06/02/2006

With just a few days remaining before the Berlin Film Festival and market kick off, the line-up from French international sales company Celluloïd Dreams is not short of trump cards, including the deluxe ace that is Paradise, the next film by François Ozon. Produced by French outfit Fidélité and co-produced, notably, by Belgian Scope Pictures, the feature, budgeted at approximately €15m, includes in its cast UK actress Romola Garai (Inside I'm Dancing [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Lucy Russel (2002 Shooting Star for The Lady and the Duke [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Michael Fassbender and Sam Neill. Shooting will begin in March in Belgium – specifically in Verviers, Spa, Liege and Brussels – for this story set in the beginning of the 20th century.

Celluloïd Dreams also has on its slate three films selected for the official competition at the 2006 Berlinale: The Elementary Particles [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Franka Potente & Moritz Ble…
interview: Oskar Roehler
film profile] from German director Oskar Roehler, featuring Moritz Bleibtreu and Franka Potente and produced by MOOVIE and Constantin Film, from the novel by French writer Français Michel Houellebecq; Offside, from Iranian Jafar Panahi; and Zemestan by fellow Iranian Rafi Pitts. In the Panorama section, the French sales company is betting on Family Law by Argentinean filmmaker Daniel Burman, 4:30 by Royston Tan and the UK/US documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint by Alison Chernick. It will also present Big River by Funahashi Atsushi in the Forum section.

Alongside the films that will be screening at the Berlinale, Celluloïd Dreams, still riding the wave of success of Kirikou and the Wild Beast [+see also:
trailer
film profile], hope to do good business with films currently in post-production, such as The Court by Abderrahmane Sissako, Luxury Car by Wang Chao, Still Life by Jia Zhang Ke, Raffle Me by Karim Aïnouz and Jindabyne by Ray Lawrence. Other stand-out projects include I’m Not There by Todd Haynes, the Belgian-German co-production Goodbye Bafana by Denmark’s Bille August (based on the memoirs of Nelson Mandela’s prison warden), the French production Mister Lonely by Harmony Korine (with a cast that includes Samantha Morton, Diego Luna, Werner Herzog, Denis Lavant and Jean-Pierre Leaud), the French animated film Peur (s) du noir (lit. Fear(s) of the Dark), Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution by UK director Billie Eltringham and The Magic Flute from Kenneth Branagh.

(Translated from French)