Swiss-Canadian filmmaker Lea Pool has begun principal photography on Une Belle Mort for Montreal-based Equinoxe Pictures and Luxembourg's Iris Productions. At a budget of $4.3m (C$5.4m), it is the first-ever official Canada-Luxembourg coproduction.
The screenplay is co-written by Pool and Quebecois novelist Gil Courtemanche, based on his 2005 novel of the same name; it was published in English in 2006 as A Good Death.
Tinged with Courtemanche's trademark dark comedy, the story follows a family at Christmas coping with the impeding death of its patriarch. Suffering from rigid Parkinson's Disease, the father is imprisoned in his own body, forbidden all earthly pleasures on this most lavish of festive seasons. To prolong life or help end it' Around the table opinions are divided.
Lyse Lafontaine and Michael Mosca of Equinoxe are producing alongside Nicolas Steil of Iris. In 2005, Lafontaine and Mosca produced A Sunday In Kigali, the adaptation of Courtemanche's critically-acclaimed novel A Sunday By The Pool In Kigali.
Pool originally signed to direct with Equinoxe in November of 2005 but, as Mosca told Screen International, the original proposal was rejected twice by Canadian funders. Repackaged this year as an international coproduction, the film got the green light.
The new film features Jacques Godin, Andree Lachapelle, Yves Jacques, Aliocha Schneider, Marie-France Lambert, Isabelle Miquelon, Martine Francke and Benoit Gouin. Pierre Mignot, who filmed Kigali, is the DP while Pierre Perrault is art director. Michael Arcand will edit.
The production shoots 21 days in Luxembourg and then will remount in late April of 2009 for exteriors in Montreal. Equinoxe Films will release the film in 2010.
Backers including Telefilm Canada, SODEC, Radio Canada, and tax credits of the government of Quebec, Canada and Luxembourg.
The screenplay is co-written by Pool and Quebecois novelist Gil Courtemanche, based on his 2005 novel of the same name; it was published in English in 2006 as A Good Death.
Tinged with Courtemanche's trademark dark comedy, the story follows a family at Christmas coping with the impeding death of its patriarch. Suffering from rigid Parkinson's Disease, the father is imprisoned in his own body, forbidden all earthly pleasures on this most lavish of festive seasons. To prolong life or help end it' Around the table opinions are divided.
Lyse Lafontaine and Michael Mosca of Equinoxe are producing alongside Nicolas Steil of Iris. In 2005, Lafontaine and Mosca produced A Sunday In Kigali, the adaptation of Courtemanche's critically-acclaimed novel A Sunday By The Pool In Kigali.
Pool originally signed to direct with Equinoxe in November of 2005 but, as Mosca told Screen International, the original proposal was rejected twice by Canadian funders. Repackaged this year as an international coproduction, the film got the green light.
The new film features Jacques Godin, Andree Lachapelle, Yves Jacques, Aliocha Schneider, Marie-France Lambert, Isabelle Miquelon, Martine Francke and Benoit Gouin. Pierre Mignot, who filmed Kigali, is the DP while Pierre Perrault is art director. Michael Arcand will edit.
The production shoots 21 days in Luxembourg and then will remount in late April of 2009 for exteriors in Montreal. Equinoxe Films will release the film in 2010.
Backers including Telefilm Canada, SODEC, Radio Canada, and tax credits of the government of Quebec, Canada and Luxembourg.
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