15/09/2010

Rezo Films is today launching a 307-print run of 72-year-old Claude Lelouch’s 43rd film, Ces Amours-là [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a romantic fresco which has been fairly well received by the press, although some critics remain firmly unreceptive to the director’s characteristic melodramatic style.

Starring Audrey Dana (Welcome [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Philippe Lioret
film profile]) alongside Laurent Couson and Raphaël, the feature paints the portrait of a woman who places love above all else, during the Second World War.

Described by Lelouch as "an overview film", Ces Amours-là centres on Ilva, who is "as true in the arms of a Frenchman, a German or an American", or even several partners. The director believes that the heroine embodies modern women who "know how to juggle dreams and everyday difficulties, take life’s blows, pick themselves up again, recover from their wounds: love can kill them, but it also heals them."

This portrait is inspired by the passions and experiences of the director: "I’m a child of the war (…) When you’ve lived through a war, you know what human beings are capable of, for better and for worse. You never feel reassured. You know there are "Judahs" of all kinds lurking nearby. When making a film which is the expression of all my obsessions, I couldn’t avoid talking about the war and the camps."

Produced by Les Films 13 and Les Films du Kiosque, Ces Amours-là was co-produced by France 3 Cinéma and Studio 37, and pre-bought by Canal + and Ciné Cinéma. It is sold internationally by Kinology.

Also hitting theatres this Wednesday are two films unveiled in competition at the recent Venice Film Festival: Antony Cordier’s carnal drama Happy Few [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Le Pacte on 136 screens); and Julian Schnabel’s Miral [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see review – Pathé Distribution on around 60 screens).

They are joined in the line-up by Romain Gavras’s provocative film Our Day Will Come [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Vincent Cassel (see news – UGC Distribution on just under 40 screens); and the documentaries Black Diamond by Pascale Lamche (distributed by Shellac) and The Cat, the Reverend and the Slave by directorial duo Alain Della Negra and Kaori Kinoshita (distribution: Capricci Films).

The programme is completed by three US films (including The Last Exorcism, financed by Studio Canal), a Russian feature and a South Korean production.

At the box office, Xavier Beauvois’s Cannes prize-winner Of Gods and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile] has got off to an excellent start with 363,000 admissions in five days (Mars Distribution); and Bertrand Blier’s The Clink of Ice [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see video interview) is showing good staying power, having amassed 525,000 admissions in almost three weeks (Wild Bunch Distribution).

(Translated from French)