Veteran French helmer Bertrand Tavernier (“The French Minister”) is curating a 15-film retrospective of films by Henri Decoin (1890-1969), a larger-than-life character who before directing his first feature, at the age of 43, was an Olympic swimmer, Wwi pilot, sports journalist and novelist.
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
- 10/18/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Known for creating some of the most important films in French history, and during Nazi Occupation, no less, Criterion issues two of Marcel Carne’s most widely acclaimed masterpieces, his crowning achievement, Children of Paradise (1945), which, if you haven’t seen, you need to, and a noteworthy work that directly precedes it, Les Visiteurs du Soir (1942), which has long since been popularly interpreted as an allegory of the hostile occupation. While this interpretation is hardly surprising and seems rather fitting, Carne’s film is much more universal than that, instead conveying the unbreakable spirit of pure love. Presented like the dark, harsh fairy tale it is, Carne managed to create a sumptuously poetic, luxurious film about how love does not indeed conquer all, but can perhaps endure.
Pages flipped by a dark gloved hand inform us that our tale is set in the Middle Ages, May of 1485. Two of the devil’s envoys,...
Pages flipped by a dark gloved hand inform us that our tale is set in the Middle Ages, May of 1485. Two of the devil’s envoys,...
- 9/25/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Charlotte Gainsbourg (Antichrist) and Yvan Attal (Leaving) have been cast Une Nuit (One Night).
Gainsbourg and Attal will star opposite Nathalie Baye, Nicole Garcia and Natacha Régnier in Belgian director Lucas Belvaux eighth feature film.
Une nuit (One Night), inspired by Didier Decoin’s novel Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent?, centers on a wife (Gainsbourg) who discovers that her husband is one of the witnesses of a crime scene.
Filming is expected to commence on January 21 in Le Havre, France.
Gainsbourg will next be seen in Lars Von Trier‘s sci-fi psychological disaster film Melancholia.
The Playlist reported this story.
Gainsbourg and Attal will star opposite Nathalie Baye, Nicole Garcia and Natacha Régnier in Belgian director Lucas Belvaux eighth feature film.
Une nuit (One Night), inspired by Didier Decoin’s novel Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent?, centers on a wife (Gainsbourg) who discovers that her husband is one of the witnesses of a crime scene.
Filming is expected to commence on January 21 in Le Havre, France.
Gainsbourg will next be seen in Lars Von Trier‘s sci-fi psychological disaster film Melancholia.
The Playlist reported this story.
- 1/12/2011
- by Jamie Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Real-life couple Charlotte Gainsbourg and Yvan Attal will once again share the lead, this time in Belgian director Lucas Belvaux eighth feature film which is set to begin filming next month in the North of France in Le Havre. Titled Une nuit (One Night) this sees thesps Nicole Garcia and Natacha Régnier (who starred in the Cannes selected La Raison du plus faible) fill out the supporting roles. Attal starred in Belvaux's last picture Rapt (2009) which will be released stateside on July 12th. Gist: Inspired by Didier Decoin's novel "Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent?", this is the story of a wife (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who discovers that her husband is one of the witnesses of a crime scene. Worth Noting: The Gainsbourg-Attal pair of previously starred together in such films as My Wife is an Actress (2001) and in ...And They Lived Happily Ever After (2004). Do We Care?: Like...
- 1/10/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
Film review: 'Jakob the Liar'
Finding stirring mainstream movie material in the horrors of the Holocaust, Sony's "Jakob the Liar" has a more involving and believable story than its much-heralded doppelganger -- Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful" -- and it's a pity that director Peter Kassovitz's fine film seems fated to be lost in the thicket of serious, literary movies facing audiences this fall.
Premiering out of competition in the Deauville Festival of American Cinema, the drama-with-comedy "Jakob" has one not-so-secret ingredient that may draw audiences when it opens Stateside on Sept. 24: star Robin Williams in his best film since "Good Will Hunting", playing a role that's nothing like his larger-than-life clowning in last year's hit "Patch Adams" (which he filmed after "Jakob"'s fall 1997 shoot in Poland and Hungary).
Based on the German novel by Lodz Ghetto survivor Jurek Becker (first published in the United States three years ago), "Jakob" was filmed successfully in 1974 by East German filmmaker Frank Beyer. (That film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for the foreign-language Oscar in 1976 but lost to "Black and White in Color".)
Kassovitz, who experienced the war as a child in his native Hungary and moved to Paris during the 1956 revolution, is not well known outside France, where's he's been directing and writing for 40 years, mostly in television. "Jakob" is a tricky but successful marriage of a good story -- adapted by Kassovitz and French screenwriter-novelist Didier Decoin (recent miniseries "The Count of Monte Cristo" and the original book "The Chambermaid on the Titanic") -- with a filmmaking team committed to showing the harsh milieu with few concerns about commerciality.
The result is far more inspiring, entertaining and worth experiencing than you might expect. Set not in a concentration camp but in Lodz, Poland, in the winter of 1944, "Jakob" is the tale of a futureless man, a cafe owner isolated with his fellow Jews by the Germans in the guarded ghetto. One evening before curfew, Jakob (Williams) chases after a newspaper carried by a breeze and is harassed by a guard.
Ordered to report for punishment for doing nothing wrong, inside a Germans-only building with a banished radio, widower Jakob overhears news that the Russians are advancing against the Nazis. Everything changes for him when he's miraculously spared by the seemingly distracted occupiers and returns home bursting to tell someone the first encouraging information about the outside world they've heard in a long time.
But now he's in serious danger knowing something he should not, which is why he only reluctantly tells others. To stop headstrong Mischa (Liev Schrieber) from a suicidal gesture, Jakob tells him the news. A few scenes later, Jakob's forced to swear he's telling the truth to stop defeated Kowalsky (Bob Balaban) from hanging himself. Keeping secrets is impossible for these two reborn rascals, and the story gets out that Jakob has a radio hidden away.
In short order, Jakob becomes an underground celebrity. He secretly takes another huge risk by hiding an orphan girl (Hannah Taylor Gordon) who escapes from a train bound for the death camps. Denying that he has a radio does no good, and Jakob realizes he is helping his fellow victims. He starts to play the role of a reluctant -- not necessarily genuine -- prophet, but there's not a happy end to his story.
Alan Arkin, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mathieu Kassovitz, Michael Jeter and Nina Siemaszko fill out the excellent cast. The sets, cinematography, makeup, costumes and Edward Shearmur's score are more than adequate at transporting one into the film's grim environment.
JAKOB THE LIAR
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Columbia Pictures
Blue Wolf Prods. with Kasso Inc.
Director: Peter Kassovitz
Screenwriters: Peter Kassovitz & Didier Decoin
Based on the book by: Jurek Becker
Producers: Marsha Garces Williams, Steven Haft
Executive producer: Robin Williams
Director of photography: Elemer Ragalyi
Production designer: Luciana Arrighi
Editor: Claire Simpson
Costume designer: Wieslawa Starska
Music: Edward Shearmur
Casting: Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerry Barden
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jakob: Robin Williams
Mischa: Liev Schreiber
Kowalsky: Bob Balaban
Frankfurter: Alan Arkin
Lina: Hannah Taylor Gordon
Kirschbaum: Armin Mueller-Stahl
Rosa: Nina Siemaszko
Avron: Michael Jeter
Herschel: Mathieu Kassovitz
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Premiering out of competition in the Deauville Festival of American Cinema, the drama-with-comedy "Jakob" has one not-so-secret ingredient that may draw audiences when it opens Stateside on Sept. 24: star Robin Williams in his best film since "Good Will Hunting", playing a role that's nothing like his larger-than-life clowning in last year's hit "Patch Adams" (which he filmed after "Jakob"'s fall 1997 shoot in Poland and Hungary).
Based on the German novel by Lodz Ghetto survivor Jurek Becker (first published in the United States three years ago), "Jakob" was filmed successfully in 1974 by East German filmmaker Frank Beyer. (That film won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and was nominated for the foreign-language Oscar in 1976 but lost to "Black and White in Color".)
Kassovitz, who experienced the war as a child in his native Hungary and moved to Paris during the 1956 revolution, is not well known outside France, where's he's been directing and writing for 40 years, mostly in television. "Jakob" is a tricky but successful marriage of a good story -- adapted by Kassovitz and French screenwriter-novelist Didier Decoin (recent miniseries "The Count of Monte Cristo" and the original book "The Chambermaid on the Titanic") -- with a filmmaking team committed to showing the harsh milieu with few concerns about commerciality.
The result is far more inspiring, entertaining and worth experiencing than you might expect. Set not in a concentration camp but in Lodz, Poland, in the winter of 1944, "Jakob" is the tale of a futureless man, a cafe owner isolated with his fellow Jews by the Germans in the guarded ghetto. One evening before curfew, Jakob (Williams) chases after a newspaper carried by a breeze and is harassed by a guard.
Ordered to report for punishment for doing nothing wrong, inside a Germans-only building with a banished radio, widower Jakob overhears news that the Russians are advancing against the Nazis. Everything changes for him when he's miraculously spared by the seemingly distracted occupiers and returns home bursting to tell someone the first encouraging information about the outside world they've heard in a long time.
But now he's in serious danger knowing something he should not, which is why he only reluctantly tells others. To stop headstrong Mischa (Liev Schrieber) from a suicidal gesture, Jakob tells him the news. A few scenes later, Jakob's forced to swear he's telling the truth to stop defeated Kowalsky (Bob Balaban) from hanging himself. Keeping secrets is impossible for these two reborn rascals, and the story gets out that Jakob has a radio hidden away.
In short order, Jakob becomes an underground celebrity. He secretly takes another huge risk by hiding an orphan girl (Hannah Taylor Gordon) who escapes from a train bound for the death camps. Denying that he has a radio does no good, and Jakob realizes he is helping his fellow victims. He starts to play the role of a reluctant -- not necessarily genuine -- prophet, but there's not a happy end to his story.
Alan Arkin, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Mathieu Kassovitz, Michael Jeter and Nina Siemaszko fill out the excellent cast. The sets, cinematography, makeup, costumes and Edward Shearmur's score are more than adequate at transporting one into the film's grim environment.
JAKOB THE LIAR
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Columbia Pictures
Blue Wolf Prods. with Kasso Inc.
Director: Peter Kassovitz
Screenwriters: Peter Kassovitz & Didier Decoin
Based on the book by: Jurek Becker
Producers: Marsha Garces Williams, Steven Haft
Executive producer: Robin Williams
Director of photography: Elemer Ragalyi
Production designer: Luciana Arrighi
Editor: Claire Simpson
Costume designer: Wieslawa Starska
Music: Edward Shearmur
Casting: Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerry Barden
Color/stereo
Cast:
Jakob: Robin Williams
Mischa: Liev Schreiber
Kowalsky: Bob Balaban
Frankfurter: Alan Arkin
Lina: Hannah Taylor Gordon
Kirschbaum: Armin Mueller-Stahl
Rosa: Nina Siemaszko
Avron: Michael Jeter
Herschel: Mathieu Kassovitz
Running time -- 120 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
- 7/20/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The King Is Dancing
In "The King Is Dancing" (Le Roi Danse), Belgian filmmaker Gerard Corbiau, who made a splash stateside with his Oscar-nominated "Farinelli", has made his third film of four to revolve around music. This time we find ourselves in the court of Louis XIV in the days before he became the Sun King. In this fascinating glimpse into how such a man propels himself to power, the film shows Louis creating an image from music and dance, relying specifically on two geniuses: the ballet composer Lully and the poet and playwright Moliere.
The film is steeped in French political and cultural history, which probably places it beyond the interest of most American moviegoers, but it should play well at festivals and European art houses. And with "Farinelli" as a calling card, the film could be a candidate for limited U.S. release and cable TV sale.
This is a magnificent production with regal interiors, sumptuous costumes, a fluid camera befitting the baroque period and, of course, a soundtrack that reflects a movie devoted to not only the invention of the king's ballet but also to opera itself. Astonishingly, the production was shot not in France, but in an abandoned airport near Cologne, Germany, that has been turned into a studio.
The screenplay -- worked on by Corbiau and his wife, Andree, novelist Eve de Castro and Didier Decoin -- develops the notion that Louis XIV (Benoit Magimel) had to invent himself before consolidating power. Made king at age 14, his country is nevertheless ruled by his mother (Colette Emmanuelle). Shy and overwhelmed by the responsibilities that will one day be thrust upon him, the young dauphin throws himself into music and dance, at which he excels.
His companions in these pursuits are Lully (Boris Terral), a Frenchified Italian composer of ballet, and Moliere (Tcheky Karyo), with whom Louis pairs Lully to create theatrical works. But the Old Guard, which considers these works blasphemous, opposes them at every juncture.
A splendid dancer, Louis is determined that French dance and music dominate Europe. In this way, he will create an image of himself at the forefront of all that is good and noble and absorb the state into his persona as a great dancer so that the body of the king is identified with his kingdom.
But as years go by, the king can no longer dance, so he compels Lully and Moliere to collaborate on comedy ballets. Eventually, Moliere dies, and Louis no longer attends Lully's concerts. All of this Lully recalls from his deathbed, where he thinks back on the dancing king and the thrilling adventures they shared.
These are all difficult and complicated characters. The two geniuses are easily tempted by debauchery and confounded by a "friendship" with a king, a man who shrewdly declares that he has no friends. One observes such people with interest, but their manners and methods are often alienating.
Despite marriage and children, Lully is homosexual, and his enemies use this against him until even Louis must insist that he lead a more conservative life. Terral, as Lully, with Long Dark hair and intense features, is always in motion, as if his entire life were a piece of choreography. Louis is the love of Lully's life, in the platonic sense, and he means for his genius to reflect the king's glory.
Magimel, who reminds one of a blond Sean Penn, slowly acquires the hauteur and stature of the Sun King as the movie progresses. But one sees his sagacity even when Louis is an immature young man.
Karyo's Moliere is a gentle soul despite a rapier wit and love of satirizing piety and hypocrisy. His anger gets subsumed in his humanity and a love for creating art.
Corbiau does an outstanding job of evoking the atmosphere of the 17th century court intrigue and treachery in which the young king grows up. And the music and dance are beautifully filtered through this world of backstabbing courtiers.
But the film is ultimately more cerebral than emotional. It's history without any tragedy; instead, one merely gets the bitter disappointment of artists passed over by their royal fan. And a king who creates a "media image" for himself. In this respect, it's a very modern film.
THE KING IS DANCING
K-Star, France 2 Cinema, MMCI,
K-Dance, K2 and RTL TVI
with participation of Canal Plus
Producer: Dominique Janne
Director: Gerard Corbiau
Screenwriters: Eve de Castro, Andree Corbiau, Gerard Corbiau, Didier Decoin
Inspired by the book by: Philippe Beaussant
Director of photography: Gerard Simon
Art director: Huberg Pouille
Music: Jean-Baptiste Lully
Costume designer: Olivier Beroit
Editors: Ludo Troch, Philippe Ravoet
Color/stereo
Cast:
Louis XIV: Benoit Magimel
Lully: Boris Terral
Moliere: Tcheky Karyo
Anne d'Autriche: Colette Emmanuelle
Madeleine: Cecile Bois
Julie: Claire Keim
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The film is steeped in French political and cultural history, which probably places it beyond the interest of most American moviegoers, but it should play well at festivals and European art houses. And with "Farinelli" as a calling card, the film could be a candidate for limited U.S. release and cable TV sale.
This is a magnificent production with regal interiors, sumptuous costumes, a fluid camera befitting the baroque period and, of course, a soundtrack that reflects a movie devoted to not only the invention of the king's ballet but also to opera itself. Astonishingly, the production was shot not in France, but in an abandoned airport near Cologne, Germany, that has been turned into a studio.
The screenplay -- worked on by Corbiau and his wife, Andree, novelist Eve de Castro and Didier Decoin -- develops the notion that Louis XIV (Benoit Magimel) had to invent himself before consolidating power. Made king at age 14, his country is nevertheless ruled by his mother (Colette Emmanuelle). Shy and overwhelmed by the responsibilities that will one day be thrust upon him, the young dauphin throws himself into music and dance, at which he excels.
His companions in these pursuits are Lully (Boris Terral), a Frenchified Italian composer of ballet, and Moliere (Tcheky Karyo), with whom Louis pairs Lully to create theatrical works. But the Old Guard, which considers these works blasphemous, opposes them at every juncture.
A splendid dancer, Louis is determined that French dance and music dominate Europe. In this way, he will create an image of himself at the forefront of all that is good and noble and absorb the state into his persona as a great dancer so that the body of the king is identified with his kingdom.
But as years go by, the king can no longer dance, so he compels Lully and Moliere to collaborate on comedy ballets. Eventually, Moliere dies, and Louis no longer attends Lully's concerts. All of this Lully recalls from his deathbed, where he thinks back on the dancing king and the thrilling adventures they shared.
These are all difficult and complicated characters. The two geniuses are easily tempted by debauchery and confounded by a "friendship" with a king, a man who shrewdly declares that he has no friends. One observes such people with interest, but their manners and methods are often alienating.
Despite marriage and children, Lully is homosexual, and his enemies use this against him until even Louis must insist that he lead a more conservative life. Terral, as Lully, with Long Dark hair and intense features, is always in motion, as if his entire life were a piece of choreography. Louis is the love of Lully's life, in the platonic sense, and he means for his genius to reflect the king's glory.
Magimel, who reminds one of a blond Sean Penn, slowly acquires the hauteur and stature of the Sun King as the movie progresses. But one sees his sagacity even when Louis is an immature young man.
Karyo's Moliere is a gentle soul despite a rapier wit and love of satirizing piety and hypocrisy. His anger gets subsumed in his humanity and a love for creating art.
Corbiau does an outstanding job of evoking the atmosphere of the 17th century court intrigue and treachery in which the young king grows up. And the music and dance are beautifully filtered through this world of backstabbing courtiers.
But the film is ultimately more cerebral than emotional. It's history without any tragedy; instead, one merely gets the bitter disappointment of artists passed over by their royal fan. And a king who creates a "media image" for himself. In this respect, it's a very modern film.
THE KING IS DANCING
K-Star, France 2 Cinema, MMCI,
K-Dance, K2 and RTL TVI
with participation of Canal Plus
Producer: Dominique Janne
Director: Gerard Corbiau
Screenwriters: Eve de Castro, Andree Corbiau, Gerard Corbiau, Didier Decoin
Inspired by the book by: Philippe Beaussant
Director of photography: Gerard Simon
Art director: Huberg Pouille
Music: Jean-Baptiste Lully
Costume designer: Olivier Beroit
Editors: Ludo Troch, Philippe Ravoet
Color/stereo
Cast:
Louis XIV: Benoit Magimel
Lully: Boris Terral
Moliere: Tcheky Karyo
Anne d'Autriche: Colette Emmanuelle
Madeleine: Cecile Bois
Julie: Claire Keim
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/9/2001
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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