Filmed in Algeria by the US born American documentary film maker James Blue under the cover of making a production about the wine industry, and finished in 1962, the year Algeria became independent, this narrative feature is the only French production shot there during the Algerian War. The Olive Trees of Justice received the first Critics Prize  Cannes award for a US film maker. The Olive Trees of Justice (OTJ) is the only feature James Blue made and is an unusually compelling film as ...

This documentary is the French counterpart to Michael Moore’s 1989 Roger & Me in which Moore attempted to confront Roger Smith, the president of General Motors. Both Ruffin and Moore engage in an empirically based analysis of the consequences of turbo capitalism and the impact of the investment strategies of large corporations that result in local unemployment and the destruction of the social fabric of the communities where their factories are located. Ruffin, a left wing journalist...

The festival was held at the Alliance Francaise in New York and most productions were also shown at the Alliance Francaise in Greenwich which organized the festival and a selection at its counterpart in Stamford. Focus on French Cinema presented 23 current outstanding French language films from France , Canada, and 10 co-productions including partners in Qatar, Lebanon, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Turkey, Morocco, the Czech Republic , and Luxembourg.  A welcome bonus was the inclusion ...

Terri - Director, Azazel Jacobs / Featuring John C. Reilly Quick About: Terri, a low-keyed, pajama clad, kindhearted, over-sized kid (Jacob Wysocki) is coming of age in some woodsy middle America, expected to take care of his Alzheimer stricken Uncle and still get to school on time. Pleasing: The dark humor that always accompanies these types of slice of life, Indy dramas. More interesting than the relationship Terri develops with the school's Vice Principal (Reilly) is the...

  While most of the films that are being showered with awards by the various film critics and guild organizations in the end-of-the-year awards season are a mix of Hollywood and American independent films, a few European films (most notably from France) are seizing some of the awards thunder. When the National Society of Film Critics made their awards announcements earlier this week, a few French films and talents were prominent. Although THE HURT LOCKER was the overwhelming winner ...

  With 2009 coming to a close, which represented a challenge to the specialty distribution market in North America (and everywhere else), French cinema was the sole bright light in what has become a shrinking market for European quality film. While there were some celebrated films from Germany (The Baader Meinhof Complex), Spain (Broken Embraces), Italy (Gomorrah) and the UK (Bright Star, Hunger), their overall box office performances were considered very modest. The BBC co-prod...

   Louis Malle, the legendary French director whose career spanned four decades and whose influence on the language of cinema continues to grow in stature, will be the subject of a mini-retrospective starting New Year’s Day at the Walter Reade Theater in New York, the flagship venue of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.   The week-long celebration will showcase six of the director’s most enduring works, including a special event screening on Wednesday, January ...