Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2020: #94. Effacer l’historique – Gustave Kervern & Benoît Delépine

Effacer l’historique

Kooky Belgian duo Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine will present their ninth collaboration in 2020, Effacer l’historique, another exercise about social misfits attempting to succeed in tasks which seem woefully out of their depth. Sylvie Pialat and Benoit Quainon are producing, starring a lead trio of Blanche Gardin (who will also be appearing in Bruno Dumont’s latest), Denis Podalydes, and Corinne Masiero. Some of the directors’ usual suspects are also on hand in the cast, including Yolande Moreau, Benoit Poelvoorde, Bouli Lanners, and Michel Houellebecq. And they’ll be joined by American actor Denis O’Hare. The filmmakers reunite with their regular DP, Hugues Poulain.

Kervern & Delepine first began delivering their special brand of weirdness in 2004 with Aaltra, which competed in Rotterdam. Their 2006 Avida scored an out-of-comp Cannes slot, while 2008’s Louise-Michel won Best Screenplay at San Sebastian and then won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance in 2009. 2012’s Le Grand Soir premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, 2014’s Near Death Experience went to Horizons in Venice, 2016’s Saint Amour was out-of-comp in Berlin and 2018’s I Feel Good preemed in Locarno.

Gist: Three neighbors from a suburban housing estate are each affected negatively by social media – together they decide to take on the Big Four tech companies to inspire change.

Release Date/Prediction: It’s hard to predict where Kervern & Delépine will end up, but they could end up somewhere new, such as Tribeca, or potentially score another out-of-comp slot, whether in Berlin, Cannes or Locarno.