The China-set feature is based on an original script.
French actor and director Guillaume Canet is set to shoot a live action feature inspired by the world of Réné Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s iconic comic strip characters Asterix and Obelix.
Gilles Lellouche is set to play the role of the plucky Gaul hero alongside Guillaume Depardieu, who reprises his role as his rotund companion Obelix.
Asterix & Obelix, The Silk Road will see the Asterix and Obelix head to China for the first time in a story based on an original script by Philippe Mechelen and Julien Hervé.
Canet revealed...
French actor and director Guillaume Canet is set to shoot a live action feature inspired by the world of Réné Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s iconic comic strip characters Asterix and Obelix.
Gilles Lellouche is set to play the role of the plucky Gaul hero alongside Guillaume Depardieu, who reprises his role as his rotund companion Obelix.
Asterix & Obelix, The Silk Road will see the Asterix and Obelix head to China for the first time in a story based on an original script by Philippe Mechelen and Julien Hervé.
Canet revealed...
- 10/28/2019
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
The English language makes very few appearances in Bertrand Bonello’s On War, and it’s to the film’s credit that their possible connections and distribution feel like no accident. There’s an opening quote (“If I wasn’t Bob Dylan, I’d probably think that Bob Dylan has a lot of answers myself”); there’s the musician’s Manchester Free Trade Hall performance of “She Belongs To Me” at film’s end; and, somewhere in the middle, Elina Löwensohn’s Rachel offers a strong opinion (“Fuck Freud”) that goes unnoticed during a party. Do the things placed after, before, and in-between these — the story of a frustrated artist clumsily seeking his identity, the doings of a forest cult devoted to the war-like process of grasping your sexual being, and the significant changes that each party brings to the other — align to create a clear psychological portrait?
There are answers,...
There are answers,...
- 12/3/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Seven-and-a-half years after debuting at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival — where it played alongside Che, Changeling, Hunger, Synecdoche, Waltz with Bashir, and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, to name just a few — Bertrand Bonello‘s On War is getting a U.S. theatrical release. Why that’s only happening now hasn’t been made clear — I wondered if Léa Seydoux‘s work in Spectre was some sort of impetus, but 007 didn’t help this movie’s case when Mathieu Amalric, its star, was seen in a villain role six months after the premiere — but I suspect inquiries are ultimately beyond the point. To receive “new” (read: relatively inaccessible) work from one of contemporary cinema’s more exciting voices is good enough.
What you’ll get from this trailer is a bit beyond me, though. As one who finds the closed-off, hyper-focused qualities from House of Tolerance and Saint Laurent particularly compelling,...
What you’ll get from this trailer is a bit beyond me, though. As one who finds the closed-off, hyper-focused qualities from House of Tolerance and Saint Laurent particularly compelling,...
- 11/9/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Chis Marker's Chat écoutant la musiqueThere are dog people and there are cat people, this we know, and there are even people who claim to be of both—though latent sympathies remain unspoken, like with a parent and which child is their favorite. With the Vienna Film Festival welcoming me with a tumbling collection of dog and cat short films spanning cinema's history—the Austrian Film Museum, an essential destination each year collaborating with the Viennale, is hosting a “a brief zoology of cinema” throughout the festivities—it is clear that filmmakers, too, have their preference. Silent cinema decidedly prefers the more easily trained and exhibited canine, with 1907’s surreal favorite Les chiens savants as a certain kind of cruel pinnacle. For the cats, Chris Marker, already the presiding figure over so much in 20th century art, I think we can easily claim is the cine-laureate. One need not know...
- 11/8/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
In 100 years of cinema, no American woman director has ever been invited to join the pantheon of international auteur directors. Non-American women directors like Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion, Liliana Cavani, Claire Denis, Marleen Gorris, Agnieszka Holland, Lynne Ramsay, Agnes Varda, Lina Wertmuller among others-- directors with bodies of work that match those of their male counterparts-- hardly exist in America, with the possible exceptions of masterful experimental directors, Maya Daren and Nina Menkes.
Kathryn Bigelow, who could be a top contender for American auteur director, had to leave America, after six years of unemployment, to seek financing in Europe, and is still not included with men among auteur directors. Other successful women directors who have made both commercially and critically successful features in America are mostly film and TV stars: Drew Barrymore, Jodie Foster, Penny Marshall, Barbra Streisand, Betty Thomas, to name a few. These directors have done fine work, but mostly within the confines of the studio system where, just once in a blue moon, a director like Nora Ephron, Catherina Hardwicke, Mimi Leder or Nancy Meyers can carve a niche.
The question arises, who are the American women directors whose films reveal the work of an auteur director? One could jump in with dozens of directors, from Anders, Arzner, Bigelow, Cholondenko, Coppola, Coolidge, Dash, Dunham, Hardwicke & Holofcener— just to start through the alphabet, but like Bigelow, none of these excellent directors is embraced as an auteur by the paternalist American film establishment.
In the United States less than 5% of feature films are directed by women, so for a director to emerge who is not already a women celebrity, is virtually impossible. Women directors usually make just one film before getting taken down early in the pipeline: if it’s not the misogynistic Hollywood studio system that expels them, their films are given paltry distribution and P&A budgets, or sometimes gender-biased critics comprised of over 80% males will likely taint their reviews.
One perfect example of a very fine American woman director whose body of work clearly distinguishes her as an auteur director is Jane Spencer. Jane Spencer is the director of the beloved low-budget indie feature Little Noises that premiered at Sundance some years ago to ecstatic reviews— and enamored audiences, and of Faces On Mars, which premiered in Europe at Solothurn. Her new film, The Ninth Cloud, which is being repped for distribution by Shoreline Entertainment is a dreamy, surreal marvel, which could do very well on the 2014 international festival circuit.
For Spencer, who dreams big, but must keep her budget small, ingenuity is the name of the game. As she says, “My dream as a kid was to direct big David Lean-style epics, so working within the framework I can create, I try to imbue my indie films with giant, epic themes.” Imagine if women directors like Spencer were afforded the budgets and opportunities to realize their immense talents for creating epic, visionary films.
I have always thought that film directors are like alchemists and magicians, but women directors have to be able to master another kind of magic as well: film financing in a void. Most women directors must cobble their production budgets together in any number of mysterious ways, and I wanted to know how Spencer had done it again. How did she succeed in making yet another wonderful feature film? How had she found the money?
Spencer answered the question with a question: “In an industry so difficult for women directors, how can any women director raise the money to make a film? You are basically forced to think outside the box. You just can’t give up. You try all the traditional methods: submit your script to actors, agents, studios, production companies, get it to friends in the business. They almost always lead to dead ends.
“So, finally, you go out and find it dollar-by-dollar— private equity from investors who like the project obviously, private loans you— yourself— take out. You get everything on the cheap, but keep the quality; get everyone to do you favors, but make sure they ‘get it’ and believe in the film. That’s the only way an American woman can make an indie feature film.”
Spencer shot The Ninth Cloud on super 16mm. Having a film camera instead of shooting digitally gives The Ninth Cloud a look that is simultaneously both very modern and nostalgic. As Spencer says, “It allows for the documentary, free-camera look I wanted to capture inspired by films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Darling, and Billy Liar. These low-budget 1960’s British kitchen sink films were an inspiration for Spencer, her Production Designer/Producer Richard Hudson and her Dp, Sam Mitchell. She goes on, “I wanted the film to express an impressionistic vision of Zena’s (the main character) world.”
In the film, in which we follow the dreamy, strange Zena, through what turn out to be her final days....Spencer glorifies the vulnerable Zena through a nuanced appreciation for her ability to “see.” Keeping her indie budget low, Spencer uses inexpensive, old film technology to record her character’s fleeting, childlike, and magical perception of the world around her—and it works beautifully. The film captures the elusive, dream-like moments, as fleeting as a painter’s sudden awareness of reflected sunlight glancing off rippling water-- impressionism-- that gets at the essence of art, and is the very reason we revere our great male “Masters of Cinema.”
As Spencer puts it: “I wanted to depict, from a women’s perspective for once, the victorious dreamer. One doesn’t have to accept ‘reality’ to live a meaningful life. Whatever your journey is—stay with your dream. You cannot be dissuaded by pressure to conform to social norms, systems, or institutions that tell you ‘cannot' because it’s 'unrealistic' or 'impossible.'"
We all know that numerically, becoming a female film director in America is virtually impossible— as former DGA president, Martha Coolidge says: “like winning the lottery.” It’s a bizarre anomaly that America, the leader of the free world, virtually excludes women from its most culturally influential global export—media. Hollywood’s level of support of women film directors is among the worst in the world, something that is now accentuated by the recent drafting of international charters that promote the gender equity among women directors in many countries outside the United States.
However, making feature films that move and inspire audiences is Spencer’s quest and she has not been dissuaded by statistics. She says: “This was a very, very difficult film to finance. We had some wonderful equity investors, our own company invested a lot of the money-- especially for post, and there turned out to be not many pre-sales. It was very much patchwork financing, very hard, and we filmed it over the space of a year, in sections, because budget-wise, we had to.”
Even after her critical success at Sundance her studio meetings were difficult. After years of struggling to get financed out of L.A., Spencer happened to move to Europe for personal reasons, and immediately had much better luck.
"We got it done-- though at times we didn’t think we would. We started financing in 2008 when the financial crisis happened, so some of our financiers fell out. Our wonderful male lead at the time, Guillaume Depardieu, whom I adored, died of pneumonia on a set in Romania. I really wondered if this film would happen - for a moment. But then the producers and I got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. We found the amazing lead actress Megan Maczko in a play on London’s West End....Michael Madsen, who is great in the film—so sympathetic -- playing a dishwasher/poet (instead of a guy with a gun) - was lovely and stayed with the project....and we got the great French actor Jean Hugues Anglade onboard - We got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. By 2011 we had finished shooting. We’ve been in post for two years: all of 2012 and much of 2013.”
All the hard work has been well worth the effort. Spencer’s multi-layered film is woven with themes of Djuna Barnes and Baudelaire and traverses the landscapes of Marcel Carne and Antonioni. What makes the film so exceptional is how freshly these motifs have been re-imagined through this director’s effortless lens. The Ninth Cloud is at once tender and deeply moving, yet it manages to reject sentimentalities while glorifying its heroine and uplifting the audience.
Will women directors like Spencer ever join the pantheon of international male auteur directors? That depends upon the whether or not the U.S. cultural consciousness evolves to finally embrace gender equity in our nation’s most influential global export—media. Only then will women directors get the budgets and opportunities to test their metal and take their rightful places in the annals of American cinema.
The Ninth Cloud will be opening in select theaters internationally starting 2014.
Please visit The Int’l List of Living Women Directors: http://www.womendirectorsinhollywood.com/
Marie Giese is American feature film director, a writer, a member & elected Director Category Representative for women at the DGA. She graduated from Wellesley College and UCLA graduate film schooland co-founded the foremost international web forum for political action for women directors (Visit Here). An activist for parity for women directors in Hollywood, she is in development to direct two feature films Rain and Treasure Hunt...
Kathryn Bigelow, who could be a top contender for American auteur director, had to leave America, after six years of unemployment, to seek financing in Europe, and is still not included with men among auteur directors. Other successful women directors who have made both commercially and critically successful features in America are mostly film and TV stars: Drew Barrymore, Jodie Foster, Penny Marshall, Barbra Streisand, Betty Thomas, to name a few. These directors have done fine work, but mostly within the confines of the studio system where, just once in a blue moon, a director like Nora Ephron, Catherina Hardwicke, Mimi Leder or Nancy Meyers can carve a niche.
The question arises, who are the American women directors whose films reveal the work of an auteur director? One could jump in with dozens of directors, from Anders, Arzner, Bigelow, Cholondenko, Coppola, Coolidge, Dash, Dunham, Hardwicke & Holofcener— just to start through the alphabet, but like Bigelow, none of these excellent directors is embraced as an auteur by the paternalist American film establishment.
In the United States less than 5% of feature films are directed by women, so for a director to emerge who is not already a women celebrity, is virtually impossible. Women directors usually make just one film before getting taken down early in the pipeline: if it’s not the misogynistic Hollywood studio system that expels them, their films are given paltry distribution and P&A budgets, or sometimes gender-biased critics comprised of over 80% males will likely taint their reviews.
One perfect example of a very fine American woman director whose body of work clearly distinguishes her as an auteur director is Jane Spencer. Jane Spencer is the director of the beloved low-budget indie feature Little Noises that premiered at Sundance some years ago to ecstatic reviews— and enamored audiences, and of Faces On Mars, which premiered in Europe at Solothurn. Her new film, The Ninth Cloud, which is being repped for distribution by Shoreline Entertainment is a dreamy, surreal marvel, which could do very well on the 2014 international festival circuit.
For Spencer, who dreams big, but must keep her budget small, ingenuity is the name of the game. As she says, “My dream as a kid was to direct big David Lean-style epics, so working within the framework I can create, I try to imbue my indie films with giant, epic themes.” Imagine if women directors like Spencer were afforded the budgets and opportunities to realize their immense talents for creating epic, visionary films.
I have always thought that film directors are like alchemists and magicians, but women directors have to be able to master another kind of magic as well: film financing in a void. Most women directors must cobble their production budgets together in any number of mysterious ways, and I wanted to know how Spencer had done it again. How did she succeed in making yet another wonderful feature film? How had she found the money?
Spencer answered the question with a question: “In an industry so difficult for women directors, how can any women director raise the money to make a film? You are basically forced to think outside the box. You just can’t give up. You try all the traditional methods: submit your script to actors, agents, studios, production companies, get it to friends in the business. They almost always lead to dead ends.
“So, finally, you go out and find it dollar-by-dollar— private equity from investors who like the project obviously, private loans you— yourself— take out. You get everything on the cheap, but keep the quality; get everyone to do you favors, but make sure they ‘get it’ and believe in the film. That’s the only way an American woman can make an indie feature film.”
Spencer shot The Ninth Cloud on super 16mm. Having a film camera instead of shooting digitally gives The Ninth Cloud a look that is simultaneously both very modern and nostalgic. As Spencer says, “It allows for the documentary, free-camera look I wanted to capture inspired by films like The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Darling, and Billy Liar. These low-budget 1960’s British kitchen sink films were an inspiration for Spencer, her Production Designer/Producer Richard Hudson and her Dp, Sam Mitchell. She goes on, “I wanted the film to express an impressionistic vision of Zena’s (the main character) world.”
In the film, in which we follow the dreamy, strange Zena, through what turn out to be her final days....Spencer glorifies the vulnerable Zena through a nuanced appreciation for her ability to “see.” Keeping her indie budget low, Spencer uses inexpensive, old film technology to record her character’s fleeting, childlike, and magical perception of the world around her—and it works beautifully. The film captures the elusive, dream-like moments, as fleeting as a painter’s sudden awareness of reflected sunlight glancing off rippling water-- impressionism-- that gets at the essence of art, and is the very reason we revere our great male “Masters of Cinema.”
As Spencer puts it: “I wanted to depict, from a women’s perspective for once, the victorious dreamer. One doesn’t have to accept ‘reality’ to live a meaningful life. Whatever your journey is—stay with your dream. You cannot be dissuaded by pressure to conform to social norms, systems, or institutions that tell you ‘cannot' because it’s 'unrealistic' or 'impossible.'"
We all know that numerically, becoming a female film director in America is virtually impossible— as former DGA president, Martha Coolidge says: “like winning the lottery.” It’s a bizarre anomaly that America, the leader of the free world, virtually excludes women from its most culturally influential global export—media. Hollywood’s level of support of women film directors is among the worst in the world, something that is now accentuated by the recent drafting of international charters that promote the gender equity among women directors in many countries outside the United States.
However, making feature films that move and inspire audiences is Spencer’s quest and she has not been dissuaded by statistics. She says: “This was a very, very difficult film to finance. We had some wonderful equity investors, our own company invested a lot of the money-- especially for post, and there turned out to be not many pre-sales. It was very much patchwork financing, very hard, and we filmed it over the space of a year, in sections, because budget-wise, we had to.”
Even after her critical success at Sundance her studio meetings were difficult. After years of struggling to get financed out of L.A., Spencer happened to move to Europe for personal reasons, and immediately had much better luck.
"We got it done-- though at times we didn’t think we would. We started financing in 2008 when the financial crisis happened, so some of our financiers fell out. Our wonderful male lead at the time, Guillaume Depardieu, whom I adored, died of pneumonia on a set in Romania. I really wondered if this film would happen - for a moment. But then the producers and I got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. We found the amazing lead actress Megan Maczko in a play on London’s West End....Michael Madsen, who is great in the film—so sympathetic -- playing a dishwasher/poet (instead of a guy with a gun) - was lovely and stayed with the project....and we got the great French actor Jean Hugues Anglade onboard - We got right back up on our feet and started financing it again. By 2011 we had finished shooting. We’ve been in post for two years: all of 2012 and much of 2013.”
All the hard work has been well worth the effort. Spencer’s multi-layered film is woven with themes of Djuna Barnes and Baudelaire and traverses the landscapes of Marcel Carne and Antonioni. What makes the film so exceptional is how freshly these motifs have been re-imagined through this director’s effortless lens. The Ninth Cloud is at once tender and deeply moving, yet it manages to reject sentimentalities while glorifying its heroine and uplifting the audience.
Will women directors like Spencer ever join the pantheon of international male auteur directors? That depends upon the whether or not the U.S. cultural consciousness evolves to finally embrace gender equity in our nation’s most influential global export—media. Only then will women directors get the budgets and opportunities to test their metal and take their rightful places in the annals of American cinema.
The Ninth Cloud will be opening in select theaters internationally starting 2014.
Please visit The Int’l List of Living Women Directors: http://www.womendirectorsinhollywood.com/
Marie Giese is American feature film director, a writer, a member & elected Director Category Representative for women at the DGA. She graduated from Wellesley College and UCLA graduate film schooland co-founded the foremost international web forum for political action for women directors (Visit Here). An activist for parity for women directors in Hollywood, she is in development to direct two feature films Rain and Treasure Hunt...
- 12/9/2013
- by Maria Giese
- Sydney's Buzz
I've got a very different trippy and psychedelic animated short film called "Myosis." It's beautifully made, and this is the explanation that came along with it that inspired the short.
Myosis is the constriction of the iris which decreases the diameter of the pupil. It is an unconscious phenomenon which can be triggered by an intense light, fear, or the effect of epiphany.
The film was created by Emmanuel Asquier-Brassart, Ricky Cometa, Guillaume Dousse, Adrien Gromelle, and Thibaud Petitpas at Gobelins school of arts. I hope you enjoy it!
Warning - There is a bit of artistic nudity. ...
Myosis is the constriction of the iris which decreases the diameter of the pupil. It is an unconscious phenomenon which can be triggered by an intense light, fear, or the effect of epiphany.
The film was created by Emmanuel Asquier-Brassart, Ricky Cometa, Guillaume Dousse, Adrien Gromelle, and Thibaud Petitpas at Gobelins school of arts. I hope you enjoy it!
Warning - There is a bit of artistic nudity. ...
- 9/23/2013
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
The celebrity interview is a fraught affair. After actor Rhys Ifans stalks out of his unhappy encounter with a Times journalist, we ask those who interview the stars about their worst experiences
Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph
The film industry is now less caring about [traditional] media exposure. A lot of their PR campaign – and the interview is part of that – is much more driven by Twitter, YouTube, those types of things. So the celebrity interview has fallen down the ranking in importance, and particularly in the British media.
The way they try to control the environment has become more palpable. If they want the PR to sit in, I always try to say there's no need, but the main form of control is time. I was doing a lot of music interviews in the early part of my career, and I would be allowed to go on the road with Elvis Costello and Queen.
Mick Brown, Daily Telegraph
The film industry is now less caring about [traditional] media exposure. A lot of their PR campaign – and the interview is part of that – is much more driven by Twitter, YouTube, those types of things. So the celebrity interview has fallen down the ranking in importance, and particularly in the British media.
The way they try to control the environment has become more palpable. If they want the PR to sit in, I always try to say there's no need, but the main form of control is time. I was doing a lot of music interviews in the early part of my career, and I would be allowed to go on the road with Elvis Costello and Queen.
- 6/7/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
Forget your body clock: any time of day finds film fans watching Nicolas Winding Refn's tense, brutal thriller, Sorrentino's beguiling look at fading beauty or Soderbergh's tremendous Liberace biopic. Then there's the Coens' hoot of a movie and Carla Bruni's sister's comedy. But which will win the big prize?
At 7.30am on Cannes's main strip people wearing dinner jackets and cocktail dresses held handwritten signs that read "Only God Forgives", triple-underlined, and "Please! Only God Forgives!" They might have been members of a doomsday cult, one with an imperious dress code, but no: a Ryan Gosling film was about to premiere in the Grand Théâtre Lumière and this lot were ticketless, hoping by dressing smartly to pick up last-minute invites. They looked on while several hundred of us filed in for 90 minutes of early-morning ultra-violence.
Moviegoing at the festival runs round the clock. There are marquee screenings not...
At 7.30am on Cannes's main strip people wearing dinner jackets and cocktail dresses held handwritten signs that read "Only God Forgives", triple-underlined, and "Please! Only God Forgives!" They might have been members of a doomsday cult, one with an imperious dress code, but no: a Ryan Gosling film was about to premiere in the Grand Théâtre Lumière and this lot were ticketless, hoping by dressing smartly to pick up last-minute invites. They looked on while several hundred of us filed in for 90 minutes of early-morning ultra-violence.
Moviegoing at the festival runs round the clock. There are marquee screenings not...
- 5/25/2013
- by Tom Lamont, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy
- The Guardian - Film News
Watching on mobile? See the trailer here
The hit man has been a recognisable figure in our dramatic literature since at least the time Richard III and Macbeth hired anonymous murderers to do their dirty work, though the actual term didn't become widely used outside the American underworld until the 1960s. There are now so many around that they take in apprentices, especially when they start ageing. In serious Hollywood thriller The Mechanic (1972), hitman Charles Bronson offers informal indentures to Jan-Michael Vincent, as does Jean Rochefort to Guillaume Depardieu in the French comedy Wild Target (1993). A tradition of sorts is now developing. In Stephen Frears's The Hit (1984), dead-keen pupil Tim Roth is taken on as assistant to jaded hitman John Hurt, Thirty years later, in The Liability, Roth has become Roy, a middle-aged hitman who engages a teenager to help him carry out his final killing.
The Liability is a black comedy,...
The hit man has been a recognisable figure in our dramatic literature since at least the time Richard III and Macbeth hired anonymous murderers to do their dirty work, though the actual term didn't become widely used outside the American underworld until the 1960s. There are now so many around that they take in apprentices, especially when they start ageing. In serious Hollywood thriller The Mechanic (1972), hitman Charles Bronson offers informal indentures to Jan-Michael Vincent, as does Jean Rochefort to Guillaume Depardieu in the French comedy Wild Target (1993). A tradition of sorts is now developing. In Stephen Frears's The Hit (1984), dead-keen pupil Tim Roth is taken on as assistant to jaded hitman John Hurt, Thirty years later, in The Liability, Roth has become Roy, a middle-aged hitman who engages a teenager to help him carry out his final killing.
The Liability is a black comedy,...
- 5/18/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
It is important for social democracies to allow the accumulation of individual wealth. But how that wealth is spent matters too
Gérard Depardieu, one of the world's most famous Frenchmen, is now a Russian, after Vladimir Putin personally granted him citizenship on 3 January. It's fairly clear the main attraction of Depardieu's new domicile is its 13% flat income tax rate, since the actor has been flamboyantly fulminating for ages about French president François Hollande's plans to introduce a supertax. He announced that he intended to hand in his French passport in December, after buying a house in Belgium and taking up residency there.
But Depardieu is not the only one who isn't keen on Hollande's redistributive ideas. This week, France's constitutional council struck down Hollande's plan to impose a 75% tax on earnings over ¤1m as "confiscatory". It's not going to happen after all. Hollande is now seeking to put together...
Gérard Depardieu, one of the world's most famous Frenchmen, is now a Russian, after Vladimir Putin personally granted him citizenship on 3 January. It's fairly clear the main attraction of Depardieu's new domicile is its 13% flat income tax rate, since the actor has been flamboyantly fulminating for ages about French president François Hollande's plans to introduce a supertax. He announced that he intended to hand in his French passport in December, after buying a house in Belgium and taking up residency there.
But Depardieu is not the only one who isn't keen on Hollande's redistributive ideas. This week, France's constitutional council struck down Hollande's plan to impose a 75% tax on earnings over ¤1m as "confiscatory". It's not going to happen after all. Hollande is now seeking to put together...
- 1/12/2013
- by Deborah Orr
- The Guardian - Film News
GroupM owned media agency Mec has promoted several members of staff and formed a new management board.
The announcement:
Sydney, 9 October 2012: GroupM media agency Mec has promoted key members of staff and established a new management board as part of a broader restructure of the agency.
Search Director Alex Hancock has stepped up to Head of Search and Digital Strategy Director Guillaume Goudal has risen to Head of Digital. Alex joined Mec a year ago and has tripled the size of Mec’s Sem team and also brought Seo in-house.
Guillaume has been with Mec for eight years, three years in France and now five in Australia. ‘G’ has won both Cannes and Mfa awards for his digital work. Alex and G will work together to determine Mec’s future digital direction.
Mec is also currently recruiting for a Digital Trading Director to replace Ricky Chanana, who has moved to sister agency Maxus.
The announcement:
Sydney, 9 October 2012: GroupM media agency Mec has promoted key members of staff and established a new management board as part of a broader restructure of the agency.
Search Director Alex Hancock has stepped up to Head of Search and Digital Strategy Director Guillaume Goudal has risen to Head of Digital. Alex joined Mec a year ago and has tripled the size of Mec’s Sem team and also brought Seo in-house.
Guillaume has been with Mec for eight years, three years in France and now five in Australia. ‘G’ has won both Cannes and Mfa awards for his digital work. Alex and G will work together to determine Mec’s future digital direction.
Mec is also currently recruiting for a Digital Trading Director to replace Ricky Chanana, who has moved to sister agency Maxus.
- 10/10/2012
- by Georgina Pearson
- Encore Magazine
Some may find it deeply irritating, but Leos Carax's dreamlike and richly allusive movie is destined to become a classic
Now 51, the French enfant terrible emeritus Leos Carax is an immensely talented and highly self-conscious filmmaker who has made a mere five features in the past 28 years. His nom de plume (or as he might put it, using a term popular once among the Nouvelle Vague directors he admired, nom de caméra stylo) is an anagram of the first two parts of his real name, Alex Oscar Dupont, and the title of his last film, Pola X, made in 1999, has a similarly solipsistic origin. Pola X is an acronym derived from the French title of Herman Melville's novel Pierre; or, the Ambiguities, which Melville wrote to cope with the failure of Moby-Dick. Carax transposed it from 19th-century New England to late-20th-century France because he saw parallels between...
Now 51, the French enfant terrible emeritus Leos Carax is an immensely talented and highly self-conscious filmmaker who has made a mere five features in the past 28 years. His nom de plume (or as he might put it, using a term popular once among the Nouvelle Vague directors he admired, nom de caméra stylo) is an anagram of the first two parts of his real name, Alex Oscar Dupont, and the title of his last film, Pola X, made in 1999, has a similarly solipsistic origin. Pola X is an acronym derived from the French title of Herman Melville's novel Pierre; or, the Ambiguities, which Melville wrote to cope with the failure of Moby-Dick. Carax transposed it from 19th-century New England to late-20th-century France because he saw parallels between...
- 9/29/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve, 68, will be the recipient of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 39th Chaplin Award. The annual fundraising gala benefiting Lincoln Center programs will be held on Monday, April 2, at the Alice Tully Hall in New York. The evening will include films clips and a party. [Full list of Film Society of Lincoln Center (Fslc) Chaplin Award Honorees.] Catherine Deneuve's career spans more than five decades, from André Hunebelle's Les collégiennes / The Schoolgirls (1957), Jacques-Gérard Cornu's L'homme à femmes / Ladies Man (1960), and Michel Fermaud and Jacques Poitrenaud's Les Portes claquent / The Door Slams 1960) to her latest efforts: Christophe Honoré's Les Biens-aimés / The Beloved, shown at last year's Cannes Film Festival; Thierry Klifa's Les Yeux de sa mère / His Mother's Eyes; and Laurent Tirard's upcoming Astérix et Obélix: Au Service de Sa Majesté / Astérix et Obélix: On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as Cordelia, the Queen of England, opposite frequent co-star Gérard Depardieu and Edouard Baer.
- 1/11/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Libération, France Soir and Les Inrocks are among the news outlets reporting that the Russian-born actress Yekaterina Golubeva, best known for performing alongside the late Guillaume Depardieu in Léos Carax's Pola X (1999), has died at the age of 44. She'll be also be remembered for her performances in Claire Denis's I Can't Sleep (1994) and The Intruder (2004) and Bruno Dumont's Twentynine Palms (2002).
A mother of three, Golubeva also appeared in Three Days (1991) and Few of Us (1996), both films directed by her Lithuanian husband, Sharunas Bartas. Her funeral is to be held on Saturday morning at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed....
A mother of three, Golubeva also appeared in Three Days (1991) and Few of Us (1996), both films directed by her Lithuanian husband, Sharunas Bartas. Her funeral is to be held on Saturday morning at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed....
- 8/18/2011
- MUBI
Armadillo (15)
(Janus Metz, 2010, Den) 105 mins
After last year's Restrepo, another fine documentary from the Afghanistan front line, bringing us closer than we'd like to a war we'd rather not think about. Again we track a tour of duty with its mix of boredom, adrenaline and futility, but the key differences here are that they're Danish soldiers (who seem a lot less uptight about access) and the camerawork is better than in most fictional war movies. As a result, we're brought right into the soldiers' lives, and pitched into the heart of battle when things really heat up.
Cold Fish (18)
(Sion Sono, 2010, Jap) Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshi. 146 mins
Not your average serial killer, this one's sociable, presentable and a big fish in the fishkeeping world – even if there's a grisly explanation for his success. As we follow a meek colleague drawn into his demented orbit, proceedings get uglier and messier,...
(Janus Metz, 2010, Den) 105 mins
After last year's Restrepo, another fine documentary from the Afghanistan front line, bringing us closer than we'd like to a war we'd rather not think about. Again we track a tour of duty with its mix of boredom, adrenaline and futility, but the key differences here are that they're Danish soldiers (who seem a lot less uptight about access) and the camerawork is better than in most fictional war movies. As a result, we're brought right into the soldiers' lives, and pitched into the heart of battle when things really heat up.
Cold Fish (18)
(Sion Sono, 2010, Jap) Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshi. 146 mins
Not your average serial killer, this one's sociable, presentable and a big fish in the fishkeeping world – even if there's a grisly explanation for his success. As we follow a meek colleague drawn into his demented orbit, proceedings get uglier and messier,...
- 4/8/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Guillaume 'Tell No One' Canet's next movie, relationship drama Little White Lies, had its origins in the personal crisis endured by the director in the wake of that breathless thriller. It's safe to expect less of the breakneck foot-chases, then, and more of the contemplative, 'what's-it-all-about' stuff. The film's new quad bears that out, with an ensemble cast gathered by the seaside to offload a lifetime of teensy, and not so teensy, dishonesties.Considering his CV boasts movies with titles like Whatever You Say, Tell No One and Little White Lies, you might think that Canet has have one or two trust issues, but the idea for this third feature came to him while he was recovering from a heavy bout of septicemia and depression. Yes, it's a friends movie but in Canet's capable hands it should be closer in quality to The Big Chill - a film he cites...
- 2/15/2011
- EmpireOnline
Marion Cotillard is pregnant. The "Inception" star and her French actor-and-director partner Guillaume Canet are expecting their first child together and the couple are said to be thrilled with the news. The actress' representative has confirmed the French actress is expecting and the baby is rumored to be due this spring.
Marion, 35, and Guillaume, 37, first met on the set of 2003 movie "Love Me If You Dare" but they only started dating in 2007. The pair last collaborated on 2010 French comedy-drama "Little White Lies", which Guillaume directed and Marion starred in.
The screen beauty won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of French singer Edith Piaf in 2007 movie "La Vie en Rose", something which has previously admitted shocked her. She has previously said, "The movie and the Oscar changed my life in a very good way. It put me in a different universe."
"When I was in Los Angeles during the...
Marion, 35, and Guillaume, 37, first met on the set of 2003 movie "Love Me If You Dare" but they only started dating in 2007. The pair last collaborated on 2010 French comedy-drama "Little White Lies", which Guillaume directed and Marion starred in.
The screen beauty won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of French singer Edith Piaf in 2007 movie "La Vie en Rose", something which has previously admitted shocked her. She has previously said, "The movie and the Oscar changed my life in a very good way. It put me in a different universe."
"When I was in Los Angeles during the...
- 1/11/2011
- by celebrity-mania.com
- Celebrity Mania
This week's choice movie clips take inspiration from perspiration, as the stars show they're only human. By Josh Du Sautoy
Summer is finally upon us, get ready for a season of all the usual: beer gardens, sunburn and buckets of sweat. Apologies for the bluntness, but sweat is simply a by-product of all that heat. While there may be some lucky enough to have perennially dry armpits, there'll be the rest of us caked in the stuff, cooped up in our offices with only a malfunctioning fan to help us stem the tide.
Similar to emotional escape, cinema also provides us with a cool haven away from the heat outside. Sitting down in a (hopefully) airconditioned auditorium, we can forget about our stains for an hour or two, before venturing out into the blazing sun once more.
But what's this? Apparently those up there on the silver screen are real people who sweat too!
Summer is finally upon us, get ready for a season of all the usual: beer gardens, sunburn and buckets of sweat. Apologies for the bluntness, but sweat is simply a by-product of all that heat. While there may be some lucky enough to have perennially dry armpits, there'll be the rest of us caked in the stuff, cooped up in our offices with only a malfunctioning fan to help us stem the tide.
Similar to emotional escape, cinema also provides us with a cool haven away from the heat outside. Sitting down in a (hopefully) airconditioned auditorium, we can forget about our stains for an hour or two, before venturing out into the blazing sun once more.
But what's this? Apparently those up there on the silver screen are real people who sweat too!
- 6/23/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
If you don't know the names mentioned in the headline above then its perhaps time to familiarize yourself with French cinema. Actually, I'm fairly sure all three filmmakers showed their last films at the Cannes Film Festival either a year or two years back. - If you don't know the names mentioned in the headline above then its perhaps time to familiarize yourself with French cinema. Actually, I'm fairly sure all three filmmakers showed their last films at the Cannes Film Festival either a year or two years back. In the case of Mia Hansen-Love, who was recently named one of Variety's Top 10 filmmakers, her Father of My Children is one of those effortless French dramas that takes a series of snap shots of your typical family in a moment of reflection. IFC Films picked up the film and will release it shortly. The National Film and...
- 3/13/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
Somehow, I missed this film when it played this past August in Montreal. It sounds like an Outer Limits episode and plays like a fantastic looking arthouse scifi film via the trailer.
Synopsis:
Jonathan Vogel (Guillaume Depardieu) would like to turn back the clock and undo the accident that led to his disability and destroyed his life. When he learns that Stivlas Karr (Carlo Brandt), a well-known professor and geneticist, has developed a gene therapy for regenerating the human body, he makes an appointment with him for some clinical tests. But the therapy doesnt go according to Professor Karrs plan and leads to unexpected results. Jonathan, whose life is now in danger, has become aware that there is only one person who can help him: Alice (Alysson Paradis), the professors daughter.
Trailer with English subs after the break.
Embedded video stripped, see full HTML version.
Synopsis:
Jonathan Vogel (Guillaume Depardieu) would like to turn back the clock and undo the accident that led to his disability and destroyed his life. When he learns that Stivlas Karr (Carlo Brandt), a well-known professor and geneticist, has developed a gene therapy for regenerating the human body, he makes an appointment with him for some clinical tests. But the therapy doesnt go according to Professor Karrs plan and leads to unexpected results. Jonathan, whose life is now in danger, has become aware that there is only one person who can help him: Alice (Alysson Paradis), the professors daughter.
Trailer with English subs after the break.
Embedded video stripped, see full HTML version.
- 12/9/2009
- QuietEarth.us
In July, TV5MONDE USA brings you father and son, Gerard and the late Guillaume Depardieu, together in "A Loving Father," along with the critically acclaimed 2008 film "Khamsa." Guillaume Depardieu, 37, died in October 13, 2008, at the Garches hospital, after he contracted severe viral pneumonia while filming on location in Romania, where he had been working on "L'Enfance d'Icare." Here.s a glimpse at some of the films playing throughout the month, from TV5Monde: Thursday, July 2 A Loving Father (aka Aime Ton Pere) Premieres 8:30 Et/ 5:30 Pt Starring renowned actors and father and son team Gérard Depardieu and Guillaume Depardieu, this 2003 U.S. premiered drama tells the tale of a son, desperately trying to reconnect with his...
- 7/1/2009
- by April MacIntyre
- Monsters and Critics
Léos Carax played a Charlie Chaplin impersonator two years ago in Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely—other than that, though, the idiosyncratic French director (best known for 1991's Les Amants du Pont-Neut and often credited, along with Luc Besson and Jean-Jacques Beineix, with pioneering the cinema du look in the 1980s) hasn't had his name attached to much since Pola X, the incest drama he made a decade ago with Catherine Deneuve and Guillaume Depardieu.
Is he still "French cinema's reigning mad romantic," as the New York Times called him then? Tokyo!—the three-pack of short films by Carax, Michel Gondry, and Joon-ho Bong (The Host) and set in the Japanese capital—will give Carax-deprived viewers a chance to decide. His contribution, "Merde," focuses on a milky-eyed, red-bearded creature (Denis Lavant) that emerges from the sewers and starts tossing hand grenades around Tokyo. He's "a sort of Godzilla who attacks...
Is he still "French cinema's reigning mad romantic," as the New York Times called him then? Tokyo!—the three-pack of short films by Carax, Michel Gondry, and Joon-ho Bong (The Host) and set in the Japanese capital—will give Carax-deprived viewers a chance to decide. His contribution, "Merde," focuses on a milky-eyed, red-bearded creature (Denis Lavant) that emerges from the sewers and starts tossing hand grenades around Tokyo. He's "a sort of Godzilla who attacks...
- 3/6/2009
- Interview Magazine
- A biopic about an unknown painter cleaned up the 34th edition of the Cesar awards (France's equivalent to the Oscars). You would have thought that it was an homage to Sean Penn (the actor was in attendance, first row ticket) and the dearly departed Claude Berri, but this was Martin Provost's night upsetting favorites Jean-François Richet and Mesrine (who won for Best Director and Best Actor) and the Palme d'Or winner The Class from Laurent Cantet winner went home with only the Best Adapted Film. Séraphine won a total of seven awards. Kristin Scott Thomas didn't claim the top prize for Best Actress for I've Loved You So Long (the prize went to Yolande Moreau in Séraphine) but Philippe Claudel won for Best First Film and a very emotional Elsa Zylberstein grabbed the Best Supporting Actress nod. Finally, a little bit of redemption here for Best Foreign Picture,
- 2/27/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
A day following the announcement of the 81st Academy Awards' nominees, the French Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have uncovered their official selections for the 34th Cesar Awards. On Friday, January 23, gangster movie "Mesrine" has been given ten nominations for the France's top awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Jean-Francois Richet.
Apart from the two mentioned gongs, "Mesrine", which is the third highest grossing French film in 2008, also garnered a Best Actor nod for leading actor Vincent Cassel. It also collected two more counts in the category of Adapted Screenplay for Abdel Raouf Dafri and Jean-Francois Richet, and of Cinematography for Robert Gantz.
In the foreign film nominations, Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" were put in competition with Bouli Lanners' "Eldorado", Matteo Garrone's "Gomorra", Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's "Lorna's Silence", James Gray...
Apart from the two mentioned gongs, "Mesrine", which is the third highest grossing French film in 2008, also garnered a Best Actor nod for leading actor Vincent Cassel. It also collected two more counts in the category of Adapted Screenplay for Abdel Raouf Dafri and Jean-Francois Richet, and of Cinematography for Robert Gantz.
In the foreign film nominations, Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" and Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" were put in competition with Bouli Lanners' "Eldorado", Matteo Garrone's "Gomorra", Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's "Lorna's Silence", James Gray...
- 1/24/2009
- by AceShowbiz.com
- Aceshowbiz
Paris -- A legendary bandit will battle it out with a forgotten painter for France's top film honors the Cesar Awards with Jean-Francois Richet's "Mesrine" and Martin Provost's "Seraphine" leading the list of nominees for the 34th annual ceremony announced Friday in Paris.
The two biopics will compete for the title of best French film of the year alongside Remi Bezancon's "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life," Arnaud Desplechin's "A Christmas Tale," Cedric Klapisch's "Paris" and Laurent Cantet's Oscar for best foreign film contender "The Class."
Desplechin, Richet, Provost, Cantet and Bezancon will compete for the title of best director.
"Mesrine," a two-part biopic about France's infamous 1970s public enemy number one starring Vincent Cassel, scored 10 nominations. "Seraphine" followed with nine, just ahead of "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" and "A Christmas Tale" with eight nominations each.
Philippe Claudel's...
The two biopics will compete for the title of best French film of the year alongside Remi Bezancon's "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life," Arnaud Desplechin's "A Christmas Tale," Cedric Klapisch's "Paris" and Laurent Cantet's Oscar for best foreign film contender "The Class."
Desplechin, Richet, Provost, Cantet and Bezancon will compete for the title of best director.
"Mesrine," a two-part biopic about France's infamous 1970s public enemy number one starring Vincent Cassel, scored 10 nominations. "Seraphine" followed with nine, just ahead of "The First Day of the Rest of Your Life" and "A Christmas Tale" with eight nominations each.
Philippe Claudel's...
- 1/23/2009
- by By Rebecca Leffler
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Release Date: Oct. 22 (limited)
Directors: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire
Writers: Blutch, Charles Burns, Pierre Di Sciullo, Jerry Kramski, Richard McGuire, Michel Pirus, Romain Slocombe
Starring: Nicole Garcia, Guillaume Depardieu, Aure Atika
Studio/Running Time: IFC Films, 80 mins.
Anthology films are notoriously uneven, with participating directors often contradicting each other’s ideas as much as complementing them. France’s Fear(s) of the Dark is more unified than most, though, with its creators sticking to the topics of fear and nightmares and for once staying on the same page as each other. More immediately noticeable is its stylistic unity, the entire film composed basically from black-and-white animation. Since the directors are also some of the country’s finest comic artists and designers, the result is a visual (and also audio) tour de force that makes the palette feel less like limitation than a catalyst for innovation.
Directors: Blutch, Charles Burns, Marie Caillou, Pierre Di Sciullo, Lorenzo Mattotti, Richard McGuire
Writers: Blutch, Charles Burns, Pierre Di Sciullo, Jerry Kramski, Richard McGuire, Michel Pirus, Romain Slocombe
Starring: Nicole Garcia, Guillaume Depardieu, Aure Atika
Studio/Running Time: IFC Films, 80 mins.
Anthology films are notoriously uneven, with participating directors often contradicting each other’s ideas as much as complementing them. France’s Fear(s) of the Dark is more unified than most, though, with its creators sticking to the topics of fear and nightmares and for once staying on the same page as each other. More immediately noticeable is its stylistic unity, the entire film composed basically from black-and-white animation. Since the directors are also some of the country’s finest comic artists and designers, the result is a visual (and also audio) tour de force that makes the palette feel less like limitation than a catalyst for innovation.
- 10/24/2008
- Pastemagazine.com
The animated French-language omnibus Fear(s) of the Dark casts a decidedly uneven spell: though never less than a joy to look at, the start/stop/resume qualities of its storytelling (meant, I believe, to mimic the unbounded nature of dreams, the sense of jumping heedlessly between nightmares) is almost entirely a distraction. This should nonetheless hint at the quality of the images before us, which make memorable use of the black-and-white extremes of the color spectrum. The tales that hit the hardest are the ones allowed full, uninterrupted development. In the first, young introvert Eric (Guillaume Depardieu) falls in love with Laura (Aure Atika), a blond beauty who turns out to be a predatory half insect. Earlier this year, Depardieu showed his live-action chops with fatal obsession in Jacques Rivette’s The Duchess of Langeais, and he’s no less potent in animated form (his voice - gravelly and...
- 10/23/2008
- UGO Movies
Can a cartoon really scare you? Probably not. Then again, it would be an injustice to call IFC Films’ Fear(S) Of The Dark (Peur(S) Du Noir) a cartoon. It is animated, to be sure—but this collection of six interwoven tales, drained of color, seeks to penetrate much deeper than the normal Disney/DreamWorks fare.
And it mostly succeeds. Phobias, torture, cruel manipulation and sexual slavery all come together in this exploration into the shadow world of the subconscious mind.
“The whole idea from the beginning, when the producers first started putting the project together, was that this would be a meditation on fear,” says Richard McGuire, one of the contributing directors. “I believe everyone is afraid of the dark. It’s a primal thing.”
Presented in stark black and white, each tale is distinctively drawn and singularly presented by top graphic artists. And while the experience is not altogether terrifying,...
And it mostly succeeds. Phobias, torture, cruel manipulation and sexual slavery all come together in this exploration into the shadow world of the subconscious mind.
“The whole idea from the beginning, when the producers first started putting the project together, was that this would be a meditation on fear,” says Richard McGuire, one of the contributing directors. “I believe everyone is afraid of the dark. It’s a primal thing.”
Presented in stark black and white, each tale is distinctively drawn and singularly presented by top graphic artists. And while the experience is not altogether terrifying,...
- 10/22/2008
- Fangoria
Latest: Gerard Depardieu's son Guillaume was laid to rest in Paris, France on Friday in a ceremony that attracted some of the country's biggest stars.
The 37-year-old actor passed away on Monday at the Garches hospital after suffering from a bout of pneumonia.
His family was joined by mourners including directors Luc Besson, Claude Berri, actors Nathalie Baye and Laura Smet, and France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as they paid tribute to the star during a ceremony in the Paris suburb of Bougival.
Guillaume's own music was played during the memorial service; the songs were recorded shortly before his death in preparation for the release of his debut LP.
His mother Elisabeth described him as "a child and then a man about whom you always wondered would he come home at night", while his movie star father Gerard read a passage from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's children's story Le Petit Prince as the black coffin, drapped with pink roses, was lowered into the ground.
He read: "Do you see? It's too far. I can't take this body with me. It's too heavy."
Guillaume Depardieu is survived by his six-year-old daughter Louise with his ex-wife Elise Ventre, whom he divorced in 2006.
The 37-year-old actor passed away on Monday at the Garches hospital after suffering from a bout of pneumonia.
His family was joined by mourners including directors Luc Besson, Claude Berri, actors Nathalie Baye and Laura Smet, and France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as they paid tribute to the star during a ceremony in the Paris suburb of Bougival.
Guillaume's own music was played during the memorial service; the songs were recorded shortly before his death in preparation for the release of his debut LP.
His mother Elisabeth described him as "a child and then a man about whom you always wondered would he come home at night", while his movie star father Gerard read a passage from Antoine de Saint-Exupery's children's story Le Petit Prince as the black coffin, drapped with pink roses, was lowered into the ground.
He read: "Do you see? It's too far. I can't take this body with me. It's too heavy."
Guillaume Depardieu is survived by his six-year-old daughter Louise with his ex-wife Elise Ventre, whom he divorced in 2006.
- 10/17/2008
- WENN
After surviving a heroin addiction, multiple stints in prison, a motorcycle accidents and subsequent infection that led to having a leg amputated and an always-tumultuous relationship with his very famous father Gerard it seems almost anticlimactic to write that French actor Guillaume Depardieu died yesterday after a bout with pneumonia. Depardieu’s relationship with his father was one of the more legendary famous father - famous son stand offs in history, one that ultimately ended with the pair of them reconciling and Guillaume building a name for himself as a formidable actor in his own right, and for much of his life Guillaume stood as the classic example of an incredibly dissolute child of celebrity and it seems doubly tragic that Depardieu was struck down by something so pedestrian as he seemed to be on the road to slowly putting himself together both personally and professionally.
- 10/14/2008
- by Todd Brown
- Screen Anarchy
Maureen McCormick, the actress who played Marcia Brady on The Brady Bunch, has written a tell-all book about her drug addictions, sex life, and how she dated Michael Jackson, Steve Martin, and her onscreen brother Greg, played by Barry Williams. — E! Online Jessica Simpson denied rumors that she shopped for rings with Tony Romo, saying, "I couldn't drag Tony into Neiman Marcus if I tried." — Entertainment Tonight Katy Perry will be hosting MTV's Europe Awards in Liverpool on Nov. 6. — People The release date for Fall Out Boy's new album, Folie a Deux, has been pushed back from Nov. 4 to Dec. 16 so as not to coincide with the election. — Billboard.com Lisa Marie Presley named her newborn twin girls Finley and Harper. — Us Weekly Guillaume Depardieu, the actor and son of Gerard Depardieu, passed away yesterday at Raymond-Poincare hospital outside of Paris due to a pulmonary illness he contracted during filming.
- 10/14/2008
- by Molly
- Popsugar.com
Here's a round-up of some stuff (and things) currently causing waves online:
-- Moviefone has launched the latest installment of Unscripted, featuring stars Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks discussing their new film W. using reader questions and some of their own. Additionally, above you'll find some newly-released art for the film. Heh.
-- After breaking up with Paramount, Dreamworks has officially found a new f*ck buddy in Universal, so says Variety. The two signed a seven-year worldwide distribution deal.
-- Darren Aronofsky's The Fighter looks to be in trouble. Now that the writer-director is working hard on that Robocop remake, seems this other flick is being neglected. Brad Pitt has apparently dropped out, and Mark Wahlberg -- who's been training for the role for over a year -- doesn't seem to know the film's current status. All that being said, Slashfilm claims their scouting locations in Mass.
--...
-- Moviefone has launched the latest installment of Unscripted, featuring stars Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Banks discussing their new film W. using reader questions and some of their own. Additionally, above you'll find some newly-released art for the film. Heh.
-- After breaking up with Paramount, Dreamworks has officially found a new f*ck buddy in Universal, so says Variety. The two signed a seven-year worldwide distribution deal.
-- Darren Aronofsky's The Fighter looks to be in trouble. Now that the writer-director is working hard on that Robocop remake, seems this other flick is being neglected. Brad Pitt has apparently dropped out, and Mark Wahlberg -- who's been training for the role for over a year -- doesn't seem to know the film's current status. All that being said, Slashfilm claims their scouting locations in Mass.
--...
- 10/14/2008
- by Erik Davis
- Cinematical
French actor Gerard Depardieu's son Guillaume Depardieu has died at a hospital in Paris after suffering from a severe bout of pneumonia.
The 37-year-old passed away on Monday at the Garches hospital.
He had been filming new movie L'Enfance d'Icare in Romania when he suddenly fell ill. He was taken to seek medical help at the weekend but died early on Monday.
A spokesperson for Depardieu Sr.'s agency Artmedia says, "He caught a virus which gave him a very severe pneumonia."
Guillaume Depardieu starred in a number of movies, including 1991's Tous les matins du monde, 1993's Cible emouvante, Pola X in 1999, and 2007's Ne touchez pas la hache.
He was a multiple-nominee of the Cesar Awards in France, and in 1996 he won the accolade for Most Promising Actor for his role in Les Apprentis.
But it was Guillaume's reputation as a rebel which attracted the most attention. In 2003, he was handed a nine-month suspended prison sentence and fined $9,000 (GBP4,865) for threatening a man with a gun.
And in June this year, he was jailed for two months for driving under the influence (DUI). In addition, he has been in trouble with police over various drug offences.
He also suffered personal turmoil when he was injured in a severe motorbike accident in 1995, which later resulted in his right leg being amputated in 2003.
He is survived by his six-year-old daughter Louise with his ex-wife Elise Ventre, whom he divorced in 2006.
The 37-year-old passed away on Monday at the Garches hospital.
He had been filming new movie L'Enfance d'Icare in Romania when he suddenly fell ill. He was taken to seek medical help at the weekend but died early on Monday.
A spokesperson for Depardieu Sr.'s agency Artmedia says, "He caught a virus which gave him a very severe pneumonia."
Guillaume Depardieu starred in a number of movies, including 1991's Tous les matins du monde, 1993's Cible emouvante, Pola X in 1999, and 2007's Ne touchez pas la hache.
He was a multiple-nominee of the Cesar Awards in France, and in 1996 he won the accolade for Most Promising Actor for his role in Les Apprentis.
But it was Guillaume's reputation as a rebel which attracted the most attention. In 2003, he was handed a nine-month suspended prison sentence and fined $9,000 (GBP4,865) for threatening a man with a gun.
And in June this year, he was jailed for two months for driving under the influence (DUI). In addition, he has been in trouble with police over various drug offences.
He also suffered personal turmoil when he was injured in a severe motorbike accident in 1995, which later resulted in his right leg being amputated in 2003.
He is survived by his six-year-old daughter Louise with his ex-wife Elise Ventre, whom he divorced in 2006.
- 10/13/2008
- WENN
Guillaume Depardieu, the son of renowned French actor Gerard Depardieu, died earlier today at the Garches hospital in France. He was 37 years old. Guillaume was in the midst of shooting a new film, “L’Enfance d’Icare” in Romania when he was taken to France due to an illness. The cause of death has been deemed pneumonia. Guillaume, who starred in many French films including “Versailles” and “Les Apprentis”—which won him a Cesar Award—was known for his reckless lifestyle. He was injured in a motorcycle accident in 1995, which led to a leg amputation due to a Staphylococcus aureus infection in 2003. Earlier this year, he was found guilty of dr ...
- 10/13/2008
- by By Actress Archives
Cannes -- French actor Guillaume Depardieu, son of Gerard Depardieu, died Monday. He was 37.
Guillaume Depardieu died of pneumonia contracted days earlier in Paris' Raymond Poincare hospital. He continued the family theatrical tradition with roles in numerous French films including recent Gallic releases "Versailles" and "De la Guerre," the November release "Stella" and 1995's "Les Apprentis," which earned him a Cesar award for Most Promising Newcomer.
Guillaume Depardieu is survived by his father; his mother, Elisabeth; sister Julie; half-sister, Roxane; and daughter, Louise.
Guillaume Depardieu died of pneumonia contracted days earlier in Paris' Raymond Poincare hospital. He continued the family theatrical tradition with roles in numerous French films including recent Gallic releases "Versailles" and "De la Guerre," the November release "Stella" and 1995's "Les Apprentis," which earned him a Cesar award for Most Promising Newcomer.
Guillaume Depardieu is survived by his father; his mother, Elisabeth; sister Julie; half-sister, Roxane; and daughter, Louise.
- 10/13/2008
- by By Rebecca Leffler
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The son of legendary French actor Gerard Depardieu has been sentenced to two months in jail for drunk driving.
Guillaume Depardieu was ordered to spend two months behind bars on Thursday after he was caught driving a scooter while intoxicated. He was not in court to hear the verdict.
The actor was accused of being four times over the legal limit when he was stopped by police in February in Paris after attending a party.
The 37-year-old, who previously lost a leg in a motorbike accident in 1996, will appeal the decision, according to his legal team.
The Depardieu family have faced several legal woes this year, Oscar-Nominee Gerard was recently forced to pay compensation to a photographer after he was convicted of attacking him.
Guillaume Depardieu was ordered to spend two months behind bars on Thursday after he was caught driving a scooter while intoxicated. He was not in court to hear the verdict.
The actor was accused of being four times over the legal limit when he was stopped by police in February in Paris after attending a party.
The 37-year-old, who previously lost a leg in a motorbike accident in 1996, will appeal the decision, according to his legal team.
The Depardieu family have faced several legal woes this year, Oscar-Nominee Gerard was recently forced to pay compensation to a photographer after he was convicted of attacking him.
- 6/27/2008
- WENN
Cannes, Un Certain Regard
CANNES -- The abandoned child is a sure-fire dramatic devise, and it is to writer-director Pierre Schoeller's credit that in "Versailles" he uses it to explore true sentiment rather than mere sentimentality. Indeed the child character is essentially abandoned twice in the movie, yet no violins sob on the soundtrack. Indeed this is one of those minimalist, neo-realist French films that eschew all but ambient sounds and music.
"Versailles" is pure art house: Its penetration in territories outside of French-speaking will certainly be minor. But the film does afford the pleasures of fine acting and intelligent writing.
A young destitute mother (Judith Chemia), who lives on the streets with her 5-year-old son (Max Baissette de Malglaive), comes across a vagabond (Guillaume Depardieu), who inhabits a makeshift hut in the woods near Versailles Palace. Despite his own homelessness, she sees in the man a kindness and probably a greater sense of responsibly than he himself imagines. After spending the night with him, she vanishes, leaving behind her boy.
A season changes, and the man and boy bond. A prodigal son himself, the tramp reluctantly returns to his father's home so the boy can live a more normal life. He legally adapts the child, gets him into school, then hits the road again. A normal life isn't for him, but he trusts his father and his father's wife to raise the boy.
Schoeller gives us scant information about both adults. Each apparently had a drug problem and an intolerable home life. The focus is therefore on the growing relationship between the man and boy and later the enduring love the mother has for the child to whom she means to return.
The child teaches each parent to grow up. For the man, a "normal" life is hopeless but he endures it as long as he must for the boy's sake. As for the mother, she appears to get her act together. Time will tell.
Charlie Chaplin made classic comic melodramas with similar material, but Schoeller merely wants to observe a character forced to adapt to an unexpected love. For the first time in his life, he has to think about someone other than himself. The character stays true to his nature and foibles -- as indeed does the mother -but in the end a little child shall lead them both.
CANNES -- The abandoned child is a sure-fire dramatic devise, and it is to writer-director Pierre Schoeller's credit that in "Versailles" he uses it to explore true sentiment rather than mere sentimentality. Indeed the child character is essentially abandoned twice in the movie, yet no violins sob on the soundtrack. Indeed this is one of those minimalist, neo-realist French films that eschew all but ambient sounds and music.
"Versailles" is pure art house: Its penetration in territories outside of French-speaking will certainly be minor. But the film does afford the pleasures of fine acting and intelligent writing.
A young destitute mother (Judith Chemia), who lives on the streets with her 5-year-old son (Max Baissette de Malglaive), comes across a vagabond (Guillaume Depardieu), who inhabits a makeshift hut in the woods near Versailles Palace. Despite his own homelessness, she sees in the man a kindness and probably a greater sense of responsibly than he himself imagines. After spending the night with him, she vanishes, leaving behind her boy.
A season changes, and the man and boy bond. A prodigal son himself, the tramp reluctantly returns to his father's home so the boy can live a more normal life. He legally adapts the child, gets him into school, then hits the road again. A normal life isn't for him, but he trusts his father and his father's wife to raise the boy.
Schoeller gives us scant information about both adults. Each apparently had a drug problem and an intolerable home life. The focus is therefore on the growing relationship between the man and boy and later the enduring love the mother has for the child to whom she means to return.
The child teaches each parent to grow up. For the man, a "normal" life is hopeless but he endures it as long as he must for the boy's sake. As for the mother, she appears to get her act together. Time will tell.
Charlie Chaplin made classic comic melodramas with similar material, but Schoeller merely wants to observe a character forced to adapt to an unexpected love. For the first time in his life, he has to think about someone other than himself. The character stays true to his nature and foibles -- as indeed does the mother -but in the end a little child shall lead them both.
- 5/19/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes Film Festival Director's Fortnight
The superb and ubiquitous French actor Matthieu Amalric, who deserves better, plays a film director, significantly named Bertrand -- just like the director of the film we're
watching! -- who's having a bit of a mid-life crisis.
On a new location he's scouting, through circumstances too complicated to go into, he's accidentally locked in a coffin overnight. The experience changes him profoundly, and shortly thereafter he meets a mysterious man (Guillaume Depardieu) who offers to take him to "The Kingdom", a special place that is presided over by Uma, played by a surprisingly primly dressed Asia Argento. In this sylvan retreat, he will learn how to recapture joy and grace. So far so good.
At this point, however, the producers and money men must have stopped reading the script, or else director Bertrand Bonello is one helluva salesman. Things go from bad to worse and Bonello seems to toss into the mix every idea he's ever had, whether it works or not.
An ill-fitting motif of war and warriors, never really explained, takes over and will throw even the most attentive viewers for a loop. Ultimately, the 130-minute movie (which desperately needs to lose at least 30 minutes), descends into a profound and interminable silliness that will virtually assure sparse returns worldwide.
The superb and ubiquitous French actor Matthieu Amalric, who deserves better, plays a film director, significantly named Bertrand -- just like the director of the film we're
watching! -- who's having a bit of a mid-life crisis.
On a new location he's scouting, through circumstances too complicated to go into, he's accidentally locked in a coffin overnight. The experience changes him profoundly, and shortly thereafter he meets a mysterious man (Guillaume Depardieu) who offers to take him to "The Kingdom", a special place that is presided over by Uma, played by a surprisingly primly dressed Asia Argento. In this sylvan retreat, he will learn how to recapture joy and grace. So far so good.
At this point, however, the producers and money men must have stopped reading the script, or else director Bertrand Bonello is one helluva salesman. Things go from bad to worse and Bonello seems to toss into the mix every idea he's ever had, whether it works or not.
An ill-fitting motif of war and warriors, never really explained, takes over and will throw even the most attentive viewers for a loop. Ultimately, the 130-minute movie (which desperately needs to lose at least 30 minutes), descends into a profound and interminable silliness that will virtually assure sparse returns worldwide.
- 5/17/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- Nearing 80, French new wave director Jacques Rivette continues to display a fine touch with "Don't Touch the Axe," an intimate tale about the games lovers play taken to extremes.
Based on a novella titled The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac, it's the story of a dedicated soldier back from the wars and the socialite lady he loves not wisely but too well.
Handsomely produced and featuring fine performances, the film will travel well to festivals and art houses where audiences respond to classy period pieces with a modern sensibility.
The film begins and ends with encounters taking place several years later than the central events, which are told in flashback. Guillaume Depardieu stars as Napoleonic Gen. Armand de Montriveau who returns to Paris following a time imprisoned by the enemy bearing his wounds and his dignity with equal solemnity. Introduced to the beautiful and mischievous Antoinette de Langeais (Jeanne Balibar) at a fashionable salon, the soldier is instantly captivated.
The lady is also intrigued but such is her taste for coquetry that she makes his seduction a game full of promises and teasing, almost driving him to distraction. Although smitten, de Montriveau comes to the conclusion that he is being played for a fool and determines that turnabout is fair play.
Now it's de Langeais turn to have her emotions toyed with although she continues to give as good as she gets. Rivette takes great care with these scenes, which are filled with subtle by-play and executed with finesse by the two actors.
Cinematographer William Lubtchansky captures beautifully Maira Ramedhan Levy's costumes and Emmanuel de Chauvigny's production design and the rest of the cast serve the story well.
The screenplay by Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, and Christine Laurent employs several lines taken directly from Balzac, whose wit could be as deft and precise as Oscar Wilde's. The film's title comes from a warning given to de Montriveau at a display of the blade used to execute an English king that serves as a caution about keeping his head. Depardieu and Balibar relish the dialogue and body language of the battling lovers so that their clashes appear to be a tense but rapier-like combination of chess and fencing.
DON'T TOUCH THE AXE (NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE)
IFC Films
Pierre Grise Prods., Cinemaundici, Arte France Cinema.
Credits:
Director: Jacques Rivette
Writer: Jacques Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent
Producers: Martine Marignac, Maurice Tinchant
Director of photography: William Lubtchansky
Production designer: Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Music: Pierre Allio
Costume designer: Maira Ramedhan Levy
Co-producers: Luigi Musini, Roberto Cicutto, Ermanno Olmi
Editor: Nicole Lubtchansky
Cast:
Antoinette de Langeais: Jeanne Balibar
Armand de Montriveau: Guillaume Depardieu
Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry: Bulle Ogier
Vidame de Pamiers: Michel Piccoli
Le Duc de Grandlieu: Barbet Schroeder
Clara de Serizy: Anne Cantineau
Julien: Mathias Jung
Lisette: Julie Judd
Running time -- 137 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Based on a novella titled The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac, it's the story of a dedicated soldier back from the wars and the socialite lady he loves not wisely but too well.
Handsomely produced and featuring fine performances, the film will travel well to festivals and art houses where audiences respond to classy period pieces with a modern sensibility.
The film begins and ends with encounters taking place several years later than the central events, which are told in flashback. Guillaume Depardieu stars as Napoleonic Gen. Armand de Montriveau who returns to Paris following a time imprisoned by the enemy bearing his wounds and his dignity with equal solemnity. Introduced to the beautiful and mischievous Antoinette de Langeais (Jeanne Balibar) at a fashionable salon, the soldier is instantly captivated.
The lady is also intrigued but such is her taste for coquetry that she makes his seduction a game full of promises and teasing, almost driving him to distraction. Although smitten, de Montriveau comes to the conclusion that he is being played for a fool and determines that turnabout is fair play.
Now it's de Langeais turn to have her emotions toyed with although she continues to give as good as she gets. Rivette takes great care with these scenes, which are filled with subtle by-play and executed with finesse by the two actors.
Cinematographer William Lubtchansky captures beautifully Maira Ramedhan Levy's costumes and Emmanuel de Chauvigny's production design and the rest of the cast serve the story well.
The screenplay by Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, and Christine Laurent employs several lines taken directly from Balzac, whose wit could be as deft and precise as Oscar Wilde's. The film's title comes from a warning given to de Montriveau at a display of the blade used to execute an English king that serves as a caution about keeping his head. Depardieu and Balibar relish the dialogue and body language of the battling lovers so that their clashes appear to be a tense but rapier-like combination of chess and fencing.
DON'T TOUCH THE AXE (NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE)
IFC Films
Pierre Grise Prods., Cinemaundici, Arte France Cinema.
Credits:
Director: Jacques Rivette
Writer: Jacques Rivette, Pascal Bonitzer, Christine Laurent
Producers: Martine Marignac, Maurice Tinchant
Director of photography: William Lubtchansky
Production designer: Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Music: Pierre Allio
Costume designer: Maira Ramedhan Levy
Co-producers: Luigi Musini, Roberto Cicutto, Ermanno Olmi
Editor: Nicole Lubtchansky
Cast:
Antoinette de Langeais: Jeanne Balibar
Armand de Montriveau: Guillaume Depardieu
Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry: Bulle Ogier
Vidame de Pamiers: Michel Piccoli
Le Duc de Grandlieu: Barbet Schroeder
Clara de Serizy: Anne Cantineau
Julien: Mathias Jung
Lisette: Julie Judd
Running time -- 137 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARIS -- Serge Bozon's low-budget feature "La France" is that rarity: a war movie with no war scenes. Alternatively, it is a love story with no love scenes that happens to take place in a war zone. Either way, it was justly praised at this year's Festival de Cannes, and though its boxoffice prospects are minimal, it will reap festival awards and please Art House audiences.
In the autumn of 1917, Camille (Sylvie Testud) receives a letter from her soldier-husband telling her that he is breaking up with her for good and that she will never see him again. She sets off for the front to find out what's going on. Disguising herself as a man -- or rather as a slightly androgynous youth -- she tags along with a group of a dozen soldiers who have split away from their regiment and are tramping through the fields and forests of eastern France, apparently aimlessly.
The men, under the leadership of a lieutenant (Pascal Greggory) who is never named, are more than usually literate, discussing recipes around the campfire or the mythical sunken world of Atlantis. They also, at four points in the film, break into song, confirming the spectator's mounting suspicion that the war, and Camille's quest, stand for something deeper.
The war itself is present only in the form of periodic outbreaks of explosions or the thunder of remote gunfire. Four Germans are seen riding on horseback at a distance but are not engaged. Incidents are few, the most notable being an encounter with two villagers who pull the soldiers out of a pit they have fallen into, an incident with a tragic coda.
The action, such as it is, concerns Camille's relations with the men, who, we learn an hour into the film, are in fact deserters heading for the Dutch border. Camille's femininity eventually is exposed, but by then, as one of the men comments, she has become "one of us." She does, as it turns out, meet her husband (Guillaume Depardieu) at the end, but this could by no stretch be said to represent a happy ending.
The deliberate pace, spare camera movements, formal framing of the soldiers and the slightly stylized acting add to the sense of a world cut off from mundane -- or, in the context of World War I, bloody -- reality. The songs, played on a ramshackle collection of acoustic instruments incorporating everyday objects, heighten the alienation effect, all the more so given that their sonorities are distinctly modern, closer to rock than to early 20th century music hall.
The acting is economical but first-rate, with Greggory in particular hinting at the inner torments of an officer leading his men to he knows not what disaster. (In a cryptic end title, Bozon informs us that the men never reached their destination.) The movie itself is a puzzle, but one that lingers in the mind long after the closing credits.
LA FRANCE
Les Films Pelleas
Credits:
Director: Serge Bozon
Screenwriter: Axelle Ropert
Producer: David Thion
Executive producer: Helene Bastide
Director of photography: Celine Bozon
Production designer: Brigitte Brassart
Costume designer: Renaud Legrand
Music: Mehdi Zannad, Benjamin Esdraffo
Editor: Francois Quiquere
Cast:
Camille: Sylvie Testud
Lieutenant: Pascal Greggory
Cadet: Guillaume Verdier
Jacques: Francois Negret
Antoine: Laurent Talon
Alfred: Pierre Leon
Pierre: Benjamin Esdraffo
Jean: Laurent Lacotte
Running time -- 102 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In the autumn of 1917, Camille (Sylvie Testud) receives a letter from her soldier-husband telling her that he is breaking up with her for good and that she will never see him again. She sets off for the front to find out what's going on. Disguising herself as a man -- or rather as a slightly androgynous youth -- she tags along with a group of a dozen soldiers who have split away from their regiment and are tramping through the fields and forests of eastern France, apparently aimlessly.
The men, under the leadership of a lieutenant (Pascal Greggory) who is never named, are more than usually literate, discussing recipes around the campfire or the mythical sunken world of Atlantis. They also, at four points in the film, break into song, confirming the spectator's mounting suspicion that the war, and Camille's quest, stand for something deeper.
The war itself is present only in the form of periodic outbreaks of explosions or the thunder of remote gunfire. Four Germans are seen riding on horseback at a distance but are not engaged. Incidents are few, the most notable being an encounter with two villagers who pull the soldiers out of a pit they have fallen into, an incident with a tragic coda.
The action, such as it is, concerns Camille's relations with the men, who, we learn an hour into the film, are in fact deserters heading for the Dutch border. Camille's femininity eventually is exposed, but by then, as one of the men comments, she has become "one of us." She does, as it turns out, meet her husband (Guillaume Depardieu) at the end, but this could by no stretch be said to represent a happy ending.
The deliberate pace, spare camera movements, formal framing of the soldiers and the slightly stylized acting add to the sense of a world cut off from mundane -- or, in the context of World War I, bloody -- reality. The songs, played on a ramshackle collection of acoustic instruments incorporating everyday objects, heighten the alienation effect, all the more so given that their sonorities are distinctly modern, closer to rock than to early 20th century music hall.
The acting is economical but first-rate, with Greggory in particular hinting at the inner torments of an officer leading his men to he knows not what disaster. (In a cryptic end title, Bozon informs us that the men never reached their destination.) The movie itself is a puzzle, but one that lingers in the mind long after the closing credits.
LA FRANCE
Les Films Pelleas
Credits:
Director: Serge Bozon
Screenwriter: Axelle Ropert
Producer: David Thion
Executive producer: Helene Bastide
Director of photography: Celine Bozon
Production designer: Brigitte Brassart
Costume designer: Renaud Legrand
Music: Mehdi Zannad, Benjamin Esdraffo
Editor: Francois Quiquere
Cast:
Camille: Sylvie Testud
Lieutenant: Pascal Greggory
Cadet: Guillaume Verdier
Jacques: Francois Negret
Antoine: Laurent Talon
Alfred: Pierre Leon
Pierre: Benjamin Esdraffo
Jean: Laurent Lacotte
Running time -- 102 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Well past his prime, there is no slowing down for Jacques Rivette (La Belle Noiseuse, Celine and Julie Go Boating). A filmmaker from La Nouvelle Vague has found suitor for his latest – a Berlin 2007 film festival entry will most likely find itself on the 08’ slate for subtitle-friendly indie distributor. THR reports that IFC Films have picked up the period/costume film that is known as Ne touchez pas la hache (which translates as “don’t touch the hip”) but receives an English translation of The Duchess of Langeais.Based on Honore de Balzac's novella, this tells the story of Antoinette, the Duchess of Langeais, is a married coquette who frequents the most extravagant balls of 1820s Restoration Paris, where hypocrisy and vanity reign. The alluring Antoinette orchestrates a calculating game of seduction with handsome young general Armand de Montriveau. His passion frustratingly unfulfilled, Montriveau seeks his revenge . . . The
- 8/24/2007
- IONCINEMA.com
Ocean Films
A first feature by the son of acclaimed French comedy virtuouso Francis Weber that has Gerard Depardieu's son playing a cop on the trail of an ecologically-driven serial killer might sound like a prescription for inspiration, but the resulting "The Pharmacist" ("Le pharmacien de garde") emerges as a silly thriller.
Unspooled at the recent City of Lights, City of Angels French film festival, Jean Veber's picture makes an attempt to mix potent horror movie elements with black comedy and, ultimately, a heady dose of pathos, but the blended genres end up making for a messy, and thoroughly dispensable, screen concoction.
Clearly relishing the opportunity to play a certified sicko, Vincent Perez lets down his leading man hair as a holistic pharmacist and eco-warrior who comes up with diabolical albeit fitting ways to eliminate smokers, polluters, animal testers and other abusers of Mother Nature.
As fate would have it, he ends up bonding with a fellow activist (Guillaume Depardieu) at a conference, who just happens to be a cop assigned to the elusive serial killer's case.
But that cat and mouse dynamic ends up getting squashed under the 300-pound gorilla that is Veber's distracted script. Thanks to all that awkwardly executed tone and pace shifting, neither horror buffs nor satirists nor environmentalists would be amused.
A first feature by the son of acclaimed French comedy virtuouso Francis Weber that has Gerard Depardieu's son playing a cop on the trail of an ecologically-driven serial killer might sound like a prescription for inspiration, but the resulting "The Pharmacist" ("Le pharmacien de garde") emerges as a silly thriller.
Unspooled at the recent City of Lights, City of Angels French film festival, Jean Veber's picture makes an attempt to mix potent horror movie elements with black comedy and, ultimately, a heady dose of pathos, but the blended genres end up making for a messy, and thoroughly dispensable, screen concoction.
Clearly relishing the opportunity to play a certified sicko, Vincent Perez lets down his leading man hair as a holistic pharmacist and eco-warrior who comes up with diabolical albeit fitting ways to eliminate smokers, polluters, animal testers and other abusers of Mother Nature.
As fate would have it, he ends up bonding with a fellow activist (Guillaume Depardieu) at a conference, who just happens to be a cop assigned to the elusive serial killer's case.
But that cat and mouse dynamic ends up getting squashed under the 300-pound gorilla that is Veber's distracted script. Thanks to all that awkwardly executed tone and pace shifting, neither horror buffs nor satirists nor environmentalists would be amused.
Ocean Films
A first feature by the son of acclaimed French comedy virtuouso Francis Weber that has Gerard Depardieu's son playing a cop on the trail of an ecologically-driven serial killer might sound like a prescription for inspiration, but the resulting "The Pharmacist" ("Le pharmacien de garde") emerges as a silly thriller.
Unspooled at the recent City of Lights, City of Angels French film festival, Jean Veber's picture makes an attempt to mix potent horror movie elements with black comedy and, ultimately, a heady dose of pathos, but the blended genres end up making for a messy, and thoroughly dispensable, screen concoction.
Clearly relishing the opportunity to play a certified sicko, Vincent Perez lets down his leading man hair as a holistic pharmacist and eco-warrior who comes up with diabolical albeit fitting ways to eliminate smokers, polluters, animal testers and other abusers of Mother Nature.
As fate would have it, he ends up bonding with a fellow activist (Guillaume Depardieu) at a conference, who just happens to be a cop assigned to the elusive serial killer's case.
But that cat and mouse dynamic ends up getting squashed under the 300-pound gorilla that is Veber's distracted script. Thanks to all that awkwardly executed tone and pace shifting, neither horror buffs nor satirists nor environmentalists would be amused.
A first feature by the son of acclaimed French comedy virtuouso Francis Weber that has Gerard Depardieu's son playing a cop on the trail of an ecologically-driven serial killer might sound like a prescription for inspiration, but the resulting "The Pharmacist" ("Le pharmacien de garde") emerges as a silly thriller.
Unspooled at the recent City of Lights, City of Angels French film festival, Jean Veber's picture makes an attempt to mix potent horror movie elements with black comedy and, ultimately, a heady dose of pathos, but the blended genres end up making for a messy, and thoroughly dispensable, screen concoction.
Clearly relishing the opportunity to play a certified sicko, Vincent Perez lets down his leading man hair as a holistic pharmacist and eco-warrior who comes up with diabolical albeit fitting ways to eliminate smokers, polluters, animal testers and other abusers of Mother Nature.
As fate would have it, he ends up bonding with a fellow activist (Guillaume Depardieu) at a conference, who just happens to be a cop assigned to the elusive serial killer's case.
But that cat and mouse dynamic ends up getting squashed under the 300-pound gorilla that is Veber's distracted script. Thanks to all that awkwardly executed tone and pace shifting, neither horror buffs nor satirists nor environmentalists would be amused.
- 4/13/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
BERLIN -- Budding filmmakers and up-and-coming stars gathered Sunday as two of the biggest events at the Berlin International Film Festival kicked off. Filmmakers at the second Berlin Talent Campus were given an inspirational talk by retired producer and one-time studio boss David Puttnam, part of a series of forums and workshops running in parallel to the festival. Puttnam made an impassioned plea for responsible filmmaking that eschews the temptation to simplify subjects for commercial expediency. "The most important role of the filmmaker is to help explain the complexities and ambiguities of real life," he said, to enthusiastic applause from the audience of several hundred. Puttnam subsequently took part in a round-table discussion giving insights into filmmaking chaired by writer-producer Eleanor Bergstein, along with writer-director Anthony Minghella -- in Berlin with opening film Cold Mountain -- sound and picture editor Walter Murch, and French actor Guillaume Depardieu.
French actor Gerard Depardieu's son Guillaume has hit back at his father after the star severed ties with him following his recent arrest for a gun crime. The 32-year old - who was described by his father as 'difficult' and 'incorrigible' recently - was arrested in August after firing a gun in a bar after a fellow drinker mocked his clothing. He received a nine month suspended prison sentence last week. And the incident began a war of words between Guillaume and his father which shows no sign on abating. Guillaume says, "Gerard Depardieu is a coward, a cheater and lazy. He's the only person I know who lies to his own analyst. Gerard Depardieu is obsessed the desire to be loved and the need for money. The only thing we have in common is our demons."...
- 9/23/2003
- WENN
French acting star Gerard Depardieu has severed ties with his son Guillaume, who was this week convicted of threatening a man with a gun. The Cyrano De Bergerac legend has had a fraught relationship with his 32- year-old son, who fired a gun after a man mocked his clothes in a bar in Normandy, France. Depardieu told Paris Match magazine, "He's a real poet who touches me enormously, but who is very difficult, incorrigible. At the moment, we have no ties. I cut things off because I no longer want to be the wall, or the trash bin where one dumps anything one wants. He has tried to contact me but I don't reply because I think that it's better for his mental health. We'll see." The pair starred together in 1991 film All The Mornings Of The World.
- 9/19/2003
- WENN
Well-directed at the outset and well-cast with leads Morgane More and Guillaume Depardieu as serendipitous lovers who spend one fateful night together, actor Vincent Perez's feature directorial debut is one of those Gallic love stories that features messed-up guys and soulfully innocent gals. Alas, all its charm is in the setup and the follow-through is joyless, even downright irritating.
A world premiere in the official competition, "Peau d'ange" (Angel Skin) has not enough to recommend it to more than French-speaking audiences, though Perez's filmmaking skills and Depardieu's performance make it an above-average candidate for festivals.
With her family in financial trouble, teenage Angele (More) is sent off to work as a house servant and befriends similarly cast-off Josiane (Magalie Woch). Both are verbally abused by the boss lady (Helene de Saint Pere) and made to feel socially and intellectually inferior. But the girls have their own fun and games.
When nervous, brooding, angry Gregoire (Depardieu) comes to town because of his mother's death, Josiane flirts with him, and he tells her he's a manager in the music business. Convinced that Angele is a singer waiting to be discovered, Josiane brings them together on a rainy night that results in a desperate tryst that has unforeseen consequences.
What doesn't happen is Gregoire wanting to keep it going. He's gone and off pursuing a pharmaceutical job, where his brash confidence earns the admiration of his boss (Laurent Terzieff) and the inside track on wooing his daughter (screenwriter Karine Sylla). Angele tries to be near Gregoire and takes a job with another couple working at the same company. But her new boss (Olivier Gourmet) is coming apart over his wife's infidelities, and a tragic murder takes place.
The film starts to fall apart with the incarceration of Angele as an accomplice to murder, with the poor thing unable to help herself. In prison, she learns to adapt and takes an interest in gardening with the help of nearby nuns. When fortune shifts in her favor, it's just a matter of time before she truly runs out of luck.
Shifting between the resurrection of Gregoire's character and rising career and Angele's misfortunes, Perez makes a big mistake in the finale by snuffing out a character with minimal emotion. One wonders what the point of the film is, beyond showing how people can be attached on a deeper level than physical proximity. But when the result is so miserable, one can't escape the feeling that Angele and Gregoire should not have met. Unless one is attracted to tragedy for tragedy's sake.
PEAU D'ANGE
Europa Prods.
Credits:
Director: Vincent Perez
Screenwriters: Karine Sylla, Vincent Perez, Jerome Tonnerre
Producer: Virginie Silla
Director of photography: Philippe Pavans de Ceccatty
Production designer: Frederic Benard
Editor: Laurence Briaud
Music: Replicant
Costume designer: Claudine Lachaud
Cast:
Angele: Morgane More
Gregoire: Guillaume Depardieu
Josiane: Magalie Woch
Laure: Karine Sylla
Mme Artaud: Helene de Saint Pere
Mr Grenier: Laurent Terzieff
Mr Faivre: Olivier Gourmet
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A world premiere in the official competition, "Peau d'ange" (Angel Skin) has not enough to recommend it to more than French-speaking audiences, though Perez's filmmaking skills and Depardieu's performance make it an above-average candidate for festivals.
With her family in financial trouble, teenage Angele (More) is sent off to work as a house servant and befriends similarly cast-off Josiane (Magalie Woch). Both are verbally abused by the boss lady (Helene de Saint Pere) and made to feel socially and intellectually inferior. But the girls have their own fun and games.
When nervous, brooding, angry Gregoire (Depardieu) comes to town because of his mother's death, Josiane flirts with him, and he tells her he's a manager in the music business. Convinced that Angele is a singer waiting to be discovered, Josiane brings them together on a rainy night that results in a desperate tryst that has unforeseen consequences.
What doesn't happen is Gregoire wanting to keep it going. He's gone and off pursuing a pharmaceutical job, where his brash confidence earns the admiration of his boss (Laurent Terzieff) and the inside track on wooing his daughter (screenwriter Karine Sylla). Angele tries to be near Gregoire and takes a job with another couple working at the same company. But her new boss (Olivier Gourmet) is coming apart over his wife's infidelities, and a tragic murder takes place.
The film starts to fall apart with the incarceration of Angele as an accomplice to murder, with the poor thing unable to help herself. In prison, she learns to adapt and takes an interest in gardening with the help of nearby nuns. When fortune shifts in her favor, it's just a matter of time before she truly runs out of luck.
Shifting between the resurrection of Gregoire's character and rising career and Angele's misfortunes, Perez makes a big mistake in the finale by snuffing out a character with minimal emotion. One wonders what the point of the film is, beyond showing how people can be attached on a deeper level than physical proximity. But when the result is so miserable, one can't escape the feeling that Angele and Gregoire should not have met. Unless one is attracted to tragedy for tragedy's sake.
PEAU D'ANGE
Europa Prods.
Credits:
Director: Vincent Perez
Screenwriters: Karine Sylla, Vincent Perez, Jerome Tonnerre
Producer: Virginie Silla
Director of photography: Philippe Pavans de Ceccatty
Production designer: Frederic Benard
Editor: Laurence Briaud
Music: Replicant
Costume designer: Claudine Lachaud
Cast:
Angele: Morgane More
Gregoire: Guillaume Depardieu
Josiane: Magalie Woch
Laure: Karine Sylla
Mme Artaud: Helene de Saint Pere
Mr Grenier: Laurent Terzieff
Mr Faivre: Olivier Gourmet
Running time -- 85 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 8/27/2002
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
French director Leos Carax makes films about obsession and instability, themes by their very nature designed to repel and alienate, so the angry critical reaction to his new work "Pola X" isn't surprising. Fully considered, Carax's fourth feature should be taken for what it is, an often remarkable, deeply unsettling and original piece of work.
His first feature since his notorious financial failure, the 1991 "Les amants du Pont-Neuf", Carax remains a singular talent with an uncommon feel for poetry, space and movement. "Pola X" doesn't betray his abilities but it amplifies the contradictions of his work, that for all of his visual talent his tendency toward narrative ambiguity and the unaccountable frustrates those predisposed to taking a chance on his movies. There appears to be no middle ground with Carax. Critics and viewers love or despise him, so despite the attractive cast and the stunning visuals, "Pola X" seems destined to play to only a small, vocal cult of admirers.
From its opening shots, black and white footage of World War II bombing footage, virtually every shot transmutes a shock of surprise, possibility and emotional intensity. Carax's first three movies -- "Boy Meets Girl" and "Bad Blood" are the others -- featured Denis Levant playing a character named Alex. With "Pola X", an adaptation of Herman Melville's "Pierre, or the Ambiguities", Carax continues the loose autobiographical underpinnings. His protagonist, Pierre (Guillaume Depardieu), is a promising writer whose first novel, written under the pseudonym "Alladin", has struck a resonant chord with young French intellectuals (Carax is notoriously reclusive and also invented his own name).
The son of a once-prominent, now dead French diplomat, Pierre lives with his mother (Catherine Deneuve) in an imposing chateau in Normandy and is engaged to a beautiful young woman Lucie (Delphine Chuillot). Pierre rejects his comfortable, privileged life when the feral, intense woman haunting his dreams literally materializes in the shape of Isabelle A very strong Katerina Golubeva). In a strong scene unfolding in virtual darkness, Isabelle, speaking in halting, fractured French, informs Pierre that she is his sister. Increasingly obsessed with the woman, Pierre sets out to determine the authenticity of her claims, abandoning his home for Paris to live with Isabelle.
Not unexpectedly Pierre's choices produce devastating results for those around him, leading to his mother's death, his estrangement from his cousin (Laurent Lucas) and Lucie's physical disintegration. In the film's second half, which is less successful than the first, Lucie is reunited with Pierre and Isabelle, who've taken refuge in an immense warehouse ruled by a sect of radicals, mercenaries and musicians. Like John Cassavetes, Carax works in such extreme states of emotional aggression that he risks disdain and condescension, not to mention charges of pretension and self-absorption. By the end, when the narrative ambiguities are revealed, the movie turns even darker, one of pessimism and self-destruction.
Carax's first three features were shot by Jean-Yves Escoffier (Tim Robbins' "Cradle Will Rock"), but the dreamlike imagery evoked by Eric Gautier ("Irma Vep"), the gradations of light and dark, has a hypnotic pull. "Pola X" is an easy target because of what it attempts, but more often than not Carax pulls it off. He develops modulated and interesting performances from his leads. Depardieu is noticeably expressive, Golubeva projects a continual sense of the unknowable, and Chuillot provides a vivid portrait of dissolution. At a time when most movies have little to say, here is a work that in articulating its vision demands attention and respect.
POLA X
A Bruno Pesery production
in association with Arena Films, Pol Production, Theo Films, France 2 Cinema, Pandora Produktion, Euro Space and Vega Film
CREDITS
Director-writer:Leos Carax
Screenwriters:Lauren Sedofsky, Jean-Pol Fargeau
Based on the novel by:Herman Melville
Producer:Bruno Pesery
Cinematographer:Eric Gautier
Editor:Nelly Quettier
Music:Scott Walker
Production designers:Sylvie Barthet, Dschingis Bowakow
Costumes:Esther Walz
CAST
Pierre:Guillaume Depardieu
Isabelle:Katerina Golubeva
Lucie:Delphine Chuillot
Marie:Catherine Deneuve
Thibault:Laurent Lucas
Razerka:Petruta Catana
Running time: 134 minutes...
His first feature since his notorious financial failure, the 1991 "Les amants du Pont-Neuf", Carax remains a singular talent with an uncommon feel for poetry, space and movement. "Pola X" doesn't betray his abilities but it amplifies the contradictions of his work, that for all of his visual talent his tendency toward narrative ambiguity and the unaccountable frustrates those predisposed to taking a chance on his movies. There appears to be no middle ground with Carax. Critics and viewers love or despise him, so despite the attractive cast and the stunning visuals, "Pola X" seems destined to play to only a small, vocal cult of admirers.
From its opening shots, black and white footage of World War II bombing footage, virtually every shot transmutes a shock of surprise, possibility and emotional intensity. Carax's first three movies -- "Boy Meets Girl" and "Bad Blood" are the others -- featured Denis Levant playing a character named Alex. With "Pola X", an adaptation of Herman Melville's "Pierre, or the Ambiguities", Carax continues the loose autobiographical underpinnings. His protagonist, Pierre (Guillaume Depardieu), is a promising writer whose first novel, written under the pseudonym "Alladin", has struck a resonant chord with young French intellectuals (Carax is notoriously reclusive and also invented his own name).
The son of a once-prominent, now dead French diplomat, Pierre lives with his mother (Catherine Deneuve) in an imposing chateau in Normandy and is engaged to a beautiful young woman Lucie (Delphine Chuillot). Pierre rejects his comfortable, privileged life when the feral, intense woman haunting his dreams literally materializes in the shape of Isabelle A very strong Katerina Golubeva). In a strong scene unfolding in virtual darkness, Isabelle, speaking in halting, fractured French, informs Pierre that she is his sister. Increasingly obsessed with the woman, Pierre sets out to determine the authenticity of her claims, abandoning his home for Paris to live with Isabelle.
Not unexpectedly Pierre's choices produce devastating results for those around him, leading to his mother's death, his estrangement from his cousin (Laurent Lucas) and Lucie's physical disintegration. In the film's second half, which is less successful than the first, Lucie is reunited with Pierre and Isabelle, who've taken refuge in an immense warehouse ruled by a sect of radicals, mercenaries and musicians. Like John Cassavetes, Carax works in such extreme states of emotional aggression that he risks disdain and condescension, not to mention charges of pretension and self-absorption. By the end, when the narrative ambiguities are revealed, the movie turns even darker, one of pessimism and self-destruction.
Carax's first three features were shot by Jean-Yves Escoffier (Tim Robbins' "Cradle Will Rock"), but the dreamlike imagery evoked by Eric Gautier ("Irma Vep"), the gradations of light and dark, has a hypnotic pull. "Pola X" is an easy target because of what it attempts, but more often than not Carax pulls it off. He develops modulated and interesting performances from his leads. Depardieu is noticeably expressive, Golubeva projects a continual sense of the unknowable, and Chuillot provides a vivid portrait of dissolution. At a time when most movies have little to say, here is a work that in articulating its vision demands attention and respect.
POLA X
A Bruno Pesery production
in association with Arena Films, Pol Production, Theo Films, France 2 Cinema, Pandora Produktion, Euro Space and Vega Film
CREDITS
Director-writer:Leos Carax
Screenwriters:Lauren Sedofsky, Jean-Pol Fargeau
Based on the novel by:Herman Melville
Producer:Bruno Pesery
Cinematographer:Eric Gautier
Editor:Nelly Quettier
Music:Scott Walker
Production designers:Sylvie Barthet, Dschingis Bowakow
Costumes:Esther Walz
CAST
Pierre:Guillaume Depardieu
Isabelle:Katerina Golubeva
Lucie:Delphine Chuillot
Marie:Catherine Deneuve
Thibault:Laurent Lucas
Razerka:Petruta Catana
Running time: 134 minutes...
- 5/14/1999
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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