News

Amazon Prime Video has ordered its next French series original, “Darknet-sur-Mer,” (“On the Darknet”) a crime comedy series produced by Noor Sadar’s White Lion Films, a Mediawan Group company.

The six-episode series, directed by Remy Four and Julien War (“On The Other Side of the Tracks”), has just started filming in the Charente Maritime region of Southwest France. “Darknet-sur-Mer” is the first scripted program to be supported by the Selective Platforms Fund recently launched by the National Film Board for content backed by streamers.

“On the Darknet” revolves around a mysterious website named Vrasesin which offers services from contract killers and turns out to be a scam created by Ben and Flo, two amateur hackers who live in a quiet fishing resort at Ponet-sur-Mer. But Ben and Flo’s enterprise soon get them in trouble with Alkan, an Albanian criminal who is searching for a contract killer to assassinate the chief of a gang.

Notre Dame

French director Valérie Donzelli makes her fifth feature with Notre Dame, in which she will star in and produce herself, alongside Mina Driouch for Les Films de Francoise, Alice Girard and Eduoard Weil for Rectangle Productions, Genevieve Lemal for Scope Pictures (Belgium) and France 2 Cinema. Amongst her cast members are Pierre Deladonchamps, Thomas Scimeca, Bouli Lanners, Virginie Ledoyen, Isabelle Candelier and Philippe Katerine. Donzelli’s effervescent debut, Queen of Hearts (2009) played at Locarno, while her 2011 sophomore film Declaration of War became a huge hit after premiering in Critics’ Week at Cannes, going on to snag a handful of Cesar nods plus earning the distinction of being France’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film for Academy Award consideration.…...

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

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

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

Déborah François...

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

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

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

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

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

Gemma Bovery Music Box Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten for Shockya. Databased on Rotten Tomatoes. Grade: A- Director: Anne Fontaine Screenwriter: Pascal Bonitzer, Anne Fontaine, based on Posy Simmonds’ 1999 graphic novel Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Isabelle Candelier, Niels Schneider, Mel Raido Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 5/20/15 Opens: May 29, 2015 Life follows art. Art follows life. Sometimes art follows art. In that last category, let’s say an author modernized Dave Eggers’s stunning 2014 novel “The Circle,” about the influence of social media by bringing it right up to the present moment. Unless the modernizing author is Dave Eggers, he or she would be sued for [ Read More ]

The post Gemma Bovery Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Premiering on the fall festival circuit last year, the latest film from Coco Before Chanel director Anne Fontaine, Gemma Bovery, will touch down in the U.S. later next month and today brings the trailer. Featuring Gemma Arterton, Jason Flemyng, Fabrice Luchini, Isabelle Candelier and Niels Schneide, it follows our lead as the titular Gemma, who along with her husband […]...

Edouard Waintrop, Artistic Director of Directors' Fortnight, has presented the lineup for this year's edition, running from May 17 through 27.

Features

Merzak Allouache's El Taaib. Evene claims it's an angry film aimed at the malaise of Algerian society.

Rodney Ascher's Room 237. A documentary about the plethora of theories that have sprung up over the years regarding just what Stanley Kubrick was up to when he made The Shining (1980). More here. IFC Midnight picked up North American rights just yesterday.

Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner's Ernest et Célestine. From the makers of A Town Called Panic, this is an animated adaptation of a series of books about a little mouse who doesn't want to become a dentist and a big bear who doesn't want to become a notary. Site.

Benjamin Ávila's Infancia clandestina. From the San Sebastian Film Festival: "Juan lives in clandestinity. Just like his mum,...

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.