Following their Oscars triumph with Coda, France’s Vendôme Films and Pathé have been quietly laying the ground work for the North American release of follow-up production, Second World War drama Farewell, Mr. Haffmann.
Directed by Fred Cavayé and starring Daniel Auteuil, Gilles Lellouche and Sara Girardeau, the French-language film has been well received by audiences on the festival circuit in North America.
It most recently won the audience award at the Gold Coast International Film Festival following awards at the Ottawa Film Festival (jury’s prize), San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (grand prize), Aspen Film Festival (jury’s prize) and the Cleveland Jewish Film Festival (audience’s prize).
It is distributed by Menemsha in North America, which is planning a Q2 2023 release in cinemas.
Farewell, Mr, Haffmann has also been popular with audiences in France, selling 727,000 tickets after its January 2022 release. It has also earned several awards at local festivals including a pair of prizes at the Sarlat Film Festival 2021 in France, namely the audience award and best female lead performance award for Giraudeau.
Set in a small jewelry shop in Nazi-occupied Paris during the Second World War, and based on Jean-Philippe Daguerre’s award-winning play, the feature follows an ordinary man, played by Lellouche, working for Mr. Haffmann (Auteuil), a talented Jewish jeweller. With the impending threat of deportation, the two men are forced to strike a deal that will upend their fate as the roles of employer and employee shift.
Written by Cavayé and Sarah Kaminsky, Farewell, Mr. Haffmann is produced by Vendôme’s Philippe Rousselet and Pathé. It is co-produced by Vanessa Dijan’s Daï Daï films.
Pathé International handles international sales on the film and has sold it to Italy’s Eagle, Latin America’s Cine Video y TV, Canada’s AZ Films, Australia & New Zealand’s Palace, Israel’s Lev, Belgium’s Alternative, Netherlands’s Just Entertainment, Greece & Cyprus’ Tanweer and Portugal’s Outsider in addition to Menemsha in North America.
Topical subject
French filmmaker Cavayé is known for his genre-hopping, crowd-pleasing films such as thrillers For Her (which was remade by Paul Haggis as The Next Three Days), Point Blank and Mea Culpa and comedies Penny Pincher! and Nothing To Hide.
Cavayé told Screen the subject of his latest film is very topical. “The film shows that in troubled times in history, it is easy to go to the ‘dark side’ and one has to be very vigilant… When [the audience] watches the movie, they also find themselves facing the choices that the characters must make.
“This is the common point of many of my films – that the spectator continually asks him or herself this question: ‘What would I have done in their place?’”
The shoot of Farewell, Mr. Haffman was shut down by the pandemic and complete lockdown in France in 2020, with two years elapsing between the start of filming and its release.
“We had to leave the sets in place during the whole confinement period,” recalls Cavayé. ”An entire Parisian neighborhood remained in 1941 during those nine weeks. The inhabitants of the neighborhood were transported back to this period of war when they went out to run their errands during the only hour-long period authorised by local authorities.”
Coda legacy
Vendome’s Philippe Rousselet and Fabrice Gianfermi produced La Famille Bélier, the original 2014 French feature on which Coda is based. They then played an integral role in getting its US remake off the ground as co-producers of the English-language adaptation alongside Pathé CEO Jérôme Seydoux and Patrick Wachsberger. Vendôme Films and Pathé subsequently signed a production pact in 2019 to develop and produce English-language films for the international marketplace.
Coda, directed by Sian Heder, was a Sundance breakout hit that secured a record-breaking distribution deal with Apple TV+ before going on to win the best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor Oscars and numerous other prizes including SAG, PGA, Bafta awards among others.
Rousselet’s Vendôme adopts a transatlantic approach to production that focuses on both international English-language and local French-language features. Vendôme Films has produced more than 25 French-language films to date and the company is now under the Vendôme Group banner that also owns Vendôme Pictures and holds a 50% stake in Jerico Films and Prelude.
Up next for Pathé will be mega-budget projects Asterix & Obelix directed by Guillaume Canet and The Three Musketeers starring Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris and Eva Green.
Vendôme Pictures recently announced it has brought on The Imitiation Game’s Morten Tyldum to direct a new English-language drama titled Ibelin based on the real-life story of gamer Mats Steen.
Farewell, Mr. Haffmann has also been building buzz in France as a contender for the upcoming Cesar awards, particularly in the acting categories. The Cesar nominations will be announced on January 25.
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