Agenda: Movies coming out this week

FRENCHFLICKS

Launched in July 2013 by the former Télérama and Sofilm correspondent in New York, FrenchFlicks.com is the only website to list all French films screened in the US. Every month, more than 150 films in French are showcased: whether it’s national new releases, special screenings, or French film festivals and retrospectives, the showtimes are available via FrenchFlicks in all 50 states.

Click here to learn more!

Coming out in October:

Friday, October 13

Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet

For the past year, Sandra, her husband Samuel, and their eleven-year-old son Daniel have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he was murdered or committed suicide. Samuel’s suspicious death is presumed murder, and Sandra becomes the main suspect.

What follows is not just an investigation into the circumstances of Samuel’s death but an unsettling psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel’s conflicted relationship.

Genre: Drama
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz
130 min

A NEON Rated release

From Friday, October 27

Four Daughters (Les Filles d’Olfa) by Kaouther Ben Hania

This riveting exploration of rebellion, memory, and sisterhood reconstructs the story of Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters, unpacking a complex family history through intimate interviews and artful reenactments to examine how the Tunisian woman’s two eldest were radicalized by Islamic extremists. Casting professional actresses as the missing daughters, along with acclaimed Egyptian-Tunisian actress Hend Sabri as Olfa, award-winning director Kaouther Ben Hania (The Man Who Sold His Skin) restages pivotal moments in the family’s life. These scenes are interwoven with confessions and reflections from Olfa and her younger daughters, offering the women agency to tell their own story and capturing moments of joy, loss, violence, and heartache. Winner of four prizes including L’Oeil d’Or (Best Documentary) when it screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, Four Daughters is a compelling portrait of five women and a unique and ambitious work of nonfiction cinema that explores the nature of memory, the weight of inherited trauma, and the ties that bind mothers and daughters.

Genre: Documentary
Cast: Hend Sabri, Olfa Hamrouni, Eya Chikhaoui, Tayssir Chikhaoui
110 min

A Kino Lorber release

Coming out in September:

From Friday, September 15

Rebel by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

When Kamal resolves to change his life for the better, he leaves Belgium to help war victims in Syria. But, having arrived, he is forced to join ISIS and is left stranded in Raqqa. Back home, his younger brother Nassim quickly becomes easy prey for radical recruiters, who promise to reunite him with his brother. Their mother, Leila, fights to protect the only thing she has left: her youngest son.

Genre: Drama
Cast: Aboubakr Bensaihi, Lubna Azabal, Tara Abboud
135 min

A Yellow Veil Pictures release

From Tuesday, September 19

Early Short Films by the New Wave with Alain Resnais, Jacques Rivette, François Reichenbach, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, François Truffaut, Maurice Pialat, Melvin Van Peebles, Guy Gilles, Jean Rouch, Jeanne Barbillon, Gisèle Braunberger

Icarus Films presents Early Short Films of the French New Wave on Blu-ray and DVD — nineteen short films from the dawn of the French New Wave, a group of talented young filmmakers, including Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Agnes Varda, & more, who presented a radically new vision of French cinema. These shorts are not just steppingstones on the way to the famed New Wave features, but classics that stand on their own, the first forays of a movement that would revolutionize the world of French film and influence cinema around the world for decades to come.

An Icarus Films release

From Friday, September 22

The Origin of Evil by Sébastien Marnier

In a luxurious seaside villa, a modest young woman finds herself in the company of a strange family : an unknown and wealthy father, his extravagant wife, his daughter, an ambitious woman, a rebellious teenager, and their creepy maid.

Someone is lying.

Between suspicions and lies, a mystery grows and the evil spreads.

Genre: Drama, Thriller
Cast: Suzanne Clément, Laure Calamy, Doria Tillier, Jacques Weber, Dominique Blanc
120 min

A IFC Films release

Coming out in August:

From Friday, August 4

Our Body by Claire Simon

French documentary titan Claire Simon observes the everyday operations of the gynecological ward in a public hospital in Paris. In the process, she questions what it means to live in a woman’s body, filming the diversity, singularity and beauty of patients in all stages of life. Through these many encounters, the specific fears, desires and struggles of these individuals become the health challenges we all face, even the filmmaker herself.

Genre: Documentary
168 min

A Cinema Guild release

From Friday, August 4

Passages by Ira Sachs

Set in Paris, this seductive drama tells the story of Tomas (Rogowski) and Martin (Whishaw), a gay couple whose marriage is thrown into crisis when Tomas begins a passionate affair with Agathe (Exarchopoulos), a younger woman he meets after completing his latest film. 

Genre: Drama
Cast:  Franz Rogowski, Ben Whishaw, Adèle Exarchopoulos 
97 min

A Mubi release

From Friday, August 4

The Beasts by Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Antoine and Olga, a French couple, have been living in a small village in Galicia for a long time. They practice eco-responsible agriculture and restore abandoned houses to facilitate repopulation. Everything should be idyllic but for their opposition to a wind turbine project that creates a serious conflict with their neighbors. The tension will rise to the point of irreparability. 

Genre: Thriller
Cast:  Marina Foïs, Denis Ménochet, Luis Zahera
137 min

A Greenwich Entertainment release

From Friday, August 11

Between Two Worlds (Ouistreham) by Emmanuel Carrère

Marianne Winckler, a well-known author, goes to live in northern France to research for her new book on the subject of job insecurity. Without revealing her true identity, she gets hired as a cleaner, working with a group of other women.

In this new role, she experiences financial instability and social invisibility first-hand. But she also discovers mutual assistance and solidarity, strong bonds shared by these behind-the-scenes working women.

Genre: Drama
Cast:  Juliette Binoche, Hélène Lambert, Léa Carne 
106 min

On August 11, the film will open at the Quad Cinema in New York and at Laemmle’s Royal Theater in Los Angeles before the nationwide release on August 25.

On August 18, join us for the Atlanta opening of the film at the Tara Theatre.

A Cohen Media Group release

From Friday, August 18

Madeleine Collins by Antoine Barraud

Judith (Virginie Efira)’s life is split between two households in two countries. In Switzerland, she is Margot, a translator who lives with Abdel (Quim Gutierrez) and the little girl they are raising. In France, she is known as Judith and lives a glamorous life with acclaimed orchestra conductor Melvil (Bruno Salomone) and their two older boys. This fragile balance, based on complex lies and tightly scheduled back-and-forth trips, gradually begins to crack and veer dangerously off the rails. The mysterious reasons for her lies, and the complications that ensue from her efforts to keep the two lives separate, propel the third narrative feature from Antoine Barraud anchored by a virtuoso turn from Efira in all of her character’s many guises.

Genre: Drama
Cast:  Virginie Efira, Quim Gutierrez, Bruno Salomone 
107 min

A Greenwich Entertainment release

From Friday, August 18

The biopic about Simone Veil (Elsa Zylberstein), one of the prominent women in France in the 20th Century. Simone Veil’s life story, from her childhood to her major political battles, seen through the pivotal events of the twentieth century. An intimate and epic portrait of an extraordinary woman who eminently challenged and transformed her era: her humanist message is still keenly relevant today.

From Wednesday, August 30

Belle de Jour by Luis Buñuel

Beautiful young housewife Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) cannot reconcile her masochistic fantasies with her everyday life alongside dutiful husband Pierre (Jean Sorel). When her lovestruck friend Henri (Michel Piccoli) mentions a secretive high-class brothel run by Madame Anais (Genevieve Page), Séverine begins to work there during the day under the name Belle de Jour. But when one of her clients (Pierre Clémenti) grows possessive, she must try to go back to her normal life.

Genre: Drama
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Jean Sorel, Michel Piccoli
111 min

A Janus Films release

Coming out in June:

Coming out in July:

From Friday, July 14

Final Cut by Michel Hazanavicius

In a disused factory, a Z-grade horror film shoot is in full swing. Jaded technicians, uninvolved actors… only the director seems to possess the necessary energy to give life to this umpteenth low-budget zombie movie. During the preparation of a particularly difficult shot, filming is disrupted by an eruption of the real living dead. In front of the camera, everything looks more-or-less normal. Behind it, the crew is freewheeling to save the film while following their one and only watchword: DON’T CUT!

Genre: Comedy
Cast: Romain Duris, Bérénice Bejo, Finnegan Oldfield, Matilda Lutz
110 min

A Kino Lorber release

Friday, July 14 in NYC and Los Angeles

Two Tickets to Greece by Marc Fitoussi 

Recently divorced, and watching helplessly as her only son leaves home, 40-something Blandine (Olivia Côte) is struggling to find her footing again. When her childhood former best friend Magalie (a scene-stealing Laure Calamy), loud and fearless, suddenly resurfaces, the two women reconnect, and Blandine reluctantly allows herself to be spontaneous for a change. They decide to take the summer trip to the Greek Islands they had always dreamed of as teenagers, but, as they head off towards their destination, it’s apparent that Magalie’s very different approach to vacationing – and life – could lead Blandine to her breaking point. Kristin Scott Thomas co-stars as Magalie’s free-spirited expat friend and mentor.

Cast: Laure Calamy, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Olivia Côte
110 min

A Greenwich Entertainment release.

Simone: Woman of the Century by Olivier Dahan

Genre: Fiction
Cast: Elsa Zylberstein, Rebecca Marder, Olivier Gourmet
180 min

A Samuel Goldwyn Films release

From Friday, June 30 to Tuesday, September 5

Contempt by Jean-Luc Godard

Scenes from a marital breakdown between screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) and his wife (Brigitte Bardot), as both become enmeshed in the behind-the-camera struggles of a director (Fritz Lang) and producer (Jack Palance) as they film an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey.

Restored and digitized in 4K by Studiocanal at Hiventy with support from the CNC, from the original 35mm negative, interpositive, and reference print by Raoul Coutard.

Genre: Drama
Cast:  Brigitte Bardot, Jack Palance, Michel Piccoli, Fritz Lang
103 min

A Rialto Pictures release

From Friday, June 30

The Passengers of the Night by Mikhaël Hers

Paris, 1981: on election night, celebrations spill out onto the street. An air of hope and change courses throughout the city, but the future doesn’t look rosy for Elisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg)– her marriage is coming to an end, and she’ll have to support herself and her two teenage children.  Things start to look up, however, when she finds work at a late-night radio show.  And then a troubled young woman enters her life.

Genre: Drama
Cast:  Charlotte Gainsbourg, Noée Abita, Quito Rayon Richter, Emmanuelle Béart, Megan Northam 
111 min

A KimStim release

From Friday, June 23 in NYC (Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Film Center) & June 30 in LA (Laemmle’s Royal)

Revoir Paris by Alice Winocour 

After surviving a mass shooting in a Paris restaurant, Mia (Virginie Efira) is haunted, unable to resume life as usual, and left with a total blackout where her memories of the traumatic incident should be. Determined to reconstruct the sequence of events and reestablish a sense of normalcy, Mia finds herself repeatedly returning to the bistro where the shooting happened. In the process, she forms bonds with fellow survivors.  

Genre: Drama
Cast:  Virginie Efira, Benoît Magimel, Nastya Golubeva 
104 min

A Music Box Films release

From Friday, June 9 

Scarlet by Pietro Marcello 

The film begins as the tale of a sensitive brute (Raphaël Thiéry) who returns home from World War I to his rural French village to discover that his wife has died and he must take care of their baby daughter, Juliette, then blossoms into a pastoral portrait of Juliette (Juliette Jouan) as a free-spirited young woman reckoning with a local witch’s prophecy for her future and falling for the modern man (Louis Garrel) who literally drops from the sky. In his first film made in France, Marcello proves again that he is as comfortable in the realm of folklore as he is in creative nonfiction, delicately interweaving realist drama, ethereal romance, and musical flights of fancy. An NYFF60 Main Slate selection. 

Genre: Drama
Cast:  Juliette Jouan, Raphaël Thiery, Noémie Lvovsky, Louis Garrel 
103 min

A Kino Lorber release

From Friday, June 2 in LA (Laemmle’s Monica Film Center)

Falcon Lake by Charlotte Le Bon

Prix Louis-Delluc 2022 for best first film

Bastien (Joseph Engel) and Chloé (Sara Montpetit) spend their summer vacation with their families at a lake cabin in Quebec, haunted by a ghost legend. Despite the age gap between them, the two teenagers form a singular bond. Ready to overcome his worst fears to earn a place in Chloé’s heart, the holiday becomes a turbulent pivotal moment for the young boy. Based on the book Une sœur by Bastien Vivès (2017).

Genre: Drama, romance
Cast: Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Monia Chokri, Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman
100 min

A Yellow Veil Pictures release.

Friday, June 2

Rise by Cédric Klapisch

Élise thought she had the perfect life: an ideal boyfriend and a promising career as a ballet dancer. It all falls apart the day she catches him cheating on her; and after she suffers an injury on stage, it seems like she might not be able to dance again. The path to physical and emotional recovery will lead her away from Paris to a picturesque location in Brittany – where her friends, a new love and the freedom of contemporary dance will help her reconnect with her father and most importantly, herself. A heartwarming and inspiring story that tells us how sometimes, the worst thing that could happen may turn out to be the best.

Genre: Comedy, Dance
Cast: Marion Barbeau, François Civil, Pio Marmaï, Denis Podalydès, Hofesh Shechter 
120 min

A Blue Fox Entertainment release.