French Star Gilles Lellouche on Directing Epic ‘Beating Hearts,’ Studiocanal’s Biggest Ever French-Language Movie (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comElsa Keslassy International Correspondent Already one of France’s most beloved and bankable actors (“The Stronghold”), Gilles Lellouche is about to graduate as a big-shot filmmaker five years after delivering his sophomore outing, “Sink or Swim,” a B.O.
hit which lured more than four million moviegoers (over $35 million) in theaters. His next movie, “Beating Hearts” (“L’amour Ouf”), budgeted in the €30 million range, is epic in many ways.
And not just because of its breadth and running time exceeding three hours. A crime romance loosely based on Neville Thompson’s 1997 novel “Jackie Loves Johnser OK,” the movie is an emotional rollercoaster spanning over 15 years in the lives of star-crossed lovers.
It took Lellouche over a decade to write (alongside Audrey Diwan and Ahmed Hamidi) and four months to shoot with a cast mixing rising and famous actors (Mallory Wanecque, Malik Frikah, Adele Exarchopoulos, Francois Civil), a pulsating soundtrack of cult 1980s and 1990s songs (from The Cure, Billy Idol, Depeche Mode), topnotch key crew and dream-like musical interludes created by (La) Horde. “Beating Hearts” marks Studiocanal‘s biggest investment in a French-language movie to date and reteams Lellouche with the banner following “Sink or Swim,” which scored its largest ever box office gross for a local film in France in 2018.
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