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ABUSE OF WEAKNESS

by Catherine Breillat

synopsis

In 2004, the iconoclastic French director Catherine Breillat suffered a stroke that paralyzed the left side of her body. Three years later, she met the infamous con man Christophe Rocancourt and offered him a lead role in a film she was developing, as well as 25,000 euros to write a script. Over the subsequent eighteen months, she wrote him various cheques totalling a further 678,000 euros, money that she would never see again. In 2009, Breillat wrote a book entitled Abus de faiblesse — abuse of weakness, a term used in the French legal system — that dealt with her experience. Last year, Rocancourt was found guilty under exactly this law of taking Breillat's money, and was sentenced to sixteen months in prison.

international title: Abuse of Weakness
original title: Abus de faiblesse
country: France
sales agent: Rezo Films International
year: 2013
genre: fiction
directed by: Catherine Breillat
film run: 90'
release date: FR 14/02/2014, BE 19/03/2014
screenplay: Catherine Breillat
cast: Isabelle Huppert, Kool Shen, Laurence Ursino, Christophe Sermet, Daphné Baiwir
cinematography by: Alain Marcoen
film editing: Pascale Chavance
art director: Pierre-François Limbosch
music: Didier Lockwood
producer: Jean-François Lepetit, Nicolas Steil
co-producer: Jesus Gonzalez-Elvira
production: Flach Film, ARTE France Cinéma, Iris Productions
backing: CNC, Canal+, Ciné+, Hoche Artois Images
distributor: Rezo Films, Les Films de L'Elysée

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