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Bonjour Tristesse: Ropert Explores Rude Awakenings in Tender Coming-of-Age Portrait

“What am I doing in this world?” wrote Paul Verlaine in his classic poem “The Song of Gaspard Hauser,” the Symbolist French poet most closely aligned with the fin de siecle, importantly the concept of one era’s segue into another. The poem and the motif represent several subtle subtexts in Petite Solange, the fourth film by writer- director Axelle Ropert, perhaps best known as the scribe for Serge Bozon.

A melancholic coming-of-age story of an adolescent girl’s grappling with her parents’ impending divorce, it’s a quietly conceived composite of bittersweet epiphanies regarding oft-disappointing reality of the world and our loved ones.…...

Series Mania, Europe’s biggest TV fest, and German film-tv powerhouse Beta Group has revealed the 10 projects in the first edition of Seriesmakers, unveiling what must be one of the most talent-packed project lineups at any festival, film or TV, in 2023,

A mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut, Series Mania features in development drama series from “Compartment No 6’s” Juho Kuosmanen, ‘Bang Gang’s’ Eva Husson and “Birds of a Passage’s” Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego.

Also in the mix is “Amigas,” the first TV project of Beatriz Seigner (“Los Silencios”), one of Brazil’s foremost young movie directors, “The Invisible Ink,” teaming Cannes best first feature winner César Díaz (“Our Mothers”)and New Uruguay Cinema founding father Fernando Epstein; and Indian arthouse filmmaker Pushpendra Singh, who scored with Berlin Encounters’ title “The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs.”

All in all, Seriesmakers, which is just...

One of our favorite films on the festival circuit the last few years finally has distribution. Axelle Ropert’s tender coming-of-age tale Petite Solange, which we caught at the Locarno Film Festival in 2021, marks the first release of the newly launched distributor Several Futures. Not only will the film be launching at Bam this March 24, but they will also present the first-ever U.S. retrospective of the French critic, actor, writer, and filmmaker. Ahead of the release, we’re delighted to exclusively present the U.S. trailer.

Here’s the synopsis of the film, which was awarded the prestigious Prix Jean Vigo: “Solange is a typical 13-year-old curious and full of life, with perhaps the peculiarity of being overly sentimental and adoring her parents. But when her parents begin to argue, fight and slowly drift apart, the threat of divorce looms near and Solange’s world begins to splinter. To keep her family together,...

In Being John Malkovich, an entire half-hour passes by before John Cusack’s hangdog puppeteer peaks behind his filing cabinet and finds a tunnel to another man’s brain. Incredible But True––another film about a tunnel and likely oblivion––is directed by Quentin Dupieux, a French filmmaker whose absurdist tendencies would rival even Charlie Kaufman’s. He is also better-known for his brevity. Dupieux’s two most recent films (Deerskin and Mandibles), both clocked in at less than 80 minutes. (They were also his best.) Realité, his most indulgent, asks only for 95.

Dupieux’s popularity on the festival circuit can be tied to that succinctness as much as his auteur credentials and uncanny sense of humor. His latest, another rough absurdist gem, goes one further in offering a playful, compelling twist on an enduring sc-fi trope. There is also some uneasy gender stereotyping. There is also what one medical practitioner refers to as an “iPenis.