03/03/2011

Kicking off today is the 16th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema organised in New York by Unifrance and the Lincoln Center Film Society.

Opening with a screening of François Ozon’s Potiche [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (to be released in June in the United States), attended by the director and Catherine Deneuve, the event will run until March 13. The line-up includes 19 features to be presented in avant-premiere at the Walter Reade Theater, the IFC Center (in Manhattan) and BAM (in Brooklyn).

The Rendez-Vous shines a strategic spotlight on French cinema, for which the United States is the leading export market with 13m admissions in 2010 and a rising number of French-language films distributed in theatres (29 in 2010 compared to 19 in 2009).

Among the features in the programme are four titles that have already been bought for US distribution: Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier [+see also:
film review
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film profile]; Alain Corneau’s Love Crime [+see also:
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film profile] (of which Brian de Palma will soon do a remake); Catherine Breillat’s The Sleeping Beauty; and René Féret’s Nannerl [+see also:
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film profile].

The Rendez-Vous, which will unveil Martin Provost’s The Long Falling in world premiere, will also screen three films recently shown at Berlin: Philippe Le Guay’s Service Entrance [+see also:
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film profile] (which has already attracted 963,000 French viewers in two weeks); Angelo Cianci’s Top Floor Left Wing [+see also:
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film profile] (FIPRESCI Prize-winner in the Panorama section); and Brigitte Sy’s Free Hands [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Also putting in an appearance are Eric Lartigau’s The Big Picture [+see also:
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film profile] (which ended its run with 1.17m admissions in France); Antony Cordier’s former Venice contender Happy Few [+see also:
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film profile]; Benoit Jacquot’s Deep in the Woods [+see also:
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film profile]; Claude Lelouch’s What Love May Bring [+see also:
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film profile]; Jacques Davila’s Cicero’s Country; and Romain Goupil’s Hands Up [+see also:
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film profile].

Finally, the selection is completed by four features helmed by young women directors: Living On Love Alone [+see also:
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film profile] by Isabelle Czajka, The Queen of Hearts [+see also:
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film profile] by Valérie Donzelli, Toi, Moi, Les Autres [+see also:
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film profile] (“You, Me, the Others”) by Audrey Estrougo and Love Like Poison [+see also:
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film profile] by Katell Quilévéré.

The delegation of artists accompanying the films includes Tavernier, Gaspard Ulliel, Jacquot, Lartigau, Breillat, Coline Serreau, Féret, Lelouch and Provost. Eight French international sellers will also make the trip to New York.

(Translated from French)