News

Gerard Depardieu’s trial for sexual assault has been officially postponed until March 2025.

Depardieu did not attend today’s (October 28) hearing at a Paris criminal court after his lawyer Jérémie Assous requested a six-month delay shortly before the trial was due to kick off at 1:30pm local time.

Assous justified the demand with medical certificates, claiming the actor suffers from diabetes and heart issuesand that the stress of a trial would potentially exacerbate the symptoms. The court agreed to postpone and ordered a medical expert to look into the actor’s health “to assess the conditions under which the...

Gerard Depardieu’s sexual assault trial has been delayed until March 2025, French news agency Afp reports.

Earlier on Monday, Depardieu had asked for a postponement as he was no longer able to appear in court due to health reasons. His trial was scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. Paris time on Monday.

According to the Afp, Depardieu’s lawyer Jeremie Assous told FranceInfo that the 75-year-old actor is “extremely affected and unfortunately his doctors have forbidden him from being present at the hearing.”

The trial will resume on March 24 and 25, FranceInfo reports. The judges have also ordered a medical assessment of the actor.

Depardieu’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Variety‘s request for further comment.

Depardieu is being tried on two alleged sexual assaults, which date back to the filming of Jean Becker’s “The Green Shutters” (“Les volets verts”) in the South of France in August...

Just hours ahead of his long-anticipated trial for sexual assault charges on Monday (October 28), Gerard Depardieu’s lawyer said the French actor would not attend due to health concerns and requested a delay in the proceedings.

The 75-year-old star of Cyrano De Bergerac and Green Card was expected at a Paris courthouse after being accused of sexual assault by two women during the 2021 film shoot for Jean Becker’s The Green Shutters (Les Volets Verts), one a set designer and the other an assistant director.

The trial was meant to begin at 1:30 Pm local time. Despite announcing on Friday...

Updated with trial and date details: French actor Gérard Depardieu will stand trial in October on charges of sexual assault allegedly committed against two women on the set of the film The Green Shutters in 2021, the Paris Public Prosecutor said on Monday.

The announcement came after Depardieu was taken into police custody on Monday morning for questioning on sexual assault accusations.

“At the end of his police custody at the 3rd judicial police district, Gérard Depardieu was given a summons to appear before the criminal court… for sexual assaults likely to have been committed in September 2021 against two victims, on the set of the film The Green Shutters,” the prosecutor’s office said in a note.

Local media reports said that the actor had been called in for questioning on accusations related to events on the sets of Jean-Pierre Mocky’s Le Magicien et les Siamois in 2014, and Jean Becker...

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled two new European series with A-list stars, announcing the Dutch crime drama Amsterdam Empire to star X-Men alum Famke Janssen and an unnamed French thriller series toplined by gallic veteran Isabelle Adjani (Camille Claudel, The Story of Adele H.).

Janssen will star and executive produce Amsterdam Empire, about a big-time cannabis dealer whose personal betrayal of his wife threatens the future of his pot imperium. Nico Moolenaar, Bart Uytdenhouwen and Piet Matthys, creators of Netflix Dutch crime series Undercover, created the new show, which Jonas Govaerts (H4Z4RD) will direct. The plot follows Jack van Doorn, the rich and notorious founder of the Jackal coffee shop empire in Amsterdam, who has an affair with a well-known journalist, drawing the ire of his wife Betty, who is looking for payback and knows all Jack’s dirty secrets. Pupkin Film will produce Amsterdam Empire together with A Team Productions.

In keeping with tradition, the 2023 edition of Cannes Classics promises to be a feast for cineastes with tributes to global masters and restored versions of all-time classics.

Cannes Classics’ Memories of Jean-Luc Godard strand pays homage to the master who died in 2022 by screening a restored version of “Contempt” (1963); “Godard by Godard,” a self-portrait of the auteur; and the world premiere of “Phony Wars,” a trailer for a film that will never get made, described by the festival as a venture where the filmmaker “transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs.”

Liv Ullman will be present at the strand with “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled,” a documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar.

Japanese master Ozu Yasujiro will be paid tribute to with screenings of “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” (1947) and “The Munekata Sisters” (1950) off restored prints. “Return to Reason” – where four films of painter, photographer and director Man Ray have been...

Legendary French stage and screen actor Michel Bouquet has died. He was 96. The César Award winner passed away today at a Paris hospital, his spokesperson confirmed to Afp. A tribute on the official website of the Elysée Palace did not cite a cause of death.

Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2022: Photo Gallery

Born in 1925, Bouquet began his film career in 1947 and went on to appear in more than 100 movies. In the 1960s and ’70s, he collaborated with New Wave directors François Truffaut and Claude Chabrol in such films as Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black and Mississippi Mermaid and Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife and Just Before Nightfall, among others.

Later in his career, Bouquet won a European Film Award for Jaco Van Dormael’s Toto Le Héros (1991) and took two Best Actor Césars for Anne Fontaine’s How I Killed My Father (2001) and Robert Guédiguian’s The Last Mitterand...

Above: detail from the Argentinian poster for Magnet of Doom. Artist unknown.Jean-Paul Belmondo, the great French movie star who died last week at the age of 88, had a marvelous face. He wasn’t a classic matinee idol like his friend and compatriot Alain Delon but with the combination of his soulful puppy-dog eyes, lopsided boxer’s nose, and luscious feminine lips he could play both hoodlums or heartthrobs (and in Breathless he played both at the same time). A classic tough guy best known outside France for art movies, he was initially synonymous with the angry alienation of the French New Wave and starred in films by Godard, Truffaut, Melville, Malle and Lelouch. But he could play comedy as well as action (he was renowned for doing his own stunts) and was for a while promoted as a French James Bond. By the ’70s and ’80s—when he was...

France TV Distribution, the commercial arm of French broadcaster France Televisions, has boarded popular French writer-director Emmanuel Carrere’s “Between Two Worlds,” a drama headlined by Juliette Binoche and based on a bestseller.

Adapted from Florence Aubenas’ “Le Quai de Ouistreham,” “Between Two Worlds” stars Binoche as Marianne Winckler, a well-known author who decides to write a book on job insecurity and sets off to experience it firsthand. As she becomes a cleaning lady, she discovers a precarious life and finds herself invisible in society, but also forges genuine bonds with some of her companions in misfortune. These friendships are put to the test when the truth comes out.

“Between Two Worlds” is produced by Curiosa Films and Cine France Studios, in co-production with France Televisions. The film just wrapped shooting and will be released by Mars Films during the first half of 2020.

France TV Distribution re-launched a sales division...

Sisters (Soeurs)

It’s been eighteen years since Yamina Benguigui’s critically acclaimed 2001 debut Inch’Allah dimanche, and she’s back with sophomore narrative feature Sisters (Soeurs). Benguigui (also serving as producer) finds a stellar trio of actresses as her three ‘sisters,’ including Isabelle Adjani (who recently made a high-profile reappearance in Romain Gavras’ The World is Yours), Maiwenn, and Rachida Bakri who starred in Coline Serreau’s 2001 title Chaos (Maiwenn’s first film appearance was as Adani’s daughter in Jean Becker’s One Deadly Summer – 1983). This will also be the first project Adjani has filmed in her father’s native country.…...

Sink Or Swim Photo: Mika Cotellon The French Film Festival - which runs from November 7 to December 16 at cinemas across the country - has announced its line-up.

The festival, which has announced will screen films from across the Francophone world, will feature the latest films from established names - including Jean-Luc Godard's The Image Book, Jean Becker's The Red Collar and Christophe Honoré's Sorry Angel - as well as new directors. The up-and-comers in the Discovery Horizons section include Marie Monge’s thriller Treat Me Like Fire, Hubert Charuel’s Bloody Milk and Dany, which is the directorial debut of actor François Damiens.

Other films screening include Gilles Lelouche's crowdpleaser Sink Or Swim - based on the same real-life story as UK production Swimming With Men - and Stéphane Brizé's At War, starring Vincent Lindon.

Festival director Richard Mowe said: “Serendipity and, of course, careful planning has...

Former president George H.W. Bush couldn't have been any more prepared to welcome Bill Clinton into his home on Monday, June 25. To commemorate the occasion, George showed off his pair of blue and white socks which featured Bill's face on them, and the two politicians shared this hilarious moment with the world! Taking to Twitter, George posted a pic of Bill admiring his cool footwear. "Special visit today with a great friend — and now, a best-selling author. Luckily I had a freshly laundered pair of @BillClinton socks to mark the occasion," he captioned the pic. Special visit today with a great friend -- and now, a best-selling author. Luckily I had a freshly laundered pair of @BillClinton socks to mark the occasion. pic.twitter.com/v9jb4sRexh— George Bush (@GeorgeHWBush) June 25, 2018 It's great to see the two politicians getting along after they competed against one another in the...

We're thinking of you, George H.W. Bush! The former President of the United States is currently being hospitalized for low blood pressure and fatigue, according to a statement released by his spokesperson, Jim McGrath, via Twitter on Sunday, May 27. "President [George H. W. Bush] was taken to Southern Maine Health Care today after experiencing low blood pressure and fatigue," the statement read. "He will likely remain there for a few days for observation. The former president is awake and alert, and not in any discomfort." This marks George Sr.'s second time in the hospital since his late wife Barbara Bush's funeral last month. The first time was just two days after the funeral on April 23, which is when George's spokesperson updated the public on his condition. "President Bush was admitted to the Houston Methodist Hospital yesterday morning after contracting an infection that spread to his blood. He is responding to treatments and appears to be recovering.

Rest in peace, Barbara Bush. Following the former First Lady's death on Tuesday, April 17, more details have been revealed about how the 92-year-old spent her final days prior to her passing. According to George H.W. Bush's longtime chief-of-staff, Jean Becker, the former Potus, 93, held his wife's hand for the entire day before she died. "He, of course, is broken-hearted to lose his beloved Barbara, his wife of 73 years. He held her hand all day today and was at her side when [she] left this good earth," Becker said in a statement. "Obviously, this is a very challenging time. But it will not surprise all of you who know and love him, that he also is being stoic and strong, and is being lifted up by his large and supportive family. He is determined to be there for them as well. He appreciates all the well wishes and support." Barbara and her husband,...

The Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy mourns the passing and celebrates the legacy of its founder, Barbara Bush.

Barbara Pierce Bush — a beloved first lady, proud mother of six children, accomplished author and passionate champion for family literacy — passed away on April 17, 2018.

Mrs. Bush believed that every man, woman and child should have the opportunity to secure a better life through literacy. In 1989, this belief inspired her to establish the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, which has provided educational opportunities for Americans of all ages, in all 50 states, over the past 29 years.

Jean Becker, member of the Foundation’s board of directors and chief of staff to President George H.W. Bush, shared, “Mrs. Bush was a mother first and foremost, and as such believed that the most wonderful gift she could give her children — and families across America — was a love of reading and learning.”

Today, the Foundation remains committed to Mrs.

The film team from The Red Collar line up for the premiere screening at the Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris Photo: Richard Mowe

If it’s Paris in January it must be the Rendez-vous with French Cinema, now in its 20th edition which unites buyers, sales agents, and journalists in a jamboree to set out some of le cinéma français’s wares for the year ahead, including 80 new titles slated for premiere screenings among the 169 features on show.

The event, organised by the film promotion body Unifrance and focussed around the Intercontinental Grand Hotel and the Gaumont Opera cinema, opened last night with a gala screening of veteran Jean Becker’s latest opus The Red Collar (Le Collier Rouge).

On stage at the opening of the Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema: director Jean Becker, writer Jean-Loup Dabadie and actor Nicolas Duvauchelle Photo: Richard Mowe

As an example of well-made,...

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover. Above and below, Screen can reveal the two first look images from the film.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Other upcoming titles...

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover. Above and below, Screen can reveal the two first look images from the film.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Other upcoming titles on its slate include Xabi Molia’s Comme Des Rois,...

Some 40 French companies will participate in Paris showcase.

Source: Alain Guizard

The Red Collar

Jean Becker’s WW1 drama The Red Collar will open Unifrance’s 20th Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris, running Jan 18-22, 2018, its international sales agent FranceTV Distribution (Ftd) has announced.

The Wwi drama, adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, resolves around the interrogation of a decorated war hero who has fallen from grace after staging a strange, anti-war protest using his medal.

Nicolas Duvauchelle plays the disgraced soldier opposite François Cluzet as a corrupt judge who is charged with the task of interrogating the young man. French-Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek plays the fallen hero’s lover.

The production is one of the first titles to be completed on the slate of FranceTV Distribution’s new feature film division following its launch at the 2017 Paris Rendez-vous.

Other upcoming titles on its slate include Xabi Molia’s Comme Des Rois, starring Kad Merad as a con...

Exclusive: WW1 drama will be released in China in 2018.

France TV Distribution (Ftd) has sealed its first sales on French director Jean Becker’s First World War drama Le Collier Rouge, starring François Cluzet (pictured, left) and Nicolas Duvauchelle (pictured, right).

The film has been acquired by Hugo East for release in China in 2018 and has also started drawing in European buyers with a pre-sale to Spain’s Contracorriente.

Adapted from the 2014 novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin, the tale revolves around the interrogation of a young French man, once hailed as a war hero, who has fallen from grace after committing a strange crime. Cluzet plays the judge and Duvauchelle the disgraced soldier. Belgian actress Sophie Verbeek recently signed to play the young man’s devoted lover.

“It’s a profoundly humanist tale exploring the impact and the myths around war with a resonance for today,” says Ftd director of international sales Julia Schulte. The €6.7m production...

FranceTV Distribution, the commercial arm of French national broadcaster France Televisions, is launching a feature sales division. The unit will kick off with The Red Collar, the next film from Les Enfants Du Marais helmer Jean Becker. Produced by ICE3, the drama stars The Intouchables‘ François Cluzet and Polisse‘s Nicolas Duvauchelle. It’s an adaptation of the Wwi novel by Jean-Christophe Rufin — a founder of Doctors Without Borders and a former Ambassador of France in…...

Former President George H.W. Bush was hospitalized over the weekend.

Jim McGrath, spokesperson for the 41st president and former first lady Barbara Bush, tweeted on Wednesday morning that Bush was taken to Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, on Saturday for "shortness of breath."

News: Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager Pen a Letter to Malia and Sasha Obama

"[He] has responded very well to treatments. Hope to have him out soon," the tweet further stated.

Bush's chief of staff, Jean Becker, gave a similar quote the Houston Chronicle, saying, "He's there [in the hospital. He's fine and he's doing really well." A later statement from Bush's camp, obtained by NBC News, said the 92-year-old former politician was "being monitored as a precaution and is resting comfortably."

Photos: Stars Post Pics From Hospitals and Doctors' Offices

The hospitalization stemmed from pneumonia, Bush's office said in a statement to CBS News on Wednesday. It was also revealed that former first lady Barabara Bush was also admitted to the hospital.

“Doctors performed a procedure to protect and clear his airway that required sedation. President Bush is stable and resting comfortably in the ICU, where he will...

Former President George H.W. Bush has been hospitalized as a precaution after experiencing "shortness of breath," his office confirmed to NBC News Wednesday. Additionally, Today reported Bush, 92, is responding well to treatment and doctors are pleased with his progress. Overnight, chief of staff Jean Becker told NBC News he is in "stable condition" and "doing fine." The Houston Chronical initially quoted Becker as saying the 41st President of the United States was expected to return home from Houston Methodist Hospital in a few days. "He's there," Becker told the newspaper Wednesday. "He's fine and he's doing really well." The politician's office later confirmed that he...

Former President George H. W. Bush was rushed to a Texas hospital on Saturday after experiencing “shortness of breath.”

Bush, 92, was in stable condition at the Houston Methodist Hospital on Wednesday, according to Khou.

His post-White House spokesman Jim McGrath tweeted out the news on Wednesday, noting that the former president has “responded very well to treatments.” He added: “Hope to have him out soon.”

.@GeorgeHWBush was taken to @MethodistHosp Sat. for shortness of breath, has responded very well to treatments. Hope to have him out soon.

— Jim McGrath (@jgm41) January 18, 2017

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Bush’s office later released a statement,...

Rialto Pictures resurrects five classic titles from French auteur Claude Sautet in brand new Dcp versions for a mini-retrospective one week run in Los Angeles (July 24th – 30th) at the newly revamped Laemmle Royal Theater.

It’s a considerable spotlight on a neglected voice from one of 1970s French cinema most prominent figures. Sautet, who trained as a painter, sculptor, and music teacher before becoming a student of film, worked his way up to director in 1956 with his debut, Hello Smile! He continued with several film noir gangster films, like 1960’s Classe Tous Risques, a title that would gain wider consideration years later (and is now part of the Criterion collection). However, Sautet was most prominent as a screenwriter in the 1960s, passed over during the Nouvelle Vague as he adapted Jean Rodin’s novel Eyes Without a Face for Georges Franju, Backfire for Jean Becker, and Banana Peel for Marcel Ophuls.

Quentin Tarantino's 35mm movie haven, now 37 this year, ditched digital last Fall when he took over programming. Despite skepticism of this celluloid model, Tarantino's $8 35mm double features work with La audiences. (Last month, I attended a near-packed screening of Atom Egoyan's "Exotica." Who knew?) New Beverly's June program looks delicious to any La movie maven. From Hitchcock to Godard, Bogdanovich to Billy Wilder, there's a lot to love here. Diehard "Kill Bill" fans can catch "Vol. 2" every Friday in June at midnight. It's hard to believe that film is already over 10 years old. Read More: Quentin Tarantino Enjoys Running the New Beverly, Even When He's Shooting a Movie Jean Becker's rare ménage à deux "Backfire," starring the ultimate cinema dream team of Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, is a must-see for Nouvelle Vague completists. Preminger's "Anatomy of a Murder" looks dynamite on 35mm, and here...

Today on Trailers from Hell, film editor Mark Helfrich talks French director Jean Becker's 1983 thriller "One Deadly Summer," starring Isabelle Adjani as a woman on the verge. Several years after her remarkable performance as the star-crossed Adele Hugo in Truffaut's "The Story of Adele H.," Isabelle Adjani essayed yet another young woman gripped by obsession in 1983's "One Deadly Summer." The story, about an unstable femme fatale's revenge against her mother's attackers has a definite exploitation bent but the presence of Adjani and the score by Georges Delerue elevate the proceedings. Adjani won a Cesar for her trouble and the film was France's second highest grossing film of the year. Nsfw.

Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes will make a rare appearance on CNN on June 15, when the network premieres 41ON41, a profile of President George H.W. Bush. The gimmick is that 41 people will be seen on screen, talking about Bush – including Ailes, who was a campaign advisor. And yes, the two-hour film, weaving first-person accounts of the policy decisions and personal life experiences that shaped Bush’s life and presidency, is premiering on Father’s Day — and three days after Bush celebrates his 90th birthday. The George Bush Presidential Library Foundation funded the film, which is executive produced by Bush’s former White House speechwriter Mary Kate Cary and Rick Kaplan, formerly of CNN and ABC News. The film team also includes Nancy Stern Winters and Lisa Lax at Lookalike Productions who produced and directed the film. In addition to former First Lady Barbara Bush, the film’s 41 storytellers include:...

The number of films dealing with age is rising as older people take up more of the cinema-going audience

The world's population is ageing. Today, there are about 600 million older people around the world, three times more than 50 years ago – and by 2050 there should be three times more again. The effect of that is already apparent in almost every sector, including culture, which of course includes the cinema. In the early 20th century, the brand-new film industry symbolised glamour and eternal youth before being relegated to a largely teenage audience, and then being caught up by age in the following century: the age of its audience, its creators, its characters and its subject matter.

The cinema has always found ways of dealing with the subject. For many years it simply skirted the issue in two ways. One was by using farce, with truculent old rogues, as in Frank Capra's...

The Cannes Film Market has proved to be a happy hunting ground for almost all the Australian independent distributors.

StudioCanal and Rialto Distribution were among the most active Oz buyers, each snapping up five films from the Us and Europe, featuring such stars as Robert Downey Jr, Justin Timberlake, Scarlett Johansson and Shirley MacLaine..

.There was no stand-out title that everyone was chasing but there were a lot of good films,. Studiocanal managing director Robert Slaviero told If. As a result, Slaviero observed, .There were no bidding wars; it was all very civilised...

Slaviero pounced on The Chef, an upcoming comedy written and directed by Jon Favreau, co-starring Downey, Johansson and Sofia Vergara. Favreau plays a guy who loses his chef job and launches a food truck business while he tries to reconnect with his estranged family.

MacLaine and Christopher Plummer star in Elsa & Fred, a romantic comedy directed by Michael Radford,...

La course du lièvre à travers les champs (The Race of the Hare Across the Fields a.k.a. ...and Hope to Die, 1972) is an interesting late entry in the career of French crime specialist René Clément, a kind of smorgasbord of his favorite stuff: hardboiled crime, knotty sexual triangles, a hero on the run, convoluted crime schemes, with a harkening back to childhood sins that suggests his classic Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games, 1952). This might suggest desperation to recapture past glories, but the film is also stuffed with experimentation and up-to-the-minute influences (a train station confrontation early on suggests Leone) which confirm the filmmaker as alert to new possibilities.

But the film could just as easily be approached through the sensibility of its writer, Sébastien Japrisot, a key figure in French cinema and crime cinema, or even through that of the author of the source novel, David Goodis.

After spending nearly a week in the intensive care unit at Methodist Hospital in Houston, former President George H.W. Bush has been moved out of the ICU. "President Bush's condition has improved, so he has been moved today from the intensive care unit to a regular patient room at The Methodist Hospital to continue his recovery," his office said in a statement Saturday. "The Bushes thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes." The 88-year-old, who was the 41st president of the United States, has been hospitalized since Nov. 23. His spokesman said previously that doctors at the hospital were...

After suffering "a series of setbacks," including a "persistent fever," 88-year-old former President George H.W. Bush is in the intensive care unit of a Houston hospital, his spokesman says. Originally admitted to Methodist Hospital on Nov. 23 with a stubborn cough related to bronchitis, Bush came down with the fever that prompted doctors to put him on a liquids-only diet this week, says spokesman Jim McGrath. "He remains in guarded condition," says McGrath in a statement. "Doctors at Methodist continue to be cautiously optimistic about the current course of treatment. The President is alert and conversing with medical staff, and is surrounded by family.

The former President and father of George W. Bush, spent Christmas in a Houston hospital — he’s been in the hospital since Nov. 23 for a “bronchitis-like” cough and his condition is getting worse.

George H. W. Bush spent the holidays in the hospital. The 88-year-old and 41st President of the United States has been in the hospital since before Thanksgiving and on Dec. 23 he was admitted to intensive care, as doctors remain “cautiously optimistic.”

“He’s had a few setbacks. Late last week, he had a few low-energy days followed by a low-grade fever,” Jim McGrath, George’s spokesman said in a statement. “Doctors still say they are cautiously optimistic, but every time they get over one thing, another thing pops up.”

The cough that initially caused George Sr. to go to the hospital isn’t as bad anymore but his fever is what has doctors worried. According to TMZ,...

The former president has been at Houston's Methodist Hospital for seven days, battling 'a lingering cough.' Though former President of the United States George H.W. Bush has been in a Houston, Texas, hospital for a week, officials are just now releasing details of his condition. Though not considered life threatening, the 88 year old has bronchitis and a lingering cough. "President Bush is in the hospital," the former president's chief of staff, Jean Becker, tells the Houston Chronicle. "We have kept this quiet out of respect for him." She adds that Bush has been in and out of the hospital for several weeks, most recently checking in Nov. 23. George W. Bush and his wife Laura Bush have both paid him visits. Everyone at HollywoodLife.com wishes the former president a speedy recovery. Houston Chronicle➚ More Bush family news on HollywoodLife.com: HBO's 'Game Of Thrones' Puts George W. Bush...

Skyfall (12A)

(Sam Mendes, 2012, UK/Us) Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, 143 mins

It starts with a bang, but ends with a poignant whimper. This is supposedly a smarter Bond, you see, giving you first-class action and breathtaking imagery, but also a Freudian look into the secret agent's psyche. A pity, then, that the plot is utter nonsense. Bardem's Joker-ish baddie isn't interested in world domination; he has a personal score to settle, and an unfeasibly cunning plan…

Elena (12A)

(Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2011, Rus) Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smirnov. 109 mins

The Return director finds form with a penetrating look at class resentment in money-obsessed modern Russia, perfect conditions for a noir-ish drama. Markina is magnificent as a hard-up divorcee, who does what she has to when her wealthy partner begins to ail.

Room 237 (15)

(Rodney Ascher, 2012, Us) 102 mins

This investigation into the myriad interpretations of Kubrick's The Shining goes far deeper than anyone needed,...

With projects under his belt including Back to The Future I and II, Twin Peaks, superhero film The Phantom and animated series The New Adventures of Batman - plus memorable maritime roles in Dead Calm and Titanic - Billy Zane is well known both to the geekosphere and the mainstream.

He next appears in the drama Electrick Children, released by Revolver Entertainment and Picturehouse Entertainment on July 13. A new UK trailer was released today and is included here with the poster.

Directed by Rebecca Thomas, Electrick Children stars upcoming actress Julia Garner - previously seen in Martha Marcy May Marlene - alongside Rory Culkin (Signs, Scream 4, You Can Count on Me), Liam Aiken (Road To Perdition, The Killer Inside Me) and Billy Zane (above right).

Electrick Children is a coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of a sheltered childhood amongst the Mormon community.

The 26-year old first-time director grew...

Picturehouse Entertainment, the new distribution arm of City Screen/Picturehouse Cinemas, has announced that Radu Mihaileanu's Cannes competition title The Source, starring Leila Bekhti, will open across the UK on May 18.

Following his 2009 hit The Concert, director Radu Mihaileanu returns with what's described as his most ambitious film to date. The official synopsis is below, along with other production information.

Synopsis and production details

Set in a remote North African village, The Source focuses on the plight of women in the small community, forced to fetch water from a high mountain spring in the blazing heat.

After a tragedy strikes, feisty young bride Leila (rising star Leila Bekhti - Sheitan, Mesrine, A Prophet, winner of the César for Most Promising Newcomer in 2009 for Tout ce qui brille, and L'Oreal's new face of 2011) encourages the women to launch a love strike against their husbands - they will get no more...

“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.

See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:

Siff 2011 Competition Awards

Siff 2011 Best New Director

Grand Jury Prize

Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)

Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”

Siff 2011 Best Documentary

Grand Jury Prize

Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)

Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.

“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.

See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:

Siff 2011 Competition Awards

Siff 2011 Best New Director

Grand Jury Prize

Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)

Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”

Siff 2011 Best Documentary

Grand Jury Prize

Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)

Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.

It's been a vintage year on the Croisette, with superb films and lashings of controversy

Resurgent Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein called it "one of the best festivals in the history of Cannes". Harvey would say that – he nabbed the rights to the best film, in the transplendent form of a silent movie called The Artist.

But in terms of quality, controversy, debate and infinite variety, this has indeed been a vintage Cannes and of all the ones to miss, Lars von Trier picked the wrong one. The Danish director was thrown out of the festival for dim comments made about Hitler at the press conference after his film Melancholia, although the film itself bizarrely remains in with a chance of prizes tonight, with its star Kirsten Dunst having particularly impressed Robert De Niro and his jury, I hear.

Melancholia itself would have been talking point enough without Von Trier's prattling.

Updated through 5/17.

Let's note right off the top, first, that the title's derived from the director's misspelling of "Police" and that the final "e" has been dropped for the English-language version. And second, that critics are split. We'll start with pan but work our way up.

"Polisse, a self-important French police procedural that feigns complexity while relishing in cliché, could very well be the worst film I see at Cannes this year," predicts Glenn Heath Jr at the House Next Door. "Supposedly based on the true stories of the Parisian Child Protective Unit, director Maïwenn Le Besco's film abrasively documents the professional and personal lives of the special police force tasked with arresting those who prey on the young…. As a social mosaic, Polisse is an insulting simplification of truly horrific issues like child rape and sex trade."

More predictions, these from Jonathan Romney in Screen: "It should flourish in France,...

If the list of awardees below is long, it’s because the Newport Beach Film Festival screens over 400 films from more than 45 countries. With 50,000 visitors to the festival each year, part of the success of the program is its ability to draw full houses of appreciative audiences.

Opening with Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu and Peter Fonda in “East Fifth Bliss,” the festival closes with “A Beginner’s Guide to Endings.” “Beginner’s Guide” stars Harvey Keitel as a gambling man at the end of his tether, and his three sons (Scott Caan, Paulo Costanzo and Jason Jones) who soon learn that their father signed them up for unsafe drug tests when they were kids.

In between the go and the whoa were panels on directing, music composition and a master class on screenwriting given by Aaron Sorkin. Oh, and those 400 films. For a highlights list of the films at...

If the list of awardees below is long, it’s because the Newport Beach Film Festival screens over 400 films from more than 45 countries. With 50,000 visitors to the festival each year, part of the success of the program is its ability to draw full houses of appreciative audiences.

Opening with Michael C. Hall, Lucy Liu and Peter Fonda in “East Fifth Bliss,” the festival closes with “A Beginner’s Guide to Endings.” “Beginner’s Guide” stars Harvey Keitel as a gambling man at the end of his tether, and his three sons (Scott Caan, Paulo Costanzo and Jason Jones) who soon learn that their father signed them up for unsafe drug tests when they were kids.

In between the go and the whoa were panels on directing, music composition and a master class on screenwriting given by Aaron Sorkin. Oh, and those 400 films. For a highlights list of the films at...

The 15th City of Lights, City of Angels, a festival with both a handy acronym, Col•Coa, and a winning subtitle, "A Week of French Film Premieres in Hollywood," has opened with Philippe Le Guay's Service Entrance and closes on Sunday with Dany Boon's Nothing to Declare. In all, 34 features and 26 shorts will be screened, and we're teaming up with the festival to present five of those shorts for free. All five have been made by students of La fémis in Paris (whose alumni, by the way, include Laurent Cantet, Costa-Gavras, Claire Denis, Louis Malle, Arnaud Desplechin, Claude Miller, François Ozon and Alain Resnais). You can view our offering here.

In Brice Pancot's À cor et à cir (image above), a woman who's just turned her car over is discovered by a man and his son; see the teaser here. In Marion Desseigne-Ravel's Uniform (Les Murs...

Despite my confused conviction that this had been released already (after checking, it was indeed released in the UK a couple of months ago), ComingSoon.net has its hands on the new trailer for Jean Becker’s My Afternoons with Margueritte.

The film centres on the relationship between Gérard Depardieu‘s 50-year-old Germain – a near illiterate man who is considered by many to be the village idiot – and Margueritte, an elderly novelist played by Gisèle Casadesus, who Germain finds serendipitously reading extracts of her novel in the park one day. As their friendship blossoms, their frequent meetings on their favourite park bench promise acceptance and tutelage for Germain, and a deep connection for his unassuming muse.

Keep an eye out for My Afternoons with Margueritte when it is scheduled for release this June.

ComingSoon.net has your first look at the new trailer for My Afternoons with Margueritte , starring Gérard Depardieu and Gisèle Casadesus. The film, directed by Jean Becker, opens in theaters this June. My Afternoons with Margueritte is the story of life's random encounters. In a small French town, Germain, a nearly illiterate man in his 50's and considered to be the village idiot by his friends at the local bistro, takes a walk to the park one day and happens to sit beside Margueritte, a little old lady who is reading excerpts from her novel aloud. She's articulate, highly intelligent and frail. Between Germain and Margueritte, there are 40 years and 200 pounds difference. Germain is lured by Margueritte's passion for life and the magic of literature from which he has always felt...

We Are What We Are (15)

(Jorge Michel Grau, 2010, Mexico) Francisco Barreiro, Alan Chávez, Paulina Gaitán, Carmen Beato. 90 mins

Vampires are so last season, so bring on the cannibals! Why get a shake when you can have a whole Happy Meal? The cannibal lifestyle is by no means glamourised here, but if there is a revival, this could be its Let The Right One In - a downbeat, realist horror in which a father's death forces his flesh-eating family to fend for themselves. We're in for nasty gore and a grimy wallow in Mexico's underclass, but despite a frustrating lack of detail, the setting is ripe for socio-political metaphors and inappropriate comedy.

brilliantlove (18)

(Ashley Horner, 2009, UK) 97 mins

You can tell by that lower-case title how envolope-pushingly edgy this wants to be. And sure enough there's strong sex and hipster protagonists named Manchester and Noon. At heart, though, it's a natural, unashamed...

The new kid on the distribution block appears to be specializing in adult-minded films from France. After grabbing Cannes Competition title Rachid Bouchareb’s Outside the Law, Cohen Media Group (Cmg) have picked up Jean Becker’s My Afternoons with Marguerite (La Tête en Friche) for a theatrical play sometime next year. Based on Marie-Sabine Roger’s book of the same title, the film centres on a man who lives simply in a caravan at the bottom of his mother’s garden until he meets an old lady (Gisèle Casadesus) who helps him see that he can take control of his life. Casadesus whose been in film since 1934, will next be seen in the Weinstein Co. pick-up Elle s'appelait Sarah from Gilles Paquet-Brenner starring Kristin Scott Thomas.