Gayet stars in Molia’s Huit fois debout

by Fabien Lemercier

07/07/2008 - Shooting got underway last Thursday in the Dordogne (South-West France) on Xabi Molia’s Huit fois debout (“Eight Times Standing Up”), a debut feature starring Julie Gayet (Shall We Kiss? [trailer], My Best Friend [trailer]), Denis Podalydès (currently on screens in Sagan [trailer] and as of September 1 in Emmanuel Bourdieu’s Intrusions) and Mathieu Busson.

Written by the 30-year-old director, the film is based on his short S’éloigner du rivage for which Gayet recently won Best Actress Award at the Cabourg Romantic Film Festival. In Huit fois debout, she plays the role of Elsa, a woman caught in a difficult spiral: jobless, she loses her apartment.

Left in charge of her 10-year-old son for the weekend, she lies to him and whisks him away by car to the seaside. During this disenchanted trip, Elsa wants to bond with her son, but is also tempted to lose him. The two characters cross paths with an eccentric man, played by Podalydès.

Produced by Christie Molia for Moteur s’il vous Plait – who attracted attention at the latest Cannes Film Festival with Anna Novion’s debut feature Grown Ups [trailer], co-produced with Sweden – Huit fois debout is co-produced by Nadia Turincev and Gayet for the newly-founded company Rouge International.

The film received an advance on receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC), backing from the Aquitaine region and Dordogne regional council, as well as pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma.

Shooting will last until mid-August in the Dordogne region, followed by a few days in the Landes region. The title is set to be ready for a spring 2009 release.

(Translated from French)