16/04/2014 - Exhibitors’ hopes are high for Philippe de Chauveron’s comedy. Also released are films by Porumboiu, Leconte, Dolan and Tornatore

It is very rare for a comedy to have unleashed such a buzz ahead of its release, filling movie theatres with laughter during the preview screenings and even sparking off a mini controversy among some people who suspected the film of being racist, while others see it as propaganda promoting interracial relations. Distributed today by UGC with an immense print run of 621 copies, Serial (Bad) Weddings [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Philippe de Chauveron is obviously making a splash.

Written by the director together with Guy Laurent, the story revolves around Claude and Marie Verneuil, a couple of “Old France” parents who are rather set in their ways, descended from the provincial Catholic upper class. Even though they are always forcing themselves to show that they are open-minded, they still find it very difficult to do so when their first daughter marries a Muslim, their second a Jew and their third a Chinese man. They therefore have to pin their hopes of finally seeing one of them married in a church on the youngest daughter, who has just met a good Catholic boy... Produced by Romain Rojtman for UGC Images, the film is being sold internationally by TF1 International.

According to the director, "French people are the world champions when it comes to mixed marriage. Around 20% of the marriages that happen in our country take place between people of different origins and faiths. However, in our neighbouring countries in Europe, that figure is apparently somewhere around 3% (...) Many children born to immigrant parents have told me that they suffer a great deal owing to the fact that they are not considered full-fledged French people (...) In the film, everyone has their own flaws, their own quirks... And we wanted to be able to laugh at that, with no hidden agenda (...) I didn’t want to make a ‘film with messages’. People don’t need other people to think for them. Above all, they need to relax."

Also hitting screens is the English-language feature A Promise [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by French director Patrice Leconte (co-produced by Belgium and revealed out of competition at Venice – read the review - Mars Distribution in 105 cinemas), The Best Offer [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Italy’s Giuseppe Tornatore (unveiled at a gala screening at last year’s Berlinale and starring Geoffrey Rush – read the review - DistriB Films across 83 screens), When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu (accepted in competition at Locarno – read the review - Zootrope Films in ten theatres) and the minority French co-production Tom at the Farm [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Canada’s Xavier Dolan (in competition at Venice – read the review - Diaphana across 80 screens).

Also of note is another French comedy (Babysitting by Philippe Lacheau and Nicolas Benamou - UPI France) and four documentaries: the Franco-Belgian-Italian film African Safari 3D [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by Ben Stassen (StudioCanal in 88 cinemas), the Franco-Chinese co-production Les trois soeurs du Yunnan by Wang Bing (winner of the Orizzonti Prize at the 2012 Venice Film Festival – distributed by Les Acacias), Les chèvres de ma mère by Sophie Audier (distributed by Ciné-Sud Promotion), and Rencontres by Maroussia Dubreuil and Alexandre Zef (JML Distribution).

(Translated from French)