Darwinism in action: to be Popular among 19 new releases

by Fabien Lemercier

28/11/2012 - Régis Roinsard’s vintage comedy, starring Romain Duris and Déborah François, shines out from a great traffic jam of new titles

Over-abundance marks this Wednesday's releases, with 19 films in cinemas, an avalanche that risks being unkind to titles with smaller marketing budgets and only useful to a few such as Régis Roinsard’s Populaire [+see also:
film review
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making of
film profile] (lit. “Popular” - read thereview). Released by Mars Distribution on 450 copies, this vintage comedy produced by Les Films du Trésor starring Romain Duris, Déborah François, and Bérénice Bejo has been lauded by the French critics, after having seduced the public at the Rome Film Festival.

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Good reviews also for Héléna Klotz’s astonishing Atomic Age [+see also:
film review
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interview: Héléna Klotz
film profile], which won the Jean Vigo prize as well as the FIPRESCI Prize at the Panorama of the last Berlinale (distribution: NiZ! on seven copies), for Italian director Marco Tullio Giordana’s Piazza Fontana [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (read the review), which won the Jury Special Prize and Europa Cinemas Label in Karlovy Vary (Bellissima Films on 29 copies), and for Sébastien Lifshitz’s Les Invisibles (lit. "The invisible"), a documentary that made its debut at a special screening in Cannes (Ad Vitam in 46 cinemas).

Bac Films has orchestrated a great 350-copy release for Kari Juusonen and Jorgen Lerdam's animation film Little Brother, Big Trouble [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (read more), an Ireland-Denmark-Finland-Germany co-production that hopes to repeat the 685,000 admissions made in France in 2008 for its prequel The Flight Before Christmas.

Also out in cinemas is Patrick Mille’s Mauvaise fille [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lit. “Bad girl”), an adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Justine Lévy starring young newcomer Izia Higelin, as well as Carole Bouquet and Bob Geldof (ARP Sélection in 89 cinemas).

European cinema’s diversity is further showcased by Belgian director Frédéric Fonteyne’s Tango libre [+see also:
film review
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interview: Frédéric Fonteyne
film profile], which was awarded in the Orizzonti section in Venice (Rezo Films on 23 copies), Spanish filmmaker Miguel Courtois’ Operation E [+see also:
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film profile] (distributed by its co-producer EuropaCorp in 46 cinemas), Michael J. Bassett’s Canadian-French horror film Silent Hill: Revelation 3D [+see also:
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film profile] (Metropolitan Filmexport in 251 cinemas), and British filmmaker David Blair’s Best Plans [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (read more - Atypik Films in one cinema). Two documentaries complete this pantagruelian ensemble of releases: Hélène Milano’s Les Roses noires (lit. “The back roses” - Art Cinefeel) and Cesar and Marie-Clémence Paes’L'Opéra du bout du monde (lit. “The opera at the end of the world” - Laterit).