Les Amandiers (Forever Young): Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s tribute to Patrice Chéreau

Picture of the film LES AMANDIERS (FOREVER YOUNG) by Valeria BRUNI TEDESCHI © 2022 - Ad Vitam Production – Agat Films et Cie – Bibi Film TV – Arte France Cinéma

In Selection in 2021 for her acting, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi enthralled audiences with her dizzying performance as Raphaëlle, starring alongside Marina Foïs in Catherine Corsini's La Fracture (The Divide). In 2007, Actrices (Actresses (Dreams of the Night Before)), her second film behind the camera, won her the Un Certain Regard special Jury Prize. In Competition this year with Les Amandiers (Forever Young), her fifth feature film is a tribute to Patrice Chéreau and the theatre school he directed from 1982 on.

The French-Italian artist has dazzled at Cannes as both actor and director. In Hôtel de France (Un Certain Regard, 1987) by Patrice Chéreau, her "first cinematic joy", she played Sonia, the leading lady in a contemporary adaptation of the play Platonov by Anton Chekov, and a production that was once put on by the Théâtre des Amandiers school directed by… Patrice Chéreau.

 

A spectacular ode to the school that the famous stage director and filmmaker set up in Nanterre to train “the next generation of actors”, Les Amandiers (Forever Young) tracks the trials and tribulations of Stella (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), Étienne (Sofiane Bennacer), and the budding young actors preparing to sit the entry exams for the renowned company.

 

The theatre founded by the director of La Reine Margot (1993) was a hotbed of talent that nurtured and trained some of the very best, including Agnès Jaoui, Vincent Perez, Thibault de Montalembert, and… Valeria Bruni Tedeschi.

 

Following on from his performances in Actrices (Actresses (Dreams of the Night Before), Un Certain Regard, 2007) and Un Château en Italie (A Castle in Italy, in Competition, 2013), Louis Garrel plays Patrice Chéreau in this new feature film set in the 1980s. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi co-wrote the screenplay with Agnès de Sacy and Noémie Lvovsky, with whom she had already collaborated on the heart-racing Oublie-moi (Forget Me, 1994) and La vie ne me fait pas peur (Life Doesn't Scare Me) in 1998. That same year, the actor and director's artistic vibrancy shone through in yet another film in Competition, Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train (Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train) by Patrice Chéreau.