Nine out of 10 for Europe
No less than nine European productions hit French screens today, limiting US competition to one single title. Wednesday also marks the debuts of Studio Canal as a distributor under its own name instead of that of its subsidiary, Mars Distribution .
The rebaptised outfit’s first release is Frédéric Schoendoerffer’s ultra-violent and highly controversial Crime Insiders [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see September 20, 2005 article), starring Benoît Magimel, Philippe Caubère, Béatrice Dalle and Olivier Marchaln. The title opens on 197 screens.
Two other French titles out today are Laurent Boutonnat’s Jacquou Le Croquant [+see also:
trailer
film profile], featuring Gaspard Ulliel, Marie-Josée Croze and Albert Dupontel (Pathé Distribution, 576 prints) and Zone libre [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lit. “Free Zone”) by Christophe Malavoy (TFM Distribution, 193 screens).
The UK will be represented this week by Nicholas Hytner’s History Boys [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Twentieth Century Fox) and Cashback [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Sean Ellis, which screened in sidebar sections of the San Sebastian, Toronto and Rome film festivals. Ellis’ feature is being released in France through Gaumont/Columbia TriStar Films on 174 screens.
Belgium also has two titles: Philippe Blasband’s The Colour of Words [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see interview), a five-screen release through CQFD, and Philippe Falardeau’s Congorama [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (UGC , 40 prints), a joint Canadian/Belgian/French production funded by Wallimage, the Communauté Française de Belgique and the CNC, which was presented in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2006 (see article and interview).
The European tour also includes a trip to Austria with Wolfgang Murnberger’s Silentium [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was selected at the 2005 Berlinale Panorama and took the Grand Prize at the 2006 Cognac Detective Film Festival (see news, Les Films sans Frontières on 21 screens).
Finally, one of Cineuropa’s favourite films at Cannes last year was Turkish/French co-production Climates [+see also:
trailer
interview: Zeynep Ozbatur
film profile] by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (see article), winner of the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Film in Official Competition at Cannes, which opens on 57 screens through its French co-producer Pyramide.
(Translated from French)
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