"Comic Strip"

Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life

Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque)
2010, France
Joann Sfar

That Joann Sfar’s Serge Gainsbourg film was originally planned to star the famed musician’s own daughter, Charlotte Gainsbourg, as her father makes it difficult to imagine that, when Charlotte dropped out, anything or anyone that could have successfully taken her place. Sure, the casting of a woman in the role of an iconic, enigmatic singer/songwriter had been done (successfully) in Todd Haynes’ Bob Dylan pic I’m Not There., with Cate Blanchett, but the possibility of seeing Charlotte Gainsbourg in drag as her late father, seducing and romancing an actor playing her mother, would have been as decidedly pervy and enticing as Charlotte’s own teenage duet with daddy, “Lemon Incest.” So it came as a bit of a surprise (to me, at least) that Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), sans Charlotte, is actually quite good.

Certainly Eric Elmosnino’s channeling of Monsieur Gainsbourg, which won him the Best Actor prize at the Césars, is impressive, but a solid impersonation does not a good film make. Instead, it’s the bolder choices made by Sfar, best known as a comic artist, in his first foray as a filmmaker that elevate Vie héroïque, which he adapted from his own graphic novel, beyond your factory-line Hollywood biopic. Sfar too won the César for Best First Film. Throughout the film, Serge–whether played as an adult by Elmosnino or as the child Lucien Ginsburg by Kacey Mottet Klein (of Ursula Meier’s Home)–is accompanied by a nightmarish, computer-animated version of himself, which serves as a visually exciting and narratively clever device.

 

Sfar also excels at one of the film’s more difficult tasks: introducing the many famed women of Gainsbourg’s life. It’s unfortunate that the two women who get the most screen time, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, are the least convincing performances in the film, despite both Laetitia Casta and Lucy Gordon’s strong physical resemblances to their respective characters. However, each of the women represented in the film enter the film explosively, almost the way I would imagine would befit the introduction of a series of recognized villains in a well-known comic book or video game. Villains these women, of course, are not, but they each provide their own individual challenges to our hero.

 

The more inspired performances come from Yolande Moreau as Fréhel, Sara Forestier as France Gall, Mylène Jampanoï as Bambou, and especially Anna Mouglalis as Juliette Gréco. Greco’s entrance is the most astonishing: a single shot of the opening her eyes to the sound of a thunder clap, as if she were waking from a hundred-year slumber. There’s also a funny, cartoonish cameo from Claude Chabrol (in his final appearance on the silver screen) as the record producer to whom Gainsbourg brings his new version of “Je t’aime, moi non plus” with Birkin filling in on vocals for Bardot. Again, it’s all about the eyes. Vie héroïque is probably the best biopic of Serge Gainsbourg that could have been made without Charlotte, and for that, Sfar should be commended.

With: Eric Elmosnino, Lucy Gordon, Laetitia Casta, Doug Jones, Kacey Mottet Klein, Razvan Vasilescu, Dinara Droukarova, Anna Mouglalis, Mylène Jampanoï, Sara Forestier, Yolande Moreau, Philippe Katerine, Deborah Grall, Ophélia Kolb, Claude Chabrol, François Morel, Joann Sfar

RIP Sylvia Kristel

 

Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel, best known to the world as the sensual, globe-trotting heroine of the Emmanuelle films, died in Amsterdam on October 17 at the age of 60. After beginning her career as a model in the Netherlands, Kristel got her big break as the title character of the French erotic sensation Emmanuelle, which spawned numerous sequels and even more imitators. Kristel reprised her role in four subsequent Emmanuelle features, as well as continuing on to play the character in a series of made-for-French-television movies in the early 1990s. She re-teamed with the director of the original Emmanuelle, Just Jaeckin, in a saucy, English-language adaptation of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover in 1981 before starring in a pair of American sex comedies (Private Lessons and Private School, no relation). Kristel's other notable films include Walerian Borowczyk's La marge opposite Joe Dallesandro; Roger Vadim's second, "unofficial" adaptation of Les liaisons dangereuses, Une femme fidèle; Claude Chabrol's loose adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, Alice ou la dernière fugue; Alain Robbe-Grillet's surreal mystery Le jeu avec le feu (Playing with Fire); the American espionage spoof, The Nude Bomb; Curtis Harrington's trashy Mata Hari film; and Fons Rademakers' dark thriller Because of the Cats.

Acquisition Update, 17 December: Rivette and Co.

Cinema Guild announced today that they will be handling the US release of Jacques Rivette's latest Around a Small Mountain [36 vues vues du Pic Saint-Loup], which stars Jane Birkin, Sergio Castellitto and Jacques Bonnaffé, set for a spring '10. This marks Cinema Guild's third exciting acquisition in the past month following Maren Ade's Everyone Else and Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor's Sweetgrass.

Film Movement also announced today that they've picked up Phillippe Lioret's Welcome, which stars Vincent Lindon. The film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 2009 Berlinale, as well as the Best Screenplay prize at the Gijón International Film Festival.

And thanks to Keaton Kail from IFC Films' list on The Auteurs, it looks as though IFC has nabbed a number of films for 2010, aside from the ones we already knew about, like Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, Marco Bellocchio's Vincere, François Ozon's Ricky and Kim Ji-woon's The Good, the Bad, the Weird. The titles, including Secret Sunshine which has been in distribution limbo for almost three years, are below:

- Bellamy, 2009, d. Claude Chabrol, France, w. Gérard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Jacques Gamblin
- Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee, 2009, d. Shane Meadows, UK, w. Paddy Considine
- Leaving [Partir], 2009, d. Catherine Corsini, France, w. Kristin Scott Thomas, Sergi López
- My Enemy's Enemy, 2007, d. Kevin Macdonald, France/UK (originally a Weinstein title that was canceled shortly after its DVD was announced)
- Secret Sunshine, 2007, d. Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, w. Jeon Do-yeon
- Sounds Like Teen Spirit, 2008, d. Jamie Jay Johnson, UK
- The Time That Remains, 2009, d. Elia Suleiman, France/UK/Italy/Belgium
- Vengeance, 2009, d. Johnnie To, France/Hong Kong, w. Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Testud, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Simon Yam

Coming (or Not Coming) in 2009: Part 1

This is the first part of a series of posts which will look at what films we can expect to see make their premiere during 2009. You can check some of my earlier posts about the Berlinale for news about films from Lukas Moodysson, Catherine Breillat, François Ozon, Rebecca Miller, Stephen Frears, Costa-Gavras, Andrzej Wajda, Hans-Christian Schmid (Requiem), Lucía Puenzo (XXY), Andrew Bujalski, Sally Potter, Chen Kaige and Theo Angelopoulos. This post will focus on French directors and productions. The run-down is admittedly auteur-driven, as no one can really predict when a film like Cristian Mungui's 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days will sneak up and floor us. As you can imagine, many of these films won't hit the US until next year, later (or never).

UPDATED: I forgot to include Jean-Pierre Jeunet's new film when I pasted this from my word processor, so scroll down for that. I've also included some more links (nearly all of which are in French).

I've mentioned my enthusiasm for Claire Denis' latest film, White Material, several times on the blog as I was told (via Facebook) that Denis was hoping to have the film edited in time for the Berlinale. It isn't playing there, so the next likely place would have to be Cannes in May, though I'd suspect it'd play out of competition as star Isabelle Huppert is the head of this year's jury. Set in Cameroon, Christopher Lambert co-stars as Huppert's husband, along with Nicolas Duvauchelle and Isaach de Bankolé, both of which have worked with Denis in the past. The film is produced by Why Not Productions in France. Denis' 35 rhums [35 Shots of Rum], which played at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, opens in France on 18 February.

Four years after Gabrielle, Patrice Chéreau (Queen Magot, L'homme blessé) returns behind the camera for Pérsecution, which he co-wrote with Anne-Louise Trividic who also co-write Gabrielle, Son frère and Intimacy with Chéreau. The film stars Romain Duris, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Jean-Hughes Anglade, is being produced by Arte France Cinéma and should be released by mk2 before the end of the year.

Isabelle Huppert will once again team with director Benoît Jacquot (L'école de la chair [The School of Flesh]) for Villa Amalia, which opens in France on 11 March through EuropaCorp. Jean-Hughes Anglade, Xavier Beauvois and Maya Sansa (Buongiorno, notte [Good Morning Night]) also star.

I haven't been able to find any new information about Catherine Breillat's Bad Love, a remake of her own Parfait amour! starring Naomi Campbell and Christophe Rocancourt. Naturally, I will post more information as I come across it. Her latest, a fantasy La barbe bleu, premieres at the Berlinale. La barbe bleu was produced by Arte France and look for the possibility of a re-release of Tapage nocturne [Nocturnal Uproar] as it will screen at Berlin as well.

In their sixth collaboration, Catherine Deneuve will once again grace the screen for director André Téchiné in La fille du RER, which opens in France on 18 March from UGC Distribution. The film also stars Michel Blanc (who was in Téchiné's last film Les témoins [The Witnesses]), Mathieu Demy (Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda's son), Ronit Elkabetz (Late Marriage, The Band's Visit), Émilie Dequenne (Rosetta) and Nicholas Duvauchelle.

Alain Resnais' new film Les herbes folles stars Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos and Anne Consigny, all three of which were last seen in Arnaud Desplechin's Un conte de Noël, as well as André Dussollier and longtime collaborator Sabine Azéma. The film is based on the novel L'incident by Christian Gailly and should be released through Studio Canal on 21 October in France. Les herbes folles was shot by Eric Gautier, who has previously worked with Olivier Assayas, Catherine Breillat, Patrice Chéreau and Desplechin.

Still working at 81, Jacques Rivette's new film (perhaps his last?) 36 vues du Pic Saint-Loup stars Jane Birkin, who also co-starred in Rivette's L'amour par terre and La belle noiseuse, Jacques Bonnaffé (Prénom Carmen, Jeanne et le garçon formidable) and Sergio Castellitto (The Wedding Director, My Mother's Smile). Les Films du Losange are releasing the film on 16 September.

Claude Chabrol, who turns 80 next year, will unveil his latest Bellamy on 25 February through TFM Distribution after it premieres in Berlin on the 8th. Gérard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac (Faubourg 36) and Jacques Gamblin star.

In the second Coco Chanel biopic in two years (the other was made-for-television and starred Shirley Maclaine), Anne Fontaine (Nathalie...) will direct Audrey Tautou as the fashion designer. Coco avant Chanel [Coco Before Chanel], which also stars Alessandro Nivola, Emmanuelle Devos and Benoît Poelvoorde, will be out in France through Warner Brothers on 22 April. Warner will also distribute the film in the US sometime at the end of the year or 2010.

Seven years after her disturbing feature-length debut as a director Dans ma peau [In My Skin] Marina de Van's second film Ne te retourne pas stars Monica Bellucci, Sophie Marceau and Andrea Di Stefano (Before Night Falls). The film sounds a BIT like The Eyes of Laura Mars, but that's okay in my book. The film should be out sometime in May in France from Wild Bunch.

The filmmaking duo Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau (Jeanne et le garçon formidable, Drôle de Félix [The Adventures of Felix], Ma vraie vie à Rouen [My Life on Ice], Crustacés et coquillages [Côte d'Azur]) should have their latest, L'arbre et la forêt, out sometime this year, though I wasn't able to find any dates or distributors for the film. L'arbre et la forêt stars Guy Marchand, Françoise Fabian, Sabrina Seyvecou (Paris), Yannick Renier and Pierre-Loup Rajot (Felix, À nos amours). Their last film Nés en 68 [Born in '68], which also stars Seyvecou, Renier, as well as Laetitia Casta and Yann Trégouët, will be released in the US later this year through Strand Releasing.

Julie Delpy's second foray as a director will make its international debut at the Berlinale on 9 February. The Countess, which Delpy also wrote and stars in, also features William Hurt, Anamaria Marinca, Daniel Brühl and Sebastian Blomberg. The poster above incorrectly lists Vincent Gallo, Ethan Hawke and Radha Mitchell as stars though all three dropped out of the film. No word yet on a French or US release.

Jacques Audiard's (Sur mes lèvres [Read My Lips], De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté [The Beat My Heart Skipped]) Un prophète will be released through UGC Distribution on 26 August in France. The film stars Niels Arestrup (Je, tu, il, elle, Stavisky....).

Bruno Dumont's fifth film Hadewijch will be distributed by Tadrat Films sometime in 2009, after making a likely showing at this year's Cannes Film Festival. All of his films except for Twentynine Palms have debuted at the fest, and his last film Flandres won the Grand Prix. The cast will, like Flandres, be comprised of unknowns.

After contributing to two omnibus films (Destricted and 8), Gaspar Noé's third feature film Enter the Void will be released in France from Wild Bunch over the summer, possibly after a showing at Cannes. Enter the Void, which was filmed in Montréal and Tokyo, will be Noé's first English-language film.

After disastrous results working in the US (he called Babylon A.D. "like a bad episode of 24"), Mathieu Kassovitz returns home to direct, star and co-write L'ordre et la morale. Not much is known about the project, but it seems unlikely to make it out by the end of the year.

And finally, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's latest film Micmacs à tire-larigot stars Dany Boon (of the regional box office sensation Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, currently being remade in the US), Dominique Pinon, André Dussollier and Yolande Moreau (the latter three were all in Amèlie). Warner will release the film in France on 28 October and in the US sometime in 2010.

More coming soon...

IFC, Where Are You?

With such a great year for IFC, I must ask, "Where are your DVDs?" Since 2006, around the time they released Lars von Trier's Manderlay on DVD, IFC has released their discs through Genius Products, now the home of the Weinstein Company. With the Weinsteins' exlusive deal with Blockbuster, it's allowed for Blockbuster to carry first-run IFC titles before they're available for purchase or rental elsewhere. However, in looking at Genius' DVD line-up for 2009, there are two full months without an IFC release.

Have they changed distributors? Image is released Jessica Yu's Ping Pong Playa, which IFC released theatrically and On Demand, but that film appears to be the only one they've announced so far. This therefore leaves a number of titles in limbo, including Catherine Breillat's The Last Mistress, Jacques Rivette's The Duchess of Langeais, Claude Chabrol's A Girl Cut in Two and Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, to name a few (and I'm not even referring to the fact that IFC has done nothing with either Abel Ferrara film they acquired, Mary or Go Go Tales). I haven't been able to find anything announcing a change of distributors or anything of that sort, but I hope this problem gets sorted out soon, as IFC was typically releasing two films per month, and with such a strong 2008 line-up (not counting Nights and Weekends or Filth and Wisdom), it'd be really upsetting to leave these titles hanging.

Previous 10: 1 September

The Previous 10 Batch of 2008 titles were surprisingly strong this time around, with only one hitting the Bad category. If you're keeping tabs, Vicky Cristina Barcelona has the strongest shot at making my top 5 for the year come December. Enjoy!

La Crème

A Girl Cut in Two [La Fille coupée en deux] - dir. Claude Chabrol - France/Germany - IFC Films - with Ludivine Sagnier, Benoît Magimel, François Berléand, Mathilda May, Caroline Sihol, Edouard Baer

Joy Division - dir. Grant Gee - UK/USA - Weinstein Company

Married Life - dir. Ira Sachs - USA/Canada - Sony Pictures Classics - with Chris Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams, David Wenham

Times and Winds [Bes vakit] - dir. Reha Erdem - Turkey - Kino - with Taner Birsel, Nihan Asli Elmas, Köksal Engür, Sevinç Erbulak, Selma Ergeç

Up the Yangtze - dir. Chang Yung - Canada - Zeitgeist Films

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - dir. Woody Allen - Spain/USA - MGM/Weinstein Company - with Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Kevin Dunn, Pablo Schreiber

Les Autres

The Art of Travel - dir. Thomas Whelan - USA - First Look - with Christopher Masterson, Angelika Baran, Johnny Messner, Brooke Burns, James Duval, Shalim Ortiz, Jake Muxworthy

Holding Trevor - dir. Rosser Goodman - USA - here! Films - with Brent Gorski, Melissa Searing, Eli Kranski, Jay Brannan, Christopher Wyllie

Team Picture - dir. Kentucker Audley - USA - Benten Films - with Kentucker Audley (as Andrew Nenninger), Timothy Morton, Amanda Harris, Shawna Wheeler, Greg Gaston, Terry Hamilton

The Bad

Hamlet 2 - dir. Andrew Fleming - USA - Focus Features - with Steve Coogan, Catherine Keener, Joseph Julian Soria, Elisabeth Shue, Skylar Astin, Phoebe Strole, Melonie Diaz, Amy Poehler, David Arquette

Flaubert, Huppert, Chabrol, and Friends

Koch Lorber will release a two-disc version of Claude Chabrol's adaptation of Flaubert's Madame Bovary from 1991, starring the incomparable Isabelle Huppert in the lead role, on 11 November. The MGM disc of the film has been out of print for a while and this version will feature a documentary entitled Isabelle Huppert: A Life of Acting. Additionally, Koch Lorber will release János Szás' Opium: Diary of a Madwoman, starring Ulrich Thomsen (The Celebration) on the same date.

Kimstim is releasing Yoichi Sai's 2004 crime drama Blood and Bones, which stars Takeshi Kitano, on 11 November. I'm sure you've heard about the November Criterions, but they will be Bottle Rocket (yawn), Chungking Express (yay!), Fanfan la tulipe and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Fanfan will be the only R1 debut for the month.

Synkronized USA (read: expect delays) has 11 November set as the date for their release of Liria Bégéja's Change My Life (Change moi ma vie), which stars Fanny Ardant, Roschdy Zem and Sami Bouajila. Industrial Entertainment will also be releasing Fred Schepisi's The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith on 18 November. Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World will be available from ThinkFilm on 18 November. And finally, New Yorker is releasing Marco Bellocchio's The Wedding Director (Il regista di matrimoni) on 18 November.