19/03/2008

Thomas Vincent’s thriller The New Protocol [+see also:
trailer
film profile] hits French theatres today, launched by StudioCanal on 233 screens.

Starring Clovis Cornillac and Marie-Josée Croze, the film was co-written by the director and Eric Besnard (Babylon A.D. [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

The New Protocol recounts a lonely man’s investigation into the death of his 18-year old son and the sudden arrival of an alter-globalist campaigner who is convinced that his death is the result of trials of a new migraine medicine. This conviction leads both characters into increasingly dangerous situations, compared by some critics to Fernando Meirelles’ The Constant Gardener [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and even Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View.

Produced by Mandarin Cinéma for a budget of €8.4m, including €1.2m from M6 Films and co-production support from StudioCanal, The New Protocol is the third feature by the director of Karnaval (in competition at Berlin in 1999) and The Hook (Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2004).

This Wednesday also sees the release of writer Philippe Claudel’s acclaimed debut feature I’ve Loved You So Long [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Unveiled in competition at the latest Berlinale (see special report), the film starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein is being released on 238 screens by UGC Distribution. UGC YM produced the film for a budget of €6.7m, including co-production support from German company Integral Film, an €850,000 investment from France 2 Cinéma and €200,000 from the Eurimages fund. Shellac are releasing on 21 screens Alain Raoust’s L'été indien (“Indian Summer”), starring Belgian actors Johan Leysen and Déborah François, Dutch actress Johanna Ter Steege, and French actor Guillaume Verdier.

Written by the director (who first came to attention with The Cage - Fipresci Award at the 2002 Locarno Film Festival) and the novelist Olivier Adam, the film looks at how a Flemish man who lives with his daughter in the Alps finds his painful past coming back to haunt him.

The title was produced by Sunday Morning Productions for €1.5m, including co-production support from Rhône-Alpes Cinéma and an advance on receipts from the National Centre for Cinematography (CNC).

The line-up also includes the unusual European feature Ben X [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nic Balthazar
interview: Peter Bouckaert
film profile] by Belgian director Nic Balthazar (see Focus), launched by Océan Films on 60 screens.

French releases include Jean Perissé’s L'Occitanienne (Le dernier amour de Chateaubriand) (“The Occitanian Woman – Chateaubriand’s Last Love”, Artédis - six screens); Marie-Claude Treilhou’s documentary Couleurs d'orchestre (“Orchestra Colours”, Les Films d’Ici); and The Pope’s Toilet, by directorial duo César Charlone and Enrique Fernandez, which is a co-production between Chaya Films, Uruguay and Brazil (Pierre Grise Distribution - 50 screens).

These new releases share the line-up with six other new titles, including four US features, and films from New-Zealand and Korea.

(Translated from French)