21/10/2011

The final leg of shooting is underway in Paris on the French remake of US film Humpday (Special Jury Prize at Sundance and selected in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2009).Title-less for the time being, the feature marks the third directorial outing by actor Yvan Attal (pictured) after My Wife Is an Actress [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (nominated for the Best Debut Film César 2002) and ...And They Lived Happily Ever After (2004).

The film boasts a first-rate cast including Attal himself (nominated for the Best Actor César 2010 for Rapt [+see also:
trailer
interview: Lucas Belvaux
film profile] and set to appear next year in Lucas Belvaux’s One Night, among other films), François Cluzet (Best Actor César 2006 for Tell No One [+see also:
trailer
film profile], twice nominated in 2010 for In the Beginning [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and One for the Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and on screens from November 2 in Untouchable [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Laetitia Casta (Christophe Barratier’s War of the Buttons [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Melancholia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile]), Joey Starr (Poliss [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maïwenn
film profile]) and Italian actress Asia Argento.

Co-scripted by the director and Olivier Lecot, the film opens when Jeff (Cluzet) turns up unexpectedly one evening at the home of Ben (Attal). To celebrate this reunion and distract his old pal from his orderly life, Jeff drags him along to a party.

Once there, a discussion turns to an amateur porn festival and the idea soon begins to look like a bet: Jeff and Ben will sleep together under the gaze of a movie camera. It’s neither gay nor porn, it will be Art!

The following day, it is impossible to chicken out. Nothing will stop them, except perhaps Ben’s wife, heterosexuality or certain technical issues...

Produced by Mikaël Abecassis for Les Films du 24 and UGC, the film received co-production support from France 2 Cinéma and a pre-acquisition from Canal +. The seven-week shoot started on September 15. UGC will release the film in French theatres in late September 2012 and international sales are being handled by TF1 International.

It should be noted that Les Films du 24 (company headed by Yves Marmion) is also handling Philippe de Chauveron’s comedy Les Vacances de Ducobu (“Ducobu’s Holidays”), which is currently shooting; and Claude Miller’s Thérèse Desqueyroux, which is in post-production and stars Audrey Tautou (see news).

(Translated from French)