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Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #100. Notre Dame – Valérie Donzelli

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Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #100. Notre Dame – Valérie Donzelli

Published on January 2, 2019

Notre Dame

French director Valérie Donzelli makes her fifth feature with Notre Dame, in which she will star in and produce herself, alongside Mina Driouch for Les Films de Francoise, Alice Girard and Eduoard Weil for Rectangle Productions, Genevieve Lemal for Scope Pictures (Belgium) and France 2 Cinema. Amongst her cast members are Pierre Deladonchamps, Thomas Scimeca, Bouli Lanners, Virginie Ledoyen, Isabelle Candelier and Philippe Katerine. Donzelli’s effervescent debut, Queen of Hearts (2009) played at Locarno, while her 2011 sophomore film Declaration of War became a huge hit after premiering in Critics’ Week at Cannes, going on to snag a handful of Cesar nods plus earning the distinction of being France’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film for Academy Award consideration. 2012’s Hand in Hand went to the Rome Film Festival, where it won Best Actor for Donzelli’s spouse and usual collaborator Jeremie Elkaim, while her 2015 title Marguerite and Julien (trailer) competed at Cannes.

Gist: Donzelli has remained tight-lipped about the plot, only sharing it is a comedy about re-marriage.

Release Date/Prediction: Donzelli’s eight-week shoot ended in early December 2018. We expect Donzelli to make her third appearance at Cannes, potentially in Un Certain Regard.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.