Operation Seduction in New York

by Fabien Lemercier

01/03/2012 - It’s a promotional springboard for films already acquired by American distributors and a prestigious gallery for others yet to be bought for the United States. The Rendez-Vous With French Cinema in New York, organised by Unifrance and the Lincoln Center Film Society, will this year be celebrated to the tone of triumph for an extatic French cinema industry, after The Artist [trailer, film focus]’s recent success at the Oscars. In fact, it is a second film also bought by The Weinstein Company that will open the event: Untouchable [trailer] by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, to be released in May in American cinemas and to be screened in New York in the presence of François Cluzet and its directors.

Among the 23 feature films that have been selected, eight already have an American distributor. Cohen Media Group has acquired the rights to Farewell, My Queen [trailer, film focus] by Benoit Jacquot and Delicacy [trailer] by the brothers David and Stéphane Foenkinos (a film to close the event), Strand Releasing will distribute 17 Girls [trailer] by Delphine et Muriel Coulin and Unforgivable [trailer] by André Téchiné, while Kino Lorberha has bought The Well-Digger’s Daughter [trailer] by Daniel Auteuil. Also in the programme are Americano [trailer] by Mathieu Demy (acquired by MPI Media Group), Free Men [trailer] by Ismaël Ferroukhi (Film Movement), and A Gang Story [trailer] by Olivier Marchal (The Weinstein Company).

Also on the menu will be films unveiled at Cannes (Pater [trailer, film focus] by Alain Cavalier and The Snows of Kilimandjaro [trailer, film focus] by Robert Guédiguian), in Venice (Louise Wimmer [trailer] by Cyril Mennegun and Guilty [trailer] by Vincent Garenq), in Locarno (Low Life by Nicolas Klotz, Last Screening [trailer] by Laurent Achard, and Smugglers’ Songs [trailer] by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche), in Rotterdam (38 témoins [trailer] by Lucas Belvaux and The Screen Illusion by Mathieu Amalric), as well as Des vents contraires [trailer] by Jalil Lespert, Ici-bas [trailer] by Jean-Pierre Denis, the thriller Une nuit [trailer] by Philippe Lefebvre and the animation films Le Tableau [trailer] by Jean-François Laguionie and Zarafa [trailer] by Rémi Bezançon and Jean-Christophe Lie.

A glamorous delegation of directors and actors is to accompany the films and to include Audrey Tautou, Vincent Lindon and Tahar Rahim among others. For the first time, seven of the programme’s feature films will be screened with Emerging Pictures in over 40 Americam towns, simultaneously with the screenings in New York. Audiences in Los Angeles and Chicago will be able to talk to the films' teams in New York via Skype.

(Translated from French)