Marking a welcome re-embrace of the streamlined murdery perversities of his terrific “Stranger by the Lake,” Alain Guiraudie gives the Cannes Premiere section one of its darkly sparkling standouts with the unsettlingly offbeat “Misericordia.” In the director’s best work, Guiraudie’s trademark is to infuse genre dalliances with mordant wit and a deliciously peculiar, defiant queerness. And while it may initially appear to be straightforward — and while it thankfully avoids the wild tonal swings of muddy tragicomedy “Staying Vertical” (2016) and rather baffling terrorism sex-farce “Nobody’s Hero” (2022) — nobody could ever accuse this increasingly twisted psychodrama of playing it straight.
From the start, there’s something off. The prologue is a driving sequence, shot from the point of view of the unseen driver, through the narrowing country roads of hilly southwestern France. There is nothing overtly odd going on, even the landscape is banal, shot in hazy earth tones by Claire Mathon’s clever,...
From the start, there’s something off. The prologue is a driving sequence, shot from the point of view of the unseen driver, through the narrowing country roads of hilly southwestern France. There is nothing overtly odd going on, even the landscape is banal, shot in hazy earth tones by Claire Mathon’s clever,...
- 5/27/2024
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
In a career spanning four decades and eight features, Alain Guiraudie has cemented himself as one of our most astute chroniclers of desire. If there’s any leitmotif to his libidinous body of work, that’s not homosexuality (prevalent as same-sex encounters might be across his films) but a force that transcends all manner of labels and categories. His is a cinema of liberty: of vast, enchanted spaces and solitary wanderers who wrestle with their passions, and in acting them out, change the way they carry themselves into the world. Desire becomes an exercise in self-sovereignty, a way of reasserting one’s independence––a rebirth. It is often said that cinema is an inescapably scopophilic realm, where the act of looking is itself a source of pleasure, but Guiraudie has a way of making that dynamic feel egalitarian, as thrilling for those watching as it is for those being watched.
- 5/27/2024
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Cannes is over, the prizes have been given out at Saturday’s awards ceremony., and buyers have gone home, but the deals haven’t stopped. Some of the buzziest titles ahead of the festival are still are awaiting buyers. This year’s market hasn’t been weighed down by the writers or actors strikes in the same way as last year, meaning companies like A24, Neon, Apple, and more have jumped in on exciting packages of possibly future contenders, while art house, specialized distributors like Sideshow and Janus Films, Mubi, and Metrograph have been especially active.
Below we’re tracking everything that gets acquired throughout the festival and beyond.
Films Acquired After the Festival “Gazer”
Section: Director’s Fortnight
Director: Ryan J. Sloan
Buyer: Metrograph Pictures
Date Acquired: May 29
Cast: Ariella Mastroianni
Buzz: As IndieWire exclusively reported, Metrograph went big on this neo-noir thriller with a unique concept from a...
Below we’re tracking everything that gets acquired throughout the festival and beyond.
Films Acquired After the Festival “Gazer”
Section: Director’s Fortnight
Director: Ryan J. Sloan
Buyer: Metrograph Pictures
Date Acquired: May 29
Cast: Ariella Mastroianni
Buzz: As IndieWire exclusively reported, Metrograph went big on this neo-noir thriller with a unique concept from a...
- 5/26/2024
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the North American rights to Alain Guiraudie’s queer crime thriller “Misericordia,” starring Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Jacques Develay and David Ayala. The film was a selection of the Cannes Premiere section at this year’s festival.
The film follows Jérémie (Kysyl), a man returning to his hometown for the funeral of his former employer. After a mysterious disappearance, a priest and a townsperson make Jérémie’s short stay take an unexpected turn.
Guiraudie wrote and directed the film, produced by Charles Gillibert of CG Cinema. Janus Films and Sideshow are planning a theatrical release.
The deal was negotiated by Alice Lesort for Les Films du Losange on behalf of the filmmakers with Sideshow and Janus Films. The film is a CG Cinéma, Scala Films, Arte France Cinéma, Andergraun Films and Rosa Filmes co-production with the participation of Arte France, Ocs and Les Films du Losange.
The film follows Jérémie (Kysyl), a man returning to his hometown for the funeral of his former employer. After a mysterious disappearance, a priest and a townsperson make Jérémie’s short stay take an unexpected turn.
Guiraudie wrote and directed the film, produced by Charles Gillibert of CG Cinema. Janus Films and Sideshow are planning a theatrical release.
The deal was negotiated by Alice Lesort for Les Films du Losange on behalf of the filmmakers with Sideshow and Janus Films. The film is a CG Cinéma, Scala Films, Arte France Cinéma, Andergraun Films and Rosa Filmes co-production with the participation of Arte France, Ocs and Les Films du Losange.
- 5/24/2024
- by Selena Kuznikov
- Variety Film + TV
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the North American rights to Alain Guiraudie’s Misericordia, which screened this week at Cannes in the Premiere sidebar section.
Janus and Sideshow, which negotiated the deal with Les Films du Losange, are planning a theatrical release for the film.
Written and directed by Guiraudie, the film stars Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Jacques Develay and David Ayala. CG Cinéma, Scala Films, Arte France Cinéma, Andergraun Films and Rosa Filmes co-produced with the participation of Arte France, Ocs and Les Films du Losange. Charles Gillibert of CG Cinema served as producer.
Misericordia centres...
Janus and Sideshow, which negotiated the deal with Les Films du Losange, are planning a theatrical release for the film.
Written and directed by Guiraudie, the film stars Félix Kysyl, Catherine Frot, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Jacques Develay and David Ayala. CG Cinéma, Scala Films, Arte France Cinéma, Andergraun Films and Rosa Filmes co-produced with the participation of Arte France, Ocs and Les Films du Losange. Charles Gillibert of CG Cinema served as producer.
Misericordia centres...
- 5/24/2024
- ScreenDaily
Amidst the potential 2024 majors––Jia Zhangke, Olivier Assayas, Leos Carax, Arnaud Desplechin, Paul Schrader, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa but a handful––we should invest as much hope in a new film from Alain Guiraudie. Late last year we reported on his feature Miséricorde (Mercy in English), and this week CG Cinéma’s Romain Blondeau announced the commencement of shooting with Claire Mathon (his Dp on Staying Vertical and Stranger By the Lake) in tow.
Miséricorde is said to follow a noir-like plot concerning Jérémie, a 30-year-old who returns to his native Saint-Martial for a friend’s funeral. While there “he must contend with rumors and suspicion, until he commits an irreparable act and finds himself at the centre of a police investigation.” Knowing Guiraudie’s unflinching visions of violence and sexuality (not least in his superb novel Now the Night Begins), I am already girding my loins. Catherine Frot, Felix Kysyl,...
Miséricorde is said to follow a noir-like plot concerning Jérémie, a 30-year-old who returns to his native Saint-Martial for a friend’s funeral. While there “he must contend with rumors and suspicion, until he commits an irreparable act and finds himself at the centre of a police investigation.” Knowing Guiraudie’s unflinching visions of violence and sexuality (not least in his superb novel Now the Night Begins), I am already girding my loins. Catherine Frot, Felix Kysyl,...
- 11/1/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Just weeks before Alain Guiraudie is set to begin production on his seventh feature film, we learn (via the lesinrocks folks) that the cast of Miséricorde is comprised of veteran actress Catherine Frot along with Felix Kysyl, Jean-Baptiste Durand, Jacques Develay and David Ayala. Guiraudie will be reteaming with cinematographer Claire Mathon for a third time – they previously paired on Stranger by the Lake and Staying Vertical. Mathon was most recently on the set for Pablo Agüero’s Saint-Ex. Sold by the Les Films du Losange folks, with production beginning in next month we figure that a Cannes showing is not in the cards with a Locarno or Venice premiere more probable.…...
- 10/13/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Xavier Giannoli is one of those rare French directors who has a stronger relationship with the Venice Film Festival than Cannes back home.
He has competed for Venice’s Golden Lion three times in the last decade with Superstar (2012), Marguerite (2015) and the sumptuous Honoré de Balzac adaptation Lost Illusions (2021).
The filmmaker is back for a fourth time this year playing Out of Competition with his first-ever drama series, the international thriller Of Money And Blood. All 12 episodes will world premiere in a marathon screening on Thursday, with further seances at the back end of the festival.
Liberally adapted from the eponymous book by investigative journalist Fabrice Arfi, the series delves into a real-life, carbon credit tax scam, which swindled the French state of at least $1.7 billion, in an operation that came to be known as the “fraud of the century” when it came to trial in 2018.
Related: Venice Film Festival...
He has competed for Venice’s Golden Lion three times in the last decade with Superstar (2012), Marguerite (2015) and the sumptuous Honoré de Balzac adaptation Lost Illusions (2021).
The filmmaker is back for a fourth time this year playing Out of Competition with his first-ever drama series, the international thriller Of Money And Blood. All 12 episodes will world premiere in a marathon screening on Thursday, with further seances at the back end of the festival.
Liberally adapted from the eponymous book by investigative journalist Fabrice Arfi, the series delves into a real-life, carbon credit tax scam, which swindled the French state of at least $1.7 billion, in an operation that came to be known as the “fraud of the century” when it came to trial in 2018.
Related: Venice Film Festival...
- 8/31/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
French Canadian filmmaker Sophie Deraspe is currently taking big gulps of the French Alps for her sixth feature film currently in production. Saint-Narcisse thesp Félix-Antoine Duval toplines Berger – the book-to-film adaptation of D’où viens-tu, berger? micro_scope folks Luc Déry, Kim McCraw and Élaine Hébert are producing the project along with the Avenue B folks Caroline Bonmarchand, Xenia Sulyma and Sébastien Perret. Supporting players include Solène Rigot, Younes Boucif, Bruno Raffaelli, Véronique Ruggia, Michel Benizri, Guilaine Londez and David Ayala.
Set to conclude filming early next month, this will be ready for 2024. One noteworthy member of the tech squad is Viking filmmaker Stéphane Lafleur who also moonlights as a notable film editor.…...
Set to conclude filming early next month, this will be ready for 2024. One noteworthy member of the tech squad is Viking filmmaker Stéphane Lafleur who also moonlights as a notable film editor.…...
- 6/8/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Emmanuel Courcol channels the feel-good energy of films like The Full Monty or Francophone dramedy Sink Or Swim for his latest, which fictionalises the true story of Swedish actor Jan Jönson's attempt to help prisoners stage a version of Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot.
Transporting the action to France, versatile star Kad Merat takes on the role of Étienne Carboni, an actor whose dreams of becoming a household name have remained just that. Étienne's latest project sees him venture inside the walls of a prison to provide theatre workshops for the inmates. It is here that he becomes inspired to try to stage Beckett's absurdist classic - after all, he reasons, few are more familiar with the concept of waiting in the same place and performing the same rituals day after day than prisoners.
Courcol's film unfolds across its ensemble as Étienne works with Patrick (David Ayala), Kamel (Sofian Khammes), Moussa (Wabinlé.
Transporting the action to France, versatile star Kad Merat takes on the role of Étienne Carboni, an actor whose dreams of becoming a household name have remained just that. Étienne's latest project sees him venture inside the walls of a prison to provide theatre workshops for the inmates. It is here that he becomes inspired to try to stage Beckett's absurdist classic - after all, he reasons, few are more familiar with the concept of waiting in the same place and performing the same rituals day after day than prisoners.
Courcol's film unfolds across its ensemble as Étienne works with Patrick (David Ayala), Kamel (Sofian Khammes), Moussa (Wabinlé.
- 11/7/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.