French independent producer Haut Les Mains has come on board “A Useful Ghost,” a film project that is both topical and supernatural. The deal was announced on the margins of the Cannes Film Festival and its accompanying rights market.
“A Useful Ghost” follows March and Nat, a happily married couple, and their seven-year-old son Dot. Nat dies of respiratory disease caused by air pollution. A saddened March is worried that the same fate will befall his son, who gradually develops similar symptoms. Nat then returns as a ghost haunting the house vacuum cleaner to try and suck up the dust hurting her son. She also longs to be accepted as part of society and intends to prove that by getting rid of the less useful ghosts.
The film is produced by Cattleya Paosrijaroen and Soros Sukhum (Netflix film “Hunger”) for Bangkok-based 185 Films Co. Last year Singapore-based art house producer...
“A Useful Ghost” follows March and Nat, a happily married couple, and their seven-year-old son Dot. Nat dies of respiratory disease caused by air pollution. A saddened March is worried that the same fate will befall his son, who gradually develops similar symptoms. Nat then returns as a ghost haunting the house vacuum cleaner to try and suck up the dust hurting her son. She also longs to be accepted as part of society and intends to prove that by getting rid of the less useful ghosts.
The film is produced by Cattleya Paosrijaroen and Soros Sukhum (Netflix film “Hunger”) for Bangkok-based 185 Films Co. Last year Singapore-based art house producer...
- 5/24/2023
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Tizian Büchi ’s Like An Island won the 22,000 grand jury prize.
Tizian Büchi ’s Like An Island won the 22,000 grand jury prize of the international competition at Switzerland’s documentary film festival Visions du Réel on April 17. It is the first time a Swiss director has won the prize since 2013.
Chinese filmmaker Wenqian Zhang’s debut feature Long Journey Home was awarded the jury prize of the Burning Lights competition, winning a cash prize 11,000.
Additionally, Swiss-Japanese filmmaker Julie Sando secured a double win with the Zonta Prize for a film by a female filmmaker and the jury prize in the...
Tizian Büchi ’s Like An Island won the 22,000 grand jury prize of the international competition at Switzerland’s documentary film festival Visions du Réel on April 17. It is the first time a Swiss director has won the prize since 2013.
Chinese filmmaker Wenqian Zhang’s debut feature Long Journey Home was awarded the jury prize of the Burning Lights competition, winning a cash prize 11,000.
Additionally, Swiss-Japanese filmmaker Julie Sando secured a double win with the Zonta Prize for a film by a female filmmaker and the jury prize in the...
- 4/19/2022
- by Melissa Kasule
- ScreenDaily
“Like an Island” (“L’îlot”), a hybrid documentary fable tinged with magical realism by Swiss director Tizian Büchi, has won the Grand Jury Prize at international documentary film festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland.
The debut feature had its world premiere at the festival, bearing testimony to the event’s reputation as a launchpad for new talent and its tradition for hybrid fiction-reality films. A total of seven first features are among the winners. It is the first time since 2013 that a Swiss film has picked up the festival’s top prize.
“A small urban island becomes the metaphor of contemporary Europe and lends itself to a deep reflection about the absurdity of borders, rules, fences and barriers. A brilliant observation, a surprising wondering, that rewrites the coordinates of geographical spaces in universal terms,” said the jury, composed of filmmaker Jessica Beshir, the winner of last year’s Grand Prix,...
The debut feature had its world premiere at the festival, bearing testimony to the event’s reputation as a launchpad for new talent and its tradition for hybrid fiction-reality films. A total of seven first features are among the winners. It is the first time since 2013 that a Swiss film has picked up the festival’s top prize.
“A small urban island becomes the metaphor of contemporary Europe and lends itself to a deep reflection about the absurdity of borders, rules, fences and barriers. A brilliant observation, a surprising wondering, that rewrites the coordinates of geographical spaces in universal terms,” said the jury, composed of filmmaker Jessica Beshir, the winner of last year’s Grand Prix,...
- 4/16/2022
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, heads the programme of the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
Elizabeth comes to VdR following a world premiere at Belgium’s Ostend Film Festival earlier this month.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales...
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, heads the programme of the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
Elizabeth comes to VdR following a world premiere at Belgium’s Ostend Film Festival earlier this month.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales...
- 3/17/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Festival line-up includes 84 world premieres.
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, will have its world premiere at the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales and Signature distributing in the UK and Ireland.
It is one of 84 world premieres on the VdR line-up,...
Elizabeth, the feature documentary directed by the late Roger Michell, will have its world premiere at the 53rd edition of Switzerland’s Visions du Réel (VdR) film festival.
The film will play as a special screening out of competition at the non-fiction festival in Nyon. Elizabeth looks at the life of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-serving female head of state in history.
It is produced by Kevin Loader for the UK’s Free Range Films, with Embankment Films handling sales and Signature distributing in the UK and Ireland.
It is one of 84 world premieres on the VdR line-up,...
- 3/17/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
World-premiering in the Forum section (February 13) at this year’s Berlinale, Philip Scheffner’s Europe is a work at once as simple and complex as its title might imply. “Europe” is the name of a bus stop in Europe (specifically in the small French town of Chatellerault) where the main character Zohra, an Algerian citizen, catches a ride from her housing block flat to her job sorting secondhand clothes at an Ngo-run warehouse and also to various doctor and physical therapy appointments – her reason for coming to France in the first place. Fortunately, the numerous surgeries and treatments for her debilitating scoliosis […]
The post “… A Person Deprived of a Legal Status is Further Denied a Voice and an Image”: Philip Scheffner and Merle Kröger on their Berlinale-Debuting Europe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “… A Person Deprived of a Legal Status is Further Denied a Voice and an Image”: Philip Scheffner and Merle Kröger on their Berlinale-Debuting Europe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/14/2022
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
World-premiering in the Forum section (February 13) at this year’s Berlinale, Philip Scheffner’s Europe is a work at once as simple and complex as its title might imply. “Europe” is the name of a bus stop in Europe (specifically in the small French town of Chatellerault) where the main character Zohra, an Algerian citizen, catches a ride from her housing block flat to her job sorting secondhand clothes at an Ngo-run warehouse and also to various doctor and physical therapy appointments – her reason for coming to France in the first place. Fortunately, the numerous surgeries and treatments for her debilitating scoliosis […]
The post “… A Person Deprived of a Legal Status is Further Denied a Voice and an Image”: Philip Scheffner and Merle Kröger on their Berlinale-Debuting Europe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “… A Person Deprived of a Legal Status is Further Denied a Voice and an Image”: Philip Scheffner and Merle Kröger on their Berlinale-Debuting Europe first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/14/2022
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Vienna-based sales agent acquires worldwide rights to Philip Scheffner’s Europe and Dane Komljen’s Afterwater.
Wouter Jansen’s Vienna-based sales and distribution outfit Square Eyes has added two Berlinale Forum titles to its EFM slate.
The first is Philip Scheffner’s Europe which was originally conceived as documentary and is described by Jansen as a “forced fiction”. It tells the story of Zohra Hamadi (Rhim Ibrir) who lives in France and has just undergone major surgery. For the first time in her life, she can walk upright, virtually pain-free. Her husband Hocine is waiting in Algeria to finally get a family reunification visa,...
Wouter Jansen’s Vienna-based sales and distribution outfit Square Eyes has added two Berlinale Forum titles to its EFM slate.
The first is Philip Scheffner’s Europe which was originally conceived as documentary and is described by Jansen as a “forced fiction”. It tells the story of Zohra Hamadi (Rhim Ibrir) who lives in France and has just undergone major surgery. For the first time in her life, she can walk upright, virtually pain-free. Her husband Hocine is waiting in Algeria to finally get a family reunification visa,...
- 2/4/2022
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
PoetBerlinale have announced the first 62 titles selected for the 72nd edition of their festival, set to take place physically from February 10 — 20.FORUMAfterwater (Dane Komljen)Poet (Darezhan Omirbayev)The Middle AgesEurope (Philip Scheffner)A Flower in the Mouth (Éric Baudelaire)Memoryland (Kim Quy Bui)My Two Voices (Lina Rodriguez)Nuclear Family (Erin Wilkerson, Travis Wilkerson)Super Natural (Jorge Jácome)The United States of America (James Benning)Forum EXPANDEDDragon Tooth (Rafael Castanheira Parrode)Home When You Return (Carl Elsaesser)Jail Bird in a Peacock Chair (James Gregory Atkinson)Sol in the Dark (Mawena Yehouessi)vs (Lydia Nsiah)PANORAMATalking About the Weather (Annika Pinske)The Apartment with Two Women (Kim Se-in)Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (Nina Menkes)Swing Ride (Chiara Bellosi)Dreaming WallsKlondike (Maryna Er Gorbach)A Love Song (Max Walker-Silverman)Myanmar Diaries (The Myanmar Film Collective)Into My Name (Nicolò Bassetti)Nelly & Nadine (Magnus Gertten)We, Students! (Rafiki Fariala)Until Tomorrow (Ali Asgari...
- 12/15/2021
- MUBI
Holland’s upcoming feature Charlatan among 51 headed to the Lido.
This year’s Venice Gap-Financing Market, returning for its sixth edition in 2019, has named the 51 projects that will participate across its four strands.
There are 28 features, fiction and documentaries, heading to the Lido this year. Among them is Agnieszka Holland’s upcoming feature Charlatan (Sarlatan), which is being produced by Czech outfit Marlene Film in co-production with Film & Music Entertainment (F&me)’s Irish outpost and Slovakia’s Furia Film.
The project is based on the life of Jan Mikolášek, a Czech healer who lived in totalitarian 1950s Czechoslovakia. Films Boutique is handling sales.
This year’s Venice Gap-Financing Market, returning for its sixth edition in 2019, has named the 51 projects that will participate across its four strands.
There are 28 features, fiction and documentaries, heading to the Lido this year. Among them is Agnieszka Holland’s upcoming feature Charlatan (Sarlatan), which is being produced by Czech outfit Marlene Film in co-production with Film & Music Entertainment (F&me)’s Irish outpost and Slovakia’s Furia Film.
The project is based on the life of Jan Mikolášek, a Czech healer who lived in totalitarian 1950s Czechoslovakia. Films Boutique is handling sales.
- 7/2/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
The sixth edition of the Venice Gap-Financing Market (August 30 – September 1), which takes place during the Venice Film Festival, will feature 51 projects in the final stages of development and funding.
Of those, 23 projects from Europe and beyond are narrative features with 70% funding in place. Five projects are documentaries.
Among highlights are Czech feature Sarlatan by Oscar-nominated Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Mr. Jones) about a man gifted with exceptional abilities set against the background of the events of the totalitarian ’50s; Russian film Air by Dovlatov director Alexey German Jr; Grbavica director Jasmila Zbanic’s Euro co-pro Quo Vadis Aida (working title); and Canadian pic Saint-Narcisse by Bruce La Bruce.
Here’s a full list of projects taking part in the market:
28 Selected Fiction And Documentary Projects
Air (Russia) by Alexey German Jr., SAGa, Metrafilms Alam (France, Lebanon, Belgium) by Firas Khoury, Mpm Film A la sombra de los árboles (Chile) by Matías Rojas Valencia,...
Of those, 23 projects from Europe and beyond are narrative features with 70% funding in place. Five projects are documentaries.
Among highlights are Czech feature Sarlatan by Oscar-nominated Polish director Agnieszka Holland (Mr. Jones) about a man gifted with exceptional abilities set against the background of the events of the totalitarian ’50s; Russian film Air by Dovlatov director Alexey German Jr; Grbavica director Jasmila Zbanic’s Euro co-pro Quo Vadis Aida (working title); and Canadian pic Saint-Narcisse by Bruce La Bruce.
Here’s a full list of projects taking part in the market:
28 Selected Fiction And Documentary Projects
Air (Russia) by Alexey German Jr., SAGa, Metrafilms Alam (France, Lebanon, Belgium) by Firas Khoury, Mpm Film A la sombra de los árboles (Chile) by Matías Rojas Valencia,...
- 7/2/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The chosen projects include 23 fiction films, 6 documentaries and 1 animation.
Thirty feature projects will receive production support from European cinema support fund Eurimages, it was announced in Montreal.
A total of €6,447,783 will be invested in 23 fiction films, six documentaries and one animated feature. Contemporary political themes are prominent.
See below for selected projects
Ahmed is the 11th feature to be directed by the Dardennes brothers, which is about a Belgian teenager who plots to kill his teacher after embracing an extremist interpretation of the Koran. Wild Bunch launched the film at Cannes last month.
Also receiving funding is Daniel, the new...
Thirty feature projects will receive production support from European cinema support fund Eurimages, it was announced in Montreal.
A total of €6,447,783 will be invested in 23 fiction films, six documentaries and one animated feature. Contemporary political themes are prominent.
See below for selected projects
Ahmed is the 11th feature to be directed by the Dardennes brothers, which is about a Belgian teenager who plots to kill his teacher after embracing an extremist interpretation of the Koran. Wild Bunch launched the film at Cannes last month.
Also receiving funding is Daniel, the new...
- 6/29/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
The chosen projects include 23 fiction films, 6 documentaries and 1 animation.
Thirty feature projects will receive production support from European cinema support fund Eurimages, it was announced in Montreal.
A total of €6,447,783 will be invested in 23 fiction films, six documentaries and one animated feature. Contemporary political themes are prominent.
See below for selected projects
Ahmed is the 11th feature to be directed by the Dardennes brothers, which is about a Belgian teenager who plots to kill his teacher after embracing an extremist interpretation of the Koran. Wild Bunch launched the film at Cannes last month.
Also receiving funding is Daniel, the new...
Thirty feature projects will receive production support from European cinema support fund Eurimages, it was announced in Montreal.
A total of €6,447,783 will be invested in 23 fiction films, six documentaries and one animated feature. Contemporary political themes are prominent.
See below for selected projects
Ahmed is the 11th feature to be directed by the Dardennes brothers, which is about a Belgian teenager who plots to kill his teacher after embracing an extremist interpretation of the Koran. Wild Bunch launched the film at Cannes last month.
Also receiving funding is Daniel, the new...
- 6/29/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
When Hot Docs, the documentary film festival held annually in Toronto, staged its first event back in 1994, the program presented a mere 21 features, including the Noam Chomsky profile “Manufacturing Consent” and Nick Broomfield’s “Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer.”
From the humble beginning, this celebration of nonfiction short subjects and features has become the largest of its kind, and one of the most internationally recognized, receiving 3,000 submissions from across the globe for possible inclusion in the 2018 event.
“We’re in the golden age of documentary, and we’re seeing that in the volume of films submitted,” says Hot Docs director of programming Shane Smith, “but also the range and quality of the stories being told. I never have trouble finding films for the festival. The problem is deciding on the final selection because of the number of quality films that we see.”
This year’s Hot Docs,...
From the humble beginning, this celebration of nonfiction short subjects and features has become the largest of its kind, and one of the most internationally recognized, receiving 3,000 submissions from across the globe for possible inclusion in the 2018 event.
“We’re in the golden age of documentary, and we’re seeing that in the volume of films submitted,” says Hot Docs director of programming Shane Smith, “but also the range and quality of the stories being told. I never have trouble finding films for the festival. The problem is deciding on the final selection because of the number of quality films that we see.”
This year’s Hot Docs,...
- 4/20/2018
- by Robert Ham
- Variety Film + TV
The thirteenth edition of Santiago International Film Festival, Sanfic (August 20–27, 2017), the largest film festival in Chile, will present more than 100 international and Chilean films, including productions shown and awarded in festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Among the feature films will be 7 world and 14 Latin American premieres.
Sanfic (Santiago International Film Festival) is opening the festival to international press this year with Variety Dailies and important international guests for their Sanfic Industry section. Guest attending include Kim Yutani (Sundance programmer), Javier Martin (Berlinale delegate), Molly O ́Keefe (Tribeca Film Institute — fiction features) and Estrella Araiza (Industry director of Guadalajara Iff), to name a few. Matt Dillon is its special guest along with the renowned director of photography Rainer Klausmann.
The Summit starring Ricardo Darín, Dolores Fonzi and Erica Rivas, with an appearance of Christian Slater and renowned Chilean actors Paulina Garcia and Alfredo Castro
The opening film of the...
Sanfic (Santiago International Film Festival) is opening the festival to international press this year with Variety Dailies and important international guests for their Sanfic Industry section. Guest attending include Kim Yutani (Sundance programmer), Javier Martin (Berlinale delegate), Molly O ́Keefe (Tribeca Film Institute — fiction features) and Estrella Araiza (Industry director of Guadalajara Iff), to name a few. Matt Dillon is its special guest along with the renowned director of photography Rainer Klausmann.
The Summit starring Ricardo Darín, Dolores Fonzi and Erica Rivas, with an appearance of Christian Slater and renowned Chilean actors Paulina Garcia and Alfredo Castro
The opening film of the...
- 7/30/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Below you will find our favorite films of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Daniel Kasmantop Picksi. From the Notebook Of..., Marble Ass, Tout une nuitII. A Quiet Passion, The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo & Isolation of 1/880000, Creepy, Things to Come, Short StayIII. Hanasareru Gang, Tempestad, Karla, A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Le fils de Joseph, Ta'angIV. Between Fences, Fire at Sea, Doomed Love – A Journey through German Genre FilmsCOVERAGEAwardsHail...Cinema?: Hail Caesar! (Joel & Ethan Coen)Two Women in Mexico's Storm: Tempestad (Tatiana Huezo)Why Not Stay in Philly?: Short Stay (Ted Fendt)The Title Says It Best: Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)Women Poets and Philosophers: A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies), Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve)Refugee Cinema: Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi), Ta'ang (Wang Bing), Havarie (Philip Scheffner)Cryptograms: Crosscurrent (Yang Chao), Life After Life (Zhang Hanyi)Lost Souls of the...
- 3/7/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
With over 1,000 refugees housed temporarily in Berlin's famed Tempelhof Airport standing as an unavoidable reminder of the scores who are staying in the city and elsewhere in the country and the untold numbers trying to get to Germany and other countries of the EU, the on-going migrant crisis of Europe and around the world has thankfully been reflected by a strong presence at the Berlin International Film Festival.In the competition, for Fire at Sea Italian documentarian Gianfranco Rosi (El Sicario - Room 164) traveled to Lampedusa, Italy's southern most island, located between Sicily and Tunisia and a frequent landfall for migrants coming from the North African coast. There, the film splits its attention between the old island life of the residents—centered on a precocious young local boy, a fond hunter with a lazy eye—and the new rescue activities launched from Lampedusa and their interaction with the influx of refugees.
- 2/18/2016
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Reviewed in today's Berlinale Diary: Heiner Carow's The Journey to Sundevit; Ted Fendt's Short Stay with Meaghan Lydon, Marta Sicinksa and Mike Maccherone; André Téchiné's Being 17, co-written with Céline Sciamma and starring Sandrine Kiberlain, Kacey Mottet Klein, Corentin Fila and Alexis Loret; Ivo M. Ferreira's Letters from War with Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova, Ricardo Pereira, João Pedro Vaz and João Pedro Mamede; Philip Scheffner's Havarie; Anne Zohra Berrached's 24 Weeks with Julia Jentsch, Bjarne Mädel, Johanna Gastdorf, Emilia Pieske and Maria Dragus; and Rachid Bouchareb's Road to Istanbul with Astrid Whettnall, Pauline Burlet, Patricia Ide and Abel Jafri. » - David Hudson...
- 2/15/2016
- Keyframe
Reviewed in today's Berlinale Diary: Heiner Carow's The Journey to Sundevit; Ted Fendt's Short Stay with Meaghan Lydon, Marta Sicinksa and Mike Maccherone; André Téchiné's Being 17, co-written with Céline Sciamma and starring Sandrine Kiberlain, Kacey Mottet Klein, Corentin Fila and Alexis Loret; Ivo M. Ferreira's Letters from War with Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova, Ricardo Pereira, João Pedro Vaz and João Pedro Mamede; Philip Scheffner's Havarie; Anne Zohra Berrached's 24 Weeks with Julia Jentsch, Bjarne Mädel, Johanna Gastdorf, Emilia Pieske and Maria Dragus; and Rachid Bouchareb's Road to Istanbul with Astrid Whettnall, Pauline Burlet, Patricia Ide and Abel Jafri. » - David Hudson...
- 2/15/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Programme includes 34 world premieres.
The line-up for the 46th Berlinale Forum has been announced and will feature a total of 44 films in its main programme, of which 34 are world premieres and nine international premieres.
One focus of this year’s programme is the Arab region, with films shot by mainly young directors from an area that stretches between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, exploring both the past and present of their homelands.
In A Magical Substance Flows into Me, artist Jumana Manna sets out in search of the musical diversity of the Palestinian region.
Tamer El Said’s feature In the Last Days of the City (Akher ayam el madina) sends his alter-ego Khalid through the director’s home city of Cairo, which is in a state of uproar.
Maher Abi Samra’s documentary A Maid for Each (Makhdoumin) grapples with the employment of maids from the Global South in middle-class Lebanese households, a practice...
The line-up for the 46th Berlinale Forum has been announced and will feature a total of 44 films in its main programme, of which 34 are world premieres and nine international premieres.
One focus of this year’s programme is the Arab region, with films shot by mainly young directors from an area that stretches between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, exploring both the past and present of their homelands.
In A Magical Substance Flows into Me, artist Jumana Manna sets out in search of the musical diversity of the Palestinian region.
Tamer El Said’s feature In the Last Days of the City (Akher ayam el madina) sends his alter-ego Khalid through the director’s home city of Cairo, which is in a state of uproar.
Maher Abi Samra’s documentary A Maid for Each (Makhdoumin) grapples with the employment of maids from the Global South in middle-class Lebanese households, a practice...
- 1/19/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The 46th Berlinale Forum will be screening 44 films from February 11 through 21. Among the highlights will be Eugène Green's Le Fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, a new documentaries from Wang Bing and Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Ted Fendt's Short Stay, the only film screening on 35mm, Robert Greene’s Kate Plays Christine with Kate Lyn Sheil, plus new work by Avi Mograbi, Bence Fliegauf, Jumana Manna, Tamer El Said, Philip Scheffner, Daichi Sugimoto, Rachel Lang, Mahmoud Sabbagh, Volker Koepp, Ahu Öztürk, Andrea Bussmann and Nicolás Pereda. » - David Hudson...
- 1/19/2016
- Keyframe
The 46th Berlinale Forum will be screening 44 films from February 11 through 21. Among the highlights will be Eugène Green's Le Fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, a new documentaries from Wang Bing and Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Ted Fendt's Short Stay, the only film screening on 35mm, Robert Greene’s Kate Plays Christine with Kate Lyn Sheil, plus new work by Avi Mograbi, Bence Fliegauf, Jumana Manna, Tamer El Said, Philip Scheffner, Daichi Sugimoto, Rachel Lang, Mahmoud Sabbagh, Volker Koepp, Ahu Öztürk, Andrea Bussmann and Nicolás Pereda. » - David Hudson...
- 1/19/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Entering its second year, the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look series provides a strong, welcome antidote to the generally anemic cinematic landscape that is January. Its eclectic selection of undistributed features and shorts, programmed by Dennis Lim, Rachael Rakes, and David Schwartz, occasions an invigorating mixture of moods and approaches from established as well as emerging directors. It’s indicative of the series’ dedication to distinctive, often divisive cinematic voices that Bruno Dumont’s decidedly non-crowd-pleasing Hors Satan was chosen as the opening night film nearly two years following its Cannes premiere.
Whereas earlier films like Twentynine Palms or Hadewijch pushed the French director’s worldview in new directions, Hors Satan sits solidly in Dumont’s comfort zone, down to the cryptically religious title that links it to his debut, The Life of Jesus. His protagonist is a drifter with a scruffy, narrow face like Pasolini’s proletarian Christ,...
Whereas earlier films like Twentynine Palms or Hadewijch pushed the French director’s worldview in new directions, Hors Satan sits solidly in Dumont’s comfort zone, down to the cryptically religious title that links it to his debut, The Life of Jesus. His protagonist is a drifter with a scruffy, narrow face like Pasolini’s proletarian Christ,...
- 1/11/2013
- by Fernando F. Croce
- MUBI
News.
The news that Francis Ford Coppola was moving back to the Paramount lot was exciting enough, but now it sounds like the director has some big plans in store:
"I have a secret investor that has infinite money. I learned what I learned from my three smaller films, and wanted to write a bigger film. I’ve been writing it. It’s so ambitious so I decided to go to L.A. and make a film out of a studio that has all the costume rentals, and where all the actors are. My story is set in New York. I have a first draft. I’m really ready for a casting phase. Movies are big in proportion to the period. It starts in the middle of the ‘20s, and there are sections in the ‘30s and the late ‘40s, and it goes until the late ‘60s."
The winners of...
The news that Francis Ford Coppola was moving back to the Paramount lot was exciting enough, but now it sounds like the director has some big plans in store:
"I have a secret investor that has infinite money. I learned what I learned from my three smaller films, and wanted to write a bigger film. I’ve been writing it. It’s so ambitious so I decided to go to L.A. and make a film out of a studio that has all the costume rentals, and where all the actors are. My story is set in New York. I have a first draft. I’m really ready for a casting phase. Movies are big in proportion to the period. It starts in the middle of the ‘20s, and there are sections in the ‘30s and the late ‘40s, and it goes until the late ‘60s."
The winners of...
- 12/5/2012
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
The New York Times runs two must-reads this weekend. With Jacques Rivette's Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974) opening at Film Forum on Friday, Dennis Lim writes, "It's not just that the film holds up to repeat viewings; its very point is its seemingly infinite repeatability, its mysterious capacity to surprise both first-time viewers and those who know it as well as a magician reciting an incantation." He goes on to consider Céline within the context of Rivette's oeuvre and its lasting impact on filmmakers as diverse as Susan Seidelman and David Lynch.
"Shirley Clarke is one of the great undertold stories of American independent cinema," writes Manohla Dargis at the top of piece on Milestone Films' multi-year project to restore and revive interest in Clarke's work. The Connection (1962) opens Friday at the IFC Center and soon to follow will be theatrical and DVD releases of Robert Frost: A...
"Shirley Clarke is one of the great undertold stories of American independent cinema," writes Manohla Dargis at the top of piece on Milestone Films' multi-year project to restore and revive interest in Clarke's work. The Connection (1962) opens Friday at the IFC Center and soon to follow will be theatrical and DVD releases of Robert Frost: A...
- 4/28/2012
- MUBI
Finishing off strong and on a serious note. After ten days filled with a little over 30 films, I took a week to process before writing this final diary on Berlinale 2012. My last two days at the festival were much less packed yet maybe the most serious ones during this whole time spent in the comfy red seats with moving images. So instead of doing the quick rundown of all the films I watched during these final two days I choose to pick out three that each in their own way deserve a special mention.
Starting off with Davy Chou’s Le Sommeil D’Or (Golden Slumbers). Chou’s thoughtfully constructed documentary pays tribute to the Cambodian cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. A national cinema that started off considerably late and was destroyed just as it started flourishing. A little over 400 Cambodian productions drew crowds to the theaters of Phnom Penh during those golden years,...
Starting off with Davy Chou’s Le Sommeil D’Or (Golden Slumbers). Chou’s thoughtfully constructed documentary pays tribute to the Cambodian cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. A national cinema that started off considerably late and was destroyed just as it started flourishing. A little over 400 Cambodian productions drew crowds to the theaters of Phnom Penh during those golden years,...
- 3/1/2012
- by Merle Fischer
- SoundOnSight
Revision
There'll be more notes and roundups over the next few days, but before tonight's presentation of the Bears, I thought I'd rank the films I managed to see at this year's Berlinale. Note that these are not awards predictions but rather personal preferences, for what they're worth. In order (for the moment):
Outstanding
1. Barbara (Christian Petzold), Competition (see the notes and roundup).
2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes), Competition (notes and roundup).
3. Revision (Philip Scheffner), Forum.
Very Good
4. Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Forum (notes and roundup).
Good
5. Sister (Ursula Meier), Competition.
6. Death Row (Werner Herzog), Berlinale Special.
7. War Witch (Kim Nguyen), Competition.
8. Aujourd'hui (Alain Gomis), Competition.
9. Everybody in Our Family (Radu Jude), Forum.
10. Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers), Panorama Dokumente.
11. Golden Slumbers (Davy Chou), Forum.
Just Above The Middle Line
12. Mercy (Matthias Glasner), Competition.
13. Captive (Brillante Mendoza), Competition (notes and roundup).
14. Francine (Brian M Cassidy and Melani Shatzky), Forum.
There'll be more notes and roundups over the next few days, but before tonight's presentation of the Bears, I thought I'd rank the films I managed to see at this year's Berlinale. Note that these are not awards predictions but rather personal preferences, for what they're worth. In order (for the moment):
Outstanding
1. Barbara (Christian Petzold), Competition (see the notes and roundup).
2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes), Competition (notes and roundup).
3. Revision (Philip Scheffner), Forum.
Very Good
4. Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Forum (notes and roundup).
Good
5. Sister (Ursula Meier), Competition.
6. Death Row (Werner Herzog), Berlinale Special.
7. War Witch (Kim Nguyen), Competition.
8. Aujourd'hui (Alain Gomis), Competition.
9. Everybody in Our Family (Radu Jude), Forum.
10. Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers), Panorama Dokumente.
11. Golden Slumbers (Davy Chou), Forum.
Just Above The Middle Line
12. Mercy (Matthias Glasner), Competition.
13. Captive (Brillante Mendoza), Competition (notes and roundup).
14. Francine (Brian M Cassidy and Melani Shatzky), Forum.
- 2/19/2012
- MUBI
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