A FRENCH GIGOLO (Cliente) Official Selection: Sundance Film Festival 2009 (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), International Rome Film Festival 2008 Los Angeles Premiere Comedy/Drama France, 2008 In French with English subtitles 35mm/1.85/Color/Dolby SRD/104 min Written & Directed by: Josiane Balasko Based on a novel by: Josiane Balasko Cinematography by: Robert Alazraki Editing by: Claudine Merlin, Marie De La Selle Original Music by: DJ Kore Produced by: Cyril Colbeau-Justin, Jean-Baptiste Dupont Production Company: LGM productions Co-produced by: France 3 Cinéma, Gaumont, Josy Films International sales: GAUMONT 30 avenue Charles-de-Gaulle 92200 Neuilly-sur-Seine Tel: +33 1 46 43 20 00 www.gaumont.fr With: Nathalie Baye (Judith), Eric Caravaca (Patrick/Marco), Josiane Balasko (Irène), Isabelle Carré (Fanny), George Aguilar (Jim), Marilou Berry (Karine), Catherine Hiegel (Maggy), Félicité Wouassi (Rosalie) www.cliente-lefilm.com In A French Gigolo, Nathalie Baye (Day For Night, The Green Room, Venus Beauty Institute) is Judith, a successful single divorcee in her 50s who hires male escorts on the Internet. Cynical and confident, she wants sexual pleasure without emotional attachment. She meets Marco (Eric Caravaca), a shy young married man who makes an unlikely gigolo. Madly in love with his wife Fanny (Isabelle Carré), a hairdresser who knows nothing about his secret profession, Marco finds himself prostituting to make ends meet and feels uneasy in this role. Things become even more complicated when the relationship between Judith and Marco becomes serious and Fanny finds out. ABOUT JOSIANE BALASKO Writer-director Josiane Balasko is also one of the most prominent actresses in France. She became famous, along with her theater troupe Le Splendid, for a series of comedies that have become cult classics in France: The Bronzés saga and Le Père Noël est une ordure. Her dramatic role in Too Beautiful For You is also among her most celebrated performances. She started writing and directing in the mid-1980s with All Mixed Up and Lady Cops. In 1995, she won a César award for Best Screenplay with her comedy French Twist, also nominated for a Golden Globe and released in the U.S. in 1996 to rave reviews. Her seventh feature film, A French Gigolo is based on a novel she wrote and adapted to the big screen. PRESS “Bittersweet tale of a tender beau de jour and his sticky affair with an older, cynical divorcee features impressive performances by thesps Eric Caravaca and Nathalie Baye that are all heart with little naked flesh.” (Variety) “Nathalie Baye gives a classy, nuanced performance as a successful divorced woman who pays young male escorts for sex in A French Gigolo (Cliente). Writer, director and co-star Josiane Balasko's intelligent take on how the need for money and/or sex dictates human behaviour is consistently engaging and never sordid.” (Screen International) Followed by a Q&A with writer/director Josiane Balasko