Melita Toscan du Plantier, the driving force behind the Marrakech Film Festival, is developing the next directorial outing of Fanny Ardant with Martin Scorsese attached to executive produce.
The movie will star Gerard Depardieu and revolve around an impossible relationship between siblings. Toscan du Plantier, who splits her time between production and the organization of the Marrakech Film Festival, is producing the film with Julien Madon whose banner Cheyenne Productions is owned by Federation.
The untitled project was penned by Ardant in collaboration with Jacques Fieschi, the co-screenwriter of “Lost Illusions” and “Mal de Pierres.” Toscan du Plantier said Scorsese will be creatively involved in the production, from the script – which was translated for him — to the editing.
The project is being developed by Toscan du Plantier and Julien Madon’s banner with whom Toscan du Plantier has a first look deal. The pair is already working with Scorsese on “Funny Birds,...
The movie will star Gerard Depardieu and revolve around an impossible relationship between siblings. Toscan du Plantier, who splits her time between production and the organization of the Marrakech Film Festival, is producing the film with Julien Madon whose banner Cheyenne Productions is owned by Federation.
The untitled project was penned by Ardant in collaboration with Jacques Fieschi, the co-screenwriter of “Lost Illusions” and “Mal de Pierres.” Toscan du Plantier said Scorsese will be creatively involved in the production, from the script – which was translated for him — to the editing.
The project is being developed by Toscan du Plantier and Julien Madon’s banner with whom Toscan du Plantier has a first look deal. The pair is already working with Scorsese on “Funny Birds,...
- 11/19/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
This year’s ceremony was uncharacteristically devoid of controversy after politically-charged editions in 2020 and 2021.
Xavier Giannoli’s costume drama Lost Illusions was the big winner at the 47th Cesar awards of France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences on Friday evening (25), winning best film, adapted screenplay, costume and supporting actor among others.
The adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s19th-century novel premiered in competition at Venice last year. It was the frontrunner at the nomination stage, making it into 15 of the 24 César categories.
The other big winner of the evening was Leos Carax’s English-language musical Annette. Carax won best director,...
Xavier Giannoli’s costume drama Lost Illusions was the big winner at the 47th Cesar awards of France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences on Friday evening (25), winning best film, adapted screenplay, costume and supporting actor among others.
The adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s19th-century novel premiered in competition at Venice last year. It was the frontrunner at the nomination stage, making it into 15 of the 24 César categories.
The other big winner of the evening was Leos Carax’s English-language musical Annette. Carax won best director,...
- 2/25/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The 46th César Awards took place at L’Olympia Bruno Coquatrix in Paris on Friday, February 25. The ceremony, France’s equivalent of the Academy Awards, honored the best in French cinema from 2021. The star-studded event also featured plenty of American talent, with the likes of Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett attending the ceremony. The show was hosted by French broadcaster Antoine de Caunes, marking his 10th time as emcee.
The night’s big winners were “Annette” and “Lost Illusions.” The former, a musical from director Leos Carax starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard and featuring music by Sparks, is a rock opera about a married couple whose lives change when they have a child, which is portrayed by a marionette puppet. Carax took home the trophy for Best Director, with Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks winning Best Original Score. The film also performed well in the crafts categories, winning Best Sound,...
The night’s big winners were “Annette” and “Lost Illusions.” The former, a musical from director Leos Carax starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard and featuring music by Sparks, is a rock opera about a married couple whose lives change when they have a child, which is portrayed by a marionette puppet. Carax took home the trophy for Best Director, with Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks winning Best Original Score. The film also performed well in the crafts categories, winning Best Sound,...
- 2/25/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Update, writethru: Xavier Giannoli’s Lost Illusions (Illusions Perdues) scooped the Best Film prize at France’s César Awards this evening in Paris. Along with the top honor, the period drama adapted from the Honoré de Balzac classic took a further six statues and was the overall biggest laureate of the evening. (Scroll down for the full list of winners.)
An absent Leos Carax was named Best Director for Annette, his musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard that opened the Cannes Film Festival last year — where Carax was also named Best Director — and which took a total five Césars tonight.
Lost Illusions and Annette led nominations coming into the evening, followed by Valérie Lemercier’s Céline Dion-inspired Aline which converted in the Best Actress category for Lemercier’s titular portrayal.
Cédric Jiminez’s Bac Nord (The Stronghold) was shut out across its seven nominations. A box office success at home,...
An absent Leos Carax was named Best Director for Annette, his musical starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard that opened the Cannes Film Festival last year — where Carax was also named Best Director — and which took a total five Césars tonight.
Lost Illusions and Annette led nominations coming into the evening, followed by Valérie Lemercier’s Céline Dion-inspired Aline which converted in the Best Actress category for Lemercier’s titular portrayal.
Cédric Jiminez’s Bac Nord (The Stronghold) was shut out across its seven nominations. A box office success at home,...
- 2/25/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Ceremony for awards voted on by 4,363 members of the César academy will take place on February 25.
Xavier Giannoli’s literary adaptation Lost Illusions is the frontrunner in the nomination stage of the 47th edition of France’s César awards, followed by Leos Carax’s Annette and Valérie Lemercier’s Aline.
France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences unveiled the nomination list online on Wednesday morning (January 26), ahead of the ceremony scheduled to take place on February 25.
Giannoli’s adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s eponymous 19th-century novel, which premiered in competition at Venice last year, was nominated in...
Xavier Giannoli’s literary adaptation Lost Illusions is the frontrunner in the nomination stage of the 47th edition of France’s César awards, followed by Leos Carax’s Annette and Valérie Lemercier’s Aline.
France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences unveiled the nomination list online on Wednesday morning (January 26), ahead of the ceremony scheduled to take place on February 25.
Giannoli’s adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s eponymous 19th-century novel, which premiered in competition at Venice last year, was nominated in...
- 1/26/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Update: Xavier Giannoli’s Illusions Perdues (Lost Illusions) leads nominations for the 2022 César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscar. The Venice premiere scored 15 mentions, followed by Leos Carax’s Annette, which opened the Cannes Film Festival last year and has 11 nominations. They are followed by Valérie Lemercier’s Aline, the musical dramedy inspired by the life of Céline Dion which also debuted in Cannes and has 10 nods. (Scroll down for the full list of nominations.)
Interestingly, the three films that France shortlisted for the International Feature Academy Award race came in on the lower end. Cédric Jiminez’s Bac Nord (The Stronghold) took seven nominations, while Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening settles for four, tying Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titane.
The latter was France’s eventual entry to the Oscars, but did not make the shortlist. It was also shut out of the Best Film category at the Césars today.
Interestingly, the three films that France shortlisted for the International Feature Academy Award race came in on the lower end. Cédric Jiminez’s Bac Nord (The Stronghold) took seven nominations, while Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening settles for four, tying Cannes Palme d’Or winner Titane.
The latter was France’s eventual entry to the Oscars, but did not make the shortlist. It was also shut out of the Best Film category at the Césars today.
- 1/26/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Music Box has acquired Xavier Giannoli’s “Lost Illusions,” a sprawling costume drama with Benjamin Voisin (“Summer of 85”) and Xavier Dolan (“Mommy”), that competed at the Venice Film Festival and played at San Sebastian.
A critically acclaimed film adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s literary masterpiece, “Les Illusions perdues,” the movie has now been sold in key markets by Gaumont. The French studio co-produced the film and will give it a wide release in France on Wednesday (Oct. 20).
“Lost Illusions” is one of the biggest budgeted and most anticipated French films this fall. It will have its North American premiere on the closing night of Colcoa, the French film festival in Los Angeles, on Nov. 7.
Cecile de France (“The Young Pope”) and Vincent Lacoste (“Amanda”) complete the lead cast of “Lost Illusions,” with Gerard Depardieu and Jeanne Balibar playing supporting roles.
Voisin stars as Lucien de Rubempré, a young...
A critically acclaimed film adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s literary masterpiece, “Les Illusions perdues,” the movie has now been sold in key markets by Gaumont. The French studio co-produced the film and will give it a wide release in France on Wednesday (Oct. 20).
“Lost Illusions” is one of the biggest budgeted and most anticipated French films this fall. It will have its North American premiere on the closing night of Colcoa, the French film festival in Los Angeles, on Nov. 7.
Cecile de France (“The Young Pope”) and Vincent Lacoste (“Amanda”) complete the lead cast of “Lost Illusions,” with Gerard Depardieu and Jeanne Balibar playing supporting roles.
Voisin stars as Lucien de Rubempré, a young...
- 10/19/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Nicole Garcia on Lisa (Stacy Martin) with Simon (Pierre Niney) and Léo (Benoît Magimel): “Lisa is in the clutches of these two men who are not perverse, they both love her in their different ways, but she is in a gilded prison.”
Nicole Garcia’s Lovers (Amants), co-written with Jacques Fieschi, starring Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney, Benoît Magimel, and with a brilliant score by Grégoire Hetzel was a highlight of New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Body language tells us more than the words, as was the case with Marion Cotillard in Garcia’s From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres).
Lisa (Martin) and Simon (Niney) are haunted by a shared experience in their past when he was a high-end dealer of drugs and she was studying to be in the hospitality business. When they meet again by chance, she is married to Léo Redler (Magimel...
Nicole Garcia’s Lovers (Amants), co-written with Jacques Fieschi, starring Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney, Benoît Magimel, and with a brilliant score by Grégoire Hetzel was a highlight of New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Body language tells us more than the words, as was the case with Marion Cotillard in Garcia’s From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres).
Lisa (Martin) and Simon (Niney) are haunted by a shared experience in their past when he was a high-end dealer of drugs and she was studying to be in the hospitality business. When they meet again by chance, she is married to Léo Redler (Magimel...
- 3/30/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Nicole Garcia’s Lovers (Amants), co-written with Jacques Fieschi, starring Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney, Benoît Magimel, and a brilliant score by Grégoire Hetzel is a highlight of New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. Body language tells us more than the words, as was the case with Marion Cotillard in Garcia’s From The Land Of the Moon (Mal De Pierres).
Lisa (Stacy Martin) and Simon (Pierre Niney) are haunted by a shared experience in their past when he was a high-end dealer of drugs and she was studying to be in the hospitality business. When they meet again by chance, she is married to Léo Redler (Benoît Magimel), who claims to be an insurance underwriter in the travel hospitality field. While they are vacationing by the Indian Ocean, her husband’s goal is for them to adopt a child. Rich and prone to collecting, Léo had picked Lisa...
Lisa (Stacy Martin) and Simon (Pierre Niney) are haunted by a shared experience in their past when he was a high-end dealer of drugs and she was studying to be in the hospitality business. When they meet again by chance, she is married to Léo Redler (Benoît Magimel), who claims to be an insurance underwriter in the travel hospitality field. While they are vacationing by the Indian Ocean, her husband’s goal is for them to adopt a child. Rich and prone to collecting, Léo had picked Lisa...
- 3/12/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Nicole Garcia’s romance thriller “Lovers” has lured a raft of distributors before and after its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. The love-triangle movie also played at Toronto as part of the Industry Select lineup.
France Televisions Distribution, which represents “Lovers” in international markets, has sold the film to Switzerland (Jmh), Belgium (Vertigo Films Distribution), Poland (Hagi), Portugal (Pris Audiovisuais), Japan (At Entertainment), Brazil (Providence Filmes), and Russia, Ukraine, Baltics (Russian Report). Other deals are currently being negotiated.
“Lovers” is headlined by a French cast that includes Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney and Benoit Magimel. The movie revolves around Lisa and Simon, a pair of lovers who have been passionate about each other since they were teenagers.
When a tragedy occurs, provoked by Simon’s criminal activities, Simon flees and leaves Lisa behind without any notice. Three years later, Lisa is married to Leo, a wealthy man,...
France Televisions Distribution, which represents “Lovers” in international markets, has sold the film to Switzerland (Jmh), Belgium (Vertigo Films Distribution), Poland (Hagi), Portugal (Pris Audiovisuais), Japan (At Entertainment), Brazil (Providence Filmes), and Russia, Ukraine, Baltics (Russian Report). Other deals are currently being negotiated.
“Lovers” is headlined by a French cast that includes Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney and Benoit Magimel. The movie revolves around Lisa and Simon, a pair of lovers who have been passionate about each other since they were teenagers.
When a tragedy occurs, provoked by Simon’s criminal activities, Simon flees and leaves Lisa behind without any notice. Three years later, Lisa is married to Leo, a wealthy man,...
- 10/2/2020
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
If adultery was as drab and zestless a business as it’s made to look in “Lovers,” nobody would engage in it — in which case Nicole Garcia’s languid, boilerplate-stylish romantic melodrama would gain at least a measure of the novelty it so sorely lacks. Unspooling in competition at the Venice Film Festival, this French three-hander offers an old-fashioned blend of desire, betrayal, criminal activity and young, naked, attractively entwined bodies. So why is it so plodding and unsexy, and why do the lovers of the title generate nary a matchstick spark between them? A marginal effort for all involved, “Lovers” sees actor-turned-director Garcia failing to regain form after 2016’s turgid Marion Cotillard vehicle “From the Land of the Moon,” and while the star trio of Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney and Benoît Magimel will generate some interest on home turf, few distributors abroad will be seduced.
That Garcia and regular...
That Garcia and regular...
- 9/4/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Gaumont has come on board Xavier Giannoli’s “Lost Illusions,” a big-budget French drama based on Honoré de Balzac’s masterpiece powered by a cast including Benjamin Voisin, Xavier Dolan, Vincent Lacoste, Cecile de France, Gerard Depardieu and Jeanne Balibar.
Gaumont is handling international sales, kicking off at Afm, and will release the film in France at the end of next year. Olivier Delbosc at Curiosa Films is producing the ambitious movie that boasts a budget of 17.5 million euros ($19 million) and ranks as one of the biggest French-language films slated for 2020.
“Lost Illusions” revolves around Lucien de Rubempré (Voisin), a young, lower-class poet who is madly in love with the baroness Louise de Bargeton. The risk of scandal forces them to flee to Paris where they could live freely, but Lucien is abandoned by the baroness and finds himself alone and penniless, until he meets a young journalist who takes him under his wing.
Gaumont is handling international sales, kicking off at Afm, and will release the film in France at the end of next year. Olivier Delbosc at Curiosa Films is producing the ambitious movie that boasts a budget of 17.5 million euros ($19 million) and ranks as one of the biggest French-language films slated for 2020.
“Lost Illusions” revolves around Lucien de Rubempré (Voisin), a young, lower-class poet who is madly in love with the baroness Louise de Bargeton. The risk of scandal forces them to flee to Paris where they could live freely, but Lucien is abandoned by the baroness and finds himself alone and penniless, until he meets a young journalist who takes him under his wing.
- 11/7/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Stars: Arielle Dombasle, Nicolas Ker, Asia Argento, Michel Fau, Theo Hakola, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Christian Louboutin | Written by Arielle Dombasle, Florian Bernas, Jacques Fieschi, Nicolas Ker | Directed by Arielle Dombasle
Apparently something of a well-renown socialite in France, I admit I’d never heard of singer turned actress turned director Arielle Dombasle, yet after watching Alien Crystal Palace I don’t think I’ll Ever forget that name! And that’s undoubtedly because I will Never forget this film – the freakish, hypnotic, erotic fantasy that Dombasle and writers Florian Bernas, Jacques Fieschi, and co-star Nicolas Ker created.
Let me explain.
The official synopsis for Alien Crystal Palace reads like this: “A crazy scientist, Hamburg, is on a quest to create a new, immaculate, androgynous being. This transformation is only possible through the alchemy of two old souls: Dolorès (Arielle Dombasle), an avant-garde filmmaker, and her reincarnated lover Nicolas (Nicolas Ker), a confused rocker.
Apparently something of a well-renown socialite in France, I admit I’d never heard of singer turned actress turned director Arielle Dombasle, yet after watching Alien Crystal Palace I don’t think I’ll Ever forget that name! And that’s undoubtedly because I will Never forget this film – the freakish, hypnotic, erotic fantasy that Dombasle and writers Florian Bernas, Jacques Fieschi, and co-star Nicolas Ker created.
Let me explain.
The official synopsis for Alien Crystal Palace reads like this: “A crazy scientist, Hamburg, is on a quest to create a new, immaculate, androgynous being. This transformation is only possible through the alchemy of two old souls: Dolorès (Arielle Dombasle), an avant-garde filmmaker, and her reincarnated lover Nicolas (Nicolas Ker), a confused rocker.
- 7/25/2019
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
A different version of “The Sower,” Marine Francen’s poised and petite freshman feature, might have included the extended, rather remarkable story behind its literary source. Aged 84, former village schoolteacher Violette Ailhaud wrote her autobiographical short story “L’homme semence” in 1919, passing it to an attorney with clear instructions that it be given to her eldest female descendant in 1952, a full century after the events it documents; a curious, bittersweet tale of lost innocence and sexual conspiracy in a community of women, it remained in the family for half a century before being published, to steadily building acclaim, in 2006. Some manner of film adaptation was inevitable. Francen’s, however, honors Ailhaud by telling only the story she wrote, albeit with subtly modernized language and aesthetics, underlining its enduringly provocative gender politics in the process.
The resulting film is so delicately wrought and exquisitely visualized that the harsher, eerier details of...
The resulting film is so delicately wrought and exquisitely visualized that the harsher, eerier details of...
- 3/3/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Nicole Garcia on Marion Cotillard: "I find her very spontaneous and very unpredictable in this movie."
Tonight, Marion Cotillard is walking the Cannes Film Festival opening night red carpet for Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael’s Ghosts (Les Fantômes D'Ismaël), in which she stars with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Mathieu Amalric (who stars in his own film Barbara with Jeanne Balibar and Lisa Ray-Jacobs in the Directors' Fortnight program).
In my conversation with From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres) director Nicole Garcia she reveals how Marion Cotillard works on her character, explains the choices from costume designer Catherine Leterrier (Danièle Thompson's Cézanne Et Moi and Benoît Jacquot's 3 Coeurs), and shares the advice from Frantz director François Ozon on choosing a foreign language film title.
Nicole Garcia on the novel by Milena Agus: "I talked to Marion Cotillard about the book years ago." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In...
Tonight, Marion Cotillard is walking the Cannes Film Festival opening night red carpet for Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael’s Ghosts (Les Fantômes D'Ismaël), in which she stars with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Mathieu Amalric (who stars in his own film Barbara with Jeanne Balibar and Lisa Ray-Jacobs in the Directors' Fortnight program).
In my conversation with From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres) director Nicole Garcia she reveals how Marion Cotillard works on her character, explains the choices from costume designer Catherine Leterrier (Danièle Thompson's Cézanne Et Moi and Benoît Jacquot's 3 Coeurs), and shares the advice from Frantz director François Ozon on choosing a foreign language film title.
Nicole Garcia on the novel by Milena Agus: "I talked to Marion Cotillard about the book years ago." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In...
- 5/17/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Nicole Garcia to her producer Alain Attal on Milena Agus's novel Mal Di Petra: "Tell me if the rights are free or not!" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
After attending the morning press preview for Agnès Varda's exhibition at Blum & Poe, organized by Olivier Renaud-Clément, I walked over to Le Parker Meridien to meet with Nicole Garcia for a conversation on From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres), co-written with Jacques Fieschi and starring Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel and Alex Brendemühl. Shot provocatively by Christophe Beaucarne (Étienne Comar's Django, which stars Reda Kateb with Cécile de France; and Jacques Doillon's Rodin, with Vincent Lindon in the title role) with costumes by Catherine Leterrier, Garcia's film carefully chisels out something about women growing up in the 1950s, claiming themselves.
Marion Cotillard as Gabrielle in Mal De Pierres
Gabrielle (Cotillard) lives with her parents and sister in the post-war French countryside.
After attending the morning press preview for Agnès Varda's exhibition at Blum & Poe, organized by Olivier Renaud-Clément, I walked over to Le Parker Meridien to meet with Nicole Garcia for a conversation on From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres), co-written with Jacques Fieschi and starring Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel and Alex Brendemühl. Shot provocatively by Christophe Beaucarne (Étienne Comar's Django, which stars Reda Kateb with Cécile de France; and Jacques Doillon's Rodin, with Vincent Lindon in the title role) with costumes by Catherine Leterrier, Garcia's film carefully chisels out something about women growing up in the 1950s, claiming themselves.
Marion Cotillard as Gabrielle in Mal De Pierres
Gabrielle (Cotillard) lives with her parents and sister in the post-war French countryside.
- 3/15/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Mal de pierres
Director: Nicole Garcia
Writers: Nicole Garcia, Jacques Fieschi
Actress Nicole Garcia, who has starred in unforgettable films from Claude Miller, Alain Resnais, and Jacques Rivette, has managed to become a significant director herself, twice competing in Cannes (2002, 2006) and working with some of France’s other most iconic figures, including Catherine Deneuve in her 1998 film Place Vendome. Garcia’s last feature, 2013’s Going Away didn’t seem to gather much traction, but Cohen Media Group distributed the title in late 2015, though only in one week in New York City. Her latest is project promises to be incredibly high profile, Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon) an adaptation of a novel by Italian author Milena Agus following twenty years in the life of a free-spirited woman after WWII. Oh, and it stars Marion Cotillard and Louis Garrell.
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel, Alex Brendemuehl
Production Co.
Director: Nicole Garcia
Writers: Nicole Garcia, Jacques Fieschi
Actress Nicole Garcia, who has starred in unforgettable films from Claude Miller, Alain Resnais, and Jacques Rivette, has managed to become a significant director herself, twice competing in Cannes (2002, 2006) and working with some of France’s other most iconic figures, including Catherine Deneuve in her 1998 film Place Vendome. Garcia’s last feature, 2013’s Going Away didn’t seem to gather much traction, but Cohen Media Group distributed the title in late 2015, though only in one week in New York City. Her latest is project promises to be incredibly high profile, Mal de pierres (From the Land of the Moon) an adaptation of a novel by Italian author Milena Agus following twenty years in the life of a free-spirited woman after WWII. Oh, and it stars Marion Cotillard and Louis Garrell.
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel, Alex Brendemuehl
Production Co.
- 1/11/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Other new titles on the Cannes slate include films by Nicole Garcia and Cristian Mungiu.
Wild Bunch is to kick off sales on Emmanuelle Bercot’s upcoming drug scandal tale 150 Milligrams at the Cannes Marché next week.
Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen has signed to star as a lung specialist who discovers a link between a series of mysterious deaths and a state-approved drug.
The film is inspired by France’s real-life health scandal revolving around the diabetes drug Mediator, which is estimated to have caused the deaths of around 2,000 people before it was withdrawn from pharmacies in 2009.
Bercot and co-writer Séverine Bosschem’s screenplay is based on the book Médiator 150Mg: Combien de Morts? by Irène Frachon, a pulmonologist who was one of the first medical professionals to spot the link and suggested there had been a cover-up.
“It’s not a direct adaptation but rather inspired by the affair… it’s a sort...
Wild Bunch is to kick off sales on Emmanuelle Bercot’s upcoming drug scandal tale 150 Milligrams at the Cannes Marché next week.
Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen has signed to star as a lung specialist who discovers a link between a series of mysterious deaths and a state-approved drug.
The film is inspired by France’s real-life health scandal revolving around the diabetes drug Mediator, which is estimated to have caused the deaths of around 2,000 people before it was withdrawn from pharmacies in 2009.
Bercot and co-writer Séverine Bosschem’s screenplay is based on the book Médiator 150Mg: Combien de Morts? by Irène Frachon, a pulmonologist who was one of the first medical professionals to spot the link and suggested there had been a cover-up.
“It’s not a direct adaptation but rather inspired by the affair… it’s a sort...
- 5/6/2015
- ScreenDaily
As biopics go, Yves Saint-Laurent is one of the shortest in contemporary film, clocking in at a mere 106 minutes. Despite the running time though, the debut from French actor-turned-director Jelil Lespert achieves much. It shows us how Saint-Laurent changed the world of fashion while the new fashions of social life changed his life. By the end of the biopic, he is a multifaceted figure full of contradictions and complexities – although he is still more of an icon that a character.
The film chronicles about 30 years of the famed fashion designer’s life, beginning at his early tutelage under Christian Dior. While more of an episodic biography than a film where the artist is motivated by a central goal, Yves Saint-Laurent does try on many of the (figurative) clothes the designer wore during his stint as the head of France’s premiere fashion house (and later his own establishment). Saint-Laurent was a repressed homosexual,...
The film chronicles about 30 years of the famed fashion designer’s life, beginning at his early tutelage under Christian Dior. While more of an episodic biography than a film where the artist is motivated by a central goal, Yves Saint-Laurent does try on many of the (figurative) clothes the designer wore during his stint as the head of France’s premiere fashion house (and later his own establishment). Saint-Laurent was a repressed homosexual,...
- 8/7/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Hot off her acclaimed turn as a Polish woman struggling to survive in America in James Gray’s period drama The Immigrant, French actress Marion Cotillard is set delve right back into another period romance, this time with auteur Nicole Garcia. The film, titled Mal De Pierres, sounds like another potential awards contender for Cotillard.
Set after the close of WWII, Mal De Pierres spans twenty years and focuses on the life of a passionate, free-spirited young woman (Cotillard) who seeks refuge from a loveless marriage in the arms of another man. It’s based on the best-selling novel by Milena Agus, which has been translated into more than 15 languages since its publication in 2007.
Alian Attal will produce the film, which Garcia co-wrote with her usual partner Jacques Fieschi, for independent film company Les Productions du Tresor. In a statement, Attal said:
“It’s a passion project for both Nicole and us.
Set after the close of WWII, Mal De Pierres spans twenty years and focuses on the life of a passionate, free-spirited young woman (Cotillard) who seeks refuge from a loveless marriage in the arms of another man. It’s based on the best-selling novel by Milena Agus, which has been translated into more than 15 languages since its publication in 2007.
Alian Attal will produce the film, which Garcia co-wrote with her usual partner Jacques Fieschi, for independent film company Les Productions du Tresor. In a statement, Attal said:
“It’s a passion project for both Nicole and us.
- 6/11/2014
- by Isaac Feldberg
- We Got This Covered
Directed by Jalil Lespert off a screeplay by Marrie-Pierre Huster, Jalil Lespert and Jacques Fieschi, Yves Saint Laurent tells the true story of one of the 20th century's most revered fashion icons. Synopsis: In January 1958, Yves Saint Laurent (Pierre Niney) – aged merely 21 – was unexpectedly called upon to oversee the great Paris fashion house established by the recently deceased Christian Dior. All eyes turned to this very young assistant as he presented his first haute couture collection for Dior. During the highly successful and groundbreaking show, Saint Laurent met Pierre Bergé (Guillaume Gallienne), patron of the arts, future love of his life and lifelong business partner. Three years later, they created the Yves Saint Laurent Company, which would soon become one of the most...
- 6/11/2014
- by Pietro Filipponi
- The Daily BLAM!
First off, the best news, as I predicted (in private) Duncan Jones' Moon will be premiering, yay! The comedy Adventureland starring the talented Bill Hader is playing. The sweet kid soldier film Johnny Mad Dog is playing in the spectrum section, and the Jesco White story White Lightnin' which we reported on earlier is in the Park City at Midnight section.
But where the hell is Stingray Sam?
Full list after the break.
Premieres
* "Adventureland," directed and written by Greg Mottola, stars Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds and Bill Hader in the story of a college grad who gets a job at an amusement park. A Miramax release.
* "Brooklyn’s Finest," directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Michael C. Martin, a drama about three Brooklyn cops who come together at the same deadly location. With Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle and Ellen Barkin.
* "Earth Days," directed by Robert Stone,...
But where the hell is Stingray Sam?
Full list after the break.
Premieres
* "Adventureland," directed and written by Greg Mottola, stars Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds and Bill Hader in the story of a college grad who gets a job at an amusement park. A Miramax release.
* "Brooklyn’s Finest," directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Michael C. Martin, a drama about three Brooklyn cops who come together at the same deadly location. With Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle and Ellen Barkin.
* "Earth Days," directed by Robert Stone,...
- 12/4/2008
- QuietEarth.us
Premieres
To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, this section offers the latest work from American and international directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films.
Adventureland / U.S. (Director-screenwriter: Greg Mottola)
In 1987, a recent college graduate takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park and discovers the job is perfect preparation for the real world. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader. World premiere
Brooklyn's Finest / U.S. (Director: Antoine Fuqua; screenwriter: Michael C. Martin)
After enduring vastly different career paths, three unconnected Brooklyn cops wind up at the same deadly location. Cast: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin. World premiere
Earth Days / U.S. (Director: Robert Stone)
The history of our environmental undoing through the eyes of nine Americans whose work and actions launched the modern environmental movement. World premiere, closing-night film
Endgame / U.K. (Director: Pete Travis; screenwriter: Paula Milne)
A...
To showcase the diversity of contemporary independent cinema, this section offers the latest work from American and international directors and world premieres of highly anticipated films.
Adventureland / U.S. (Director-screenwriter: Greg Mottola)
In 1987, a recent college graduate takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park and discovers the job is perfect preparation for the real world. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Ryan Reynolds, Bill Hader. World premiere
Brooklyn's Finest / U.S. (Director: Antoine Fuqua; screenwriter: Michael C. Martin)
After enduring vastly different career paths, three unconnected Brooklyn cops wind up at the same deadly location. Cast: Richard Gere, Ethan Hawke, Wesley Snipes, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin. World premiere
Earth Days / U.S. (Director: Robert Stone)
The history of our environmental undoing through the eyes of nine Americans whose work and actions launched the modern environmental movement. World premiere, closing-night film
Endgame / U.K. (Director: Pete Travis; screenwriter: Paula Milne)
A...
- 12/4/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Because the Dramatic Main Competition category can only hold so many titles, the Spectrum becomes a second option for Sundance staff to include so more dramatic fair. 12 of the 16 selected are world premieres (I caught Johnny Mad Dog at Cannes and missed out on Lymelife at Tiff) from returnee directors such as Sterlin Harjo, Jeff Lipsky and Bobcat Goldthwait. Dramatic films screening in Spectrum are: Against the Current / USA (Director and Screenwriter: Peter Callahan)—Facing the anniversary of his pregnant wife's tragic death, thirty-five-year old Paul Thompson enlists the help of two friends to help him swim the length of the Hudson River. Cast: Joseph Fiennes, Justin Kirk, Elizabeth Reaser, Mary Tyler Moore, Michelle Trachtenberg. World Premiere The Anarchist's Wife (La Mujer del Anarquista) / Germany/Spain (Directors: Marie Noelle and Peter Sehr; Screenwriters: Marie Noelle and Ray Loriga)—During the Spanish Civil War an idealistic young lawyer combating Franco's
- 12/4/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
The title of Nicole Garcia's complex and rewarding story of intertwined lives is "Charlie Says", but it is really about what observant 11-year-old Charlie sees.
It's not just the look on the face of his adulterous father but the range of human behavior his innocent gaze takes in as the friendships and marriages of half-a-dozen unconnected characters become entangled.
Set in a breezy unnamed Atlantic French town, the film takes a while to get going but turns into a penetrating examination of the way people's lives can veer off track and how hard it can be to find the way back.
The introduction of so many characters feels awkward at the outset, but seemingly random scenes begin to cohere as director and co-writer Garcia tightens the threads. By the time it's over, the film's many riches leave a warm and lasting impression. The writing and acting are top class, and the film has a handsome look. Audiences may well decide they want to see it a second time, not to catch up but to relish.
The philosopher's lament over man's inability to remain quietly in his room infuses the stories of the central characters, all men, who find themselves stranded along paths that they wish they hadn't taken.
In a mysterious prologue set at an anthropological dig in a polar wasteland, a man later revealed to be Pierre Benoit Magimel) becomes stir-crazy and walks out into the blinding snow. He is saved but quits his exploring career and disappears to become a schoolteacher.
Meanwhile, his former partner, Matthieu (Patrick Pineau), becomes a famous scientist, and years later he shows up in their hometown ostensibly to speak at a seminar but actually to find his lost friend.
Pierre has become a diligent if distant teacher whose self-absorption blinds him to the half-hearted affair that his wife Nora (Minna Haapkyla) has drifted into with a virile but bored man named Serge Vincent Lindon).
Serge's son Charlie (Ferdinand Martin) is one of Pierre's students. Bright and curious, Charlie is trapped into his father's conspiracy and must lie to his mother about what his dad is up to when he's with Nora.
Meanwhile, a genial dimwit named Joss (Benoit Poelvoorde) is caught up in a house burglary destined clearly to go wrong, while tennis champion Adrien Arnaud Valois) is in town for a game but is in a state of near catatonia over the excessive demands of his sport.
Interwoven in all their lives is the peripatetic town mayor, Jean-Louis Bertagnat (Jean-Pierre Bacri), who combines a wry self-knowledge with the instincts of a petty politician. He has complicated his life by spending too much time with his lovely young mistress (Sophie Cattani) when he should concentrate on getting re-elected.
As if that weren't enough, underscoring each of these stories is the subject of Matthieu's seminar, which deals with his discovery of the remains of a prehistoric man he calls Dirk, who left his home and died 180 miles away leaving forever unanswered the question: Why did he leave?
After Pierre's flight from the polar exploratory base, he is treated for a morbid fear of loneliness, and that not uncommon human trait can be seen in the lives of the others in the film.
Charlie sees it all, and through him we see the lost childhood of the confused grown-ups who surround him. There is inventive humor in the movie, much of it visual, along with the sadness, and it shares with many great films not happy endings but endings that will do for now.
CHARLIE SAYS
Mars Distribution
Les Productions du Tresor
Credits: Director: Nicole Garcia; Screenwriters: Jacques Fieschi, Nicole Garcia, Frederic Belier-Garcia; Producer: Alain Attal; Director of photography: Stephane Fontaine; Production designer: Thierry Flamand; Editor: Emmanuelle Castro
Cast: Jean-Louis Bertagnat: Jean-Pierre Bacri; Serge Torres: Vincent Lindon; Pierre: Benoit Magimel; Joss: Benoit Poelvoorde; Matthieu: Patrick Pineau; Adrien: Arnaud Valois; Charlie: Ferdinand Martin; Nora: Minna Haapkyla; Severine: Sophie Cattani; Pierre-Yves: Philippe Lefebvre; Ricordi: Philippe Magnan; Mo: Samir Guesmi; Balhaus: Jerome Robart; Charlie's Mother: Valerie Benguigui; Thierry: Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet; Bar owner: Jean-Louis Foulquier.
No MPAA rating, running time 130 minutes.
It's not just the look on the face of his adulterous father but the range of human behavior his innocent gaze takes in as the friendships and marriages of half-a-dozen unconnected characters become entangled.
Set in a breezy unnamed Atlantic French town, the film takes a while to get going but turns into a penetrating examination of the way people's lives can veer off track and how hard it can be to find the way back.
The introduction of so many characters feels awkward at the outset, but seemingly random scenes begin to cohere as director and co-writer Garcia tightens the threads. By the time it's over, the film's many riches leave a warm and lasting impression. The writing and acting are top class, and the film has a handsome look. Audiences may well decide they want to see it a second time, not to catch up but to relish.
The philosopher's lament over man's inability to remain quietly in his room infuses the stories of the central characters, all men, who find themselves stranded along paths that they wish they hadn't taken.
In a mysterious prologue set at an anthropological dig in a polar wasteland, a man later revealed to be Pierre Benoit Magimel) becomes stir-crazy and walks out into the blinding snow. He is saved but quits his exploring career and disappears to become a schoolteacher.
Meanwhile, his former partner, Matthieu (Patrick Pineau), becomes a famous scientist, and years later he shows up in their hometown ostensibly to speak at a seminar but actually to find his lost friend.
Pierre has become a diligent if distant teacher whose self-absorption blinds him to the half-hearted affair that his wife Nora (Minna Haapkyla) has drifted into with a virile but bored man named Serge Vincent Lindon).
Serge's son Charlie (Ferdinand Martin) is one of Pierre's students. Bright and curious, Charlie is trapped into his father's conspiracy and must lie to his mother about what his dad is up to when he's with Nora.
Meanwhile, a genial dimwit named Joss (Benoit Poelvoorde) is caught up in a house burglary destined clearly to go wrong, while tennis champion Adrien Arnaud Valois) is in town for a game but is in a state of near catatonia over the excessive demands of his sport.
Interwoven in all their lives is the peripatetic town mayor, Jean-Louis Bertagnat (Jean-Pierre Bacri), who combines a wry self-knowledge with the instincts of a petty politician. He has complicated his life by spending too much time with his lovely young mistress (Sophie Cattani) when he should concentrate on getting re-elected.
As if that weren't enough, underscoring each of these stories is the subject of Matthieu's seminar, which deals with his discovery of the remains of a prehistoric man he calls Dirk, who left his home and died 180 miles away leaving forever unanswered the question: Why did he leave?
After Pierre's flight from the polar exploratory base, he is treated for a morbid fear of loneliness, and that not uncommon human trait can be seen in the lives of the others in the film.
Charlie sees it all, and through him we see the lost childhood of the confused grown-ups who surround him. There is inventive humor in the movie, much of it visual, along with the sadness, and it shares with many great films not happy endings but endings that will do for now.
CHARLIE SAYS
Mars Distribution
Les Productions du Tresor
Credits: Director: Nicole Garcia; Screenwriters: Jacques Fieschi, Nicole Garcia, Frederic Belier-Garcia; Producer: Alain Attal; Director of photography: Stephane Fontaine; Production designer: Thierry Flamand; Editor: Emmanuelle Castro
Cast: Jean-Louis Bertagnat: Jean-Pierre Bacri; Serge Torres: Vincent Lindon; Pierre: Benoit Magimel; Joss: Benoit Poelvoorde; Matthieu: Patrick Pineau; Adrien: Arnaud Valois; Charlie: Ferdinand Martin; Nora: Minna Haapkyla; Severine: Sophie Cattani; Pierre-Yves: Philippe Lefebvre; Ricordi: Philippe Magnan; Mo: Samir Guesmi; Balhaus: Jerome Robart; Charlie's Mother: Valerie Benguigui; Thierry: Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet; Bar owner: Jean-Louis Foulquier.
No MPAA rating, running time 130 minutes.
- 5/21/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- For the first three quarters of the movie, "La Californie" is a wonderfully old-fashioned French soap opera bordering on camp. Then the filmmaker spoils the fun by turning his movie into a serious crime story. The filmmaker is Jacques Fieschi, a well-known and prolific screenwriter, who makes his directing debut here. His script is based on a Georges Simenon novel, updated to present day with its very modern characters living dissolute, careless lives in a hillside area above Cannes known as La Californie.
With such popular stars as Nathalie Baye, Roschdy Zem and Ludivine Sagnier topbilled, the film will play well here when released in September. Elsewhere it falls between the cracks -- certainly not art house but not a comedy or crime thriller either despite elements of each.
Baye is delightfully flamboyant as Maguy, an aging woman of many indulgences, living on a rapidly dwindling bank account in a luxury villa and covering the expenses for a household full of companions. There are two Serb servants with dubious pasts Mirko (Zem) and Stephan (Radivoje Bukvic). She has taken both to bed but it's Mirko she longs for in an increasingly desperate fashion.
Katia (Mylene Demongeot) is a kindred spirit in Maguy's restless partying. A devoted gay couple, Francis Xavier De Guillebon) and Doudou (Antoine Bibiloni), are responsible for pulling Maguy together each morning and fixing meals.
Then Helene (Sagnier), the daughter Maguy deserted when a child, turns up and throws the household into a tizzy. The guilty Magay willingly gives Helene what's left of her money to start a business in Paris. Mirko lusts after her, but it's Helene and Stephan who fall in love. This causes great jealousy on Mirko part. He plots to sabotage the relationship.
The Serbian element now takes over the narrative as Stephan and then Mirko return to their homeland to confront their shadowy past, which causes the melodrama to take much too serious a turn and drain the outrageous fun from the movie.
The actors are all committed to these characters, making them all true to themselves even if collectively they are over the top. Production values, especially Jerome Almeras' prowling camera, are aces.
The use of off-season Cannes as a locale amused festival goers in these last few wearying days especially the line "I'm tired of Cannes. I'm leaving." Many in the audience agreed with that sentiment.
LA CALIFORNIE
Rectangle Productions/Thelma Films/StudioCanal/France 3 Cinema
Credits:
Writer/director: Jacques Fieschi
Based on a novel by: Geoges Simenon
Producer: Christian Gozlan, Edouard Weil
Director of photography: Jerome Almeras
Production designer: Alain Tchillinguirian
Music: Mino Cinelu
Costumes: Catherine Bouchard
Editor: Luc Barnier.
Cast:
Maguy: Nathalie Baye
Mirko: Roschdy Zem
Helene: Ludivine Sagnier
Katia: Mylene Demongeot
Stephan:Radivoje Bukvic
Francis: Xavier de Guillebon
Lila: Carole Ducey
Doudou: Antoine Bibiloni
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 117 minutes...
With such popular stars as Nathalie Baye, Roschdy Zem and Ludivine Sagnier topbilled, the film will play well here when released in September. Elsewhere it falls between the cracks -- certainly not art house but not a comedy or crime thriller either despite elements of each.
Baye is delightfully flamboyant as Maguy, an aging woman of many indulgences, living on a rapidly dwindling bank account in a luxury villa and covering the expenses for a household full of companions. There are two Serb servants with dubious pasts Mirko (Zem) and Stephan (Radivoje Bukvic). She has taken both to bed but it's Mirko she longs for in an increasingly desperate fashion.
Katia (Mylene Demongeot) is a kindred spirit in Maguy's restless partying. A devoted gay couple, Francis Xavier De Guillebon) and Doudou (Antoine Bibiloni), are responsible for pulling Maguy together each morning and fixing meals.
Then Helene (Sagnier), the daughter Maguy deserted when a child, turns up and throws the household into a tizzy. The guilty Magay willingly gives Helene what's left of her money to start a business in Paris. Mirko lusts after her, but it's Helene and Stephan who fall in love. This causes great jealousy on Mirko part. He plots to sabotage the relationship.
The Serbian element now takes over the narrative as Stephan and then Mirko return to their homeland to confront their shadowy past, which causes the melodrama to take much too serious a turn and drain the outrageous fun from the movie.
The actors are all committed to these characters, making them all true to themselves even if collectively they are over the top. Production values, especially Jerome Almeras' prowling camera, are aces.
The use of off-season Cannes as a locale amused festival goers in these last few wearying days especially the line "I'm tired of Cannes. I'm leaving." Many in the audience agreed with that sentiment.
LA CALIFORNIE
Rectangle Productions/Thelma Films/StudioCanal/France 3 Cinema
Credits:
Writer/director: Jacques Fieschi
Based on a novel by: Geoges Simenon
Producer: Christian Gozlan, Edouard Weil
Director of photography: Jerome Almeras
Production designer: Alain Tchillinguirian
Music: Mino Cinelu
Costumes: Catherine Bouchard
Editor: Luc Barnier.
Cast:
Maguy: Nathalie Baye
Mirko: Roschdy Zem
Helene: Ludivine Sagnier
Katia: Mylene Demongeot
Stephan:Radivoje Bukvic
Francis: Xavier de Guillebon
Lila: Carole Ducey
Doudou: Antoine Bibiloni
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 117 minutes...
With exquisite craftsmanship -- the kind that can produce elegant porcelain or distill and age a fine cognac -- Olivier Assayas has fashioned an absorbing look at provincial bourgeois French society in the early days of the century in "Les Destinees Sentimentales". Adapting Jacques Chardonne's novel to the screen, Assayas focuses on the love story of a married couple, who are leading in the porcelain and cognac industries.
This strong competition entry with its fine eye for both the human story and period details should be an equally strong candidate for international success. Its stars, Emmanuelle Beart, Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert, take to their roles determined to uncover the many layers to these complex personalities.
The film thus pleases on many levels -- as a period romance, a drama of changing mores and values and even a commentary on economic globalism.
Jean (Berling) and Pauline (Beart) do not immediately take up the challenge of their "sentimental destinies" when they meet at a fancy ball in the Charente region of France. Jean has turned away from the family porcelain business to become a minister in the tiny Protestant community there.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage to Nathalie (Huppert), he nonetheless tries to rescue that relationship, which sends Pauline fleeing to Paris. But when his marital failure becomes clear, Jean gives up most of his inheritance to divorce his wife, abandons his daughter and resigns his ministry.
He marries Pauline and they live for a long while in genteel poverty in Switzerland. But the family business summons him to Limoges, the center of the porcelain industry. Service in the Great War intrudes on his grand plan to expand and modernize the plant and leaves him a changed and shaken man.
The couple's love is never quite the same after the war, but it refuses to evaporate. Love is what they cling to throughout their many trials. Jean will die with an image of that love in his head.
While Assayas is not willing to truly age the lovely Beart as he does Berling -- and who can completely blame him? -- the actors in their key moments together present a kind of scenes from a marriage, in which passion, tenderness, distractions, conflicts, shifting goals and viewpoints exert tremendous force but can never truly break the marital bond.
Nathalie's bitterness is never fully explored as whatever love existed between her and Jean has already collapsed by the film's opening scenes. But Huppert superbly plays a woman damaged and disappointed by life.
Assayas and his co-writer Jacques Fieschi understandably cannot import all of the novel's complexities onto the screen. But Jean's determined estrangement from the daughter he dearly loves ill fits the Jean one meets in the film version.
Production values are impressive, especially scenes in the old factory that demonstrate long-ago techniques of porcelain making.
While the industries of porcelain and cognac form the film's backdrop, they are depicted with such meticulous care that the film makes an impassioned plea for Old World craftsmanship in the face of globalization and increased profitability. As does this robust old-fashioned film in the frenzied marketplace that is Cannes.
Les Destinees Sentimentales
Arena Films/TF1 Films Productions/Cab Prods. with the participation of Canal Plus Cofilmage 11 Arcade and Eurimages
Director: Olivier Assayas
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Screenwriters:J acques Fieschi,
Oliver Assayas
Based on the novel by:
Jacques Chardonne
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Editor: Luc Barnier
Costume designer: Anais Romand
Music: Guillaume Lekeu
Cast:
Pauline: Emmanuelle Beart
Jean Barnery: Charles Berling
Nathalie: Isabelle Huppert
Philippe Pommerel: Olivier Perrier
Marcelle: Julie Depardieu
Running time -- 179 minutes...
This strong competition entry with its fine eye for both the human story and period details should be an equally strong candidate for international success. Its stars, Emmanuelle Beart, Charles Berling and Isabelle Huppert, take to their roles determined to uncover the many layers to these complex personalities.
The film thus pleases on many levels -- as a period romance, a drama of changing mores and values and even a commentary on economic globalism.
Jean (Berling) and Pauline (Beart) do not immediately take up the challenge of their "sentimental destinies" when they meet at a fancy ball in the Charente region of France. Jean has turned away from the family porcelain business to become a minister in the tiny Protestant community there.
Trapped in an unhappy marriage to Nathalie (Huppert), he nonetheless tries to rescue that relationship, which sends Pauline fleeing to Paris. But when his marital failure becomes clear, Jean gives up most of his inheritance to divorce his wife, abandons his daughter and resigns his ministry.
He marries Pauline and they live for a long while in genteel poverty in Switzerland. But the family business summons him to Limoges, the center of the porcelain industry. Service in the Great War intrudes on his grand plan to expand and modernize the plant and leaves him a changed and shaken man.
The couple's love is never quite the same after the war, but it refuses to evaporate. Love is what they cling to throughout their many trials. Jean will die with an image of that love in his head.
While Assayas is not willing to truly age the lovely Beart as he does Berling -- and who can completely blame him? -- the actors in their key moments together present a kind of scenes from a marriage, in which passion, tenderness, distractions, conflicts, shifting goals and viewpoints exert tremendous force but can never truly break the marital bond.
Nathalie's bitterness is never fully explored as whatever love existed between her and Jean has already collapsed by the film's opening scenes. But Huppert superbly plays a woman damaged and disappointed by life.
Assayas and his co-writer Jacques Fieschi understandably cannot import all of the novel's complexities onto the screen. But Jean's determined estrangement from the daughter he dearly loves ill fits the Jean one meets in the film version.
Production values are impressive, especially scenes in the old factory that demonstrate long-ago techniques of porcelain making.
While the industries of porcelain and cognac form the film's backdrop, they are depicted with such meticulous care that the film makes an impassioned plea for Old World craftsmanship in the face of globalization and increased profitability. As does this robust old-fashioned film in the frenzied marketplace that is Cannes.
Les Destinees Sentimentales
Arena Films/TF1 Films Productions/Cab Prods. with the participation of Canal Plus Cofilmage 11 Arcade and Eurimages
Director: Olivier Assayas
Producer: Bruno Pesery
Screenwriters:J acques Fieschi,
Oliver Assayas
Based on the novel by:
Jacques Chardonne
Director of photography: Eric Gautier
Production designer: Katia Wyszkop
Editor: Luc Barnier
Costume designer: Anais Romand
Music: Guillaume Lekeu
Cast:
Pauline: Emmanuelle Beart
Jean Barnery: Charles Berling
Nathalie: Isabelle Huppert
Philippe Pommerel: Olivier Perrier
Marcelle: Julie Depardieu
Running time -- 179 minutes...
- 5/17/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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