With some thirty French productions and co-productions included in the line-up, French cinema boasts a strong presence at the 36th Rotterdam International Film Festival, to be held January 24 through February 4, 2007.
After being honored at Rotterdam for their entire movie careers in 2003 and 2004 respectively, Jean-Claude Brisseau and Benoît Jacquot will be back in the Dutch city this year to present their latest offerings, “Exterminating Angels” and “The Untouchable.”
Other leading lights of the French cinema scene also have their most recent films programmed at the event, including "Private Fears in Public Places" by Alain Resnais, "Le Prestige de la Mort" by Luc Moullet, "Gardens in Autumn" by Otar Iosseliani, and "On Fire" by Claire Simon.
As is the case each year, new generation French filmmakers will meet with industry professionals and audiences as part of the "Sturm und Drang” Section, which features the following titles: “7 Years” by Jean-Pascal Hattu, “Cowboy Angels” by Kim Massee, “Pardonnez-moi” by Maïwenn Le Besco, “Un beau matin...” by Charlotte Lowe and David Lowe, “Les Hommes” by Ariane Michel.
This year’s festival features a large number of French co-productions, both majority and minority produced by French companies scattered throughout the various festival sections. These included “Bamako" by Abderrahmane Sissako (who is to be honored with a retrospective of his films this year), "Bled Number One" by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmèche, "Daratt" by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, "Kinshasa Palace" by Zeka Laplaine, "What a Wonderful World" by Faouzi Bensaïdi, “Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait” by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, “The Way I Spent the End of the World” by Catalin Mitulescu, and “Barakat!” by Djamila Sahraoui.
"Belle Toujours" by Manoel de Oliveira will also be screened as part of the Cinema Regained Section.
For further information: www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com
