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"An eye for an eye." Netflix has debuted the first official trailer for a French crime thriller titled Earth and Blood, also known as La terre et le sang from its original French title. This is the latest film from director Julien Leclercq, it takes place in the heart of the mountains where a man and his daughter, Said and Sarah, run a sawmill family business hiring mostly ex-cons and young offenders, one of whom hid some drugs in the factory. Things get rough when the gang shows up for their missing drugs. Starring Sami Bouajila and Samy Seghir, with Carole Weyers, Eriq Ebouaney, Sofia Lesaffre, and Eric Kabongo. This is an intense trailer! That music definitely kicks things into high gear when it really gets going. A bit overkill? The story itself seems mostly generic but otherwise this looks good. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Julien Leclercq's Earth and Blood,...

As it prepares to open a fully-staffed office in France and ramp up its investment in local originals, Netflix has unveiled three new documentaries, “Move” (working title), “Gims” (working title), and “Anelka” (working title), and the feature film “Of Earth And Blood” while at Series Mania in Lille.

Announced during a panel with Netflix’s commissioning team, the titles will be launching on Netflix from 2020 and will be available in over 190 countries for the streamers’s 139 million members worldwide.

A documentary series, “Move” portrays six contemporary dance choreographers from totally different backgrounds, ranging from the Spanish flamenco to the vertiginous gaga dance, and from Jamaïcan dancehall to American urban and contemporary dance. “‘Move’ will explore the choreographers’ personal histories, chaotic career paths, convictions and their translation into bodies, gestures, grace, sweat, boldness and determination,” said Netflix in a statement. “Move” is produced by Falabracks and Gaumont.

“Gims” is a documentary...

Stars: Tomer Sisley, Serge Riaboukine, Julien Boisselier, Joey Starr, Laurent Stocker, Birol Ünel, Lizzie Brocheré, Samy Seghir, Dominique Bettenfeld, Adel Bencherif, Catalina Denis, Pom Klementieff, Vincent Bersoulle, Olivier Massart | Written by Frédéric Jardin, Nicolas Saada, Olivier Douyère | Directed by Frédéric Jardin

A cop’s secret life is threatened to be exposed when he and his partner are seen stealing drugs from a powerful drug dealer. When his son is kidnapped and the drug dealer demands the return of what was stolen, the cop must figure out how to get the drugs into the right hands, protect his son and keep his secret from the other police officers who are on his tail. It looks as if it is going to be a long, sleepless night.

Sleepless Night shows us that French people can be badass too. Others have compared this film to Die Hard, which is understandable as there are many similarities.

Containment thrillers can often be limited by the landscape of their locale, but in the French film “Sleepless Night,” the nightclub where corrupt cop Vincent (Tomer Sisley) races to rescue his son is expansive enough to make it seem like a mini-mall. Writer-director Frederic Jardin somehow manages to squeeze every last drop of claustrophobia from the massive, multilevel building, even after he’s filled it wall-to-wall with clubgoers, diners, socialites, and especially the odd assortment of cops and crooks who all have a stake in Vincent’s future. Although it’s quite deservedly scheduled for an American remake via the folks at Warner Brothers, “Sleepless Night” is the kind of entertainment that requires little translation to succeed, as its characters and story are so cleanly and cleverly designed that they would work in virtually any language.

The majority of the action in “Sleepless Night” is fallout from the botched drug...

Director: Frédéric Jardin Writer: Nicolas Saada Starring: Tomer Sisley, Joey Starr, Julien Boisselier, Serge Riaboukine, Laurent Stocker, Samy Seghir, Dominique Bettenfeld, Adel Bencherif, Birol Ünel, Lizzie Brocheré In the time span of a brutally intense 24 hours -- including a sleepless night for everyone involved in the film -- director Frédéric Jardin's Sleepless Night begins with a drug heist gone horribly awry and snowballs into a relentless powerhouse of non-stop action from that point onward. In a tale in which there are very few good guys and countless shades of baddies, it is difficult to surmise where the protagonist, Vincent (Tomer Sisley), falls. As fate would have it, Vincent possesses a bag of cocaine that was stolen from two cronies employed by a local drug lord named Marciano (Serge Riaboukine). Marciano therefore kidnaps Vincent's son and offers Vincent a trade -- the boy for the cocaine. Left with no other choice,...

Ok, I know that I'm almost one month late. After all, the list of the candidates for the Best Male and Female Hopes has been public knowledge since November 25. Anyway, I just want to post the information since I'm a lover of French culture. Enjoy.

The 2010 César for the Best Female Hope:

Marie-Julie Baup in Micmacs à tire-larigot

Astrid Berges Frisbey in Un barrage contre le Pacifique

Agathe Bonitzer in Un chat un chat

Sophie Cattani in Je suis heureux que ma mère soit vivante

Judith Davis in Je te mangerais

Anaïs Demoustier in Sois sage

Mati Diop in 35 rhums

Pauline Etienne in Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront

Alice de Lencquesaing in Le père de mes enfants

Florence Loiret-Caille in Je l’aimais

Sara Martins in Mensch

Lola Naymark in L’armée du crime

Vimala Pons in La Sainte Victoire

Soko in A l’Origine

Christa Theret...

Similar to the Golden Globes because it is a foreign group of film journalists who conduct the voting (though I'm sure they have no mandate to prefer films loaded in stars), this year's the 15th Lumiere Awards has a pair of films in the top tier that recently that duked it out for the Louis Delluc award. Philippe Lioret's Welcome (which just got picked up by Film Movement this week) and Jacques Audiard's A Prophet (a Spc release next February) received five and four noms respectively. - Similar to the Golden Globes because it is a foreign group of film journalists who conduct the voting (though I'm sure they have no mandate to prefer films loaded in stars), this year's the 15th Lumière Awards has a pair of films in the top tier that recently that duked it out for the Louis Delluc award. Philippe Lioret...