News

MPM Premium has acquired international rights to Mexican filmmaker Alejandro Pease’s queer coming-of-age drama Fine Young Men.

The film is set in a Catholic school and follows a young boy who develops a crush on another male student. It is produced by Mexico’s Pisito Trece Producciones, Home Films, Alameda, Zamora, Bhd, Malvalada, France’s Local Films, and Spain’s Televisión Española.

MPM’s Cannes slate also includes Marie Rémond’s starry romantic comedy Vanishing Goats in which Remond writes, directs and stars in her first feature opposite José Garcia, Gustave Kervern, Olivia Cote, Anne Le Ny and Lolita Chammah.

Indie Sales has acquired “Sidonie in Japan,” Elise Girard’s romance-laced ghost movie starring Oscar-nominated Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”) and August Diehl (“A Hidden Life”).

Huppert stars Sidonie Perceval, an established French writer who mourns her deceased husband. Invited to Japan for the reedition of her first book, she is welcomed by her local editor who takes her to Kyoto, As they travel together through the Japanese spring blossoms, she slowly opens up to him. But the ghost of her husband follows Sidonie. She will have to finally let go of the past to let herself love again

Indie Sales will be introducing “Sidonie in Japan” to buyers at the European Film Market. Now in post, the movie will be completed in the Spring. Art House Films will handle the French release.

“Sidonie in Japan” was produced by Sébastien Haguenauer through his Paris-based outfit 10:15! Productions, in co-production with Lupa Film GmbH,...

Sidonie In Japan

We can add this France-Japan title to the under-the-radar items featuring the great Isabelle Huppert. Production on Elise Girard‘s third feature Sidonie In Japan began production in July of last year with August Diehl and Tsuyoshi Ihara also on board. The Japan, France, Germany, Switzerland co-production tells the tale of discovery — of not one but two men. Girard previously directed Belleville-Tokyo (2010) with Valérie Donzelli, and the Berlinale preemed Strange Birds (2017) with Lolita Chammah (Huppert’s daughter).

Gist: During her first trip to Japan, Sidonie Perceval (Huppert), a promotional writer, sees the ghost of her husband again, while she lives a love affair with Kenzo Mizoguchi, her publisher, a mysterious man.…...

Eo Review — Eo (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, written by Ewa Piaskowska and Jerzy Skolimowski and starring Sandra Drzymalska, Isabelle Huppert, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Tomasz Organek, Lolita Chammah and Andrzej Szeremeta. Eo is a harrowing Polish movie directed by Jerzy Skolimowski that makes the audience feel a lot of [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Eo (2022): Jerzy Skolimowski’s Film is Powerful and Overwhelming in Scope...

Eo Janus Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Jerzy Skolimowski Screenwriter: Ewa Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski Cast: Hola, Tako, Marietta, Ettore, Rocco, Mela, Sandra Drzymalska, Isabelle Huppert, Lorenzo Zurzolo, Mateusz Kosciukiewicz, Tomasz Organek, Lolita Chammah Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 11/19/22 Opens: November 18, 2022 Travel broadens. When […]

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The jury ruled in favour of the film by Brandon Cronenberg, as well as awarding trophies to Sleep and Teddy, while the audience and critics honoured The Swarm by Just Philippot. Organised online, the 28th Gérardmer International Fantasy Film Festival has crowned as its winner the British co-production Possessor (unveiled in last year’s Sundance) by Canadian director Brandon Cronenberg. Presided over by Bertrand Bonello, the jury awarded the film its Grand Prize, as well as the trophy for Best Original Score (for Jim Williams). Two additional prizes were won by Sleep by Germany’s Michael Venus and Teddy by French directors Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma. Significantly, French director Just...

Caravaggio’s Shadow

For his 14th feature, Italy’s Michele Placido embarks on a project four years in the making with Caravaggio’s Shadow, shot during the Covid-19 pandemic across Naples, Rome, Viterbo, Ariccia, Frascati and Malta. Penned with Sandra Petraglia and Fidel Signorile, the Italian-French co-production features a stellar cast, including Riccardo Scamarcio in the lead, supported by Louis Garrel, Micaela Ramazzotti, Vinicio Marchioni, Lolita Chammah, Alessandro Haber, Moni Ovadia, Lorenzo Lavia, Brenno Placido and Isabelle Huppert. Produced by Federica Vincenti (who also produced his 2016 film 7 Minutes), the project was lensed by Michele D’Attanasio.…...

Exclusive: Principal photography has wrapped in Naples on writer-director Michele Placido’s fourteenth film as a director, Caravaggio’s Shadow (L’Ombra Di Caravaggio), about the enigmatic and genius Renaissance painter.

Today we can reveal three striking production stills from the Italian-language movie, which stars Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick Chapter 2) as Caravaggio, Louis Garrel (Little Women) as the mysterious Shadow, Isabelle Huppert (Elle) as the Marquise Costanza Colonna, Micaela Ramazzotti (Like Crazy) as Lena and Placido in the role of Cardinal del Monte. French star Huppert will be dubbed for the film.

Veteran Italian filmmaker Placido, who also directed Scamarcio in hit 2005 crime drama Romanzo Criminale, has spent four years working and preparing for the film, which will focus on the adventurous and controversial life of the great painter from the 1600s. The movie will show the artist as a rebel without a cause, a man of huge talent but...

The film from Portuguese director Pedro Costa wins the Grand Prix while Alexander Nanau’s Collective is awarded the special jury prize. Hellhole and X&y are also among the winners. The international competition jury of the 10th La Roche­-sur­-Yon International Film Festival, made up of actress Lolita Chammah and directors Lionel Baier and Nicolas Pariser, has handed the 2019 Grand Prix to Vitalina Varela from Portuguese director Pedro Costa. Winner in Locarno of the Golden Leopard for best film and of the Best Actress award, the film is sold worldwide by its producer, the Portuguese company Optec Filmes. The jury handed out its Special Prize to Collective by Alexander Nanau (German filmmaker born in Romania), a masterful and captivating documentary, revealed out of competition in Venice, which centres on an investigation into the incredible irregularities of the Romanian healthcare system. Produced...

The 10th edition of the festival in Vendée, directed by Paolo Moretti, will take place from 14 to 20 October with a flurry of 30 French premieres. Though nominated General Delegate of the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes (where he passed his baptism of fire last May), Paolo Moretti has remained director of La Roche­-sur­-Yon International Film Festival, for which he has once more put together a quality programme exploring the diversity of arthouse cinema worldwide for the 10th edition of the event which will unfold in Vendée from 14 to 20 October. In the international competition, the jury (featuring actress Lolita Chammah and directors Lionel Baier and Nicolas Pariser) will be judging eight titles (six having their French premieres at the festival) including four European films: Vitalina Varela from Portuguese director Pedro Costa (winner in Locarno), the documentary Collective...

Stars: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Niels Arestrup, Anne Consigny, Amira Casar, Vincent Perez, Lolita Chammah | Written by Jean-Claude Carrière, Louise Kugelberg | Directed by Julian Schnabel

Famed but tormented artist Vincent van Gogh spends his final years in Arles, France, painting masterworks of the natural world that surrounds him.

Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate may just be the biggest surprise masterpiece of the year. In a compelling and spectacular piece of avant-garde filmmaking that is outrageously marvellous in every frame. Not having seen something shot this beautifully or aesthetically thoughtful in terms of emotionally engaging style since a partnership of director Terrence Malick and cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki. To simplify, Schnabel’s film is a stunning composition of visual art that both mends and breaks one’s heart in the same poetic breath.

The cinematography and artistic flair from cinematographer Benoît Delhomme is genius,...

Title: At Eternity’s Gate Director: Julian Schnabel Cast: Willem Dafoe, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Niels Arestrup, Anne Consigny, Amira Casar, Vincent Perez, Lolita Chammah, Stella Schnabel, Vladimir Consigny, Arthur Jacqui, Solar Forte, Vincent Grass, Clément Lhuaire, Alan Aubert-Carlin, Laurent Bateau, Franck Molinaro, Montassar Alaia, Didier Jarre, Thierry Menez, Johan […]

The post 75th Venice Film Festival: At Eternity’s Gate Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Red carpet protest highlighted fact only 82 women have been honoured in Official Selection over 71 editions of festival.

Cate Blanchett and Agnes Varda led 82 female industry figures in a silent ascent of the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday protesting the lack of female representation at the event over its 71 editions.

Moving, historic, 82 women from all countries and professions in cinema have just made the red carpet entrance for Les Filles Du Soleil (Girls Of The Sun) by Eva Husson. #Cannes2018 #Competition pic.twitter.com/0YY9SNbRqg

— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) May 12, 2018

Other stars joining the protest...

The Champs-Élysées Film Festival, created by producer, distributor and exhibitor Sophie Dulac, is a commitment to Parisian audiences for a cinematic trip between France and the USA showcasing the best of French and American independent cinema and highlighting New Orleans.

Six American indies and six French indies will judged for two separate awards and will also receive audience awards. The 2017 Jury consist of talents coming from all kinds of backgrounds and having a strong involvement in French independent cinema : — Lolita Chammah, actress, — Lola Créton, actress, — Vincent Dedienne, actor, humorist and author, — Jérémie Elkaïm, actor, screenwriter and director, — Camélia Jordana, singer and actress, — Gustave Kervern, director and actor — Karidja Touré, actress.

Classic Claude Brasseur back when…

The classic French actor Claude Brasseur will be the Guest of Honor along with the American director Alex Ross Perry and director Jerry Schatzberg. Other guests include directors Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, the French actress Aïssa Maïga.

“The Other Side of Hope”

Winsome, sweet, and often very funny, the second chapter of Aki Kaurismäki’s unofficial trilogy about port cities is a delightful story about the power of kindness that unfolds like a slightly more somber riff on 2011’s “Le Havre.” The Finnish auteur’s latest refugee story begins with a twentysomething Syrian man named Khaled (terrific newcomer Sherwan Haji), who escapes from Aleppo after burying most of his family and sneaks into Finland by stowing away in the cargo hold of a coal freighter. His path eventually crosses with Wikström (Sakari Kuosmanen), a newly single restauranteur who could use a helping hand. Part Roy Andersson and part Frank Capra, “The Other Side of Hope” deepens the director’s recognition of how immigrants and refugees are victimized by their invisibility, and its timeliness could help it strike a chord with domestic audiences. “Le Havre” grossed more than...

You can never have too much Isabelle Huppert, but in Barrage, the legendary actress plays a supporting role that perhaps shows you can have too little. It’s a generational drama anchored by three great performances, but it feels rather distinctly average — and it’s hard to make Isabelle Huppert look average.

The selling point here is Huppert playing the mother to her real-life daughter Lolita Chammah, to whom she looks uncannily, almost distractingly similar. Chammah portrays Catherine, returning to her family home in Luxembourg from a self-imposed exile ten years after leaving her daughter Alba (Themis Pauwels, a terrific find) to be brought up by her mother Elisabeth (Huppert). Alba is hesitant to reconnect with her real mother, but agrees to a day out with Catherine, who acts more like a sister than a matriarch. After the death of Catherine’s beloved dog, Alba finds herself emotionally blackmailed into...

“There was her, there was me, and there was me beside myself. There were three of us.” That’s how Catherine (Lolita Chammah) describes what it was like to deal with a newborn daughter as a single parent in the deepest throes of depression. That’s all that she says on the subject, but it’s more than enough for us to understand why the woman — now in her early 30s — once felt the need to skip town and leave her baby with the child’s grandmother, Elisabeth (Isabelle Huppert, who happens to be Chammah’s mom in real life, as well).

But that was a long time ago, and Catherine has found some good pills to keep the darkness at bay. Now she’s returned to Luxembourg without any advance warning, finally ready to be a mother more than 10 years after she became one. If only it were so...

Even paired with her very similar-looking daughter, Huppert seems disconnected from this dismal family drama. And as a tennis coach, she’s no Judy Murray

This lugubrious, laborious movie from Luxembourg director and co-writer Laura Schroeder gains some interest in the eerie similarity of its real-life mother-daughter star pairing. Isabelle Huppert appears opposite 33-year-old Lolita Chammah, her daughter with her ex-partner, the producer-director Ronald Chammah. Lolita is heartstoppingly like the younger Isabelle, and their scenes together have the uncanny look of a debate between Huppert’s older and younger selves. When Chammah lies down on a sun lounger wearing dark glasses, it is almost a filmic seance.

Unfortunately, Huppert is in the movie very little, perhaps a quarter of the running time, and seems a bit detached from the material – though this can get close to being a problem even with her very greatest performances. Huppert’s participation and the...

Three generations of women reunite and come apart during one turbulent weekend in Barrage, a small and somewhat evocative second feature from Luxembourgish writer-director Laura Schroeder (Schatzritter).

The fact that one of those woman is Isabelle Huppert and the other, her real-life daughter Lolita Chammah, makes this intimate and well-played drama a veritable affaire de famille (and the second one since they played together in the 2010 comedy Copacabana). After premiering in Berlin’s Forum sidebar, the film could find overseas takers looking to appease their local Huppert completists, of which the number seems to be growing by the hour.

Set...

The bonds of motherly love are difficult to break, but can they be frozen over time, or left to wilt due to inattention. “Barrage,” making its World Premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, probes mother-daughter relationships, and what traits are carried from one generation to the next, and today we have an exclusive clip and poster from the film.

Read More: The 10 Most Exciting Films In The 2017 Berlin Lineup

Directed by Laura Schroeder, and starring Lolita Chammah, Thémis Pauwels, and Isabelle Huppert, the story follows Catherine, who has left her daughter Alba in the care of her mother Elisabeth.

Continue reading Berlin Exclusive: Isabelle Huppert Gets Protective In Clip & Poster From ‘Barrage’ at The Playlist.

World premieres include Barrage, starring Isabelle Huppert and her daughter Lolita Chammah.Scroll down for full list

This year’s Forum programme at the Berlin Film Festival (Feb 9-19), which highlights avant garde and experimental works, will feature 47 films, including 29 world premieres.

These include the premiere of Laura Schroeder’s Barrage, which stars Isabelle Huppert alongside her daughter Lolita Chammah in the story of a young woman who returns to Luxembourg after a 10-year absence to spend time with her estranged child. Huppert plays the grandmother, who has fostered the young girl during that absence.

Read: ‘Barrage’, starring Isabelle Huppert and daughter Lolita, finds sales home

Having its international premiere at Forum this year will be Golden Exits, the new feature from American filmmaker Alex Ross Perry. His previous credits include Queen Of Earth, which premiered at Berlin in 2015. His latest tells the story of a young Australian woman who comes to New York for a few months...

Exclusive: Family drama unites Golden Globe winner Huppert with daughter Lolita Chammah on the big screen.

Paris-based Luxbox has boarded sales on Laura Schroeder’s family drama Barrage, which unites Isabelle Huppert and daughter Lolita Chammah on the big screen.

The film will get its world premiere in the Forum section of the 2017 Berlinale.

Chammah stars as Catherine, a young woman who returns to Luxembourg after a 10-year absence to spend time with her daughter Alba, who she abandoned to the care of her mother Elisabeth (Huppert).

Alba, played by French child actress Themis Pauwels, gives Catherine a cold reception while Elisabeth is equally unwelcoming, perceiving her daughter as a threat to her role as the child’s main carer.

In a bid to rekindle her motherly bond with Alba, Catherine “kidnaps” her daughter and takes her on a trip to a lake in the north of the country. The main obstacle to their relationship, she discovers...

Barrage

Director: Laura Schroeder

Writer: Laura Schroeder, Marie Nimier

Luxembourgian filmmaker Laura Schroeder makes our list with her sophomore feature Barrage as it stars Isabelle Huppert and her daughter Lolita Chammah, who were last co-stars in Marc Fitoussi’s effervescent Copacabana (2010).

Continue reading...

A 14-year-old French girl isn’t exactly enthusiastic when she’s assigned a one-week work placement at the insurance company where her mother’s a mid-level employee in the cleverly titled French dramedy Trainee Day (Maman a tort). After the nuanced and warmly funny Copacabana, a Cannes Critics Week title that starred Isabelle Huppert and her real-life offspring Lolita Chammah as a mother-daughter pairing, director Marc Fitoussi delivers another fascinating mother-daughter portrait here that explores female family dynamics against the backdrop of soul-crushing office work. Though a tad long and meandering, this is yet another solid entry into Fitoussi’s filmography that explores the...

Paris Follies

Director: Marc Fitoussi

Writer: Marc Fitoussi

Producer: Avenue B Productions

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Anais Demoustier, Michael Nyqvist, Marina Fois

Well, you can hardly have a proper list without an Isabelle Huppert vehicle, and her re-teaming with Marc Fitoussi (who directed her and daughter Lolita Chammah in 2010′s Copacabana, which premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes) lands a spot on our list, though this sounds like the type of light-hearted melodrama that Huppert tends to avoid (though their previous work gave her a rare opportunity to be an effervescent air head). 2014 will be a light year for Huppert, as two delayed projects (Body Art with Luca Guadagnino apparently has been temporarily delayed while Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs just got back on tracks) means we will have to wait till 2015 to see her in multiple titles. But we’re more than...

Sneak Peek footage and images from the R-rated 'Marie Antoinette' romantic feature "Farewell, My Queen ("Les Adieux à la reine") directed by Benoît Jacquot, based on the novel of the same name by author Chantal Thomas.

The film is an eyewitness account of France's doomed Queen 'Marie Antoinette' (Diane Kruger), as seen through the eyes of an infatuated, female servant, 'Sidonie Laborde' (Léa Seydoux) :

"...in 1789, on the eve of the 'French Revolution', the court at the 'Palace of Versailles' still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a distance away. 

"When news about the storming of the 'Bastille' reaches the Court, most aristocrats and servants desert the Palace, fearing that the government is falling. 

"They abandon the Royal Family. But 'Sidonie Laborde', a young servant who is the Queen's reader, has a crush on the monarch and refuses to flee.

"She...

Chicago – Benoît Jacquot is a director clearly enraptured by the beauty of young women. This was eminently clear in his early ’90s-era vehicles for Virginie Ledoyen (“A Single Girl,” “Marianne”), an actress who turned up in his latest picture, “Farewell, My Queen,” still looking startlingly youthful. Yet she is no longer the center of Jacquot’s universe.

Taking Ledoyen’s place is 27-year-old Léa Seydoux, a smoldering French starlet harboring the remarkable ability to simultaneously appear achingly vulnerable and coldly calculating within the same take. She has such a potent presence that it earned her the role of a cardboard villain in “Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.” Thankfully, Jacquot realized that she was far more than a broodingly pretty face, and offered her what is truly her finest and most complex role to date.

DVD Rating: 4.0/5.0

Every frame of “Farewell, My Queen” is viewed through the eyes of Sidonie (Seydoux), a...

Sneak Peek new images from the dramatic period feature "Farewell, My Queen ("Les Adieux à la reine") directed by Benoît Jacquot, based on the novel of the same name by author Chantal Thomas.

The film is an eyewitness account of France's doomed Queen 'Marie Antoinette' (Diane Kruger), as seen through the eyes of an infatuated, female servant, 'Sidonie Laborde' (Léa Seydoux) :

"...in 1789, on the eve of the 'French Revolution', the court at the 'Palace of Versailles' still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a distance away. 

"When news about the storming of the 'Bastille' reaches the Court, most aristocrats and servants desert the Palace, fearing that the government is falling. 

"They abandon the Royal Family. But 'Sidonie Laborde', a young servant who is the Queen's reader, has a crush on the monarch and refuses to flee.

"She feels secure under the protection...

Sneak Peek actress Diane Kruger in the new dramatic feature "Farewell, My Queen ("Les Adieux à la reine") directed by Benoît Jacquot, based on the novel of the same name by author Chantal Thomas.

The film is an eyewitness account of France's Queen 'Marie Antoinette' (Kruger), before she falls under the guillotine, as seen through the eyes of a young female servant, 'Sidonie Laborde' (Léa Seydoux) :

"...in 1789, on the eve of the 'French Revolution', the court at the 'Palace of Versailles' still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a distance away. When news about the storming of the 'Bastille' reaches the Court, most aristocrats and servants desert the Palace, fearing that the government is falling. They abandon the Royal Family.

But 'Sidonie Laborde', a young servant who is the Queen's reader, has a crush on her and refuses to flee.

"She feels...

Chicago – Is there any actress in the world today with more seductive and transfixing eyes than Léa Seydoux? She often tilts her head in a direction that allows her to peer up from beneath lowered brows. Stanley Kubrick would loved to photograph her. Yet her radiant orbs are capable of conveying more than mere menace. She can appear frighteningly vulnerable and coldly calculating within the same take.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

In Benoît Jacquot’s quietly entrancing picture, “Farewell, My Queen,” Seydoux’s eyes smolder with desire, even as budding tears threaten to disrupt her unwavering gaze. Based on Chantal Thomas’s book of the same name, “Queen” revolves around a fictitious love triangle in Versailles that was dismantled during the last crucial days of the French Revolution. Though it often plays like the final episode of an epic miniseries, Jacquot and his cast makes the most of every moment.

Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “Farewell,...

Moi Petite Reader: Underrated Jacquot Depicts Decadence on the Eve of Doom

The first of underrated Gallic master Benoît Jacquot’s films to reach theaters on Us Shores since 2004 (he’s had steady output since then, however) is the extremely enjoyable, Farewell, My Queen. Based on a novel by Chantal Thomas, we’re witness to the last week of Marie Antoinette’s reign, as told through the eyes of a member of her court. Jacquot, whose films are often showcases for France’s most talented actresses, having crafted films for Isabelle Huppert, Isild Le Besco, and Virginie Ledoyen, is also no stranger to period royalty pieces, having helmed a 2004 film for French television concerning Princess Marie Bonaparte, starring Catherine Deneuve. With his latest effort, he’s given us a heady concoction of historical intrigue, with a tart hint of salaciousness that drains away the generally unrealistic nature of supposedly authentic reenactments.

Set in France and Belgium, Copacabana unveils the tale of a holdover bohemian trying to impress her grown daughter. The film stars real-life mother-daughter duo Isabelle Huppert and Lolita Chammah as the flighty Babou and her more conventionally prone daughter, Esméralda.

At the start, the pair live together in Northern France. While Esméralda works as a waitress and dates a rather bland young man, her mother flits from job to job, griping about the bourgeoisie and fixating on Brazilian music. But Babou calls her life into question when Esméralda reveals she is engaged but doesn’t want her at the ceremony. Rightly rattled, Babou pursues a job opportunity selling timeshares in Belgium, hoping to prove to her daughter that she can settle down and be the mother she wants. Yet even in this new setting Babou falls into old habits, bedding down with a gruff but lovable dock worker, befriending...

Sneak Peek "Copacabana", the upcoming French comedy feature directed by Marc Fitoussi, starring Isabelle Huppert as 'Babou'.

Cast also includes Aure Atika as 'Lydie', Lolita Chammah as 'Esméralda', Jurgen Delnaet as 'Bart', Chantal Banlier as 'Irène', Magali Woch as 'Sophie', Nelly Antignac as 'Amandine', Guillaume Gouix as 'Kurt', Joachim Lombard as 'Justin' and Noémie Lvovsky as 'Suzanne'.

"...'Babou' (Huppert) is boldly unconventional and cheerful. Never having cared about social conventions before, she is suddenly faced with the realization that her own daughter is ashamed of her and therefore refuses to invite her to her wedding. Hurt in her pride, Babou tries to regain her daughter's respect by starting anew. She accepts the challenge of selling time-sharing-flats at the Belgian seaside during the off-season, in a desperate attempt to prove her real worth and her motherly love to her daughter..."

The film was released in France July 2010 with a North American release Tba.

Copacabana

Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Aure Atika, Lolita Chammah, Jurgen Delnaet | Written and Directed by Marc Fitoussi

This would be the second Isabelle Huppert film I have seen at the London Film Festival thus far and Copacabana is a far superior film to the disappointing Special Treatment . Babou (Huppert) is an initially very annoying Frenchwoman who has flitted from place to place in her life, enjoyed her travels and perceived rebellion against bourgeois society, yet failed to put down roots and now finds herself unemployed. She has a daughter, Esme (played by Huppert’s real life daughter Lolita Chammah), who is much more strait-laced than her mother and is marrying a boring executive. The final straw comes when Esme tells her mother not to attend her wedding, partly to save her from paying for any of it but mostly because Esme is embarrassed by her. Distraught, Babou finds work as selling...

Jason Solomons at the London film festival sees Ron Galella reverting to type, notes Darren Aronofsky's links to the 'hottest Jewish actresses' and recommends five festival highlights

Once a paparazzo…

Among the excellent documentaries at Lff was Smash His Camera, by Leon Gast (When We Were Kings), focusing on pioneering New York paparazzo/celebrity photographer Ron Galella, the man Brando thumped and Jackie O sued. As the Lff programme notes: "At 79, Ron will still take considerable risks for his shots." Indeed. Ron was a fully accredited guest of the festival last week. However, on his way in on a rare excursion behind the velvet ropes of a VIP area, Ron spied Hilary Swank and Sam Rockwell attending the line-up for their film, Conviction. Quick as a flashbulb, Ron left his delegation, whipped out his camera and fired off some very up-close shots of a surprised Hilary. Cinema: the great leveller of celebrity.

In news from the Cannes International Film Festival the short film Deeper Than Yesterday, a story of men who have been submerged in a submarine for 3 months and its impact upon them, won the Kodak Discovery Award for a Short Film and the Petit Rail d'Or at the prestigious Cannes Critics’ Week. The Kodak Discovery Award, which includes €3,000 worth of 35mm film... - Australian Film Scene: Local Business: Screen Australia has announced funding of 4 short films as part of its Springboard program aimed at assisting filmmakers who intend on making a short film which will be used to market an expanded feature version of the same project. The films selected include: - Cryo (feature film Cargo) a sci-fi thriller directed by Luke Doolan- Transmission (feature film These Final Hours) an apocalyptic drama written & directed by Zak Hilditch- Mercury (feature film Hound) a conspiracy thriller written &amp...

Australian Film Scene: Local Business: Screen Australia has announced funding of 4 short films as part of its Springboard program aimed at assisting filmmakers who intend on making a short film which will be used to market an expanded feature version of the same project. The films selected include: - Cryo (feature film Cargo) a sci-fi thriller directed by Luke Doolan- Transmission (feature film These Final Hours) an apocalyptic drama written & directed by Zak Hilditch- Mercury (feature film Hound) a conspiracy thriller written & directed by Paul Oliver- Rarer Monsters (feature film Tremula) a sci-fi thriller written & directed by Shane Krause The Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (Efic) will provide loans against the Producer Offset to filmamkers to assist with small film and TV productions. The eligibility criteria will be to have an international distribution agreement and a provisional certificate from Screen Australia. Amounts will be loaned up to...

Paris -- The 48th annual International Critics Week will be a first-timers feast of comfort cinema with a hearty helping of French fare.

Critics Week artistic director Jean-Christophe Berjon announced the lineup Monday in Paris; all seven Competition titles will be up for the Camera d'Or, and six of the seven are world premieres.

"Our main goal is to reveal young filmmakers," Berjon said about the competition lineup. The sidebar will kick off May 13 with Out of Competition title "Le Nom des Gens," Michel Leclerc's political comedy starring Jacques Gamblin and Sara Forestier.

Two other French comedies will screen Out of Competition, including Quentin Dupieux's "Rubber," shot in English in the U.S., and Marc Fitoussi's "Copacabana." The latter stars last year's Festival de Cannes jury president, Isabelle Huppert, opposite her daughter, Lolita Chammah, in the story of a mother-daughter relationship that co-stars Aure Atika.

"It's not about the nationalities,...

PARIS -- Love was in the air as Chico Teixeira's Brazilian film "A casa de Alice" won the Golden Swann prize for best film at the 22nd Cabourg Romantic Film Festival, which wrapped Sunday night in the French seaside town.

A jury presided by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Denis named Patrick Bruel best actor for his role in Claude Miller's Holocaust drama "A Secret". Gallic actress Laetitia Casta took home the best actress award for her performance in Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's dramatic comedy "Nes en 68" (Born in '68).

Other members of the fest's jury included director-actresses Anne Le Ny and Maiwenn, actresses Claire Nebout, Lolita Chammah and Hafsia Herzi, actor Clement Sibony and writer Emmanuelle Cosso-Merad.

Emmanuel Mouret won the best director award for "Un baiser, s'il vous plait" (A kiss, please). "Welcome to the Sticks" star Anne Marivin was named most promising actress and Yannick Renier was given the most promising actor prize for his role in "Nes en 68".

Local High School students gave their young jury prize to Doris Dorrie's German title "Cherry Blossoms".