Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2021: #72. Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu’s Tralala

Published on January 3, 2021

Tralala

With their first project in six years, brothers Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu return with the musical Tralala as their eighth feature. Produced by Said Ben Said and Kevin Chneiweiss (and co-produced by Olivier Pere) the star-studded cast led by Mathieu Amalric includes Denis Lavant, Josiane Balasko, Melanie Thierry, Maiwenn, Jalil Lespert and Galatea Bellugi. The offbeat films of the Larrieu brothers often feel like secret gems which don’t tend to stray far beyond the festival circuit (often their titles are screened at TIFF). They’ve competed once in Cannes with 2005’s To Paint or Make Love, and they returned to fest in Directors’ Fortnight with 2008’s Le Voyage aux Pyrenees. Their last film, 2015’s 21 Nights with Pattie won the Best Screenplay Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Gist: Tralala (Amalric) is a 48-year-old musician who decides to go on a journey to find the Virgin Mary. Along the way, he discovers of Pat, a guitarist gone missing. He decides to adopt the identity of this musician, aided by his mother.

Release Date/Prediction: Currently in post-production, we expect to see the Larrieu brothers to return to Cannes for their first time in over a decade, likely in Directors’ Fortnight.

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.