FRANCE
2024 – DCP – colore – 101’

Direction: Arnaud e Jean-Marie Larrieu

Screenplay: Arnaud e Jean-Marie Larrieu dall’omonimo romanzo di based on the same novel by Pierric Bailly

Cinematography: Irina Lubtchansky

Editing: Annette Dutertre

Set design: Brigitte Brassart

Original music: Bertrand Belin, Shane Copin

Costumes: Judith de Luze

Cast: Karim Leklou (Aymeric), Laetitia Dosch (Florence), Sara Giraudeau (Olivia), Bertrand Belin (Christophe), Noée Abita (Aurélie), Andranic Manet (Jim a 23 anni years), Eol Personne (Jim a 7 e 10 anni 7 and 10 years)

Producer: Kevin Chneiweiss

Production: SBS Productions, Arte France Cinema

World Sales: Pyramide International

Synopsis

Aymeric runs into Florence, a former coworker, one evening in Saint-Claude in the Haut-Jura. She is six months pregnant and single. When she gives birth to Jim, Aymeric is there. They spend happy years together until Christophe, Jim’s biological father, shows up… It could be the start of a melodrama, it’s also the start of an odyssey into fatherhood.

The directors: ARNAUD e JEAN-MARIE LARRIEU

They were born in 1965 and 1966, respectively, in the Hautes-Pyrénées and discovered both the cinema and the mountains thanks to their grandfather, an amateur filmmaker. After studying philosophy, they directed several short films, including La Brèche de Roland, with Mathieu Amalric (Directors’ Fortnight 2000). Feature films followed, with A Real Man (2003) and To Paint or Make Love, with Daniel Auteuil and Sabine Azéma, in Competition at Cannes. Then Le Voyage aux Pyrénées (Directors’ Fortnight 2008), Happy End, where they once again worked alongside Mathieu Amalric. In 2015, 21 Nights with Pattie brought together Isabelle Carré, Karin Viard and André Dussollier and was awarded the Best Screenplay at the San Sebastián IFF.

Director’s statement

“The story involved people who felt familiar to us but who are seldom talked about. This is also about class, with folks that are making do with odd jobs, often part-time jobs. We really like the way they all navigate through existence with no sense of what’s around the corner. A proximity of sorts was also generated by how parental or love relationships are woven in the novel. The central character resonated with our own films. Tralala for instance is about someone who finds himself in a town that is totally unknown to him and yet a family welcomes him. In Summer’s End and Roland’s Breach, we had also interrogated, within the family, the kind of ties that are built outside strictly blood ties. Therefore, we decided to adapt the novel. It was also our wish to keep Pierric’s novel’s title. Jim’s “story” is really what makes Jim who he is, beyond his biological origins.”

Filmography

1999 Summer’s End (short)
2000 Roland’s Breach (short)
2003 A Real Man
2005 To Paint Or Make Love
2008 The Trip To The Pyrenees
2009 Happy End
2013 Love Is The Perfect Crime
2015 21 Nights With Pattie
2021 Tralala
2024 Le roman de Jim

Awards and festivals

2024 Cannes FF – Official Selection, Cannes Première
2024 Festival de La Baule: Miglior Film Best Film
2024 Brussels IFF: Grand Prix

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