All articles by Nancy Tartaglione – Page 30
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FRANCE
The Lord Of The Rings still rules the French box office followed closely by favourite son Mathieu Kassovitz's first foray into English, Gothika.Good news for art house pics with Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation breaking in at number 4 following seriously good press. Nathalie, starring Emmanuelle Beart and Fanny Ardant ...
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Bollore increases stake in France's Gaumont
The Bollore Group has upped its stake in French major Gaumont to 10.06%.Controlled by the Bollore family and more specifically mogul Vincent Bollore, the group now holds 6.77% of voting rights to the world's oldest film company.Bollore previously took a 5% stake in Gaumont in February 2002.In a statement, the ...
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Admissions to French films slip back in 2003
Reflecting the downturn at the French box office in 2003, French films took 60.6m admissions during the year - a 6.2% drop from 2002.However, according to new figures from French film body the CNC, the market share of French films held firm at 34.8% - slightly up on 2002's 34.2%.Nineteen ...
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Vivendi reduces stake in UGC
As expected, Vivendi Universal has reduced its stake inFrench major UGC.Following an agreement signed on December 31, 2003, Vivendiwill reduce its holdings in UGC from 58% to 40% resulting in a 56.2% ownershipfor UGC president Guy Verrechia and his family.According to a statement released by Vivendi on Tuesday (Jan13) evening, ...
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Femme named as Warner's second French feature
2003 Productions has announced its second project, the upcoming L'Ex Femme De Ma Vie, to be directed by Josiane Balasko.2003, founded by Warner Bros. France president Francis Boespflug will co-produce the Euros 8.2m film with Ice3 - the production venture jointly run by Louis Becker and actor Thierry Lhermitte - ...
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Besson's Paris studio complex gets greenlight
Luc Besson's proposed "cinema city" was given its first public green light today by the deputy mayor of Parisian suburb St Denis.The long-gestating project has been rumoured for some time - although Besson has rarely addressed the subject. However, deputy mayor Patrick Braouezec announced the launch of the project on ...
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Terzian takes over as French Academy president
Producer Alain Terzian has been appointed president of France's Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema - the local equivalent of AMPAS.Terzian, also president of the Union of Film Producers, replaces the late Daniel Toscan du Plantier as head of the Academy.His producing credits include films by Pierre Granier-Deferre, Andre ...
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Asian flavour for Gerardmer Fantastic line-up
This year's edition of the Gerardmer Fantastic Film Festival will have a decidedly Asian flavour. The horror film gathering will run from Jan 28 to Feb 1 in the frosty Vosges region of France with Paul Verhoeven overseeing the competition jury.Joining Verhoeven are actresses Cecile De France and Corinne Touzet, ...
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French film production hits record high in 2003
Film production hit a record high in France in 2003, up by more than 5% compared to 2002.According to end of year figures confirmed by the National Cinema Centre (CNC) a record 212 features were given the green light with 183 of those majority French productions.The numbers surpass 2001's record ...
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Polanski's Twist wins European support
Roman Polanski's upcoming Oliver Twist is gaining steam in Europe with partners in place and casting underway.The film, an adaptation of the Dickens novel, will be produced by Polanski, Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde - the same team behind Oscar winner The Pianist - for Polanski's company RP Productions, the ...
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Deneuve, Depardieu reteam for Techine's Temps
Paolo Branco and his company Gemini Films are preparing two new high-profile projects, one from veteran Andre Techine and the other a third film from Rodolphe Marconi.Techine's project is titled Le Temps Qui Passe and reunites legendary actors Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu. This marks their fifth dramatic collaboration and ...
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Besson voices fears for French cinema
In a rare interview, Luc Besson went on the record in French daily Le Figaro last week to voice his fears about the current state of French cinema."I can't help but be worried about French film," he said, "It's evident that American film attacks from every end intending to annihilate ...
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French blame first half for poor 2003 result
France's exhibition watchdog, the FNCF, has announced a 5% fall in admissions for 2003 - most of which was concentrated in the first half of the year.With 175.5m tickets sold, first half numbers were down by 9.1% compared to 2002 while the second half of the year showed only a ...
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Messier lands without a parachute
Former Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Marie Messier hasgiven up his bid for a $25m severance package from the company, after beingforced by US regulators to relinquish claims to such a golden parachute.Messier had been seeking indemnities he believed owed to himfollowing his resignation in 2002. After a New York court upheld ...
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Elephant to self-destruct in France
French distribution and production company MK2 is to send Cesar Award voters a self-destruct DVD of Gus Van Sant's Elephant.With fears of film piracy on the increase, the use of such a DVD has been widely debated. However, this is understood be the first time that a self destruct screener ...
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Global demand for French film slips back
Global demand for French films this year fell for the second successive year in a row, according to the latest figures from Unifrance, the French film export body.French films attracted a projected 48m admissions in 2003, taking roughly Euros 240m in box-office.The numbers are down compared to 2002's 55 million ...
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Millimages comes riding to Bac's rescue
Following weeks of speculation, ailing French distributor Bac Majestic has seen French animation studio Millimages come to its financial rescue. Filen, the company personally owned by Millimages president Roch Lener, will pump Euros 3m into the company and will thus change the shareholding structure of Bac. A meeting of Bac's ...
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StudioCanal bows to audience demands
Abstracted from this week's Screen International France's StudioCanal has tightened up its production policy, and is putting a fresh accent on popular comedy films.Former concert promoter Frederic Sichler - who replaced Studio Canal chief executive Richard Lenormand in February - has made a number of key changes since taking over.In ...
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France mulls granting US majors access to state funding
France's National Cinema Centre (CNC) has made a proposal to the government to allow US majors the right to access France's coveted "compte de soutien". The compte is a revolving account set up at the CNC into which a percentage of box-office, video and television sales is placed in order ...