Wide Management will handle international sales on the newest project from director Volker Schloendorff, Gigola.

Based on the book by Laure Charpentier, the film follows the life of George, an adventurous young woman - one of the last of the era's 'garconnes' - as she navigates the depths of the Parisian Pigalle nightlife in the early 60s and becomes a sort of gigolo for women.

Asia Argento stars in the title role alongside Philippe Torreton, Marisa Paredes, Ute Lemper, Marisa Berenson and Andre Dussolliler.

Schloendorff, who has been working for the past year on his autobiography to be unveiled this autumn, told ScreenDaily, 'The story reads like far-out fiction, but when I met the author, I found out it's more or less autobiographical and that we must have crossed paths in the early-60s Quartier Latin as students, and later in Pigalle when I worked with Melville.

'I became more and more intrigued by this female 'samurai'... and
when Asia joined in, I said, 'Let's go into this forbidden territory, let's
follow these garconnes!'.'

The film will shoot in Paris in November with some studio work done at Babelsberg according to producer Denise Petitdidier who said hopes are that they film will be ready for Cannes in 2009.

Further titles on Wide's slate include Critics Week selection Children Of Dox Quixote by Ronan Denece and Augustin and Jean-Baptiste Legrand. The documentary takes a look at the plight of Paris' homeless.

In Cannes Classics, Wide is representing opening night film Lola Montes, a remastered version of Max Ophuls' 1955 film.

New films in Wide's line up also include:

  • Christian Poveda's La Vida Loca about the erosion and disintegration of family life in Central America
  • That Should Not Be - Our Children Will Accuse Us, an ecological
    documentary by Jean-Paul Jaud
  • Dramatic love story I Dreamt Under The Water by Hormoz
  • Stephanie Duvivier's A Police Romance co-starring Olivier Marchal
  • Thriller Unfailing by Davy Sihali; Slovenian-Serbian thriller Landscape No. 2
  • Documentary Redemption Song by Markus Hansen and Jean-Marie Boulet about a man's struggle to overcome the trauma of war through music and art
  • And drama Black by Pierre Lafargue starring rapper MC Jean Gab'1.

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