Ruiz, Carrière and Arbid in the starting blocks
Three features from directors Raoul Ruiz, Christine Carrière and Danielle Arbid have just been promised an advance on receipts from the Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), as part of the second commission headed by producer Bruno Pesery.
Chilean poet Ruiz is currently preparing Mademoiselle Christine, an Elzevir production whose shoot will begin this autumn. An adaptation of the philosophical short story by Romanian novelist Mircea Eliade, the film will retrace the troubling events that frighten the hosts of a villa near the Danube in 1920’s Romania. An atheist researcher, an artist in love, and a historian all cross paths and are confronted with strange phenomena that defy their deepest beliefs. Between dreams and reality, the legend of “phantom Christine”, the man-eater, will go down from century to century to bewitch the villa’s occupants.
Rectangle Productions’ Darling, the third feature by Carrière, starring Guillaume Canet and Marina Fois, has also been promised an advance on receipts. The director of Rosine (four awards in Locarno in 1994) and Who Plucked the Feathers Off the Moon? (Director’s Fortnight 1999 and C.I.C.A.E award, Bayard d'or for Best Screenplay at Namur) will this summer begin shooting on a film about the story of a woman, Darling, who leads a difficult life who, instead of pitying herself, chooses to fight. In an attempt to deal with her problems and give some sense to her life, Darling leads a disorderly life where she invents, embellishes and puts on a show, wanting to seduce in spite of everything. Naïve and cheeky, instinctive and courageous, she possesses the vital force of a tragic heroine.
The third promise of advance on receipts goes to MK2 Productions for Un homme perdu by Arbid, from a screenplay that already benefited from scriptwriting funding from the CNC in 2004. Following In the Battlefields [+see also:
trailer
film profile], her first fiction feature presented at Director’s Fortnight in 2004, the Paris-based Lebanese director here tells the story of a man who, having lost his memory, is confronted with loneliness. Arbid started out making documentaries, such as Seule avec la guerre, which won several awards, including a Silver Leopard in the video competition at Locarno in 2000 and the Albert Londres audiovisual award in 2001.
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