2023-06-10 22:43:02
The Jokers
Garance Millier plays Marinette Pichon in her biopic directed by Virginie Verrier.
MOVIE THEATER – “There is still everything to build for women’s football in France”. No, it’s not new but Marinette Pichon prefers to repeat it. A simply titled biopic Marinette and directed by Virginie Verrier has been in theaters since Wednesday June 7. It tells the life of the greatest attacker of the Blue.
The one who grew up in Bar-sur-Aube (Aube) and who is now 47 years old therefore becomes the first French sportswoman, man and woman combined, to have a film retracing her story on the big screen.
From a very young age, Marinette Pichon has been passionate regarding football but also has a strong character. In this vintage biopic, we (re)discover the difficult journey of the player, played by Garance Millier (Titanium, 2021) to reach the top of French football. On several occasions, the film goes beyond football and immerses us in various fights led by Marinette.
Alongside a coach – played by Fred Testot – who acts as a father figure, Marinette evolves until she is 16 in a mixed team but following no more exemptions are granted to her club. With the help of her mother and her sister, she landed in Saint-Memmie Olympique, where she remained there for ten years until her promotion to the first division.
Those early years in amateur women’s soccer were not easy for Marinette. Between an alcoholic and violent father, the young woman might have become a real ” human bomb – like the song from Telephone which also makes the soundtrack to the film. His father’s conviction in 2000 for sexual assault might have been the fatal blow.
A career in the France team complicated
Virginie Verrier did not choose the footballer – with 112 selections for the France team – at random. “Marinette Pichon, legend of French football, imposed on me because beyond sport, her personal journey, which I discovered crossed by extremely strong themes and in total connection with our time, takes to the guts . » says the director in a press release.
Indeed, his journey is unlike any other. Arriving in Clairefontaine in 1994, Marinette Pichon was the victim of harassment from other players in the group for several months. She then refused a selection and was suspended for six months from any football-related activity. A moving episode where we feel the incomprehension of Marinette Pichon. After experiencing resentment, she finally agrees to return to the France team to participate in Euro 2001.
The Jokers
Marinette Pichon (Garance Millier) and her mother (Emilie Dequenne) upon their arrival in the United States.
A year later, she signed with Philadelphia Charge and became the first female footballer – still a man and woman – to sign in the United States. There, Marinette Pichon is a professional player and earns thousands of dollars a month. Women’s football is taken seriously by the public and the media. Organizations are putting a lot of money into it. A very different situation from France.
Ahead of its time, it allowed the American Women’s Soccer League (WUSA) to be exported to Europe. Also passed by the New Jersey Wildcats, her American dream finally collapsed in 2004 when the WUSA went bankrupt.
This adventure across the Atlantic, Marinette will keep a good memory and will leave with several trophies. In 2003, the United States even hosted the Women’s World Cup, a great first for Les Bleues and Marinette Pichon.
But in the private sphere, it’s a much more complicated period. Thanks to the film, we also discover his relationship with an alcoholic and violent woman like his father was. This meeting is a real shock for Marinette.
A life of struggle
When he returned to France, no one forgot him. Marinette Pichon signed with Juvisy FCF and became the top scorer in the championship in 2005 before winning the title of French champion in 2006. Outside the field, she is very often questioned regarding her homosexuality, still – and still – taboo in the world. football.
Throughout her career, Marinette Pichon has also spoken out and asked through the media to obtain professional player status for herself and her teammates. “How do you expect us to make the weight when we are not even paid” she had launched to a journalist following the defeat once morest England, which had prevented the Blue ones from participating in the 2007 World Cup.
The Jokers
Marinette Pichon interpreted by Garance Millier (number 9) during a match with the French women’s team.
Marinette Pichon hung up her crampons the same year following scoring 300 goals throughout her career. This biopic retraces the journey of an avant-garde footballer who threw several bottles into the sea, today still unanswered.
A 2023 World Cup in danger
The status of professional player has still not been granted to French women, unlike our European neighbors. In France, women’s football is not attached to the Professional Football League (LFP) but to the French Football Federation. So the only statuses granted are those of amateurs, semi-pro or a federal contract.
Due to a dispute between French television channels and FIFA, the Women’s World Cup, which will begin on July 20 in Oceania, still has no broadcaster. TF1 and M6 pass the buck, or rather the problem, to each other.
A real ” scandal for Marinette Pichon who even launched a petition in order to get things done. It has already reached 115,000 signatures. The second top scorer of Les Bleues, just behind Eugénie Le Sommer, is gathering all her strength to find a broadcaster in time.
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