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RELEASES France

Van Damme plays himself in JCVD

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With tax problems, a legal battle for the custody of his son and a dwindling career as an actor in the US, Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to his native Belgium for some peace and quiet. This is the starting point to Mabrouk El Mechri’s comedy JCVD (co-written by the director and Frédéric Bénudis), which is being launched today by its producer Gaumont on 365 screens.

Piloted by Bankable Films, the feature – co-produced by Belgian company Artémis and Luxembourg’s Samsa Film – explores the real life of the star Van Damme, a man with his own fears, contradictions and hopes, who finds himself involved in a hold-up.

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But what does a film hero do when confronted with a gun that doesn’t fire blanks? This strange cinematic exploration, which is on the borderline between fiction and documentary, is El Mechri’s second feature after Virgil. The director’s forthcoming film The Midwife Crisis will star Vanessa Paradis and Michael Madsen and is set to start shooting in the autumn in New York.

Two other French comedies – both of them debut features – are also being released on a generous print-run. Catherine Castel’s 48 Hours a Day [+see also:
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, starring Aure Atika, Antoine de Caunes, Victoria Abril and Catherine Jacob (production La Mouche du Coche - €6m budget including co-production support from TF1) is being launched by Pyramide on 197 screens.

Claus Drexel’s Affaire de famille [+see also:
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(“Family Affair”), starring Miou-Miou, André Dussolier, Eric Caravaca and Hande Kodja (Animakids Productions - €2.65m budget including co-production support from France 3 Cinéma) is being released on 267 screens by La Fabrique de Films.

Also hitting screens this Wednesday is Ragnar Bragason’s Icelandic feature Children [+see also:
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(Iceland’s hopeful for the 2007 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar).

Other releases include Newton I. Aduaka’s French/Austrian/Nigerian co-production Ezra (which screened last year in Critics’ Week at Cannes) and a restored print of Swedish director Roy Andersson’s debut film A Swedish Love Story.

Despite the box office domination of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (distribution Paramount) and Sex and the City (Metropolitan), several French films are faring well. Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale [+see also:
film review
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(Bac Films – see news) has garnered 250,000 admissions during its first 11 days on release and Jean Becker’s Love Me No More (StudioCanal) has drawn 475,000 viewers in four weeks.

Other successes include Dany Boon’s unstoppable Welcome to the Sticks [+see also:
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(Pathé Distribution – 20.13m admissions) and Eric Besnard’s Cash [+see also:
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(TFM Distribution - 1m viewers in its first five weeks on release).

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(Translated from French)

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