LOVE AT FIRST CHILD / Ange et Gabrielle

 

U.S. Premiere • Romantic Comedy • France, 2015

DCP • 1.85 • Dolby Digital • Color • 91 min

Directed by: Anne Giaffieri

Written by: Anne Giafferi, Anne Le Ny

Based on a play by: Murielle Magellan

Cinematography: Stéphane Cami

Film Editing: Christine Lucas, Navarro

Original Score: Jean-Michel Bernard

Produced by: Marc Olla (Palazzo Films), Benoît Jaubert (Benji Films)

Cast: Isabelle Carré (Gabrielle), Patrick Bruel (Ange), Alice de Lencquesaing (Claire), Thomas Solivéres (Simon), Laurent Stocker (Guillaume) 

International Sales: TF1 International • tf1international.com

 

Single parenting, unwanted pregnancy and empty-nest syndrome trip each other up in this fizzy rom-com. Seventeen year-old Claire is pregnant, and the father Simon, himself a young student, is too overwhelmed by the prospect of fatherhood to accept responsibility. Claire’s mother, Gabrielle, raised Claire without a father, and she refuses to accept the same fate for her daughter. Taking the matter in hand, Gabrielle hunts down Simon’s father Ange (Patrick Bruel), hoping that he will be sensible and convince Simon to get up on the whole parenting tip. Much to her chagrin, Ange turns out to be a fifty-something, club-hopping, skirt-chasing, inveterate bachelor who wants no part of Gabrielle’s little plan. What Gabrielle finds even more vexing is that on top of all this, he has the gall to be charming.

Writer/director Anne Giaffieri’s first feature, Qui a envie d'être aimé? (2010), was about a man with a dysfunctional family who re-discovers faith,  adapted from a novel by Giaffieri’s husband, Thierry Bizot.  For this, her sophomore effort, Giaffieri wanted to go in a more purely comic direction. Collaborating on the screenplay with Intouchables (COLCOA 2012) actress/writer Anne Le Ny, she adapted Muriel Magellan’s comedic play L’Eveil du Chameau. Giaffieri’s first breakthrough came in another collaboration with Magellan, the 2006 television mini-series adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot's Christmas.  That success led to two long-running television series, Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie and the more recent hit, Fais pas ci, fais pas ça.  Directing two episodes of that show gave her a taste for more. She has directed two TV, movies, in addition to her work on the big screen.

 

QUOTES:

“…done with such brio and pizzazz it’s impossible not to be swept along by its charm.”

– Judith Prescott, French Cinema Review