Michael Gentile’s Paris-based The Film, the banner behind Julie Delpy’s upcoming show “On the Verge,” is developing a string of projects with emerging filmmakers, notably Yaël Cojot-Goldberg’s “Farewell Caracas” and Mehdi Fikri’s drama “Et maintenant, le feu.”
The company is also producing Danielle Arbid’s “Des châteaux qui brûlent,” based on Arno Bertina’ book, and Delpy’s next French-language movie, “Les Barbares,” a culture clash film set in Brittany.
“Farewell Caracas,” co-written by Cojot-Goldberg and Thomas Vincent (the co-director of “Bodyguard”), is set in the 1970s in Venezuela and is a semi-autobiographical tale. The film revolves around French expats who move to Venezuela and will star Melanie Thierry (“In Therapy”), Arieh Worthalter (“Girl”) and Mathieu Amalric (“Sound of Metal”). It tells the story of the helmer’s parents whose love for one another got tested after her father, who was a well-established banker, spiralled out of control after discovering Klaus Barbie,...
The company is also producing Danielle Arbid’s “Des châteaux qui brûlent,” based on Arno Bertina’ book, and Delpy’s next French-language movie, “Les Barbares,” a culture clash film set in Brittany.
“Farewell Caracas,” co-written by Cojot-Goldberg and Thomas Vincent (the co-director of “Bodyguard”), is set in the 1970s in Venezuela and is a semi-autobiographical tale. The film revolves around French expats who move to Venezuela and will star Melanie Thierry (“In Therapy”), Arieh Worthalter (“Girl”) and Mathieu Amalric (“Sound of Metal”). It tells the story of the helmer’s parents whose love for one another got tested after her father, who was a well-established banker, spiralled out of control after discovering Klaus Barbie,...
- 7/11/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
“A Call to Spy” braids the stories of three decorated WWII spies to reveal — and to revel in — their pivotal roles in British spy craft and history. The title may fall flat but the movie, a sturdy directorial debut for producer Lydia Dean Pilcher, gets to the heart of the matter. Even as they faced various forms of discrimination, Vera Atkins, Virginia Hall and Noor Inayat Khan responded boldly to the tug of duty. They served Britain, and
A scene of torture begins the film. The year is 1941, and Germany has invaded France. The person being interrogated is a woman. Soaked, gasping, she will not crumble. Turns out, she doesn’t have to. The woman is Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), and to our relief, she’s undergoing the final test in her training. Three months earlier, the Special Operations Executive branch of the British government began recruiting “lady spies.” Winston Churchill...
A scene of torture begins the film. The year is 1941, and Germany has invaded France. The person being interrogated is a woman. Soaked, gasping, she will not crumble. Turns out, she doesn’t have to. The woman is Hall (Sarah Megan Thomas), and to our relief, she’s undergoing the final test in her training. Three months earlier, the Special Operations Executive branch of the British government began recruiting “lady spies.” Winston Churchill...
- 10/1/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
“Why do they hate us?” It’s ostensibly a simple question, but one which underpins the entirety of Resistance, the latest War-time story to depict the heroic efforts of those who sought to protect Jewish children from the horrors of Nazi Germany. Though multiple answers are offered, the impact of the question is clear. The harrowing opening scene shows a family ripped apart and is coupled by a portentous, string-driven score. An ominous sign of things to come.
But the nominal lead of this film is, perhaps incredibly, Marcel Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg). Before he found fame as a world-renowned mime, Marceau worked with the French Resistance to save thousands of orphans from the clutches of the Nazis. Before even this, he was a frustrated actor working in his father’s butchers.
Though dreaming of life as an actor, Marceau’s is pulled into service by best friend Emma (Charlotte Poésy...
But the nominal lead of this film is, perhaps incredibly, Marcel Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg). Before he found fame as a world-renowned mime, Marceau worked with the French Resistance to save thousands of orphans from the clutches of the Nazis. Before even this, he was a frustrated actor working in his father’s butchers.
Though dreaming of life as an actor, Marceau’s is pulled into service by best friend Emma (Charlotte Poésy...
- 6/18/2020
- by Luke Walpole
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Exclusive: IFC Films has acquired North American rights to A Call to Spy, the feature directorial debut of Oscar nominated documentary producer Lydia Dean Pilcher about the unsung female heroes of WWII. IFC plans a fall release, Deadline has learned.
Produced, written by and starring Sarah Megan Thomas (Equity), who plays real-life American spy Virginia Hall, pic takes place at the onset of WWII when Winston Churchill ordered a new spy agency, the Special Operations Executive, to recruit and trains female spies. Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. Soe’s “spymistress,” Vera Atkins (Stana Katic), recruits two unusual candidates: Hall, an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Atpe), a Muslim pacifist. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime in France, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake. Atkins, later became the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.
Produced, written by and starring Sarah Megan Thomas (Equity), who plays real-life American spy Virginia Hall, pic takes place at the onset of WWII when Winston Churchill ordered a new spy agency, the Special Operations Executive, to recruit and trains female spies. Their daunting mission: conduct sabotage and build a resistance. Soe’s “spymistress,” Vera Atkins (Stana Katic), recruits two unusual candidates: Hall, an ambitious American with a wooden leg, and Noor Inayat Khan (Radhika Atpe), a Muslim pacifist. Together, these women help to undermine the Nazi regime in France, leaving an unmistakable legacy in their wake. Atkins, later became the inspiration for Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise.
- 6/16/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Did you know that the iconic French mime Marcel Marceau (1923-2007) was once an unsung hero of the French Resistance, smuggling Jewish children across the border into Switzerland with the Nazis in pursuit? This fact-based World War II story is the core of Resistance, starring Jesse Eisenberg as Marcel Mangel (only later did he adapt the stage name of Marceau), the son of a Jewish butcher (Karl Markovics) living in Strasbourg, France. Though Eisenberg acts with physical finesse, the film is quick to make clear that Marcel never saw himself as a savior.
- 3/26/2020
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Here’s the case for “Resistance”: You literally can’t leave your house right now, it’s a reasonably diverting drama available to stream, and it features Jesse Eisenberg, Ed Harris, Édgar Ramírez, Clémence Poésy, Géza Röhrig, and Bella “Lady Mormont” Ramsey.
Here’s the case against it: Jonathan Jakubowicz’s drama doesn’t add as much to the beyond-crowded World War II genre as it could despite the genuinely compelling true story on which it’s based.
Eisenberg stars as Marcel Marceau, a real-life mime whose Chaplin-esque act becomes a balm for a depressingly large group of Jewish orphans; the reliably neurotic screen presence has many gifts, but a few minutes of this movie is enough to prove that French accents aren’t one of them. Look past that admittedly distracting flaw, and it’s a charming performance vaguely reminiscent of Roberto Benigni’s in “Life Is Beautiful...
Here’s the case against it: Jonathan Jakubowicz’s drama doesn’t add as much to the beyond-crowded World War II genre as it could despite the genuinely compelling true story on which it’s based.
Eisenberg stars as Marcel Marceau, a real-life mime whose Chaplin-esque act becomes a balm for a depressingly large group of Jewish orphans; the reliably neurotic screen presence has many gifts, but a few minutes of this movie is enough to prove that French accents aren’t one of them. Look past that admittedly distracting flaw, and it’s a charming performance vaguely reminiscent of Roberto Benigni’s in “Life Is Beautiful...
- 3/25/2020
- by Michael Nordine
- The Wrap
Marcel Marceau’s first public performance was in front of three thousand troops after Paris was liberated during World War II. It wasn’t some Uso stunt, though. General Patton didn’t hire the Strasbourg native to give a show because his men needed a laugh. If anything he gave the stage to the as yet unknown “Bip the Clown” as a reward for everything he did as a member of the French resistance and a liberator himself by taking hundreds of Jewish children across the Swiss Alps to freedom. Those kids were his private audience—orphans seeking solace after many witnessed the murder of their own parents at the hands of the Nazis. They’re the ones who softened his ego-driven dream of dramatic stardom to recognize comedy’s unparalleled cathartic power.
As writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s film Resistance describes it, however, Marceau’s (Jesse Eisenberg) evolutionary thaw also involved a woman,...
As writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s film Resistance describes it, however, Marceau’s (Jesse Eisenberg) evolutionary thaw also involved a woman,...
- 3/24/2020
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
At the time of his death in 2007, Marcel Marceau was the world’s most famous mime. But in 1938-’39, when World War II rescue drama “Resistance” takes place, Jewish-born Marcel Mangel was just 15 years old and had not yet adopted his stage name, much less the stage. As it happens, this would be the most exciting chapter of his life — and one about which the tight-lipped performer seldom spoke — making for a fresh entry point to an otherwise familiar if ever relevant subject.
Drawn from research and firsthand interviews with Marceau’s cousin, Jewish Boy Scouts leader Georges Loinger, the historical thriller tells of Marceau’s heroic efforts to save hundreds of orphans from the Holocaust. It’s an ambitious project for “Secuestro Express” director Jonathan Jakubowicz, and his approach feels more in line with Roberto Benigni’s “Life Is Beautiful” — whose clownish protagonist sought to distract his son from...
Drawn from research and firsthand interviews with Marceau’s cousin, Jewish Boy Scouts leader Georges Loinger, the historical thriller tells of Marceau’s heroic efforts to save hundreds of orphans from the Holocaust. It’s an ambitious project for “Secuestro Express” director Jonathan Jakubowicz, and his approach feels more in line with Roberto Benigni’s “Life Is Beautiful” — whose clownish protagonist sought to distract his son from...
- 3/9/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris (The Hours), Edgar Ramirez (Carlos) and Cléménce Poesy (The Tunnel) are among an impressive lineup of U.S. and international actors joining Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) in World War II story Resistance.
Harris will portray General George S. Patton in the film based on the inspirational true story of iconic French mime artist Marcel Marceau who worked with the French Resistance to help save the lives of thousands of orphans during the war. The film will chart how groups of Girl and Boy Scouts created a network to help save children whose parents had been killed by the Nazis. Marceau, an orthodox Jew whose father was killed in Auschwitz, is said to have learned to mime partly in order to help the children escape.
According to the film’s producers, Eisenberg, whose mother was a professional clown, has been working on his mime...
Harris will portray General George S. Patton in the film based on the inspirational true story of iconic French mime artist Marcel Marceau who worked with the French Resistance to help save the lives of thousands of orphans during the war. The film will chart how groups of Girl and Boy Scouts created a network to help save children whose parents had been killed by the Nazis. Marceau, an orthodox Jew whose father was killed in Auschwitz, is said to have learned to mime partly in order to help the children escape.
According to the film’s producers, Eisenberg, whose mother was a professional clown, has been working on his mime...
- 10/30/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Above: French poster for A Grin Without a Cat.Starting today, the Metrograph in New York will be launching an extensive series celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of the most dedicated, unsung heroes of U.S. film distribution: Icarus Films. Founded in 1978 by filmmaker Ilan Ziv and sold two years later (in exchange for a video camera) to Jonathan Miller who has run the company ever since, Icarus has become one of the leading repositories for aesthetically challenging, politically engaged documentary cinema. The two-week long series contains 56 films by some of the most important names in documentary film: Chantal Akerman, Jean Rouch, Peter Watkins, Chris Marker, Marcel Ophuls and Wang Bing, to name just a few.Finding posters for a lot of these films was not easy. Many of the titles were never really theatrical material (they range in length from 44 minutes to 345) and so a theatrical poster would...
- 9/14/2018
- MUBI
Haley Bennett (Girl on the Train, The Red Sea Diving Resort) and German star Matthias Schweighofer (The Manny, Kursk) are in talks for key roles in Resistance, writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s upcoming biopic of legendary mime artist Marcel Marceau.
Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) has already been cast in the lead.
The film, which Warner Bros. has now acquired for Germany, will follow the life of Marceau and his key involvement in the French Resistance during World War II. Schweighofer is set to play notorious SS commander Klaus Barbie, who was personally assigned by Adolf Hitler to dismantle the Resistance, while ...
Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) has already been cast in the lead.
The film, which Warner Bros. has now acquired for Germany, will follow the life of Marceau and his key involvement in the French Resistance during World War II. Schweighofer is set to play notorious SS commander Klaus Barbie, who was personally assigned by Adolf Hitler to dismantle the Resistance, while ...
- 2/17/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Haley Bennett (Girl on the Train, The Red Sea Diving Resort) and German star Matthias Schweighofer (The Manny, Kursk) are in talks for key roles in Resistance, writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz’s upcoming biopic of legendary mime artist Marcel Marceau.
Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) has already been cast in the lead.
The film, which Warner Bros. has now acquired for Germany, will follow the life of Marceau and his key involvement in the French Resistance during World War II. Schweighofer is set to play notorious SS commander Klaus Barbie, who was personally assigned by Adolf Hitler to dismantle the Resistance, while ...
Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) has already been cast in the lead.
The film, which Warner Bros. has now acquired for Germany, will follow the life of Marceau and his key involvement in the French Resistance during World War II. Schweighofer is set to play notorious SS commander Klaus Barbie, who was personally assigned by Adolf Hitler to dismantle the Resistance, while ...
- 2/17/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This intimate documentary on Ashin Wirathu, the Buddhist fanatic whose ideas have brought down Aung Sun Suu Kyi, is a bleak study of sectarianism by Barbet Schroeder
Barbet Schroeder’s overpoweringly bleak documentary about the Buddhist monk stirring up ethnic hate against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims is the third in what has now emerged as his “trilogy of evil” – a trio of disquieting documentaries of which the first two were General Idi Amin Dada in 1974 and Terror’s Advocate in 2007 about the genial, cigar-smoking Jacques Vergès, lawyer for Klaus Barbie.
The Venerable W delivers a nauseous, almost black-comic jab at any liberal who fondly believed that Buddhism and Buddhists somehow float ethereally free of the sectarianism and bigotry that infect any other religion. And it also emerges as a devastating indictment of someone who is not its subject and appears only briefly: Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader who is...
Barbet Schroeder’s overpoweringly bleak documentary about the Buddhist monk stirring up ethnic hate against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims is the third in what has now emerged as his “trilogy of evil” – a trio of disquieting documentaries of which the first two were General Idi Amin Dada in 1974 and Terror’s Advocate in 2007 about the genial, cigar-smoking Jacques Vergès, lawyer for Klaus Barbie.
The Venerable W delivers a nauseous, almost black-comic jab at any liberal who fondly believed that Buddhism and Buddhists somehow float ethereally free of the sectarianism and bigotry that infect any other religion. And it also emerges as a devastating indictment of someone who is not its subject and appears only briefly: Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader who is...
- 10/10/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
There's a great moment in the new History channel miniseries, America's War on Drugs, when a former DEA agent named Celerino Castillo explains why America's crusade to purge drugs from the world is doomed to fail: "America is more addicted to drug money than they are addicted to drugs."
After risking his life going undercover in the 1980s, Castillo had been disillusioned – quite a few different times – to discover that the CIA couldn't care less about stemming the flow of cocaine from Latin America. In fact, the agency ignored the Contras' drug smuggling.
After risking his life going undercover in the 1980s, Castillo had been disillusioned – quite a few different times – to discover that the CIA couldn't care less about stemming the flow of cocaine from Latin America. In fact, the agency ignored the Contras' drug smuggling.
- 6/15/2017
- Rollingstone.com
Jesse Eisenberg will play Marcel Marceau, a hallowed member of the French Resistance and world famous mime, in the upcoming film “Resistance,” CAA announced at Cannes on Friday. Written and directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz (“Hands of Stone”), the film will follow Marceau’s efforts to rescue Jewish orphans whose parents were killed by the Nazis in World War II while using comedic theatrics to keep the kids’ spirits up during Europe’s darkest hour. The film’s antagonist, who has yet to be cast, will be Klaus Barbie, the Gestapo captain who tortured and slaughtered prisoners during Nazi Germany’s...
- 5/19/2017
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
‘Fire at Sea’ (Courtesy: Tiff)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
The nominations for the 2017 Academy Awards were announced bright and early this morning and, while there were plenty snubs, we want to talk about one surprise: the inclusion of Fire at Sea in the best documentary feature category. The surprise here isn’t that the film was actually nominated but that, as a foreign film, it joins a rather small group of films that have done exactly that. So, what is the track record of foreign films in the best documentary feature category?
When the nominations were read, Fire at Sea (written and directed by Gianfranco Rosi) found itself competing alongside I Am Not Your Negro (directed by Raoul Peck and co-written by Peck and James Baldwin); Live, Animated (directed by Roger Ross Williams and written by Ron Suskind); O.J.: Made in America (directed by Ezra Edelman), and 13th (directed...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
The nominations for the 2017 Academy Awards were announced bright and early this morning and, while there were plenty snubs, we want to talk about one surprise: the inclusion of Fire at Sea in the best documentary feature category. The surprise here isn’t that the film was actually nominated but that, as a foreign film, it joins a rather small group of films that have done exactly that. So, what is the track record of foreign films in the best documentary feature category?
When the nominations were read, Fire at Sea (written and directed by Gianfranco Rosi) found itself competing alongside I Am Not Your Negro (directed by Raoul Peck and co-written by Peck and James Baldwin); Live, Animated (directed by Roger Ross Williams and written by Ron Suskind); O.J.: Made in America (directed by Ezra Edelman), and 13th (directed...
- 1/25/2017
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
Exclusive: Verohoeven’s next film will be a Second World War French resistance movie.
Maverick Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, whose Elle starring Isabelle Huppert screens in Competition at Cannes, is planning a Second World War French resistance movie.
Lyon 1943 (working title) will be set over a period of several months during 1943. Verhoeven is developing the project, still in its early stages, with Said Ben Said, his producer on Elle.
“(Gestapo officer) Klaus Barbie will be there, (resistance leader) Jean Moulin will be there but the movie is not a biopic of Jean Moulin,” said the director of RoboCop and Black Book, whose erotic thriller Basic Instinct opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1992.
Barbie, head of the Gestapo in Lyon, oversaw the torture of Moulin, who died in very murky circumstances in French captivity in July 1943. Verhoeven said he was working with a French historian to try to establish what happened during this “very complicated and confused” period...
Maverick Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, whose Elle starring Isabelle Huppert screens in Competition at Cannes, is planning a Second World War French resistance movie.
Lyon 1943 (working title) will be set over a period of several months during 1943. Verhoeven is developing the project, still in its early stages, with Said Ben Said, his producer on Elle.
“(Gestapo officer) Klaus Barbie will be there, (resistance leader) Jean Moulin will be there but the movie is not a biopic of Jean Moulin,” said the director of RoboCop and Black Book, whose erotic thriller Basic Instinct opened the Cannes Film Festival in 1992.
Barbie, head of the Gestapo in Lyon, oversaw the torture of Moulin, who died in very murky circumstances in French captivity in July 1943. Verhoeven said he was working with a French historian to try to establish what happened during this “very complicated and confused” period...
- 5/11/2016
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary feature takes his earlier The Act of Killing one step further. An Indonesian optometrist dares to interview death squad leaders that half a century before murdered a million people as part of an anti-communist genocide. The eye doctor's own brother was one of the victims. What we see sheds light on a long-suppressed outrage, smothered by a reign of terror and international indifference. The Look of Silence Blu-ray + Digital HD Drafthouse / Cinedigm Films 2014 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date January 12, 2016 / 29.93 Starring Adi Rukun Cinematography Lars Skree Film Editor Nils Pagh Andersen Original Music Seri Banang, Mana Tahan Produced by Sygne Byrge Sorensen Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
We in America truly live a sheltered First-World life, where a level of basic security is still considered the norm. But terrible events that occur beyond the reach of the news media, or that are simply inconvenient,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
We in America truly live a sheltered First-World life, where a level of basic security is still considered the norm. But terrible events that occur beyond the reach of the news media, or that are simply inconvenient,...
- 1/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Chicago – The old fashioned paranoid thriller lives, with the release of ‘Black Sea,’ a submarine movie that combines elements of the silent running of those underwater tin cans with the motivation of finding treasure – in this case Nazi gold – that has been buried where it sunk 70 years ago. The director of this film, Kevin Macdonald, creates a nail biting tension in the will-they-or-won’t-they survival mode of the British and Russian members of the submarine’s crew, led by Captain Robinson (Jude Law).
The Scotland-born Macdonald began his career as a notable documentary maker, winning an Oscar for his documentary “One Day in September” (1999), about the raid by Palestinian terrorists of the 1972 Munich Olympics. But he has also spun some Oscar gold in the narrative category, as Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for the Macdonald directed “The Last King of Scotland.” He continued to produce both features (“State of Play,...
The Scotland-born Macdonald began his career as a notable documentary maker, winning an Oscar for his documentary “One Day in September” (1999), about the raid by Palestinian terrorists of the 1972 Munich Olympics. But he has also spun some Oscar gold in the narrative category, as Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for the Macdonald directed “The Last King of Scotland.” He continued to produce both features (“State of Play,...
- 1/30/2015
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
In addition to its normal slate of invited and in-competition docs, as well as a tribute to the work of Steve James, this year the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival invited filmmaker Lucy Walker to curate a thematic program of her choosing. Walker built her sidebar around memorable characters, and how they both enrich and sometimes problematize documentary storytelling. It was a choice that resonated not only in the films she chose, such as the Robert Evans doc The Kid Stays in the Picture and Marcel Ophüls’s Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie, and her own 2002 effort Devil’s Playground, but also in the new docs screening throughout the weekend. Many of my favorites from the fest were those that fit well with Walker’s program, as you can see below. From topical and historical stories that are most effective when focused on individual subjects to strictly character-driven narratives, the...
- 4/10/2014
- by Nonfics.com
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Cinema, as Jean-Luc Godard wrote, is truth 24 times a second. Documentaries both prove and disprove the point; but the truth is their strongest weapon. Here, Guardian and Observer critics pick the 10 best
• Top 10 arthouse movies
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Man With a Movie Camera
To best understand this 1929 silent documentary, one ought to know that its director, the exotically named "Dziga Vertov", was actually born David Abelevich Kaufman in 1896. Some say the name derives from the Russian word for spinning top, but the pseudonym is more likely an onomatopeic approximation of the sound made by the twin reels of film as the director ran them backwards and forwards through his flatbed editor. For Vertov, film was something physical, to be manipulated by man, and yet, paradoxically, he also saw it as a medium...
• Top 10 arthouse movies
• Top 10 family movies
• Top 10 war movies
• Top 10 teen movies
• Top 10 superhero movies
• Top 10 westerns
• More Guardian and Observer critics' top 10s
10. Man With a Movie Camera
To best understand this 1929 silent documentary, one ought to know that its director, the exotically named "Dziga Vertov", was actually born David Abelevich Kaufman in 1896. Some say the name derives from the Russian word for spinning top, but the pseudonym is more likely an onomatopeic approximation of the sound made by the twin reels of film as the director ran them backwards and forwards through his flatbed editor. For Vertov, film was something physical, to be manipulated by man, and yet, paradoxically, he also saw it as a medium...
- 11/12/2013
- The Guardian - Film News
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its 276-member-strong class of 2013.
The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.
Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.
"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.
The list, published by The Hollywood Reporter, includes actors, cinematographers, designers, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, makeup artists and hairstylists, "members-at-large," musicians, producers, PR folks, short filmmakers and animators, sound technicians, visual effects artists, and writers.
Jason Bateman, Rosario Dawson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Lopez, Emily Mortimer, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, and Michael Peña are among the roster of actors, while "The Heat" and "Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig made the directors' cut.
"We did not change our criteria at all," says Academy president Hawk Koch of this year's larger-than-usual class. "Yes, this year there is a tremendous amount of women, a tremendous amount of people of color, people from all walks of life. This year, we asked the branches to look at everybody who wasn't in the Academy but who deserved to be.
- 7/4/2013
- by Laura Larson
- Moviefone
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today the 276 members of the entertainment industry invited to join organization. The list includes actors, directors, documentarians, executives, film editors, producers and more. Of those listed below, those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy's membership in 2013. "These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today," said Academy President Hawk Koch in a press release. "Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy." Koch also told Variety, "In the past eight or nine years, each branch could only bring in X amount of members. There were people each branch would have liked to get in but couldn't. We asked them to be more inclusive of the best of the best, and each branch was excited, because they got...
- 6/28/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Academy just added 276 Oscar voters.
That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.
AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.
Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.
Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...
That’s 100 more than last year, and part of an easing of a longstanding cap on the number of new members allowed to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences each year.
AMPAS usually adds between 130 and 180 new members, replacing those who have quit or passed away. The membership now stands around 6,000.
Jason Bateman, Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emmanuelle Riva, and Chris Tucker are among the actors who have been invited to join, the organization announced today.
Other interesting additions: the musician Prince, Girls and Tiny Furniture writer/director/actress Lena Dunham,...
- 6/28/2013
- by Anthony Breznican
- EW - Inside Movies
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.
“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”
The 2013 invitees are:
Actors
Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”
Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”
Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”
Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”
Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”
Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”
Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...
“These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”
The 2013 invitees are:
Actors
Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”
Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”
Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”
Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”
Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”
Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”
Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,...
- 6/28/2013
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Above: Juan Gatti’s original Spanish poster for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar, Spain).
After covering the posters for the very first and the current New York Film Festivals, I thought it might be fitting, in this last year of Richard Peña’s tenure as Program Director and Selection Committee Chairman of the festival, to gather all the posters from Peña’s very first Nyff, 24 years ago.
In the current edition of Film Comment—an essential souvenir of the history of the festival to date, complete with a list of every feature film to have played the festival in its 50 years—Gavin Smith writes that “The 25-film lineup of the 1988 Nyff was partly a reflection of the decade’s drift and uncertainty—two came from Nyff veterans (Sergei Paradjanov, Marcel Ophuls), two were post-Glasnost rediscoveries (Andrei Konchalovsky, Larissa Shepitko), and nine were bets that didn...
After covering the posters for the very first and the current New York Film Festivals, I thought it might be fitting, in this last year of Richard Peña’s tenure as Program Director and Selection Committee Chairman of the festival, to gather all the posters from Peña’s very first Nyff, 24 years ago.
In the current edition of Film Comment—an essential souvenir of the history of the festival to date, complete with a list of every feature film to have played the festival in its 50 years—Gavin Smith writes that “The 25-film lineup of the 1988 Nyff was partly a reflection of the decade’s drift and uncertainty—two came from Nyff veterans (Sergei Paradjanov, Marcel Ophuls), two were post-Glasnost rediscoveries (Andrei Konchalovsky, Larissa Shepitko), and nine were bets that didn...
- 10/6/2012
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
2016 movie still trailing Michael Moore, Al Gore 2016 Obama's America, Dinesh D'Souza and John Sullivan's anti-Obama documentary, has surpassed the concert movie Katy Perry: Part of Me to become the second highest-grossing non-fiction film released in North America in 2012. By Sunday evening, D'Souza and Sullivan's right-wing doc -- current cume according to the web site Box Office Mojo stands at an estimated $27.66 million (as of Wed., September 13) -- should have also surpassed the nature doc Chimpanzee ($28.97 million) to become the year's top documentary in the United States and Canada. Worldwide, 2016 -- a 100% domestic sleeper hit like, say, the Tyler Perry movies (which have no audience overseas) -- remains behind both Chimpanzee (another domestic-only release) and Katy Perry: Part of Me. (Please scroll down for more details about the box-office performances of non-fiction films worldwide both in 2012 and "all-time.") As per numerous box-office reports, as the sixth biggest non-fiction film ever (or rather,...
- 9/13/2012
- by Zac Gille
- Alt Film Guide
One Day You'll Understand, the 2008 French film, is not an unexpected work by Amos Gitai. The Israeli director's past efforts include a searing dissection of Orthodox Jewish society (Kadosh (1999)) plus countless semi-experimental narratives and documentaries such as House (1980), the biography of a home from its original Palestinian owners to its current Israeli inhabitants.
In this recent effort, an adaptation of a novel by Jerome Clement, Gitai once again sidesteps sentimentality, as is his wont, to tell the tale of a Jewish woman, Rivka (Jeanne Moreau), who was married to a Gentile during World War II. They had two children, but only one -- her son, Victor (Hippolyte Girardot), who was born after the war and raised a Catholic -- now wants to know what occurred during those years.
The film begins in France in 1987. Rivka, graceful even with her hair in curlers, is cooking dinner as the eighth day of...
In this recent effort, an adaptation of a novel by Jerome Clement, Gitai once again sidesteps sentimentality, as is his wont, to tell the tale of a Jewish woman, Rivka (Jeanne Moreau), who was married to a Gentile during World War II. They had two children, but only one -- her son, Victor (Hippolyte Girardot), who was born after the war and raised a Catholic -- now wants to know what occurred during those years.
The film begins in France in 1987. Rivka, graceful even with her hair in curlers, is cooking dinner as the eighth day of...
- 6/21/2012
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Elena (Nina Dobrev) examines the marks on her neck. Alaric (Matt Davis) teaches her how to fight: vampires stake vampires. She's not strong enough yet, yeah, she's no Buffy. He throws a vervain grenade as it's the only element of surprise as far as a vampire is concerned. Elena tells Alaric he can call Stefan (Paul Wesley) by name. He hurt her so she can do anything, even be with Damon (Ian Somerhalder) which is what I added for emphasis. It's senior year at school and all Elena can do is wallow in the fact it's their anniversary. She and Stefan met here on the first day of school last year, but she needs to put it behind her. Speaking of, Stefan is having a veritable vampire orgy at the house. Damon sarcastically asks if that's what Klaus had in mind when he compelled him to protect Elena and he asks who that is.
- 11/29/2011
- by mhasan@corp.popstar.com (Mila Hasan)
- PopStar
It's the first day of Senior Year at Mystic Falls High School. Go Timberwolves! But before classes start, Elena and Alaric head into the woods to train Elena on the finer points of vampire slaying. Alaric advises her to start working out because she's too weak to work his cunning slaying devices. Later outside the high school Elena, Bonnie and Caroline play a round of Bad Boyfriend Bingo, which Elena wins handily what with her boyfriend being soulless and evil and all.
Said boyfriend is playing Twister back at the ancestral home with a gaggle of compelled young women, two of whom are lying dead in the hall after apparently failing to land their right hands on red. The brothers Salvatore snipe at each other for a minute until the doorbell rings. It's Rebekah, who enters without being invited by Elena (who owns the house; bad show, that's twice now...
Said boyfriend is playing Twister back at the ancestral home with a gaggle of compelled young women, two of whom are lying dead in the hall after apparently failing to land their right hands on red. The brothers Salvatore snipe at each other for a minute until the doorbell rings. It's Rebekah, who enters without being invited by Elena (who owns the house; bad show, that's twice now...
- 10/21/2011
- by John
- The Backlot
I caught a screening of the doc, a couple of years back at the Toronto Film Festival, and if I remember correctly, this became a Weinstein co. title that never got released - it's finally receiving a release on VOD via Sundance Selects on March 10th. A must see for WWII history buffs and Macdonald fans. - When Patty Jenkins' Monster came out, I'll admit to having been one of the least judgmental folks towards the course that Aileen Wuornos took. When discussing the bad apples in society, I've always tried to be cautious about calling out people for what they are: folks that make bad judgement calls and those who are pure evil. And then you have Kevin Macdonald's My Enemy's Enemy which showcases one very rotten apple at the core. I caught a screening of the doc, a couple of years back at the Toronto Film Festival,...
- 3/2/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
More Spring Preview: [Theatrical Calendar]
[Repertory Calendar]
[Jason Reitman's Favorites]
Over 85 films will be filing through arthouses and multiplexes between now and the end of April, but nearly triple that number will be accessible from the comfort of home, whether it's on demand, online or on DVD. Here's what will be hitting televisions, computer screens, Netflix queues and store shelves this spring.
On Demand
Once you get through the masterful six-hour "Red Riding Trilogy" currently available on demand through May, IFC Films and their Sundance Selects label have quite the collection of festival favorites available to beam directly onto your TV in the next few months. It starts on February 17th with the Festival Direct release of the acclaimed John Bryant comedy "The Overbrook Brothers," about two siblings who find out they're adopted, as well as the Sundance Selects release of "Flannel Pajamas" director Jeff Lipsky's multi-generational comedy "Once More With Feeling," starring Chazz Palminteri as...
[Repertory Calendar]
[Jason Reitman's Favorites]
Over 85 films will be filing through arthouses and multiplexes between now and the end of April, but nearly triple that number will be accessible from the comfort of home, whether it's on demand, online or on DVD. Here's what will be hitting televisions, computer screens, Netflix queues and store shelves this spring.
On Demand
Once you get through the masterful six-hour "Red Riding Trilogy" currently available on demand through May, IFC Films and their Sundance Selects label have quite the collection of festival favorites available to beam directly onto your TV in the next few months. It starts on February 17th with the Festival Direct release of the acclaimed John Bryant comedy "The Overbrook Brothers," about two siblings who find out they're adopted, as well as the Sundance Selects release of "Flannel Pajamas" director Jeff Lipsky's multi-generational comedy "Once More With Feeling," starring Chazz Palminteri as...
- 2/16/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Telluride Fim Festival
TELLURIDE -- The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald returns to his documentary roots with My Enemy's Enemy, a sobering history lesson detailing the disturbing record of complicity between notorious war criminals, specifically Klaus Barbie, and the West in the aftermath of WWII.
A pet project of Macdonald's, the France/U.K. co-production, which also screens at Toronto, makes a compelling case out of its resourcefully assembled if somewhat dryly presented archival footage and more recent interviews.
The end result could nevertheless ignite some considerable debate given The Weinstein Co. release's highly relevant perspective, and is a strong contender for the Best Documentary Oscar shortlist.
Macdonald, whose riveting 1991 film, One Day in September, dealing with the 1972 Munich Olympics tragedy, took home a Best Documentary Oscar, finds no shortage of glaring hypocrisies when it comes to the troubling postwar relationship between the Barber of Lyon and American counterintelligence.
Although he was held accountable for the murder of celebrated French Resistance leader Jean Moulin, as well as for the deaths of 44 Jewish children in Izieu, France, the U.S. nevertheless found his Communist-hunting tactics to be quite useful during the Cold War.
They'd eventually part company and Barbie and his family would "disappear" to Bolivia (with the assistance of the Catholic Church), where he'd lay low for a while, eventually becoming a powerful businessman and enlisting the help of some of his old Nazi brethren in a bid to build a Fourth Reich in the Andes.
With its French-language narration and confluence of German, Spanish and English, the extensively subtitled film requires a little effort on the part of the viewer, but it's a potent payoff.
Among the many informed talking heads, both freshly interviewed and in news footage, are famed French Nazi-hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, and Jacques Verges, the lawyer representing Barbie after his eventual extradition to France, who compared some of Barbie's sanctioned activities to others later taking place in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
While there's much to digest here, Macdonald serves up some undeniably potent food for thought.
TELLURIDE -- The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald returns to his documentary roots with My Enemy's Enemy, a sobering history lesson detailing the disturbing record of complicity between notorious war criminals, specifically Klaus Barbie, and the West in the aftermath of WWII.
A pet project of Macdonald's, the France/U.K. co-production, which also screens at Toronto, makes a compelling case out of its resourcefully assembled if somewhat dryly presented archival footage and more recent interviews.
The end result could nevertheless ignite some considerable debate given The Weinstein Co. release's highly relevant perspective, and is a strong contender for the Best Documentary Oscar shortlist.
Macdonald, whose riveting 1991 film, One Day in September, dealing with the 1972 Munich Olympics tragedy, took home a Best Documentary Oscar, finds no shortage of glaring hypocrisies when it comes to the troubling postwar relationship between the Barber of Lyon and American counterintelligence.
Although he was held accountable for the murder of celebrated French Resistance leader Jean Moulin, as well as for the deaths of 44 Jewish children in Izieu, France, the U.S. nevertheless found his Communist-hunting tactics to be quite useful during the Cold War.
They'd eventually part company and Barbie and his family would "disappear" to Bolivia (with the assistance of the Catholic Church), where he'd lay low for a while, eventually becoming a powerful businessman and enlisting the help of some of his old Nazi brethren in a bid to build a Fourth Reich in the Andes.
With its French-language narration and confluence of German, Spanish and English, the extensively subtitled film requires a little effort on the part of the viewer, but it's a potent payoff.
Among the many informed talking heads, both freshly interviewed and in news footage, are famed French Nazi-hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, and Jacques Verges, the lawyer representing Barbie after his eventual extradition to France, who compared some of Barbie's sanctioned activities to others later taking place in Vietnam and Afghanistan.
While there's much to digest here, Macdonald serves up some undeniably potent food for thought.
- 9/10/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
COLOGNE, Germany -- German actor Ulrich Muhe, star of the Oscar-winning Stasi drama The Lives of Others, has died. He was 54.
The veteran stage and film actor died Sunday of stomach cancer at his home in Walbeck, Germany.
Muhe's greatest success was his role as the gray, professional Stasi officer Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Lives. The actor won wide acclaim for his performance and picked up a trophy case of awards, including best actor at the German and European Film Awards.
After Lives won the best foreign film Oscar in February, Muhe seemed on the cusp of an international career. His agency in Berlin confirmed they had been swamped with scripts and offers for Muhe, many from U.S. producers.
But Muhe's cancer had already begun to worsen.
After returning from Los Angeles, he had a major stomach operation. He stopped working, breaking off an engagement to play Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in an upcoming feature film.
In an e-mail to The Hollywood Reporter, Henckel von Donnersmarck said that the original cause of Muhe's stomach ailment was anxiety resulting from his period as a conscript in the East German military.
The veteran stage and film actor died Sunday of stomach cancer at his home in Walbeck, Germany.
Muhe's greatest success was his role as the gray, professional Stasi officer Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Lives. The actor won wide acclaim for his performance and picked up a trophy case of awards, including best actor at the German and European Film Awards.
After Lives won the best foreign film Oscar in February, Muhe seemed on the cusp of an international career. His agency in Berlin confirmed they had been swamped with scripts and offers for Muhe, many from U.S. producers.
But Muhe's cancer had already begun to worsen.
After returning from Los Angeles, he had a major stomach operation. He stopped working, breaking off an engagement to play Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie in an upcoming feature film.
In an e-mail to The Hollywood Reporter, Henckel von Donnersmarck said that the original cause of Muhe's stomach ailment was anxiety resulting from his period as a conscript in the East German military.
- 7/26/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- This movie's English title is a misnomer. The French noun "l'avocat" means attorney, while the English word "advocate" means something entirely different. The subject of Barbet Schroeder's in-depth documentary, included in Un Certain Regard sidebar, is Jacques Verges, a French attorney who has made a career defending unpopular individuals, more than a few considered war criminals and terrorists. But as the old saying goes, one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. So what Schroeder wants to do is probe the moral complexities in a man capable of defending those who commit heinous crimes.
Verges, who agrees to be interviewed, proves a slippery figure, using his lawyer's guile to sidestep questions and spin facts. But he is a fascinating figure, and "Terror's Advocate" is a fascinating film even if it never completely pins him down. The film should do extremely well in European festivals and art houses although North American viewers' heads may spin as the film leaps through the history of foreign terrorist organizations of the past half-century.
The key thing about Verges is that he was born in Thailand in 1924 or 1925 -- even here he apparently is slippery -- to a mother from Vietnam and a father from Reunion Island, the Indian Ocean island that is part of France. He thus came of age as multiracial in a colonial setting, which as one interviewee notes, means "to be against things," to be anti-establishment, anti-colonialist and anti-government. So even when this seemingly leftist lawyer defends Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, from his perspective he sees the trial as an opportunity to show that French collaborators were no different from evil Barbie.
As a young attorney, he was asked to defend Djamila Bouhired, an Algerian woman who came to symbolize her country's hopes for freedom when she was arrested and tortured by France for planting bombs in cafes in 1957. Eventually, he obtained her pardon after she was sentenced to death. Subsequently, he married her.
But his reward was to be turned into "the husband of Djamila Bouhired" and to be banished to divorce cases. So it was that Verges abruptly disappeared. Last seen at a political meeting in Paris in February 1970, he didn't re-emerge until 1978.
Cultivating an enigmatic image, Verges merely says, "I was among people". He was spotted occasionally by friends in Paris. Theories of his whereabouts otherwise range from Cambodia, where Pol Pot was a friend from student days, to Palestinian camps or even China.
When he returned, he defended terrorists from Magdalena Kopp and Anis Naccache to Carlos the Jackal and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. When he defended Kopp, German-born terrorist married to Carlos, history repeated itself. He apparently fell in love with his prisoner-client. Only this time she was married and turned her back on him once she was freed.
One can easily get lost amid the endless talking heads of defendants, experts, politicians, historians and attorneys. But what seems clear is that the defining moment in Verges' life came in his aggressive defense of Djamila Bouhired. That young, passionate and committed man was never able to repeat such a pure legal-political act. So he gradually, especially after his eight-year walkabout, drifted from advocate to l'avocat, becoming a man who knows how to legally help a client in the profitable business of terror or who can associate with anti-Semites and quarrel over the body count in the killing fields of Cambodia.
Schroeder eschews narration, letting the interviewees give the time lines and paint the portraits. Thus no one fills in all the blanks or provides a historical context for the many terrorist groups. Schroder also scrupulously avoids passing judgment -- or at least does so only in his selection of what comments or revelations he chooses to include.
A rich symphonic score by Jorge Arriagada helps flavor this visually thin broth of talking heads and a little archival footage.
L'AVOCAT DE LA TERREUR (TERROR'S ADVOCATE)
Magnolia Pictures
A Wild Bunch/Yalla Films co-production with participation of Canal Plus and the Center National de la Cinematographie
Credits:
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Producer: Rita Dagher
Director of photography: Caroline Champetier, Jean-Luc Perreard
Music: Jorge Arriagada
Editor: Nelly Quettier
Running time 137 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Verges, who agrees to be interviewed, proves a slippery figure, using his lawyer's guile to sidestep questions and spin facts. But he is a fascinating figure, and "Terror's Advocate" is a fascinating film even if it never completely pins him down. The film should do extremely well in European festivals and art houses although North American viewers' heads may spin as the film leaps through the history of foreign terrorist organizations of the past half-century.
The key thing about Verges is that he was born in Thailand in 1924 or 1925 -- even here he apparently is slippery -- to a mother from Vietnam and a father from Reunion Island, the Indian Ocean island that is part of France. He thus came of age as multiracial in a colonial setting, which as one interviewee notes, means "to be against things," to be anti-establishment, anti-colonialist and anti-government. So even when this seemingly leftist lawyer defends Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, from his perspective he sees the trial as an opportunity to show that French collaborators were no different from evil Barbie.
As a young attorney, he was asked to defend Djamila Bouhired, an Algerian woman who came to symbolize her country's hopes for freedom when she was arrested and tortured by France for planting bombs in cafes in 1957. Eventually, he obtained her pardon after she was sentenced to death. Subsequently, he married her.
But his reward was to be turned into "the husband of Djamila Bouhired" and to be banished to divorce cases. So it was that Verges abruptly disappeared. Last seen at a political meeting in Paris in February 1970, he didn't re-emerge until 1978.
Cultivating an enigmatic image, Verges merely says, "I was among people". He was spotted occasionally by friends in Paris. Theories of his whereabouts otherwise range from Cambodia, where Pol Pot was a friend from student days, to Palestinian camps or even China.
When he returned, he defended terrorists from Magdalena Kopp and Anis Naccache to Carlos the Jackal and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. When he defended Kopp, German-born terrorist married to Carlos, history repeated itself. He apparently fell in love with his prisoner-client. Only this time she was married and turned her back on him once she was freed.
One can easily get lost amid the endless talking heads of defendants, experts, politicians, historians and attorneys. But what seems clear is that the defining moment in Verges' life came in his aggressive defense of Djamila Bouhired. That young, passionate and committed man was never able to repeat such a pure legal-political act. So he gradually, especially after his eight-year walkabout, drifted from advocate to l'avocat, becoming a man who knows how to legally help a client in the profitable business of terror or who can associate with anti-Semites and quarrel over the body count in the killing fields of Cambodia.
Schroeder eschews narration, letting the interviewees give the time lines and paint the portraits. Thus no one fills in all the blanks or provides a historical context for the many terrorist groups. Schroder also scrupulously avoids passing judgment -- or at least does so only in his selection of what comments or revelations he chooses to include.
A rich symphonic score by Jorge Arriagada helps flavor this visually thin broth of talking heads and a little archival footage.
L'AVOCAT DE LA TERREUR (TERROR'S ADVOCATE)
Magnolia Pictures
A Wild Bunch/Yalla Films co-production with participation of Canal Plus and the Center National de la Cinematographie
Credits:
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Producer: Rita Dagher
Director of photography: Caroline Champetier, Jean-Luc Perreard
Music: Jorge Arriagada
Editor: Nelly Quettier
Running time 137 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 5/21/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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