''Thalasso'' is a 2019 French comedy film directed by

Guillaume Nicloux Guillaume Nicloux (born 3 August 1966) is a French novelist, director and actor. He is the founder of the theatre company La Troupe. He has written crime fiction and directed films for cinema and French television. He won the Best Screenplay Awar ...

, starring the writer

Michel Houellebecq Michel Houellebecq (; born Michel Thomas, 26 February 1956 or 1958) is a French author, known for his novels, poems and essays, as well as an occasional actor, filmmaker and singer. His first book was a biographical essay on the horror writer ...

and the actor

Gérard Depardieu Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu, CQ (, , ; born 27 December 1948) is a French actor, filmmaker, businessman and vineyard owner since 1989 who is one of the most prolific thespians in film history having completed over 250 films since 1967 alm ...

as versions of themselves. It places Houellebecq at a health spa where he goes through a series of treatments while Depardieu keeps him company. The film has been described as a sequel to Nicloux's ''

The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq ''The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq'' () is a 2014 French comedy-drama film directed by Guillaume Nicloux, starring Michel Houellebecq, Mathieu Nicourt, Maxime Lefrançois and Luc Schwarz. It tells the story of how the famous author Michel Houe ...

'' (2014).

Plot

The film is set at a centre for seawater therapy in

Cabourg Cabourg (; nrf, Cabouorg) is a commune in the Calvados department, region of Normandy, France. Cabourg is on the coast of the English Channel, at the mouth of the river Dives. The back country is a plain, favourable to the culture of cereal. Th ...

. The writer

goes through a series of treatments offered at the health spa. He is accompanied by the actor

Cast

as Michel Houellebecq *

as Gérard Depardieu * Maxime Lefrançois as Maxine * Mathieu Nicourt as Mathieu * Luc Schwarz as Luc

Production

had previously made multiple films where the writer

appears as an actor as well as several films featuring

. Notably, he made ''

'' (2014), where Houellebecq performs as a version of himself. Although ''Thalasso'' has been described as a sequel to ''The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq'', Nicloux says it was not conceived as such and is a standalone work. He says it did not begin with the idea of creating an encounter between Houellebecq and Depardieu, but with a screenplay he wrote that had "a particularity" in that the main characters are played by themselves. Houellebecq and Depardieu did not know each other before but responded positively when Nicloux told them he planned to create an encounter between them within a fictional story. The film also features Maxime Lefrançois, Mathieu Nicourt and Luc Schwarz, who played the abductors in the 2014 film and reprise their roles. The scenes were filmed in one take with a

multiple-camera setup The multiple-camera setup, multiple-camera mode of production, multi-camera or simply multicam is a method of filmmaking and video production. Several cameras—either film or professional video cameras—are employed on the set and simultaneous ...

Release

The release in France was on 21 August 2019 and distributed by

Wild Bunch The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Terr ...

. The film was shown at festivals in 2019 and 2020, including in the official competition of the 2019

San Sebastián International Film Festival The San Sebastián International Film Festival ( SSIFF; es, Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, eu, Donostia Zinemaldia) is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of Donostia-San Sebastián in September, in th ...

Reception

Jordan Mintzer of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' described it as a sequel to ''The Kidnapping of Michel Houellebecq'' and said you need to see the first film for ''Thalasso'' to fully make sense. Mintzer said ''Thalasso'' is less amusing than the first film and has "a plot so thin you can barely see it".

References

External links

* {{Michel Houellebecq 2019 comedy films 2019 films French comedy films 2010s French-language films Films directed by Guillaume Nicloux Michel Houellebecq Medical-themed films Hydrotherapy Films about writers Films about actors Films set in Normandy Films shot in Normandy