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Franco-uk event to include the European premiere of ‘Ammonite’.

The 31st Dinard Film Festival, the annual celebration of British cinema held in northern France, has unveiled its full line-up and secured the European premiere of Francis Lee’s Ammonite.

The festival is set to go ahead as a physical event from September 30-October 4 and its previews strand includes romantic drama Ammonite, which received a Cannes label and has its world premiere at TIFF today.

The six films in competition comprise Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses; Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d; Claire Oakley’s Make Up; Bassam Tariq’s...

Festival adds ‘Quiz’ series with Matthew Macfadyen, Sian Clifford.

Franco-uk event the Dinard Film Festival will open its 31st edition with Days Of The Bagnold Summer, the directorial debut of The Inbetweeners star Simon Bird.

The event will run from September 30 to October 4 and is scheduled to go ahead as a physical event.

The festival will also screen ITV series Quiz starring Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford, telling the true story of Major Charles Ingram and his wife Diana, who were accused of cheating on UK TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2001.

Produced by Left Bank Pictures,...

Festival adds ‘Quiz’ series with Matthew Macfadyen, Sian Clifford.

Franco-British event Dinard Film Festival will open its 31st edition with Days Of The Bagnold Summer, the directorial debut of The Inbetweeners star Simon Bird.

The event will run from September 30 to October 4 and is currently scheduled to go ahead as a physical event.

The festival will also screen ITV series Quiz starring Matthew Macfadyen and Sian Clifford, telling the true story of Major Charles Ingram and his wife Diana, who were accused of cheating on UK TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in 2001.

Produced by Left Bank Pictures,...

Title: I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive Directors: Claude Miller and Nathan Miller Starring: Vincent Rottiers, Annie Jouvet, Sophie Cattani, Christine Citti, Yves Verhoeven “I’m Glad My Mother Is Alive,” which played at the 2010 City of Lights City of Angels (Colcoa) Festival, is a stirring familial drama of simmering resentment, anchored by a searing performance from young Vincent Rottiers, whose piercing blue eyes and quiet intensity are enough to make one ruminate about a possible fraternal collaboration with Daniel Craig. The American version of these sorts of damaged-kid stories typically cedes all ambiguity in favor of pat cathartic redemption, but this gripping French import keeps an edge of violence and uncertainty about...

Paris -- The 36th annual Deauville American Film Festival will kick off on Friday with a smaller screen, but bigger stars than recent years with Annette Bening, Terry Gilliam and Zac Efron among the talent expected on the Normandy shores.

The fest will host its first "Deauville: Season 1" sidebar, a screenwriting and creativity platform for professionals in the TV biz.

The TV sidebar will run from Sept 4th – 5th during Deauville's opening weekend and will feature Master Classes, an "All About Screenwriting" professional discussion among French and TV writers and screenings of the latest hit U.S. shows including recent Emmy-winners "Modern Family" and "The Good Wife" plus "Sons of Anarchy," "House," "Treme," "How to Make it in America," "True Blood" and "The Sopranos."

Master Classes will be taught by creator, screenwriter, director and producer of "The Sopranos" David Chase and screenwriter, producer and showrunner of "Dexter" Clyde Phillips. In addition to the small screen,...

Paris -- This year's Deauville American Film Festival will be a fete of first films with seven of 11 titles in the Competition debut features, organizers said Thursday.

The Sundance fest will shine down on Deauville this year as Diego Luna's "Abel," Rodrigo Cortes' "Buried," Kevin Asch's "Holy Rollers," Ryan Piers Williams' "The Dry Land," Jay and Mark Duplass' "Cyrus," Jack Scott's "Welcome to the Rileys" and that festival's big winner Debra Granik's "Winter's Bone" host their French premieres in the Gallic seaside town after runs in Park City.

David Robert Mitchell's "The Myth of the American Sleepover" will also follow screenings at SXSW and the Festival de Cannes Critics Week sidebar with a Deauville slot.

Cannes Director's Fortnight title Alistair Banks Griffin's "Two Gates of Sleep" will also reopen its eyes to screen in Competition in Deauville. Derrick Borte's "The Joneses...

• Right before the big announcement of films competing for the Golden Lion, the Venice Film Festival announced the Venice Days sidebar selections which is flooded with mostly Euro titles from Spain, Italy and France. The section, the equivalent to Cannes Director's Fortnight, will feature eleven films including nine world premieres and the international preem for Sterlin Harjo’s Barking Water (who we interviewed for his Sundance premiere). Among the list of films that we should look out for in the long term which includes the added six world premieres in the Special Events category, we have Sherry Horman's directorial debut Desert Flower which is not necessarily a rags to riches narrative, but more of a look "where I came from" drama, there is a prison pic from Spanish helmer Daniel Monzon (Celda 211) and legend Claude Miller co-directs with his son Nathan Miller on Je Suis Heureux Che Ma Mere Soit Vivante,

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• This week Claude Lelouch began lensing Ces amours-là, his 45th film is you can believe that. Filmed in parts of the Beaune region in France and in Romania's Bucharest, the picture is said to be some using vintage footage that Lelouch filmed over the past decades to compliment a story about one woman's romantic life. Audrey Dana (who was among the trio of leads in Lelouch's previous film Roman de Gare) plays the woman who reflects back the flings she had with a pair of French men, two Americans and a German. The film follows her over a twenty year span between 1940 all the way up to 1960. Looking at the time period, I'm guessing that the 2nd World War might offer on of the backdrops to one of the five narratives. Dana is re-teaming with Dominique Pinon and the film will also see legend Anouk Aimée, Judith Magre, Christine Citti,

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CANNES -- One gets so used to Gerard Depardieu's fine performances in film after film that one almost takes him for granted. Then comes along "The Singer", in which he rattles your senses with a performance so simple and understated that you realize all over again what a profoundly brilliant and charismatic actor he is. Playing a dance hall singer who knows he will never be great but has settled for the work itself and the respect of his audience, Depardieu paints an indelible portrait of a man who has a deep connection to his music. His songs are like Shakespearian soliloquies that project his emotions into the world.

The film itself is a conventional story about this singer, Alain Moreau, and a beautiful young woman, Marion (Cecile De France), under whose spell he falls. Writer-director Xavier Giannoli stretches a very simple story to a greater length than it perhaps warrants. Nevertheless Depardieu carries you along so smoothly no one is likely to mind.

The relationship between these two people is always plausible and natural. They go to bed the night they meet, but Marion sneaks away that morning, embarrassed by her actions. Since she works in a real estate office run by Alain's friend Bruno (Mathieu Amalric), Alain changes tactics: He has Marion show him houses on the pretext he is in the market for a move. A lot of houses. His ex-wife Michele (Christine Citti), who continues as his manager, worries the young woman may hurt him but he is smitten.

Unlike Alain, Marion doesn't talk much about her past although she has a son she clearly adores but sees infrequently. Gradually, a friendship and then love develops between these two, one that will not last but a love that re-invigorates Alain and makes him feel that all things are possible again.

Alain is very much at home in his world. He knows his repertoire, can read his audience well, keeps up with pop music and feels comfortable having a pet goat roam around the farmhouse where he lives. But Marion struggles to feel comfortable in her world. She is unsettled and tentative, not always certain she is doing the right things. Alain, in a way, re-invigorates her too. He touches he heart with his charm and honest desire.

Bruno is the third person in a romantic triangle, but Giannoli doesn't develop this character enough for him to have significant impact in the story. Alain's former wife is a more intriguing character since she plainly still loves him even as she pretends not to.

It's hard to imagine Alain doing anything other than singing. His job may be to get people to dance and to drink champagne. At parties or teas, people may not even be really listening. But as he says with a shrug, "I often sing for myself".

Depardieu does his own singing, quite credibly, and you sense his singer's keen relationship with the music and especially the lyrics. The songs are about love and emotions. He feels them. There is no bitterness or regret in this performer. Then Marion takes him by surprise. Something fundamental changes inside him. And the same goes for her.

Tech credits are solid as the film ably captures the world of dance halls, where older singles and divorcees have an excuse to connect with the opposite sex and the world feels a little better for a few hours.

THE SINGER

Rectangle/EuropaCorp/France 3 Cinema

Credits:

Writer/director: Xavier Giannoli

Producers: Edouard Weil, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam

Director of photography: Yorick Le Saux

Production designer: Francois-Renaud Labarthe

Music: Alexandre Desplat

Costumes: Nathalie Benros

Editor: Martine Giordano.

Cast:

Alain Moreau: Gerard Depardieu

Marion: Cecile De France

Bruno: Mathieu Amalric

Michele: Christine Citti

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 112 minutes...