Seven Days... Seven Nights
| Seven Days... Seven Nights | |
|---|---|
.png)
Film poster
|
|
| Directed by | Peter Brook |
| Produced by | Raoul Lévy |
| Written by |
Gérard Jarlot Marguerite Duras |
| Based on |
Moderato cantabile by Marguerite Duras |
| Starring | Jeanne Moreau |
| Cinematography | Armand Thirard |
| Edited by | Albert Jurgenson |
|
Release date
|
January 1964 (USA) |
|
Running time
|
95 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Budget | 30 million francss |
| Box office | 978,012 admissions (France) |
Seven Days... Seven Nights (French: Moderato cantabile) is a 1960 French drama film directed by Peter Brook. It was entered into the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, where Jeanne Moreau won the award for Best Actress. It is based on the 1958 novel Moderato cantabile by Marguerite Duras.
Anne Desbarèdes is a young woman who is married to a wealthy businessman and is living a monotonous existence in the town of Blaye, a small commune. After being an indirect witness to a murder which happened in a café, she goes back to it the next day, where she meets Chauvin, who informs her in more detail about the crime scene events. Anna due to her unstable mental balance starts to think that he intends to kill her.
Duras' novella was published in 1958. It was read by Peter Brook, who wanted to turn it into a film. He secured the rights from Duras and wanted to give the lead role to Jeanne Moreau, whom he had directed in a Paris production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
However Brook's only other film, The Beggar's Opera, had been a box office flop and raising money was difficult. According to a newspaper report "after almost a year of financial, artistic and emotional blackmail and diplomacy, Raoul Levy undertook to produce the film for love."
Levy described the film as "a romantic suspense story that only uses two principals. I guess that you could say that, through the basis of a passive love story, we learn how a crime of passion was committed."
Levy said he wanted Simone Signoret to play the female lead. However Brook wanted Moreau and under the contract Brook had with Levy, Brook, Moreau and Duras had complete artistic control. The director admits this was "very unusual" but the film needed "assured and delicate" handling to succeed.
Brook says Levy did not understand the script but "was convinced that if Brook, Moreau and Duras saw something in it, something must be there." Levy decided not to show the script to potential financiers. Instead he went to them and said, "Look here, you turned down The 400 Blows because you couldn't understand the script, you turned down Hiroshima Mon Amor; well, I can't make head nor tail of this script and what's more I'm not even going to show it to you - but I want 30 million francs." The money was raised.
...
Wikipedia