Quentin Dupieux’s The Second Act gets the opening out of competition berth at the Cannes Film Festival Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival Ahead of next week’s big reveal of the Cannes Film Festival’s main programme for the 77th edition the organisers have jumped the gun by announcing Quentin Dupieux's The Second Act (Le Deuxième Acte) will open the event with an out of competition premiere. The latest production from the wacky and prolific French director, screenwriter and musician will also seen simultaneously at French cinemas across the country on the same night ahead of its French release.
The occasion will deliver a starry cast of among others Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, and of course, Dupieux himself who has managed to make 13 features including Deerskin, Rubber, Mandibles, Incredible But True and Smoking Causes Coughing shown at Cannes out of competition in 2022.
Quentin...
The occasion will deliver a starry cast of among others Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, and of course, Dupieux himself who has managed to make 13 features including Deerskin, Rubber, Mandibles, Incredible But True and Smoking Causes Coughing shown at Cannes out of competition in 2022.
Quentin...
- 4/3/2024
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will kick off with Quentin Dupieux’s “The Second Act,” a star-studded surreal French comedy headlined by Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, Variety has learned.
The anticipated movie is produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and is represented in international markets by Kinology. The film will play out of competition on May 14 and will be released on the same day in French theaters.
Laced with absurdist humor, the meta movie follows actors starring in a doomed film production. Dupieux is one of France’s most popular and prolific filmmakers. He delivered two films in 2023: “Daaaaaalí,” which played out-of-competition at Venice, and “Yannick,” a French box office hit that sold around the world.
In confirming the film’s selection at Cannes, the festival described Quentin as a “filmmaker who embraces freedom – in tone, form and...
The anticipated movie is produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and is represented in international markets by Kinology. The film will play out of competition on May 14 and will be released on the same day in French theaters.
Laced with absurdist humor, the meta movie follows actors starring in a doomed film production. Dupieux is one of France’s most popular and prolific filmmakers. He delivered two films in 2023: “Daaaaaalí,” which played out-of-competition at Venice, and “Yannick,” a French box office hit that sold around the world.
In confirming the film’s selection at Cannes, the festival described Quentin as a “filmmaker who embraces freedom – in tone, form and...
- 4/3/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
When will Astérix be released? Let’s find out the details of the Netflix animated series! Your favorite comic is returning– this time, it’s coming back as an animated series!
Since its first appearance in 1959, the Asterix franchise has managed to develop a rather large international following – for instance, more than 385 million copies of the books have been sold, translated into 111 languages and dialects – and a total of 14 films have been released since 1967 thereby including 10 cartoons and 4 live-action movies!
Netflix has recently made the decision to team up with Les Editions Albert Rene and tap Tat animation studios to create a banger show based on the iconic comic.
The Toulouse-based studio, Tat has taken it upon itself to recruit fresh talent in a campaign (60 graphic designers with an aggregate increase of workforce to 200!) in hopes of gearing up for the production – which is scheduled to release sometime in 2024.
Asterix...
Since its first appearance in 1959, the Asterix franchise has managed to develop a rather large international following – for instance, more than 385 million copies of the books have been sold, translated into 111 languages and dialects – and a total of 14 films have been released since 1967 thereby including 10 cartoons and 4 live-action movies!
Netflix has recently made the decision to team up with Les Editions Albert Rene and tap Tat animation studios to create a banger show based on the iconic comic.
The Toulouse-based studio, Tat has taken it upon itself to recruit fresh talent in a campaign (60 graphic designers with an aggregate increase of workforce to 200!) in hopes of gearing up for the production – which is scheduled to release sometime in 2024.
Asterix...
- 10/16/2023
- by Sumitra Ray
- https://dailyresearchplot.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/new-sam
The French animation film is the second in a franchise sold internationally by Snd.
Viva Kids has picked up North American rights to French family animation hit The Jungle Bunch - World Tour from France’s Snd, the feature film arm of broadcasting group M6, and will release the film in theatres in the US in January 2024.
France’s Tat Productions produced the 3D film (titled Les As de la Jungle 2 - Operation Tour du Monde in French) directed by Laurent Bru, Yannick Moulin and Benoît Somville and written by David Alaux, Eric Tosti and Jean-François Tosti.
It is the...
Viva Kids has picked up North American rights to French family animation hit The Jungle Bunch - World Tour from France’s Snd, the feature film arm of broadcasting group M6, and will release the film in theatres in the US in January 2024.
France’s Tat Productions produced the 3D film (titled Les As de la Jungle 2 - Operation Tour du Monde in French) directed by Laurent Bru, Yannick Moulin and Benoît Somville and written by David Alaux, Eric Tosti and Jean-François Tosti.
It is the...
- 10/2/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Quentin Dupieux’s chaotic, bizarre film about a monster-fighting squad controlled by a rat named Didier will greatly annoy some, which is one of its strengths
Only a pedant and a bore would complain that the last word of that title should be “cancer”. The phrase’s childlike naivety and irrelevance, apparently taken from an obsolete era when smoking was considered bad in the sense that eating cream cakes was bad, is a hint of what you’re in for: a fantastically silly and magnificently inconsequential comedy from French film-maker and former DJ Quentin Dupieux. For the life of me, I can’t think of another director right now who wants (or is allowed) to do just straight comedy for theatrical release, without having to buy the right to do so by also being unfunnily dark and disturbing.
Dupieux has put together something chaotic, disparate, entirely negligible yet oddly gripping and also funny.
Only a pedant and a bore would complain that the last word of that title should be “cancer”. The phrase’s childlike naivety and irrelevance, apparently taken from an obsolete era when smoking was considered bad in the sense that eating cream cakes was bad, is a hint of what you’re in for: a fantastically silly and magnificently inconsequential comedy from French film-maker and former DJ Quentin Dupieux. For the life of me, I can’t think of another director right now who wants (or is allowed) to do just straight comedy for theatrical release, without having to buy the right to do so by also being unfunnily dark and disturbing.
Dupieux has put together something chaotic, disparate, entirely negligible yet oddly gripping and also funny.
- 7/5/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Alain Attal and Hugo Selignac have formed a producing duo known for delivering original, starry French films that probe uneasy subjects that earn B.O. gold and critical laurels. Attal is in Cannes with Un Certain Regard title “Rosalie,” while Selignac has “Omar à la Fraise” in Critics’ Week.
The pair is now about to hit a new milestone in 2024, starting with Gilles Lellouche’s epic romance drama “L’Amour Ouf,” which boasts a budget of €32 million ($34 million) and marks Studiocanal’s biggest investment in a French-language film to date. They also have “And Their Children After Them,” an adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu’s Goncourt Prize-winning novel to be directed by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (“Teddy”), which has been boarded by Warner Bros. France and HBO Max and France Televisions, the first French movie to bring together these three partners.
“L’Amour Ouf” also marks the first film co-acquired by Canal Plus,...
The pair is now about to hit a new milestone in 2024, starting with Gilles Lellouche’s epic romance drama “L’Amour Ouf,” which boasts a budget of €32 million ($34 million) and marks Studiocanal’s biggest investment in a French-language film to date. They also have “And Their Children After Them,” an adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu’s Goncourt Prize-winning novel to be directed by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (“Teddy”), which has been boarded by Warner Bros. France and HBO Max and France Televisions, the first French movie to bring together these three partners.
“L’Amour Ouf” also marks the first film co-acquired by Canal Plus,...
- 5/18/2023
- 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
Hello and welcome back, Insiders. Jesse Whittock here to guide you through another week in film and TV. Onwards to the weekend…
UK Production Booms… Sort Of
Slow Horses
Feeling a little peaky: There was a lot of good news in the BFI’s latest official production spend stats – and some worrying stuff, too. The top line figures for the UK’s film and TV industries were excellent: record spend of £6.3Bn (7.8Bn), up more than £600M on the (also record-setting) £5.6Bn from 2021. Film production was up a welcome 27 to almost £2Bn but high-end TV (Hetv) once again provided the lion’s share (£4.3Bn), as shows like Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Slow Horses and Top Boy drove up spend. Inwards investment – a fancy way of saying ‘money from overseas’ – accounted for 88 of that total, but Hetv spend was actually down 3 year-on-year. As we all know, U.
UK Production Booms… Sort Of
Slow Horses
Feeling a little peaky: There was a lot of good news in the BFI’s latest official production spend stats – and some worrying stuff, too. The top line figures for the UK’s film and TV industries were excellent: record spend of £6.3Bn (7.8Bn), up more than £600M on the (also record-setting) £5.6Bn from 2021. Film production was up a welcome 27 to almost £2Bn but high-end TV (Hetv) once again provided the lion’s share (£4.3Bn), as shows like Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Slow Horses and Top Boy drove up spend. Inwards investment – a fancy way of saying ‘money from overseas’ – accounted for 88 of that total, but Hetv spend was actually down 3 year-on-year. As we all know, U.
- 2/3/2023
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Guillaume Canet’s ambitious 64M euros (70M) production Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom was on track to be the top opener at the French box office on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen whether the film can match the success of its predecessors.
Pathé released the title on 950 screens across France in the biggest theatrical launch of early 2023 for local productions. The mini-major bankrolled the film and is also a producer alongside Alain Attal’s Tresor Films and Yohan Baiada at Les Enfants Terribles.
In first figures for the Paris region, which can be a bellwether for box office performance across the rest of the country, especially for mainstream local productions like Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, the film scored the strongest opening.
By 2 pm local time, the film had drawn 9,091 spectators in 84 theaters, split between 3,274 admissions on 29 screens in the city and 5,817 admissions in outer Paris.
Pathé released the title on 950 screens across France in the biggest theatrical launch of early 2023 for local productions. The mini-major bankrolled the film and is also a producer alongside Alain Attal’s Tresor Films and Yohan Baiada at Les Enfants Terribles.
In first figures for the Paris region, which can be a bellwether for box office performance across the rest of the country, especially for mainstream local productions like Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom, the film scored the strongest opening.
By 2 pm local time, the film had drawn 9,091 spectators in 84 theaters, split between 3,274 admissions on 29 screens in the city and 5,817 admissions in outer Paris.
- 2/1/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
French actor and director Guillaume Canet has revealed he is feeling the pressure ahead of the release next week of his ambitious 70M production Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom.
Canet directs and stars in the film as iconic plucky Gaul Asterix in an all-star ensemble cast also featuring Gilles Lellouche as Obelix, Vincent Cassel as Julius Caesar, Marion Cotillard as Cleopatra and Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimović as Caesar’s bodyguard Antivirus.
The production is Canet’s eighth feature after 2006 breakout Tell No One, 2010 hit Little White Lies, Brooklyn-set, English-language debut Blood Ties and the smaller more personal pandemic-shot film Lui.
Long-time collaborator Alain Attal at Trésor Films produces with Pathé and Yohan Baiada at Les Enfants Terribles.
Pathé will launch Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom on 1,200 screens on February 1. Local media is hailing the release as the biggest film event of early 2023.
Canet has said he...
Canet directs and stars in the film as iconic plucky Gaul Asterix in an all-star ensemble cast also featuring Gilles Lellouche as Obelix, Vincent Cassel as Julius Caesar, Marion Cotillard as Cleopatra and Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimović as Caesar’s bodyguard Antivirus.
The production is Canet’s eighth feature after 2006 breakout Tell No One, 2010 hit Little White Lies, Brooklyn-set, English-language debut Blood Ties and the smaller more personal pandemic-shot film Lui.
Long-time collaborator Alain Attal at Trésor Films produces with Pathé and Yohan Baiada at Les Enfants Terribles.
Pathé will launch Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom on 1,200 screens on February 1. Local media is hailing the release as the biggest film event of early 2023.
Canet has said he...
- 1/27/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Daaaaaali !
A true original who never seems to be running out of zany ideas, we learned back in November that Quentin Dupieux was at it again. Featuring Alain Chabat, Anaïs Demoustier, Pierre Niney, Gilles Lellouche, Edouard Baer, Pio Marmaï, Jonathan Cohen, Hakim Jemili, Agnès Hurstel, Jérôme Niel, Marc Fraize and Didier Flamand, Dupieux’s twelve feature sounds Zelig-esque in scope. Atelier de Production’s Thomas Verhaeghe produced Daaaaaali ! which splits its time in Paris and in Spain.
Gist: This charts the story of a French journalist who meets iconic, Surrealist artist Salvador Dali on a number of occasions for a documentary project which never gets off the ground.…...
A true original who never seems to be running out of zany ideas, we learned back in November that Quentin Dupieux was at it again. Featuring Alain Chabat, Anaïs Demoustier, Pierre Niney, Gilles Lellouche, Edouard Baer, Pio Marmaï, Jonathan Cohen, Hakim Jemili, Agnès Hurstel, Jérôme Niel, Marc Fraize and Didier Flamand, Dupieux’s twelve feature sounds Zelig-esque in scope. Atelier de Production’s Thomas Verhaeghe produced Daaaaaali ! which splits its time in Paris and in Spain.
Gist: This charts the story of a French journalist who meets iconic, Surrealist artist Salvador Dali on a number of occasions for a documentary project which never gets off the ground.…...
- 1/13/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Following his best film, the delightfully dark and humorous character study Red Rocket, we’ve been waiting to see what Sean Baker would tackle next. On the heels of the Criterion release of his early film Take Out, it’s now been revealed he’ll start production on a new feature titled Anora this spring. While no other details are currently available, expect a 2024 premiere for the project. [Production Weekly via Cinema Solace]
In other news, Beginning director Dea Kulumbegashvili has set her next film with Those Who Find Me. Cineuropa (via Ioncinema) reports the film, which will kick off production in March, follows a “gynecologist obstetrician working in the only hospital in a provincial town, who is unconditionally committed to her Hippocratic Oath, even if it means carrying out illegal abortions…”
They also report that Alain Guiraudie, whose latest film Nobody’s Hero still awaits a U.S. release, is embarking on his feature Miséricorde.
In other news, Beginning director Dea Kulumbegashvili has set her next film with Those Who Find Me. Cineuropa (via Ioncinema) reports the film, which will kick off production in March, follows a “gynecologist obstetrician working in the only hospital in a provincial town, who is unconditionally committed to her Hippocratic Oath, even if it means carrying out illegal abortions…”
They also report that Alain Guiraudie, whose latest film Nobody’s Hero still awaits a U.S. release, is embarking on his feature Miséricorde.
- 12/30/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Stars: Alain Chabat, Anaïs Demoustier, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel | Written and Directed by Quentin Dupieux
There are plenty of films that could call themselves Incredible But True but maybe more than most this one feels like it justifies it. But unfortunately, I don’t want to say too much about why this is the case because it would almost definitely spoil the film somewhat if you haven’t seen it. So here’s what I can say.
A couple, searching to buy a house and find one that they both really like. Of course, there is something different about this house and the estate agent is seemingly being very coy about telling them what this is exactly. He shows them a ‘door’ – that looks very much like a manhole – in the floor of the basement. He invites them down it with the promise that what is down there is extraordinary and will change their lives.
There are plenty of films that could call themselves Incredible But True but maybe more than most this one feels like it justifies it. But unfortunately, I don’t want to say too much about why this is the case because it would almost definitely spoil the film somewhat if you haven’t seen it. So here’s what I can say.
A couple, searching to buy a house and find one that they both really like. Of course, there is something different about this house and the estate agent is seemingly being very coy about telling them what this is exactly. He shows them a ‘door’ – that looks very much like a manhole – in the floor of the basement. He invites them down it with the promise that what is down there is extraordinary and will change their lives.
- 12/20/2022
- by Alain Elliott
- Nerdly
Feature inspired by work of René Goscinny, Jean-Jaques Sempé to open December 16.
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
- 12/9/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Feature inspired by work of René Goscinny, Jean-Jaques Sempé to open December 16.
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
Annecy best feature film winner Little Nicholas: Happy As Can Be from France’s Foliascope and Luxembourg’s Bidibul Productions has secured a key distribution deal and will open in the US through Buffalo 8 on December 16.
Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre (I Lost My Body) directed the feature based on the bestselling French children’s book series Le Petit Nicholas. The 2D film takes place in 1960s Paris and weaves together the adventures of schoolboy Nicholas and his legendary creators, writer René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jaques Sempé.
Goscinny...
- 12/9/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
In the early days of the Academy’s animated feature Oscar, there were questions as to whether enough films would qualify each year for the award to be given. Not anymore! This year sees a record number of contenders across a wide variety of genres, styles and audiences, from serious, adult-targeted films (like “Charlotte” and “Eternal Spring”) to boffo offerings from Hollywood’s top toon studios — and that doesn’t even count such anime franchise sensations as “One Piece Film: Red” and “Jujutsu Kaisen 0,” which didn’t submit but further illustrate the vitality of the form.
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
Director: Richard Linklater
Voices: Glen Powell, Zachary Levi, Jack Black
Studios: Minnow Mountain, Submarine, Detour Filmproduction
Distributor: Netflix
A time capsule made possible through a sophisticated blend of 2D, 3D and rotoscope techniques, allows the “Boyhood” director to revive the style of “Waking Life” and his own 1960s Texas boyhood.
Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
Director: Richard Linklater
Voices: Glen Powell, Zachary Levi, Jack Black
Studios: Minnow Mountain, Submarine, Detour Filmproduction
Distributor: Netflix
A time capsule made possible through a sophisticated blend of 2D, 3D and rotoscope techniques, allows the “Boyhood” director to revive the style of “Waking Life” and his own 1960s Texas boyhood.
- 12/6/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
A new French late show, fronted by popular actor, director and writer Alain Chabat launched on France’s TF1 amid much fanfare this week in the country’s latest attempt to crack the late-night talk show format.
Running Monday to Friday from 10.55 pm, Le Late Avec Alain Chabat kicked off on Monday (November 21), with the host joking in his opening spiel: “I nearly did this show in 2018, but it was during the World Cup in Russia, so it was a bit touchy. But now, it’s in Qatar, so tout va bien.”
The show was commissioned by TF1 Executive Vice President, Content Ara Aprikian to fill a late-night slot that opened up due to the timing of the Qatar World Cup soccer matches, earlier in the evening.
Chabat is no stranger to TV studio shows, having first found fame in the late 1980s as co-creator of popular Canal+ comedy sketch program Les Nuls,...
Running Monday to Friday from 10.55 pm, Le Late Avec Alain Chabat kicked off on Monday (November 21), with the host joking in his opening spiel: “I nearly did this show in 2018, but it was during the World Cup in Russia, so it was a bit touchy. But now, it’s in Qatar, so tout va bien.”
The show was commissioned by TF1 Executive Vice President, Content Ara Aprikian to fill a late-night slot that opened up due to the timing of the Qatar World Cup soccer matches, earlier in the evening.
Chabat is no stranger to TV studio shows, having first found fame in the late 1980s as co-creator of popular Canal+ comedy sketch program Les Nuls,...
- 11/24/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Kinology is handling international sales.
French master of the absurd Quentin Dupieux has started shooting a feature about the surrealist artist Salvador Dali starring a vast cast of A-list French talent called Daaaaaali!
Dupieux has wrangled a cast of some of France’s top talents for the film including Edouard Baer, Gilles Lellouche, Pio Marmai, Jonathan Cohen, Pierre Niney, Anais de Moustier and Alain Chabat. Chabat has starred in two of Dupieux’s previous films Incredible but True and Smoking Causes Coughing.
Daaaaaali! is produced by Atelier de Production’s Mathieu and Thomas Verhaeghe, with Kinology handling international sales. Diaphana has French rights.
French master of the absurd Quentin Dupieux has started shooting a feature about the surrealist artist Salvador Dali starring a vast cast of A-list French talent called Daaaaaali!
Dupieux has wrangled a cast of some of France’s top talents for the film including Edouard Baer, Gilles Lellouche, Pio Marmai, Jonathan Cohen, Pierre Niney, Anais de Moustier and Alain Chabat. Chabat has starred in two of Dupieux’s previous films Incredible but True and Smoking Causes Coughing.
Daaaaaali! is produced by Atelier de Production’s Mathieu and Thomas Verhaeghe, with Kinology handling international sales. Diaphana has French rights.
- 11/9/2022
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche, Pierre Niney, Alain Chabat, Edouard Baer, Pio Marmaï, Jonathan Cohen, Hakim Jemili, Agnès Hurstel, Jérôme Niel, Marc Fraize, Didier Flamand and a rumored Jean Dujardin and Louis Garrel are part of the massive ensemble for Quentin Dupieux‘s next film currently in production. The oddly titled (yes there is a space here) Daaaaaali ! is, according to Deadline, going to shoot into early 2023 in Paris, the South of France and Spain. Atelier de Production’s Thomas Verhaeghe will produce. As for a film festival premiere we know not to bet against a possible Cannes showing — but Venice feels like a safer bet.…...
- 11/8/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
French director Quentin Dupieux has begun shooting his 12th feature film Daaaaaali ! with a star ensemble French cast including Alain Chabat (Smoking Causes Coughing), Anaïs Demoustier (Alice And The Mayor), Pierre Niney (Frantz) and Gilles Lellouche (Little White Lies).
The picture charts the story of a French journalist who meets iconic, Surrealist artist Salvador Dali on a number of occasions for a documentary project which never gets off the ground.
Deadline, which has been tracking this project, has heard Dali will be played by multiple different actors across the course of the film.
Dupieux, who also goes under the alias of his DJ name Mr. Oizo, announced the start of the shoot on his Instagram account on Tuesday.
Other cast members named in his post included Edouard Baer (Adieu Paris), Pio Marmaï (The Divide), Jonathan Cohen, Hakim Jemili, Agnès Hurstel, Jérôme Niel, Marc Fraize and Didier Flamand.
The post suggested...
The picture charts the story of a French journalist who meets iconic, Surrealist artist Salvador Dali on a number of occasions for a documentary project which never gets off the ground.
Deadline, which has been tracking this project, has heard Dali will be played by multiple different actors across the course of the film.
Dupieux, who also goes under the alias of his DJ name Mr. Oizo, announced the start of the shoot on his Instagram account on Tuesday.
Other cast members named in his post included Edouard Baer (Adieu Paris), Pio Marmaï (The Divide), Jonathan Cohen, Hakim Jemili, Agnès Hurstel, Jérôme Niel, Marc Fraize and Didier Flamand.
The post suggested...
- 11/8/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman and Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Stars: Alain Chabat, Anaïs Demoustier, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel | Written and Directed by Quentin Dupieux
There are plenty of films that could call themselves Incredible But True but maybe more than most this one feels like it justifies it. But unfortunately, I don’t want to say too much about why this is the case because it would almost definitely spoil the film somewhat if you haven’t seen it. So here’s what I can say.
A couple, searching to buy a house and find one that they both really like. Of course, there is something different about this house and the estate agent is seemingly being very coy about telling them what this is exactly. He shows them a ‘door’ – that looks very much like a manhole – in the floor of the basement. He invites them down it with the promise that what is down there is extraordinary and will change their lives.
There are plenty of films that could call themselves Incredible But True but maybe more than most this one feels like it justifies it. But unfortunately, I don’t want to say too much about why this is the case because it would almost definitely spoil the film somewhat if you haven’t seen it. So here’s what I can say.
A couple, searching to buy a house and find one that they both really like. Of course, there is something different about this house and the estate agent is seemingly being very coy about telling them what this is exactly. He shows them a ‘door’ – that looks very much like a manhole – in the floor of the basement. He invites them down it with the promise that what is down there is extraordinary and will change their lives.
- 8/2/2022
- by Alain Elliott
- Nerdly
Every time someone takes a comic book character the world adores and decides to make an animated movie, there’s a risk they won’t do justice to the original designs. “The Adventures of Tintin” comes immediately to mind, since Spielberg and company made the bold choice of swapping artist Hergé’s appealing clean-line designs with appalling performance-capture zombies. Or 2019’s disappointing “The Addams Family” reboot, which effectively turned Charles Addams’ macabre sketches into benign, generic-looking balloon animals.
It’s a problem the folks at On Entertainment take seriously. They’re the ones who translated Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” to the screen, erring on the side of overdoing the CG equivalent in that case. Now, the same studio has done right by Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny’s Petit Nicolas — or Little Nicholas to English speakers, who are almost certainly less familiar with the source material (essentially...
It’s a problem the folks at On Entertainment take seriously. They’re the ones who translated Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “The Little Prince” to the screen, erring on the side of overdoing the CG equivalent in that case. Now, the same studio has done right by Jean-Jacques Sempé and René Goscinny’s Petit Nicolas — or Little Nicholas to English speakers, who are almost certainly less familiar with the source material (essentially...
- 6/19/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Directors Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre take home the top prize for their animated film Little Nicholas–Happy as Can Be at the annual Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France.
Co-produced French/Luxembourg film takes place towards the end of the1950s in Paris, René Goscinny (voiced by Alain Chabat) and Jean-Jacques Sempé (voiced by Laurent Lafitte) invented the character Nicholas, a small boy and prankster with a smile on his face whose days are punctuated by games with his band of friends, fights, joking around, and learning. When the fictional character is invited into the workshop of his “dads,” the roles are reversed, and it’s the creators who recount their childhoods, their careers, and their friendship to Little Nicholas.
In 2021, Flee won top prize at the Annecy festival and then went on to grab three Oscar nominations, with one being for best animated film. Will Little Nicholas follow in the same path?...
Co-produced French/Luxembourg film takes place towards the end of the1950s in Paris, René Goscinny (voiced by Alain Chabat) and Jean-Jacques Sempé (voiced by Laurent Lafitte) invented the character Nicholas, a small boy and prankster with a smile on his face whose days are punctuated by games with his band of friends, fights, joking around, and learning. When the fictional character is invited into the workshop of his “dads,” the roles are reversed, and it’s the creators who recount their childhoods, their careers, and their friendship to Little Nicholas.
In 2021, Flee won top prize at the Annecy festival and then went on to grab three Oscar nominations, with one being for best animated film. Will Little Nicholas follow in the same path?...
- 6/19/2022
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
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
This delightful family-friendly animation blends tales of Little Nicholas - a sort of French equivalent of the likes of Just William or The Perishers - with the biography of his creator René Goscinny (voiced by Alain Chabat) and Jean-Jacques Sempé (Laurent Lafitte at the mic). Goscinny is the more internationally famous of the two, having also co-created Asterix and Obelix, who are nicely referenced, but here the focus is on the bond between him and Sempé, which though it weakened down the years lasted until Goscinny's untimely death from a heart attack at just 51.
The dialogue between the fictional life of Nicholas and the lives of his creators is achieved by having Nicholas (voiced by Simon Faliu) step off the page to engage in conversation with the two men as they first begin to create his family and friends before moving on to a series of tales, including -...
The dialogue between the fictional life of Nicholas and the lives of his creators is achieved by having Nicholas (voiced by Simon Faliu) step off the page to engage in conversation with the two men as they first begin to create his family and friends before moving on to a series of tales, including -...
- 5/30/2022
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
“The Little Nicholas: Happy as Can Be” by Benjamin Massoubre and Amandine Fredon is having its world premiere at a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20.
Several years in the making, the film brings together the world-famous French schoolboy and his creators, author René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé, as it goes back and forth between their world and his imaginary world.
Translated into more than 30 languages, the Little Nicholas short stories have been adapted to fiction but never to animation until now. For the creative team, it was essential to stay true both to Goscinny’s short stories and to Sempé’s drawings.
“The main challenge was to create the Little Nicholas’ world in animation and, at the same time, remain faithful to Sempé’s style – his drawings are very small, they’re made in ink, which gives them a sort of awkward but very lively energy,...
Several years in the making, the film brings together the world-famous French schoolboy and his creators, author René Goscinny and cartoonist Jean-Jacques Sempé, as it goes back and forth between their world and his imaginary world.
Translated into more than 30 languages, the Little Nicholas short stories have been adapted to fiction but never to animation until now. For the creative team, it was essential to stay true both to Goscinny’s short stories and to Sempé’s drawings.
“The main challenge was to create the Little Nicholas’ world in animation and, at the same time, remain faithful to Sempé’s style – his drawings are very small, they’re made in ink, which gives them a sort of awkward but very lively energy,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety 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
Arrow Films have acquired U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland rights to Berlinale title “Incredible But True,” by French writer-director Quentin Dupieux (“Mandibles”).
The quirky comedy, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, sees a husband and wife move into a suburban house of their dreams only to discover that a mysterious secret is hidden in the basement, which may change their lives forever.
The film stars Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel and Anaïs Demoustier.
Reviewing the film at Berlin, Variety critic Jessica Kiang described the film as “a fun little trinket that unmistakably comes from Dupieux’s far-out perspective” and “charmingly eccentric.”
The film is an Atelier de Production production in co-production with Versus Production and Arte France Cinema and produced by Mathieu Verhaeghe and Thomas Verhaeghe.
Arrow Films, a U.K.-based premiere label for cult, art, horror and world cinema,...
The quirky comedy, which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, sees a husband and wife move into a suburban house of their dreams only to discover that a mysterious secret is hidden in the basement, which may change their lives forever.
The film stars Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel and Anaïs Demoustier.
Reviewing the film at Berlin, Variety critic Jessica Kiang described the film as “a fun little trinket that unmistakably comes from Dupieux’s far-out perspective” and “charmingly eccentric.”
The film is an Atelier de Production production in co-production with Versus Production and Arte France Cinema and produced by Mathieu Verhaeghe and Thomas Verhaeghe.
Arrow Films, a U.K.-based premiere label for cult, art, horror and world cinema,...
- 4/5/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Handling writing, directing, editing, and cinematography duties on all his films — all while maintaining a parallel career in the music business — Quentin Dupieux has become the arthouse’s most reliable purveyor of artisanally-produced, small-batch surrealism, showing up at one of the major festivals nearly every year for another bit of deadpan fun.
From 2010’s “Rubber,” which followed a killer tire, to 2019’s “Deerskin,” which followed a killer jacket, to 2020’s “Mandibles,” which followed a more-benevolent-but-unsettlingly-giant fly, Dupieux’s modus operandi has never really changed, with each new film enacting the same experiment to see just how far a single absurdist premise can travel. And if “Incredible but True” (running time: 74 minutes) fits neatly within that overall filmography, it also builds on the uncommon tenderness that made “Mandibles” stand out to rather delightful effect.
Mind you, sweetness is something of a new flavor for Dupieux, who launched his career with 2001’s...
From 2010’s “Rubber,” which followed a killer tire, to 2019’s “Deerskin,” which followed a killer jacket, to 2020’s “Mandibles,” which followed a more-benevolent-but-unsettlingly-giant fly, Dupieux’s modus operandi has never really changed, with each new film enacting the same experiment to see just how far a single absurdist premise can travel. And if “Incredible but True” (running time: 74 minutes) fits neatly within that overall filmography, it also builds on the uncommon tenderness that made “Mandibles” stand out to rather delightful effect.
Mind you, sweetness is something of a new flavor for Dupieux, who launched his career with 2001’s...
- 2/11/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
Everyone knows that rule No. 1 in movies — especially, but not exclusively, horror movies — is that nobody should ever go down to a basement. Not long into Quentin Dupieux’s snappy little entertainment Incredible But True, premiering as a Berlinale Special Gala at the Berlin Film Festival, a couple inspecting a house for sale is invited to descend to what the ferrety agent promises is the jewel of the property. “Oh no,” says Marie (Léa Drucker), “we’re not basement people.”
And that’s the last sensible thing she’ll say — because, of course, she and her dependable husband Alain (Alain Chabat) do what the agent tells them. Down to the basement they go. There is a trapdoor, a ladder underneath it disappears into darkness. Down again. They could never have predicted that what they discover at the bottom of that ladder will obsess Marie to the point of madness.
Alain,...
And that’s the last sensible thing she’ll say — because, of course, she and her dependable husband Alain (Alain Chabat) do what the agent tells them. Down to the basement they go. There is a trapdoor, a ladder underneath it disappears into darkness. Down again. They could never have predicted that what they discover at the bottom of that ladder will obsess Marie to the point of madness.
Alain,...
- 2/11/2022
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
It has probably come to your attention that time has gone all squirrelly recently. Every day we wake, 40 years older than yesterday, yet also in a state of suspended animation, all development arrested. An instant can last an eon, and yet in the time it takes for a tap to drip, our page-a-day calendars have somehow riffled whole months away into the wind. It certainly hasn’t escaped Quentin Dupieux’s notice, and somehow, in between the dripping taps and toppling civilizations of this pandemic, he’s made a whole film about it.
Admittedly, at 74 minutes, with the limited cast and locations now typical of corona-restricted shoots, the charmingly eccentric “Incredible but True” at first seems even more of a doodle than 2020’s eccentrically charming “Mandibles” or 2019’s “Deerskin,” which was quite the charmer in its eccentricity. But Dupieux has always created mini-universes in which his deadpan-doofus characters can pinball...
Admittedly, at 74 minutes, with the limited cast and locations now typical of corona-restricted shoots, the charmingly eccentric “Incredible but True” at first seems even more of a doodle than 2020’s eccentrically charming “Mandibles” or 2019’s “Deerskin,” which was quite the charmer in its eccentricity. But Dupieux has always created mini-universes in which his deadpan-doofus characters can pinball...
- 2/11/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Giddy comedy about middle-aged house hunters who find more in a bargain buy than anyone but director Quentin Dupieux could have dreamed
Those who have seen Quentin Dupieux’s strange comedy Deerskin, with Jean Dujardin as a murderous would-be cinéaste obsessed with the sartorial superiority of his fringed deerskin jacket, or any of the film-maker’s other wacky adventures, will have an idea what to expect of this latest romp. They may also be justifiably unsure whether to find his movies irresistible or insufferable. I am still undecided in some ways. Incredible But True has a wacky premise that Dupieux very possibly had no idea how to develop. And yet I found myself laughing quite a lot of the time. The sheer silliness and zen pointlessness is entertaining. It’s a film with something of Charlie Kaufman or Spike Jonze or early Woody Allen, mixed with a French version of the Carry Ons.
Those who have seen Quentin Dupieux’s strange comedy Deerskin, with Jean Dujardin as a murderous would-be cinéaste obsessed with the sartorial superiority of his fringed deerskin jacket, or any of the film-maker’s other wacky adventures, will have an idea what to expect of this latest romp. They may also be justifiably unsure whether to find his movies irresistible or insufferable. I am still undecided in some ways. Incredible But True has a wacky premise that Dupieux very possibly had no idea how to develop. And yet I found myself laughing quite a lot of the time. The sheer silliness and zen pointlessness is entertaining. It’s a film with something of Charlie Kaufman or Spike Jonze or early Woody Allen, mixed with a French version of the Carry Ons.
- 2/11/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
In Being John Malkovich, an entire half-hour passes by before John Cusack’s hangdog puppeteer peaks behind his filing cabinet and finds a tunnel to another man’s brain. Incredible But True––another film about a tunnel and likely oblivion––is directed by Quentin Dupieux, a French filmmaker whose absurdist tendencies would rival even Charlie Kaufman’s. He is also better-known for his brevity. Dupieux’s two most recent films (Deerskin and Mandibles), both clocked in at less than 80 minutes. (They were also his best.) Realité, his most indulgent, asks only for 95.
Dupieux’s popularity on the festival circuit can be tied to that succinctness as much as his auteur credentials and uncanny sense of humor. His latest, another rough absurdist gem, goes one further in offering a playful, compelling twist on an enduring sc-fi trope. There is also some uneasy gender stereotyping. There is also what one medical practitioner refers to as an “iPenis.
Dupieux’s popularity on the festival circuit can be tied to that succinctness as much as his auteur credentials and uncanny sense of humor. His latest, another rough absurdist gem, goes one further in offering a playful, compelling twist on an enduring sc-fi trope. There is also some uneasy gender stereotyping. There is also what one medical practitioner refers to as an “iPenis.
- 2/10/2022
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
"We're afraid you'll think we're crazies, if we tell the story..." The Match Factory has revealed a very short teaser trailer for Incredible But True, the latest from from quirky French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux. Incroyable Mais Vrai, as it's known in French, is premeiring today (!!) at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival, hence this trailer also arriving today. I just saw it earlier today and it's another surreal, wacky, amusing comedy from Dupieux. Alain and Marie moved to the suburb house of their dreams. But the real estate agent hints that – what is in the basement may well change their lives forever. There's a tube down there, but where does it lead? What does it do? You'll have to watch to find out! Oh it's soooo good. The comedy stars Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel, Anaïs Demoustier, and Stéphane Pezerat. Just wait until you see more from this film! It's ...
- 2/10/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
It is Dupieux’s tenth feature after comedy Mandibles, which had a buzzy premiere at Venice in 2020.
Screen can reveal the first trailer for French director Quentin Dupieux’s new film Incredible But True ahead of its world premiere at the Berlinale as a special gala screening on Friday (Feb 11).
The comedy reunites Dupieux with French star Alain Chabat, who previously appeared in the director’s 2014 film Réalité. He co-stars opposite Léa Drucker as a couple who move to a quiet suburb and then find a mysterious tunnel in the cellar of their new home that turns their lives upside down.
Screen can reveal the first trailer for French director Quentin Dupieux’s new film Incredible But True ahead of its world premiere at the Berlinale as a special gala screening on Friday (Feb 11).
The comedy reunites Dupieux with French star Alain Chabat, who previously appeared in the director’s 2014 film Réalité. He co-stars opposite Léa Drucker as a couple who move to a quiet suburb and then find a mysterious tunnel in the cellar of their new home that turns their lives upside down.
- 2/10/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
- 1/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
- 1/19/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Paris-based sales agent WTFilms, which specializes in genre movies, is presenting Romain Quirot’s sophomore feature film, “Apache: Gang of Paris,” at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris.
The pic is an ambitious revenge movie set in early 20th century Paris, when rival gangs were wreaking havoc. The term apache was coined in Paris at the time, to describe street gangs. “It’s a modern stylish and raw revenge movie,” says WTFilms’ Gregory Chambet. “We hope it will offer a renewal of the French action thriller genre, as Christophe Gans did with ‘Brotherhood of the Wolves’.”
Quirot’s freshman pic, cosmic road movie “The Last Journey,” starring Jean Reno, won Best Film at Sitges in 2020.
WTFilms’ slate also includes Quentin Dupieux’s “Incredible but True,” that follows on from his Venice-playing giant fly comedy, “Mandibles,” that starred French comedy duo Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais.
Starring Alain Chabat and Léa Drucker,...
The pic is an ambitious revenge movie set in early 20th century Paris, when rival gangs were wreaking havoc. The term apache was coined in Paris at the time, to describe street gangs. “It’s a modern stylish and raw revenge movie,” says WTFilms’ Gregory Chambet. “We hope it will offer a renewal of the French action thriller genre, as Christophe Gans did with ‘Brotherhood of the Wolves’.”
Quirot’s freshman pic, cosmic road movie “The Last Journey,” starring Jean Reno, won Best Film at Sitges in 2020.
WTFilms’ slate also includes Quentin Dupieux’s “Incredible but True,” that follows on from his Venice-playing giant fly comedy, “Mandibles,” that starred French comedy duo Grégoire Ludig and David Marsais.
Starring Alain Chabat and Léa Drucker,...
- 1/16/2022
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Incroyable mais vrai
A project that has slightly moved up our depth chart, Quentin Dupieux’s ninth feature film was more than ready to go for 2021 – but Incroyable mais vrai stayed on the sidelines perhaps while the filmmaker was putting the first touches on his 10th feature (#36 on our countdown). Completed in September of 2020, it was announced today that the film’s French distributor will release the film in June – so Cannes is a strong possibility. This stars Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel and Anaïs Demoustier.
Gist: Alain and Marie moved to the suburb house of their dreams.…...
A project that has slightly moved up our depth chart, Quentin Dupieux’s ninth feature film was more than ready to go for 2021 – but Incroyable mais vrai stayed on the sidelines perhaps while the filmmaker was putting the first touches on his 10th feature (#36 on our countdown). Completed in September of 2020, it was announced today that the film’s French distributor will release the film in June – so Cannes is a strong possibility. This stars Alain Chabat, Léa Drucker, Benoît Magimel and Anaïs Demoustier.
Gist: Alain and Marie moved to the suburb house of their dreams.…...
- 1/12/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.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
The Lumière festival, a week-long celebration of heritage movies created by late filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, is having a packed 13th edition in Lyon, the birthplace of the Lumiere brothers.
With a vast lineup including screenings of classic films, restored prints, discoveries and masterclasses, the festival had already sold nearly 90,000 tickets for film screenings and other related events at mid-point.
Among the 5,000 guests who attended the festival’s opening ceremony were Paolo Sorrentino, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Netflix’s co-ceo Ted Sarandos, Valeria Golino, Joachim Trier, Rossy de Palma, Melanie Laurent and Edouard Baer. The tribute to Tavernier was attended by 2,000 people at the Auditorium of Lyon, while 4,000 people turned up for the screening of “Shrek” with Alain Chabat.
Set to wrap on Sunday, the Lumiere festival is approaching the participation levels of its record year in 2019. The International Classic Film Market, a dedicated mini-market for heritage movies, also registered a record number of accredited visitors.
With a vast lineup including screenings of classic films, restored prints, discoveries and masterclasses, the festival had already sold nearly 90,000 tickets for film screenings and other related events at mid-point.
Among the 5,000 guests who attended the festival’s opening ceremony were Paolo Sorrentino, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Netflix’s co-ceo Ted Sarandos, Valeria Golino, Joachim Trier, Rossy de Palma, Melanie Laurent and Edouard Baer. The tribute to Tavernier was attended by 2,000 people at the Auditorium of Lyon, while 4,000 people turned up for the screening of “Shrek” with Alain Chabat.
Set to wrap on Sunday, the Lumiere festival is approaching the participation levels of its record year in 2019. The International Classic Film Market, a dedicated mini-market for heritage movies, also registered a record number of accredited visitors.
- 10/14/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
French actor, director, producer and writer Edouard Baer, in Lyon for the premiere of “Adieu Paris!” at the Lumière Festival, drew endless laughs from his audience at his masterclass in the city’s Comédie Odéon theater.
Displaying a gifted talent for improvisation, Baer amused the audience with self-deprecating tirades and anecdotes. Commenting on the short introductory film displaying his career highlights, he told the crowd: “It’s easy to make me look good with smooth editing and good music. Really, it’s just a succession of small accidents. There aren’t just masterpieces there. But from bad movies to acceptable ones, you build a small career and then you die happy,” he smiled.
Baer brings together a stellar cast in “Adieu Paris!” including Gérard Depardieu, Pierre Arditi, Jean-Francois Stévenin – who passed away in July and to whom the film is dedicated – and Belgian duo Benoît Poelvoorde and François Damiens, who...
Displaying a gifted talent for improvisation, Baer amused the audience with self-deprecating tirades and anecdotes. Commenting on the short introductory film displaying his career highlights, he told the crowd: “It’s easy to make me look good with smooth editing and good music. Really, it’s just a succession of small accidents. There aren’t just masterpieces there. But from bad movies to acceptable ones, you build a small career and then you die happy,” he smiled.
Baer brings together a stellar cast in “Adieu Paris!” including Gérard Depardieu, Pierre Arditi, Jean-Francois Stévenin – who passed away in July and to whom the film is dedicated – and Belgian duo Benoît Poelvoorde and François Damiens, who...
- 10/12/2021
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
After beating the odds last year by hosting a physical edition in the midst of the pandemic, Cannes chief Thierry Fremaux’s Lumière Festival kicked off in Lyon with great fanfare and prestigious guests including Paolo Sorrentino, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Netflix’s co-ceo Ted Sarandos, Valeria Golino, Joachim Trier, Rossy de Palma, Melanie Laurent and Edouard Baer.
The festival, which unfolds in the birthplace of the Cinematograph and its creators, the Lumière brothers, is dedicating its 13th edition to its long-time president Bertrand Tavernier, the beloved filmmaker who recently died.
During his opening speech, the usually voluble Frémaux had to take a moment to regain his composure as he paid an emotional tribute to Tavernier, his friend and close collaborator, with whom he worked side by side for nearly four decades at the Lumière Institute.
“Bertrand has left us with a heritage that is so major and so immense, and your...
The festival, which unfolds in the birthplace of the Cinematograph and its creators, the Lumière brothers, is dedicating its 13th edition to its long-time president Bertrand Tavernier, the beloved filmmaker who recently died.
During his opening speech, the usually voluble Frémaux had to take a moment to regain his composure as he paid an emotional tribute to Tavernier, his friend and close collaborator, with whom he worked side by side for nearly four decades at the Lumière Institute.
“Bertrand has left us with a heritage that is so major and so immense, and your...
- 10/10/2021
- by Lise Pedersen and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The French box office, hampered by an increasingly rigorous series of Covid health protocols, took a plunge in recent months, resulting in week-to-week falls of up to 41%. But for all their caveats, industry analysts talk about the current landscape in tones of cautious optimism.
In France, a growing number of commercial spaces are prohibited from those without proof of double anti-covid vaccinations.
“The sanitary passport had a pronounced effect in depressing the market,” says Comscore France’s Eric Marti. “There was a lot of uncertainty this summer, and we saw that once there’s a hint of confusion, the impact is immediate.” But at the same time, those same local audiences disproved the most pessimistic prognoses that came from during the lockdowns. “Viewers have displayed a real willingness” to return to the theaters, Marti says. “Remarkably, the market was able to absorb the [escalating restrictions], and, despite them, to pick back up.
In France, a growing number of commercial spaces are prohibited from those without proof of double anti-covid vaccinations.
“The sanitary passport had a pronounced effect in depressing the market,” says Comscore France’s Eric Marti. “There was a lot of uncertainty this summer, and we saw that once there’s a hint of confusion, the impact is immediate.” But at the same time, those same local audiences disproved the most pessimistic prognoses that came from during the lockdowns. “Viewers have displayed a real willingness” to return to the theaters, Marti says. “Remarkably, the market was able to absorb the [escalating restrictions], and, despite them, to pick back up.
- 9/3/2021
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Pathe is relocating Guillaume Canet’s live-action movie “Asterix & Obelix” to France, instead of China where it was initially planned to shoot last year, and couldn’t do so due to the pandemic. Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic has joined the cast.
Now titled “Asterix & Obelix, the Middle Kingdom,” the movie is budgeted at 60 million Euros and marks the next installment of the blockbuster French comic book franchise. The pic is being produced by the French banners Les Enfants Terribles and Tresor Films, with Pathe co-producing and handling French distribution rights and international sales.
Pathe has already enlisted a flurry of buyers, including Netflix for several undisclosed territories, Leonine in Germany, Unicorn for CSI and Baltics, Blitz for ex Yugoslavia, Kinoswiat for Poland, and Rosebud 21 for Greece. Pathe will distribute in France and Switzerland.
The shoot will start April 12 with a stellar cast. Alongside Ibrahimovic, the cast includes Marion Cotillard,...
Now titled “Asterix & Obelix, the Middle Kingdom,” the movie is budgeted at 60 million Euros and marks the next installment of the blockbuster French comic book franchise. The pic is being produced by the French banners Les Enfants Terribles and Tresor Films, with Pathe co-producing and handling French distribution rights and international sales.
Pathe has already enlisted a flurry of buyers, including Netflix for several undisclosed territories, Leonine in Germany, Unicorn for CSI and Baltics, Blitz for ex Yugoslavia, Kinoswiat for Poland, and Rosebud 21 for Greece. Pathe will distribute in France and Switzerland.
The shoot will start April 12 with a stellar cast. Alongside Ibrahimovic, the cast includes Marion Cotillard,...
- 4/8/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Iconic French comic book character Asterix is all set for a new chapter on Netflix along with French director, screenwriter and actor Alain Chabat.
The streamer is partnering with leading French publisher Hachette’s Les Editions Albert René to create a 3D animated limited series based on the classic. Chabat will direct and Alain Goldman of Legende Films will produce.
The series, which will be based on “Asterix and the Big Fight,” will debut in 2023.
Chabat wrote and directed “Mission Cléopâtre” (2002), the most successful of Asterix’s numerous appearances on screen and the third highest-grossing feature film in French history.
“I’m French Canadian, and like most francophones around the world, I grew up with Asterix, his sidekick Obelix and loyal companion Dogmatix,” wrote Dominique Bazay, director, original animation at Netflix, on the streamer’s blog. “I watched the animated specials and read the books religiously. If you’d told...
The streamer is partnering with leading French publisher Hachette’s Les Editions Albert René to create a 3D animated limited series based on the classic. Chabat will direct and Alain Goldman of Legende Films will produce.
The series, which will be based on “Asterix and the Big Fight,” will debut in 2023.
Chabat wrote and directed “Mission Cléopâtre” (2002), the most successful of Asterix’s numerous appearances on screen and the third highest-grossing feature film in French history.
“I’m French Canadian, and like most francophones around the world, I grew up with Asterix, his sidekick Obelix and loyal companion Dogmatix,” wrote Dominique Bazay, director, original animation at Netflix, on the streamer’s blog. “I watched the animated specials and read the books religiously. If you’d told...
- 3/3/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Netflix has partnered with Hachette’s Les Editions Albert René and playwright Alain Chabat to create the first-ever animated limited series based on the iconic French comic book The Adventures of Asterix.
The 3D animated series will be made in France and streamed on Netflix around the world in 2023. Chabat, who wrote and directed 2002’s Mission Cléopâtre, will serve as showrunner.
Mission Cléopâtre was the most successful of Asterix’s numerous screen appearances and the third highest-grossing feature film in French history, according to Dominique Bazay, Netflix’s director of original animation.
Each of Asterix’s 38 volumes features the pugnacious warrior and his irreverent village companions keeping a tiny corner of ancient Gaul free from bumbling Roman invaders.
The Netflix series will be based on Asterix and the Big Fight, where the Romans, after being constantly embarrassed by Asterix and his village cohorts, organize a brawl between rival Gaulish chiefs...
The 3D animated series will be made in France and streamed on Netflix around the world in 2023. Chabat, who wrote and directed 2002’s Mission Cléopâtre, will serve as showrunner.
Mission Cléopâtre was the most successful of Asterix’s numerous screen appearances and the third highest-grossing feature film in French history, according to Dominique Bazay, Netflix’s director of original animation.
Each of Asterix’s 38 volumes features the pugnacious warrior and his irreverent village companions keeping a tiny corner of ancient Gaul free from bumbling Roman invaders.
The Netflix series will be based on Asterix and the Big Fight, where the Romans, after being constantly embarrassed by Asterix and his village cohorts, organize a brawl between rival Gaulish chiefs...
- 3/3/2021
- by Jake Kanter
- Deadline Film + TV
French actor and screenwriter Jean-Pierre Bacri died of cancer in Paris on Monday at the age of 69. Bacri’s death was confirmed by his agent, Anne Alvares-Correa, to Afp.
Bacri, whose career started in the 80s, delivered, along with Agnes Jaoui, his wife and lifelong friend, films and plays such as “The Taste of Others” and “Kitchen and Outbuildings,” which gained cult status in France. And he never stopped working. He was celebrated by many different generations of audiences and artists for his sharp humor, sense of observation and uncompromising integrity.
Bacri’s popularity could be observed through the success of most films he headlined. His most recent roles include “C’est la vie,” a 2017 comedy-drama directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, and “Place Publique,” which he co-wrote with Jaoui, who directed. Together with Jaoui, Bacri created and often starred in films which explored human nature and relationships through dark humor.
Bacri, whose career started in the 80s, delivered, along with Agnes Jaoui, his wife and lifelong friend, films and plays such as “The Taste of Others” and “Kitchen and Outbuildings,” which gained cult status in France. And he never stopped working. He was celebrated by many different generations of audiences and artists for his sharp humor, sense of observation and uncompromising integrity.
Bacri’s popularity could be observed through the success of most films he headlined. His most recent roles include “C’est la vie,” a 2017 comedy-drama directed by Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, and “Place Publique,” which he co-wrote with Jaoui, who directed. Together with Jaoui, Bacri created and often starred in films which explored human nature and relationships through dark humor.
- 1/19/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Line-up features films by Arnaud Desplechin, Claire Denis, Quentin Dupieux and Julia Ducournau.
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) is launching new films by Arnaud Desplechin, Claire Denis, Quentin Dupieux and Julia Ducournau at next week’s Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema.
As per company tradition, the Paris-based sales powerhouse has unveiled most of its French line-up for the coming year ahead of the annual event.
The Rendez-vous is taking place online from January 13-15 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Denis, Desplechin and Dupieux’s new productions were all conceived against the backdrop of the Covid-19 lockdowns and political upheavals of last year.
Wild Bunch International (Wbi) is launching new films by Arnaud Desplechin, Claire Denis, Quentin Dupieux and Julia Ducournau at next week’s Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema.
As per company tradition, the Paris-based sales powerhouse has unveiled most of its French line-up for the coming year ahead of the annual event.
The Rendez-vous is taking place online from January 13-15 due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Denis, Desplechin and Dupieux’s new productions were all conceived against the backdrop of the Covid-19 lockdowns and political upheavals of last year.
- 1/8/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
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