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Benjamin Lavernhe and Sara Giraudeau play lead roles in this work produced by Les Films sur Mesure and sold by Charades, whose cast also includes Kyan Khojandi, Julia Piaton and François Morel. Laurent Tirard’s 8th feature film, Le Discours, has just wrapped its six-week film shoot in Paris. It’s a new comedy by a filmmaker who has often struck an impressive balance between artistic quality and respectable box-office results, as demonstrated by The Story of My Life, Molière (1.2 million viewers in France in 2007 and four nominations at the 2008 César Awards), Little Nicholas (5.5 million admissions in France in 2009), Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia (3.8 million viewers in 2012), Nicholas on Holiday (2.4 million admissions in 2014), Up For Love and Return of the Hero (816,000...

French actress Melanie Laurent has joined the cast of Michael Bay’s “6 Underground” for Netflix and Skydance Media, the streaming giant announced Wednesday. U.S.-born Iranian actor Payman Maadi has also joined the production, which will start shooting later this month.

An actor and director in her native France, Laurent is best known to international audiences for her breakout lead role as the vengeance-seeking Shosanna in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film “Inglourious Basterds.” Other English-language roles have included Mike Mills’ “Beginners” and Denis Villenueve’s “Enemy.” Laurent most recently co-starred opposite Oscar-winner Jean Dujardin in French period comedy “Return of the Hero.” She’ll next be seen in Chris Weitz’s English-language true-story drama “Operation Finale,” which stars Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley.

Maadi, who starred in Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning Iranian drama “A Separation,” previously worked with Bay on the 2016 film “13 Hours.”

“6 Underground” stars Ryan Reynolds,...

Eric Barbier’s “Promise at Dawn” will headline the 2018 Colcoa French Film Festival on April 23, the Franco-American Cultural Fund announced Tuesday.

“Promise at Dawn” is an adaptation of French author Romain Gary’s autobiography that stars Pierre Niney and Charlotte Gainsbourg. The film will kick off the screenings of 37 new features and documentaries competing for the Colcoa Cinema Awards at the Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. The event will present a record total of 86 films, TV shows, digital series, and virtual reality programs, 75 of which will be considered for the Colcoa awards throughout the week’s festivities, which will culminate on May 1.

Colcoa executive producer and artistic director Francois Truffart also announced that this year’s festival will set aside a day exclusively for screening first films made by female writers and directors. The day, titled “Focus on a Filmmaker Day,” will honor writer, director, and actor Melanie...

A good old fashioned corset comedy with minimal laughs but a decent level of charm, Return of the Hero (Le Retour du heros) pairs two of America’s favorite Frenchies for a drawing room farce about love, valor and duplicity at the start of the 19th century. Oscar winner Jean Dujardin stars opposite Melanie Laurent as a swashbuckling swindler trying to take advantage of the latter’s aristocratic family, resulting in a few funny scenes played out in lavish costumes and eye-popping decors. The result could score well with Gallic audiences, including Dujardin’s local fan base, but it’s not sure whether the...