The brilliant Catherine Breillat made her long-awaited return with Last Summer a few years back, and now thankfully the wait for her next feature won’t be as long. She’ll next direct The German Cousin, an adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novel The Krull House, first published in 1939 and centered on the community of a rural French town on the eve of World War II, Deadline reports. Backed by Saïd Ben Saïd’s SBS Productions with Pyramide International handling sales, production is aiming to begin later next year, so don’t expect a premiere until Cannes 2028 at the earliest.
Here’s the rather long synopsis: “At the very edge of the city, on the border between the industrial outskirts and the countryside, directly facing a lock — the central character of the story — stands a modest grocery café: Chez Krull. It has belonged for thirty years to a family of German immigrants who became French citizens. Yet Cornelius Krull, the patriarch, speaks only a German dialect and never utters more than two words. This venerable man of few words, the family’s tutelary figure, seems to conceal heavy secrets. On the eve of the Second World War, the few nearby residents prefer to shop in town rather than “feed the Krauts.” The grocery survives thanks to passing bargemen and the drifters from the outskirts who frequent the café. Maria, austere and deeply pious, runs the business with an iron hand, obsessed with making the family’s origins forgotten.”
It continues, “Joseph, her eldest son, is completing a thesis on pneumothorax and preparing to become a doctor. Liesbeth, the youngest daughter, practices the piano relentlessly and dreams of concerts abroad. Anna, the self-sacrificing one, keeps the house while listening to Fréhel, Maurice Chevalier, or Berthe Sylva on the radio. The family’s fragile balance is disrupted by the unexpected arrival of Hans, a flamboyant German cousin who has come to “perfect his French.” Elegant, carefree, provocative, he immediately charms Liesbeth and deeply irritates the others. But behind his apparent ease, Hans is an impostor: everything about him is calculated. A virtuoso liar, a social tightrope walker, he observes and manipulates. When the body of a young woman, strangled and raped, is found in the lock, the Krulls’ fate is overturned. Already suspected during previous tragedies, the family becomes the target of rumor. Joseph, too awkward with women, is quickly singled out as the culprit. Signs of hatred multiply: insults, vandalism, threats. Soon, the crowd gathers and further tragedy is in the air.”
Watch a pair of talks with Breillat below as we await more details.