Ammonite, Slalom, ADN ... Cannes is invited to the Deauville American Film Festival

It will float at the beginning of September on the boards of the Normandy seaside resort of Deauville a little air of the Croisette. As a gesture of solidarity with the Cannes Film Festival, forced to cancel its 2020 edition due to coronavirus, the American Film Festival will screen from September 4 to 13 ten films among the 56 to appear in the selection of Thierry Frémaux. “ With Pierre Lescure, we are very happy with the hospitality offered to us. We share with the artistic director of Deauville Bruno Barde an identical requirement for cinema, the same passion for artists, a similar tradition of generosity and openness to the world ”, explains the general manager of the Cannes festival.

French films take the lion's share of this list. For a good cause. The teams will have an easier time getting around to present the works to the public. Thierry Frémaux and Pierre Lescure will also be at the rendezvous. Drama, fantasy, comedy, film in costumes ... This section "The hour of the Croisette" offers a wide range of genres.

À Good Man by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, with Noémie Merlant from Portrait of the Girl on Fire and Soko, will look at a transgender man carrying his partner's baby. In DNA which marks the return of Maïwenn behind and in front of the camera, the actress and director explores her heritage and her Algerian roots through the figure of her grandfather. When this patriarch dies, the heroine finds herself confronted with a deep identity crisis while the tensions between the members of her family reappear… Maïwenn shares the bill with Fanny Ardant, Louis Garrel, Marine Vacth and Dylan Robert. Des Hommes by Lucas Belvaux, which brings together Gérard Depardieu and Jean-Pierre Darroussin, follows former French soldiers from the Algerian War. “Bernard, Rabut, February and others have returned to France. They were silent, they lived their lives. But sometimes all it takes is almost nothing, a birthday, a gift that fits in your pocket, so that forty years later, the past bursts into the lives of those who thought they could deny it ”, promises the synopsis.

Rouge by Franco-Algerian director Farid Bentoumi sees a nurse and a journalist crossing paths determined to expose the lies of a chemical factory that conceals a number of bad practices (work accidents, pollutant discharges, medical records of his employees). This quest for truth comes at a price because Nora's father is a union representative for the company. Can she betray him? Zita Hanrot gives the answer to Céline Sallette. Echoing the scandals that rocked French figure skating,Charlène Favier's Slalom examines the hold a ski trainer has over his student. With Noée Abita noticed in the miniseries of Arte Une Île , and Jérémie Renier. The drama will receive in Deauville the Ornano-Valenti prize which rewards a first French film.

On the comedy side, Les Deux Alfred by Bruno Podalydès, who directs as well as his brother Denis and Sandrine Kiberlain, stages Alexandre. This declassified unemployed person has two months to prove to his wife that he can take care of his offspring and be financially independent. But the very friendly start-up that wants to hire him on a trial basis has the dogma: “No child! ". And Séverine, his future superior, is a “killer” with an eruptive character. To obtain this position, Alexandre must therefore lie ... Will the meeting with Arcimboldo, "entrepreneur of himself", help this valiant and confused man to overcome all these challenges?

Korean and English cinema in the spotlight

Deauville will also be rich in thrills with the French werewolf film Teddy by Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma where Anthony Bajon (already twice nominated for the Caesar at 26) plays the tutelary hero who is scratched on a full moon night by a mysterious beast, while his village in the Pyrenees is torn apart by the presence of a pack of wolves in the vicinity. Quickly, Teddy faces inexplicable animal impulses.

To prolong the fear, festival-goers can follow up with the South Korean zombie film Peninsula , the sequel to Yeon Sang-Ho's Last Train to Busan . Selected in the official competition of the Deauville American Film Festival, Last Words by Jonathan Nossiter imagines that in 2085 our planet will be nothing more than an immense desert. The last five survivors meet in Athens. Nick Nolte, Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgard will stick together.

For sensitive souls, don't miss the intense Ammonite , a biographical film devoted to the 19th century paleontologist Mary Anning who falls in love with a woman in fragile health in her care. It is the beginning of a passionate love story that will challenge all social barriers and change their lives forever. With a burning delicacy in Only the Earth which chronicled the attraction between a farmer and his Romanian farm boy, the Briton Francis Lee directs this time Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, who are rumored to be well placed at the 2021 Oscars.