02/10/2012 - Amélie Van Elmbt highlights the energy and freshness of Alice de Lencquesaing and David Murgia in her feature debut La Tête la Première

Amélie Van Elmbt has highlighted the energy and freshness of Alice de Lencquesaing and David Murgia in her first film, La Tête la Première (lit. "Head first"), last night screened at the 27th Namur International Francophone Film Festival (FIFF).

We don’t know much about Zoé. We guess her age, imagine an unstable family past, emotional wounds, a need for recognition, and a thirst for love. We don’t know where she comes from, or where she’s going with her small backpack. She does not look like she is in a rush. She hits the road, and whatever happens happens. On her way, she bumps into Adrien. A game of love and chance is born between them. They follow each other, run from each other, flirt, and talk -- a lot. They talk about sex and emotions. They are no longer teenagers, but are not yet adults either. In fact, Zoé does have a destination, that she seems to be making her way towards backwards. She is looking for a writer, an elderly writer, to whom she writes love letters.

Zoé is played by the brilliant Alice de Lencquesaing, who was discovered in Mia Hansen-Love’s Father of my Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mia Hansen-Løve
film profile]. Beside her, we discover David Murgia, a young Belgian actor who previously appeared in Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile], whose freshness and energy pierce the screen. And in a sort of implicit apprenticeship, Jacques Doillon plays the elderly writer, as if to condone young and determined filmmaker Amélie Van Elmbt’s sensitive film. Faced with the lack of enthusiasm of producers to whom she presented her film, she decided to make the film herself “like an auteur” thanks to a small inheritance. It’s a fragile project, that was lucky enough to cross paths with the ACID, who selected it last May and gave it unexpected visibility. The Namur-born director was back in her hometown yesterday to screen her film at the Namur film festival. La Tête la Première is due out tomorrow, Wednesday, in Belgian cinemas. Imagine has distributed five copies of the film.

(Translated from French)