Focus on French Cinema - French Film Festival of Greenwich April 9-11, 2010

2010

›› Back to Selection 2010

- J’ai tué ma mère
- Gamines
- Le vilain
- L'empreinte de l'ange
- Où est la main de l'homme
sans tête
- Versailles
- Peur[s] du noir
- La première étoile
- Le hérisson
- Ensemble c'est trop
- Rapt
- Sexe, gombo et beurre salé

L’empreinte de l'ange The Mark of an Angel NY Premiere
Genre: THRILLER Director: Safy Nebbou Screenplay: Cyril Gomez-Mathieu and Safy Nebbou Starring: Catherine Frot Sandrine Bonnaire Wladimir Yordanoff Running time: 1hr 35min Production: France, 2008 Distributor: Diaphana Films ›› OFFICIAL WEBSITE ›› TRAILER
SYNOPSIS Catherine Frot and Sandrine Bonnaire co-star brilliantly in this chilling thriller directed by Safy Nebbou. Frot plays Elsa, a troubled woman who becomes increasingly convinced that the young daughter of a wealthy family friend, Claire (Bonnaire), is in fact the child she lost in a hospital fire seven years ago. Elsa descends dangerously into obsession and the film offers a character study of her psychological disintegration as well as something of a sociological observation of French upper-middle class attitudes.
CRITICS/QUOTES Director’s quote: “According to legend, when a baby is to be born into the world, it is privy to the mystery of creation. But just before birth, an angel places a finger on the baby’s mouth, and with a « hush », the child forgets everything and enters the world innocent.” Press reviews VARIETY: “ A subtle yet utterly engrossing Gallic thriller… a crafty exercise in classic genre filmmaking, but with enough restraint and thematic oomph to push it to art house levels. Sunday Times: “It’s smart, seductive stuff that taps the primal power of maternal grief.” Guardian: “A moving, assured portrayal of a damaged woman in a film following in the coolly measured steps of I've Loved You So Long.” This is London: “Films like this - taut, expertly paced - are invariably dubbed Hitchcockian.”	BIO/FILMOGRAPHY Safy Nabou's Filmography As director: 2004 : Le Cou de la girafe 2006 : Une naissance 2008 : L'Empreinte de l'ange 2010 : L'Autre Dumas Catherine Frot's Biography Catherine Frot has demonstrated both chameleonic skills and a predilection for comedy from an early age. At fourteen, she enrolled in the Versailles conservatory and by 1974 she began her education at the Rue Blanche school after which she began to study full time at the conservatory. In 1975, she founded the Compagnie du Chapeau Rouge with which she performed at the Festival d'Avignon . Passionately devoted to the theatre, she won the Theatrical Critic Award in 1983 for her role in Jean Bouchot 's C'était comment déjà ? On screen, Frot made a sensational name for herself after winning the César Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role in 1996, for her performance as Yoyo, the naïve suburban housewife in Cedric Klapisch 's Un air de famille which she had previously immortalized on stage. She then set out to subvert whatever image the French public had of her, starring as a charmingly rebellious, infuriating yet ultimately sympathetic bourgeoise in La Dilettante (1999). In 2003, she starred in 7 ans de mariage (2003) where her character gets drawn into the world of Parisian spouse-swapping clubs. That same year, she portrayed a repentant ex-revolutionary in Lucas Belveaux’ trilogy. In 2006, she was nominated for a César for her performance as a stage-frightened/guilt-ridden pianist in the dramatic thriller La Tourneuse de pages. Frot continued to unpredictably shift gears and overthrowing expectations, perhaps most remarkably in Safy Nebbou’s L'Empreinte de l'ange in 2008, with her turn as a troubled woman who is convinced that her deceased daughter is still alive and in the care of another woman. Her chilling performance, critics have hailed to be nothing short of Hitchcockian. In 2009, she returned to lighter yet still somewhat Machiavellian fare, and aged spectacularly for the part of Albert Dupontel’s self-righteous mother in Le Vilain.