Making Plans for Lena (2009) Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser (original title)

Director:

Christophe Honoré

Writers:

Christophe Honoré (scenario) &
Geneviève Brisac (scenario)

Release Date:

20 August 2010 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Ever since she broke up with Nigel, Lena soldiers on through life as best she can with her two kids...

Plot Keywords:

Mother Child Relationship | Religious Procession | Bathtub | Ex Husband Ex Wife Relationship | Suicide Contemplation

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Chiara Mastroianni	...	Léna
Marina Foïs	...	Frédérique
Marie-Christine Barrault	...	Annie
Jean-Marc Barr	...	Nigel
Fred Ulysse	...	Michel
Louis Garrel	...	Simon
Marcial Di Fonzo Bo	...	Thibault
Alice Butaud	...	Elise
Julien Honoré	...	Gulven
Caroline Sihol	...	La fleuriste
Donatien Suner	...	Anton
Lou Pasquerault	...	Augustine
Jean-Baptiste Fonck	...	José
Marion Wyckaert
Alexandre Varron
Kevin Le Beuvant
Catherine Birambeau	...	La guide à Rome
Bernard Pellen	...	Le prêtre
Christian Anneix	...	Le joueur de biniou
Jean Baron	...	Le joueur de bombarde
Steven Ropars	...	Un prétendant de Katell
Jonathan Cloarec	...	Un prétendant de Katell
Pierre-Yves Perenne	...	Un prétendant de Katell
Anthony Wyckaert	...	Un prétendant de Katell
Simone Pinguet	...	La mère du premier prétendant
Sonia Convenant	...	Frédérique enfant
Marie Convenant	...	Léna enfant
Alain Raymond	...	Gérard - Le patron du café
Laurent Haas	...	Le médecin urgentiste

Directed by
Christophe Honoré

Writing credits
Christophe Honoré		(scenario) &
Geneviève Brisac		(scenario)

Produced by
Pascal Caucheteux	....	producer
Béatrice Mauduit	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Alex Beaupain
Emmanuel D'Orlando		(arranger, orchestrator and co_composer with Alex Beaupain)

Cinematography by
Laurent Brunet

Film Editing by
Chantal Hymans

Casting by
Richard Rousseau

Production Design by
Samuel Deshors

Costume Design by
Pierre Canitrot

Makeup Department
Charlotte Arguillère	....	key hair stylist

Production Management
Chloé Dagonet	....	assistant production manager
Edouard Decker	....	assistant unit manager
Camilla Fava del Piano	....	production manager: Italy
Riccardo Marchegiani	....	production supervisor (segment)
Thibault Mattei	....	unit production manager
Isabelle Tillou	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Yann Chemin	....	third assistant director
Sylvie Peyre	....	first assistant director
Guillaume Plumejeau	....	second assistant director
Valérie Tristan	....	additional second assistant director

Art Department
Catherine Bourgeois	....	set dresser
Matthieu Scavazza	....	assistant art director
Romain Scavazza	....	assistant art director
Nathalie Serrière	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Laurent Cercleux	....	boom operator
Edouard d'Heucqueville	....	sound mix technician
Valérie Deloof	....	sound editor
Guillaume Le Bras	....	sound
Deborah Stauffer	....	assistant sound editor

Stunts
Sybille Blouin	....	stunts
Daniel Vérité	....	stunts

Camera and Electrical Department
Olivier Abelé	....	chief lighting technician
Mathieu Jamme	....	electrician
Jean-Claude Lother	....	still photographer
Emilie Monier	....	assistant camera
Guillaume Quoilin	....	steadicam operator
Andra Tevy	....	second assistant camera

Casting Department
Julie Gouet	....	casting
Agathe Hassenforder	....	casting: children
Peggy Pasquerault	....	casting assistant

Editorial Department
Mathilde Delacroix	....	color timer
David Magalhaes	....	telecine dailies colorist
Fabien Turriziani	....	first assistant editor

Music Department
Loris Bernot	....	pro tools technician
Peter Fuchs	....	scoring mixer
Thomas Jamois	....	soundtrack coordinator
Stéphane Reichart	....	music mixer

Other crew
Lysiane Biagini	....	location scout
Stéphane Boulay	....	car preparer
Jean-Michel Boutteau	....	car preparer (as Jean-Michel Bouteau)
Jean-Jacques Domingues	....	car preparer

Production Companies

• Why Not Productions (co-production)
• France 3 Cinéma (co-production)
• Le Pacte (co-production)
• Canal+ (participation)
• France Télévision (participation)
• Orange Cinéma Séries (participation)
• Région Bretagne (participation)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (in partnership with)

Distributors

• IFC Films (2010) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Le Pacte (2009) (France) (theatrical)
• Clap - Produção de Filmes (2010) (Portugal) (all media)
• Imovision (2010) (Brazil) (all media)

Also Known As:

"Non ma fille, tu n'iras pas danser" - France (original title)

Runtime:

France:105 min | USA:105 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | German | English | Italian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Brittany, France

Company:

Why Not Productions

The Fascination of Observing a Dysfunctional Family

Christophe Honoré (with Geneviève Brisac) wrote and directed this strange but endlessly fascinating film about family. Not unlike Honoré's other films ('The Clan', 'Les Chansons d'amour', 'Dans Paris', 'Ma mère', 'La Belle Personne', etc), 'Non Ma Fille, Tu N'iras pas Danser' (AKA 'Making Plans for Lena') dissects relationships searching for the core of identity that binds a family unit, usually uncovering some deep seated problems that other writer/directors fear approaching. His focus is usually on women, how they are increasingly forced to take the primary role in the family - mother, breadwinner, protector, and distraught loner after a husband leaves in divorce. While in his other films Honoré keeps the incidents mirrored in this story palliatively light, here he delves more deeply and with greater seriousness of direction to create on of his finest films to date. While the film is readily available on demand through the television system, IFC has yet to release the film in the US, hence the review for the film on the very readily available MP3 downloads! The film should be available soon, both in theaters and on DVD: this note is to encourage viewers to watch for it.

Léna (Chiara Mastroianni, daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcel Mastroianni) is the harried mother of Anton (Donatien Suner, a very bright young talent) and Augustine (Lou Pasquerault), and in the throes of a divorce from an American adulterer Nigel (Jean-Marc Barr) and is leaving Paris to stay in the country home of her parents ((Marie-Christine Barrault and Fred Ulysse) as they prepare to take a holiday in Rome by bus. Her parents face their own demons: her father has a progressive neurologic disease and her mother is both annoyingly authoritarian and sexy - the couple retains their physicality in their waning years. Upon arrival Léna encounters not only her bossy mother but her rather infantile brother Gulven (Julien Honoré) and his current amour Elise (Alice Butaud) as well as her sister Frédérique (Marina Foïs), pregnant with her second child - her husband José (Jean-Baptiste Fonck) and their son (it is also obvious that this relationship is not a tidy one!). What was supposed to be a time of rest ends up a time of frustration, sadness over her role as a single mother who despite her loathing of Nigel's extramarital affair, still loves him and longs for the peace of a quiet family life. All of Léna's family try to help her find paths to happiness) including introducing a possible love interest in a friend of Gulven's named Simon (Louis Garrel). Reflections of the past joy of her childhood only make her more aware of her discontented present and even with the lovely film within a film about a Breton tale, of Katell Gollet (Katel the Lost), dramatized by figures in traditional Breton costume enacting a festival where Katell torments young men by making them dance to death and winds up marrying the devil to defy her father (the filming of this 'entr'acte' is magnificently beautiful): even Léna's children attempt to assuage their mother's obvious anguish at her struggle with reality.

The film jumps forward in time and Léna has moved back to Paris, works in floral shop, and continues to struggle with her feelings about Nigel. When her work makes heavy demands on her she requests Nigel's help in watching after the children. An accident involving Anton brings her back into the role of facing exactly what it is she wants and needs to make her happy. The cast is uniformly superb, with special kudos to Chiara Mastroianni who has become a strong actress with a very bright future. The musical score by Alex Beaupain and the brilliant cinematography by Laurent Brunet (much of the film was shot in Brittany) add enormously to the effect of the multiple stories this film weaves into one. Highly Recommended.

Grady Harp