Synopsis
Pigalle. Its cabarest, its nightclubs, its joints, its sex shops... Bodies on display ; traversties, strippers...
Pigalle. All king of trafficking, rules are tenuons. Crooks strive to control the drug market. Véra is showing off her body in a peep show, yet refuses to sell herself. She lives with Jesus, a small-time local traficker nicknamed "The Gypsy". Fifi, a pickpocket with murky desires, lives an amorous liaison with Divine, a transvestite with a heart of gold. Divine is killed in the street, victim of neighborhood gang rivalry. From now on, Pigalle will become an arena where gangs will kill each other, where vengeance will be wreaked and where passions will overflow... Trapped within this world, will the budding love between Vera and Fifi have a future ?
Credits
Director (1)
Actors (11)
Production and distribution (4)
- Executive Producer : Première Heure
- Co-productions : FCC, UGC Images
- Foreign production company : DELFILM S.A.
- French distribution : Diaphana
Full credits (13)
- Executive Producers : Romain Brémond, Patrice Haddad
- Screenwriter : Karim Dridi
- Director of Photography : John Mathieson
- Music Composer : Antidote
- Editor : Lise Beaulieu
- Sound Recordist : Louis Gimel
- Costume designer : Jean-Louis Mazabraud
- Associate Producer : Pierre Assouline
- Production Manager : Nicolas Daguet
- Press Attachés (film) : Simona Benzakein, Frédérique Entremont
- Production Designer : Gilles Bontemps
- Make-up Artist : Hué Lan Van Duc
- Still Photographer : Nathalie Eno
Technical details
- Type : Feature film
- Genres : Fiction
- Sub-genre : Drama
- Production language : French
- Coproducer countries : Switzerland, France
- Original French-language productions : Unspecified
Box-office & releases
News & awards
Selections (2)
About
"While preparing "Zoé la boxeuse", a medium-lenght film, I got to know the real Pigalle. The reverse side of the medal is fascinating for someone like me who is interested in the human condition. Through my work on "Zoé", I was able to spend two years wrapped up in the most mythical neighbourhood in Paris. And despite all its treasures, no film had been completely shot in the neighbourhood until that time. When Romain Brémond called me in July 1993 to ask if I had a screenplay that I could shoot quickly, I replied that I did, realizing that I had found a gold mine and that I simply needed to start work. A few days later, I put the finishing touches to the first version of the "Pigalle" screenplay... To blend in as well as possible during shooting, the whole crew lived for three months in an abandoned warehouse. The locals would call in to see us, hang out with us, testing us. Once they were sure that I wouldn't harm their image, only then did they allow us to shoot where other crews had became croppers... Our aim was to no longer know who the real actors were and to make an impressionist painting of one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Paris..."
(Karim Dridi)