She Came to Me has designs on being a grand opera, but it’s definitely more of what the British call a panto. Opening at a swanky cocktail reception as a male tenor offhandedly begins singing the famous “Habanera” from Carmen, we’re introduced to the sketchily imaged beau monde existence of one Steven Lauddem (Peter Dinklage), blocked opera composer extraordinaire. He’s toasting his first commission following a breakdown, through which he met and then wed his psychiatrist Patricia (Anne Hathaway), but artistic inspiration again eludes him. They enjoy a cosseted, Brooklyn townhouse-inhabiting existence, familiar from Woody Allen and earlier Noah Baumbach pictures––a hint at the weirdly dated manner of this film where lead characters are immune from the expected satire, humbling, or cross-examination, and instead indulged for unfunny farce.
Its writer-director is Rebecca Miller, who in the aftermath of New York Magazine’s infamous “nepo baby” mock-exposé,...
Its writer-director is Rebecca Miller, who in the aftermath of New York Magazine’s infamous “nepo baby” mock-exposé,...
- 2/16/2023
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
Novelist/screenwriter, Christian Kracht, gives a Paddington hard stare before his conversation on Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas with Daniel Bowles and Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: David Netto
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
- 7/24/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
By modern standards, Quentin Tarantino would be considered an auteur; a director whose films reflect that his personal creative vision. But what exactly is that vision, and how is it reflected in his work? One major observation that one can make about Tarantino’s films is that he often incorporates a number of references, many of which refer to cinema, specific films, or pop culture. His films are laced with this intertextuality were the relationship between texts (or films) is constantly being redefined. This method of pastiche is one way that he draws attention to the fact that his film is a constructed piece of fiction, or a “simulation.”
His rational behind this is heavily influenced by French theorist Jean Baudrillard’s notion of “hyperreality.” Hyperreality in this case refers to the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, as the two become blurred into one. Baudrillard argues that...
His rational behind this is heavily influenced by French theorist Jean Baudrillard’s notion of “hyperreality.” Hyperreality in this case refers to the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, as the two become blurred into one. Baudrillard argues that...
- 6/26/2010
- by Kristen Coates
- The Film Stage
Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian in Douglas Sirk’s La Habanera La Habanera Review: Part I And this is where I got critical of the story. We see no slow deterioration of their marriage and we have nothing on which to base her change of heart. In the earlier sequence she thought her new life was "heaven", now she calls it "hell." Just exactly why, we don’t know. What we do see is that her son has become her surrogate husband. In fact, they have a relationship that borders on the incestuous; always kissing and fondling each other. The other mystery is that her son comes down with a fever, but it apparently has nothing to do with the island sickness that is a [...]...
- 5/12/2010
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
La Habanera (1937) Direction: Detlef Sierck (aka Douglas Sirk) Screenplay: Gerhard Menzel Cast: Zarah Leander, Ferdinand Marian, Karl Martell, Julia Serda, Boris Alekin, Michael Schulz-Dornburg Zarah Leander La Habanera First, I have to state that I watched Douglas Sirk’s La Habanera, not knowing what to expect. All I knew was the brief synopsis on the DVD box. I also knew that Sirk was a director of such lush 1950s Technicolor soapers as Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows, and Written on the Wind. None of which would ever appear on my "favorites" list. But La Habanera was produced in Germany in 1937 in black and white, and starred an actress I had heard about — Zarah Leander — but had never seen before, so [...]...
- 5/12/2010
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
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