Tag: Cannes Film Festival

The Dardenne Brothers’ ‘Young Mothers’ Gets 10 Minute Ovation In Cannes

Cannes habitués Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne debuted their latest film, Young Mothers, in Competition this afternoon, greeted by a 10.5-minute ovation.

The story follows five girls who are housed in a shelter for young mothers. The teenagers are hoping for a better life for themselves and their babies.

Marking their ninth time in Competition, the Dardenne brothers are two-time Palme d’Or winners, for 1999’s Rosetta (which also took a Best Actress prize for Emilie Dequenne who passed away earlier this year), and for 2005’s L’Enfant.

Other laurels the Belgian brothers have received on the Croisette include Best Screenplay for 2008’s Lorna’s Silence, a shared Grand Prize for 2011’s The Kid with a Bike, Best Director for Young Ahmed in 2019 and a special 75th Award for 2022’s Tori and Lokita.

Luc Dardenne told the Cannes Film Festival of Young Mothers, “We wanted to tell five stories about five young girls who, each in their own way, escape a destiny — a prison.” However, there’s slightly more lightness to the film than their previous collaborations.  Luc Dardenne credited the music in the movie, “which wasn’t in the last two films.”

Added Jean-Pierre Dardenne speaking to Cannes, “A baby that’s crying, that you need to put down… these are things that we have incorporated… It adds tempo — a completely different rhythm.”

The cast includes Babette Verbeek, Janaina Halloy Fokan, Samia Hilmi, Elsa Houben and Lucie Laruelle.

Goodfellas has international sales on Young Mothers and Diaphana is distributing in France.

Source: The Dardenne Brothers’ ‘Young Mothers’ Gets 10.5-Minute Ovation In Cannes – IMDb

French Hit ‘Souleymane’s Story’ headed to North American screens

Souleymane's Story
Souleymane’s Story

 

‘Souleymane’s Story,’ Boris Lojkine’s timely drama which won two prizes at Cannes and four Cesar Awards, has been acquired by Kino Lorber for the U.S.

“Souleymane’s Story,” Boris Lojkine’s timely drama which took two prizes at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and four Cesar Awards earlier this year, has been acquired by Kino Lorber for U.S. and English-speaking Canada distribution rights.

Bolstered by the debut performance of first-time actor Abou Sangare, “Souleymane’s Story” is a ticking-clock drama charting the journey of a Guinean immigrant working as a bicycle deliveryman in Paris in the days leading up to his asylum interview. Kino Lorber pointed the film draws inspiration from Cristian Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” and socially minded films by the Dardenne brothers.

Since world premiering at Cannes where it won the Jury Prize at Un Certain Regard and best actor for Abou Sangare, “Souleymane’s Story” became a major arthouse hit in France, selling approximately 500,000 admissions in French cinemas. The film also turned out to be one of the highlights of France’s awards season. On top of the four Cesar Awards, the film also won a Lumiere Award (France’s equivalent to the Golden Globes), as well as two European Film Awards.

Source: Kino Lorber Buys French Hit ‘Souleymane’s Story’ for North America

“Annette” with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver presented in opening of Cannes

Signed Leos Carax, “Annette” will open the Cannes Film Festival on July 6, the organizers announced on Monday. A musical with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver which will be released simultaneously at the cinema.

With this feature film in English which will be presented in world preview and in competition, the French director will be making his comeback on the Croisette nine years after “Holy Motors”.

Based on an original idea by the American duo Sparks, a figure in alternative music since the 1970s, and who also signed the soundtrack, “Annette” takes an interest in the glamorous couple formed by Henry, a stand-up comedian, and Ann , a world-famous singer, who will see her daily life turned upside down by the birth of their daughter Annette, with an exceptional destiny.

“Visionary and enigmatic, Leos Carax has created some of the most beautiful scenes in French cinema of the past thirty-five years, through a filmography that has never ceased to show his mastery of directing. A poetic genius with an overflowing imagination, “the enfant terrible of French cinema” is used to overturning codes and genres to invent a world populated by visions and ghosts, “said the Cannes Film Festival in a press release.

 

Its president also added that “Annette is a gift hoped for by lovers of cinema, music and culture, those who have missed us so much for a year”.

The Official Selection of the 74 th edition, which will be chaired by American director Spike Lee will be announced on 27 May.

Source: Cannes Film Festival 2021: the film “Annette” with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver presented in opening | CNEWS

Curate your own Cannes film festival

A trawl through the history of the Palme d’Or yields streaming gems from Brief Encounter to Blow-Up, The Leopard to The Square

Bring out your tiniest violins: in a normal year I’d be writing this column from the balmy French Riviera, with a glass of rosé at my side, amid the annual Cannes film festival. That, of course, has all been called off. For the first time since the second world war – not counting the time things shut down halfway through amid the May ’68 movement – the festival has admitted no Cannes do.

A year without Cannes leaves the arthouse release schedule a bit disoriented: traditionally, UK distributors pick over the festival’s highlights for the next year and beyond. (At Curzon Home Cinema, for example, you can currently stream Portrait of a Lady on Fire and The Whistlers, both plucked from last year’s Cannes competition.) Through the miracle of streaming, however, you can curate your own festival of past Palmes d’Or to treasure. Continue reading “Curate your own Cannes film festival” →

Options dwindle for postponed Cannes Film Festival

Cannes
Official Cannes 2018 Poster

 

The Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday abandoned plans for a postponed 2020 edition in June or July, but said it will still explore other options

The Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday abandoned plans for a postponed 2020 edition in June or July but declined to give up entirely, saying it will explore other options.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday extended France’s national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, banning all public events until mid-July. That essentially dashed the hopes of Cannes organizers who last month said they would aim to move the annual May event a month or two.

“It is clearly difficult to assume that the Festival de Cannes could be held this year in its original form,” the festival said in a statement.

The film industry is increasingly expecting Cannes, the world’s largest film festival and movie market, will be canceled. But the festival on Tuesday said it’s still examining other possibilities that might allow Cannes to carry on in some fashion [ . . . ]

Continue at WASHINGTON POST: Options dwindle for postponed Cannes Film Festival – The Washington Post

Cannes 2019: Dujardin, Luchini, the zombies of Bonello and Zahia at the Directors’ Fortnight 


                 

Paolo Moretti, the successor to Edward Waintrop, head of the parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, unveiled his first selection. This 51st edition, from May 15 to 25, is characterized by increasing titles and a strong delegation of French films that, for many, flirt with the fantastic or a singular universe.

Twenty-six feature films For his first selection at the Directors’ Fortnight, Paolo Moretti, defector of the La Roche-sur-Yon International Film Festival, who also worked for the Venice Film Festival, did not skimp on quantity. This number is well above the average of previous editions. At the press conference held again this Tuesday, April 23 at the Forum des Images, the new delegate general said that of all the feature films selected, sixteen will see their authors land for the first time on the Croisette. “The Directors’ Fortnight also has the role of bringing in new directors,” said Moretti.

Seven French films are part of this selection, opened Wednesday, May 15 by Quentin Dupieux’s Le Suede with Jean Dujardin and Adele Haenel and closed by Yves de Benoît Forgeard ( Gaz de France ) whose dare we hardly dare to pitch. Because Yves is none other than a smart refrigerator supposed to simplify the life to the hero Jerem (William Lebghil). In this comedy about rap and star-up, we also find Philippe Katerine and Doria Tillier.

Doria Tillier et William Lebghil ont un frigo plein... de ressources!
The presence of Dupieux and Forgeard brings folly to this selection in which Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe are particularly expected with The Lighthouse by Robert Eggers, “a film that takes place on a distant and mysterious island of the nineteenth century,” said the coach.
Continue reading “Cannes 2019: Dujardin, Luchini, the zombies of Bonello and Zahia at the Directors’ Fortnight “ →