02/10/2013 - Major test for national comedy with the massive launch of Alexandre Coffre’s film, played by Valérie Bonneton and Dany Boon

With a 2013 box-office that cannot find its rhythm and alternates worrying ups and downs, the launch today by Mars Distribution on 647 screens of The Volcano [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is a major test for a genre (French comedy) that hasn’t been doing so well the past few months in theatres.

Alexandre Coffre’s film (noticed in 2011 with Borderline [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) does not lack arguments to reverse the trend, notably with a very strong duo Valérie Bonneton - Dany Boon playing belligerent divorcees who are forced to drive together from France to Greece for the wedding of their son because of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Qualified by the director as an “anti-romantic comedy”, the feature revisits the spirit of films played by Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner such as The War of the Roses and Romancing the Stone with “two characters who love and hate each other whilst going through crazy adventures.” Filmed with a cinemascope over 12 weeks in five countries (Germany, Austria, Belgium, France and especially Croatia), The Volcano was produced by Quad Productions for a substantial budget of 23,13 M€ including a coproduction from TF1 Films Productions and pre-purchases by Canal+ and Ciné+. International sales are handled by Kinology.

Huge release too today for Diana [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by German director Oliver Hirschbiegel with Naomi Watts in the role of the famous Princess of Wales during the last two years of her life. Produced by the UK, France, Belgium and Sweden, the film which is very controversial in the UK is distributed by Le Pacte on 406 screens.

Amongst today’s new releases, it is also worth mentioning the very successful and sharp feminist portrait Domestic Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Isabelle Czajka (read the review – distributed by Ad Vitam on 92 screens), the excellent Everybody in our Family [+see also:
film review
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interview: Radu Jude
film profile] by Radu Jude (appreciated last year at the Berlinale and great winner of the Gopos 2013, the annual Romanian film prizes - Zootrope Films on 20 screens), the Belgian-French coproduction La tendresse [+see also:
trailer
interview: Marion Hänsel
film profile] by Marion Hänsel (discovered in Rotterdam with Olivier Gourmet, Marilyne Canto and Adrien Jolivet in the cast – reads the review - Epicentre Films on 32 screens) and the baroque curiosity Opium [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Arielle Dombasle (played by Grégoire Colin, Samuel Mercer and Niels Schneider – unveiled in Cannes Classics - distribution Margo Cinéma in five cinemas).

(Translated from French)