16/04/2008

This week’s line-up of 12 new releases includes three French debut features: Jean-Paul Rouve’s Sans arme, ni haine, ni violence [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Without Weapon, Hatred or Violence”), Stéphanie Duvivier’s A Police Romance [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Olivier Château’s Asylum [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The three films – which were made on very different budgets – demonstrate the French film industry’s capacity for renewal. According to the National Centre for Cinematography’s 2007 assessment, there were 72 debut features among the 185 French Initiative Films produced in 2007, a figure that had not been reached for ten years.

Fifteen of these debut features were granted an advance on receipts, 30 received investments from Hertzian channels and 41 received pre-sales from Canal + for an average budget of €3.2m.

Today, Mars Distribution are launching on 284 screens Rouve’s Sans arme, ni haine, ni violence (news). The director plays the eccentric Albert Spaggiari who carried out the "robbery of the century" in Nice in 1976. The film also stars Alice Taglioni and Gilles Lellouche.

Produced by Elia Films in co-production with Vertigo Films, this €10.8m debut feature received backing from several partners (M6, Studio 37, C+ and TPS).

Duvivier’s A Police Romance (news) is being released by Zelig Films on 25 screens. Starring Olivier Marchal, Abdelhafid Metalsi and Hiam Abbass, this Mat Films production was for €1.56m, with backing from C+ and the Paca region.

Château’s debut film Asylum – which was not accredited by the CNC due to its precarious production conditions (€50,000 budget, with the participation of artists and technicians) – is being launched on seven screens by its producer Les Films à Fleur de Peau.

The film – which stars Julien Courbey, Jean-Marie Lamour, Jacques Frantz and Jean-Pierre Kalfon, among others – begins with a man who is alone in a forest and attached to a tree by a heavy chain. Asylum looks at how the character ended up there and how he will survive. The title is on the line-up of the UK international sales agent Visual Factory.

Another noteworthy release is Tonie Marshall’s French/Swiss comedy Passe passe [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Sleight of Hand”, distribution Warner), starring Nathalie Baye and Edouard Baer.

Pathé are launching a 142-print run of their production Whatever Lola wants by Nabil Ayouch, which is set in New York and Egypt.

Shellac are releasing on 15 screens Tariq Teguia’s Rome Rather Than You, which is a co-production between Algeria (Neffa Films), France (INA) and Germany (Flying Moon).

Finally, this week sees the release of Saverio Costanzo’s Italian film In Memory of Myself [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see interview), which was in competition at last year’s Berlinale and is being launched by Pierre Grise on 17 screens.

All the new titles will struggle to compete for audiences alongside four US productions and a Thai feature, not to mention Dany Boon’s outstanding Welcome to the Land of Shtis [+see also:
trailer
film profile], whose success continues. The film has garnered 18.34m admissions (€108m in box office takings) after seven weeks on release and is showing no signs of slowing down.

(Translated from French)