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PRODUCTION / FUNDING UK / Switzerland / Italy / France

Peter Greenaway’s long-gestating biopic Walking to Paris almost finished and ready to premiere

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- Five additional projects from the prolific British auteur are also ready for production

Peter Greenaway’s long-gestating biopic Walking to Paris almost finished and ready to premiere
Walking to Paris by Peter Greenaway (© Cinatura)

British auteur and painter Peter Greenaway is nearing completion on his follow-up project to 2015’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Peter Greenaway
film profile
]
, the long-gestating biopic Walking to Paris. In the film, Greenaway focuses on the 18 months that 27-year-old sculptor Constantin Brancusi spent walking through Romania, Hungary, Austria, Germany and Switzerland to the French capital, before becoming one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century. The movie, which has been in production since 2015, marks the 14th collaboration between Greenaway and producer Kees Kasander, of British firm Cinatura. Kasander confirmed to Cineuropa that they are nearing the film’s final cut, while grading and sound post-production are yet to be finished.

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“I have been working with Peter Greenaway for almost 40 years and was not one of the producers on this film, but I felt the need to finish it because otherwise, Peter would have wasted seven years of his career. And we could not start a new [Greenaway] project without finishing this one,” revealed Kasander, adding that the film has been completed thanks to the joint efforts of Cinatura and Il Rivellino. Walking to Paris is an adventurous road movie and Greenaway’s picaresque interpretation of Brancusi’s 1,200-mile trek across the European landscape, taking in every season. It has been made in Greenaway’s signature Baroque style. Emun Elliott stars as the French-Romanian sculptor, while the film has been lensed by Reinier van Brummelen, who has been collaborating with Greenaway since 1999.

Walking to Paris will be ready for a late-autumn or early-winter world premiere on the festival circuit. Kasander told Cineuropa that there are more Greenaway projects already in the pipeline, ready to enter production. The Brancusi biopic is set to be followed by Lucca Mortis, two more Eisenstein films (Eisenstein in Switzerland and Eisenstein in Hollywood), the director’s take on Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice, The Food For Love and The Head Gardener.

Walking to Paris is being executive-produced by Kees Kasander, of Cinatura, and Arminio Sciolli, from Il Rivellino. The film is co-produced by Switzerland's Cobra Films, Italy's Enjoy Movies and France's Catherine Dussart Productions and received funding from Eurimages, MiBACT, RAI Cinema, the CNC, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture and the Zurich Film Fund. The feature does not yet have a sales agent.

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