05/04/2006

This week will clearly be the week of Belgian talent. The star of the day is Johnny Hallyday, the undisputed and indisputable star of France’s rock scene for 30 years, who is making a spectacular return before the camera with Jean-Philippe [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by France’s Laurent Tuel, along with Fabrice Luchini.

After having acted for the big names of auteur cinema such as Jean-Luc Godard (Détective) and seduced audiences and critics alike more recently in Patrice Leconte’s beautiful The Man on the Train, Johnny Hallyday (real name: Jean-Philippe Smet) plays an ordinary man in a world where his famous persona does not exist, and whom Luchini tries to convince to become “the Johnny Hallyday”. This promising comedy is being distributed by Cinéart on 32 screens.

Thanks to Films de L'Elysée, another Belgian to discover in a French film is Benoît Debie, the DoP behind Locked Out [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the third feature by actor-turned-director Albert Dupontel, who stars in his film with another Belgian talent, Yolande Moreau (see news).

After its presentation at the last Locarno festival, Nuit Noire [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Smolders
film profile] by Olivier Smolders (see Focus) is finally being released by IFD.

This Easter week of holidays also sees Belga Films cooking up a very impressive release on almost 50 screens of the French/Danish animated film Asterix and the Vikings [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Stefan FjeldmarkM6 Films).

On a more modest scale, the documentary The White Planet by Thierry Ragobert and Thierry Piantanida, which seems eager to follow in the footsteps of the emperor, is being distributed on 10 screens by Cinéart.

(Translated from French)