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RELEASES France

Ad Vitam pins its hopes on The Wonders

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- The film by Italy’s Alice Rohrwacher, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, is coming out in 73 theatres, while The Clearstream Affair and Spartacus & Cassandra are also hitting screens

Ad Vitam pins its hopes on The Wonders
Les merveilles d'Alice Rohrwacher

While the rumours from Berlin hint at the fact that US independent films may be having a hard time securing international sales, and some professionals are predicting that European markets will hinge increasingly on national film productions, the CNC’s statistics on attendance levels in French theatres at the start of 2015 seem to lead us down the same path. In addition to the slight drop of 3.8% compared to the same month last year, above all, the 17.03 million admissions recorded in January are marked by the huge market share of French films: 62.2%, as against 24.8% for US features and 15% for movies from other countries. This is a trend that seems to go hand in hand with the current preference of audiences for top-quality national comedies, such as La famille Bélier [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile
]
(almost 6 million viewers over eight weeks) and Papa ou maman [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile
]
(which has got off to a flying start, taking 580,000 admissions in five days).

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Nonetheless, this Wednesday, it is Italy that is taking centre stage, at least for the critics, thanks to The Wonders [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
interview: Tiziana Soudani
film profile
]
 by Alice Rohrwacher, the winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival 2014 (read the review and the interview with the director), which is being released by Ad Vitam across 73 screens. 

Also hitting screens is the forceful financial-journalistic thriller The Clearstream Affair [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Vincent Garenq (read the article), which features solid performances by Gilles Lellouche, Charles Berling and Laurent Capelluto. Launched by Mars Distribution in 170 cinemas, the feature, which delves into the impenetrable world of the financial institutions in Luxembourg, is benefiting from a decent amount of free publicity, as it ties in very handily with current affairs, which are this week focusing their spotlight on large-scale tax avoidance in Europe. Interestingly, the film stands as a fresh testament to the sheer audacity of the outfit Nord-Ouest Films, which never thinks twice about bringing sensitive issues to the silver screen (Guilty [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vincent Garenq
film profile
]
Rebellion [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
).

Also of note this Wednesday is the excellent documentary Spartacus & Cassandra [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Ioanis Nuguet (which made a splash at a great many international festivals and is distributed by Nour Films) and the Israeli-German-French co-production Dancing Arabs [+see also:
trailer
interview: Eran Riklis
film profile
]
 by Eran Riklis (read the interview – revealed at Locarno on the Piazza Grande – Pyramide Distribution across 53 screens). The cinema listings are rounded off by four other French films: the “mumblecore”-influenced feature Stubborn [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Armel Hostiou (starring Vincent Macaigne and Kate Moran – UFO Distribution), Africaine [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Stéphanie Girerd (with the promising Nina Meurisse among the cast – distributed by Hevadis Films), Casting sauvage [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Galaad Hemsi (Commune Image Media) and the comedy Home Sweet Home [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
 by Stéphane Meunier (SND in 289 theatres).

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(Translated from French)

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