News

French-Danish actor and director Niels Arestrup, best known to international audiences for playing a Corsican crime boss in Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Grand Prix, Oscar-nominated A Prophet, has died at the age of 75.

His wife, actress and writer Isabelle Le Nouvel, announced the news, saying Arestrup had died on Sunday (December 1) following “a courageous battle against illness” at their home outside of Paris.

Arestrup won best supporting actor César awards for his 2009 A Prophet performance and for playing the petty gangster father in Audiard’s 2005 BAFTA-winning The Beat That My Heart Skipped. He earned a third César award for Bertrand Tavernier...

Niels Arestrup, the French-Danish actor and muse to Emilia Pérez director Jacques Audiard who appeared in international features including Steven Spielberg’s War Horse and Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, has died. He was 75.

Arestrup’s wife, Isabelle Le Nouvel, confirmed his death to Agence France-Presse on Sunday, saying he died “at the end of a courageous fight against illness.”

Arestrup will forever be linked to Audiard and his performances in the filmmaker’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005) — playing the criminal father to Romain Duris’ would-be concert pianist — and A Prophet (2009), in which he embodies a terrifying Corsican mob boss who runs his operation from within prison.

Arestrup won best supporting acting César awards, France’s equivalent of the Oscar, for both roles, and the performances solidified his image as an onscreen villain with a piercing blue gaze who is barely holding back the violence within.

French-Danish actor, director and writer Niels Arestrup, known for his Cesar-winning performances in Jacques Audiard’s The Beat That My Heart Skipped and A Prophet, has died at his home outside Paris at the age of 75.

Arestrup’s wife, the actress, screenwriter and author Isabelle Le Nouvel announced her husband’s death on Sunday.

The actor won a record three French Césars across his career with the final one being Bertrand Tavernier’s political satire The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay).

Arestrup was born to French mother, from Brittany, and a Danish father and grew up in humble conditions in Paris. After failing his high-school exams, he did odd jobs and then slowly moved into TV and drama.

In A Prophet, Arestrup played ruthless Corsican mobster César Luciani, who enlists the protagonist Malik (Tahar Rahim), introducing him to a life of crime in return for his protection.

Further highlights of...

Paris-based banner Loco Films will be hitting the European Film Market with mix of French and international movies, including the Berlinale Panorama title “Property,” as well as “Grand Expectations” and “Like An Actress.”

“Property,” which marks the sophomore outing of Brazilian helmer Daniel Bandeira, is a survival thriller lensed Pedro Sotero, the cinematographer of Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “Bacurau” and “Aquarius.” The sole Brazilian movie competing at the Berlin Film Festival, “Territory” follows Teresa, who flees her family estate in an armored car after rebelling workers start occupying it. She’s trapped, but refuses to negotiate, prompting a collision between two universes.

Laurent Danielou at Loco Films pointed Bandeira was part of the collective Recife alongside Mendonça Filho with whom he teamed on his first short film “Little Cotton Girl.” “Property” is produced by Simio Filmes and Vilarejo Filmes whose credits include other politically minded films such as “Aquarius.”

“‘Property...

Jan Mojto’s Munich-based production-distribution company Beta Film has boarded Nordic suspense thriller “Helsinki Syndrome,” the first common project with Finland’s Fisher King since Beta took a majority stake in the leading Finnish production company in 2019.

Coinciding with the Fisher King deal, Beta launched the Sweden-based Beta Nordic Studios (Bns), a umbrella hub grouping its production interests in the Nordic region.

Bns aims to leverage Beta Film’s international expertise and distribution muscle to deliver high-end local content with global potential from its members.

Minimum guarantees that Beta Film puts up against future distribution revenues also allow producers to make series at the budgetary level of their artistic ambitions rather than that of local financing available, helping the shows to become standout titles from their territory.

Scheduled to go into production in June 2021, “Helsinki Syndrome” is created for Finnish public broadcaster Yle by Mikko Oikkonen, whose pioneering Finnish Noir...

Acclaimed film-maker won a string of awards for a wide variety of films, including crime and film noir, as well as his celebrated film about a jazz musician

•Peter Bradshaw on Bertrand Tavernier: a flesh-and-blood lion of French cinema

Bertrand Tavernier, the veteran French director of a host of acclaimed films including A Sunday in the Country, Round Midnight and These Foolish Things, has died aged 79. The news was announced by the Institut Lumière, the film organisation of which he was president. No cause of death was given.

Tavernier’s output was prolific: he made his directorial debut in 1974 with The Clockmaker of St Paul and worked continuously until 2013, when he released his final feature film, The French Minister. He also took in a wide variety of material, from crime and noir, to comedy, jazz and historical drama.

The actress will star with Philippe Katerine in Sébastien Bailly’s feature debut, a La Mer à Boire production which will be sold by Loco Films and will soon begin filming. The first clapperboard will slam on 12 January for Comme une actrice, the first feature film by Sébastien Bailly who previously turned heads with Féminin plurielles (a programme released in cinemas in 2018 and consisting of three short films), Où je mets ma pudeur (in competition in Sundance 2014) and Douce (selected for Clermont-Ferrand’s national competition in 2012), to name a few. In terms of his cast, the director will rely on lead performances from Julie Gayet and Philippe Katerine (the winner of the 2019 Best Supporting Role César for Sink or...

Brotherly Belgian filmmaking duo Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne will receive this year’s Lumière Award at the upcoming Lumière Festival, which celebrates classic films and cinematic masters each autumn in Lyon, France.

Last year’s award went to Francis Ford Coppola, who joined previous recipients including Jane Fonda, Wong Kar-Wai, Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodóvar, Clint Eastwood and Quentin Tarantino.

This year’s award will be presented during the Lumière Festival, launched by filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier and Cannes Festival chief Thierry Fremaux, heads of Lyon’s Institut Lumière.

One of the biggest classic film celebrations in the world, with an audience of 250,000 last year, the Lumière Festival will run Oct. 10-18.

“For us, two directing brothers, this award embodies a special emotion,” the brothers said in a statement released by the festival. “It connects us to the original brotherhood of cinema, with the two brothers who filmed for the first time...

The film, written by the director herself, is based on a best-selling novel by Audur Jónsdóttir, one of the most accomplished writers in Iceland. The rough cut of Tinna Hrafnsdóttir's debut feature, a psychological drama with a touch of suspense entitled Quake, is almost ready. In recent years, Hrafnsdóttir has helmed two award-winning shorts, Munda (2017) and Helga (2016), and she worked as a casting director on Ísold Uggadóttir's And Breathe Normally (2018) as well as an actress on the police procedural TV show Valhalla Murders, the political tragicomedy series The Minister and Margrete, a historical epic drama shooting now in Prague. Quake is based on Audur Jónsdóttir's book Grand Mal, published in 2015. Since the late 1990s, Jónsdóttir's novels have aroused interest in Iceland as well as abroad on account of their rare blend of incisive candour and humour. In detail, the story follows Saga (Aníta Briem), a single...

Antonin Baudry unconfined on the Lincoln Center Plaza in June, 2019 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

A free virtual conversation with Antonin Baudry and Anousheh Ansari on Confinement: From Underwater To Outer Space, moderated by Leah Pisar, Chair of the Aladdin Project, presented by the French Institute Alliance Française in New York, will be held live on Zoom and Facebook, starting at 12:00pm (Edt), Friday, June 12.

Antonin Baudry, aka Abel Lanzac, is the director/screenwriter of the nuclear submarine thriller The Wolf's Call (Le Chant Du Loup), starring François Civil with Omar Sy, Mathieu Kassovitz, Reda Kateb, Jean-Yves Berteloot, Damien Bonnard, Pierre Cevaer, and Paula Beer, shot by Pierre Cottereau. Antonin co-wrote the screenplay for Bertrand Tavernier’s The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay) which was based on his autobiographic graphic novel about his adventures as a speech writer in the French Ministry.

Anousheh Ansari is a CEO of the Xprize Foundation and was the first female.

Talent from “Trapped” and “Sense8” have joined the cast of the anticipated Icelandic crime series “Sisterhood,” the first project coming out of Sagafilm and Sky Studios’s development and distribution deal.

Leading Icelandic production house Sagafilm enlisted Lilja Nótt Þórarinsdóttir, Jóhanna Friðrika Sæmundsdóttir (“Happily Never After”) and Ilmur Kristjánsdóttir (“Trapped”) to headline the cast of “Sisterhood.”

The crime series, which starts shooting this week, “Sisterhood” follows three women whose are forced to face the horrors of their past after the remains of a 13 year-old girl are discovered 25 years after her mysterious disappearance. “Sisterhood” also centers on Vera, a newly-promoted investigator who is assigned the case, and explores how the three women have gone through their lives carrying the heavy burden of guilt which has marked them all in different ways since their teenage years.

Created by by Sagafilm’s head of development Jóhann Ævar Grímsson (“Stella Blómkvist”), the six-part series...

Paris — “Narcos” showrunner Chris Brancato and “Godfather of Harlem” star Giancarlo Esposito, actors Carole Bouquet and Zabou Breitman, and the cast and crew behind the Canal Plus series “The Bureau” will be among the many guest of honor at this year’s Series Mania, which will kick off its 11th edition on March 20.

Returning to the north-eastern French city of Lille, Series Mania will once again offer a broad cross-section of international scripted dramas, with a selection culled from 25 different countries including Chile, Peru, Niger, Senegal and South Korea, alongside high profile productions from the U.S., the U.K. and France.

Among the 38 productions world premiering in Lille, the BBC/Tvnz literary adaption “The Luminaries,” with Eva Green, will play as opening series while the closer remains unannounced.

Once again, Netflix makes a strong showing this year. Beyond bringing the cast and crew of their Paris-set drama “The Eddy,...

GÖTEBORG, Sweden — Established Nordic prodco Sagafilm is producing Icelandic crime series “Sisterhood,” in association with Sky Studios, for commissioners Nent Group’s Nordic streamer Viaplay and Iceland’s Ott service Síminn.

The six-part series will premiere simultaneously on Viaplay and Síminn in 2021, with the latter retaining domestic first window rights. NBCUniversal Global Distribution handles international sales.

“Sisterhood” is the first project to originate from a multi-year development and distribution deal inked by Sagafilm and U.K.-based Sky Studios last fall. Sagafilm’s head of development Jóhann Ævar Grímsson is its creator/writer, with Björg Magnúsdóttir (“The Minister”) as co-writer. Silja Hauksdóttir (“Agnes Joy”) will direct all episodes.

“Sisterhood” begins with the skeletal remains of a young girl, Hanna, who disappeared 20 years ago, being unearthed in a picturesque fjord town in Iceland. Vera, a newly-promoted investigator is assigned to the case and delves deeper into it than anyone expects. Her...

Nominated for Yjr Best Nordic TV Drama Screenplay Award at Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival, a second season of “Happily Never After” is already in the works – a clear indication of a shift in audience tastes, in what was just a couple of years a Nordic Noir dominated market. It’s also a sort of rarity as it received funding from the Icelandic Film Centre and public broadcaster Ruv after a quite successful short film from its showrunner.

Written, produced, directed and starring Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir,“Happily Never After” turns on Karen a couples’ counselor whose ideal life starts falling apart after she discovers her husband’s cheating on her. Suddenly, with a broken marriage and three kids. Karen, aged 38, has to face a new prospect of life and re-invent herself.

A heart warming portrayal of the complexities of early mid-life that from the get go picks apart the whole mirage of an ideal life,...

GÖTEBORG, Sweden All3Media is to handle international rights on Icelandic crime series “Black Sands” which, currently in development, is to be pitched at the Göteborg Festival’s TV Drama Vision confab on Thursday.

“Black Sands” marks the first crime thriller to be created by Icelandic helmer Baldvin Z (“Trapped”) since the hit series “Case.” Commissioned by Iceland’s Channel 2, the eight-part series is co-penned by Baldvin Z (aka Baldvin Zophoníasson) with Ragnar Jonsson and “Valhalla Murders”’ actor Aldís Hamilton, who has cornered the title role. Co-stars include Baldvin Z regular collaborator Thorsteinn Bachmann and New York The Julliard School alumnus Thorvaldur Kristjansson (“Dracula Untold”). Production is slated to start next year.

“Black Sands” is produced by Baldvin Z’s own shingle Glassriver, which he set up in the wake of “Case”’s success in 2016, along with writer/creator Andri Óttarson seasoned producer Abby Haflidadóttir, and producer/CEO Hörður Rúnarsson.

France TV Distribution, the commercial arm of the French public broadcaster, has acquired international sales rights to Audrey Dana’s French comedy “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”

The movie, which is set to start shooting soon, will star Marina Hands (“French Women”), Thierry Lhermitte (“The French Minister”) and François-Xavier Demaison (“Naked Normandy”).

French production banner Curiosa Films (Juliette Binoche starrer “Let the Sunshine In”), is producing “Men on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.” Dana previously directed “If I Were A Boy” and “French Women.”

The film follows seven men, all city-dwellers aged between 17 and 70, with nothing in common apart from the fact that they are all on the verge of nervous breakdowns. They sign up for an unusual workshop in a rural area, hoping to get back on their feet, but nothing goes according to plan.

France TV Distribution’s current slate also includes Emmanuelle Carriere’s “Between Two Worlds,...

François Civil, Pierre Cevaer, Sébastien Libessart, Omar Sy and Reda Kateb in Antonin Baudry's The Wolf's Call (Le Chant Du Loup): "I wanted to put these people in situations where they didn't have a simple way to answer the situation. They really have to rely on their conscience."

In the second half of my conversation at Lincoln Center with the screenwriter/director of The Wolf's Call (Le Chant Du Loup), Antonin Baudry, aka Abel Lanzac, discussed with me the influence Bertrand Tavernier had on him during the filming of Quai d'Orsay (The French Minister), sacrifice in the work of directors Tsui Hark, Johnnie To, and in John Woo's The Killer and Hard Boiled.

Antonin sees the Golden Ear Chanteraide (François Civil) in The Wolf's Call going through an "Orphean trajectory". He talked about colours with cinematographer Pierre Cottereau, and noted the importance of Claude Lanzmann's support.

Antonin...

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...

Exclusive: Laurent Lafitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Louis Hofmann also board project.

Ralph Fiennes has joined the cast of The White Crow, his project about Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

Fiennes will play Nureyev’s teacher and mentor, Pushkin, who helped launch Nureyev’s career out of St Petersburg, and will also direct the feature.

As previously reported, professional dancer Oleg Ivenko will play the lead role of Nureyev, while fellow dancer Sergei Polunin, Blue Is The Warmest Colour star Adèle Exarchopoulos and Russian actress Chulpan Khamatova are among the cast.

The production has now also attached Elle star Laurent Lafitte, The French Minister star Raphaël Personnaz, Personal Shopper actor Calypso Valois and Land Of Mine star Louis Hofmann ahead of its summer 2017 shoot in St Petersburg and Paris, with locations including the Mariinsky Theatre and the Palais Garnier.

Two-time Oscar-nominee David Hare (The Hours, The Reader) has adapted the screenplay from Julie Kavanagh’s book Rudolf Nureyev, which...

In the live-action shorts category, the contenders are often not American.

This year a clear frontrunner has emerged: “Silent Nights,” a drama about a Danish woman and her Ghanaian immigrant boyfriend from director Aske Bang and producer Kim Magnusson.

This is the sixth nomination for Magnusson in the Live-Action Short category, which he has won twice. The first he shared in 1999 with “Brothers” screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen, for “Election Night.” The second he won more recently for “Helium” in 2013, directed by Anders Walter, who will helm the forthcoming “I Kill Giants,” an adaptation of a graphic novel starring Zoe Saldana and Imogen Poots. Clearly, Magnusson knows how to pick directors.

Read More: Oscars 2017 Animated Shorts: Will ‘Piper’ End Pixar’s 16-Year Drought?

“Silent Nights” isn’t the only immigration story amongst the contenders; prolific French sound editor Selim Azzazi makes his directorial debut with “Ennemis Intérieurs,” which depicts a French...

The Ride director Stéphanie Gillard at an Amanda Parer Intrude rabbit Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Executive produced by Rouge International's Nadia Turincev and Julie Gayet (of The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay), directed by Bertrand Tavernier, based on Antonin Baudry's graphic novels), Stéphanie Gillard's The Ride with expansive cinematography by Martin de Chabaneix and atmospheric sound recording by Erwan Kerzanet (Léos Carax's unholy Holy Motors and Catherine Breillat's unflinching Fat Girl) takes us on the 300 mile pilgrimage on horseback of the Lakota people through the Badlands of South Dakota.

The Ride

Jim Harrison's novels, Arthur Penn's Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman, Misty Upham and Arnaud Desplechin's Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian, William Heise and William K.L. Dickson's Sioux Ghost Dance for Thomas Edison, and how the filming of The Ride became a personal journey are explored in my conversation with the...

French director of award winners Round Midnight and The Clockmaker to receive Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

French director Bertrand Tavernier is to be honoured with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement Award at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival (Sept 2-12).

The decision was made by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, upon recommendation of Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera.

In his recommendation,Barbera described Tavernier as “a complete, instinctively non-conformist, staunchly eclectic auteur”.

The 73 year-old director has previously presented two films in Competition at Venice: Round Midnight in 1986, which won an Oscar for Best Original Score; and detective film L. 627 in 1992.

Tavernier won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his debut feature The Clockmaker (L’horloger de Saint-Paul) in 1974 and the Golden Bear at the 1995 Berlinale for detective film Fresh Bait (L’Appât).

He won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival...

Designer Herbert Kasper with "Monsieur Jacques" Jean-Yves Ollivier in Carlos Agulló and Mandy Jacobson's integral Plot For Peace: "There was a similarity between the situation in Algeria and the one I found in South Africa." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Beverly Johnson and Herbert Kasper hosted a special screening of Plot For Peace in New York at Florence Gould Hall with Jean-Yves Ollivier in conversation and an after party at the home of designer Kasper. Among those attending were Ajak Deng, journalist Bill Blakemore, seen in Rodney Ascher's Room 237, Yvonne Durant, Celia Weston, Bill Wright, June Terry and John J. Daniszewski (AP's VP Senior Managing Editor).

In my conversation with Jean-Yves Ollivier at Kasper's, Bertrand Tavernier's Quai d'Orsay (The French Minister) morphed into Volker Schlöndorff's Diplomatie (Diplomacy), while Albert Camus' mother and his Algerian roots were stated as influencing him.

Jean-Yves Ollivier with Nelson Mandela...

Diplomacy director Volker Schlöndorff with Anne-Katrin Titze at Lincoln Center on Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man: "Actually, I always compared Niels Arestrup to Philip Seymour Hoffman." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

At the 2014 Telluride Film Festival, Volker Schlöndorff was awarded the Silver Medallion and Diplomacy (Diplomatie), starring Niels Arestrup and André Dussollier was screened, as well as Billy, How Did You Do It? (Billy Wilder, Wie Haben Sie's Gemacht?) and Baal starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder. In New York, we discussed his adaptations from The Tin Drum by Günter Grass to Cyril Gely's play Diplomatie and dubbing Dustin Hoffman in German with Otto Sander in Arthur Miller's Death Of A Salesman. Working with Sam Shepard on Voyager, Arestrup's correspondence with Philip Seymour Hoffman in Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man, Bertrand Tavernier's The French Minister and Ralph Fiennes' Max Frisch desires are explored.

Anne-Katrin Titze: As far as adaptations are concerned,...

Edmund White and Frank Rich with Antonin Baudry at Quai d’Orsay - Weapons of Mass Diplomacy Drawing The Line at McNally Jackson in New York: "I remember it was really like being in film school."

Bertrand Tavernier's The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay) stars Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Niels Arestrup and Anaïs Demoustier, with Jane Birkin impersonating a version of Toni Morrison and Julie Gayet as a potent advisor.

Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard and going beyond Mel Brooks with Frankenstein and the Seven Dwarfs are discussed in the second half of my conversation with Bertrand Tavernier and Antonin Baudry.

At McNally Jackson Books in New York, two days before July 4, Edmund White and Frank Rich were discussing Drawing The Line with Antonin Baudry. Here is a highlight.

Weapons of Mass Diplomacy Drawing The Line invitation

Anne-Katrin Titze: The past times we spoke, Bertrand Tavernier was always in the room.

Damián Szifrón’s Cannes Competition film Wild Tales and Palm d’Or winner Winter Sleep to open the T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival in Wroclaw.

A total of 20 films from Cannes Film Festival have been secured for the 14th New Horizons International Film Festival (July 24-Aug 3), Poland’s largest film event.

The festival, held in Wroclaw, will comprise screenings of around 365 films, including 199 features.

The opening film will be Damián Szifrón’s Cannes Competition film Wild Tales, an Argentinian satire co-produced by Pedro Almodovar.

A second opening film will be this year’s Palme d’Or winner Winter Sleep, by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.

Third, after the opening gala, will be Olivier Assayas’ Sils Maria starring Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart.

The festival will close with Cannes Grand Prix winner The Wonders by Italian director Alice Rohrwacher.

Main programme

The main programme will include Aleksey German’s Hard to be God, Naomi Kawase’s Still...

Antonin Baudry with Bertrand Tavernier on The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay): "I fell in love immediately with Antonin's book, because it was dealing with politics in, for me, the best way possible." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

I met up in New York with Bertrand Tavernier and Antonin Baudry, who co-wrote the screenplay for The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay), based on Baudry's (aka Abel Lanzac) autobiographic graphic novel about his adventures as a speech writer in the French Ministry. The film stars Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz and Niels Arestrup who at times seem to channel the working methods of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday or the serious madness surrounding Peter Sellers in The Party. Howard Hawks, Billy Wilder, Blake Edwards, Jacques Becker, Stanley Kubrick and John Ford pop up in precise reference throughout the conversation.

Thierry Lhermitte as Alexandre Taillard de Worms with Raphaël Personnaz...

Acclaimed French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier has taken audiences everywhere, from the world of American jazz ("Round Midnight") to the drama of the 16th century ("The Princess Of Montpensier"), and his latest finds a new world, behind the closed doors of the political sphere, and in the comedic "The French Minister," no one is spared. Starring Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Niels Arestrup, Bruno Raffaelli, Julie Gayet and Anaïs Demoustier, the film tells the story of the fictional Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexandre Taillard de Vorms, who juggles American neo-cons, corrupt Russians and the opportunistic Chinese all while his useless speech writer tries to keep up with the whirling dervish of personalities around him. In this exclusive clip, we see how things can turn on a dime in the political world. "The French Minister" opens today in limited release and is available on VOD. Watch below.

Bertrand Tavernier’s "The French Minister" reaches America this Friday 40 years after his feature debut, 1974's "The Clockmaker." At 72, Tavernier shows no signs of slowing his eclectic experimentation: the film marks his first attempt at straight-up comedy and opened strong in France, though cumulative admissions at home didn’t eclipse 2010's vigorous medieval adventure "The Princess Of Montpensier" or 2008's New Orleans-set, Tommy Lee Jones-starring mystery "In The Electric Mist," three films that are a representative sampling of Tavernier’s genre-sampling career. The original title for "The French Minister" is "Quai D'Orsay," the Paris wharf where the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located. Enter cautiously idealistic Arthur Vlaminck (Raphaël Personnaz), hired as speechwriter to minister Alexandre Taillard de Vorms (Thierry Lhermitte). Taillard is a nearly-literal whirlwind, whose door-slamming entries and exits send papers flying into brief tornadic spirals within a...

Armando Iannucci’s comedies Veep and The Thick of It are all politics, zero ideology, except where someone’s ideological posture affects the ambitions of other characters. The French Minister, directed by Bertrand Tavernier, based on the graphic novel Quai d'Orsay, by Abel Lanzac and Christophe Blain, adopts a similar posture, focused on the survival tactics of an exhausted ministry staff against the hurricane effects of a single enormous personality: Alexandre Taillard de Worms, the French minister of foreign affairs (Thierry Lhermitte). Seen through the perspective of new hire Arthur (Raphaël Personnaz), the silver-maned de Worms is mercurial and hugely charismatic. A speechwriter, Arthur struggles to accommodate the editorial impe...

Niels Arestrup to Bertrand Tavernier on Claude Maupas in Quai D'Orsay: "You ask me to play a very introverted, soft spoken guy and I am the opposite." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Bertrand Tavernier's The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay) starring Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz, Niels Arestrup and Anaïs Demoustier, with Jane Birkin impersonating a version of Toni Morrison and Julie Gayet as a potent advisor, is the closing night film of New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.

We discussed the importance of rhythm for his film, how Billy Wilder and Jacques Becker set a mood, the working relationship with writers Christophe Blain and Cultural Counselor to the French Embassy Antonin Baudry, Arestrup's dedication, and the decision to not watch films when making one. Tavernier also gave me insight into how he created the unequaled complexity of character with Philippe Noiret and Isabelle Huppert in Coup De Torchon.

"A fool...

Charles Cohen on Catherine Deneuve in On My Way: "an incredible performance by the iconic Catherine Deneuve." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Film Society of Lincoln Center, uniFrance Films and Cohen Media Group presented on the opening night of New York's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema at the Paris Theatre, Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way (Elle s'en va), starring Catherine Deneuve. François Ozon with his star of Young And Beautiful (Jeune Et Jolie), Géraldine Pailhas, directors Sébastien Betbeder - 2 Autumns, 3 Winters (2 Automnes, 3 Hivers), Justine Triet - Age Of Panic (La Bataille De Solférino), Katell Quillévéré - Suzanne, Axelle Ropert - Miss And The Doctors (Tirez La Langue, Mademoiselle), Rebecca Zlotowski - Grand Central, and co-screenwriter Antonin Baudry of The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay) were among those who walked the red carpet.

Young and Beautiful director François Ozon with his star Géraldine Pailhas Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The evening was hosted with style by Charles Cohen,...

Bertrand Tavernier on The French Minister (Quai d’Orsay): "I tell them not to play it as comedy and it will be funny." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The opening night of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York at the Paris Theatre will bring us Catherine Deneuve's exceptional performance in Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way. Bertrand Tavernier's wildly diplomatic The French Minister (Quai D’Orsay), based on Antonin Baudry’s graphic novels, starring Raphaël Personnaz, Thierry Lhermitte with Julie Gayet, Jane Birkin and Niels Arestrup closes the festival. Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos in If You Don't, I Will (Arrête Ou Je Continue) directed by Sophie Fillières, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Yvan Attal in Michel Spinosa's His Wife (Son Épouse), Katell Quillévéré's Suzanne with Sara Forestier, François Damiens, Adèle Haenel and Paul Hamy are some of the other highlights of UniFrance and the Film Society of...

The Under The Skin cast and crew on the red carpet. Photo: Stuart Crawford

Friday was the day of the César Awards, so it made sense that it should begin with a screening of Quai D'Orsay at the Glasgow Film Festival. The biting French political satire would go on to help Niels Arestrup win a Best Supporting Actor gong, and President Hollande was probably counting his blessings when its star Julie Gayet, with whom he had an affair (and, more scandalously, got caught) missed out on Best Supporting Actress. A sort of Gallic In The Loop, this film could well help to revive the French film industry, which has struggled over the past year, due to it added real life political cachet.

Lauren Mayberry introducing The Punk Singer. Photo: Stuart Crawford

Also screening on Friday were Tangerines, a portrait of an Abkhazian village caught in the throes of war, and...

French president François Hollande's alleged lover wins nomination for ripped-from-the-headlines comedy Quai d'Orsay

• Julie Gayet to sue French magazine Closer over Hollande affair claims

Art appears to be imitating life at the César awards, where French actor Julie Gayet, the star of one political farce, finds herself nominated for her role in another. The alleged lover of president François Hollande is shortlisted as best supporting actress for her performance in Quai d'Orsay, a screwball comedy about a vain French politician.

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier, Quai d'Orsay goes behind the scenes at the French foreign ministry, where harassed government staffers have their hands full attending to the whims of their preening, gnomic boss. Gayet co-stars as a vampish policy adviser on Africa who will reportedly stop at nothing to gain an advantage over her rivals. She is joined on the shortlist by Marisa Borini, Françoise Fabian, Adèle Haenel and Géraldine Pailhas.

Once again the European Film Promotion’s (Efp) Film Sales Support (Fss) initiative will come to Toronto to link sales companies from all over Europe to a great array of buyers from across the globe. Supported by the Media Programme of the European Union, Fss has now been aiding the European film industry fro the last 10 years.

"Toronto has and is an important informal market and an important festival for European films, the distributors see the films in a different mood, more quietly, the public screenings are working well. It is a key place to launch a film or to complete previous sales on films that were in Cannes, Venice, Locarno...” (Loïc Magneron, Wide)

“Tiff is a major pillar of the annual festival calendar. Aside from a proliferation of North American buyers, it also attracts top tier international distributors so a favorable reception at Tiff can significantly increase a film's commercial prospects”. (Andrew Orr, Independent)

Due to the limited amount of resources, only 52 out of the 60 films submitted to the Efp will receive financial support to be marketed during the Tiff, which runs from September 5 to 15. This year alone, 372 films total, over 150 from Europe, will screen at the festival many of which will see their world or international premiers there.

Supported films and companies at Tiff 2013

Alpha Violet (France), rep. Virginie Devesa The Summer of Flying Fish (El Verano de los Peces Voladores) by Marcela Said, France, Chile, 2013

Arri Worldsales (Germany), rep. Moritz Hemminger Exit Marrakech by Caroline Link, Germany, 2013 Home from Home (Die Andere Heimat) by Edgar Reitz, Germany, France, 2013

Athens Filmmakers' Co-Operative (Greece), rep. Venia Vergou Wild Duck by Yannis Sakaridis, Greece, 2013

Bac Films Distribution (France), rep. Clémentine Hugot The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (L'Entrange Couleur Ded Larmes De Ton Corps) by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, 2013

Beta Cinema (Germany), rep. Tassilo Hallbauer Le Grand-Cahier by János Szász, Germany, Hungary, Austria, France, 2013

Blonde S. A. (Greece), rep. Fenia Cossovitsa Standing Aside, Watching (Na Kathese Kai Na Kitas) by Yorgos Servetas, Greece, 2013

Capricci Films (France), rep. Julien Rejl Story of My Death (Historia De La Meva Mort) by Albert Serra, Spain, France, 2013 The Battle of Tabato (A Batalha De Tabato) by João Viana, Portugal, Guinea-Bissau, 2013

Celluloid Dreams (France), rep. Hengameh Panahi Those Happy Years (Anni Felici) by Daniele Luchetti, Italy, 2013

Cité Films (France), rep. Raphaël Berdugo Faith Connections (Faith Connections) by Pan Nalin, France, India, 2013

Doc & Film International (France), rep. Daniela Elstner, Alice Damiani Violette by Martin Provost, France, Belgium, 2013 South is Nothing (Il Sud E'Niente by Fabio Mollo, Italy, France, 2013

Dogwoof (United Kingdom), rep. Ana Vincente Inreallife by Beeban Kidron, UK, 2013

Ealing Metro International (United Kingdom), rep. Natalie Brenner, Will Machin Half of a Yellow Sun by Biyi Bandele, UK, 2013 The Stag by John Butler, Ireland, 2013

Embankment Films (United Kingdom), rep. Tim Haslam Le Week-End by Roger Michell, UK, 2013

Eyeworks Film & TV Drama (The Netherlands), rep. Maarten Swart The Dinner (Het Diner) by Menno Meyjes, The Netherlands, 2013

Fantasia Ltd (Greece), rep. Nicoletta Romeo The Daughter (I Kori) by Thanos Anastopoulos, Greece, Italy, 2013

Film Factory Entertainment (Spain), rep. Vicente Canales Cannibal (Canibal) by Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain, 2013 Zip & Zap and the Marble Gang (Zipi & Zape y el Club de la Canica) by Oskar Santos, Spain, 2013

Films Boutique (Germany), rep. Jean-Christophe Simon Walesa. Man of Hope (Walesa) by Andrzej Wajda, Poland, 2013

Films Distribution (France), rep. Nicolas Brigaud-Robert, François Yon Eastern Boys by Robin Campillo, France, 2013 Under the Starry Sky (Des Etoiles) by Dyana Gaye, France, Senegal, 2013

Heretic (Greece), rep. Giorgos Karnavas The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas (I Aionia Epistrofi Tou Antoni Paraskeva) by Elina Psykou, Greece, 2013

Independent Film Sales (United Kingdom), rep. Karina Gechtman, Abigail Walsh The Sea by Stephen Brown, UK, Ireland, 2013 Starred Up by David Mackenzie, UK, 2013

Latido Films (Spain), rep. Miren Zamora Honeymoon (Libanky) by Jan Hrebejk, Czech Republic/Slovak Republic, 2013

LevelK (Denmark), rep. Tine Klint Sex, Drugs & Taxation (Spies Og Glistrup) by Christoffer Boe, Denmark, 2013

Linel Films (United Kingdom), rep. Aran Hughes To The Wolf (Sto Lyko) by Aran Hughes & Christina Koutsospyrou, Greece, UK, France, 2013

Minds Meet (Belgium), rep. Tomas Leyers I'm The Same I'm An Other by Caroline Strubbe, Belgium, The Netherlands, 2013

MK2 (France), rep. Victoire Thevenin Hotel (Hotell) by Lisa Langseth, Sweden, Denmark, 2012

Mpm Film (France), rep. Pierre Menahem For Those Who Can Tell No Tales by Jasmila Žbanić, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, 2013

Negativ s.r.o. (Czech Republic), rep. Zuzana Bielikova Miracle (Zazrak) by Juraj Lehotský, Czech Republic, Slovakia, 2013

Pathé Distribution (France), rep. Muriel Sauzay The Finishers by Nils Tavernier, France, 2013 Quai d'Orsay by Bertrand Tavernier, France, 2013

Pausilypon Films (Greece), rep. Menelaos Karamaghiolis J.A.C.E. - Just Another Confused Elephant by Menelaos Karamaghiolis, Greece, Portugal, Macedonia, Turkey, 2012

Picture Tree International (Germany), rep. Andreas Rothbauer Mary Queen of Scots by Thomas Imbach, Switzerland, 2013 Metalhead (Malmhaus) by Ragnar Bragason, Iceland, Norway, 2013

PPProductions (Greece), rep. Thanassis Karathanos Septmeber by Penny Panayotopoulou, Greece, Germany, 2013

Pyramide International (France), rep. Agathe Mauruc Giraffada by Rani Massalha, France, Germany, Italy, 2013

Rezo (France), rep. Laurent Danielou, Sebastien Chesneau The Station (Blutgletscher) by Marvin Kren, Austria, 2013 Abuse of Weakness (Abus De Faibless) by Catherine Breillat, France, Belgium, Germany, 2013

The Match Factory (Germany), rep. Michael Weber, Thania Dimitrakopoulou The Police Officer's Wife (Die Frau Des Polizisten) by Philip Gröning, Germany, 2013 Qissa (Quissa) by Anup Singh, Germany, India, The Netherlands, France, 2013

The Yellow Affair (Sweden), rep. Miira Paasilinna Heart of a Lion (Leijonasydan) by Dome Karukoski, Finland, 2013

TrustNordisk (Denmark), rep. Susan Wendt, Nicolai Korsgaard Pioneer (Pioner) by Erik Skjoldbjaerg, Norway, 2013 We Are The Best (Vi Ar Bast!) by Lukas Moodysson, Sweden, 2013

Wide (France), rep. Loic Magneron Bobo by Ines Oliveira, Portugal, 2013

Wide House (France), rep. Garreau Geoffrey Ain't Misbehavin, A Marcel Ophuls Journey (Un Voyageur) by Marcel Ophuls, France, 2013

Wild Bunch (France), rep. Vicent Maraval, Gary Farkas Going Away (Un Beau Dimanche) by Nicole Garcia, France, 2013 A Promise (Une Promesse) by Patrice Leconte, France, Belgium, 2013...

Already a box office success this past month in his native Argentina, Juan José Campanella's Foosball (aka Futbolín and also Metegol) will now become the first ever 3D animated title to open San Sebastián. It's a Spanish-Argentinian co-production and Campanella's first flick since picking up the Best Foreign Oscar nod in 2010 for The Secret In Their Eyes. Meanwhile six films will compete for the top prize, The Golden Shell. Three French directors feature with Francois Dupeyron's My Soul Healed By You, Bertrand Tavernier's Quai D'Orsay and Mariana Rondón's Venezualan-produced Bad Hair all up for the accolade. Also in with a chance are Mexican Fernando Eimbcke with Club Sandwich, Roger Michell with Le Week-End and Jonathan Teplitzky's Aussie-Brit co-production The Railway Man. And for...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity, one of many Special Presentations at this year's Tiff.

The Toronto International Film Festival has begun to announce its lineup for its 2013 edition, beginning with Gala and Special Presentations. To browse the festival's programming on their web site, visit here.

Gala Presentations

American Dreams in China (Peter Chan, China)

The Art of the Steal (Jonothan Sobol, Canada)

August: Osage County (John Wells, USA)

Cold Eyes (Cho Ui-seok & Kim Byung-seo, Korea)

The Fifth Estate (Bill Condon, USA)

The Grand Seduction (Don McKellar, Canada)

Kill Your Darlings (John Krokidas, USA)

Life of Crime (Daniel Schechter, USA)

The Love Punch (Joel Hopkins, France)

The Lunchbox (Ritesh Batra, India/France/Germany)

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Justin Chadwick, South Africa)

Parkland (Peter Landesman, USA)

The Railway Man (Jonathan Teplitzky, Australia/UK)

The Right Kind of Wrong (Jeremiah Chechik, Canada)

Rush (Ron Howard, UK/Germany)

Shuddh Desi Romance (Maneesh Sharma, India...

The films to be screened at this year's Toronto film festival – as the programme release is staggered, this will be updated as more details are revealed

The 38th Toronto Film Festival runs September 5 - 15 2013. This article will be updated as official announcements detailing the full line-up are released.

Opening night film

The Fifth Estate, Dir: Bill Condon, USA

Closing night film

Life of Crime, Dir: Daniel Schechter, USA

World premieres

12 Years a Slave, Dir: Steve McQueen, USA

All Is By My Side, Dir: John Ridley, United Kingdom

The Art of the Steal, Dir: Jonathan Sobol, Canada

Attila Marcel, Dir: Sylvain Chomet, France

August: Osage County, Dir: John Wells, USA

Bad Words, Dir: Jason Bateman, USA

Belle, Dir: Amma Asante, United Kingdom

Can a Song Save Your Life? Dir: John Carney, USA

Cannibal (Caníbal), Dir: Manuel Martín Cuenca, Spain/Romania/Russia/France

Dallas Buyers Club, Dir: Jean-Marc Vallée, USA

Devil's Knot,...

Today the organizers of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival announced about a quarter of the festival's lineup including Galas, Special Presentations and the fest's opening night film, which will be Bill Condon's Wikileaks feature The Fifth Estate. That, however, is just the start. As far as the Gala Presentations are concerned you have John Wells' August: Osage County starring Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts, John Krokidas' Kill Your Darlings with Daniel Radcliffe, Justin Chadwick's Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom starring Idris Elba in the title role, Peter Landesman's JFK assassination pic Parkland and Jonathan Teplitzky's The Railway Man with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman. The Special Presentations grow even more insane as it begins with Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, the much-talked-about Cannes feature Blue is the Warmest Color, Jean-Marc Vallee's Dallas Buyers Club starring Matthew McConaughey, Atom Egoyan's Devil's Knot based...

I've done many projects including Desordres, and this summer I'll be in Michigan shooting a movie called "Radio Days" where I play a French Senegalese woman, then I'll appear in French filmmaker Tavernier's movie Quai D'Orsay. From French/Rwandan actress, Sonia Rolland, in an interview with EuroMight.com, talking about her upcoming projects. We've covered  Désordres (Chaos) extensively; it opened in France last week, but no word on whether it'll travel west.  The other 2 projects she mentions are news to me. Of most interest is Radio Days, in which she plays a French Senegalese woman; it's of most interest because I can't find a single thing...