News

A movie with a star-studded cast, rich literary source material, and lavish visuals sounds great on paper! In Secret had all these elements and could have been a gripping period drama about forbidden love and people’s descent into psychological ruin.

The movie is set in 1860s Paris, featuring talented artists like Elizabeth Olsen, Oscar Isaac, and Tom Felton. But somehow, despite all these ingredients, the audience found In Secret to be quite underwhelming. In the end, even the actors’ great performances couldn’t save the weak narrative.

In Secret: A classic tale of infidelity ft. Elizabeth Olsen and Tom Felton A still from In Secret | Credits: Exclusive Media Group

In Secret is an erotic thriller from 2013 that went under everyone’s radar. It dives into what suppressed passion and forbidden love can lead to. The movie is adapted from Émile Zola’s novel Thérèse Raquin, and is a...

J'adore le cinéma! If you love it too, especially in a Francophilic way, you'll be happy to know that Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center are gearing up for the 30th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, running from March 6 to March 16. As usual, this year's film series combines a variety of anticipated films from great French directors with fresh young filmmakers, some selected as part of Unifrance’s 10 to Watch 2025 Program, a yearly initiative honoring a new generation of directors and actors who contribute to the vitality of French creation. There will be 23 films this year, a variety of North American, U.S., and New York premieres which "celebrate the energy, innovation, and range of French cinema," according to Film at Lincoln Center (Flc).

“Unifrance is honored to be celebrating 30 years of French cinema with our partner, Film at Lincoln Center,” said Daniela Elstner, executive director of Unifrance. “Rendez-Vous...

South Korea has a strong presence in the international landscape of entertainment, especially in music and cinema. The horror genre has been explored in South Korea since the early days of the country's cinema and evolved significantly throughout the decades, becoming a synonym of innovation and expertise in the genre. K-cinema is particularly associated with some of the best supernatural horror and zombie horror movies, yet Korean horror cinema has something for every taste.

Known for blending cultural themes into horror, the genre has been through different phases. Early Korean horror movies were often cautionary tales that reflected tendencies and fears within Korean society, perfectly exemplified by the 1960 psychological horror movie The Housemaid. Around the late 1990s and early 2000s, the genre experienced a renewal in South Korea. This shift propelled the making of more high-octane action horror, like 2006's The Host, and other subgenres that are still popular in Korean cinema today.

French writer Nicolas Mathieu won the Prix Goncourt — France’s highest-profile literary award — for his 2018 novel “And Their Children After Them,” a working-class Bildungsroman set against a backdrop of severe deindustrialization, for which he stated his disparate influences to include John Steinbeck, Émile Zola, Bruce Springsteen and the 2012 Jeff Nichols film “Mud.” The Springsteen namecheck is easily taken care of in this brash big-screen adaptation, via a thuddingly obvious needle-drop as its bike-riding hero straps his hands across some engines and hits the open road. Mathieu’s more literary allusions, however, haven’t survived the journey to Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma’s overlong, outwardly emotive but strangely unmoving film, which resorts to soap-opera mechanics in its saga of three youths variously affected over a six-year period by one rash act of teen delinquency.

The Boukherma twins showed some inventive, genre-jumbling verve in their first three features — most prominently “Teddy,” a...

Any cinephile will likely be able to tell you about the first time a film scared the bejeezus out of them. For people of my generation, Tobe Hooper's 1982 film "Poltergeist" has a lot to answer for. Because the film bore the name of Steven Spielberg as its producer, and because it was only rated PG (it was made before the inception of the PG-13 rating), Hooper's monstrous horror movie was seen by many young children, unaware of the nightmares that lay within. "Poltergeist" featured a killer clown, a man-eating tree, and a scene where a man, possessed by the evil of the house, pulls all the skin off his own face.

Kids exposed to such horrors at an early age either withdraw from movies altogether ... or become horror filmmakers themselves. It's hard to deny the glorious, visceral power of a good, traumatic movie scare.

Stephen King also had...

John Galliano, 63, the creative director of Maison Martin Margiela, had the tough task of closing the Paris haute couture season (which has seen stunning shows from such houses as Valentino and Schiaparelli), a challenge he met with an extremely fascinating show. It was an extraordinary portrayal of Paris’ famous historical figures that seemed to have stepped out of an Émile Zola novel.

Galliano presented Margiela’s new Spring Summer 2024 artisanal collection inside an abandoned, vaulted-ceiling venue along the Seine, transformed into a decadent bistro where a range of French archetypes took center stage, from the shapely and brazen courtesans of the past — such as Madame Pompadour or Jeanne du Barry — to the sensual and devilish Moulin Rouge dancers, as well as nocturnal gamblers and cat burglars.

French performer and drag queen “Lucky Love,” a Freddie Mercury impersonator, gave the opening wearing a man’s overcoat, then stripped it off to...

Gianluca Matarrese’s “The Zola Experience,” which will have its world premiere at Venice Days, has been picked up for international sales by Syndicado. Cinecittà will distribute the film in Italy.

According to Matarrese, the film “explores the boundaries between fiction and documentary.” It centers on Anne, a theater director, who has separated from her husband and is moving house. Life for her is dull, and she feels no desire. She meets Ben, a helpful neighbor and jobless actor. He looks at her with passionate eyes, but she never wants to tie herself to a man again.

However, when she decides to embark on a stage production of Émile Zola’s novel “L’Assommoir,” it is to him that she proposes the role of Coupeau, casting herself as Gervaise. As the story unfolds, the boundary between real life and the play becomes increasingly blurred.

The film stars Anne Barbot and Benoît Dallongeville.

He may have been preceded by characters like Lord Ruthven and Carmilla, but Dracula is still the quintessential vampire, with Bram Stoker’s iconic novel boasting over two hundred cinematic adaptations and inspiring most modern vampire media. That being said, vampire movies have long worked their way out from beneath the shadow of Stoker’s gothic opus, offering up insanely varied stories about our favorite blood-sucking beasts.

And with Chris McKay’s upcoming Renfield proving that there are still fresh spins to be had on the Dracula formula, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the most under-appreciated vampire movies out there. After all, there’s nothing like discovering a hidden gem within a sea of similar genre flicks.

To be featured on this list, a movie needs to be specifically about vampires (that means no other supernatural creatures like werewolves) and has to approach...

October sees the release of "Decision to Leave," the first feature film in six years from South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook. Having premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where Park won the Best Director award, the noir-drama, centered on a detective who investigates a woman with whom he becomes increasingly enamored, has already racked up plenty of "Best of the Year" credits. It's a testament to his immense talent that "Decision to Leave" isn't even considered a top-tier Park yet is still being heralded by many as a masterpiece.

Park is probably best known to English-speaking audiences for leading the charge of the 21st-century Korean New Wave, in large part thanks to his ultra-violent thriller "Oldboy." The stylish, shocking, and twist-filled movie that featured one of the best one-take action scenes ever shot instantly catapulted Park into the zeitgeist. Everyone from Quentin Tarantino to his occasional collaborator Bong Joon-ho...

The Alliance, which brings together European broadcasters France Télévisions, Italy’s Rai and Germany’s Zdf in a commissioning partnership, announced the development of a new series “The Kollective” at Rome’s Mia Market on Wednesday.

France Télévisions, Rai and Zdf decided to join forces back in 2018 to develop and co-produce high-end TV dramas aimed at a broad audience. To date, they have produced nine series, ranging from thrillers to science-fiction, including historical drama “Leonardo,” pictured above.

“The idea was to bring together three public broadcasters who are really on a mission to show our audience programs that resonate. Programs that otherwise none of us could afford,” explained Simone Emmelius, senior VP international fiction-coproduction and acquisition at Zdf. Also mentioning that these days, the Alliance is focusing more and more on younger viewers.

“We have a common heritage and common understanding of stories that should be told, even though we...

What’s the matter with Pearl? Plenty, as it turns out in Ti West’s terrifically enjoyable postscript to his spring release X, which saw a 1970s film crew fall brutally afoul of an elderly farmer and his wife while shooting a porno in their barn. Unusually for a horror film, X had the same actress — Mia Goth — as both the final kill (the farmer’s psychotic wife Pearl) and the final girl (sex-film starlet Maxine), and this intelligent, not to mention almost indecently hasty prequel explains the reasons.

Pearl, screening out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, is that rare horror franchise follow-up that, while mindful of expectations from its predecessor’s core gore audience, has considered artful new ways to drill down into the essence of the original.

First, a quick digression into the appeal of X and Ti West’s films in general: West has an...

12 – 17 July 2022, Louis Koo Cinema

New Waves, New Shores: Busan International Film Festival is back with three screenings and a masterclass! The moving image programme is presented by the Hong Kong Arts Centre (Hkac), financially supported by the Film Development Fund, Create Hong Kong, and in festival partnership with the Busan International Film Festival (Biff). Through an integrated series of screenings, talks, workshops and a masterclass, the programme aims to introduce the cross currents in Hong Kong and Korean cinema, as well as the importance of Biff as one of the leading film festivals in Asia. The screenings comprise a Hong Kong showcase curated by Maggie Lee, and a Korean showcase co-curated by Lee and Nam Dong-chul.

Previously brought to a halt by the pandemic, the programme now brings back screenings of Too Many Ways to Be No. 1, Dumplings and Thirst, and Masterclass on Screen Adaptation: A Conversation Between Chung Seo-kyung and Fruit Chan,...

Paris-based Italian director Gianluca Matarrese took a deep dive into the world of fashion for his latest documentary feature, “Fashion Babylon,” which world premieres on Saturday at Cph:dox film festival in Copenhagen. Ahead of the premiere, he spoke to Variety about the film and upcoming projects.

The idea for “Fashion Babylon” came to Matarrese after he met American musician and artist Casey Spooner in a bar in the Marais district of Paris, where the director lives. “He’s quite an extraordinary character, and he knows everyone,” Matarrese says. “He opened up the gates so I could enter this incredible world.”

For Matarrese, the fashion world is like a royal court, ruled by its king, Jean Paul Gaultier, and queen, Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, who is the one “making the rules,” he says. Matarrese compares this society to that depicted in Elle Fanning series “The Great,” about Russia’s Catherine the Great.

Filming the France Télévisions show “Germinal” – which plays in the TV Series Competition of this week’s EnergaCamerimage Film Festival – felt a lot like leading a band of rebels in an uprising against the old guard, says cinematographer Xavier Dolléans.

“It was a challenge,” he says of the six-part adaptation of the classic Émile Zola novel. The in-depth, nuanced portrait of the lives of French coal miners and their courage in standing together to demand reforms needed epic scale to work, Dolléans says.

The only trouble was that France Télévisions until now hasn’t really been known for such ambitious projects – in fact, to shoot a sequence depicting miners trapped in a flooded chamber, the crew had to head to Belgium to find a water tank in which a set can be easily submerged.

“Germinal,” adapted from the 13th novel in Zola’s 20-volume series Les Rougon-Macquart, is the 1884 tale...

With the majority of big global TV distributors opting out of a physical presence at Mipcom, the flashy stands have been replaced by snazzy digital platforms showcasing content rolling out starting this fall.

Among them are a series of virtual festivals by Banijay, which acquired Endemol Shine in summer 2020 and boasts a catalog of more than 88,000 hours of programming. Rather than join Mipcom organizer Reed Midem’s virtual Mipcom Online Plus event, the mega-indie is going its own way, as are so many other distributors.

The latest of its planned digital forays is a non-English language scripted festival designed to showcase the group’s eclectic mix of European dramas. These include six-part French show “Germinal,” a modern adaptation of Émile Zola’s classic 1985 coal-mining strike saga; Swedish boarding-school drama “A Class Apart”; and Italian coming-of-age series “My Ballerina,” a co-production with Italy’s Mediaset.

“We have a vast array of...

Sale

John Malone’s multinational telco Liberty Global — owners of “Fleabag” and “1917” producer All3Media and joint owners with Telefonica of the merged Virgin Media and O2 – has reached an agreement sell its Polish operations to the iliad group’s Polish mobile subsidiary Play.

Liberty Global has agreed to sell Upc Poland for a total enterprise value of Pln 7.0 billion ($1.8 billion). The sale price represents a multiple of approximately 9 times Upc Poland’s estimated 2021 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, and nearly 20 times its estimated 2021 operating free cash flow. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2022 and generate approximately $600 million of net cash proceeds to Liberty Global after debt repayment.

Liberty’s networks in Poland serve 1.5 million customers who subscribe to 1.3 million broadband, 1.4 million video, and over 600,000 telephony services.

Acquisition

French-Canadian network Radio-Canada has acquired “Germinal,” the six-part drama based on Émile Zola’s classic 19th century novel,...

Manuel Alduy, a well-respected French film and TV industry veteran who joined France Televisions as head of cinema and international development in January, discussed the broadcaster’s strategy to ramp up its scope and attract younger audiences.

Alduy, who worked at Canal Plus Group for 22 years before joining Twentieth Century Fox in 2016, is making his first public keynote under this new position at France Televisions on Tuesday at Series Mania in Lille.

Alduy said France Televisions will next be launching an initiative with the European Broadcasting Union (Ebu), an alliance of public service media which regroups 100 members across the continent, including the BBC in the U.K., Ard in Germany, Dr in Denmark, Svt in Sweden, Rai in Italy, Channel One Russia and the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, among others. The Ebu is presided by Delphine Ernotte, who was reelected as president of France Televisions for a second, five-year term in July 2020.

Starting next month,...

Mubi's double bill Renoir, Beginnings and Endings is showing September 15 - October 15, 2020 in the United States.Above: NanaJean Renoir, one of the greatest French filmmakers, if not the greatest, was a passionate raconteur. Not only did he write his expansionist memoir, My Life and My Films (1974), and rendered some of his life in prose in his late novels, but, according to his biographer, Pascal Merigeau, he also had a prodigious talent for molding fact into myth.Renoir’s dramatic story begins with his second feature, Nana (1927). Renoir adapted the tale about a striving actress from Émile Zola’s novel, to launch the career of his wife, Catherine Hessling. Hessling dreamed of Hollywood, as eventually did Renoir. Some ten years later, he moved to Los Angeles, where he lived till his death, in 1979. The film’s Nana plays hussies but dreams of a tragic role. When a theater director humiliates her,...

What road should one take when approaching a film like An Officer and a Spy? On one hand, it is a perfectly robust, informative, prestige-y and even timely dramatization of the Dreyfus affair, the infamous late 19th-century political scandal in which a French Jewish soldier was wrongfully imprisoned for treason. On the other hand, it is a story about injustice and prosecution directed by, of all people, Roman Polanski.

So to that first hand: an especially dashing and mustachioed Jean Dujardin stars as George Picquart, the man responsible for pulling the thread from which the Dreyfus scandal ultimately unraveled. Polanski arranges the narrative in much the same way that Mike Leigh did with Peterloo, another film about 19th-century social injustice–and one in which the director carefully set out the names, dates, and people involved before going for the jugular in the final act. The first half of An Officer...

Any controversy that might erupt over Roman Polanski’s decision to implicitly equate himself with one of history’s greatest victims of injustice is dissipated by the resultant film’s tepid listlessness. The filmmaker has scored any number of artistic achievements over the course of his controversial career, but with “An Officer and a Spy” (aka “J’accuse”), he fails to serve as his own Émile Zola.

Zola, of course, helped throw a spotlight on the French government’s cover-up after it unjustly railroaded Jewish army officer Alfred Dreyfus to Devil’s Island following a trumped-up court-martial that incorrectly branded him a spy. In telling the story of how that cover-up was uncovered and investigated, Polanski fails the main requirement of any historical drama: Keep the audience in suspense even when they already know how it comes out.

Polanski knows a thing or two about suspense, as one of the true heirs of Alfred Hitchcock,...

Aside from its slate of international series developed with Zdf and Rai through the Alliance, France Televisions is set to co-produce a flurry of high-profile series aimed at global audiences, notably “Germinal,” “Josephine and Bonaparte” and the adaptation of Guillaume Musso’s bestseller “La jeune fille et la nuit.”

A modern adaptation of Émile Zola’s 1885 masterpiece, “Germinal” tells the story of a coalminers’ strike in northern France in the 1860s. Julien Lilti, the writer of Canal Plus hit series “Hippocrate,” is writing “Germinal” and will likely be collaborating with other writers. Banjiay Rights has come on board to handle international sales on the show which is currently in development.

Nathalie Biancolli, who has been spearheading France Televisions’s push into ambitious international series since joining the company in 2017, told Variety that “Germinal’ continues the pubcaster’s “tradition with historical drama series but will be tackling the genre in a...

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Fritz Lang's Human Desire (1954) is showing from June 28 - July 28, 2018 in the United Kingdom as part of Human Beasts: A Fritz Lang Double Bill.The ringmaster and the architect—in the history of cinema, before the New Hollywood, before the French New Wave, there may be no directors who complement each other as well as Jean Renoir and Fritz Lang. The surface parallels are evident enough: both began their careers in silent cinema, made their most canonical masterpiece in the 1930s, fled to Hollywood as fascism took over Europe, and returned to their homelands after the war to make their final films. Both have a somewhat totemic place in film history, and in neither case is the totem the whole story. As much as he signifies cinematic humanism, Renoir could be an unsentimental and deeply cynical storyteller. And for all the dark cities,...

The silent French film Au Bonheur Des Dames (1930 – aka Ladies’ Paradise) screens Saturday May 6th at 11am at The St. Louis Art Museum (Forest Park, 1 Fine Arts Dr, St. Louis, Mo). The film will be accompanied by Elsie Parker and The Poor People of Paris. Tickets for this event are $15 general admission and $10 for museum members. Tickets can be purchased in advance from Metrotix or by calling 314.534.1111.

Julien Duvivier’s final silent film is a modern retelling of Emile Zola’s panoramic chronicle of mid-19th-century Parisian society, centering on a small fabric shop struggling to survive in the shadow of a luxury department store. With expressionistic shades of Erich von Stroheim and G.W. Pabst, the film captures the rhythms of urban life and creates a stinging portrait of capitalist ruthlessness, class tensions, and sexual competition. Scott Foundas in the Village Voice calls the film “an orgy of pure cinema,...

(l-r) Guillaume Canet as author Emile Zola and Guillaume Gallienne as painter Paul Cezanne, in Daniele Thompson’s biopic Cezanne Et Moi. Photo by Luc Roux. Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures ©

The French film Cezanne Et Moi (“Cezanne and I”) focuses on the real life-long, if sometimes stormy, friendship between a painter and an author. The “moi” in this historical drama is novelist Emile Zola, and the artist is, of course, post-Impressionist painter Paul Cezanne. One has to wonder why the filmmakers didn’t just title the film “Cezanne and Zola.” The title suggests that the story is told from Zola’s point-of-view but while it might favor Zola’s view-point a little, the film actually spends more screen time with Cezanne, wonderfully played by Guillaume Gallienne. Zola is played by French star Guillaume Canet, and the two Guillaumes are terrific in their scenes together

Strong acting, lush visuals, and historical...

This joint biopic of Paul Cézanne and Emile Zola is beautifully produced, but leaves itself too much to cover

The “moi” in this lush, leisurely stroll through art history is Emile Zola (Guillaume Canet), a lifelong friend and sometime romantic rival of the painter Paul Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne). A ribboning timeline weaves together flashbacks to school days with riotous nights of debauchery and an ultimate reversal in social standing. The film wears its luxuriant production design with the same satisfaction as the newly wealthy Zola does his brocade dressing gown. It’s a large canvas to cover, the parallel lives of these complicated, talented men, and the thin, hurried brushstrokes at times suggest a film that might have benefited from a tighter focus.

Continue reading...

This account of the rivalry between Cézanne and Zola – played by Guillaumes Canet and Gallienne – is cinéma du papa with an edge

There is unexpected interest in this period-costume dual biopic of Émile Zola and Paul Cézanne, played by Guillaume Canet and Guillaume Gallienne: a drama about their lifelong, troubled friendship. With its sunkissed locations, frock coats and whiskers – and its incurious attitude to the women in these artists’ lives – it does look rather like a bit of stately cinéma du papa. Yet there is an edge and a mordancy to it.

Zola and Cézanne grow up together, and at first Cézanne looks like one of life’s winners: the son of a wealthy banker whose family money allows him to paint. Meanwhile, Zola scrabbles a living in Paris. But then Zola becomes rich and famous, and Cézanne becomes tortured with envious contempt. They are frenemies and frivals; their...

Author: Stefan Pape

When presenting a biopic whereby the subject is an esteemed artist, there’s an even greater pressure to ensure the cinematic reimagining of their life is an aesthetically gratifying one, and auteur Daniéle Thompson’s does not disappoint, with an alluring, picturesque backdrop worthy of the great painter Paul Cézanne. Sadly, any such homage paid to the film’s supporting lead – the revered, naturalistic novelist Emile Zola – falls short, with a hackneyed screenplay that does not do justice to the great wordsmith, which comes as surprise since it’s penned by Thompson, who was once nominated for an Academy Award in such an area, for the 1975 release Cousin Cousine.

Set in the latter half of the 19th century, we study the caustic, lifelong friendship between Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne) and Zola (Guillaume Canet), told through flashbacks, looking over their school years, up until their later ones. It had been a perpetually tumultuous affair,...

Author: Stefan Pape

Back in January we were fortunate enough to spend a weekend in Paris, interviewing some of the biggest names in French cinema (Isabelle Huppert Ftw) – but none were quite as enjoyable to meet than Guillaume Gallienne. “Do you have a spare fag?” he asked when I walked in – in a near-perfect English accent I had perceived to be a piss-take, mimicking my dialect ahead of our time together. But it wasn’t, for Gallienne is a classically trained theatre act-or – part of La Comédie Francaise – who even spent time living in Britain. His English, at times, was even better than mine.

“I was in England between the ages 13-16, I took my O-Levels there in a boarding school in Hampshire,” he said. “I had English nannies before when I was young. One of them forbid me from running in the rain. Very strange. She found it very common,...

By Jose Solís.

In Cézanne and I, director Danièle Thompson chronicles the ultimate bromance: the lifelong friendship between Emile Zola (Guillaume Canet) and Paul Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne) who went from being schoolmates to becoming two of the most influential artists in history. In the film we see Zola’s literary work flourish, as Cézanne struggles to make a name for himself when his contemporaries fail to see the quality of his work and mock his technique. But rather than being a condescending story about “poor genius men”, the film addresses the terrifying idea that not everyone’s talents are meant to be recognized. I sat down with Gallienne and Thompson to discuss the themes in the film and the challenges of capturing the creative process onscreen.

Jose: Why did you want to make a film about Zola and Cézanne?

DANIÈLE Thompson: I was very intrigued by the fact I knew nothing about their relationship,...

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Three New Movies May Have Trouble Making Much of a Mark

After a couple impressive March weekends with one new box office record, and a couple impressive openings, we’re now into April, and of the new movies, there just doesn’t seem like anything can defeat last week’s powerful duo of DreamWorks Animation’s The Boss Baby--which exceeded all predictions with $49 million, taking the top spot from Beauty and the Beast. Ghost in the Shell didn’t even do as well as I thought it may, opening with just $19 million, those late reviews helping to kill its weekend.

Sony Pictures Animation are giving the loveable blue Smurfs a third go at American audiences with The Smurfs: The Lost Village (Sony), after two previous movies,...

Daniele Thompson’s “Cézanne et Moi” follows the parallel paths of two of France’s most lauded artists: post-impressionist painter Paul Cézanne and novelist Émile Zola. The pair first met at school in Aix-en-Provence and continued to maintain their close relationship as they both became working artists in Paris (with varying success).

Read More: ‘Posthumous’ Exclusive Clip: Jack Huston And Brit Marling Star In Rom-Com About a Struggling Artist’s Mistaken Suicide

Often told through flashbacks, the film chronicles their shared artsy sensibilities and their very different circumstances in life — Zola grew up poor, while Cézanne struggled with his wealthy background — showing off a strong portrait of both the men and their unique bond.

But that doesn’t mean that their relationship was always an easy one, and our exclusive clip shows the often fraught friendship between the two unique men. Check it out below.

“Cezanne et Moi” is currently...

Hungry for fresh nourishment, specialty audiences flocked to new World War II drama “The Zookeeper’s Wife” (Focus Features), directed by Niki Caro and starring Jessica Chastain.

While smart-house moviegoers can be discerning — see Fox Searchlight’s “Wilson” — the holocaust drama overcame modest reviews to score in wider initial release. The dearth of other product should help Focus to find bigger success ahead.

Read More: ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ Director Niki Caro Has a Plan for Fighting Hollywood’s Gender Gap

New openings finding niche interest were led by “David Lynch – The Art Life” (Janus) as smaller films continue to struggle.

At a time of dwindling movie ad revenue, streaming service Netflix took out two full-page ads for five films in both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. They touted four Sundance debuts: “The Discovery” starring Robert Redford and Rooney Mara, which played limited theatrical dates with no grosses reported,...

There is inherently a great risk that filmmakers face while crafting a drama about “great men.” Whether they are artists or politicians, innovators or explorers, there is an oft-irresistible urge to valorize the legend of the person and their accomplishments, rather than delve into their passions, motivations, and weaknesses. Danièle Thompson, director and writer of Cézanne et moi, certainly seems to invite these difficulties by telling the story of not one, but two great men.

Cézanne et moi explores the mercurial friendship of Paul Cézanne (Guillaume Gallienne), the legendary Post-Impressionist painter who heavily influenced some of the greatest 20th century artists like Picasso and Matisse, and Émile Zola (Guillaume Canet), the eponymous “I” and a highly respected novelist and poet of naturalism and political advocate. In grounding the movie in this very real and human relationship — and forgoing many of the more galling and hackneyed “struggles of the artist” conventions — Thompson avoids easy comparisons to,...

Intensive research has killed many a biopic, but Cézanne Et Moi, which recounts the tempestuous lifelong friendship between Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola, labors even more tediously than most to accommodate personal details, whether or not those details serve the narrative. Cézanne and Zola met in childhood—a moment that writer-director Danièle Thompson (Avenue Montaigne) makes cheesy by depicting them shaking hands and exchanging names in the immediate aftermath of a schoolyard brawl—and they spent their youth in the company of another fast friend, Baptistin Baille. The trio were known as “the inseparables,” and we know this, in the movie, because someone passes them on the street and shouts, essentially, “Yo, the inseparables!” (Though that’s not half as clumsy, exposition-wise, as Zola asking “Is Paul here?” at Cézanne’s house and being asked “Paul Cézanne?”) Trouble is, Baille didn’t go on to accomplish anything particularly notable, and...

Guillaume Gallienne: "The script had all the elements, the love and trust of Danièle." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Danièle Thompson's Cézanne Et Moi, starring Guillaume Gallienne as Paul Cézanne and Guillaume Canet as Émile Zola, had its New York premiere on Wednesday, hosted by Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller at The Whitby Hotel, where I had spoken to Wilson director Craig Johnson, screenwriter Daniel Clowes, Woody Harrelson, Laura Dern, Judy Greer and Isabella Amara.

The women in Cézanne's life were his mother Anne-Elisabeth (Sabine Azéma) and wife Hortense (Déborah François also in Claude Lelouch's latest Chacun sa vie). For Zola, his mother Émilie (Isabelle Candelier), wife Alexandrine (Alice Pol -Lelouch's Un + une), and mistress Jeanne (Freya Mavor). Guillaume Gallienne, who played Pierre Bergé in Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent gave some clarity into his vision of Cézanne, his relationship to Zola, and the women around them.

Déborah François...

Guillaume Gallienne and Guillaume Canet are Paul Cézanne and Émile Zola in Danièle Thompson's Cézanne Et Moi

Where else can you find Édouard Manet (Nicolas Gob), Camille Pissarro (Romain Cottard), Guy de Maupassant (Félicien Juttner), Baptistin Baille (Pierre Yvon), Auguste Renoir (Alexandre Kouchner), Ambroise Vollard (Laurent Stocker), Francisco Oller (Pablo Cisneros), Achille Empéraire (Romain Lancry), Père Tanguy (Christian Hecq), Frédéric Bazille (Patrice Tepasso), the great Sabine Azéma as Paul Cézanne's mother, and Glasgow's own Freya Mavor (Joann Sfar's The Lady In The Car With Glasses And A Gun) as the mother to Zola's children - all in one film?

Danièle Thompson on Jean-Marie Dreujou: "He's a wonderful cinematographer." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Déborah François (of Régis Roinsard's Populaire) is Hortense, Cézanne's wife, Alice Pol is Zola's wife Alexandrine, and his mother Émilie is played by Isabelle Candelier. Back and forth in time we jump, from...

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series starts this Friday, March 10th. — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

All films are screened at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints. Even more traditional,...

Painting in cinema seems to be all the rage this spring. Following the trailer for the Canadian feature Maudie, the French biographical drama film Cézanne and I has just recently released a U.S. preview.

Directed by Danièle Thompson of Avenue Montagne and Change of Plans, the film portrays the true story about the friendship between 19th century novelist Émile Zola and painter Paul Cézanne when they first met as schoolmates. The two friends would eventually grow up in search for fame and glory, sparking a feudal rivalry.

On the shortlist for France’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film pick, which would eventually go to Elle, Magnolia Pictures will release the film this April. Judging from the preview, it looks to be a well-composed story of heated friendship. Starring Guillaume Canet, Guillaume Gallienne, Alice Pol, Déborah François and Sabine Azéma, check out the trailer below.

CÉZANNE Et Moi...

"I'd like to paint as you write." Magnolia Pictures has debuted an official Us trailer for Danièle Thompson's biopic drama Cézanne Et Moi, also known as Cézanne and I, about a friendship between two artists. The film tells of the parallel paths between the lives and careers of post-impressionist painter Paul Cézanne and novelist Émile Zola, starting as school pals in Aix-en-Provence to working artists in Paris. Guillaume Gallienne plays Cézanne, and Guillaume Canet plays Zola, with a cast including Alice Pol, Déborah François, Isabelle Candelier, Sabine Azéma, Freya Mavor and Félicien Juttner. This didn't play at any film festivals, but it did already open in European cinemas last year. The film is described as a "polished period piece" that "boldly paints a picture of two 19th century masters." This looks quite good. Take a look. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Danièle Thompson's Cézanne Et Moi,...

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints. Even more traditional, we also offer a silent film with live music, and audiences are sure to delight in the Poor People of Paris...

Damien and Emma in Venice, Fall 2016Happy birthday to Damien Chazelle, who turns 32 today! He's already an Oscar nominee for writing Whiplash (2014) and he will easily boost his tally this coming Tuesday when he may well nab two nominations for writing and directing La La Land. If he wins Best Director he'll become the youngest person to ever win, beating a record set way back in 1931 by Norman Taurog for Skippy... who was 32½ when he won.

If you aren't dancing for joy at La La Land's success (and you should be... an original musical heading towards a blockbuster gross is great for the future of the genre!) here are other people and things you can celebrate today. Celebrate something since life isn't worth living otherwise in this brink of the apocalypse world.

Other Things To Celebrate...

1809 Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston and life was harsh from the...

Get these two a set of friendship bracelets, already.

Viola Davis and Meryl Streep proved their ultimate #FriendshipGoals status this week -- first at Viola's Walk of Fame ceremony, then at the Golden Globe Awards.

On Thursday, Meryl took the podium in Hollywood to heap praise on her Doubt co-star as she was honored with a star on Hollywood Blvd.

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"Viola Davis is possessed. She is possessed to the blazing, incandescent power. She is arguably the most immediate, responsive artist I have ever worked with," she said. "She's so alive, she glistens. She plants herself in a scene where she has no words and she writes paragraphs with her eyes. She's a force of nature . . . and she's the most generous, present person I know. She has earned every step on the ladder to the leadership position she now enjoys in this business."

Watch: Viola Davis on Meryl Streep Speaking at Her Walk of Fame Ceremony...

Viola Davis' own experiences with sexual assault led her to become an advocate for the Rape Foundation, the actress explained in a powerful speech Sunday. Davis, 51, opened up about her experience with the group while being honored at the Rape Foundation's Annual Brunch in Beverly Hills. "Myself, my mother, my sisters, my friend Rebecca, my friend from childhood, we all have one thing in common: We are all survivors of sexual assault in some way, shape or form," said the How to Get Away with Murder star."Listen, when I was young, there were so many men in the...

Viola Davis' own experiences with sexual assault led her to become an advocate for the Rape Foundation, the actress explained in a powerful speech Sunday.

Davis, 51, opened up about her experience with the group while being honored at the Rape Foundation's Annual Brunch in Beverly Hills.

"Myself, my mother, my sisters, my friend Rebecca, my friend from childhood, we all have one thing in common: We are all survivors of sexual assault in some way, shape or form," said the How to Get Away with Murder star.

"Listen, when I was young, there were so many men in the...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Rialto Pictures has announced the return to theaters of Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1966 masterpiece “The Battle of Algiers,” this year celebrating its 50th anniversary with a stunning new 4K restoration. The restoration has the distinction of being selected for all three major international film festivals this fall: Venice, New York and Toronto. The film originally premiered at Venice in 1966 and was the opening night selection of the 4th New York Film Festival in 1967.

Theatrical runs begin on October 7 at New York’s Film Forum, Landmark’s Nuart in Los Angeles and E Street Cinema in Washington, D.C., followed by a major city roll-out through the fall.

– Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Academy Award nominated...

Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to writer-director Danièle Thompson's Cezanne et Moi, a French-language period drama about the decade-long friendship between painter Paul Cezanne and novelist Emile Zola. Guillaume Gallienne and Guillaume Canet star. Cézanne was born into a wealthy family but struggled to make a living as a painter, while Zola came from a poor background but achieved notoriety as a novelist. The film traces their parallel paths from…...

The distributor has picked up North American rights from Pathé International to French writer-director Danièle Thompson’s period drama.

Cézanne Et Moi stars Guillaume Canet and Guillaume Gallienne as the 19th century post-Impressionist painter and novelist Emile Zola.

The film chronicles the decade-long friendship between the friends and traces the parallel paths of their lives and careers from Aix-en-Provence to Paris.

Albert Koski produced through his G Films.

Pathé International introduced the film to buyers at the Afm last year and has since closed deals with Germany (Prokino), Scandinavia (Njuta Films), Belgium (Alternative), Hong Kong (Edko), Japan (Cetera), the Middle East (Gulf Film) and the Netherlands (Cherry Pickers).

Rights have also gone to Brazil (Moviebridge), Portugal (Cinemundo), South Korea (Green Narae), Taiwan (Joint Entertainment), Turkey (Bir Film) and Greece (Feelgood).

Magnolia Pictures president Eamonn Bowles said: “Audiences will relish the opportunity to experience the relationship between these two legendary artists in Danièle’s compelling and moving film.”

”Cézanne Et Moi...

It's the time-honored tale of the cuckolded lover, his heartless woman and 'the other guy,' told in terms that Émile Zola would endorse. Jean Renoir's first full-length talkie is a little masterpiece of social observation and indifference to sentimental niceties. Michel Simon is terrific as the clerk who has a tough time with illicit love. La chienne Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 818 1931 / B&W / 1:19 flat full frame / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date June 14, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant, Magdeleine Bérubet, Roger Gaillard. Cinematography Theodore Sparkuhl Film Editor Marguerite Renoir Written by Jean Renoir, André Mouézy-Éon from the book by Georges de la Fouchardière Produced by Pierre Braunberger, Roger Richebé Directed by Jean Renoir

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

We American film students learned about Jean Renoir's La chienne only in the context of its remake. It's an earlier version of the book by Georges de la Fouchardière, that was also adapted for Fritz Lang's 1945 noir Scarlet Street. Renoir's film has never been readily available here in the States, an oversight now corrected with Criterion's new Blu-ray. The good news is that the French restoration of this tale of vice and virtue is beyond good -- the movie looks absolutely new. The even better news is that the movie is a revelation, the equal of Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning. This is the kind of movie that might suffer in a bad presentation -- the ability to soak up its atmosphere and detail makes all the difference. Yes, the title does translate as The Bitch, a straight-up vulgarism. The story parallels most of the same events of the Lang version. A puppet theater prologue tells us that story has no moral, no lesson to be learned. Company cashier clerk Maurice Legrand (Michel Simon) is a meek, henpecked husband and a Sunday painter. Maurice's wife Adèle (Magdaleine Bérubet) harangues him about her beloved first husband, to whom he'll never measure up; work colleagues make fun of the meek Maurice behind his back. Late at night Maurice meets Lucienne Pelletier (Janie Marèse), who he does not realize is the sometime-prostitute of Dédé (Georges Flamant), a vain, brutish punk who takes the money she squeezes from the men she meets and beds. He beats her for good measure, but she seems to enjoy it. Maurice has soon installed Lucienne in a love nest. He tells Adèle that he's thrown his paintings away, but instead puts them on the walls of Lucienne's apartment. She and Dédé have the mistaken impression that Maurice is rich, but he keeps her by stealing money from his wife, and eventually, the office safe. Then something unusual happens. Dédé tries to sell Maurice's paintings as the work of Lucienne, and has success. She is soon signing his paintings as a supposedly well-known American artist named Clara Wood. Critic Langelard (Alexandre Rignault of Eyes without a Face) promotes 'Clara's' art because she offers him sexual favors. Dédé makes much better money pimping Lucienne in the art world, than he did on the street. Far too naturalistic, 'earthy' and sordid for anything Hollywood might have produced in 1931, Renoir's La chienne turns a 'way of all flesh' tale into a sharp criticism of society. The milquetoast Maurice Legrand is too naïve to realize that he's being had by Lucienne, a femme fatale well versed in hooking wealthy, vulnerable clients. Lucienne herself is a romantic fool, hopelessly in love, or lust, with a man who treats her like dirt. The more abuse Dédé dishes out, she just comes back for more. When Maurice declares his desire to take Lucienne away, she laughs in his face without a shred of sympathy or basic respect. Stories like this do not have happy endings, and La chienne's main task is to imply that the art world is as big a racket as prostitution. 'Clara Wood's' paintings become big sellers because Dédé pimps Lucienne to a critic willing to praise them for sex. The art dealer and the critic collude to tout 'Clara's' paintings to new clients, one of whom we see getting quality time with the artist as well. As director Renoir was of course the son of the famous painter Auguste Renoir, it's easy to see a personal connection in the critical view of Art as a business. Renoir used live location audio, adding greatly to the film's realism. As there was not as yet any audio mixing for French films, the tracks are beautifully miked to pick up ambient sounds. We even hear the clacking of Lucienne's shoes on the cobblestoned streets. Theodor Sparkuhl's night exteriors are every bit as sophisticated as later low-key, deep focus work in '30s poetic realism and '40s film noir. The rain we see in some scenes may be real as well. The film isn't about crime and retribution, but the grand ironies of 'the oldest story,' a foolish love that leads to murder. The tale turns comic when Maurice has to deal with a man from Adèle's past, who turns up unexpectedly and then figures in the even more ironic ending. The three main characters are just terrific. Michel Simon is a very different character than his bohemian Boudu from the following year. The actor is also far thinner than we're used to seeing him, in films made just a few years later. Janie Marèse is as dangerous a female as ever hooked a man. Lucienne's unreasoning, limitless love for Dédé makes her pure poison for a defenseless fellow like Maurice. Georges Flamant also demonstrates great skill as a thorough, unrepentant louse. Comparing La chienne with Lang's Scarlet Street sets the difference between the humanist and determinist filmmakers in strong relief. Both Renoir and Lang see the events as an unstoppable consequence of human nature, but Renoir's view is much warmer. Maurice lives in a full spectrum of human interaction, even if most people take him for a fool. But he's essentially a warm and accepting person, and his one moment of violent rage is fully understandable. When all is said and done, with his life ruined, Maurice can still laugh at the absurdity of it all. Life goes on, somehow. Lang's version is a chilly noir thesis that makes its innocent hero (Edward G. Robinson) a more innocent victim, not only of Joan Bennett's cheap tart, but of his employers and society itself. His rich boss doesn't even have to hide the fancy woman he keeps on the side, whereas Robinson's wife keeps him around mainly to wash dishes. As one expects from Lang, the plot twists are sharper, wickedly ironic and cruelly merciless. Lang doesn't believe in 'live and let live'.' Haunted by what he's done, his poor hero goes insane. Life does not go on. Renoir's film has a music theme under the titles but I believe the rest of its music is organic, always with a source in the scenes. The beautifully filmed murder takes place with a ballad singer entertaining in the street. Unable to protest when his wife compares him unfavorably to her first husband, the long-lost soldier, Maurice instead sings a mocking children's song about a soldier who went to war and didn't come back. [When we screened La chienne, my wife jumped up immediately at the sound of the song. It has a nearly identical Spanish counterpart, "Mambrú Se Fue A La Guerra." Mambrú went to war, and if he comes back it'll only be at Easter and Christmas. Most likely, it'll be never. To my mind it's a great children's song because it reflects the reality of war glory. There's the Sunday Savant culture lesson for you.] The Criterion Collection's Blu-ray of La chienne is simply terrific -- it looks much better than many expensively restored American movies from this year. The producer must have kept the picture and audio masters in perfect conditions. The rich images display a modulated granularity that heavy digital processing would surely have removed. Being from 1931 the sound does carry a light surface noise. The extras explain that a few lines recorded on location are weak, but I didn't notice as I of course was reading the English subtitles. It's a welcome disc indeed. Christopher Faulkner hosts the 25-minute overview featurette. He covers the love triangle that developed among the actors during filming, and the sad fate of the film's star Janie Marèse. Faulkner places the film in Jean Renoir's career, explaining that in the 1920s the director was often adjudged a dilettante. He had to prove himself before the producers would let him do a sound feature. Here in its entirety is Renoir's short (50 minute) film On purge bébé from the same year, a talkie Renoir was obliged to film to prove he could handle sound. The title translates as Baby's Laxative -- it's a comedy from a play by George Feydeau, about a manufacturer of chamber pots whose son is constipated! Michel Simon is a visitor to the house, where Baby's parents carry on a marriage squabble suitable for a music hall farce. Playing a small supporting part is a young Fernandel. On purge bébé must have been kept in the same magic film can as the main feature, for it is fully restored and just as perfect. Jean Renoir offers one of those introductions filmed for French TV in the early '60. Much rarer is a 90-minute 1967 TV show hosted by Jacques Rivette, in which both Jean Renoir and Michel Simon reminisce about their careers and La chienne. The precise, informative insert essay is by Ginette Vincendeau; and the attractive cover art is by 'Blutch.' Criterion's disc producer is Elizabeth Pauker. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, La chienne Blu-ray rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent very surprisingly so Sound: Excellent Supplements: Introduction to the film from 1961 by director Jean Renoir, New interview with Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner, New restoration of On purge bébé (1931), Jean Renoir le patron: 'Michel Simon' a 95-minute 1967 French television program featuring a conversation between Renoir and Simon, directed by Jacques Rivette, Essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau. Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? Yes; Subtitles: English Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: June 12, 2016 (5139chie)

Visit DVD Savant's Main Column Page Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail: dvdsavant@mindspring.com

Text © Copyright 2016 Glenn Erickson...

We already celebrated the 7th nominations of both Cate Blanchett and Kate Winslet on the day of the nominations so what shall we celebrate today now that we're exactly one week from Hollywood's High Holy Night?

Hmmm. The Martian? It does have seven nominations but don't feel like it today. So let's just go with the year sevens. Oscar's choices, biggest box office, and our favorites here. 

1937: Oscar: Life of Emile Zola; Public: Snow White; Tfe: The Awful Truth

1947: Oscar: Gentleman's Agreement; Public: Road to Rio; Tfe: Black Narcissus

1957: Oscar: Bridge on the River Kwai; Public: Bridge on...; Tfe: A Face in the Crowd

1967: Oscar: In the Heat of the Night; Public: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?; Tfe: Bonnie & Clyde It's worth reminding you here that Mark Harris's book about this year in film "Pictures at a Revolution" is one of the best movie books ever.

Exclusive: Teams behind Carol and Still Alice partner on period-biopic due to shoot in May.

Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game) is in advanced talks to star in biopic Colette, written by Still Alice team Wash Westmoreland and the late Richard Glatzer.

Westmoreland is set to direct the feature from Carol producers Number 9 Films and Killer Films.

Nightcrawler and Whiplash backers Bold Films will finance and co-produce the English-language title, marking the company’s first foray into the UK. Filming is due to commence in May in Budapest.

HanWay Films, which is on a roll following Oscar-nominations for Brooklyn, Carol and Anomalisa, will handle world sales. Additional casting is underway.

Pam Koffler and Christine Vachon (Carol, Still Alice) produce for Killer Films and Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley (Carol, Made in Dagenham) will produce for Number 9, which is currently in post-production on Juan Carlos Medina’s The Limehouse Golem and Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest Hour And A Half.

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