Maestro
Description
Based on an actor’s experience of working on Eric Rohmer’s final film, The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (SFIFF 2008), Léa Fazer’s charming romantic comedy takes place on a film set and depicts the paternal relationship that forms between a young man full of joie de vivre and a master director nearing the end of his life and career. Struggling actor Henri (Pio Marmaï) is happy to just be working when he’s cast in a pastoral period piece helmed by Cédric Rovère (the always wonderful Michel Lonsdale), but he can’t help goofing around with his pal Nicoballon or flirting with the theater-trained Gloria, who takes the work far more seriously. Rovère, intrigued and tickled rather than put off by Henri’s behavior, takes the young man under his wing, and a paternal relationship forms with both men sharing conversation and life lessons. While cinephiles will quickly recognize the Rovère/Rohmer connection, fewer will know that the character of Henri is based on a cast member of Astrea and Celadon, Jocelyn Quivrin, who died at the age of 30 in a car accident, one year before Rohmer himself.
Léa Fazer was born in 1965 in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a writer, director and actress. She studied film at the University Paris Diderot. Her first film, Welcome to Switzerland (2004), was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. She worked with actor Jocelyn Quivrin on her 2008 film Notre univers impitoyable and they began discussing what would become Maestro. When he died suddenly, she put the film aside until several colleagues convinced her to return to the project. She sees the film as the story of “a young man who finds a way towards culture and love thanks to an old man.”
Trailer
//www.youtube.com/embed/kCj_lgoWPawFilm Details
Language French
Year 2014
Runtime 85
Country France
Director Léa Fazer
Producer Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer, Isabelle Grellat
Writer Léa Fazer, Jocelyn Quivrin
Editor Jean-François Elie
Cinematographer Lucas Leconte
Music Clément Ducol
Cast Pio Marmaï, Michael Lonsdale, Déborah François, Alice Belaïdi, Nicolas Bridet
Print Source Be For Films