04/12/2013 - In theatres, the 3rd part of the adventures of the characters from Pot Luck. And films by Garrel, Nadjari, Salle and Yolande Moreau

After Pot Luck (2.97 million admissions in France in 2002) and The Russian Dolls [+see also:
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film profile] (2.86 million in 2005), Cédric Klapisch is reunited for the third time with the characters of Xavier (Romain Duris), Isabelle (Cécile de France), Wendy (Kelly Reilly) and Martine (Audrey Tautou) in Chinese Puzzle [+see also:
trailer
film profile], launched today by StudioCanal in 677 French cinemas.

A well served "feel good movie" made dynamic thanks to a great formal creativity, this feature sees the ex-students from Barcelona facing their forties and the multi-cultural city of New York. "The young people from the Erasmus programme have really become citizens of the world,” underlines the director (who is also a producer through his company Ce Qui Me Meut). "These three films that I now call the trilogy of Xavier’s journeys tell the story of how the lives of people from this generation were shaped by the culture of travel, how they grew up in parallel to the formation of Europe and the idea of globalization.” A conceptual programme that the filmmaker (who signs here his 11^th feature) portrays in his friendly and unpretentious style, blending optimism and melancholia, touches of comedy and societal issues, narrative freedom and respect of conventions (the “classic” ending where all the pieces of the puzzle inevitably fall into place). All this has always earned Klapisch the disdain of some purist critics, but it has become a hallmark that has grown with time.

In a completely different but nonetheless fascinating genre, this Wednesday witnesses the release of La jalousie [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by the uncompromising Philippe Garrel, discovered in competition at the Venice Mostra and distributed by Capricci Films on 42 screens.

Four films unveiled at the last Cannes Film Festival also hit the theatres today. Pathé releases in 252 cinemas the efficient English-language thriller Zulu [+see also:
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making of
film profile] by Jérôme Salle, which closed the official selection, starring Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom, whilst Pretty Pictures releases 55 copies of the Mexican-Spanish coproduction The Golden Cage [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Diego Quemada-Diez, whose entire cast was rewarded in the Certain Regard section. Two films discovered at the Directors’ Fortnight are also being released: the Franco-Belgian coproduction Henri [+see also:
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interview: Yolande Moreau
film profile] by Yolande Moreau starring Italian actor Pipo Delbono (Le Pacte in 130 theatres) and the Franco-Israeli feature A Strange Course of Events [+see also:
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film profile] by Raphaël Nadjari (Shellac on 8 copies).

It is finally worth mentioning the British film Swandown by Andrew Kötting (ED Distribution), the British-Lebanese-Danish documentary A World Not Yours by Mahdi Fleifel (Eurozoom) and two other French productions with 200 % by duo Olivier Bosson - Nicolas Boone (distribution pointligneplan) and Harissa mon amour [+see also:
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film profile] by Frédéric Dantec (Kanibal Films), as well as a short by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes, presented in Venice: Redemption (via Shellac).

(Translated from French)