20/01/2009

Led by Juliette Garcias’ Be Good [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – which is among the 14 films set to vie for the Tiger Awards – there will be a strong contingent of French productions at the 38th Rotterdam International Film Festival, which kicks off tomorrow.

Starring Anaïs Demoustier (Grown Ups [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]), Bruno Todeschini and Nade Dieu, Be Good is Garcias’ debut feature (see news). A majority French co-production headed by Slot Machine and Denmark’s Zentropa, the film is sold internationally by TrustNordisk.

The Bright Future section includes debut and second features by up-and-coming filmmakers. Screening out of competition are Samuel Collardey’s The Apprentice [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (winner of Best Film at Venice Critics’ Week and the 2008 Louis-Delluc Award for Best Debut Film), Souad El-Bouhati’s Française [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Mabrouk El Mechri’s J.C.V.D. [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Puisque nous sommes nés [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“Because We Were Born”) by Jean-Pierre Duret and Andréa Santana, Jean-Charles Fitoussi’s I Did Not Die and Philippe Fernandez’s Léger tremblement du paysage (“A Faint Trembling of the Landscape”).

The Spectrum section will showcase Claire Denis’ 35 Shots of Rum [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Philippe Garrel’s Frontier of Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Louise-Michel [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benoît Delépine and Gustav…
interview: Benoît Jaubert
film profile] by Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delépine, Raúl Ruiz’s Nucingen House [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Jean-Claude Brisseau’s À l'aventure [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Emmanuel Finkiel’s Nowhere Promised Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and I Want To See [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Lebanese duo Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

There will be a homage to documentary filmmaker Raymond Depardon with his triptych on country dwellers, including the final instalment, Country Profiles: Modern Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

Finally, the retrospective devoted to Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski includes his latest work, Four Nights With Anna [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was co-produced by France.

(Translated from French)