After Kechiche, another great French director sees that the release of his film is blocked

While the skin selection presentation will be tomorrow, the main and missed moment of the film year, some moviegoers are still wondering if we will be able to see this film one day, which has caused so much talk on the day of its presentation. Competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2019: Mektoub My Love Intermezzo by Abdellatif Kechiche.

Three years after this memorable screening at the Cannes Film Festival, it is clear that the film remains invisible. He is not scheduled to appear on the horizon due to a dispute between his director and his producer-distributors. Rumors have been circulating about the new montage, but for more than a year now, neither the news of the film nor its exact legal status has changed.

For reference, this film is an interlude between Mektoub My Love Canto Uno and Canto Due, originally presented as a diptych, and follows Amin and her friends to meet Maria, a young Parisian student, as summer draws to a close. .

New Doillon at a dead end

As Les Cahiers du cinema repeated in its March and April 2022 issue, another French film is currently in the situation. “Blocking“(Or it says from the movie”Unfinished“) Between the director and his productions, thus hindering his theatrical release. This is Jacques Doyon’s latest feature film, CE2.

As its name suggests, the film focuses on young schoolchildren, a feature film that noted the director’s unification with the theme of childhood, a theme he has often explored throughout his career. The film was presented in a special session in the presence of Bridget Macron at the Angouleme Film Festival in August 2021. CE2 currently remains without a release date.

Directed by Jacques Doyon and produced by Bruno Pesseri, each in turn revealed a different grid around the film. In a lengthy interview with Les Cahiers du cinema magazine about the release of several of his previous films, Jacques Doyon first explained that he had no more news from his producer and distributor:

“At the end of the editing, the producer expressed his satisfaction, but a few days later I received an e-mail authoritatively indicating everything that needed to be reduced or changed. I really do not know, to reconsider things, but I told him that the changes he proposed did not suit me, that they did not release the film.“, We can read in the March issue of the magazine Kino.

For the first time since I started filming, I was asked to change the editing. I remained inflexible.

“For the first time since I started filming, I was asked to change the editing. I remained inflexible. The film was still shown in Angouleme, the director continues in the columns of the magazine, with a version that I liked being well received there and I thought I was going to create an opening, but I had no news, neither from the distributor, nor from the producer, nor from the press officer. CE2 was selected in Rotterdam so I had no information or did not know what assembly was represented. “

In the latest issue of Cahiers du Cinéma, producer Bruno Pesseri wrote a lengthy response that was published in the readers’ mail section, giving his version of the film’s situation.

I mean to continue the interview of the film director (You will find it in full in the March issueThe producer writes:Jacques regrets the era (“early“) Where the script is written, “When it came out, it (the film) was no longer the subject of discussion“Time when”The cost, the date, the actors decided, I never saw anyone. It was shocking (…), but with extremely happy fear, because I was completely trustedThe fact that Jacques experienced similar situations is undeniable, but it had less to do with time than with the circumstances or ecosystem in which his many projects were carried out. He will never agree and prefer because it has been twenty-three years since the producer changed. Each film. “

The desire to relate to “earlier” conditions, to step back from a slightly more precise discussion of the script, or to place “his film” in a normal room is not in itself open to criticism.

“I want to reconnect with the terms”early“Going back to some somewhat accurate discussion of the script or moving up to a normal room”His film “ In itself can not be criticized. I even agreed, because trust was still there and little in the relationship with the author, a priori should be opposed. But, Jacques is not offended, the time has come for the film to become “again”Discussion topic“, Not at the end of the editing, as he experienced and reports, but with the presentation of its first version. (…)”

According to the producer, not a “block”, but an “unfinished” film

“His refusal to dialogue did not follow the film”Blocked“But he remains, sixteen months after the end of filming, unfinished, in the sense that he refuses to offer a new version that we know will be accepted. (…)”

“Such a situation is a defeat for each party, the director and his producer, whose joint responsibility.early“As of today, it remains to share the same vision of the project that will connect it with the most proven ambitions until it is announced to a large audience. (…)”.

What future does the visibility of this film have given this difference? Is it possible to discuss the departure later?

CE2 Summary: In the school yard. Kevin: That’s because I think you’re beautiful … as beautiful as a princess … so. So kiss me and so you are my girlfriend and I will no longer steal your food. Claire: But I do not want to (kiss)! Kevin (cheerful): Seriously? And then he tries to force her to kiss him in the mouth, he fights. She picks up the dress and begins to touch the panties. Claire is in a panic, she screams, Kevin stops touching and worries despite the noise of the break. He leaves without threatening her. Kevin: Will you let me know …

The film includes Roxanne Barazwell, Cyril Sader, Madeleine Knoll Relot, Nora Hamzawi, Alex Manent, Dooley …

For reference, the latest feature film to hit theaters is Rodin, along with Vincent Lyndon, who was nominated for the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.