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Reflecting the breadth of her legacy across different continents, French actor Isabelle Huppert was celebrated by the likes of Alfonso Cuarón, Claire Denis, Alejandro Jodorowsky and François Ozon at the 15th edition of the Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon where she received a sprawling career tribute on Oct. 18.

Huppert kicked off the festivities as she entered the 3000-seat auditorium dancing to the 1980’s disco beats of “Nuit de folie,” dressed in a shimmery champagne gown.

The joyful ceremony, emceed by Huppert’s longtime friend (and Cannes boss) Thierry Fremaux who runs the Lumiere Film Festival, was punctuated by live musical numbers ranging widely from Camelia Jordana’s singing a capella “I Will Survive,” to Julien Clerc performing his 1978 cult song “Ma Preference” by the piano, and French actor Sandrine Kiberlain playfully singing “Nuit de folie” which was said to be Huppert’s unexpected all-time favorite song.

The most vibrant homage...

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we take a look at several of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's music videos. Jean-Pierre Jeunet started out his video career with many music videos, some of which he co-directed with his frequent collaborator Marc Caro. The first music video they made together already shows their heightened sense of style. Julien Clerc's La fille aux bas nylon (below) has proudly fake backdrops, a cartoony style, and objects becoming embodied with life when there was none before. It's a living Fleischer brothers cartoon, with some of the horniness of a Tex Avery short. Its central premise, after all, is the whole city becoming hot for the woman in the song...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

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...

PARIS -- It was a very British year for French detective thriller fest, the Festival du Film Policier de Cognac, with Donal MacIntyre's "A Very British Gangster" taking the top prize for best film Sunday night.

The festival jury was headed by veteran filmmaker Claude Lelouch, whose "Crossed Tracks" received a long standing ovation after screening out of competition Saturday.

The jury, which also included actresses Lea Drucker, Julie Gayet, Audrey Marnay and Jocelyn Quivrin, actors Bruno Wolkowitch and Pierre Lorit and singer Julien Clerc, awarded their jury prize to two Australian entries: Ray Lawrence's "Jindabyne" and Joe Carnahan's "Smokin' Aces".

"Aces" also took home the international critics prize as the five-day public event wrapped. The audience award went to Bruce Evans' "Mr. Brooks" from the U.S., while the New Blood Jury awarded its top prize to Spanish first film "Night of the Sunflowers" from George Sanchez-Cabezudo.

The fest opened Wednesday with Johnnie To's "Exiled" and featured homage screenings of To's films, movies based on Mary Higgins Clark novels, a special series dedicated to the French thriller genre and a "Prison Break" marathon.