Out of Competition - Le Divorce
- James Ivory's Parisian postcard celebrates Champagne & silk, while America finally reconciles with France at the table and then in bed
The Café des Fleurs and the Eiffel Tower. The elegant terraces of the Pompidou Centre and the Druot Hotel are the locations for this Parisian picture postcard by James Ivory in Le Divorce, an Anglo/American Merchant Ivory production screened out of competition.
“I like travelling,” declares America’s most “English” director. “I also like working while I travel. I explore the countries I visit from and outsider’s point of view and then put it all into my films.” Ivory decided that a trip across the Channel was way overdue, after having made numerous historical dramas about Victorian England, the Empire and the beauties of Italy. “The comparison between two very different cultures – in this case, it was Paris and California – is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for my films.”
Le divorce is a romantic comedy starring Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts, Jean-Marc Barr and Thierry Lhermitte and, significantly, it is set in the present day. However the spirit of the film is classic Ivory. It’s an ironic clash of stereotypes: the Old World and the New. On the one side we have the French: Champagne on tap, silky satin lingerie, gourmet finger food and chic, on the other, a clearly envious and awe-struck California. The film is a delightful weave of love affairs, divorce and legal battles between the French and the Americans told in typically “Ivorian” style. Let the audience judge for itself.
(Translated from Italian)
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