PARIS - The upcoming film VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS (2017) has a bang up cast (Cara Delevingne, Dane DeHaan and Clive Owen), will employ a twelve-hundred-person crew, take six months to shoot (with principal photography starting in January) and has been in the preparatory phases for two years. From a Frenchman's viewpoint, at least, it's a big deal. And yet, instead of being ... more >
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French cinema on the rise | NEWS
Paris lobby group stakes claim over 2012
French cinema's B.O. returns in 2012 have set a record with over $1BN in ticket sales, an increase of 88% compared to the previous year, according to a statement released Friday by Unifrance, the Paris-based lobby and trade representation group. This new record beats the previous one established in 2008, by a lot. According to Unifrance, which is also responsible for the promotion of French ... more >
Eighties Cinema – FRANCE
MOVIETRACKS Episode # 13
[correction: I mistakenly mentioned on the show that "Destinée" is from "Le Père Noel est une Ordure." In fact, it's taken from a clip from "Les Sous-Doués en Vacances."] Destinée, sung by Guy Marchand, music by Vladimir Cosma (Les sous-doués en vacances, directed by Claude Zidi), 1982 Reality, sung by Richard Sanderson, music by Vladimir Cosma (La Boum, directed by Claude Pinoteau), ... more >
Taken 2
When the sequel business takes on a humdrum quality
Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen and Maggie Grace
Directed by Olivier Megaton
Liam Neeson provides for one of the few real gruff everyman action heroes but “Taken 2,” unlike the first “Taken,” is more of the Neeson that I want to see less of, namely the "Clash of the Titans-Battleship" Neeson who’s in it for the paycheck. Neeson reprises his role as ex-CIA agent Brian Mills, who after the business in Paris from the first film can now add helicopter-parenting his teenage ... more >
Luc Besson inaugurates Europe’s biggest film studios
Europacorp's don dada put his money where his mouth is--this is big
Europe now may just be on equal footing with Hollywood in terms of sound-stage real estate thanks to Luc Besson ("Fifth Element," “Taken,” “Nikita”). The French filmmaker’s twelve-year-in-the-making dream of a movie studio has materialized with the official inauguration last night of the Cité du Cinéma (City of Cinema) in the northern Paris suburb of Saint Denis. Visibly moved, the director drove ... more >
LUC BESSON’S EXPERIMENT: FREE FILM SCHOOL
Turning the film education model on its head
Leave it to the people who invented cinema to make film education free. Following in the ideological footsteps of Sciences Po's Richard Descoings, Europacorp’s chairman Luc Besson has thrown open the doors of a new film school inaugurated this week. As reported by A.F.P. (Agence France Presse) Besson announced the start of registration at the School for the City, which is located in a ... more >
B-13 Redux
French parkour cadets are back at it again
Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle and Tony D'Amario
Directed by Pierre Morel
First I shall say, Viva La Mag! I've seen several films recently that Magnolia Pictures acquired and they are definite winners. Food, Inc. and Bronson come to mind. In fact, both of these made SCREENCOMMENT.COM'S Best-Of list for 2009, published earlier this month. At first I was thrilled to hear that the B-13 team had come up with a new chapter in the urban squalor saga set in Paris' less ... more >