09/11/2005

Driven by the media, the big event of the week in France is no doubt the arrival today in French screens of the French Oscar 2006 candidate for Best Foreign Film: Merry Christmas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Carion
interview: Christophe Rossignon
film profile] by Christian Carion played by Diane Krüger, Guillaume Canet, Daniel Brühl, Benno Fürmann, Dany Boon, Alex Ferns and Gary Lewis. UGC Distribution launches this European co-production, headed by Nord-Ouest Production (read Focus dedicated to the film by Cineuropa) with a big total of 505 prints.

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The other big French release of the week, Les chevaliers du ciel (Knights of the sky) by Gérard Pirès with Benoît Magimel, Clovis Cornillac, Géraldine Pailhas and Alice Taglioni kicks off with 537 prints from Pathé Distribution. A kind of French Top Gun adapted from the comic-book by Charlier and Uderzo, the features deals with the disappearance of a Mirage 2000 and the search for the two virtuoso fighter pilots, an intriguing spectacle filmed with the help of the French Air Force and Dassault Aviation.

Up against these two big boys, European filmmakers will also attempt to survive in the wake of Manderlay [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Lars Von Trier, presented in official competition at Cannes (read the article) and distributed with 67 prints by Les Films du Losange. Also on the bill this Wednesday is the French-Belgian-Israeli co-production Free zone [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Amos Gitaï with of its prize for acting on the Croisette awarded to Hanna Laslo (read news) to help give a boost to its 84 prints distributed by Bac Films. Among the new films, are Czech dream by Vit Klusak and Filip Remunda (read the article), a film which stood out in numerous festivals and has 14 prints(ID Distribution) as well as notable interest from the French press. Finally, the list for Wednesday has another 13 releases including three other French productions: two documentariesLes artistes du théâtre brûlé (Burning theatre artists) by Rithy Panh (Les Acacias – 6 prints) and 1/3 des yeux (One third of eyes) by Olivier Zabat (Capricci Films – 6 prints), and Un beau matin... (Once upon a morning...) by David and Charlotte Lowe (read news) distributed by Pretty Pictures on 7 screens.

(Translated from French)