News

The French action thriller Ad Vitam has seen huge success on Netflix since being released earlier this month, but there’s another, hard-hitting action flick from France on the streaming platform that you should absolutely check out. Whether you enjoyed Ad Vitam or not. Released back in 2022, Athena drops audiences into the chaotic world of riots and violence following the tragic killing of a young boy. The boy’s three older brothers, one a soldier, the other a criminal, and the third out for revenge, find themselves at the center of the raging conflict.

Directed and co-written by Romain Gavras alongside Ladj Ly and Elias Belkeddar, Athena stars Dali Benssalah (No Time to Die), Sami Slimane (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), Anthony Bajon (The Prayer), Ouassini Embarek (The Good Thief), Alexis Manenti. You can check out the official synopsis below.

“After the death of his youngest brother following an alleged police altercation, Abdel...

Season 26 of The Voice continued shaping up to be a goodun on Monday, the fifth night of Blind Auditions. As Gwen Stefani, Reba McEntire, “Uncle Snoop” Dogg and Michael Bublé’s teams came ever close to filling up, I was moved to hand out “A” grades like they were going out of style. Read on, and then we can discuss whether I was being overly generous or the contestants really were just. That. Good.

Cameron Wright (Team Michael), “The Way We Were” — Grade: A | As per tradition, the evening started out with a four-chair turn, this one courtesy of a...

French filmmaker Romain Gavras, whose previous credits include the drama Our Day Will Come, the crime comedy The World Is Yours, and the thriller Athena, is set to make his English-language debut with a new film called Sacrifice, and he has assembled a jaw-dropping cast for it. Deadline reports that Sacrifice, which is described as having “a similar combustible and propulsive anarchy” to Athena while being “closer to satire,” is set to star Chris Evans (Avengers: Endgame), Anya Taylor-Joy (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga), Salma Hayek Pinault (Magic Mike’s Last Dance), and Brendan Fraser (The Whale).

Scripted by Gavras and Will Arbery (who won a WGA award for working on Succession), Sacrifice will show us what happens when a high end charity gala is raided by a violent group of radicals on a mystical quest to fulfill a prophecy. The script was just sent out to talent four days ago,...

Vincent Cassel, the chameleon of French cinema, is not one for analysing his characters. In fact, he hates the very idea. When we meet over video chat, he mentions Michel Simon, the “wonderful French actor from the Thirties and Forties” who starred in classics like Boudu Saved from Drowning and L’Atalante. “When suddenly coming across an actor that would discuss the character and talk, he would go, ‘Ah, another intelligent actor.’ And that wasn’t a compliment! Because you don’t have to be smart to be an actor. You have to be able to let yourself go.”

Now 56, the wiry, scruffily handsome Cassel has been doing exactly that for his entire career, ever since he shocked audiences as the combustible Vinz in 1995’s Parisian riots drama La Haine. Since then, he’s never been afraid of courting controversy, notably in Gaspar Noé’s still-shocking 2002 rape-revenge drama Irréversible, one of...

Pardon my French, but the first shot of Romain Gavras’ “Athena” — a sketch of a Greek tragedy transplanted into a housing project on the outskirts of Paris — is absolutely fucking insane. Even in a digital age where dazzling long-takes have become a dime a dozen (and all too easy to fake), the oner that ignites this roman candle of a movie about a police siege on a poor neighborhood is something else. It stands out for its fiery violence, for the ground that it covers, and for the incandescent energy that explodes off the screen like the molotov cocktail that Karim (Sami Slimane) hurls into a crowd of cops and reporters who’ve gathered for a press conference at the local precinct.

The news of the day is personal for the young agitator: Karim’s 13-year-old brother has been murdered, and a video of police officers beating him to death has gone viral.

There is no Athena housing project in Paris. That’s a name invented by “Athena” director Romain Gavras and partner in crime Ladj Ly for the banlieu apartment block that becomes a kind of makeshift fortress in an epic standoff between residents — first- and second-generation Black and Arab immigrants tired of being mistreated — and the French national police. Naming it thus lends what unfolds there a classical resonance, one that ties Gavras’ astonishing third feature to the tradition of Greek tragedy, though the situation could hardly be more timely.

“Athena” tells the story of four brothers, one murdered on camera by a group of unidentified men in police uniforms, the three others torn about what to do next. Who were these assailants, shown stomping an innocent 13-year-old to death? Why does the French police seem to be protecting the culprits? And what will it take to obtain justice?

These questions...

While making his name with his striking music videos for the likes of M.I.A., Jay-Z & Kanye West, Jamie xx, and more, French director Romain Gavras has also proven prowess in the feature-length department with Our Day Will Come and The World Is Yours. He’s now back with Athena, which will premiere at the Venice Film Festival before coming to Netflix on September 23, and now the first trailer has landed.

Co-written by Ladj Ly (Les Misérables) and Elias Belkeddar alongside Gavras, the film follows three siblings thrown into chaos after the death of their young brothers following an alleged police altercation. Starring Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, and Alexis Manenti, Gavras’ third feature looking to be a stylish, gripping tragedy.

See the trailer below.

Athena premieres at Venice and arrives on Netflix on September 23.

The post Athena Trailer: Romain Gavras' Venice-Bound Drama Finds Siblings at...

Justice will be served as anarchy erupts following a murder at the hands of a rogue police officer.

Romain Gavras’ “Athena” tells an all-too-timely tale of cop corruption, militant protests, and the intersection between nationalism and personal duty. The film premieres at the 2022 Venice Film Festival on September 2, followed by a September 23 Netflix release.

Per the official synopsis, after the death of his youngest brother following an alleged police altercation, Abdel (Dali Benssalah) is called back from the frontline to find his family torn apart. Caught between his younger brother Karim’s (Sami Slimane) desire for revenge and the criminal dealings of his older brother Moktar (Ouassini Embarek), he struggles to calm the rising tensions. As the situation escalates, their community Athena is transformed into a fortress under siege, becoming a scene of tragedy for both the family and beyond.

Gavras directed, produced, and co-wrote the feature along with Ladj Ly...

Moussa

Look for a title change to occur on Romain Gavras‘ third feature film project which is passing as RG03 and Moussa — a term we believe means the sexiest man on this planet. The encouraging news is that Gavras (who is best known as fashion commercial directors/music video helmer) doesn’t appear to be moonlighting as a filmmaker anymore with less time between features (his debut Our Day Will Come was released in 2010). Production began in late summer for a post production beginning in October and by the looks of some social media posts we gather that this is more thug life, gun play, cops and robbers — but will likely be more of a tonal shift from slapstick The World is Yours (which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2018).…...

Netflix is teaming with Romain Gavras, the French filmmaker of “The World is Yours” and “Our Day Will Come,” for his next film which will start production this week in France.

The untitled film will mark Gavras’s follow up to his 2018 film “The World is Yours,” a crime comedy with Isabelle Adjani and Vincent Cassel, which world premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. His 2010 feature debut, “Our Day Will Come,” played at Toronto and SXSW. Aside from his filmmaking career, Garvas is also a renown director of music videos for Jay Z, Kanye West, Jamie Xx, M.I.A and Justice, among others, and has directed short films for luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent and Dior.

The film, the plot of which is under wraps, is co-written by Gavras and Ladj Ly, the director of the Oscar-nominated “Les Misérables” and Elias Belkeddar (“My days of glory”). Gavras...

French-Greek filmmaker Romain Gavras, whose credits include the 2018 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection The World Is Yours and 2020 Toronto premiere Our Day Will Come, is underway on his new film, this time with Netflix.

The streamer is keeping title, plot and genre under wraps on the mysterious movie, which is now in production in France.

The script comes from Gavras and Ladj Ly, who directed the 2019 Cannes hit Les Miserables, which was Oscar nominated. Elias Belkeddar (My Days Of Glory) is also a writer on the project.

Starring are Dali Benssalah (No Time To Die), Anthony Bajon (Teddy), Cesar Winner Alexis Manenti (Les Misérables), Ouassini Embarek (The Eddy), and newcomer Sami Slimane. Iconoclast is producing. Netflix is aiming to release in 2022.

Amy Winehouse’s greatest hits will be released on a 7-inch singles box set on November 20th.

Taking from the singer’s albums — Frank, Back to Black, and Lioness: Hidden Treasures — some of the singles featured on 12×7: The Singles Collection box set will include “Stronger Than Me,” “Rehab,” “Love Is a Losing Game,” “You Know I’m No Good,” “Tears Dry on Their Own,” “Valerie” and many more. The set also includes the Grammy Award-winning “Body and Soul,” Winehouse’s duet with Tony Bennett.

Each single will be featured with its original B-side,...

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform. Parts of this article were published when “The World Is Yours” premiered at Cannes.

Even at Cannes, where the film world’s brightest spotlight beams down on every movie that’s fortunate enough to premiere there, the occasional banger can still manage to slip through the cracks. Premiering in the Director’s Fortnight sidebar of the 2018 festival, and forced to compete for attention with the likes of “BlackKklansman,” “Shoplifters,” and “Under the Silver Lake” (never forget), Roman Gavras’ “The World Is Yours” didn’t receive the deafening buzz that it deserved, even if both of its big screenings were interrupted by raucous cheers of approval from the audience.

Maybe this wildly infectious French heist comedy was just too much fun to make a splash on the Croisette,...

The Directors’ Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival has provided some strong picks this year, including French heist comedy The World Is Yours which was rousingly received. The second feature from Romain Gavras (son of Costa-Gavras), who is best known for his music video work with such artists as Mia, Kanye West and Justice, stars Vincent Cassel who appeared in and produced his 2010 debut Our Day Will Come. The collaborators chatted with Deadline this week about the film, riffing on one another and the influence of Italian comedies on this stylish sophomore effort (check out the video above).

The World Is Yours follows François, a small-time drug dealer who wants to call it quits and become the official distributor of the Mr Freeze popsicle brand in North Africa. His dream vanishes when he learns that his mother (Isabelle Adjani) has spent all his life savings. When his boss presents...

Announcing very possibly the first clean sales sweep on one of the major new titles brought onto the market at Cannes, Studiocanal, part of Vivendi’s Canal Plus Group, sold out worldwide on the David Heyman-produced “The Secret Garden.”

Studiocanal’s notably all-women sales team, overseen by distribution chief Anna Marsh and headed by international sales chief Anne Chérel, has also licensed “The Lost Prince,” to be directed by Academy Award winning Michel Hazanavicius (“The Artist”), to near all the world outside the U.S.

The sales, compounded by bullish first results on Studiocanal’s Romain Gavras’ “The World is Yours,” beg the question as to the possible depth of Cannes’ pre-sales market. This year’s market buzz has, to date at least, centered very largely on a narrow band of high-profile titles backed by standout director, star or producer talent.

At least for Studiocanal, Europe’s biggest movie production-distribution-sales company,...

American audiences take the Tarantino-ization of genre cinema for granted, but not so the French, who adore the director (who won the Palme d’Or for “Pulp Fiction”) but never went so far as to imitate him outright, until now. Director Romain Gavras’ “The World Is Yours” is the long overdue yet entirely unnecessary gangster movie that French audiences have been missing all this time — a fresh riff on “Les Tontons flingueurs” by way of “Jackie Brown” — and judging by the uproarious reception the film received at its Director’s Fortnight premiere in Cannes, they’re grateful to have a cocky, talky, high-attitude crime saga for themselves.

Following Gavras’ gonzo redheads-will-inherit-the-earth debut, “Our Day Will Come,” this film is a massive change of tone for the director, son of politically conscious “Z” auteur Costa-Gavras and a visionary music-video helmer in his own right. Whereas the younger Gavras’ first feature demonstrated...

With the follow-up to his 2010 release Our Day Will Come, an offbeat drama about bullying starring Vincent Cassell, Romain Gavras makes his Cannes debut in the Directors’ Fortnight with The World Is Yours. Though it has taken eight years for his second feature to make it to the big screen, Gavras has been busy making music videos for Jay Z, Kanye West, Frank Ocean and Mia as well as fashion films for Dior. For World, he mixes and matches real life crime stories — from petty pickpocketing, Saudi shoplifting gangs and underground Parisian poker circles — to examine the...

Get your first look at one of the films premiering at the Cannes Film Festival. The World Is Yours, or Le monde ou rien in French, is the next film from French director Romain Gavras (Our Day Will Come) and it was just announced as one of the films in the official selection for the Directors' Fortnight sidebar at Cannes. The World Is Yours is a crime comedy/thriller about a former drug dealer who has to get back in the business one more time to get his plans back on track. The cast includes Karim Leklou, Vincent Cassel, Isabelle Adjani, François Damiens, Oulaya Amamra, Philippe Katerine, Michael John Treanor, and Norbert Ferrer. Featuring a score by Jamie Xx and SebastiAn. This teaser trailer doesn't reveal too much but the footage we do see in this is quite wild. I'm curious to find out what this is all about. Here's...

Mr. Freeze

Director Romain Gavras (son of Costa, brother of Julie) graduated from notable music director to film with his 2010 debut Our Day Will Come starring Vincent Cassel.

Continue reading...

This year has seen the release of two horror efforts that sat on the shelf for longer than either of them deserved, with Adam Wingard.s You.re Next and Jonathan Levine.s 2006 horror All the Boys Love Mandy Lane finally getting into theaters. (2010.s 6 Souls also got a DVD release this year.) It must be hard to tell where the cutoff date is for theatrical releases, as two more films are getting their delayed U.S. distribution. Deadline reports Image Entertainment has acquired Stephen Sommers. paranormal drama Odd Thomas, which wrapped production in the beginning of 2012, and Oscilloscope Laboratories bought up the Rights to Romain Gavras. French drama Our Day Will Come (Notre jour viendra), which got its world premiere at Tiff in 2010. So these flicks aren.t antiques just yet, but they.ll need to start drumming up some interest. Odd Thomas, also written by Sommers (The Mummy...

HeyUGuys brings you the latest in World Cinema film trailers in association with Film Dates UK.

Each week we’ll be showcasing some of most anticipated foreign releases as well as highlighting a few hidden gems which may have fallen off your radar. It’s no surprise that Hollywood has turned to World Cinema for inspiration in recent years with the number of remakes getting more and more popular.

Whilst it remains to be seen how many of these remakes go on to succeed or stay true to their original story counterparts, we decided it was high-time we turned the spotlight onto the next wave of foreign films to grace our screens.

This week we have 5 new trailers for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Arrietty (Kari-gurashi no Arietti) UK Cinema Release Date: Friday 29th July 2011

Synopsis: 14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they...

Reviewer: Steve Dollar

Rating (out of 5): ***

Don't screw with Vincent Cassel. If there's any French actor destined to play his country's most notorious gangster, it's this guy. Cassel's headlong stride, vivid emotional range and masculine charisma make him ideal for volatile character studies and anti-heroics. The forthcoming Our Day Will Come (Notre Jour Viendra) builds an entire movie around Cassel, playing a renegade shrink who takes an emotionally troubled teenager under his wing and basically shows the boy how to be a man – a process that involves a lot of dangerous, illegal and outrageous behavior.

Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Sitges 2010:

Exorcisms, Vampires, Zombies, Martial Arts And Liters Of Blood At Sitges 2010

The 43rd Sitges - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, that will take place from 7 to 17 October, presents its lineup, with some films still to be confirmed, for the following sections:

Sitges 43 Official FANTÀSTIC Selection - In Competition

The official selection par excellence will be offering a lineup emphasizing a variety of nationalities (Bulgaria, Japan, France, Swede, Uruguay,...), the impact of new South American cinema, the rebirth of oriental cinema and the mixture of supernatural horror movies with exorcisms, vampires and mutants and everyday horror with real extreme violence.

13 Assassins (Takashi Miike, Japan)

14 Days With Victor (Román Parrado, Spain)

A Woman, A Gun And A Noodle Shop (Zhang Yimou, China, Hong Kong)

Bedevilled (Jang Cheol-soo, South Korea)

Black Death (Christopher Smith, Germany)

La Casa Muda (Gustavo Hernández, Uruguay)

Confessions (Tetsuya Nakashima,...

If I had the holiday time left, I’d be booking a trip to España right about now. The 43rd annual Sitges kicks off on October 7th and their line up so far is impressive. Damned impressive.

In competition are Gregg Araki’s Kaboom (teaser, stills), Christopher Smith’s Black Death (review), Jalmari Helander’s Rare Exports (trailer), Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber (clip) and Takashi Miike’s 13 Assassins among many others. In competition in the Panorama section are another great set of films including Shion Sono’s Cold Fish (trailer), Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage (trailer), Jim Mickle’s Stake Land (trailer) and Srdjan Spasojevic’s A Serbian Film (review).

If those titles aren’t enough, there’s loads more including Rob Stefaniuk’s vampire musical road trip film Suck (review, trailer), James Wan’s Insidious (clip), Adam Green’s Frozen (trailer), Black Lightning (trailer), Super (clip), The Vanishing on 7th...

Vincent Cassel cuts a menacing yet charismatic figure as the notorious Jacques Mesrine and proves once again he knows how to play a tough guy like no other. His bold choice of roles throughout his career and the fearless way in which he inhabits his characters made him the perfect choice. The award winning European actor’s latest performance in Jean-Francois Richet’s two-part thriller biopic, Mesrine: Killer Instinct and Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1, is one of his best. Shot on location in France, Spain, Algeria, Canada and the U.S., the films’ visual style and dark vibe take their inspiration from iconic 1970s action and gangster films. Adapted by Abdel Raouf Dafri from Mesrine’s autobiography, the exciting double bill splits the story into two parts to explore the man behind the icon and chart the outlaw odyssey of the legendary French gangster of the 1960s and 1970s...

Redheads Movie PosterDirector Romain Gavras' first film was once titled Notre Jour Viendra (Our Day Will Come) and now, simply Redheads (Twitch). Gavras is the same director who shot the video for Mia's "Born Free," which also had a strange, similar red-headed theme. The trailer below for Redheads shows a lost young man with his older mentor and part-time psychologist on a journey of violence. The film describes itself as "a search for an ideal, gradually escalates into a rampage of hate, violence and self-destruction" (Bloody). Have a watch of the surreal, but immerse yourself first with the film's synopsis to make sense of the film's French narration.

The synopsis for Redheads here:

"What do you do when you're a red-haired teenage loser with no friends except for an older guy, your shrink? When everyone hates you, especially your family? When all your peers make fun of you and kick you around?...

Romain Gavras directed the controversial 9+ minute music video for M.I.A.’s Born Free, which we posted on this site Here; the teaser trailer for his upcoming feature film debut, Notre Jour Viendra (Our Day Will Come, aka Redheads), was posted Here; now here’s the film’s first full trailer, and it looks like a winner! It’s in French, and not subtitled, however…...

After directing the brilliant long form music video for M.I.A.’s superb new track, Born Free, Romain Gavras proved that he was far more than just the son of a brilliant filmmaker.

The director not only seems deeply inspired by his father, but is seeming to follow directly in the steps of his highly intellectual pops, Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing). Well, now he’s making his feature film debut, with the upcoming film Notre Jour Viendra, or Our Day Will Come.

The film was originally known as Redheads, and stars Vincent Cassel (La Haine) and Olivier Barthelemy. It follows a teen who leaves for Ireland after being victim of abuse from the people around him. This is our first look at the film, and I must say, while it gives us little to nothing to chew on when it comes to narrative, it looks absolutely stunning. It looks low on contrast,...

Romain Gavras is the son of the legendary and acclaimed Greek/French filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Z – a film that anybody who claims to be serious about films should have seen already, Missing, Special Section) but you better know him as the director of the controversial M.I.A. music video Born Free where people get blown up and children are killed. But below is the rather evocative and mysterious trailer for his new feature film Notre Jour Viendra (Our Day Will Come) which is opening in France in September and elsewhere around the world.

Originally titled Redheads it deals with a redheaded rebellious young man, shunned by his family and friends, whose only friend is his shrink played by Vincent Cassell. He heads off the Ireland, the land of the redheaded people but further sinks into a “rampage of hate, violence and self-destruction”.

When not setting the world on fire with bloody fantastic music videos, director Romain Gavras - the son of Costa-Gavras - has been hard at work on his debut feature film. Originally announced as Redheads, the film has been retitled Notre Jour Viendra - Our Day Will Come in English - which I think we can agree is a much more evocative title than the one the film was originally saddled with.

Vincent Cassel both stars in and produces this one, and sales agents TF1 have been rather tight lipped about the whole thing. Even the sales synopsis doesn't really tell you much:

What do you do when you're a red-haired teenage loser with no friends except for an older guy, your shrink? When everyone hates you, especially your family? When all your peers make fun of you and kick you around? The answer: you and your loser buddy blow...