05/05/2009

Tomorrow, SND is launching Zabou Breitman’s French/Italian/Belgian co-production Someone I Loved [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in French theatres. Adapted from Anna Gavalda’s eponymous hit novel, the film stars Daniel Auteuil, alongside Marie-Josée Croze and Florence Loiret-Caille.

Co-written by the director and Agnès de Sacy, the film retraces a weekend of confidences shared by Pierre (Auteuil) with his daughter-in-law Chloé (Loiret-Caille). A secret has been haunting him for 20 years, that of his love for Mathilde (Croze) for whom he didn’t abandon everything, choosing instead a safer path that brings him face to face with his contradictions.

Auteuil explained: "The beauty of Pierre’s character lies in the way he renounces everything. It’s not so much a question of courage. He doesn’t love life enough to risk living it. It’s because of his limits that he is melancholy".

The actor added: "Pierre long remains a mystery. Everything starts off with this young woman who is devastated by her husband’s decision to leave her. She happens to find herself in the company of her father-in-law, whom she hardly knows. And then he starts talking, shifting back and forth between past and present. We gradually discover the man he used to be, as his daughter-in-law would never have imagined, caught up in the torments of a great love".

Breitman commented: "I’ve always found Daniel Auteuil very moving in his major roles as lovers. He is capable of simply being there, of listening and receiving. His silences are charged with emotion (…). Acting is not, as many people believe, simply saying one’s lines. It’s in the silent scenes that we gauge the true calibre of great actors".

Someone I Loved was produced by Fabio Conversi for Babe Films. The €10.3m budget included co-production support from France’s France 2 Cinéma and SND (who are also handling international sales), Italy’s Indigo Film and Belgium’s Banana Films, pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, and backing from the Franche-Comté region.

(Translated from French)