Garrel, Beauvois, and Timi in Bruni-Tedeschi's Un château en Italie

by Fabien Lemercier

21/02/2012 - Next Monday, the clapboard will snap for the first time for Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi’s (photo) third feature, the dramatic comedy Un château en Italie. As for her two previous feature films, It’s Easier For a Camel… [trailer] (Louis Delluc Prize for the Best First Film in 2003) and Actresses [trailer] (discovered at Cannes’ Certain Regard in 2007), the film director will also appear among the actors beside Louis Garrel (Beloved [trailer, film focus], The Summer [trailer]), Xavier Beauvois (Farewell, My Queen [trailer, film focus]), Filipo Timi (Vincere [trailer, film focus]), Marisa Borini (the filmmaker’s mother, already an actress in her two previous films) and André Wilms (Le Havre [trailer, film focus]).

Written by the film director with Noémie Lvovsky and Agnès de Sacy, the screenplay revolves around a woman who meets a man and whose dreams resurface. It’s the story of her ill brother and their mother, and of the destiny of a grand family from the Italian industrial bourgeoisie. It’s the story of a family falling apart, of the end of an era, and of a budding romance.

Produced by Saïd Ben Saïd for SBS Productions, Un château en Italie already benefits from Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) grant and from the pre-sales of Canal+ and Ciné+. The film will be shot in two stages: two weeks from February 27 to March 10, then six weeks at the end of spring and at the beginning of summer. The director of photography will be Jeanne Lapoirie (My Little Princess [trailer], Michael Kohlhaas). SBS will sell the film internationally and ARP wil lead its distribution in France.

SBS, who last year launched Carnage [trailer] by Roman Polanski and Unforgivable [trailer] by André Téchiné, now has Cherchez Hortense by Pascal Bonitzer (featuring Jean-Pierre Bacri, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Isabelle Carré – readmore) in post-production, and is preparing to start filming Passion by Brian De Palma on March 5 in Berlin, a remake in English of Love Crime (original French title: Crime d’amour) to be co-produced by the Germans of Integral Film and to star Rachel McAdams, Noomi Rapace, and Karoline Herfurth.

(Translated from French)