31/10/2024 - Monia Chokri, Antoine Reinartz and Clotilde Courau also star in the cast of the French filmmaker’s second feature, produced by Novoprod Cinéma and sold by Be For Films

Actress Vicky Krieps (© Fabrizio de Gennaro/Cineuropa)

Friday 8 November will see Anna Cazenave Cambet wrapping the first and most significant segment of filming on Love Me Tender, her second feature-length movie after Gold For Dogs [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (awarded Cannes’ Critics’ Week label in 2020), with the remainder of principal photography scheduled to complete on 3 and 4 December.

Stand-out names leading the cast include Luxembourg’s Vicky Krieps (awarded the Best Actress Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section and at the European Film Awards in 2022 by way of Corsage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
interview: Marie Kreutzer
film profile], nominated that same year for the Best Actress César thanks to Hold Me Tight [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and recently well-received in The Dead Don’t Hurt [+see also:
film review
interview: Viggo Mortensen
film profile] as well as in the two instalments of The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

Likewise in on the action are Canada’s Monia Chokri (recently seen in her third directorial effort, The Nature of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Monia Chokri
film profile]), Antoine Reinartz (awarded 2018’s Best Supporting Role César for BPM (Beats Per Minute) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud Valois
interview: Robin Campillo
film profile] and nominated this year via Anatomy of a Fall [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Justine Triet
film profile]), Clotilde Courau (nominated for 2016’s Best Actress Lumière thanks to In the Shadow of Women [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and for 1996’s Best Supporting Role César, handed the European Film Award for Best Actress in 1991 and recently well-received in Last Summer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Catherine Breillat
film profile]), Viggo Ferreira-Redier (Amore mio [+see also:
film review
film profile]), seasoned actor Féodor Atkine (glimpsed this year in the series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld), Park Ji-min (nominated for this year’s Acting Revelation Lumière via Return to Seoul [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Davy Chou
film profile]), Aurélia Petit (Saint Omer [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Diop
interview: Kayije Kagame
film profile], Les Indésirables [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ladj Ly and Giordano Gederl…
film profile]) and Salif Cissé (All Hands on Deck [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Guillaume Brac
film profile], This Is My Mother [+see also:
film review
film profile]).

Adapted by the director from Constance Debré’s novel of the same name, Love Me Tender follows Clémence, a married lawyer who decides to drop everything in order to write and to live out her homosexuality unimpeded. But this bothers her ex-husband who ensures she loses custody of her son. She embarks upon a lengthy battle to try to get him back, but will she be forced to renounce this maternal bond in order to thrive or survive?

Love Me Tender is produced by Raphaëlle Delauche and Nicolas Sanfaute on behalf of Novoprod Cinéma, in co-production with France 2 Cinéma. Pre-purchased by Canal+, Ciné+ and France Télévisions, the feature film also enjoys support from the Ile-de-France and Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions, as well as from the Lot-et-Garonne department and the SOFICA companies Indéfilms, Cinecap and Cineaxe. The film shoot will last a total of 37 days with Kristy Baboul (who previously partnered with the director on her first feature film) heading up photography. International sales will be steered by Be For Films and distribution in France by Tandem.

For the record, Novoprod Cinéma are currently overseeing production on La poupée by Sophie Beaulieu (read our article) and also recently co-produced The Mohican [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Frédéric Farrucci
film profile] by Frédéric Farruccci (well-received in Venice’s Orizzonti Extra line-up and hitting French cinemas on 12 February 2025).

(Translated from French)