The Girl from Nowhere to compete for the Golden Leopard

by Fabien Lemercier

26/07/2012 - Jean-Claude Brisseau’s The Girl from Nowhere [trailer] is the most notable of several French titles among the 19 feature films to vie for the Golden Leopard at the 65th Locarno Film Festival (from August 1 to 11). Film critics have always considered Brisseau, who recently celebrated his 68th birthday, and who has more often appeared in the judicial press than in the film press over the last few years, to be both a marginal and fascinating director. His filmography includes Sound and Fury (1988), Noce Blanche (1989), The Black Angel (1994), Workers for the Good Lord (2000), and Secret Things (2002).

Starring Brisseau himself, as well as Virginie Legeay and Claude Morel, The Girl from Nowhere tells the tale (written by the director himself) of Michel, a retired maths professor who has lived on his own ever since his wife died. One day, he takes in and looks after a young woman, Dora, after she is attacked by a stranger on his doorstep. Dora is homeless and has nowhere else to go. Little by little, she recovers, snoops around on his computer, and discovers that he writes books about human illusions. But as she helps him in his work, small unsettling events start to upset their daily routine: indefinable noises, objects that move without reason…

The Girl from Nowhere is produced by the director’s own production company, La Sorcière rouge, who are also handling the film’s international sales, but the film received no other financial support.

Three other French co-productions will run in the 2012 Locarno Film Festival’s international competition: The Last Time I Saw Macao [trailer] by Portuguese directors João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata (co-produced by Daniel Cabannes for Epicentre Films who will distribute the film in France), A Lady in Paris [trailer] by Ilmar Raag (a French majority co-production led by TS Productions with Estonia and Belgium, and that received an advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC) - international sales and distribution in France: Pyramide), as well as British-American-French documentary Leviathan by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel (produced in France by Arrête Ton Cinéma).

(Translated from French)