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8 items from 2013

8 June 2013 4:05 PM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Smoking comes under fire in France, and Shane Meadows is back in the saddle for a biopic of 60s cyclist Tommy Simpson

Up in smoke

Are even the French finally coming round to the idea that smoking in movies is a dying trend? In last week's release Populaire, the suave Romain Duris character is asked to stop smoking in the office by the new secretary, played by Déborah François. Although the film is set in the Gauloise-tinted 1950s, Duris's character knowingly remarks he'd only ever stop smoking if they introduced a law to ban it. Now, this week, we have the gamine Audrey Tautou, one of the most popular international symbols of Frenchness in years. She's playing Mauriac's doomed heroine Thérèse Desqueyroux, and fairly chainsmokes through her ordeal of being married to a lump. "She smokes too much," remarks a disapproving mother-in-law. What can it mean for, say, the new »

- Jason Solomons

7 June 2013 10:00 PM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

Behind The Candelabra | The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone | After Earth | The Iceman | Thérèse Desqueyroux | Come As You Are | The Last Exorcism: Part II | 009 Re: Cyborg | Aguirre, Wrath Of God

Behind The Candelabra (15)

(Steven Soderbergh, 2013, Us) Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd. 118 mins

The fact that Hollywood wasn't interested in backing a story involving celebrity, dictator-style kitsch, cosmetic surgery, rhinestones, signet rings and poodles (oh, and gay people) proves once again that nobody there knows anything. Douglas is terrific as the flamboyant but needy Liberace, and this true-life relationship drama is both hilarious and empathetic, harking back to a pre-Aids era of innocence and excess. Rob Lowe's hair provides excellent support.

The Stone Roses: Made Of Stone (15)

(Shane Meadows, 2013, UK) 96 mins

If the Roses were the greatest band in the world to you, then this is probably the greatest doc in the world. Meadows, »

- Steve Rose

6 June 2013 2:46 AM, PDT | eyeforfilm.co.uk | See recent eyeforfilm.co.uk news »

Audrey Tautou, known for her sweet and light roles in such films as Amélie, Priceless and Pot Luck turns in a much darker direction in the late director Claude Miller's final film Thérèse Desqueyroux, which closed 2012 Cannes Film Festival last year and which opens in the UK on June 7. The French star plays the title role in the adaptation of Francois Mauriac's novel about a frustrated wife whose desire for freedom spells trouble for her husband (Gilles Lellouche). Earlier this year I met her at the Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris to talk about the experience.

Did you have any qualms about such sombre role?

I was delighted that a director of the stature of Claude [Miller] could imagine me in a role that was so different than anything I had done before. It is always a gift to have »

- Richard Mowe

31 May 2013 10:00 PM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The Comedian | Byzantium | The Big Wedding | Populaire | The Purge | Blood | Everybody Has A Plan | No One Lives | Man To Man | Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

The Comedian

(15) (Tom Shkolnik, 2012, UK) Edward Hogg, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. 79 mins

There's an uncanny degree of naturalism to this downbeat sketch of a lost London soul, confused over his sexuality, his faltering stand-up career and his place in life. It was made with a Dogme-like set of rules encouraging spontaneous improvisation in real locales. The result is somewhere between Mike Leigh and mumblecore, a meandering slice of life that often hits the truth.

Byzantium

(15) (Neil Jordan, 2013, UK/Us/Ire) Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan, Sam Riley. 118 mins

There might be little left to say about vampires, but genre veteran Jordan has a better right (and better actors) than most to say it. This tale of two 200-year-old women hiding out in a coastal town is more mature and less gory than most offerings. »

- Steve Rose

31 May 2013 3:52 AM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

The Comedian | Byzantium | The Big Wedding | Populaire | The Purge | Blood | Everybody Has A Plan | No One Lives | Man To Man | Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

The Comedian (15)

(Tom Shkolnik, 2012, UK) Edward Hogg, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. 79 mins

There's an uncanny degree of naturalism to this downbeat sketch of a lost London soul, confused over his sexuality, his faltering stand-up career and his place in life. It was made with a Dogme-like set of rules encouraging spontaneous improvisation in real locales. The result is somewhere between Mike Leigh and mumblecore, a meandering slice of life that often hits the truth.

Byzantium (15)

(Neil Jordan, 2013, UK/Us/Ire) Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan, Sam Riley. 118 mins

There might be little left to say about vampires, but genre veteran Jordan has a better right (and better actors) than most to say it. This tale of two 200-year-old women hiding out in a coastal town is more mature and less gory than most offerings. »

- Steve Rose

12 April 2013 8:31 AM, PDT | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »

There's a reason no one really remembers or talks about the Cannes Film Festival closing films...they usually aren't very good. The past few years have seen the Audrey Tautou starring "Thérèse Desqueyroux," Christoph Honoré's "The Beloved" and Charlotte Gainsbourg led "The Tree" all cap off the festivities...see what we mean? So, while any news from the Croisette is something we'll zero in on, forgive us if we're not holding our breath on this one... Jérôme Salle's "Zulu" featuring Orlando Bloom and Forest Whitaker has been tapped this time to be the final reel played at Cannes this year. Set in apartheid-era Cape Town, two cops on the beat (Bloom and Whitaker) investigate the murder of a 18 year-old girl, the daughter of a member of the championship winning Springboks rugby team. Combining elements of political film noir and social study, this may not be a prize winner, but »

- Kevin Jagernauth

9 April 2013 4:00 PM, PDT | eyeforfilm.co.uk | See recent eyeforfilm.co.uk news »

The French actress who is forever Amélie, Audrey Tautou will preside over the opening and closing ceremonies of this year's 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival next month (May 15 to 24).

Tautou, who was present on screen and in person at last year's closing screening of the late Claude Miller's final film Thérèse Desqueyroux, currently appears in Michel Gondry's Boris Vian adaptation Mood Indigo (L'écume Des Jours) alongside Romain Duris and due for a French release this month.

Tautou and Duris also have hooked up again for Chinese Puzzle (Casse-tête Chinois) which is Cédric Klapisch's follow up to Pot Luck (L'auberge Espanol) and Russian Dolls with the same characters another 10 years on. It is due for French release in December.

Thierry Frémaux, Cannes artistic director, is set to reveal this year's official selection at a press conference in Paris on Thursday April 18 »

- Richard Mowe

29 March 2013 11:00 PM, PDT | The Guardian - Film News | See recent The Guardian - Film News news »

John Boorman Season | Fuaim Is Solas | Rendez-Vous With French Cinema | Birds Eye View Film Festival

John Boorman Season, London

Boorman is one of those directors whose films everyone knows but whose name often gets left behind somewhere. Deliverance, for example, has become a universal point of reference for hicksville paranoia; Excalibur raised the bar for amped-up swords and sorcery movies; Hope And Glory has seeped into our collective wartime memory; Point Blank, which is going on general release, is a textbook case of how to be stylish, violent and hard-boiled. In fact, Boorman seems to have added something to every genre you can think of since he started in the 1950s, making documentaries for the BBC. Why isn't he better appreciated? He is here, at least, with a BFI Fellowship and a retrospective that includes his daughter's touching film portrait Me And Me Dad.

BFI Southbank, SE1, Sat to 30 Apr

Fuaim Is Solas, »

- Steve Rose

8 items from 2013