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It’s no secret that Francophone cinema tends to have a more liberal view of sex, but even in that milieu, the writer Catherine Léger stands out. Her films “Slut in a Good Way” and “Babysitter” are both festival darlings that tackle the intricacies of female sexuality from multiple angles. Now her latest, the Sundance competitor “Two Women” directed by Chloé Robichaud, centers on a pair of heroines chafing against motherhood and long-term monogamy.

Continue reading ‘Two Women’ Review: Libidinous Québécois Romp Pokes Fun At Monogamy [Sundance] at The Playlist.

Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”

“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.

“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...

Lille, France – Producers, commissioning editors and creative talents from across La Belle Province took the spotlight at a Series Mania showcase of the best of recent Quebecois scripted offerings. Below are the seven series that drew whoops and appreciative hollers from a room full of international buyers.

Late summer doldrums, young adult love, and the generally placid rhythms of suburban life take on additional heft and resonance for a group of friends all suffering from cystic fibrosis – especially once one’s condition takes a turn for the worst. Far from jerking tears, the offbeat comedy “Thin Air” finds irreverent and life-affirming humor following young adult characters that feel the pangs of mortality more acutely than most. Produced by Urbania and created by acclaimed writer Jean-Christophe Réhel, the bittersweet series offers another plum role to “Mommy” star Antoine Olivier Pilon.

Produced by Saint Laurent TV and directed by Jean-Francois Rivard and Mathieu Cyr,...

Montreal-based Also Productions, the rising premium outfit behind the Series Mania title “Disobey” and the popular police drama “The Sketch Artist,” will next hit international waters with the facts-are-stranger-than-fiction geopolitical thriller “Chain Reaction.”

Based on the best-selling book from investigative journalist Vincent Larouche, the development project will untangle a multinational web that connected Quebecois businessmen to Swiss bankers to FBI agents to former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, telling the unbelievable true story of a corruption scandal that nearly brought down the Canadian government.

“The Sketch Artist” head writer André Gulluni will freely adapt Larouche’s page-turning exposé, which revealed the misdoings of Snc-Lavalin, a Montreal-based construction company alleged to have bribed and defrauded the Libyan government out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The ensuing (and cascading) financial scandal would soon rope in everyone from top politicos to Texas-based associates of Pablo Escobar.

“They were excellent at what they did,...

Premiering in Series Mania’s International Panorama section, the Quebecois limited series “Disobey” tackles the docudrama as urgent thriller, finding notes of tension in the lead up to a 1980s ruling the guaranteed abortion rights to women across Canada.

With the visual polish that has become signature for Montreal-based Also Productions, the six-part premium drama follows the real case of Chantale Daigle (Éléonore Loiselle), a 21-year-old woman who pushed against an abusive ex-partner and two court injunctions, eventually leading to a Supreme Court ruling that secured body autonomy for Canadian women. And all that in just a matter of weeks.

“For us, it was important [to hit that urgency], because that’s what really happened,” says Also founder Sophie Lorain. “Chantale went through three steps of jurisdiction and all the way to the Supreme Court in less than two months. While a child grew inside, these gentlemen were chatting along, not making up their...

For more than a century, movies as a medium have served to reinforce a certain view of female sexuality that served to benefit … whom? Not the female sex, really, but men — or a male-dominated culture that wanted women to be more receptive to their advances, on one hand, even as it reinforced the idea that giving in too easily, or to more than one partner, made them “sluts.” Was this deliberate indoctrination on the part of filmmakers? That’s a question for graduate theses and sociologists to answer, but the impact was clear in everything from the Production Code to John Hughes movies.

As its playfully sex-positive English-language title suggests, Sophie Lorain’s “Slut in a Good Way” turns the tables on much of that mass-media conditioning, offering an upbeat and unpretentious female-centered look at the gratification, and consequences, of adolescent “oats sowing” (a metaphor heretofore reserved for indiscriminately randy...

Sexual power plays and slut-shaming are the central themes of “Slut in a Good Way,” director Sophie Lorain’s slight but amiable story of three straight teenage girls and their romantic lives. Shot in black and white and set mostly in a retail environment, the French-Canadian film gives off a “Clerks” vibe as the trio of protagonists slack off, bitch about pay, and talk about life and love.

Catherine Léger’s story starts off in a sex shop as 17-year-old Charlotte (Marguerite Bouchard) looks for a bustier that matches one she saw in one of her boyfriend’s porn clips. What she buys doesn’t have the desired effect, though it wouldn’t have mattered what she chose: Her boyfriend tells her that he’s gay. So she gets drunk on a playground with friends Mégane (Romane Denis) and Aube (Rose Adam), lamenting that he’s “perfect” and she loves him.

Comedy Dynamics has picked up the U.S. rights to Slut in a Good Way, a French-Canadian comedy directed by Sophie Lorain.

An early 2019 theatrical release is being planned for the black-and-white movie, which premiered in the U.S. at the Tribeca Film Festival. It will also screen at Austin's Fantastic Fest, which runs Sept. 20-27.

The movie is an exploration of teen sexuality and the double standard women face as it tells the story of a girl named Charlotte, who, in order to get over a break-up, gets a part-time job at a local toy store known for ...

Comedy Dynamics has picked up the U.S. rights to Slut in a Good Way, a French-Canadian comedy directed by Sophie Lorain.

An early 2019 theatrical release is being planned for the black-and-white movie, which premiered in the U.S. at the Tribeca Film Festival. It will also screen at Austin's Fantastic Fest, which runs Sept. 20-27.

The movie is an exploration of teen sexuality and the double standard women face as it tells the story of a girl named Charlotte, who, in order to get over a break-up, gets a part-time job at a local toy store known for ...

Talks to continue on Behold My Heart, Madeline’s Madeline.

Ryan Kampe’s Visit Films heads to the Croisette with a sales slate that encompasses SXSW selection 1985, Tribeca entries Maine and Slut In A Good Way, and documentary City Of Joel, among others.

Kampe and his team will continue talks on Behold My Heart starring Marisa Tomei, and Sundance and Berlinale selection Madeline’s Madeline.

1985 (pictured) stars Cory Michael Smith, Virginia Madsen (Sideways), Michael Chiklis, and Jamie Chung and follows a closeted young man returning to his Texas hometown for Christmas during the first wave of the AIDS crisis.

Burdened...

The nominations for the 26th Gémeaux Awards, Quebec's equivalent of the Emmy Awards, have been revealed today.

1. Best dramatic TV series:

* 19-2.

* Les rescapés.

* Malenfant.

* Prozac, La Maladie Du Bonheur.

2. Best soap opera:

* Destinées.

* La promesse.

* Providence.

* Yamaska.

3. Best comedy series:

* La galère.

* Les Parent.

* Mauvais Karma.

* Penthouse 5-0.

* Tout sur moi.

4. Best actor in a dramatic TV series:

* Claude Legault in 19-2.

* Réal Bossé in 19-2.

* Roy Dupuis in Les rescapés.

* Luc Picard in Malenfant.

* Éric Bruneau in Toute la vérité.

5. Best actress in a dramatic TV series:

* Maude Guérin in Belle-Baie.

* Guylaine Tremblay in Les rescapés.

* Julie McClemens in Malenfant.

* Isabelle Blais in Prozac, la maladie du bonheur.

* Maude Guérin in Toute la vérité.

6. Best actor in a soap opera:

* Sébastien Delorme in La promesse.

* Bernard Fortin in Providence.

* Hugo Dubé in Providence.

* Normand d'Amour in Yamasca.

* Denis Bernard in Yamaska.

7. Best actress in a soap opera:

* Marie-Chantal Perron in Destinées.

Toronto -- Christal Films, the production shingle of veteran Quebec movie producer Christian Larouche, on Monday inked a deal that will see E1 Entertainment distribute its movies in Canada and internationally.

The first film from the multiyear agreement will be Frederik D'Amour's "A vos marques ... Party 2," which is set for a June theatrical release.

Also in the Christal pipeline is Sophie Lorain's "Les Grandes chaleurs," Sylvain Guy's "Leo Huff, and another Frederik D'Amour picture, "Noemie," slated for a December release.

The supply deal with E1 Entertainment comes after Larouche encountered difficulty with longtime distribution arm Christal Films Distribution after it severed ties with domestic partners Lionsgate and Maple Pictures.

Variety reports that the Samuel Goldwyn Company has acquired the domestic rights to Canadian comedy Mambo Italiano, starring Paul Sorvino, Ginette Reno, Mary Walsh, Luke Kirby, Peter Miller, Claudia Ferri and Sophie Lorain. Emile Gaudreault directs the comedy, based on a successful play by Steve Galluccio about a dysfunctional Italian immigrant family in Montreal who discover that their son is gay. Mambo will be released in Quebec on June 6, with a later rollout for the rest of Canada.

TORONTO -- Canadian distributor Equinox Films said it has sold the feature comedy Mambo Italiano to Icon Pictures for the United Kingdom and Australia, Lola Films for Spain and Italy, Splendid Films for Germany and Shani Films for Israel. Directed by Emile Gaudreault, Mambo Italiano is a coming-out comedy centering on a first-generation Canadian who tells his loving, dysfunctional Italian immigrant family that he's in love -- with a guy named Nino. It stars Paul Sorvino, Mary Walsh and Luke Kirby. Rounding out the cast are Peter Miller, Claudia Ferri and Sophie Lorain. Yves Dion, vp of distribution for Montreal-based Equinox Films, negotiated the deals after last month's American Film Market. The movie, which was shot last summer in Montreal, will screen in the Cannes market. Mambo was produced by Denise Robert and Daniel Louis of Montreal-based Cinemaginaire, and is based on the stage play by Steve Galluccio. Equinox distributed the boxoffice hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, also a family-themed ethnic comedy, in Canada, where it brought in CAN$29 million. The company said no deal for US. distribution of Mambo Italiano has been set as yet.