Cognac: 25 years of detective films

by Fabien Lemercier

21/06/2007 - The Cognac Detective Film Festival - which opened yesterday evening and continues until Sunday – is celebrating 25 years of a film genre that is currently experiencing a very strong comeback, as can be seen by the great number of films in production. These include Olivier Van Hoofstadt’s Go Fast (see news), Robert Guédiguian’s Lady Jane [trailer] (see article), Olivier Marchal’s MR 73 (see news), Alfred Lot’s La Chambre des morts (see news) and Alain Corneau’s Second Wind (see article).

Presided over by Claude Chabrol, the 2007 Cognac Film Festival is offering a competition of eight European features, including 2006 Berlinale Panorama entry El triunfo [trailer] by Spanish helmer Mireia Ros; Exit, directed by Sweden’s Peter Lindmark and starring Mads Mikkelsen; and Donald Macintyre’s UK documentary A Very British Gangster, which will be distributed in France by Bac Films.

The awards will be presented by a jury headed by Claude Lelouch, as well as a "special police" jury, composed of police officers and presided over by the division commissioner, while novelist Danielle Thiery will present her own award.

The six features in the Sang neuf (New Blood) section include Angosto [trailer, film focus] by Spain’s Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo, which was presented in Venice Days 2006 (see article), and 2006 Un Certain Regard entry Restless [trailer] by Norway’s Stefan Faldbakken (see article). The films will be released in France respectively by ID Memento Films and Rezo Films.

Aside from the many retrospectives and events organised by the Cognac Film Festival, the out-of-competition section will feature Jean-Pierre Mocky’s 13 French Street with Thierry Frémont (a TNVO production), Michael Steiner and Tobias Fueter’s Swiss feature Grounding [trailer], Hot Fuzz by British director Edgar Wright (to be released by Studio Canal in France on July 18), as well as Lelouch’s Roman de gare [trailer], recently selected at Cannes as part of its 60th anniversary tributes.

(Translated from French)