Jean-Pierre Jeunet, great figure of French cinema behind The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain et Delicatessenis embarking on an interesting new project, alongside Leïla Bekhti.
Broadcast on Netflix, the latest film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet BigBug had largely disappointed the press (including us). A setback in an exciting career, where the artist has cultivated a singularity that is sometimes imitated, but never equalled. Strange universes created with Marc Caro (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) to his more recent attempts, including the monstrous success of Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain and the American adventure Alien 4, he became an important figure in French cinema.
Each of its projects is therefore carefully scrutinized. And whoever arrives is no exception to the ruleespecially since it is the adaptation of a real bestseller perfectly suited to its style.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet at the cemetery
It is Paris Match who had the exclusivity: Jeunet will take care of adapting Change the flower waterpublished in 2018. The novel by Valérie Perrin is a very big success (850,000 copies sold!) telling a story straight out of one of her films. We follow a cemetery guardian with a dark past named Violette Toussaint. She meets several characters – undertakers, young priests, visitors – who talk to her about their lives and their deceased people. Little by little, she reveals her own story in a tragicomic tone.
-And to embody this bitter heroine, it was Leïla Bekhti who was chosen. This is the first time that the actress has collaborated with Jeunet, and it is the opportunity to add a recognized French filmmaker to her collection, after Jacques Audiard, Géraldine Nakache, Cédric Kahn and Joachim Lafosse. Despite support from Netflix and Canal+, the film is produced by Palomar, 24 25 Films (Barbès, Little Algeria) and Studiocanal, which should distribute the film in France.
The director should not approach the subject too fancifully. At least, he cites as an influence When the storks passMikhail Kalatozov's masterpiece, awarded the Palme d'Or in 1958. Suffice to say that there is reason to be curious, even if we will necessarily have to wait before discovering the result: the filming of Change the flower water expected to start in May 2025.
