As a female union rep in the oppressively male-dominated French nuclear industry, Maureen Kearney — the real-life heroine of Jean-Paul Salomé’s “La Syndicaliste” (“The Sitting Duck” in the U.K.) — is accustomed to keeping a cool head in a crisis. That doesn’t stop her male superiors from accusing her of the opposite, with then-President Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly branding her a “hysteric in a skirt”: In this men’s club, a woman’s mere presence is deemed her weakness. Yet when Kearney is raped and mutilated by unknown assailants, seemingly as a professional warning, it’s her lack of hysteria under the circumstances that is declared suspicious by men in power. As she’s first disbelieved, then charged without outright fabrication, Salomé’s film pivots from itchy whistleblower thriller to irate courtroom drama, with institutional misogyny as its binding thread.
A rape survivor criticized for her composure: sounds like an assignment for Isabelle Huppert,...
A rape survivor criticized for her composure: sounds like an assignment for Isabelle Huppert,...
- 7/24/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Un petit-fils
Director Xavier Beauvois will be ready with his eighth feature, Un petit-fils (A Grandson) in 2020. Sylvie Pialat (we featured the producer as part of our The Conversation series) and Benoit Quainon are producing through Les Films du Worso and the project is being shot by Julien Hirsch. Beauvois’ latest starts Jeremie Renier, Victor Belmondo, Olivier Pequery, Madeleine Beauvois, and a pair from his 2017 The Guardians cast, Marie Julie Maille and Iris Bry. Beauvois also scripted with his Guardians writers Maille and Frederique Moreau.…...
Director Xavier Beauvois will be ready with his eighth feature, Un petit-fils (A Grandson) in 2020. Sylvie Pialat (we featured the producer as part of our The Conversation series) and Benoit Quainon are producing through Les Films du Worso and the project is being shot by Julien Hirsch. Beauvois’ latest starts Jeremie Renier, Victor Belmondo, Olivier Pequery, Madeleine Beauvois, and a pair from his 2017 The Guardians cast, Marie Julie Maille and Iris Bry. Beauvois also scripted with his Guardians writers Maille and Frederique Moreau.…...
- 1/2/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Of course a filmmaker of André Téchiné’s standing doesn’t simply “toss off” a feature, but it remains dispiriting that a director who can make emotionally trenchant movies — including the recent success “Being 17” — is also able to turn out duds like “Farewell to the Night.” Though “based on an original idea,” there’s very little originality in this story of a woman (Catherine Deneuve) discovering her grandson has been radicalized by Islamist extremists. As one of the more inclusive Western directors when it comes to Arab talent, Téchiné aims for a bit of character balance, but in the end, the film stumbles into the usual banal pitfalls and features some truly lamentable scenes. A modest Euro release is the best that can be expected.
Clunky chapter demarcations — “First day of spring 2015,” “Second day of spring 2015,” etc. — unintentionally call attention to how slowly each day passes rather than lend...
Clunky chapter demarcations — “First day of spring 2015,” “Second day of spring 2015,” etc. — unintentionally call attention to how slowly each day passes rather than lend...
- 2/12/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
La Daronne
Director Jean-Paul Salomé nets Isabelle Huppert for his eighth feature, La daronne, which is based on a novel by popular crime writer Hannelore Cayre. Produced by Kristina Larsen from Les Films du Lendemain and Jean-Baptiste Dupont from La Boetie Films, the film will feature Dp Julien Hirsch (a mainstay of Andre Techine who also recently filmed Huppert in 2018’s Eva), composer Bruno Calais of 2011’s The Artist, and Marite Coutard as costume designer (of Bercot’s 2015 My King). Huppert will be joined by Hippolyte Girardot, Liliane Rovère, Farida Ouchani, Jade Nadja Nguyen, Youssef Sahraoui, Kamel Guenfoud and Iris Bry.…...
Director Jean-Paul Salomé nets Isabelle Huppert for his eighth feature, La daronne, which is based on a novel by popular crime writer Hannelore Cayre. Produced by Kristina Larsen from Les Films du Lendemain and Jean-Baptiste Dupont from La Boetie Films, the film will feature Dp Julien Hirsch (a mainstay of Andre Techine who also recently filmed Huppert in 2018’s Eva), composer Bruno Calais of 2011’s The Artist, and Marite Coutard as costume designer (of Bercot’s 2015 My King). Huppert will be joined by Hippolyte Girardot, Liliane Rovère, Farida Ouchani, Jade Nadja Nguyen, Youssef Sahraoui, Kamel Guenfoud and Iris Bry.…...
- 1/6/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Les amis des amis
French writer and director Pascal Bonitzer commences on his eighth feature, Les envoûtés (formerly titled Les amis des amis), which features a cast of notables including Nicolas Duvauchelle, Nicolas Maury, Josiane Balasko, Anable Lopez, Iliana Lolic and the lead Sara Giraudeau (2018 Cesar winner for Best Supporting Actress in Bloody Milk). It is the fourth film in a row from Bonitzer to be produced by Said Ben Said and Michel Merkt of Sbs Productions (their last venture together being 2016’s Right Here Right Now). Belgium’s Diana Elbaum of Beluga Tree is also co-producing. Dp Julien Hirsch lensed the feature.…...
French writer and director Pascal Bonitzer commences on his eighth feature, Les envoûtés (formerly titled Les amis des amis), which features a cast of notables including Nicolas Duvauchelle, Nicolas Maury, Josiane Balasko, Anable Lopez, Iliana Lolic and the lead Sara Giraudeau (2018 Cesar winner for Best Supporting Actress in Bloody Milk). It is the fourth film in a row from Bonitzer to be produced by Said Ben Said and Michel Merkt of Sbs Productions (their last venture together being 2016’s Right Here Right Now). Belgium’s Diana Elbaum of Beluga Tree is also co-producing. Dp Julien Hirsch lensed the feature.…...
- 1/4/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
It’s impossible to imagine a more ploddingly old-fashioned account of the French Revolution than “One Nation, One King,” a film desperate to capture the atmosphere of the time yet unable to operate outside the most formulaic depiction of momentous incidents. Trapped between a history buff’s slavish desire to be true to events and a generic sense of how to make those events “cinematic,” director-writer Pierre Schoeller (“The Minister”) seems uncertain whether he wants to deliver a history lesson or a “Les Mis”-like musical, winding up with a stultifying two-hour epic more appealing to lazy high school teachers instead of cinema audiences seeking either entertainment or intellectual engagement. French box office was dismal following an autumn release, racking up a mere $2.5 million for a feature that reportedly cost around $19 million.
Perhaps Schoeller got too caught up in the excitement of his subject, understandably overwhelmed by the scope of...
Perhaps Schoeller got too caught up in the excitement of his subject, understandably overwhelmed by the scope of...
- 12/31/2018
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
Isabelle Huppert is set to star as a drug dealer in Jean-Paul Salome’s “La Daronne,” a crime comedy based on Hannelore Cayre’s popular novel.
The film is being produced by Kristina Larsen at Les Films du Lendemain and Jean-Baptiste Dupont at La Boetie Films. Orange Studio has just come on board to handle international sales. Le Pacte will distribute in France. “La Daronne” has also been pre-bought by Canal Plus and Ocs.
Shooting in set to begin next week in Paris. Budgeted at €5.8 million ($6.6 million), “La Daronne” stars Huppert as Patience Portefeux, a French-Arabic translator working for the anti-drug squad in Paris. One day she sets off to help out a woman’s troubled son as a favor and gets embroiled in a failed drug deal, inheriting a pile of cannabis. While keeping her job with the anti-drug squad, Patience crosses to the other side and becomes a well-known drug dealer.
The film is being produced by Kristina Larsen at Les Films du Lendemain and Jean-Baptiste Dupont at La Boetie Films. Orange Studio has just come on board to handle international sales. Le Pacte will distribute in France. “La Daronne” has also been pre-bought by Canal Plus and Ocs.
Shooting in set to begin next week in Paris. Budgeted at €5.8 million ($6.6 million), “La Daronne” stars Huppert as Patience Portefeux, a French-Arabic translator working for the anti-drug squad in Paris. One day she sets off to help out a woman’s troubled son as a favor and gets embroiled in a failed drug deal, inheriting a pile of cannabis. While keeping her job with the anti-drug squad, Patience crosses to the other side and becomes a well-known drug dealer.
- 11/2/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Film stars Pierre Deladonchamps and Céline Sallette
Celluloid Dreams has boarded international sales for André Téchiné’s new feature Golden Years (Nos Annees Folles).
The film stars Pierre Deladonchamps (Stranger By The Lake) in the true story of Frenchman Paul Grappe, a First World War deserter who spent a decade disguised as a woman. When he is finally granted amnesty, he tries to live as a man again. His supportive wife Louise is played by Céline Sallette (Rust And Bone, Les Revenants).
The $8m film is set for completion this spring. “I am stunned by the modernity and the lyricism of the film. This is pure cinema, daring and moving. Absolute love is timeless and gender identity more then ever at the heart of our societies. I’m proud to bring this masterful movie out to the world,” said Hengameh Panahi, founder and CEO of Celluloid Dreams.
Téchiné, whose credits include Rendez-Vous, My Favorite...
Celluloid Dreams has boarded international sales for André Téchiné’s new feature Golden Years (Nos Annees Folles).
The film stars Pierre Deladonchamps (Stranger By The Lake) in the true story of Frenchman Paul Grappe, a First World War deserter who spent a decade disguised as a woman. When he is finally granted amnesty, he tries to live as a man again. His supportive wife Louise is played by Céline Sallette (Rust And Bone, Les Revenants).
The $8m film is set for completion this spring. “I am stunned by the modernity and the lyricism of the film. This is pure cinema, daring and moving. Absolute love is timeless and gender identity more then ever at the heart of our societies. I’m proud to bring this masterful movie out to the world,” said Hengameh Panahi, founder and CEO of Celluloid Dreams.
Téchiné, whose credits include Rendez-Vous, My Favorite...
- 2/9/2017
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
With a title like Being 17, images of gorgeous 20-somethings brooding about the confines of a high school in a Sundance-saccharine “indie” are conjured. Having the air of a forgettable comedy one’s parents might champion, without much knowledge of the project and the creative team behind it, looking at that title may not instill confidence when trying to pick a film to watch during a weekend. However, that would be an absolute shame as it is more than worth the nearly two hours it asks of you.
Directed by Andre Techine and written by Celine Sciamma (whose own Girlhood is one of this decade’s great coming of age tales), Being 17 tells the story of two French teens from different walks of life, both dealing with growing desires they aren’t sure how to handle. First we meet Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein), whose mother is a beloved doctor and whose...
Directed by Andre Techine and written by Celine Sciamma (whose own Girlhood is one of this decade’s great coming of age tales), Being 17 tells the story of two French teens from different walks of life, both dealing with growing desires they aren’t sure how to handle. First we meet Damien (Kacey Mottet Klein), whose mother is a beloved doctor and whose...
- 10/10/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then there will never be a definitive list of the greatest cinematography, but for our money, one of the finest polls has been recently conducted on the matter. Our friend Scout Tafoya polled over 60 critics on Fandor, including some of us here, and the results can be found in a fantastic video essay below. Rather than the various wordless supercuts that crowd Vimeo, Tafoya wrestles with his thoughts on cinematography as we see the beautiful images overlaid from the top 12 choices.
“I’ve been thinking of the world cinematographically since high school,” Scout says. “Sometime around tenth grade I started looking out windows, at crowds of my peers, at the girls I had crushes on, and imagining the best way to film them. Lowlight, mini-dv or 35mm? Curious and washed out like the way Emmanuel Lubezki shot Y Tu Mamá También,...
“I’ve been thinking of the world cinematographically since high school,” Scout says. “Sometime around tenth grade I started looking out windows, at crowds of my peers, at the girls I had crushes on, and imagining the best way to film them. Lowlight, mini-dv or 35mm? Curious and washed out like the way Emmanuel Lubezki shot Y Tu Mamá También,...
- 4/28/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
French auteur Andre Techine‘s In the Name of My Daughter received a decent theatrical run nearly a year after it premiered out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. With stars Catherine Deneuve and Guillaume Canet headlining, the recent Cesar win for Adele Haenel (her second) was also a recent news item when this finally premiered. A handsomely mounted piece based on a bit of unsolved criminal intrigue, the title doesn’t always work as a thriller, but maintains a rather melancholy stance as an off-kilter character piece for Deneuve and Haenel.
The latest from auteur (his seventh to feature Deneuve), feels like a missed opportunity, trying to play too many angles when it could have been more powerful following one strategic aim. Psychological thriller, jilted love story, historically inspired mafia fueled casino war rivalry, a powerful female crusader, a strange two decades late trial, and an unsolved murder...
The latest from auteur (his seventh to feature Deneuve), feels like a missed opportunity, trying to play too many angles when it could have been more powerful following one strategic aim. Psychological thriller, jilted love story, historically inspired mafia fueled casino war rivalry, a powerful female crusader, a strange two decades late trial, and an unsolved murder...
- 9/22/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Premiering at the 2014 Venice Film Festival with little fanfare, and received a limited theatrical release in March, 2015 in the Us, Benoit Jacquot’s latest somehow feels as if its been neglected. Despite its high pedigree cast, including names familiar to the American public, like Charlotte Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve, it didn’t receive much attention, though will assuredly be the type of sought after gem for fans of either the director or the cast member in decades overcoming its initial frostiness.
The follow-up to his most internationally renowned title to date, Farewell, My Queen, Jacquot’s underwhelming love story uses a contrivance often seen in romantic comedies, only he replaces the comedy with a somber indifference that seems to work against the believability of the film.
3 Hearts seems as if it belongs to an earlier era of filmmaking, a time where repressed feelings would roil just beneath the surface until...
The follow-up to his most internationally renowned title to date, Farewell, My Queen, Jacquot’s underwhelming love story uses a contrivance often seen in romantic comedies, only he replaces the comedy with a somber indifference that seems to work against the believability of the film.
3 Hearts seems as if it belongs to an earlier era of filmmaking, a time where repressed feelings would roil just beneath the surface until...
- 7/28/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Scene of the Crime: Techine’s Overly Involved True Crime Saga
Too often, In the Name of the Daughter, the latest from auteur André Téchiné (and his seventh to feature Catherine Deneuve), feels like a missed opportunity, trying to play too many angles when it could have been more powerful following one strategic aim. Psychological thriller, jilted love story, historically inspired mafia fueled casino war rivalry, a powerful female crusader, a strange two decades late trial, and an unsolved murder mystery are all bundled up in here, and sometimes this leads us through a fascinating maze. However, the film works best as a relationship study, featuring a pair of performances that are at, the very least, enjoyable. But much like his last film, 2011’s Unforgiveable, the French helmer is increasingly less interested in the why or how of his narrative, and maybe his wayward neglect for traditional storytelling explains...
Too often, In the Name of the Daughter, the latest from auteur André Téchiné (and his seventh to feature Catherine Deneuve), feels like a missed opportunity, trying to play too many angles when it could have been more powerful following one strategic aim. Psychological thriller, jilted love story, historically inspired mafia fueled casino war rivalry, a powerful female crusader, a strange two decades late trial, and an unsolved murder mystery are all bundled up in here, and sometimes this leads us through a fascinating maze. However, the film works best as a relationship study, featuring a pair of performances that are at, the very least, enjoyable. But much like his last film, 2011’s Unforgiveable, the French helmer is increasingly less interested in the why or how of his narrative, and maybe his wayward neglect for traditional storytelling explains...
- 4/27/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Jean Dujardin, Missi Pyle, The Artist The Artist Wins, Jean Dujardin Loses: César Awards Best Film La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War produced by Edouard Weil, directed by Valérie Donzelli Le Havre produced by Fabienne Vonier, directed by Aki Kaurismäki * The Artist produced by Thomas Langmann, directed by Michel Hazanavicius Intouchables / Untouchable produced by Denis Freyd, directed by Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache L'exercice de l'État / The Minister produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, directed by Pierre Schöller Pater produced by Michel Seydoux, directed by Alain Cavalier Polisse produced by Alain Attal, directed by Maïwenn Best Foreign Film Drive (United States) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Black Swan (United States) directed by Darren Aronofsky Incendies (Canada) directed by Denis Villeneuve Melancholia (Denmark / Sweden / France / Germany) directed by Lars von Trier * A Separation (Iran) directed by Asghar Farhadi The King's Speech (United Kingdom) directed by Tom Hooper Le...
- 2/25/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
François Cluzet, Intouchables / Untouchable The 2012 César winners will be announced on February 24. The ceremony will be presided by Guillaume Canet; Antoine de Caunes will act as master of ceremonies. Best Film La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War produced by Edouard Weil, directed by Valérie Donzelli Le Havre produced by Fabienne Vonier, directed by Aki Kaurismäki The Artist produced by Thomas Langmann, directed by Michel Hazanavicius Intouchables / Untouchable produced by Denis Freyd, directed by Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache L'exercice de l'État / The Minister produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, directed by Pierre Schoeller Pater produced by Michel Seydoux, directed by Alain Cavalier Polisse produced by Alain Attal, directed by Maïwenn Best Foreign Film Drive (United States) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Black Swan (United States) directed by Darren Aronofsky Incendies (Canada) directed by Denis Villeneuve Melancholia (Denmark / Sweden / France / Germany) directed by Lars von Trier A Separation...
- 2/21/2012
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
I think my favorite thing in Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki's blend of fable-style plotting, classical studio storytelling, and a real world context and social message, has little to do with this unusual mix of several usual kinds of films. It is, instead, lead actor’s André Wilms voice, the tenor of his line readings; a hilarious and moving collaboration between Wilms and Kaurismäki's direction, lending his spoken words a clipped, positive upward inflection in his sentences that gives the ends of lines a quality of affirmation, an enthusiastic aphorism, the punch line to a joke. My favorite instance of this is when Wilms is visiting his wife (Kati Outinen) in the hospital. He brings red flowers and she remarks that the moment she leaves the house he starts spending money. He counters, saying they were cheap, pauses, and then rushes through “Who am I kidding? They were the most expensive.
- 5/20/2011
- MUBI
With his sophomore feature, which Cineuropa reports has began lensing up until the first week of January, Pierre Schoeller is moving from a portrait of extreme poverty in his directing debut to extreme callousness in what appears to be current day politico France. L’Exercice de l’Etat will see veteran actors Olivier Gourmet and Michel Blanc will topline the pic while actors Zabou Breitman and Laurent Stocker are the supporting players. Gist: Scripted by Schoeller, the film centres on Transport Minister Bertrand Saint-Jean (Gourmet) and his private secretary (Blanc). It opens with the latter waking the former in the middle of the night to tell him that a coach has left the road in an accident. "How many fatalities? Any children? Let’s go. We have no choice." Thus begins the odyssey of a statesman in an increasingly complex and hostile world. Fast pace, power struggles, chaos, economic crisis…...
- 11/11/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
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