The Quad is delighted to present a selection of films directed by French filmmaker Christian Carion, plus a personal pick, leading up to the U.S. release of his new film Driving Madeleine on January 12.
Carion first achieved worldwide acclaim with his second feature Joyeux Noël (2005), starring Diane Kruger and Guillaume Canet. The sweeping WWI drama depicts the legendary Christmas Truce of 1914 through the eyes of French, British, and German soldiers, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes. 10 years later, Carion would return to the battlefields of France with Come What May (2015), following the displaced townspeople of a French village on the outbreak of Germany’s invasion of France and Belgium in WWII scored by legendary film composer Ennio Morricone, whose work was nominated for a César Award for Best Original Music. Shortly after, Carion shifted narrative gears from nostalgic-leaning war dramas, influenced by his childhood and family background in rural France, to suspenseful kidnap thrillers with My Son (2017), starring Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent, and its 2021 English-language remake starring James McAvoy and Claire Foy, which Carion also adapted and directed himself.
His new film Driving Madeleine follows a nonagenarian (French national treasure Line Renaud) on a cab ride through Paris and down memory lane, driven by a tightlipped cabbie (Dany Boon). Catch a special sneak preview on Thursday, January 11 before the film officially opens on Friday, January 12.
This program also includes a special selection by Christian Carion — Steven Spielberg’s Duel (1971). Before shooting largely at the wheel, with Driving Madeleine centered on a drive around Paris, Carion and his team watched Duel for inspiration, citing it as the film that best demonstrates how to film in a car.
Christian Carion will be in person for select screenings including Joyeux Noël, Duel, and the special preview screening of his new film Driving Madeleine.