Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #38. Farewell to the Night (L’Adieu a la nuit) – André Téchiné

Published on January 7, 2019

Farewell to the Night (L’Adieu a la nuit)

French auteur André Téchiné reunites with Catherine Deneuve for the eighth time with Farewell to the Night (L’Adieu a la nuit), which is also being called Les enemies (Enemies). This follows Hotel America; Scene of the Crime; My Favorite Season; Thieves; Changing Times; The Girl on the Train; In the Name of My Daughter. Produced by Olivier Delbosc for Curiosa Films and co-produced by Arte France Cinema, Techine also reunites with his Being 17 (2016) star Kacey Mottet-Klein (also of Ursula Meier’s Sister, 2012) with a supporting cast including Oulaya Amamra (Divines) and Kamel Labroudi (Apaches). Techine also teams with his usual DP Julien Hirsch.

Techine has thrice competed in Berlin (Changing Times, 2004; The Witnesses, 2007; Being 17, 2016) and once in Venice (Far, 2001). Historically, Cannes has been Techine’s main stage, competing six times for the Palme (The Bronte Sisters, 1979; Rendezvous, 1985; Scene of the Crime, 1986; Thieves, 1996; Strayed, 2003), while many of his recent works have played there outside the competition, such as the Directors’ Fortnight programmed Unforgiveable in 2011, and Special Screening slots for In the Name of My Daughter in 2014 and Golden Years in 2017.

Gist: Much like the new project from the Dardenne Bros. and Rachid Bouchareb’s recent The Road to Istanbul, Techine’s film, co-written by Ava director Lea Mysius is based on topical events concerning radicalized French youth. This project was inspired by an article from journalist David Thomsen, who canvassed 250 French youths who left the country to join the Holy War only to return to France. Deneuve stars as a grandmother who questions the actions of her grandson.

Release Date/Prediction: Filming began in April of 2018 for an eight week shoot. It’s been sixteen years since Techine was last invited to the Cannes competition, but the film is set to premiere domestically in April of 2019. Techine could pop up for another round in Berlin for his fourth time competing or perhaps show at Tribeca.

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.