All articles by Francoise Meaux Saint Marc – Page 16
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Taxi 2 becomes France's biggest ever opener
Taxi 2, produced by Luc Besson's Leeloo Productions and distributed by Arp Selection, has smashed the all-time opening day record in France, attracting a massive 759,152 admissions from 830 screens. Taxi 2 is the highly-anticipated follow-up to 1998 hit Taxi which became the fourth highest grossing hit in France in ...
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Beineix, Anglade reteam for Mortel Transfer
Arturo Ripstein's The Ruination Of Men (La Perdicion De Los Hombres) walked away with the Golden Shell award for best film at the 48th San Sebastian International film festival.Shot in black and white, the black comedy about two women who fight over the body of a dead lover also won ...
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Lagardere profits down but media boosts sales
French media and aerospace group Lagardere has reported a 13.9% decrease in profits during the 1999 financial year to $235m (FFr1.58bn), compared to $268m (FFr1.8bn) in 1998. However revenue was up 14.9% over the same period to $12bn (FFr80.5bn), from $11.8bn (FFr79.1bn) in 1998, with the growth mostly attributed to ...
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TPS unveils plans to launch TV e-mail
French digital satellite platform TPS, a rival to Canal Plus' CanalSatellite operation, has unveiled plans to provide Internet access and other digital services through television sets before the end of the year.TPS - which has 880,000 subscribers compared to CanalSatellites' 1.5 million - plans to offer e-mail services, called TV-mail, ...
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Oliver Stone to chair Cognac jury
Oliver Stone - whose latest title, Any Given Sunday, opens in France on April 12 - will chair the jury of the 18th Festival of Cognac (April 6-9), which focuses on thrillers and crime stories. Stone was involved, through his production company Illusion Entertainment, in 1997 Cognac grand prize-winner Freeway, ...
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Joffe's Vatel to open Cannes
Roland Joffe's $29m (FFr199m) historical epic Vatel, produced by Gaumont and starring Gerard Depardieu, Uma Thurman and Tim Roth, will open this year's Cannes Film Festival on May 10. As is usual with the opening night film, Vatel will screen out of competition. French actress Virginie Ledoyen, who starred in ...
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France's AB seeks secondary listing
French television producer-distributor Groupe AB, which also operates cable and satellite channels in France and Germany, has announced plans to seek a secondary listing on the Paris Stock Exchange. The company, which acquired leading French cable and satellite channel RTL9 from CLT-Ufa in May 1998, has been listed on the ...
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Canal Plus hits back at TF1 in pay-TV war
Canal Plus COO Denis Olivennes has lashed back at TF1 chairman Patrick Le Lay over his accusation that Canal Plus is monopolising pay-TV rights in the French market (Screendaily March 20).Le Lay's concerns were connected to digital platform TPS, which is part-owned by TF1 and currently lobbying for the creation ...
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Nowhere To Hide steals spotlight at Deauville fest
South Korean film Nowhere to Hide scooped four out of six awards at the second Pan-Asia Festival of Deauville (March 17-19). The Sundance title won the Grand Jury prize, best director for Lee Myung-Se, best actor for Park Joong-Hoon and best cinemaphotography.The quirky cop story - which had its European ...
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TF1 chief accuses Canal Plus of monopoly position
Patrick Le Lay, chairman of French broadcaster TF1 which part owns the TPS digital platform, has launched a fresh attack on Canal Plus over the on-going issue of access to pay-TV rights.Le Lay has written to state film body CNC accusing Canal Plus, which controls rival platform Canal Satellite, of ...
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Rostain appointed as Gaumont sales chief
OFFICIAL SELECTIONOpening night film (out of competition):VATEL Dir: Roland JoffeClosing night film (out of competition):STARDOM (aka 15 MOMENTS)Dir: Denys ArcandCOMPETITION:SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR (SANGER FRAN ANDRA VANINGEN)Dir: Roy AnderssonEUREKADir: Aoyama Shinji O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU'Dir: Joel CoenKIPPURDir: Amos GitaiTHE YARDS Dir: James GRAYESTORVODir: Ruy GUERRACHUNHYANG Dir: Im Kwon ...
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Dunaway to chair Festival de Paris jury
Faye Dunaway will chair the jury of the 15th Festival de Paris film festival (March 27 - April 3), which specialises in first and second efforts. Nine titles will be competing this year, including two US titles - Alison Maclean's Jesus' Son and Marc Levin's White Boys - France's Drole ...
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Telepiu, net operations add to Canal Plus loss
Michael Haneke, the Austrian director whose film The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste) scooped three of the top awards at Cannes last week, has set his next project as a series for television. The series Das Weisse Band (literally The White Band) will be produced for state broadcaster ORF and shot ...
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France says \'oui\' to web site ads
The decision by French audiovisual watchdog Conseil Superieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) to lift the ban on the advertising of cinema-related web sites on television is causing an uproar among the French film production unions. Four unions - films producers' associations SPI, SRF and UPA, and talent union ARP - have ...
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Disney signs up Ubi Soft for Dinosaur game
Disney Interactive has signed up France's Ubi Soft Entertainment to produce and distribute a video game adapted from its upcoming 3D animated feature Dinosaur, which is to be released in the US in May 2000.Ubi Soft - which is one of France's leading multimedia companies, along with Infogrames and Cryo ...
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Gov't set to intervene in French producers' battle
The French government looks set to intervene in a stalemate between pay-TV outfit Television Par Satellite (TPS) and industry bodies BLIC, BLOC and ARP about the relationship between the pay-TV sector and French producers.TPS is under pressure to sign an agreement with the three organisations which would govern its investment ...
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French film suffers decline in foreign investment
Foreign investment in French production decreased by an alarming 34% in 1999, according to figures released by French cultural body CNC (Centre National de la Cinematographie). The dip can mostly be attributed to government legislation, introduced last April, which restricts local support to French films that have budgets which are ...
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Canal Plus Image to float by June
France's Canal Plus will float subsidiary Canal Plus Image on the French stock exchange before summer 2000 and probably no later than June according to an interview with Canal Plus chairman Pierre Lescure in French magazine Le Nouvel Economiste.Image regroups all of the French pay-TV giant's film activities and is ...
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UK's Warriors, Kid scoop Nymphs at Monte Carlo
UK productions dominated the mini-series category of the 40th Monte Carlo Television Festival (Feb 17-23) with the BBC's Warriors walking away with the top award and Channel Four's Kid In The Corner scooping three of the four remaining prizes.Peter Kosminky's Warriors - which focuses on a group of British UN ...
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Zentropa wins producer award at Monte Carlo
Danish production outfit Zentropa has picked up the award for best European producer at the 40th edition of the Monte Carlo Television Festival (Feb 17-23). The Monte Carlo jury cited Zentropa for the quality of programmes submitted - The Kingdom and TV movie Morten Korch ' and the volume of ...