Le Besco and Honoré in competition at Locarno

15/07/2010

Majority French productions are very well represented at the 63rd Locarno Film Festival (August 4-14), whose programme was unveiled yesterday. Two world premieres will fly the French flag in competition: Isild Le Besco’s Bas-fonds [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Lowest Depths”) and Christophe Honoré’s Man at Bath.

Actress Le Besco’s third directorial feature Bas-fonds stars Valérie Nataf, Ginger Romàn and Noémie Le Carrer. Based on a real-life crime that took place in 2002, the film centres on three young women who live in a world of alcohol and desire. One day, almost for lack of anything better to do, they rob a small bakery and kill the baker. A trial opens, bringing into conflict two worlds that are strangers to each other.

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Produced by Sangsho for €1.2 m, Bas-fonds received a €430,000 advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC), co-production support from Arte France Cinéma and backing from the Limousin region.

A regular at major international festivals, Honoré will make his Locarno debut with Man at Bath [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Featuring X-rated gay star François Sagat, Dustin Ariel Segura-Suarez and Chiara Mastroianni, the film (whose title is a reference to a Caillebotte painting) is set between Gennevilliers and New York, where Omar and Emmanuel spare each other nothing in order to prove to one another they are no longer in love.

Produced by Les Films du Bélier in co-production with Le Théâtre 2 Gennevilliers, the feature (which was originally intended as a short) is sold internationally by Le Pacte.

French films will also shine in the Piazza Grande screenings, which will open with the world premiere of Benoît Jacquot’s French/German co-production Deep in the Woods (see news), sold internationally by Films Distribution. There will also be a world premiere of Cédric Anger’s The Counsel (see news), whose cast includes Benoît Magimel, Gilbert Melki and Aïssa Maïga (sales: SND).

Finally, the competitive Filmmakers of the Present section will show two debut French features in world premiere: Géraldine Bajard’s French/German co-production The Edge (see news – sales: The Match Factory); and Mikhaël Hers’s Memory Lane (see news – sales: Films Distribution). Also in the line-up is Emmanuelle Demoris’s documentary Paraboles (“Parables”), the fifth episode of Mafrouza, whose four other instalments (Oh la Nuit!, Heart, Que Faire? and The Hand of the Butterfly) will screen out of competition at Locarno.