News

French president Emmanuel Macron is set to kick off a three-day trip to Beijing this week, a high-stakes diplomatic mission that will be a delicate balancing act between urging Chinese leader Xi Jinping to alter his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and maintaining France’s trade priorities. The French delegation accompanying Macron will include dozens of people spread across two jetliners touching down in Beijing on Wednesday — and the French film industry will be among the constituencies represented in the group.

Veteran filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud will travel with Macron and attend various official functions, including the China-France state dinner hosted by Xi Jinping in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Thursday evening. During the trip, Annaud will also be promoting his most recent film, the 2022 disaster epic Notre-Dame on Fire, which is getting a nationwide China release on Friday. It will be the first French film...

Actress Isabelle Adjani, the star of the new France-produced 4-part miniseries "The King's Favorite", directed by Josée Dayan, poses for the latest issue of "Madame Figaro" magazine:

"...enigmatic 16th-century noblewoman and courtier 'Diane de Poitiers' (Adjani) is 'The King's Favorite'...

"...enjoying a complicated relationship with young French king, 'Henry II' (Hugo Becker)...

"...that lasted more than twenty years..."

Cast also includes Samuel Labarthe, Virginie Ledoyen and Gérard Depardieu.

Click the images to enlarge...

Isabelle Adjani is re-teaming with “The King’s Favorite” director Josée Dayan on the six-part mystery thriller “Belphégor.”

The acclaimed actress stars as the enigmatic 16th-century noblewoman and courtier Diane de Poitiers in “The King’s Favorite,” which premiered at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous on Monday.

The €7.6 million (7.5 million), four-part series, produced by Dayan’s Passion Films and sold internationally by France TV Distribution, examines de Poitiers’ complicated relationship with the young French king, Henry II (played by Hugo Becker), that lasted more than two decades. The large ensemble cast also includes Samuel Labarthe, Virginie Ledoyen and Gérard Depardieu.

Adjani next stars in an action-comedy helmed by Mélanie Laurent, which is set to go into production next week, Adjani told Variety.

Adjani is also set to star in a TV thriller alongside Benjamin Biolay likewise to be directed by Dayan later this year and described as in the style of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “Diabolique.

Notre-Dame On Fire Trailer — Jean-Jacques Annaud‘s Notre-Dame On Fire / Notre-Dame brûle (2022) movie trailer has been released by Pathe. The Notre-Dame On Fire trailer stars Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikael Chirinian, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, and Pierre Lottin. Crew The screenplay is written by Jean-Jacques Annaud and Thomas Bidegain. Produced by Jérôme Seydoux. Plot Synopsis Notre-Dame [...]

Continue reading: Notre-dame On Fire (2022) Movie Trailer: Fire-fighters Fight a Blaze at Notre Dame Cathedral in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Film...

"Up there with a few men, we can do it." Pathe UK has released their own official UK trailer for the Notre-Dame On Fire movie from France, dramatizing the tragic fire at Paris's Notre Dame cathedral in 2019. The French title is just Notre-Dame Brûle and it's supposed to tell a story "from inside the Notre-Dame de Paris fire of April 2019." Made by the same director from Seven Years in Tibet and Enemy at the Gates, Frnech filmmaker Jean-Jacques Annaud who has stay away from Hollywood for a while now. The film retraces how heroic men & women firefighters put their lives on the line to accomplish this awe-inspiring rescue. The ensemble cast features Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikael Chirinian, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, and Pierre Lottin. It's set to open in the UK this July after first premiering in France this March, but there's still no US plans yet. I guess...

"Be sure to use the fastest and surest channel. Your wait will seem long..." Pathe in France has revealed the first teaser trailer for a movie titled, in English, Notre-Dame On Fire - which is indeed a "blockbuster" about the Notre Dame fire in 2019. The French title is, amusingly, just Notre-Dame Brûle and it's supposed to tell a story "from inside the Notre-Dame de Paris fire of April 2019." The film retraces how heroic men & women firefighters put their lives on the line to accomplish an awe-inspiring rescue. The movie's ensemble cast features Samuel Labarthe, Jean-Paul Bordes, Mikael Chirinian, Jérémie Laheurte, Chloé Jouannet, and Pierre Lottin. Don't dismiss this one too soon! It's made by the same director as Seven Years in Tibet and Enemy at the Gates, so he certainly knows how to make a good movie. Yeah this looks excruciatingly cheesy, but hey, Hollywood makes disaster films like this...

Emmanuelle Devos joins Alice Winocour, Charlotte Le Bon, and Berenice Béjo on Michel Hazanavicius's Deauville Festival of American Cinema jury Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Emmanuelle Devos has had a special relationship with Arnaud Desplechin from her first film, La Vie Des Morts, with him as writer/director, on to La Sentinelle (a CinéSalon tribute to Caroline Champetier), My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into An Argument, Esther Kahn, Kings & Queen (Rois & Reine), and A Christmas Tale (Un Conte De Noël).

I met with Emmanuelle Devos at the French Institute Alliance Française (CinéSalon's Enigmatic Emmanuelle Devos) in New York for a conversation on Frédéric Mermoud's Moka, based on the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay in which she stars opposite Nathalie Baye with David Clavel, Olivier Chantreau, Diane Rouxel, and Samuel Labarthe.

Emmanuelle Devos on her first director Arnaud Desplechin: "Our relationship is really so intimate, so special …" Photo:...

Emmanuelle Devos on Frédéric Mermoud's Moka based on the novel by Tatiana de Rosnay: "The landscape does have an effect on your acting." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Moka star Emmanuelle Devos at the start of our conversation at the French Institute Alliance Française, mentioned seeing Laura Linney and Cynthia Nixon in Lillian Hellman's Little Foxes and Laurie Metcalf and Chris Cooper in Lucas Hnath's A Doll's House, Part 2 on Broadway. She has a long history with her first director, Arnaud Desplechin (My Sex Life... Or How I Got Into An Argument, Esther Kahn, A Christmas Tale, Kings & Queen), who also directed her son Raphaël Cohen in My Golden Days. Desplechin and Mathieu Amalric regular Grégoire Hetzel is Moka's co-composer. Emmanuelle and I had spoken at the Tribeca Film Festival with Jérôme Bonnell for his Le Temps De L'Aventure (Just A Sigh).

Marlène (Nathalie Baye) with Diane (Emmanuelle Devos...

Title: Moka Director: Frédéric Mermoud Starring: Emmanuelle Devos, Nathalie Baye, David Clavel, Diane Rouxel, Samuel Labarthe and Oliver Chantreau ‘Moka’ is the colour of a 1970s Mercedes which has killed an adolescent and is being hunted down by the mother of the victim, to find out who was behind the steering wheel. The detective story is entirely from the mater dolorosa’s point-of-view, Diana Kramaer. She finds the car and decides to move to the small town where it is being sold. The owner is Marléne, a mysterious and elegant blonde woman who owns a beauty salon. Diane will insinuate herself in the beautician’s life to carry out her vengeance. ‘Moka,’ [ Read More ]

The post Moka Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Les Petits Meurtres D’Agatha Christie

Acorn Media’s latest batch of DVD releases includes something quite novel – Agatha Christie stories, in French! Les Petits Meurtres D’ Agatha Christie includes seven stand-alone mysteries that aired in France between 2009 and 2012. The stories are based on Christie classics such as the ABC murders and Cat Among the Pigeons, but the action is set in 1930s and 1950s France.

Antoine Duléry takes on the role of detective Larosière, a suave ladies man who is described as an “artiste” by none other than the police commissioner. He’s a man who enjoys the finer things in life and he also has a sense of humor. Essentially, he’s a stereotypically French version of the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The later stories involve the dashing Samuel Labarthe as Commissioner Laurence. Again, to unsophisticated English eyes he seems very much like your run-of-the-mill French fellow.

Logistically,...

DVD Release Date: April 10, 2012

Price: DVD $29.95

Studio: Music Box

Denis Podalydès (l.) mimics president of France Nicolas Sarkozy in The Conquest.

The 2011 movie biography The Conquest chronicles the rise to power of Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France.

The film kicks off in early 2002, when up-and-coming politico Sarkozy (Denis Podalydes, The Da Vinci Code) first begins laying the groundwork for his presidential campaign. making his move on the presidency. Currying favor with his predecessor Jacques Chirac (Bernard Le Coq, The High Life) and sparring gamely with his glib rival Dominique de Villepin (Samuel Labarthe, Strayed), Sarkozy is depicted as a bold and unashamed virtuoso of political combat. It’s Sarkozy’s inattention to his disintegrating domestic partnership that results in his second wife, Cécilia (Florence Pernel, Blue), leaving him for good on the day he is elected president of France in 2007.

Written and directed for maximum dramatic and satiric punch by Xavier Durringer,...

Music Box Films has released the first trailer for The Conquest, which opens in New York and Los Angeles on November 11. Click on the video player below for your first look at this drama centering on the 2007 French presidential elections.

Click to watch The Conquest Trailer!

The day is May 6, 2007, France's run-up to the presidential elections. As the French people are getting ready to go to the polls to elect their new president, presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has shut himself away in his home. Though Sarkozy soon knows he has won the election, he is alone, gloomy and despondent. For hours he has been trying to reach his wife, C&#233cilia but to no avail. The last five years unfurl before our eyes, recounting Sarkozy's unstoppable ascent, riddled with in-party backstabbing, media manipulation, riots, sarcastic confrontations and extra-marital affairs. The Conquest chronicles the volatile right-leaning Sarkozy's startling rise to become...

The French biopic The Conquest (La conquete) recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and also opened in France last week. The film’s music is composed by Academy Award-winning composer Nicola Piovani (Life is Beautiful) and has recently been released commercially. The soundtrack album featuring 14 tracks from Piovani’s score is currently available to download on Amazon. For a preview of all tracks, check out the audio clips below. The Conquest takes a look at French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s rise to power. The film is directed by Xavier Durringer (Chok-Dee) and stars Florence Pernel, Bernard Le Coq and Samuel Labarthe. Music Box Films has acquired domestic rights for the film and is planning a release to precede the upcoming American presidential primary season.For more information, watch the trailer below and visit the French official movie website.

Amazon.com Widgets...

It is rare for a president to see his life adapted to the big screen while he is still in office. George W Bush had the honors with Oliver Stone’s W in 2008, and equally controversial French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s political life is now the subject of La Conquête (The Conquest). Described as a thriller, it follows his ambitious rise to power. La Conquête recounts the events between April 27, 2002 and May 6, 2007 and follows Nicolas Sarkozy’s political career, thirst for power and concludes with his ultimate conquest: the presidency of France. (His other conquest, Carla Bruni, came months later.) Hit the jump for more details, photos and the trailer. Producers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer initially wanted François Ozon (Swimming Pool, Potiche) to helm the film, but they finally chose Xavier Durringer. Patrick Rotman, a well-known writer of political documentaries, has penned the screenplay. Denis Podalydès dons a wig and plays a very convincing Sarko,...