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The 64th edition of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, the world’s oldest TV festival, opened Friday. Variety spoke to Laurent Puons, the festival’s general manager, about what he has planned.

The festival, which Puons says exists to “celebrate excellence in global television,” is a triple threat: first, it’s a public festival and encourages a high level of engagement with the fans; second, it is a gathering point for European press, where TV companies can promote their shows; and third, it provides an opportunity for members of the industry to meet each other and attend topical panels as part of the Business Content program.

The festival has a trump card up its sleeve: its patron is Prince Albert II of Monaco, who attends both the opening and closing ceremonies. Among the festival guests he will welcome at the Grimaldi Forum this year are Robin Wright, Judith Light, Rachel Griffiths,...

The 64th Monte-Carlo Television Festival was opened Friday by Prince Albert II of Monaco at a glitzy ceremony at the Grimaldi Forum, with honors bestowed on “Gen V” star Jaz Sinclair and French actor Pierre Arditi.

Among those on the blue carpet were Judith Light, Rachel Griffiths, Sope Dirisu and Morris Chestnut.

Prince Albert said: “For more than six decades, the Monte-Carlo Television Festival has accompanied the evolution of audiovisual production. This 64th edition reflects that legacy, with a demanding international lineup and a strong presence of talent from around the world.

“Today more than ever, access to what makes this industry so rich — its content — is essential. Our festival remains a privileged venue to highlight innovation, creativity, and the remarkable talent of television’s artists and professionals.”

The ceremony host, Genie Godula, had kicked off the evening by introducing the juries of the Golden Nymph Awards. The fiction jury,...

Prime Video is quietly pushing on with the release of new French Original series Alphonse against the backdrop of an impending court appearance for its director Nicolas Bedos on a sexual assault charge.

The streamer announced on Wednesday that the first three episodes of the drama, starring Oscar-winning The Artist star Jean Dujardin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nicole Garcia and Pierre Arditi, will be made available on October 12 on Prime Video in 240 territories worldwide.

The streamer has kept the precise details of Dujardin’s character under wraps apart from the fact he is a man who tries to satisfy the wishes of the women who cross his path.

Popular actor and director Bedos is due in court in February 2024 on a charge of sexual assault while under the influence of alcohol, which carries a sentence of a maximum five-year prison term and $87,000 fine.

Against this backdrop, the streamer has not organized...

Florian Zeller, the Oscar-winning director and playwright of “The Father” and “The Son,” received the Medal of Honor, France’s highest decoration, at an intimate ceremony in Paris on Wednesday.

The event, hosted in the gardens of the French authors and composers guild (Sacd), gathered a flurry of talent and luminaries from the worlds of film, TV, theater and literature — reflecting the breadth of Zeller’s body of work. Zeller was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor by France President Emmanuel Macron.

Guests included Isabelle Huppert, Pierre Arditi, Catherine Frot and Elodie Navarre who have starred in Zeller’s plays; Christopher Hampton, with whom he shares a best adapted screenplay Oscar for “The Father;” “Simone” actor Elsa Zylberstein; Mediawan boss Pierre-Antoine Capton, with whom he launched the L.A.-based company Blue Morning Pictures; Victoria Bedos (“La famille Belier”); Orange Studio’s Kristina Zimmermann and Sebastien Cauchon, who distributed...

‘Sulak’ is the first production from Alain Goldman’s Pitchipoï Productions.

Amazon Prime Video France is reteaming with director Melanie Laurent for the feature Sulak and has greenlit five new French feature films and three original series. Laurent directed Amazon’s first French-language original The Mad Women’s Ball in 2021.

Sulak will star newcomer Lucas Bravo as Bruno Sulak, a notorious real-life French criminal known for his non-violent heists on multiple jewelry stores in the 1980s. Sulak managed to escape from prison several times in order to reunite with his lover and accomplice, becoming public enemy number one in the process.

France’s box office is moving in an upward trajectory in November with 14.8 million admissions.

France’s box office is continuing to move in an upward trajectory in November with 14.8 million admissions for the month, the highest of the year so far according to figures from the Cnc.

The positive figures follow a decent October, when French theatres bounced back with 14.3 million admissions following the worst September in French box office history, with just 7.4 million tickets sold.

In total, 74 films were released in theatres in November, more than a pre-pandemic 61 in November 2019, an average of 15 films per week. US titles...

The US streamer unveils local-language originals and French acquisitions.

Amazon Prime Video has signalled its ambition to work closely with the French film industry by signing a four-year agreement with France’s film industry unions to support independent projects and promote gender and ethnic diversity, and unveiling a slate of original projects and acquisitions.

The signatories to the ground-breaking deal included audio-visual producers union the Uspa, independent producers union, the Spi and author’s rights group the Sacd. Under the terms of the agreement, Prime Video agreed to invest 85 of its financing into local French production and support a “diversity...

A trio of French films, the melodrama “A Family for 1640 Days,” political thriller “Goliath” and comedy “Adieu Paris,” are set to be released in the U.S. by the New York-based company Distrib Films.

Both Fabien Gorgeart’s “A Family for 1640 Days” (“Une vraie famille”) and Edouard Baer’s “Adieu Paris” are represented in international markets by Le Pacte.

“A Family for 1640 Days,” winner of the top prize at last year’s American French Film Festival, revolves around Simon, a six-year old adopted boy who is about to reunite with his biological father. The movie stars Melanie Thierry (“En therapie”) and Lyes Salem. Distrib Films is planning to release the film in early 2023 and have it play at festivals.

A love letter to the French capital, “Adieu Paris” marks the fourth directorial outing of actor-turned-helmer Baer, who last directed “Ouvert la nuit” in which he starred opposite Audrey Tautou and Sabrina Ouazani.

“Coda” producer Philippe Rousselet’s next movie “Maestro” has been sold to major territories by Orange Studio which hosted a market screening at Cannes.

“Maestro” is adapted from Joseph Cesar’s Oscar-nominated, Cannes-prizewinning Israeli film “Footnote.” The movie is directed by Bruno Chiche and stars Yvan Attal, Pierre Arditi, Miou-Miou and Pascale Arbillot. “Maestro” follows a father and a son, The Dumars, who are music conductors.

Orange Studio has sold the film to leading distributors around the world, including in Japon (Gaga), Canada (Az), Israel (Lev Cinema), Portugal (Nos Lusomundo), Benelux (Vertigo), Germany (Wild Bunch Germany), Italy (Bim), Spain (Vertigo) and South Korea (T-cast). Other territories are in advanced negotiations. The film will be released on Dec. 7 by Apollo Films Distribution.

Rousselet, one of France’s top producers who recently won an Oscar for “Coda,” described “Maestro” has an incredibly moving story which isn’t just about music but also...

Amazon Prime in France has unveiled its upcoming slate of director-driven Originals, including ‘Hawa,’ a new movie by “Cuties” director Maimouna Doucouré, Nicolas Bedos’ TV debut “Alphonse” and Franck Gastambide’s “”Medellín.”

“Hawa” follows the coming-of-age tale of a teenage girl who lives with her grandmother and worries she will be removed by social services. She sets off to get adopted by someone she admires more than anything, one of the most powerful woman in the world. “Hawa” is produced by Bien ou Bien Productions.

The movie is currently in post-production and is expected to launch globally on the streamer later this year. As with “Cuties,” Doucouré’s feature debut which won the director prize at Sundance and was acquired by Netflix, “Hawa” will be headlined by first-time actors, including Grammy-winning singer and songwriter Oumou Sangaré, as well as the popular singer Yseult and Sania Halifa.

Doucouré discussed “Hawa” along...

Alain Goldman, the well-respected French producer of “La Vie en rose” who’s just joined forces with Banijay, has teamed up with Amazon Prime Video on “Alphonse,” a humor-laced series by Nicolas Bedos (“La Belle Epoque”)

The high-concept Prime original series is based on an original idea by Jean Dujardin, the Oscar-winning actor of “The Artist,” and Bedos. It marks the TV debut of Bedos, the Cesar-winning filmmaker of “Monsieur & Madame Adelman” and “La Belle Epoque,” which played out of competition at Cannes in 2019 and sold worldwide

Dujardin will star alongside Pierre Arditi (“La Belle Epoque”), Charlotte Gainsbourg and Nicole Garcia (“Lupin”).

As the series’ teaser poster (pictured above) suggests it, the entire series will unfold in Paris and will showcase some beautiful areas of the French capital.

Although the plot remains under wraps, Goldman revealed that Dujardin will play Alphonse, a chameleon-like man whose main mission is...

Le Pacte is set to host market premieres for Édouard Baer’s “Adieu Paris” and Giordano Gederlini’s “On the Edge” at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, which takes place this week.

“Adieu Paris” stars an ensemble cast, including some of France and Belgium’s best-known actors, notably Benoît Poelvoorde, François Damiens, Gérard Depardieu, Isabelle Nanty, Pierre Arditi and Ludivine Sagnier. The dialogue-driven comedy takes place entirely at a Parisian bistro. Camille Neel, head of international sales at Le Pacte, said the film will appeal to traditional French films lovers and admirers of iconic actors. “Adieu Paris” is the fourth directorial outing of actor-turned-helmer Baer, who last directed “Ouvert la nuit” in which he starred opposite Audrey Tautou and Sabrina Ouazani. The film, produced by Cinéfrance Studios, Les Films en Cabine, Le Pacte and Artémis Productions, had its world premiere at the Lumiere Festival in Lyon, France.

“On the Edge...

French actor, director, producer and writer Edouard Baer, in Lyon for the premiere of “Adieu Paris!” at the Lumière Festival, drew endless laughs from his audience at his masterclass in the city’s Comédie Odéon theater.

Displaying a gifted talent for improvisation, Baer amused the audience with self-deprecating tirades and anecdotes. Commenting on the short introductory film displaying his career highlights, he told the crowd: “It’s easy to make me look good with smooth editing and good music. Really, it’s just a succession of small accidents. There aren’t just masterpieces there. But from bad movies to acceptable ones, you build a small career and then you die happy,” he smiled.

Baer brings together a stellar cast in “Adieu Paris!” including Gérard Depardieu, Pierre Arditi, Jean-Francois Stévenin – who passed away in July and to whom the film is dedicated – and Belgian duo Benoît Poelvoorde and François Damiens, who...

There’s a telling scene toward the end of Yvan Attal’s intense and rather didactic courtroom drama The Accusation (Les Choses humaines), which concerns an alleged rape and the heavy repercussions it wreaks on two families caught up in the aftermath.

The accused’s father, an aging TV journalist and serial womanizer (played by Pierre Arditi, who starred in several late films by Alain Resnais) vehemently comes to his son’s defense at the trial, making a blustering speech about how “20 minutes of action” shouldn’t transform a promising young man’s life. He then adds that there’s often a “gray area” when it comes ...

There’s a telling scene toward the end of Yvan Attal’s intense and rather didactic courtroom drama The Accusation (Les Choses humaines), which concerns an alleged rape and the heavy repercussions it wreaks on two families caught up in the aftermath.

The accused’s father, an aging TV journalist and serial womanizer (played by Pierre Arditi, who starred in several late films by Alain Resnais) vehemently comes to his son’s defense at the trial, making a blustering speech about how “20 minutes of action” shouldn’t transform a promising young man’s life. He then adds that there’s often a “gray area” when it comes ...

Gaumont has lured distributors in key territories for Yvan Attal’s “The Accusation” ahead of the movie’s world premiere out of competition at Venice.

Based on Karine Tuil’s bestseller “Les Choses Hu­maines,” “The Accusation” follows the downfall of a French intellectual power couple whose model son, Alexandre, is accused of rape, setting in motion an inextricable media-judicial machine. The film was penned by Attal and Yaël Langmann.

Attal’s previous directorial efforts include “My Wife Is an Actress” and “Le Brio.” Tuil’s book won a pair of prestigious awards, including the Prix Goncourt High Schoolers in 2019 and has been translated in Germany, Italy and Russia with a dozen of other countries coming up.

Charlotte Gainsbourg stars in the film alongside Pierre Arditi, Benjamin Lavernhe, Ben Attal and Mathieu Kassovitz.

Gaumont has pre-sold “The Accusation” to Canada (MK2 Mile End), Brazil (Imovision), Israel (Nachshon), Spain (Karma), Cis...

Orange Studio has unveiled a first still for “L’astronaute,” a French drama headlined by Nicolas Giraud and Mathieu Kassovitz (“The Bureau”).

The film is produced by Christophe Rossignon and Philip Boëffard at Nord-Ouest Films. It will be distributed in France by Orange Studio and Diaphana Distribution.

Orange Studio is also representing “L’astronaute” in international markets and kicked off sales at the UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in January as well as this month’s virtual EFM.

The film follows the journey of Jim, a passionate engineer who has always dreamed of becoming an astronaut, and devotes all his spare time to building a rocket, sacrificing his social and love life and putting himself in danger.

“This tale of transcendence, pursuit of dreams and collective strength is in line with the type of films we aim to produce at Nord-Ouest: films that are meaningful and have a universal humanity,...

Warner Bros France are due to release the film in France and Benelux on October 6, 2021.

Charades has acquired world sales rights to Julien Rappeneau’s Little Nicholas’ Treasure, adapted from the classic 1960s ‘Le Petit Nicolas’ children’s books of French writer Rene Goscinny and illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempe.

The Paris-based sales company will introduce the film to buyers during the upcoming Unifrance Rendez-vous with French cinema, which unfolds online this year from January 13 to 15.

It marks a third feature for Rappeneau after Of Love And Lies and Rosalie Blum. He directed and co-wrote the screenplay adaptation with Mathias Gavarry.

This...

Ben Attal, Suzanne Jouannet, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Mathieu Kassovitz, Pierre Arditi and Audrey Dana lead the cast. A Curiosa Films and Films Sous Influence production sold by Gaumont. Since 11 August, Yvan Attal has been filming The Accusation, his 7th feature as director, following among other titles My Wife is an Actress (nominated for the 2002 César award for Best Feature Debut), ... And They Lived Happily Ever After (2004), Le Brio and My Stupid Dog (2019).Standing out in the cast are Ben Attal (appearing for the 4th time in a film directed by his father), Suzanne Jouannet (her first time in a feature film), Charlotte Gainsbourg (soon on screens in Benoît Jacquot’s latest film Suzanna Andler) and...

David Glasser’s 101 Studios has acquired U.S. rights to Nicolas Bedos’s French romantic comedy “La Belle Epoque” which world premiered out of competition at Cannes Film Festival to strong reviews and went on to play at Toronto.

The film stars Daniel Auteuil as Victor, a disillusioned sexagenarian cartoonist who has lost his job and is on the outs with his wife Marianne. A friend of his son who runs a thriving Vr company offers him the intriguing opportunity to travel back in time and revisit his glory days. Victor choses to go back to May 16, 1974, the day he met Marianne at a café, and soon finds himself drawn to Margo, the actress playing the younger incarnation of his spouse.

Auteuil stars in the film opposite Guillaume Canet, Dora Tillier, Fanny Ardant, and Pierre Arditi.

“We were struck by Nicolas’ touching yet sharp-minded take on a romantic comedy...

101 Studios has acquired U.S. rights to director Nicolas Bedos’s Cannes title La Belle Epoque, starring Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Dora Tillier, Fanny Ardant, and Pierre Arditi.

The film premiered in Cannes and Toronto and is now slated for a spring 2020 U.S. theatrical release. It was released by Pathé Films in France in November and has drawn more than 1.3M admissions (approximately $8M). Box office has been good in other European markets, including Italy where it has made $1.7M to date.

The deal was negotiated by 101 Head of Acquisitions James Allen, CEO David Glasser, 101’s James Gold and Lief Cervantes of Sheppard Mullen on behalf of 101 Studios and Marie-Laurie Montironi on behalf of Pathé.

The comedy-drama follows a disillusioned sexagenarian who is offered the intriguing proposition of traveling back in time in a bid to rekindle romance and vitality.

“We were struck by Nicolas’ touching yet sharp-minded...

David Glasser’s 101 Studios has acquired the U.S. rights to “La Belle Epoque,” a French comedy from director Nicolas Beods starring Daniel Auteuil and Guillaume Canet, the distributor announced Wednesday.

“La Belle Epoque” first premiered out of competition at the Cannes Film Festivall, followed by a North American premiere at Tiff in 2019. 101 Studios has now slated the film for a spring 2020 U.S. theatrical release.

Auteuil and Canet star with Dora Tillier, Fanny Ardant and Pierre Arditi in the comedy that’s been described as a high-concept, Charlie Kaufman-esque narrative of romance and the irresistible allure of the past.

Also Read: 101 Studios Nabs Rights to True Story of Paradise Fire Tragedy

Disillusioned sexagenarian cartoonist Victor has lost his job and is on the outs with his wife Marianne when enterprising entrepreneur Antoine approaches him with an intriguing proposition — the chance to revisit the glory days of his youth,...

Rom-com has drawn more than 1.3million admissions in France.

Pathé Films’ rom-com La Belle Epoque has landed at 101 Studios for Us distribution after premiering in Cannes last year.

Nicolas Bedos’ film stars Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Dora Tillier, Fanny Ardant, and Pierre Arditi and centres on a disillusioned man who uses a virtual reality device to revisit his former days and falls for an actress playing the younger version of his wife.

101 Studios led by CEO David Glasser brokered the deal with Pathé and has scheduled a spring theatrical release.

The film opened in France via Pathé Films...

David Glasser's 101 Studios has acquired the U.S. rights to director Nicolas Bedos' La Belle Epoque, which bowed in Cannes.

The French farce stars Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Dora Tillier, Fanny Ardant, and Pierre Arditi and is slated for a spring 2020 domestic theatrical release.

"We were struck by Nicolas' touching yet sharp-minded take on a romantic comedy and the impeccable performance given by Daniel Auteuil, who continues to be a tenacious force in French cinema. We're simply delighted to give this film a platform for American audiences to discover it," 101 Studios CEO Glasser said ...

David Glasser's 101 Studios has acquired the U.S. rights to director Nicolas Bedos' La Belle Epoque, which bowed in Cannes.

The French farce stars Daniel Auteuil, Guillaume Canet, Dora Tillier, Fanny Ardant, and Pierre Arditi and is slated for a spring 2020 domestic theatrical release.

"We were struck by Nicolas' touching yet sharp-minded take on a romantic comedy and the impeccable performance given by Daniel Auteuil, who continues to be a tenacious force in French cinema. We're simply delighted to give this film a platform for American audiences to discover it," 101 Studios CEO Glasser said ...

A Very Curious Girl. Courtesy of Lobster Films.Nelly Kaplan’s eloquent, vitriolic comedies are often social parables of vengeance, in which the weak rise up to serve the powerful their comeuppance. Joan Dupont recently described in Film Quarterly how the Argentine-born Kaplan had a modest start: She arrived in France, in 1953, at the age of 22, with mere 50 dollars and a letter of introduction to Cinémathèque française Director Henri Langois. She then worked as assistant director to film legend Abel Gance, with whom she had a romance, and launched her own career, making some fifteen films, among them vivacious comedies, documentary portraits of artists, and films for television—including a documentary, Abel Gance and His Napoléon (1984), about the filming of Gance’s epic, Napoléon (1927). And yet, despite her promising start and her having worked into the early 1990s, by the time Dupont wrote about her, Kaplan had been mostly forgotten.

Alain Resnais’ Melo (1986) will be available on Blu-ray April 9th From Arrow Academy

Master director Alain Resnais (Last Year At Marienbad) blurs the line between cinematic technique and theatrical artifice in his acclaimed Mélo, adapted from Henri Bernstein s classic play about a doomed love triangle in 1920s Paris.

Pierre and Marcel are both celebrated concert violinists and lifelong friends, in spite of their differing temperaments. Pierre is modest, sensitive and content with his lot; Marcel is hungry, driven, and pursues a solo career that takes him to the four corners of the world. After years apart, the two friends reunite when Pierre invites Marcel to his home for dinner. It is then that Marcel first meets Pierre s wife Romaine, sparking a passionate affair that can only end in tragedy before the curtain falls.

As thrillingly intimate on film as it was on the stage, Mélo s César award-winning...

There are precious few things we know about Valeria Bruni Tedeschi after watching her film “The Summer House” that we did not know before. But here’s one: The writer-director-star understands how her detractors perceive her. And so unfolds an early scene that seems designed to head the inevitable criticisms off at the pass: At a financing meeting for her new film, director Anna (Bruni Tedeschi) faces a panel of nonplussed producers who complain that her next project is the same as all her others and that her screenplay is “fragile.”

The scene is an amusingly brittle comedy of manners with the director, as ever, gamely ready to cast herself as the ditz. But it is also pointedly metatextual and has credibility-laden documentary guru Frederick Wiseman in it, gnomically sitting on the panel looking as baffled to be there as we are to see him. For a moment it seems like Bruni Tedeschi,...

Title: Les Estivants (The Summer House) Director: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi Cast: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Pierre Arditi, Valeria Golino, Noémie Lvovsky, Yolande Moreau, Laurent Stocker de la Comédie Française, Riccardo Scamarcio, Bruno Raffaelli de la Comédie Française, Marisa Borini, Oumy Bruni Garrel, Vincent Perez, Stefano Cassetti, Xavier Beauvois. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi keeps making the same film, […]

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Blue Night director ‪Fabien Constant‬ on working with star Sarah Jessica Parker, her producing partners Alison Benson, Andrea Iervolino, Lady Monika Bacardi, and screenwriter Laura Eason: "I loved being the only guy on-board." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At Cafe Cluny in the West Village Fabien Constant, director of the meticulously dashing portrait of Carine Roitfeld in Mademoiselle C, is back in New York this time for the Tribeca Film Festival world première of his début feature film Blue Night starring another style icon Sarah Jessica Parker. Shot beautifully by Javier Aguirresarobe and with a supporting cast including Simon Baker, Jacqueline Bisset, Common, Renée Zellweger, Taylor Kinney, Gus Birney, and Waleed Zuaiter, Blue Night attaches us for 24 hours to the life of a woman who has just learned the news that she was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

On Sarah Jessica Parker as Vivienne in Blue Night: "For me it's...

Almodóvar regular Rossy de Palma to also star in the film produced by Paris-based Lgm and Studiocanal.

Harvey Keitel, Toni Collette, Rossy de Palma and Stanislas Mehrar have joined the cast of French director Amanda Sthers’s English-language debut Madame, a comedy-drama revolving around a housemaid asked to masquerade as a wealthy heiress by her employees.

The feature - produced by Paris-based Lgm in partnership with Studiocanal - will shoot in Paris for six weeks from today (July 20).

Collette and Keitel play wealthy American couple Anne and Bob who have recently set up home in Paris and decide to give a high-class dinner for a dozen distinguished diners.

The last-minute arrival of Bob’s son from his first marriage suddenly takes the number of guests to 13. The superstitious Anne asks housemaid Maria (played by de Palma) to change her uniform and pretend to be a wealthy Spanish friend.

In this guise, she is seated...

Cohen Media Group presents a double feature of two mid-period films from French auteur Alain Resnais, both significant titles overlooked on a resume of important and notable works. The first is 1983’s Love is a Bed of Roses, featuring revolving cast members who would frequent other titles from the director throughout the remainder of that decade, and also represents his first collaboration with actress/wife Sabine Azema, who would appear in nearly every one of his remaining film productions. The second is the superb 1984 film Love Unto Death, an existential portrait of love and death as fluid states of mind.

The playful Life is a Bed of Roses premiered at the Venice Film Festival and nabbed Cesar nominations for Azema as Best Supporting Actress and for production designer Jacques Saulnier. Penned by Jean Gruault (who wrote Resnais’ previous feature, 1980’s superior Mon Oncle D’Amerique), it’s a non-linear film divided into three distinct parts,...

How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2014?

Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.

All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...

It all begins with a freeze frame of a dirt road somewhere in Yorkshire county, lined with trees whose lush foliage converges above in an arch. What could it be if not a portal? The movie itself, meanwhile, has not even started as we watch the opening credits, encased in large old-fashioned frames, slowly fade away—a device consistently favored by Alain Resnais who opened each of his 19 features likewise, holding off the films themselves until the screen no longer contained any visual surplus. The freeze frame comes to life as the camera pans farther down the road; then we find ourselves in a theatrical set.

We have been here before, of course. Resnais' Smoking/No Smoking, also based on a play by British playwright Sir Alan Ayckbourn, is set in Yorkshire as well. Life of Riley (Aimer, boire et chanter) borrows from the five-hour diptych its theatrical setting, one...

Arthouse director rode crest of French new wave movement of 1960s and was still making films as he reached 90

Peter Bradshaw on 60 years of sensational, cerebral film-making

Alain Resnais, the acclaimed French film director whose 60-year career included such classics as Hiroshima Mon Amour and Last Year in Marienbad, has died aged 91.

His death on Saturday, the day after the Césars French cinema awards and on the eve of the Oscars, came as he prepared to launch his latest film, The Life of Riley later this month.

The film, which stars two of his favourite actors – his wife, Sabine Azéma, and André Dussollier – was awarded the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize when it premiered at last month's Berlin film Ffestival. It is based on an Alan Ayckbourn; the playwright and his wife witnessed the film-maker's marriage to Azéma in Scarborough.

Pierre Arditi, another member of Resnais's "troupe" of favourite actors,...

Title: You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet (Vous n’avez encore rien vu) Kino Lorber Director: Alain Resnais Screenwriter: Laurent Herbiet, Alex Reval, based on Jean Anouilh’s “Eurydice” and “Dear Antoine” Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azéma, Jean-Noël Bouté, Anne Cosigny, Denis Podalydès, Hippolyte Girardot, Michel Piccoli, Lambert Wilson Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 5/28/13 Opens: June 7, 2013 If you’re a fan of theater—and I mean cerebral theater, not “Cats” or “The Lion King”—you may have run across Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 play “Six Characters in Search of an Author,” one of the best examples of metatheater. In that imaginative work, an acting company prepares to rehearse the play “The Rules [ Read More ]

The post You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Alain Resnais’ You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet bears the director’s typical rumination on memory and loss, touching the themes on his cerebral earlier offerings like Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year at Marienbad, or his latest, Wild Grass. In his latest work, several famous French actors gather at the home of a deceased playwright who penned a play that they all starred in at one time or another. As they watch a recent filmed version of the play, they end up getting sucked back into the their former roles. Even though the film is brimming with French talent and with Resnais’ legacy of filmmaking, it never quite adds up to a satisfying whole. The film is perhaps too self-aware and never quite makes it past the surface. The film’s plot is rather simple. Esteemed French actors Mathieu Almaric, Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azéma, Jean-Noël Brouté, Anne Consigny, Anne Duperey, Hippolyte Girardot...

Several famous actors, including Michel Piccoli, Pierre Arditi, Lambert Wilson, and Mathieu Amalric, receive the same phone call informing them that Antoine d'Anthac, a prominent playwright who would frequently cast all of them, has passed away. Summoned to the late man's estate by his well-mannered butler, they arrive to see Antoine's videotaped last will and testament: speaking from the screen, the deceased asks his lifelong friends to evaluate a contemporary take on his play, Eurydice, adapted by a much younger company. As the projection begins, the spectators involuntarily repeat the familiar dialogue, as if it were lifted out of their shared favorite movie; so the performance begins on its own and the spacious living room suddenly turns into a small-town railway café. Orpheus starts his soft fiddle-scraping. He is about to meet Eurydice.

"The playwright's duty," Jean Anouilh, French dramatist, once wrote, "is to produce plays on a regular basis.

Liberated into the unexplored wilderness of the outside world–genre-bending, free-wheeling—with Wild Grass, Alain Resnais now turns inward, back to the studio, back to adapting theater, back to pleating life onto itself to resemble memories and the cinema. You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet sees a cast of the directors' regulars “playing themselves” and being mysteriously called to the mansion of a deceased playwright, their longtime collaborator. They are asked to evaluate a recorded rehearsal performance of a new edition of a classic play by the deceased, “Eurydice” (in fact a combination of two real plays by Jean Anouilh), and as they watch young French actors taking on the roles they once played, the older generation begins wistfully recalling lines, then, growing more enamored by the memories and the material, become entranced by the recitation, take it over, and begin to perform the play themselves.

Some characters are played by multiple actors—the romantic leads,...

Prior to the fest announcing the line-up, there was talk that the 90 year-old Alain Resnais’ latest would be receiving an April domestic release in France spoiling its chances for a festival showing, but the moment the switch was made, fans of one of the grandfathers of French cinema were pretty much certain that they’d have a solid chance at seeing one of their critical faves (as was the case with Les Herbes Folles – Wild Grass) deliver one more noteworthy item. It appears that this might be the case once again. Starring Sabine Azéma, Pierre Arditi, Lambert Wilson and Anne Consigny, Vous n’avez encore rien vu tells a tale from beyond the grave, celebrated playwright Antoine d’Anthac gathers together all his friends who have appeared over the years in his play “Eurydice”. These actors watch a recording of the work performed by a young acting company, La Compagnie de la Colombe.

The director: Alain Resnais (French, 89 years old) The talent: No latter-day Resnais film comes without an ensemble of familiar French faces, with a number of regulars now forming the director's own repertory company of sorts. Mathieu Amalric, Lambert Wilson, Sabine Azema, Anne Consigny and Pierre Arditi have all worked with Resnais before, many of them in his last feature "Wild Grass." A more delayed reunion is with French veteran Michel Piccoli (acclaimed at last year's fest for "We Have a Pope"), whose last outing with the director was 1966's "La guerre est finie." New to Resnais's stable (I think, though...

Kristen Stewart, Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley (back), On the Road Woody Allen/Abbas Kiarostami/Robert Pattinson/Kylie Minogue: Cannes 2012 Possibilities Pt.1 Below are a few more strong Cannes 2012 possibilities: Alain Resnais' Vous n'avez encore rien vu / You've Seen Nothing Yet. The veteran Resnais — who turns 90 next June — completed his version of Jean Anouilh's Eurydice last April. The film's all-star cast includes Mathieu Amalric, Lambert Wilson (as Orpheus), Michel Piccoli, Anne Consigny (as Eurydice), Sabine Azéma (also as Eurydice), Hippolyte Girardot, Michel Robin, Pierre Arditi (also as Orpheus), Denis Podalydès, and Anny Duperey. Terrence Malick's The Funeral (possibly a provisory title), supposedly about an American man whose marriage to an European woman flounders. He then begins a relationship with a woman from his own hometown. Malick's drama features Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Javier Bardem, Michael Sheen, Olga Kurylenko, Amanda Peet, and Barry Pepper.

Chicago – Episodic ensemble pieces in America often follow a contrived pattern typified by Paul Haggis’s “Crash.” Various diverse lives are juxtaposed and intersect while illustrating an overarching theme. What’s so refreshing about Bruno Podalydès’s 2009 French gem, “Park Benches,” is its utter lack of dramatic significance. It’s more interested in exploring the idiosyncrasies of humanity rather than preaching a self-important message.

Podalydès is a writer/director not known to most American moviegoers, but this thoroughly delightful comedy is bound to win the filmmaker many new fans. The vast majority of his screwball humor does not get lost in cultural translation, and produces countless moments that are laugh-out-loud funny. As a microcosm of Parisian society, “Benches” hops whimsically from one colorful scenario to the next, capturing vignettes as endearing as they are bittersweet.

DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0

What’s apparent right off the bat is the picture’s mammoth gallery of French stars.

DVD Playhouse—March 2011

By

Allen Gardner

127 Hours (20th Century Fox) Harrowing true story of Aron Ralston (James Franco, in another fine turn), an extreme outdoorsman who finds himself trapped in a remote Utah canyon, his arm pinned between two boulders, with no help nearby, no communication to the outside world, and dim prospects for survival, to say the least. Director Danny Boyle manages to prove again that he’s one of the finest filmmakers working today by making a subject that is seemingly uncinematic a true example of pure cinema. Inventive, breathtaking, funny, and horrifying, often all at once. Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara make a memorable, brief appearance as hikers who connect with Ralston during his journey. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Boyle, producer Christian Colson, co-writer Simon Beaufoy; Deleted scenes; Featurettes. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 5.1 surround.

Amarcord (Criterion) Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning, autobiographical classic might...

Note: this is not some casting news headline from a couple of years back. Wild Grass featured ensemble of André Dussollier, Sabine Azéma, Mathieu Amalric and Anne Consigny are joining Alain Resnais' next feature, which will begin lensing in January of next year. Also joining the cast of Vous N'avez Encore Rien Vu, we have Jean-Pierre Bacri, Isabelle Nanty and trio Pierre Arditi, Lambert Wilson and Claude Rich who all appeared in Resnais' 2006 film Private Fears in Public Places. Filming begins in January and will last for. Gist: Co-written by Resnais and Laurent Herbiet, this is adapted from Jean Anouilh’s stage play Eurydice, where a violinist Orphée and touring actress Eurydice leave everything behind to fulfill their love. But jealousy takes hold of Orphée. Worth Noting: For a French filmmaker who has made very little amount of films, he sure if cranking them out in the late stages of his career.

Despite the foreign introduction of three big summer titles, including Warner Bros.' domestic boxoffice winner "The Hangover," Sony's "Terminator Salvation" remained atop the international circuit during the weekend by grossing an estimated $45 million from 10,323 screens in 80 territories.

A No. 1 Japan opening for the fourth title in the sci-fi action series, which has played overseas since May 27, generated $10.4 million from 697 sites. The film's China bow registered $5.2 million from 1,671 locations. In all, "Salvation" took the No. 1 spot in more than 30 territories.

"Salvation's" international cume stands at $164.8 million, of which $140.3 million originates from territories handled by Sony. During its second weekend in the U.K., the film finished No. 2 with $3.4 million from 875 locations. In France, its second weekend produced $2.8 million from 737 locations.

The overseas weekend was moderate overall, with torrid temperatures in many European markets complicating boxoffice action.

 

"The Hangover" finished No. 4 on the weekend with $11.9 million from more than 1,340 screens in 15 markets.

Opens: in France: April 30 (SBS Films, Medusa Film)

"The Great Alibi", the second Agatha Christie adaptation to reach French screens in four months, is not so much as whodunit as a why-make-it. Slickly turned out with a plethora of top acting talent, the movie will do air to middling business at home and abroad, but you have to wonder what its interest was for director Pascal Bonitzer, one of France's best screenwriting talents.

The original 1946 novel, "The Hollow", is a standard Christie country house murder mystery, which Bonitzer transposes from England to France. When handsome psychiatrist Pierre Collier (Lambert Wilson) arrives for the weekend at the home of senator Henri Pages (Pierre Arditi) with his long-suffering wife Claire (Anne Consigny) in tow, he finds himself sharing the premises with two of his mistresses -- one current, the other an ex -- along with Lea Mantovani (Caterina Murino), an old flame who has since become a film star. It's hinted that even Pages's wife Eliane (Miou-Miou) was an earlier conquest.

Naturally, Collier soon ends up dead. Detective inspector Grange (Maurice Benichou) is called in to solve the mystery and most of the subsequent action, including the killer's eventual comeuppance, takes place in Paris. The dialogue is crisp and agreeably waspish, acting is uniformly first-rate and lensing and lighting impeccable. Benichou brings a breath of fresh air to the proceedings, and Arditi and Miou-Miou form an endearingly eccentric couple. "Alibi" passes pleasantly enough, yet there's no satire, little passion and not much real tension.

Cast: Lambert Wilson; Miou-Miou; Pierre Arditi; Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi; Anne Consigny; Mathieu Demy; Caterina Murino; Grange: Maurice Benichou; Marthe: Celine Sallette. Director: Pascal Bonitzer. Screenwriters: Pascal Bonitzer, Jerome Beausejour. Based on the novel by: Agatha Christie. Producer: Said ben Said; Executive director: Sybille Nicolas. Director of photography: Marie Spencer. Production designer: Wouter Zoom. Costume designer: Marielle Robaut. Music: Alexei Aigui. Editor: Monica Coleman. Sales: UGC Distribution. No MPAA rating, running time 93 minutes.

By Michael Atkinson

On its surface, Ang Lee's career has been distinguished by a seemingly aimless ricochet between nations and milieus (Taiwan, New York, Wyoming, Devon, Shanghai, Connecticut, etc.), and between adapted disparate source materials (Jane Austen, Rick Moody, Annie Proulx, Wang Du Lu, Stan Lee) . and from both perspectives, you can find something to carp about. Indeed, Lee is rarely considered in serious debates about contemporary heavyweights, and his cultural rootlessness (read: opportunism) and dependence on literature may well be the reasons. We commonly like our auteurs to come packaged as purebred cultural expressors, and as artists largely independent of old narrative voices. But Lee's case can also demonstrate, movie by movie, the irrelevance of location, and the depth-finding force of deft adaptation.

"The Ice Storm" (1997), newly Criterionized, makes the point with a cudgel: Lee may have been Taiwanese, but his first all-American movie couldn't have been more American.

PARIS -- French director Daniele Thompson will follow up her 2006 hit "Avenue Montaigne" with "Le Code a Change", set to star a flock of famous French faces, producer Thelma Films said Monday.

Despite its title, which in English means, "The Code Has Changed", Thompson will stick to her winning formula of a Paris-based ensemble dramedy featuring the creme de la creme of Gallic talent and focusing on the lives of wealthy Parisians.

Co-produced by Alain Terzian's Alter Films, "Code" stars Karin Viard, Danny Boon, Marina Fois, Marina Hands, Emmanuelle Seigner, Patrick Bruel, Patrick Chesnais, Pierre Arditi and Laurent Stocker.

Keeping with family tradition, Thompson's son Christopher, co-writer of "Montaigne", will co-star in the pic.

The story brings together a potpourri of personalities from the Parisian upper class for a humorous, emotionally charged dinner that unveils deceiving appearances and uncovered truths.

After penning the scripts for French films "La Grande Vadrouille" (1966) and "The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob" (1973) alongside her father Gerard Oury, "Montaigne" will be Thompson's fourth turn in the director's chair.

TORONTO -- In Coeurs or Private Fears in Public Places, which is the English title of the Alan Ayckbourne play on which Alain Resnais bases this film, the director presents a melancholy comedy of manners about six characters in a forlorn search for love. This is a minor film from a master, which is disappointing, but nevertheless it has its charms, most notably in the acting by a cast of stage and screen veterans.

Certainly the film will play the festival circuit, but any domestic distributor will come up against its highly limited commercial appeal.

Private Fears still feels like a play as its characters are all connected to each other, often without their knowledge, as they move in and around a handful of interior locations. French playwright, director and author Jean-Michel Ribes has turned Ayckbourne's dialogue into French and reasonably transformed the English story into a Parisian setting.

Nicole (Italian star Laura Morante) is searching for a new apartment for her and her longtime fiance Dan Lambert Wilson), an alcoholic and recently cashiered career soldier. She employs harried real estate agent Thierry (Andre Dussollier), who would love to find a way to romantically connect with co-worker Charlotte (Sabine Azema), a religious woman with a secret erotic passion.

Charlotte takes a job as a night nurse for the dying yet unbearably cranky father of Lionel (Pierre Arditi), so he can tend the hotel bar where Dan does most of his drinking. When Dan and Nicole decide to separate, his first blind date at that bar, via a newspaper ad, is with Gaelle (Isabelle Carre), who is Thierry's lonely sister.

The latter casting makes little sense given the age differences between the two actors. The siblings' papa must have had the children by women far apart in years. Carre is also too beautiful to be credible as a socially inept wallflower no man notices in bars or cafes.

That illogic aside, the story's characters are all too much the same. They mope through days and nights, their romantic aspirations dashed at every turn. The actors give each a subtlety and emotional depth that allows individual scenes to work well. Yet collectively those scenes add up to very little. Indeed no one is any better off at the end and arguably a few are worse.

The sets look cool and artificial in the usually soft light. Scenes are ended by falling snow as winter envelops these characters in its icy embrace. This is the winter of desire, Resnais seems to say, as he observes people acting out private hopes and anguish in very public places.

PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES

Soudaine Compagnie

Credits:

Director: Alain Resnais

Writer: Jean-Michel Ribes

Based on the play by: Alan Ayckbourn

Producer: Bruno Pesery

Executive producer: Julie Salvador

Director of photography: Eric Gautier

Production designer: Jacques Saulnier

Music: Mark Snow

Editor: Herve de Luze.

Cast:

Nicole: Laura Morante

Dan: Lambert Wilson

Lionel: Pierre Arditi

Gaelle: Isabelle Carre

Thierry: Andre Dussollier

Charlotte: Sabine Azema

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 125 minutes...