Toronto’s ‘Mademoiselle Kenopsia’ Debuts Trailer Teasing Film’s ‘Sense of Calm… While Still Provoking a Slight Anxiety’ (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The trailer has debuted for “Mademoiselle Kenopsia,” the latest film from Canadian filmmaker Denis Côté, who won awards at Berlin Film Festival with “Vic + Flo Saw a Bear” and Locarno with “Curling.” “Mademoiselle Kenopsia” had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival this month, and will premiere in North America at next month’s Toronto Film Festival in the Wavelengths section, which was unveiled Friday.

H264 is handling international sales. Côté says: “We imagined and intended the trailer as a sort of refuge that invites a sense of calm… while still provoking a slight anxiety.

This essentially encapsulates ‘Kenopsia’: an anguished state of floating that hangs over the whole film to the point of overwhelming its main character.” The press notes explain what the word “kenopsia” means: “The eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that’s usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.” “Mademoiselle Kenopsia” focuses on a woman, referred to by Côté as the “Guardian of Spaces,” who is “obsessed with watching over anonymous interiors and occupying them,” and is “set on carrying out her task with dedication,” according to the press notes. “Both a custodian of the premises and a ghostly presence, she becomes an echo of how we relate to time, solitude and the melancholy of forsaken spaces.” Côté explains how he got the idea for the project: “During the coronavirus pandemic, we all experienced moments of seclusion, confinement or isolation.

We spent a lot of time in the same few places. I feel that, in our minds, spaces had become purely functional. It no longer mattered whether they were clean, beautiful, new or well thought-out.