French Boyhood: Emmanuelle Bercot Takes Center Stage with “La Tête Haute” as Cannes Opener

Backstage helmer Emmanuelle Bercot will instead be taking the center stage. Ranked #77 in our top 100 most anticipated foreign films for 2015 and starring red carpet habitual Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel (who resembles a Sean Penn in the official photo above), Sara Forestier and Rod Paradot as our child protag, La Tête Haute has been selected as the opening film of the the 68th Festival de Cannes Film Festival.

This is the French filmmaker’s fourth feature film as a director and second trip two Cannes, having previously been invited with her debut film in the Un Certain Regard section with Clement. The selection is a welcome switch-up from what was often, less than flattering opening international-friendly safe-bet items. I’m thinking of Antoine Doinels of film history canon and Linklater’s Boyhood since it traces a exact child to adulthood route, but compared with previous years, Thierry Frémaux’s selection might be leaning towards a more social-minded statement when we consider that it is disenfranchised urban youth storyline than became truer than fiction with the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The Cannes selections (in our books dubbed Xmas morning) are being unveiled this Thursday (the ungodly hour 5 a.m EST). You can find the official press release from the fest after the trailer of her last feature, the Cohen Media Group distributed On My Way which also starred Deneuve.

La Tête Haute tells the story of a juvenile delinquent, Malony, and his upbringing from childhood to adulthood, as a children’s judge and social worker try to save him. It was filmed in the Nord-Pas de Calais, Rhône-Alpes and Paris area regions, with the participation of Catherine Deneuve, Benoît Magimel, Sara Forestier and Rod Paradot, who plays the main character.

“The choice of this film may seem surprising, given the rules generally applied to the Festival de Cannes Opening Ceremony,” explains Thierry Frémaux, General delegate of the Event. “It is a clear reflection of our desire to see the Festival start with a different piece, which is both bold and moving. Emmanuelle Bercot’s film makes important statements about contemporary society, in keeping with modern cinema. It focusses on universal social issues, making it a perfect fit for the global audience at Cannes.”

The world première of La Tête Haute will be shown in the Grand Théâtre Lumière in the Palais des Festivals, and will be released in French cinemas the same day, on Wednesday 13 May. The film has already been sold in multiple countries.

Emmanuelle Bercot is a film director, screenwriter and actress. She studied dance at Cours Florent before attending La Fémis film school. Her talent was discovered at the 1997 Festival de Cannes, where her short film, Les Vacances, received the Jury Prize. This was confirmed two years later with a second Cinéfondation Prize for La Puce, her final-year student film. In 2001, her first feature film, Clement (Clément), in which she plays the main character, made the Un Certain Regard Official Selection. Since then, she has directed several films, including On my Way (Elle s’en va) in 2014, in which Catherine Deneuve gave one of her best performances. Emmanuelle Bercot also co-wrote the script for Maïwenn’s Polis (Polisse), which earned her the main role in her latest film, Mon Roi.

La Tête haute was written by Emmanuelle Bercot and Marcia Romano, with Guillaume Schiffman as director of photography. It is produced by Les Films du Kiosque, and co-produced by France 2 Cinéma, Wild Bunch, Rhône-Alpes Cinema and Pictanovo with the participation of Nord-Pas de Calais Region. It is sold by Elle Driver and distributed in France by Wild Bunch.