20/04/2009

Fifteen years after his previous big-screen foray, director Denys Granier-Deferre – who first attracted attention with Will the High Salaried Workers Please Raise Their Hands! (1982) and New Year’s Eve at Bob’s (1984) – starts shooting today on his fourth cinematic feature: Une pièce montée (“A Tiered Wedding Cake”).

Headed by the producers of Persepolis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Marc-Antoine Robert
interview: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Pa…
film profile], the project stars Clémence Poésy (In Bruges [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Belgium’s Jérémie Renier (Lorna’s Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arta Dobroshi
interview: Arta Dobroshi
interview: Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne
interview: Olivier Bronckart
film profile]), Jean-Pierre Marielle (to appear on screens this autumn in Micmacs à tire-larigot [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Danielle Darrieux (Towards Zero [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). The cast also includes Julie Depardieu, Julie Gayet, Léa Drucker, Charlotte de Turckheim, Dominique Lavanant, Christophe Alévêque, Aurore Clément and Eric Savin.

Co-written by the director and Jérôme Soubeyrand, Une pièce montée is based on Blandine Le Callet’s eponymous debut hit novel. The story centres on a double wedding: that of a young couple (Poésy and Renier) and their grandparents (Darrieux and Marielle).

The ceremony is organised in the best bourgeois, high-society tradition, where the guests arrive with a good dose of hypocrisy and bitterness. The masks fall away and family secrets are revealed.

Produced by Marc-Antoine Robert (Producer on the Move 2008 - see interview) and Xavier Rigault for 2.4.7. Films, Une pièce montée has a €7m budget. This includes co-production support from France 3 Cinéma and pre-sales from Canal + and TPS.

The eight-week shoot will take place in Vexin, to the north west of Paris. Films Distribution are handling international sales and Diaphana will release the title domestically on December 9, 2009.

(Translated from French)