In her career to date, French director Katell Quillévéré has demonstrated an unusual talent for connecting to her characters so intensely that in some moments they seem less to be up on the screen in front of you, than sitting right next to you. Or even, as with the daydreams and interior musings that punctuated her wonderful last film “Heal the Living,” right inside you. But with her fourth feature, “Along Came Love,” that intimate connection appears to have been broken, as though this turbid post-war romantic saga is coming to us through the decades via a long-distance call that keeps dropping.
Perhaps to establish some authenticity early, the film opens with archival footage of the French liberation celebrations at the end of World War II. The jubilant scenes darken as “collaborator” Frenchwomen, accused of pursuing relationships with the occupying Germans, are lined up for ritual public humiliation. Last year,...
Perhaps to establish some authenticity early, the film opens with archival footage of the French liberation celebrations at the end of World War II. The jubilant scenes darken as “collaborator” Frenchwomen, accused of pursuing relationships with the occupying Germans, are lined up for ritual public humiliation. Last year,...
- 5/30/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Zdf Boots Factual Entertainment
Zdf Studios is boosting factual entertainment with the establishment of new company Content Laden.
Founded with managing director Tom Gamlich and creative director Jan Fritzowsky, the Munich-based subsidiary will focus on the development and production of innovative and high-quality formats. Gamlich and Fritzowsky most recently served as the long-standing management team at South&Browse, where they oversaw development and production of successful factual entertainment formats for broadcasters and streamers.
Zdf Studios President and CEO Markus Schäfer said the foundation of Content Laden was “an investment in creativity and innovation. We want to create outstanding formats and in doing so, achieve long-term, sustainable growth.”
Oble Selling Albert Camus Adaptation ‘The Plague‘
France’s Oble has acquired international broadcasting rights for the series “The Plague,” a modern adaptation of Albert Camus’ novel of the same name. While the book’s story takes place in the 1940s, the miniseries is...
Zdf Studios is boosting factual entertainment with the establishment of new company Content Laden.
Founded with managing director Tom Gamlich and creative director Jan Fritzowsky, the Munich-based subsidiary will focus on the development and production of innovative and high-quality formats. Gamlich and Fritzowsky most recently served as the long-standing management team at South&Browse, where they oversaw development and production of successful factual entertainment formats for broadcasters and streamers.
Zdf Studios President and CEO Markus Schäfer said the foundation of Content Laden was “an investment in creativity and innovation. We want to create outstanding formats and in doing so, achieve long-term, sustainable growth.”
Oble Selling Albert Camus Adaptation ‘The Plague‘
France’s Oble has acquired international broadcasting rights for the series “The Plague,” a modern adaptation of Albert Camus’ novel of the same name. While the book’s story takes place in the 1940s, the miniseries is...
- 4/17/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Le Temps d’aimer
Production on Katell Quillévéré‘s highly anticipated fourth film began in June of last year in northern, France. Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste toplined the tale co-written by Quillévéré and Gilles Taurand. The tale is inspired by Quillévéré’s own grandmother true life story – about a brief love affair with a German officer during WWII which she kept secret all her life. Les Films Pelléas’ David Thion and Philippe Martin (Winter Boy) and Les Films du Bélier’s Justin Taurand (Coma) produced the film. Quillévéré’s first pair of films played on the Croisette in Cannes – 2010’s Love Like Poison and 2013’s Suzanne.…...
Production on Katell Quillévéré‘s highly anticipated fourth film began in June of last year in northern, France. Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste toplined the tale co-written by Quillévéré and Gilles Taurand. The tale is inspired by Quillévéré’s own grandmother true life story – about a brief love affair with a German officer during WWII which she kept secret all her life. Les Films Pelléas’ David Thion and Philippe Martin (Winter Boy) and Les Films du Bélier’s Justin Taurand (Coma) produced the film. Quillévéré’s first pair of films played on the Croisette in Cannes – 2010’s Love Like Poison and 2013’s Suzanne.…...
- 1/13/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
The Man in the Basement Trailer — Philippe Le Guay‘s The Man in the Basement / L’homme de la cave (2021) movie trailer has been released by Greenwich Entertainment. The Man in the Basement trailer stars François Cluzet, Jérémie Renier, Bérénice Bejo, Jonathan Zaccaï, Victoria Eber, and Denise Chalem. Crew Philippe Le Guay, Gilles Taurand, and [...]
Continue reading: The Man In The Basement (2021) Movie Trailer: A Couple’s Life is Turned Upside Down by a New Renter...
Continue reading: The Man In The Basement (2021) Movie Trailer: A Couple’s Life is Turned Upside Down by a New Renter...
- 12/17/2022
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Le temps d’aimer
Having just completed the television docu project Le monde de demain, it would appear that Katell Quillévéré is currently on location and in the research phase for what could be her biggest project to date. Slated for a spring shoot, her fourth feature Le temps d’aimer landed the likes of Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste – both would be tending bar in a WWII project set in ’47. Workhorse scribe Gilles Taurand (he co-penned Quillévéré’s third feature in 2016’s Heal the Living) co-wrote the project which is backed by production companies such as Les Films du Bélier, Les Films Pelléas and Frakas Productions.…...
Having just completed the television docu project Le monde de demain, it would appear that Katell Quillévéré is currently on location and in the research phase for what could be her biggest project to date. Slated for a spring shoot, her fourth feature Le temps d’aimer landed the likes of Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste – both would be tending bar in a WWII project set in ’47. Workhorse scribe Gilles Taurand (he co-penned Quillévéré’s third feature in 2016’s Heal the Living) co-wrote the project which is backed by production companies such as Les Films du Bélier, Les Films Pelléas and Frakas Productions.…...
- 1/7/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Playtime has acquired international sales rights to Philippe Le Guay’s “The Man From the Basement,” a Paris-set thriller produced by Anne-Dominique Toussaint’s Les Films des Tournelles.
Now in post, the film shot during the lockdown on location in Paris, with a stellar cast including François Cluzet, Jérémie Renier (“Slalom”), Bérénice Bejo and Jonathan Zaccaï (“The Bureau”).
“The Man From The Basement” was written by Le Guay, Gilles Taurand, the critically acclaimed screenwriter of “Wild Reeds” and “Farewell, My Queen,” and Marc Weitzmann, a French journalist and novelist.
The thought-provoking thriller revolves around a Parisian couple who decide to sell an unsanitary basement in their building. A seemingly ordinary man, Mr. Fonzic, shows up to buy it and makes it his permanent residence. But slowly, Mr. Fonzic becomes a threat to the family as he turns out be a hateful man spreading anti-semitic lies and exerting a perverted influence...
Now in post, the film shot during the lockdown on location in Paris, with a stellar cast including François Cluzet, Jérémie Renier (“Slalom”), Bérénice Bejo and Jonathan Zaccaï (“The Bureau”).
“The Man From The Basement” was written by Le Guay, Gilles Taurand, the critically acclaimed screenwriter of “Wild Reeds” and “Farewell, My Queen,” and Marc Weitzmann, a French journalist and novelist.
The thought-provoking thriller revolves around a Parisian couple who decide to sell an unsanitary basement in their building. A seemingly ordinary man, Mr. Fonzic, shows up to buy it and makes it his permanent residence. But slowly, Mr. Fonzic becomes a threat to the family as he turns out be a hateful man spreading anti-semitic lies and exerting a perverted influence...
- 1/13/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The Cnc is also throwing its weight behind films put forward by Ursula Meier, Robert Guédiguian, Philippe Faucon, Tony Gatlif, Mona Achache and the duo composed of Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli. Seven projects were selected during the 5th and final session of the Cnc’s second advance on receipts 2019 committee. Standing out amongst these is Le temps d’aimer which will be Katell Quillévéré’s fourth feature film following on from 2010’s Love Like Poison (screened in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight 2010 and the winner of the Prix Jean Vigo), Suzanne and Heal The Living (unveiled in Venice’s Orizzonti line-up in 2016 before participating in Toronto’s Platform competition). Written by the filmmaker alongside Gilles Taurand, the story kicks off in 1947. Madeleine, a waitress in a hotel restaurant and the mother of a small...
Raúl Ruiz frequently remarked that he was the perfect person to adapt Marcel Proust’s vast set of novels Remembrance of Things Past (or, more literally, In Search of Lost Time) to the screen because, having reached the end of reading the entire work, he instantly forgot it all. He was joking, of course, but his jest disguised a serious method. The only way to convey Proust on screen, in Ruiz’s opinion, was to approach it not as a literal condensation of multiple characters and events, but as a psychic swirl of half-remembered, half-forgotten fragments and impressions—full of uncanny superimpositions and metamorphoses. “‘The best way to adapt something for film,” he summed up, “is to dream it.” Ruiz’s dreaming was always accompanied by extensive, meandering, seemingly eccentric research. In the case of Time Regained, he plunged (as he revealed in a splendid, lengthy interview with Jacinto Lageira...
- 2/9/2018
- MUBI
Stars: Emmanuelle Seigner, Tahar Rahim, Anne Dorval, Bouli Lanners | Written by Katell Quillévéré, Gilles Taurand | Directed by Katell Quillévéré
This French-Belgian drama initially allures with an opening sequence that sees teenager Simon Limbres (Gabin Verdet) climb out of his girlfriend’s window and head to the beach with his buddies for a pre-dawn surf. It’s a mesmerising sequence with a dreamlike quality, as Simon observes the magnificence of nature from beneath the waves. On the way home, Simon falls asleep in the passenger seat. He will never wake up. And we will not see filmmaking of this quality again for the next 100 minutes.
Simon’s mother, Marianne (Emmanuelle Seigner), arrives at the hospital, to be told that her son is brain-dead. A young doctor, Thomas (Tahar Rahim), explains the rareness of Simon’s condition: he won’t live, but he has a body full of organs which are ripe for donation.
This French-Belgian drama initially allures with an opening sequence that sees teenager Simon Limbres (Gabin Verdet) climb out of his girlfriend’s window and head to the beach with his buddies for a pre-dawn surf. It’s a mesmerising sequence with a dreamlike quality, as Simon observes the magnificence of nature from beneath the waves. On the way home, Simon falls asleep in the passenger seat. He will never wake up. And we will not see filmmaking of this quality again for the next 100 minutes.
Simon’s mother, Marianne (Emmanuelle Seigner), arrives at the hospital, to be told that her son is brain-dead. A young doctor, Thomas (Tahar Rahim), explains the rareness of Simon’s condition: he won’t live, but he has a body full of organs which are ripe for donation.
- 7/14/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Katell Quillévéré’s polished mosaic of interconnected lives is intelligently acted and visually arresting but its cardiac-transplant storyline is a little glib
Katell Quillévéré’s first two pictures, Love Like Poison and Suzanne, established her as a film-maker of delicacy and grace; this third feature is based on the novel by Maylis de Kerangal, adapted by the director with veteran screenwriter Gilles Taurand.
It is every bit as beautifully made and intelligently acted as you might expect, with some wonderful visual imagery at the very beginning. Yet I was disappointed. The organ donation storyline is a readymade trope, bringing together disparate life stories; it creates its own internal narrative economy of donor and recipient. But it’s a rather Hollywoodised high concept, reminiscent of Alejandro González Iñárittu’s 21 Grams or even, frankly, a slushy romantic weepie from 2000 starring Minnie Driver called Return to Me. Those films had the idea of infringing the donor anonymity rules,...
Katell Quillévéré’s first two pictures, Love Like Poison and Suzanne, established her as a film-maker of delicacy and grace; this third feature is based on the novel by Maylis de Kerangal, adapted by the director with veteran screenwriter Gilles Taurand.
It is every bit as beautifully made and intelligently acted as you might expect, with some wonderful visual imagery at the very beginning. Yet I was disappointed. The organ donation storyline is a readymade trope, bringing together disparate life stories; it creates its own internal narrative economy of donor and recipient. But it’s a rather Hollywoodised high concept, reminiscent of Alejandro González Iñárittu’s 21 Grams or even, frankly, a slushy romantic weepie from 2000 starring Minnie Driver called Return to Me. Those films had the idea of infringing the donor anonymity rules,...
- 4/26/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Heal The Living (Réparer les vivantes) Director: Katell Quillévéré Written by: Katell Quillévéré, Gilles Taurand from the novel “The Heart” by Maylis de Kerangal Cast: Tahar Rahim, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Dorval, Bouli Lanners, Kool Shen, Monia Chokri, Alive Taglioni Opens: April 14, 2017 “We’re all connected” sounds like a tagline for a phone company and […]
The post Heal The Living Review: We are all connected. appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Heal The Living Review: We are all connected. appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/30/2017
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Caroline Grant as Sophie de Réan in Christophe Honoré's marvelous gem Sophie’s Misfortunes
Little Sophie (Caroline Grant) who lives in a château with her mother, Madame de Réan (Golshifteh Farahani) is an explorer with endless curiosity and a stubborn streak. Some parents might find her dangerous. Children won't. She is closer to Hayao Miyazaki heroines than Disney princesses. Sophie's Misfortunes (Les Malheurs De Sophie) co-written with Gilles Taurand (Katell Quillévéré's medical thriller Réparer Les Vivants) is Christophe Honoré's inciting take on the Comtesse de Ségur's 1858 children's book classics.
Madame Fichini (Muriel Robin) with Sophie: "I think that this mother is the one that Sophie most resembles."
Sophie's cousin Paul (Tristan Farge) and her pals Camille (Céleste Carrale) and Madeleine (Justine Morin), daughters of the almost too perfect Madame de Fleurville (Anaïs Demoustier) accompany her on their misadventures. Madame Fichini (Muriel Robin) is the perfect evil stepmother.
Little Sophie (Caroline Grant) who lives in a château with her mother, Madame de Réan (Golshifteh Farahani) is an explorer with endless curiosity and a stubborn streak. Some parents might find her dangerous. Children won't. She is closer to Hayao Miyazaki heroines than Disney princesses. Sophie's Misfortunes (Les Malheurs De Sophie) co-written with Gilles Taurand (Katell Quillévéré's medical thriller Réparer Les Vivants) is Christophe Honoré's inciting take on the Comtesse de Ségur's 1858 children's book classics.
Madame Fichini (Muriel Robin) with Sophie: "I think that this mother is the one that Sophie most resembles."
Sophie's cousin Paul (Tristan Farge) and her pals Camille (Céleste Carrale) and Madeleine (Justine Morin), daughters of the almost too perfect Madame de Fleurville (Anaïs Demoustier) accompany her on their misadventures. Madame Fichini (Muriel Robin) is the perfect evil stepmother.
- 3/10/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Katell Quillévéré on Steven Spielberg's E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial: "For me it was something from my childhood ..." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The danger of living is lurking at every corner at the start of Katell Quillévéré's medical thriller Heal The Living (Réparer Les Vivants), co-written with Gilles Taurand, based on a novel by Maylis De Kerangal, starring Emmanuelle Seigner, Kool Shen (Catherine Breillat's Abus De Faiblesse with Isabelle Huppert), Tahar Rahim, Gabin Verdet, Théo Choldbi, and Finnegan Oldfield (Thomas Bidegain's Les Cowboys).
I first met Katell Quillévéré when she was presenting her film Suzanne, which stars Sara Forestier, Adèle Haenel, François Damiens, and Paul Hamy. Katell also participated, along with Julie Gayet, Axelle Ropert, Isabelle Giordano, Rebecca Zlotowski, Stacie Passon, Ry Russo-Young, Deborah Kampmeier, and Justine Triet, in activities at the French Institute Alliance Française on International Women’s Day during the 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York.
The danger of living is lurking at every corner at the start of Katell Quillévéré's medical thriller Heal The Living (Réparer Les Vivants), co-written with Gilles Taurand, based on a novel by Maylis De Kerangal, starring Emmanuelle Seigner, Kool Shen (Catherine Breillat's Abus De Faiblesse with Isabelle Huppert), Tahar Rahim, Gabin Verdet, Théo Choldbi, and Finnegan Oldfield (Thomas Bidegain's Les Cowboys).
I first met Katell Quillévéré when she was presenting her film Suzanne, which stars Sara Forestier, Adèle Haenel, François Damiens, and Paul Hamy. Katell also participated, along with Julie Gayet, Axelle Ropert, Isabelle Giordano, Rebecca Zlotowski, Stacie Passon, Ry Russo-Young, Deborah Kampmeier, and Justine Triet, in activities at the French Institute Alliance Française on International Women’s Day during the 2014 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York.
- 3/7/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Eva
Director: Benoit Jacquot
Writer: Benoit Jacquot, Gilles Taurand
Several months after premiering his Don DeLillo adaptation Never Ever out of competition in Venice last September, the prolific Benoit Jacquot returns to work with Isabelle Huppert (with whom he has collaborated five times prior, including The Wings of the Dove, The School of Flesh, False Servant, Keep it Quiet, and Villa Amalia) for a remake of Joseph Losey’s 1962 film Eva, which starred Jeanne Moreau (Jacquot recently remade Bunuel’s The Diary of a Chambermaid, which also starred Moreau).
Continue reading...
Director: Benoit Jacquot
Writer: Benoit Jacquot, Gilles Taurand
Several months after premiering his Don DeLillo adaptation Never Ever out of competition in Venice last September, the prolific Benoit Jacquot returns to work with Isabelle Huppert (with whom he has collaborated five times prior, including The Wings of the Dove, The School of Flesh, False Servant, Keep it Quiet, and Villa Amalia) for a remake of Joseph Losey’s 1962 film Eva, which starred Jeanne Moreau (Jacquot recently remade Bunuel’s The Diary of a Chambermaid, which also starred Moreau).
Continue reading...
- 1/9/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Les Malheurs de Sophie
Director: Christophe Honoré
Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Tourand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest, Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Les Malheurs de Sophie (Sophie’s Woes), is loosely based on a famed children’s...
Director: Christophe Honoré
Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Tourand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest, Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Les Malheurs de Sophie (Sophie’s Woes), is loosely based on a famed children’s...
- 1/12/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Les Malheurs de Sophie
Director: Christophe Honoré // Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Taurand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest (see trailer below), Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Sophie’s Woes, is loosely based on a famed children’s novel by the Countess of Segur,...
Director: Christophe Honoré // Writers: Christophe Honoré, Gilles Taurand
One of France’s most underrated directors (at least judging on the level of attention he receives overseas) is Christophe Honoré, who is perhaps best known for his 2007 film, Love Songs, which played in the Main Competition at Cannes. A unique and utterly charming musical, Honore followed up his collaboration with Alex Beaupain with less success for 2011’s Beloved, which closed the Cannes Film Festival. Usually casting either Louis Garrell, Chiara Mastroianni or both in nearly all his features, his latest (see trailer below), Metamorphoses (2014), an adaptation of the famed text by Greek poet Ovid, premiered at Venice Days with little fanfare. Honore’s also responsible for the provocative George Bataille adaptation, Ma Mere (2004) which features an infamous performance from Isabelle Huppert. His tenth feature film, Sophie’s Woes, is loosely based on a famed children’s novel by the Countess of Segur,...
- 1/8/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
• Chris Pine is set to narrate the high-school debate documentary, This Is Not A Club. Ari Levinson is directing the film, which tracks four debate teams over the course of a year as they compete in two-person speech competitions and, eventually, the annual National Speech and Debate tournament in Las Vegas. [Deadline] • Ewan McGregor will lend his voice as narrator of Humpback Whales. Greg MacGillivray is directing the underwater, 3D documentary for IMAX and giant-screen theaters. It follows humpback whales in their slow recovery after nearly being hunted to extinction. Stephen Judson is writing and editing. Expect it to hit theaters Feb.
- 12/11/2014
- by C. Molly Smith
- EW - Inside Movies
Chicago – Benoît Jacquot is a director clearly enraptured by the beauty of young women. This was eminently clear in his early ’90s-era vehicles for Virginie Ledoyen (“A Single Girl,” “Marianne”), an actress who turned up in his latest picture, “Farewell, My Queen,” still looking startlingly youthful. Yet she is no longer the center of Jacquot’s universe.
Taking Ledoyen’s place is 27-year-old Léa Seydoux, a smoldering French starlet harboring the remarkable ability to simultaneously appear achingly vulnerable and coldly calculating within the same take. She has such a potent presence that it earned her the role of a cardboard villain in “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.” Thankfully, Jacquot realized that she was far more than a broodingly pretty face, and offered her what is truly her finest and most complex role to date.
DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0
Every frame of “Farewell, My Queen” is viewed through the eyes of Sidonie (Seydoux), a...
Taking Ledoyen’s place is 27-year-old Léa Seydoux, a smoldering French starlet harboring the remarkable ability to simultaneously appear achingly vulnerable and coldly calculating within the same take. She has such a potent presence that it earned her the role of a cardboard villain in “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.” Thankfully, Jacquot realized that she was far more than a broodingly pretty face, and offered her what is truly her finest and most complex role to date.
DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0
Every frame of “Farewell, My Queen” is viewed through the eyes of Sidonie (Seydoux), a...
- 1/29/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The nominations for the César Awards aka the French Oscars were announced. "Farewell, My Queen," "Amour," "Camille Redouble," "In the House," "Rust & Bone," "Holy Motors," and "What's My Name" are competing for the Best Picture category. We'll find out the winners on February 22nd.
Here's the full list of nominees of the 2013 César Awards:
Best Picture
Farewell, My Queen
Amour
Camille Redouble
In The House
Rust & Bone
Holy Motors
What.s In A Name
Best Director
Benoît Jacquot, Farewell, My Queen
Michael Haneke, Amour
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
François Ozon, In The House
Jacques Audiard, Rust & Bone
Leos Carax, Holy Motors
Stéphane Brizé, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actress
Catherine Frot, Les Sauveurs Du Palais
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
Corinne Masiero, Louise Wimmer
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Léa Seydoux, Farewell, My Queen
Hélène Vincent, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actor
Jean-Pierre Bacri, Cherchez Hortense
Patrick Bruel, What...
Here's the full list of nominees of the 2013 César Awards:
Best Picture
Farewell, My Queen
Amour
Camille Redouble
In The House
Rust & Bone
Holy Motors
What.s In A Name
Best Director
Benoît Jacquot, Farewell, My Queen
Michael Haneke, Amour
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
François Ozon, In The House
Jacques Audiard, Rust & Bone
Leos Carax, Holy Motors
Stéphane Brizé, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actress
Catherine Frot, Les Sauveurs Du Palais
Marion Cotillard, Rust & Bone
Noémie Lvovsky, Camille Redouble
Corinne Masiero, Louise Wimmer
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Léa Seydoux, Farewell, My Queen
Hélène Vincent, Quelques Heures De Printemps
Best Actor
Jean-Pierre Bacri, Cherchez Hortense
Patrick Bruel, What...
- 1/27/2013
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Title: Sister (L’enfant d’en haut) Adopt Films Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten Grade: B+ Director: Ursula Meier Screenwriter: Antoine Jaccoud, Ursula Meier w/ Gilles Taurand’s collaboration Cast: Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Martin Compston, Gillian Anderson, Jean-François Stévenin Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 9/24/12 Opens: October 5, 2012 Switzerland may have been able to avoid wars on its soil for over four hundred years in part because it remains non-aligned, but director Ursula Meier, using a script developed with Antoine Jaccoud, is anything but neutral. She believes that kids who steal for food and rent for themselves and their families are different from those who steal to buy X-Box [ Read More ]...
- 9/25/2012
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Chicago – Is there any actress in the world today with more seductive and transfixing eyes than Léa Seydoux? She often tilts her head in a direction that allows her to peer up from beneath lowered brows. Stanley Kubrick would loved to photograph her. Yet her radiant orbs are capable of conveying more than mere menace. She can appear frighteningly vulnerable and coldly calculating within the same take.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
In Benoît Jacquot’s quietly entrancing picture, “Farewell, My Queen,” Seydoux’s eyes smolder with desire, even as budding tears threaten to disrupt her unwavering gaze. Based on Chantal Thomas’s book of the same name, “Queen” revolves around a fictitious love triangle in Versailles that was dismantled during the last crucial days of the French Revolution. Though it often plays like the final episode of an epic miniseries, Jacquot and his cast makes the most of every moment.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Farewell,...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
In Benoît Jacquot’s quietly entrancing picture, “Farewell, My Queen,” Seydoux’s eyes smolder with desire, even as budding tears threaten to disrupt her unwavering gaze. Based on Chantal Thomas’s book of the same name, “Queen” revolves around a fictitious love triangle in Versailles that was dismantled during the last crucial days of the French Revolution. Though it often plays like the final episode of an epic miniseries, Jacquot and his cast makes the most of every moment.
Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Farewell,...
- 7/20/2012
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Farewell, My Queen (Les adiex à la reine) Cohen Media Group Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten Grade: B- Director: Benoît Jacquot Screenwriter: Gilles Taurand, Benoît Jacquot, from Chantal Thomas’s novel of historical fiction Cast: Diane Kruger, Léa Seydoux, Virginie Ledoyen Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 6/21/12 Opens: July 13, 2012 Every schoolboy used to know that in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton, a drunken lawyer who never accomplished anything meritorious in his life, sacrificed himself to the guillotine to benefit Lucie, the unrequited love of his life, thereby allowing her to marry the aristocrat whose place he assumed on the final page of the novel. [ Read More ]...
- 6/24/2012
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
It'll do. As the Opening Night film of the 62nd Berlinale, Benoît Jacquot's Farewell, My Queen has just enough star power (Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette, Léa Seydoux — looking at times for all the world like a French Scarlett Johansson — as her reader, Sidonie Laborde, Virginie Ledoyen as the Queen's favorite, Gabrielle de Polignac, Noémie Lvovsky as the first lady-in-waiting, Jeanne Campan, and Xavier Beauvois as Louis XVI), Euro cred and thematic relevance to a few motifs running through this year's edition (the Arab Spring — Death for Sale, The Reluctant Revolutionary, Words of Witness, In the Shadow of a Man, all screening in the Panorama section — and Occupy Wall Street, by way of the "anti-globalization" protests in Genoa 2001 (Diaz - Don't Clean Up This Blood, Panorama Special); there's even an undercurrent of the queer electricity that's Panorama's stock and trade), that it'll do. Like so many films that open festivals great and small,...
- 2/11/2012
- MUBI
Berlin - The revolution in Arabic countries, the end of eras, class struggle, lack of sleep and the sexuality and sanity of Marie Antoinette - those were all topics at the first press conference of the year for a film in the Berlinale competition here on Thursday. It focused on opening film Farewell, My Queen and included director Benoit Jacquot, stars Diane Kruger, Lea Seydoux and Virginie Ledoyen, as well as producers Kristina Larsen and Jean-Pierre Guerin, and writer Gilles Taurand. Photos: 7 Hot Films to Watch at Berlin Film Festival 2012 The press conference happened on the same day as
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- 2/9/2012
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Diane Kruger as Marie Antoinette, Farewell, My Queen The world premiere of Les Adieux à la reine / Farewell, My Queen will open the 2012 Berlin Film Festival next February 9. Directed by Benoît Jacquot (Tosca, Villa Amalia, Deep in the Woods), Farewell, My Queen stars Inglourious Basterds' Diane Kruger (as Marie Antoinette), Midnight in Paris' Léa Seydoux, and Army of Crime's Virginie Ledoyen. Adapted by Jacquot and Gilles Taurand from Chantal Thomas’ novel, Farewell, My Queen is set during the first days of the French Revolution, as seen from the perspective of the servants at Versailles. The synopsis below is from the Berlin Film Festival website: Versailles in July 1789. Unrest is growing in the court of King Louis the XVI (Xavier Beauvois). The people are rebelling — a revolution is imminent. Behind the facades of the royal palaces, everyone is thinking of fleeing, including Queen Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger) and her entourage.
- 1/4/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Benoit Jacquot's historical drama Les Adieux a la reine to open Berlin. Farewell My Queen starring Diane Kruger, Lea Seydoux and Virginie Ledoyen, adapted from the award-winning novel by Chantal Thomas, will open this year's Berlin Film Festival, reports Variety. Benoît Jacquot directs as well as scripting alongside Gilles Taurand. The film is set during the final days of the French Revolution and looks at the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her readers. Farewell My Queen aims for the Berlin Golden Bear award in Competition, with releases like Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, starring Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks and Max von Sydow, Brillante Mendoza's Captive, starring Isabelle Huppert, Katherine Mulville and Marc Zanetta, Antonio Chavarrías' Childish Games (Dictado) starring Juan Diego...
- 1/4/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Benoit Jacquot's historical drama Les Adieux a la reine to open Berlin. Farewell My Queen starring Diane Kruger, Lea Seydoux and Virginie Ledoyen, adapted from the award-winning novel by Chantal Thomas, will open this year's Berlin Film Festival, reports Variety. Benoît Jacquot directs as well as scripting alongside Gilles Taurand. The film is set during the final days of the French Revolution and looks at the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her readers. Farewell My Queen aims for the Berlin Golden Bear award in Competition, with releases like Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, starring Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks and Max von Sydow, Brillante Mendoza's Captive, starring Isabelle Huppert, Katherine Mulville and Marc Zanetta, Antonio Chavarrías' Childish Games (Dictado) starring Juan Diego...
- 1/4/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Benoit Jacquot's historical drama Les Adieux a la reine to open Berlin. Farewell My Queen starring Diane Kruger, Lea Seydoux and Virginie Ledoyen, adapted from the award-winning novel by Chantal Thomas, will open this year's Berlin Film Festival, reports Variety. Benoît Jacquot directs as well as scripting alongside Gilles Taurand. The film is set during the final days of the French Revolution and looks at the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her readers. Farewell My Queen aims for the Berlin Golden Bear award in Competition, with releases like Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, starring Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks and Max von Sydow, Brillante Mendoza's Captive, starring Isabelle Huppert, Katherine Mulville and Marc Zanetta, Antonio Chavarrías' Childish Games (Dictado) starring Juan Diego...
- 1/4/2012
- Upcoming-Movies.com
Chicago – Léa Seydoux is blessed with the sort of face that appears to convey a thousand different emotions without ever having to move a muscle. Her smile is beautiful but it almost feels like an intrusion, breaking the exquisite mystery of her passive, brooding expressions. Much has been written about her resemblance to Godard’s muse, Anna Karina, which perhaps inspired New Wave successor Christophe Honoré to direct her in this evocative drama.
“La belle personne” (a.k.a. “The Beautiful Person”) could’ve easily been made in the ’60s. Within the walls of its claustrophobic school, hormonal urges and repressed desires materialize in the form of pointed glances and scribbled notes as opposed to Facebook posts. Gossip is spread the old fashioned way, without the assistance of a Twitter feed. Body language emerges as the primary tool of communication. When a tight embrace is mistaken for a kiss, it can lead to devastating consequences.
“La belle personne” (a.k.a. “The Beautiful Person”) could’ve easily been made in the ’60s. Within the walls of its claustrophobic school, hormonal urges and repressed desires materialize in the form of pointed glances and scribbled notes as opposed to Facebook posts. Gossip is spread the old fashioned way, without the assistance of a Twitter feed. Body language emerges as the primary tool of communication. When a tight embrace is mistaken for a kiss, it can lead to devastating consequences.
- 5/18/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Director: Robert Guédiguian Writer: Robert Guédiguian, Serge Le Péron, Gilles Taurand Starring: Virginie Ledoyen, Simon Abkarian “They were twenty-three when the rifles blossomed Twenty-three who gave their hearts before their time Twenty-three foreigners but still our brothers Twenty-three who loved life to death Twenty-three who cried out “France!” as they fell.” (Louis Aragon, Strophes pour se souvenir) The phrase "army of crime" is a reference to a caption on the Affiche Rouge ("red poster"), a propaganda poster campaign with which the Nazis sought to present French resistance fighters as criminals: "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime." Based on the true stories of the Francs-tireurs et partisans - Main-d'œuvre immigrée (Ftp-moi), Army of Crime begins with an Altman-esque intertwining of the very individual narratives concerning a multifarious hodgepodge of anti-fascists operating clandestinely and individually in occupied Paris (a city that seems to have accepted German occupation and the mass deportations...
- 8/21/2010
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
A period piece typically means serious business when it gets the most pressing question the audience can possibly have out of the way right at the start. Robert Guédiguian's Army of Crime begins by letting the viewer know what ultimately happened within the first couple of minutes; things did not turn out well, and a great many of the cast aren't going to be around when the credits roll.
The film gets some tremendous performances out of this constant sense of impending doom but is fairly badly hamstrung by the general sense that, having got this sorted out, Guédiguian isn't entirely sure what to do with the rest of the running time.
It's understandable, at least, that he would approach the material this way given Army of Crime's story is far more well known in France. The film dramatises the exploits of the Manouchian Group, a loosely-knit band of...
The film gets some tremendous performances out of this constant sense of impending doom but is fairly badly hamstrung by the general sense that, having got this sorted out, Guédiguian isn't entirely sure what to do with the rest of the running time.
It's understandable, at least, that he would approach the material this way given Army of Crime's story is far more well known in France. The film dramatises the exploits of the Manouchian Group, a loosely-knit band of...
- 1/20/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Year: 2008
Directors: Ursula Meier
Writers: Ursula Meier & Antoine Jaccoud & Olivier Lorelle & Gilles Taurand & Raphaëlle Valbrune & Alice Winocour
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
What started out as a tale of a loving and happy family, so close they took naked baths together, turns into an ordeal, a struggle to hold onto a cherished way of life. Living on the side of an unused freeway, the family has ripped of the guardrails and enjoys free reign there, surrounded by the country. They play hockey in the middle of the road and traverse it to get to and from work and school. This has gone on for 10 years until, with little notice, the freeway is opened for use immediately destroying their way of life. One comment I saw compared this to a metaphor about Big Brother intervening in our lives, but I think it had more to do with our dislike of change.
Directors: Ursula Meier
Writers: Ursula Meier & Antoine Jaccoud & Olivier Lorelle & Gilles Taurand & Raphaëlle Valbrune & Alice Winocour
IMDb: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
What started out as a tale of a loving and happy family, so close they took naked baths together, turns into an ordeal, a struggle to hold onto a cherished way of life. Living on the side of an unused freeway, the family has ripped of the guardrails and enjoys free reign there, surrounded by the country. They play hockey in the middle of the road and traverse it to get to and from work and school. This has gone on for 10 years until, with little notice, the freeway is opened for use immediately destroying their way of life. One comment I saw compared this to a metaphor about Big Brother intervening in our lives, but I think it had more to do with our dislike of change.
- 6/15/2009
- QuietEarth.us
A day following the announcement of the 81st Academy Awards' nominees, the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have uncovered their official selections for the 34th Cesar Awards. On Friday, January 23, gangster movie "Mesrine" has been given ten nominations for the France's top awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Jean-Francois Richet.
Apart from the two mentioned gongs, "Mesrine", which is the third highest grossing French film in 2008, also garnered a Best Actor nod for leading actor Vincent Cassel. It also collected two more counts in the category of Adapted Screenplay for Abdel Raouf Dafri and Jean-Francois Richet, and of Cinematography for Robert Gantz.
In the foreign film nominations, Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" were put in competition with Bouli Lanners' "Eldorado", Matteo Garrone's "Gomorra", Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's "Lorna's Silence", James Gray...
Apart from the two mentioned gongs, "Mesrine", which is the third highest grossing French film in 2008, also garnered a Best Actor nod for leading actor Vincent Cassel. It also collected two more counts in the category of Adapted Screenplay for Abdel Raouf Dafri and Jean-Francois Richet, and of Cinematography for Robert Gantz.
In the foreign film nominations, Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" were put in competition with Bouli Lanners' "Eldorado", Matteo Garrone's "Gomorra", Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's "Lorna's Silence", James Gray...
- 1/24/2009
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
- For a third time and year in a row, IFC Films are teaming up with French filmmaker Christophe Honore. The distribution company who have been picking up titles left and right are looking to put La Belle Personne into theaters sometime next year. Co-written by Honore and Gilles Taurand, this is a contemporary adaptation of French literary classic The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette (1678). The film retraces the misadventures of Junie (Seydoux, mademoiselle de Chartres in the book). Aged 16, the young girl changes high school in the middle of the academic year, following the death of her mother. She joins a new class that includes her cousin Esteban, who introduces her to his group of friends. Junie is soon courted by the boys in the group and becomes the fiancée of the quietest young man, Grégoire (the book’s Prince of Cleves). But soon she falls overwhelmingly in love,
- 11/11/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
- If you're the art-house/subtitle type then helmer Christophe Honoré needs no introductions. With an output like his, a recent string of pictures such as Ma Mere, In Paris and most recently, Love Songs, you know it's just a question of time before his next project is unveiled. Cineuropa recently filled us in on the Frenchman's latest project (a pic that will once again feature Honoré's muse: Louis Garrel) and which was compared to Laurent Cantet’s brilliant exposé of Paris' urban jungle a.k.a high school and Palme d'or winner Entre Les murs because of the likeliness of the setting. Co-written by the director and Gilles Taurand, La Belle Personne is a contemporary adaptation of French literary classic The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette (1678). The film retraces the misadventures of Junie (Seydoux, mademoiselle de Chartres in the book). Aged 16, the young girl changes high
- 6/10/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
PARIS -- French screenwriters union the UGS will celebrate Jacques Prevert's birthday Feb. 4 as it awards its second annual Jacques Prevert Script Prize for best French screenplay, the UGS said Thursday.
Gallic director Daniele Thompson will preside over the ceremony at Paris' Orangerie restaurant.
Thompson's 2008 jury includes fellow screenwriters Pascal Kane, Olivier Lorelle, Loraine Levy, Juliette Sales, Jerome Soubeyrand, Gilles Taurand, Anne Louise Trividic, Pierre Uytterhoeven and Philippe Vuaillat.
This year, the winner in the best original screenplay category will see 4,000 copies of his script printed and distributed at newstands around the country as a supplement to the screenwriters' magazine "La Gazette des Scenaristes".
Last year's award for best original screenplay went to Christopher Turpin and Laurent Tuel for Tuel's "Jean-Philippe", while the best adaptation award went to Michel Hazanavicius' "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies".
Gallic director Daniele Thompson will preside over the ceremony at Paris' Orangerie restaurant.
Thompson's 2008 jury includes fellow screenwriters Pascal Kane, Olivier Lorelle, Loraine Levy, Juliette Sales, Jerome Soubeyrand, Gilles Taurand, Anne Louise Trividic, Pierre Uytterhoeven and Philippe Vuaillat.
This year, the winner in the best original screenplay category will see 4,000 copies of his script printed and distributed at newstands around the country as a supplement to the screenwriters' magazine "La Gazette des Scenaristes".
Last year's award for best original screenplay went to Christopher Turpin and Laurent Tuel for Tuel's "Jean-Philippe", while the best adaptation award went to Michel Hazanavicius' "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies".
- 1/11/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Leave it to the French to create a dark psychological drama that mainly revolves around the intricacies of dining on gourmet cuisine. Bernard Rapp's "A Matter of Taste", about a waiter recruited as a food taster for an upper-class businessman, might not succeed in fully developing the myriad themes of class differences, sexuality, etc., that it wishes to explore, but there's no denying that it is as elegant as the sharp clothes and extravagant meals enjoyed by its central characters. "Taste" is a critical and popular hit in France, where it received five Cesar Award nominations.
Told in distracting flashback style, the story revolves around the bizarre relationship that develops between Nicolas (Jean-Pierre Lorit), a handsome, carefree waiter, and Frederic (Bernard Giraudeau), an imperious and wealthy business mogul. They meet when Frederic, being waited on by Nicolas, suddenly asks him to taste his food for him. When Nicolas is able to name every ingredient in the dish, the impressed Frederic offers him a job as his official food taster, with one of his chief responsibilities being to determine if any dish contains seafood or cheese, two items to which Frederic is deathly allergic.
Despite the objections of his bourgeois-hating girlfriend Beatrice (Florence Thomassin), Nicolas quickly takes to his new position, especially since he soon gets to enjoy the same high-flying lifestyle as his employer. Unfortunately, his role quickly takes on disturbing ramifications, as Frederic seems intent on making his food taster a personal clone, even to the extent of first starving and then poisoning him in order that Nicolas share his own food preferences. The two eventually become embroiled in a sinister, psychologically interdependent relationship that, needless to say, doesn't end well.
While the film seems initially promising in its audacious explorations of obsession and identity, the screenplay doesn't sufficiently develop its ideas into a coherent whole. Torn between its comedic, dramatic and satirical elements, it doesn't truly succeed on any level, though there are more than a few quietly chilling and perversely funny moments along the way. Adding greatly to the film's overall impact are the two lead performances, with Giraudeau particularly memorable as the supremely officious Frederic.
A MATTER OF TASTE
Attitude Films
Director: Bernard Rapp
Screenwriters: Gilles Taurand, Bernard Rapp
Producers: Catherine Dussart, Chantal Perrin
Director of photography: Gerard de Battista
Editor: Juliettte Wilfling
Original music: Jean-Philippe Goude
Production designer: Francoise Comtet
Color/stereo
Cast:
Frederic Delamont: Bernard Giraudeau
Nicolas Riviere: Jean-Pierre Lorit
Beatrice: Florence Thomassin
Rene Rousset: Charles Berling
Magistrate: Jean-Pierre Leaud
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Told in distracting flashback style, the story revolves around the bizarre relationship that develops between Nicolas (Jean-Pierre Lorit), a handsome, carefree waiter, and Frederic (Bernard Giraudeau), an imperious and wealthy business mogul. They meet when Frederic, being waited on by Nicolas, suddenly asks him to taste his food for him. When Nicolas is able to name every ingredient in the dish, the impressed Frederic offers him a job as his official food taster, with one of his chief responsibilities being to determine if any dish contains seafood or cheese, two items to which Frederic is deathly allergic.
Despite the objections of his bourgeois-hating girlfriend Beatrice (Florence Thomassin), Nicolas quickly takes to his new position, especially since he soon gets to enjoy the same high-flying lifestyle as his employer. Unfortunately, his role quickly takes on disturbing ramifications, as Frederic seems intent on making his food taster a personal clone, even to the extent of first starving and then poisoning him in order that Nicolas share his own food preferences. The two eventually become embroiled in a sinister, psychologically interdependent relationship that, needless to say, doesn't end well.
While the film seems initially promising in its audacious explorations of obsession and identity, the screenplay doesn't sufficiently develop its ideas into a coherent whole. Torn between its comedic, dramatic and satirical elements, it doesn't truly succeed on any level, though there are more than a few quietly chilling and perversely funny moments along the way. Adding greatly to the film's overall impact are the two lead performances, with Giraudeau particularly memorable as the supremely officious Frederic.
A MATTER OF TASTE
Attitude Films
Director: Bernard Rapp
Screenwriters: Gilles Taurand, Bernard Rapp
Producers: Catherine Dussart, Chantal Perrin
Director of photography: Gerard de Battista
Editor: Juliettte Wilfling
Original music: Jean-Philippe Goude
Production designer: Francoise Comtet
Color/stereo
Cast:
Frederic Delamont: Bernard Giraudeau
Nicolas Riviere: Jean-Pierre Lorit
Beatrice: Florence Thomassin
Rene Rousset: Charles Berling
Magistrate: Jean-Pierre Leaud
Running time -- 90 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Playtime
It is tempting to compare "24 Hours in the Life of a Woman" to "The Hours" inasmuch as both films contemplate a day in the lives of three women in separate eras of the 20th century. Tempting but misleading. This is a thoroughly prosaic movie that struggles to draw a life lesson from three stories, none terribly compelling and each bathed in a superseriousness the film never earns.
"24 Hours" is tonight's opening-night film of the seventh annual City of Lights/City of Angels, a group of recent French films paying a visit to Los Angeles.
Based on a novella by Austrian poet, biographer and man of letters Stefan Zweig, the story has been turned by director Laurent Bouhnik into yet another cinematic essay on l'amour fou. Laurent, who adapted the book with Gilles Taurand, gets the movie under way in modern-day Nice. A teenage girl (Berenice Bejo), foolishly in love with an abusive man, takes refuge for a night with a retired diplomat (Michel Serrault). On impulse, he launches into the story that has troubled him all his life.
On a trip to this very city in 1935, he discovered his mother's infidelity. The young man is distraught, but an elegant widow (Agnes Jaoui) defends his mother by telling him a story of her own foolish infatuation with a Polish gambler in Monte Carlo in 1913. And so the film jumps between time periods, ostensibly to find a connection among these three stories, a connection that never materializes.
Decked out with fancy camera angles and leisure-class languor, neither of the historical interludes is engaging. Indeed, only the affair between the widow and suicidal gambler receives any dramatic examination. Seen so briefly, the addictions of all the movie's characters -- to gambling or unworthy lovers or past events -- overwhelm any sense of who these people are. And any deeper meanings Bouhnik hopes to achieve elude him entirely.
It is tempting to compare "24 Hours in the Life of a Woman" to "The Hours" inasmuch as both films contemplate a day in the lives of three women in separate eras of the 20th century. Tempting but misleading. This is a thoroughly prosaic movie that struggles to draw a life lesson from three stories, none terribly compelling and each bathed in a superseriousness the film never earns.
"24 Hours" is tonight's opening-night film of the seventh annual City of Lights/City of Angels, a group of recent French films paying a visit to Los Angeles.
Based on a novella by Austrian poet, biographer and man of letters Stefan Zweig, the story has been turned by director Laurent Bouhnik into yet another cinematic essay on l'amour fou. Laurent, who adapted the book with Gilles Taurand, gets the movie under way in modern-day Nice. A teenage girl (Berenice Bejo), foolishly in love with an abusive man, takes refuge for a night with a retired diplomat (Michel Serrault). On impulse, he launches into the story that has troubled him all his life.
On a trip to this very city in 1935, he discovered his mother's infidelity. The young man is distraught, but an elegant widow (Agnes Jaoui) defends his mother by telling him a story of her own foolish infatuation with a Polish gambler in Monte Carlo in 1913. And so the film jumps between time periods, ostensibly to find a connection among these three stories, a connection that never materializes.
Decked out with fancy camera angles and leisure-class languor, neither of the historical interludes is engaging. Indeed, only the affair between the widow and suicidal gambler receives any dramatic examination. Seen so briefly, the addictions of all the movie's characters -- to gambling or unworthy lovers or past events -- overwhelm any sense of who these people are. And any deeper meanings Bouhnik hopes to achieve elude him entirely.
'Alice' Turns Down Heat / Low-intensity French import has charm, but Binoche breezes through enigmatic romance
By David Hunter
A 1998 French-Spanish co-production that comes off as a low-
intensity French import after the likes of "Pola X", "Romance" and "Humanite", USA Films' "Alice and Martin" is not without bookish charm -- everything is arranged neatly in chapters, for starters -- but it's hardly a must-see (or, rather, a must-read of English subtitles for the French-language film).
Director/co-writer Andre Techine ("Wild Reeds", "Thieves"), working with screenwriter Gilles Taurand (they also collaborated on Techine's 1985 Cannes winner "Rendez-vous"), is a mild-mannered dramatist with a lot of ground to cover in this lengthy tale of the bastard son of a successful man who runs away to Paris from a tragic event and a seesaw relationship with the woman of his dreams.
In a role she relatively breezes through, Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche ("The English Patient") as Alice is an enigma almost equal to erratic introvert Martin (newcomer Alexis Loret). He's got plenty to be troubled about, starting with the opening scenes of his happy childhood in Spain with unwed mother Jeanine (Carmen Maura) that was cut short when she sent him to live with his father, Victor (Pierre Maguelon), in southwestern France.
Excising a stretch of narrative and inserting it later, Techine instead jerks us to a fateful moment 10 years later, with grown Martin fleeing Victor's house and literally heading for the hills. On Martin's aimless, homeless tramp, which includes his robbing of a local farmer's henhouse, he is arrested and released. He makes his way to Paris and the possible safe harbor of his gay half-brother Benjamin (Mathieu Amalric).
Benjamin lives with "girlfriend" Alice in a close but nonsexual relationship. Transforming from an awkward, moody newcomer who miraculously (well, it is Paris) scores a modeling career into a blossoming beau who sweeps up Alice with his passion and heterosexuality, Martin is living on the edge emotionally. We find out why during Martin and Alice's long sojourn at a lonely Spanish seashore, where he swims all day and she hangs out, occasionally writing, with Benjamin.
With the help of a long flashback, we get the big picture squared away. Not surprisingly, Martin is a tormented soul who requires special handling, while Alice goes through the scary business of getting pregnant by a guy who may be suicidal, homicidal and, at the very least, masochistic. The film plays out in two hours of good and not-so-good times, scoring strongest during its middle chapters concerning the evolving triangle of Alice, Martin and Benjamin, with the terrific Amalric stealing his scenes.
ALICE AND MARTIN
USA Films
October Films
Presented by Alain Sarde
Credits: Director: Andre Techine; Screenwriters: Andre Techine, Gilles Taurand; Producer: Alain Sarde; Director of photography: Caroline Champetier; Production designer: Ze Branco; Editor: Martine Giordano; Costume designer: Elisabeth Tavernier; Music: Philippe Sarde. Cast: Alice: Juliette Binoche; Martin Sauvagnac: Alexis Loret; Benjamin: Mathieu Amalric; Jeanine: Carmen Maura; Victor: Pierre Maguelon. MPAA rating: R. Running time - 123 minutes. Color/stereo.
By David Hunter
A 1998 French-Spanish co-production that comes off as a low-
intensity French import after the likes of "Pola X", "Romance" and "Humanite", USA Films' "Alice and Martin" is not without bookish charm -- everything is arranged neatly in chapters, for starters -- but it's hardly a must-see (or, rather, a must-read of English subtitles for the French-language film).
Director/co-writer Andre Techine ("Wild Reeds", "Thieves"), working with screenwriter Gilles Taurand (they also collaborated on Techine's 1985 Cannes winner "Rendez-vous"), is a mild-mannered dramatist with a lot of ground to cover in this lengthy tale of the bastard son of a successful man who runs away to Paris from a tragic event and a seesaw relationship with the woman of his dreams.
In a role she relatively breezes through, Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche ("The English Patient") as Alice is an enigma almost equal to erratic introvert Martin (newcomer Alexis Loret). He's got plenty to be troubled about, starting with the opening scenes of his happy childhood in Spain with unwed mother Jeanine (Carmen Maura) that was cut short when she sent him to live with his father, Victor (Pierre Maguelon), in southwestern France.
Excising a stretch of narrative and inserting it later, Techine instead jerks us to a fateful moment 10 years later, with grown Martin fleeing Victor's house and literally heading for the hills. On Martin's aimless, homeless tramp, which includes his robbing of a local farmer's henhouse, he is arrested and released. He makes his way to Paris and the possible safe harbor of his gay half-brother Benjamin (Mathieu Amalric).
Benjamin lives with "girlfriend" Alice in a close but nonsexual relationship. Transforming from an awkward, moody newcomer who miraculously (well, it is Paris) scores a modeling career into a blossoming beau who sweeps up Alice with his passion and heterosexuality, Martin is living on the edge emotionally. We find out why during Martin and Alice's long sojourn at a lonely Spanish seashore, where he swims all day and she hangs out, occasionally writing, with Benjamin.
With the help of a long flashback, we get the big picture squared away. Not surprisingly, Martin is a tormented soul who requires special handling, while Alice goes through the scary business of getting pregnant by a guy who may be suicidal, homicidal and, at the very least, masochistic. The film plays out in two hours of good and not-so-good times, scoring strongest during its middle chapters concerning the evolving triangle of Alice, Martin and Benjamin, with the terrific Amalric stealing his scenes.
ALICE AND MARTIN
USA Films
October Films
Presented by Alain Sarde
Credits: Director: Andre Techine; Screenwriters: Andre Techine, Gilles Taurand; Producer: Alain Sarde; Director of photography: Caroline Champetier; Production designer: Ze Branco; Editor: Martine Giordano; Costume designer: Elisabeth Tavernier; Music: Philippe Sarde. Cast: Alice: Juliette Binoche; Martin Sauvagnac: Alexis Loret; Benjamin: Mathieu Amalric; Jeanine: Carmen Maura; Victor: Pierre Maguelon. MPAA rating: R. Running time - 123 minutes. Color/stereo.
- 7/25/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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