LaZona Pictures Secures Spain on ‘Chopin, Chopin!’ From Playtime

LaZona Pictures, the distribution label of Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson’s Madrid-based LaZona group, has acquired Spanish rights to lavish Polish biopic “Chopin, Chopin!” (“Chopin, a Sonata in Paris”), dealt with for worldwide sales by Paris’ Playtime.

Michał Kwieciński’s $17.5 million finances biopic of Frédéric Chopin, produced by Poland’s Akson Studio (“Katyń,” “Warsaw 44”), stars Eryk Kulm (“Filip”) as the prodigious pianist-composer, with Lambert Wilson (“The Matrix Resurrections”) as King Louis-Philippe.

The Nineteenth-century-set drama tracks Chopin’s arrival in Paris at the age of 21 and his speedy ascent as the metropolis’s romantic idol, before sickness refocuses his obsession on composition. 

The movie boasts high-end craft expertise including cinematographer Michał Sobociński (“The New Look”), manufacturing designer Katarzyna Sobańska (“Cold War”) and author Bartosz Janiszewski (“Wataha”). 

Shot largely in France with roughly 80% of the dialogue in French, the feature squarely targets upscale audiences and classical-music aficionados while courting broader crossover play by way of its sweeping, baroque aesthetic.

Having produced since 2003 Spanish top hits such as Enrique Urbizu’s thriller “No Rest for the Wicked” and Emilio Martínez Lázaro’s comedy “Spanish Affair,” the highest-grossing Spanish movie ever in Spain, in 2023 LaZona broadened its horizons launching a new movie distribution operation, LaZona Pictures, led from 2024 by former Latido Films government Óscar Alonso.

“For us ‘Chopin, Chopin!’ is the first true European ‘super-production’ on the slate — a statement of intent to keep growing, step by step, but also to take bolder swings at films with wider audience potential,”  Alonso said at Valladolid’s Seminci, the place LaZona’s co-production “Subsuelo,” by Fernando Franco, world premiered as a part of the pageant’s main competitors.

Positioning “Chopin, Chopin” as a “rock-star portrait of the Romantic era,” Alonso advances that the Spanish release, scheduled for next yr’s first quarter, will activate partnerships with opera homes, conservatories and music colleges to increase attain past core arthouse circuits.

LaZona Pictures has been ramping up since last yr with a curated line of arthouse and crossover titles. With “Chopin Chopin,” the company has begun early conversations with platforms and broadcasters to enrich a deliberate theatrical rollout. 

“Chopin, Chopin” has already scored top-tier pageant publicity and is lining up additional key berths, underscoring its positioning as a status event title. 

“It’s the kind of ambitious European cinema that doesn’t come along every year,” he said. “We’re confident it can resonate with classical-music lovers and a much wider audience drawn to grand, emotionally charged storytelling.”

Closing Film at Seville European Film Festival

The movie will display out of competitors as the closing evening gala title at the upcoming version of the Seville European Film Festival, which runs Nov. 7-15.

One of LaZona’s largest hits up to now as an indie distributor has been “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a Venice Silver Lion and San Sebastian Audience Award winner.

Co-distributed in Spain with Caramel Films, Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania’s movie, one in all the yr’s most celebrated worldwide titles, also screened at Valladolid as a part of the Constellations sidebar.