Stealth Media Group is handling international sales on the film adaptation of Albert Cohen’s French novel, which stars Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova.

Glenio Bonder has begun principal photography on his feature debut Belle du Seigneur (October 27), which will shoot for 8 weeks in Italy, Geneva and Luxembourg.

Bonder, who has directed several award-winning commercials, co-wrote the script with Vincenzo Cerami (Life is Beautiful) and James Dearden (Fatal Attraction). The screenplay is based on the best selling French novel of the same title by Nobel Prize nominated author Albert Cohen.

The story is about the passionate love affair between a Jewish diplomat, rising from nowhere to a high position in the League of Nations on the eve of the Second World War, and Ariane, a married young woman from a Geneva Protestant bourgeois family. While battling their own demons, the couple must also face hostility from the outside world. 

The film stars Match Point actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Russian supermodel Natalia Vodianova, in her first major film role. Also joining the cast are Marianne Faithfull, Maria Bonnevie and Ed Stoppard.

Thierry de Navacelle, Jimmy de Brabant and Jean Luc Van Damme are producing the film and Stealth Media Group (SMG) is handling international sales.

The director of photography is Eduardo Serra who has received Oscar nominations for best cinematography for Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Wings of the Dove, and Gabriel Yared who won the Oscar for his score for The English Patient, is the composer.

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