26/09/2011

The final leg of shooting is underway on Lake Como in Italy on the sixteenth feature by René Féret (pictured), Madame Solario, adapted from Gladys Huntington’s novel of the same name. The new film by the director of the recently acclaimed Comme Une Étoile dans la Nuit [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Like A Star in the Night”, 2008 – see news) and Mozart’s Sister (2010 – see news) has a cast including Marie Féret (daughter of the director and star of his last feature), Cyril Descours (A Spot of Bother [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Straight Line [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Salomé Stévenin (Omar Killed Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and star of Comme Une Étoile dans la Nuit), Brit actor Harry Lister Smith and Russian thesp Andrei Zayats.

Scripted by Féret (Jean Vigo Award in 1975 and selected in competition at Cannes in 1977), the film is set on Lake Como, in 1906. Eugène Ardant (27), the brother of Natalia Solario (25), whom he hasn’t seen for over ten years, turns up unexpectedly, having tracked down his sister in a luxury hotel. Deeply surprised, she nonetheless welcomes him and is willing to share with him the few possessions she has left.

Published anonymously in 1956, trailing a whiff of scandal due to the incestuous elements of the storyline and becoming an immediate best-seller, Madame Solario appealed to the director mainly because of the mysterious nature of the protagonist who turns the heads of all the men around her. This attractiveness coupled with vulnerability will cause a drama in a rather decadent circle of wealthy, cosmopolitan holidaymakers.

Produced by Les Films Alyne for a budget of around €2.2m, Madame Solario is co-produced by Nord-Ouest Films (whose managing director Christophe Rossignon also has an acting role in the film). Backed by the Ile-de-France region (where 26 of the 46 days of shooting have taken place) and pre-bought by Canal+, the film will be distributed in French theatres by JML Distribution. International sales are still under negotiation.

(Translated from French)