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The duo heads the cast of François Uzan’s first feature. A film handled by Radar Films and Unagi Production, and which will be sold by Orange Studio. Final stretch in Greece for the shoot of On sourit pour la photo, François Uzan’s feature debut. Standing out in the cast are Jacques Gamblin, Pascale Arbillot, Pablo Pauly (nominated for a Best Newcomer César award and Lumières award in 2018 for Step by Step, appreciated also in Three Days And a Life, in...

The two actresses are toplining the feature debut by comic-book author Nine Antico; the film is currently being shot and is being produced by Atelier de Production. Comic-book author Nine Antico has been shooting her feature-length directorial debut, Playlist, since 15 July. Topping the bill are Sara Forestier and Laetitia Dosch (Lumières Award for Best New Actress in 2018 and nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actress the same year for Montparnasse Bienvenüe, also popular in movies such as Age of Panic, Gaspard at the Wedding...

Snd, the commercial arm of the French TV network M6, has acquired worldwide distribution rights to “Family Shake,” a comedy series written by Baya Kasmi and Michel Leclerc.

Snd is the latest vertically integrated French film group to start handling live-action series, following TF1 Studio, Studiocanal and Gaumont, among others. Produced by Gaëlle Cholet at Elephant, “Family Shake” has been commissioned by M6 in France and will start airing later this year in a primetime slot.

The show centers on the ups and downs of a modern, multi-ethnic and blended family. The ensemble cast comprises Grégory Montel (“Call my agent!”), Nailia Harzoune (“Patients”), Julia Piaton” (“Serial (Bad) Weddings”), Lyès Salem (“Just to be sure”), Biyouna (“Aïcha”) and Djemel Barek (“The Bureau”).

The concept of “Family Shake” seems to bank on the success of the comedy franchise “Serial (Bad) Weddings,” which has a similar topic. The first movie grossed more than...

Sales company was launched by Carole Baraton, Yohann Comte and Pierre Mazars last year.

Source: Charades

Marina Foïs in ‘Conviction’

Fledgling sales company Charades - launched by Carole Baraton, Yohann Comte and Pierre Mazars last year - makes its Unifrance Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris (Dec 18-22) debut this week with two first features.

The Paris-based outfit, working out of roof-top offices above the Rendez-vous’s Gaumont Opéra Cinema screening hub, will kick off sales on Antoine Raimbault’s murder trial drama Conviction and Margaux Bonhomme’s Head Above Water, about a young woman who takes on the care of her mentally and physically challenged sister.

The company has released exclusive first looks at both films.

Source: Charades

‘Head Above Water’

“We fell in love with these personal stories at the script stage,” said Mazars and Baraton.

“They correspond with our desire to work with young film-makers and defend them internationally as well as support talented female...

In a role somewhat better-grounded than those she’s played in films like Love Battles and The Names of Love, Sara Forestier portrays a straitlaced schoolteacher in Helene Angel’s Elementary (Primaire), a lively dramedy that realistically captures the unpredictable world of grade-school education. Although the film’s subject matter may not constitute the main draw for U.S. audiences, committed performances and a judicious shading of humor could help Angel’s feature make the grade on premium cable or streaming platforms following a January theatrical release in France.

For thirtyish teacher Florence (Forestier), working with primary school children has become more than a career,...

As we await news on what feature will open the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, last year’s opener will finally make its way to U.S. theaters next month. Standing Tall, which also picked up a few César Awards recently for Best Male Newcomer (Rod Paradot) and Best Supporting Actor (Benoit Magimel), comes from director Emmanuelle Bercot. Also starring Catherine Deneuve, it follows a troubled teen as he navigates life.

We said in our review, “Much like Dolan’s film Mommy, one of the strongest characteristics of La tête haute is its bipolarity of tone. Some may find the sporadic jumps from quiet to impassioned rather jarring, but anyone who has spent time around troubled teens knows how quickly a situation can shift from calm to hostile. Still, it only works so well here because Paradot executes these outbursts with a nuanced understanding of the adolescent mind and what makes teenagers tick.

Paris -- The 52nd Cannes’ International Critics’ Week unveiled its lineup Monday afternoon during a webcast released from its Paris headquarters. Among the 11 features screening in the sidebar, which showcases first and second films, are writer-director David Lowery’s Sundance hit Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, playing out of competition, and opening night French film Suzanne, starring Sara Forestier (The Names of Love) and directed by Katell Quillevere, whose debut feature Love Like Poison premiered in the 2010 Directors’ Fortnight. The seven-film competition will be presided over by jury president Miguel Gomes (Tabu) and will include five first-time features spanning

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Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 20, 2012

Price: DVD $34.95, Blu-ray $43.95

Studio: Music Box

Eric Elmosnino is Serge Gainsbourg and Laetitia Casta is Brigitte Bardot in Gainsbourg.

The life and career of French singer-songwriter-provocateur Serge Gainsbourg, who’s often regarded as the personification of 1960s cool, is the subject of the 2010 biographical film Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life.

As a singer-songwriter whose landmark musical output includes such sexually infused and scandalous 1960s songs as “Je t’aime … moi non plus” and “Les Sucettes,” he is often regarded as one of the world’s most influential popular musicians. His impassioned music was matched only by his legendarily excessive lifestyle and love affairs with Europe’s most beautiful women, including chanteuses Juliette Greco and Jane Birkin and international sex symbol Brigitte Bardot.

Directed by famed French comic book artist-turned-director Joann Sfar, the film begins with the Gainsbourg’s childhood in Nazi-occupied France and moves through his...

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

‘Twas The Night Before Christmas: 2-Disc Deluxe Edition (1974)

Synopsis: For some unexplained reason, letters to Santa Claus are being returned to the children of Junctionville. It seems some resident has angered St. Nick by calling him “a fraudulent myth!” Skeptical Albert Mouse has to be brought to his senses “and let up a little on the wonder why.” How Albert is persuaded to change his tune paves the way for Santa’s jolly return to town – and the joyous finale of the animated fable inspired by Clement Moore’s poem and produced by the merrymaking conjures of Rankin/bass studios. The voice talents of Joel grey, Tammy Grimes, John McGiver and George Gobel make this festive fable even more fun. (highdefdigest.com)

Special Features:

Tba

The 12 Dogs Of Christmas (2005)

Synopsis: A girl who uses dogs to...

Release Date: Oct. 18, 2011

Price: DVD $29.95

Studio: Music Box

Sara Forestier isn't shelfish about her politics in The Names of Love.

The 2010 French comedy movie The Names of Love tells the tale of a woman who uses sex as a weapon — a political weapon!

Directed by Michel Leclerc (La Tete de Maman), the foreign film follows Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier, Wild Grass), who’s a young, extroverted liberal who goes to bed with her right-wing opponents in order to manipulate them towards her left-wing causes.

A weapon of “mass seduction,” Baya has a remarkably high success rate — until she meets her match in Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin, Inspector Bellamy), a Jewish middle age, middle-of-the road scientist. The two are destined to fall in love, of course, but not even fate can predict what will happen when their parents all come together for the first time. Will the issues of Arab-Jewish relationships,...

The Names Of Love is an edgy new French film that touches on a lot of heavy subjects including politics, identity, immigration, Jews, pedolphilia, the Holocaust, Arabs, Muslims, and the bird flu. Those wacky French sure have a way with romantic comedies! The Names Of Love is a tricky mishmash of genres handled with mixed results. Director Michel Leclerc and his cowriter, Baya Kasmi, mostly pull it off for the first half but the movie fails to maintain interest as it progresses. It’s the story of Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin), a stiff shirt scientist who specializes in avian diseases. He’s unlucky with the opposite sex because, since there are over 15,000 men in France named Arthur Martin, he claims that it’s hard for him to stand out. Luckily for him he meets the only woman named Bahia Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier) in the country; a beauty in her 20′s...

Baya Benmahmoud is one young girl who takes the phrase "Make love, not war" to its logical extreme. If that phrase sounds familiar to you, it merely means that you've read at least one of the many, many domestic reviews of "The Names of Love". The majority of them start basically the same way. Why is an interesting question. A lot of it no doubt has to do with the sometimes stale and homogenous state of mainstream film criticism today. But beyond that, perhaps "The Names of Love", an off-kilter romance aiming to be something a little loftier, isn't offering enough for these critics to truly seize upon. Whatever the case, the zeitgeist has spoken, and there is exactly one initial approach to this intriguing...

Often when the title of a foreign movie is adapted into English, the translation is not literal. "Le nom des gens," for example, means "People's Names," not "The Names of Love." "People's Names," in fact, would be a more descriptive title for this film since director Michele Leclerc and co-writer Bay Kasmi want us in the audience to realize, as Shakespeare did in "Romeo and Juliet," that your name should not be your destiny. "The Names of Love" has its heart in the right place: its message is politically liberal, it's sexual politics is free. Because this movie is meant primarily for a French audience, given its topicality, its cutting edge could be dulled outside French shores. Have you ever heard of Lionel Jospin, for example, a man who actually appears in a cameo? He was the Socialist Party candidate for President of France in the 1995 and 2002 elections. Imagine a...

We have to dig pretty deep to find anything in theaters these days that’s remotely sexy and sophisticated.* The Names of Love is no masterpiece. It only looks like one compared to Larry Crowne.

Title: THe Names of Love (Le nom des gens) Directed By: Michele Leclerc Written By: Bay Kasmi, Michele Leclerc Cast: Sara Forestier, Jacques Gamblin, Carole Franck, Zinedine Soualem, Jacques Boudet, Michèle Moretti Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 6/7/11 Opens: June 24, 2011 Often when the title of a foreign movie is adapted into English, the translation is not literal. “Le nom des gens,” for example, means “People’s Names,” not “The Names of Love.” “People’s Names,” in fact, would be a more descriptive title for this film since director Michele Leclerc and co-writer Bay Kasmi want us in the audience to realize, as Shakespeare did in “Romeo and Juliet,” that your...

"Cars 2, directed (like several great Pixar films of the last two decades) by John Lasseter, finds itself in the unlucky position of the not-so-bright kid in a brilliant family," finds Slate's Dana Stevens. "No matter if his performance in school is comfortably average; he'll always be seen as a disappointment compared to his stellar siblings. There's nothing really objectionable about Cars 2, although parents of young children should be warned that a few evil vehicles meet violently inauspicious ends. It's sweet-spirited, visually delightful (if aurally cacophonous), and it will make for a pleasant enough family afternoon at the movies. But we've come to expect so much more than mere pleasantness from Pixar that Cars 2 feels almost like a betrayal."

Nick Schager for the Voice: "Pixar's Cars franchise takes a sharp turn from Nascar mayhem and rural red-state-targeted 50s nostalgia to 007 espionage with this upgraded sequel, though in its...

The Names of Love (Le Nom des gens) Click here to read the review! "Every romantic comedy worth its salt needs to make the audience fall in love, and here The Names of Love succeeds triumphantly. Forestier captivates with her lively eyes, her knotted bursts of energy, and -- it is worth mentioning again -- her careless, constant, knee-buckling nudity. She is so infatuating that she nearly makes you forget how insufferable her real-life equivalent would likely be."...

The American romantic comedy has grown distressingly moribund lately, but anyone looking to freshen up the genre a bit need look no further than Michel Leclerc’s The Names Of Love. The French filmmaker fills the film with rom-com conventions—from a film-opening meet-cute to an unflappably quirky heroine—but puts them to work in the service of a story with more on its mind than whether two characters clearly meant to be together will hook up before the credits roll. The French title, Le Nom Des Gens, literally translates as “the names of people,” which doesn’t have the ...

Reviewed by Jay Antani

(June 2011)

Directed by: Michel Leclerc

Written by: Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi

Starring: Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem, Carole Franck, Jacques Boudet, Michèle Moretti, Zakariya Gouram and Julia Vaidis-Bogard

In “The Names of Love,” writer-director Michel Leclerc employs a deft, whimsical touch in bringing together such weighty themes as family guilt, generational regret and finding true love in a world mined with racial and cultural politics. It’s a delicate tightrope that co-writers Leclerc and Baya Kasmi walk, but in presenting issues of their own personal experiences as ethnic minorities in their native France, their screenplay is refreshingly honest and inventive. And considering that “The Names of Love” really has very little plot driving it, Leclrec and Kasmi create an engaging romantic comedy simply by virtue of their offbeat humor and appealing characters.

Family history is central to understanding this movie about mismatched lovers. Arthur...

Reviewed by Jay Antani

(June 2011)

Directed by: Michel Leclerc

Written by: Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi

Starring: Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem, Carole Franck, Jacques Boudet, Michèle Moretti, Zakariya Gouram and Julia Vaidis-Bogard

In “The Names of Love,” writer-director Michel Leclerc employs a deft, whimsical touch in bringing together such weighty themes as family guilt, generational regret and finding true love in a world mined with racial and cultural politics. It’s a delicate tightrope that co-writers Leclerc and Baya Kasmi walk, but in presenting issues of their own personal experiences as ethnic minorities in their native France, their screenplay is refreshingly honest and inventive. And considering that “The Names of Love” really has very little plot driving it, Leclrec and Kasmi create an engaging romantic comedy simply by virtue of their offbeat humor and appealing characters.

Family history is central to understanding this movie about mismatched lovers. Arthur...

Roadside Attractions Hamish Linklater and Miranda July in “The Future”

The summer movie season is upon us, with explosion-heavy TV trailers, big name stars, and sequels to movies that weren’t all that great the first time around.

That’s not to say that the popcorn pictures aren’t worth a look. Recent releases like “X-Men: First Class” and “Super 8″ have been pulling in both rave reviews and big audiences.

But if the onslaught of summer action-adventure-comedy-drama-sequels is a bit too much for some,...

“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.

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? You Said What? Trailer Peter Stormare is perhaps the greatest living thespian working today. Ok, that's exaggeration...but not by a lot. Directors/writers Patrik Syversen...

Here are the new MPAA ratings from Bulletin No: 2172.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Rated PG-13 For sexual content and language. Bunraku Rated R For bloody violence and language. Release Date: Tba 2011 The Chameleon Rated R For language, brief drug use and nudity. Chick Magnet Rated R For strong sexual content and language throughout, and some drug use. Conan O'Brien Can't Stop Rated R For language. Discover The Gift Rated PG For some thematic elements. Evil Things Rated R For language. Green Lantern Rated PG-13 For intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action. Release Date: June 17, 2011 Inside Out Rated PG-13 For violence and some language. Life In A Day Rated PG-13 For disturbing violent images, language and a sexual reference. Release Date: July 24, 2011 Little Big Soldier Rated PG-13 For violence and action. Lucky Rated R For language, some violence and brief sexuality. Madso's War Rated R For violence, sexual content,...

Music Box Films Presents

Michel Leclerc’s

The Names Of Love

(Le nom des gens)

*** César Awards 2011 – Winner – Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay ***

*** Col-Coa Film Festival 2011 – Official Selection ***

*** Cannes International Film Festival 2010 – Official Selection ***

Opening In Los Angeles And New York On June 24

Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier), a young, extroverted liberal, lives by the old hippie slogan: “Make love, not war” to convert right-wing men to her left-wing political causes by sleeping with them. She seduces many and so far has received exceptional results – until she meets Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin), a Jewish middle aged, middle-of-the road scientist. Bound by common tragic family histories (the Algerian War and Holocaust under Vichy), the duo improbably fall in love. Amid the bubbly amour, humorous lasciviousness and moments of sheer madness, filmmaker Michel Leclerc injects satirical riffs on such hot-button sociopolitical issues as Arab-Jewish relations, anti-Semitism, immigration, and racial and cultural identity.

24 year-old...

At the 36th annual Cesar Awards Friday, France's official Oscar entry "Of Gods and Men" won three awards --  Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Michael Lonsdale) and Best Cinematography. Surprisingly, "Of Gods and Men" did not even make Oscars' short for Foreign Lanugage Film. An English language film, "The Ghost Writer," won four Cesars:  Best Director for Paris resident Roman Polanski, Best Adapted Screenplay (Polanski and Robert Harris), Best Score (Alexandre Desplat) and Best Editing (Hervé de Luz). "Gainsbourg" took three awards -- Best Actor (Eric Elmosnino), Best Sound and Best First Film -- while "Le Nom Des Gens" won two: Best Actress (Sara Forestier) and Best Original Screenplay (Baya Kasmi, Michel Leclerc). Last year's Oscar-winning Animated Short "Logorama" won the catch-all category at the Cesars while current Oscar contender "The Illusionist" won Best Animat...

Xavier Beauvois' "Of Gods and Men" dominated the nominations of the 36th Annual Cesar Awards, the French equivalent of the Oscars. "Of Gods" received 11 nominations total and will compete against Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur), Gainsbourg (Vie Heroique), Mammuth, Le Nom Des Gens, The Ghost Writer, and On Tour for Best Film.

The Social Network, Invictus, Inception, Illegal, The Secret In Their Eyes, Bright Star, and Les Amours Imaginaires will duke it out for the Best Foreign Film category.

Jodie Foster will preside over the ceremony and Quentin Tarantino will be given an honorary Cesar award. The 36th Annual Cesar Awards will be held on Feb. 25th.

Here is the full list of nominees:

Best Film

Heartbreaker (L'Arnacoeur), dir: Pascal Chaumeil

Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes Et Des Dieu), dir: Xavier Beauvois

Gainsbourg (Vie Heroique), dir: Joann Sfar

Mammuth, dir: Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern

Le Nom Des Gens, dir: Michel Leclerc

The Ghost Writer,...

Source. Inception, The Social Network are among foreign nominees. Best Film Heartbreaker (L’Arnacoeur), dir: Pascal Chaumeil Of Gods and Men (Des Hommes Et Des Dieu), dir: Xavier Beauvois Gainsbourg...

Quentin Tarantino will receive an honorary achievement award at the 36th annual Cesar Awards on Feb. 25. The Cesars are the French equivalent to the American Oscars, and Tarantino is being recognized for being a “great international artist,” according to Cesar president Alain Terzian. The French Academy’s nominations also were announced, with Xavier Beauvois’ Of Gods and Men and Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer dominating the major categories. Several American films were nominated for Best Foreign Film, including Oscar frontrunner, The Social Network. See below for the list of the best films:

Best Film

Heartbreaker

Of Gods and Men...

Roman Polanski directing The Ghost Writer Best Film Heartbreaker produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, directed by Pascal Chaumeil Of Gods And Men produced by Pascal Caucheteux, Grégoire Sorlat, Etienne Comar, directed by Xavier Beauvois Gainsbourg (Vie HÉROÏQUE) produced by Marc du Pontavice, Didier Lupfer, directed by Joann Sfar Mammuth produced by Jean-Pierre Guérin, Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern, directed by Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern The Names Of Love produced by Caroline Adrian, Antoine Rein, Fabrice Goldstein, directed by Michel Leclerc The Ghost Writer produced by Robert Benmussa, Alain Sarde, directed by Roman Polanski TOURNÉE produced by Laetitia Gonzalez, Yaël Fogiel, directed by Mathieu Amalric Best Foreign Film Les Amours Imaginaires, Xavier Dolan Bright Star, Jane Campion The Secret In Their Eyes, Juan José Campanella ILLÉGAL, Olivier Masset-Depasse Inception, Christopher Nolan Invictus, Clint Eastwood The Social Network, David Fincher Best First Film Heartbreaker, Pascal Chaumeil, produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky,...