Awards:
SACD Screenwriting Award (2006)
Grand Golden Rail (2006)
Critics Week Grand Prize (Cannes Film Festival, 2006)
Most Promizing Actor: Malik Zidi (César Awards 2007)
Best Male Newcomer: Thibault Vinçon (Etoile d’Or 2007)
Les Amitiés Maléfiques Poison Friends
THIS MOVIE IS PART OF THE TOURNEES PROGRAM
Introduction by and Discussion with Professor Carolina Sanin, Spanish Language and Culture
Eloi, a reserved but passionate literature student and son of a well-known writer, befriends André, a brilliant and charismatic student who vehemently criticizes his peers for their desire to write and publish. Mesmerized by André’s impressive intelligence, Eloi and his friends, Alexandre and Edouard, let André become their mentor. When André’s influence proves corrosive, the situation becomes tumultuous for all.
"Steeped in shrewdness about the often contradictory workings of human nature, Poison Friends is gratifying in the best tradition of French cinema ." K. Thomas, Los Angeles Times
DIRECTOR’S QUOTES How did you get the idea for this film ? I wanted to examine the ambiguous friendships that develop at the transition point between adolescence and adulthood. What interested me was that in this kind of group, there is neither a guilty nor innocent party. How did you pick the actors ?
I met Thibault Vinçon at a Musset workshop at the Conservatoire. I was struck immediately by his technical brilliance and by his sensitivity, two qualities rarely seen together in one actor. What I also liked was that his presence was not just intellectual, but physical. He exercises a perceptible influence over his friends – and this was important for me, with regards to this very literary world. He truly became André for me.
Biography: Emmanuel Bourdieu
A former student and professor of philosophy, Emannuel Bourdieu is also the son of the famous French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. During his studies, he met –among others- Emmanuelle Devos and Arnaud Desplechin, with whom he created the intellectual and artistic group Rive Gauche . He started his writing career as a playwright, later moving on to screenwriting with Arnaud Desplechin, Nicole Garcia and Catherine Corsini.
In 1998, he made his directorial debut with two shorts: Venise and then Candidatures, for which he received the Prix Jean Vigo (2001) and the César (2003) for best short movie. His first feature-length film is based on the sociological work of his father with a rural group of unmarried people. In 2006, his second feature, Les Amitiés Maléfiques, received, among other awards, the Critic Week Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
