All articles by Nancy Tartaglione – Page 35
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Marie Trintignant undergoes emergency surgery
French actress Marie Trintignant has undergone two emergency operations and remains in a coma after a violent argument with her boyfriend Bertrand Cantat, a singer with the rock group Noir Desir.Trintignant was in Lithuania filming Colette, a TV movie she co-wrote with her mother Nadine who is also directing the ...
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Dumas-Zajdela appointed to CNC funding role
Frederique Dumas-Zajdela has been named president of the commission of France's CNC which deals with approving feature films for state funding. Dumas Zajdela manages local production house Noe Productions and will take over the CNC functions from Margaret Menegoz who was recently named president of French film export body Unifrance. ...
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Strikes hit Paris Cinema attendance figures
A week after the curtain closed on the inaugural Paris Cinema, organisers have announced that roughly 70,000 Parisians attended the festival. The two-week mini-festival which ran from July 2-15 was backed by the city and run by former Directors' Fortnight artistic director Marie-Pierre Macia. While good intentions, a healthy programme ...
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French strike action causes la Villette fest cancellation
Following nearly two weeks of peace since striking French artists and technicians caused the cancellation of the Avignon theatre festival, the protesters are at it again. On Monday, it was announced that the 14th Festival du Cinema de Plein Air de la Villette in Paris would be cancelled as well.The ...
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Vivendi offloads French animation business
Vivendi Universal is to sell animation studio Ellipse Animation, a division of television producer and distributor Studio Expand, to French comic-book publisher and cartoon producer Dargaud Marina. The deal will create the largest French animation company as well as one of the biggest European animation catalogues.Along with existing series like ...
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Jeunet completes Long Engagement casting
Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has rounded out the casting on his next film, A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche De Fiancailles), which he plans to start shooting in early August outside Paris.Teaming up again with his Amelie muse Audrey Tautou, Jeunet has put together a list of actors that ...
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Six directors selected for Cannes' Residence
The Cannes Film Festival's annual young filmmakers' workshop announced its participants on Wednesday for the upcoming session. The Festival Residence is a four-month programme aimed at helping filmmakers prepare a first or second film project.The list of directors heading to this year's programme which begins on October 1 is: Karin ...
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Pere replaces Da Silva as Director's Fortnight chief
Francois Da Silva has been replaced as artistic director of Directors' Fortnight by Parisian cinema-programmer Olivier Pere. Da Silva, the Marseille-based cinema operator quit as artistic director of the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine Des Realisateurs), on Thursday (July 10) after a single festival.According to Agence France Presse, 32-year old Olivier Pere ...
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Paris court rules against Messier severance
A ruling Wednesday by the president of the Paris High Court has blocked Vivendi Universal from making any payments to former chairman Jean Marie Messier. On June 27 Messier was awarded upwards of 20 million euros by an arbitration court in New York, permitting him to recoup a hefty severance ...
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Michel Gomez named director of French body, ARP
Following a meeting of the board, Michel Gomez has been named as director of France's authors-directors and producers association ARP. Gomez will succeed outgoing director Pascal Rogard who is heading off to run the writers' syndicate SACD. Gomez, who moves up from his post as ARP's deputy director, was formerly ...
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French strike action results in temporary concession
In their fight to quash a change in unemployment benefits, France's "intermittents du spectacle" - or part-time showbiz workers - won a temporary reprieve when culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon agreed to maintain the current system until the end of 2003. The workers are rallying against an agreement signed by all ...
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French film production on the increase
Despite the overall malaise affecting the French cinema sector this year, with box-office down for the first half compared to 2002, film production is on the rise. According to French weekly trade Le Film Francais, figures released by the National Cinema Centre (CNC), reveal that 82 films were greenlit between ...
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Disney closes French animation studio
After 15 years of activity, the Disney animation studio based in Montreuil, France is to be closed. Located just outside Paris, the studio had worked on several of Disney's feature animation projects including The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan and Jungle Book 2.The news was made official in June ...
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France continues resistance to film advertising on TV
The French government appears to have won another round in its ongoing battle against film advertising on television. Since May 2002, an EU commission under the guidance of Frits Bolkstein, has been pushing for television advertising access for several sectors previously banned from putting commercials on air. Among them, supermarkets, ...
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Andie MacDowell signs on for The Last Sign
Despite the disappointing results of her last European effort, 2002's Ginostra, Andie MacDowell has once again hooked up with a French producer.Claude Carrere, whose credits include cult hit Nid De Guepes and recent release Corps A Corps, will produce MacDowell in The Last Sign. Director Douglas Law began shooting early ...
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French actors' strike threatens festivals
Following May's nationwide disruptions in France, which saw strikes paralyse everything from schools to trains to the postal service, the French protest bandwagon is rolling again this month with actors and technicians now at the forefront.Industry workers are protesting a proposed cut in unemployment benefits that would see them move ...
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France increases production aid to encourage export
The French national cinema centre (CNC) has announced the establishment of a new form of aid to filmmakers based on export potential.L'IFCIC, the institute for film and cultural industry financing, which acts as a guarantor for loans made to filmmakers - most notably behind film finance structure Coficine - will ...
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Depuis Qu'Otar Est Parti wins Prix Michel d'Ornano
Cannes Critics' Week winner, Depuis Qu'Otar Est Parti has been announced as the winner of the 13th annual Prix Michel d'Ornano. The film's director and screenwriter Julie Bertuccelli will receive the award at the Deauville Festival of American Film in September.The prize was created as an aid to writers and ...
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French broadcaster commits to increased film investment
Public broadcaster France Televisions has signed an agreement with representatives of the independent film sector guaranteeing increased investment in future production.According to ARP- the association of writers, directors and producers, and BLOC, the Bureau de Liaison des Organisations Cinematographiques, which represents independent distributors, both signed an accord with France ...
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Messier awarded Euros 20m in VU severance pay
Just as Vivendi Universal chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou finds himself sitting pretty atop several substantial offers for the company's entertainment assets, he's also got an old familiar thorn poking him in the side.Former Vivendi chief Jean-Marie Messier has been awarded upwards of Euros 20m in severance pay by a New York ...