Shane Atkinson’s “Laroy,” a crime thriller laced with dark comedy, swept three major prizes at the 49th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival.
The movie, which marks Atkinson’s feature debut and showcases Coen brothers influences, won the Grand Prize, the Audience Award and the Critics Award. It stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. But just before he pulls a trigger, a stranger takes him for a low-rent hitman. The movie was produced by the Cannes-based company Adastra Films and was acquired by a French distributor, Arp Selection, during the Deauville Film Festival. It previously opened at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The Jury Prize, meanwhile was shared by two films, Sean Price Williams’ “The Sweet East” and Iranian-born director Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.” “The Sweet East” marks the feature debut of Price, a well-established cinematographer whose credits include “Good Time.
The movie, which marks Atkinson’s feature debut and showcases Coen brothers influences, won the Grand Prize, the Audience Award and the Critics Award. It stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. But just before he pulls a trigger, a stranger takes him for a low-rent hitman. The movie was produced by the Cannes-based company Adastra Films and was acquired by a French distributor, Arp Selection, during the Deauville Film Festival. It previously opened at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The Jury Prize, meanwhile was shared by two films, Sean Price Williams’ “The Sweet East” and Iranian-born director Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.” “The Sweet East” marks the feature debut of Price, a well-established cinematographer whose credits include “Good Time.
- 9/9/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Deauville American Film Festival will forge ahead with its honorary tributes to stars such as Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Peter Dinklage and Joseph Gordon-Levitt despite the fact that they won’t be in attendance due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
The festival’s artistic director, Bruno Barde, told Variety ahead of the event’s press conference on Thursday that he empathized with actors and writers who are on strike to “protect themselves against the dangers of artificial intelligence.”
“AI has always existed in cinema and it’s now posing a threat to screenwriters, set designers, dubbers and, of course, to actors whom we’re using the image of. Cinema is an art that elevates humankind, and artificial intelligence does the exact opposite. It’s a danger,” Barde said.
And while he stands in solidarity with the strike, he has opted “to maintain all the tributes which will pay homage to careers...
The festival’s artistic director, Bruno Barde, told Variety ahead of the event’s press conference on Thursday that he empathized with actors and writers who are on strike to “protect themselves against the dangers of artificial intelligence.”
“AI has always existed in cinema and it’s now posing a threat to screenwriters, set designers, dubbers and, of course, to actors whom we’re using the image of. Cinema is an art that elevates humankind, and artificial intelligence does the exact opposite. It’s a danger,” Barde said.
And while he stands in solidarity with the strike, he has opted “to maintain all the tributes which will pay homage to careers...
- 8/17/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Film stars Mélanie Laurent, Pio Marmai and Carmen Kassovitz.
Newen Connect has trotted Christian Duguay’s equestrian drama Ride Above across the globe, announcing sales just before the start of AFM.
The drama, produced by Paris-based Nolita Cinema, has sold throughout Europe to Germany’s Dcm Film Distribution, Austria’s Polyfilm, Spain’s Deaplaneta, Portugal’s Lusomundo, Italy’s Eagle Pictures, Switzerland’s Pathé, Belgium’s Vertigo, Poland’s Best Film, Czech and Slovak Republic’s Aqs and Bulgaria’s Beta Film.
The film will also jump across continents to Canada (Films Opale), Australia (Madman), Singapore (Shaw Renters), Latin America...
Newen Connect has trotted Christian Duguay’s equestrian drama Ride Above across the globe, announcing sales just before the start of AFM.
The drama, produced by Paris-based Nolita Cinema, has sold throughout Europe to Germany’s Dcm Film Distribution, Austria’s Polyfilm, Spain’s Deaplaneta, Portugal’s Lusomundo, Italy’s Eagle Pictures, Switzerland’s Pathé, Belgium’s Vertigo, Poland’s Best Film, Czech and Slovak Republic’s Aqs and Bulgaria’s Beta Film.
The film will also jump across continents to Canada (Films Opale), Australia (Madman), Singapore (Shaw Renters), Latin America...
- 10/31/2022
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
The setting: a small resort, Les Cimes, in the Swiss Alps, a stone’s throw from the French border. The moment: the end of ski season, tourists have left, time seems to be suspended. The plot: a corpse is found, tied up, with an edelweiss in its mouth. The protagonist: Captain Sterenn Peiry (Marina Hands) leads the investigation. She still mourns her 15-year-old daughter, killed three years before in an avalanche.
So much for the beginning of “Off Season” (Hors saison), a Franco-Swiss police series, produced by Akka Films, Gaumont Television with Rts and France Télévisions, and beautifully filmed in CinémaScope by Pierre Monnard.
This thrilling six-part series, presented to buyers at the French TV market Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Biarritz, is best in class in the art of constantly misleading the viewer. From the very first minutes, the plot thickens: a second corpse, found in the same gloomy setting, but on the French side,...
So much for the beginning of “Off Season” (Hors saison), a Franco-Swiss police series, produced by Akka Films, Gaumont Television with Rts and France Télévisions, and beautifully filmed in CinémaScope by Pierre Monnard.
This thrilling six-part series, presented to buyers at the French TV market Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Biarritz, is best in class in the art of constantly misleading the viewer. From the very first minutes, the plot thickens: a second corpse, found in the same gloomy setting, but on the French side,...
- 9/9/2022
- by Trinidad Barleycorn
- Variety Film + TV
And here we are with the third part in our top 100 predictions.
Chad Chenouga‘s third feature film Le Principal might be one of those unassuming, perfectly calibrated French dramas that connect with auds — school settings can always land an emotional punch. Starring Roschdy Zem, Yolande Moreau and Marina Hands, this is about parents, students, teachers and one specific principle.
A possible horror offering for the Midnight Madness section, Australian twin brothers Danny & Michael Philippou (aka Racka Racka) lassoed Sophie Wilde to topline a story of a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an ancient embalmed hand.…...
Chad Chenouga‘s third feature film Le Principal might be one of those unassuming, perfectly calibrated French dramas that connect with auds — school settings can always land an emotional punch. Starring Roschdy Zem, Yolande Moreau and Marina Hands, this is about parents, students, teachers and one specific principle.
A possible horror offering for the Midnight Madness section, Australian twin brothers Danny & Michael Philippou (aka Racka Racka) lassoed Sophie Wilde to topline a story of a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an ancient embalmed hand.…...
- 7/22/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
A curmudgeonly actor helps prisoners put on a production of Waiting for Godot in Emmanuel Courcol’s predictable drama
This French comedy drama progresses along predictable, sentimental and somewhat implausible lines for the most part, improves with a sudden bolt of realism, but then goes hideously slushy in the final stretch with a contrived, manipulative denouement. Apparently it is based on real events that happened in Sweden in the mid-1980s, but the final product still stinks of script doctoring fashioned in order to shape the story into the sort of sanded-down pap that appeals to fans of obvious social-comment cinema.
Protagonist and de facto white saviour Étienne Carboni (Kad Merad) is a curmudgeonly actor, usually of the comic variety, who takes a job teaching drama to male inmates in a high-security prison. Of course, at first the motley crew of prisoners who show up for class just want to...
This French comedy drama progresses along predictable, sentimental and somewhat implausible lines for the most part, improves with a sudden bolt of realism, but then goes hideously slushy in the final stretch with a contrived, manipulative denouement. Apparently it is based on real events that happened in Sweden in the mid-1980s, but the final product still stinks of script doctoring fashioned in order to shape the story into the sort of sanded-down pap that appeals to fans of obvious social-comment cinema.
Protagonist and de facto white saviour Étienne Carboni (Kad Merad) is a curmudgeonly actor, usually of the comic variety, who takes a job teaching drama to male inmates in a high-security prison. Of course, at first the motley crew of prisoners who show up for class just want to...
- 6/21/2022
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Linking to Paris-based Nadia Turincev and her producer partner Omar El Kadi to develop and produce two new Swiss films, Geneva-based Akka Films is also ramping up TV production, with Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond, writer-directors of the acclaimed “My Little Sister,” Switzerland’s Oscar submission, teaming to create a new TV series .
Headed by Nicolas Wadimoff and Philippe Coeytaux, Akka is readying with Turincev and El Kadi “O Jacaré,” the third feature from Swiss-Portuguese filmmaker Basil Da Cunha whose debut, “After the Night” played the Cannes Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2013. Its follow-up, “O film do mundo,” screened in main competition at Locarno in 2019.
Presented at 2021’s online Industry Village, part of France’s Les Arc Film Festival, “O Jacaré” concludes Da Cunha’s trilogy set in the humble district of Reboleira on the outskirts of Lisbon. Described by its producers as a breathless ensemble thriller in the line of his previous features,...
Headed by Nicolas Wadimoff and Philippe Coeytaux, Akka is readying with Turincev and El Kadi “O Jacaré,” the third feature from Swiss-Portuguese filmmaker Basil Da Cunha whose debut, “After the Night” played the Cannes Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2013. Its follow-up, “O film do mundo,” screened in main competition at Locarno in 2019.
Presented at 2021’s online Industry Village, part of France’s Les Arc Film Festival, “O Jacaré” concludes Da Cunha’s trilogy set in the humble district of Reboleira on the outskirts of Lisbon. Described by its producers as a breathless ensemble thriller in the line of his previous features,...
- 3/2/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Streaming online via video presentations from March 25, Series Mania’s experimental Digital Forum will make or break on the quality of its centerpiece, its Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. This year’s lineup, at least on paper, looks particularly strong.
Following, a break-down on the 16 originally selected projects:
“The Abduction of Yossele Shuchmacher” (Israel)
Co-created and to be directed by celebrated Israeli cineaste Eran Riklis, based on a notorious true case in 1961 and co-created by “Fauda” writer Moshe Zonder.-Backed by veteran producer Michael Sharfshtein, the title “blends an intimate, painful drama within a powerful social-political set up, wrapped as a psychological thriller,” says Riklis.
“The Black Lady”
An English-language six-part bio-series led by Brussels-based At-Prod about Madga Goebbels which author Hélène Duchateau describes as a “depressingly modern” miniseries: “Beyond Madga Goebbels’ unique experience, it echoes the growing populist trends in Europe and the processes of radicalization in our time.”
“Casa Girls” (France)
A comedic,...
Following, a break-down on the 16 originally selected projects:
“The Abduction of Yossele Shuchmacher” (Israel)
Co-created and to be directed by celebrated Israeli cineaste Eran Riklis, based on a notorious true case in 1961 and co-created by “Fauda” writer Moshe Zonder.-Backed by veteran producer Michael Sharfshtein, the title “blends an intimate, painful drama within a powerful social-political set up, wrapped as a psychological thriller,” says Riklis.
“The Black Lady”
An English-language six-part bio-series led by Brussels-based At-Prod about Madga Goebbels which author Hélène Duchateau describes as a “depressingly modern” miniseries: “Beyond Madga Goebbels’ unique experience, it echoes the growing populist trends in Europe and the processes of radicalization in our time.”
“Casa Girls” (France)
A comedic,...
- 3/23/2020
- by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The project is filming and set for a 2020 delivery.
Paris-based mk2 films will kick off sales this Afm on Emmanuel Courcol’s French comedy The Big Hit starring Kad Merad as a struggling actor, running theatre workshops in a local prison, who takes a rag-tag troupe of convicts on tour with a performance of Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot.
Agat Films is lead producing with actor-director Dany Boon on board as a co-producer through his company Les Productions du Ch’timi. Memento Films has taken French rights.
Merad, who is best known internationally for his role in...
Paris-based mk2 films will kick off sales this Afm on Emmanuel Courcol’s French comedy The Big Hit starring Kad Merad as a struggling actor, running theatre workshops in a local prison, who takes a rag-tag troupe of convicts on tour with a performance of Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot.
Agat Films is lead producing with actor-director Dany Boon on board as a co-producer through his company Les Productions du Ch’timi. Memento Films has taken French rights.
Merad, who is best known internationally for his role in...
- 10/31/2019
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Kad Merad, Marina Hands, Laurent Stocker, Patrick Pineau and Sofian Khammes star. An Agat Films production sold by mk2. Filming is set to begin on 22 October for Un Triomphe (translation: A Triumph), Emmanuel Courcol’s second feature after Ceasefire (unveiled on the Piazza Grande at Locarno in 2016). The cast includes Kad Merad, Marina Hands, Laurent Stocker (winner of the Best Newcomer César award in 2008 for Hunting and Gathering; appreciated in Miss and the Doctors,...
France TV Distribution, the commercial arm of the French public broadcaster, has acquired international sales rights to Audrey Dana’s French comedy “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”
The movie, which is set to start shooting soon, will star Marina Hands (“French Women”), Thierry Lhermitte (“The French Minister”) and François-Xavier Demaison (“Naked Normandy”).
French production banner Curiosa Films (Juliette Binoche starrer “Let the Sunshine In”), is producing “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” Dana previously directed “If I Were A Boy” and “French Women.”
The film follows seven men, all city-dwellers aged between 17 and 70, with nothing in common apart from the fact that they are all on the verge of nervous breakdowns. They sign up for an unusual workshop in a rural area, hoping to get back on their feet, but nothing goes according to plan.
France TV Distribution’s current slate also includes Emmanuelle Carriere’s “Between Two Worlds,...
The movie, which is set to start shooting soon, will star Marina Hands (“French Women”), Thierry Lhermitte (“The French Minister”) and François-Xavier Demaison (“Naked Normandy”).
French production banner Curiosa Films (Juliette Binoche starrer “Let the Sunshine In”), is producing “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” Dana previously directed “If I Were A Boy” and “French Women.”
The film follows seven men, all city-dwellers aged between 17 and 70, with nothing in common apart from the fact that they are all on the verge of nervous breakdowns. They sign up for an unusual workshop in a rural area, hoping to get back on their feet, but nothing goes according to plan.
France TV Distribution’s current slate also includes Emmanuelle Carriere’s “Between Two Worlds,...
- 9/5/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The special jury prize went to Nir Bergman and Ram Nehari’s Israeli social drama Just For Today,
Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne’s four-part English-language drama The Virtues took the top Grand Prix award at TV festival and industry event Series Mania (March 22-30) in the northern French city of Lille over the weekend.
Lead actor Stephan Graham was also feted with the best actor award for his performance as the troubled, alcoholic protagonist who returns to his family home in Ireland to confront the roots of his problems.
The drama was produced by the UK’s Warp Films...
Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne’s four-part English-language drama The Virtues took the top Grand Prix award at TV festival and industry event Series Mania (March 22-30) in the northern French city of Lille over the weekend.
Lead actor Stephan Graham was also feted with the best actor award for his performance as the troubled, alcoholic protagonist who returns to his family home in Ireland to confront the roots of his problems.
The drama was produced by the UK’s Warp Films...
- 4/1/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
(L-r) Jeffrey Walker, Sarah Lambert and Jason Stephens at Series Mania.
Lingo Pictures’ Lambs of God didn’t win any prizes at Series Mania but the comedic drama adapted from Marele Day’s novel was warmly received by audiences and French critics.
The first two hours of the Foxtel-commissioned miniseries created by Sarah Lambert and directed by Jeffrey Walker had their world premiere in the International Panorama section of the festival staged in Lille, northern France.
Starring Essie Davis, Ann Dowd, Jessica Barden and Sam Reid, Lambs of God follows three nuns, the last survivors of the order of St. Agnes, who live in a convent on a remote island. Reid plays Father Ignatius, an ambitious young priest who plans to turn the property into a money-making luxury resort and is kidnapped by the nuns.
The cast includes John Bell as a bishop, Damon Herriman as Father Bob, Daniel Henshall...
Lingo Pictures’ Lambs of God didn’t win any prizes at Series Mania but the comedic drama adapted from Marele Day’s novel was warmly received by audiences and French critics.
The first two hours of the Foxtel-commissioned miniseries created by Sarah Lambert and directed by Jeffrey Walker had their world premiere in the International Panorama section of the festival staged in Lille, northern France.
Starring Essie Davis, Ann Dowd, Jessica Barden and Sam Reid, Lambs of God follows three nuns, the last survivors of the order of St. Agnes, who live in a convent on a remote island. Reid plays Father Ignatius, an ambitious young priest who plans to turn the property into a money-making luxury resort and is kidnapped by the nuns.
The cast includes John Bell as a bishop, Damon Herriman as Father Bob, Daniel Henshall...
- 4/1/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
The international TV event Series Mania unveiled its 2019 winners Saturday during the closing ceremony in France.
Taking place in Lille, this year’s festival ran from March 22-30, and included masterclasses from Uma Thurman, Freddie Highmore, Charlie Brooker and Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon who will also serve as president of the Official Competition jury.
Also on the jury were The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, French actress Audrey Fleurot, French writer Delphine de Vigan and Thomas Lilti, creator-director of Canal + hit Hippocrate.
Below is the full list of winners
Official Competition
Grand Prix: The Virtues
Created and written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne (UK)
Directed by: Shane Meadows – Production: Warp Films, Big Arty Productions – Broadcast by: Channel 4 (UK)
Special Jury Prize: Just for Today
Created and written by Nir Bergman and Ram Nehari (Israël)
Written and directed: Nir Bergman – Production: Endemol Shine Israël – Broadcast: Yes TV...
Taking place in Lille, this year’s festival ran from March 22-30, and included masterclasses from Uma Thurman, Freddie Highmore, Charlie Brooker and Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon who will also serve as president of the Official Competition jury.
Also on the jury were The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, French actress Audrey Fleurot, French writer Delphine de Vigan and Thomas Lilti, creator-director of Canal + hit Hippocrate.
Below is the full list of winners
Official Competition
Grand Prix: The Virtues
Created and written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne (UK)
Directed by: Shane Meadows – Production: Warp Films, Big Arty Productions – Broadcast by: Channel 4 (UK)
Special Jury Prize: Just for Today
Created and written by Nir Bergman and Ram Nehari (Israël)
Written and directed: Nir Bergman – Production: Endemol Shine Israël – Broadcast: Yes TV...
- 3/30/2019
- by Anita Bennett
- Deadline Film + TV
Three series from strong creative voices – Shane Meadows’ “The Virtues,” Nir Bergman’s “Just for Today” and the Fabrice Gobert-directed, and Netflix-backed, “Mytho” – shared major honors at an enlarged, hectic 10th Series Mania, now firmly established in festival, industry and discussion forum terms as one of the major TV events in Europe.
A story of redemption, unexpected love and imperfect fatherhood – a growing trend among drama series, Eurodata TV’s Avril Blondelot said at Series Mania – “The Virtues” won the Series Mania Grand Prix and best actor for Stephen Graham, a standout in Meadows’ “This is England,” who puts in profoundly affecting performance, by common consensus, as Joseph, a man who travels to Ireland to confront the demons left by a childhood in its care-system.
“From the first frame, ‘The Virtues’ moves you with its deep humanity. Masterfully directed, written and acted, the show is a prime example...
A story of redemption, unexpected love and imperfect fatherhood – a growing trend among drama series, Eurodata TV’s Avril Blondelot said at Series Mania – “The Virtues” won the Series Mania Grand Prix and best actor for Stephen Graham, a standout in Meadows’ “This is England,” who puts in profoundly affecting performance, by common consensus, as Joseph, a man who travels to Ireland to confront the demons left by a childhood in its care-system.
“From the first frame, ‘The Virtues’ moves you with its deep humanity. Masterfully directed, written and acted, the show is a prime example...
- 3/30/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Lille, France — Leading French independent production-finance-distribution sales company Federation Entertainment has secured international sales rights on upcoming French psychological thriller “Torn.”
The series was created and written by director Lionel Bailliu (“Innocente”)and Yann Le Gal and world premieres in the official French competition on March 25 at France’s Series Mania TV festival. Attending the series’ premiere will be French actress – producer Julie Gayet, Bailliu, Le Gal, as well as Elephant producers Gaëlle Cholet and Guillaume Renouil.
Elephant Story and At-Production co-produced with participation from France Télévisions. France 3, Belgian public broadcaster Rtbf and TV5 Monde are already set to broadcast.
In the series, a school teacher named Victoire moves to a small village in rural France with her young family. There, she runs into Florent, her first love from a lifetime ago, and their long-dormant feelings for one another reignite. Unable to suppress their desires for one another, the...
The series was created and written by director Lionel Bailliu (“Innocente”)and Yann Le Gal and world premieres in the official French competition on March 25 at France’s Series Mania TV festival. Attending the series’ premiere will be French actress – producer Julie Gayet, Bailliu, Le Gal, as well as Elephant producers Gaëlle Cholet and Guillaume Renouil.
Elephant Story and At-Production co-produced with participation from France Télévisions. France 3, Belgian public broadcaster Rtbf and TV5 Monde are already set to broadcast.
In the series, a school teacher named Victoire moves to a small village in rural France with her young family. There, she runs into Florent, her first love from a lifetime ago, and their long-dormant feelings for one another reignite. Unable to suppress their desires for one another, the...
- 3/25/2019
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Pascal Breton’s Federation Entertainment has acquired international rights to “Mytho,” a series drama which will be directed by Fabrice Gobert, the creator of Canal Plus’s hit supernatural series “The Returned.”
The series is being produced by Bruno Nahon at Unité de Production. The seasoned French producer is behind a flurry of critically acclaimed films, notably Cyril Mennegun’s “Louise Wimmer,” Nabil Ayouch’s “Razzia,” and series such as “Ainsi soient-ils” (“Churchmen”), which is one of Arte’s most popular series.
“Mytho,” which comprises six one-hour episodes, will topline French actress Marina Hands (“Tell No One,” “Lady Chatterley”) as Elvira, a loving and caring wife who finds herself on the edge of burnout. One day, she starts suspecting her husband of having an affair, and on the spur of the moment, she pretends that she is sick, a small white lie that will have huge consequences.
“Mytho” has been commissioned by Franco-German network Arte.
The series is being produced by Bruno Nahon at Unité de Production. The seasoned French producer is behind a flurry of critically acclaimed films, notably Cyril Mennegun’s “Louise Wimmer,” Nabil Ayouch’s “Razzia,” and series such as “Ainsi soient-ils” (“Churchmen”), which is one of Arte’s most popular series.
“Mytho,” which comprises six one-hour episodes, will topline French actress Marina Hands (“Tell No One,” “Lady Chatterley”) as Elvira, a loving and caring wife who finds herself on the edge of burnout. One day, she starts suspecting her husband of having an affair, and on the spur of the moment, she pretends that she is sick, a small white lie that will have huge consequences.
“Mytho” has been commissioned by Franco-German network Arte.
- 4/6/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The Devil Wears Prada understood the fashion milieu it was satirising, but this film, with its outdated ‘think pink’ stereotypes, does not
However tempting it may be to salute any film audacious enough to punctuate its title, it must be conceded that Chic! doesn’t deserve that punctuation mark. Although pleasant in its way, thanks mostly to its engaging cast, there’s not a lot in this flat French comedy to exclaim about.
The unconvincingly contrived high concept here is that Fanny Ardant is a capricious top fashion designer who must have a male muse to inspire her. This means uptight company executive Marina Hands must persuade her earthy Breton gardener Eric Elmosnino to hang out with (but not actually shag) Ardant, providing inspiration, until the new collection is completed.
Continue reading...
However tempting it may be to salute any film audacious enough to punctuate its title, it must be conceded that Chic! doesn’t deserve that punctuation mark. Although pleasant in its way, thanks mostly to its engaging cast, there’s not a lot in this flat French comedy to exclaim about.
The unconvincingly contrived high concept here is that Fanny Ardant is a capricious top fashion designer who must have a male muse to inspire her. This means uptight company executive Marina Hands must persuade her earthy Breton gardener Eric Elmosnino to hang out with (but not actually shag) Ardant, providing inspiration, until the new collection is completed.
Continue reading...
- 10/15/2015
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Annual event set to showcase 90 French productions, 48 of them market premieres.
Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.
France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.
The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.
Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...
Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.
France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.
The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.
Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...
- 1/13/2015
- ScreenDaily
Annual event set to showcase 90 French productions, 48 of them market premieres.
Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.
France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.
The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.
Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...
Unifrance’s annual Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris will kick-off as planned on Thursday (Jan 15), a week after a series of terrorist attacks, in which 17 people were killed, rocked the capital.
France remains on high alert after the shooting of 12 people at the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, by two radicalised brothers offended by its cartoon depictions of the Islamic prophet Mohammed; the shooting of a police woman and the slaughter of four people at a kosher supermarket in the east of the city.
The French government announced on Monday that it was deploying 10,000 troops to protect vulnerable sites across the country — including Jewish schools and neighbourhoods – amid news that security forces believed at least six members of the terrorist cell that plotted the attacks may still be at large.
Charlie Hebdo’s surviving staff have responded to the attack with a new edition of the...
- 1/13/2015
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Director [pictured] to start shooting gritty drama in France in June.
French director Philippe Claudel is set to work with key cast members of Stranger by the Lake – Pierre Deladonchamps and Patrick D’Assumçao – on his upcoming film (childhood).
The picture, which is due to shoot in France in June, revolves around 13-year-old Jimmy, a teenager forced to grow-up too soon due to his turbulent home-life, caught between a depressed mother and a controlling stepfather.
Deladonchamps, D’Assumçao and Angelica Sarre feature in the cast alongside two unknown siblings in the child roles.
The €3.9m production is due to start shooting in north-eastern France in June. Les Films du Losange, which is also producing, will start pre-sales on (childhood) at the Efm.
Claudel is best known internationally for I Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman re-building her life after 15 years in prison, which competed at the Berlinale in 2008 and also won a Bafta...
French director Philippe Claudel is set to work with key cast members of Stranger by the Lake – Pierre Deladonchamps and Patrick D’Assumçao – on his upcoming film (childhood).
The picture, which is due to shoot in France in June, revolves around 13-year-old Jimmy, a teenager forced to grow-up too soon due to his turbulent home-life, caught between a depressed mother and a controlling stepfather.
Deladonchamps, D’Assumçao and Angelica Sarre feature in the cast alongside two unknown siblings in the child roles.
The €3.9m production is due to start shooting in north-eastern France in June. Les Films du Losange, which is also producing, will start pre-sales on (childhood) at the Efm.
Claudel is best known internationally for I Loved You So Long, starring Kristin Scott Thomas as a woman re-building her life after 15 years in prison, which competed at the Berlinale in 2008 and also won a Bafta...
- 2/6/2014
- ScreenDaily
‘Tell No One’ thriller to get Hollywood remake (photo: ‘Tell No One’ 2006, with François Cluzet and Marie-Josée Croze) Gavin O’Connor, among whose credits are Tumbleweeds, Warrior, and the upcoming Natalie Portman action drama Jane Got a Gun, "is in negotiations" to direct Universal and Warner Bros.’ thriller Tell No One, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Whether the film will be a direct remake of Guillaume Canet’s Ne le dis à personne (2006), starring François Cluzet and Marie-Josée Croze, or be based on the original source — Harlan Coben’s novel Tell No One — is unclear. Canet and Philippe Lefebvre were credited for the screenplay of the French movie. Frequent Steven Spielberg collaborator Frank Marshall (The Color Purple, War Horse, Jurassic World) is producing the new Tell No One. Academy Award winner Chris Terrio (Argo) will be writing the adaptation. Curiously, Argo director Ben Affleck had been previously attached to this...
- 11/22/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Chicago – There is a moment in Guillaume Canet’s “Tell No One” when protagonist Alexandre Beck (François Cluzet) is forced to run. The police are hot on his trail and have cornered him at his office, where he serves as a pediatrician. But before the cops burst through the door, Alex sails out his window, breaks his fall with a car roof and runs as fast as his feet can cary him.
This pulse-pounding moment occurs about midway through Canet’s 2006 mystery, and quickly unspools into one of the greatest sustained chase sequences in film history, proving that stunt work and in-camera effects will always trump any brand of digital trickery. Yet that is only one of countless highlights in this splendidly entertaining masterpiece of suspense. It was the sixth film distributed by Music Box Films, and ended up becoming one of their biggest hits, which is hardly surprising considering...
This pulse-pounding moment occurs about midway through Canet’s 2006 mystery, and quickly unspools into one of the greatest sustained chase sequences in film history, proving that stunt work and in-camera effects will always trump any brand of digital trickery. Yet that is only one of countless highlights in this splendidly entertaining masterpiece of suspense. It was the sixth film distributed by Music Box Films, and ended up becoming one of their biggest hits, which is hardly surprising considering...
- 12/14/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
DVD Playhouse—March 2011
By
Allen Gardner
127 Hours (20th Century Fox) Harrowing true story of Aron Ralston (James Franco, in another fine turn), an extreme outdoorsman who finds himself trapped in a remote Utah canyon, his arm pinned between two boulders, with no help nearby, no communication to the outside world, and dim prospects for survival, to say the least. Director Danny Boyle manages to prove again that he’s one of the finest filmmakers working today by making a subject that is seemingly uncinematic a true example of pure cinema. Inventive, breathtaking, funny, and horrifying, often all at once. Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara make a memorable, brief appearance as hikers who connect with Ralston during his journey. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Boyle, producer Christian Colson, co-writer Simon Beaufoy; Deleted scenes; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.
Amarcord (Criterion) Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning, autobiographical classic might...
By
Allen Gardner
127 Hours (20th Century Fox) Harrowing true story of Aron Ralston (James Franco, in another fine turn), an extreme outdoorsman who finds himself trapped in a remote Utah canyon, his arm pinned between two boulders, with no help nearby, no communication to the outside world, and dim prospects for survival, to say the least. Director Danny Boyle manages to prove again that he’s one of the finest filmmakers working today by making a subject that is seemingly uncinematic a true example of pure cinema. Inventive, breathtaking, funny, and horrifying, often all at once. Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara make a memorable, brief appearance as hikers who connect with Ralston during his journey. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Boyle, producer Christian Colson, co-writer Simon Beaufoy; Deleted scenes; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.
Amarcord (Criterion) Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning, autobiographical classic might...
- 3/1/2011
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Our film critic makes the nominations for his own personal Oscars in a widely underrated year for film
December is the season of list-making and Top 10 compiling, but when I mention this to other critics, it's been getting winces and shrugs and mutterings that 2010 hasn't been a vintage year. I'm not so sure about that. It's true that the huge arthouse hits like The White Ribbon and A Prophet are now a very distant memory — A Prophet in fact was released at the very beginning of this year, but has been so extensively discussed, that I don't mention it below. Some huge crowd-pleasers, like Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, Tom Hooper's The King's Speech and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, haven't yet had a full release and neither has Kelly Reichardt's western, Meek's Cutoff. These things may combine to produce the impression that 2010 is in itself a thin year.
December is the season of list-making and Top 10 compiling, but when I mention this to other critics, it's been getting winces and shrugs and mutterings that 2010 hasn't been a vintage year. I'm not so sure about that. It's true that the huge arthouse hits like The White Ribbon and A Prophet are now a very distant memory — A Prophet in fact was released at the very beginning of this year, but has been so extensively discussed, that I don't mention it below. Some huge crowd-pleasers, like Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, Tom Hooper's The King's Speech and Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, haven't yet had a full release and neither has Kelly Reichardt's western, Meek's Cutoff. These things may combine to produce the impression that 2010 is in itself a thin year.
- 12/1/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Unstoppable (12A)
(Tony Scott, 2010, Us) Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Dunn. 98 mins
This literally one-track action thriller is the perfect fit for Scott, Hollywood's master of manliness and heavy machinery. It's based on a true story that just happens to have a plot like a disaster movie: a massive, unmanned train carrying hazardous chemicals is hurtling towards populated areas; might the prickly railroad veteran and his rookie partner just be able to stop it? Everyone knows where it's going but it's got enough momentum to smash through to the finish, and the purity of the premise is a good fit with Scott's visual excess.
The American (15)
(Anton Corbijn, 2010, Us) George Clooney, Violante Placido, Paolo Bonacelli. 105 mins
Corbijn follows up Control with a sparse, existential hitman thriller in the Le Samourai/Day Of The Jackal mould, with Clooney in picturesque Italy. Apart from the classy visuals, it...
(Tony Scott, 2010, Us) Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson, Ethan Suplee, Kevin Dunn. 98 mins
This literally one-track action thriller is the perfect fit for Scott, Hollywood's master of manliness and heavy machinery. It's based on a true story that just happens to have a plot like a disaster movie: a massive, unmanned train carrying hazardous chemicals is hurtling towards populated areas; might the prickly railroad veteran and his rookie partner just be able to stop it? Everyone knows where it's going but it's got enough momentum to smash through to the finish, and the purity of the premise is a good fit with Scott's visual excess.
The American (15)
(Anton Corbijn, 2010, Us) George Clooney, Violante Placido, Paolo Bonacelli. 105 mins
Corbijn follows up Control with a sparse, existential hitman thriller in the Le Samourai/Day Of The Jackal mould, with Clooney in picturesque Italy. Apart from the classy visuals, it...
- 11/27/2010
- by The guide
- The Guardian - Film News
A pungently atmospheric chamber piece about the nature and history of Russian political power. By Peter Bradshaw
Marc Dugain, the author whose first world war-set novel The Officers' Ward became a powerful movie almost a decade ago, has here directed his own adaptation of his 2007 novel – or rather, adapted just the first part of an ambitious, episodic fiction about the nature and history of Russian political power. The result is a pungently atmospheric chamber piece, set in the paranoid Soviet era of purges and disappearances; Dugain imagines an encounter between Stalin and a young doctor, Anna, who inspires malign obsession from male colleagues on account of her extreme beauty and popularity with patients, stemming from a rumoured healing "aura" from her hands. Stalin imperiously makes Anna his top-secret personal physician, an intimacy which he decrees is so important that it supersedes and invalidates every other relationship in her life – especially her marriage.
Marc Dugain, the author whose first world war-set novel The Officers' Ward became a powerful movie almost a decade ago, has here directed his own adaptation of his 2007 novel – or rather, adapted just the first part of an ambitious, episodic fiction about the nature and history of Russian political power. The result is a pungently atmospheric chamber piece, set in the paranoid Soviet era of purges and disappearances; Dugain imagines an encounter between Stalin and a young doctor, Anna, who inspires malign obsession from male colleagues on account of her extreme beauty and popularity with patients, stemming from a rumoured healing "aura" from her hands. Stalin imperiously makes Anna his top-secret personal physician, an intimacy which he decrees is so important that it supersedes and invalidates every other relationship in her life – especially her marriage.
- 11/26/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In the week in which Harry Potter broke five UK box office records, we bring you all the stats, and any other film-related news we can, as relief from wall-to-wall wizardry
The big story
The trouble with Harry is that he's just everywhere. The seventh instalment in the boy wizard's adventures, the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, finally hit cinemas last Friday. By Monday it was clear writers the world over were going to have to dust off that "audiences have fallen under his spell" cliche yet again. So, let's keep this brief: it broke five records this side of the pond, another couple in the States. For more details, try Charles Gant's UK box office analysis and Jeremy Kay's Hollywood report. And if you want to discuss whether or not it revives the sequel as a format, check out David Cox's blog. Last Friday, too, James Russell wrote a...
The big story
The trouble with Harry is that he's just everywhere. The seventh instalment in the boy wizard's adventures, the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, finally hit cinemas last Friday. By Monday it was clear writers the world over were going to have to dust off that "audiences have fallen under his spell" cliche yet again. So, let's keep this brief: it broke five records this side of the pond, another couple in the States. For more details, try Charles Gant's UK box office analysis and Jeremy Kay's Hollywood report. And if you want to discuss whether or not it revives the sequel as a format, check out David Cox's blog. Last Friday, too, James Russell wrote a...
- 11/26/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
This week, Jason Solomons meets one of Britain's greatest living film producers, Jeremy Thomas. Over four decades, Thomas has produced such films as David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, for which he won a best picture Oscar in 1988. Jeremy talks about growing up in the business, as he watched his father and uncle direct Carry On and Doctor films at Ealing and Pinewood throughout the 1960s and 70s.
Jason also talks to Anglo-French actor Marina Hands about her performance in the French film An Ordinary Execution, set in Russia in 1952 under the reign of a sickly Stalin.
Peter Bradshaw pops in to review Denzel Washington in Unstoppable, Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley in London Boulevard, Robert Rodriguez's Machete and George Clooney in Anton Corbijn's The American.
Jason SolomonsPeter BradshawJason Phipps...
Jason also talks to Anglo-French actor Marina Hands about her performance in the French film An Ordinary Execution, set in Russia in 1952 under the reign of a sickly Stalin.
Peter Bradshaw pops in to review Denzel Washington in Unstoppable, Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley in London Boulevard, Robert Rodriguez's Machete and George Clooney in Anton Corbijn's The American.
Jason SolomonsPeter BradshawJason Phipps...
- 11/25/2010
- by Jason Solomons, Peter Bradshaw, Jason Phipps
- The Guardian - Film News
The new season of Mad Men begins tonight. Hooray! Meanwhile we're going all the way back to the beginning to share the show's movie references for fans and Mad Men virgins alike. Even if you don't watch the show, you're here because you love talking about the movies. Previously we covered episode 1 and its telling Gidget reference and episode's 2 throwaway Wizard of Oz bit. I'm cheating with this next installment which discusses neither a movie nor a television show, but a book. Since the classic book has fascinated multiple filmmakers, I'm allowing it to count. Mostly because I love the scene so much.
1.3 "Marriage of Figaro"
Lady Chatterley's Lover. Scandalous!
Joan Holloway: You know girls, we'd be happy to bring you coffee. I was on my way over anyway. [pause] I have something of yours. Lady Chatterley's Lover ... I finished it last night.
Office Girl #1: Good to the last drop,...
1.3 "Marriage of Figaro"
Lady Chatterley's Lover. Scandalous!
Joan Holloway: You know girls, we'd be happy to bring you coffee. I was on my way over anyway. [pause] I have something of yours. Lady Chatterley's Lover ... I finished it last night.
Office Girl #1: Good to the last drop,...
- 8/16/2009
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Isabelle Carre ("A French Gigolo"), Marina Hands ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly") and James Thierree ("Twice Upon a Time") will star in Claude Miller's "Voyez comme ils dansent" (Watch While They Dance) a drama loosely based on Roy Parvin's short story "Menno's Granddaughter."The film follows a woman who travels from Paris to a small town in Canada, where her ex-husband has just died.After falling ill she has to seek help from her ex's widow, the woman he left her for, and they develop an uneasy friendship.According to Variety, Patrick Godeau will produce through his Paris-based Aliceleo production company. Filming will take place in France and Canada late this year or early 2010.
- 7/2/2009
- by Adnan Tezer
- Monsters and Critics
- A trio of actors in Isabelle Carre (Anna M.), Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley) and James Thierree (Vatel) have scored a top-lining acting gig in Claude Miller's next feature which will be filmed on both sides of the Atlantic. The production to be set up for sometime in 2010 is titled Voyez comme ils dansent (Watch While They Dance) and is loosely based on Roy Parvin's short story "Menno's Granddaughter", this follows a woman who travels from Paris to a small town in Canada, where her ex-husband has just died. After falling ill she has to seek help from her ex's widow, the woman he left her for, and they develop an uneasy friendship. Variety reports that Patrick Godeau (La fille coupée en deux) will produce. Miller has had some luck stateside having his last two pics La petite Lili (2003) and Un secret (2007) find distribution via First Run and Strand respectively.
- 7/2/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
- In the U.S. - it became Music Box Film's “the picture with subtitles that could”. I caught a screening of it in it's 12th week in Manhattan, and it tallied a cool 6 million in box office receipts - a rarity indeed. Apparently this kind of buzz has caught the attention of Miramax who along with Kathleen Kennedy and int. Sales unit Focus Features are getting in on the action with EuropaCorp on an English language remake that despite having no cast or crew attached is poised to go into production as early as next Spring. The project will need a 30-40 male demo for the film's lead - one that portray anguish, melancholy and anger. Based on American crime novelist Harlan Coben’s best-selling novel, the original saw pediatrician Alexandre Beck (Francois Cluzet) still grieve for his wife Margot Beck (Marie-Josée Croze), brutally murdered eight years earlier. Only
- 4/30/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
You know you’ve been to a really great foreign film if you find yourself forgetting it was subtitled. That’s how I felt when I read about the DVD release of last summer’s Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne).
In some ways, Tell No One feels very French. Nothing is the way it seems, which I love. In other ways, it feels like a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, full of quirky characters and edge-of-your-seat suspense.
Alex, a pediatrician (François Cluzet), is happily married to his childhood sweetheart, Margot (Marie-Josée Croze).
When Margot is murdered, Alex is the main suspect for a while — then is cleared. But eight years later, he receives what appears to be proof that Margot is still alive. Here’s the trailer.
I don’t want to say much more about the plot because the twists and turns are the best part of this movie.
In some ways, Tell No One feels very French. Nothing is the way it seems, which I love. In other ways, it feels like a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock, full of quirky characters and edge-of-your-seat suspense.
Alex, a pediatrician (François Cluzet), is happily married to his childhood sweetheart, Margot (Marie-Josée Croze).
When Margot is murdered, Alex is the main suspect for a while — then is cleared. But eight years later, he receives what appears to be proof that Margot is still alive. Here’s the trailer.
I don’t want to say much more about the plot because the twists and turns are the best part of this movie.
- 3/31/2009
- by thelinster
- AfterEllen.com
Starring: François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, Marina Hands, Kristin Scott Thomas Director: Guillaume Canet Release Date: July 2, 2008 (Limited) Running Time: 96 min MPAA Rating: Unrated Distributor: MusicBox Films - - - Review by David Dimichele - - - Tell No One is a French thriller that requires its viewing audience to know nothing more than the main character does. In this way, director Canet heightens the level of realism and creates scenes that have us scratching our heads alongside the main character, Alexander Beck (Francois Cluzet). This confusion couldn’t have worked if Cluzet didn’t have the face of both an innocent puppy and of a sly secret assassin, a man capable of just about anything. So much so that when he changes his attire during the film he takes on the persona that the clothing represents. He’s an everyman and that makes us even more suspicious as Tell...
- 8/31/2008
- The Movie Fanatic
PARIS -- French director Daniele Thompson will follow up her 2006 hit "Avenue Montaigne" with "Le Code a Change", set to star a flock of famous French faces, producer Thelma Films said Monday.
Despite its title, which in English means, "The Code Has Changed", Thompson will stick to her winning formula of a Paris-based ensemble dramedy featuring the creme de la creme of Gallic talent and focusing on the lives of wealthy Parisians.
Co-produced by Alain Terzian's Alter Films, "Code" stars Karin Viard, Danny Boon, Marina Fois, Marina Hands, Emmanuelle Seigner, Patrick Bruel, Patrick Chesnais, Pierre Arditi and Laurent Stocker.
Keeping with family tradition, Thompson's son Christopher, co-writer of "Montaigne", will co-star in the pic.
The story brings together a potpourri of personalities from the Parisian upper class for a humorous, emotionally charged dinner that unveils deceiving appearances and uncovered truths.
After penning the scripts for French films "La Grande Vadrouille" (1966) and "The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" (1973) alongside her father Gerard Oury, "Montaigne" will be Thompson's fourth turn in the director's chair.
Despite its title, which in English means, "The Code Has Changed", Thompson will stick to her winning formula of a Paris-based ensemble dramedy featuring the creme de la creme of Gallic talent and focusing on the lives of wealthy Parisians.
Co-produced by Alain Terzian's Alter Films, "Code" stars Karin Viard, Danny Boon, Marina Fois, Marina Hands, Emmanuelle Seigner, Patrick Bruel, Patrick Chesnais, Pierre Arditi and Laurent Stocker.
Keeping with family tradition, Thompson's son Christopher, co-writer of "Montaigne", will co-star in the pic.
The story brings together a potpourri of personalities from the Parisian upper class for a humorous, emotionally charged dinner that unveils deceiving appearances and uncovered truths.
After penning the scripts for French films "La Grande Vadrouille" (1966) and "The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" (1973) alongside her father Gerard Oury, "Montaigne" will be Thompson's fourth turn in the director's chair.
- 2/26/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Luck was a lady Saturday night as Pascale Ferran's "Lady Chatterley" won the prize for best film in a tight race at the 32nd annual Cesar Awards, France's top film honors.
The adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's steamy novel beat out Guillaume Canet's thriller "Tell No One" and Rachid Bouchareb's World War II drama "Days of Glory"; all three were nominated for nine awards.
"Chatterley" took home four other honors at the ceremony, including adaptation, costumes and cinematography. Pedro Almodovar presented the award for best actress to Marina Hands for her title role in "Chatterley" as the wife of a paralyzed aristocrat who finds passion with a gamekeeper. Prix Louis Delluc winner "Chatterley" has been a critics' favorite despite a modest 200,000 admissions to date, By comparison, "Glory" had sold 3.2 million tickets and "No One" moved 2.8 million.
Francois Cluzet won the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man searching desperately for his missing wife in "No One". Canet picked up the best director award for the film, which also landed honors for music and editing.
"Glory", Algeria's Oscar hopeful that tells the story of North Africans who fought to liberate France during WWII, scored only one Cesar for original screenplay despite its nine nominations.
The adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's steamy novel beat out Guillaume Canet's thriller "Tell No One" and Rachid Bouchareb's World War II drama "Days of Glory"; all three were nominated for nine awards.
"Chatterley" took home four other honors at the ceremony, including adaptation, costumes and cinematography. Pedro Almodovar presented the award for best actress to Marina Hands for her title role in "Chatterley" as the wife of a paralyzed aristocrat who finds passion with a gamekeeper. Prix Louis Delluc winner "Chatterley" has been a critics' favorite despite a modest 200,000 admissions to date, By comparison, "Glory" had sold 3.2 million tickets and "No One" moved 2.8 million.
Francois Cluzet won the best actor prize for his portrayal of a man searching desperately for his missing wife in "No One". Canet picked up the best director award for the film, which also landed honors for music and editing.
"Glory", Algeria's Oscar hopeful that tells the story of North Africans who fought to liberate France during WWII, scored only one Cesar for original screenplay despite its nine nominations.
- 2/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Pascale Ferran's "Lady Chatterley" is the sixth screen adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's scabrous (for its time) tale of an aristocrat's adulterous passion for her husband's gamekeeper, and the second French version. (For the record, the other four are English, Japanese, Italian and a Franco-German pornographic film). It also is the first by a female director.
It would be pleasing to report that Ferran's focus on the woman's point of view, signaled by the dropping of the third word in Lawrence's original title, "Lady Chatterley's Lover," has added a new dimension. Unfortunately, it has not. Lawrence was sufficiently attuned to feminist currents when he wrote the book in 1928 to provide the focus himself. Here Ferran's overliteral visual interpretation -- polished, tasteful but ultimately bloodless -- fails to convey any of the resonance of the text.
At 21⁄2 hours, it also is far too long. While French critics have praised the movie highly, it is unlikely to win a following outside its home territory, the festival circuit and the circle of those for whom the name Lady Chatterley is an irresistible attraction.
Constance Chatterley (Marina Hands), a young married woman bored by life with her paralyzed upper-class husband Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot), finds romance and release with gamekeeper Oliver Mellors (whom Ferran chooses for no apparent reason to rename Parkin, played by Jean-Louis Coulloc'h). She longs for a child and, partly with Clifford's tacit consent, becomes pregnant by Parkins While Constance is away on holiday with her sister Hilda (Helene Fillieres) in the south of France, Parkin's estranged wife returns. The couple then plan to divorce their respective spouses and make a new life together.
One of the film's major problems is the casting. Hands is watchable, playing Constance as a conscientious but childlike wife whose urgent need for sexual fulfillment leads her to break her marriage vows. But the uncharismatic Coulloc'h fails utterly to convince as Parkin.
The book's transgressive charge had to do with class as much as with sex. Coulloc'h's white collar and tie-wearing Parkin comes over more as an out-of-work bank manager roughing it for a while between jobs than as a man in touch with nature and its urgings. In the book, Mellors' earthiness is conveyed partly by the use of dialect, not to mention the infamous four-letter word. An actor with a regional accent might have been more appropriate in the role. Instead, the chasm in class between Constance and Parkin is blurred, and the sight of them frolicking naked in the rain like a couple of secondary-residence owners enjoying a weekend in the country is likely to inspire as much mirth as wonder.
Finally, it is the crippled Clifford, fighting the pangs of jealousy as he submits to his wife's determination to look to another man as a means of conceiving a child, who inspires the greatest sympathy.
LADY CHATTERLEY
Maia Films, Arte France
Credits:
Director: Pascale Ferran
Screenwriters: Roger Bohbot, Pascale Ferran, Pierre Trividic
Based on the novel by: D.H. Lawrence
Producers: Olivier Guerbois, Gilles Sandoz
Director of photography: Julien Hirsch
Music: Beatrice Thiriet
Costume designer: Marie-Claude Altot
Editors: Mathilde Muyard, Yann Dedet
Cast:
Constance Chatterley: Marina Hands
Parkin: Jean-Louis Coulloc'h
Sir Clifford: Hippolyte Girardot
Mrs. Bolton: Helene Alexandridis
Hilda: Helene Fillieres
Running time -- 158 minutes
No MPAA rating...
It would be pleasing to report that Ferran's focus on the woman's point of view, signaled by the dropping of the third word in Lawrence's original title, "Lady Chatterley's Lover," has added a new dimension. Unfortunately, it has not. Lawrence was sufficiently attuned to feminist currents when he wrote the book in 1928 to provide the focus himself. Here Ferran's overliteral visual interpretation -- polished, tasteful but ultimately bloodless -- fails to convey any of the resonance of the text.
At 21⁄2 hours, it also is far too long. While French critics have praised the movie highly, it is unlikely to win a following outside its home territory, the festival circuit and the circle of those for whom the name Lady Chatterley is an irresistible attraction.
Constance Chatterley (Marina Hands), a young married woman bored by life with her paralyzed upper-class husband Clifford (Hippolyte Girardot), finds romance and release with gamekeeper Oliver Mellors (whom Ferran chooses for no apparent reason to rename Parkin, played by Jean-Louis Coulloc'h). She longs for a child and, partly with Clifford's tacit consent, becomes pregnant by Parkins While Constance is away on holiday with her sister Hilda (Helene Fillieres) in the south of France, Parkin's estranged wife returns. The couple then plan to divorce their respective spouses and make a new life together.
One of the film's major problems is the casting. Hands is watchable, playing Constance as a conscientious but childlike wife whose urgent need for sexual fulfillment leads her to break her marriage vows. But the uncharismatic Coulloc'h fails utterly to convince as Parkin.
The book's transgressive charge had to do with class as much as with sex. Coulloc'h's white collar and tie-wearing Parkin comes over more as an out-of-work bank manager roughing it for a while between jobs than as a man in touch with nature and its urgings. In the book, Mellors' earthiness is conveyed partly by the use of dialect, not to mention the infamous four-letter word. An actor with a regional accent might have been more appropriate in the role. Instead, the chasm in class between Constance and Parkin is blurred, and the sight of them frolicking naked in the rain like a couple of secondary-residence owners enjoying a weekend in the country is likely to inspire as much mirth as wonder.
Finally, it is the crippled Clifford, fighting the pangs of jealousy as he submits to his wife's determination to look to another man as a means of conceiving a child, who inspires the greatest sympathy.
LADY CHATTERLEY
Maia Films, Arte France
Credits:
Director: Pascale Ferran
Screenwriters: Roger Bohbot, Pascale Ferran, Pierre Trividic
Based on the novel by: D.H. Lawrence
Producers: Olivier Guerbois, Gilles Sandoz
Director of photography: Julien Hirsch
Music: Beatrice Thiriet
Costume designer: Marie-Claude Altot
Editors: Mathilde Muyard, Yann Dedet
Cast:
Constance Chatterley: Marina Hands
Parkin: Jean-Louis Coulloc'h
Sir Clifford: Hippolyte Girardot
Mrs. Bolton: Helene Alexandridis
Hilda: Helene Fillieres
Running time -- 158 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARIS -- Rachid Bouchareb's Days of Glory, Pascale Ferran's Lady Chatterley and Guillaume Canet's Tell No One dominate the nominations for this year's Cesar Awards, France's top film honors, with each film vying for nine awards, organizers said Friday.
Alain Resnais' Coeurs and Xavier Giannoli's When I Was a Singer trail with eight and seven nominations, respectively.
Days of Glory, a harrowing portrayal of North Africans who fought to liberate France during World War II, followed up its foreign-language Oscar nomination with nine Cesar noms including best film, director and original script.
Tell No One, Guillaume Canet's adaptation of Harlan Coben's thriller, also bagged nine nominations, including best film, director and actor (Francois Cluzet).
Lady Chatterley, a critics' favorite that picked up the Louis Delluc prize in December, rounded out the trio with nominations in the best film, director and actress (Marina Hands) categories.
Philippe Lioret's adolescent drama Don't Worry, I'm Fine, also will compete in the best film category, nabbing a total of five nominations including best director and female newcomer (Melanie Laurent).
Cecile de France, who took last year's supporting actress Cesar, will compete against herself in the best actress category for her roles in When I Was a Singer and Avenue Montaigne. Catherine Frot (The Page Turner), Charlotte Gainsbourg (I Do) and Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley) also will vie for the prize.
Nominees in the best actor category include Michel Blanc, who plays a farmer in French boxoffice hit You're So Beautiful; Alain Chabat, for his hilarious portrayal of a reluctant lover in I Do; Gerard Depardieu, for his role as a worn-out ballroom singer in When I Was a Singer; Jean Dujardin, who plays the French reincarnation of James Bond in OSS 117; and Francois Cluzet, a man searching for his missing wife in Tell No One.
Singer, Glory and Beautiful will vie for best original screenplay alongside Avenue Montaigne and Jean-Philippe while No One, Chatterley, OSS 117 and Don't Worry will compete with Alain Resnais' ensemble hit Private Fears in Public Places in the best adaptation category.
Christine Citti (Singer), Mylene Demongeot (French California) and Bernadette Lafont (I Do) will compete for the best supporting actress prize with French singer Dani (Avenue Montaigne) and this year's Cesars ceremony host, Valerie Lemercier (Montaigne).
The nominees for best supporting actor are Danny Boon (The Valet), Francois Cluzet (Four Stars), Andre Dussollier (No One), Guy Marchand (Inside Paris) and Kad Merad (Don't Worry).
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine, Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, Stephen Frears' The Queen and Pedro Almodovar's Volver will compete for best foreign-language film.
Alain Resnais' Coeurs and Xavier Giannoli's When I Was a Singer trail with eight and seven nominations, respectively.
Days of Glory, a harrowing portrayal of North Africans who fought to liberate France during World War II, followed up its foreign-language Oscar nomination with nine Cesar noms including best film, director and original script.
Tell No One, Guillaume Canet's adaptation of Harlan Coben's thriller, also bagged nine nominations, including best film, director and actor (Francois Cluzet).
Lady Chatterley, a critics' favorite that picked up the Louis Delluc prize in December, rounded out the trio with nominations in the best film, director and actress (Marina Hands) categories.
Philippe Lioret's adolescent drama Don't Worry, I'm Fine, also will compete in the best film category, nabbing a total of five nominations including best director and female newcomer (Melanie Laurent).
Cecile de France, who took last year's supporting actress Cesar, will compete against herself in the best actress category for her roles in When I Was a Singer and Avenue Montaigne. Catherine Frot (The Page Turner), Charlotte Gainsbourg (I Do) and Marina Hands (Lady Chatterley) also will vie for the prize.
Nominees in the best actor category include Michel Blanc, who plays a farmer in French boxoffice hit You're So Beautiful; Alain Chabat, for his hilarious portrayal of a reluctant lover in I Do; Gerard Depardieu, for his role as a worn-out ballroom singer in When I Was a Singer; Jean Dujardin, who plays the French reincarnation of James Bond in OSS 117; and Francois Cluzet, a man searching for his missing wife in Tell No One.
Singer, Glory and Beautiful will vie for best original screenplay alongside Avenue Montaigne and Jean-Philippe while No One, Chatterley, OSS 117 and Don't Worry will compete with Alain Resnais' ensemble hit Private Fears in Public Places in the best adaptation category.
Christine Citti (Singer), Mylene Demongeot (French California) and Bernadette Lafont (I Do) will compete for the best supporting actress prize with French singer Dani (Avenue Montaigne) and this year's Cesars ceremony host, Valerie Lemercier (Montaigne).
The nominees for best supporting actor are Danny Boon (The Valet), Francois Cluzet (Four Stars), Andre Dussollier (No One), Guy Marchand (Inside Paris) and Kad Merad (Don't Worry).
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Babel, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine, Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain, Stephen Frears' The Queen and Pedro Almodovar's Volver will compete for best foreign-language film.
- 1/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Rachid Bouchareb's "Days of Glory", Pascale Ferran's "Lady Chatterley" and Guillaume Canet's "Tell No One" dominate the nominations for this year's Cesar Awards, France's top film honors, with each film vying for nine awards, organizers said Friday.
Alain Resnais' "Coeurs" and Xavier Giannoli's "When I Was a Singer" trail with eight and seven nominations, respectively.
"Days of Glory", a harrowing portrayal of North Africans who fought to liberate France during World War II, followed up its foreign-language Oscar nomination with nine Cesar noms including best film, director and original script.
"Tell No One", Guillaume Canet's adaptation of Harlan Coben's thriller, also bagged nine nominations, including best film, director and actor (Francois Cluzet).
"Lady Chatterley", a critics' favorite that picked up the Louis Delluc prize in December, rounded out the trio with nominations in the best film, director and actress (Marina Hands) categories.
Philippe Lioret's adolescent drama "Don't Worry, I'm Fine", also will compete in the best film category, nabbing a total of five nominations including best director and female newcomer (Melanie Laurent).
Cecile de France, who took last year's supporting actress Cesar, will compete against herself in the best actress category for her roles in "When I Was a Singer" and "Avenue Montaigne". Catherine Frot ("The Page Turner"), Charlotte Gainsbourg ("I Do") and Marina Hands ("Lady Chatterley") also will vie for the prize.
Nominees in the best actor category include Michel Blanc, who plays a farmer in French boxoffice hit "You're So Beautiful"; Alain Chabat, for his hilarious portrayal of a reluctant lover in "I Do"; Gerard Depardieu, for his role as a worn-out ballroom singer in "When I Was a Singer"; Jean Dujardin, who plays the French reincarnation of James Bond in "OSS 117"; and Francois Cluzet, a man searching for his missing wife in "Tell No One".
"Singer", "Glory" and "Beautiful" will vie for best original screenplay alongside "Avenue Montaigne" and "Jean-Philippe" while "No One", "Chatterley", "OSS 117" and "Don't Worry" will compete with Alain Resnais' ensemble hit "Private Fears in Public Places" in the best adaptation category.
Christine Citti ("Singer"), Mylene Demongeot ("French California") and Bernadette Lafont ("I Do") will compete for the best supporting actress prize with French singer Dani ("Avenue Montaigne") and this year's Cesars ceremony host, Valerie Lemercier ("Montaigne").
The nominees for best supporting actor are Danny Boon ("The Valet"), Francois Cluzet ("Four Stars"), Andre Dussollier ("No One"), Guy Marchand ("Inside Paris") and Kad Merad ("Don't Worry").
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel", Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' "Little Miss Sunshine", Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain", Stephen Frears' "The Queen" and Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" will compete for best foreign-language film.
Alain Resnais' "Coeurs" and Xavier Giannoli's "When I Was a Singer" trail with eight and seven nominations, respectively.
"Days of Glory", a harrowing portrayal of North Africans who fought to liberate France during World War II, followed up its foreign-language Oscar nomination with nine Cesar noms including best film, director and original script.
"Tell No One", Guillaume Canet's adaptation of Harlan Coben's thriller, also bagged nine nominations, including best film, director and actor (Francois Cluzet).
"Lady Chatterley", a critics' favorite that picked up the Louis Delluc prize in December, rounded out the trio with nominations in the best film, director and actress (Marina Hands) categories.
Philippe Lioret's adolescent drama "Don't Worry, I'm Fine", also will compete in the best film category, nabbing a total of five nominations including best director and female newcomer (Melanie Laurent).
Cecile de France, who took last year's supporting actress Cesar, will compete against herself in the best actress category for her roles in "When I Was a Singer" and "Avenue Montaigne". Catherine Frot ("The Page Turner"), Charlotte Gainsbourg ("I Do") and Marina Hands ("Lady Chatterley") also will vie for the prize.
Nominees in the best actor category include Michel Blanc, who plays a farmer in French boxoffice hit "You're So Beautiful"; Alain Chabat, for his hilarious portrayal of a reluctant lover in "I Do"; Gerard Depardieu, for his role as a worn-out ballroom singer in "When I Was a Singer"; Jean Dujardin, who plays the French reincarnation of James Bond in "OSS 117"; and Francois Cluzet, a man searching for his missing wife in "Tell No One".
"Singer", "Glory" and "Beautiful" will vie for best original screenplay alongside "Avenue Montaigne" and "Jean-Philippe" while "No One", "Chatterley", "OSS 117" and "Don't Worry" will compete with Alain Resnais' ensemble hit "Private Fears in Public Places" in the best adaptation category.
Christine Citti ("Singer"), Mylene Demongeot ("French California") and Bernadette Lafont ("I Do") will compete for the best supporting actress prize with French singer Dani ("Avenue Montaigne") and this year's Cesars ceremony host, Valerie Lemercier ("Montaigne").
The nominees for best supporting actor are Danny Boon ("The Valet"), Francois Cluzet ("Four Stars"), Andre Dussollier ("No One"), Guy Marchand ("Inside Paris") and Kad Merad ("Don't Worry").
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel", Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' "Little Miss Sunshine", Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain", Stephen Frears' "The Queen" and Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" will compete for best foreign-language film.
- 1/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- The first Salon du Cinema, a new cultural exhibition aimed at giving the public access to the world of filmmaking, will kick off its three-day run in Paris on Friday at the Porte de Versailles trade hall.
More than 50,000 people are expected to attend the event, which has nominated Morocco as the country of honor. Organized by Gad Abitbol, Jonathan Bryant and Moise Kissous, the exhibition will include conferences with leading directors and industry insiders, roundtable discussions, screenings, exhibitions, workshops and trailers of films to be released in the coming year.
Big names from the world of Gallic cinema scheduled to attend include actors Sara Forestier, Marina Hands and Alain Chabat and directors Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Lucas Belvaux, Christophe Barratier, Tony Gatlif, and Nils Tavernier (who plans to shoot a film at the event with the participation of Salon-goers).
The Peoples' Prize, chosen by the public via a Web site, will be awarded Saturday to actresses Audrey Tautou and Charlotte Gainsbourg and actors Gad Elmaleh and Alain Chabat.
More than 50,000 people are expected to attend the event, which has nominated Morocco as the country of honor. Organized by Gad Abitbol, Jonathan Bryant and Moise Kissous, the exhibition will include conferences with leading directors and industry insiders, roundtable discussions, screenings, exhibitions, workshops and trailers of films to be released in the coming year.
Big names from the world of Gallic cinema scheduled to attend include actors Sara Forestier, Marina Hands and Alain Chabat and directors Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Lucas Belvaux, Christophe Barratier, Tony Gatlif, and Nils Tavernier (who plans to shoot a film at the event with the participation of Salon-goers).
The Peoples' Prize, chosen by the public via a Web site, will be awarded Saturday to actresses Audrey Tautou and Charlotte Gainsbourg and actors Gad Elmaleh and Alain Chabat.
- 1/11/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Pascale Ferran's Lady Chatterley walked away with the prize for French film of the year at a ceremony for the Prix Louis-Delluc 2006 on Monday.
Le Pressentiment, directed by actor-turned-director Jean-Pierre Darroussin, was declared best first film. The coveted honor, named for one of France's original filmmakers/critics and nicknamed the Goncourt du cinema, was awarded to Ferran and to Darroussin by the jury and its president Gilles Jacob at famed Paris restaurant Fouquet's.
The Prix Louis-Delluc, given since 1937, is typically an early forecast of accolades to come as the French awards season kicks off.
Lady Chatterley, based on the second version of D.H. Lawrence's controversial novel, is distributed by Ad Vitam and stars Marina Hands as Lady Constance Chatterley.
The film is being sold internationally by Films Distribution, which also boasts last year's Prix Louis-Delluc winner, Philippe's Garrel's Regular Lovers, among its library titles.
Competition for this year's prize included: Bled Number One by Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche, who won the award for best first film in 2002 for his "Wesh Wesh, Qu'est-ce qui se passe?"; Coeurs by Alain Resnais, who has previously taken home the award in 1966 for La Guerre est Finie, in 1993 for Smoking-No Smoking and in 1997 for On Connait la Chanson; Flandres by Bruno Dumont; Jardins en Automne by Otar Iosseliani, winner of the prize in 1999 for Adieu, Plancher des Vaches; and Quand J'etais Chanteur by Xavier Giannoli.
Le Pressentiment, directed by actor-turned-director Jean-Pierre Darroussin, was declared best first film. The coveted honor, named for one of France's original filmmakers/critics and nicknamed the Goncourt du cinema, was awarded to Ferran and to Darroussin by the jury and its president Gilles Jacob at famed Paris restaurant Fouquet's.
The Prix Louis-Delluc, given since 1937, is typically an early forecast of accolades to come as the French awards season kicks off.
Lady Chatterley, based on the second version of D.H. Lawrence's controversial novel, is distributed by Ad Vitam and stars Marina Hands as Lady Constance Chatterley.
The film is being sold internationally by Films Distribution, which also boasts last year's Prix Louis-Delluc winner, Philippe's Garrel's Regular Lovers, among its library titles.
Competition for this year's prize included: Bled Number One by Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche, who won the award for best first film in 2002 for his "Wesh Wesh, Qu'est-ce qui se passe?"; Coeurs by Alain Resnais, who has previously taken home the award in 1966 for La Guerre est Finie, in 1993 for Smoking-No Smoking and in 1997 for On Connait la Chanson; Flandres by Bruno Dumont; Jardins en Automne by Otar Iosseliani, winner of the prize in 1999 for Adieu, Plancher des Vaches; and Quand J'etais Chanteur by Xavier Giannoli.
- 12/18/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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