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Black Venus will be available on Blu-ray from Arrow Academy on May 22nd

Between The Secret of the Grain, winner of three César Awards, and the Cannes triumph of Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche made Black Venus, a stark portrait of the life of Saartjie Baartman, also known as the Hottentot Venus .

Baartman was taken from South African home as a 21-year-old and shipped to Georgian London, where she would be caged and exhibited as a freak show. Presented semi-nude, her physique especially her large buttocks was the source of much curiosity. But as her fame spread, so too did her exploitation…

Centred on a remarkable performance by Cuban actor Yahima Torres as Baartman, Black Venus provides a bleak but barbed exploration of sex, science, race, colonialism and social attitudes.

Special Edition Contents:

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Optional 5.1 DTS-hd Master Audio and 2.0 DTS-hd Master Audio soundtracks Optional...

Not quite a year after its memorable premiere at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where it would snatch the Palme d’Or from the Steven Spielberg headed jury, Criterion adds Blue is the Warmest Color to the collection, of which Abdellatif Kechiche’s 2007 film The Secret of the Grain is also a part of. Shortly after Cannes and throughout the remainder of 2013, we witnessed a very public drama play out in the media between the director and stars of the film. Both damned and praised for its graphic, and (to some, arguably) realistic portrayal of sexuality and identity in its portrayal of a lesbian relationship, the difficulty of filming behind the scenes should come as no surprised considering the achievement at hand. And while untoward comments flew back and forth, both between the cast and crew and rankled critics, there’s nothing that can demean the superlative end product.

Kechiche returns...

Blue is the Color of My True Love’s Hair: Kechiche Takes Us Deep Sea, Baby

For his latest film, Abdellatif Kechiche returns to themes of love and maturation with Blue Is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d’Adele, Chapters 1&2), based on the graphic novel by Julie Maroh. As with other entries in the actor turned director’s filmography, his latest masterpiece sports a lofty running time, at nearly three hours covering a relatively small amount of time in one character’s life in the length of time that most epic sagas run out of steam. But if you give Kechiche your time, he hardly tries your patience, once again creating a beautiful, engrossing film that manages to capture human emotion like few others films ever have. Inordinately simple on paper, as, in essence this is a coming out drama, Kechiche understands how to pace, guiding us expertly as he...

It's been over 2 years since I saw Venus Noire (Black Venus) at the New York Film Festival in the fall of 2010, and it's never received a Stateside release; actually I'm not sure it got much of a release outside of the international film festival circuit and a few European territories either. So I'm betting most of you have never seen French/Tunisian filmmaker Abdel Kechiche's problematic though worth-watching, thought-provoking Saartjie “Sarah” Baartman film, otherwise derogatorily known as the Hottentot Venus, which starred newcomer Yahima Torres in the title role. The subject matter certainly isn't one that will attract...

The nominations for this year’s César Awards (France’s Oscar equivalent) has been announced. In addition the awards ceremony has also chosen Quentin Tarantino as the recipient of the ceremony’s honorary award. Alain Terzian, the president of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma announced at a press conference this morning confirmed that the director would be present to ick up his award in person.

It is also worth noting that there are three American movies among the seven nominees for Best Foreign Film: Inception, The Social Network and perhaps the biggest surprise, Invictus.

The 36th edition of the Césars will take place on February 25 in Paris.

Here’s the full list of nominees:

Best Movie

L’arnacoeur by Pascal Chaumeil

Le nom des gens by Michel Leclerc

The Ghost Writer by Roman Polanski

Tournée by Mathieu Amalric

Des Hommes et des Dieux by Xavier Beauvois

Gainsbourg...

Three U.S. films are among the seven nominees for best foreign film in this year’s César Awards, France’s version of the Oscars. Meanwhile, American director Quentin Tarantino has been selected to receive an honorary award and will be at the Feb. 25 ceremony in Paris to accept it, it was announced Friday.

The three American films cited by the Académie des arts et techniques du cinema are Christopher Nolan’s “Inception,” David Fincher’s “The Social Network” and Clint Eastwood’s “Invictus,” an Oscar contender in the States last year.

Xavier Beauvois’ “Of Gods and Men” (“Des hommes et des Dieux”) — not one of the nine films still in contention for the best foreign film Oscar — leads with 10 nominations, while Roman Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” and Joann Sfar’s “Gainsbourg” (“Vie Héroïque”) are also nominated in multiple categories.

Presiding over this year’s awards is American actress and director Jodie Foster.