# Standby
**Stand-by** is a 2000 French drama film written and directed by Roch Stéphanik, starring Dominique Blanc as a woman abandoned by her partner at Paris Orly airport moments before a flight to Buenos Aires, who then makes the airport her home and turns to prostitution with passengers in transit.[1](https://diaphana.fr/film/stand-by/) Released on 26 July 2000 in only 25 French theaters, the film initially attracted few viewers but was revived by festival awards and Dominique Blanc's César for Best Actress in 2001, after which it returned to Paris screens.[2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Roch Stéphanik, who also co-edited the film[1](https://diaphana.fr/film/stand-by/) |
| French release | 26 July 2000, in 25 theaters; CNC visa no. 93832 dated 7 July 2000, runtime 123 min, rated Tous publics[2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php) • [3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/93832) |
| Budget and admissions | 19 million francs (about 2.9 million euros); 26,305 admissions in summer 2000[2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php) |
| Lead performance | Dominique Blanc as Hélène; her first César for Best Actress[4](https://www.mediatheques.strasbourg.eu/doc/RADIOFRANCE/2018C3500E0129/de-phedre-a-la-douleur-la-grande-tragedienne) |
| César record | Won Best Actress 2001; nominated for Best First Work[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245834/awards/) |
| Other prizes | Prix Cyril Collard 2001; Montréal First Film Prize (Special Mention); Kyiv Grand Prix; Cairo Best Actress and Best Director[6](https://www.screendaily.com/stand-by-wins-cyril-collard-prize/405174.article) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245834/awards/) |
| Key crew | Cinematography Tetsuo Nagata; music Natascha Atlas; producer Maurice Bernart[7](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/513283/stand-by) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and setting
Gérard and Hélène are at the Orly airport cafeteria, waiting to board a flight to Buenos Aires, where they planned to settle after years together. At the last minute Gérard tells Hélène that he no longer loves her, that he is leaving alone, and he hands back her luggage before fleeing.[1](https://diaphana.fr/film/stand-by/) Paralyzed by the shock, Hélène does not leave the airport. She first begs, then prostitutes herself with transit passengers, and gradually becomes a fixture of Orly, linked to a barman (Roschdy Zem as Marco). The distributor's synopsis describes this as a strange sleepwalker's life that ends by resembling an initiatory journey.[1](https://diaphana.fr/film/stand-by/)
The transformation is physical as well as psychological: Hélène dyes her hair red, shortens her skirts, and becomes "Helena", the airport prostitute.[8](https://www.chronicart.com/cinema/stand-by/) Critics read the airport as a closed world, a no man's land that serves first as a place of confinement and then as the setting for the character's rebirth.[9](https://www.forumdesimages.fr/stand)
## Production
Stéphanik wrote the original screenplay, with friendly collaboration on the adaptation from Sandra Chérès and Yves Sarda. Tetsuo Nagata was the cinematographer, and the film was edited by Dan Facundo and Stéphanik.[1](https://diaphana.fr/film/stand-by/) It was produced by Maurice Bernart for Salomé, Diaphana, Arte France Cinéma, Havas Images, Ista Films, and [StudioCanal](https://www.edgepedia.org/studiocanal).[7](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/513283/stand-by) • [10](https://www.canalplus.com/cinema/stand-by/h/181362_40099/resume-casting/) The film was shot on 35 mm in color, in the 2.35:1 [CinemaScope](https://www.edgepedia.org/cinemascope) format, with Dolby sound, and was distributed by Diaphana Distribution.[11](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D25483.html)
Stéphanik said he chose Orly Sud for its large glass walls open onto the outside world, so that Hélène sits "like in an aquarium" with the notion of the world always present, while the terminal also had an intimate, cozy side in which she could feel at home.[11](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D25483.html) The film is dedicated to the director's grandmother; Stéphanik, raised in Brussels by his Russian grandparents, has family roots in Odessa.[12](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/ce-film-la-revient-de-loin-10-02-2003-2003805499.php)
## Release and reception
The 26 July 2000 release date, in the middle of the summer holidays, worked against a small film with a 19-million-franc budget that could not afford much advertising; it drew only 26,305 spectators.[2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php) [Word of mouth](https://www.edgepedia.org/word-of-mouth) within the profession and festival selections kept it alive. Stéphanik accompanied the film abroad, receiving the first-feature prize at Montréal and attending festivals in Cairo and Moscow.[2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php) At the [Cairo International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/cairo-international-film-festival), Michelangelo Antonioni personally handed Stéphanik the female interpretation prize in Dominique Blanc's absence.[12](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/ce-film-la-revient-de-loin-10-02-2003-2003805499.php)
**The César revival.** On 24 February 2001 Dominique Blanc won the César for Best Actress, and the film was re-released on 1 March 2001 in five Paris theaters, including the Gaumont-Ambassade and the UGC Cité des Halles.[13](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2001/monde.20010304.pdf) • [2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php) On 1 March 2001 Stéphanik also received the Prix Cyril Collard, a 200,000-franc prize created by the French-German channel Arte in November 1993 to help a young filmmaker develop a new project, awarded in homage to the director of *Les Nuits fauves*.[6](https://www.screendaily.com/stand-by-wins-cyril-collard-prize/405174.article) • [13](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2001/monde.20010304.pdf) Neither Blanc nor Stéphanik expected the nomination, let alone the award.[2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php)
Critics centered their praise on Blanc's performance. *Télérama*'s Marine Landrot wrote that, pale and heartrending like a silent-film tragedienne, Blanc "finally finds a great role to her measure" in this risky closed setting.[1](https://diaphana.fr/film/stand-by/) *Le Monde*'s review of the release described a stylized closed world in which the debut director, relying only on staging and actors, avoided the traps of psychology and folklore through empty shots, frozen images, and inserts, in what it called a remarkable work of graphic composition and sculpture of time.[14](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2000/monde.20000726.pdf) The German Filmdienst review judged the film a dark story of a dependent woman's path toward apparent self-determination that lives from the lead actress's intense playing.[7](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/513283/stand-by)
## Status in Stéphanik's career
[French press](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-press) accounts disagree on the film's place in Stéphanik's filmography: *Le Parisien* and festival materials call *Stand by* his first feature,[2](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php) • [15](https://mami.mumbaifilmfestival.com/media/1265/mami_festival_catalogue-2002.pdf) while *Le Monde* in 2001 called it his second film.[13](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2001/monde.20010304.pdf) What is agreed is that he did not direct another feature afterward; a 2008 French film blog noted the question of why Stéphanik never made another long métrage after this one.[16](https://films.oeil-ecran.com/2008/10/27/stand-by/) The film later reached television and home video, with a DVD edition in 2002 expected to bring it a wider public,[17](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2002/monde.20020803.pdf) and a VOD release on 1 March 2019.[11](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D25483.html)
## References
1. [Stand-By, Diaphana Distribution](https://diaphana.fr/film/stand-by/)
2. [« Stand by », l'histoire d'une résurrection, Le Parisien (4 March 2001)](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/stand-by-l-histoire-d-une-resurrection-04-03-2001-2001998523.php)
3. [Visas et Classification, CNC, visa no. 93832](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/93832)
4. [De "Phèdre" à "La Douleur", la grande tragédienne, Médiathèques de Strasbourg (Radio France, 2018)](https://www.mediatheques.strasbourg.eu/doc/RADIOFRANCE/2018C3500E0129/de-phedre-a-la-douleur-la-grande-tragedienne)
5. [Stand-by (2000) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245834/awards/)
6. [Stand By wins Cyril Collard prize, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/stand-by-wins-cyril-collard-prize/405174.article)
7. [Stand by, Filmdienst](https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/513283/stand-by)
8. [Stand by, Chronic'art (17 July 2000)](https://www.chronicart.com/cinema/stand-by/)
9. [Stand-By, Forum des images](https://www.forumdesimages.fr/stand)
10. [Stand-By, CANAL+](https://www.canalplus.com/cinema/stand-by/h/181362_40099/resume-casting/)
11. [Stand-by, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D25483.html)
12. [Ce film-là revient de loin, Le Parisien (10 February 2003)](https://www.leparisien.fr/culture-loisirs/ce-film-la-revient-de-loin-10-02-2003-2003805499.php)
13. [Le Monde, 4–5 March 2001, front pages](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2001/monde.20010304.pdf)
14. [La mutante d'Orly-Sud, Le Monde, 26 July 2000](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2000/monde.20000726.pdf)
15. [Mumbai 5th International Film Festival catalogue (2002)](https://mami.mumbaifilmfestival.com/media/1265/mami_festival_catalogue-2002.pdf)
16. [Stand-by (2000) de Roch Stéphanik, L'Œil sur l'écran (27 October 2008)](https://films.oeil-ecran.com/2008/10/27/stand-by/)
17. [Le Monde Télévision, 3 August 2002](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/InterNews/LeMonde/issues/2002/monde.20020803.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2000s › Biographical and historical drama films 2000s › Released 2000 to 2005*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license