In our new monthly press review, we select articles from international media outlets that cover subjects relating to French cinema. This month we feature the reaction of the Spanish press to Ibiza, the reception of A Faithful Man in Brazil, Australian media coverage of Who You Think I Am, and the exceptional marketing campaign for the release of A Man in a Hurry in Colombia. We also report on the response to French films screened at the Toronto (TIFF) and Venice film festivals.
Ibiza by Arnaud Lemort in Spain
Release date: August 9
Local B.O. results at September 19: 69,104 admissions
Christian Clavier made the trip to Spain to meet with Spanish media representatives.
In the Huff Post, Clavier talks about the power of comedy:
In El Mundo, the actor explains why the characters he plays have a strong appeal to Spanish audiences:
https://www.elmundo.es/metropoli/cine/2019/08/07/5d497ca521efa0e4518b4580.html
"I've worked on a lot of comedies in which the humor resonates with people's sense of humor here. It's nothing like the humor of Anglo-Saxon audiences, they laugh at very different things. The antiheroes I play are totally different from American heroes."
In El Periódico, Clavier reveals the serious side of his personality, showing a reflexive, even pessimistic outlook despite the success he has enjoyed in his comic roles:
"At the age of 67 Clavier turns out to be, like many great comedians, a serious, thoughtful, but also pessimistic man."
A Faithful Man by Louis Garrel in Brazil
Release date: July 4
Local B.O. results at September 19: 19,684 admissions
The publicity campaign in the press has centered on an in-depth telephone interview with the director published in the newspaper O Globo under the title: "Monogamy is still the norm in France."
In another interview, this time with Jean-Claude Carrière for O Estado in São Paulo, the film's co-screenwriter states, "As Truffaut said, there's only one great subject: love. Despite our difference in age, some subjects never change."
The film has met with a very positive reception in Brazil's major daily newspapers, Guia da Folha, A Gazeta, and Correio Brazilense:
"A faithful man, a love triangle, a domestic drama that is typically French." – A Gazeta
Who You Think I Am by Safy Nebbou in Australia
Release date: August 1
Local B.O. at September 19: 48,141 admissions (best performance by a French film shot in English in Australia to date in 2019)
The release of Nebbou's film was reported in all of the major Australian media outlets.
The Australian: "Social media as risky business"
The Sunday Morning Herald: "An elegant morality tale about the dangers and temptations of the virtual life."
The West Australian: "The cougar and the catfish"
A Man in a Hurry by Hervé Mimran in Colombia
Release date: August 1
Local B.O. at September 19: 33,965 admissions
The film's Colombian distributor Cine Colombia has launched an ambitious publicity campaign in the country, covering print media (31 newspapers and magazines), the internet (28 websites), radio (3 programs), and television (10 commercials on a range of networks).
El Espectador: "Fabrice Luchini charms Colombian audiences with this film based on the dramatic life of the former head of Peugeot."
Hervé Mimran stated on Radio Caracol: "In this film, I wanted to impart a feeling of the value of life."
In El Diario del Magdalena, Mimran explains why he wanted to evoke fatherhood in the film and why he chose comedy to relate a real-life drama:
Festivals
On the film festival front, September has been an action-packed month with the staging of two key festivals that always attract worldwide media attention.
At TIFF in Toronto, the US weekly Variety gave a highly favorable review of Two of Us, directed by Filippo Meneghetti and produced by Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin (Paprika Films):
https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/two-of-us-review-deux-1203327318/
Also garnering acclaim is the latest film by the Franco-Afghan writer-director Atiq Rahimi, Our Lady of the Nile, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/lady-nile-review-1239709
The new generation of French women directors are in the spotlight, as seen in an article by Ben Croll published in Variety: "There is definitely a new generation of women filmmakers in France and they are creating a new wave."
Another major festival of the fall season, the Venice Film Festival gave the Italian newspaper Il Manifesto an opportunity to publish an interview with Emmanuelle Seigner and Louis Garrel to coincide with the world premiere of An Officer and a Spy:
It also prompted Variety to highlight the dynamism of the French film industry, which is currently "courting the world":
Media Gallery
