FESTIVALS Germany
Untouchable opens 11th Berlin French Film Week
by Bénédicte Prot
01/12/2011 - Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s phenomenal hit Untouchable [trailer] (German title: Ziemlich Beste Freunde), which has already garnered over 10m admissions in France since its release on November 2 (see review), will today open the 11th Berlin French Film Week at a screening attended by the two directors and actor François Cluzet (pictured). The event is supported for the first time by Unifrance. Berlin’s French Institute and four major theatres in the German capital will present 18 recent French-language features (the majority of which are French films, and at least half of which are scheduled to be released soon in Germany).
Highlights in the line-up include another of this year’s big surprise hits, Declaration of War [trailer] by Valérie Donzelli (France’s entry for the 2012 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar – see review); alongside Michel Hazanavicius ‘s silent, black-and-white film The Artist [trailer, film focus] (winner of the Best Actor Award at Cannes; tipped for several Oscar nominations); politically-engaged director Robert Guédiguian’s The Snows of Kilimanjaro [trailer, film focus] (also unveiled on the Croisette, before winning the European Parliament’s LUX Prize 2011); and directorial duo Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Chicken With Plums [trailer], which was shown in competition at Venice.
Berlin audiences will also get the chance to discover Christophe Barratier’s War of the Buttons [trailer], Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s Sarah’s Key [trailer], Gérald Hustache-Mathieu’s auteur thriller Nobody Else But You [trailer], Stéphane Robellin’s French/German co-production And If We All Lived Together [trailer] and the burlesque film The Fairy [trailer, film focus] (which opened this year’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight). Also in the line-up are two lovely animated cat-themed flicks that haven’t yet found German distributors: The Rabbi’s Cat [trailer] by Joann Sfar (co-produced by Austria) and A Cat in Paris [trailer] by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli.
For further information about the programme, visit the festival’s website.
(Translated from French)
