30/08/2006

From Berlin and Cannes to French theatres, three European prize-winning titles at major international festivals arrive on French screens today, along with three US films.

First in line is Cannes’ Grand Jury prize-winner Flanders [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Bruno Dumont (see article and interview with the director).

Produced by Jean Bréhat and Rachid Bouchareb for 3B Productions, the €2.12m Flanders, which received funding of €400,000 from Arte France Cinéma, €450,000 in advances on receipts from the CNC and €200,000 from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, opens on 100 screens through Tadrart Films.

The film, the director’s fourth feature, has also not been spared by critics and continues to court controversy, radical reactions that Dumont wants to provoke. "I make films that take risks, that try to shock the audience. This prize is an encouragement for films that I am trying to make, for students of cinema that like these films, which are not those that the industry wants us to make," said the director following the awards ceremony at Cannes.

Also no stranger to controversy is French novelist Michel Houellebecq, whose screen adaptation of the bestseller Les particules élémentaires [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franka Potente & Moritz Ble…
interview: Oskar Roehler
film profile] (entitled Atomised in English) by German helmer Oskar Roehler, is being released on 99 screens by TFM Distribution .

Screened in competition at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival (see news), the film won Moritz Bleibtreu a Silver Bear for Best Actor. The film also stars Franka Potente, Christian Ulmen, Martina Gedeck, Nina Hoss and Corinna Harfouch.

Produced by Constantin Film Produktion and co-produced by GFP in collaboration with MOOVIE-the art of entertainment and ARD, Atomised is one of Cineuropa’s Focus features, including interviews with the director and the film’s two leads, as well as a round table on co-production with Hengameh Panahi (Celluloid Dreams), Martin Moszkowicz (Constantin Film) and Patrice Hoffman (Editions Flammarion).

Another of today’s releases is Romanian/French co-production The Way I Spent the Rest of the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Catalin Mitulescu, which opens on 30 screens through Pyramide.

Produced by Strada Films with the Paris-based outfit Les Films Pelléas and with backing from Eurimages, the director’s debut feature (Palme d’Or for Best Short at Cannes 2003) was screened in May in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard (see article) . The film’s star, Dorothea Petre, won Best Actress in the parallel section.

(Translated from French)