News

Thicker Than Water (Jusqu’ici tout va bien) is a series directed by Nawell Madani and Simon Jablonka and starring Nawell Madani and Kahina Carina.

A lot of social conflict in this French series that deals (quite a lot) with social conflict and, as a thriller, lets itself get away.

It follows in the wake of French cinema, it is not great technically, but it has many virtues in the development of the characters, which are treated with much respect in a script that respects itself and knows how to get where it wants to go.

Of course, it may be that the place where the script wants to go is not the same place that viewers who want to see a more “pure” thriller would like to see it end up.

About the Series

We did not know her, but write down her name, Nawell Madani, an actress who plays the role to perfection,...

"We're not playing gangsters. We play it smart." Netflix has revealed the official trailer for a new French crime thriller series titled Thicker Than Water, arriving for streaming in early April. A journalist's life devolves into chaos when she shields her brother from the law, inadvertently entangling her family in a drug lord's merciless scheme. Belgian humorist Nawell Madani leads this dramatic crime series, alongside Djebril Zonga and Paola Locatelli. The title, which is a reference to the phrase "blood is thicker than water," defines this series that's about the importance of sisterhood & family. The cast includes Kahina Carina, Carima Amarouche, Aïda Guechoud, Mayane Sarah El Baze, Paul Hamy, Vincent Rottiers, and Walid Afkir. This seems like a legit series, though a bit campy with the drug plot. It has a good setup and a clever cast bringing levity to this drug lord story. Take a look below. // Continue Reading...

Women at War (Les Combattantes) is a French series created by Camille Treiner and Cécile Lorne starring Audrey Fleurot, Julie De Bona, Camille Lou and, Sofia Essaïdi.

TF1 offers this luxury series in French style which is epic and heroic and tells us the story of four women during World War I.

It is a lavish production as far as scenes and atmosphere created in which we delve into chapter by chapter in a first class recreation led by four women who offer us a choral and polyedric point of view of an epoch.

Women at War (2022)

This is a series that artfully combines genres and, which, in the tradition of the genre, gives its all in the editing and composition that rests on a spectacular soundtrack.

A delight that is a French super production now on Netflix and which will ver surely be enjoued by those who like epic...

Jacques Nolot, Sara Forestier to star.

Algerian director Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche is set to shoot crime thriller The Temple Woods Gang this autumn in France, with UK firm Reason8 Films handling worldwide rights.

The film will shoot on location in Paris and its suburbs, plus Bordeaux, Marseille and Nice.

It follows a US private investigator and a retired loner from the Temple Woods housing project who get caught in a conflict between a gang of robbers, and the henchmen of a wealthy prince the gang has attacked.

Jacques Nolot, Sara Forestier, Vincent Rottiers, Slimane Dazi, Olivier Gourmet and Nabil Djedouani lead the cast.

He said a strong “personal and professional relationship” had grown-up between him and Haenel.

French filmmaker Christophe Ruggia has responded to public accusations by actress Adèle Haenel that he molested her over a period of three years, after casting her in his 2001 feature The Devils, when she was 12-years old.

Haenel made the revelations in a bombshell interview which French investigative news site Mediapart, which was posted on November 3.

Ruggia, who was 36-years old when the alleged abuse began, was a respected figure in the French film industry. He issued a written response via his lawyer to the Mediapart news...

Belgium and Senegal-set drama is screening for industry at Flanders Image’s Connext event this week.

Oration Films has sold Koen Mortier’s Angel (Un Ange) to Wayna Pitch for France.

The Belgium-Netherlands co-production is produced by Mortier and Eurydice Gysel for their Belgian production company Czar Film & TV. Co-producers are Belgium’s Anonymes Films, Proximus, Telenet and Canvas; and Graniet Film of the Netherlands.

The film shot in Belgium and Senegal, in the French and Wolof languages.

The film was made with the support of the Flemish Film Fund (Vaf) and the Dutch Film Fund (Nff). The film also...

Two lost souls struggling to reconcile their image meet in Senegal by chance. One’s a prostitute — although she rejects the label and the registration card that’s as much a means to procure wealthy clients as a permanent brand upon her skin. The other is a world-famous cyclist just recovered from a devastating accident that brought unsavory questions to light thanks to the hospital finding cocaine in his blood while there. Desperate to escape the limelight of fame and the spotlight of infamy, he flies to West Africa for a break. Both therefore carry a ton of baggage where their identities are concerned and how the world sees them isn’t how they see themselves. On this fateful night they observe each other with fresh eyes and potential love.

Koen Mortier’s film Angel proves an intriguing mix of fact and fiction. Not only is it adapted from Dimitri Verhulst...

Nocturama Grasshopper Films Director: Bertrand Bonello Written by: Bertrand Bonello Cast: Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani, Manal Issa, Martin Guyot, Jamil McCraven, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laure Valentinelli, Ilias Le Doré, Robin Goldronn, Luis Rego, Hermine Karagheuz, Adèle Haenel. Screened with Critics’ link, NYC, 8/7/17 Opens: August 11, 2017 In his movie two years ago, […]

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

Screen investigates which films from around the world could launch on the Croisette, including on opening night.

With just over a month to go before the line-up for this year’s Cannes Film Festival is unveiled in Paris, Croisette predictions and wish lists are hitting the web thick and fast.

Screen’s network of correspondents and contributors around the world have been putting out feelers to get a sense of what might or might not make it to the Palais du Cinéma or one of the parallel sections.

Just like the Oscars, this year’s festival is likely to unfold amid a politically-charged atmosphere. Beyond Trump and the rise of populism across the globe, France will be digesting the result of its own presidential election on May 7. Against this background, the festival will be feting its 70th edition.

Below, Screen reveals which titles might - and might not - be in the running for a place at the...

At the bar with Nocturama director Bertrand Bonello Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

After being seated next to Django director Étienne Comar and Reda Kateb (who portrays Django Reinhardt) at the uniFrance Locanda Verde lunch, I had a conversation with Bertrand Bonello on his latest film. Nocturama, shot by cinematographer Léo Hinstin, edited by Fabrice Rouaud, costumes by Sonia Philouze with music by Bonello. It has an ensemble cast that includes Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani, Manal Issa, Martin Petit-Guyot, Jamil McCraven, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laure Valentinelli, Ilias Le Doré, Robin Goldbronn, Luis Rego, Hermine Karagheuz, and Adèle Haenel.

Finnegan Oldfield as David in Nocturama Photo: Carole Bethuel

When I spoke last year with Thomas Bidegain on Les Cowboys about actor Finnegan Oldfield, who stars in both his and Bertrand's film, he told me that Nocturama was being edited the day of the Bataclan attack in Paris.

Nocturama, a highlight of...

Toronto International Film Festival continues to add to its already eclectic slate by announcing their Platform line-up today. Beginning last year as a special program to highlight auteur-driven features from around the world, this year’s line-up looks remarkably strong, opening with Bertrand Bonello‘s Paris-set terrorism drama Nocturama.

Also featuring new films from Fien Troch, Zacharias Kunuk, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Ivan Sen, Katell Quillévéré, Khyentse Norbu, Pablo Larraín, William Oldroyd, Mijke de Jong, Barry Jenkins, Mathieu Denis, and Simon Lavoie, check out the line-up below.

Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire) Kiyoshi Kurosawa, France/Japan/Belgium

World Premiere

Kiyoshi Kurosawa makes his first film outside Japan with this French-language ghost romance fantasy, about an aging photographer whose obsession with an archaic technique draws his young assistant and beautiful daughter into a dark and mysterious world. Starring Tahar Rahim, Constance Rousseau, Olivier Gourmet, and Mathieu Amalric. ***

Goldstone Ivan Sen, Australia...

Seven further competition titles have been revealed, including the 18th feature from South Korean director Hong Sang-soo.

Seven titles have joined Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut American Pastoral in this year’s competition line-up at San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 16-24).

Competing for the 2016 Golden Shell will be Hong Sang-soo’s latest feature Yourself And Yours (Dangsinjasingwa Dangsinui Geot). Marking the three-time Palme d’Or nominee’s 18th feature, the film chronicles a male artist and his relationship struggles.

Bertrand Bonello will present his latest feature Nocturama, his first film since 2014’s Palme d’Or nominated biographical drama Saint Laurent. Starring Finnegan Oldfield and Vincent Rottiers, the thriller chronicles the occupation of a Paris department store by a group of teenagers. Wild Bunch will distribute in France.

Also in the line-up is William Oldroyd’s period drama Lady Macbeth, which stars Florence Pugh and 2013 Screen Star of Tomorrow Cosmo Jarvis and was supported through the iFeatures scheme...

Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan), a Sri Lankan refugee working as a housekeeper in France, explains to Brahim (Vincent Rottiers), the drug kingpin of their neighborhood, that in her culture, a smile indicates understanding, expressing pain and happiness equally. The French, she says, think she is making fun of others or confused. The ability to communicate well with people close to you and the outside world is a central privilege identified in Dheepan, a capacity eluding its protagonists. The film is set during the Sri Lankan civil war (1983-2009), and the characters we come to know as Dheepan (Jesuthasan Antonythasan), Yalini, and the young Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby) were killed during the war. Our protagonists are assigned these identities and as a family unit, they emigrate to France. Illayaal is best at finding empathy in their situation, turning her trauma of being bullied at school and alienation at living with two adult strangers...

Is it ever truly possible to escape one’s past? Can you really alter the course of your life and begin again, fresh and brand new? Does despair and violence stick to your soul, much like gum on the bottom of your shoe (the Warrens used this metaphor to great effect in the original Conjuring when talking about demonic presences)? Many films have pondered this questions over the years, everything from Straw Dogs to First Blood to The Unforgiven. This new work adds a few twists to this idea, including culture clashes, and living a lie in order to deceive the authorities. At the story’s center is a desperate stranger in a strange land, a man named Dheepan.

The story begins at an ending, the ending of the bloody civil war in Sri Lanka. After torching a pile of bodies, one tired Tamir fighter takes off his “camo” and...

Perhaps the most surprising omission from the lineup of this year's Cannes Film Festival is Bertrand Bonello's terrorism drama "Nocturama," also known as "Paris Is Happening." Bonello was last on the Croisette two years ago with the biopic "Saint Laurent," having also premiered the arresting "House of Tolerance" there in 2011 and three others prior to that. About a group of teenagers who plant bombs across the City of Lights, "Nocturama's" premise certainly lends itself to controversy. Watch its French trailer (above) and check out its poster (below). Read More: How Bertrand Bonello Did a Fashion Legend Justice With 'Saint Laurent' Among the cross-section of young actors in the cast are Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Manal Issa and Hamza Meziani. Bonello has said that he intentionally cast a diverse ensemble in order to avoid singling out any one group. Avail yourself of the film's official synopsis: "One morning in.

As we head ever closer to this year’s Cannes Film Festival (one of the most intriguing lineups in a handful of years, I will add), the 2015 Cannes lineup feels like a distant memory. However, arguably the festival’s biggest debut, winner of its highest prize the Palme d’Or, is finally arriving in theaters stateside.

Entitled Dheepan, this Tamil-language drama comes from beloved filmmaker Jacques Audiard (A Prophet) and shocked the festival last year by stealing the biggest prize seemingly out of nowhere. The most prestigious of awards on the festival circuit, the Palme d’Or brings with it not just expectations but expectations of greatness that few films have the ability to live up to. But thankfully, decide a problematic final sequence, Audiard’s film does exactly that.

Again, a Tamil-language picture, Dheepan introduces us to a man who will take on the identity of “Dheepan” (played brilliantly...

Dheepan Sundance Selects Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B+ Director: Jacques Audiard Written by: Noé Debré, Thomas Bidegain, Jacques Audiard Cast: Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby, Vincent Rottiers, Marc Zinga Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 4/18/16 Opens: May 6, 2016 Jacques Audiard may not have gone a giant step further with “Dheepan” than he did with the searing “Un prophèt,” which finds a teen French-Arab man trying to find his way in a jail beset with gang violence between Corsicans and Muslims, but he comes close enough. “Dheepan,” which is named for the principal character Dheepan Sivadhasan (Antonythasan Jesuthasan), may deal with the aftermath of a civil war [ Read More ]

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

With an early taste of the upcoming summer movie season arriving with "Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice," and with "X-Men: Apocalypse" and "Captain America: Civil War" yet to come, you might feel the need for a cinematic palate cleanser somewhere in there. Well, how about a Palme d'Or winner? Read More: Cannes Review: Jacques Audiard's 'Dheepan' Is An Excellent, Searing & Compassionate Drama Starring Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby, Vincent Rottiers, and Marc Zinga, Jacques Audiard's Palme d'Or winner tells the story of three Sri Lankans who pose as a family so they can start their lives over in France. However, the horrors of the past aren't soon forgotten, and emerge in some surprising ways as they try to find footing in their new home. Here's the official synopsis:   Dheepan is a Tamil freedom fighter, a Tiger. In Sri Lanka, the Civil War is reaching its end,...

This is the Pure Movies review of Dheepan, directed by Jacques Audiard and starring Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby and Vincent Rottiers. Written by Dr. Garth Twa for Pure Movies. The world is cleaved by End-Of-Times fanaticism and Occupy global optimism, rock concert massacres and 2000-mile walls between countries, economic imperialism and regime-change refugees. We are polarised to a degree that is unprecedented: look no further for evidence than the preposterous ascension of Donald Trump’s clownocracy. Terrorism has changed the Free World irreparably, so much so that the epithet is hardly applicable any more. People are on the move and traditional borders, even the idea of borders, are disintegrating. Do we have a moral obligation to help people whose lives have been shattered or a civic duty to keep them out, you know, just in case? Jacques Audiard’s newest film, Dheepan (winner of the Palm D’Or...

Screen rounds up the films from across the globe that could launch at Cannes…

With less than a month to go until the Cannes Film Festival announces its line-up at its annual Paris press conference on April 14, Screen looks at what could make it into Official Selection and the parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

UK and Ireland

The UK could have one of its strongest Cannes for years with hot favourites for a competition slot including Andrea Arnold’s Shia Labeouf-starring Us road movie American Honey and Ken Loach’s gritty Northern England-set drama I, Daniel Blake. It would be Loach’s 12th time in competition.

Ben Wheatley is also reportedly gunning for an Official Selection slot for his 1970s Boston-set, gangland thriller Free Fire, potentially Out of Competition or in Midnight Screenings. He was last in Cannes with Sightseers in Directors’ Fortnight.

Other UK hopefuls include Stephen Frears’ Florence Foster Jenkins and Indian...

Jacques Audiard has been on an incredible run since 2005's "The Beat That My Heart Skipped," releasing the powerful "A Prophet" in 2009, and following it with "Rust And Bone" in 2012. Last spring, he returned with "Dheepan," the Palme d'Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, and after a lengthy journey on the festival circuit, it's finally coming to stateside cinemas. Read More: Cannes Review: Jacques Audiard's 'Dheepan' Is An Excellent, Searing & Compassionate Drama Starring Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby, Vincent Rottiers, and Marc Zinga, the story follows three refugees from Sri Lanka — a man, woman, and child — who pose as a family to gain entry to France and start a new life. However, they soon discover that life in their new home has its own unique set of threats, setting off series of events that only grow in intensity. Here's the official synopsis: Dheepan...

Paris is Happening

Director: Bertrand Bonello

Writer: Bertrand Bonello

Following the horrific bombings in Paris which occurred in late November, Bertrand Bonello’s latest, Paris is Happening, sounds like risky business, indeed. With a plot concerning youths planting bombs around the City of Lights, the subject matter may hit too close to home for most tastes, though it will also lead to significant anticipation if/when the title is eventually programmed. Bonello has built an impressive filmography, with titles like the Pasolini inspired Tiresia (2003) and 2011’s exquisite House of Pleasure courting equal parts critical praise and derision. He’s yet to score the international attention he deserves, even though his last title was the unauthorized Ysl bio, Saint Laurent (2014).

Cast: Vincent Rottiers, Laure Valentinelli, Jamil McCraven

Production Co.: Pandora Filmproduktion, Rectangle Productions

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic) Wild Bunch (international).

Release Date: Currently in post-production (and with...

Dheepan

Directed by Jacques Audiard

France, 2015

Philadelphia Film Festival

Dheepan (Jesuthasan Antonythasan) is a Tamil fighter. He flees war-torn Sri Lanka with Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby), posing as his wife and daughter. The makeshift family arrives in France and Dheepan finds work as a caretaker for an apartment building that is also a drug front.

Jacques Audiard’s follow-up to Rust and Bone took home the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Dheepan thrives on silence. A nearly wordless opening showing the eponymous character’s tragic departure, the desperate meeting of Dheepan, Yalini, and Illayaal, and the voyage west is particularly effective. Audiard jumps smoothly through time and forces the audience to catch up with only the barest context, producing a beautifully mysterious prologue.

The director gets phenomenal performances from the three leads, who are all essentially non-actors (Antonythasan has one other credit...

Biggest slate to date also includes Planetarium, Money’s Money and Overdrive.

Kinology will launch sales on French director Marc Fitoussi’s coming-of-age tale Trainee Day at the American Film Market (Afm) (Nov 4-11), in what could be one of the busiest markets yet for Gregory Melin’s Paris-based sales company.

Rising actress Jeanne Jestin, who first hit the big screen in Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, plays a teenager who discovers another side to her mother when she takes work experience at her backstabbing office.

Belgian actress Emilie Desquenne, who appeared in Fitoussi’s first feature La Vie d’Artiste, is the mother. Other cast members include director Xavier Beauvois and Sabrina Ouazani.

Fitoussi’s past credits include Copacabana and the Madame Bovary-inspired Folies Bergere, both starring Isabelle Huppert.

Paris-based Kinology will be at the Afm with one its biggest slates to date.

It will also reveal first footage on a number of upcoming films including...

The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.

AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.

World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...

Exclusive: The Visit star Olivia DeJonge has signed to star in Sydney-set home invasion thriller

Paris-based sales agent Versatile has picked up sales on Australian director Chris Peckover’s suburbia-set, home invasion horror-thriller Safe Neighborhood, due to shoot in Sydney early next year.

“The film is not going to be typical for a horror film,” said Versatile co-chief Violaine Pichon, saying Safe Neighborhood will have undertones of It Follows and The Shining.

“There’s a stark contrast between the uncomfortable nature of the second half and its gorgeous, suburban look.”

It marks a second feature for Peckover after his 2010 Undocumented, a suspense thriller centred on a documentary crew shooting a film about illegal migrants along the Us-Mexico border.

Olivia DeJonge, star of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit which opens in the Us on Sept 11, has signed for the film. The rest of the cast has yet to be confirmed.

Other new additions...

A master at capturing the intense emotional turmoil of seemingly ordinary people, the films of director Jacques Audiard ("A Prophet," "Rust And Bone") are not for the faint-hearted. But this year, the jury at Cannes were with him every step of the way, awarding his latest "Dheepan" with the Palme d'Or. And while it lacks English subtitles or dialogue, the first international trailer for the film still conveys the power it packs. Starring Kalieaswari Srinivasan, Claudine Vinasithamby), Vincent Rottiers, and Antonythasan Jesuthasan, the story follows a Tamil freedom fighter who comes to Europe, forms a makeshift family, and claims asylum. However, further violence in the Parisian slums forces him to make a stand. And all told, this looks like another knockout from Audiard, with our critic in Cannes calling the picture, "absolutely terrific." "Dheepan" opens in France on August 26th. Sundance Selects will...

We’ll be better able to assess whether this Jacques Audiard’s seventh feature film was triumphant, faltered or flatlined when more results trickle in, but for the time being this looks to situate itself quality-wise underneath 2009’s Grand Prix winning A Prophet. It got his Cannes debut back in 1994 with Regarde Les Hommes Tomber in the Critics’ Week, saw 1996’s Un héros très discret land him Best Screenplay, and his last showing was for Rust & Bone in 2012. Starring relative unknowns in Antonythasan Jesuthasan, Kalieaswari Srinivasan and Claudine Vinasithamby, (supporting players also include Vincent Rottiers and Marc Zinga), Dheepan has all the earmarks from his other films: the immigrant story, criminal underpinnings, protagonist with odds against them, Paris, a visceral photography and on the tech side: a continued partnership with co-writer Thomas Bidegain. Make sure to click on the chart below for a larger version.

Erran

Director: Jacques Audiard // Writer: Jacques Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré

French auteur Jacques Audiard has enjoyed considerable acclaim with his last two features. 2009’s A Prophet snagged the Jury Prize at Cannes and nine Cesars (including Best Director), while 2012’s Rust and Bone (see production pic above) snagged Marion Cotillard a Golden Globe nod for Best Actress in a Drama and was awarded four Cesars out of its nine nominations. He’s also won Best Screenplay at Cannes in 1996 for A Self Made Hero, while 2005’ s The Beat That My Heart Skipped won Best Director and Film at the Cesars. Needless to say, Audiard is a heavy hitter at home and abroad, and expectations are high for his seventh feature, Erran, which is in production but being kept under wraps. Starring Vincent Rottiers (he was Jean Renoir in Gilles Bourdos’ 2012 Renoir), the film will revolve around a Sri-Lankan Tamil...

★★★☆☆ Renoir (2012), Gilles Bourdos' sumptuous portrait of the French master's final years and his filmmaker son Jean's first creative stirrings, is big on atmosphere but lacks dramatic tension. Father (Michel Bouquet) and son (Vincent Rottiers) fall for the same woman, Andrée Heuschling (Christa Theret), who becomes Jean's wife and the leading actress in his early films. Set on the Cote d'Azur, Renoir opens with Andrée arriving on the elderly artist's doorstep claiming to be his next model. Suffering from advanced arthritis and mourning the recent loss of his wife, Renoir also employs a household of women to look after him.

The women cook and clean, tenderly dress the French artist's ravaged hands, mix his paints and ferry him between house and terrace or from riverbank to orchard. Revitalised by Andrée's sensuality, Renoir starts painting nudes again. By contrast his young son, Coco (Thomas Doret), is largely ignored. He wanders aimlessly...

Last year's best foreign film award went to Michael Haneke's drama Amour

Renoir, a tale of sunshine, oils and decorative nudity, has been selected as France's official submission for next year's best foreign film Oscar. A French-language film took the top prize last year with Michael Haneke's shattering death-bed drama Amour (although it was in fact an entry for Haneke's native Austria). This time around, the French tongue appears to be talking a different language.

Directed by Gilles Bourdos, Renoir is a period biopic set in the French Riviera in 1915 and charting the relationship between the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet), his film-maker son Jean (Vincent Rottiers) and a model (Christa Theret) who becomes a muse for both men. The film played at the 2012 Cannes film festival and became a moderate art-house hit in the Us. But the reviews have been middling. "A syrupy drizzle of prettiness covers this cloying movie,...

The Act Of Killing | This Is The End | Despicable Me 2 | The East | Stories We Tell | Hummingbird | Stand Up Guys | Renoir | I Want Your Love | Night Of Silence | The Battle Of The Sexes | Venus And Serena

The Act Of Killing (15)

(Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012, Den/Nor/UK/Swe/Fin) 122 mins

This astounding documentary is so packed with surreal scenarios, casual corruption and inhumanity, it's difficult to believe it's actually true. It tracks down perpetrators of Indonesia's 60s anti-communist massacres, finding them openly unrepentant about their past atrocities; so much so, they're happy to re-enact them as cinematic scenarios. As well as illuminating modern Indonesia, the process says much about history, its representation and its victors.

This Is The End (15)

(Evan Goldberg, Seth Rogen, 2013, Us) Seth Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill. 107 mins

The apocalypse crashes James Franco's Hollywood house party, resulting in a enjoyably crude comedy that mixes stoner-buddy goofing...

This dramatisation of the painter's relationship with his son, his model and the new art of cinema leaves all the really interesting stuff out

A syrupy drizzle of tasteful prettiness covers this cloying movie about the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) and his film-maker son Jean Renoir (Vincent Rottiers). The dramatic link between them is Andrée (Christa Théret), a beautiful young woman who in 1915 was the elder Renoir's model, and then became Jean's lover: she was to be his collaborator in the emerging art of the cinema, an interesting part of her life that this film does not cover. Sadly, the arts of painting and film are evoked with equal lack of insight or passion; the relationship between father and son is uninspired, as is their relationship with Andrée, who does a lot of pseudo-sensual lounging about in sun-dappled softcore nudity. Bouquet is always a formidable presence on screen...

★★★★☆ Like the revered work of the artist himself, Renoir (2012) - director Giles Bourdos' biopic of the French impressionist, starring Michel Bouquet, Vincent Rottiers and Christa Théret - paints an idyllic picture of a life played out in bohemian decadence, tainted with rhapsodic and turbulent undercurrents. The arrival of the beautiful Andrée (Théret) at the estate of the reclusive artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Bouquet) on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915 has far-reaching effects on all who meet her. Initially employed as a muse to the artist, she quickly becomes unsure of her place within his household's strict hierarchy.

Only with the return of Pierre-Auguste's eldest son Jean (Rottiers), to convalesce after being wounded during the First World War, does Andrée find some form of role in the family as a catalyst between the cantankerous father and his impassioned young son. As with many of Pierre-August's paintings, people are at the core of Bourdos' work,...

“You can’t explain a painting, you have to feel it”, is a line uttered in Gilles Bourdos’s Renoir. Sadly, such a statement isn’t quite as exclusive to cinema, and here is an example of a film that, although certainly alluring and pleasing on the eye, has very little beneath the surface, in desperate need of some patent definition, as this biopic of two of France’s most renowned artistic talents doesn’t quite match up to the innovation and exceptional capabilities that our subjects had in abundance.

What with Renoir and Thérèse Desqueyroux, it seems that French filmmakers are tapping into the current trend of period dramas, that have proved to be so successful across Europe with the likes of Downton Abbey and A Royal Affair. This takes place on the French Riviera across the summer of 1915, at the picturesque abode of ageing Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir...

As the crème de la crème of the film industry begins invading the French Riviera for the 2013 Festival de Cannes, it is quite apropros for a movie about one of the Impressionist masters who spent his last days in the lush French countryside to open this week at the Regal Arbor here in Austin.

Based upon Jacques Renoir's work Le Tableau Amoureux, director and screenwriter Gilles Bourdos' drama Renoir paints a lush vignette of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) at the age of 74. Arthritis wreaks havoc on his body, and his middle son Jean (Vincent Rottiers) is dealing with his own combat wounds from his World War I mobilization.

The pair are both enamored and inspired by Renoir's latest model, the fiery headstrong young Andrée (Christa Theret). Pierre-Auguste's grief over the death of his wife Aline is lightened by Andrée's free-spirited nature and graceful body. Despite...

Chicago – Naming a picture after two of the great artistic minds in human history is quite a high bar to set. Director/co-writer Gilles Bourdos attempts to tell the tale of both impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (Michel Bouquet) and his son, the future filmmaker Jean Renoir (Vincent Rottiers), who would go on to helm controversial masterpieces such as 1939’s “The Rules of the Game.” These are fascinating people, but the script doesn’t even begin to do them justice.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

Taking place in the twilight of Pierre-Auguste’s life circa 1915, Bourdos’s lead-footed vignette upstages its two male subjects with the underdeveloped character of Andrée Heuschling (Christa Theret), a woman who would prove to be the favored muse for both artists. It’s hard to say how Andrée influenced these men, apart from exuding her youthful radiance, and there are times when the line between muse and prostitute becomes hopelessly blurred.

In Renoir, a languorous look at the last days of the storied painter, we get a view of the artist at odds with a blue-haired lady's notion of her favorite impressionist. It's a pivotal moment of Renoir family history, with father and son both taking creative and sexual inspiration from a shared love object: Pierre-Auguste's last model-muse. Future filmmaker Jean Renoir (a vulnerable Vincent Rottiers) is the middle son, recovering from a Wwi wound at the family farm at Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1915. Renoir père (affectingly played by Michel Bouquet) is 74, painfully hobbled by arthritis, and grieving the recent death of his wife. Christa Theret plays Andrée, the vibrant, pretty-in-petulance model who revives his creative, if not other, juices; a startling scene revea...

The Talent Family: Bourdos Abandons Genre for Elegant Biographical Period Piece

A summer signifying the encroaching end of one artist and the birth of another within one of France’s most famous families is the subject of Gilles Bourdos’ latest film, Renoir, based on the biographical novel penned by the great grandson of Auguste Renoir, Jacques (himself a notable cinematographer and photographer). A pastoral portrait that often reaches a resplendence with its moving images that evokes the works of its famed subject, this marks an aggressive change of pace for Bourdos, who has thus far seemed most interested in adapting mystery thrillers for the screen (and to middling effect, at least judging from his 2008 English language debut, Afterwards). Managing to avoid the clichés associated with lofty biopics, this straightforward rendering smartly focuses on a slight passage of time and isn’t driven by any overtly dramatic scenarios.

Set on the...

Title: Renoir Samuel Goldwyn Films Director: Gilles Bourdos Screenwriter: Jerome Tonnerre, Gilles Bourdos, Michel Spinosa, based on the book “Le Tableau armoureux” by Jacques Renoir Cast: Michel Bouquet, Christa Théret, Vincent Rottiers, Thomas Doret, Romane Bohringer Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 3/21/13 Opens: March 29, 2013 A small percentage of the world’s people have a talent so immense that the rest of us may wonder what goes on in their personal lives to shape their avocations. Many in this elite circle may have unexceptional lives not worthy of the interest of a biographer, a novelist of a filmmaker. Not so Pierre-August Renoir, who may have been genetically privileged to be [ Read More ]

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Gilles Bourdos' Renoir has a new trailer, the poster and images in the gallery for the drama starring Michel Bouquet, Christa Théret and Vincent Rottiers. Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, Renoir opens in limited venues on March 29th. Jérome Tonnerre and helmer Gilles Bourdos wrote the script with the contribution of Michel Spinosa. Set on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, the lushly atmospheric film tells the story of celebrated Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, in declining health at age 74, his middle son Jean, who returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I, and the radiantly beautiful Andrée, the young woman who rejuvenates, enchants and inspires both father and son.

Gilles Bourdos' Renoir has a new trailer, the poster and images in the gallery for the drama starring Michel Bouquet, Christa Théret and Vincent Rottiers. Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films, Renoir opens in limited venues on March 29th. Jérome Tonnerre and helmer Gilles Bourdos wrote the script with the contribution of Michel Spinosa. Set on the French Riviera in the summer of 1915, the lushly atmospheric film tells the story of celebrated Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, in declining health at age 74, his middle son Jean, who returns home to convalesce after being wounded in World War I, and the radiantly beautiful Andrée, the young woman who rejuvenates, enchants and inspires both father and son.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Gilles Bourdos’ biopic “Renoir,” which will receive a spring 2013 theatrical release. The fact-based drama will have its world premiere May 25, as the closing-night film of the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival. Michel Bouquet, Vincent Rottiers and Christa Theret star in a love story that takes place in Côte d’Azur in 1915, when widowed painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his fledgling film-director son Jean both become entranced by new muse Andrée, who inspired Renoir pere’s “The Bathers.” Olivier Delbosc and Marc Missonnier produced the film; Christine De Jekel is executive producer. “I was captivated by the script from the first page and cannot wait to bring this film to American audiences,” said Goldwyn acquisitions exec Peter Goldwyn. “Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s work speaks for itself — he is one of the most gifted painters...

DVD Release Date: Jan. 3, 2012

Price: DVD $27.99

Studio: Strand Releasing

Vincent Rottiers deals with the pain in I'm Glad That My Mother Is Alive.

Co-directors Claude Miller (The Little Thief, Alias Betty) and his son Nathan Miller explore childhood trauma and its consequences on adult life in the 2009 French drama film I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive.

Based on a true story, the movie follows the life of Thomas (Vincent Rottiers), a troubled teenager who was given up for adoption as a toddler and is now obsessed with tracking down his birth mother. After years of searching, Thomas finds her and discovers that she is single, has a small child and lives in a nearby suburb. Traumatized by years of emptiness and longing for his mother, he introduces himself and starts an ambiguous relationship with her (part courtship, part obsession) that slowly drives him to an act of madness.

I...

Title: I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive Directors: Claude Miller and Nathan Miller Starring: Vincent Rottiers, Annie Jouvet, Sophie Cattani, Christine Citti, Yves Verhoeven “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” which played at the 2010 City of Lights City of Angels (Colcoa) Festival, is a stirring familial drama of simmering resentment, anchored by a searing performance from young Vincent Rottiers, whose piercing blue eyes and quiet intensity are enough to make one ruminate about a possible fraternal collaboration with Daniel Craig. The American version of these sorts of damaged-kid stories typically cedes all ambiguity in favor of pat cathartic redemption, but this gripping French import keeps an edge of violence and uncertainty about...

French father-son directing duo Nathan and Claude Miller have assembled a tense family drama that provides a fresh take on familiar circumstances: An adopted son in search of his true lineage. It's unclear at what point Thomas (played as an adolescent by Maime Renard, followed by Vincent Rottiers as a young adult) reaches the titular conclusion, but the emotional journey to that abstract destination constantly registers on his face. The ...

Shawn Ashmore, Ashley Bell, Shannyn Sossamon, Dominic Monaghan and Cory Hardrict in The Day

Photo: Content Media The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival announced 56 more movies added to its festival line-up this year with selections in the Vanguard, Midnight Madness, Documentaries, City to City and Tiff Kids programs. And to be honest, the line-up is filled with titles, most of which are absolutely new to me.

I have seen one of the films under the Vanguard banner, a selection of young and cutting edge features and I've heard of Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31, Ben Wheatley's Kill List (watch the trailer to the right) was a hit at South by Southwest earlier this year and the documentary selections include familiar names such as Werner Herzog, Morgan Spurlock, Jonathan Demme, Alex Gibney and Wim Wenders, the latter of which is delivering a 3D documentary centered on the dance world of Pina Bausch and her company.

"A Prophet" from director Jacques Audiard won nine awards at the 35th annual Cesar Awards. The Oscar nominated film for best foreign language took home best French film of the year, director, screenplay, editing, cinematography, production design, best actor, and most promising actor (best male newcomer) for Tahar Rahim. Niels Arestrup won best supporting actor also for "A Prophet."

Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" was named best foreign film of the year, beating out last year's Oscar winner "Slumdog Millionaire" and this year's blue contender, "Avatar."

Meanwhile, "Avatar's" Sigourney Weaver presented Harrison Ford with a Cesar of Honor award. Aw...

Here's the list of nominees and winners of the 35th annual Cesar Awards (winners are highlighted):

Best Film

A l.Origine, Xavier Giannoli

Le Concert, Radu Mihaileanu

Les Herbes Folles, Alain Resnais

La Journee de la Jupe, Jean-Paul Lilienfeld

Rapt, Lucas Belvaux

Un Prophete, Jacques Audiard

Welcome, Philippe Lioret...

Paris – French Academy members got serious on Friday with two politically charged dramas heading the major categories for the 35th annual Cesar Awards that will see Jacques Audiard's "A Prophet" go head to head with Philippe Lioret's "Welcome." The nominees were announced Friday at a press conference in Paris.

While no one can foresee the winners, "A Prophet" looks bound to triumph with Jacques Audiard's prison drama nominated for 13 awards including best film, best director and a best actor and most promising male newcomer nod for the film's breakout star Tahar Rahim.

Academy voters also gave a hearty reception to Phillipe Lioret's "Welcome" with 10 nods and Xavier Giannoli's "In the Beginning" with 11 nominations.

Radu Mihaileanu's "The Concert" was also music to voters' ears with the tragicomedy about a washed-up former conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra who travels to Paris to make his career comeback scoring six nominations.

Ok, I know that I'm almost one month late. After all, the list of the candidates for the Best Male and Female Hopes has been public knowledge since November 25. Anyway, I just want to post the information since I'm a lover of French culture. Enjoy.

The 2010 César for the Best Female Hope:

Marie-Julie Baup in Micmacs à tire-larigot

Astrid Berges Frisbey in Un barrage contre le Pacifique

Agathe Bonitzer in Un chat un chat

Sophie Cattani in Je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante

Judith Davis in Je te mangerais

Anaïs Demoustier in Sois sage

Mati Diop in 35 rhums

Pauline Etienne in Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront

Alice de Lencquesaing in Le père de mes enfants

Florence Loiret-Caille in Je l’aimais

Sara Martins in Mensch

Lola Naymark in L’armée du crime

Vimala Pons in La Sainte Victoire

Soko in A l’Origine

Christa Theret...