Notícias

Blandine Lenoir’s completed family drama Juliette In Spring, starring Izia Higelin, has sold to key buyers including Palace Films for Australia and New Zealand, Polyfilm in Austria, Pandora in Germany, Surstey in Spain, and Cineworx in Switzerland for Indie Sales.

The film, based on Camille Jourdy’s graphic novel, is about a woman who returns to her hometown to spend time with her family as buried memories, unspoken truths and long-buried secrets bubble up to the surface in what Indie Sales calls “a sweet, tender and sometimes extravagant family portrait.”

Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Noémie Lvovsky and Sophie Guillemin co-star in...

Indie Sales has hopped aboard Across The Sea, French-Moroccan director Saïd Hamich Benlarbi’s second feature that will premiere as a special screening at Cannes’ Critics’ Week.

Moroccan TV star Ayoub Gretaa stars in the Marseille-set 1990s melodrama as Nour, an undocumented immigrant from Morocco with big dreams whose life turns upside down when he meets a charismatic police officer and his wife and a love triangle unfolds.

Anna Mouglalis and Grégoire Colin co-star in the decade-spanning film that follows Nour as he grows older, explores love and seeks a better life amidst the backdrop of the Rai music-focused party...

France’s Indie Sales has picked up Come Back, the directorial debut from Flemish brothers Jan and Raf Roosens starring Veerle Baetens and her real-life daughter Billie Vlegels.

The film is in post and Indie Sales is launching it at the European Film Market later this month. Kinepolis Film Distribution is handling the Belgian release.

Vlegels plays the teenage daughter of a once-successful techno DJ couple, living with her father after her parents’ divorce. When her mother (Baetens) sets off to make an international comeback, her daughter is thrust into the nocturnal club scene world and finds herself torn between...

Indie Sales has boarded Nathalie Najem’s “No Way Back,” a timely feature debut tackling domestic violence with a cast led by Bastien Bouillon (“The Night of the 12th”) and Zita Hanrot (“Angry Annie”).

Now in post, “No Way Back” will be introduced to buyers by the banner Indie Sales at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous showcase next week.

“No Way Back” tells the story of Laura, who is rebuilding her life after years under the toxic influence of Joachim and is raising their daughter on her own. When Joachim’s new girlfriend, Shirine, shows up at her door in dire straits, Laura realizes that they must help each other to get rid of Joachim’s harmful influence. The film appears to be in a similar vein as Xavier Legrand’s Venice prizewinner “Custody,” with an emphasis on sisterhood.

Bouillon won last year’s Cesar Award for best male newcomer for his...

The found-footage feature stars Matt Barber of ‘Downton Abbey’ and Ellie Duckles from Netflix drama ‘The A List’.

Found-footage horror Dagr, starring Ellie Duckles from Netflix drama The A List and Matt Barber of Downton Abbey, has been acquired for distribution in North America, Australia and New Zealand by The Horror Collective.

The UK feature will be available on digital platforms in the territories from mid-April through the genre label, which is part of Shaked Berenson’s Los Angeles-based worldwide sales and distribution company Entertainment Squad. The deal was closed directly with the filmmakers.

Game Of Thrones star Conleth Hill,...

Graphic novel adaptation stars stars Cesar-winning actress Izia Higelin

Indie Sales has boarded Blandine Lenoir’s fourth feature Juliette In Spring and will launch sales at Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris which takes place from January 16-23.

The film, based on Camille Jourdy’s graphic novel, follows a thirty-something woman who returns to her hometown to spend time with her family as buried memories, unspoken truths and long-buried secrets bubble up to the surface in what Indie Sales calls “a sweet, tender and sometimes extravagant family portrait.”

The film stars Cesar-winning actress Izia Higelin in the titular role alongside a...

Patrice Leconte will present Maigret Photo: Courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival The French Film Festival UK has announced its programme for its 30th anniversary edition, which will run at venues across the UK in November and December this year.

The festival will open with Eric Gravel's race-against-time drama Full Time at London's Cine Lumiere on November 2, with the director in attendance for a Q&a.

Other key films in this year's programme include Lukas Dhont's Close, which won the Cannes Grand Prix this year and Patrice Leconte's Maigret, starring Gerard Depardieu. Leconte will present the film in London on November 10 and in Edinburgh on November 11. Wilfried Méance and Olivier Ducray will also present their comedy Two Of A Kind in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Chichester on November 16, 17 and 18 respectively. Other guests are scheduled to include Charlotte Gainsbourg and Blandine Lenoir.

In a statement the festival said: "For three decades...

Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobtchuk’s debut feature also unveils theatrical trailer.

Cannes’ Director’s Fortnight title Pamfir, the debut feature from Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobtchuk, has sold to several major territories via Paris-based sales company Indie Sales and has unveiled its theatrical trailer.

The film has sold to France’s Condor, Canada’s FunFilms, Italy’s Movies Inspired, Poland’s Gutek Film, Switzerland’s Trigon, Greece’s Ama Films, Indonesia’s Falcon Pictures, Slovakia’s Asfk and to A-One Films for the Baltic states.

Condor will release the film in France on November 2 after an ambitious tour with the director throughout the country.

Music Box Films has acquired U.S. rights to “Full Time,” Eric Gravel’s visceral social thriller which is one of the five finalists for France’s official submission to the 95th Academy Awards.

Represented in international markets by Be For Films, “Full Time” world premiered at last year’s Venice festival in the Horizons sections and won a pair of awards for Laure Calamy (“Call My Agent!”) and Gravel. The critically acclaimed film went on to made its U.S. debut at New Directors/New Films.

Music Box Films will release “Full Time” in cinemas and on home entertainment platforms in 2023.

Calamy, one of France’s top actors, stars as a single mother who goes to great lengths to raise her two children in the suburbs while holding down a demanding job as head chambermaid in a Parisian luxury hotel. When she finally gets a job interview for another...

Best-known for her role as Noemie in the hit French series “Call My Agent!,” Laure Calamy has emerged in recent years as one of France’s biggest stars and most versatile actors. After a busy career in theater and many notable supporting roles, she finally got a shot at leading roles, and kudos have followed, for Caroline Vignal’s romantic comedy “My Donkey, My Lover and I,” which was part of Cannes’ Official Selection and earned her a Cesar award, and Eric Gravel’s social drama “A Plein Temps,” for which she won best actress at Venice in the Horizons section.

Calamy is now on a roll and she’s shown that she can play anything. Case in point: Over this summer, she was at Locarno to present Blandine Lenoir’s period drama “Angry Annie,” in which she plays a working mother who joins the Movement for the Liberation of...

Paris-based company Indie Sales has boarded Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s feature debut “A Tale of Shemroon” which is set to premiere in the New Directors competition at San Sebastian.

Set in the north of Tehran, “A Tale of Shemroon” follows Iman and his younger brother Payar who live with their father. After the death of their mother, Iman starts a business thanks to his connections with the city’s affluent youth, but these new opportunities bring him on a dangerous path affecting his family’s destiny.

“We are proud to be a part of San Sebastian’s New Directors competition with this new voice from Iranian cinema,” said Nicolas Eschbach at Indie Sales. “Emad (Aleebrahim Dehkordi) depicts the reality of the Iranian youth living in parts of Tehran that have seldom been seen before,” Eschbach continued.

“A Tale of Shemroon” was produced by Indie Sales’s sister company Indie Prod,...

“Rule 34,” a challenging and sexually explicit film from Brazilian director Julia Murat, has emerged as the surprise winner of the Golden Leopard award at this year’s Locarno Film Festival — an edition where typically audacious and formally ambitious work dominated the program. Marking a strong ceremony for female filmmakers, the main competition jury at the Swiss festival also handed an impressive three awards — best director and a brace of acting prizes — to gritty coming-of-age drama “I Have Electric Dreams,” an auspicious debut feature from Costa Rican writer-director Valentina Maurel.

A character study of a young female law student pursuing a parallel calling in amateur online pornography — while defending female abuse victims in her day job — “Rule 34’s” title stems from the popular online meme that “if it exists, there’s a porn version of it.” Murat’s film wasn’t among the buzzier entries in this year’s competition,...

The fashions, fabrics and eye-crossingly patterned wallpapers of the 1970s abound in “Angry Annie,” a French period piece practically painted in avocado green and Le Creuset orange, with hand-crocheted accessories for good measure. Would that the rest of Blandine Lenoir’s rousing abortion drama felt quite so dated. Instead, in a year where the overturning of Roe v. Wade signifies a major step back in the collective fight for women’s reproductive rights, this story of women banding together to assert their bodily autonomy in an age of sexual revolution feels all too timely: not merely a compelling reminder of how things were, but a warning of how they could yet be.

Bright and predominantly hopeful in tone, and powered by a typically lovable performance from recent César winner Laure Calamy (“Call My Agent”) as a meek wife and mother emboldened by an underground women’s movement, this is a less visceral,...

Exclusive: Paris-based company Indie Sales has sold Angry Annie, French director Blandine Lenoir’s latest feature, to a host of key territories ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival on Thursday.

The film has been sold to Benelux (Cinéart), Canada (Axia Films), Indonesia (Falcon Pictures), Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Israel (Lev Cinemas), South Korea (Ak Entertainment), Switzerland (Agora Films), and Taiwan (Av-Jet).

Inspired by true events, the film takes place in France in 1974. When she accidentally becomes pregnant, Annie, a working mother of two teenagers, meets with the Movement for the Liberation of Abortion and Contraception (Mlac), a group of doctors and women who perform illegal abortions in the public eye, practicing a free, safe, and respectful method. Gradually Annie will join their battle, which will bring a new meaning to her life.

Laure Calamy stars alongside Zita Hanrot and India Hair.

In a statement, Constance Poubelle, Senior Sales and Marketing Executive at Indie Sales said: “Angry Annie is more than ever an important film in this struggling time for women’s rights. We are thrilled the story of Annie will be shared with an international audience who will discover the brightness and humanity portrayed in this feature film.”

Angry Annie is a French co-production by Charlotte Vincent for Aurora Films and Nicolas Brévière for Local Films. Diaphana will release the film in France later this Fall.

There’s a new giant in town, or at least at Locarno’s Match Me!, one of the festival’s biggest industry initiatives.

For years, by a large head, France has had more titles at the Locarno Festival’s two biggest sections, the Piazza Grande showcase and main International Competition than any other country in the world. 2022 is no exception.

Unifrance also hosts the Festival’s biggest industry bash, a first Friday night sit-down dinner or party which used to take place at Locarno’s hillside Belvedere Hotel and has now moved to the near Maggiore Lake-side Blu Restaurant.

Now, however, Unifrance, Europe’s biggest national film-tv promotion board, has put its weight behind Match Me!, a networking initiative this year bringing together 32 emerging producers from over the world.

“It’s a perfect fit,” said Locarno Pro head Markus Duffner. Unifrance’s first-time presence at Match Me! also says much...

For its 75th edition, Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival, long known as a global indie cinema temple, is looking to the future while repositioning itself as a forward-thinking hub for a wider range of movies, including studio and streamer titles, with broad audience appeal.

“We believe that entertainment can be both serious and fun: I don’t see an opposing scenario where entertainment is only cheap, and seriousness is only extremely highbrow,” says the fest’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

Now on his second edition at the fest’s helm, the Italian critic is putting his stamp on Locarno with a lineup that, along with straightforward auteur movies of various kinds, increasingly includes comedies and genre films. The fest’s eclectic nature is illustrated by t he choice of the opener, Sony ’s frothy action thriller “Bullet Train,” directed by David Leitch, which Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be tubthumping on Aug.

Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman).The lineup for the 75th-anniversary edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Helena Wittmann, João Pedro Rodrígues, Aleksandr Sokurov and others, alongside retrospectives, tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEAlles über Martin Suter. Ausser die Wahrheit. (Everything About Martin Suter. Everything but the Truth.) (André Schäfer)Annie Colère (Blandine Lenoir)Bullet Train (David Leitch)Compartiment tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murder) (Costa-Gavras)Delta (Michele Vannucci)Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson)Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)Last Dance (Delphine Lehericey)Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman)My Neighbor Adolf (Leon Prudovsky)Paradise Highway (Anna Gutto)Piano Piano (Nicola Prosatore)Printed Rainbow (Gitanjali Rao)Semret (Caterina Mona)Une femme de notre temps (Jean Paul Civeyrac)Vous n'aurez pas ma haine (You Will Not Have My Hate) (Kilian Riedhof)Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman)Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann).Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAriyippu (Declaration) (Mahesh Narayanan)Balıqlara xütbə...

Anna Gutto‘s directorial debut Paradise Highway (starring Juliette Binoche), Blandine Lenoir‘s third feature Annie Colère (starring Laure Calamy), Kilian Riedhof’s sophomore film Vous n’aurez pas ma haine (with Pierre Deladonchamps), Olivia Newman‘s book to film sophomore film Where the Crawdads Sing and Thomas Hardiman‘s debut Medusa Deluxe – a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing are part of the 75 edition of the Locarno Film Festival (August 3rd to the 13th). Here are the selections for the Piazza Grande, Concorso Cineasti del presente and Fuori concorso sections:

Piazza Grande

Alles ÜBER Martin Suter. Ausser Die Wahrheit.…...

Ten world premieres among 17 international competition titles.

The Locarno Film Festival (August 3-13) has revealed the line-up for its 75th edition, which includes the world premiere of Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale.

The international competition will comprise 17 films, including 10 world premieres, which will vie for the coveted Golden Leopard awards.

Scroll down for full line-up

These titles include Fairytale, a Belgium-Russia co-production written and directed by Sokurov, whose films have played in Competition at Cannes five times with features including Russian Ark in 2002. His debut The Lonely Voice Of a Man received the Bronze Leopard in Locarno in 1987.

The...

Returning for its milestone 75th edition, Locarno Film Festival has now unveiled its full lineup. Taking place from August 3 through 13th, the selection includes Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers of Flesh, Jean-Paul Civeyrac’s Une femme de notre temps, Aleksandr Sokurov’s Fairytale, Patricia Mazuy’s Bowling Saturne, Abbas Fahdel’s Tales of the Purple House, Ana Vaz’s It Is Night In America, Leon Prudovsky’s My Neighbor Adolf, a massive Douglas Sirk retrospective, and much more.

“The selection of films that we have put together, after watching and appraising over 3,000 titles (of every length and format), is intended to be the mark of a time and of a cinema in motion,” Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro said. “A historic time that is moving in multiple directions simultaneously, and a cinema that is probing the issues facing the world, and how to live in it re- sponsibly, sustainably. The...

The Locarno Film Festival has announced the full line-up and juries for its 75th edition, which is due to unfold August 3-13.

The festival will get a starry kick-off on August 3 with the international festival premiere of David Leitch’s action-comedy Bullet Train, starring Brad Pitt alongside an ensemble cast featuring Joey King, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry, Sandra Bullock, Hiroyuki Sanada, Andrew Koji and Benito A Martínez Ocasio.

The film will be given a gala screening in the festival’s trademark 8,000-seat, open-air Piazza Grande arena.

Other titles due to get a splash on the Piazza Grande include Laurie Anderson’s Home Of The Brave, U.K. director Thomas Hardiman’s Medusa Deluxe and German director Kilian Riedhof’s French-language drama You Will Not Have My Hate, based on the memoir of a man on how he and his son coped following the death of his wife in the 2015 Bataclan terror attack.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its 75th edition, sticking to its promise of discovering new talent.

A slew of debuting filmmakers will showcase their works, from Italy’s Nicola Prosatore with “Piano Piano” to Caterina Mona, focusing in “Semret” on an Eritrean single mother working at a Zurich hospital and dreaming of becoming a midwife.

Thomas Hardiman’s U.K.’s proposition “Medusa Deluxe,” a murder mystery set in a competitive hairdressing competition — boarded by New Europe Film Sales — is also bound to generate some excitement.

“‘Medusa Deluxe’ is one of the coolest debuts of the year,” the company’s CEO Jan Naszewski enthused to Variety.

“I’m sure it will rock the Piazza Grande and give the festival a great spark.”

But Locarno will also bring in heavyweights, starting with a screening of the much-anticipated Brad Pitt vehicle “Bullet Train,” directed by “Atomic Blond” helmer David Leitch,...

Paris-based company Indie Sales has acquired Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk’s debut feature “Pamfir” which will world premiere at Directors’ Fortnight. The banner is handling international sales on the movie.

Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk previously directed the short film “Weighlifter,” a European Film Award contender and winner of the Best Short Film Award in Angers.

“Pamfir” takes place in Western Ukraine, on the eve of a traditional carnival. It follows a man, Pamfir, who returns to his family after months of absence. His unconditional love for his family is such that when his only child starts a fire in the prayer house, Pamfir has no other choice but to reconnect with his troubled past in order to repair his son’s fault.

“It has been an amazing journey working with such an inspiring international crew from Ukraine, Poland, France and Chile,” said Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. He added that “despite miles of distance, and tremendous difficulties, this has been a fruitful collaboration.

The company welcomes new staff as it prepares for the Cannes Film Festival and Marché du Film.

Paris-based sales company Indie Sales has announced two new staff appointments as it gets ready for the upcoming Cannes Film Festival and Marché du Film in May.

Constance Poubelle joins as a sales executive, replacing Florencia Gil who left for Urban Distribution International (Udi) earlier this year.

She arrives from Pyramide International, where she spent three years having started out in sales at TF1 Studio in 2017.

“We are thrilled to welcome Constance to our young and growing sales team. Her creative and international...

Paris-based company Indie Sales has boarded Blandine Lenoir’s “Angry Annie,” headlined by “Call My Agent!” star Laure Calamy, Zita Hanrot (Netflix’s “The Hook Up Plan”) and India Hair (“Mandibules”).

Inspired by true events, the film takes place in France in 1974 and tells the story of Annie, a working mother of two teenagers who accidentally becomes pregnant at a time when abortion was illegal in the country. Annie comes across doctors and women who are part of the Movement for the Liberation of Abortion and Contraception (Mlac) and becomes a pro-choice activist.

Lenoir previously directed “Aurore” which traveled to nearly 30 territories. Calamy, who plays Noémie in the popular “Call My Agent” series, just won the Cesar Award for her performance in “My Donkey, My Lover & I.”

Indie Sales will start sharing the script with buyers during the Cannes Pre-Screenings. The film will soon start shooting.

“It is an honor...

The film will be shooting in June, with a cast also including Laurent Stocker, India Hair and Pascale Arbillot. An Aurora Films and Local Films production sold by Indie Sales. In mid-June will begin in Île-de-France the shoot for Annie Colère, the third feature film by Blandine Lenoir after Zouzou (2014) and Fifty Springtimes (2017). In the cast, the director is working for the third time with Laure Calamy who will be flanked by Zita Hanrot (winner of the 2016 César award for Most Promising Actress for Fatima, and a stand...

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A Wrinkle in Time [IMDb]

Ava DuVernay directs and Jennifer Lee cowrites the tale of a girl (Storm Reid) who travels into space to find her missing father, with the help of three mysterious aliens (Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, and Mindy Kaling).

Pacific Rim: Uprising [my review]

Emily Carmichael and Kira Snyder cowrite this science fiction action movie about soldiers in giant robots who fight monsters. Features a gender balanced cast including Cailee Spaeny, Tian Jing, Adria Arjona, Ivanna Sakhno, and Rinko Kikuchi. (male director)

Unsane [my review]

Claire Foy stars as a woman caught up in a bureaucratic snafu at a mental hospital. (male writers and director)

Proud Mary [IMDb]

Taraji P. Henson stars at a hitwoman for the Boston mob. (male writers and director)

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Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist [IMDb]

Lorna Tucker directs this documentary portrait of fashion designer and activist Vivienne Westwood.

Gholam [IMDb]

Mitra Tabrizian writes and directs this drama...

A thread of optimism runs through this comedy starring Agnès Jaoui, in which the travails of Aurore resolve somewhat predictably

A life-affirmer and heart-warmer from French director Blandine Lenoir with weird moments of very misjudged broad comedy. The French title refers simply to its heroine, Aurore, but its English title is taken from the Nina Simone single. It’s a nice moment when Aurore, played by Agnès Jaoui, dances to that song on her own, with her infant daughters (now grown up) joining her in a kind of dream.

There are successful touches in this film, and Jaoui always has presence, but the base note of syrupy sentimentality is never far away, and it is unfunny and unconvincing when Aurore’s best friend, enraged by the sight of smug older guys with young girlfriends in the street, storms up to them and pretends to be a spurned lover, apparently for a laugh.

Everyone fears the process of aging. It unleashes realisations of mortality, nostalgia, regret, and the dreaded loss of youth. The French are no strangers to these ideas, but director Blandine Lenoir tackles these topics with a comedic and feministic twist. Instead of viewing the existential problems of middle-class, intellectual men – the convention in many European movies, as well as in lauded literature – Lenoir gives us those of a working-class woman for a change.

I Got Life! follows middle-class waitress Aurore (Agnès Jaoui) as she endures a difficult mid-life crisis, with many problems surfacing and re-surfacing in this stressful period. As well as hot flushes, she loses her job, her eldest daughter Marina (Sarah Suco) announces her pregnancy, and she bumps into an old lover (Thibault de Montalembert). Aurore must try and keep her head together, but proves difficult as she keeps getting into funny and irritating situations.

Like many French films,...

Director Blandine Lenoir and star Agnès Jaoui discuss the ‘everyday heroine’ of their new film, who defies convention to show the realities of age discrimination, menopause – and happiness – post-50

If men went through the menopause, there would be countless important movies by male directors on the subject of “the change”. Picture Woody Allen casting Colin Firth as an author struggling with night sweats and hormonal mood swings, a gorgeous 21-year-old waitress mopping his clammy brow. In reality, cinema is almost entirely menopause-free.

When the French director Blandine Lenoir started shooting her life-affirming comedy-drama I Got Life!, a female producer asked if it was possible edit out the M-word. “It’s funny, because my producer is a young woman, a feminist. But she wanted me to tread carefully, to be discreet.” Lenoir pulls a face as if to say: this is the crap I have to deal with. “Menopause is a big taboo in France,...

From today through February 1, we're partnering with the My French Film Festival to show you ten recently released French features (first and second films) and ten French shorts. Presented by Unifrance, the festival invites you to award points to the films you like at the main site — and these points count, as six prizes will be awarded (three for features, three for shorts): the Internet Users Prize, Social Networks Prize and International Press Prize.

Outside of both competitions, we've also got a few extra presentations. The online festival was a hit around the world last year and you won't want to miss this second edition.

A few quick notes on the films, starting with the features:

Rebecca Zlotowski's Belle épine (Dear Prudence), winner of the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc for Best First Film, is "closer to a sobering character study than a classical youth film," finds Chris Cabin in Slant.

Xavier Beauvois' "Of Gods and Men" dominated the nominations of the 36th Annual Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars. "Of Gods" received 11 nominations total and will compete against Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur), Gainsbourg (Vie Heroique), Mammuth, Le Nom Des Gens, The Ghost Writer, and On Tour for Best Film.

The Social Network, Invictus, Inception, Illegal, The Secret In Their Eyes, Bright Star, and Les Amours Imaginaires will duke it out for the Best Foreign Film category.

Jodie Foster will preside over the ceremony and Quentin Tarantino will be given an honorary Cesar award. The 36th Annual Cesar Awards will be held on Feb. 25th.

Here is the full list of nominees:

Best Film

Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur), dir: Pascal Chaumeil

Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes Et Des Dieu), dir: Xavier Beauvois

Gainsbourg (Vie Heroique), dir: Joann Sfar

Mammuth, dir: Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern

Le Nom Des Gens, dir: Michel Leclerc

The Ghost Writer,...

Feature debuts don't come more audacious than this effort by Gaspar Noe, a filmmaker in his mid-20s obviously determined to shock -- and he achieves his goal. The difference is that he also displays real style and intelligence, and this brilliantly controlled effort marks the emergence of a true talent.

The film was recently showcased, quite appropriately, in the Cinema of Tomorrow segment of the Montreal World Film Festival and will appear this month at the New York Film Festival.

Bursting with nihilism in a way that makes "Taxi Driver" look like a Disney cartoon, "I Stand Alone" presents an anti-hero who is as fascinating to watch as he is evil. Philippe Nahon, in a compelling performance, plays a middle-aged former butcher who has spent time in jail for beating a young man who he thought tried to rape his mentally impaired teenage daughter.

Now, he is living quite unhappily with his pregnant, shrewish girlfriend and her doddering old mother. His anger ever simmering below the surface, it finally erupts one day and he pummels his girlfriend in the stomach and she loses the child. He takes it on the lam, returning to his former hometown and attempting to find work while avoiding the cops.

He meets with failure and rejection at every turn, even from his old friends and co-workers. In possession of a gun that he stole from his girlfriend, he plans violent revenge, then suicide, but before he does so he takes his daughter out of the institution for a final visit, which leads to a fresh set of horrors.

The simple plot description doesn't do justice to the film, a brilliantly intense and harrowing portrait of a man descending to the depths of hell. The main character provides a running narration, in which he expounds his philosophy of hatred for mankind and the hopelessness of the human condition. The narrative is punctuated by title cards, and the director constantly jolts the audience with a technique of using sudden camera movements and loud noises, approximating gunshots, in the middle of scenes.

Noe is more than aware of what he's doing, and he doesn't resist the impulse to have some perverse fun with it. Just before the film's climax, the screen goes blank and a warning appears, with a "Danger" sign flashing and a countdown of 30 seconds. And the final sequence is a dizzying series of double crosses in which audience expectations are cruelly played with. There's no small element of sadism involved here, both from the characters and the filmmaker, but the raw talent on display is ample compensation.

I STAND ALONE

Les Cinemas de la Zone

Director-screenwriter-producer-

cinematographer: Gaspar Noe

Editors: Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Gaspar Noe

Color/stereo

Cast: Philippe Nahon, Blandine Lenoir, Frankyie Pain, Martine Audrain

Running time -- 92 minutes

No MPAA rating...