Screen can reveal the first English-language trailer for Benoit Jacquot’s By Heart (Par Coeurs) that will market premiere at Unifrance’s upcoming January Rendez-Vous in Paris (January 10-17, 2023).

The documentary follows Isabelle Huppert and Fabrice Luchini learning their lines as they prepare to take the stage at the 2021 famous Festival d’Avignon theatre festival in Southern France. Jacquot’s camera follows them behind-the-scenes, in rehearsals and during their performances as they share their respective intimate artistic processes and give audiences a glimpse into the inner workings of their minds.

Produced by Kristina Larsen’s Les Films du Lendemain (The Will To See, Tokyo Shaking), the film was released by Les Films du Losange’s distribution arm in France on December 28.

By Heart (Par Coeurs) is a follow-up to Jacquot’s 1998 title Par Coeur, the French director’s portrait of Luchini as he recites lines from acclaimed auteurs like Charles Baudelaire, Victor Hugo and Gustave Flaubert on stage. In French, “par coeur” means “by heart” and the addition of an “s” in the title refers to the inclusion of Huppert as she too learns her lines “by heart” as Jacquot’s camera looks on.

Les Films du Losange will also kick off sales at the market for Nicolas Philibert’s On the Adamant and Patric Chiha’s The Beast In The Jungle.

On The Adamant follows patients and caregivers at a psychiatric centre with a unique floating structure located in the middle of the Seine river in central Paris. The film is produced by France’s TS Productions and Japan’s Longride and Les Films du Losange will release the film in France. Philibert’s To Be And To Have premiered in Cannes in 2002, La Maison de la Radio at the Berlinale in 2013, and Each And Every Moment in Locarno in 2018.

The Beast In The Jungle stars Anais Demoustier (Smoking Causes Coughing, November), Tom Mercier (The Rope, My Night) and Béatrice Dalle (Love Is Better than Life, Fumer Tue) and is produced by Return to Seoul producers Aurora Films. Freely adapted from a Henry James novella, the film follows a man and woman over the course of 25 years as they frequent a huge nightclub in anticipation of a mysterious event. Spanning 1979 to 2004, the film is both a love story and a tragedy. Chiha’s If it Were Love premiered in the Berlinale Panorama in 2020.

Les Films du Losange will also continue sales at the Rendez-Vous market for animated title Kajsa Naess’ Titina, an animated polar adventure that has already sold to 35 territories across the globe, in addition to its slate that also includes Mia Hansen-Love’s One Fine Morning and Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo.

Topics