31/05/2005

Shooting began yesterday in Cannes on La Californie, the first feature of screenwriter Jacques Fieschi. Bringing together a cast including Nathalie Baye, Ludivine Sagnier, Roschdy Zem and Mylène Demongeot, this loose adaptation of Chemin sans issue, a detective novel by Georges Simenon published in 1938, is centred around the character Maguy (Nathalie Baye). This beautiful women in her fifties lives in a luxury villa where she puts up all manner of people, some as house help, friends, sometimes a lover, among them Roschdy Zem and Mylène Demongeot. This little world has its own rules and regulations, where everyone finds their place until the arrival of the destabilising influence of Hélène (Ludivine Sagnier), Maguy’s daughter. In fact the screenplay was originally developed by Jacques Fieschi for André Téchiné.

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Author of around twenty feature screenplays and nominated three times for a Cesar since he began in 1985 (Police by Maurice Pialat), Jacques Fieschi has worked notably with Claude Sautet (Quelques jours avec moi, Un cœur en hiver, Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud), collaborated in the writing of five features by Nicole Garcia (including the next one Selon Charlie), and also provided his talent to Olivier Assayas (Les destinées sentimentales) Anne Fontaine and also Benoît Jacquot .

Co-produced by Edouard Weil for Rectangle Productions and Christine Gozlan for Thelma Film, with the aid of StudioCanal and of France 3 Cinéma, La Californie will shoot for 10 weeks, three in Cannes, then seven in Paris. Mars Distribution will take care of the French distribution in the second quarter of 2006, StudioCanalwill look after international sales.

(Translated from French)