“Ulysse”, an interview with director Laetitia Masson and actress Élodie Bouchez

Seasoned French director Laetitia Masson is back in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival 2026– she was already selected in that strand back in 1998 with her second feature film, “For Sale” – with an extremely personal film, “Ulysse”, which follows the trajectory of Alice (Élodie Bouchez), a mum whose son Ulysse has a genetic condition which will inevitably alter his capacities and possibilities in life, but doesn’t entirely preclude a certain degree of autonomy, with the dedicated help of his parents. It is this hope which carries Alice through the endless round of  visits with many different therapists, special schools, or institutions we see her power through over nearly twenty years, driven by her motherly love, when even her pianist husband (Stanislas Merhar) has taken some distance (the length of a whole ocean, to be more specific). We met with the director and her main actress to discuss the very special endeavour that was making this film, also starring her own son Alphonse Roberts as the eldest Ulysse.

Laetitia Masson on turning her own story into a film

“Because this is my story, I didn’t have to do research, as it usually goes. So I had all this life experience, but the question was how to make a real film from it, not just to tell your story or complain or whatever. I hate films which just tell the real story and that’s all : that doesn’t make a good film. I had to see where the cinema was in the story, and I thought the cinema was there because it is all a question of the look you have upon things, upon human beings, and when you change the look, you change life.”

On the mother’s journey as a crusade, and her as a fighter and a translator

“For this movie, I thought it was important to present it as a crusade because I didn’t want to just tell my small story. I wanted to tell a tale that could reflect all destinies, so I wanted to show a learning journey, something you have to go through until you see the light.’ Although Masson sees her character as fighting for more than her own child, and thought of Erin Brockovich as a reference, she also says, ‘she’s not a fighter in the end, she’s just the translator of her child. As a movie, it’s the story of the child, but you can only read it through the mother, because of the singularity of that child. She’s the one you can understand everything through.”

On choosing Élodie Bouchez for the role of Alice

“As soon as I knew she was going to be the mother, it meant I wouldn’t have to do that part of the work. I knew I could completely trust her, and for me it was essential, because I was able to focus on the children.”

Actress Élodie Bouchez on working with different children of different ages

“It’s not easy to work with children, but it was also touching, and not only that, it was also inspiring, even though sometimes it was difficult because we were trying so hard, with some of them, to have them do the things that had to be done for the needs of the scene, so for me, it was like a dance, because I had to be inside, outside, inside, outside, so sometimes I was getting frustrated, because I wasn’t sure I gave my best, because I wasn’t focused on myself, but at the same time it was a good lesson because I was really in the present moment. […] I really let myself float with each of them, even the tiny one, so it was a one-of-a-kind experience, that’s for sure.”

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