Dir. by Sebastien Marnier | 2022 | France |125 Mins | MA15+
In Cinemas Australia-wide October 19, 2023.
In NZ Cinemas October 5
In this wickedly funny French thriller, shady relatives scheme for family fortunes through a succession of ingenious twists.
Stéphane’s volatile lover is halfway through her prison sentence while she’s stuck working in a fish cannery. One day Stéphane boldly decides to reach out to her wealthy, estranged father. Stéphane discovers the dysfunctional family around him to be a vipers’ nest, all angling for the old man’s inheritance and suspicious of the new interloper. Soon enough, she finds herself embroiled in devious hidden agendas
during a ruthless fight for the family empire in a luxury seaside French villa.
Who’s the predator and who’s the prey?
Victoria
Kino Cinema
Cinema Nova, Melbourne
Palace, Pentridge
Palace, Balwyn
Palace Brighton Bay
Palace, Como
Lido, Hawthorn
Classic, Elsternwick
Cameo Cinemas, Belgrave
The Pivotonian, Geelong
NSW
Palace, Central
Palace Chauvel
Palace, Norton St
Hayden Orpheum, Cremorne
Empire, Bowral November 2
Ritz, Randwick
United Avalon, Sydney
Star Court Theatre Lismore Nov 5,7,8
Queensland
Palace, Barracks
Palace James St
Angelika Film Centre
WA
Luna Cinema, Perth
Palace, Raine Square
SA
Palace Nova Eastend
Palace Nova Prospect
Tasmania
State Cinema, Hobart
Official Selection at:
The French Film Festival Aotearoa NZ 2023
The Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2023
Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023
Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2023
Sunshine Coast Film Festival 2023
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Family fortunes and squabbling relatives form a sturdy foundation for a twisty, sometimes florid thriller in The Origin Of Evil. The third feature from Sebastien Marnier, feels like an homage to Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley, featuring a slippery central character adept at deception and reinvention.
-Screen International-
[Director] Marnier channels the spirit of Claude Chabrol’s withering knock-downs of the bourgeoisie, layered with the plot curves of a Hitchcockian riddle.
-Film-Forward.com-
Propelled by revelations, twists and a seasoning of sly humour.. It quickly becomes apparent that nothing is quite as it seems in this jaunty romp.
-Screen International-
[Sebastien] Marnier’s film manages to be cruelly funny, while evoking the spirit of that master of the French thriller Claude Chabrol, with hints of Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell. It offered a touch of class as a first-day festival highlight [Venice Film Fest].
-The Observer | Venice Film Festival-
