Here's CAHIERS DU CINEMA'S 2007 top 10 list:
1. Paranoid Park de Gus Van Sant
2. Boulevard de la mort de Quentin Tarantino
INLAND EMPIRE de David Lynch
Still Life de Jia Zhang-ke

5. La France de Serge Bozon
Zodiac de David Fincher

7. Les Amours d’Astrée et de Céladon d’Éric Rohmer
Honor de la cavalleria d’Albert Serra
Avant que j’oublie de Jacques Nolot

10. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone de Tsai Ming-Liang
Ne touchez pas la hache de Jacques Rivette
Syndromes and a Century d’Apitchapong Weerasethakul


Not too surprising, apart from the Nolot. Hopefully, someone will show LA FRANCE, which also did well in the indieWIRE undistributed films poll, in New York soon. CAHIERS seems to agree with the general consensus that 2007 was a good year for American film, placing 4 of them in their top 5 (although INLAND EMPIRE was 2006 here and PARANOID PARK has yet to open.)

It's nice to see La France getting these end-of-year plaudits. It was one of the best things I saw this year in Cannes and I was very pleased to secure it for competition at the Chicago International Film Festival in October. Unfortunately, it was not so well-received by the jury, but this seems to be a very polarizing film. I will be very interested to see if it gets any kind of U.S. distribution at all. And, if anyone knows where a soundtrack can be obtained, please do tell.

The Nolot film, also out of the Director's Fortnight, is a fine film, though I too was surprised to find it on the Cahiers list. Though it was not amongst my absolute favorites at Cannes, we did screen it at CIFF and I must say it has resonated more with me than some of my other "favorites," in the months since. I have yet to see Nolot's other directorial efforts. Are these available in the States?

If you're in Toronto, you'll be able to see LA FRANCE in February, as it will be playing 2 days at the Cinematheque Ontario. It's on the cover of the new issue of CINEMA SCOPE magazine.

I haven't heard anything about U.S. distribution. I've heard that it might pop up at MOMA's "New Directors/New Films" series this spring, so maybe that'll attract distributors' attention.

Nolot's PORN THEATER got a brief American release. I'd assume it's out on R1 DVD by this point. Strand Releasing has acquired his new film and plans to release it later this year.