➢ The French film by Sophie Letourneur, which premieres in Spain as part of the twenty-second edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Film Festival, opens the competition in the Official Feature Films Section
➢ This odd and realistic action-packed comedy will be screened this Monday, April 17, at 8:00 p.m. at Cinesa El Muelle Screen 9 and on Tuesday, April 18, at 5:15 p.m. at Cinesa El Muelle Screen 5
➢The catalog and full schedule are available on the official web lpafilmfestival.com
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Monday, April 17, 2023.- The Official Section of the 22nd Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival starts its competition with the Spanish premiere of the French romantic comedy Voyages en Italie (France, 2023, 91 min.), the fifth feature film by Sophie Letourneur, which will be screened this Monday, April 17, at 8:00 p.m. at Cinesa El Muelle Screen 9 and on Tuesday 18, at 5:15 p.m. at Cinesa El Muelle Screen 5. An odd and realistic comedy full of action, challenges, pleasures and conflicts that has already been screened at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
Can a romantic getaway rekindle a couple’s flame? She manages to convince him to go out for a few days without children. It will be wherever he wants, except in Italy, because he has already been there with all her ex-partners… it will be Sicily, because according to him it’s not exactly Italy.
In this radiography of a conjugal love reaching the fatigue phase, explained the director of the film in a press conference today, she explores that unstable sentimental zone “with laughter and laughter.” It is, she said, a burlesque comedy inspired by her partner after a trip they took in 2016. Voyages en Italie is an autofiction. A bittersweet chronicle written and directed by Sophie Letourneur herself, who also stars in the film, and who will be in charge of introducing and talking about her latest work as well as François Labarthe’s masterful performance.
However, there is no room for improvisation in this intimate film, “even if it seems so.” In fact, she claimed, “it was her intention.” “It was written over four years and the dialogues are very elaborate. Everything is scripted in detail and directed with great precision,” stressed the filmmaker, who explained not only that the shooting went on for three weeks and was done with air pods, but that they were in Italy just for eight days, too. As a result, these precise written-to-the-millimeter dialogues cleverly take the audience to the heart of the intimacy of Sophie and her partner Jean-Fi (François Labarthe).
She pointed out that what she wanted to bring out in Voyages en Italie were “the problems that can occur in long-term couples, the complexity of the dynamics and the situations they encounter.”
Sophie Letourneur, who belongs to the young generation of French filmmakers that stood out in the 2010s, makes her films with a marked interest in the triviality of everyday life and the study of emotional connections.
The Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, organized by the Culture area of the Gran-Canarian capital’s City Council through Promoción de la Ciudad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has received public assistance by the ICAA [Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts] and the program for the internationalization of Spanish culture, PICE Visitantes, of Acción Cultural Española (AC/E).
Among the Festival’s collaborators we may find Cinesa El Muelle, El Muelle Shopping Center, Hotel Cristina by Tigotan, the Elder Museum of Science and Technology or Casa África, places which also function as venues or hold activities of the film event; as well as other institutions and companies such as Sagulpa, Hospitales San Roque, Audiovisuales Canarias, Music Library & SFX or the International Bach Festival. Likewise, its market, MECAS, has been possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Gran Canaria Film Commission-Sociedad de Promoción Económica de Gran Canaria and the support of Canary Islands Film and Proexca.
The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Mid Atlantic University, the the CIFP Felo Monzón Grau-Bassas, the Canary Islands Film Institute, the Audiovisual Cluster of the Canary Islands, Digital 104, CIMA [Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media], the Asociación Microclima Cineastas de Canarias [Association of Filmmakers of the Canary Islands ‘Microclima’] and Tusity are also collaborators of the Festival.
Share this Post