When an elderly writer dies in his bathtub one night, only a single person knows the secret existence of his last manuscript: Bertrand, a young man who is also accidental witness to the writer’s death. Bertrand has the deceased’s last play performed under his own name and is intoxicated by its success. But the world is soon eager for another work from this supposed young literary genius. In the midst of his attempts to put a new creation to paper, Bertrand encounters an attractive but mysterious woman named Eva. To him, she is much more than merely a high-class prostitute, and their conversations flow directly into the dialogue of his new play. But he finds it impossible to penetrate Eva’s emotional armour. Nobody must know what really drives her – least of all this arrogant upstart, whose sexual dependency she exploits but whom she certainly does not trust. Bertrand becomes ensnared in an emotional entrapment that leads to catastrophe.
More than fifty years after Joseph Losey, Benoit Jacquot has revisited British writer James Hadley Chase’s novel in order to create his own cinematic adaptation: a conversation piece that plumbs the moral depths of the world of the rich and the beautiful.
by Benoit Jacquot
with Isabelle Huppert, Gaspard Ulliel, Julia Roy, Marc Barbe, Richard Berry
France / Belgium 2017 French 102’ Colour

With

  • Isabelle Huppert (Eva)
  • Gaspard Ulliel (Bertrand)
  • Julia Roy (Caroline)
  • Marc Barbe (Georges)
  • Richard Berry (Regis)

Crew

Director Benoit Jacquot
Screenplay Benoit Jacquot, Gilles Taurand adapted from the book by James Hadley Chase
Cinematography Julien Hirsch
Editing Julia Gregory
Music Bruno Coulais
Sound Design Olivier Goinard
Sound Christian Monheim, Paul Heymans
Production Design Katia Wyszkop
Costumes Marielle Robaut
Make-Up Liliane Rametta, Thi-Loan Nguyen
Assistant Director Antoine Santana
Casting Antoinette Boulat
Producers Marie-Jeanne Pascal, Mélita Toscan du Plantier
Executive Producer Marie-Jeanne Pascal
Co-Producers Luc Besson, Olivier Père, Rémi Burah, Geneviève Lemal
Co-Production EuropaCorp Saint-Denis Cedex
Arte France Cinéma Issy les Moulineaux
Scope Pictures Brüssel

World sales

EuropaCorp

Produced by

Macassar Productions

Benoit Jacquot

Born in Paris, France in 1947, he began his career as an assistant director before making his feature debut in 1975 with L’assassin musicien (The Musician Killer), based on a novella by Dostoyevsky. He has worked with stars of French cinema such as Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Kiberlain and Léa Seydoux and has also made his name directing TV, documentary and opera. In 1996, A Single Girl screened in the Berlinale Panorama. His period drama Les adieux à la reine (Farewell My Queen) was in the Berlinale Competition in 2012, and his novel adaptation Journal d’une femme de chambre (Diary of a Chambermaid) screened at the 2015 Berlinale.

Filmography (selection)

1975 L'assassin musicien (The Musician Killer) 1990 La désenchantée (The Disenchanted) 1995 La fille seule (A Single Girl) 1997 Le septième ciel (The Seventh Heaven) 1998 L'école de la chair (The School of Flesh) 1999 Pas de scandale (Keep it Quiet) 2000 Sade 2001 Tosca 2002 Adolphe 2004 A tout de suite 2006 L'intouchable (The Untouchable) 2009 Villa Amalia 2010 Au fond des bois (Deep in the Woods) 2012 Les adieux à la reine (Farewell My Queen) 2014 3 cœurs (3 Hearts) 2015 Journal d'une femme de chambre (Diary of a Chambermaid) 2017 Eva

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2018