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Exclusive: Altitude and Picturehouse strike deal for Second World War drama starring Emma Thompson and Brendan Gleeson.

Picturehouse Entertainment and Altitude Film Distribution have struck a deal for UK rights to Vincent Perez’s Alone In Berlin, ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.

The deal was negotiated between Altitude Film Entertainment’s Will Clarke, Picturehouse’s Clare Binns, producers Paul Trijbits and Christian Grass and Alison Thompson from sales outfit Cornerstone Films, which handles international rights.

Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks), Brendan Gleeson (The Guard) and Daniel Brühl (Rush) star in the Second World War drama-thriller based on the true story of a working class couple who conducted a series of anonymous protests against the Nazi regime in Berlin.

Actor-director Perez’s feature is adapted from the classic novel Every Man Dies Alone by German writer Hans Fallada.

Producers are X Filme powerhouse duo Stefan Arndt (Amour) and Uwe Schott ([link...

Exclusive: First still from Berlin Competition drama based on the classic wartime novel.

ScreenDaily can reveal the first production still of anticipated Berlin Competition entry Alone In Berlin, actor-director Vincent Perez’s adaptation of the classic German novel of the same name.

Based on the true story of a working class couple who conducted a series of anonymous protests against the Nazi regime during the Second World War, Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks) and Brendan Gleeson (Calvary) star alongisde Daniel Brühl (Rush).

Producers are Stefan Arndt and Uwe Schott for X-Filme, the German production outfit whose credits include Amour, The White Ribbon and Cloud Atlas, Master Movie’s Marco Pacchioni (Bye Bye Blondie) together with James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain) and FilmWave’s Christian Grass (Sing Street) and Paul Trijbits (Jane Eyre).

Cornerstone Films handles international sales.

Hans Fallada’s classic 1947 novel centres on Otto and Anna Quangel (Gleeson and Thompson), who live in a shabby apartment block during...

Exclusive: First still from Berlin Competition drama based on the classic wartime novel.

ScreenDaily can reveal the first production still of anticipated Berlin Competition entry Alone In Berlin, actor-director Vincent Perez’s adaptation of the classic German novel of the same name.

Based on the true story of a working class couple who conducted a series of anonymous protests against the Nazi regime during the Second World War, Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks) and Brendan Gleeson (Calvary) star alongisde Daniel Brühl (Rush).

Producers are Stefan Arndt and Uwe Schott for X-Filme, the German production outfit whose credits include Amour, The White Ribbon and Cloud Atlas, Master Movie’s Marco Pacchioni (Bye Bye Blondie) together with James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain) and FilmWave’s Christian Grass (Sing Street) and Paul Trijbits (Jane Eyre).

Cornerstone handles international sales.

Hans Fallada’s classic 1947 novel centres on Otto and Anna Quangel (Gleeson and Thompson), who live in a shabby apartment block during...

Academy Award-winner Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks, the Harry Potter series), and actors Daniel Brühl (Rush, Inglourious Basterds), and Mark Rylance (The Other Boelyn Girl) have been confirmed to star in Vincent Pérez’s Alone In Berlin.

Based on a true story, Hans Fallada’s powerful and redemptive novel, written shortly after the Second World War describes a city paralyzed by fear. Otto and Anna Quangel are an ordinary couple living in a shabby apartment block in Berlin trying, like everyone else, to stay out of trouble under Nazi rule. But when their only child is killed fighting at the front, their loss propels them into an extraordinary act of resistance. They start to drop anonymous postcards all over the city attacking Hitler and his regime. If caught, it means certain execution. Soon their campaign comes to the attention of the Gestapo inspector, Escherich, and a murderous game of cat-and-mouse begins.

Academy Award-winner Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks, the Harry Potter series), and renowned actors Daniel Brühl (Rush, Inglourious Basterds), and Mark Rylance (The Other Boelyn Girl) have been confirmed to star in Vincent Pérez.s Alone in Berlin. X-Filme.s Stefan Arndt and Uwe Schott (Cloud Atlas, Amour), Master Movie's Marco Pacchioni (Bluesbreaker, Bye Bye Blondie) are producing together with James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) with a screenplay written by Achim von Borries (Good Bye Lenin!) and Pérez.

The young singer turned actress in Xavier Giannoli’s In the Beginning, Virginie Despentes’ Bye Bye Blondie and specifically last year’s Critics’ Week selected Alice Winocour’s debut film Augustine will be a popular face on the Croisette this year as the section have have made the official poster of the 52nd edition public. The fest added, “by discovering first features, the section in charge of talent scouting also showcases new actors, often performing their first roles on the big screen. Maggie Cheung, Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Gael García Bernal, Alice de Lencquesaing, all these actors whose early and promising years are reflected in Soko’s luminescent and serene beauty, which radiates the pleasure and sensuality of performance.”...

Bye Bye Blondie

Written and directed by Virginie Despentes

France, 2011

Perhaps a paean to the 1960 stage musical and its 1963 film adaptation, Bye Bye Birdie, Virginie Despentes’ Bye Bye Blondie tries to be the social satire its American counterpart was. But with a protagonist suffused with libertine barbarism and a narrative of moral ambivalence, the film, quite ironically, presents the characters as malevolent, not society.

In the northeastern French city of Nancy, Gloria (Béatrice Dalle) lives a decidedly involuntary bohemian lifestyle, spending her time drifting from record shops and bars. Meanwhile, Frances (Emmanuelle Béart), her once childhood summer romance, is a successful television host in Paris.

Her life unfulfilled, Frances plays a beard in a lavender marriage to a writer, Claude (Pascal Greggory), and in order to regain passion in her life, she attempts to reconnect with Gloria. Drastically different from when they last met, the two women must try to...

We complete our look at the key players in the Cannes market with the sales agent that has the most number of highly anticipated film projects. Wild Bunch came to the fest with popular items such as Polisse, The Artist and The Kid With a Bike, and it looks like they might outfit Venice and Tiff with some premium titles with Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmasters being one of the most sought after titles this coming August/September. Here's their lengthy list of auteur film projects. Bye Bye Blondie by Virginie Despentes - Post-Production In Turmoil (Dans La Tourmente) by Christophe Ruggia - Post-Production That Summer (Un Ete Brulant) by Philippe Garrel - Post-Production Bollywood - Completed Declaration Of War by Valerie Donzelli - Completed Hideaways by Agnes Merlet - Completed Leila by Audrey Estrougo - Completed Michel Petrucciani/ Body And Soul by Michael Radford - Completed Polisse by Maïwenn...

We're about 36 hours away from Cannes Film Festival's big unveiling of the 2011 line-up and while the Main Comp should bare very little surprises (see the math below), the one title whose status is still a mystery and could break into the 20 or so titles is Carlos Reygadas' Post Tenebras Lux. Literally translated as "Light After Darkness", Reygadas' semi-autobiographical feature was filmed in cities where the helmer has spent portions of his life: Mexico, England, Spain and Belgium. What this amount to be is the type of film that no pre-festival synopsis will do it justice. If included, I can't wait for that 8:00 in the morning press screening. Earlier this week, Variety threw in Naomi Kawase's name into the mix. Titled Hanezu no Tsuki, her film is set in the Asuka period which was known for its significant artistic, social, and political transformations - we're talking only 500 years A.

Unlike Cannes 2010, this year's expected Main Competition will be so rich and textured that a film such as Virginie Despentes' Bye Bye Blondie might actually be shown elsewhere on the Croisette. Here are a pair of pics which depict different eras in one relationship -- the teenage years will see actress Soko take on a young Béatrice Dalle. I look forward in seeing what kind of soundtrack will accompany the film, especially the punk years. Adapted by the director from her eponymous novel, Gloria (Béatrice Dalle) is 40. With no job, no family, no fixed address, she spends her time boozing in her local bar in Nancy. Frances (Emmanuelle Béart) is 40. A prime time TV presenter living in Paris, she’s married to successful novelist, Claude. Behind closed doors, Frances sleeps with women, and Claude with men. In public, they are the perfect couple. Back in the 80s, Gloria and...

#96. Bye Bye Blondie Director/Writer: Virginie DespentesProducers: Sébastien de Fonseca and Cédric WalterDistributor: Rights Available. The Gist: Adapted by the director from her eponymous novel, Gloria (Dalle) lives in Nancy. Unemployed, without a family, and with no permanent address, she wastes her days at a local watering hole. Frances (Béart) lives in Paris - she is a popular figure in television and is married to a novelist. While in the public eye they form the ideal couple, in their private lives, she prefers women and her husband is into boys. ....(more) Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Béatrice Dalle and Pascal Greggory List Worthy Reasons...: It's been a decade since Rape Me, the road-trip fueled with sex and violence which stirred up controversy on at least one side of the Atlantic (it was pulled after one week in the U.S), but the reason why we're curious about this specimen hasn't got...

If you’re a film lover and don’t feel the desire to go to the Cannes Film Festival then you’re really not much of a film lover at all. And one of the many reasons this is true is because of the great lineup they’ve got there. And the first names announced of who will be there next May are almost unanimously the names of greats.

It was tweeted by Cédric Succivalli, known as a “Cannes insider” (found by GordonandtheWhale) that some of the filmmakers we can expect there are Wong Kar Wai, Pedro Almodovar, Lynne Ramsay, Paolo Sorrentino, Lars von Trier, Virginie Despentes and Terrence Malick. You don’t even have to like all of those people (I don’t) to not be excited by their presence in the South of France in about five months.

Of course Malick is finally showing The Tree of Life...

Filming for Virginie Despentes' Bye Bye Blondie took place over the summer and we finally have some production/set pics gathered from the interwebs (here & here) on a punk, lesbian film we expect to see rocking the Croisette next May. Below, we have Emmanuelle Béart in what would be a pic where her character gets chauffeured around. Below that in the b&w pic, you find you find Dalle with Dp Hélène Louvart (At Ellen's Age) and Despentes. The Les Inrockuptibles article mentions that the release of Baise-moi a decade back hasn't made financing her 2nd film easier, she is filming with a budget of less than 3 million euros and had to cut some key backdrops from the shooting script. Adapted by the director from her eponymous novel, Gloria (Dalle) lives in Nancy. Unemployed, without a family, and with no permanent address, she wastes her days at a local watering hole.