European Films

Gérard Depardieu in the upcoming 'Michou d'Auber'. Photo (c): Jérôme Prébois, EuropaCorp/TF1 Films Production, 2007. All rights reserved.

Despite rumours to the contrary, French veteran actor Gérard Depardieu shows no sign of retiring in 2007: he has just signed on for two new films that will start shooting in March and May respectively. First up is Fabien Onteniente's new comedy Disco, which will star Emmanuelle Béart, Florence Foresti, Annie Cordy and Christine Citti besides Depardieu. The new film from the director of Camping, one of the biggest summer successes of last year in France with almost 5.5 million visitors, is again co-written by actor Franck Dubosc, who will headline the project. Disco tells the story of a certain Didier Travolta (Dubosc) a 40-year-old unemployed father who, upon hearing that the disco Gin Fizz will re-open, decides it is time for a reunion of his old band the Bee Kings. With their revival, he hopes to be able to pay for a proper holiday for his 8-year-old son. Depardieu will play François Jackson, the owner of the Gin Fizz, with Emmanuelle Béart set to play a dance instructor. Filming is scheduled to start at the end of March in the coastal town of Le Havre.

Depardieu will barely have the time to breathe between the last take of Disco and the first of Les enfants de Timpelbach, which will start principal photography at the end of May on the other side of the country: in the Alsace region and neighbouring Luxembourg. This children's fantasy is based on the 1933 novel from German-born author Henry Winterfeld, published in English as Trouble at Timpetill. It tells the story of a village where the children are so ill-behaved that one night the adults dedice to abandon the village collectively, leaving the children to run the community instead. Les enfants de Timpelbach is described as a cross between the dream-like world of US director Tim Burton (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride) and the child-alone-at-home comedy Home Alone. The film, heavy on special effects, will be directed by 26-year-old newcomer Nicolas Bary, who will have a budget of around €10 million at his disposal as well as a plethora of stars including Depardieu, Carole Bouquet (Feux rouges/Red Lights), Jean-Pierre Cassel, Isabelle Nanty and Jean-Claude Dreyfus.  

Just last year, Depardieu reminded audiences at Cannes and in cinemas around Europe what a versatile actor he can be with his intimate, finely sketched portrait of a lonely dance hall singer in Xavier Giannoli's Quand j'étais chanteur (The Singer). He also starred in US production The Last Holiday and one of the segments of Paris je t'aime (which he also directed). He can next be seen as Louis Leplée in the Berlinale opener La môme (La vie en rose), the Édith Piaf biopic from Olivier Dahan, and Michou d'Auber, a parental drama against the backdrop of social unrest in French Algeria in 1960 that stars Nathalie Baye as the adoptive French mother of a small boy who is actually an Algerian, something which she keeps hidden from her husband (Depardieu), an ex-soldier. La môme will be released in France on Valentine's Day and throughout most of Europe this spring. Michou d'Auber will hit French screens on February 28.

(source: Allocine.fr) 

Related items:

• preview: La môme (La vie en rose)

• review: Quand j'ètais chanteur (The Singer)