Thursday, October 18----------The second edition of CINEMA: Rome FilmFest opens this evening with the gala screening of LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE, by French auteur director Alain Corneau. The film brings together an impressive line-up of topline French film talents, including Daniel Auteuil, Monica Bellucci, Michel Blanc, Eric Cantona and genuine film noir icons Jacques Dutronc and Daniel Duval. The film had its world premiere at last month's Toronto International Film Festival and is making its European Premiere in Rome tonight prior to its theatrical release in France on October 24th via Arp Selection.

The film is based on the popular book by José Giovanni (also the basis of the 1966 film by iconic French director Jean Pierre Melville).  Shot in the locations used in the original story – between Paris, Marseilles and Bouches du Rhône – the film is set at the end of the 1950s. It tells the final odyssey of the gangster Gu (played by Daniel Auteuil). Having escaped from prison and being hunted by the police, he tries to find a safe passage over the border to Italy, together with his partner, Manouche. To “buy” his freedom, he agrees to take part in one last robbery, which he manages to pull off successfully. But times have changed, the criminals’ code of honour has been replaced by the greed of a new breed of sharks and even the  police aren’t what they once were. Gu will meet his destiny head on, while managing to maintain his dignity and his past intact.

Alain Corneau is one of France's most respected film directors, having won the Cesar Award (the French Oscar) as Best Film and Best Director for the 1992 film TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE. Among his other well known films are SERIE NOIRE (1979),  NOCTURNE INDIEN (1989), LE COUSIN (1997),FEAR AND TREMBLING (2003) and SOME KIND OF BLUE (2005).

Sandy Mandelberger, Rome FF Dailies Editor