Brady Corbet’s first film will finally be released in France

It took more than a decade for The childhood of a chef finally crosses the French borders. Presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2015, Brady Cooper’s first feature film was praised by critics and received two distinctions, before seeing a limited release in North America in 2016. On the other hand, France did not benefit from any theatrical release. However, the distributor Condor film announced that the film would return to the big screen on the occasion of the 52^e edition of the Deauville American Cinema Festival, on September 10, where it will be presented in a special screening, before a national release planned for 2027. No precise date has, for the moment, been communicated.

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Adapted very freely from a short story published in 1939 in the collection The Wall by Jean-Paul Sartre, The childhood of a chef transports the viewer to 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War. We follow the young Prescott, growing up in the heart of diplomatic circles and the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles. While his father actively participates, his mother watches, helplessly, the disturbing metamorphosis of her son.

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For his debut behind the camera, Brady Corbet brought together Bérénice Béjo (The Artist, 2002) who will support the film in Deauville and the British Liam Cunningham (Game of Throne). They played the parents of young Lucien, played by Tom Sweet. Robert Pattinson completed the cast in the role of a close family member with a very ambiguous relationship with the boy’s mother.

When The childhood of a chef is presented in 2015, Brady Corbet is primarily known as an actor. Revealed in particular by Thirteen in 2003, he distinguished himself in independent cinema, with Gregg Araki and Lars von Trier, before gradually abandoning acting to devote himself to directing.

His first feature film immediately established itself in Venice, where it won the Orizzonti Prize for best direction and the Luigi De Laurentiis Prize for a first work. Brady Corbet subsequently asserts himself with Vox Lux (2018), worn by Natalie Portman, before experiencing international recognition with The Brutalist (2024). The film recounting the difficult destiny of a Jewish Hungarian architect who immigrated to the United States, propelled him to the forefront and earned him the Silver Lion at Venice, as well as awards at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs and three Oscars. With this recognition, Brady Corbet will finally see his first film released in France. His presence in Deauville will allow us to measure the progress made by the filmmaker since 2015.