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TV5Monde in May, first time films shown in USA highlight the month

By April MacIntyre Apr 23, 2010, 5:43 GMT

French actress Audrey Tautou arrives for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House, in London, Britain, 21 February 2010. The BAFTA Awards honor achievement within the film and television industry in 23 categories. EPA/DANIEL DEME

C'est printemps, et TV5MONDE has magnificent films from festivals that are making their first appearance on American TV.

Critically acclaimed and award winning films that have been recognized at International Festivals around the world are on TV5MONBDE in May:

Attendez-vous!

A La Folie…Pas Du Tout (He Loves Me…He Loves Me Not)

Premieres Sunday, May 2nd

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

Cesar Award recipient Audrey Tautou plays Angélique, a woman madly in love with cardiologist Loïc, (Samuel Le Bihan) who is all wrong for her.  She is convinced that he plans to leave his pregnant wife for her, but when she realizes this isn’t going to happen, she becomes desperate. 

Just as Angélique makes one last dramatic attempt to win back her lover, director Laetitia Colombani cleverly rewinds the film to the very first frame and re-tells the story from Loïc’s point of view.

Le Boucher (The Butcher)

Premieres Tuesday, May 4th

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

Roger Ebert calls it, Chabrol’s “thriller masterpiece!”

The story follows a tender-hearted school teacher, Hélène (Stephane Audran) who begins an affair with Popaul, the local butcher, played by Jean Yanne with brusque humanity. The town is in turmoil after a little girl is found murdered in the woods, followed by two more murders, including the wife of one of the local teachers. While everyone wonders who the killer might be, beginning with the headmistress of the local school, Hélène begins to suspect her love interest, Popaul, when she finds the lighter she gave him...near one of the crime scenes. 

Detective

Premieres Saturday, May 11th

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

Detective, the winner of the Georges Delerue Prize award from Ghent International Film Festival and the Rotterdam Award for Best Innovative Film at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, takes place in the Hotel Concorde at Saint Lazare in Paris.  Four groups of people are unaware of their connections to one another, as hotel detective William Prospero (Laurent Terzieff) and his assistant Inspector Neveu (Jean-Pierre Léaud) investigate a cold case murder. Detective is directed by award-winning Jean-Luc Goddard, recipient of two Honorary Cesar Awards among 28 additional honors and 28 nominations.

Intervention Divine (Divine Intervention)

Premieres Saturday, May 13th

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

Elia Suleiman directs and stars in his Festival de Cannes 2002 Jury’s Prize Winner film as the character, E.S. He and his lover (Manal Khader) struggle to keep their relationship alive, since they can meet only in the checkpoint parking lot,  reminding them that they live on opposite sides of the Jerusalem city line - he lives in Jerusalem and she in Ramallah - a boundary that cannot be crossed.

La Frontiere De L’aube (Frontier of Dawn)

Premieres Saturday, May 16th

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

Photographer François (Louis Garrel) discovers and loses the love of two women, Carole, a film actress abandoned by her husband (played by Cesar Award Nominee Laura Smet), and Eve, (Clémentine Poidatz) who promises François a life filled with the joy of a child.

Les Violons Du Bal (Violins at the Ball)

Premieres Tuesday, May 18th

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

Nominated for the Golden Palm award at Cannes Film Festival, Michel Drach’s autobiographical feature reminisces about his childhood experience in France under the German Occupation in World War II. The film is centered around his heroic mother, played by Marie-Jose Nat who won the award for Best Actress at Cannes Film Festival.  Nat’s award-winning role emulated that of a beautiful, intelligent and courageous superwoman, who leads the family's fight for freedom.

Marthe

Premieres Tuesday, May 25th

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

“An explosive opening - trench fighting shown subjectively through the mud-spattered eyepiece of a gas mask - serves as prelude to the film's long central section where the hero (Depardieu), recovering from a bayonet thrust, falls in love with a schoolteacher (Courau) whose fiancé is at the front.” 

The action unfolds in the autumn of 1915 with an opening sequence of Simon (Cesar Award-winning actor, Guillaume Depardieu) and his fellow comrades who are wounded and transferred to a hospital far from the front line. This hospital, located on a peninsular in Brittany, a world of rock and sand under a blue sky and close to the sea, is just about as far away from the rest of the world as anyone could hope to get. Simon meets Marthe, played by award-winning, Clotilde Courau, a young teacher who is part of these broken men's lives. He falls head over heels in love with her, until that fateful moment arrives when he must return to the horror of the trenches.

Une Journee (One Day)

Premieres Thursday, May 27th

8:30 pm EST / 5:30 PM PST

Jacob Berger won Best Director at the Montreal World Film Festival for his film that depicts a single day in the life of a family: three people, three stories and three busy schedules. Unfolding over one long day, the film shows events from the perspectives of an unfaithful husband, a betrayed wife and a confused son. Serge, played by Lumiere Award-winning actor, Bruno Todeschini, is first seen on his way to the office, where he pays his mistress Mathilde (co-scripter of the film, Noemie Kocher) a visit. The film shifts to Cesar Award-winning and winner for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, Natacha Régnier as Serg’s attractive blond wife, Pietra. Finally, the film shows Louis Dussol’s character, Vlad’s perspective when he notices his father stopping at the neighboring building but doesn't realize why. Nonetheless, the place interests him because its home to Manon (Amelia Jacob), a schoolmate he's got a crush on.

De La Guerre (On War)

Premieres Saturday, May 29th

11:00 pm EST / 8:00 PM PST

Cannes Film Festival nominated director Betrand Bonello brings us into the personal war of Bertrand, (Mathieu Amalric) who encounters a strange yet intriguing man on the street who he follows to “The Kingdom,” a house in the country where he finds several free-spirited individuals who have retreated from society.  He befriends the leader of “The Kingdom,” Uma (Asia Argento) and upon his return to society; he finds himself unable to maintain his sanity and goes back to “The Kingdom.”  

TV5MONDE is a network comprised of seven different channels serving the U.S., Africa, Latin America, Asia-South Pacific, Europe, France-Switzerland-Belgium, Orient, and Quebec-Canada.