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The €26m production starts principal photography on May 30 in the Paris region.

UTA Independent Film Group has boarded Playtime’s buzzy upcomimg biopic Monsieur Aznavour. starring Tahar Rahim, to lead on US sales.

The film about the legendary French singer Charles Aznavour also stars Bastien Bouillon and Marie-Julie Baup.

Mehdi Idir and French rap artist Grand Corps Malade direct following the duo’s hit films Step by Step and School Life. T

The producers are prolific French producers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer of Mandarin & Compagnie and Jean-Rachid’s Kallouche Cinema.

The €26m production starts principal photography on May 30 in...

"Gourmet cuisine is not for the common man." Samuel Goldwyn Films has debuted an official US trailer for a French historic drama titled Delicious, originally Délicieux in French. This premiered at the Rendezvous with French Cinema Festival, and stopped by others including Festival du Cinéma Français in Israel and the Norwegian Film Festival. Set in France in 1789, just before the Revolution. A chef who has been sacked by his master, with the help of a woman, finds the strength to free himself from being a servant to open the very first restaurant. Is this a true story? I've always wondered where restaurants came from, and how they developed! Of course it's France staking claim to the very beginning. The cast of Delicious includes Gregory Gadebois, Isabelle Carre, Benjamin Lavernhe, Guillaume de Tonquédec, Christian Bouillette, Lorenzo Lefèbvre, & Marie-Julie Baup. Looks like it's quite a sumptuous watch, especially for foodies. Here's the...

Micmacs is a very difficult film to categorize. It’s much like a live action cartoon with an anti-gun message. Micmacs is a heist film, populated with oddball characters battling gangsters in France. Writer/Director Jean Pierre Jeunet (Who directed the excellent Amelie and the dreadful Alien: Resurrection) has created a comical version of the Losers with social commentary. Imagine an episode of Leverage starring the Loony Toon characters and you’ve got the idea.

This unique example of farcical French cinema bounces along, unhindered by logic, forcing you to accept its absurdist style and suspend all disbelief. The original title Micmac a Tire Larigot means “Non-stop madness”, which is an appropriate title for this art-house oddity.

Bazil (Dany Boon) has had his life ruined by weapons. His father was killed by a landmine in Morocco, which caused his mother to have a mental break down and Bazil was brought up in an orphanage.

Chicago – Can a movie be too creative? Jean-Pierre Jeunet tests this theory with his ridiculously over-the-top “Micmacs,” a clever film that is almost too polished and refined to be effective. Of course, it looks great on Blu-ray but this giant Jeunet fan can’t help but think his style has finally trumped his substance.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.0/5.0

As much fun as it can be, there are elements of “Micmacs” that simply don’t work. But would we feel the same way if it were a debut? Is it disappointing only in light of “Amelie,” “Delicatessen,” and “The City of Lost Children”? Film doesn’t exist in a vacuum and it’s impossible to ignore the fact that while this film is masterfully-designed, it’s lesser compared to its auteur’s previous works. Still, lesser Jeunet is still pretty quality in entertainment, especially in HD.

Micmacs will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on December 14th,...

Review originally published on March 18, 2010 as part of our SXSW coverage.

Favored French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) returns to delight audiences once again with Micmacs, his sixth feature film. Astounding visuals are abundant, washing the screen an alluring aura of cinematography. What sets Micmacs apart is its unabashedly comical nature, drawing influence from the silent masters. A love of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin is clearly present, making Micmacs a whimsically wild ride.

Danny Boon (The Valet) plays Bazil, an unlucky man. As a boy, Bazil.s father was killed when a landmine exploded. His father was attempting to dispose of the explosive device. Now a grown man, Bazil works a simple job in a little video rental shop. On one otherwise normal and eventless day, a stray bullet ricochet.s into Bazil.s shop and plunks him in the head. Fortunate to survive, the doctors flip a coin...

Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writer: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurent Starring: Dany Boon, Dominique Pinon, François Berléand, Albert Dupontel The year is 1979, Bazil’s (Dany Boon) father is blown to bloody bits while dismantling a mine in the Sahara (this ain’t no Hurt Locker); his mother subsequently has a complete mental breakdown. Next, Bazil escapes from a repressive Catholic orphanage. We find him years later, now an unabashed cinephile (ala Quentin Tarantino), working as a clerk in a video store. One night while mimicking the The Big Sleep verbatim, Bazil is caught in the crossfire of a shootout. At this moment, we dissolve into the opening credits of what seems to be a film within a film. (Is Bazil dead? In which case…is everything else all a dream?) With a bullet lodged in his head, Bazil’s surgeon is left with two options: remove the bullet (reducing Bazil to a...

Director/ Producer: Jean-Pierre Jeunet Writer: Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet DVD and Blu-ray release date: June 21 2010 Studio: E1 Entertainment Number of discs: 1 Price: From £10.99 Running Time: 101 mins Certificate: 12 Starring: Dany Boon, Dominique Pinon, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Michel Cremades, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Marie-Julie Baup Jean-Pierre Jeunet (A Very Long Engagement, Amelie, The City of Lost Children, Delicatessen) returns with another quirky, surreal and thoroughly enchanting offering. Bazil (Dany Boon) is orphaned when his father is blown up by a mine he is disarming and his mother has a break down. He goes to live with strict nuns, eventually running away by hiding in a baker’s van. Years later, working in Matador video he is shot in the head accidentally when two people sloppily wage war against each other in the street outside. Released form hospital with a bullet permanently lodged in his skull, Bazil’s apartment and job have...

By: Jette Kernion, reposted from SXSW 3/13/10

Imagine if filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) took the quirkiest, most whimsical, downright funniest bits out of all his films and then jacked them up to 11. If this idea makes you run out of the room screaming, you are probably not the best audience for Micmacs (aka Micmacs a tire-larigot). But for the rest of us, Micmacs -- loosely translated as "Shenanigans" -- is a delight.

Bazil (Dany Boon) is a young video-store worker whose father died when he stepped on a hidden mine. When Bazil is shot in the head by a bullet meant for someone else, he ends up as a medical miracle ... who has lost his job and his home. Fortunately, he encounters a group of waifs and strays who take him in: an inventor of complex but cute mechanisms, a young woman who can calculate anything in her head (Marie-Julie Baup...

Sony Pictures Classics have provided us with poster, photos and trailer from Micmacs.

Micmacs is a 2009 film by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie, The City of Lost Children, A Very Long Engagement) that premiered on 15 September 2009 at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival as a gala screening at Roy Thompson Hall. Its original French title is Micmacs à tire-larigot, (‘Non-stop madness’). The film is billed as a “satire on the world arms trade”.

Micmacs synopsis

First, it was a mine that exploded in the middle of the Moroccan desert. Years later, it was a stray bullet that lodged in his brain… Bazil (Dany Boon) doesn’t have much luck with weapons. The first made him an orphan, the second holds him on the brink of sudden and instant death.

Released from the hospital, Bazil is homeless. Luckily, our inspired and gentle-natured dreamer is adopted by a motley crew of secondhand dealers...

Five very long years after Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s A Very Long Engagement, the eccentric French filmmaker returns with another uniquely stylized vision of life and love.

Micmacs à tire-larigot is a whimsical crime caper about the “shenanigans” of a man enacting his clever revenge on two munitions makers. A landmine killed his father when Bazil (Dany Boon) was just a boy and a stray bullet lodges in his head after an explosion outside his video store. The freak accident brings him to the brink of sudden death (and holds him there) before robbing Bazil of his job and apartment.

Wandering the streets alone, Bazil is taken in by a hodgepodge of bizarre characters who dwell in a sort of makeshift junkyard cave and offer to help him get back at the pair of weapon manufacturers who ruined his life. Accompanying him are a contortionist (Julie Ferrier), a brainy math whiz...

There are five new clips in from Sony Pictures Classics' "Micmacs" comedy/crime flick. Jean-Pierre Jeunet ("A Very Long Engagement," "Alien Resurrection") directs from the screenplay he wrote along with Guillaume Laurant. The film stars Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon, Michel Crémadès and Marie-Julie Baup. "Micmacs à tire-larigot" opens on May 28th in limited areas. First it was a mine that exploded in the middle of the Moroccan desert. Years later, it was a stray bullet that lodged in his brain... Bazil doesn't have much luck with weapons. The first made him an orphan, the second holds him on the brink of sudden, instant death. Released from the hospital after his accident, Bazil is homeless. Luckily, our inspired and gentle-natured dreamer is quickly taken in by a motley crew of junkyard dealers living in a veritable Ali Baba's cave.

Check out the trailer for Sony Pictures Classics' "Micmacs à tire-larigot" (a.k.a."Micmacs") starring Dany Boon, André Dussollier, Nicolas Marié, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Yolande Moreau, Julie Ferrier, Omar Sy, Dominique Pinon, Michel Crémadès and Marie-Julie Baup. Very intriguing, certainly caught my attention. The film produced by Epithète Films, Tapioca Films, France 3 Cinéma and Warner Bros. Entertainment France opens May 28th in limited areas and is R for sexuality and brief violence.

Favored French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) returns to delight audiences once again with Micmacs, his sixth feature film. Astounding visuals are abundant, washing the screen an alluring aura of cinematography. What sets Micmacs apart is its unabashedly comical nature, drawing influence from the silent masters. A love of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin is clearly present, making Micmacs a whimsically wild ride.

Danny Boon (The Valet) plays Bazil, an unlucky man. As a boy, Bazil.s father was killed when a landmine exploded. His father was attempting to dispose of the explosive device. Now a grown man, Bazil works a simple job in a little video rental shop. On one otherwise normal and eventless day, a stray bullet ricochet.s into Bazil.s shop and plunks him in the head. Fortunate to survive, the doctors flip a coin to decide he.s better off having the bullet left lodged in is head,...

Imagine if filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie) took the quirkiest, most whimsical, downright funniest bits out of all his films and then jacked them up to 11. If this idea makes you run out of the room screaming, you are probably not the best audience for Micmacs (aka Micmacs a tire-larigot). But for the rest of us, Micmacs -- loosely translated as "Shenanigans" -- is a delight.

Bazil (Dany Boon) is a young video-store worker whose father died when he stepped on a hidden mine. When Bazil is shot in the head by a bullet meant for someone else, he ends up as a medical miracle ... who has lost his job and his home. Fortunately, he encounters a group of waifs and strays who take him in: an inventor of complex but cute mechanisms, a young woman who can calculate anything in her head (Marie-Julie Baup); a human cannonball (Dominique Pinon...

Ok, I know that I'm almost one month late. After all, the list of the candidates for the Best Male and Female Hopes has been public knowledge since November 25. Anyway, I just want to post the information since I'm a lover of French culture. Enjoy.

The 2010 César for the Best Female Hope:

Marie-Julie Baup in Micmacs à tire-larigot

Astrid Berges Frisbey in Un barrage contre le Pacifique

Agathe Bonitzer in Un chat un chat

Sophie Cattani in Je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante

Judith Davis in Je te mangerais

Anaïs Demoustier in Sois sage

Mati Diop in 35 rhums

Pauline Etienne in Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront

Alice de Lencquesaing in Le père de mes enfants

Florence Loiret-Caille in Je l’aimais

Sara Martins in Mensch

Lola Naymark in L’armée du crime

Vimala Pons in La Sainte Victoire

Soko in A l’Origine

Christa Theret...

Why there were a few scattered empty seats left at the world premiere of "Micmacs," I don't know. This is Jean-Pierre Jeunet, dammit, and after putting the excess of "A Very Long Engagement" behind him, he arrived in Toronto with a leaner and meaner comedy that seems to have been designed as a playground for his visual ingenuity and boundless imagination.

His partner in crime, the French star Dany Boon ("My Best Friend"), stars as Bazil, a video store clerk who's introduced to us playfully mouthing along to the dialogue in "The Big Sleep" before a freak gun accident leaves him with a bullet lodged in his brain. (The operating surgeon flips a coin to decide whether to keep it in or remove it and risk putting him into a coma.) Already having lost his father to a landmine during war, Bazil becomes an unlikely peace activist, igniting a feud...