CineFrance has released the first stills from director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s French film “All of a Sudden,” a sequel to the Oscar-winning “Drive My Car.”
“All of a Sudden” stars Virginie Efira (“Benedatta”) as Marie-Lou Fontaine, the director of a retirement home on the outskirts of Paris who defies convention by adopting the “Humanitude” method despite the opposition of her team. An encounter with Mari Morisaki (Tao Okamoto’s “The Wolverine”), a terminally ill Japanese playwright, changes her life. Together they will transform this facility into a symbol of humanity and resistance to the limits of the system. Efira studied Japanese for this role.
In a previous interview with Variety magazine, Hamaguchi said that “Humanitude” refers to a “French method imported to Japan (…) that puts the human aspect at the center of therapeutic care, for the integrity of each human being.”
The film is loosely inspired by a collection of real letters written by Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono in their book, You and Me – My Illness Suddenly Gets Worse. The film was shot on location in Paris and finished in the fall. CineFrance will officially begin sales at the European Film Market in Berlin alongside Asia’s leading Bitter’s End, and has already signed several deals with Prion for Germany and Austria. September movies in Benelux.
CineFrance Studio is producing All of a Sudden in collaboration with Japan’s Office Sirius & Bitters End, Germany’s Heimatfilm and Belgium’s Tarantula. Diaphana will be distributed in France and Bitters End will be distributed in Japan.
“Created between Paris and Kyoto, ‘All of a Sudden’ explores a deeply human and cross-cultural story of compassion, generosity and love, told with the same poetic perspective that made ‘Drive My Car’ resonate around the world,” said Renan Altukmak, producer and head of international sales at CineFrance.
Diajuana’s Michel Saint-Jean praised Hamaguchi as “one of the greatest filmmakers of our time.” “Each of his films is unique and adds an important new layer to his body of work.” This is Diafana’s fourth collaboration with Hamaguchi, following “Drive My Car,” “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” and “Evil Does Not Exist.”
Meanwhile, Moritz Peters of Pryon Pictures said “All of a Sudden” is an accurate and convincing look at relationships in the moment. He added, “Hamaguchi’s empathetic approach gives the film clear potential to connect with audiences of all generations.”
Director Hamaguchi was nominated for four Oscars for “Drive My Car,” including Best Director and Best Screenplay, becoming the first Japanese film to win Best Picture and Best International Feature Film, making his big leap onto the international stage in 2022. Since then, he has directed “There Is No Evil,” which premiered in Venice and won the Silver Lion and the Fipresci Award, and the experimental silent work “The Gift.”
