired, using away his nerves and mineral reserves.
Keller with Marcello Mastroianni in Oci ciornie (1987). They also worked together on Per le antica stairway and Sostiene Pereira. (IPA)
Laurence Olivier couldn’t get over it: “Couldn’t you limit yourself to acting?”.
Exact! Something that would have been inconceivable for Marcello. He was elegant, profound, with a good heart, he treated anyone in a friendly way, not caring about hierarchies. And it was so funny, albeit with a touch of sadness, melancholy. We don’t have any more people like that! We made three films together and I especially loved Oci ciornie (the first two are Per le antica stairway and Pereira’s support, ed), but Michalkov (director Nikita Michalkov, ed) is disappointing me so much: he is Putin’s friend! And I thought he was a genius…
What struck you about Marlon Brando?
She was out of her mind, like almost all “celebs” in the US. Partly because of the Hollywood system, a cog too big for a human being, partly because America is like a child, infantile. We Europeans have two thousand years of history behind us, deep roots, we are in adulthood. But I liked Marlon: he was great, witty. He arrived not knowing the lines: he wrote them everywhere, on the curtain, on his arm, on the floor…
And Pacino? He just became a dad again.
We lived together for seven years, and it was a good time. Al is so crazy and wonderful! The problem was I was in love with him but I didn’t love him, now I love him but I’m not in love with him at all!
Marthe Keller and Al Pacino in 1978 during a party organized by the legendary Actor’s Studio in New York. (Getty Images)
Adorno would be proud of such subtlety.
(laughs out loud) I was really impressed with him as an actor, I think he was the greatest I’ve ever known. He’s my best friend, we talk every day, but he’s not aging very well, I’m sorry. Celebrities don’t want to age and when they try to deviate from the normal course of time – they age much more.
Never trust a man who dyes his hair…
And so he appears older… But leave them as they are!
But she is in amazing shape. The secret?
I’m a fanatic of healthy food. If I’m quite ok (knock on wood!) I think it’s thanks to the chromosomes and to being back where we come from, peasant life. I eat at 17, maximum 18, and I give my stomach a 16-hour break. If I have friends over for dinner, of course, I adapt, but it doesn’t happen more than a couple of times a week. I drink a lot of water, I try to sleep well, I allow myself little alcohol and little meat, even though I’m not a vegetarian. Basically the usual stuff. And I walk, three or four hours a day: it “clears” my head.
Do you know the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh? He claimed that walking is a form of meditation.
Ah but I am a Buddhist, if we understand Buddhism as a philosophy, not as a religion. I’m a Catholic, I used to go to church and still go when there’s no one around… (laughs). Everything passes, we have to live in the moment with responsibility and kindness. There’s a wise joke: “The present is a gift, that’s why it’s called… present!”.
In its existence, what is the key word?
Freedom. For me, independence is everything. Of course, there’s a price to pay: sometimes you’re alone, but it’s your choice. Better alone and happy than as a couple and unhappy! I am lucky to have taken this house in Verbier after the birth of my son (Alexandre, had in 1972 by the director Philippe de Broca, ed). I read, listen to music, my family comes to visit me but I am often – and willingly – on my own. Nature is so important to me: I can’t stand the noise anymore, the aggression that exists in Paris. Now I’m here, in France, but I’ve just advanced the ticket to go back to Switzerland to my cows: I love my cows (laughs)! Silence is so good for the brain, for the heart. Unfortunately, people are so afraid of silence that they surround themselves with noise. And they are terrified of boredom, which – on the contrary – is a panacea for the mind.
Star among stars at the thirtieth anniversary of the Verbier Festival
Marthe Keller (Getty Images)
The readings Ahead with Marthe Keller e Justine and Juliette with Isabelle Huppert are just two of the unmissable appointments at the Verbier Festival, Switzerland (July 14-30), which in 2023 celebrates its thirtieth anniversary. The best of world music is on the bill (conductors like Zubin Mehta and Daniele Gatti, pianists like Daniil Trifonov and Yuja Wang, cellists like Yo-Yo Ma, violinists like Joshua Bell and jazz musicians like Wynton Marsalis and Brad Mehldau). In the DNA of the event there is also training through the Academy, which offers more than 90 free masterclasses and workshops open to the public. info: verbierfestival. com
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