News

French-Danish actor, director and writer Niels Arestrup, known for his Cesar-winning performances in Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet, has died at his home outside Paris at the age of 75.

Arestrup’s wife, the actress, screenwriter and author Isabelle Le Nouvel announced her husband’s death on Sunday.

The actor won a record three French Césars across his career with the final one being Bertrand Tavernier’s political satire The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay).

Arestrup was born to French mother, from Brittany, and a Danish father and grew up in humble conditions in Paris. After failing his high-school exams, he did odd jobs and then slowly moved into TV and drama.

In A Prophet, Arestrup played ruthless Corsican mobster César Luciani, who enlists the protagonist Malik (Tahar Rahim), introducing him to a life of crime in return for his protection.

Further highlights of...

Ozon and a stellar cast serve up an entertaining, if shallow caper that shades a little too close to #MeToo

François Ozon has directed plenty of complex, demanding and serious dramas: Everything Went Fine, Summer of 85 and By the Grace of God, along with adaptations of Fassbinder. But he also has a sweet tooth for breezy, silly, crowd-pleasing theatrical comedies like this one. Watching it is like being force-fed a large box of chocolates; moreish, though. There is certainly an amazing blue-chip cast of French movie-acting royalty, including Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini and André Dussollier.

The Crime Is Mine is adapted from a 1934 French stage comedy called Mon Crime by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil which has already spawned two different madcap Hollywood versions in the 30s and 40s, respectively starring Carole Lombard and Betty Hutton. Nadia Tereszkiewicz plays Madeleine, an impecunious would-be stage star, engaged to wealthy young...

Paramount+ and France Télévisions have confirmed their pact on upcoming, working-titled series Zorro starring Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin as the iconic masked vigilante.

The partners revealed a first image of The Artist actor Dujardin in the role in a release and said the show will launch later this year on Paramount+ before being broadcast on France Télévisions.

Paramount+ has also acquired rights for the UK, Italy, Germany and Latin America. France tv distribution is handling sales for all other territories.

News of Dujardin’s and Paramount+’s involvement in the show broke in the French media late last year but today’s release was the partners’ first official confirmation of their co-production and distribution deal.

The new show is set in 1821 and sees Don Diego de la Vega/Zorro become mayor of Los Angeles to improve his beloved city.

However, the city is facing financial trouble due to a local...

Paramount+ has boarded “Zorro” (working title), an adventure comedy series starring Jean Dujardin, the Oscar-winning actor of “The Artist,” as the iconic character of Diego de la Vega.

Created by Benjamin Charbit (“Gagarine”) and Noé Debré (“Dheepan”), the anticipated show was bought by Paramount+ for France, the U.K., Italy, Germany and Latin America.

In the eight-part series, Dujardin stars opposite well-known Italian comedian Salvatore Ficarra, and French actors, including Audrey Dana, André Dussollier, Eric Elmosnino and Grégory Gadebois. The show will premiere on Paramount+ before rolling out on the pubcaster France Télévisions.

The series unfolds in 1821 as Don Diego de la Vega becomes mayor of Los Angeles and has to face off a corrupt businessman, Don Emmanuel.

Marc Dujardin’s Le Collectif 64 and Julien Seul at Bien Sûr Productions are producing the series which is penned by Charbit, Debré and Emmanuel Poulain-Arnaud (“Le Test”). It’s directed by Jean-Baptiste Saurel...

Studiocanal rolled out the red carpet at the Unifrance Paris Rendez-vous this week for actor Gilles Lellouche’s upcoming feature film Beating Hearts (L’Amour Ouf).

First images for the unconventional romance played on the big screen to two packed-out screenings at the swanky Royal Monceau hotel off the Champs-Elysées on Thursday evening.

The modern Romeo and Juliet tale co-stars François Civil, who is currently riding high on the back of his D’Artagnan role in Pathé’s Three Musketeers reboot, and Adèle Exarchopoulos as former childhood sweethearts from different sides of the tracks.

Having gone their separate ways when the boy gets caught up in gang violence and lands in jail on trumped-up murder charges, the pair reconnect against the odds years later.

The picture is adapted from Irish writer Neville Thompson’s 1997 novel Jackie Loves Johnser Ok? unfolding against the backdrop of Dublin’s tough suburb of Ballyfermot in the...

Studiocanal is launching sales on Marjane Satrapi’s dark comedy Dear Paris headlined by Monica Bellucci and Rossy De Palma, Pablo Agüero’s Saint-Exupéry starring Louis Garrel, Diane Kruger and Vincent Cassel, Herve Mimran’s buddy comedy The Scammers and Gilles Lellouche’s anticipated epic love story Beating Hearts at the Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.

Satrapi’s Dear Paris is a love letter to Paris and intertwines the story of Bellucci’s narcissistic Italian opera singer, De Palma’s eccentric elderly Colombian woman, and Ben Aldridge;s British stuntman. Eduardo Noriega, André Dussollier, Alex Lutz and Roschdy Zem co-star...

Ben Aldridge (“Knock at the Cabin”) and Martina Garcia (“The Hidden Face”) have joined the cast of “Dear Paris,” Marjane Satrapi’s (“Persepolis”) ensemble drama which is one Studiocanal’s highlights at this week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous showcase, along with Gilles Lellouche’s sprawling romance thriller “Beating Hearts.”

“Dear Paris” (“Paris Paradis”), produced by Vito Films, is a dark comedy set in the French capital where a flurry of charming characters confront death only to embrace life once again. The film also stars Monica Bellucci as a narcissistic Italian opera singer and Rossy De Palma as an eccentric elderly Colombian woman, as well as Eduardo Noriega, André Dussollier, Alex Lutz, Roschdy Zem and singer-turned-actor Gwendal Marimoutou (“Sam”).

The biggest title on Studiocanal’s roster is “Beating Hearts” (“L’amour ouf”), the highly anticipated epic love story starring François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Mallory Wanecque and Malik Frikah. The unconventional movie, now in post production,...

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,...

Theatricality is the name of the game in The Crime Is Mine — for both the characters and the actors playing them. Even when the subject is murder, penury or thwarted ambition, everyone seems to be having a blast in François Ozon’s latest. Based on a 1934 play and set in the mid-’30s, the comedy opens with the image of a red velvet stage curtain, abounds in exquisite art deco flourishes, and is propelled by a screwball zaniness that arrives as a welcome antidote to awards season’s Serious Cinema Syndrome.

Sending up celebrity, the legal system and a medley of movie tropes, Ozon has spun serious ingredients into a zesty soufflé, albeit one that doesn’t avoid a sense of deflation. Led by two relative newcomers, with colorful support from a who’s who of French movie stars — key among them Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and André Dussollier...

François Ozon’s fizzy comedy The Crime Is Mine, a loose adaptation of Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil’s 1934 play Mon crime, begins with murder, poverty, and a suicide threat. But the film delivers this material with such a bubbly optimism that it wouldn’t be a surprise if the cast broke into a choreographed number from Gold Diggers of 1933.

Set in 1935 Paris, the film follows two best friends fending off criminal charges, eviction, and professional failure. Struggling actress Madeleine (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) flees the casting couch of producer Montferrand (Jean-Christophe Bouvet) only to discover that he was later murdered and that she’s the prime suspect. Her roommate, Pauline (Rebecca Marder), a struggling lawyer, offers to defend her. Given the media’s hyperventilating coverage of other accused female killers, Madeleine figures that a splashy trial could help her and Pauline’s careers. Madeleine then falsely confesses to shooting Montferrand and takes Pauline as her lawyer,...

Music Box Films has acquired the US distribution rights to “The Crime is Mine” (“Mon Crime”). François Ozon directs the comedy of errors starring newcomers Rebecca Marder and Nadia Terezkiewicz, alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon, and André Dussolier.

Music Box is aiming for a theatrical release later this year with a home video release to follow.

The picture, based on George Berr and Louis Verneuil’s 1934 play, concerns a struggling actress (Terezkiewicz) and her roommate (Marder), an unemployed attorney in 1930’s Paris. Madeleine ends up on trial for the murder of a movie producer, while Pauline serves as both defense counsel and media circus ringmaster to both of their mutual benefit. Their post-acquittal life of fame, fortune and glory is eventually undercut by certain revelations.

“The Crime is Mine” marks Music Box Films’ fifth collaboration with director Ozon, following “Potiche,” “Frantz,” “By the Grace of God” and “Summer of 85.

Music Box Films has picked up the U.S. rights to The Crime Is Mine, the post #MeToo comedy from French director François Ozon and which stars Rebecca Marder, Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Isabelle Huppert.

A theatrical release is planned for later this year for the period film, with a home entertainment release to follow, the distributor said in an announcement timed for the start of the Cannes Film Festival.

Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon, and André Dussolier round out the ensemble cast for The Crime is Mine, which follows struggling actress Madeleine, played by Tereszkiewicz, and her best friend and roommate Pauline (Rebecca Marder), an unemployed lawyer in 1930s Paris.

Madeleine secures fame after standing trial for the murder of a lascivious movie producer, with Pauline serving as defense counsel and media circus ringmaster. The Crime is Mine is adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil.

Music Box...

Music Box Films has bought U.S. rights to “The Crime Is Mine” (“Mon Crime”), a period comedy by French helmer François Ozon.

“The Crime Is Mine” stars Rebecca Marder and Nadia Tereszkiewicz, who just won the Cesar Award for female newcomer, alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and André Dussolier. Music Box Films plans a theatrical release for later this year, followed by a home entertainment rollout.

Adapted from a 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, “The Crime Is Mine” follows struggling actress Madeleine (Tereszkiewicz), and her best friend and roommate Pauline (Marder), an unemployed lawyer in 1930s Paris. Madeleine ascends to fame after standing trial for the murder of a movie producer, with Pauline serving as defense counsel and media circus ringmaster. Upon Madeleine’s acquittal, a new life of fame, wealth and tabloid celebrity awaits — until the truth comes out.

The acquisition marks Music Box Films’ fifth collaboration with Ozon,...

Ari Aster, the horror maestro behind Hereditary and Midsommar, is out with Beau Is Afraid on four screens as A24 presents the film in LA (AMC Century City and Burbank) and New York, in Imax on both coasts, followed next week by a regional Imax expansion and into to a wider national rollout April 21.

The film is getting some love from Martin Scorsese, who will join Aster in conversation Monday night after an Imax showing in NYC. Opening weekend will feature Q&As with Aster and cast, which includes Nathan Lane, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan and Parker Posey.

The director has a dedicated fan base, and that’s invaluable in looking to break out with the specialty market still tentative compared with the Super Mario Bros-sized rebound of the broader box office. Presales indicate a strong debut.

Deadline’s review calls...

Editors note: This review was originally published in June 2021 after its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. The film opens in New York on Friday and in Los Angeles on April 21.

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Beautifully upholstered and decked out with a starry cast, Everything Went Fine (Tout S’est Bien Passé) is the sort of comforting, thoroughly mainstream commercial film not often seen in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Although the subject of euthanasia does not normally suggest a good time at the movies, French director François Ozon serves one up anyway with the help of a raft of crafty and appealing veteran actors, lush filmmaking and savvy and deft handling of the central emotional dynamic.

Shortly after family patriarch André (André Dussollier) suffers a debilitating stroke, the 85-year-old insists to his daughter Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau) that he wants to end to it all, on his own terms. He seems something of a borderline case,...

Cohen Media Group has dropped the trailer for Francois Ozon’s drama “Everything Went Fine” ahead of its theatrical release in New York on April 14 and Los Angeles on April 21, followed by a national expansion.

“Everything Went Fine” is based on the autobiographical novel by author Emmanuèle Bernheim who previously collaborated on Ozon’s screenplays for “Under The Sand,” “Swimming Pool” and “Ricky.”

The movie follows 85-year-old art collector André Bernheim (André Dussolier) who, after a debilitating stroke, demands that his daughter Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau), help him end life on his own terms. Faced with a painful decision, Emmanuèle, with the grudging support of her younger sister Pascale (Géraldine Pailhas), begins sorting through the processes and bureaucratic hurdles necessary to fulfill her father’s final wish, as she is forced to reconcile her past with a complicated, stubborn, yet charismatic man.

Here’s the trailer:

“Everything Went Fine” also stars...

Playtime has a raft of EFM deals on the 1930s-set courtroom drama.

Paris-based Playtime has sealed deals in key territories for François Ozon’s starry period drama The Crime Is Mine, featuring breakout actresses Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Rebecca Marder alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, André Dussolier and Dany Boon.

The 1930s-set courtroom drama about an actress on trial for murdering a producer has sold to Gaga for Japan, New Cinema for Israel, Bir Film for Turkey and Hes in Lebanon and the Gulf.

Gaumont will release the film in France on March 8.

“It’s one of the bigger movies of the first semester in France,...

"In any case, you should never leave your vehicle." Studiocanal has revealed an offiical international trailer for a French disaster movie / survival thriller called The Blaze in English, originally known as En plein feu in French. It follows Simon and his father Joseph who embark on a race-against-the-clock to escape a wildfire while stuck in their car. The filmmaker explains: "The idea with Blaze is to create an immersive and sensorial experience where we're feeling a scary and suffocating atmosphere building up." The film was shot in France's tree-covered southwest region where thousands of hectares were destroyed by wildfires recently. The story follows a young man determined to escape with his elderly father from a rapidly approaching wildfire, until they get caught in a traffic jam on the one road out. The film stars popular French actor Alex Lutz, André Dussollier, and Sophie Parel. It will open in France this March,...

After “Peter van Kant,” French director François Ozon goes many shades lighter to revisit gender and power dynamics in “The Crime Is Mine,” a lush ensemble comedy set in 1930s Paris.

Loosely inspired by the 1934 play by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil, the film tells the story of Madeleine, a pretty, young and penniless actress, who is accused of murdering a famous producer. Helped by her best friend Pauline, a jobless lawyer, she is acquitted on the grounds of self-defense and becomes a star, as well as a feminist icon.

“The Crime Is Mine,” produced by Mandarin Cinema, brings together a sprawling cast, led by a pair of up-and-coming actors, Nadia Tereszkiewicz (“Forever Young”) and Rebecca Marder (“Simone”), alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, André Dussolier, Dany Boon and Félix Lefebvre. The movie has been sold by Playtime in many key markets.

Ozon discussed his new film with Variety following its...

“The Crime Is Mine,” the new star-studded film by revered French director Francois Ozon, has been boarded by a raft of major distributors in key markets.

Represented by Playtime, the crowd-pleasing comedy had its world premiere on the opening night of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris and drew laughter throughout the screening, along with a long ovation.

Lushly lensed in an idealized Paris of the 1930s, “The Crime Is Mine” brings together a sprawling cast, led by a pair of up-and-coming actors, Nadia Tereszkiewicz (“Forever Young”) and Rebecca Marder (“Simone”), alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, André Dussolier, Dany Boon and Félix Lefebvre.

“The Crime Is Mine” has been acquired for Canada (Sphere Films), Spain (Caramel), Italy (Bim), Greece (Filmtrade), Germany (Welkino), Austria (Filmladen) Benelux (September Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), Hungary (Vertigo), Baltics, Cis (A-One), Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic), Romania (Independenta Film) and Former Yugoslavia (McF).

Playtime scored these deals after...

Aside from its English-language slate, Studiocanal is continuing to bank on upscale French fare. The company will be launching sales on four new French movies, “All Your Faces,” “Toni,” “Strangers by Night” and “A Chance to Win,” during the Rendez-Vous market that French film and TV promotion org Unifrance is hosting this week in Paris.

“All Your Faces,” Jeanne Herry’s follow up to “Pupille,” stars Gilles Lellouche (“The Stronghold”), Adele Exarchopoulos (“Blue Is the Warmest Color”) and Leila Bekhti (“La Source”). The star-studded drama, produced by two of France’s best-known producers, Chi-Fou-Mi and Tresor Films, revolves around perpetrators and victims of offenses who confront each other under a restorative justice plan.

“Toni,” meanwhile, is directed Nathan Ambrosioni and is headlined by “Call My Agent!” star Camille Cottin. Also produced by Chi-Fou-Mi, “Toni” stars Cottin as a single mother raising her five children and juggling a full-time job. As...

Prolific French director François Ozon has released the first image for his upcoming period drama My Crime and confirmed the presence of rising actresses Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Rebecca Marder in the cast.

Ozon posted the image on his Twitter account and also announced that Gaumont would release the film in France on March 3, 2023.

The release date suggests a potential world premiere at the 73rd Berlinale, running February 16-26 2023.

Ozon’s last film Peter von Kant world premiered there as the opener this year and he also debuted Water On Burning Rocks (2000), 8 Women (2002) Angel (2007), Ricky (2009) and By The Grace Of God (2019) at the festival.

1ère photo de #MonCrime avec #NadiaTereszkiewicz & #RebeccaMarder Rdv le #8mars2023 @Gaumont @MandarinProd pic.twitter.com/BZu4lk7FEW

— François Ozon (@francois_ozon) November 22, 2022

Other cast members in the high-profile ensemble cast include Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon and regular collaborator André Dussollier, according to the website...

“Downton Abbey” actor Hugh Bonneville takes the viewers on a grand tour of the architectural landmarks of Europe in the international version of “The Wonders of Europe” (“L’Europe des Merveilles”), the new documentary series from Studiocanal.

Watching the Acropolis being built before your very eyes or Versailles being enlarged by order of Louis Xiv to become one of the most beautiful palaces in the world with its 73-meter long Hall of Mirrors and sumptuous gardens are just a couple of the time travel trips that Chengyu Prod.’s show takes you on.

Directed by Claire Benhaim, Angèle Berland, Christophe Widemann, Marine Suzzoni and Nicolas Bozino, the new high-end docu-series focusing on European cultural heritage and architecture was unveiled at Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Biarritz, the international market entirely dedicated to French TV programs.

“The Wonders of Europe” is enhanced by French composer Cascadeur’s original music and, for the international version,...

Studiocanal is set to launch Quentin Reynaud’s timely disaster thriller “The Blaze” ahead of its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.

The film reteams Reynaud with popular French actor Alex Lutz, who headlined the director’s feature debut “Final Set.” Lutz stars alongside revered French actor André Dussolier (“Tell No One”).

“The Blaze” follows Simon and his father Joseph who embark on a race-against-the-clock to escape a wildfire.

The first-look image features Simon and Joseph who must leave everything behind to escape their coastal region alongside multiple evacuees who are fighting to survive.

The film was shot in France’s tree-covered southwest region where thousands of hectares were destroyed by wildfires this summer, but Quentin Reynaud told Variety that the movie wrapped shooting a year ago.

“I grew up in this beautiful region and I know every corner of it. It has a very dense landscape with a strong local culture,...

Further new releases include ’Good Luck To You Leo Grande’ and ‘Pleasure’.

Lightyear will be hoping to blast to the top of the UK-Ireland box office this weekend, with Disney releasing the animation at 654 locations.

Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear origin story has had a lukewarm reception from critics, but the Angus MacLane-directed title will hope to capitalise on the enduring influence of the Toy Story franchise. When Toy Story 4 was released in 2019, it broke a record for the highest ever three-day opening for an animated title in the UK, opening in 668 venues, and taking £13.3m.

Chris Evans takes...

In a major casting coup, The Assistant star Julia Garner has beat out Florence Pugh, Alexa Demie, Odessa Young, and more to be offered the role of Madonna in the forthcoming biopic directed by the artist herself, Variety reports. Backed by Universal Pictures, the film will follow the early days of the iconic star.

Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, Dany Boon, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, and André Dussollier are leading the cast of François Ozon’s new feature Madeleine, Cineuropa reports. While the plot hasn’t been officially confirmed, production began last April and it’s reported to be a 1935-set adaptation of Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil’s play Mon crime, following the aftermath of the murder of a Parisian banker and an innocent woman who takes responsibility and life is transformed after being acquitted.

Lastly, Kristin Scott Thomas is in production on her directorial debut The Sea Change and has found a star in Scarlett Johansson.

Isabelle Huppert, Dany Boon, Fabrice Luchini, André Dussollier with young theps Rebecca Marder and Nadia Tereszkiewicz (who is coming from a Cannes Film Fest premiere of a sparkling performance in Les amandiers) are expected to be the main sextet to appear in almost a film per year pace filmmaker François Ozon new project. Production began in the month of April and just concluded. Sales on Madeleine were launched in Cannes but we didn’t get anything in terms of the plot (the Cineuropa folks took an informed guess of what the project might be about) but we do know that Ozon written project is set in the 30’s, would have been shot in Paris, outside Paris and in Belgium.…...

Buckle up. “Black Box” is the kind of smart, taut conspiracy thriller Hollywood used to consistently make, only this one hails from France, which has been beating the American studios at their own game lately in the good-movies-for-grown-ups department. Centered on the eponymous device, recovered from a freak airplane accident, this engaging if slightly overlong film stars Pierre Niney as an obsessive forensic analyst who hears the words “Allahu Akbar!” on a recovered cockpit voice recorder and can’t quite believe his ears.

If the setup sounds a bit like Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out,” that’s hardly a bad thing, except “Black Box” centers on high-altitude hijinks, rather than a Chappaquiddick-like car crash. Opening the movie in mid-air, director Yann Gozlan leaves the crisis mostly up to the imagination, firing our neurons rather than our adrenaline receptors as he dollies backward from the cockpit, through the cabin, all...

Even for the twisty paranoid thriller sub-genre, there is a whole lot going on in Yann Gozlan’s Black Box. Not boring yet not quite enveloping, the film never reaches its boiling point despite plenty of bluster. The story concerns Mathieu (Pierre Niney), a young black box analyst tasked with examining the recorded remains of a tragic plane crash. All 300 passengers died in what appears to be a terrorist attack aboard a brand-new aircraft. The deeper Mathieu digs, the more complicated things, of course, become. This plus a senior colleague (Olivier Rabourdin) who mysteriously disappeared breeds an obsession to discover the truth. A request to quickly clean up the mess from his stalwart supervisor (André Dussollier), alongside some willful ignorance from a friendly airline executive (Sébastien Pouderoux), and additional pressure from Mathieu’s own partner Noemie (Lou de Laâge)––herself responsible for certifying the planes that fly, including the one...

Following its world premiere as the Berlin Film Festival opener, Francois Ozon’s “Peter von Kant” has been acquired by Strand Releasing for U.S. distribution.

Represented in international markets by Playtime, the critically acclaimed movie is inspired by Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s cult film “The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant,” with Denis Menochet playing the tormented filmmaker, opposite Isabelle Adjani, who stars as his muse.

Ozon previously told Variety that the movie was a “universal tale of passion, timely as ever” and “explores the relationships of domination, control and submission in the creative world.”

“Peter von Kant” marks Ozon’s sixth movie that played in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. He won the Silver Bear for his 2018 film, “By the Grace of God,” and “8 Women” 20 years ago. He also debuted “Water Drops on Burning Rocks,” another adaptation of a Fassbinder work, at the festival in 2000.

Playtime...

Sophie Marceau: 'What really attracted me was the way of treating a difficult subject in a completely pragmatic and practical way' Photo: UniFrance For someone who started out as an adolescent teen icon, bursting with life, in La Boum back in the day Sophie Marceau has been spending rather a lot of time recently contemplating death.

She has the perfect excuse: she plays one of two sisters (the other is Géraldine Pailhas) whose 85-year-old father (André Dussollier) ask them to help him to end his life in François Ozon’s Everything Went Fine (Tout c’est bien passé), which is screening at Glasgow Film Festival on March 11 and 12 and, as part of New York's Rendez-vous with French Cinema on March 7.

Ozon was able to persuade Marceau, 55, to return to the big screen after a lengthy absence to join the cast of his adaptation of the autobiographical book by Emmanuèle Bernheim,...

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...

Big Bug

It’s been close to a decade since his last feature The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet premiered, and so the Netflix folks aren’t wasting much time putting Jean-Pierre Jeunet‘s Big Bug out there in 2022. Written by Jeunet and Guillaume Laurant, this stars Elsa Zylberstein, Alban Lenoir, Isabelle Nanty and André Dussollier.

Gist: This unfolds in a quiet residential neighbourhood in 2050 and follows four people whose domestic robots take them hostage during a robot uprising. Locked together, a not-quite-so-blended family, an intrusive neighbour and her enterprising sex-robot are forced to put up with each other in an increasingly hysterical atmosphere.…...

Surprise! Guess who's back with another new film? Netflix has revealed a teaser trailer for Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet's latest film, titled Bigbug or Big Bug. This first look at the new kooky sci-fi comedy is our first reveal of this film, with no other photos out before this. And they're confirmed - it will be streaming on Netflix in February. Not too long of a wait at all! The film involves a group of bickering suburbanites who find themselves stuck together when an android uprising causes their well intentioned household robots to lock them in for their own safety. (Sounds like an amusing sci-fi satire about lockdowns?) The ensemble cast features Elsa Zylberstein, Isabelle Nanty, Stéphane De Groodt, Claude Perron, Youssef Hajdi, Claire Chust, François Levantal, Alban Lenoir, André Dussollier, Marysole Fertard, and Hélie Thonnat. This is just a quick teaser, but I am already sold. I'm always down for Jeunet films!

The awards are voted on by 95 international correspondents from 36 countries.

Xavier Giannoli’s literary adaptation Lost Illusions leads the nominations of the 27th edition of France’s Lumière awards, followed by Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening and Arthur Harari’s Onoda, 10,000 Nights In The Jungle.

The awards, which are voted on by 95 international correspondents hailing from 36 countries this year, are France’s equivalent of the Golden Globes.

Giannoli’s adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s eponymous 19th-century novel, which premiered in competition in Venice this year, was nominated in five categories including best film, director, screenplay, actor...

The dilemmas about the end of life and assisted dying are brought in to soft focus by director François Ozon, who makes what could have been an impossibly painful subject more palatable but nonetheless affecting.

It helps, of course, that he has a thoroughly professional cast who knowingly lead us through the emotional dynamics in a way that spares none of the anguish yet provides sparks of comfort and illuminating perspectives.

André Dussollier perfectly incarnates the curmudgeonly 85-year-old who insists that his daughter Emmanuèle (Sophie Marceau at the top of her game) helps him to end his life after a stroke has left him debilitated. He’s a man who is used to getting his own way … and why at the moment of death change the habits of a lifetime?

The family gather around, among them Emmanuèle’s sister (played by the ever dependable Géraldine Pailhas) and their mother Claude (Charlotte Rampling,...

Ah, François Ozon. He’s like that local artisan whose atelier you walk past and hope that he never retires or shuts up shop despite the fact that you don’t necessarily shop there. For Ozon is a true craftsman, quietly fashioning exquisite pieces that are beautifully made, long lasting and highly polished.

The French director is in Cannes in competition with Tout s’est bien passé, a very French tale focussing on a middle-aged woman Manue (Sophie Marceau) dealing with her aged and difficult parents with the aid of her sister. The story opens with author Manue seated at her desk when she receives a phone call from her sister Pascale (Géraldine Pailhas): their irascible and tyrannical father André (André Dussollier) has had a stroke and is in the hospital. It transpires that dad is a bit of handful and his daughters are in thrall to him, always doing his bidding.

One France’s most prolific contemporary filmmakers, Francois Ozon reliably turns out a film per year, with each outing a zig to the previous year’s zag.

At his last Cannes premiere in 2017, Ozon scandalized the festival audience with his delightful, defiantly trashy thriller “Double Lover,” a film that opened with a kind of mission statement match-cut — cutting from a gynecologists’ view of a vagina to an ophthalmologists’ view of an eye — and only went bolder from there.

After making two more films since then, he returned to the Cannes Film Festival in the Main Competition section this year with “Everything Went Fine,” a subdued and deliberately unflashy euthanasia tale that Cannes audiences greeted with polite applause before shuffling out of the screening unlikely to speak of it with any real passion — and that might be partly by design.

Adapting author Emmanuèle Bernheim’s memoir of the same name, Ozon...

André Dussollier and Sophie Marceau are outstanding as a father and daughter whose tricky relationship is upended when he asks for her help to die

François Ozon has brought a tremendous understated confidence and artistry to this very affecting film about euthanasia and assisted dying. There is a robust unsentimentality here, encapsulated by the throwaway gesture in the title itself, leaving us to decide what it exactly it is in the end which has gone “well”. And the final shot of a dead person, the supremely difficult moment to bring off, is haunting in its lack of emotional affect.

André Dussollier, the veteran French character actor, plays André, a wealthy and socially well-connected retired industrialist. In his late 80s, André suffers a stroke and the vigorous, handsome but cruelly sharp-tongued man that we see in flashback is reduced to a sad state in hospital: his face and right eye sagging.

François Ozon follows his darkly sensual melodrama about queer first love, Summer of 85, with a pivot back to sober dramatic territory in Everything Went Fine, which doubles as a gesture of gratitude toward the late novelist Emmanuèle Bernheim, his script collaborator on Under the Sand, Swimming Pool and 5×2. Taking a refreshingly frank, uncomplicated attitude to its fraught issues, the film stars Sophie Marceau in a compellingly grounded performance as Bernheim, asked to take on a role of tremendous moral and emotional weight by a man with whom she has always had a somewhat thorny relationship and yet finds impossible to deny.

The other actor who elevates the intimate drama is veteran André Dussollier as Emmanuèle’s father, André Bernheim, a cultured art collector whose vitality continues to peek through his distress even after the stroke that leaves him semi-paralyzed. He makes the unbending decision to end his life rather than...

Early in “Everything Went Fine,” ailing 85-year-old André asks — instructs, really — his daughter Emmanuèle to help him end his life. After a brief period of understandable panic, she takes the assignment more or less in stride, give or take the odd cry behind closed bathroom doors. “Why would your father ask this of his daughter?” her bewildered husband asks her in bed one night. “That’s why, because I’m his daughter,” she replies, seemingly amazed he has to ask. Thus does François Ozon’s tender-hearted but cool-headed euthanasia drama effectively divide the world into people who understand this and people who don’t, while remaining sympathetic to all parties.

Adapted from French writer Emmanuèle Bernheim’s memoir of her father’s death, this elegantly written, persuasively performed drama finds the ever-unpredictable Ozon in his plainest, most pragmatic gear as a filmmaker. The results are cinematically low-key, but a tony cast of familiar faces,...

Tout s’est bien pass

Produced by Éric Altmayer and Nicolas Altmayer

Directed by François Ozon

Written by François Ozon

Starring: Sophie Marceau, André Dussollier, Jacques Nolot, Laëtitia Clément

Cinematographer: Hichame Alaouié

Release Date/Prediction: Seeing that this was filmed in late 2020, perhaps they’ll aim for Locarno, or Venice/TIFF/San Sebastian Film Festival.

…...

Wild Bunch TV is set to launch three new series, “Crisis Unit,” “Fragile” and “We Are Now,” at MIPCOM and the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (Mia) in Rome.

Created and directed by Jacob Berger, “Crisis Unit” is a political thriller set in the murky underworld of the humanitarian industry in Yemen. Starring Isabelle Caillat and André Dussollier, it explores the complexity of humanitarian work through the eyes of an inexperienced young woman suddenly thrust into a geopolitical crisis. The series is produced by Tipimages and Entre Chien et Loup for Swiss public broadcaster Radio Télévision Suisse (Rts).

“Fragile” is a crime series created and directed by Serge Boucher, featuring a cast that includes Cesar Award winner Marc-André Grondin and Pier-Luc Funk. It tells the story of two families—the wealthy, influential Bachands and the salt-of-the-earth Coutures—suddenly rocked by a pair of mysterious deaths. “Fragile” is produced by Amalga Productions for Ici.

The cast also includes Lou de Laâge, André Dussollier and Olivier Rabourdin. The film is being produced by 2425 Films and Wy Productions, and sold by StudioCanal. Since 9 September, in the Paris region, Yann Gozlan has been filming Black Box (French title: La Boîte noire), his fourth feature after Caged (2010), A Perfect Man (667 000 tickets sold in France in 2015) and Burn Out (2018). The film reunites the director with Pierre Niney, who was already the lead in A Perfect Man.The film also stars Lou de Laâge (designated Shooting Star 2016 by the European Film Promotion, nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actress in 2014 and in 2015 for Jappeloup and...

For the second-to-last feature Alain Resnais made in the 1980s, Mélo (1986) is arguably his most accessible, set in 1920s Paris and based on a play by Henri Bernstein (which was originally adapted as a 1932 German film). The idiosyncrasies of titles like My American Uncle (1980) and Love Unto Death (1984) are nowhere to be seen in this cramped chamber piece, which would mimic the vibes of his late period adaptations of playwright Alan Ayckbourn. Love as an unpredictable force of nature, however, remains a central favored motif, as acted upon by his usual cast of actors, wife Sabiné Azema and his onscreen stand-in André Dussollier.…...

Alain Resnais’ Melo (1986) will be available on Blu-ray April 9th From Arrow Academy

Master director Alain Resnais (Last Year At Marienbad) blurs the line between cinematic technique and theatrical artifice in his acclaimed Mélo, adapted from Henri Bernstein s classic play about a doomed love triangle in 1920s Paris.

Pierre and Marcel are both celebrated concert violinists and lifelong friends, in spite of their differing temperaments. Pierre is modest, sensitive and content with his lot; Marcel is hungry, driven, and pursues a solo career that takes him to the four corners of the world. After years apart, the two friends reunite when Pierre invites Marcel to his home for dinner. It is then that Marcel first meets Pierre s wife Romaine, sparking a passionate affair that can only end in tragedy before the curtain falls.

As thrillingly intimate on film as it was on the stage, Mélo s César award-winning...

While its execution feels as sophisticated as a bumper sticker slogan, director Lucas Belvaux’s This is Our Land, based on Jérôme Leroy’s book Le Bloc, functions nicely as a contemporary political thriller, respecting its audience’s intelligence enough to avoid an overly sensationalized narrative. It’s a timely story of Pauline (Émilie Dequenne), a nurse used as a pawn in a mayoral election by a controversial politician, played by Catherine Jacob, puppeteering the young woman’s rise to power. Famously, the president of France’s National Front Marine La Pen inspired Jacob’s character. As Pauline transitions into the limelight, even dying her hair blonde to better fit with the party’s brand, she finds her friends, family and patients deeply divided on her newfound political aspirations. While the script could use some touching up, Belvaux’s reserved visual style and strict commitment to tone renders This is...

Christophe Gans’ retrofitted retelling of the classic “Beauty and the Beast” fairy tale opens in appropriate fashion: With a pair of wide-eyed youngsters being read a fable from a distractingly large storybook. That their narrator is played by Lea Seydoux is the first indication that the tale will have a happy ending — after all, she’s telling her own story, that of the warm-hearted beauty Belle and the misunderstood Beast she came to love (and ultimately save). But Gans isn’t especially concerned with the outcome this coupling, instead reveling in overwrought and often bloated storytelling, lush details and some of the year’s most unnerving CGI. In this “Beauty and Beast,” the happy ending can’t come soon enough.

Read More: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Exclusive Clip: Vincent Cassel And Léa Seydoux Fall In Love In New French Adaptation Of Classic Fable

Gans’ script (written alongside Sandra Vo-Anh, in...

Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve’s classic fairy tale “The Beauty and the Beast’ has been adapted to film and television numerous times. There’s Jean Cocteau’s 1946 version, the 1987 CBS TV series starring Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton, and of course, the 1991 animated Disney musical film. While there’s a highly-anticipated live-action Disney adaptation of the fable, starring Emma Watson and Dan Stevens as Belle and Beast respectively, set to be released next year, audiences can check out a different adaptation very soon. Christophe Ganz’s French-language “Beauty and the Beast,” starring Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel, will be ready for theaters this week.

Read More: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Trailer: Vincent Cassel & Léa Seydoux Ignite An Unexpected Romance In The French Adaptation

The film follows the original tale’s story: A widowed, financially-ruined merchant (André Dussollier) is forced to flee into the woods after a debtor threatens to harm...

Shout! Factory Films Highly-anticipated Motion Picture Directed By Christophe Gans Beauty And The Beast (La Belle et la Bête) Starring Vincent Cassel And Léa Seydoux With André Dussollier Opens in Select U.S. Cinemas on September 23, 2016 Directed by Christophe Gans (Silent Hill, The Brotherhood of the Wolf), Beauty And The Beast (La Belle Et …

The post Christophe Gans’ “Beauty and the Beast” (La Belle et la Bete) Opens in select U.S. cinemas Friday, Sept 23 first appeared on Hnn | Horrornews.net - Official News Site...