MY SON / Mon Garçon

Friday, April 27 – 7:45 pm – Truffaut Theatre

Directed by: Christian Carion
Written by: Christian Carion, Laure Irrmann Carion
Cinematography: Éric Dumont
Film Editing: Loïc Lallemand
Original Score: Laurent Perez Del Mar
Produced by: Christophe Rossignon, Philip Boëffard (Nord-Ouest Films), Christian Carion (Une Hirondelle Production), Guillaume Canet (Caneo Films)
Cast: Mélanie Laurent (Marie Blanchard), Guillaume Canet (Julien Perrin), Olivier De Benoist (Grégoire Rochas), Antoine Hamel (the man from the pick-up truck)

International Sales: Wild Bunch
U.S. Distributor: Cohen Media Group

Estranged from his family and now living abroad, dedicated geologist Julien receives a phone message from his ex-wife, Marie, announcing that their 7-year-old son has disappeared while on a camping trip in the woods. Wracked with guilt and desperate to find his son, Julien frantically plunges into that mission with a vengeance. Guillaume Canet gives the film a taut, seething edge, as Julien, and Melanie Laurent is moving as his grieving wife, Marie. Perhaps most compelling is the fact that director Christian Carion devised a plan whereby Canet improvised his scenes, in chronological order, not knowing what was in store for him at each narrative turn — a tactic that injects the thriller with enormous tension and suspense.

Christian Carion | Engineer-turned-writer/director Christian Carion was born into a family of farmers in northern France. His feature film debut, The Girl from Paris (COLCOA 2002) is an homage to his pastoral upbringing and was nominated for a César Award for Best First Feature. His second film, Joyeux Noel (2005), tells the true WWI story of an unauthorized cease-fire on Christmas Eve 1914, in which French, Scottish and German soldiers laid down their arms in an extraordinary spirit of brotherhood. The film was an international hit and was nominated for an Oscar, a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film and received two César nominations, for Best Screenplay and Best Film. That film also starred Guillaume Canet, as did his next, the intriguing espionage thriller, Farewell (Audience Award, COLCOA 2010). That was followed by Come What May (Critics Award, COLCOA 2016). Carion has appeared as an actor in all of his own films and, in 2006, his favorite actor, Guillaume Canet returned the favor and cast Carion in his own directorial effort, Tell No One (COLCOA 2007)

Screening followed by a Q&A with writer, director Christian Carion

In Association with: Cohen Media Group, Wild Bunch

Labels: Film Noir Series, Not recommended <13