Acquisitions – Foreign Films

Adopt Films Open the Books on Curious Unknown; Martin Provost’s Violette Set for 2014

Published on October 2, 2013

Extremely well received at last month’s edition of TIFF, Martin Provost’s Violette becomes purchase number two (after Bethlehem) in just as many weeks for Jeff Lipsky’s Adopt Films. Screen Daily reports that the NYC-based distrib will release the biopic in May or June of next year.

Gist: Co-written by Provost, Marc Abdelnour and René de Ceccatty, Emmanuelle Devos stars in the eponymous role as the bisexual postwar author Violette Leduc, who was born out of wedlock and raised in poverty and went on to become the world renowned writer of The Bastard. This sees Sandrine Kiberlain star as Simone de Bouvoir, Jacques Bonnaffé as Jean Genet, Olivier Py as Maurice Sachs and Olivier Gourmet as Jacques Guérin.

Worth Noting: Leduc actually saw her novel novel Thérèse and Isabelle be adapted into a 1968 film by director Radley Metzger and starring Essy Persson and Anna Gael.

Do We Care?: The Music Box Films’ Séraphine (see clip here) was a critical darling – Provost’s 2008 film won 7 Cesar awards (aka French Oscars).

Related Topics:Adopt Films, Foreign Films News, Martin Provost, Violette

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).