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PRODUCTION / FUNDING France

Philippe Le Guay shoots The Man in the Basement

by 

- Bérénice Béjo, Jérémie Rénier, François Cluzet and Jonathan Zaccaï star. Produced by Les Films des Tournelles, sold internationally by Playtime

Philippe Le Guay shoots The Man in the Basement
Actors Bérénice Béjo, Jérémie Rénier and François Cluzet

After beginning on 19 October, filming on The Man in the Basement [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Philippe Le Guay is now entering the final stretch in Paris. This is the 10th feature from the director, after The Women on the 6th Floor [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(2,27 million tickets sold in France, out of competition at the 2011 Berlinale, winner of the Best Supporting Actress César award), Cycling With Moliere [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(1,16 million tickets sold in France in 2013 and three César nominations) and Florida [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(Piazza Grande at Locarno in 2015), among other titles.

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The cast includes Bérénice Béjo (Best Actress award winner in Cannes in 2013 for The Past [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, winner of the 2012 Best Actress César award and nominated that same year for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Artist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michel Hazanavicius
film profile
]
, appreciated recently in The Quietude [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), Belgian actor Jérémie Rénier (muse of the Dardenne brothers and nominated several times for César and Lumières awards; appreciated recently in Slalom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Charlène Favier
film profile
]
and The Enemy [+see also:
film review
interview: Stephan Streker
film profile
]
, on screens next year in Drift Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile
]
), François Cluzet (nominated several times for César awards, seen recently in Poly [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) and Belgian actor Jonathan Zaccaï (appreciated in the series The Bureau).

Written by the director (nominated for the 2014 César award for Best Original Screenplay) together with Gilles Taurand (winner of the 1995 César award for Best Screenplay and nominated six other times, including in 2013 for Farewell My Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benoît Jacquot
film profile
]
and in 2017 for Heal the Living [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Katell Quillévéré
film profile
]
), the script centres on a couple who decides to sell the cellar in the building where they live. A banal and ordinary man presents himself, and buys the cellar. Two weeks later, the man has moved in. The couple decides to cancel the sale, but the man refuses to leave. Things quickly escalate when the man’s revisionist beliefs are uncovered by the building’s other tenants, and insidiously spread outside of the cave…

Produced by Anne-Dominique Toussaint for Les Films des Tournelles (already a partner of the filmmaker three times), The Man in the Basement is co-produced by France 2 Cinéma. Also pre-bought by Canal+ and Ciné+, the feature benefits from the support of the Cinémage and La Banque Postale Image Soficas. Filming, which will end on 4 December, is shot by Guillaume Deffontaines (nominated for the 2017 César award in his specialty for Slack Bay [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Bruno Dumont
film profile
]
) as director of photography. French distribution is handled by Ad Vitam and international sales by Playtime.

For the record, Les Films des Tournelles also produced, among other titles, The French Kissers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Riad Sattouf, Les Deux Amis [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Louis Garrel, The Hedgehog [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
by Mona Achache and the two first films by Nadine Labaki (later co-producing Capernaum [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
).

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(Translated from French)

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