With the Beijing Summer Games only four months away and frenzy mounting in
the host city, organizers of the annual French Film Panorama made a popular
choice of opening the festival here last night with an Olympic-themed
comedy.
Based on the 1968 comic book of the same name, "Asterix at the Olympic Games"
features competitions in ancient Olympic Games and stars French movie icons
Alain Delon and Gerard Depardieu. Its 78 million Euro (about US$123 million)
budget makes it one of the most expensive European movies ever.
"We can almost say the film is specially shot for China, as Beijing is going
to host the Olympic Games this summer," Pathe CEO Jerome Seydoux told the
Chinese audience through an interpreter at the opening ceremony.
Defying many Chinese's natural association of French films with slow-paced,
art-house productions that are hard to follow, most of the 10 features to screen
at the festival are commercial movies released in France over the past year.
Chinese audiences will also be treated to a showcase of 12 short films, a key
component of the French film panorama.
The films will be shown in their original version with Chinese subtitles in
Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Wuhan over the next fortnight.
A delegation headed by Seydoux, and including veteran French film makers and
producers, will have a question and answer session with audiences after the
screenings.
The annual event, co-organized by Unifrance, a promoter of French cinema
worldwide, along with the French Embassy to China and the French Cultural
Center, will close in Shanghai on April 21.