EXCLUSIVE: France tv distribution has launched sales on French director Benoît Jacquot’s upcoming crime thriller Belle starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Guillaume Canet.
The work is adapted from the 1951 novel The Death Of Belle by the iconic Belgian writer Georges Simenon who is best known for his novels about Paris detective Maigret.
Canet and Gainsbourg will play a couple leading a peaceful existence in a small provincial town. He is a teacher and she runs an opticians practice.
Their life is turned upside when Belle, a friend’s daughter who is lodging with them, is found dead in her room. The husband becomes the prime suspect as the only one at home at the time.
He finds himself subject to humiliating questioning by the police, ostracized by colleagues and treated with hostility by the local townspeople. In this small town where nothing is a secret the question on everyone’s lips is, “Who killed Belle?”
Marie-Jeanne Pascal at Macassar Productions (Eva, In the Fade, My Night) and Philippe Carcassonne at Ciné-@ (Maigret, Presidents, Coco Before Chanel) are joint producers.
“This movie is particularly topical, tackling such matters as the presumption of innocence, trial by media, popular judgment, and how an extraordinary event is capable of transforming an ordinary man,” they said in a joint statement.
“It also mirrors Georges Simenon’s two-pronged approach: exposition of a social environment and exploration of the blindness of the human soul.”
France TV distribution has launched sales on the production at the Cannes market.
“Georges Simenon’s writing quality is timeless. Benoît Jacquot’s talent in this area has been proven time and again. With such a stellar cast and director, this film adaptation can’t help but be a hit,” said Catherine Bernard, Deputy General Manager at france tv distribution.
It marks the first time Canet (Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, Sink Or Swim, La Belle Epoque, Non-fiction) and Gainsbourg (Melancholia, The Passengers Of The Night, Promise At Dawn) have co-starred opposite one another in a feature film.