News

At first, the violence seems limited to news reports. Every time a gangster is gunned down or a car bomb goes off in the streets of Corsica, the local channel flashes footage of the crime scene. So long as the killings are confined to television, it’s easy for 15-year-old Lesia to pretend they’re neither real nor relevant, that the people involved aren’t members of her father’s inner circle. But as “The Kingdom” unfolds, the attacks keep getting closer, slowly infiltrating the film itself, until finally, they’re happening right in front of her face.

Corsica, like nearby Sicily, has a serious problem with organized crime, which escalated dramatically in the 1990s, when “The Kingdom” is set. The birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, it’s an unusual island: technically part of France, but too independent-minded to let outsiders manage its affairs. The Corsican flag depicts a decapitated Moorish...

Italian actor Caterina Murino, best known globally for playing Solange in James Bond movie “Casino Royale,” will be the master of ceremonies at the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

Born in Cagliari, Sardegna, Murino made her big screen debut in 2002 in late Chilean writer/director Luis Sepulveda’s political drama “Nowhere” which played well in France. She returned to French film screens in 2004 in “L’Enquete Corse” opposite actors Christian Clavier and Jean Reno.

In 2006 Murino gained global visibility as the new 007 Bond Girl alongside Daniel Craig with her role as the shady seductive Solange Dimitrios in “Casino Royale.”

She subsequently starred in British comedy “St.Trinian’s” and in 2008 attended Venice as protagonist of Italian Director Pappi Corsicato’s “The Seed of Discord.”

In 2017 Murino starred in U.S. supernatural thriller “The Voice in Stone” and in 2021 appeared in Alex de la Iglesia’s “Veneciafrenia” and in Netflix family dramedy “My Brother, My Sister,...

PARIS -- French cinema group Gaumont posted improved full-year 2004 results Monday, with revenue rising 26% over the previous year to €88.6 million ($117.3 million) and a net profit of €9.7 million ($12.8 million), compared with €2.8 million in 2003. The group attributed the improved results to the success of two films it released last year and a healthy increase in French film admissions, which benefited the turnover of its EuroPalaces chain of cinema halls. Alain Berberian's The Corsica File, starring Jean Reno and Christian Clavier, registered 2.6 million entries, while Olivier Marchal's cop thriller, 36 Quai des Orfevres, starring Daniel Auteuil and Gerard Depardieu, attracted two million entries last year. Consolidated profit for its EuroPalaces cinemas rose to €16.6 million ($21.9 million) compared with €3.9 million in 2003, on revenues of €407.7 million ($539.8 million) against a year-earlier €380 million, Gaumont said in a statement.