14/02/2007

Nearly 29% of the 5,366 French cinemas will have one of the two most eagerly awaited domestic titles heading their bill this Wednesday – Gérard Krawczyk’s Taxi 4 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news), on release through EuropaCorp and ARP Sélection (865 screens) – as well as Olivier Dahan’s La Vie en Rose [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, released by TFM on 668 prints.

However, quality European cinema has managed to sneak in behind the two blockbusters with 20th Century Fox’s release of Kevin MacDonald’s The Last King of Scotland [+see also:
trailer
film profile] on 102 screens. A triple winner at last weekend’s BAFTA Awards, the film picked up Best British Film of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor (Forest Whitaker, who is also nominated for an Oscar).

Co-productions hitting the screens include Michael Hegner’s French/Danish animated title The Ugly Duckling and Me! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (a Futurikon production, in association with A.Film, Magma Films and Ulysses), on release through Gebeka Films (262 prints), and Olivier Ringer’s Belgian/French feature Pom le poulain, starring Richard Bohringer and Morgan Marinne (a Ring Production and La Chauve Souris co-production), distributed by Rezo Films (57 screens).

Rounding off this week’s new releases is René Féret’s Il a suffi que maman s'en aille... [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (JLM Distribution/MC4) and Fred Poulet and footballer Vikash Dhorasoo’s Substitute [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Ad Vitam, 12 prints).

At the box office, last week’s release, Odette Toulemonde [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (see interview), has got off to a good start with 256,000 admissions in the first five days, but it is Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Florian Henckel von Donners…
interview: Ulrich Muehe
film profile] (see Focus) that is grabbing all the attention. In its second week, the German feature – voted Best European Film of 2006 – saw admissions rocket 22% to reach 257,000 in 12 days on 141 screens (Océan Films).

Meanwhile, 600,000 flocked in two weeks to see Laurent Tirard’s Molière [+see also:
trailer
film profile], 716,000 in three weeks to Régis Wargnier’s Have Mercy on Us All [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and 777,000 cinemagoers in five weeks to Eric Barbier’s The Snake [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

These results reflect the statistics published in January by the CNC. The year has indeed got off to a positive start, with 14.78 admissions (+5.2% compared to January 2006) and a significant market share of 56.4% for French films.

(Translated from French)