''Almayer's Folly'' (french: La Folie Almayer) is a 2011

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Chantal Akerman Chantal Anne Akerman (; 6 June 19505 October 2015) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter, artist, and Film studies, film professor at the City College of New York. She is best known for films such as ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 108 ...

and starring

Stanislas Merhar Stanislas Merhar (born 24 January 1971) is a French actor. He was born in Paris in a family of immigrants from Slovenia. He works in cinema, television and theatre. In 1998 Merhar won the César Award for Most Promising Actor for his role in the ...

Aurora Marion Aurora Marion (born 22 December 1985) is a Belgian stage and film actress. She began working in theatre after developing an interest in acting, before making her film debut in ''Almayer's Folly (film), Almayer's Folly'' (2011), which earned her a ...

and Marc Barbé. It is an adaptation of

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924) was a Poles in the United Kingdom#19th century, Polish-British novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest writers in t ...

's 1895

debut novel A debut novel is the first novel a novelist publishes. Debut novels are often the author's first opportunity to make an impact on the publishing industry, and thus the success or failure of a debut novel can affect the ability of the author to p ...

Almayer's Folly ''Almayer's Folly'' is Joseph Conrad's first novel, published in 1895 by T. Fisher Unwin. Set in the late 19th century, it centres on the life of the Dutch trader Kaspar Almayer in the Borneo jungle and his relationship to his mixed heritage da ...

'', and tells the story of a Dutchman searching for pirate treasure in Malaysia. The setting has been relocated to the 1950s. The film was a coproduction between companies in France and Belgium. It received four

Magritte Award A Magritte Award (french: ) is an accolade presented by the Académie André Delvaux of Belgium to recognize cinematic achievement in the film industry. Modelled after the French César Award, the formal ceremony at which the awards are presented ...

nominations.

Cast

as Almayer * Marc Barbé as Captain Lingard *

as Nina * Zac Andrianasolo as Daïn * Sakhna Oum as Zahira * Solida Chan as Chen * Yucheng Sun as Captain Tom Li * Bunthang Khim as Ali

Production

The film was initially under development for Akerman's Belgian company Paradise Films together with

Paulo Branco Paulo Branco (born 3 June 1950) is a Portuguese film producer. Life and career Paulo Branco was born in Lisbon, and attended the undergraduate program in chemical engineering at the Instituto Superior Técnico but he did not graduate. He starte ...

's Alfama Films for a budget of 3,475,000 euro, with a filming start date set to March 2011. Production was eventually led by Patrick Quinet of France's Liaison Cinématographique together with Paradise Films and Artémis Productions. The project received 350,000 euro in advance from the French National Center of Cinematography and 465,000 euro from the Belgian French Community Film and Audiovisual Centre. In addition it was supported through pre-sales investment by

Canal+ Canal+ (Canal Plus, , meaning 'Channel Plus'; sometimes abbreviated C+ or Canal) is a French premium television channel launched in 1984. It is 100% owned by the Groupe Canal+, which in turn is owned by Vivendi. The channel broadcasts several ki ...

and CinéCinéma. Principal photography took place in Cambodia. Filming started 10 November and ended 24 December 2010.

Reception

Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 87% out of 15 professional critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 9.3/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100 based on 6 critic reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

References

External links

Official website
* * * {{Lingard Trilogy 2011 films 2010s French-language films 2010s English-language films Belgian drama films French drama films 2011 drama films Films based on British novels Films based on works by Joseph Conrad Films directed by Chantal Akerman Films produced by Paulo Branco Films set in Malaysia Films set in the 1950s 2010s French films