Cohen Media Group picks up ‘Redoubtable’ at Cannes
Cohen Media Group has announced its acquisition of the North American distribution rights to Academy Award-winner Michel Hazanavicius’ dramedy Redoubtable.
The deal was struck at this year’s Cannes Film Festival after the film screened as part of the main competition for the Palme d’Or. Paris-based Wild Bunch handled international sales, with Head of Sales Eva Diederix having negotiated with John Kochman, executive vice president of Cohen Media Group.
Redoubtable explores the life of Jean-Luc Godard, one of the most lauded filmmakers of his time, focusing on the backlash he received for 1967 film La Chinoise, starring his second wife Anne Wiazemsky. The film, having predicted the global student protests that erupted a year later, unleashed a “profound self-examination in Jean-Luc” that forced him to defend his choices and beliefs to the breaking point.
The flick promises to be another “tribute to classic cinema” from Hazanavicius, director behind The Artist (2011), awarded Best Film and Best Director at the Academy Awards.
“We’re thrilled to work with Michel Hazanavicius and we’re especially excited to give this important film a release in North America. Godard is undoubtedly one of the most iconic, revered cinematic talents in the history of cinema”, commented Charles S. Cohen, owner/chairman and CEO of Cohen Media Group.
Directed and adapted by Hazanavicius from Anne Wiazemsky’s novel Un an après (One Year Later), Redoubtable is a La Classe Américaine and Les Compagnons du Cinéma production. In France, it will be distributed by StudioCanal.
Redoubtable stars Louis Garrel (The Dreamers, Love Songs, The Beautiful Person) and Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac: Vol. I, Nymphomaniac: Vol. II, Tale of Tales) in the lead as Godard and Wiazemsky, respectively.
“Cohen Media Group is a redoubtable — fearless — distributor and we’re thrilled to be working with them. They have become a great home for the talents we represent and we know they will assure the film the success it deserves in America”, adds Wild Bunch’s Eva Diederix.
US Title and Release Timeline
The film premiered in Cannes competition on May 21, 2017, and opened theatrically in France on September 13, 2017. Cohen Media Group brought it to American theaters on April 20, 2018, under the title Godard Mon Amour. Streaming arrived on September 4, 2018, giving North American viewers another window into Hazanavicius’s take on the French New Wave icon.
Additional Cast and Production Notes
Bérénice Bejo appears in a supporting role as Michèle Rosier. Producers include Riad Sattouf and Florence Gastaud. The finished picture runs 107 minutes, a brisk length for a story that compresses years of artistic and personal upheaval into a single, pointed chapter.
Critical Reception
Reviewers found the film stylish yet uneven. It earned a 54 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes from 89 notices and a 55 out of 100 on Metacritic from 24 critics. The consensus praised the film’s light touch and visual wit while noting that its playful tone sometimes drifted from the sharper edge that defined Godard’s own work.
Box Office Performance
Worldwide grosses reached roughly 1.3 million dollars, with the United States contributing about 80,000 of that total. The budget sat near 12 million dollars, so the numbers never approached break-even territory. Still, the modest returns aligned with the specialized nature of the release and the narrow theatrical footprint Cohen Media Group chose.
Redoubtable remains a compact snapshot of one director’s attempt to portray another, anchored by Garrel and Martin’s performances and by the archival curiosity that Hazanavicius brought to the material. The Cohen Media Group acquisition kept the picture visible stateside long after the Cannes lights dimmed, and the later title shift to Godard Mon Amour signaled how the film traveled from French festival favorite to American arthouse release.
