NEWS - JANUARY-APRIL 2008

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On March 7th, several fashion models, including Vincent's wife Karine, attended a religious tribute at the Great Mosque of Paris in memory of  former Guinean model Katoucha Niane. Her body was found in late February in the Seine in Paris, almost three weeks after her disappearance. An autopsy showed no signs of foul play, pointing to the possibility that the 47-year-old may have fallen accidentally into the river. Katoucha was one of the first African women to attain international stardom as a model and ultimately set up her own label in 1994.

The last photo in the set above was taken back in 1996 when Karine modeled for the Katoucha Fashion Show at the Buddha Bar. You'll note that's Carla Bruni with her. I did a news update on December 27th on the Italian songwriter, singer and model, but as most of you know, since then Carla has become the wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy. They married on  February 2, 2008 at the Élysée Palace. Among the guests were a select group of French showbiz personalities, reportedly including Vincent. When questioned about their relationship, Vincent responded, "Carla is an ex, but she is always a friend." And apparently when and if she produces a third album, she will once again call on his help in creating her music videos.

The latest photos of Vincent were taken last Sunday at the Longchamps Racetrack, which a host of French celebrities attended. During the special event, activities were offered to children, such as donkey rides and outdoor games. Many brought both their wives and children, but Vincent and Karine left the children at home that day, probably to the disappointment of the papparazzi.

Vincent has just completed a new TV project called Val Montana - Die Jahrhundertlawine (The Avalanche of the Century). Filming took place from the end of January through March in Germany, Austria and Paris with the majority of the footage shot in the Tyrolean mountain village of Vent in Austria. The 90-minute disaster film is an international co-production involving Bavaria Film, the French Alma Productions,  Vienna Satel Film and Bavaria Media Television for RTL, ORF, TVN (Poland) and the French market leader TF1. The film, based on a screenplay by Walter Kärger, is directed by  Jörg Lühdorff. In the story Marc Pelletier (Perez) and his girlfriend Anne (Nosbusch) prepare for the mountain rescue service in Varens. When a snowboarder is in imminent danger, they are called for deployment. Anne is shocked when she finds out that it's her brother Michael. Sadly the rescue fails and he dies. Marc returns to France. Eight years later, Michael's corpse is recovered from the glacier. Marc learns the news and returns to Varens. When he attends the funeral, he meets up with Anne again and runs up against her hostility, which includes his hasty departure after the accident. It is at this time that the mountain chooses to spit an avalanche which will paralyze the village and threaten to devastate everything in its passage. The cast includes Vincent Perez as Marc Pelletier, Desiree Nosbusch as Anne, Joel Eisenblatter as Nik, Aladin Reibel as Anton, Coraly Zahonero as Helena, Jacques Spiesser as Father Joseph, and Sebastian Edtbauer as Michael. Click here for a set of production photos.

The six episodes from the second season of Paris Enquêtes Criminelles, the successful TF1 series, began airing on French television on March 20th. You can view previews at these links: 2nd episode - "Suite funéraire" and 5th episode - "Un cri dans la nuit". Ratings appear to be higher this season with a change in casting. Revel played by Vincent, has a new partner. Actress Audrey Looten has taken on the role of Melanie Rousseau, replacing Sandrine Rigaux. When asked about working with Perez, Rousseau responded, "He was extremely generous. He really helped me and didn't treat me as a beginner." Other changes were made as well. Vincent explains, "Many televiewers found Revel too cold. In this second season, the screenwriters have given him more humanity. More of his personal life is shown. He is more cordial and finds characters related to his past. The difficulty comes from the quantity of text to memorize. Revel is a very talkative character. For me, it is a true marathon, a challenge. My favorite scenes are those where Revel reveals the culprit's contradictions, which ultimately forces them to tell the truth." Filming for the third season will begin in May.

Here are some photos from two events that Vincent and his wife Karine attended this month. The first two are from the premiere of "Asterix At The Olympic Games" at the Gaumont Marignan Champs Elysees in Paris on January 13th. The second set were taken at the Sidaction Dinner during Paris Fashion Week. It was held at the Armenonville Pavillon on January 24th.
 

I recently received an email from Natalia Tkachenko, who lives in the Ukraine. She kindly gave me a link to a October 2007 video interview with Vincent that was done while he was in Russia promoting his film Apocalypse Code. Though the interview was done in English, there's a Russian voice-over that makes it difficult to hear everything he says. He discusses several of his projects and comments on working with co-star Anastasia Zavorotnuyk, directing Si j'étais toi, writing La Fôret and how he hopes to develop it into a film. He again indicates that he will make another Russian film, this time on the life of Sergei Rachmaninoff, one of the last great champions of the Romantic style of European classical music. Vincent will play the famous pianist/composer/conductor. At one point in the interview while discussing the parenting issues in Si j'etais toi, you can hear him say, "It's a wonderful thing to have kids and see them grow up." Our thanks to Natalia for the video link!

What will Vincent be doing in 2008? According to an interview with Monsieur Cinema, he would love to see his comic book, La Fôret made into a film. He admits that a producer is interested in it, and that it's not Luc Besson! He says the next film he will direct will not be done with Europa Corp because he needs a change and is looking toward other things. He's currently working on the adaptation of Hans Fallada's book, "Seul dans Berlin" with Spanish writer Jorge Semprún, famous for his screenplays for Greek-French filmmaker Costa-Gavras. I believe Vincent will direct the film but I'm unsure if he will star in it.  Hans Fallada is a German novelist of the same generation as Erich Maria Remarque.  The original title was "Everyone Dies Alone" and was published just before Fallada's death in February 1947. Some have described the novel as "one of the most beautiful books on German anti-Nazi resistance." Unlike the militant resistance in Anna Seghers's novel "The Seventh Cross", Fallada's book tells the story of a couple who are merely inhabitants of Berlin, unconnected to any political party, who become part of the resistance against the Nazi regime.

In September 2006 I indicated that Vincent was in Los Angeles scouting around for a producer for his next project and I've just recently found out that this book was the project at hand. Journalist Kareen Slajer of Savoir magazine was about to interview him and had emailed me about photos and the fact that Vincent had succeeded in finding a producer for his next project. I had expected to receive a copy of that upcoming issue but it never arrived. Finally, I have come across that interview and have now posted it here. I haven't been able to verify what month it was actually published. In this interview he says, "It's the reason why I'm here today in Los Angeles. I've finally obtained the rights of Seul dans Berlin, a novel by Hans Fallada. It took me a year and a half. It's a classic German novel about 1940s Berlin and an insider's look at Germany at the time. I want to shoot the movie in English, so I came here to find an English-speaking producer. I found one - I'm not going back to Paris empty-handed. A few other producers are still reading the script." He also admits that he would love to cast Meryl Streep in this film as one of his biggest dreams is to direct her.

This is the updated film schedule for "Arn - The Knight Templar" according to SF's (Svensk Filmindustri) Head of Production, Johan Mardell: "We will release the second feature film in Scandinavia in August 2008. Parallel to that, we'll have an international version of Arn. What we're doing now is editing the feature number two as well as the international version which is a compilation of Arn number one and two. We didn't want to go for the two feature films version internationally because the story is not that well known outside Scandinavia. The international version will be two and a half hours long. It should be available August/September 2008." According to the UK's Herald today, most of the film was actually shot in Scotland because there are so few surviving medieval buildings in Sweden. That's where Vincent's scenes were done. The filmmakers made use of the Lothians' medieval locations: Craigmillar Castle, Seton Collegiate, Torphichen Perceptory, in addition to exterior locations near Penicuik and on the Hopetoun estate. You'll note the Scottish countryside in the photo above. Vincent plays Brother Guilbert who belongs to the order of Cistercians (also called White Monks). He is a former Knights Templar who is doing penance as a monk for a past sin and is called upon to train Arn in archery, swordsmanship and horsemanship. We all know that Vincent has had some famous roles as a swordsman - think Fanfan la tulipe, Le Bossu and Queen Margot!