Donzelli shoots third feature, Main Dans la Main

25/10/2011

Forging ahead after Declaration of War [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (which won audiences’ hearts in Cannes Critics’ Week 2011 – see review – France’s entry in the race for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and more than 800,000 admissions in France since August 31), Valérie Donzelli (pictured) started shooting yesterday in Commercy, in Lorraine, on her third feature: Main Dans la Main (“Hand In Hand”).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

The cast includes her usual collaborator Jérémie Elkaïm, Valérie Lemercier (Little Nicholas [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and set to grace screens in 2012 in Asterix and Obelix: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service), Béatrice de Staël, Eric Lartigau and Philippe Laudenbach. Donzelli herself will appear only in a supporting role this time.

This humorous film will blend a great love story between two diametrically opposed characters, an exploration of the bond with others and the act of saying goodbye to neuroses wrongly believed to be integral to our identity, and a musical work with numerous scenes based around dance.

Co-scripted by the director, Elkaïm and Gilles Marchand (twice nominated for the Best Screenplay César 2001 for With a Friend Like Harry and Human Resources), Main Dans la Main traces the encounter between Hélène Marchal (Lemercier) who runs the prestigious dance school at the Opéra Garnier in Paris, and Joachim Fosse (Elkaïm), an amateur dancer and employee in a small provincial mirror factory.

They are worlds apart, but a strange force unites them. Without being able to understand how or why, they can no longer be separated: it’s physically impossible and, despite themselves, they start to dance a hellish waltz together.

Produced, like Declaration of War, by Edouard Weil for Rectangle Productions, Main Dans la Main has received co-production support from France 3 Cinéma, pre-acquisitions from Canal+ and Ciné+, and backing from the Ile-de-France region (pending approval from the committee in November).

The 51-day shoot will take place in Commercy, Paris and New York. French distribution and international sales will be handled by Wild Bunch.

Rectangle Productions recently produced Philippe Garrel’s That Summer [+see also:
trailer
interview: Philippe Garrel
film profile] (in competition at Venice and on screens since September 28). In post-production, the company has Xavier Giannoli’s Talk Show (see news – starring Cécile de France, Kad Merad, Mathieu Amalric and Louis-Do deLencquesaing), which will be launched on screens by Wild Bunch Distribution in 2012.