17/02/2022 - Jean-Paul Salomé’s new film led by Isabelle Huppert is attracting buyers’ interest

In her Paris office, The Bureau Sales’ head Clémentine Hugot is making no secret of her satisfaction. She’s obviously disappointed the European Film Market (which wraps today, having unfolded within the 72nd Berlinale) was only held in online form ("but, unfortunately, it’s almost become routine these past two years"), and she’s eagerly awaiting Cannes’ upcoming Marché du Film in May, which should signal a return to business in person. But the extensive negotiations underway with distributors from all over the world for Jean-Paul Salomé’s The Sitting Duck [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Paul Salomé
film profile] - a flagship title in its line-up - and the buzz surrounding the film, certainly promise a brighter future.

Currently in production, The Sitting Duck is the director’s 9th feature film after Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre, Arsène Lupin, Female Agents [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Playing Dead [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Mama Weed [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (nominated for 2021’s Best Adaptation César), to name just a few of his works. The filmmaker is also reuniting with the lead actress from his previous opus (which did very well the world over) Isabelle Huppert (currently touring cinemas in Promises [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Kruithof
film profile], gracing the limelight in Berlin via About Joan [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Larivière
film profile] and soon to return to our screens, notably in L'Ombre du Caravage). The high-calibre cast further includes Yvan Attal, Marina Foïs, Alexandra Maria Lara, Grégory Gadebois, François-Xavier Demaison, Pierre Deladonchamps, Gilles Cohen, Aloise Sauvage and Andréa Bescond.

Written by Fadette Drouard and Jean-Paul Salomé, based upon Caroline Michel-Aguirre’s book La Syndicaliste, the story revolves around whistleblower Maureen Kearney who is found, one day, tied to a chair in her home with the letter 'A' etched onto her abdomen and a knife handle inserted inside her vagina. Traumatised, she has no memory of the attack. Much pressure surrounds the investigation: it’s a sensitive subject. And new discoveries suddenly sow confusion in investigators’ minds. Maureen goes from being a victim to fast becoming a suspect…

The Sitting Duck is produced by Bertrand Faivre on behalf of Le Bureau, in co-production with France 2 Cinéma and German firm Heimatfilm (Bettina Brokemper). Pre-purchased by OCS and France 2, the feature film is also shored up by the French-German mini co-production treaty and the SOFICA companies Indefilms and Cineventure. The 40-day film shoot unfolded in Paris, the Paris region, on the Swiss border and in Germany, with Julien Hirsch at the wheel of photography (awarded the 2007 César in his speciality, nominated again in 2012, and also nominated for the Best Photography Lumière in 2019). Distribution in French cinemas is entrusted to Le Pacte.

(Translated from French)