PRODUCTION / FUNDING Belgium / France
Benoît Poelvoorde, frustrated hero of Stefan Liberski’s De l’art ou du Machond ?
- Gustave Kervern, Camille Cottin and François Damiens are also in the cast of the Belgian director’s fourth feature film, produced by Artémis Productions and co-produced by Le Bureau
Filming began on 17 August on the new film from Belgian filmmaker and artist Stefan Liberski, titled De l’art ou du Machond? and starring Benoît Poelvoorde.
A multi-disciplinary artist - first known to the Belgian public for his talents as a comedian on the TV programme Les Snuls, he has published 7 novels and many other works, and is also an author of graphic novels -, Stefan Liberski is back behind the camera for his fourth feature film (fifth if we count the TV movie En chantier, Monsieur Tanner), after Bunker Paradise [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Liberski
film profile], Baby Balloon [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Tokyo Fiancée [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
With the satirical comedy De l’art ou du Machond?, he explores the flaws of the contemporary art milieu, through the tribulations of an eminently conceptual painter (played by Benoît Poelvoorde) whose career was quickly interrupted by a series of setbacks, and who decides to abandon Brussels and his job as a professor to move to Normandy. The birthplace of Impressionism, it is where he decides to find the inspiration necessary for him to give to the world the major artwork that will finally bring him glory and eternal recognition. His problem? He can only think of the idea for the concept... Entres Bagnoule, a fun-loving, naive and warm figurative painter whose good nature will bring him out of his rut, and the “charming” Cécile Fouasse, a manipulative gallerist, who will come to disturb his concentration. The painter’s encounter with these locals will turn out to be decisive for the realisation of his project.
In the title role, we find Benoît Poelvoorde (this year in Normal [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and A Wonderful Girl [+see also:
film review
film profile], and who has just completed filming on Beating Hearts by Gilles Lellouche), who had already worked with the director on En chantier, Monsieur Tanner, and contributed significantly to the creation of this clumsy character who finds the source of his inspiration again. The part of Bagnoule, the painter who will return him to his vocation, goes to the extravagant and vigorous Gustave Kervern (co-director on Mammuth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gustave Kervern, Benoî…
film profile] and Delete History [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] among other films, seen this year in Rosalie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). The temptress Cécile Fouasse will be played by Camille Cottin (seen recently in American productions such as House of Gucci and the series Killing Eve, this year alongside Helen Mirren in Golda [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and in the all-star cast of Kenneth Branagh’s A Haunting in Venice). The cast also includes François Damiens.
Filming began on 17 August in Belgium and will then move to France, in Tréport, before concluding in late September in Brussels. De l’art ou du Machond ? is produced by Patrick Quinet for Artemis Productions, who is also producing the new film from Yolande Moreau, titled La Fiancée du poète. The film is co-produced by Bertrand Faivre and Le Bureau (France), with the support of the RTBF, BeTv and Proximus in Belgium, as well as Canal+ and Ciné+ in France. French distribution will be handled by KMBO, Belgian distribution by O’Brother Distribution, and international sales by The Bureau Sales.
(Translated from French)
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
