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By Omar Rasya Joenoes

The first shot of the film is that of a delicate hand stretched against a grey backdrop. It is then joined by another, slightly larger hand, which feels and leaves it. The hand then lowers itself and lands on the shoulder of a man to reveal that we are watching a lovemaking session between a beautiful woman and a younger man. In contrast, the final shot of the film shows the same woman’s face at the end of a train car as the vehicle enters a tunnel, swallowing her image whole until there is nothing left to see but the dark. Between the hotel room and the train ride, we are made to witness adultery, blackmail, nude modeling, film shooting, and possibly even murder attempt.

The woman, whose story is the focal point of this photoplay, is called Mizuki Miyako (portrayed by the gorgeous Mariko Okada...

Lionsgate U.K. has taken theatrical rights to “The Father,” Florian Zeller’s movie adaptation of his hit stage play of the same name, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. Embankment Films, which executive produces the film, is handling worldwide sales (ex-France) and did the U.K. deal.

Principal photography started in the U.K. earlier this month on the film, which also stars Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams.

Lionsgate U.K. has the British theatrical rights. Broadcaster Channel 4 has the free-tv rights after Film4 invested in the movie.

Hopkins stars in the title role as a mischievous, independent man who, as he ages, refuses all assistance from his daughter Anne (Colman). Yet such help has become essential, following Anne’s decision to move to Paris with her partner. As Anne’s father tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones,...

★★★★☆ History tells us that the neophyte directors who emerged in sixties France made films that challenged the established aesthetic tradition. It forgets to tell us about a director like Claude Sautet, whose hard-nosed thriller Classe Tous Risques (1960) was thrust into almost immediate obscurity by the formal insouciance of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, released one week earlier. Sautet is most widely remembered now for his psychological studies of romance such as Un Coeur en Hiver and Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud, but his debut illustrated a gift for bringing emotional complexity to the hardest of genres.

To celebrate the Blu-Ray and DVD release of Claude Sautet’s César et Rosalie, on November 5th we have three blu-ray copes to give away.

César et Rosalie is an enchanting French romance starring Yves Montand (Jean De Florette) and Romy Schneider (What’s New Pussycat? Sissi), directed by Claude Sautet (Un Coeur en Hiver, Les Chose de la Vie).

Rosalie is a beautiful vivacious young woman involved with a charming, successful businessman called César. He is crazy about her and his exuberant vitality satisfies Rosalie’s terrific lust for life. One day out of the blue Rosalie’s old flame David appears, desperate to win back her affections. César’s intense jealousy shocks Roaslie and she ends up running into the arms of David and the pair are separated. Rosalie however begins to doubt that she’s made the right choice, until fate ends up deciding for her.

To...

Mademoiselle Chambon

Directed by Stéphane Brizé

Screenplay by Florence Vignon & Stéphane Brizé

2011, France

Movie femmes fatales are ten a penny, but never underestimate the danger posed by a woman toting a violin case. Like Daniel Auteuil in Un Coeur en Hiver, the hero of Stéphane Brizé’s Mademoiselle Chambon finds the twin attractions of beautiful music and a lovely face just too hard to resist.

For a film in which music plays a such central role, Mademoiselle Chambon begins in deliberately unharmonious fashion as builder Jean (Vincent Lindon) gets busy with his power tools. He’s a middle-aged family man with an attractive wife, a young son and an elderly father (played by Jean-Marc Thibault) who’s in failing health. Jean, we sense, is a man who’s much more at home operating a drill than expressing his feelings. But when he’s invited to give a talk at the...