Cavalcade

Colour, 35 mm
France, 2005, 90 min
Section: Horizons
Oficiální stránky: www.cavalcade-lefilm.com

Synopsis

Last year at Karlovy Vary, French director Steve Suissa presented his biting comedy Le grand rôle, about a man who lies to his wife in order to make her last week of life as pleasant as possible. The central character of Cavalcade may not suffer from a wasting disease, but he will be reminded of his once high-risk lifestyle for the rest of his life. Successful musician Léo has everything: fame, money, luck with women, and good friends. He throws himself heedlessly into anything that might amuse him; he is direct, selfconfident, and rather spoiled. One day everything changes. Léo crashes while driving his expensive car at full speed and wakes up in the hospital. Though alive, nothing will ever be the same again: Léo is forced to cope with life in a wheelchair. The film is based on Bruno de Stabenrath’s autobiographical book. French comedian Titoff was entrusted with portraying the character’s transition from despair and futile rage to his first attempts toward becoming at least partially independent and re-evaluating his former lifestyle.

About the director

Steve Suissa (b. 1970, Paris) graduated from Paris’s Cours Florent acting school (1989), then began his career in both film and television, where he has appeared in nearly 20 titles (e.g. John Frankenheimer’s 1998 film Ronin). Eventually he moved into directing, screenwriting and producing. He drew admiration for his first feature Taking Wing (L’envol, 1999), which won Best Director, Best Actor (Clément Sibony) and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2000 Moscow IFF. After the short film Elle pleure pas (2001), he shot two movies for television, followed by a biting comedy set in the world of actors, Le grand rôle (2003), screened at Karlovy Vary in 2004.