Caught up in the spiral of Very Well, Thank You
An arbitrary arrest and unfair imprisonment are on offer today in the theatrical release of Emmanuelle Cuau’s second feature Very Well, Thank You [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which has received unanimous praise from the press who are drawn to the Kafkaesque misadventures of an ordinary man caught up in a spiral.
Starring Gilbert Melki, Sandrine Kiberlain and Olivier Cruveiller, the film scripted by Agnès Caffin and Cuau (1995’s Circuit Carole and scriptwriter on Jacques Rivette’s Secret Defence) came about from an observation made by the director herself. "In 2002, almost overnight, there was a flagrant rise in the number of police officers. This really left an impact on me as did the completely arbitrary identity checks," said Cuau in reference to a toughening of French law and order.
Accountant Alex (Melki) and taxi driver Béatrice (Kiberlain) are an ordinary couple. One evening, Alex undergoes a police identity check, during which the officers ask him to drive but Alex refuses. A downward spiral begins for our protagonist. Alex finds himself locked up at the police station, then loses his job and finally ends up in a psychiatric clinic.
Produced by Paolo Branco for Gémini Films who is releasing Very Well, Thank You on 61 prints, the €2.19m feature was backed with CNC advances on receipts of €400,000, as well as pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma.
Bernard Jeanjean’s comedy J'veux pas que tu t'en ailles [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the second local title hitting screens in what is a quiet week for French films. After his feature debut J'me sens pas belle, a surprise hit in summer 2004, the director has made another film on couples. The cast of his latest film features Richard Berry, Julien Boisselier and Judith Godrèche who form a love triangle between a psychoanalyst, his wife and her lover who is the former’s patient (see news).
Produced by Caroline Adrian, Fabrice Goldstein and Antoine Rein (Producer On The Move 2006, see interview) for Delante Films and Karé Productions, the €3.96m title opens on 252 screens through UGC Distribution.
The other 11 new releases this Wednesday include Henry Colomer’s Nocturnes [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (a Archipel 35-ID Distribution production, five screens); Alek Keshishian’s French/British comedy Love and Other Disasters (EuropaCorp Distribution), French/Algerian thriller Morituri [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Okacha Touita (Armor Films); UK/US title Destricted (Tadrart Films); and documentaries Momo le doyen by Laurent Chevallier (Les Films du Paradoxe) and Austrian filmmaker Erwin Wagenhofer’s We Feed the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] with a respectable 60-print release through Zootrope Films.
(Translated from French)