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Judith Godrèche has been a regular on the Cannes red carpet for close to 30 years for her performances in films such as Patrice Leconte’s 1996 Palme d’Or contender Ridicule and Un Certain Regard cycling drama The Climb in 2019.

The popular French actress-turned-director touches down this edition with a work of her own: the short film Moi Aussi.

Shot under the radar in Paris in March and gathering 1,000 victims of sexual abuse, the work world premieres as part of the opening ceremony of Cannes Un Certain Regard on Wednesday.

Related: Cannes Film Festival 2024 In Photos: Opening Ceremony & ‘The Second Act’ World Premiere

There is no bigger disruptive force in French cinema right now than Godrèche, who has been at the forefront of triggering a new era of #MeToo in France, a country that has been notoriously slow to tackle sexism, sexual violence and harassment.

The short film follows in the...

The April 25 decision by the New York Court of Appeals to overturn Harvey Weinstein’s felony sex crime conviction looked like a major blow to the #MeToo movement in the U.S. and to the progress made within the U.S. film industry since 2017 (when the first allegations against Weinstein were made public).

In France, they are still waiting for that first wave of progress. The outrage triggered by #MeToo echoed across la grande nation — it even spawned a French counterpart, #Balancetonporc, or “Expose Your Pig” — but, until very recently, efforts to challenge the structure of the French entertainment industry came to very little.

That, it seems, is changing. U.S.-style measures, including the use of intimacy coordinators for sex scenes or chaperones to supervise the treatment of minors, are slowly becoming standard practice on French movie sets. #MeToo is “really at the center of our discussion now, in...

Last year, the Cannes Film Festival shrugged off protests by women’s rights groups to open with Maïwenn’s Jeanne du Barry, a period movie starring alleged abuser Johnny Depp as the king of France.

A year and a mini-#MeToo revolution later, Cannes has picked Moi Aussi (Me Too), a short film by French actress turned activist and filmmaker Judith Godrèche to open its Un Certain Regard sidebar.

Best known in the U.S. for the Oscar-nominated Ridicule (1996) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), Godrèche became a key figure in France’s #MeToo movement after she accused acclaimed directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. Both men have denied the claims.

The allegations, and Godrèche’s standing as one of France’s best-known actresses and a beloved former child star, helped bring #MeToo back into the spotlight in France. Her...

The cinematic adaptation of E. L. James’ raunchy erotic romance series, the Fifty Shades franchise created the space for Dakota Johnson in Hollywood. Following the movie, the actor has been a household name claiming a spot in the fans’ favorite celebrities list.

Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan in a still from Fifty Shades of Grey

Johnson is not new to doing roles beyond her comfort zone but the urge to elevate the romance of roles for experience has prompted the actor to do the Fifty Shades franchise. Certainly, her previous role in the Fox sitcom, Ben and Kate where she played a young mom somehow eased the actor to step into the franchise.

SUGGESTEDFifty Shades of Grey Was a ‘Psychotic’ Nightmare for Dakota Johnson: She Signed up for a “Very different version of the film” Dakota Johnson Revealed The Shocking Reason Behind Doing Fifty Shades of Grey Dakota Johnson as...

M6 Group, the second biggest commercial network in France, has acquired Epithete Films, a Paris-based production company boasting a catalogue of 25 feature films, including the hit family adventure franchise “Belle and Sébastien.”

The banner’s library also includes Gilles Legrand’s “Malabar Princess,” “Tu seras mon fils” and Patrice Leconte’s “Ridicule.” Epithete Films is headed by Frédéric Brillion and Legrand.

“With this targeted acquisition, M6 Group continues the consolidation of its activities of distribution of audiovisual rights by extending its catalogue, which now contains more than 1,300 feature films,” said M6 Group in a statement.

Like other TV networks in France and elsewhere, M6 Group has been badly hit by a drop in advertising revenues due to the pandemic. The company saw its ad revenues fall by 50% after March 15, when France went into full lockdown, and has announced a plan to save €100 million ($112 million) in programming, which represents 20% of its total programming budget.

A never ending mission to save the world featuring Ron Perlman, Peter Ramsey, James Adomian, Will Menaker, and Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Karado: The Kung Fu Flash a.k.a. Karado: The Kung Fu Cat a.k.a. The Super Kung Fu Kid (1974)

Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

The Best Years Of Our Lives (1946)

Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

Nobody’s Fool (1994)

The Hustler (1961)

Elmer Gantry (1960)

Mean Dog Blues (1978)

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (2018)

Mona Lisa (1986)

The Crying Game (1992)

The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990)

Ridicule (1996)

Man on the Train (2002)

The Girl on the Bridge (1999)

Pale Flower (1964)

Out of the Past (1947)

The Lunchbox (2013)

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999)

The Last Boy Scout (1991)

Raw Deal (1986)

Commando (1985)

The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

The Last Man On Earth (1964)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers...

Lionsgate U.K. has taken theatrical rights to “The Father,” Florian Zeller’s movie adaptation of his hit stage play of the same name, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. Embankment Films, which executive produces the film, is handling worldwide sales (ex-France) and did the U.K. deal.

Principal photography started in the U.K. earlier this month on the film, which also stars Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell and Olivia Williams.

Lionsgate U.K. has the British theatrical rights. Broadcaster Channel 4 has the free-tv rights after Film4 invested in the movie.

Hopkins stars in the title role as a mischievous, independent man who, as he ages, refuses all assistance from his daughter Anne (Colman). Yet such help has become essential, following Anne’s decision to move to Paris with her partner. As Anne’s father tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones,...

Cohen Media Group has acquired U.S. rights to Safy Nebbou’s “Who You Think I Am,” the critically acclaimed film starring Juliette Binoche which world premiered in the Berlin Film Festival’s Special Gala section.

“Who You Think I Am” turned out to be a hot title among international distributors at the Efm and was sold throughout the world by the Paris-based company Playtime rolling off its world premiere.

Blending romantic comedy, heated melodrama and psychothriller, “Who You Think I Am” features Binoche on nearly every shot as she plays a woman struggling with identity, sexuality and the perils of online flirtation. The film earned upbeat reviews including in Variety which described it as “a surprise package that plays its trump cards with shrugging insouciance, yielding giggles and gasps in equal measure, sometimes at once.”

“Who You Think I Am,” adapted from a 2016 novel by Camille Laurens, follows Binoche as Claire Millaud,...

In the enjoyably old-school caper flick A Clever Crook (Un beau voyou), a retiring detective and crafty burglar play cat and mouse through the streets, inside the apartments and across the rooftops of Paris. Though it hardly breaks new ground, this cunning debut from writer-director Lucas Bernard is a pleasant throwback to the whodunits of the 1960s and '70s, as well as a very Gallic homage to the art of the steal.

Charles Berling (Ridicule, L’Ennui) plays Commissaire Beffrois, an affable, extremely laid-back cop who prances around town in Hawaiian shirts and approaches his métier with the distanced curiosity ...

In the enjoyably old-school caper flick A Clever Crook (Un beau voyou), a retiring detective and crafty burglar play cat and mouse through the streets, inside the apartments and across the rooftops of Paris. Though it hardly breaks new ground, this cunning debut from writer-director Lucas Bernard is a pleasant throwback to the whodunits of the 1960s and '70s, as well as a very Gallic homage to the art of the steal.

Charles Berling (Ridicule, L’Ennui) plays Commissaire Beffrois, an affable, extremely laid-back cop who prances around town in Hawaiian shirts and approaches his métier with the distanced curiosity ...

Perhaps forever to be known as “The Best Don Quixote Who Never Was,” French actor Jean Rochefort has died at age 87, according to Afp.

Rochefort was hospitalized in August and died overnight on Sunday, Afp reported, according to Deadline.

One of the most loved, iconoclastic figures of French cinema in the last 70 years, Rochefort first began appearing in films in 1955.

Both a romantic leading man and character actor, Rochefort was a three time César honoree equally skilled in dramatic and comedic roles. He starred in a number of successful, critically praised French films which attracted international audiences including Ridicule and The Hairdresser’s Husband.

Benoit Jacquot started his career as Marguerite Duras' assistant director in the 70s and went on to direct many films with strong female characters. In doing so, he catapulted the careers of many actresses into leading ladies of French cinema, among them Judith Godreche (Ridicule), Virginie Ledoyen (The Beach, 8 Women), Isild Le Besco (Sade, A tout de suite), Sandrine Kiberlain (Seventh Heaven, Apres Vous) . Lately, he has been keeping himself busy with two films out right now: 3 Hearts opening night film for this year's Rendez-vous with French Cinema and his Diary of Chambermaid shown in competition at this year's Berlinale, continuing the international success of Marie Antoinette-intrigue Farewell My Queen (starring Léa Seydoux, Diane Kruger and Ledoyen) a couple years back. Jacquot...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

2014 saw Patrick Brice officially plant his feet with Craigslist’s ad from hell horror pic Creep (originally titled Peachfuzz) being picked up (by RADiUS) prior to its SXSW premiere and a month after this, he began shooting The Overnight. A 360° switch in genres, set in Los Angeles, this is being proposed as a night to remember between couples, with a rom com quartet of folk in Adam Scott, Taylor Schilling, Jason Schwartzman and Judith Godreche (who we fondly remember from breakout roles in Patrice Leconte’s Ridicule and Cédric Klapisch’s L’Auberge Espagnole). Oddly enough and comparatively, the year ahead might be an even taller order to fill for Brice, with volumes II and III in the Creep series possibly going into production, but for the time being, and according to this article (above photo cred of Schwartzman and Brice in musical harmony) this will aim at both Sundance...

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart Blu-Ray Review

There are few movies that are as wild, original, and filled with soul as Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart, and the only problem with that is that it’s going to make you think someone else directed it. (He didn’t.)

Adapted by Mathias Malzieu from his own bestselling novel and the gold-selling album by his band Dionysos, Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is a magical story that feels like a new breed of myth, and it comes to you through brilliant animation.

Born on the coldest day in the history of the Earth, Jack’s heart is frozen solid. To save his life, midwife Madeleine grafts a tiny cuckoo clock into his chest to take its place. Everything will be fine, she tells him, so long as he follows three rules in order to keep things running smooth – He can never touch the clock’s workings,...

★☆☆☆☆It's been almost two decades since idiosyncratic French filmmaker Patrice Leconte delivered a near-masterpiece in the form of 1996's Ridicule, an opulent and hugely absorbing period drama of verbal sparring in the court at Versailles. It's safe to say that A Promise (2013), the director's first English-language foray, won't be knocking that aforementioned feature off the top spot any time soon. This stodgy Euro-pudding (German story, English adaptation, French director) was always going to run the risk of being a little uneven, but the end result is still disappointingly stilted and inert. Leconte directs this early 19th century love triangle with all the weight and depth of a leisurely ITV afternoon drama.

No bodices were harmed in veteran French filmmaker Patrice Leconte's chaste and bloodless English-language debut, a love-triangle costume drama that never sparks the artful sensuality found in his earlier hits like The Girl on the Bridge, Ridicule, or The Hairdresser's Husband.

Perhaps diluted in translation, this awkwardly scripted adaptation of Stefan Zweig's novella Journey into the Past casts Anglo-Saxon actors in Belgium as an austere stand-in for cusp-of-wwi Germany. Recognizing ingenuity and dedication in his newest employee, steelworks baron Karl Hoffmeister (Alan Rickman, stately and bored) quickly promotes modest engineering prodigy Friedrich Zeitz (Richard Madden, a handsome wet noodle) to be his personal secretary.

Herr Hoffmeis...

He’s fallen out of favor a bit in the last few years, but there was a time when Patrice Leconte was one of the most popular foreign filmmakers in the U.S. While he was never a favorite with the hipper critics, over the 1990s and early 2000s, films like “Ridicule,” “ The Girl On The Bridge,” “The Man On The Train” and “Intimate Strangers” became staples on the festival circuit, won BAFTAs and Cesars, and became sizeable arthouse hits. But the director’s recent films like “Beauties At War” and “The Suicide Shop” have struggled to find audiences at home and abroad, and so Leconte seems to have made another ploy for a bigger crowd: at the age of 66, he’s made his English-language debut. And with an impressive cast mixing veteran performers with rising stars, and source material from “Letter To An Unknown Woman” author Stefan Zweig, it...

He’s fallen out of favor a bit in the last few years, but there was a time when Patrice Leconte was one of the most popular foreign filmmakers in the U.S. While he was never a favorite with the hipper critics, over the 1990s and early 2000s, films like “Ridicule,” “ The Girl On The Bridge,” “The Man On The Train” and “Intimate Strangers” became staples on the festival circuit, won BAFTAs and Cesars, and became sizeable arthouse hits. But the director’s recent films like “Beauties At War” and “The Suicide Shop” have struggled to find audiences at home or abroad, and so Leconte seems to have made another ploy for a bigger crowd: at the age of 66, he’s made his English-language debut. And with an impressive cast mixing veteran performers with rising stars, and source material from “Letter To An Unknown Woman” author Stefan Zweig, it...

If the graphic violence, giant rats, and seizure-inducing imagery of “Cosmopolis” dissuaded you from the film's otherwise compelling look at sex and politics, then perhaps Robert Pattinson's period drama “Bel Ami” is more up your alley. A new clip and soundtrack details have hit the web, and they both certainly share some similarities, believe it or not.

The clip from the Guy de Maupassant adaptation, features a shirtless Pattinson alongside a similarly nude Christina Ricci as they discuss a letter from his past. It's all very snappy and playful, pushing toward that mix of delicate wit and eroticism that Patrice Leconte's “Ridicule” achieved admirably, and this new film seems a pleasure to watch as well (though our reviewer at the Berlin Film Festival wasn't quite as enamored). Pattinson plays George Duroy, an entrepreneur in 19th century Paris who rises from poverty to riches on account of his quick mind and good looks,...

Pop & Hiss Reeve Carney, who previously appeared in Julie Taymor's Tempest and Julie Taymor's Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, has signed on to play Jeff Buckley in a biopic. Sure he looks right enough for the part, but sadly, at least thus far, he doesn't seem to be much of an actor. 

In Contention loves the motion picture soundtrack cover for Drive more than the movie posters. Fair enough... but omg what's inside!!!. I'm buying the crap out of that CD when it becomes available. I kept wishing the songs were originals so that I could be incensed when Oscar ignored them.

Reeve Carney as himself. Ryan Gosling in fetishized scorpion jacket.

Time Out Hk has a good lengthy interview with Hong Kong actor Daniel Wu of Bishonen fame. He's starring opposite fighting Russell Crowe (literally) soon in The Man With the Iron Fists

Cinema Blend has a funny thought.

Leading Hindus are urging French actress Fanny Ardant to extend her stay in Rome, Italy for the city's upcoming film festival - and show her film about the plight of Roma gypsies to The Pope.

The Ridicule star will premiere the hard-hitting new documentary about the romany mistreatment across Europe, Chimeres Absentes, at the Rome Film Festival at the end of the month and Hindus hope Ardant will be seeking an audience with Pope Benedict while she's there.

Leading U.S. Hindu statesman Rajan Zed tells WENN, "We are asking Fanny Ardant to exhibit her short drama Chimeres Absentes, being shown at the upcoming Rome Film Festival, to Pope Benedict to make him aware of the Roma apartheid happening right under his nose."

Ardant's short film chronicles the story of a Roma girl who is refused at a local school because of her travelling family's poverty.

Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, adds, "Maybe after seeing Ardant’s film, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI would openly embrace the Roma cause... The Pope, being the acclaimed representative of God on earth, should raise his voice against continuous Roma maltreatment.

"The Pope should recognise, acknowledge and affirm the Roma as children of God who deserved to be treated like all other people - as equals."

The Hindus are particularly invested in ending the Roma mistreatment because religious leaders believe the gypsy people migrated to mainland Europe from India in the 11th century.

Ardant isn't the only celebrity to have spoken out about what Hindus call the "Roma genocide" - Madonna and Angelina Jolie have also addressed the issue publicly.

Nov. 12th: Celebrating the birthdays of the filmic and famous

1840 Auguste Rodin, sculptor... still waiting on a biopic though Gerard Depardieu did play him in Camille Claudel (1988). In his honor today, get naked and strike a memorable pose.

1922 Kim Hunter, "Stellaaa!"

1929 Grace Kelly, princess

1942 Wallace Shawn, "inconceivable!"

1945 Neil Young, musician

1947 Patrice Leconte, director (Ridicule, The Widow of St. Pierre, Monsieur Hire, etcetera)

1958 Megan Mullally, Karen no more

1963 Susumu Terajima, Japanese actor

1973 Radha Mitchell, actress. Melinda²

1978 Alexandra Maria Lara, international schauspielerin

Finally, let's hear it for one-time Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling, turning 29 today, and Anne Hathaway, turning 27. Will it be tricky for them to find worthy follow ups to Half Nelson and Rachel Getting Married? Being in demand, which they both unquestionably are, is different than finding challenging three-dimensional parts. Hathaway has 10 projects somewhere on that long and volatile road to the screen the most exciting of which, from an acting standpoint,...

ORLANDO -- IFC Films has acquired all U.S. rights to Patrice Leconte's French comedy My Best Friend (Mon meilleur ami), starring Daniel Auteuil.

The feature, which had its world premiere as a gala presentation in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, follows an unlikable antique dealer (Auteuil) who falsely claims to have a best friend. When his skeptical business partner (Julie Gayet) doubts he has any at all and challenges him to arrange an introduction, he frantically seeks out the help of an outgoing taxi driver (Dany Boon) to learn how to make a friend.

" 'My Best Friend' will appeal to the masses and be supported with an impressive level of marketing and distribution expertise," said IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring, who had the option to acquire the film for his IFC First Take day-and-date program but chose the IFC division known for bigger releases. "This acquisition further exemplifies our commitment to aggressively growing our theatrical release slate for 2007 with larger, commercial films."

Leconte's films have been a proven draw in a tough domestic market for foreign films. His credits include 1989's Monsieur Hire, 1996's Ridicule and 2004's Intimate Strangers (Confidences trop intimes).

The film was produced by Olivier Delbose and Marc Missonnier through their Fidelite Prods., and co-produced by TF1 Film Prods., Wild Bunch and Lucky Red. Leconte wrote the original screenplay with Olivier Dazat and Jerome Tonnerre.

ORLANDO -- IFC Films has acquired all U.S. rights to Patrice Leconte's French comedy My Best Friend (Mon meilleur ami), starring Daniel Auteuil.

The feature, which had its world premiere as a gala presentation in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, follows an unlikable antique dealer (Auteuil) who falsely claims to have a best friend. When his skeptical business partner (Julie Gayet) doubts he has any at all and challenges him to arrange an introduction, he frantically seeks out the help of an outgoing taxi driver (Dany Boon) to learn how to make a friend.

" 'My Best Friend' will appeal to the masses and be supported with an impressive level of marketing and distribution expertise," said IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring, who had the option to acquire the film for his IFC First Take day-and-date program but chose the IFC division known for bigger releases. "This acquisition further exemplifies our commitment to aggressively growing our theatrical release slate for 2007 with larger, commercial films."

Leconte's films have been a proven draw in a tough domestic market for foreign films. His credits include 1989's Monsieur Hire, 1996's Ridicule and 2004's Intimate Strangers (Confidences trop intimes).

The film was produced by Olivier Delbose and Marc Missonnier through their Fidelite Prods., and co-produced by TF1 Film Prods., Wild Bunch and Lucky Red. Leconte wrote the original screenplay with Olivier Dazat and Jerome Tonnerre.