18 Years Later

Just got back from the North American premiere of the French movie 18 Years Later [18 ans après]. The movie was shown as part of the Vancouver Film Festival series called Spotlight on France in front of the full auditorium of the Vogue theatre.

18 Years Later continues the narration of Madam Serreau’s famous "Three Men and a Cradle" [3 hommes et un couffin] (not to be confused with it’s American remake) showing us again the hidden graces of life with ongoing differences in all of us. Storyline will really grab you with the showcase of both American and French cultures and average life(tm) situations.

After the movie ended, Madam Serreau showed up on stage and gave us some very compelling takes on her movie(s). Still being under the influence of the movie, I was quite surprised when she emphasized the discipline and explained the absence of improvisation in her filmmaking. As she put it, everything needs to follow certain melody in order for the movie to get such a rhythm.

She continued to describe how delicate it was to find the right actors for the film as the roles were quite demanding. An interesting detail is that one of the actors is Charlie Chaplin’s grandson.

On the technical side, the film was made in DV techniques and according to Madame Serreau, she is happy to work with the new technology as oppose to "heavy tracks full of equipment". The DVD release just came out in France and as far as the North America is concerned, we should have it in theaters by the end of this year.