US screens' French affair
"This year is one of the best on record for French films in the US," said Katherine Verret-Vimont, executive director of Unifrance USA, which promotes French films in the United States. In 2004, only 57 French films and co-productions were released in the United States. By the end of 2005, a record number will have opened on US screens, Verret-Vimont said, the exact number still undetermined.
Charlotte Mickie, head of acquisitions for Celluloid Dreams, said she was lured by "French actresses who are beautiful, and not in a cookie cutter way" as well as the manner the films deal with "relationships in a mature way."
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Veteran director Patrice Chereau, whose film Gabrielle starring Isabelle Huppert was shown in Toronto and will be screened at the upcoming New York film festival, said French films deal with love and sex "a little more naturally than in American films."
French films grossed US $ 111 million (or over US $ 150 million including co-productions) in the North American box office so far this year, including the second most popular documentary ever March of the Penguins, which grossed US$ 67 million in America, more than double the revenues generated by the hugely successful Amelie two years ago. This year, the Toronto festival has shown 25 French films and l6 co-productions in 10 days. Six of them found distributors, including British co-production Oliver Twist by exiled US filmmaker Roman Polanski and Francois Ozon's Time to Leave.
Younger Americans are beginning to respond to visually stylish films like Amelie and edgy films such as Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl. Even subtitles, once a major barrier for non-English films, are no longer as big an issue, according to Michael Barker of Sony, which will release Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's L'Enfant, which won the Palme d'Or and Cache which won Best Director at Cannes for Michael Haneke.