on release

Slack Bay (Ma Loute)

A film by Bruno Dumont

Also on disc & on demand

Synopsis

Summer 1910. Several tourists have vanished while relaxing on the beautiful beaches of the Channel Coast in Northern France. Infamous inspectors Machin and Malfoy soon gather that the epicentre of these mysterious disappearances must be Slack Bay, a unique site where the Slack river and the sea join only at high tide.
There lives a small community of fishermen and other oyster farmers. Among them evolves a curious family, the Brufort, renowned ferrymen of the Slack Bay, lead by the father nicknamed “The Eternal”, who rules as best as he can on his prankster bunch of sons, especially the impetuous 18 years-old Ma Loute.
Towering high above the bay stands the van Peteghems’ mansion. Every summer, this bourgeois family – all degenerate and decadent from inbreeding – stagnates in the villa, not without mingling during their leisure hours of walking, sailing or bathing, with the ordinary local people, Ma Loute and the other Bruforts.
Over the course of five days, as starts a peculiar love story between Ma Loute and the young and mischievous Billie van Peteghem, confusion and mystification will descend on both families, shaking their convictions, foundations and way of life.
After P'tit Quinquin, the latest film by Bruno Dumont finds once again its inspiration in slapstick comedy, at turns bleak and funny, with the most amazing cast of French actors whose performances take the film to another level.

We are delighted to be collaborating with MUBI again for the distribution of this film.

Official Selection, Competition, Cannes Film Festival 2016
Closing Night Film, French Film Festival UK

Where It's On

Week Commencing 16th June 2017 (Also available on Curzon Home Cinema)

Curzon Bloomsbury	The Brunswick	London WC1N 1AW	0330 500 1331	all week
ICA Cinema	The Mall	London SW1Y 5AH	020 7930 3647	all week
Cine Lumiere	17 Queensberry Place	London SW7 2DT	020 7871 3515	all week
Barbican	Beech St	London EC2Y 8AE	020 7638 8891	all week
Watershed	1 Canon's Rd	Bristol BS1 5TX	0117 927 5100	all week
Showroom	15 Paternoster Row	Sheffield S1 2BX	0114 275 7727	all week
Home	2 Tony Wilson Place	Manchester M15 4FN	0161 200 1500	all week
GFT	12 Rose St	Glasgow G3 6RB	0141 332 6535	all week
Watermans	40 High St	Brentford TW8 0DS	020 8232 1010	all week
Eden Court	Bishops Rd	Inverness IV3 5SA	01463 234234	all week
DCA	152 Nethergate	Dundee DD1 4DY	01382 909900	all week
Arts Picturehouse	38/39 St Andrews St	Cambridge CB2 3AR	0871 902 5720	all week
Dukes at Komedia	44-47 Gardner St	Brighton BN1 1UN	0871 902 5728	all week
Picturehouse at FACT	88 Wood St	Liverpool L1 4DQ	0871 902 5737	all week
Cinema City	St Andrews St	Norwich NR2 4AD	0871 902 5724	all week

Week Commencing 23rd June 2017 (Also available on Curzon Home Cinema)

Curzon Bloomsbury	The Brunswick	London WC1N 1AW	0330 500 1331	all week
Cine Lumiere	17 Queensberry Place	London SW7 2DT	020 7871 3515	all week
ICA Cinema	The Mall	London SW1Y 5AH	020 7930 3647	to Wed 28
Picturehouse Central	Shaftesbury Avenue	London W1D 7DH	0871 902 5755	Sun 25 only
Showroom	15 Paternoster Row	Sheffield S1 2BX	0114 275 7727	all week
Arts Picturehouse	38/39 St Andrews St	Cambridge CB2 3AR	0871 902 5720	selected shows
Picturehouse at FACT	88 Wood St	Liverpool L1 4DQ	0871 902 5737	selected shows
Cinema City	St Andrews St	Norwich NR2 4AD	0871 902 5724	selected shows

Week Commencing 30th June 2017 (Also available on Curzon Home Cinema)

Curzon Bloomsbury	The Brunswick	London WC1N 1AW	0330 500 1331	all week
Tyneside Cinema	10 Pilgrim St	Newcastle NE1 6QG	0845 217 9909	all week
Depot	Pinwell Rd	Lewes BN7 2JS	01273 525354	3 - 5 July
Ipswich Film Theatre	Corn Exchange	Ipswich IP1 1EG	01473 232666	all week
Phoenix	Gandy St	Exeter EX4 3LS	01392 667080	2 - 6 July

Week Commencing 7th July 2017 (Also available on Curzon Home Cinema)

Chapter	Market Rd	Cardiff CF5 1QE	029 2030 4400	7 - 12 July
Errol Flynn	Derngate	Northampton NN1 1TU	01604 624811	7,10,12,13 July
Theatr Clwyd	Raikes Lane	Mold CH7 1YA	01352 701521	12 - 13 July

Week Commencing 14th July 2017

Gulbenkian	University of Kent	Canterbury CT2 7NB	01227 769075	14 July
Arc	Dovecot St	Stockton on Tees TS18 1LL	01642 525199	15,16 July
Odyssey	166 London Rd	St Albans AL1 1PQ	01727 453088	18 July
FirstSite	Lewis Gardens	Colchester CO1 1JH	01206 577067	18 July

Week Commencing 21st July 2017

Ultimate Picture Palace	Jeune St	Oxford OX4 1BN	01865 245288	21,22,25 July
Plough Theatre	9-11 Fore St	Gt Torrington EX38 8HQ	01805 624624	26 July
Midlands Arts Centre	Cannon Hill Park	Birmingham B12 9QH	0121 446 3232	21-24 July
Rex	High St	Berkhampsted HP4 2FG	01442 877759	24 July
Welwyn Garden City Cinema	Campus West	Welwyn Garden City AL8 6BX	0300 3039 620	21,24,25,27 July

Week Commencing 18th August 2017

Assembly Rooms	1 Mill Street	Ludlow SY8 1AZ	01584 873229	23,24 Aug
Southill Park Arts	Ringmead	Bracknell RG12 7PA	01344 484123	22 Aug only

Week Commencing 25th August 2017 Now available on iTunes

Trailer

Director — Bruno Dumont

Bruno Dumont (born 1958, Bailleul, France) studied and taught philosophy before he started writing and directing films.

Often working with non-professional actors and mostly filming in the Calais region where he lives, he has, to date, directed eight feature films and a TV series, all of which mix dark realistic drama with a work on forms. His feature films are La vie de Jésus (1997), L'Humanité (1999), Twentynine Palms (2003), Flandres (2006), Hadewijch (2009), Hors Satan (2011), and Camille Claudel 1915 (2013). L'Humanité and Flandres were both awarded the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, while Hadewijch won the FIPRESCI prize.

P'tit Quinquin (2014), also distributed by New Wave Films, was Dumont's first forray into TV series and into comedy. Dumont has since been working on a sequel.

Slack Bay / Ma Loute, is his latest feature film, presented in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, and a further investigation of comedy by one of France's most original filmmakers.

Since Ma Loute, Dumont has been working on a musical comedy on the early years of Jeanne d'Arc, called Jeanette and set to be finished in 2017.

Filmography

La vie de Jésus / The Life of Jesus (1997)

L'humanité / Humanity (1999)

Twentynine Palms (2003)

Flandres / Flanders (2006)

Hadewijch (2009)

Hors Satan (2011)

Camille Claudel 1915 (2013)

P'tit Quinquin (2014)

Slack Bay / Ma Loute (2016)

Jeannette (2017)

CoinCoin and the Extra-Humans (2017/8) - in production

Cast & Credits

Cast

Fabrice LUCHINI - André Van Peteghem

Juliette BINOCHE - Aude Van Peteghem

Valeria BRUNI TEDESCHI - Isabelle Van Peteghem

Jean-Luc VINCENT - Christian Van Peteghem

RAPH - Billie Van Peteghem

Brandon LAVIEVILLE - Ma Loute Brufort

Cyril RIGAUX - Malfoy

Laura DUPRÉ - Nadège

Crew

Screenplay, dialogues, direction	Bruno DUMONT
Producers	Jean BRÉHAT Rachid BOUCHAREB Muriel MERLIN
Co-producers	Thanassis KARATHANOS Geneviève LEMAL
Line producers	Muriel MERLIN Cédric ETTOUATI
Post production supervisor	Cédric ETTOUATI
Director of photography	Guillaume DEFFONTAINES
Script supervisor	Virginie BARBAY
Editing	Bruno DUMONT Basile BELKHIRI
Sound	Phillipe LECOEUR
Sound mixer	Emmanuel CROSET
Sound editing	Romain OZANNE
Costume supervisor	Alexandra CHARLES
Art designer	Riton DUPIRE-CLÉMENT - ADC
Make-up	Michèle CONSTANTINIDES Jana SCHULZE
Hair stylist	Mathieu GUERAÇAGUE
Casting	Clément MORELLE Catherine CHARRIER
First Asssistant Directors	Marie LEVENT Aurélia HOLLART
Location manager	Julien BOULEY
Stills photographer	Roger ARPAJOU
Produced by	3B PRODUCTIONS
In coproduction with	TWENTY TWENTY VISION FILMPRODUKTION & PALLAS FILM ARTE FRANCE CINÉMA WDR/ARTE
In association with	MEMENTO FILMS DISTRIBUTION MEMENTO FILMS INTERNATIONAL PICTANOVO LE FRESNOY STUDIO NATIONAL DES ARTS CONTEMPORAINS COFINOVA 12 CINEMAGE 10 SOFICINEMA 12 SCOPE PICTURES
With the participation of	CANAL+ CINE+ ARTE FRANCE CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINÉMA ET DE L’IMAGE ANIMÉE
With the support of	LA RÉGION DES HAUTS-DE-FRANCE IN PARTENERSHIP WITH LE CNC MITTELDEUTSCHE MEDIENFÖRDERUNG MEDIENBOARD BERLIN-BRANDENBURG GERMAN FEDERAL FILM BOARD TAX SHELTER DU GOUVERNEMENT FEDERAL BELGE
International sales	MEMENTO FILMS INTERNATIONAL

France / Germany, 2016, 122 min., colour, Scope 2.35, 5.1, Cert 15

Images

Click any still to enlarge

The Critics

★★★★

"Dumont is still in a mordantly merry mood, as this alternately buoyant, bleak and thoroughly bananas seaside ramble makes delightfully clear."
Guy Lodge, Time Out★★★★

“Ma Loute is a fascinatingly made film, theatrically extravagant and precise... very strange and very funny.”

“The film features a gallery of nightmare faces and outrageous performances from French cinema A-list- ers…”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

"Dumont exalts his characters and his performers alike, high ideals and raw desires, harsh subsistence and loopy frivolity, the splendors of nature and architectural delights together, in images of such instant revelation that they seem to tear away the screen and deliver his imaginary world as immediate experience."
Richard Brody, The New Yorker

★★★★

"It's spellbinding to watch Dumont give pastoral comedy the full welly."

Nigel Andrews,The Financial Times
★★★★

"Singular, absurd and inspired"

Phil Concannon, Little White Lies
"The sight of Binoche camping it up beneath an enormous hat mounted with a gaily coloured dead bird is not the weirdest thing in a film that mixes slapstick, social commentary and cannibalism."

Ryan Gilbey, The New Statesman

“Somehow Dumont has sneakily managed to have things both ways. Fans of his work will recognize the familiar metaphysical strains erupting in a new guise. The violence, while brief and played for laughs, is nonetheless brutal and creepy, as it typically is in his films. It’s not everyone’s brand of comedy by a long shot, but “Slack Bay” is likely to be recognized as one of the more truly original films screening this year at Cannes.’’
Barbara Scharres, rogerebert.com

“Slack Bay” operates as a high farce. Its parodic look at decadent lunatics suggests Buñuel’s “L’Age D’or” by way of Godard’s “Weekend” in its vibrant skewering of social classes... Combining savage archetypes with spot-on wit, “Slack Bay” is a fun, peculiar romp with deeper conceits lurking beneath the surface. Shot with a high contrast palette, the movie has a painterly quality that yields a hyperreal quality and makes it Dumont’s most polished work. It also succeeds at lending an air of elegance to the strange proceedings...”
Eric Kohn, Indiewire

“There are some great performances from the likes of Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Cannes Dame Juliette Binoche, and particularly Fabrice Luchini, whose hump-backed, swaggering toff André Van Peteghem is a particular highlight. The film also looks fantastic, and Director of Photography Guillaume Deffontaines creates a wonderful depiction of the overcast beaches of northern France during the early part of the 20th century.”- The Hollywood News - by Paul Heath“Everything is shot immaculately: the costumes are exquisite and the seascapes are enough to give Turner the vapours, while some of the performances are tone perfect caricatures of brutal mimicry.’’
John Bleasdale, Cine-Vue

“Slack Bay (Ma Loute) is a one-of-a-kind outing from perennially outre French auteur Bruno Dumont, a stylized slapstick art film’’
Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

‘Dumont is still in a mordantly merry mood, as this alternately buoyant, bleak and thoroughly bananas seaside ramble makes delightfully clear. ‘

Guy Lodge, Time Out

"The film’s textures are a wonder. Acting very much in the clown style, the performers shriek and gurn to endless heightened effect. Luchini and Tedeschi form a gorgeously horrid couple. Juliette Binoche (…) throws herself at the camera with admirable abandon."

Donald Clarke, The Irish Times

“Understandably, enjoying a film like this requires a considerable suspension of disbelief. Those who are able to accept the work for its aimless and whimsical escapism, however, are in for a real treat. Surreal and strange but ultimately a laugh-out-loud affair, “Slack Bay” is a creative revelation."
Steven S.K Hao,The Harvard Crimson

Links

Watch the Press Conference following the screening of Slack Bay / Ma Loute at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2016

Read an interview with Bruno Dumont in Film Comment

Interview with Juliette Binoche about Slack Bay on Indiewire

Watch an interview with the actors and director of Slack Bay

Interview with Juliette Binoche in The Observer

Interview with Bruno Dumont in The Financial Times

Interview with Bruno Dumont in CineVue

Download photo-set

Download Press Book

Download High Res jpg of quad poster

UK Trailer on Vimeo (mp4 file can be downloaded)

UK Trailer on Youtube

Download UK Trailer full-size Pro Res

Bookings & Press

For film bookings please contact Colin Burch at Verve Pictures — [email protected]. Press resources are on the Press page.