Part of SFFILM Festival
On a Magical Night
Description
When Maria (Chiara Mastroianni) breaks up with Richard (Benjamin Biolay), her husband of 20 years, and checks into a hotel across the street, she crosses into a magical realm where she’ll meet her guardian angel, several ex lovers, and the 25-year-old version of her future husband. With a romantic and farcical sensibility that stems from Shakespeare and Dickens, Honoré’s (Dans Paris, Festival 2007) delightful new film tackles the way love changes over time and how people can be more attracted to the memory of a beloved than the actual self.
“Surrounded by a great cast, including Carole Bouquet as the older Irene, it is Chiara Mastroianni who bewitches. Maria is one of her best roles in years and she shows all the flair of a great screwball comedy star in playing the light and shade of this strong, independent women … Beneath the impish, inventive surface of On a Magical Night lies real emotions around loyalty, devotion, and how to ensure love never dies. It is a film as charming as it is touching.” –Allan Hunter, Screen Daily
A novelist as well as a screenwriter and director, Christophe Honoré studied film and literature at the University of Rennes 2. His films include Ma Mère (2004), Dans Paris (Festival 2007), Love Songs (2007), Making Plans for Lena (Festival 2010), Beloved (2011), Metamorphoses (2014), and Sorry Angel (2018).
“I wrote [On a Magical Night] for Chiara Mastroianni and I imagined her as a Cary Grant-type character. I found that that particular form of acting, which is very precise and highly amusing, suited her well… As a film-lover, I’ve been hugely influenced by American comedies on the subject of remarriage, like those by Leo McCarey and George Cukor, and I tried to create a crossover between these films and those with more of a French feel about them.” –Christophe Honoré, Cineuropa
Film Details
Language French
Original Language Title Chambre 212
Year 2019
Runtime 90
Country France/Belgium/Luxembourg
Director Christophe Honoré
Producer Philippe Martin, David Thion
Writer Christophe Honoré
Editor Chantal Hymans
Cinematographer Rémy Chevrin
Cast Chiara Mastroianni, Benjamin Biolay, Vincent Lacoste
Print Source
Strand Releasing
nathan@strandreleasing.com
https://strandreleasing.com/films/on-a-magical-night/