“Marion” is a story about the only female bull-jumper in France, Caroline Nogues-Larbere. Who knew that France had a sport called “La Course Landaise,” which looks a lot like a bullfight, except that the bullfighters don’t kill the bull but simply jump out of the way of the charging animal? Joe Weiland and Finn Constantine directed the story of Caroline, here called Marion, and the 13’ 16” short was executive produced by Sienna Miller and Cate Blanchett.
WRITER/DIRECTORS
Joe Weiland was BAFTA nominated for his first short, “Gorka,” and has won the Young Director Awards at Cannes. Constantine is affiliated with the art magazine “Plaster” but is moving into film.
CAST
“Marion,” 2025 Oscar-Eligible short.
The attractive Marion is shown donning her “suit of lights” for facing down the bull, assisted by a member of Team Nogues in the locker room. When Marion’s husband shows up at the arena with their daughter, saying he cannot watch the child, Marion is forced to park the young girl in the locker room with directions not to leave (which, of course, she does.) There is some harrowing footage of Marion being dragged by a bull and the refrain “Protect her; watch over her” echoes throughout the intense face-off with the charging animal. We also see the other members of Team Nogues in the locker room: Matthew Nogues, Nicolas Vergonzeanne, Romain Beyris, Kevin Ribeiro, Louis Ansolabehere, Gilles Beguery and Frederic Vergonzeanne.
CONCLUSION
Team Nogues bull-jumper in the locker room with Marion.
The only female bull-jumper in France had never acted before, but she was a strikingly beautiful and courageous athlete facing down an animal easily 5 times her size. It was interesting to learn of this previously unknown-to-me French version of bullfighting. I would not be surprised to see Caroline Nogues-Larbere in another future vehicle. I did wonder how Sienna Miller and Cate Blanchett got involved in the production of this interesting short. There were many unusual dimensions to the quasi-bullfighting sport (people on stilts in the arena?) and the misogyny that seems on the increase in the world was in evidence in the Team Nogues locker room. (Murmurs of “She shouldn’t be here.”) An interesting and tension-filled short.
