14/03/2012 - Jérémie Renier stars in Florent-Emilio Siri’s biopic about French pop singer Claude François’ meteoric rise to fame.

Rising fame, delerious fans, and music galore hit French cinemas today with the very energetic release of Cloclo [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (My Way - read more) by Florent-Emilio Siri, who has successfully taken on the story of French musical legend Claude François (1938–1978) who sold 67 million records.

Globally well reviewed by the press, the film, which stars Belgian actor Jérémie Renier in the main role, also counts with the performances of Benoît Magimel, Italian actress Monica Scattini, Ana Girardot, and Sabrina Seyvecou in a talented cast.

When he was approached by production company LGM Cinéma, Florent-Emilio Siri seized this “opportunity to make a film on the destiny of an artist, from his birth to his death”.

“I really love this in cinema, because it allows you to make something quite epic, all the while remaining on the level of the individual, of the intimate,” he said. “I discovered a veritable film character, with an incredible destiny, a figure full of contradictions, struck by fame at a young age, an American-style showman who could sing, dance, and who could produce his own music like that of other artists, a press baron, and a glamour photographer in charge of a magazine to sell himself... What I found fascinating was that despite the spotlight shining on him, he still ended up losing himself."

Screenwriter Julien Rappeneau shares the fascination: "Claude François as an artist was a perfectionist, a relentlesss worker, determined to always push forward, a real stage animal who has always been passionate about music, and a singer with a great sense of marketing. But the man was also riddled with contradictions: he was authoritarian, choleric, annoying, but also endearing and profoundly fragile. He was often consumed by doubt, permanently feared that he would lose everything, and was permanently searching for love."

From this wealth of material, the director, for whom music was composed by Alexandre Desplat, manages to create a coherent whole that, without reaching perfection, however offers enough enthralling sequences to be able to look forward to a promising career at the French box office. StudioCanal are in charge of international sales.

(Translated from French)