15th Wallimage/Bruxellimage session: the authors always ring twice

  • 01.10.2013

Bernard Bellefroid comes back with Melody, a psychological drama in which a young woman, needing funds to open her own business, loans her belly to a rich English woman in desperate want of a child. Nothing should have brought both women closer together. Yet without realizing it at first, they have more in common than just a contract.
Five years after revealing Joffrey Verbruggen and David Murgia in his La Régate, Bernard Bellefroid finally returns on set. Once more, he’ll have a phenomenal duo in front of his camera, with young Brussellian actress Lucie Dehay (A new old story) and Australian actress Rachael Blake, who rose to international fame with Sleeping Beauty, a film which caused controversy at the 2011 Cannes Festival. The filming starts on 6th January and will take place in Bretagne, England, Ukraine and Luxembourg. Artémis is in charge of the project.

First though, David Lambert will also start on the difficult exercise that is making a second film. Again produced by Frakas in collaboration with Boréal Films from Québec, Je suis à toi is the story of an Argentinian escort boy with aids who accepts to come to Belgium in order to build up a more peaceful existence. That means working in a bakery and especially sharing the life of the owner, a solitary but goodhearted cuddle bear… who in no way, shape or form resembles a Johnny Depp or a Tom Cruise. Filming takes place entirely in the region of Liège.

Finally, to counter the drama, there are the brothers Mallandrin with an irresistible tender and playful project. Together with Versus, they are filming Je suis mort mais j’ai des amis (I am dead but I have friends). The title is hilarious, but so are the pitch and the script development: four Belgian rockers approaching fifty are confronted with a bald and moustached military man, who presents himself as the secret lover of their late singer. After a drunken night and a spoiled chili, these five men take a plan to Los Angeles for one last tour. They’ll never arrive there though…

The scene is even easier to imagine when knowing that the three lead roles will be held by Bouli Lanners, Wim Willaert and Eric Judor (the military man). The hostilities commence … in september 2014, to give Bouli the occasion to finish La Nuit tous les Chats sont Gris, Le Petit Nicolas 2 and film his 4th feature film, also with Versus.