EXCLUSIVE: Stéphane Brizé’s A Good Little Soldier, starring Alba Rohrwacher as a high-powered exec confronted with a case of toxic management, has sold to a number of key territories ahead of its world premiere in competition in Venice and North American debut in Toronto.
Gaumont has sealed deals for Australia (Palace Films), Switzerland (Xenix), Spain (BTeam Pictures), Greece (Rosebud), Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Benelux (Cinéart), Portugal (Alambique), former Yugoslavia (MCF) and Turkey (Mars Film).
Brizé’s 11th fiction feature, A Good Little Soldier sees the director return to his exploration of the workplace at the heart of previous dramas The Measure of a Man, At War and Another World.
It Brizé’s fourth time in competition at Venice after the Fipresci Prize winning A Woman’s Life as well as Another World and romantic interlude Out of Season, starring Guillaume Canet and Rohrwacher.
In her second collaboration with Brizé, Rohrwacher plays 43 years old Carla Moretti, a high-performing and devoted business executive, whose polished exterior conceals deep insecurities.
Hired as the HR manager of a major corporation with a mission to promote employee well-being while maintaining demanding performance goals, she comes up against toxic management practices. Compromises become unavoidable, threatening to push her to breaking point.
The film also reunites Brizé with longtime collaborator Vincent Lindon in the role of the corporation’s pushy CEO. It marks their sixth film together, with their past collaborations including The Measure of a Man, for which Lindon won Best Actor in Cannes in 2015.
“Anger was the dominant feeling throughout the making of The Measure of a Man, At War and Another World. That anger has never entirely left me, but over time, it has given way to something closer to disgust. Partly because I now understand more clearly the mechanisms of a system that arrogantly ignores the signs of suffering among employees. And partly because I have become more acutely aware of the grotesque charade of corporate communication,” says Brizé of the new film.
“As a result, this film has a much sharper edge. Without ever concealing the violence of the system, it shows a kind of casual, shameless indecency that makes us laugh, as though the film were tipping into farce.”
The film is a Gaumont production, lead produced by Sidonie Dumas, in coproduction with France 3 Cinéma and with the support of Canal+. Gaumont handles international sales and distribution in France where the film launches in cinemas on November 25.
A Good Little Soldier plays in competition at Venice in the second half of the festival and then heads to TIFF where it will screen as a Special Presentation.
