Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #75. Passion Simple – Danielle Arbid

Passion Simple

Lebanese born French filmmaker Danielle Arbid mounts a high profile adaptation for her fifth narrative feature, Passion Simple, based on the popular 1992 novel by Anne Ernaux. The French-Belgian co-production is produced by David Thion and Philippe Martin and co-produced by Belgium’s Jacques-Henri Bronckart and Gwen Libert. Laetitia Dosch (her breakout was Jeune Femme, 2017), Sergei Polunin (the Ukrainian ballet dancer who has appeared in The White Crow and Red Sparrow) appear as the leads with a supporting cast of Caroline Ducey, Slimane Dazi, Teymour Lou Taylor (who debuted in Arbid’s Parisienne, 2015) and Gregoire Colin (the Claire Denis regular). Pascale Granel (The Wild Boys, 2017) serves as DP. The project was initially announced as starring Vicky Krieps, Elina Lowensohn and Danila Kozlovsky in May of 2018. Arbid’s first two features, In the Battlefields (2004) and Un homme perdu (2007) both premiered in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. She competed in Locarno in 2011 with the TV film Beirut Hotel and her last feature, 2015’s Parisienne premiered at TIFF.

Gist: Dosch stars as a French academic who has an affair with a married Russian diplomat. The narrative structure consists of her journal entries as she awaits their next rendezvous.

Release Date/Prediction: Arbid wrapped production in March 2019. We expect her to return to Cannes, potentially in Directors’ Fortnight or Un Certain Regard.