Stella in the starting blocks
Final preparations are underway on Sylvie Verheyde’s Stella, with principal photography set to begin July 30.
Acclaimed for her feature debut Brother (Cesar for Best Female Newcomer), Verheyde – who went on to make Princesses in 1999 – is this time making a film about the unhappiness and changes a young teenager undergoes when she starts to attend a prestigious Parisian high school in the late seventies although having grown up in a worker’s café on the outskirts of the French capital.
Between love relationships, friends and family, Stella has to overcome a fair share of difficulties in order to get on in life, a path not unlike that of the director’s. Born into a working class family in the north of France, Verheyde spent her childhood in a similar area in Paris where her parents ran a café before she began attending the Lycée Rodin in 1979 (whose past pupils include Cédric Klapisch).
This grim television film – being sold internationally by Dreamachine – tells the story of two marginalised characters in a world not made for them. An irresistible and dangerous relationship develops between Tony, a half-crazed ex-military man (Biolay), and Virginie (Smet).
Produced by Les Films du Veyrier, Stella – which will wrap up shooting in early September (the end of the school holidays of the 11-13 year-old actresses cast) – is a €3.3m budget film backed by CNC advances on receipts (€410,000), the Ile-de-France region (€384,000), pre-sales and co-production funding from Arte France Cinéma and participation from Canal+.
Founded by Bruno Berthemy, former Unifrance director (1994-2000) and head of the Film Producers Union (1990-1994), Les Films du Veyrier also produced Diane Bertrand’s L'Annulaire (released 2005) and Vincent Dietschy’s En visite (still without a distributor).
(Translated from French)
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