Young French Cinema 2024: Spirit of Ecstasy (2024)
Director: Héléna Klotz Run Time: 95 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 2023
Starring: Claire Pommet, Niels Schneider, Sofiane Zermani
Country: France
Language: French
Young French Cinema 2024
Discover a new generation of directors, presented at the Film Center from Sept 6 – 12, 2024.
About the film:
Official Selection, 2023 Toronto International Film Festival
Jeanne is 24 years old. She lives on a military base with her father, a police officer, and her little brother and sister. She’s determined to make it in the world of finance. Not for the glory or wealth, but because it’s leading her on the path to freedom.
“Boasting pace, a well-balanced mix of realism and unapologetic novelistic approach, and an endearing, high-powered female protagonist learning to find the courage to be vulnerable, Spirit of Ecstasy is a film that’s totally of its time”
— Fabien Lamercier, Cineuropa
About the filmmaker:
Héléna Klotz grew up in the suburbs of Paris. She began her career at the Théâtre de Chaillot as a sound designer. In 2003, she directed the mediumlength film Le léopard ne se déplace jamais sans ses taches (2004). In 2006, she completed the documentary Les Amants Cinéma (2006). In 2012, she shot The atomic age (2012), which won the FRIPESCI prize at the Berlin Film Festival and the Jean Vigo Award, and then traveled to over fifty festivals around the world. In 2013, she was a member of the Golden Camera Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, she was the artistic director of Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan (2015), which won the Palme d’Or. In 2016, she directed several music videos, including one for Philippe Katerine. She also collaborated on several screenplays, including Madeleine Collins by Antoine Barraud, starring Virginie Efira, selected for the 2021 Venice Film Festival. After the short film Amour Océan (2021), she has just completed her new feature film, The Spirit of Ecstasy (2024), produced by Les Films du Bélier, presented in the Platform section at the Toronto Film Festival 2023.
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