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Vertical has unleashed a brand new U.S. trailer for the historical drama ‘Jeanne du Barry’ starring Johnny Depp.

The French-language film, set in the 18th century, tells the story of Jeanne Bécu (Maïwenn), the daughter of an impoverished seamstress who rose through the Court of King Louis Xv (played by Depp) and became his last official mistress.

Jeanne Vaubernier, a young working-class woman hungry for culture and pleasure, uses her intelligence and allure to climb the rungs of the social ladder one by one. She becomes the favourite of King Louis Xv who, unaware of her status as a courtesan, regains through her his appetite for life. They fall madly in love. Against all propriety and etiquette, Jeanne moves to Versailles, where her arrival scandalizes the court.

Directed by French actress and filmmaker Maïwenn (whose films include “DNA” and “My King”), the movie also stars Benjamin Lavernhe, Melvil Poupaud,...

A first-look trailer has dropped for the historical drama ‘Jeanne du Barry’ starring Johnny Depp, and we have an exclusive look at both the trailer and these two new posters for the film.

The French-language film, set in the 18th century, tells the story of Jeanne Bécu (Maïwenn), the daughter of an impoverished seamstress who rose through the Court of King Louis Xv (played by Depp) and became his last official mistress.

Jeanne Vaubernier, a young working-class woman hungry for culture and pleasure, uses her intelligence and allure to climb the rungs of the social ladder one by one. She becomes the favourite of King Louis Xv who, unaware of her status as a courtesan, regains through her his appetite for life. They fall madly in love. Against all propriety and etiquette, Jeanne moves to Versailles, where her arrival scandalizes the court.

Directed by French actress and filmmaker Maïwenn (whose...

Amanda director Mikhaël Hers: "Vincent Lacoste is naturally very intuitive and Stacy Martin, maybe due to her double nationality, is more cerebral, more rational as an actor."

Before the uniFrance and Film Society of Lincoln Center luncheon for the 24th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York - attended by the President of uniFrance Serge Toubiana and Executive Director of uniFrance Isabelle Giordano, Russell Banks, uniFrance’s American ambassador, Sophie Fillières, Agathe Bonitzer, Hélène Fillières, Emmanuel Mouret, Eva Husson, Pierre Salvadori, and Pio Marmaï - Amanda director/screenwriter Mikhaël Hers joined me for a conversation. We spoke about the roles of Vincent Lacoste, Isaure Multrier, Stacy Martin, Marianne Basler, Ophélia Kolb, and Greta Scacchi, dancing to Elvis Presley, film critic Serge Daney's book L'Amateur De Tennis and Mikhaël's love of tennis.

P‪resident of uniFrance‬, Serge Toubiana and Executive Director of uniFrance, Isabelle Giordano with Mikhaël Hers...

In the decade between adolescence and adulthood, Vincent Lacoste has grown one of contemporary French cinema’s great faces: at once beautiful and wonky, shaped by mischief and worry, like a Belmondo reflected in the surface of a choppy lake. That we get to see it move, think and crumple in ways we haven’t quite before is the strongest selling point of “Amanda,” a film already not short on unassuming charm. Following a sweetly feckless twentysomething jolted into adulthood when tragedy appoints him the guardian of his seven-year-old niece, it tells a familiar story furrowed by quiet emotional conviction, much of it in Lacoste’s unhurried, unaffected turn. A nourishingly classical tear-jerker as well as a glowing valentine to Paris’s endurance in the age of modern terrorism, Mikhaël Hers’s third feature will count on warm festival word of mouth to boost its distribution prospects.

For much of its running time,...

“Welcome to the empire of the buried-alive!” As young François (Grégoire Leprince Ringuet) goes into hiding during the Nazi occupation of Luxembourg, he leaves behind a world of fear and mistrust and enters something even worse. The French title of director Nicolas Steil’s debut The Undercover War (2009) is Réfractaire, which is perhaps a more accurate reflection of the fact that his film is all about resistance – both active and passive.

After panning over the exterior of the mine where much of the film is set, the camera closes in on the beaten and bloodied face of the prostrate François. The flashback that tells his story begins with his own description of the grim prospects for young Luxembourgian men in 1944, after their country was occupied by the Nazis. They could either endure forced conscription and become cannon fodder on the Russian Front, or go into hiding and wait for liberation – or death.

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Canadian film distributors Kinosmith are offering the following DVD titles of note from their extensive film collection :

"The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins" follows Vanessa Beecroft’s intentions to adopt orphaned twins, and how it affects her art and personal life.

"...Pop star of the art world, Vanessa Beecroft is determined to adopt orphaned twins, an intention that bleeds into her art and reveals her volatile relationship with her husband. Alongside the adoption process Vanessa photographs herself breast feeding the twins, creating her own artwork. Like Angelina and Madonna, Vanessa is a white westerner intent on rescuing third world babies. But at what cost to her personal life?..."

In "Ghosts", a 17 year-old girl left on her own, creates an intriguing journey to meet a new companion and reunite with her mother.

"...Nina (Julia Hummer) is a vulnerable 17-year old, alone in the world except...

Canadian-based film distributors Kinosmith, in association with DVD partner Project X Distribution have announced new DVD titles to their extensive film collection. The Art Star And The Sudanese Twins follows Vanessa Beecroft.s intentions to adopt orphaned twins, and how it affects her art and personal life. "...Pop star of the art world, Vanessa Beecroft is determined to adopt orphaned twins, an intention that bleeds into her art and reveals her volatile relationship with her husband. Alongside the adoption process Vanessa photographs herself breast feeding the twins, creating her own artwork. Like Angelina and Madonna, Vanessa is a white westerner intent on rescuing third world babies. But at what cost to her personal life?..." In Ghosts, a 17 year-old girl left on her own, creates an intriguing journey to meet a new companion and reunite with her mother. "...Nina (Julia Hummer) is a vulnerable 17-year old, alone in the world except...

PARIS -- The drums were pounding in Gaul on Monday night as scribe Alain Monne received France's 21st annual Grand Prize for best screenplay for "Percussions" at a ceremony held at Paris' Cinema de L'Arlequin theater.

The award is funded by state film body the CNC and given to writers who have had no more than three of their screenplays produced.

The 2007 jury was presided over by actress Marianne Basler and included last year's prize-winner, Martin Provost, along with industry execs Sophie Dulac, Pierre Heros, Jean Labadie and Geraldine Gendre.

"Percussions", an adaptation of Eric Holder's novel "L'Homme de Chevet", is the story of an unexpected encounter between a former boxer and the young quadriplegic woman he looks after.

The film is produced by Cine Nomine and Thelma Films. Honorable mention went to Reza Serkanian for her "Ephemeral Wedding", an Overlap Films production.

This year's other finalists included: Karin Albou for "The Brides' Song", Valerie Gaudissart for "I'm a Terrorist", Annemarie Jacir for "Salt of This Sea" and Jean-Claude Jean for "Cendrine".

BERLIN -- Christian Petzold's "Ghosts", screened in competition, tracks two divergent story lines with the tantalizing possibility they might intersect at an interesting juncture. They do intersect, but this proves neither provocative nor exciting. Separately, each story line has little dramatic viability.

One story follows an obsessed, distraught woman, Francoise (Marianne Basler), who continually travels to Berlin from her Paris home to search forlornly for the daughter stolen from her years ago. Her understanding husband always comes to take her home.

In the other story, Nina (Julia Hummer), the product of numerous foster families and homes for troubled teens, falls in with an older street tough, Toni (Sabine Timoteo). The two wayward girls shoplift and snatch purses in an orgy of angry protest against an indifferent world. Petzold, who wrote the script with Harun Farocki, clearly suggests that Nina might be Francoise's long-lost daughter.

Without that suggestion, neither meandering, fragmented plot line holds much value. Even then, nothing can really excuse such aimless stories.

The acting isn't bad, but the location work makes Berlin, one of Europe's most exciting cities, looks blandly modern and soulless. A score of classical music gives "Ghosts" the air of a funeral.

BV International Pictures

A Tunisian filmmaker is commissioned to turn the camera on his cinema-influenced childhood in "The Magic Box", a vivid if overly introspective memory piece from Ridha Behi.

That country's foreign-language Oscar submission was given its North American premiere at the recent Nortel Networks Palm Springs International Film Festival. The radiantly shot picture begins in present-day Tunisia, following the less than idyllic adult life of the central character, Raouf (Abdelatif Kechiche).

With his marriage to his homesick, alcoholic French wife, Lou (Marianne Basler), hanging by a slender thread, he takes frequent refuge in his formative past, which he's trying to turn into a film for European TV.

As that script begins to take shape, Raouf's boyhood life is presented as a constant tug-of-war between his strict Islamic father and his worldly uncle Mansour, who motors across the country as a traveling projectionist when not enjoying celebrity status at the local bordello.

If all that nostalgic movie magic conjures up not-too-distant memories of "Cinema Paradiso", it's a comparison that hasn't been lost on filmmaker Behi, whose screen alter ego actually makes reference to the 1988 Italian movie in defense of his own.

Familiarity aside, Behi tends to go a little heavy on the soul searching, and those shifts back and forth in time grow tiresome long before this obviously autobiographical journey reaches a rather unexpected, surrealistic conclusion.