International buyers are swooning over The Glory of Life, a very un-Kafkaesque love story about Franz Kafka and his last romance.
The German-language drama, from directors Judith Kaufmann and Georg Maas, follows the romance between Franz Kafka (Sabin Tambrea) and Dora Diamant (Henriette Confurius) in the final year of the famed writer’s life, before his death from tuberculosis at age 40.
Unlike most adaptations of Kafka’s work — from Orson Welles’ The Trial (1962) to Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka (1991) to The Castle (1997) from Michael Haneke — angst and existential dread are mostly absent from The Glory of Life. Based on the best-selling novel by Michael Kumpfmüller, the film focuses instead on what the directors’ claim was the happiest period in Kafka’s life.
Menemsha Films has picked up North American rights to The Glory of Life, with Condor taking France, Wanted Cinema acquiring the movie in Italy, Divisa Red in Spain and...
The German-language drama, from directors Judith Kaufmann and Georg Maas, follows the romance between Franz Kafka (Sabin Tambrea) and Dora Diamant (Henriette Confurius) in the final year of the famed writer’s life, before his death from tuberculosis at age 40.
Unlike most adaptations of Kafka’s work — from Orson Welles’ The Trial (1962) to Steven Soderbergh’s Kafka (1991) to The Castle (1997) from Michael Haneke — angst and existential dread are mostly absent from The Glory of Life. Based on the best-selling novel by Michael Kumpfmüller, the film focuses instead on what the directors’ claim was the happiest period in Kafka’s life.
Menemsha Films has picked up North American rights to The Glory of Life, with Condor taking France, Wanted Cinema acquiring the movie in Italy, Divisa Red in Spain and...
- 6/3/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Cannes Film Festival is nearing its conclusion, with plenty of films making a splash on the starry Croisette on the French Riviera. However, one studio executive tells Variety, “There aren’t many Oscar-buzzy titles to be excited about, not even in the international feature space.”
This year’s main competition jury, led by president Greta Gerwig and including J.A. Bayona, Ebru Ceylan, Pierfrancesco Favino, Lily Gladstone, Eva Green, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nadine Labaki and Omar Sy, will name its winners on Saturday.
It was looking like a foregone conclusion that the Palme d’Or win would be bestowed upon Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez,” starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Karla Sofía Gascón, which was picked up by Netflix. However, on Friday, Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” garnered the most enthusiastic reactions on social media from attendees and the longest-standing ovation at 12 minutes. One awards publicist says,...
This year’s main competition jury, led by president Greta Gerwig and including J.A. Bayona, Ebru Ceylan, Pierfrancesco Favino, Lily Gladstone, Eva Green, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nadine Labaki and Omar Sy, will name its winners on Saturday.
It was looking like a foregone conclusion that the Palme d’Or win would be bestowed upon Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical “Emilia Pérez,” starring Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Karla Sofía Gascón, which was picked up by Netflix. However, on Friday, Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” garnered the most enthusiastic reactions on social media from attendees and the longest-standing ovation at 12 minutes. One awards publicist says,...
- 5/24/2024
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
For the past three years, the American Cinematheque has presented “Bleak Week,” an annual festival devoted to the greatest films ever made about the darkest side of humanity. This year, the festival will not only be unspooling in Los Angeles June 1 – 7 — with special guests including Al Pacino, Lynne Ramsay, Charlie Kaufman, and Karyn Kusama — but will travel to New York for the first time with a week of screenings at the historic Paris Theater starting June 9.
“We are honored to co-present ‘Bleak Week: New York’ in partnership with one of the most beautiful movie palaces in the world,” Cinematheque artistic director Grant Moninger told IndieWire. “This year, over 10,000 people will attend ‘Bleak Week: Year 3’ in Los Angeles, proving that audiences are hungry for such powerful and confrontational cinema. Many people thought they were alone in their desire to explore films with uncomfortable truths, but the truth is that they are part of a large community,...
“We are honored to co-present ‘Bleak Week: New York’ in partnership with one of the most beautiful movie palaces in the world,” Cinematheque artistic director Grant Moninger told IndieWire. “This year, over 10,000 people will attend ‘Bleak Week: Year 3’ in Los Angeles, proving that audiences are hungry for such powerful and confrontational cinema. Many people thought they were alone in their desire to explore films with uncomfortable truths, but the truth is that they are part of a large community,...
- 5/23/2024
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Criterion and Janus Films have acquired four of auteur Michael Haneke’s never before seen catalog titles that have been restored in 4K by Les Films du Losange, it was revealed at the Cannes Film Festival.
Initially produced and shot for Austria’s TV Orf, the four titles were directed by Haneke between 1976 and 1993. This is the first time these films have been restored and brought to the rest of the world. Les Films du Losange cleared the rights and restored the films, with the support of the Austrian Film Institute. Haneke led the restorations himself.
The titles include 1979 pair “Lemmings Tale 1: Arcadia” that follows the coming-of-age of teenagers in a small town in Austria in the fall of 1959 and “Lemmings Tale 2: Injuries” that follows the same characters 20 years later.
In “Three Paths to the Lake” (1976), Elisabeth Matrei comes to Klagenfurt, in Austria, to vacation with her widowed father.
Initially produced and shot for Austria’s TV Orf, the four titles were directed by Haneke between 1976 and 1993. This is the first time these films have been restored and brought to the rest of the world. Les Films du Losange cleared the rights and restored the films, with the support of the Austrian Film Institute. Haneke led the restorations himself.
The titles include 1979 pair “Lemmings Tale 1: Arcadia” that follows the coming-of-age of teenagers in a small town in Austria in the fall of 1959 and “Lemmings Tale 2: Injuries” that follows the same characters 20 years later.
In “Three Paths to the Lake” (1976), Elisabeth Matrei comes to Klagenfurt, in Austria, to vacation with her widowed father.
- 5/23/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
London’s Raindance Film Festival is making a significant calendar shift for its 32nd edition, moving from its traditional fall slot to a new summer schedule.
Raindance kicks off with the U.K. premiere of Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo,” a horror feature starring Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens that previously played at Berlin and SXSW. Closing the festival is the European premiere of “National Anthem” by Luke Gilford, starring Charlie Plummer as a construction worker joining a community of queer rodeo performers. The film, which was at Toronto and SXSW, leads into the Pride in London weekend with a wild West End party.
This year, Germany is the festival’s guest of honor. The festival will showcase new German films, including “Cuckoo,” “Eternal You” and “What You See of Me.” A dedicated shorts program and industry panels, including a session with production designer Mona Cathleen Otterbach, will highlight Germany’s cinematic achievements.
Raindance kicks off with the U.K. premiere of Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo,” a horror feature starring Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens that previously played at Berlin and SXSW. Closing the festival is the European premiere of “National Anthem” by Luke Gilford, starring Charlie Plummer as a construction worker joining a community of queer rodeo performers. The film, which was at Toronto and SXSW, leads into the Pride in London weekend with a wild West End party.
This year, Germany is the festival’s guest of honor. The festival will showcase new German films, including “Cuckoo,” “Eternal You” and “What You See of Me.” A dedicated shorts program and industry panels, including a session with production designer Mona Cathleen Otterbach, will highlight Germany’s cinematic achievements.
- 5/20/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
The 32nd edition of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival is to open with horror-thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, as the festival shifts away from autumn to a midsummer slot, running June 19-28.
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features. The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Cuckoo is a German-us co-production that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her father and his new family as...
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features. The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Cuckoo is a German-us co-production that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her father and his new family as...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
The 32nd edition of the UK’s Raindance Film Festival is to open with Tilman Singer’s horror-thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, as the festival shifts away from autumn to a midsummer slot, running June 19-28.
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features.
The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Opening night film Cuckoo is a German-us co-production, that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her...
This year, 90% of the international films screening in competition are debut features.
The jury includes actors Alice Englert, Claes Bang, Jared Harris and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and producers Ivana MacKinnon and Paul Sng.
Opening night film Cuckoo is a German-us co-production, that has played at Berlin and SXSW. Schafer plays a 17- year-old who is forced to leave her American home to live with her...
- 5/20/2024
- ScreenDaily
“I took it hard. I wanted it to be special for him,” says Diane Kruger of performing in David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, a film the legendary director wrote as part of his grieving process after the death of his late wife, Carolyn.
The Shrouds, which is screening in competition in Cannes, follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), a prominent businessman and widower who, inconsolable since the death of his wife, invents a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their departed loved ones in their graves. Kruger plays three roles — that of the late wife and her sister, as well as a virtual avatar that is a rendering in CG animation.
“One thing [David] said to me, which I think Vincent says in the film, is that when his wife passed and they put her in a coffin, he had this horrible, horrible urge to jump in with her...
The Shrouds, which is screening in competition in Cannes, follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel), a prominent businessman and widower who, inconsolable since the death of his wife, invents a revolutionary and controversial technology that enables the living to monitor their departed loved ones in their graves. Kruger plays three roles — that of the late wife and her sister, as well as a virtual avatar that is a rendering in CG animation.
“One thing [David] said to me, which I think Vincent says in the film, is that when his wife passed and they put her in a coffin, he had this horrible, horrible urge to jump in with her...
- 5/18/2024
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The grimly effective 2008 home invasion shocker gets a strange semi-remake that sucks out all of the suspense
In a genre in which innovation is increasingly resigned to the furthest outskirts, there’s something almost admirable about just how staggeringly redundant The Strangers: Chapter 1 is, early contender for 2024’s most pointless horror movie. It’s the third in a series that should have stopped after one, a reboot that’s more of a remake but sold as a prequel while also acting as the start of a new trilogy, an over-complicated attempt to squeeze new life out of old IP. The 2008 original, which starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple menaced by three masked invaders, was a short, sharp shock to the system, a bare-bones exercise in drip-drip suspense made scarier by its cold, motivation-less villains (“Because you were home”).
There was a stark, naturalistic nastiness to it, closer...
In a genre in which innovation is increasingly resigned to the furthest outskirts, there’s something almost admirable about just how staggeringly redundant The Strangers: Chapter 1 is, early contender for 2024’s most pointless horror movie. It’s the third in a series that should have stopped after one, a reboot that’s more of a remake but sold as a prequel while also acting as the start of a new trilogy, an over-complicated attempt to squeeze new life out of old IP. The 2008 original, which starred Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman as a couple menaced by three masked invaders, was a short, sharp shock to the system, a bare-bones exercise in drip-drip suspense made scarier by its cold, motivation-less villains (“Because you were home”).
There was a stark, naturalistic nastiness to it, closer...
- 5/16/2024
- by Benjamin Lee
- The Guardian - Film News
France’s Les Films du Losange, the iconic distribution company owned by producer Charles Gillibert (“Annette”), has acquired Palmeraie et Desert,” the production company founded by celebrated filmmaker Raymond Depardon.
Les Films du Losange, which was bought by Gillibert from longtime manager Margaret Menegoz in 2021, has been dedicated to preserving and promoting cinematic heritage since its inception. It will now be responsible for the editorial management and global promotion of Depardon’s films.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival is unveiling the 4K restoration of “The Declic Years” as part of Cannes Classics which marks the beginning of the company’s work on their entire body of work. This will be articulated through four cycles covering all the feature films: Reporter, Africa, Citizen, and Peasant.
“Raymond Depardon is one of the greatest contemporary directors and photographers,” said Charles Gillibert, CEO of Les Films du Losange.
“Depardon always followed his intimate...
Les Films du Losange, which was bought by Gillibert from longtime manager Margaret Menegoz in 2021, has been dedicated to preserving and promoting cinematic heritage since its inception. It will now be responsible for the editorial management and global promotion of Depardon’s films.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival is unveiling the 4K restoration of “The Declic Years” as part of Cannes Classics which marks the beginning of the company’s work on their entire body of work. This will be articulated through four cycles covering all the feature films: Reporter, Africa, Citizen, and Peasant.
“Raymond Depardon is one of the greatest contemporary directors and photographers,” said Charles Gillibert, CEO of Les Films du Losange.
“Depardon always followed his intimate...
- 5/15/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Richard Gere
Photo: Darren Goldstein and Courtesy of Lionsgate
We have good news and bad news for Richard Gere, star of the upcoming drama Longing. The good news: Gere’s character, Daniel Bloch, just found out that he’s a father. The bad: His new son is dead. With his English-language remake of Longing,...
Photo: Darren Goldstein and Courtesy of Lionsgate
We have good news and bad news for Richard Gere, star of the upcoming drama Longing. The good news: Gere’s character, Daniel Bloch, just found out that he’s a father. The bad: His new son is dead. With his English-language remake of Longing,...
- 5/14/2024
- by Matt Schimkowitz
- avclub.com
Jessica Hausner on the references to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby: “The idea behind Hotel [starring Franziska Weisz] was to use all those classical horror film elements on purpose, to put them together but to not lift the secret.”
In the second instalment with Jessica Hausner on three of her feature films before her latest, the bewitching Club Zero (European Film Award Best Original Score to Markus Binder), we move the conversation to Hotel, starring Franziska Weisz with Birgit Minichmayr (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon) and Lovely Rita with Barbara Osika as Rita, Wolfgang Kostal and Karina Brandlmayer as her parents, and Peter Fiala as her man of interest. The two films have the costumes, as always, designed by Tanja Hausner, cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, sound design by Erik Mischijew (Maren Ade’s multiple European Film...
In the second instalment with Jessica Hausner on three of her feature films before her latest, the bewitching Club Zero (European Film Award Best Original Score to Markus Binder), we move the conversation to Hotel, starring Franziska Weisz with Birgit Minichmayr (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon) and Lovely Rita with Barbara Osika as Rita, Wolfgang Kostal and Karina Brandlmayer as her parents, and Peter Fiala as her man of interest. The two films have the costumes, as always, designed by Tanja Hausner, cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, sound design by Erik Mischijew (Maren Ade’s multiple European Film...
- 5/11/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
by Cláudio Alves
In 1988, Isabelle Huppert won the first of two Venice Volpi Cups, for Chabrol's Story Of Women.
As Cannes approaches, a barrage of festival news has hit film lovers worldwide. From celebratory to tragic, many of these stories aren't even about the Croisette, signaling how 2024 is entering the festival season full throttle. For example, Isabelle Huppert has been announced as the Jury President for this year's Venice, provoking traumatic flashbacks to whoever still remembers her Cannes presidency in 2009. According to rumor, the French thespian was an absolute tyrant, imposing her will over the other jurors to award frequent collaborator Michael Haneke with his first Palme d'Or. Fellow juror James Gray infamously described her as a "fascist bitch."
Following Lupita Nyong'o in Berlin and Gerwig in Cannes, Huppert's announcement makes 2024 the first year when all the big three European Film Festivals chose women as their Main Competition Jury Presidents…...
In 1988, Isabelle Huppert won the first of two Venice Volpi Cups, for Chabrol's Story Of Women.
As Cannes approaches, a barrage of festival news has hit film lovers worldwide. From celebratory to tragic, many of these stories aren't even about the Croisette, signaling how 2024 is entering the festival season full throttle. For example, Isabelle Huppert has been announced as the Jury President for this year's Venice, provoking traumatic flashbacks to whoever still remembers her Cannes presidency in 2009. According to rumor, the French thespian was an absolute tyrant, imposing her will over the other jurors to award frequent collaborator Michael Haneke with his first Palme d'Or. Fellow juror James Gray infamously described her as a "fascist bitch."
Following Lupita Nyong'o in Berlin and Gerwig in Cannes, Huppert's announcement makes 2024 the first year when all the big three European Film Festivals chose women as their Main Competition Jury Presidents…...
- 5/11/2024
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Alberto Barbera has extended his contract with the Venice International Film Festival and will remain on as artistic director on the Lido through 2026.
The board of directors of La Biennale di Venezia, the umbrella organization that runs the Venice festival, approved the two-year contract extension, unveiling the decision on Friday.
In a statement, the board said in his time as festival head, Barbera had been successful in “discovering and launching new talents on the international stage, in spreading and advancing the culture of cinema, and in expanding audiences” at the world’s oldest film festival.
“I felt an immediate understanding with Alberto Barbera and I have great respect for the expertise, professionalism, and passion he has demonstrated in the years that he has directed the Venice Film Festival, which have enhanced the prestige of the oldest film festival in the world. I am extremely pleased that La Biennale will continue down this path with him,...
The board of directors of La Biennale di Venezia, the umbrella organization that runs the Venice festival, approved the two-year contract extension, unveiling the decision on Friday.
In a statement, the board said in his time as festival head, Barbera had been successful in “discovering and launching new talents on the international stage, in spreading and advancing the culture of cinema, and in expanding audiences” at the world’s oldest film festival.
“I felt an immediate understanding with Alberto Barbera and I have great respect for the expertise, professionalism, and passion he has demonstrated in the years that he has directed the Venice Film Festival, which have enhanced the prestige of the oldest film festival in the world. I am extremely pleased that La Biennale will continue down this path with him,...
- 5/10/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
There’s a certain formula that often defines the recipients of the Cannes Film Festival’s prestigious top prize, the Palme d’Or. These films, especially in the last two decades, tend to have a sense of importance about them, frequently due to their sociopolitical awareness of the world (Laurent Cantet’s The Class), or of specific societal ills.
From time to time, the Palme d’Or goes to a bold, experimental, and divisive vision from a well-liked auteur, such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Terrence Malick’s The Three of Life. But more often it’s awarded to a film in the lineup that the majority of the members on the Cannes jury can agree is good. That felt like the case for Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake, as well as Julia Ducournau’s Titane,...
From time to time, the Palme d’Or goes to a bold, experimental, and divisive vision from a well-liked auteur, such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Terrence Malick’s The Three of Life. But more often it’s awarded to a film in the lineup that the majority of the members on the Cannes jury can agree is good. That felt like the case for Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake, as well as Julia Ducournau’s Titane,...
- 5/9/2024
- by Slant Staff
- Slant Magazine
Even after decades of masked killers armed with increasingly ludicrous weapons, cinemagoers still flock to theaters to experience the raw thrills of watching homicidal maniacs hunt the most dangerous game. And while there’s nothing wrong with filmmakers choosing to rely on tried-and-true formulas when depicting classic cat-and-mouse conflicts, the sheer amount of these movies means that horror fans often find themselves wishing for riskier takes on these familiar ideas.
Thankfully, there are some brave filmmakers out there that use of the basic premise of a slasher as a jumping off point to tell more creative stories. A recent example of this is Chris Nash’s highly ambitious In a Violent Nature, a Friday-the-13th-inspired horror film told from the melancholy perspective of the undead killer himself. And with the film impressing genre fans with its artsy reinvention of common clichés, we’ve decided to come up with a...
Thankfully, there are some brave filmmakers out there that use of the basic premise of a slasher as a jumping off point to tell more creative stories. A recent example of this is Chris Nash’s highly ambitious In a Violent Nature, a Friday-the-13th-inspired horror film told from the melancholy perspective of the undead killer himself. And with the film impressing genre fans with its artsy reinvention of common clichés, we’ve decided to come up with a...
- 5/9/2024
- by Luiz H. C.
- bloody-disgusting.com
Isabelle Huppert will head up the 2024 Venice Film Festival jury this year. Serving as jury president, Huppert will hand out the Golden Lion and other awards when the festival on the Lido concludes. The dates for this year’s edition are August 28 to September 7.
Huppert has never before served as jury president at Venice, but she did at Cannes in 2009, awarding the Palme d’Or to Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” after deliberations with James Gray, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Asia Argento, Robin Wright, and Lee Chang-dong. Before that she’d served on the jury headed by Dirk Bogarde at Cannes in 1984, which gave the top prize to “Paris, Texas.”
The 71-year-old actress has been a powerhouse force in global cinema for the past 50 years, making her mark in French cinema before quickly appearing in Hollywood productions such as Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate.” Over the past decade Huppert’s...
Huppert has never before served as jury president at Venice, but she did at Cannes in 2009, awarding the Palme d’Or to Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon” after deliberations with James Gray, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Asia Argento, Robin Wright, and Lee Chang-dong. Before that she’d served on the jury headed by Dirk Bogarde at Cannes in 1984, which gave the top prize to “Paris, Texas.”
The 71-year-old actress has been a powerhouse force in global cinema for the past 50 years, making her mark in French cinema before quickly appearing in Hollywood productions such as Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate.” Over the past decade Huppert’s...
- 5/8/2024
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
French actress Isabelle Huppert (Michael Haneke’s Elle, The Piano Teacher, La Cérémonie) will serve as the president of the international jury of the competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, which takes place Aug. 28-Sept. 7.
The jury will decide on the Golden Lion for best film, as well as other official awards.
The decision on the jury head was made by the board of directors of the Biennale di Venezia based on the recommendation of the director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera.
“There is a long and beautiful history between the festival and I,” Huppert said. “Becoming a privileged spectator is an honor. More than ever, cinema is a promise. The promise to escape, to disrupt, to surprise, to take a good look at the world, united in the differences of our tastes and ideas.”
Barbera lauded Huppert as “an immense actress, demanding, curious and of great generosity.
The jury will decide on the Golden Lion for best film, as well as other official awards.
The decision on the jury head was made by the board of directors of the Biennale di Venezia based on the recommendation of the director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera.
“There is a long and beautiful history between the festival and I,” Huppert said. “Becoming a privileged spectator is an honor. More than ever, cinema is a promise. The promise to escape, to disrupt, to surprise, to take a good look at the world, united in the differences of our tastes and ideas.”
Barbera lauded Huppert as “an immense actress, demanding, curious and of great generosity.
- 5/8/2024
- by Georg Szalai
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Isabelle Huppert will preside over the main jury of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.
The revered French actor has a longstanding rapport with the Lido, having won Venice’s
Coppa Volpi for best actress twice, first with “Story of Women” in 1988, and subsequently with “La Cérémonie” in 1995, both directed by Claude Chabrol.
Huppert – who has made a total of eight films with Chabrol – also has a close bond with the Cannes Film Festival where in 1978 she won the best actress statuette for Chabrol’s “Violette.” In 2001, Huppert won her second best actress award at Cannes for her tour-de-force performance as a sado-masochistic music professor in Michael Haneke’s “The Piano.” In 2005, Huppert was honored by Venice with a Special Golden Lion for her titular role in “Gabrielle,” Patrice Chéreau’s costume drama about an imploded marriage.
In 2017 she gained her first Academy Award nomination for her role as a rape...
The revered French actor has a longstanding rapport with the Lido, having won Venice’s
Coppa Volpi for best actress twice, first with “Story of Women” in 1988, and subsequently with “La Cérémonie” in 1995, both directed by Claude Chabrol.
Huppert – who has made a total of eight films with Chabrol – also has a close bond with the Cannes Film Festival where in 1978 she won the best actress statuette for Chabrol’s “Violette.” In 2001, Huppert won her second best actress award at Cannes for her tour-de-force performance as a sado-masochistic music professor in Michael Haneke’s “The Piano.” In 2005, Huppert was honored by Venice with a Special Golden Lion for her titular role in “Gabrielle,” Patrice Chéreau’s costume drama about an imploded marriage.
In 2017 she gained her first Academy Award nomination for her role as a rape...
- 5/8/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
U.K. outfit Curzon — part of the Cohen Media Group — is set to relaunch Artificial Eye, the arthouse distribution label that was established in 1976 and has been on hiatus for the last decade.
The label, first founded by film enthusiasts Andi and Pam Engel and part of the Curzon group since 2006, became renowned for releasing independent, foreign-language and arthouse title to U.K. audiences, including those by Béla Tarr, the Dardenne Brothers and Trần Anh Hùng. Its library boasts over 400 critically acclaimed films from directors including Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke and Claire Denis. Ruben Östlund’s “Force Majeure” was one of the last films released under the previous incarnation.
Led by managing director Louisa Dent, who has been with the company since 2008, Curzon has continued to release critically acclaimed films under the Curzon Film label — including Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever at the U.K.
The label, first founded by film enthusiasts Andi and Pam Engel and part of the Curzon group since 2006, became renowned for releasing independent, foreign-language and arthouse title to U.K. audiences, including those by Béla Tarr, the Dardenne Brothers and Trần Anh Hùng. Its library boasts over 400 critically acclaimed films from directors including Wim Wenders, Michael Haneke and Claire Denis. Ruben Östlund’s “Force Majeure” was one of the last films released under the previous incarnation.
Led by managing director Louisa Dent, who has been with the company since 2008, Curzon has continued to release critically acclaimed films under the Curzon Film label — including Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite,” the highest-grossing foreign-language film ever at the U.K.
- 4/30/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Filmotor Nabs World Sales for Berlinale Title ‘Shahid’ Ahead of Visions du Réel Premiere (Exclusive)
Berlinale Forum entry “Shahid,” the debut feature of Iranian-German filmmaker Narges Kalhor, has been picked up by Prague-based doc specialist Filmotor ahead of its premiere at Swiss documentary festival Visions du Réel, where it is competing in the more experimental Burning Lights section.
Described by Kalhor as a collective work between herself and other artists, including a costume artist and a painter from Iran, a German music composer and a choreographer from Berlin, “Shahid” shifts playfully between genres, challenging conventional filmmaking rules.
Set in present-day Germany, where Kalhor emigrated as a political refugee in 2009, the film focuses on her desire to officially remove the first part of her surname, “Shahid,” which means “martyr” in Farsi and was inherited from her great-grandfather, in an act of feminist resistance to patriarchal structures.
During this process, the actor who plays Kalhor travels back in time and meets her great-grandfather, but she also uncovers...
Described by Kalhor as a collective work between herself and other artists, including a costume artist and a painter from Iran, a German music composer and a choreographer from Berlin, “Shahid” shifts playfully between genres, challenging conventional filmmaking rules.
Set in present-day Germany, where Kalhor emigrated as a political refugee in 2009, the film focuses on her desire to officially remove the first part of her surname, “Shahid,” which means “martyr” in Farsi and was inherited from her great-grandfather, in an act of feminist resistance to patriarchal structures.
During this process, the actor who plays Kalhor travels back in time and meets her great-grandfather, but she also uncovers...
- 4/14/2024
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Theo Angelopoulos, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Michael Haneke, Lee Chang-dong, Terence Davies, Shōhei Imamura, Bi Gan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-wai, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villleneuve, Céline Sciamma, Guillermo del Toro, Kelly Reichardt. Those are just a few of the filmmakers introduced to New York audiences at New Directors/New Films over the last half-century across over 1,100 premieres.
Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.
All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)
In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...
Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.
All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)
In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...
- 4/1/2024
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Isabelle Huppert is open to expanding her already storied filmography to potentially even include one of the world’s biggest franchises: Marvel.
The Oscar winner said she would love to join the ranks of fellow Academy Award winners Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett as Marvel baddies, telling The Guardian that she would “love to” join a genre project, including the MCU, as a “real villain.” Even though it’s not like she hasn’t played malevolent women before.
“I would love to! I’d love to do a genre film,” the “Piano Teacher” actress said. “It must be nice maybe to be the villain, a real villain, not the villain in most of the films I do, who have a good reason to be a villain. I never get to play a pure villain.”
Huppert also reflected on her collaborations with Michael Haneke and “Elle” filmmaker Paul Verhoeven as highlights,...
The Oscar winner said she would love to join the ranks of fellow Academy Award winners Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett as Marvel baddies, telling The Guardian that she would “love to” join a genre project, including the MCU, as a “real villain.” Even though it’s not like she hasn’t played malevolent women before.
“I would love to! I’d love to do a genre film,” the “Piano Teacher” actress said. “It must be nice maybe to be the villain, a real villain, not the villain in most of the films I do, who have a good reason to be a villain. I never get to play a pure villain.”
Huppert also reflected on her collaborations with Michael Haneke and “Elle” filmmaker Paul Verhoeven as highlights,...
- 3/25/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
“George Blake,” from Oscar winner Kevin Macdonald, “The Squatter” from Venice-acclaimed Erik Matti and “Sleeping Swans” from esteemed auteur Barbara Albert were the big winners from this year’s second edition of scripted incubator Seriesmakers.
Backed by Beta Group and Series Mania, the mentoring program for feature filmmakers looking to make the leap to TV will return for a third edition, organizers announced at Wednesday’s awards ceremony. The call for admissions will open soon.
Produced by Femke Wolting, the U.K./Dutch series “George Blake” looks into the wilder-than-fiction tale of the most prolific double agent in British history, asking the question of what makes a working class, former resistance fighter turn against everything they ever stood for?
The project will interrogate the multiple identities – and families – of a man who reinvented himself time and again, dying a traitor in England and a national hero in Russia. The project received in €50,000 in prize money.
Backed by Beta Group and Series Mania, the mentoring program for feature filmmakers looking to make the leap to TV will return for a third edition, organizers announced at Wednesday’s awards ceremony. The call for admissions will open soon.
Produced by Femke Wolting, the U.K./Dutch series “George Blake” looks into the wilder-than-fiction tale of the most prolific double agent in British history, asking the question of what makes a working class, former resistance fighter turn against everything they ever stood for?
The project will interrogate the multiple identities – and families – of a man who reinvented himself time and again, dying a traitor in England and a national hero in Russia. The project received in €50,000 in prize money.
- 3/20/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Coming off his breakout role in Zone of Interest, Christian Friedel has signed with UTA for representation.
Friedel stars as the lead in Jonathan Glazer’s critically acclaimed feature The Zone of Interest, based on the book of the same name by Martin Amis. The film made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 to remarkable reviews, where it was awarded the coveted Grand Prix and has since received a number of accolades including two Oscars for best sound and best international feature film.
Friedel was recently cast in a significant role in season 3 of the Emmy-winning global phenomenon anthology series The White Lotus. He is set to star alongside Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Aimee Lou Wood, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey and Leslie Bibb, among others. Production is currently underway in Thailand.
Friedel’s first theater engagements took him to the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich, the Munich Kammerspiele,...
Friedel stars as the lead in Jonathan Glazer’s critically acclaimed feature The Zone of Interest, based on the book of the same name by Martin Amis. The film made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023 to remarkable reviews, where it was awarded the coveted Grand Prix and has since received a number of accolades including two Oscars for best sound and best international feature film.
Friedel was recently cast in a significant role in season 3 of the Emmy-winning global phenomenon anthology series The White Lotus. He is set to star alongside Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Aimee Lou Wood, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey and Leslie Bibb, among others. Production is currently underway in Thailand.
Friedel’s first theater engagements took him to the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich, the Munich Kammerspiele,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Justin Kroll
- Deadline Film + TV
A successful photographer celebrated around the world. A writer who resorts to publishing her own novels. Each had a long history of relationships, familial and otherwise, before they met in middle age. Now he’s 84 and she’s 75, and they are facing mortality together. Will love save them? The premise for “Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other,” Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet’s quietly relatable documentary about the marriage of Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett, sounds like the real-life companion piece to Michael Haneke’s “Amour.” Soon enough, however, it’s revealed to be closer to Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” a dissection of a marriage full of resentment and hidden grievances.
Barrett and Meyerowitz met at the right time to start a lasting relationship. Both had seen strife and happiness, which led them to have a real connection. As they are presented in the film,...
Barrett and Meyerowitz met at the right time to start a lasting relationship. Both had seen strife and happiness, which led them to have a real connection. As they are presented in the film,...
- 3/16/2024
- by Murtada Elfadl
- Variety Film + TV
Few actors have embodied the full range of modern German history on screen as has Christian Friedel.
In Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest — a dark horse candidate for the best picture Oscar this Sunday (where it is also nominated in four other categories, including best international feature), Friedel plays Rudolf Höss, the notorious commandant of Auschwitz who, together with his wife Hedwig (played by Sandra Hüller), built an idyllic villa with a pretty garden for their five children right next to the death camp.
But before Zone, the 45-year-old German actor was best known for playing famed anti-Nazi resistance fighter Georg Elser in 13 Minutes, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2015 drama about Elsner’s attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1939, before World War II and before the Holocaust. In 2012’s Closed Season, Friedel plays a young Jewish refugee hiding from the Nazis. And in his film debut, in...
In Jonathan Glazer’s Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest — a dark horse candidate for the best picture Oscar this Sunday (where it is also nominated in four other categories, including best international feature), Friedel plays Rudolf Höss, the notorious commandant of Auschwitz who, together with his wife Hedwig (played by Sandra Hüller), built an idyllic villa with a pretty garden for their five children right next to the death camp.
But before Zone, the 45-year-old German actor was best known for playing famed anti-Nazi resistance fighter Georg Elser in 13 Minutes, Oliver Hirschbiegel’s 2015 drama about Elsner’s attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1939, before World War II and before the Holocaust. In 2012’s Closed Season, Friedel plays a young Jewish refugee hiding from the Nazis. And in his film debut, in...
- 3/8/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 2024 Oscar nominees for Best Director are Jonathan Glazer (“The Zone of Interest”), Yorgos Lanthimos (“Poor Things”), Christopher Nolan (“Oppenheimer”), Martin Scorsese (“Killers of the Flower Moon”), and Justine Triet (“Anatomy of a Fall”). Our odds currently show that Nolan (3/1) is most likely to win, followed in order by Lanthimos (4/1), Glazer (9/2), Triet (9/2), and Scorsese (9/2).
Three of these five filmmakers have been nominated at least once before, with Scorsese standing out as the only previous victor in the group. Now on his 10th bid (only two behind category record holder William Wyler), he initially triumphed on his sixth for “The Departed” (2007), which is also the only Best Picture winner in his filmography. He earned his remaining notices for “Raging Bull” (1981), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1989), “Goodfellas” (1991), “Gangs of New York” (2003), “The Aviator” (2005), “Hugo” (2012), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2014), and “The Irishman” (2020).
Having previously ranked as the third oldest directing nominee ever...
Three of these five filmmakers have been nominated at least once before, with Scorsese standing out as the only previous victor in the group. Now on his 10th bid (only two behind category record holder William Wyler), he initially triumphed on his sixth for “The Departed” (2007), which is also the only Best Picture winner in his filmography. He earned his remaining notices for “Raging Bull” (1981), “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1989), “Goodfellas” (1991), “Gangs of New York” (2003), “The Aviator” (2005), “Hugo” (2012), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2014), and “The Irishman” (2020).
Having previously ranked as the third oldest directing nominee ever...
- 3/7/2024
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Prior to making headlines the next day after a short-lived health scare that required a brief stay in hospital, Ireland’s President Michael D. Higgins arrived at Dublin’s Complex arts center last Wednesday to present the Dublin film festival’s highest honor to Steve McQueen. Introduced in 2007 and named the Volta Award, after the first commercial cinema set up in Dublin in 1909 by writer James Joyce, its previous recipients include Daniel Day Lewis, Claudia Cardinale and Al Pacino. The famously serious director was in high spirits, enthusing that “festivals are about passion, a passion for film.” “There’s always a buzz, isn’t there?” he continued. “[As you] go to the next picture, the next film, you tend to give people tips and say, ‘Oh, you’ve got to see this, you’ve got to see that…’”
McQueen was in and out of the festival, flying home the same night, fueling...
McQueen was in and out of the festival, flying home the same night, fueling...
- 3/4/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s not the history so much as the anatomy of a family that is scrutinised by Jianjie Lin in his slippery psychological drama. With a cool and unsettling mood reminiscent of Michael Haneke and ambiguities that recall Lee Chang-dong’s Burning, Lin offers a chiller in the shadow of China’s post-one-child policy.
Wei (Lin Muran) is a kid from a middle-class background with a biologist dad (Zu Feng) and a mum (Guo Keyu) who, having left her life as a flight attendant behind her, has poured all her energy into her son. An incident at school sees Wei take fellow teenager Shuo (Sun Xilun) home with him. It’s quickly apparent that Shuo’s background is vastly different from that of Wei with his reaction to being offered five types of soy sauce by Wei’s mum speaking volumes. He, in fact, is pretty taciturn but reveals that his mother is dead,...
Wei (Lin Muran) is a kid from a middle-class background with a biologist dad (Zu Feng) and a mum (Guo Keyu) who, having left her life as a flight attendant behind her, has poured all her energy into her son. An incident at school sees Wei take fellow teenager Shuo (Sun Xilun) home with him. It’s quickly apparent that Shuo’s background is vastly different from that of Wei with his reaction to being offered five types of soy sauce by Wei’s mum speaking volumes. He, in fact, is pretty taciturn but reveals that his mother is dead,...
- 2/29/2024
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Over three hours and five different chapters, Matthias Glasner’s “Dying” chronicles the travails of an estranged family of four: an elderly couple on the brink of death, their successful composer son and their alcoholic, ne’er-do-well daughter. The film casts a wide net over their experiences, and every leading performance is as impeccable as the last. However, Glasner’s formal rigidity prevents their stories from feeling intrinsically bound, leaving each of them with little to say.
The film opens in the German countryside with elderly couple Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) and Gerd Lunies (Hans-Uwe Bauer) being found helpless by a neighbor. Lissy’s litany of ailments render her only semi-mobile, and she often ends the day by soiling herself, while Gerd’s dementia leads him to wander naked into people’s homes. They can’t help each other, and their adult children are too preoccupied with their own metropolitan lives to get involved.
The film opens in the German countryside with elderly couple Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) and Gerd Lunies (Hans-Uwe Bauer) being found helpless by a neighbor. Lissy’s litany of ailments render her only semi-mobile, and she often ends the day by soiling herself, while Gerd’s dementia leads him to wander naked into people’s homes. They can’t help each other, and their adult children are too preoccupied with their own metropolitan lives to get involved.
- 2/18/2024
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Cannes Marché du Film has unveiled the four film industry professionals who will select the projects for the second edition of its Investors Circle initiative.
The one-day event – taking place within the framework of this year’s market, running from May 14 to 22 – is aimed at connecting elevated, international feature film projects with film financiers and high-net worth individuals with a desire to invest in cinema.
This year’s selection committee comprises Arte France Cinéma CEO Remi Burah; French film and TV biz entrepreneur Serge Hayat; Georgian cinema professional Tamara Tatishvili, who is currently head of the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund, and Korean co-production expert Wonsun Shin.
The projects are gathered through a combination of networking and scouting as well as direct submissions to the Cannes Marché du Film up until February 29. The Selection Committee will meet throughout March to decide the final line-up.
Aleksandra Zakharchenko,...
The one-day event – taking place within the framework of this year’s market, running from May 14 to 22 – is aimed at connecting elevated, international feature film projects with film financiers and high-net worth individuals with a desire to invest in cinema.
This year’s selection committee comprises Arte France Cinéma CEO Remi Burah; French film and TV biz entrepreneur Serge Hayat; Georgian cinema professional Tamara Tatishvili, who is currently head of the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund, and Korean co-production expert Wonsun Shin.
The projects are gathered through a combination of networking and scouting as well as direct submissions to the Cannes Marché du Film up until February 29. The Selection Committee will meet throughout March to decide the final line-up.
Aleksandra Zakharchenko,...
- 2/6/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Serbian director Emilija Gašić will follow International Film Festival Rotterdam premiere “78 Days” with the “atmospheric and tense” psychological thriller “Witches,” she reveals to Variety exclusively.
“I’ve always been drawn to scary elements in films — especially if there are moments of comic relief. Growing up in Serbia, I was surrounded by stories and legends. There are so many superstitions and traditions that date back to pagan times.”
Her new film will focus on a woman going through menopause, without support from her loved ones or the healthcare system. Desperate, she turns to an elderly woman for help, a folk healer from a nearby village. Soon, she is asked to perform a series of rituals in order to lift a supposed curse.
“In some villages, there are still these revered healers. I am interested in tapping into this heritage because it’s so rich and really unlike anything else we have seen,...
“I’ve always been drawn to scary elements in films — especially if there are moments of comic relief. Growing up in Serbia, I was surrounded by stories and legends. There are so many superstitions and traditions that date back to pagan times.”
Her new film will focus on a woman going through menopause, without support from her loved ones or the healthcare system. Desperate, she turns to an elderly woman for help, a folk healer from a nearby village. Soon, she is asked to perform a series of rituals in order to lift a supposed curse.
“In some villages, there are still these revered healers. I am interested in tapping into this heritage because it’s so rich and really unlike anything else we have seen,...
- 2/3/2024
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
A slow-cinema spin on well-burnished tropes, In a Violent Nature largely strips the artifice of the slasher formula, which dictates a deformed man must hunt down attractive teens or young adults in either the woods or suburbia. A film built around a mythology that comes to life, as our killer rises from a grave, Chris Nash’s picture could almost be the kind of film Kelly Reichardt might make if her current patron A24 asked her to make a slasher flick.
The result is a deconstruction of all of the clichés that never quite comes into its own, suffering from the same shortcomings as David Gordon Green’s more traditional slasher character study Halloween Ends. The story is told largely from the perspective of a masked killer who may or may not be the son of a rural logging town figure who was executed due to a vendetta. Like László...
The result is a deconstruction of all of the clichés that never quite comes into its own, suffering from the same shortcomings as David Gordon Green’s more traditional slasher character study Halloween Ends. The story is told largely from the perspective of a masked killer who may or may not be the son of a rural logging town figure who was executed due to a vendetta. Like László...
- 1/25/2024
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
By now, even the most hardcore fans of French cuisine and “Chocolat” star Juliette Binoche can agree that Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” — rather than Tran Anh Hung’s “The Taste of Things” — was the one movie that could have given France its first Oscar win for best international feature in over 30 years, since Régis Wargnier’s “Indochine.”
Over the last three decades, a number of French movies have earned Oscar recognition, but none have been the official French Oscar submission. Michael Haneke’s “Amour” earned five Oscar noms in 2013 and even won the best foreign-language Oscar but it represented Austria. A year before, “The Artist,” a French-directed and produced silent movie, won five Oscars out of 10 nominations, including best picture. But the movie had come out in theaters in October, past the former Sept. 30 deadline (which has since then been extended in France) to submit films for...
Over the last three decades, a number of French movies have earned Oscar recognition, but none have been the official French Oscar submission. Michael Haneke’s “Amour” earned five Oscar noms in 2013 and even won the best foreign-language Oscar but it represented Austria. A year before, “The Artist,” a French-directed and produced silent movie, won five Oscars out of 10 nominations, including best picture. But the movie had come out in theaters in October, past the former Sept. 30 deadline (which has since then been extended in France) to submit films for...
- 1/24/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
With final voting complete, the 96th Oscars telecast will be broadcast on Sunday, March 10 and air live on ABC at 8:00 p.m. Et/ 5:00 p.m. Pt. We update predictions through awards season, so keep checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.
The State of the Race
With a fragile theatrical market for non-fiction features and a dwindling number of active documentary buyers, many Sundance 2023 films did not get picked up for distribution. As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies as many as four out of the final five Oscar nominees each year.
And usually, by late summer, Oscar promotion is well underway. Last year, three Sundance grads — eventual Oscar nominees “Fire of Love” (Neon), “All that Breathes” (HBO), and the winner, “Navalny” (CNN) — were actively campaigning.
One Sundance World Cinema entry that built a following during the year was Pulitzer Prize winner Mstyslav Chernov...
The State of the Race
With a fragile theatrical market for non-fiction features and a dwindling number of active documentary buyers, many Sundance 2023 films did not get picked up for distribution. As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies as many as four out of the final five Oscar nominees each year.
And usually, by late summer, Oscar promotion is well underway. Last year, three Sundance grads — eventual Oscar nominees “Fire of Love” (Neon), “All that Breathes” (HBO), and the winner, “Navalny” (CNN) — were actively campaigning.
One Sundance World Cinema entry that built a following during the year was Pulitzer Prize winner Mstyslav Chernov...
- 1/23/2024
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Hailing from the country that gave us such grim social critics as Michael Haneke and Ulrich Seidl, Vantablack Austrian satire “Veni Vidi Vici” opens with a senseless homicide. It’s a startling scene, no less upsetting than the Scorpio killing that kick-starts “Dirty Harry” — except that in this case, the incident is calibrated as the darkest sort of comedy. Rather than picking off an unsuspecting rooftop swimmer, the serial killer does his hunting out in the open, without shame or any pretense of covering his tracks.
The movie makes no mystery of the sniper’s identity, revealing it right from the jump, the way a “Columbo” episode might. And yet the authorities show zero interest in arresting the guilty party, even going so far as to toss an eyewitness out of the police station (that man winds up offing himself in exasperation). That’s because the person responsible, Amon Maynard (Laurence Rupp), is a millionaire,...
The movie makes no mystery of the sniper’s identity, revealing it right from the jump, the way a “Columbo” episode might. And yet the authorities show zero interest in arresting the guilty party, even going so far as to toss an eyewitness out of the police station (that man winds up offing himself in exasperation). That’s because the person responsible, Amon Maynard (Laurence Rupp), is a millionaire,...
- 1/19/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Comer plays a young woman whose baby arrives just as environmental crisis begins to break the society around her
Here is a post-apocalyptic drama of survival, a fiercely acted and unnerving real-time demonstration of law and order breaking down. It is all the more disturbing, credible and immediate in that, unlike other examples of genre, the narrative isn’t heading for an abyss of unknowable chaos. Rather, it envisions society’s grim normalisation of disaster and loss, an evolutionary leap downwards but one in which a kind of rebirth is not ruled out.
In contrast to the American post-apocalypse of John Hillcoat’s The Road, or the European apocalypse of Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf, this film is a very British world-ending – because the populace are unarmed, or mostly. First-time director Mahalia Belo and screenwriter Alice Birch (who has adapted the novel by Megan Hunter) may have taken...
Here is a post-apocalyptic drama of survival, a fiercely acted and unnerving real-time demonstration of law and order breaking down. It is all the more disturbing, credible and immediate in that, unlike other examples of genre, the narrative isn’t heading for an abyss of unknowable chaos. Rather, it envisions society’s grim normalisation of disaster and loss, an evolutionary leap downwards but one in which a kind of rebirth is not ruled out.
In contrast to the American post-apocalypse of John Hillcoat’s The Road, or the European apocalypse of Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf, this film is a very British world-ending – because the populace are unarmed, or mostly. First-time director Mahalia Belo and screenwriter Alice Birch (who has adapted the novel by Megan Hunter) may have taken...
- 1/17/2024
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Christian Friedel was overcome with shame. Days before playing Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, in Jonathan Glazer’s film The Zone of Interest, the German actor chose to visit Auschwitz for the first time. And since he’d already been given an undercut, Friedel had to tuck his Nazi hairdo underneath a baseball cap whilst touring the site where his character oversaw the extermination of 1.1 million Jews.
“I was ashamed with this haircut,” Friedel tells Rolling Stone. “It was schizophrenic, in a way, because I was visiting...
“I was ashamed with this haircut,” Friedel tells Rolling Stone. “It was schizophrenic, in a way, because I was visiting...
- 1/14/2024
- by Marlow Stern
- Rollingstone.com
German actor Christian Friedel melts into his roles, most recently as the commandant of Auschwitz in Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”
The Dresden, Germany-based actor and musician fashioned Rudolf Höss as an executive on the rise: he’s a snappy dresser who’s efficient and knows how to get the most out of his employees and equipment —and how to suck up to his bosses. Except that he’s running a death camp and overseeing the murder of thousands of Jews and whoever else the Nazis didn’t like. He also oversees a large family run by his equally striving and efficient wife, Hedwig.
It’s a tough role, but on one Saturday at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, Friedel is dressed in casual chic clothes while his curly hair borders on rebellion, unlike the severe cut Höss sports.
“It’s really precise. It’s like a second skin in a way,...
The Dresden, Germany-based actor and musician fashioned Rudolf Höss as an executive on the rise: he’s a snappy dresser who’s efficient and knows how to get the most out of his employees and equipment —and how to suck up to his bosses. Except that he’s running a death camp and overseeing the murder of thousands of Jews and whoever else the Nazis didn’t like. He also oversees a large family run by his equally striving and efficient wife, Hedwig.
It’s a tough role, but on one Saturday at the London Hotel in West Hollywood, Friedel is dressed in casual chic clothes while his curly hair borders on rebellion, unlike the severe cut Höss sports.
“It’s really precise. It’s like a second skin in a way,...
- 1/10/2024
- by Carole Horst
- Variety Film + TV
With the New Year upon us, it’s time for our annual tradition of looking at the cinematic horizon. Having highlighted 30 films we guarantee are worth seeing this year and those we hope get U.S. distribution, we now venture into the unknown. We dug deep to chart the 100 films we’re most looking forward to, from debuts to documentaries to the return of some of our most-beloved auteurs, along with a small batch of studio films worth giving attention.
Though the majority lack a set release––let alone a confirmed festival premiere––most have wrapped production and will likely debut at some point in 2024. Be sure to check back for updates over the next twelve months (and beyond).
100. Civil War (Alex Garland; April 26)
A storm brewed across social media with the trailer for Alex Garland’s Civil War. Garland, who last invigorated and disgusted audiences with Men, still boasts...
Though the majority lack a set release––let alone a confirmed festival premiere––most have wrapped production and will likely debut at some point in 2024. Be sure to check back for updates over the next twelve months (and beyond).
100. Civil War (Alex Garland; April 26)
A storm brewed across social media with the trailer for Alex Garland’s Civil War. Garland, who last invigorated and disgusted audiences with Men, still boasts...
- 1/8/2024
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke has been relatively quiet of late and hasn’t made a film since 2017’s “Happy End,” but his exacting reputation has been coming under fire in recent weeks. First, Juliette Binoche called him a “control freak” while recalling working with the filmmaker on “Caché.” “I thought, ‘He doesn’t give a shit about what I’m doing.’ So I said that to him; I said, did you see?
Continue reading Franz Rogowski Says Michael Haneke Can Be “Cruel & Unforgiving” & Talks Terrence Malick’s ‘The Way Of The Wind’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Franz Rogowski Says Michael Haneke Can Be “Cruel & Unforgiving” & Talks Terrence Malick’s ‘The Way Of The Wind’ at The Playlist.
- 1/2/2024
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
llker Çatak, the director of Germany’s Oscar shortlisted The Teachers’ Lounge with Anne-Katrin Titze on Wim Wenders, the director of Japan’s Oscar shortlisted Perfect Days: “Wim is such a nice guy! He’s not my competitor, he’s one of my teachers.”
Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed), Laurent Cantet’s The Class (Entre Les Murs), Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure Of A Man, starring the unforgettable Vincent Lindon, and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant are four of the films that inspired llker Çatak’s outstanding The Teachers’ Lounge. Shot by Judith Kaufmann, edited by Gesa Jäger (Jakob Lass’s Love Steaks with Lana Cooper and Franz Rogowski; Anna Winger's Transatlantic and Maria Schrader's Unorthodox series with Shira Haas), stars a terrific Leonie Benesch (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon).
Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) in the classroom with her students...
Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed), Laurent Cantet’s The Class (Entre Les Murs), Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure Of A Man, starring the unforgettable Vincent Lindon, and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant are four of the films that inspired llker Çatak’s outstanding The Teachers’ Lounge. Shot by Judith Kaufmann, edited by Gesa Jäger (Jakob Lass’s Love Steaks with Lana Cooper and Franz Rogowski; Anna Winger's Transatlantic and Maria Schrader's Unorthodox series with Shira Haas), stars a terrific Leonie Benesch (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon).
Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) in the classroom with her students...
- 12/31/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
[Editor’s Note: The following story contains spoilers for “Passages.”]
Franz Rogowski’s intense and offbeat appeal gets its purest expression in the despairing polycule at the center of Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” In the Euro-chic romantic drama that recalls Mike Nichols’ “Closer” through the unsentimental lens of a Maurice Pialat film, the German dancer-turned-actor plays solipsistic, emotionally arrested filmmaker Tomas Freibur. On the eve of wrapping his latest film, he strays from his taciturn husband Martin (Ben Whishaw) and into the arms of Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), who, when Tomas later tells her he’s in love with her, replies, “You must say that a lot.”
Rogowski is a physically striking performer, here in great shape in this film after withering as a gay prisoner post-World War II for his European Film Award-nominated turn in 2021’s “Great Freedom.” His filmography has acquainted him closely with the world’s great filmmakers, from Michael Haneke to Terrence Malick (“A Hidden Life”) and Christian Petzold...
Franz Rogowski’s intense and offbeat appeal gets its purest expression in the despairing polycule at the center of Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” In the Euro-chic romantic drama that recalls Mike Nichols’ “Closer” through the unsentimental lens of a Maurice Pialat film, the German dancer-turned-actor plays solipsistic, emotionally arrested filmmaker Tomas Freibur. On the eve of wrapping his latest film, he strays from his taciturn husband Martin (Ben Whishaw) and into the arms of Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), who, when Tomas later tells her he’s in love with her, replies, “You must say that a lot.”
Rogowski is a physically striking performer, here in great shape in this film after withering as a gay prisoner post-World War II for his European Film Award-nominated turn in 2021’s “Great Freedom.” His filmography has acquainted him closely with the world’s great filmmakers, from Michael Haneke to Terrence Malick (“A Hidden Life”) and Christian Petzold...
- 12/28/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
For many German performers, the decision about whether or not to play a Nazi proves a fraught one. To depict the history isn’t to endorse it, of course, but to delve into how humans can fall in line behind such barbarism opens the door to finding justifications for that behavior. After playing a Jewish refugee and an attempted assassin of Hitler, actor Christian Friedel now examines this dark period in his country’s history from the other side as Auschwitz commandant Rudolph Höss in The Zone of Interest.
Writer-director Jonathan Glazer, though, dispenses with traditional lines of inquiry to understand and contextualize Höss’s atrocities. The Zone of Interest finds an all-encompassing aesthetic language to show not how Nazis rationalized their genocidal actions, but how they compartmentalized them. It’s an experience better to viscerally feel than to have intellectualized in description, but Friedel’s startlingly naturalistic portrayal of...
Writer-director Jonathan Glazer, though, dispenses with traditional lines of inquiry to understand and contextualize Höss’s atrocities. The Zone of Interest finds an all-encompassing aesthetic language to show not how Nazis rationalized their genocidal actions, but how they compartmentalized them. It’s an experience better to viscerally feel than to have intellectualized in description, but Friedel’s startlingly naturalistic portrayal of...
- 12/15/2023
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
Christian Friedel and Sandra Hüller bravely take on the terrible challenge of being German actors playing Nazis in Jonathan Glazer’s unsparing Holocaust film “The Zone of Interest.” It’s a task each turned over quite a lot in their minds before agreeing to play Nazi commandant Rudolf Höss and his sociopathic wife Hedwig, who lived with their children in a hardly oblivious bucolic bubble next to the Auschwitz concentration camp at the start of World War II.
“We talked about, in a very intense way, the subject matter, about the fact that, to play these two characters documentary-style, is this right? Is this good? How can you do that?,” Friedel told IndieWire in a Zoom interview from the New York offices of A24, which releases the film this week in select theaters.
Friedel, who is warm and chipper in conversation but totally devoid of emotion onscreen as Höss, is...
“We talked about, in a very intense way, the subject matter, about the fact that, to play these two characters documentary-style, is this right? Is this good? How can you do that?,” Friedel told IndieWire in a Zoom interview from the New York offices of A24, which releases the film this week in select theaters.
Friedel, who is warm and chipper in conversation but totally devoid of emotion onscreen as Höss, is...
- 12/13/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
If executed well, twist endings can result in a fun experience. Having the rug pulled out from under you in a way that sheds new light on the entire film can make you instantly want to watch the rest of the film again. Whether it's "The Usual Suspects," "Fight Club," or "The Sixth Sense," the twist sends a blast of dopamine through your brain that leaves you walking out of the theater on a dizzying high.
Rarer are the twist endings that leave you utterly bereft and devastated, where that hit of dopamine is replaced by crushing defeat. Attempting this kind of ending can be enormously precarious, as you introduce the distinct possibility of completely alienating your audience. Sometimes that's the point, like in Michael Haneke's "Funny Games," but more often than not, you are looking to give the viewers an emotionally cathartic ending that is in keeping with the narrative.
Rarer are the twist endings that leave you utterly bereft and devastated, where that hit of dopamine is replaced by crushing defeat. Attempting this kind of ending can be enormously precarious, as you introduce the distinct possibility of completely alienating your audience. Sometimes that's the point, like in Michael Haneke's "Funny Games," but more often than not, you are looking to give the viewers an emotionally cathartic ending that is in keeping with the narrative.
- 12/13/2023
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
The Irish festival runs from February 22 to March 2.
Dublin International Film Festival has unveiled its first programme highlights, with French star Isabelle Huppert to receive Diff’s career achievement accolade, the Volta Award, and That They May Face The Rising Sun set to close the festival.
Huppert’s career has spanned six decades, from early roles such as Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker, for which she received the Bafta most promising newcomer award, to recent cinema roles including Mia Hansen-Love’s Things To Come, Michael Haneke’s Happy End, Neil Jordan’s Greta, Anthony Fabian Mrs Harris Goes To...
Dublin International Film Festival has unveiled its first programme highlights, with French star Isabelle Huppert to receive Diff’s career achievement accolade, the Volta Award, and That They May Face The Rising Sun set to close the festival.
Huppert’s career has spanned six decades, from early roles such as Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker, for which she received the Bafta most promising newcomer award, to recent cinema roles including Mia Hansen-Love’s Things To Come, Michael Haneke’s Happy End, Neil Jordan’s Greta, Anthony Fabian Mrs Harris Goes To...
- 12/11/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge world premiered to acclaim in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section in February, then swept the board three month later at the German Film Awards, scooping best film, director, screenplay, editing and actress for Leonie Benesch.
The actress plays a rookie teacher whose career and sanity unravels after she becomes embroiled in a heavy-handed investigation into a series of petty thefts at her school.
Çatak, who was born in Berlin to Turkish parents, says the premise for the film was sparked by a school experience he shared with co-writer and lifelong friend Johannes Duncker.
“Three teachers came into the class and frisked us,” Çatak said discussing the film at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International. “We thought it’s a good kick-off for a story where prejudice and assumptions poison a community.”
A crucial decision in the writing process was to confine the action to the school.
The actress plays a rookie teacher whose career and sanity unravels after she becomes embroiled in a heavy-handed investigation into a series of petty thefts at her school.
Çatak, who was born in Berlin to Turkish parents, says the premise for the film was sparked by a school experience he shared with co-writer and lifelong friend Johannes Duncker.
“Three teachers came into the class and frisked us,” Çatak said discussing the film at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International. “We thought it’s a good kick-off for a story where prejudice and assumptions poison a community.”
A crucial decision in the writing process was to confine the action to the school.
- 12/9/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Isabelle Huppert isn’t always an actress who disappears into her roles because, like perhaps her American counterpart Meryl Streep, her presence is already iconic and bigger than the screen itself. But in Jean-Paul Salomé’s “La Syndicaliste,” she goes full Hitchcock-blonde, bangs and all, to play Irish whistleblower Maureen Kearney. A trade unionist who exposed corruption at multinational nuclear powerhouse Areva in 2012, Kearney was violently assaulted in her own home after she brought to light secret dealings with China, but police and press didn’t believe her, and she was accused of staging her own attack.
While the story was widely publicized in Europe, Huppert herself wasn’t familiar with Kearney’s case. Kearney, forced into confessing to fabricating the assault after a brutal and longwinded police custody, eventually retracted her statement and was cleared of charges. But “La Syndicaliste,” even if you know the story, still plays...
While the story was widely publicized in Europe, Huppert herself wasn’t familiar with Kearney’s case. Kearney, forced into confessing to fabricating the assault after a brutal and longwinded police custody, eventually retracted her statement and was cleared of charges. But “La Syndicaliste,” even if you know the story, still plays...
- 11/30/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
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