06/06/2013 - Since May 13th, the French director has been filming a free contemporary adaptation of Ovid’s classic. A Films Pelléas production

He had already adapted Georges Bataille and Madame de La Fayette, but this time Christophe Honoré goes even further back in time and into the roots of European culture by signing a free contemporary rereading of Ovid's Metamorphoses, a monumental epic poem thought to have been composed around year 1 A.D. Filming since May 13th and until the end of June, the cast features young actors Amira Akili, Sébastien Hirel, Damien Chapelle, Mélodie Richard and George Babluani, who will respectively play Europe, Jupiter, Bacchus, Junon and Orphée.

Written by the director, the screenplay sees a teenager seduced by a man in front of her school, and then kidnapped by him. He starts to tell her strange stories about young people who were transformed into animals after having met him. The teenager is not afraid of his stories. On the contrary, she finds them quite amusing and, out of curiosity, ends up gradually entering a world of legends where the boundary between mortals and gods no longer exists.

Métamorphoses is the 9th feature film by Christophe Honoré (43 years old), who is now used to big festivals since he notably presented four films in Cannes (Seventeen Times Cecile Cassard in the Certain Regard section in 2002, Dans Paris in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2006, Love Songs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] in competition in 2007 and Beloved [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christophe Honoré
film profile], which closed the Official Selection in 2011) and has also participated twice in the competition in San Sebastian (with La Belle personne [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2008 and Making Plans For Lena [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in 2009).

Produced by Philippe Martin for Les Films Pelléas, Métamorphoses is coproduced by Le Pacte and France 3 Cinéma. Pre-purchased by Canal+, the feature film is also funded by the Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées regions, as well as by Sofica Palatine Etoile, Cofinova and Cinémage.

Les Films Pelléas, which recently unveiled Tip Top [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Serge Bozon
film profile] by Serge Bozon (read the review and watch the video interview) in the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, are preparing for the filming of Victoria by Jean-Paul Civeyrac and Peur de rien [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Danielle Arbid (article) over the next few months. The Parisian company is also handling the post-production of Il est parti dimanche by Nicole Garcia (article), Dans la cour by Pierre Salvadori (article) and Tirez la langue mademoiselle by Axelle Ropert (article).

(Translated from French)