Amelio makes French-language debut with Camus adaptation
Shooting will begin in April, in France and Algeria, on Il Primo Uomo (“The First Man”) by Gianni Amelio. This is the first French-language film for the director of Stolen Children (Grand Jury Prize, Cannes 1992) and The Way We Laughed (Golden Lion, Venice 1998).
Based on the unfinished and posthumously published novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus, Il Primo Uomo (scripted by Amelio) tells the story of Jacques Cormery, a man in his 40s and the writer’s alter ego, who in the 1950s returns to Algeria, his homeland. There, he revisits his childhood memories, from his schooldays to the African landscapes; his love for his mother – a fascinating but detached woman, to be played by Italian icon Claudia Cardinale; and his condition of being a “foreign Frenchman”.
For the lead, Amelio has chosen Jacques Gamblin, Silver Bear Best Actor winner for Safe Conduct [+see also:
trailer
film profile], who is flanked once again by his co-star of that film, Denis Podalydes.
The project is co-produced by Italy (Cattleya) and France (Soudaine Compagnie, run by Bruno Pesery, who previously worked with Amelio on The Keys to the House [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Lamerica) for an overall €11.6m, €600,000 of which came from Eurimages.
Il Primo Uomo will be sold internationally by Wild Bunch.
(Translated from Italian)
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