EVERYBODY LOVES JEANNE
(TOUT LE MONDE AIME JEANNE)
Saturday, October 15 – Truffaut Theatre – 5:10 pm
(Screening ends at 6:55 pm)
+ Short Film Presentation: ANXIOUS BODY
Followed by a conversation with writer/director Céline Devaux
FICTION / COMEDY, DRAMA
FRENCH NEWAVE 2.0
Presented in Association with:
Elle Driver
France Televisions
Women in Film
North American Premiere | France | 2022 | Comedy, Drama | 95 min | In French with English subtitles
Directed by: Céline Devaux
Written by: Céline Devaux
Produced by: Sylvie Pialat, Benoît Quainon (Les Films du Worso), SCOPE Pictures, France 3 Cinéma
Cinematography: Olivier Boonjing
Film Editing: Gabrielle Stemmer
Original Score: Flavien Berger
Cast: Blanche Gardin (Jeanne), Laurent Lafitte (Jean), Maxence Tual (Simon), Nuno Lopes (Victor), Marthe Keller (Claudia, Jeanne’s mother), Samira Sedira (Sonia Hami)
International Sales: Elle Driver
Everybody’s always loved Jeanne. At the moment, however, she pretty much hates herself. On the verge of bankruptcy, still reeling from her mother’s recent suicide, she’s now forced to sell her mom’s Lisbon apartment to pay off her investors. Plagued with insecurities and professionally humiliated, Jeanne has one constant companion – an inner voice in the form of a hairy little animated ghost, who mercilessly belittles and goads her. On the way to Lisbon, she runs into a guy named Jean at the airport. She’s sure he’s some creep who just wants to chat her up, but he turns out to be a former high school classmate eager to renew their friendship. Because, after all, everybody loves Jeanne! Writer/director/animator Céline Devaux‘s mischievous style, cheeky humor and quirky combination of live action footage and hand drawn animation, coupled with deft performances from a couple of pros like Blanche Gardin and Laurent Lafitte, make this charming anti-romantic comedy about depression an exceedingly uplifting undertaking, after all.
Céline Devaux studied at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris (ENSAD), graduating with a degree in film animation. Her thesis film, Vie et mort d’Illustre Grigori Efimovitch Raspoutine (2012), garnered numerous festival awards. Her second short, Sunday Lunch (2015) was screened in competition in Cannes, and nabbed a César Award for Best Animated Short Film. Her third short, Gros Chagrin (2017) won a Golden Lion for Best Short Film at the Venice Film Festival. In 2018, her work was presented as part of an exhibition entitled “Repas Chagrin” at the Maison Fumetti, a cultural space devoted to comic books and graphic arts, in Nantes. Everybody Loves Jeanne, her first feature film, premiered in the International Critics’ Week sidebar at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
