From the return of Francis Ford Coppola after a fifteen-year absence to Audrey Diwan’s adaptation of the French erotic classic “Emmanuelle” and the 2024 Palme d’Or: a look at the fall releases at the cinema.
Published
Reading time: 7 min
Between the Venice Film Festival, the Deauville American Film Festival and the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, the end of summer and the month of September are always great moments for French and international cinema. And the movie theaters are not left out. Many films screened at Cannes are released in theaters the day after the summer holidays. The months of September and October will see the Palme d’Or and the Grand Prix of the Festival, but also highly anticipated blockbusters. The editorial staff of franceinfo Culture has selected twelve films not to be missed at the start of the school year.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” by Tim Burton, September 11
With the fantastic comedy Beetlejuice (1988), Tim Burton introduced the public to the character of Beetlejuice, an evil spirit played by Michael Keaton is called by a couple of ghosts to scare away the new inhabitants of their house. Almost forty years later, the American director offers with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a sequel to this cult film. Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder, Tim Burton’s favorite actress, are joined by Jenna Ortega, Willlem Dafoe and Monica Bellucci, the director’s partner. The success of the first part makes Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a highly anticipated sequel. The film will be screened at the opening of the Venice Film Festival on August 28.
“My life, my face” by Sophie Fillières, September 18
A bittersweet comedy about a woman trying to find her place and regain her taste for life, My life my face is Sophie Fillières’ seventh feature film. This final film by the director, starring Agnès Jaoui, Valérie Donzelli and Philippe Katerine, is all the more moving because Sophie Fillières died at the end of filming, leaving her children Agathe and Adam Bonitzer to finish her work. My life my face was presented last May at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival’s Fortnight.
“Seeds of the Wild Fig Tree”, September 18
Sentenced to eight years in prison in early May in Iran, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof fled his country to present his latest film at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. Seeds of the wild fig treefor which its director won a special prize from the festival jury, is a family and political thriller that is a subtle critique of the Iranian regime. While Tehran is experiencing a period of political and social crisis punctuated by demonstrations, Iman is appointed investigator at the Tehran Revolutionary Court, then investigating judge. Disillusioned, having to hand out multiple uninvestigated death sentences, Iman loses his service weapon. His suspicions fall on his wife and daughters who will suffer his increasingly vindictive law.
“Emmanuelle” by Audrey Diwan, September 25
After the success of The Event, An adaptation of the eponymous novel by Annie Ernaux, which earned the director the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Audrey Diwan takes on a great classic of French erotic cinema. Noémie Merlant plays the character of Emmanuelle, directed here for the first time by a woman. Audrey Diwan and Rebecca Zlotowski, who co-wrote the screenplay, have transposed the original text of Emmanuelle Arsan’s novel published in 1959 to the contemporary era. The film’s release takes place exactly fifty years after Just Jaeckin’s version, the subject of scandals and censorship, and which remained on the bill in a Parisian cinema for a decade.
Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” on September 25
Megalopolis was probably the most anticipated film of the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The science fiction feature film marks Francis Ford Coppola’s big comeback to the cinema. A comeback that also comes with a colossal project: Megalopolis, which has been brewing in the filmmaker’s mind for decades, required a budget of over $100 million. But despite undeniable enthusiasm, the film has received a very mixed reception from audiences and critics. Some see it as a masterpiece, others as one project too many. Megalopolis, which notably includes Adam Driver in its cast, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Fineman and Dustin Hoffman, However, it remains one of the most anticipated films of September.
David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds”, September 25
Devastated by the death of his wife in 2017, David Cronenberg started writing the screenplay and then directing the Shroudsin competition at the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival. The director tells the story of an inconsolable man who invents a controversial technology to contact the dead. This film about mourning, which unites Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger on screen, did not receive the best reviews during its Cannes screenings. An unusual reception for David Cronenberg who is a regular on the Croisette. The Shrouds was his seventh film to be presented in competition at Cannes.
“Joker: Madness for Two”, October 2
The continuation of Joker (2019) is again directed by Todd Phillips, who had already directed the first opus and promises the same dark and disturbing atmosphere. The film had grossed a billion dollars at the global box office, won the Golden Lion at the Mostra and earned Joaquin Phoenix the Oscar for best actor in 2020. In Joker: Madness for TwoBatman’s favorite enemy teams up with his great love, Harley Quinn played by singer Lady Gaga. The success of the previous episode allowed Todd Phillips to obtain a larger budget of 150 million dollars, the first having cost (only) 55 million. Joker: Madness for Two will be presented in competition at the next Venice Film Festival, which will be held from August 28 to September 7, where it hopes to win the Golden Lion again.
“All We Imagine as Light”, October 2
Three years after winning the Golden Eye for best documentary film at Cannes for A Night of Knowing Nothingthe young Indian director Payal Kapadia wins this year the Grand Jury Prize for All We Imagine as Lighta first feature-length fiction film. The director once again takes up love, desire and female emancipation, themes that are part of her cinema, to address the issue of societal disparities in her country. She paints a portrait of Anu and Prabha, two nurses from Mumbai stuck in a daily life dictated by their work and the singularity of their romantic relationships. Both originally from the south of India, but from social backgrounds that are polar opposites, the two roommates will discover a common space during a trip to a forest near the sea.
“Love Wow” by Gilles Lellouche, October 16
L’Love phew is the second feature film directed solo by Gilles Lellouche. After The Big Bathwhich was selected out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, Love phew was in the running for the Palme d’Or this year. This film, which mixes thriller, romance and musical comedy, brings together on screen François Civil, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Alain Chabat, Vincent Lacoste, Benoît Poelvoorde, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Élodie Bouchez and Raphaël Quenard. A five-star cast for the story of a love and banditry story that spans more than twenty years in life and a little less than three hours on screen.
“Sauvages” by Claude Barras, October 16
In 2016, Claube Barras had huge success with the animated film My life as a zucchini, César for best animated film, with over a million admissions at the cinema. The plot of this new feature film is set on the island of Borneo and addresses the issue of deforestation that threatens ecosystems and the Penan people from which the heroine, an 11-year-old girl, comes. Wild, presented at the Cannes Film Festival and the Annecy Film Festival, is animated in stop motion and marks the return of the small puppets with big, wide eyes that made the success of My life as a zucchini.
“Mr. Aznavour” by Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade, October 23
Charles Aznavour would have been a centenarian in 2024. Six years after his death, Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade, who co-directed Patients in 2016, are teaming up once again to tell the story of the life of the Franco-Armenian singer. The biopic recounts the artist’s rise to fame and explores his career in the 1950s. The singing legend is played by Tahar Rahim. The film, for which Charles Aznavour had given his consent before his death, also stars Bastien Bouillon as composer Pierre Roche, Marie-Julie Baup as Édith Piaf and Lionel Cecilio as Gilbert Bécaud.
Sean Baker’s “Anora” on October 30
At the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, Sean Baker received the Palme d’Or for Anora, an award that alone justifies all the expectations surrounding the film. The American independent director, who distinguished himself with The Florida Project in 2017, y tells the story of the upheavals in the life of Anora (Mikey Madison), an American prostitute who falls in love with a Russian oligarch. Anora presents itself as a trivial fairy tale and explores, this is the great characteristic of Sean Baker’s cinema, the lives of marginal characters. In 2021, the director was already interested in sex workers by diving with Red Rocket in the daily life of a pornographic film actor.