27/04/2010

This is the third week of shooting in Paris on French/UK/Polish co-production The Woman In the Fifth by Pawel Pawlikowski (My Summer of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean-Paul Rougier
interview: Pawel Pawlikowski
interview: Tanya Seghatchian
film profile]). Adapted from Douglas Kennedy’s eponymous best-seller, the film stars US actor Ethan Hawke, UK actress Kristin Scott Thomas and Poland’s Joanna Kulig.

Co-written by the director and the novelist, the film centres on Tom Ricks, an American writer who arrives in Paris to be closer to his daughter, Chloé who recently moved there with her mother. Completely broke, he accepts a job as a night guard for a local mob boss. Down in a basement, his only task is to push a button when a bell rings. The tranquility of the night, he hopes, will help him focus on a letter to his daughter.

Soon his days become more exciting than his nights when he starts a romance with Margit, a mysterious and elegant widow who sets strange rules to their meetings: she will only see him at her apartment, at 5pm sharp, twice a week. And he’s to ask no questions about her work, her past, her life...

As people suddenly start dying around Tom, he begins to believe that a dark force has entered his life, punishing anyone who has recently done him wrong. When the police accuse him of murdering his neighbor, Tom tries to use his weekly visits to Margit’s apartment as an alibi, only to find out nobody has lived at this address for the past 15 years...

Produced by Haut et Court, The Woman In the Fifth is co-produced by the UK’s Film 4 and by SPI International Polska. Pre-bought by Canal + and Orange Cinéma Séries, the feature also has backing from Coficup, Sofica Banque Postale Image 4 and Memento Films International. The latter is managing international sales, which got off to an excellent start in Berlin.

Shooting is scheduled to last until June 4 in the French capital.

(Translated from French)