Charades has acquired world sales rights to “La Frappe” (“The Blow“) from writer-director Julien Gaspar-Oliveri. The film will premiere during Cannes’ Critics Week.
The film which will have its world premiere on May 15, follows siblings Enzo and his sister Carla who have been on their own for several years. When their father is released from prison, Enzo hopes to rebuild their family, but Carla refuses to reconnect.
“La Frappe” marks Gaspar-Oliveri’s first feature film. He said, “I’ve been writing for a very long time, and I had this film project in mind for some time. I wanted to address the question of the father, which had always run through my writing in the background, but I never approached it directly.” He added, “I kept circling around it: in my stories, I would put the father in a psychiatric hospital, or for a long time he would commit suicide. It was always a way of removing him from the problem. I couldn’t admit — or even see — that by removing him, I was removing the central issue, and then there was no film anymore.”
Diego Murgia and Romane Fringelli play the siblings. On casting Murgia, Gaspar-Oliveri said, the actor had a face that betrays him a lot. “He can smile and give the impression that he’s about to cry. He escapes me. And the fact that he escapes me pleases me, because I never know where he’s going.”
The director had a harder time finding the right person to play Carla. “I saw many girls for the role. Practically every actress in Paris of that age, including the actress who ended up playing Roxane (Héloïse Volle). But I couldn’t see anger in the others. And this was the role of a rebel — I needed that anger. I only saw it in Romane: real anger, anger that understands what it means to be touched by something like this.” When Fringelli walked into the room, he says, “She threw everything onto the desk; she even
threw papers in the casting assistant’s face. She was so violent that when I introduced her to Diego, he said to me: I hope that’s not the one you’re choosing. He was a little afraid of her — which made it even more obvious.”
Screening times.
World Premiere – 15/05: 09:00pm Miramar Theater
Additional screenings
15/05: 02:30pm @ Miramar
16/05: 07:00pm @ Cinéma Le Raimu
17/05: 09:00am @ Théâtre La Licorne
21/05: 02:00pm @ Cinéma Studio 13
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