Karlovy Vary International Film Festival

July 2 - 10, 2010

Villa Amalia
Villa Amalia

Discussion My Program

Colour, 35 mm
France, Switzerland, 2008, 97 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition
Film trailer: Higher quality | Lower quality

Film screenings:
314 - 5.7., 17:00, Grand Hall
4E2 - 6.7., 13:00, Espace Dorleans Cinema

Director: Benoît Jacquot
Screenplay: Benoît Jacquot, Julien Boivent podle stejnojmenného románu / based on the novel of the same name by Pascal Quignard
Dir. of Photography: Caroline Champetier
Music: Bruno Coulais
Editor: Luc Barnier
Producer: Edouard Weil
Production: EuropaCorp, Rectangle Production, Point Prod
Sales: EuropaCorp

Cast

Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Xavier Beauvois, Maya Sansa, Clara Bindi

Synopsis

After Ann sees her partner Thomas kissing another woman, she refuses to have anything to do with him anymore. She doesn’t want to hear his explanations or excuses; she decides not only to end their long-standing relationship but to leave everything else far behind her. She sells the house and furniture, even the piano she loved, she stuffs her clothes into huge plastic sacks and takes them off to the dustbins. She simply erases her entire past, determined to begin again from scratch. The only person she trusts is her childhood friend Georges, whom she meets on that fateful night. One day, after visiting her old sick mother, Ann leaves for Italy and, on an island which she has covered on foot from one end to the other, she finds an old abandoned house above the sea. It’s called the Villa Amalia and it seems this is the place she has been looking for, which will help her to build a new life. The film was adapted from the novel by French writer Pascal Quignard which won the prestigious Prix Goncourt, about a woman who resolves to reinvent herself. Isabelle Huppert as Ann is probably the only actress capable of portraying a character like this with such conviction, under a director she has worked with on several occasions in the past.

About the director

Benoît Jacquot (b. 1947, Paris) began as an assistant to Bernard Borderie on one of the films from the Angélique series. During the 1970s he worked in television, where he filmed, among others, a remarkable documentary on Jacques Lacan. He worked with Marguerite Duras on the films Nathalie Granger (1972) and India Song (1975). His independent film debut came with The Musician Killer (L’assassin musicien, 1974). He was also noted for his film Closet Children (Les enfants du placard, 1977), after which he made the following films (selection): The Wings of the Dove (Les ailes de la colombe, 1981), A Single Girl (La fille seule, 1995), The School of Flesh (L’école de la chaire, 1998), Sade (2000), Adolphe (2002), Right Now (A tout de suite, 2004), The Untouchable (L’Intouchable, 2006), Villa Amalia (2008).

Film Guests

Isabelle Huppert

Contacts

EuropaCorp
137, rue du Faubourg St Honoré, 75008 Paris
France
Tel: +33 1 538 303 03
Fax: +33 1 538 303 04
E-mail: contact@europacorp.com
www: www.europacorp.com