Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers for all episodes of “The Perfect Couple.”

On a quiet summer morning, a body washes up on a Nantucket beach. A scream splits the air — and a prominent family is immediately plunged into chaos.

So ends the first episode of Netflix’s soapy drama series “The Perfect Couple,” based on the novel of the same name by bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand. Developed for the screen by showrunner Jenna Lamia (“Good Girls”), the show follows Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson), whose upcoming nuptials to Benji Winbury (Billy Howle) are derailed on the day of her wedding when she discovers the dead body of her maid of honor, Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy). As the police investigate Amelia and her fiancé’s family, they discover that each person in the wedding party — from Benji’s imposing mother Greer (Nicole Kidman) to his charismatic best friend, Shooter (Ishaan Khatter...

Netflix on Tuesday unveiled two new European series with A-list stars, announcing the Dutch crime drama Amsterdam Empire to star X-Men alum Famke Janssen and an unnamed French thriller series toplined by gallic veteran Isabelle Adjani (Camille Claudel, The Story of Adele H.).

Janssen will star and executive produce Amsterdam Empire, about a big-time cannabis dealer whose personal betrayal of his wife threatens the future of his pot imperium. Nico Moolenaar, Bart Uytdenhouwen and Piet Matthys, creators of Netflix Dutch crime series Undercover, created the new show, which Jonas Govaerts (H4Z4RD) will direct. The plot follows Jack van Doorn, the rich and notorious founder of the Jackal coffee shop empire in Amsterdam, who has an affair with a well-known journalist, drawing the ire of his wife Betty, who is looking for payback and knows all Jack’s dirty secrets. Pupkin Film will produce Amsterdam Empire together with A Team Productions.

While she retired prematurely at the age of 39, Brigitte Bardot has left an indelible mark on France’s popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s. With her wild blonde mane, smoky eyes and pouty lips, Bardot became a symbol of a modern, effortlessly sexy French woman and a style emblem that continues to inspire current trends.

The event series “Bardot,” which is penned and directed by Daniele Thompson (“The Queen Margot”) and Christopher Thompson (“La bûche”), world premiered at Series Mania Festival to unanimous praise and has been pre-sold by Federation nearly worldwide.

“‘Bardot’ is like the French ‘The Crown’ because Bardot embodied France, and through her journey we reminisce about many parts of France’s history and popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s,” Federation’s boss and “Bardot” producer Pascal Breton told Variety. “That era is a historical moment where everything changes, where we go from black and white to color,...

“The Three Musketeers,” Pathé Films’s 75-million two-part adventure epic saga based on Alexandre Dumas’s masterpiece, has been bought in major international territories rolling off a busy Cannes market.

Pathé unveiled a sprawling 15-minute promoreel for both “The Three Musketeers” – D’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers – Milady” at Cannes Marché du Film. Both movies are directed by Martin Bourboulon and boast a star-studded cast, including Vincent Cassel, Eva Green, Vicky Krieps, Romain Duris, Pio Marmaï, François Civil, Lyna Khoudri and Louis Garrel.

Produced by Dimitri Rassam for Chapter 2, a Mediawan Company, and Pathé, the two films were picked up for Latin America (CDC United Network /Cine Video y TV (Zima)), Scandinavia (Nordisk Film), South Korea (First Run Inc.), Poland (Monolith Films), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aqs Inc.), Ex-Yugoslavia (Blitz Films), and Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania Vertical (Entertainment Kft.). Pathé is in advanced talks with distributors for the rest of Asia,...

Turning on the waterworks and ripping open her blouse to cap a performance of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “The Respectful Prostitute,” aspiring actress Stella (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) concludes her audition for France’s most prestigious theatre school with a question from the jury. As he puffs a cigarette and speaks the first lines of dialogue written expressly for this film, an inscrutable juror looks to the ingénue and asks, “Do you think an actress needs to be an exhibitionist?”

In that opening, we find the fulcrum for Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s “Forever Young.” Asking the same question to the audience and to herself — with the Stella character a clear analogue for the director — Bruni Tedeschi dances around a definitive answer, turning out an autobiographical portrait that somehow leaves you knowing less about the subject at hand, and a study of actors, warts and all, that offers little insight into the artistic process.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s “Forever Young” is a fictionalised account of her time at Les Amandiers, a prestigious acting school in Nanterre on the outskirts of Paris. As well as drawing on her own memories of student-dom in the mid-1980s, she and her co-writers, Noémie Nvovsky and Agnes De Sacy, interviewed other people who studied alongside her, and so their tragedy-tinged comedy drama, which is in Competition at Cannes, should have all the unruly specificity of real life.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t. It’s always watchable, and it has a distinctively grainy, intimate look, but the vague, generic characters and incidents are the kind of thing you might scribble on the back of an envelope without having done any research at all. If you’ve ever seen a film about performing arts students – the sort of people who are going to live forever and who are going to learn...

Pathé may be one of France’s oldest film groups, but it is young at heart. The only French film company that is still fully involved in exhibition, production, distribution and sales, Pathé has been confronting the challenges wrought by the pandemic and the arrival of streamers with bold steps and ambitious new projects. During the Cannes Film Festival, the company will receive Variety’s Intl. Achievement in Film Award.

In the past two years, the family-owned film group, which is led by the visionary businessman Jérôme Seydoux, saw its “Coda” win three Oscars for family drama; greenlit the country’s biggest-budgeted movies in recent history, “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom” (75 million) and the two-part adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’ masterpiece, “The Three Musketeers — D’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers — Milady” (75 million); it ventured into TV series; and forged bonds with streaming services, including Netflix and Apple TV+.

“When theaters were shut down,...

Pathé and Dimitri Rassam’s Chapter 2, a Mediawan Company, have unveiled the first stills of their sprawling 75 million two-part European film based on Alexandre Dumas’s masterpiece “The Three Musketeers” – D’Artagnan” and “The Three Musketeers – Milady.”

The companies will present a 15-minute promo reel at Cannes. Directed by Martin Bourboulon (“Eiffel”), the two ‘Musketeers’ films are currently completing principal photography after more than 140 days of shooting at prestigious French landmarks, including the Louvre Palace, the Hôtel des Invalides, the Castles of Fontainebleau and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Fort la Latte and Chantilly, as well as the citadel of Saint-Malo and the historic city center of Troyes.

Penned by Alexandre de la Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte (“What’s in a Name?”), the films are headlined by a galaxy of stars who have an international profile, including François Civil (“The Stronghold”), Vincent Cassel (“Black Swan”), Eva Green (“Casino Royal”), Romain Duris (“Eiffel”), Vicky Krieps (“Phantom Thread...

Less than two years after joining France Televisions, former Canal Plus executive Manuel Alduy has contributed to bolstering the French public broadcaster’s roster of international series with shows such as “Bardot,” a mini-series biopic of Brigitte Bardot, and “L’Insoumise” about Alice Guy, the first female filmmaker ever.

Ahead of France Televisions’ press conference at Series Mania, Alduy said the broadcaster’s first-look initiative with the European Broadcasting Union (Ebu) has yielded several prestige projects, including “Bardot.” The Ebu represents 113 organizations across the 56 countries, including the BBC in the U.K., Ard in Germany, Dr in Denmark, Svt in Sweden, Rai in Italy and the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.

“Bardot” charts the life of the French actor and model from 1949, when she first appeared on the cover of a magazine, to the birth of her son in 1960. It’s being produced by Federation Entertainment with France Televisions in France, and...

Les Amandiers

There’ll definitely be some autobiographical elements in Valeria Bruni Tedeschi‘s fifth feature film as a filmmaker and it might be the formative years in her three-decade spanning career in front of the camera (and her bit part in Patrice Chéreau’s La reine Margot) that we might be accessing. Les Amandiers sees Tedeschi rework the idea of what the Nanterre-Amandiers Theatre meant and the legacy of a filmmaker who gave a lot to young actors in training around the time of AIDS crisis. With Louis Garrel playing the part of Patrice Chéreau, we also find Micha Lescot, Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Sofiane Bennacer, Léna Garrel and Vassili Schneider – production began in May in France and moved to New York City.…...

Exclusive: Model and singer-songwriter Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, son of actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Isabelle Adjani, is to make his feature debut as an adult in recently announced western Terror On The Prairie.

Day-Lewis, whose only previous feature appearance came as a child 20 years ago in Benoît Jacquot’s 2002 French-language drama Adolphe, will play the supporting role of ‘The Kid’, an outlaw whose seemingly innocent facade hides a darker reality.

As we revealed earlier this week, filming is underway in Montana on the movie, about a pioneering family that fights back against a gang of vicious outlaws that is terrorizing them on their newly built farm. Former Mandalorian star Gina Carano is starring and producing. Michael Polish (Northfork) is directing.

Among co-stars on the feature from conservative media company The Daily Wire and Bone Tomahawk producer Dallas Sonnier, are Nick Searcy (Justified), Mma star Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, stand-up Tyler Fischer, Heath Freeman...

Cohen Film Collection is gearing up for a number of newly restored releases, among them Simon Callow’s 1991 drama “The Ballad of the Sad Café” and a number of Buster Keaton works.

Part of New York-based Cohen Media Group, Cohen Film Collection restores classic films and re-releases them theatrically. It’s vast catalogue includes the Merchant Ivory collection, of which “The Ballad of the Sad Café” is a part.

Based on the 1951 novella by Carson McCullers, the film stars Vanessa Redgrave, Keith Carradine and Rod Steiger.

The George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, is currently finishing the restoration of the film, which Cohen Film Group plans to release next year.

“There’s still a number of features to go, so we’re working our way through those, including some of the films set in India, which I’m personally really interested in,” says Tim Lanza, Cohen Film Collection vice president and archivist.

Elvis Costello enlisted actress Isabelle Adjani for a French-language rendition of his Hey Clockface song “Revolution #49.”

For “Revolution #49 (Parlé),” Adjani adds spoken word passages — penned by Muriel Teodori — to the instrumental opening track of Costello’s latest album.

“When [the Attractions’] Steve Nieve’s partner, Muriel Teodori, told me that she thought Isabelle Adjani might consider reading the French adaptation that Muriel had made of my original text, I assumed that I must be dreaming”, Costello said in a statement. “What I didn’t know was Isabelle and Muriel had been friends...

Mentoring emerging cinematographers has always been a key mission at the EnergaCamerimage International Film Festival and this year’s online version of the event features a score of streaming master classes and seminars that inform and offer insights from top filmmakers and technology experts.

Streaming through the end of 2020 (online.energacamerimage.pl), the talks and teach-ins are, with rare exceptions, accessible without a password or online Camerimage entry card – unlike the usual live format of master classes at the festival, which invariably sell out if you don’t find a seat at least 20 minutes before the start.

One of the buzziest events from the festival, which officially ran Nov. 13-20, is the virtual career masterclass with cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, in which he discusses his remarkable career, leading up to his latest feature, Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

The Netflix drama is built around the sensational political...

Despite amassing more than 70 credits, this year’s recipient of the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award, Philippe Rousselot, shows no signs of stopping. As he tells Variety from his house in Brittany, he just can’t.

“Once you have piled up enough films, the decision is made. They needed to give this award to someone and I am very glad to accommodate,” he jokes. “Other people want us to retire, but it’s never a personal decision among DPs. We never stop working. We can’t get enough of it!”

Counting a BAFTA and two Césars among his many accolades, Rousselot was also nominated for an Academy Award three times, winning for Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” in 1992.

“I was at the Oscar ceremony when ‘Hope and Glory’ was nominated. Of course we didn’t win. I asked John Boorman: ‘What is the importance of this award?...

Poland’s EnergaCamerimage Intl. Film Festival is honoring Oscar-winning French cinematographer Philippe Rousselot this year with its Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award.

Celebrating the art of cinematography and its creators, the festival described Rousselot as “an incredibly versatile cinematographer whose body of work encompasses a wide variety of genres and styles.”

Rousselot, who received an Academy Award for his work on Robert Redford’s “A River Runs Through It” in 1993, has worked with such acclaimed filmmakers as John Boorman (“Emerald Forest”), Neil Jordan (“Interview with the Vampire”), Stephen Frears (“Dangerous Liaisons”), Miloš Forman (“The People vs. Larry Flynt”), Tim Burton (“Big Fish”), Guy Ritchie (“Sherlock Holmes”), Patrice Chéreau (“Queen Margot”), David Yates (“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”), Philip Kaufman (“Henry & June”), Jean-Jacques Annaud (“The Bear”) and Shane Black (“The Nice Guys”).

“He has shot independent European artistic films as well as visually impressive Hollywood blockbusters,” the festival added.

Camille ClaudelIt seems impossible to talk about Isabelle Adjani without mentioning her eyes. Round, blue, and prone to tears, Adjani’s eyes are filled with a heartbreaking expressiveness reminiscent of the actresses of the silent film era. A series collecting some of Adjani’s most memorable performances, now playing at New York’s French Institute Alliance Française, is titled (obviously) “Magnetic Gaze.” The 10-film series offers a sampling of her work, from her breakthrough as the title character in François Truffaut’s The Story of Adèle H. (1975), a haunting portrait of l’amour fou, to her most recent role in—of all things—an action comedy, Romain Gavras’s The World is Yours (2018). Adjani is extra. She works a close-up with an intensity few actresses can surpass. When she tears up, so do we. While “Magnetic Gaze” is missing some canonical Adjani films the collection here shows the actress at her most emotionally volatile.

Actress Monica Bellucci will be feted with the 2017 Virna Lisi award in Rome on Nov. 7 as part of the Fondazione per Roma's Cityfest series. 

The prize will be delivered by Lisi's son, Corrado Pesci, and presented by director Giuseppe Tornatore. 

Lisi was one of the rare Italian actresses who worked frequently across Italy and Hollywood. She gained fame in postwar Italian film, including starring in Casanova 70 opposite Marcello Mastroianni and later appearing with Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife and as Catherine de Medici in Queen Margot.

The Virna Lisi prize was started in 2015, first going to...

Winter is indeed upon us, as “Game of Thrones” has just wrapped its truncated seventh season with a jaw-dropping finale that moves plenty of pieces (most of them terrifying, ice-cold, and dragon-aided) into place for a game-changer of a final season…that won’t come until sometime in 2018. It’s the Long Night, all over again (and, if those gently falling snowflakes during some of the finale’s last moments are any indication, fans of the HBO series aren’t the only ones headed for a chilling, unforgiving few months).

In order to keep diehard viewers sated until its last episodes hit the small screen, here are some ideas for films that might help ease the pain, from classic Westerns to underseen historical dramas, all with that special “Thrones” touch (murderous, political, bloody, and at least partially beholden to mythical beasts).

Read More:‘Game of Thrones’ Review: Finale ‘The Dragon...

Author: Linda Marric

Actor & director Vincent Perez is every bit as European as his name would suggest. Born in Switzerland to a German mother and a Spanish father, Perez first cut his teeth playing classical roles in some of the most popular French movies of the 1990s, and went on to star in Cyrano de Bergerac (Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1990), La Reine Margot (Patrice Chéreau, 1994) and Indochine (Régis Wargnier, 1992) to name but a few.

Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of meeting Vincent for an interview and asked him about his new movie Alone In Berlin, which he co-wrote as well as directed. Adapted from Hans Fallada’s popular 1947 novel by the same name, the film tells the story of a law abiding German couple and their quiet resistance during Nazi rule in Berlin. Staring Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson, Alone In Berlin has so far been met with mixed reviews,...

On this day in history as it relates to showbiz

1519 Catherine de Medici, Queen consort, born. She's been played in movies and TV by Kerry Fox, Megan Follows, Françoise Rosay, Maria Palmer, and many more but none so brilliantly as Virna Lisi in her Cannes winning performance in the sensational French epic Queen Margot (1994)

1570 Guy Fawkes born in England. V for Vendetta's "V" wears his face as a mask.

1743 Founding Father Thomas Jefferson born in Virginia. He's been played in movies and TV by actors like Nick Nolte, Jerry O'Connell, Stephen Dillane, Sam Waterston, Ken Howard, and many more...

On this day in history as it relates to the movies...

1802 Alexandre Dumas is born. He dies just before cinematic technology begins to blossom so he couldn't have known that his novels like The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers series, and Queen Margot will all be adapted multiple times in a new artform.

1821 Gang leader William Poole, "Bill the Butcher" is born. Daniel Day-Lewis taps his fictional glass eye 181 years later on the big screen...

Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies that have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Giorgio Albertazzi (1923-2016) - Italian Actor. His film credits include Last Year at Marienbad, Le Notti Bianchi and the Italian dub of Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. He died on May 28. (THR) Moidele Bickel (1937-2016) - Costume Designer. She earned an Oscar nomination for her work on Queen Margot. She also did the costumes for The White Ribbon and was a wardrobe supervisor on Valmont. She died on May 16. (DiePresse) Joe Fleishaker (1954-2016...

Read More...

It's that time again to look back on the month that was. We're doing a little early to pretend that May is already over. T'was a difficult month for your host with writer's block that wouldn't quit (which is not a common malady at Tfe HQ) but we thank you for your enthusiasms about all we do here. Here's a look back on key posts this month in case you missed any...

6 Personal Favs

Buster Crabbe's Loincloth on Tarzan the Fearless (1933)

Podcast: Truth or Dare a seminal text on celebrity culture. And...

Interview Jose's chat with the dancers from that same Madonna doc

Thelma & Louise relay revisit of one of the all time best flicks

10 Bad Girl Oscar Winners  -Kieran's list from Marylee Hadley to Nurse Ratched

Maddening Matte Painting - Daniel on Black Narcissus (1947) 

7 That Sparked Most Conversation

Best Actress an overdue narrative or fresh blood this year?...

Tuesday's revisit to the essential and apparently sorely underseen Queen Margot (1994) and the comments thereafter had me thinking about favorite films from 1994. This website wasn't around back then of course (I think the internet was just in listserv mode at that point?) but I was already making lists. So what would I have nominated had our Film Bitch Awards been around back then? What would you have nominated had you had an Oscar ballot?

The answers (fluid as they are should rewatching ever occur) are after the jump...

Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Queen Margot (1994)

Director: Patrice Chereau. Cinematography: Phillipe Rousselot. 

Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Daniel Auteuil, Vincent Perez, Jean-Hugues Anglade, and Virna Lisi 

Awards: 2 Cannes jury prizes, 5 César Awards, 1 Oscar nomination.

They say that death always takes your lovers..."

When I was young and extremely sexually naive, let's say hypothetically in High School French class, I was startled to discover that the French phrase "La petite mort," which translates literally to 'the little death' referred to a sexual orgasm. I had no idea why these two towers of Human Obsession, Sex and Death, would be linked up like twins. But the movies, ever the personal tutor for young cinephiles, kept forcing the connections.

Which brings us to the decadent, opulent, erotic, violent and visceral 16th century French epic Queen Margot, this week's Best Shot subject. (The shot choices are after the jump due to the graphic nature of the film.

'Here's what's coming up the rest of this month on Best Shot if you'd like to join us. It's easy. You...

1) watch the movie

2) pick a shot, post it and say why you love it

3) let us know you did via twitter, email or comments and we link up 

May 17th Queen Margot (1994)

Madwoman Isabelle Adjani stars in this blood-soaked, erotically-charged 16th century French epic which we figured is a great fit for a Cannes heavy week (the film won two prizes in its year including Best Actress for its unforgettable supporting actress Virna Lisi). Plus the last time we did an Adjani (The Story of Adele H) the articles were hot. Please join us if you haven't seen this one! [Streaming on Netflix]

May 24th Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

We pushed this back a month since it wasn't yet available to rent but it's time to revisit future jedi Rey as...

Murtada here to talk Berlinale which runs February 11th through the 21st. The Berlin Film Festival just announced titles for its Panorama section. These are possibly movies we will be talking about all through 2016, as we are still talking about 45 Years which made its debut there all the way back in February.

Gerwig and Hawke in Maggie's Plan

Among the titles is Tiff and Nyff entry Maggie’s Plan from director writer Rebecca Miller and starring Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore. Gerwig has admitted during a Q&A at Nyff that she based her character’s look on Miller’s style. That got us fantasizing that the movie is a roman a clef about how Miller married Daniel Day Lewis soon after he was involved with Isabelle Adjani. After all Moore is playing a sorta crazy European.

Another interesting title is John Michael McDonagh’s War on Everyone with Michael Pena,...

Qui aime les films français ?

If you do and you live in St. Louis, you’re in luck! The Seventh Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series begins March 13th. The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the early 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema. The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations.

This year features recent restorations of eight works, including an extended director’s cut of Patrice Chéreau’s historical epic Queen Margot a New York-set film noir (Two Men In Manhattan) by crime-film maestro Jean-Pierre Melville, who also co-stars; a short feature (“A Day in the Country”) by Jean Renoir, on a double bill with the 2006 restoration of his masterpiece, The Rules Of The Game, and the...

Catherine Deneuve: César Award Besst Actress Record-Tier (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'In the Courtyard / Dans la cour') (See previous post: "Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.") Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César nominations to date. Deneuve's nods were for the following movies (year of film's release): Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard / Dans la Cour (2014). Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way / Elle s'en va (2013). François Ozon's Potiche (2010). Nicole Garcia's Place Vendôme (1998). André Téchiné's Thieves / Les voleurs (1996). André Téchiné's My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993). Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). François Dupeyron's Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent trouble (1987). André Téchiné's Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981). François Truffaut's The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980). Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Le sauvage (1975). Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category...

As you're all suspiciously quiet, please do share your cinematic thoughts. What are they right this moment? I have a weird mix of Imelda Staunton, Queen Margot and The Imitation Game playing in my head right now. (It's a very uncomfortable mix.) We're recording a podcast at the moment but more updates later.

Please do scroll down and check out two important news stories, a new well dressed interview, and my top twenty of the year.

We haven't done a link roundup in so long this one is super-duper-quadrupled size. Please to enjoy these articles or catch up with this news...

Farewell

Nyt, BBC, Variety remembers the great Italian actress Virna Lisi who has died at 78 years of age. Best known stateside for the Jack Lemmon comedy How To Murder Your Wife (1965), and maybe that iconic Esquire cover by George Lois (left) which has been homaged ever since, this baby cinephile right here writing to you first fell for her in the French film Queen Margot (1994). She was brilliant as the most ruthless of royals. She won the Cannes prize for Best Actress for her supporting role which probably didn't make Margot herself Isabelle Adjani too happy but they were at odds in the film, too.

Randomness

Guardian doesn't like the new Annie but what makes that little orphan so durable in pop culture?

Comics Alliance...

Virna Lisi, who won a best actress award in Cannes as well as a César and the Italian Silver Ribbon for her portrayal of Catherine de' Medici in Patrice Chéreau's Queen Margot (1994), has passed away at the age of 78. In a career that spanned over half a century, Lisi appeared in over 100 film and television productions. She worked with Jeanne Moreau in Joseph Losey's Eva (1962), with Jack Lemmon in in How to Murder Your Wife (1965), with Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), with Frank Sinatra in Assault on a Queen (1966), with Rod Steiger in The Girl and the General (1967) and with Anthony Quinn in The 25th Hour (1967) and Stanley Kramer's The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969). For her performance in Alberto Lattuada's The Cricket (1980), she won her first David di Donatello award. » - David Hudson...

Virna Lisi, who won a best actress award in Cannes as well as a César and the Italian Silver Ribbon for her portrayal of Catherine de' Medici in Patrice Chéreau's Queen Margot (1994), has passed away at the age of 78. In a career that spanned over half a century, Lisi appeared in over 100 film and television productions. She worked with Jeanne Moreau in Joseph Losey's Eva (1962), with Jack Lemmon in in How to Murder Your Wife (1965), with Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), with Frank Sinatra in Assault on a Queen (1966), with Rod Steiger in The Girl and the General (1967) and with Anthony Quinn in The 25th Hour (1967) and Stanley Kramer's The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969). For her performance in Alberto Lattuada's The Cricket (1980), she won her first David di Donatello award. » - David Hudson...

At a loss for what to watch this week? From new DVDs and Blu-rays, to what's streaming on Netflix, we've got you covered.

New on DVD and Blu-ray

"Bound by Flesh"

If you're a fan of "American Horror Story: Freak Show," you'll want to get to know sideshow stars Daisy and Violet Hilton. Leslie Zemeckis writes and directs this doc about the world-famous conjoined twins.

"Nightbreed: The Director's Cut"

This is the first time that Clive Barker's original cut has been released, with 40 minutes of fresh footage. The limited edition release comes with the theatrical cut, as well as a third disc of extras, but it's already sold out. Still, the regular release has the long-awaited director's cut, Barker audio commentary, and some other goodies that make it a worthwhile investment for fans.

The Complete Jacques Tati

This seven-disc Criterion set comes with Tati's six features, plus...

Having only just finished watching the most recent season, and having finished the books quite some time ago, I find myself once again in the throes of Game of Thrones withdrawal. Symptoms include checking the Twitter feed of George R.R. Martin’s editor, Anne Groell, to see if there any hints or updates as to when The Winds of Winter will finally be published, scouring message boards full of excessively detailed fan theories as an alternative to an actual book by the man himself, and even cooking up recipes from my Game of Thrones cookbook. (It's medieval meat pie night!) However, recently I watched a film that checks most of the boxes that one would require in a proper Game of Thrones substitute: Complicated power struggles! Graphic bloody violence! Borderline incest! Not-borderline sex! Sadly, there are no dragons--instead, one gets an education, as this story is based on actual history,...

Arguably the most prolific title in director Patrice Chereau’s three decades of filmmaking, Cohen Media Group releases a beautiful remastering of Queen Margot for its twentieth anniversary. Chereau, who died at the age of 68 in late 2013, participated in the restoration, which is the definitive director’s cut that includes an additional twenty minutes that had been cut out of the film’s 1994 theatrical release. Smack dab in the middle of his filmography, it’s his most lavish and ambitious production, recreating the savage beauty of 16th century France, based on Alexandre Dumas’ novel, concerning a passionate romance torn asunder by a people consumed with religious minded self-righteousness. The 2013 remastering played in Cannes Classics that year, while the film originally won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 1994, the Clint Eastwood presiding jury also awarding Virna Lisi the Best Actress prize.

In 1572 France, a break in the bloody war between Catholics...

Welcome back to This Week In Discs! If you see something you like, click on the title to buy it from Amazon. The Legend of Hell House The Belasco House had seen its fair share of tragedy and carnality even before the man who had it built disappeared, but the years since have seen a continuation of death and terror. It’s known as Hell House, the Mt. Everest of haunted houses, and now a team consisting of a scientist, his wife and two mediums is going in to prove once and for all whether or not ghosts and the afterlife exist. Two of them are going to find out first hand before the week is out. Richard Matheson’s novel (Hell House) was adapted to the screen way back in ’73, but it remains one of the best haunted house flicks out there. There are legitimate chills throughout, some PG-rated sexiness and a wonderfully intense performance from...

Blu-ray Release Date: Aug. 12, 2014

Price: Blu-ray $29.95

Studio: Twilight Time

Anthony Quinn (l.) drinks to his health--not Hardy Kruger's--in The Secret of Santa Vittoria.

Producer-director Stanley Kramer’s 1969 wartime comedy The Secret of Santa Vittoria arrives on Blu-ray for the very first time from Twilight Time.

Set towards the close of World War II, the movie stars Anthony Quinn (Zorba the Greek) as the mayor of an Italian wine-making village that finds its age-old economy imperiled as the Nazis close in. Those nasty Germans are determined to plunder a million-bottle cache of valuable vino, while the villagers are just as determined to keep their treasure safe.

A warm-hearted comedy with dramatic touches, Santa Vittoria also features Anna Magnani (Bellisima), Virna Lisi (Queen Margot), Giancarlo Giannini (The Seduction of Mimi), and Hardy Kruger (Sundays and Cybèle) in the cast.

The film is supported by an Oscar-nominated score by Ernest Gold, which...

Ten years ago today Spider-Man 2 (2004) was released. I loved it so much that I went back the next day for seconds. This is not in my nature. This is so infrequent for me, in fact, that I can remember every single time it's happened. The othertimes being Queen Margot (1994) and Ladyhawke (1985) and, once on DVD if you want to count that, with Trouble in Paradise (1932). Because those four movies are so similar, what.

So I guess my next-day-rewatches are on the same timetable as Cher's #1 singles and Diane Keaton's Oscar nods arriving once per decade; We're due for another.

This still from Sam Raimi's awesome movie (still my choice for best superhero film) neatly sums up how I feel about the hateful reboot franchise which is just wasting so much money and talent (Andrew Garfield, who was supposed to be one of our great new actors, has...

Few things gave greater pleasure last year than the reemergence of Emma Thompson on the film scene, shoe chucking, Annie-scripting, Mary Poppins writing, and all. I'm not sure who or what convinced Emma that it was time to reclaim her place in the cinema but I thank them profusely and ever so much.

While she didn't receive the expected Oscar nomination for Saving Mr Banks, despite carrying it on her very capable film-elevating shoulders, her next project looks super promising so we hope it picks up interest in the Cannes market.

If all goes according to plan she'll play one half of a married couple who defy Nazis in Alone in Berlin. The true story is based on the book "Alone in Berlin" by Hans Fallada. The plot premise goes like so...

Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55 Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants...

Among the many embryonic films jostling for buyers’ attention at the film market of this year’s Cannes festival, Vincent Perez’ new film Alone In Berlin is attracting plenty of interest thanks to a cast that now includes Emma Thompson, Daniel Bruhl and Mark Rylance.Good Bye Lenin’s Achim von Borries has adapted Hans Fallada’s novel, itself based on a true story. The plot finds a couple living in Berlin, with the city in the grip of Nazi rule. They try to keep a low profile and avoid trouble, but when their only child is killed on the front line, the loss prompts them to a stunning act of resistance.Perez, still probably best known to British audiences for his acting work in Cyrano de Bergerac or La Reine Margot, and producer Marco Pacchioni secured the rights to the book seven years ago and have been trying to...

Specialties boasting stars are certainly in abundance among this weekend’s crop of newcomers. SXSW Film Festival opener Chef by and starring Jon Favreau along with Robert Downey, Jr., Scarlett Johansson and even Dustin Hoffman begins its run Friday in limited release via Open Road Films. Another Coppola will see a film hit a theatrical run as well. Gia Coppola’s directorial debut Palo Alto, based on short stories written by James Franco (who also stars) also bows courtesy of Tribeca Film. The late Philip Seymour Hoffman stars in IFC Films’ God’s Pocket by Mad Men director (and actor) John Slattery, while Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska star in Richard Ayoade’s The Double for Magnolia Pictures. And Cohen Media Group will open the re-release of French filmmaker Patrice Chéreau’s 1994 feature Queen Margot in New York before heading to other U.S. locations. Chef Director-writer: Jon Favreau Cast: Jon Favreau,...

Famed French stage and film director Patrice Chéreau (Intimacy, Gabrielle, Those Who Loved Me Can Take the Train) passed away last October. Now Queen Margot, Chéreau's most commercially successful film, gets a 4K restoration treatment on its 20th anniversary and comes back to theaters, thanks to Cohen Film Collection. This timely release is a rare opportunity to experience what many consider as the most radical redefining act in the period costume drama genre ever, in 4K digital glory. Queen Margot 4K Director's Cut receives a theatrical run here in New York, May 9 - 15 at Film Forum. Based on Alexandre Dumas's novel, Queen Margot tells a bloody chapter in French history when a war between Catholics and Protestants was raging. The main players in...

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As a special surprise for this year's 18th edition the Colcoa Festival (City of Lights, City of Angels) "A Week of French Film Premieres in Hollywood" has added an unprecedented seven classic films to its popular roster. The festival runs from April 21-28 at the Directors Guild of America. For the first time, a daily matinee showing of a classic will complement the new films shown in competition.

Focus on a filmmaker : Cédric Klapisch

Colcoa will honor writer-director Cédric Klapisch on Thursday, April 24 with a special presentation of L'Auberge Espagnole (2002) as well as the Premiere of his new film Chinese Puzzle that will be released in May in the U.S. by Cohen Media Group. Chinese Puzzle completes a trilogy Klapisich began in 2002 with L'Auberge Espagnole,followed by Russian Dolls in 2005. The cast includes Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou and Cécile de France. Klapisch joins previously honored writer-directors Bertrand Blier, Costa Gavras, Florent Siri, Julie Delpy and Alain Resnais whose key body of work has been shown in past events.  This will be the third film by the writer-director to be presented at the festival, following Paris and My Piece of the Pie.  Cédric Klapisch will meet the audience for a Happy Hour Talk panel dedicated to his work. (Colcoa Classics + Panel +Premiere of Chinese Puzzle)

Homage to Patrice Chéreau

The late writer-director Patrice Chéreau (1944-2013), who attended Colcoa in 2003 for the world Premiere of Son frère (His Brother) will be remembered in the Colcoa Classics program, which includes a special presentation of digitally restored director's cut of Queen Margot (1994), based on a novel of Alexandre Dumas, co-written by Danièle Thompson & Patrice Chéreau, and directed by Chéreau. The cast includes Isabelle Adjani, Jean-Hugues Anglade and Daniel Auteuil. The film (celebrating its 20th anniversary) is presented in association with Cohen Media Group. The film will have will be released theatrically, as well as in digital format in the U.S.

Premiere of the Restored Version Beauty and the Beast Colcoa will present the digitally restored print of the remarkable Beauty and the Beast (1946), a romantic drama written and directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Josette Day and Jean Marais in partnership with the Franco-American Cultural Fund (Facf), Snd/M6, Janus Films and La Cinémathèque Française.

Premiere of the Restored Version Favorites of the Moon

A special 30th anniversary screening of Favourites of the Moon (1984), winner of the Special Jury Prize that year at the Venice International Film Festival, a comedy co-written by Gérard Brach and Otar Iosseliani and directed by Otar Iosseliani, starring Mathieu Amalric, Alix de Montaigu, Pascal Aubier, Jean-Pierre Beauviala, will be presented in association with the Cohen Media Group before its digital release in the U.S.

Premiere of the Restored Version Purple Noon

The film is also a special presentation of Purple Noon , a drama based on Patricia Highsmith's novel, co-written by Paul Gégauff and René Clément , directed by René Clément and starring Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet and Marie Laforêt and presented in association with the Franco-American Cultural Fund (Facf), StudioCanal, Janus Films and La Cinémathèque Française.

Premier of the Restored Version of L'assassin habite... au 21 New digitally restored version of L'assassin habite... au 21, (1942) a drama co-written by Stanislas-André Steeman and Henri-Georges Clouzot , directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, starring Pierre Fresnay, Suzy Delair, Jean Tissier. The film is presented in association with Titra Tvs and Gaumont.

FRANÇOIS Truffaut: A Tribute

Citing the 30th anniversary of the passing of universally renowned François Truffaut in 1984, Colcoa will pay tribute to the writer-director with a special program.(To be announced soon)

From April 21 to April 28, 2014, filmgoers will celebrate the 18th edition of Colcoa  "A Week Of French Film Premieres In Hollywood" at the Directors Guild of America. The 18th line-up of films in competition for the Colcoa Awards will be announced April 1, 2014.

About ColcoaColcoa was created by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guild of America West, and France's Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem). Colcoa is also supported by France's Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (L'arp), the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles, the Cnc and Unifrance.

 ...

City of Lights, City of Angels (Colcoa), a week of French film premieres in Hollywood, has rolled out a terrific lineup of seven classic films for the 18th edition of the festival, running April 21-28 at the DGA. Screenings will supplement new films in the competition lineup, which will be announced April 1. Colcoa will honor writer honor writer-director Cedric Klapisch on Thursday, April 24 with a special presentation of "L'Auberge Espagnole" (2002) as well as the Premiere of his new film "Chinese Puzzle" that will be released in May in the U.S. by Cohen Media Group. The fest will also screen late writer/director Patrice Chereau's 1994 director's cut of "Queen Margot," based on a novel by Alexandre Dumas and starring Isabelle Adjani, Jean-Hugues Anglade and Daniel Auteuil. Digitally restored prints of Jean Cocteau's 1946 classic "Beauty and the Beast" starring Josette Day and Jean Marais, and a new print of...

By Terence Johnson

Managing Editor

One of the more predictable categories of any Oscar year is Best Costume Design given that the nominees are weeded out so thoroughly that the best/most showy of the final five is usually locked and loaded for the win. But looking a bit deeper into the category, it’s one of the few places that has nominees that are the sole representation for their film, as is the case with The Invisible Woman this year.

Yesterday, I wrote about how bad movies in the tech branches have a reasonable shot of nominations due to how voters view these categories. Which brings us to Costume Design, which historically has been a branch that honors all matter of film. Looking at the history of the category, you can see that a single nomination for a film, like The Invisible Woman is incredibly common. But does that...

As Part 1 in our series of "Toh! Remembers" posts, we look back at some of the talent the film community lost in 2013. Who: Ray Harryhausen Born: June 29, 1920Known for: Pioneering work as creator of stop-motion special effectsCareer breakout: “Mighty Joe Young”High Point: The sword-fight of the skeletons in “Jason and the Argonauts”Low Point: CGIYes, it's true: Was referenced in the song “Worried About Ray’ by The Hoosiers. --John AndersonWho: Patrice Chéreau Born: 1944Known for: Prolific opera, theater, and movie director, who also actedCareer breakout: Appointed director of suburban Parisian theater at age of 22High point: In film, "La Reine Margot" ("Queen Margot") awarded the Jury Prize and Best Actress Award (for Virna Lisi) in Cannes in 1994, as well as three Cesar nominations; won Cesar for Best Director, "Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train," 1998.Low point: His now-beloved Marxist production of the Ring cycle at Bayreuth was booed at.

News.

Opera and theatre director, filmmaker, and actor Patrice Chéreau has passed away at the age of 68. From David Hudson's Daily:

"In 2001, Chéreau’s Intimacy won the Berlinale’s Golden Bear and the prestigious Prix Louis Delluc, and two years later, he won a Silver Bear for Best Director for Son frère. At Cannes, he won the Jury Prize in 1994 for La reine Margot (Queen Margo, with Isabelle Adjani), then a César for Best Director in 1998 for Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train (Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train, with Pascal Greggory, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Charles Berling, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and on and on)."

Via Variety, Bong Joon-ho hinted publicly that he's not too happy with The Weinstein Company and the cuts Snowpiercer has had to undergo for its North American release. Jonathan Rosenbaum has found a new (internet) home: follow him to jonathanrosenbaum.net.

Finds.

For the Vancouver International Film Festival,...

Film, opera and stage director known for La Reine Margot and his Ring cycle at Bayreuth in 1976

Unusually for a director, Patrice Chéreau, who has died of lung cancer aged 68, had more or less equally prestigious careers in the theatre, cinema and opera. Although he was internationally known from films such as La Reine Margot (1994) and his groundbreaking production of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle at Bayreuth (1976), he was renowned in his native France mostly for his "must-see" stage productions, especially during his long stints as co-director of the Théâtre National Populaire (1971-77) and the Théâtre des Amandiers (1982-90).

At these two subsidised theatres, in Villeurbanne, near Lyons, and Nanterre, in western Paris, respectively, Chéreau was able to introduce modern plays and bring a freshness to bear on the classics, particularly Marivaux, whose La Dispute he directed to acclaim at the Tnp in three different versions in the 1970s. At the Amandiers,...