LOCARNO — In an eye-catching move, Germany’s The Match Factory has swooped on Jean Denizot’s “La Belle Vie” (The Good Life), which world premieres at next month’s 70th Venice Festival, co-opening the Official Selection of its 10th Venice Days, the festival’s equivalent of Directors’ Fortnight.
The Match Factory will handle its international sales.
Based on a notorious true event, “Good Life” turns on a boy who has spent the last ten years on the run with his elder brother and father, who was denied custody of his children.
Then the boy meets a gorgeous girl, his first love, and decides he no longer wants a life of living in hiding.
“La Belle Vie” stars stage actor Nicolas Bouchaud, Switzerland’s Jean-Philippe Ecoffey, Zacharie Chasseriaud (“The Giants”), Solene Rigot, who co-stars in Locarno International Competition player “Tonnerre,” and Jules Pelissier (“Bus Palladium”).
“It’s a great honor for me to work with Mezzanine Films and Jean Denizot on ‘The Good Life.’ The film is full of tenderness and shows the big talent of first-time director Jean Denizot,” said Michael Weber, managing director of The Match Factory.
He added: “We are confident about the good reception of ‘The Good Life’ on the international market.“
“Good Life” also marks an early film from France’s Mezzanine Films, which has two movies under its belt: Brigitte Sy’s “Free Hands,” a 2011 Berlin Forum player, and Estelle Larivaz’s “Le Paradis des betes.”
Packing a strong German line-up and hunting widely but selectively outside Germany for arthouse titles around the world, The Match Factory already sells two Competition players at Venice: Kelly Reichardt’s “Night Moves” and Philip Groning’s “The Police Officer’s Wife.”
The Match Factory’s pick-up of “La Belle Vie” bolsters its credentials as one of the major sales companies at Venice in a year when French films – and, indeed, French sellers look slim on the ground.
