"In France, we’ve radicalized the divide, meaning there are two types of cinema and two types of audiences. On one side, there’s popular cinema, which is all comedy. Comedy. Comedy. Comedy. Not all of it is particularly smart, but who cares? And on the other side, there’s auteur cinema, which is more so for an educated, cultivated audience, but leaves out a lot of French people. "The Connection" is a bridge between these two worlds. It responds to auteur cinema, but it’s for the public. I think, in France, this is the direction cinema should be taking, because otherwise we have the two extremes. It shouldn’t just be comedy or radical auteur cinema. We need that bridge between the two. Then, so far as I’m concerned—and I think Jean Dujardin is with me on this—this film is very mature. What I mean by that is that this is the first time I really have a man’s role. He’s a forty-something year-old man, with a wife, and family, and responsibility. For Jean, it’s the same thing. We saw the film, and said, “This is really our first film as adults, as men.” There’s Before "The Connection" and After "The Connection". It’s the beginning of the second half of my career."
Actor Gilles Lellouche


The film I reviewed this week, "The Clearstream Affair", was released a few months after "The Connection". It fits with Lellouche's description of films that bridge the gap between the two extremes of French cinema. "The Clearstream Affair" is an intelligent thriller in which Lellouche plays a mature adult, in this case investigative reporter Denis Robert. I liked the film, but with a few reservations. You can read reviews of both "The Clearstream Affair" and "The Connection" on the Drama Movies Site.

The site has a French theme this week in celebration of the Cannes Film Festival, which begins in two days (May 17th). The premiere I am anticipating the most is "Rodin", starring Vincent Lindon. The full-length trailer is now online. Sofia Coppola's "The Beguiled" is also screening in competition, and Jessica Chastain and Will Smith are serving as jury members.

Cannes is a tremendous marketplace for films, as well as a festival, and publicity announcements about new films have been in the press all this week. Ben Kingsley is starring in a trilogy of films based on the Swedish author Hakan Nesser's "Intrigo" series. Production begins this week in Europe. Also, Kristen Scott Thomas will star as BMW heiress Susanne Klatten in "Paramour". directed by Alexandra-Therese Keining. Colin Firth is set to play philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin in a new film. Set in 1940, the plot concerns Benjamin's arduous overland escape from the Nazis.

Here's the latest article from the Drama Movies site at BellaOnline.com.

The Clearstream Affair Film Review
Gilles Lellouche stars as a crusading investigative journalist in this tale of financial corruption based on real-life events.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art26930.asp

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Angela K. Peterson, Drama Movies Editor
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