ÉCU SPOTLIGHT: CATHERINE DENEUVE – THE QUEEN OF FRENCH CINEMA
Catherine Deneuve: The queen of French cinema that winks at the Independent cinema
by Alessia Massa
If you have a love for film, you must have a certain appreciation for French cinema. From the Lumière brothers to today, the French cinema has contributed many masterpieces that have helped to write cinematography history. Independent cinema is able to strike the heart’s chords; it can make you smile, touch you,...
This week the spotlight is on Marcel Carné, an innovative filmmaker who led the poetic realism movement and was arguably considered the most admired French filmmaker of his era.
He produced his great works just before the mid-twentieth century, some of which include; “Quai de Brumes” (1938); “Les Portes de la Nuit” (1946); and “Le Jour se lève” (1939).
In 1936 Carné directed his first full length feature film “Jenny” and it was with the production of this fil...
Eddy Brière © Les Films du 24 - UGC Distribution
Thérèse Desqueyroux by Claude Miller, with Audrey Tautou in the title role, Gilles Lellouche and Anaïs Demoustier, will be screened at the closing ceremony of the 65th Festival de Cannes on 27 May in the Grand Théâtre Lumière of the Palais des Festivals.
Claude Miller’s final film is an adaptation of François Mauriac’s novel “Thérèse Desqueyroux”. On the 4th of April of this year, shortly after finishing t...
"I was really into mainstream," says Brilliante Mendoza, the director of LOLA, of his career start as an advertising art director and production designer to mainstream Asian directors, "more the glamorous, glossy type of world (as) compared to what I am doing (now)."
But Mendoza's attention has turned to what he calls "real-time" storytelling, films based on real life stories. LOLA ("grandmother" in Tagalog) was inspired by a news item he s...
JAN HARLAN (Head of the Jury)
Producer and Director
„I joined Stanley Kubrick in 1969 for his Napoleon project, which was unfortunately abandoned, but I enjoyed working with Stanley and he liked me, so I added the study of film-production with a great teacher to my previous profession. My first film as an assistant was A Clockwork Orange. Four years later I became Kubri...
Gary Lucas Plays Coffin Joe SXSW posterWhat a great party last night at the French Embassy here in NYC for the restoration of Marcel Carne's seminal "Les Enfants du Paradis"! One of my favorite films, possibly the best film of all time--and a new restored print wll soon be available on DVD through Criterion and is about to commence a 3 week run at the Film Forum here.
As usual, the crowd at these parties was exceptionally glittery--hung out with my old friend Dr. Ann...
Regarding Oscar Nominations Gala Night of this very night in US, American film director of Serbian origin Peter Bogdanovich, Hollywood film director, together with another prime guest of festival Jiri Menzl opened 40th FEST- the International Film Festival in Belgrade, Serbia. In addition, today he was awarded with the highest recognition of the Yugoslav Film Archive in Belgrade "Golden Seal". This acclaimed director was born in New York 1939 in family in exile, and at the 16th he en...
FINAL SELECTION OF IN RETROSPECT: 60 YEARS OF FESTIVAL FILMS
5 – 11 MARCH
Perth Festival is delighted to announce the final selection of In Retrospect: 60 Years of Festival Films.
In celebration of our 60th Festival we have selected seven films from those which have screened at the Festival since its beginning in 1953. One film from each decade was selected to screen for one night only from Monday, 5 March and one Australasian film will screen on Sunday, 11 March.
Perth Festival Arti...
By Jen Wallace
With
the days of Blockbuster well and truly over, Netflix unavailable in
France and the epidemic of dodgy pirated downloading online, ÉCU has
researched alternative and 100% legal ways of watching your favourite
movies in Paris.
With an emphasis on French classics, rarities and
independent
cinema, here are 5 ways to watch movies around the city. (Note: Always
carry ID and proof of address with you, as most libraries will ask to
you to prov...
Brooklyn…..get ready for some true glamour. Catherine Deneuve, the grande dame of French cinema will receive a career retrospective starting on Friday, March 4 at the BAMcinématek, Brooklyn’s leading art house cinema. In the month-long tribute, 25 films from the great actress’ varied career over five decades will be showcased. The program is co-presented by Unifrance, in collaboration with Music Box Films, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and Institut Français. BAM...
25th Mar del Plata Internacional Film Festival From 13th to 21st November, 2010 The only Latin American Film Festival with “A” status was conceived in 1954 due to the need to reflect the Argentinean Cinema universe, as well as the international cinematographic scenario. Year after year, the Festival established itself as a vital exhibition of the development and exchange of the film industry and audiovisual arts. Mar del Plata International Film Festival is today a must for filmmakers, acto...
Inviting the international press to a special preview screening and delectable lunch at the chic The Hospital Club in Covent Garden, the British Film Institute (BFI), the sponsoring organization of the BFI London Film Festival, wanted to emphasize that they provide outstanding film programs throughout the entire year. The BFI has the goal of educating and entertaining the British public by providing a voice for cultural film, from both its homes shores and overseas, via festival...
What is it about French actresses, that they grow even more beautiful and, arguably, more talented with age. Jeanne Moreau and Catherine Deneuve are but two examples of this gorgeous gallic phenomenon, where their later roles take on even greater gravitas as the subtle lines of their face change, their voices lowers a register and their once all-too-fragile beauty slightly hardens and becomes as enduring as a Greek sculpture. But blood courses through their veins and passion, if not only...
THE PLEASURE OF BEING ROBBED
You've heard of the Warner brothers and the Baldwin brothers.....well, make way for the Safdie brothers, the directorial team of Benny and Josh Safdie, American indie's dynamic duo. The BAMcinématek located at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York has turned the asylum over to the inmates for the eclectic film series titled Emotional Sloppy Manic Cinema: Films Directed and Selected by Benny and Josh Safdie.
The series, a collection of 19...
For devotees of French cinema, it doesn't get much better than this. Gérard Depardieu, the bad boy-turned-eminence grise of French cinema, will give a master class on the cinema at the Montreal World Film Festival on the Festival's final day of September 6. The celebrated French star will reflect on his craft, his experiences with the great film directors of his era and on his vision of the contemporary cinema.
“It was in Montreal, in 1983, that Gérard Depardieu received h...
The Montreal World Film Festival will pay tribute to the celebrated French actress Nathalie Baye, who will be in Montreal to present a selection of her films. One of the most well-respected and versatile French actresses of her generation, Nathalie Baye has enjoyed a lengthy career that has included multiple César awards and a wide variety of roles. She has been the muse of many of the great directors of the French screen, such as Alain Cavalier, Nicole Garcia, Jean-Luc Godard, Toni...
Thelma's Schoonmaker's father Bertram was employed as a clerical worker by the Standard Oil Company and worked abroad.[4] She was born in Algiers, Algeria to American expatriates and raised in various countries, including on the Dutch-Caribbean island of Aruba.[4][5]
Honoured at the
Cannes Festival Italian beachfront Pavillion, by the leading film industry pros in attendance, Renzo Rossellini, the Italian composer was awarded a special Trophy for his life contribution to Italian cinematography.
Born in 1941, Renzo Rossellini first collaborated with his father Roberto as an assistant Director and later as his producer until 1977. Then he founded and served as chairma...
"I was really into mainstream," says Brilliante Mendoza, the director of LOLA, of his career start as an advertising art director and production designer to mainstream Asian directors, "more the glamorous, glossy type of world (as) compared to what I am doing (now)." But Mendoza's attention has turned to what he calls "real-time" storytelling, films based on real life stories. LOLA ("grandmother" in Tagalog) was inspired by a news item he saw on television...
The 46th Chicago International Film Festival will honor Ron Howard with its Silver Hugo Career Achievement Award on June 12, 2010. During the Festival’s annual Summer Gala, the acclaimed actor, producer and director will receive the award, in recognition of his outstanding 50-year career in the film industry. Past recipients of this award have included Steven Spielberg, Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut, Sigourney Weaver, Nicholas Cage, Jodie Foster, Robin Williams and Clint Eastwood.
On this...
Cinema According to Véra Belmont featuring special screenings with Véra Belmont and Jackie Raynal April 6 - April 27, 2010 FIAF · Florence Gould Hall 55 East 59th Street, NYC
This April, the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF), New York's premiere French cultural center, will celebrate France's "Grande Dame" of cinema for the last 45 years with a new CinémaTuesdays series entitled, Cinema According to Véra Belmont. The series will examine the prolific artist's...
Agnès Varda filmmaker, photographer, editor, composer, occasional actress and producer, will receive international homage and will be awarded with the Silver Mayahuel on the 25th edition of Guadalajara Film Festival.
With over than 40 titles on her career, the international critic considers Agnès Varda as "the Nouvelle Vague lady".
She studied at the Sorbonne and the Louvre Schoole and since 1949 she ventured as a photographer and started reporting in different countries.
...
By Greta Lorez
Did you know…
… Jean-Luc Godard, one of the founding
members of the Nouvelle Vague, was the son of a Swiss couple. Born in
Paris, he spent his childhood in Switzerland and at the age of 18,
moved back to Paris where he studied Ethnology at the Sorbonne. Godard,
however, never severed his Swiss connection: many of his movies were
shot on location in Switzerland. He lives there now.
… the German filmmaker Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of De...
With more than sixty French film productions and co-productions included in the line-up, French cinema boasts a strong presence at the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Internationally acclaimed, recent French productions (feature films, short films, performances) will top the bill together with numerous début features, including two films competing for the VPRO Tiger Awards, by a talented and innovative young generation of filmmakers, confirming the IFFR’s role as a major pl...
the 27th Torino Film Festival
Torino Grand Prix
Starting this year, the Torino Film Festival presents Torino Grand Prix, an award which is given each year to filmmakers who, from the surfacing of the nouvelles vagues on, have helped renew the film language, create new aesthetic models and communicate the new trends that are the basis of the most interesting works of contemporary cinema.
This year, the prize will be given to Emir Kusturica, for the inventiveness o...