In the end, Emmanuel Finkiel's film triumphed. The Pain was one of five films in the running to be presented at the 2019 Oscars. It was chosen to represent French cinema in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
The National Film Centre finally decided. The committee chose to highlight Emmanuel Finkiel's The Pain. The film is an adaptation of a text by Marguerite Duras. The author recounts the pain of waiting, as her resistant husband was arrested in 1944 and deported to the camps of Eastern Europe. Marguerite Duras expresses fear, doubt, and describes the time of Paris on the last days of the Occupation… Director Emmanuel Finkiel admits that several passages of Duras' story could not be staged, they were "unfilmable". The Pain, released on January 24, 2018, has already gathered almost 350,000 spectators at the cinema. The film is directed by Mélanie Thierry and Benoît Magimel in the roles of Marguerite Duras and Pierre Rabier.
Tough competition
If the CNC is rather happy with its choice, victory is not assured for the France. Four other films were nominated for the Oscar. Pawel Pawlikowski's Polish film is a serious contender. Cold War received the Best Director Award at Cannes. It is a tribute to the director's parents, a couple separated by the Iron Curtain in the 1950s. South Korean Lee Chang-Dong is also competing with Burning, the adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel. Two other films, A Family Affair by Hirokazu Kore-Eda and Capernaum by Nadine Labaki were also selected. But the big favorite of the Americans is Roma by Alfonso Cuaron. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, usually a sign of success at the Oscars. Out of 39 nominations, the France has won 9 gold statuettes at the Oscars. The last one was in 2012 with The Artist.
Will Pain manage to climb to the top of the podium? The film team is already very happy to participate in the American ceremony.
