"What's my name again?" Mubi has unveiled an official trailer for an absurdity, meta French comedy called Yannick, the second film from 2023 by the wacky French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux. This premiered at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival last year and will be streaming on Mubi starting in April. Dupieux never stops working! Smoking Causes Coughing was released last year, and he also brought Daaaaaali! in Venice and this one in Locarno, plus he has another new film rumored for Cannes 2024. In this – on a rare night off, parking attendant Yannick goes to the theater to catch a production of the comedy The Cuckold (aka "Le Cocu"). Dissatisfied by the boring performance, Yannick hijacks the show: he takes the theater hostage and demands to become the playwright. This film stars Raphaël Quenard as Yannick, Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin and Sébastien Chassagne. Shot in secret in just 6 days, this award-winning comedy is ready...
- 3/29/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Doc is third in director Jean-Michel Bertrand wolf trilogy
France TV Distribution is kicking off sales on Jean-Michel Bertrand’s documentary Living With Wolves at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema which opens tomorrow in Paris.
The film is Bertrand’s third in his wolf trilogy and sees him living alongside a community of wolves in European forests. As wolves continue to repopulate Europe, Bertrand offers a lesson in how to exist alongside these mysterious yet dangerous animals.
Living With Wolves, produced by MC4, is set for a January 24 release in France via Gebeka Films. France TV Distribution will market premiere...
France TV Distribution is kicking off sales on Jean-Michel Bertrand’s documentary Living With Wolves at the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema which opens tomorrow in Paris.
The film is Bertrand’s third in his wolf trilogy and sees him living alongside a community of wolves in European forests. As wolves continue to repopulate Europe, Bertrand offers a lesson in how to exist alongside these mysterious yet dangerous animals.
Living With Wolves, produced by MC4, is set for a January 24 release in France via Gebeka Films. France TV Distribution will market premiere...
- 1/15/2024
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Oscar-winning filmmaker Michel Gondry presented “The Book of Solutions” at Lucca Comics & Games this week, and took the opportunity to explore his ideas about creativity, and to urge aspiring directors to fight against perfectionism and embrace risk. He was accompanied by his editor, Élise Fievet.
Gondry explained that the self-help guide from which the film gets its name features a series of guiding principles for creativity, such as kicking off a project without hesitation, learning by doing, and not listening to others.
“These are principles that stayed with me during a period of my life that has been very hard, and they’re still with me. I think they’re still valid,” he said. With his latest effort, the helmer aimed to “revive that harsh period of his life, but with a touch of humor.”
“The Book of Solutions”
“The Book of Solutions” follows Marc (Pierre Niney), a director who...
Gondry explained that the self-help guide from which the film gets its name features a series of guiding principles for creativity, such as kicking off a project without hesitation, learning by doing, and not listening to others.
“These are principles that stayed with me during a period of my life that has been very hard, and they’re still with me. I think they’re still valid,” he said. With his latest effort, the helmer aimed to “revive that harsh period of his life, but with a touch of humor.”
“The Book of Solutions”
“The Book of Solutions” follows Marc (Pierre Niney), a director who...
- 11/3/2023
- by Davide Abbatescianni
- Variety Film + TV
Producer is France’s Ts Productions, whose credits include Golden Bear-winner ’On The Adamant’.
France TV Distribution has taken worldwide rights to Giulio Callegari’s debut feature Robot T-0 now in production in France. It is selling the film at Rome’s Mia film market this week.
Callegari is best known in France for co-writing and co-creating Canal+ hit series All the Way Up (Validé) and as a co-writer on French anthology film Selfie that explored humans’ relationship with technology.
Robot T-0 is set in a near future where robots have replaced humans in every household. The film follows a...
France TV Distribution has taken worldwide rights to Giulio Callegari’s debut feature Robot T-0 now in production in France. It is selling the film at Rome’s Mia film market this week.
Callegari is best known in France for co-writing and co-creating Canal+ hit series All the Way Up (Validé) and as a co-writer on French anthology film Selfie that explored humans’ relationship with technology.
Robot T-0 is set in a near future where robots have replaced humans in every household. The film follows a...
- 10/13/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Over the past six years Quentin Dupieux has been working at Hong Sangsoo’s speed, churning out a film every few months. The streak kicked off in 2018 with the deranged police procedural Keep an Eye Out; since then the Frenchman’s trained his camera on a leather jacket with homicidal urges (2019’s Deerskin), an oversized fly-turned-bankable-pet (2020’s Mandibles), a married couple rewinding time through a tunnel in their new house (2022’s Incredible But True), and a team of leather-clad avengers ridding the world of monsters with the power of tobacco’s lethal substances (2022’s Smoking Causes Coughing). Tying these disparate projects isn’t just their director’s proclivity for the gonzo, but also a certain narrative economy. Dupieux––who’s written, directed, shot, and edited all his films since the 2010 breakthrough Rubber (in which a tire rolled through the U.S. on a killing spree)––likes to traffic in short,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Since his delirious 2007 debut, Steak, DJ turned director Quentin Dupieux has kept up a steady pace of one or two feature films a year, making him among the most prolific directors currently working in France. One of the ways he pulls this off is by being a cinematic one-man-band, penning his own scripts, then shooting, editing and sometimes scoring his own movies, which tend to clock in somewhere between seventy and ninety minutes.
He’s tackled many different genres over the past decade, from comedy to thriller to horror to sci-fi, often blending two or three of them into a single story. And yet what all his films have in common is a totally absurdist, idiosyncratic approach that mixes high-concept plots with a tone best described as deadpan surrealism. In a sense, he’s invented his own genre by now, which I guess the French would call “Dupieuxien,” as in:...
He’s tackled many different genres over the past decade, from comedy to thriller to horror to sci-fi, often blending two or three of them into a single story. And yet what all his films have in common is a totally absurdist, idiosyncratic approach that mixes high-concept plots with a tone best described as deadpan surrealism. In a sense, he’s invented his own genre by now, which I guess the French would call “Dupieuxien,” as in:...
- 8/18/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Gondry is back!! The Jokers distribution in France has debuted the first official trailer for Michel Gondry's latest film titled The Book of Solutions, originally titled Le Livre des Solutions in French. This premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival a few months ago, playing in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar fest, and was one of our Top 10 fest highlights. The quirky, upbeat comedy is a very personal, meta story for Gondry about a filmmaker trying to make a film his way and all the challenges he runs into in the process. Pierre Niney stars as Marc, who escapes the city for a small town where he lives with his aunt and a small crew as they try to finish the film without all the producers chasing them. The cast includes Blanche Gardin, Françoise Lebrun, Vincent Elbaz, Frankie Wallach, Camille Rutherford, and Mourad Boudaoud. This is Gondry's best in years, it's...
- 8/8/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“You’re full of hate and frustrations. you should take a break,” director Quentin Dupieux once tweeted at me, immediately following my review of his 2014 film “Reality.” In another world, someone might have advised him against picking a fight with a film critic. You know, never quarrel with a man who buys ink by the barrel, and all that. But I didn’t mind. I’d said some harsh things about his movie. Seems only fair that he could retort.
In Dupieux’s latest, “Yannick,” the title character is a critic. Like Dupieux, Yannick does the unthinkable, expressing his displeasure. In a way. That. Is. Not. Done. He opens his mouth during the show. And it’s hilarious — by challenging this incredibly specific (but seldom questioned) cultural taboo, Dupieux has concocted both a ripe comedic premise and a chance to interrogate what audiences expect from art: Diversion? Entertainment? Uplift? Provocation?...
In Dupieux’s latest, “Yannick,” the title character is a critic. Like Dupieux, Yannick does the unthinkable, expressing his displeasure. In a way. That. Is. Not. Done. He opens his mouth during the show. And it’s hilarious — by challenging this incredibly specific (but seldom questioned) cultural taboo, Dupieux has concocted both a ripe comedic premise and a chance to interrogate what audiences expect from art: Diversion? Entertainment? Uplift? Provocation?...
- 8/7/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Céline Devaux's Everybody Loves Jeanne is now showing exclusively on Mubi from July 27, 2023, in many countries—including the United Kingdom, the United States, India, Turkey, Canada, and Mexico—in the series Debuts.Devaux's notebook.Everybody Loves Jeanne started out as an attempt to write a fictional journal. I created this ecological superhero character, Jeanne Mayer, who's a bundle of fear and arrogance because she's busy saving the world, no less. I told myself that this was the most useful job in the world today, and that it must be really terrible to fail at it. I took this moment of failure and made it the story of the film. I took a very difficult moment in a woman’s life, and put it under a microscope.I wanted to collect someone's thoughts, all of them, from the most ridiculous to the most secret, from the most grandiose to the most trivial,...
- 7/31/2023
- MUBI
The stylish feature debut from Céline Devaux explores the life of businesswoman Jeanne, her louche ex-lover and a strangely seductive new acquaintance
Parisian film-maker and illustrator Céline Devaux, whose award-winning shorts have been shown at Cannes and Venice, now makes her feature debut with a salty romcom character study; it is deceptively slight, though leaning heavily on a certain kind of quirkiness, and undoubtedly intriguing.
Jeanne is an entrepreneur who has fallen into a depression caused by the death of her mother and the recent bizarre collapse of her business; she has an inner anxiety-voice represented by Devaux’s own sketches of the cartoon-ghost in her head, always nagging at her. An undersea device for hoovering up microplastics, into which Jeanne invested every cent of her own money, became unmoored and Jeanne was humiliatingly shown on the TV news as she desperately dived fully clothed into the sea in a doomed attempt to save it.
Parisian film-maker and illustrator Céline Devaux, whose award-winning shorts have been shown at Cannes and Venice, now makes her feature debut with a salty romcom character study; it is deceptively slight, though leaning heavily on a certain kind of quirkiness, and undoubtedly intriguing.
Jeanne is an entrepreneur who has fallen into a depression caused by the death of her mother and the recent bizarre collapse of her business; she has an inner anxiety-voice represented by Devaux’s own sketches of the cartoon-ghost in her head, always nagging at her. An undersea device for hoovering up microplastics, into which Jeanne invested every cent of her own money, became unmoored and Jeanne was humiliatingly shown on the TV news as she desperately dived fully clothed into the sea in a doomed attempt to save it.
- 7/24/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Kinology has boarded Quentin Dupieux’s (“Rubber”) ferocious comedy “Yannick” which will world premiere in competition at the Locarno Film Festival.
The anticipated film is produced by Thomas et Mathieu Verhaeghe at Atelier de production, and Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions. “Yannick” stars Raphaël Quenard, Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin and Sébastien Chassagne.
Yannick” unfolds during a mediocre stage performance of “Le Cocu” during which an audience member revolts and takes the full reins of the room.
“‘Yannick’ is Quentin Dupieux’s most mature film; it’s both melancholic and thoughtful,” said Gregoire Melin, Kinology’s founder and president. “We’re so excited to be reteaming with him after ‘Daaaaaali!’ and ‘Wrong’ on this new film which could become even more cult than his previous movies,” Melin continued.
Diaphana will release “Yannick” in France on Aug. 2. Kinology will kick off international sales at Locarno. Dupieux, who is one of France’s most prolific filmmakers,...
The anticipated film is produced by Thomas et Mathieu Verhaeghe at Atelier de production, and Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi Productions. “Yannick” stars Raphaël Quenard, Pio Marmaï, Blanche Gardin and Sébastien Chassagne.
Yannick” unfolds during a mediocre stage performance of “Le Cocu” during which an audience member revolts and takes the full reins of the room.
“‘Yannick’ is Quentin Dupieux’s most mature film; it’s both melancholic and thoughtful,” said Gregoire Melin, Kinology’s founder and president. “We’re so excited to be reteaming with him after ‘Daaaaaali!’ and ‘Wrong’ on this new film which could become even more cult than his previous movies,” Melin continued.
Diaphana will release “Yannick” in France on Aug. 2. Kinology will kick off international sales at Locarno. Dupieux, who is one of France’s most prolific filmmakers,...
- 7/6/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
‘Yannick’ stars Pio Marmaï alongside Raphael Quenard, Blanche Gardin, Sébastien Chassagne and Agnès Hurstel.
France’s Quentin Dupieux has revealed that his upcoming film Yannick will be released in France on August 2, the latest in a marathon of titles from the prolific absurdist filmmaker.
Daaaaaal! producers Atelier de Production teamed with Smoking Causes Coughing co-producer Hugo Selignac’s Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi Productions and Dupieux for Yannick, which stars Pio Marmaï alongside Raphael Quenard, Blanche Gardin, Sébastien Chassagne and Agnès Hurstel.
Dupieux confirmed the release via Twitter on Wednesday (June 28). According to distributor Diaphana, the film is set “In the middle of...
France’s Quentin Dupieux has revealed that his upcoming film Yannick will be released in France on August 2, the latest in a marathon of titles from the prolific absurdist filmmaker.
Daaaaaal! producers Atelier de Production teamed with Smoking Causes Coughing co-producer Hugo Selignac’s Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi Productions and Dupieux for Yannick, which stars Pio Marmaï alongside Raphael Quenard, Blanche Gardin, Sébastien Chassagne and Agnès Hurstel.
Dupieux confirmed the release via Twitter on Wednesday (June 28). According to distributor Diaphana, the film is set “In the middle of...
- 6/30/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
If you’ve ever wondered when it was that Michel Gondry, the gifted French director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” became the world’s most annoying filmmaker, you might say the answer is, “He always was.” Yet no one, including me, quite thinks of him that way. That’s because the few works of his that have come to prominence possess a special combination of facility and charm. I adore “Eternal Sunshine,” a virtuoso movie that bends your brain and breaks your heart at the same time. You might simply choose to characterize it as the masterpiece of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, but the truth is that Gondry directed it — the leaps in time, the emotionally convulsive performances of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet — with a masterful sense of play and gravitational control.
I’ve always heard that the script Kaufman originally turned in was twice as complicated, and...
I’ve always heard that the script Kaufman originally turned in was twice as complicated, and...
- 6/4/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
The colorful world of Michel Gondry, the Oscar-winning writer-director of “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” is the subject of an upcoming feature documentary represented worldwide by Reservoir Docs.
Directed by François Nemeta, “Michel Gondry: Do it Yourself” is an 80-minute documentary shedding light on Gondry’s “inventive and unusual creative process,” from his first video clips to the shooting of his latest movie “The Book of Solutions” which recently opened at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight.
“Michel Gondry: Do it Yourself” is produced by Olivier de Bannes at O2B Films, and Robin Acard at The Red Ceiling, and is co-produced by Arte France.
“For the production of this documentary, we had the great opportunity to have Michel on board with us, as well as many of the international talents – musicians and actors – with whom he’s been working during his 30 years long lasting career,” said the producers. “It’s amazing to...
Directed by François Nemeta, “Michel Gondry: Do it Yourself” is an 80-minute documentary shedding light on Gondry’s “inventive and unusual creative process,” from his first video clips to the shooting of his latest movie “The Book of Solutions” which recently opened at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight.
“Michel Gondry: Do it Yourself” is produced by Olivier de Bannes at O2B Films, and Robin Acard at The Red Ceiling, and is co-produced by Arte France.
“For the production of this documentary, we had the great opportunity to have Michel on board with us, as well as many of the international talents – musicians and actors – with whom he’s been working during his 30 years long lasting career,” said the producers. “It’s amazing to...
- 6/1/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
It’s been a long time since the last Michel Gondry movie (and perhaps even longer since the last time you actually saw one), but at least the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director’s semi-autobiographical new comedy offers a fun — if also fraught and occasionally worrying — explanation for why it took him eight years to follow up “Microbe & Gasoline.”
In “The Book of Solutions,” Pierre Niney plays Marc, an obvious Gondry stand-in who’s deep in post-production on a $5 million film that looks an awful lot like Gondry’s own “Mood Indigo.” And much like Gondry did with that surreal 2013 romance, which was maligned for its messy overabundance of rich ideas, Marc is struggling to find a coherent shape for his would-be opus.
“Anyone, Everyone” already sounds worryingly open-ended and ambitious based on its title alone, and it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in Marc’s financiers...
In “The Book of Solutions,” Pierre Niney plays Marc, an obvious Gondry stand-in who’s deep in post-production on a $5 million film that looks an awful lot like Gondry’s own “Mood Indigo.” And much like Gondry did with that surreal 2013 romance, which was maligned for its messy overabundance of rich ideas, Marc is struggling to find a coherent shape for his would-be opus.
“Anyone, Everyone” already sounds worryingly open-ended and ambitious based on its title alone, and it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in Marc’s financiers...
- 5/26/2023
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
When the film you’ve always wanted to make gets shut down by unconvinced producers, you have two choices: you still try to make it, or you make it. This is the case for Marc (Pierre Niney), an impressionable thirtysomething filmmaker, in Michel Gondry’sThe Book of Solutions. In an attempt to get his bearings, the bipolar Marc decides to get off his meds and take all the footage (plus his small crew) to his aunt’s house in the beautiful French countryside in the hope of finishing the film on his terms. The creative juices are flowing, but the work is arduous: how can one keep a seemingly doomed project together when everything is falling apart?
Gondry has retained the playful tone and occasional despair found in his equally whimsical Mood Indigo and The Science of Sleep, even as his newest is, by comparison, more rooted in the realities...
Gondry has retained the playful tone and occasional despair found in his equally whimsical Mood Indigo and The Science of Sleep, even as his newest is, by comparison, more rooted in the realities...
- 5/23/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- The Film Stage
The filmmaker at the center of Michel Gondry’s new feature is in a love-hate relationship with his latest project. To protect the work in progress from the studio executives who have just fired him, he absconds to the country with the four-hour cut, his faithful editor and assistant in tow. And then he can’t bear to look at the footage, and gets busy with one tangential undertaking after another. The depiction of procrastination as an essential part of the creative process is one of the delights of The Book of Solutions (Le Livre des solutions), but on the way to its mildly satisfying final punchline, this uneven comedy loses its thread.
Drawing loosely upon Gondry’s postproduction escape from producers when he was making Mood Indigo, his first movie since the 2015 charmer Microbe & Gasoline is a portrait of the director as a gifted man-child. Central character Marc Becker is inspired,...
Drawing loosely upon Gondry’s postproduction escape from producers when he was making Mood Indigo, his first movie since the 2015 charmer Microbe & Gasoline is a portrait of the director as a gifted man-child. Central character Marc Becker is inspired,...
- 5/21/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Ten years ago, Michel Gondy was directing “Mood Indigo,” his freewheeling and fanciful adaptation of the 1947 French novel “L’Écume des Jours” starring Audrey Tatou. And then he got lost.
“My brain was working in a different way,” he said over Zoom in a recent interview. “Each idea I had, no matter how important or small it was, became about life and death. Every little thing became super important. I felt like I was reaching ultimate creativity.”
He now looks back on the whole experience as a result of his delusional state. The movie ran long and over budget, angering Gondry’s investors. He escaped to the French countryside with his post-production team to finish the project on his own terms. The movie ran over two hours and got mixed reviews; a shorter version was released in the U.S. by Drafthouse Films several months later.
That saga provides the...
“My brain was working in a different way,” he said over Zoom in a recent interview. “Each idea I had, no matter how important or small it was, became about life and death. Every little thing became super important. I felt like I was reaching ultimate creativity.”
He now looks back on the whole experience as a result of his delusional state. The movie ran long and over budget, angering Gondry’s investors. He escaped to the French countryside with his post-production team to finish the project on his own terms. The movie ran over two hours and got mixed reviews; a shorter version was released in the U.S. by Drafthouse Films several months later.
That saga provides the...
- 5/18/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The sidebar unveiled its 55th selection under new artistic director Julien Rejl on Tuesday (April 18).
Films from Michel Gondry, Hong Sangsoo and Cédric Kahn are among the 19 features set to world premiere at the 55th Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running May 17-26.
Scroll down for the full selection
Incoming artistic director Julien Rejl unveiled the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 18) for the non-competitive Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.
Rejl said he and his committee chose the films from nearly 4,000 submissions and travelled to more than 20 countries to meet filmmakers and professionals across the globe.
Films from Michel Gondry, Hong Sangsoo and Cédric Kahn are among the 19 features set to world premiere at the 55th Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running May 17-26.
Scroll down for the full selection
Incoming artistic director Julien Rejl unveiled the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 18) for the non-competitive Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.
Rejl said he and his committee chose the films from nearly 4,000 submissions and travelled to more than 20 countries to meet filmmakers and professionals across the globe.
- 4/18/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
The sidebar unveiled its 55th selection under new artistic director Julien Rejl on Tuesday (April 18).
Projects from Michel Gondry, Hong Sang-Soo and Cédric Kahn are among the 19 features set to world premiere at the 55th Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running May 17-26.
Scroll down for the full selection
Incoming artistic director Julien Rejl unveiled the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 18) for the non-competitive Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.
Rejl said he and his committee chose the films from nearly 4,000 submissions and travelled to more than 20 countries to meet filmmakers and professionals across the globe.
Projects from Michel Gondry, Hong Sang-Soo and Cédric Kahn are among the 19 features set to world premiere at the 55th Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, running May 17-26.
Scroll down for the full selection
Incoming artistic director Julien Rejl unveiled the line-up at a press conference in Paris on Tuesday (April 18) for the non-competitive Cannes parallel section run by French directors guild the Srf.
Rejl said he and his committee chose the films from nearly 4,000 submissions and travelled to more than 20 countries to meet filmmakers and professionals across the globe.
- 4/18/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
New films from Hong Sang-soo and Michel Gondry will world premiere at Directors Fortnight, a selection running parallel to the Cannes Film Festival. This edition marks the first under the leadership of Julien Rejl as artistic director.
Succeeding to Paolo Moretti, Rejl was named by the governing body of Directors’ Fortnight, the Srf (Société des réalisateurs de films), as part of a rebranding. Unlike previous artistic directors for this selection, Rejl doesn’t come from the festival circuit. He was previously in charge of distribution, international co-productions and international sales at Capricci, an arthouse film banner based in Paris.
The well-balanced lineup shows his taste for international cinema, with a mix of emerging directors and established masters, such as Hong, who will present his movie “In Our Day” on closing night. The edition will kick off with “The Goldman’s Case,” a thriller directed by actor-turned-helmer Cedric Kahn about the true story of Pierre Goldman,...
Succeeding to Paolo Moretti, Rejl was named by the governing body of Directors’ Fortnight, the Srf (Société des réalisateurs de films), as part of a rebranding. Unlike previous artistic directors for this selection, Rejl doesn’t come from the festival circuit. He was previously in charge of distribution, international co-productions and international sales at Capricci, an arthouse film banner based in Paris.
The well-balanced lineup shows his taste for international cinema, with a mix of emerging directors and established masters, such as Hong, who will present his movie “In Our Day” on closing night. The edition will kick off with “The Goldman’s Case,” a thriller directed by actor-turned-helmer Cedric Kahn about the true story of Pierre Goldman,...
- 4/18/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
No slot (yet) of Bertrand Bonello, Michel Gondry, Bruno Dumont, Robin Campillo, Catherine Corsini and Quentin Dupieux.
The opening film of Cannes 2023 is Maiwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, a period drama that delves into French history, was shot in Versailles and sees its US star Johnny Depp speaking French.
Un Certain Regard will also open with a French title, Thomas Cailley’s Le Règne Animal, while the Competition refreshingly feaures two films by female French filmmakers, Catherine Breillat and Justine Triet, and the new film from Vietnamese-born, France-based Tran Anh Hung,
Breillat’s rise-from-retirement film is Last Summer, while Tran...
The opening film of Cannes 2023 is Maiwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, a period drama that delves into French history, was shot in Versailles and sees its US star Johnny Depp speaking French.
Un Certain Regard will also open with a French title, Thomas Cailley’s Le Règne Animal, while the Competition refreshingly feaures two films by female French filmmakers, Catherine Breillat and Justine Triet, and the new film from Vietnamese-born, France-based Tran Anh Hung,
Breillat’s rise-from-retirement film is Last Summer, while Tran...
- 4/13/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Smoking Causes Coughing is ostensibly a riff on Power Rangers/Super Sentai, Ultraman, and other tokusatsu-style media in which spandex-clad superheroes battle intergalactic monsters, but — as is the case with writer-director Quentin Dupieux’s entire filmography — his latest genre-bending slice of French absurdity is predictably unpredictable.
The Tobacco Force is a team of avengers in which each of its five members represents a different chemical found in cigarettes: Benzene, Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra). When they’re unable to defeat an enemy in hand-to-hand combat, they call upon their powers — which only work when they’re sincere — to infect their foe with cancer to the point of bodily combustion.
The Tobacco Force has a mentor in Chief Didier. He’s a wise, mutant rat, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ Splinter, except Didier is a womanizer that drools green goo. The team is...
The Tobacco Force is a team of avengers in which each of its five members represents a different chemical found in cigarettes: Benzene, Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra). When they’re unable to defeat an enemy in hand-to-hand combat, they call upon their powers — which only work when they’re sincere — to infect their foe with cancer to the point of bodily combustion.
The Tobacco Force has a mentor in Chief Didier. He’s a wise, mutant rat, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ Splinter, except Didier is a womanizer that drools green goo. The team is...
- 3/29/2023
- by Alex DiVincenzo
- bloody-disgusting.com
Screen’s team looks at which titles are lining up for a potential slot in either Official Selection or one of the parallel sections.
Speculation is mounting about which titles could make the line-up for the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 16-27 this year.
The submission process for Official Selection officially closes on March 21, ahead of the traditional Paris press conference in mid-April (the date is currently to be confirmed).
As filmmakers, producers and sales agents scramble to submit final titles, Screen’s team assesses which films from around the world are lining up for...
Speculation is mounting about which titles could make the line-up for the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs May 16-27 this year.
The submission process for Official Selection officially closes on March 21, ahead of the traditional Paris press conference in mid-April (the date is currently to be confirmed).
As filmmakers, producers and sales agents scramble to submit final titles, Screen’s team assesses which films from around the world are lining up for...
- 3/7/2023
- by Louise Tutt¬Jeremy Kay¬Mona Tabbara¬Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Le Livre des solutions
More than seven years after the release of Microbe & Gasoline, Michel Gondry returns to features (he produced a lot of shorts in between) with a formidable cast comprised of Pierre Niney, Blanche Gardin, Camille Rutherford, Vincent Elbaz, Frankie Wallach and Françoise Lebrun. Production took place in June of last year in a Paris. Partizan Films’ Georges Bermann produced Le Livre des solutions.
Gist: This revolves around a director seeking to vanquish his demons which are stifling his creativity.
Release Date/Prediction: Berlinale might be a good first pit stop for the film.
…...
More than seven years after the release of Microbe & Gasoline, Michel Gondry returns to features (he produced a lot of shorts in between) with a formidable cast comprised of Pierre Niney, Blanche Gardin, Camille Rutherford, Vincent Elbaz, Frankie Wallach and Françoise Lebrun. Production took place in June of last year in a Paris. Partizan Films’ Georges Bermann produced Le Livre des solutions.
Gist: This revolves around a director seeking to vanquish his demons which are stifling his creativity.
Release Date/Prediction: Berlinale might be a good first pit stop for the film.
…...
- 1/10/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
A distinct muse in the Guillaume Nicloux canon, author and sometimes actor Michel Houellebecq will once again become a titular member for what appears to be (at least the title confection) a Being John Malkovich inspired potential laugher. Titled Dans la peau de Blanche Houellebecq the mishmash will include actress-comedian Blanche Gardin who was a sidekick blast in Dumont’s France and one year later again on the Croisette, was in Quentin Dupieux’s Fumer fait tousser and the Critics’ Week dramedy Everybody Loves Jeanne. Production is expected to sometime next month in and around Paris.
Nicloux’s last completed fantasy film Lockdown Tower was a recent Deauville and Sitges invite and he recently completed La petite – a book to film project starring Fabrice Luchini, Mara Taquin and Maud Wyler.…...
Nicloux’s last completed fantasy film Lockdown Tower was a recent Deauville and Sitges invite and he recently completed La petite – a book to film project starring Fabrice Luchini, Mara Taquin and Maud Wyler.…...
- 10/31/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
For a film featuring bloody interspecies warfare, rampant murder and mutilation, a pessimistic treatise on environmental pollution and (maybe) the end of the world — all crammed into just 77 minutes — “Smoking Causes Coughing” feels both rather jaunty and entirely inconsequential. That would be surprising if it came from anyone but Quentin Dupieux, the current absurdist-in-chief of French auteur cinema: Everything in his latest that feels, in and of itself, out of left field also happens to be comfortably in his lane. Following a group of spandex-clad, cigarette-toting superheroes on a rural retreat, intended to recharge their powers, that goes shaggily awry, this is a minor escapade even for Dupieux, its already slack structure eventually devolving into disconnected sketches. It’s a film of fragmentary but funny rewards — funnier still, most likely, if accompanied by smoking of a different kind.
Aptly unveiled in the Midnight program at Cannes this year — Dupieux’s...
Aptly unveiled in the Midnight program at Cannes this year — Dupieux’s...
- 6/17/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
We tapped out of Michel Gondry cinema back when Be Kind Rewind was released, and suddenly the filmmaker is now at the dozen film mark with what feels like an alluring project due to the collection of players he has assembled for Le Livre des solutions. During Cannes we learned that Pierre Niney would topline the project. Lensing began this week with Blanche Gardin (out off the Critics’ Week debut of the funny-bone Portugal project Everybody Loves Jeanne), Camille Rutherford (recently seen in Cannes Premiere selected The Night of the 12th), Vincent Elbaz, Frankie Wallach and veteran thesp Françoise Lebrun (most recently seen in Vortex).…...
- 6/10/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Teeming with all kinds of freaks and plots that toggle freely between the real and the absurd, Quentin Dupieux’s films are the work of an inveterate, shamelessly playful raconteur. With ten features now to his name, the musician-turned-filmmaker has amassed an oeuvre whose leitmotif isn’t (just) the director’s penchant for the gonzo, but his passion for storytelling itself. Stories and storytellers abound in his latest, Smoking Causes Coughing. A Russian doll of tales-within-tales, it features one of Dupieux’s most bizarre concoctions yet—which, for a man that gave us a sentient killer tire (Rubber), an oversized fly-turned-pet (Mandibles), and a leather jacket with homicidal powers (Deerskin), is to say plenty. That’d be the Tobacco Force, a group of five superheroes who roam the Earth slaughtering monsters with the power of the toxic substances they borrow their names from—but which, curiously, none of them has ever consumed.
- 6/6/2022
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
The Cannes market ensures there is no shortage of news updates, and so we have another round-up. The talented Marielle Heller has found her next project as Variety reports she is set to direct Amy Adams in Nightbitch. The adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s novel is backed by Searchlight Pictures, which will release the film on Hulu. With production set to get underway this fall, Adams will lead as a woman who is “thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, who slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a canine.”
Following News of the World, Paul Greengrass has announced his next project. The Hood, set to star Benedict Cumberbatch, is a period piece depicting the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. THR notes our lead will likely play a farmer leading the “major uprising,...
Following News of the World, Paul Greengrass has announced his next project. The Hood, set to star Benedict Cumberbatch, is a period piece depicting the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt. THR notes our lead will likely play a farmer leading the “major uprising,...
- 5/20/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry is readying his next project, which will be on sale in the Cannes market with French seller Kinology.
As previously revealed, in-demand French star Pierre Niney (Frantz) will lead cast on the buzzy French-language comedy The Book of Solutions (Le Livre Des Solutions). Plot details are being kept under wraps on the hot project, but we hear it will be about a filmmaker trying to overcome creative demons.
We also understand supporting cast will include Blanche Gardin, Camille Rutherford, Frankie Wallach and Vincent Elbaz. Producer is Georges Berman.
Oscar winner Gondry returns to feature directing after a seven-year absence. Meanwhile, Niney is one of France’s most impressive young actors, known for movies including Yves Saint Laurent, Frantz and the upcoming Mascarade, which is playing in Cannes.
The promising projects just keep coming at the Cannes market this year. As one buyer told us Sunday,...
As previously revealed, in-demand French star Pierre Niney (Frantz) will lead cast on the buzzy French-language comedy The Book of Solutions (Le Livre Des Solutions). Plot details are being kept under wraps on the hot project, but we hear it will be about a filmmaker trying to overcome creative demons.
We also understand supporting cast will include Blanche Gardin, Camille Rutherford, Frankie Wallach and Vincent Elbaz. Producer is Georges Berman.
Oscar winner Gondry returns to feature directing after a seven-year absence. Meanwhile, Niney is one of France’s most impressive young actors, known for movies including Yves Saint Laurent, Frantz and the upcoming Mascarade, which is playing in Cannes.
The promising projects just keep coming at the Cannes market this year. As one buyer told us Sunday,...
- 5/16/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) with Daniel (Denis Podalydès) in Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs)
Anaïs Demoustier has been busy recently with Quentin Dupieux’s Incroyable Mais Vrai premiering in Berlin and now in Cannes she has Dupieux’s Fumer Fait Tousser and Cédric Jimenez’s Novembre coming up.
Anaïs Demoustier with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I like having to act with sensations and elements of gaze and all of that was something I enjoyed.”
Flowers, lots of them, in manic speed fill the screen. Anaïs, played by Anaïs Demoustier in a whirlwind performance in Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs) is working on her thesis in literature. Demoustier told me about her work to find the physical intensity of the role and noted that she knew from being in Charline’s Pauline asservie, that the character would be an intersection of the director, herself, and the...
Anaïs Demoustier has been busy recently with Quentin Dupieux’s Incroyable Mais Vrai premiering in Berlin and now in Cannes she has Dupieux’s Fumer Fait Tousser and Cédric Jimenez’s Novembre coming up.
Anaïs Demoustier with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I like having to act with sensations and elements of gaze and all of that was something I enjoyed.”
Flowers, lots of them, in manic speed fill the screen. Anaïs, played by Anaïs Demoustier in a whirlwind performance in Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs) is working on her thesis in literature. Demoustier told me about her work to find the physical intensity of the role and noted that she knew from being in Charline’s Pauline asservie, that the character would be an intersection of the director, herself, and the...
- 4/29/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Cahen discusses love of American indie cinema, choice of Korean police thriller Next Sohee as closing film and being section’s youngest-ever artistic director.
Cannes Critics’ Week’s new artistic director Ava Cahen unveiled her inaugural selection earlier this week, for the 61st edition of the parallel section running May 18-26.
It will showcase an eclectic French and international line-up of 11 features, seven of them in competition, and another 13 shorts, kicking off with US actor Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut When You Finish Saving The World and closing with Korean female police detective thriller Next Sohee.
At 36, Cahen is the...
Cannes Critics’ Week’s new artistic director Ava Cahen unveiled her inaugural selection earlier this week, for the 61st edition of the parallel section running May 18-26.
It will showcase an eclectic French and international line-up of 11 features, seven of them in competition, and another 13 shorts, kicking off with US actor Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut When You Finish Saving The World and closing with Korean female police detective thriller Next Sohee.
At 36, Cahen is the...
- 4/22/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Critics’ Week, the sidebar dedicated to first and second films running alongside the Cannes Film Festival, will be kicking off with Jesse Eisenberg’s feature debut “When You Finish Saving the World” and showcase four female-directed movies.
Selected out of 1100 submitted movies, the full roster includes 11 feature films, seven of which will compete and four will play as special screenings.
“When You Finish Saving the World,” which is headlined by Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, revolves around the relationship between a politically-engaged mother and her fame-obsessed teenage son, who is also a burgeoning musician. The A24 movie is based on Eisenberg’s 2020 audio drama of the same name and was part of the Sundance 2022 selection.
“We already adored Eisenberg as an actor and discovered him as a true auteur with this film that’s both tender and contemporary and exposes a generational gap between a mother and her son,” said Ava Cahen,...
Selected out of 1100 submitted movies, the full roster includes 11 feature films, seven of which will compete and four will play as special screenings.
“When You Finish Saving the World,” which is headlined by Julianne Moore and Finn Wolfhard, revolves around the relationship between a politically-engaged mother and her fame-obsessed teenage son, who is also a burgeoning musician. The A24 movie is based on Eisenberg’s 2020 audio drama of the same name and was part of the Sundance 2022 selection.
“We already adored Eisenberg as an actor and discovered him as a true auteur with this film that’s both tender and contemporary and exposes a generational gap between a mother and her son,” said Ava Cahen,...
- 4/20/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Jesse Eisenberg’s directorial debut ’When You Finish Saving The World’ will open the section focused on first and second films.
Cannes Critics’ Week, the parallel section focused on first and second films, has unveiled the line-up for its 61st edition, running May 18-26.
The section will showcase 11 features, seven of them in competition, and another 13 shorts.
It is the first selection piloted by incoming Critics’ Week artistic director Ava Cahen, since taking over the reins from Charles Tesson, who stepped down at the end of last year’s 60th edition after 10 years at the helm.
At 36, she is the...
Cannes Critics’ Week, the parallel section focused on first and second films, has unveiled the line-up for its 61st edition, running May 18-26.
The section will showcase 11 features, seven of them in competition, and another 13 shorts.
It is the first selection piloted by incoming Critics’ Week artistic director Ava Cahen, since taking over the reins from Charles Tesson, who stepped down at the end of last year’s 60th edition after 10 years at the helm.
At 36, she is the...
- 4/20/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The French movie France, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, stars Lea Seydoux and Blanche Gardin. It was directed by French director Bruno Dumont, who had previously worked on 2019’s Joan of Arc. The movie focuses on the exploits of a superstar journalist as she balances her career with her personal conflicts. Here is the official synopsis, according to Rotten Tomatoes: “In France, a satirical drama set in contemporary Paris, Léa Seydoux stars as France de Meurs, a seemingly unflappable superstar TV journalist whose career, home life, and psychological stability are turned upside down after she carelessly drives into a
Five Movies To Watch When You’re Done With “France”...
Five Movies To Watch When You’re Done With “France”...
- 3/9/2022
- by A.E. Oats
- TVovermind.com
Fumer fait tousser
Especially comforting in these awkward pandemic days of 2022, we’ll be receiving not one, but two servings of chicken soup for the soul via Mr. Oizo. Quentin Dupieux‘s tenth feature began production in September with a demented cast comprised of a good helping of Dupieux alumni. In Fumer fait tousser we have Adèle Exarchopoulos, Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alain Chabat, Doria Tillier and Blanche Gardin. Chi-Fou-Mi’s Hugo Sélignac who has developed a rather impressive track record in the past decade produced the comedy – which should please former smokers, anti-smokers and avid smokers alike.…...
Especially comforting in these awkward pandemic days of 2022, we’ll be receiving not one, but two servings of chicken soup for the soul via Mr. Oizo. Quentin Dupieux‘s tenth feature began production in September with a demented cast comprised of a good helping of Dupieux alumni. In Fumer fait tousser we have Adèle Exarchopoulos, Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alain Chabat, Doria Tillier and Blanche Gardin. Chi-Fou-Mi’s Hugo Sélignac who has developed a rather impressive track record in the past decade produced the comedy – which should please former smokers, anti-smokers and avid smokers alike.…...
- 1/12/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Tout le monde aime Jeanne
In the rare case we’re delighted, engaged and even surprised by French comedies (Bruno Dumont’s France is a rare example that checks off all the boxes) but for the most part, we’re mostly dismissive as they often feel like private jokes with mind-bogging nuances. And it is with a French comedy that we begin our Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022 with a new voice whose visual shorthand is richly unique, loaded, often experimental and whose brand of comedy might congeal well with Blanche Gardin in the lead (and who happens to be a great supporting player in the Dumont film).…...
In the rare case we’re delighted, engaged and even surprised by French comedies (Bruno Dumont’s France is a rare example that checks off all the boxes) but for the most part, we’re mostly dismissive as they often feel like private jokes with mind-bogging nuances. And it is with a French comedy that we begin our Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2022 with a new voice whose visual shorthand is richly unique, loaded, often experimental and whose brand of comedy might congeal well with Blanche Gardin in the lead (and who happens to be a great supporting player in the Dumont film).…...
- 1/6/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
France Kino Lorber Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Bruno Dumont Screenwriter: Bruno Dumont Cast: Léa Seydoux, Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli, Juliane Köhler, Gaetan Amiel, Jawad Zemmar, Marc Bettinelli Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC,11/18/21 Opens: December 10, 2021 If you watch a news program, a real […]
The post France Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post France Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 12/5/2021
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Bruno Dumont on Lou (Blanche Gardin) and France (Léa Seydoux): “Lou’s character is absolutely sociologically exact. While the character of France can be very poetic …”
In the first instalment with Bruno Dumont on France, we discussed his collaboration with composer Christophe, the writings of Charles Péguy, the nature of the character of Lou, the psychological role of music as used by Alfred Hitchcock, and going into space in the future.
Léa Seydoux plays France de Meurs, star anchor of a news program for the I channel. She jets to war zones, where she interviews puzzled refugees or soldiers instructed to react a certain way to staged situations. There is always a safe haven nearby for her and the crew, something with a swimming pool and cocktails, and back she flies to Paris to report to her many fans who don’t miss a chance to get a selfie,...
In the first instalment with Bruno Dumont on France, we discussed his collaboration with composer Christophe, the writings of Charles Péguy, the nature of the character of Lou, the psychological role of music as used by Alfred Hitchcock, and going into space in the future.
Léa Seydoux plays France de Meurs, star anchor of a news program for the I channel. She jets to war zones, where she interviews puzzled refugees or soldiers instructed to react a certain way to staged situations. There is always a safe haven nearby for her and the crew, something with a swimming pool and cocktails, and back she flies to Paris to report to her many fans who don’t miss a chance to get a selfie,...
- 11/22/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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
"Why do you need to be in the spotlight?" Kino Lorber has unveiled an official US trailer for French dark comedy France, which first premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. It also went on to play at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals, and is opening in theaters in the US starting in December. Léa Seydoux brilliantly holds the center of Bruno Dumont's unexpected, unsettling new film, which starts out as a satire of contemporary news media before steadily spiraling out into something richer and darker. A celebrity journalist, juggling her busy career & personal life, has her life over-turned by a freak car accident. The film is described as a "tragicomedy" with plenty of drama, following Seydoux as TV journalist "France de Meurs" who deals with a series of self-reckonings, as well as a strange romance that messes her up. The cast includes Blanche Gardin,...
- 10/26/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Indie Sales has scored a flurry of deals on Bruno Dumont’s “France,” with Lea Seydoux, which world premiered in competition at Cannes and played at Toronto.
Dumont’s eleventh feature film, “France” stars Seydoux as France, a glamorous TV star journalist juggling a primetime news show and a chaotic family life. Her frantic high-profile world is suddenly turned upside down after a traffic accident that causes her to injure a pedestrian. Blanche Gardin and Benjamin Biolay also star in the film.
Indie Sales closed deals for Canada (K Films), China (Dddream), ex-Yugoslavia (McF), Germany (Mfa), Greece (Weird Wave), Italy (Academy 2), Portugal (Leopardo), Russia and Cis countries (Exponenta), South Korea (M&m International), Switzerland (Adok) and Benelux (Paradiso).
The movie was previously acquired by Kino Lorber for the U.S. and English-speaking Canada. Several territories are still available, notably Spain.
“France” was released in France by Arp Selection on Aug.
Dumont’s eleventh feature film, “France” stars Seydoux as France, a glamorous TV star journalist juggling a primetime news show and a chaotic family life. Her frantic high-profile world is suddenly turned upside down after a traffic accident that causes her to injure a pedestrian. Blanche Gardin and Benjamin Biolay also star in the film.
Indie Sales closed deals for Canada (K Films), China (Dddream), ex-Yugoslavia (McF), Germany (Mfa), Greece (Weird Wave), Italy (Academy 2), Portugal (Leopardo), Russia and Cis countries (Exponenta), South Korea (M&m International), Switzerland (Adok) and Benelux (Paradiso).
The movie was previously acquired by Kino Lorber for the U.S. and English-speaking Canada. Several territories are still available, notably Spain.
“France” was released in France by Arp Selection on Aug.
- 9/17/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
By far the most biting and ironic satire to premiere in Cannes competition this year — a divisive comedy whose cynicism was met with boos at the press screening — Bruno Dumont’s “France” doesn’t want to be liked. That’s more than can be said of its eponymous protagonist, France de Meurs (Léa Seydoux), the country’s top news anchor and a damning representation of the journalist-as-star phenomenon. Picture a cross between Anderson Cooper and Megyn Kelly, an attention-thirsty TV personality who beams when her followers tweet “France for president,” but tears up when a politician insults her backstage, reducing her to nothing more than “a pretty tool” for a profit-seeking news network.
France does a lot of crying, both on camera and off, in France, though Dumont is tricky enough about the tone of this mainstream-media critique — which plays fast and loose with the clichés of classic melodrama, packaged like the cold,...
France does a lot of crying, both on camera and off, in France, though Dumont is tricky enough about the tone of this mainstream-media critique — which plays fast and loose with the clichés of classic melodrama, packaged like the cold,...
- 7/21/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Bruno Dumont uses a French anchorwoman to explore his country’s media in France, a Cannes Film Festival competition entry that’s glossy and watchable but ultimately disappointing. Léa Seydoux plays France de Meurs, a TV anchorwoman and reporter so famous that she stopped for selfies everywhere she goes, from cafes to war zones. After she is involved in a traffic accident, she quits her job and ends up in a Swiss spa, but the respite she meets there isn’t quite what she’d hoped for.
It’s hard to get a handle on the intended tone of France, which darts between political satire, media critique and melodrama without getting under the skin of its central character. She’s not deliciously ruthless like Nicole Kidman in To Die For, or Rene Russo in Nightcrawler; but she’s not sympathetic either, making a series of poor and selfish decisions. Had her internal dialogue been explored,...
It’s hard to get a handle on the intended tone of France, which darts between political satire, media critique and melodrama without getting under the skin of its central character. She’s not deliciously ruthless like Nicole Kidman in To Die For, or Rene Russo in Nightcrawler; but she’s not sympathetic either, making a series of poor and selfish decisions. Had her internal dialogue been explored,...
- 7/16/2021
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
"France" (aka "On a Half Clear Morning in France") is the new internationally co-produced drama feature, written and directed by Bruno Dumont, starring Léa Seydoux ("No Time To Die"), Blanche Gardin, Benjamin Biolay, Emanuele Arioli, Juliane Köhler, Gaëtan Amiel, Jewad Zemmar and Marc Bettinelli, premiering at the current Cannes Film Festival:
"...'France' chronicles the frenetic life of a famous TV star and journalist who becomes caught in the trappings of celebrity and subsequently overcome by a spiral of events which ultimately lead to her downfall..."
Click the images to enlarge...
"...'France' chronicles the frenetic life of a famous TV star and journalist who becomes caught in the trappings of celebrity and subsequently overcome by a spiral of events which ultimately lead to her downfall..."
Click the images to enlarge...
- 7/12/2021
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
After last year’s cancellation, the Cannes Film Festival is expected to be back with a bang in July. Even with a small supply of U.S. films, the 2021 edition should be in no shortage of major auteurs, female directors and glamorous stars.
In addition to the already announced fest opener “Annette,” Leos Carax’s musical romance with Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, two other titles strongly tipped for Cannes are Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” and “Official Competition,” a comedy reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz. The Spanish-language film is directed by the Argentinian duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.
Among the several films that were in the running for last year’s festival and are either confirmed or nearly confirmed for the 2021 edition are Nanni Moretti’s “Three Floors,” a Rome-set adaptation of Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo’s novel with Anna Bonaiuto, Riccardo Scamarcio and...
In addition to the already announced fest opener “Annette,” Leos Carax’s musical romance with Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, two other titles strongly tipped for Cannes are Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” and “Official Competition,” a comedy reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz. The Spanish-language film is directed by the Argentinian duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.
Among the several films that were in the running for last year’s festival and are either confirmed or nearly confirmed for the 2021 edition are Nanni Moretti’s “Three Floors,” a Rome-set adaptation of Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo’s novel with Anna Bonaiuto, Riccardo Scamarcio and...
- 4/23/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
After last year’s scandal over Roman Polanski’s director win, the 46th Cesar Awards, France’s highest film honors, which took place on Friday in the presence of nominees, has been the subject of vitriolic criticism from industry figures.
Some have claimed that the spectacle was so vulgar that it has tarnished the image of French cinema and will discourage audiences from returning to theaters when they finally reopen. But, in fact, the awards were a fitting encapsulation of an industry that’s increasingly at odds with itself.
The 2021 edition marked a new era for the Cesar Awards, which is now headed by Veronique Cayla, former president of Arte, and vice chaired by Eric Toledano, co-director of “The Intouchables,” who took over from Alain Terzian following an industry revolt over the lack of transparency and democracy within the institution. With the last six months, the operating model and corporate...
Some have claimed that the spectacle was so vulgar that it has tarnished the image of French cinema and will discourage audiences from returning to theaters when they finally reopen. But, in fact, the awards were a fitting encapsulation of an industry that’s increasingly at odds with itself.
The 2021 edition marked a new era for the Cesar Awards, which is now headed by Veronique Cayla, former president of Arte, and vice chaired by Eric Toledano, co-director of “The Intouchables,” who took over from Alain Terzian following an industry revolt over the lack of transparency and democracy within the institution. With the last six months, the operating model and corporate...
- 3/16/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
’Beautiful Minds’ is inspired by the real-life experiences of co-director Alexandre Jollien who was born with cerebral palsy but overcame his disabilities to study philosophy
Elle Driver has launched sales on Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien’s pioneering French comedy-drama Beautiful Minds, about a workaholic funeral director and a solitary vegetable delivery man and philosopher born with cerebral palsy, who embark on a road trip in a hearse.
It is inspired by the real-life experiences of Jollien who was born with cerebral palsy but overcame his disabilities to study philosophy and become became a major thinker and spiritual teacher, who has written several best-selling books.
Elle Driver has launched sales on Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien’s pioneering French comedy-drama Beautiful Minds, about a workaholic funeral director and a solitary vegetable delivery man and philosopher born with cerebral palsy, who embark on a road trip in a hearse.
It is inspired by the real-life experiences of Jollien who was born with cerebral palsy but overcame his disabilities to study philosophy and become became a major thinker and spiritual teacher, who has written several best-selling books.
- 3/3/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
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
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