Nicole Garcia is a French director, screenwriter, and actress. Her credits include “From the Land of the Moon,” “A View of Love,” and “Charlie Says.”

“Lovers” will screen at the 2020 Venice International Film Festival, which is taking place September 2-12.

W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.

NG: It portrays a love triangle. Two young lovers from the working class suburbs of Paris, tied together since childhood, are brutally separated by fate. A third man enters. Can he soothe Lisa with his love? Can he tranquilize her with his power and money?

The story follows a young woman who adapts to the men in her life, who crosses the line between two social universes. [She’s transforming herself into] whatever men want her to be. This story takes her somewhere else.

In my movies, women are often humiliated, pained by men, and shaken by their fantasies. They are lost, on the edge, and looking for their inner selves. In the length of the movies, I try to give them a way to come back, to ascend and free themselves, to become heroines.

W&H: What drew you to this story?

NG: For the first time in my life, this story does not come from me. It was Jacques Fieschi’s idea. He’s the co-writer of all my movies and he told me about this tragic affair between lovers that he was considering for a novel. I felt attracted to it after “From the Land of the Moon,” my previous movie, because it could take me to an entirely new place.

It was a new path for me because it was to be written in the film noir genre, and I’ve always been fascinated by these movies. I’m drawn to the atmosphere, the style of the characters, and the coldness in which lies the possibility of murder.

I love when you can feel danger in a movie. Life is dangerous. I deal with a certain amount of personal fears and anxieties and film noir is a way to transcend them on the screen. It feels like a release.

W&H: What do you want people to think about after they watch the film?

NG: I may want them to leave with some of the questions that stayed with me during the writing and the making of the movie. Questions about love, fate, and human and social barriers. My movies may guide me through the mist of feelings, and the tricks of memory, but they don’t give me answers.

W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?

NG: Everything was a challenge, particularly finding a way to explore intimacy while pacing the movie like some kind of a thriller. Finding the right actress to play Lisa, the main character, was also challenging. There were so many ways to impersonate her life and the actress we cast, Stacy Martin, [played her with a sense of] melancholy and an apparent detachment that moved me deeply.

W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

NG: For a long time, I’ve been an actress, both on stage and on screen. I had the main part in Alain Resnais’ “My American Uncle,” which was a wonderful experience for me — even if I was petrified during the whole shoot and could not get any pleasure from it.

I was like a fly on the set watching every move he made. I would have loved to carry on as an actress with him. It would have fulfilled my desires to express myself, but [that didn’t happen].

I would not say he was an influence for me as as a movie maker, but he was the source of my desire. After working with him, I made a short movie during the span of a summer. I just wanted to chronicle a break up, being alone with my young son. The film was appreciated and I’ve carried on making films ever since.

W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film.

NG: “Certain Women” by Kelly Reichardt.

W&H: How are you adjusting to life during the COVID-19 pandemic? Are you keeping creative, and if so, how?

NG: I was in the last stage of editing when lockdown came. In France, it wast strict — no wandering out during two months. No way to keep on working. No real desire to think about new stories. Everything froze for a while. Now it’s back to a world full of questions: What will it be like to be in competition in Venice? Who will be there? How will the movies be seen in this context? And after that, when can we safely think about a regular release? I was also working for a role on stage for this fall. What will happen with theaters? Will spectators come? Will they wear masks? Work is strange at the moment.

W&H: Recent protests in the U.S. and abroad have highlighted racism and anti-Black police brutality. The film industry has a long history of underrepresenting people of color onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing — and creating — negative stereotypes. What actions do you think need to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world more inclusive?

NG: I’m far away from the Hollywood system, so I can’t have any idea about the right actions to be taken there.

In France, we also have a long history of underrepresentation, but our society is very a diverse one and movies tend more and more to represent that. We need to keep going for it.

When I entered the world of movie making in the 1980s, there were very few women at the helm — it was a man’s world. It’s been gradually changing, and now there are more and more strong French women making movies and telling stories. There’s no way back.