Honoré shoots Les Bien-Aimés

by Fabien Lemercier

19/10/2010 - Catherine Deneuve, Ludivine Sagnier, Louis Garrel and Chiara Mastroianni have been hard at work since yesterday on the top secret filming of Christophe Honoré’s eighth feature, Les Bien-Aimés (“Loved Ones”).

Scripted by the director, the story takes place over two time periods. In the first, during the 1960s, Madeleine leaves Paris to join her new husband Jaromil in Prague. The arrival of Russian tanks in the city marks their separation and Madeleine returns to France. In the second, in the 90s, Madeleine’s daughter Véra falls in love in London with Henderson, who feels unable of loving her. Madeleine and Véra each play out their feminine roles at the end of the 20th century, albeit with slight stubbornness, without which they would simply give in.

With a steady rate of film production, the 40-year old Honoré is now a regular at the main festivals with three showings to date on the Croisette (Seventeen Times Cecile Cassard at Un Certain Regard in 2002, Inside Paris [trailer] at the 2006 Director’s Fortnight and Love Songs [trailer], a 2007 competition entrant); two selections in competition at San Sebastian (The Beautiful Person [trailer] in 2008 and Making Plans For Lena [trailer] in 2009); and one at Locarno last summer with the controversial Man at Bath [trailer].

The Why Not production will be sold worldwide by Celluloid Dreams.

(Translated from French)