32 French films showcased in 11 UK cities
Having opened on Wednesday with Jean-Pierre Améris’s Romantics Anonymous [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], which will be launched in UK theatres on December 1 by Picture House Entertainment, the 19th French Film Festival UK will run until December 6 in 11 UK cities (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Warwick, Dundee, Inverness, Stirling, Dumfries, Bo’ness and Manchester) with a line-up of 32 films and a delegation led by Daniel Auteuil and Christophe Honoré.
Other avant-premieres include Alix Delaporte’s Angèle and Tony [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (to be released in the UK on March 11, 2012 through Peccadillo Pictures); directorial trio Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel and Bruno Romy’s The Fairy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
film profile] (to be released by Verve Pictures in early 2012); and Daniel Auteuil’s The Well Digger’s Daughter [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Pathé UK on December 9).
Highlights among the 11 titles in the Panorama section include Alain Cavalier’s former Cannes contender Pater [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Cavalier
film profile] and four other titles unveiled on the Croisette: Christophe Honoré’s moving Beloved [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christophe Honoré
film profile], Xavier Durringer’s political flick The Conquest [+see also:
trailer
film profile], André Téchiné’s elegant Unforgivable [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Bouli Lanners’s sensitive The Giants [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Bouli Lanners
film profile] and Michel Leclerc’s original The Names of Love [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Also in the line-up is Philippe Le Guay’s box-office hit Service Entrance [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
The Discovery section will unspool Philippe Claudel’s romantic and warm-hearted All the Suns [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directorial duo Fred Kihn and Olivier Babinet’s offbeat Robert Mitchum Is Dead [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Angelo Cianci’s Top Floor Left Wing (FIPRESCI Prize in the Berlinale Panorama). The animation section will screen Zep’s highly amusing Titeuf, The Film [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli’s aesthetically pleasing A Cat in Paris [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Finally, the documentary line-up includes, among others, Jacques Perrin’s Oceans [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and a Focus will be dedicated to Christophe Honoré.
In 2010, 48 French films were distributed in the United Kingdom, generating €15.5m in box-office takings (2.56m admissions) despite a limited number of prints (343). So far this year, the best results have been for François Ozon’s Potiche [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (150,000 admissions), Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s Sarah’s Key [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Guillaume Canet’s Little White Lies [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
(Translated from French)
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