Latest news with #Bienvenu
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Neon Taking North American Rights To Natalie Portman Cannes Animation ‘Arco'
EXCLUSIVE: Neon is closing up a North America deal for rights to Natalie Portman-voiced animation Arco, which recently launched at the Cannes Film Festival. French director Ugo Bienvenu's animated feature, which has been described as 'France's answer to Studio Ghibli', is about a boy who uses rainbows to travel through time and his adventures as he gets stuck in the wrong era. There's chatter the movie could feature in the awards race. More from Deadline 'Imago' Director Déni Oumar Pitsaev On Winning Two Prizes In Cannes: "I Didn't Expect It At All" Foul Play Suspected In Cannes Power Outage With Electricity Pylons Sabotaged Cannes Power Restored; Festival Closing Ceremony To Go Ahead As Planned In Wake Of Five-Hour Power Outage In South Of France Oscar winner Portman is also producing with Sophie Mas under their joint Paris and New York banner MountainA with Félix de Givry at Paris-based Remembers. The movie debuted as a special screening in Cannes. It's another win for Neon, which has been voracious once again at Cannes, also acquiring The Secret Agent, It Was Just An Accident and Sirat, in addition to Sentimental Value, which they already had. Taking its cue from the fantasy premise that rainbows are time machines, the movie revolves around 10 year old rainbow-child Arco, who lives in the distant future, 2932. His maiden journey in his multi-colored suit does not go to plan. He loses control and veers off course to land in a near future, 2075, where Iris, a girl the same age as Arco, witnesses his fall and then makes it her mission to get him home. Arco is the first feature for Bienvenu after short films Maman and L'entretien and comic books. His multi-awarded best seller System Preference has been translated in over 10 languages and was released by Penguin in the US, England, and Canada at the end of 2023. Bienvenu, who studied and now teaches at France's famed Gobelins animation school in Paris, has built his production team from talent he trained and nurtured there. Portman will be among the English-language voice cast. The French language voice cast will feature Alma Jodorowsky (Blue Is The Warmest Colour), Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of a Fall), Vincent Macaigne (C'est La Vie, Suspended Time) and Louis Garrel (Little Women, The Dreamers) and rapper Oxmo Puccino. Exec producers are Jamil Shamasdin, alongside Bill Way and Elliott Whitton for Fit Via Vi, and Douglas Choi and Martina Bassenger for Sons of Rigor. Arco marks the first feature animation for Portman and Mas' MountainA since its launch in 2020. The company made its festival debut at Cannes 2023 with Todd Haynes' May December. Goodfellas and CAA Media Finance are repping rights. Best of Deadline 'Poker Face' Season 2 Guest Stars: From Katie Holmes To Simon Hellberg Everything We Know About Amazon's 'Verity' Movie So Far Everything We Know About 'The Testaments,' Sequel Series To 'The Handmaid's Tale' So Far
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Arco' Review: France's Answer to Studio Ghibli Offers an Emotional Sci-Fi Epic
There's one particular journey the makers of 'Arco,' a soulful animated movie premiering in the Special Screenings section of Cannes 2025, are hoping to follow, whether they say it or not. The journey of 'Flow.' That animated triumph premiered to raves at Cannes in 2024 and slowly built momentum until finally winning the Best Animated Feature Oscar earlier this year. For all Cannes represents to global cinema, it had never been a particularly fecund environment for animation: The festival used to play host to splashy premieres for blockbuster hits such as 'Shrek 2' and 'Bee Movie,' not eventual Academy Award winners. 'Flow' changed all that. What would Cannes do for animation next? More from IndieWire How 'Love, Death and Robots' Season 4 Made the Ultimate Cute Little Guy 'Eddington' Review: Ari Aster's Bleak and Brilliant Look at Post-COVID America Feels Like the First Truly Modern Western This writer is no Oscar prognosticator, but it seems 'Arco' is unlikely to repeat that triumph. Not that it isn't a worthy film — though not as worthy as the wordlessly universal 'Flow,' which, at times, truly feels like a movie that's never been made before — but the path that movie took feels almost unreplicatable. For one, 'Arco,' with its copious French dialogue and unmistakably Gallic sensibility (even if dubs into other languages do eventually happen) simply doesn't have the borderless resonance. For another, it simply wears its influences on its cinematic sleeve a little too readily: A little bit of 'Peter Pan,' 'E.T.,' Studio Ghibli, even 'Star Trek' — with director Ugo Bienvenu's stated aim of presenting a positive, hopeful vision of the future in 'Arco,' and the colorful palette with which he's realized it, Roddenberry Entertainment should seriously consider coming onboard as producing partners for the U.S. release. It's that level of optimistic. As Bienvenu's first feature, 'Arco' is undoubtedly a promising start for a budding auteur who's been toiling away at short films, music videos, graphic novels, and short animations for Hermès. One of his illustrations for the French luxury house became a popular scarf called 'Wow!' which gave a comic book sensibility to the equestrian images associated with the brand. He has an eye for detail that calls to mind Ghibli, as well as the great French artist Jean Giraud, known to the world as Mœbius. But Bienvenu embraces an explosion of color that's all his own. 'Arco' introduces us to a young boy of 10 or 11 living in a far future where humanity now resides among the clouds on 'Jetsons'-like platforms on stilts. At a certain point, the population of Earth realized that a 'Great Fallow' needed to happen, that the surface of the planet needed to rest. We meet Arco himself giving feed to chickens and pouring food in a trough for pigs. This may be an extremely advanced civilization he's part of, but it's also back to basics. And soon, we discover that people, once they turn the age of 12, don a rainbow cloak with a special light-refracting diamond, and use the colorful garment to fly through the air — and go back in time. Arco isn't old enough yet to fly, but that isn't going to stop him. He steals his sister's cloak while the rest of the family is sleeping and jumps off the edge of the platform. After that, we're introduced to a raven-haired girl of about the same age named Iris. She's living on the ground in a suburban community where her primary caregiver is a robot named Mikki, and bubble-like shields pop up over everyone's homes when the climate-change-fueled thunderstorms wreak havoc or devastating wildfires break out. Her parents, consumed with work, are never even home and communicate with Iris merely by 'Star Wars'-style blue-grain holograms. Iris has a caring companion in Mikki — she asks him to play cowboy and Captain Hook, and he obliges — but she still dreams of something more fulfilling. And into her life drops Arco. Yes, Iris is living in Arco's past even if it's our future. The year for her is 2075, and the environmentally ravaged earth she inhabits is definitely a place that needs a 'Great Fallow.' The story from there becomes a tad predictable: Arco is a fish out of water, Iris quickly becomes his devoted friend, a misunderstanding causes them to go on the run. And some choices don't quite work, like the monochromatically-attired, turtleneck-wearing identical triplets who are tracking Arco — having before seen visitors from the future like him, who fly in the sky and leave rainbow trails behind them, the brothers are determined to prove their existence — and are in the story as just a particularly French kind of comic relief. As in any story like this, Iris is both trying to help Arco get home, and also doesn't really want him to leave. But Bienvenu comes up with a stirring ending, one so emotional it almost paves over the bumps in the narrative road that got us there. But it's undoubtedly a bit of connecting the dots to get to that ending, something genuinely soulful that's a bit reduced because of a plot that just went from Point A to Point B. Still, much of the film is absolute retina candy. Like 'Flow' director Gints Zilbalodis, Bienvenu built his studio around recent graduates of top animation schools, and there is a youthful energy pointing to new possibilities for the medium. He also has a unique idea animating his entire vision: Why do visions of the future have to be uniformly grim? Can't they be full of wonder also? That said, it's important to stay a bit clear-eyed about the way things are, too. Like Gene Roddenberry, Bienvenu is imagining a hopeful far-future, and a pretty miserable near-future that's a continuation of our miserable present (oh yeah, the 'Star Trek' creator foretold that the 21st century would be rough). The path ahead may be full of peril, but hope might still wait on the other side of that rainbow. And Bienvenu certainly gives us hope that animation can continue to be a vessel for epic visions and intimate musings, and can be one of the most deeply personal forms of cinematic expression there is. The artistic intentions couldn't be better. Maybe with the next film, the ability to better realize them will follow. 'Arco' premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution. Want to stay up to date on IndieWire's film and critical thoughts? to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers. Best of IndieWire The 25 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies, Ranked Every IndieWire TV Review from 2020, Ranked by Grade from Best to Worst
Miami Herald
07-02-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
After 26 years, chef leaves Miami Beach icon to open new restaurant in Fort Lauderdale
Like most of the people he worked with, Chef Andre Bienvenu assumed when he left the kitchen of Joe's Stone Crab, he'd be heading into retirement. After spending 26 years at the iconic Miami Beach restaurant, which opened as a small lunch counter in 1913 and grew into one of Miami's most famous culinary landmarks, Bienvenu hadn't envisioned going anywhere else. He loved his work serving locals and tourists and mentoring young cooks, but like many South Floridians was weary of the grueling commute from his home in Pembroke Pines. But fate had something else in store. A friend in the restaurant business reached out and wanted to know if Bienvenu was interested in opening his own restaurant. So instead of retiring, Bienvenu, 59, is now a partner and executive chef at Catch & Cut in Fort Lauderdale, joining the trickle of Miami-area chefs and restaurateurs testing the Broward market. 'I love the family there,' says Bienvenu of Joe's. 'The employees, the staff, they're unbelievable. I walked away learning more from them than I taught them. . . . but that commute was really tough, and it's not going to get any better.' Located on Las Olas Boulevard in the former space of the New Orleans-themed restaurant The Balcony, Catch & Cut focuses on steak and seafood. Stone crab is on the menu, but Bienvenu said the restaurant won't be known specifically for the seasonal crustaceans in the same way Joe's is. 'I'm looking at the last 35 or 40 years of my career and seeing what I can come up with,' he explained. 'We have a very good menu, and the staff has done well with it. I'm surprised by how fast they've caught on.' The two-story restaurant, which has been fully renovated and redesigned by Gravity Architecture & Design, covers 9,618 square feet, with seating for 287 diners. The large first-floor dining room features an open kitchen and a full-service bar as well as raw and sushi bars led by Chef Inyoman Atmaja, where customers can order oysters, ceviche, shrimp and lump crab cocktail or a seafood tower. Sushi offerings include spicy tuna crispy rice, hamachi jalapeño crudo, tuna tataki and a variety of rolls. The upstairs seating area is more casual, a spot to have a bite and a drink or perhaps enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine before your table is ready, with balcony seating that overlooks busy Las Olas Boulevard. The menu includes appetizers like surf and turf meatballs with Maine lobster, beef tenderloin, tomato confit and truffle crumbs; crispy wrapped shrimp with ponzu sauce; Pemaquid black mussels with fra diavolo sauce; and calamari with pickled giardiniera. There are soups like stone crab and cream corn chowder as well as crab and avocado salad. Seafood entrees include Alaskan King crab, Maine lobster tail, sea bass with steamed shrimp, clam and coconut curry sauce; blackened mahi with a roasted corn reduction and salted popcorn salad; and miso-glazed Faroe Island salmon. The meat menu, with steaks from Allen Brothers, includes the usual suspects: filet mignon, New York strip, ribeye and the wagyu cut of the day, as well as a steak burger. But Bienvenu is determined to pay attention to service as well as the menu, something for which Joe's Stone Crab has been known for decades. 'We're bringing old-school hospitality,' he said. 'Joe's does a phenomenal job with this. There are very few restaurants like Joe's, the way the family runs it and the autonomy they give their employees. Everybody's on board. I carried that philosophy with me.'' The new restaurant also allows the chef to step out of his usual role and work with front of house staff, something he truly enjoys, as well as interact more personally with diners, regulars or otherwise. 'It's exciting for me,' he said. 'I feel like more of a teacher than anything else. I feel like I'm in a classroom every day. And I'm meeting a whole new clientele. I hope they become friends. If you're going to put this much work in, you want your customers to become friends.' Bienvenu's move to Broward comes at an auspicious time. Over the past couple of years, culinary stars like Timon Balloo (The Katherine in Fort Lauderdale) and Raheem Sealey (J&C Oyster in Hollywood) are testing the Broward market. Last fall, Daniel's steakhouse from owner Tom Angelo and chef Daniel Ganem of Fiola in Coral Gables opened just south of the Henry Kinney Tunnel in Fort Lauderdale. Earlier this week, the Michelin Guide announced plans to include Broward restaurants in its 2026 guide. For Bienvenu, the move north feels like the right decision at the right time. 'There's a better mix of locals with tourists here,' he said. 'Las Olas has grown, too, with Pier 66 opening and more condos, it's a good neighborhood for restaurants. We're going to fit in really well. We're going to revitalize the neighborhood. This is no longer a sleepy little town.' Catch & Cut Where: 1309 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale Hours: 4-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 4-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4-9 p.m. Sunday Reservations and more information: or 954-533-1838
