23/04/2014 - A bittersweet Dans le cour comedy and thriller 96 heures stand out among seventeen new films

While Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au Bon Dieu? [+see also:
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film profile] by Philippe de Chauveron had a great box office debut (1.15 million spectators in five days - UGC Distribution), another wave of seventeen arrivals are getting in today. Among these, critics have praised the subtle, burlesque and melancholic Dans la cour [+see also:
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interview: Philippe Martin
film profile] by Pierre Salvadori (read the article and interview of producer Philippe Martin). Discovered in Berlin during a special gala screening, and headed by the great Catherine Deneuve - Gustave Kervern duo, the film was launched by Wild Bunch Distribution in 211 cinemas.

ARP Sélection will launch its production 96 heures [+see also:
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film profile] in 365 cinemas. The film is Frédéric Schoendoerffer’s fifth. The director came onto the scene with Scènes de crime (2000) and made the first series of Braquo. This film stars the excellent Nils Arestrup and Gérard Lanvin. Written by Simon Michael and Philippe Isard, the screenplay tells the story of a confrontation between an escaped criminal and the head of a criminal unit squat who arrested him three years prior. The former kidnaps the latter and tries to get him to speak to find out who gave him up.

“What I liked was the concept of arrest turned on its head, behind closed doors,” the filmmaker says. “War is done through words, whether they are spoken or not. It is a battle of nerves […] The film is not just a run against time by a criminal and the man who arrested him, it is a reflection on time. That which remains to two men who are coming to the end of their lives.”   

Worth noting, among French films, is Une rencontre [+see also:
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film profile] by Lisa Azuelos (LOL [+see also:
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interview: Christa Théret
film profile]), which follows a story of love at first sight between Sophie Marceau and François Cluzet (distribution Pathé Films in around 350 movie theatres). Also hitting cinemas is Je m'appelle Hmmm [+see also:
film review
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film profile]... by Agnès Troublé also known as Agnès b. (in Venice in the Horizons section, read the review - A3 Distribution in 14 cinemas), drama Un voyage [+see also:
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film profile] by Samuel Benchetrit (with Anna Mouglalis, Yann Goven and Céline Sallette - Epicentre Films in 19 cinemas) and documentaries La ligne de partage des eaux by Dominique Marchais (Les Films du Losange) and Les 3 vies du chevalier by Dominique Dattola (Cinéode Distribution). 

Two other feature length films presented at the 2013 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight: Swiss production After the Night [+see also:
film review
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interview: Basil da Cunha
film profile] by Portuguese Basil Da Cunha (Capricci Films in 15 copies) and The Summer of Flying Fish [+see also:
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film profile] by Chilean Marcela Said (distributed by French co-producer Cinéma Defacto in 18 cinemas). Another Swiss is also in the mix (Avanti by Emmanuelle Antille - pointligneplan in two cinemas) as are two French co-productions: the first with Pakistan and Turkey (Noor [+see also:
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film profile] by duo Cagla Zencirci - Guillaume Giovanetti - distribution Zootrope Films), the second with Palestine (Girafada [+see also:
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film profile] by Rani Massalha – co-production Mact - Pyramide Distribution).

(Translated from French)