Pascal Bonitzer’s latest film, Auction, starring Alex Lutz and Léa Drucker, offers a window on the art dealing world, where a delicate balance often exists between ethics, money, and power.
It is inspired by the 2006 discovery of Austrian artist Egon Schiele’s painting, Wilted Sunflowers. Historically, it gives a lesson about the looting of Jewish property during World War II.
Others featured in the film are Nora Hamzawi, Louise Chevillotte, Arcadi Radeff, Laurence Côte, Olivier Rabourdin, Alain Chamfort, Marisa Borini, Matthieu Lucci, Iliès Kadri, Vincent Nemeth, Alexandre Steiger, Doug Rand, Peter Bonk, and Adrien De Van.
Directed by Pascal Bonitzer, former Cahiers du Cinéma critic, he has written for 48 films, most recently co-writing Last Summer with Catherine Breillat and Benedetta with Paul Verhoeven.
Auction had its world premiere at the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris and was featured at the Rendez-vous with French Cinema at Film at Lincoln Center.
It opens in US theaters starting on October 29th at Film Forum in New York City.
When star Parisian auctioneer André, played by Alex Lutz, learns that a long-lost Egon Schiele painting has turned up in the home of a young worker in a small town, he pays a visit and verifies its authenticity… as well as its iniquitous wartime provenance.
A race to navigate the thorny world of art buyers and dealers collides with a triangle of players, including André’s plucky, mendacious intern, his savvy ex-wife/art appraiser, played by Léa Drucker, and the young man swept up by the talons of history who’s been housing the painting—before putting it up at a suspenseful auction.
Ben Croll, in a review for Variety, states, “ A dexterous screenwriter, Bonitzer draws parallels between the cosmopolitan wheeler-dealer André and his shell-shocked client, all while building out a lively cast of characters.”
Watch the official trailer for Auction, above.
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