– In her first feature film, multi-award-winning production designer Catherine Cosme imagines siblings shaken by secrets that emerge at the dawn of mourning
Vimala Pons in Picking Up the Pieces
Unveiled this autumn at the Saint-Jean-De-Luz International Film Festival, where it received the Jury Prize from the French Film Critics’ Union, Catherine Cosme‘s Picking Up the Pieces makes its Belgian premiere at the Love International Film Festival de Mons in the International Competition. Catherine Cosme made a name for herself with two short films that have been screened around the world, Les Amoureuses (2015) and Famille (2018). But she is also best known (for now) as an artistic director, having recently won the César Award for Best Production Design for Stéphane Demoustier‘s The Great Arch [+see also:
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interview: Stéphane Demoustier
film profile]. She is now moving on to feature film directing with Picking Up the Pieces, a film that has received support from the Cinema and Audiovisual Centre of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation lightweight/smaller productions fund.
The film tells the story of Lucile (Vimala Pons), a hyper-busy Parisian photographer forced to take a break to return to the provinces to be at her mother’s bedside (Guilaine Londez). Suffering from recurrent cancer, it appears that her mother is living her last days. But as Lucile and her brother Paul (Yoann Zimmer) try to sort through her papers, they discover that their mother has been leading a double life. For years, she has taken out countless consumer loans in Lucile’s name. The first was for a school trip, the second to bail out the shop, and the third for her studies. A vicious circle. Reason would dictate that they file a complaint against her so that Lucile does not inherit the debts on top of the pain of losing her mother. A saving but symbolically violent act, which would bring an end to the story of a chaotic mother/daughter relationship…
What does this act by her mother mean? In light of this identity theft, Lucile questions the bond between her and her mother: what does it say about her mother’s love for her? As the hours pass, shared between the alcove of her bedroom and the blinding sunshine of the small southern village, oblivious to her torment, she begins to question everything, her relationship with the world and with her family. There is an apparent incompatibility between Lucile, the go-getter who peppers her speech with Anglicisms, and her discreet mother, who wants more than anything to keep up appearances. And her completely lost father, who seems to have lost his mind, yet has chosen a less painful blindness than confrontation. And above all, the biggest question of all: is all this for love? This is surely what the film raises, the often clumsy way in which we love our relatives, making mistakes, even faults. Ultimately, it is by reconnecting with her true identity, using photography to recreate bonds, that Lucile will come closer to a truth that has always eluded her. Unsurprisingly, Vimala Pons, who has just won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Ties that Bind Us [+see also:
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interview: Carine Tardieu
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Picking Up the Pieces was produced by Hélicotronc (Belgium), and co-produced by Tripode Productions (France) and Alva Film (Switzerland). The film will be released in theatres on 29 April in Belgium through its distributor Brightfish, and will be released in French theatres by New Story on 6 May.
(Translated from French)
