by Lebanese Directors Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas. She told Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) on Saturday, following a premiere of the film in the Cannes Festival, that she previously visited the country a few days subsequent to the war that hit the country back in July 2006, in order to examine the extent of its effect on the country and people she said that she has loved for more than five decades. The film was showcased in one of the major events of the festival.
The French leading lady said that cinema in Lebanon and the Arab world was in extreme need of financial backing to insure an effective presence in the film industry, urging Arab film-producers to concentrate more on human rights-related topics regionally and internationally. She added that she cooperated with various promising talents in the Arab region, mainly in French language projects. "Je veux voir," uncovers the story of a French woman "Deneuve," who visits various areas in Lebanon after the 2006 war, and ends with a statement that Lebanon is able to endure and rise up from any crisis it undergoes, due to its rich cultural, and historical attributes.
In "I Want To See" Catherine Deneuve, plays herself; she makes a short visit to Beirut to participate in a gala event. She asks her hosts to organize a visit to South Lebanon for her. The filmmakers have her meet with Rabih Mroueh, one of Lebanon's most famous actors, and the two set off in his car for his native village, Bint Jbail, which was totally destroyed during the last war between Israel and Hezbollah . They are escorted by another car, whose passengers are supposed to protect the pair from the dangers that may crop up.
With the exception of Deneuve's visit to Beirut and her meeting with Mroueh the film is directed in documentary style. Even the first meeting between Deneuve and Mroueh, which takes place outside Deneuve's hotel, is filmed as a documentary. It really was the first meeting between the two, and its hesitancy lends it an aura of authenticity. The filmmakers say they directed it without a script, and the conversations between Deneuve and Mroueh really are the conversations the two conducted on their trip.
Deneuve, for example, is obsessed with seat belts; more than once she remembers that she forgot to buckle up, and she asks Mroueh how it is that Lebanese drivers drive without belts, against the law. Mroueh replies that in Lebanon's new situation after the last war, laws are no longer valid.
Tags: agencies, Film, France, Lebanon, Source: Arab Times
