9-MONTH STRETCH / 9 mois ferme

 

West Coast Premiere • Comedy • France, 2013

DCP • Scope 2.35 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 82 min

 

Directed by: Albert Dupontel

Written by: Albert Dupontel, Héctor Cabello Reyes, Olivier Demangel

Cinematography: Vincent Mathias (A.F.C)

Film Editing: Christophe Pinel

Original Score: Christophe Julien

Produced by: Catherine Bozorgan (ADCB)

Coproduced by: Wild Bunch, France 2 Cinéma, Cinéfrance 1888

Cast: Albert Dupontel (Bob Nolan), Sandrine Kiberlain (Ariane Felder), Nicolas Marié           (Maître Trolos), Philippe Uchan (De Bernard), Bouli Lanners (Surveillance Officer)

International Sales: Elle Driver

 

Sandrine Kiberlain snatched a César Award this year for her performance as Judge Ariane Felder, a confirmed bachelorette and icy careerist who discovers that she’s six months pregnant. Even worse, somehow the most likely father is Bob, a.k.a. The Eye Gobbler, an accused murderer with a rap sheet that reads like a Dickens novel. This unlikely pair becomes the star witnesses for filmmaker Albert Dupontel’s pitch-black comic case against the French justice system. The prosecution is aided by a fierce, sometimes gory visual wit that gleefully crosses the borders of propriety but never completely falls from grace. Hilarious cameos from directors Terry Gilliam and Gaspar Noé, as well as The Artist star Jean Dujardin, helped 9-Month Stretch take the French box office by storm.

Even in his early days as a comic stage actor, writer/director Albert Dupontel was known for his wicked, eclectic humor. In 1996, he translated that humor into his first feature, Bernie. The film’s outrageousness shocked some, but it also earned him a César nomination for Best First Film. In 1999, he played the lead in Sachs’ Disease, co-written and directed by Michel Deville, a film that established Dupontel’s versatility as an actor capable of more complex dramatic roles. He has since appeared in such films as Irreversible (2002), Intimate Enemies (COLCOA 2008), and The Clink of Ice (COLCOA 2011). Although all of Dupontel’s own films are comedies, he prefers to think of them as “funny dramas”. Dupontel’s filmography includes Locked Out (COLCOA 2006) and The Villain (COLCOA 2010). 9-Month Stretch, his fifth film, won the 2014 César Award for Best Screenplay.

 

 “On the visual side it’s like Amelie on steroids…”

- Jonathan Holland HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

 

“Dupontel has crafted a hugely enjoyable, high-energy comedy held together by his chemistry with Kiberlain and a storyline which is both outrageously funny and surprisingly touching.”

- Judith Prescott FRENCH CINEMA REVIEW