Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014: #18. Christophe Honore’s Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses

Director: Christophe Honore
Writers: Christophe Honore
Producer: Philippe Martin
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: George Babluani, Damien Chapelle, Sebastien Hirel

While his last film, 2011’s Beloved was unfairly criticized for being more of the same from the musically inclined provocateur, whose films sometimes feel like (in tone, not visual style) a sexually playful Jacques Demy, his latest effort, an adaptation of the Roman poet Ovid’s epic mythological narrative, sees Honore changing it up a bit. Continuing his penchant for adapting difficult literary works (his 2004 Isabelle Huppert headlined Ma Mere was an unfinished novel by Georges Bataille and 2008’s The Beautiful Person was inspired by a novel by Madame de La Fayette), Honore’s cast consists of mostly unknown actors, his first film in over a decade not to star either of his muses, Louis Garrel or Chiara Mastroianni. With such lofty aspirations, the enigmatic Honore’s latest will undoubtedly be something to talk about.

Gist: A contemporary adaptation, the screenplay sees a teenager seduced by a man in front of her school, and then kidnapped by him. He starts to tell her strange stories about young people who were transformed into animals after having met him. The teenager is not afraid of his stories. On the contrary, she finds them quite amusing and, out of curiosity, ends up gradually entering a world of legends where the boundary between mortals and gods no longer exists.

Release Date: Currently in post-production, we’re assuming this premiere somewhere at Cannes. Beloved closed the 2011 fest, but 2007’s Les Chansons D’amour played the main comp, so a slot there or perhaps Un Certain Regard.

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