Isabelle Adjani: Best Actress César Winner

L’ENFER D’HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT: Other César Winners
Veteran Isabelle Adjani, 54, received the Best Actress César from the hands of Gérard Depardieu, who announced, "Ah, [the winner] is a friend!"
In Jean-Paul Lilienfeld’s Skirt Day, Adjani plays a teacher on the verge of a nervous breakdown, having to deal with obnoxious, misogynistic students in a rough, immigrant-filled Parisian neighborhood. The teacher ends up taking matters in her own hands when her students ridicule and harass her on the day she shows up wearing a skirt in class. Her solution? Point a gun at them and hold them hostage.
Now with five César wins in the Best Actress category, Adjani has broken her own record. Her previous wins were [...]

Gérard Depardieu Too White to Play Alexandre Dumas?

Gérard Depardieu, one of the greatest icons of French cinema, has dismissed claims that he has been miscast as mixed-race author Alexandre Dumas in Safy Nebbou’s big-budget production L’Autre Dumas / The Other Dumas. In Depardieu’s words at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday, those arguments are "ridiculous" and "unnecessary," while the issue itself is "not interesting" and "not a problem." A number of reviewers had complained that Depardieu was "too white" for the role.
Additionally, France’s Representative Council for Black Associations has questioned the propriety of having the blond, blue-eyed Depardieu cast as the Three Musketeers author, the grandson of a Haitian slave who, according to the Council, was mocked because of his looks and [...]

AFI FEST 2009: PRECIOUS, THE WHITE RIBBON, AJAMI

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire by Lee Daniels (top); The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke (middle); Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi in Vincere by Marco Bellocchio (bottom)

Among the Sunday, Nov. 1, highlights at the AFI FEST 2009 at the Chinese Theater complex in Hollywood are:

Lu Chuan’s historical drama City of Life and Death, winner of the Golden Shell for best picture at the San Sebastian Film Festival
Claude Chabrol’s psychological mystery-drama Bellamy, his first collaboration with Gérard Depardieu
Lee Daniels‘ Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, a strong possibility for the Oscar 2010 best picture shortlist and the Sundance 2009 US Narrative Jury Prize winner
Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner and potential Oscar 2010 contender [...]