LONDON - The 2012 Berlin film festival will open next month with the world premiere of French period drama “Les Adieux a la reine” (Farewell My Queen).
Directed by Benoit Jacquot, the drama is an adaptation of Chantal Thomas’s novel of the same name portraying the first days of the French Revolution from the point of view of servants working at Versailles. Diane Kruger plays the ill-fated queen Marie Antoinette and Lea Seydoux one of her ladies-in-waiting as unrest in the court of King Louis XVI grows. Although the February 9-19 cinema showcase opens this year with a world premiere, an absence of major Hollywood names on the red carpet could dampen media interest. Last year the festival, now in its 62nd year, kicked off with the acclaimed Coen brothers Western “True Grit,” although it had already opened in U.S. theatres by that time.