À la folie

À la folie
Directed byDiane Kurys
Written byDiane Kurys
Antoine Lacomblez
Produced byAlexandre Arcady
StarringAnne Parillaud
Béatrice Dalle
Patrick Aurignac
CinematographyFabio Conversi
Edited byLuc Barnier
Music byMichael Nyman
Distributed byPan Européenne Distribution
Release date
  • 28 September 1994 (1994-09-28)
Running time
98 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Box office$960.000[1]

À la folie ("To Madness") (English: 6 Days, 6 Nights) is a 1994 French drama film by Diane Kurys with music by Michael Nyman. It entered the competition at the 51st Venice International Film Festival.[2]

Cast

Plot

Two rival sisters, Alice and Elsa, have been apart for two years. Alice, a promising young artist, lives in an attic flat in Paris. Her lover Franck, a boxer, has just moved in with her. Problems for the happy couple ensue when Elsa, a bored housewife, suddenly appears unannounced at their door after leaving her cheating husband Thomas and their two children, and a menage-a-trois develops. Elsa immediately begins trying to dominate their lives. Alice wants the out-of-control Elsa, who disrupts their life by playing psychological games with them, to leave, but then suddenly changes her mind, unable to bring herself to throw Elsa out. To thank her, Elsa destroys her art studio, has sex with Franck, convinces him that Alice is unbalanced, and then ties Alice up in her apartment.

Music

à la folie
photography by Jean-Marie Leroy
design by Dave McKean
Soundtrack album by
Michael Nyman
Released16 September 1994 (France)
20 March 1995 (UK)
21 March 1995 (United States)
Recorded14 March 1994, May 1994, CTS Studios, London
GenreSoundtrack, Contemporary classical music, Minimalist music
Length49:15
LabelVirgin Venture
ProducerMichael Nyman
Michael Nyman chronology
The Piano Concerto/MGV
(1994) 		à la folie
(1994) 		Live
(1994)
6 Days 6 Nights
UK/US cover (1995)

The music by Michael Nyman has been praised as one of his better works, and considered unusually buried in the sound mix of the film. The album is Nyman's 23rd release, and the fourteenth with the Michael Nyman Band. The American album became very difficult to come by; American Nyman fans attempting to special order the album only a few years later were often presented with copies of Randy Edelman's Six Days Seven Nights, derived from distributors' fuzzy searches. In France, however, the album was promoted as "Michael Nyman Nouvel Album."

The score features yet another of Michael Nyman's waltzes. "Waltzing the Bird" is based on Nyman's early "Waltz in F," which appeared on Michael Nyman, although it develops in a very different direction. "Love Theme" is a very loose reworking of material from the String Quartet No. 3 with material from other themes written for the score of the film.

The only liner notes on the French release of the album are an uncredited synopsis of the film in French.

Track listing

  1. Solitude 1:36
  2. Broken Glass 4:58
  3. Sisters 1:42
  4. The Intruder 2:40
  5. Waltzing the Bird 3:16
  6. A New Beginning 1:22
  7. Stolen Memories 5:48
  8. À la Folie... 5:48
  9. The Streets of Paris 2:39
  10. Love Forever 1:19
  11. Love Theme 2:35
  12. Point of No Return 2:55
  13. Escape 3:37
  14. Broken Dreams 4:19
  15. Dark Fantasy 2:25
  16. Six Days, Six Nights 5:51

Personnel

Musicians from the Michael Nyman Band

References

  1. ^ "A la folie (1994) - JPBox-Office".
  2. ^ Edoardo Pittalis, Roberto Pugliese, Bella di Notte, August 1996.