Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #84. A Golden Youth (Une jeunesse dorée) – Eva Ionesco

Published on January 3, 2019

A Golden Youth (Une jeunesse dorée)

Actress and director Eva Ionesco re-teams with Isabelle Huppert for her sophomore film A Golden Youth, which also stars her son Lukas Ionesco, renowned actor Melvil Poupaud, Manal Issa (Parisienne, Bonello’s Nocturama), Alain-Fabian Delon and Galatea Bellugi. Ionesco’s latest is produced by Marie-Jeanne Pascal and Melissa Toscan du Plantier for Macassar Productions (Eva), with NJJ Entertainment and Scope Productions (Belgium) as co-producers. Lensed by DP Agnes Godard (who won a Cesar for Claire Denis’ Beau Travail and is also the favored cinematographer of Ursula Meier), the film will also feature a score from Betrand Burgular (who was also on hand for Ionesco’s My Little Princess, 2011). Ionesco’s debut My Little Princess, which documented her troubled childhood courtesy of her mother, infamous photographer Irina Ionesco (portrayed by Huppert), premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival in Critics’ Week.

Gist: Co-written by Simon Liberati, A Golden Youth is set in 1979 and focuses on sixteen-year-old runaway Rose and her twenty-something boyfriend Michel. Amidst a decadent nightlife they meet older couple Lucille and Hubert (Huppert, Poupaud), who take the younger couple under their decadent wings.

Release Date/Prediction: Shot for seven weeks in early 2017, A Golden Youth is scheduled for a theatrical release in January 2019. The title will received its international premiere in the Voices sidebar of the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam.

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.