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It could be argued that showing up and sticking the landing are the two most important things, and everything in between is less memorable. Line of Duty, one of the most acclaimed and popular detective series of all time (and the most popular in modern UK history), certainly showed up, hooking a sizable audience from the start. That audience grew over six seasons, but was left befuddled by what many consider to be the show's limp, anticlimactic finale in 2021. Any mention of Line of Duty has included that disappointing caveat ever since. Now, that's all set to change.

As The Sun reported, "Line of Duty is all set to return next year for a seventh series. Its three stars — Martin Compston, Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar — have finally aligned their jam-packed diaries and will start filming a six-parter in January." The Sun added:

“This is the news Line of Duty...

French model-turned-actor Marine Vacth is set to headline “Badh,” a “Taken”-style action thriller set in Morocco, from the producers of Coralie Fargeat’s hit debut “Revenge.”

The movie is directed by Canadian filmmaker Guillaume de Fontenay, who previously helmed the popular thriller “Sympathy for the Devil,” and is co-represented by Sabine Chemaly’s Federation Studios banner Ginger & Fed and WTFilms who will present it to buyers at the American Film Market this week.

Vacth stars opposite a raft of well-known French actors, Niels Schneinder (“Heartbeats”) Emmanuelle Bercot (“My King”), Slimane Dazi (“A Prophet”) and Sofian Khammes (“November”). The high-concept movie is produced by Monkey Pack Films and M.E.S Production, who previously delivered two popular thrillers, Coralie Fargeat’s “Revenge” and Frederic Jardin’s “Survive.”

Vacth stars as Alma, a young French woman with a secret past as a lethal secret service agent who has found peace...

Filmmaker Monia Chokri loves a zoom lens. Such is the fun aesthetic of her third feature The Nature of Love. Often the image jumps forwards or backwards, accenting an emotional moment with a punchy, visual exclamation point. It shouldn’t work, yet it does. The film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau as Sophia, a 40-year-old professor in a comfortable marriage to Xavier (Francis-William Rhéaume). “Not unhappy,” she describes herself at one point. Early on, Sophia is intrigued and quickly entranced by Sylvain (Pierre-Yves Cardinal), the craftsperson renovating Sophia and Xavier’s country home. The affair is immediately sexy, exciting, and passionate.

Cinematographer André Turpin’s camera matches the excitement. When things are turbulent––be they good or bad––the camera gets a bit impatient. When things are stale, the camera gets a bit complacent. Consider one of the best moments of the film: Sylvain’s seductive introduction. The camera runs slowly down a corridor,...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for When Calls the Heart Season 11 Episode 5 “Stronger Together.”] Lee (Kavan Smith) just needed to not want to be mayor to get the position, it seems, on When Calls the Heart. With Mike (Ben Rosenbaum) feeling very much like a little brother while negotiating with Benson Hills’ mayor, his sister Maisie (Samantha Ferris), Lee finds himself given the job. “It’s probably a double-edged sword because obviously he ran for mayor before and didn’t win. So I think he feels winning this way is a little cheap,” Smith tells TV Insider as part of our weekly When Calls the Heart aftershow, Heart Beats. “But then I think after reflection, he probably thinks sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles and you got to take it when it happens,” he continues. “Lee just decides to magnanimously slide into the role because it is sort of what he sees for himself.

Hearties have been buzzing since When Calls The Heart (Wcth) Season 11, Episode 4, ‘Along Came A Spider’ aired this past Sunday, April 28, and the show did not disappoint. The very mysterious Jeanette Aucoin (Cecilia Deacon) arrived in Hope Valley, and very quickly, the drama amongst the townsfolk was stirred.

While Wcth fans don’t know much about Lucas Bouchard’s past, and Jeanette is part of a time Hearties weren’t familiar with him, so many question marks remain about this interesting woman and what role she plays in Lucas’s story.

When Calls The Heart Spoilers – Chris McNally Reveals More Details About Jeanette & Lucas

During Heart Beats, TV Insider’s Wcth after show, actor Chris McNally revealed some insights into Lucas and Jeanette.

He was asked if Lucas trusts Jeanette and if Bouchard feels uncomfortable around her as she represents his past or if it is because he knows what she’s like.

The most recent Wcth Season 11 episode entitled “Along Came A Spider” aired on Sunday. In this episode, Jeanette Aucoin (Cecilia Deacon) came into Hope Valley and wove quite a web. Her presence got a lot of the local men a bit flustered and even caused a mild rift with the Coulters.

Jeanette is a character that is akin to Lucas Bouchard’s past, and Chris McNally has a lot to say about her. What did the actor reveal about this mysterious woman, and what role does she play in Lucas’s journey?

Wcth Photo: Chris McNally, Cecilia Deacon, Erin Krakow Credit: ©2024 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Ricardo Hubbs Wcth Star Chris McNally Reveals Whether Lucas Trusts Jeanette Aucoin

On Sunday, Hearties finally met the mysterious Jeanette Aucoin. She is the French-speaking mystery woman from Lucas Bouchard’s past. Now that she has been on Wcth, what should viewers think of her?

On Sunday,...

Update: Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan, whose film “Mommy” received the Cannes Jury Prize in 2014, will head the jury of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.

Joining him on the jury will be “Cuties” director Maïmouna Doucouré, “The Mother of All Lies” helmer Asmae El Moudir, “Phantom Thread” actor Vicky Krieps and film critic Todd McCarthy.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” he said in a statement. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the art of film : stories told truthfully.”

Dolan wrote, directed, produced and starred in his first feature “I Killed My Mother...

Canadian actor and filmmaker Xavier Dolan will be joined on this year’s Un Certain Regard Jury by French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps, and American film critic and writer Todd McCarthy.

The jury will be in charge of awarding prizes for the Un Certain Regard sidebar. This year, 18 films have been selected, including eight first features. The 2023 Un Certain Regard top prize went to director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How to Have Sex. When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Un Certain Regard section on May 15.

A self-taught filmmaker, Dolan made his feature directorial debut at 19 with I Killed My Mother, an adaptation of his own short story, which was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards. He followed up that film with the 2010 romantic drama Heartbeats, which brought him into the Un Certain Regard section...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for When Calls the Heart Season 11 Episode 3 “Steps Forward.”] The episode title of the latest When Calls the Heart can apply to Elizabeth (Erin Krakow) and Nathan’s (Kevin McGarry) this season and Rosemary (Pascale Hutton) and Bill’s (Jack Wagner) unofficial investigation into who really (if you ask them) shot Lucas (Chris McNally). Just because Pike has confessed doesn’t mean that the reporter and retired Mountie of Hope Valley buy it. And so Rosemary is basically forcing Bill to work with her, making for a very fun partnership. “It was the team-up I didn’t know I needed,” Hutton tells TV Insider as part of our weekly When Calls the Heart aftershow, Heart Beats. “Bill was the hurdle for her to get over. She had to win him over. She needed that partnership. She had information and resources, but he also did, and they really needed each other to partner up.

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for When Calls the Heart Season 11 Episode 2 “Tomorrow Never Knows.”] Just as it looks like Elizabeth (Erin Krakow) and Nathan (Kevin McGarry) could possibly be taking a step closer to something, a certain someone crashes the birthday party that Nathan didn’t even want in the first place in the second episode of When Calls the Heart Season 11. It’s none other than Elizabeth’s ex-fiancé, Lucas (Chris McNally), with the new governor returning to Hope Valley in the final moments of the episode. Nathan’s “a little trepidatious moving forward now with Elizabeth,” McGarry tells TV Insider as part of our weekly When Calls the Heart aftershow, Heart Beats. “He doesn’t know what’s going to happen now that Lucas is back in Hope Valley.” In the premiere, Elizabeth admitted that she was worried Nathan’s feelings for her had changed, but, “it’s pretty clear based on the...

When Calls the Heart said goodbye to a beloved character during Sunday’s explosive Season 11 premiere, but is it really the end of the line for them?

As viewers checked back in with the residents of Hope Valley, Fiona (Kayla Wallace) sent a telegram revealing that she won’t be returning to town.

Fiona is spearheading an effort to help secure women’s rights and believes she can continue her work away from town.

But why did Wallace walk away from the hit show?

Series star and EP Erin Krakow revealed on When Calls the Heart aftershow, Heart Beats, that it all came down to scheduling as Wallace is set to star in Taylor Sheridan’s Landman.

“We love Kayla Wallace. We would love for her to be in every episode,” Krakow shared.

Could Kayla Wallace return to When Calls the Heart?

“Kayla had a really incredible opportunity on another...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for the When Calls the Heart Season 11 premiere “When Stars Align.”] Welcome back to Hope Valley, Hearties. It looks like When Calls the Heart Season 11 is going to be a time of change—and we don’t just mean Elizabeth’s haircut! The good news: Lucas (Chris McNally) is alive after being shot. The not-so-good news, for some fans at least: Elizabeth’s relationship with him does truly seem to be over. Season 10 ended with Elizabeth at her late husband’s grave, and her words did imply that she saw Lucas as the “safe” option, as someone whose loss wouldn’t affect her like Jack’s did. Joining TV Insider for our weekly When Calls the Heart aftershow, Heart Beats, Krakow carefully agrees, “I think she was absolutely frozen and petrified over the idea that she might love again and find herself as broken as she was when ...

[Warning: The below contains Major spoilers for the When Calls the Heart Season 11 premiere “When Stars Align.”] Hearties returned to Hope Valley in the When Calls the Heart Season 11 premiere, but the episode revealed that not everyone is back for the new episodes. Minnie (Natasha Burnett) is the one to tell Faith (Andrea Brooks) that Fiona (Kayla Wallace) sent a telegram that she loves working with her sister and the other Suffragettes, and with so much work still to be done securing women’s rights, she won’t be returning to Hope Valley. It’s simply due to scheduling, star and executive producer Erin Krakow tells TV Insider as part of our weekly When Calls the Heart aftershow, Heart Beats (which you can watch here). “We love Kayla Wallace. We would love for her to be in every episode. Kayla had a really incredible opportunity on another TV series that films out of town [Landman]. We’re excited for her,...

New York, March 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Woody Allen’s newest film is set for release in select theaters across the United States on April 5, 2024. Coup De Chance, a romantic thriller shot entirely in French and starring an acclaimed international cast including Lou de Laâge (International Emmy winner. The Mad Women’s Ball), Valérie Lemercier, (The Visitors), Melvil Poupaud, (Eric Rohmer’s A Tale of Summer), and Niels Schneider (Heartbeats, How I Killed My Mother) is Allen’s 50th film as director.

A sensation when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival, Coup De Chance has received glowing reviews during its international release across Europe and Asia with comparisons to some of Allen’s most acclaimed masterpieces including Blue Jasmine, Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris.

In English, the title means “stroke of luck,” and the film centers around the central role of chance and luck in our lives. Fanny (de Laâge) and Jean (Poupaud,...

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is officially the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard jury president. Dolan, who is a self-taught writer/director, made his feature debut at age 19 with “I Killed My Mother” based on his original short story. The film was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards.

His work has repeatedly been featured at Cannes ever since Dolan’s 2010 sophomore feature “Heartbeats” marked his first entrance in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard program.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” Dolan said in a statement. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the...

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is returning to Cannes Film Festival, this time to head up the Un Certain Regard jury as president.

A veteran of the Croisette, Dolan won the Jury Prize at Cannes with Mommy in 2014 and the Grand Prix trophy for It’s Only the End of the World in 2016.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as president of the Un Certain Regard Jury. Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the art of film — stories told truthfully,” Dolan said in a statement on Thursday.

The Montreal-born director made his first entry in the Un Certain Regard sidebar with his second film,...

Cannes has named Canadian filmmaker and actor Xavier Dolan as the president of the jury for its Un Certain Regard sidebar.

Dolan has a long track record of premiering his films at Cannes. In 2010, his second film Heartbeats played in Un Certain Regard when he was just 21.

Two years later, Dolan’s Laurence Anyways premiered in Un Certain Regard where it won the section’s award for Best Actress ex-aequo for Suzanne Clément. Dolan won the Jury Prize at Cannes for his fifth film Mommy which played in main competition in 2014.

In 2015 Dolan was a member of the main competition jury at Cannes,...

Xavier Dolan, the Canadian filmmaker who rose through the ranks at Cannes with films like the Jury Prize winner Mommy, has been named President of the Un Certain Regard Jury, celebrating emerging talent, for the 77th edition of the festival, taking place this summer.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” said Dolan. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the art of film : stories told truthfully.”

A self-taught filmmaker, Dolan made his feature directorial debut at 19 with I Killed My Mother, an adaptation of his own short story, which was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards.

Last week, The Hollywood Reporter reported that cinephiles were sharing “samizdat” links to Woody Allen’s latest film Coup de Chance from a French-to-Dutch-to-English translation, and New Yorkers were attending clandestine screenings at an East Village bar/event space. Today, THR can exclusively report that those who wish to see the 88-year-old’s latest project, which debuted at the Venice Film Festival in early September to (mostly) positive reviews, can do so without slinking around or needing secret codes.

MPI Media Group will release the picture, Allen’s 50th theatrically released feature film as a director, for North American markets on April 5, 2024. A digital/VOD release will follow on April 12.

The movie, shot in France in French, stars Lou de Laâge (Respire, The Mad Woman’s Ball) as a self-aware trophy wife who reconnects with an old chum from the Lycée Français in New York, played by Niels Schneider (Heartbeats,...

International television festival Series Mania unveiled its 2024 lineup Wednesday, with an impressive slate of world premieres that will grace the screens of Lille, France for the event running March 19-21.

Peacock’s Australia-set family drama Apples Never Fall, featuring Nyad Oscar nominee Annette Bening and Jurassic Park veteran Sam Neill as a dysfunctional couple, will screen in competition at year’s fest, as will MGM+’s Hotel Cocaine, from Narcos showrunner Chris Brancato, a crime thriller featuring The Shield star Michael Chiklis and set in the booming cocaine scene in Miami in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

So Long Marianne, a Canadian-Norwegian co-production from Crave and Norway’s Nrk, will also get its first screening in Lille. The series stars Oppenheimer supporting actor Alex Wolff as legendary singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen in a story of his turbulent relationship with Norwegian writer Marianne Ihlen (played by The Last Kingdom‘s Thea Sofie Loch Næss...

Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love” has been acquired for U.K. and Ireland distribution by Vertigo Releasing.

The film stars Magalie Lépine Blondeau and Pierre-Yves Cardinal. In the film, the cosy married life of lecturer and intellectual Sophia (Blondeau) takes a bold new turn when she meets Sylvain (Cardinal), the ruggedly charming handyman at her new chalet and she embarks on a steamy and all-consuming affair.

“The Nature of Love” premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand earlier this year and since then has played Toronto and Zurich among other festivals. It has its U.K. premiere at the BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 13 and will play Chicago post that.

“Female mid-life crises are not explored in this mode of storytelling as often their male counterpart: While the tragedy of the woman who f—s around and finds out is a mainstay of plenty of great literature and cinema,...

In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at several videos from Xavier Dolan, including the two he made for Adele. Xavier Dolan is quitting filmmaking, because according to him 'art is a waste of time'. The once-wunderkind turned enfant terrible of Canadian cinema made some excellent films in his active years, some slightly thorny and fickle ones and some clunkers. But I think his most impactful pieces of art are in fact his three music videos, all of which are to be found below. One...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The rom-com has always appeared to be in safe hands with French-language cinema, but Quebecois director Monia Chokri wanted to push the boundaries of the genre even further with her new film “Simple comme Sylvain.”

“French people like to talk about love but they always do it in the same way of toxic relationships. And there aren’t so many [rom-coms] made by women,” says Chokri, who was last in Cannes in 2019 with her debut feature, “A Brother’s Love,” which won Un Certain Regard’s Jury Cup de Coeur.

“Simple comme Sylvain” centers on a posh French-Canadian woman in a sexless marriage who turns her life upside down when she has an affair with her contractor.

The Quebec-born actor broke out in meaty roles in Canadian auteur Denys Arcand’s “The Age of Darkness” and Xavier Dolan’s “Heartbeats” and “Laurence Anyways.” She also acts in “Simple comme Sylvain,” playing her protagonist’s outspoken best friend,...

Woody Allen might still be persona non grata for many in the U.S., but international distributors will likely be clamoring to see his new film, Coup de Chance, which will be presented to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market.

WestEnd Films, in collaboration with Gravier Productions, will kick off sales for the film in Berlin next week.

Allen’s 50th feature marks the director’s French-language debut and features an ensemble cast of local stars, including Lou De Laâge (The Innocents), Valérie Lemercier (Aline), Melvil Poupaud (Summer of 85) and Niels Schneider (Heartbeats).

In a statement, Allen called the the movie a “story of romance, passion and violence set in contemporary Paris. Shot all over the city and a little bit in the countryside, it evolves around a romance between two young people who are old friends and devolves into marital infidelity and ultimately crime.”

The movie reunites Allen...

Exclusive: Magnify Media sales boss Anthony Appell is leaving the Handmade: Good with Wood distributor, with others changing roles as ITV Studios takes over the company’s catalog.

Appell, who is Head of Sales and Co-Productions for the Plimsoll Productions-owned outfit, announced he is to exit his role on March 31 and Acquisitions and Operations Manager Emma Gosling has already departed, joining Belgian distributor Primitives this week. As of last year, ITV Studios owns factual powerhouse Plimsoll, which has owned Magnify since 2020.

Deadline understands six full-time Magnify staff have been in consultation talks with ITV Studio’s sales arm. CEO Andrea Jackson has been appointed Creative Director of Factual Entertainment at Plimsoll Productions and at least one other exec is having advanced discussions over a new post within ITV. Most of the others have roles lined up, we understand, and several will remain in post during a transition period.

When...

Exclusive: Duane Adler has signed with Buchwald for representation.

Adler is best known as the creator of the beloved Step Up dance film franchise, which launched in 2006. The franchise now includes five films—Step Up, Step Up 2: The Streets (2008), Step Up 3D (2010), Step Up Revolution (2012) and Step Up: All In (2014)—as well as a TV series of the same name, which ran for two season on YouTube Red before moving over to Starz for a third.

The writer is also known for other successful dance and music-driven projects, including Save the Last Dance, Make It Happen, Make Your Move, and Heartbeats.

On the television side, he has developed multiple projects, including a multi-generational dance series for Fox with Marc Platt producing. His most recent project set up for the small screen is House of the Rising Sun, a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, set in New Orleans, which...

America has the Oscars; France has the César Awards. In a normal year, being nominated for 13 of the latter would be a sign of an exceptional achievement in French cinema — a phenomenon on par with “Amélie” or “A Prophet” commanding recognition in nearly every category en route to worldwide acclaim. But 2020 was not a normal year, and it’s a bit misleading to see writer-director Emmanuel Mouret’s mildly carbonated ensemble drama “Love Affair(s)” up for so many awards, knowing it’s hardly insta-classic material.

The movie, which was to premiere at Cannes had the festival not been canceled by the coronavirus, concerns the romantic entanglements of (at least) nine characters whose actions often contradict the way they see themselves. How can we be so sure? These eloquent characters love to hear themselves talk — and so do we, as there’s a poetry to their near-constant stream of conversation...

Amazon Prime Video in association with Sony Music Entertainment India recently launched the much-loved soundtrack of Amazon Original Series Bandish Bandits. Marking the digital debut of the extraordinary music composer trio Shankar Mahadeva, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendosa, the album has received universal acclaim with the songs trending across major music services and mediums. Sel’s versatile album, includes contemporary and classical music, through an eclectic mix of classical, folk, pop and fusion tracks created specifically for the show. Some of the powerful vocals of the album include those of Shankar Mahadevan, Armaan Malik, Jonita Gandhi, Mame Khan, Shivam Mahadevan, Shreeya Sondur, among others.

“The music of Bandish Bandits has played a huge part in the success of the series. Audiences have loved the fact that it seamlessly weaves itself into the story and keeps them immersed in it till the very end.” said Gaurav Gandhi, Director and Country Gm Amazon Prime Video,...

The origin of the drama Buoyancy can be traced back to when Australian filmmaker Rodd Rathjen came across an article a few years ago about Cambodian workers and their life on a Thai fishing trawler. He became riveted by the unbelievable story and upon more research, he said in a statement: “The scale of modern slavery and exploitation in Thailand is vast and hard to grasp.”

Written and directed by Rathjen, Buoyancy follows a spirited Cambodian teenager Chakra (Sarm Heng) who works the rice fields with his family but is looking for independence. He seeks the help of a local broker who said that they can get him paid work in a Thai factory. He heads to Thailand in hopes to find his fortuitous independence but when he gets there, he and his newfound friend Kea (Mony Ros), discover they’ve been duped. Along with other Cambodians and Burmese, they...

The Knife will mark their 20th anniversary with a series of digital and vinyl reissue as well as some previously unavailable music.

Mute released the Swedish duo’s first single “Heartbeats” on August 15th, 2000, and on that same date 20 years later the label will release a batch of Knife material, including nearly a dozen remixes on digital services for the first time.

The Knife: Live at Terminal 5 will also be available on vinyl in North America for the first time, as well as a digital release for the duo’s...

Exclusive: Quibi has put in development Heartbeats, a scripted dramedy from Everything Sucks creators Michael Mohan and Ben York Jones, eOne and Hypnotic.

Written by Mohan and Jones and directed by Mohan, Heartbeats follows the “perfect couple,” Kristen and Bobby, as they navigate the aftermath of their surprising and emotional break up. Told from the perspective of the viewer as their mutual friend, Heartbeats shows what can happen when the right person comes into your life at the wrong time.

eOne and Hypnotic co-produce. eOne is the studio.

Mohan and Jones created dramedy Everything Sucks, which aired for one season on Netflix. Jones co-wrote 2011 feature Like Crazy. Mohan is in post-production on thriller film The Voyeurs, which he wrote and directed.

Quibi launches on April 6.

Suzanna Andler

Benoît Jacquot, who rarely lets the earth circle the sun without unveiling a new project, turns to Marguerite Duras for inspiration for his next film, Suzanna Andler, based on the famed writer’s 1968 play. Charlotte Gainsbourg, reuniting with Jacquot after 2014’s 3 Hearts, headlines the film, produced by the director’s long-time collaborator Kristina Larsen. Hard-working Niels Schneider, co-stars. Having directed films since the mid-1970s, Jacquot has had an increasingly strong festival presence in his later years. He’s competed in Cannes once, with 1998’s The School of Flesh, returning to the festival in Un Certain Regard in 2004 with A Tout de Suite and in 2016 as co-director of the documentary Gentleman Rissient (out of competition).…...

A Frenchman in his early thirties returns to the farm of his childhood in the rural family drama Back Home (Revenir), a suitably down-to-earth adaptation of a work by French novelist Serge Joncour. It is the first feature from Paris-born filmmaker Jessica Palud, a former assistant director who has worked on several features from one of France’s greatest humanist filmmakers, Philippe Lioret (Welcome, All Our Desires). Lioret actually produced the film and also co-wrote the script with Palud and mono-monikered screenwriter Diasteme (Angel Face).

Former Xavier Dolan muse Niels Schneider (Heartbeats) and Blue Is the Warmest Color breakout Adele ...

A Frenchman in his early thirties returns to the farm of his childhood in the rural family drama Back Home (Revenir), a suitably down-to-earth adaptation of a work by French novelist Serge Joncour. It is the first feature from Paris-born filmmaker Jessica Palud, a former assistant director who has worked on several features from one of France’s greatest humanist filmmakers, Philippe Lioret (Welcome, All Our Desires). Lioret actually produced the film and also co-wrote the script with Palud and mono-monikered screenwriter Diasteme (Angel Face).

Former Xavier Dolan muse Niels Schneider (Heartbeats) and Blue Is the Warmest Color breakout Adele ...

Of the many labels Xavier Dolan’s Matthias & Maxime came attached with ahead of its Cannes premiere, few felt as apt as those that billed the Canadian’s eighth feature as “a return.” Three years after railing at Cannes’ “culture of hatred” for the mauling his Grand Prix winner It’s Only The End of the World received from critics–and less than one since the even bigger misfire The Death and Life of John F. Donovan bowed in Toronto–Matthias & Maxime shipped Xavier Dolan back to the festival that first welcomed him in 2009, when his I Killed My Mother left the Directors’ Fortnight with a Camera d’Or for best first feature. Homing in on two best friends grappling with a sprawling bromance, Matthias & Maxime also promised to dwell into the non-heteronormative dynamics Dolan had explored at length since his debut. And after two features set abroad, (the France-quartered...

The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critic Leonardo Goi and editor Daniel Kasman.Matthias & MaximeDear Danny, How nice it was to read your glowing words on Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or contender. His Parasite belongs, together with a handful of other main competition entries, to a list of Cannes titles I shall be catching up on Saturday, when the festival will run a few repeat screenings ahead of the awards ceremony. With a program as rich and tantalizing as this year’s, it’s virtually impossible not to let a few titles slip past you. And while I may have postponed my rendezvous with the likes of Céline Sciamma, Pedro Almodóvar, and Bong Joon-ho, I did make sure to catch the homecoming of one of Cannes’ youngest regulars, Xavier Dolan. Ever since his 2009 debut feature I Killed My Mother, which found a spot at the 2009 Directors’ Fortnight,...

Quebec wunderkind filmmaker Xavier Dolan, who ten years ago at the age of 20 arrived at Cannes and knocked their socks off with I Killed My Mother, returns to the Croisette with Matthias and Maxime about two young childhood male friends, who after a kiss as adults, begin to question their true feelings.

As a filmmaker Dolan’s canon is famed for its homosexual themes and mothers of varying personalities. In Matthias and Maxime, the latter character is about to leave home for a trip to Australia and has to contend with a sick, abusive mother as he tries to leave her in the care of a guardian. How bad is mom? Despite her son’s good intentions, she throws a can at his head.

Said Dolan today at the Cannes press conference for the film, “Many say they recognize mothers and homosexuality in my films. In regards to mothers, we all have one,...

If there’s one term that Xavier Dolan probably never wants or needs to hear again, it’s “enfant terrible.” Irresistible to use when the Québécois auteur was 19, rattling out of the gate with his antsy, angry lash-out of a debut, “I Killed My Mother,” it’s followed him doggedly through a series of variously spiky, variably strong follow-up features. But Dolan has just turned 30, and with his eighth film, “Matthias & Maxime,” capping a filmography longer and more entrenched in its creative identity than many directors comfortably his senior, it seems time to put the label to rest. For “Matthias & Maxime” is not in any sense the work of an enfant terrible: A wistful, low-key love-and-friendship study, and something of a back-to-basics reset after his elaborate English-language misfire “The Death and Life of John P. Donovan,” it feels at once younger and older, sweeter and more seasoned, than Dolan’s last few films.

Despite all her evident idiosyncrasies, there’s something familiar about Sophia (Anne Élisabeth Bossé), the focus of Quebecois debutante Monia Chokri’s comedy “A Brother’s Love,” which gets the Un Certain Regard sidebar of Cannes off to a springy if overlong and somewhat stumbling start. Sophia may have a PhD in political philosophy but she lives a remarkably unexamined life. And in that she is enabled by a co-dependent relationship with her attractive psychologist brother Karim (Patrick Hivon) which traps them both in an eternally arrested state of emotional adolescence. The familiarity springs from a realisation that the male version of Sophia’s character is such a common staple of the modern comedy as to be nearly a cliché: the lovable manchild whose emotional immaturity is actually part of his charm.

However these traits distilled into a woman by Chokri’s promising if overindulgent screenplay and Bossé’s admirably uncompromised performance,...

A thirtysomething’s platonic love for her brother knows no bounds, which puts her in an awkward position when he finally starts dating the near-perfect girl in A Brother’s Love (La femme de mon frere). Though it might sound like a pitch for a high-concept studio comedy starring Amy Schumer, this is actually the basic plot outline of the sweet, funny and somewhat melancholy feature debut from Quebec actress-turned-director Monia Chokri (from Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats and local zombie hit Ravenous).

While there might be no belly laughs or gross-out gags, this rather meandering opening film of the Un Certain ...

A thirtysomething’s platonic love for her brother knows no bounds, which puts her in an awkward position when he finally starts dating the near-perfect girl in A Brother’s Love (La femme de mon frere). Though it might sound like a pitch for a high-concept studio comedy starring Amy Schumer, this is actually the basic plot outline of the sweet, funny and somewhat melancholy feature debut from Quebec actress-turned-director Monia Chokri (of Xavier Dolan’s Heartbeats and local zombie hit Ravenous).

While there might be no belly laughs or gross-out gags, this rather meandering opening film of the Un ...

Loco Films has come on board “Paper Flag” (“Les Papiers de drapeaux”), the feature debut of 18-year old French director Nathan Ambrosioni.

The film explores the ambivalent relationship between two siblings and the concept of freedom. Guillaume Gouix (“The Returned”) stars as a young adult who has just got out of jail after 12 years of detention and bursts into the tranquile life of his younger sister, away from the city. Gouix stars opposite Noémie Merlant, who previously starred in “Once in a Lifetime” and “Heaven Will Wait.”

Loco Films is screening “Paper Flag” at the UniFrance Rendez-Vous in Paris, ahead of its launch at the European Film Market in Berlin next month. The film already won the audience prize at the La Roche-Sur-Yon Festival in France, which is spearheaded by Paolo Moretto, the new head of Cannes’s Directors Fortnight.

Laurent Danielou, the co-founder of Loco Films, told Variety that...

Xavier Dolan's Heartbeats (2010) is showing November 10 – December 9, 2018 on Mubi in the United States.Xavier Dolan is infatuated with image. The Louis Vuitton model makes films of meticulous composition, color, and sartorial specificity. The filmmaker’s life, as he completes a decade of making films, is well known: a wunderkind-cum-enfant terrible, Dolan made his first film at nineteen. The film, I Killed My Mother (2009), played at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, where he’s become a house cat amongst toms, racking up prestigious awards and adulation while arrayed in the finest of fashion—the man has style. Somewhere along his ascent the critical discourse began to curdle. Flaws and weaknesses (excessive fealty to Wong Kar-wai and overly-simplistic character dynamics) in his first few films were absolved under the auspices of youthful promise. Critics and viewers were excited to discover a new cine-stylist, but around the time of Mommy (2014) the pools of disfavor began to form.

There’s nothing like a rousing walk up the Cannes red carpet, flashbulbs exploding, plus lengthy standing ovations after the premiere, to feed a filmmaker’s hungry ego. Although the world’s most glamorous film festival can be reticent to anoint new auteurs before they are given credit elsewhere, each year’s 20 directors competing for the Palme d’Or each comprise a class photo of master filmmakers with a far reach; they know building your foreign profile improves global box office returns.

Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Frémaux and his predecessor, Gilles Jacob, have nurtured generations of working auteurs. Check out the IndieWire film staff’s countdown of 25 living directors who have thrilled and stirred us on the Croisette this century, undaunted by rigid festival etiquette and the massive international stage.

25. Lee Chang-dong

Lars von Trier may grab more headlines, but the real reason to get excited about this year...

When the Cannes Film Festival announced its 2018 lineup on Thursday, one movie that seemed like an obvious inclusion wasn’t on the list: Xavier Dolan’s “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.” The prolific 29-year-old French-Canadian filmmaker’s first English-language feature is his most ambitious to date, the story of an American television star (Kit Harrington) dealing with the aftermath of revelations surrounding a relationship with an 11-year-old boy.

Dolan’s movie went into production in the summer of 2016, and after a delay, Dolan finished shooting in early 2017. It seemed like a safe bet for Cannes, where five out of his six completed features have played. The movie has been beset by post-production delays, including a February 2018 update when Dolan announced that he would be cutting Jessica Chastain’s character, a scheming journalist, from the movie. Nevertheless, Dolan told IndieWire that he did submit a version of the...

As he puts the finishing touches on his English-language debut The Death and Life of John F. Donovan–featuring the impressive ensemble of Jessica Chastain, Kit Harington, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates, Natalie Portman, Jacob Tremblay, Michael Gambon, and Sarah Gadon–Xavier Dolan is going back to a more narrow scope for his follow-up.

He’ll be returning to Quebec this fall to shoot his eighth feature Matt & Max, reports THR, which is said to mix the aesthetic approach of Tom at the Farm with the spirit of Mommy. Also a return to the French language, the film will depict a pair of friends in their late 20s, with Dolan playing Max. Also among the cast is the wonderful Anne Dorval (Mommy, I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats).

“This year I’ve been exposed to films that I felt were so brave and so authentic in their writing and how they talked about queer love,...

Throughout the history of film, dance on screen has helped foster some of cinema’s most interesting works. In the earliest days of film you have works like Annabelle Serpentine Dance, which is still some of the most erotically alluring film making the medium has ever known, and up through today film has given us Gene Kelly musicals, their modern off-shoots like Step Up 3D (maybe the greatest 3D film ever produced), and even art films like those from Nathan Kroll or Carlos Saura.

However, they’re becoming more and more rare as its counterpart, the musical, goes by the wayside. So when a new film focusing on the art of the human body through the medium of dance crops up, it’s worthy of one’s intrigue. And thankfully, Polina is worthy of one’s hard earned money.

From director Valerie Muller and world renowned choreographer Angelin Preljocaj (who...

For her latest film, director Valérie Müller went to the right people to help tell the story of a talented dancer who dreams of more, from her co-director Angelin Preljocaj (who is also Müller’s partner in real life) to her star, a dancing queen in her own right. The result is an energetic, honest look inside the fraught world of dance and the sort of unique people who populate it.

Read More‘Step’: How the Sundance Documentary Is Emulating ‘Hidden Figures’ to Inspire Underprivileged Kids

Shot in Russia, France, and Belgium, “Polina” follows the journey of gifted young dancer Polina — played by real-life Mariinsky Theatre Russian ballerina Anastasia Shevtsova — who has spent her childhood and youth training with a hard-driving classical ballet teacher. Polina’s long-held dreams (or perhaps her teacher’s?) seem ready to finally come to fruition when she’s accepted into Moscow’s highly competitive and prestigious Bolshoi Ballet.

Screen’s chief critic and reviews editor Fionnuala Halligan dissects this year’s Competition films.

Welcome to the “huge party” of Cannes 70. If the Official Selection this year is a “lab”, the formula isn’t quite complete - Thierry Fremaux announced 18 films which will compete for the Palme D’Or today, implying that three have yet to arrive (he also hinted that a glaring absence, that of a film from China for the second consecutive year, may yet be rectified; nothing was said however about the absence of a major Hollywood studio thus far).

Read more:

Cannes 2017: Official Selection in full

A total of 1,930 films viewed, the selection process running through to 3am: Cannes 70 will be a “meeting, a vision of the world, and a promise of a better life together”. No small ambition, but the line-up has been warmly greeted by cineastes. Clearly, it isn’t a same-old-names Cannes habitues Competition, although [link=nm...

This first feature of Kirsten Tan premiered in Sundance ‘17 World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Its provenance is Singapore but it takes place in Thailand. It continued onward to the Hivos Tiger Competition at Iffr (R’dam).

The thrill of interviewing here in Sundance is that you see a film; you have an impression and while it is still fresh you meet the filmmakers without having much time for any research or reflection. And then you get to see them again as “old friends” when you meet again in Rotterdam.

As Kirsten, her producer Weijie Lai and I sat down at the Sundance Co-op on Main Street here in Park City, I really had little idea of where the interview would take us, somewhat analogously to her film in which an architect, disenchanted with life in general, being put aside as “old” in his own highly successful architectural firm and in a stale relationship with his wife,...