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Both in its original French (“La Prisonnière de Bordeaux”) and in its English translation (“Visiting Hours”), the title for Patricia Mazuy’s latest offers a bit of misdirection. This is not really a prison drama. Its focus is instead on two women who share little in common but the fact that their husbands are both jailed in the same facility. Their happenstance meeting during an afternoon prison visit gives way to an unlikely dynamic that gets ever thornier the more their two disparate worlds collide. But Mazuy’s chilly melodrama eventually does live up to its title(s). At its core, this tight, terse study in both class and race relations is about the walls we create around one another — and the cost of letting others into prisons of our own making.

The first thing to note about “Visiting Hours” is that the facility where Alma (Isabelle Huppert) first encounters...

This year, Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, running from March 6 to March 16, celebrates its 30th year at Film at Lincoln Center, NYC. This celebrated festival offers a dynamic showcase of contemporary French filmmaking, featuring an array of 23 films by both emerging voices — some selected as part of Unifrance’s 10 to Watch 2025 Program*, a yearly initiative honoring a new generation of directors and actors who contribute to the vitality of French creation — and seasoned directors who tackle relevant and enduring themes. This selection of North American, U.S., and New York premieres celebrates the energy, innovation, and range of French cinema. The stellar lineup this year includes Visiting Hours by Patricia Mazuy, about two woman forging an unlikely friendship over their husbands'...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The forthcoming edition of the annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series, taking place this year at Film at Lincoln Center, will be the 30th anniversary of the series. The lineup this year includes two underrated films from last year’s Cannes, Patricia Mazuy’s Visiting Hours and the late Sophie Fillières’ final film, This Life of Mine. Watch the trailer above for the series, which will take place from March 6 to 16.

The post Trailer Watch: Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2025 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The forthcoming edition of the annual Rendez-Vous with French Cinema series, taking place this year at Film at Lincoln Center, will be the 30th anniversary of the series. The lineup this year includes two underrated films from last year’s Cannes, Patricia Mazuy’s Visiting Hours and the late Sophie Fillières’ final film, This Life of Mine. Watch the trailer above for the series, which will take place from March 6 to 16.

The post Trailer Watch: Rendez-Vous with French Cinema 2025 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

by Jean-Marc Therouanne, Asian Movie Pulse Special Envoy

The Premises:

Pingyao Festival was founded by the great director Jia Zhangke in the mythical Chinese city of Pingyao, which is 2,800 years old. The old city, classified as a Unesco world heritage site, has preserved its ancient protective walls.

In its heart is a former disused factory, transformed into the festival palace. The originality of this palace is to have been able to preserve the old brick buildings by adapting them to the need to have places in line with the organization of an international film festival. This originality is reinforced by the attribution to certain buildings of the site, a name related to the history of Chinese cinema.

The 550-seat, large indoor cinema is called “Spring in a small town” after the cult film by Fei Mu, father of Chinese auteur cinema in the 1930s in Shanghai. The large open-air theatre...

Pingyao International Film Festival (Pyiff) has announced the line-up for its eighth edition, including its Crouching Tigers and Hidden Dragons sections, and opening film A River Without Tears.

The festival also announced that it is screening a restored version of Chen Kaige’s award-winning Yellow Earth, to mark the 40th anniversary of the film, one of the first major titles of China’s Fifth Generation movement, which won a Silver Leopard at Locarno as well as best cinematography for Zhang Yimou at Nantes Three Continents Film Festival.

Opening film A River Without Tears, the second feature of female director Liu Juan, is the story of a father who insists on finding out the truth of his daughter’s suicide. Executive produced by Chinese auteur and Pingyao festival founder Jia Zhangke, the film will also screen as one of 12 titles in the festival’s Hidden Dragons section for emerging Chinese filmmakers (see full list below).

Meanwhile,...

A restored edition of Chen Kaige’s “Yellow Earth” is one of the highlights of the selection for the 8th edition of China’s boutique Pingyao International Film Festival. The film, which helped put Chinese art-house cinema on the map overseas and signaled a new era of Chinese directors, now referred to the FIfth Generation, was originally released 40 years ago.

The festival, which runs Sept. 24-30, will open with the world premiere of Liu Juan’s “A River Without Tears.”

The festival’s Hidden Dragons section of Chinese-made films includes: the Asian premiere of Ma Lanhua’s “Hello, Spring”; the Asian premiere of Tang Yongkan’s “Stars and the Moon”; and world premieres of Wang Lina’s “Village Music”; Zhu Xin’s “A Song River”; Yang Suiyi’s “Karst”; Luka Yang Yuanyuan’s “Chinatown Cha-Cha”; Shen Tao’s “Floating Clouds Obscure the Sun”; Siu Koon-ho’s “True Love, For Once...

The Busan International Film Festival will expand its screening program by some 8% in what it calls “an effort to maintain a scale befitting Asia’s top film festival.” This is despite a 50% cut in government financial support.

The festival will open on Oct. 2 with “Uprising,” a star-studded period drama from Netflix that was scripted and produced by Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy”) and directed by Kim Sang-man.

It will close on Oct. 11 with the Eric Khoo-directed “Spirit World,” which the Singaporean director shot in Japan with French icon Catherine Deneuve in the lead role.

“Uprising” involves a servant (played by Gang Dong-won) and his master, the som of a noble family with military connections. While they agree that the servant should be free, complications arise. The film also stars Cha Seung-won, Kim Shin-rock, Jin Sun-kyu and Jung Sung-il. “With Park Chan-wook’s signature humor oozing through the well-woven narrative, full of intense conflict and tension,...

Roll up, roll up for Part 2 of our Cannes Film Festival preview, this time with a focus on international, mainly non-English-language fare. If you didn’t catch Andreas’ English-language-focused Part 1, check it out.

As the fest basks in the warm glow of the Oscar wins for 2023 Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall and Grand Jury Prize winner The Zone of Interest, delegate general Thierry Frémaux and his team are furiously tying up the 2024 Official Selection.

With less than four weeks to go until the bulk of the 77th edition (running May 14-25) is revealed at the press conference in Paris on April 11, we’ve rounded up a host of the titles ready and in the running for a splash in either Official Selection or the main parallel sections of Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week.

The registration deadline was March 15, with March 22 the official cut-off for submissions to arrive...