Noticias

“Lol: Last One Laughing,” the Amazon Prime blockbuster comedy format that’s been adapted in over 20 territories, is set for a bold French spinoff that involves hidden cameras.

Whereas the original format sees famous comedians cooped up in a house where they compete to make each other laugh and keep a straight face, “Lol in Real Life” will take six celebrity contestants out in random public places in France and among anonymous people who don’t know about the game. All their interactions will be filmed by hidden cameras.

Ordered by Thomas Dubois, head of France at Amazon MGM Studios, the spinoff will introduce new rules which will require the six celebrities to make as many people as possible laugh, whether they’re fellow contestants or anonymous folks. Each laugh is worth one point. At the end of the 6-hour game, the two celebrities with the most points will reach the final.

Muriel Robin as criminal psych professor Louise Arbus, in French crime series “Master Crimes” on MHz Choice. Courtesy of MHz Choice

The French crime series “Master Crimes: Season One” offers a nice balance among the murders-du-jour, character development and levity. The six 45-minute episodes cover five different cases to be solved by criminal psych professor Louise Arbus (Muriel Robin), police detective Barbara Delandre (Anne Le Nen) and Arbus’ quartet of students she hand-picked for her team.

Arbus had been an exceptionally successful police profiler until she quit a decade earlier due to a conviction she’d obtained that haunted her ever since with doubts about whether they’d nailed the actual perp. That’s why she’d ensconced herself in academia, apart from periodic inquiries into who might have committed that murder most foul. But one particularly dramatic homicide caused her old friend the Chief (Olivier Claverie) to convince her to reenter the fray.

French industry to descend on La Rochelle to premiere high-end drama series to the world.

Disney+’s French original Irrésistible, Canal+ legal drama Conviction, TF1’s Behind Closed Doors from Coda producers’ Jerico TV and Swedish thriller Evil are among the French and European titles that will premiere at France’s Festival de la Fiction, taking place in La Rochelle from September 12-17.

The event, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023, has long been a popular ‘back-to-school’ festival for the French industry, with a strong focus on French series, Its international appeal is growing and it has become a significant launchpad for European content.

Christophe Honoré with photographs of Federico Fellini's 81/2 star, Sandra Milo Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Christophe Honoré's vividly mischievous Sophie’s Misfortunes, based on the Comtesse de Ségur's books, Les Malheurs De Sophie and Les Petites Filles Modèles, has a score by Alex Beaupain and David Sztanke, influenced by music the director himself liked as a child. Golshifteh Farahani (Madame de Réan), Anaïs Demoustier (Madame de Fleurville) and Muriel Robin (Madame Fichini) play the mothers in Sophie's (Caroline Grant) world. She and her playmates, Camille (Céleste Carrale), Madeleine (Justine Morin) and Paul (Tristan Farge) show us that the dawn belongs to children.

Madeleine, Camille, Sophie, and Paul in Sophie’s Misfortunes

Christophe explains a reference to me from Jean Vigo's Zéro De Conduite, says Sophie’s Misfortunes isn't John Lasseter's Toy Story, and happily notes that doing a film for children helped him "clean up" his cinema by...

Caroline Grant as Sophie de Réan in Christophe Honoré's marvelous gem Sophie’s Misfortunes

Little Sophie (Caroline Grant) who lives in a château with her mother, Madame de Réan (Golshifteh Farahani) is an explorer with endless curiosity and a stubborn streak. Some parents might find her dangerous. Children won't. She is closer to Hayao Miyazaki heroines than Disney princesses. Sophie's Misfortunes (Les Malheurs De Sophie) co-written with Gilles Taurand (Katell Quillévéré's medical thriller Réparer Les Vivants) is Christophe Honoré's inciting take on the Comtesse de Ségur's 1858 children's book classics.

Madame Fichini (Muriel Robin) with Sophie: "I think that this mother is the one that Sophie most resembles."

Sophie's cousin Paul (Tristan Farge) and her pals Camille (Céleste Carrale) and Madeleine (Justine Morin), daughters of the almost too perfect Madame de Fleurville (Anaïs Demoustier) accompany her on their misadventures. Madame Fichini (Muriel Robin) is the perfect evil stepmother.

Tune in alert for some films premiering on TV5MONDE next week. TV5MONDE is available in all major markets via Dish and Cable. Marie-Line Monday, November 8 3:35am Et / 12:35am Pt Cesar Award nominee for Best Actress in her role as Marie-Line, Muriel Robin proves that she can take on a serious role and is a force to be reckoned with on the big screen in Marie-Line. As supervisor of an all-female cleaning crew, most of whom are immigrants and fear the ever-present risk of deportation, Marie-Line.s relationship with her employees is rigid and strict, but she develops a profound and unexpected relationship with them. Faced with police raids, sexism, racism and other everyday indignities, Marie-Line holds...

Being a movie enthusiast can be depressing for women, especially when "majors" believe they only adore romantic films and, to a lesser extent, comedies. Despite a few plot holes, Le bal des actrices is worth your time. In fact, the film tries - by taking the form of a documentary - its best to address the difficulties that actresses face in the movie industry.

A female movie director (Maïwenn Le Besco) is making a documentary about what it means to be an actress in France with an Hdv camera. In the process, Maïwenn conducts interviews actresses that are either well-known, more or less known and unknown.

Mélanie Doutey, a blockbuster actress, receives a lot of script to read, clothes/jewels from fashion companies (ex: Chanel) to wear at big-shot events and deals from magazines that want to put her face (note from the editor: and what a lovely one!) on their cover.

Next week blogging will return to normal but this weekend I'm mostly offline. That's normally hard for me (My name is Nathaniel and I'm an internet addict) but this wedding weekend is such a blast that I haven't much though of movies... except for when we passed the Alamo Ritz earlier.

Before I left I took in my last Tribeca film, All About Actresses [Q & A] which is a French mockumentary about actresses and their neurosis. The actresses play themselves... but comedic false versions of themselves. The writer/director/star Maïwenn looked So familiar to me and I just couldn't place her. This is what IMDb is for. Turns out she played the diva Plavalaguna in The Fifth Element. Well, how about that? I always loved her scene in that movie. Her new film is... unusual... but despite my francophilia, I feel like more knowledge of French cinema would have definitely helped...

British broadcasters, led by the BBC, racked up a half-dozen of the key programming awards at the 35th annual International Emmy awards Monday night in New York.

The Street, a Granada Television production for BBC1, won for best drama series.

Street star Jim Broadbent shared best actor honors with Pierre Bokma, who was cited for his role in VPRO Television/IdtV Film BV's The Chosen One (the Netherlands).

Death of a President (Borough Films for More4, U.K.), about the fictional assassination of the U.S. president, won for best TV movie/miniseries. It debuted as a film at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and ran as a miniseries in the U.K.

Muriel Robin took home a solo trophy as best actress for playing the Black Widow title role on Ramona/ FTBF/To Do Today Prods. production of Marie Besnard: The Poisoner, a French production.

The academy's attempts to broaden the international list of winners worked in the category of children and young people, where Poland's TVP SA won for the live-action fairy tale The Magic Tree.

In addition to the programming nods, Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore received the I-Emmy Founders Award for his work against global warming and for launching the news channel Current TV.