This year’s showcase features ten world premieres and a Serbian strand.
France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (Acid) has unveiled the line-up for its 25rd Cannes Film Festival showcase, running May 18-27.
The initiative aimed at giving greater visibility to up and coming, indie filmmakers will once again screen nine works (bold indicates world premieres).
They are:
L’ASSEMBLÉE by Mariana Otero (documentary)Avant La Fin De L’ÉTÉ by Maryam Goormaghtigh (documentary)Belinda by Marie Dumora (documentary) [pictured]Le Ciel ÉTOILÉ Au-dessus De Ma TÊTE by Ilan KlipperCOBY by Christian Sonderegger (documentary)Kiss And Cry by Lila Pinell and Chloé MahieuLAST Laugh by Zhang TaoSCAFFOLDING by Matan YairSANS Adieu by Christophe Agou (documentary)
There will also be a special screening and two films in partnership with the film Belgrade Festival of Auteur Film. These are:
Pour Le Reconfort by Vincent Macaigne (special screening)Requiem For Ms J. by Bojan VuleticHUMIDITY...
France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (Acid) has unveiled the line-up for its 25rd Cannes Film Festival showcase, running May 18-27.
The initiative aimed at giving greater visibility to up and coming, indie filmmakers will once again screen nine works (bold indicates world premieres).
They are:
L’ASSEMBLÉE by Mariana Otero (documentary)Avant La Fin De L’ÉTÉ by Maryam Goormaghtigh (documentary)Belinda by Marie Dumora (documentary) [pictured]Le Ciel ÉTOILÉ Au-dessus De Ma TÊTE by Ilan KlipperCOBY by Christian Sonderegger (documentary)Kiss And Cry by Lila Pinell and Chloé MahieuLAST Laugh by Zhang TaoSCAFFOLDING by Matan YairSANS Adieu by Christophe Agou (documentary)
There will also be a special screening and two films in partnership with the film Belgrade Festival of Auteur Film. These are:
Pour Le Reconfort by Vincent Macaigne (special screening)Requiem For Ms J. by Bojan VuleticHUMIDITY...
- 4/21/2017
- by orlando.parfitt@screendaily.com (Orlando Parfitt)
- ScreenDaily
Colcoa is keeping up with the times. Now in its twenty-first year, the lauded French film festival, sponsored by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, has added a pair of forward-thinking new categories for its newest edition. This year will include a virtual reality program and a web series competition, in addition to its Cinema, Television and Shorts competitions.
“These two new popular formats offer more opportunities to showcase the creativity of French producers and filmmakers as well as the diversity of French production,” said François Truffart, Colcoa Executive Producer and Artistic Director. “While entertainment is still the key word for the program, with a balanced mix of comedies and dramas, several topical issues will cover the program this year, including the environment, discrimination, racism, terrorism, and the role of the artist in society. More than ever, Colcoa will offer a unique opportunity to see these universal topics from different angles.”
Read...
“These two new popular formats offer more opportunities to showcase the creativity of French producers and filmmakers as well as the diversity of French production,” said François Truffart, Colcoa Executive Producer and Artistic Director. “While entertainment is still the key word for the program, with a balanced mix of comedies and dramas, several topical issues will cover the program this year, including the environment, discrimination, racism, terrorism, and the role of the artist in society. More than ever, Colcoa will offer a unique opportunity to see these universal topics from different angles.”
Read...
- 4/6/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Exclusive: Fifth edition to host actors including Danny DeVito and will open with El Destierro; Oasis doc to get special screening.
The fifth Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (Emiff, November 3-12) is to pay tribute to Us comedy actor and filmmaker, Danny DeVito.
As the centrepiece of the festival, DeVito will receive the inaugural ‘Evolution Honorary Award’. To tie in with the event, there will be a special screening of DeVito’s celebrated battle of the sexes comedy War Of The Roses, followed by an on-stage conversation with the actor.
Other highlights of the growing event, which takes place in Palma in the heart of Mallorca, have also now been confirmed.
The Opening Night gala is El Destierro, produced by local Goya nominated filmmakers Toni Bestard, Marcos Cabotá and Diana de la Cuadra. There will be narrative and documentary competition sections, a Drive in Cinema section at Port Adriano, and a Virtual Reality Zone at Co Co & Cia...
The fifth Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (Emiff, November 3-12) is to pay tribute to Us comedy actor and filmmaker, Danny DeVito.
As the centrepiece of the festival, DeVito will receive the inaugural ‘Evolution Honorary Award’. To tie in with the event, there will be a special screening of DeVito’s celebrated battle of the sexes comedy War Of The Roses, followed by an on-stage conversation with the actor.
Other highlights of the growing event, which takes place in Palma in the heart of Mallorca, have also now been confirmed.
The Opening Night gala is El Destierro, produced by local Goya nominated filmmakers Toni Bestard, Marcos Cabotá and Diana de la Cuadra. There will be narrative and documentary competition sections, a Drive in Cinema section at Port Adriano, and a Virtual Reality Zone at Co Co & Cia...
- 10/17/2016
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Imagine a Gallic remake of "Gran Torino" with a paunchy Gérard Depardieu in the Clint Eastwood role, and you'll be within spitting distance of Rachid Djaïdani's "Tour de France." Equal parts fresh and familiar, this odd couple dramedy contrives a premise in which a young Muslim rapper is forced to spend some time with a crotchety white racist. While Djaïdani is sensitively attuned to the unique details of his country's current hostilities, you've seen this movie before: Friends become enemies, enemies become friends, everybody learns a little something about the banality of their ignorance and viewers go home with the image of a free-styling Gérard Depardieu burned into their brains. A babyfaced twentysomething who can often be found hiding beneath the brim of a baseball cap that's embroidered with a golden "F," Far'hook (hip-hop artist Sadek, appearing here in his first film role) is a big dog in a small world.
- 5/15/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
World premiere of Damien Manivel’s second feature, Le Parc, among the selection.
France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (Acid) has unveiled the line-up for its 23rd Cannes showcase, running May 12-21.
The initiative aimed at giving greater visibility to up and coming, indie filmmakers will screen nine works, including three first features and seven world premieres. Six of the features are yet to secure a distributor.
The showcase includes fiction and documentary features selected by filmmakers and members of Acid, many of whose films were programmed at Cannes by Acid in 2015.
Features include Le Parc by Damien Manivel, who previously won a Special Mention at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival for his debut feature A Young Poet, and Isola by Fabianny Deschamps, whose debut New Territories featured at Acid Cannes 2014,
Seven directors are making their debut this year - Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, Marielle Gautier, Hugo P. Thomas, Wissam Charaf, [link...
France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (Acid) has unveiled the line-up for its 23rd Cannes showcase, running May 12-21.
The initiative aimed at giving greater visibility to up and coming, indie filmmakers will screen nine works, including three first features and seven world premieres. Six of the features are yet to secure a distributor.
The showcase includes fiction and documentary features selected by filmmakers and members of Acid, many of whose films were programmed at Cannes by Acid in 2015.
Features include Le Parc by Damien Manivel, who previously won a Special Mention at the 2014 Locarno Film Festival for his debut feature A Young Poet, and Isola by Fabianny Deschamps, whose debut New Territories featured at Acid Cannes 2014,
Seven directors are making their debut this year - Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, Marielle Gautier, Hugo P. Thomas, Wissam Charaf, [link...
- 4/19/2016
- ScreenDaily
Although there are a few films here and there left to be added to the Cannes 2016 line-up, the slate has now been mostly set thanks to the arrive of the Directors’ Fortnight side-bar line-up. Notable selections includes Paul Schrader‘s drama Dog Eat Dog, starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe, as well as Laura Poitras‘ Citizenfour follow-up Risk, which looks at Julian Assange.
There’s also Pablo Larraín‘s Gael Garcia Bernal-led biopic Neruda, Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s Endless Poetry, the latest film from Gangs of Wasseypur director Anurag Kashyap, as well as new films from Marco Bellocchio and Joachim Lafosse. Also of interest is War Witch director Kim Nguyen‘s Two Lovers and a Bear, a Canadian drama which teams Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan. Check out the line-up below.
Feature Films
Dog Eat Dog, dir: Paul Schrader – Closing Night Film
Divines, dir: Houda Benyamina*
L’Economie Du Couple,...
There’s also Pablo Larraín‘s Gael Garcia Bernal-led biopic Neruda, Alejandro Jodorowsky‘s Endless Poetry, the latest film from Gangs of Wasseypur director Anurag Kashyap, as well as new films from Marco Bellocchio and Joachim Lafosse. Also of interest is War Witch director Kim Nguyen‘s Two Lovers and a Bear, a Canadian drama which teams Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan. Check out the line-up below.
Feature Films
Dog Eat Dog, dir: Paul Schrader – Closing Night Film
Divines, dir: Houda Benyamina*
L’Economie Du Couple,...
- 4/19/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The lineup for the 2016 Directors' Fortnight at Cannes has been announced.
Feature Films:Opening Film: Sweet Dreams (Marco Bellocchio)Divines (Houda Benyamina)L'Économie du couple (Joachim Lafosse)L'Effet aquatique (Sólveig Anspach)Like Crazy (Paolo Virzì)Les Vies de Thérèse (Sébastien Lifshitz)Ma vie de courgette (Clause Barras)Mean Dreams (Nathan Morlando)Mercenaire (Sacha Wolff)Neruda (Pablo Larraín)Endless Poetry (Alejandro Jodorowsky)Raman Raghav 2.0 (Anurag Kashyap)Risk (Laura Poitras)Tour de France (Rachid Djaïdani)Two Lovers and a Bear (Kim Nguyen)Wolf and Sheep (Shahrbanoo Sadat)Closing Film: Dog Eat Dog (Paul Schrader)
Shorts:Abigail (Isabel Penoni & Valentina Homem)Chasse Royale (Romane Gueret & Lise Akoka)Decorado (Alberto Vazquez)Habat Shel Hakala (Tamar Rudoy)Happy End (Jan Saska)Hitchhiker (Jero Yun)Import (Ena Sendijarevic)Kindil el Bahr (Damien Ounouri)Léthé (Dea Kulumbegashvili)Listening to Beethoven (Garri Bardine)Zvir (Miroslav Sikavica)...
Feature Films:Opening Film: Sweet Dreams (Marco Bellocchio)Divines (Houda Benyamina)L'Économie du couple (Joachim Lafosse)L'Effet aquatique (Sólveig Anspach)Like Crazy (Paolo Virzì)Les Vies de Thérèse (Sébastien Lifshitz)Ma vie de courgette (Clause Barras)Mean Dreams (Nathan Morlando)Mercenaire (Sacha Wolff)Neruda (Pablo Larraín)Endless Poetry (Alejandro Jodorowsky)Raman Raghav 2.0 (Anurag Kashyap)Risk (Laura Poitras)Tour de France (Rachid Djaïdani)Two Lovers and a Bear (Kim Nguyen)Wolf and Sheep (Shahrbanoo Sadat)Closing Film: Dog Eat Dog (Paul Schrader)
Shorts:Abigail (Isabel Penoni & Valentina Homem)Chasse Royale (Romane Gueret & Lise Akoka)Decorado (Alberto Vazquez)Habat Shel Hakala (Tamar Rudoy)Happy End (Jan Saska)Hitchhiker (Jero Yun)Import (Ena Sendijarevic)Kindil el Bahr (Damien Ounouri)Léthé (Dea Kulumbegashvili)Listening to Beethoven (Garri Bardine)Zvir (Miroslav Sikavica)...
- 4/19/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Marco Bellocchio's Sweet Dreams with Bérénice Bejo will open the 48th edition of Director's Fortnight. We've got the full lineup and we're gathering notes on new works by Houda Benyamina, Paul Schrader (Dog Eat Dog with Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe), Joachim Lafosse (After Love with Bérénice Béjo and Cédric Kahn), Sólveig Anspach, Paolo Virzì, Sébastien Lifshitz, Claude Barras, Nathan Morlando, Sacha Wolff, Pablo Larraín (Neruda with Gael García Bernal), Alejandro Jodorowsky, Anurag Kashyap, Laura Poitras, Rachid Djaïdani, Kim Nguyen and Shahrbanoo Sadat. » - David Hudson...
- 4/19/2016
- Keyframe
Marco Bellocchio's Sweet Dreams with Bérénice Bejo will open the 48th edition of Director's Fortnight. We've got the full lineup and we're gathering notes on new works by Houda Benyamina, Paul Schrader (Dog Eat Dog with Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe), Joachim Lafosse (After Love with Bérénice Béjo and Cédric Kahn), Sólveig Anspach, Paolo Virzì, Sébastien Lifshitz, Claude Barras, Nathan Morlando, Sacha Wolff, Pablo Larraín (Neruda with Gael García Bernal), Alejandro Jodorowsky, Anurag Kashyap, Laura Poitras, Rachid Djaïdani, Kim Nguyen and Shahrbanoo Sadat. » - David Hudson...
- 4/19/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Patrick Wang’s The Grief of Others set for international premiere in the selection.
France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (Acid) has unveiled the line-up for its 22nd Cannes showcase, running May 14-23.
The initiative aimed at giving greater visibility to up and coming, indie filmmakers will screen nine works – five of them first features and six of them without a distributor.
They include Us filmmaker Patrick Wang’s The Grief of Others, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year.
An adaptation of Leah Hager Cohen’s novel about a family who come to terms with the recent loss of a baby through the arrival of a pregnant, teenager stepdaughter in their care, it is Wang’s second film after the much-praised In the Family.
Paris-based Ed Distribution has just acquired the film for France.
Launched in 1993, Acid’s Cannes showcase has put the spotlight on more than 200 works on the Croisette including early works...
France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (Acid) has unveiled the line-up for its 22nd Cannes showcase, running May 14-23.
The initiative aimed at giving greater visibility to up and coming, indie filmmakers will screen nine works – five of them first features and six of them without a distributor.
They include Us filmmaker Patrick Wang’s The Grief of Others, which premiered at SXSW earlier this year.
An adaptation of Leah Hager Cohen’s novel about a family who come to terms with the recent loss of a baby through the arrival of a pregnant, teenager stepdaughter in their care, it is Wang’s second film after the much-praised In the Family.
Paris-based Ed Distribution has just acquired the film for France.
Launched in 1993, Acid’s Cannes showcase has put the spotlight on more than 200 works on the Croisette including early works...
- 4/23/2015
- ScreenDaily
Proust’s little “bande de filles” was nothing like this. Nor is Ousmane Sembene’s classic film “Black Girl” like this, except for the silence displayed by the protagonists of the two films as they deal with life’s offerings. Nor does this have the depth of “La Vie d’Adele, Chapitre 1” although it ends in a way that invites the viewer to want to see what the next chapter offers.
What I saw was the story of a poor black girl in one of the banlieus (the ‘hood) of Paris trying to find a way out of her dead end life. But I never saw the working her mind or the depth of her character. I saw she had an intuition about life, was fearless, kind, and determined. Does intelligence count? We must wait for the next chapter to find out how she succeeds if she indeed does. I don’t know if the director has the answer to this. And I wonder if the way out is through a person or through her own innate resources which I never did see. And this is where I take exception to the film. She failed school, never seemed to care, played American (??) football but seemed to have no attachment to the game or the players
Who is the director-writer Céline Sciamma? She’s a very talented white girl who went to La Femis, the French film school some regard as elitist. Her previous two films, deal with female sexual ambiguity (“Tomboy”, “Water Lilies”) and are very authentic, moving and valuable films worth watching more than once.
When I see films like “Sister” by Ursula Meier, or even “ Two Days, One Night” by the Dardenne Brothers whom I love, even while I enjoy the films – as I did this one (except for certain moments when I wanted to laugh, e.g., when she wears the blond wig and red dress to deliver drugs at a white party) -- I am aware that I am watching depictions of working class people in dramas directed by bourgeois filmmakers. And when I hear the vulgar loud-mouth dishing of girl-gangs I am not fooled into thinking it is clever repartee when I know it is foul and crude. And today, with the issues of immigrants and second and third generations of non-integrated minorities, this is a sensitive area. Having seen the “nouvelle vibe” films of Rachid Djajdani whose film “Hold Back” won the Fipresci Prize in Directors Fortnight in 2012 or “Brooklyn” by Pascal Tessaud, I am even more sensitized to authenticity.
I don’t think this shows the French black reality in the suburbs. It looks more like a white view of the U.S. urban black ‘hood. When I grew up blacks barely existed in our thoughts or imagination. I was white and Jewish living in a non-Jewish, white (bigoted) working class neighborhood. There I absorbed the prevailing view of the Mexicans who lived on the other side of the tracks. They were all considered “pachucos”. And I longed to join the girl gangs who had fights like the little bande de filles in this movie; they carried switch blade knives, razors in their big hair and pulled the earrings out of the pierced ears. The two fights in this movie were just like I imagined the fights and were like those male-imagined “catfights” in the Aip prison movies or of the bar-girls in western movies of that era. Something in this movie has the same scent of inauthenticity. I realize I am projecting my own girlhood longing to join the bande de filles onto Céline, and perhaps it’s pure projection, but it feels as if she is attracted to them for reasons other than storytelling. The story is ok but the telling is faulty.
That said, I am very glad Strand is releasing “Girlhood”, and I hope it creates some Wom, just as I hoped “Dear White People” would. It did well, grossing more than $4 million. I hope this film does as well, though being French, the most I can hope is that it reaches the $1 million box office level. When I saw “Dear White People” last year in Sundance, I kept quiet because my thought was, that if that is what black students at the universities are preoccupied with today, then I pity the future of America. And I did not believe for a minute that such overriding preoccupations were real. However, it did quite well and I hope this one does too, although I believe that I am watching stereoptypes. What are these people’s serious thoughts; where are their depths of feelings?
When I grew up and met real Mexicans, I saw none of the stereotypical behavior I was told to beware of. Even when I met gang members, there was no romantic element at all, only a degradation of humanity caused by the unrelenting prejudice of society’s impersonalization.
I loved the French review of this film by Régis Dubois, who has a blog very well-respected by black community in France.
For those interested in going into such films in greater depth, see the films of Carrénard,Maldhé, Zadi,Zouhani, May,Djajdani or Tessaud. Check out what is playing at the Festival Cinébanlieue or Les Pépites du Cinéma. These show the truth about what is happening in the minds of “these people”.
Girlhood (Bande de Filles) is being sold by Films Distribution
Strand Releasing will release it in the U.S.
Other territories sold are:
Brazil--Imovision
Denmark--Reel Pictures Aps, Peripher
France-Oct 22, 2014-Pyramide Distribution
Norway--As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Slovenia--Demiurg
Sweden--Folkets Bio
U.S.--Strand Releasing
Writer/director Céline Sciamma’s look at a group of black high school students living in the tough banlieues of Paris is grounded by newcomer Karidja Touré. "Girlhood," is scheduled to open in New York on January 30, 2015 with a national roll out to follow.
Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood, shy Marieme (Karidja Touré) starts a new life after falling in with a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her style, drops out of school and starts stealing to be accepted into the gang. When her home situation becomes unbearable, Marieme seeks solace in an older man who promises her money and protection. Realizing this sort of lifestyle will never result in the freedom and independence she truly desires, she finally decides to take matters into her own hands.
French director/writer Céline Sciamma’s debut feature, “Water Lilies”, catapulted her as one of France’s most fresh and notable women directors, garnering her a César nomination for Best First Feature as well as the prestigious Prix Louis Deluc for Best First Feature awarded by the French Film Critics. Her second film, “Tomboy”, won the Teddy Jury Award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. This is Ms. Sciamma’s third feature film.
This film has great credentials, having debuted in Cannes 2014 Directors Fortnight, gone on to Toronto - Tiff 2014 Contemporary World Cinema and
Stockholm Iff 2014 - Competition (Best Film, Best Cinematography) and Sundance World Dramatic Competition 2015.
Critics loved it too.
“Celine Sciamma’s ‘Girlhood’ is one of the best coming of age movies in years.” — Eric Kohn, Indiewire...
What I saw was the story of a poor black girl in one of the banlieus (the ‘hood) of Paris trying to find a way out of her dead end life. But I never saw the working her mind or the depth of her character. I saw she had an intuition about life, was fearless, kind, and determined. Does intelligence count? We must wait for the next chapter to find out how she succeeds if she indeed does. I don’t know if the director has the answer to this. And I wonder if the way out is through a person or through her own innate resources which I never did see. And this is where I take exception to the film. She failed school, never seemed to care, played American (??) football but seemed to have no attachment to the game or the players
Who is the director-writer Céline Sciamma? She’s a very talented white girl who went to La Femis, the French film school some regard as elitist. Her previous two films, deal with female sexual ambiguity (“Tomboy”, “Water Lilies”) and are very authentic, moving and valuable films worth watching more than once.
When I see films like “Sister” by Ursula Meier, or even “ Two Days, One Night” by the Dardenne Brothers whom I love, even while I enjoy the films – as I did this one (except for certain moments when I wanted to laugh, e.g., when she wears the blond wig and red dress to deliver drugs at a white party) -- I am aware that I am watching depictions of working class people in dramas directed by bourgeois filmmakers. And when I hear the vulgar loud-mouth dishing of girl-gangs I am not fooled into thinking it is clever repartee when I know it is foul and crude. And today, with the issues of immigrants and second and third generations of non-integrated minorities, this is a sensitive area. Having seen the “nouvelle vibe” films of Rachid Djajdani whose film “Hold Back” won the Fipresci Prize in Directors Fortnight in 2012 or “Brooklyn” by Pascal Tessaud, I am even more sensitized to authenticity.
I don’t think this shows the French black reality in the suburbs. It looks more like a white view of the U.S. urban black ‘hood. When I grew up blacks barely existed in our thoughts or imagination. I was white and Jewish living in a non-Jewish, white (bigoted) working class neighborhood. There I absorbed the prevailing view of the Mexicans who lived on the other side of the tracks. They were all considered “pachucos”. And I longed to join the girl gangs who had fights like the little bande de filles in this movie; they carried switch blade knives, razors in their big hair and pulled the earrings out of the pierced ears. The two fights in this movie were just like I imagined the fights and were like those male-imagined “catfights” in the Aip prison movies or of the bar-girls in western movies of that era. Something in this movie has the same scent of inauthenticity. I realize I am projecting my own girlhood longing to join the bande de filles onto Céline, and perhaps it’s pure projection, but it feels as if she is attracted to them for reasons other than storytelling. The story is ok but the telling is faulty.
That said, I am very glad Strand is releasing “Girlhood”, and I hope it creates some Wom, just as I hoped “Dear White People” would. It did well, grossing more than $4 million. I hope this film does as well, though being French, the most I can hope is that it reaches the $1 million box office level. When I saw “Dear White People” last year in Sundance, I kept quiet because my thought was, that if that is what black students at the universities are preoccupied with today, then I pity the future of America. And I did not believe for a minute that such overriding preoccupations were real. However, it did quite well and I hope this one does too, although I believe that I am watching stereoptypes. What are these people’s serious thoughts; where are their depths of feelings?
When I grew up and met real Mexicans, I saw none of the stereotypical behavior I was told to beware of. Even when I met gang members, there was no romantic element at all, only a degradation of humanity caused by the unrelenting prejudice of society’s impersonalization.
I loved the French review of this film by Régis Dubois, who has a blog very well-respected by black community in France.
For those interested in going into such films in greater depth, see the films of Carrénard,Maldhé, Zadi,Zouhani, May,Djajdani or Tessaud. Check out what is playing at the Festival Cinébanlieue or Les Pépites du Cinéma. These show the truth about what is happening in the minds of “these people”.
Girlhood (Bande de Filles) is being sold by Films Distribution
Strand Releasing will release it in the U.S.
Other territories sold are:
Brazil--Imovision
Denmark--Reel Pictures Aps, Peripher
France-Oct 22, 2014-Pyramide Distribution
Norway--As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Slovenia--Demiurg
Sweden--Folkets Bio
U.S.--Strand Releasing
Writer/director Céline Sciamma’s look at a group of black high school students living in the tough banlieues of Paris is grounded by newcomer Karidja Touré. "Girlhood," is scheduled to open in New York on January 30, 2015 with a national roll out to follow.
Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood, shy Marieme (Karidja Touré) starts a new life after falling in with a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her style, drops out of school and starts stealing to be accepted into the gang. When her home situation becomes unbearable, Marieme seeks solace in an older man who promises her money and protection. Realizing this sort of lifestyle will never result in the freedom and independence she truly desires, she finally decides to take matters into her own hands.
French director/writer Céline Sciamma’s debut feature, “Water Lilies”, catapulted her as one of France’s most fresh and notable women directors, garnering her a César nomination for Best First Feature as well as the prestigious Prix Louis Deluc for Best First Feature awarded by the French Film Critics. Her second film, “Tomboy”, won the Teddy Jury Award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. This is Ms. Sciamma’s third feature film.
This film has great credentials, having debuted in Cannes 2014 Directors Fortnight, gone on to Toronto - Tiff 2014 Contemporary World Cinema and
Stockholm Iff 2014 - Competition (Best Film, Best Cinematography) and Sundance World Dramatic Competition 2015.
Critics loved it too.
“Celine Sciamma’s ‘Girlhood’ is one of the best coming of age movies in years.” — Eric Kohn, Indiewire...
- 1/25/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Exclusive: Israeli film-maker to develop Micro Robert (working title) with Les Films des Tornelles.
Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid is joining forces with Paris-based production house Les Films des Tournelles to develop a feature about a young Israeli man getting to grips with life in the French capital, provisionally entitled Micro Robert.
“I’m still writing the script but it’s at a relatively advanced stage,” Lapid told Screen. “I’m very excited about the challenge of filming in Paris and putting my own look to a city that has been shot thousands of times before…it could shoot next year.”
“It’s an existentialist comedy about a young Israeli man living in Paris,” added Les Films des Tournelles founding chief Anne-Dominique Toussaint.
The French-language feature is provisionally entitled Micro Robert after the pocket version of one of France’s best-known dictionary brands.
“We won’t set a budget or start trying to finance until we’ve signed...
Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid is joining forces with Paris-based production house Les Films des Tournelles to develop a feature about a young Israeli man getting to grips with life in the French capital, provisionally entitled Micro Robert.
“I’m still writing the script but it’s at a relatively advanced stage,” Lapid told Screen. “I’m very excited about the challenge of filming in Paris and putting my own look to a city that has been shot thousands of times before…it could shoot next year.”
“It’s an existentialist comedy about a young Israeli man living in Paris,” added Les Films des Tournelles founding chief Anne-Dominique Toussaint.
The French-language feature is provisionally entitled Micro Robert after the pocket version of one of France’s best-known dictionary brands.
“We won’t set a budget or start trying to finance until we’ve signed...
- 7/10/2014
- ScreenDaily
Written about here before Cannes, Brooklyn which screened in Acid, the newest sidebar to the Cannes Film Festival was the first feature by French filmmaker Pascal Tessaud. His films are part of France’s “New Vibe” film movement, films made by those filmmakers living in the “banlieux” or suburbs, that is the Arab, African immigrant neighborhoods of Paris.
The story focuses on Coralie ( Kt Gorique), who runs away from Switzerland. She arrives in Paris to test her luck in Hip Hop music. She’s hired as a cook in a local association of the Parisian suburb Saint-Denis. Coralie meets Issa ( Rafal Uchiwa ), the rising star of the hood.
KT Gorique, the lead character won the world championship of freestyle of the End Of The Weak in New York, she is the first female to have won this competition in its 11 years of existence. Here is a video of her performing, which inspired Pascal to contact her about his film. You can see a clip from that performance Here
Not only is her talent in rap and slam prize-winning, but as an actress, she seems like the grown-up version of Hush-puppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Brooklyn ’s director, Pascal Tessaud, recreates a cooperative vision by which the disenfranchised youth living in Paris’ African and Arab projects is able to transcend the constraints to which society seems to have relegated them. The power of rap and slam brings consciousness to a level of political engagement. How can one succeed? As an individual overcoming the difficulties of substandard living or as part of a larger movement, in a collective achievement?
The film is continuing to create a very French urban genre which in fact might be part of a larger movement. It is a fascinating look at the cross cultures of the 99%. This French subset shows the intelligence and the seriousness of rap a la Francais...it gives the universal music of rap an intellectual spin only the French can create.
The entire film was improvised after a workshop of one month in the city of Saint-Denis (a sort of French Bronx) just outside of Paris. The realism thus portrayed is not enacted. You can see Cassavetes’ influence in this totally modern view of Hip Hop as rappers improvise their parts in the same style that John Cassavetes used in Shadows. In addition the beat-makers Khulibaï and DJ Dusty created original music for the film and helped Pascal produce his first Hip Hop beat, which is included in the film.
Tessaud considers this sort of filmmaking the legacy of a little known but seminal filmmaker he wrote a book about, Paul Carpita who made films in the 1950s in Marseilles and died in 2009. Ken Loach in his preface to a 2009 book of interviews with Carpita, claimed: "Since the censorship of his work, Paul Carpita led a modest existence. Ultimate proof, if necessary, of his integrity. It is finally time for us to recognize him as a hero."
He says, "Rachid Djaïdani (Rengaine akaHold Back) is my first supporter and said that Brooklyn is now part of the brotherhood ofDonoma and Rengaine (Hold Back)!”
In conclusion, each of these seven films is concerned with the power of the individual facing a society whose injustice seems so immense that the very idea of resistance is subversive and yet, when action against the injustice is taken, the strength of the human soul, acting in concert with others, shines.
The story focuses on Coralie ( Kt Gorique), who runs away from Switzerland. She arrives in Paris to test her luck in Hip Hop music. She’s hired as a cook in a local association of the Parisian suburb Saint-Denis. Coralie meets Issa ( Rafal Uchiwa ), the rising star of the hood.
KT Gorique, the lead character won the world championship of freestyle of the End Of The Weak in New York, she is the first female to have won this competition in its 11 years of existence. Here is a video of her performing, which inspired Pascal to contact her about his film. You can see a clip from that performance Here
Not only is her talent in rap and slam prize-winning, but as an actress, she seems like the grown-up version of Hush-puppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Brooklyn ’s director, Pascal Tessaud, recreates a cooperative vision by which the disenfranchised youth living in Paris’ African and Arab projects is able to transcend the constraints to which society seems to have relegated them. The power of rap and slam brings consciousness to a level of political engagement. How can one succeed? As an individual overcoming the difficulties of substandard living or as part of a larger movement, in a collective achievement?
The film is continuing to create a very French urban genre which in fact might be part of a larger movement. It is a fascinating look at the cross cultures of the 99%. This French subset shows the intelligence and the seriousness of rap a la Francais...it gives the universal music of rap an intellectual spin only the French can create.
The entire film was improvised after a workshop of one month in the city of Saint-Denis (a sort of French Bronx) just outside of Paris. The realism thus portrayed is not enacted. You can see Cassavetes’ influence in this totally modern view of Hip Hop as rappers improvise their parts in the same style that John Cassavetes used in Shadows. In addition the beat-makers Khulibaï and DJ Dusty created original music for the film and helped Pascal produce his first Hip Hop beat, which is included in the film.
Tessaud considers this sort of filmmaking the legacy of a little known but seminal filmmaker he wrote a book about, Paul Carpita who made films in the 1950s in Marseilles and died in 2009. Ken Loach in his preface to a 2009 book of interviews with Carpita, claimed: "Since the censorship of his work, Paul Carpita led a modest existence. Ultimate proof, if necessary, of his integrity. It is finally time for us to recognize him as a hero."
He says, "Rachid Djaïdani (Rengaine akaHold Back) is my first supporter and said that Brooklyn is now part of the brotherhood ofDonoma and Rengaine (Hold Back)!”
In conclusion, each of these seven films is concerned with the power of the individual facing a society whose injustice seems so immense that the very idea of resistance is subversive and yet, when action against the injustice is taken, the strength of the human soul, acting in concert with others, shines.
- 5/31/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Col*Coa is winding down, but you can still catch a few stellar films and see the award winners for free Monday, April 22, 2013.
Award Screenings at 6:00 pm: The evening will start with the rerun of two awarded films in the Renoir and Truffaut Theaters at the DGA. Films will be announced on Sunday April 21 on the Col*Coa website, on Facebook, Twitter and on the Col•Coa info line (310) 289 5346. Free admission on a First comes First Served basis. No RSVP needed.
You can stay and also see the Closing Night Films at 8:30 pm at the DGA. Reservations needed. Those are both North American Premieres of two very anticipated French films. The thriller Moebus by Eric Rochant will show for free as will the comedy Like Brothers by Hugo Gélin.
Being among the French filmmakers (and I saw way too few of the films) gave me such a surprising sense of renewal - again because of this upcoming generation. After seeing City of Lights, the short by Pascal Tessaud which preceded the classic Jacques Demy film Bay of Angels starring a platinum blond gambling-addicted Jeanne Moreau in Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo in 1963, we spoke at length about what is called "The New Vibe". City of Lights stars a deeply quiet young man from "les banlieus", the notorious "suburbs" surrounding Paris where the international mix of young (and old) proletariat population is invisible to the rest of France except when the anger erupts into riots. This first generation has the French education but not the money or jobs and it hurts. They have picked up the cameras and with no money are creating films which express their lives in many ways like the new Latin American filmmakers or the new Eastern European filmmakers. Tessaud gave me an entire education in the hour we talked and I will share this in time. For now, aside from his wonderfuly trenchant film which played like a feature, which captured the Paris this young generation recognizes as The City of Lights - dancing, the kitchen of a very upscale restaurant, the dreary streets filled with construction, there is another example of The New Vibe, started by Rachid Djaïdani (a story in himself) the film Hold Back (Rengaine) leads the pack of the 20-some-odd new films of The New Vibe. It is produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles) whose films are too numerous to name but include my favorite The Hedgehog which I wrote about at Col*Coa two years ago, Col*Coa's current Cycling with Moliere, 2002's Respiro and many many others. Hold Back took 9 years to make and most of the team was unpaid. The New Vibe makes films without the aid of the French system of funding; it is more guerilla-style, not New Wave, not Dogma but New Vibe. Hold Back took Cannes by storm when it showed last year in Directors Fortnight and went on to New Directors/ New Films in New York. The classic story of a Catholic and a Muslim who want to marry but whose family objects, this rendition the Juliet has a brother who marches throughout Paris to alert her 39 other brothers that she wants to marry outside her cultural and religious traditions. "This fresh debut mixes fable, plucky social commentary - particularly about France's Arab community - and inventive comic setpieces" (Col*Coa)
Hold Back (Rengaine) (Isa: Pathe) goes beyond the funny but "establishmant" film Intouchable which played here last year. It is the exact opposite of such films as Sister or even Aliyah (Isa: Rezo) which played here this year and also in Directors Fortnight last year. Aliyah is about a young French Jewish man who must make his last drug sale in order to escape his brother's destructive behavior. He escapes by immigrating to Israel. These films are made by filmmakers within the French establishment and describe a proletariat existence which exists in their bourgeois minds. They lack a certain "verite" which can only be captured by one who knows viscerally what such marginal existence is.
At the opposite end of the contemporary spectrum of films today, a real establishment film is You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Alain Renais (you have to be a Renais fan to love it who was so avant-garde in his day). Those old New Wave films one could see here stand out in beautiful contrast to today's New Vibe: Renais' Stavisky or the 1963 film The Fire Within (Le feu follet) by Louis Malle again starring the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. I missed them both to my regret. When I miss a film I always tell myself I can see it when it's released or on DVD or Mubi, but rarely do I get to see it. Instead I can only read about it as here written up by Beth Hanna on Indiewire blog ToH. The Fire Within was part of Wes Anderson's choices, one of the various showcases of Col*Coa. Says Hanna: "Anderson's taste is impeccable: He has selected Louis Malle's 1963 lyrical depression drama The Fire Within." It was made after the classic Elevator to the Gallows (1958) which Miles Davis scored and which also starred the young Jeanne Moreau. She also could be seen her in Col*Coa in the classic 1963 Jacques Demy-directed Bay of Angels.
Col*Coa really offered something for everyone this year. Another of my favorite film genres, the Jewish film, was represented by Aliyah and The Dandelions (Du Vent dans mes mollets) (Isa: Gaumont), Stavisky, and It Happened in St. Tropez (Isa: Pathe), a classic French comedy -- though a bit dark and yet still comedic, about romance, love and marriage switching between generations in a neurotic, comfortably wealthy Jewish family. The Dandelions was, according to my friend Debra Levine, a writer on culture including film and dance, (see her blog artsmeme), "darling, so touching, so well made, so creative ... i really liked it. Went into that rabbit hole of little girls together ... Barbie doll play. Crazy creative play. As looney as kids can be."
Ian Birnie's favorite film was Becoming Traviata. Greg Katchel's favorite originally was Rendez-vous à Kiruna by Anna Novion, but when I saw him later in the festival his favorite was Cycling with Moliere (Alceste a bicyclette) (Isa: Pathe), again produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint and directed by Philippe Le Guay who directed one of my favorites, The Women on the 6th Floor. Greg also liked Three Worlds though it was a bit "schematic" in depicting the clash of different cultures which were also shown in Hold Back.
Of the few films I was able to see, the most interesting was Augustine by Alice Winokur. It is the French response to David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and the British film Hysteria. All three were about the turn of the century concern of psychologists or doctors with female hysteria. This one concerned Jean-Martin Charcot and the neurologist's belief that hysteria was a neurological disease and he used hypnosis to get at its roots, whild in A Dangerous Method it was seen by Freud and Jung as a mental disorder and in Hysteria by Tanya Wexler (Tiff 2011) in which Dr. Mortimer Granville devises the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.
Take a look at Indiewire's own article here for more on Los Angeles's greatest French attraction, the second largest French film festival in the world.
Several American distributors will present their films at Col•Coa before their U.S. release: Kino Lorber – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, co-written and directed by Alain Resnais (Focus on a Filmmaker); Mpi Media – Thérèse, the last film of director/co-writer Claude Miller starring Audrey Tautou; Cohen Media Group – In the House, written and directed by François Ozon and The Attack, co-written and directed by Ziad Doueiri; Distrib Films for two documentaries: Becoming Traviata and The Invisibles; Film Movement for two thrillers: Aliyah and Three Worlds; The Weinstein Company - Populaire.
Below you can see the international sales agents for the current features showing.
11.6 / 11.6 (Isa: Wild Bunch)
Directed by: Philippe Godeau
Written by: Philippe Godeau, Agnès De Sacy
A Few Hours Of Spring / Quelques heures de printemps (Isa: Rezo)
Directed by: Stéphane Brizé ♀
Written by: Stéphane Brizé, Florence Vignon
Cast: Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Perrier
Aliyah/Alyah ✡ (Isa: Rezo, U.S.: Film Movement
Directed by: Élie Wajeman
Written by: Élie Wajeman, Gaëlle Macé
Armed Hands / Mains armées (Isa: Films Distribution)
Directed by: Pierre Jolivet
Written by: Pierre Jolivet, Simon Michaël
Augustine / Augustine (Isa: Kinology, U.S.: Music Box)
Directed by: Alice Winocour ♀
Written by: Alice Winocour
Aya Of Yop City / Aya de Yopougon (Isa: TF1)
Directed by: Clément Oubrerie, Marguerite Abouet ♀
Written by: Marguerite Abouet
Bay Of Angels / La Baie des anges (U.S.: Criterion)
Directed by: Jacques Demy
Written by: Jacques Demy
Becoming Traviata /Traviata et nous (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S. Distrib Films and Cinema Guild)
Directed by: Philippe Béziat
Written by: Philippe Béziat
Cycling With MOLIÈRE / Alceste à bicyclette (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Philippe Le Guay
Written by: Philippe Le Guay, based on an original idea by Fabrice Luchini and Philippe Le Guay
Fly Me To The Moon / Un plan parfait (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Pascal Chaumeil
Written By: Laurent Zeitoun, Yoann Gromb, Philippe Mechelen
Haute Cuisine / Les Saveurs du palais (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: The Weinstein Company)
Directed by: Christian Vincent
Written by: Etienne Comar & Christian Vincent, based on the life of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch
Hidden Beauties / Mille-Feuille (Isa: Other Angle Pictures)
Directed by: Nouri Bouzid
Written by: Nouri Bouzid, Joumène Limam
Hold Back / Rengaine (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Rachid Djaïdani
Written by: Rachid Djaïdani
In The House / Dans la maison (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: François Ozon
Written by: François Ozon
It Happened In Saint-tropez / Des Gens qui s’embrassent (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Danièle Thompson ♀
Written by: Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson
Jappeloup/ Jappeloup (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Christian Duguay
Written by: Guillaume Canet
Le Grand Soir / Le grand soir (Isa: Funny Balloons)
Directed by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Written by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Little Lion / Comme un Lion (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Samuel Collardey
Written by: Catherine Paillé, Nadège Trebal, Samuel Collardey
Moon Man / Jean de la lune (Isa: Le Pacte)
Directed By: Stephan Schesch
Written By: Stephan Schesch, Ralph Martin. Based on the book by: Tomi Ungerer
Populaire / Populaire (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: TWC)
Directed By: Régis Roinsard
Written By: Régis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, Romain Compingt
Rendezvous In Kiruna / Rendez-vous à Kiruna (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Anne Novion ♀
Written by: Olivier Massart, Anne Novion, Pierre Novion
Sons Of The Wind / Les Fils du vent (Isa: Wide)
Directed by: Bruno Le Jean
Written by: Bruno Le Jean
Stavisky / Stavisky (1974) (Isa: StudioCanal)
Directed by: Alain Resnais
Written by: Jorge Semprún
The Attack / L’Attentat
France, Belgium, Lebanon, Qatar, 2013
Directed by: Ziad Doueiri (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
The BRONTË Sisters / Les Soeurs Brontë (Isa: Gaumont, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: André Téchiné
Written by: André Téchiné, Jean Gruault, Pascal Bonitzer
The Dandelions / Du Vent dans mes mollets ✡
Directed By: Carine Tardieu ♀
Written By: Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir, Olivier Beer
The Fire Within / Le Feu Follet (1963) (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Janus Films)
Directed by: Louis Malle
Written by: Louis Malle
The Invisibles / Les Invisibles (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Distrib Films))
Directed By: Sébastien Lifshitz
The Man Who Laughs/ L’Homme qui rit (Isa: EuropaCorps)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Améris
Written by: Jean-Pierre Améris , Guillaume Laurant
THÉRÈSE / Thérèse Desqueyroux (Isa: TF1, U.S.: Mpi)
Directed by: Claude Miller
Written by: Claude Miller, Natalie Carter
Three Worlds / Trois mondes (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Film Movement)
Directed by: Catherine Corsini ♀
Written by: Catherine Corsini, Benoît Graffin
To Our Loves / À nos amours (1983) (U.S. Janus)
Directed By: Maurice Pialat
Written By: Arlette Langmann, Maurice Pialat
True Friends / Amitiés sincères (Isa: Snd Groupe 6)
Directed By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie
Written By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie, Marie-Pierre Huster
Welcome To Argentina / Mariage à Mendoza (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Édouard Deluc
Written By: Anaïs Carpita, Édouard Deluc, Thomas Lilti, Philippe Rebbot
What’S In A Name / Le prénom (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Under The Milky Way)
Directed by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
Written by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet / Vous n’avez encore rien vu (Isa: StudioCanal, U.S.: Kino Lorber)
Directed By: Alain Resnais
Written By: Alain Resnais, Laurent Herbiet...
Award Screenings at 6:00 pm: The evening will start with the rerun of two awarded films in the Renoir and Truffaut Theaters at the DGA. Films will be announced on Sunday April 21 on the Col*Coa website, on Facebook, Twitter and on the Col•Coa info line (310) 289 5346. Free admission on a First comes First Served basis. No RSVP needed.
You can stay and also see the Closing Night Films at 8:30 pm at the DGA. Reservations needed. Those are both North American Premieres of two very anticipated French films. The thriller Moebus by Eric Rochant will show for free as will the comedy Like Brothers by Hugo Gélin.
Being among the French filmmakers (and I saw way too few of the films) gave me such a surprising sense of renewal - again because of this upcoming generation. After seeing City of Lights, the short by Pascal Tessaud which preceded the classic Jacques Demy film Bay of Angels starring a platinum blond gambling-addicted Jeanne Moreau in Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo in 1963, we spoke at length about what is called "The New Vibe". City of Lights stars a deeply quiet young man from "les banlieus", the notorious "suburbs" surrounding Paris where the international mix of young (and old) proletariat population is invisible to the rest of France except when the anger erupts into riots. This first generation has the French education but not the money or jobs and it hurts. They have picked up the cameras and with no money are creating films which express their lives in many ways like the new Latin American filmmakers or the new Eastern European filmmakers. Tessaud gave me an entire education in the hour we talked and I will share this in time. For now, aside from his wonderfuly trenchant film which played like a feature, which captured the Paris this young generation recognizes as The City of Lights - dancing, the kitchen of a very upscale restaurant, the dreary streets filled with construction, there is another example of The New Vibe, started by Rachid Djaïdani (a story in himself) the film Hold Back (Rengaine) leads the pack of the 20-some-odd new films of The New Vibe. It is produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles) whose films are too numerous to name but include my favorite The Hedgehog which I wrote about at Col*Coa two years ago, Col*Coa's current Cycling with Moliere, 2002's Respiro and many many others. Hold Back took 9 years to make and most of the team was unpaid. The New Vibe makes films without the aid of the French system of funding; it is more guerilla-style, not New Wave, not Dogma but New Vibe. Hold Back took Cannes by storm when it showed last year in Directors Fortnight and went on to New Directors/ New Films in New York. The classic story of a Catholic and a Muslim who want to marry but whose family objects, this rendition the Juliet has a brother who marches throughout Paris to alert her 39 other brothers that she wants to marry outside her cultural and religious traditions. "This fresh debut mixes fable, plucky social commentary - particularly about France's Arab community - and inventive comic setpieces" (Col*Coa)
Hold Back (Rengaine) (Isa: Pathe) goes beyond the funny but "establishmant" film Intouchable which played here last year. It is the exact opposite of such films as Sister or even Aliyah (Isa: Rezo) which played here this year and also in Directors Fortnight last year. Aliyah is about a young French Jewish man who must make his last drug sale in order to escape his brother's destructive behavior. He escapes by immigrating to Israel. These films are made by filmmakers within the French establishment and describe a proletariat existence which exists in their bourgeois minds. They lack a certain "verite" which can only be captured by one who knows viscerally what such marginal existence is.
At the opposite end of the contemporary spectrum of films today, a real establishment film is You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Alain Renais (you have to be a Renais fan to love it who was so avant-garde in his day). Those old New Wave films one could see here stand out in beautiful contrast to today's New Vibe: Renais' Stavisky or the 1963 film The Fire Within (Le feu follet) by Louis Malle again starring the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. I missed them both to my regret. When I miss a film I always tell myself I can see it when it's released or on DVD or Mubi, but rarely do I get to see it. Instead I can only read about it as here written up by Beth Hanna on Indiewire blog ToH. The Fire Within was part of Wes Anderson's choices, one of the various showcases of Col*Coa. Says Hanna: "Anderson's taste is impeccable: He has selected Louis Malle's 1963 lyrical depression drama The Fire Within." It was made after the classic Elevator to the Gallows (1958) which Miles Davis scored and which also starred the young Jeanne Moreau. She also could be seen her in Col*Coa in the classic 1963 Jacques Demy-directed Bay of Angels.
Col*Coa really offered something for everyone this year. Another of my favorite film genres, the Jewish film, was represented by Aliyah and The Dandelions (Du Vent dans mes mollets) (Isa: Gaumont), Stavisky, and It Happened in St. Tropez (Isa: Pathe), a classic French comedy -- though a bit dark and yet still comedic, about romance, love and marriage switching between generations in a neurotic, comfortably wealthy Jewish family. The Dandelions was, according to my friend Debra Levine, a writer on culture including film and dance, (see her blog artsmeme), "darling, so touching, so well made, so creative ... i really liked it. Went into that rabbit hole of little girls together ... Barbie doll play. Crazy creative play. As looney as kids can be."
Ian Birnie's favorite film was Becoming Traviata. Greg Katchel's favorite originally was Rendez-vous à Kiruna by Anna Novion, but when I saw him later in the festival his favorite was Cycling with Moliere (Alceste a bicyclette) (Isa: Pathe), again produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint and directed by Philippe Le Guay who directed one of my favorites, The Women on the 6th Floor. Greg also liked Three Worlds though it was a bit "schematic" in depicting the clash of different cultures which were also shown in Hold Back.
Of the few films I was able to see, the most interesting was Augustine by Alice Winokur. It is the French response to David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and the British film Hysteria. All three were about the turn of the century concern of psychologists or doctors with female hysteria. This one concerned Jean-Martin Charcot and the neurologist's belief that hysteria was a neurological disease and he used hypnosis to get at its roots, whild in A Dangerous Method it was seen by Freud and Jung as a mental disorder and in Hysteria by Tanya Wexler (Tiff 2011) in which Dr. Mortimer Granville devises the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.
Take a look at Indiewire's own article here for more on Los Angeles's greatest French attraction, the second largest French film festival in the world.
Several American distributors will present their films at Col•Coa before their U.S. release: Kino Lorber – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, co-written and directed by Alain Resnais (Focus on a Filmmaker); Mpi Media – Thérèse, the last film of director/co-writer Claude Miller starring Audrey Tautou; Cohen Media Group – In the House, written and directed by François Ozon and The Attack, co-written and directed by Ziad Doueiri; Distrib Films for two documentaries: Becoming Traviata and The Invisibles; Film Movement for two thrillers: Aliyah and Three Worlds; The Weinstein Company - Populaire.
Below you can see the international sales agents for the current features showing.
11.6 / 11.6 (Isa: Wild Bunch)
Directed by: Philippe Godeau
Written by: Philippe Godeau, Agnès De Sacy
A Few Hours Of Spring / Quelques heures de printemps (Isa: Rezo)
Directed by: Stéphane Brizé ♀
Written by: Stéphane Brizé, Florence Vignon
Cast: Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Perrier
Aliyah/Alyah ✡ (Isa: Rezo, U.S.: Film Movement
Directed by: Élie Wajeman
Written by: Élie Wajeman, Gaëlle Macé
Armed Hands / Mains armées (Isa: Films Distribution)
Directed by: Pierre Jolivet
Written by: Pierre Jolivet, Simon Michaël
Augustine / Augustine (Isa: Kinology, U.S.: Music Box)
Directed by: Alice Winocour ♀
Written by: Alice Winocour
Aya Of Yop City / Aya de Yopougon (Isa: TF1)
Directed by: Clément Oubrerie, Marguerite Abouet ♀
Written by: Marguerite Abouet
Bay Of Angels / La Baie des anges (U.S.: Criterion)
Directed by: Jacques Demy
Written by: Jacques Demy
Becoming Traviata /Traviata et nous (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S. Distrib Films and Cinema Guild)
Directed by: Philippe Béziat
Written by: Philippe Béziat
Cycling With MOLIÈRE / Alceste à bicyclette (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Philippe Le Guay
Written by: Philippe Le Guay, based on an original idea by Fabrice Luchini and Philippe Le Guay
Fly Me To The Moon / Un plan parfait (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Pascal Chaumeil
Written By: Laurent Zeitoun, Yoann Gromb, Philippe Mechelen
Haute Cuisine / Les Saveurs du palais (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: The Weinstein Company)
Directed by: Christian Vincent
Written by: Etienne Comar & Christian Vincent, based on the life of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch
Hidden Beauties / Mille-Feuille (Isa: Other Angle Pictures)
Directed by: Nouri Bouzid
Written by: Nouri Bouzid, Joumène Limam
Hold Back / Rengaine (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Rachid Djaïdani
Written by: Rachid Djaïdani
In The House / Dans la maison (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: François Ozon
Written by: François Ozon
It Happened In Saint-tropez / Des Gens qui s’embrassent (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Danièle Thompson ♀
Written by: Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson
Jappeloup/ Jappeloup (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Christian Duguay
Written by: Guillaume Canet
Le Grand Soir / Le grand soir (Isa: Funny Balloons)
Directed by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Written by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Little Lion / Comme un Lion (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Samuel Collardey
Written by: Catherine Paillé, Nadège Trebal, Samuel Collardey
Moon Man / Jean de la lune (Isa: Le Pacte)
Directed By: Stephan Schesch
Written By: Stephan Schesch, Ralph Martin. Based on the book by: Tomi Ungerer
Populaire / Populaire (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: TWC)
Directed By: Régis Roinsard
Written By: Régis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, Romain Compingt
Rendezvous In Kiruna / Rendez-vous à Kiruna (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Anne Novion ♀
Written by: Olivier Massart, Anne Novion, Pierre Novion
Sons Of The Wind / Les Fils du vent (Isa: Wide)
Directed by: Bruno Le Jean
Written by: Bruno Le Jean
Stavisky / Stavisky (1974) (Isa: StudioCanal)
Directed by: Alain Resnais
Written by: Jorge Semprún
The Attack / L’Attentat
France, Belgium, Lebanon, Qatar, 2013
Directed by: Ziad Doueiri (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
The BRONTË Sisters / Les Soeurs Brontë (Isa: Gaumont, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: André Téchiné
Written by: André Téchiné, Jean Gruault, Pascal Bonitzer
The Dandelions / Du Vent dans mes mollets ✡
Directed By: Carine Tardieu ♀
Written By: Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir, Olivier Beer
The Fire Within / Le Feu Follet (1963) (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Janus Films)
Directed by: Louis Malle
Written by: Louis Malle
The Invisibles / Les Invisibles (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Distrib Films))
Directed By: Sébastien Lifshitz
The Man Who Laughs/ L’Homme qui rit (Isa: EuropaCorps)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Améris
Written by: Jean-Pierre Améris , Guillaume Laurant
THÉRÈSE / Thérèse Desqueyroux (Isa: TF1, U.S.: Mpi)
Directed by: Claude Miller
Written by: Claude Miller, Natalie Carter
Three Worlds / Trois mondes (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Film Movement)
Directed by: Catherine Corsini ♀
Written by: Catherine Corsini, Benoît Graffin
To Our Loves / À nos amours (1983) (U.S. Janus)
Directed By: Maurice Pialat
Written By: Arlette Langmann, Maurice Pialat
True Friends / Amitiés sincères (Isa: Snd Groupe 6)
Directed By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie
Written By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie, Marie-Pierre Huster
Welcome To Argentina / Mariage à Mendoza (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Édouard Deluc
Written By: Anaïs Carpita, Édouard Deluc, Thomas Lilti, Philippe Rebbot
What’S In A Name / Le prénom (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Under The Milky Way)
Directed by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
Written by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet / Vous n’avez encore rien vu (Isa: StudioCanal, U.S.: Kino Lorber)
Directed By: Alain Resnais
Written By: Alain Resnais, Laurent Herbiet...
- 4/20/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the 42nd edition of New Directors/New Films from March 20-31 in New York. The festival will screen 25 features (19 narrative, six documentary) and 17 short films, representing 24 countries.
Matías Piñeiro's Viola, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, Shannon Plumb's Towheads, Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell, Daniel Hoesl's Soldate Jeannette and Rachid Djaïdani's Rengaine are films to look out for on the conflicts from within and the contentions from without.
Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice will open the festival at MoMA on March 20. A new component this year is a mid-festival screening at the Vw Performance Dome at MoMA PS1, in Long Island City, on March 26, of Sophie Letourneur’s Les Coquillettes. Found-footage documentary, Our Nixon, directed by Penny Lane will close the film festival at the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater on March 31.
Here are six standouts.
Matías Piñeiro's Viola, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, Shannon Plumb's Towheads, Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell, Daniel Hoesl's Soldate Jeannette and Rachid Djaïdani's Rengaine are films to look out for on the conflicts from within and the contentions from without.
Alexandre Moors’ Blue Caprice will open the festival at MoMA on March 20. A new component this year is a mid-festival screening at the Vw Performance Dome at MoMA PS1, in Long Island City, on March 26, of Sophie Letourneur’s Les Coquillettes. Found-footage documentary, Our Nixon, directed by Penny Lane will close the film festival at the Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater on March 31.
Here are six standouts.
- 3/17/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center announces the full lineup for their 42nd New Directors/New Films festival, running March 20 – 31 in New York. The festival focuses on emerging filmmakers, and will include 19 narrative features, six docs and 17 shorts from some 24 countries. Alexandre Moors’ debut "Blue Caprice," which premiered at Sundance, will open the festival; it stars Isaiah Washington and Tequan Richmond. The festival will then close with Penny Lane's doc "Our Nixon," edited from hundreds of roles of Super 8 film that was shot by the president's aides during his time in office. Other highlights slated for the festival include Sundance premiere title "Upstream Color" from Shane Carruth, Sarah Polley's "Stories We Tell," Bulgarian director Emil Christov's Toronto title "The Color of the Chameleon," Rachid Djaidani's Cannes winner "Rengaine," Tobias...
- 2/22/2013
- by Sophia Savage
- Thompson on Hollywood
Recapping... From France-based Algerian/Sudanese filmmaker Rachid Djaidani comes Rengaine (Hold Back), a feature length drama that premiered in the Directors Fortnight and the International Critics Week sections, at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Described as a "Paris-set twist on Romeo and Juliet," Hold Back stars Slimane Dazi as Slimane, the eldest of 40 Arab Muslim brothers to Sabrina (Sabrina Hamida), a young North African woman. Slimane is disgusted by the rumors of his sister's engagement to a Black Christian French man named Dorcy - played by French actor Stephane Soo Mongo. Naturally, conflict ensues as...
- 1/29/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
The nominations for the César Awards aka the French Oscars were announced. "Farewell, My Queen," "Amour," "Camille Redouble," "In the House," "Rust & Bone," "Holy Motors," and "What's My Name" are competing for the Best Picture category. We'll find out the winners on February 22nd.
Here's the full list of nominees of the 2013 César Awards:
Best Picture
Farewell, My Queen
Amour
Camille Redouble
In The House
Rust & Bone
Holy Motors
What.s In A Name
Best Director
Benoît Jacquot, Farewell, My Queen
Michael Haneke, Amour
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
François Ozon, In The House
Jacques Audiard, Rust & Bone
Leos Carax, Holy Motors
Stéphane Brizé, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actress
Catherine Frot, Les Sauveurs Du Palais
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
Corinne Masiero, Louise Wimmer
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Léa Seydoux, Farewell, My Queen
Hélène Vincent, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actor
Jean-Pierre Bacri, Cherchez Hortense
Patrick Bruel, What...
Here's the full list of nominees of the 2013 César Awards:
Best Picture
Farewell, My Queen
Amour
Camille Redouble
In The House
Rust & Bone
Holy Motors
What.s In A Name
Best Director
Benoît Jacquot, Farewell, My Queen
Michael Haneke, Amour
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
François Ozon, In The House
Jacques Audiard, Rust & Bone
Leos Carax, Holy Motors
Stéphane Brizé, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actress
Catherine Frot, Les Sauveurs Du Palais
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
Corinne Masiero, Louise Wimmer
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Léa Seydoux, Farewell, My Queen
Hélène Vincent, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actor
Jean-Pierre Bacri, Cherchez Hortense
Patrick Bruel, What...
- 1/27/2013
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
The Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society of Lincoln Center have jointly announced seven official selections for the 2013 New Directors/New Films Festival (Nd/Nf), which runs March 20–31, 2013. The festival is "dedicated to the discovery of new works by emerging and dynamic filmmaking talent," and the 2013 edition marks the film festival’s 42nd year. Representing seven countries from around the world, the initial seven selections are Emil Christov’s "The Color and the Chameleon" (Bulgaria), Tobias Lindholm’s "A Hijacking" (Denmark), Rachid Djaidani’s "Hold Back" (France), Jp Sniadecki’s and Libbie Dina Cohn’s "People's Park" (USA/China), Sarah Polley’s "Stories We Tell" (Canada), Shane Carruth’s "Upstream Color" (USA), and Matías Piñeiro’s "Viola" (Argentina). "These first seven titles give a...
- 1/16/2013
- by Peter Knegt
- Indiewire
This is good news - for me anyway, as well as those of you who live in New York City. 2 films we've covered quite a bit on this blog, have been selected to screen at the 42nd edition of New Directors/New Films in March - Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm's A Hijacking, and France-based Algerian/Sudanese filmmaker Rachid Djaidani's Rengaine (Hold Back). Both, I believe, are making the USA premieres, after traveling the international film festival circuit over the last year or less. I'll finally get to see them, and review them here. The full initial lineup of 7 official selections for the 2013 Nd/Nf (more...
- 1/16/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
★★☆☆☆ Just a few minutes into Rachid Djaidani's fictional feature debut, two characters amble down a street and one complains to the other that in cinematic terms "We do not innovate in France - we follow." The story that then proceeds to unfold is a well worn tale, essentially a re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet, but with Africans and Algerians playing the parts of Montagues and Capulets. Hold Back (Rengaine, 2012) does chart new waters in its attempts to explore the racial divide between these two immigrant communities in Paris but stumbles in never delivering the requisite emotional beats.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 10/20/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Recapping Vanessa's post on this film earlier this month... From France-based Algerian/Sudanese filmmaker Rachid Djaidani comes the feature film Rengaine (Hold Back), which premiered in the Directors Fortnight and the International Critics Week sections, at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Described as a "Paris-set twist on Romeo and Juliet," Hold Back stars Slimane Dazi as Slimane, the eldest of 40 Arab Muslim brothers to Sabrina (Sabrina Hamida), a young North African woman. Slimane is disgusted by the rumors of his sister's engagement to a Black Christian French man named Dorcy - played by French actor...
- 9/27/2012
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
Montreal’s Festival Du Nouveau Cinema (10.10 – 10.21) announced their line-up today for their 41st edition and among the smorgasbord of subtitle offerings dating back to this year’s Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Venice and Tiff editions, we’re knee-deep in avant-garde world cinema from the established auteurs Assayas, Vinterberg, Ozon, Sang-Soo, Joao Pedro Rodriguez, Larrain, Loach, Reygadas, Ghobadi, Mungiu and Miguel Gomes. Heavy on offerings from Quebec and France, the fest also manages to offer a stellar snapshot of the up-and-comers from all corners of the globe. Among the notable titles in the (Competition category) International Selection we’ve got Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, Ursula Meier’s Sister, Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s Francine (which received its theatrical release earlier this month) and Rodrigo Plá’s La Demora. Loaded in Cannes items, the Special Presentations is the fest’s A-list selections (see filmmakers named above) and the one pic...
- 9/25/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
A first feature film by French boxer, auteur and actor Rachid Djaidani (2006 documentary Sur Ma Ligne), Rengaine (Hold Back) premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it was the official selection in the Directors Fortnight and the International Critics Week sections. Described as a "Paris-set twist on Romeo and Juliet", Hold Back will screen next at the 56th BFI London Film Festival, which begins October 10. The film stars Slimane Dazi as Slimane, the eldest of 40 Arab Muslim brothers to Sabrina (Sabrina Hamida), a young North African woman. Slimane is disgusted by the rumors of his sister's engagement to a Black Christian French man named Dorcy - played...
- 9/6/2012
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
and much like how we relate to previous Oscar winners of years past, it shouldn’t take more than three to five years before we start to ponder why such a film, Three, four, five years down the road we’ll be
Main Comp
Palme d’Or – Amour, directed by Michael Haneke
Grand Prix – Reality, directed by Matteo Garrone
Best Director – Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux
Best Screenplay – Cristian Mingiu, Beyond the Hills
Best Actress – Cristina Flutur & Cosmina Stratan, Beyond the Hills
Best Actor – Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt
Jury Prize – The Angels’ Share, directed by Ken Loach
Palme d’Or (Short Film) – Silent, directed by L.Razan Yesilbas
Un Certain Regard
Prize of Un Certain Regard – After Lucía, directed by Michael Franco
Special Jury Prize – The Big Night, directed by Benoît Delépine & Gustave de Kervern
Special Distinction – Children of Sarajevo, directed by Aida Begić
Best Actress – Émilie Dequenne, Loving Without Reason & Suzanne Clément,...
Main Comp
Palme d’Or – Amour, directed by Michael Haneke
Grand Prix – Reality, directed by Matteo Garrone
Best Director – Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux
Best Screenplay – Cristian Mingiu, Beyond the Hills
Best Actress – Cristina Flutur & Cosmina Stratan, Beyond the Hills
Best Actor – Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt
Jury Prize – The Angels’ Share, directed by Ken Loach
Palme d’Or (Short Film) – Silent, directed by L.Razan Yesilbas
Un Certain Regard
Prize of Un Certain Regard – After Lucía, directed by Michael Franco
Special Jury Prize – The Big Night, directed by Benoît Delépine & Gustave de Kervern
Special Distinction – Children of Sarajevo, directed by Aida Begić
Best Actress – Émilie Dequenne, Loving Without Reason & Suzanne Clément,...
- 5/30/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The awards have been announced at The 65th Cannes Film Festival...
In Competition
Feature Films
Palme d'Or – Amour, directed by Michael Haneke
Grand Prix – Reality, directed by Matteo Garrone
Best Director – Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux
Best Screenplay – Cristian Mingiu, Beyond the Hills
Best Actress – Cristina Flutur & Cosmina Stratan, Beyond the Hills
Best Actor – Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt
Jury Prize – The Angels' Share, directed by Ken Loach
Short Films
Palme d'Or (Short Film) – Silent, directed by L.Razan Yesilbas
Un Certain Regard
Prize of Un Certain Regard – After Lucía, directed by Michael Franco
Special Jury Prize – The Big Night, directed by Benoît Delépine & Gustave de Kervern
Special Distinction – Children of Sarajevo, directed by Aida Begić
Best Actress – Émilie Dequenne, Loving Without Reason & Suzanne Clément, Laurence Anyways
Camera d'Or
Best First Film – Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitlin
Cinéfondation
1st Prize – The Road To, directed by Taisia Igumentseva
2nd Prize – Abigail,...
In Competition
Feature Films
Palme d'Or – Amour, directed by Michael Haneke
Grand Prix – Reality, directed by Matteo Garrone
Best Director – Carlos Reygadas, Post Tenebras Lux
Best Screenplay – Cristian Mingiu, Beyond the Hills
Best Actress – Cristina Flutur & Cosmina Stratan, Beyond the Hills
Best Actor – Mads Mikkelsen, The Hunt
Jury Prize – The Angels' Share, directed by Ken Loach
Short Films
Palme d'Or (Short Film) – Silent, directed by L.Razan Yesilbas
Un Certain Regard
Prize of Un Certain Regard – After Lucía, directed by Michael Franco
Special Jury Prize – The Big Night, directed by Benoît Delépine & Gustave de Kervern
Special Distinction – Children of Sarajevo, directed by Aida Begić
Best Actress – Émilie Dequenne, Loving Without Reason & Suzanne Clément, Laurence Anyways
Camera d'Or
Best First Film – Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitlin
Cinéfondation
1st Prize – The Road To, directed by Taisia Igumentseva
2nd Prize – Abigail,...
- 5/27/2012
- MUBI
Michael Haneke became only the eighth director to win two Palme d’Or awards, as his tender marital drama Amour took the top prize at the 65th annual Cannes Film Festival. (The Austrian filmmaker also won for The White Ribbon in 2009.) Former James Bond baddie Mads Mikkelsen was honored as best actor, for his role as a man falsely accused of sexually abusing a child in The Hunt. Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan shared the best actress award for their performances in Beyond the Hills, about a nun and her jealous former lesbian lover.
Main Jury Prizes
Palme d’Or: Amour,...
Main Jury Prizes
Palme d’Or: Amour,...
- 5/27/2012
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
The Fipresci Prize at Cannes Film Festival 2012 in the official competition went to In the Fog (V Tumane) by Sergei Loznitsa. The film tells the story of a rail worker in Germany-occupied Ussr in 1942.
The film is a co-production between Germany, Russia, Latvia, Netherlands and Belarus.
In Un Certain Regard, Fipresci Jury awarded Beasts of the Southern Wild (USA) by Benh Zeitlin. “Waters gonna rise up, wild animal gonna re-run from the grave, and everything south of the levee is goin’under, in his tale of a six year-old named Hushppupy, who lives with her daddy at the edge of the world,” is the synopsis of the film.
In parallel sections, the prize went to Hold Back (Rengaine) by Rachid Djaïdani presented in the Directors’ Fortnight.
The film is a co-production between Germany, Russia, Latvia, Netherlands and Belarus.
In Un Certain Regard, Fipresci Jury awarded Beasts of the Southern Wild (USA) by Benh Zeitlin. “Waters gonna rise up, wild animal gonna re-run from the grave, and everything south of the levee is goin’under, in his tale of a six year-old named Hushppupy, who lives with her daddy at the edge of the world,” is the synopsis of the film.
In parallel sections, the prize went to Hold Back (Rengaine) by Rachid Djaïdani presented in the Directors’ Fortnight.
- 5/27/2012
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
Fipresci, the International Federation of Film Critics, has given its top Cannes prizes to Sergei Loznitsa's "In the Fog," Benh Zeitlin's "Beasts of the Southern Wild" and Rachid Djaidani's "Rengaine" ("Hold Back"). The organization selects winners from two of the main sections at Cannes, and a third winner from two independent sections. "In the Fog" (left), a drama set in German-occupied Russia in 1942, was chosen from the 22 films in the main competition. "Beasts of the Southern Wild," which won the top dramatic award at Sundance in January and will be released...
- 5/26/2012
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Edouard Waintrop, Artistic Director of Directors' Fortnight, has presented the lineup for this year's edition, running from May 17 through 27.
Features
Merzak Allouache's El Taaib. Evene claims it's an angry film aimed at the malaise of Algerian society.
Rodney Ascher's Room 237. A documentary about the plethora of theories that have sprung up over the years regarding just what Stanley Kubrick was up to when he made The Shining (1980). More here. IFC Midnight picked up North American rights just yesterday.
Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner's Ernest et Célestine. From the makers of A Town Called Panic, this is an animated adaptation of a series of books about a little mouse who doesn't want to become a dentist and a big bear who doesn't want to become a notary. Site.
Benjamin Ávila's Infancia clandestina. From the San Sebastian Film Festival: "Juan lives in clandestinity. Just like his mum,...
Features
Merzak Allouache's El Taaib. Evene claims it's an angry film aimed at the malaise of Algerian society.
Rodney Ascher's Room 237. A documentary about the plethora of theories that have sprung up over the years regarding just what Stanley Kubrick was up to when he made The Shining (1980). More here. IFC Midnight picked up North American rights just yesterday.
Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner's Ernest et Célestine. From the makers of A Town Called Panic, this is an animated adaptation of a series of books about a little mouse who doesn't want to become a dentist and a big bear who doesn't want to become a notary. Site.
Benjamin Ávila's Infancia clandestina. From the San Sebastian Film Festival: "Juan lives in clandestinity. Just like his mum,...
- 4/25/2012
- MUBI
We’ve already got a great line-up for this year’s Cannes Film Festival, but a few more quality films have been added to the Directors’ Fortnight section. Most notably is the latest film from Michel Gondry, The We and the I (more details on that one here). Then we’ve got Sightseers, the next film from Ben Wheatley, who gave us the frightening Kill List earlier this year. There’s also two Sundance films, one the excellent documentary on Stanley Kubrick‘s The Shining, Room 237, as well as the absurdly funny Wrong, from Quentin Dupieux (update: looks like it’s actually a brand-new short titled Wrong Cops, starring Marilyn Manson). Check out the line-up below.
Longs Metrages / Feature Films
3 de / by Pablo Stoll Ward (Uruguay, Allemagne, Argentine / Uruguay, Germany, Argentina) – Première internationale
Adieu Berthe, l’enterrement de mémé / Granny’s Funeral de / by Bruno Podalydès (France) – Première mondiale...
Longs Metrages / Feature Films
3 de / by Pablo Stoll Ward (Uruguay, Allemagne, Argentine / Uruguay, Germany, Argentina) – Première internationale
Adieu Berthe, l’enterrement de mémé / Granny’s Funeral de / by Bruno Podalydès (France) – Première mondiale...
- 4/24/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
Ben Wheatley's Sightseers is selected for Directors' Fortnight special screening, while British theatre director Rufus Norris's debut Broken will open Critics' Week
The Cannes film festival's two major independent sidebars have announced their lineup for the forthcoming festival, providing UK and Us film-makers with a considerable boost to their presence on the Croisette.
Ben Wheatley, who has impressed critics and fans alike with his first two films, Down Terrace and Kill List, has seen his third, Sightseers, selected for a special screening in the Directors' Fortnight event, while British theatre director Rufus Norris's debut feature, Broken, has been given the opening slot for the Critics' Week section. Sightseers is described as a "pitch-black comedy" about a caravan trip around the north of England, while Broken is an adaptation of Daniel Clay's novel, and stars Cillian Murphy and Tim Roth.
Us film-makers have added to their total...
The Cannes film festival's two major independent sidebars have announced their lineup for the forthcoming festival, providing UK and Us film-makers with a considerable boost to their presence on the Croisette.
Ben Wheatley, who has impressed critics and fans alike with his first two films, Down Terrace and Kill List, has seen his third, Sightseers, selected for a special screening in the Directors' Fortnight event, while British theatre director Rufus Norris's debut feature, Broken, has been given the opening slot for the Critics' Week section. Sightseers is described as a "pitch-black comedy" about a caravan trip around the north of England, while Broken is an adaptation of Daniel Clay's novel, and stars Cillian Murphy and Tim Roth.
Us film-makers have added to their total...
- 4/24/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Yes, there's even more. With the lineup at the Cannes Film Festival already boasting a plethora of top-tier talent and highly anticipated films, the sidebar Directors' Fortnight is not to be outdone, and today they have unveiled their unusually name-brand-heavy lineup.
Michel Gondry's "The We & The I," Ben Wheatley's "Sightseers," plus new films by Pablo Lorrain, Quentin Dupieux and the late Raoul Ruiz will the lead the charge in 2012. Gondry's film has been rumored for south of France for a while now, but when it didn't show up in the Cannes lineup, and with the director already lensing his next effort "Mood Indigo," we figured we'd have to wait until the fall for "The We And The I." But the feature, which has been kept under wraps, and stars a cast of unknowns, will get a grand bow as the Opening Night film.
Elsewhere in the lineup: "Kill List...
Michel Gondry's "The We & The I," Ben Wheatley's "Sightseers," plus new films by Pablo Lorrain, Quentin Dupieux and the late Raoul Ruiz will the lead the charge in 2012. Gondry's film has been rumored for south of France for a while now, but when it didn't show up in the Cannes lineup, and with the director already lensing his next effort "Mood Indigo," we figured we'd have to wait until the fall for "The We And The I." But the feature, which has been kept under wraps, and stars a cast of unknowns, will get a grand bow as the Opening Night film.
Elsewhere in the lineup: "Kill List...
- 4/24/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
PARIS -- The Age of Man ... Now or Never! (L'age d'homme ... maintenant ou jamais!), Raphael Fejto's second feature, begins promisingly, with thirtysomething filmmaker Samuel setting a 24-hour deadline to make a delicate decision: Should he or should he not, after a lifetime of happily unmarried bliss, tie the knot with Tina, his live-in girlfriend of the past year?
Having set the stage for a romantic comedy, Fejto appears to have decided that he also would like the movie to function as a comedy of manners, or at least of existential angst. His ambivalence, reflected in the double-barreled title, mirrors that of his protagonist.
With Romain Duris, arguably France's most gifted young star, in the starring role, the movie might achieve boxoffice impact in its own territory. But its lightweight blend of incident, whimsy and fantasy is unlikely to travel well.
The crucial missing ingredient is a compelling story line. Samuel spends most of his time bickering with Tina (Aissa Maiga), a good-natured photographer, and hanging out with his pals Jorge (Clement Sibony) and Mounir (Rachid Djaidani), chewing over the pros and cons of matrimony.
Jorge already has opted for commitment to a partner and is more interested in practical matters like a choice of refrigerator. Mounir too is thinking of taking the plunge by agreeing to a request by his latest flame to have a baby even though he knows she is a lesbian at heart and might be just using him for procreational purposes.
Samuel, meanwhile, engages in daydream dialogues with his double dressed as Leonardo Da Vinci or fantasies about himself living as a caveman. He remains sensitive to the charms of other women, wistfully checking out a woman he encounters while visiting an apartment to rent and later at the swimming pool, and then spending the night with a woman who casually picks him up in a nightclub (cue clumsily simulated sex scenes).
He even fails to meet his own deadline, as considerably more than 24 hours have passed before, on a Tunisian beach, he faces Tina and squares up to doing what a man's gotta do.
There is plenty of talent on display. Pluses include Mathias Raaflaub's sunwashed cinematography, a jazz-funk musical soundtrack featuring Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield and Amy Winehouse and a male cheesecake quotient in the form of the Duris torso.
But the spectator is left wondering why he should care. Fejto ducks ethnic or generational issues that might have added perspective to Samuel's ego-obsessed maunderings. Tina is black, Jorge Hispanic and Mounir North African, and other minorities are also visible, but none of this is ever referred to, which might possibly be a tribute to France's success in multicultural assimilation but more likely is simply an evasion. And there is not a parent in sight.
Duris, a boyhood friend of Fejto's, starred in his debut feature Osmosis in 2003 as did Sibony and Djaidani, and several of the crew also worked on the earlier movie. Maiga, despite having little to do, confirms her growing reputation as a talented actress.
Fejto, who came to notice as a child actor in Louis Malle's Au revoir, les enfants and made his first video short at 17, has clearly mastered the language of cinema. It is not yet clear that he has anything to say.
THE AGE OF MAN ... NOW OR NEVER
UGC YM, France 2 Cinema
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Raphael Fejto
Producer: Yves Marmion
Director of photography: Mathias Raaflaub
Production designer: Samuel Deshors
Music: Matthieu Aschehoug, Tal
Costume designer: Charlotte Toscan du Plantier
Editor: Mathilde Bertrandy
Cast:
Samuel: Romain Duris
Tina: Aissa Maiga
Jorge: Clement Sibony
Mounir: Rachid Djaidani
Vittorio: Tarubi
Woman in Flat: Maria Jurado
Nightclub Woman: Irina Solano
Running time -- 88 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Having set the stage for a romantic comedy, Fejto appears to have decided that he also would like the movie to function as a comedy of manners, or at least of existential angst. His ambivalence, reflected in the double-barreled title, mirrors that of his protagonist.
With Romain Duris, arguably France's most gifted young star, in the starring role, the movie might achieve boxoffice impact in its own territory. But its lightweight blend of incident, whimsy and fantasy is unlikely to travel well.
The crucial missing ingredient is a compelling story line. Samuel spends most of his time bickering with Tina (Aissa Maiga), a good-natured photographer, and hanging out with his pals Jorge (Clement Sibony) and Mounir (Rachid Djaidani), chewing over the pros and cons of matrimony.
Jorge already has opted for commitment to a partner and is more interested in practical matters like a choice of refrigerator. Mounir too is thinking of taking the plunge by agreeing to a request by his latest flame to have a baby even though he knows she is a lesbian at heart and might be just using him for procreational purposes.
Samuel, meanwhile, engages in daydream dialogues with his double dressed as Leonardo Da Vinci or fantasies about himself living as a caveman. He remains sensitive to the charms of other women, wistfully checking out a woman he encounters while visiting an apartment to rent and later at the swimming pool, and then spending the night with a woman who casually picks him up in a nightclub (cue clumsily simulated sex scenes).
He even fails to meet his own deadline, as considerably more than 24 hours have passed before, on a Tunisian beach, he faces Tina and squares up to doing what a man's gotta do.
There is plenty of talent on display. Pluses include Mathias Raaflaub's sunwashed cinematography, a jazz-funk musical soundtrack featuring Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield and Amy Winehouse and a male cheesecake quotient in the form of the Duris torso.
But the spectator is left wondering why he should care. Fejto ducks ethnic or generational issues that might have added perspective to Samuel's ego-obsessed maunderings. Tina is black, Jorge Hispanic and Mounir North African, and other minorities are also visible, but none of this is ever referred to, which might possibly be a tribute to France's success in multicultural assimilation but more likely is simply an evasion. And there is not a parent in sight.
Duris, a boyhood friend of Fejto's, starred in his debut feature Osmosis in 2003 as did Sibony and Djaidani, and several of the crew also worked on the earlier movie. Maiga, despite having little to do, confirms her growing reputation as a talented actress.
Fejto, who came to notice as a child actor in Louis Malle's Au revoir, les enfants and made his first video short at 17, has clearly mastered the language of cinema. It is not yet clear that he has anything to say.
THE AGE OF MAN ... NOW OR NEVER
UGC YM, France 2 Cinema
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Raphael Fejto
Producer: Yves Marmion
Director of photography: Mathias Raaflaub
Production designer: Samuel Deshors
Music: Matthieu Aschehoug, Tal
Costume designer: Charlotte Toscan du Plantier
Editor: Mathilde Bertrandy
Cast:
Samuel: Romain Duris
Tina: Aissa Maiga
Jorge: Clement Sibony
Mounir: Rachid Djaidani
Vittorio: Tarubi
Woman in Flat: Maria Jurado
Nightclub Woman: Irina Solano
Running time -- 88 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/22/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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