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Studiocanal France has revealed the main official French trailer for the film titled The Most Precious of Cargoes, an animated tale from WWII about a Jewish baby rescued by a compassionate Polish woodcutter and his wife. This premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival as one of the final films at the end of the fest. In war-torn times, a poor woodcutter and his wife live in a great forest in Poland. One day, the woman finds and rescues a baby girl, bringing irrevocable change to the lives of the couple, and to those whose paths the child will cross. The story follows a Holocaust-surviving Jewish girl whose father throws her from a moving train heading to Auschwitz who is luckily found and raised by these two people. The voices include Jean-Louis Trintignant as the narrator, Grégory Gadebois as the woodcutter, with Denis Podalydès and Dominique Blanc. The stunning animation is really the star of this,...

Costa-Gavras’ single hyphenated trade name has been synonymous with political thrillers since Z shot from the starting gates in 1969 to win two Oscars and bring the world’s attention to the machinations of the military junta then ruling Greece. Among the numerous films he has made over the ensuing decades, based in France but working also in English, it is the on-brand political films that have been most prominent: State of Siege, Missing, Amen.

Costa-Gavras has, however, other strings to his bow. Witness Last Breath (Le Dernier Souffle), a truly marvelous film, screening in competition in San Sebastian. It’s about dying. Not at the end of a gun barrel, but in the normal course of things, whether the dying person is serenely unafraid, fighting tooth-and-nail to stay alive, or in denial. Based on a book by Regis Debray and Claude Grange, who collaborated with the director in writing the script,...

At long last, we now have at least one festival premiere set for one of our most-anticipated films of the year. Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path, a remake of his superb, bad-vibes 1998 thriller that stars Damien Bonnard, Mathieu Amalric, Ko Shibasaki, and Drive My Car‘s Hidetoshi Nishijima, is now set for a premiere as part of San Sebastián Film Festival’s Official Selection.

Taking place September 20-28, the lineup also features the latest from Edward Berger, Gia Coppola, Costa-Gavras, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mike Leigh, Diego Lerman, Joshua Oppenheimer, and François Ozon. While we could see Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Serpent’s Path pop up at other fall fests, it’s exciting to know it’s finally seeing the light of day.

Check out the full lineup below.

Bound In Heaven

Xin Huo (China)

Country(ies) of production: China

Cast: Ni Ni, You Zhou

This film narrates the poignant tale of a...

Das San Sebastián International Film Festival hat sein Programm für die 72. Ausgabe bekannt gegeben. Aus deutscher Sicht der größte Name: Edward Bergers „Conclave“ wird auf dem spanischen A-Festival seine Europapremiere im Wettbewerb feiern. Weitere bekannte Namen sind Gia Coppola, Mike Leigh, François Ozon und Costa-Gavras.

Ralph Fiennes als Kardinal Lawrence in Edward Bergers „Conclave“ (Credits: Focus Features)

Schon in den letzten Jahren hat sich immer mehr angedeutet, dass das spanische A-Festival wieder an Bedeutung zunimmt. Für die 72. Ausgabe des San Sebastián International Film Festival, die vom 20. bis 28. September stattfindet, kann der langjährige Festivalchef José Luis Rebordinos auf eine Selektion mit überaus namhaften Filmemacher:innen zugreifen. Bereits bekannt war Audrey Diwans „Emmanuelle“ mit Noémie Merlant als Eröffnungsfilm. Dazu gesellt sich im Wettbewerb als aus deutscher Sicht wichtigster Name Edward Berger mit seiner Robert-Harris-Verfilmung „Conclave“ mit Ralph Fiennes, der nach Auftritten in Telluride und Toronto in der baskischen Küstenstadt seine Europapremiere haben wird.

If an animated film turns up in the Competition at Cannes, chances are it’s not going to be another Bambi — although, if it were made today, the traumatic shooting of Bambi’s mother would certainly tickle the selection committee. No, Cannes prefers its animation to be skewed towards adults, like René Lalou’s surreal sci-fi Fantastic Planet (1973), Robert Taylor’s raunchy sequel The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974) or Ari Folman’s wartime docudrama Waltz with Bashir (2008). And with The Most Precious of Cargoes, actor turned director and now graphic artist Michel Hazanavicius has turned to the most controversial topic it is possible to approach with pen and ink: the Holocaust.

Five long years in the making, Hazanavicius’s adaptation of the 2019 novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg arrives in Cannes two years after the death of its narrator, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and, unfortunately, a year after the debut of Jonathan Glazer...

The only animated film in the competition, Michel Hazanavicius has been a favorite of the festival landing several competition berths beginning with 2011’s The Artist. The Most Precious of Cargoes became his fourth feature to compete just after showcasing Coupez! as the opening film of the 2022 selection. This took a bit less time than most animated films we track — and stars Dominique Blanc, Denis Podalydès, Grégory Gadebois and Jean-Louis Trintignant as the voice cast.

Gist: An adaptation of Grumberg’s 2019 novel of the same name, the story centers on a Holocaust-surviving Jewish girl whose father throws her from a moving train heading to Auschwitz and ultimately found by a woodcutter and his family.…...

Michel Hazanavicius said that when it came to making his Holocaust feature The Most Precious of Cargoes “the question didn’t even arise” when making it animated. “I would never want to make a live film on this.”

The Artist Oscar winner adapted from the Jean-Claude Grumberg novel. The story follows a poor woodcutter and his wife who, once upon a time, lived in a great forest. Cold, hunger, poverty and a war raging all around them meant their lives were very hard. One day, the woodcutter’s wife rescues a baby girl thrown from one of the many trains that constantly pass through the forest.

Some critics have taken umbrage with the Cannes Competition title and its approach to its portrayal of horrifying scenes. The Screen Daily review wrote, “The worst decision comes in a late sequence showing still, stylized black and white images of the faces of the...

The Artist Oscar winner Michel Hazanavicius returned to the Cannes Competition this evening with animated fairy tale feature The Most Precious of Cargoes. The warm applause for the film inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière went on for 10 minutes.

Coming in at a tight 81 minutes, it’s the final Competition film to premiere this year.

Hazanavicius applauded during ‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’ ovation #Cannes2024 pic.twitter.com/3TWoUBF6V9

— Deadline Hollywood (@Deadline) May 24, 2024

The voice cast includes the late Jean-Louis Trintignant, Grégory Gadebois, Dominique Blanc and Denis Podalydès.

Hazanavicius wrote the script for The Most Precious of Cargoes, which is based on the novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg. The story centers on a poor woodcutter and his wife who, once upon a time, lived in a great forest. Cold, hunger, poverty and a war raging all around them meant their lives were very hard.

One day, the woodcutter’s wife rescues...

Of all the films premiering at Cannes this year, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is both an anomaly (the first animated feature to compete for the Palme d’Or since “Persepolis” in 2007) and the most likely to become a classic. Blending the heavy lines of early-20th-century woodcuts with the gentle pastels of watercolor painting, “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius finds a poignant way to address not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but the kindness that combated it, crafting an indelible parable destined to be watched and shared by generations to come.

The polar opposite of “The Zone of Interest,” his hand-drawn adaptation of the slender but impactful novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg engages audiences at the gut, rather than in some abstract intellectual way. It focuses on neither the culprits nor the victims, but average folk who tried to remain neutral — as if such a thing were possible — until...

Costa-Gavras, the celebrated Franco-Greek master who’s won an Oscar and a Palme d’Or, has teamed with French sales company Playtime for his latest film, “Last Breath.”

Currently in post-production, “Last Breath” boasts a strong international cast led by Denis Podalydès (“Deception”) and Kad Merad (“Welcome to the Sticks”), who star alongside Marilyne Canto (“The Starry Sky Above Me”), Charlotte Rampling (“Dune”), Ángela Molina (“Broken Embraces”), Karin Viard (“Strangers by Night”), Hiam Abbass (“Succession”) and Agathe Bonitzer (“Maria Montessori”).

Costa-Gavras penned the film, based on the book “Le Dernier Souffle” by Régis Debray and Claude Grange. A Cannes regular, Costa-Gavras won the Palme d’Or for “Missing” in 1982, served on the jury in 1976 and won the Jury Prize with his political thriller “Z” which went on to win an Oscar. He has also been feted as guest of honor at Cannes Classics, the selection dedicated to heritage films.

“We...

The Most Precious of Cargoes, the first animated feature from Oscar-winning French director Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist), will open this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival.

The feature is a 2D animated adaptation of the best-selling book by French author Jean-Claude Grumberg. Set during World War II, it tells the story of a French Jewish family deported to Auschwitz. On the train to the death camp, in a desperate gesture, the father throws one of his baby twins out into the snow, where he’s discovered by a childless Polish couple living deep in the forest.

Hazanavicius presented the film as a work-in-progress at Annecy two years ago. French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant narrates the film with voice acting from Dominique Blanc, Denis Podalydès, and Grégory Gadebois. Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (The Shape of Water) composed the score. Animation is from 3.0 Studio – formerly Prima Linea — the group behind the...

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 French sales outfit has the first image of Tomer Sisley in The Price Of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure.

Goodfellas has boarded Claire Burger’s anticipated coming-of-age drama Langue Etrangère, starring Chiara Mastroianni and Nina Hoss, ahead of this week’s Rendez-Vous with France Cinema this week in Paris.

Langue Etrangère is about teenage pen pals in France and Germany and is produced by Anatomy of a Fall producer Marie-Ange Luciani’s Les Films de Pierre with Belgium’s Les Films du Fleuve and Germany’s Razor Film Produktion. Burger wrote the film in collaboration with The Five Devils’ Léa Mysius.

Like writers penning their memoirs, making movies about making movies is a rite of passage for many a director. Fellini famously did it with 8 ½, Truffaut with Day for Night, Godard with Contempt and Fassbinder with Beware of a Holy Whore. More recently, Tarantino gave us Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Spielberg The Fabelmans, Michel Hazavanicius made Final Cut and Damien Chazelle, Babylon.

Almost all behind-the-scenes movies share the same theme: Filmmaking is tough, high-stress work that weighs heavily on everyone involved, especially the directors themselves. That’s certainly one of the main takeaways from Cédric Kahn’s very French variation on the subject, Making Of, which premiered out of competition in Venice.

Kahn is both an actor (he played the douchey Gallic lover in Pawel Pawikowski’s Cold War) and talented director, with a series of strong features under his belt that include hard-hitting thrillers like L’Ennui,...

Catherine Corsini’s new film “Le Retour,” or “Homecoming,” opens with a moment of grief. A mother (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna) is nervously traveling with her two young daughters when she gets a phone call. Something terrible has happened and she begins to weep. Though that interaction hangs over the rest of the action, which then jumps ahead 15 years, we don’t find out exactly the circumstances of that pivotal call until well into the running time of this disjointed film. By the time we do, the impact of what has occurred is less traumatic than it is confusing, a product of thin characterization and messy storytelling.

At the same time, Corsini has tapped incredible actors for this sun-drenched saga of familial bonds in Corsica, which is best when it’s relying on their dynamics and worst when it’s going for big revelations.

The woman in those first frames is Khédidja,...

The story template of “Homecoming” is a standard one: Years after an unexplained trauma, a family returns to the place they once called home, where hidden truths come to light and bitter conflicts arise over the course of one seemingly idyllic summer. Yet for all the secrets and lies that shape the narrative of Catherine Corsini’s straightforwardly told but consistently intriguing new film, its most interesting tensions often emerge from things its characters already know, even if they haven’t acknowledged them out loud. For Black single parent Khédidja (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna), arriving at the Corsican birthplace of her children after 15 years away, disinterring a buried past throws her maternal insecurities into sharp relief; for her teenage daughters Jessica (Suzy Bemba) and Farah (Esther Gohourou), what revelations the trip yields only underline their respective senses of not-belonging in their own small family.

This is complex, delicate material, simmering with...

Despite plenty of incidental action, Corsini’s film about a woman’s painful return to Corsica leaves too many questions unanswered

Despite some warm and sympathetic performances and lovely cinematography, there is something weirdly glib in director and co-writer Catherine Corsini’s new film in which a summer of drama gives us supposedly tragic personal discoveries uneasily coexisting with some almost photo love-style holiday romance.

Khedidja (Aïssatou Diallo Sagna) is a black woman in her 40s living in Paris with her two teen daughters – promising student Jess (Suzy Bemba) and tearaway Farah (Esther Gohourou) – and working as a nanny for a wealthy white couple, Sylvia (Virginie Ledoyen) and Marc (Denis Podalydès), who have little kids. Marc also has a spoilt moody teen daughter (Lomane de Dietrich) from his first marriage. Sylvia and Marc are heading off with their family for the summer to their villa in Calvi, Corsica and they...

The Paris sales outfit is also handling Pablo Berger’s ‘Robot Dreams’ in Official Selection.

Paris-based sales powerhouse Elle Driver has added Greek director Alexandros Avranas’ Apathy, now in pre-production, to its line-up heading into Cannes.

Apathy is a drama exploring the real-life phenomenon of ‘resignation syndrome’, a catatonic state that has affected around 700 refugee children in Sweden, sparking a wave of concern among doctors and politicians. Told from the perspective of a family, Apathy follows the parents as they struggle in their daily lives and gives a voice to the children. The multi-territory co-production is produced by France’s...

The Paris sales outfit is also handling Pablo Berger’s ‘Robot Dreams’ in Official Selection.

Paris-based sales powerhouse Elle Driver has added Greek director Alexandros Avranas’ Apathy, now in pre-production, to its line-up heading into Cannes.

Apathy is a drama exploring the real-life phenomenon of ‘resignation syndrome’, a catatonic state that has affected around 700 refugee children in Sweden, sparking a wave of concern among doctors and politicians. Told from the perspective of a family, Apathy follows the parents as they struggle in their daily lives and gives a voice to the children. The multi-territory co-production is produced by France’s...

Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”

“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.

“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...

French director Catherine Corsini and her producer Elisabeth Perez have published an open letter denying wrongdoing on the set of upcoming Cannes Palme d’Or contender Le Retour.

There have been multiple French media reports over the past two weeks detailing allegations of a lack of safeguarding of minors as well as the mistreatment of crew members and young actors in the lead-up to and during the film’s shoot in Corsica at the end of last year.

For a time, it looked like the allegations would result in the film being denied a promised slot in the Cannes Film Festival’s main Competition, but the title was announced among 13 feature additions to Official Selection earlier this week following an investigation by the event.

“Anonymous and defamatory emails have been sent to the profession and the press, generating a rumor that was very damaging for the film. Thankfully, the biggest...

Catherine Corsini, the French director of “Le Retour,” which was added to the competition lineup for the 76th edition of Cannes on Monday, has addressed the reports in French media of alleged inappropriate incidents during production of the film.

Corsini’s competition slot was on hold for nearly 10 days after Cannes’s administration board heard that a scene of a sexual nature involving the 15-year old female protagonist of the film was added to the script and allegedly filmed without the consent of the Commission des Enfants du Spectacle, a government-backed organization. French reports also said Corsini was allegedly being accused of harassment by crew members, while other members of the crew had been allegedly been accused of inappropriate acts against two female actors.

Corsini and her producer Elisabeth Perez released a letter on April 25 arguing that the reports were “inaccurate” and included testimonies of cast members, including the young...

Blue Fox Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to Cédric Klapisch’s (“The Spanish Apartment”) hit dance film “Rise” (“En corps”) from Studiocanal.

One of 2022’s highest grossing French films, “Rise” sold nearly 1.3 million tickets in local theaters and was sold around the world. The movie tells the story of a young ballet dancer whose life is upended when she suffers a career-threatening injury and catches her boyfriend cheating on her. As she begins her physical and emotional rehabilitation, she finds solace in friends, a new love, and a new contemporary dance troupe.

Marion Barbeau, a dancer-turned-actor, delivers a breakthrough performance in the lead role, and stars opposite French stars, including François Civil (“Three Musketeers”), Pio Marmaï (“How I Became a Super Hero”), Denis Podalydès (“Anaïs in Love”), as well as Hofesh Shechter (“Send Me an Angel”).

“We are so thrilled to bring Cedric’s beautiful film to US audiences,...

Le retour

Formerly titled “La Loi du plus fort”, Catherine Corsini began filming on Le retour back in September of last year. Set in Corsica, Virginie Ledoyen, Denis Podalydès, Aïssatou Diallo Sagna and Esther Gohourou are among the on-screen distribution here. Corsini last premiered hospital ER room has a trauma center and empathy and connection – in La fracture in Cannes back in ’21.

Gist: Written by Corsini and Naïla Guiguet, the story centres on 40-something Kheìdidja, who works for a wealthy Parisian family who offers her to take care of the children during a summer in Corsica – the occasion for her and her daughters, Jessica and Farah, to return to this island which they left 15 years ago in tragic circumstances.…...

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,...

French sales company to showcase comedy and drama slate at Rendez-Vous.

Paris-based Indie Sales has boarded Jean-Pierre Améris’ Take A Chance On Me and Pierre Jolivet’s Green Tide, expanding the company’s star-powered French slate.

Indie Sales’ French language line-up also includes Noémie Lvovsky’s The Great Magic, Mathias Gokalp’s The Assembly Line, Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s A Tale of Shemroon and Marc Fitoussi’s Two Tickets to Greece.

Take A Chance On Me stars popular French singer turned actress Louane Emera, whose credits include The Belier Family, who plays a young woman juggling between odd jobs to support her agoraphobic father.

Lockdown Tower has sold to UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Latin America, and German-speaking Europe

Paris-based sales company Elle Driver has closed a slew of sales for Guillaume Nicloux’s Lockdown Tower and Yann Samuell’s The Lulus ahead of Unifrance’s annual Rendez-Vous in Paris.

Lockdown Tower has sold to Signature Entertainment for the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, to California Filmes for Latin America and to Capelight for German-speaking Europe. Other sales include Vie Vision Pictures for Taiwan, Klockworks in Japan, Media4Fun in Poland, Nk Contents in Korea and Capella Film for Cis and the Baltics.

Casting is complete and cameras are currently rolling on Catherine Corsini‘s Le retour. We recently reported that Aïssatou Diallo Sagna was the first to join the project, and now we learned that Esther Gohourou (breakout in Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties) and Suzy Bemba will also topline the film and they’ll be supported by Lomane de Dietrich, Cédric Appietto, Marie-Ange Géronimi, Harold Orsoni, Jean Michelangeli, Virginie Ledoyen and Denis Podalydès. Cineuropa reports that Chaz Productions’ Élisabeth Perez will produce. Corsini reteams with cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie (who has Robin Campillo’s Vazaha to be released next year). Production will last close to two months and a Cannes premiere is entirely possible.…...

A corrupt minister and a delusional pair of dance contestants are just two of the monsters of mediocrity who haunt Jean-Christophe Meurisse’s strange film

Macron’s France gets tied to a chair in a basement and abused in this scabrous and gruesome state-of-the-nation black comedy from Jean-Christophe Meurisse. Olivier (Olivier Saladin) and Laurence (Lorella Cravotta) are a conceited retired couple in deep denial about how much debt they’re in, but hoping to win big money by competing in a dance contest. They figure they are entitled to extra points for being older, and the ferocious opening scene shows the judges debating precisely this kind of liberal identity-politics issue.

The couple’s grown-up son, Alexandre (Alexandre Steiger), is a lawyer who, along with a bleary spin doctor (Denis Podalydès), is advising a creepy and reactionary government minister (Christophe Paou) who is keen to cut welfare while engaging in personal...

Charming ‘bulldozer’ Anaïs sprints after emotional stimulants in breezy tale of graduate student who seduces her publisher’s partner

An amusing snapshot of millennial restlessness, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s droll debut is another addition to the recent crop of films where young women are always running on screen, a lot. Lamented by an ex-boyfriend as a “bulldozer”, Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) saunters into every human interaction with the force of a whirlwind. Forever pacing back and forth, she goes off on idiosyncratic tangents as if oblivious to the bewildered other party.

Such personality quirks in large doses could soon turn tiresome and narcissistic if not for Demoustier’s effervescent charm. A graduate student who perpetually dodges the deadlines of her doctoral thesis, Anaïs is averse to commitment, to the challenge of buckling down and concluding things; she is constantly searching for the next emotional stimulant. After a disappointing tryst with Daniel (Denis Podalydès...

Peccadillo Pictures has launched a trailer for Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s debut feature ‘Anais in Love.’

The free-spirited and giddily impulsive Anaïs careers from one lover to the next while trying to find some direction in her life. Following a brief dalliance with an older man, she soon finds herself captivated instead by his beautiful long-time partner Emilie, a successful and beguilingly charismatic writer, and an affair begins which may just offer the contentment Anaïs has been searching for.

Written and directed by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, the film stars Anaïs Demoustier, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Denis Podalydès.

Also in trailers – “It’s as good as a confession…” Trailer drops for ‘See How They Run’

The film has a theatrical & digital release date 19th August 2022. Here’s your trailer.

The post Trailer drops for ‘Anais in Love’ appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Deception (Tromperie) Mubi Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Arnaud Desplechin Screenwriter: Arnaud Desplechin from the novel by Philip Rotyh Cast: Denis Podalydès, Léa Seydoux, Emmanuelle Devos, Anouk Grinberg, Madalina Constantin, Miglen Mirtchev Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 5/6/22 Streaming on Mubi: May 20, 2022 There are people […]

The post Deception (Tromperie) Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Studio brass wowed theater owners this week with Maverick: Top Gun, Avatar: The Way of Water and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse among other tentpoles. But they were also clear at the just-wrapped CinemaCon that a reviving box office requires a wide breadth of content.

“If we narrow what we bring to theaters, our audience will get smaller,” said Jim Orr, head of domestic theatrical distribution for Universal Pictures. “We need an industry that creates and impacts culture every single weekend [with] personal stories, original ideas,” he said — a sentiment that echoed across the four-day confab in Las Vegas.

Universal, short on superheroes, got plenty of traction with Jurassic World Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru and Halloween Ends and films like She Said and Nope. Its specialty distributor, Focus Features, promised to win back elusive older demos with Downton Abbey: A New Era, and showcased a slate including Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,...

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...

The seasons have changed––spring is here, summer is on the way, and no film out right now better exudes the aura of love in the sunshine than Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs in Love. Broke, behind on her rent, and considering breaking up with her boyfriend, thirtysomething Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) doesn’t quite know what she wants from life. Struggling to complete her thesis, she wanders aimlessly through the film’s first act––a free spirit with no sense of direction but capable of turning heads and drawing the attention of others wherever she goes. She’s like a manic pixie dream girl without the reductive qualities of the trope. Bourgeois-Tacquet creates in her lead an instantly recognizable portrait of a young woman right at that nexus point where not having your shit figured out is starting to look a little bit uncool.

In comes Daniel (Denis Podalydès), an older...

Sometimes all you need to get a movie — and maybe even to love it — is an opening shot of a willowy young woman sprinting down the sidewalks of Paris with a crushed bouquet of flowers under her arm while a sun-shower of classical piano music sprinkles over the soundtrack at twice the pace of her footsteps. Much like its harried blithe spirit of a heroine, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s “Anaïs in Love” simply refuses to waste any time.

, Bourgeois-Tacquet’s debut feature needs all of 11 milliseconds to give us a clear impression of its title character. We instantly surmise that life has been a little too possible for Anaïs, as it often seems to be for people so beautiful that even their most fleeting whims can reshape the world. We already sense that she’s always in a hurry because she’s always late, that she’s always late because she’s always present,...

Immediately setting a buoyant, vibrant tone that carries through the rest of the film, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs in Love makes one of 2022’s finest debuts. The French comedy is a story of waywardness and desire told with an optimistic view, following a spirited young woman (a great Anaïs Demoustier) who begins an affair with an older man (Denis Podalydès) and then falls in love with his novelist wife (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).

Ahead of Anaïs‘ U.S. release I spoke with the writer-director about being inspired by Catherine Deneuve, the breathless cinematography, why she included a clip from John Cassavetes’ Opening Night, and establishing a tone.

The Film Stage: For your main character, played by Anaïs Demoustier, you kept the same first name. Did you write the film with her in mind? And how did she shape the project?

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet: So Anaïs Demoustier and I have been working together...

What comes to mind when you picture the likely protagonist of a film titled “Anaïs in Love?” If it’s not a flighty, free-spirited young Frenchwoman, cycling around Paris with flowers in her bike basket, completing a Masters literature thesis (long past deadline) on “17th-century descriptions of passion,” and wearing bright floral sundresses in all weathers, you’ve tried too hard to avoid the obvious — not something you could easily accuse Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s blithe, gossamer-light debut feature of doing in imagining said heroine. Is it too on the nose if she’s played by reliably winsome starlet Anaïs Demoustier? Don’t answer that: she is.

At first rosy blush, then, “Anaïs in Love” appears to gently parody an idealized screen vision of Gallic femininity (a manic pixie dream fille of sorts) that has endured in various incarnations from the French New Wave to “Amelie” and beyond. To what end is harder to determine,...

“When I met you, you were ripe,” says Denis Podalydès’s Philip to his younger mistress (Léa Seydoux) in Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation with Julie Peyr of Philip Roth’s Deception (Tromperie). She responds: “No, I was rotting on the floor under a tree.”

Arnaud Desplechin’s Frère Et Sœur (Brother And Sister), starring Marion Cotillard, Golshifteh Farahani, Melvil Poupaud, and Cosmina Stratan has been selected to screen in the 75th anniversary edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Arnaud’s Ismael's Ghosts was the 2017 Cannes Opening Night Gala selection and his Philip Roth adaptation Deception was a 2021 highlight.

Arnaud Desplechin with Anne-Katrin Titze on Philip Roth: “He’s as is, he’s absolutely imperfect, selfish as I was saying.”

Desplechin will have had ten world premieres at Cannes: Oh Mercy!; My Golden Days; Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian; A Christmas Tale; Esther Kahn...

“When I really love someone, I don’t notice others,” utters Anais (Anais Demoustier) to her affair partner while laying in bed together. It’s ominous wording for what’s to come for the protagonist in writer/director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s new romantic comedy Anais In Love. It is similar to Jochum Trier’s The Worst Person in the World, but while that film feels grounded, Anais has its head in the clouds. However, that isn’t a massive ding on the movie as the over-optimism is used to its advantage as the character breaks numerous boundaries and hearts in her quest to find the one person who will become her everything.

Anais is a hot mess. She’s chronically late to everything, two months behind on rent, several months late on the second part of her thesis project, pregnant with a baby she doesn’t want and doesn’t...

“I’m 33 and I won’t say my name” states Léa Seydoux’s character at the start of Arnaud Desplechin’s labyrinthine Deception (Tromperie), adapted with Julie Peyr from the novel by Philip Roth. The woman says that she met Philip (Denis Podalydès) in London. London and New York will be the physical and spiritual locations of the tale, as a short introduction that makes you think of Woody Allen’s heyday, informs. The music by Desplechin’s longtime collaborator Grégoire Hetzel perfectly accompanies and subtly comments on the shifts in mood. We see the couple. He asks her to close her eyes and describe the room. Could this be a therapy session, we may think. No, he is testing how perceptive she is.

The terra-cotta-coloured walls, the baseball on his desk, the shelves with books by Heinrich Heine and Hannah Arendt, “only Jewish books” as she...

Denis Podalydès as Philip with Léa Seydoux in Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation with Julie Peyr of Philip Roth’s Deception (Tromperie).

In the second of my series of conversations with Arnaud Desplechin we discuss filming Frère Et Sœur, starring Marion Cotillard with Golshifteh Farahani and Melvil Poupaud, and working on Deception (Tromperie) with longtime collaborator composer Grégoire Hetzel (Oh Mercy!; Ismael's Ghosts; My Golden Days; La Forêt; A Christmas Tale; Kings & Queen) and for the first time with cinematographer Yorick Le Saux.

Marion Cotillard stars in Arnaud Desplechin’s upcoming Frère Et Sœur Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation with Julie Peyr of Philip Roth’s Deception (Tromperie), starring Denis Podalydès, Léa Seydoux (Bruno Dumont’s France), Emmanuelle Devos, and Anouk Grinberg was a highlight of the 74th Cannes Film Festival and New York’s Rendez-Vous with French...

Rarely have I been able to chart my relationship with a film like Arnaud Desplechin’s Deception. When we spoke in fall 2015 he told me Philip Roth’s slim, dialogue-driven novel was something of a millstone: “Perhaps it’s a book that I will never be able to adapt for the screen, and I know I will regret it for the rest of my days.” You can imagine my thrill at the news, in December 2020, that he pulled it off with Léa Seydoux and Denis Polydalès, but even by these metrics I wasn’t prepared for the film that, by acting as a faithful rendition of Roth’s barely fictional novel (largely dialogue between lovers written as he was engaging in an actual affair), is perhaps (hopefully) the closest we’ll ever get to a Roth biopic—the rare adaptation that adds to its source’s corpus.

Though awaiting U.

Emilie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) with Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) in Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s lively Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs)

My first interaction with Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs) director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet was when I sent in a question during Unifrance’s 10 Talents To Watch in 2022 panel in Paris: “Which film you saw did you particularly like in 2021?” Her response included Leos Carax’s Annette (seen at Cannes), Bruno Dumont's France, starring Léa Seydoux, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World, and Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (another highlight of New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema).

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet with Anne-Katrin Titze on Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe-Grillet: “It mattered to me that the film was situated in this universe, this world of literature.”

Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) is always late, wears red lipstick to go with floral dresses, and carries her bike up many flights...

Flowers, lots of them, in manic speed fill the screen. Anaïs, who is working on her thesis in literature, is played by Anaïs Demoustier in a whirlwind performance opposite Denis Podalydès and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs). Anaïs is always late, wears red lipstick to go with floral dresses, and carries her bike up many flights of stairs because she never replaced the lock, and she is too claustrophobic to take elevators. All this we learn in the first few minutes of Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s wonderfully entertaining film. The above motifs as well as her character traits will return many times throughout this well-structured portrait of someone who cares deeply about details others might discard as superfluous, while she treats profoundly...

"A film that feels like a holiday." Well that sounds lovely! Magnolia Pictures has unveiled a new US trailer for a French indie romance titled Anaïs in Love, originally known as Les amours d'Anaïs. It premiered in the Critics' Week sidebar at last year's Cannes Film Festival, and played at a few other French festivals throughout last year. The film follows Anaïs, a 30-year old woman that is broke and has a lover she doesn't think she loves anymore. Then she meets Daniel, who immediately falls for her. But Daniel lives with Emilie - whom Anaïs also falls for. Sounds like trouble? Or maybe just love? It stars a woman actually named Anaïs - actress Anaïs Demoustier, along with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Denis Podalydès, Jean-Charles Clichet, Xavier Guelf, and Christophe Montenez. This looks fresh and fun, another French film about the complexities of romance and desire. The final line in...

One of the most delightful films I’ve seen thus far in this early year is Anaïs in Love, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Cannes selection which was picked up by Magnolia Pictures for a release this spring. Ahead of the debut next month, the first trailer has now arrived.

The French comedy examines modern romance and erratic youthful passions with a Rohmerian touch as we follow a spirited young woman (a great Anaïs Demoustier) who falls in love with the novelist wife of the man with whom she’s having an affair. If you’re in the NYC area, the film plays this Friday at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, otherwise one can check it out starting April 29 in theaters and May 6 on VOD.

Also starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Denis Podalydès, Jean-Charles Clichet, Xavier Guelf, and Christophe Montenez, see the trailer and poster below.

Anaïs in Love opens on April 29 in theaters and on May 6 on demand.

Deception director Arnaud Desplechin tells Anne-Katrin Titze about the Emmanuelle Devos Kings & Queen connection to Andrew Wylie that led to a phone call from Philip Roth.

Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation with Julie Peyr of Philip Roth’s Deception (Tromperie), starring Denis Podalydès, Léa Seydoux (Bruno Dumont’s France), Emmanuelle Devos, and Anouk Grinberg, is a highlight of the 27th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York. Claire Denis’s Fire (Avec Amour Et Acharnement), starring Juliette Binoche (in a Free Talk with Constance Meyer’s Robust star Déborah Lukumuena), Grégoire Colin (Nora Martirosyan’s Should The Wind Drop), and Vincent Lindon is the Opening Night selection. Jim Jarmusch is the Guest of Honour of this year’s festival.

An in-person Q&a with Kent Jones and Arnaud Desplechin will follow a screening of Diane at the French Institute Alliance Française Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Our Love Affairs: Arnaud Desplechin...

Studiocanal has begun worldwide sales on writer-director Cédric Klapisch’s “Rise” (En corps) at the virtual American Film Market this week.

A story of resilience set in Paris and Brittany, “Rise” traverses the the worlds of classical and contemporary dance with a young woman’s journey from success to rock bottom, and back again.

The cast includes emerging actor and dancer Marion Barbeau, Pio Marmaï (“How I Became a Super Hero”), Denis Podalydès (“Anaïs in Love”), François Civil and Hofesh Shechter (“Send Me an Angel”).

Barbeau plays Elise, who thought she had the perfect life, with an ideal boyfriend and a promising career as a ballet dancer. But it all falls apart the day she catches him cheating on her with her stage backup, and after she suffers an injury on stage, it seems like she might not be able to dance ever again. The path to physical and emotional...

You have to feel for Léa Seydoux, the star who was slated to be the all-but-official face of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with four vehicles in the official selection. Covid intervened, preventing her representing any of them in person. But the one she’s best in was also the lowest-profile.

Placed out of competition in the new Premieres sidebar, Arnaud Desplechin’s “Deception” is a strange, stifling but frequently intriguing attempt to find a cinematic match for the literary voice of Philip Roth, from his autofictional 1990 novel of the same name. It often succeeds, which is to say the filmmaking often appropriates the self-aggrandizing indulgences and knowingly oppressive masculinity of a work that isn’t among the author’s finest. But it’s Seydoux’s sly, bright presence, as an obscure object of desire who gradually places the protagonist’s failings in relief, that keeps us involved.

That...