Cotillard and Canet take off in The Last Flight
We have an interesting textbook case today with Gaumont’s launch on over 350 screens of its production The Last Flight by Karim Dridi. After a cool critical reception, the film can nonetheless count on the popularity of Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet, who are a couple in real life.
The glamorous duo star in this historical-romantic feature set in the French Sahara in 1933 and helmed by a director until now accustomed to small-budget auteur filmmaking (from Pigalle to Khamsa).
Inspired by Sylvain Estibal’s novel Le Dernier Vol de Lancaster, the film centres on an adventurer who is trying to find her lover, an English pilot missing in the desert. Forced to land her biplane in the Ténéré, she encounters some French Meharists who refuse to help her owing to Touareg rebellions. But a lieutenant will disobey his superiors and lead the young woman on a risky expedition during which they uncover an unexpected truth.
"You must always walk on in the hope of finding something and even if you don’t find what you’re looking for, you’ll find something else after all. Move forward at all times to stay alive". According to Dridi, this is the message of his film, which was produced by Gaumont for around €12m.
The budget included co-production support from France 3 Cinéma and Films du Dauphin, as well as pre-sales from Canal + and Ciné Cinéma.
Also hitting theatres this Wednesday are two titles by young French directors: Mia Hansen-Love’s outstanding French/German co-production The Father of My Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mia Hansen-Løve
film profile], which won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the latest Cannes Film Festival (Les Films du Losange on 58 screens); and Eléonore Faucher’s moving Sisters (see news - UGC Distribution on around 100 screens).
The line-up also includes Romanian director Radu Jude’s critically-acclaimed The Happiest Girl in the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news - Pyramide on 17 screens).
European animation is in the spotlight with two co-productions: Dominique Monféry’s French/Italian film Eleonor’s Secret [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (which received a post-production advance on receipts from the National Film and Moving Image Centre (CNC) - released by Haut et Court on 216 screens); and Eckart Fingberg’s German/French/Romanian feature Jasper: Journey to the End of the World (Bac Films - 130 screens).
Finally, this week also sees the release of Dror Shaul’s German/Israeli/Japanese co-production Sweet Mud (Colifilms); and Christophe Gargot’s documentary From Arusha To Arusha [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Conte-Allée Distribution), alongside four US productions, including the blockbuster Avatar.
(Translated from French)
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