European production and distribution group StudioCanal has launched a new label, StudioCanal Stories, focused on book-to-screen adaptations. The outfit will be the first of its kind in France and follows StudioCanal’s creation of a dedicated literary adaptation division in 2022.
Unveiling the new label Monday, StudioCanal pointed to the success of book adaptations, citing figures from a study last year by France’s Centre National du Livre (Cnl) that found 42 percent of the top 100 most successful films at the U.S. box office were literary adaptations. The figure for France was 44 percent and, according to the study, the production of literary adaptations for French film and TV has jumped nearly 30 percent over the period from 2015 to 2021.
StudioCanal is bringing two of its latest adaptations: Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts, an adaptation of Neville Thompson’s 2000 novel Jackie Loves Johnser Ok?; and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious of Cargoes to competition...
Unveiling the new label Monday, StudioCanal pointed to the success of book adaptations, citing figures from a study last year by France’s Centre National du Livre (Cnl) that found 42 percent of the top 100 most successful films at the U.S. box office were literary adaptations. The figure for France was 44 percent and, according to the study, the production of literary adaptations for French film and TV has jumped nearly 30 percent over the period from 2015 to 2021.
StudioCanal is bringing two of its latest adaptations: Gilles Lellouche’s Beating Hearts, an adaptation of Neville Thompson’s 2000 novel Jackie Loves Johnser Ok?; and Michel Hazanavicius’ The Most Precious of Cargoes to competition...
- 4/29/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will kick off with Quentin Dupieux’s “The Second Act,” a star-studded surreal French comedy headlined by Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard, Variety has learned.
The anticipated movie is produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and is represented in international markets by Kinology. The film will play out of competition on May 14 and will be released on the same day in French theaters.
Laced with absurdist humor, the meta movie follows actors starring in a doomed film production. Dupieux is one of France’s most popular and prolific filmmakers. He delivered two films in 2023: “Daaaaaalí,” which played out-of-competition at Venice, and “Yannick,” a French box office hit that sold around the world.
In confirming the film’s selection at Cannes, the festival described Quentin as a “filmmaker who embraces freedom – in tone, form and...
The anticipated movie is produced by Hugo Selignac at Chi-Fou-Mi, a Mediawan company, and is represented in international markets by Kinology. The film will play out of competition on May 14 and will be released on the same day in French theaters.
Laced with absurdist humor, the meta movie follows actors starring in a doomed film production. Dupieux is one of France’s most popular and prolific filmmakers. He delivered two films in 2023: “Daaaaaalí,” which played out-of-competition at Venice, and “Yannick,” a French box office hit that sold around the world.
In confirming the film’s selection at Cannes, the festival described Quentin as a “filmmaker who embraces freedom – in tone, form and...
- 4/3/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
"Humans have always deceived us." GKids has finally revealed the full US trailer for the awesome animated sci-fi film Mars Express from France. It's now set to open in theaters this May - check your local listings. A must watch on the big screen! I've been raving about this film ever since its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year - thrilling sci-fi that is kind of an update on Ghost in the Shell. In the future, private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. On Mars, they descend deep into the underbelly of the planet's capital city where they uncover a much darker story of brain farms, corruption, and a missing girl who holds a secret about the robots that threaten to change the face of the universe. "Combining 2D & 3D animation, this stylish, smart,...
- 3/28/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
"Humans have always deceived us." GKids has uploaded a new 30-sec US teaser trailer for the acclaimed, incredible animated sci-fi film Mars Express from France. They're gearing up to give this a full theatrical release this summer. I've been raving about this film ever since its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year - it's an awesome sci-fi sensation that is kind of a 2023 update on Ghost in the Shell. In the future, private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. On Mars, they descend deep into the underbelly of the planet's capital city where they uncover a much darker story of brain farms, corruption, and a missing girl who holds a secret about the robots that threaten to change the face of the universe. "Combining 2D & 3D animation, this stylish, smart, futuristic film noir is an adrenaline-fueled,...
- 3/24/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Auction director/screenwriter Pascal Bonitzer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York exhibition Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800 Photo: Anne Katrin Titze
On the afternoon of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema première in New York of Auction, starring Alex Lutz and Louise Chevillotte with Léa Drucker and Olivier Rabourdin of Catherine Breillat’s incomparably daring Last Summer, the director/screenwriter joined me at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to check out Women Dressing Women at the Anna Wintour Costume Institute, before we strolled through the visionary exhibition Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800.
Inês de Medeiros with Laurence Côte in Jacques Rivette’s La Bande Des Quatre, co-written with Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent
In the second installment with the prolific and acclaimed director, screenwriter, actor, and former film critic for Cahiers du Cinéma, we discuss working again with Laurence Côte (seen as Ginette Kolinka in Olivier Dahan’s all-embracing portrait [film id=41673]Simone: Woman Of.
On the afternoon of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema première in New York of Auction, starring Alex Lutz and Louise Chevillotte with Léa Drucker and Olivier Rabourdin of Catherine Breillat’s incomparably daring Last Summer, the director/screenwriter joined me at The Metropolitan Museum of Art to check out Women Dressing Women at the Anna Wintour Costume Institute, before we strolled through the visionary exhibition Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800.
Inês de Medeiros with Laurence Côte in Jacques Rivette’s La Bande Des Quatre, co-written with Pascal Bonitzer and Christine Laurent
In the second installment with the prolific and acclaimed director, screenwriter, actor, and former film critic for Cahiers du Cinéma, we discuss working again with Laurence Côte (seen as Ginette Kolinka in Olivier Dahan’s all-embracing portrait [film id=41673]Simone: Woman Of.
- 3/7/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The César Awards are always the biggest night of the year for French cinema, but the massive award season impact of “Anatomy of a Fall” ensured that this year’s event took on additional importance for Oscar watchers around the globe. When the 49th César Awards took place in Paris on Friday night, all eyes were on Justine Triet and her Palme d’Or-winning film.
Predictably, “Anatomy of a Fall” swept many of the night’s biggest categories. In addition to winning the top prize of Best Film, Triet was honored with Best Director and shared Best Screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari. Stars Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.
The night’s other big winner was Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which won awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Sound.
Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 César Awards.
Predictably, “Anatomy of a Fall” swept many of the night’s biggest categories. In addition to winning the top prize of Best Film, Triet was honored with Best Director and shared Best Screenplay with her partner Arthur Harari. Stars Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaud also won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor, respectively.
The night’s other big winner was Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom,” which won awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Costume Design, and Sound.
Keep reading for a complete list of winners from the 2024 César Awards.
- 2/23/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
The 49th Cesar Awards, France’s top film honors, have been handed out in Paris, with Justine Triet‘s Oscar contender Anatomy of a Fall emerging as the big winner.
The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.
Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.
The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...
The French courtroom drama — which is competing at the Oscars in five categories — earned the best film prize, best actress for Sandra Hüller, best director for Triet, best original screenplay shared between Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari, and Swann Arlaud took home the best supporting actor trophy.
Hüller won in the best actress category over Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, nominated for Little Girl Blue; Lea Drucker, up for Last Summer; Hafsia Herzi, nominated for The Rapture; and Belgian actress Virginie Efira, nominated for her work in Just the Two of Us.
The other big winner on the night was The Animal Kingdom, French director Thomas Cailley’s follow-up to 2014’s Love at First Fight. Cailley picked up the best cinematography...
- 2/23/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Aurore (Louise Chevillotte) with André Masson (Alex Lutz) at Scottie’s in Pascal Bonitzer’s mysterious and witty Auction (Le Tableau Volé)
Catherine Breillat’s incomparably daring Last Summer starring Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher, and Olivier Rabourdin has received four César nominations: Best Director and Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Léa Drucker), Male Revelation (Samuel Kircher in competition with his brother Paul Kircher for Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom). In the first installment with Pascal Bonitzer, we start out discussing his work on Last Summer which is based on May el-Toukhy’s 2019 film Queen of Hearts and then delve into his latest film, Auction (Le Tableau Volé).
Pascal Bonitzer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Scottie’s in Auction: “It’s an allusion to Vertigo because it’s a great movie. Scottie’s, yes, it’s Sotheby’s, it’s Christie’s, it’s a big auction house.”
Pascal Bonitzer, who put a...
Catherine Breillat’s incomparably daring Last Summer starring Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher, and Olivier Rabourdin has received four César nominations: Best Director and Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Léa Drucker), Male Revelation (Samuel Kircher in competition with his brother Paul Kircher for Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom). In the first installment with Pascal Bonitzer, we start out discussing his work on Last Summer which is based on May el-Toukhy’s 2019 film Queen of Hearts and then delve into his latest film, Auction (Le Tableau Volé).
Pascal Bonitzer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Scottie’s in Auction: “It’s an allusion to Vertigo because it’s a great movie. Scottie’s, yes, it’s Sotheby’s, it’s Christie’s, it’s a big auction house.”
Pascal Bonitzer, who put a...
- 2/23/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Justine Triet’s Oscar-nominated Anatomy of a Fall and Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom are the front runners for this year’s Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. In nominations announced Wednesday, Anatomy picked up 11 Cesar noms and The Animal Kingdom 12. Both were nominated in the best film and best director categories.
Also nominated for best film are Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dog, All Your Faces from director Jeanne Herry and Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case.
France’s official Academy Award contender, Anh Hung Tran’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which missed out on an Oscar nom on Tuesday, picked up three Ceasar nominations, but none in the main categories.
German actress Sandra Hüller, a best actress nominee at this year’s Oscars for her starring turn in Anatomy of a Fall, is also up for the Cesar for best actress,...
Also nominated for best film are Jean-Baptiste Durand’s Junkyard Dog, All Your Faces from director Jeanne Herry and Cédric Kahn’s The Goldman Case.
France’s official Academy Award contender, Anh Hung Tran’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which missed out on an Oscar nom on Tuesday, picked up three Ceasar nominations, but none in the main categories.
German actress Sandra Hüller, a best actress nominee at this year’s Oscars for her starring turn in Anatomy of a Fall, is also up for the Cesar for best actress,...
- 1/24/2024
- by Scott Roxborough and Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Thomas Cailley’s fantasy drama The Animal Kingdom topped the nominations for France’s César Awards, which were announced in Paris on Wednesday.
The drama picked up 12 nominations with Justine Triet’s Oscar hopeful Anatomy Of A Fall coming in second with 11 nominations, followed by Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces, which nine, and The Goldman Case, with eight.
Set in a world where human beings start transmuting into animals, The Animal Kingdom world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023 and went on to make $8.5M at the box office last fall.
The Animal Kingdom and Anatomy of a Fall are competing in eight categories spanning Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Male Revelation, Editing, Sound, Cinematography and Production Design.
The high nomination count for Herry’s ensemble drama All Your Faces was thanks to the fact it dominated the Supporting Actress category with separate nominations for cast members Leila Bekhti,...
The drama picked up 12 nominations with Justine Triet’s Oscar hopeful Anatomy Of A Fall coming in second with 11 nominations, followed by Jeanne Herry’s All Your Faces, which nine, and The Goldman Case, with eight.
Set in a world where human beings start transmuting into animals, The Animal Kingdom world premiered as the opening film of Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2023 and went on to make $8.5M at the box office last fall.
The Animal Kingdom and Anatomy of a Fall are competing in eight categories spanning Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Male Revelation, Editing, Sound, Cinematography and Production Design.
The high nomination count for Herry’s ensemble drama All Your Faces was thanks to the fact it dominated the Supporting Actress category with separate nominations for cast members Leila Bekhti,...
- 1/24/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Thomas Cailley’s supernatural drama “The Animal Kingdom” and Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” are leading the race at the 49th Cesar Awards with 12 and 11 nominations, respectively.
Triet’s movie, which just garnered an impressive five Oscar nominations, and “The Animal Kingdom,” which opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and won a prize, will vie for top Cesar awards including best director and film.
“The Animal Kingdom” is an ambitious film that marks a departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism. It’s both a creature-filled dystopia and a father-and-son drama, weaving some contemporary concerns over the future of mankind. It’s produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films and co-produced by Artemis.
“Anatomy of a Fall,” meanwhile stars Sandra Hüller — the German actor nominated for Cesar, Oscar and BAFTA awards — as a novelist who is put on trial following the...
Triet’s movie, which just garnered an impressive five Oscar nominations, and “The Animal Kingdom,” which opened at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and won a prize, will vie for top Cesar awards including best director and film.
“The Animal Kingdom” is an ambitious film that marks a departure from France’s cinema tradition of social realism. It’s both a creature-filled dystopia and a father-and-son drama, weaving some contemporary concerns over the future of mankind. It’s produced by Pierre Guyard at Nord Ouest Films and co-produced by Artemis.
“Anatomy of a Fall,” meanwhile stars Sandra Hüller — the German actor nominated for Cesar, Oscar and BAFTA awards — as a novelist who is put on trial following the...
- 1/24/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall was named best film of the year at France’s Lumiere Awards on Monday evening.
Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari also took home the best screenplay award and lead Sandra Hüller earned the prize for best actress at the 29th edition of the awards, considered to be France’s version of the Golden Globes and voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.
The courtroom drama about a woman on trial for her husband’s death in the French Alps was nominated in six categories, but Lumiere voters spread their votes across the board...
Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari also took home the best screenplay award and lead Sandra Hüller earned the prize for best actress at the 29th edition of the awards, considered to be France’s version of the Golden Globes and voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.
The courtroom drama about a woman on trial for her husband’s death in the French Alps was nominated in six categories, but Lumiere voters spread their votes across the board...
- 1/22/2024
- ScreenDaily
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall continued its prize-winning run on Monday at France’s 29th Lumière Awards clinching Best Film and Best Screenplay, while its German star Sandra Hüller won Best Actress.
The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.
The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.
In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.
Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.
The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...
The Lumières fete the best films, performances and technical achievements of French cinema across 13 categories.
The French equivalent of the Golden Globes, they are voted on by the Académie des Lumières which is made up of France-based international journalists representing 36 countries.
In other key prizes, Thomas Cailley won Best Director for Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard opener The Animal Kingdom, while Arieh Worthalter won Best Actor for his performance in Cédric Khan’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight opener The Goldman Case.
Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, which was nominated in six Lumière categories, is on an award-winning streak.
The movie swept the board at the European Film Awards in Berlin last December...
- 1/22/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Kim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth and Body/Head on Catherine Breillat and the music with Anne-Katrin Titze and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman: “It was a real honour of my life to be in one of her films.”
In the first instalment with Kim Gordon on Catherine Breillat, we discuss the songs in Last Summer (L'Été Dernier) - Body/Head’s Tripping (Bill Nace and Kim Gordon), Sonic Youth’s Dirty Boots, and Léo Ferré’s Vingt Ans, and we are joined by music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman. Kim’s initial encounters with Breillat films are A Real Young Girl (Une Vraie Jeune Fille) and then 36 Fillette. We also touch on Kim’s latest work with French choreographer Dimitri Chamblas, Ed’s copy of the mastered cassette of their second album Bad Moon Rising Sonic Youth dropped off at 99, and a word on Brooks Headley’s Superiority Burger.
In the first instalment with Kim Gordon on Catherine Breillat, we discuss the songs in Last Summer (L'Été Dernier) - Body/Head’s Tripping (Bill Nace and Kim Gordon), Sonic Youth’s Dirty Boots, and Léo Ferré’s Vingt Ans, and we are joined by music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman. Kim’s initial encounters with Breillat films are A Real Young Girl (Une Vraie Jeune Fille) and then 36 Fillette. We also touch on Kim’s latest work with French choreographer Dimitri Chamblas, Ed’s copy of the mastered cassette of their second album Bad Moon Rising Sonic Youth dropped off at 99, and a word on Brooks Headley’s Superiority Burger.
- 1/19/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Orange Studio has boarded true-crime-tinged psychological thriller “An Ordinary Case” and will launch sales at this week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris. Top-lined, co-written and directed by French cinema stalwart Daniel Auteuil, this pulled-from-the-headlines drama also boasts “Borgen” and “Westworld” star Sidse Babett Knudsen alongside acclaimed actor Grégory Gadebois (“An Officer and a Spy”).
Auteuil adapted the feature from the work of Jean-Yves Moyart – a jurist-turned-blogger-turned-bestselling author who wrote of his experiences in the French legal system – and will star as Jean Monier, a disillusioned lawyer defending a man accused of murdering his wife. While all signs point to the accused’s guilt, Monier remains steadfast in his presumption of innocence. What begins as an ordinary case turns out to be anything but.
Following in the footsteps of Alice Diop’s Venice and César winner “Saint Omer,” of Cédric Kahn’s Cannes-acclaimed “The Goldman Case,” and of Justine Triet’s...
Auteuil adapted the feature from the work of Jean-Yves Moyart – a jurist-turned-blogger-turned-bestselling author who wrote of his experiences in the French legal system – and will star as Jean Monier, a disillusioned lawyer defending a man accused of murdering his wife. While all signs point to the accused’s guilt, Monier remains steadfast in his presumption of innocence. What begins as an ordinary case turns out to be anything but.
Following in the footsteps of Alice Diop’s Venice and César winner “Saint Omer,” of Cédric Kahn’s Cannes-acclaimed “The Goldman Case,” and of Justine Triet’s...
- 1/15/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
This week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris will kick off with the Tuesday night world premiere of Pascal Bonitzer’s “Auction” – a ripped-from-the-headlines ensemble drama set in the crosshairs of high art and high finance.
Produced by Sbs Productions and sold by Pyramide International, the art-world saga follows – among others – a hotshot auctioneer, his less-than-reliable assistant, and the working class bloke who sets the narrative in motion upon realizing that his erstwhile innocuous wall art bears the signature of Egon Schiele.
Writer-director Pascal Bonitzer originally thought to explore this world of high-verve auctioneers as a series, but keyed into the story’s singular, cinematic potential thanks to the real-life discovery of Schiele masterworks thought lost during World War II.
“I was fascinated by this collision of two worlds,” Bonitzer tells Variety. “On the one hand, these auctioneers need to play a game – they must seduce potential sellers, wresting artifacts from...
Produced by Sbs Productions and sold by Pyramide International, the art-world saga follows – among others – a hotshot auctioneer, his less-than-reliable assistant, and the working class bloke who sets the narrative in motion upon realizing that his erstwhile innocuous wall art bears the signature of Egon Schiele.
Writer-director Pascal Bonitzer originally thought to explore this world of high-verve auctioneers as a series, but keyed into the story’s singular, cinematic potential thanks to the real-life discovery of Schiele masterworks thought lost during World War II.
“I was fascinated by this collision of two worlds,” Bonitzer tells Variety. “On the one hand, these auctioneers need to play a game – they must seduce potential sellers, wresting artifacts from...
- 1/15/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
France’s awards season has officially kicked off with Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” landing six nominations at the Lumières Awards, including best film and director.
The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.
Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.
“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...
The courtroom drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, is the season’s frontrunner. The Lumières are voted on by Paris-based correspondents working for foreign outlets across 36 countries.
Sandra Huller, who stars in the film as a German novelist put on trial after her French husband dies mysteriously, is nominated for best actress, while Milo Machado Graner, who plays her astute, low-vision son, is nominated for best male newcomer.
“Anatomy of Fall” has been on a roll, garnering a raft of international prizes at the European Film Awards, Gothams, as well as Los Angeles and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, along with four Golden Globe nominations for best film, screenplay, actress and foreign film. The movie that was...
- 12/15/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Catherine Breillat on Léa Drucker in Last Summer (L’Été Dernier) and Alfred Hitchcock’s heroine wardrobe: “I said to Léa, think about Vertigo and Kim Novak! But then I think she is more Tippi Hedren.”
Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer stars Léa Drucker and Samuel Kircher with Olivier Rabourdin, Clotilde Courau, Serena Hu, and Angela Chen. The film is based on May el-Toukhy’s 2019 Queen of Hearts, starring Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, and Magnus Krepper. Last Summer shares a theme with the NYFF Opening Night Gala selection, Todd Haynes’s May December, where a reversal of age also takes central stage.
Catherine Breillat, with Anne-Katrin Titze, reveals the Christophe Honoré, Winter Boy, Paul Kircher and Samuel Kircher connection for Last Summer
Breillat, incomparably daring as ever, tells the story of Anne (Drucker), a successful lawyer, who lives with her businessman husband Pierre (Rabourdin) and their two headstrong, adopted daughters,...
Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer stars Léa Drucker and Samuel Kircher with Olivier Rabourdin, Clotilde Courau, Serena Hu, and Angela Chen. The film is based on May el-Toukhy’s 2019 Queen of Hearts, starring Trine Dyrholm, Gustav Lindh, and Magnus Krepper. Last Summer shares a theme with the NYFF Opening Night Gala selection, Todd Haynes’s May December, where a reversal of age also takes central stage.
Catherine Breillat, with Anne-Katrin Titze, reveals the Christophe Honoré, Winter Boy, Paul Kircher and Samuel Kircher connection for Last Summer
Breillat, incomparably daring as ever, tells the story of Anne (Drucker), a successful lawyer, who lives with her businessman husband Pierre (Rabourdin) and their two headstrong, adopted daughters,...
- 12/14/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall is the frontrunner for France’s Lumiere awards, the country’s answer to the Golden Globes, with 6 nominations, including for best film and best director.
The courtroom drama, starring Sandra Hüller as a writer who may have murdered her husband, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and swept the European Film Awards on the weekend, taking 5 trophies, including best film. Anatomy of Fall, a Neon release in the U.S., has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes.
Tran Anh Hung’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which was picked over Anatomy of a Fall as France’s country’s official Oscar contender in the best international feature category, received just one Lumiere nom, for best cinematography.
Another French courtroom drama, Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, picked up 5 Lumiere noms, tying with Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom.
The courtroom drama, starring Sandra Hüller as a writer who may have murdered her husband, won the Palme d’Or in Cannes this year and swept the European Film Awards on the weekend, taking 5 trophies, including best film. Anatomy of Fall, a Neon release in the U.S., has been nominated for 4 Golden Globes.
Tran Anh Hung’s foodie period drama The Taste of Things, which was picked over Anatomy of a Fall as France’s country’s official Oscar contender in the best international feature category, received just one Lumiere nom, for best cinematography.
Another French courtroom drama, Cedric Kahn’s The Goldman Case, picked up 5 Lumiere noms, tying with Thomas Cailley’s sci-fi tale The Animal Kingdom.
- 12/14/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Lumieres are voted on by international correspondents from 36 countries.
Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning Anatomy Of A Fall leads the nominations for France’s Lumiere awards, nominated in six categories, including best film and best director.
Cedric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case and Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, have each received five nominations.
All three films have been nominated in the best film category alongside Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer that earned four nominations and Clément Cogitore’s Son of Ramses with three.
The filmmakers of all five of those titles have also been nominated for best director.
Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winning Anatomy Of A Fall leads the nominations for France’s Lumiere awards, nominated in six categories, including best film and best director.
Cedric Kahn’s courtroom drama The Goldman Case and Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom, have each received five nominations.
All three films have been nominated in the best film category alongside Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer that earned four nominations and Clément Cogitore’s Son of Ramses with three.
The filmmakers of all five of those titles have also been nominated for best director.
- 12/14/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Former French President François Hollande has found a new gig. The Socialist Party leader, who served as the leader of France before current President Emmanuel Macron, has joined the voice cast of Silex & the City – The Movie, a feature-film spinoff of a popular, Simpsons-style short-format animated series.
Hollande will lend his famous voice to the new film, which is currently in production, joining more established French talent including Bruno Solo, Julie Gayet, Stéphane Bern, Léa Drucker, Frédéric Beigbeder, Guillaume Gallienne, Léa Salamé and Amélie Nothomb.
Silex & the City follows a Stone Age family, the Dotcoms who embark on a time-travel adventure into the future. Father Blog, voiced by Franck Ekinci, mother Spam (Noémie De Lattre) and their rebellious children Url (Fabien Limousin) and Web (Camille Serceau) are familiar to French audiences. A short-form series based on the comic of the same name by French cartoonist Jul has been a...
Hollande will lend his famous voice to the new film, which is currently in production, joining more established French talent including Bruno Solo, Julie Gayet, Stéphane Bern, Léa Drucker, Frédéric Beigbeder, Guillaume Gallienne, Léa Salamé and Amélie Nothomb.
Silex & the City follows a Stone Age family, the Dotcoms who embark on a time-travel adventure into the future. Father Blog, voiced by Franck Ekinci, mother Spam (Noémie De Lattre) and their rebellious children Url (Fabien Limousin) and Web (Camille Serceau) are familiar to French audiences. A short-form series based on the comic of the same name by French cartoonist Jul has been a...
- 12/8/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Former French President François Hollande is part of the voice cast for “Silex & the City – The Movie,” a big-screen spinoff of the popular short-format animated series set in the Stone Age.
“Silex & the City” is adapted from the comic book series by the same name created by French cartoonist Jul, which has sold over a million copies. The animated series, meanwhile, has been a hit on Franco-German network Arte, airing on primetime.
Written and co-directed by Jul alongside Jean-Paul Guigue, the film will blend 2D animation with live-action sequences. Besides Hollande, the well-known voice cast includes Bruno Solo, Julie Gayet, Stéphane Bern, Léa Drucker, Frédéric Beigbeder, Guillaume Gallienne, Léa Salamé and Amélie Nothomb. Now in production, the film is expected to be completed by spring 2024.
“Silex & the City – The Movie” follows the adventure of the Dotcom family — which consists of hunting professor Blog, geography teacher Spam and their rebellious children...
“Silex & the City” is adapted from the comic book series by the same name created by French cartoonist Jul, which has sold over a million copies. The animated series, meanwhile, has been a hit on Franco-German network Arte, airing on primetime.
Written and co-directed by Jul alongside Jean-Paul Guigue, the film will blend 2D animation with live-action sequences. Besides Hollande, the well-known voice cast includes Bruno Solo, Julie Gayet, Stéphane Bern, Léa Drucker, Frédéric Beigbeder, Guillaume Gallienne, Léa Salamé and Amélie Nothomb. Now in production, the film is expected to be completed by spring 2024.
“Silex & the City – The Movie” follows the adventure of the Dotcom family — which consists of hunting professor Blog, geography teacher Spam and their rebellious children...
- 12/7/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Alex Lutz stars in Pascal Bontizer’s Auction slated to open the 26th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris next month Photo: UniFrance If it’s January in the world of le cinéma français it must be the Unifrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema which will open in Paris on 16 January with Pascal Bonitzer’s new film Auction (Le Tableau Volé) featuring a cast of Alex Lutz (whose Strangers By Night closed Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year).
The cast also features Léa Drucker, Louise Chevillotte and Nora Hamzawi. Lutz plays an auctioneer who is alerted to a rare canvas by Egon Schiele, found in Mulhouse, near the Swiss-German borders - but he becomes suspicious about its authenticity and decides to investigate further.
Pascal Bonitzer presents his ninth feature as a director at the Uni-France Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris Photo: UniFrance Bonitzer...
The cast also features Léa Drucker, Louise Chevillotte and Nora Hamzawi. Lutz plays an auctioneer who is alerted to a rare canvas by Egon Schiele, found in Mulhouse, near the Swiss-German borders - but he becomes suspicious about its authenticity and decides to investigate further.
Pascal Bonitzer presents his ninth feature as a director at the Uni-France Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris Photo: UniFrance Bonitzer...
- 12/4/2023
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"What did Jun do to the android?" Unifrance has debuted the official French trailer with English subtitles for the acclaimed, incredible animated sci-fi film Mars Express. I've been raving about this film ever since its premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and insanely awesome sci-fi spectacular that is kind of a 2023 update on Ghost in the Shell. In the future, private detective Aline Ruby and her android partner are hired by a wealthy businessman to track down a notorious hacker. On Mars, they descend deep into the underbelly of the planet's capital city where they uncover a darker story of brain farms, corruption, and a missing girl who holds a secret about the robots that threaten to change the face of the universe. "Combining 2D & 3D animation, this stylish, smart, futuristic film noir is an adrenaline-fuelled, cinematic adventure, packed with humor and exhilarating action sequences." Featuring the voices of Léa Drucker,...
- 11/27/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
GKids has North American rights to the Cannes and Annecy title.
GKids has scooped North American rights to stylish space-set French animation feature Mars Express from mk2 Films, which has also sold the film to other key territories worldwide.
Jérémie Périn’s debut feature, which premiered in Cannes and played in competition at Annecy, is an action-driven futuristic film noir that blends 2D and 3D animation and poses questions about humanity’s relationship with AI.
GKids will release the film in theatres in its original French language in addition to a new English-dubbed version in 2024 following a November 22 release in France via Gebeka Films.
GKids has scooped North American rights to stylish space-set French animation feature Mars Express from mk2 Films, which has also sold the film to other key territories worldwide.
Jérémie Périn’s debut feature, which premiered in Cannes and played in competition at Annecy, is an action-driven futuristic film noir that blends 2D and 3D animation and poses questions about humanity’s relationship with AI.
GKids will release the film in theatres in its original French language in addition to a new English-dubbed version in 2024 following a November 22 release in France via Gebeka Films.
- 10/26/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
She was pulled from obscurity (or non-retirement since her last feature was 2013’s Abuse of Weakness) when Saïd Ben Saïd optioned the rights to 2019 Danish film Queen of Hearts and then proposed it French filmmaker Catherine Breillat, and as luck would have it Léa Drucker would join a pantheon of memorable morally complex roles for actresses that we find in Breillat cinema. In Last Summer (L’été dernier), Drucker plays Anne, a lawyer who specializes in cases of sexual consent and parental custody while she is the matriarch of two adopted children and she then swims in murky waters in her relationship with teenage son (Théo) of her current husband.…...
- 10/23/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
If cinema often attempts to stoke our erotic fantasies with soft lighting and rehearsed movements that have little to do with sex as many of us experience it, Catherine Breillat’s films serve as a counterpoint. The French filmmaker and novelist is less concerned with eroticism than with the power that sex represents, and her most intimate scenes are often so unpleasurable as to be as unrealistic in their own way as conventionally arousing sequences. Watching movie sex that isn’t meant to be a turn-on can push one to contemplate what else is going on between the people in the frame. And in Last Summer, her remake of the 2019 Danish film Queen of Hearts, Breillat brings her icy, unwaveringly sober sensibilities to one of the most common of American pop cultural sex fantasies: a teenager’s tryst with a Milf.
Perhaps only Breillat would open a film about an...
Perhaps only Breillat would open a film about an...
- 9/8/2023
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
French industry to descend on La Rochelle to premiere high-end drama series to the world.
Disney+’s French original Irrésistible, Canal+ legal drama Conviction, TF1’s Behind Closed Doors from Coda producers’ Jerico TV and Swedish thriller Evil are among the French and European titles that will premiere at France’s Festival de la Fiction, taking place in La Rochelle from September 12-17.
The event, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023, has long been a popular ‘back-to-school’ festival for the French industry, with a strong focus on French series, Its international appeal is growing and it has become a significant launchpad for European content.
Disney+’s French original Irrésistible, Canal+ legal drama Conviction, TF1’s Behind Closed Doors from Coda producers’ Jerico TV and Swedish thriller Evil are among the French and European titles that will premiere at France’s Festival de la Fiction, taking place in La Rochelle from September 12-17.
The event, which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2023, has long been a popular ‘back-to-school’ festival for the French industry, with a strong focus on French series, Its international appeal is growing and it has become a significant launchpad for European content.
- 8/29/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Last Summer.Catherine Breillat holds eye contact with such intensity that it’s difficult not to feel a little intimidated in her presence. It’s an apt trait for a filmmaker of equally, and brilliantly, intimidating films. Unafraid, even eager, to cause discomfort, Breillat has dedicated her career to the cinematic excavation of taboo subjects and liberating female desire onscreen.With her first film in ten years, Last Summer, Breillat presents a reworking of May el-Toukhy’s 2019 film Queen of Hearts in which a lawyer, predominantly working on sexual assault cases, has an affair with her 17-year-old stepson. The project is challenging in the ways you might expect from the filmmaker, but somehow tamer, too; the sex is not explicit in the manner of Romance (1999) or Anatomy of Hell (2004), nor are the shocks quite as violent as they are in her widely celebrated Fat Girl (2001). Her approach here feels more...
- 7/12/2023
- MUBI
Playing in competition in Annecy after premiering in Cannes, Jérémie Périn’s sci-fi thriller “Mars Express” offers an uncommon spin on modern anxieties — particularly when it comes to AI.
“We so often imagine that if robots became sentient, they’ll kill us,” Périn tells Variety. “Or we see many sci-fi films where robots want to become human. In short, humans are always the point of reference – so mysterious and strange and interesting, such an amazing species. We’re a bit pretentious, and I didn’t want to play on that.”
Written by Périn and Laurent Sarfati, “Mars Express” serves a heady pop-culture cocktail, mixing hard-boiled fiction with science-fantasy comix, riffing on Philip Marlow and Philip K. Dick (with winks to “Watchmen” and “Robocop” and oh so many more) with a mystery yarn that places humans and cyborgs on equal footing.
“The film says robots and human are different, so we have to accept those differences.
“We so often imagine that if robots became sentient, they’ll kill us,” Périn tells Variety. “Or we see many sci-fi films where robots want to become human. In short, humans are always the point of reference – so mysterious and strange and interesting, such an amazing species. We’re a bit pretentious, and I didn’t want to play on that.”
Written by Périn and Laurent Sarfati, “Mars Express” serves a heady pop-culture cocktail, mixing hard-boiled fiction with science-fantasy comix, riffing on Philip Marlow and Philip K. Dick (with winks to “Watchmen” and “Robocop” and oh so many more) with a mystery yarn that places humans and cyborgs on equal footing.
“The film says robots and human are different, so we have to accept those differences.
- 6/12/2023
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Sideshow & Janus Films Take North American Rights To Catherine Breillat’s Cannes Title ‘Last Summer’
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights for Catherine Breillat’s drama Last Summer (L’été dernier) following its well-received premiere in competition in the final days of the Cannes Film Festival (May 16-27).
Breillat’s first feature in a decade, the drama continues the director’s career-long penchant for breaking taboos.
Lea Drucker stars as a successful family lawyer specializing in child protection, living a seemingly perfect life with her husband and their two young daughters in a well-heeled Paris suburb.
She jeopardizes everything when she embarks on a forbidden affair with her dissolute 17-year-old stepson, played by (Samuel Kircher) in a move that will have explosive consequences for all involved.
Saïd Ben Saïd lead produced the film under the banner of his Paris-based company Sbs Production.
The film is adapted from Danish director May El-Thoukhy’s award-winning 2019 drama Queen Of Hearts, by Breillat in collaboration with Pascal Bonitzer.
Breillat’s first feature in a decade, the drama continues the director’s career-long penchant for breaking taboos.
Lea Drucker stars as a successful family lawyer specializing in child protection, living a seemingly perfect life with her husband and their two young daughters in a well-heeled Paris suburb.
She jeopardizes everything when she embarks on a forbidden affair with her dissolute 17-year-old stepson, played by (Samuel Kircher) in a move that will have explosive consequences for all involved.
Saïd Ben Saïd lead produced the film under the banner of his Paris-based company Sbs Production.
The film is adapted from Danish director May El-Thoukhy’s award-winning 2019 drama Queen Of Hearts, by Breillat in collaboration with Pascal Bonitzer.
- 6/2/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights for Catherine Breillat’s explosive drama “Last Summer” which competed at the Cannes Film Festival.
Produced by Said Ben Said at Sbs, the film stars Léa Drucker as Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives in perfect harmony with her husband Pierre and their six and eight‐year‐old daughters in the suburbs of Paris. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. Anne is troubled by Theo and gradually engages in a passionate relationship with him, putting her career and family life in danger.
Drucker stars opposite Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin. Breillat wrote the film with the collaboration of Pascal Bonitzer. It’s an adaptation of May el-Toukhy’s “Queen of Hearts” which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2019. Sideshow and Janus Films are planning a theatrical release following fall festivals.
“Catherine...
Produced by Said Ben Said at Sbs, the film stars Léa Drucker as Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives in perfect harmony with her husband Pierre and their six and eight‐year‐old daughters in the suburbs of Paris. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. Anne is troubled by Theo and gradually engages in a passionate relationship with him, putting her career and family life in danger.
Drucker stars opposite Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin. Breillat wrote the film with the collaboration of Pascal Bonitzer. It’s an adaptation of May el-Toukhy’s “Queen of Hearts” which won the Audience Award at Sundance in 2019. Sideshow and Janus Films are planning a theatrical release following fall festivals.
“Catherine...
- 6/2/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Sideshow and Janus Films have snatched up another of this year’s Cannes Festival favorites, picking up rights in North America for Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer.
The feature, which premiered in the Cannes competition lineup, is a French adaptation of May el-Toukhy’s Danish drama Queen of Hearts, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2019. In the French version, Léa Drucker stars as Anne, a brilliant lawyer with a seemingly perfect husband and family film who puts everything at risk when she starts up a passionate love affair with her teenage stepson. Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin co-star. Last Summer was produced by Saïd Ben Saïd for Sbs production. The film is Breillat’s first feature in a decade, since Abuse of Weakness in 2013.
“Catherine Breillat is one of the boldest and most thought-provoking directors on the subject of desire,” said Sideshow and Janus Films in a statement.
The feature, which premiered in the Cannes competition lineup, is a French adaptation of May el-Toukhy’s Danish drama Queen of Hearts, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize in 2019. In the French version, Léa Drucker stars as Anne, a brilliant lawyer with a seemingly perfect husband and family film who puts everything at risk when she starts up a passionate love affair with her teenage stepson. Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin co-star. Last Summer was produced by Saïd Ben Saïd for Sbs production. The film is Breillat’s first feature in a decade, since Abuse of Weakness in 2013.
“Catherine Breillat is one of the boldest and most thought-provoking directors on the subject of desire,” said Sideshow and Janus Films in a statement.
- 6/2/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Deal follows acquisition of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses.
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights from Pyramide International to Catherine Breillat’s Cannes Competition selection Last Summer (L’été Dernier).
‘Last Summer’: Cannes Review
Breillat’s first film in a decade since 2013 TIFF entry Abuse Of Weakness tells of Anne, a brilliant lawyer whose harmonious Paris life with husband Pierre and their daughters is thrown into disarray when she has an affair with her stepson.
Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin star in the Sbs production produced by Saïd Ben Saïd. Breillat and...
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights from Pyramide International to Catherine Breillat’s Cannes Competition selection Last Summer (L’été Dernier).
‘Last Summer’: Cannes Review
Breillat’s first film in a decade since 2013 TIFF entry Abuse Of Weakness tells of Anne, a brilliant lawyer whose harmonious Paris life with husband Pierre and their daughters is thrown into disarray when she has an affair with her stepson.
Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin star in the Sbs production produced by Saïd Ben Saïd. Breillat and...
- 6/2/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired all North American rights for “Last Summer,” directed by Catherine Breillat, her first film in a decade, the companies announced on Friday.
The film, which just screened In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, tells the story of Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives in perfect harmony with her husband Pierre and their six and eight‐year‐old daughters in the suburbs of Paris. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. Anne is troubled by Theo and gradually engages in a passionate relationship with him, putting her career and family life in danger. It stars Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin.
“Last Summer” is an Sbs production and is produced by Saïd Ben Saïd. It’s written by Breillat with the collaboration of Pascal Bonitzer and adapted from the film “Queen of Hearts...
The film, which just screened In Competition at the Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews, tells the story of Anne, a brilliant lawyer who lives in perfect harmony with her husband Pierre and their six and eight‐year‐old daughters in the suburbs of Paris. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. Anne is troubled by Theo and gradually engages in a passionate relationship with him, putting her career and family life in danger. It stars Léa Drucker, Samuel Kircher and Olivier Rabourdin.
“Last Summer” is an Sbs production and is produced by Saïd Ben Saïd. It’s written by Breillat with the collaboration of Pascal Bonitzer and adapted from the film “Queen of Hearts...
- 6/2/2023
- by Umberto Gonzalez
- The Wrap
Last Summer... (Catherine Breillat).There’s nothing quite like the rush of a bolt-from-the-blue discovery—the real-time realization, while in a darkened theater, that one is witnessing the emergence of a major cinematic voice. The closest this year’s Cannes came to offering such an experience was with the premiere of Pham Thien An’s Directors’ Fortnight selection Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, a deserving recipient of this year’s Caméra d’Or. Immediately notable for its expansive 182-minute runtime, the film, Pham’s first, comprises numerous extremely long takes which call to mind the sequence shots of Shinji Sōmai, with complex choreography that does not conceal the artificiality (and occasional strain) of their production, and which are ultimately less concerned with Bazinian realism than with creating an indiscernibility between the real and the imaginary. Until its title card drops over half-an-hour in, Yellow Cocoon Shell impresses not just for its technical prowess,...
- 6/1/2023
- MUBI
Like some of her most memorable films, including 36 Fillette, Romance, Sex is Comedy and Anatomy of Hell, French writer-director Catherine Breillat’s new feature, Last Summer (L’Été dernier), dangerously straddles borders between unnerving drama, dark comedy and erotic exploitation — which is precisely the place the director wants to be.
On the surface, the plot seems to come right out of a softcore stepmom flick, following a successful lawyer, Anne (Léa Drucker), having an illicit affair with her stepson, Théo (Samuel Kircher), a rebellious 17-year-old who looks like a camera stand-in for Timothée Chalamet. But while the film might follow that template at first blush, including a handful of rather direct sex scenes, Breillat is after something other than mere Skinemax fodder, probing the depths of desire among a bourgeoisie constrained to live out dull, cold existences, and the manipulation that can happen between two lovers with a significant age gap.
On the surface, the plot seems to come right out of a softcore stepmom flick, following a successful lawyer, Anne (Léa Drucker), having an illicit affair with her stepson, Théo (Samuel Kircher), a rebellious 17-year-old who looks like a camera stand-in for Timothée Chalamet. But while the film might follow that template at first blush, including a handful of rather direct sex scenes, Breillat is after something other than mere Skinemax fodder, probing the depths of desire among a bourgeoisie constrained to live out dull, cold existences, and the manipulation that can happen between two lovers with a significant age gap.
- 5/27/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Saturday marks the final day of the Cannes Film Festival, with the usual closing ceremonies and awards presentations along with the out-of-competition premiere of Pixar’s “Elemental.” Let us all hope that Disney release earns better festival notices than Lucafilm’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.”
“Perfect Days” makes a perfect debut.
Perfect Days. Did Wim Wenders just make his best film since Until The End Of The World? Holy crap.
— Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) May 26, 2023
Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” was the hero of the day, earning strong notices and the now-standard standing ovation. TheWrap’s Nicholas Barber called it “an endearing, admiring portrait of a decent man.” The near-consensus was that Wenders had made his best narrative film in a very long time. The film has already been acquired by Neon, which has been on a shopping spree with “this film”Perfect Days, “Robot Dreams” and “Anatomy of a Fall.
“Perfect Days” makes a perfect debut.
Perfect Days. Did Wim Wenders just make his best film since Until The End Of The World? Holy crap.
— Bilge Ebiri (@BilgeEbiri) May 26, 2023
Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” was the hero of the day, earning strong notices and the now-standard standing ovation. TheWrap’s Nicholas Barber called it “an endearing, admiring portrait of a decent man.” The near-consensus was that Wenders had made his best narrative film in a very long time. The film has already been acquired by Neon, which has been on a shopping spree with “this film”Perfect Days, “Robot Dreams” and “Anatomy of a Fall.
- 5/26/2023
- by Scott Mendelson
- The Wrap
Anne (Léa Drucker) is an esteemed lawyer: as uncompromising as she is in her line of work, she is free to enjoy her private life. In her ’40s she has it all, the job and the family she never thought would come. So begins Catherine Breillat’s newest film, Last Summer, which may be a remake of May el-Toukhy’s 2019 adulterous drama Queen of Hearts, but yields to the French filmmaker’s every wish. Even though we never get any backstory to Anne’s character, it’s hinted that her youth was not a pleasant one, as an early abortion took away the possibility to have children of her own. But now, in the summer of her life, she is a mother of two adopted girls and stepmother to an unruly teenager named Théo (Samuel Kircher), from her husband Pierre’s (Olivier Rabourdin) previous marriage. Amidst the idyllic rituals of daily life in the countryside,...
- 5/26/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- The Film Stage
The French outfit has had a productive Cannes.
Pyramide International has signed a number of key sales for mathematics world-set Marguerite’s Theorem and Critics’ Week opener Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria and kept up the momentum on Catherine Breillat’s Competition title Last Summer.
Anna Novion’s Special Screening title Marguerite’s Theorem has sold to Adso in Spain, Red Cape in Israel, Angel Films for Scandinavia, Jinjin in Korea, Wanted in Italy, Weltkino Filmverleih in Germany, Teleview in the Middle East and Discovery in the former Yugoslavia, with discussions ongoing for Australia, Latin America and Taiwan.
Ella Rumpf stars a...
Pyramide International has signed a number of key sales for mathematics world-set Marguerite’s Theorem and Critics’ Week opener Marie Amachoukeli’s Ama Gloria and kept up the momentum on Catherine Breillat’s Competition title Last Summer.
Anna Novion’s Special Screening title Marguerite’s Theorem has sold to Adso in Spain, Red Cape in Israel, Angel Films for Scandinavia, Jinjin in Korea, Wanted in Italy, Weltkino Filmverleih in Germany, Teleview in the Middle East and Discovery in the former Yugoslavia, with discussions ongoing for Australia, Latin America and Taiwan.
Ella Rumpf stars a...
- 5/26/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
French director Catherine Breillat has been breaking taboos throughout her career and her new Cannes Palme d’Or contender Last Summer is no exception.
The erotic thriller stars Lea Drucker as Anne, a family lawyer specializing in child protection, who embarks on a forbidden affair with her dissolute 17-year-old stepson Theo (Samuel Kircher), with devastating consequences. Read Stephanie Bunbury’s review for Deadline here.
The film has been warmly received in Cannes where it world premiered to a long standing ovation on Thursday evening.
Breillat addressed the provocative plotline in the press conference for the film on Friday, saying the initial relationship between Anne and Theo was “pure love”.
“I think that when they fall in love it’s unconscious, there’s a kind of happiness, a sort of intoxication that takes over. They’re not analyzing what’s going on. That’s why she is not a predator, it’s something else,...
The erotic thriller stars Lea Drucker as Anne, a family lawyer specializing in child protection, who embarks on a forbidden affair with her dissolute 17-year-old stepson Theo (Samuel Kircher), with devastating consequences. Read Stephanie Bunbury’s review for Deadline here.
The film has been warmly received in Cannes where it world premiered to a long standing ovation on Thursday evening.
Breillat addressed the provocative plotline in the press conference for the film on Friday, saying the initial relationship between Anne and Theo was “pure love”.
“I think that when they fall in love it’s unconscious, there’s a kind of happiness, a sort of intoxication that takes over. They’re not analyzing what’s going on. That’s why she is not a predator, it’s something else,...
- 5/26/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Almost a full decade away from the camera since, Catherine Breillat returns to the competition with L’Été dernier (Last Summer). This is her second time here after 2007’s Une vieille maîtresse. Best known for Romance (1999), Fat Girl (2001), and Anatomy of Hell (2004), her 2013 Abuse of Weakness was a TIFF premiere.
A remake of May el-Toukhy’s Queen of Hearts – this sees Anne (Léa Drucker) a respected lawyer who lives in Paris with her husband Pierre and their two young daughters. Théo, Pierre’s 17-year-old son (Samuel Kircher) from a previous marriage, moves in, and Anne eventually begins an affair with him.…...
A remake of May el-Toukhy’s Queen of Hearts – this sees Anne (Léa Drucker) a respected lawyer who lives in Paris with her husband Pierre and their two young daughters. Théo, Pierre’s 17-year-old son (Samuel Kircher) from a previous marriage, moves in, and Anne eventually begins an affair with him.…...
- 5/26/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Breillat’s remake of Queen of Hearts rather pointlessly draws the sting from a mother’s affair with her teenage stepson
Catherine Breillat has made a hot – or rather tepid – mess of this remake of the very recent Danish erotic thriller Queen of Hearts, and it’s not immediately clear why exactly she felt she needed to direct her own moderate version. The changes amount to smudging the original’s icy Scandi sheen, decreasing its erotic excitement, making the performances more laboured and thus leaving the story’s essential preposterousness dangerously exposed.
The first film, from writer-director May el-Toukhy, featured Trine Dyrholm as an elegant career lawyer specialising in representing rape victims who has a passionate affair with her teen stepson; that is, her husband’s moody son by his first marriage. Now the action is transplanted from chilly Denmark to sunny, summery France and Léa Drucker plays legal high-flyer Anne,...
Catherine Breillat has made a hot – or rather tepid – mess of this remake of the very recent Danish erotic thriller Queen of Hearts, and it’s not immediately clear why exactly she felt she needed to direct her own moderate version. The changes amount to smudging the original’s icy Scandi sheen, decreasing its erotic excitement, making the performances more laboured and thus leaving the story’s essential preposterousness dangerously exposed.
The first film, from writer-director May el-Toukhy, featured Trine Dyrholm as an elegant career lawyer specialising in representing rape victims who has a passionate affair with her teen stepson; that is, her husband’s moody son by his first marriage. Now the action is transplanted from chilly Denmark to sunny, summery France and Léa Drucker plays legal high-flyer Anne,...
- 5/25/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Still breaking boundaries at the age of 74, French filmmaker Catherine Breillat returns to the Cannes competition with a film that squarely confronts the one taboo that is still ring-fenced from liberal tolerance: sex between adults and children. In the past, she has worked with porn stars, was one of the first to show an erection in an arthouse film and earned herself the moniker “porno auteuriste.”
Last Summer is less graphic, but just as disquieting – not simply for the fact that a woman in early middle-age has an explosive affair with her teenage stepson, but for the way Breillat shows a bourgeois family fracturing, papering over the cracks with lies and ultimately repairing itself, the salves of silence and hypocrisy ensuring that nothing unpleasant is exposed and nothing changes. A highly politically charged film, therefore, even though it mostly concerns itself with a woman and a boy having sex behind the woodshed.
Last Summer is less graphic, but just as disquieting – not simply for the fact that a woman in early middle-age has an explosive affair with her teenage stepson, but for the way Breillat shows a bourgeois family fracturing, papering over the cracks with lies and ultimately repairing itself, the salves of silence and hypocrisy ensuring that nothing unpleasant is exposed and nothing changes. A highly politically charged film, therefore, even though it mostly concerns itself with a woman and a boy having sex behind the woodshed.
- 5/25/2023
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
It began in the son’s room, when the father was away on business. L’enfant thought it was l’amour, but for her, 30-odd years his senior, the sex, lies and audiotape were a mistake. Wild at heart, she’d yielded to the taste of … oh, never mind. Competing for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Catherine Breillat’s “Last Summer” echoes films that have come before — most notably, 2019 Danish drama “Queen of Hearts,” on which it’s based — but it proves most daring in the ways the film departs from its more conventionally moralistic source, and especially in Breillat’s refusal to call either party a parasite.
Yes, the affair between a lawyer and her 17-year-old stepson is a betrayal — of her marriage, of her parental responsibilities, of everything she stands for as an attorney — but that’s nothing compared with how the 50-ish woman deals with it...
Yes, the affair between a lawyer and her 17-year-old stepson is a betrayal — of her marriage, of her parental responsibilities, of everything she stands for as an attorney — but that’s nothing compared with how the 50-ish woman deals with it...
- 5/25/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Here’s something to ponder through the lulls of “Last Summer:” Can a film without much spark really be said to fizzle? Such thoughts danced across many a mind at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where Catherine Breillat’s scandal-courting transgression drama mostly inspired yawns.
More inert than inept, “Last Summer” arrived in Cannes with fraught expectations: This is Breillat’s first film in a decade and a faithful remake of May el-Toukhy’s acclaimed “Queen of Hearts” — and within the Venn diagram of cinephiles who impatiently awaited Breillat’s follow-up to 2013’s “Abuse of Weakness,” and journalists who reviewed and celebrated that 2019 Danish drama you could probably fit the entire Palais.
Like a cover song that follows the same notes but changes the emphasis, “Last Summer” tracks a high-powered juvenile rights attorney who begins a taboo fling with her underage stepson. The lawyer here is Anne, a...
More inert than inept, “Last Summer” arrived in Cannes with fraught expectations: This is Breillat’s first film in a decade and a faithful remake of May el-Toukhy’s acclaimed “Queen of Hearts” — and within the Venn diagram of cinephiles who impatiently awaited Breillat’s follow-up to 2013’s “Abuse of Weakness,” and journalists who reviewed and celebrated that 2019 Danish drama you could probably fit the entire Palais.
Like a cover song that follows the same notes but changes the emphasis, “Last Summer” tracks a high-powered juvenile rights attorney who begins a taboo fling with her underage stepson. The lawyer here is Anne, a...
- 5/25/2023
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
Pyramide seals deals on Cannes Competition title ‘Last Summer’; boards Wang Bing trilogy (exclusive)
Catherine Breillat’s erotic drama is a remake of May el-Toukhy’s Queen Of Hearts.
Paris-based Pyramide International has closed deals in key territories for Catherine Breillat’s erotic thriller Last Summer ahead of the film’s world premiere in Competition at Cannes later this month.
Pyramide has sold the film to September Films in Benelux, Potential Films in Australia and New Zealand, Nk Contents in South Korea, Xenix Film in Switzerland, Hooray Films in Taiwan, Estinfilm in the Baltics and Nashe Kino in Russia.
Last Summer stars Léa Drucker as a lawyer who develops a relationship with her 17-year-old...
Paris-based Pyramide International has closed deals in key territories for Catherine Breillat’s erotic thriller Last Summer ahead of the film’s world premiere in Competition at Cannes later this month.
Pyramide has sold the film to September Films in Benelux, Potential Films in Australia and New Zealand, Nk Contents in South Korea, Xenix Film in Switzerland, Hooray Films in Taiwan, Estinfilm in the Baltics and Nashe Kino in Russia.
Last Summer stars Léa Drucker as a lawyer who develops a relationship with her 17-year-old...
- 5/3/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
“Cannes is going back to the future of cinema,” said Iris Knobloch, the new president of the Cannes Film Festival, unveiling the lineup for the 2023 event on Thursday. And looking at this year’s selection, it’s hard to argue with her.
The 76th Cannes International Film Festival looks like an all-killer, no-filler program, with some of the biggest names in international cinema, many of whom got their start on the Croisette, returning to that famed red carpet. The 2023 competition lineup includes new films from Wes Anderson, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Nanni Moretti and Aki Kaurismäki. In addition, Cannes has packed its out-of-competition screenings with blockbusters, including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, as well as a new documentary from Oscar winner Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave).
Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, one of the director’s typically-quirky and star-studded affairs,...
The 76th Cannes International Film Festival looks like an all-killer, no-filler program, with some of the biggest names in international cinema, many of whom got their start on the Croisette, returning to that famed red carpet. The 2023 competition lineup includes new films from Wes Anderson, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ken Loach, Todd Haynes, Nanni Moretti and Aki Kaurismäki. In addition, Cannes has packed its out-of-competition screenings with blockbusters, including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, as well as a new documentary from Oscar winner Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave).
Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City, one of the director’s typically-quirky and star-studded affairs,...
- 4/13/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Federation Studios has nabbed worldwide distribution rights to French political comedy and Series Mania winner Under Control.
The six-part series took home the award for Best Series in the French category at the Lille festival last week. Federation, which had Bardot and Six Women in competition for the same award, will now take it to the international market.
It follows Marie Tessier, a 45-year-old director of the fictional Ngo Doctors of the World, who is appointed France’s Secretary of State, just as five Europeans, including two French people, are taken hostage by terrorists in Sahel. She immediately goes rogue while striving to make it look like everything’s under control.
The show is produced by Ex Nihilo and written by Charly Delward in collaboration with Erwan Le Duc and César Award nominee Benjamin Charbit. Cast includes Léa Drucker, Samir Guesmi and Laurent Stocker.
The six-part series took home the award for Best Series in the French category at the Lille festival last week. Federation, which had Bardot and Six Women in competition for the same award, will now take it to the international market.
It follows Marie Tessier, a 45-year-old director of the fictional Ngo Doctors of the World, who is appointed France’s Secretary of State, just as five Europeans, including two French people, are taken hostage by terrorists in Sahel. She immediately goes rogue while striving to make it look like everything’s under control.
The show is produced by Ex Nihilo and written by Charly Delward in collaboration with Erwan Le Duc and César Award nominee Benjamin Charbit. Cast includes Léa Drucker, Samir Guesmi and Laurent Stocker.
- 3/27/2023
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
Stéphane Brizé is set to begin production in Brittany this month. Our friends at Cineuropa confirmed that Guillaume Canet and Alba Rohrwacher are indeed toplining a project about paths crossing once again. Titled Hors saison, Brizé co-wrote the project with Marie Drucker (Léa Drucker’s cousin) who appeared in Brizé’s 2021’s Un autre monde.
Hors saison revolves around Laurent, a well-known actor nearing fifty, and Hélène, a forty-something piano teacher. He lives in Paris, she in a small seaside town. They were in love fifteen or so years ago, then they separated. Time went by, and each of them followed their own path, wounds healed, and their anger dissipated.…...
Hors saison revolves around Laurent, a well-known actor nearing fifty, and Hélène, a forty-something piano teacher. He lives in Paris, she in a small seaside town. They were in love fifteen or so years ago, then they separated. Time went by, and each of them followed their own path, wounds healed, and their anger dissipated.…...
- 3/3/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
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