Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Daaaaaalí!,” the latest film by Quentin Dupieux whose upcoming movie “The Second Act” will world premiere on opening night at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
A comedic and unpredictable tribute to Salvador Dalí, “Daaaaaalí!” premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, followed by screenings at the BFI London Film Festival and Rotterdam.
In “Daaaaaalí!,” a French journalist repeatedly meets Dalí to begin an interview for a documentary film project that never starts shooting. Anaïs Demoustier stars as a journalist attempting to pin down the eccentric and elusive Salvador Dalí, who is played by five different actors, Edouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Gilles Lellouche, Pio Marmaï, and Didier Flamand.
Music Box Films will release “Daaaaaalí!” theatrically later this year with a home entertainment release to follow.
“We were thoroughly charmed by the playful, antic spirit of Quentin Dupieux’s film,...
A comedic and unpredictable tribute to Salvador Dalí, “Daaaaaalí!” premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival, followed by screenings at the BFI London Film Festival and Rotterdam.
In “Daaaaaalí!,” a French journalist repeatedly meets Dalí to begin an interview for a documentary film project that never starts shooting. Anaïs Demoustier stars as a journalist attempting to pin down the eccentric and elusive Salvador Dalí, who is played by five different actors, Edouard Baer, Jonathan Cohen, Gilles Lellouche, Pio Marmaï, and Didier Flamand.
Music Box Films will release “Daaaaaalí!” theatrically later this year with a home entertainment release to follow.
“We were thoroughly charmed by the playful, antic spirit of Quentin Dupieux’s film,...
- 5/2/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Picking up the pieces of her life after a terrorist attack in Paris, Mia attempts to reconcile fragmented memories and relationships old and new in Alice Winocour’s powerfully nuanced drama Revoir Paris. Also starring Pacifiction‘s Benoît Magimel and Claire Denis regular Grégoire Colin, the film is another example of Winocour’s mastery of immersing her audience in the headspace of her characters, creating an empathetic portrait of searching for slivers of happiness and meaning in the wake of trauma.
While at Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and ahead of the film’s U.S. release this Friday, I spoke with Winocour about her filmmaking process, being inspired by David Cronenberg and Agnès Varda, capturing the emotional intricacies of trauma, casting her ensemble, reactions to the film in Paris, and more.
The Film Stage: In all of your films you do an incredible job putting...
While at Film at Lincoln Center’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and ahead of the film’s U.S. release this Friday, I spoke with Winocour about her filmmaking process, being inspired by David Cronenberg and Agnès Varda, capturing the emotional intricacies of trauma, casting her ensemble, reactions to the film in Paris, and more.
The Film Stage: In all of your films you do an incredible job putting...
- 6/22/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It’s been a whirlwind two weeks, and as relieved as attendees and observers around the world are that the 2023 edition of Cannes has come to a close, we’re already eager for next year’s. Though too much attention may have been paid to the wrong things – controversies regarding the opening night selection, “Jeanne du Barry,” and altercations with police over bicycles come to mind – cinema and its celebration ultimately took centerstage. By most accounts, 2023 was an improvement over two (understandably) subdued years.
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan...
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan...
- 5/28/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
As relieved as attendees and observers around the world are that the 2023 edition of Cannes has come to a close, we’re already eager for next year’s. Though too much attention may have been paid to the wrong things – controversies regarding the opening night selection, “Jeanne du Barry,” and altercations with police over bicycles come to mind – cinema and its celebration ultimately took centerstage. By most accounts, 2023 was an improvement over two (understandably) subdued years.
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan”). The Un Certain Regard series was presided over by John C. Reilly.
This year’s Main Competition jury was headed by two-time Palme winner Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and co-jurored by Julia Ducournau (“Titane”), Paul Dano, Brie Larson, Denis Ménochet (recently seen in “Beau is Afraid”), Atiq Rahimi (“Our Lady of the Nile”), Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales” and this year’s “To Catch a Killer”), Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) and Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan”). The Un Certain Regard series was presided over by John C. Reilly.
- 5/28/2023
- by Ronald Meyer and Denton Davidson
- Gold Derby
Music Box is unveiling the trailer for “Revoir Paris,” a French drama boasting a Cesar-winning performance by Virginie Efira. The movie, which bowed at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight and played at Toronto, will have its New York premiere on June 23 at Film at Lincoln Center and IFC Film Center.
A meditation on healing, the film tells the story of Mia (Efira), a married translator who survived a mass shooting in a Paris restaurant, and feels haunted by the trauma, yet unable to recollect memories of the tragic attack. Determined to reconstruct the sequence of events and reestablish a sense of normalcy, Mia finds herself repeatedly returning to the bistro where the shooting happened. In the process she forms bonds with fellow survivors, including banker Thomas (Benoît Magimel) and teenager Félicia (Nastya Golubeva). Efira, who just won a Cesar Award for her role in the film, stars opposite Magimel, the Cesar-winning actor of “Pacifiction,...
A meditation on healing, the film tells the story of Mia (Efira), a married translator who survived a mass shooting in a Paris restaurant, and feels haunted by the trauma, yet unable to recollect memories of the tragic attack. Determined to reconstruct the sequence of events and reestablish a sense of normalcy, Mia finds herself repeatedly returning to the bistro where the shooting happened. In the process she forms bonds with fellow survivors, including banker Thomas (Benoît Magimel) and teenager Félicia (Nastya Golubeva). Efira, who just won a Cesar Award for her role in the film, stars opposite Magimel, the Cesar-winning actor of “Pacifiction,...
- 2/28/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
‘Paris Memories’ is about the resilience of the survivors of a terrorist attack.
Alice Winocour’s Directors’ Fortnight title Paris Memories is an intensely personal film. Virginie Efira stars as a woman who survives a terrorist attack in a bistro. Three months later she begins to investigate her memories in an effort to move forwards from the trauma of that night.
The French filmmaker’s brother was in the Bataclan concert venue when it was attacked by terrorists on November 13, 2015. He survived the attack, having had to tell Winocour not to message him while he was hidden as it could put him in greater danger.
Alice Winocour’s Directors’ Fortnight title Paris Memories is an intensely personal film. Virginie Efira stars as a woman who survives a terrorist attack in a bistro. Three months later she begins to investigate her memories in an effort to move forwards from the trauma of that night.
The French filmmaker’s brother was in the Bataclan concert venue when it was attacked by terrorists on November 13, 2015. He survived the attack, having had to tell Winocour not to message him while he was hidden as it could put him in greater danger.
- 5/26/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
French writer/director Alice Winocour was interested in the connection between the body and the mind before it was cool. Her feature debut “Augustine” (2012) told the story of a supposedly “hysterical” woman and her doctor in 19th century France, while “Disorder” (2015) centered on a soldier-turned bodyguard suffering from Ptsd. “Proxima” (2019) followed a female astronaut preparing her body for the demands of life aboard the International Space Station, and her mind for the separation from her daughter that the trip necessitates.
Continue reading ‘Paris Memories’ Review: Alice Winocour Explores Trauma Thoughtfully (& Predictably) With Virginie Efira [Cannes] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Paris Memories’ Review: Alice Winocour Explores Trauma Thoughtfully (& Predictably) With Virginie Efira [Cannes] at The Playlist.
- 5/22/2022
- by Elena Lazic
- The Playlist
Revoir Paris
She’s three features into her filmography and we feel like she’s one perfectly mapped out film from breaking out bigger than she has done so so far. Alice Winocour’s Augustine premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2012, her sophomore film Disorder premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2015, and her third film Proxima competed in TIFF’s Platform program. The pandemic delayed her fourth feature and she might have had to shuffle her cards a bit, but Revoir Paris finally came to fruition in October of this year with Virginie Efira in the memory game hot seat with Benoît Magimel as a supporting character.…...
She’s three features into her filmography and we feel like she’s one perfectly mapped out film from breaking out bigger than she has done so so far. Alice Winocour’s Augustine premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2012, her sophomore film Disorder premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2015, and her third film Proxima competed in TIFF’s Platform program. The pandemic delayed her fourth feature and she might have had to shuffle her cards a bit, but Revoir Paris finally came to fruition in October of this year with Virginie Efira in the memory game hot seat with Benoît Magimel as a supporting character.…...
- 1/11/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Broadcasting
Channel 4 and Sky in the U.K. have extended their pre-existing, long-term commercial partnership in a new multi-year agreement which, according to the companies, will facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration, commercial growth and innovation as broadcasting evolves going forward.
Under the terms of the new deal, Sky customers will have access to even more Channel 4 content as more than 1000 hours of All 4 — Channel 4’s VoD platform — exclusives are integrated into Sky’s current and future TV products. Channel 4 will benefit from under the new terms by opening avenues to new digital ad revenue streams which can support its Future4 strategy.
“When we set out our Future4 strategy last year, we made clear that securing strategic distribution partnerships would be a vital part of ensuring we can maximize our reach and impact with viewers in a digital age, grow our revenues and compete more effectively for the future,” said Alex Mahon,...
Channel 4 and Sky in the U.K. have extended their pre-existing, long-term commercial partnership in a new multi-year agreement which, according to the companies, will facilitate greater opportunity for collaboration, commercial growth and innovation as broadcasting evolves going forward.
Under the terms of the new deal, Sky customers will have access to even more Channel 4 content as more than 1000 hours of All 4 — Channel 4’s VoD platform — exclusives are integrated into Sky’s current and future TV products. Channel 4 will benefit from under the new terms by opening avenues to new digital ad revenue streams which can support its Future4 strategy.
“When we set out our Future4 strategy last year, we made clear that securing strategic distribution partnerships would be a vital part of ensuring we can maximize our reach and impact with viewers in a digital age, grow our revenues and compete more effectively for the future,” said Alex Mahon,...
- 7/2/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Untitled Alice Winocour Project
During various stages of press for the release of her latest film Proxima in 2020, France’s Alice Winocour dropped hints of a new project to be shoot in Paris with an American actress in either September or October of 2020 which had been delayed due to the pandemic. No details were released before or after these revelations, but seeing as her first three features were produced through Dharamsala one could assume Winocour already has the coin lined up. After a trio of short films, Winocour’s 2012 debut Augustine premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes. 2015 was a major year for the director, as her sophomore film Disorder premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and she wrote Mustang, the debut of Deniz Gamze Erguven, which premiered at the same festival in Directors’ Fortnight and went on to snag an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Language Film.…
Continue reading.
During various stages of press for the release of her latest film Proxima in 2020, France’s Alice Winocour dropped hints of a new project to be shoot in Paris with an American actress in either September or October of 2020 which had been delayed due to the pandemic. No details were released before or after these revelations, but seeing as her first three features were produced through Dharamsala one could assume Winocour already has the coin lined up. After a trio of short films, Winocour’s 2012 debut Augustine premiered in Critics’ Week at Cannes. 2015 was a major year for the director, as her sophomore film Disorder premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and she wrote Mustang, the debut of Deniz Gamze Erguven, which premiered at the same festival in Directors’ Fortnight and went on to snag an Oscar nod for Best Foreign Language Film.…
Continue reading.
- 1/3/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Picturehouse Entertainment will kick off the reopening of U.K. cinemas with the theatrical release of Alice Winocour’s “Proxima” from July 10.
Cinemas across the U.K. closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Picturehouse and Cineworld cinemas are confirmed to reopen from July 10, subject to government guidelines.
“Proxima” opened this year’s Glasgow Film Festival on Feb. 26, after playing 2019 festivals such as Tiff and San Sebastian, where it won awards, and Macau. Lead Eva Green was nominated for best actress at the Cesars in France.
“After an extremely challenging few months for everyone, we’re thrilled to be bringing back independent cinema to the big screen with a beautiful and truly cinematic new film by a director I greatly admire, Alice Winocour,” said Clare Binns, joint managing director of Picturehouse Entertainment.
“A safe environment is the priority for cinemas right now and we have every confidence that all...
Cinemas across the U.K. closed in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Picturehouse and Cineworld cinemas are confirmed to reopen from July 10, subject to government guidelines.
“Proxima” opened this year’s Glasgow Film Festival on Feb. 26, after playing 2019 festivals such as Tiff and San Sebastian, where it won awards, and Macau. Lead Eva Green was nominated for best actress at the Cesars in France.
“After an extremely challenging few months for everyone, we’re thrilled to be bringing back independent cinema to the big screen with a beautiful and truly cinematic new film by a director I greatly admire, Alice Winocour,” said Clare Binns, joint managing director of Picturehouse Entertainment.
“A safe environment is the priority for cinemas right now and we have every confidence that all...
- 6/17/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Rebecca Zlotowski on intertextuality in An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile): “It’s a reproduction of the prologue of the summer tale by Éric Rohmer, the beginning of La Collectionneuse is Haydée Politoff, the main actress on the beach, shot exactly the same.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
There is nothing easy about being an easy girl in Rebecca Zlotowski’s An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile), co-written with Teddy Lussi-Modeste, shot by Georges Lechaptois, which is a highlight of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.
Naïma (Mina Farid), Sofia (Zahia Dehar), Philippe (Benoît Magimel), and Andres (Nuno Lopes) in An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile)
Naïma (Mina Farid) has just turned 16. She lives in Cannes with her mother who works as a maid in one of the fancy hotels. When her older bombshell cousin Sofia (Zahia Dehar) visits for the summer, a new chapter begins in her life. Naima is in awe...
There is nothing easy about being an easy girl in Rebecca Zlotowski’s An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile), co-written with Teddy Lussi-Modeste, shot by Georges Lechaptois, which is a highlight of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema.
Naïma (Mina Farid), Sofia (Zahia Dehar), Philippe (Benoît Magimel), and Andres (Nuno Lopes) in An Easy Girl (Une Fille Facile)
Naïma (Mina Farid) has just turned 16. She lives in Cannes with her mother who works as a maid in one of the fancy hotels. When her older bombshell cousin Sofia (Zahia Dehar) visits for the summer, a new chapter begins in her life. Naima is in awe...
- 3/13/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Proxima
French director Alice Winocour makes her English language debut with her third feature, the French-German co-pro Proxima. Eva Green headlines an impressive international cast as an astronaut set to embark on a year-long space mission on the International Space Station, supported by the likes of Matt Dillon, Lars Eidinger, and Russian actor Aleksey Fateev. Isabelle Madelaine, who produced both of Winocour’s previous films, is on board with Dharamsala as well as Emilie Tisne for Darius Films while the project is co-produced by France 3 Cinema, Pathe, and Germany’s Pandora. Winocour’s 2012 debut Augustine, which starred Vincent Lindon and Soko, premiered as a Special Screening in the Cannes Critics’ Week and was nominated for a Best First Feature Cesar.…...
French director Alice Winocour makes her English language debut with her third feature, the French-German co-pro Proxima. Eva Green headlines an impressive international cast as an astronaut set to embark on a year-long space mission on the International Space Station, supported by the likes of Matt Dillon, Lars Eidinger, and Russian actor Aleksey Fateev. Isabelle Madelaine, who produced both of Winocour’s previous films, is on board with Dharamsala as well as Emilie Tisne for Darius Films while the project is co-produced by France 3 Cinema, Pathe, and Germany’s Pandora. Winocour’s 2012 debut Augustine, which starred Vincent Lindon and Soko, premiered as a Special Screening in the Cannes Critics’ Week and was nominated for a Best First Feature Cesar.…...
- 1/7/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Stéphanie Di Giusto on The Dancer: "The movie is always in movement." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Stéphanie Di Giusto's The Dancer (La Danseuse), screenplay in collaboration with Les Cowboys director Thomas Bidegain, based on the book Loïe Fuller: Danseuse De La Belle Époque by Giovanni Lista, stars Soko as Fuller with Lily-Rose Depp as Isadora Duncan. The supporting cast includes Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry, François Damiens, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Amanda Plummer, and Denis Ménochet.
I met up with the director at the restaurant inside the Marlton Hotel the day before her debut film opened in New York. We discussed how Nick Cave and Warren Ellis got involved through Andrew Dominik's The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, her costume designer Anaïs Romand who won a César, working with cinematographer Benoît Debie, seeing Soko in Alice Winocour's Augustine, and Harvey Weinstein's reaction after seeing The Dancer at Cannes.
Stéphanie Di Giusto's The Dancer (La Danseuse), screenplay in collaboration with Les Cowboys director Thomas Bidegain, based on the book Loïe Fuller: Danseuse De La Belle Époque by Giovanni Lista, stars Soko as Fuller with Lily-Rose Depp as Isadora Duncan. The supporting cast includes Gaspard Ulliel, Mélanie Thierry, François Damiens, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Amanda Plummer, and Denis Ménochet.
I met up with the director at the restaurant inside the Marlton Hotel the day before her debut film opened in New York. We discussed how Nick Cave and Warren Ellis got involved through Andrew Dominik's The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, her costume designer Anaïs Romand who won a César, working with cinematographer Benoît Debie, seeing Soko in Alice Winocour's Augustine, and Harvey Weinstein's reaction after seeing The Dancer at Cannes.
- 12/4/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Alice Winocour on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut: "The first scene where we see Nicole Kidman wearing this fabulous dress, with Tom Cruise going to the party." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Augustine and Disorder (Maryland) director Alice Winocour, co-writer of Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang, talked Beauty And The Beast, Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte, Vincent Lindon meeting Matthias Schoenaerts, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on holiday, Pascaline Chavanne's costumes for Diane Kruger, Jacques Audiard's Rust And Bone (De Rouille Et D'Os) with Thomas Bidegain, and alluding to David Lynch's Lost Highway and William Holden.
Alice Winocour with Valley Of Love's Guillaume Nicloux, A Decent Man's Emmanuel Finkiel, The Great Game's Nicolas Pariser and Melvil Poupaud
Vincent, a troubled Afghanistan veteran, after being discharged from the army, becomes bodyguard to the wife (Kruger) and young son Ali (Zaïd Errougui-Demonsant) of a wealthy Lebanese businessman (Percy Kemp...
Augustine and Disorder (Maryland) director Alice Winocour, co-writer of Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang, talked Beauty And The Beast, Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte, Vincent Lindon meeting Matthias Schoenaerts, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on holiday, Pascaline Chavanne's costumes for Diane Kruger, Jacques Audiard's Rust And Bone (De Rouille Et D'Os) with Thomas Bidegain, and alluding to David Lynch's Lost Highway and William Holden.
Alice Winocour with Valley Of Love's Guillaume Nicloux, A Decent Man's Emmanuel Finkiel, The Great Game's Nicolas Pariser and Melvil Poupaud
Vincent, a troubled Afghanistan veteran, after being discharged from the army, becomes bodyguard to the wife (Kruger) and young son Ali (Zaïd Errougui-Demonsant) of a wealthy Lebanese businessman (Percy Kemp...
- 8/13/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Tall, dark, and brooding, Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts is the man you go to when you need bruised masculinity, International Cinema Division. If you’ve seen him as the hormonally jacked cattle breeder in the Oscar-nominated Bullhead (2011), or the oddly tender underground fighter in Rust and Bone (2012), or the Brooklyn thug giving Tom Hardy mad tsuris in The Drop (2014), you know what we're talking about here. He can do sexy, menacing, sensitive and messed-in-the head simultaneously. It's just a matter of when regarding the big crossover moment, not if.
This...
This...
- 8/12/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Alice Winocour on Disorder: "I thought also about Carpenter's films, the sound."
Following her enticing and spirited debut, Augustine, Alice Winocour again proves that she can package troubled states of mind in lush images and strong plots. Disorder (Maryland), written with Jean-Stéphane Bron, stars Matthias Schoenaerts (Jacques Audiard's Rust And Bone) and Diane Kruger with Paul Hamy (Katell Quillévéré's Suzanne, Maïwenn's My King), Zaïd Errougui-Demonsant, and Percy Kemp.
Vincent: "What is frightening for the character is to not have control over his own body."
Pascaline Chavanne's costumes (Jacques Doillon's Rodin, Emmanuelle Bercot's Standing Tall, Christophe Honore's Métamorphoses), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte, Vincent Lindon, László Nemes's Son Of Saul, Guillaume Nicloux's Valley Of Love, Michel Houellebecq's Submission, Julien Lacheray's editing, Gesaffelstein's sound, John Carpenter, David Lynch's Lost Highway and William Holden -...
Following her enticing and spirited debut, Augustine, Alice Winocour again proves that she can package troubled states of mind in lush images and strong plots. Disorder (Maryland), written with Jean-Stéphane Bron, stars Matthias Schoenaerts (Jacques Audiard's Rust And Bone) and Diane Kruger with Paul Hamy (Katell Quillévéré's Suzanne, Maïwenn's My King), Zaïd Errougui-Demonsant, and Percy Kemp.
Vincent: "What is frightening for the character is to not have control over his own body."
Pascaline Chavanne's costumes (Jacques Doillon's Rodin, Emmanuelle Bercot's Standing Tall, Christophe Honore's Métamorphoses), Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte, Vincent Lindon, László Nemes's Son Of Saul, Guillaume Nicloux's Valley Of Love, Michel Houellebecq's Submission, Julien Lacheray's editing, Gesaffelstein's sound, John Carpenter, David Lynch's Lost Highway and William Holden -...
- 8/11/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Everything that Vincent (Matthias Schoenaerts) touches, and everywhere that he goes, is either flush with violence or tempered by its distant shadow. A combat veteran who returns home from Afghanistan with a nasty case of Ptsd, the burly soldier is so on edge that he can’t even chip apart some ice cubes at a party without stabbing at them with lethal force. Terse, burly, and prone to bouts of shrieking white noise in his head, Vincent is itching to go back to war, if only so he can be in an environment that justifies his jangled nerves.
No such luck. Instead, he’ll have to settle for a private security gig with a team of his fellow vets, prowling around a party at a lavish estate and keeping an eye on any potential threats to the family of three who live there. More than 30 minutes pass before the plot comes into view,...
No such luck. Instead, he’ll have to settle for a private security gig with a team of his fellow vets, prowling around a party at a lavish estate and keeping an eye on any potential threats to the family of three who live there. More than 30 minutes pass before the plot comes into view,...
- 8/9/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Originally titled Maryland, writer-director Alice Winocour‘s (co-writer of Mustang) second feature Disorder has just received its first U.S. trailer. Selling itself to American audiences as a lot more clear-cut than its U.K. treatment, the trailer lays out the early story beats before delving into synthwave and neon-headed title cards that cannot help but scream, “this has worked before, right?”
Following a solider with Ptsd (Matthias Schoenaerts of Bullhead and The Drop) hired to watch over the wife (Diane Kruger) and child of a wealthy businessman, the film received nominations at Cannes, AFI, Lumiere Awards, and Stockholm Film Fest.
While the film attempts a heady slow-burn, we said in our review: “[The] subtext is interesting, but only carries Disorder so far. A good deal of it stretches on interminably with Vincent looking sad, weary, on edge, or some combination of the three. Writer-director Alice Winocour does a fine job establishing the geography of Maryland,...
Following a solider with Ptsd (Matthias Schoenaerts of Bullhead and The Drop) hired to watch over the wife (Diane Kruger) and child of a wealthy businessman, the film received nominations at Cannes, AFI, Lumiere Awards, and Stockholm Film Fest.
While the film attempts a heady slow-burn, we said in our review: “[The] subtext is interesting, but only carries Disorder so far. A good deal of it stretches on interminably with Vincent looking sad, weary, on edge, or some combination of the three. Writer-director Alice Winocour does a fine job establishing the geography of Maryland,...
- 6/20/2016
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
The once world-renowned but now relatively obscure Belle Epoque dancer Loie Fuller (1862-1928), formerly the toast of the Folies Bergère, gets the full biopic treatment in The Dancer (La Danseuse), an airy, prettily accoutered but essentially vapid feature debut for writer-director Stephanie De Giusto. Tabloid interest is pretty much guaranteed in this otherwise fairly inconsequential costume drama by its casting: Fuller herself is played by indie-musician-turned-actor Soko (star of Alice Winocour’s Augustine), who until recently was dating Kristen Stewart (they allegedly split up just before the Cannes Film Festival). Meanwhile, Lily-Rose Depp, the
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- 5/13/2016
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Vincent Lindon with Anne-Katrin Titze, on Robert Mitchum: "He is my favorite one." Photo: Ed Bahlman
Vincent Lindon, who took home the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a César for his performance in Stéphane Brizé‘s The Measure Of A Man (La Loi Du Marché) co-written with Olivier Gorce, had recently starred in Alice Winocour's enticing and spirited Augustine and Claire Denis' sinister and irradiating Bastards (Les Salauds).
Vincent Lindon as Thierry: "By Skype, it's the most humiliating way of finding a job."
Gary Cooper's style by G. Bruce Boyer and Maria Cooper Janis, Michael Almereyda's Milgram Experimenter, the Hays Code, Frank Capra, Robert Mitchum and Raoul Walsh, a scene with Karine de Mirbeck and Matthieu Schaller, interviews by Skype and what it means to be able to look at oneself in the mirror in life and as an actor, are weighed with Vincent Lindon,...
Vincent Lindon, who took home the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival and a César for his performance in Stéphane Brizé‘s The Measure Of A Man (La Loi Du Marché) co-written with Olivier Gorce, had recently starred in Alice Winocour's enticing and spirited Augustine and Claire Denis' sinister and irradiating Bastards (Les Salauds).
Vincent Lindon as Thierry: "By Skype, it's the most humiliating way of finding a job."
Gary Cooper's style by G. Bruce Boyer and Maria Cooper Janis, Michael Almereyda's Milgram Experimenter, the Hays Code, Frank Capra, Robert Mitchum and Raoul Walsh, a scene with Karine de Mirbeck and Matthieu Schaller, interviews by Skype and what it means to be able to look at oneself in the mirror in life and as an actor, are weighed with Vincent Lindon,...
- 4/22/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Jurors include Alice Winocour, Nadav Lapid, David Robert Mitchell and Santiago Mitre.
French director and actress Valérie Donzelli is to preside over the jury of the 55th Critics’ Week, the oldest parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.
Donzelli, whose autobiographical film Declaration of War opened the 50th Critics’ Week and returned to Cannes in Competition last year with Marguerite & Julien, will award the Nespresso Grand Prize and the France 4 Visionary Award to one of the seven feature films in competition, as well as the Leica Cine Discovery Prize to one of 10 short films.
This year’s jury comprises filmmakers who debuted their first or second feature in Critics’ Week in the past five years.
The jury also includes director Alice Winocour, whose Augustine screened at Critics’ Week 2011 and was selected for Un Certain Regard with Disorder last year before winning the César Award for best original screenplay for Mustang.
Also on the...
French director and actress Valérie Donzelli is to preside over the jury of the 55th Critics’ Week, the oldest parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival.
Donzelli, whose autobiographical film Declaration of War opened the 50th Critics’ Week and returned to Cannes in Competition last year with Marguerite & Julien, will award the Nespresso Grand Prize and the France 4 Visionary Award to one of the seven feature films in competition, as well as the Leica Cine Discovery Prize to one of 10 short films.
This year’s jury comprises filmmakers who debuted their first or second feature in Critics’ Week in the past five years.
The jury also includes director Alice Winocour, whose Augustine screened at Critics’ Week 2011 and was selected for Un Certain Regard with Disorder last year before winning the César Award for best original screenplay for Mustang.
Also on the...
- 3/22/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Ground Control: Winocour Pours on the Paranoia with Tense Thriller
Director and screenwriter Alice Winocour crafts a sweaty-palmed, Ptsd inclined thriller with sophomore effort, Disorder. Somewhat inclined as a French version of The Bodyguard (1992), itself a muddled American pop culture homage to Kurosawa’s 1961 samurai classic Yojimbo, this odd genre mixture arrives with troubling political undertones hovering in the paranoid perimeter of a debatably deranged security guard’s watch of a wealthy Lebanese businessman’s family. Decidedly simplistic in form, it’s an elegantly crafted exercise enhanced by its particularly complex audio design, initially positioning its sullen protagonist as merely a madman approaching a breaking point. But more is revealed in the frequent display of observational skills, including a variety of non-verbal cues shared between its main characters through increasingly murky intrigue.
Recently returned from serving in Afghanistan, Vincent (Mathias Schoenaerts) suffers from night terrors and bouts of debilitating paranoia.
Director and screenwriter Alice Winocour crafts a sweaty-palmed, Ptsd inclined thriller with sophomore effort, Disorder. Somewhat inclined as a French version of The Bodyguard (1992), itself a muddled American pop culture homage to Kurosawa’s 1961 samurai classic Yojimbo, this odd genre mixture arrives with troubling political undertones hovering in the paranoid perimeter of a debatably deranged security guard’s watch of a wealthy Lebanese businessman’s family. Decidedly simplistic in form, it’s an elegantly crafted exercise enhanced by its particularly complex audio design, initially positioning its sullen protagonist as merely a madman approaching a breaking point. But more is revealed in the frequent display of observational skills, including a variety of non-verbal cues shared between its main characters through increasingly murky intrigue.
Recently returned from serving in Afghanistan, Vincent (Mathias Schoenaerts) suffers from night terrors and bouts of debilitating paranoia.
- 3/7/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The girls in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang
After talking about working with Warren Ellis, being in a short film directed by Olivier Assayas for To Each His Own Cinema, the costumes by Selin Sozen, writing with Alice Winocour and being in Augustine, Deniz Gamze Ergüven discussed with me seeing Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz as an influence, the contrasting comparisons with Jafar Panahi's Offside and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and dynamics between the girls (Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan) and their guardians (Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan) in Mustang.
Anne-Katrin Titze: The football idea, although you use it differently, reminded me of Jafar Panahi's tremendous Offside. Were you connecting that?
Mustangs in the sea: "Plus you see the sea from the window."
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: What really triggered it was that that was such a crazy situation. For...
After talking about working with Warren Ellis, being in a short film directed by Olivier Assayas for To Each His Own Cinema, the costumes by Selin Sozen, writing with Alice Winocour and being in Augustine, Deniz Gamze Ergüven discussed with me seeing Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz as an influence, the contrasting comparisons with Jafar Panahi's Offside and Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides and dynamics between the girls (Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan) and their guardians (Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan) in Mustang.
Anne-Katrin Titze: The football idea, although you use it differently, reminded me of Jafar Panahi's tremendous Offside. Were you connecting that?
Mustangs in the sea: "Plus you see the sea from the window."
Deniz Gamze Ergüven: What really triggered it was that that was such a crazy situation. For...
- 2/16/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Mustang director Deniz Gamze Ergüven on costume designer Selin Sozen's "shapeless shit-colored dresses": "For me it looks like a western." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan star with Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan, Burak Yigit and Bahar Kerimoglu in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Foreign Language Film Oscar nominated drama Mustang, co-written with Augustine director Alice Winocour. On a frosty afternoon in Chelsea, we spoke about Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, who is featured in Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth's 20,000 Days On Earth, Jafar Panahi's Offside, why Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides lacks in comparison to Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood, costume design, cooking lessons and the importance of blanket making.
Lale (Günes Sensoy)
Part allegory, part teenage empowerment, Mustang follows five high-spirited, orphaned sisters, Sonay [Akdogan], Selma [Sunguroglu], Ece [Iscan], Nur [Doguslu] and Lale [Sensoy]. Defying expectations in different...
Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu, Elit Iscan, Ilayda Akdogan star with Nihal G. Koldas, Ayberk Pekcan, Burak Yigit and Bahar Kerimoglu in Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Foreign Language Film Oscar nominated drama Mustang, co-written with Augustine director Alice Winocour. On a frosty afternoon in Chelsea, we spoke about Nick Cave collaborator Warren Ellis, who is featured in Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth's 20,000 Days On Earth, Jafar Panahi's Offside, why Sofia Coppola's The Virgin Suicides lacks in comparison to Don Siegel's Escape From Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood, costume design, cooking lessons and the importance of blanket making.
Lale (Günes Sensoy)
Part allegory, part teenage empowerment, Mustang follows five high-spirited, orphaned sisters, Sonay [Akdogan], Selma [Sunguroglu], Ece [Iscan], Nur [Doguslu] and Lale [Sensoy]. Defying expectations in different...
- 2/15/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Parisian writer/director Alice Winocour followed up her 2012 Cannes Critics' Week entry "Augustine" with 2015 Un Certain Regard premiere "Maryland (Disorder)," which Sundance Selects picked up. While her moody period debut "Augustine" turned on a 19th-century case of female "hysteria," Winocour's second film pivots on Matthias Schoenaerts as Vincent, a French Special Forces soldier reeling from Ptsd who's hired to protect Jessie (Diane Kruger), the wife of a wealthy Lebanese businessman. Holed up in her Maryland villa, Vincent's obsession unfurls into increasing paranoia. The film opens in France September 30th, but has yet to get a stateside date from Sundance Selects.
- 7/28/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Cannes Film festival was an exceptional edition for French films this year. A focus on the rising generation of French actors and directors that have been highlighted in Cannes and will most certainly be the stars of tomorrow was compiled by Unifrance chief Isabelle Giordano.
They are a force to be reckoned with. Unifrance films is ready to bet that you will certainly hear about these ten talented people. They represent the French cinema of today and will soon be on the screens worldwide.
Emmanuelle Bercot
An actress and a director, Emmanuelle Bercot began by enrolling at the Cours Florent drama school and taking dancing lessons after her baccalaureate. She graduated from Femis in 1998, after winning the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival for her short film "Les Vacances," in 1997. After her first few roles in the films of Jean-François Richet and Michel Deville, her career as an actress took off when Claude Miller gave her one of the main roles in "La Classe de neige" (1998). The following year, she made the headlines with the medium-length film she directed called "La Puce," presented in the selection of Un Certain Regard at Cannes. This film tells of the love affair between a 35-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, played by Isild Le Besco.
Her first feature-length film, "Clément" (2001), is about the life of a troubled woman who has one adventure after another with various men until she meets a 14-yearold boy. Her second film, "Backstage" (2004), continues to explore teenage angst through a relationship between a hit singer and a young obsessional fan. She earned her first critical and public acclaim with "On My Way" (2013), the third film written by the director for Catherine Deneuve, in which the star plays a woman who has decided to leave everything behind and hit the road in France.
She was indisputably the most talked about person during the Cannes Film Festival 2015, both as an actress and a director. Thierry Frémaux surprised everyone by announcing that "Standing Tall," Emmanuelle Bercot’s fourth feature-length film would open the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Emmanuelle Bercot says that she has rediscovered the social fiber of her beginnings with this tale of juvenile delinquency. After the enthusiastic and unanimous reception of her film, she won the Best Actress Award for her role as a woman under the influence of love in the film "Mon Roi" by Maïwenn, with whom she co-wrote the script for "Polisse," which won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012
Thomas Bidegain
Thomas Bidegain may well be one of the best known French screenwriters in the profession today, but it took him ten years to achieve this status. His career path in film is anything but ordinary. He started out in the 1990s by distributing and producing independent American films: "Ice Storm" by Ang Lee and "Chasing Sleep" by Michael Walker. He came back to France and joined MK2 where he became director of distribution. In 1999, he returned to production for "Why Not." In 2007, he told the story of his attempt to stop smoking in "Arrêter de fumer tue," a personal diary that was turned into a documentary, then a book.
In the meantime, he began screenwriting and worked on several projects. In 2009, he wrote the screenplay for Jacques Audiard’s film, "A Prophet," alongside Nicolas Peufaillit and Abdel Raouf Dafri, which won the Grand Prix du Jury in 2009. He participated in Audiard’s next film, "Rust and Bone" and "Our Children" by Joachim Lafosse. He was also the co-writer for "Saint Laurent" by Bertrand Bonello. Winning a César for the best original script and a César for the best adaptation, he presented "Cowboys" at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes this year, his first film as a director. He is also co-writer of "Ni le ciel ni la terre" by Clément Cogitore, presented during the Semaine de la Critique, as well as co-writer of the script for Jacques Audiard’s latest film, "Dheepan," which won the Palme d’Or.
Louise Bourgoin
Louise Bourgoin attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts for five years, during which she began her career as a model. After she graduated from art school in 2004, she radically changed direction and became a presenter on cable TV. She was Miss Météo in Le Grand Journal on Canal + from 2006 to 2008. Her slot became essential viewing and attracted a wide audience, including the attention of the film industry.
She began her acting career in "The Girl from Monaco" by Anne Fontaine, and her performance earned her a César nomination for Most Promising Actress. This recognition led to a whole series of roles and launched her career in film. She headed the bill of several films in 2010 ("White as Snow" by Christophe Blanc, "Sweet Valentine" by Emma Luchini, and "Black Heaven" by Gilles Marchand). The same year, Luc Besson selected her for the leading role in "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec."
Since then, Louise Bourgoin has played in film after film, and has taken her first steps in the international scene with her part in the American film "The Love Punch" by Joel Hopkins. She attracted attention at the Cannes Film Festival this year with her unusual role in Laurent Larivière’s first film, "I Am a Soldier," presented at Un Certain Regard.
Anaïs Demoustier
Her passion for acting started at a very young age and rapidly pushed her to take drama classes. She auditioned, when still a teenager, and got her first role alongside Isabelle Huppert in "Time of the Wolf" by Michael Haneke. After this, her career was launched and she played in a series of films among which "L’Année suivante" by Isabelle Czajka, "Hellphone" by James Huth, "The Beautiful Person" by Christophe Honoré, "Sois sage" by Juliette Garcias, "Sweet Evil" by Olivier Coussemacq, "Dear Prudene" by Rebecca Zlotowski, "Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Robert Guédiguian, "Thérèse Desqueyroux" by Claude Miller, "Quai d’Orsay" by Bertrand Tavernier, "Paris Follies" by Marc Fitoussi, etc.
A filmography rich of 30 films for an actress who isn’t 30 years old yet. In 2014, the press talked about the blooming of Anaïs Demoustier because her face and poise became essential to cinema. Present in "Bird People" by Pascale Ferran, "Caprices" by Emmanuel Mouret, "À trois on y va" by Jérôme Bonnell and "The New Girlfriend" by François Ozon, she is Marguerite in the last Valérie Donzelli’s film, "Marguerite et Julien" screened in Official selection in Cannes.
Louis Garrel
The son of actress Brigitte Sy and the director Philippe Garrel, he began his career in film thanks to his father, who started filming him at the age of six in "Emergency Kisses," alongside his mother and his grandfather, Maurice Garrel. He went onto study drama at the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique. He made his real cinema debut in 2001 in the film "Ceci est mon corps" by Rodolphe Marconi. Two years later, he played opposite Michael Pitt and the future Bond girl, Eva Green, in "The Dreamers" by Bernardo Bertolucci.
He then starred in another of his father’s films, "Regular Lovers". His performance earned him the César for the Most Promising Actor in 2005. Since then, he has played alongside the greatest, such as Isabelle Huppert in "Ma mère" by Christophe Honoré. This marked the beginning of a long collaboration between the filmmaker and the actor. They worked together in the film "In Paris" with Romain Duris, then in 2007 in "Love Songs" with Ludivine Sagnier, in "The Beautiful Person" with Léa Seydoux, in "Making Plans" for Lena with Chiara Mostroianni and, finally, in " Beloved" with Catherine Deneuve. He also topped the bill with Valéria Bruni Tedeschi in "Actresses," whom he worked with again in 2013 in "A Castle in Italy."
In 2010, he directed a short film, "The Little Tailor," in which he directed Léa Seydoux. He performed once again in one of his father’s films, "A Burning Hot Summer," followed by "Jealousy." In 2014, he starred in Bertrand Bonello’s film "Saint Laurent," a role which led to another César nomination, but this time in the best supporting role category. His first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented at a Certain Regard, was applauded by the critics. He also starred in "Mon Roi," Maïwenn’s fourth feature-length film, alongside Emmanuelle and Vincent Cassel, presented as part of the official selection.
Guillaume Gouix
After studying at the Conservatoire in Marseille and the Ecole Régionale d’Acteur de Cannes, Guillaume Gouix began his career in television. He played the male lead in "The Lion Cubs," by Claire Doyon, in 2003. Noted for his performance, especially the highly physical aspect of it and his intense gaze, he then played a series of supporting roles as a young hoodlum in "Les Mauvais joueurs" by Frédéric Balekdjian and in "Chacun sa nuit," by Jean-Marc Barr and Pascal Arnold. He featured in the 2007 war film "Intimate Enemies" by Florent Emilio Siri, thus confirming his taste for complex characters.
The following year, he was applauded for his performance in the film "Behind the Walls" by Christian Faure. In 2010, he starred in "22 Bullets" by Richard Berry and in 2011, he established his reputation with roles in "Nobody Else But You" by Gérald Hustache-Mathieu, "Et soudain, tout le monde me manque" by Jennifer Devoldere, and "Jimmy Rivière," Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s film debut.
He also appeared in "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen. He more recently starred in "Attila Marcel," by Sylvain Chomet, in which he played the lead role, in "French Women" by Audrey Dana, and "The Connection" by Cédric Jimenez with Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lelouche. He performed in three films presented at Cannes this year ("Les Anarchistes" by Elie Wajeman, which opened the Semaine de la Critique, "La Vie en grand" by Mathieu Vadepied, which closed the week, and in "Enragés" by Eric Hannezo, screened at the Cinéma de la Plage). He also directed his first short film "Alexis Ivanovitch, vous êtes mon héros" in 2011 and will soon start on a feature-length film, which is currently being written. He will be topping the bill in 2015 with "Braqueurs," a thriller by Julien Leclercq.
Ariane Labed
Born in Greece to French parents, Ariane Labed has always navigated between her two countries. She studied drama at the University of Provence and began her acting career treading the boards. After setting up a company combining dance and theater, Ariane Labed returned to live in Greece where she played at the National Theater of Athens. 2010 was the year of her first film, "Attenberg," directed by Athiná-Rachél Tsangári. "Alps" by Yorgos Lanthi-mos, the following year, confirmed the talent of this strangely charming actress. Two years later, she starred in "Before Midnight" by Richard Linklater where she played the role of Anna. The follow-up to "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," this third part of the saga was a great success, making Labed known to a wider audience.
In 2014, she played a young sailor in "Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey," who is torn between faithfulness and her desire to live her life. Winning the best actress award at the Locarno Film Festival and nominated for a César, the French actress gives a brilliant performance in Lucie Borleteau’s first feature-length film. She joined Yorgos Lanthimos in Cannes in 2015, where he won the Prix du Jury for his film "The Lobster."
Vincent Macaigne
Vincent Macaigne is the leading light in young French cinema. He joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris in 1999, appearing on stage and assuming the role of director. His free adaptations of the great classics of literature and drama earned him public and critical acclaim. He directed "The Idiot" by Dostoïevski and presented "Au moins j’aurai laissé un beau cadavre in Avignon," inspired by Hamlet. He also rapidly made a name for himself in demanding art-house films. In 2001, he was seen for the first time in "Replay" by Catherine Corsini. In 2007, he starred in "On War" by Bertrand Bonello and in 2010, in "A Burning Hot Summer" by Philippe Garrel.
Since 2011, Vincent Macaigne’s presence in short, medium and full-length films has gradually increased. Faithful to his directors, he has starred in several of their films. As is the case with his friend Guillaume Brac, who directed him in "Le Naufragé," "Tonnerre" and "Un monde sans femmes." He was awarded the Grand Prix and the Prix Télérama at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and the Prix Lutin for Best Actor in this film. Under the direction of Vincent Mariette, he played in "Les Lézards" then "Fool Circle." In 2013, we find the funny and touching thirty-something in "La fille du 14 juillet" by Antonin Peretjatko, "Age of Panic" by Justine Triet, and "2 Autumns, 3 Winters" by Sébastien Betbeder.
He was discovered by the general public at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Considered a figurehead of the revival of French cinema, Vincent has drawn the attention of the Cahiers du Cinéma, and even the British newspaper The Observer, which referred to him as the “new Gérard Depardieu”. In 2011, he directed "What We’ll Leave Behind," a very well-received medium-length film which won the Grand Prix at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival. He also starred in Mia Hansen-løve’s 2014 film "Eden." He plays one of the main roles in the actor Louis Garrel’s first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented during the Semaine de la Critique. He also featured in his 2011 film, La Règle de trois.
Vimala Pons
From the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, where she attended drama classes even though she wanted to be a screenwriter, to circus tents, Vimala Pons is an acrobat in all senses of the word. The 29-year-old actress has established her physical and poetic presence in French art-house films. She began her career in film with Albert Dupontel in "Enfermés dehors" in 2006. She then starred in "Eden Log" by Franck Vestiel in 2007, then in "Granny’s Funeral" by Bruno Podalydès in 2012.
Since then, we have seen her cross France in a little blue dress in "La Fille du 14 juillet," (she plays the girl) by Antonin Peretjatko, and changing into a lioness in "Métamorphoses," by Christophe Honoré. The impetuous muse of French independent film, Vimala Pons played in "Vincent" by Thomas Salvador this year. The actress has made a name for herself in 2015, in particular with "Comme un avion" by Bruno Podalydès, "Je suis à vous tout de suite" by Baya Kasmi, "La vie très privée de Monsieur Sim" by Michel Leclerc, and "L’Ombre des femmes" by Philippe Garrel (presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs this year in Cannes). She has also begun an international career, with a leading role in Paul Verhoeven’s latest film, "Elle."
Alice Winocour
The director Alice Winocour started out at Femis. After going into law, she returned to film and won three prizes for her short film "Kitchen: Prix TV5" for the best French-language short film, best international short film and the Silver Bear at the Festival of Nations (Ebensee). For "Magic Paris," she was awarded the jury prize at the St. Petersburg International Documentary, Short Film and Animated Film Festival.
She continued her career by writing the script for the film "Ordinary," by Vladimir Perisic. At the Cannes Film Festival 2012, Alice Winocour made a marked entry in the international arena with a film by a woman about women and the unchanging way of looking at them. In the film "Augustine," we are told the story of a professor and his patient, played by Vincent Lindon and Soko respectively. In 2015, she brought out her second feature-length film, "Maryland," which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. She is also the co-writer of "Mustang," by Denis Gamze Ergüven, presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
They are a force to be reckoned with. Unifrance films is ready to bet that you will certainly hear about these ten talented people. They represent the French cinema of today and will soon be on the screens worldwide.
Emmanuelle Bercot
An actress and a director, Emmanuelle Bercot began by enrolling at the Cours Florent drama school and taking dancing lessons after her baccalaureate. She graduated from Femis in 1998, after winning the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival for her short film "Les Vacances," in 1997. After her first few roles in the films of Jean-François Richet and Michel Deville, her career as an actress took off when Claude Miller gave her one of the main roles in "La Classe de neige" (1998). The following year, she made the headlines with the medium-length film she directed called "La Puce," presented in the selection of Un Certain Regard at Cannes. This film tells of the love affair between a 35-year-old man and a 14-year-old girl, played by Isild Le Besco.
Her first feature-length film, "Clément" (2001), is about the life of a troubled woman who has one adventure after another with various men until she meets a 14-yearold boy. Her second film, "Backstage" (2004), continues to explore teenage angst through a relationship between a hit singer and a young obsessional fan. She earned her first critical and public acclaim with "On My Way" (2013), the third film written by the director for Catherine Deneuve, in which the star plays a woman who has decided to leave everything behind and hit the road in France.
She was indisputably the most talked about person during the Cannes Film Festival 2015, both as an actress and a director. Thierry Frémaux surprised everyone by announcing that "Standing Tall," Emmanuelle Bercot’s fourth feature-length film would open the 68th Cannes Film Festival. Emmanuelle Bercot says that she has rediscovered the social fiber of her beginnings with this tale of juvenile delinquency. After the enthusiastic and unanimous reception of her film, she won the Best Actress Award for her role as a woman under the influence of love in the film "Mon Roi" by Maïwenn, with whom she co-wrote the script for "Polisse," which won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012
Thomas Bidegain
Thomas Bidegain may well be one of the best known French screenwriters in the profession today, but it took him ten years to achieve this status. His career path in film is anything but ordinary. He started out in the 1990s by distributing and producing independent American films: "Ice Storm" by Ang Lee and "Chasing Sleep" by Michael Walker. He came back to France and joined MK2 where he became director of distribution. In 1999, he returned to production for "Why Not." In 2007, he told the story of his attempt to stop smoking in "Arrêter de fumer tue," a personal diary that was turned into a documentary, then a book.
In the meantime, he began screenwriting and worked on several projects. In 2009, he wrote the screenplay for Jacques Audiard’s film, "A Prophet," alongside Nicolas Peufaillit and Abdel Raouf Dafri, which won the Grand Prix du Jury in 2009. He participated in Audiard’s next film, "Rust and Bone" and "Our Children" by Joachim Lafosse. He was also the co-writer for "Saint Laurent" by Bertrand Bonello. Winning a César for the best original script and a César for the best adaptation, he presented "Cowboys" at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs in Cannes this year, his first film as a director. He is also co-writer of "Ni le ciel ni la terre" by Clément Cogitore, presented during the Semaine de la Critique, as well as co-writer of the script for Jacques Audiard’s latest film, "Dheepan," which won the Palme d’Or.
Louise Bourgoin
Louise Bourgoin attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts for five years, during which she began her career as a model. After she graduated from art school in 2004, she radically changed direction and became a presenter on cable TV. She was Miss Météo in Le Grand Journal on Canal + from 2006 to 2008. Her slot became essential viewing and attracted a wide audience, including the attention of the film industry.
She began her acting career in "The Girl from Monaco" by Anne Fontaine, and her performance earned her a César nomination for Most Promising Actress. This recognition led to a whole series of roles and launched her career in film. She headed the bill of several films in 2010 ("White as Snow" by Christophe Blanc, "Sweet Valentine" by Emma Luchini, and "Black Heaven" by Gilles Marchand). The same year, Luc Besson selected her for the leading role in "The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec."
Since then, Louise Bourgoin has played in film after film, and has taken her first steps in the international scene with her part in the American film "The Love Punch" by Joel Hopkins. She attracted attention at the Cannes Film Festival this year with her unusual role in Laurent Larivière’s first film, "I Am a Soldier," presented at Un Certain Regard.
Anaïs Demoustier
Her passion for acting started at a very young age and rapidly pushed her to take drama classes. She auditioned, when still a teenager, and got her first role alongside Isabelle Huppert in "Time of the Wolf" by Michael Haneke. After this, her career was launched and she played in a series of films among which "L’Année suivante" by Isabelle Czajka, "Hellphone" by James Huth, "The Beautiful Person" by Christophe Honoré, "Sois sage" by Juliette Garcias, "Sweet Evil" by Olivier Coussemacq, "Dear Prudene" by Rebecca Zlotowski, "Snows of Kilimanjaro" by Robert Guédiguian, "Thérèse Desqueyroux" by Claude Miller, "Quai d’Orsay" by Bertrand Tavernier, "Paris Follies" by Marc Fitoussi, etc.
A filmography rich of 30 films for an actress who isn’t 30 years old yet. In 2014, the press talked about the blooming of Anaïs Demoustier because her face and poise became essential to cinema. Present in "Bird People" by Pascale Ferran, "Caprices" by Emmanuel Mouret, "À trois on y va" by Jérôme Bonnell and "The New Girlfriend" by François Ozon, she is Marguerite in the last Valérie Donzelli’s film, "Marguerite et Julien" screened in Official selection in Cannes.
Louis Garrel
The son of actress Brigitte Sy and the director Philippe Garrel, he began his career in film thanks to his father, who started filming him at the age of six in "Emergency Kisses," alongside his mother and his grandfather, Maurice Garrel. He went onto study drama at the Conservatoire National d’Art Dramatique. He made his real cinema debut in 2001 in the film "Ceci est mon corps" by Rodolphe Marconi. Two years later, he played opposite Michael Pitt and the future Bond girl, Eva Green, in "The Dreamers" by Bernardo Bertolucci.
He then starred in another of his father’s films, "Regular Lovers". His performance earned him the César for the Most Promising Actor in 2005. Since then, he has played alongside the greatest, such as Isabelle Huppert in "Ma mère" by Christophe Honoré. This marked the beginning of a long collaboration between the filmmaker and the actor. They worked together in the film "In Paris" with Romain Duris, then in 2007 in "Love Songs" with Ludivine Sagnier, in "The Beautiful Person" with Léa Seydoux, in "Making Plans" for Lena with Chiara Mostroianni and, finally, in " Beloved" with Catherine Deneuve. He also topped the bill with Valéria Bruni Tedeschi in "Actresses," whom he worked with again in 2013 in "A Castle in Italy."
In 2010, he directed a short film, "The Little Tailor," in which he directed Léa Seydoux. He performed once again in one of his father’s films, "A Burning Hot Summer," followed by "Jealousy." In 2014, he starred in Bertrand Bonello’s film "Saint Laurent," a role which led to another César nomination, but this time in the best supporting role category. His first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented at a Certain Regard, was applauded by the critics. He also starred in "Mon Roi," Maïwenn’s fourth feature-length film, alongside Emmanuelle and Vincent Cassel, presented as part of the official selection.
Guillaume Gouix
After studying at the Conservatoire in Marseille and the Ecole Régionale d’Acteur de Cannes, Guillaume Gouix began his career in television. He played the male lead in "The Lion Cubs," by Claire Doyon, in 2003. Noted for his performance, especially the highly physical aspect of it and his intense gaze, he then played a series of supporting roles as a young hoodlum in "Les Mauvais joueurs" by Frédéric Balekdjian and in "Chacun sa nuit," by Jean-Marc Barr and Pascal Arnold. He featured in the 2007 war film "Intimate Enemies" by Florent Emilio Siri, thus confirming his taste for complex characters.
The following year, he was applauded for his performance in the film "Behind the Walls" by Christian Faure. In 2010, he starred in "22 Bullets" by Richard Berry and in 2011, he established his reputation with roles in "Nobody Else But You" by Gérald Hustache-Mathieu, "Et soudain, tout le monde me manque" by Jennifer Devoldere, and "Jimmy Rivière," Teddy Lussi-Modeste’s film debut.
He also appeared in "Midnight in Paris" by Woody Allen. He more recently starred in "Attila Marcel," by Sylvain Chomet, in which he played the lead role, in "French Women" by Audrey Dana, and "The Connection" by Cédric Jimenez with Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lelouche. He performed in three films presented at Cannes this year ("Les Anarchistes" by Elie Wajeman, which opened the Semaine de la Critique, "La Vie en grand" by Mathieu Vadepied, which closed the week, and in "Enragés" by Eric Hannezo, screened at the Cinéma de la Plage). He also directed his first short film "Alexis Ivanovitch, vous êtes mon héros" in 2011 and will soon start on a feature-length film, which is currently being written. He will be topping the bill in 2015 with "Braqueurs," a thriller by Julien Leclercq.
Ariane Labed
Born in Greece to French parents, Ariane Labed has always navigated between her two countries. She studied drama at the University of Provence and began her acting career treading the boards. After setting up a company combining dance and theater, Ariane Labed returned to live in Greece where she played at the National Theater of Athens. 2010 was the year of her first film, "Attenberg," directed by Athiná-Rachél Tsangári. "Alps" by Yorgos Lanthi-mos, the following year, confirmed the talent of this strangely charming actress. Two years later, she starred in "Before Midnight" by Richard Linklater where she played the role of Anna. The follow-up to "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset," this third part of the saga was a great success, making Labed known to a wider audience.
In 2014, she played a young sailor in "Fidelio, Alice’s Odyssey," who is torn between faithfulness and her desire to live her life. Winning the best actress award at the Locarno Film Festival and nominated for a César, the French actress gives a brilliant performance in Lucie Borleteau’s first feature-length film. She joined Yorgos Lanthimos in Cannes in 2015, where he won the Prix du Jury for his film "The Lobster."
Vincent Macaigne
Vincent Macaigne is the leading light in young French cinema. He joined the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique in Paris in 1999, appearing on stage and assuming the role of director. His free adaptations of the great classics of literature and drama earned him public and critical acclaim. He directed "The Idiot" by Dostoïevski and presented "Au moins j’aurai laissé un beau cadavre in Avignon," inspired by Hamlet. He also rapidly made a name for himself in demanding art-house films. In 2001, he was seen for the first time in "Replay" by Catherine Corsini. In 2007, he starred in "On War" by Bertrand Bonello and in 2010, in "A Burning Hot Summer" by Philippe Garrel.
Since 2011, Vincent Macaigne’s presence in short, medium and full-length films has gradually increased. Faithful to his directors, he has starred in several of their films. As is the case with his friend Guillaume Brac, who directed him in "Le Naufragé," "Tonnerre" and "Un monde sans femmes." He was awarded the Grand Prix and the Prix Télérama at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and the Prix Lutin for Best Actor in this film. Under the direction of Vincent Mariette, he played in "Les Lézards" then "Fool Circle." In 2013, we find the funny and touching thirty-something in "La fille du 14 juillet" by Antonin Peretjatko, "Age of Panic" by Justine Triet, and "2 Autumns, 3 Winters" by Sébastien Betbeder.
He was discovered by the general public at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Considered a figurehead of the revival of French cinema, Vincent has drawn the attention of the Cahiers du Cinéma, and even the British newspaper The Observer, which referred to him as the “new Gérard Depardieu”. In 2011, he directed "What We’ll Leave Behind," a very well-received medium-length film which won the Grand Prix at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival. He also starred in Mia Hansen-løve’s 2014 film "Eden." He plays one of the main roles in the actor Louis Garrel’s first feature-length film, "Two Friends," presented during the Semaine de la Critique. He also featured in his 2011 film, La Règle de trois.
Vimala Pons
From the Conservatoire National Supérieur d’Art Dramatique, where she attended drama classes even though she wanted to be a screenwriter, to circus tents, Vimala Pons is an acrobat in all senses of the word. The 29-year-old actress has established her physical and poetic presence in French art-house films. She began her career in film with Albert Dupontel in "Enfermés dehors" in 2006. She then starred in "Eden Log" by Franck Vestiel in 2007, then in "Granny’s Funeral" by Bruno Podalydès in 2012.
Since then, we have seen her cross France in a little blue dress in "La Fille du 14 juillet," (she plays the girl) by Antonin Peretjatko, and changing into a lioness in "Métamorphoses," by Christophe Honoré. The impetuous muse of French independent film, Vimala Pons played in "Vincent" by Thomas Salvador this year. The actress has made a name for herself in 2015, in particular with "Comme un avion" by Bruno Podalydès, "Je suis à vous tout de suite" by Baya Kasmi, "La vie très privée de Monsieur Sim" by Michel Leclerc, and "L’Ombre des femmes" by Philippe Garrel (presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs this year in Cannes). She has also begun an international career, with a leading role in Paul Verhoeven’s latest film, "Elle."
Alice Winocour
The director Alice Winocour started out at Femis. After going into law, she returned to film and won three prizes for her short film "Kitchen: Prix TV5" for the best French-language short film, best international short film and the Silver Bear at the Festival of Nations (Ebensee). For "Magic Paris," she was awarded the jury prize at the St. Petersburg International Documentary, Short Film and Animated Film Festival.
She continued her career by writing the script for the film "Ordinary," by Vladimir Perisic. At the Cannes Film Festival 2012, Alice Winocour made a marked entry in the international arena with a film by a woman about women and the unchanging way of looking at them. In the film "Augustine," we are told the story of a professor and his patient, played by Vincent Lindon and Soko respectively. In 2015, she brought out her second feature-length film, "Maryland," which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 68th Cannes Film Festival. She is also the co-writer of "Mustang," by Denis Gamze Ergüven, presented at the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
- 7/5/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Unfortunately, this year’s main competition line-up at the Cannes Film Festival ended up being something of an easy target for jaded festival goers. An onslaught of English language debuts and mainstream tastes reigned supreme. Despite evident shortcomings, including the increasingly questionable sidebar siphoning of major auteurs in Festival head Thierry Fremaux’s neglectful hands, there was much to admire. This edition’s legacy won’t be helped by the decision of the Coen Bros. to award the Palme D’or to Jacques Audiard’s serviceable but weakest film to date, Dheepan, though several other accolades seemed more welcome, including a Grand Prix for Laszlo Nemes’ harrowing debut Son of Saul and a Best Screenplay nod for Michel Franco, whose Chronic was generally dismissed by critics. Though Hou Hsiao-hsien returns from an untowardly long absence with The Assassin, it’s great to see he received some recognition for what...
- 6/1/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Scandinavia rights snapped up to film starring Matthias Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger.
Edge Entertainment has acquired Cannes title Disorder (Maryland) from Indie Sales for Scandinavia and Iceland.
The drama, directed by Alice Winocour, played in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Winocour follows her lauded debut Augustine, which played in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2012, with this Antibes-shot psychological thriller about a former French Special Forces soldier (Matthias Schoenaerts) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who has to protect the wife (Diane Kruger) and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman.
Mars Distribution has French theatrical rights for an autumn 2015 launch.
IFC/Sundance Selects acquired Us rights during Cannes.
During Cannes, Edge also acquired Guilluame Nicloux’s Competition title Valley of Love, starring Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu, and documentary Palio, directed by Cosima Spender.
Edge Entertainment has acquired Cannes title Disorder (Maryland) from Indie Sales for Scandinavia and Iceland.
The drama, directed by Alice Winocour, played in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Winocour follows her lauded debut Augustine, which played in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2012, with this Antibes-shot psychological thriller about a former French Special Forces soldier (Matthias Schoenaerts) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who has to protect the wife (Diane Kruger) and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman.
Mars Distribution has French theatrical rights for an autumn 2015 launch.
IFC/Sundance Selects acquired Us rights during Cannes.
During Cannes, Edge also acquired Guilluame Nicloux’s Competition title Valley of Love, starring Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu, and documentary Palio, directed by Cosima Spender.
- 5/25/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The distributor struck the deal on Alice Winocour’s Un Certain Regard entry with Indie Sales Company.
Disorder (Maryland) stars Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger and Paul Hamy and follows a French Special Forces soldier who becomes paranoid after he is hired to protect the wife of a rich Lebanese businessman at their luxurious villa Maryland.
Dharamsala’s Isabelle Madelaine and Darius Films’ Emilie Tisne produced
“Alice Winocour is a tremendous talent and has crafted a tense thriller that you cannot stop watching,” said Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films
“We are sure that Us audiences will be as riveted by this film as our team was when they saw it at Cannes.”
Winocour’s first feature film Augustine premiered at the 2012 Cannes Critics Week.
Disorder (Maryland) stars Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger and Paul Hamy and follows a French Special Forces soldier who becomes paranoid after he is hired to protect the wife of a rich Lebanese businessman at their luxurious villa Maryland.
Dharamsala’s Isabelle Madelaine and Darius Films’ Emilie Tisne produced
“Alice Winocour is a tremendous talent and has crafted a tense thriller that you cannot stop watching,” said Jonathan Sehring, president of Sundance Selects/IFC Films
“We are sure that Us audiences will be as riveted by this film as our team was when they saw it at Cannes.”
Winocour’s first feature film Augustine premiered at the 2012 Cannes Critics Week.
- 5/19/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Sundance Selects has picked up Alice Winocour's "Disorder." The Parisian writer/director follows up her 2012 Cannes Critics' Week entry "Augustine" with this Un Certain Regard premiere formerly titled "Maryland." While her moody period debut "Augustine" turned on a 19th-century case of female "hysteria," her sophomore feature pivots on Matthias Schoenaerts as Vincent, a French Special Forces soldier reeling from Ptsd who's hired to protect Jessie (Diane Kruger), the wife of a wealthy Lebanese businessman. Holed up in her Maryland villa, Vincent's obsession unfurls into increasing paranoia. No release date yet from Sundance Selects. "Disorder" marks the company's first Cannes 2015 pickup. Here's what critics are saying: Variety: A fine-cut tension exercise that eventually ignites into a full-blown home-invasion thriller, “Disorder” reps about the last step one might have expected Winocour to take after debuting with...
- 5/18/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Exclusive: Company to launch Radu Mihaileanu’s The History of Love and Studio Ghibli co-production The Red Turtle.
Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch will kick off sales on Radu Mihaileanu’s saga The History of Love, starring John Hurt, Gemma Arterton and Sophie Nélisse at the Cannes Marché next month.
The mainly New York-set saga, spanning three continents and a period running from just before the Second World War to the present day, is based on Us writer Nicole Krauss’s international bestseller.
Hurt will play Leo, an elderly Polish Jewish immigrant still mourning the loss of his childhood sweetheart in the chaos of war, who is strangely linked to a teenage girl through a long, lost book on love… subtitled ‘the most loved woman in the world’.
“It’s a love story spanning 65 years… revolving around three friends in Poland whose destinies change forever when war breaks out,” Wild Bunch chief Vincent Maraval told ScreenDaily.
It marks...
Paris-based sales powerhouse Wild Bunch will kick off sales on Radu Mihaileanu’s saga The History of Love, starring John Hurt, Gemma Arterton and Sophie Nélisse at the Cannes Marché next month.
The mainly New York-set saga, spanning three continents and a period running from just before the Second World War to the present day, is based on Us writer Nicole Krauss’s international bestseller.
Hurt will play Leo, an elderly Polish Jewish immigrant still mourning the loss of his childhood sweetheart in the chaos of war, who is strangely linked to a teenage girl through a long, lost book on love… subtitled ‘the most loved woman in the world’.
“It’s a love story spanning 65 years… revolving around three friends in Poland whose destinies change forever when war breaks out,” Wild Bunch chief Vincent Maraval told ScreenDaily.
It marks...
- 4/24/2015
- ScreenDaily
Portrait of a Lady: Laxton’s Mannered Version of Victoria Era Repression
There’s well-meaningness to Effie Gray that makes it worthy of discussion, at least for how it attempts to frankly portray the sexual oppression of women in Victorian era England, an aspect often subtly rendered or left altogether untouched. As directed by Richard Laxton, best known for his made-for-television films of varying quality (An Englishman in New York; Burton & Taylor), there’s a sense that the somewhat ambitious emotions existing beneath all those stuffy costumes have been a tad oversimplified. Considering the screenplay was penned by Emma Thompson, who appears in a warmly attenuated supporting role, perhaps expectations are poised a bit high for a tale that’s both representative and also conveniently uncommon (this seems the only possible way for this film to reach a believable yet upbeat solution), as it relates a famous art world scandal...
There’s well-meaningness to Effie Gray that makes it worthy of discussion, at least for how it attempts to frankly portray the sexual oppression of women in Victorian era England, an aspect often subtly rendered or left altogether untouched. As directed by Richard Laxton, best known for his made-for-television films of varying quality (An Englishman in New York; Burton & Taylor), there’s a sense that the somewhat ambitious emotions existing beneath all those stuffy costumes have been a tad oversimplified. Considering the screenplay was penned by Emma Thompson, who appears in a warmly attenuated supporting role, perhaps expectations are poised a bit high for a tale that’s both representative and also conveniently uncommon (this seems the only possible way for this film to reach a believable yet upbeat solution), as it relates a famous art world scandal...
- 4/2/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Close Protection
Director: Alice Winocour // Writer: Alice Winocour
Premiering her 2012 debut Augustine at Cannes Critics’ Week, which went on to be nominated for Best Debut at the Cesars, Alice Winocour makes a surprising jump from period piece to thriller with her second film, Close Protection (originally titled Maryland). Starring notable names like Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger will surely position a healthy international interest. The story revolves around a former soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who finds himself tasked with protecting the wife and child of a rich Lebanese businessman while he is away.
Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger
Producers: Dharamsala’s Isabelle Madelaine (Illégal) and Darius Films’ Emilie Tisné (Augustine).
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Release Date: While Winocour may very well tempt Cannes again, this sounds like genre fare that might have more luck straying into a less competitive realm. With filming set for December, we’ll see...
Director: Alice Winocour // Writer: Alice Winocour
Premiering her 2012 debut Augustine at Cannes Critics’ Week, which went on to be nominated for Best Debut at the Cesars, Alice Winocour makes a surprising jump from period piece to thriller with her second film, Close Protection (originally titled Maryland). Starring notable names like Schoenaerts and Diane Kruger will surely position a healthy international interest. The story revolves around a former soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, who finds himself tasked with protecting the wife and child of a rich Lebanese businessman while he is away.
Cast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Diane Kruger
Producers: Dharamsala’s Isabelle Madelaine (Illégal) and Darius Films’ Emilie Tisné (Augustine).
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Release Date: While Winocour may very well tempt Cannes again, this sounds like genre fare that might have more luck straying into a less competitive realm. With filming set for December, we’ll see...
- 1/5/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
• Oscar winner William Hurt has joined the ensemble of Race, the Jesse Owens biopic starring Stephan James (When the Game Stands Tall) as the legendary track and field star. Hurt will play the president of the Amateur Athletic Union Jeremiah Mahoney, who led efforts to boycott the 1936 Olympics in Berlin against Hitler. Emmy winner Stephen Hopkins (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers) is directing the production currently filming in Montreal and on location at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin. In addition to James, Hurt joins Jeremy Irons as future International Olympic Committee president Avery Brundage, Jason Sudeikis as Osu...
- 10/2/2014
- by Jake Perlman
- EW - Inside Movies
Exclusive: With her FX series The Bridge wrapping its second season tonight, Diane Kruger has set two indie features to fill her winter schedule. German-born Kruger (Wicker Park, Inglourious Basterds, The Host) will first head to the south of France to film Maryland for director Alice Winocour, the helmer who made her debut two years ago with the Cannes entry Augustine. The film tracks an ex-soldier with Ptsd who is hired to protect the wife and child of a wealthy Lebanese businessman while he’s out of town. Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts (Bullhead, Rust and Bone) will play the soldier. Dharamsala and Darius Films are producing.
Kruger will then head to the American southwest set of Sky to re-team with director Fabienne Berthaud after their 2006 film Frankie and 2010’s Lily Sometimes. The film tracks a woman’s reawakening through her solitary journey into foreign lands and will mark Kruger and...
Kruger will then head to the American southwest set of Sky to re-team with director Fabienne Berthaud after their 2006 film Frankie and 2010’s Lily Sometimes. The film tracks a woman’s reawakening through her solitary journey into foreign lands and will mark Kruger and...
- 10/1/2014
- by Jen Yamato
- Deadline
The Academy has announced the new class of invited members for 2014 and, as is typical, many of which are among last year's nominees, which includes Barkhad Abdi, Michael Fassbender, Sally Hawkins, Mads Mikkelsen, Lupita Nyong'o and June Squibb in the Actors branch not to mention curious additions such as Josh Hutcherson, Rob Riggle and Jason Statham, but, okay. The Directors branch adds Jay and Mark Duplass along with Jean-Marc Vallee, Denis Villeneuve and Thomas Vinterberg. I didn't do an immediate tally of male to female additions or other demographics, but at first glance it seems to be a wide spread batch of new additions on all fronts. The Academy is also clearly attempting to aggressively bump up the demographics as this is the second year in a row where they have added a large number of new members, well over the average of 133 new members from 2004 to 2012. As far as...
- 6/26/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 271 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures.
Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.
“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”
The 2014 invitees are:
Actors
Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”
Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”
Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”
Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...
Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2014.
“This year’s class of invitees represents some of the most talented, creative and passionate filmmakers working in our industry today,” said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs. “Their contributions to film have entertained audiences around the world, and we are proud to welcome them to the Academy.”
The 2014 invitees are:
Actors
Barkhad Abdi – “Captain Phillips”
Clancy Brown – “The Hurricane,” “The Shawshank Redeption”
Paul Dano – “12 Years a Slave,” “Prisoners”
Michael Fassbender – “12 Years a Slave,” “Shame”
Ben Foster – “Lone Survivor,” “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”
Beth Grant – “The Artist,” “No Country for Old Men”
Clark Gregg – “Much Ado about Nothing,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Sally Hawkins – “Blue Jasmine,...
- 6/26/2014
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o of 12 Years a Slave were two of the 271 artists and industry leaders invited to become members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which determines nominations and winners at the annual Oscars. The entire list of Academy membership—which numbers about 6,000—isn’t public information so the annual invitation list is often the best indication of the artists involved in the prestigious awards process. It’s worth noting that invitations need to be accepted in order for artists to become members; some artists, like two-time Best Actor winner Sean Penn, have declined membership over the years.
- 6/26/2014
- by Jeff Labrecque
- EW - Inside Movies
Pop quiz: What do Chris Rock, Claire Denis, Eddie Vedder and Josh Hutcherson all have in common? Answer: They could all be Oscar voters very soon. The annual Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences invitation list always makes for interesting reading, shedding light on just how large and far-reaching the group's membership is -- or could be, depending on who accepts their invitations. This year, 271 individuals have been asked to join AMPAS, meaning every one of them could contribute to next year's Academy Awards balloting -- and it's as diverse a list as they've ever assembled. Think the Academy consists entirely of fusty retired white dudes? Not if recent Best Original Song nominee Pharrell Williams takes them up on their offer. Think it's all just a Hollywood insiders' game? Not if French arthouse titans Chantal Akerman and Olivier Assayas join the party. It's a list that subverts expectation at every turn.
- 6/26/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
Chinese platforms Youku and Tudou registered 3.5m screenings for the online film festival.
The fourth edition of Unifrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival.com — running Jan 17 to Feb 17 — more than quadrupled its viewing figures this year.
French cinema export agency Unifrance, which organises the event, reported that the online film festival generated 4 million screenings, against 750,000 in 2013 and 1.3m in 2012.
The month-long initiative - featuring 10 features and 10 shorts which have not been widely sold internationally - ran on 20 partner platforms as well as the dedicated MyFrenchFilmFestival site, which attracted some 100,000 subscribers this year.
The leap in hits was due in large part to increased viewing in China where online platforms Youku and Tudou reported 3.5m screenings for the event between them.
A surprise drop in MyFrenchFilmFestival.com viewings last year was pinned at the time to ownership changes at Youku just before the 2013 edition which had resulted in less visibility on the site.
Unifrance noted that short film In Seventh Heaven (7ème...
The fourth edition of Unifrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival.com — running Jan 17 to Feb 17 — more than quadrupled its viewing figures this year.
French cinema export agency Unifrance, which organises the event, reported that the online film festival generated 4 million screenings, against 750,000 in 2013 and 1.3m in 2012.
The month-long initiative - featuring 10 features and 10 shorts which have not been widely sold internationally - ran on 20 partner platforms as well as the dedicated MyFrenchFilmFestival site, which attracted some 100,000 subscribers this year.
The leap in hits was due in large part to increased viewing in China where online platforms Youku and Tudou reported 3.5m screenings for the event between them.
A surprise drop in MyFrenchFilmFestival.com viewings last year was pinned at the time to ownership changes at Youku just before the 2013 edition which had resulted in less visibility on the site.
Unifrance noted that short film In Seventh Heaven (7ème...
- 2/20/2014
- ScreenDaily
Chinese platforms Youku and Tudou registered 3.5m screenings for the online film festival.
The fourth edition of Unifrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival.com — running Jan 17 to Feb 17 — more than quadrupled its viewing figures this year.
French cinema export agency Unifrance, which organises the event, reported that the online film festival generated 4 million screenings, against 750,000 in 2013 and 1.3m in 2012.
The month-long initiative - featuring 10 features and 10 shorts which have not been widely sold internationally - ran on 20 partner platforms as well as the dedicated MyFrenchFilmFestival site, which attracted some 100,000 subscribers this year.
The leap in hits was due in large part to increased viewing in China where online platforms Youku and Tudou reported 3.5m screenings for the event between them.
A surprise drop in MyFrenchFilmFestival.com viewings last year was pinned at the time to ownership changes at Youku just before the 2013 edition which had resulted in less visibility on the site.
Unifrance noted that short film In Seventh Heaven (7ème...
The fourth edition of Unifrance’s MyFrenchFilmFestival.com — running Jan 17 to Feb 17 — more than quadrupled its viewing figures this year.
French cinema export agency Unifrance, which organises the event, reported that the online film festival generated 4 million screenings, against 750,000 in 2013 and 1.3m in 2012.
The month-long initiative - featuring 10 features and 10 shorts which have not been widely sold internationally - ran on 20 partner platforms as well as the dedicated MyFrenchFilmFestival site, which attracted some 100,000 subscribers this year.
The leap in hits was due in large part to increased viewing in China where online platforms Youku and Tudou reported 3.5m screenings for the event between them.
A surprise drop in MyFrenchFilmFestival.com viewings last year was pinned at the time to ownership changes at Youku just before the 2013 edition which had resulted in less visibility on the site.
Unifrance noted that short film In Seventh Heaven (7ème...
- 2/20/2014
- ScreenDaily
Cate Blanchett shines as a woman on the verge in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, while elsewhere Alec Baldwin disappoints
With apologies to Dylan Farrow, who would attach sterner moral implications to this question than those I intend: what's your favourite Woody Allen movie of the 21st century? It's been a slightly painful question for a while now, usually drawing less-than-ringing endorsements along the lines of: "Midnight in Paris was harmless enough", or: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona, if you mute the voiceover bits." At last, however, there's an easy answer: Blue Jasmine (Warner, 12), imperfect as it is in fractious and interesting ways, is something genuinely remarkable.
Much of that comes down to Cate Blanchett's daring, last-nerve performance as the title character, a spoilt society wife experiencing the mother of all Xanax comedowns after her husband is jailed for tax fraud – a tragicomic turn of Gena Rowlands proportions that is all...
With apologies to Dylan Farrow, who would attach sterner moral implications to this question than those I intend: what's your favourite Woody Allen movie of the 21st century? It's been a slightly painful question for a while now, usually drawing less-than-ringing endorsements along the lines of: "Midnight in Paris was harmless enough", or: "Vicky Cristina Barcelona, if you mute the voiceover bits." At last, however, there's an easy answer: Blue Jasmine (Warner, 12), imperfect as it is in fractious and interesting ways, is something genuinely remarkable.
Much of that comes down to Cate Blanchett's daring, last-nerve performance as the title character, a spoilt society wife experiencing the mother of all Xanax comedowns after her husband is jailed for tax fraud – a tragicomic turn of Gena Rowlands proportions that is all...
- 2/16/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
Following the great success of myFrenchFilmFestival.com last year (750,000 film viewings registered in 189 countries, with a 25% increase in paid viewings) the leading worldwide French film festival on the Internet now in its 4th edition returns this coming January 17th.
For one month, Us Internet users will have access to 10 features and 10 shorts in French with English subtitles. A selection of first and second feature films, theatrically released in France during the year, offers worldwide showcasing of a new generation of filmmakers, highlighting the diversity of young French production.
New features of the 2014 edition
- The festival will be accessible in the Us on the website myFrenchFilmFestival.com, iTunes (through Under the Milky Way) and TV5 Monde’s Cinema on Demand during one month (Jan 17-Feb 17 2014).
For more information:
www.tv5.org/cms/USA/Cinema-on-demand/p-22481-lg3-TV5MONDE-Cinema-On-Demand-in-November.htm
www.itunes.com
- La Fille Du 14 Juillet (The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu) will be the closing film of the Museum of Moving Image’s First Look festival on January 19th, with director Antonin Peretjatko in attendance.
- A selection of 9 features will be screened in theatres throughout the Us starting January 2nd, thanks to our partnership with SpectiCast. View full schedule here: http://www.specticast.com/myfff.jsp
- The films will also be proposed to 400 airline companies via our partner Skeye for in-flight viewings.
4 prizes will be awarded at the end of the festival:
The Filmmakers Award , presided by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and composed of foreign directors
Lynne Ramsay (United Kingdom), Marco Bellocchio (Italy), Anurag Kashyap (India) and Frédéric Fonteyne (Belgium).
The International Press Award , with a jury of 11 foreign journalists
The Audience Award , for which Internet users are invited to vote on-line
The Social Networks Award , chosen by 100 film buffs, influential on Facebook and Twitter
The winning films will then be shown on Air France flights during 6 months.
The full pass to watch the 10 features and 10 shorts online will be available for $22, features-only pass for $16.5, shorts-only pass for $8.2, single feature for $2.7 and single short $1.4.
The 2014 Myfff Selection
I – Features
- In a Rush, directed by Louis Do Lencquesaing
- Augustine, directed by Alice Winocour
- Little Lion, directed by Samuel Collardey
- Maddened by His Absence, directed by Sandrine Bonnaire
- The Virgin, the Copts and Me, directed by Namir Abdel Messeeh
- The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu, directed by Antonin Peretjako
- The Day of the Crows, directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint
- Welcome to Argentina, directed by Edouard Deluc
- Mobile Home, directed by François Pirot
- Pauline détective, directed by Marc Fitoussi
II – Shorts
- Just Before Losing Everything, directed by Xavier Legrand
- The Lobster's Cry, directed by Nicolas Guiot
- Clay, directed by Michaël Guerraz
- The Runaway, directed by Jean-Bernard Marlin
- The Lizards, directed by Vincent Mariette
- Mademoiselle Kiki et les Montparnos, directed by Amélie Harrault
- Solitudes, directed by Liova Jedlicki
- In Seventh Heaven, directed by Guillaume Foirest
- A la française, directed by Morrigane Boyer, Julien Hazebroucq, Ren-Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu, William Lorton
- Le premier pas, directed by Jonathan Comnène...
For one month, Us Internet users will have access to 10 features and 10 shorts in French with English subtitles. A selection of first and second feature films, theatrically released in France during the year, offers worldwide showcasing of a new generation of filmmakers, highlighting the diversity of young French production.
New features of the 2014 edition
- The festival will be accessible in the Us on the website myFrenchFilmFestival.com, iTunes (through Under the Milky Way) and TV5 Monde’s Cinema on Demand during one month (Jan 17-Feb 17 2014).
For more information:
www.tv5.org/cms/USA/Cinema-on-demand/p-22481-lg3-TV5MONDE-Cinema-On-Demand-in-November.htm
www.itunes.com
- La Fille Du 14 Juillet (The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu) will be the closing film of the Museum of Moving Image’s First Look festival on January 19th, with director Antonin Peretjatko in attendance.
- A selection of 9 features will be screened in theatres throughout the Us starting January 2nd, thanks to our partnership with SpectiCast. View full schedule here: http://www.specticast.com/myfff.jsp
- The films will also be proposed to 400 airline companies via our partner Skeye for in-flight viewings.
4 prizes will be awarded at the end of the festival:
The Filmmakers Award , presided by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, and composed of foreign directors
Lynne Ramsay (United Kingdom), Marco Bellocchio (Italy), Anurag Kashyap (India) and Frédéric Fonteyne (Belgium).
The International Press Award , with a jury of 11 foreign journalists
The Audience Award , for which Internet users are invited to vote on-line
The Social Networks Award , chosen by 100 film buffs, influential on Facebook and Twitter
The winning films will then be shown on Air France flights during 6 months.
The full pass to watch the 10 features and 10 shorts online will be available for $22, features-only pass for $16.5, shorts-only pass for $8.2, single feature for $2.7 and single short $1.4.
The 2014 Myfff Selection
I – Features
- In a Rush, directed by Louis Do Lencquesaing
- Augustine, directed by Alice Winocour
- Little Lion, directed by Samuel Collardey
- Maddened by His Absence, directed by Sandrine Bonnaire
- The Virgin, the Copts and Me, directed by Namir Abdel Messeeh
- The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu, directed by Antonin Peretjako
- The Day of the Crows, directed by Jean-Christophe Dessaint
- Welcome to Argentina, directed by Edouard Deluc
- Mobile Home, directed by François Pirot
- Pauline détective, directed by Marc Fitoussi
II – Shorts
- Just Before Losing Everything, directed by Xavier Legrand
- The Lobster's Cry, directed by Nicolas Guiot
- Clay, directed by Michaël Guerraz
- The Runaway, directed by Jean-Bernard Marlin
- The Lizards, directed by Vincent Mariette
- Mademoiselle Kiki et les Montparnos, directed by Amélie Harrault
- Solitudes, directed by Liova Jedlicki
- In Seventh Heaven, directed by Guillaume Foirest
- A la française, directed by Morrigane Boyer, Julien Hazebroucq, Ren-Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu, William Lorton
- Le premier pas, directed by Jonathan Comnène...
- 12/30/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
10 features and 10 shorts will be on offer.
UniFrance is launching the fourth edition of myFrenchFilmFestival.com, which will run Jan 17 to Feb 17.
Last year’s festival saw 750,000 viewings in 189 countries.
New for the 2014 edition are the addition of platforms including iTunes in 80 territories. SpectiCast will make the selections available to more than 1,000 cinemas worldwide, and 400 airlines will offer the films via partner Skeye.
The festival will showcase 10 first and second features and 10 shorts.
The jury for the filmmakers award will be led by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and also include Lynne Ramsay, Marco Bellocchio and Anurag Kashyap. A press award, audience award and social networks award will also be handed out.
The films are:
Features
In a Rush, directed by Louis Do Lencquesaing
Augustine [pictured], directed by Alice Winocour
Little Lion, directed by Samuel Collardey
Maddened by His Absence, directed by Sandrine Bonnaire
The Virgin, the Copts and Me, directed by Namir Abdel Messeeh
The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu, directed by Antonin...
UniFrance is launching the fourth edition of myFrenchFilmFestival.com, which will run Jan 17 to Feb 17.
Last year’s festival saw 750,000 viewings in 189 countries.
New for the 2014 edition are the addition of platforms including iTunes in 80 territories. SpectiCast will make the selections available to more than 1,000 cinemas worldwide, and 400 airlines will offer the films via partner Skeye.
The festival will showcase 10 first and second features and 10 shorts.
The jury for the filmmakers award will be led by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and also include Lynne Ramsay, Marco Bellocchio and Anurag Kashyap. A press award, audience award and social networks award will also be handed out.
The films are:
Features
In a Rush, directed by Louis Do Lencquesaing
Augustine [pictured], directed by Alice Winocour
Little Lion, directed by Samuel Collardey
Maddened by His Absence, directed by Sandrine Bonnaire
The Virgin, the Copts and Me, directed by Namir Abdel Messeeh
The Rendez-Vous of Déjà-Vu, directed by Antonin...
- 12/4/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Other winners at the cinematography festival in Poland included Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity.Scroll down for full list of winners
Competition winners at Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, were revealed today as the 21st edition came to a close with a gala awards celebration at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The winner of the top prize - the Golden Frog - went to Polish drama Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the latest in a string of top awards for the film.
Ida cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski accepted the award.
The film stars newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska opposite Polish star Agata Kulesza in the story of a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
It marks the first Polish-language film for Warsaw-born British filmmaker Pawlikowski, best known for...
Competition winners at Camerimage, the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography, were revealed today as the 21st edition came to a close with a gala awards celebration at the Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz, Poland.
The winner of the top prize - the Golden Frog - went to Polish drama Ida, directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, the latest in a string of top awards for the film.
Ida cinematographers Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski accepted the award.
The film stars newcomer Agata Trzebuchowska opposite Polish star Agata Kulesza in the story of a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland who is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.
It marks the first Polish-language film for Warsaw-born British filmmaker Pawlikowski, best known for...
- 11/23/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Augustine
Directed by Alice Winocour
Written by Winocour
2013, USA
The debut feature from French director Alice Winocour, Augustine, purports to be a true story. Indeed, photographs exist of a patient named Augustine in the hospital of the famed neurologist and physician Jean-Martin Charcot. As in the film, the real Augustine was diagnosed with the then-fashionable disease of “hysteria.” But there is little else in the film that is provably true, and it’s better not to even think of the story as a dramatization of the lives of real people. It’s more of an indictment of the science in the age where it takes place.
Augustine (French singer/actress Soko) has a problem with seizures, one that most doctors of the 19th Century don’t know how to handle. The neurology of the time was primitive: the word “seizure” wasn’t used, and Augustine’s problems are lumped in...
Directed by Alice Winocour
Written by Winocour
2013, USA
The debut feature from French director Alice Winocour, Augustine, purports to be a true story. Indeed, photographs exist of a patient named Augustine in the hospital of the famed neurologist and physician Jean-Martin Charcot. As in the film, the real Augustine was diagnosed with the then-fashionable disease of “hysteria.” But there is little else in the film that is provably true, and it’s better not to even think of the story as a dramatization of the lives of real people. It’s more of an indictment of the science in the age where it takes place.
Augustine (French singer/actress Soko) has a problem with seizures, one that most doctors of the 19th Century don’t know how to handle. The neurology of the time was primitive: the word “seizure” wasn’t used, and Augustine’s problems are lumped in...
- 5/21/2013
- by Mark Young
- SoundOnSight
Moviegoing prospects looks good this weekend, as J.J. Abrams' entertaining action comedy "Star Trek Into Darkness" continues its opening weekend after a Wednesday debut, and a slew of appealing limited release titles hit screens. One of these is Noah Baumbach's critical darling "Frances Ha," starring likable muse Greta Gerwig in a drifting, French New Wave Lite tale of twentysomething ennui and platonic breakups. Cesar nominee "Augustine," a formally solid if dynamically lacking debut from Alice Winocour, which stars Vincent Lindon and popstar Soko as famed French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot and his favored hysteria patient, is getting praise from critics. Last year's uber-violent but stylish Venice Golden Lion winner "Pieta," Kim Ki-duk's bloody thriller about a son and his mysterious would-be mother, is also earning good reviews. Katie Aselton's feminist survival thriller "Black Rock" is sitting in bottom place with mediocre reviews, though the film, which stars Aselton,...
- 5/17/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
"You use big words to say simple things," says Augustine, an illiterate kitchen maid, to the esteemed doctor treating her for the distinctly female malady "hysteria." This would be a show of boilerplate feistiness in most films, but in writer-director Alice Winocour's Augustine, it stands as a subtler, more complex victory. Having been largely silent or monosyllabic for much of the film, subjected to all manner of brutal poking and prodding in the name of science, Augustine (Soko) is defiant just by speaking at all, signaling her emerging sense of self. She's also putting her doctor in check, without the film overselling the moment with heavy-handed music or visual cues. Like many acts of resistance waged by the powerless against the powerful, you might miss its significance if ...
- 5/15/2013
- Village Voice
A Scandalous Method: Winocour’s Debut a Rich Case Study
Celebrated filmmaker Alice Winocour, renowned for several of her short films, makes a compelling debut with Augustine, based on the real life case study of a highly publicized teenage patient of a 19th century French neurologist. Subtle and sharply observed, unlike the shrill and spurious 2011 David Cronenberg A Dangerous Method, which shares similar unprofessional patient and doctor themes, Winocour creates an entrancing, impressionistic portrayal of historical sexism and exploitation.
In 1885 Paris, Augustine (Soko), an illiterate housemaid, suffers from a series of seizures, which usually results in partial paralysis of various body parts. After one such violent and very public display, Augustine awakens to find one of her eyes shut tight, and so her cousin, who works in the same household, shuttles her off to the Hospital of Pitie Salpetre and there she is placed under observation by the famed Professor...
Celebrated filmmaker Alice Winocour, renowned for several of her short films, makes a compelling debut with Augustine, based on the real life case study of a highly publicized teenage patient of a 19th century French neurologist. Subtle and sharply observed, unlike the shrill and spurious 2011 David Cronenberg A Dangerous Method, which shares similar unprofessional patient and doctor themes, Winocour creates an entrancing, impressionistic portrayal of historical sexism and exploitation.
In 1885 Paris, Augustine (Soko), an illiterate housemaid, suffers from a series of seizures, which usually results in partial paralysis of various body parts. After one such violent and very public display, Augustine awakens to find one of her eyes shut tight, and so her cousin, who works in the same household, shuttles her off to the Hospital of Pitie Salpetre and there she is placed under observation by the famed Professor...
- 5/14/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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