01/04/2009

There’s an impressive line-up for the 1st Beaune International Thriller Film Festival, which kicks off today and runs through April 5.

The event is sponsored by a group of 15 patrons dubbed Cercle Rouge (“Red Circle”), which includes Claude Miller, Alain Corneau, Olivier Marchal, Pierre Jolivet, Frédéric Schoendoerffer and Claude Chabrol (president of the competition jury). The guest of honour will be US actor-director Robert Duvall.

There are nine titles in competition. These include the opening film In the Electric Mist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Tavernier
film profile] by Bertrand Tavernier (release date: April 15); Andrea Molaioli’s The Girl by the Lake [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2008 David di Donatello Award for Best Italian Film); Erik Van Looy’s Belgian blockbuster Loft [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Henrik Ruben Genz’s multiple award-winning Danish feature Terribly Happy [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lauded at Karlovy Vary, among other festivals); Scottish director Richard Jobson’s New Town Killers [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Agustin Diaz Yanes’ Spanish hit Just Walking [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; and Jag Mundhra’s UK co-production Shoot on Sight.

The Sang Neuf (“New Blood”) section – whose jury is headed by Etienne Chatiliez – also features some quality films. These include Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s UK production Bronson [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (release date: June 17); French director Fabienne Godet’s excellent documentary My Greatest Escape [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (release date: April 8); UK film Helen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joe Lawlor and Christine M…
film profile] by Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy; Italian director Edoardo Winspeare’s Galantuomini [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (unveiled at the Rome Film Festival - see review); and Austrian filmmaker Wolfgang Murnberger’s The Bone Man [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which was discovered in the Panorama section at the Berlinale.

Screening out of competition are the highly anticipated OSS 117, Rio ne répond plus [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (“OSS 117: No Response from Rio”, release date: April 15) by France’s Michel Hazanavicius; and What No One Knows [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Denmark’s Soren Kragh-Jacobsen.

(Translated from French)