Family can be loving, annoying, and complicated—and it can be all of the above, all at the same time. It can leave you traumatized. French writer and director Christophe Honoré (Marcelo Meo, Beloved) New movie Orange flavored wedding (Marriage with orange), takes us back in time to explore a French family in all its dimensions.
It does this through a whole host of established and up-and-coming French names. The film’s stars include Adele Exarchopoulos, Malou Khabizi, Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste, Nadja Tereshkiewicz, Alban Lenoir, Meriem Akhedio, and Noye Abeyta. The cast also includes Javier Lacaille, Sadia Bentib, Victoire Du Bois, Jules Sago, Joan Brizo, Bron Pozo, Ji-Min Park, and Andranik Manet.
“The Puigs family has seven children. Today is the wedding of the youngest: Jacques. It is March 1978 in the suburbs of Nantes. The father is not attending the wedding; he has been banished from the family. However, the brothers and sisters are all there, happy to be reunited. Jacques is marrying Martine. For them, it is a marriage of love. But can love heal childhood wounds?”
Orange flavored weddingfor her sake THR An exclusive clip can now be shown for its world premiere in the Cannes Film Festival premiere program on Wednesday, May 20.
Honoré wrote and directed the film, while Jeanne Labouiere was in charge of cinematography and Chantal Heymans edited. Sales are managed by Pyramid International.
“I feel as if I’ve known this film all my life,” Honoré says in a director’s statement, “Like an old friend I know his face and his voice. Even before I filmed it, it was already there, spread throughout every book I’ve written, and every film I’ve made. I don’t feel like I directed it, but rather revealed it.” “Emotions pass from one person to another, shifting, transforming, and communicating as much as they break.”
How autobiographical is the film? The author says: “It is true that I know this family well. There is not a single character in this film whose date of birth I do not know, and for some I do not know the date of their death either.” THR. “But I still hesitate to call this film an autobiography. Firstly, because this film is not about me, but about a group of people about whom I do not claim to know the whole truth. Secondly, because I wrote a script that allows these people, over the course of one day, to live lives that escape my memory.”
Honoré has previously worked with Lacoste and Kircher and has shaped a whole host of emerging and established talent. “That was one of the initial goals of this project: to assemble a troupe of young actors that I would get to know,” he explains. “I sought to bring together a group of very different people who were, to some extent, united by the affection I feel for them. Before filming, we rehearsed together a little. I told them the story of my family. I taught them ballroom dances: paso doble, tango …”
But during filming, Honoré allowed them to follow their hearts and their instincts. “On set, I let them live their own lives,” he says. THR. “I decided that no matter what they did, they now knew more about their personalities than I did.”
Family is a recurring theme in the author’s films, conveying a general idea, and in Orange flavored weddingIt looks to capture a mood and convey a broader idea. “I wanted the focus to be on how emotions flow between group members—how the entire group embraces one character’s grief. The same goes for love and violence,” Honoré says. “What interested me was the constant focus on how the characters weave and re-weave the bonds that unite them. This family is marked by tragedy. Their childhood portends the disasters of their adult lives, but they persevere despite everything; they are brave and courageous together. And when they are separated, fate strikes them down.”
If you’re wondering where the film’s title comes from, it’s a reference to an American drink that appears in the film Orange flavored wedding Its brand is still well known today. The film also mentioned the death of French singer Claude François. Both the drink and the singer are there for a reason.
“It so happened that on the afternoon of my uncle Jacques’ wedding, we heard the news of Claude François’s death,” says Honoré. THR. “Since then, whenever I hear one of his songs – or drink the orange-flavored drink mentioned in the film – my entire childhood returns within that family. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that family was already on the verge of disappearing. Claude François’s songs are part of the lives of many French families; they represent an intimate and universal memory at the same time. I hope that, like this film, they will be a comfort and a sign of a world that has disappeared.”
With all that said, you’ll definitely need a quick preview of the film and its characters to get your first visual and audible sense of this big family affair. So, go ahead and watch an exclusive clip of Orange flavored wedding less. Here comes Adele Exarchopoulos. Here comes the bride!
