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If there's one thing that's clear in Ridley Scott's historical epic The Last Duel, it was that in order to make the most of 14th century feudal France, it was better to be a man. Women, no matter if they were of noble birth like Jodie Comer's Marguerite de Thibouville, were still the property of their male guardians, and if some other entitled lothario assaulted them (like Adam Driver's Jacques le Gris), their only hope at innocence was if their husband (Matt Damon's Jean de Carrouges) avenged them. Not for their honor, as it turned out, but in order to repair the damage done to their reputation.

Related: 10 Movies To Watch To Get Excited For The Last Duel

Navigating the institutional power and the abuse of women that were so intertwined at the time was no easy task, but Marguerite (as well as her mother-in-law) was adept at it.

Jérôme Salle on Lambert Wilson as Jacques-Yves Cousteau: "It helps when you ask a very nice person to be a very tough person."

Once again, inside the Furman Gallery at Lincoln Center during the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema exhibition of Paul Ronald's color photographs from Federico Fellini's 81/2, where I met Christophe Honoré for a conversation on Les Malheurs De Sophie, The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) director Jérôme Salle spoke with me on the performances of Lambert Wilson and Audrey Tautou. Bill Murray and Cate Blanchett in Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, composer Alexandre Desplat, Calypso captain Albert Falco (Vincent Heneine), nicknamed Bébert (which recalls for me the cat featured in Emmanuel Bourdieu's Louis-Ferdinand Céline), were also washed ashore.

Jérôme Salle at Paul Ronald's 81/2 circus photos: "Audrey is wonderful." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Odyssey (shot by Matias Boucard, screenplay, co-written with Laurent Turner) is...

Jérôme Salle: "I'm the kind of director who loves to tell stories with pictures more than words." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2015, at an Oceana event hosted by Cobie Smulders, I spoke with Jacques-Yves Cousteau's granddaughter and Expedition Blue Planet filmmaker, Alexandra Cousteau. In my conversation with The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) director, Jérôme Salle, we explore the world around Alexandra's grandfather portrayed by Lambert Wilson in his film with Audrey Tautou as Jacques' wife Simone, Pierre Niney (Adrian in François Ozon's Frantz) and Benjamin Lavernhe as their sons.

Simone (Audrey Tautou) and Jacques Cousteau (Lambert Wilson)

With a screenplay, co-written with Laurent Turner, loosely based on the books by Jean-Michel Cousteau (My Father, the Captain: Life with Jacques Cousteau) and Albert Falco (Capitaine de La Calypso) and a score by longtime Wes Anderson composer Alexandre Desplat, Salle takes us on a personal family journey at sea.

We go from "Cousteau...

Class of 2017 Rendez-Vous with French Cinema opening night Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Pictured above from left to right are: Frantz's François Ozon, uniFrance General Director Isabelle Giordano, Reda Kateb and Cécile de France, stars of Django, a highlight of the festival, Mal De Pierres' Nicole Garcia, Django's Étienne Comar, Réparer Les Vivants' Katell Quillévéré, composer Martin Wheeler for 150 Milligrams and Sólveig Anspach's L'Effet Aquatique, Planetarium's Rebecca Zlotowski, La Fille De Brest's Emmanuelle Bercot, and in the front row, Florence Almozini, Associate Director of Programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center with Agnès Varda for the Opening Night of the 22nd edition of New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema on March 1 at the Walter Reade Theater.

Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Jérôme Salle’s The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) starring Lambert Wilson as Jacques Cousteau with Audrey Tautou...

Marion Cotillard stars with Alex Brendemühl and Louis Garrel in Nicole Garcia's From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema opens with Étienne Comar’s biopic Django, starring Reda Kateb (Wim Wender's Les Beaux Jours d'Aranjuez) as Django Reinhardt with Cécile de France (Catherine Corsini's Summertime) and closes with Jérôme Salle’s The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) starring Lambert Wilson as Jacques Cousteau with Audrey Tautou and Pierre Niney (Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent).

Emmanuelle Bercot, Stéphanie Di Giusto, Caroline Deruas, Sébastien Marnier, Marina Foïs, François Ozon, Nicole Garcia, Katell Quillévéré, Justine Triet, Rebecca Zlotowski, Marc Fitoussi, Bertrand Bonello, Julia Ducournau, Christophe Honoré, Antonin Peretjatko, and Martin Wheeler are expected to attend.

La Danseuse (Soko, Lily-Rose Depp, Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry); Nocturama (Finnegan Oldfield); Frantz (Paula Beer, Niney), and From The Land Of The Moon (Mal De Pierres - Marion Cotillard,...

The Montreal-based distributor has picked up Canadian rights to Elvis & Nixon and The Odyssey and co-acquired with Elevation Pictures The Founder.

Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey star in Elvis & Nixon, which Bloom sells internationally. The true story recounts the meeting between the King and the President when the former asks to be sworn in as an undercover FBI agent.

Jérôme Salle’s The Odyssey will star Lambert Wilson as deep-sea diver Jacques Cousteau and Pierre Niney as his eldest son Philipe who died tragically in 1979.

John Lee Hancock will direct The Founder starring Michael Keaton as McDonald’s entrepreneur Ray Kroc.

Financier-distributor Remstar Group recently launched a content production and financing venture, Remstar Studios, to co-finance, develop and produce independent films and television projects.

Remstar Films’ upcoming releases include Good Kill starring Ethan Hawke, Dark Places with Charlize Theron and Blood Father starring Mel Gibson.

Exclusive: Company to launch Radu Mihaileanu’s The History of Love and Studio Ghibli co-production The Red Turtle.

Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch will kick off sales on Radu Mihaileanu’s saga The History of Love, starring John Hurt, Gemma Arterton and Sophie Nélisse at the Cannes Marché next month.

The mainly New York-set saga, spanning three continents and a period running from just before the Second World War to the present day, is based on Us writer Nicole Krauss’s international bestseller.

Hurt will play Leo, an elderly Polish Jewish immigrant still mourning the loss of his childhood sweetheart in the chaos of war, who is strangely linked to a teenage girl through a long, lost book on love… subtitled ‘the most loved woman in the world’.

“It’s a love story spanning 65 years… revolving around three friends in Poland whose destinies change forever when war breaks out,” Wild Bunch chief Vincent Maraval told ScreenDaily.

It marks...

A thriller set in Cape Town starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom is set to close the 66th edition of Cannes Film Festival (May 15 to 26)

Confusingly titled Zulu (the same as the 1964 historical war film depicting the Battle of Rorke's Drift with Michael Caine) it has been adapted from South African writer Caryl Férey's novel of the same name and unfolds in a post-aparheid South Africa.

Whitaker and Bloom play two police officers investigating the murder of a former rugby captain's daughter.

It is directed by French filmmaker and screenwriter Jérôme Salle who made The Burma Conspiracy, the thriller Anthony Zimmer, and the comic strip extravaganza Largo Winch and currently is working on The Odyssey, a feature about marine conservationist and cineaste Jacques Cousteau.

Whitaker won best actor award at Cannes in 1988 for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s Charlie Parker biopic Bird.

Although traditionally the Cannes...