| Little White Lies | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Guillaume Canet |
| Produced by | Alain Attal |
| Written by | Guillaume Canet |
| Starring | François Cluzet Marion Cotillard Benoît Magimel Gilles Lellouche Jean Dujardin Laurent Lafitte Valérie Bonneton Pascale Arbillot |
| Cinematography | Christophe Offenstein |
| Editing by | Hervé De Luze |
| Studio | Les Productions du Trésor EuropaCorp |
| Distributed by | EuropaCorp Distribution |
| Release date(s) | 11 September 2010 (TIFF) 20 October 2010 (France) |
| Running time | 154 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | € 17 420 000[1] |
| Box office | € 55 204 468[2] |
Little White Lies is a 2010 French comedy-drama film written and directed by Guillaume Canet, starring an ensemble cast of François Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Benoît Magimel, Gilles Lellouche, Jean Dujardin, Laurent Lafitte, Valérie Bonneton and Pascale Arbillot. The original French title is Les petits mouchoirs, which means "The small handkerchiefs". The film was released in France on 20 October 2010.
Contents |
In a Parisian nightclub, party man Ludo (Jean Dujardin) takes off late at night on his scooter, where he's blindsided by a truck. Lying between life and death in the hospital, Ludo is visited by his band of longtime pals, who decide that the gruesome crash shouldn't prevent them from embarking on their coveted summer holidays.
Prior to the trip, another major problem arises when one of the friends, osteopath Vincent (Benoit Magimel), confesses his attraction to nervous-wreck restaurateur Max (Francois Cluzet); their initial tête-à-tête is one of the film's comic highlights. Both are married, and Max clearly isn't game, so when they arrive later with their families at his pristine seaside cottage, tensions are sky-high. The group's stress level is further goosed by pot-smoking rebel Marie (Marion Cotillard), lovesick actor Eric (Gilles Lellouche) and the even more lovesick Antoine (Laurent Lafitte), all of whom are suffering from failed or failing relationships.
The script took five months to write. The cast lived for three days in May at the house which would be used as a principal filming location, so it would feel familiar to them when they returned in the summer.[3] The film began production in August 2009 and ended in October. The shooting took place in Paris and Cap Ferret.
The film premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.[3] It was released in France on 20 October 2010 through EuropaCorp Distribution, who launched it on over 550 screens.[4]
The film was panned by Philippe Azoury of Libération, who thought it was too long, strangely cast, and that all of its female characters were stereotypes.[5] Le Parisien's Marie Sauvion was more ambivalent and divided the review in a pros and a cons section. The pros were that she found the genre in itself sympathetic, and how the film manages to use individual scenes to give the viewer a feeling of participation and shared enjoyment. On the negative side, she thought it was too unsubtle and predictable, and uses too much music to intensify emotional scenes, "In case we didn't understand when to be moved?"[6]