Masks are off in Little White Lies

by Fabien Lemercier

20/10/2010 - After attracting attention with Anything You Say (nominated for the Best Debut Film Cesar 2003) and winning honours for Tell No One [trailer] (Best Director Cesar 2007, over 3m admissions in France and excellent results internationally), actor Guillaume Canet is making his third directorial outing with Little White Lies [trailer] (see news), launched today by Europa Corp Distribution on over 550 screens.

Broadly well-received by critics and bolstered by its cast (Marion Cotillard, François Cluzet, Benoît Magimel, Jean Dujardin, Gilles Lellouche, Valérie Bonneton, Laurent Lafitte and Pascale Arbillot), the film initiated by Les Productions du Trésor is described by the director as his most personal work and paints the portrait of a group of old friends who are forced to drop their masks.

"Many things said in the film are part of my life. Afterwards, of course, all this is given a new form and is romanticised," explained Canet. "My aim was to make a cross-generational film (…) The film is about the lies we tell ourselves and others, as a rebound reaction: everything we don’t want to see about ourselves, which we hide behind our little handkerchiefs.”

“At the start, the characters spend some time evading the real questions: Am I doing the job I really dreamed of? Do I live with the woman I really love? Do I have the sex life I really wanted? (…) It’s also a film about friendship. I was openly inspired by group films like Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill", continued the director, who also cited Jean-Marie Poiré’s My Best Pals, Yves Robert’s An Elephant Can Be Extremely Deceptive, Cassavetes’s Husbands and Claude Sautet’s films.

Also hitting theatres are Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu’s Spanish production Biutiful [trailer], which earned Best Actor Award for Javier Bardem at this year’s Cannes Festival (see review – ARP Sélection on around 200 screens); and Raoul Ruiz’s Mysteries of Lisbon [trailer] (distributed by Alfama Films on around 15 screens), which picked up Best Director at San Sebastian and stars Clotilde Hesme.

This Wednesday’s panorama of new European releases is completed by Mika Kaurismaki’s The House of Branching Love [trailer] (Kannibal Films Distribution); Jean-Christophe Roger’s French animated film Allez, Raconte! (“Go On, Tell!”, Gebeka Films); and Mehran Tamadon’s French/Swiss co-production Bassidji (Aloest Distribution).

(Translated from French)