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RELEASES France

From The First Cry to The Last Gang

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Thirteen new releases reach French cinemas today: 10 European productions and co-productions, alongside three US features.

Offering a variety of genres, domestic titles take pride of place with Ariel Zeitoun’s Le dernier gang [+see also:
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(“The Last Gang”; formerly known as Les Buttes-Chaumont, see article. The €10.5m film stars Vincent Elbaz, Gilles Lellouche, Sami Bouajila and Clémence Poesy and was produced by EuropaCorp and Ajoz Films, with Glaski Productions and France 3 Cinéma co-producing. EuropaCorp is launching it on a generous 411 screens.

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Gaumont is placing its hopes on a 320-print release of Julien Leclercq’s €8.76m futuristic thriller Chrysalis [+see also:
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(co-produced by TF1 Films Production), starring Albert Dupontel, Marie Guillard, Marthe Keller and Mélanie Thierry.

Another feature with a similar budget (€8.5m) is distributed by StudioCanal on 250 screens: Pascal Thomas’s L'heure Zéro [+see also:
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(“Zero Hour”). Produced by Les Films Français with France 2 Cinéma, the adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel stars François Morel, Danielle Darrieux, Chiara Mastroianni, Melvil Poupaud and Laura Smet.

This trio of films is accompanied by an interesting alternative selection of documentaries, including Walt Disney’s 246-print release of Gilles de Maistre’s Le premier cri (“The First Cry”), which enables people worldwide to experience the phenomenon of childbirth. It was produced by Mai Juin Productions, and co-produced by M6 Films and BVI for €2.5m.

Also of note are Jean-Michel Carré’s J'ai (très) mal au travail [“Work Hurts (A Lot)”, Les Acacias, 14 screens] and the Swiss documentary Le temps des adieux (“Time To Say Goodbye”) by Mehdi Sahebi (Shellac, four screens).

And while Pyramide is distributing To Each His Cinema, the collective film celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, TFM Distribution is releasing 189 prints of Woody Allen’s Cassandra’s Dreams [+see also:
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(UK/France/US), screened out of competition at this year’s Venice Festival.

Lastly, We & Co-Optimale is hoping for success with The Two Sides of the Bed [+see also:
film review
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interview: Álvaro Curiel
interview: Emilio Martínez Lázaro
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by Spanish director Emilio Martinez Lazaro and Haut et Court has released Naomi Kawase’s French/Japanese co-production The Mourning Forest (winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2007) on 56 screens.

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(Translated from French)

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