27/04/2005

Released today in the French cinemas, Clear Eyes [+see also:
film review
interview: Jérôme Bonnell
interview: Nathalie Boutefeu
film profile], the second feature from young filmmaker Jérôme Bonnel (28 years old) yesterday claimed the Jean Vigo Award for 2005. Created in 1951 in homage to the director of L'Atalante and of Zéro de conduite and attributed by a jury of critics, exhibitors and former winners, the prize seeks to honour films “which uncover fragility, awkwardness, the lengths we go to in order to discover passion and talent”. Among the previous recipients of the Jean Vigo Award are Night and fog by Alain Resnais (1956), Handsome Serge by Claude Chabrol (1959), Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard (1960), La Noire de... by Ousmane Sembene (1966), Naked Childhood by Maurice Pialat (1969), Paris awakes by Olivier Assayas (1992), Too much happiness by Cédric Kahn (1994) and also The Life of Jesus by Bruno Dumont (1997).

Distributed with a combined total of 50 prints in the French theatres by EuropaCorp, Luc Besson’s company (which also has international rights) Clear Eyes by Jérôme Bonnell is the final film produced by René Cleitman (who died in December 2004) through Theus Productions. With a budget of 2.1 million euros, made up of 350,000 euros Advance on Receipts from National Centre for Cinematography (CNC) and a co-production with France 2 Cinéma (530,000 euros, of which 300,000 for the license), this second film from the director of the very well-received Olga’s Bun (2001) has seduced the French critics. Aided by the performance of Nathalie Boutefeu and by the strangeness of the direction, Clear Eyes will be explored further by Cineuropa in the coming days in a special Focus On.

(Translated from French)