As Cannes Film Festival kicks off, the Paris-based international sales company MK2 Films has revealed it has acquired three films and made substantial investments in new restorations, set against the backdrop of a strong presence at Cannes Classics.
MK2 Films has entered into a collaboration with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation on the global rights (excluding the U.S.) for two films directed by artist Niki de Saint Phalle: “Un Rêve plus long que la nuit” (1976) and “Daddy” (1973). “Un Rêve plus long que la nuit” has been restored in 4K by L’Immagine Ritrovata (Bologna-Paris) under the supervision of Arielle de Saint Phalle and with funding from Dior. It was presented at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, New York Film Festival and the new Los Angeles Festival of Movies. “Daddy” will soon be available in a restored version. MK2 Films described it as a “unique feminist work by one of the great and most popular visual artist of the 20th century.”
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MK2 Films has also announced the acquisition of global rights (excluding Japan, France) to “The Friends” (1994), a previously unreleased film by the Japanese director of “Typhoon Club,” Shinji Somai, newly restored in 4K by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation. The director’s work, considered a major influence by Hirokazu Kore-eda and Ryusuke Hamaguchi, is being rediscovered by cinephiles worldwide—another of Somai’s unreleased films, represented by MK2 Films, “Moving” (1993), won the best restoration award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival.
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MK2 Films has recently acquired film catalogs from Jacques Rozier, Raoul Peck and Marcel Pagnol, and films restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation under the World Cinema Project, and most recently, early films by Bruno Dumont.
MK2 Films continues to enrich its catalog of about 1,000 films by announcing an agreement with Theo Films to represent certain rights for the early feature films of French director Leos Carax: “Boy Meets Girl” (1984, cinema, TV and SVOD rights, France), “Mauvais Sang” (1986, cinema, TV and SVOD rights, France), “Les Amants du Pont Neuf” (1991, world cinema and video rights), and “Holy Motors” (cinema, TV, and VOD/SVOD rights, France).
MK2 Films also handles world rights (excluding Japan, South Korea) to the omnibus film “Tokyo!” (2008), co-directed by Carax, Bong Joon-ho and Michel Gondry, and produced by Comme des Cinémas.
This year, marking the company’s 50th anniversary, features a strong presence at Cannes Classics: Robert Bresson’s “Four Nights of a Dreamer” (1971), unseen for decades, has been restored in 4K by MK2 Films under the supervision of Mylène Bresson at Éclair Classics in Paris and L.E. Diapason with support from the CNC. At Cannes, the restored film will be introduced by Paul Schrader, a great admirer of the French filmmaker’s work.
“The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” (1964) by Jacques Demy returns to Cannes 60 years after its 1964 Palme d’Or in a restored version. The masterpiece which launched Catherine Deneuve to stardom, scored by Michel Legrand, comes back with a new 4K restoration performed from the original negative, scanned in immersion to reduce the marks of time on the film. The sound restoration was carried out from a mix of music and voices on three tracks and in stereo, found in the archives of Universal Music France. The film was restored in 4K by Ciné-Tamaris, with support from the CNC, Chanel and SACEM, by the Éclair Classics and L.E. Diapason laboratories in Paris, under the supervision of Rosalie Varda and Mathieu Demy.
MK2 Films also distributes globally three documentaries presented in this year’s official selection: “Jacques Demy – The Pink and the Black” by Florence Platarets and Frédéric Bonnaud, produced by Ex Nihilo, Ciné-Tamaris, Arte France and INA; “François Truffaut: My Life, a Screenplay” by David Teboul (co-written with Serge Toubiana), produced by 10.7 Productions and INA; and “Jacques Rozier: From One Wave to Another” by Emmanuel Barnault, co-produced by INA and MK2 Films.
At Cannes, MK2 will also present to international buyers exclusive new images from François Truffaut’s “Shoot the Piano Player” (1960) in a new 4K UHD HDR version by Hiventy Transperfect with the support of CNC: on the occasion of the 40th anniversary in October 2024 of the disappearance of the leader of the Nouvelle Vague, MK2 Films has now restored all his feature films; and exclusive images of the new 4K restoration of “The End of Violence” (1997) by Oscar-nominated Wim Wenders, starring Bill Pullman, Andie MacDowell, and Gabriel Byrne.
The 4K restoration of “The End of Violence” has been ordered by Wim Wenders Stiftung and MK2 Films and will be made under the supervision of Wenders at L’Immagine Ritrovata/Éclair Classics (Paris-Bologna), with the support of the German Film Heritage Funding Program (FFE).