21/01/2021 - The filmmaker has cast Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel; the next film by Sophie Letourneur and the feature debut by Emmanuelle Nicot will also be co-produced by the French-German channel

Director Bertrand Bonello, actress Léa Seydoux and actor Gaspard Ulliel

Arte France Cinéma’s (headed up by Olivier Père) first selection committee of 2021 has chosen to get involved in three projects as a co-producer and pre-purchaser. Standing out among them is La bête [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] by Bertrand Bonello, which will be the eighth feature by the filmmaker, following The Pornographer (Cannes Critics’ Week in 2001), On War [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Directors’ Fortnight 2008), Tiresia (in competition at Cannes in 2003), House of Tolerance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Adèle Haenel
film profile] (in competition at Cannes in 2011), Saint Laurent [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] (in competition at Cannes in 2014), Nocturama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] (in competition at Toronto and at San Sebastian in 2016) and Zombi Child [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] (Directors’ Fortnight 2019).

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Staged by Les Films du Bélier, La bête will boast a cast including Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel, and will tell a story set in the near future, when emotions have become a threat. Gabrielle finally resolves to purify her DNA in a machine that plunges her into her past lives and rids her of any strong feelings. She then meets Louis and feels a powerful connection, almost as if she has always known him. This melodrama criss-crossed by genre elements unfolds in three different years: 1910, 2014 and 2044.

Arte France Cinéma has also selected Voyages en Italie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the fifth feature by Sophie Letourneur, following Chicks – Life at the Ranch [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in competition at Rotterdam in 2010), Les Coquillettes [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (out of competition at Locarno in 2012), Gaby Baby Doll [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2014) and Enormous [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (in the Big Screen Competition at Rotterdam last year and winner of the 2020 Jean-Vigo Prize). Produced by Ecce Films, and starring the director herself alongside Philippe Katerine, this new project will revolve around Sophie, who explains how she has decided to head off with Jean-Philippe, just the two of them, in order to save their relationship, which has been engulfed by family life. But where should they go? After numerous hare-brained ideas, they decide to go to Sicily, despite Jean-Philippe’s sprain.

Arte France Cinéma will also be throwing its weight behind the feature debut by Emmanuelle Nicot: Dalva [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot
interview: Emmanuelle Nicot, Julie Esp…
film profile] (staged by Tripode Productions together with Belgian outfit Hélicotronc). The story hinges on 12-year-old Dalva. One evening, the police burst into her house and arrest her father, whom she lives with. Utterly flabbergasted, Dalva does everything she can to defend the man, but it’s no use. Suddenly sent to a children’s home for teenagers, Dalva will befriend Samia, her roommate, and will gradually come to trust her teacher, Jayden. Thanks to them, she will understand why she was taken away from her beloved father... Which path must Dalva now tread to escape his influence, to free herself from her father, to inch towards clear-sightedness?

As a reminder, Arte France Cinéma is also supporting the upcoming films by Leos Carax, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Asghar Farhadi, Ursula Meier, Mia Hansen-Løve, Claire Denis, Alain Guiraudie, Miguel Gomes, Joachim Trier, Nadav Lapid, Quentin Dupieux, Jonas Carpignano, Kirill Serebrennikov, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mathieu Amalric, Lisandro Alonso, Tarik Saleh, Mikhaël Hers, Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, André Téchiné, Louis Garrel, Jan P Matuszyński, Albert Serra, Alexandros Avranas, Patricio Guzmán, Julia Ducournau, Noémie Lvovsky, Thierry de Peretti, Arthur Harari, Leyla Bouzid, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Aurélia Georges, Alice Diop, Hafsia Herzi, Tiago Guedes, Dinara Droukarova, Vincent Le Port, Régis Sauder, Thomas Balmès, Chen Bo Yilin, Dror Moreh, and duo Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova, as well as animated flicks helmed by Momoko Seto, and by Florence Miailhe and Pierre Földes.

(Translated from French)