Cloud 9 floats to UK, Paintball fires off in Spain

UK:

Award-winning romantic drama Cloud 9 floats onto UK screens from July 10, with indie distributor Soda Pictures are giving the German film a limited release. The film, which follows a woman’s affair after 30 years of faithful marriage, has currently taken $4.4m worldwide.

Fumihiko Sori’s Ichi is being released through Manga Entertainment, also from July 10. Ichi follows the story of a blind woman who puts her extraordinary sword-fighting skills to good use against the local villains.

Soul Power, a documentary on the legendary soul music concert staged in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974, also gets a limited release, with Eureka distributing.

Spain:

Peter Hyams taut political drama Beyond A Reasonable Doubt hits cinemas this weekend on 210 screens through local distributor DeaPlaneta. A remake of Fritz Lang’s 1956 version, the film sees Michael Douglas play a successful District Attorney whose suspect methods of conviction are investigated by a rookie journalist (Jesse Metcalfe).

Filmax will be showing Daniel Benmayor’s local action film Paintball on 108 screens across Spain. The drama revolves around eight strangers who get together in a remote forest for an experts-only paintball retreat, but soon find they are fighting for their lives.

Juan Taratuto’s Argentinian comedy A Boyfriend For My Wife (Un Novio Para Mi Mujer) will be released by Yedra this weekend. It tells the story of a unhappily married man who looks for a new boyfriend for his wife. It took an impressive $5.6m in Argentina, making it the number one film of 2008 in that territory.

Germany:

Veteran French auteur Claude Chabrol’s first collaboration with Gerard Depardieu, Bellamy, will open through Concorde Film nationwide in more than 36 towns. The homage to Simenon’s Commissioner Maigret was shown as a world premiere in the Berlinale Special sidebar in February.

Cologne’s Odeon cinema was the launch pad for director-cinematographer Marian Czura’s documentary Klang Der Seele, distributed by Film Kino Text. The film charts fifteen months spent accompanying four budding composers aged between 15 years old and 19 years old  as they work on writing their own pieces of music.

France:

French comedy Bambou was the second biggest release of the week following Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. The Didier Bourdon comedy went out on 417 screens on Wednesday in a week that saw 14 films vie for public attention. Bambou, handled by Ocean Films, stars Bourdon, Anne Consigny and Pierre Arditi in the story of a childless couple who adopt a dog.

Ashton Kutcher vehicle Spread - in France called Toy Boy - was released on Wednesday July 8 on 250 screens. The film, about a California playboy and also stars Anne Heche, is being distributed by MK2. David MacKenzie directed the film which was the second strongest opener of the week with 26,862 admissions on its first day.

Bambou’s Didier Bourdon also has a role in Park Benches (Versailles Rive Droite), which UGC released this week. The ensemble comedy from Bruno Podalydes is a follow up to 1992’s Versailles Rive Gauche. Out on 195 screens, the film picked up 16,271 admissions on Wednesday. Podalydes and his brother Denis star alongside Bruno Solo, Olivier Gourmet, Josiane Balasko and Thierry Lhermitte.