In this week’s local and independent releases in key international territories, Il Divo moves into Germany on 37 prints; France welcomes Rachel Getting Marriedand local comedy OSS 117 starring Jean Dujardin; UK readies for Sundance hit In The Loop.



Germany

- Paolo Sorrentino’s Cannes 2008 Jury Prize winner Il Divo opens nationwide in main German cities and university towns on 37 prints. Most cinemas are screening the film in a German dubbed version, although three prints are being booked by Delphi Filmverleih with the Italian original and German subtitles.  

- Asian cinema specialist Rapid Eye Movies releases Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-Dong’s Secret Sunshine which won the lead actress Jeon Do-Yeon the prize for Best Actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. The drama opens on limited release on six cinemas in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Hamburg.

- A week before kicking off this year’s Visions du Reel film festival in Nyon on April 23, Paul Smaczny and Maria Stodtmeier’s documentary El Sistema opens in 20 cinemas by Novapool Pictures, initially in central and Southern Germany in such towns as Cologne, Kassel, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Mannheim and Stuttgart. The film focuses on the work of Jose Antonio Abreu in building up a network of children’s and youth orchestras, music centres and workshops in Venezuela.

France 


- Comedy OSS 117 : Rio Ne Repond Plus was released on April 15 and is a shoo-in to win the weekend. The sequel to 2006’s OSS 117: Le Caire Nid D’Espions, has been eagerly anticipated as it reunites star Jean Dujardin with a role he seems born to play: an endearingly arrogant spy, this time set against the backdrop of 1967 Rio. The first OSS scored well over 2 million admissions in France and sold to Music Box in the US. The latest’s release comes nearly four years to the day that 2005’s top French film, Brice De Nice, catapulted Dujardin to mega-stardom. 

- Bertrand Tavernier’s In The Electric Mist starring Tommy Lee Jones as a Louisiana detective was released by TFM on April 15. The French press for the most part has lauded the film which had its debut at the Berlin Film Festival. The film was released on 218 screens.

- Jonathan Demme’s intimate independent Rachel Getting Married went out this week on a modest 31 screens. The film, for which Anne Hathaway received an Oscar nomination, sees a recovering addict return home for her sister’s wedding where the injuries of the past are never too far from the surface. 

Spain


- Yerda will release Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish vampire drama Let The Right One In across Spain this weekend. The film, which has received rave reviews and was a festival hit, is about a young boy bullied at school who becomes friends with a mysterious pale-skinned girl who only comes out at night.

- Bill, starring Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba, will receive a wide release in Spain by Filmax. Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallack’s comedy drama is about a guy in a dead end job with a cheating wife who is then forced to mentor a difficult teenager.

- The appropriately named local distributor Vertigo will release James Marsh’s Man On Wire in Spanish cinemas. The Oscar-winning documentary about tight-rope walker Philippe Petite’s attempt to cross between the World Trade Center Towers in 1974 made an impressive $1.6m in the UK at the end of last year.

- Alta Films will distribute Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s award winning romantic drama Salt Of This Sea on just six copies in Spain this weekend. The Spanish-French-Palestinian-Swiss-Belgian co-production tells the story of Brookly- born Soraya who decides to return to live in Palestine to recover the money of her grandparents who were exiled from the country in 1948.

UK


- Armando Iannucci’s political comedy In The Loop, starring Peter Capaldi and James Gandolfini, is debuting on UK screens, through Optimum Releasing who are giving the film a wide release, after sustained press attention for the film. The film has been lauded since its world premiere at Sundance. The film reunites the team from TV’s The Thick Of It, with the story following behind-the-scenes diplomatic action in the US and UK in the run up to a war in the Middle East.

- Lionsgate UK is giving Crank 2: High Voltage a saturated release from April 17. The action film sees Jason Statham play a man whose heart has been stolen and replaced with an artificial model with a limited battery life. In typical form Statham must punch, kick and run his way to recover his own organ.

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