Pascal Bonitzer Takes Art World Inspiration for ‘Auction,’ Charts New Course for Georges Simenon’s Maigret (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comBen Croll This week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris will kick off with the Tuesday night world premiere of Pascal Bonitzer’s “Auction” – a ripped-from-the-headlines ensemble drama set in the crosshairs of high art and high finance.
Produced by SBS Productions (“Last Summer,” “Elle”) and sold by Pyramide International, the art-world saga follows – among others – a hotshot auctioneer (Alex Lutz, “Vortex”), his less-than-reliable assistant (Louise Chevillotte, “Benedetta”), and the working class bloke (Arcadi Radeff, “Passages”) who sets the narrative in motion upon realizing that his erstwhile innocuous wall art bears the signature of Egon Schiele.
Writer-director Pascal Bonitzer originally thought to explore this world of high-verve auctioneers as a series, but keyed into the story’s singular, cinematic potential thanks to the real-life discovery of Schiele masterworks thought lost during World War II. “I was fascinated by this collision of two worlds,” Bonitzer tells Variety. “On the one hand, these auctioneers need to play a game – they must seduce potential sellers, wresting artifacts from the competition [with a show of confidence].
Read more on variety.com