L’Exercice de l’Etat: Schoeller’s Road to Sophomore Pic includes Olivier Gourmet and Michel Blanc

With his sophomore feature, which Cineuropa reports has began lensing up until the first week of January, Pierre Schoeller is moving from a portrait of extreme poverty in his directing debut to extreme callousness in what appears to be current day politico France. L’Exercice de l’Etat will see veteran actors Olivier Gourmet and Michel Blanc will topline the pic while actors Zabou Breitman and Laurent Stocker are the supporting players.

Gist: Scripted by Schoeller, the film centres on Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean (Gourmet) and his private secretary (Blanc). It opens with the latter waking the former in the middle of the night to tell him that a coach has left the road in an accident. “How many fatalities? Any children? Let’s go. We have no choice.” Thus begins the odyssey of a statesman in an increasingly complex and hostile world. Fast pace, power struggles, chaos, economic crisis…Everything connects and conflicts. One emergency quickly follows another. How is democracy doing? It’s shaky but still standing, on the move and still on track…

Worth Noting: Director of Photography Julien Hirsch (Lady Chatterley, Deep in the Woods and André Téchiné’s upcoming Impardonnables) worked with Schoeller on 2008’s Versailles. See trailer below.

Do We Care?: Versailles was a great entry into filmmaking by the long time scribe. A second Cannes in a row appears unlikely, which means fall film festival season. Update: Cineuropa’s Fabien Lemercier sets us straight: this is a contemporary set story.