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RELEASES France

Tour de Force: cycling takes over 524 screens

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- Wild Bunch launches a massive release of Laurent Tuel’s film. Also on screens, the audacious Stranger by the Lake and the Berlin prize-winner Just the Wind

A sporting event that still remains very popular despite the many shadows cast by doping scandals, the Tour de France cycling event will celebrate its 100th edition at the end of June. With the organizers’ blessing, French cinema is today attempting a transplant, hoping to convert cycling aficionados into movie spectators, with Tour de Force [+see also:
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 (original title La Grande Boucle) by Laurent Tuel, launched by Wild Bunch Distribution onto 524 French screens, under very shy encouragements from the critics.

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Played by Clovis CornillacBouli LannersAry Abittan, Bruno Lochet and Élodie Bouchez, the feature film, which also contains appearances by previous champions Bernard Hinault and Laurent Jalabert, focuses on François, a true Tour de France fan. Fired by his boss and dumped by his wife, he sets of on the Big Loop a day ahead of the professionals. Alone at first, he is soon joined by others inspired by his challenge. There are plenty of obstacles, but the rumour about his exploit spreads. The media goes crazy, passers-by cheer, the leader wearing the Yellow Jersey is furious. François must be stopped!

For the director Laurent Tuel (with Le Rocher d’AcapulcoUn jeu d’enfantsJean-Philippe [+see also:
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 and Le premier cercle [+see also:
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to his credit): "With the Tour de France, whether you like it or not, there is always some kind of emotion: this logorrhoea that lulls hot afternoons in July, the regions it goes through, the legendary passages in the mountains... It isn’t so much the sporting exploit that we are looking for, but rather the pleasure guaranteed by the overall atmosphere.” 

Produced by Bago Films and Fidélité Films in partnership with Wild Bunch (which is also handling international sales), Tour de Force benefitted from a 14.08 M€ budget, which notably included coproduction between TF1 Films Productions and France 2 Cinéma, as well as a pre-purchase by Orange Cinéma Séries. 

At the far end of the spectrum from this production targeting a wider audience, the audacious and excellent Stranger by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Guiraudie
film profile
]
 by Alain Guiraudie, Best Director Award in the Certain Regard section of the recent Cannes Film Festival (Les Films du Losange on 60 screens), is also arriving on screens today, as well as Just the Wind [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bence Fliegauf
film profile
]
 by Hungarian director Bence Fliegauf, Grand Prix of the Jury at the 2012 Berlinale (Sophie Dulac Distribution on 19 screens).

Amongst the other novelties, it is also worth mentioning the Norwegian animated film Ploddy the Police Car on the Trail [+see also:
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]
 by Rasmus A. Sivertsen (Help Distribution in 72 cinemas), L [+see also:
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a fille publique
 [+see also:
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by French director Cheyenne Carron (Carron Distribution in one cinema) and Déchirés/Grave by her compatriot Vincent Dieutre (Pointligneplan in three cinemas).

In a box-office currently dominated by American productions, The Past [+see also:
film review
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]
 by Asghar Farhadi (review – Best Actress Award in Cannes for Bérénice Bejo) pursues its great career chalking up a total of 736,000 admissions in 26 days, while the comedy Les profs [+see also:
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]
 by Pierre-François Martin-Laval has drawn a total 3.73 million spectators in the past eight weeks. 

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(Translated from French)

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