Bela Tarr’s project is cancelled
After a series of mishappenings, The Man from London by Bela Tarr (Hungary), starring Tida Swinton, Jànos Derzsi, and Volker Spengler, will definitely stop shooting. This European coproduction with a €5.29M budget did not manage to outlive Humbert Balsan, who was the associate producer of this film through his company Cinéma Soleil & Ognon Pictures and who died on the 10th of February. The other partners —Von Vietinghoff Filmproduktion and CMW Film Company (Germany), T.T. Filmmuhely (Hungary), and Wind Fish Motion Pictures (England)— did not find any financial alternative. This adds up to the many technical problems met during the first three weeks while shooting in Bastia, Corsica ; indeed, the freezing weather and the ensuing electric black-outs had caused a 10-day delay. The accumulation of unexpected circumstances ends up hindering the project completely, so there won’t be a cinematic version of Simenon’s novel —which also entailed shooting mostly at night in a train station setting made up on purpose.
The Hungarian Bela Tarr, born in 1955, has become a point of reference for film pundits all over the world ; the American Steven Soderbergh, amongst others, mentions him as a major influence on his work. Since his masterpiece, The Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), he had not directed any other project before this failed project. The Man from London was supposed to be sold all over the world by Celluloid Dreams ; it will instead be remembered as a cursed project. It started under unfavourable auspices —the shooting was delayed by one year for contractual reasons— and finally aborts despite a 380 000-euro advance-on-contract from the French Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), a 400 000-euro support fund from Eurimages, and 100 000 euros from Corsica’s regional funds.
(Translated from French)
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