A Happy Event
Short description
Barbara is a philosophy student who meets Nicolas, a film enthusiast working in a video rental shop, and the two fall in love. When Barbara is finishing her thesis, she learns she is pregnant. The pregnancy and the arrival of their daughter unsettle the life the couple had lived as if they were still childless, and Barbara struggles to feel the happiness those around her expect of her. The film follows her through the pregnancy and the first months of motherhood as her relationship with Nicolas and her own sense of self come under strain.
Rémi Bezançon directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Vanessa Portal, working from a novel. The film was released in 2011, between his 2008 debut The First Day of the Rest of Your Life and the 2012 animated film Zarafa. Louise Bourgoin plays Barbara, with Pio Marmaï as Nicolas and Josiane Balasko, Thierry Frémont, Gabrielle Lazure and Firmine Richard among the supporting cast, in a production with 26 credited cast members. It was made in France and Belgium by Gaumont, SCOPE Pictures, France 2 Cinéma and Mandarin Cinéma.
Worldwide box office came to about 4 million USD. On IMDb the film holds 6.5/10 from roughly 4,800 votes, and on TMDB 6/10 from about 235 votes, figures that point to a modest but solid viewer response.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on the novel of the same name by French writer Élit Abécassis, which was published in France in 2005.
- The central scene in the film depicting childbirth was filmed in studio interiors over two days. Louise Bourgoin, who experienced considerable discomfort throughout the process (a prosthetic belly, mock injections, constant blood pressure monitoring, cameras and lights pointed from all directions, and all of this in exhausting heat), fainted at one point. The director decided to leave this scene in the film.
- Pio Marmaï and Louise Bourgoin spent a lot of time together, communicating and getting to know each other in order to appear as a real family on screen.
- Actress Josiane Balasko met director Rémy Bezançon at the Athens Film Festival. Unfamiliar with each other’s films, they simply had drinks and chatted about unrelated topics. Their next meeting was at the Los Angeles Festival, where the director decided to send the actress a script with an offer to play the role of Claire. Enticed by the interesting character and its nuances, she accepted.
- Before starting work on the film, actress Louise Bourgoin had practically no experience interacting with infants. Working with them was very difficult for her, but over time she began to stay and play with the babies during breaks in filming. In some cases, she even spent Sundays with their families.
- The fifty-person film crew had to constantly adjust to the babies’ feeding and sleep schedules.
- French veteran director Jean-Paul Rapno planned to film his movie called "Foreign Ties", starring Louise Bourgoin, Pio Marmaï and Josiane Balasko. Since this project never materialized, its developer suggested the director Rémy Bezançon take all these performers for his future film.
- Cinematographer Antoine Monod and director Rémy Bezançon spent a lot of time together preparing for the filming of the picture. With the parents' permission, they filmed childbirth scenes, practicing choosing the right shots and capturing all the emotions of what was happening as realistically as possible.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
