28/07/2010

While audience figures in French theatres are currently slowing down after an excellent first semester, the line-up for late July-early August will see several European titles try to hold their own against a flood of US blockbusters.

This Wednesday, July 28, Mars Distribution is launching Yann Samuel’s French/Belgian co-production With Love From the Age of Reason [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Sophie Marceau (see news), while UGC Distribution is releasing the final instalment in Swedish trilogy Millennium, Daniel Alfredson’s The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

On August 4, a trio of majority French productions will hit screens. Sophie Dulac Distribution will release Katell Quillévéré’s Love Like Poison [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which won acclaim in the latest Cannes Directors’ Fortnight (see review), while StudioCanal will distribute Gabriel Le Bomin’s French/Swiss co-production Beyond Suspicion (see news), with a cast featuring Laura Smet, Marc-André Grondin and Charles Berling.

Finally, Diaphana Distribution will launch Manuel Poirier’s Le Café sur le Pont (“The Café on the Bridge”), starring Bernard Campan, Sergi Lopez and Cécile Rebboah.

They will be joined in the line-up by two outstanding films from other European countries: Giuseppe Capotondi’s Italian title The Double Hour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giuseppe Capotondi
film profile] (in competition at Venice 2009, where it won Best Actress – distribution: Bellissima Films); and Daniel Monzon’s Spanish film Cell 211 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniel Monzón
film profile] (distribution: La Fabrique 2).

The August 11 line-up will also be dominated by European fare, spearheaded by French director Julie Bertuccelli’s The Tree [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Julie Bertuccelli
film profile] (which closed the latest Cannes Film Festival – distributed by Le Pacte).

Other releases include Stranded by fellow French directors Sandra and Hugues Martin (SND); What More Do I Want [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Italy’s Silvio Soldini (Pyramide Distribution); Chaotic Ana by Spain’s Julio Medem (distribution: Films Sans Frontières); Orly [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Germany’s Angela Schanelec; Belgian director Ben Stassen’s animated film Sammy’s Adventures: The Secret Passage (StudioCanal Distribution); Brit director Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Mars Distribution); and Hideo Nakata’s UK production Chatroom (Diaphana).

(Translated from French)