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PRODUCTION / FUNDING Italy / France

Filming wraps on The Flood, starring Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent

by 

- The two actors will play Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in the new film by Gianluca Jodice, which focuses on the last days of the French monarchs before their execution

Filming wraps on The Flood, starring Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet in The Flood

Filming concluded last week on The Flood (Le Déluge), a film written and directed by Gianluca Jodice (director of The Bad Poet [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) which centres on the final days of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before their execution. The film, an Italian-French co-production, stars Guillaume Canet (seen recently in Astérix & Obélix: The Middle Kingdom [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, which he also directed) in the role of the last French monarch, and Mélanie Laurent (seen recently in The Mad Women's Ball [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, which she also directed, and in Ride Above [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) in that of his wife, and presents itself as an apocalyptic film in the most literal sense of the word: that of revelation.

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Written by Jodice together with Filippo Gravino (frequent collaborator of Claudio Giovannesi, Claudio Cupellini and Matteo Rovere), tells the story of the end of this absolutism and of this monarchy which it seemed would never come, laying bare two of the biggest icons of History in front of the people, of themselves and of mankind, for the first time. 

The synopsis goes like this: When talking about Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette, what immediately comes to mind are lace, tall wigs, flamboyant clothes and colours, Versailles, or… the guillotine. Here, between these two extremes, exists a middle ground, a period of time seldom explored: the few months when the last king and queen of France were imprisoned, with their two young children, in a black castle on the outskirts of Paris, awaiting their executions. A brief and condensed period where, amidst violence and harassment, all masks fell off: those of two royals, as public and private figures; that of the old regime; that of a History that finally turned the page; and that of God who, from then on, was eclipsed by the shadows, leaving man entirely alone. 

The film’s cast also includes Aurore Broutin, Hugo Dillon, Tom Hudson, Roxane Duran, Anouk Darwin Homewood, Vidal Arzoni and Fabrizio Rongione. The technical crew includes recognisable names, from director of photography Daniele Ciprì, to two-time Academy Award-nominated costume designer Massimo Cantini Parrini (for Matteo Garrone’s Pinocchio [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Matteo Garrone
film profile
]
and Joe Wright’s Cyrano [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), from set designer Tonino Zera to four-time Oscar-nominated hairstylist Aldo Signoretti (for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis, Paolo Sorrentino’s Il divo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicola Giuliano
interview: Paolo Sorrentino
interview: Philippe Desandre
film profile
]
, Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, and Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!).

The Flood is produced by Matteo Rovere and Andrea Paris from Italian company Ascent Film with Rai Cinema, and co-produced by Yann Zenou of QUAD (France). Director Paolo Sorrentino figures as associate producer. Filming lasted six weeks and took place in Turin and Rome. 

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(Translated from Italian)

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