28/03/2006

Filming began last Thursday around Paris for the seven-week shoot of Je pense à vous (lit. “I Am Thinking Of You”), the fourth feature by Pascal Bonitzer, whose last film, Small Cuts, was in official competition at Berlin in 2003.

An expert in dark comedies, the filmmaker has gathered a cast for his new film that includes Charles Berling, Géraldine Pailhas, Edouard Baer, Hippolyte Girardot and Marina De Van (who wrote the screenplay with Bonitzer). The story deals with a phenomenon currently in vogue in French literary circles, the revelation of the private lives of real people, thinly disguised as fiction.

Diane (Pailhas) lives with publisher Hermann (Baer) but everything is spoiled when Worms (Charles Berling), Hermann’s loyal author and friend, reveals in his new book the affair he once had with Diane, in a highly subjective manner. She soon discovers the contents of the work, which Hermann tries to hide from her, and takes on a lawyer to defend her privacy. But this is only the beginning of a mess that simply gets worse and worse, leading to an unexpected, brutal ending.

Now 60, the director, a former reporter for Cahiers du Cinéma, began his film career as a screenwriter, writing 20 scripts for Jacques Rivette (among them La Belle noiseuse, Who Knows?, Histoire de Marie et Julien) and six for André Téchiné (including Les Soeurs Bronte, Le Lieu du crime and Changing Times [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). Winner of the 1996 Prix Jean Vigo for his directorial debut Encore, Bonitzer continued his success with Rien pour Robert in 1999, then with Small Cuts.

With an advance on receipts from the National Film Centre (CNC), Je pense à vous is being produced by Rezo Films, which is also handling international sales and French distribution.

(Translated from French)