Bubbling to the Surface: Léa Mysius To Give us a Night to Remember with “Histoires De La Nuit”

A Cannes Film Festival regular with her Critics’ Week showcased Ava (in 2017) and Directors’ Fortnight selected The Five Devils (2022), Léa Mysius has found her third feature. The French filmmaker will adapt Laurent Mauvignier’s recent French thriller Histoires De La Nuit (The Birthday Party) – it sounds like a great read per The Guardian. The Screen Daily folks report that Les Films de Pierre’s Marie-Ange Luciani and F Comme Film’s Jean-Louis Livi will produce. No cast has been attached yet, but it looks like there’ll be a meaty part for a lead female. Shooting is planned for May 2024, which means they’ll likely submit this for the Palme d’Or comp in 2025/ It’s worth mentioning that Mysius has technically been included in the comp before as she helped write Claire Denis’ Stars At Noon, Arnaud Desplechin’s Ismael’s Ghosts, Oh Mercy!, and Jacques Audiard’s Paris, 13th District. Luciani who sees her Anatomy of a Fall drop in theatres today, coins this has a female version of Cronenberg’s A History of Violence.

Set in a hamlet in rural France, the story follows a man and his wife, their daughter and an artist neighbour. As the man plans a surprise for his wife’s birthday, inexplicable happenings begin to disrupt the hamlet’s quiet existence before turning into a nightmarish chain of events when night falls.