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Lonely Woman Artémis Productions Belgium Writer/director Stefan Liberski Producer Patrick Quinet 14 • NPP 2008 Synopsis On occasion, Martin Laumann has to go to Japan to meet a client. One day, his wife Elsa decides not only to go with him but to precede him and travel on her own for a couple of weeks. Martin encourages her to do it but, when he arrives at the hotel in Osaka, Elsa is nowhere to be found. As the film opens, Elsa is living out her newfound solitude. She experiences her self, alone, through being an alien. One night, she sees an outrageous truck, bristling with metal spikes and blinking with multicoloured lights. It is a Dekotora (Dekotoras are customised trucks found in Japan. Their drivers and owners are members of brotherhoods that organise meetings and contests.) Seeing that truck, poised like a UFO, Elsa is intrigued, as if she were being lured to travel into another dimension. She meets Eiji, a Belgian-Japanese video artist. They become friends. Elsa’s interest in Dekotoras piques Eiji’s curiosity. He suggests making a video about travelling across Japan in a Dekotora. With Eiji, Elsa discovers an unusual facet of Japan and the still vivid remnants of a bygone past. She is attracted to the young man. At this point, we go through sequences of lives dreamed up by Elsa: she is a housewife, with an ordinary husband and a kid in a school uniform. Then she is working on the assembly line in a Tokyo chocolate factory, alongside a team of white-clad women. Then she is sitting in her tiny apartment… These visions of a ‘Japanese Elsa’ interweave with scenes depicting the consequences of her absence from Europe, where Martin has contacted a private detective to find his wife. Elsa, Eiji and Naoki (the Dekotora truck driver whom Eiji has hired) are riding in the Dekotora, with Eiji taping. On the outskirts of Fukuchiyama, Elsa and Eiji attend a big Dekotora meet. The huge gathering, the thunderous noise, the bizarre procession of garish trucks, the hordes of video cam-toting spectators all end up disgusting Elsa. She loses interest in the project. That night, a traumatic, long forgotten memory comes back to her in a dream. In the ryokan where they are staying, Elsa and Eiji make love. Very early the next morning, she goes for a walk and sees a woman waving her kids goodbye as they go off to school. Elsa waves back at her. The woman looks at her for a moment, then waves at her too, as if they were complicit. Back at the ryokan, Elsa packs up her things and walks out, leaving a note for Eiji, and takes a bus to Osaka. She has decided to go home. She finds herself in a mountain village where one of those ancient celebrations of the equinox is taking place. Elsa wanders by herself in the dark and incomprehensible limbo of this forsaken village. Suddenly, a man yells out her name. It is Martin. She smiles at him and takes his wrists in her hands. “Yes,” she says. On the bus, Elsa wakes up. Through the window, she sees a red sun rising over the Japanese countryside. The detective’s rental car stops in front of a police station. They hesitate. Eiji makes to get out. The detective stops him and starts the car. Director’s statement In its broken-up structure, Lonely Woman mixes present (and real-life) sequences on Elsa’s trip with imaginary ones from her fantasised, ‘new’ life. The contents of the scenes of this dreamed future are divided into two moods: the first one has to do with Elsa’s desire, the other her guilt. On the one hand, there is the desire for Japan; on the other, guilt about the people (and the world) she has left behind. Elsa wants to be alone to face otherness. She plunges into Japanese foreignness in the hope of encountering herself. As always, this means finding the distance, the divide and a new relationship between the self and others (or the Other). I would like to film Lonely Woman on HD video with a small crew so that I can also capture everyday life in Japan. In that country, daily life has its own unique shape and abundant extravagance in ordinary things that I would like to include in the film’s atmosphere and aesthetics.
Director Stefan Liberski Producer Patrick Quinet Writer Stefan Liberski Based on an original story Language French, Japanese Genre Drama Format HD, transferred to 35mm Running time 90 mins approx Target audience Ages 18-70 Travelling across Japan, a young woman discovers another culture and finds herself again. But, instead of starting a new life in a new land, she returns home forever changed. Budget € 1,215,578 Cast tbc Writer/director Stefan Liberski 1951 Born in Brussels. 1979 Assistant to Federico Fellini on La città delle donne. 1985 Publishes first book, Beau fixe. 1989 Creates Les Snuls with Frédéric Jannin and a new programme for Canal+ Belgium, J’aime autant de t’ouvrir les yeux. 1996 Publishes G.S., Écrivain tout simplement (Albin Michel). Works as writer for comic strip Les aventures de Petit Jules et Pépé Jules. 1998 Makes a series of medium-length fiction films for Canal+ with various Belgian comedians. Also cartoon series Froud et Stouf with Frédéric Jannin. 2000 Welcome in New Belgique: The Kanne Festival of Belgium, or 2000 years of Belgian Cinema. Publishes Des tonnes d’amour (Editions Niffle-Cohen) 2004-5Directs Twin Fliks for Belgian TV (with Frédéric Jannin) and publishes Les Béatitudes de Ravi Pangloss (Editions QUE). 2005 Directs Bunker Paradise, feature film. 2006 Writes Le break, feature for Artémis Productions. Directs La beauté de l’ordinaire (3x15 mins, video HD) for the Belgian stand at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Producer Patrick Quinet Patrick Quinet studied film direction at INSAS (1987-1991). After working as production assistant, director of production and first assistant director (notably for Chantal Ackerman), Quinet founded Artémis Productions. The company has produced a number of short features and documentaries, 12 Belgian feature films and has additionally co-produced 31 foreign feature films and eight TV films. Since 2001, Quinet has been the president of the UPFF (the Union of Francophone Film Producers), working closely with the Belgian Minister of Finance for the creation of a Belgian tax shelter. In March 2003, Quinet created the French production company Liaison Cinématographique, which acts as the main French partner for all Artémis projects. Artémis regularly works with other partners such as Samsa Film in Luxembourg, Nord-Ouest Productions in France and with Cinéart in Brussels for Belgian distribution, as well as with all major French and international distribution companies (TF1 International, Wild Bunch, MK2 and Pyramide). Current status The project is currently financing. By September, we expect to have an agreement with a Japanese production company and for the director to have travelled in Japan for auditions, script re-writing, and location scouting. €350,000 is already in place from the Communauté française de Belgique and an application to the CNC is in progress. Liaison Cinématographique (France) is already attached as a partner and negotiations are ongoing with Gauguins International to act as line producer and/or co-producer in Japan. Aims at the NPP Looking for distributor, sales agent, finance and/or other interested parties. Contact Patrick Quinet Artémis Productions 60 rue Gallait 1030 Brussels Belgium Tel: (32) 2 216 23 24 Fax: (32) 2 216 20 13 Mobile: (32) 473 679 976 sylvie@artemisproductions.com www.artemisproductions.com NPP 2008 • 15
Page 1: Netherlands Production Platform NPP
Page 4 and 5: The Netherlands Production Platform
Page 6 and 7: The Bear (Ursul) Libra Film Romania
Page 8 and 9: Corps diplomatique Dschoint Ventsch
Page 10 and 11: The Fields Savage Film Belgium Writ
Page 12 and 13: Invasion Twenty Twenty Vision Filmp
Page 14 and 15: Istanbul Új Budapest Filmstúdió
Page 18 and 19: Our Grand Despair (Bizim büyük ca
Page 20 and 21: Playoff Topia Communications Israel
Page 22 and 23: The Runway Fastnet Films Ireland Wr
Page 24 and 25: Seeing Chris Newgrange Pictures Ire
Page 26 and 27: Shanghai- Belleville Clandestine &
Page 28 and 29: The Snow Queen (Lumekuninganna) F-S
Page 30 and 31: Svinalängorna (The Pigsties) Hepp
Page 32 and 33: Um-Hussein (Mother Hussein) Human F
Page 34 and 35: 1-900 (06) Column Film/Ironworks Ne
Page 36 and 37: A Kronstadt Tale Van Lieshout Filmp
Page 38 and 39: Lourdes Holland Harbour Productions
Page 40 and 41: Olga - Tomorrow I’ll Dance (Olga
Page 42 and 43: Shocking Blue Waterland Film Nether
Page 44 and 45: Sonny Boy Shooting Star Filmcompany
Page 46: Index English titles, original titl

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