PARIS — Daouda Coulibaly’s Mali-set “Wulu,” Sebastian Marnier’s “Faultless”and Thomas Kruithof’s “The Eavesdropper” form part of a gaggle of crime thrillers and sci-fi/fantasy movies which unspool from this Thursday at the 19th UniFrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema , France’s annual national film showcase.
In volume, they certainly do not represent the most numerous film type at that market: That crown belongs to comedies, accounting for 32 of the 76 movies screening there. But a clutch of these crime thrillers are certainly among the best-reviewed at the Rendez-Vous market.
“Who doesn’t love a good sociopath? In novelist-director Sébastien Marnier ’s feature debut “ Faultless ,” he conjures up a doozy,” Variety wrote, calling “The Eavesdropper” (aka “Scribe”) “a timely political thriller told with flair” and “Wulu” “an auspicious debut.”
These suspense titles are joined at the Rendez-Vous by the only now=seen “Alone,” a bold departure for French cinema, a fantasy teen survival thriller, from “IT Boy” director David Moreau, and “Toril,” Laurent Tessier’s rural drug-trade thriller.
They come fast on the heels of three Cannes standouts: Alice Winocour’s “Disorder,” with Matthias Schoenaerts (“Rust and Bone”) as a ex special-ops bodyguard suffering PTSD; Houda Benyamina’s Golden Globe nominated gangster movie “Divines”; and Julia Ducournau’s campus cannibal movie “Raw.”
At November’s American Film Market, Paris-based production house Vixens announced a new slate of elevated genre movies, including “Rosemary’s Baby”-ish “Housewife,” Turkish director Can Evrenol’s follow-up to his hit “Bakin”; H. P. Lovecraft adaptation “Beyond the Wall of Sleep,” the second feature from Christophe Deruo; and Vixens’ first French-language movie, Martin Scali’s crime drama “Un Prince.”
This is not a huge number of titles: France, after all, produces way over 200 features a year. But it does suggest that genre, especially French crime thrillers, one of France’s greatest film traditions, is making a niche comeback.
“‘Raw,’ is a masterpiece. There are great young filmmakers with a strong viewpoints and vigorous takes on the genre,” Kruithof maintained.
The comeback comes, moreover, thanks to an exciting new generation of directors, producers and sales agents now linking to some of France’s top players – Gaumont, Wild Bunch, Haut et Court – and despite often adverse market and funding conditions.
Made 50 to 80 years after Marcel Carné, Henri-Georges Cluzot and Jean-Pierre Melville were at the top of their game, this new wave naturally moves the tradition on. The trio of Cannes standouts were all directed by women, conspicuously absent from the good and great of French policiers, film noir, heist and gangster movies of the past.
France’s new thriller wave is often set in opportune contemporary contexts. “The Eavesdropper,” Kruithof’s feature debut sold at the Rendez-Vous by WTFilms, unspools during the build-up to presidential elections in France. It stars François Cluzet as a mild-mannered book-keeper hired by a shadowy head of a political espionage network working for a populist far-right politician who aims to make France great again. Though reminiscent of U. S. ’80s teens movies, “Alone” features a gaggle of fast-talking French teens, and a French new town cityscape, its hypermarkets, highways and plush hotels.
France’s new thriller build also unspools on a broader canvas. Produced by and sold at the Rendez-Vous by Indie Sales, “Wulu” charts the inexorable rise of a sharp-witted Mali bus driver to drug-courier kingpin. It has been called a Malian Scarface.” But unlike Pacino’s character, “Wulu’s” anti-hero is always unhappy. He earns enough cash to buy a villa, hobnob with rich. But he loses his soul.
Genre in France is a push phenomenon, supported often passionately by a new generation of directors. Few are much over 40 in France.
“Lots of directors love genre, thrillers. Through them, we can renew cinema in France,” said Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, producer of “A Perfect Man” and “The Eavesdropper.”
The movies reveal a string of largely unknown young directors in sure command of their craft and able to elicit tremendous performances from their star leads.
But French genre production, especially of straight horror films, also faces huge challenges.
Horror genre’s status in France is a “disaster,” says Matteo Lovadino, at Reel Suspects, a Paris-based sales agency specialising in genre and fantastic cinema. Institutions steer clear of financing straightforward genre both in production and distribution, he said, citing the case of Lithuania’s “Vanishing Waves” which did not receive French stare support for its theatrical distribution in France. Straightforward horror genre cannot play primetime free-to-air genre – though thrillers and sci-fi titles have more of a chance reducing revenue opportunities for their distributors, he added.
France has been here before. A French splat pack – Alexandre Aja (2003’s “High Tension”), Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury (2007’s “Inside”), Pascal Laugier (2008’s “Martyrs”) – made a clutch of extreme gore movies which delighted French fan boys, caught critics’ attention ; and largely bombed at the French box office. French audiences couldn’t take the extreme violence, decried horror movies as commercial crud.
“There was a wave of great genre directors. But Aja and that generation realised they couldn’t make those fouls in France. Most left for the States,” Gregory Chamber at WTFilms recalled.
“Now there’s a new wave of directors trying to get back to genre,” he added.
The large question is what business models France’s new genre practitioners can adopt, allowing directors to grow their careers with ever most ambitious projects.
One is to attempt to open up to new audiences. In “A Perfect Man,” a blocked writer played by Pierre Niney claims authorship of a novel left behind by a dead man. French audiences skew 40-plus, said Thibault Gast at 24 25 Films, producer of “A Perfect Man” and “The Eavesdropper.” With Niney, “beyond the 40+ plus demography, “A Perfect Man” also brought in “a younger, more female crowd,” he said.
The current rash of thrillers also have to be made with one with an eye on international market potential, Chambet argued. One way to achieve that is of course is to rack up international sales. “The Eavesdropper” has sold to Japan (At Entertainment(, the U. K. (Arrow), Latin America (California), Spain (A Contracorriente Films), Italy (Europictures), Scandinavia (Njuta), Switzerland (JMH), Canada (TVA) and multiple other territories.
Another strategy is to structure movies’ financing so that they are not totally dependent on the French market. Vixens aims to produce three genre movies a year, said co-founder-producer Gary Farkas: One shot in English in the U. S. and co-financed by U. S. equity, such as David Raboy’s upcoming “The Giant”; European co-productions, such as “Housewife,” co-produced with Turkey and Denmark’s Space Rocket Nation; and French features, but which are “genre/art films with a strong message,” such “Un Prince.”
The latter two film models allow their films to qualify as French nationality movies, easing sales to French pay TV operator Canal Plus. The U. S.-shot movies and co-productions are “low-budget, high-concept, director-driven, the low budgets, limiting risk, making them more attractive to equity investors asked to finance the film or at least put up gap finance, Farkas added.
Vixens can also tap moneys from French distribution, international sales and funds such as the CNC French film board’s Aide aux Cinemas du Monde.
Farkas said “Un Prince” is a crime drama in the vein of “A Most Violent Year” and Jacques Audiard’s 2005 “The Beat That My Heart Skipped.”
“Basically what we are doing in France is like the culmination between our tastes and the style we need to attract the French market,” he added.
France’s genre renaissance doesn-t lok set to stop any time soon.
24 25 Films and WY Prods are, the companies behind “A Perfect Man,’ are teaming with Gaumont to produce ‘Burn Out,” the second feature from “Man’s” Yann Gozlan. WTFilms and Haut et Court are joining forces for zombie movie “The Night.”
It only takes one or two films to reverse a trend, the saying goes. Genre, thrillers traditionally play well on VOD.
“Business is changing a lot. All bets are off, in a way. It’s more difficult to know what will work our not. So people are open to taking more risks again,” said Chambet.

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Local wildlife farmers fear if the poaching continues it might cripple small players in the industry.
Farm owner Andre de Lange and his staff came across the carcasses of the three lions on Wednesday morning, and were shocked to discover all three lions had their paws and heads cut off.
De Lange said he had suffered R900,000 damages after the poachers cut through three wire fences and bypassed an alarm system to poison the animals.
Two lions killed were on his farm last year.
“If it continues like this I will have to leave this industry. It becomes impossible to continue,” he said.
“I don’t have insurance because it costs R100,000 per month to cover a lion. “
Limpopo police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Moatshe Ngoepe confirmed that Tzaneen police had launched a manhunt for the suspects.
Last year during the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora conference in Johannesburg, there was a plea to uplist lions to the maximum level of protection, but the request was voted down.
Pieter van Zyl, a game farmer who is a member of the SA Predator Association, said there had been an upsurge in lion poaching.
“It is a huge problem. There is quite a big demand for lion products outside of South Africa,” Van Zyl said.
Albi Modise, Department of Environmental Affairs spokesman, said the department did not keep updated figures on lion poaching.

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The story of the 1831 slave rebellion led by slave preacher Nat Turner, who struck the fear of God into Virginia plantation owners, the film was initially hailed for its pertinence in the age of Black Lives Matter as a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of white America.
But after stories emerged of Parker’s trial and acquittal on a rape charge in 1999 and the death of his accuser by suicide in 2012, the negative publicity around the incident saw a sharp drop in the film’s support, an unwelcome headache for Fox Searchlight who bought the rights to the film for a record $17.5-million following its Sundance success.
While the controversy may be of little relevance to audiences in South Africa, it has followed its creator across the social media sphere and at festivals around the world over the course of the past year. What remains to evaluate is the film itself.
While it’s easy to see the relevance of the 19th century story to the racial situation in present day US society, Parker’s handling of his material displays the subtlety of a jackhammer and glides over any nuances or complexities in the character of Turner or the motivation for his actions.
In a period in which films such as 12 Years A Slave and Django Unchained and television series such as The Book of Negroes and the recent Roots reboot have set a high bar for depictions of the brutality of slavery, Parker’s film is surprisingly safe, non-confrontational and too often clichéd in both its thematic concerns and its cinematic choices.
Cloying music, obvious slow motion scenes and ponderous close-ups do Parker no favours and provide an unnecessary distraction from the emotional impact of the story.
While Turner’s story has shamefully not received enough attention from film makers, this Braveheart-style, broad-strokes, easily-resonant, film should not become the go-to representation of a fascinating man and his moment.
Without the uncertainty and indignation of the moment in which it appeared, what remains is a flat, overlong, unfocused and disappointingly conventional biopic. Within the cinematic history of the treatment of slavery and its realities, it is a step backwards and is a demonstration more of the narcissism of its creator than a testament to the heroism of its subject.
WHAT OTHERS SAY
This isn’t a particularly compelling or well-made film. It’s very much the work of an ambitious beginner, corny in some places, pretentious in others. – Rick Kisonak, Seven Days
SOAPBOX didacticism and complex drama can never coexist. – Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
It offers a troubling tangle of the personal and historical. But above all else it’s commercial, an entertainment of purpose and some power. – Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice

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Good morning.
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Let’s turn it over to Adam Nagourney , our Los Angeles bureau chief , for today’s introduction.
LOS ANGELES – And on Thursday, it rained. Again.
The arrival of another winter rain here, a wet end to a week that began with heavy snows in the Sierra Nevada, has begged a welcome question: Is the drought that punished California for six years over?
No question California has turned a corner. There was more rain in Los Angeles in December than since the drought began; for better and worse. The rain this week shut down Laurel Canyon Boulevard after the waterlogged porch of a house collapsed into the roadway, and flash flood warnings were issued in Los Angeles as storms swept back and forth across the area on Thursday evening.
In Northern California, the storms produced extensive flooding in Sonoma County and around Sacramento – among the hardest-hit parts of the state. Ski resorts reported that 12 feet of snow fell in Tahoe. Mudslides closed Interstate 80 as the storm passed through Sierra Nevada. At least five people have died, officials said.
Reservoirs that were parched last year are close to capacity. The snowpack — which keeps the water flowing into the early summer as the snow melts — is 161 percent of normal. The United States Drought Monitor for this week reported that 42 percent of the state was out of drought conditions, compared with 3 percent last year.
“In terms of surface water, most of California is no longer in drought,” wrote Jay Lund, the director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California in Davis.
Still, winter is not even half over. Many years have started off wet and gone completely dry. Climate change has produced higher temperatures, which could melt away the snowpack before summer. And parts of the state remain dry.
But after six years of mandatory conservation orders, there seems reason for celebration. “This series of storms has done more than make a dent in the drought, which is a huge relief,” said Felicia Marcus, the head of the State Water Resources Control Board . “But it’s a little early to have a drought’s over party.”
(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on news sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)
• Congratulations, Los Angeles, on getting the Chargers. Now you have two terrible football teams. [ The New York Times ]
• The Chargers’ move will add even more money for owners amid growing uncertainties facing the league. [ The New York Times ]
• As rains soak California, farmers are testing how to store water underground. [ NPR ]
• A landmark study found marijuana to be an effective medicine, but with drawbacks. [ San Francisco Chronicle ]
• Levi Felix , who wanted people to untangle themselves from technology, died in Pismo Beach. He was 32. [ The New York Times ]
• An innovative development in Orange County will place homeless veterans in repurposed shipping containers. [ Orange County Register ]
• It’s not just how berries taste, it’s how they’re perceived. A sensory analyst in Watsonville explains. [ The New York Times ]
• No one understands our new era of reality-TV populism better than Bravo’s Andy Cohen. [ The New York Times ]
• In East Hollywood , Virgil Normal is where the cool kids shop. [ The New York Times ]
• A debut novel gets inside the heads of Marin County teenagers who have sharpened their claws on social media. [ The New York Times ]
• The Daily 360 Video : At the border near San Diego, separated family members reunite through the fence. [ The New York Times ]
• President Obama granted national monument status to 6,230 acres of land in California. [ KPCC ]
“ Hello, I’m Johnny Cash .”
That opening line, as if the assembled audience needed any introduction, gave way to a giddy roar and then, one of country music’s great performances.
It was on this day in 1968 that Johnny Cash played his “At Folsom Prison” concert.
The event was meant to revive Mr. Cash’s career, which had flagged since the 1950s thanks to an out-of-control amphetamine habit.
Executives at Mr. Cash’s record label, Columbia Records, saw him as so unreliable that they kept the planning of the Folsom show a secret from the press, said Robert Hilburn, author of “ Johnny Cash: The Life.” They weren’t certain he would show.
Thankfully, he did.
“And he was incredible. It was like he sensed this was a moment,” said Mr. Hilburn, who himself attended the concert after hearing about it from a disc jockey.
Mr. Cash tailored his song choices along themes of longing, sin and misfortune, including, of course, his 1955 hit “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Assembled in the heavily guarded Dining Room 2, the inmates couldn’t get enough.
“You could just sense their spirit rising,” said Mr. Hilburn. “It was just electrifying.”
The band actually performed twice, in the morning and afternoon, to ensure a good recording.
“At Folsom Prison” drew largely from the first show and was released four months later. It was a huge success and kicked off a resurgence in Mr. Cash’s popularity. A year later, he did another prison record, “At San Quentin,” which was also successful.
In the wake of the performances, he became a prominent voice for prisoner rights.
California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com .
The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Davis. Follow him on Twitter.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and attended U. C. Berkeley.

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