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 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (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 [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]), Italian actress Jasmine Trinca (The Caiman [+see also:
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interview: Jean Labadie
interview: Nanni Moretti
film profile]), Hafsia Herzi (Best Female Newcomer Cesar 2008 for The Secret of the Grain [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile]), Noémie Lvovsky (The French Kissers [+see also:
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trailer
film profile]) and Céline Sallette (Murderers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]).

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)