26° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
THE ZONE

LA VIE LOINTAINE

LIFE AT A DISTANCE

Country: France
Year: 2008
Duration: 56'


Thirty-year-old Martin goes to live in an isolated house in the French
countryside. One night, a man appears in the darkness at the edge
of the forest in front of the house. He invites Martin to lose himself
in the forest “to meet a Stranger.” The next day, Martin follows
his advice and meets a director who, along with his assistant, is writing
a film based on La Vie lointaine, an unfinished novel by the Japanese
author Haruki. But the man in the forest was the ghost of Haruki and
Martin is going to become the protagonist of his “life at a distance.”


“The film is based on my desire to film characters ‘coming from
elsewhere’ within a landscape and a setting that were propitious for
a hoped-for or provoked rebirth. I wanted both the film and the
narration to proceed in a state of impossibly weightless and creative
uncertainty. This is why I refused to choose one single style and one
single format. La Vie lointaine is not a film dominated by logic: the
living encounter the dead, fictitious characters flank real characters.”

Biography

film director

Sébastien Betbeder

(Pau, France, 1975) studied at Le Fresnoy and has made numerous shorts, including Les mains d’Andréa (2006). That same year, he directed his first feature film, Nuage, selected at Locarno. In 2008, he presented La vie lointaine at the Torino Film Festival, and the next year the short Toutes les montagnes se ressemblent, directed in collaboration with Christelle Lheureux. In 2010, he shot Yoshido (Les autres vies), selected in Paris and Rotterdam. In 2012 premiered with Les nuits avec Théodore at Onde section, and the following year he won in Turin the Jury Special Prize with 2 automnes 3 hivers. He then presented in Turin the short Inupiluk (2014) and the comedy Ulysse & Mona (2018).

FILMOGRAFIA

La fragilité des revenants (cm, 1999), Le haut mal (cm, 2000), Des voix alentour (cm, 2003), Nu devant un fantôme (cm, 2005), Les mains d’Andréa (cm, 2006), Nuage (2007), La vie lointaine (mm, 2008), Toutes les montagnes se ressemblent (coregia Christelle Lheureux, cm, 2009), The Unbroken Line (cm, 2010), Yoshido (Les autres vies) (mm, 2010), Sarah Adams (cm, 2011), Les nuits avec Théodore (2012), 2 automnes 3 hivers (2013), Inupiluk (cm, 2014), Le film que nous tournerons au Groenland (cm, 2015), Marie et les naufragés (2016), Le voyage au Groenland (Viaggio in Groenlandia, 2016), Albin de la Simone: Dans la tête (video, 2017), Ulysse & Mona (2018), Debout sur la montagne (2019), Jusqu'à l'os (cm, 2019), Planète triste (cm, 2022), Tout fout le camp (2022), Mimi de Douarnenez (mm, 2023).

Cast

& Credits

regia, soggetto, sceneggiatura/director, story, screenplay Sébastien Betbeder
fotografia/cinematography Sébastien Buchmann
montaggio/film editing Julie Dupré
scenografia/production design Lionel Acat
costumi/costume design Carole Gérard
musica/music Sylvain Chauveau
suono/sound Xavier Griette
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Manuel Vallade (Martin), Nathalie Boutefeu (Mathilde), Gen Shimaoka (Yoshido),  Aurore Clement (Alice), Masaki Iwana (Haruki), Gyohei Zaitsu (l’uomo del disegno/ Man of the Drawing), Louise-Victoire De Fleury (Caroline), Carles Romero-Vidal,  Daniel Isoppo (l’orso/Bear), Camille Garcia (il cucciolo d’orso/Bear Cub), Yann Tambour (il musicista/Musician)
produttore/producer Sylvie Pialat
produzione/production Les Films du Worso
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