06/05/2015 - Hyena, Melody, The Way Out, A Thousand Times Good Night, A Little Chaos and The Rooftops are making the most of the pre-Cannes lull

While French distributors have already turned their attention to the 68th Cannes Film Festival (13-24 May 2015), keeping a keen eye on their selected titles in order to create a positive buzz ahead of the theatrical releases and on the Film Market to pan for some brand-new gold nuggets, this Wednesday chock-full of new releases offers some space on the cinema listings for a good number of non-French European features hailing from the United Kingdom, Belgium, Norway and the Czech Republic.

Among them we could highlight the extremely hard-hitting Hyena [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gerard Johnson
film profile] by English director Gerard Johnson (read the review and the interview), which has been given the seal of approval by renowned Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn ("I have seen the future of crime films") and which is distributed by The Jokers in conjunction with Bac Films, in 22 theatres.

Also coming out is Melody [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bernard Bellefroid
film profile] by Belgian director Bernard Bellefroid (read the review and the interview), a beautiful portrait of women that tackles the hot topic of surrogacy. The film is released by Damned Distribution in 39 cinemas.

Another title hitting screens is The Way Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Petr Václav
film profile] by Czech director Petr Vaclav. Having been revealed at Cannes last year on the ACID programme (read the review and the interview), the big winner of the 2015 Czech Lions (winning seven trophies, including Best Film) is being brought out by Norte Distribution across 20 screens.

Also of note is the impressive print run of 110 copies that Septième Factory is giving to A Thousand Times Good Night [+see also:
trailer
interview: Erik Poppe
film profile] by Norway’s Erik Poppe, starring Juliette Binoche in the lead (read the interview with the director).

British film production is also represented by Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos [+see also:
trailer
interview: Alan Rickman
film profile] (read the interview – Metropolitan Filmexport in 217 theatres) and My Old Lady [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Israel Horovitz (co-produced with the USA – Zelig Films Distribution in 110 cinemas).

This diversity is also evident in the Franco-Algerian co-production The Rooftops [+see also:
trailer
interview: Merzak Allouache
film profile] by Merzak Allouache, unveiled in competition at Venice and distributed by Les Films de l'Atalante across 19 screens.

As for French production, we have the comedies Un peu, beaucoup, aveuglement [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by and starring Clovis Cornillac (which recently won the Audience Award in Los Angeles, at the ColCoa Festival - distributed by Paramount Pictures in almost 230 theatres) and Le talent de mes amis by Alex Lutz (StudioCanal in over 200 cinemas), as well as Ladygrey [+see also:
trailer
interview: Jérémie Renier
film profile] by Alain Choquart (read the article – produced with Belgium and South Africa – distributed by Rezo Films across 13 screens).

Interestingly, Vincent Cassel (who will be present at Cannes in two films in competition: Mon roi [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Maïwenn and The Tale of Tales [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Matteo Garrone
film profile] by Matteo Garrone) is also appearing on screens in the Australian feature Partisan. 

In terms of the box office, Evolution Man – Monkey Business [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jamel Debbouze has racked up 1.9 million admissions over 26 days (distributed by Pathé), and the animated movie Shaun the Sheep [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by Mark Burton and Richard Starzak has drawn in almost 836,000 viewers in nearly five weeks (StudioCanal). It is also worth pointing out the very healthy figures, albeit on a smaller scale, for the British feature Still Life [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Uberto Pasolini
film profile] by Italian director Uberto Pasolini (73,000 admissions in two weeks and looking very stable – distributed by Version Originale/Condor) and for Labyrinth of Lies [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Giulio Ricciarelli
interview: Giulio Ricciarelli
film profile] by German director Giulio Ricciarelli (76,000 in five days – ie, the second-best per-theatre average of all last week’s new releases – Sophie Dulac Distribution).

(Translated from French)