(Credits: Far Out / Cannes Film Festival / Zhifei Zhou)
In the second award by a partner of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, A Prince, from French filmmaker Pierre Creton has won the ‘SACD Prize’, awarded by the French Writers’ Guild for best French-language movie in this section.
A Prince was written by Mathilde Girard, Cyril Neyrat and Vincent Barré and directed by Creton. The narrative follows a horticultural student, Pierre-Joseph. His two mentors, botany teacher Alberto and nursery boss Adrien, eventually become his lovers.
Featuring narrative voice-overs by the actors Mathieu Amalric, Françoise Lebrun and Grégory Gadebois, the movie is shot in a 16:9 ratio. It blends Creton’s auteurship with his work as an agricultural labourer. The soundtrack is by Jozef van Wissem, who composed the score for 2013’s Only Lovers Left Alive.
“Winning the SACD Prize is the recognition of a special way of writing and doing films, which I have been practising for years, mixing life and fiction, friendship and love,” Creton expressed of his win to Variety.
“The film is rare and precious, giving a sense of having been adopted by the director’s territory, becoming part of his terrain,” SACD’s Delphine Gleize, herself writer-director, told the publication.
She added, “We were touched by the strength of expression and force of life” of A Prince.
See the trailer below.
