10/05/2007

Following on from its sales of Julie Delpy’s Two Days in Paris [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christophe Mazodier
interview: Julie Delpy
film profile] (see article) to 43 territories at the Berlinale, French world sales outfit Rezo Films is eagerly awaiting the Cannes Film Market (May 16-26, 2007).

Laurent Danielou and Sébastien Chesneau’s team have five titles in the different selections of the festival, with Alexandre Sokourov’s Alexandra heading the bill.

Co-produced by Rezo with Russian outfit Proline Films, the feature marks the fifth time in official competition for the director, who won Best Screenplay at Cannes 1999 for Moloch and competed for the Palme d’Or with Father and Son (2003 FIPRESCI Prize), Russian Ark [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2002) and Taurus (2001).

The film is likely to spark controversy, as the story revolves around a grandmother who comes to visit her grandson, an officer in a military unit in Checyna, and makes friends with a group of young Chechen women.

Rezo also expects to do well in Official Selection with German helmer Volker Schlöndorff’s Ulzhan [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which will be screened as part of the festival’s 60th anniversary. Written by Jean-Claude Carrière, the French/German/Kazakh co-production from the slate of Fly Times Pictures starring Philippe Torreton recounts the astonishing trip of a French man to Kazakhstan and his encounter with an unconventional character.

Rezo will be also be selling three debut features: Lola Doillon’s Et toi, t’es sur qui ? [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] in the Un Certain Regard section, Critics’ Week entry Horse Thieves [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Belgian helmer Micha Wald and FIPRESCI revelation of the year, Yo by Spain’s Rafa Cortéz.

Market premieres include Philippe Leclerc’s animated film Princess of the Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Léon Zuratas
interview: Philippe Leclerc
film profile] (see Focus) while curiosity surrounds 13m2, directed by and starring Barthelemy Grossmann alongside Thierry Lhermitte and Berenice Bejo. The Nessva Films production follows three freight robbers who find themselves in a 13 metre square hideout with €2m, giving rise to lies and conflicts.

Rezo’s Cannes line-up also features films in post-production, such as Eric Rohmer’s Les amours d’Astrée et Céladon (see article), Idit Cebula’s romantic comedy Deux Vies Plus Une (lit. “Two Lives Plus One”) starring Emmanuelle Devos, and Laetita Masson’s Coupable (lit. “Guilty”).

The Rezo production, with a star-studded cast including Hélène Fillières, Jérémie Rénier, Amira Casar, Denis Podalydès, Anne Consigny and Marc Barbé, is the story of a lawyer defending a woman accused of her husband’s murder.

(Translated from French)