Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2018: #38. Erick Zonca’s Fleuve noir

Published on January 4, 2018

Fleuve noir

French director Erick Zonca scored his most critically acclaimed hit with his 1998 debut The Dreamlife of Angels, which competed in the Cannes main competition and won Best Actress awards for its lead stars Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Regnier. He’d receive additional acclaim a decade later for his third feature 2008’s Julia (here is our interview with the filmmaker) which starred Tilda Swinton (in one of her best performances) as an alcoholic kidnapper. Since then, he dabbled in television with the war film White Soldier, but finally announced a new project last year with Fleuve noir (English title is now Black Tide (previously known as Black River) starring Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, and Sandrine Kiberlain. Cassel plays the lead as a cop investigating the death of a child when is own son suddenly reappears in his life. Zonca also reunites with his Angels star Elodie Bouchez.

Release Date/Prediction: Widely anticipated as a major comeback for Zonca somewhere in the 2017 festival circuit, it appears that Fleuve noir locked up a first week of January theatrical release in France. Despite the suspicious delays, Zonca still has a strong chance of competing at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival, where he last bowed with 2008’s Julia.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.