Arte France Cinéma back Monne’s Percussions
Shooting kicked off in Cartagena, Colombia on August 11 and is set to last until late September on Percussions, the debut feature by Alain Monne (former assistant and production director for Claire Denis, Marc Recha, Laetitia Masson and Karim Dridi). The film has just received pre-sales and co-production backing from Arte France Cinéma.
Starring Sophie Marceau and Christophe Lambert, the film also features Margarita Rosa de Francisco and Rodolfo de Suza.
Adapted from the novel L'Homme de chevet (“Bedside Man”) by Eric Holder (whose book Mademoiselle Chambon is also currently being made into a film – see news), the screenplay, co-written by Monne and Nathalie Vailloud, won the 2007 Grand Prize for Best Screenwriter.
The film traces the encounter between Léo (Lambert), a former boxing champion turned alcoholic and Muriel (Marceau), a quadriplegic Frenchwoman left paralysed after a car accident: "a broken mind on a healthy body and a broken body beneath a healthy mind.”
Penniless, desperate and back in his native city, Léo decides to look after Muriel. Gradually, a strange relationship unfolds between them, evolving day by day, as they get to know each other. This is an unusual love story of interchanging relations of strength and dependence, dominated by the question: "How can you love another when you don’t love yourself and have ceased to expect anything from life?".
Produced by Pierre Forette and Thierry Wong for Ciné Nominé in co-production with Christine Gozlan for Thelma Films, Percussions obtained a €480,000 advance on receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC). The title was also pre-bought by Canal + and Ciné Cinéma and received backing from the Groupama Gan Foundation.
Rezo Films will handle domestic distribution and the UK’s Goldcrest are managing international sales.
The two other titles selected by Arte France Cinéma are Jaffa by Israeli director Keren Yedaya (Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2004 for Or, My Treasure), co-produced by France’s Bizibi; and Independencia by Philippine director Raya Martin (co-produced by Atopic).
(Translated from French)
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