Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #104. Convoi exceptionnel (Wide Load) – Bertrand Blier

Published on January 2, 2019

Convoi exceptionnel

The soon-to-be 80-year-old Bertrand Blier breaks a ten-year hiatus from directing with Convoi exceptionnel (Wide Load), a comedy which reunites him with Gerard Depardieu, who headlined some of the director’s most memorable early works, such as the exceptional Going Places in 1974 (which was remade by John Turturro, set for release in 2019), 1978’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, 1979’s Buffet Froid, 1986’s Menage, 1989’s Too Beautiful for You, and 2005’s How Much Do You Love Me? Depardieu is joined by his old co-star Christian Clavier in the project, produced by Olivier Delbosc of Curiosa Films, Clavier’s company Ouille Productions, Belgium’s Versus Productions, with co-production from Orange Studio. A hodgepodge of notables proliferate the supporting cast including Bouli Lanners, Yoann Blanc, Stéphane Bissot, Charlie Dupont, Isabelle de Hertogh, Olivia Harkay, Stefan Liberski, Alex Lutz, Guy Marchand, Alexandra Lamy, Louis Do de Lencquesaing, Sylvie Testud and Audrey Dana. In 1963, Blier won a Silver Sail in Locarno for his documentary Hiterl – Never Heard of Him. Blier’s Get Out Your Handkerchiefs won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1978, and he would go on to compete in Cannes four times (Beau-pere, 1981; Menage, 1986; Too Beautiful for You, 1989; Les Cotelettes, 2003) winning Grand Prize of the Jury in 1989. He competed in Venice with 1993’s 1,2,3,Freeze and Berlin in 1996 with My Man. His last feature was 2010’s The Clink of Ice starring Jean Dujardin and Albert Dupontel.

Gist: Wide Load, written by Blier, is about a well-to-do man who meets the owner of the script of his life—a man who happens to be poor.

Release Date/Prediction: Blier completed production in March of 2018, with a theatrical release scheduled in France for March 2019, meaning we expect Blier to potentially compete for the second time in Berlin (or receive an out-of-comp slot at the festival).

http://cineuropa.org/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=349182

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.