French Star Gilles Lellouche on Directing Epic ‘Beating Hearts,’ Studiocanal’s Biggest Ever French-Language Movie (EXCLUSIVE)
20.01.2024 - 14:15
/ variety.com
Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Already one of France’s most beloved and bankable actors (“The Stronghold”), Gilles Lellouche is about to graduate as a big-shot filmmaker five years after delivering his sophomore outing, “Sink or Swim,” a B.O. hit which lured more than four million moviegoers (over $35 million) in theaters.
His next movie, “Beating Hearts” (“L’amour Ouf”), budgeted in the €30 million range, is epic in many ways. And not just because of its breadth and running time exceeding three hours.
A crime romance loosely based on Neville Thompson’s 1997 novel “Jackie Loves Johnser OK,” the movie is an emotional rollercoaster spanning over 15 years in the lives of star-crossed lovers. It took Lellouche over a decade to write (alongside Audrey Diwan and Ahmed Hamidi) and four months to shoot with a cast mixing rising and famous actors (Mallory Wanecque, Malik Frikah, Adele Exarchopoulos, Francois Civil), a pulsating soundtrack of cult 1980s and 1990s songs (from The Cure, Billy Idol, Depeche Mode), topnotch key crew and dream-like musical interludes created by (La) Horde.
“Beating Hearts” marks Studiocanal‘s biggest investment in a French-language movie to date and reteams Lellouche with the banner following “Sink or Swim,” which scored its largest ever box office gross for a local film in France in 2018. The anticipation for “Beating Hearts” has been running high among international distributors who flocked to Studiocanal’s private promo presentation at the Royal Monceau Hotel during the Unifrance Rendez-Vous, which was attended by Lellouche, producers Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi and Alain Attal at Trésor Films, and key cast members Exarchopoulos (“The Stronghold”), Civil (“The Three Musketeers”),
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