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Nicolas Saada

Nicolas Saada

Directing

Biography

Nicolas Saada (born September 5, 1965) is a French screenwriter, director, producer, and journalist. Saada is renowned for his radio show Nova fait son cinéma, dedicated to film music, which he hosted between 1993 and 2007 on Radio Nova in Paris. He was also program director for Arte's fiction unit between 1992 and 1998, alongside Pierre Chevalier, and worked on over a hundred television films. As a journalist for Cahiers du cinéma (1988-2000), he specialized for many years in American and Asian cinema. In 1999, he co-wrote his first screenplay for a film by Pierre Salvadori, Les Marchands de sable. This was followed by other collaborations with Arnaud Desplechin, among others. In 2004, he directed his first short film, Les Parallèles, which was nominated for a César Award for Best Short Film in 2005. Then in 2009, his first feature film, Spy(s), was released, nominated the same year for the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film and the following year for the César Award for Best First Film. In 2012, he shot the short film Aujourd'hui with Bérénice Bejo and, in a brief appearance, Frederick Wiseman. In 2015, his second feature film, Taj Mahal, shot in India and starring young actress Stacy Martin, was released. The film was selected for the Telluride, Venice, and Ghent Film Festivals.

Known For

Leçon de Cinéma
7.0

No description available.

Leçon de Cinéma

2004
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
7.0

The staff of an American magazine based in France puts out its last issue, with stories featuring an artist sentenced to life imprisonment, student riots, and a kidnapping resolved by a chef.

The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun

2021
The Artist
7.4

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

The Artist

2011
Sleepless
5.9

Undercover Las Vegas police officer Vincent Downs, who has a lot of enemies, is caught in a high stakes web of corrupt cops and the mob-controlled casino underground. When a heist goes wrong, a crew of homicidal gangsters kidnap Downs’ teenage son T. In one sleepless night, Downs will have to rescue his son, evade an internal affairs investigation, and bring the kidnappers to justice.

Sleepless

2017
Hotel Chevalier
6.9

In a Paris hotel room, Jack Whitman lies on a bed. His phone rings; it's a woman on her way to see him, a surprise. She arrives and the complications of their relationship emerge in bits and pieces. Will they make love? Is their relationship over? (A prequel to The Darjeeling Limited, 2007.)

Hotel Chevalier

2007
CQ
5.9

A young filmmaker in 1960s Paris juggles directing a cheesy sci-fi debacle, directing his own personal art film, coping with his crumbling relationship with his girlfriend, and a new-found infatuation with the sci-fi film's starlet.

CQ

2001
Arsène Lupin
5.3

As the daring thief Arsène Lupin ransacks the homes of wealthy Parisians, the police, with a secret weapon in their arsenal, attempt to ferret him out.

Arsène Lupin

2004
Thanksgiving
4.3

Explore the evolution of a couple involved in industrial espionage.

Thanksgiving

2019
Sleepless Night
5.9

Vincent, a police officer, and his partner Manuel steal a large amount of cocaine from José Marciano, a ruthless crime lord who is quick to seek revenge, endangering Vincent's life, career and family.

Sleepless Night

2011
Critic
7.9

Seventy critics and filmmakers discuss cinema around the conflict between the artist and the observer, the creator and the critic. Between 1998 and 2007, Kléber Mendonça Filho recorded testimonies about this relationship in Brazil, the United States and Europe, based on his experience as a critic.

Critic

2008
Maya
5.3

The film follows a 30-year-old man named Gabriel, a French war reporter who was taken to hostage in Syria and then heads to India after months in captivity.

Maya

2018
Frozen Silence
5.1

Russian front, winter 1943. Soldier Arturo Andrade and Sergeant Fernando Espinosa are commissioned to investigate a mysterious murder while the Spanish Blue Division of the German Army endures the fierce counterattack of the Red Army.

Frozen Silence

2012
Taj Mahal
5.2

One evening, while her parents go out for dinner, 18-year-old Louise, alone in her hotel room at Taj Mahal Mumbai, hears strange noises out in the corridor. Within minutes, she realises that a terrorist attack is underway. Her only connection to the outside world is her cell phone, which allows her to maintain contact with her father, who is desperately trying to reach her from the other side of a city that has been plunged into chaos. Louise must spend a long night alone in the face of danger. She will never be the same again.

Taj Mahal

2015
Spy(ies)
5.5

In London, an airport baggage handler is forced by French and British intelligence agents to seduce the wife of a businessman with ties to Syrian terrorists.

Spy(ies)

2009
Playing 'In the Company of Men'
7.3

A troupe of actors rehearse a play. In the play-within-the-film, an ambitious son and his distant father fight for control of an armaments firm and are pushed to eventual destruction by dangerous outside forces and traitorous aides.

Playing 'In the Company of Men'

2003
Big John
7.8

French documentary on the films of John Carpenter

Big John

2006
The Sandmen
6.8

Alain runs Le Detour, a small cafe in Paris where Antoine works. Antoine is reunited with his sister Marie when she's released from prison; they are very close, perhaps abnormally so, but she's not aware that Antoine has fallen into cahoots with Stephane, who works as a waiter at another cafe. Damien, a local businessman, is pressuring Alain to expand Le Detour, and cut his nephew Xavier in for a percentage as a manager. While Alain waffles on Damien's proposal, Xavier offers Antoine a chance to make some money under the table by delivering some drugs to a cadre of dealers. Antoine makes the drop and picks up the payment, but runs off with the money rather than bringing it back to Xavier, which proves to have tragic consequences for Antoine and his friends.

The Sandmen

2000
No image
6.0

Paris, today. A corrupt businessman, Duchey, returns to France to confront the justice of his country. But his return to his homeland will cause the turmoil of three individuals.

Les parallèles

2004
Dissonances
6.3

Nat drives on the interstate with his two young daughters in the back seats, when a car drives by and an unknown guy shoots one of his daughters dead for no reason. Nat's life is shattered. He becomes obsessed with finding the killers, assaults two men, kills one, goes to jail, is left by his wife, grows old estranged from his other daughter. We see the action first through Nat's eyes, then via Brautigan, the cop in charge of the investigation, and finally from the perspective of the remaining daughter Margo. The deconstructed narrative echoes the chaos within Nat and emphasizes the fact that the characters are out of tune with one another, which is the meaning of the original title.

Dissonances

2004
No image
1.5

A short film by Nicolas Saada.

Aujourd'hui

2012