IRENE Festival Selection: Hong Kong International Film Festival (2010), Cannes International Film Festival, Un Certain Regard (2009), Montreal International Festival of New Cinema (2009), Mostra - São Paulo International Film Festival (2009), Toronto International Film Festival, Visions (2009), Viennale (2009) West Coast Premiere Documentary/Drama France, 2009 In French with English subtitles 35mm/1.85/Color/Dolby DTS/85 min Written and directed by: Alain Cavalier Cinematography by: Alain Cavalier Editing by: Alain Cavalier Produced by: Michel Seydoux Production Company: Camera One, Pyramide Productions Coproduction: Arte France Cinéma International Sales: Pyramide International 5, rue du Chevalier de Saint-George 75008 Paris France Phone: +33 1.42.96.02.20 www.pyramidefilms.com Cast: Alain Cavalier (Himself), Catherine Deneuve (herself - archive footage), Vanessa Widhoff (Herself) Irène Tunc was an actress and the companion of writer-director Alain Cavalier. She worked with Jean-Pierre Melville in Leon Morin, Priest (1961), Alain Resnais in Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968), François Truffaut in Two English Girls (1971), and Alain Cavalier in Heartbeat (1968). She died in a tragic car accident in 1972. In this uncompromising documentary, Alain Cavalier remembers Irène, her depression and their relationship. He tries to make sense of her absence through film, taking as main characters his own despair and a diary that he intended for her, while not knowing if she ever read it. A graduate of L’IDHEC film school, ALAIN CAVALIER was assistant director to Louis Malle on Frantic and The Lovers, before directing his first short The American (1958). He followed with Fire and Ice (1962) and Have I the Right To Kill? (1964), two politically controversial shorts. After the success of Pillaged (1967) and Heartbeat (1968), an adaptation of a François Sagan novel starring Catherine Deneuve, Alain Cavalier stopped making films for eight years. After 1976, he wrote and directed a series of experimental and minimalist works, such as Martin and Lea (1979) or Un Etrange Voyage (1981). In 1986, his portrait of St. Thérèse de Lisieux, Therese, was a commercial and critical success, winning Jury Prize at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival and 6 César awards including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. After a film without dialog, Libera Me (1993), he turned to documentaries with Lives (2000), René (2002) and Le Filmeur (2005), presented at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard. PRESS "It's hard to imagine a film more simple than Alain Cavalier's "Irene," yet one that cuts to an emotional core with such acuity. To dismiss this as a home movie would be a serious error, not only because its author is an accomplished filmmaker, but more important, Cavalier invites an audience participation that lets both him and his viewers struggle to understand a central figure who is completely absent." Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter "The video-diary format often countenances self-indulgence, and there are those who may find Alain Cavailer’s film — in which the septuagenarian director waxes philosophical about the death of his first wife in a car crash in 1972 — gruellingly intimate. But Cavalier’s candid, searching voice-over suggests an honest autumn-years reckoning rather than simple narcissism, and his stark imagery, including shots of his own wizened flesh, emphasizes the fetching fragility of the entire enterprise." Adam Nayman, Eye Weekly