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Looking For Hortense
Looking For Hortense“A fascinating study of a relationship
  where cracks are starting to show, and
  a man’s determination to help a young
  woman facing the threat of deportation
  from France. Looking For Hortense
  is deep and serious yet sprinkled with
  a light-heartedness that belies the
  subject...”

AN UNUSUAL FILM WITH A BRILLIANT DIALOGUE, sympathetic cast and a scattering of humour, Looking For Hortense (Cherchez Hortense) explores the disparate lives of Asian and Chinese Civilisation professor Damien Hauer (a very convincing performance by Jean-Pierre Bacri: Look At Me) and his long-term partner, theatre director Iva (a fine character portrayal by Kristin Scott Thomas: The English Patient; Sarah's Key).

Living in Paris with their difficult son Noé (a suitably sulky Marin Orcand Tourrès), whom one suspects does not have a great deal of attention or guidance, Damien and Iva no longer love each other and have drifted apart. They are merely going through the motions of togetherness.

“An intelligent,
sometimes sad,
sometimes amusing
but always excellent film
with a credible cast,
Looking For Hortense
exposes the lives
of two successful people
whose relationship
is disintegrating and
who find comfort
in others...”
With the arrival of Iva's brother Marco (Francis Leplay) and his girlfriend Vera (Iliana Lolic), the cracks in their relationship widen. Iva demands that Damien asks his father Sébastien (Claude Rich), a senior member of the Council of State with influential friends, to help prevent a young woman they know from being deported.

Zorica Velicovic (Isabelle Carre: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not) is a Croatian Serb on her father's side and Montenegrin on her mother's side and on her divorce she was served with an Expulsion Notice. She is desperate to stay in France.

Damien is faced with an impossible task. He despises and barely communicates with his father and would never ask a favour of him, but to appease Iva he gives her the impression that he has done so.

Iva is becoming involved with one of her actors, Antoine (Arthur Igual) and when Damien meets Aurore, a young woman who takes an interest in his knowledge of China, in a bookshop, he finds himself attracted to her. Finally Damien feels able to approach his self-centred father to speak to his friend Henri Hortense (Philippe Duclos), whom he hopes will be able to help Zorica — but it was never going to be that easy.

An intelligent, sometimes sad, sometimes amusing but always excellent film with a credible cast, Looking For Hortense exposes the lives of two successful peo ple whose relationship is disintegrating and who find comfort in others.

Looking For Hortense also features: Agathe Bonitzer as Laetitia; Masahiro Kashiyagi as Satoshi; Jackie Berroyer as Lobatch; Jérôme Boujour as Campuche; and Joséphine Derenne as Blandine Hauer.

The beautiful Music is by Alexei Aigui; Script by Agnès de Sacy and Pascal Bonitzer; Produced by Sato Ben Sato; Directed by Pascal Bonitzer.

* Looking For Hortense is released in the UK by Arrow Films on DVD on 2 December 2013. Running Time: 96 Minutes | Catalogue Number: FCD828 | RRP: £19.99.

"An intelligent, sometimes sad, sometimes amusing but always excellent film with a credible cast, Looking For Hortense exposes the lives of two successful people whose relationship is disintegrating and who find comfort in others" — Maggie Woods

"Bittersweet, delicately handled French drama" — Daily Express