SERAPHINE Los Angeles Premiere Drama/Biopic France/Belgium, 2008 In French with English subtitles 35mm/1.85/Dolby SRD DTS 5.1/125 min 2009 César award for: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress for Yolande Moreau, Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Costumes, Best Art Direction Official Selection: Rendez-vous with French Cinema (2009), Montreal International Festival of New Cinema (2008), Cairo International Film Festival (2008) Directed by: Martin Provost Written by Martin Provost and Marc Abdelnour Cinematography by: Laurent Brunet Editing by: Ludo Troch Original Music by: Michaël Galasso Produced by: Gilles Sacuto, Miléna Poylo Production Company: TS Productions Co-produced by: France 3 Cinéma, Climax Films International sales: ROISSY FILMS 58, rue Pierre Charron 75008 Paris Tel +33 1 53 53 50 50 www.roissyfilms.com Released in the U.S. by: MUSIC BOX FILMS 942 W. Lake Street Chicago, IL 60607 www.musicboxfilms.com With: Yolande Moreau (Séraphine de Senlis), Ulrich Tukur (Wilhelm Uhde), Anne Bennent (Anne-Marie Uhde), Adélaïde Leroux (Minouche), Geneviève Mnich (Mme Duphot), Nico Rogner (Helmut Kolle) www.seraphine-lefilm.com/ Based on the life of Séraphine de Senlis, an unknown turn of the century naïve painter, Séraphine tells the story of a poor and mentally ill housekeeper inhabited by an incredible talent. Séraphine, played by Yolande Moreau (Amélie, The Last Mistress), works for German art collector Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), who accidentally discovers one of her paintings in a local art salon. Fascinated by her talent, Uhde wants to show her work but WWI forces him to flee the country. In 1927, Udhe finds his protégée destitute but still painting. As the Great Depression forces him to delay his plans for her a second time, this new disappointment precipitates Séraphine’s descent into madness. The film shows the complexity and limitations of their relationship but also the pain and violence of her visceral need to paint. ABOUT MARTIN PROVOST Writer-director Martin Provost started his career as an actor, onscreen in films by Tonie Marshall or Claude Zidi and onstage for six years at the Comédie Française. He wrote and directed his first feature Tortilla and Cinema in 1996, a Franco-Spanish co-production with Castilian star Carmen Maura. Following his critically acclaimed Song from within, Provost’s third feature Séraphine brought him worldwide recognition as well as national accolades, including seven César awards, including Best Picture of the year and Best Original screenplay. He is also the author of two short films J’ai peur du noir (1990) and Cocon (1992), various plays and a novel, Aime-moi vite (1993). PRESS “Directed by Martin Provost, the movie stars Yolande Moreau, an actress for whom there is no American equivalent. (…) Like many serious clowns Ms. Moreau invests the tragedy and humor of the human condition with a spiritual luminosity.” (The New York Times) “Helmer and co-writer Martin Provost brings a pastoral eye to the story, layering the tale with a discreet visual style while at the same time firmly understanding the pic belongs to Moreau. Her Seraphine is a creature at once pitiable and divine, a natural talent so devoted to expression that all else is meaningless.” (Variety) “Moreau is stunning as Séraphine, struggling as she does with mental imbalance, poverty and grief; this is a woman so desperate to paint, she mixes blood, soil and candle oil together when she can’t afford supplies. (…) There’s a harsh beauty to Provost’s work that commands the highest praise.” (National Post)