22/02/2012 - The French star has come back as a hounded company manager in Blood From a Stone before putting his director’s cap back on.

Very noticed with Les liens du sang [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (of which Guillaume Canet is now preparing an American remake with a script by James Gray), Jacques Maillot is back in the cinemas today with Blood From a Stone [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (read more), released by Wild Bunch Distribution in over 160 cinémas. Diversely appreciated by the critics, the feature film about a the head of a shipyard trying to save his company, is the occasion for a come-back from the excellent and now relatively rare Daniel Auteuil.

"I thought it was very original to have chosen the angle of the boss to tell this story," explained the actor who stars as the film’s main character. "Despite any empathy between this guy and his employees, or at least some of them, everybody thinks that he can solve all their problems because he is the boss! He is held responsible for everything, and trapped from all sides. Even if he tries to behave relatively correctly, to do his best, nobody really gives him a chance. The film illustrates too well, sadly, today’s violence in social interactions... All the characters show this well: the desperate guy who sets fire on himself, the old friend who is completely dropped, the young girl who dreams of working in that universe, the syndicate member overtaken by his base, the financial director who covers her back, the youth who fight and will give in to nothing...”

Daniel Auteuil who successfully started directing with La fille du puisatier will now return behind the camera in Marcel Pagnol’s universe with the trilogy Marius, Fanny, and César, for which he will film the film two instalments this spring, featuring among others Raphael Personnaz, Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and the young Victoire Belezy.

Among the other new releases this Wednesday also stands out Bullhead [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bart Van Langendonck
interview: Michaël R. Roskam
film profile] by the Belgian Michael R. Roskam, lauded by the critiques and one of the five films nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (Ad Vitam sur 36 copies).

Out too is British-Irish-French coproduction Albert Nobbs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Rodrigo Garcia which has three nominations at the Oscars, of which one for Glenn Close for best actress (read the review - Chrysalis Films on 90 copies), the American-British fantastic film Chronicle by Josh Trank (Twentieth Century Fox in about 350 cinemas), L'Oeil de l'astronome by Stan Neumann (news - Les Films du Paradoxe on 5 copies), the documentary Bovines ou la vraie vie des vaches by Emmanuel Gras (Happiness Distribution on 7 copies) and the award-winning Russian film Twilight Portrait by Angelina Nikonova (see the video interview - Rezo on 13 copies).

(Translated from French)