Cannes 2022: My Favorite Films

My favorite films this year were small, female-centered and female-directed movies. I have never been partial to female oriented or directed films before, so perhaps the year of COVID has transformed my own understandings and/ or it has altered the directing choices women make. Or maybe they were just better than the male-made pictures this year, though only three out of 18 films competing are directed by women, four years after the festival pledged to improve gender representation. Five films directed by women — out of 15 films total — will be shown as official selections in the festival’s Un Certain Regard. Selections for the festival are chosen by the selection committee. Maybe it, like the new French Oscar Selection Committee needs to be overhauled.

Mia Hansen-Løve, Alice Winocur, Emily Atef

Moreover, Cannes messed up on its online ordering system and changes in the ticketing protocols, and so I among many missed several films we wanted to see, e.g., Corsage, for which Vicky Krieps won Best Acting Award. Marie Kreutzer’s period piece in which Krieps plays Empress Sisi of Austria, one of Europe’s first celebrity royals was a coproduction of Austria, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. MK2 sold it to IFC for US and Canada. Other rights went to Austria-Panda Lichtspiele; Benelux-The Searchers; France-Ad Vitam; Hungary-Cirko; Ireland, UK-Picturehouse; Italy-Bim; Spain-Adso Films; Poland-M2; Czech Republic-Aerofilm; Ex-Yugoslavia-Demiurg. I will see it in the Berlin cinema where Alamode is releasing it. You can see it along with these favorite films of mine in Toronto!

Vicky Krieps plays Empress SIsi in ‘Corsage’. She also stars in ‘More Than Ever’

Paris Memories, One Fine Day, and More Than Ever were all about women finding their own unique path for their own unique well-being which could only be discovered by their listening to their own (rather than society’s) inner promptings.

Alice Winocur wrote and directed Revoir Paris after her brother had been in Bataclan, the night spot in Paris shot to bits by a mass murderer. However, her story is not at Bataclan or about Bataclan. A young tv reporter goes into an upscale brasserie to get out of a rain storm and the shooting occurs. The story starts as she returns to Paris after recovering for three months at her mother’s country home and notices the restaurant. It proceeds as she goes on a quest to recover her lost memory of what exactly happened to her that night. One sees Paris in a new way and the kindness of strangers creates bonds beyond the every day conventional ones we hold dear.

The second, One Fine Day, starring Lea Seydoux, is a simple story of a young widow who falls in love again. Simple, clean, quiet and beautifully depicted, it is a perfect film for Seydoux. Mia Hansen-Løve has created a jewel of a study of a woman recovering from grief and finding a way to love again. Among Seydoux’ 51 films in 18 years of acting are Inglorious Basterds, Farewell, My Queen, last year’s Cannes entry The Story of my Wife whose poor editing doomed it, and the most visible, Blue is the Warmest Color which won 2013 Cannes Palme d’Or as well as Best Actress for both her and her co-star Adele Exarchopoulos and the FIPRESCI Prize. One Fine Day may well be the film for which she will be most remembered by her fans.

The third, More Than Ever, by Berlin director Emily Atef (3 Days in Quiberonabout the last interview of Romy Schneider) captures the pathos of a young woman with a fatal disease and how even her beloved is unable to help. A tear-jerker but not at all melodramatic, one might say this is Krieps’ best role since Phantom Thread. (However, I have yet to see her in Corsage!) She finds her way toward peace which, in the end, is the most precious gift.

The back story of this movie is as dramatic as the film, perhaps more so because in real life, the costar died. Her costar Gaspard Ulliel had a son with his former partner, model and singer Gaëlle Piétri, born in January 2016. They split up in 2020. Filming went from 14 April 2021to 4 June 2021. Gaspard died on 19 January, 2022, in La Tronche, Isère, France, after a skiing accident. Vicky Krieps, who was Gaspard Ulliel’s last companion — a version called into question by Gaëlle Pietri, got a drubbing originally from the popular French press and populace for this dating of events in which she was judged a home breaker.

Speaking to paper jam about More than ever, “Krieps said, ‘I hope that More Than Ever won’t just be anticipated because it’s Gaspard Ulliel’s last film. Above all, it is a very beautiful film (…) The projection can only be a nice moment, since, during this film, Gaspard will be alive on screen. To be present at Cannes, in a last feature film which thus speaks of the love of a couple, and of how this love can survive death, is a beautiful analogy. Strong and deep. I hope we manage to convey some of this truth to the public…’, she confided to paper jam, not without emotion.”

After the Cannes standing ovation for Corsage, the public has forgiven Vicky for her perceived real-life position. We look forward to her next movies now in post: Bachmann & Frisch; The Three Musketeers: Milady and The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan in which she plays Anne d’Autriche, and 
The Wall in which she plays a committed and zealous border patrol agent who loses control and kills a harmless migrant in front of three witnesses.

The three films I loved most in Cannes touched my innermost emotional core. They validate my own choices and strengthen my convictions. I am sure they will encourage others to recognize and follow their own promptings as they find new pathways in our quickly changing world.

Countdown to Cannes 24 Days: Hyde Park's Blue Valentine

Blue Valentine which premiered in Sundance is showing in Un Certain Regard.

Its US distribution deal made in Sundance with The Weinstein Co. stirred up lots of interest. But of greater interest is the international sales agent who has already sold in in Italy to CDI, the Middle East to Front Row and Australia to Palace.

Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment is one of the top tier international sales agents in the international independent movie industry.  Among the US based sales agents, it stands with Summit on its own peak. 

Its commitment to the global film industry, to develop, finance and produce cross-cultural commercial films, continues to grow in Asia and the Middle East with the appointment of Jason Mirch to head its Abu Dhabi office Imagenation and Yeo Chang in Singapore to manage operations of Hyde Park Imagenation Singapore, along with finding and developing projects in Asia. Hyde Park Imagenation aims to create up to 20 features that will “open a window on Middle Eastern and Asian culture, enabling audiences around the world to look in and appreciate the region’s rich and increasingly dynamic heritage” states Imagenation Abu Dhabi COO Stefan Brunner. Mirch and Chang will work alongside Hyde Park International president Mimi Steinbauer, Hyde Park executive vice-president Patrick Aiello, and Imagenation Abu Dhabi COO Stefan Brunner.

30 Days To Cannes: EuropaCorp

EuropaCorp's Little White Lies aka Les Petits Mouchoirs by Guillaume Canet  from France is on the Tipped for Cannes list.. meanwhile The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, which had its world premiere at the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival on April 9, received an extraordinary review from Screen .

And EuropaCorp is currently featured in Nikke Finke's Deadline Hollywood as it seeks to take its film I I Love You Phillip Morris away from Consolidated Pictures Group for North American distribution and put it into the hands of Newmarket.  Read it for news of a good fight.  The comments are especially telling.

Luc Besson's EuropaCorp is known in the US for its big films with 20th Century Fox, Sony, Disney and Lionsgate, films like Clash of the Titans or The Incredible Hulk.  However movie buffs and the older acquisitions executives will remember the buzz around Luc Besson's early film in 1985 Subway starring Christopher Lambert and Isabelle Adjani which was picked up in the US by Island Pictures.

[Oops, IMDb lists Island and Island Pictures as two separate companies, but we know the company which in the space of one year -- 1985 to 1986 -- picked up and even produced (as Island Alive) such gems as Hector Babenco's Kiss of the Spider Woman, Tim Hunter's The River's Edge, Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa, Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law, Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It, Nobody's Fool starring Roseanne Arquette and Eric Roberts before anyone knew who Julia was, Alan Rudolph's Choose Me, Trip to Bountiful written by Horton Foote, Nic Roeg's Insignificance. ] 

But I digress.

Luc Besson's partner Pierre-Ange Le Pogam had brought Besson into Gaumont where Le Pogam had worked 20 out of his 26 year career and they produced Subway, The Big Blue, Atlantis and the $100m epic Cannes opener The Fifth Element in 1997.  They left together with Taxi in 1998 when Gaumont turned the film down and the newly establshed ARP made a killing with it (6 million admissions in France alone and three other films in the franchise).  LionsGate picked up North America.

In Cannes 2000 Besson and Le Pogam decided to form EuropaCorp out of the projected 15m Euro return on the video sales they would make from Taxi 2.  They brought in French TV, some international partner-distributors and, on a film by film basis, some equity partners to finance the films.  Unless they could match 80% of their total risk, they would not make the movie.

In 2007 EuropaCorp went public to increase its leverage in Hollywood and to acquire the top tier classic film catalog of Roissy Films.  EuropaCorp is primarily a producer which, through its vertical organization has automatic distribution in France and international representation for the rest of trhe world which brings in 30-50% of its revenues.  It has always been profitable and continues to turn out films with a broad range of budgets.  2010 releases include the Besson-directed $37m picture The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec along with at least 6 other French and English language films. 

As announced in June 2009, EuropaCorp is joining forces with Euro Media Group and Quinta Communications in the “Studios de Paris”, a structure that will house 9 movie sets, each of which will cover 600 to 2,200 square meters at La Cité du Cinéma’s site at Saint-Denis. EuropaCorp will be a minority shareholder in the company operating the studios. Its investment will not exceed a maximum of 6 million euros. Euro Media Group, which owns various audiovisual production studios across Europe, will contribute its expertise to the running and management of the Studios de Paris.  The Group has signed a lease with “Nef Lumière”, the owner of the services complex, which will house the Ecole Louis Lumière and the offices of La Cité du Cinéma thus giving EuropaCorp access to a single location within which to accommodate its permanent teams and the film crews for each movie, while leaving complementary space for potential new activities.


Check out Cinando.com for their Cannes line up.

Countdown to Cannes 31 Days: UFA

31 days to Cannes gives me 31 days to profile international sales agents of my choice.  As they announce the festival entries April 15, I want to begin with UFA whose name opens vistas into film history and today has a film tipped for the festival:

Die Komenden Tage aka The Days To Come by Lars Kraume produced by Badlands Film and by the venerable UFA Studio, the lives of a middle-class Berlin family unfold from the present day into a realistic near future, a time of great uncertainty and change as siblings deal with their hopes and fears as they face their future in a destabilised world.

Besides this, they are producing one of my all times favorite novels, a property handled in the 90s by German uber agent Sigrid Narjes (Above The Line Agency).  Together we tried unsuccessfully to find interested US coproducers. The Physician, based on Noah Gordon’s international bestseller was first published in English in 1986.  in 1987 it sold more than 6,000,000 copies in Germany alone and in 2004 was voted by German TV viewers as one of the top 10 books of all times (They read in Germany!).  I won't reveal the story which no synopsis can do justice. 
 
By reviving the UFA brand as one of the world’s most successful and historic brands in cinema production, Bertelsmann, RTL Group and FremantleMedia are also sending a clear message about the importance of cinema in the digital age.


UFA Cinema is a company in the UFA group, one of the most famous and renowned German film and TV companies and the largest producer of audiovisual content in Germany. Universum Film AG, (originally Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft) better known as UFA or Ufa, was the principal film studio in Germany, home of the German film industry during the Weimar Republic and through World War II, and a major force in world cinema from 1917 to 1945. After World War II, UFA continued producing movies and television programs to the present day, making it the longest standing film company in Germany.  UFA was created during November 1917 in Berlin as a government-owned producer of World War I propaganda and public service films. It was created through the consolidation of most of Germany's commercial film companies, including Nordisk and Decla. Decla's former owner, Erich Pommer, served as producer for the 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which was not only the best example of German Expressionism and an enormously influential film, but also a commercial success. During the same year, UFA opened the UFA-Palast am Zoo theatre in Berlin, long time flagship of the Berlinale.


Pressured by the US film industry, in late 1921 UFA was merged with Decla-Bioscop, "with government, industrial and banking support" and a near-monopoly in an industry that produced around 600 films each year and attracted a million customers every day. In the silent movie years, when films were easier to adapt for foreign markets, UFA began developing an international reputation and posed serious competition to Hollywood.  After WWII, working with The Marshall Plan helped them survive but did not help them thrive internationally as US became the dominant force in worldwide cinema.


UFA Cinema was founded early 2008 to produce and commercialize - in Germany and worldwide – between 6 and 10 German- and English-language movies a year, in genres ranging from elaborate screen adaptations of novels and bestsellers, comedies for every target audience, and engaging family entertainment, to sophisticated political films and productions by next-generation moviemakers.

Its team of managing directors consists of Wolf Bauer (producer since 1981), Thomas Peter Friedl (18 years head of distribution for Constantin), Prof. Nico Hofmann (producing, directing and writing since 1985) and Dr. Jürgen Schuster (the new kid on the block since 2006). UFA CINEMA has a presence in all of Germany’s major media centers, with offices in Berlin, Munich, Potsdam and Cologne.

All UFA Cinema productions are distributed in the German-speaking countries by Universal Pictures International Germany and the home entertainment in cooperation with UFA Cinema

A strategic distribution partnership with Focus Features International (FFI) and Universal Pictures International (UPI) makes UFA Cinema a new major player in the German and international cinema sector. Together their international business approach, global production partnerships and contacts with filmmakers around the world make them both unique.

Cannes Countdown: 24 Days to Go: Hyde Park

Blue Valentine which premiered in Sundance is showing in Un Certain Regard.

Its US distribution deal made in Sundance with The Weinstein Co. stirred up lots of interest.  But of greater interest is the international sales agent who has already sold in in Italy to CDI, the Middle East to Front Row and Australia to Palace.

Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park Entertainment's commitment to the global film industry, to develop, finance and produce cross-cultural commercial films, continues to grow in Asia and the Middle East with the appointment of Jason Mirch to head its Abu Dhabi office Imagenation and Yeo Chang in Singapore to manage operations of Hyde Park Imagenation Singapore, along with finding and developing projects in Asia. Hyde Park Imagenation aims to create up to 20 features that will “open a window on Middle Eastern and Asian culture, enabling audiences around the world to look in and appreciate the region’s rich and increasingly dynamic heritage” states Imagenation Abu Dhabi COO Stefan Brunner.  Mirch and Chang will work alongside Hyde Park International president Mimi Steinbauer, Hyde Park executive vice-president Patrick Aiello, and Imagenation Abu Dhabi COO Stefan Brunner.

Economic Fallout Hits Handmade Films and Continues to Drop on MGM

Guy Collins has resigned from Hand Made Films International and the sales team has been cut in half.  Film projects still remain on its slate including the remake of The Long Good Friday and children’s film Eloise In Paris.  Michael Ryan has also left.  Former AFM president, Ryan was the M in J&M Entertainment, one of London’s most respected sales outfits in the 1990s the training ground for Summit Entertainment boss Patrick Wachsberger. and acquisition executive Karen Roberts; its dissolution disappointed the entire industry.

Handmade was founded by Beatle George Harrison in that starry moment in 1979 when British films hit America with Stephen Frears' debut film My Beautiful Laundrette (not a Hand Made Film, but the first British import), followed by their great films, John MacKenzie's The Long Good Friday, Terry Jones' Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa (1986), Bruce Robinson's Withnail and I, Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981) up to Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in 1997. Patrick Meehan, the former manager of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, re-launched the company 3 1/2 years ago. Stay tuned in the next month for more business decisions to be taken by the new interim CEO Anthony Fraser.

Further fallout regarding MGM as reported by Screen Daily: "Lionsgate and Access Industries are understood to have made offers for the debt-ridden studio, with Time Warner also known to be interested. There has been wide speculation that none of the bids will reach $2bn.  MGM’s 4,000-strong library may not be the greenest in the business however there are gems in the mix. The studio, which is currently run by a consortium, owns the James Bond and Hobbit franchises."