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Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2011: Virginie Despentes’ Bye Bye Blondie

It’s been a decade since Rape Me, the road-trip fueled with sex and violence which stirred up controversy on at least one side of the Atlantic (it was pulled after one week in the U.S), but the reason why we’re curious about this specimen hasn’t got much to do with the skills Virginie Despentes displayed with her off-putting directing debut, but rather how she’ll translate characters that were first introduced in her book back in 2004 with a pairing that includes Béatrice Dalle and Emmanuelle Béart.

Eric Lavallée

Published on January 10, 2011

#96. Bye Bye Blondie

Director/Writer: Virginie Despentes
Producers: Sébastien de Fonseca and Cédric Walter
Distributor: Rights Available.

The Gist: Adapted by the director from her eponymous novel, Gloria (Dalle) lives in Nancy. Unemployed, without a family, and with no permanent address, she wastes her days at a local watering hole. Frances (Béart) lives in Paris – she is a popular figure in television and is married to a novelist. While in the public eye they form the ideal couple, in their private lives, she prefers women and her husband is into boys. ….(more)

Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Béatrice Dalle and Pascal Greggory

List Worthy Reasons…: It’s been a decade since Rape Me, the road-trip fueled with sex and violence which stirred up controversy on at least one side of the Atlantic (it was pulled after one week in the U.S), but the reason why we’re curious about this specimen hasn’t got much to do with the skills Virginie Despentes displayed with her off-putting directing debut, but rather how she’ll translate characters that were first introduced in her book back in 2004 with a pairing that includes Béatrice Dalle and Emmanuelle Béart.

Release Date/Status?: Plenty of speculation that this is going to Cannes 2011 – it certainloy would make this an explosive year for the festival.

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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).