Justine Triet became the second female filmmaker in the Cesar Award’s 49-year history to win the best director trophy for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which also won best film, original screenplay, actress for Sandra Huller, supporting actor for Swann Arlaud and editing at the French film industry’s big night. Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” also dominated the race, picking up a raft of prizes, including cinematography, costumes, visual effects and music. The ceremony unfolded at the Olympia Theater in Paris on Friday evening and aired lived on Canal+.
Triet’s movie, which is vying for five Oscars, stars Hüller as a novelist who is put on trial following the mysterious death of her husband at their remote chalet. The movie is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelleas.
Triet dedicated her best film award to all women,...
Triet’s movie, which is vying for five Oscars, stars Hüller as a novelist who is put on trial following the mysterious death of her husband at their remote chalet. The movie is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani at Les Films de Pierre and David Thion at Les Films Pelleas.
Triet dedicated her best film award to all women,...
- 2/23/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Cohen Media Group, the U.S. distribution company behind Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano,” has acquired North American rights to “The President’s Wife,” a biting movie starring Catherine Deneuve as France’s former first lady Bernadette Chirac.
The deal closed during the European Film Market currently taking place and running alongside the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie, which marks the feature debut of director Léa Domenach, is nominated for a Cesar Award for best first film. The deal was negotiated by Robert Aaronson, executive VP of Cohen Media Group, and Charlotte Boucon, head of world sales at Orange Studio — newly acquired by Studiocanal — on behalf of Warner Bros Picture France.
The film opens in 1995, as Jacques Chirac becomes president of France. “His wife Bernadette now expects to be treated with the respect due to her lifelong work in the shadow of her husband. But mocked as too corny, she’s cast aside.
The deal closed during the European Film Market currently taking place and running alongside the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie, which marks the feature debut of director Léa Domenach, is nominated for a Cesar Award for best first film. The deal was negotiated by Robert Aaronson, executive VP of Cohen Media Group, and Charlotte Boucon, head of world sales at Orange Studio — newly acquired by Studiocanal — on behalf of Warner Bros Picture France.
The film opens in 1995, as Jacques Chirac becomes president of France. “His wife Bernadette now expects to be treated with the respect due to her lifelong work in the shadow of her husband. But mocked as too corny, she’s cast aside.
- 2/17/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The French icon is the most stylish thing about this underpowered tale of the wife of President Chirac attempting a new public image
Catherine Deneuve makes a stately but good-humoured procession through a bland, underpowered true-life political dramedy that somehow manages to be very apolitical. Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, the wife of Jacques Chirac, the former Paris mayor who became president of France from 1995 to 2007, seeing off Le Pen’s far right, but pilloried in Washington as the “cheese-eating surrender monkey” who wouldn’t support the Iraq war, and was finally mired in corruption scandals.
Deneuve portrays Bernadette as Chirac’s haughty but outspoken first lady, resplendent in Lagerfeld couture, who has long endured her husband’s endless affairs – and in fact, like the French press and public, hardly seems to notice them, a Gallic worldliness quite unlike the attitude in Britain or the United States. Yet when Princess Diana...
Catherine Deneuve makes a stately but good-humoured procession through a bland, underpowered true-life political dramedy that somehow manages to be very apolitical. Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, the wife of Jacques Chirac, the former Paris mayor who became president of France from 1995 to 2007, seeing off Le Pen’s far right, but pilloried in Washington as the “cheese-eating surrender monkey” who wouldn’t support the Iraq war, and was finally mired in corruption scandals.
Deneuve portrays Bernadette as Chirac’s haughty but outspoken first lady, resplendent in Lagerfeld couture, who has long endured her husband’s endless affairs – and in fact, like the French press and public, hardly seems to notice them, a Gallic worldliness quite unlike the attitude in Britain or the United States. Yet when Princess Diana...
- 1/3/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
There is a long-running – it may have ended; I don’t know – series of graphic novels about the Louvre museum, officially licensed by that museum. Each one is separate, a different idea from a different creator or team. It started in 2005 with Nicolas De Crecy’s Glacial Period , and I’ve seen a few more, mostly years ago: The Museum Vaults, On the Odd Hours , The Sky Over the Louvre , (There’s what may be a comprehensive list of the series on Goodreads ; I note that half or more of them have never been translated into English.)
I have a weakness for bizarre publishing projects and quirky brand extensions, so I’m going to try to find all of the books in this series that have been published in English. I’ll go in order if I can, so the next one up was An Enchantment from 2011, by creator Christian Durieux.
I have a weakness for bizarre publishing projects and quirky brand extensions, so I’m going to try to find all of the books in this series that have been published in English. I’ll go in order if I can, so the next one up was An Enchantment from 2011, by creator Christian Durieux.
- 7/6/2023
- by Andrew Wheeler
- Comicmix.com
The city of Cannes has banned protests along the Croisette and its surroundings during the Cannes Film Festival.
The labor union Cgt, which is represented by Denis Gravouil on the administration board of the Cannes Film Festival, is still preparing a large demonstration on May 21 but it will take place along Boulevard Carnot, far away from the Croisette and from the festival’s headquarters. There will also be a rally of hospitality workers, including staff from hotels, cafes and restaurants, in front of the Carlton hotel – whose famous guests this year include Martin Scorsese — on May 19, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The rally, which will likely involve protesters banging saucepans to express their anger, is technically allowed because the front of the Carlton is a private area.
The City of Cannes and regional authorities went ahead with this ban across most of Cannes to prevent civic unrest. The country...
The labor union Cgt, which is represented by Denis Gravouil on the administration board of the Cannes Film Festival, is still preparing a large demonstration on May 21 but it will take place along Boulevard Carnot, far away from the Croisette and from the festival’s headquarters. There will also be a rally of hospitality workers, including staff from hotels, cafes and restaurants, in front of the Carlton hotel – whose famous guests this year include Martin Scorsese — on May 19, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. The rally, which will likely involve protesters banging saucepans to express their anger, is technically allowed because the front of the Carlton is a private area.
The City of Cannes and regional authorities went ahead with this ban across most of Cannes to prevent civic unrest. The country...
- 5/13/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Salma Hayek is a happily married woman but it took a long road to get there.
The actress married French businessman François-Henri Pinault in 2009 on Valentine’s Day. Ahead of their anniversary, Hayek is thinking back to the “intervention” that led to their union.
“I didn’t even know I was getting married that day,” she recalled to Glamour, via People. “It was like an intervention. I don’t think I ever told this story. No, they just took me to the court. My parents, my brother, they were all ganging up on me. I had a phobia of the marriage thing.”
The two had been dating since 2006 and even welcomed a daughter together in 2007.
Still, she had to be “dragged” to the courthouse by her family to go through the ceremony.
Read More: Salma Hayek On Being Typecast: ‘Not Only Are You Not Allowed To Be Smart, But...
The actress married French businessman François-Henri Pinault in 2009 on Valentine’s Day. Ahead of their anniversary, Hayek is thinking back to the “intervention” that led to their union.
“I didn’t even know I was getting married that day,” she recalled to Glamour, via People. “It was like an intervention. I don’t think I ever told this story. No, they just took me to the court. My parents, my brother, they were all ganging up on me. I had a phobia of the marriage thing.”
The two had been dating since 2006 and even welcomed a daughter together in 2007.
Still, she had to be “dragged” to the courthouse by her family to go through the ceremony.
Read More: Salma Hayek On Being Typecast: ‘Not Only Are You Not Allowed To Be Smart, But...
- 2/9/2023
- by Anita Tai
- ET Canada
French seller will also market premiere ’Magnificat’ and ’All Because Of The Cat’.
Orange Studio will unveil exclusive first footage from Léa Domenach’s Bernadette starring Catherine Deneuve as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac and from Philippe Lefebvre’s star-powered comedy New Beginnings at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.
Set to be released via Warner Bros. France later in 2023, Bernadette has been one of the French film world’s buzziest titles in recent months since the legendary Deneuve took on the role.
The film follows a fictionalised Bernadette Chirac as she navigates stepping out of the shadows of her husband,...
Orange Studio will unveil exclusive first footage from Léa Domenach’s Bernadette starring Catherine Deneuve as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac and from Philippe Lefebvre’s star-powered comedy New Beginnings at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.
Set to be released via Warner Bros. France later in 2023, Bernadette has been one of the French film world’s buzziest titles in recent months since the legendary Deneuve took on the role.
The film follows a fictionalised Bernadette Chirac as she navigates stepping out of the shadows of her husband,...
- 1/10/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Best-known for her role as Noemie in the hit French series “Call My Agent!,” Laure Calamy has emerged in recent years as one of France’s biggest stars and most versatile actors. After a busy career in theater and many notable supporting roles, she finally got a shot at leading roles, and kudos have followed, for Caroline Vignal’s romantic comedy “My Donkey, My Lover and I,” which was part of Cannes’ Official Selection and earned her a Cesar award, and Eric Gravel’s social drama “A Plein Temps,” for which she won best actress at Venice in the Horizons section.
Calamy is now on a roll and she’s shown that she can play anything. Case in point: Over this summer, she was at Locarno to present Blandine Lenoir’s period drama “Angry Annie,” in which she plays a working mother who joins the Movement for the Liberation of...
Calamy is now on a roll and she’s shown that she can play anything. Case in point: Over this summer, she was at Locarno to present Blandine Lenoir’s period drama “Angry Annie,” in which she plays a working mother who joins the Movement for the Liberation of...
- 9/4/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
More than 50 years after she made her Venice debut as the star of Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle du Jour, Catherine Deneuve is being feted by the festival with its Golden Lion for Career Achievement.
“It feels like yesterday. It was a very important festival for me,” Deneuve told a packed press conference as she cast her mind back to her attendance in 1967.
The actress took to the stage wearing a Ukrainian flag but said she did not want to make a verbal statement about the war in Ukraine.
“I’m very aware like a lot of people and that was why I wanted to wear it for the press conference, but I don’t want to express myself because it’s worse and worse. My mind and my spirit, [is with them] every day but I don’t have any declarations to make.”
The actress said she found it hard to take stock of her career.
“It feels like yesterday. It was a very important festival for me,” Deneuve told a packed press conference as she cast her mind back to her attendance in 1967.
The actress took to the stage wearing a Ukrainian flag but said she did not want to make a verbal statement about the war in Ukraine.
“I’m very aware like a lot of people and that was why I wanted to wear it for the press conference, but I don’t want to express myself because it’s worse and worse. My mind and my spirit, [is with them] every day but I don’t have any declarations to make.”
The actress said she found it hard to take stock of her career.
- 8/31/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Catherine Deneuve has no regrets. Though the French icon has worked with everyone from Buñuel to Bjork, she doesn’t dwell on the decades she’s spent on screen. And, at 78, she’s certainly not thinking of retirement.
“I’m not at all ready to draw up a career assessment,” says Deneuve during an interview at the sleek, four-star Hotel Gabriel in Paris’ Saint-Germain des Près — her go-to place for the rare interviews she gives. “I’m very focused on the present, a little on the past and even on the near-future.”
But it’s her legacy of indelible performances that’s on the menu during the interview, which is being conducted as Deneuve prepares to be celebrated at the Venice Film Festival with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Sophisticated as ever and sporting a plunging neckline that exposes her black tulle lingerie, Deneuve feels conflicted about the honor.
“I’m not at all ready to draw up a career assessment,” says Deneuve during an interview at the sleek, four-star Hotel Gabriel in Paris’ Saint-Germain des Près — her go-to place for the rare interviews she gives. “I’m very focused on the present, a little on the past and even on the near-future.”
But it’s her legacy of indelible performances that’s on the menu during the interview, which is being conducted as Deneuve prepares to be celebrated at the Venice Film Festival with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Sophisticated as ever and sporting a plunging neckline that exposes her black tulle lingerie, Deneuve feels conflicted about the honor.
- 8/24/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
This story was originally published in Issue 747 on November 14, 1996.
A Few Times Each Year, Larry King puts everything aside and sets out for La Costa, a health spa in the hills north of San Diego. Nearly 10 years ago he had a heart attack, followed by quintuple-bypass surgery, and going to La Costa is his way of asking fate for a few more years. Each morning he takes a brisk walk around the golf course, checking his pulse along the way. Each afternoon he heads to the spa, pulls off his...
A Few Times Each Year, Larry King puts everything aside and sets out for La Costa, a health spa in the hills north of San Diego. Nearly 10 years ago he had a heart attack, followed by quintuple-bypass surgery, and going to La Costa is his way of asking fate for a few more years. Each morning he takes a brisk walk around the golf course, checking his pulse along the way. Each afternoon he heads to the spa, pulls off his...
- 1/23/2021
- by Rich Cohen
- Rollingstone.com
Kevin Ryder, who spent 30 years at Kroq-fm as one-half of the popular “Kevin & Bean” morning drive show, is launching a daily YouTube series that highlights positive stories in the news.
In his first official gig since Kroq fired him in March, Ryder will partner with Mike Catherwood to host “Great News with Kevin & Mike” starting January 4. “Great News” will be distributed as both a video series on YouTube but also as an audio podcast. The show is reunion of sorts for Ryder and Catherwood, who spent several years as a board operator on “Kevin & Bean” and regularly appeared on that show.
“I really connect with those stories that there are still good people out there, and still doing good things, and if everybody was like that, this life would be a lot better,” Ryder said. “There are endless stories. You just have to look a little bit. It’s just...
In his first official gig since Kroq fired him in March, Ryder will partner with Mike Catherwood to host “Great News with Kevin & Mike” starting January 4. “Great News” will be distributed as both a video series on YouTube but also as an audio podcast. The show is reunion of sorts for Ryder and Catherwood, who spent several years as a board operator on “Kevin & Bean” and regularly appeared on that show.
“I really connect with those stories that there are still good people out there, and still doing good things, and if everybody was like that, this life would be a lot better,” Ryder said. “There are endless stories. You just have to look a little bit. It’s just...
- 12/15/2020
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV
Mathieu Kassovitz’s celebrated story of inequality in a Paris banlieue is a timely rerelease in the Black Lives Matter era
Mathieu Kassovitz’s classic of banlieue rage has been rereleased after 25 years with a new urgency and relevance in the Black Lives Matter era. What comes across now isn’t the “hate” of the title, more the aimless, directionless comedy of three guys hanging around, bantering and squabbling about things such as which cartoon character is the most badass. It is touches like this which make you realise how very 90s it all is, similar to Tarantino and Trainspotting (with a nod to Taxi Driver’s “You talkin’ to me?” scene) but it also has a little something of the French New Wave, the world of Jacques Rivette’s Paris Belongs to Us, all of which influenced the later Americans. It’s a film about which I’ve had fluctuating views.
Mathieu Kassovitz’s classic of banlieue rage has been rereleased after 25 years with a new urgency and relevance in the Black Lives Matter era. What comes across now isn’t the “hate” of the title, more the aimless, directionless comedy of three guys hanging around, bantering and squabbling about things such as which cartoon character is the most badass. It is touches like this which make you realise how very 90s it all is, similar to Tarantino and Trainspotting (with a nod to Taxi Driver’s “You talkin’ to me?” scene) but it also has a little something of the French New Wave, the world of Jacques Rivette’s Paris Belongs to Us, all of which influenced the later Americans. It’s a film about which I’ve had fluctuating views.
- 9/11/2020
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
France has set aside $5.6b to support cultural sector in wake of pandemic.
Veteran centre-right politician Roselyne Bachelot has been announced as France’s new minister of culture, becoming the fifth person to take-up the portfolio in five years.
She arrives in the post as the country’s culture sector faces its most challenging period since World War Two due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a recent study by the French culture ministry, revenue for the entire sector has fallen by 25%, or $25bn (€22.3bn), in the wake of the pandemic and national lockdown.
Prior to the outbreak of the virus,...
Veteran centre-right politician Roselyne Bachelot has been announced as France’s new minister of culture, becoming the fifth person to take-up the portfolio in five years.
She arrives in the post as the country’s culture sector faces its most challenging period since World War Two due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a recent study by the French culture ministry, revenue for the entire sector has fallen by 25%, or $25bn (€22.3bn), in the wake of the pandemic and national lockdown.
Prior to the outbreak of the virus,...
- 7/7/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦69¦
- ScreenDaily
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Thursday’s series finale of The Good Place.
Ready to climb aboard the Purple Train to Groovy City, The Good Place fans? You’ll be able to soon enough, you marshmallow cats.
More from TVLineGood Place Finale Recap: Did Eleanor and Company 'Live' Happily Ever After?Ratings: Good Place Rises With Series Finale, Last Man Standing Eyes LowsQuotes of the Week: Good Place, Arrow, Station 19, Grammy Awards and More
NBC’s afterlife comedy capped off a four-season run on Thursday with an extra-large series finale, and series creator Michael Schur and executive producer...
Ready to climb aboard the Purple Train to Groovy City, The Good Place fans? You’ll be able to soon enough, you marshmallow cats.
More from TVLineGood Place Finale Recap: Did Eleanor and Company 'Live' Happily Ever After?Ratings: Good Place Rises With Series Finale, Last Man Standing Eyes LowsQuotes of the Week: Good Place, Arrow, Station 19, Grammy Awards and More
NBC’s afterlife comedy capped off a four-season run on Thursday with an extra-large series finale, and series creator Michael Schur and executive producer...
- 1/31/2020
- TVLine.com
Jubilant French residents poured out in force on the streets Sunday in celebration of France’s World Cup triumph, which returned the champion’s trophy to France 20 years after its 1998 win.
The French team, which beat Croatia by a score of 4-2, went into the tournament as an underdog but ramped up its game as play wore on. The unexpected nature of this World Cup victory boosted French people’s enthusiasm and fueled their emotional reaction to the outcome.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who traveled to Russia to watch the final, seemed overcome with joy. He was photographed jumping and shouting in his viewing box, which prompted comments on social media that he might expect his popularity, which has taken a hit recently, to rise, as did Jacques Chirac’s in 1998.
This amazing photo of Emmanuel Macron was the work of Alexei Nikolsky of Tass news agency. Credit where it's due – it's a superb capture.
The French team, which beat Croatia by a score of 4-2, went into the tournament as an underdog but ramped up its game as play wore on. The unexpected nature of this World Cup victory boosted French people’s enthusiasm and fueled their emotional reaction to the outcome.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who traveled to Russia to watch the final, seemed overcome with joy. He was photographed jumping and shouting in his viewing box, which prompted comments on social media that he might expect his popularity, which has taken a hit recently, to rise, as did Jacques Chirac’s in 1998.
This amazing photo of Emmanuel Macron was the work of Alexei Nikolsky of Tass news agency. Credit where it's due – it's a superb capture.
- 7/15/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Princess Diana’s tragic death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997 shocked the world. It would become one of the biggest news events of the 20th century – and the only time People has ever featured a photo-only cover with no headline. Here is that cover story in its entirety.
To her ex-husband, Prince Charles – as well as the rest of the world – the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was an unimaginable shock. On Sept. 1, the day after Diana, 36, and her companion Dodi Al Fayed, 42, died in a cataclysmic car crash in Paris, the distraught Charles walked the hills surrounding Balmoral,...
To her ex-husband, Prince Charles – as well as the rest of the world – the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was an unimaginable shock. On Sept. 1, the day after Diana, 36, and her companion Dodi Al Fayed, 42, died in a cataclysmic car crash in Paris, the distraught Charles walked the hills surrounding Balmoral,...
- 8/31/2017
- by People Staff
- PEOPLE.com
Author: Competitions
To mark the release of Scribe on 21st July, we’ve been given a bundle of French thrillers and TV series to give away. The bundle includes The Bureau Season 1, The Bureau Season 2, State Affairs, Braquo season 1, Jo Season one, Love Crime, and Witnesses season 1
From first time feature director Thomas Kruithof, Scribe stars François Cluzet (Untouchable, Tell No One, Little White Lies) as the middle aged and financially struggling man who is looking for work two years after suffering a burn-out. He gets hired by a mysterious employer to transcribe phone tapped conversations, which propels him into the heart of a large-scale political plot and gets him trapped in the French secret services underworld.
A paranoid thriller in the spirit of ’70s pics such as Marathon Man and The Conversation, Scribe was originally inspired by the 1983-1984 Lebanon hostage crisis, in which three French people were kidnapped...
To mark the release of Scribe on 21st July, we’ve been given a bundle of French thrillers and TV series to give away. The bundle includes The Bureau Season 1, The Bureau Season 2, State Affairs, Braquo season 1, Jo Season one, Love Crime, and Witnesses season 1
From first time feature director Thomas Kruithof, Scribe stars François Cluzet (Untouchable, Tell No One, Little White Lies) as the middle aged and financially struggling man who is looking for work two years after suffering a burn-out. He gets hired by a mysterious employer to transcribe phone tapped conversations, which propels him into the heart of a large-scale political plot and gets him trapped in the French secret services underworld.
A paranoid thriller in the spirit of ’70s pics such as Marathon Man and The Conversation, Scribe was originally inspired by the 1983-1984 Lebanon hostage crisis, in which three French people were kidnapped...
- 7/19/2017
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Princess Diana's tragic death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997 shocked the world. It would become one of the biggest news events of the 20th century - and the only time People has ever featured a photo-only cover with no headline. Here is that cover story in its entirety.To her ex-husband, Prince Charles - as well as the rest of the world - the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, was an unimaginable shock. On Sept. 1, the day after Diana, 36, and her companion Dodi Al Fayed, 42, died in a cataclysmic car crash in Paris, the distraught Charles walked the hills surrounding Balmoral,...
- 8/31/2016
- by PEOPLE Staff
- PEOPLE.com
French-Algerian filmmaker and producer Rachid Bouchareb, who is being honoured with a career achievement award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, talked extensively about his career at a special ‘in conversation’ event.
Born to Algerian parents who moved to Paris just after the Second World War, twice Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb recounted how he was originally destined to work in manufacturing like his father.
“I was sitting at work one day when I decided to call the offices of a local broadcaster. I got through to a receptionist who I asked ‘how do people get into cinema’. She had more important things to do than talk to me but she gave me some names of schools nonetheless,” said Bouchareb, who would go onto make his first feature Bâton Rouge in 1985 with the support of the late producer Humbert Balsan.
The director, whose best known credits include Oscar-nominated Days of Glory and Outside the Law as well as...
Born to Algerian parents who moved to Paris just after the Second World War, twice Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb recounted how he was originally destined to work in manufacturing like his father.
“I was sitting at work one day when I decided to call the offices of a local broadcaster. I got through to a receptionist who I asked ‘how do people get into cinema’. She had more important things to do than talk to me but she gave me some names of schools nonetheless,” said Bouchareb, who would go onto make his first feature Bâton Rouge in 1985 with the support of the late producer Humbert Balsan.
The director, whose best known credits include Oscar-nominated Days of Glory and Outside the Law as well as...
- 10/25/2014
- ScreenDaily
French-Algerian filmmaker and producer Rachid Bouchareb, who is being honoured with a career achievement award at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, talked extensively about his career at a special ‘in conversation’ event.
Born to Algerian parents who moved to Paris just after the Second World War, twice Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb recounted how he was originally destined to work in manufacturing like his father.
“I was sitting at work one day when I decided to call the offices of a local broadcaster. I got through to a receptionist who I asked ‘how do people get into cinema’. She had more important things to do than talk to me but she gave me some names of schools nonetheless,” said Bouchareb, who would go onto make his first feature Bâton Rouge in 1985 with the support of the late producer Humbert Balsan.
The director, whose best known credits include Oscar-nominated Days of Glory and Outside the Law as well as...
Born to Algerian parents who moved to Paris just after the Second World War, twice Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rachid Bouchareb recounted how he was originally destined to work in manufacturing like his father.
“I was sitting at work one day when I decided to call the offices of a local broadcaster. I got through to a receptionist who I asked ‘how do people get into cinema’. She had more important things to do than talk to me but she gave me some names of schools nonetheless,” said Bouchareb, who would go onto make his first feature Bâton Rouge in 1985 with the support of the late producer Humbert Balsan.
The director, whose best known credits include Oscar-nominated Days of Glory and Outside the Law as well as...
- 10/25/2014
- ScreenDaily
Mathieu Kassowitz, as star and director, is front and centre of this account of an unfortunate 1980s French colonial intervention
As director and star, Mathieu Kassovitz applies a grim determination to this gritty true story of a catastrophic military adventure: he takes the movie at what the Sas might call "yomping" pace, and awards himself plenty of closeups looking concerned.
In 1988, France tumbled back into the type of colonial nightmare some remembered in south-east Asia in the 1950s: a horrendously misjudged and disproportionate attempt to reassert control over its tiny island territory New Caledonia in the south-west Pacific. Thirty policemen had been kidnapped by indigenous Kanak separatists, and 300 special forces operatives were flown out from the motherland and sent into the jungle to get the hostages out. Prime minister Jacques Chirac, facing an election battle, needed a clear, patriotic result and was reportedly none too fastidious about how to get it.
As director and star, Mathieu Kassovitz applies a grim determination to this gritty true story of a catastrophic military adventure: he takes the movie at what the Sas might call "yomping" pace, and awards himself plenty of closeups looking concerned.
In 1988, France tumbled back into the type of colonial nightmare some remembered in south-east Asia in the 1950s: a horrendously misjudged and disproportionate attempt to reassert control over its tiny island territory New Caledonia in the south-west Pacific. Thirty policemen had been kidnapped by indigenous Kanak separatists, and 300 special forces operatives were flown out from the motherland and sent into the jungle to get the hostages out. Prime minister Jacques Chirac, facing an election battle, needed a clear, patriotic result and was reportedly none too fastidious about how to get it.
- 4/18/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Even if the exodus is phoney, it does not look good. It speaks of a rudderless government and an indecisive president
Gérard Depardieu has become Vladimir Putin's latest recruit. Jean Michel Jarre is cosying up to Downing Street. Brigitte Bardot is about to don her sapogi over the treatment accorded to Baby and Nepal, which happen to be two elephants. She should first have a look at what passes for animal welfare in Russian zoos. It matters not that the totemic measure of François Hollande's election campaign, the 75% tax on millionaires, has already been struck down by a court – the rich and famous appear to be heading for the door anyway. It is still appearance, rather than reality – the numbers leaving for Belgium doubled, from 63 in 2011 to 126 last year, but at that rate it would take a long time to add a significant number to the 200,000 French residents...
Gérard Depardieu has become Vladimir Putin's latest recruit. Jean Michel Jarre is cosying up to Downing Street. Brigitte Bardot is about to don her sapogi over the treatment accorded to Baby and Nepal, which happen to be two elephants. She should first have a look at what passes for animal welfare in Russian zoos. It matters not that the totemic measure of François Hollande's election campaign, the 75% tax on millionaires, has already been struck down by a court – the rich and famous appear to be heading for the door anyway. It is still appearance, rather than reality – the numbers leaving for Belgium doubled, from 63 in 2011 to 126 last year, but at that rate it would take a long time to add a significant number to the 200,000 French residents...
- 1/8/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
The Roundup (La Rafle)
by Rose Bosch (Isa: Legende). U.S. Menemsha. France: Gaumont, TF1, Canal +, France Television
Until the 1990s when then-Prime Minister Jacques Chirac officially accepted the idea of French complicity for the Vichy regime of France, all Frenchmen seem to have claimed to have been part of DeGaulle’s Resistance Movement. Recently, the new Prime Minister Hollande apologized again for France’s role in rounding up the Jews, especially 13,000 in Paris who were herded into the Vel’ Hive (The Winter Velodrome). Because of the acknowledgement, filmmaker and former journalist Rose Bosch could raise private equity to make the feature The Roundup (La Rafle) on the same subject. With a 47% increase in Anti-Semitism in France, when the film aired on TV, Twitter was inundated with Anti-Semitic remarks and jokes which is frightening today to those whose ideals remain on the side of democratic multi-culturalism.
No Place On Earth (The Cave)
by Emmy Award winning director Janet Tobias (Isa: Global Screen GMBh). U.S. contact Submarine
The longest recorded underground survival story in human history was 511 days. This record was set when 5 Jewish families in the Ukraine who descended into a pitch black cave to escape the Nazis.
The Third Half
by Darko Mitrevski, Macedonia's submission for Oscar Nomination for est Foreign Language Film (Isa: The Little Film Co.).
Determined to build the best football club in the country, Dimitry hires the German coach, Rudolph Spitz, to galvanize his rag tag team but when the first Nazi tanks roll through the city in 1939. When Rebecca, the beautiful Jewish daughter of a local banker, elopes with his star player, all Dimitry’s plans must change. The Third Half was born twelve years ago, while the director Darko Metrevski was digging up forgotten stories for a historical TV series. "I remember that, while I was seeking witnesses of various historic periods, someone mentioned the old Mrs. Neta Koen, recently interviewed by the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Soon I found myself in her apartment listening to her stories: She was one of the few Holocaust survivors in Macedonia, a country in which 98% of the Jewish population was brutally wiped out during the WW2. I remember I couldn’t resist asking: “Pardon my curiosity, but how did you survive?” She answered with equal sincerity: “Well, I eloped with a poor football player, and my family renounced me, so my name was not on the lists for deportation. My forbidden love saved my life and the continuity of my family tree as well.” And of course, as in every big, important, monumental event – there is a woman behind all of that.
"Finally, it is a story of my grandfather Vlastimir, a soccer referee and a Holocaust survivor whose written remembrances were the first horrible experience of my childhood.This movie is dedicated to the loving memory of my father, who taught me that creating art is like playing sports – one should never give up as long as his feet stand on the pitch."
Upcoming: Sylvain Bursztejn of Sequoia Films in Paris is now shooting The Last Man in Cologne directed by Pierre-Henry Salfati.
by Rose Bosch (Isa: Legende). U.S. Menemsha. France: Gaumont, TF1, Canal +, France Television
Until the 1990s when then-Prime Minister Jacques Chirac officially accepted the idea of French complicity for the Vichy regime of France, all Frenchmen seem to have claimed to have been part of DeGaulle’s Resistance Movement. Recently, the new Prime Minister Hollande apologized again for France’s role in rounding up the Jews, especially 13,000 in Paris who were herded into the Vel’ Hive (The Winter Velodrome). Because of the acknowledgement, filmmaker and former journalist Rose Bosch could raise private equity to make the feature The Roundup (La Rafle) on the same subject. With a 47% increase in Anti-Semitism in France, when the film aired on TV, Twitter was inundated with Anti-Semitic remarks and jokes which is frightening today to those whose ideals remain on the side of democratic multi-culturalism.
No Place On Earth (The Cave)
by Emmy Award winning director Janet Tobias (Isa: Global Screen GMBh). U.S. contact Submarine
The longest recorded underground survival story in human history was 511 days. This record was set when 5 Jewish families in the Ukraine who descended into a pitch black cave to escape the Nazis.
The Third Half
by Darko Mitrevski, Macedonia's submission for Oscar Nomination for est Foreign Language Film (Isa: The Little Film Co.).
Determined to build the best football club in the country, Dimitry hires the German coach, Rudolph Spitz, to galvanize his rag tag team but when the first Nazi tanks roll through the city in 1939. When Rebecca, the beautiful Jewish daughter of a local banker, elopes with his star player, all Dimitry’s plans must change. The Third Half was born twelve years ago, while the director Darko Metrevski was digging up forgotten stories for a historical TV series. "I remember that, while I was seeking witnesses of various historic periods, someone mentioned the old Mrs. Neta Koen, recently interviewed by the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Soon I found myself in her apartment listening to her stories: She was one of the few Holocaust survivors in Macedonia, a country in which 98% of the Jewish population was brutally wiped out during the WW2. I remember I couldn’t resist asking: “Pardon my curiosity, but how did you survive?” She answered with equal sincerity: “Well, I eloped with a poor football player, and my family renounced me, so my name was not on the lists for deportation. My forbidden love saved my life and the continuity of my family tree as well.” And of course, as in every big, important, monumental event – there is a woman behind all of that.
"Finally, it is a story of my grandfather Vlastimir, a soccer referee and a Holocaust survivor whose written remembrances were the first horrible experience of my childhood.This movie is dedicated to the loving memory of my father, who taught me that creating art is like playing sports – one should never give up as long as his feet stand on the pitch."
Upcoming: Sylvain Bursztejn of Sequoia Films in Paris is now shooting The Last Man in Cologne directed by Pierre-Henry Salfati.
- 11/9/2012
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Canine star of Oscar-winning film The Artist does publicity round for book, including lunch at famous Brasserie Lipp
It was Uggie's first time in Paris and he had places to go, people to see.
Thus after a book "signing" for the television cameras, a barking interview with a couple of French newspapers, and a quick photo call on the Champs Elysées with the Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop, Uggie hopped into a taxi.
The celebrated Jack Russell, widely considered the real star of the Oscar-winning black-and-white silent film The Artist – move over Jean Dujardin – had a full day of engagements to promote his memoirs, Uggie: My Story.
Or so his people led us to believe. In fact, Uggie was off for his first Gallic gastronomic experience and like a true star was giving the press and cameras the runaround.
Where else was a VIP pooch to dine...
It was Uggie's first time in Paris and he had places to go, people to see.
Thus after a book "signing" for the television cameras, a barking interview with a couple of French newspapers, and a quick photo call on the Champs Elysées with the Arc de Triomphe as a backdrop, Uggie hopped into a taxi.
The celebrated Jack Russell, widely considered the real star of the Oscar-winning black-and-white silent film The Artist – move over Jean Dujardin – had a full day of engagements to promote his memoirs, Uggie: My Story.
Or so his people led us to believe. In fact, Uggie was off for his first Gallic gastronomic experience and like a true star was giving the press and cameras the runaround.
Where else was a VIP pooch to dine...
- 10/24/2012
- by Kim Willsher
- The Guardian - Film News
DVD Release Date: April 10, 2012
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Music Box
Denis Podalydès (l.) mimics president of France Nicolas Sarkozy in The Conquest.
The 2011 movie biography The Conquest chronicles the rise to power of Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France.
The film kicks off in early 2002, when up-and-coming politico Sarkozy (Denis Podalydes, The Da Vinci Code) first begins laying the groundwork for his presidential campaign. making his move on the presidency. Currying favor with his predecessor Jacques Chirac (Bernard Le Coq, The High Life) and sparring gamely with his glib rival Dominique de Villepin (Samuel Labarthe, Strayed), Sarkozy is depicted as a bold and unashamed virtuoso of political combat. It’s Sarkozy’s inattention to his disintegrating domestic partnership that results in his second wife, Cécilia (Florence Pernel, Blue), leaving him for good on the day he is elected president of France in 2007.
Written and directed for maximum dramatic and satiric punch by Xavier Durringer,...
Price: DVD $29.95
Studio: Music Box
Denis Podalydès (l.) mimics president of France Nicolas Sarkozy in The Conquest.
The 2011 movie biography The Conquest chronicles the rise to power of Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France.
The film kicks off in early 2002, when up-and-coming politico Sarkozy (Denis Podalydes, The Da Vinci Code) first begins laying the groundwork for his presidential campaign. making his move on the presidency. Currying favor with his predecessor Jacques Chirac (Bernard Le Coq, The High Life) and sparring gamely with his glib rival Dominique de Villepin (Samuel Labarthe, Strayed), Sarkozy is depicted as a bold and unashamed virtuoso of political combat. It’s Sarkozy’s inattention to his disintegrating domestic partnership that results in his second wife, Cécilia (Florence Pernel, Blue), leaving him for good on the day he is elected president of France in 2007.
Written and directed for maximum dramatic and satiric punch by Xavier Durringer,...
- 3/8/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Barbara Snitzer is a Movie Snob and proud of it. At her movie blog Le Movie Snob, Barbara embraces the term “snob” and explains that her use of the word is “not meant to intimidate, but rather an effort to reclaim the word from the pretentious”. Barbara does not like mainstream Hollywood blockbusters. She does not like horror films. What she likes is French Cinema so that is what she writes about so, as she puts it: “We’re all snobs; we all like what we like”. Barbara has lived in France and speaks (and teaches) the language, so has an insight into French film that most Americans do not. We asked Barbara to guest review The Conquest, a new film about French politics that opens in St. Louis today and hope she’ll come back and review more French films for We Are Movie Geeks in the future. Read...
- 2/24/2012
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
There hasn't been much buzz about Marthe Keller's induction into France's Legion of Honor. Or the induction of actresses Dominique Blanc and Anny Duperey. The selection of fellow 2012 Chevalier inductee Salma Hayek, however, has been a whole different matter. In early 2003, the Mexican-born Hayek, 45, was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her performance as Frida Kahlo in Julie Taymor's Frida. Her other film credits include Desperado, From Dusk Til Dawn, After the Sunset, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and the animated hit Puss in Boots. She is now reportedly working on a biopic of Mexican superstar Maria Félix. But are Puss in Boots and an Oscar nod enough qualification for Legion of Honor "membership"? Hayek's inclusion in this year's Legion of Honor roster (as a Chevalier, or Knight) has been criticized by some who have accused French president Nicolas Sarkozy of using the ceremony...
- 1/4/2012
- by Anna Robinson
- Alt Film Guide
Just yesterday, we got word from Deadline's Nancy Tartaglione that Sienna Miller and Toby Jones would be playing Tippi Hedren and Alfred Hitchcock in the BBC-hbo co-production, The Girl. Later that same day, the Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit broke the news that, after four years in development, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho "is in the process of being set up at Fox Searchlight. Anthony Hopkins, who is attached to play Hitchcock, and Sacha Gervasi (Anvil! The Story of Anvil), who is directing, are making the move and are being joined by Helen Mirren, who will play the filmmaker's wife, Alma Reville."
The Playlist's Kevin Jagernauth: "The subject matter is great stuff for movie buffs. Psycho was a project that Paramount hated. Hitchcock was originally going to direct No Bail for the Judge with Audrey Hepburn but had to scrap those plans when the actress became pregnant. So he moved on to Psycho,...
The Playlist's Kevin Jagernauth: "The subject matter is great stuff for movie buffs. Psycho was a project that Paramount hated. Hitchcock was originally going to direct No Bail for the Judge with Audrey Hepburn but had to scrap those plans when the actress became pregnant. So he moved on to Psycho,...
- 12/8/2011
- MUBI
The luminous star of 8½ and The Leopard, Claudia Cardinale lit up the screen in the 1960s. She talks to Steve Rose about life as a muse, her 'man's voice' – and never going naked
Being in London is making Claudia Cardinale nostalgic. The Italian actor remembers shooting one of her first films here, in 1959: Upstairs and Downstairs, a forgotten domestic comedy. She met the Queen at the premiere of West Side Story in Leicester Square in 1962, and looked the more regal of the two. She came here to see one of Marlene Dietrich's last concerts, in 1973, with her friend and regular director Luchino Visconti. "In his room he kept a signed photo of Marlene Dietrich, in her costume. Fantastic!"
This time, she's here for the London Turkish film festival, which opened last month with a new film starring herself; but on a quiet afternoon in a Mayfair hotel, the...
Being in London is making Claudia Cardinale nostalgic. The Italian actor remembers shooting one of her first films here, in 1959: Upstairs and Downstairs, a forgotten domestic comedy. She met the Queen at the premiere of West Side Story in Leicester Square in 1962, and looked the more regal of the two. She came here to see one of Marlene Dietrich's last concerts, in 1973, with her friend and regular director Luchino Visconti. "In his room he kept a signed photo of Marlene Dietrich, in her costume. Fantastic!"
This time, she's here for the London Turkish film festival, which opened last month with a new film starring herself; but on a quiet afternoon in a Mayfair hotel, the...
- 12/8/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
What kind of gift do you get for the most instantly celebrated Frenchwoman since Joan of Arc? A week after her birth, European newspapers are feverishly reporting on the presents being sent to Giulia Bruni-Sarkozy and her parents, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Many papers illustrated a story about the euro talks in Brussels with a photo of German chancellor Angela Merkel presenting the proud father with a Steiff Schlaf-Gut-Bar - an 11-in.-tall "Sleep-Well-Bear" who wears a distinctive striped blue onesie and comes from the fabled German firm's baby collection. Meanwhile, English news outlets proudly reported that...
- 10/27/2011
- by Peter Mikelbank
- PEOPLE.com
France's deportation of 13,000 Jews, once a taboo, is at last being properly remembered
Paris, July 1942: a thud on an apartment door. It's the French police, come to take away a Jewish family. To try to save her four-year-old brother, Thomas, 10-year-old Sarah locks him in a closet and takes the key with her. In Sarah's Key, a searing film out this weekend, Kristin Scott Thomas plays Julia, a present-day American journalist investigating the family's fate. It's the second feature within a year to tackle the "rafle", the round-up of Jews on 16-17 July 1942 in Paris. What took France so long?
The events are beyond dispute: 13,000 Jews were herded into the indoor cycle track, the Vélodrome d'Hiver. There they were kept for five nights without food or medicine. Of the 10 toilets, five were sealed and most of the rest blocked. There was one tap. From the "Vel" they were taken to the Drancy,...
Paris, July 1942: a thud on an apartment door. It's the French police, come to take away a Jewish family. To try to save her four-year-old brother, Thomas, 10-year-old Sarah locks him in a closet and takes the key with her. In Sarah's Key, a searing film out this weekend, Kristin Scott Thomas plays Julia, a present-day American journalist investigating the family's fate. It's the second feature within a year to tackle the "rafle", the round-up of Jews on 16-17 July 1942 in Paris. What took France so long?
The events are beyond dispute: 13,000 Jews were herded into the indoor cycle track, the Vélodrome d'Hiver. There they were kept for five nights without food or medicine. Of the 10 toilets, five were sealed and most of the rest blocked. There was one tap. From the "Vel" they were taken to the Drancy,...
- 8/7/2011
- by Anne Karpf
- The Guardian - Film News
Chicago – For every instance of “monumental” history, there are a series of events surrounding it that gets swept under the rug, but have the same bearing as the bigger occurrence. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner tells one of those background stories in “Sarah’s Key,” a sorrowful piece of French history during World War II.
The centerpiece in the film is the Vel´d’Hiv incident, a round-up of Jewish people in Paris during the Nazi occupation there. The Vel´d’Hiv was a sports stadium, and French officials put the captured Jews into the arena without sufficient food, water and facilities. One character likened it to the New Orleans Superdome during the Katrina Hurricane crisis, but “a million times” worse.
French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner adapted Sarah’s Key from a popular novel that uses the Vel´d’Hiv as a launching point for the tortured story of Sarah Starzynski, who at...
The centerpiece in the film is the Vel´d’Hiv incident, a round-up of Jewish people in Paris during the Nazi occupation there. The Vel´d’Hiv was a sports stadium, and French officials put the captured Jews into the arena without sufficient food, water and facilities. One character likened it to the New Orleans Superdome during the Katrina Hurricane crisis, but “a million times” worse.
French director Gilles Paquet-Brenner adapted Sarah’s Key from a popular novel that uses the Vel´d’Hiv as a launching point for the tortured story of Sarah Starzynski, who at...
- 7/28/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Getty Tatiana de Rosnay and actress Charlotte Poutrel
Tatiana de Rosnay was an established journalist and author of several French novels when she decided, 10 years ago, to write a book in English about the 1942 Vélodrome d’Hiver roundup, in which the French police arrested 10,000 Parisian Jews, including 4,000 children, and detained them for days under horrifying conditions before deporting them to Auschwitz. After struggling for three years to get the book published, “Sarah’s Key” went on to sell 5 million copies in 38 countries.
Tatiana de Rosnay was an established journalist and author of several French novels when she decided, 10 years ago, to write a book in English about the 1942 Vélodrome d’Hiver roundup, in which the French police arrested 10,000 Parisian Jews, including 4,000 children, and detained them for days under horrifying conditions before deporting them to Auschwitz. After struggling for three years to get the book published, “Sarah’s Key” went on to sell 5 million copies in 38 countries.
- 7/15/2011
- by Rachel Dodes
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
French journalist Nina Sutton grew up in a country and time when women were routinely fondled. That history may help explain why France is still reluctant to condemn Dominique Strauss-Kahn, she writes.
When I first joined Le Matin in 1977, the editor in chief was in the habit of appearing suddenly behind a female journalist and grabbing her breasts with both hands while making some lewd comment or depositing a kiss on her neck. It was exasperating, it was humiliating but, I am ashamed to admit it today, it was also somewhat flattering.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
He was in his 40s, tall, and good-looking. To be thus targeted by his lustful eye and hands was a kind of a distinction, however distasteful the gesture was. And most of us felt compelled to find a witty repartee while trying to wriggle out of his clutches.
When I first joined Le Matin in 1977, the editor in chief was in the habit of appearing suddenly behind a female journalist and grabbing her breasts with both hands while making some lewd comment or depositing a kiss on her neck. It was exasperating, it was humiliating but, I am ashamed to admit it today, it was also somewhat flattering.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
He was in his 40s, tall, and good-looking. To be thus targeted by his lustful eye and hands was a kind of a distinction, however distasteful the gesture was. And most of us felt compelled to find a witty repartee while trying to wriggle out of his clutches.
- 5/25/2011
- by Nina Sutton
- The Daily Beast
Updated through 5/19.
Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which opened the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, already has its own entry, of course (and it's still being updated, too), but it's here that I'll collect all that's notably linkable related to the films in the Official Selection yet screening Out of Competition (excluding Special Screenings, which'll have their own upcoming roundup). We already have plenty on Jodie Foster's The Beaver here; and I'm sure Christophe Honoré's Beloved will warrant an entry of its own when it closes the Festival on May 22.
"Bursting with light and color, and a torrent of martial arts action both swift and savage (arguably the best that lead actor Donnie Yen has choreographed for years), Wu Xia is coherently developed and stylishly directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan to provide unashamedly pleasurable popular entertainment," writes Maggie Lee in the Hollywood Reporter, where Karen Chu interviews Chan.
Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, which opened the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, already has its own entry, of course (and it's still being updated, too), but it's here that I'll collect all that's notably linkable related to the films in the Official Selection yet screening Out of Competition (excluding Special Screenings, which'll have their own upcoming roundup). We already have plenty on Jodie Foster's The Beaver here; and I'm sure Christophe Honoré's Beloved will warrant an entry of its own when it closes the Festival on May 22.
"Bursting with light and color, and a torrent of martial arts action both swift and savage (arguably the best that lead actor Donnie Yen has choreographed for years), Wu Xia is coherently developed and stylishly directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan to provide unashamedly pleasurable popular entertainment," writes Maggie Lee in the Hollywood Reporter, where Karen Chu interviews Chan.
- 5/19/2011
- MUBI
What should have been a daring portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power falls flat like a cold soufflé
Heralded as the French answer to Stephen Frears's The Queen, a daring portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power, La Conquête (The Conquest) promised to shake up French cinema, no less. Teams of lawyers had to read the script for fear of legal retaliation. How audacious, how brave was the team behind the film, director-writer Xavier Durringer and the producers, the Altmeyer brothers.
La Conquête promised all but delivers little, and sadly falls flat like a cold soufflé. First of all, we don't learn anything new. No new insight, no daring hypothesis, no cunning analysis on the kind of political animal Nicolas Sarkozy is. Performances by Denis Podalydès, interpreting Sarkozy, and Bernard Le Coq, playing Chirac, may be tremendous, with all the right mimics, tics, grimaces and more importantly the perfect voice intonations,...
Heralded as the French answer to Stephen Frears's The Queen, a daring portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power, La Conquête (The Conquest) promised to shake up French cinema, no less. Teams of lawyers had to read the script for fear of legal retaliation. How audacious, how brave was the team behind the film, director-writer Xavier Durringer and the producers, the Altmeyer brothers.
La Conquête promised all but delivers little, and sadly falls flat like a cold soufflé. First of all, we don't learn anything new. No new insight, no daring hypothesis, no cunning analysis on the kind of political animal Nicolas Sarkozy is. Performances by Denis Podalydès, interpreting Sarkozy, and Bernard Le Coq, playing Chirac, may be tremendous, with all the right mimics, tics, grimaces and more importantly the perfect voice intonations,...
- 5/18/2011
- by Agnès Poirier
- The Guardian - Film News
Getty French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Call it bad timing. As the evolving Dominique Strauss-Kahn Affair continues to eclipse Cannes Festival prime-time coverage on the French nightly news, the long-awaited biopic on President Nicolas Sarkozy, by French director Xavier Durringer was met with amused chuckles but tepid applause at this morning’s world-premiere screening.
Hyped as the first biopic ever shown while a President is serving office, actor Denis Podalydes is remarkably convincing mimic of Sarko’s unstoppable Duracell rabbit image,...
Call it bad timing. As the evolving Dominique Strauss-Kahn Affair continues to eclipse Cannes Festival prime-time coverage on the French nightly news, the long-awaited biopic on President Nicolas Sarkozy, by French director Xavier Durringer was met with amused chuckles but tepid applause at this morning’s world-premiere screening.
Hyped as the first biopic ever shown while a President is serving office, actor Denis Podalydes is remarkably convincing mimic of Sarko’s unstoppable Duracell rabbit image,...
- 5/18/2011
- by Lanie Goodman
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
Are you ready for some new images? I know you like to watch some nice pics while drinking your coffee and reading our reports, so here we are!
This time, Cannes again, and a fresh poster from the upcoming Xavier Durringer‘s project titled The Conquest, a movie that will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, Out of Competition. That’s exactly the same day of its release in French theaters.
As you already know, The Conquest focuses on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power, telling in flashback, the story of his rise to power, kicking off in 2002 when Jacques Chirac wouldn’t appoint him as prime minister.
Delving into both his personal and political life, the film has drawn comparisons to ‘The Queen’ and ‘The West Wing’ and should be a juicy bit of drama. The project is written by Patrick Rotman, man best known...
This time, Cannes again, and a fresh poster from the upcoming Xavier Durringer‘s project titled The Conquest, a movie that will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 18, Out of Competition. That’s exactly the same day of its release in French theaters.
As you already know, The Conquest focuses on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power, telling in flashback, the story of his rise to power, kicking off in 2002 when Jacques Chirac wouldn’t appoint him as prime minister.
Delving into both his personal and political life, the film has drawn comparisons to ‘The Queen’ and ‘The West Wing’ and should be a juicy bit of drama. The project is written by Patrick Rotman, man best known...
- 4/27/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
I can not believe that I actually have to write about Nicolas Sarkozy, but, as you see, everything is possible nowadays. That’s why it’s no surprise that even French President Sarkozy has been submitted for consideration for the Cannes Film Festival. Or, should I say – a biopic about him? Whatever… I mean, don’t get me wrong, but I’m already bored… If you’re not – check the rest of this report for more details about the whole thing and for the trailer as well.
The Conquest (that’s the title, by the way) is directed by Xavier Durringer and written by Patrick Rotman (man best known as a director of documentaries on Francois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac, which actually means he’s quite familiar with all that political garbage).
It focuses on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power, telling in flashback, the story of his rise to power,...
The Conquest (that’s the title, by the way) is directed by Xavier Durringer and written by Patrick Rotman (man best known as a director of documentaries on Francois Mitterand and Jacques Chirac, which actually means he’s quite familiar with all that political garbage).
It focuses on French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power, telling in flashback, the story of his rise to power,...
- 4/3/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Irish court rules Ian Bailey should be handed over to French authorities for questioning over film-maker's death 14 years ago
Ireland's high court has cleared the way for the extradition of an English journalist to France over the murder of a French film-maker more than 14 years ago.
Ian Bailey is wanted by French authorities in relation to the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who was beaten to death in Cork in December 1996. Bailey, 53, of Schull, County Cork, was arrested during the initial police investigation but was never charged and has denied any involvement in the killing.
Toscan du Plantier, 39, was found with severe injuries outside her holiday home at Toormore, near Schull, two days before Christmas 1996.The savage nature of the killing shocked the quiet French expatriate community of west Cork where the well-connected film-maker, whose late husband was a friend of the former French president Jacques Chirac, had chosen to live.
Ireland's high court has cleared the way for the extradition of an English journalist to France over the murder of a French film-maker more than 14 years ago.
Ian Bailey is wanted by French authorities in relation to the killing of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, who was beaten to death in Cork in December 1996. Bailey, 53, of Schull, County Cork, was arrested during the initial police investigation but was never charged and has denied any involvement in the killing.
Toscan du Plantier, 39, was found with severe injuries outside her holiday home at Toormore, near Schull, two days before Christmas 1996.The savage nature of the killing shocked the quiet French expatriate community of west Cork where the well-connected film-maker, whose late husband was a friend of the former French president Jacques Chirac, had chosen to live.
- 3/19/2011
- by Henry McDonald
- The Guardian - Film News
Who says Oliver Stone is the only one who can make a biopic of a political leader still in office? Directed by Xavier Durringer, "The Conquest" focuses on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power telling in flashback, his "journey, starting in 2002, when then-president Jacques Chirac told him he wouldn't appoint him prime minister, and how Sarkozy went on to win power but lost his marriage." The film is described as "a character-driven political thriller" with comparison being made to "The Queen" and "The West Wing." The cast is largely unknown on this side of the pond, but Denis…...
- 1/13/2011
- The Playlist
We asked last week what we should look for among the leaked Us embassy cables. Following last night's story on the Madeleine McCann investigation, here is a further instalment of user-suggested research – on the 2012 Olympics, Roman Polanski and the Dutch far right
• @AuMoulinVert asked for Olympics 2012
French presidential hopeful, Ségolène Royal, told Us diplomats French arrogance was partly to blame for Paris's lost bid to host the 2012 Olympic games. The games were awarded to London after a closely contested vote that saw both Tony Blair then French president Jacques Chirac fly to Singapore in July 2005 to make their case to delegates.
A confidential cable dated 17 February 2006 from the Us ambassador to Paris concerning a recent meeting with Royal said she had suggested, he wrote, a need "to find France's place in the world" with the French government showing less arrogance in how it speaks to the world. The latter factor,...
• @AuMoulinVert asked for Olympics 2012
French presidential hopeful, Ségolène Royal, told Us diplomats French arrogance was partly to blame for Paris's lost bid to host the 2012 Olympic games. The games were awarded to London after a closely contested vote that saw both Tony Blair then French president Jacques Chirac fly to Singapore in July 2005 to make their case to delegates.
A confidential cable dated 17 February 2006 from the Us ambassador to Paris concerning a recent meeting with Royal said she had suggested, he wrote, a need "to find France's place in the world" with the French government showing less arrogance in how it speaks to the world. The latter factor,...
- 12/15/2010
- by Simon Jeffery, Ben Quinn, Patrick Kingsley, Jason Rodrigues
- The Guardian - Film News
Richard Holbrooke pushed harder and cared more than other American foreign-policy players. Peter Beinart on Holbrooke's special blend of superpower swagger and moral passion.
There will probably never be another American diplomat like Richard Holbrooke. The reason is partly personal. Most diplomats are careful, reserved, discreet... diplomatic. Holbrooke was the opposite. He didn't merely court reporters; he stalked them. And when they didn't write enough about him, he wrote about himself. He did not do subtle. When he bore down on people, he had about as much respect for personal space as Lyndon Johnson in a men's room. As Democratic doyenne Pamela Harriman once put it, "he's not entirely housebroken."
Related story on The Daily Beast: An American in Full
In all these ways, Holbrooke was part of the sociology of 20th-century American Jewry. He entered the Foreign Service in the 1960s, when it was still something of a Wasp club.
There will probably never be another American diplomat like Richard Holbrooke. The reason is partly personal. Most diplomats are careful, reserved, discreet... diplomatic. Holbrooke was the opposite. He didn't merely court reporters; he stalked them. And when they didn't write enough about him, he wrote about himself. He did not do subtle. When he bore down on people, he had about as much respect for personal space as Lyndon Johnson in a men's room. As Democratic doyenne Pamela Harriman once put it, "he's not entirely housebroken."
Related story on The Daily Beast: An American in Full
In all these ways, Holbrooke was part of the sociology of 20th-century American Jewry. He entered the Foreign Service in the 1960s, when it was still something of a Wasp club.
- 12/14/2010
- by Peter Beinart
- The Daily Beast
Who would you elect as our most tech-savvy politician? Our tweeter-in-chief Barack Obama? Think again.
Arizona senator (and 73-year old senior statesman) John McCain has the highest "Digital Iq" in the Senate according to a new joint study by George Washington University and Nyu. John McCain. The guy who can't remember how many houses he owns. That One.
In what Gw and Nyu are calling the "definitive benchmark for online competence," researchers combed through politicians' social media accounts, and calculated their Digital Iq based on the frequency of their YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook use and popularity.
If John McCain has the highest Digital Iq, what does that say about the rest of the Senate? Politicians are notorious for their blunders and ignorance of all things tech-related, and this study--while not exactly using the most scientific metrics to determine tech-savviness--may just be a blunder in itself. Here we present our top...
Arizona senator (and 73-year old senior statesman) John McCain has the highest "Digital Iq" in the Senate according to a new joint study by George Washington University and Nyu. John McCain. The guy who can't remember how many houses he owns. That One.
In what Gw and Nyu are calling the "definitive benchmark for online competence," researchers combed through politicians' social media accounts, and calculated their Digital Iq based on the frequency of their YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook use and popularity.
If John McCain has the highest Digital Iq, what does that say about the rest of the Senate? Politicians are notorious for their blunders and ignorance of all things tech-related, and this study--while not exactly using the most scientific metrics to determine tech-savviness--may just be a blunder in itself. Here we present our top...
- 8/20/2010
- by Austin Carr
- Fast Company
Chicago – Parkour is a type of physical discipline well suited for the cinema. It trains mere mortals to move like supermen. They can leap from one place to another, while overcoming formidable obstacles, without the need for any harnesses or special effects. The only tools used by parkour practitioners are their own bodies and their surrounding environment. Buster Keaton would’ve excelled at this.
I first discovered parkour upon my viewing of the original 2004 French thriller, “District B13,” which featured two spectacular athletes, Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle, performing the majority of their stunts. The film was terrific popcorn entertainment, blending crowd-pleasing action with a sobering political message, achieving an overall impact similar to Neill Blomkamp’s wholly unrelated “District 9.” Though its plot has often been compared to “Escape from New York,” the titular ghetto in “District B13” felt much more grounded in reality. Yet the film’s fight...
I first discovered parkour upon my viewing of the original 2004 French thriller, “District B13,” which featured two spectacular athletes, Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle, performing the majority of their stunts. The film was terrific popcorn entertainment, blending crowd-pleasing action with a sobering political message, achieving an overall impact similar to Neill Blomkamp’s wholly unrelated “District 9.” Though its plot has often been compared to “Escape from New York,” the titular ghetto in “District B13” felt much more grounded in reality. Yet the film’s fight...
- 5/3/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Film attempts to recreate the terror of the 1942 Rafle du Vel d'Hiv, in which 13,000 Jews were rounded up in Paris
When, in 1995, Joseph Weismann reflected on the chances of a film being made about the horrors he witnessed in the thick heat of a Parisian summer more than 50 years earlier, his answer was uttered through tears: "I don't think that anyone would ever dare."
Tomorrow, 15 years after his words were broadcast on television, and almost 70 years on from arguably the most terrible and taboo episode in modern French history, Weismann will be proved wrong. For the first time since 19 July 1942, when about 13,000 French Jews were rounded up by members of their own country's police force and locked inside a velodrome in western Paris, before being taken to concentration camps, a film director has attempted to recreate the terror of the Rafle du Vel d'Hiv.
A harrowing drama following the events...
When, in 1995, Joseph Weismann reflected on the chances of a film being made about the horrors he witnessed in the thick heat of a Parisian summer more than 50 years earlier, his answer was uttered through tears: "I don't think that anyone would ever dare."
Tomorrow, 15 years after his words were broadcast on television, and almost 70 years on from arguably the most terrible and taboo episode in modern French history, Weismann will be proved wrong. For the first time since 19 July 1942, when about 13,000 French Jews were rounded up by members of their own country's police force and locked inside a velodrome in western Paris, before being taken to concentration camps, a film director has attempted to recreate the terror of the Rafle du Vel d'Hiv.
A harrowing drama following the events...
- 3/9/2010
- by Lizzy Davies
- The Guardian - Film News
Last Saturday night in downtown Manhattan, the art world indulged in a "meta" mutual lovefest in two locations, a few blocks apart, in parallel time. Rob Pruitt, famed for his Andy Warhol–inspired canvases of glittering panda bears, was signing copies of his new monograph, Pop Touched Me. Covering the walls of Gavin Brown's Enterprise gallery with a couple hundred autographs of art-world royalty, Pruitt offered a historical survey, and evidence of his title. Off and on for the last two decades, he's gotten art notables and others to put their signatures on one-by-three-foot pieces of raw canvas with a big black marker. One of the non-art signatures is that of the former president of France Jacques Chirac, noting the date as 1989. Almost all of the rest are art-celebrity scribbles, which fill the standard-size canvases with an unpredictable spatial variety. One is particularly extravagant: gallery owner Tony Shafrazi's signature stands...
- 3/1/2010
- Vanity Fair
Rachid Bouchareb's moving 2006 portrait of the forgotten heroes of the Free French army is not just accurate, it's important
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Entertainment grade: B+
History grade: B
After the German conquest of France in the second world war, the Free French army drummed up recruits from its African colonies to bolster its comeback.
The Third Algerian Infantry Division fought in the Italian campaign and Operation Dragoon, and would eventually head the advance of II Corps to Stuttgart.
People
North African troops had fought for France as far back as the Crimean war, and west Africans from the first world war. The film's characters are fictional, but plausible. "We must wash the French flag with our blood!" cries an Algerian recruiter. "We must liberate France!" Based on that long history, these Africans think of France as their homeland – la patrie. The film's French title, Indigènes (Natives), is clever: it's a mildly offensive colonial term,...
Director: Rachid Bouchareb
Entertainment grade: B+
History grade: B
After the German conquest of France in the second world war, the Free French army drummed up recruits from its African colonies to bolster its comeback.
The Third Algerian Infantry Division fought in the Italian campaign and Operation Dragoon, and would eventually head the advance of II Corps to Stuttgart.
People
North African troops had fought for France as far back as the Crimean war, and west Africans from the first world war. The film's characters are fictional, but plausible. "We must wash the French flag with our blood!" cries an Algerian recruiter. "We must liberate France!" Based on that long history, these Africans think of France as their homeland – la patrie. The film's French title, Indigènes (Natives), is clever: it's a mildly offensive colonial term,...
- 12/3/2009
- by Alex von Tunzelmann
- The Guardian - Film News
Apparently all you need to do to be made Commander in the French Legion of Honor is make movies for 54 years, and that's not really that difficult, right? Yes. Yes, it is. Clint Eastwood, man of a million guns and everyone's favorite gravelly voiced anti-hero, has been promoted to the rank of Commander in the Legion by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The honor was given for his world wide appeal, using film to bridge cultural gaps between our two countries, and just for being all around awesome, which is essentially why the legion was created anyway. Eastwood was knighted into the legion two years ago by Former President Jacques Chirac and now holds the third rank out of five, which according to Reuters is usually reserved for French citizens. Sarkozy referred to Eastwood as, .a myth, a giant, an example of the admiration we have for American culture.. Clint Eastwood...
- 11/16/2009
- cinemablend.com
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