FRANCE
2010 / WORLD PREMIERE
1H40 / IN FRENCH
Synopsis
A couple, Romeo and Juliet.
A child, Adam.
His illness, their battle.
And above all, their great love story.
director: Valérie Donzelli
screenplay: Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm
cinematography: Sébastien Buchmann
sound : André Rigaut
editing: Pauline Gaillard
production design : Gaëlle Usandivaras
music advisor: Jérémie Elkaïm
cast:
Valérie Donzelli
Jérémie Elkaïm
César Desseix
Gabriel Elkaïm
Brigitte SY
Elina Lowensohn
Michèle Moretti
Philippe Laudenbach
Bastien Bouillon
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Biography
Valérie Donzelli
French nationality. Born on March 2, 1973 in Épinal (France)
Filmography
2010 LA GUERRE EST DÉCLARÉE
2010 MADELEINE ET LE FACTEUR
2009 LA REINE DES POMMES
2008 IL FAIT BEAU DANS LA PLUS BELLE VILLE DU MONDE |
production
RECTANGLE PRODUCTIONS
Edouard Weil
Tel. +33 1 56 43 44 00
Mob. +33 6 09 43 41 62
laurine@rectangleproductions.com
coproduction
WILD BUNCH
distribution
WILD BUNCH DISTRIBUTION
Tel. +33 1 53 10 42 56
distribution@wildbunch.eu
sales
WILD BUNCH
Esther Devos
Tel. +33 1 53 01 50 30
edevos@wildbunch.eu
French press agent
ANDRE PAUL RICCI
André-Paul Ricci
Tel. +33 1 49 53 04 20
Tony Arnoux
Mob. +33 6 80 10 41 03
tony.arnoux@wanadoo.fr
Magali Montet
Mob. +33 6 71 63 36 16
magali@magalimontet.com
international press
Magali Montet
Mob. +33 6 71 63 36 16
magali@magalimontet.com
Delphine Mayele
Mob. +33 6 60 89 85 41
delphine@magalimontet.com
It’s a love story, an action and war movie, where fantasy fights against a descent into hell. After La Reine des pommes (The Queen of Hearts), her first feature with a hint of Chaplin and French New Wave, Valérie Donzelli proves with La Guerre est déclarée (Declaration of War) that we were right to bet on her. The film is the hand-to-hand fight between a carefree couple – his name is Romeo (Jérémie Elkaïm), her name is Juliet (Valérie Donzelli) – and their son’s brain tumor. A declaration of war on this enduring illness, devouring cells, all kinds of cells and even family units. Donzelli doesn’t deny herself. She films this moral and physical marathon (running, fainting, slipping from a French cancan to an open kiss, a tender version of the open bar) like a comedy: “what I like about comedy, she says, is delicacy”).
People sing like in The Queen of Hearts (“I like your knees and your brains”) when they should talk, they establish the sacred union of social environments (well-adjusted lesbians on one side, bourgeois family on another) and empirical defense strategies (“no half-assed speculations and no internet), and they always give a final extra kick to keep hoping despite the odds. “Romeo and Juliet, explains Valérie Donzelli, have decided to be happy no matter what.” But you win some, you lose some, even if it means you’ll be together for life. “I was afraid to be awful, I didn’t want to act in the film, admits the director, because this time I couldn’t hide behind Adèle’s comic mask as in The Queen of Hearts.” This Full Metal Jacket of hospital hallways brings tears to your eyes but portrays a contagious vitality for life. They won the War. Spread the word.
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Sophie Grassin |
