Les Grandes Forêts
English Title
The Great Forests
Director
Frédéric Guelaff
Year
2009
Form
Short film
Duration
26.5 minutes
Synopsis
“At the root of Les Grandes Forêts are two actors, Adèle Haenel and Christophe Raymond, and the desire to echo this meeting in a simple and urgent way.
The film plays with three characters: Lise, Gilles and the forest.
It is a film about family ties, their strength and absurdity.
There is a couple. A sister who finds herself forced to help a brother she barely knows.
There are the great forests. The forests of childhood, mysterious, frightening and full of
stories, of small adventures.
There is unease, fear, awkwardness and exhaustion, all part of this nearly motionless
journey.”
The film plays with three characters: Lise, Gilles and the forest.
It is a film about family ties, their strength and absurdity.
There is a couple. A sister who finds herself forced to help a brother she barely knows.
There are the great forests. The forests of childhood, mysterious, frightening and full of
stories, of small adventures.
There is unease, fear, awkwardness and exhaustion, all part of this nearly motionless
journey.”
Festivals
Festival Selection, Rendez-Vous With French Cinema à New York (United States, 2010).
Adèle’s role
Lise
Les Grandes Forêts
A higher quality version, but no English subtitles
Notes
This is Adèle’s third short film with writer/director Frédéric Guelaff. We have already seen her in his other short films Les Solitudes (2008) and Le Bel Esprit (2008). She will work with Frédéric again in 2012 in the short film Folks (which we will view in about a week, if you are following the festival live).
Adèle’s co-star in this short film is Christophe Reymond, who will also appear with Adèle in Folks (2012). Christophe appears in a number of other short films by this director, the timespan of their collaboration starting in 2000 with the short film Velovelo and continuing until their most recent short film together Royaume in 2017.
Christel Baras—Casting Director
Christel Baras, who was casting director for Adèle's other films Les Diables (2002), Naissance des Pieuvres (2007), and Frédéric Guelaff's earlier short films short films Les Solitudes (2008) and Le Bel Esprit (2008), was the casting director for this film. Christel will continue to be important in Adèle's career and will cast her in many more films. Christel is a member of Collectif 50/50.When Adèle won her first César Award in 2014 Adèle thanked Christel Baras, “thanks to whom I got my start and [then] started again", before she then declared her love for Céline.
[I can't resist including this video, because that pause and hesitation before stating her her love is so endearing. I find the courage of this woman, who is so very private, to make this statement in such a public forum shows such bravery. And it's really cute. BTW: Céline was not at the César ceremony that year.]
- A translation of article about Christel's reactions to the revelation of Adèle's abuse by Christophe Ruggia.
Some images from the film
Some screenshots from the film
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