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RELEASES France

European films see out 2010 and usher in 2011

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With titles by Michelangelo Frammartino, Iciar Bollain, Gabriele Muccino, Denis Gansel, Marco Risi and directorial duo Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson, non-domestic European films are well represented in the line-up of new releases hitting French theatres on December 29 and January 5.

Italy is particularly to the fore with three titles. On Wednesday, December 29, Les Films du Losange is releasing Frammartino’s The Four Times [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michelangelo Frammartino
interview: Savina Neirotti
film profile
]
, which won the Europa Cinemas Label in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in May. Meanwhile, Mars Distribution will be hoping for success with Muccino’s Kiss Me Again [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(see review). On January 5, Bellissima Films is launching Risi’s Fortapàsc [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(see review), which retraces the final months in the life of a Neapolitan journalist before he is murdered by the Camorra.

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Spain’s candidate in the nomination race for the 2011 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Bollain’s Even the Rain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile
]
, is being launched by Haut et Court on January 5. This co-production between Spain (Morena Film and Vaca Film), France (Mandarin Cinéma) and Mexico stars Luis Tosar and Gael García Bernal. It is scripted by Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty, Ken Loach’s usual collaborator.

On December 29, Germany also puts in an appearance with Gansel’s vampire film We Are the Night [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(distributed by Metropolitan Filmexport); as does Sweden with Simonsson and Nilsson’s Sound of Noise [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, which was unveiled in Cannes Critics’ Week 2010 and is being launched by Wild Bunch Distribution.

To see out 2010 and usher in 2011, French productions will also be in the spotlight. Hitting screens on December 29 are Isild Le Besco’s Bas-fonds [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(“Lowest Depths”), which stirred audiences at the latest Locarno Film Festival (distribution: Ciné Classic); and Roberto Garzelli’s The Sentiment of the Flesh [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(see reviewZelig Films Distribution).

January 5 is dominated by Nicolas Cuche’s French/Belgian co-production La Chance de Ma Vie [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(“The Luck of My Life”), a comedy about bad luck starring Virginie Efira, François-Xavier Demaison and Raphaël Personnaz (Mars Distribution). Other releases that day include Jean-Marie Straub’s O Soma Lucce (Baba Yaga Films); Romain Cogitore’s Nos Résistances (“Our Resistances”, Shellac); Sofia Coppola’s Venice Golden Lion-winner Somewhere (distributed by Pathé, who helped finance the film); and two documentaries: Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck’s German/Austrian film Pianomania (Jour2fête) and Jean-François Ferrillon’s feature-length Images de Femmes ou Le Corset Social (“Images of Women or the Social Corset”, Imagie).

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(Translated from French)

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