Anatomy of a hitmaker: how Marie-Ange Luciani became one of ...

From a mysterious death in the Alps to a sweltering romp through Madagascar, French producer Marie-Ange Luciani has had an adventurous 12 months. Her Paris-­based production house Les Films de Pierre is behind Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall and Robin Campillo’s Red Island and has a bevy of buzzy projects on its upcoming slate.

Red Island was the first film to shoot in Madagascar in 35 years, and the lack of infrastructure posed challenges for Campillo’s fourth feature. “We brought all the materials from France, they had absolutely nothing there,” says Luciani of a location shoot that lasted two-and-a-half months at the tail end of 2021. “We bought refrigerated vans and turned them into trailers and we constructed hair and make-up facilities.”

Due to pandemic restrictions at the time, the airport in Madagascar ended up being closed after the cast and crew had arrived, leaving them stuck on the island. “I did get scared several times because I had taken a major financial and personal risk with the film,” admits the producer.

Anatomy Of A Fall posed a different set of challenges. Triet’s feature — also her fourth — blends genres (courtroom drama, relationship story, mystery thriller) and languages (French, English), while hopping between locations (a courthouse and a chalet) and time (the day of the death to the trial a year later). For Luciani, keeping track of the production’s complexities was invigorating: “I like it when things are complicated and force me to learn something new.”

After Anatomy Of A Fall won the Palme d’Or at Cannes last May, Luciani began production on Claire Burger’s Langue Étrangère, a co-­production with Germany’s Razor Film and Belgium’s Les Films du Fleuve. It stars Chiara Mastroianni and Nina Hoss and is also shot in two languages, being set between Leipzig, Germany and Strasbourg, France with cast and crew from both countries.

Born in Corsica, Luciani started her career at French distributor Ad Vitam before joining Les Films de Pierre, the company founded by fashion executive Pierre Bergé, to produce L’Amour Fou, Pierre Thoretton’s 2010 documentary about Bergé and longtime love Yves Saint Laurent. Luciani took over the company in 2018 after Bergé died and now has a team of six people.

She is currently producing films from some of France’s most acclaimed female filmmakers. These include Léa Mysius’s third feature, an adaptation of Laurent Mauvignier’s French bestseller The Birthday Party, produced with Jean-Louis Livi’s F Comme Film, in pre-production with a shoot planned for later this year; Canadian filmmaker Monia Chokri’s next film as a co-production with Xavier Dolan’s longtime producer, Montreal-­based Nancy Grant; and a debut feature from Hélène Rosselet-­Ruiz titled Les Mains Sales.

She will also reunite with Les Films de Pelleas’ David Thion to produce Triet’s next feature, which is in early development. Further projects include Campillo’s Maison Alpha and Laurent Cantet’s Enzo, which he co-wrote with Campillo. Les Films de Pierre is also producing animation Marie Angelique, co-directed by Gilles Marchand and Djibril Glissant, and Jean Lou Bernard’s feature debut Sud.

“I work with people I love whose work I love, and that guides every decision I make,” says Luciani. “They are also films that resonate with strong political and social dimensions.”

While she and Thion are not a couple, joining forces to produce Anatomy Of A Fall did enhance the female/male energy around the project. “Justine co-wrote the script with [real-life partner] Arthur [Harari] so she liked the idea of a female and male producer coming together for the film,” says Luciani, who had previously boarded Triet’s Sibyl, which Thion produced, as a co-producer. “At the end of filming [Sibyl], Justine asked if I wanted to produce her next film.”

Now, Anatomy Of A Fall is power­ing through awards season, winning two Golden Globes and five European Film Awards, and picking up nominations at Bafta (seven) and Oscar (five), including for best film and best director. It has sold more than 1.5 million tickets in France for distributor Le Pacte and upwards of a million tickets in international markets including the US (via Neon) and UK (Lionsgate UK). Global box office is around $25m.

“I’m not a financial machine just there to raise money. I put a lot of feeling into everything I do,” says Luciani. “Maybe one day I’ll get tired, but for now I’m all in.”