Eleven features into his career, Stéphane Brizé keeps returning to the same address: the workplace, and the pressure it applies to people until something gives. His latest, A Good Little Soldier, carries that project into Venice competition this year, with Gaumont announcing sales across nine territories ahead of the world premiere.
Alba Rohrwacher plays Carla, a 43-year-old executive newly installed as HR manager at a large insurance company. Her assignment is to rebuild the employer's brand and promote employee wellbeing while meeting demanding performance targets. The film describes her navigating a corporate environment where vulnerability is not an asset.
Vincent Lindon appears as the corporation's CEO, continuing a partnership with Brizé that now spans six films. The benchmark for their collaboration remains The Measure of a Man, which earned Lindon Best Actor at Cannes in 2015. Where that film tracked a worker at the mercy of the institution, A Good Little Soldier places its protagonist inside the mechanism doing the evaluating. The screenplay was written by Brizé with Coralie Amédéo and Olivier Gorce, with cinematographer Antoine Héberlé returning. Runtime is 102 minutes.
After its Venice world premiere, the film moves to TIFF's Special Presentations. Gaumont has closed deals in Australia (Palace Films), Benelux (Cinéart), Spain (BTeam Pictures), Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Switzerland (Xenix), Greece (Rosebud), Portugal (Alambique), the former Yugoslav territories (MCF), and Turkey (Mars Film). A French release date has not been announced.
