Bringing some of the most adventurous filmmaking from around the world to Switzerland, the Locarno Film Festival is now running through next weekend. One of the directorial debuts on our radar is Romain de Saint-Blanquat’s Bitten (aka La Morsure), set in 1967 during Mardi Gras and backed by Films Boutique for international sales. The giallo thriller follows a seventeen-year-old at an all-girls Catholic high school. Convinced that she has only one night left before her death, she sneaks out with her friend Delphine to attend a costume party and live the night as if it was her last.
“La Morsure is a film that plays on changes of register and atmosphere, on rupture and opposition, in tune with the perception and chaotic trajectory of its heroine. I wanted to try to make its upheaval palpable, an inner storm that echoes the one blowing outside,” said the director. Ahead of tomorrow’s festival premiere, we’re delighted to exclusively debut the first trailer.
“Several films commissioned by the television channel Arte about teenagers have marked me in the construction of a story of adolescence, with their strong figures of young girls and a delicate treatment of an era. In particular, there are the films of Claire Denis (US Go Home) and Patricia Mazuy (Travolta and moi). I can also mention in my inspirations Cléo from 5 to 7 by Agnès Varda for her portrait, in a short time, of a young woman anguished by an imminent deaths. Or Harold and Maude by Hal Ashby for her sensitive conjuration of death,” said the director.
He added, “My references are, on the other hand, films like Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson), Carrie (Brian De Palma), or Phenomena (Dario Argento) for their striking and intense visions of adolescence, distorted by a prism of fantasy. With this film I wish to reconcile these influences, to be at the crossroads of these universes.”
See our exclusive trailer premiere below.
Bitten premieres on August 5 at Locarno Film Festival. Learn more here.