Thievery Corporation

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Author Régis Jauffret’s Parisian Tale of Lust Gets a Sexy Cinematic Spin

“My favorite gemstone is ruby—the color of passion, eroticism, lips, blood and aristocracy,” says Paris-born actress Priscilla de Laforcade who plays a seductive thief with a passion for jewels in Presque des Amoureux, a contemporary noir short from rising filmmaker Julien Carlier and art director Joana Figueira, produced in collaboration with Effigies. Shot in mysterious black-and-white and clad in Margiela, Alaïa, and erotic jewellery by Betony Vernon, the femme fatale entraps the viewer with a beguiling monologue. “We wanted to push the fashion video genre into a more fictional style,” explain the collaborators, having previously worked on films for Karl Lagerfeld and Tsumori Chisato. “Working from a novel seemed obvious.” So the team turned to French fiction provocateur Régis Jauffret, adapting a short story from his 2007 collection, Microfictions, which was originally written with a male narrator in mind. “The text was very strong,” says Laforcade, whose impressive career has already included a role in Amour et Turbulences, campaigns for Hogan and Nina Ricci, and a record deal with Universal as part of the band Les Chanteuses. “I found it interesting to embody this character as a powerful and dominating woman.”