LIE WITH ME
(ARRÊTE AVEC TES MENSONGES)
Thursday, October 13 – Renoir Theatre – 8:00 pm
(Screening ends at 10:00 pm)
+ Short Film Presentation: SEPARATION
Followed by a conversation with writer/director Olivier Peyon
FICTION / DRAMA
Presented in Association with:
Be For Films
ELMA
North American Premiere | France | 2023 | Drama | 98 min | In French with English subtitles
Directed by: Olivier Peyon
Written by: Olivier Peyon, Vincent Poymiro, Cécilia Rouaud, Arthur Cahn
Based on a Novel by: Philippe Besson
Produced by: Anthony Doncque, Gilles Sacuto, Miléna Poylo (TS Productions)
Cinematography: Martin Rit
Film Editing: Damien Maestraggi
Original Score: Thylacine & Bravinsan
Cast: Guillaume de Tonquédec (Stéphane Belcourt), Victor Belmondo (Lucas), Doriane Chastanet (Nadine), Julien de Saint Jean (Thomas), Jérémy Gillet (17-year-old Stéphane Belcourt), Guilaine Londez (Gaëlle)
International Sales: Be For Films
Celebrated novelist Stéphane Belcourt is invited back to his native Cognac as guest of honor at the bicentennial celebration for a local cognac producer. At first, a bit unsettled at being thrust back into the childhood stomping-ground he abandoned 35 years earlier, he quickly changes his tune when he unexpectedly meets Lucas. The young man turns out to be the son of Stéphane’s first love, his great love, Thomas Andrieu. The very “Thomas” who appears in every one of his novels. Suddenly, all those distant memories come flooding back to him. Olivier Peyon‘s moving adaptation of Philippe Besson’s award-winning autobiographical novel of the same name jumps back and forth between 1984 and the present. It is, of course, a story of sexual awakening, and a plaintive memoir on the bittersweet heartbreak of lost love. It’s also about how shame, hiding, and denying one’s true self can be a slow-burning death of the soul. And how truth has the power to heal — maybe not all wounds, but at least a few of the bumps and bruises we accumulate along the way.
After studying economics, writer/director Olivier Peyon began working as a production assistant on Idrissa Ouedraogo’s films, and subtitling English-language films in French. He made his first short, Promis, juré, in 1996. Jingle Bells (1997), his second short, was screened at the Venice Film Festival, and was followed by two additional shorts, À tes amours (2001) and Claquage après étirements (2002). He directed the documentary feature Comment j’ai détesté les maths (COLCOA 2014), which was nominated for a César Award for Best Documentary; and two episodes of the documentary series Empreintes (2009-11). He and Cyril Brody co-directed the documentary Latifa: A Fighting Heart (2017). He has co-written and directed three previous feature films, Les Petites vacances (2006), starring Bernadette Lafont; Une vie ailleurs (2017), starring Isabelle Carré; and Tokyo Shaking (2021), starring Karin Viard. Lie with Me is scheduled for release in France in January 2023.
