CNC supports Claire Denis’ Les salauds

by Fabien Lemercier

19/07/2012 - During its third 2012 session, the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC)’s second advance on receipts committee selected six feature film projects. The most notable among these is Claire Denis’s Les salauds (lit. “The bastards”). Set to start shooting in August, it might just star Vincent Lindon (Welcome [trailer, film focus], Pater [trailer, film focus], Augustine [trailer], and soon to feature at Locarno in Quelques heures de printemps) who hasn’t worked with the director since Friday Night [trailer] (2002), beside Chiara Mastroianni (Beloved [trailer, film focus] and also noticed at Cannes in Augustine).

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Produced by Laurence Clerc for Alcatraz Films and by Wild Bunch, Les salauds (whose plot remains a mystery for the moment) is to be Claire Denis’ eleventh feature. The director has previously been selected five times for Venice (notably with The intruder [trailer] and White Material [trailer] in the competition in 2004 and 2009, but also with 35 Shots of Rum [trailer] out of competition in 2008). She was selected for Cannes in 1988 with Chocolat, and won the Golden Leopard in Locarno in 1996 for Nenette and Boni.

A CNC advance on receipts will also go to La jalousie (lit. “Jealousy”) by Philippe Garrel (SBS Productions) whose last five films have competed in Venice (Night Wind in 1999, Wild Innocence in 2001, a Golden Lion for Best Director for Regular Lovers [trailer] in 2005, and A Burning Hot Summer [trailer] in 2011) and in Cannes (Frontier of Dawn in 2008).

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (who won the Oscar for Best Film in a Foreign Language this year with A Separation) is also to receive support for his next film, Dominos, that he will start shooting in Paris this autumn with Marion Cotillard and Tahar Rahim (production: Memento Films).

Philippe Faucon’s project for a ninth feature film, Fatima (Istiqlal Films), also stands out. The filmmaker made a name for himself with, among others, The Betrayal [trailer] (selected for Toronto in 2005 and Rotterdam in 2006) and La désintégration [trailer] (lit. “Disintegration” - out of competition in Venice last year).

Finally, two documentaries will also be awarded an advance on receipts: Vendanges (lit. “The grape harvest”) by Paul Lacoste (production: Everybody On Deck) and Une histoire birmane (lit. “A Burmese story”) by Alain Mazars (a project that for the moment has no producer).

(Translated from French)