Europe behind My Colonel and The Stone Council

15/11/2006

Up against four US productions, including heavyweights Borat and Babel, European films are depending on co-productions and diversity to fare well in French cinemas, home to fifteen new releases today.

Popular releases include French/Italian co-production The Stone Council [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Guillaume Nicloux, starring Monica Bellucci and Catherine Deneuve, which opens through UGC on 375 screens. The film was recently presented at the RomeFilmFest (see article).

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Meanwhile, Pathé Distribution are releasing the French/Belgian co-production My Colonel [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Laurent Herbiet on 106 screens, starring Olivier Gourmet, Cécile de France and Robinson Stévenin, also screened at Rome (see article).

Other films include two features for younger audiences: Call Me Elisabeth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jean-Pierre Ameris, produced and distributed by Pyramide on 78 screens, and Bab Aziz: The Prince Who Contemplated His Soul [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nacer Khémir (Gebeka Films, 29 prints).

A French majority production – (Films du Requin) with Pegasos Film (Germany), Zephyr Films (UK) and Inforg Studio (Hungary) – being sold internationally by Bavaria, Bab'Aziz is based on a script co-written by its director and three-time Oscar-nominated Italian veteran Tonino Guerra.

Another European co-production, Paraguayan Hammock [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Paz Encina, opens on five screens through ID Distribution. Fipresci prize-winner in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section this year, the film was co-produced by Argentina, Slot Machine and Arte France Cinéma (France), Fortuna Films (the Netherlands) and Wanda Vision S.A. (Spain).

A battalion of five documentaries also hit French screens today. Heading the bill is the remarkable Return to Kigali [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jean-Christophe Klotz (Sophie Dulac Distribution, 6 screens), presented at the Cannes Critics Week.

The other documentaries include Ma mondialisation (lit. “My Globalisation”) by Gilles Perret (Les Films du Paradoxe, 5 prints), French/Israeli co-production News from House / News from Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Amos Gitaï (Pierre Grise Distribution, 10 screens) , Danish documentary Between a Smile and a Tear by Niels Lan Docky (L’Archipel, 2 screens) and El perro negro: Stories from the Spanish Civil War by Hungary’s Peter Forgacs (Novociné, 4 screens).