Cohen Media Group, the U.S. distribution company behind Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated “Io Capitano,” has acquired North American rights to “The President’s Wife,” a biting movie starring Catherine Deneuve as France’s former first lady Bernadette Chirac.
The deal closed during the European Film Market currently taking place and running alongside the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie, which marks the feature debut of director Léa Domenach, is nominated for a Cesar Award for best first film. The deal was negotiated by Robert Aaronson, executive VP of Cohen Media Group, and Charlotte Boucon, head of world sales at Orange Studio — newly acquired by Studiocanal — on behalf of Warner Bros Picture France.
The film opens in 1995, as Jacques Chirac becomes president of France. “His wife Bernadette now expects to be treated with the respect due to her lifelong work in the shadow of her husband. But mocked as too corny, she’s cast aside.
The deal closed during the European Film Market currently taking place and running alongside the Berlin Film Festival.
The movie, which marks the feature debut of director Léa Domenach, is nominated for a Cesar Award for best first film. The deal was negotiated by Robert Aaronson, executive VP of Cohen Media Group, and Charlotte Boucon, head of world sales at Orange Studio — newly acquired by Studiocanal — on behalf of Warner Bros Picture France.
The film opens in 1995, as Jacques Chirac becomes president of France. “His wife Bernadette now expects to be treated with the respect due to her lifelong work in the shadow of her husband. But mocked as too corny, she’s cast aside.
- 2/17/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Singaporean director Eric Khoo has unveiled fresh details on his new film Spirit World, which is currently shooting in Japan with Catherine Deneuve in the lead role, and also unveiled Goodfellas as the international sales agent.
Paris-based sales company Goodfellas will launch the film at the EFM. Arp Sélection has acquired French rights.
Deneuve plays legendary singer Claire who flies to Japan for a final sold-out concert, but as the show comes to an end so does her worldly life.
She then arrives in the spirit world where she embarks on a journey to find the humanity in the afterlife that eluded her on earth, guided by Yuzo, one of her biggest fans.
Deneuve is joined in the cast by Masaaki Sakai (best known to international audiences as the star of the 1970s hit show Monkey), Yutaka Takenouchi (Shin Godzilla) and Jun Fubuki.
Khoo, whose recent credits include the HBO Asia Original horror Folklore,...
Paris-based sales company Goodfellas will launch the film at the EFM. Arp Sélection has acquired French rights.
Deneuve plays legendary singer Claire who flies to Japan for a final sold-out concert, but as the show comes to an end so does her worldly life.
She then arrives in the spirit world where she embarks on a journey to find the humanity in the afterlife that eluded her on earth, guided by Yuzo, one of her biggest fans.
Deneuve is joined in the cast by Masaaki Sakai (best known to international audiences as the star of the 1970s hit show Monkey), Yutaka Takenouchi (Shin Godzilla) and Jun Fubuki.
Khoo, whose recent credits include the HBO Asia Original horror Folklore,...
- 2/2/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
With great power comes great responsibility. Canal+ Group has received the conditional approval from the anti-trust board to acquire Orange Studio and Ocs, the film and pay TV operations of Orange, France’s leading telco group.
Canal+ has committed to a number of remedies for an initial duration of five years in order to get the regulatory green light and address concentration concerns.
The acquisition of Ocs by Canal+ could have large ramifications on the local film industry because both players represent the top two sources of pre-financing for French movies. Canal+ is currently on a three-year deal (until the end of 2024) with film guilds to invest an average of €200 million per year in French and European cinema. Ocs, meanwhile, has a deal with producers to invest €20 million annual investment in local pics.
Under the plans presented to the regulatory commission, Ocs will be combined with Cine+, one of Canal+’s channels,...
Canal+ has committed to a number of remedies for an initial duration of five years in order to get the regulatory green light and address concentration concerns.
The acquisition of Ocs by Canal+ could have large ramifications on the local film industry because both players represent the top two sources of pre-financing for French movies. Canal+ is currently on a three-year deal (until the end of 2024) with film guilds to invest an average of €200 million per year in French and European cinema. Ocs, meanwhile, has a deal with producers to invest €20 million annual investment in local pics.
Under the plans presented to the regulatory commission, Ocs will be combined with Cine+, one of Canal+’s channels,...
- 1/13/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
French cinema icon Catherine Deneuve has begun filming in Japan of “Spirit World,” a fantasy-drama film directed by Singapore’s Eric Khoo.
Deneuve portrays a singer who dies suddenly while on tour in Japan. But her spirit lives on and she embarks on a journey to find humanity in the after-world.
The project was revealed by the city government of Takasaki, an ancient town on Honshu Island between Tokyo and Kyoto, where production began over the weekend. Work is expected to continue for 10 days, before moving to other locations.
“I’m happy that a movie starring Deneuve is filmed in Takasaki. I’d like to cooperate in the filming,” said city mayor, Tomioka Kenji.
The film is understood to be based on an original screenplay. It is structured as a three-way production involving companies from Singapore, Japan and France and with financial support from authorities in Singapore. The producers are...
Deneuve portrays a singer who dies suddenly while on tour in Japan. But her spirit lives on and she embarks on a journey to find humanity in the after-world.
The project was revealed by the city government of Takasaki, an ancient town on Honshu Island between Tokyo and Kyoto, where production began over the weekend. Work is expected to continue for 10 days, before moving to other locations.
“I’m happy that a movie starring Deneuve is filmed in Takasaki. I’d like to cooperate in the filming,” said city mayor, Tomioka Kenji.
The film is understood to be based on an original screenplay. It is structured as a three-way production involving companies from Singapore, Japan and France and with financial support from authorities in Singapore. The producers are...
- 1/10/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
The French icon is the most stylish thing about this underpowered tale of the wife of President Chirac attempting a new public image
Catherine Deneuve makes a stately but good-humoured procession through a bland, underpowered true-life political dramedy that somehow manages to be very apolitical. Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, the wife of Jacques Chirac, the former Paris mayor who became president of France from 1995 to 2007, seeing off Le Pen’s far right, but pilloried in Washington as the “cheese-eating surrender monkey” who wouldn’t support the Iraq war, and was finally mired in corruption scandals.
Deneuve portrays Bernadette as Chirac’s haughty but outspoken first lady, resplendent in Lagerfeld couture, who has long endured her husband’s endless affairs – and in fact, like the French press and public, hardly seems to notice them, a Gallic worldliness quite unlike the attitude in Britain or the United States. Yet when Princess Diana...
Catherine Deneuve makes a stately but good-humoured procession through a bland, underpowered true-life political dramedy that somehow manages to be very apolitical. Deneuve plays Bernadette Chirac, the wife of Jacques Chirac, the former Paris mayor who became president of France from 1995 to 2007, seeing off Le Pen’s far right, but pilloried in Washington as the “cheese-eating surrender monkey” who wouldn’t support the Iraq war, and was finally mired in corruption scandals.
Deneuve portrays Bernadette as Chirac’s haughty but outspoken first lady, resplendent in Lagerfeld couture, who has long endured her husband’s endless affairs – and in fact, like the French press and public, hardly seems to notice them, a Gallic worldliness quite unlike the attitude in Britain or the United States. Yet when Princess Diana...
- 1/3/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Films from Sofia Coppola, Ava Duvernay, John Woo and Hayao Miyazaki to be screened.
Michael Mann’s Ferrari will receive its Mena premiere as the closing night film of the 3rd Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff), which has also unveiled the titles for its International Spectacular strand.
The hotly-tipped awards contender will close the festival on December 7 in the port city of Jeddah.
The film, starring Adam Driver as iconic car manufacturer Enzo Ferrari, received the backing of the Red Sea Film Foundation – the festival’s parent body – earlier this year
It received its world premiere in...
Michael Mann’s Ferrari will receive its Mena premiere as the closing night film of the 3rd Red Sea International Film Festival (Red Sea Iff), which has also unveiled the titles for its International Spectacular strand.
The hotly-tipped awards contender will close the festival on December 7 in the port city of Jeddah.
The film, starring Adam Driver as iconic car manufacturer Enzo Ferrari, received the backing of the Red Sea Film Foundation – the festival’s parent body – earlier this year
It received its world premiere in...
- 11/22/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The Red Sea International Film Festival (Rsiff) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia will wrap up its third edition next month with a closing-night gala screening on Dec. 7 of Ferrari, the biopic from Michael Mann starring Adam Driver, Penelope Cruz, Shailene Woodley and Patrick Dempsey.
Organizers on Wednesday also unveiled the lineup for the International Spectacular program, which presents “cinema from around the globe and features celebrated auteurs and international filmmaking icons.” The festival highlighted that the section “showcases some of the most highly anticipated and talked about films of the year, screened for the first time in the Arab world.”
The International Spectacular program will also feature Sofia Coppola’s biopic Priscilla, Ava Duvernay’s Origin, John Woo’s Silent Night, Léa Domenach’s Bernadette (The President’s Wife), which sees Catherine Deneuve starring as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac, Aardman’s Sam Fell-directed Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,...
Organizers on Wednesday also unveiled the lineup for the International Spectacular program, which presents “cinema from around the globe and features celebrated auteurs and international filmmaking icons.” The festival highlighted that the section “showcases some of the most highly anticipated and talked about films of the year, screened for the first time in the Arab world.”
The International Spectacular program will also feature Sofia Coppola’s biopic Priscilla, Ava Duvernay’s Origin, John Woo’s Silent Night, Léa Domenach’s Bernadette (The President’s Wife), which sees Catherine Deneuve starring as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac, Aardman’s Sam Fell-directed Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget,...
- 11/22/2023
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Michael Mann’s high octane biopic Ferrari has been announced as the closing picture of Saudi Arabia’s third Red Sea International Film Festival, running November 30 to December 9 in the port city of Jeddah.
The movie, starring Adam Driver as legendary Italian motor-racing driver and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari, alongside Penelope Cruz and Shailene Woodley as his wife and lover respectively, world premiered at Venice and has since played a raft of festivals.
The closing night gala screening will mark the film’s Mena premiere, with Jeddah providing a fitting backdrop having hosted the first three editions of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on its waterfront Corniche Circuit since 2021.
Ferrari was among a raft of high-profile titles to receive the backing of the festival’s parent body the Red Sea Film Foundation earlier this year alongside Johnny Depp’s Modi and Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
“It is...
The movie, starring Adam Driver as legendary Italian motor-racing driver and entrepreneur Enzo Ferrari, alongside Penelope Cruz and Shailene Woodley as his wife and lover respectively, world premiered at Venice and has since played a raft of festivals.
The closing night gala screening will mark the film’s Mena premiere, with Jeddah providing a fitting backdrop having hosted the first three editions of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on its waterfront Corniche Circuit since 2021.
Ferrari was among a raft of high-profile titles to receive the backing of the festival’s parent body the Red Sea Film Foundation earlier this year alongside Johnny Depp’s Modi and Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
“It is...
- 11/22/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
2023 box office takings are still on track to surpass last year’s figures.
The French box office continued its autumn dip in October with 13.86 million tickets sold, down 3.9% from October 2022.
However, an impressive final week of admissions in the month and a strong line-up of films set for release in November and December mean that France’s total 2023 box office should surpass last year’s takings.
The October box office came in at €99.8m, based on an average ticket price of €7.20. This is 26.1% below the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average.
The October figure is above September’s traditionally low box office which...
The French box office continued its autumn dip in October with 13.86 million tickets sold, down 3.9% from October 2022.
However, an impressive final week of admissions in the month and a strong line-up of films set for release in November and December mean that France’s total 2023 box office should surpass last year’s takings.
The October box office came in at €99.8m, based on an average ticket price of €7.20. This is 26.1% below the pre-pandemic 2017-2019 average.
The October figure is above September’s traditionally low box office which...
- 11/3/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
AFM slate also includes a blend of local drama, comedy and thriller titles.
Orange Studio will kick off sales at AFM for Like A Prince, the debut feature from actor Ali Marhyar about a star boxer attempting a career comeback in a French chateau after a bar fight gone wrong.
Like A Prince stars Ahmed Sylla as the titular athlete who is sentenced to community service at the prestigious Château de Chambord following a bar fight that injures him and threatens his career. There, amidst horses, strange bosses and knight-inspired stunts, he meets a foster child with a knack for...
Orange Studio will kick off sales at AFM for Like A Prince, the debut feature from actor Ali Marhyar about a star boxer attempting a career comeback in a French chateau after a bar fight gone wrong.
Like A Prince stars Ahmed Sylla as the titular athlete who is sentenced to community service at the prestigious Château de Chambord following a bar fight that injures him and threatens his career. There, amidst horses, strange bosses and knight-inspired stunts, he meets a foster child with a knack for...
- 10/30/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Grande dame of French cinema says she admired former first lady’s ‘strength and freedom’
Bernadette Chirac was France’s answer to Hillary Clinton; the first French president’s wife to come out of the shadows and make her own political splash.
Seen as dowdy and stuck-up when her husband, Jacques, was first elected, the aristocratic first lady had her own political ambitions.
Bernadette Chirac was France’s answer to Hillary Clinton; the first French president’s wife to come out of the shadows and make her own political splash.
Seen as dowdy and stuck-up when her husband, Jacques, was first elected, the aristocratic first lady had her own political ambitions.
- 7/8/2023
- by Kim Willsher in Paris
- The Guardian - Film News
French seller will also market premiere ’Magnificat’ and ’All Because Of The Cat’.
Orange Studio will unveil exclusive first footage from Léa Domenach’s Bernadette starring Catherine Deneuve as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac and from Philippe Lefebvre’s star-powered comedy New Beginnings at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.
Set to be released via Warner Bros. France later in 2023, Bernadette has been one of the French film world’s buzziest titles in recent months since the legendary Deneuve took on the role.
The film follows a fictionalised Bernadette Chirac as she navigates stepping out of the shadows of her husband,...
Orange Studio will unveil exclusive first footage from Léa Domenach’s Bernadette starring Catherine Deneuve as former French first lady Bernadette Chirac and from Philippe Lefebvre’s star-powered comedy New Beginnings at the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris this week.
Set to be released via Warner Bros. France later in 2023, Bernadette has been one of the French film world’s buzziest titles in recent months since the legendary Deneuve took on the role.
The film follows a fictionalised Bernadette Chirac as she navigates stepping out of the shadows of her husband,...
- 1/10/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Catherine Deneuve has no regrets. Though the French icon has worked with everyone from Buñuel to Bjork, she doesn’t dwell on the decades she’s spent on screen. And, at 78, she’s certainly not thinking of retirement.
“I’m not at all ready to draw up a career assessment,” says Deneuve during an interview at the sleek, four-star Hotel Gabriel in Paris’ Saint-Germain des Près — her go-to place for the rare interviews she gives. “I’m very focused on the present, a little on the past and even on the near-future.”
But it’s her legacy of indelible performances that’s on the menu during the interview, which is being conducted as Deneuve prepares to be celebrated at the Venice Film Festival with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Sophisticated as ever and sporting a plunging neckline that exposes her black tulle lingerie, Deneuve feels conflicted about the honor.
“I’m not at all ready to draw up a career assessment,” says Deneuve during an interview at the sleek, four-star Hotel Gabriel in Paris’ Saint-Germain des Près — her go-to place for the rare interviews she gives. “I’m very focused on the present, a little on the past and even on the near-future.”
But it’s her legacy of indelible performances that’s on the menu during the interview, which is being conducted as Deneuve prepares to be celebrated at the Venice Film Festival with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Sophisticated as ever and sporting a plunging neckline that exposes her black tulle lingerie, Deneuve feels conflicted about the honor.
- 8/24/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
France has never had a first lady like this before.
Brigitte Macron will be the nation’s first premiere dame in nearly five years following her husband Emmanuel Macron’s election, stepping into the international spotlight last captivated by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Macron – the school teacher who took up with a student, the glamorous mother of three and grandmother to seven – is an atypical first lady, to say the least. Here’s everything you need to know about her.
1. She has chocolate in her blood
Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux Auzière Macron is the youngest of six children and the only girl.
Brigitte Macron will be the nation’s first premiere dame in nearly five years following her husband Emmanuel Macron’s election, stepping into the international spotlight last captivated by Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Macron – the school teacher who took up with a student, the glamorous mother of three and grandmother to seven – is an atypical first lady, to say the least. Here’s everything you need to know about her.
1. She has chocolate in her blood
Brigitte Marie-Claude Trogneux Auzière Macron is the youngest of six children and the only girl.
- 5/9/2017
- by Peter Mikelbank
- PEOPLE.com
What kind of gift do you get for the most instantly celebrated Frenchwoman since Joan of Arc? A week after her birth, European newspapers are feverishly reporting on the presents being sent to Giulia Bruni-Sarkozy and her parents, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Many papers illustrated a story about the euro talks in Brussels with a photo of German chancellor Angela Merkel presenting the proud father with a Steiff Schlaf-Gut-Bar - an 11-in.-tall "Sleep-Well-Bear" who wears a distinctive striped blue onesie and comes from the fabled German firm's baby collection. Meanwhile, English news outlets proudly reported that...
- 10/27/2011
- by Peter Mikelbank
- PEOPLE.com
Thousands gathered in Paris Thursday to bid a last farewell to designer Yves St Laurent, who died Sunday at age 71. Mourners from fashion, politics and show business including French President Nicolas Sarkozy, his wife former Saint Laurent model Carla Bruni Sarkozy and actress Catherine Deneuve showed up to pay their respects. Other designers, including Hubert de Givenchy, Karl Lagerfeld, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Christian Lacroix, and Sonia Rykiel, were also there to remember their colleague. Throngs of people in the street followed the funeral and a tribute to the designer himself on a giant television screen. Pressed against the barricades outside the Église St.
- 6/5/2008
- by Peter Mikelbank
- PEOPLE.com
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