Walter Salles

Home , Isabel Coixet, My Life Without Me, The Secret Life of Words, Things I Never Told You

Selenium Films / A Contracorriente ﬁlms / Altiro Films

Original title: “La contadora de películas”

Screenplay by Walter Salles & Isabel Coixet Based on the novel «La Contadora de Películas» of Hernán Rivera Letelier This is the captivating story of Maria Margarita, The story develops hand in hand with a young girl who lives in a mining town nestled relevant cultural events in the history of in the heart of Chile's Atacama Desert in the the town, like the arrival and success of 60s. She has a very special gift — an almost un- cinema exhibition, followed by its decline canny ability to retell movies. Her talent and as the TV arrives. On a broader passion soon spread beyond her impoverished perspective, ‘The Movie-Teller’ portrays the family circle — five siblings and their disabled decay of the historical salt-peter mining father confined to a wheel-chair, who can only towns in the North of Chile. The film afford a ticket for one at the local movie thea- reveals the untold memories buried deep tre— to reach the whole community. People get in our historical roots; we are taught how together to listen Maria Margarita with delight all the dreams and hopes of ordinary and amusement, so they can forget the harsh people are ultimately subjected to the routines of their day-to-day lives. tyranny of fate.

« I was immediately touched « It has all the elements by its profound humanity, that fascinate me and that by the innate capacity to blend make me love cinema humor and drama, and, of course, above all things » by its utter passion for ﬁlm » _ _ Isabel Coixet Walter Salles Production storytelling.

At ﬁrst "La Contadora de Peliculas" was optioned by producer Vincent Juillerat (Selenium Films), who contacted Walter Salles to adapt it to the screen. "I was immediately touched by its profound humanity, by the innate capacity to blend humor and drama, and, of course, by its utter passion for ﬁlm", says Salles.

After a long writing process by Walter Salles, finally Isabel Coixet takes over the project, coadapt the book and will shoot the film. The Spanish Director, winner of three Goyas this year including the best film, also fell in love with the book and screenplay.

Isabel Coixet has the sensitivity, has the humor and the experience required by this project. Art, or in this case cinema, which, lived as Maria Margarita lives, makes it possible to see life differently is one of the recurring themes in the work of the Spanish director. We hope that Isabel Coixet will make a great movie for all movie lovers. The production will be leading by the producer Vincent Juillerat, through his french company Selenium Films, by Adolfo Blanco of A Contracorriente ﬁlms in Barcelona, and by Andres Mardones Altiro Films in Chile.

THE DIRECTOR. - Isabel Coixet. Born in Barcelona, at the age of just 27 she premièred her first feature film, “Demasiado viejo para morir joven”. She moved to the U.S. where she filmed her next film, Things I Never Told You (1996). Three years later she premièred A los que aman and, in 2003, My Life Without Me, which won the Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. She gained her first international great public success with this film. She then won four Goyas for The Secret Life of Words (2005). On 2018, Feb. 4, Isabel Coixet became the only women to have won two Spanish Academy Best Picture Goyas. She achieved that with “The Bookshop,” starring Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson and Bill Nighy, premièred at a special gala at the Berlinale 2018 and grossed more than 10 million USD worldwide. Her new film Elisa y Marcela (2019) has become the first-time selection of a Netflix film to compete for the Golden Bear I this years’s Berlinale. THE SCREENPLAYERS. - Walter Salles. Walter Moreira Salles Junior is a celebrated film director all across the world. He has made more than twenty excellent movies and some of the most acclaimed of these are the Central Station and the The Motorcycle Diaries. Central Station had been nominated in the Academy Awards of 1998 while The Motorcycle Diaries has won the hearts of critics and regular film lovers with the brilliant portrayal of the life of Che Guevera. The latest production of the gifted director is a documentary on the Chinese screenwriter and director Jia Zhang-ke, titled as "Jia Zhang-ke, A Guy from Fenyang".

And Isabel Coixet.

THE AUTHOR - Hernán Rivera Letelier. He grew up and worked for many years in the saltpeter mines of Atacama, in northern Chile. His novel La reina cantaba rancheras (Queen Isabel Sang Rancheras) catapulted him to fame, turning into one of the most widespread literary works in recent Chilean ﬁction. Two years later, he won the National Book Award again and won the Alfaguara Novel Prize in 2010, one of the most prestigious prize in Spanish language. His most well-known novel La contadora de películas (The Movie-teller) has been translated into 19 languages. MOTIVATION OF THE AUTHOR.

There are stories that touch you and move you and even excite you, but you do not feel them as your own: they do not manage to be part of your personal imaginary, that will make you fight against all odds by turning them into a film. There are stories that touch you, move you, excite you and also - the icing on the cake - touch your heart in a unique way: as if they had been written for you, as if the author knew you and you recognized yourself in him/her: that It will make you move sea and mountain to convey them on screen. "The film teller" belongs to this second category. And telling and bringing this sublime story to the public has already become an obsession for me. I know that anyone who loves the cinema, the narrative, the stories that one tells around a bonfire, watching the dance of the flames, will love this movie.

The moment in which María Margarita discovers her gift, telling ﬁlms so that they can see them without seeing them, her brothers and her invalid father and soon, the entire mining town, is a true revelation «I began to notice details that most people overlooked : the scandalous way of using the lipstick of the blonde mistress of the mobster, some almost unnoticed tic of the gunman in the moments before to draw his weapons, the way the soldiers lit the cigarette in the trenches so that the enemy did not see the glow of the match. »

Halfway between "The last picture show" and "Cinema Paradiso", "The ﬁlm teller" stands, like her young protagonist in the middle of the desert, as a vindication of the power of narration, of the power of the imagination to make us who we are, an escape from reality and to immerse ourselves more in it, better, wiser, more hopeful. In spite of and because of everything.

- Isabel Coixet ISABEL COIXET DIRECTOR’S FILMOGRAPHY

2020 It snows in Benidorm (ﬁlming) 2019 Foodie Love (HBO series) 2019 Elisa & Marcela (Netﬂix original) 2017 The Bookshop 2016 Spain in a Day (documentary) 2015 Nobody Wants The Night 2014 Learning To Drive 2014 Another Me 2013 Ayer No Termina Nunca (Yesterday Never Ends) 2011 Escuchando Al Juez Garzón (documental) 2010 Aral. The Lost Sea (documental) 2009 Map of the Sounds of Tokyo 2008 Elegy 2007 Invisibles: segment Letters to Nora (documental). 2006 Paris je t’aime: Bastille segment 2005 The Secret Life of Words 2004 ¡Hay motivo!: (La insoportable levedad del carrito de la compra) 2003 My Life Without Me 1998 A Los Que aman (To Those Who Love) 1996 Things I Never Told You 1989 Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Joven (Too Old to Die Young) 1984 Mira y Verás (Look and See) SPANISH PRODUCER’S FILMOGRAPHY

A Contracorriente & Manuel Monzón selection:

2020 Uno para todos by David Induráin (completed) 2019 La lista de los deseos by Álvaro Díaz Lorenzo (completed) 2018 Litus by Dani de la Orden 2017 The bookshop by Isabel Coixet 2017 Nieve negra by Martín Hodara 2013 En Solitario by Christophe Offenstein 2013 Ayer No Termina Nunca by Isabel Coixet 2012 Le Chef (The Chef) by Daniel Cohen 2012 Insensibles (Painless) by Juan carlos Medina 2012 Cartas a Eva by Agustí Villaronga 2012 Red Lights by Rodrigo Cortés 2009 Oceans by Jacques Perrin & Jacques Cluzaud 2007 La habitación de Fermat (Fermat’s room) by Piedrahita&Sopeña

IN COPRODUCTION WITH:

Selenium Films (Francia) Altiro Films (Chile) SCRIPT WRITERS FILMOGRAPHY

Walter Salles ﬁlmography:

2014 Jia Zhang-ke (documental) 2012 On the road 2006 Paris, je t’aime (segment: “Loin du 16e”) 2004 The motorcycle diaries 2001 Abril despedaçado (Behind the Sun) 1998 O primeiro día (Midnight) 1998 Central do Brasil (Central station) 1995 Terra estrangeira

Rafa Russo ﬁlmography:

2020 El año de la furia 2019 Remember Me 2015 La decision de Julia 2013 Déjame vivir (Let Me Survive) 2012 Concepción Arenal (TV) 2011 Clara Campoamor (TV) 2006 Amor en defensa propia 2000 Aunque tu no lo sepas 1998 The man with rain in his shoes CREW

Composer: Alfonso de Vilallonga (The Bookshop, Blancanieves, Transsiberian, My Life Without Me)

Cinematographer: Jean Claude Larrieu (The Bookshop, Julieta, The Secret Life of Words, My Life Without Me)

Editor: Irene Blecua (The Secret Life of Words, La Noche de los 12 Años, Palmeras en la nieve) (TBC)

Line Producer: Ingrid Fernández de Castro (Mamá, Nobody Wants The Night, Foodie Love)

Director artístico: Carlos Conti (The Motorcycle Diaries, On The Road, The Party, The Mustang)

Casting Director: Alejandra Alaaf & Moira Miller (La Mujer fantástica, Neruda, Los 33)

Costume Designer: Mercé Paloma (The Bookshop, Pa negre, Incerta gloria, El Fotógrafo de Mauthansen)

Sound department: Albert Gay (The Bookshop, Nobody Wants The Night, Truman, la caja 507)

Sound department: Marc Orts (Pain & Glory, The Impossible, A Monster Calls, Buried, The Orphanage)

Digital FX: Bernat Aragonés (El día de mañana, Incierta gloria, Nobody Wants The Night)

1st assistant director: Luca Vacchi (The Bookshop, It Snows In Benidorm, Foodie Love, Elisa & Marcela, Manuale d’amore) PRODUCERS: Vincent Juillerat - Adolfo Blanco - Andrés Mardones EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Fernando Riera - Manuel Monzón - Paz Recolons DIRECTOR: Isabel Coixet SCRIPTWRITERS: Walter Salles - Isabel Coixet - Rafa Russo COUNTRIES: France - Spain - Chile PRODUCERS: Selenium Films - A Contracorriente Films - Altiro Films GENDER: Drama LANGUAGE: Spanish DURATION: 100' PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY: December 2020 in Chile INTERNATIONAL SALES: Embankment Films