Decadent, hermetic, and gleefully hostile to realism, French writer-director Bertrand Mandico’s She Is Conann is the cinematic equivalent of a French Symbolist poem. Throughout, the oneiric imagery seeping from every frame takes precedence over narrative linearity. And yet, even as the film embodies the self-indulgent ideal of art for art’s sake, it devours itself from within and drops the viewer back into the arena of politics.
Lest we forget even for moment that we’re watching a film, She Is Conann is shot in black and white, aside from the sporadic flash of violence and one framing sequence set in hell’s antechamber, where a dead Conann (Françoise Brion) takes stock of her life of barbarism. For her guide, there’s the dog-headed punk clairvoyant Rainer (Elina Löwensohn), whose name could be an allusion to Rainer Maria Rilke or Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Their dialogue at any given moment...
Lest we forget even for moment that we’re watching a film, She Is Conann is shot in black and white, aside from the sporadic flash of violence and one framing sequence set in hell’s antechamber, where a dead Conann (Françoise Brion) takes stock of her life of barbarism. For her guide, there’s the dog-headed punk clairvoyant Rainer (Elina Löwensohn), whose name could be an allusion to Rainer Maria Rilke or Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Their dialogue at any given moment...
- 1/28/2024
- by William Repass
- Slant Magazine
“She Is Conann” is a new science fiction fantasy thriller feature, directed by Bertrand Mandico, starring Claire Duburcq, Christa Théret, Sandra Parfait, Agata Buzek, Nathalie Richard, Françoise Brion, Julia Riedler and Elina Löwensohn, releasing February 2, 2024 in theaters:
“…traveling through the abyss, underworld dog ‘Rainer’ recounts the six lives of ‘Conann’, perpetually put to death by her own future, across eras, myths and ages.
‘Follow her, from her childhood as a slave of ‘Sanja’ and her barbarian horde…
“…to her accession to the summits of cruelty at the doors of our world…”
Click the images to enlarge…...
“…traveling through the abyss, underworld dog ‘Rainer’ recounts the six lives of ‘Conann’, perpetually put to death by her own future, across eras, myths and ages.
‘Follow her, from her childhood as a slave of ‘Sanja’ and her barbarian horde…
“…to her accession to the summits of cruelty at the doors of our world…”
Click the images to enlarge…...
- 1/5/2024
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
"Six lives. Six incarnations." Altered Innocence has revealed the US trailer for a wild & crazy experimental French film called She Is Conann, a unique re-imagining of the classic Conan the Barbarian myth through a modern gender-swapped lens. Yes, you read that right! This premireed at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year in Directors' Fortnight, with stops at Fantastic Fest and Sitges. It'll be opening in February in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, and more, with director Bertrand Mandico and the star at opening weekend showings at Anthology Film Archives in NYC. Conan's life at different stages is shown with a different aesthetic and rhythm from the classic Sumerian era to the near future. The film is a barbaric fantasy sci-fi trip that boldly celebrates the influences of Fellini Satyricon, The Night Porter, The Hunger, and Fassbinder’s entire oeuvre to craft a moving portrait of a warrior...
- 1/4/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Experimental French filmmaker Bertrand Mandico isn’t for everyone — i.e. an acquired taste whose visions push boundaries of cinematic expression — but he’s achieved something of a cult fandom over the last three decades. After last pairing with the director on 2022’s “After Blue” and 2017’s uninhibited Venice winner “The Wild Boys” — Cahiers du Cinéma’s top film of 2018 — the distributor Altered Innocence again teams with Mandico on another provocation. His 2023 Cannes premiere “She Is Conann,” nominated for the Queer Palm before going on to play at other festivals including Locarno, is an acid-trip transgressive riff on the Conan the Barbarian myth. IndieWire shares the trailer here.
Influences on the film include Tony Scott’s “The Hunger,” the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Liliana Cavani’s “The Night Porter,” and Fellini’s “Satyricon.” Throw Ken Russell in there for good measure, with profane images in “She Is Conann” reminiscent of “The Devils.
Influences on the film include Tony Scott’s “The Hunger,” the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Liliana Cavani’s “The Night Porter,” and Fellini’s “Satyricon.” Throw Ken Russell in there for good measure, with profane images in “She Is Conann” reminiscent of “The Devils.
- 1/4/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
L’immortelle
Written and directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet
France, 1963
Just by examining the title, L’immortelle appears to be the quintessential Alain Robbe-Grillet film. It’s French, it’s feminine (that is, it’s being used to describe a woman), and it translates to “The Immortal”, a reference to how often the woman appears posthumously thanks to its unique narrative structure. Robbe-Grillet is primarily known as a writer, and known in the film world for having penned Resnais’s equally immortal Last Year at Marienbad just 2 years before this feature. The sudden explosion of discussion for Marienbad quickly made it synonymous with French arthouse flair. It was difficult yet rewarding; beautiful yet quietly violent. His hand in Marienbad is immediately evident in L’immortelle, even down to Resnais’s influence in spending half the film covering the surrounding architecture. Despite exclusion from discussion of those involved with the nouvelle vague...
Written and directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet
France, 1963
Just by examining the title, L’immortelle appears to be the quintessential Alain Robbe-Grillet film. It’s French, it’s feminine (that is, it’s being used to describe a woman), and it translates to “The Immortal”, a reference to how often the woman appears posthumously thanks to its unique narrative structure. Robbe-Grillet is primarily known as a writer, and known in the film world for having penned Resnais’s equally immortal Last Year at Marienbad just 2 years before this feature. The sudden explosion of discussion for Marienbad quickly made it synonymous with French arthouse flair. It was difficult yet rewarding; beautiful yet quietly violent. His hand in Marienbad is immediately evident in L’immortelle, even down to Resnais’s influence in spending half the film covering the surrounding architecture. Despite exclusion from discussion of those involved with the nouvelle vague...
- 4/1/2014
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
Kino’s Redemption label continues with the resurrection of New Wave provocateur Alain Robbe-Grillet’s 1963 directorial debut, L’Immortelle, (this is the third title in the planned series, and we can expect to see three more) a stylistic mish-mash of surreal flourishes, sensuality, and mysterious foreboding. Arriving two years after Robbe-Grillet penned the landmark film Last Year at Marienbad for director Alain Resnais, the first outing feels indebted to the look and style of his collaboration with Resnais, despite the realization that his framework for this film was actually developed first. Featuring the highly stylized cinematography of Maurice Berry, Robbe-Grillet transforms Istanbul into a perversely abandoned palette of architectural facades, calling into question the notion of originality and restoration, dreams and waking life.
A Frenchman traveling in Istanbul, known only as N (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze) seems to be aimlessly experiencing the landscape when he runs into a beautiful, mysterious woman (Francoise Brion...
A Frenchman traveling in Istanbul, known only as N (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze) seems to be aimlessly experiencing the landscape when he runs into a beautiful, mysterious woman (Francoise Brion...
- 4/1/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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