La Pie Voleuse

Director Robert Guediguian

Write by Robert Guediguian, Serge Valletti

Cast Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Gérard Meylan

Music Michel Petrossian

Performers par Frank Braley et Nour Ayadi

Label Plaza Mayor Company Ltd

Maria, in her sixties, helps people older than her. Pulling the devil by the tail, she does not resign herself to her precarious condition and, here and there, steals a few euros from all these good people whom she takes care of with extreme devotion, and who for this reason adore her.

But a complaint for abuse of weakness will turn everything upside down...

The title of the film is inspired by Rossini's opera, in which certain themes appear as diverted objects, in the same way as one would accompany a silent film.  With the director, we decided to keep a single instrumental colour – that of the piano – but to offer a whole range of sensations and atmospheres: burlesque dimension, aquatic evocation, sound translation of the storm of love, intimate tenderness or poignant drama...  The resulting soundtrack consists of 27 tracks, some of which are real pieces that can be considered in concert, and others are of the order of "hand-sewn" punctuation that precisely follows the movements and particularities of the sequence. My music interacts with the image to serve the director's wish: to make music one of the narrative and structuring elements of his work. Thus, it is inspired by cinematographic processes and, while serving the film, departs from the posture of a servile music or purely illustrative. In order to best realize my musical intentions, I called on two concert pianists with international careers, Frank Braley for the solo piano pieces, and Nour Ayadi as his partner in the duets.

Michel Petrossian - Composer