The Marvelous Misadventures of the Stone Lady by Gabriel Abrantes, at Cannes [10/05/2019]

The director returns to Cannes after winning the Critics Week Main Award in 2018 with his first feature film, Diamantino, co-directed with Daniel Schmidt.

The Marvelous Adventures of the Stone Lady, in the words of the director, is "loosely inspired by The Fir Tree by Hans Christian Andersen, written in 1845. The story of HCA is about a pine tree that, in its innocence, wishes to be cut and removed from the forest to be transformed into a Christmas tree. As soon as it fulfills its desire, things become very dark for the little tree. Similarly, in The Marvelous Adventures, a young and innocent sculpture desires to be more than a banal ornament. One night she flees from the Louvre and heads to the streets of Paris to confront life and make sense of it. Like the young pine tree, the sculpture discovers that reality is not pink as expected.

Gabriel Abrantes's intention was to work on art and its relation to politics: "the film is a metaphor for art that wants to be in the "real world", outside the museum's institutional constraints, and get involved in politics."

The presence of innocent characters who are faced with various political issues is already something we are accustomed to in the cinema of Gabriel Abrantes. "My most recent films focus on a naive main character lost in any contemporary chaotic crisis or in a complex political context, such as Coughman in The Artificial Humors or Predator drone in Ennui Ennui, as well as Diamantino. The beauty of Hans Christian Andersen's work is in the ingenuity of his main characters, and it was in this sequence that I fell in love with his work which inspired me to write The Artificial Humors, Diamantino, and The Marvelous Adventures of the Stone Lady."

The Directors Forthnight will take place from 15th to 25th May in Cannes and will be attended by the director, the film team, and Portugal Film.

[10/05/2019]

Animation, Fiction 
2019, France, Portugal, 20’

Director: Gabriel Abrantes
Script: Gabriel Abrantes
Cinematography: Kanamé Onoyama
Sound: Jules Jasko, Matthieu Deniau, Philippe Deschamps
Editing: Margarida Lucas
Production: Justin Taurand / Les Films du Bélier; Gabriel Abrantes / Artificial Humors
Cast: Liza Lapert, Vimala Pons, Virgile Vernier, Annie Mercier, Alexis Manenti, Caroline Deruas

Biography:
Gabriel Abrantes (b. 1984, USA) is an artist and filmmaker. His work has been shown in exhibitions at the MIT List Center for the Visual Arts, the Palais de Tokyo, the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva and Museu Serralves. His films have screened in competition at festivals such as La Biennale di Venezia, the Berlinale, Locarno International Film Festival, and IndieLisboa. He was been awarded prizes at the Berlinale, Locarno International Film Festival, among others.

Filmography:
[2019] The Marvelous Misadventures of the Stone Lady (short)
[2018] Diamantino (co-directed with Daniel Schmidt) 
[2017] The Artificial Humors (short)
[2016] The Hunchback (co-directed com Ben Rivers) (short)
[2016] A Brief History of Princess X (short)
[2015] Freud Und Friends (short)
[2014] Taprobana (short)
[2013] Ennui Ennui (short)
[2012] Ὄρνιθες (Ornithes - Birds) (short)
[2012] Fratelli (short)
[2011] Baby Back Costa Rica (short)
[2011] Liberdade (co-directed with Benjamin Crotty) (short)
[2011] Palácios de Pena (co-directed with Daniel Schmidt) (medium)
[2010] A History of Mutual Respect (co-directed with Daniel Schmidt) (short)
[2009] Too Many Daddies, Mommies and Babies (short)
[2008] Arabic Hare (short)
[2008] Gugg ‘n’ Tate (short)
[2008] Obama For President (short)
[2008] Visionary Iraq (co-directed with Benjamin Crotty) (short)
[2006] Olympia I & II (co-directed with Katie Widloski) (short)
[2006] Dear God Please Save Me (short)
[2006] Razor Thin Definition of Punk (short)
[2006] Anarchist King (short)