ScreenDaily takes a look at the local and independent openings in key markets this week

France:

Lars Von Trier’s ultra-controversial Antichrist opened in France on Wednesday. Given the reception it received during the recent Cannes Film Festival, the film is likely to find an audience curious about the hype. It was released by Les Films du Losange on 117 screens. Local artistic-dynasty scion Charlotte Gainsbourg took the Best Actress Palme d’Or in Cannes which could give the film an extra boost opening week.

Don’t Look Back, a thriller from Marina de Van screened out of competition in Cannes and despite a somewhat frosty reception at the festival, was acquired for US distribution by IFC and has been warmly welcomed by local critics. The star teaming of Monica Bellucci and Sophie Marceau is out on 178 screens in France through Wild Bunch Distribution.

On 179 screens in France – and countless others the world over – Yann Arthus Bertrand’s documentary Home will be released day-and-date on June 5. The EuropaCorp release chronicles the ecological state of the planet. Arthus-Bertrand’s work has been showcased in Paris to great acclaim giving the film a home-grown push.

Spain:

Universal will be releasing a 3D film this weekend in the shape of the children’s animation adventure Coraline, directed by Henry Selick. Dakota Fanning provides the voice of the lead girl who finds another world which is strangely similar to her own, but with sinister secrets.

Anne Fontaine’s Coco Before Chanel, starring Audrey Tautou, will be released in cinemas by Warner Bros. The film, which charts the rise to fame of Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel, one of the leading names in the fashion world, has already taken $8m in France since its release on 22 April.

Local distributor Golem will release Hirokazu Kore-eda’s multi award winning Japanese drama Still Walking in select cinemas across Spain. The film tells the story of grown-up siblings returning to their family home to be with their elderly parents and to commemorate the death of the eldest son who drowned 15 years before.

Germany:

Jan Krüger’s second-feature Light Gradient (Rückenwind) was shown by producer-distributor Salzgeber & Co Medien in previews as part of the Gay Film Nights programme before opening on screens in Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Freiburg and Munich. Starring Sebastian Schlecht and Eric Golub, the story is about two young men taking a trip into the Brandenburg countryside searching for a natural gay relationship far from the madding crowd.

Japanese-born Marie Miyayama’s graduation project and debut feature The Red Spot (Der Roter Punkt) - about a Japanese student travelling in her family’s tracks from Tokyo to Germany - was launched by Movienet on over 20 screens nationwide. The drama is competing for the Film Art Prize at this year’s Festival of German Cinema in Ludwigshafen later this month.

Argentinian filmmaker Pablo Trapero’s Lion’s Den (Leonora), which was selected for official competition at Cannes in 2008, now reaches German cinemas screens thanks to MFA+. The film was Argentina’s entry for the 2009 Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

UK:

Fred Cavayé’s Anything For Her will open in the UK June 5 on a limited release through Metrodome distribution. The French film stars Diane Kruger and Vincent Lindon as a married couple whose lives are turned up-side-down when the wife is imprisoned for murder, leaving the husband to resort to increasingly desperate measures to secure her freedom.

Momentum will give the Dustin Hoffman-starring romantic drama Last Chance Harvey a saturated release, also from June 5.

Three classic re-releases will open in the territory with Universal giving new life to Spartacus starring Kirk Douglas, while the BFI re-issue Joesph Losey’s Accident and Park Circus show 1963’s This Sporting Life.

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