Voisin, Lost Illusions Between Fake News and Greed

Fake news, ephemeral fame that can be built up when quickly destroyed, a society linked to the dictatorship of money, opinions and judgments oriented towards the service of the highest bidder. Aspects of today's world, which we find perfectly described in Lost Illusions, one of the masterpieces (published from 1837 and 1843 in three parts) by Honoré de Balzac, within his Human Comedy. A versatile and sensitive director like Xavier Giannoli, focusing on the second part, signs the adaptation, in a film, which after its debut in competition at the Venice International Film Festival, arrives in theaters with I Wonder Pictures and Unipol Biografilm Collection, from 23 December in Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna and from 30 throughout Italy.

The protagonist is one of the youngest French performers on the rise, the 24-year-old Benjamin Voisin, in a super cast that includes Xavier Dolan, Gerard Depardieu, Cécile De France, Vincent Lacoste, Salomé Dewaels, Jeanne Balibar. "Balzac 200 years ago as a great humanist was able to paint society and understand it. He understood that money would become a new religion, that the race for profit would overwhelm everything, creating very serious consequences, he showed the mechanisms to manufacture and disseminate news false, aspects that resonate in the film - comments Voisin, who arrived in Italy for the launch of the film and received the Gold Leaf award for emerging talent from France Odeon in Florence - Personally I am terribly bored with dusty vintage films who are satisfied simply to transcribe a 'period as in a dated painting. Giannoli did an extraordinary job of giving a contemporary vibe to the story. Our world is told through the prism of an era ".

The story revolves around Lucien (Voisin), a young provincial poet who dreams of artistic glory. The meeting with the charming and noble Louise de Bargeton, (de France) ready to be his patron, pushes him to abandon the family printing house and seek his fortune in Paris. But his romantic and artistic illusions soon fell apart. The shrewd Etienne Lousteau (Lacoste) helps him to get up, introducing him to a world of journalism, at the price of the highest bidder, from the review of a show to the instigation of controversy exploited by power. "If you don't scare anyone, you don't care" Lousteau explains to the idealistic poet, who thanks to his lashing pen as a critic stands out. In a short time Lucien, more and more bent to compromise, becomes feared and famous.Love also arrives when she meets a boulevard star with a difficult past, Coralie (Dewaels). But fame can be as sudden as it can be easy to lose the favor of the powerful ... A fall, which also recalls the speed with which media pillories can be fed on the web: "I think that if Balzac lived in our society, he would take us a lot around the social networks - observes Voisin, launched as the protagonist by Eté 85 by Ozon and in 2022 alongside Marina Fois in En roue libre by Didier Barcelo and protagonist of Les pieds sur terre directed by André Techiné - I had profiles at the beginning, when we were all happy for the possibility of a permanent connection, to speed up contacts with friends and family. These are means that enhance the freedom ofexpression but I also understood how flattening the contexts and the way of communicating. What used to be ramshackle bar talk is now becoming more and more viral controversy. Constantly looking at those small screens, in my opinion, you lose a broader understanding of reality. On social networks like Instagram we constantly put ourselves on stage, we use filters to adapt our lives to stereotypical images… Balzac would laugh a lot at all this, who knows, maybe he could even write a couple of novels on it ".On social networks like Instagram we constantly put ourselves on stage, we use filters to adapt our lives to stereotypical images… Balzac would laugh a lot at all this, who knows, maybe he could even write a couple of novels on it ".On social networks like Instagram we constantly put ourselves on stage, we use filters to adapt our lives to stereotypical images… Balzac would laugh a lot at all this, who knows, maybe he could even write a couple of novels on it ".