Dernier amour

French director Benoît Jacquot returns to period filmmaking with his 25th feature, Dernier amour (Casanova). Reuniting with Vincent Lindon, who also starred in Jacquot’s The School of Flesh (1998), Keep It Quiet (199) and his 2015 remake of The Diary of a Chambermaid, the cast is also comprised of Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac, 2014; Vox Lux, 2018), esteemed Italian actress and director Valeria Golino, and Sri Lanka’s Antonythasan Jesuthasan (nominated for a Cesar for his starring turn in Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, 2015). Produced by Kristina Larsen for Les Films du Lendemain and Jean-Pierre Guerin for JPG films, the project is also notably co-produced by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The infamous lover Casanova has been depicted on screen several times previously, including in Fellini’s Donald Sutherland headliner in the 1976 production, Heath Ledger in Lasse Hallstrom’s 2005 version, and on television in a Peter O’Toole led miniseries in 2005 plus a Diego Luna starring television film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet in 2015. Jacquot has long been a fixture of French cinema, often working with actress Isabelle Huppert. Having competed once in Cannes with 1998’s The School of Flesh, Jacquot has been most often programmed in the Venice competition, appearing four times (Seventh Heaven, 1997; Keep it Quiet, 1999; The Untouchable, 2006; 3 Hearts, 2014). More recently, Jacquot has been courting Berlin, competing with 2012’s critically acclaimed Farewell My Queen, and returning in 2015 with The Diary of a Chambermaid and again in 2018 with Eva.

Gist: Co-written by Jerome Beaujour (Love Me No More, 2009) and Chantal Thomas (Farewell My Queen, 2012), Jacquot’s Casanova treatment presents the famed lothario with a challenge from his desired object of affection Charpillon, who professes he can only have her if he stops wanting her.

Release Date/Prediction: Jacquot began an eight-week production in March 2018. With a French release date of March, the project’s timeline suggests he will reappear in the Berlin competition for the fourth time.