22/04/2009

There are just six new releases on this week’s line-up, including two major French productions.

Firstly, there is Bertrand Tavernier’s US outing, set in the heart of Louisiana and starring a craggy Tommy Lee Jones, who is involved in a criminal investigation with segregationist echoes. In the Electric Mist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Tavernier
film profile] is adapted from a book by thriller writer James Lee Burke and has a small but strong cast, which also features the inimitable John Goodman and Peter Sarsgaard.

Produced by the USA’s Ithaca Pictures and France’s Little Bear, the film went straight to DVD in the United States, but is boosted in Europe by the reputation of its director and its Berlinale selection. Benelux Film Distribution is launching the title on 17 screens in Belgium.

This week’s other heavyweight release is Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which stars Audrey Tautou as the androgynous Chanel mastermind. Kinepolis believes in the film’s potential, for the company is releasing it on 31 screens.

Biopics centring on women have enjoyed success at the French box office, with films such as La Vie en Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Séraphine [+see also:
trailer
film profile] winning awards in recent years.

Coco Before Chanel can nonetheless expect competition from another forthcoming project (which picks up Chanel’s story where Fontaine’s film ends): Jan Kounen’s Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was scheduled for release in March, but has been pushed back to September. Cannes could be in the offing for the film produced by Claudie Ossard and starring official Chanel ambassador Anna Mouglalis as the modern fashion icon.

Meanwhile, Coco Before Chanel – which also features Belgian actors Benoît Poelvoorde and Marie Gillain – is produced by Haut et Court and Ciné@, with backing from Belgium’s Scope Pictures.

(Translated from French)