Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2018: #76. Diane Kurys’ Ma mère est folle

Ma mère est folle

Diane Kurys remains a notable French director who rose to cinematic prominence in the 1980s and has continually worked with some of her country’s most lauded performers. One of the few women directors of her period who received noted success at the box office, Kurys’ cinema hasn’t traveled as well abroad and her mainstream triumphs eluded major film festival play. Often revisiting autobiographical elements of her childhood and the experiences her mother (Kurys’ Cesar nominated third feature, 1983’s Entre Nous starring Isabelle Huppert remains a lauded favorite), the director also has a flair for comedy. Her latest, Ma mère est folle (aka My Mother is Crazy), promises to be a road trip comedy and will star Fanny Ardant (who recently appeared as a trans woman in the Locarno competing title Lola Pater) as the crazy mother, who has a tense relationship with her son. Rapper Nekfeu, following in the heels of Kool Shen and Joey Star and fresh off his debut Everything Separates Us alongside Catherine Deneuve, will portray the son.

Release Date/Prediction: Kurys competed at Cannes once, with her 1987 English language debut A Man in Love. In 1994, her Beatrice Dalle drama A la folie competed in Venice and her noted 1999 title The Children of the Century starring Juliette Binoche received major notices after a premiere at TIFF. But despite unveiling a new project every year or so, Kurys has been absent from the major festival circuit, with many of her titles premiering domestically and foregoing US distribution. The presence of Ardant will hopefully grant some international attention, although a North American premiere would most likely transpire out of TIFF or smaller city film festivals, as was the destiny for 2013’s For a Woman.