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Festival Schedule and Program

en français | time schedule | feature films | short films | program [PDF]

2007 Festival Feature Films (March 30 - April 1)


les amities malefiquesFrench director Emmanuel Bourdieu presents this North American premiere of Les Amitiés maléfiques

director Emmanuel Bourdieu screenplay Emmanuel Bourdieu, Marcia Romano producers Mani Mortazavi, David Mathieu-Mahias, Yorick Le Saux starring Malik Zidi, Thibault Vinçon, Alexandre Steiger, Thomas Blanchard, Dominique Blanc, Natacha Régnier running time 100 min general audience

Description

Eloi and Alexandre meet André, the brightest student of their class, on the first day of the academic year at the University La Sorbonne. Seduced by his cool behavior and his charismatic personality, they easily fall prey to his charm. André offers them his friendship if they pledge utmost loyalty to him. Overcome with admiration, Eloi and Alexandre bow to this harsh discipline as best they can until the day when André leaves them, pretending that he has earned a scholarship to an American university. Suddenly left to their own devices, Eloi and Alexandre have nobody to turn to and must grow up.

Les Amitiés maléfiquesLes Amitiés maléfiques

Congratulations to the movie on his Grand Prix de la Semaine de la Critique and the Prix SACD in Cannes 2006.

cesar awardCongratulations to Malik Zidi for his 2007 César for Most Promising Actor.

« ( …) un magnifique portrait des aspirations adolescentes » – Julien Welter, Score

director/screenwriter
Emmanuel Bourdieu

2006    Les Amitiés maléfiques by Emmanuel Bourdieu
2004 Vert Paradis by Emmanuel Bourdieu
  Léo en jouant « Dans la compagnie des hommes » by Arnaud Desplechin
2001 Candidature by Emmanuel Bourdieu
  Les Trois théâtres by Emmanuel Bourdieu
2000 Esther Kahn by Arnaud Desplechin
1999 La Nouvelle Eve by Catherine Corsini
1998 Place Vendôme by Nicole Garcia
1996 Comment je me suis disputé… (ma vie sexuelle) by Arnaud Desplechin

actor
Malik Zidi

2007 Jacquou Le Croquant by Laurent Boutonnat
2006 Le Grand Meaulnes by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe
  Les Amitiés maléfiques by Emmanuel Bourdieu
  Oublier Cheyenne by Valérie Minetto
2004      Les Temps qui changent by André Téchiné
  Les Oiseaux du ciel by Eliane de Latour
2003     Mes enfants ne sont pas comme les autres by Denis Dercourt
2002      Un monde presque paisible by Michel Deville
  Un moment de bonheur by Antoine Santana
2000     Deuxième vie by Patrick Braoudé
  Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brûlantes by François Ozon
1998 Place Vendôme by Nicole Garcia
  Le Onzième commandement by Mama Keita
1997     Les Corps ouverts by Sébastien Lifshitz

actor
Thibault Vinçon

2005
  • Les Amitiés maléfiques by Emamnuel Bourdieu
2004 Le Dernier Jour by Rodolphe Marconi
2001 Résistances by Todd Komarnicki

actress
Natacha Régnier

  • 2006
  • Les Amitiés maléfiques by Emmanuel Bourdieu
  • 2005
  • Carmen by Jean-Pierre Limosin

 

La Raison du plus faible by Lucas Belvaux
  • 2004
  • Le Pont des arts by Eugène Green

 

Trouble by Harry Cleven
2003 Demain on déménage by Chantal Akerman

 

Vert Paradis by Emmanuel Bourdieu
2001 Comment j’ai tué mon père by Anne Fontaine
2000 Tout va bien, on s’en va by Claude Mouriéras
  • 2000
  • Combien tu m’aimes by Pierre Lacan (short film)
  • 1999
  • Les Amants criminels by François Ozon
1998 La Vie rêvée des anges by Erick Zonca
1996 Encore by Pascal Bonitzer
1995 Dis-moi oui by Alexandre Arcady

Interview with Natacha Régnier (actress)

Cynical characters?
I don’t find cynicism in Emmanuel Bourdieu’s personality. There is a tender view of the characters and we come to like the flaws they have. I see people at the end of adolescence wandering in search of their place and one person takes on the role of the leader who will place himself in charge because others have not yet taken hold of who they are. There is something touching here. Emmanuel Bourdieu has a sense of romanticism, a taste for little idiosyncrasies. The characters are human with beautiful characteristics, while others are a little twisted. His view of the characters touches me a lot.
– Interview for Allociné

Interview with Emmanuel Bourdieu (director)

The story of Les Amitiés maléfiques takes place in college. It’s a world Emmanuel Bourdieu knows: son of the famous sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, he graduated from a top university and is a doctor in philosophy.

Have you ever come across someone like André before?
I wanted to continue to collaborate with Marcia, so we spoke at a restaurant and told each other our stories. The stories were scattered, but at the core they spoke of the same thing: me, from the side of an Eloi, and her, from the other side as the obviously dominant one, and I liked that a lot. At the end, nothing remains autobiographical except the fact that I lived in this social class, even if I was studying philosophy.

You focus on the behaviors of young people. What motivates your interest?
I am not a proponent of raw autobiographical films because I find it uncomfortable to presume that my life should be interesting to the world. Nevertheless, it’s a glance back on our romanticized past when we are almost 40 and went through that period. While filming, I was sometimes upset paternally by the actors and I have complete empathy for my characters and tell myself sometimes: How naïve I was! I am no longer able to live like this, but I like the world of André, very dark, narcissistic, violent, a world that goes through excess and enormity. He is already dead to his own youth.

– Interview conducted by Christophe Berthemin for dvdrama



 

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