Cinemoi

The first and only channel dedicated to French film is now on air on Sky channel 839

This week's film highlights include...

ROMAIN DURIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW   

Produced by Mint 3D – Cinémoi
TX Time: Wed 6th May (7.00pm), thu 7th May (8.00pm)
Year: 2009 – Length: 55mins – Cert.PG
Genre: Interview
Discovered while waiting in a queue by Cédric Klapisch’s casting director, Romain Duris (an art student and musician at the time) was soon playing the lead role of the director’s cult success Le Péril jeune (1994). For somebody with no desire to become an actor, Duris found himself working with one of the most popular filmmakers in France and their collaboration has lasted over 6 films, including Pot Luck (L’Auberge espanole, 2002) and Paris (2008). Working with the likes of Olivier Dahan, Christophe Honoré and Tony Gatlif has placed him in a prime position on the cinematic scene between auteur and popular, where he attains both commercial and critical success. Two of his recent releases, both well received in the UK, testify to his versatility, from his award-winning turn as a small-time gangster in The Beat that my Heart Skipped (2004) to the incarnation of France’s literary giant in the period drama Molière (2007). Romain Duris exclusively talks to CinéMoi about his established yet burgeoning career to date (including the forthcoming Persécution directed by Patrice Chéreau) with wonderful insight, anecdotes and humour. He reveals his acting influences from both France and the US, and with his rate of quality output, Duris himself is set to become one of the great French actors, leaving a string of disciples and imitators in his wake.

LA CEREMONIE    

Director: Claude Chabrol
TX Times: Fri 8th May (9.00pm)
Year: 1995 – Length: 111mins – Cert.15
Genre: Thriller
English title: A Judgement in Stone
Sophie (Sandrine Bonnaire) is hired by the bourgeois Lelièvre family to work as a live-in maid. She strikes up a friendship with the eccentric postal clerk Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert) much to the discontent of her employers. Tensions flare, leading to unexpected consequences. Once again Chabrol transforms a seemingly banal situation into one of suspense and intrigue. The director exploits the universal theme of class-conflict from Ruth Rendell’s source novel to expose everyday fears that structure our social order. The drama is impeccably played out by a top drawer cast, which also includes esteemed veterans Jacqueline Bisset and Jean-Pierre Cassel. Among the film’s seven César nominations, Bonnaire lost out to co-star Huppert for the best actress award.

CLAUDE LELOUCH EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW    

Produced by Mint 3D – Cinémoi
TX Times: Wed 6th May (8.00pm), Sun 10th May (6.30pm)
Year: 2009 – Length: 55mins – Cert.PG
Genre: Interview

"The more I go to the movies, the more I like French movies." – Claude Lelouch The veteran director has made over 40 of them, as well as an array of shorts and collaborative pieces, in a career spanning over 50 years and still going strong. His latest film, Crossed Tracks (Roman de gare, 2007), was well received by the critics and audiences alike, with whom he as constantly fallen in and out favour over the years through a body of work that has been marked by a signature visual flair, cars, women and music. In an hour long interview exclusively for CinéMoi, Lelouch effusively discusses Crossed Tracks, filmmaking methods, career highs and lows, his legendary A Man and A Woman (one of the definitive visual and aural images of France) and the breath-taking short C’était un rendez-vous (“It makes Bullit look like a cartoon” – Jeremy Clarkson). In addition, the director offers his views on cinema’s place in the advent of digital technology and his experimental ‘scopitone’ films, which played on video jukeboxes in France during the 60s. A master-class in cinema.

SHOOT THE PIANIST    

Director: François Truffaut
TX Time: Sun 10th May (11.30pm)
Year: 1960 – Length: 92mins – Cert.12
Genre: Thriller
French title: Tirez sur le pianiste

Truffaut’s second feature film points to his work as a critic in his homage to the 1950s gangster genre and B-movie. Charlie (Charles Aznavour) is a piano player in a town bar, who once entertained glory as a concert pianist. However, it is his familial past which returns to haunt him when crooks embroiled with his brothers turn their attentions to Charlie and his girlfriend Lena (Marie Dubois). Although one of Truffaut’s most direct use of genre, the film does not detract from his unique ability for characterization and direction of actors, most notably Aznavour who became better known as a singer, but reminds us here of his immense talent in front of the camera as well.

LUDIVINE SAIGNIER EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW    

Produced by Mint 3D – Cinémoi
TX Times: Wed 6th May (6.30pm), Fri 8th May (12.30am), Sat 9th May (10.30pm)
Year: 2009 – Length: 26mins – Cert.PG
Genre: Interview

One of France’s rising stars, Ludivine Sagnier achieved recognition both home and abroad through her collaboration with François Ozon, playing the innocent youngest daughter in 8 Women and the sexually enigmatic Julie in Swimming Pool. She has worked with some great figures in French cinema, from Alain Resnais (I Want to Go Home) to Claude Miller (A Secret, La Petite Lili), and she will soon be seen on UK screens in Jean-François Richet’s highly anticipated Mesrine, with Vincent Cassel. Sagnier chats to CinéMoi about her latest role, with another giant of the French screen Claude Chabrol, in The Girl Cut in Two (La Fille Coupée en deux) and recounts the true story of an ambitious American weathergirl in the early 1900s on which Chabrol’s gripping film about power and deception is based.