05/02/2010

Cineuropa put three questions to Alexandra Henochsberg, manager of Paris-based distributor Ad Vitam.

What do you think about Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern’s Mammuth [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gustave Kervern, Benoî…
film profile] (see news) being selected in competition at the Berlinale (February 11-21)?
"In the past, we’ve bought foreign films unveiled in competition at Berlin, but it’s the first time that a title on our line-up, bought on the basis of the screenplay, and a French film at that, has been selected. Mammuth is the fourth film by Delépine and Kerven to be distributed by Ad Vitam: it’s a long-term working relationship.

“This selection has been a real surprise, and it’s very important for it positions the film very clearly in terms of its quality. Coming from television, the directors sometimes have a rather misleading reputation as jokers. This selection establishes their credentials as film directors. It’s also very daring on the part of the Berlin festival selectors because it’s quite an unusual film. It’s a comedy but it’s more than that; it isn’t cutting but very tender. And we haven’t seen Depardieu in a role like this for a very long time. One thing is certain: the film will attract attention.

“Louise-Michel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benoît Delépine and Gustav…
interview: Benoît Jaubert
film profile] performed very well in France with 450,000 admissions and we’ll be banking on this success when we release Mammuth on April 21 in France."

What about the two titles selected in Berlin’s Panorama section, which will also be distributed by Ad Vitam?
"We’ve distributed almost all of Sébastien Lifshitz’s films and we even produced Going South [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news), which we launched in theatres on December 30, 2009. As for Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau’s Family Tree [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news), which we will release on March 3, this is more to do with our relationship with producer Gilles Sandoz (Maïa Cinéma), following on from Regular Lovers [+see also:
trailer
interview: Philippe Garrel
film profile] and Lady Chatterley [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]."

Is loyalty Ad Vitam’s trademark?
"We try as much as possible to follow the auteurs we like. We defend a certain kind of cinema, programming in strong arthouse theatres with good box office results, a distribution founded more on quality, press criticism and word-of-mouth, rather than on the number of prints and advertising hype or paying to amass admissions in the space of one week. Our line-up includes films that aren’t really suited to this speculative type of distribution. We work more thoroughly on them, over a long theatrical run."

Ad Vitam, which still has Italian director Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cannes 2009 Marco Bellocc…
interview: Filippo Timi - actor
film profile] (266,00 admissions) in theatres, will release Spanish filmmaker Marc Recha’s Little Indi [+see also:
trailer
film profile] on February 10 and launch Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s German/Israeli co-production Ajami [+see also:
trailer
film profile] on March 24. The latter is one of the five films nominated on Monday for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

(Translated from French)