Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
- 5/2/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
La fille de son père
For his sophomore feature (which received some Fondation Gan coin), Erwan Le Duc moves his narrative around following the displacement of the family nucleus. Production took place in June of last year in the city of Paris and in Portugal on La fille de son père — a project that sees Le Duc reteam with Maud Wyler and lassoed Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart to topline with supports perfs from Céleste Brunnquell, Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford. In a nutshell this sounds like a drama about small fissures and attempting to heal past wounds in the present.…...
For his sophomore feature (which received some Fondation Gan coin), Erwan Le Duc moves his narrative around following the displacement of the family nucleus. Production took place in June of last year in the city of Paris and in Portugal on La fille de son père — a project that sees Le Duc reteam with Maud Wyler and lassoed Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart to topline with supports perfs from Céleste Brunnquell, Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford. In a nutshell this sounds like a drama about small fissures and attempting to heal past wounds in the present.…...
- 1/12/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
A corrupt minister and a delusional pair of dance contestants are just two of the monsters of mediocrity who haunt Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s strange film
Macron’s France gets tied to a chair in a basement and abused in this scabrous and gruesome state-of-the-nation black comedy from Jean-Christophe Meurisse. Olivier (Olivier Saladin) and Laurence (Lorella Cravotta) are a conceited retired couple in deep denial about how much debt they’re in, but hoping to win big money by competing in a dance contest. They figure they are entitled to extra points for being older, and the ferocious opening scene shows the judges debating precisely this kind of liberal identity-politics issue.
The couple’s grown-up son, Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger), is a lawyer who, along with a bleary spin doctor (Denis Podalydès), is advising a creepy and reactionary government minister (Christophe Paou) who is keen to cut welfare while engaging in personal...
Macron’s France gets tied to a chair in a basement and abused in this scabrous and gruesome state-of-the-nation black comedy from Jean-Christophe Meurisse. Olivier (Olivier Saladin) and Laurence (Lorella Cravotta) are a conceited retired couple in deep denial about how much debt they’re in, but hoping to win big money by competing in a dance contest. They figure they are entitled to extra points for being older, and the ferocious opening scene shows the judges debating precisely this kind of liberal identity-politics issue.
The couple’s grown-up son, Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger), is a lawyer who, along with a bleary spin doctor (Denis Podalydès), is advising a creepy and reactionary government minister (Christophe Paou) who is keen to cut welfare while engaging in personal...
- 9/12/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Erwan Le Duc will be reuniting with his The Bare Necessity actress Maud Wyler and has set Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart Bpm (Beats per Minute) as the patriarch parenting newbie Céleste Brunnquell in his sophomore film – which began production last week. Also starring Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford, La fille de son père will eventually move to Portugal after the Paris and Metz. Produced by Domino Films’ Alexis Dulguerian and Stéphanie Bermann. The project was awarded the Prix à la Création de la Fondation Gan in 2021.
Etienne was barely twenty years old when he fell in love with Valérie, and hardly more when their daughter Rosa was born.…...
Etienne was barely twenty years old when he fell in love with Valérie, and hardly more when their daughter Rosa was born.…...
- 6/11/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Following its run on the festival circuit, which included a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and screenings at Fantastic Fest, Jean-Christophe Meurisse's Bloody Oranges will be releasing on VOD on April 19th from Dark Star Pictures, but you can get a tease of what to expect right now by checking out this exclusive clip just for Daily Dead readers!
"A retired couple enter a dance contest, a corrupt politician, a girl eager to lose her virginity, and a young lawyer obsessed with social status - a seemingly benign look into these daily lives goes haywire in this shocking black comedy."
Bloody Oranges stars Alexandre Steiger, Christophe, Paou, Lilith Grasmug, and Olivier Saladin. Check out the dance competition clip below and be on the lookout for Heather Wixson's interview with Jean-Christophe Meurisse later this week!
The post Indie Horror Month 2022: Watch an Exclusive Clip from French...
"A retired couple enter a dance contest, a corrupt politician, a girl eager to lose her virginity, and a young lawyer obsessed with social status - a seemingly benign look into these daily lives goes haywire in this shocking black comedy."
Bloody Oranges stars Alexandre Steiger, Christophe, Paou, Lilith Grasmug, and Olivier Saladin. Check out the dance competition clip below and be on the lookout for Heather Wixson's interview with Jean-Christophe Meurisse later this week!
The post Indie Horror Month 2022: Watch an Exclusive Clip from French...
- 4/18/2022
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
"Be scandalous." Whoa! This trailer is not for the faint of heart. Dark Star Pictures has debuted one final red band trailer for a "shockingly" dark comedy film titled Bloody Oranges, originally known as Oranges Sanguines in French. This premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival in the Midnight section, and it also played at Fantastic Fest; it already opened in US theaters back in March. You won't be ready for what this shows! The film is about a retired couple who enter a dance contest, a corrupt politician caught evading paying his taxes, a girl eager to lose her virginity, and a lawyer obsessed with social status - a seemingly benign look into these daily lives goes haywire in this shocking black comedy. The director reveals that, "the film speaks of actual events which I read about in the newspapers." There's a quote in here that talks about how...
- 4/14/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Pondering Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s Bloody Oranges kindled a somewhat unexpected association in my mind. The opening minutes, and the following deviation from the tone they set, made me think of Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods. A strange comparison indeed, but not entirely unfounded. Both introductory sequences defy the expectations about the respective features - that of a disturbing dark comedy and a run-of-the-mill slasher. In both cases, prolonged and talky openings act as preludes to mayhem. You would certainly be reading a more elaborate analogy were Bloody Oranges as subversive and effortlessly witty as Goddard’s debut.
Meurisse's film assumes a fragmented format, following, among others, a pair of seniors (Lorella Cravotta and Olivier Saladin) hoping to counter their debts by winning a dancing contest, an insecure lawyer who happens to be their son (Alexandre Steiger), a teenager readying herself to lose her virginity (Lilith Grasmug), a corrupt finance secretary (Christophe.
Meurisse's film assumes a fragmented format, following, among others, a pair of seniors (Lorella Cravotta and Olivier Saladin) hoping to counter their debts by winning a dancing contest, an insecure lawyer who happens to be their son (Alexandre Steiger), a teenager readying herself to lose her virginity (Lilith Grasmug), a corrupt finance secretary (Christophe.
- 4/11/2022
- by Antoni Konieczny
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"Brimming with comedy and shocking content." Dark Star Pictures has revealed an official US trailer for an indie very, very dark comedy film titled Bloody Oranges, originally known as Oranges Sanguines in French. This first premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival last year in the Midnight section, and it also played at Fantastic Fest and the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. The film is about a retired couple who enter a dance contest, a corrupt politician caught evading paying his taxes, a girl eager to lose her virginity, and a young lawyer obsessed with social status - a seemingly benign look into these daily lives goes haywire in this shocking black comedy. The director reveals that, "the film speaks of actual events which I read about in the newspapers." But with a twist! The film stars Alexandre Steiger, Christophe Paou, and Lilith Grasmug. This looks like a searing tale about how messed up everyone is,...
- 3/16/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
A case study in the importance of knowing as little about a movie’s plot in advance as possible, “Bloody Oranges” ends somewhere completely different from where it began with only minor stumbles along the way. This acerbic look at the France of today isn’t as ha-ha funny as director Jean-Christophe Meurisse probably intended, but its darker shades reveal an underbelly that’s hard to turn away from — even if a few graphic scenes will make you want to.
Our deceptively low-stakes entrée into this world is a lengthy scene in which the judges of a local dance competition argue among themselves over the contestants’ respective skills and get sidetracked by tangential digressions and increasingly heated debates; one of them even breaks down in tears. The contest itself is a no-frills affair taking place in a gymnasium with no real audience beyond the aspiring dancers themselves, including an older...
Our deceptively low-stakes entrée into this world is a lengthy scene in which the judges of a local dance competition argue among themselves over the contestants’ respective skills and get sidetracked by tangential digressions and increasingly heated debates; one of them even breaks down in tears. The contest itself is a no-frills affair taking place in a gymnasium with no real audience beyond the aspiring dancers themselves, including an older...
- 11/10/2021
- by Michael Nordine
- Variety Film + TV
Popular French theater director Jean-Christophe Meurisse is making his sophomore film outing with “Bloody Oranges,” a black comedy headlined by Denis Podalydès (“La Belle Epoque”), Blanche Gardin (“Delete History”) and Christophe Paou (“Synonyms”).
Brussels-based outfit Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to the film, which is produced by Rectangle Prods. “(“It Must Be Heaven,” “Climax”) and Mamma Roman.
“Bloody Oranges” marks Meurisse’s follow-up to “Apnee,” which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2016. Meurisse is also a well-known figure in the world of theater, having launched the Chiens de Navarre theater troupe.
“Bloody Oranges” takes place in contemporary France and weaves the stories of a retired couple overwhelmed by debt trying to win a dance contest, a minister of economy who is suspected of tax evasion, a teenage girl coming across a sexual maniac and young lawyer trying to climb the social ladder. When the shoe drops, the...
Brussels-based outfit Best Friend Forever has acquired international sales rights to the film, which is produced by Rectangle Prods. “(“It Must Be Heaven,” “Climax”) and Mamma Roman.
“Bloody Oranges” marks Meurisse’s follow-up to “Apnee,” which premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2016. Meurisse is also a well-known figure in the world of theater, having launched the Chiens de Navarre theater troupe.
“Bloody Oranges” takes place in contemporary France and weaves the stories of a retired couple overwhelmed by debt trying to win a dance contest, a minister of economy who is suspected of tax evasion, a teenage girl coming across a sexual maniac and young lawyer trying to climb the social ladder. When the shoe drops, the...
- 3/1/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Alexandre Steiger, Christophe Paou, Vincent Dedienne, Blanche Gardin and Denis Podalydès, all star in the cast of this Mamma Roman and Rectangle production, set to be sold by Best Friend Forever. After kicking off on 26 October, filming on Oranges sanguines, Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s second feature film after Apnée (discovered in a Special Screening in Cannes’ Critics’ Week 2016), is scheduled to wrap on 2 December. Also known for being a stage director for his theatre company Les Chiens de Navarre, the filmmaker gathered together a cast including Alexandre Steiger, Christophe Paou (highly acclaimed for his performance in Stranger by the Lake), youngster Lilith Grasmug (Sophia Antipolis), Frédéric Blin, Olivier Saladin (whom he previously worked with on Apnée), Lorella Cravotta (Romantics Anonymous), Vincent Dedienne, Blanche Gardin...
- 11/27/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Sophomore director Nicolas Pariser follows his politically engaged debut, “The Great Game,” with an even deeper plunge into the disconnect between political theory and the workings of government in the unmistakably French “Alice and the Mayor.” Deeply influenced by Eric Rohmer in the way it aspires to use philosophical dialogue to reveal something about the people behind the talk, Pariser unfortunately tips the conversation scales far into tilt, resulting in a movie so enamored by its self-perception of cleverness that even policy wonks will find it hard to muster enthusiasm. Aside from the pleasures of watching Fabrice Luchini and the winningly fresh-faced Anaïs Demoustier, there’s little to attract interest, especially outside the Republic.
Longtime politico Paul Théraneau (Luchini) is proud of his track record as mayor of Lyon, but he’s lost a sense of intellectual engagement. To kick-start the cerebral juices, his staff hire Alice Heimann (Demoustier), a...
Longtime politico Paul Théraneau (Luchini) is proud of his track record as mayor of Lyon, but he’s lost a sense of intellectual engagement. To kick-start the cerebral juices, his staff hire Alice Heimann (Demoustier), a...
- 5/20/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
CANNES -- Emmanuel Bourdieu's second feature, which opens Cannes' Critics Week, tells the story of three student friends, intelligent, articulate and passionate about literature, who meet at that crucial point in their lives where their potential has been established but the path to self-realization remains shrouded in uncertainty.
The charismatic Andre (Thibault Vincon) -- brilliant, self-confident and peremptory in his judgments -- rapidly assumes the role of mentor to his comrades, guiding Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger) toward a career in theater and advising Eloi (Malik Zidi) in his work and love life. In return, he demands and obtains unconditional loyalty. He himself appears destined for great things, preparing a doctorate under Sorbonne professor Claude Mortier (Jacques Bonnaffe).
The movie is slow to show its hand, but it gradually becomes clear that Andre, despite or perhaps because of his promise, is going off the rails. He alienates his supervisor, maliciously deletes a story written by his sweet-natured librarian girlfriend Marguerite (Natacha Regnier) from her computer and then announces that he is leaving for America on a prestigious scholarship when in fact he has signed up with the French army for a lowly job as a cultural instructor.
Alexandre, meanwhile, has been finding himself as an actor, and Eloi -- who teams up Marguerite after she has broken with Andre -- writes a novel that becomes a critical success after his novelist mother Florence (Dominique Blanc) presents it to her publisher.
Andre's deceptions are duly revealed, and the final confrontation in a restaurant where the friends gather to celebrate their success sees him cast as the chronic underachiever whose former disciples are now set to scale the heights.
Bourdieu, the son of a noted academic and formerly a writer for directors Arnaud Desplechin and Nicole Garcia, convincingly portrays the tensions of university life, particularly the role-playing and testing of limits among students. However, the movie, absorbing rather than gripping, does not really deliver on the promise of malfeasance contained in the title.
Andre, whose story forms its core, is more the victim than the beneficiary of the sway he exercises over his companions, and the origins of his inability to make anything of his talents are not seriously examined. The stories of Alexandre and Eloi, particularly the latter's relationship with his mother, are thinly developed, and the suddenness of their success is rather baffling, so that the resolution feels imposed rather than a natural consequence of what has come before.
But the actors' performances, particularly those of the relative newcomers in the lead roles, are uniformly excellent, and together with the crisp dialogue by Bourdieu and co-writer Marcia Romano, the warm colors, frequent night settings and Gregoire Hetzel's original score in the style of Schumann and Hoffmann make for an intelligent entertainment.
POISON FRIENDS
4X4 Prods.
Cast: Director: Emmanuel Bourdieu; Screenwriters: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Marcia Romano; Director of photography: Yorick Le Saux; Production designer: Nicolas de Boiscuille; Music: Gregoire Hetzel; Editor: Benoit Quinon.
Cast: Eloi: Malik Zidi; Andre: Thibault Vincon; Alexandre: Alexandre Steiger; Mortier: Jacques Bonnaffe; Marguerite: Natacha Regnier; Florence Duhaut: Dominique Blanc; Edouard: Thomas Blanchard.
No MPAA rating, running time 100 minutes.
The charismatic Andre (Thibault Vincon) -- brilliant, self-confident and peremptory in his judgments -- rapidly assumes the role of mentor to his comrades, guiding Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger) toward a career in theater and advising Eloi (Malik Zidi) in his work and love life. In return, he demands and obtains unconditional loyalty. He himself appears destined for great things, preparing a doctorate under Sorbonne professor Claude Mortier (Jacques Bonnaffe).
The movie is slow to show its hand, but it gradually becomes clear that Andre, despite or perhaps because of his promise, is going off the rails. He alienates his supervisor, maliciously deletes a story written by his sweet-natured librarian girlfriend Marguerite (Natacha Regnier) from her computer and then announces that he is leaving for America on a prestigious scholarship when in fact he has signed up with the French army for a lowly job as a cultural instructor.
Alexandre, meanwhile, has been finding himself as an actor, and Eloi -- who teams up Marguerite after she has broken with Andre -- writes a novel that becomes a critical success after his novelist mother Florence (Dominique Blanc) presents it to her publisher.
Andre's deceptions are duly revealed, and the final confrontation in a restaurant where the friends gather to celebrate their success sees him cast as the chronic underachiever whose former disciples are now set to scale the heights.
Bourdieu, the son of a noted academic and formerly a writer for directors Arnaud Desplechin and Nicole Garcia, convincingly portrays the tensions of university life, particularly the role-playing and testing of limits among students. However, the movie, absorbing rather than gripping, does not really deliver on the promise of malfeasance contained in the title.
Andre, whose story forms its core, is more the victim than the beneficiary of the sway he exercises over his companions, and the origins of his inability to make anything of his talents are not seriously examined. The stories of Alexandre and Eloi, particularly the latter's relationship with his mother, are thinly developed, and the suddenness of their success is rather baffling, so that the resolution feels imposed rather than a natural consequence of what has come before.
But the actors' performances, particularly those of the relative newcomers in the lead roles, are uniformly excellent, and together with the crisp dialogue by Bourdieu and co-writer Marcia Romano, the warm colors, frequent night settings and Gregoire Hetzel's original score in the style of Schumann and Hoffmann make for an intelligent entertainment.
POISON FRIENDS
4X4 Prods.
Cast: Director: Emmanuel Bourdieu; Screenwriters: Emmanuel Bourdieu, Marcia Romano; Director of photography: Yorick Le Saux; Production designer: Nicolas de Boiscuille; Music: Gregoire Hetzel; Editor: Benoit Quinon.
Cast: Eloi: Malik Zidi; Andre: Thibault Vincon; Alexandre: Alexandre Steiger; Mortier: Jacques Bonnaffe; Marguerite: Natacha Regnier; Florence Duhaut: Dominique Blanc; Edouard: Thomas Blanchard.
No MPAA rating, running time 100 minutes.
- 5/20/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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