MY KING / Mon Roi

 

West Coast Premiere • Drama, Romance • France, 2015

DCP • 2.35 • Dolby 5.1 • Color • 124 min

Directed by: Maïwenn

Written by: Etienne Comar, Maïwenn

Cinematography: Claire Mathon

Film Editing: Simon Jacquet

Original Score: Stephen Warbeck

Produced by: Les Productions du Trésor, StudioCanal, France 2 Cinéma

Cast: Vincent Cassel (Georgio Milevski), Emmanuelle Bercot (Marie-Antoinette Jézéquel, dite Tony), Louis Garrel (Solal) 

International Sales: StudioCanal  • studiocanal.com/en

US Distributor: Film Movement • filmmovement.com

 

This intimate take on a rollercoaster relationship puts all the tropes of romance on its head by looking at it through the eyes of a woman seduced by the male equivalent of a blonde bombshell. Licking her wounds in a convalescent center after an accident-on-purpose on the ski slopes, fortyish lawyer Tony looks back on a tumultuous decade with her dream guy, Georgio. An effortlessly charming restaurateur, Georgio views the world as a stage upon which he is performing his life. Tony obliges with five-star reviews, at least while the passions are in full flush. Only later, when the couple gets down to the business of building a life together, will Georgio’s wolfish ego and his inability to fully let go of his womanizing past, begin to tarnish the shine. But even if theirs is a doomed relationship, Tony is about to learn that it doesn’t always have to be this way. Vincent Cassel is at his raffish best, and Emmanuelle Bercot won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her heartbreaking portrayal of a woman desperate to fall out of love.

With My King, her fourth feature film, it’s perhaps time to stop calling Maïwenn an actress-turned-filmmaker and start calling her simply a filmmaker. Coming off her grittier Cannes Jury Prize-winning ensemble drama Polisse (COLCOA 2011), Maïwenn has put her spin on the classic French romance, and was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Daughter of actress Catherine Belkhodja, Maïwenn was raised in the entertainment industry, and began acting as a child;  her career was briefly on hold after she began a relationship with director Luc Besson. Technically, her first film was shooting the making of for Besson’s Léo: The Professional (1994). She returned to acting with an autobiographical one-woman show, which led to her real first film, the short I’m an actrice (2004). Maïwenn’s co-writer Etienne Comar, has also co-written Of Gods and Men (2010), and Haute Cuisine (COLCOA 2012), among his many producer credits.

 

QUOTES:

“Maïwenn is concerned first and foremost with her characters, who rank among the most vividly realized of any to have graced the screen in recent memory.”

– Peter Debruge, Variety

“…bubbles along engagingly, and with just enough humility and surprisingly daft humor.”

– Jessica Kiang, Indiewire