Bonello starts shooting on brothel-set L’Apollonide

by Fabien Lemercier

31/05/2010 - Shooting starts today in Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse, near Paris, on Bertrand Bonello’s fifth feature: L’Apollonide. The director of Tiresia (in competition at Cannes in 2003), On War [trailer] (Directors’ Fortnight 2008) and The Pornographer (FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2001) is this time immersing himself in the daily life of a brothel in the early 20th century.

The cast includes Adèle Haenel (nominated for Best Female Newcomer Cesar 2008 for Water Lilies [trailer]), Italian actress Jasmine Trinca (The Caiman [trailer, film focus]), Hafsia Herzi (Best Female Newcomer Cesar 2008 for The Secret of the Grain [trailer]), Noémie Lvovsky (The French Kissers [trailer]) and Céline Sallette (Murderers [trailer]).

Scripted by the director, L’Apollonide is set at the dawn of the 20th century and all the action unfolds in a Parisian brothel. A prostitute is disfigured for life by a man – bearing a facial scar in the shape of a tragic smile.

Surrounding the woman who laughs are the other girls, whose lives, rivalries, fears, joys and sorrows we discover...The outside world is completely absent.

L’Apollonide is produced by Kristina Larsen for Les Films du Lendemain and My New Picture (Bonello’s company), who joined forces on the director’s previous feature. The film has co-production support from Arte France Cinéma, a €540,000 advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC), pre-acquisitions from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma, and backing from the Ile-de-France region, Sofica Cinémage 5 and Soficinema 7.

Shooting is scheduled to last eight-nine weeks. French distribution will be handled by Haut et Court, while international sales are still under negotiation.

(Translated from French)