HIDDEN DIARY Mères et filles Supported by: Festival Selection: Richmond French Film Festival (2010), Kiev Molodist International Film Festival (2009), Pusan International Film Festival (2009), Montréal World Film Festival, Hors concours (2009) West Coast Premiere Drama France/Canada, 2009 In French with English subtitles 35mm/1.85/Color/Dolby SRD/105 min Directed by: Julie Lopes-Curval Written by: Julie Lopes-Curval, Sophie Hiet Cinematography by: Philippe Guilbert Editing by: Anne Weil Music by: Patrick Watson Produced by: Alain Benguigui, Thomas Verhaeghe Production Company: Sombrero Films Coproduction: France 3 Cinéma International Sales: Bac Films 88, rue de la Folie-Méricourt 75011 Paris France Phone: +33 1.53.53.52.52 www.bacfilms.com Cast: Catherine Deneuve (Martine), Marina Hands (Audrey), Marie-Josée Croze (Louise), Michel Duchaussoy (Michel), Jean-Philippe Écoffey (Gérard), Carole Franck (Evelyne), Eléonore Hirt (Suzanne), Gérard Watkins (Gilles), Romano Orzari (Tom), Nans Laborde (Pierre), Meriem Serbah (Samira), Louison Bergman (Martine as a child), Arthur Lurcin (Gérard as a child), Manon Percept (Audrey as a child) www.meresetfilles-lefilm.com Exploring mother/daughter relationships through generations, Hidden Diary is a portrait of three women facing the challenges of womanhood and the weight of family secrets. Audrey (Marina Hands, Lady Chatterley), a pregnant and independent thirty-year old living abroad in Canada, is visiting her parents in the small French town where she was born. Family secrets start unraveling when she finds the diary of her grandmother Louise (Marie-Josée Croze, Someone I Loved (COL•COA 2009), The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Munich), who according to family legend, left her family and never returned. As she questions her difficult relationship with her mother Martine (cinema icon Catherine Deneuve) and her own future as a mother, Louise’s secret seems to hold the answers to all her questions. JULIE LOPES-CURVAL started writing and directing plays while taking acting classes at the cours Florent. Following a first script for Adolescents, a commissioned film, she wrote and directed her first short film, Mademoiselle Butterfly, in 2001. Her first feature as writer-director, Seaside was screened at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2002 and won the Caméra d'or. Her following film Toi et Moi (2005), a romantic comedy starring Marion Cotillard and Julie Depardieu, was recently released on DVD in the U.S. Her writing credits also include A Great Little Business and The Role of Her Life, which won the Best Screenplay award at the 2004 Montréal World Film Festival. PRESS "Julie Lopes-Curval proves surprisingly subtle in orchestrating the familial Sturm und Drang in a story that recalls "Julie and Julia," as a rediscovered recipe binds women across time." Ronnie Scheib, Variety. "The great strength of this film is that it works on so many levels. In conventional terms it's a family drama and a (slightly belated) coming-of-age tale. In others, though it features nothing supernatural, it's a classic ghost story; and there's a thriller hidden underneath. (...) A perfectly balanced film that ends with an emotional punch to the stomach, Hidden Diary tackles its subject with subtlety and real insight." Jennie Kermode, Eye For Film.