From Annalisa to Hold-Up, 23 films out this summer

by Fabien Lemercier

01/08/2012 - Despite a slight drop in the number of new films out in French cinemas for the first half of August, French cinephiles will nevertheless discover up to 23 new films to be released over the next three weeks.

Today, Bellissima Films is releasing Italian director Pippo Mezzapesa’s feature Annalisa [trailer] (Il paese delle spose infelici - photo), a film discovered at the Rome Film Festival (read more) that will only compete against five American films in cinemas this week.

On August 8, among ten new releases, there will be two French films about which Cineuropa will later write in detail. MK2 Diffusion is to hedge its bets on Marion Lainé’s adaptation of a novel by Matthias Enard, A Monkey On My Shoulder [trailer] (read more) with Juliette Binoche and Edgar Ramírez, while Epicentre Films is to release Freeway, an original feature debut by Christophe Sahr (read more).

On the same day, Gilles Cohen’s Au cas où je n’aurais pas la Palme d’Or [trailer] (lit. “In case I don’t win the Palme d’Or” - featuring Julie Gayet and Frédéric Pierrot – distribution: Jour2Fête), as well as two British co-productions, one with the United States (Lady Vegas by English director Stephen Frears - Wild Bunch Distribution) and the other with Australia (My Best Men by Stephan Elliot – Pyramide Distribution), will also be released in cinemas.

On August 15, seven new films will vie for a head start in admissions and good word-of-mouth to benefit them in the following weeks when most of the French public returns from summer holidays. Three films particularly stand out among these: Comme un homme [trailer] (lit. "Like a man") by Safy Nebbou (article - Diaphana Distribution), 3D animation film Sammy 2 by Belgian filmmaker Ben Stassen (StudioCanal), and Norwegian director Erik Skjoldbjaerg’s promising Hold-Up [trailer] (Nokas - distribution: KMBO). And then there will also be Cornouaille [trailer] by Anne Le Ny (starring Vanessa Paradis, Samuel Le Bihan, and Jonathan Zaccaï - UGC Distribution), as well as Brazilian-German-Spanish co-production Swirl [trailer] (Girimunho) by Marins Jr and Clarissa Campolina (Damned Distribution).

(Translated from French)