10/06/2009

Illustrator Riad Sattouf’s debut feature Les Beaux Gosses [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (“Good-looking Kids”) has been enthusiastically received by the press, which has called it "A revelation"; "Hilarious"; "Wonderfully scripted caustic humour"; "True directorial talent"; and "As funny as it is true to life". After winning acclaim in the latest Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (see review), it is being released today by Pathé Distribution on 200 screens.

The director was discovered by producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint who, he says, “liked my comic books and decided to contact me. She planned to make a film about teenagers and asked me if I would like to write the screenplay." With the help of co-screenwriter Marc Syrigas, he successfully and humorously transposed all the ups and downs of that awkward age onto the big screen.

Sattouf explained: "It’s a film about the secret world of boys as I experienced it with my mates. There’s a whole category of boys who find it very difficult to express their teenage crisis and feel unsettled by the fact their childhood is over." He added: "We had very effeminate voices, ridiculous names and puny physiques ( …) I didn’t want to make a film about the codes of today’s teenagers, their way of speaking and their technological paraphernalia, but instead focus on the intensity of their emotions. I didn’t want the kind of good-looking and wild teenagers you see in adverts (…) I wanted ugly ducklings."

Les Beaux Gosses was produced by Les Films des Tournelles for €4.22m. The budget included co-production support from Pathé and Studio 37, as well as pre-sales from Canal + and TPS.

The film has already been sold in Europe by Other Angle Pictures for Germany and Austria (Kool), Spain (Karma Films), Italy (Nomad Films), Benelux (Alternative), Switzerland (Pathé), Greece (Strada) and Portugal (Atalanta Filmes).

Eleven other new releases hit screens this Wednesday. These include Daniele Cipri and Franco Maresco’s Italian film Toto Who Lived Twice (E.D Distribution on five screens); Karen Yedaya’s French/Israeli/German co-production Jaffa [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (unveiled in a special screening at Cannes - Rezo Films on 63 screens - see interview with producer Emmanuel Agneray); and François Rotger’s French/Canadian co-production Story of Jen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Ad Vitam on 20 screens).

Also on the line-up are two 100% French productions: Renan Pollès and Alain Riou’s Tous les Hommes sont des Romans (“All Men are Novels”, Les Acacias); and Amanda Sthers’ Je Vais Te Manquer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“You’re Going To Miss Me”, UGC Distribution).

(Translated from French)