17/01/2006

Shooting started yesterday in Prague on La Môme (The Kid), an adaptation of the life of the famous singer Edith Piaf, written by the director Olivier Dahan with Marion Cotillard in the principal role. An impressive cast has been gathered for the occasion including Gérard Depardieu, Jean-Paul Rouve, Sylvie Testud, Clotilde Courau, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner and the rocker Jean-Pierre Martins playing Marcel Cerdan, world boxing champion and the singer’s great love. Retracing the exceptional life of Edith Piaf (born in 1915, died 1963), from her birth to her public success, Olivier Dahan is the second filmmaker to attack the subject, following Claude Lelouch’s Edith et Marcel (1983). Born in 1967, it is the director’s sixth feature, starting in 1994 with Frères: La roulette rouge, followed by success with several genres in films such as Déjà mort (1997 with Romain Duris and Benoît Magimel), Le Petit Poucet (2001), Ghost River (2002 with Isabelle Huppert) and Les Rivières pourpres 2 - les anges de l'apocalypse (2004).

With a production headed by Alain Goldman for the French company Légende Entreprises, La Môme has co-production support from TF1 Films Production, Czech Okko Production (specialist partners with French cinema since Joan of Arc by Luc Besson in 1998) and the British company Songbird Pictures Limited. The 15-week shoot will take place mainly in the Prague Studios and in other locations in the Czech Republic, finishing in April with two weeks location shooting in Paris. Foreign sales are in the hands of TF1 International while in France, it is TFM Distribution who will distribute the film in theatres on the 11th October 2006.

(Translated from French)