“Mesrine” Leads César Awards Nominations for Top French Film

Posted by editor@vimooz.com on January 23, 2009 under Awards, Foreign Film | Comments are off for this article

“Mesrine,” a two-part biopic starring Vincent Cassel as France’s infamous 1970s public enemy No. 1, led with 10 nominations when the César Awards nominations were announced today. The César Award is the national film award of France. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema.

Best Film
Entre Les Murs
Il y a Longtemps que je t’aime
Mesrine
Paris
Le Premier Jour du Reste de ta vie
Séraphine
Un conte de Noël

Best First Film
Home, Ursula Meier
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, Philippe Claudel
Mascarades, Lyes Salem
Pour elle, Fred Cavaye
Versailles, Pierre Schoeller

Best Foreign Film
Eldorado, Bouli Lanners
Gomorra, Matteo Garrone
Into the wild, Sean Penn
Lorna’s Silence, Jean-Pierre et Luc Dardenne
There will be blood, Paul Thomas Anderson
Two lovers, James Gray
Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman

Best Director
Rémi Bezançon for Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Laurent Cantet for Entre les murs
Arnaud Desplechin for Un conte de Noël
Martin Provost for Séraphine
Jean-François Richet for Mesrine

Best Actress
Catherine Frot in Le crime est notre affaire
Yolande Moreau in Séraphine
Kristin Scott Thomas in Il y a longtemps que je t’aime
Tilda Swinton in Julia
Sylvie Testud in Sagan

Best Actor
Vincent Cassel in Mesrine
François-Xavier Demaison in Coluche, l’histoire d’un mec
Guillaume Depardieu in Versailles
Albert Dupontel in Deux jours à tuer
Jacques Gamblin in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie

Best Supporting Actress
Jeanne Balibar in Sagan
Anne Consigny in Un conte de Noël
Edith Scob in L’heure d’été
Karin Viard in Paris
Elsa Zylberstein in Il y a longtemps que je t’aime

Best Supporting Actor
Benjamin Biolay in Stella
Claude Rich in Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera
Jean-Paul Roussillon in Un conte de Noël
Pierre Vaneck in Deux jours à tuer
Roschdy Zem in La fille de Monaco

Best Female Newcomer
Marilou Berry in Vilaine
Louise Bourgoin in La fille de Monaco
Anaïs Demoustier in Les grandes personnes
Déborah François in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Léa Seydoux in La belle personne

Best Male Newcomer
Ralph Amoussou in Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera
Laurent Capelluto in Un conte de Noël
Marc-André Grondin in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet in La belle personne
Pio Marmai in Le premier jour du reste de ta vie

[via, via, via]

Laurent Cantet’s ‘The Class’

Posted by editor@vimooz.com on December 22, 2008 under Foreign Film | Comments are off for this article

Laurent Cantet’s “The Class,” winner of the prestigious Palm d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and France’s submission to the Academy Awards for the best foreign language Oscar focuses on the classroom interactions between a high school teacher and his unruly, multicultural roster of young charges, presenting the face of the future of France.

Cantet got the idea for the film while while promoting his previous film, 2005’s “Heading South,” he met François Bégaudeau, who was promoting “Entre les Murs,” his book on his years as a high school teacher.

Cantet end up using Bégaudeau as the teacher in the film, and through casting found a school and the 25 volunteers who appear in the film. To allow the exchanges between Bégaudeau and the students to flow, Cantet had three cameras running at once, one on the teacher, one on the students and one to capture anything else. [via]