MFDB

Storyline

Back then, when the Rolling Stones sang “Lady Jane”, Muriel, François and René were busy distributing stolen fur coats among ‘the people’. Or, to be exact, to the inhabitants of a working class district in Marseille where the three friends lived and shared their childhood. Later on, they put a stop to their raids: having killed a jeweller in a parking lot during a robbery, they decided not to meet any more in order to let the dust settle and – as far as possible – forget the whole terrible affair. They keep to this arrangement – until one day Muriel’s son is kidnapped. The trio reunite. Somehow, there has to be a way of finding the ransom money … LADY JANE is a detective film in the tradition of great French cinematic thrillers. Robert Guédiguian: “Unlike some of my colleagues, I don’t have a whole wall at home jam-packed with crime novels; I’m not like Truffaut for whom reading crime novels was de rigeur in order to find subjects for his films. I might read them on the train or on journeys, but that’s it. But I do adore American film noir cinema, as well as the French detective films of the 1960s with good old Jean Gabin – the kind of films in which the thief tosses his crony a pair of pyjamas when he spends the night at his place, after having enjoyed some bread and rillette and indulged in a nice glass of red wine.”

Festivals & Academy awards and others

Berlin International Film Festival 2008
Competition