Get the latest gossip

French Star Gilles Lellouche on Directing Epic ‘Beating Hearts,’ Studiocanal’s Biggest Ever French-Language Movie (EXCLUSIVE)


French star Gilles Lellouche is about to graduate as a big-shot filmmaker with 'Beating Hearts,' Studiocanal's biggest ever French-language movie.

It took Lellouche over a decade to write (alongside Audrey Diwan and Ahmed Hamidi) and four months to shoot with a cast mixing rising and famous actors (Mallory Wanecque, Malik Frikah, Adele Exarchopoulos, Francois Civil), a pulsating soundtrack of cult 1980s and 1990s songs (from The Cure, Billy Idol, Depeche Mode), topnotch key crew and dream-like musical interludes created by (La) Horde. The anticipation for “Beating Hearts” has been running high among international distributors who flocked to Studiocanal’s private promo presentation at the Royal Monceau Hotel during the Unifrance Rendez-Vous, which was attended by Lellouche, producers Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi and Alain Attal at Trésor Films, and key cast members Exarchopoulos (“The Stronghold”), Civil (“The Three Musketeers”), Wanecque (“The Worst Ones”) and Frikah (“Apaches”). Speaking to Variety ahead of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous showcase, Lellouche said he “fell in love with this story” about 15 years ago and started writing a script, but decided to put it aside, feeling that he didn’t have the shoulders to tackle such an ambitious project as his second film, having only co-directed “Narco” in 2003.

Get the Android app

Or read this on Variety