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Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” a cinematic love letter to the French New Wave which bowed at Cannes, will aptly kick off the third edition of the Biarritz Film Festival, also called Nouvelles Vagues, on June 24.

On the following day, Sofia Coppola, the festival’s guest of honor, will attend a screening of “Virgin Suicides” to celebrate its 25-year anniversary and take part in a masterclass before an audience filled with film students.

Coppola’s presence at the festival reflects the involvement of Chanel, a partner of the festival whose mantra is to shine a spotlight on young talent in front and behind the camera. Chanel hosted a glamorous dinner at the Grand Café du Grand Palais in Paris in honor of the festival on June 3.

Along with Nouvelles Vagues founder and president Jérôme Pulis, general delegate Sandrine Brauer and programming director Lili Hinstin, and Chanel president of fashion Bruno Pavlovsky,...

Caught between sophisticated comedy and silly fluff, between Hitchcockian mystery and zany amateur sleuth caper, A Private Life (Vie Privée) is a lot more fun than it probably deserves to be thanks to the disarming chemistry of its seasoned leads, Jodie Foster and Daniel Auteuil. Rebecca Zlotowski’s latest doesn’t have the intoxicating sun-kissed sensuality of An Easy Girl or the emotional complexity of Other People’s Children, her last two films. This one is too busy careening all over the tonal map for any of that. What it does have is the French director’s customary light touch; it’s chaos with charm.

Foster’s French — at least to these ears — sounds impeccable and this is her first feature in the language since 2004’s A Very Long Engagement. She jumps into it with a spiky vitality and an unexpected playfulness that buoy the movie as much as Zlotowski’s zippy direction.

It came as quite the surprise that acclaimed director Rebecca Zlotowski’s latest film, led by Jodie Foster and an all-star French cast, did not make Cannes competition. If it turns out A Private Life might indeed be too slight for Palme consideration, this up-tempo comedic murder mystery is a breezy, fun means of showcasing delicious chemistry between legendary actors.

Foster plays Lilian, a Paris-based American psychiatrist who learns that her long-term patient Paula (Virginie Efira) has died. An aggressive outburst by Paula’s husband Simon (Mathieu Amalric) at her wake and subsequent meeting with their daughter yield suspicions she did not, as appearances suggest, commit suicide by taking all the drugs Lilian prescribed. Becoming more and more obsessed with learning who killed her patient, Lilian starts seeking answers from hypnosis-induced visions, which also lead to repercussions for her failed marriage with Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil) and strained relationship with son...

Jodie Foster confessed she was “too scared” to tackle a lead role in a French-language film until director Rebecca Zlotowski’s invitation for Vie Privée proved irresistible, marking Foster’s first starring turn speaking French since 2004’s A Very Long Engagement. The psychological thriller premiered out of competition at Cannes on May 20, where Foster’s portrayal of Lilian Steiner—a Paris-based psychoanalyst drawn into a murder investigation—earned an eight-minute standing ovation.

Filmed last autumn in Paris and Normandy, Vie Privée reunites Foster with screenwriters Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé, with Frederic Jouve producing under Les Films Velvet and France 3 Cinéma. Cinematographer George Lechaptois captures both the city’s elegance and the story’s undercurrent of menace, while Robin Coudert’s score underlines Lilian’s unraveling as she challenges official conclusions about her patient’s apparent suicide.

At Cannes, foster’s fluency in French surprised critics and attendees alike.

Before Jodie Foster’s Lilian can figure out what to do with a sudden opening in her agenda — Paula (Virgine Efira) has missed a third consecutive session — one of her other patients shows up unannounced. Pierre (Noam Morgensztern) started seeing the renowned psychiatrist nearly a decade ago as a byproduct of his search to quit smoking, and now, after all these years, he has seemingly done so, but not thanks to his nearly forty-thousand dollars spent in therapy. As he tells it, all it took was half an hour with a hypnotist. Stopping short of accusing Lilian of being a hack (but suing her for refunds all the same), he represents the first is a series of events that will lead her to rethinking her whole profession, if not her entire life.

“A Private Life,” Rebecca Zlotowski’s delightful and whimsical film, disguises this personal journey as a crime mystery...

Jodie Foster returns to French-language cinema under Rebecca Zlotowski’s direction, inhabiting Lilian Steiner, a Paris-based psychoanalyst whose meticulously ordered world fractures when a longtime patient dies under ambiguous circumstances.

Viewers are drawn into a dual narrative: a cerebral whodunit and a quietly stirring exploration of a rekindled romance with ex-husband Gabriel (Daniel Auteuil). The film moves between tense investigative moments—Lilian poring over MiniDisc recordings in her wood-paneled office—and unexpectedly warm interludes over shared bottles of Bordeaux.

Fleeting supernatural hints punctuate the drama like poetic footnotes, while the City of Light itself—its polished stairwells, buzzy brasseries and hidden alleys—becomes a character in its own right.

Structure of Suspicions and Reveries

Lilian’s calm shatters when Paula, a patient she last saw weeks earlier, is reported to have died by suicide. Compelled to replay each session, she oscillates between blaming her own prescriptions and suspecting foul play.

Walking out of Tuesday’s Cannes premiere, a local remarked how delightfully New York-y “A Private Life” felt. At first, the comment struck me as odd – Gallic spirit so suffuses this Paris-set cerebral thriller that even star Jodie Foster spends most of the film drinking wine, puffing on cigs, and speaking in la langue de Molière. But I could also see what my colleague meant, given director Rebecca Zlotowski’s choice to plays her murder mystery as a wry and Woody Allen-esque riff on neuroses.

Flexing her French-language skills for the first time since Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “A Very Long Engagement,” Jodie Foster ably slips into the role of an expat shrink, and thankfully so, because the filmmaker wrote the film for the American star. And so it should come with little surprise that playing Dr. Liliane Steiner plays to Foster’s strengths; hitting notes of head-strong fragility, she...

A sophisticated American in Paris, psychiatrist Liliane Steiner has a habit of recording her sessions. Is it because her patients speak French, and she’s afraid of missing a thought? Or is it because Liliane isn’t really listening to these people, whose problems all sound so frivolous, they practically blend together in a torrent of white noise on the soundtrack of “Private Life”?

In Rebecca Zlotowski’s sleek but slippery psychological thriller, Liliane is caught off guard by the news that Paula Cohen-Solal (Virginie Efira), a woman who failed to appear for her last three appointments, has in fact died by suicide. Liliane didn’t see it coming, and now she’s rattled, wondering what else she might have missed. Paula’s death sends Liliane back to her archives, listening for clues, though she’s not likely to find the truth there.

In fact, Anne Berest and Zlotowski’s...

Jodie Foster has plenty of Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and more to prove she can do just about anything on screen, and now she is taking a step further and doing it all in French.

That part is not a huge surprise. On one occasion in 2004 she appeared in a supporting role speaking in French in A Very Long Engagement, which starred Audrey Tatou. But now for the first time she has a starring role in a French production, Vie Privée (A Private Life), that premiered tonight out of competition as an official selection of the Cannes Film Festival, a most appropriate place to debut this new landmark in Foster’s career which just continues to dazzle.

Foster plays psychiatrist Lilian Steiner, a rock-solid professional who has been doing this work a very long time. But when she learns a longtime patient, Paula, whom...

In one of the first major deals unveiled at the European Film Market, Sony Pictures Classics (“I’m Still Here”) has bought “Vie Privée,” a highly anticipated, humor-laced murder mystery movie starring Jodie Foster and directed by Rebecca Zlotowski (“Other People’s Children”), for North America and Latin America territories.

The Oscar winner stars in the film as renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner who mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered. Foster last starred in a French-language film 20 years ago in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Oscar-nominated “A Very Long Engagement.”

Foster, who recently won an Emmy and a Golden Globe her turn in HBO’s “True Detective: Night Country,” stars in “Vie Privée” alongside a flurry of international stars, including Daniel Auteuil and Efira (“Other People’s Children”), Mathieu Almaric (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”), Vincent Lacoste (“Lost Illusions”) and Luana Bajrami...

Exclusive: Goodfellas has posted a slew of deals for Rebecca Zlotowski’s French-language murder mystery movie Vie Privée, starring Jodie Foster alongside a host of top French talent including Daniel Auteuil and Virginie Efira, and unveiled a first look.

The movie – which shot last fall between Paris and Normandy – is currently in post-production, with an expected festival push this year.

It has sold out in Europe, with deals to UK (Altitude), Spain (Caramel Films), Germany (Plaion Pictures), Italy (Europictures), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Frenetic Films), Portugal (Pris Audiovisuais), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), ex-Yugoslavia (McF), Hungary (Cinetel Ltf), Romania (Independenta Film), Poland (Best Film), the Baltics and Cis (Pro:vzglyad).

Danish distributor Another World Entertainment has struck a multi-territory deal for Scandinavia, covering Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

Outside of Europe, it has been acquired for Israel (Lev Cinemas) and Turkey (Yeni Bir Films) and Australia and New Zealand (Transmission)

North America, Latin...

Exclusive: Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira, Mathieu Amalric, Vincent Lacoste and Luana Bajrami have been unveiled as supporting cast members in Rebecca Zlotowski’s murder mystery movie Vie Privée starring Jodie Foster.

The production has also unveiled the plotline for the film which follows renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner, played by previously-announced Foster, who mounts her own private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.

The supporting cast news and plot reveal comes as filming – running from September 30 to November 22 between Paris and Normandy – enters its third week.

The feature is Zlotowski’s sixth film after 2023 Venice Golden Lion contender Other People’s Children, An Easy Girl, Planetarium, Grand Central and Dear Prudence.

Zlotowski co-wrote the screenplay with Anne Berest, whose credits include Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner Happening and Other People’s Children, as well as long-time collaborator Gaëlle Macé.

The film...

She’s coming off a career-best with Other People’s Children (2022 Venice Film Festival selection) and recently was one of the scribes on Audrey Diwan’s Emmanuelle, Rebecca Zlotowski is confirmed to be in production on her sixth feature – one that might be about couplehood and might be (as we reported a while back) an erotic thriller. After Cineuropa mentioned that veteran actor (and director) Daniel Auteuil was to topline the project, we now have the confirmation that Jodie Foster will indeed star in Vie Privée (formerly titled Nous étions deux). Production began this month on a screenplay co-written by Zlotowski, Anne Berest and Gaëlle Macé.…...

Jodie Foster is going from Night Country to wine country. According to Variety, the Academy Award-winning actress has set her first project since starring in True Detective's fourth season earlier this year. She'll lead the film Vie Privée, an upcoming French language project from director Rebecca Zlotowski. Zlotowski also wrote the film,...

Shane Atkinson’s “Laroy,” a crime thriller laced with dark comedy, swept three major prizes at the 49th edition of the Deauville American Film Festival.

The movie, which marks Atkinson’s feature debut and showcases Coen brothers influences, won the Grand Prize, the Audience Award and the Critics Award. It stars John Magaro as Ray, who decides to kill himself after discovering his wife has been cheating on him. But just before he pulls a trigger, a stranger takes him for a low-rent hitman. The movie was produced by the Cannes-based company Adastra Films and was acquired by a French distributor, Arp Selection, during the Deauville Film Festival. It previously opened at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Jury Prize, meanwhile was shared by two films, Sean Price Williams’ “The Sweet East” and Iranian-born director Babak Jalali’s “Fremont.” “The Sweet East” marks the feature debut of Price, a well-established cinematographer whose credits include “Good Time.

Deauville American Film Festival will forge ahead with its honorary tributes to stars such as Natalie Portman, Jude Law, Peter Dinklage and Joseph Gordon-Levitt despite the fact that they won’t be in attendance due to the SAG-AFTRA strike.

The festival’s artistic director, Bruno Barde, told Variety ahead of the event’s press conference on Thursday that he empathized with actors and writers who are on strike to “protect themselves against the dangers of artificial intelligence.”

“AI has always existed in cinema and it’s now posing a threat to screenwriters, set designers, dubbers and, of course, to actors whom we’re using the image of. Cinema is an art that elevates humankind, and artificial intelligence does the exact opposite. It’s a danger,” Barde said.

And while he stands in solidarity with the strike, he has opted “to maintain all the tributes which will pay homage to careers...

Elsa Zylberstein, one of the most famous – and bankable — faces of French cinema, known for her Cesar-winning performance in “I’ve Loved You For So Long,” is preparing to emerge as a major film producer.

Having recently set up banners in France and the U.S., Zylberstein is actively developing a raft of films and series, working with the likes of Oscar-winning Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad (“The Cave”), Ted Braun (Darfur Now”) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton (“The Father”), among others. These include “Kingdom of Hope,” a movie about Elise Boghossian, a French acupuncturist and humanitarian worker in a war zone who has healed children victims of Isis . The movie will be directed by Fayyad, who is based in Berlin, and is being penned by Braun, based on Boghossian’s autobiographical book “Au royaume de l’espoir, il n’y a pas d’hiver.”

Zylberstein, who stands out from the...

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Released on Netflix in 2020 after premiering at Cannes the year before, An Easy Girl was an under-the-radar treat — a South-of-France-set coming-of-age film so lusciously tactile and perceptive it felt like a classic as soon as the closing credits began to roll. The writer-director, Rebecca Zlotowski, is back with a more conventional but equally winning work in Venice competition entry Other People’s Children (Les enfants des autres), confirming her gift for investing familiar formulas with freshness and charm, smarts and sexiness.

Anchored by a superb Virginie Efira (Benedetta) as a 40ish high-school teacher whose bond with her boyfriend’s daughter awakens a complicated mix of maternal yearning and midlife frustration, the movie has the typical contours of contemporary Parisian romantic dramedy: Good-looking people embrace, talk, smoke, sip wine, attend casually chic soirees, and embrace some more against the backdrop of a glittering Eiffel Tower...

Returning barely six months after its 2021 edition, which wrapped in September, French TV festival Series Mania welcomed Jury President Julia Sinkevych,who arrived in Lille from war-torn Ukraine.

“I didn’t know if I would be lucky enough to be here tonight,” said Sinkevych to a standing ovation, with Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania general director, observing that culture cannot be insensitive to what is happening.

“The whole world is now admiring our resistance, the resistance of the Ukrainian people. But there is another battlefield, which is culture, and I want us to be noticed, recognized and admired on the cultural battlefield, too,” added Sinkevych.

“This [conflict] has been going on for a long time and there have been many episodes in this TV series. Now, Europe and the rest of the world should work together on its grand season finale.”

President of the International Panorama Jury, French writer and actress Anne Berest,...

The special jury prize went to Nir Bergman and Ram Nehari’s Israeli social drama Just For Today,

Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne’s four-part English-language drama The Virtues took the top Grand Prix award at TV festival and industry event Series Mania (March 22-30) in the northern French city of Lille over the weekend.

Lead actor Stephan Graham was also feted with the best actor award for his performance as the troubled, alcoholic protagonist who returns to his family home in Ireland to confront the roots of his problems.

The drama was produced by the UK’s Warp Films...

(L-r) Jeffrey Walker, Sarah Lambert and Jason Stephens at Series Mania.

Lingo Pictures’ Lambs of God didn’t win any prizes at Series Mania but the comedic drama adapted from Marele Day’s novel was warmly received by audiences and French critics.

The first two hours of the Foxtel-commissioned miniseries created by Sarah Lambert and directed by Jeffrey Walker had their world premiere in the International Panorama section of the festival staged in Lille, northern France.

Starring Essie Davis, Ann Dowd, Jessica Barden and Sam Reid, Lambs of God follows three nuns, the last survivors of the order of St. Agnes, who live in a convent on a remote island. Reid plays Father Ignatius, an ambitious young priest who plans to turn the property into a money-making luxury resort and is kidnapped by the nuns.

The cast includes John Bell as a bishop, Damon Herriman as Father Bob, Daniel Henshall...

The international TV event Series Mania unveiled its 2019 winners Saturday during the closing ceremony in France.

Taking place in Lille, this year’s festival ran from March 22-30, and included masterclasses from Uma Thurman, Freddie Highmore, Charlie Brooker and Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon who will also serve as president of the Official Competition jury.

Also on the jury were The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, French actress Audrey Fleurot, French writer Delphine de Vigan and Thomas Lilti, creator-director of Canal + hit Hippocrate.

Below is the full list of winners

Official Competition

Grand Prix: The Virtues

Created and written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne (UK)

Directed by: Shane Meadows – Production: Warp Films, Big Arty Productions – Broadcast by: Channel 4 (UK)

Special Jury Prize: Just for Today

Created and written by Nir Bergman and Ram Nehari (Israël)

Written and directed: Nir Bergman – Production: Endemol Shine Israël – Broadcast: Yes TV...

Three series from strong creative voices – Shane Meadows’ “The Virtues,” Nir Bergman’s “Just for Today” and the Fabrice Gobert-directed, and Netflix-backed, “Mytho” – shared major honors at an enlarged, hectic 10th Series Mania, now firmly established in festival, industry and discussion forum terms as one of the major TV events in Europe.

A story of redemption, unexpected love and imperfect fatherhood – a growing trend among drama series, Eurodata TV’s Avril Blondelot said at Series Mania – “The Virtues” won the Series Mania Grand Prix and best actor for Stephen Graham, a standout in Meadows’ “This is England,” who puts in profoundly affecting performance, by common consensus, as Joseph, a man who travels to Ireland to confront the demons left by a childhood in its care-system.

“From the first frame, ‘The Virtues’ moves you with its deep humanity. Masterfully directed, written and acted, the show is a prime example...

Lille, France — Leading French independent production-finance-distribution sales company Federation Entertainment has secured international sales rights on upcoming French psychological thriller “Torn.”

The series was created and written by director Lionel Bailliu (“Innocente”)and Yann Le Gal and world premieres in the official French competition on March 25 at France’s Series Mania TV festival. Attending the series’ premiere will be French actress – producer Julie Gayet, Bailliu, Le Gal, as well as Elephant producers Gaëlle Cholet and Guillaume Renouil.

Elephant Story and At-Production co-produced with participation from France Télévisions. France 3, Belgian public broadcaster Rtbf and TV5 Monde are already set to broadcast.

In the series, a school teacher named Victoire moves to a small village in rural France with her young family. There, she runs into Florent, her first love from a lifetime ago, and their long-dormant feelings for one another reignite. Unable to suppress their desires for one another, the...

‘Lambs of God’ (Photo: Mark Rogers)

Lingo Pictures’ Foxtel-commissioned comedic drama Lambs of God will have its world premiere in official competition at Series Mania next month.

Created by Sarah Lambert and directed by Jeffrey Walker, the show adapted from Marele Day’s novel will compete with nine series from the UK, the Us, Israel, Norway, France and Russia.

Glendyn Ivin’s BBC/ABC psychological drama The Cry, adapted by Jacquelin Perske from the Helen FitzGerald novel, will screen in the International Panorama section of the event which runs from March 22-30 in Lille, northern France.

Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon will serve as president of the competition jury with The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, French actress Audrey Fleurot, French writer Delphine de Vigan and Thomas Lilti, creator-director of Canal + hit Hippocrate.

Starring Essie Davis, Ann Dowd, Jessica Barden and Sam Reid, Lambs of God follows three nuns,...

The 10th edition of Series Mania in Lille runs March 22-30.

The line-up for the 10th edition of Series Mania, which runs March 22-30 in Lille, has been revealed.

The competition features the world premieres of three Channel 4 dramas, including the Warp Films-produced The Virtues, which is written and directed by Shane Meadows and starring Stephen Graham as a troubled man who returns to Ireland to confront his childhood in the care system. Jack Thorne co-wrote the project.

The other C4 series are Iraq-set crime thriller Baghdad Central, from House Of Sadam creator Stephen Butchard, and Chimerica, created...

Ever-growing international TV event Series Mania has unveiled an impressive 2019 lineup including new dramas from Netflix, HBO and the UK’s Channel4. Scroll down for the lineups in full.

Taking place in Lille, northern France, this year’s event (March 22-30) will include masterclasses from Uma Thurman, Freddie Highmore, Charlie Brooker and Sharp Objects creator Marti Noxon who will also serve as president of the Official Competition jury. Also on the jury are The Good Wife star Julianna Margulies, French actress Audrey Fleurot (Spiral), French writer Delphine de Vigan and Thomas Lilti, creator-director of Canal + hit Hippocrate.

Thurman will be in town for the international premiere of Netflix Original Series Chambers, a Ya supernatural drama thriller from Stephen Gaghan (Syriana). HBO’s Folklore, an Asian horror anthology, plays in International Competition, as does HBO Europe’s Success, directed by Danis Tanovic (No Man’s Land). Amazon-Arte project Une...

Red carpet protest highlighted fact only 82 women have been honoured in Official Selection over 71 editions of festival.

Cate Blanchett and Agnes Varda led 82 female industry figures in a silent ascent of the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday protesting the lack of female representation at the event over its 71 editions.

Moving, historic, 82 women from all countries and professions in cinema have just made the red carpet entrance for Les Filles Du Soleil (Girls Of The Sun) by Eva Husson. #Cannes2018 #Competition pic.twitter.com/0YY9SNbRqg

— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) May 12, 2018

Other stars joining the protest...

Pascal Breton’s Federation Entertainment has acquired international rights to “Mytho,” a series drama which will be directed by Fabrice Gobert, the creator of Canal Plus’s hit supernatural series “The Returned.”

The series is being produced by Bruno Nahon at Unité de Production. The seasoned French producer is behind a flurry of critically acclaimed films, notably Cyril Mennegun’s “Louise Wimmer,” Nabil Ayouch’s “Razzia,” and series such as “Ainsi soient-ils” (“Churchmen”), which is one of Arte’s most popular series.

“Mytho,” which comprises six one-hour episodes, will topline French actress Marina Hands (“Tell No One,” “Lady Chatterley”) as Elvira, a loving and caring wife who finds herself on the edge of burnout. One day, she starts suspecting her husband of having an affair, and on the spur of the moment, she pretends that she is sick, a small white lie that will have huge consequences.

“Mytho” has been commissioned by Franco-German network Arte.