I hope you're ready for our little chat about the movies that are scheduled to premiere In Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. We're going to continue with the upcoming French drama directed by Bertrand Bonello, and titled L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close or simply, House of Tolerance.
Shot near Paris for a two month period, and written by Bonello, the movie goes like this:
“At the dawn of the XXth century, in a brothel in Paris, a man disfigures a prostitute for life. She is marked with a scar that draws a tragic smile on her face.
Around the woman who laughs, the life of other girls, their rivalry, their fears, their joy, their pain…From the external world, nothing is known. Their world is closed.”
Movie stars Adèle Haenel, Hafsia Herzi, Jasmine Trinca, Céline Sallette and Noémie Lvovsky. Les Films du Lendemain's Kristina Larsen and Bonello's My New Picture are producing the film with co-production support from Arte France Cinéma, the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC) and television and regional backing.
Sounds like a typical story for director Bonello. We all remember his Le Pornographe from 2001, when it won the FIPRESCI prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, as well as Tiresia that was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
As for L'Apollonide, it will be the fourth time a film by Bonello is screened at the festival, and the second time in the main competition.
