Tautou and Baye start shooting Salvadori’s De vrais mensonges

by Fabien Lemercier

08/06/2009 - Shooting gets underway today in Sète on Pierre Salvadori’s seventh feature, De vrais mensonges (“Complete Care”).

After the success of Priceless [trailer] (2.15m admissions in France), the director reunites with Audrey Tautou (Coco Before Chanel [trailer]), who stars alongside Nathalie Baye (Client [trailer]) and Sami Bouajila (Inside Ring [trailer]). The cast also includes Stéphanie Lagarde, Judith Chemla and Daniel Duval.

Co-written by the director and his usual collaborator Benoît Graffin, De vrais mensonges centres on a hair salon manager (Tautou) unable to help her mother (Baye), who has been feeling depressed since her husband left her. But the young woman receives an anonymous love letter which gives her an idea: she changes the name of the addressee and puts that of her mother instead.

This plan works almost too well: her mother recovers her taste for life and starts to wait impatiently by the letter box. Delighted but caught in her own trap, her daughter thus has to furnish further missives, as well as find someone who can play the role of the amorous author.

Produced by Philippe Martin for Les Films Pelléas, who have backed all Salvadori’s features (from Wild Target in 1993, to The Apprentices and After You [trailer]), De vrais mensonges has co-production support from TF1 Films Production, and pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma.

The film also has backing from Sofica Coficup, Cinémage and the Languedoc-Roussillon region, where most of the shoot will take place (except for two days in Paris) until August 5. Domestic distribution will be handled by Pathé, while Wild Bunch is managing international sales.

(Translated from French)