Officially selected for the Alliance Francaise French Film Festival 2012 in Australia and New Zealand*

Umbrella Entertainment Films is proud to announce the 12 April 2012 theatrical release of
A Happy Event, a touching dramedy about the unexpected twists and turns of becoming a parent,
starring Louise Bourgoin, Pio Marmaï and Josiane Balasko, directed by Rémi Bezancon.

A Happy Event is the intimate, often humorous and revealing story of lovebirds Barbara (Louise BOURGOIN) and Nicolas (Pio MARMAÏ) a young, carefree couple who decide to have their first ‘bundle of joy’ and whose lives are altered in ways they never quite expected…

Barbara – intelligent, ambitious and gorgeous – is a post-graduate student, while Nicolas, replete with boyish charm, is a clerk in a video store. After a humorous courtship in the video store where Nicolas works, the pair begin a passionate romance that grows into relationship bliss. They frolic, they dine, they paint walls together and all too quickly they find themselves enthusiastically, if not slightly nervously, embarking on their biggest joint venture yet – their first child.

But what begins as a life step they decide to embrace with joyful abandon, quickly starts to change shape (both figuratively and literally) as Barbara’s tummy swells with their unborn child and new pressures start to weigh on their relationship. Hormones begin to race, emotions run high and identities begin to fracture. The reality and pit-falls of child-bearing and rearing soon hits home, and despite the support of those around her, Barbara struggles to connect with her baby.

Adapted from Eliette Abecassis’ best-selling autobiographical novel about pregnancy and motherhood, A Happy Event is a charming and revealing story set to the romantic backdrop of Paris, accompanied by two dynamic and loveable lead actors. As Bezançon explains, “I hope A Happy Event will touch people because we all have parents, we all have a mother and a father and some people may even be fathers or mothers themselves. We can identify with the film whether we are parents or we have parents.”

A Happy Event is Rémi Bezancon’s (The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, Love is in the Air) third feature film as writer/director. Louise Bourgoin (The Girl from Monaco) is a successful French actress that has starred in Gilles Marchand’s Black Heaven, Luc Besson’s The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, and Frédéric Beigbeder’s L’amour dure trois ans. Pio Marmaï has starred in Lola Doillon’s Contre toi, where he acted opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, and David Foenkinos’ La delicatesse – starring Audrey Tatou. Marmaï has also starred in Bezancon’s 2008 film, The First Day of the Rest of Your Life.

“Director Remi Bezancon conveys [a] delicate message beautifully in this admirable and touching film.” – exclaim.ca
“A sexy, humorous and wonderfully specific “what to expect when you’re expecting” opus..”- Variety