Sean Slatter January 14, 2025
Aurora Films is developing a feature adaptation of French author Hervé Guibert’s 1989 novella, Crazy for Vincent, with plans to shoot in Paris.
Jamieson Pearce is on board to write and direct the screen version of the intimate autobiographical story, which delves into the author’s infatuation with Vincent Marmousez, a young man who is 15 when the two first meet in 1982.
Working backward from Vincent’s untimely death six years later, Guibert seeks to understand the “monster” of a boy’s presence in his life in a work that carries elements of poetry, fiction, and diary entries.
Aurora is developing Crazy for Vincent as an Australian-French co-production that will film in Paris and complete post-production in Australia, with producers in discussion regarding the French cast. Pivot Pictures will distribute the film in Australia and New Zealand.
Pearce, a previous recipient of Sydney Film Festival’s Lexus Australia Short Film Fellowship whose work includes shorts Strangers and Thomas Rides in an Ambulance, said the “maze of moments” in the book is well suited to cinematic adaptation.
“Hervé Guibert’s writing is fearless and unflinching,” he said.
“To adapt his work demands a similar boldness. On the page, the moments of tender intimacy sit centimetres from brutal dejection, creating an emotional landscape that is as compelling as it is destabilising. Guibert’s reflections on the artist’s role — treating life as an extension of artistic practice — resonate and serve to explain, if not justify, the moral ambiguity of his choices.”
Hervé Guibert (left) Vincent Marmousez (right) in Latélier de Balthus (Image: Hans Georg Berger)
It is part of a trio of real-life stories Aurora is developing for the big screen alongside an adaptation of Deborah Snow’s investigative novel Siege: Inside the Lindt Cafe and the life of Equatorial Guinea swimmer and Sydney Olympics underdog hero Eric “the Eel” Moussambani Malonga.
Managing director and Crazy for Vincent producer Ákos Armont aimed to shop the company’s newest project at this year’s Cannes Film Market, describing it as “a lightning strike for contemporary cinema”.
“[Crazy For Vincent] is an extraordinary provocation to audiences — in equal measure brazen and uncompromising, as brutal as it is tender. Guibert’s fearless interrogation of desire’s darkest corners finds its match in Jamieson’s filmmaking.”
Pivot Pictures managing director Louisa Balletti, who serves as executive producer, described Pearce’s vision for the film as “both daring and ambitious”.
“I’m excited to champion this ground-breaking production that dares to explore the raw beauty of human connection and desire with unflinching honesty,” she said.
“This is a visionary project that has the potential to redefine boundaries in cinema, and I’m eager to see it come to life.”
The producers welcome enquiries and expressions of interest for production support from all interested parties.
Tags
