09/09/2009

As the Rentrée du Cinéma (September 13-16) event approaches, allowing moviegoers to see films for only €4 per screening at 5,400 French cinemas, ten new titles unfurl on screens this Wednesday. Among them is French-Italian co-production 36 Views of Saint-Loup Peak [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Jacques Rivette, opening on 32 screens today through Les Films du Losange. Today’s most controversial release – a competition entry at the Venice Film Festival (see article) – has invited much criticism, with critics very clearly divided between offering it unconditional support and completely hating it.

For its part, Alfama Films has released 28 prints of Fanny Ardant’s Ashes and Blood [+see also:
trailer
film profile], unveiled out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May and starring Ronit Elkabetz. Co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, Hirsch, DD Productions and Romania (30%) via Libra Film, the feature received additional funding through advances on receipts from France’s Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) and its Hungarian counterpart.

French comedy is invading theatres, with 350 prints from Mars Distribution for Olivier Doran’s The Life Coach [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Outsider Production and Alter Films). Starring Jean-Paul Rouve and Richard Berry, the film sees the latter, a celebrity business coach trying to improve the performances of Rouve’s character, a sales executive in charge of negotiating a major contract with China.

Optimale is opening Chef’s Special [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Spanish director Nacho Garcia Velilla on ten screens. The title picked up an award for Best Actor (Javier Camara) and Best Audience Award at the 2008 Malaga Film Festival and was twice-nominated at the 2009 Goya Awards (Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor).

Lastly, Twentieth Century Fox is releasing My Life in Ruins by US helmer Donald Petrie, a co-production by Spanish outfit Kanzaman. The list of new releases is wrapped up by three other US productions, one Brazilian title and one Iranian feature.

Over at the box-office – still very much dominated by German co-productions – the major crowd-pullers are Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (1.8m admissions in 19 days) and Gabriel Julien-Laferrière’s social comedy Neuilly sa mère ! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (1.5m admissions in 25 days, TFM Distribution). As for the Grand Prize winner of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jacques Audiard
interview: Jacques Audiard and Tahar R…
film profile] has got off to a flying start clocking up 520,000 admissions in only 11 days (UGC Distribution) despite its length which has limited the number of screenings.

(Translated from French)