Notizie

“The Little Sister,” Hafsia Herzi’s feature that earlier this year won Cannes’ best actress award for Nadia Melliti and the Queer Palm after bowing in competition at the festival, has been acquired for the U.S.

Strand Releasing has bought the film, which will have its next major festival appearance in Toronto. The deal was negotiated by Strand’s Jon Gerrans and mk2’s Quentin Bohanna.

Directed by French actress and filmmaker Herzi, “The Little Sister” is a coming-of-age story about a French-Algerian teenager exploring her sexuality while navigating her Muslim faith.

Adapted from the novel by Fatima Daas, the film follows 17-year-old Fatima (Melliti), the youngest of three daughters, who is forced to tread carefully as she searches for her own path, grappling with emerging desires, her attraction to women and her loyalty to her caring French-Algerian family. Starting at university in Paris, she dates, makes friends and explores a whole new world,...

In this edition of Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, director Hafsia Herzi talks about her first Cannes Competition experience as a filmmaker with The Little Sister, an adaptation of Fatima Daas autobiographical novel The Last One.

It’s the story of a young lesbian Muslim woman who lives in the Parisian suburbs. Herzi loved the book and decided to make the film because she had “never seen a character like that on the big screen” - she is played by newcomer Nadia Melliti.

In the interview she talks about the “surprises” Cannes always brings, like having lunch with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson,...

Actress-filmmaker (she forever stole our cinephile heart for her role in Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain back in 2007) Hafsia Herzi has made a striking impression adored on the Croisette with Tu mérites un amour (2019) locking up a premiere in the Critics’ Week and Bonne Mère (2021) being showcased in the Un Certain Regard section. Now, with La Petite Dernière (The Little Sister) she is one of very few films representing French cinema in comp this year.

The fifth film in competition was shot this past May. This third feature stars Aloïse Sauvage, Anouar Kardellas, Luna Ribeiro, Elisa Libri, Nacer Bouhanni, Olivia Courbis, Vincent Pasdermadjian, Rita Benmanana, Victorien Bonnet, and Nemo Schiffman.…...

It’s been seven years since Cate Blanchett led 82 women up the red carpet in protest at the male dominance of the world’s biggest film festival. Some progress has been made since then — the number of female Palme d’Or winners has tripled in the meantime — but Cannes is still a long way from gender parity. But though the numbers aren’t there yet (there are just seven female directors in Competition this year), the dial is moving in different and very welcome ways, bringing in new types of female-fronted stories.

The Little Sister is French actress Hafsia Herzi’s third feature, but it has the freshness of a debut, which sounds like a back-handed compliment but actually isn’t. Adapting Fatima Daas’s semi-autobiographical 2022 novel The Last One, the story of a young gay Muslim woman’s sexual awakening, Herzi confidently takes what could have been a traditional...

Just like American cinema never wearies of road movies, French cinema has long been littered with sexual coming-of-age films: tales of young people exploring their bodies, appetites and identities over the course of a sun-soaked summer vacation, a tumultuous school year or a few formatively horny days.

As with any popular category of movie, a certain numbing redundancy — if not laziness — sets in after a while; few recent entries have had the tingle of discovery that allowed Maurice Pialat’s To Our Loves, André Téchiné’s Wild Reeds and various Catherine Breillat works to fire up our memories and imaginations, to say nothing of our loins.

Occasionally, however, a new one comes along that cuts right through the crowd with its confidence and texture, its erotic charge and lingering nostalgic ache. Hafsia Herzi’s superb The Little Sister (La petite dernière), about a French Muslim teenager’s lesbian awakening, is such a film,...

Hafsia Herzi’s breakout turn in 2007’s “The Secret of the Grain” catapulted her from obscurity to stardom, establishing her as a mainstay of French cinema. Just over a decade later, she redefined her artistic path with her self-produced directorial debut, “You Deserve a Lover,” which premiered out of Critics’ Week in 2019.

Lately, both sides of her career have reached new heights: she recently won the César for best actress for the crime thriller “Borgo,” and now enters the Palme d’Or competition with “The Little Sister.” This latest directorial outing reunites much of the crew from her scrappy debut — a loyal team that also worked with her on “Good Mother,” which screened in Un Certain Regard in 2021.

“I just got tired of waiting,” Herzi says of her leap into directing. “I’d always dreamed of doing something fast, a bit thrown together. One day I just said, let’s go.

Exclusive: It has been a year of firsts for French actress and director Hafsia Herzi.

In February, she became the first French artist of North African ancestry to win Best Actress in the 50th edition of France’s César awards for her performance in Corsica-set drama Borgo, as a prison guard suspected of being an accomplice in a double murder.

Three months later, she is in Competition in Cannes for the first time with her third feature film The Little Sister.

This success has not come out of the blue.

Herzi, who was born in France to parents of Algerian and Tunisian origin, has been steadily building her career ever since being discovered in Abdellatif Kechiche’s Coucous (La Graine et Le Mulet) in 2007. Having since racked up 60 credits as an actress, she moving into directing in 2010.

Her first feature You Deserve A Lover played in Cannes Critics’ Week in...

Hafsia Herzi will be setting her sights on her third outing as early as next year. We’ve known Herzi as the face of Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain and in Mark Jackson’s last pair of films in War Story and This Teacher, but she has firmly made her place as a filmmaker with two Cannes Film Festival selected films of You Deserve a Lover (2019) and Bonne Mère (2021).

Currently toplining Stéphane Demoustier’s Ibiza (formerly titled Borgo), and with the status of Patricia Mazuy’s Portraits trompeurs unknown, Herzi recently received some coin for La Petite Dernière (back in March) and will likely be going through some extensive casting to find the film’s lead.…...

Nora

Hafsia Herzi returns with her sophomore feature Nora in 2021, produced by Said Ben Said. Starring Sabrina Benhamed, Halima Benhamed, Justine Gregory and Noemie Casari, she reunites with cinematographer Jeremie Attard (Spring Blossom). Herzi’s 2019 debut Tu mérites un amour (You Deserve a Lover) premiered in Critic’s Week at the Cannes Film Festival, but she is best known for her sterling work with Abdellatif Kechiche, her performance in his 2007 film The Secret of the Grain netting her the Marcello Mastroianni Award at the Venice Film Festival as well as a Cesar for Most Promising Actress.…...

Despite the writer/director's light touch, there's a depressing familiarity to the themes of Ivaylo Hristov's latest film, which is screening in competition in Tallinn. From In The Heat Of The Night and Blazing Saddles to Li'l Quinquin and Couscous, the list of movies tackling small-town racism is extensive and global. Cleverly, Hristov skewers the worst of this through absurdist humour, while also nudging his audience to think about the, perhaps less overt, ways they make value judgements about those they have never met.

In Bulgaria, somewhere near the Turkish border, the residents of a town have fixated their fears on the refugees who pass by and who are mostly hoping for a better life in Germany. Hristov goes beyond the basics, weaving a character study into this tale, as we meet Sveta (Svetlana Yancheva) a widow whose loneliness has just been made complete by the loss of her job in a school -.

Variety is teaming with Unifrance, an agency that promotes French cinema around the world, to focus attention on four emerging talents in the French movie industry as part of Unifrance’s “New Faces of French Cinema” program. Here Variety profiles the rising filmmakers: Justine Triet, Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, Hafsia Herzi and Mati Diop.

Mati Diop

Born to a family of musicians and filmmakers, raised in France, and trained at the Le Fresnoy National Studio of Contemporary Arts, Diop has already built an impressive track record on the international circuit.

She’s taken her short- and medium-length films to festivals in Marseille, Venice and Montreal, collecting prizes left, right and center, and has starred in acclaimed works from directors including Claire Denis and Antonio Campos.

This year she’ll make history as the first black female filmmaker to compete for the Palme d’Or with her feature debut, “Atlantics.” She said she...

The 58th edition of Critics’ Week has unveiled its program for this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The section welcomes first or second features and boasts a number of debuts which will be eligible for the Camera d’Or in 2019. Oscar-nominated Embrace Of The Serpent filmmaker Ciro Guerra is chairing the jury which will screen seven features in competition and 10 short films.

Three special screenings are also included in the lineup, among them the first feature directing effort of Hafsia Herzi. The Secret Of The Grain star’s Tu Mérites Un Amour is described as a passionate love story and an assured debut. Also in special screenings are Franco Lolli’s Litigante, which will open CW, and Heroes Don’t Die, a feature debut from Aude Léa Rapin that stars Adèle Haenel.

The competition titles include Vivarium, the second work by Irish filmmaker Lorcan Finnegan (Without Name). It stars Imogen Poots...

Lorcan Finnegan’s science-fiction thriller “Vivarium” with Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots, Jérémy Clapin’s fantasy-filled animated feature “I Lost My Body,” and Hlynur Pálmason’s Icelandic drama “A White, White Day” are among the 11 films set to compete at Critics’ Week, the section dedicated to first and second films that runs parallel with the Cannes Film Festival.

“Vivarium,” described by Critics’ Week’s artistic director Charles Tesson as reminiscent of “The Twilight Zone” and “The Truman Show,” follows a young couple (Eisenberg and Poots) who have just moved into a new housing development and find themselves in a maze of identical homes and a surreal world.

“A White, White Day” marks Pálmason’s follow up to his 2017 feature debut, “Winter Brothers,” which won three prizes at Locarno, followed by a healthy festival run. “A White, White Day” stars Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson (“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”) as an...

French filmmakers Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh met at university while studying political science before diverging towards separate careers. Trouilh trained in documentary filmmaking; Liatard worked on urban artistic projects in Lebanon and France. They eventually joined back up to film three shorts: “Gagarine,” a Sundance Channel Shorts Competition Jury Prize winner in 2016; “The Republic of Enchanters”; and their latest, “Blue Dog,” which is in competition at UniFrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival, available on VOD platforms around the world.

In “Blue Dog” the pair weaves a story of inclusion along with one rooted in a father-and-son relationship, all in a mixed tone of realism and fable. “The movie enlightens the strength of the community against isolation, especially in the kind of neighborhood we are filming,” they say.

Can you talk a bit about the story in “Blue Dog”?

It’s the story of Emile, a 60-year-old man, living in a social housing...

Abdellatif Kechiche is a controversial filmmaker, to say the least. He is perhaps best known for his films “The Secret of the Grain” and, of course, the Palme d’Or-winning film “Blue is the Warmest Color.” The director has been known, especially on the latter film, to be difficult to work with. But his latest controversy is perhaps much more severe. You see, Kechiche has now been accused of sexual assault.

Continue reading ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ Filimmaker Abdellatif Kechiche Accused Of Sexual Assault at The Playlist.

Abdellatif Kechiche, the French director best known for helming “Blue is the Warmest Color,” has been accused of sexual assaulting a young actress, Deadline reports. The woman, who is remaining anonymous for now, filed a complaint with French police at the beginning of October, alleging Kechiche assaulted her at a dinner party in Paris in June. Kechiche’s lawyer says the director “categorically denies” the accusation.

According to Deadline, French police have started a preliminary investigation into the accusation. The actress says the alleged assault took place at an apartment located in the 20th Arrondissement in Paris. The apartment was owned by a mutual friend of Kechiche and the actress.

Kechiche is famous for sharing the Palme d’Or with actresses Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Despite “Blue Is the Warmest Color” being championed by many critics and moviegoers, some have criticized Kechiche’s male...

Exploring the female gaze in a unique and rather taboo fashion, Of Skin and Men (L’Amour des hommes) tells the story of a recent widow who begins taking eroticized photographs of the men around her Tunisian neighborhood.

Marked by an assured lead turn from The Secret of the Grain star Hafsia Herzi, this third feature by director Mehdi Ben Attia (I’m Not Dead) can be dramatically clunky in places and feels stretched a bit too thin. Yet it nonetheless offers an intriguing portrait of a young woman overcoming grief by exploring the flesh of the opposite sex, even if she...

Though far from the best Abdellatif Kechiche movie, “Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno” is certainly the most Abdellatif Kechiche movie. Running just over three hours, the film is the first in a planned trilogy (number two is already finished; three has yet to be shot) that promises the definitive taxonomy of the “Blue is the Warmest Color” maestro at his best and worst. “Canto Uno” alone finds Kechiche returning to the themes and aesthetic approaches that have made him one of France’s most richly acclaimed contemporary voices, while at the same time seriously over-indulging in the leery excesses that place him among the country’s most controversial ones as well.

As in “The Secret of the Grain,” this latest film also about very specific Franco-Tunisian identity, but apart from two opening quotations explicitly designed to point out the similarities between the Koran and the New Testament, the director isn...

The long-awaited follow-up to French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche’s Cannes-winning Blue Is the Warmest Color is called Mektoub My Love: Canto Uno and is indeed, well, long. Clocking in at 186 minutes, this is an overly indulgent tale of insouciant summer dalliances between pretty youngsters set in 1994 Sete, the quiet Mediterranean coastal town that was also the backdrop for the director's The Secret of the Grain. Besides the always reliable Salim Kechiouche, who has been working in French cinema and theater since the mid-1990s, the cast is composed of fresh-faced, ready-for-anything newcomers who were no-doubt eager to work with the ...

The long-awaited follow-up to French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche’s Cannes-winning Blue Is the Warmest Color is called Mektoub My Love: Canto Uno and is indeed, well, long. Clocking in at 186 minutes, this is an overly indulgent tale of insouciant summer dalliances between pretty youngsters set in 1994 Sete, the quiet Mediterranean coastal town that was also the backdrop for the director's The Secret of the Grain. Besides the always reliable Salim Kechiouche, who has been working in French cinema and theater since the mid-1990s, the cast is composed of fresh-faced, ready-for-anything newcomers who were no-doubt eager to work with the ...

The long-awaited follow-up to French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche’s Cannes-winning Blue is the Warmest Color is called Mektoub My Love: Canto Uno and is indeed, well, long. Clocking in at 186 minutes, this is an overly indulgent tale of insouciant summer dalliances between pretty youngsters set in 1994 Sete, the quiet Mediterranean coastal town that was also the backdrop of his The Secret of the Grain. Besides the always reliable Salim Kechiouche, who has been working in French cinema and theater since the mid-1990s, the cast is composed of fresh-faced, ready-for-anything newcomers who were no-doubt eager to work with the director...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Folk Hero & Funny Guy (Jeff Grace)

The bond of male friendship is examined – and tested – in Folk Hero & Funny Guy, a short and sweet dramedy from multi-hyphenate Jeff Grace, who writes and directs. We meet comedian Paul (Alex Karpovsky) at the end of a tired stand-up routine in a beer-stained comedy club. Meanwhile, Paul’s childhood friend Jason (Wyatt Russell) has built a successful career for himself as a folk music star.

Exclusive: Pre-buys include Abdellatif Kechiche’s next film after Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

Curzon Artificial Eye has secured UK rights a trio of high-profile art-house titles in the shape of Yorgos Lanthimos’s anticipated drama The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Abdellatif Kechiche’s follow up to Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Mektoub is Mektoub, and Berlin winner Insyriated.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer reunites director Lanthimos with The Lobster star Colin Farrell who plays Steven, a charismatic surgeon forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart and the behaviour of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

Co-starring are Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone and former Screen Stars Of Tomorrow Barry Keoghan and Raffey Cassidy.

The pre-buy was negotiated with Gabrielle Stewart at HanWay and was completed in partnership with Madman Australia, in what is a first collaboration between the two companies. The latter...

Exclusive: Pre-buys include Abdellatif Kechiche’s next film after Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

Curzon Artificial Eye has secured UK rights a trio of high-profile art-house titles in the shape of Yorgos Lanthimos’s anticipated drama The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Abdellatif Kechiche’s follow up to Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Mektoub is Mektoub, and Berlin winner Insyriated.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer reunites director Lanthimos with The Lobster star Colin Farrell who plays Steven, a charismatic surgeon forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart and the behaviour of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

Co-starring are Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone and former Screen Stars Of Tomorrow Barry Keoghan and Raffey Cassidy.

The pre-buy was negotiated with Gabrielle Stewart at HanWay and was completed in partnership with Madman Australia, in what is a first collaboration between the two companies. The latter...

Exclusive: Pre-buys include Abdellatif Kechiche’s next film after Blue Is The Warmest Colour.

Curzon Artificial Eye has secured UK rights a trio of high-profile art-house titles in the shape of Yorgos Lanthimos’s anticipated drama The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Abdellatif Kechiche’s follow up to Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Mektoub is Mektoub, and Berlin winner Insyriated.

The Killing Of A Sacred Deer reunites director Lanthimos with The Lobster star Colin Farrell who plays Steven, a charismatic surgeon forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart and the behaviour of a teenage boy he has taken under his wing turns sinister.

Co-starring are Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone and former Screen Stars Of Tomorrow Barry Keoghan and Raffey Cassidy.

The pre-buy was negotiated with Gabrielle Stewart at HanWay and was completed in partnership with Madman Australia, in what is a first collaboration between the two companies. The latter...

Depending on your perspective, the fact that the title of Sylvie Verheyde’s thriller is the least salacious thing about it will be either a plus or a minus. But while the film’s non-exploitative approach is to be admired, this tale about a French prostitute who becomes romantically involved with a mysterious stranger is far too lackadaisical in its pacing and narrative style. Too self-consciously arty to appeal to the prurient crowd and lacking sufficient substance for cinephiles, Sex Doll seems to deflate while you watch it.

Cesar Award-winner Hafsia Herzi (The Secret of the Grain) plays the central role...

Japanese director Naomi Kawase serves up a subtle study of the relationship between an elderly woman and a young street food vendor

Cinema’s relationship with the subject of food is a complex one which is loaded with symbolism, much of it sexual. Food in film commonly serves as a connection between people (as in I Am Love, The Lunchbox and numerous others). Here, however, food is a bridge to the traditions of the past. As such, Naomi Kawase’s subtle study of the relationship between an ailing elderly woman Tokue (veteran actress Kirin Kiki) and Sentarô (Masatoshi Nagase), a pancake vendor who grudgingly employs her, reminded me a little of Abdellatif Kechiche’s family drama Couscous.

The deceptive simplicity of this intimate, handsomely photographed picture parts like curtains to reveal something a little more knotty. What at first seems to be a reaction against the acceleration of contemporary culture – Tokue sweats long,...

Exclusive: Company will also launch new films from Lee Tamahori, Bouli Lanners and Sylvie Verheyde at Afm.Wild Bunch has boarded Cuban director Alejandro Brugues’s Antonio Banderas-starring New Faith about an American couple whose marriage-saving trip to Cuba lands them in a web of lies, violence, sexual intrigue and deadly double-crossings. “In reality both partners have separate hidden agendas, the dream trip quickly degenerates and the film tips into a genre movie in the vein No Country for Old Men and Blood Simple,” said Wild Bunch co-head Vincent Maraval. Banderas has signed to play a shady American expat fixer who crosses the couple’s path. Casting of the couple is expected to be announced during the Afm this week. It is a second feature for Brugues, whose debut political zombie thriller Juan of the Dead put him on the map as a talent to watch and won several including Spain’s Goya Award for Best...

Arte France Cinéma’s Director General Olivier Père dropped development news on future French cinema offerings with three new projects that will be supported by the entity. Thierry de Peretti will be directing Une vie violente (produced by Les Films Velvet) and The Secret of the Grain actress Hafsia Herzi will make her directorial debut with Bonnes Mères — she’ll see Quat’sous Films’ Abdellatif Kechiche on board as producer. And the focus of our interest here is: the cast and project info on Serge Bozon‘s fifth feature film. Scoring a career high with Tip Top, there are some creative pairings who’ll be doing some reuniting on Bozon’s Madame Hyde. Bozon reteams with scribe Axelle Ropert and Isabelle Huppert Tip Top, while the actress reteams with Valley of Love co-star Gérard Depardieu. Romain Duris also joins the Films Pelléas production.

Gist: Based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s...

La blessure

Director: Abdellatif Kechiche // Writer: Abdellatif Kechiche, Francois Begaudeau

Few auteurs have reached the heights of emotional realism in narrative cinema as has Tunisian born director Abdellatif Kechiche. Starting out as an actor (his last stint in front of the camera was in Jeff Stanzler’s 2005 American indie Sorry, Haters with Robin Wright), Kechiche’s 2000 debut, Poetical Refugee premiered in Venice and starred a host of faces we’ve seen frequently, including Sami Bouajila, Elodie Bouchez, and Aure Atika. His coming titles would prove Kechiche’s preference for non-professional and/or character actors, including the excellent 2005 title Games of Love and Chance, which won Kechiche the Cesar for Best Film, Screenplay, and Director, and would introduce us to actress Sara Forestier. He’d win Best Film, Director, and Screenplay again at the Cesars in 2007, along with several awards in Venice, including the Special Jury Prize for The Secret of the Grain,...

★★★★☆Released on Blu-ray this week to capitalise on the success of his Palme d'Or-winning Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013), Abdellatif Kechiche's Couscous (2007) is a film similarly built upon corporeal appetites, with the majority of its runtime spent around the bustling dining table of a Tunisian immigrant family. Flooding the senses with a warm, thematically rich and appetising drama about community and cultural identity, Kechiche's intimate portrait of migrant life in Southern France is a dish to truly savour. Slimane (Habib Boufares) is a 60-year-old Tunisian immigrant living in Séte, a port and seaside resort on the Mediterranean coast with a rich multicultural population.

Not quite a year after its memorable premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it would snatch the Palme d’Or from the Steven Spielberg headed jury, Criterion adds Blue is the Warmest Color to the collection, of which Abdellatif Kechiche’s 2007 film The Secret of the Grain is also a part of. Shortly after Cannes and throughout the remainder of 2013, we witnessed a very public drama play out in the media between the director and stars of the film. Both damned and praised for its graphic, and (to some, arguably) realistic portrayal of sexuality and identity in its portrayal of a lesbian relationship, the difficulty of filming behind the scenes should come as no surprised considering the achievement at hand. And while untoward comments flew back and forth, both between the cast and crew and rankled critics, there’s nothing that can demean the superlative end product.

Kechiche returns...

Director Abdellatif Kechiche wins award for second time in his career.

Abdellatif Kechiche’s Adèle: Chapter 1 & 2 continued its award winning streak in France on Tuesday, clinching the Louis Delluc Prize for best French film in 2013.

The Delluc prize for best first film went to Hélier Cisterne’s Vandal about a bunch of teenage taggers in the eastern French city of Strasbourg. The picture, sold internationally by Paris-based Films Distribution, was co-written by Suzanne director Katell Quillévéré.

Kechiche’s Palme d’Or-winning tale of lesbian love Adèle: Chapter 1 & 2, also known as Blue is the Warmest Colour, has picked up a slew of awards since premiering at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Producers Wild Bunch did not put it forward for the Oscars but the title is nominated at the Golden Globes in the foreign language category.

It is the second time Kechiche has won the Delluc award, having previously picked up the prize with this 2007 picture [link=tt...

Despite competition from Doctor Who, the fantasy saga's latest instalment enjoyed the third biggest UK opening of 2013

• More on the UK box office

• Donald Sutherland: 'I want Hunger Games to stir up a revolution'

• Mark Kermode reviews The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The winner

It always looked to be one of the most anticipated films of the year, and so it has proved. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire opened in the UK with a mighty £12.19m, including Wednesday midnight and Thursday takings of £2.07m. That compares with £4.90m (including £431,000 in Thursday midnight previews) for the original Hunger Games. Comparing like-for-like Friday to Sunday figures, Catching Fire is 126% up on The Hunger Games, rising from £4.47m to £10.12m.

Including previews, the biggest openings of 2013 are Despicable Me 2 with £14.82m and Iron Man 3 (£13.71m); Catching Fire takes third place. Going strictly by Friday to Sunday takings, the biggest openings...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 11, 2014

Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $24.95

Studio: Criterion

Adèle Excharpoulos (l.) and Léa Seydoux fall for each other in Blue is the Warmest Color.

The colorful, electrifying romance Blue is the Warmest Color, the French drama romance that took the Cannes Film Festival by storm courageously dives into a young woman’s experiences of first love and sexual awakening.

The 2013 movie stars newcomer Adèle Excharpoulos as a high schooler who, much to her own surprise, plunges into a thrilling relationship with a female twenty something art student, played by Léa Seydoux (Mysteries of Lisbon).

Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche (The Secret of the Grain), this detailed, intimate, three-hour romantic epic sensitively renders the erotic abandon of youth. It’s been getting some serious buzz from critics and audiences and is already being widely embraced as a defining love story for the new century.

Presented in French with English subtitles,...

It’s among France’s prestigious award films with a legacy dating back to 1937 (see entire wiki-list of winners) and it’s one that I’ve made a habit of predicting wrong. While this year’s batch of eight nominations excludes Claire Denis’ Bastards and includes Arnaud Desplechin’s Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian), I’d be tempted to say this is a two horse race between the best from Cannes. I’d be tempted to call it a second win for Abdellatif Kechiche (he claimed the prize for The Secret of the Grain back in ’07) but my horrible track record at predicting the prize means I’m second guessing the consensus and pointing towards Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake as the possible winner (December 17th) for the Best Film Award. Look for the Best First Film noms to be mentioned shortly. Here are the eight:...

Abdellatif Kechiche won a Palme d'Or for his latest film, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, about a lesbian relationship between two students. But since then the director has been criticised for his working methods, and the film's young stars have said they'll never work with him again

Abdellatif Kechiche has not been a happy man lately. His new film, Blue Is the Warmest Colour, about a French teenager embarking on a lesbian relationship, has been garlanded with ecstatic reviews and is performing robustly at the box office since its release in France earlier this month. And at the Cannes film festival, back in May, Steven Spielberg's jury awarded his film the legendary Palme d'Or.

Still, even the Palme seems a mixed blessing for this eminently serious, soft-spoken man. "There's a certain anxiety that comes with that sort of recognition," he says in French, making a habitual pensive gesture with his hands,...

Adèle Exarchopoulos is the knockout star of Blue Is The Warmest Colour, an intense love story that involved take after take with a demanding director. Has she forgiven him – or does she still feel 'devoured'?

"Ça va?" says the young actor to the wise, older director as he passes.

He smiles with twinkly eyes.

"You slept well?" she asks.

"Like a baby," he says. And on he walks.

"Ah, the master," she says.

You wouldn't think these two were at the heart of this year's biggest cinema controversies. Adèle Exarchopoulos is 19, and recently made Blue Is The Warmest Colour, directed by French-Tunisian auteur Abdellatif Kechiche. The film is a three-hour love story between two young women in which very little happens. It is compelling, often brilliant, and contains two astonishingly naturalistic performances from Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux.

The jury at this year's Cannes film festival, chaired by Steven Spielberg, awarded...

It's hard to tell if Blue is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adele) is going to gain more attention for its Palme d'Or win at the Cannes Film Festival, the outstanding performances from its two lead actors or for its explicit (and questionably necessary) sex scenes. Either way, once you get beyond the talking points there's a lot more to see and it's a film that won't be soon forgotten. Running only a minute shy of three hours, the narrative, adapted from a graphic novel by Julie Maroh, follows the story of Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos), a young high school junior as she begins exploring her sexuality. Sex with men leaves her feeling empty and unfulfilled as her mind wanders and she dreams of a blue-haired girl she only saw briefly on the street, a chance encounter that caused something to stir inside her and she's compelled to learn more. Exarchopoulos'...

In May, Abdellatif Kechiche and the cast of "Blue is the Warmest Color" looked like they were on top of the world. The French director of the acclaimed dramas "Black Venus" and "The Secret of the Grain," Kechiche had completed what was possibly his most ambitious work to date, a two-and-a-half hour coming-of-age drama about a pair of young female lovers (19-year-old newcomer Adele Exarchoupolos and rising star Lea Seydoux) who fall in and out of an intense romance as they grapple with big ideas. While the media focused on a graphic six-and-a-half minute sex scene between the women -- at one point misreporting it at 20 minutes long -- the high profile jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, saw a much bigger picture. Not only did "Blue Is the Warmest Color" win the Palme d'Or, but the jury stipulated that the top prize belonged to both Kechiche and his two actresses as well.

Wild Bunch Distribution awaits first figures to see whether controversy has impacted film’s performance at the box office.

Filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche may have declared he didn’t want Adèle: Chapter 1 & 2 to be released after a public bust-up with its co-stars over his directing techniques but it has been business as usual for the film’s French distributor Wild Bunch Distribution (Wbd).

The Palme d’Or-winning picture, also known as Blue is the Warmest Colour, opens on 300 screens across France tomorrow [Oct 9].

“We expect the film to seduce a wide audience in spite of its length (179 minutes) and it’s 12-certificate. Wherever it has played it has been hailed as a masterpiece. We’re aiming for at least 800,000 admissions,” Wbd chief Thierry Lacaze told ScreenDaily.

“The Palme d’Or put Adèle: Chapter 1 & 2 in a category apart in French cinema which also includes Under the Son of Satan, A Man and a Woman, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and most...

After 14 years reporting from the red carpet, our film diarist bids farewell with a selection of glilttering memories…

Best festival

Trash was born at Cannes in 1999, when the idea struck me that the best way to cover this polymorphously perverse festival was through a diary. So it's probably in that environment that my column has thrived most. It coincided with the rise of the "festival circuit", and I was fortunate to have the willing co-operation of the Observer and the festivals themselves in getting to cover so many of them.

I still recall the jolt of a morning vodka with Alan Parker in Moscow where, because his Pink Floyd film The Wall was the most famous bootleg of the Soviet era, he is some kind of deity. Marrakech is a wonderful setting for a film festival and I shall cherish an afternoon with Martin Scorsese there, even though he spilt...

Following in the wave of auteur French filmmakers (Bonello, Dumont) gravitating towards the nontraditional biopic projects, it appears that Abdellatif Kechiche was at the development stages (handing up to five different drafts) with Wild Bunch’s Vincent Maraval on the person dubbed as the Ivory Girl, but apparently he might have cooled off to his own idea after the media storm that has brewed since attaining a celebrity status of his own with the Palme d’Or win and U.S media tour falling out for Blue is the Warmest Color. Kechiche thinks that this would make for a magnificent historical look at modern America and how both men and women in the industry ultimately changed society’s mentality.” One thing is for sure, the lead would not go to Léa Seydoux.

Gist: The 70′s set story traces the story of Marilyn Chambers, the wannabe actress who “mistakenly” got cast...

It's hard to tell if Blue is the Warmest Color (La vie d'Adele) is going to gain more attention for its Palme d'Or win at the Cannes Film Festival, the outstanding performances from its two lead actors or for its explicit (and questionably necessary) sex scenes. Either way, once you get beyond the talking points there's a lot more to see and it's a film that won't be soon forgotten. Running only a minute shy of three hours, the narrative, adapted from a graphic novel by Julie Maroh, follows the story of Adele (Adele Exarchopoulos), a young high school junior as she begins exploring her sexuality. Sex with men leaves her feeling empty and unfulfilled as her mind wanders and she dreams of a blue-haired girl she only saw briefly on the street, a chance encounter that caused something to stir inside her and she's compelled to learn more. Exarchopoulos'...

Julien K. here, your special correspondent in Paris, reporting on the recent controversy surrounding the latest Palme d’or winner, Blue is the Warmest Color.

As those of you who are familiar with the French film industry may know, director Abdellatif Kechiche’s work has been consistently lavished with praise for the last decade. In 2005, his sophomore effort L’esquive –a raw, direct exploration of teenage sexual politics in the banlieues (the French suburban hoods) by way of eighteenth century playwright Marivaux- unexpectedly trumped critical favorite Kings and Queen and populist heavyweights A Very Long Engagement and Oscar nominee The Chorus at the César Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The same thing happened in 2008, when his powerful immigrant family drama The Secret of the Grain defeated a pack of prestige Oscar contenders (La Vie en Rose, Persepolis, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) in the same top categories.

Chicago – After heating up juror monocles with the steamiest three hours at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the lesbian romance “Blue is the Warmest Color” won the coveted Palme d’Or at the 2013 awards ceremony held Sunday, May 26th. The top prize was shared by French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche (“The Secret of the Grain”) and his two leading ladies, Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Settling for the Grand Prix was Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Inside Llewyn Davis,” a music-filled portrait of a fictionalized ’60s-era folk singer played by Oscar Isaac (in a performance guaranteed to generate Oscar buzz). Amat Escalante won Best Director for his brutal Mexican crime drama, “Heli,” while the Best Screenplay award was presented to Zhangke Jia (“Still Life”) for his uncharacteristically blood-spattered Chinese thriller, “A Touch of Sin.” Hirokazu Koreeda (“Still Walking”) won the Jury Prize for his Japanese family drama, “Like Father, Like Son.

Blue Is the Warmest Color release in the United States (image: Léa Seydoux as the blue-haired Emma in the Blue Is the Warmest Color poster) [See previous post: "Blue Is the Warmest Color Oscar Chances?"] Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color, starring Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos, will be released in the United States via IFC Films’ Sundance Selects. As yet no date has been set, but it’ll quite possibly be some time during awards season in the fall. Distributed by IFC Films, Kechiche’s César-winning The Secret of the Grain took in a paltry $86,356 following its December 2008 North American release. Last year, IFC Films also nabbed the rights to another Cannes Film Festival entry, Walter Salles’ On the Road. Two things happened when Salles’ movie adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s novel hit North American shores: the film lost about 20 minutes of its running time and, despite its prestigious subject matter / source novel and stellar cast (Garrett Hedlund,...

Blue Is the Warmest Color: Oscars? Césars? European Film Awards? (Picture: Léa Seydoux, Abdellatif Kechiche, and Adèle Exarchopoulos at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony) [See previous post: "Lesbian love story Blue Is the Warmest Color wins Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or."] Both Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux, director-co-screenwriter Abdellatif Kechiche, and Blue Is the Warmest Color itself are all shoo-ins for the 2014 Césars and near-shoo-ins for the European Film Awards. Kechiche has already won two Best Director / Best Screenplay / Best Film Césars: for Games of Love and Chance (2003) and The Secret of the Grain (2007, produced by Claude Berri). Even so, he has never been shortlisted for the European Film Awards; yet, at the very least one nomination — Best European Film, Best Director, or Best Screenplay — is all but guaranteed later this year. Needless to say, at this stage it’s impossible to know if Blue Is the Warmest Color will be France’s submission for the 2014 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. In case Kechiche’s...

Abdellatif Kechiche's latest film has been hailed as a landmark in cinematic depictions of lesbian love and female sexuality

A hail of enthusiastic tweets followed the Cannes premiere of Blue is the Warmest Colour – elevating it to the status of the critics' favourite of the festival, and not a moment too long at three hours.

It also happens to contain the lengthiest, most intimate and most graphic lesbian sex scenes in mainstream cinema history. Praised for its tenderness and intensity, it has been hailed as a landmark in cinematic depictions of lesbian love and female sexuality.

Both lead actors spoke of their trust in director Abdellatif Kechiche over the four-month shoot for the film, including the scenes that, in the opinion of the Hollywood Reporter, "cross the barrier between performance and the real deal". According to Léa Seydoux, who plays the older of the two women, "I succeeded in...

Ang Lee won the Golden Lion at 2007′s Venice Film Festival for Lust, Caution, beating out Abdellatif Kechiche’s far more critically appreciated The Secret of the Grain (which would win best emerging actress and a Silver Lion jury award). Oddly enough, this year Lee is among the jury of nine. With the current Palme d”or favorite in his laps, will it be time to return the favor?

I’m sure I’m not the only one among the packed Lumiere theatre/11:30a.m. screening (some members of the jury including Spielberg were on hand) of Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Colour (a.k.a La Vie d’Adèle – chapitre 1 & 2) that might have been in dire need of a cigarette. Confession: I don’t even smoke. Perhaps the best shot sex sequence in recent memory (the porn industry might want to take note) drew quite the reaction...