NEWS:  JANUARY 2016

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A video clip from ALONE IN BERLIN has just been released and can be viewed at this link. The film will be screened at the Berlin Int'l Film Festival on February 15, smack in between Vincent's performances in the stage production of "Les liaisons dangereuses". The synopsis of this Resistance drama reads: Berlin 1940. The City is paralyzed by fear. Otto and Anna Quangel are a working class couple living in a shabby apartment block trying, like everyone else, to stay out of trouble under Nazi rule. But when their only child is killed fighting at the front, their loss propels them into an extraordinary act of resistance. They start to drop anonymous postcards all over the city attacking Hitler and his regime. If caught, it means certain execution. Soon their campaign comes to the attention of the Gestapo inspector, Escherich, and a murderous game of cat-and-mouse begins. But the game serves only to strengthen Otto and Anna’s sense of purpose, and slowly their drab lives and marriage are transformed as they unite in their quiet but profound rebellion.

Here are the first two movie stills:

And a few more production stills:

Directed by Vincent and starring Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson, Daniel Brühl and Mikael Persbrandt in the lead roles, ALONE IN BERLIN  has finally come to fruition thanks to the many years of commitment on Vincent's part in bringing this engaging story to the screen. One of the most precarious and visionary attempts to fight against Nazism was reflected in a German couple named Otto and Elise Hampel. Their heroic actions inspired the well-known Germain writer, Hans Fallada, to write a novel. Fallada had access to some of the Gestapo files and there he found the case against this couple. In the film, their names have been changed to Otto and Anna Quangel and their defiance against the Nazis is motivated by the death of their soldier son.

Vincent continues his performances in LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES in various theatres. He just finished a run at the National Theatre of Strasbourg and a string of performances will ultimately conclude by the end of March. I'm sure he's arranging his schedule so he can participate at Berlinale. In an interview, he was asked how he returned to the theatre and specifically this play. He replied, "It was Dominique Blanc who told me about the project. It was a dream for me to go on stage with Dominique, whom I've known for a long time. We both come from the same theatre at Amandiers with Patrice Chereau. We have acted together in the cinema in Indochine, Queen Margot and Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, but never in theatre, which was missing in my life. I wondered if I was still able to perform on stage. Would I have the courage? Then this play came up with Dominique Blanc and it seduced me with its language. It was easy to understand and this idea of verbal jousting was masterfully powerful. The audiences are standing. Christine Letailleur [director] understands this period of the eighteenth century and offers a great adaptation. She introduces humor which is not found in the films. Cruel and enjoyable humor. It is a real pleasure for the actors... Every night at the end, I am drained of all energy. Two hours and four minutes of intensity, racing and fighting."

With the success of her first book, "Monsieur est mort", Vincent's wife, Karine Silla, has recently had her second book published. Again, it's a relational drama involving a woman and her family called "Autour du soleil" (Around the Sun). The storyline begins with Marie who has grown up without her mother Louise, who she thought was dead. Married with her own family, she discovers that her mother died only recently and had, in fact, abandoned her husband and tiny daughter to begin a life in Vietnam with a new love. Secrets and lies. How does Marie forgive a father who chose to lie to his only daughter? How does she accept the fact she now has a half-brother? And, most importantly, how should she judge her mother? One reviewer writes, "With an almost surgical detachment, Karine Silla dissects the relationship between these adults with intelligent analysis and foresight... and reminds us of the complexity and irrationality of our relationships with others. Fascinating."

Karine admits she has an obsession with secrecy. She says over generations, they become family secrets. Stories are a passion for her and her first emotions came with reading. When questioned about the mother's choice in the novel, she responded, "What specifically is interesting in my story is that it is the mother who left because a father's abandonment is socially better accepted. I am very maternal and I cannot help thinking that it is not natural to abandon a child. It is a great pain for a woman, an immense guilt, but I do not judge. I have great compassion for the characters. I try to find in them what resonates in me - weakness, loneliness, grief. I know of no human being who has no burden."