31/07/2003

Three Gallic productions will join the 19 titles selected for competition in the 2003 Locarno Film Festival (6-16 August). Good news for Salomé who produced Les Marins Perdus by Claire Denis ; Elia Films with Qui veut la mort de Mister V.? by Emilie Deleuze and TS Productions with Violence des échanges en milieu tempéré by Jean-Marc Moutout.

Based on the novel by Marseille-born writer Jean-Claude Izzo, Les marins perdus is Claire Denis’ fifth feature and the cast includes Bernard Giraudeau, Marie Trintignant and Audrey Tautou. Denis won the Caméra d’Or in 1986 for Noir et Blanc. Les marins perdus was produced by Salomé’s Maurice Bernart, and co-produced by Studio Canal, Arte France Cinéma and Gimages with Diaphana handling the domestic distribution.

Salomé has a lot invested in Locarno. The French slate co-produced another film in competition: Qui veut la mort de Mister V.? by Emilie Deleuze, a young director who came to the forefront of international attention with his directorial feature debut, Peau neuve (winner of the FIPRESCI in Cannes in 1991). This €1.56m new film was produced by Pauline Duhault’s Elia Films, with support from the CNC’s , “Box Office Advance” system and France 2 Cinéma. It stars Jacques Demy’s son Matthieu and Agnès Varda.

Jean-Marc Moutout’s directorial debut entitled Violence des échanges en milieu tempéré (originally L’Organisation) also has an interesting cast that includes Laurent Lucas ( Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien) and Jérémie Rénier (Le pornograph). Produced by Gilles Sacuto and Milena Povlo on behalf of TS Productions, the film was made with a €2.39m budget plus a contribution from the box office advance scheme. Les Belges des Films de L’Etang made a 20% contribution, and money was also forthcoming from Arte France Cinéma and Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and Les Films du Losange will release the title domestically.

(Translated from French)