18/11/2003 - The French company plays on the upsurge in popularity of films made in Italy. After the success of The Best of Youth, there’ll be French releases for works by Avati, Scola and Bellocchio. And there’s also the Venice award winning The Return

It’s already distributed films by Pupi Avati, Marco Bellocchio, Marco Tullio Giordana and now Ettore Scola is added to the list, with his Gente di Roma [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Over the last year, the French distributor Océan Films has been betting on French audience’s renewed interest in Italian cinema. This decision has paid off, showing good returns at the box office, though the company led by Jean Hernandez is still keeping its eye on other European quality films. In fact, Océan Films made sure that it didn’t lose the opportunity to distribute the German hit, Good Bye, Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile] (which registered an audience of 1.1 million in 9 weeks of programming in France) and it will also be putting out 60 copies of the Golden Lion winner at this year’s Venice Film Festival, The Return by Andreï Zvyagintsev, on French screens from November 26, 2003.

After My Mother’s Smile [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Marco Bellocchio (November 20, 2002), Océan Film’s acquisitions department, led by Thierry de Courcelles, went on to snap up French distribution rights fro The Best of Youth [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Marco Tullio Giordana. The film was distributed in just 4 copies and today, after 4 months on 7 screens, it is still pulling in an audience (to date more than 126,000 people). And now it’s the turn of Pupi Avati and A Heart Elsewhere, his film that was presented in competition at the last Cannes Film Festival. Océan Film will be distributing the production in theatres in France from December 17, in about 60-70 prints.

But the “Italian strategy” doesn’t stop here. In 2004 there are plans for the release of Good Morning, Night [+see also:
trailer
interview: Marco Bellocchio, director …
film profile] by Marco Bellocchio (February 4), as well as a French distribution for the latest work by Ettore Scola Gente di Roma [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (April 7). Océan Film bought this tribute to the eternal city at the last MIFED market in Milan. It’s stars include Stefania Sandrelli, Valerio Mastandrea, Fiorenzo Fiorentini and Arnoldo Foa.

(Translated from French)