Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2015: #73. Catherine Corsini’s La belle saison

Published on January 6, 2015

La belle saison

Director: Catherine Corsini // Writers: Catherine Corsini, Laurette Polmanss

French director Catherine Corsini isn’t very well known in the US, though many should be familiar with her 2009 title Leaving, which headlined Kristin Scott Thomas. She’s premiered at Cannes on four occasions, last in 2012 in Un Certain Regard with Three Worlds (which happens to be one of her weaker efforts—Corsini played in the Main Comp in 2001 with La Repetition). Her latest, La belle saison (The Beautiful Summer), is set in 1971, and concerns the budding relationship between two women from very different walks of life, something which throws both their lives into turmoil (which sounds an awful lot like post-war Diane Kurys material). Corsini (who often features striking actresses in her work, including Catherine Frot, Scott Thomas, and Clotilde Hesme) snags Cecile de France as one part of this duo, not to mention the always engaging Noemie Lvovsky.

Cast: Cecile de France, Noemie Lvovsky, Izia Higelin

Producers: Chaz Productions’ Elisabeth Perez, France 3 Cinema, d’Artemis Productions, Solaire Production.

U.S. Distributor: Rights available

Release Date: Based on Corsini’s track record, we’re assuming this will make an appearance at Cannes, though we’re thinking Corsini might get sandwiched into Un Certain Regard once again.

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.