Greed: "an allegory of the world we live in"

by Fabien Lemercier

07/03/2012 - After his last successful feature The Grocer’s Son [trailer], Eric Guirado is back with Greed [trailer] (article), a fictional re-write of the “Flactif Affair” that briefly appeared in the press in 2003. Featuring Jérémie Renier, Julie Depardieu, Lucien Jean-Baptiste, and Alexandra Lamy, the film, more appreciated by the general press that it has been by the critics, has been released in 105 French cinemas by UGC Distribution.

"I grew up in a mountain village, just next to where this drama took place. When we discovered the crime’s motive, we were in shock! To kill a family to have a chalet !" explained the filmmaker. "I absolutely wanted to avoid reconstitution, I did not want to be loyal to the facts but to concentrate on my theme: jealousy. Otherwise, I would have made a documentary. My approach privileges what is going on in the heads of the characters. Greed is an allegory of the world we live in. The gap between the very poor and the very rich is widening drastically. The film discusses the quest for happiness, the fantasy of happiness. It invites us to take a clear look at the way in which a consumer society exerts pressure on us to always own more. It denounces a shift that pushes us to confuse what we own with our well-being, our buying power with our happiness. ‘Why them and not me?’ has become an obsession. The motto has become: ‘I own therefore I am.’”

Gaumont has also released The Chef [trailer] by Daniel Cohen, a gourmet comedy featuring Jean Reno and Michaël Youn, in about 360 cinemas. The film has already been sold in over 40 territories.

Also in French cinemas today are the politically-engaged Indignados [trailer] by Tony Gatlif (read the review - Les Films du Losange on 40 copies) and the poignant Hasta la vista! [trailer] by Belgian director Geoffrey Enthoven (article - Les Films 13 on 94 copies).

Finally, also out are the family comedy Nos plus belles vacances [trailer] by and with Philippe Lellouche as well as Julie Gayet (Pathé Films in 260 cinemas), the thriller A l'aveugle by Xavier Palud with Jacques Gamblin and Lambert Wilson (article - EuropaCorp Distribution), the documentaries A l'ombre de la république by Stéphane Mercurio (distribution Iskra) and Au Coeur du combat by Ivan Castellano (Les Films à Fleur de Peau), and the Russian film Elena by Andrei Zviaguintsev (discovered at Cannes’ Certain Regard – Pyramide Distribution).

(Translated from French)