The infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup is the focus of this gripping French drama starring Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds, Beginners) and Jean Reno (The Da Vinci Code, The Professional). Two days after Bastille Day in 1942, French police carried out an extensive raid of Jews in Greater Paris. More than 13,000 people were arrested, among them 4,000 children, consigned to several miserable days in Paris’s Velodrome d’Hiver stadium before being shipped to internment camps within France, and finally to Auschwitz. Long a taboo subject in France–Jacques Chirac issued a public apology only in 1995–the raid and its political backdrop are brought to stirring life in writer-director Rose Bosch’s detailed scenario. With a meticulously constructed script based on extensive research and first-hand accounts, La Rafle (The Roundup) became a big box-office hit in France, and its audiences included thousands of young people who came to learn about a dark chapter in their country’s history. (Source)
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From writer/director Mike Mills comes a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. -Beginners- imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who – following 44 years of marriage – came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him. (
THE CONCERT is the new film from Radu Mihaileanu, the acclaimed writer/director of Live and Become, starring Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds), François Berléand; (Transporter series), and Alexei Guskov. In this new comedy, Guskov stars as Andrei Filipov, a once celebrated Russian conductor of the Bolshoi who has hit rock bottom and is now working as a depressed custodian who drinks too much. But when he intercepts an invitation meant for this former orchestra to perform in Paris, Andrei masterminds a plan to pose as the leader of the group in order to make a triumphant return to the music scene. With a motley bunch of former musicians at his side, Andrei sets off for Paris to fulfill his destiny and return to his glory as a great conductor. Along the way, he will reunite with a young, beautiful violin virtuoso played by acclaimed actress Mélanie Laurent who holds the key to his past and to his future. With a message of hope and making the most of second chances, THE CONCERT promises to be one of the most uplifting and entertaining films of the year. (
Cedric Klapish, the beloved director of L’AUBERGE ESPANGOLE, gathers together some of the biggest actors in French cinema for a valentine to the city of lights. The all-star cast includes Oscar-winner Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris (THE BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED), Melanie Laurent (INGLORIOUS BASTERDS), Fabrice Luchini (INTIMATE STRANGERS), Francois Cluzet (TELL NO ONE) and Karin Viard (TIME OUT). While waiting for a heart transplant that could save his life, Pierre (Duris) grows close again with his sister (Binoche) and her lively children. This rediscovery of his family and observation of the teeming streets outside his window give Pierre a new, hopeful sense of how he might spend the time still left to him. A cinematic love letter to the city that seems to hide a story behind every shop window, small alley, street market or grand apartment building, the film explores the life and love possible only in PARIS. (