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RELEASES France

Out this Wednesday, a jostling throng of European titles

by 

- Great quality and the risk of cannibalisation at the box office this week, with the release of films by Mungiu, Arcel, Bayona, Sarmiento, and Miller

They all seem to have agreed on the same date to make film-lovers happy, but they run the risk of losing viewers along the way. There are indeed almost too many new European films out in French cinemas today, with the release Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's Cannes winner Beyond the Hills [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cosmina Stratan
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
interview: Cristian Mungiu
film profile
]
(Le Pacte on 81 copies), Danish director Nikolaj Arcel's Berlin winner A Royal Affair [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
interview: Nikolaj Arcel
film profile
]
(Jour2Fête and Chrysalis Films on 111 copies), Juan Antonio Bayona's English-language Spanish blockbuster The Impossible [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Juan Antonio Bayona
film profile
]
(SND in 251 cinemas), Valeria Sarmiento's Venice contender The Lines of Wellington [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valeria Sarmiento
film profile
]
(Alfama Films on 42 copies), and the late Claude Miller's last film: Thérèse Desqueyroux [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(read the review - out of competition closing film at Cannes 2012 - UGC Distribution in 382 cinemas).

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The rest of the new releases include Boudewijn Koole's Dutch title Little Bird [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(review - nominated for the 2012 European Film Award for best directorial debut - distribution: Les Films du Préau in 26 cinemas) and Halkawt Mustafa's Norway-Iran co-production Red Heart [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(read more - Kanibal Films Distribution in nine cinemas), without forgetting Hugo Gélin's French film Comme des frères [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(lit. "Like brothers" - Stone Angels on 226 copies), the story of an unlikely friendship between three men from different generations that has seduced the critics thanks to its excellent cast (François-Xavier Demaison, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Pierre Niney, and Mélanie Thierry).

At a first glance, cannibalisation between these different titles, at least during their first week, seems unavoidable, especially as they are out seven days only after films like The Hunt [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
interview: Thomas Vinterberg
film profile
]
, Something in the Air [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Assayas
film profile
]
, Capital [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, and even Hold Back [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rachid Djaïdani
film profile
]
. Yet, for distributor Etienne Ollagnier (Jour2Fête), the new releases this Wednesday do not all necessarily target the same audience, except perhaps A Royal Affair and The Lines of Wellington as historical films. According to him, all European features released this Wednesday will be able to coexist at the box office, except if The Impossible succeeds in drawing massive crowds as Skyfall [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile
]
has done over the last few weeks. It's an analysis that it would be interesting to later compare to results to see if French distributors are right or wrong in releasing several of the year's European titles at once.

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(Translated from French)

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