"An incredible void": Yasmina Reza on Nicolas Sarkozy
"I'm not looking for Nicolas Sarkozy, I'm looking for myself." In a leopard dress sits Yasmina Reza on the stage of the Hamburg St. Pauli Theater, her legs elegantly crossed over one another - and at once tries to dispel the hopes of those who have just come to find out more about the private man Sarkozy.
On this evening in April, Reza patiently answers questions about her new book "Early Morning, Evening or Night" - a book that appeared four months after Sarkozy's election victory in France and found a great response there. In the gossip press, which cited relish passages in which the president is sometimes described as a defiant child, sometimes as a vain self-actor. And in literary circles praising the poetic qualities of Reza's observations. For a year, the world's most played contemporary dramatist Sarkozy was followed at every turn in the election campaign. Then the question of the "Why?" downright on.
She wanted to portray a man who is a political animal, an "animal politique": the "politician as an extreme case of human existence" who has declared the fight to transience. Sarkozy was there in the spring of 2006 an "evidence" had been.
A closer look reveals that Sarkozy is not so different from Reza's typical protagonist: he is middle-aged, part of the establishment. He has achieved something and is still searching. He is "in constant competition with time," as Reza says. "For men like him, there is no present, never, they always live in the morning, there is no now, no enjoyment, no joy. There's just an incredible void. "
On the next page: After fourteen days Sarkozy and Reza were at the "you"
The author with Sarkozy: Reza accompanied him for a year in the election campaign
At the beginning of her long-term Sarkozy observation Reza had imposed strict rules of conduct: no Duzen, she would always call him "Herr Minister" (Sarkozy was at the time French Minister of the Interior). But she quickly realized that this forced distance did not work and aroused mistrust in him. After fourteen days they were at the "you". Yasmina Reza admits to having been seized by the power of Sarkozy and even to have felt a certain sympathy. This is essential for the letter: "I have the ability to distinguish almost schizophrenically between Yasmina, the girlfriend, and Yasmina, the merciless writer." Proximity and sympathy are not a hindrance to the distance. Sarkozy has not seen her since the end of the election campaign, says the attractive author. And after the book was published in France, a whole month went by when Reza heard nothing from him. Then a call from him about whose content she does not want to comment. Only that much: "He said, 'This is not a book about me Yasmina, you wrote about yourself'." Yasmina Reza smiles.
Yasmina Reza "Early morning, evening or night" 208 pages, 17.90 EUR Hardcover, Hanser Verlag ISBN: 978-3-446-23029-3
