20/02/2008

A musical film set in the City of Light: for his ninth feature, Paris [+see also:
trailer
film profile] o – which is being released today by Mars Distribution on 482 screens – popular director Cédric Klapisch has combined the two ingredients that have characterised his films since the beginning of his career.

With an impressive cast that includes Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, François Cluzet, Fabrice Luchini, Albert Dupontel, Karine Viard, Mélanie Laurent and Gilles Lellouche, the film looks set to be a box office hit for national cinema, which is currently basking in the success of Asterix at the Olympic Games [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (more than 5m admissions in three weeks).

Characters include a music-hall dancer, a social worker, an architect, a university professor, market gardeners, a baker and a student. Klapisch approaches this Short Cuts-style look at the sociology of the French capital in his usual style, with an emphasis on optimistic humanism.

The film aims for the spectacular success of his previous works: Euro Pudding (almost 3 million admissions in France in 2003 and more than €12m in box office earnings worldwide) and The Russian Dolls [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2.9m viewers in France in 2005).

Produced by Ce qui me meut on a budget of €13.06m, including €2.3m in co-production support and pre-sales from France 2 Cinéma, Paris is also co-produced by StudioCanal.

Other new releases this Wednesday include French comedy My Very Best Friend [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Isabelle Doval, starring Anne Brochet and Spanish duo Angela Molina - Lluis Homar (EuropaCorp Distribution, 187 screens); German animated feature Le voyage à Panama (“Journey to Panama”) by Martin Otevrel (Gebeka Films, 62 screens); and collective film The State of the World [+see also:
film review
film profile] which was unveiled at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (Pierre Grise Distribution, 10 screens).

Three US productions are also hitting screens, including Redacted (lauded at Venice - TFM Distribution on 49 screens), and an Iranian film (Le cahier, “The Exercise Book” by Hana Makhmalbaf) that marks the return of Jean Labadie to film distribution with his company Le Pacte.

(Translated from French)