A Ride With Suzanne Lindon, The Star of the New Miu Miu Women’s Tales

MILAN — It took one phone call and just two weeks for Suzanne Lindon to take the test for her driving license.

The French actress and director found extra motivation from the idea of appearing in the latest installment of Miu Miu Women’s Tales, the female-led short film series the fashion brand launched in 2011 and that will premiere its 32nd chapter on Saturday at the Venice Film Festival’s “Giornate degli Autori.”

As reported, the brand commissioned the new episode “Avec Kim” to acclaimed film director and screenwriter Claire Denis, who envisioned this iteration as a Parisian road movie investigating the contrast between women’s bodies and the characters they play.

“Claire called me one morning and asked if I could drive. I said: ‘I don’t have my license but give me two weeks.’ The day after I was at the driving school down my street, taking lessons,” Lindon told WWD.

Driving and cars are key to playing the lead character, who viewers follow through different moments of a sunny day, from her fixing a 1980s sedan wearing mechanic’s overalls and with grease covering her face to changing into a head-to-toe leather look and driving around the city. Mundane encounters mark her journey, including stopping to help a girl struggling to cross a street with a heavy piece of furniture.

Her character’s destination is revealed to be a square dominated by a majestic fountain, where a blond woman wearing an embroidered chapka hat and fur-lined jacket with a bag at her feet is waiting. The mysterious traveler? No less than Kim Gordon. 

“When Claire told me she wanted to do her Miu Miu tale with Kim and me, she only told me that it would be a girl’s journey,” recalled Lindon. “I imagined the ride and I thought the only job I had to do was to be as cool as what Claire had in mind.” 

The actress first got in touch with Denis on the occasion of the release of the 2020 movie “Spring Blossom,” which marked Lindon’s directorial debut at the age of 19. “She left me a vocal note … Then, we met,” said Lindon. “Claire has been my queen since I was 15. She made me realize that one can film people and stories in a sensual way. The freedom in her films and her independence, at a time where women filmmakers were not heard enough, is an example for me.”

The duo reconnected recently for “The Fence,” a drama directed by Denis that premiered last year. “When she called me to ask me to write [it] with her, I immediately said ‘yes.’ Since that moment, I have spent a year and a half in her kitchen writing with her. Watching her at work made me grow like a plant. She helped me blossom,” said Lindon. 

Yet this time with Miu Miu was different as she was in front of her camera, said Lindon. “I had not experienced Claire on a set before, and I think this is the place where she belongs. I’ve seen her home, and it made me realize that her natural habitat isn’t home, but a film set,” she said.

“Avec Kim” exemplifies Denis’ approach and cinematic style, which prioritizes sensory experience — visuals, sounds and the physical presence of bodies — over explicit narrative, as the lack of audible dialogue in the short film proves. 

“I think Claire wanted to capture an attitude more than explaining things with a story or informative dialogues,” said Lindon. “I wanted to embody that certain feeling of effortlessness in the film … But, keeping it simple, being silent, and not doing anything particular are the most difficult things to do for an actor … because you can’t help yourself with anything. You have to remain open and in the moment.”

Lindon found an affable partner in Gordon, who also provided the score for the project. She gushed over the Sonic Youth cofounder as an artist but also discovered on set “how big-hearted she is. She is brilliant, very intuitive and extremely sweet. We spent the day talking together in the car and between takes. I loved to get to know her so easily.”

Keeping in touch ever since, they will reunite in Venice to take part in the activations Miu Miu traditionally holds during the festival. These include two days of talks, as well as the screening of the previous episode “Discipline,” which was directed by Mona Fastvold and unveiled in New York last February.

Lindon praised Miu Miu’s ongoing film project, highlighting how the brand was “the first to create that bridge between fashion and cinema — and with a feminine point of view, at a time when it wasn’t very current. It’s very brave to make everything possible to make this last in time.”

Her involvement in this iteration is the peak of a longtime affiliation she has had with Miu Miu, as she previously walked shows and appeared in an ad campaign for the label. She enthused about the different experiences, underscoring that while shooting campaigns felt closer to acting, “walking three shows was like being a child again, playing with dolls.”

“It is very fun to do and more than actually walking the show, what I enjoy the most is being like a mouse, the day before, during the fittings, and watching Mrs. [Miuccia] Prada and the studio building the collection together,” said Lindon.

She described the brand as “Mrs. Prada’s home, and she seems not to have ever compromised herself with anything. Miu Miu is ahead of its time … It is funny and referenced … Watch a Miu Miu show and you’ll learn a lot, actually,” she said, listing Prada among her style muses, along with James Dean and Billy Elliot.

As for her personal style, this has stayed consistent through the years, with her uniform mainly composed of white T-shirts, striped shirts, blue jeans, floral skirts or dresses and men’s shoes. “I dress up to feel truly myself. It’s my way to affirm my personality. It’s the same thing when I act. On set, even if I play someone else, I have to remain myself in a way and if I feel well in my clothes, even if it’s not to my taste, it helps me,” said Lindon.

To be sure, she has been drawn to fashion from a young age, appearing on glossy magazine covers since her high school days and grabbing the attention of designers such as Hedi Slimane during his Celine tenure with her androgynous look and Parisian effortlessness.

“I take it as a funny thing to play with,” she said about fashion. “It helps you understand a lot of layers in the world. I am not interested in how the industry works because I feel like it is very far from my way of thinking or living. But I love the creative minds that are a part of this world. What I notice is that, usually fashion designers are less interested in fashion itself than in culture: what they are surrounded by, who they are addressing their creations to. This is what I find interesting. But I have always been careful with fashion. I don’t want to do projects if they don’t make sense to me.”

The daughter of acclaimed actors Vincent Lindon and Sandrine Kiberlain, Lindon just wrapped up shooting her second feature film and will star in a movie by Gustave Kervern that will be released this fall in France before embarking on two other undisclosed cinematic projects later this year. 

Asked about her dream role, she said she’d “love to do many things: a musical, a silent movie, playing a girl socially very far from who I am, or even experience working in another language.”

This open approach has defined her career so far, enabling her to seamlessly move between acting, directing, writing and even singing, as she did for the original score of her first movie. “What my generation does is allow oneself to do many things … I think we should be very proud of that, because it wasn’t the case even 10 years ago … I hope to live a life where I don’t have to choose,” she said.

Add photography to the list — a longtime passion of hers. “I bought a Helen Levitt photo with my first paycheck and I started collecting photos since then. I have always taken pictures. When I was 18, before cinema, I applied to Les Arts Décoratifs de Paris, and have been accepted in the photo section. On my set, I took a hundred photos and I am thinking of doing something with them,” she concluded.