Pardon My French

Sophie Fillières, 2009, 105min, 35mm
Starring Chiara Mastroianni, Agathe Bonitzer, Malik Zidi, Dominique Valadié

A 35-year-old single mother of a 7-year-old boy, the author of two novels suffering from terrible writer’s block, a failure at relationships and quitting smoking, a sleepwalker who prepares cakes while slumbering, and a sometime mute, Célimène—who also goes by Nathalie and other names out of discontentment with herself—is perhaps Fillières’s most intriguing creation. Wonderfully played by Chiara Mastroianni, the gorgeous, droll depressive becomes the focus of 17-year-old fan Anaïs (Agathe Bonitzer), who’d like to be the subject of her next book. At first, she’s an annoyance, but her stalkerish ways might actually be something more meaningful.

Preceded by the short The Striped Truth (La vérité zébrée)
Sophie Fillières, 2008, 10min, DCP

On her birthday, a woman in her thirties receives a peculiar chair from her parents. In this surreal short film, Sophie Fillières reunites with her sister, actress Hélène Fillières, in the lead role.