Judith Godreche begins production on feature directing debut based on Annie Ernaux’s ‘A Girl’s Story’

EXCLUSIVE: Production kicked off this week on Judith Godreche’s feature directing debut A Girl’s Story (Memoire de Fille), based on Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel about a girl in 1958 who leaves her small village to work at a summer camp where she is seduced by an older man. 

It is produced by Carole Lambert at Windy Production and Marc Missonnier of Moana Films. Paradise City Sales has boarded for international sales.

The film stars Valerie Dreville as Ernaux who, while travelling to her hometown of Rouen to sign copies of her latest book, plunges back into her memories of the summer of 1958 and spending her first night with a man.

Tess Barthélémy plays the younger Ernaux alongside an ensemble French cast that includes Holy Cow Cesar-winning actress Maïwène Barthélémy, actress and September Says filmmaker Ariane Labed, and Saint Omer’s Guslagie Malanda. Noé Boon and Richard Sears are handling the original score via their band Faux Amis.

Jour2Fête will release the film in France. Co-producers are France 2 Cinéma, the Ile de France region, the Normandie region, Canal +, Ciné +, France Télévisions, Paradise City and Belgium’s Umedia. Paradise City Sales will officially launch sales next year. Shooting will continue through the end of November in the Paris region and Normandy.

Ernaux, a major figure in contemporary feminism, was the first Frenchwoman to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 2022. Her books have been adapted into three feature films, including Audrey Diwan’s 2021 Venice Golden Lion winner Happening. Mémoire De Fille (A Girl’s Story) was published in France by Gallimard in 2016.

Godreche has become a key figure in France’s MeToo movement and premiered her short film Moi Aussi (Me Too) to open 2024’s Un Certain Regard.

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