EXCLUSIVE: Martin Provost’s comedy drama Love Letters, starring Fabrice Luchini as a recently retired teacher forced to reinvent himself, world premieres at the Locarno Film Festival next week and Deadline can reveal a first clip.
Luchini, best known internationally for his Venice Best Actor-winning performance in Courted, plays a literature professor who gives his students a final lesson as he retires, encouraging them to take charge of their destiny.
That night his wife leaves him sending his retirement plans into disarray and forcing him to take up his own advice, with three female encounters helping him to plot a new path.
The film reunites Provost with longtime production partners François Kraus and Denis Pineau-Valencienne at Les Films du Kiosque after recent collaborations including Bonnard: Pierre & Marthe and How To Be A Good Wife, as well as Oscar-nominated The Artist cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman, who also worked on the latter title.
Les Films du Kiosque lead produces with France 3 Cinema and Umedia on board as coproducers. Memento will release the film in France in November.
Love Letters will screen on the Piazza Grande in the presence of Martin Provost, Devos, and coproducers Vera Michalski Hoffmann and Denis Pineau-Valencienne.
The Locarno Film Festival runs from September 5 to 15.
