Fanny Ardant: Last News

EXCLUSIVE: France tv distribution has unveiled a first round of deals for best-selling French writer Gilles Legardinier’s feature directorial debut Mr. Blake At Your Service!, reuniting John Malkovich and Fanny Ardant on the big screen.

French star Fanny Ardant took to the stand at Gerard Depardieu’s ongoing sexual assault trial in Paris on Wednesday, to defend her long-time friend and sporadic co-star.

Ben Croll Orange Studio has boarded true-crime-tinged psychological thriller “An Ordinary Case” and will launch sales at this week’s Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris. Top-lined, co-written and directed by French cinema stalwart Daniel Auteuil, this pulled-from-the-headlines drama also boasts “Borgen” and “Westworld” star Sidse Babett Knudsen alongside acclaimed actor Grégory Gadebois (“An Officer and a Spy”).

Martin Dale Contributor Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes” won best film at the 17th edition of Leffest Lisboa Film Festival, which announced awards Saturday night. Marking Erice’s first feature film since his 1992 docudrama “The Quince Tree Sun” and garnering almost universal positive reviews – Variety called it “an aching ode to film, time and memory” – following its world premiere at Cannes, “Close Your Eyes” has screened at Toronto, Busan, BFI London and New York.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Polish actress and singer Joanna Kulig (“Cold War,” “The Eddy”) and French icon Fanny Ardant are co-starring in “Island,” a psychological thriller by Italian-German writer director Nora Jaenike filmed on the Italian island of Elba. Filming on the mostly English-language atmospheric noir wrapped on Nov. 4 on the island, which is located off the coast of Tuscany.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Bosnian director and screenwriter Danis Tanović, whose “No Man’s Land” won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, has been selected as the president of the Official Competition Jury at the 45th edition of the Cairo Film Festival. As well as the Oscar, “No Man’s Land” won best screenplay at Cannes in 2001.

The cast, producers and collaborators of Roman Polanski’s The Palace showed their support for the filmmaker here in Venice today during a press conference for the movie that world premieres out of competition this evening. 

Actor, producer and director Luca Barbareschi is at the Venice Film Festival this year as one the main representatives of Roman Polanski’s new film The Palace.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline can reveal the international trailer for Roman Polanski’s ensemble dark comedy The Palace ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September.

Venice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has shown once again that he is not scared to court controversy.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent French actor-director Nicolas Bedos has been placed in police custody in Paris following a police complaint filed by a woman for an alleged sexual assault, Variety has confirmed. The alleged incident occurred during the night of June 1 in a Parisian club where Bedos allegedly put his hand on the crotch of the woman who was wearing jeans, according to news agency AFP, which reported that it had access to the police complaint. Bedos’ attorney Julia Minkowski declined to comment. A source close to Bedos told French journalists that if such act had occurred, it had to be “accidental.” Bedos has been in custody since Wednesday afternoon.

Italy’s 01 Distribution has announced a September 28 release for Roman Polanski’s new feature The Palace, fueling speculation that the film will world premiere at the upcoming edition of the Venice Film Festival (August 30-September 9).

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Roman Polanski’s “The Palace” has been set for release in Italian theatres in September, prompting speculation that the controversial director’s black comedy set in a posh hotel in the Swiss Alps resort of Gstaad on the eve of the new millennium could be launching from the Venice Film Festival. Italy’s RAI Cinema, which is a main backer of Polanski’s new film, has slated a September 28 local release date via its 01 Distribuzione unit for “The Palace” which has an ensemble cast including Mickey Rourke, John Cleese and Fanny Ardant. Other key cast members include German actor Oliver Masucci (“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”); Portugal’s Joaquin De Almeida; the U.K.’s Bronwyn James (“The Dig”) and Italy’s Fortunato Cerlino (”Gomorrah”).

EXCLUSIVE: Monty Python star John Cleese and Gomorrah actor Fortunato Cerlino have been confirmed to us as among supporting cast for Roman Polanski’s new movie The Palace, which is in production in Switzerland.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentGerman actor Oliver Masucci and French star Fanny Ardant have joined the cast of Roman Polanski’s new movie “The Palace,” which will surely be a subject of controversy at the Cannes Film Festival where distribution rights are being sold.The ensemble drama, which had already cast Mickey Rourke, will be headlined by Masucci, the German actor who appeared in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” and the Netflix series “Dark,” and Ardant, the esteemed French star of “La Belle Epoque” and “8 Women.” Budgeted at €13 million ($13.9 million), the movie is currently shooting on location in Gstaad, Switzerland, and is being sold by Wild Bunch International, the powerhouse behind several movies competing at Cannes, notably Arnaud Desplechin’s “Brother and Sister,” Claire Denis’s “Stars at Noon” and the opening night film “Final Cut” from Michel Hazanavicius. The key crew includes Oscar-winning music composer Alexandre Desplat, along with Polanski’s regular cinematographer Pawel Edelman, who previously worked with Polanski on “An Officer and a Spy,” “The Pianist,” “Oliver Twist” and “The Ghost Writer,” as well as set designer Monica Sironi (“Volare”).“The Palace” is produced by Luca Barbareschi at Eliseo Entertainment company, and co-produced by CAB Productions in Switzerland and Lucky Bob in Poland.Penned by Polanski and Jerzy Skolimowski, the movie takes place at a palace in Gstaad on New Year’s Eve in 1999.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorArna Media, the Russian distribution company run by Nadezda Motina, has secured the rights to “Brother and Sister,” “The Tank,” “Little Allan – The Human Antenna” and “The Colors of Fire” for its theatrical pipeline. Arnaud Desplechin’s family-drama “Brother and Sister” stars Marion Cotillard, Melvil Poupaud and Golshifteh Farahani. Cotillard and Poupaud play the titular siblings who, following the death of their parents, reunite after decades of silence.