Eric Rohmer Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Naman Ramachandran Feature debutant writer-director Shaun Seneviratne has unveiled the first clip of “Ben and Suzanne, A Reunion in 4 Parts,” which will world premiere at SXSW in the narrative feature competition. Starring Sathya Sridharan (“The Whale”) and Anastasia Olowin (“Tourists”), the film is set in Sri Lanka, the land of Seneviratne’s heritage. The actors play the characters Ben Santhanaraj and Suzanne Hopper in a romantic reunion turned unconventional adventure in a hilarious yet amorous journey across the country.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Melvil Poupaud, an actor in Francois Ozon’s “By the Grace of God” and Maiwenn’s “Jeanne du Barry,” will receive the French Cinema Award from Unifrance, the French promotion organization. The ceremony will be held on Jan. 18 at the Culture Ministry during the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema market.

Ben Croll After recovering from a prolonged health scare, and newly based in Western Europe, Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev stepped back onto the international stage at this year’s Marrakech Film Festival. Better still, the director of Oscar nominated films “Loveless” and “Leviathan” will soon step back behind the camera, as he readies the oligarch drama “Jupiter,” his first film made outside of his native country. Variety spoke with the filmmaker in Marrakech.

Director Jacques Rozier, who was regarded as the last surviving member of the French New Wave, has died. He was 96.

John Bleasdale Guest Contributor At the Cannes Film Festival, Italy’s 102 Distribution is selling thriller “Light Falls,” directed by Phedon Papamichael, the cinematographer on James Mangold’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” Papamichael, who was Oscar nominated for handling the cinematography on Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” and Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” talks to Variety about shooting “Light Falls.” The film tells the story of Clara, played by Elene Makharashvili, and Ella, played by Nini Nebieridze, two young lovers whose Greek island holiday spirals out of control when a tragic incident leads to an encounter with a trio of illegal Albanian immigrants. The thriller establishes the relationship of the young women before moving in a darker and more violent direction.

Belgium’s Lukas Dhont takes a deserved step up to the Cannes Film Festival competition with Close, only his second film — a minimalist melodrama that shows a definite growth in visual style but may be confronting to some with its deliberately unhurried, Eric Rohmer-esque aesthetic. The international success of Dhont’s well-intentioned debut Girl, about a young trans-female ballet dancer, was somewhat blunted in the U.S., where G.L.A.A.D. amplified complaints of misrepresentation on behalf of the trans lobby. Close is a much safer proposition, but may yet sail into choppy waters with its themes of youth suicide.

If you’re a fan of what is referred to as the French New Wave, then you’re likely familiar with the works of Éric Rohmer. Breaking out in the late-‘60s with his Academy Award-nominated feature, “My Night at Maud’s,” Rohmer went on to become one of the most influential filmmakers in French cinema.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticThe great French director Eric Rohmer died 10 years ago, but his spirit lives on in other filmmakers. There are artists at work in the Rohmer tradition who, at moments, have evoked his sublime conversational ardor — and if you want to know what I mean, just watch Eugène Green’s “La Sapienza.” Few in the U.S.