LOVE AT FIRST FIGHT / Les Combattants

 

Los Angeles Premiere • Romantic Comedy • France, 2014

DCP • 1.85 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 98 min

Directed by: Thomas Cailley

Written by: Thomas Cailley, Claude Le Pape

Cinematography: David Cailley

Film Editing: Lilian Corbeille

Original Score: Lionel Flairs, Benoit Rault and Philippe Deshaies for Hit'N'Run

Produced by: Pierre Guyard (Nord-Ouest films)

Cast: Adèle Haenel (Madeleine), Kévin Azaï (Arnaud), Antoine Laurent (Manu), Brigitte Roüan (Hélène) 

International Sales: Bac Films Distribution

US Distributor: Strand Releasing • strandreleasing.com

US release date: May 22, 2015

 

Arnaud, a carefree but sheltered young man, is starting another routine summer in his provincial southern hometown working in the family carpentry business and putting off big decisions about his future. At a self-defense demonstration, Arnaud confidently mixes it up with Madeleine, a straight-faced tomboy with a fanatical survivalist bent. To his surprise, he’s knocked off his feet - in more ways than one. Maddy seems to inhabit a different world from Arnaud. But though her abrasive nihilism, her militant prepper-paranoia, and the fact that she can kick his ass in a fair fight might be a little off-putting, she’s still the best thing that’s ever happened to Arnaud. If he has to go through a little basic training to earn her affections, so be it. From this moment forward, the only point to survival is being together.

 

In an historic first, writer/director Thomas Cailley’s feature debut took Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight by firestorm, winning all three of the major prizes, the SACD, FIPRESCI, and the CICAE. The trophy haul didn’t stop there; it also won Best Actress and Most Promising Actor Césars for Adèle Haenel and newcomer Kévin Azaï, in addition to a Best First Film César for Cailley, who has heretofore been credited with just one short, Paris Shanghai (2011). Cailley studied screenwriting and directing at the French national film school La Femis. He co-wrote both his short and his feature with Claude Le Pape.

 

Quotes:

“An immensely amiable, beautifully shot French-language love story featuring one of the best-drawn and least compromised female leads the often (rightly) maligned romantic comedy genre has offered lately,”

- Jessica Kiang INDIEWIRE

“The film cruises along with a superbly witty screenplay balancing crowd-pleasing comedy and some contemplation about youthful ennui in France, and the two leads deliver turns that do justice to the text.”

- Clarence Tsui HOLLYWOD REPORTER

“A story of love and war, despair and desires, freedom and terror, Les Combattants is a fantastic, generational film.”

- John Hopewell VARIETY