23/05/2005

The French international sales agency Pyramide closed its Cannes market, leaving a powerful wake behind it with the film selected for the official competition: Peindre ou faire l’amour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu
interview: Philippe Martin
film profile] by the brothers Arnaud and Jean-Pierre Larrieu. Though it had a mixed reaction from the international critics, the feature film, produced by Les Films Pelléas and interpreted by Daniel Auteuil, Sabine Azéma, Sergi Lopez and Amira Casar, seduced a number of buyers, especially in Europe. According to the director general of Pyramide Eric Lagesse, it has been bought for Germany by Prokino, for Benelux by Les Films de l’Elysée, for Switzerland by Monopole Pathé, for ex-Yugoslavia by Tuck and for Portugal by Atalanta Filmes, while negotiations are at an advanced stage for Spain and Italy. Peindre... has also been sold to Australia and to Korea.

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Elsewhere, the French-Spanish-Cuban co-production Habana Blues [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Benito Zembrano, which closed Un Certain Regard, found takers for territories such as Austria, Italy, (Warner Italy), Switzerland, in ex-Yugoslavia and in Benelux, with distribution in France and in Spain already guaranteed through the co-production. Note that negotiations for a German sale are also well underway.
Pyramide also made good with the French film Little Jerusalem by Karin Albou, a first feature selected for Critics week. A paradoxical success since the European buyers have, for the moment, given the film the cold shoulder, despite a sale to Slovenia and advanced negotiations with Belgium, while firm sales have been tied up with USA, Australia, Canada and Brazil.