Film in Pictures: Virginie Despentes’ Bye Bye Blondie

Unlike Cannes 2010, this year’s expected Main Competition will be so rich and textured that a film such as Virginie Despentes’ Bye Bye Blondie might actually be shown elsewhere on the Croisette. Here are a pair of pics which depict different eras in one relationship — the teenage years will see actress Soko take on a young Béatrice Dalle. I look forward in seeing what kind of soundtrack will accompany the film, especially the punk years.

Adapted by the director from her eponymous novel, Gloria (Béatrice Dalle) is 40. With no job, no family, no fixed address, she spends her time boozing in her local bar in Nancy. Frances (Emmanuelle Béart) is 40. A prime time TV presenter living in Paris, she’s married to successful novelist, Claude. Behind closed doors, Frances sleeps with women, and Claude with men. In public, they are the perfect couple. Back in the 80s, Gloria and Frances met in a psychiatric hospital. Back then, they loved each other, the way you love at 16: intense, wild. Sex, drugs and punk rock. After meeting in a psychiatric hospital, they ran away together. Then life pushed them apart. Frances left Gloria – her first true love, her first broken heart. Now, twenty years later, their paths are about to cross again…