Certain Regard: “Father of My Children”

Presented in Certain Regard, the second feature film by Mia Hansen-Løve, entitled Father of My Children , screens today. “This film stems from my encounter with Humbert Balsan,” explained the director. “I first met him in early 2004. He wanted to produce my first film. His enthusiasm and trust were decisive for me in All is Forgiven. I didn’t write this movie out of gratitude, however, but because of Humbert Balsan’s personality. He had an exceptional warmth, elegance and aura. His energy, passion for films and sensitivity, which I took to be an invincible inner beauty, are what made me write the movie… I wanted the film to express the paradox of contradictory movements within the same person, the conflict that can occur between light and darkness, strength and vulnerability, the desire to live and the urge to die.”

Gregoire Canvel is a happy family man and likes his job as a film producer. He’s hyperactive and never stops, except on weekends, which he spends in the country with his family – gentle interludes that are as precious as they are fragile. Yet his prestigious production company, Moon Films, is on its last legs. Gregoire plows on at all costs. One day he will be obliged to face the facts. In one word: failure. He is overwhelmed with fatigue, which will become despair…

In the lead role, Mia Hansen-Løve cast Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, more known in the theater world. “He’s an excellent actor,” explained Mia Hansen-Løve, “but especially no else had the aristocratic presence essential to the role. I had met him before and I knew he had the right stuff for Grégoire Canvel: a deep suffering. He immediately understood where I wanted to take the character and his readings were a perfect match.”