23/08/2005

Filming started yesterday in Paris on the second feature by French filmmaker Emmanuel Bourdieu: Les Amitiés Maléfiques. Produced by 4 à 4 Productions, the project brings together a cast of Malik Zidi, Thibault Vinçont, Alexandre Steiger, Dominique Blanc, Jacques Bonnaffé and Natacha Régnier who is reunited with the filmmaker two years on from his first feature Vert paradis.
Another repeat reunion as regards the screenplay, co-written by the director and his faithful accomplice Marcia Romano (writer notably of Sous le sable [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and of Amants criminels by François Ozon), and the photography is in the hands of Yorick Le Saux. Also worth noting, Emmanuel Bourdieu, son of the famous sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, was involved in the writing of several films by Arnaud Desplechin, such as Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) in 1996 and Esther Kahn in 2000. He was also nominated for a Cesar and awarded the Prix Jean Vigo for his short film Candidature in 2001. Set in the world of Humanity students, Les Amitiés Maléfiques explores the theme of dangerous influences. Eloi, interpreted by Malik Zidi (Gouttes d'eau sur pierres brûlantes, Les Temps qui changent [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger) become the disciples of André, a thinker played by Thibault Vinçont. Marguerite (Natacha Régnier) orbits them, creating an atmosphere of intense rivalry, while Dominique Blanc plays the role of Eloi’s mother. Totally dominating the lives of these two students, awash with admiration, the guru suddenly disappears.

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Les Amitiés Maléfiques, for which shooting will last seven weeks in Paris and its outskirts, received 450 000 euros of Advance on receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC) and 380 000 euros production support from the region Ile-de-France. It will be released next year in French theatres by Les Films du Losange.

(Translated from French)