Notícias

Christophe Honoré selected Catherine Breillat’s 36 Fillette: “Her work is very important for French cinema.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Jacques Demy’s Lola (starring Anouk Aimée with Marc Michel), Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, Zhangke Jia and composer Yoshihiro Hanno, Yves Robert’s La Guerre des Boutons, Alain Resnais’ Providence and L'Année Dernière à Marienbad, Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea, Sophie's Misfortunes, and Catherine Breillat’s 36 Fillette all came up in our discussion.

Christophe Honoré with Anne-Katrin Titze on why Alain Resnais is a king: “I’m interested in narrative play and people who have a ludic relationship to storytelling.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Christophe Honoré was in New York to present Winter Boy, starring Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste, Juliette Binoche, and Erwan Kepoa Falé, shot by Rémy Chevrin (Guermantes, [film]On...

DVD Release Date: Sept. 17, 2013

Price: DVD $24.98

Studio: Anchor Bay/The Weinstein Company

A battle royale is brewing in War of the Buttons.

Based on Louis Pergaud’s best-selling 1912 novel, La Guerre des boutons, the French family adventure film War of the Buttons stars actor/filmmaker Guillaume Canet (Love Me If You Dare), Laetitia Casta (Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life), Kad Merad (Welcome to the Sticks) and newcomers Jean Texler and Ilona Bachelier.

Set in France during World War II, War of the Buttons tells the tale of two rival groups of kids from neighboring villages. Pre-teen rebel Lebrac (Texier) leads a spirited group of kids in a pint-sized “war” where the victory comes from capturing the enemies’ buttons, belts, and laces – forcing them to return home ragged to face their mothers’ reprimand. When Violette (Bachelier), a young Jewish girl, comes to town to hide from the Nazis, Lebrac befriends her and...

French actor-turned-director Jalil Lespert (whose filmography behind the camera includes the unreleased in the U.S pair of 24 Measures and Headwinds) has nabbed a deal with The Weinstein Company for his bio-pic take on the rise of fashion icon Yves Saint Laurent. This will be the second time in just as many years that the Weinsteins grabbed a French film bio portrait that was simultaneously re-made in another shape or form – last year they had one of the two competing The War of the Buttons (“La Guerre des Boutons”) adaptations which had a unique duel showdown in France. We think we could Lespert’s Ysl portrait around the Vogue September issue month.

Gist: Starting as a designer/assistant for Christian Dior, Saint Laurent became one of the biggest names in modern fashion. Today, his name is still synonym with exuberance and class. Nonetheless, as most other geniuses, the designer lived a turbulent life,...

Chicago – World War II, also known as “The Good War,” had more than its share of darkness and sorrow. As the conflict winds down for a French town in the new film “War of the Buttons,” young love and rival town kid gangs create metaphors for the context of the war in its time and place.

Rating: 3.5/5.0

This is a sweet movie, more than a bit twee, but containing a sentiment that is life affirming, even up to its “The Sound of Music” type ending. The child and teen actors actually carry the film, which is the third remake of the novel “La Guerre des boutons” by anti-war French writer Louis Pergaud. This also contains metaphors for war and its futilities, as exemplified by the rival kid gangs in the French townships. It also throws in a youthful romance, between a tough kid leader and a Anne Frank-like Jewish girl hiding in the town.

Klaus Badelt is the composer of the upcoming indie dark comedy The Oranges. The movie is directed by Julian Farino (Entourage) and stars High Laurie, Leighton Meester, Catherine Keener, Adam Brody, Alia Shawkat, Allison Janney and Oliver Platt. The film centers on a man who begins an affair with the daughter of the family who lives across the street. Ian Helfer and Jay Reiss wrote the project’s screenplay. Anthony Bregman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), Leslie Urdang & Dean Vanech (Rabbit Hole, Beginners) are producing. Badelt previously worked with Bregman on last year’s comedy The Extra Man starring Kevin Kline. The Oranges is set to premiere at this year’s Toronto Film Festival. No distribution deal has been announced yet.

As previously reported, Badelt also has the drama Seven Days in Utopia opening this month in the Us and the French thriller Rebellion coming out in France this fall.

Yeah, I know War of the Buttons (La guerre des boutons) is technically a family film, but any story that dives into the murky waters of kids left to their own delinquent behaviors is always of interest to me. An this French remake seems interesting.

Word is that when Yann Samuell's treatment for a new War of the Buttons was pitched at Cannes in May 2010, it generated an enormous amount of enthusiasm. Why exactly we're not sure, but producer Marc du Pontavice said this of the new film: "We were looking for a powerful idea within "War of the Buttons", an ideal that would draw an invisible link between the school of society and what Yann aptly calls a Society of Children. To make a film that talks about integration, independence and innocence - in that joyful spirit that comes with the delight of disobedience. In that respect, the...