17/03/2021 - The French film centre will also lend its support to films by Rebecca Zlotowski, Gaspar Noé and Hugo P Thomas, as well as animated films by Michel Hazanavicus and Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

Eight projects were singled out during the first 2021 session of the CNC’s second advance on receipts committee.

Standing tall among these works is Peter von Kant [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the 21st feature film by prolific director François Ozon. For the second time, after Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brûlantes (in competition in Berlin in 2000), the filmmaker has adapted (loosely, as the title and the main character’s different gender indicates) the play The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant by Germany’s Rainer Werner Fassbinder (who brought the production to the big screen himself in 1972). For the record, the original version of the work revolves around a famous fashion designer, widowed by her first husband, divorced from the second and now living with a stylist and assistant whom she takes great pleasure in humiliating, who finds herself captivated by a beautiful young woman from a more modest background and proposes that the latter move in with her and take advantage of her support to get started in the world of modelling... A regular at the major festivals, François Ozon has been selected to compete in Berlin on four other occasions (in 2002, 2007, 2009 and 2019), in Cannes three times (in 2003, 2013 and 2017), in Venice three times (2004, 2010 and 2016) and three times in San Sebastian too (in 2009, 2012 and 2014). His previous work Tout s’est bien passé (starring Sophie Marceau in the lead) is currently awaiting its world premiere. Production on Peter von Kant is steered by the director’s company FOZ.

Another advance on receipts was awarded to Other People's Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile], on which filming kicked off a few days ago and which is set to be Rebecca Zlotowski’s 5th feature film after Belle épine [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Cannes’ Critics’ Week 2010), Grand Central [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile] (presented on the Croisette in 2013 as part of the Un Certain Regard line-up), Planetarium [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile] (screened out of competition in Venice 2016) and An Easy Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rebecca Zlotowski
film profile] (Directors’ Fortnight 2019), without forgetting the series Les Sauvages [+see also:
series review
interview: Souheila Yacoub
series profile] (2019). The cast notably stars Virginie Efira and Roschdy Zem, with production in the hands of Les Films Velvet.

The CNC also selected the project Au bord du monde by the electrifying Gaspar Noé, whose five previous feature films were showcased in Cannes: I Stand Alone (the winner of Critics’ Week’s Grand Prize in 1998), Irréversible (in competition in 2002), Enter the Void [+see also:
film review
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film profile] (in competition in 2009), Love [+see also:
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film profile] (Midnight Screening in 2015) and Climax [+see also:
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interview: Souheila Yacoub
film profile] (Directors’ Fortnight 2018). Production is steered by Rectangle and Wild Bunch.

An advance on receipts is also winging its way to Juniors [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the second feature film by Hugo P Thomas who previously co-directed Willy 1^er [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (selected for Cannes’ ACID line-up in 2016). Co-written by the director in league with Jules Lugan, the story homes in on three teenage friends who decide to fake a cancer case on the Internet and set up a dedicated fundraising page. Cut off from the world in their little isolated village, they don’t suspect for a second that this virtual lie will come back to haunt them… Production is in the hands of Baxter Films and Les Films Velvet.

Two animated projects also feature among the selected few: La plus précieuse des marchandises by Michel Hazanavicius (an adaptation of Jean-Claude Grumbert’s eponymous novel, produced by Ex Nihilo and Les Compagnons du cinéma) and They Shot The Piano Player [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Spanish directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal (who previously gave us Chico & Rita [+see also:
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trailer
making of
interview: Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando
film profile]), which is produced by Les Films d’Ici Méditerranée.

Last but not least, two documentaries will similarly benefit from the CNC’s support: Keeping Mum [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emilie Brisavoine
film profile] by Émilie Brisavoine (well-received via Oh la la Pauline! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] ), which is produced by bathysphère, and An Ordinary Life by Alexander Kuznetsov (who turned heads with We’ll Be Alright [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), produced by Petit à Petit Production.

(Translated from French)