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Cineuropa reports that Red Lights/Roberto Succo director Cédric Kahn will be the significant other in Joachim Lafosse’s L’economie d’un couple. Kahn who often moonlights as an actor joins the already announced Berenice Bejo on the project which was announced during Cannes. Wasting no time with the eventual (Locarno or Venice is earmarked) unveiling of Les Chevaliers Blancs, Lafosse commenced production on his seventh feature film this week on a project that is a topical economic reality: splitsville in the middle class.

Gist: Written by Mazarine Pingeot and Fanny Burdino, the dramedy centers onMarie and Thierry, a middle-class couple with kids who separate and argue over who owns what. Their solution is to continue living under the same roof. She bought the apartment they live in with their children but he’s the one who completely renovated it. As Thierry can’t afford to find somewhere else to live,...

Hovering around the twenty-one to twenty-four feature film mark with at least a quarter of those films belonging to first time filmmakers, the Quinzaine des Realisateurs (a.k.a Directors’ Fortnight) has in the past couple of years, counted on a healthy supply of French, Spanish and Belgium produced film items, and has been geared towards the offbeat genre items as with last year’s edition curated by Edouard Waintrop and co. To be unveiled on the 22nd, as we attempted with our Critics’ Week predix, Blake Williams, Nicholas Bell and I (Eric Lavallee) are thinking out loud and hedging our bets on what the section might look like or what the programmers might be looking at for 2014. Here is our predictions overview:

Alleluia

Six years after presenting Vinyan at the Venice Film Festival, Fabrice Du Welz finally returns with potentially not one, but a pair of works for the ’14 campaign.

What do you get when you pack up Joe Dante, Christopher Smith, Christian Alvart, David R. Ellis, Paco Plaza, Eron Sheean, Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein, Timo Vuorensola, Xavier Gens and Joern Heitmann and send them off to Paris? A bunch of very violent mimes, apparently.Those directors anchor the upcoming horror anthology Paris, I'll Kill You - a project compiling horror shorts set in Paris. The artwork above was created for international sales purposes and is based on a brief promo for the film cut from the wrap around story that ties things together. Your mimes? Those are Delphine Cheneac (Splice), Tomas Lemarquis (Noi The Albino, Errors of the Human Body, Snow Piercer), and Stefano Casetti (Roberto Succo)....

On the run for 40 years, Wright's tale has what it takes for screen success. But such storytelling needs a conscientious approach

If the story of George Wright, the convicted murderer captured this week in Portugal after 40 years on the run, has not yet been optioned by an enterprising producer, then the film industry has really missed a trick. From a cinematic storytelling perspective, this tale has everything. Wright, who had participated in a spree of armed robberies, was imprisoned for the murder of the service station owner Walter Patterson in 1962, only to escape from the Bayside state prison farm in Leesburg, New Jersey, in 1970. Already you've got the heist movie and the prison break-out movie covered. That's a big market: expressed in mathematical terms the potential audience would be (fans of Bonnie and Clyde) + (fans of The Shawshank Redemption). And only a fool would rule out defenders of Buster.

But there's more.

#99. Une Vie Meilleure Director: Cédric KahnWriter(s): Catherine Paille and KahnProducers: UnknownDistributor: Rights Available. The Gist: This centers around Yann (Guillaume Canet), a man who will try everything to save her marriage and her family's debt....(more) Cast: Guillaume Canet and Leila Bekhti. List Worthy Reasons...: I wouldn't be surprised if Kahn's last two films draw blanks for U.S cinephiles -- as both L'avion (2005) and Les regrets (2009) failed to be picked up for distribution. The French are specialists in relationship dramas of the draining realistic kind, and in many ways Kahn has a knack for memorable opposite sex matched screen pairings such as Roberto Succo and 2004 film Red Lights - one of my favorite films of the 00's. I'm liking the idea of what the pairing of Guillaume Canet and Leila Bekhti could potentially bring to the big screen. Release Date/Status?: Filming begins this month,...

One more nugget of French film production news from this report, Roberto Succo and Red Lights filmmaker Cedric Kahn is setting up his next project for the month after the holidays. Reported a couple of days ago, Guillaume Canet and Leila Bekhti are toplining Une Vie Meilleure which certainly addresses many of the concerns that couples of currently facing - credit card debt, late home payments et al.  Gist: Co-scripted by Cedric Kahn and Catherine Paille, this centers around Yann (Guillaume Canet), a man who will try everything to save her marriage and her family's debt. Worth Noting: Kahn's last two films haven't been picked up for U.S distribution, this includes his 2009 pic Les Regrets - a romantic drama starring Yvan Attal and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi which was showcased at the Rome, London, and Palm Springs Film Fests. Do We Care?: We wish that Cedric Kahn was somewhat...

Un poison violent (translates into Love Like Poison) is Jean Vigo prize wining screenplay - your typical French family drama big on dialogue, not interested in style. Helmer Katell Quillévéré presented her directorial debut in the Quinzaine last night and I couldn't help think back to last year's Bruno Dumont film Hadewijch - both films take certain aspects of religion and cross it with female adolescence. - Un poison violent (translates into Love Like Poison) is Jean Vigo prize wining screenplay - your typical French family drama big on dialogue, not interested in style. Helmer Katell Quillévéré presented her directorial debut in the Quinzaine last night and I couldn't help think back to last year's Bruno Dumont film Hadewijch - both films take certain aspects of religion and cross it with female adolescence. Apologies for the lack of video clarity in the first portion,...

Un poison violent (translates into Love Like Poison) is Jean Vigo prize wining screenplay - your typical French family drama big on dialogue, not interested in style. Helmer Katell Quillévéré presented her directorial debut in the Quinzaine last night and I couldn't help think back to last year's Bruno Dumont film Hadewijch - both films take certain aspects of religion and cross it with female adolescence. Apologies for the lack of video clarity in the first portion, but if you stick around you'll see some familiar faces among the cast - including Stefano Cassetti of Roberto Succo fame. Clara Augarde the red head teen and film's centerpiece, does a formidable job.

• My introduction to Cédric Kahn began with Roberto Succo (his fourth film which appeared at Cannes), but it is his follow up film Red Lights (a.k.a Feux Rouges) a dark thriller that brings Hitchcockian traits to the mundane existence had me doing cartwheels of cinephile joy. I still recall Jean-Pierre Darroussin's character losing it over this extended telephone scene at a bar located in an off the beaten track village. Pure bliss. I'm somewhat peeved that his latest film, which receives its theatrical debut in France on the 2nd of next month, has not been included as part of the film fests in Toronto or Venice. The Yvan Attal and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi merger in Les Regrets, sees a 40-something introvert Mathieu who enters into a second relationship with his high-school girlfriend, Maya - this after the death of his mother. The lovers who meet up

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As the American Film Market began winding down this week, two domestic indie distribution banners were busy inking pacts to acquire films that had initially unspooled at the Berlin International Film Festival last month. According to sources, New York-based Wellspring has pulled up to the bargaining table and is negotiating to acquire North American rights to Roberto Succo helmer Cedric Kahn's Red Lights. Adapted from the novel by Georges Simenon, Lights is a drama about a woman who leaves her husband and picks up a mysterious hitchhiker. The film was produced by Patrick Godeau and stars Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Carole Bouquet.