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JE SUIS HEUREUX QUE MA MERE SOIT VIVANTE - I’M GLAD THAT MY MOTHER IS ALIVE
France - 2009, 90’, 35mm, colour - World Premiere
directed by Claude Miller, Nathan Miller
screenplay Claude & Nathan Miller
cinematography Aurélien Devaux
editing Morgane Spacagna
music Vincent Segal
sound Jean-Jacques Ferran, Dominique Gaborieau
art direction Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko
costumes Elsa Gies
cast
Christine Citti (Annie Jouvet)
Yves Verhoeven (Yves Jouvet)
Vincent Rottiers (Thomas Jouvet)
Sophie Cattani (Julie Martino)
producer Jean-Louis Livi
production
F Comme Film
32, rue Georges Sand, 75016, Paris, France
Tel: +33 1 40 73 84 20 - Fax: +33 1 47 23 95 68
www.fcommefilm.fr
Orly Films
10, avenue George V -75008 Paris, France
Tel. +33 1 53 23 95 00 - Fax +33 1 40 70 95 02
www.orlyfilms.com
co-production France 3 Cinema, Page 114
with the support Canal +, France 3, TPS Star
in association with Region Ile-de-France
world sales
Orly Films
press office
Caroline Aymar, Unifrance
Cell. +33 6 85 42 87 26
caroline.aymar@unifrance.org
Unifrance in Venice : Excelsior - swimming pool
synopsis
“I’m 20. My name is Thomas. Thomas Jouvet. But it’s not my real name. My real name is Tommy. Tommy Martino. I changed my name because my mother, Julie Martino, has abandonned me, me and my little brother, when I was 4 and him 2. Why did she do that...? When I found her, last year, after looking for her, she explained that she left us to look for a job. What I believe is that this is not the real reason. The real reason is that, my little brother and I, we kept her from living her life, the life she dreamt of. And me, what kept me from living, was not to know who was my real mother. So I look for her.
Based on true events, Je suis heureux que ma mere soit vivante is not a film for potential foster parents. It tells the troubled adolescence of Thomas, given up for adoption at the age of 4, along with his younger brother Patrick. Things start going awry when Thomas reaches 12. His aggressiveness towards his adoptive parents wrecks the health of his foster dad while finally getting to know his birth mother when he is 20 doesn’t bring the expecting closure. Vincent Rottiers, interpreting Thomas at 20, has a foreboding intensity that puts you ill at ease from the first image. Aurélien Devaux’s neat photography and the Millers’ mise-en-scène, both fluid and sober, put all the emphasis on characters’ eyes and unsaid feelings. The music by Vincent Segal underlines the mood and offers the perfect accompaniment to this story of unfulfilled lives.
Agnès-Catherine Poirier
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