16/09/2005

Clutching her Volpi Cup for best actress won last week in Venice for her performance in La Bestia nel cuore [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno last Monday began shooting for the first feature by the Frenchman Cyril Gelblat: Les murs porteurs. Also in the casting for this European co-production driven by Delante Films are Charles Berling, Miou Miou and Schulamit Adar.

Dramatic comedy, Les murs porteurs follows the tribulations of Frida (Shulamit Adar), a 75 year old woman, an Ashkenaze Jew, who is gradually losing her memory. Returning to her apartment expecting to see her husband, dead several years before, she discovers Manou (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), her lodger who is waiting for a promotion at work but discovers she is pregnant and must face up to her dilemma. Written by the director in collaboration with Agnès De Sacy, the screenplay also evokes the life of Frida’s children. Judith (Miou Miou) a divorcée who decided not to work in order to look after her children, and who has to deal with both the departure of her youngest son and the ageing of her mother, while wondering about her own usefulness. As for Simon (Charles Berling) the journalist, he does not get a grip of the fact that his daughter is blooming and seems unaware of the mother’s situation. A chronicle of time passing, Les murs porteurs will tie together the strands of these characters who lose themselves than re-find themselves.

Produced by Caroline Adrian and Antoine Rein for the French company Delante Films, Les murs porteurs had a budget of 2,9 million euros, including 350 000 euros of aid from the Ile-de-France region, pre-sales from Canal Plus and from CinéCinéma, support from the Shoah Memorial Foundation and co-production aid from SND who distribute the film in France. Gelblat’s feature also received 240 000 euros from the co-production mini-treaty between France and Germany (70% for Delante, 20% for the Berliners at CMW Film Company), Swiss Vega Film complete the package. Having shot for two days in Warsaw, the team returns to Paris to turn over for 8 weeks, with one week in Nice also planned.

(Translated from French)