Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer for actress Charlotte Gainsbourg’s documentary Jane By Charlotte, charting her complex relationship with her actress and singer mother Jane Birkin, ahead of its world premiere on Wednesday (July 8) in the new Cannes Premiere sidebar.

“We’re both very reserved in one another’s presence and I have no idea where it comes from,” says Gainsbourg in the trailer, as she lays out the premise for this intimate work shot in the family’s beachfront home in southern Brittany.

A household name in both her native UK and adopted home of France, London-born actress Birkin moved to France in the late 1960s after meeting Gainsbourg’s notorious singer-songwriter father Serge Gainsbourg on the set of the romantic drama Slogan. They were in a relationship and also collaborated artistically for more than a decade.

The trailer shows Birkin explaining how she felt intimidated by Jane Gainsbourg from an early age. “I felt privileged to be in your presence,” she says. 

It is the directorial debut of Gainsbourg who has been a regular on the Cannes red carpet since the 1990s, including with Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (for which she won the best actress prize) and most recently Gaspar Noé’s Lux Æterna in 2019.

Birkin has also been a frequent guest at the festival, including with Jacques Rivette’s La Belle Noiseuse (1991) and her sole feature as director, Boxes (2007) 

The production is produced by Nolita Cinema and Deadly Valentine. Paris-based Party Film Sales is handling international sales.

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