Starring: Blanche Gardin and Laurent Lafitte
Director: Céline Devaux
Duration: 156 minutes
Official Selection at Cannes Critics Week 2022
Hit of the 2023 French Film Festival, EVERYBODY LOVES JEANNE is an all-too-relatable exploration of embarrassment and self-doubt by director Céline Devaux. Written with beautiful sensitivity and wickedly funny offbeat humour, this film stands as a reminder to not take ourselves or our failures too seriously.
In everyone else's eyes, Jeanne (Blanche Gardin) is the golden girl - always the smartest, the prettiest and most likely to succeed. Behind the scenes Jeanne's interior voice, personified in line-drawing animations as the 'little ghost,' quietly criticises her every move – wreaking havoc while her exterior stays cool, calm and collected. When Jeanne's much-heralded 'sea-cleaning machine' fails monumentally, her life suddenly unravels. Out of a job and with nowhere to turn next, Jeanne's internalised self-doubt begins to spill to the surface.
In an attempt to flee the scene and earn some fast cash, Jeanne heads to Lisbon with the hopes of selling her late mother's flat. When she runs into a former classmate, Jean (Laurent Lafitte) at the airport Jeanne instinctively wants to run and hide, after all – he's not her type. While quick to brush him off, could Jean's airy attitude and witty banter be the breath of fresh air she needs?
Everybody has always loved Jeanne. These days, however, she hates herself.
Screening at Palace Cinemas and other selected cinemas nationally 7th September 2023.
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