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CANNES 2005 Competition

A couple of French couples

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- This year’s official selection includes three French productions : an usual guest, Michael Haneke, Dominik Moll's third film and Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu's second feature film

This year’s official selection, defined as ‘galactic’ by Thierry Fremaux, artistic director of the Festival de Cannes (11th-22d May), includes three French productions. Together with the festival’s usual guest, Michael Haneke, who presents Hidden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Margaret Menegoz
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile
]
, young directors are there to represent France and show the vitality of its film production with two second films, Dominik Moll’s and Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu’s.

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i>Lemming [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, co-written by the director and Gilles Marchand, is the first film Dominik Moll has brought to Cannes since With a Friend Like Harry, in competition in 2000. His new film, starring Charlotte Rampling, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Laurent Lucas, and André Dussollier, will be screened at the opening night. It depicts the eventful acquaintance of two couples, one of them young and perfect, the other experienced, full of hatred and resentment. Lemming was shot last summer in the mountains in the South-West of France, where the fantastic atmosphere encourages such legends as the Lemmings’, a type of birds who supposedly commit mass-suicide. This €5.33M film was produced by Diaphana, which will also distribute it in France. International sales are handled by Celluloid Dreams. Lemming received a €400,000 advance-on-admissions from the CNC ; it was co-produced by France 3 Cinéma (€1.5M, 900,000 of which are for broadcasting), supported by the regional fund Ile-de-France, and the rights were bought in advance by Canal + and Ciné Cinéma.

The selection of Peindre ou faire l'amour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu
interview: Philippe Martin
film profile
]
, by the brothers Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, is the official ackowledgment of their growing popularity with the critics who were very enthusiastic about their middle-length film, La Brèche de Roland (2000), and their first feature, Un homme, un vrai (2003). Their new film was shot in Vercors ; it tackles the question of the desire of a couple (Daniel Auteuil and Sabine Azema the painter) for another couple (blind Sergi Lopez and Amira Casar). This €4.26M film was produced by Les Films Pelléas. Peindre ou faire l’amour also got an advance-on-admissions from the CNC ; it was coproduced by France 2 (which provided for 500,000 euros, 300,000 of which are for broadcasting), supported by the regional fund Rhône-Alpes, and bought in advance by Canal + and TPS. The film will be released in France on the 24th of August by Pyramide which also handles international sales.

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(Translated from French)

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