08/07/2014 - The first clapperboard will slam on 21 July for the film, starring Stanislas Merhar, Clotilde Courau and Lena Paugam, and produced by SBS Films together with Switzerland

Stringing together his films with metronome-like regularity, on 21 July 66-year-old Philippe Garrel will get the shoot under way for his 25^th fiction feature: L’Ombre des femmes [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (lit. “Women’s Shadow”). This new variation on the feeling of love, the rise and fall of couples and the flowing of desire is set to star Stanislas Merhar (Dry Cleaning, Almayer’s Folly [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Clotilde Courau (currently in cinemas starring in Babysitting [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Lena Paugam.

Written by the legendary Jean-Claude Carrière (who was Luis Buñuel’s partner for 19 years and also worked with Milos Forman, Peter Brook and Volker Schlöndorff, among others; nominated three times for the Oscar for Best Screenplay), Caroline Deruas and Arlette Langmann, the story revolves around Pierre and Manon, a couple of poverty-stricken documentary makers who are set to weather a storm of love and romance in modern-day Paris.

Philippe Garrel has been selected six times in competition at Venice, with I Can No Longer Hear the Guitar (Silver Lion in 1991), Night Wind in 1999, Wild Innocence in 2001, Regular Lovers [+see also:
trailer
interview: Philippe Garrel
film profile] (Silver Lion in 2005), That Summer [+see also:
trailer
interview: Philippe Garrel
film profile] in 2011 and La jalousie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2013). He was also part of the competition at Cannes in 2008 with Frontier of Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

Produced by Saïd Ben Saïd for SBS Films (which also produced Garrel’s last film), L’Ombre des femmes is benefitting from co-production by Arte France Cinéma and Swiss outfit Close Up Films, as well as from the support provided by the CNC’s advance on receipts. Shooting will continue until the end of August. Distribution in France and international sales are still being negotiated.

SBS recently produced Maps to the Stars [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by David Cronenberg (revealed in competition at Cannes) and has the police comedy La Maison du lys tigré by Pascal Thomas (starring Vincent Rottiers, Marilou Berri, Christine Citti and Geraldine Chaplin) in post-production.

(Translated from French)