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The autobiographical film is always an attempt to embalm and embrace what’s long past. To look back and reshape one’s own memories with the help of a camera is to wrestle not just with what happened but with the ripple effects of what’s come since. “Before We Forget” finds a filmmaker struggling to edit a deeply personal film based on a youthful crush that still haunts him. Memory and filmmaking blend as the film shuttles back and forth between past and present. Yet even with this intentionally meta construct, Juan Pablo Di Pace and Andrés Pepe Estrada’s film cannot escape the familiar tropes and trappings of the gay coming-of-age film it’s stuck depicting.

“Before We Forget” opens with a camera being held by a filmmaker in the present and by his younger self decades before. With his rugged beard and his moppish salt and pepper hair,...

This summer, Dinosaurs rule the Earth.

With the global press tour getting underway today, Universal Pictures have debuted a brand new 90-second trailer that offers an extended look at two key sequences from the upcoming Gareth Edwards-directed dino sequel, specifically a terrifying sequence with the Mutadons and another look at that Spinosaurus encounter, which looks like it won't be going so well for one member of the cast...

Over the next two weeks, the global press tour will take the principal cast, including our new lead trio of Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, and Jonathan Bailey to London, Berlin, New York, Shanghai, and Seoul.

The London premiere is today, June 17, so be wary of spoilers as it's very possible they will start to surface online as early as tonight.

Universal has also debuted a new 16-bit game for the film, where you can also join the hunt for Dinosaur DNA!

Have you ever noticed how breathtaking the landscapes in queer cinema often are? Luscious shots of ripe fruit hanging from trees, skies fading into verdant hills, and a tragic love unfolding—not just aesthetic choices, but visual metaphors for longing, for the gaze that desires, and for the way nature itself seems to yearn alongside the characters. Nature transforms into a sanctuary, offering itself as shelter to the star-struck lovers while simultaneously remaining impartial to what it observes.

When people talk about queer entertainment, certain titles may come to mind: “Call Me by Your Name” (2017), “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (2019), “Summer of 85” (2020), and “Moonlight” (2016) are just some films that have forever carved their legacy in queer cinema. One thing all these have in common, alongside the tragically beautiful storytelling that leaves everyone teary-eyed by the end, is the beautiful scenery and cinematography that accompany them.

“Call Me by Your Name...

Ahead of tomorrow's eagerly awaited new theatrical trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth, Universal has released another action-packed new TV spot, this time spotlighting some of the dinos that'll be at the center of the blockbuster sequel: the Titanosaurus, Quetzalcoatlus, and Mosasaurus.

As far as why Scarlett Johansson and her team will be seeking out these three monumental beasts, the synopsis revealed that she'll be tasked with retreiving DNA samples from the three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air, who in their DNA, hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.

It's expected that the new trailer will be attached to screenings of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning and Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch this weekend, meaning it'll get maximum eyeballs as it kickstarts its full-fledged marketing blitz in June.

Despite stiff competition from superhero entries Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps,...

Watch out, all you budding, recreational paleontologists out there: there are a few new dinosaurs on the block. And by the looks of the new Jurassic World: Rebirthteaser — priming us all for the official trailer drop on Tuesday — the movie's stars, Scarlett Johansson,Jonathan Bailey, and Mahershala Ali, are in for a wild journey to the birthplace of Jurassic Park. Because this new teaser (titled "Alert") has given us a few terrifying glimpses at the two new mega-reptiles set to terrorize our hopeful heroes.

With the film set to release this 4th of July weekend, the latest cinematic return to author Michael Crichton's iconic creation is being given the best chances possible at becoming a major summer movie blockbuster. And that means we need more dinosaurs than ever before. Scarier, bigger, wilder, and more unruly than ever before. It also means that fans of the Crichton novel can get...

Universal has confirmed today that a brand new theatrical trailer for Jurassic World Rebirth will arrive online this coming Tuesday, and to tease the launch, they've released a brand new TV spot featuring tons of never-before-new footage, including the much-talked about T-Rex river raft chase and we also get to see the Distortus Rex in action!

With the marketing finally starting to ramp up, we should be seeing a lot more dino carnage in upcoming spots as they finally let loose on some of the epic danger Scarlett Johansson and company will be finding themselves facing this Fourth of July.

This will be the latest in a long line of trailers we've seen this past week in the lead up to next week's action-packed double feature of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning and Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch. Other trailers that have launched this past week include Superman,...

As part of their summer movie previews, Entertainment Weekly, ScreenRant, and Empire have shared new stills from Jurassic World Rebirth, offering a killer new look at the franchise's newest leading lady Scarlett Johansson, who plays covert operations expert Zora Bennett, doing her best to survive all kinds of dino carnage.

Aside from a handful of brief glimpses, the early images from the film reveal remarkably few dinosaurs—likely because the production is keeping the Distortus rex and any other mutant dinos on the island tightly under wraps, so we'll just have to strap in this Fourth of July for all kinds of mayhem.

With How to Train Your Dragon due out in theaters in June, it seems highly probable that a new trailer for Rebirth will be arriving online sometime before the end of this month as they begin to ramp up the marketing campaign for an epic Jurassic June.

Carême star, Benjamin Voisin, the brilliant French actor, has kept audiences entertained with his stellar performances for a few years now. His notable 2020 movie Summer of 85 was a coming-of-age story, something that put him on the map as an actor to look out for. It was nothing short of a prelude to his upcoming period drama series, Carême.

His versatility, depth, and screen presence place him comfortably as a prominent figure in modern French cinema, leaving audiences across the world intrigued by what he does next. With Carême trailer out and already such a point for discussion amongst cinephiles, we await his next performance with bated breath.

Summer of 85, a beautiful tale of love and loss

Created by François Ozon, Summer of 85 (Été 85), is set in 1980’s Normandy. Voisin’s character, David Gorman, is 18 years old and forms a unique bond with 16-year-old Alexis, masterfully played by Félix Lefebvre.

Universal Pictures has released an awesome new TV spot for Jurassic World Rebirth, teasing some of the most dangerous dinosaurs the franchise has ever put on screen.

In terms of what dangerous dinos we can expect, the trailers have teased that the fan-favorite Tyrannosaurus Rex will be front-and-center once again, this time finally taking part in the long-awaited riverboat chase, which is expected to be one of the film's standout sequences.

The following have also been spotted and/or are expected to make an appearance: Aquilops, Ankylosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Mosasaurus, Parasaurolophus, Quetzalcoatlus, Spinosaurus, Titanosaurus, Triceratops, and Velociraptor.

Plus, there's also a giant mutant dinosaur running around on the island that will be causing all kinds of terror for our heroes. The creature's design was based of a T-Rex, a Rancor from Star Wars, and a Xenomorph from Alien; and while, no official name has been provided yet, some fans have been...

Universal Pictures has released a brand new featurette for their upcoming summer blockbuster Jurassic World Rebirth, featuring some never-before-seen new footage and revealing how the new film is more connected to the original than any of the previous sequels.

Outside of the main cast of characters returning to Isla Nublar - the island where the original film takes place - the most prominent way the film connects back to the original is by bringing back Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park scribe David Koepp.

In the new featurette, Koepp teases the T-Rex riverboat sequence, which promises to be one of the upcoming film's most thrilling moments and a scene that has has essentially been thirty years in the making.

The cast features Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation; Marriage Story; Black Widow), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight; Green Book; True Detective), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton; Fellow Travelers; Crashing), Rupert Friend (Homeland; Anatomy of a Scandal...

This summer, get ready for a whole new dino-filled adventure with Jurassic World Rebirth, a film that promises to take the franchise in a bold and terrifying new direction as new dinos and monsters descend on humanity, causing unprecedented mayhem.

During their CinemaCon presentation, Universal Pictures brought out director Gareth Edwards and stars Scarlett Johansson ("Zora Bennett") and Mahershala Ali ("Duncan Kincaid") to introduce their never-before-seen new footage from the upcoming blockbuster.

With all three of the previous entries topping $1 billion, it's a pretty safe bet that Rebirth will likely also reach those heights, especially with fans eager to see this bold and scary new direction as well as box office superstar Scarlett Johansson leading the charge.

Johansson is a longtime Jurassic superfan, telling the CinemaCon audience, “It has been a lifelong dream to be in a Jurassic movie.," before adding how she did everything in her power to be cast in this film,...

J.J. Abrams (“The Force Awakens”) and showrunner Latoya Morgan’s (“Shameless”) new series “Duster” will debut May 15, with the first official trailer teasing an increasingly dangerous crime syndicate.

Starring Josh Holloway (“Lost”), Rachel Hilson and Keith David (“The Thing”), “Duster” is set in the 1970s Southwest as a getaway driver gets entangled in a crime network that is threatened by the arrival of a young agent in town. Hilson stars as the first Black female FBI agent.

“Duster” was produced in association with Warner Bros. Television, with the eight episodes dropping weekly through the finale on July 3. The first two episodes are written by Abrams and Morgan, with Abrams and Rachel Rusch Rich executive producing for Bad Robot while Morgan executive produces for TinkerToy Productions.

Watch the official trailer below.

In other TV roundup news:

First Looks/Trailers

Season 4 of the Irish mystery series “Harry Wild” is officially returning this...

He broke out big in François Ozon‘s Summer of 85 (he confirmed his prowess with his following film the Venice Film Fest preemed Lost Illusions), Benjamin Voisin will now topline and reteam with filmmaker for L’Étranger (aka The Outsider) – the book to film project based on Albert Camus’ 1942 novella. Voisin would play Meursault, an indifferent settler in French Algeria, who, weeks after his mother’s funeral, kills an unnamed Arab man in Algiers. The story is divided into two parts, presenting Meursault’s first-person narrative before and after the killing. Production is set to take place next month in Tangier, Morocco.…...

The French auteur behind 8 Women, In the House and most recently When Autumn Falls is joining us to answer your questions, from how does he coax such amazing performances from actors to his visual influences

Is François Ozon the most talented French film-maker currently working? That’s a big ask, in a very crowded field, but Ozon has got the back catalogue to back it up. From his 1998 feature debut Sitcom (notwithstanding 1997’s 52-minute See the Sea), early films such as Fassbinder adaptation Water Drops on Burning Rocks and star-stuffed crime musical 8 Women, on to more recent works including Frantz and Summer of 85, Ozon has ranged widely across styles and genres, offering something new and original wherever he’s gone. He’s even done an English-language period drama, Angel, starring Romola Garai.

A distinctive feature of Ozon’s career is his ability to command great performances from top-notch female stars,...

Today, Apple TV+ shared a first look at Carême, the upcoming French-language drama starring César Award winner Benjamin Voisin, César Award nominee Jérémie Renier, César Award winner Lyna Khoudri and Alice Da Luz.

The series is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Martin Bourboulon. Carême will make its global debut on Apple TV+ on April 30, 2025, with the first two episodes, followed by one episode weekly every Wednesday through June 11, 2025.

Carême follows the thrilling story of the world’s first celebrity chef, Antonin Carême (Voisin), who rose from humble beginnings in Paris to the height of culinary stardom in Napoleon’s Europe.

While he dreams only of becoming the most famous chef in the world, his talent and ambitions attract the attention of renowned and powerful politicians who use him as a spy for France.

Determined to escape poverty and fulfill his dream, Carême can choose revenge, or he can have it all — women,...

Sports dramas of any kind demands an added level of physicality from their characters, something that Netflix’s latest Mma combat-based series, The Cage, exemplifies very well with its talented cast, who brought out the best from the narrative through their emphatic performances. Aside from this positive aspect, the series is going to attract a major number of combat sports nerds thanks to the number of cameo appearances by legendary Mma fighters, which almost made me think Dana White was going to pop up on the series at some point. Anyway, the inclusion of real-life stars brings a sense of realism into the narrative, and the fact that their appearances aren’t merely limited to blink-and-miss-it-type roles is an added bonus on top of everything.

Taylor Keita Played by Melvin Boomer

French breakdancer and actor Melvin Boomer has previously acted in the comedy drama movie Sage Homme and in the TV series World of Tomorrow,...

Ozon and a stellar cast serve up an entertaining, if shallow caper that shades a little too close to #MeToo

François Ozon has directed plenty of complex, demanding and serious dramas: Everything Went Fine, Summer of 85 and By the Grace of God, along with adaptations of Fassbinder. But he also has a sweet tooth for breezy, silly, crowd-pleasing theatrical comedies like this one. Watching it is like being force-fed a large box of chocolates; moreish, though. There is certainly an amazing blue-chip cast of French movie-acting royalty, including Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini and André Dussollier.

The Crime Is Mine is adapted from a 1934 French stage comedy called Mon Crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil which has already spawned two different madcap Hollywood versions in the 30s and 40s, respectively starring Carole Lombard and Betty Hutton. Nadia Tereszkiewicz plays Madeleine, an impecunious would-be stage star, engaged to wealthy young...

As Sex Crimes has evolved, it has been exciting to see how different Erotic Thrillers play to – or subvert – the conventions of the subgenre. This is especially true of modern entries, which, unlike the titles released during the heyday of the late 80s and early 90s, tend to defy simple classification.

The truth is that there are very few contemporary Erotic Thrillers; it’s something of a dormant subgenre that rears its head in fits and starts. This is partially why everyone got so excited by Adrian Lyne’s “return” with Deep Water (and then summarily got disappointed when he failed to adhere to the expected tropes that many of his own films established).

Fans of Lyne would do well to shift their attention to French writer/director François Ozon (Swimming Pool). Well respected in his home country, the extremely literary, openly queer director has made two Erotic Thriller-adjacent titles in the last six years,...

Exclusive: Wild West, the genre-focused joint venture between French film companies Goodfellas (ex-Wild Bunch International) and Capricci, has unveiled a third slate of projects at a co-financing event in Nantes.

The two-day meeting, running June 22-23, comes hot on the heels of a successful Cannes Critics’ Week world premiere for Stéphan Castang’s thriller Vincent Must Die.

The film, which racked up strong sales and reviews, was on Wild West’s inaugural 2021 slate.

Goodfellas co-head Vincent Maraval and Capricci CEO Thierry Lounas created Wild West with the aim of developing and producing a pipeline of fast-turnaround, relatively low budget, French-language genre films.

The initiative grew out of their collaboration on Capricci’s So Film Genre screenwriting residency, which previously developed films such as Just Philippot’s 2020 breakout horror The Swarm.

The six new feature projects include Italian screenwriter and director Giovanni Aloï’s thriller The Golden Rule about a...

Music Box Films has acquired the US distribution rights to “The Crime is Mine” (“Mon Crime”). François Ozon directs the comedy of errors starring newcomers Rebecca Marder and Nadia Terezkiewicz, alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon, and André Dussolier.

Music Box is aiming for a theatrical release later this year with a home video release to follow.

The picture, based on George Berr and Louis Verneuil’s 1934 play, concerns a struggling actress (Terezkiewicz) and her roommate (Marder), an unemployed attorney in 1930’s Paris. Madeleine ends up on trial for the murder of a movie producer, while Pauline serves as both defense counsel and media circus ringmaster to both of their mutual benefit. Their post-acquittal life of fame, fortune and glory is eventually undercut by certain revelations.

“The Crime is Mine” marks Music Box Films’ fifth collaboration with director Ozon, following “Potiche,” “Frantz,” “By the Grace of God” and “Summer of 85.

Christophe Honoré's Winter Boy is now showing exclusively on Mubi starting April 28, 2023, in many countries in the series Luminaries.When Antoine Doinel first dons his checkered jacket and roams the streets of Paris in François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), the city air is so cold that his breath clouds the frame. Truffaut’s wintry film is a tale of isolation and frustration in the life of the young Doinel, a misbehaving schoolboy bored by la dictée and the stifling teachings of his professor. Out in the frostbitten night, he sleeps in a printing press and steals a typewriter, evoking his search for his own liberation and words to live by. To everyone else, he appears a troubled youth in need of institutionalization. To Truffaut, he is his younger self looking for his identity and the means to express it, a memory committed to film. When a filmmaker sets...

There is an intoxicating smugness to Xavier Giannoli’s new adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s “Illusions perdue,” as though this filmmaker couldn’t wait to shove this movie right in the faces of every human being on television, or on Twitter, or indeed who has ever criticized a movie, complained about the news, or whined about anything even remotely related to popular culture in the last 20 years.

Balzac got there first. Balzac said it better. And Giannoli damn well knows it.

Giannoli’s film, “Lost Illusions,” is a sexy and mean-spirited social satire about a young poet named Lucien who follows his heart, and his wealthy married lover, Louise, to Paris in the mid-19th century. Promptly discarded for fear of scandal, Lucien is left destitute and gets the only writing job he can find, releasing controversial hot takes for a local rag.

Also Read:

Black Comedy ‘Bye Bye...

Benjamin Voisin and Cécile de France star in a superb costume coming-of-age story for the Netflix generation

Xavier Giannoli brings his natural force and flair to this rake’s-progress spectacular, a blue-chip French costume drama adapted from Honoré de Balzac’s 1837 novel about a poetic youth who comes to the big city with provincial idealism and callow sensitivity, only to replace them with ambition, lust, corruption and (worst of all) journalism. An earlier generation might have shrugged at this as cinéma du papa, and modern audiences might smirk at the kind of decorative movie that features archly in the opening credits of Netflix’s French TV comedy Call My Agent! But it’s acted with such terrific panache that not enjoying it is impossible.

Our hero is Lucien Chardon, pertly played by Benjamin Voisin (one of the lovers in François Ozon’s recent drama Summer of 85). Lucien is a...

An Arnaud Desplechin film showing up in the Cannes competition lineup is as expected as the changing seasons. An Arnaud Desplechin film starring two titans of French cinema, Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud? Even more welcome. “Brother and Sister” is among the main competition titles heading to this year’s festival, which runs May 17 through May 28. Ahead of the film community’s big return to the Croisette, watch the first trailer for the film, exclusive to IndieWire, below.

In “Brother and Sister,” or “Frère et Soeur” as it’s known in French, Alice (Cotillard) and Louis (Poupaud) are siblings. She is an actress, while he was a teacher and a poet. For the past two decades, Alice has resented him, and they’ve remained estranged for the last 20 years. That is, until their parents become involved in a serious accident, and they are forced to toss blood under the bridge and reconcile anew.

Anaïs, the charmingly frustrating heroine of Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s directorial debut “Anaïs in Love,” is always on the run. Hair flying, sundress whipping in the wind, sandals slapping on the Paris pavement, Anaïs would be the first to admit she’s chronically late. But her constant running is more than just a consequence of her tardiness — it’s a reflection of her restless mental state.

She’s always running towards someone, but the real question is: what, or who, is she running away from? And what might happen if she stops to stay for a while?

Anaïs’ running calls to mind other cinematic heroines we’ve seen in motion, most recently Renate Reinsve’s Julie in “The Worst Person in the World,” and Greta Gerwig’s Frances in “Frances Ha.” This trio are young women with big dreams, little ambition and complicated love lives that often stymie their creative output.

Xavier Giannoli’s sprawling period piece “Lost Illusions,” Valerie Lemercier’s Celine Dion biopic “Aline” and Leos Carax’s musical romance “Annette” with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver are leading the race at France’s 47th Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars.

Other top Cesar contenders include Cedric Jimenez’s action-packed cop drama “Bac Nord,” Catherine Corsini’s social drama “La fracture,” Yann Gozlan’s thriller Boite noire,” Jacques Audiard’s contemporary love drama “Paris, 13th District” and Arthur Harari’s WW2-set “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle.”

Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion-winning “Happening” and Julia Ducournau’s Cannes’ Palme d’Or-winning “Titane” earned four nods each.

Vying for 15 Cesar Awards, “Lost Illusions” is a big-budget adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s masterpiece starring Benjamin Voisin (“Summer of 85”), Cecile de France (“The Young Pope”), Vincent Lacoste (“Victoria”), Xavier Dolan and Jeanne Balibar (“Les Miserables”) all of whom earned nominations.

As Martin Scorsese once said, “Music and cinema fit together naturally. Because there’s a kind of intrinsic musicality to the way moving images work when they’re put together. It’s been said that cinema and music are very close as art forms, and I think that’s true.” Indeed, the right piece of music–whether it’s an original score or a carefully selected song–can do wonders for a sequence, and today we’re looking at the 25+ films that best expressed this notion this year.

From seasoned composers to accomplished musicians, as well as a smattering of soundtracks, each musical example perfectly transported us to the world of the film. Check out our rundown of the top 25, which includes streams to each soundtrack in full.

25. The World to Come (Daniel Blumberg)

24. Little Fish (Keegan DeWitt)

23. Crestone (Animal Collective)

22. Shiva Baby (Ariel Marx)

21. Summer of 85 (Jb Dunckel...

Paris-based production banner Cinetévé is powering up several international-driven premium series across different genres, including the contemporary Afghanistan-set “Kabul,” procedural “Birdwatcher,” mystery thriller “L’ile prisonnière,” feminist dramedy “Split” and a French adaptation of “On the Spectrum.”

“Kabul,” co-developed by Cinétévé’s Thomas Saignes, Fabienne Servan Schreiber, Matthias Weber and Thibault Gast at 2425 Films, is a six-part thriller set between the Taliban’s sweep to power on Aug. 14 and the closure of borders two weeks later. The series is being penned by Olivier Demangel, whose credits include Cedric Jimenez’s upcoming movie “November,” Mati Diop’s “Atlantics” and Thomas Finkielkraut’s “Les guerriers.”

Saignes, who joined Cinetévé in late 2017 as a driving force behind the company’s push into international series, stated that “Kabul” will revolve around the refugee crisis that was prompted by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, describing how locals and expats embarked on a race against...

Music Box has acquired Xavier Giannoli’s “Lost Illusions,” a sprawling costume drama with Benjamin Voisin (“Summer of 85”) and Xavier Dolan (“Mommy”), that competed at the Venice Film Festival and played at San Sebastian.

A critically acclaimed film adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s literary masterpiece, “Les Illusions perdues,” the movie has now been sold in key markets by Gaumont. The French studio co-produced the film and will give it a wide release in France on Wednesday (Oct. 20).

“Lost Illusions” is one of the biggest budgeted and most anticipated French films this fall. It will have its North American premiere on the closing night of Colcoa, the French film festival in Los Angeles, on Nov. 7.

Cecile de France (“The Young Pope”) and Vincent Lacoste (“Amanda”) complete the lead cast of “Lost Illusions,” with Gerard Depardieu and Jeanne Balibar playing supporting roles.

Voisin stars as Lucien de Rubempré, a young...

New Indie

“Zola” (Lionsgate) is the first film based on a viral Twitter thread (and probably won’t be the last), but it’s compelling viewing for reasons that have nothing to do with its provenance. Taylour Paige (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) stars as A’Ziah “Zola” King, a waitress and sometimes stripper whose epic road trip to Florida hits one bump after another. It really is about the company you keep, and Zola is hanging out with a trouble-making dancer (Riley Keough), her hapless boyfriend (Nicholas Braun), and her enigmatic “manager” (Colman Domingo), and the twists are unpredictable, off-putting, and darkly hilarious in Janicza Bravo’s comedy.

Also available: Altered Innocence, one of the best-curated boutique labels around, delivers festival fave “A Dim Valley,” which asks the question, “What if a film about a cabin in the woods was a comedic meditation on love and not a horror movie?...

In France, the names Rastignac and Rubempré serve as a kind of shorthand even today — two iconic characters who signify opposite sides of the same vice. Both prominent players in Honoré de Balzac’s expansive “La Comédie Humaine,” the ambitious parvenus are virtual nobodies of vaguely noble extraction who arrive agog in early-19th-century Paris, and compromise their way to the top. For Rastignac, the strategy works to his advantage; not so much for Lucien de Rubempré, whose swift ascent and humiliating fall are dramatically detailed in Balzac’s masterpiece, “Lost Illusions,” laying the roller-coaster track for this sumptuous and surprisingly au courant cinematic retelling.

Adapting Balzac is no small feat for any filmmaker, and in whittling down the three volumes (and 700-plus pages) that comprise “Lost Illusions” to a robust two and a half hours, director Xavier Giannoli has a million choices to make. Casting was crucial — he shrewdly...

Ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival, “Lost Illusions,â€. Xavier Giannoli’s $17.5 million period film, has already lured major buyers in key territories for Gaumont.

Produced by Olivier Delbosc, “Lost Illusionsâ€. is a modern adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s masterpiece starring Benjamin Voisin (“Summer of 85â€.), Cecile de France (“The Young Popeâ€.), Vincent Lacoste (“Victoriaâ€.), Gerard Depardieu, Xavier Dolan and Jeanne Balibar (“Les Miserablesâ€.).

Gaumont, which is co-producing and handling international sales, has pre-sold the movie for Latin America (California), Canada (Les Films d’Opale), Spain (A Contracorriente), Benelux (Cineart), Bulgaria (Cine Libri), China (Huanxi), South Korea (Contents Gate), former Yugoslavia (McF), Israel (Lev), Italy (I Wonder), New Caledonia (Trident), Portugal (Nos Lusomundos), Romania (Independenta), Switzerland (Pathé), Taiwan (Avjet) and Russia/Cie

(White Nights).

“Lost Illusionsâ€. revolves around Lucien de Rubempré (Voisin), a young, lower-class poet who is madly in love with the baroness Louise de Bargeton.

You can never really predict what François Ozon might do next. As evidenced by his wide-ranging works, from the lush historical drama “Frantz” to the lazy summer romance “Summer of 85,” the prolific director can do just about anything with the stylistic prowess to boot. His latest, “Everything Went Fine,” comes as another surprise, not because it shocks in any way, but because it’s restrained to the point of lacking any emotion.

Continue reading ‘Everything Went Fine’: François Ozon’s Assisted Suicide Drama Is Too Restrained To Connect [Cannes Review] at The Playlist.

François Ozon follows his darkly sensual melodrama about queer first love, Summer of 85, with a pivot back to sober dramatic territory in Everything Went Fine, which doubles as a gesture of gratitude toward the late novelist Emmanuèle Bernheim, his script collaborator on Under the Sand, Swimming Pool and 5×2. Taking a refreshingly frank, uncomplicated attitude to its fraught issues, the film stars Sophie Marceau in a compellingly grounded performance as Bernheim, asked to take on a role of tremendous moral and emotional weight by a man with whom she has always had a somewhat thorny relationship and yet finds impossible to deny.

The other ...

François Ozon follows his darkly sensual melodrama about queer first love, Summer of 85, with a pivot back to sober dramatic territory in Everything Went Fine, which doubles as a gesture of gratitude toward the late novelist Emmanuèle Bernheim, his script collaborator on Under the Sand, Swimming Pool and 5×2. Taking a refreshingly frank, uncomplicated attitude to its fraught issues, the film stars Sophie Marceau in a compellingly grounded performance as Bernheim, asked to take on a role of tremendous moral and emotional weight by a man with whom she has always had a somewhat thorny relationship and yet finds impossible to deny.

The other ...

This story about Cannes’ 2020 selection first appeared in TheWrap’s special digital Cannes magazine.

Last year, Cannes announced a list of 62 new feature films as its official selection for 2020, a year in which the festival itself didn’t take place. Bearing the prestigious imprimatur of the festival, the movies had a variety of releases. Here are some of the ones with the highest profiles since being singled out by Cannes.

“The French Dispatch” / Searchlight Pictures

Faithful

“DNA,” Maïwenn

Premiered at the Deauville Film Festival in September 2020, released by Netflix in the U.S. in December and in France in May.

“True Mothers,” Naomi Kawase

Screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2020; submitted as Japan’s entry in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category.

“Peninsula,” Yeon Sang-Ho

Released theatrically in South Korea in July 2020 and in the U.S. (as Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula) in August.

“Another Round,...

François Ozon wanted to see Summer of 85 on screen for thirty years. He expected someone to turn Aidan Chambers’s book Dance on My Grave into a movie when reading it as a teen, but that never happened. When the opportunity presented itself, the French filmmaker jumped at the chance to make a movie he would have loved to watch when he was seventeen. Summer of 85 follows Alexis (Félix Lefebvre), who meets David (Benjamin Voisin) when a sailboat he borrowed capsizes during a storm. David sails in to save Alexis and the two set off on a summer love affair captured in earthy 16mm and dappled in neon light.

We spoke with François Ozon shortly after his other new film Everything Went Fine was chosen for this year’s edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Because we go into fine details about Summer of 85, proceed with caution...

Summertime Sadness: Ozon Casts Yonder Glance at the Boys of Summer

Rare is the year without a fresh offering from perennial French favorite François Ozon, who tends to glide between tones and genres effortlessly. And 2020 is no exception. His latest, Summer of 85, adapted from the novel by Aidan Chambers, is a nostalgic glance at an angsty season of friendship and romance between two adolescents on the sun-dappled Normandy coast of 1985.

After a decade of short films, Ozon’s early features marked him as a terrible enfant thanks to his daring, sexually provocative narratives from an unabashed queer lens.…...

With the summer movie season underway, Cannes now on the horizon, and Tribeca kicking off this month, the film industry turns its gears again after an unprecedented near-dormancy. This month’s lineup of new releases is an eclectic mix of bold horror, mysterious romances, riveting documentaries, and much more.

15. Werewolves Within (Josh Ruben)

After making a delightful impression on Veep and I Think You Should Leave, Sam Richardson is becoming a leading man with the horror-comedy Werewolves Within, which comes from Scare Me director Josh Ruben. Also starring Milana Vayntrub, Harvey Guillén, Cheyenne Jackson, Michaela Watkins, and Michael Chernus, the film follows a small community that becomes trapped by a snowstorm and newly arrived forest ranger Finn (Richardson) and postal worker Cecily (Vayntrub) must uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature.

Where to Watch: Theaters (June 25) and VOD (July 2)

14. Sweat (Magnus von Horn)

A Cannes Film Festival selection last year,...

A selection at Cannes Film Festival and TIFF last year, François Ozon’s tragic romance Summer of 85 will now arrive in U.S. theaters perfectly timed with the summer season. Starring Félix Lefebvre and Benjamin Voisin as lovers in Normandy, Music Box Films has now released the U.S. trailer and poster.

In our summer preview, Joshua Encinias said, François Ozon’s Summer of 85 has the sex, intrigue, and death that Call Me By Your Name left on the cutting room floor. Adapted from Aidan Chambers’ 1982 novel Dance on My Grave, the film stars Félix Lefebvre and Benjamin Voisin as summer lovers who meet in Le Tréport when Alexis’s boat capsizes and almost drowns before being rescued by David. Shot on 16mm film and dappled in neon light, Summer of 85 asks if our relationships with others primarily exist in our minds. But it’s more sexy, gay,...

"You don't care what we do. It's me you want." Music Box Films has unveiled an official US trailer for the François Ozon film called Summer of 85, also know as Été 85 originally in French. We already posted two trailers last year for this film, which was initially a part of the official selection at the 2020 Cannes Film Festival before it was cancelled. Summer of 85 is about a 16-year-old boy experiencing love and death and romance and more while living in a seaside resort in Normandy in the 80s. The film stars Félix Lefebvre, Benjamin Voisin, Philippine Velge, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, & Melvil Poupaud. Take a peek if you dare. This is a super wacky, super strange film, even for Ozon, and it's not exactly the charming love story you might think from the marketing. Arriving in select theaters in the US to kick off the summer - of course.

After last year’s cancellation, the Cannes Film Festival is expected to be back with a bang in July. Even with a small supply of U.S. films, the 2021 edition should be in no shortage of major auteurs, female directors and glamorous stars.

In addition to the already announced fest opener “Annette,” Leos Carax’s musical romance with Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, two other titles strongly tipped for Cannes are Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” and “Official Competition,” a comedy reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz. The Spanish-language film is directed by the Argentinian duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.

Among the several films that were in the running for last year’s festival and are either confirmed or nearly confirmed for the 2021 edition are Nanni Moretti’s “Three Floors,” a Rome-set adaptation of Israeli writer Eshkol Nevo’s novel with Anna Bonaiuto, Riccardo Scamarcio and...

The 14th Annual QFest St. Louis — presented by Cinema St. Louis (Csl) — will take place from April 16-25. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Csl will offer all programs virtually, protecting the health of patrons. Programs can be streamed at any time during the festival’s dates. Recorded introductions and Q&As will be available for most film programs.

The St. Louis-based LGBTQ film festival, QFest will present an eclectic array of 24 films. The participating filmmakers represent a wide variety of voices in contemporary queer world cinema. The mission of the film festival is to use the art of contemporary gay cinema to spotlight the lives of LGBTQ people and to celebrate queer culture.

The fest is especially pleased to host the St. Louis premiere of new works by internationally acclaimed filmmakers Agnieszka Holland (“Charlatan”) and François Ozon (“Summer of 85”). Another QFest highlight is this year’s Q Classic, the 50th anniversary of the trippy,...

Coming off his Normandy-set gay drama Summer of 85, which will get a. U.S. release later this year, François Ozon already shot another new film titled Everything Went Fine that is awaiting a premiere. Now, he’s looking to a long-time influence for his next project. The French filmmaker will be loosely reworking the Rainer Werner Fassbinder masterpiece The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant for a new project titled Peter von Kant.

Cineuropa reports that the Cnc is helping to fund the film, though details are sparse on Ozon’s new approach, aside from having a male lead as the title indicates––quite different than the all-female cast of the 1972 original, based on Fassbinder’s own play. Set almost entirely inside an apartment, the film follows the evolving relationships between a fashion designer, stylist, and a newcomer to the world of modeling.

The film won’t mark the...

Zita Hanrot and Sami Bouajila in Farid Bentoumi’s toxic Red Soil (Rouge)

During the 2021 UniFrance and Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema there were two virtual live panels. How Music Makes the Film (with composers Jean-Benoît Dunckel of François Ozon’s Summer Of 85; Evgueni Galperine of Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s Gagarine; Nicolas Weil and Sylvain Ohrel of Charlène Favier’s Slalom; Aska Matsumiya (Aska) of Crystal Moselle’s Skate Kitchen, and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch of Sarah Gavron’s Rocks).

Melvil Poupaud and Benjamin Voisin in François Ozon’s cool Summer Of 85 (Eté 85)

The Vive la Résistance panel had directors Farid Bentoumi on his Red Soil (Rouge); Reinaldo Marcus Green on Monsters And Men; Kitty Green on The Assistant, and Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, moderated by Maddie Whittle.

At the César Awards on March 12, Filippo Meneghetti’s Oscar-shortlisted Two Of Us (Deux), starring...

Updated: Albert Dupontel’s dark comedy Adieu Les Cons (Bye Bye Morons) was the big winner at tonight’s César Awards, scooping Best Film along with Director, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Production Design, during a muted in-person ceremony that nevertheless provided some notable moments. Chief among them was when actress Corinne Masiero stripped down to her birthday suit while presenting the award for Costume Design. The show, aired live and unencrypted on Canal Plus (meaning not only subscribers could watch), did not cut away from Masiero’s self-exhibition in support of France’s intermittent arts workers. The incident was met with shock, for sure, and began trending on Twitter, but it didn’t exactly elicit the same whoops and hollers in the limited César audience as did the 1974 Oscars streaker.

Masiero’s intervention was a commentary on the current state of the French industry, whose Covid-impacted workers have...

46th ceremony unfolded amid growing anger within French film industry over cinema closures.

Albert Dupontel’s Bye Bye Morons topped the awards at a politically-charged 46th Césars ceremony on Friday evening (March 12), marked by growing anger within the French film industry over the ongoing closure of cinemas and other cultural spaces as part of anti-Covid-19 measures.

Bye Bye Morons clinched seven Césars including best film, director, cinematography (Alexis Kavyrchine), best original screenplay (Dupontel), best supporting actor (Nicolas Marié), best production design (Carlos Conti) and the fledgeling César des Lycéens, which is voted on by 1,500 high school students.

Dupontel, who previously...

Frontrunners in 46th edition include Emmanuel Mouret’s love triangle drama Love Affair(s), Albert Dupontel’s Bye Bye Morons.

The ceremony for the 46th edition of France’s prestigious César national cinema awards unfolds this evening (March 12) with a compact, socially distanced event at the Olympia concert hall in Paris, attended only by the nominees.

Voted on by the 4,292 members of France’s Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, the awards are reserved for films that received a theatrical release in 2020, a year in which French cinemas wefre shut for a total of 23 weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic,...

’Beautiful Minds’ is inspired by the real-life experiences of co-director Alexandre Jollien who was born with cerebral palsy but overcame his disabilities to study philosophy

Elle Driver has launched sales on Bernard Campan and Alexandre Jollien’s pioneering French comedy-drama Beautiful Minds, about a workaholic funeral director and a solitary vegetable delivery man and philosopher born with cerebral palsy, who embark on a road trip in a hearse.

It is inspired by the real-life experiences of Jollien who was born with cerebral palsy but overcame his disabilities to study philosophy and become became a major thinker and spiritual teacher, who has written several best-selling books.

Romance in the air for Niels Schneider and Camelia Jordana in Love Affairs by Emmanuel Mouret Photo: Moby Dick Films/UniFrance A record total of 13 nominations has been bestowed on a romantic French exploration of love, friendship and fidelity for this year’s top French film awards, the Césars (the Gallic equivalent of the Oscars) due to be revealed on 12 March live at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.

The top scorer Love Affair(s) had previously won best film at the Lumière Awards, given by the foreign press association in France and the equivalent of Hollywood’s Golden Globes. It features an ensemble cast of Camelia Jordana, Niels Schneider, Vincent Macaigne and Julia Piaton. It has been nominated for best film as well as best director for Emmanuel Mouret.

Other close-runners in the number of nominations are black comedy Bye Bye Morons from actor-director Albert Dupontel and starring Dupontel and...