Blight's Tree: to blossom with fruitful Gainsbourgh
by: Rachael Turk

Screen Hub
Friday 5 June, 2009

Australian/French co-production project 'The Tree' has secured acclaimed French actress Charlotte Gainsbourgh (The Science of Sleep, Lemming), its executive producer Rosemary Blight announced today.

The fact that Gainsbourgh’s attachment has been achieved by the film’s producers Sue Taylor (3 Acts of Murder) and Yaël Fogiel (Since Otar Left) is somewhat of a pièce de résistance for the film and puts it in a favourable position now close to full financing, Blight told the industry crowd at a Sydney Film Festival panel on ‘Co-production Opportunities’. “We’re almost there!” she said.

With French distributor Le Pacte and “significant money” out of Arte (France and Germany) and Canal Plus – a substantial amount of money from one territory – the €4m project is sitting as an approximately 65/35 co-production split.

It will be shot in Australia with the majority of post-production occurring in France, though a digital production component might potentially be retained in Australia.

It will be directed by renowned French director Julie Bertucelli who directed the poignant debut feature Since Otar Left, which won the Critics Week Grand Prize at Cannes 2003 as well as the César for Best First Film. This is, Blight said, stirring a lot of interest in France.

It will, however, be filmed solely in English.

Taylor and Fogiel struck a co-development deal together after Fogiel, who fell in love with Our Father Who Art in the Tree, the debut novel of Australian born British comedienne Judy Pascoe, discovered Taylor held the option.

The last drafts of script development were supported by private finance.

Blight was brought on board four months ago to help “marry the final deal pieces”.

Gainsbourg won the award for Best Actress at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for her performance in the challenging role of Lars von Trier’s Antichrist.

Blight also commented that she is seeing a number of co-production proposals coming in from overseas because Australia’s Offset is so attractive.

Rachael Turk
Rachael Turk is a Sydney based writer and the former editor of Inside Film Magazine. She has written for The Sydney Morning Herald, British Cinematographer and Online Asia and has three film projects in development.

http://www.rachaelturk.com

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