Cantet Gives ‘Confessions’ on His 2011 Project; Remaking Angelina Jolie Film

We already have one reason to excited for Cannes…of 2012. Joyce Carole Oates’s novel Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang is being adapted for a second time. In its first version (see trailer below), it’ll be known as one of Angelina Jolie’s first acting gigs, now it’ll be tackled by Palme d’or winning Laurent Cantet, and follow the outline of the book’s original setting. Shooting will unfortunately only begin next summer in Canada (most likely Montreal for its the best looking Canadian city with a 50’s backdrop New York City) and will count as Cantet’s first English language project. Memento Films are currently doing pre-sales on the project at the AFM, Haut et Court are producing – they produced both Heading South and The Class (Entre les Murs).

Gist: Before Swedish badasses named Lisbeth Salander, we have school of hard knocks pre-Death Wish New York era. Based on Joyce Carole Oates’s novel Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, this is set in a working-class district of a small town in New York State in the 1950s. In order to survive and get revenge for all the humiliations they’ve suffered, five high-school girls swear an eternal pact: they will be the Foxfire gang (foxfire being a term for pretty girls, as well as will-o’-the-wisp). Hatred, especially of men, leads them on a merciless and savage spree. After spending time at a young offenders’ institution, Legs, their idolized gang leader, returns with the dream of them all being able to live together on a farm, according to their own laws. But their fiendish reputation earns them more than one enemy. There are car thefts, armed threats and, to top it all, kidnapping…It all ends very badly.

Worth Noting: From Wiki: The 1996 film version of Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang is simply titled Foxfire, starring Angelina Jolie. The film differs from the novel in many ways, most notably the change of setting from 1950s upstate New York to the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s. In the film, most of the Foxfire members come from comfortable suburban families; in the novel, they are working class girls from the “wrong side of the tracks” whose families suffer from domestic problems such as child abuse and alcoholism. The novel also covers a period of about three and a half years, while the film’s action takes place during the course of a few weeks.

Do We Care?: Casting choices in the five female actresses will be of the utmost importance here, if Cantet adheres to a 50’s setting, we can’t have any faux interpretations of the era – which is what we fear for Walter Salles’ On the Road. We were blown away by Cantet’s portrait of youth in Entre les Murs – will he be able to bring us an aestheticism that rings true a second time around?