Wajda, Slama and Finkiel hit screens alongside Safari and Puss’N Boots
Surfing on the popularity of works by Dany Boon, Gad Elmaleh and others, the current dominance of comedies at the French box office continues, even though the quality of such films is debatable.
While Coco [+see also:
trailer
film profile] has garnered 2.37m admissions in 11 days (871 screens - distributed by StudioCanal) and LOL [+see also:
trailer
interview: Christa Théret
film profile] has drawn 3.48m viewers in eight weeks (472 screens - Pathé Distribution), Olivier Baroux’s Safari [+see also:
trailer
film profile] hits theatres today.
The film traces the misadventures of a group of French tourists in South Africa accompanied by an incompetent guide (Kad Merad). Produced by Eskwad for €15.6m, Safari is being launched by Pathé on 560 screens.
Released ahead of the school holidays, domestic animated film The True Story of Puss’N Boots [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pascal Hérold, Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff will try to win over audiences (see news - MK2 on 319 screens).
As for French auteur films, Philippe Lioret’s Welcome [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Philippe Lioret
film profile] is enjoying immense success (around 800,000 admissions in three weeks) and this Wednesday sees the release of Emmanuel Finkiel’s Nowhere Promised Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2008 Jean Vigo Award - Sophie Dulac Distribution on 29 screens) with its characters’ comings and goings across Europe. The line-up also includes Catherine Pozzo di Borgo’s documentary Les brebis font de la résistance (“Ewes Put Up Resistance”, distributed by Les Films du Paradoxe on five screens).
While European cinema shines with Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Danny Boyle
film profile] (2.23m admissions in 11 weeks), this Wednesday two quality productions hit theatres: Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s Katyn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Wajda
interview: Michal Kwiecinski
film profile] (Kinovista - 12 screens), which was nominated for the 2008 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar; and Czech filmmaker Bohdan Slama’s Country Teacher [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bohdan Slama
film profile], unveiled in Venice Days (Memento - 26 screens).
(Translated from French)
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