10/03/2006

The 11th Rendez-Vous With French Cinema opens today in New York with the screening of Valérie Lemercier’s Palais royal!. The event, which runs from March 10-19 and is organised by Unifrance, offers a selection of 15 French features, of which three have already tied up a US distributor. This year, the programme will be held, for the first time, in three venues in the Big Apple (the Walter Reade Theater at the Lincoln Center, the IFC Center and the Cantor at New York University), as opposed to just one in previous years.

Programmed films include French box office successes such as The Russian Dolls [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Cédric Klapisch, Danièle Thompson’s Orchestra Seats [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Isabelle Mergault’sYou Are So Beautiful [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Emerging talent is also at the "rendez-vous", with Le Petit lieutenant [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Xavier Beauvois, Cold Showers [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Antony Cordier, Emmanuel Carrère’s The Mustache', Stéphane Brizé’s Not Here To Be Loved [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Gentille by Sophie Fillières.

The selection is rounded out by established directors such as Laurent Cantet (Heading South [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Cantet
interview: Robin Campillo
interview: Simon Arnal-Szlovak
film profile]), Brigitte Roüan (Housewarming [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Serge Le Péron (I Saw Ben Barka Get Killed), Danis Tanovic (Hell [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), Yves Angelo (Les Ames grises [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Pierre Jolivet (Zim & Co [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

The French delegation attending the New York event includes 13 of the 15 directors, a number of the actors (including Nathalie Baye) and producers such as Franck Chorot (Gaumont), Bruno Levy (Ce Qui Me Meut), Jean-Louis Livi (F comme Films), Anne Dominique Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles), Christine Gozlan (Thelma Production), Cedomir Kolar (A.S.A.P Films) and Edouard Weil (Rectangle Productions).

International sales companies are also onhand, notably Films Distribution, Les Films du Losange, Pathé International, Rezo Films and TF1 International, their mouths watering after the record results for French cinema in the US in 2005 (more than $200m at the box office).

(Translated from French)