Le Monde and other French news outlets are reporting that Alain Corneau has succumbed to cancer at the age of 67. Just last week, Jordan Mintzer reviewed Corneau's latest, Crime d'amour (Love Crime), for Variety, calling it a "taut, sinister psycho-procedural." Starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier and having just opened in theaters in France, the film is set to screen in a couple of weeks at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 1992, Corneau's Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings of the World) swept France's César Awards, winning best film, director, cinematography (Yves Angelo), supporting actress (Anne Brochet), music (Jordi Savall), costume design (Corinne Jorry) and sound. In 2004, Corneau was awarded the Prix René Clair.
Updates, 8/31: "Mr Corneau's movies included science fiction, police thrillers, a look at office politics in Japan and a mood piece about ancient India," writes Douglas Martin in the New York Times, "but...
In 1992, Corneau's Tous les matins du monde (All the Mornings of the World) swept France's César Awards, winning best film, director, cinematography (Yves Angelo), supporting actress (Anne Brochet), music (Jordi Savall), costume design (Corinne Jorry) and sound. In 2004, Corneau was awarded the Prix René Clair.
Updates, 8/31: "Mr Corneau's movies included science fiction, police thrillers, a look at office politics in Japan and a mood piece about ancient India," writes Douglas Martin in the New York Times, "but...
- 9/1/2010
- MUBI
Toronto International Film Festival
TORONTO -- Jean-Pierre Melville's seminal 1966 gangster movie, "Le deuxieme souffle" gets a second wind courtesy of a visually dazzling remake by Alain Corneau.
Turning to the 1958 Jose Giovanni novel as his source material, the veteran French filmmaker has added a gorgeous dollop of saturated color to the noir palette, in addition to much more dialogue, while still retaining the original's Very. Deliberate. Pace.
The striking cinematography and production design, combined with a masterful lead performance by the always effective Daniel Auteuil, certainly make for potent Cesar Awards bait.
It also stands a good chance of securing American distribution at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it received its world premiere, although at a very noticeable two-and-a-half hours it could be a tough sell for those audiences accustomed to bullets flying with greater speed.
Auteuil more than capably fills the late Lino Ventura's shoes as Gustave "Gu" Minda, a career gangster who has busted out of prison, where he was serving a life sentence.
Waiting for him on the outside is the beautiful and determinedly self-possessed Manouche (Monica Bellucci), who wants them to start a new life in Italy, but the cash-strapped Gu insists on first pulling one last job so that he'll be able to provide her with the kind of life to which she's been accustomed.
The job goes without a hitch, which serves to further infuriate the police as embodied by the cagey Inspector Blot (Michel Blanc) and the sadistic Fardiano (Alexandre Faure), who aren't above employing any dirty trick necessary to bring Gu and his gang to justice.
While Corneau's cast is, across-the-board, excellent, this is Auteuil's film all the way.
When we first see Gu during that jail break, he looks like a beaten-down, scared rabbit, but beneath that hesitant demeanor there's a lingering intensity lying in wait for the right moment to ignite once more.
A man who lives by a strict moral code when it comes to not ratting on one's colleagues, Gu is the kind of character who would have been right a home in a Greek tragedy.
Startlingly lit and shot (by Yves Angelo), the film's moody atmosphere is further enhanced by Thierry Flamand's pungent period art direction, which wears well under all those errant bullet holes and neatly contained pools of blood.
Completing the effect are costume designer Corinne Jorry's tough guy suits and composer Bruno Coulais' swirling, insistent score.
LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE (SECOND WIND)
Wild Bunch
ARP/TF1 Films/Canal +/Cinecinema Kiosque/Sogecinema 4/Sogecinema 5
Director-writer: Alain Corneau
Based on the novel by Jose Giovanni
Producers: Michele Halberstadt, Laurent Petin
Director of photography: Yves Angelo
Production designer: Thierry Flamand
Music: Bruno Coulais
Costume designer: Corinne Jorry
Editor: Marie-Josephe Yoyotte
Cast:
Gu: Daniel Auteuil
Manouche: Monica Bellucci
Blot: Michel Blanc
Orloff: Jacques Dutronc
Alban: Eric Cantona
Venture Ricci: Daniel Duval
Joe Ricci: Gilbert Melki
Fardiano: Alexandre Faure
MPAA rating: Not yet rated, running time 156 minutes...
TORONTO -- Jean-Pierre Melville's seminal 1966 gangster movie, "Le deuxieme souffle" gets a second wind courtesy of a visually dazzling remake by Alain Corneau.
Turning to the 1958 Jose Giovanni novel as his source material, the veteran French filmmaker has added a gorgeous dollop of saturated color to the noir palette, in addition to much more dialogue, while still retaining the original's Very. Deliberate. Pace.
The striking cinematography and production design, combined with a masterful lead performance by the always effective Daniel Auteuil, certainly make for potent Cesar Awards bait.
It also stands a good chance of securing American distribution at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it received its world premiere, although at a very noticeable two-and-a-half hours it could be a tough sell for those audiences accustomed to bullets flying with greater speed.
Auteuil more than capably fills the late Lino Ventura's shoes as Gustave "Gu" Minda, a career gangster who has busted out of prison, where he was serving a life sentence.
Waiting for him on the outside is the beautiful and determinedly self-possessed Manouche (Monica Bellucci), who wants them to start a new life in Italy, but the cash-strapped Gu insists on first pulling one last job so that he'll be able to provide her with the kind of life to which she's been accustomed.
The job goes without a hitch, which serves to further infuriate the police as embodied by the cagey Inspector Blot (Michel Blanc) and the sadistic Fardiano (Alexandre Faure), who aren't above employing any dirty trick necessary to bring Gu and his gang to justice.
While Corneau's cast is, across-the-board, excellent, this is Auteuil's film all the way.
When we first see Gu during that jail break, he looks like a beaten-down, scared rabbit, but beneath that hesitant demeanor there's a lingering intensity lying in wait for the right moment to ignite once more.
A man who lives by a strict moral code when it comes to not ratting on one's colleagues, Gu is the kind of character who would have been right a home in a Greek tragedy.
Startlingly lit and shot (by Yves Angelo), the film's moody atmosphere is further enhanced by Thierry Flamand's pungent period art direction, which wears well under all those errant bullet holes and neatly contained pools of blood.
Completing the effect are costume designer Corinne Jorry's tough guy suits and composer Bruno Coulais' swirling, insistent score.
LE DEUXIEME SOUFFLE (SECOND WIND)
Wild Bunch
ARP/TF1 Films/Canal +/Cinecinema Kiosque/Sogecinema 4/Sogecinema 5
Director-writer: Alain Corneau
Based on the novel by Jose Giovanni
Producers: Michele Halberstadt, Laurent Petin
Director of photography: Yves Angelo
Production designer: Thierry Flamand
Music: Bruno Coulais
Costume designer: Corinne Jorry
Editor: Marie-Josephe Yoyotte
Cast:
Gu: Daniel Auteuil
Manouche: Monica Bellucci
Blot: Michel Blanc
Orloff: Jacques Dutronc
Alban: Eric Cantona
Venture Ricci: Daniel Duval
Joe Ricci: Gilbert Melki
Fardiano: Alexandre Faure
MPAA rating: Not yet rated, running time 156 minutes...
The honors keep piling up for Claude Chabrol's "La Ceremonie".
Los Angeles film critics last weekend voted it best foreign language film of 1996 to go with the best actress Cesar awarded to Isabelle Huppert and shared best actress honors for Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. After more than 50 films, Chabrol has not lost the knack for agitating audiences and winning over critics.
The title "La Ceremonie" refers to the ritual before execution, while ads for the film proclaim "France's Alfred Hitchcock Returns." With a cast that includes Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Cassel, the psychological thriller is subtle and engaging up to a point, but some viewers may find themselves nodding off while looking for clues.
Bonnaire plays a quiet but unsettling loner who is hired as a housekeeper by a well-to-do couple (Bisset and Cassel). She's efficient and obedient, except when it comes to cleaning the library. Illiterate to the point where the sight of books causes her dread, she relates better to TV.
While her employers listen to opera and generally treat her with aloofness, the maid becomes friends with the local postmaster (Huppert), a working-class schemer. Bad to the bone despite their good looks and civility, the two have a good laugh over the reported death of the lead's husband in a suspicious fire.
One begins to suspect the family is headed for calamity in their plush country chateau, and firing the new help is exactly the wrong move at the wrong time.
Superior performances aside, "La Ceremonie" is slow and devoid of passion at the most crucial moments, sending one home in a cross mood.
LA CeReMONIE
New Yorker Films
MK2 Prods., France 3 Cinema,
Prokino Filmproduktion, OLGA Film
A film by Claude Chabrol
Director Claude Chabrol
Producer Marin Karmitz
Writers Claude Chabrol, Caroline Eliacheff
Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell
Director of photography Bernard Zitzermann
Costume design Corinne Jorry
Editor Monique Fardoulis
Music Mathieu Chabrol
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sophie Sandrine Bonnaire
Jeanne Isabelle Huppert
Catherine Jacqueline Bisset
Georges Jean-Pierre Cassel
Melinda Virginie Ledoyen
Gilles Valentin Merlet
Running time -- 111 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Los Angeles film critics last weekend voted it best foreign language film of 1996 to go with the best actress Cesar awarded to Isabelle Huppert and shared best actress honors for Huppert and Sandrine Bonnaire at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. After more than 50 films, Chabrol has not lost the knack for agitating audiences and winning over critics.
The title "La Ceremonie" refers to the ritual before execution, while ads for the film proclaim "France's Alfred Hitchcock Returns." With a cast that includes Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Cassel, the psychological thriller is subtle and engaging up to a point, but some viewers may find themselves nodding off while looking for clues.
Bonnaire plays a quiet but unsettling loner who is hired as a housekeeper by a well-to-do couple (Bisset and Cassel). She's efficient and obedient, except when it comes to cleaning the library. Illiterate to the point where the sight of books causes her dread, she relates better to TV.
While her employers listen to opera and generally treat her with aloofness, the maid becomes friends with the local postmaster (Huppert), a working-class schemer. Bad to the bone despite their good looks and civility, the two have a good laugh over the reported death of the lead's husband in a suspicious fire.
One begins to suspect the family is headed for calamity in their plush country chateau, and firing the new help is exactly the wrong move at the wrong time.
Superior performances aside, "La Ceremonie" is slow and devoid of passion at the most crucial moments, sending one home in a cross mood.
LA CeReMONIE
New Yorker Films
MK2 Prods., France 3 Cinema,
Prokino Filmproduktion, OLGA Film
A film by Claude Chabrol
Director Claude Chabrol
Producer Marin Karmitz
Writers Claude Chabrol, Caroline Eliacheff
Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell
Director of photography Bernard Zitzermann
Costume design Corinne Jorry
Editor Monique Fardoulis
Music Mathieu Chabrol
Color/stereo
Cast:
Sophie Sandrine Bonnaire
Jeanne Isabelle Huppert
Catherine Jacqueline Bisset
Georges Jean-Pierre Cassel
Melinda Virginie Ledoyen
Gilles Valentin Merlet
Running time -- 111 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/19/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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