05/05/2008

With two titles selected in different sections at the 61st Cannes Film Festival (May 14-25), French international sales company Les Films du Losange will present a strong line-up at the Film Market, headed by the forthcoming films of Jacques Rivette and Michael Haneke.

Daniela Elstner’s team will be hoping for success in the Un Certain Regard section with Versailles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Geraldine Michelot
interview: Pierre Schoeller
film profile] (see news), the debut directorial feature by French screenwriter Pierre Schoeller. This film – produced by Les Films Pelléas – stars Judith Chemla, Guillaume Depardieu, Patrick Descamps and Aure Atika.

Israeli/French co-production Les sept jours (“The Seven Days”) by Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz – which will open the 47th Critics’ Week – will also be sold by Les Films du Losange. The company will handle French distribution for the above two films showcased at Cannes.

Projects in pre-production include Rivette’s 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup (“36 Views from the Pic Saint-Loup”), starring Sergio Castellitto and Jane Birkin. This French/Italian co-production is set for shooting in August-September.

Successful sales are also expected for Haneke’s Austrian/German/French/Italian co-production The White Ribbon, starring Ulrich Tukur and Susanne Lothar. The film will be shot from June-August (see news).

Les Films du Losange’s line-up also includes Susanne Schneider’s The Day Will Come (in post-production). The film is about a mother who abandoned her daughter at the end of the 1970s to join the German revolutionary movement. Thirty years later, the child, now an adult, appears and asks her to account for her actions.

The film – a directorial debut for this experienced screenwriter – stars Iris Berben, Katharina Schüttler and Sebastian Urzendowski. Produced by Berlin-based Wüste Film Ost and French company Unlimited, the title was also backed by Arte.

Les Films du Losange’s line-up also includes Arash Riahi’s For A Moment, Freedom. At the Cannes Film Market, the company will screen Jean-Marc Moutout’s The Feelings Factory [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was unveiled in the Panorama section at the latest Berlinale; and Benjamin Marquet’s documentary Lads and Jockeys.

Finally, the company headed by Margaret Menegoz will also handle French distribution for Philippe Garrel’s La frontière de l’aube [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (in competition at Cannes – sales: Films Distribution); and for Four Nights With Anna [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski (sales by Elle Driver) which will open the Directors’ Fortnight.

(Translated from French)