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Deneuve reopens brighter Ciné Lumière
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent09.01.09
FRENCH film star Catherine Deneuve tonight unveils the £800,000 transformation of Ciné Lumière, one of London's top independent cinemas.
The six-month refurbishment, partly funded by the French foreign affairs ministry, includes a new digital projector, more comfortable seating and, for the first time, disabled access to the art deco auditorium at the French Institute in South Kensington. Deneuve inaugurated the cinema when it first opened in 1998. She returns to show her latest film, A Christmas Tale, co-starring Bond villain Mathieu Amalric, about a family whose young son dies aged seven from a genetic disorder.
It kicks off three days of previews from the new programme including The Class, an arthouse film which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film festival, and popular French hit Paris 36, a showbusiness story of a working-class theatre in Thirties Paris. The film's stars, Gérard Jugnot and Nora Arnezeder, are due to attend tomorrow's screening with its director Christophe Barratier.
Ciné Lumière holds discussions and events with actors and directors from Sophie Marceau to Bertrand Tavernier.
British distributors preview French films at the cinema, which also shows movies without UK distribution deals.
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Here's a sample of the latest views published.
Catherine Deneuve added French chic and glamour, and diamond rings flashing, gave the Cine Lumiere the brilliant red carpet grande premiere it needed! The launch of the vast renovation and revitalisation of this cultural arthouse for the many London based French and Francophiles suffering from "mal de pays", supported by several successful major French companies and very generous private donors was a grand success, even if the preponderance of black, worn by most theatre goers, made it look more like an enterrement than a celebration! La Deneuve's divine yellow embroidered outfit shone like a beacon of hope for the French Cinema!
Well done the French Foreign Affairs Ministry whose coffers will be weakened while the Euro stays so strong against the Pound, in showing its confidence in the future for Anglo British relations. This bodes well for better understanding between the Brown and Sarkozy Governments which is so necessary during this most difficult economic turbulence.
- Stephen Pollock-Hill, Knebworth, Herts
