French actors Ludivine Sangier(centre) and Robinson Stevenin(r) with director Claude Miller(left) at Film festival in Cannes. On April 22, their movie „La Petite Lili“ was shown in the competition. PHOTO – TASR/AP

CANNES – Fans of intellectual cinema finally got their day on Thursday with French director Claude Miller‘s transformation of a Chekhov play into a charged family drama set in rural France. One of five French entries for the top prize, „La Petite Lili“ is set in Brittany where an actress comes to relax with her older brother, her lover — also her director, and her moody son Julien, a would-be arthouse filmmaker. The movie makes many changes to Anton Chekhov‘s acclaimed „The Seagull“, set in the 19th century theatre and literature world. But it will be relished by fans of the enigmatic Russian playwright, if not necessarily by the wider masses.

„This play always astounded me and I wanted to transpose it to today, conserving the dramatic situations and the notion of conflict between generations and characters,“ Miller said. „There‘s always a Chekhov play on somewhere and it‘s not by chance. It‘s because what happens in Chekhov plays continues to speak to us and move us. I wanted to transform it into a domain I knew, which is cinema,“ he told a news conference. In Miller‘s adaptation, things heat up around the dinner table when chemistry begins sizzling between the film director and the rebellious son‘s cute girlfriend, Lili, who also harbours ambitions to appear on the big screen. Five years after she runs off with the older man, leaving the family in chaos, Lili, now a successful actress, discovers Julien is making a film about the fateful Brittany vacation.

One of France‘s most prolific directors and a protege of Francois Truffaut, Miller won the Cannes Jury Prize for his 1998 film „Class Trip“ and was a jury member last year. „La Petite Lili“ stars Ludivine Sagnier as the ravishing Lili and boasts a cameo appearance by Michel Piccoli. Both have big roles in other films in the 2003 contest. It also features strong performances from stage stars Julie Depardieu, daughter of Gerard, and Bernard Giraudeau.

Reuters