Pure Chemistry

RADIOACTIVE I Rosamund Pike stars in an atomic exploration of scientist Marie Curie.

Who said that?!” snaps director Marjane Satrapi, all fire and narrowed eyes behind a thick wall of cigarette smoke. One of the producers has just dared to suggest that her new film might be “slightly” more conventional than her others, including Persepolis and The Voices. “I don’t even know what conventional means. I know what I love and what I truly hate. It will look like what I like and not like what I don’t.” Point taken.

To be fair to whoever brought it up, Radioactive does seem to be a bit more straightforward than Satrapi’s other work – a weighty biography of Polish scientist Marie Curie starring Rosamund Pike – the sort of film that tends to start conversations during awards season. Then again, the film is also based on a graphic novel rather than a history book, and Satrapi’s distinctive vision sees the script simultaneously tell the story of radiation itself – from Hiroshima and Chernobyl to modern cancer wards – skipping through time, focusing on atomic-level storytelling.

“It’s a unique story,” she tells Teasers, wandering through Origo Studios outside Budapest in April 2018, leading us through the aftermath of a science experiment gone explosively

wrong. “The discovery itself, the story of love, of death, everything is actually the same story. The passion Marie and her husband Pierre had for each other, and the passion they had for science... Everything is related, so that’s the way I wanted to tell it.”

Obsessive over every detail, warmly welcoming everyone else’s opinions but fiercely defending her own, Satrapi is an inspiration on set – and the detailed work that’s gone into creating such a painterly vision of the candlelit Parisian backstreets is an extraordinary sight. Even more impressive is Pike herself (“eyes like razor blades, with a smile like sunshine” according to Satrapi), who seems consumed by her character, even as she watches her young son play with all the prop test tubes.

“I love her to pieces,” says Pike, “She’s so curious and direct and absolute. It’s an amazing privilege. I’m very moved by her… I feel her through me. She’s taught me a lot too. She’s a far better woman than I am. It’s like living in a better skin for a while.”

Tearing up at the thought of Marie’s relationship with Pierre (Sam Riley), and stressing the importance of taking real chemistry lessons between takes (“When Marie is thinking on-screen I want to have thoughts in my head – not just about burritos”), Pike clearly feels a deep sense of responsibility, which everyone on set seems to share.

“Marjan doesn’t want to make this film,” smiles Pike. “She has to make this film. And I want in on that.” PB

ETA | 20 MARCH / RADIOACTIVE OPENS IN TWO MONTHS.