MC: What motivated you to make this film?

Tonie Marshall: I had just realized the Venus and Apollo series, and I was thinking about a project on a women's network club with eight important roles. It questioned the ambition of women, why they do not access massive positions of power in politics, industry, the media ... I did not find any respondents, but the idea remained in a corner of my head. I decided to focus on a single profile: a young engineer who aspires to take the lead of a group of Cac 40.

Some management committees bring together seventy men and one woman

You've documented a lot?

I was helped in my research by journalist Raphaëlle Bacqué. I met many women who had access to decision-making positions at Alstom or General Motors. All
what is in the film is true, and even below reality. Some management committees bring together seventy men and one woman.

What is the testimony that has marked you the most?

One of these women told me that one day she came to her new executive committee, where there were practically only men. At the time of presentations at one of the few presences
feminine in the room, her new boss said: "I present you little Sophie! "

France has two female CEOs of the CAC 40, against forty male CEOs. Did they inspire you the character played by Emmanuelle Devos?

Isabelle Kocher is only general manager (d'Engie, ed.), And Elisabeth Badinter holds an honorary position (chairman of the Publicis supervisory board). The film is a puzzle. Everything is true and inspired by real facts. The character of Emmanuelle Devos has done Polytechnique and the School of Mines, it is a composite of a number of very brilliant women that I met. I did not want to make her a killer. Women are not killers, they are much more in strength and resistance.

As a woman filmmaker, have you faced misogyny?

I'm part of a generation where this question has never been asked. In the 1980s, we thought that the bulk of the job had been done and that we would be entitled to everything. But today we know that feminist victory was partly illusory. We still have to fight. I have always practiced my trade with firmness and determination.

The world is ruled by a population of white males

Are you for an offensive feminism?

I am for the women networks, the quotas, otherwise it will not evolve. I do not argue for women's supremacy, but I believe in a compassionate and complementary parity. The world is ruled by a population of white males in their fifties. Women are in the minority. I really believe that if there were 50% women at the head of the companies, the type of governance would change. Capitalism would evolve in a more harmonious sense.

"Number One" by Tonie Marshall, with Emmanuelle Devos, Suzanne Clément, Benjamin Biolay, released on October 11th.