French films win over Czech audiences

by Fabien Lemercier

01/12/2008 - A record was achieved at the 11th Czech Republic French Film Festival, which was held from November 20-26 in eight cities and garnered over 17,000 admissions.

Organised by the French Embassy and Unifrance, the event gave cinemagoers from Prague, Brno, Ceské Budejovice, Hradec Králové, Olomouc, Ostrava, Pardubice and Plzen the chance to discover a line-up of around 40 features in 13 theatres.

The festival opened with Public Enemy Number One (Part 1) [trailer] and Public Enemy Number One (Part 2) [trailer] (to be released by HCE in Czech theatres on December 11 and January 1, 2009 respectively), whose screenings were attended by director Jean-François Richet and producer Thomas Langmann.

The closing film was Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Class [trailer, film focus] by Laurent Cantet, who also made the journey to the Czech Republic, where his film was launched last Thursday by Artcam.

Other avant-premières included the Dardenne brothers’ Belgian/French co-production Lorna’s Silence [trailer, film focus] and Laurent Charbonnier’s documentary Animals in Love (to be released on January 29, 2009 by SPI).

Lorraine Lévy’s London Mon Amour [trailer] won the competition in which ten titles vied for honours. Léa Fazer’s What If...? [trailer] and Sandrine Bonnaire’s Her Name Is Sabine [trailer] also scooped awards.

Other contenders included Arnaud Desplechin’s A Christmas Tale [trailer], Olivier Assayas’ Summer Hours [trailer] and Belgian director Bouli Lanners' Eldorado [trailer].

Serge Bozon and Marion Lainé also attended the festival to present their films France [trailer] and A Simple Heart.

The Panorama section included the following co-productions: Rumba [trailer, film focus] by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy, Solveig Anspach’s Back Soon and Nadine Labaki’s Caramel [trailer].

The programme "French film successes" hosted screenings of the Gallic titles to have enjoyed the best results at the Czech box office this year. These include Paris [trailer], Asterix at the Olympic Games [trailer], animated films Persepolis [trailer, film focus] and Dragon Hunters; and 2 Days in Paris [trailer, film focus].

(Translated from French)