10/02/2006

Among the 44 projects selected for the third Co-Production Market, to be held February 12-14 as part of the 56th Berlin Film Festival , French production company Les Films d'Ici has high hopes of finding solid partners for Le Parc (lit. "The Park") by Arnaud des Pallières. Director of documentaries such as 2002’s Disneyland, mon vieux pays natal (lit. "Disneyland, My Old Homeland"), Pallières made an acclaimed feature debut in 2003 with Adieu. This time, he chose to adapt a novel by US writer John Cheever, with Jean-Marc Barr in one of the principal roles, for which shooting is scheduled to begin in the spring. The screenplay opens with Georges Clou, who lives a dull suburban life with a wife, son and dog he loves, and who dutifully goes to the office every morning and to Mass on Sundays. Paul Marteau, on the other hand, is young, handsome, rich and intelligent, and struggling with his conscience, torn between his harsh view of the world and his desire to belong to it. One day, these two men accidentally cross paths. Clou sees it as an opportunity to develop a genuine friendship, while Marteau has found a new reason for living as he plans to crucify the complacent ideals of Western man that Clou represents. Produced by Serge Lalou and Marie Guirauden for Les Films d'Ici - also present in the Berlin Forum with Barakat! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Djamila Sahraoui - Le Parc has found one partner in Média Développement.

Also of note is Lemon Tree by Israeli Eran Riklis, a French co-production that made the short-list of three projects in the Rotterdam-Berlin Express, in association with the Rotterdam Film Festival’s CineMart. Finally, France’s Eva Husson will screen her project Tiny Dancer as part of the Talent Project Market. A graduate of the American Film Institute in Los Angeles, the young director made the 2004 short film Hope to Die and took part in the 2005 Sundance Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs with the screenplay for Tiny Dancer. The film tells the story of a talented dance student’s growth in Spanish Harlem, torn as she is between an interfering family, her need for love and her passion for modern dance.

(Translated from French)