Jérémie Elkaïm, Valérie Donzelli, Declaration of War
La Guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War is France’s submission for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. The second feature film directed by actress-turned-filmmaker Valérie Donzelli (Who Killed Bambi?, The Untouchable), who also co-wrote it with her former real-life companion Jérémie Elkaïm (perhaps best known in the US for the 2000 gay drama Come Undone), Declaration of War is a tear-jerking family drama inspired by events in their own lives.
In the film, Donzelli and Elkaïm play a young couple, Roméo and Juliette, whose baby (at the age of 8 played by the couple’s real-life son, Gabriel Elkaïm) has been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Roméo and Juliette then proceed to declare war against death while struggling to save their own relationship as well. (The French-language title sounds like a pun on the title of Alain Resnais‘ 1966 classic La guerre est finie / The War Is Over.)
Declaration of War has become a sleeper critical and box-office hit in France following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival’s Critics’ Week sidebar. After ten days, the film has collected $3.3 million at less than 250 locations as per Box Office Mojo.
Among the committee members who selected Declaration of War at France’s National Center of Cinema and Moving Images were veteran actress Jeanne Moreau, Cannes Film Festival managing director Thierry Frémaux, and French Film Academy president Alain Terzian. Neither Maïwenn Le Besco’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Polisse nor Michel Hazanavicius‘ The Artist were eligible, as they will open in France in October — days after the Academy-imposed Sept. 30, 2011, deadline.
Considering France’s past Oscar record, Declaration of War has a very good chance of landing a nomination: since the Academy began handing out competitive awards for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1957 ceremony, movies officially* representing France have earned a total of 36 nominations (including six since 2000), in addition to three (including an Italian co-production) pre-1957 winners of the Special Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film exhibited in the United States.
Yet, the last French entry to win a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award was Régis Wargnier’s 1992 period drama Indochine, starring Best Actress nominee Catherine Deneuve. Last year, France’s well-regarded submission, Xavier Beauvois‘ Des hommes et des dieux / Of Gods and Men, failed to be included even among the nine semi-finalists in that category.
* I’m not including films such as Costa-Gavras‘ Z or Rachid Bouchareb’s Outside the Law, which are mostly French productions with some non-French financing/talent. Both Z and Outside the Law were officially nominated as Algerian entries.
Photo: Declaration of War (Wild Bunch Distribution)