With her son Christopher as co-writer on Fauteuils d'orchestre, the director has chosen this time to interweave the destinies of numerous characters who gravitate towards the Bar des Théâtres de l'avenue Montaigne, just off the Champs-Elysées.Īlso of note this week are the releases of two first features by women, whose projects both received an advance on receipts from the National Film Centre. Produced by Thelma Film with a budget of €8.7m (including €1.8m in pre-sales and co-production support from TF1 Films Production), the film is betting on a high-calibre cast ( Cécile de France, Valérie Lemercier, Claude Brasseur, Sydney Pollack, Albert Dupontel and Suzanne Flon) and on the writing talent of Thompson, the daughter of filmmaker Gérard Oury and writer of numerous films such as La Grande Vadrouille, La Boum and Queen Margot by Patrice Chéreau. The main French hope at the box office, after the previously successful La Bûche (1999) and Jet Lag (2002), is Danièle Thompson’s Fauteuils d'orchestre (see the news), which is being released on an ambitious 406 screens Mars Distribution.
Three majority French productions are arriving in cinemas this week, to establish a strong presence of domestic films at the box office.