21/09/2010

Last Thursday, shooting started in Belgium on French director Rémi Bezançon’s third feature, A Happy Event, which looks at the upheaval experienced by a young couple when they become parents.

The cast includes Louise Bourgoin (The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Black Heaven [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gilles Marchand, director o…
film profile]), Pio Marmaï (nominated for the Best Male Newcomer Cesar 2009 for The First Day of the Rest of Your Life [+see also:
trailer
film profile] ; Living on Love Alone [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Josiane Balasko (The Hedgehog [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

Discovered with his debut feature Love Is In the Air (2005), Bezançon then made an impressive breakthrough with The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, which garnered 1.2m admissions in France and received nine Cesar nominations in 2009 (including Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay), winning three awards in the acting and editing categories.

Co-scripted by the director and Vanessa Portal, A Happy Event is adapted from Eliette Abeccassis’s novel of the same name. It centres on a couple who lead a typically free and childless life, until the birth of a baby completely changes their lifestyle and risks turning this happy event into a real ordeal.

Bezançon said his film "looks with humour and tenderness at the happiness, but also the difficulties of being a young parent".

Produced by Isabelle Grellat and Eric and Nicolas Altmayer for Mandarin Cinéma (who have been collaborating with the director since his first shorts), A Happy Event has co-production support from Gaumont and Belgium’s Scope Pictures. Shooting will continue until November 29 in Brussels, Charleroi and Antwerp. Gaumont will manage French distribution and international sales.

In production, Mandarin Cinéma also has Xavier Durringer’s La Conquête, which retraces Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to the French presidency (starring Denis Podalydès as Sarkozy); and Sylvain Fusée’s Philibert (see news). Finally, November 10 will see the release of their production Potiche [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by François Ozon.

(Translated from French)