The Match Factory has acquired international rights to Russian director Victor Kossakovsky’s new documentary Architecton ahead of its Berlinale world premiere.
The film project follows the filmmaker’s farmyard doc Gunda, which played in Berlinale Encounters in 2020, and Aquerala, which world premiered Out of Competition In Venice in 2018.
The Match Factory describes Kossakovsky’s new film as “an epic, intimate and poetic meditation” on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal mankind’s present destruction.
Focusing on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele de Lucci, Kossakovsky reflects on the rise and fall of civilizations, using imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to Ad 60, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in early 2023.
“Victor Kossakosvsky possesses the remarkable ability to amplify seldom-heard voices on the screen. Demonstrating his mastery in previous works like Gunda and Aquarela,...
The film project follows the filmmaker’s farmyard doc Gunda, which played in Berlinale Encounters in 2020, and Aquerala, which world premiered Out of Competition In Venice in 2018.
The Match Factory describes Kossakovsky’s new film as “an epic, intimate and poetic meditation” on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal mankind’s present destruction.
Focusing on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele de Lucci, Kossakovsky reflects on the rise and fall of civilizations, using imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to Ad 60, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in early 2023.
“Victor Kossakosvsky possesses the remarkable ability to amplify seldom-heard voices on the screen. Demonstrating his mastery in previous works like Gunda and Aquarela,...
- 1/31/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The Match Factory has acquired the international rights to the Russian director Victor Kossakovsky’s documentary “Architecton,” which world premieres in the competition section of the Berlinale. A24 financed the film and will distribute it in North America.
“Architecton” follows Kossakovsky’s highly acclaimed “Gunda,” which played in Berlinale Encounters in 2020, and “Aquarela,” which screened in Venice’s out of competition section in 2018.
“Architecton” is described as “an epic, intimate and poetic meditation on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal our destruction — and offer hope for survival and a way forward.”
The film centers on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele de Lucci, which Kossakovsky uses to reflect on the rise and fall of civilizations. He captures breathtaking imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to 60 Ad, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following...
“Architecton” follows Kossakovsky’s highly acclaimed “Gunda,” which played in Berlinale Encounters in 2020, and “Aquarela,” which screened in Venice’s out of competition section in 2018.
“Architecton” is described as “an epic, intimate and poetic meditation on architecture and how the design and construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal our destruction — and offer hope for survival and a way forward.”
The film centers on a landscape project by the Italian architect Michele de Lucci, which Kossakovsky uses to reflect on the rise and fall of civilizations. He captures breathtaking imagery from the temple ruins of Baalbek in Lebanon, dating back to 60 Ad, to the recent destruction of cities in Turkey following...
- 1/31/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The Match Factory has acquired international sales rights to Russian director Victor Kossakovsky’s documentary Architecton which world premieres next month in the Berlinale’s Competition section
Architecton is billed as a meditation on architecture and how the design and the construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal our destruction — and offer hope for survival and a way forward.
Kossakovsky’s previous films include 2020 Berlinale Encounters title Gunda and Aquarela, which played out of competition at Venice in 2018.
Architecton is produced by Heino Deckert for Germany’s Ma.ja.de. A24 financed and will distribute the film in North America.
Architecton is billed as a meditation on architecture and how the design and the construction of buildings from the ancient past reveal our destruction — and offer hope for survival and a way forward.
Kossakovsky’s previous films include 2020 Berlinale Encounters title Gunda and Aquarela, which played out of competition at Venice in 2018.
Architecton is produced by Heino Deckert for Germany’s Ma.ja.de. A24 financed and will distribute the film in North America.
- 1/31/2024
- ScreenDaily
A Different Man.The Berlinale have begun to announce the first few titles selected for the 74th edition of their festival, set to take place from February 15 through 21, 2024. This page will be updated as further sections are announced.COMPETITIONAnother End (Piero Messina)Architecton (Victor Kossakovsky)Black Tea (Abderrahmane Sissako)La Cocina (Alonso Ruiz Palacios) Dahomey (Mati Diop)A Different Man (Aaron Schimberg)The Empire (Bruno Dumont)Gloria! (Margherita Vicario)Suspended Time (Olivier Assayas)From Hilde, With Love (Andreas Dresen)My Favourite CakeLangue Etrangère (Claire Berger)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)Who Do I Belong To (Meryam Joobeur)Pepe (Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias)Shambhala (Min Bahadur Bham)Sterben (Matthias Glasner)Small Things Like These (Tim Mielants)A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sang-soo)Sleep With Your Eyes Open. ENCOUNTERSArcadia (Yorgos Zois)Cidade; Campo (Juliana Rojas)Demba (Mamadou Dia)Direct ActionSleep With Your Eyes Open (Nele Wohlatz)The Fable (Raam Reddy...
- 1/23/2024
- MUBI
Berlinale co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek are going out with a bang in their final year, with a lineup unveiled today featuring the latest works by Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Mati Diop, Hong Sang-soo, Abderrahmane Sissako, Jane Schoenbrun, Alonso Ruizpalacios, Matias Pineiro, Travis Wilkerson, Kazik Radwanski, Annie Baker, and more.
When the co-directors were asked by Screen Daily about their departure, Chatrian said, “It’s quite simple. Mariette and I had a mandate of five years. It is true that at the beginning I said that I was willing to go on because there was a shared will with the [German] Ministry [of Culture] to go on. But then the people who have the responsibility to see the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone. And that was the decision of the Ministry.
When the co-directors were asked by Screen Daily about their departure, Chatrian said, “It’s quite simple. Mariette and I had a mandate of five years. It is true that at the beginning I said that I was willing to go on because there was a shared will with the [German] Ministry [of Culture] to go on. But then the people who have the responsibility to see the future of the Berlinale thought this structure of two leaders was not the right one and I don’t consider myself able to run the festival alone. And that was the decision of the Ministry.
- 1/22/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The Berlinale has completed the lineup for its Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum expanded sections, with new films from Levan Akin and Andre Techine, plus the debut feature of US playwright Annie Baker.
Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.
Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features
Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...
Swedish filmmaker Akin, who scored an international hit in 2019 with And Then We Danced, will open the Panorama strand with Crossing, about two people travelling from Georgia to Istanbul in search of a young transgender woman.
Scroll down for the full list of Panorama, Generation and Forum features
Also among the 31 films in Panorama are My New Friends from French filmmaker Techine, starring Isabelle Hupert, Hafsia Herzi...
- 1/17/2024
- by Ben Dalton¬Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin International Film Festival has made a series of additions to its 2022 program, including unveiling the Books At Berlinale industry event lineup and a selection of films for the Forum strand.
As reported yesterday, the festival is slimming down the core days of its film program this year, with all premieres taking place February 10-16, and repeat screenings running 17-20. Cinemas will also be at 50% capacity, among other restrictions.
Also announced yesterday was the opening film, François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant.
Today, the fest has revealed the 10 books that will take part in Books At Berlinale this year, which is part of the Co-Production market and will thus run virtually as per the rest of the industry activity in the European Film Market.
Berlin has also announced a selection of titles in its Forum Special titles, including films that continue the Fiktionsbescheinigung series that began as part of...
As reported yesterday, the festival is slimming down the core days of its film program this year, with all premieres taking place February 10-16, and repeat screenings running 17-20. Cinemas will also be at 50% capacity, among other restrictions.
Also announced yesterday was the opening film, François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant.
Today, the fest has revealed the 10 books that will take part in Books At Berlinale this year, which is part of the Co-Production market and will thus run virtually as per the rest of the industry activity in the European Film Market.
Berlin has also announced a selection of titles in its Forum Special titles, including films that continue the Fiktionsbescheinigung series that began as part of...
- 1/13/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
IIf some of the most consequential filmmakers of contemporary German cinema, such as Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, and Thomas Arslan, to cite but a few names that are inevitably lumped together under the loosely defined term “Berlin School,” work primarily in fiction to probe in very different ways the realities of post-unification Germany, then undoubtedly one of the most significant voices working in documentary to do the same is Thomas Heise. However, unlike, for example, Petzold and Schanelec, both of whom recently enjoyed full retrospectives at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, Heise, who has been steadily making films for over three decades, has until now not enjoyed the kind of wider exposure to North American audiences that he rightly deserves. Therefore, the theatrical release of his latest film, Heimat is a Space in Time (2019), a brilliant, expansive essay that uncovers the ineradicable linkages between personal biography and national...
- 3/12/2020
- MUBI
Mother May I Sleep with Martyr?: Gebbe Dresses in Distress with Maternal Drama
It’s always lamentable to find a charismatic actor stymied by a poorly realized narrative, especially when their performance has the power to elevate a film’s faultier foundations. Such is the case with the effervescent Nina Hoss, one of German cinema’s most revered contemporary performers and arguably the visual forefront of the Berlin School thanks to her collaborations with Christian Petzold and Thomas Arslan. She headlines the sophomore feature from Katrin Gebbe in Pelican Blood, a film thematically similar to her grueling 2013 debut Nothing Bad Can Happen (review), as both relish in excessive, overwrought narrative ploys from lead characters who are gluttons for pain and suffering.…...
It’s always lamentable to find a charismatic actor stymied by a poorly realized narrative, especially when their performance has the power to elevate a film’s faultier foundations. Such is the case with the effervescent Nina Hoss, one of German cinema’s most revered contemporary performers and arguably the visual forefront of the Berlin School thanks to her collaborations with Christian Petzold and Thomas Arslan. She headlines the sophomore feature from Katrin Gebbe in Pelican Blood, a film thematically similar to her grueling 2013 debut Nothing Bad Can Happen (review), as both relish in excessive, overwrought narrative ploys from lead characters who are gluttons for pain and suffering.…...
- 9/9/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
As Giovanni Marchini Camia notes in this valuable, context-providing review/interview of I Was at Home, But…, Angela Schanelec’s fourth feature, 2001’s Passing Summer, was the first to give rise (in a Die Zeit review) to the term “Berlin School,” an imprecise but generally accepted designation for contemporaries including Christian Petzold, Maren Ade, Ulrich Köhler, Christoph Hochhäusler, Thomas Arslan et al. As Camia also notes, Schanelec’s relationship to this term is tense; her work is the most overtly severe, and it’s taken her longer to break through than her highest-profile peers. Internationally, Schanelec didn’t receive significant recognition until her ninth feature, 2016’s The Dreamed Path, until […]...
- 9/6/2019
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
As Giovanni Marchini Camia notes in this valuable, context-providing review/interview of I Was at Home, But…, Angela Schanelec’s fourth feature, 2001’s Passing Summer, was the first to give rise (in a Die Zeit review) to the term “Berlin School,” an imprecise but generally accepted designation for contemporaries including Christian Petzold, Maren Ade, Ulrich Köhler, Christoph Hochhäusler, Thomas Arslan et al. As Camia also notes, Schanelec’s relationship to this term is tense; her work is the most overtly severe, and it’s taken her longer to break through than her highest-profile peers. Internationally, Schanelec didn’t receive significant recognition until her ninth feature, 2016’s The Dreamed Path, until […]...
- 9/6/2019
- by Vadim Rizov
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Everyone ElseThe so-called “Berlin School” has gone from strength to strength in recent years. This new wave of precise, formalist cinema has been noteworthy for several reasons, one of them being the fact that most of its practitioners are currently making their best, most fully realized works to date. Despite a critical tendency, across virtually all media, to make a fetish of the “early work,” there appears to be a consensus that these German auteurs are working at the height of their powers.This certainly accounts for the significantly heightened profile of several of the Berlin School filmmakers in recent years. In a rare conjunction between critics and the film business, more and more of these films are being distributed in North America and being seen by not-inconsiderable groups of viewers. Thus far, the highest profile film from the “movement” over here has been Maren Ade’s oddball comedy Toni Erdmann,...
- 5/7/2019
- MUBI
Christian Petzold’s latest film Transit—his third consecutive period piece, second successive literary adaptation, and first theatrical feature to not star Nina Hoss in quite some time—continues what might be described as the German director’s ongoing European project. It is telling that the title of his 2000 feature The State I Am In, after which last year’s New York retrospective of his work was named, suggests a filmmaker concerned with taking the pulse of a nation. Adapted from Anna Seghers’s 1942 novel of the same name, drawn from the writer’s experience of fleeing to Mexico during World War II, Transit completes Petzold’s self-dubbed “Love in Times of Oppressive Systems” trilogy, comprised of the 1980s spy-melodrama Barbara (2012) and his post-wwii Vertigo-facelift Phoenix (2014). From its first frame, though, one would be forgiven for echoing the enduring refrain of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)—for though...
- 3/1/2019
- MUBI
Aside from their Berlinale Panel on the Perspectives of Young Filmmakers, Dffb had one of the most fun parties of the festival as the school’s director Ben Gibson and the staff mingled with film students and young filmmakers from around the world.
Berlinale Panel on the perspectives of young filmmakers covered such issues as:
What are the possibilities for up-and-coming producers to establish themselves independently on the market beyond the first and second films? What are the biggest obstacles? What do the young people’s promotion strategies of the different actors do? Which changes are necessary? And last but not least: How important is the offspring for the future of the German film industry and for German film?
The panel engaged in dialogue about the current status quo and exchanged perspectives, and also developed ideas that could give young talent the opportunities to shape the industry in the future creatively.
Berlinale Panel on the perspectives of young filmmakers covered such issues as:
What are the possibilities for up-and-coming producers to establish themselves independently on the market beyond the first and second films? What are the biggest obstacles? What do the young people’s promotion strategies of the different actors do? Which changes are necessary? And last but not least: How important is the offspring for the future of the German film industry and for German film?
The panel engaged in dialogue about the current status quo and exchanged perspectives, and also developed ideas that could give young talent the opportunities to shape the industry in the future creatively.
- 2/18/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)
In the Taliban-controlled Afghan city of Kabul, Nora Twomey’s debut film as sole director (she co-helmed Oscar nominee The Secret of Kells) depicts an eleven-year old girl facing the futility her future inevitably holds. Adapted by Anita Doron from the award-winning novel by Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner delivers a heart-wrenching coming-of-age tale within a nation that’s lost its way. The shift was virtually...
The Breadwinner (Nora Twomey)
In the Taliban-controlled Afghan city of Kabul, Nora Twomey’s debut film as sole director (she co-helmed Oscar nominee The Secret of Kells) depicts an eleven-year old girl facing the futility her future inevitably holds. Adapted by Anita Doron from the award-winning novel by Deborah Ellis, The Breadwinner delivers a heart-wrenching coming-of-age tale within a nation that’s lost its way. The shift was virtually...
- 2/23/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Christian Petzold's The State I Am In (2000) and Christoph Hochhäusler's The City Below (2010) will be showing in September and October, 2017 on Mubi in most countries around the world.Christian Petzold (left) and Christoph Hochhäusler (right) on the set of Dreileben. Photo by Felix von Böhm.We meet in Christian Petzold’s office in Berlin-Kreuzberg. A giant wall of whispering books, almost like a Borgesian brain of fiction, encircles the table at which Christoph Hochhäusler, myself and the owner take place to discuss their films. The idea of the interview was to get Petzold’s take on Hochhäusler’s The City Below (2010) and Hochhäusler’s take on Petzold’s The State I Am In (2000). In the end, both filmmakers ended up talking about a lot more, as cinema for them has always been something that shines most brightly when remembering it, discussing it and loving it. The fictions proposed...
- 9/20/2017
- MUBI
Christian Petzold's The State I Am In (2000) and Christoph Hochhäusler's The City Below (2010) will be showing in September and October, 2017 on Mubi in most countries around the world.How can we hang on to a dreamHow can it, will it be the way it seems—Tim Hardin, “How Can We Hang On to a Dream”“When you live in no man’s land, you get stuck with your memories.”—Clara, The State I Am In1. Lovers go on the run while a teenager falls in love. Christian Petzold’s first theatrical feature, The State I Am In (2000), tells two stories simultaneously: that of Hans (Richy Müller) and Clara (Barbara Auer), fugitives pursued by German authorities, and that of their long-suffering daughter Jeanne (Julia Hummer)—who is downcast from the film’s opening scene, in which she meets a German boy named Heinrich (Bilge Bingül) at the beach.Though...
- 9/14/2017
- MUBI
Exclusive: Festival winners sell to Europe, Asia, Australia and South America.
Art-house stalwart The Match Factory has secured a slew of deals on its Berlinale and Efm slate, including on the three films which won awards for the company at the festival.
Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side Of Hope, winner of the Silver Bear for best director, sold out in Europe during the Efm and has additionally been snapped up for Japan (Eurospace), Brazil (Imovision), Cis (Russian Report) Hong Kong (Edko), Mexico (Mantarraya) Turkey (Filmarti) and China (Time-in-Portrait).
Deals for other key markets are understood to be in the works while deals for the digitally remastered Kaurismäki Classics collection have been closed for China (Time-in-Portrait) and Hong Kong (Edko).
German comedy Bye Bye Germany, the Berlinale special title starring Moritz Bleibtreu, went to Australia/Nz (Jiff), Brazil (Mares), Bulgaria (Bulgarian Film Vision), China (Time-in-Portait), Cis (Russian Report), Greece (Feelgood), Turkey (Filmarti), Hong Kong (Edko), Hungary (Cirko...
Art-house stalwart The Match Factory has secured a slew of deals on its Berlinale and Efm slate, including on the three films which won awards for the company at the festival.
Aki Kaurismäki’s The Other Side Of Hope, winner of the Silver Bear for best director, sold out in Europe during the Efm and has additionally been snapped up for Japan (Eurospace), Brazil (Imovision), Cis (Russian Report) Hong Kong (Edko), Mexico (Mantarraya) Turkey (Filmarti) and China (Time-in-Portrait).
Deals for other key markets are understood to be in the works while deals for the digitally remastered Kaurismäki Classics collection have been closed for China (Time-in-Portrait) and Hong Kong (Edko).
German comedy Bye Bye Germany, the Berlinale special title starring Moritz Bleibtreu, went to Australia/Nz (Jiff), Brazil (Mares), Bulgaria (Bulgarian Film Vision), China (Time-in-Portait), Cis (Russian Report), Greece (Feelgood), Turkey (Filmarti), Hong Kong (Edko), Hungary (Cirko...
- 2/24/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
The 67th Berlin International Film Festival has come to a close, and winners have been selected for top prizes. The international jury this year included president Paul Verhoeven, Dora Bouchoucha Fourati, Olafur Eliasson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Julia Jentsch, Diego Luna, and Wang Quan’an.
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Berlinale Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Check out the full list below:
*Golden Bear for Best Film:
“Testről és lélekről” (“On Body and Soul”)
by Ildikó Enyedi
Producers: Monika Mécs, András Muhi, Ernő Mesterházy
*Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
“Félicité”
by Alain Gomis
*Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize
“Pokot” (“Spoor”)
by Agnieszka Holland
*Silver Bear for Best Director
Aki Kaurismäki
for “Toivon tuolla puolen” (“The Other Side of Hope”)
*Silver Bear for Best Actress
Kim Minhee
in “Bamui haebyun-eoseo honja” (“On the Beach at Night Alone”)
by Hong Sang-soo
*Silver Bear for Best Actor
Georg Friedrich
in...
Read More: The 2017 IndieWire Berlinale Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
Check out the full list below:
*Golden Bear for Best Film:
“Testről és lélekről” (“On Body and Soul”)
by Ildikó Enyedi
Producers: Monika Mécs, András Muhi, Ernő Mesterházy
*Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
“Félicité”
by Alain Gomis
*Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize
“Pokot” (“Spoor”)
by Agnieszka Holland
*Silver Bear for Best Director
Aki Kaurismäki
for “Toivon tuolla puolen” (“The Other Side of Hope”)
*Silver Bear for Best Actress
Kim Minhee
in “Bamui haebyun-eoseo honja” (“On the Beach at Night Alone”)
by Hong Sang-soo
*Silver Bear for Best Actor
Georg Friedrich
in...
- 2/18/2017
- by William Earl
- Indiewire
On Body And Soul took home the Golden Bear Photo: Courtesy Of the Berlin Film Festival
Hungarian drama On Body And Soul (Testrol es lelkrol), directed by Ildiko Enyedi's, won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival tonight.
The offbeat love story, set in a slaughterhouse, had earlier taken a Fipresci critics prize and two other accolades from the independent juries.
The Silver Bear grand jury prize went to Alain Gomis's Kinshasa-set drama Félicité and the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize for a feature film that opens new perspectives went to Agnieszka Holland's Spoor.
Aki Kaurismaki was named best director for The Other Side of Hope, which tells the blackly comic tale of an illegal emigre in Finland.
The best actress Silver Bear went to Kim Min-hee, star for her performance in Hang Sangsoo's On the Beach at Night Alone, while Georg Friedrich...
Hungarian drama On Body And Soul (Testrol es lelkrol), directed by Ildiko Enyedi's, won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival tonight.
The offbeat love story, set in a slaughterhouse, had earlier taken a Fipresci critics prize and two other accolades from the independent juries.
The Silver Bear grand jury prize went to Alain Gomis's Kinshasa-set drama Félicité and the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize for a feature film that opens new perspectives went to Agnieszka Holland's Spoor.
Aki Kaurismaki was named best director for The Other Side of Hope, which tells the blackly comic tale of an illegal emigre in Finland.
The best actress Silver Bear went to Kim Min-hee, star for her performance in Hang Sangsoo's On the Beach at Night Alone, while Georg Friedrich...
- 2/18/2017
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
If the artistic lovechild of Robert Bresson and Jean-Luc Godard was raised in Germany and helped spawn the first wave of the Berlin School, it would be artist Angela Schanelec.
Opposite Christian Petzold and Thomas Arslan, Schanelec would, after starting her film career making shorts in the early 1990’s, jump onto the world stage with her second feature, 1998’s Places In Cities. Becoming a mainstay on the world cinema scene, Schanelec is a relative unknown stateside.
However, that will hopefully change as more people begin seeing her latest and arguably greatest work, The Dreamed Path. A deeply moving yet almost bewilderingly quiet and mannered, Path is a diptych, introducing us to two couples, 30 years apart.
First we meet Theres and Kenneth, two attractive young people in the throes of love and a vacation in Greece. We watch as life itself begins weighing on each half of this relationship, with the...
Opposite Christian Petzold and Thomas Arslan, Schanelec would, after starting her film career making shorts in the early 1990’s, jump onto the world stage with her second feature, 1998’s Places In Cities. Becoming a mainstay on the world cinema scene, Schanelec is a relative unknown stateside.
However, that will hopefully change as more people begin seeing her latest and arguably greatest work, The Dreamed Path. A deeply moving yet almost bewilderingly quiet and mannered, Path is a diptych, introducing us to two couples, 30 years apart.
First we meet Theres and Kenneth, two attractive young people in the throes of love and a vacation in Greece. We watch as life itself begins weighing on each half of this relationship, with the...
- 2/17/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Thomas Arslan’s flaccid anti-Western Gold, which screened here in Competition four years ago, spoiled what could have been a brilliant hat-trick for the Berlin School alumnus following Vacation and In the Shadows. With Bright Nights he’s back in great form, once again showcasing his flair for precise, intimately scaled dramas. Like his compatriot Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, a quick synopsis of Arslan’s film makes it sound like standard feel-good Hollywood fare: after his estranged father dies, the protagonist Michael decides to try and reconnect with his own teenage son Luis, whom he barely knows, and takes him on a road trip, embarking on a journey towards […]...
- 2/16/2017
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveriesNEWSThe Summer Is GoneCineuropa reports on an open letter of protest by "500 Portuguese and international personalities from the film industry" over "a new amendment to the [Portuguese] film law, which relieves national film body the Ica of the responsibility of choosing the juries for the institution’s financial support schemes." The proposed shift in approval power is a significant one, and the protest has drawn signatures from such figures as Leos Garax, Pedro Almodóvar, Aki Kaurismäki.The lineup for New Directors/New Films, New York's annual collaboration between the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art, is announced and looks great, including Notebook favorites Person to Person (Dustin Guy Defa), Arábia (João Dumans & Affonso Uchoa), The Dreamed Path (Angela Schenelac), The Future Perfect (Nele Wohlatz), and The Summer Is Gone (Dalei Zhang). Recommended VIEWINGThe trailer for It Comes At Night,...
- 2/15/2017
- MUBI
Debuts today include Thomas Arslan’s Bright Nights and Sabu’s Mr Long.
As the 67th Berlin Film Festival’s competition crosses the halfway point, Sebastian Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman continues to lead the way on Screen’s Jury Grid, and is the only film to clock up more than three stars from a possible four.
Debuts on the grid today included Sally Potter’s The Party, which notched a 2.0 rating.
The film divided Screen’s jury of international critics, with the UK’s Tim Robey, Germany’s Verena Lueken and Screen’s own critics all awarding it an impressive three-stars, while France’s Sebastian Jedor gave the film no stars.
Thomas Arslan’s Bright Nights, debuting today, also notched up a 2.0 score. Sabu’s Mr Long was the strongest new entrant with a 2.3 rating.
Screening today are Aki Kaurismaki’s The Other Side Of Hope and Andres Veiel’s Beuys. The competition...
As the 67th Berlin Film Festival’s competition crosses the halfway point, Sebastian Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman continues to lead the way on Screen’s Jury Grid, and is the only film to clock up more than three stars from a possible four.
Debuts on the grid today included Sally Potter’s The Party, which notched a 2.0 rating.
The film divided Screen’s jury of international critics, with the UK’s Tim Robey, Germany’s Verena Lueken and Screen’s own critics all awarding it an impressive three-stars, while France’s Sebastian Jedor gave the film no stars.
Thomas Arslan’s Bright Nights, debuting today, also notched up a 2.0 score. Sabu’s Mr Long was the strongest new entrant with a 2.3 rating.
Screening today are Aki Kaurismaki’s The Other Side Of Hope and Andres Veiel’s Beuys. The competition...
- 2/14/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
As the ice flows thaw in the 24-hour daylight of a northern Norwegian summer, so too does the relationship of a father and son in Thomas Arslan’s Bright Nights, a consciously meditative but rather straightforward three-act road movie that takes just the bare minimum of plot points along for the ride. Combining an ambient use of imagery and music with a simple and sparse approach to dialogue, Arslan’s seventh feature as director might remind the viewer of the work of a small group of American independent filmmakers who broke out in the mid-to-late 2000s who were, at the time, collectively referred to as the neo-neo-realists by New York Times critic A.O. Scott. Indeed, you can see much of the work of Ramin Bahrani and Kelly Reichardt on display here, though, crucially, not their most profound gift as filmmakers: being able to divulge a great deal about a character...
- 2/13/2017
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
An emotionally closed-off German father and his sullen teenage son traipse about northern Norway in Bright Nights (Helle Nachte), a film in which the near-barren landscapes are not quite as empty as the characters. This is director Thomas Arslan’s follow-up to his Bratwurst Western Gold, which played in competition in Berlin in 2013, though at least that film had some genre elements it could tip its hat to; here it's just a long trudge to nowhere with a mulish refusal to explain anything or let any soupcon of narrative, character development or backstory spoil the pristine landscapes.
Arslan’s films have...
Arslan’s films have...
- 2/13/2017
- by Boyd van Hoeij
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Seven titles have registered scores, with Sebastián Lelio’s transgender drama leading the way so far.
Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) - about a transgender woman who deals with persecution following the death of her lover - is the early frontrunner on Screen’s 2017 Berlinale Jury Grid, comprised of scores from Screen’s jury of international critics.
Sony Pictures Classics acquired North America, Australia and New Zealand rights to the title in one of the festival’s splashier deals to date.
The jury awarded it a healthy 3.2 out of a possible 4, though two scores are yet to be registered.
Sitting in second position is Agnieszka Holland’s small-town mystery-thriller Spoor, after scoring 2.8 on the grid.
Titles playing in competition tomorrow include Thomas Arslan’s Bright Nights, Sally Potter’s The Party, and Sabu’s Mr Long.
Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) - about a transgender woman who deals with persecution following the death of her lover - is the early frontrunner on Screen’s 2017 Berlinale Jury Grid, comprised of scores from Screen’s jury of international critics.
Sony Pictures Classics acquired North America, Australia and New Zealand rights to the title in one of the festival’s splashier deals to date.
The jury awarded it a healthy 3.2 out of a possible 4, though two scores are yet to be registered.
Sitting in second position is Agnieszka Holland’s small-town mystery-thriller Spoor, after scoring 2.8 on the grid.
Titles playing in competition tomorrow include Thomas Arslan’s Bright Nights, Sally Potter’s The Party, and Sabu’s Mr Long.
- 2/13/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: German sales agent boards next project from the director of Phoenix [pictured].
The Match Factory has boarded international sales for Christian Petzold’s next feature Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
Paula Beer, who won the best newcomer award at Venice last year for iFrancois Ozon’s Frantz, and Franz Rogowski (Tiger Girl) lead the cast on the film, which will begin a 40-day shoot in Marseilles from mid-May.
Transit will mark the 11th collaboration between Petzold and Berlin-based production company Schramm Film after such films as The State I Am In, Yella, Barbara and Phoenix. Schramm Film is in this year’s Competition with Thomas Arslan’s road movie Bright Lights, which is also handled by The Match Factory.
Transit has received €500,000 funding from the German-French Funding Committee and €350,000 from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Marseille-based Neon is on board as co-producer and Piffl...
The Match Factory has boarded international sales for Christian Petzold’s next feature Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
Paula Beer, who won the best newcomer award at Venice last year for iFrancois Ozon’s Frantz, and Franz Rogowski (Tiger Girl) lead the cast on the film, which will begin a 40-day shoot in Marseilles from mid-May.
Transit will mark the 11th collaboration between Petzold and Berlin-based production company Schramm Film after such films as The State I Am In, Yella, Barbara and Phoenix. Schramm Film is in this year’s Competition with Thomas Arslan’s road movie Bright Lights, which is also handled by The Match Factory.
Transit has received €500,000 funding from the German-French Funding Committee and €350,000 from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Marseille-based Neon is on board as co-producer and Piffl...
- 2/13/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the festival in Out Of Competition berths are Stanley Tucci-directed Final Portrait and Catherine Deneuve drama Sage Femme.
James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z will have its interntional premiere while documentary The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov will have its world premiere.
Among TV world premieres are Amazon’s Patriot and BBC One’s SS-gb.
In total, 18 of the 24 films selected for Competitionwill be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year...
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the festival in Out Of Competition berths are Stanley Tucci-directed Final Portrait and Catherine Deneuve drama Sage Femme.
James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z will have its interntional premiere while documentary The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov will have its world premiere.
Among TV world premieres are Amazon’s Patriot and BBC One’s SS-gb.
In total, 18 of the 24 films selected for Competitionwill be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year...
- 1/20/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the competition are
18 of the 24 films selected for Competition will be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
The Berlinale Special will present recent works by contemporary filmmakers, documentaries, and extraordinary formats, as well as brand new series from around the world.
Berlinale Special Galas will be held at the Friedrichstadt-Palast and Zoo Palast. Other Special premieres will take place at the Kino International. Moderated discussions will follow the screenings at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year. Audiences...
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the competition are
18 of the 24 films selected for Competition will be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
The Berlinale Special will present recent works by contemporary filmmakers, documentaries, and extraordinary formats, as well as brand new series from around the world.
Berlinale Special Galas will be held at the Friedrichstadt-Palast and Zoo Palast. Other Special premieres will take place at the Kino International. Moderated discussions will follow the screenings at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year. Audiences...
- 1/20/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin International Film Festival announced 13 additions to its 2017 line-up, including the international premiere of Danny Boyle’s hotly anticipated “Trainspotting” follow-up, “Trainspotting: T2,” and the world premiere of James Mangold’s “Logan,” the third in the growing “Wolverine” franchise, starring Hugh Jackman. Both films will play out of competition.
Read More: ‘Logan’ Trailer: Hugh Jackman’s Final Wolverine Movie Mixes The Superhero Genre With The Western
Hong Sangsoo’s “On the Beach Alone at Night” will make its world premiere at the festival, the latest from the idiosyncratic Korean director whose last film, “Right Now, Wrong Then,” garnered attention at festivals in 2016.
Other promising titles include the world premiere of “The Tin Drum” director Volker Schlöndorff’s “Return To Montauk,” starring Stellan Skarsgård, and “Viceroy’s House,” a period drama from the woman behind “Bend it Like Beckham,” Gurinder Chadha. The Austrian actor Josef Hader also will make...
Read More: ‘Logan’ Trailer: Hugh Jackman’s Final Wolverine Movie Mixes The Superhero Genre With The Western
Hong Sangsoo’s “On the Beach Alone at Night” will make its world premiere at the festival, the latest from the idiosyncratic Korean director whose last film, “Right Now, Wrong Then,” garnered attention at festivals in 2016.
Other promising titles include the world premiere of “The Tin Drum” director Volker Schlöndorff’s “Return To Montauk,” starring Stellan Skarsgård, and “Viceroy’s House,” a period drama from the woman behind “Bend it Like Beckham,” Gurinder Chadha. The Austrian actor Josef Hader also will make...
- 1/10/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
X-Men spinoff and Trainspotting sequel to play Out of Competition.
A further 13 films have been invited to screen in the Competition and Berlinale Special section at the 67th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival.
The festival has added commercial clout to its Out Of Competition lineup in the shape of Danny Boyle’s T2 Trainspotting and X-Men spinoff Logan.
There are also competition berths for new films by Hong Sangsoo, Thomas Arslan, Volker Schlöndorff, Sabu, Álex de la Iglesia and Josef Hader.
Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha’s latest, Viceroy’s House, will have its world premiere out of competition at the festival. Starring Hugh Bonneville alongside Gillian Anderson, the period drama set in 1947 India depicts Lord Mountbatten, the man charged with handing India back to its people.
Also having its world premiered out of competition will be Álex de la Iglesia’s The Bar, a comedy-thriller about a group of strangers who get...
A further 13 films have been invited to screen in the Competition and Berlinale Special section at the 67th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival.
The festival has added commercial clout to its Out Of Competition lineup in the shape of Danny Boyle’s T2 Trainspotting and X-Men spinoff Logan.
There are also competition berths for new films by Hong Sangsoo, Thomas Arslan, Volker Schlöndorff, Sabu, Álex de la Iglesia and Josef Hader.
Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinder Chadha’s latest, Viceroy’s House, will have its world premiere out of competition at the festival. Starring Hugh Bonneville alongside Gillian Anderson, the period drama set in 1947 India depicts Lord Mountbatten, the man charged with handing India back to its people.
Also having its world premiered out of competition will be Álex de la Iglesia’s The Bar, a comedy-thriller about a group of strangers who get...
- 1/10/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman) tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
After an initial line-up that included Aki Kaurismäki‘s The Other Side of Hope, Oren Moverman‘s Richard Gere-led The Dinner, Sally Potter‘s The Party, and Agnieszka Holland‘s Spoor, the Berlin International Film Festival have added more anticipated premieres. Highlights include one of two (maybe three) new Hong Sang-soo films this year, On the Beach at Night Alone, along with Volker Schlöndorff‘s Return to Montauk with Stellan Skarsgård and Nina Hoss, as well as the high-profile world premiere of James Mangold‘s Logan and the international premiere of Danny Boyle‘s T2: Trainspotting.
With Paul Verhoeven serving as jury president for the 67th edition of the festival, check out the new additions below.
Competition
Bamui haebyun-eoseo honja (On the Beach at Night Alone)
South Korea
By Hong Sangsoo (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Right Now, Wrong Then)
With Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Jung Jaeyoung, Moon Sungkeun,...
With Paul Verhoeven serving as jury president for the 67th edition of the festival, check out the new additions below.
Competition
Bamui haebyun-eoseo honja (On the Beach at Night Alone)
South Korea
By Hong Sangsoo (Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, Right Now, Wrong Then)
With Kim Minhee, Seo Younghwa, Jung Jaeyoung, Moon Sungkeun,...
- 1/10/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This was a busy year at Tiff, where I was a juror for Fipresci, helping to award a prize for best premiere in the Discovery section. Not only did this mean that some other films had to take a back burner—sadly, I did not see Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge—but my writing time was a bit compromised as well. Better late than never? That is for you, Gentle Reader, to decide.Austerlitz (Sergei Loznitsa, Germany)So basic in the telling—a record of several days’ worth of visitors mostly to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienberg, Germany—Austerlitz is a film that in many ways exemplifies the critical theory of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin. What is the net effect for humanity when, faced with the drive to remember the unfathomable, we employ the grossly inadequate tools at our disposal?Austerlitz takes its name from W. G. Sebald’s final novel.
- 9/20/2016
- MUBI
Above: Pedro Costa's Horse Money
The Locarno Film Festival has announced their lineup for the 67th edition, taking place this August between the 6th and 16th. It speaks for itself, but, um, wow...
"Every film festival, be it small or large, claims to offer, if not an account of the state of things, then an updated map of the art form and the world it seeks to represent. This cartography should show both the major routes and the byways, along with essential places to visit and those that are more unusual. The Festival del film Locarno is no exception to the rule, and I think that looking through the program you will be able to distinguish the route map for this edition." — Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director
Above: Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France
Concorso Internazionale (Official Competition)
A Blast (Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece/Germany/Netherlands)
Alive (Jungbum Park, South Korea)
Horse Money (Pedro Costa,...
The Locarno Film Festival has announced their lineup for the 67th edition, taking place this August between the 6th and 16th. It speaks for itself, but, um, wow...
"Every film festival, be it small or large, claims to offer, if not an account of the state of things, then an updated map of the art form and the world it seeks to represent. This cartography should show both the major routes and the byways, along with essential places to visit and those that are more unusual. The Festival del film Locarno is no exception to the rule, and I think that looking through the program you will be able to distinguish the route map for this edition." — Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director
Above: Matías Piñeiro's The Princess of France
Concorso Internazionale (Official Competition)
A Blast (Syllas Tzoumerkas, Greece/Germany/Netherlands)
Alive (Jungbum Park, South Korea)
Horse Money (Pedro Costa,...
- 7/25/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Last year’s Venice Golden Lion winner will head Locarno’s main jury; Syrian director Ossama Mohammed will lead the Filmmakers of the Present competition jury.
Locarno has confirmed the juries for its 67th edition.
Italian director Gianfranco Rosi, who won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2013 for his documentary Sacro Gra – is to head up the festival’s International Competition jury.
He will be joined by German filmmaker Thomas Arslan, Brazilian actress Alice Braga, Danish actress Connie Nielsen and Chinese director Diao Yinan, winner of the Golden Bear at the last Berlin Festival for Black Coal, Thin Ice.
Meanwhile, Syrian director Ossama Mohammed has been named as president of the jury for the Filmmakers of the Present Competition for first and second films.
Mohammed, whose Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait was one of most widely acclaimed films at Cannes this year, will be joined by Thierry Jobin, the Swiss Artistic Director of the Fribourg Festival, Canadian writer...
Locarno has confirmed the juries for its 67th edition.
Italian director Gianfranco Rosi, who won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2013 for his documentary Sacro Gra – is to head up the festival’s International Competition jury.
He will be joined by German filmmaker Thomas Arslan, Brazilian actress Alice Braga, Danish actress Connie Nielsen and Chinese director Diao Yinan, winner of the Golden Bear at the last Berlin Festival for Black Coal, Thin Ice.
Meanwhile, Syrian director Ossama Mohammed has been named as president of the jury for the Filmmakers of the Present Competition for first and second films.
Mohammed, whose Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait was one of most widely acclaimed films at Cannes this year, will be joined by Thierry Jobin, the Swiss Artistic Director of the Fribourg Festival, Canadian writer...
- 7/14/2014
- by sarah.cooper@screendaily.com (Sarah Cooper)
- ScreenDaily
Last year’s Venice Golden Lion winner will head up Locarno’s main jury; Syrian director Ossama Mohammed will lead the Filmmakers of the Present competition jury.
Locarno has confirmed the juries for its 67th edition.
Italian director Gianfranco Rosi, who won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2013 for his documentary Sacro Gra – is to head up the festival’s International Competition jury.
He will be joined by German filmmaker Thomas Arslan, Brazilian actress Alice Braga, Danish actress Connie Nielsen and Chinese director Diao Yinan, winner of the Golden Bear at the last Berlin Festival for Black Coal, Thin Ice.
Meanwhile, Syrian director Ossama Mohammed has been named as president of the jury for the Filmmakers of the Present Competition for first and second films.
Mohammed, whose Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait was one of most widely acclaimed films at Cannes this year, will be joined by Thierry Jobin, the Swiss Artistic Director of the Fribourg Festival, Canadian...
Locarno has confirmed the juries for its 67th edition.
Italian director Gianfranco Rosi, who won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2013 for his documentary Sacro Gra – is to head up the festival’s International Competition jury.
He will be joined by German filmmaker Thomas Arslan, Brazilian actress Alice Braga, Danish actress Connie Nielsen and Chinese director Diao Yinan, winner of the Golden Bear at the last Berlin Festival for Black Coal, Thin Ice.
Meanwhile, Syrian director Ossama Mohammed has been named as president of the jury for the Filmmakers of the Present Competition for first and second films.
Mohammed, whose Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait was one of most widely acclaimed films at Cannes this year, will be joined by Thierry Jobin, the Swiss Artistic Director of the Fribourg Festival, Canadian...
- 7/14/2014
- by sarah.cooper@screendaily.com (Sarah Cooper)
- ScreenDaily
Rome — Gianfranco Rosi, whose acclaimed Sacro Gra became the first documentary to ever win the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion award and the first Italian film to win it in 15 years, will head the main jury at the Locarno Film Festival, officials announced Monday. Rosi will head the five-person jury that will award the 67-year-old festival's main prizes, including best film. He will be joined by German filmmaker Thomas Arslan, Brazilian actress Alice Braga, actress Connie Nielsen of Denmark, and Chinese director Diao Yi'nan. Photos 25 Summer Movies for Grown-Ups The August 6-16
read more...
read more...
- 7/14/2014
- by Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2013—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2013 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How...
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How...
- 1/13/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule opening night reception at MoMA's Terrace 5 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and independent film critic Anke Leweke have organised The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule at MoMA, running from November 20 through December 06, 2013. Some of the filmmakers participating in this impressive program are Angela Schanelec with Orly and Mein langsames Leben (Passing Summer), Ulrich Köhler with Bungalow and Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness). Actor Nina Hoss will present with Christian Petzold, Barbara and Jerichow and with Thomas Arslan, Gold.
Arslan will also present two of his earlier films Geschwister (Brothers And Sisters) and Im Schatten (In The Shadows).
Also appearing in post-screening discussions are Benjamin Heisenberg with his cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider for Der Räuber (The Robber) and Christoph Hochhäusler, director of Falscher Bekenner (I Am Guilty...
Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and independent film critic Anke Leweke have organised The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule at MoMA, running from November 20 through December 06, 2013. Some of the filmmakers participating in this impressive program are Angela Schanelec with Orly and Mein langsames Leben (Passing Summer), Ulrich Köhler with Bungalow and Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness). Actor Nina Hoss will present with Christian Petzold, Barbara and Jerichow and with Thomas Arslan, Gold.
Arslan will also present two of his earlier films Geschwister (Brothers And Sisters) and Im Schatten (In The Shadows).
Also appearing in post-screening discussions are Benjamin Heisenberg with his cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider for Der Räuber (The Robber) and Christoph Hochhäusler, director of Falscher Bekenner (I Am Guilty...
- 11/21/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Kino resurrects an odd curio with Shoot the Sun Down, a counter-culture Western from 1978, notable for headlining Christopher Walken just prior to his Oscar win for The Deer Hunter and Margot Kidder before she was that year’s Lois Lane in Superman. Of further note, director David Leeds, who financed with his own production company, would never again lend his name to another film in any capacity. The film, which is obviously modeled after Sergio Leone’s Man With No Name series, considering it’s mysterious protagonist, has all the makings of a subversive genre entry, it’s stance on violence guided by an incredibly idiosyncratic score (that’s not Ennio Morricone) and Michael Chapman’s beautifully photographed landscapes (with plenty shots of rising/setting suns for its grand motif). However, muddled plotting and a comatosely constructed climax peg the film as rather forgettable, which is unfortunate considering its strange ambience.
- 11/5/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
German director Thomas Arslan's first foray into historical period filmmaking is a methodical, glacial western, bereft of the rugged grandeur and macho posturing that one usually associates with the genre. While Arslan's story retains a certain mythological aspect that is largely associated with the late 1800s and adventure, his interests do not lie in rousing set pieces or harrowing escapes. Instead, he is interested in the moments of waiting and the moments of labored, intense, routine movement. Following a group of Deutsch expats in 1898 Canada on their way to the Klondike gold rush, he urges his audience to feel the grind of that routine; to become hypnotized and worn down by its myopic and increasingly insane fortitude. As a filmmaker Arslan's temperament...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 10/7/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Hosted at one of Hollywood's most iconic venues, The Egyptian Theater, the German Currents Film Festivals brings to Los Angeles an outstanding selection of new cinematic works screening here for the first time. Now in its 7th edition this annual celebration of German-Language is co-presented by the Goethe Institut Los Angeles and the American Cinematheque, in cooperation with Austrian Consulate General and the Consulate General of Switzerland; with support of German Films, Deutsche Welle (Dw), The Friends of Goethe and Elma.
The festival includes narrative feature, documentaries, shorts, and family-friendly films that form part of the 4 day celebration from October 4th-7th. One of the highlights of the program is More Than Honey, which was recently chosen as the Swiss entry for the Foreign Language Academy Award, read more Here, which will be closing the festival on Monday night.
To discuss the film and interact with La audiences some of the filmmakers will also be in attendance:
Rayna Campbell - lead actress, Layla Fourie (North American Premiere)
Matt Sweetwood - director, Beerland (La Premiere)
Jan Ole Gerster - director, Oh Boy
Ennis Rotthoff - composer, Measuring The World (Us Premiere)
For more information click Here
For tickets and information about the Egyptian Theater click Here
Gala Opening Night - Us Premiere
Friday, October 4, At 7:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Measuring The World (Die Vermessung Der Welt)
Directed by Detlev Buck
Two of the greatest minds of the 19th century, mathematician Carl Friederich Gauss (Florian David Fritz) and scientist Alexander von Humboldt (Albrecht Abraham Schuch), dedicate their studies to measuring and comprehending the world they live in. Based on Daniel Kehlmann's best-selling novel of the same name, this visually stunning epic is a playful re-imagining of the great men’s lives. Humboldt, a man with a passion for global exploration, is contrasted with Gauss, a man who experiences his world through mathematical theories and figures. Humboldt, aided by his colleague, Aimé Bonpland, travels the globe physically engaging the world he wishes to understand, applying modern, scientific thinking to comparatively unknown regions. Though he remains in the same destitute community for much of his life, Gauss’ interior journey of mathematical discovery proves to be just as rich and visually stunning as Humboldt’s adventures in remote areas of the world. Fact and fiction are mixed, often to humorous effect, to chronicle the findings of two very different men who nevertheless sought the same answers. Measuring The World was nominated for two German Film Awards in 2013, and the film has won Best Costume Design and Best Make-up Design awards at the 2013 Austrian Film Awards.
In Person: Composer Enis Rotthoff
Germany / Austria (2012), 123 min. In German, French, Spanish with English Subtitles
Saturday, October 5, At 7:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature
Oh Boy
Directed by Jan Ole Gerster
Jan Ole Gerster's wry and vibrant feature debut Oh Boy, which swept the 2013 German Film Awards, paints a day in the life of Niko, a twenty-something college dropout going nowhere fast. Niko lives for the moment as he drifts through the streets of Berlin, curiously observing everyone around him and oblivious to his growing status as an outsider. Then on one fateful day, through a series of absurdly amusing encounters, everything changes: his girlfriend rebuffs him, his father cuts off his allowance, and a strange psychiatrist dubiously confirms his 'emotional imbalance'. Meanwhile, a former classmate insists she bears no hard feelings toward him for his grade-school taunts when she was “Roly Poly Julia,” but it becomes increasingly apparent that she has unfinished business with him. Unable to ignore the consequences of his passivity any longer, Niko finally concludes that he has to engage with life. Shot in timeless black and white and enriched with a snappy jazz soundtrack, this slacker dramedy is a love letter to Berlin and the Generation Y experience.
In Person: Director Jan Ole Gerster
Germany (2012), 85 min. In German with English subtitles
Us Distributor: Music Box Films
Saturday, October 5 At 9:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - L.A. Premiere
Beerland
Directed by Matt Sweetwood
Matt Sweetwood hails from the Midwest. Though he has lived in Germany for over ten years, the people and their culture remain a mystery to him. He undertakes a last-ditch attempt to figure the place out: by exploring the heart of German culture, their beer. If he delves into their rites and rituals, explores all the contradictions and stereotypes, will that make him, finally, a part of them? The infinite variety of beers, breweries and beer fests, the age-old history of beer, is more overwhelming than the American ever imagined. The trail of his research leads him to places far off the beaten tourist path, light-years away from the Oktoberfest. He encounters people whose dialect he barely understands. Amazingly, he finds that a country as small a Germany is subdivided into a thousand different tongues and customs, with beer as the common thread. He discovers a land full of oddities and contradictions. The Germans are deathly serious and silly at the same time, tradition-bound and weirdly visionary. Ultimately, he forms a real bond with them, finding friends where he least expected them.
In Person: Director Matt Sweetwood
Germany (2012), 85 min. In German and English with English Subtitles
Kindermatinee
Sunday, October 6 - 2:00 Pm Egyptian Theatre
The Adventures of Huck Finn (Die Abenteuer Des Huck Finn)
Directed by Hermine Huntgeburth
A lively German language adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic satire. Huck Finn, having found treasure with his best friend Tom Sawyer, is now chafing in the shoes and starched shirts that come with his new wealthy lifestyle. He’d like nothing more than to kick off his shoes and run wild along the river. He gets his chance when his drunken father (August Diehl) arrives and demands a share of Huck’s money. Huck decides to escape downriver and he brings along Jim, the house slave who has recently discovered that he will be handed over to a slave trader. The two travel the Mississippi River on a makeshift raft, hoping to outrun Huck’s violent father and find a place where Jim can be accepted as a free man. Twain’s timeless adventure is exuberantly brought to the screen in a film that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Germany (2012), 101 min. In German with English Subtitles
Film Workshops
Sunday, October 6 - 1:00 - 1:50 Pm & 4:00 - 4:50 Pm
Join the Echo Park Film Center for an afternoon of cinematic exploration and education with the Epfc "Filmcicle" in the courtyard of the Egyptian Theatre. The "Filmcicle" is a bicycle powered cinema and school on 3 wheels. Using traditional analog motion picture film we encourage audience members - young and old - to spend some time with us creating cinematic wonder.
www.echoparkfilmcenter.org
Sunday, October 6 At 5:00 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - Us Premiere
Gold
Directed by Thomas Arslan; starring Nina Hoss
Official selection (competition) at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, Gold is a Western about seven German immigrants who set out in search of gold in the backwoods of British Columbia during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Each have their motives: an older couple seeking security, a father (Lars Rudolph) hoping to help his impoverished family, an unpleasant newspaperman (Uwe Bohm) chronicling the journey, and a mysterious packer (Marko Mandic) with a past to outrun. The last to join is Emily Mayer (Nina Hoss), a metropolitan woman whose delicate demeanor masks a steely determination to survive. Assembled by a deceptively confident businessman of questionable motives, the settlers must travel through a relatively uncharted stretch of Canadian wilderness to reach their goal, the gold fields of Dawson. As the path grows more treacherous, betrayals come to light and desperate choices are made. Following in the footsteps of McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Meek’s Cutoff, Gold is an epic that offers an unconventional take on the well-worn Western genre.
Germany (2013), 101 min. In German with English Subtitles
Sunday, October 6, At 7:00 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - North American Premiere
Layla Fourie
Directed by Pia Marais
Winner of the Jury Special Mention at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, Layla Frourie is a film about Layla, who is a single mother living with her son in Johannesburg and getting by with casual work. After training as a polygraph operator she manages to secure a job with a company specialising in lie detectors and security. On her way to her new workplace she is involved in an accident which will fundamentally change her life. Layla becomes entangled in a web of lies and deceit. The truth could lead to the loss of her son. For her third feature film Pia Marais - who has lived in Berlin for many years - returned to South Africa where she grew up to make this classic thriller. She uses the genre to take a look at a country which still bears the scars of apartheid. In this way, everyday life in South Africa enhances the tension in the screenplay which she co-wrote with Horst Markgraf. Almost casually, Layla Fourie develops into a political thriller which takes the audience into the paranoia, fear and mistrust of a society that is still profoundly affected by racial conflict.
Germany (2013), 108 min. In English
In Person: lead actress Rayna Campbell
Monday, October 7 At 7:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - L.A. Premiere
The Shine of the Day (Der Glanz Des Tages)
Directed by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel
Philip (Philip Hochmair) is is a young and successful actor working for the most important theatres in Vienna and Hamburg with a committed and single-minded approach to his craft. During a season in which he is busy with a production of Buchner’s Woyzeck, Philip is visited by the elderly Walter (Walter Saabel), who introduces himself as the uncle he’s never met. Walter is a former circus artist and the two men soon bond over stories of their careers. These two entertainers, both at different stages in their lives, learn from each other’s experiences. As his conversations with Walter grow more philosophical, Philip slowly emerges from his once isolated lifestyle. He is even inspired to enlist Walter’s assistance in helping a Moldavian neighbor with an immigration issue. The actors, though not related, essentially play themselves and the largely improvised script was developed around their personal experiences. The result is a rare onscreen friendship that feels warm and sincere. Co-directors Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel draw on their documentary filmmaking background to create a naturalistic atmosphere in which these performances can flourish.
Austria (2012), 101 min. In German with English Subtitles
Monday, October 7 At 9:15 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature
More Than Honey
Directed by Markus Imhoof
Winner of multiple awards, including 2013 German Film Award (Lola) for Best Documentary film, More Than Honey, directed by Oscar-nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) tackles the vexing issue of why bees, worldwide, are facing extinction. With the tenacity of a man out to solve a world-class mystery, he investigates this global phenomenon, from California to Switzerland, China and Australia. Exquisite macro-photography of the bees (reminiscent of Microcosmos) in flight and in their hives reveals a fascinating, complex world in crisis. Writes Eric Kohn in Indiewire: "Imhoof captures the breeding of queen bees in minute detail, ventures to a laboratory to witness a bee brainscan, and discovers the dangerous prospects of a hive facing the infection of mites. In this latter case, the camera's magnifying power renders the infection in sci-fi terms, as if we've stumbled into a discarded scene from David Cronenberg's The Fly." This is a strange and strangely moving film that raises questions of species survival in cosmic as well as apiary terms.
Switzerland/Germany/Austria (2012), 90 min. In English and German w/English subtitles
Us Distributor: Kino Lorber...
The festival includes narrative feature, documentaries, shorts, and family-friendly films that form part of the 4 day celebration from October 4th-7th. One of the highlights of the program is More Than Honey, which was recently chosen as the Swiss entry for the Foreign Language Academy Award, read more Here, which will be closing the festival on Monday night.
To discuss the film and interact with La audiences some of the filmmakers will also be in attendance:
Rayna Campbell - lead actress, Layla Fourie (North American Premiere)
Matt Sweetwood - director, Beerland (La Premiere)
Jan Ole Gerster - director, Oh Boy
Ennis Rotthoff - composer, Measuring The World (Us Premiere)
For more information click Here
For tickets and information about the Egyptian Theater click Here
Gala Opening Night - Us Premiere
Friday, October 4, At 7:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Measuring The World (Die Vermessung Der Welt)
Directed by Detlev Buck
Two of the greatest minds of the 19th century, mathematician Carl Friederich Gauss (Florian David Fritz) and scientist Alexander von Humboldt (Albrecht Abraham Schuch), dedicate their studies to measuring and comprehending the world they live in. Based on Daniel Kehlmann's best-selling novel of the same name, this visually stunning epic is a playful re-imagining of the great men’s lives. Humboldt, a man with a passion for global exploration, is contrasted with Gauss, a man who experiences his world through mathematical theories and figures. Humboldt, aided by his colleague, Aimé Bonpland, travels the globe physically engaging the world he wishes to understand, applying modern, scientific thinking to comparatively unknown regions. Though he remains in the same destitute community for much of his life, Gauss’ interior journey of mathematical discovery proves to be just as rich and visually stunning as Humboldt’s adventures in remote areas of the world. Fact and fiction are mixed, often to humorous effect, to chronicle the findings of two very different men who nevertheless sought the same answers. Measuring The World was nominated for two German Film Awards in 2013, and the film has won Best Costume Design and Best Make-up Design awards at the 2013 Austrian Film Awards.
In Person: Composer Enis Rotthoff
Germany / Austria (2012), 123 min. In German, French, Spanish with English Subtitles
Saturday, October 5, At 7:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature
Oh Boy
Directed by Jan Ole Gerster
Jan Ole Gerster's wry and vibrant feature debut Oh Boy, which swept the 2013 German Film Awards, paints a day in the life of Niko, a twenty-something college dropout going nowhere fast. Niko lives for the moment as he drifts through the streets of Berlin, curiously observing everyone around him and oblivious to his growing status as an outsider. Then on one fateful day, through a series of absurdly amusing encounters, everything changes: his girlfriend rebuffs him, his father cuts off his allowance, and a strange psychiatrist dubiously confirms his 'emotional imbalance'. Meanwhile, a former classmate insists she bears no hard feelings toward him for his grade-school taunts when she was “Roly Poly Julia,” but it becomes increasingly apparent that she has unfinished business with him. Unable to ignore the consequences of his passivity any longer, Niko finally concludes that he has to engage with life. Shot in timeless black and white and enriched with a snappy jazz soundtrack, this slacker dramedy is a love letter to Berlin and the Generation Y experience.
In Person: Director Jan Ole Gerster
Germany (2012), 85 min. In German with English subtitles
Us Distributor: Music Box Films
Saturday, October 5 At 9:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - L.A. Premiere
Beerland
Directed by Matt Sweetwood
Matt Sweetwood hails from the Midwest. Though he has lived in Germany for over ten years, the people and their culture remain a mystery to him. He undertakes a last-ditch attempt to figure the place out: by exploring the heart of German culture, their beer. If he delves into their rites and rituals, explores all the contradictions and stereotypes, will that make him, finally, a part of them? The infinite variety of beers, breweries and beer fests, the age-old history of beer, is more overwhelming than the American ever imagined. The trail of his research leads him to places far off the beaten tourist path, light-years away from the Oktoberfest. He encounters people whose dialect he barely understands. Amazingly, he finds that a country as small a Germany is subdivided into a thousand different tongues and customs, with beer as the common thread. He discovers a land full of oddities and contradictions. The Germans are deathly serious and silly at the same time, tradition-bound and weirdly visionary. Ultimately, he forms a real bond with them, finding friends where he least expected them.
In Person: Director Matt Sweetwood
Germany (2012), 85 min. In German and English with English Subtitles
Kindermatinee
Sunday, October 6 - 2:00 Pm Egyptian Theatre
The Adventures of Huck Finn (Die Abenteuer Des Huck Finn)
Directed by Hermine Huntgeburth
A lively German language adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic satire. Huck Finn, having found treasure with his best friend Tom Sawyer, is now chafing in the shoes and starched shirts that come with his new wealthy lifestyle. He’d like nothing more than to kick off his shoes and run wild along the river. He gets his chance when his drunken father (August Diehl) arrives and demands a share of Huck’s money. Huck decides to escape downriver and he brings along Jim, the house slave who has recently discovered that he will be handed over to a slave trader. The two travel the Mississippi River on a makeshift raft, hoping to outrun Huck’s violent father and find a place where Jim can be accepted as a free man. Twain’s timeless adventure is exuberantly brought to the screen in a film that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Germany (2012), 101 min. In German with English Subtitles
Film Workshops
Sunday, October 6 - 1:00 - 1:50 Pm & 4:00 - 4:50 Pm
Join the Echo Park Film Center for an afternoon of cinematic exploration and education with the Epfc "Filmcicle" in the courtyard of the Egyptian Theatre. The "Filmcicle" is a bicycle powered cinema and school on 3 wheels. Using traditional analog motion picture film we encourage audience members - young and old - to spend some time with us creating cinematic wonder.
www.echoparkfilmcenter.org
Sunday, October 6 At 5:00 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - Us Premiere
Gold
Directed by Thomas Arslan; starring Nina Hoss
Official selection (competition) at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, Gold is a Western about seven German immigrants who set out in search of gold in the backwoods of British Columbia during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Each have their motives: an older couple seeking security, a father (Lars Rudolph) hoping to help his impoverished family, an unpleasant newspaperman (Uwe Bohm) chronicling the journey, and a mysterious packer (Marko Mandic) with a past to outrun. The last to join is Emily Mayer (Nina Hoss), a metropolitan woman whose delicate demeanor masks a steely determination to survive. Assembled by a deceptively confident businessman of questionable motives, the settlers must travel through a relatively uncharted stretch of Canadian wilderness to reach their goal, the gold fields of Dawson. As the path grows more treacherous, betrayals come to light and desperate choices are made. Following in the footsteps of McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Meek’s Cutoff, Gold is an epic that offers an unconventional take on the well-worn Western genre.
Germany (2013), 101 min. In German with English Subtitles
Sunday, October 6, At 7:00 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - North American Premiere
Layla Fourie
Directed by Pia Marais
Winner of the Jury Special Mention at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, Layla Frourie is a film about Layla, who is a single mother living with her son in Johannesburg and getting by with casual work. After training as a polygraph operator she manages to secure a job with a company specialising in lie detectors and security. On her way to her new workplace she is involved in an accident which will fundamentally change her life. Layla becomes entangled in a web of lies and deceit. The truth could lead to the loss of her son. For her third feature film Pia Marais - who has lived in Berlin for many years - returned to South Africa where she grew up to make this classic thriller. She uses the genre to take a look at a country which still bears the scars of apartheid. In this way, everyday life in South Africa enhances the tension in the screenplay which she co-wrote with Horst Markgraf. Almost casually, Layla Fourie develops into a political thriller which takes the audience into the paranoia, fear and mistrust of a society that is still profoundly affected by racial conflict.
Germany (2013), 108 min. In English
In Person: lead actress Rayna Campbell
Monday, October 7 At 7:30 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature - L.A. Premiere
The Shine of the Day (Der Glanz Des Tages)
Directed by Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel
Philip (Philip Hochmair) is is a young and successful actor working for the most important theatres in Vienna and Hamburg with a committed and single-minded approach to his craft. During a season in which he is busy with a production of Buchner’s Woyzeck, Philip is visited by the elderly Walter (Walter Saabel), who introduces himself as the uncle he’s never met. Walter is a former circus artist and the two men soon bond over stories of their careers. These two entertainers, both at different stages in their lives, learn from each other’s experiences. As his conversations with Walter grow more philosophical, Philip slowly emerges from his once isolated lifestyle. He is even inspired to enlist Walter’s assistance in helping a Moldavian neighbor with an immigration issue. The actors, though not related, essentially play themselves and the largely improvised script was developed around their personal experiences. The result is a rare onscreen friendship that feels warm and sincere. Co-directors Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel draw on their documentary filmmaking background to create a naturalistic atmosphere in which these performances can flourish.
Austria (2012), 101 min. In German with English Subtitles
Monday, October 7 At 9:15 Pm Egyptian Theatre
Double Feature
More Than Honey
Directed by Markus Imhoof
Winner of multiple awards, including 2013 German Film Award (Lola) for Best Documentary film, More Than Honey, directed by Oscar-nominated director Markus Imhoof (The Boat Is Full) tackles the vexing issue of why bees, worldwide, are facing extinction. With the tenacity of a man out to solve a world-class mystery, he investigates this global phenomenon, from California to Switzerland, China and Australia. Exquisite macro-photography of the bees (reminiscent of Microcosmos) in flight and in their hives reveals a fascinating, complex world in crisis. Writes Eric Kohn in Indiewire: "Imhoof captures the breeding of queen bees in minute detail, ventures to a laboratory to witness a bee brainscan, and discovers the dangerous prospects of a hive facing the infection of mites. In this latter case, the camera's magnifying power renders the infection in sci-fi terms, as if we've stumbled into a discarded scene from David Cronenberg's The Fly." This is a strange and strangely moving film that raises questions of species survival in cosmic as well as apiary terms.
Switzerland/Germany/Austria (2012), 90 min. In English and German w/English subtitles
Us Distributor: Kino Lorber...
- 10/4/2013
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Russia’s new anti-piracy legislation will be put to the test with the country’s first online premiere ahead of a theatrical release.
Andrei Marmontov’s The Gold is a historical drama that will first be available on the CinemaWell.com platform next Monday [Aug 26] from 6pm, Moscow time.
It is intended to act as a promotional tool for the film‘s theatrical opening.
Not to be confused with Thomas Arslan’s Gold (which opens in Russia on October 10), the Sverdlovsk Film Studios production is based on the eponymous novel by 19th Russian writer Dmitri Mamin-Sibiriak whose work portrayed life in the Ural Mountains.
A family of businessmen are given two months to settle the gambling debts of their missing brother – a daunting task until help suddenly appears in the form of a real life gold mine. But then their problems really start.
It stars Sergei Bezrukov, Andrei Merzlikin, and Anna German.
The online...
Andrei Marmontov’s The Gold is a historical drama that will first be available on the CinemaWell.com platform next Monday [Aug 26] from 6pm, Moscow time.
It is intended to act as a promotional tool for the film‘s theatrical opening.
Not to be confused with Thomas Arslan’s Gold (which opens in Russia on October 10), the Sverdlovsk Film Studios production is based on the eponymous novel by 19th Russian writer Dmitri Mamin-Sibiriak whose work portrayed life in the Ural Mountains.
A family of businessmen are given two months to settle the gambling debts of their missing brother – a daunting task until help suddenly appears in the form of a real life gold mine. But then their problems really start.
It stars Sergei Bezrukov, Andrei Merzlikin, and Anna German.
The online...
- 8/22/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, is organising, together with independent film critic Anke Leweke, The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule at MoMA running from November 20 through December 06, 2013. Some of the filmmakers participating are Christian Petzold, Thomas Arslan, Angela Schanelec, Maren Ade, and Ulrich Köhler. Following a discussion on his "first time directing" the annual Kino! New German Cinema program, we looked into the future of German film at MoMA.
Rajendra Roy at MoMA. Photo by Anne-Katrin Titze. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Anne-Katrin Titze: Where are you headed after Kino! and the Weimar Touch, the influence of German cinema (April 3 – May 6)?
Rajendra Roy: There will be a series in November on Berlin School. The commitment and role MoMA has played in the introduction of new German cinema, back in the Seventies continues to this day with our interest in collaboration.
Rajendra Roy at MoMA. Photo by Anne-Katrin Titze. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Anne-Katrin Titze: Where are you headed after Kino! and the Weimar Touch, the influence of German cinema (April 3 – May 6)?
Rajendra Roy: There will be a series in November on Berlin School. The commitment and role MoMA has played in the introduction of new German cinema, back in the Seventies continues to this day with our interest in collaboration.
- 7/15/2013
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
★★☆☆☆ A German western starring Nina Hoss, Gold (2013) follows up its Berlinale premiere with a showing at Edinburgh. A tale of greed and migration, Thomas Arslan's ambitious genre piece sadly fails to rise above a gentle canter in this bland and strangely pedestrian feature. An alluring balm for the soul, the lure of gold has drove many across the landscape of Canada in search of prosperity. Set in 1898, Gold follows the trials and tribulations of Emily (Nina Hoss) a young female divorcee who joins a group of German settlers who are embarking on a perilous journey north in search of the lucrative gold country of Dawson.
Commencing as a septet, the group slowly dwindles as the hardships of this 2,500 km expedition take their toil, with each and every step further north leading them further into a wilderness of despair and despondence. For a director whose protagonists always seem to be...
Commencing as a septet, the group slowly dwindles as the hardships of this 2,500 km expedition take their toil, with each and every step further north leading them further into a wilderness of despair and despondence. For a director whose protagonists always seem to be...
- 6/25/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The Berlinale has come and gone so quickly, so intensely. Everyone was catching the flu or a cold, and I was left with the sniffles. My last two days I was lucky to be able to catch some films. Before that I only saw Don Jon’s Addiction which I was charmed by. Scarlett Johanssen played the best role of her life, she is a great comedienne. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt was delightful. Upstream Color bit off more than it could chew. The reviews express my feelings about it better than I can.
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
- 3/10/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Below you will find our total coverage of the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival by Adam Cook.
Above: Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
Impressions
#1
On Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster and Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope
#2
On Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, Sebastián Leilo's Gloria and Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
#3
On James Benning's Stemple Pass, J.P. Sniadecki/Huang Xiang/Xu Ruotao's Yumen and Bruno Dumont's Camille Claudel, 1915
#4
On Jafar Panahi/Kamboziya Partovi's Closed Curtain, Hong Sangsoo's Nobody's Daughter Haewon and Richard Linklater's Before Midnight
#5
On Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess and Jacques Doillon's Love Battles
B-Sides
On The Weimar Touch retrospective, the Waves vs. Particles art installations by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel, and mini-capsules on Hala Lofty's Coming Forth by Day, Thomas Arslan's Gold, Pia Marais' Layla Fourie, Nicolàs Pereda & Jacob Schulsinger's Killing Strangers and Shane Carruth...
Above: Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
Impressions
#1
On Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster and Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope
#2
On Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha, Sebastián Leilo's Gloria and Denis Côté's Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
#3
On James Benning's Stemple Pass, J.P. Sniadecki/Huang Xiang/Xu Ruotao's Yumen and Bruno Dumont's Camille Claudel, 1915
#4
On Jafar Panahi/Kamboziya Partovi's Closed Curtain, Hong Sangsoo's Nobody's Daughter Haewon and Richard Linklater's Before Midnight
#5
On Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess and Jacques Doillon's Love Battles
B-Sides
On The Weimar Touch retrospective, the Waves vs. Particles art installations by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Verena Paravel, and mini-capsules on Hala Lofty's Coming Forth by Day, Thomas Arslan's Gold, Pia Marais' Layla Fourie, Nicolàs Pereda & Jacob Schulsinger's Killing Strangers and Shane Carruth...
- 2/24/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The Weimar Touch
One of the most conflicting parts of attending a film festival like the Berlinale, especially if you are a professional, is trying to balance seeing the new films and the retrospective screenings—the latter often acting as an unreachable mirage in the distance. The cinephile inside oneself yearns to take in these 35mm blessings but ultimately has to take risks on new work either for the sake of coverage, or, really, to "keep up." I was able to attend a small handful of screenings from the festival's retrospective The Weimar Touch, particularly focusing on the "Know Your Enemy" subsection of films that took a stand against Nazism during the war, including André de Toth's remarkable None Shall Escape, Douglas Sirk's Hitler's Madman, Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be. Watching these films in Berlin with German audiences helped intensify their significance,...
One of the most conflicting parts of attending a film festival like the Berlinale, especially if you are a professional, is trying to balance seeing the new films and the retrospective screenings—the latter often acting as an unreachable mirage in the distance. The cinephile inside oneself yearns to take in these 35mm blessings but ultimately has to take risks on new work either for the sake of coverage, or, really, to "keep up." I was able to attend a small handful of screenings from the festival's retrospective The Weimar Touch, particularly focusing on the "Know Your Enemy" subsection of films that took a stand against Nazism during the war, including André de Toth's remarkable None Shall Escape, Douglas Sirk's Hitler's Madman, Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! and Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be. Watching these films in Berlin with German audiences helped intensify their significance,...
- 2/19/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Richard Lormand's films are always a key to the best films at the festivals of Berlin, Venice and Cannes. If he reps them, you want to see them. And here they are:
Boris Khlebnikov's A Long And Happy Life: (Isa:Films Boutique) It takes conviction to decide to make a movie like this one, and that conviction permeates throughout, highlighting a strong, convincing performance by leading actor Alexander Yatsenko. Good script and skillful filmmaking also make this powerful tale of the little guy fighting the system all the more watchable. The idyllic beauty of the seaside village location and its surroundings becomes even more intriguing thanks to cinematographer Pavel Kostomarov (a Berlinale winner for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for his work in How I Ended This Summer).
Thomas Arslan's Gold: (Isa:The Match Factory) I'll be as guilty as anyone else who simply refers to this great movie as "the German western". Yet it's so much more in terms of every single aspect of filmmaking - script, direction, acting, cinematography, art direction, etc. (from the same production team as Christian Petzold's Barbara)... Yes, as an American, I get a real kick out of this adventurous western journey being mostly in German (authentically as it's about a group of Germans). But that alone would never have been enough to keep me glued to the screen in anticipation... And if you aren't a Nina Hoss fan yet, this one will convert you. To carry a film like this, it takes more than being one of the most accomplished actresses around - it takes a star.
Felix Van Groeningen's The Broken Circle Breakdown: (Isa:The Match Factory) The country and western motif continues with this Flemish gem and its sidebar nod to bluegrass music. Yes, bluegrass, and it rocks, especially when sung by leading actors Johan Heldenbergh and Veerle Baetens. Their performances are nothing less than incredible, and this is, without a doubt, one of the most heartbreaking films I've seen in a long time. Just thinking about it can bring a lump to my throat. The saddest feel-good movie I've ever seen. Felix van Groeningen is definitely a director to watch out for.
Sebastien Lifshitz's Bambi: (Isa:Doc & Film International) Only months since he debuted the groundbreaking doc Les Invisibles in Cannes, Sebastien Liftshitz offers us the inspirational Bambi, an affectionate portrait of French transsexual Marie-Pierre Pruvot. Sebastien has a probing eye of rare sensitivity which he has used in all of his films, such as the Teddy Award-winning fiction feature Wild Side. I was deeply moved by what Bambi's story represents today, and this is due just as much to sharp directorial skill as to the fascinating human subject.
Jacques Doillon's Love Battles (Mes Seances De Lutte): (Isa:Doc&Film International) This film can literally boast kick-ass performances by leading couple Sara Forestier and James Thierree. You gotta see it to believe it. I didn't see this one coming and I still can't quite figure out where it came from. Intense, moving, captivating... Jacques Doillon remains on the up, already sharing this new feature since recently premiering You Me And Us (Un Enfant De Toi) at November's Rome Film Festival. He proves once again that he is a master at dissecting the dramatic intricacies of the couple.
Danis Tanovic's An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker: (Isa:The Match Factory) There's so much injustice around and I love it when a director makes it his or her passion to say something about it. In this case, it's Oscar-winner Danis Tanovic, this time showing us life in a different kind of wartime - the struggles of daily life for the underprivileged and discriminated against. It takes a natural born filmmaker to pick up a Canon and start making a movie because he's mad as hell about a real event that happened in his own backyard.
David Gordon Green's Prince Avalanche: (Isa: Cinetic International) Let's welcome David Gordon Green back to the Berlinale - he hasn't shown a film here since his debut George Washington. Since then, he's had an eclectic career from sensitive indies to mainstream comedies. Prince Avalanche offers the best of both of those worlds and highlights two uber-talented American actors - Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.
Boris Khlebnikov's A Long And Happy Life: (Isa:Films Boutique) It takes conviction to decide to make a movie like this one, and that conviction permeates throughout, highlighting a strong, convincing performance by leading actor Alexander Yatsenko. Good script and skillful filmmaking also make this powerful tale of the little guy fighting the system all the more watchable. The idyllic beauty of the seaside village location and its surroundings becomes even more intriguing thanks to cinematographer Pavel Kostomarov (a Berlinale winner for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for his work in How I Ended This Summer).
Thomas Arslan's Gold: (Isa:The Match Factory) I'll be as guilty as anyone else who simply refers to this great movie as "the German western". Yet it's so much more in terms of every single aspect of filmmaking - script, direction, acting, cinematography, art direction, etc. (from the same production team as Christian Petzold's Barbara)... Yes, as an American, I get a real kick out of this adventurous western journey being mostly in German (authentically as it's about a group of Germans). But that alone would never have been enough to keep me glued to the screen in anticipation... And if you aren't a Nina Hoss fan yet, this one will convert you. To carry a film like this, it takes more than being one of the most accomplished actresses around - it takes a star.
Felix Van Groeningen's The Broken Circle Breakdown: (Isa:The Match Factory) The country and western motif continues with this Flemish gem and its sidebar nod to bluegrass music. Yes, bluegrass, and it rocks, especially when sung by leading actors Johan Heldenbergh and Veerle Baetens. Their performances are nothing less than incredible, and this is, without a doubt, one of the most heartbreaking films I've seen in a long time. Just thinking about it can bring a lump to my throat. The saddest feel-good movie I've ever seen. Felix van Groeningen is definitely a director to watch out for.
Sebastien Lifshitz's Bambi: (Isa:Doc & Film International) Only months since he debuted the groundbreaking doc Les Invisibles in Cannes, Sebastien Liftshitz offers us the inspirational Bambi, an affectionate portrait of French transsexual Marie-Pierre Pruvot. Sebastien has a probing eye of rare sensitivity which he has used in all of his films, such as the Teddy Award-winning fiction feature Wild Side. I was deeply moved by what Bambi's story represents today, and this is due just as much to sharp directorial skill as to the fascinating human subject.
Jacques Doillon's Love Battles (Mes Seances De Lutte): (Isa:Doc&Film International) This film can literally boast kick-ass performances by leading couple Sara Forestier and James Thierree. You gotta see it to believe it. I didn't see this one coming and I still can't quite figure out where it came from. Intense, moving, captivating... Jacques Doillon remains on the up, already sharing this new feature since recently premiering You Me And Us (Un Enfant De Toi) at November's Rome Film Festival. He proves once again that he is a master at dissecting the dramatic intricacies of the couple.
Danis Tanovic's An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker: (Isa:The Match Factory) There's so much injustice around and I love it when a director makes it his or her passion to say something about it. In this case, it's Oscar-winner Danis Tanovic, this time showing us life in a different kind of wartime - the struggles of daily life for the underprivileged and discriminated against. It takes a natural born filmmaker to pick up a Canon and start making a movie because he's mad as hell about a real event that happened in his own backyard.
David Gordon Green's Prince Avalanche: (Isa: Cinetic International) Let's welcome David Gordon Green back to the Berlinale - he hasn't shown a film here since his debut George Washington. Since then, he's had an eclectic career from sensitive indies to mainstream comedies. Prince Avalanche offers the best of both of those worlds and highlights two uber-talented American actors - Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch.
- 2/9/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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