06/12/2006

Fourteen films go on release this Wednesday, in preparation for the busy end-of-year period. The line-up includes six European and five US titles, one Japanese animated film and two Iranian productions, including Priceless by Jafar Panahi, a winner at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.

Arriving on screens crowned with awards, including the 2006 Cannes Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (see article) and several Scottish Baftas, Red Road [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by British helmer Andrea Arnold opens through Equation on 40 screens.

Supported by the arthouse cinema network,AFCAE, the debut feature by the director, who won an Oscar for Best Short, stars talented actress Kate Dickie, who picked up awards at the British Independent Film Awards, among others.

Opening alongside the non-local European titles is Dutch/Belgian co-production Winky’s Horse [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mischa Kamp (Les Films du Préau, 34 prints), a big hit at the Dutch box office in 2005.

While the comedy on clairvoyance Madame Irma [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by and starring Didier Bourdon, may be the largest release of the week (Mars Distribution , 435 screens), the most awaited title among the four new French releases of the week is Roschdy Zem’sBad Faith [+see also:
trailer
film profile], in which the actor stars opposite Cécile de France (see news December 2, 2005).

Produced by Pan Européenne and released through Wild Bunch Distribution on 214 screens, the actor’s directorial debut recounts the relationship – opposed by their respective families – between a Muslim music teacher and an Ashkenazi Jewish psychometrician.

Culture shock is also the theme of Benoît Jacquot's The Untouchable [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Pyramide Distribution, 34 screens), which competed at the 2006 Venice Film Festival (see article), and whose Isild Le Besco picked up the Prize for Best Promising Actress.

Lastly, Celluloid Dreams Distribution are releasing five prints of Vincent Dieutre’s documentary Fragments sur la grâce (lit. "Passages on Grace"), a French/Belgian co-production about Jansenism that screened at Locarno 2006.

(Translated from French)