Main Slate
La Gradiva
Marine Atlan
Director Marine Atlan’s exceptionally accomplished feature debut turns a high school trip to Naples for a group of French teenagers into a revelatory experience, capturing the intimacies of her youthful characters with pinpoint emotional precision.
- Runtime
- 145 min
- Country
- France
- Language
- French
- Year
- 2026
- More information
- Official page
Screenings
Opens December 18 at Film at Lincoln Center with Marine Atlan in person opening weekend. Tickets on sale soon. Sign up for updates.
A high school trip to Naples for a group of French teenagers becomes a multifaceted, revelatory experience in Marine Atlan’s exceptionally accomplished feature debut, which won the Grand Prize at the 2026 Cannes Critics’ Week. Also working as her own cinematographer, Atlan captures the interactions and intimacies of her compelling cast of characters with pinpoint emotional precision, their desires and frustrations pinballing off each other with escalating tension as they visit frescoes, museums, and volcanic sites near Pompeii. Atlan’s vividly drawn characters—troubled, working-class Toni (Colas Quignard), who firmly believes he’s related to an aristocratic Neapolitan family due to family lore; preternaturally self-composed lothario James (Mitia Capellier-Audat); melancholy yet coolheaded Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), who feels invisible; their animated yet wearied Latin teacher, Mme. Mercier (Antonia Buresi)—are further enriched when placed within the historical continuum of love and death that defines the history of the region, granting them an almost mythic grandeur. An NYFF64 Main Slate selection. A 1-2 Special release.
Travel support generously provided by Unifrance.
Explore more on Film Comment:
Opens December 18 at Film at Lincoln Center with Marine Atlan in person opening weekend. Tickets on sale soon. Sign up for updates.
A high school trip to Naples for a group of French teenagers becomes a multifaceted, revelatory experience in Marine Atlan’s exceptionally accomplished feature debut, which won the Grand Prize at the 2026 Cannes Critics’ Week. Also working as her own cinematographer, Atlan captures the interactions and intimacies of her compelling cast of characters with pinpoint emotional precision, their desires and frustrations pinballing off each other with escalating tension as they visit frescoes, museums, and volcanic sites near Pompeii. Atlan’s vividly drawn characters—troubled, working-class Toni (Colas Quignard), who firmly believes he’s related to an aristocratic Neapolitan family due to family lore; preternaturally self-composed lothario James (Mitia Capellier-Audat); melancholy yet coolheaded Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), who feels invisible; their animated yet wearied Latin teacher, Mme. Mercier (Antonia Buresi)—are further enriched when placed within the historical continuum of love and death that defines the history of the region, granting them an almost mythic grandeur. An NYFF64 Main Slate selection. A 1-2 Special release.
Travel support generously provided by Unifrance.
Explore more on Film Comment: