| 2018 – 108′ – Drama / Romance –
Written by François Ozon
Directed by François Ozon
Starring Marine Vacth, Jérémie Renier, Jacqueline Bisset, Dominique Reymond.
Official Selection Cannes International Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A Cohen Media Group release.|

Crafting a deliriously cinematic web of suspense, shock, eroticism, and power dynamics, writer/director François Ozon (Swimming Pool) returns to master the thriller genre with Double Lover. In the new film, Ozon reunites with two actors whom he previously directed in breakout roles, Marine Vacth (Young & Beautiful) and Jérémie Renier (Criminal Lovers), now helming them in an intense exploration of a woman venturing into dangerous romance. Chloé, who works as a guard at a museum in Paris, seeks to shore up her resiliency and enters psychoanalysis. In Paul Meyer, the sensitive patient finds a caring psychiatrist who helps her overcome bouts with depression. Following the end of the treatment, both realize that they have fallen in love. A new chapter begins for Chloé when she and Paul move in together…yet Chloé soon comes to believe that Paul is keeping a secret. She impulsively visits another psychiatrist, Louis Delord. Spiraling emotional and sexual stakes will push all three of them to extremes, forcing Chloé to take action in order to solve a mystery and save herself.

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| 2015 – 107′ – Drama, Romance –
Written by François Ozon.
Directed by François Ozon, Ruth Rendell.
Starring Romain Duris, Anaïs Demoustier, Raphaël Personnaz, Isild le Besco.
Official Selection San Sebastian International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A Cohen Media Group release.|

From the visionary mind of François Ozon (8 WOMEN, SWIMMING POOL) comes this one-of-a-kind gender-bending melodrama, which both shocks and delights in equal measure. Steeped in suspense and indebted to the eye-popping visuals of Pedro Almodóvar, Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma, THE NEW GIRLFRIEND blends the macabre with a heartfelt romance in the tale of soft-spoken Claire and her love affair with a mysterious stranger. After mourning the loss of Laura, Claire comes across Laura’s husband David (Romain Duris) dressed head-to-toe in his wife’s clothes. Unsure whether his new guise is the result of foul play, she threatens to reveal David to Laura’s family. But the more time she spends with him, the more Claire becomes seduced by his beautiful new incarnation. As the two become inseparable, Claire wonders whether she is falling for David’s alter ego, or perhaps a part of Laura’s resurrected soul. THE NEW GIRLFRIEND pays homage to classic cinema – from REBECCA to ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER – while injecting its own brand of sensual, sometimes sinister, eroticism.

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| 2021  – 74′ –  Drama / Romance –
Written and Directed by Suzanne Lindon.
Starring Suzanne Lindon, Arnaud Valois, Florence Viala,Rebecca Marder, Frederic Pierrot, Dominique Besnehard.
Official Selection Cannes International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, San Sebastian International Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A KimStim release.

Trailer

Suzanne (Suzanne Lindon) is sixteen. She is bored with people her own age. From the outside, everything appears lovely in her charmed world, but the everyday monotony of school and her relationships with friends and family feels completely uninspired. Every day on her way to high school, she passes a theater. There, she meets a 35-year-old actor named Raphaël (Arnaud Valois, BPM (Beats Per Minute)). Despite their age difference they find in each other an answer to their ennui and develop a strong connection. Immersed in the world of grown-ups and adult choices, Suzanne begins questioning the pitfalls of blossoming too quickly and missing out on life — the life of a 16-year-old, which she had struggled so much to enjoy in the same way as her peers. An enchanting debut for writer-director-star Suzanne Lindon, Spring Blossom captures first love with fittingly delicate beauty. 

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| 2011  – 97′ – Drama / Romance –
Written by Caroline Bottaro and Bertina Heinrichs.
Directed by Caroline Bottaro.
Starring  Sandrine Bonnaire, Kevin Kline, Valérie Lagrange, Francis Renaud, Jennifer Beals, Alice Pol, Alexandra Gentil.
Official Selections COLCOA French Film Festival, Tribeca International Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A Zeitgeist Films release.|

Trailer

Oscar winner Kevin Kline (A FISH CALLED WANDA) and the luminous Sandrine Bonnaire (VAGABOND, LA CEREMONIE)  square off in this stylish and sophisticated dramedy of newfound passions and mid-life triumphs, set on the postcard-perfect isle of Corsica. Lovely, repressed and quietly intelligent, French chambermaid Hélène (Bonnaire) comes upon a couple (THE L WORD’s Jennifer Beals and MARIE ANTOINETTE’s Dominic Gould) engaging in an intense chess match, and discovers she has a knack for the game. This obsession—much to the chagrin of her husband and teenage daughter—leads her to seek the clandestine tutelage of a reclusive American doctor (Kline, in his first French-speaking role)—a liaison that radically transforms both of their lackluster lives. Based on Bertina Henrichs’ acclaimed novel La Joueuse d’echec (The Chess Player), QUEEN TO PLAY is the auspicious feature film debut of French director and screenwriter Caroline Bottaro.

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The post QUEEN TO PLAY  appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 2015  – 95′ – Drama / Romance – Co- Written by Jacques Fieschi, Nicole Garcia.
Directed by Nicole Garcia.
Starring Déborah François, Dominique Sanda, Louise Bourgoin, Pierre Rochefort, Benjamin Lavernhe, Eric Ruf.
Special Presentation Toronto International Film Festival. César Award nomination for Best Promising Actor (Pierre Rochefort).
In French with English subtitles. A Cohen Media Group release.|

Baptiste is a loner. A gifted primary teacher living in the south of France, he knows how to bring their schoolwork alive for his pupils but never remains in the same job for more than a term. His unremarkable appearance masks cracks, even violence… When he is left unwittingly in charge of Mathias one weekend by the child’s negligent father, the boy takes Baptiste to his mother Sandra, a dazzling but fragile woman who works on the beach near Montpellier. An erratic parent who longs to make amends, she welcomes Baptiste and her son into her bungalow. For one enchanted day, a powerful spell unites them, the beginnings of a family for those who do not have one. But it won’t last. Sandra owes money and her creditors are moving in. She is forced to flee again. To help her, Baptiste must return to the roots of his life, and to the darkest, most painful secrets within him…”Three days, three places, three people… an equation that allows me to orchestrate a minor key score that is all the more intense for being removed from giddy romance in favour of deeper, subtler tones. It’s a chance encounter, an unlikely crossing of paths that different social backgrounds would seem to render incompatible. ”  Nicole Garcia.

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The post GOING AWAY appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 2014 – 102′ –  Drama / Romance
Co-Written & Directed by Daniel Auteuil.
Based on Marcel Pagnol’s novel.
Starring Daniel Auteuil, Victoire Bélézy, Raphaël Personnaz, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Marie-Anne Chazel, Ariane Ascaride.
North American Premiere at COLCOA French Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A Kino Lorber release .|

Trailer

After MARIUS, FANNY is the second part of Marcel Pagnol’s classic trilogy following the loves and losses of a Marseille port community. Actor and director Daniel Auteuil has faithfully and beautifully recreated the grand emotions of this beloved text. Following the events in the first part, Fanny (Victoire Bélézy) is abandoned and pregnant, and fearful for the future of her unborn child. To secure the baby’s future, she agrees to marry the wealthy merchant Panisse (Jean-Pierre Daroussin), who guarantees a comfortable, if loveless, future. As she is adjusting to her new reality, Marius (Raphaël Personnaz) re-appears in her life like a phantom, and all the old, powerful emotions bubble up once again. Fanny is a supremely entertaining melodrama that won’t leave a dry eye in the house.

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| 2014 – 93′ –  Drama / Romance
Co-Written & Directed by Daniel Auteuil.
Based on Marcel Pagnol’s novel.
Starring Daniel Auteuil, Raphaël Personnaz, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Victoire Bélézy, Marie-Anne Chazel, Rufus.
North American Premiere at COLCOA French Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A Kino Lorber release .|

Trailer

MARIUS is the first part of Marcel Pagnol’s classic trilogy following the loves and losses of a Marseille port community. Actor and director Daniel Auteuil (THE WELL-DIGGER’S DAUGHTER – Also available on COLCOA VIRTUAL CINEMA) has made a sumptuous adaptation that will make you swoon. Marius (Raphaël Personnaz) is the strapping young son of César (Auteuil), a blustery café owner. Marius has known and adored the pretty fishmonger Fanny (Victoire Bélézy) since they were children, but he is torn between his love for her and his love for the sea. Fanny, meanwhile, is being courted by the kindly old shop-owner Panisse (Jean- Pierre Darroussin), who offers wealth and stability. Marius and Fanny are torn between freedom and responsibility, and every decision they make leads to greater heartbreak. With its brilliant and beautiful performances, MARIUS is soaring. 

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The post MARIUS  appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 2012 – 108′ –  Romance / Drama -,
Written and Directed by David Foenkinos and Stéphane Foenkinos.
Starring Audrey Tautou, François Damiens, Bruno Todeschini, Mélanie Bernier, Joséphine de Meaux, Pio Marmai, Monique Chaumette, Marc Citti.
Official Selection Rendez-vous With French Cinema Today in New York.
In French with English subtitles.
A Cohen Media Group release.|

Audrey Tautou (AMELIE)  is Nathalie, a beautiful, happy and successful Parisian business executive who finds herself suddenly widowed after a three-year marriage to her soul mate. To cope with her loss, she buries herself and her emotions in her work to the dismay of her friends, family and co-workers. One day, inexplicably, her zest for life and love is rekindled by a most unlikely source, her seemingly unexceptional, gauche, and average looking office subordinate, Markus, (French comic star Francois Damiens, HEARTBREAKER). At first stunned by Nathalies’s unexpected attention, Markus comes to gradually believe in her feelings and shifts into romantic high gear. As their relationship goes from awkward to genuinely loving, Nathalie and Markus will have to overcome a host of obstacles including everyone else’s judgmental perceptions as well as their own self-doubts.

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The post DELICACY appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.

| 1977 – 109′ –  Classic – Romance, Drama –
Co-Written by Andrzej Zulowski & Christopher Frank.
Directed by Andrzej Zulowski.
Starring  Romy Schneider, Fabio Testi, Jacques Dutronc, Claude Dauphin, Michel Robin, Klaus Kinski.
Winner César Award for Best Actress (Romy Schneider).
In French with English subtitles.
A Film Movement Release.|

Trailer

Forced to earn a living by accepting demeaning roles negotiated by her erratic husband, Nadine Chevalier (Romy Schneider) encounters tabloid photographer Servais Mont (Fabio Testi) on the set of her latest film, a cheap soft-core movie. Desperate to win her affections, Servais secretly uses money borrowed from a shady associate to bankroll her next project, a production of Richard III with Nadine starring opposite the maniacal German thespian Karl-Heinz Zimmer (Klaus Kinski).Nadine is torn apart between Servais, for whom she is falling in love, and her husband Jacques, to whom she has moral obligations.
Romy Schneider delivers a César Award-winning performance as a down-on-her-luck actress in L’IMPORTANT C’EST D’AIMER (THAT MOST IMPORTANT THING: LOVE), Andrzej Żuławski’s “passionate portrait of the dignity – and the indignities – of an actor’s work” (Film Comment).

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| 2014 – 100′ – Romance / Drama –
Written and Directed by Diane Kurys.
Starring Benoit Magimel, Mélanie Thierry, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Sylvie Testud, Denis Podalydès, Julie Ferrier.
Official selection COLCOA French Film Festival.
In French with English subtitles.
A Film Movement release.|

Trailer

Anne has a very active imagination, only natural for a writer. But in her mid-thirties, she still knows practically nothing of her own family’s past. After her mother’s death, Anne discovers old photos and letters that convince her to take a closer look at the life of her parents, Michael and Léna. The young couple met in the concentration camps during World War II, later moving to France to start their new life together. Soon, Anne’s research into their Jewish history and their ties to Lyon’s communist party reveals the existence of a mysterious uncle, Jean, whom everyone seems intent on forgetting entirely. As she gradually closes in on the discovery she didn’t know she was looking for, her father grows ever more ill, and may take the secret that kept them apart for so long to his grave. In a journey that stretches from post-war France to the 1980s, Anne’s destiny intertwines with her father’s past until they form a single, unforgettable story.

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The post FOR A WOMAN appeared first on The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles.