Mia Hansen-Løve, one of France’s leading filmmakers whose movies have played at Cannes, Berlin and Toronto, will next direct “If Love Should Die,” an ambitious feature film about the life of visionary English writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft.
Mubi, the auteur-driven global distribution and streaming powerhouse, is producing “If Love Should Die” with Georgina Paget and Thembisa Cochrane at U.K. banner Caspian Films (“The Colour Room”); “Anatomy of a Fall” producer David Thion and Philippe Martin at Paris-set Les Films Pelléas; Norway’s Mer Film, Lorenzo Mieli for Our Films and Arte France Cinema. Mubi and Arte France Cinema are financing the production. The Match Factory is handling worldwide sales.
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Written and directed by Hansen-Løve, the film will for the first time tell the journey of Wollstonecraft, a 18th-century feminist pioneer whose ideas resonate with our times.
“On the eve of the French Revolution, an impoverished young Englishwoman makes the bold decision to lead her life according to the ideals of the enlightenment,” reads the synopsis.
Filming is planned to take place in the United Kingdom, France, Scandinavia and Portugal, starting in 2025.
Hansen-Løve, whose latest film “One Fine Morning” starring Lea Seydoux played at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight in 2022 and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, has been wanting to make a project on Wollstonecraft for several years. “My ambition is to capture with as much acuity and truth as possible this pivotal era and the life of a woman that cinema has never before looked at,” said Hansen-Løve, who pointed that Wollstonecraft was “iconic in England,” but “is not known in France.”
“That suits me: making a film about a figure who is too predictable, or too famous, has never interested me. I am attracted to characters engaged in a quest, devoid of certainties,” said the thoughtful director. “The souls of artists, no doubt, but I am inspired by the most fragile, the most vulnerable among them,” she continued.
Hansen-Løve’s debut “All is Forgiven” played at Directors’ Forntight, won the Louis Delluc Prize for best first film in 2006 and was nominated for the César for best first film. Her sophomore outing, “Father Of my Children” won Cannes’ Jury Special Prize at Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. She went on to direct Isabelle Huppert in “Things To Come” which won several awards, including the Silver Bear at Berlin in 2016, and made her debut in competition at Cannes in 2021 with “Bergman Island” starring Mia Wasikowska, Tim Roth and Vicky Krieps.
Mubi said in a statement that it is “honored to be working with Mia again. As great admirers of Mia’s work this will be the third film we’ve collaborated on with her, and we’re looking forward to bringing Mary Wollstonecraft’s extraordinary and pioneering life to the big screen for the first time through ‘If Love Should Die.'”
The project underscores Mubi’s drive to leverage its global firepower to back name directors worldwide. The company, which continues to expand outside of its core streaming business, is also producing Jim Jarmusch’s anticipated “Father Mother Sister Brother” starring Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Mayim Bialik and Cate Blanchett. The company, which was founded by London-based cinephile Efe Cakarel, bought several high profile movies out of this year’s Cannes’ competition, including Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance” which it will release in North America, the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Latin America and Benelux. The company also has rights to the film in Turkey and India.
Mubi previously worked with Hansen-Løve on “One Fine Morning,” which it distributed in the U.K., and Ireland.
