New York, NY – August 22, 2007 – IFC Entertainment and Red Envelope Entertainment jointly announced today that they have partnered for US rights to Christophe Honore’s musical drama Love Songs (Les Chansons d’Amour). The announcement was made today by IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring and Bahman Naraghi Head of Red Envelope Entertainment, a Net Flix company.
“We have such a great admiration for Christophe Honore and are excited to be working with him again after Dans Paris. This film is such a unique and different musically narrated drama,” said Sehring. “Love Songs is about a love triangle gone awry following an unexpected tragedy. Each character copes differently with the loss and brings to life their innermost thoughts and desires through song. In competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, Love Songs truly re-defines the romantic drama with its musical edge and unexpected intrigue.”
“Lyrical and beautiful, Love Songs joins a select, high quality, original and daring collection of international films that REE has been rapidly building”, said Naraghi. “We are extremely proud to introduce this latest gem from Christophe Honore to the US audience in partnership with our friends at IFC Entertainment, and very excited to offer it to its widest possible audience through the Netflix service.”
Filmed in Paris, Love Songs was directed by French filmmaker Christophe Honore, whose most recent film, Dans Paris, is currently in release through IFC Entertainment. The modern day musical, which was a huge box office success in France, features some of the most exciting new talent of this generation including Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Clotilde Hesme, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet and Chiara Mastroianni. The film will be screening at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. Love Songs was produced by Paulo Branco at Alma Films.
Love Songs is a musical tale of a love triangle cut into three acts; The Departure, The Absence and The Return. At the start of the film the audience is introduced to the weakening love affair of Ismael and Julie. To spice up the relationship, Julie decides to enhance their relationship into a threesome by inviting Alice, Ismael’s co-worker at a small newspaper, into sleepovers at their flat in Paris. Soon after, tragedy strikes suddenly with Julie’s death and her family, friends and lovers struggle to deal with the loss. Alice moves on but remains concerned for Ismael. While searching his soul for healing, Ismael is desperately pursued by Erwann in a cat and mouse game which ultimately forces Ismael to unleash a passion he had kept protected.
Arianna Bocco, Vice President of Acquisitions and Production at IFC and Rob Williams from Red Envelope Entertainment negotiated the deal with Olivier Aknin from financing agency Backup Films on behalf of Alma Films as Backup Films also provided production finance through its Coficup fund.
Red Envelope Entertainment, who also jointly acquired Shane Meadows’s 2007 film This is England with IFC Entertainment, continues to be a significant force of innovation in film distribution, giving its consumers entre to little known films while providing filmmakers a platform to expose less commercial projects to a broad audience. With its acquisition and distribution of original content, Red Envelope Entertainment offers consumers a wide variety of films they might not otherwise see.
The film, which was a huge box office success in France, will be released theatrically and on local cable’s On Demand platform.
About IFC Entertainment
IFC Entertainment consists of IFC Films, a leading theatrical film distribution company bringing the best of independent and specialized films to theaters; IFC First Take and IFC In Theaters, the operations that together make up IFC Entertainment’s theatrical and on-demand day and date initiative; IFC Productions, a feature film production company that provides financing for select independent film projects; the IFC Center, an art house in NYC and IFC Films on Demand, video-on-demand offerings. Recent films included Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley, and Shane Meadows’s This Is England. Upcoming films include Hou Hsiao Hsien’s The Flight of the Red Balloon, and Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days.
About Rainbow Media Holdings LLC
Rainbow Media Holdings LLC is a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE: CVC). Rainbow Media is a leading producer of targeted, multi-platform content for global distribution, creating and managing some of the world’s most compelling and dynamic entertainment brands, including AMC, IFC, WE tv, LIFESKOOL, SPORTSKOOL, and VOOM HD Networks. Through its IFC Entertainment division, Rainbow Media also owns and manages the following: IFC Films, a theatrical feature film distribution company; IFC First Take/IFC in Theaters, a day and date theatrical feature film/VOD initiative; the IFC Center in New York City; IFC Productions, a feature film production company; and IFC Entertainment, which owns and operates a film library. Rainbow Media also operates Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation, its advertising sales division, and Rainbow Network Communications, its full service network programming origination and distribution company.
About Red Envelope Entertainment
Red Envelope Entertainment (REE), a Netflix company, seeks to acquire and fund original content projects to increase consumer options and provide an innovative method for film distribution. REE works to democratize film distribution by providing films and filmmakers with a platform to expose less commercial projects to a broader audience. Red Envelope Entertainment looks to leverage its proprietary technology to offer this unique and original content to Netflix’s more than six million subscribers. The initiative creates a national distribution channel for films and entertainment programming otherwise not available to broad audiences. The company’s name and logo were inspired by the company’s iconic red mailers. For more information, visit www.netflix.com.
About Backup Films
Backup Films acts as a producer’s agent enabling selected films to access tailored international financing solutions including co-productions, distribution, equity and bank finance worldwide. Backup Films also operates the Coficup Tax Film Fund dedicated to the financing of French-qualifying films including minority co-productions. COFICUP global funds exceeds the US$ 5M figure and will grow regularly on a yearly basis.
Over the last five years Backup Films has contributed, among others, to the films of acclaimed directors such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Radu Mihaileanu, Rodolphe Marconi, Andrei Konchalovsky and talented first timers such as Zoe Cassavetes, Fabrice du Welz and Jorge Sanchez Cabezudo. Backup Films’ references include more than fifty production companies with films regularly selected to the main international festivals.
For more information, visit www.backupfilms.com.