03/01/2003 - An ambitious distribution for Emanuele Crialese's Critics' Week-winning feature starring Valeria Golino will test the degree of French filmgoers' interest in Italian cinema

Respiro [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the Franco-Italian co-production that won Critics’ Week and the Audience Award in Cannes 2002 was released onto 100French screens on New Year’s Day, courtesy of Pan Européenne Distribution. An extraordinary result if one considers that the film had its domestic release on 22 May 2002 in just 16 theatres with a resultant box office of around Euros225,000.
Respiro is Rome-born and New-York-trained Emanuele Crialese’s second feature, and it had the support of Les Films des Tournelles, and co-produced by Italy’s Fandango and Roissy Films, Respiro will be a test of Gallic filmgoers’ interest in Italian cinema after last November’s near-miss, The Last Kiss (200,000 tickets sold for 181 prints).
British films currently dominate the French box office with Gurinder Chadha’s Bend it Like Beckham having sold 300,000 tickets over five weeks and Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen 200,000 in three.

(Translated from French)