01/09/2010

The 67th Venice Film Festival kicks off today and French cinema has pride of place, with no fewer than 22 productions and co-productions gracing the line-up. Four of these are favourites for the Golden Lion, a prize not awarded to a French film since 1993 for production (Krzystof Kieslowski’s Three Colours: Blue) and since 1987 for French directors (Louis Malle’s Au revoir les enfants). Gallic favourites at Venice include: Abdellatif Kechiche’s Venus noire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Abdellatif Kechiche
film profile], François Ozon’s Potiche [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Antony Cordier’s Happy Few [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see article) and Miral [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Julian Schnabel, a three-way Pathé production between Israel, Italy and India).

Three French minority co-productions also feature in competition, We Believed [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mario Martone
interview: Mario Martone
film profile] by Italian director Mario Martone (co-produced by Les Films d’Ici), The Solitude of Prime Numbers [+see also:
trailer
interview: Luca Marinelli
film profile] by fellow Italian Saverio Costanzo (produced by Les Films des Tournelles) and Spanish helmer Alex de la Iglesia’s Sad Trumpet Ballad [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álex de la Iglesia
film profile] (co-produced by La Fabrique 2). French outfit Pathé is also in the spotlight, having financed Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere.

Out-of-competition highlights include French co-production (Babe Films) Vallanzasca [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Italian helmer Michele Placido, while the Horizons section will open with Catherine Breillat’s Sleeping Beauty. The same programme includes French-Portuguese co-production Dharma Guns [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by F.J. Ossang (see article), El Sicario, room 164 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Gianfranco Rosi (produced by Les Films d’Ici), as well as two minority productions, documentaries Zelal by directing duo Marianne Khoury and Mustapha Hasnaoui (co-produced by 3B Productions) and We are communists (a Les Films d’Ici co-production).

Bertrand Blier’s The Clink of Ice [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see article) will open Venice Days, while the selection will also unveil another French majority production (The Place in Between by Sarah Bouyain), as well as three minority productions, Scorched [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Canadian helmer Denis Villeneuve (co-produced by TS Productions) and two co-productions from ASAP Films (Danis Tanovic’s Cirkus Columbia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Danis Tanovic
film profile] and Marion Hänsel’s Ocean Black [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). Also lined up is Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile] by Belgian helmer Olivier Masset-Depasse (a French co-production from Dharamsala), one of the three finalists of the European Parliament’s Prix Lux.

Completing the French contingent at Venice are Critics’ Week participants Angèle et Tony [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alix Delaporte (see article) and Israeli-French co-production Lies by Eitan Zur.

(Translated from French)