Françoise wakes up one day from an ominous dream that seemingly foreshadows her imminent death. Not wanting to waste a minute of her remaining time, she consults her crystal pendulum and promptly convinces her best friend Delphine to attend a mysterious costume party. So, they sneak out of their Catholic boarding school and hitch a ride with a suspicious older gentleman who takes an unusual interest in the two young girls. But that’s just the start of their increasingly bizarre encounters, each adding up to Françoise’s prophetic vision.
Bitten exists in the intoxicating space of teenage drama and otherworldly suspense, shrouding the story in a veil of atmospheric angst and riding the momentum of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everything is vaguely familiar yet just outside the narrative rule book. Drawing from the tradition of the giallo occult mystique, emerging director Romain de Saint-Blanquat impresses with his command of genre tonalities, harnessing the power of heightened adolescent senses, reckless conviction, and insatiable youthful curiosity.
…de Saint-Blanquat’s film has moments of Gothic fancifulness and is an atmospheric and visual delight.
Eye For Film
The short film The Birthday Party will play before this feature.
Presented by
Léonie Dahan-Lamort, Lilith Grasmug, Cyril Metzger, Maxime Rohart, Fred Blin
France
2023
Vanguard
In French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Marc-Benoît Créancier
Screenwriter
Romain de Saint-Blanquat
Cinematography
Martin Roux
Editor
Sanabel Cherqaoui
Production Design
Sébastien Gondek
Original Music
Émile Sornin
Director
Romain de Saint-Blanquat
After studying cinema in Bordeaux and Paris, where he directed a graduation short film, Romain de Saint-Blanquat worked as a decorator, production assistant and screenwriter. He is a winner of the Gan Foundation Award. Bitten is his first feature film.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.
Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real
Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story
Judging by this candid, funny, passionate biographical documentary, it would have been a wild ride to have been Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, or even to have been in her circle of friends and lovers. Well, for an hour and a half we can pretend we were.
Erupcja
Charli xcx headlines this indie gem about a young English couple coming unmoored over a few days in Warsaw. Will means to propose. Beth has cold feet -- and an escape hatch she has barely admitted to herself... Think Before Sunrise 2025.
Tony Wilson's The Homeless Project
Combining music, text, still photography, and film to shine a sympathetic light on Canada's urban dispossessed, The Homeless Project is the third in composer, guitarist Tony Wilson's series of multimedia projects addressing pressing social issues.