She may be Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s main muse, but Audrey Tautou has forged a new working relationship with comedy helmer Pierre Salvadori. After pairing on the box office darling Priceless (Hors de Prix) where it made plenty of Euros in profits in France and made a whopping over 2 million dollars in receipts for Samuel Goldwyn Films in its domestic run, the two will come together on a new romantic comedy which is also starring Nathalie Baye and Sami Bouajila.
Co-written by Salvadori and Benoît Graffin, Soins Complets (Full Treatment) centres on a hair salon manager (Tautou) unable to help her mother (Baye), who has been feeling depressed since her husband left her. But the young woman receives an anonymous love letter which gives her an idea: she changes the name of the address and puts that of her mother’s instead. This plan works almost too well: her mother recovers her taste for life and starts to wait impatiently by the letter box. Delighted but caught in her own trap, her daughter thus has to find someone who can play the role of the amorous author. Tautou’s breakout role came in 1999’s Vénus beauté, where she almost portrays a character working in the same type of milieu.
Cineuropa reports that shooting commenced this week and the project will be produced by Philippe Martin for Les Films Pelléas and is a co-production with the support from TF1 Films Production, and pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma. Pathé will handle the distribution in France, while powerhouse Wild Bunch is taking care of international sales. Stéphanie Lagarde, Judith Chemla and Daniel Duval round out the cast.
The chances of seeing this comedy are high since Salvadori’s film before Priceless (Après Vous) also found distribution in the U.S. via Paramount Classics.