24/09/2014 - Sandrine Kiberlain and Laurent Laffite excel in the feature debut by Jeanne Herry, while Saint Laurent and In Order of Disappearance are also getting a release

Elle l’adore [+see also:
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film profile], the feature debut by Jeanne Herry, has already been crowned with all of the Audience Labels on the French exhibitor circuit, and won the 2014 Michel d'Ornano Award (for Best Screenplay by a young writer-director) and the Best Actress Award at the French Film Festival. Today, it hits screens with high expectations in a wildly competitive cinematic landscape that includes such titles as Saint Laurent [+see also:
film review
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Q&A: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] by Bertrand Bonello, which was very popular in competition at Cannes (read the review) and is the French hopeful in the 2015 Oscar race for Best Foreign-language Film (EuropaCorp Distribution in 213 cinemas).

Starring Sandrine Kiberlain (winner of the César for Best Actress this year for 9 Month Stretch [+see also:
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film profile]) and Laurent Lafitte (Little White Lies [+see also:
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film profile], Bright Days Ahead [+see also:
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film profile]), Pascal Demolon and Olivia Côte, Elle l'adore is a relatively original blend of comedy, crime fiction and a portrait of a woman. The plot revolves around Muriel, an eccentric beautician who is something of a compulsive liar and has for 20 years been a die-hard fan of successful singer Vincent Lacroix. One night, her idol rings her doorbell, and Muriel gets tangled up in a sinister affair that she could not have even dreamed up herself, involving a cumbersome dead body that needs getting rid of... 

According to the director (who is more than familiar with this topic, seeing as she is the daughter of singer Julien Clerc and actress Miou-Miou), who wrote the screenplay together with Gaëlle Macé: “Fans and singers are characters who have a lot of clichés attached to them. My story is based on the ordinariness of well-known people and the unconventionality of ordinary people, but also on something that genuinely exists between a fan and an artist: that feeling of having a connection, the idea of growing old together, of getting to know each other, of helping each other to live their lives.” Produced by Alain Attal and Hugo Sélignac for Les Productions du Trésor, Elle l'adore was co-produced by Egérie Productions, TF1 Films Productions and StudioCanal (which is also handling international sales), pre-purchased by Canal+ and Ciné+, and backed by Indéfilms.

Featuring among this week’s other new releases are the highly entertaining In Order of Disappearance [+see also:
film review
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interview: Hans Petter Moland
film profile] by Norway’s Hans Petter Moland (revealed in competition at Berlin – read the review - Chrysalis Films in 16 theatres), the Cannes award winner Leviathan [+see also:
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film profile] by Russian director Andreï Zviaguintsev (Pyramide Distribution) and Brèves de comptoir [+see also:
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film profile] by France’s Jean-Michel Ribes (Diaphana Distribution across 248 screens), which depicts one day in the life of a café located in a small square in the suburbs.

Also of note are the British-French-American-Swedish co-production Before I Go to Sleep [+see also:
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film profile] by Rowan Joffé (starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong - UGC Distribution), and the documentaries Flore by Jean-Albert Lièvre (Happiness Distribution) and Les enfants de la rose verte by Bernard Richard (distributed by Le Carnet Rouge), which tackle the subjects of Alzheimer’s and autism, respectively.

(Translated from French)