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CANNES -- Once one of Spain's biggest players, Lauren Films president Antonio Llorens announced his first set of acquisitions in two years at this year's festival, including Neil Armfield's Candy, Peter Cattaneo's Opal Dream and Regis Wargnier's Man to Man. Llorens has picked up all distribution rights for Spain and will handle promotion and marketing for the films, shying away from the film buys that previously led to trouble. Some of Llorens problems stemmed from his long-standing relationship with Miramax, the prepurchase of packages and the decline of the Spain's pay-TV market and theater attendance. In 2004, Miramax sued Lauren for money owed and the Spanish distributor-exhibitor was forced to file the equivalent of Chapter 11.

South African production house the Imaginarium has two new projects to be partly financed by its Saffco Fund 55. The Imaginarium head Izidore Codron (Hotel Rwanda, Man to Man) said the fund -- a draw down fund that will provide 55% of a film's funding so long as the money is spent in South Africa -- will finance The Fringe, a $4 million coming-of-age movie about a female South African hip hop group's rags-to-riches rise. The movie is in pre-production to start shooting in South Africa in September. Leading the mostly local cast is Michael Filipowich (Charlie Jade). Additional funding is being provided by several private equity investors.

South African production house the Imaginarium has two new projects to be partly financed by its Saffco Fund 55. The Imaginarium head Izidore Codron (Hotel Rwanda, Man to Man) said the fund -- a draw down fund that will provide 55% of a film's funding so long as the money is spent in South Africa -- will finance The Fringe, a $4 million coming-of-age movie about a female South African hip hop group's rags-to-riches rise. The movie is in pre-production to start shooting in South Africa in September. Leading the mostly local cast is Michael Filipowich (Charlie Jade). Additional funding is being provided by several private equity investors.

South African production house the Imaginarium has two new projects to be partly financed by its Saffco Fund 55. The Imaginarium head Izidore Codron (Hotel Rwanda, Man to Man) said the fund -- a draw down fund that will provide 55% of a film's funding so long as the money is spent in South Africa -- will finance The Fringe, a $4 million coming-of-age movie about a female South African hip hop group's rags-to-riches rise. The movie is in pre-production to start shooting in South Africa in September. Leading the mostly local cast is Michael Filipowich (Charlie Jade). Additional funding is being provided by several private equity investors.

BERLIN -- French filmmaker Regis Wargnier (East-West, Indochine) has long displayed a fascination for cultural conflict, but in Man to Man, he comes upon a clash of cultures so vastly different and so fundamentally antithetical that only tragedy can result. Based on the more egregious extremes of both the scientific and entertainment communities of the mid-19th century, Man to Man gives us the dismaying spectacle of Victorian Britain's confrontation with African pygmies.

It's a unique look at a staggering example of human ignorance, exploitation and racism. Unfortunately, in the film's second half, another carry-over from the 19th century -- that of overripe melodrama with hiss-able villains, staunch heroes and midnight skullduggery -- emerges. This saps much of the life out of a truly fascinating subject. This is a not unnatural consequence of an approach by filmmakers who do not trust their audience to "get it" without a lot of Hollywood flourishes.

The film thus falls between the camps of intriguing independent filmmaking and commercially calculated entertainment. So despite a cast that includes Joseph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas, the film will challenge its marketers to find an audience curious about the subject yet willing to forgive melodramatic excess.

An 1870 expedition into unexplored Equatorial Africa by ambitious Scottish scientist Jamie Dodd (Fiennes) and entrepreneurial widow Elena van den Ende (Scott Thomas) captures along with wild animals for European zoos a male and female pygmy (played with much dignity by Lomama Boseki and Cecile Bayiha). Like many scientists of that day, Jamie and his colleagues back home -- the imperious Alexander Auchinleck (Iain Glen) and dogged Fraser McBride (Hugh Bonneville) -- are deluded by the theory that pygmies represent a living "missing link" between man and ape.

The two kidnapped Africans survive a rough ocean voyage to the U.K., where they are thrown into a makeshift Scottish prison and poked and prodded as if they were animal specimens. The arrogant Victorians grant no human connection between themselves and these Africans.

The image of local villagers, alarmed at rumors of "savages" in their midst, surging through woods at night guided by lighted torches, can only remind us of the Frankenstein movies of James Whale, still one of cinema's best evocations of science run amok. It's an apt image, for these are truly "mad" scientists, who in their crude study of these two individuals choose to note or ignore only what falls into line with preconceived racist theories.

Then, of course, our hero, Jamie, breaks from the pack. He no longer is willing to disregard clear clues of the pygmies' human emotions and intelligence. Elena is torn, innately sensing what Jamie does but mindful of her financial interest in the pygmies, whom she wants to display in human zoos all over Europe.

In the nearly silent communication between the scientist and his two subjects, the film finds its heart and soul. The actors have only their faces, their eyes, expressions and gestures with which to communicate across such a great divide.

But the break among the scientists gets treated less as a sharp difference of opinion than an opportunity for Wargnier and his co-writer, William Boyd, to indulge in more kidnappings, a false imprisonment, an assassination attempt and a second murderous mob. Exploitation clearly is as much in fashion now as it was in 1870.

The physical aspects of this French-British-South African production are terrific with all the period details in Africa and Europe in place, strongly backed by Patrick Doyle's robust music and cinematographer Laurent Dailland's muted colors for that gas-lit era.

MAN TO MAN

A Vertigo Prods. production in association with Skyline (Man to Man) Ltd./France 2 Cinema France 3 Cinema/Boreales

Credits:

Director: Regis Wargnier

Screenwriters: William Boyd, Regis Wargnier

Based on a story by: Michel Fessler, Frederic Fougea, Regis Wargnier

Producers: Aissa Djabri, Farid Lahouassa

Director of photography: Laurent Dailland

Production designer: Maria Djurkovic

Music: Patrick Doyle

Costumes: Pierre Yves Gayraud

Editor: Yann Malcor

Cast:

Jamie Dodd: Joseph Fiennes

Elena van den Endee: Kristen Scott Thomas

Alexander Auchinleck: Iain Glen

Fraser McBride: Hugh Bonneville

Toko: Lomama Boseki

Likola: Cecile Bayiha

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 122 minutes...

BERLIN -- The 55th Berlin International Film Festival kicked off Thursday with traffic jams, red-carpet glitz and glamor and long lines for accreditation to its sister industry shindig, the European Film Market. A wet and chilly night didn't stop Berlin fans from coming out to see the parade of film celebrities that turned up for the festival's opener, anthropological thriller Man to Man, the English-language debut of French helmer Regis Wargnier, which stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Joseph Fiennes. The Man to Man cast made the trip to Berlin and were joined in the audience by fellow British actors Natasha Richardson and Tilda Swinton, both of whom have films appearing in competition here -- Richardson in David Mackenzie's Asylum and Swinton in Mike Mills' Thumbsucker.

BERLIN -- The 55th Berlin International Film Festival kicked off Thursday with traffic jams, red-carpet glitz and glamor and long lines for accreditation to its sister industry shindig, the European Film Market. A wet and chilly night didn't stop Berlin fans from coming out to see the parade of film celebrities that turned up for the festival's opener, anthropological thriller Man to Man, the English-language debut of French helmer Regis Wargnier, which stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Joseph Fiennes. The Man to Man cast made the trip to Berlin and were joined in the audience by fellow British actors Natasha Richardson and Tilda Swinton, both of whom have films appearing in competition here -- Richardson in David Mackenzie's Asylum and Swinton in Mike Mills' Thumbsucker.

Kinsey, which stars Liam Neeson as the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, is set to close the Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 10-20, sources have confirmed. The Fox Searchlight release will be well at home in the German capital, whose long-standing liberal attitudes toward sexuality have long been reflected in the festival lineup. The move was confirmed Friday. Other titles expected to unspool on Potsdamer Platz during the 10-day event include the Will Smith comedy Hitch, which will screen out of competition. Stars Smith and Eva Mendes also are expected to attend. Other high-profile U.S. productions in competition this year include Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and Terry George's Hotel Rwanda. As previously announced, French helmer Regis Wargnier's Man to Man will open the festival, while German director Roland Emmerich will preside over the jury. Emmerich's debut film Das Arche Noah Prinzip debuted at Berlin in 1984.

Kinsey, which stars Liam Neeson as the pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, is set to close the Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 10-20, sources have confirmed. The Fox Searchlight release will be well at home in the German capital, whose long-standing liberal attitudes toward sexuality have long been reflected in the festival lineup. The move was confirmed Friday. Other titles expected to unspool on Potsdamer Platz during the 10-day event include the Will Smith comedy Hitch, which will screen out of competition. Stars Smith and Eva Mendes also are expected to attend. Other high-profile U.S. productions in competition this year include Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou and Terry George's Hotel Rwanda. As previously announced, French helmer Regis Wargnier's Man to Man will open the festival, while German director Roland Emmerich will preside over the jury. Emmerich's debut film Das Arche Noah Prinzip debuted at Berlin in 1984.

COLOGNE, Germany -- French director Regis Wargnier's anthropological epic Man to Man, starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas, on Tuesday was named the opening film of the 55th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 10-20. Man will have its world premiere Feb. 10 in Berlin and will run in competition at the festival, organizers said. Based on a best seller by William Boyd, who co-wrote the script with Wargnier, Man revolves around a group of 19th century anthropologists who head to South Africa in search of The Missing Link between man and apes. When the group encounters a tribe of pygmies, they capture some to send back to Scotland to be studied. The film also stars Iain Glen, Hugh Bonneville and Flora Montgomery. France's Wild Bunch is handling international sales. Man marks Wargnier's English-language debut. The French helmer won the foreign-language Oscar in 1992 for Indochine.

Man to Man, an anthropological epic from French director Regis Wargnier starring Joseph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas, on Tuesday was named as the opening film of the 55th Berlin International Film Festival. Man to Man will have its world premiere in Berlin Feb. 10 and will run in Competition at the festival, organizers said.