PRODUCTION / FUNDING France / Belgium
Shooting wraps on Marc Dugain’s Les Poisons
- Ludivine Sagnier and Louise Bourgoin lead the cast of the director’s new historical drama, staged by High Sea Production with sales entrusted to France tv Distribution
Desire, power and damnation: having kicked off on 22 June, shooting on Poisons, Marc Dugain’s fourth feature after An Ordinary Execution, The Royal Exchange (nominated for the Best Foreign Film César Award) and Eugénie Grandet, wrapped this week in Belgium.
Leading the cast are Ludivine Sagnier (nominated Best Supporting Actress at the 2004 and 2008 César Awards, recently seen in When Fall Is Coming and And Their Children After Them, and soon to be seen in Après and Avant la tempête) and Louise Bourgoin (nominated for the 2009 César Award for Most Promising Actress and seen in Cannes this year in Moulin).
Starring alongside them are Thibault de Montalembert (famous for his role as Mathias in the series Call My Agent! ), Joseph Olivennes (The Richest Woman in the World, No One Will Know), Belgian actor Igor Van Dessel (awarded the Magritte for Best Supporting Actor via Close), Finnegan Oldfield (nominated for the 2017 Lumières Revelation Award as well as for the 2016 Most Promising Actor César, and recently seen in Alpha and Couture), Jean-Baptiste Puech (Anna) and Vincent Londez (seen in season 1 of the Lupin series).
Co-written by the director and Caryl Férey, the screenplay is set during the reign of Louis XIV. The Parisian aristocracy is indulging in love, corruption and sophisticated murder. A free-spirited and scandalous woman, the Marquise de Brinvilliers discovers an illicit passion and a terrifying secret alongside the mysterious Vicomtesse de Warnens: the art of poison. While the political machinations of Colbert and the ambitious Penautier fuel the war, the two schemers use death as a weapon for emancipation…
Les Poisons is being produced by Patrick André for High Sea Productions (a longstanding collaborator of the filmmaker), in co-production with Kidam and Belgian outfit Scope Pictures. The feature film has been pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+ OCS, and also benefits from support from Wallimage (the entire shoot took place in Belgium, with Franco-Tunisian Frida Marzouk as director of photography). International sales are handled by France tv Distribution, while distribution in French cinemas will fall to Ad Vitam.
(Translated from French)
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