Voyages en Italie

Sophie Letourneur is one of the most interesting filmmakers in contemporary French cinema. Since graduating from the Duperré Design School and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) in 2004, she has completed five feature films, including her 2019 film Énorme, which received the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo and was listed by Cahiers du cinéma as one of the ten best films of 2019. We are excited to be programming two of her films – her debut feature, Chicks (2009), and the West Coast premiere of her most recent feature, Voyages en Italie (2023).

Voyages en Italie, the first in a projected trilogy, returns Letourneur to her career-long interest in auto-fiction. Made in homage to the trilogy of films starring Ingrid Bergman directed by Roberto Rossellini, Voyage en Italieis a lighter look at the domestic life of a couple on the rocks. Burnt out by the routine of their daily family life, a French couple decides to go on a short holiday away from their young children. Sophie (played by Letourneur herself) wants to go to Spain, while her husband Jean-Philippe (played by singer Philippe Katerine) insists on going to Sicily. But planning a vacation proves to be not as easy as it seems. Voyage en Italie premiered at the 2023 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it played in the Big Screen Competition. Programmed by Jonathan Mackris and Discordia.