Many people, when faced with the old question of who they’d invite to their dream dinner party, dutifully reel off a list of historical titans, which tends to prompt further, usually unasked questions: Would these undoubtedly interesting and consequential individuals make for great company together? Would they have much to say to each each other? And would it make for a better evening than, say, a gathering of your regular, undistinguished drinking buddies? Ever-experimental Russian formalist Alexander Sokurov drolly hints at the answer in his eccentric new film “Fairytale,” though not exactly in a dinner party context: Most of us aren’t hungry to spend an evening clinking glasses with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, after all. Still, this brief, dreamlike musing assembles them — along with other daunting dead men of history, from Churchill to Mussolini to Jesus himself — in a kind of misty purgatory where they’re at liberty to converse.
- 8/6/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Rome — Leading Italian film company Rai Cinema is producing new works by revered Russian auteurs Alexander Sokurov and Andrei Konchalovsky, as well as a slew of new titles from prominent Italian helmers Gabriele Salvatores and Gianni Amelio and younger standouts Jonas Carpignano and Susanna Nicchiarelli.
The production and distribution arm of pubcaster Rai has teamed up with the Sokurov Foundation on an unconventional historical work featuring rare archive footage of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill captured in non-official circumstances. These leaders will hold imaginary conversations during World War II that reveal their “human nature, their vision of the world” and their personal takes of wartime events, according to Rai Cinema promotional materials.
This latest work by the director who explored the corrupting effects of power in “Moloch” (1999), about Hitler, and “Taurus” (2000), about Lenin, and who more recently shot “Russian Ark” and “Francofonia,” is working-titled “La risata tra le lacrime” in Italian,...
The production and distribution arm of pubcaster Rai has teamed up with the Sokurov Foundation on an unconventional historical work featuring rare archive footage of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill captured in non-official circumstances. These leaders will hold imaginary conversations during World War II that reveal their “human nature, their vision of the world” and their personal takes of wartime events, according to Rai Cinema promotional materials.
This latest work by the director who explored the corrupting effects of power in “Moloch” (1999), about Hitler, and “Taurus” (2000), about Lenin, and who more recently shot “Russian Ark” and “Francofonia,” is working-titled “La risata tra le lacrime” in Italian,...
- 4/11/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
★★★★☆ The last time UK audience's had a chance to sample the delights of Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov was when his Golden Lion winner, the boisterous and vivid interpretation of Goethe's Faust was released in 2012. He now returns with Francofonia, a chatty and occasionally brilliant rumination on art, history and death. Like Prospero, Sokurov himself is locked in his cell, his cluttered Parisian apartment, surrounded by his art books, his post it notes stuck to his Apple computer as he mutters away about the theme of his film. The camera like Ariel swoops and glides beautifully through Paris to his unifying theme - the Louvre, the objective correlative for all of the director's preoccupation with art.
- 11/9/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Complete Unknown (Joshua Marston)
Armed with two top-notch leads and a compelling premise, Joshua Marston‘s third feature, Complete Unknown, spends a lot of time hinting at which direction it will go, without going anywhere at all. Tom (Michael Shannon) is living with his wife Rehema (Azita Ghanizada) in New York City, spending the majority of his days drafting agricultural policy emails in a cramped government office. It is...
Complete Unknown (Joshua Marston)
Armed with two top-notch leads and a compelling premise, Joshua Marston‘s third feature, Complete Unknown, spends a lot of time hinting at which direction it will go, without going anywhere at all. Tom (Michael Shannon) is living with his wife Rehema (Azita Ghanizada) in New York City, spending the majority of his days drafting agricultural policy emails in a cramped government office. It is...
- 9/30/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning star alongside Game Of Thrones co-stars Kit Harrington and Carice van Houten.
Brimstone director Martin Koolhoven says that his producer Els Vandevorst (Francofonia) has “balls of steel.”
Listen to Vandevorst’s own account of her seven year journey to guide Koolhoven’s €12m revenge western to screen and you quickly get a sense of what he means.
Koolhoven first started talking about the project (starring Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Carice van Houten and Kit Harington) when he was making his Dutch language Second World War film, Winter In Wartime (2008). At the time, Vandevorst warned him that he was too busy with his current projects to devote any time to it.
Winter In Wartime was a box office hit in the Netherlands but didn’t have the international festival exposure that the filmmakers had hoped. However, Vandevorst encouraged the director to be as ambitious as possible. She and the...
Brimstone director Martin Koolhoven says that his producer Els Vandevorst (Francofonia) has “balls of steel.”
Listen to Vandevorst’s own account of her seven year journey to guide Koolhoven’s €12m revenge western to screen and you quickly get a sense of what he means.
Koolhoven first started talking about the project (starring Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Carice van Houten and Kit Harington) when he was making his Dutch language Second World War film, Winter In Wartime (2008). At the time, Vandevorst warned him that he was too busy with his current projects to devote any time to it.
Winter In Wartime was a box office hit in the Netherlands but didn’t have the international festival exposure that the filmmakers had hoped. However, Vandevorst encouraged the director to be as ambitious as possible. She and the...
- 9/2/2016
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning star alongside Game Of Thrones co-stars Kit Harrington and Carice van Houten.
Brimstone director Martin Koolhoven says that his producer Els Vandevorst (Francofonia) has “balls of steel.”
Listen to Vandevorst’s own account of her seven year journey to guide Koolhoven’s €12m revenge western to screen and you quickly get a sense of what he means.
Koolhoven first started talking about the project (starring Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Carice van Houten and Kit Harington) when he was making his Dutch language Second World War film, Winter In Wartime (2008). At the time, Vandevorst warned him that he was too busy with his current projects to devote any time to it.
Winter In Wartime was a box office hit in the Netherlands but didn’t have the international festival exposure that the filmmakers had hoped. However, Vandevorst encouraged the director to be as ambitious as possible. She and the...
Brimstone director Martin Koolhoven says that his producer Els Vandevorst (Francofonia) has “balls of steel.”
Listen to Vandevorst’s own account of her seven year journey to guide Koolhoven’s €12m revenge western to screen and you quickly get a sense of what he means.
Koolhoven first started talking about the project (starring Guy Pearce, Dakota Fanning, Carice van Houten and Kit Harington) when he was making his Dutch language Second World War film, Winter In Wartime (2008). At the time, Vandevorst warned him that he was too busy with his current projects to devote any time to it.
Winter In Wartime was a box office hit in the Netherlands but didn’t have the international festival exposure that the filmmakers had hoped. However, Vandevorst encouraged the director to be as ambitious as possible. She and the...
- 9/2/2016
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
The Films of Albert Brooks
We can think of no better way to celebrate the holiday weekend then curling up with the hilarious, often touching films of Albert Brooks. All of his directorial features — Real Life, Modern Romance, Lost in America, Defending Your Life, Mother, The Muse, and Looking For Comedy in a Muslim World — have now been added to Netflix. What are you waiting for?...
The Films of Albert Brooks
We can think of no better way to celebrate the holiday weekend then curling up with the hilarious, often touching films of Albert Brooks. All of his directorial features — Real Life, Modern Romance, Lost in America, Defending Your Life, Mother, The Muse, and Looking For Comedy in a Muslim World — have now been added to Netflix. What are you waiting for?...
- 7/1/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Our resident VOD expert tells you what's new to rent and/or own this week via various Digital HD providers such as cable Movies On Demand, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, Google Play and, of course, Netflix. Cable Movies On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pretheatrical exclusives for rent, priced from $3-$10, in 24- or 48-hour periods Kung Fu Panda 3 (animated sequel; voices: Jack Black, Bryan Cranston; rated PG) Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (drama-comedy; Tina Fey, Margot Robbie; rated R) Eye in the Sky (drama-thriller; Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul; rated R) Francofonia (documentary-drama about the Louvre during the Nazi occupation; Vincent Nemeth, Johanna Korthals; not rated) Digital HD: Rent from $4-$7 or own from $13-$20 (HD may cost more than...
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- 6/28/2016
- by Robert B. DeSalvo
- Movies.com
Francofonia (Le Louvre sous l’occupation) Music Box Films Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya, d-based on Rotten Tomatoes Grade: B Director: Aleksandr Sokurov Written by: Aleksandr Sokurov Cast: Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath, Vincent Nemeth, Johanna Korthals Altes, Andrey Chelpanov Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 3/16/16 Opens: April 1, 2016 If someone told you that a Nazi officer, a high-level man from the contingent of Germans occupying Paris during the early days of the Second World War, would ultimately be awarded France’s highest honor, you wouldn’t believe him. You might wonder if he’s a guy like Oskar Schindler, given a hero’s treatment in Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List, but Franz Wolff-Metternich [ Read More ]
The post Francofonia Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Francofonia Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 4/6/2016
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Don Cheadle's Miles Ahead from Sony Classics hit a high note atop the Specialty Box Office chart this very crowded weekend, with the competition holding its own. Paramount launched Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! to a solid $17K average in 19 theaters, and the fresh-off-a-mini-media frenzy Vaxxed grossed $22K at the Angelika in New York. Music Box's Francofonia had a good start in two locations, and China Lion's Congqing Hot Pot brought in the crowds in 20…...
- 4/3/2016
- Deadline
The Golden Lion-winning filmmaker discussed his ambivalent relationship with cinema, his stormy friendship with Tarkovsky and the merit of actors, during a Qumra masterclass.
Aleksandr Sokurov is participating in the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event this week as one of its five ‘Qumra Masters’. During his masterclass at Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art on Tuesday, a rapt audience listened to the Russian film-maker wax lyrical on his deep love for literature, his close friendship with Andrei Tarkovsky, and his strong moral outlook on romanticised violence in film.
It was an often provocative talk in which Sokurov, whose feature credits include Russian Ark, Venice Golden Lion winner Faust, Francofonia, Moloch and Mother And Son, outlined his strong belief that film is a lesser artform, particularly when compared against great literature.
“I’ve never thought of cinema as something big,” said Sokurov, setting out his stall right at the beginning. “I don’t think...
Aleksandr Sokurov is participating in the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra event this week as one of its five ‘Qumra Masters’. During his masterclass at Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art on Tuesday, a rapt audience listened to the Russian film-maker wax lyrical on his deep love for literature, his close friendship with Andrei Tarkovsky, and his strong moral outlook on romanticised violence in film.
It was an often provocative talk in which Sokurov, whose feature credits include Russian Ark, Venice Golden Lion winner Faust, Francofonia, Moloch and Mother And Son, outlined his strong belief that film is a lesser artform, particularly when compared against great literature.
“I’ve never thought of cinema as something big,” said Sokurov, setting out his stall right at the beginning. “I don’t think...
- 3/10/2016
- by matt.mueller@screendaily.com (Matt Mueller)
- ScreenDaily
Following one casting switch and one addition, Charlie McDowell‘s The Discovery is preparing to set forth. The One I Love helmer’s second feature was originally set to star Rooney Mara and Nicholas Hoult, but a recent report tells us the latter’s departed for Xavier Dolan’s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan; stepping into his place is Jason Segel, while Robert Redford‘s been cast in a key role. [THR]
As we learned last fall, the project, scripted by McDowell and Justin Lader, tracks a love story set one year after science has proven the afterlife’s existence. While millions commit suicide, “believing that [it] is like pushing a reset button,” the man (Segal) whose father (Redford) discovered the afterlife meets and falls in love with a woman (Mara) “whose life is tinged by a tragic past.”
Endgame and Protagonist Pictures are financing The Discovery, which will roll cameras this month.
As we learned last fall, the project, scripted by McDowell and Justin Lader, tracks a love story set one year after science has proven the afterlife’s existence. While millions commit suicide, “believing that [it] is like pushing a reset button,” the man (Segal) whose father (Redford) discovered the afterlife meets and falls in love with a woman (Mara) “whose life is tinged by a tragic past.”
Endgame and Protagonist Pictures are financing The Discovery, which will roll cameras this month.
- 3/9/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Although the basic set-up of Aleksandr Sokurov‘s Francofonia recalls his groundbreaking Russian Ark — still the director’s best-known film — reactions indicate we’re dealing with an altogether different, no less worthwhile work. Imagining conversations between Jacques Jaujard, Director of the French National Museums during the Nazi occupation, and the Third Reich’s artistic representative, Franz Graf Wolff-Metternich, his latest project takes us through one of the world’s most-respected museums to consider the extent to which we can (or should) appreciate and protect art.
For most, the results have proven satisfying. As we said in our review out of last year’s Venice International Film Festival, “There’s a constant tension at work here, both historical and political, with Sokurov patiently bringing Russian Ark back into the fold in unexpected ways and getting to the very issue of what it means to be European. And that, in light of...
For most, the results have proven satisfying. As we said in our review out of last year’s Venice International Film Festival, “There’s a constant tension at work here, both historical and political, with Sokurov patiently bringing Russian Ark back into the fold in unexpected ways and getting to the very issue of what it means to be European. And that, in light of...
- 3/2/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
For casual cinephiles, Alexander Sokurov's "Russian Ark" is the movie that's perhaps the biggest point of reference in the director's filmography. The 2002 picture saw the filmmaker dance through the Russian State Hermitage Museum in a single unbroken take, and for his latest picture, "Francofonia," he once again uses a house of the arts as the setting of his picture. Read More: Review: Alexander Sokurov's Odd, Dense & Bizarre 'Faust' Starring Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath, Vincent Nemeth, Johanna Korthals Altes, Jean-Claude Caër, and Andrey Chelpanov, and mixing documentary and dramatization, the Louvre-set picture tells the story of Jacques Jaujard and Count Franziskus Wolff-Metternich, who worked at the museum during the Nazi occupation. Here's the synopsis: Set against the backdrop of the Louvre Museum’s history and artworks, master director Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) applies his uniquely...
- 3/2/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
As cinema progresses as an art, more and more filmmakers are jettisoning normal ideas of narrative and pushing what boundaries there may appear to be on the definition of “cinema.” Even looking at this year’s Portland International Film Festival, you have filmmakers like Ben Rivers and Peter Greenaway who have no interest in classical narrative tropes. And then there is one of world cinema’s foremost boundary-pushers, Alexander Sokurov, who is back with one of his most entrancing and yet oddly accessible experiments to date.
Entitled Francofonia, Sokurov’s latest finds him delving back into the world of art and a nation’s history, but this time leaving Russia as seen in Russian Ark and arriving in Paris, focusing his lens on The Louvre. In a similar vein to a film like Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery, Sokurov takes what sounds like well tread ground and brings to it...
Entitled Francofonia, Sokurov’s latest finds him delving back into the world of art and a nation’s history, but this time leaving Russia as seen in Russian Ark and arriving in Paris, focusing his lens on The Louvre. In a similar vein to a film like Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery, Sokurov takes what sounds like well tread ground and brings to it...
- 2/15/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
When you look at his filmography, it is no secret that Russian director Aleksandr Sokurov loves history and art, and most of his works are meditations on those two subjects. One of his most heralded films, Russian Ark, was a technical tour-de-force taking place in Leningrad's astounding Hermitage museum, and was a voyage through all what happened in (or to) Russia in recent centuries. Now, with his visual thesis Francofonia, Sokurov points his gaze at one of the other most famous museums in the world: the Louvre in Paris. But rather than use that building as a fixed point to show the history of France, Sokurov muses about art in general, its use to people, and the sacrifices we must be willing to make to...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/2/2016
- Screen Anarchy
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Trailer for Yuen Woo-ping's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon SequelBest known as an action coordinator, Yuen Woo-ping also has an extensive and often very good career as a director. Having previously choreographed the martial arts of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he has been bumped up to the director's chair for the film's sequel, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.The Coen Brothers' Hail Caesar! Opens Berlinale 2016The Coens' much-anticipated Hollywood kidnapping caper will open the Berlin International Film Festival next February.70mm, The Hateful Eight and The Weinstein CompanyDeadline Hollywood has a fascinating article on just what exactly The Weinstein Company did to make sure Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight could screen around the Us in 70mm. Among many interesting factoids is the note that The Weinstein...
- 12/9/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Trailer for Yuen Woo-ping's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon SequelBest known as an action coordinator, Yuen Woo-ping also has an extensive and often very good career as a director. Having previously choreographed the martial arts of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he has been bumped up to the director's chair for the film's sequel, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.The Coen Brothers' Hail Caesar! Opens Berlinale 2016The Coens' much-anticipated Hollywood kidnapping caper will open the Berlin International Film Festival next February.70mm, The Hateful Eight and The Weinstein CompanyDeadline Hollywood has a fascinating article on just what exactly The Weinstein Company did to make sure Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight could screen around the Us in 70mm. Among many interesting factoids is the note that The Weinstein...
- 12/9/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
New York's Museum of the Moving Image has announced the lineup for the fifth edition of its annual First Look Festival, running from January 8 through 24 and featuring a slew of Us and NYC premieres. Opening with Aleksandr Sokurov’s Francofonia, highlights also include Manuel Mozos’s portrait of João Bénard da Costa, the late director of the Portuguese Film Museum; a playful autobiographical work by the French film critic and filmmaker Louis Skorecki; and a duo of intimate behind-the-scenes films about Jim Jarmusch. Plus films by Margaret Honda, Ken Jacobs, Bjoern Kammerer, and the late Andrew Noren; and formally innovative films such as Jonathan Perel’s structuralist study of oppressive Argentine architecture, and Dominic Gagnon's gonzo YouTube assemblages. » - David Hudson...
- 12/5/2015
- Keyframe
New York's Museum of the Moving Image has announced the lineup for the fifth edition of its annual First Look Festival, running from January 8 through 24 and featuring a slew of Us and NYC premieres. Opening with Aleksandr Sokurov’s Francofonia, highlights also include Manuel Mozos’s portrait of João Bénard da Costa, the late director of the Portuguese Film Museum; a playful autobiographical work by the French film critic and filmmaker Louis Skorecki; and a duo of intimate behind-the-scenes films about Jim Jarmusch. Plus films by Margaret Honda, Ken Jacobs, Bjoern Kammerer, and the late Andrew Noren; and formally innovative films such as Jonathan Perel’s structuralist study of oppressive Argentine architecture, and Dominic Gagnon's gonzo YouTube assemblages. » - David Hudson...
- 12/5/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The 65th Thessaloniki International Film Festival (November 6-14) offers busy industry programme including works in progress and Crossroads co-production strand.The 56th Thessaloniki International Film Festival kicks off today with the Berlin prizewinner Victoria by Sebastian Schipper.
The festival closes Nov 14 with the Cannes awarded My Golden Days (Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse) by Arnaud Desplechin, who receives an homage, enjoys a full retrospective of his films and will deliver a masterclass.
Also receiving homages are veteran Romanian director Mircea Daneliuc and Greek master cinematographer Nikos Kavoukidis, accompanied by tributes to the 70 years of Greek animation and to the recent Austrian cinema.The late Belgian director Chantal.Akerman is receiving a special homage with the presentation of her 2011 film Almayer’s Folly (La folie Almayer).
The competition program includes 15 first and second films (the full list is below). The five members of the international jury set to award the Golden, Silver and Bronze...
The festival closes Nov 14 with the Cannes awarded My Golden Days (Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse) by Arnaud Desplechin, who receives an homage, enjoys a full retrospective of his films and will deliver a masterclass.
Also receiving homages are veteran Romanian director Mircea Daneliuc and Greek master cinematographer Nikos Kavoukidis, accompanied by tributes to the 70 years of Greek animation and to the recent Austrian cinema.The late Belgian director Chantal.Akerman is receiving a special homage with the presentation of her 2011 film Almayer’s Folly (La folie Almayer).
The competition program includes 15 first and second films (the full list is below). The five members of the international jury set to award the Golden, Silver and Bronze...
- 11/6/2015
- by alexisgrivas@yahoo.com (Alexis Grivas)
- ScreenDaily
Below you will find our favorite films of the 40th Toronto International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Top Picksfernando F. Crocei. The Assassin, Sunset Song, In Jackson Heights, Francofonia, Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, Anomalisa, Right Now, Wrong ThenII. 45 Years, Office, Blood of My Blood, 11 Minutes, Yakuza Apocalypse, The Apostate, How Heavy the Hammer, High-Rise, The Family Fang, Bleak Street, No Home Movie, Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton, In the Shadow of WomenIII. The Idol, Spotlight, Eva Doesn’t Sleep, The Clan, Campo Grande, A Copy of My Mind, The Other Side, Hitchcock/TruffautDANIEL Kasmani. In Jackson Heights, Office, Fireworks (Archives), Engram of ReturningII. Spl 2: A Time for Consequence, Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton, The Event, Something Horizontal, Anamolisa, Navigator, Fallen Objects, Afternoon, Palms, 11 MinutesIII. Neon Bull, The Reminder, Analysis of Emotions and Vexations, Terrestrial, Blood of My Blood, 45 Years, Francofonia,...
- 9/21/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Dear Danny,Hot damn, now that’s a variegated mix of cinema! Even for Tiff, a place where we routinely travel among completely different genres and styles, your report shows just what a dizzyingly wide-ranging experience film festivals can be. Where else could you have your concepts of screen space repeatedly stretched, whether in the iridescent experimentations of the Wavelengths entries or in the three-dimensional swoops of To’s beguiling Office, a movie so rich with visual invention that even musical notes seem tangible and close enough to touch? And where else could you step out of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s majestically gorgeous The Assassin and right into Yakuza Apocalypse, Takashi Miike’s newest full-frontal genre blitzkrieg?The flashes of swordplay in Hou’s period tale function as sudden shifts in rhythm that fascinatingly intrude into the film’s ornate pattern, like cracks in an imperial jade vase. In Miike’s underworld/supernatural mishmash,...
- 9/15/2015
- by Fernando F. Croce
- MUBI
Dear Fern,It truly is wonderful to resume this festival correspondence with you. My last trip resulted in a monologue, and I'm very glad to have you here with me to tell of impressions and experiences both shared and divergent. You ask how I'm able to write on all these films across all these festivals (and surely so many others write so much better on so much more), but really it is your words I'm most eager to encounter, as you are not in the film festival "scene": your lovely erudition and insight comes from within, from love, knowledge and talent, rather than an attachment to the centripetal force of festival trends.While my travels to Berlin, Cannes and Locarno this year may have allowed me cross some heavy-hitting big names or otherwise greatly anticipated films off my list (Toronto is playing The Assassin, Arabian Nights, In the Shadow of Women,...
- 9/11/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
★★☆☆☆ Heart of a Dog (2015) is the second film in competition at Venice that is essentially an illustrated director's monologue. Whereas Aleksandr Sokurov's Francofonia (2015) had an ambitious if indulgent breadth, artist and musician Laurie Anderson focuses her film on her rat-terrier Lolabelle and offers a work of such ephemeral whimsy that it should come with a warning that 'excessive eye-rolling might cause damage'. We start with a roughly animated Anderson narrating a dream during which she gives birth to her dog. First of all the dog has to be sewn up into her belly and it isn't a puppy either, so the operation is not easy. However, the birth is successful and she has the bitch passed to her in swaddling.
We follow the pair as Anderson tries to experience the world through her dog's eyes - blues and greens - as she roams the neighbourhood. We see the store...
We follow the pair as Anderson tries to experience the world through her dog's eyes - blues and greens - as she roams the neighbourhood. We see the store...
- 9/9/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
"Aleksandr Sokurov’s 2002 film Russian Ark, a single 90-minute unedited Steadicam shot that weaves through the State Hermitage Museum here, is an elliptical meditation on art, power and nostalgia," begins Rachel Donadio in the New York Times. With Francofonia, Sokurov has "turned his camera on the Louvre for a reflection on cultural patrimony during wartime and Russia’s vexed relationship with Europe." Francofonia has premiered in Venice, where Sokurov won the Golden Lion for Faust in 2011, and now heads to Toronto. We're collecting reviews and have posted the trailer and two clips. » - David Hudson...
- 9/4/2015
- Keyframe
"Aleksandr Sokurov’s 2002 film Russian Ark, a single 90-minute unedited Steadicam shot that weaves through the State Hermitage Museum here, is an elliptical meditation on art, power and nostalgia," begins Rachel Donadio in the New York Times. With Francofonia, Sokurov has "turned his camera on the Louvre for a reflection on cultural patrimony during wartime and Russia’s vexed relationship with Europe." Francofonia has premiered in Venice, where Sokurov won the Golden Lion for Faust in 2011, and now heads to Toronto. We're collecting reviews and have posted the trailer and two clips. » - David Hudson...
- 9/4/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Bold and confident film from Aleksandr Sokurov roams the corridors of the Paris museum to reflect on its history from the Renaissance to the present
With this sophisticated, complex and thoroughly absorbing film, Aleksandr Sokurov has had another night at the museum reverie, a cine-prose poem or animated installation tableau, weaving newsreel footage with eerie floating images above the streets of contemporary Paris – presumably filmed with a drone – and dramatised fantasy scenes.
Thirteen years after Russian Ark, that renowned single-take movie journey through the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, Sokurov has now alighted on the Louvre in Paris. Francofonia has all sorts of wayward digressions and perambulations around the idea of French and European culture, and the role of the museum in conserving art and promoting the idea of what it means to be human. I suspect, incidentally, that it was Russian Ark back in 2002 that planted a seed for other film-makers’ thoughts on museums,...
With this sophisticated, complex and thoroughly absorbing film, Aleksandr Sokurov has had another night at the museum reverie, a cine-prose poem or animated installation tableau, weaving newsreel footage with eerie floating images above the streets of contemporary Paris – presumably filmed with a drone – and dramatised fantasy scenes.
Thirteen years after Russian Ark, that renowned single-take movie journey through the Hermitage museum in St Petersburg, Sokurov has now alighted on the Louvre in Paris. Francofonia has all sorts of wayward digressions and perambulations around the idea of French and European culture, and the role of the museum in conserving art and promoting the idea of what it means to be human. I suspect, incidentally, that it was Russian Ark back in 2002 that planted a seed for other film-makers’ thoughts on museums,...
- 9/4/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
With the first reviews of the opening night film, Baltasar Kormákur's Everest, already in, the 72 edition of the Venice International Film Festival is off and running. Film critic Neil Young is placing odds on the contenders for the Golden Lion and the frontrunner at the moment is Aleksandr Sokurov's Francofonia. In our preview, we note that honorary awards will be going to Bertrand Tavernier, Jonathan Demme, Brian De Palma and Arturo Ripstein. The screening of Martin Scorsese's new short, The Audition, may have been cancelled "for technical reasons," but otherwise, the lineup looks promising indeed. » - David Hudson...
- 9/2/2015
- Keyframe
With the first reviews of the opening night film, Baltasar Kormákur's Everest, already in, the 72 edition of the Venice International Film Festival is off and running. Film critic Neil Young is placing odds on the contenders for the Golden Lion and the frontrunner at the moment is Aleksandr Sokurov's Francofonia. In our preview, we note that honorary awards will be going to Bertrand Tavernier, Jonathan Demme, Brian De Palma and Arturo Ripstein. The screening of Martin Scorsese's new short, The Audition, may have been cancelled "for technical reasons," but otherwise, the lineup looks promising indeed. » - David Hudson...
- 9/2/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
It’s the dawn of the fall festival kick-off, which means a number of our favorite international directors are preparing for the world premiere of their latest films. Following up Faust, one of Russia’s preeminent working directors, Aleksandr Sokurov, will return with a new drama. Francofonia, which will premiere shortly at Venice before stopping by Toronto, begins “as a portrait […]...
- 8/31/2015
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: Drama from the Russian Ark director scores pre-sales ahead of Venice world premiere.
Aleksandr Sokurov’s anticipated historical drama Francofonia, which shot largely in the Louvre Museum, has recorded a string of pre-sales for Films Boutique ahead of the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).
Among territories closed for Russian Ark director Sokurov’s anticipated first feature since 2011 Golden Lion-winner Faust are France (Sophie Dulac Distribution), Germany (Piffl Medien), Italy (Academy Two), Benelux (Contact Two), Japan (Kino Films) and Switzerland (Look Now!).
Sokurov’s French-German-Dutch co-production will combine narrative drama with archive material.
The reflection on art and power opens in occupied Paris in 1940 with the meeting between German officer Count Franz Wolff-Metternich - overseer of France’s art collection during the war - and Louvre director Jacques Jaujard.
Wolff-Metternich was sent by Adolf Hitler to repossess the museum’s invaluable collection, but according to Jaujard’s diary, the aristocrat...
Aleksandr Sokurov’s anticipated historical drama Francofonia, which shot largely in the Louvre Museum, has recorded a string of pre-sales for Films Boutique ahead of the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).
Among territories closed for Russian Ark director Sokurov’s anticipated first feature since 2011 Golden Lion-winner Faust are France (Sophie Dulac Distribution), Germany (Piffl Medien), Italy (Academy Two), Benelux (Contact Two), Japan (Kino Films) and Switzerland (Look Now!).
Sokurov’s French-German-Dutch co-production will combine narrative drama with archive material.
The reflection on art and power opens in occupied Paris in 1940 with the meeting between German officer Count Franz Wolff-Metternich - overseer of France’s art collection during the war - and Louvre director Jacques Jaujard.
Wolff-Metternich was sent by Adolf Hitler to repossess the museum’s invaluable collection, but according to Jaujard’s diary, the aristocrat...
- 8/18/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Drama from the Russian Ark director scores pre-sales ahead of Venice world premiere.
Aleksandr Sokurov’s anticipated historical drama Francofonia, which shot largely in the Louvre Museum, has recorded a string of pre-sales for Films Boutique ahead of the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).
Among territories closed for Russian Ark director Sokurov’s anticipated first feature since 2011 Golden Lion-winner Faust are France (Sophie Dulac Distribution), Germany (Piffl Medien), Italy (Academy Two), Benelux (Contact Two), Japan (Kino Films) and Switzerland (Look Now!).
Sokurov’s French-German-Dutch co-production will combine narrative drama with archive material.
The reflection on art and power opens in occupied Paris in 1940 with the meeting between German officer Count Franz Wolff-Metternich - overseer of France’s art collection during the war - and Louvre director Jacques Jaujard.
Wolff-Metternich was sent by Adolf Hitler to repossess the museum’s invaluable collection, but according to Jaujard’s diary, the aristocrat...
Aleksandr Sokurov’s anticipated historical drama Francofonia, which shot largely in the Louvre Museum, has recorded a string of pre-sales for Films Boutique ahead of the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival (Sept 2-12).
Among territories closed for Russian Ark director Sokurov’s anticipated first feature since 2011 Golden Lion-winner Faust are France (Sophie Dulac Distribution), Germany (Piffl Medien), Italy (Academy Two), Benelux (Contact Two), Japan (Kino Films) and Switzerland (Look Now!).
Sokurov’s French-German-Dutch co-production will combine narrative drama with archive material.
The reflection on art and power opens in occupied Paris in 1940 with the meeting between German officer Count Franz Wolff-Metternich - overseer of France’s art collection during the war - and Louvre director Jacques Jaujard.
Wolff-Metternich was sent by Adolf Hitler to repossess the museum’s invaluable collection, but according to Jaujard’s diary, the aristocrat...
- 8/18/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
The full lineup for the Venice Film Festival has been revealed, and includes new films by Martin Scorsese, Jerzy Skolimowsky, Frederick Wiseman, Marco Bellocchio, Tsai Ming-liang, Aleksandro Sokurov and more.CompetitionFrenzy (Emin Alper, Turkey/France/Qatar)Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson, Us)Blood of My Blood (Marco Bellocchio, Italy)Looking for Grace (Sue Brooks, Australia)Equals (Drake Doremus, Us)Remember (Atom Egoyan, Canada/Germany)Beasts of No Nation (Cary Fukunaga, Us)Per amor vostro (Giuseppe M. Gaudino, Italy/France)Marguerite (Xavier Giannoli, France/Czech Republic/Belgium)Rabin, the Last Day (Amos Gitai, Israel/France)A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino, Italy/France)The Endless River (Oliver Hermanus, South Africa/France)The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper, UK/Us)Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman/Duke Johnson, Us)L'attesa (Piero Mesina, Italy)11 Minutes (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland)Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, France/Germany/Netherlands)The Clan (Pablo Trapero, Argentina/Spain)Desde alla (Lorenza Vigas, Venezuela/Mexico)L'hermine (Christian Vincent,...
- 8/1/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
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