- Title: Stars from French Film Ma Loute walk the red carpet at Cannes
- Date: 13th May 2016
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 13, 2016) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** CAST AND CREW OF MA LOUTE STANDING ON RED CARPET FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ACTORS RAPH, FABRICE LUCHINI AND BRANDON LAVIEVILLE FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ACTRESS JULIETTE BINOCHE, ACTOR JEAN-LUC VINCENT, ACTRESS VALERIA BRUNI TEDESCHI, RAPH, LUCHINI AND LAVIEVILLE PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES CAST STANDING FOR PHOTOS PEOPLE TAKING PICTURES CAST STANDING SIGN FOR THE CANNES FILM FESTIVAL / CAST WAVING AND WALKING IN
- Embargoed: 28th May 2016 19:17
- Keywords: Cannes Film Festival Ma Loute Bruno Dumont Juliette Binoche Fabrice Luchini
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE AND UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: CANNES, FRANCE AND UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: France
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0014HN54CT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Stars from French Palm d'Or contender Ma Loute walked the red carpet at Cannes ahead of the film's premiere on Friday (May 13).
French director Bruno Dumont's extravagant comedy, named Slack Bay in English, is once again using his beloved northern France to deliver a caustic social critique.
On France's northern coast during the Belle Epoque era leading up to World War One, a family of mussel harvesters prey on the rich who spend their holidays by the Cote d'Opale.
Among those rich are the Van Peteghem family - decadent, inbred and stupid.
A link is made between the two by the love story between Ma Loute, the elder son of the mussel-harvesters who also help the rich cross the bay -- eating a few of them in the process -- and the gender-fluid Billie van Peteghem.
The disappearance of the rich is being investigated by two detectives, Laurel and Hardy style as Dumont instils comedy in his cinema after the dark "L'Humanite" and "The Life of Jesus".
"I had been wanting to stay within drama for a while but there I opened the floodgates and I realised that comedy is really close to drama, it's a substitute for drama. Comedy is like a scale that goes up and down," said Dumont at a news conference earlier in the day.
While the Bruforts and Billie are played by non-professional actors, the Van Peteghems are played by seasoned French actors including Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche.
The spectator goes through the film as through a carnival in northern France, where people cross-dress and mock the powerful.
"Cinema is a metaphor. So what is local becomes a metaphor. So I don't see a problem in making a very French film that at the same time, because it is very French, will become an international film," said Dumont of his decision to produce a film with such a distinctively French feel.
Dumont won the Grand Prix du Jury, often considered the competition's runner-up prize, twice in Cannes with "L'Humanite" in 1999 and "Flanders" in 2006. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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