Luc Besson Returns to Directing With ‘Dogman’ After Rape Case Dismissal: ‘In 20 Years, the Only Thing That Will Remain Are the Movies’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Prime Video and Gaumont (“Intouchables”) are teaming up on an uplifting mother-son drama tackling disability, directed by Ken Scott (“Starbuck”), and starring French actors Leïla Bekhti (“All Your Faces”) and Jonathan Cohen (“Sentinelle”). Scott penned and will be directing the film which is titled “Ma mère, Dieu et Sylvie Vartan” and is based on Roland Perez’s novel by the same name. The project is the first theatrical film that Amazon Prime Video is co-financing as part of the French decree that kicked off in July 2021 and stems from the implementation of the European Commission’s legislation called Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMS).

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier will next direct “Sentimental Value,” a family drama starring Renate Reinsve, who won best actress in Cannes for her role in Trier’s Oscar-nominated 2021 film “The Worst Person of the World.” “Sentimental Value” will follow Nora (Reinsve), an actor, and her sister Agnes, who are grieving the loss of their mother while their father Gustav reappears in their lives after a long absence. Gustav, a once-celebrated filmmaker, has written a script for a comeback movie and offered the main part to his daughter Nora, but she categorically refuses the role.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Natalie Portman may be an outspoken feminist and co-founder of a female-driven soccer club (Angel City FC), but she isn’t a believer in the so-called “female gaze.” In an interview with Vanity Fair France for the magazine’s 10-year anniversary issue, conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike, Portman argued that “to say that a female director has a particular gaze is reductive of women’s individuality and points of view.” The Harvard-educated actor also said that gender isn’t a factor when she chooses projects. “Female directors should have the same opportunities as their male counterparts.

Bijou Phillips is sticking by Danny Masterson’s side… even from the other side of a jail cell.

We may still be in September, but supermarkets are already stocking their shelves high with festive goodies.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic In the year 2023, Allison Russell has come as close as anyone is to being the face of Americana music, even though there are any rock-solid artists who’ve been in the limelight longer than she has — like Jason Isbell, Lucinda Williams and her friend and mentor Brandi Carlile — who certainly count as poster boys and girls. She might even be the front-runner for the artist of the year prize at the upcoming Americana Honors & Awards show, which takes place in Nashville Sept. 20, notwithstanding that Billy Strings has been nominated again to defend his title.

It was the cut that left residents feeling trapped - and businesses fearful for the future. But now the V2 bus - which links Atherton to Manchester, is set to return.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent While at the Deauville American Film Festival to present “May December,” Todd Haynes spoke to Variety, during a one-on-one interview at the Royal Hotel, about bringing Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore together in a film for the first time, provoking audiences and pushing against American conservatism. Haynes, who is attending Deauville with his producers Christine Vachon and Sophie Mas, also teased his next directorial effort starring Joaquin Phoenix, a “sexually explicit” movie telling a “love story between two men set in the 30s.” Loosely based on the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who had an affair with her 6th grade student, “May December” has already earned awards buzz since world premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was bought by Netflix. In France, the movie will be released by ARP Selection in January.

EXCLUSIVE: Distributor-producer Lucky Red is one of Italy’s most respected independent film and TV companies. Run by former actor Andrea Occhipinti since 1987, the firm has released more than 500 titles and produced more than 50 films.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “Vogter,” a psychological thriller directed by Gustav Möller, whose previous film “The Guilty” won the Audience Award at Sundance, has been pre-sold by Les Films du Losange to multiple territories. “Vogter,” which was just completed and is now in post, has been picked up for Germany, Austria, Switzerland (Ascot Elite), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Japan (Happinet Phantom Studios), Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg (Cineart), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Kino Pavasaris) and Hungary (Vertigo). Les Films du Losange has closed these deals since unveiling the project at Cannes and is negotiating further sales in other key territories.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French TV sales broke an all-time record of €214.8 million ($230 million) in 2022, a 15.4% year-on rise, bolstered by premium TV series such as Newen’s procedural “HPI,” Federation’s spy series “The Bureau” and Banijay’s period show “Marie Antoinette,” according to a study unveiled by the National Film Board and promotion org Unifrance. The French org credited the spike in French TV exports to the end of the pandemic and the delivery of fresh content, as well as the return of in-person markets and business travel. French linear channels still remain the main buyers of local TV content, accounting for 49% of sales, on par with 2021.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.” The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. “The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French director Edouard Bergeon, whose Cesar-nominated debut feature “In the Name of the Land” was a box office hit in 2019, has penned another eco-thriller, “The Green Deal.” The movie, which is partly set in the Indonesian forest, has been boarded by Playtime and will be pitched to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. “The Green Deal” explores crimes and colliding interests in the exploitation of a palm oil and the production of biofuels.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Woody Allen returned to the Venice Film Festival this weekend for the world premiere of “Coup de Chance,” a romantic thriller that marks his 50th, and he suggests, quite possibly his last, feature film. The French-language film, playing at one of Europe’s major festivals, represents the continued mutual embrace between the director and the continent, after controversies have limited his funding stateside. This accounts for his pondering retirement: Allen says that producing a new movie means hustling to secure backing and at 87, he’s not sure he still wants to do that kind of work.

Luc Besson is getting candid about his career.

For a few beautiful years in the early 2000s, Michael Pitt’s spine-chilling blue eyes wreaked havoc in world cinema, from Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers” to Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games.” Then, due to quite a few controversies, the actor stepped away from the limelight, taking on smaller projects here and there and leaving an abyssal gap in the industry: a blue-eyed menace whose presence in any given film immediately signaled some form of psychological torture. Many have tried their hand at filling this gap, from the sprawling Skarsgårds to Dane DeHaan, but no one has come as close to it as Caleb Landry Jones.

Luc Besson’s Dogman had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday night, scoring a nearly six-minute standing ovation from the crowd inside the Palazzo del Cinema.

Luc Besson’s latest film, “Dogman,” made its world premiere at Venice Film Festival, where it earned an enthusiastic 6-minute standing ovation. That tied the 6-minute ovation Venice audiences gave Michael Mann’s “Ferrari” earlier in the evening on the second night of the prestigious festival.

Luc Besson’s Dogman is a superhero movie in search of a comic-book, which makes a refreshing change amid the summer’s raft of DC disappointments. It skews a little close to Todd Phillip’s Golden Lion winner Joker in terms of weirdness and (especially) wardrobe, but it also offers the perfect showcase for star Caleb Landry Jones, who imbues a boisterously insane action thriller with heart and soul in what must surely be a career-high performance. Which is no mean feat for an actor whose work has always been excellent and has so often gone under the radar.

Jessica Kiang Check under most any post relating to the recently released trailer for Luc Besson’s “Dogman,” and you’ll find one, if not several responses riffing, to various degrees of enthusiasm, on the theme of “OMG, what if ‘Joker’ but with dogs?” That rhetorical question can now be answered, following this numbskulled nonsense movie’s inexplicable Venice Competition premiere, with a resounding “If only.” The bludgeoningly obvious, creatively inert, deathly dull tale of a cross-dressing misfit in a wheelchair who favors canine company over that of humans, it is scarcely fit to lap from the same water bowl as Todd Phillips’ controversial Golden Lion winner. Even those who didn’t much like “Joker” have to admit that it did not so actively treat its audience as if they were brain dead that everyone left feeling about 30 IQ points dumber than when they went in.