Huppert seeks new life in Villa Amalia
"Who hasn’t dreamed of severing all ties, casting off the anchors and setting sail? Becoming someone else? Changing one’s life?" says Isabelle Huppert in describing her role as a woman who systematically cuts herself off from her past and settles on the Italian island of Ischia in Benoît Jacquot’s Villa Amalia [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
Highly acclaimed by critics, the film – also starring Jean-Hugues Anglade, Xavier Beauvois, Clara Bindi and Maya Sansa – is being launched today on 125 screens by EuropaCorp Distribution.
Co-written by the director and Julien Boivent, Villa Amalia, based on the Pascal Quignard novel, is a mysterious and moving work, enhanced by Caroline Champetier’s cinematography and Bruno Coulais’ score.
As its lead actress commented, "The film is about someone who achieves solitude, who suffers from and enjoys this state." Explored without any psychological explanations, to Jacquot this journey is like escaping "from a little circle to attain something which is undoubtedly difficult but is, at the same time, the price of freedom."
Villa Amalia was produced by Rectangle Productions for €4.55m. This included co-production support from EuropaCorp, France 2 Cinéma and Switzerland’s Point Prod, an advance on receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC), as well as pre-sales from Canal +, Ciné Cinéma and TSR.
Other French productions hitting theatres this Wednesday include Michel Munz and Gérard Bitton’s comedy Erreur de la Banque en Votre Faveur [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Bank Error in Your favour”), starring Gérard Lanvin and Jean-Pierre Darroussin (Wild Bunch Distribution - 398 screens); and three documentaries, including Fabienne Godet’s excellent My Greatest Escape [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Haut et Court - 36 screens).
The rest of Europe is represented by Stephen Frears’ Chéri [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile] (Pathé - 133 screens) and the German animated film Impy’s Wonderland (Océan Films - 282 screens).
(Translated from French)
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