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Exclusive: France’s Studio TF1 has taken on international sales rights to Ludovic Bernard’s Scotland-set con artist comedy The Perfect Family (Les Parfait(s)) and to Frédéric Forestier and Antonin Fourlon’s ensemble comedy sequel Open Season 2 (Chasse Gardée 2).

The Paris-based company, which has just rebranded from its former Newen Studios label, will kick off sales for both films at the Cannes Marche.

The Perfect Family, which stars Audrey Fleurot, Ramzy Bedia and Alan Cumming, is about three generations of a family of master scammers on the run from bloodthirsty gangsters who flee to Scotland where they steal the identities of a picture-perfect family.

The France-produced “Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight”, is the new CG-animated historical ‘Romans vs Gauls’ comedy TV series, based on characters created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, directed by Alain Chabat and Fabrice Joubert, starring Alain Chabat, Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Géraldine Nakache, Laurent Lafitte, Jeanne Balibar, Thierry Lhermitte, Grégory Gadebois, Alexandre Astier, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Grégoire Ludig, Jérôme Commandeur and Fred Testot, streaming April 30, 2025 on Netflix:

“…the ‘Druid’ named ‘Panoramix’ forgot the recipe…

“…for the magic potion after receiving a ‘menhir’ on the head…

“…while ‘Abraracourcix’, leader of the brave ‘Gauls’…

“…is challenged by one of his counterparts…

“…during a battle of the leaders.”

Click the images to enlarge…...

“Asterix and Obelix: The Big Fight” is the new CG-animated ‘Roman Empire’ comedy TV series, based on characters created by Albert Uderzo and René Goscinny, directed by Alain Chabat and Fabrice Joubert, starring Alain Chabat, Gilles Lellouche, Anaïs Demoustier, Géraldine Nakache, Laurent Lafitte, Jeanne Balibar, Thierry Lhermitte, Grégory Gadebois, Alexandre Astier, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Grégoire Ludig, Jérôme Commandeur and Fred Testot, streaming in 2025 on Netflix:

“…the ‘Druid’ named ‘Panoramix’ forgot the recipe…

“…for the magic potion after receiving a ‘menhir’ on the head…

“…while ‘Abraracourcix’, leader of the brave ‘Gauls’…

“…is challenged by one of his counterparts…

“…during a battle of the leaders.”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Michel Blanc, the legendary French actor best known for his roles in the Les Bronzés films and Monsieur Hire, has died. He was 72.

He died early Friday morning at a Parisian hospital after suffering a heart attack the previous night, according to Agence France-Presse (Afp).

France’s President Emmanuel Macron also paid tribute to Blanc on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “He made us cry with laughter and moved us to tears. A monument of French cinema, Michel Blanc has gone. Our thoughts go out to his loved ones and his acting accomplices.”

Born on April 16, 1952, in Courbevoie (Hauts-de-Seine), France, Blanc had a passion for classical music from a young age. But he later changed direction and co-founded the Le Splendid troupe, a café-théâtre company, in the 1970s with his friends, Christian Clavier, Gérard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte, Josiane Balasko, Marie-Anne Chazel, Bruno Moynot and Claire Magnin.

As for his film projects,...

French actor Michel Blanc, best known for his roles in Le Splendid troupe comedy films like the 1978 cult classic Les Bronzés (French Fried Vacation) and its subsequent 1979 and 2006 sequels, died early Oct. 4 at 72 of a heart attack following anaphylactic shock, per the Agence France-Presse.

A fixture in French cinema, his death was mourned by president Emmanuel Macron, who wrote on X: “He made us cry with laughter and moved us to tears. A monument of French cinema, Michel Blanc is gone. Our thoughts go out to his loved ones and his acting accomplices.”

The French Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, added in a statement: “This morning the sorrow is immense, as great as his talent. In front of the camera of Bertrand Blier, Robert Altman or Pierre Schoeller, Michel Blanc amazed us with the variety of his acting, but also with his talents as a director with films like “Marche à l’ombre...

Michel Blanc, the French actor known for the “Les Bronzés” films and crime drama “Monsieur Hire,” has died. He was 72.

Blanc died early Friday morning after suffering a heart attack the previous night, according to Agence France-Presse (Afp).

Blanc was known for his role as the awkward bachelor Jean-Claude Dusse in the 1978 film “Les Bronzés” (“French Fried Vacation”), directed by Patrice Leconte. He starred in the 1979 and 2006 follow-up films to the cult French comedy.

Blanc was also revered for his dramatic performances in film, including in Leconte’s 1989 crime thriller “Monsieur Hire,” where he played the titular character. In 2012, Blanc received the César for best supporting actor for “L’Exercice de l’État” (“The Minister”), written and directed by Pierre Schoeller.

Blanc directed, co-wrote and starred in the 1984 film “Marche à l’ombre” and 2002’s “Summer Things.” Additional film credits include “Les Filles de Malemort” (1974), “Let Joy Reign Supreme” (1975), “The Best...

Gérard Depardieu and Michel Blanc in Tenue De Soirée: 'All at once, I had become an actor who was interesting enough for film directors known for their cinéma d’auteur' Photo: UniFrance One of French cinema’s major acting talents Michel Blanc who was part of the fabled cafe-theatre comedy troupe Le Splendide alongside the likes of Gérard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte and Josiane Balasko, has died after a heart attack at the age of 72.

Blanc who made his name in such cult comedy hits as Les Bronzés in 1978, moved to more dramatic roles in such dramas as Tenue De Soirée by Bertrand Blier opposite Gérard Depardieu (for which he scored a Cannes Film Festival best actor award), and also carved out a successful career as a director. His screenplay for Grosse fatigue in 1994 won him another Cannes award.

In one interview he explained the importance of Tenue De Soirée: “That film changed my career.

Ginger & Fed, the new international film sales arm of Federation Studios headed by former TF1 Studio boss Sabine Chemaly, will launch several high profile titles at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous, including “The Future Awaits,” Niels Tavernier’s WWII-set drama based on the true story of a Holocaust survivor. Ginger & Fed will also bow sales on “Riviera Revenge,” a heartwarming comedy starring André Dussollier (“The Crime is Mine”), Sabine Azéma (“Tanguy”) and Thierry Lhermitte (“The Dinner Game”), along with continuing deals on “Rachel’s Game,” “Survive” and “Oldies and Goodies.”

Produced by Yves Darondeau at Bonne Pioche Cinema (“March of the Penguins”), “The Future Awaits” tells the story of Tauba Birenbaum, whose testimony was collected in July 1997 to become part of Steven Spielberg’s Institute for Visual History. The film opens in July 1942, during the Vel’ d’Hiv’ Roundup of Jewish families in Paris. 13-year-old Tauba and her parents, who are Polish Jews,...

The entertainment business has never been a sure thing. While movies and television shows from specific genres have thrived for a limited period, with so many options for what to watch today, that's not the case anymore. The streaming options developed to such an extent that there is too much content and not enough time to watch it. This has been one of the reasons why so many television shows have been canceled, including the CBS spy show True Lies.

True Lies tells the story of a seemingly ordinary married couple, Helen Tasker (Ginger Gongaza) and Harry Tasker (Steve Howey). Helen is a linguist professor feeling bored with her life which only consists of her job and taking care of the kids and the house. Things quickly take a turn, and excitement and action won't stop happening as Helen discovers that her husband, whom she thought worked in tech sales,...

We’re wrapping this week up with a new episode of the Wtf Happened to This Horror Movie? video series, and with this one we’re looking back at one of the most maligned sequels ever made: the 1997 release An American Werewolf in Paris (watch it Here). How did this follow-up to An American Werewolf in London go so wrong? Watch the video embedded above to find out!

Directed by Mute Witness‘s Anthony Waller, who also wrote the screenplay with Tim Burns and Tom Stern, An American Werewolf in Paris has the following synopsis: A group of carousing American tourists is taking in the cultural landmarks of Paris when a chance encounter results in sightseer Andy McDermott saving the life of Parisian Serafine Pigot. While on a date at a nightclub with Serafine, Andy is suddenly attacked and bitten by a werewolf. The next day he discovers that Serafine is also a lycanthrope,...

Newen Connect, the film and TV distribution arm of the French media group Newen Studios, is launching a raft of comedies at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous event in Paris this week.

New titles include “Mr. Putifar’s Wacky Plan,” based on the book “Comedy.” It’s produced by Ugc and Romain Rotjman’s Les Films du 24, the team behind “Serial (Bad) Weddings.”

Directed by Pierre-François Martin-Laval (“Serial Teachers”), the movie stars Christian Clavier and Isabelle Nanty. Clavier stars as a retired school teacher plotting a revenge on the kids who made his life hell twenty years ago and destroyed his one chance at love.

“Open Season,” produced by Starman Films and Curiosa Films (“Stars at Noon”), is directed by Frédéric Forestier and Antonin Fourlon. The film stars Didier Bourdon (“Alibi.com 2”), Camille Lou (“Spoiled Brats”), Hakim Jemili (“A Good Doctor”), Thierry Lhermitte (“Just Retired”) and Chantal Ladesou.

The film follows Adelaide,...

Bertrand Blier’s edgy romp about a pair of ne’er-do-well petty-crooks will go too far for many viewers — they’re antisocially chauvinistic in some really outrageous ways. Are they jolly adventurers or just terminally obnoxious? The twisted social comedy really needs its talented cast: Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Fossey, and a very young Isabelle Huppert. The new presentation includes a commentary by Richard Peña.

Going Places

Blu-ray

Cohen Film Collection / Kino Lorber

1974 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 118 min. / Les valseuses / Street Date October 11, 2022 / Available from Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Gérard Depardieu, Patrick Dewaere, Miou-Miou, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Fossey, Jacques Chailleux, Isabelle Huppert, Thierry Lhermitte.

Cinematography: Bruno Nuytten

Production Designers: Jean-Jacques Caziot, Françoise Hardy

Film Editor: Kénout Peltier

Original Music:

Written by Bertrand Blier and Philippe Dumarçay from the novel by Bertrand Blier <smaStéphane Grappellill>

Produced by Paul Claudon

Directed by Bertrand Blier

The freedom of the screen that came with...

“Peaceful,” Emmanuelle Bercot’s Cesar-winning melodrama which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, has landed domestic distribution with New York-based banner Distrib US.

Sold by Studiocanal, the movie is headlined by Benoit Magimel and Catherine Deneuve (pictured). Magimel, who won the Cesar Award for best actor — beating fellow nominee Adam Driver — stars as a man dying of cancer. “Peaceful” world premiered out of competition at Cannes where it earn warm reviews.

Distrib US has also acquired “A Tale of Love and Desire” and “Les Inde Galantes,” which are both screening this week at the Film at Lincoln Center as part of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York. The event is being co-organized by Unifrance, the French film and TV advocacy org.

“Les Inde Galantes,” directed by Philippe Béziat, is a documentary following 30 dancers reprising Jean-Philippe Rameau’s baroque masterpiece on the stage of Paris’s legendary Opéra Bastille.

Snd is set to host market premieres for Patrice Leconte’s period detective film “Maigret,” as well as high concept comedies “Employee of the Month” and “The Bodins” at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, a showcase of French content hosted this week in Paris.

“Maigret,” based on Georges Simenon’s literary masterpiece, will star Gérard Depardieu (“Cyrano de Bergerac”) as detective Maigret, who investigates the death of a young girl in 1953. During his inquiry, Maigret crosses paths with Betty, a young offender who reminds him of the dead girl. The movie will be released by Snd on April 6.

“We’ve pre-sold ‘Maigret’ across 90% of Europe, it’s really a highlight on our slate due to the strength of the franchise, director and cast – Gerard Depardieu is outstanding in this role,” said Ramy Nahas, head of international sales at Snd.

“Employee of the Month” will be directed by French comedian Jerome...

Taleseed, a Paris-based outfit launched over a year ago by a trio of experienced French media executives, is developing “Mousquetaires,” a contemporary series inspired by Alexandre Dumas’ classic “The Three Musketeers.”

The banner, which is headquartered in the Parisian start-up campus Station F, was founded by Valérie Billaut, Stéphane Cadoch and Hugues Laigneau. Billaut, the banner’s CEO, spent 20 years working at Canal Plus and M6;

Cadoch previously headed TF1 Distribution; and Laigneau also worked at the TF1 Group in the advertising sales division.

The series is being penned by Clement Marchand and Milan Mauger, who recently partnered up on the script of “Tous pourris” and “La professionelle” for Pathé. Marchand has worked for Canal Plus’s popular talk show Le Grand Journal and the satirical program les Guignols. Mauger is an actor-turned-scribe who notably starred in “Sans Rancune” with Thierry Lhermitte and directed the short “L’adjoint avait une barbe.

Filming got underway this week in Paris on Alors, On Danse, the French remake of 2017 UK feature Finding Your Feet.

The French update is being directed by veteran French actress, director and comedian Michèle Laroque (Ma Vie En Rose) who will also star alongside well-known French faces Thierry Lhermitte (La Dîner De Cons), Isabelle Nanty (Amelie) and Jean-Hugues Anglade (Betty Blue) as well as Jeanne Balibar (Les Misérables) and Patrick Timsit (Le Cousin).

The film is being produced by Maxime Delauney and Romain Rousseau of Nolita Cinema and is among the first films to start shooting in the capital since the country came out of lockdown. The film’s original producers Meg Leonard, Nick Moorcroft, James Spring, Andrew Berg, John Sachs and Charlotte Walls all serve as executive producers on the film.

The French remake deal was brokered by Fred Films’ James Spring who told us that there are additional...

France TV Distribution, the commercial arm of the French public broadcaster, has acquired international sales rights to Audrey Dana’s French comedy “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”

The movie, which is set to start shooting soon, will star Marina Hands (“French Women”), Thierry Lhermitte (“The French Minister”) and François-Xavier Demaison (“Naked Normandy”).

French production banner Curiosa Films (Juliette Binoche starrer “Let the Sunshine In”), is producing “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” Dana previously directed “If I Were A Boy” and “French Women.”

The film follows seven men, all city-dwellers aged between 17 and 70, with nothing in common apart from the fact that they are all on the verge of nervous breakdowns. They sign up for an unusual workshop in a rural area, hoping to get back on their feet, but nothing goes according to plan.

France TV Distribution’s current slate also includes Emmanuelle Carriere’s “Between Two Worlds,...

The redoubtable Anémone in one of her last roles in Rosalie Blum by Julien Rappeneau Photo: Unifrance One of France’s best-loved actresses, simply known as Anémone (real name Anne Bourguignon), has died at the age of 68.

Anémone started in her career with Philippe Garrel in the Sixties Photo: Unifrance She took her solo name from the film Anémone by Phlippe Garrel in which she played the title role of a young girl from a Parisian bourgeois family. The film was made for TV in 1968 but the producer rejected it as being “too pessmistic” and it remained unseen until the Société Nationale des Arts organised some public cinema screenings. It has not been shown since 2003 amid a legal wrangle.

It set the actress off on a decades long career in both theatre and cinema, beginning on the boards with the Splendid comedy troupe who made a cult cinema hit as...

Other Angle has picked up international sales rights to “A Good Doctor” with Michel Blanc, “Just The Three of Us” with Catherine Frot, and “The Father Figure” in the run-up to the UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris.

Directed by Eric Besnard, “The Father Figure” is a supernatural comedy drama following a writer who mourns the death of his father and starts seeing him reappear; but he turns out to be the only one able to see him. The film stars François Berleand, Guillaume de Tonquedec and Josiane Balasko.

“Just the Three of Us,” which marks the feature debut of José Alcala, is a love-triangle comedy starring Daniel Auteuil and Catherine Frot. Auteuil stars a man on a mission to get his wife back after she leaves him for another man. Both “The Father Figure” and “Just The Three of Us” will be released by Apollo Films in France.

“A Good Doctor,...

Witnesses: Channel 4, 10pm

Tonight sees the UK premiere of the French police thriller, with Cid Sandra Winckler (Marie Dompiner) investigating a strange murder case.

Three unrelated bodies are dug from their graves and posed as a family in a show home. After a picture of him was discovered near the crime scene, former police officer Paul Maisonneuve (Thierry Lhermitte) comes out of retirement to help in the investigation.

Wentworth Prison: Channel 5, 10pm

The women are back for their third season as it premieres in the UK tonight.

Bea is back in prison, and is welcomed as the new top dog. This doesn't faze Ferguson though as she humiliates Bea with a strip search - something which we're guessing Bea isn't going to let Ferguson get away with...

People Just Do Nothing: BBC Three, 10pm

Another hilarious offering from the gang as they take on new responsibilities.

Grindah is...

Exclusive: Company to also market premiere First Growth [pictured], a family drama set in the vineyards of Burgundy.

France’s Snd is set to launch sales on a trio of new titles at the Cannes Marché, including Julien Rappeneau’s quirky romantic comedy Rosalie Blum.

It is a debut feature for Rappeneau, who is best known as a writer, his credits including father Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s upcoming Families (Belles familles), pop icon Claude Francois bio-pic My Way and Jérôme Salle’s The Burma Conspiracy and Zulu.

An adaptation of popular graphic novel Rosalie Blum, the film revolves around a lonely, thirty-something hairdresser who starts to secretly investigate a 50-year-old woman who seems vaguely familiar.

His clumsy detective work makes her suspicious and she in turn asks her niece to investigate him – a game of hide-and-seek begins with unexpected results.

“It’s a little jewel which we fell in love with straight away,” says Snd sales...

Edmund White and Frank Rich with Antonin Baudry at Quai d’Orsay - Weapons of Mass Diplomacy Drawing The Line at McNally Jackson in New York: "I remember it was really like being in film school."

Bertrand Tavernier's The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay) stars Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Niels Arestrup and Anaïs Demoustier, with Jane Birkin impersonating a version of Toni Morrison and Julie Gayet as a potent advisor.

Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard and going beyond Mel Brooks with Frankenstein and the Seven Dwarfs are discussed in the second half of my conversation with Bertrand Tavernier and Antonin Baudry.

At McNally Jackson Books in New York, two days before July 4, Edmund White and Frank Rich were discussing Drawing The Line with Antonin Baudry. Here is a highlight.

Weapons of Mass Diplomacy Drawing The Line invitation

Anne-Katrin Titze: The past times we spoke, Bertrand Tavernier was always in the room.

Antonin Baudry with Bertrand Tavernier on The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay): "I fell in love immediately with Antonin's book, because it was dealing with politics in, for me, the best way possible." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

I met up in New York with Bertrand Tavernier and Antonin Baudry, who co-wrote the screenplay for The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay), based on Baudry's (aka Abel Lanzac) autobiographic graphic novel about his adventures as a speech writer in the French Ministry. The film stars Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz and Niels Arestrup who at times seem to channel the working methods of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday or the serious madness surrounding Peter Sellers in The Party. Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Blake Edwards, Jacques Becker, Stanley Kubrick and John Ford pop up in precise reference throughout the conversation.

Thierry Lhermitte as Alexandre Taillard de Worms with Raphaël Personnaz...

Acclaimed French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier has taken audiences everywhere, from the world of American jazz ("Round Midnight") to the drama of the 16th century ("The Princess Of Montpensier"), and his latest finds a new world, behind the closed doors of the political sphere, and in the comedic "The French Minister," no one is spared. Starring Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Niels Arestrup, Bruno Raffaelli, Julie Gayet and Anaïs Demoustier, the film tells the story of the fictional Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexandre Taillard de Vorms, who juggles American neo-cons, corrupt Russians and the opportunistic Chinese all while his useless speech writer tries to keep up with the whirling dervish of personalities around him. In this exclusive clip, we see how things can turn on a dime in the political world. "The French Minister" opens today in limited release and is available on VOD. Watch below.

Bertrand Tavernier’s "The French Minister" reaches America this Friday 40 years after his feature debut, 1974's "The Clockmaker." At 72, Tavernier shows no signs of slowing his eclectic experimentation: the film marks his first attempt at straight-up comedy and opened strong in France, though cumulative admissions at home didn’t eclipse 2010's vigorous medieval adventure "The Princess Of Montpensier" or 2008's New Orleans-set, Tommy Lee Jones-starring mystery "In The Electric Mist," three films that are a representative sampling of Tavernier’s genre-sampling career. The original title for "The French Minister" is "Quai D'Orsay," the Paris wharf where the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located. Enter cautiously idealistic Arthur Vlaminck (Raphaël Personnaz), hired as speechwriter to minister Alexandre Taillard de Vorms (Thierry Lhermitte). Taillard is a nearly-literal whirlwind, whose door-slamming entries and exits send papers flying into brief tornadic spirals within a...

Armando Iannucci’s comedies Veep and The Thick of It are all politics, zero ideology, except where someone’s ideological posture affects the ambitions of other characters. The French Minister, directed by Bertrand Tavernier, based on the graphic novel Quai d'Orsay, by Abel Lanzac and Christophe Blain, adopts a similar posture, focused on the survival tactics of an exhausted ministry staff against the hurricane effects of a single enormous personality: Alexandre Taillard de Worms, the French minister of foreign affairs (Thierry Lhermitte). Seen through the perspective of new hire Arthur (Raphaël Personnaz), the silver-maned de Worms is mercurial and hugely charismatic. A speechwriter, Arthur struggles to accommodate the editorial impe...

Niels Arestrup to Bertrand Tavernier on Claude Maupas in Quai D'Orsay: "You ask me to play a very introverted, soft spoken guy and I am the opposite." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Bertrand Tavernier's The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay) starring Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Niels Arestrup and Anaïs Demoustier, with Jane Birkin impersonating a version of Toni Morrison and Julie Gayet as a potent advisor, is the closing night film of New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

We discussed the importance of rhythm for his film, how Billy Wilder and Jacques Becker set a mood, the working relationship with writers Christophe Blain and Cultural Counselor to the French Embassy Antonin Baudry, Arestrup's dedication, and the decision to not watch films when making one. Tavernier also gave me insight into how he created the unequaled complexity of character with Philippe Noiret and Isabelle Huppert in Coup De Torchon.

"A fool...

Bertrand Tavernier on The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay): "I tell them not to play it as comedy and it will be funny." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The opening night of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York at the Paris Theatre will bring us Catherine Deneuve's exceptional performance in Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way. Bertrand Tavernier's wildly diplomatic The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay), based on Antonin Baudry’s graphic novels, starring Raphaël Personnaz, Thierry Lhermitte with Julie Gayet, Jane Birkin and Niels Arestrup closes the festival. Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos in If You Don't, I Will (Arrête Ou Je Continue) directed by Sophie Fillières, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Yvan Attal in Michel Spinosa's His Wife (Son Épouse), Katell Quillévéré's Suzanne with Sara Forestier, François Damiens, Adèle Haenel and Paul Hamy are some of the other highlights of UniFrance and the Film Society of...

Cast includes Jean Reno and Gerard Jugnot.

Shooting started last month on French production Benoit Brisefer: The Red Taxis, an adaptation of the classic comic strip created in 1960.

The cast includes Jean Reno, Gerard Jugnot, Thierry Lhermitte, Evelyne Buyle and Hippolyte Girardot.

The story is about a 10 year old boy who has secret powers to fight evil, but loses them when he catches a cold. Newcomer Leopold Huet play the title role.

Manuel Pradal directs.

Walt Disney will release in France on Oct 22 2014.

‘Bad Hair’ day at San Sebastian Film Festival: Venezuelan film wins Golden Shell (photo: Samuel Lange Zambrano in ‘Bad Hair’) Mariana Rondón’s Bad Hair / Pelo malo won the Golden Shell at the 2013 San Sebastian Film Festival, which wrapped up today, September 28, in northern Spain’s coastal city also known as Donostia (in Basque). The Venezuelan / Peruvian / German co-production tells the story of a nine-year-old boy (Samuel Lange Zambrano) with "bad hair," who decides to have his unruly curls molded pop-singer style (Justin Bieber’s?) for his yearbook picture. His mother (Samantha Castillo), however, is against it — the boy’s new hairdo is just not manly enough. Family conflicts ensue. The San Sebastian Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize went to newcomer Fernando Franco’s Wounded / La herida, a Spanish drama about a 30-year-old ambulance driver whose life falls to pieces as a consequence of her undiagnosed Borderline Personality Disorder.

Quai d’Orsay

Written by Christophe Blain and Abel Lanzac

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier

France, 2013

Promoted as a French comedy in the spirit of In The Loop and Veep, Quai d’Orsay is a very enjoyable watch, full of wit and fun. Based on the graphic novel of the same name written by Antonin Baudry (under the pseudonym Abel Lanzac) and based on his own experiences, the film follows a young politico (Raphael Personnaz) navigating his way as a speechwriter for the French foreign minister (Thierry Lhermitte). Nearly blindsided by the hurdles of his new position, Arthur Vlaminck (Personnaz) works through no to little guidance, some in-office saboteurs, and the slamming doors and blown away papers that mark the minister’s coming and going (to the chagrin of the office cat). For most of the film, Vlaminck is working on one very important speech, one that has him running around...

Toronto Film Festival 2013 Dates and Movies (photo: Pierce Brosnan, Emma Thompson in ‘The Love Punch’) The Toronto Film Festival 2013 dates are September 5 to 15. The Opening Night Gala film is Bill Condon’s bound-to-be-controversial The Fifth Estate, which is not a belated sequel to Serge Leroy’s The Fourth Power / Le 4ème pouvoir. Instead of the Power of the Press — which seems to have gone the way of the 20th century (unless you consider the Royal Baby an epoch-making event) — The Fifth Estate is about the Power of Technology: the Wikileaks scandal that embarrassed (and infuriated) the U.S. government and military by exposing their dirty dealings. Written by Josh Singer, The Fifth Estate stars Star Trek Into Darkness‘ Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange, in addition to Laura Linney, Daniel Brühl, Anthony Mackie, Moritz Bleibtreu, Peter Capaldi, David Thewlis, Alicia Vikander, Carice van Houten, Stanley Tucci, and Dan Stevens. The Toronto...

Feature Jules-Pierre Malartre 25 Jun 2013 - 06:31

A previously-unpublished interview with Return Of The Jedi director Richard Marquand...

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Return Of The Jedi. A book on the making of the film is to be released this autumn, and I’m looking forward to delving through the previously little known facts, pictures and artefacts about the movie that author J W Rinzler has discovered while writing the book. I recently unearthed some forgotten Return Of The Jedi lore myself when I packed my things for my upcoming move. Imagine my surprise when, going through some old papers, I came across an interview of Richard Marquand I did back in 1984, barely a year after the release of Return Of The Jedi.

Marquand, fresh from his Return Of The Jedi directorial experience, was in Montreal to promote his latest movie, Until September, a romantic comedy...

As a high-profile celebrity, Brad Pitt's face is recognized around the world, but he now reveals that there are only a select few faces that he recognizes—and not by choice.

In his cover story with Esquire, Pitt reveals that he has trouble recalling people's faces and subsequently doesn't remember his encounters with them. He claims that once he walks away from an encounter, his memory of the other person's face immediately begins to dwindle.

Pics: Sexy Through the Years: Brad Pitt

The 49-year-old actor admits that he used to try to work his way around the deficiency by waiting for acquaintances to drop contextual hints, but he then undertook a more frank method.

Unfortunately, as he attests, neither mode bodes well with others.

"So many people hate me because they think I'm disrespecting them," he told Esquire. "So I swear to God, I took one year where I just said, 'This year, I'm...

#54. Bertrand Tavernier’s Quai d’Orsay

Gist: Written by Christophe Blain, Abel Lanzac, and Tavernier, inspired by true events (the eve of the beginning of the Iraq war) in the life of France’s foreign minister Dominique de Villepin, this sees an impressive cast of very businessmen and women-clad dressed folks such as Thierry Lhermitte, Niels Arestrup, Anaïs Demoustier and Julie Gayet.

Prediction: There’ll be a much more anticipated Bd (French comic book) to film project on the Croisette this year, but filming began in October (with a couple of days shot in United Nations in New York – see below) and if readied in time, Tavernier who has been to Cannes on a handful of occasions – most recently for The Princess of Montpensier could be the legend filmmaker (with over 20 features under his belt) who gets added alongside the next generation of filmmakers in the Directors’ Fortnight section.

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With exclusive contributions from Le Divorce costume designer Carol Ramsey, Jill Burgess, creator of Everything Just So, analyses the film’s distinctive sartorial presence; specifically how a Hermès ‘Kelly’ bag can be elevated from status symbol to movie character.

In the 2003 Merchant Ivory movie Le Divorce, based on the novel by Diane Johnson, Isabel Walker (Kate Hudson) travels from Santa Barbara to Paris to visit her pregnant sister Roxeanne (Naomi Watts), who is subsequently abandoned by her unfaithful husband Charles-Henri de Persand (Melvil Poupaud). Isabel becomes involved with an older married politician, Edgar Cosset (Thierry Lhermitte), uncle of Charles-Henri, thus further complicating matters in this comedy-drama of impeccable manners.

During her Parisian stay, Isabel makes a thorough costume transformation from casual California girl to glamorous soignée French mistress. Crucial to...

Laure Charpentier's melodrama follows a charismatic young girl on a steamy ride through the lesbian underworld of 60s Paris

This week sees the beginning of the 25th London Lesbian and Gay film festival, an event that has always seemed to me to have a completely admirable emphasis on mischief, enjoyment and fun. And perhaps no film in this year's festival exemplifies this like the extraordinary lesbian crime melodrama Gigola, set in 60s Paris criminal underworld, adapted and directed by Laure Charpentier from her own novels.

Gigola has some highbrow credentials. It features big acting names like Thierry Lhermitte and Almodóvar stalwart Marisa Paredes and is shot by Theo Angelopoulos's cinematographer, Yorgos Arvanitis – but it really is a fantastically naughty, silly and enjoyable film: uncompromisingly camp in its seriousness and high passion, and one of the very few movies that could be called "pulp" cinema. It's steamy, saucy, racy...

The ABC network reports that a script has been ordered for a potential TV series based on director James Cameron's 1994 feature "True Lies".

The original action-comedy, casting Arnold Schwarzenegger as a sexist, 'suave' 'James Bond'-like killer, co-starred Jamie Lee Curtis, who won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as legal secretary 'Helen Tasker'. The film was also nominated for a Best Visual Effects Oscar.

Similar to how Cameron took credit after cribbing the original works of writer Harlan Ellison for the feature film "Terminator", the $120 million budgeted "True Lies" was an extended remake of director Claude Zidi's 1991 French feature "La Totale!", starring actors Thierry Lhermitte and Miou-Miou.

"True Lies" was also noted as the first Lightstorm Entertainment project to be distributed under Cameron's new production deal with 20th Century Fox, as well as the first major production for Cameron's VFX company Digital Domain.

"...'Harry Tasker' (Schwarzenegger) leads a double life,...

The latest Hollywood remake of a brief, moderately inventive French comedy transposes Francis Veber's Le Dîner de cons (1998) from Paris to Los Angeles. In the original, publisher Thierry Lhermitte gets into all kinds of trouble when he conspires to bring a dim, bald, accident-prone accountant (Jacques Villeret) to a club of supercilious sophisticates who compete to bring the most stupid guest to a monthly dinner party. In the French version the guest makes matchstick versions of the Eiffel Tower; in the remake he stuffs dead mice to construct bizarre tableaux of everything from The Last Supper to Munch's The Scream. Roach's crude, tasteless, unfunny movie is even worse than his Meet the Fockers, and sets back the cause of healthy bad taste by a decade.

ComedyDramaSteve CarellPhilip French

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Jay Roach's remake of the 1998 French comedy hit "Le Diner de cons" is finally coming together.

According to Variety, Spyglass Entertainment, Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks will team up to develop the film, with Spyglass and Paramount providing the majority of the budget.

Steve Carell and Paul Rudd are on board to star in the project, in which a bunch of friends organize a weekly dinner to which they invite the dumbest people they can find.

The trade says the film will most likely start principal photography in October. "Schmucks" will mark Roach's first big-screen project since 2004's "Meet the Fockers."

Most recently, the filmmaker received a Emmy for his television movie "Recount."

The original "Diner de cons" was directed by Francis Veber and turned into a huge hit. The comedy starred Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret, Francis Huster and Daniel Prévost. Very funny movie indeed.

You better watch out You better not cry You better have clout I'm telling you why Two Thumbs Down are comin' to town He's making a list,

Checking it twice;

Gonna find out whose

movie was scheiss.

Sandy Claws is comin' to town.

He sees you when you're (bleeping),

He knows when you're a fake

He knows if you've been bad or good

So be good for cinema's sake!

With little but scorn

and pounding of drums,

Rooty toot hoots

and rummy tum thumbs

Sandy Jaws is comin' to town

As I dream back over many happy years of movie going, some of my favorite lines from old reviews dance in my head like visions of sugarplums. Good movies, bad movies, doesn't matter, just so the line dances. I thought I'd share them in the holiday spirit. Curiously, most of the lines come from movies so bad I didn't want a refund,...

PARIS -- The huge local success last year of Tell No One has encouraged French filmmakers to develop more thriller projects.

Guillaume Nicloux, already known for peculiar crime stories (such as Le Poulpe in 1998 and A Private Affair in 2002) offers the very actor-director of Tell No One -- Guillaume Canet -- the main part in this gloomy film that navigates among the codes of film noir, detective story and family drama. The impressive cast, bringing together famous French actors of various generations as well as the father-and-son couple of Tell No One, could open European markets to the film, but U.S. distribution is uncertain.

The Key focuses on Eric (Canet), a young man in his 30s whose lovely wife (Marie Gillain) wants a baby. As he never knew his father, Eric is reluctant to become one. But it just happens that his father enters his life unexpectedly when a man calls to announce his death. The voice also asks Eric to come by and collect his father's ashes. It's the beginning of a nightmare for the young man, drawn into a situation involving thieves, a network of drug dealers and untold secrets going back to his father's youth and his own birth.

Two layers of time intertwine: The contemporary crime story alternates with a long flashback explaining the source of the trouble Eric has gotten into. The past story, set in the 1970s, involves physical and moral violence, which gives the whole film a sordid atmosphere.

Nicloux certainly can create ambiance: The desolate landscapes with the use of close-ups, the camera always moving and an imaginative supporting cast stir audience interest. But the story lurches in too many directions, and the secrets behind the crimes become too obvious and just not that intriguing.

Only the cast justifies watching The Key. Canet has never been very expressive -- he seems satisfied with his physical engagement in films -- but the two female leads, Gillain and Vanessa Paradis, deliver subtle performances. Behind her character's apparent gentleness, Gillain reveals the hidden wounds of a perfect housewife. Paradis enjoys one of her best roles as a fragile and moving junkie whose path crosses that of Eric.

Josiane Balasko and Thierry Lhermitte play two characters they have impersonated in previous films by Nicloux: Balasko is the same depressed cop as in Hanging Offense (2003), while Lhermitte adds the final touch to the private eye of A Private Affair. Both bring a melancholic touch to an otherwise curt film. As for Jean Rochefort, he is as brilliant as ever, obviously taking much pleasure in playing a pure villain.

THE KEY

Les Films de la Suane, M6 Films, Mandarin Films

Credits:

Director: Guillaume Nicloux

Screenwriters: Pierre Trividic, Guillaume Nicloux

Producers: Philippe Rousselet, Frederic Bourboulon

Director of photography: Christophe Offenstein

Production designer: Olivier Radot

Costume designer: Anais Romand

Editor: Guy Lecorne

Cast:

Eric Vincent: Guillaume Canet

Audrey: Marie Gillain

Cecile: Vanessa Paradis

Michele Varin: Josiane Balasko

Francois Maneri: Thierry Lhermitte

Joseph Arp: Jean Rochefort

Running time -- 115 minutes

No MPAA rating...

PARIS -- So similar are the basic ingredients of Laurent Bouhnik's The Guest to those of Francis Veber's 1998 smash hit The Dinner Game that this latest exercise in misanthropic farce might as well have been called "The Dinner Game: Second Helping." There is the same setup (a dinner to which an outsider has been invited), the same source (a successful stage play) and the same pleasure in humiliation. Even one of the stars is the same.

But will the result be the same? In Veber's case, the result was 9 million tickets sold in France alone and $4 million in U.S. boxoffice. Because gastronomic comparisons are inevitable, the verdict must be that Bouhnik's mayonnaise has not quite taken. Or that the souffle has only partly risen to the occasion. Audiences who do not require anything too substantial nor mind a slightly acid taste might find the fare reasonably palatable.

After three years of unemployment, packaging executive Gerard (Daniel Auteuil) is offered a foreign posting in Indonesia. To clinch the deal, he is persuaded to invite the boss (Hippolyte Girardot) to dinner. His wife, Colette (Valerie Lemercier), who has no culinary or indeed any other skills, panics and allows their upstairs neighbor Alexandre (Thierry Lhermitte), a communications guru, to advise them on what to wear, how to decorate, how to greet a guest and how generally to create a favorable impression with a new employer.

Because Gerard and Colette are wholly deficient when it comes to socializing and have atrocious taste in anything to do with art or fashion, Alexandre -- an unbearable know-it-all -- has his work cut out. He knocks them into the best shape he can by organizing a practice session in which he plays the role of the boss to the hapless Gerard.

On the fateful evening, the boss arrives bearing a bouquet of flowers that, because Gerard has ordered flowers from the local florists, gives rise to all sorts of identity confusion. Alexandre, meanwhile, is receiving the unwelcome attention of Sophia (Mar Sodupe), the attractive young concierge with whom he had earlier enjoyed a one-night stand.

This is all very Gallic and farcical enough to pass muster. As in the Veber movie, much of the humor depends on social and cultural snobbery. Gerard's idea of a good time is an evening spent with his train set, which occupies every spare space in the apartment. Meanwhile, for Colette, high culture means Pavarotti singing in a football stadium.

As a result, none of the characters is particularly appealing, and the movie's main selling point is its encouragement to audiences to feel superior to its lumpen middle-class protagonists. There are enough decent jokes to enable them to do this, though Bouhnik and screenwriter David Pharao (adapting his own play) lack Veber's sharpness and sardonic wit.

No film featuring Auteuil and Lemercier can be anything less than watchable (though both actors might have been better employed elsewhere). Lhermitte, who starred as the snobbish host in Dinner Game, can play this kind of role in his sleep.

The decision by the distributors to release the movie without a press screening suggests a lack of confidence in its reception by the critics. But then, the pundits were pretty sniffy about Dinner Game too.

THE GUEST

EuropaCorp, TF1 Films Prods.

Credits:

Director: Laurent Bouhnik

Screenwriter: David Pharao

Producers: Maurice Illouz, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

Director of photography: Jean-Paul Agostini

Production designer: Jacques Bufnoir

Costume designer: Joana George-Rossi

Editors: Frederic Thoraval, Herve de Luze

Cast:

Gerard: Daniel Auteuil

Colette: Valerie Lemercier

Alexandre: Thierry Lhermitte

Pontignac: Hippolyte Girardot

Bonnot: Artus de Penguern

Fournier: Pascale Denizane

Sophia: Mar Sodupe

Running time -- 82 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Gaumont Buena Vista International

PARIS -- "Les Ripoux3" is the latest in a series of films that director Claude Zidi began shooting back in the early 1980s. The first two films were a great success in France, but it's difficult to see how this one, which amounts to an old-fashioned cop film, will appeal to anyone other than hard-core fans.

Philippe Noiret picks up his role as Rene Boirond, a corrupt, retired police officer who spends his days betting on horses and avoiding creditors. His former partner Francois (Thierry Lhermitte)' has been promoted to head of the anti-crime squad in Paris. The two ex-colleagues have not seen each other for years until Rene becomes involved with the Chinese mafia under surveillance by Francois' squad. The two are now on opposite sides of the fence, and Francois must choose between helping his old friend out of a tight spot or remaining on the right side of the law.

What starts as a simple story is muddied by a string of subplots and secondary characters. Mistaken identity, a long-lost daughter and a drawn-out bank heist stretch the action too thinly. The main characters never have the chance to dig into their roles as the film flicks from one scene to another. This is a real loss as the relationship between Rene and Francois is the true heart of the film. Instead, the plot laboriously twists and turns, and the comedy wrung from the first two movies is sadly lacking here.

Noiret is a highly credible as the lovable rogue Rene. He shuffles and shambles through the action scenes, throwing in the odd wry comment where needed. L'Hermitte is excellent as the uptight Francois, who seems lost without his inscrutable partner of years gone by.the end of World War II, a young girl named Neera (Biana G. Tamimi) gets separated from her caravan when it is set upon by raiders. (Who these raiders are and what happens to the rest of the caravan are never explained.) The same raiding party then goes after a mare and her newborn colt. The colt escapes and is discovered wandering alone in the desert by Neera.

She names the horse Shetan, and without too much difficulty the two "orphans" somehow find their way to the casbah of Neera's grandfather (Richard Romanus). How do they find their way? What do they eat? How is Neera able to make a fire? The filmmakers show no interest in the story of their survival.

Once Neera reaches her grandfather's place, Shetan runs off only to return a year later as a magnificent stallion. Without even a moment to break in the stallion, Neera simply climbs on Shetan's back and gallops off. Within a matter of minutes and against her grandfather's wishes, she enters Shetan into a desert horse race against several powerful mares that furnishes the movie's climax.

As one can see from this synopsis, characters and story are woefully thin. Even the villains (Gerard Rudolf, Ali Al Ameri) do little more than furrow their brows. The movie exists for its splendid vistas and the final horse race. These elements do justify "Stallion", but if the Mouse wants to pursue Imax features, much more dramatic meat will have to go into the storytelling.

Young Tamini, who has ridden horses virtually all her life, makes a credible heroine even though little is asked of her as an actress. The other actors are stranded by the weak dramatic material.

Production designer Paul Peters and costume designer Jo Katsaras give the film a Moroccan feel. William Ross' score also is a plus, though it contains more than a hint of Maurice Jarre's musical themes from "Lawrence of Arabia".

THE YOUNG BLACK STALLION

Buena Vista Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures

Credits:

Director: Simon Wincer

Screenwriter: Jeanne Rosenberg

Based on the book by: Walter Farley and Steven Farley

Producers: Fred Roos, Frank Marshall

Executive producers: Jeanne Rosenberg, Kathleen Kennedy

Director of photography: Reed Smoot

Production designer: Paul Peters

Music: William Ross

Costume designer: Jo Katsaras

Editors: Bud Smith, Terry Blythe

Cast:

Neera: Biana G. Tamimi

Ben Ishak: Richard Romanus

Aden: Patrick Elyas

Rhamon: Gerard Rudolf

Mansoor: Ali Al Ameri

Kadir: Andries Rossouw

MPAA rating: G

Running time -- 51 minutesG-13>Emma: Dina Waters

Michael: Marc John Jefferies

Megan: Aree Davis

Running time -- 88 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...

PARIS -- Warner Bros. France-backed production banner 2003 Prods. will co-produce Josiane Balasko's L'ex femme de ma vie (The Ex-Wife of My Life), Warners France and 2003 Prods. chief Francis Boespflug said. The €8.2 million ($10.5 million) project, announced Friday, will be co-produced by Balasko's Josy Films and French producer Louis Becker's Ice3, which he owns with actor Thierry Lhermitte (Le Divorce). Lhermitte, who starred in the 1989 play directed by Balasko, also will star in the film adaptation. French actress Karin Viard (Delicatessen) will take the role of a woman who steals her way back into her ex-husband's heart six years after they split up. Warner France, which holds a 32% stake in 2003 Prods., also will distribute the film, which begins shooting this month in France.

Gaumont Buena Vista International

PARIS -- "Les Ripoux3" is the latest in a series of films that director Claude Zidi began shooting back in the early 1980s. The first two films were a great success in France, but it's difficult to see how this one, which amounts to an old-fashioned cop film, will appeal to anyone other than hard-core fans.

Philippe Noiret picks up his role as Rene Boirond, a corrupt, retired police officer who spends his days betting on horses and avoiding creditors. His former partner Francois (Thierry Lhermitte)' has been promoted to head of the anti-crime squad in Paris. The two ex-colleagues have not seen each other for years until Rene becomes involved with the Chinese mafia under surveillance by Francois' squad. The two are now on opposite sides of the fence, and Francois must choose between helping his old friend out of a tight spot or remaining on the right side of the law.

What starts as a simple story is muddied by a string of subplots and secondary characters. Mistaken identity, a long-lost daughter and a drawn-out bank heist stretch the action too thinly. The main characters never have the chance to dig into their roles as the film flicks from one scene to another. This is a real loss as the relationship between Rene and Francois is the true heart of the film. Instead, the plot laboriously twists and turns, and the comedy wrung from the first two movies is sadly lacking here.

Noiret is a highly credible as the lovable rogue Rene. He shuffles and shambles through the action scenes, throwing in the odd wry comment where needed. L'Hermitte is excellent as the uptight Francois, who seems lost without his inscrutable partner of years gone by.the end of World War II, a young girl named Neera (Biana G. Tamimi) gets separated from her caravan when it is set upon by raiders. (Who these raiders are and what happens to the rest of the caravan are never explained.) The same raiding party then goes after a mare and her newborn colt. The colt escapes and is discovered wandering alone in the desert by Neera.

She names the horse Shetan, and without too much difficulty the two "orphans" somehow find their way to the casbah of Neera's grandfather (Richard Romanus). How do they find their way? What do they eat? How is Neera able to make a fire? The filmmakers show no interest in the story of their survival.

Once Neera reaches her grandfather's place, Shetan runs off only to return a year later as a magnificent stallion. Without even a moment to break in the stallion, Neera simply climbs on Shetan's back and gallops off. Within a matter of minutes and against her grandfather's wishes, she enters Shetan into a desert horse race against several powerful mares that furnishes the movie's climax.

As one can see from this synopsis, characters and story are woefully thin. Even the villains (Gerard Rudolf, Ali Al Ameri) do little more than furrow their brows. The movie exists for its splendid vistas and the final horse race. These elements do justify "Stallion", but if the Mouse wants to pursue Imax features, much more dramatic meat will have to go into the storytelling.

Young Tamini, who has ridden horses virtually all her life, makes a credible heroine even though little is asked of her as an actress. The other actors are stranded by the weak dramatic material.

Production designer Paul Peters and costume designer Jo Katsaras give the film a Moroccan feel. William Ross' score also is a plus, though it contains more than a hint of Maurice Jarre's musical themes from "Lawrence of Arabia".

THE YOUNG BLACK STALLION

Buena Vista Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures

Credits:

Director: Simon Wincer

Screenwriter: Jeanne Rosenberg

Based on the book by: Walter Farley and Steven Farley

Producers: Fred Roos, Frank Marshall

Executive producers: Jeanne Rosenberg, Kathleen Kennedy

Director of photography: Reed Smoot

Production designer: Paul Peters

Music: William Ross

Costume designer: Jo Katsaras

Editors: Bud Smith, Terry Blythe

Cast:

Neera: Biana G. Tamimi

Ben Ishak: Richard Romanus

Aden: Patrick Elyas

Rhamon: Gerard Rudolf

Mansoor: Ali Al Ameri

Kadir: Andries Rossouw

MPAA rating: G

Running time -- 51 minutesG-13>Emma: Dina Waters

Michael: Marc John Jefferies

Megan: Aree Davis

Running time -- 88 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...

Opens

Friday, August 8

"Le Divorce", which means "Divorce -- French Style", is easily the most playful film ever by director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant. This sophisticated comedy of manners revolves around distinctly different cultural attitudes held by Americans and the French. It's a modern-day variant of those period pieces from Merchant Ivory, in which people find themselves in conflict with the mores and manners of a foreign country, losing one's innocence and gaining a worldly view. But the screenplay by Ivory and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala approaches the material with the lightest of touches. The movie can even accommodate a suicide attempt and two murders without any fuss.

This relaxed and unabashed comedy will certainly go down well with Merchant Ivory fans and may possibly break out of art house venues to entertain mainstream adult moviegoers. While not the "high art" of their best films -- say, "A Room With a View", "Howards End" and "The Remains of the Day" -- "Le Divorce" is utterly charming and not without those subtle insights into character and culture that mark their best films.

Some will accuse "Le Divorce" of trafficking in French and American stereotypes -- and not without justification. But the many characters drafted from Diane Johnson's best-selling novel are more recognizable types, ruthlessly accurate in tone and substance, acutely observed yet without condescension or derision.

The main focus is on two sisters from California. Roxeanne (Naomi Watts), a poet, is married to Charles-Henri (Melvil Poupaud), the ne'er-do-well son of a bourgeois French family, already with one daughter and another baby on the way. Her sister Isabel (Kate Hudson), looking for adventure, arrives in Paris just as Charles-Henri walks out.

While Roxy deals with the emotional devastation of her husband's betrayal and French divorce proceedings, Isabel acquires three things: a job, sorting the papers of a celebrated American author, Olivia Pace (Glenn Close)

a young lover (Romain Duris) dedicated to leftist causes

and a much older lover in Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte), a married diplomat who just happens to be -- quel scandale -- the uncle of Roxy's philandering husband. The affair offends family matriarch Suzanne de Persand (Leslie Caron), a rationalist who marshals family forces to deal with this threat.

Complicating the division of property between the estranged couple is a painting Roxy lugged all the way from her family's Santa Barbara home that turns out to be worth a fortune. This brings out the art experts -- oh-so-nimbly played by Bebe Neuwirth and Stephen Fry.

Then Roxy's half-hearted suicide attempt brings out her family -- her perpetually sunny dad (Sam Waterston), suspicious though easily distracted mom (Stockard Channing) and annoyingly efficient brother (Thomas Lennon). Did we mention Roxy's stalker, an entertainment lawyer (Matthew Modine) who is the distraught husband of the woman shacked up with Charles-Henri?

The acting is every bit as good as one would imagine from such a cast in a Merchant Ivory film. Hudson as an American eager to lose her innocence anchors the comedy. But it is Watts who is mesmerizing, conveying all the conflicting emotions of a woman betrayed -- the anger, grief, frustration and loneliness of one who suddenly discovers she really does live in a foreign country. Two characters defy their interpretors, though. Poupaud's philandering husband is simply a lout, and Modine's character belongs in a different movie.

There is also one crucial, very funny prop: a red crocodile Kelly bag from Hermes of Paris (cost approximately $18,000), gifted to Isabel by Edgar as a precursor to their affair. It's a dead giveaway to everyone in the family exactly what is going on and even to Olivia, who received her own Kelly bag from Edgar years before. Nevertheless, Isabel takes it everywhere, even when inappropriate.

The below-the-line team has done an expert job of situating the sly comedy in a very comfortable, lived-in Paris of funky apartments, a graceful country manor, neat bookstores, cozy bistros and gourmet restaurants. "Le Divorce" is le fun.

LE DIVORCE

Fox Searchlight

A Merchant Ivory/Radar Pictures production

Credits:

Director: James Ivory

Screenwriters: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, James Ivory

Based on the novel by: Diane Johnson

Producers: Ismail Merchant, Michael Schiffer

Executive producers: Ted Field, Scott Kroopf, Erica Huggins

Director of photography: Pierre Lhomme

Production designer: Frederic Benard

Music: Richard Robbins

Co-producers: Paul Bradley, Richard Hawley

Costume designer: Carol Ramsey

Editor: John David Allen

Cast:

Isabel Walker: Kate Hudson

Roxeanne: Naomi Watts

Edgar Cosset: Thierry Lhermitte

Suzanne de Persand: Leslie Caron

Olivia Pace: Glenn Close

Margeeve Walker: Stockard Channing

Chester Walker: Sam Waterston

Roger Walker: Thomas Lennon

Running time -- 118 minutes

MPAA rating: PG-13...

President Films

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Even if you didn't live in Paris in the swinging '60s, Francois Armanet's film (with its English title inexplicably adapted from "La Bande du drugstore") is likely to make you nostalgic for the freewheeling era with its elaborate fashions and terrific pop music. "Dandy", a tale of love and ennui among a quartet of attractive (needless to say) French teens, is the sort of mature and sophisticated treatment of teen amour that American audiences can only dream about seeing. The film was recently unveiled at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.

Set in the more innocent Parisian days before the 1968 political turmoil, the film depicts the complicated relationships among the sharply dressed but less than confident Philippe Mathieu Simonet), his aggressive best friend Marc (Aurelien Wilk), their sexually assured pal Nathalie (Alice Taglioni) and her friend Charlotte (Cecile Cassel). When Nathalie introduces Philippe to Charlotte at a party, he falls head over heels for her but is unable to make things happen despite her obvious encouragement. Eventually, Nathalie takes matters into her own hands and provides Philippe with some sexual lessons, though she's more interested in Charlotte's handsome divorced father (Thierry Lhermitte).

The episodic tale is best appreciated for its finely observed characterizations and its truthful portrait of the emotional and physical bumbling that results from teens trying to cope with their sexual and emotional needs. Alternately poignant and hilarious, sexy and moving, Armanet's screenplay, based on his novel, is filled with details, and his precise direction realizes them fully. The four lead performers seem utterly authentic in their roles, and the period re-creation contains the sort of small but important physical elements that add greatly to the fun. And it's all done to a fabulous '60s-era soundtrack featuring classic cuts by the likes of Otis Redding, the Animals, Aretha Franklin and many others.

In the '70s and early '80s there appeared one classic French farce after another, including such crowd-pleasing hits as "Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe," "A Pain in the A--", "Les Fugitives", "Les Comperes" and of course, "La Cage Aux Folles". What all those films had in common was Francis Veber, either as director or writer or both, and his newest offering, "The Dinner Game", is a marvelous return to form.

If the picture, to be released this spring by Lions Gate, doesn't hit the commercial heights of his previous efforts, it will only be because the glory days of French comedies have long passed. The film was recently showcased at the Miami Film Festival, where it was a great success if the nonstop audience laughter was any indication.

"The Dinner Game" uses the classic formula employed by Veber many times in which an unlikely pair of protagonists are thrown together to great comic effect. The duo here is comprised of Pierre (Thierry Lhermitte), a handsome and successful publishing executive with a great apartment featuring a striking view of the Eiffel Tower, a beautiful wife and enough yuppie accoutrements to fill an issue of Vanity Fair; and Pignon (Jacques Villeret), a buffoonish, short, stocky accountant working for the Financial Ministry whose hobby is recreating historical monuments with matchsticks.

Pierre also has a hobby, a rather cruel pastime in which he and his friends get together for parties and engage in a competition in which they try to procure the most idiotic dinner guest imaginable; the one who produces the most laughable contestant is the victor, and the hapless guests have no idea that they are being displayed as objects of humiliation. With Pignon, Pierre feels confident that he has found a real winner.

Unfortunately, they never get to the dinner. Pierre throws out his back and winds up trapped in his apartment, with Pignon at his side. In short order, Pignon, whose actions always seems to produce disastrous circumstances, virtually wrecks his new friend's life, destroying his relationship with his wife, inviting an audit from a rapacious fellow tax inspector and reducing Pierre to a physical and emotional wreck.

This systematic destruction is hilariously rendered in Veber's farce, which reveals its stage origins by its virtual confinement to one setting. Although the dialogue is always witty, what truly produces the laughter are the uproarious characterizations and the expert performances by the two leads. Villeret has the meatier role, and runs with it; his Pignon is a brilliant comic creation who is as endearing as he is silly. Lhermitte, though he mostly plays straight man to his outrageous co-star, is no less skillful, garnering huge laughs with a series of perfectly calibrated slow burns.

As the bulldog tax auditor who turns out to have problems of his own, Daniel Prevost nearly steals the film. Among the film's comic highlights are a dialogue centering on the first name "Just" that plays like a hilarious variation on the classic "Who's on First?" routine, and an adorable, animated opening credit sequence.

Although the material is strictly lightweight and trivial, "The Dinner Game" is a wonderfully entertaining and briskly paced comedy that comes as a blessed relief from the angst displayed in so many recent French imports. As with many of its creator's previous hits, the remake rights will no doubt be snatched up by a Hollywood studio, followed by the inevitable charmless American version.

THE DINNER GAME

Lions Gate Films

Director-writer: Francis Veber

Producers: Gaumont International, Alain Poire

Co-Producers: EFVE, TFI Films Prods., with the participation of TPS Cinema

Director of photography: Luciano Tovoli

Editor: Georges Klotz

Sets: Hugues Tissandier

Color/stereo

Cast:

Francois Pignon: Jacques Villeret

Pierre Brochant: Thierry Lhermitte

Just Leblanc: Francis Huster

Cheval: Daniel Prevost

Christine: Alexandra Vandernoot

Marlene: Catherine Frot

Running time -- 90 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Cultures collide in this savvy Tim Allen starrer about a hyperactive commodities trader and the 13-year-old son he discovers he has fathered in the Amazon. Look for some decided improvement on the boxoffice for this Buena Vista family pleaser.

Enhancing this prospect's chances are the attractive comedic cast members, including Lolita Davidovich, JoBeth Williams and Martin Short.

Even by a big-time broker's standards, Michael's (Allen) life is complicated: He's engaged to Charlotte (Davidovich), while attempting to finalize his divorce with his ex (Williams), who, naturally, lives in the Amazon. Michael is surprised by the fact he has a child there, the winsome Mimi-Siku (Sam Huntington), whose tribal bents are a befuddlement to his surprise dad. Laying their yarn with a cultural anthropologist's insight and juicing it with slapstick, screenwriters Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon have concocted a pleasing delight. There is plenty of squirrely humor in the scenario, and the characters are very sympathetic, particularly Allen's, whose decent hyperactivity is a visual highlight.

Special praise also to Short for his performance as Michael's antic partner. Similarly, Davidovich is aptly alluring as Michael's fiancee, while Williams is properly independent as Michael's heady ex-wife. Huntington will likely lure young female appeal for his perky performance as the jungle boy.

Director John Pasquin infuses the hilarity with an apt mix of tenderness and wackiness. The technical contributions are well-suited all across the board, particularly cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts' glowing hues and costume designer Carol Ramsey's wacky duds. Similar kudos for composer Michael Convertino's spirited, splashy score.

JUNGLE 2 JUNGLE

Buena Vista

Walt Disney Pictures

and TFI International present

Producer Brian Reilly

Director John Pasquin

Screenwriters Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon

Based on "Un Indien Dans La Ville" by

Herve Palud, Thierry Lhermitte, Igor Aptekman, Philippe Bruneau de la Salle

Executive producers Rick Baker, Rick Messina, Brad Krevoy

Co-producer William W. Wilson III

Associate producers Thierry Lhermitte,

Louis Becker

Director of photography Tony Pierce-Roberts

Production designer Stuart Wurtzel

Editor Michael A. Stevenson

Costume designer Carol Ramsey

Music Michael Convertino

Casting Renee Rousselot

Associate producers Kimberly Brent,

Bruce Economou

Sound mixer Allan Byer

Color/stereo

Cast:

Michael Tim Allen

Mimi-Siku Sam Huntington

Patricia JoBeth Williams

Charlotte Lolita Davidovich

Richard Martin Short

Jan Valerie Mahaffey

Karen LeeLee Sobiesky

Andrew Franki Galasso

Running time -- 111 minutes

MPAA rating: PG...