01/06/2023 - Anamaria Vartolomei, Matt Dillon and Yvan Attal are starring in the French director’s second feature film, produced by Fin Août Productions and internationally sold by Orange Studio

Actress Anamaria Vartolomei (© DeuxPlusQuatre) and actors Matt Dillon (© Georges Biard) and Yvan Attal (© La Biennale di Venezia Foto ASAC/G. Zucchiatti)

Shooting began last Monday for Maria, Jessica Palud's second feature film after Back Home [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Best Orizzonti Screenplay at Venice 2019). Headlining the cast are the Franco-Romanian Anamaria Vartolomei (winner of the Lumière award for Best Actress and the César for Best Emerging Actress in 2022 for Happening [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anamaria Vartolomei
film profile], and Shooting Star at European Film Promotion in the same year) in the role of the actress Maria Schneider, the famous American Matt Dillon (nominated for the 2006 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, recently seen in The House That Jack Built [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile] and Proxima, and just seen at Cannes in Asteroid City) as Marlon Brando, and Yvan Attal (nominated for a 2010 César for Best Actor, seen this year in The Sitting Duck [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Paul Salomé
film profile] and the mini-series Bardot [+see also:
interview: Danièle and Christopher Tho…
interview: Manuel Alduy
series profile]).

Also in the cast are Marie Gillain (nominated for a César in 1998 and 2012 for Best Actress, still in French cinemas for Big Kids [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Céleste Brunnquell (nominated for a César for Best Newcomer and a Lumière for Best Revelation in 2020 for The Dazzled [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring in Spare Keys [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] on 14 June, at her best last week at Cannes in No Love Lost [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erwan Le Duc
film profile] and soon to be seen in En attendant la nuit) and Stanislas Merhar (winner of the 1998 César for Best Newcomer, also recently seen at Cannes in Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Provost
film profile]).

Adapted by Jessica Palud and Laurette Polmanss (nominated for a 2016 Lumière for Best Screenplay for Summertime [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a 2019 César for Best Adaptation for An Impossible Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and a 2022 César for Best Original Screenplay for The Divide [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Catherine Corsini
film profile]) from the novel My Cousin Maria Schneider: A Memoir by Vanessa Schneider, the script plunges into 1969. Maria is wild and free. Breathtakingly beautiful. She is no longer a child, not yet an adult when she inflammes the film roll of a young and promising Italian, a closed-door session of sex and violence, alongside an American star. She becomes famous. She wasn’t prepared for anything, neither fame nor scandal…

Maria was produced by Marielle Duigou for Fin Août Productions (already a partner in the director's first feature), and is coproduced by Orange Studio who will handle international sales. Pre-acquired by OCS and Ciné+, the feature is also supported by the Brittany region and Sofica Cofimage. Shooting began in Paris and will continue in Brittany with Sébastien Buchmann (nominated for a Lumière 2023 award for The Passengers of the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikhaël Hers
film profile]) as director of photography. Its distribution in French cinemas will be handled by Haut et Court.

(Translated from French by Margaux Comte)