Euro Express

By contrast, De France didn't hesitate last year when French director and writer Cédric Klapisch called about Les Poupées Russes (Russian Dolls). His sequel to L'Auberge Espagnole reunites the original ensemble, including Amélie star Audrey Tautou, and revisits the students five years on as they face the c˙hallenges of adult life. "It was so wonderful getting together again that I think the same enthusiasm shines through," says De France. Yet her own tastes lie elsewhere: "American and French cinema are wonderfully creative and entertaining, but they lack the hard-edged, at times brutal messages, themes and humor of northern cinema culture." She says she'd love to make such films for directors like Denmark's Lars von Trier, Britain's Ken Loach or fellow Belgians (and brothers) Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne — a move that could extend the appeal of De France well beyond la France. — By Bruce Crumley/Paris

Great French screen actors often sport formidable noses. Think Jean Gabin, Gérard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil. Now 21-year-old actor Louis Garrel is nosing ahead of his peers. His proboscis, thick as a prizefighter's, gives the actor a seriousness and weathered complexity beyond his years. His 2003 turn as a young movie-obsessed revolutionary in Bernardo Bertolucci's risqué The Dreamers won him immediate attention. The film, set in Paris just before the political riots of May 1968, "was a real collaborative process," explains Garrel, whose father, Philippe, is a director and fixture of 1970s Paris counterculture (himself the son of veteran actor Maurice Garrel), while his mother is actress Brigitte Sy. "Bernardo discussed the scenes and characters with [us] to the point that he incorporated our suggestions, changing scenes and adding our ideas to the film."

Garrel's follow-up project was even more daring. Ma Mère (My Mother) tells the story of a teenager's attraction to his promiscuous mother. The film managed to shock even French audiences with its fearless approach to a sordid sort of sexual awakening. "It's not really the nudity that's shocking, it's the emotional violence," says Garrel. "Actually, shooting these types of scenes is easy. It's watching them that's difficult," he says, recalling his embarrassment when his own mother saw Ma Mère.

Garrel already has another French movie in the can, directed by his dad. Like Bertolucci's Dreamers, Les Amants Réguliers (Regular Lovers), due for release in the fall, is set in 1968. It follows a group of protesters during the upheaval and afterward, when the world's attention has shifted. Up next — if funds materialize — is the Catherine Breillat film Une Vieille Maîtresse (An Old Mistress) with Asia Argento and French cinema grande dame Jeanne Moreau. The money will probably come; Garrel seems to have a nose for good projects. — By Grant Rosenberg/Paris

Things just keep getting better for Maya Sansa. The 29-year-old Italian from Rome has been charming audiences with her crooked smile and combination of charisma and reserve since appearing in La Balia (The Nanny) in 1999. Critics liken her to her iconic compatriots Anna Magnani and Sophia Loren. This year everyone else will understand why. Sansa will appear in three films in Europe: the romantic drama L'Amore Ritrovato (An Italian Romance); the psychological thriller Contronatura (Unnatural); and her English-language debut, The Listening, a tale of espionage with Michael Parks (Kill Bill).