''The Price of Desire'' is a 2015 Belgian-Irish biographical drama film directed by

Mary McGuckian Mary McGuckian (born 27 May 1963) is a film director, producer and screenwriter from Northern Ireland. Early life Born and brought up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, McGuckian completed her formal education in the Republic of Ireland ...

Premise

The film revolves around

Eileen Gray Eileen Gray (born Kathleen Eileen Moray Smith; 9 August 187831 October 1976) was an Irish architect and furniture designer who became a pioneer of the Modern architecture, Modern Movement in architecture. Over her career, she was associated w ...

E-1027 E-1027 is a Modern architecture, modernist villa in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of France. It was designed and built from 1926-29 by the Irish architect and furniture designer Eileen Gray. L-shap ...

villa, one of the first homes Gray designed and also one of the first homes of the

modern architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

movement, and Gray's relationship with fellow architect

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

, who erased Gray's recognition as the author of her work and as one of the most forceful and influential inspirations of modern architecture and design.

Cast

Orla Brady Orla Brady (born 28 March 1961) is an Irish theatre, television, and film actress born in Dublin. She has been nominated for several awards from the Irish Film & Television Academy for her work in televised programs, as well as starring in the ...

Vincent Perez Vincent Perez (born 10 June 1964) is a Swiss actor, director and photographer. He played the title character, Ashe Corven, in '' The Crow: City of Angels'', and starred in '' Queen of the Damned'', playing Marius de Romanus. Some of his films i ...

Francesco Scianna Francesco Scianna (born 25 March 1982 in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian actor. Biography Early education and career Francesco Scianna began his acting career in theater, debuting in 1997 with the recital of poems by Salvatore Quasimodo, "CEI". ...

Jean Badovici Jean Badovici (6 January 1893 – 17 August 1956) was a French architect and architecture critic of Romanian origin, active in Paris. Biography Born in Bucharest, Romania, Jean Badovici studied architecture in Paris after World War I. Since 1923 ...

Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...

as Marisa Damia * Dominique Pinon as

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

* Tamara Vučković as Louise Dany *

Elsa Zylberstein Elsa Zylberstein (born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn, 16 October 1968) is a French film, TV, and stage actress. After studying drama, Zylberstein began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Be ...

Romaine Brooks Romaine Brooks (born Beatrice Romaine Goddard; May 1, 1874 – December 7, 1970) was an American painter who worked mostly in Paris and Capri. She specialized in portrait painting, portraiture and used a subdued tonal Palette (painting), palette ...

* Anne Lambton as Marie Louise Schelbert *David Herlihy as

Aristotle Onassis Aristotle Socrates Onassis (, ; el, Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotélis Onásis, ; 20 January 1906 – 15 March 1975), was a Greek-Argentinian shipping magnate who amassed the world's largest privately-owned shipping fleet and wa ...

* Caitriona Balfe as Gabrielle Bloch *Adriana Randall as

Charlotte Perriand Charlotte Perriand (24 October 1903 – 27 October 1999) was a French architect and designer. Her work aimed to create functional living spaces in the belief that better design helps in creating a better society. In her article "L'Art de Vivre" f ...

*Natasha Girardi as Natalie Barney *Marcos Adamantiadis as

Gustave Miklos Gustave Miklos, also written Gusztáv Miklós and Miklós Gusztáv (30 June 1888, in Budapest – 5 March 1967, in Oyonnax) was a sculptor, painter, illustrator and designer of Hungarian origin. An influential sculptor involved with Cubism and e ...

*Hayet Belhalloufi as Mireille Roupest *Ronald Beurms as Jean Paul Rayon *Arnaud Bronsart as

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

* Pascaline Crêvecoeur as Berenice Abbott * Sammy Leslie as

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

*Cherise Silvestri as Evelyn Wild *Tan Win as Seizo Sugawara *François Zachary as

Archipenko Arkhypenko ( uk, Архипенко), also transliterated as Arkhipenko, Archipenko, is a Ukrainian-language family name of patronymic derivation from the Slavic first name Arkhyp/Arkhip (). The Belarusian-language version is Arkhipienka. The sur ...

Production

In an interview in 2011 for her film '' Man on the Train'', director

explained that her future project would be the development of the feature film ''The Price of Desire'' after finishing working on ''The Novelist''. The film went into pre-production in 2013, and the film's budget required a loan of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

300,000. American actress

Shannyn Sossamon Shannon Marie Kahololani "Shannyn" Sossamon () is an American actress, director, and musician. She has appeared in the films ''A Knight's Tale'' (2001), '' 40 Days and 40 Nights'', ''The Rules of Attraction'' (both 2002), '' The Order'' (2003), ' ...

was initially cast as Gray, before

took over the role. Part of the film takes place in the authentic French villa of Eileen Gray which she herself designed,

, located in

Roquebrune-Cap-Martin Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (; oc, Ròcabruna Caup Martin or ; it, Roccabruna-Capo Martino, ; Mentonasc: ''Rocabrüna''; Roquebrune until 1921) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Southeastern Fr ...

. With the villa in disrepair, the producers launched a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign to help restore the house with Parisian interiors. Art director Anne Seibel, who won the

Academy Award for Best Production Design The Academy Award for Best Production Design recognizes achievement for art direction in film. The category's original name was Best Art Direction, but was changed to its current name in 2012 for the 85th Academy Awards. This change resulted fro ...

for her work on ''

Midnight in Paris ''Midnight in Paris'' is a 2011 fantasy comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. Set in Paris, the film follows Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), a screenwriter, who is forced to confront the shortcomings of his relationship with his materialis ...

'', worked with Emmanuelle Pucci to recreate the aesthetics of the house. At the beginning of August 2013, filming was done in a studio in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium. Filming took place at the end of August on the

French Riviera The French Riviera (known in French as the ; oc, Còsta d'Azur ; literal translation " Azure Coast") is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend fro ...

in villa E-1027 as well as around the Roquebrune-Cap-Martin train station. Postproduction services were provided by

Windmill Lane Studios Windmill Lane Recording Studios (earlier Windmill Lane Studios) is a recording studio in Dublin, Ireland. It was originally opened in 1978 by Brian Masterson and James Morris in premises at 22 Windmill Lane, and it subsequently relocated to its cu ...

Distribution

Entertainment One Entertainment One Ltd., trading as eOne, is an American-owned Canadian multinational entertainment company. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the company is primarily involved in the acquisition, distribution, and production of films and television se ...

obtained the rights for distribution the film across Canada and France.

Release

The film premiered at the

Dublin International Film Festival The Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF; ) is an annual film festival held in Dublin, Ireland, since 2003. History Dublin International Film Festival was established in 2003. It was revived by Michael Dwyer, international film critic and ' ...

in March 2015.

Reception

The film holds a 25% approval rating on review aggregator website

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 ...

, based on 12 reviews.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Price of Desire, The 2015 films Belgian biographical drama films Belgian romantic drama films Irish biographical drama films Irish romantic drama films Films set in the 1940s Films shot in France Films shot in Brussels 2010s English-language films