08/07/2013 - The Belgian filmmaker is reunited with Daniel Auteuil for a project that promises to be whimsical, in which the actor simply takes on the role of God

People have been curious since the declarations of Jaco Van Dormael to Screen Daily last week, during their encounter at the Paris Cinéma Festival and its Belgian focus. The director indeed announced his intention of working again with his accomplice from Huitième Jour, Daniel Auteuil (photo). He is therefore back five years after Mr Nobody [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaco Van Dormael
interview: Jaco Van Dormael
film profile], which slightly stands as a cursed film for this prodigy of Belgian cinema, Caméra d’or in Cannes with his dreamlike fable Toto le Héros (1991) and Best Actor Award in Cannes for Le Huitième Jour (1995). The filmmaker does not shoot often and each new film is an event. A world film, Mr Nobody told the story of the death of the last human on earth and made use of parallel worlds, thus offering multiple but concomitant alternatives to the destiny of its hero. Whilst the film did impress, it did not have the career that its stature had foreshadowed.

For his new film, he tackles a nearly common story of revenge between a daughter and her father. A simple story, if you do not take into consideration the identity of the main protagonist: God. He exists, he even lives in Brussels, and he behaves in a rather detestable way with his daughter. Van Dormael bets on a return to simplicity after the Mr Nobody experience, a fantastic and pharaonic project, which cost 33 million euros, was filmed in English with a huge cast, in many different sets and required a lot of work in post-production and filming in studios. If Mr Nobody remains Van Dormael’s favourite film, he visibly aspires to more lightness and is hoping to film this new movie with a limited team, in an almost artisanal fashion, with natural light and sets. The project, entitled Fille de Dieu for now, should be filmed in spring 2014 and will be produced by the director’s company, Terra Incognita, and coproduced by that of the actor, Zack Films. 

(Translated from French)