Daniel Auteil in A Silence. Joachim Lafosse on Auteil taking the role: 'A lot of other famous French actors refused' Joachim Lafosse turns his attention to sex abuse skeletons in a family closet in A Silence. Emmanuelle Devos is a force to be reckoned with as upper middle-class wife Astrid, who has hidden her high-profile lawyer husband’s seedy secret for years. Beginning as her teenage son (Matthieu Galoux) is charged with attempted murder, the film circles back to see what led him to breaking point. Co-starring Daniel Auteil as the lawyer who thinks he’s above the law, the film had its world premiere at San Sebastian Festival, when we caught up with Lafosse to talk about it.
The film draws on a real-life Belgian case that became known as the Hissel Affair and Lafosse said: “When I discovered the true story. I felt like I would like to be the lawyer of Astrid,...
The film draws on a real-life Belgian case that became known as the Hissel Affair and Lafosse said: “When I discovered the true story. I felt like I would like to be the lawyer of Astrid,...
- 11/26/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Emmanuelle Devos on playing Astrid in A Silence: 'She doesn't want to see her world crumble. I also tried to imagine that she had a tough childhood and that her priority is to hold her family together' Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival The warring emotions of Emmanuelle Devos' Astrid lie at the heart of Joachim Lafosse's latest drama A Silence, which asks us to consider why she keeps her high-profile husband's (Daniel Auteuil) secret for so long. Beginning as her teenage son (Matthieu Galoux) is charged with attempted murder, the film circles back to see what led him to breaking point. We caught up with Devos after the film had its world premiere in competition at San Sebastian Film Festival to talk about creating the character.
Speaking about the attitude of Astrid, she says her character has been constructing this mental attitude for 30 years.
“I compare...
Speaking about the attitude of Astrid, she says her character has been constructing this mental attitude for 30 years.
“I compare...
- 9/28/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Silence speaks volumes in the latest film from Joachim Lafosse. The writer/director uses it as a dramatic tool throughout his film but it also refers to years of unspoken repression in the household run by Francois Scharr.
Daniel Auteuil - surely the Tom Hanks of Gallic cinema - plays against type as the well respected lawyer, who we meet in the middle of a high-profile case, with journalists permanently stationed outside the gates of the lavish home he lives in with wife Astrid (Emmanuelle Devos) and his teenage son Raphael (Matthieu Galoux). Lafosse's fictional tale draws on a real-life Belgian case that became known as the Hissel Affair, in which a high-powered lawyer acting on behalf of a family whose children were killed by a paedophile, himself became subject to scrutiny.
Beginning near the end, we see Astrid at a police station being given the news that Raphael has attempted to.
Daniel Auteuil - surely the Tom Hanks of Gallic cinema - plays against type as the well respected lawyer, who we meet in the middle of a high-profile case, with journalists permanently stationed outside the gates of the lavish home he lives in with wife Astrid (Emmanuelle Devos) and his teenage son Raphael (Matthieu Galoux). Lafosse's fictional tale draws on a real-life Belgian case that became known as the Hissel Affair, in which a high-powered lawyer acting on behalf of a family whose children were killed by a paedophile, himself became subject to scrutiny.
Beginning near the end, we see Astrid at a police station being given the news that Raphael has attempted to.
- 9/27/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Belgian director Joachim Lafosse is done being silent.
Just like the family in his latest film “A Silence,” inspired by the real-life case of Victor Hissel: a former lawyer for two victims of killer Marc Dutroux, ultimately charged with possession of child pornography.
“To me, it’s not a dark story, because they do start to talk,” he says about the characters played by Emmanuelle Devos and newcomer Matthieu Galoux, slowly digging up the long-buried sins of their husband and father (Daniel Auteuil).
“Astrid and her children decide to step out of that criminal environment. With this film, I want to show how people can be violated by something like that, how difficult it is to shake off that shame and guilt. It’s difficult, but I think it’s possible.”
He also had to learn how to speak up, he says.
“In 2008, I made ‘Private Lessons.’ I didn’t say that at the time,...
Just like the family in his latest film “A Silence,” inspired by the real-life case of Victor Hissel: a former lawyer for two victims of killer Marc Dutroux, ultimately charged with possession of child pornography.
“To me, it’s not a dark story, because they do start to talk,” he says about the characters played by Emmanuelle Devos and newcomer Matthieu Galoux, slowly digging up the long-buried sins of their husband and father (Daniel Auteuil).
“Astrid and her children decide to step out of that criminal environment. With this film, I want to show how people can be violated by something like that, how difficult it is to shake off that shame and guilt. It’s difficult, but I think it’s possible.”
He also had to learn how to speak up, he says.
“In 2008, I made ‘Private Lessons.’ I didn’t say that at the time,...
- 9/27/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
In his staggering 2012 film “Our Children,” Belgian writer-director Joachim Lafosse turned an unthinkable true-life tragedy — the story of a mentally ailing mother who, one hitherto ordinary afternoon, single-handedly murdered all five of her children — into deeply compassionate drama, focusing not on the lurid whats of the event, but its more intimate, less discussed whys. That approach again serves Lafosse well in “A Silence,” another solemn, upsetting domestic chamber piece that lightly fictionalizes and foregrounds the hidden, knotty familial tensions behind a headline-making scandal. In this instance, it’s one disturbing, high-profile court case that begets another, both connected by differing forms of patriarchal abuse — but Lafosse’s interests lie, as ever, less in procedural formalities than in unruly household turmoil.
Outside Belgium, audiences are less likely to be familiar with the case of serial killer Marc Dutroux, convicted in 2004 of the kidnapping, rape and murder of multiple girls — or that of Victor Hissel,...
Outside Belgium, audiences are less likely to be familiar with the case of serial killer Marc Dutroux, convicted in 2004 of the kidnapping, rape and murder of multiple girls — or that of Victor Hissel,...
- 9/26/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In the films of Belgian auteur Joachim Lafosse, families tend to be torn apart from the inside, brought down by deep-seated psychological baggage (The Restless, Private Property), extremely bad behavior (Private Lessons, Keep Going) or a history of abuse (Our Children). For his latest feature, A Silence (Un silence), the writer-director has managed to pack all three factors into a single movie, focusing on a bourgeois clan that gradually unravels as past and present offenses come back to haunt them.
Like the rest of Lafosse’s work, it’s a penetrating, artfully made drama, this one starring Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Devos and newcomer Matthieu Galoux, turning in quietly riveting performances. But it also overstretches itself, with too many pivotal events coinciding at once, making the plot less credible while dissipating the emotional effect of its many revelations. After premiering in San Sebastian, the film will continue its festival run, followed by theatrical play in France,...
Like the rest of Lafosse’s work, it’s a penetrating, artfully made drama, this one starring Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Devos and newcomer Matthieu Galoux, turning in quietly riveting performances. But it also overstretches itself, with too many pivotal events coinciding at once, making the plot less credible while dissipating the emotional effect of its many revelations. After premiering in San Sebastian, the film will continue its festival run, followed by theatrical play in France,...
- 9/25/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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