Description
ANTOINETTE IN THE CÉVENNES
2021 CÉSAR AWARDS – WINNER – Best Actress (Laure Calamy)
OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2020 CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
OPENING NIGHT SELECTION – 2021 FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL AOTEAROA
The #1 smash-hit of the French Film Festival Aotearoa, writer/director Caroline Vignal’s hilarious and life-affirming comedy ANTOINETTE IN THE CÉVENNES stars the wonderful Laure Calamy (Call My Agent!, Aurore) as a woman who finds herself on a journey of self-discovery in somewhat unexpected circumstances.
40-something primary school teacher Antoinette (Calamy, in a career-making turn) has been eagerly looking forward to a long-planned weekend escape with her married lover Vladimir (C’est la vie!’s Benjamin Lavernhe), the father of one of her pupils. However their plans are upended by his wife’s booking of a surprise hiking trip in the picturesque Cévennes mountains in the South of France (a six-day trek made famous by best-selling author Robert Louis Stevenson). Completely unversed in the ways of the wilderness, the spurned Antoinette impulsively decides to follow them, and once paired with an unlikely companion – an obstinate but evidently wise grey donkey named Patrick – discovers much, much more than she bargained for…
Carried by the remarkable Calamy, Vignal’s wonderfully mischievous film offers both Antoinette and audiences an uproarious and poignant reminder of the virtues of independence, and that the journey, not the destination, is often the reward.
