In Wim Wenders‘ meditative, Perfect Days (2023), viewers are transported to a world where the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary with smooth and continuous strokes of cinematic poetry. The simplicity of daily routines takes on a profound significance, serving as a canvas for existential contemplation. Guided by the protagonist, Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho), the film unfolds with mesmerizing cadence, offering a unique exploration of the human condition. Wenders delicately captures the essence of existence through the lens of existential contemplation, creating a quiet rebellion against the noisy chaos of modern life in the metropolitan. The narrative whispers through the viewer’s mind, unveiling the beauty and blessedness in simple acts like waking up and going to work, turning them into moments of celebration. It challenges the audience to reconsider their own lives, prompting reflection on whether the pursuit of comfort and luxury is a means to an end or an end in itself.
- 2/6/2024
- by Dipankar Sarkar
- Talking Films
Wim Wenders, the director of Perfect Days and Anselm with Anne-Katrin Titze on the connection between Hirayama, played by the extraordinary Kôji Yakusho and Anselm Kiefer: “They both love nature.”
In the first instalment with Wim Wenders, the day after he presented Paris, Texas at the Wim Wenders: An American Cinematheque Retrospective in Los Angeles, we discuss the connection between his Oscar shortlisted entry from Japan, Perfect Days, and Anselm (Anselm - Das Rauschen der Zeit), his documentary in 3D on Anselm Kiefer, both shot by Franz Lustig.
Wim Wenders on Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho): “He only reads one book and when he’s finished he puts it on his shelf …” Photo: Master Mind Ltd.
We start out by remembering the conversation I had with Wim at the reception for his 2003 Pictures From The Surface of the Earth photograph exhibition at the James Cohan gallery in New York, where...
In the first instalment with Wim Wenders, the day after he presented Paris, Texas at the Wim Wenders: An American Cinematheque Retrospective in Los Angeles, we discuss the connection between his Oscar shortlisted entry from Japan, Perfect Days, and Anselm (Anselm - Das Rauschen der Zeit), his documentary in 3D on Anselm Kiefer, both shot by Franz Lustig.
Wim Wenders on Hirayama (Kôji Yakusho): “He only reads one book and when he’s finished he puts it on his shelf …” Photo: Master Mind Ltd.
We start out by remembering the conversation I had with Wim at the reception for his 2003 Pictures From The Surface of the Earth photograph exhibition at the James Cohan gallery in New York, where...
- 1/18/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The American Cinematheque announced the honorees for the third annual Tribute to the Crafts, which include “Oppenheimer” for cinematography and editing, “Poor Things” for costume design and “I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie” for song. The event will take place on Jan. 19, 2024, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
Celebrating individuals in 15 categories across aspects of filmmaking, Tribute to the Crafts recognizes those “who are at the very heart of filmmaking and have exhibited extraordinary work behind the camera,” per the release. The event will also showcase clips from the films being honored.
With a 30-year career that includes 270 film credits, Oscar-winning sound mixer Kevin O’Connell will receive the Career Achievement Award. His projects from this year include “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Gran Turismo,” “Cocaine Bear” and “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.”
Producers and American Cinematheque board members Franklin Leonard and Paula Wagner will co-host the event.
“Celebrating the artisans and...
Celebrating individuals in 15 categories across aspects of filmmaking, Tribute to the Crafts recognizes those “who are at the very heart of filmmaking and have exhibited extraordinary work behind the camera,” per the release. The event will also showcase clips from the films being honored.
With a 30-year career that includes 270 film credits, Oscar-winning sound mixer Kevin O’Connell will receive the Career Achievement Award. His projects from this year include “Oppenheimer,” “Barbie,” “Gran Turismo,” “Cocaine Bear” and “Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret.”
Producers and American Cinematheque board members Franklin Leonard and Paula Wagner will co-host the event.
“Celebrating the artisans and...
- 12/14/2023
- by Caroline Brew
- Variety Film + TV
In its continuing effort to shine the spotlight on industry artisans who toil behind the scenes to make movie magic, the American Cinematheque on Thursday revealed the 2023 honorees for its third annual Tribute to the Crafts.
Winning multiple honors are Oppenheimer for Cinematography and Film Editing; Maestro for Hair & Makeup and Sound; and Barbie for Production Design/Set Decoration and Song (for “I’m Just Ken”).
American Fiction, The Color Purple, Poor Things, Killers of The Flower Moon (for the late Robbie Robertson’s final score) John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Creator also are being honored in the feature film categories, while Anselm, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and American Symphony are being recognized for achievement in documentaries.
Honorees will be tributed at the gala event at American Cinematheque’s newly restored (in conjunction with Netflix) Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on January 19, 2024.
Tribute to the Crafts honors those who...
Winning multiple honors are Oppenheimer for Cinematography and Film Editing; Maestro for Hair & Makeup and Sound; and Barbie for Production Design/Set Decoration and Song (for “I’m Just Ken”).
American Fiction, The Color Purple, Poor Things, Killers of The Flower Moon (for the late Robbie Robertson’s final score) John Wick: Chapter 4 and The Creator also are being honored in the feature film categories, while Anselm, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie and American Symphony are being recognized for achievement in documentaries.
Honorees will be tributed at the gala event at American Cinematheque’s newly restored (in conjunction with Netflix) Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood on January 19, 2024.
Tribute to the Crafts honors those who...
- 12/14/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Talent behind movies including Barbie, Oppenheimer and Maestro are among the honorees for the American Cinematheque’s third annual “Tribute to the Crafts,” which will be held Jan. 19 at the newly renovated Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
The event — which will be co-hosted by producers and American Cinematheque board members Franklin Leonard and Paula Wagner — will celebrate individuals in 15 categories including Oppenheimer editor Jennifer Lame, Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington and late Killers of the Flower Moon composer Robbie Robertson.
Additionally, Academy Award-winning sound mixer Kevin O’Connell will receive a Career Achievement Award for his work, which spans 270 films over three decades. This year, O’Connell worked on projects including Oppenheimer, Barbie, Gran Turismo, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret and Cocaine Bear.
The “Tribute to the Crafts” honorees are below.
Feature Film
Choreography: The Color Purple (Fatima Robinson) – Warner Bros. Pictures
Cinematography: Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema) – Universal Pictures
Costume...
The event — which will be co-hosted by producers and American Cinematheque board members Franklin Leonard and Paula Wagner — will celebrate individuals in 15 categories including Oppenheimer editor Jennifer Lame, Poor Things costume designer Holly Waddington and late Killers of the Flower Moon composer Robbie Robertson.
Additionally, Academy Award-winning sound mixer Kevin O’Connell will receive a Career Achievement Award for his work, which spans 270 films over three decades. This year, O’Connell worked on projects including Oppenheimer, Barbie, Gran Turismo, Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret and Cocaine Bear.
The “Tribute to the Crafts” honorees are below.
Feature Film
Choreography: The Color Purple (Fatima Robinson) – Warner Bros. Pictures
Cinematography: Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema) – Universal Pictures
Costume...
- 12/14/2023
- by Carolyn Giardina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The best documentaries about artists exploit the visual powers of the storytelling medium to give us a tactile appreciation of what their work looks and feels, while also mining the depths of their souls and their relationships to history. Last year’s “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras’ film about the life and work of activist/artist Nan Goldin, and 2011’s “Pina,” Wim Wenders’ portrait of choreographer Pina Bausch, come to mind, both straying far from the parameters of a talking-heads-driven nonfiction film to put us straight inside the work itself. These movies, too, stand as powerful cinematic and artistic exercises on their own terms.
Wenders now returns to the realm of 3D documentary he inhabited so gorgeously with “Pina” to explore the works of 78-year-old painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. Explicitly non-biographical, “Anselm” is instead a philosophical rendering of an artist in working mode, where he actively...
Wenders now returns to the realm of 3D documentary he inhabited so gorgeously with “Pina” to explore the works of 78-year-old painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. Explicitly non-biographical, “Anselm” is instead a philosophical rendering of an artist in working mode, where he actively...
- 12/8/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
A meditation on the work of German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, Wim Wenders’ concise, spare 3D documentary Anselm allows us to spend time in the presence of the artist and man. Both born in 1945, Wenders and Kiefer share much of the same DNA as creators who tackle the history of a divided country traumatized and silenced. For Wenders, a global filmmaker whose other new picture this year, the fantastic Perfect Days, was made in Japan, Anselm is a thoughtful, contemplative return to some of the themes explored in his seminal Wings of Desire.
Anselm gravitates between past and present, the result splitting the difference between the kind of experimental film one might find at TIFF Wavelengths––a slow meditation on landscape, surfaces, space, and performative moments––and a quick biographical sketch produced for an art museum retrospective. Shot by Franz Lustig in 6K 3D, the film deserves to be...
Anselm gravitates between past and present, the result splitting the difference between the kind of experimental film one might find at TIFF Wavelengths––a slow meditation on landscape, surfaces, space, and performative moments––and a quick biographical sketch produced for an art museum retrospective. Shot by Franz Lustig in 6K 3D, the film deserves to be...
- 12/7/2023
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
The International Documentary Association has announced nominations in 18 categories for its 39th awards, which will be awarded in a streaming ceremony on Dec. 12.
The nominees for best feature documentary are “Against the Tide,” “ANHELL69,” “Apolonia, Apolonia,” “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” “In the Rearview,” “Milisuthando,” Q,” “The Mother of All Lies” and “While We Watched.”
The awards will unspool at 8 p.m. Pt on documentary.org and on IDA’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels.
“In the wake of devastating events unfolding in the world and the grief our staff, board, community, and humanity at large are experiencing, we have decided to forego an in-person party. We know that stories have the power to encourage compassion, understanding, and peace. We are committed to preserving space for stories to be shared. Our wish is to recognize and celebrate the nominees and winners together, as a global documentary community,...
The nominees for best feature documentary are “Against the Tide,” “ANHELL69,” “Apolonia, Apolonia,” “Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project,” “In the Rearview,” “Milisuthando,” Q,” “The Mother of All Lies” and “While We Watched.”
The awards will unspool at 8 p.m. Pt on documentary.org and on IDA’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram channels.
“In the wake of devastating events unfolding in the world and the grief our staff, board, community, and humanity at large are experiencing, we have decided to forego an in-person party. We know that stories have the power to encourage compassion, understanding, and peace. We are committed to preserving space for stories to be shared. Our wish is to recognize and celebrate the nominees and winners together, as a global documentary community,...
- 11/21/2023
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
“Kokomo City,” D. Smith’s documentary about four trans Black women in New York and Georgia, led all films in nominations for the 17th annual Cinema Eye Honors, the New York-based awards designed to spotlight all facets of nonfiction filmmaking.
The film received six nominations, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction. Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” Maite Alberdi’s “The Eternal Memory” and Sam Green’s “32 Sounds” followed with five nominations each.
In the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category, “Kokomo City,” “The Eternal Memory,” “20 Days in Mariupol” and “32 Sounds” were joined by “Four Daughters,” “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.”
Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony” received nominations for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Score, making Heineman the third-most-nominated filmmaker in Cinema Eye history. With 12 nominations overall, he now trails Steve James and Laura Poitras by one.
While many...
The film received six nominations, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction. Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” Maite Alberdi’s “The Eternal Memory” and Sam Green’s “32 Sounds” followed with five nominations each.
In the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category, “Kokomo City,” “The Eternal Memory,” “20 Days in Mariupol” and “32 Sounds” were joined by “Four Daughters,” “Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.”
Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony” received nominations for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Score, making Heineman the third-most-nominated filmmaker in Cinema Eye history. With 12 nominations overall, he now trails Steve James and Laura Poitras by one.
While many...
- 11/16/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie was the top winner at the 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which were handed out Sunday night.
Among the other prizes the film collected was the best narration award for Michael J. Fox. It also won best biographical documentary, best direction for Davis Guggenheim and best editing for Michael Harte for a total of five awards overall.
Elsewhere, Jon Batiste won best score for American Symphony on the heels of his five Grammy noms, including album of the year. American Symphony also was named best music doc.
20 Days in Mariupol won two awards, for best first documentary feature and best political doc.
The eighth annual edition of the awards show, hosted by Wyatt Cenac, took place at New York’s Edison Ballroom.
Winners were announced in 18 categories spanning theatrical film, TV and digital platforms. Also this year, the Critics Choice Association honored Ross McElwee with its Pennebaker Award,...
Among the other prizes the film collected was the best narration award for Michael J. Fox. It also won best biographical documentary, best direction for Davis Guggenheim and best editing for Michael Harte for a total of five awards overall.
Elsewhere, Jon Batiste won best score for American Symphony on the heels of his five Grammy noms, including album of the year. American Symphony also was named best music doc.
20 Days in Mariupol won two awards, for best first documentary feature and best political doc.
The eighth annual edition of the awards show, hosted by Wyatt Cenac, took place at New York’s Edison Ballroom.
Winners were announced in 18 categories spanning theatrical film, TV and digital platforms. Also this year, the Critics Choice Association honored Ross McElwee with its Pennebaker Award,...
- 11/13/2023
- by Kimberly Nordyke
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ Sweeps the Critics Choice Documentary Awards (Complete Winners List)
One of the first big nights of the 2023 award season took place tonight at Manhattan’s Edison Ballroom when the best nonfiction filmmakers competed for the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The show, which is hosted by Wyatt Cenac, honors the most acclaimed documentaries of the year in one of the biggest early contests before the Academy Awards.
Netflix’s Jon Batiste documentary “American Symphony” led the pack with six nominations, while “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Kokomo City,” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” were each honored with five nominations a piece. Other contenders for Best Documentary Feature include “Beyond Utopia,” “The Deepest Breath,” “The Mission,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Judy Blume Forever,” and “Stamped from the Beginning.”
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Story” had the strongest story of the night. In addition to taking home Best Documentary Feature, the film won Best Biographical Documentary, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Narration for Fox himself.
Netflix’s Jon Batiste documentary “American Symphony” led the pack with six nominations, while “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Kokomo City,” and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” were each honored with five nominations a piece. Other contenders for Best Documentary Feature include “Beyond Utopia,” “The Deepest Breath,” “The Mission,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Judy Blume Forever,” and “Stamped from the Beginning.”
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Story” had the strongest story of the night. In addition to taking home Best Documentary Feature, the film won Best Biographical Documentary, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Narration for Fox himself.
- 11/13/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
‘Tomorrow Somewhere By The Sea’ won best film made in the Balearic Islands.
Nikolaj Arcel’s historical drama The Promised Land headed the winners at the 12th edition of Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (Emiff), with three prizes including best actor for Mads Mikkelsen.
Mikkelsen was present to collect his award at the ceremony on Tuesday, October 24 – also accepting the prizes for best international film and best cinematography on behalf of Rasmus Videbaek.
Scroll down for the Emiff feature awards
The festival jury also gave a special mention to Simon Bennebjerg in the unofficial ‘best onscreen villain’ category. The Promised Land...
Nikolaj Arcel’s historical drama The Promised Land headed the winners at the 12th edition of Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival (Emiff), with three prizes including best actor for Mads Mikkelsen.
Mikkelsen was present to collect his award at the ceremony on Tuesday, October 24 – also accepting the prizes for best international film and best cinematography on behalf of Rasmus Videbaek.
Scroll down for the Emiff feature awards
The festival jury also gave a special mention to Simon Bennebjerg in the unofficial ‘best onscreen villain’ category. The Promised Land...
- 10/26/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Mumbai Film Fest To Honor Luca Guadagnino & Mani Ratnam
The Mumbai Film Festival will honor Luca Guadagnino and Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam at the upcoming fest, which runs from October 27 to November 5. The former will win the Excellence in Cinema Award (International) while the latter is handed the South Asian version of the same award. Both directors will attend the festival to receive their gongs and conduct masterclasses. The festival will also screen Ratnam’s recent Tamil-language historical dramas, Ponniyin Selvan: Part One & Two, and Luca Guadagnino’s Golden Globe-nominated I Am Love. Previous receipients of Mumbai Film Festival’s Excellence in Cinema Awards include Darren Aronofsky, Sharmila Tagore, Fernando Meirelles, Jia Zhangke and Chen Kaige.
BBC Buys Denmark’s ‘Prisoner’ Starring ‘The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl
The BBC has acquired Danish drama Prisoner starring The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl. The series for national broadcaster Dr revolves around the lives...
The Mumbai Film Festival will honor Luca Guadagnino and Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam at the upcoming fest, which runs from October 27 to November 5. The former will win the Excellence in Cinema Award (International) while the latter is handed the South Asian version of the same award. Both directors will attend the festival to receive their gongs and conduct masterclasses. The festival will also screen Ratnam’s recent Tamil-language historical dramas, Ponniyin Selvan: Part One & Two, and Luca Guadagnino’s Golden Globe-nominated I Am Love. Previous receipients of Mumbai Film Festival’s Excellence in Cinema Awards include Darren Aronofsky, Sharmila Tagore, Fernando Meirelles, Jia Zhangke and Chen Kaige.
BBC Buys Denmark’s ‘Prisoner’ Starring ‘The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl
The BBC has acquired Danish drama Prisoner starring The Killing’s Sofie Gråbøl. The series for national broadcaster Dr revolves around the lives...
- 10/25/2023
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
The Critics Choice Association just unveiled the nominees for its 8th annual documentary awards. Topping the list is “American Symphony” with six bids, including Best Documentary, Best Director for Matthew Heineman, and notices in Cinematography, Editing, and Music Documentary. Heineman is the Oscar nominated director of “Cartel Land” from 2015. The sixth nomination for “American Symphony” is for Best Score thanks to 2022’s Grammy Award recipient for Album of the Year, Jon Batiste. You may recognize another Aoty winner in the Ccda’s lineup — Taylor Swift‘s record breaking concert movie “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” is also nominated for Music Documentary.
Just behind “American Symphony” are three films that received five nominations each: “20 Days in Mariupol” from Mstyslav Chernov, “Kokomo City” from D. Smith, and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” from Davis Guggenheim, who is also nominated for Director. The other directors that were heralded for their films...
Just behind “American Symphony” are three films that received five nominations each: “20 Days in Mariupol” from Mstyslav Chernov, “Kokomo City” from D. Smith, and “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” from Davis Guggenheim, who is also nominated for Director. The other directors that were heralded for their films...
- 10/24/2023
- by John Benutty
- Gold Derby
Film cameras strike big time as it seems that Dp chose celluloid to shoot the Oscar 2024 (96th Academy Awards) contenders. The most used camera is the Arricam (Lt and St) which, you have to admit, is an amazing fact. Additionally, there are new cameras on that list. Explore the camera charts below based on the IndieWire Cinematography Survey.
Oscar 2024: Camera Manufacturers Chart Oscar 2024 contenders: Cameras and lenses
IndieWire reached out to the directors of photography whose films are among the most critically acclaimed of the year, in order to explore which cameras and lenses they used (Make sure to read the IndieWire’s article where you can find Dp’s explanation of how they used their gear). As the tradition calls, we took the data to build friendly charts, trying to find a significant tendency and segmentation. Surprisingly, the most used camera is the Arricam. First,...
Oscar 2024: Camera Manufacturers Chart Oscar 2024 contenders: Cameras and lenses
IndieWire reached out to the directors of photography whose films are among the most critically acclaimed of the year, in order to explore which cameras and lenses they used (Make sure to read the IndieWire’s article where you can find Dp’s explanation of how they used their gear). As the tradition calls, we took the data to build friendly charts, trying to find a significant tendency and segmentation. Surprisingly, the most used camera is the Arricam. First,...
- 10/20/2023
- by Yossy Mendelovich
- YMCinema
Steve McQueen earns directing nod for A24’s Occupied City.
Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony exploring a year in the life of musician Jon Batiste led the Critics Choice Documentary Awards with six nominations on Monday (October 16).
Heineman also gets a nod for best director, Tony Hardmon, Heineman, and Thorsten Thielow for best cinematography, Sammy Dane, Jim Hession, Heineman, and Fernando Villegas for best editing, Jon Batiste for best score, and best music documentary.
Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days In Mariupol, D. Smth’s Kokomo City, and Davis Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie each received five nominations...
Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony exploring a year in the life of musician Jon Batiste led the Critics Choice Documentary Awards with six nominations on Monday (October 16).
Heineman also gets a nod for best director, Tony Hardmon, Heineman, and Thorsten Thielow for best cinematography, Sammy Dane, Jim Hession, Heineman, and Fernando Villegas for best editing, Jon Batiste for best score, and best music documentary.
Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days In Mariupol, D. Smth’s Kokomo City, and Davis Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie each received five nominations...
- 10/16/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
American Symphony earned six nominations, topping the list of 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda) nominees. American Symphony, which focuses on Jon Batiste and his wife, Suleika Jaouad, picked up nominations in categories including Best Documentary Feature, Best Director (Matthew Heineman), Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score (Jon Batiste), and Best Music Documentary.
Three documentaries – 20 Days in Mariupol, Kokomo City, and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie – followed with five nominations each. Documentarian Ross McElwee has been chosen to receive The Pennebaker Award (the Ccda’s lifetime achievement honor).
Winners will be announced during the Eighth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards to be held at The Edison Ballroom in Manhattan on Sunday, November 12, 2023. Actor and standup comedian Wyatt Cenac (Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas) will host the awards for the second consecutive year.
The Ccda will live-stream on Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter...
American Symphony earned six nominations, topping the list of 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda) nominees. American Symphony, which focuses on Jon Batiste and his wife, Suleika Jaouad, picked up nominations in categories including Best Documentary Feature, Best Director (Matthew Heineman), Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score (Jon Batiste), and Best Music Documentary.
Three documentaries – 20 Days in Mariupol, Kokomo City, and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie – followed with five nominations each. Documentarian Ross McElwee has been chosen to receive The Pennebaker Award (the Ccda’s lifetime achievement honor).
Winners will be announced during the Eighth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards to be held at The Edison Ballroom in Manhattan on Sunday, November 12, 2023. Actor and standup comedian Wyatt Cenac (Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas) will host the awards for the second consecutive year.
The Ccda will live-stream on Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter...
- 10/16/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
Netflix’s “American Symphony,” which follows Grammy and Oscar winner Jon Batiste as he prepares for his performance at Carnegie Hall, leads the 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Award nominations with six, including best documentary feature and directing for Matthew Heineman. PBS’ “20 Days in Mariupol,” Magnolia Pictures’ “Kokomo City” and Apple Original Films’ “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” are tied for second with five nominations apiece. Each were also were nominated in the top category.
Other nominees for documentary feature include Roadside Attraction’s “Beyond Utopia,” MTV Documentary Films’ “The Eternal Memory,” Amazon’s “Judy Blume Forever,” National Geographic’s “The Mission” and Netflix’s “The Deepest Breath” and “Stamped from the Beginning.”
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
Now in its eighth year, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards have previously given the top prize to Oscar winners “O.J.: Made in America” (2016) and...
Other nominees for documentary feature include Roadside Attraction’s “Beyond Utopia,” MTV Documentary Films’ “The Eternal Memory,” Amazon’s “Judy Blume Forever,” National Geographic’s “The Mission” and Netflix’s “The Deepest Breath” and “Stamped from the Beginning.”
Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.
Now in its eighth year, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards have previously given the top prize to Oscar winners “O.J.: Made in America” (2016) and...
- 10/16/2023
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Matthew Heineman’s “American Symphony” leads all films with six nominations for the 8th annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, the Critics Choice Association announced on Monday.
The film, a Netflix doc that follows musician Jon Batiste and his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, as Batiste prepares a composition for Carnegie Hall and Jaouad battles the return of her cancer, was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score and Best Music Documentary categories. Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” D. Smith’s “Kokomo City” and Davis Guggenhein’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” received five nominations each.
Apart from “American Symphony,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Kokomo City” and “Still,” films nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category were “Beyond Utopia,” “The Deepest Breath,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Judy Blume Forever,” “The Mission” and “Stamped From the Beginning.”
All of those films received nominations in multiple categories,...
The film, a Netflix doc that follows musician Jon Batiste and his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, as Batiste prepares a composition for Carnegie Hall and Jaouad battles the return of her cancer, was nominated in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Score and Best Music Documentary categories. Mstyslav Chernov’s “20 Days in Mariupol,” D. Smith’s “Kokomo City” and Davis Guggenhein’s “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” received five nominations each.
Apart from “American Symphony,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Kokomo City” and “Still,” films nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category were “Beyond Utopia,” “The Deepest Breath,” “The Eternal Memory,” “Judy Blume Forever,” “The Mission” and “Stamped From the Beginning.”
All of those films received nominations in multiple categories,...
- 10/16/2023
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony, a portrait of musician Jon Batiste as he experiences professional success amid the personal challenge of his wife Suleika Jaouad’s cancer battle, leads the nominations for the 2023 Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
American Symphony is up for six awards including best documentary feature. The film is also nominated for best director (Heineman), cinematography (Heineman, Tony Hardmon and Thorsten Thielow), editing (Heineman, Sammy Dane, Jim Hession and Fernando Villegas), score (Batiste) and best music doc.
20 Days in Mariupol, Kokomo City and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie each scored five nods, with all three titles up for best doc feature and best editing.
20 Days in Mariupol is additionally nominated for best first doc, narration (Mstyslav Chernov) and political doc. Kokomo City is also up for best first doc, cinematography and score (D. Smith). Still is up for best director (Davis Guggenheim), narration (Fox) and biographical doc.
American Symphony is up for six awards including best documentary feature. The film is also nominated for best director (Heineman), cinematography (Heineman, Tony Hardmon and Thorsten Thielow), editing (Heineman, Sammy Dane, Jim Hession and Fernando Villegas), score (Batiste) and best music doc.
20 Days in Mariupol, Kokomo City and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie each scored five nods, with all three titles up for best doc feature and best editing.
20 Days in Mariupol is additionally nominated for best first doc, narration (Mstyslav Chernov) and political doc. Kokomo City is also up for best first doc, cinematography and score (D. Smith). Still is up for best director (Davis Guggenheim), narration (Fox) and biographical doc.
- 10/16/2023
- by Hilary Lewis
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The eighth annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations are often an early bellwether for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar race, mainly because they signal to Oscar voters many of the key films they should not miss. Last year’s winner, “Good Night Oppy,” did not make it to the documentary Oscar shortlist, but the year before, “Summer of Soul” went on to win the Oscar.
This year’s nominations were led by fall festival favorite “American Symphony,” Matthew Heineman’s moving portrait of musician Jon Batiste as he juggles work demands and his wife’s recurring leukemia, with six nods. It was followed by Mstyslav Chernov’s Ukraine international Oscar submission “20 Days in Mariupol,” D. Smith’s black-and-white portrait of Black trans sex workers “Kokomo City,” and Davis Guggenheim’s editing feat “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” with five each.
The gala to honor the winners, hosted by comedian Wyatt Cenac,...
This year’s nominations were led by fall festival favorite “American Symphony,” Matthew Heineman’s moving portrait of musician Jon Batiste as he juggles work demands and his wife’s recurring leukemia, with six nods. It was followed by Mstyslav Chernov’s Ukraine international Oscar submission “20 Days in Mariupol,” D. Smith’s black-and-white portrait of Black trans sex workers “Kokomo City,” and Davis Guggenheim’s editing feat “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” with five each.
The gala to honor the winners, hosted by comedian Wyatt Cenac,...
- 10/16/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Matthew Heineman’s documentary profiling Grammy and Oscar winning musician Jon Batiste and the medical struggles for his wife that have marked trying times in their marriage leads the pack of nominees for the 8th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards with six. The inspiring docu from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground was picked up by Netflix after premiering and winning acclaim at the Telluride Film Festival last month. Not far behind are a trio of docus each with 5 mentions including 20 Days In Mariupol, Kokomo City, and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. And not to be ignored, this weekend’s boxoffice champ, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour which landed a nomination as Best Music Documentary. The Ccda nod marks the first awards recognition for the film (however it is not eligible for a Documentary Oscar) which only just had its first premiere screening on Wednesday of last...
- 10/16/2023
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Word on Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days is strong––stronger than any fiction feature he’s made since, God, who can even count. But though its Cannes premiere nabbed Koji Yakusho a Best Actor prize and U.S. acquisition, the festival screened another film I find far more intriguing: Anselm, his 3D- and 6K-shot docufiction concerning painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer. Sideshow and Janus will release it on December 8, and ahead of its North American premiere at Telluride there is a trailer.
One in meager 2D and 1080p, but even under such conditions you can surmise the extents Wenders and Dp Franz Lustig went to create an immersive experience. This preview just moves in odd angles and high resolution, objects jutting towards the screen at an already-dizzying rate––seeing it big with four eyes has suddenly become a mandatory experience.
Find the preview below, and for more on the film read...
One in meager 2D and 1080p, but even under such conditions you can surmise the extents Wenders and Dp Franz Lustig went to create an immersive experience. This preview just moves in odd angles and high resolution, objects jutting towards the screen at an already-dizzying rate––seeing it big with four eyes has suddenly become a mandatory experience.
Find the preview below, and for more on the film read...
- 8/30/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s documentary slate featured probes into human rights abuses and profiles of unsung visionaries. At least one movie falls into both categories. This year marks the second time that the L’Œil d’or, first presented in 2015, has gone to two films. It’s also the first time in 19 years that nonfiction has competed for the Palme d’Or. Do you think any of the following titles 10 should be on our radar come Oscar season?
See Cannes 2023 round-up: Top 25 movies to emerge from this year’s festival [Photos]
“Anita”
Anita Pallenberg is known by a small group, and still only as a muse rather than an actress, fashion icon and writer. Laird Borrelli-Persson (Vogue) describes her as a “troubled woman who has come close to being mythologized out of existence and sidelined by the juggernaut that is The Rolling Stones.” Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill made “Anita...
See Cannes 2023 round-up: Top 25 movies to emerge from this year’s festival [Photos]
“Anita”
Anita Pallenberg is known by a small group, and still only as a muse rather than an actress, fashion icon and writer. Laird Borrelli-Persson (Vogue) describes her as a “troubled woman who has come close to being mythologized out of existence and sidelined by the juggernaut that is The Rolling Stones.” Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill made “Anita...
- 6/2/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which won the best actor award for Koji Yakusho at the Cannes Film Festival, has sold out worldwide. The Match Factory is handling international sales. (Read our interview with Wim Wenders here.)
As previously announced, North American rights went to Neon and France went to Haut et Court.
Further sales included U.K./Ireland/Latin America/Turkey (Mubi), Australia/New Zealand (Madman), Benelux (Paradiso), China (DDDream), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (A Contracorriente), Switzerland (Dcm), Baltics (A-One Baltics), Bulgaria (Art Fest), Cis (A-One), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Former Yugoslavia (McF), Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Hungary (Cirko), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Poland (Gutek), Portugal (Alambique), Romania (Bad Unicorn), Scandinavia (Future Film) and Taiwan (Applause).
The film is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. It follows Hirayama, who seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo.
As previously announced, North American rights went to Neon and France went to Haut et Court.
Further sales included U.K./Ireland/Latin America/Turkey (Mubi), Australia/New Zealand (Madman), Benelux (Paradiso), China (DDDream), Italy (Lucky Red), Spain (A Contracorriente), Switzerland (Dcm), Baltics (A-One Baltics), Bulgaria (Art Fest), Cis (A-One), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Former Yugoslavia (McF), Greece (Feelgood Entertainment), Hong Kong (Edko Films), Hungary (Cirko), Israel (Lev Cinemas), Poland (Gutek), Portugal (Alambique), Romania (Bad Unicorn), Scandinavia (Future Film) and Taiwan (Applause).
The film is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. It follows Hirayama, who seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo.
- 5/31/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Neon releases the film in limited theaters on Wednesday, February 7, with expansion to follow.
Wim Wenders’ latest, “Perfect Days” plays like the culmination of filmmaker’s long tryst with Japanese virtuoso Ozu Yasujirō, which includes Wenders’ 1985 Ozu documentary “Tokyo-Ga,” and manifests here as a distinctly Ozu-esque observance of life and rhythm. First commissioned as a short film project celebrating Tokyo’s state-of-the-art public toilets — the great social equalizer — Wenders snatches the concept and doesn’t so much run with it as much as he strolls with it in the park while contemplating dreams, the dignity of labor, and the fleeting joys of waking moments.
Yakusho Kōji plays Hirayama, a quiet, middle-aged toilet cleaner, and the embodiment of contentment, or so it would seem. He begins every day in his closet-sized duplex by carefully watering his plants,...
Wim Wenders’ latest, “Perfect Days” plays like the culmination of filmmaker’s long tryst with Japanese virtuoso Ozu Yasujirō, which includes Wenders’ 1985 Ozu documentary “Tokyo-Ga,” and manifests here as a distinctly Ozu-esque observance of life and rhythm. First commissioned as a short film project celebrating Tokyo’s state-of-the-art public toilets — the great social equalizer — Wenders snatches the concept and doesn’t so much run with it as much as he strolls with it in the park while contemplating dreams, the dignity of labor, and the fleeting joys of waking moments.
Yakusho Kōji plays Hirayama, a quiet, middle-aged toilet cleaner, and the embodiment of contentment, or so it would seem. He begins every day in his closet-sized duplex by carefully watering his plants,...
- 5/26/2023
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Indiewire
Bittersweet tale of an apparently contented toilet cleaner has an ambient urban charm, but feels a little too understated
Wim Wenders’s new film, co-scripted by him with writer-director Takuma Takasaki, is a bittersweet quirky-Zen character study set in Tokyo which only comes fully to life in the final extended shot of the hero’s face, drifting back and forth between happiness and sadness. There are some lovely magic-hour scenes from cinematographer Franz Lustig, shooting in the boxy “Academy” frame.
Hirayama, played by Koji Yakusho (from Shohei Imamura’s The Eel) is a middle-aged man employed as a toilet cleaner, who drives around serenely from job to job in his van, listening to classic rock and pop on old-school audio cassettes: Patti Smith, the Kinks and of course, given the title, Lou Reed. At each location, he changes into a jumpsuit and with his brushes and mop matter-of-factly gets on with the job in hand.
Wim Wenders’s new film, co-scripted by him with writer-director Takuma Takasaki, is a bittersweet quirky-Zen character study set in Tokyo which only comes fully to life in the final extended shot of the hero’s face, drifting back and forth between happiness and sadness. There are some lovely magic-hour scenes from cinematographer Franz Lustig, shooting in the boxy “Academy” frame.
Hirayama, played by Koji Yakusho (from Shohei Imamura’s The Eel) is a middle-aged man employed as a toilet cleaner, who drives around serenely from job to job in his van, listening to classic rock and pop on old-school audio cassettes: Patti Smith, the Kinks and of course, given the title, Lou Reed. At each location, he changes into a jumpsuit and with his brushes and mop matter-of-factly gets on with the job in hand.
- 5/25/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
L'amour fou.Audacity is not usually what one thinks of when imagining the first film to show at a new edition of Cannes, but indeed starting the festival with a restoration of Jacques Rivette’s rare L’amour fou (1969) was a daring choice. Over four hours long, its story is radically split between rehearsals for Racine’s Andromache (shot in 16mm by fictional television crew that Rivette let independently operate) and off-stage drama between its director and his actress wife. At the film’s onset, Bulle Ogier quits her acting role in her husband’s play and invents for herself a personal drama of infidelity and paranoia. Her husband, meanwhile, gets lost in his rehearsals and also seems infected—intellectually and emotionally—by his wife’s quite reasonable, albeit extreme, concoction. The dialogue between theater and life, fact and fiction, husband and wife is grueling and frequently despairing, yet its telling is dexterous and mysterious,...
- 5/24/2023
- MUBI
As IndieWire has published its great camera survey regarding Cannes Film Festival 2023, we analyzed the data to reveal that the Arri Alexa Mini is still the king of kings. This is the 4th year in a row that this camera dominates the Cannes list. Also, there’s a respectful presence of good and old film cameras. Explore the list below.
Cannes Film Festival 2023 – Camera Manufacturers Chart The cinematography of the leading film festivals
Just saying — and without noticing, we wrote a title very similar to last year’s Cannes 2022 (“The Cameras Behind Cannes 2022: Alexa Mini (Still) Dominates”). This shows that filmmakers love the Arri Mini so much…but we’ll elaborate on this later. We have been waiting for IndieWire to complete its survey regarding the cameras that shot Cannes 2023’s feature films. Each year, IndieWire sends a questionnaire to main festivals’ filmmakers (directors and cinematographers) in order to...
Cannes Film Festival 2023 – Camera Manufacturers Chart The cinematography of the leading film festivals
Just saying — and without noticing, we wrote a title very similar to last year’s Cannes 2022 (“The Cameras Behind Cannes 2022: Alexa Mini (Still) Dominates”). This shows that filmmakers love the Arri Mini so much…but we’ll elaborate on this later. We have been waiting for IndieWire to complete its survey regarding the cameras that shot Cannes 2023’s feature films. Each year, IndieWire sends a questionnaire to main festivals’ filmmakers (directors and cinematographers) in order to...
- 5/22/2023
- by Yossy Mendelovich
- YMCinema
Variety has been given a sneak peek of the trailer (below) for Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which world premieres in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. It follows Hirayama, who seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
Koji Yakusho leads the cast. In 2005, he co-starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards. In the following year, he co-starred in “Babel,” a film that was honored by the Cannes Film Festival and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Along with his international success, Yakusho has...
The film is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. It follows Hirayama, who seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
Koji Yakusho leads the cast. In 2005, he co-starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards. In the following year, he co-starred in “Babel,” a film that was honored by the Cannes Film Festival and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Along with his international success, Yakusho has...
- 5/20/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Variety has been given access to an exclusive clip from “Anselm,” the 3D documentary from the three-time Academy Award nominated director Wim Wenders. The film will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as a Special Screening.
HanWay Films is handling world sales. It will be released by Les Films du Losange in France and Dcm in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In “Anselm,” Wenders creates an immersive portrait of Anselm Kiefer, one of the most innovative and important painters and sculptors alive today. Shot in 3D and 6K-resolution, the film presents “a cinematic experience of the artist’s work which explores human existence and the cyclical nature of history, inspired by literature, poetry, philosophy, science, mythology and religion,” according to press notes.
For over two years, Wenders traced Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to his current home in France, connecting the stages of his life to...
HanWay Films is handling world sales. It will be released by Les Films du Losange in France and Dcm in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
In “Anselm,” Wenders creates an immersive portrait of Anselm Kiefer, one of the most innovative and important painters and sculptors alive today. Shot in 3D and 6K-resolution, the film presents “a cinematic experience of the artist’s work which explores human existence and the cyclical nature of history, inspired by literature, poetry, philosophy, science, mythology and religion,” according to press notes.
For over two years, Wenders traced Kiefer’s path from his native Germany to his current home in France, connecting the stages of his life to...
- 5/11/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Details are emerging about Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary Anselm, which will gets its world premiere as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival next month.
HanWay Films has boarded world sales on the latest doc from three-time Oscar nominee Wenders, director of Pina, Buena Vista Social Club, Paris, Texas and Wings Of Desire.
Deals have already been agreed for Les Films Du Losange in France and Dcm in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Produced by Karsten Brünig (Race), the immersive film will deep dive into German artist Anselm Kiefer’s work, looking at his life path, inspiration, and creative process. It will hone in on his fascination with myth and history. Wenders shot the film over the course of two years. Above is a first-look image.
The movie was shot in Germany, France and Italy. Cinematography comes from Franz Lustig (The Aftermath) with music by Leonard Küßner (Dear Future...
HanWay Films has boarded world sales on the latest doc from three-time Oscar nominee Wenders, director of Pina, Buena Vista Social Club, Paris, Texas and Wings Of Desire.
Deals have already been agreed for Les Films Du Losange in France and Dcm in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Produced by Karsten Brünig (Race), the immersive film will deep dive into German artist Anselm Kiefer’s work, looking at his life path, inspiration, and creative process. It will hone in on his fascination with myth and history. Wenders shot the film over the course of two years. Above is a first-look image.
The movie was shot in Germany, France and Italy. Cinematography comes from Franz Lustig (The Aftermath) with music by Leonard Küßner (Dear Future...
- 4/17/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Aftermath is set in postwar Germany in 1945. Rachael Morgan (Keira Knightley) arrives in the ruins of Hamburg in the bitter winter, to be reunited with her husband Lewis (Jason Clarke), a British colonel charged with rebuilding the shattered city. But as they set off for their new home, Rachael is stunned to discover that Lewis has made an unexpected decision: They will be sharing the grand house with its previous owners, a German widower (Alexander Skarsgård) and his troubled daughter. In this charged atmosphere, enmity and grief give way to passion and betrayal.
Directed by James Kent with a screenplay by Joe Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse (Race) and Rhidian Brook, based upon Brook’s novel, the filmmaking team includes director of photography Franz Lustig, production designer Sonja Klaus, editor Beverly Mills, costume designer Bojana Nikitovič, music by Martin Phipps and casting by Nina Gold.
The Aftermath opens in St. Louis this Friday,...
Directed by James Kent with a screenplay by Joe Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse (Race) and Rhidian Brook, based upon Brook’s novel, the filmmaking team includes director of photography Franz Lustig, production designer Sonja Klaus, editor Beverly Mills, costume designer Bojana Nikitovič, music by Martin Phipps and casting by Nina Gold.
The Aftermath opens in St. Louis this Friday,...
- 3/28/2019
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
It doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Those problems added up to immortal romance cinema for Bogie and Bergman in Casablanca. Things are not so lucky for the love triangle at the core of The Aftermath, a stuffy, soggy slog of a movie that fails to generate sparks or a lick of dramatic sense. Director James Kent — striking out after his striking debut with Testament of Youth — adapts Rhidian Brook’s...
- 3/12/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Keira Knightley is on a bit of hot streak as an actress, even if some of the projects she has been attached to haven’t quite made their mark. Earlier this year, she shone in Wash Westmoreland’s brilliant Colette, making big splash a few years before in more ‘modern’ fare as Say When and Begin Again, and more recently was the best thing in The Nutcracker And The Four Realms and the painfully awful Collateral Beauty. Whether in period or not, Knightley deserves her dues and while her latest film, romantic drama The Aftermath, fits somewhere in between those mentioned, she once again proves her worth.
Knightley stars as Rachael Morgan, wife to Lewis (Jason Clarke), who travels across Europe to Hamburg post World War II to be reunited with him at a palatial home which he is helping to rebuild. The city is a shell of what it once was,...
Knightley stars as Rachael Morgan, wife to Lewis (Jason Clarke), who travels across Europe to Hamburg post World War II to be reunited with him at a palatial home which he is helping to rebuild. The city is a shell of what it once was,...
- 2/26/2019
- by Scott Davis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Less widely seen (and acclaimed) than it deserved to be, James Kent’s debut feature “Testament of Youth” was one of the great recent love-in-wartime dramas, translating the intimate romance and sprawling human tragedy of Vera Brittain’s Wwi memoir with a grace and heft worthy of its David Lean allusions. Four years on, it’s not hard to see why Kent was enlisted for “The Aftermath,” which aims for a similar old-school blend of stiff-upper-lipped heartbreak and grand classical sweep amid the ruins of another world war — albeit from material a bit thinner than Brittain’s. Paring Rhidian Brook’s 2013 bestseller down to a straightforward love triangle between Keira Knightley and Jason Clarke’s troubled English married couple and the dreamy German widower (Alexander Skarsgård) whose house they’ve requisitioned in postwar Hamburg, Kent’s film settles efficiently but less enthralingly into rainy-afternoon soap territory.
The result is attractive and diverting,...
The result is attractive and diverting,...
- 2/18/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
From the wreckage of Allied-bombed Hamburg comes the post-World War II romantic triangle “The Aftermath,” and suddenly the problems of three little people amount to a hill of blah in this handsomely mounted, but hopelessly machine-pressed game of who are sacrificing more to escape the rubble of shattered desire and lingering grief.
Director James Kent’s adaptation of Rhidian Brook’s 2014 novel — about a ghost-like Germany, a broken British marriage, and the healing powers of a passionate thaw — has the unfortunate quality of a hot-blooded soap grafted onto rather than merged with a historical-political drama. The result exhibits little feel for how each genre’s particular needs might interfere with the other’s, or how the film’s trio of capable actors might be properly utilized.
When one considers the cinematic legacy of post-war Germany sagas alive to the colorful simmer of one-time enemies in close quarters — Billy Wilder’s “A Foreign Affair,...
Director James Kent’s adaptation of Rhidian Brook’s 2014 novel — about a ghost-like Germany, a broken British marriage, and the healing powers of a passionate thaw — has the unfortunate quality of a hot-blooded soap grafted onto rather than merged with a historical-political drama. The result exhibits little feel for how each genre’s particular needs might interfere with the other’s, or how the film’s trio of capable actors might be properly utilized.
When one considers the cinematic legacy of post-war Germany sagas alive to the colorful simmer of one-time enemies in close quarters — Billy Wilder’s “A Foreign Affair,...
- 2/18/2019
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Fox Searchlight, BBC Films produced novel adaptation set in 1946 Germany.
The Aftermath, Fox Searchlight Pictures and BBC Films’ drama set in post-war Germany in 1946, has wrapped after shooting on location in Prague and Hamburg.
Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård and Jason Clarke lead the cast of the film, which follows a woman who is reunited with her husband in Hamburg, a British colonel charged with rebuilding the shattered city following the war.
James Kent (Testament Of Youth) directs from a script by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (Race) and Rhidian Brook. The screenplay was adapted from Brook’s novel of the same name.
Additional cast includes Flora Thiemann, Fionn O’Shea, Kate Phillips, and Martin Compston.
Jack Arbuthnott and Malte Grunert produced and Ridley Scott and Carlo Dusi executive produced with Joe Oppenheimer and Beth Pattinson of BBC Films, who developed the project. It has support funding from Filmförderung Hamburg - Schleswig Holstein.
Crew included...
The Aftermath, Fox Searchlight Pictures and BBC Films’ drama set in post-war Germany in 1946, has wrapped after shooting on location in Prague and Hamburg.
Keira Knightley, Alexander Skarsgård and Jason Clarke lead the cast of the film, which follows a woman who is reunited with her husband in Hamburg, a British colonel charged with rebuilding the shattered city following the war.
James Kent (Testament Of Youth) directs from a script by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (Race) and Rhidian Brook. The screenplay was adapted from Brook’s novel of the same name.
Additional cast includes Flora Thiemann, Fionn O’Shea, Kate Phillips, and Martin Compston.
Jack Arbuthnott and Malte Grunert produced and Ridley Scott and Carlo Dusi executive produced with Joe Oppenheimer and Beth Pattinson of BBC Films, who developed the project. It has support funding from Filmförderung Hamburg - Schleswig Holstein.
Crew included...
- 3/9/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Berlin Festival Taps 300 ‘Berlinale Talents’ For 2014 Mentoring Program An international jury has selected 300 people from 79 countries to take part in the 12th annual Berlinale Talents program. The “talents,” selected from across the filmmaking spectrum, are invited to the Hau Hebbel am Ufer in Berlin from February 8-13, where they will meet with experts under the theme “Ready to Play? Breaking the Rules.” Mentors include cinematographers Agnes Godard, Franz Lustig and Christopher Doyle. Berlinale Talents will be represented for the first time at the European Film Market and will have the opportunity to pitch their film projects to industry professionals in the Berlin House of Representatives, venue for the Berlinale Co-Production Market. The 64th annual Berlin International Film Festival runs February 6-16. Sky Atlantic HD To Bow New ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season On April 7 Sky Atlantic HD said Friday that the fourth season of HBO’s drama Game Of Thrones will...
- 1/11/2014
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
New films from Peter Webber, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Oliver Schmitz, Eran Kolirin.
A total of 39 features have been selected for Berlin’s co-production market (Feb 9-11).
Directors with work in the market include Peter Webber, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Oliver Schmitz, Eran Kolirin, Christos Georgiou, Erik Skjoldbjaerg and Nir Bergman.
All projects have 30% of their financing in place while budgets range from €700,000 to €6.5m.
This year’s Residency participants comprise Emir Baigazin, Alistair Banks Griffin, Bence Fliegauf, Sebastián Lelio, Elina Psykou and José Luis Valle. The participants will present new projects to potential partners at the co-production market.
The Talent Project Market will see ten new producers and directors primed for the international market. Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox featured last year, while Italian filmmaker Fabio Mollo’s Il Sud e Niente plays in this year’s Generation programme.
Five companies have been selected for the Company Matching programme and three more projects have been picked for the...
A total of 39 features have been selected for Berlin’s co-production market (Feb 9-11).
Directors with work in the market include Peter Webber, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Oliver Schmitz, Eran Kolirin, Christos Georgiou, Erik Skjoldbjaerg and Nir Bergman.
All projects have 30% of their financing in place while budgets range from €700,000 to €6.5m.
This year’s Residency participants comprise Emir Baigazin, Alistair Banks Griffin, Bence Fliegauf, Sebastián Lelio, Elina Psykou and José Luis Valle. The participants will present new projects to potential partners at the co-production market.
The Talent Project Market will see ten new producers and directors primed for the international market. Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox featured last year, while Italian filmmaker Fabio Mollo’s Il Sud e Niente plays in this year’s Generation programme.
Five companies have been selected for the Company Matching programme and three more projects have been picked for the...
- 1/10/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Although we recently chatted with the film's director, Kevin Macdonald, and star, Saoirse Ronan, ComingSoon.net had the opportunity to catch up with How I Live Now 's director of photography, Franz Lustig, at the month's Camerimage Festival of the Art of Cinematography in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Set in the immediate future, the film takes a look at the outbreak of World War III, as told through the eyes of an American teen sent to live with relatives in Europe. You can check out Lustig's thoughts on constructing the look of the dramatic anti-war film in the interview below. If you missed them, be sure to check out our previous Camerimage interviews here and look for more in the days to come. Cs: How are you enjoying Camerimage so far? Franz Lustig: Oh, I'm very happy. I'm...
- 11/29/2013
- Comingsoon.net
There’s No Place Like Home; Macdonald Pulled By Too Many Strings
This polished as his docu-work, Kevin Macdonald’s fourth fiction feature is a little bit of a head-scratcher. As a war film set in the near future, where the enemy is unknown and adolescents must adapt to their war-torn environment without any adults to guide them, it succeeds. As a sweeping star-crossed love story wherein its teenaged heroine is guided by a telepathic passionate connection to her heart’s desire and must find a path back to him, it also succeeds. The key drawback with How I Live Now, however, is that it so desperately yearns to be both, and flails as a result.
Following the blockbuster success of the Twilight franchise, studios ravenously picked up the film rights to every mildly successful dystopian teen novel ranging from the Hunger Games trilogy to the upcoming Divergent series. Last spring,...
This polished as his docu-work, Kevin Macdonald’s fourth fiction feature is a little bit of a head-scratcher. As a war film set in the near future, where the enemy is unknown and adolescents must adapt to their war-torn environment without any adults to guide them, it succeeds. As a sweeping star-crossed love story wherein its teenaged heroine is guided by a telepathic passionate connection to her heart’s desire and must find a path back to him, it also succeeds. The key drawback with How I Live Now, however, is that it so desperately yearns to be both, and flails as a result.
Following the blockbuster success of the Twilight franchise, studios ravenously picked up the film rights to every mildly successful dystopian teen novel ranging from the Hunger Games trilogy to the upcoming Divergent series. Last spring,...
- 11/9/2013
- by Leora Heilbronn
- IONCINEMA.com
Hunger Games DoP Tom Stern and 12 Years a Slave cinematographer Sean Bobbitt among those chosen for jury duty.
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
The 21st Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed the competition jurors who will judge entries at this year’s event in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
Jury members of the main competition jury are:
Tom Stern, cinematographer (Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino, The Hunger Games);Ed Lachman, cinematographer (Erin Brockovich, The Virgin Suicides, I’m Not There);Todd McCarthy, journalist and film critic;Denis Lenoir, cinematographer (Paris, je t’aime, Righteous Kill, 88 Minutes);Adam Holender, cinematographer (Midnight Cowboy, Smoke, Fresh);Timo Salminen, cinematographer (The Man Without a Past, La Havre, The Match Factory Girl);Franz Lustig, cinematographer (Don’t Come Knocking, Land of Plenty, Palermo Shooting);Jeffrey Kimball, cinematographer (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible II, The Expendables).Polish Films Competition
Jost Vacano, the cinematographer behind several Paul Verhoeven films including Total Recall, RoboCop and [link...
- 11/8/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
I haven't heard anything all that great about How I Live Now, a new-future set thriller starring Saoirse Ronan and directed by Kevin MacDonald (The Last King of Scotland), but skimming through this just released trailer I must say, Franz Lustig has captured some fantastic imagery. Picked up by Magnolia out of Toronto and set for both a limited theatrical release and Video On Demand release on November 8, the story follows Ronan as Daisy, an American teenager sent to stay with relatives in the English countryside. Initially withdrawn and alienated, she begins to warm up to her charming surroundings, and strikes up a romance with the handsome Edmund (George MacKay). But on the fringes of their idyllic summer days are tense news reports of an escalating conflict in Europe. As the UK falls into a violent, chaotic military state, Daisy finds herself hiding and fighting to survive. Check out the trailer and poster directly below.
- 9/24/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
"How I Live Now," a film that just premiered at Tiff starring Saoirse Ronan, may be about a third world war breaking out, but it's a love story at its heart. As a 19-year-old actress, Ronan is finding herself in more and more adult situations on screen, and "How I Live Now" was the actress' first experience filming a sex scene.
When MTV News' Josh Horowitz sat down with Ronan at Tiff, she recalled what it was like to go through a scene like that for the first time.
"I actually wasn't nervous about it," Ronan said. "It was always written in the script, and there needed to be a sex scene in this film. They needed to consummate their love, I think, in order for us to really feel the heartbreak when they're separated because obviously, it becomes a lot more intense after."
A lot of planning and discussion between Ronan and her director,...
When MTV News' Josh Horowitz sat down with Ronan at Tiff, she recalled what it was like to go through a scene like that for the first time.
"I actually wasn't nervous about it," Ronan said. "It was always written in the script, and there needed to be a sex scene in this film. They needed to consummate their love, I think, in order for us to really feel the heartbreak when they're separated because obviously, it becomes a lot more intense after."
A lot of planning and discussion between Ronan and her director,...
- 9/13/2013
- by Kevin P. Sullivan
- MTV Movies Blog
Cannes, In Competition
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
- 5/28/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes, In Competition
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
It's well known that once-revered German auteur Wim Wenders doesn't make films like he used to. The director of such cinema classics as "Kings of the Road" (1976), "The American Friend" (1977), "Paris, Texas" (1984) and "Wings of Desire" (1987) hasn't made a decent film in years, apart from "Buena Vista Social Club", his 1998 documentary on music in Cuba.
However, Wenders has reached a new low with "Palermo Shooting", a film of startling and embarrassing banality and, yes, even silliness. One is hard-pressed to imagine any commercial future whatsoever for this film, and a pickup by a U.S. distribution company seems virtually impossible.
Finn (Campino) is a very, very handsome photographer who leads a hectic but exciting professional life. (This character seems to be lifted almost intact from Antonioni's "Blow-up", including a scene in which he enlarges a photograph to find its hidden meaning.)
One night he's almost killed in a automobile accident, and he comes face-to-face with the meaninglessness of his life. After a fashion shoot in Palermo, he decides to stay in the Sicilian city, presumably to reconnect with the reality that has been drained from his high-tech locations and to discover the meaning of life.
What he discovers instead is a fleeting monklike figure, part real and part dreamlike, who is shooting semi-imaginary arrows at him. Everyone he encounters in his mostly cliched wanderings through the city tells him Palermo is "the city of death" despite the fact that many other writers and filmmakers have long ago awarded this honor to Naples. He also meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) , a specialist in the restoration of frescoes, who also helps to restore his spirit.
Every time the film goes philosophical on us, the resultant dialogue is sententious and banal. We learn, among other things, that people during the time of the fresco that Flavia is restoring were afraid of death, and that they still are, and that, to live life to the fullest, we should do everything as though it were for the last time. He speaks meaningfully of "absurd freedom" and "desperate futility." Finn also is repeatedly warned that doing this "fashion crap" is hurting his reputation in the art world, another not-exactly-fresh theme.
Finn also is beset by recurring nightmares in which he is reduced to a minuscule figure in a gigantic room (shades of "The Incredible Shrinking Man", but at least that guy had the excuse of atomic radiation). Another favorite is a distorted clock that he hangs on to in mid-air (shades of Bergman's "Wild Strawberries"). Wenders seems to have absolutely no idea that these images would cause audiences to laugh out loud (and not in a good way).
In his travels, Finn encounters a huge number of disparate souls that impart various nuggets of wisdom. He tells one, in one of the movie's better moments, that "I am completely lost". But all of this pales into insignificance when he comes face-to-face with Death, appropriately played by Dennis Hopper. During their verbal sparring, Death explains reasonably that "the fear of death is really a fear of life," but the best exchange comes when he peevishly complains that "I'm tired of playing the bad guy" and asks Finn, the accomplished photographer, to help him improve his image by taking a great photo, even if it has to be a digital one, which he doesn't approve of.
For most viewers, the question of the meaning of it all will come down to this: Where does Wenders find people to continue to invest in his films?
Production: Neue Road Movies. Cast: Campino, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Inga Busch. Director: Wim Wenders. Screenwriters: Wim Wenders, Norman Ohler. Producer: Gian-Piero Ringel. Director of photography: Franz Lustig. Sales: Hanway Films. No rating, 124 minutes. Production designer: Sebastian Soukup Costume designer: Daniela Ciancio Editor: Peter Przygodda, Oli Weiss Music: Irmin Schmidt...
- 5/27/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The reteaming of director Wim Wenders and writer Sam Shepard, who collaborated on "Paris, Texas" 21 years ago, yields a dry, spare, odd and oddly satisfying drama about a modern-day lonesome cowboy, lost in a desert of his own making, who seeks salvation by searching out those he left behind.
For the most part shying away from sentimentality and showing little concern for plausibility, "Don't Come Knocking" expresses itself with deadpan humor, striking imagery, Western iconography and outbursts of strong emotions.
Shepard stars in the film along with the lady of his life, Jessica Lange, and a strong cast including Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann and Sarah Polley that gives the film boxoffice luster. Since many characters are puzzling if not downright off-putting, the Sony Pictures Classics release will probably find acceptance only in adult specialty venues.
Howard Spence (Shepard) is supposedly a movie star with a career mostly in Westerns. Given that Hollywood hardly makes Westerns anymore, this is the first of the film's many puzzles. Later in the movie, he will insist that he is "washed up." Yet as the story begins, he is starring in a Western being shot in Monument Valley.
After many a night of debauchery with drugs, alcohol and young women, Howard suddenly needs to flee his life. So he mounts a horse and gallops away from the set. When the crew realizes their lead actor is missing, a call goes out to the insurance company. A detective named Roth is put on the case, and the character's buttoned-down, single-minded personality brings comic fun to all his scenes.
Maxing out his ATM cards and shedding nearly all his belongings, Howard heads to his hometown of Elko, Nev., and a mother Eva Marie Saint) he supposedly hasn't seen or even called in 30 years. She certainly greets him cheerfully enough with only mild words of rebuke.
Howard finds a scrapbook of his press clippings from which you learn that this "Western bad boy"'s real career has consisted of inebriation, scandal and police arrests. Why on Earth did that insurance company ever bond a Howard Spence picture?
His mother just happens to mention that a young woman called her about 30 years ago from Butte, Mont., saying that she was carrying Howard's child. This news apparently never reached Howard. (You have to get used to the sort of illogic that insists the woman would have no way of tracking down a film star.)
Shocked and possibly a little pleased, Howard lights out for Butte with the detective breathing down his neck. Howard's MO doesn't change much; he still gets drunk and wakes up in a bed covered in young girls.
His old flame Doreen (Lange) is easy to find in Butte: She runs the coffee shop where she once worked as a waitress. She takes one look at Howard and remarks, "Well, it took you long enough". (Shepard loves laconic understatements.) She seems amused more than upset or angry about Howard's abrupt reappearance, but you later realize she is doing some acting herself.
On their next encounter, she off-handedly points out Howard's son to him. Earl (Gabriel Mann) is a surly rock musician, who can outdo his father in loutish behavior.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Sky (Polley) arrives in Butte, clutching an urn with her mother's ashes and making inquiries about Howard. You can pretty much guess that she, too, is a product of one of Howard's short flings during that shoot in Butte.
The convergence of all these characters -- including the detective -- in this depressed old mining town results in several emotional outbursts. At one point, an enraged Earl throws his furniture and belongings out of his second-story window onto a street in an area of that appears mostly abandoned.
For two days and one night, characters turn up and hang out among these ruined belongings. Earl even salvages a guitar and plays an instant composition called "Where Is Howard?" while his hippie girlfriend (Fairuza Balk) dances on the broken couch.
In this forlorn setting, the prodigal father and two children reach not exactly a resolution but a kind of acceptance of the situation.
Shepard, cowboy handsome with a hard, lived-in face, gives Howard a perpetually startled look, the look of a man who has just awakened from a 30-year bad dream. Lange uses irony and calculated coolness to disguise her rage at this selfish and cowardly man she once loved.
Mann and Polley express polar opposite reactions to the father who unknowingly abandoned them: The son vehemently rejects Howard, while Polley clings to a yearning curiosity.
Western-tinged music from T Bone Burnett and the open spaces and worn-out town captured by Franz Lustig's crystal-clear cinematography locate this tale in last vestiges of the Old West -- perhaps a reminder that Howard's rugged individualism also is a relic of the past.
What the movie deigns not to answer is the question Howard's mother poses to him: "How'd you get to be such a mess, Howard?" "Don't Come Knocking" only tries to pull him out of this mess.
DON'T COME KNOCKING
Sony Pictures Classics
HanWay presents
a Peter Schwartzkopff production by Reverse Angle
Credits:
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenwriters: Sam Shepard, Wim Wenders
Producer: Peter Schwartzkopff
Executive producers: Jeremy Thomas, In-Ah Lee, Wim Wenders
Director of photography: Franz Lustig
Production designer: Nathan Amondson
Music: T-Bone Burnett
Costumes: Caroline Eselin
Editors: Peter Pzygodda, Oli Weiss
Cast:
Howard Spence: Sam Shepard
Doreen: Jessica Lange
Sutter: Tim Roth
Earl: Gabriel Mann
Sky: Sarah Polley
Amer: Fairuza Balk
Lulu: Eva Marie Saint
Director: George Kennedy
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 126 minutes...
For the most part shying away from sentimentality and showing little concern for plausibility, "Don't Come Knocking" expresses itself with deadpan humor, striking imagery, Western iconography and outbursts of strong emotions.
Shepard stars in the film along with the lady of his life, Jessica Lange, and a strong cast including Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann and Sarah Polley that gives the film boxoffice luster. Since many characters are puzzling if not downright off-putting, the Sony Pictures Classics release will probably find acceptance only in adult specialty venues.
Howard Spence (Shepard) is supposedly a movie star with a career mostly in Westerns. Given that Hollywood hardly makes Westerns anymore, this is the first of the film's many puzzles. Later in the movie, he will insist that he is "washed up." Yet as the story begins, he is starring in a Western being shot in Monument Valley.
After many a night of debauchery with drugs, alcohol and young women, Howard suddenly needs to flee his life. So he mounts a horse and gallops away from the set. When the crew realizes their lead actor is missing, a call goes out to the insurance company. A detective named Roth is put on the case, and the character's buttoned-down, single-minded personality brings comic fun to all his scenes.
Maxing out his ATM cards and shedding nearly all his belongings, Howard heads to his hometown of Elko, Nev., and a mother Eva Marie Saint) he supposedly hasn't seen or even called in 30 years. She certainly greets him cheerfully enough with only mild words of rebuke.
Howard finds a scrapbook of his press clippings from which you learn that this "Western bad boy"'s real career has consisted of inebriation, scandal and police arrests. Why on Earth did that insurance company ever bond a Howard Spence picture?
His mother just happens to mention that a young woman called her about 30 years ago from Butte, Mont., saying that she was carrying Howard's child. This news apparently never reached Howard. (You have to get used to the sort of illogic that insists the woman would have no way of tracking down a film star.)
Shocked and possibly a little pleased, Howard lights out for Butte with the detective breathing down his neck. Howard's MO doesn't change much; he still gets drunk and wakes up in a bed covered in young girls.
His old flame Doreen (Lange) is easy to find in Butte: She runs the coffee shop where she once worked as a waitress. She takes one look at Howard and remarks, "Well, it took you long enough". (Shepard loves laconic understatements.) She seems amused more than upset or angry about Howard's abrupt reappearance, but you later realize she is doing some acting herself.
On their next encounter, she off-handedly points out Howard's son to him. Earl (Gabriel Mann) is a surly rock musician, who can outdo his father in loutish behavior.
Meanwhile, a young woman named Sky (Polley) arrives in Butte, clutching an urn with her mother's ashes and making inquiries about Howard. You can pretty much guess that she, too, is a product of one of Howard's short flings during that shoot in Butte.
The convergence of all these characters -- including the detective -- in this depressed old mining town results in several emotional outbursts. At one point, an enraged Earl throws his furniture and belongings out of his second-story window onto a street in an area of that appears mostly abandoned.
For two days and one night, characters turn up and hang out among these ruined belongings. Earl even salvages a guitar and plays an instant composition called "Where Is Howard?" while his hippie girlfriend (Fairuza Balk) dances on the broken couch.
In this forlorn setting, the prodigal father and two children reach not exactly a resolution but a kind of acceptance of the situation.
Shepard, cowboy handsome with a hard, lived-in face, gives Howard a perpetually startled look, the look of a man who has just awakened from a 30-year bad dream. Lange uses irony and calculated coolness to disguise her rage at this selfish and cowardly man she once loved.
Mann and Polley express polar opposite reactions to the father who unknowingly abandoned them: The son vehemently rejects Howard, while Polley clings to a yearning curiosity.
Western-tinged music from T Bone Burnett and the open spaces and worn-out town captured by Franz Lustig's crystal-clear cinematography locate this tale in last vestiges of the Old West -- perhaps a reminder that Howard's rugged individualism also is a relic of the past.
What the movie deigns not to answer is the question Howard's mother poses to him: "How'd you get to be such a mess, Howard?" "Don't Come Knocking" only tries to pull him out of this mess.
DON'T COME KNOCKING
Sony Pictures Classics
HanWay presents
a Peter Schwartzkopff production by Reverse Angle
Credits:
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenwriters: Sam Shepard, Wim Wenders
Producer: Peter Schwartzkopff
Executive producers: Jeremy Thomas, In-Ah Lee, Wim Wenders
Director of photography: Franz Lustig
Production designer: Nathan Amondson
Music: T-Bone Burnett
Costumes: Caroline Eselin
Editors: Peter Pzygodda, Oli Weiss
Cast:
Howard Spence: Sam Shepard
Doreen: Jessica Lange
Sutter: Tim Roth
Earl: Gabriel Mann
Sky: Sarah Polley
Amer: Fairuza Balk
Lulu: Eva Marie Saint
Director: George Kennedy
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 126 minutes...
- 5/19/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
VENICE -- In very different ways, Paul Jeffries and his niece Lana have each gone the extra mile in their love for their homeland, America. Paul was with Special Forces in Vietnam and Lana has been a missionary in Africa and the Middle East. Now they are both in Los Angeles dealing with their reaction to the events known as 9/11.
Wim Wenders has crafted a thoughtful exploration of the impact of that infamous day on two Americans who love their country but seek to defend it in conflicting ways. In a political year, Land of Plenty could connect with audiences interested in examining how fear and prejudice can affect individuals and society as a whole.
The setting is a Los Angeles rarely seen in movies, a part of the city that could be any place in the Third World, where people are so poor it is known as the hunger capital of America. Lana, played with sparkling intelligence by Michelle Williams, has returned from Tel Aviv to live and work at a mission house in downtown L.A. Her mother has died and she wants to connect with her Uncle Paul, who has been out of touch for many years.
Paul is played by character veteran John Diehl who richly justifies Wenders' decision to cast him by delivering a multi-layered portrayal of a loyal soldier blasted to bewilderment by events in Vietnam. Exposed to Agent Pink exfoliate during that conflict, Paul's increasing psychological wounds are brutally punctured by watching the fate of New York's twin towers.
Grizzled, tired and sometimes drunk, Paul has formed a one-man defense unit, driving around the city with surveillance equipment, recording images and commentary covering potential suspects who invariably look like his idea of Arabs. He has a pal, Jimmy (Richard Edson), who has a contact or two in the police department and is always willing to run suspicious items through the more extreme elements of the Internet.
Roaming the city at night, Paul spots a man in a turban carrying boxes of Borax. Jimmy cracks an evil joke that it would be pretty funny when they're looking for a "dirty bomb" if terrorists turned out to use a heavy-duty cleaner, but Paul doesn't see the humor in it.
When the homeless man with the Borax boxes is gunned down in his cardboard crib close to Lana's mission house, Paul happens to be there on surveillance. His tape of the shooting ends up on network television and soon Lana is helping find out who the man was. Uncle and niece team up to get to the bottom of the shooting but Paul's paranoia becomes ever more extreme and dangerous. It will put Lana's sincere spirituality and concern for the troubled ex-soldier to the test.
Wenders' eye for locations and richly evocative work by director of photography Franz Lustig and production designer Nathan Amondson combine to give the film a powerful sensory impact. The music score and tracks featuring Leonard Cohen add greatly to the piece. Wenders' screenplay with Michael Meredith turns the cliche of the shell-shocked veteran on its head. The sense of wonderment and desire for understanding that envelop the old soldier and the young disciple create a mood of profound optimism.
Credits:
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenplay: Michael Meredith, Wim Wenders
Story: Wim Wenders, Scott Derrickson
Producers: In-ah Lee, Samson Mucke
Gary Winick, Jake Abraham
Executive producers: Peter Schwartzkopff, Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan, John Sloss
Director of photography: Franz Lustig
Editor: Moritz Laube
Production designer: Nathan Amondson
Costume designer: Alexis Scott
Composers: Thom & Nackt (cq)
Cast:
Lana: Michelle Williams
Paul: John Diehl
Hassan: Shaun Taub
Henry: Wendell Pierce
Jimmy: Richard Edson
Sherman: Burt Young
Youssef: Bernard White.
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 118 mins...
Wim Wenders has crafted a thoughtful exploration of the impact of that infamous day on two Americans who love their country but seek to defend it in conflicting ways. In a political year, Land of Plenty could connect with audiences interested in examining how fear and prejudice can affect individuals and society as a whole.
The setting is a Los Angeles rarely seen in movies, a part of the city that could be any place in the Third World, where people are so poor it is known as the hunger capital of America. Lana, played with sparkling intelligence by Michelle Williams, has returned from Tel Aviv to live and work at a mission house in downtown L.A. Her mother has died and she wants to connect with her Uncle Paul, who has been out of touch for many years.
Paul is played by character veteran John Diehl who richly justifies Wenders' decision to cast him by delivering a multi-layered portrayal of a loyal soldier blasted to bewilderment by events in Vietnam. Exposed to Agent Pink exfoliate during that conflict, Paul's increasing psychological wounds are brutally punctured by watching the fate of New York's twin towers.
Grizzled, tired and sometimes drunk, Paul has formed a one-man defense unit, driving around the city with surveillance equipment, recording images and commentary covering potential suspects who invariably look like his idea of Arabs. He has a pal, Jimmy (Richard Edson), who has a contact or two in the police department and is always willing to run suspicious items through the more extreme elements of the Internet.
Roaming the city at night, Paul spots a man in a turban carrying boxes of Borax. Jimmy cracks an evil joke that it would be pretty funny when they're looking for a "dirty bomb" if terrorists turned out to use a heavy-duty cleaner, but Paul doesn't see the humor in it.
When the homeless man with the Borax boxes is gunned down in his cardboard crib close to Lana's mission house, Paul happens to be there on surveillance. His tape of the shooting ends up on network television and soon Lana is helping find out who the man was. Uncle and niece team up to get to the bottom of the shooting but Paul's paranoia becomes ever more extreme and dangerous. It will put Lana's sincere spirituality and concern for the troubled ex-soldier to the test.
Wenders' eye for locations and richly evocative work by director of photography Franz Lustig and production designer Nathan Amondson combine to give the film a powerful sensory impact. The music score and tracks featuring Leonard Cohen add greatly to the piece. Wenders' screenplay with Michael Meredith turns the cliche of the shell-shocked veteran on its head. The sense of wonderment and desire for understanding that envelop the old soldier and the young disciple create a mood of profound optimism.
Credits:
Director: Wim Wenders
Screenplay: Michael Meredith, Wim Wenders
Story: Wim Wenders, Scott Derrickson
Producers: In-ah Lee, Samson Mucke
Gary Winick, Jake Abraham
Executive producers: Peter Schwartzkopff, Jonathan Sehring, Caroline Kaplan, John Sloss
Director of photography: Franz Lustig
Editor: Moritz Laube
Production designer: Nathan Amondson
Costume designer: Alexis Scott
Composers: Thom & Nackt (cq)
Cast:
Lana: Michelle Williams
Paul: John Diehl
Hassan: Shaun Taub
Henry: Wendell Pierce
Jimmy: Richard Edson
Sherman: Burt Young
Youssef: Bernard White.
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 118 mins...
- 9/10/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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