The world’s most prestigious film festival, the Cannes Film Festival, kicks off in 8 days, on May 11, running until May 22. Not surprisingly, there isn’t much for *us* there this year (there rarely ever is, but that’s a conversation for another time. No finger pointing here).
While the lineup was announced a few weeks ago, I only recently started taking a closer look at the selected titles for those that will appeal to readers of this blog, given our stated mission/interests. And as a lover of genre cinema, this one definitely has my attention – Michael O’Shea’s feature film debut, a horror film titled “The Transfiguration.”
The film stars newcomer Eric Ruffin alongside Chloe Levine, in a New York City-set story of “love, loss and obsession,” as the film is described. The story follows a teenage outsider (Ruffin) who takes refuge from bullies in the apartment he shares with his older brother, where he immerses himself in the world of vampires. A chance encounter with a new neighbor (Levine) leads him to develop new feelings but it may not be enough to quash his dark urges.
Cryptic. Obviously, given the title (and first poster below), we can assume that someone (or something) goes through some kind of metamorphosis, physical or otherwise.
Little other information is available about the film at this time, other than that French distributor ARP has acquired the film from Protagonist Pictures, a week before its world premiere at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section.
If star Eric Ruffin looks familiar, he appeared in several episodes of CBS’ “The Good Wife,” playing Dylan Bishop, son of powerful Chicago drug lord Lemond Bishop, who was played by Mike Colter.
And for those wondering, the filmmaker, Michael O’Shea, is white. So no new black genre filmmaker to *discover* here, as you may have hoped… so it goes.
Susan Leber – whose credits include Sundance winner “Down to the Bone” directed by Debra Granik and Ti West’s first feature “The Roost” – is the film’s producer.
The deal was negotiated by Protagonist Pictures’ Jennifer Fattell for Protagonist Pictures and ARP CEO Michele Halberstadt.
No trailer for “The Transfiguration” yet unfortunately; just the above still of star Eric Ruffin, and the minimalist though cool first poster below.
