After “Bernadette”, Catherine Deneuve is the heroine of “Over the Seasons”, a family chronicle where she opposite Morgan Saylor and Andrea Riseborough. We decipher this charming film currently in theaters.
What is it about ?
Charlie, a 20-year-old student, returns to the family farm in Virginia to help her ailing mother. They have a different vision of life: Charlie studies finance while Laura manages a chicken farm. After a long absence, Solange, Laura’s mother, Charlie’s grandmother, arrives at the farm… She is French, feminist and eccentric. Solange left America when her daughter was still a child and they never saw each other much again. Will these three women, who nothing seems to bring together, succeed in living together?
A few months after Bernadette (fantasy biopic on Bernardette Chirac), Catherine Deneuve is the headliner of a very different film: Over the Seasons, a feature film born from the imagination of a tandem of young Franco-American filmmakers, Hanna Ladoul and Marco La Via, who we discovered in 2018, at the Cannes Film Festival, with a little nugget. The film was called We, the Coyotes and was a real cinema proposition: a low-budget road movie, with great energy.
With this second Franco-American feature film, we find the charm already contained in this first feature, and an attention to detail, whether it concerns the artistic direction, the intentions of the script or the acting of the actors. We also find in the cast the heroine of the film, the endearing Morgan Saylor, noticed in the series Homeland.
A closed door in four seasons
Nous les coyotes and Au fil des vins are opposed on other aspects: the idea of having a closed session, which would extend over an entire year (and not just one day like the previous one).
The real curiosity of this film is Catherine Deneuve who therefore plays in English. She is “an outsider character who arrives in an American environment where she is not at all expected,” says Hanna Ladoul, co-director and co-writer.
We discover her in a role quite far from the image we might have of her. “We don’t spontaneously imagine her in such a role. (…) She really liked the character of Solange, an adventurer with great wit, who nothing seems to affect but who deep down has a very big heart . But she also really appreciated the fact that the film takes place in the countryside.”
And added: “The first time we saw her, she told us that everyone saw her as a very middle-class city girl even though she loves animals and nature. And then she showed us her hands as proof and said, “Look, I have gardener’s hands!” “. On the set, she was the most comfortable with chickens — and the most experienced!”
A timeless fable
At the heart of the film is the question of filiation, of the links we maintain with our elders, or in other words “a women’s tale“. The director tandem wanted “make a tale, a fable with a timeless side“.”We also wanted to revisit a form of classicism of American cinema, with very elaborate lighting, a staging where things are more contained.“, summarizes Marco La Via.
“There is also this theme of abandonment which is renewed from mother to daughter. Something is broken in this intergenerational relationship and the fact of meeting all three of them this year will allow a possible repair of this family pattern which was repeating itself.“, adds Hanna Ladoul.
Martin Scorsese on production!
Another particularity of this film is that it is co-produced by an illustrious American, Martin Scorsese! “Our producer (Mélita Toscan du Plantier) sent him the script, which he really liked. We first wondered what had attracted him, because our film seems quite far from his universe. And in fact we later discovered that he was fascinated by mother-daughter relationships. He was very involved in the creative process and we are grateful to him“.
Find all the cinema releases of the week
Through the Seasons is released in cinemas this Wednesday February 21, 2024.