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PRODUCTION / FUNDING France

Claire Simon wraps shooting on I Want To Talk About Duras

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- Emmanuelle Devos, Swann Arlaud and Christophe Paou star in the cast of this Les Films de l’Après-Midi production, which signals the director’s return to fiction

Claire Simon wraps shooting on I Want To Talk About Duras
Actress Emmanuelle Devos and actors Swann Arlaud and Christophe Paou

Filming has entered the final home straight on Claire Simon’s I Want To Talk About Duras [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Claire Simon
film profile
]
, which is set to wrap on 29 January and marks the filmmaker’s return to fiction, a genre she’d previously set aside following Gare du Nord [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(in competition in Locarno in 2013) in order to devote herself to the documentary form by way of The Woods Dreams are Made Of [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(screened out of competition in Locarno 2015), The Graduation [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(Venice Classics 2016), Young Solitude [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Claire Simon
film profile
]
(Berlinale Forum 2018), The Grocer’s Son, The Mayor, The Village and The World [+see also:
film review
film profile
]
(IDFA 2020) and the series Le Village (2019).

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Dazzling in the cast of I Want To Talk About Duras we find Emmanuelle Devos (recently nominated for the 2021 Best Actress Lumières Award for Perfumes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Grégory Magne
film profile
]
and whom we’ll be seeing this year in Tromperie), Swann Arlaud (the winner of 2018’s Best Actor César for Bloody Milk [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hubert Charuel
film profile
]
and last year’s Best Supporting Role trophy for By the Grace of God [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: François Ozon
film profile
]
; touring cinemas this year in How I Became A Super Hero and Joan) and Christophe Paou (especially well received in Stranger By The Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile
]
, and gracing screens this year in Oranges sanguines).

Written by Claire Simon, based upon Yann Andréa’s Je voudrais parler de Duras, the story takes us back to 1982. Yann Andréa and Marguerite Duras have been living together for two years. Yann asks Michèle Manceaux to interview him about his life with Duras and the passion which now binds them together for better or for worse, both entrancing and maddening…

I Want To Talk About Duras is the 6th fiction feature film to be directed by Claire Simon following on from Sinon, oui (Directors’ Fortnight 1997), That’s Just Like You (2000), On Fire [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(Directors’ Fortnight 2006), Les Bureaux de Dieu [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Directors’ Fortnight 2008) and Gare du Nord (in competition in Locarno 2013). The filmmaker has also directed nine feature-length documentaries in total, including Mimi [+see also:
interview: Claire Simon
film profile
]
(Berlinale Forum 2004) and Géographie humaine [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(screened out of competition in Locarno 2013).

Produced by François d’Artemare on behalf of Les films de l’après-midi, I Want To Talk About Duras notably benefits from an advance on receipts from the CNC, as well as support from the Ile-de-France region and from Normandie Images. Having kicked off on 4 January, filming unfolded in the Ile-de-France and Normandy regions with Céline Bozon (nominated for the 2018 Best Cinematography Lumières Award by way of Félicité [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Gomis
film profile
]
) at the helm of photography. The film’s release in France falls to Sophie Dulac Distribution.

For the record, Les Films de l’Après-Midi (whose recent filmography includes Made in Bangladesh [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Noura’s Dream [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, Alice T. [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Muntean
film profile
]
and Saint George [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Marco Martins
film profile
]
) is currently overseeing post-production on Marco Martins Great Yarmouth: Provisional Figures [+see also:
trailer
interview: Marco Martins
film profile
]
 (produced by Portuguese firm Uma pedra no Sapato and co-produced by Damned).

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(Translated from French)

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