News

Hovering around the twenty-one to twenty-four feature film mark with at least a quarter of those films belonging to first time filmmakers, the Quinzaine des Realisateurs (a.k.a Directors’ Fortnight) has in the past couple of years, counted on a healthy supply of French, Spanish and Belgium produced film items, and has been geared towards the offbeat genre items as with last year’s edition curated by Edouard Waintrop and co. To be unveiled on the 22nd, as we attempted with our Critics’ Week predix, Blake Williams, Nicholas Bell and I (Eric Lavallee) are thinking out loud and hedging our bets on what the section might look like or what the programmers might be looking at for 2014. Here is our predictions overview:

Alleluia

Six years after presenting Vinyan at the Venice Film Festival, Fabrice Du Welz finally returns with potentially not one, but a pair of works for the ’14 campaign.

Sneak Peek footage and images from the R-rated 'Marie Antoinette' romantic feature "Farewell, My Queen ("Les Adieux à la reine") directed by Benoît Jacquot, based on the novel of the same name by author Chantal Thomas.

The film is an eyewitness account of France's doomed Queen 'Marie Antoinette' (Diane Kruger), as seen through the eyes of an infatuated, female servant, 'Sidonie Laborde' (Léa Seydoux) :

"...in 1789, on the eve of the 'French Revolution', the court at the 'Palace of Versailles' still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a distance away. 

"When news about the storming of the 'Bastille' reaches the Court, most aristocrats and servants desert the Palace, fearing that the government is falling. 

"They abandon the Royal Family. But 'Sidonie Laborde', a young servant who is the Queen's reader, has a crush on the monarch and refuses to flee.

"She...

Sneak Peek new images from the dramatic period feature "Farewell, My Queen ("Les Adieux à la reine") directed by Benoît Jacquot, based on the novel of the same name by author Chantal Thomas.

The film is an eyewitness account of France's doomed Queen 'Marie Antoinette' (Diane Kruger), as seen through the eyes of an infatuated, female servant, 'Sidonie Laborde' (Léa Seydoux) :

"...in 1789, on the eve of the 'French Revolution', the court at the 'Palace of Versailles' still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a distance away. 

"When news about the storming of the 'Bastille' reaches the Court, most aristocrats and servants desert the Palace, fearing that the government is falling. 

"They abandon the Royal Family. But 'Sidonie Laborde', a young servant who is the Queen's reader, has a crush on the monarch and refuses to flee.

"She feels secure under the protection...

Sneak Peek actress Diane Kruger in the new dramatic feature "Farewell, My Queen ("Les Adieux à la reine") directed by Benoît Jacquot, based on the novel of the same name by author Chantal Thomas.

The film is an eyewitness account of France's Queen 'Marie Antoinette' (Kruger), before she falls under the guillotine, as seen through the eyes of a young female servant, 'Sidonie Laborde' (Léa Seydoux) :

"...in 1789, on the eve of the 'French Revolution', the court at the 'Palace of Versailles' still live their routines, relatively unconcerned by the increasing turmoil in Paris a distance away. When news about the storming of the 'Bastille' reaches the Court, most aristocrats and servants desert the Palace, fearing that the government is falling. They abandon the Royal Family.

But 'Sidonie Laborde', a young servant who is the Queen's reader, has a crush on her and refuses to flee.

"She feels...

Title: THe Names of Love (Le nom des gens) Directed By: Michele Leclerc Written By: Bay Kasmi, Michele Leclerc Cast: Sara Forestier, Jacques Gamblin, Carole Franck, Zinedine Soualem, Jacques Boudet, Michèle Moretti Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 6/7/11 Opens: June 24, 2011 Often when the title of a foreign movie is adapted into English, the translation is not literal. “Le nom des gens,” for example, means “People’s Names,” not “The Names of Love.” “People’s Names,” in fact, would be a more descriptive title for this film since director Michele Leclerc and co-writer Bay Kasmi want us in the audience to realize, as Shakespeare did in “Romeo and Juliet,” that your...

Reviewed by Jay Antani

(June 2011)

Directed by: Michel Leclerc

Written by: Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi

Starring: Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem, Carole Franck, Jacques Boudet, Michèle Moretti, Zakariya Gouram and Julia Vaidis-Bogard

In “The Names of Love,” writer-director Michel Leclerc employs a deft, whimsical touch in bringing together such weighty themes as family guilt, generational regret and finding true love in a world mined with racial and cultural politics. It’s a delicate tightrope that co-writers Leclerc and Baya Kasmi walk, but in presenting issues of their own personal experiences as ethnic minorities in their native France, their screenplay is refreshingly honest and inventive. And considering that “The Names of Love” really has very little plot driving it, Leclrec and Kasmi create an engaging romantic comedy simply by virtue of their offbeat humor and appealing characters.

Family history is central to understanding this movie about mismatched lovers. Arthur...

Reviewed by Jay Antani

(June 2011)

Directed by: Michel Leclerc

Written by: Michel Leclerc and Baya Kasmi

Starring: Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem, Carole Franck, Jacques Boudet, Michèle Moretti, Zakariya Gouram and Julia Vaidis-Bogard

In “The Names of Love,” writer-director Michel Leclerc employs a deft, whimsical touch in bringing together such weighty themes as family guilt, generational regret and finding true love in a world mined with racial and cultural politics. It’s a delicate tightrope that co-writers Leclerc and Baya Kasmi walk, but in presenting issues of their own personal experiences as ethnic minorities in their native France, their screenplay is refreshingly honest and inventive. And considering that “The Names of Love” really has very little plot driving it, Leclrec and Kasmi create an engaging romantic comedy simply by virtue of their offbeat humor and appealing characters.

Family history is central to understanding this movie about mismatched lovers. Arthur...

Music Box Films Presents

Michel Leclerc’s

The Names Of Love

(Le nom des gens)

*** César Awards 2011 – Winner – Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay ***

*** Col-Coa Film Festival 2011 – Official Selection ***

*** Cannes International Film Festival 2010 – Official Selection ***

Opening In Los Angeles And New York On June 24

Baya Benmahmoud (Sara Forestier), a young, extroverted liberal, lives by the old hippie slogan: “Make love, not war” to convert right-wing men to her left-wing political causes by sleeping with them. She seduces many and so far has received exceptional results – until she meets Arthur Martin (Jacques Gamblin), a Jewish middle aged, middle-of-the road scientist. Bound by common tragic family histories (the Algerian War and Holocaust under Vichy), the duo improbably fall in love. Amid the bubbly amour, humorous lasciviousness and moments of sheer madness, filmmaker Michel Leclerc injects satirical riffs on such hot-button sociopolitical issues as Arab-Jewish relations, anti-Semitism, immigration, and racial and cultural identity.

24 year-old...