''Bird People'' is a 2014 French

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

Pascale Ferran Pascale Ferran (; born 17 April 1960) is a French film director and screenwriter. In 2007, her film ''Lady Chatterley'' won five César Awards including Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Adaptation. Her 2014 film '' Bird People'' was sele ...

and starring

Josh Charles Joshua Aaron Charles (born September 15, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for the roles of Dan Rydell on '' Sports Night; '' Will Gardner on ''The Good Wife'', which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations; and his early wo ...

and

Anaïs Demoustier Anaïs Demoustier (; born Anaïs Aude Marie Michèle Demoustier; 29 September 1987) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than fifty films since 2000. Personal life During the filming of ''Marguerite & Julien'', Demoustier began dating ...

. It was screened in the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section at the

2014 Cannes Film Festival The 67th Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2014. New Zealand film director Jane Campion was the head of the jury for the main competition section. The Palme d'Or was awarded to the Turkish film '' Winter Sleep'' directed by Nuri Bi ...

. It was also screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the

2014 Toronto International Film Festival The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duv ...

Plot

University student Audrey Camuzet works in Paris as a hotel maid where Gary Newman, an American businessman from Silicon Valley, is staying. The night after his meeting, Gary has difficulty sleeping and suffers a panic attack. When morning arrives, he stays in his room, deliberately misses his flight to Dubai where he had further business. He decides to quit his job, divorce his wife Elizabeth, leave his family and remain in the hotel indefinitely. Audrey tidies Gary's room after initially being surprised to find that he had not yet departed and discovers he was supposed to already be in Dubai. When the hotel experiences an electrical blackout, she goes to the roof to investigate and transforms into a sparrow. She glides down to the ground, overhears other people's conversations, practices her new found flying abilities and peeps into various hotel rooms. After checking on Gary, she returns to the hotel roof and finds herself unable to return to her human form. That night, she follows coworker Simon in his car to a park where he sleeps. After escaping attacks by a cat and an owl, she returns to the hotel roof. In the morning, she awakens in her original form once again. Later, Audrey literally bumps into Gary as he checks out of the hotel. They share an elevator ride and a conversation.

Cast

as Gary Newman *

as Audrey Camuzet *

Roschdy Zem Roschdy Zem (born 27 September 1965) is a French actor and filmmaker of Moroccan descent. He shared the award for Best Actor for his role in the film '' Days of Glory'' at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Career Versatile and determined to not ...

as Simon *

Camélia Jordana Camélia Jordana Aliouane (born 15 September 1992) is a French-Algerian pop singer. She rose to fame after participating in the television show ''Nouvelle Star'', the French version of ''Pop Idol'', in 2009, where she came in third. Life and ca ...

as Leila *

Geoffrey Cantor Geoffrey N. Cantor (born 1943) is Emeritus Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds and Honorary Senior Research Associate at UCL Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. He h ...

as Allan *

Clark Johnson Clark Johnson (born September 10, 1954), is an American-Canadian actor and director who has worked in both television and film. He is best known for his roles as David Jefferson in ''Night Heat'' (1985–1988), Clark Roberts in ''E.N.G.'' (1989� ...

as McCullan * Akela Sari as Mme Baccar *

Anne Azoulay Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...

as Melle Lhomond * Manuel Vallade as Boris * Genevieve Adams as Katlyn * Taklyt Vongdara as Akira *

Radha Mitchell Radha Rani Amber Indigo Ananda Mitchell is an Australian actress. She started her career with various appearances on Australian television, including a regular role as Catherine O'Brien in the soap opera ''Neighbours'' (1996–97). Mitchell la ...

as Elisabeth Newman * Catherine Ferran as Nuala *

Hippolyte Girardot Hippolyte Girardot (born Frédéric Girardot; 10 October 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter. He is the father of actress Ana Girardot. Selected filmography * 1973: '' La Femme de Jean'', directed by Yannick Bellon, Rémi ...

as Vengers *

Mathieu Amalric Mathieu Amalric (; born 25 October 1965) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known internationally for his roles in the James Bond film ''Quantum of Solace'', in which he played the lead villain, Steven Spielberg's ''Munich (2005 film), ...

as The Narrator * Philippe Duclos as Audrey's father (voice) * Kate Moran as Gary's sister (voice)

Reception

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 ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 61% based on 36 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. At

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 70 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

References

External links

* * * 2014 films 2014 drama films 2010s fantasy drama films 2010s French-language films French fantasy drama films 2010s English-language films Films directed by Pascale Ferran 2010s French films {{2010s-France-film-stub