One of the highlights of the Directors’ Fortnight series at the Cannes Film Fest this year is Me, Myself and Mum, the directorial debut of Comedie Francaise-trained actor Guillaume Gallienne.
Gallienne’s impressive picture, produced by Jean-Baptiste Dupont and Cyril Colbeau-Justin at LGM and Edouard Weil at Rectangle, won two prizes at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
It then enjoyed more than 2 million ticket sales at the French box office, making it one of France’s only considerable hits of last year.
The bigscreen makeover of Gallienne’s eponymous stage show, Me, Myself, Mum portrays the director’s childhood overshadowed by a cherished mother who assumes he’s gay.Gallienne plays himself as a child and schoolboy as well as limning his mother.
Gallienne said that he has never considered casting an actress to play his mother’s role: “I knew from the start I was the only person who could play her and express her latent schizophrenia.”