NEWS: FEBRUARY 2016 |

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24 February
2016 |
Christine Letailleur's
production of LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES
starring Vincent and Dominique Blanc is being staged in Modena,
Italy today and tomorrow. Performances will be held at the Emilia
Romagna Theatre. The traveling play has received much praise as it's
made its way around France and Belgium since opening on November 3,
2015. After it leaves Italy, it will be staged at the Theatre de la
Ville in Paris beginning March 2.
Laura Zangarini of Italy's
Corriere spoke with Vincent about his role. "Valmont is a
manipulator," he explains, "and humiliation was the favorite board
game of the aristocrats before the revolution." He says what the
audience will discover in Modena is a "rhythmic show, funny, comical
and terrible at the same time with sharp words like blades and a
wonderful actress, Dominique Blanc in the role of Madame de
Marteuil." It was the idea of playing alongside the French actress
that convinced him to return to the theater. "We are very good
friends and I always dreamed of working with her. I missed the stage
and I'm happy to return to it." He explains how the eighteenth
century is a perfect century to question the meaning of debauchery,
hedonism and pleasure. He adds, "The value of those love letters is
the same for us today with tweets, emails and text messages... The
relationship between Valmont and the Marquise de Marteuil is a
bullfight similar to the struggle between the matador and the bull."
The play's director, Christine
Letailleur, explained how her theater generation has been marked by
Patrice Chéreau and saddened by his death
and this stage production is a strong tribute to the man. Both
actors were outstanding in two of his films - "Queen Margot" and
"Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train".

When
questioned about his film, "Alone in Berlin", which premiered at
Berlinale last week, Vincent shared how he was inspired by Ettore
Scola's 1977 film, "A Special Day", starring Sophia Loren and
Marcello Mastroianni. Scola, who directed Vincent in "The Voyage of
Captain Fracassa" [1990] and passed away last month, was a great
influence when Vincent was both writing the screenplay and during
filming. He confesses he has a love for Italian cinema admiring
several directors - Rossellini, Visconti, De Sica, Pasolini,
Antonioni and Scola. On a personal note, I have long admired
Visconti's 1971 film, "Death in Venice". Highly recommended and a
soundtrack to die for - the music of Gustav Mahler.

Daughter Iman is in the news
again. With a model pal named Sonia Ben Ammar, it's a shoo-in that
you'll be featured in the gossip columns because Sonia's love
interest at the moment is Brooklyn Beckham. Here's some photos from
Hello magazine of the gang at Disneyland in California. I believe
Iman is doing some photo shoots in LA. I remember how the beautiful
Brooke Shields abandoned her modeling career at 18 to attend
Princeton University, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree
in French literature. Kudos! By the way, in the past week I have
added several new photos to the Bal des
debutantes Gallery.
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16 February
2016 |
Always willing to give his
time to international social and charitable causes, Vincent
participated in a fundraiser sponsored by the Womanity Foundation
on February 4. Over a thousand people attended the sixth gala
evening at Palexpo in Geneva. The celebration also marked the 10th
anniversary of the Foundation, which is dedicated to empowering
girls and women worldwide.

Here's a Berlinale portrait gallery from The
Hollywood Reporter:

Just hours ahead of the
film’s world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival
yesterday, the director and cast sat down with
The Hollywood Reporter to discuss the long journey from book to
film and the importance of fighting tyranny, whatever the cost.
Actor Brendan Gleeson shared his thoughts with, "I remember
being in Berlin when the wall was here. We hitched through East
Berlin and stopped in a cafe and had the feeling, a very real
feeling, that you better keep your head down."
That's exactly what I said in my comments two days ago!
The controversy continues
today by the critics as to whether the film should have been filmed
in German rather than English. Popular opinion is that the subject
matter would have been better served without the distraction of
actors struggling with accents lending the film more authenticity.
To those who wince at reading subtitles, let me tell you that you're
missing out on some of the world's best cinema.
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15 February
2016 |

During the Berlinale
press conference today, German actor Daniel Brühl
shared his thoughts on the importance and relevance of a film like
"Alone in Berlin" in today's world. He said, "In Europe, especially
in Germany, there is a return to the right-wing political
movements, so we have to be alert. Making a film like this today is
much more important than you think because it is necessary to raise
public awareness about the dangerous past.
History is made of influences, but
sometimes we tend to forget it."
Irish actor Brendan Gleeson
added his comments about playing Otto, "It's important to
understand the historical moment in which the story is set...
I do not know if I could find the courage or if I would have his
generosity."
Apparently the cast enjoyed
Vincent's working method. Effervescent
British actress Emma Thompson declared,
"It is always important to have a director who is also an actor. I'm
very close to James Ivory, who has never
been an actor. But I must say that Vincent did a great job, able to
handle the emotions generated by telling a story so tragic. Vincent
was a perfect barometer of our emotions on the set and we could
communicate without words."
Vincent shared with the press
how he made choices on the look of the film. "We used a very
simple and natural light. The danger was making an overly stylized
film so we had to find a balance between aesthetics and realism. I
was inspired by Italian neo-realism,
particularly in "Una giornata particolare".
I showed the crew some German cinema and some Russian films."
Critics agree that powerful
performances from the actors can lead to audiences being haunted by
the question that made the book such a success in the first place -
"What would I do during these circumstances?"

[See
gallery for more photos] |
14 February
2016 |
It is the night before
the premiere of ALONE IN BERLIN and though
I wasn't "alone," I recall two of my visits to both East and West
Berlin in 1975 and 1977. The first time we traveled with our
children because it was an educational opportunity for young minds.
The second time it was just my husband and I and we
lunched on the other side of the wall. It definitely was an
Orwellian experience. Of course, the wall came
tumbling down but the memories stay with me of barbed-wired fences
and guard towers and the East German police with their pistols
demanding our passports twice as our car veered from the main
highway out of Berlin. Chilling... |
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12 February
2016 |
Good news! Altitude
Film Distribution and Picturehouse Entertainment have teamed up once
more to take U.K. distribution rights to ALONE
IN BERLIN ahead of its Berlin premiere on Monday
following several market screenings. Altitude Film Entertainment
founder Clarke said: "We are delighted to be continuing our
partnership with Picturehouse Entertainment by bringing
'Alone In Berlin'
to UK screens. It’s a fascinating story
which has been brilliantly and carefully realised by Vincent Perez
with powerhouse performances from Emma Thompson, Brendan Gleeson and
Daniel Brühl." Binns, director of
programming and acquisition at Picturehouse, added,
"I loved the book and I am thrilled that the screen
adaptation has been so movingly and cinematically assembled. We
can’t wait to bring this extraordinary story to audiences on the big
screen."

I have no idea when the photo below was taken
especially since Vincent is sporting a mustache. It comes from
twitter, posted four days ago, and shows him with "Dalida"
director Lisa Azuelos and cast members Jean Paul Rouve (far right)
and Patrick Timsit (center).
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08 February
2016 |
The Guardian
published an article yesterday called, "'My family resisted the
Nazis' - Why director had to film 'Alone in Berlin'". Here
is an excerpt:
The
film is directed and co-written by Vincent Perez,
the son of a Spanish father and German mother, whose own German
family resisted the Nazis and lost an uncle to the gas chambers.
His Spanish grandfather was shot for resisting fascism.
"I read the book and I got addicted to
it," said Perez.
"It was obviously a very cinematic
story." In making the film, he felt
"the energy, the strength, the fight,
the struggle" of his own family
members and other wartime heroes who "nobody
talks about … People did tiny things and lost their lives, and
we never talk about it. We’re telling the story of those people."
One of the film’s challenges was to convey the
"fear in the air"
for ordinary people living under Nazism.
Perez said: "How
it was just to buy some bread, to live in the street or to know
that anyone could sell the other one to the Nazis. The book
shows it really well."
The film will battle for the
prestigious Golden Bear next week at the Berlin Int'l Film Festival.
These movie stills have just been released:
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03 February
2016 |
Yesterday
it was announced that Vincent has been cast in the biopic, DALIDA,
directed by Lisa Azuelos. The film will trace the career of the
famous singer from her birth in Cairo in 1933 to her tragic death in
1987. The Egyptian-born Italian-French singer and actress who
performed and recorded in more than 10 languages will be played by
Italian actress Sveva Alviti, unknown in France. The cast includes
Riccardo Scamarcio as Orlando, Jean-Paul Rouve as Lucien Morisse,
Patrick Timsit as Bruno Merrick, Nicolas Duvauchelle as Richard
Chanfray, Niels Schneider as Jean Sobieski, Michael Cohen as Arnaud
Desjardins, Brenno Placido as Lucio, Alessandro Borghi as Luigi
Tenco and Vincent as Eddie Barclay. Shooting will begin shortly and
will continue through April 22, 2016 in France, Italy and Morocco.
The premiere date has been set for January 11, 2017.

Here's another
father-and-daughter photo from a November issue of Switzerland's L'illustré
magazine. This is my favorite one of the bunch.
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