Good Morning, World

French actor Pierre Niney was generous enough to share with us some photos from a recent vacation on his Instagram and natch I snatched up the ones that matter to post here, and you'll see them below. But first! While I was at Sundance news of one of my favorite mini-fests of every year broke -- the schedule and line-up for the Film at Lincoln Center's annual "Rendez-vous with French Cinema" here in New York was announced! To be clear I've been so busy I haven't even had the time to look at the schedule myself but you can check it all right here. All I did notice was what I usually first notice -- the list of hot French actors whose films are included, and Pierre here was among them (and in Michel Gondry's new movie no less!). Other lovelies include Melvil Poupaud, Anders Danielson Lee (not French but whatever), Romain Duris, Vincent Lacoste, and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart of BPM fame, and Félix Lefebvre from Summer of 85. Anyway I've finally got some substantial time this morning so I'm going to go through and see what grabs my attention -- stay tuned, I'll try to post about that later. But first let us hit the jump for a little more happy go lucky Pierre... 

6 Off My Head: It's Fantasia 2022 Time, Baby

It's summertime and the heat's on here in New York, so why not steam one's self up north for some slightly cooler weather but some hot hot hot movies, as the annual Fantasia International Film Festival kicks into gear this upcoming Thursday? Running for just under three full weeks (from July 14 to August 3rd) the Montreal-set fest is all in-person again this year, after a couple of hybrid-home-things due to the pandemic -- no I'm not traveling up there myself, but I will once again as I have for several years be doing some reviews from the fest anyway! Here on MNPP and also over at Pajiba too. But for now before we get to the reviewing stuff let's take a look at the typically bonkers line-up they've got set, all so perhaps y'all could scoot on up and see something for yourselves? There's still time, baby. THere's always time for awesomeness. Scan the entire line-up over here, but if you want some narrowing down I give you...

My 6 Most Anticipated Fantasia Titles

Swallowed (dir. Carter Smith) -- I've been a big fan of director Carter Smith ever since I saw his queer-horror short film Bugcrush way back in 2006, which he then followed up with the vastly under-rated The Ruins two years later. Swallowed seems to slam those two interests together, in that it's a queer horror flick and it stars the legend Jena Malone -- I'm sold! It's got something to do with drug-mules and body horror and closeted best friends yadda yadda bring on the transgressive queer shit, Carter!

Bodies Bodies Bodies (dir. Halina Reijn) -- I kind of feel like an asshole including a movie that's already been scooped up by A24 and has a trailer and a release date (on August 5th, right after the fest finishes). And yet! This slasher satire about influencer culture is super buzzy and it stars Lee Pace and Rachel Sennott (from Shiva Baby) and I just wanna see the damned thing already, okay?

Coupez! (dir. Michel Hazanavicius) -- The title translates to Final Cut! and this is the remake of the Japanese Zombie Flick One Cut of the Dead that I really wanted to see at Sundance in January, which they then pulled from the line-up at the last minute. I even included it in my round-up of movies I wanted to see at Sundance. And yet here I am, being a good game giving person, not holding that yank against them. I still wanna see this even though it got mixed reviews when it did actually screen at Cannes. Such is the power of Romain Duris, yo.

Glorious (dir. Rebekah McKendry) -- A shitter-centric Lovecraftian horror comedy starring Ryan Kwanten? I think all of those words are my new middle name. Or they were my middle-name all this time, and I only am just now realizing it. Anyway we must encourage a Ryan Kwanten comeback, so we must all go to see this movie, whether it's good or bad or whatever. Ryan Kwanten good. 

Hypochondriac (dir. Addison Heimann) -- We got another gay one! So glad we're getting plenty of queer horror these days -- I mean the sort on the movie screens, not the real-life stuff. Had enough of life's real queer horrors, thanks. But I guess these things go hand in hand! Anyway this one's about a man whose bipolar mother tried to kill him when he was little, and what happens when packages containing messages from her start showing up at the happy home he shares with his boyfriend. Something tells me it ain't good!

Please Baby Please (dir. Amanda Kramer) -- I have already posted about this movie several times, this is the one that stars Andrea Riseborough and Harry Melling as a bored suburban couple in the 1960s who get dragged into an erotic nightmare by a weirdo biker gang led by my boy Karl Glusman in fetish gear. Oh and Cole Escola and Demi Morre are there. The director described it as a campy take on West Side Story if shot by John Waters, and all of the photos look like some colorful Fassbinder by way of Kenneth Anger shit, and I am all over this baby.

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And yes I literally had to forcefully stop myself with many a violent self-inflicted slap about my face and neck to listing just six titles, as there are about two dozen more I want to watch -- there's the new film by Mickey Reese and the new movie by Neil Labute and the new movie by Quentin Dupieux and there is one starring Rahul Kohli and I could just keep going. Fantasia is, as always, stacked, and I only hope I can see as many of these as I can stuff down my maw over its three-weeks. Y'all try to too, or at least come back and listen to me yammer about them. I promise to yammer but good!

Eva 4 Eva

Today is the international holiday known the world over as Eva Green's birthday, click on over to The Film Experience where I gave her some love today in the form of a look-forward at a couple of projects we should be graced with shortly. I hope so anyway -- I f'ing miss staring at her!

Don't Let The Sundance Go Down On You

The line-up for next month's Sundance -- and yes I think we can all agree that it is insane that it's already time for Sundance again -- was released yesterday, and over at The Film Experience I shared ten movies that immediately caught my eye, check out the list here. (The entire line-up is listed there too, in case you missed it.) The photo above is of Sebastian Stan in a movie called Fresh which did not make my list of ten, but why not give that photo some attention anyway? Who doesn't want to stare at Sebastian? Just like: who doesn't want to stare at Jon Bernthal side-naked, as seen below in Lena Dunham's new movie Sharp Stick? Nobody that's who!

The Zombie Artist

This is... weird news! Unexpected news today. You remember the Oscar-winning film The Artist? Directed by Michel Hazanavicius it won Best Picture and Best Director in 2012, along with a statue for its leading man Jean Dujardin -- it was black-and-white and silent all over, and a lot of people decided after the fact that they hated it even though...

... it was a perfectly charming little thing. Anyway today comes word that Hazanavicius is re-teaming with his wife, The Artist's leading-lady Bérénice Bejo, as well as the actor Romain Duris (seen above, we love him), for...

... a remake of the Japanese zombie-comedy hit One Cut of the Dead? You see what I mean? Weird news! Not at all the news where you thought all of this was going. (Here is my review of One Cut of the Dead, which is wonderful, which you should see, and which you should stay totally unspoiled for because it has several twists and turns you won't see coming.) Hazanavicius' film just started filming and is called Final Cut (or possible Comme Z in France) and I am ready for this. I haven't seen any of Hazanavicius' films since The Artist -- he's made a couple including Godard Mon Amour with Louis Garrel playing Jean-luc Godard which I wanted to see but never got around to. 

Good Morning, World

Today we wish a happy 69th -- ooh la la! -- birthday to the great and masterful director Jacques Audiard, one of our all-time faves! These snaps are of Matthias Schoenaerts and Marion Cotillard in the 2012 masterpiece Rust and Bone, of course. I've seen everything back to 2005's The Beat That My Heart Skipped (oh Romain Duris!) and I recommend that along with every single thing since then, but I've seen nothing earlier -- I know I should see Vincent Cassel in 2001's Read My Lips but what about the even earlier ones? Anybody seen either of his first two, See How They Fall or A Self-Made Hero? Killer casts in both -- Kassovitz! Trintignant! Audiard really jumped right in with both feet right from the start! 

Putting the Musk in the Musketeers

Speak of the French Devils! Just yesterday I did a nicely sized post about the "Rendez-Vous With French Cinema" series here in NYC next month, and all of the good-looking French actors that will be featured in it -- now today comes word that four of my favorite Hot French Actors whose names were not in yesterday's post (plus one Hot British Actor who wouldn't have been mentioned there, but I am happy to mention him now) have just been cast in a new project, all together, and now I can fill up my Hot French Actor Bingo Card for the week. Phew! Prepare yourselves, folks, because this is A CAST.

It's a big budget (for French Cinema anyway) re-do of The Three Musketeers, which yeah sure okay I guess they have to make one of these every ten to fifteen years -- that's not the exciting part. The exciting part is the truly insane cast -- this Musketeers will star François Civil (see more of him here) as D’Artagnan, Vincent Cassel as Athos, and Romain Duris as Aramis! It will star Louis Garrel as King Louis XIII! And it will star the British fur-monster Oliver Jackson-Cohen as the Duke of Buckingham!

I don't think I'm familiar with the actor Pio Marmai, who's playing

 the other Musketeer called Porthos, but this is him below... 

And he's plenty hot, he'll fit right in. My god, y'all. But wait. You thought I was done? All this XXX-treme male hotness aside there's the female role of Milady de Winter, and they ain't skimping there either -- Eva Green! Eva Green! My beloved Eva Green!!!

Is this The Hottest Movie Cast Ever Assembled??? I think this might be The Hottest Movie Cast Ever Assembled. And they haven't even named who's playing the villainous Cardinal yet, but at this rate they'll de-age Alain Delon to his Purple Noon visage and toss hot-bomb that into the mix. PLUS there're adding in a character called "Hannibal" for a black actor that will be based on real-life person Louis Anniaba (aka the first black Musketeer) so there's even more opportunity for sexy casting ahead. And then this is all going to be spread across two films -- the first titled The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan and then the second titled The Three Musketeers: Milady. Does that mean the second one will be Eva Green-centric? I am exploding here, people. It's too much, too much.

Good Morning, World

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Poor Romain Duris is losing yesterday's fuzz-off!  And on his birthday, no less! Well I suppose it's a good thing I stumbled upon these images from... well I have no idea what they're from to be honest. But whatever they are maybe they'll make one or twelve of you regret your votes. I have yet to see Jesse Bradford snuggle up on naked boys, and I have been looking.

Which is Hotter?

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It's the joint birthday of two of our favorite fuzzy brunettes... and we have a lot, seriously a lot, of favorite fuzzy brunettes. Everybody's got a type! I speak of the French actor Romain Duris (see our previous posts here), who's turning 46, and the American actor Jesse Bradford (see our previous posts here), turning 41. So here's a fuzzy poll in their fuzzy honor...

survey solutions

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Julia (2009)

Julia: I wouldn't wipe my face with your ass.
Santos: They'll be a day you regret saying that.

Ten years on to the day -- Erick Zonca's film is technically 2008 but after floating around for a bit it finally hit the US on this day in 2009 -- and Julia remains my favorite performance of Tilda Swinton's, which as you know is saying a HELL of a lot, given all Tilda has given to us. Before then, after then -- things as big as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange or as broad as Mason in Snowpiercer or as quiet as the voice-less rock-star Marianne in A Bigger Splash, and yet it's this wily woman I always come back to. (Here's my very brief review from the time.)

The way we watch Julia (the woman) set her sights on one bad decision after another with the firmest of convictions, sweating her way from catastrophe to catastrophe, slithering her way long-sided up the Sword of Damocles... it's something. If you've never seen it I recommend you do. If nothing else, at least watch her blast through the film's amazing opening credits...

... you'll be hooked after that, I promise. The film's free on Tubi, or a couple of bucks to rent on Amazon. Erick Zonca's last film, the French noir Black Tide with oft-naked Vincent Cassel and Romain Duris (reviewed here) is not quite up to Julia standards but it's worth checking out too. Zonca does morally compromised real well.

Tis the Season For Jake

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A bunch of my friends got to see Wildlife in Toronto this morning (evil eyes at all of them) so I'm just making do with a few new pictures of Jake in GQ France (see the previously posted ones here) and oh right a brand new trailer for Wildlife, which looks more gorgeous and heartrending with every new frame we're given...

... and I'm not just talking about Jake wearing mid-century modern dad outfits. (Although it don't hurt.) I'm not too freaked out by everybody else getting to the movie first though, now that I have my own date - it's screening on the very first morning of New York Film Festival press screenings in just a week and a half! I can wait that long, I suppose. Here's that new trailer:

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If you missed the first trailer see that here, and if you missed the great big batch of Jake pictures from the film that I previously posted see them here. For the rest of you people - you people! - Wildlife is out on October 19th, and yes that's just a couple of weeks after we'll be seeing Jake in Jacques Audiard's The Sisters Brothers, which is out on September 21st! (Watch that trailer here.) It's turned into a Gyllenhaalic's dream of a perfect Autumn. 

Unfortunately for me I can't go to the screening of TSB that's happening at MoMA a night early with Audiard there in person - they've been doing a killer retrospective of his movies to coincide with this new one, via which I've been able to catch a couple of his that I've never seen before including The Beat That My Heart Skipped with Romain Duris and Read My Lips with Vincent Cassel (I preferred the latter, for the record) - because I have a concert that night, but you best believe I'll be there the next day.

You best believe it. Anyway since some Jake is never too much Jake and enough Jake isn't a thing why don't we all hit the jump where I've gathered up some of them new GQ pictures as well as a few more gifs from the new Wildlife trailer...

Bye Bye Romain

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If you head on over to The Film Experience this morning you can see my lil' round-up of reviews I wrote from this year's Fantasia International Film Festival - six movies and six reviews, including my review of Fleuve Noir starring Mr. Duris seen above, although never quite so jazzy as he is seen above. You can't have everything! Sometimes Vincent Cassel's cock has to be enough.

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Won't You Not Be My Neighbor

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I've got yet another review from the Fantasia Film Festival up at The Film Experience this morning - click on over to read my thoughts on Fleuve Noir (aka Black Tide), the crime thriller starring Vincent Cassel and Romain Duris in a weird little game of cat and mouse that's actually more like... I don't know, pelican and pug, or something equally idiosyncratic. It's a queer little movie, and I don't just mean that in reference to the blowjob that happens. 

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Our Second Summer Fantasia

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Last year I covered the Fantasia International Film Festival for the first time, and it's that time of year again - the festival opens tomorrow in Montreal and runs through August 2nd and I'll be reviewing some films (from my perch here in NYC thanks to the magical invention called The Internet) both here and over at The Film Experience, so stay tuned. But speaking of if you head over to TFE now I've written up a list of several movies I'm pretty excited about seeing, which include one that funny enough stars our well-bearded fella seen up, top, Vincent Cassel. It's called Fleuve Noir, and here's it's International (aka it's in French) trailer:

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Fleuve Noir is the first film from director Erick Zonca since Tilda Swinton kicked all our asses in 2008's Julia, and that's enough to get me excited on its own - add Vinnie & Romain Duris having a competition to see who can rock the bushiest beard in a crime-thriller and I'm basically leaking enthusiasm from all my ports.

That movie (which is actually out in France next week, by the way) is just one of dozens that I want to see though - head over to Fantasia's website and check out the whole schedule; it's pretty insanely stacked with genre movies that sound nuts or awesome or nuts and awesome. So stay tuned! And until then I wouldn't be me if I didn't note that bless the French with their trailers that have obscured flashes of full-frontal nudity in them -- hit the jump for a couple of gifs...

French Me, Louis Garrel & Friends

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The next couple of weeks are big ones for Francophiles here in New York City - the Film Society of Lincoln Center's annual ten-day "Rendezvous with French Cinema" series just opened last night with lovably bug-eyed auteur and actor Mathieu Almaric's latest directorial effort called Barbara; films from Xavier Legrand & Bruno Dumont and many others follow - there are over twenty movies screening, you can see the entire run right here.

And then starting this upcoming Tuesday at the The French Institute Alliance Française across town a series titled "Louis Garrel: Love Songs & Heartbreak" celebrating our most favorite floppy-haired Frenchman of all is beginning -- every Tuesday night for five weeks they'll screen a feature-length film of Garrel's alongside a short film of his! This Tuesday, March 13th they're showing Dans Paris, a movie about the relationship between Garrel's character and his brother, played by a bearded and dreamy Romain Duris...
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... that I've been meaning to see, and not seen, for ages; it's screening with a 2008 short film that Louis directed himself. Later on they're showing the films A Castle in Italy, Two Friends, Jealousy (directed by his father Philippe and co-starring his sister - and Call Me By Your Name's own Marzia! - Esther Garrel) and then of course Love Songs, which is a romantic musical that has Louis going boisterously gay for us. Cannot wait.

Hyde & Shriek

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Okay so my first review from the New York Film Festival went up last night -- click on over to The Film Experience to read my thoughts on Mrs. Hyde, the sorta retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic via the deliciously pungent star-power of Miss Isabelle Huppert. I previously told you about the film right here; this was one of the titles I was most excited about for the NYFF this year but you'll have to click over to hear my thoughts. I do want to add though, since I didn't have space in my review, that this film co-stars a very droll turn from Romain Duris in a series of strange pastel suits, and that might be something you'd want to look into. I personally would love to look into Romain Duris' suits. Who knows what one might find!

Good Morning, World

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File this under Most Definitely NSFW but I stumbled upon this fun Tumblr yesterday that collects gifs of actors getting friendly with themselves and if you want to lose a few minutes staring at such a thing, click on over. It's NSFW because it includes movies with the real deal going on, not just pretend, so expect, you know, the occasional erection to pop up. As erections do! And I stole a few of my favorite (non-pornographic) gifs after the jump if you hit it...