There’s no doubt that the French film Intouchables, an incredible box office success in France with nearly 10 million spectators in three weeks, will rapidly find interest on the remakes market that the Americans are so hungry for.

The Dinner, The Tourist, The Next Three Days…. there are now many remakes of French films being produced in the United States. To the point that a Remakes Market where producers shop for feature films ‘made in France’ has just emerged in Los Angeles.

“In France, authors have a freedom that allows them to write very creative screenplays without having the studios on their backs,” explains Rebecca Leffler, journalist at the Hollywood Reporter. For John Looper, director of the film Sundance, “original screenplays are more rare in the United States. The inspiration always has to come from a book, a television series or another film. This symbolises the fears that currently govern the business.”

French heroes are more complex, multifaceted, and attract attention on the other side of the Atlantic. In cinemas in France, the rush to see French films over the past months has been no accident. It announces a revival in French cinema. Filmmakers such as Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival), Valerie Donzelli (Declaration of War), Maïwenn (Poliss), Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (Intouchables) and Christophe Barratier (War of the Buttons II) are aged between 30 and 40 ans. They have several feature films under their belts.

Whether it be a disability, cancer, the choice of shooting a silent movie in black and white, they all took major risks with their latest films and have been well rewarded for this. Those in the category “auteur cinema”, like Maïwenn, have a much better feel for the general public than their forerunners. This generation has also understood that spectators are more attached to the story and to the way it is shot than they are to the casting.

Spectators also appreciate that this generation are more generous and dare to entrust leading roles to new faces. Labels awarded by the spectators themselves also help to identify rare gems that are not to be missed; new spectators are being added to the mix and a new form of cinephilia is emerging.

Canongate, the Scottish independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh has published Julian Assange’s memoir, Thursday 22nd September. It appears under the title JULIAN ASSANGE: THE UNAUTHORISED AUTOBIOGRAPHY. The book consists of the draft produced by Andrew O’Hagan that was delivered to them as per the contract earlier this year but that has never been approved by Julian. It also includes a very short introduction which explains the circumstances under which the book is being published. It also features at the back, nine of the most significant leaks that WikiLeaks have been responsible for, which they believe adds further context for the important work that WikiLeaks has done over the years.

After months of stalling and excuses, Canongate came to the conclusion that Julian was never going to give his blessing to the book they all signed up for.
“All the people involved in the production of Julian Assange, The Unauthorised Autobiography, especially those who have heard the tapes or read the transcripts of the interviews conducted by the co-writer with Julian Assange, know that this book is not merely a gracious representation of Julian’s story of his own life but one that does its best to offer a compelling and insightful portrait of the man. »

Deals for this book have been confirmed in the following 14 territories:
Australia
Catalan
Denmark
Holland
Portugal
Sweden
Czech Republic
Korea
Taiwan
Malayalam
Finland
Turkey
Ukraine
Marathi

Where Do We Go Now? by Nadine Labaki

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Nadine Labaki, a  Lebanese actress and director, co-wrote, directed, and starred in her feature-film debut, Caramel, which became an international sensation at film festivals and went on to achieve box office success.

Her latest movie, Where Do We Go Now?, a musical comedy-drama set in an isolated village has won the 2011 People’s Choice award at the Toronto International Festival. The movie also had very good reviews, premiering in Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section. It went on to play in more than 40 countries.

Set in a religiously mixed village, the movie is about a group of women trying to preserve their town in the midst of inter-religious tension. The town’s location is never mentioned, probably wanting to make the movie apply to anywhere in the Middle East where you have diversity.

Labaki has said about the movie, “It’s not a story about war; on the contrary, it’s about how to avoid war. You can’t live in Lebanon without feeling this threat, which ends up coloring what we do and our ways of expression.”

Labaki had just learned she was pregnant when she started to think of her next movie. Then she thought ; « If my son was now a teenager, how far would I go to stop him from going into the street, to stop him from killing?’”.

And it was the beginning of Where Do We Go Now?

The Dry Glass of August by Anna Jean Mayhew

“The Dry Grass of August” by Anna Jean Mayhew is a debut novel published in the US in May 2011 (Kensington Publishing) and whose translation rights are starting to be sold in many countries including France. It seems that some burning auctions are currently taking place and the name of the French publishers should be unveiled very soon…

This impressive debut deserves high praise and above all a careful look.  It took the author 18 years to write it and should follow THE HELP as a book all book clubs will want to get their hands on.  I have been very impressed by the cross over potential of this literary novel and a movie based on this story could really be something intergenerational!

Here is a brief synopsis:

On a scorching day in August 1954, thirteen-year-old Jubie Watts leaves Charlotte, North Carolina, with her family for a Florida vacation. Crammed into the Packard along with Jubie are her three siblings, her mother, and the family’s black maid, Mary Luther. For as long as Jubie can remember, Mary has been there cooking, cleaning, compensating for her father’s rages and her mother’s benign neglect, and loving Jubie unconditionally.

Bright and curious, Jubie takes note of the anti-integration signs they pass, and of the racial tension that builds as they journey further south. But she could never have predicted the shocking turn their trip will take. Now, in the wake of tragedy, Jubie must confront her parents’ failings and limitations, decide where her own convictions lie, and make the tumultuous leap to independence. . .

Infused with the intensity of a changing time, here is a story of hope, heartbreak, and the love and courage that can transform us–from child to adult, from wounded to indomitable.

Also, please, don’t miss the hilarious “Go the F…ck to Sleep” by Adam Mansbach: already a bestseller in the US, this non for children sleeping tale will be published in November in France by Grasset under the title “Dors et fais pas chier”. Maybe not a book to adapt but definitively a book to make you laugh!

Immigrant stories

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Gurinder Chadha in England (Bend it like Beckham, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, It’s a wonderful afterlife…), Burhan Qurbani (Shahada…) in Germany, Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala, Vanity Fair, Monsoon Wedding, The Namesake…) in the United States, all of these talented directors make moving or funny films in which they relate their themes of predilection: family, exile, integration in their host country and the collision between their familial traditions and the Western way of life.

Yet, all things considered, their films belong to a classic genre, the one containing films with the message: “who cares what others would like you to be, do what you like if you’re good at it.” Within this well-trodden register (Flashdance, Billy Eliott), the immigrants’ life path still manages to surprise us, since the variety of individual lived experiences is so great and the obstacles so difficult to overcome.

This is why we are suggesting several titles to you this week that relate extraordinary destinies and incredible immigrant stories.

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The Newsletter # 14 includes

- All In, by Jerry Yang and Marc Tabb

- The Fish That Ate The Whale, by Rich Cohen

- The Cutter, by Virgil Suarez

- A Good Indian Wife, by Anne Cherian

- Red Clay (Rouge Argile), by Virginie Ollagnier

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As every week, find also the list of the films rights purchased or in process of sale ; the books to keep an eye on ; and the focus on a new film, book or artist (this week : The Immigrant by Charlie Chaplin).

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