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Exclusive: Bardot, the TV drama about the life of actress Brigitte Bardot, is headed Stateside.

The six-part series be presented in its entirety on the closing night of The American French Film Festival (Tafff) and will be competing in the fest’s Best Series Award category. Co-creator Danièle Thompson will attend the screening.

The Federation Studios drama is billed as “a post-wwii Pygmalion story” in which the young Bardot ignites a sexual revolution in France, only to struggle with her role in that and the cult of celebrity that surrounds her.It traces her life the in 1950s from her first audition aged 15 to her explosive international breakout film, God Created Woman to her performance in Henri-Georges Cluzot’s Truth in 1960.

Julia de Nunez plays Bardot, with Vincent Belmondo playing her first husband, writer/director Roger Vadim. Hippolyte Girardot and Géraldine Paihas also star.

Federation produces and distributes the series,...

While she retired prematurely at the age of 39, Brigitte Bardot has left an indelible mark on France’s popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s. With her wild blonde mane, smoky eyes and pouty lips, Bardot became a symbol of a modern, effortlessly sexy French woman and a style emblem that continues to inspire current trends.

The event series “Bardot,” which is penned and directed by Daniele Thompson (“The Queen Margot”) and Christopher Thompson (“La bûche”), world premiered at Series Mania Festival to unanimous praise and has been pre-sold by Federation nearly worldwide.

“‘Bardot’ is like the French ‘The Crown’ because Bardot embodied France, and through her journey we reminisce about many parts of France’s history and popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s,” Federation’s boss and “Bardot” producer Pascal Breton told Variety. “That era is a historical moment where everything changes, where we go from black and white to color,...

Hungry for those wet Parisian streets, the city lights, and cadavres en lambeaux in the pale moonlight? Enter three highly atmospheric, star-studded Crime Noirs, one of which is a stealth classic of Gallic Pulp. Stars Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Lino Ventura, Marcel Bozzuffi, Gérard Oury, Sandra Milo, and Annie Girardot bring the tales of à sang froid malice and mayhem to life. The films featured are Gilles Grangier’s Speaking of Murder (Le rouge est mis) and Édouard Molinaro’s Back to the Wall (Le dos au mur) and Witness in the City (Un Témoin dans la ville). Beware of French husbands when cucklolded — they show no pity. Bonne chance, victimes!

French Noir Collection

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1957-59 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen, 1:37 Academy / 265 minutes / Street Date November 29, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 49.95

Starring: Jean Gabin, Jeanne Moreau, Lino Ventura, Marcel Bozzuffi, Gérard Oury, Sandra Milo, Annie Girardot, Paul Frankeur,...

Above: detail from the Argentinian poster for Magnet of Doom. Artist unknown.Jean-Paul Belmondo, the great French movie star who died last week at the age of 88, had a marvelous face. He wasn’t a classic matinee idol like his friend and compatriot Alain Delon but with the combination of his soulful puppy-dog eyes, lopsided boxer’s nose, and luscious feminine lips he could play both hoodlums or heartthrobs (and in Breathless he played both at the same time). A classic tough guy best known outside France for art movies, he was initially synonymous with the angry alienation of the French New Wave and starred in films by Godard, Truffaut, Melville, Malle and Lelouch. But he could play comedy as well as action (he was renowned for doing his own stunts) and was for a while promoted as a French James Bond. By the ’70s and ’80s—when he was...

Already eclipsed by James Bond and sexier European films, Paul Newman does his best to energize this derivative but lively spy-chase thriller set during Nobel season, in a Stockholm populated by the glamorous Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle and Jacqueline Beer. Toss several Hitchcock pictures into a blender, and what comes out is reasonably engaging… and more than a little dated.

The Prize

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1963 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 134 min. / Street Date January 15, 2019 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Paul Newman, Edward G. Robinson, Elke Sommer, Diane Baker, Micheline Presle, Gérard Oury, Sergio Fantoni, Kevin McCarthy, Leo G. Carroll, Sacha Pitoëff, Jacqueline Beer, John Wengraf, Don Dubbin, Virginia Christine, Rudolph Anders, Martine Bartlett, Karl Swenson, John Qualen, John Banner, Teru Shimada, Albert Carrier, Jerry Dunphy, Britt Ekland, Gergory Gaye, Anna Lee, Gregg Palmer, Gene Roth, Ivan Triesault.

Cinematography: William H. Daniels

Film Editor: Adrienne Fazan

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith...

Guillaume Gallienne as the older Cézanne with director Danièle Thompson: 'It was a journey of discovery: I had no idea that Cézanne originally wanted to be a writer and Zola wanted to be a painter' Photo: Unifrance

She has become French cinema “royalty” with an impeccable pedigree. Danièle Thompson’s father Gérard Oury was one of the country’s most successful directors whose wartime frolic La Grande Vadrouille from 1966 scored more than 17 million box office admissions - and she had her first experience of a film set working on the hit comedy. Thompson’s mother was actress Jacqueline Roman - and her father, who died in 2006, later married the iconic Michèle Morgan.

Danièle Thompson: 'The quality of TV today has improved enormously. Look at your Downton Abbey - it is a writer’s dream' Photo: Unifrance Her son Christopher is an actor and director (together they worked on...

It’s been more than 40 years since classic French comedy Les Aventures Du Rabbi Jacob became the No. 1 movie of 1973 — and now it’s getting a sequel. Oscar nominee Danièle Thompson, who wrote the original film with her father Gérard Oury, is teaming with Haut et Court and comics writer Jul to develop follow-up, Rabbi Jacqueline. A release is planned for Christmas 2018. The first film was a phenomenon, selling 7.3M tickets in France and going on to be a staple of TV…...

It’s been more than 40 years since classic French comedy Les Aventures Du Rabbi Jacob became the No. 1 movie of 1973 — and now it’s getting a sequel. Oscar nominee Danièle Thompson, who wrote the original film with her father Gérard Oury, is teaming with Haut et Court and comics writer Jul to develop follow-up, Rabbi Jacqueline. A release is planned for Christmas 2018. The first film was a phenomenon, selling 7.3M tickets in France and going on to be a staple of TV…...

Colcoa French Film Festival, "9 Days of Film Premieres in Hollywood," and its producer, the Franco-American Cultural Fund, have  announced the Focus on a Filmmaker program as well as an exclusive line up of predominantly digitally restored French Classics, presented as World, International or U.S. Premieres. All screenings will take place at the Directors Guild of America.

The Colcoa Classics Series will be shown from Tuesday 19 to Saturday 23 and on Monday April 25 as part of the 20th anniversary program.

Focus on a Filmmaker: Academy Award0 Nominee Jean-Paul Rappeneau

Colcoa will honor Academy Award-nominated writer-director Jean-Paul Rappeneau on Thursday, April 21 with the World Premiere of new digitally restored "A Matter of Resistance"  (1965), starring Catherine Deneuve and Philippe Noiret, as well as the U.S. Premiere of his new film "Families.," which had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall. Rappeneau joins previous honorees, writer-directors Michel Hazanavicius, Cédric Klapisch, Bertrand Blier, Costa Gavras, Florent Siri, Julie Delpy and Alain Resnais, whose key bodies of work have been cited in past festivals.

Jean-Paul Rappeneau will make a rare personal appearance as well as meeting audience members for a Happy Hour Talk panel dedicated to his work. (Colcoa Classics + Panel +Premiere of "Families"). This focus is presented with the support of TF1 International.

International Premiere of Digitally Restored "More"

Writer-director Barbet Schroeder, feted at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, will have a Colcoa-presented International Premiere of his digitally restored masterpiece, "More" (1969), in association with Les Films du Losange and Janus Films. Initially banned in France, Schroeder's debut feature cast the myth of Icarus as a cautionary tale of free love and drug addiction in the shadow of the May '68 Paris, illustrated by an original score by The Pink Floyd. (Colcoa Classics)

45th Anniversary of "Delusions of Grandeur"

The digitally restored version of writer-director Gérard Oury's hit comedy, "Delusions of Grandeur" (1971), will have its U.S. Premiere at the festival. Co-written with his daughter, Danièle Thompson, and Marcel Jullian, this historical spoof of the Victor Hugo play,Ruy Blasfeatures a first -time collaboration of two French giants, Louis de Funès and Yves Montand ."Delusions of Grandeur" will be presented in association with French studio Gaumont (celebrating its own 120th anniversary). (Colcoa Classics)

- International Premeire of Digitally Restored "Marius"

Colcoa will present the digitally restored version of "Marius" (1931), the first part of the famous trilogy taking place in Marseille, created by novelist Marcel Pagnol and writer director Alexander Korda. It stars Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Charpin , Raimu and Orane Demazis. This exclusive presentation in the U.S. is made possible by the Franco American Cultural Fund (Facf), which supported the restoration, La Cinémathèque Française and Les Films Marcel Pagnol. (Colcoa Classics)

- Internatonal Premiere of the Digitally Restored "They Were Five"

A special 80th anniversary screening of digitally restored "They Were Five" (La belle équipe) (1936) will be offered to the Colcoa audience just weeks after its French release. Thus, the festival will pay tribute to writer-director Julien Duvivier (born 120 years ago) who was the first filmmaker to cast two French stars Jean Gabin and Charles Vanel in this classic, popular, social comedy (presented with the support of Pathé International - (Colcoa Classics)

- World Premiere of Digitally Restored Colcoa Hit: "On Guard"  

Romance and revenge are the main ingredients in this sweeping swashbuckler set in a lavish 17th century backdrop. "On Guard,"   which premiered 19 years ago at Colcoa, stars Daniel Auteuil, Philippe Noiret, Fabrice Luchini, three of the multi-star cast and co-written and directed by Philippe de Broca. The festival will present the World Premiere of the restored version for its U.S. release by The Cohen Media Group (Colcoa Classics)

From April 18 to April 26, 2016, filmgoers will celebrate the 20th edition of Colcoa French Film Festival  at the Directors Guild of America.

The full line-up of films in competition for the Colcoa Cinema and Television Awards, will be announced before March 29 .

Guillaume Canet as Zola and Guillaume Gallienne as the artist in Cézanne And Me Photo: Pathé Surrounded by canvases of paintings by Paul Cézanne - from his still life works such as Apples and Oranges to the Bathers - there could no better setting than to talk up a new film Cézanne And Me (Cézanne Et Moi) than the Musée d’Orsay, the former turn of the century railway station now one of Paris’s most popular galleries housing the most comprehensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works.

Gathered in the gilt and mirrored first-floor restaurant the buyers, distributors and media in the city for the 18th Rendezvous with French Cinema (organised by the promotional body UniFrance) saw early scenes from the film by director Danièle Thompson, which is now in post-production and slated for a French release in mid-September preceded by a likely international launch at the Toronto International Film Festival the same month.

Danièle Delorme and Jean Gabin in 'Deadlier Than the Male.' Danièle Delorme movies (See previous post: “Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 Actress Became Rare Woman Director's Muse.”) “Every actor would like to make a movie with Charles Chaplin or René Clair,” Danièle Delorme explains in the filmed interview (ca. 1960) embedded further below, adding that oftentimes it wasn't up to them to decide with whom they would get to work. Yet, although frequently beyond her control, Delorme managed to collaborate with a number of major (mostly French) filmmakers throughout her six-decade movie career. Aside from her Jacqueline Audry films discussed in the previous Danièle Delorme article, below are a few of her most notable efforts – usually playing naive-looking young women of modest means and deceptively inconspicuous sexuality, whose inner character may or may not match their external appearance. Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (“Open for Inventory Causes,” 1946), an unreleased, no-budget comedy notable...

Sean Penn: Honorary César goes Hollywood – again (photo: Sean Penn in '21 Grams') Sean Penn, 54, will receive the 2015 Honorary César (César d'Honneur), the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts has announced. That means the French Academy's powers-that-be are once again trying to make the Prix César ceremony relevant to the American media. Their tactic is to hand out the career award to a widely known and relatively young – i.e., media friendly – Hollywood celebrity. (Scroll down for more such examples.) In the words of the French Academy, Honorary César 2015 recipient Sean Penn is a "living legend" and "a stand-alone icon in American cinema." It has also hailed the two-time Best Actor Oscar winner as a "mythical actor, a politically active personality and an exceptional director." Penn will be honored at the César Awards ceremony on Feb. 20, 2015. Sean Penn movies Sean Penn movies range from the teen comedy...

Marie Dubois, actress in French New Wave films, dead at 77 (image: Marie Dubois in the mammoth blockbuster 'La Grande Vadrouille') Actress Marie Dubois, a popular French New Wave personality of the '60s and the leading lady in one of France's biggest box-office hits in history, died Wednesday, October 15, 2014, at a nursing home in Lescar, a suburb of the southwestern French town of Pau, not far from the Spanish border. Dubois, who had been living in the Pau area since 2010, was 77. For decades she had been battling multiple sclerosis, which later in life had her confined to a wheelchair. Born Claudine Huzé (Claudine Lucie Pauline Huzé according to some online sources) on January 12, 1937, in Paris, the blue-eyed, blonde Marie Dubois began her show business career on stage, being featured in plays such as Molière's The Misanthrope and Arthur Miller's The Crucible. François Truffaut discovery: 'Shoot the...

Film-maker behind ground-breaking international smash hit that brought domestic gay relationships to the mainstream

Édouard Molinaro, the French film director behind the pioneering gay farce La Cage aux Folles, has died at the age of 85 from lung failure.

La Cage aux Folles, itself based on a play by Jean Poiret, starred Michel Serrault and Ugo Tognazzi as a long-term gay couple, one of whose children plans to get married to a stuffy politician's daughter. The pair must conceal their relationship when the prospective in-laws come for dinner. The film was released in 1978 to considerable box office success, in the Us as well as Europe, and broke new ground in the mainstream acceptance of a screen portrayal of domestic gay relationship. It was remade in 1990 as The Birdcage with Nathan Lane and Robin Williams in the lead roles.

Molinaro's feature debut was 1958's Back to the Wall, a blackmail yarn starring Jeanne Moreau and Gérard Oury,...

‘La Cage aux Folles’ director Edouard Molinaro, who collaborated with Catherine Deneuve, Jeanne Moreau, Orson Welles, dead at 85 Edouard Molinaro, best known internationally for the late ’70s box office comedy hit La Cage aux Folles, which earned him a Best Director Academy Award nomination, died of lung failure on December 7, 2013, at a Paris hospital. Molinaro was 85. Born on May 31, 1928, in Bordeaux, in southwestern France, to a middle-class family, Molinaro began his six-decade-long film and television career in the mid-’40s, directing narrative and industrial shorts such as Evasion (1946), the Death parable Un monsieur très chic ("A Very Elegant Gentleman," 1948), and Le verbe en chair / The Word in the Flesh (1950), in which a poet realizes that greed is everywhere — including his own heart. At the time, Molinaro also worked as an assistant director, collaborating with, among others, Robert Vernay (the 1954 version of The Count of Monte Cristo, starring Jean Marais) and...

Those Who Love Me Can Catch the Train Wreck: Thompson’s Latest Flat, Overstuffed

Familial relationships and transportation, two favorite themes of writer/director Daniele Thompson, figure heavily in her latest feature, It Happened in Saint Tropez, a breezy situational comedy that suffers from a hokey forced charm, beginning with its misleading English title translation (the original title, Des gens qui s’embrassent should be something along the lines of People Who Embrace). A cousin in tone to something like Anne Fontaine’s 2009 bauble headed The Girl From Monaco, it unfortunately fails to match the effervescent enchantment of some of Thompson’s past titles, like her lovely 2006 film, Avenue Montaigne.

Noga (Lou de Laage) is a young cellist living in New York with her intense musician parents, Irene (Valerie Bonneton) and Zef (Eric Elmosnino). Familial drama rears its head in their isolated universe by the upcoming wedding of Zef’s...

One of the pleasures of digging around for movie posters is coming across great designs for films that have otherwise been forgotten, that have not become part of the pantheon—or even any of its foothills—but which nevertheless are fascinating reminders of areas of cinema history that are usually ignored. The other day I posted a lovely Russian poster on Movie Poster of the Day for an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s White Nights that I wasn’t familiar with but which, I then discovered, was directed by a man described as “the high priest of Stalinist Cinema.” You can read more about that here.

When this terrific poster for Le passe-muraille caught my eye I knew absolutely nothing about the film, and, with the exception of English actress Joan Greenwood (Kind Hearts and Coronets), nearly every name on the poster, from star Bourvil to director Jean Boyer to author Marcel Aymé,...

Marie-France Pisier in Charles Jarrott's The Other Side of Midnight (top); Pisier with Jean-Pierre Léaud in François Truffaut's Love at Twenty segment "Antoine and Colette" (bottom) Marie-France Pisier, best-known internationally as one of François Truffaut's New Wave muses and as the star of the trashy Hollywood melodrama The Other Side of Midnight, was found dead early morning on Easter Sunday, April 24, in the swimming pool of her home in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer in the South of France. Her death apparently occurred late Saturday night or very early Sunday. Pisier was 66. Her body was discovered by her husband, businessman Thierry Funck-Brentano. The cause of death is unknown, but foul play isn't suspected. Pisier was expected to take part at an homage to Jean-Paul Belmondo, with whom she had co-starred in Gérard Oury's L'as des as / The Ace of Aces (1982), at the Cannes Film Festival next month. Pisier (born on...

We are here to continue with news from Cannes. We just learned that The Festival de Cannes will welcome Jean-Paul Belmondo on Tuesday 17 May with a special evening held in his honour. That definitely sounds great, and if anybody deserves to have a special night at this year’s Cannes, it’s Mr. Belmondo, I hope you all agree.

Since the late 1950s, Jean-Paul Belmondo has encapsulated the very best of popular cinema (Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil, Gérard Oury, Georges Lautner, Jacques Deray), ably blending this with the glorious art-house cinema of the ‘60s and ‘70s. (Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch and Alain Resnais, not to mention Vittorio Sica and Alberto Lattuada).

That Man from Rio, Breathless, Pierrot le Fou, Léon Morin,Priest, Mississippi Mermaid, Le Magnifique, Stavisky and Borsalino are just a few examples of his extraordinary range.

Or, as Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux...

The Cannes Film Festival will honor Jean-Paul Belmondo on May 17 with a gala event celebrating the actor's career. French New Wave star Belmondo worked with directors Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil, Gérard Oury, Georges Lautner, Jacques Deray, Jean-Pierre Melville, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch and Alain Resnais, Vittorio Sica, Alberto Lattuada, and - of course - Jean Luc Godard, whose 1960 Breathless helped launch his long career. Among his other credits are That Man from Rio, Pierrot le Fou, Léon Morin, Priest, Mississippi Mermaid, Le Magnifique, Stavisky and Borsalino. See photo gallery and video clips below. “We are delighted," say Cannes's Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux. "His range and personal charisma, the precision of his acting, his cocky wit, the ease with which he carries ...

The Festival de Cannes will welcome Jean-Paul Belmondo on Tuesday 17 May with a special evening held in his honour. “We are delighted that he has agreed to attend this gala evening in celebration of his talent and career. His range and personal charisma, the precision of his acting, his cocky wit, the ease with which he carries himself have made him, along with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon, one of the greatest French actors of all time, a fact to which many films bear ample witness. No doubt the entire panoply of French actors, headed by his Conservatory friends Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Pierre Vernier and Jean-Pierre Marielle, will want to walk up that Cannes staircase to celebrate ‘Bébel’ to the sound of the rapturous applause of his diehard fans,” say Gilles Jacob and Thierry Frémaux. The time has certainly come to celebrate this extraordinarily talented French actor. Since the late 1950s,...

PARIS -- The surprise French hit Orchestra Seats was named late Wednesday as France's bid as best foreign-language film at next year's Oscars. The film, directed by Daniele Thompson and produced by Thelma Films, is a tale that takes place after the curtain falls at the famed Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris. A committee set up by the ministry for culture made the selection. Released by Mars Distribution in February, the comedy drama attracted almost two million admissions in France and grossed nearly €11.5 million ($14.6 million). Daughter of recently deceased filmmaker Gerard Oury, Thompson was previously nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay in 1977 for Cousin, Cousine.

PARIS -- French comedy director and writer Gerard Oury, who helmed La Grande Vadrouille, the biggest-selling movie in French history, died Thursday morning at his home in St Tropez, his daughter, director and writer Daniele Thompson said. He was 87. Starring the comic duo Louis de Funes and Bourvil, La Grande Vadrouille hit screens in 1966, pulling in a staggering 17.2 million admissions, making it the top-selling Gallic movie of all time in France, bested only by Titanic with 21 million ticket sales in 1998. Oury's other credits included Le Corniaud, La Folie des Grandeurs and The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob. Tributes from the world of arts and politics flooded in with French president Jacques Chirac describing Oury as a "master of laughter and magnificent creator of myths." Festival de Cannes honored Oury in 2001 with the Festival Trophy. He will be buried in Paris on Monday.