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Isabelle Huppert sure likes to work. Why else would the person most likely to raise a regal hand were you to page “our greatest living actress,” in between the roles that might earn her that title, take on projects like Thierry Klifa’s perfectly middling “The Richest Woman in the World”? Then again, perhaps it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: This follies-of-the-megawealthy downfall drama, loosely based on the 2010 Bettencourt Affair involving the heiress to the L’Oreal empire, feels simultaneously beneath Huppert and entirely built around her. What pleasures it yields stem exclusively from watching the actress swan around without breaking a sweat in a role tailored to her specifications as precisely as costume designers Jürgen Doering and Laure Villemer’s expensively chic outfits.

Marianne Farrère (Huppert) is roused from her bed by the police raiding her mansion. Confronting the interlopers a few moments later, looking amazing she is powerless to stop them seizing her assets,...

The Richest Woman in the World ushers audiences into the rarefied air of Parisian high society, a realm ostensibly governed by decorum and the quiet accumulation of cosmetic empire fortunes. At the helm of the Windler dynasty stands Marianne Farrere, a matriarch whose vast wealth seems to have purchased an equally expansive boredom. The narrative opens with a familiar gambit: the public image problem.

An interview is arranged, a strategic move designed to sculpt a more palatable, humanized version of this formidable figure for public consumption. From these initial scenes, the film carefully lays the groundwork for a story predicated on the fissures that appear when an external force meets an internally stagnant world, promising a disruption to the meticulously managed facade. The question isn’t if the gilded cage will be rattled, but how.

An Agent of Chaos in Hermès Ties

The narrative engine truly sputters to life with the entrance of Pierre-Alain,...

The Biggest Camel: Klifa Recruits Huppert to Spoof the Bettencourt Affair

Thierry Klifa, who continues to work some of the most notable grand dames of contemporary French cinema, including Nathalie Baye and Catherine Deneuve, courts Isabelle Huppert as the headliner of his latest feature, The Richest Woman in the World (La femme la plus riche du monde). The film is a fictionalized account of Liliane Bettencourt, the L’Oréal heiress who lost control over her fortune when she was deemed unfit to manage it thanks to being swindled by Francois-Marie Banier, a photographer convicted of abuse of weakness in his relationship to Bettencourt (she gifted him nearly one billion dollars).…...

The black market for Cannes parties and screenings is alive and well, according to a list seen by Screendaily.

One of the most expensive offerings is a pair of tickets to Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor The GreatUn Certain Regard premiere and after-party on May 20, which are being touted for $5,495 per person. A photo with Johansson is on offer for an extra $1,995.

The film’s distributor Sony Pictures Classics was unavailable for comment. However a festival spokesperson responded robustly.

“Tickets issued by the Festival de Cannes are free of charge and strictly prohibited from being sold. Any attempt to sell or...

The black market for Cannes parties and screenings is alive and well, according to a list seen by Screendaily.

One of the most expensive offerings is a pair of tickets to Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor The GreatUn Certain Regard premiere and after-party on May 20, which are being touted for $5,495 per person. A photo with Johansson is on offer for an extra $1,995.

The film’s distributor Sony Pictures Classics was unavailable for comment. However a festival spokesperson responded robustly.

“Tickets issued by the Festival de Cannes are free of charge and strictly prohibited from being sold. Any attempt to sell or...

Exclusive: Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman In the World starring Isabelle Huppert as French billionaire Liliane Bettencourt has seduced global distributors ahead of its Out of Competition premiere in Cannes.

Playtime has sold the film to Germany and Austria (Neue Visionen), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Europictures), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films), Israel (New Cinema), Portugal (Pris), Poland (Galapagos), Greece (Rosebud.21), Hungary (Cirko Film), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), and the Baltics (Bestfilm).

The film is loosely inspired by the titular real-life heir to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune whose unlikely friendship with a dandy-writer-photographer in Paris to whom she...

Exclusive: Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman In the World starring Isabelle Huppert as French billionaire Liliane Bettencourt has seduced global distributors ahead of its Out of Competition premiere in Cannes.

Playtime has sold the film to Germany and Austria (Neue Visionen), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Spain (Caramel Films), Italy (Europictures), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films), Israel (New Cinema), Portugal (Pris), Poland (Galapagos), Greece (Rosebud.21), Hungary (Cirko Film), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), and the Baltics (Bestfilm).

The film is loosely inspired by the titular real-life heir to the L’Oreal cosmetics fortune whose unlikely friendship with a dandy-writer-photographer in Paris to whom she...

Exclusive: Leading Belgian distributor O’Brother is to open an outpost in the Netherlands headed by Katrien Remijn, who has worked at companies including Gusto Entertainment, The Searchers, Cinéart, and Bfd, as the Dutch box office continues to outperform the Belgian box office.

Although Benelux rights are acquired together, the two territories are very different and not all films are released in both territories. When they are, distributors tend to collaborate as O’Brother has done with companies including Eye, Cinemien, Amstel Film, Contact Film, and Cherrypickers, creating a long-term relationship with Gusto in 2019.

O’Brother releases around 20-22 films...

Exclusive:Playtime has scored international sales rights to Andrea Di Stefano’s My Tennis Maestro starring Pierfrancesco Favino about a young athlete who bonds with his unconventional coach.

It is produced by Italy’s Indiana Production, Indigo Film and Vision Distribution in collaboration with Memo Film, Sky, and Playtime.

Now in post-production, Vision Distribution will distribute in Italy andUniversal pictures will release in France. Playtime will show first images from the film in Cannes.

The €11m ($12.5m) film follows a 13-year-old tennis hopeful feeling pressure from his father’s weighty expectations who sets off for a training tour and life-changing...

Playtime (“Goodnight Mommy”) is producing and repping international sales on Safy Nebbou’s “Nobody’s Son,” a heart-wrenching adoption drama starring Romain Duris (“The Animal Kingdom”), at the Cannes film market.

Co-produced by Mandarin & Compagnie, the project has been boarded by Sony Pictures International Productions which will handle the release in the U.S., Canada, South America and France. Playtime is handling sales in the rest of the world.

The film, penned by Nebbou, revolves around Thomas and his wife, Mathilda, who finally adopted four-year-old Mapring from Thailand. “But just as their new life begins, Mathilde dies in a tragic accident, leaving Thomas alone with a child he barely knows and never truly wanted. Lost and grieving, he

decides to return to Thailand in search of Mapring’s roots and biological mother—and perhaps, in the process, heal both their fractured hearts,” reads the synopsis.

Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, François Yon at Playtime Production,...

The Cannes Film Festival 2025 line-up reveals the films that likely will be chatted about long through the year. Here’s what’s showing.

Cannes Film Festival has published its official line-up for this year’s event, and we get our first hint at the films that are set to be part of the awards conversation for the coming months. The festival will be screening several interesting films, including the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson in the new filmmaker category.

Screening out of competition will be Spike Lee’s latest offering, Highest 2 Lowest, and Tom Cruise and company are taking Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning to the festival too. This has proved to be a public relations misstep in the past (remember Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny?) but with Mission releasing so soon after the festival, this seems like a savvy move to us.

The full list of films that will be screening at the 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival has been released. The line-up was announced this morning by the Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch at a press conference in Paris. The Hollywood Reporter has shared the program listing for this year’s event. While there are a number of anticipated high-profile titles, a bevy of auteurs will be showcasing their latest, including Kelly Reichardt, who will be returning to the competition with The Mastermind. The film is an art-heist drama and stars Josh O’Connor and John Magaro, which takes place during the Vietnam War.

Joachim Trier, the Norwegian filmmaker who made a splash in 2021 with The Worst Person of the World, returns with the new film Sentimental Value, which features Renate Reinsve. Julia Ducournau, the director of the surreal film, Titane, which got her a Palme d’Or...

The Cannes Film Festival has released the official selection for its 78th edition, featuring a mix of returning auteurs and first-time filmmakers. Scheduled to run from May 13 to 24, this year’s lineup includes world premieres from directors such as Wes Anderson, Julia Ducournau, Ari Aster, and Richard Linklater.

Announced by festival delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch during a press conference in Paris, the lineup spans the main competition, Un Certain Regard, and various sidebars. French actor and Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche will serve as jury president. The rest of the jury remains unannounced.

Among the films selected for competition is Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, debuting shortly before its theatrical release. Ari Aster returns with Eddington, a Western-inflected film distributed by A24. Linklater brings Nouvelle Vague, focused on the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless. Ducournau’s Alpha is set in the 1980s and centers on...

The guessing game around which films could make the lineup for the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 13—24, came to an end this morning at a press conference in Paris by Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch. If you tapped the latest works by Ari Aster (Eddington), Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind), Richard Linklater (Nouvelle Vague), Wes anderson (The Phoenician Scheme), and the Dardenne brothers (Young Mothers) to make the cut, then you were correct.

Neon, which is on a five-year winning streak of Palme d’Or winners, two of which went on to win best picture at the Oscars (Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite and Sean Baker’s Anora), will try to make it a sixth with, for now, either of the two films it already has in its stable: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Julie Ducournau’s Alpha.

Absent from the...

Among the lineup for the Cannes Film Festival’s 78th edition are some big names from Hollywood and global cinema. We already knew that Tom Cruise will light the fuse on Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning on May 14 out of competition, while there was plenty of speculation that Scarlett Johansson would have a pair of movies on the Croisette. The latter has now been confirmed with Johansson’s directorial debut Eleanor the Great set for Un Certain Regard, and her acting reteam with Wes Anderson in his latest, The Phoenician Scheme, in Competition. Also confirmed is Ari Aster’s Eddington with Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone.

Many more stars are potentially in store now that the bulk of the official selection has been revealed. Not everyone is confirmed to attend the Riviera shindig, but here’s a look at some of the possibilities.

Cannes...

Dieciséis años después, el cine español vuelve a duplicar presencia en la Competición Oficial de la Croisette.

© Cannes

Hoy es un día para celebrar. Porque esta mañana se ha desvelado la programación oficial del Festival de Cannes 2025 y, por primera vez desde aquel histórico 2009 –cuando coincidieron Isabel Coixet y Pedro Almodóvar–, dos cineastas españoles competirán por la ansiada Palma de Oro. Ellos son Carla Simón (recordemos que ganó el Oso de Oro en la Berlinale 2022 con Alcarràs) y Oliver Laxe. España vuelve a estar doblemente representada en la Croisette con sus nuevos largometrajes: Romería y Sirat, respectivamente.

Romería, tercer largometraje de Carla Simón, es una obra profundamente personal en la que la directora catalana se sumerge en la memoria de su familia biológica paterna. La historia sigue a Marina (interpretada por la debutante Llúcia Garcia Torras), una joven adoptada que viaja a Vigo para encontrarse por primera con la familia de su padre biológico.

Updated May 8: The Cannes lineup is now complete with four more additions, included below.

Updated April 23: The original April 10 Cannes announcement has been updated to reflect new additions to the lineup.

Updated 10:40 a.m. Et: Cannes has now confirmed that Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” will play out of competition at Cannes. The film was omitted from Thursday morning’s announcement, though Lee shared on Instagram afterward that “Highest 2 Lowest” would be heading to Cannes. We’ve now included the film below.

Earlier: The 2025 Cannes Film Festival lineup was revealed bright and early, starting at 5 a.m. Et on Thursday, April 10 for those following in the States. For those in France, festival director Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch unveiled this year’s crop of films from the main competition to Un Certain Regard and beyond at the more reasonable hour of 11 a.m. local time.

The Cannes Film Festival announced its 2025 lineup on Thursday morning. Several expected contenders are set for world premieres on the French Riviera, including new projects from Scarlett Johansson, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Joachim Trier, and more.

Among the titles that will premiere at Cannes this year are Eleanor the Great, Johansson’s directorial debut with a lead role for June Squibb; Nouvelle Vague, Linklater’s tribute to the French New Wave and the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless; The Mastermind, Reichardt’s latest about an art-world heist with roles for Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, and John Magaro; Splitsville (directed by Michael Angelo Covino), a Neon release with Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona; and Sentimental Value, Triet’s follow-up to The Worst Person in the World with Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, and Elle Fanning in the cast.

Other films of note include Alpha (Cannes winner Julia Ducournau...

The Official Selection for the 78th Cannes Film Festival was revealed Thursday, with 19 movies in Competition. See full lists below.

Familiar names who will launch new works in the Competition include Wes Anderson, who brings his latest flick The Phoenician Scheme; Richard Linklater will launch his Paris-shot Nouvelle Vague; Jochim Trier debuts his latest feature Sentimental Value; and Titane Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau returns with Alpha.

Cannes will open this year with Leave One Day by first-time French filmmaker Amelie Bonnin. Thierry Frémaux said during his presser this morning that it was the first time a debut film has been selected to open the festival. Also hitting the Croisette for the first time is horror auteur Ari Aster, who returns to feature filmmaking with his buzzy A24 feature Eddington.

Related: Thierry Frémaux Talks ‘Mission: Impossible’; Star Presence; Hollywood Introspection & Oscar Track Record

Elsewhere, American filmmaker Kelly Reichardt will...

Ahead of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, taking place May 13 to 24, the lineup has now been unveiled. Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, have revealed the slate this morning.

Highlights include Ari Aster’s Eddington, Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Joachim Trier’s Sentimal Value, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, Carla Simon’s Romeria, and more. In other sections we have Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée, the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson, Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville, Sebastián Lelio’s The Wave, Sylvain Chomet’s The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, and more.

See below.

In Competition

After (Oliver Laxe)

Alpha (Julia Ducournau)

The Eagles of the Republic (Tarik Saleh)

Eddington (Ari Aster)

Dossier 137 (Dominik Moll...

Playtime has boarded French filmmaker Diane Kurys’ C’est Si Bon! about the love story between real life French celebrity couple Yves Montand and Simone Signoret and is launching international sales at EFM.

Roschy Zem and Marina Fois star as the couple who married in 1951 and remained together until her death in 1985, but whose relationship was haunted by Montand’s affair with Marilyn Monroe.

The fiction film about love, passion and betrayal is set against the backdrop of the city’s smoky cafés and bohemian nights.

Pan Européene produced the €7.5m film with Alexandre Films and shot in Paris. It...

Isabelle Huppert has started filming in France as a fictionalised version of billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, the heir to the L’Oreal fortune, on La Femme la Plus Riche du Monde which Playtime has boarded for sales.

Directed by Thierry Klifa, the film is loosely inspired by nonagenarian Bettencourt, who became the subject of a social, financial and political scandal when she gave hundreds of millions of Euros to a young artist which led her daughter to launch an investigation that uncovered political corruption allegations extending to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

The film is being produced by Mathias Rubin’s Recifilms...

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,...

Line-up includes ’Meet The Leroys’ starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and José Garcia.

Newen Connect has added a trio of star-powered French comedies – Meet The Leroys, Here & There and Karaoké – to its slate and the TF1-owned company will kick off sales for the new films at AFM.

Meet The Leroys is written and directed by International Emmy-nominated Florent Bernard (Le Flambeau) and stars Charlotte Gainsbourg and José Garcia in a story of a man facing divorce who attempts to rekindle his wife’s affections by taking her and their teenage children on a road trip down memory lane.

The film is...

Pascal Breton’s Federation Studios has launched an international theatrical sales label, Ginger & Fed, teaming up with former TF1 Studio sales executive Sabine Chemaly’s Ginger Films on the new division.

Chemaly will head up the new group, handling both film acquisitions and international sales, focusing on titles with theatrical potential in various international territories. She will work together with Federation’s sales team of Monica Levy, Guillaume Pommier, Sarah Zarka, Lucile Avezard and Jeromine Ader, as well as the company’s business affairs, servicing and marketing teams.

The first project under the new label will be Survive, a post-apocalyptic thriller from Monkey Pack, the Federation Studios-owned producers of Coralie Fargeat’s 2017 action horror hit Revenge. Frédéric Jardin is directing with Émilie Dequenne (Love Affair(s)) and Andreas Pietschmann (Dark) starring as a couple celebrating their son’s birthday on their boat in the middle of the ocean. But when...

Federation Studios has launched an international theatrical film sales division with Sabine Chemaly.

The label will be called Ginger & Fed and is created in partnership with Chemaly’s recently-formed Ginger Films.

In charge of both film acquisitions and international sales, Chemaly will spearhead Ginger & Fed, whilst working closely with Federation’s sales team – Monica Levy, Guillaume Pommier, Sarah Zarka, Lucile Avezard and Jeromine Ader – along with their business affairs, servicing and marketing team.

Ginger & Fed’s first project will be post-apocalyptic thriller Survive from Federation outfit Robin & Co and M.E.S. Productions. The film, featuring Émilie Dequenne (Love Affair(s), Rosetta) and Andreas Pietschmann (Dark), is directed by Frédéric Jardin and Kmbo will release it theatrically in France. Sales are being co-handled with WTFilms. Two comedies, both released in France by Apollo, will quickly follow the inaugural launch: Rachel’s Game, a police project directed by Thierry Klifa, and Oldies but...

First slate to include Rachel’s Game, Oldies But Goodies, Survive.

Powerhouse Paris-based media group Federation Studios has joined forces with veteran sales executive Sabine Chemaly to launch international film sales company Ginger & Fed.

The new venture, a partnership between Federation and Chemaly’s Ginger Films, will take on acquisitions and international sales for both in-house and third party films.

The feature-focused foray is an extension of Federation’s existing distribution of fiction, documentary and children’s programming and presence in production via global companies like Bonne Pioche, Cheyenne and Monkey Pack (Robin & Co) in France, Vertigo in the UK,...

Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov win the Golden Atlas. The Silver Atlas goes to Marko Skop for Let There Be Light and the Audience Award goes to Federico Bondi’s Dafne. The competition jury of the 20th Arras Film Festival, chaired by French filmmaker Thierry Klifa, has bestowed the Golden Atlas - Grand Jury Prize upon The Father by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov. Already crowned Best Film at Karlovy Vary and screened in Toronto, the third feature from the Bulgarian duo, after The Lesson and Glory, has also won in Arras the Critics’ Award and the Youth Jury Award. Written by the two directors with their usual partner Decho Taralezkov, the tender and hilarious film recounts the misadventures of a son (Ivan Barnev) trying his best to desperately contain the whims of his father (Ivan Savov) following the death of his mother. Produced by Bulgarian company Abraxas and co-produced by.

126 films from 40 countries, including 78 premieres and titles as-yet unreleased in France, will be on the line-up from 8-17 November, accompanied by 156 guests from 16 European nations. The Arras Film Festival, a real springboard for emerging European talents, and a congenial and highly popular event that is much loved by the filmmaking teams thanks to its proximity to Paris, will be celebrating its 20th birthday in grand style from 8-17 November, propped up by a supersize and mouth-watering programme. Nine films as-yet unseen in France will be duking it out for the 2019 Golden Atlas, which will be handed out by a jury chaired by French filmmaker Thierry Klifa. Standing out among them are the world premiere of Negative Numbers by Georgia’s Uta Beria, the European premiere of Carturan by Romania’s Liviu Sandulescu and two international premieres: The Iron Bridge by...

A belabored social thriller where two rich femmes have their lives upended by a pair of down-and-out street thugs, All That Divides Us (Tout nous separe) is one of those movies that often seems too far-fetched to be for real.

And even in its far-fetchedness, there’s precious little that convinces in director Thierry Klifa’s latest collaboration with Catherine Deneuve, who stars as a mother willing to do anything — whether hiding a body, wielding a shotgun or hanging with local gangstas — to save her strung-out daughter from prison. The fact that said daughter is played by Diane Kruger, slumming...

Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve, 68, will be the recipient of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 39th Chaplin Award. The annual fundraising gala benefiting Lincoln Center programs will be held on Monday, April 2, at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. The evening will include films clips and a party. [Full list of Film Society of Lincoln Center (Fslc) Chaplin Award Honorees.] Catherine Deneuve's career spans more than five decades, from André Hunebelle's Les collégiennes / The Schoolgirls (1957), Jacques-Gérard Cornu's L'homme à femmes / Ladies Man (1960), and Michel Fermaud and Jacques Poitrenaud's Les Portes claquent / The Door Slams 1960) to her latest efforts: Christophe Honoré's Les Biens-aimés / The Beloved, shown at last year's Cannes Film Festival; Thierry Klifa's Les Yeux de sa mère / His Mother's Eyes; and Laurent Tirard's upcoming Astérix et Obélix: Au Service de Sa Majesté / Astérix et Obélix: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as Cordelia, the Queen of England, opposite frequent co-star Gérard Depardieu and Edouard Baer.

In addition to the pair of films that were accepted into the Cannes film festival (The Prodigies and Days of Grace), they have Sylvie Testud, Juan Solanas, Quentin Dupieux items in the works. French sales outfit Kinology have got a solid 2012 ahead of them. Cosmopolis by David Cronenberg - Pre-Production His Mother's Eyes (Les Yeux De Sa Mere) by Thierry Klifa - Completed The Prodigies (La Nuit Des Enfants Rois) by Antoine Charreyron - Completed At Gino's (Chez Gino) by Samuel Benchetrit - Completed Days Of Grace (Dias De Gracia) by Everardo Gout - Completed De Force by Frank Henry - Post-Production Dubai Flamingos by Delphine Kreuter - Completed Emergo by Carles Torrens - Post-Production Mon Pere Est Femme De Menage by Saphia Azzeddine - Completed Rebellion (L'ordre Et La Morale) by Mathieu Kassovitz - Completed Small World (Je N'ai Rien OUBLIÉ) by Bruno Chiche - Completed The Art Of Love...

The 15th City of Lights, City of Angels, a festival with both a handy acronym, Col•Coa, and a winning subtitle, "A Week of French Film Premieres in Hollywood," has opened with Philippe Le Guay's Service Entrance and closes on Sunday with Dany Boon's Nothing to Declare. In all, 34 features and 26 shorts will be screened, and we're teaming up with the festival to present five of those shorts for free. All five have been made by students of La fémis in Paris (whose alumni, by the way, include Laurent Cantet, Costa-Gavras, Claire Denis, Louis Malle, Arnaud Desplechin, Claude Miller, François Ozon and Alain Resnais). You can view our offering here.

In Brice Pancot's À cor et à cir (image above), a woman who's just turned her car over is discovered by a man and his son; see the teaser here. In Marion Desseigne-Ravel's Uniform (Les Murs...

PARIS -- Thierry Klifa is a former journalist with Studio magazine with stars in his eyes, and in "The Family Hero" (Le heros de la famille), his second feature, it shows. Half a dozen stellar talents light up this multistranded comedy set in a cabaret, which, though it provides several pleasurable moments, ultimately fails to dazzle.

Name recognition, high production values and a literate script by Klifa and Christopher Thompson -- who visited similar territory in "Orchestra Seats", directed by his mother, Daniele Thompson -- should ensure that the movie finds an audience both at home and abroad. But some might find that the movie adds up to rather less than the sum of its parts.

The death of cabaret owner and drag artist Gabriel(le) Stern (Claude Brasseur) and his decision to leave his establishment, the Perroquet Bleu, not to his protege of the past 40 years, Nicky Guazzini (Gerard Lanvin), but rather to Nicky's children by different mothers, Marianne (Geraldine Pailhas) and Nino (Michael Cohen), leaves all concerned with difficult decisions to make.

The movie's title is doubly ironic in that not only has Nicky been decidedly unheroic in his life but he also has spread his affections widely, and the "family" includes Marianne's mother, Simone Garcia (Miou-Miou), Nino's mother, Alice Mirmont (Catherine Deneuve), and Lea O'Connor (Emmanuelle Beart), the torch singer who is his latest flame.

The fallout over Gabriel's legacy is the occasion for much soul-searching and raking over the characters' back stories. Simone, it emerges, had engaged in a long-standing secret affair with Gabriel. Alice, purportedly Gabriel's press attache, proves to have been the star attraction of the brothel he had been running in a hidden annex at the back of the theater. Marianne's husband is walking out on her because she can't bear children and does not want to adopt. Simone too suddenly finds herself abandoned by her husband.

When Marianne and Nino -- who provides a gay-themed subplot -- announce that they will be selling, Nicky, knowing that he does not really cut the mustard as a stage conjurer, has to face up to the prospect of moving on. Options include moving in with Lea, who has received an attractive offer elsewhere, or emigrating to the U.S. Offering a sardonic but affectionate commentary on his dilemma is Gabriel, who makes occasional posthumous appearances in the manner of the father in the HBO series "Six Feet Under".

With such a thin story line, the movie stands or falls on the interest of the incidental details, of which there are plenty. Indeed, spectators might at first find it hard work keeping tabs on who is related to whom and in what way.

The first-rate cast, which includes Valerie Lemercier as Pamela, the martinet who keeps the mainly Russian troupe in the floor show in line, means that Klifa can hardly fail to maintain a grip on a moviegoer's attention. Further attractions include the sight and sound of Beart singing in her own voice and a comic vignette by Miou-Miou in which Simone falls foul of her former husband's temper during an onstage rehearsal where he is to saw her in half.

THE FAMILY HERO

SBS Films, Edelweiss, France 2 Cinema

Credits:

Director: Thierry Klifa

Screenwriters: Christopher Thompson, Thierry Klifa

Producer: Said ben Said

Director of photography: Pierre Aim

Production designer: Francois Emmanuelli

Music: David Moreau

Costume designer: Catherine Leterrier

Editor: Luc Barnier

Cast:

Nicky Guazzini: Gerard Lanvin

Alice Mirmont: Catherine Deneuve

Lea O'Connor: Emmanuelle Beart

Simone Garcia: Miou-Miou

Marianne Bensalem: Geraldine Pailhas

Nino Bensalem: Michael Cohen

Gabriel(le) Stern: Claude Brasseur

Pamela: Valerie Lemercier

Fabrice: Pierrick Lilliu

Running time -- 100 minutes

No MPAA rating...