“The Fall Guy” is swinging into theaters this weekend, as are the indie masterpieces “I Saw the TV Glow” and “Evil Does Not Exist.” Fortunately, a handful of fun and intriguing titles are also hitting digital platforms, including a dynamic documentary about a rock ‘n’ roll linchpin.
The contender to watch this week: “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg”
No, this isn’t a “Hunger Games” sequel. Anita Pallenberg was an actress, a New York It Girl, and a denizen of Andy Warhol’s Factory, but she is best known as an associate of the Rolling Stones. She dated founder Brian Jones and, later, guitarist Keith Richards, with whom she had three children. Some people have called her the band’s muse. Pallenberg’s life was not always as glamorous as it sounds, though, and directors Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill mine her highs and lows for a compelling...
The contender to watch this week: “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg”
No, this isn’t a “Hunger Games” sequel. Anita Pallenberg was an actress, a New York It Girl, and a denizen of Andy Warhol’s Factory, but she is best known as an associate of the Rolling Stones. She dated founder Brian Jones and, later, guitarist Keith Richards, with whom she had three children. Some people have called her the band’s muse. Pallenberg’s life was not always as glamorous as it sounds, though, and directors Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill mine her highs and lows for a compelling...
- 5/4/2024
- by Matthew Jacobs
- Gold Derby
A muse, a mother, a fashionista, an actor, a rock ‘n’ roll icon — it’s hard to describe exactly why Anita Pallenberg remains such a compelling figure more than a half-century after the captivating blonde sang backing vocals on the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and starred in movies like “Performance” and “Barbarella.”
The new documentary “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” delves into both the beautiful and tragic moments of her eventful life with the help of a treasure trove of home movies and interviews, as well as an unpublished memoir penned by Pallenberg and narrated by Scarlett Johansson. The footage is coupled with interviews of the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, with whom she had a significant relationship, their children Marlon and Angela Richards, director Volker Schlondorff, who cast her in some of his films, and her former friends and associates.
“I’ve been called a witch,...
The new documentary “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” delves into both the beautiful and tragic moments of her eventful life with the help of a treasure trove of home movies and interviews, as well as an unpublished memoir penned by Pallenberg and narrated by Scarlett Johansson. The footage is coupled with interviews of the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, with whom she had a significant relationship, their children Marlon and Angela Richards, director Volker Schlondorff, who cast her in some of his films, and her former friends and associates.
“I’ve been called a witch,...
- 5/3/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill)
You can’t always get what you want, unless you are a Rolling Stones fan hungering for documentary deep-dives into the band’s storied history. Indeed, it is spectacularly serendipitous that Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg arrives just a few months after The Stones and Brian Jones. The latter doc, from Nick Broomfield, centered on Jones, the band’s founder and leader until Mick Jagger and Keith Richards snatched that mantle. Catching Fire and The Stones and Brian Jones cover much of the same ground, use some of the same archival footage, and even feature the same anecdotes from delightful Tin Drum director Volker Schlöndorff. The films are...
Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg (Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill)
You can’t always get what you want, unless you are a Rolling Stones fan hungering for documentary deep-dives into the band’s storied history. Indeed, it is spectacularly serendipitous that Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg arrives just a few months after The Stones and Brian Jones. The latter doc, from Nick Broomfield, centered on Jones, the band’s founder and leader until Mick Jagger and Keith Richards snatched that mantle. Catching Fire and The Stones and Brian Jones cover much of the same ground, use some of the same archival footage, and even feature the same anecdotes from delightful Tin Drum director Volker Schlöndorff. The films are...
- 5/3/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
You can’t always get what you want, unless you are a Rolling Stones fan hungering for documentary deep-dives into the band’s storied history. Indeed, it is spectacularly serendipitous that Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg arrives just a few months after The Stones and Brian Jones. The latter doc, from Nick Broomfield, centered on Jones, the band’s founder and leader until Mick Jagger and Keith Richards snatched that mantle. Catching Fire and The Stones and Brian Jones cover much of the same ground, use some of the same archival footage, and even feature the same anecdotes from delightful Tin Drum director Volker Schlöndorff. The films are even released by the same distributor, Magnolia.
Catching Fire and Brian Jones should, of course, be judged on their own merits, yet it’s impossible not to consider them in-tandem. The perspectives are obviously quite different, as are––to some degree––heroes and villains.
Catching Fire and Brian Jones should, of course, be judged on their own merits, yet it’s impossible not to consider them in-tandem. The perspectives are obviously quite different, as are––to some degree––heroes and villains.
- 5/2/2024
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
A new documentary will look at the legacy of model and actress Anita Pallenberg. In a clip from Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, Pallenberg — voiced by Scarlett Johansson reading from Pallenberg’s unpublished memoirs — recalls a 1968 boating vacation she took with her then boyfriend, Keith Richards, as well as Mick Jagger and his girlfriend at the time, Marianne Faithfull. Footage from the trip, a voyage from Lisbon to Rio, has never previously been released. The film arrives in theaters on May 3 and will be available digitally the same day.
- 4/24/2024
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Magnolia Pictures has released a trailer ahead of the May 3 release of “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg,” about the legendary muse to the Rolling Stones. Scarlett Johansson provides the voice for Pallenberg, based on the words of her unpublished memoir. Pallenberg’s children, Marlon and Angela Richards, and their father, Keith Richards are also included in the docu.
Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill direct the portrait of the rock ‘n’ roll actor, muse and mother who was called an “evil seductress” and accused of trying to break up the Rolling Stones.
The documentary screened at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, with critic Owen Gleiberman describing Pallenberg as the “beautiful and imperious scenester of the ’60s and ’70s, Hollywood actress and icon of scruffy-chic rock royalty, partner of Keith Richards, muse to several of the other Rolling Stones.”
The review continues, “In addition to Pallenberg’s memoir, the...
Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill direct the portrait of the rock ‘n’ roll actor, muse and mother who was called an “evil seductress” and accused of trying to break up the Rolling Stones.
The documentary screened at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, with critic Owen Gleiberman describing Pallenberg as the “beautiful and imperious scenester of the ’60s and ’70s, Hollywood actress and icon of scruffy-chic rock royalty, partner of Keith Richards, muse to several of the other Rolling Stones.”
The review continues, “In addition to Pallenberg’s memoir, the...
- 3/28/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
American Cinematheque Launches Major New L.A. Documentary Festival This Is Not a Fiction (Exclusive)
The American Cinematheque is kicking off a robust new Los Angeles nonfiction film festival dubbed This Is Not a Fiction, running from April 10-18. The festival opens with docuseries “Thank You, Good Night: The Bon Jovi Story,” with Jon Bon Jovi in-person at the Aero Theatre for the L.A. premiere screening.
The event will include in-person tributes to distinguished documentary filmmakers including Barbara Kopple, Joe Berlinger, Brett Morgen, Bill Morrison, Kirsten Johnson, Terry Zwigoff, Jeff Tremaine and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, as well as a virtual Q&a with Frederick Wiseman.
Other premieres will include “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” “Power,” “Strong Island,” “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg,” a restoration of “Lumumba: Death of a Prophet” and “Incident,” plus special presentations of Morgan Neville’s “Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces” and “Girls State.” A celebration of the 15th anniversary of “30 for 30” will feature a panel...
The event will include in-person tributes to distinguished documentary filmmakers including Barbara Kopple, Joe Berlinger, Brett Morgen, Bill Morrison, Kirsten Johnson, Terry Zwigoff, Jeff Tremaine and Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, as well as a virtual Q&a with Frederick Wiseman.
Other premieres will include “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus,” “Power,” “Strong Island,” “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg,” a restoration of “Lumumba: Death of a Prophet” and “Incident,” plus special presentations of Morgan Neville’s “Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces” and “Girls State.” A celebration of the 15th anniversary of “30 for 30” will feature a panel...
- 3/19/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
The champagne may be flowing at the kickoff for the 27th Annual Sonoma International Film Festival – for more reasons than one.
This year’s event in California’s wine country will open with the U.S. premiere of Widow Clicquot, directed by Thomas Napper, a narrative feature about the Grande Dame of Champagne. Actress Haley Bennett stars in the titular role of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, “who against all odds advanced her late husband’s techniques to create the recipe for modern-day champagne.”
Siff, running from March 20-24, will showcase 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features, and 48 short films representing more than 25 countries, according to a release.
Maya Hawke in ‘Wildcat’
The festival’s Centerpiece Film is Wildcat, directed by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter Maya Hawke as renowned Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor. The Closing Night Film is Luc Besson’s crime drama Dogman, starring Caleb Landry Jones. A Closing Night...
This year’s event in California’s wine country will open with the U.S. premiere of Widow Clicquot, directed by Thomas Napper, a narrative feature about the Grande Dame of Champagne. Actress Haley Bennett stars in the titular role of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot, “who against all odds advanced her late husband’s techniques to create the recipe for modern-day champagne.”
Siff, running from March 20-24, will showcase 43 narrative features, 16 documentary features, and 48 short films representing more than 25 countries, according to a release.
Maya Hawke in ‘Wildcat’
The festival’s Centerpiece Film is Wildcat, directed by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter Maya Hawke as renowned Southern Gothic author Flannery O’Connor. The Closing Night Film is Luc Besson’s crime drama Dogman, starring Caleb Landry Jones. A Closing Night...
- 3/2/2024
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
It’s often said of the 1960s that “if you can remember it, you weren’t really there”. Here, Anita Pallenberg, a woman who absolutely personifies the swaggering, love-drenched freedom of a certain facet of sixties art and culture, proves that to be, once and for all, quite astonishing bollocks. Before her death in 2017, Pallenberg – an era-defining model and actress who, as the ex-girlfriend of Keith Richards and Brian Jones (and briefly the lover of Mick Jagger) is often described as the unofficial “sixth Rolling Stone” – wrote her memoirs. They form the basis of this remarkable intimate documentary, navigating the shifting fortunes of her life with admirable authenticity.
Those memoirs are narrated here by “an actress” with some husky-voiced depth that will feel fairly familiar. It should —it’s Scarlet Johansson, though the film makes a point of not distracting us with that fact until the credits roll. She does...
Those memoirs are narrated here by “an actress” with some husky-voiced depth that will feel fairly familiar. It should —it’s Scarlet Johansson, though the film makes a point of not distracting us with that fact until the credits roll. She does...
- 10/16/2023
- by Marc Burrows
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Exclusive: WME has signed Fisher Stevens and his production company Highly Flammable, which he launched last spring alongside producers Maura Anderson and Zak Kilberg. They’ll rep the Academy Award-winning multi-hyphenate, going forward, across all scripted and documentary projects.
The move comes less than a week after Stevens’ Beckham docuseries was released on Netflix, debuting as the streamer’s most-watched English-language series of the week. The four-parter, on which he teamed with Oscar and Emmy-winning producer John Battsek (Searching for Sugar Man), tells the inside story of the global football star and cultural icon, offering unprecedented access not only to Beckham, but also to his wife Victoria, his family, his friends and his teammates.
Fisher’s scripted directing credits include the ex-convict drama Palmer, starring Justin Timberlake, which remains one of Apple TV+’s top 10 most popular films; the comedic thriller Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin,...
The move comes less than a week after Stevens’ Beckham docuseries was released on Netflix, debuting as the streamer’s most-watched English-language series of the week. The four-parter, on which he teamed with Oscar and Emmy-winning producer John Battsek (Searching for Sugar Man), tells the inside story of the global football star and cultural icon, offering unprecedented access not only to Beckham, but also to his wife Victoria, his family, his friends and his teammates.
Fisher’s scripted directing credits include the ex-convict drama Palmer, starring Justin Timberlake, which remains one of Apple TV+’s top 10 most popular films; the comedic thriller Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Alan Arkin,...
- 10/12/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to “Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. The documentary, which was produced by Sk Global Entertainment, tells the story of Anita Pallenberg, the model and actress who rose to fame in the 1960s and ’70s after a chance encounter with the Rolling Stones.
Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill directed the docu, which features the voice of Scarlett Johansson as Anita, based on the words of her unpublished memoir. Keith Richards and his children with Pallenberg, Marlon and Angela Richards, make appearances in the film.
Magnolia plans to release “Catching Fire” next spring.
“Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” tells the story of a woman who was described as a “rock n’ roll goddess,” a “voodoo priestess” and an “evil seductress.” She was also accused of trying to break up the Rolling Stones. But despite her tumultuous life,...
Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill directed the docu, which features the voice of Scarlett Johansson as Anita, based on the words of her unpublished memoir. Keith Richards and his children with Pallenberg, Marlon and Angela Richards, make appearances in the film.
Magnolia plans to release “Catching Fire” next spring.
“Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” tells the story of a woman who was described as a “rock n’ roll goddess,” a “voodoo priestess” and an “evil seductress.” She was also accused of trying to break up the Rolling Stones. But despite her tumultuous life,...
- 10/2/2023
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Oscar winning documentary producer is at Sheffield DocFest with Chris Smith’s ‘Wham’ and Sundance hit The Deepest Breath.
Ventureland co-founder John Battsek knew the chance to tell a postive, upbeat story about the UK 1980s pop band Wham! could very well appeal to sought-after young audiences.
Wham! , directed by the US’ Chris Smith, was one of two new films with which the Oscar-winning documentary producer was at Sheffield DocFest in the UK last week. The other was Laura McGann’s Sundance hit, The Deepest Breath, about Italian freediving champion Alessia Zecchini, which was acquired by Netflix late last year.
Ventureland co-founder John Battsek knew the chance to tell a postive, upbeat story about the UK 1980s pop band Wham! could very well appeal to sought-after young audiences.
Wham! , directed by the US’ Chris Smith, was one of two new films with which the Oscar-winning documentary producer was at Sheffield DocFest in the UK last week. The other was Laura McGann’s Sundance hit, The Deepest Breath, about Italian freediving champion Alessia Zecchini, which was acquired by Netflix late last year.
- 6/19/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
The 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s documentary slate featured probes into human rights abuses and profiles of unsung visionaries. At least one movie falls into both categories. This year marks the second time that the L’Œil d’or, first presented in 2015, has gone to two films. It’s also the first time in 19 years that nonfiction has competed for the Palme d’Or. Do you think any of the following titles 10 should be on our radar come Oscar season?
See Cannes 2023 round-up: Top 25 movies to emerge from this year’s festival [Photos]
“Anita”
Anita Pallenberg is known by a small group, and still only as a muse rather than an actress, fashion icon and writer. Laird Borrelli-Persson (Vogue) describes her as a “troubled woman who has come close to being mythologized out of existence and sidelined by the juggernaut that is The Rolling Stones.” Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill made “Anita...
See Cannes 2023 round-up: Top 25 movies to emerge from this year’s festival [Photos]
“Anita”
Anita Pallenberg is known by a small group, and still only as a muse rather than an actress, fashion icon and writer. Laird Borrelli-Persson (Vogue) describes her as a “troubled woman who has come close to being mythologized out of existence and sidelined by the juggernaut that is The Rolling Stones.” Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill made “Anita...
- 6/2/2023
- by Ronald Meyer
- Gold Derby
What’s the darkest moment you’ve ever seen in a rock ‘n’ roll documentary? Up until now, I’d have said the answer was obvious: the sequence in “Gimme Shelter” where Meredith Hunter, in his lime-green suit, rushes the stage at Altamont with a gun in his hand and gets stabbed in the back, half a dozen times, by a member of the Hell’s Angels. For pure heart of darkness, what could top that? But I’ve just seen “Catching Fire” (formerly titled “Anita”), Svetlana Zill and Alexis Bloom’s very good documentary about Anita Pallenberg — beautiful and imperious scenester of the ’60s and ’70s, Hollywood actress and icon of scruffy-chic rock royalty, partner of Keith Richards, muse to several of the other Rolling Stones. And there’s a moment in it that made me suck in my breath in shock and horror as much as “Gimme Shelter” does.
- 5/31/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Updated with latest: The Cannes Film Festival kicked off this year with opening-night movie Jeanne du Barry, and concluded Saturday evening with Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall scooping the Palme d’Or. Deadline was on the ground to watch all the key films. Here is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year saw Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness win the coveted top prize on its way to an Oscar Best Picture nomination.
Check out the reviews below, click on the titles to read them in full, and keep checking back as we add more.
About Dry Grasses ‘About Dry Grasses’
Section: Competition
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast: Deniz Celiloglu, Ece Bagci, Merve Dizdar, Musab Ekici
Deadline’s takeaway: For Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s many fans, this is another opportunity to slip into his world, spot his sly political references and subside for a...
Check out the reviews below, click on the titles to read them in full, and keep checking back as we add more.
About Dry Grasses ‘About Dry Grasses’
Section: Competition
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Cast: Deniz Celiloglu, Ece Bagci, Merve Dizdar, Musab Ekici
Deadline’s takeaway: For Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s many fans, this is another opportunity to slip into his world, spot his sly political references and subside for a...
- 5/27/2023
- by Pete Hammond, Damon Wise, Matthew Carey, Stephanie Bunbury and Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Updated with new title of documentary Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg: Were it not for a chance encounter with the Rolling Stones in 1965, we might remember Anita Pallenberg as an exceptional actress and stunning model. Instead, her life was to be defined largely in relation to her ties with the “greatest rock n’ roll band in the world.”
In the documentary Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, which premiered earlier this week at the Cannes Film Festival (under the abbreviated title Anita), the radiant and compelling Pallenberg finally gets her due as a creative force in her own right, a woman of alluring beauty, intelligence, dysfunction, addiction, and yes, an important figure in the world of the Stones at their apex.
Directors Alexis Bloom (L) & Svetlana Zill
Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill directed the documentary, which begins with grainy archive of a gorgeous Pallenberg outdoors in a park-like setting,...
In the documentary Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, which premiered earlier this week at the Cannes Film Festival (under the abbreviated title Anita), the radiant and compelling Pallenberg finally gets her due as a creative force in her own right, a woman of alluring beauty, intelligence, dysfunction, addiction, and yes, an important figure in the world of the Stones at their apex.
Directors Alexis Bloom (L) & Svetlana Zill
Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill directed the documentary, which begins with grainy archive of a gorgeous Pallenberg outdoors in a park-like setting,...
- 5/25/2023
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Stacey Offman, Jigsaw Production’s exec VP of development and production, is exiting the company to work as an independent producer, Variety has confirmed. Longtime Jigsaw producer Erin Edeiken to serve as head of production for Alex Gibney’s shingle going forward.
Offman, who is exiting on May 19, joined Jigsaw Productions in 2012. In her 11-year tenure at the documentary production company, Offman was part of the team that launched Jigsaw’s television branch as well as the creation of a vertical of non-fiction series and documentaries for an array of studios and broadcast partners.
Offman’s recent projects include Jigsaw’s “Dirty Money,” a six-part investigative series which exposed corruption and financial malfeasance in some of the most influential companies and industries. The series began streaming on Netflix in January 2018. In addition, Offman developed “Salt, Fat, Acid Heat,” a 2018 four-part Netflix culinary travel series based on Samin Nosrat’s book by the same name,...
Offman, who is exiting on May 19, joined Jigsaw Productions in 2012. In her 11-year tenure at the documentary production company, Offman was part of the team that launched Jigsaw’s television branch as well as the creation of a vertical of non-fiction series and documentaries for an array of studios and broadcast partners.
Offman’s recent projects include Jigsaw’s “Dirty Money,” a six-part investigative series which exposed corruption and financial malfeasance in some of the most influential companies and industries. The series began streaming on Netflix in January 2018. In addition, Offman developed “Salt, Fat, Acid Heat,” a 2018 four-part Netflix culinary travel series based on Samin Nosrat’s book by the same name,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
In keeping with tradition, the 2023 edition of Cannes Classics promises to be a feast for cineastes with tributes to global masters and restored versions of all-time classics.
Cannes Classics’ Memories of Jean-Luc Godard strand pays homage to the master who died in 2022 by screening a restored version of “Contempt” (1963); “Godard by Godard,” a self-portrait of the auteur; and the world premiere of “Phony Wars,” a trailer for a film that will never get made, described by the festival as a venture where the filmmaker “transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs.”
Liv Ullman will be present at the strand with “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled,” a documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar.
Japanese master Ozu Yasujiro will be paid tribute to with screenings of “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” (1947) and “The Munekata Sisters” (1950) off restored prints. “Return to Reason” – where four films of painter, photographer and director Man Ray have been...
Cannes Classics’ Memories of Jean-Luc Godard strand pays homage to the master who died in 2022 by screening a restored version of “Contempt” (1963); “Godard by Godard,” a self-portrait of the auteur; and the world premiere of “Phony Wars,” a trailer for a film that will never get made, described by the festival as a venture where the filmmaker “transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs.”
Liv Ullman will be present at the strand with “Liv Ullmann – A Road Less Travelled,” a documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar.
Japanese master Ozu Yasujiro will be paid tribute to with screenings of “Record of a Tenement Gentleman” (1947) and “The Munekata Sisters” (1950) off restored prints. “Return to Reason” – where four films of painter, photographer and director Man Ray have been...
- 5/5/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Bleecker Street has picked up the U.S. rights to director Alexis Bloom’s animated documentary “The Klarsfelds,” which centers on real-life Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld.
“Alexis and the team are creating a provocative and thrilling account of two of the most legendary Nazi hunters,” Bleecker Street CEO Andrew Karpen said in a statement announcing the deal. “We are excited to be bringing the Klarsfelds’ story to life through Alexis’ creative storytelling.”
The Klarsfelds, a husband and wife team of agents, will share their story through exclusive new interviews for the film, which is currently in pre-production and set to start animation later this year. A description of the project explains that the “animation will have the feel of a classic espionage thriller, but the film is deeply personal.”
“We’re writing a new chapter of history,” Bloom said. “And it’s wonderful to be given the opportunity...
“Alexis and the team are creating a provocative and thrilling account of two of the most legendary Nazi hunters,” Bleecker Street CEO Andrew Karpen said in a statement announcing the deal. “We are excited to be bringing the Klarsfelds’ story to life through Alexis’ creative storytelling.”
The Klarsfelds, a husband and wife team of agents, will share their story through exclusive new interviews for the film, which is currently in pre-production and set to start animation later this year. A description of the project explains that the “animation will have the feel of a classic espionage thriller, but the film is deeply personal.”
“We’re writing a new chapter of history,” Bloom said. “And it’s wonderful to be given the opportunity...
- 9/14/2020
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Animation scheduled to start later this year.
Bleecker Street has acquired US rights to Alexis Bloom’s animated documentary The Klarsfelds produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle.
Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman, and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative, round out the production team on the project, which is in pre-production and set to start animation later this year.
The Klarsfelds centres on renowned Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, a dedicated husband-and-wife team of agents who are still alive and living in Paris.
Their story will be told through exclusive interviews with the subjects and Mossad...
Bleecker Street has acquired US rights to Alexis Bloom’s animated documentary The Klarsfelds produced by Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle.
Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman, and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative, round out the production team on the project, which is in pre-production and set to start animation later this year.
The Klarsfelds centres on renowned Nazi hunters Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, a dedicated husband-and-wife team of agents who are still alive and living in Paris.
Their story will be told through exclusive interviews with the subjects and Mossad...
- 9/14/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Bleecker Street has acquired the U.S. distribution rights to “The Klarsfelds,” a new documentary film from director Alexis Bloom that focuses on the true history of a family of Nazi hunters.
Bloom is the director of the Roger Ailes documentary “Divide and Conquer” and a producer on the Wikileaks documentary “We Steal Secrets,” and her latest film “The Klarsfelds” is an animated documentary thriller about Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, two agents and activists who have worked throughout their lives to track former Nazis in order to document the events of the Holocaust.
Both agents are still alive and are living in Paris, and their story features interviews with the subjects and with other Mossad agents who have never shared their story before. Bloom will frame “The Klarsfeld” as an animated, espionage thriller while also focusing on the personal and surprising side of the Klarsfeld family’s relationship.
“Alexis and...
Bloom is the director of the Roger Ailes documentary “Divide and Conquer” and a producer on the Wikileaks documentary “We Steal Secrets,” and her latest film “The Klarsfelds” is an animated documentary thriller about Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, two agents and activists who have worked throughout their lives to track former Nazis in order to document the events of the Holocaust.
Both agents are still alive and are living in Paris, and their story features interviews with the subjects and with other Mossad agents who have never shared their story before. Bloom will frame “The Klarsfeld” as an animated, espionage thriller while also focusing on the personal and surprising side of the Klarsfeld family’s relationship.
“Alexis and...
- 9/14/2020
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Bleecker Street has secured U.S. rights to Alexis Bloom’s The Klarsfelds, an animated feature documentary thriller about Nazi-hunters.
The docu follows the true history of Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, a dedicated husband and wife team of agents who are still alive and living in Paris. The film features exclusive new interviews with the subjects, and with Mossad agents who have never spoken before. The film is in pre-production and will start animation later this year.
Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle are producing. Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman, and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative, round out the production team.
“Alexis and the team are creating a provocative and thrilling account of two of the most legendary Nazi hunters,” said Andrew Karpen, CEO of Bleecker Street. “We are excited to be bringing the Klarsfelds’ story to life through Alexis’ creative storytelling.”
“We’re writing a new chapter of history,...
The docu follows the true history of Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, a dedicated husband and wife team of agents who are still alive and living in Paris. The film features exclusive new interviews with the subjects, and with Mossad agents who have never spoken before. The film is in pre-production and will start animation later this year.
Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle are producing. Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman, and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative, round out the production team.
“Alexis and the team are creating a provocative and thrilling account of two of the most legendary Nazi hunters,” said Andrew Karpen, CEO of Bleecker Street. “We are excited to be bringing the Klarsfelds’ story to life through Alexis’ creative storytelling.”
“We’re writing a new chapter of history,...
- 9/14/2020
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Alexis Bloom is set to direct animated documentary The Klarsfelds, with Bleecker Street acquiring the U.S. rights.
The film, which is in pre-production and will start animation later this year, is about a well-known Nazi-hunting team, husband and wife Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, who are still alive and living in Paris.
Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle will produce, with Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative.
The doc will feature exclusive new interviews with the subjects, as well as with Mossad agents that have never spoken before.
“We’re writing a new chapter of history. And ...
The film, which is in pre-production and will start animation later this year, is about a well-known Nazi-hunting team, husband and wife Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, who are still alive and living in Paris.
Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle will produce, with Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative.
The doc will feature exclusive new interviews with the subjects, as well as with Mossad agents that have never spoken before.
“We’re writing a new chapter of history. And ...
- 9/14/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Alexis Bloom is set to direct animated documentary The Klarsfelds, with Bleecker Street acquiring the U.S. rights.
The film, which is in pre-production and will start animation later this year, is about a well-known Nazi-hunting team, husband and wife Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, who are still alive and living in Paris.
Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle will produce, with Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative.
The doc will feature exclusive new interviews with the subjects, as well as with Mossad agents that have never spoken before.
“We’re writing a new chapter of history. And ...
The film, which is in pre-production and will start animation later this year, is about a well-known Nazi-hunting team, husband and wife Serge and Beate Klarsfeld, who are still alive and living in Paris.
Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions and Fremantle will produce, with Israeli investigative journalist Yossi Melman and Oded Ailam, a former Mossad operative.
The doc will feature exclusive new interviews with the subjects, as well as with Mossad agents that have never spoken before.
“We’re writing a new chapter of history. And ...
- 9/14/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Wishing that your feature films inspired by true events were of a very recent nature? More so than last week’s Richard Jewell (23 years), or those docudramas from last month, Dark Waters and The Report, both from the early part of this decade. Here’s one that reaches back about three years, and it’s still happening, although not dominating the media as it did. Last year a terrific documentary, Divide And Conquer: The Story Of Roger Ailes from director Alexis Bloom, pulled back the curtains on the cable TV goliath Fox News, giving us an unflinching look at the history of it and its founder, Ailes. A big part of that film concerned his on-air talent with stories of the lawsuits leveled against him and his staff which added fuel to the “Me Too” and “Time’s Up” movements. Now comes the big-screen treatment, from a celebrated director and...
- 12/19/2019
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
How is Roger Ailes like Winston Churchill? That’s probably not a question that gets asked very often, but in addition to both being high-powered political figures, they’re both the subjects of two screen portrayals at around the same time — one on film and one on TV. And just like with Churchill a couple of years ago, both portrayals of Ailes could be awards bait: Russell Crowe in the Showtime limited series “The Loudest Voice” and John Lithgow in the film “Bombshell.”
Ailes died in 2017 at age 77, but he has remained a subject of fascination. He was a media consultant for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan before taking the reins of the Fox News network as chairman and CEO. He helped shape the cable network into essentially the political messaging arm of the Republican Party, but he was ousted in 2016 amid sexual harassment allegations. He also suffered from hemophilia and was notoriously paranoid,...
Ailes died in 2017 at age 77, but he has remained a subject of fascination. He was a media consultant for Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan before taking the reins of the Fox News network as chairman and CEO. He helped shape the cable network into essentially the political messaging arm of the Republican Party, but he was ousted in 2016 amid sexual harassment allegations. He also suffered from hemophilia and was notoriously paranoid,...
- 10/28/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
Add an Emmy to the growing list of acclaim for the documentary on the life and career of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, “Rbg.” Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s film on the current Supreme Court justice was previously nominated for an Oscar back in January. In a rare category tie, Rudy Valdez’s HBO film “The Sentence,” which focuses on federal and state mandatory minimum sentencing laws, also shared the victory in this year’s category.
To take home the prize for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, “The Sentence” and “Rbg” bested “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” another film that was nominated at this year’s Oscars as well. This is Valdez’s first year as an Emmy nominee. Cohen and West, first-time nominees as well, were also nominated in the Best Nonfiction/Documentary Directing category.
“Rbg” was one of a pair of films to air on CNN that were recognized in this category,...
To take home the prize for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, “The Sentence” and “Rbg” bested “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” another film that was nominated at this year’s Oscars as well. This is Valdez’s first year as an Emmy nominee. Cohen and West, first-time nominees as well, were also nominated in the Best Nonfiction/Documentary Directing category.
“Rbg” was one of a pair of films to air on CNN that were recognized in this category,...
- 9/15/2019
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
Fueled by streamers and strong B.O. on high-profile titles, the documentary genre has exploded, and Toronto Intl. Film Festival documentary programmer Thom Powers sifted through 850 possibilities before determining this year’s non-fiction lineup. While these 25 films vary widely, “politics is going to be ever-present in this section,” Powers says.
Last year, filmmakers including Michael Moore, Alexis Bloom and Errol Morris explored American politics and the people behind President Donald Trump’s rise. But the 2016 election is nowhere in site at this year’s fest. Instead, veteran doc filmmakers Alex Gibney and Lauren Greenfield as well as first time non-fiction helmer Garin Hovannisian are examining politics in foreign lands, and issues such as election manipulation, corruption, fake news and fragile democracies.
Gibney’s “Citizen K” looks at post-Soviet Russia from the perspective of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oligarch turned political dissident, while Greenfield’s “The Kingmaker” (Showtime) aims its lens at...
Last year, filmmakers including Michael Moore, Alexis Bloom and Errol Morris explored American politics and the people behind President Donald Trump’s rise. But the 2016 election is nowhere in site at this year’s fest. Instead, veteran doc filmmakers Alex Gibney and Lauren Greenfield as well as first time non-fiction helmer Garin Hovannisian are examining politics in foreign lands, and issues such as election manipulation, corruption, fake news and fragile democracies.
Gibney’s “Citizen K” looks at post-Soviet Russia from the perspective of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an oligarch turned political dissident, while Greenfield’s “The Kingmaker” (Showtime) aims its lens at...
- 9/4/2019
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, Margot Robbie Star In First Trailer For Bombshell – Fox News Scandal
Photo credit: Lionsgate/Hilary Bronwyn Gayle
Starring Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron (Megyn Kelly), Academy Award® winner Nicole Kidman (Gretchen Carlson), Academy Award® nominee John Lithgow and Academy Award® nominee Margot Robbie (Kayla Pospisil), based on the real scandal, Bombshell is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire of all time; Fox News, and the explosive story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it. Directed by Emmy® Award winner Jay Roach and written by Academy Award® winner Charles Randolph.
Bombshell also stars Emmy® Award winner Kate McKinnon, Golden Globe® nominee Connie Britton, Emmy® Award winner Mark Duplass, Emmy® Award nominee Rob Delaney, Golden Globe® nominee Malcolm McDowell and Academy Award® winner Allison Janney.
Here are some companion pieces to consider before Bombshell opens this December.
Showtime recently aired their seven-part limited series “The Loudest Voice” about Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News.
Starring Academy Award® winner Charlize Theron (Megyn Kelly), Academy Award® winner Nicole Kidman (Gretchen Carlson), Academy Award® nominee John Lithgow and Academy Award® nominee Margot Robbie (Kayla Pospisil), based on the real scandal, Bombshell is a revealing look inside the most powerful and controversial media empire of all time; Fox News, and the explosive story of the women who brought down the infamous man who created it. Directed by Emmy® Award winner Jay Roach and written by Academy Award® winner Charles Randolph.
Bombshell also stars Emmy® Award winner Kate McKinnon, Golden Globe® nominee Connie Britton, Emmy® Award winner Mark Duplass, Emmy® Award nominee Rob Delaney, Golden Globe® nominee Malcolm McDowell and Academy Award® winner Allison Janney.
Here are some companion pieces to consider before Bombshell opens this December.
Showtime recently aired their seven-part limited series “The Loudest Voice” about Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News.
- 8/22/2019
- by Michelle Hannett
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Imagine someone in the news business, a television producer, who wasn’t concerned about truth. That apparent anomaly describes Roger Ailes, the late Fox News chief, according to filmmaker Alexis Bloom.
“He never said truth was important to him, in terms of Fox News. It was all about entertainment and messaging,” Bloom tells Deadline. “He never said ‘factual accuracy is what we’re all about.’ He didn’t.”
Bloom delved deeply into Ailes’ life and impact on news media and politics for her Emmy-contending documentary Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes. The film from A&e is nominated for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, an exclusive category determined by select members of the TV Academy’s Nonfiction Peer Group.
To understand Ailes’ conservative worldview, Bloom dialed back to his childhood in small town Warren, Ohio.
“Growing up where he did inculcated in him a sense of patriotism and American...
“He never said truth was important to him, in terms of Fox News. It was all about entertainment and messaging,” Bloom tells Deadline. “He never said ‘factual accuracy is what we’re all about.’ He didn’t.”
Bloom delved deeply into Ailes’ life and impact on news media and politics for her Emmy-contending documentary Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes. The film from A&e is nominated for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, an exclusive category determined by select members of the TV Academy’s Nonfiction Peer Group.
To understand Ailes’ conservative worldview, Bloom dialed back to his childhood in small town Warren, Ohio.
“Growing up where he did inculcated in him a sense of patriotism and American...
- 8/15/2019
- by Matthew Carey
- Deadline Film + TV
Divide & Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes notched 228K viewers in its debut on A&E Sunday night – the cable net’s second smallest primetime audience of 2019 to date. That includes 52K viewers in the 18-49 demo. In the older news demo, viewers aged 25-54 years old, the Roger Ailes biopic clocked 74K viewers.
That’s 66% shy in total viewers, and 77% in the news demo, and 80% in the demo compared to the network’s averages in the timeslot calendar year to date.
Theatrically, Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes – one of several Ailes biographical projects in the works for big and small screens – debuted in December and grossed $38.5K in its 5 week platform release. Using archival footage and interviews, Bloom details how Ailes helped steer Nixon, Reagan, two Bushes and one Trump into the White House.
Rolling Stone described Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes as a...
That’s 66% shy in total viewers, and 77% in the news demo, and 80% in the demo compared to the network’s averages in the timeslot calendar year to date.
Theatrically, Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes – one of several Ailes biographical projects in the works for big and small screens – debuted in December and grossed $38.5K in its 5 week platform release. Using archival footage and interviews, Bloom details how Ailes helped steer Nixon, Reagan, two Bushes and one Trump into the White House.
Rolling Stone described Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes as a...
- 3/5/2019
- by Lisa de Moraes
- Deadline Film + TV
A&E IndieFilms and Sundance Institute have selected four recipients for their inaugural “Brave Storytellers Award,” an honor that is intended to provide financial support for documentary filmmakers. The winners are Cecilia Aldarondo, Jemka Autry, Margaret Brown, and Yoruba Richen.
Each honoree will receive $25,000 in seed funding, as well as year-round mentorship from staff of the Sundance Institute, a non-profit filmmaking organization. A&E IndieFilms will then work with Sundance Institute to support the recipients’ projects through development, production and distribution.
The projects being supported by the grants cover a range of subjects. Richen’s “American Reckoning” will grapple with the FBI’s recent series of investigations into hundreds of unsolved civil rights era murders. Autry’s “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” examines the prosecution of the jazz singer on drug charges. And Aldarondo’s “You Were My First Boyfriend” reexamines life in high school.
Brown’s project is dubbed “Africatown,...
Each honoree will receive $25,000 in seed funding, as well as year-round mentorship from staff of the Sundance Institute, a non-profit filmmaking organization. A&E IndieFilms will then work with Sundance Institute to support the recipients’ projects through development, production and distribution.
The projects being supported by the grants cover a range of subjects. Richen’s “American Reckoning” will grapple with the FBI’s recent series of investigations into hundreds of unsolved civil rights era murders. Autry’s “The United States vs. Billie Holiday” examines the prosecution of the jazz singer on drug charges. And Aldarondo’s “You Were My First Boyfriend” reexamines life in high school.
Brown’s project is dubbed “Africatown,...
- 1/25/2019
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Showtime is cooking up its own take on Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room, starring Russell Crowe as the disgraced Fox News CEO and chairman who was brought down when at least 20 women, including network stars Gretchen Carlson and Megyn Kelly, called him out for sexual harassment. Director Jay Roach has a film in play, Fair and Balanced, in which John Lithgow will portray Ailes with Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie costarring as women in his predatory orbit. Forced to resign in July 2016 amid charges of sexual misconduct,...
- 12/10/2018
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Most documentaries don’t start the way they finish. But two Magnolia Oscar contenders, “Rbg” (CNN Films) and “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes” (A&E Indie Film), adapted as the world moved around them. Both films took advantage of new perspectives with the Trump presidency and the surging #MeToo movement.
South African documentarian Alexis Bloom (“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”) initially began to research, for Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Prods., a dynasty story on the Murdoch family. But she soon realized that Fox News czar Roger Ailes, who started out as a presidential campaign guru to then-candidates Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump — was the more-interesting story. Arguably, Ailes not only permanently altered the media landscape but coarsened our national political discourse. And then, in 2016 he was brought down at Fox News by a series of sexual-harassment accusations.
When Bloom began,...
South African documentarian Alexis Bloom (“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”) initially began to research, for Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Prods., a dynasty story on the Murdoch family. But she soon realized that Fox News czar Roger Ailes, who started out as a presidential campaign guru to then-candidates Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump — was the more-interesting story. Arguably, Ailes not only permanently altered the media landscape but coarsened our national political discourse. And then, in 2016 he was brought down at Fox News by a series of sexual-harassment accusations.
When Bloom began,...
- 12/8/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Most documentaries don’t start the way they finish. But two Magnolia Oscar contenders, “Rbg” (CNN Films) and “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes” (A&E Indie Film), adapted as the world moved around them. Both films took advantage of new perspectives with the Trump presidency and the surging #MeToo movement.
South African documentarian Alexis Bloom (“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”) initially began to research, for Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Prods., a dynasty story on the Murdoch family. But she soon realized that Fox News czar Roger Ailes, who started out as a presidential campaign guru to then-candidates Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump — was the more-interesting story. Arguably, Ailes not only permanently altered the media landscape but coarsened our national political discourse. And then, in 2016 he was brought down at Fox News by a series of sexual-harassment accusations.
When Bloom began,...
South African documentarian Alexis Bloom (“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”) initially began to research, for Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Prods., a dynasty story on the Murdoch family. But she soon realized that Fox News czar Roger Ailes, who started out as a presidential campaign guru to then-candidates Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump — was the more-interesting story. Arguably, Ailes not only permanently altered the media landscape but coarsened our national political discourse. And then, in 2016 he was brought down at Fox News by a series of sexual-harassment accusations.
When Bloom began,...
- 12/8/2018
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Following a couple of somewhat lighter weeks in the Specialty space, this weekend is really ramped up with star-lead limited release awards contenders vying for box office recognition. Focus Features rolls out Mary Queen of Scots, starring Oscar nominees Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie as the 15th century rival monarchs of Scotland and England, respectively. The title opens three weeks after The Favourite, another big screen look at a female British monarch (and members of her rivalrous court) from centuries past. That film had the year’s best per theater average opener at $105K in November. Ld Entertainment/Roadside Attractions/Lionsgate are rolling out Peter Hedges’ Ben Is Back starring his son Lucas Hedges as well as Oscar-winner Julia Roberts as a mother who confronts her son’s addiction.
Natalie Portman stars as a pop sensation who rose to stardom from tragedy in Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, opening in select locations via Neon.
Natalie Portman stars as a pop sensation who rose to stardom from tragedy in Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, opening in select locations via Neon.
- 12/7/2018
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
In Divide and Conquer, film-maker Alexis Bloom tackles the infamous Fox News head whose business smarts were offset by a history of sexually predatory behavior
Roger Ailes was a genius. He realized that short skirts and blond hair combined with heavy doses of racist fearmongering and hysterical patriotism could hook a cable TV audience of mostly old white male Americans, especially the type who thought of themselves as hardcore conservatives but who in fact were eager to get on board with the zaniest conspiracy theories – Barack Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya – as long as it vindicated and reinforced their pinched worldview.
Related: Icebox: the harrowing drama about child separation in America...
Roger Ailes was a genius. He realized that short skirts and blond hair combined with heavy doses of racist fearmongering and hysterical patriotism could hook a cable TV audience of mostly old white male Americans, especially the type who thought of themselves as hardcore conservatives but who in fact were eager to get on board with the zaniest conspiracy theories – Barack Obama is a Muslim born in Kenya – as long as it vindicated and reinforced their pinched worldview.
Related: Icebox: the harrowing drama about child separation in America...
- 12/7/2018
- by Tom McCarthy
- The Guardian - Film News
Would you like to blame Bill Gates for Roger Ailes creating Fox News? You could harbor that grudge if you so desired after watching Alexis Bloom’s bracing biopic documentary “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” because it’s one of the fascinating tidbits of speculative psychology in the grand narrative of a dark-hearted, power-thirsty mogul’s stranglehold on our divisive political discourse.
It seems that in the mid-90s, flush from his many years helping Republican candidates like Mitch McConnell get elected, Ailes was content to be a talk-show magnate, running his brainchild America’s Talking, a CNBC spinoff network that was the first real attempt to launch an all-chat-show channel with a wide audience reach.
But when NBC partnered with Bill Gates to start MSNBC, they gave the software billionaire the transponder used for America’s Talking, effectively ending Ailes’ baby. Steamed and spiteful, according to the documentary,...
It seems that in the mid-90s, flush from his many years helping Republican candidates like Mitch McConnell get elected, Ailes was content to be a talk-show magnate, running his brainchild America’s Talking, a CNBC spinoff network that was the first real attempt to launch an all-chat-show channel with a wide audience reach.
But when NBC partnered with Bill Gates to start MSNBC, they gave the software billionaire the transponder used for America’s Talking, effectively ending Ailes’ baby. Steamed and spiteful, according to the documentary,...
- 12/6/2018
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
“It surprised me that somebody could be head of a billion-dollar corporation and be so chronically paranoid. An intern on our project had to have higher mental health standards than he had,” reveals director Alexis Bloom about the subject of her documentary “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” which opens December 7. The film follows Ailes’s dramatic rise and fall: he started as a TV producer and eventually became a kingmaker in Republican politics as the chairman and CEO of Fox News until a sexual harassment scandal led to his ouster from the organization in 2016. He died the following year. Watch our exclusive video interview with Bloom above.
The film doesn’t present a flattering portrait of Ailes by any means. “I don’t think he comes out well, and I hope he doesn’t because he was a right shit-bag at the end,” says Bloom. But she...
The film doesn’t present a flattering portrait of Ailes by any means. “I don’t think he comes out well, and I hope he doesn’t because he was a right shit-bag at the end,” says Bloom. But she...
- 11/28/2018
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
The director of Roger Ailes doc Divide and Conquer wasted no time making a connection between the late former Fox News CEO and President Donald Trump's administration at the film's New York premiere Thursday night.
“In case you think this film isn’t relevant anymore, I’ll just remind you that Bill Shine was Roger Ailes’ right-hand man for decades, and he’s in the Trump White House now, and advised [Brett} Kavanaugh before the Senate hearings," Alexis Bloom told the Paley Center for Media audience before a screening of the doc. "It’s a ...
“In case you think this film isn’t relevant anymore, I’ll just remind you that Bill Shine was Roger Ailes’ right-hand man for decades, and he’s in the Trump White House now, and advised [Brett} Kavanaugh before the Senate hearings," Alexis Bloom told the Paley Center for Media audience before a screening of the doc. "It’s a ...
- 11/16/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The director of Roger Ailes doc Divide and Conquer wasted no time making a connection between the late former Fox News CEO and President Donald Trump's administration at the film's New York premiere Thursday night.
“In case you think this film isn’t relevant anymore, I’ll just remind you that Bill Shine was Roger Ailes’ right-hand man for decades, and he’s in the Trump White House now, and advised [Brett} Kavanaugh before the Senate hearings," Alexis Bloom told the Paley Center for Media audience before a screening of the doc. "It’s a ...
“In case you think this film isn’t relevant anymore, I’ll just remind you that Bill Shine was Roger Ailes’ right-hand man for decades, and he’s in the Trump White House now, and advised [Brett} Kavanaugh before the Senate hearings," Alexis Bloom told the Paley Center for Media audience before a screening of the doc. "It’s a ...
- 11/16/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The following essay was produced as part of the 2018 Nyff Critics Academy, a workshop for aspiring film critics that took place during the 56th edition of the New York Film Festival.
The appeal of a film like “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s new documentary on Steve Bannon is obvious in many ways. Aside from the valid (if excusatory) arguments some may have against subjecting themselves to a film about one of the figures responsible for making the alt-right palatably mainstream — aren’t things depressing enough!? — we are still bound by an irrefutable desire to see notorious and nefarious people flounder on screen. It taps into a voyeuristic thrill; a deeply human intrigue with the morbid. It is one thing to speak of this in relation to fiction film, but it becomes far more complex in documentary cinema,a mode inextricably enmeshed with questions of ethics and veracity, and burdened by...
The appeal of a film like “American Dharma,” Errol Morris’s new documentary on Steve Bannon is obvious in many ways. Aside from the valid (if excusatory) arguments some may have against subjecting themselves to a film about one of the figures responsible for making the alt-right palatably mainstream — aren’t things depressing enough!? — we are still bound by an irrefutable desire to see notorious and nefarious people flounder on screen. It taps into a voyeuristic thrill; a deeply human intrigue with the morbid. It is one thing to speak of this in relation to fiction film, but it becomes far more complex in documentary cinema,a mode inextricably enmeshed with questions of ethics and veracity, and burdened by...
- 11/11/2018
- by Naomi Keenan O'Shea
- Indiewire
It was a really light week for trailers last week (the main event, i.e. an official full trailer for True Detective‘s Season Three, did not drop until late on Friday) — then, starting last Monday, came the deluge. Prepare to catch up on: a sneak peek at the now-in-theaters, soon-to-be-streaming-on-Netflix Coen brothers Western anthology; a doc on the late, not-great-at-all Fox News head Roger Ailes; peeks at some 2019 sci-fi for both the big and the small screen; a new live-action take on The Jungle Book from Gollum himself,...
- 11/10/2018
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Roger Ailes was the chairman and CEO of Fox News from 1996 until stepping down in 2016 amid sexual harassment scandals. As the man behind TV’s Republican messaging machine and behind many Republican politicians themselves, he reshaped American politics throughout the last half-century. Now he’s entering a whole other kind of campaign: “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes,” the documentary that examines his life’s work, is a contender for an Oscar during a politically fraught year were he may actually end up facing an ideological opponent, the notorious “Rbg.” Watch the trailer for the film above.
Ailes died in May 2017 at age 77 after having advised Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump. The film explores that legacy in addition to his paranoia, his manipulation and his predatory treatment of women — according to Kellie Boyle, former Republican National Committee adviser, “He said, ‘If...
Ailes died in May 2017 at age 77 after having advised Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump. The film explores that legacy in addition to his paranoia, his manipulation and his predatory treatment of women — according to Kellie Boyle, former Republican National Committee adviser, “He said, ‘If...
- 11/9/2018
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
If Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News, were still alive as President Donald Trump's divisive campaign on behalf of the midterm election congressional candidates came to a thundering close, would he have doubled down on all the unsupported charges Trump made?
Alexis Bloom, who directed the new documentary Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, which Magnolia will release Dec. 7 and which will eventually air on A&E, considers the question a moment before responding. "I don't know. Only Roger could answer that," she says. "But the one thing we do ...
Alexis Bloom, who directed the new documentary Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, which Magnolia will release Dec. 7 and which will eventually air on A&E, considers the question a moment before responding. "I don't know. Only Roger could answer that," she says. "But the one thing we do ...
- 11/9/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If Roger Ailes, the late chairman and CEO of Fox News, were still alive as President Donald Trump's divisive campaign on behalf of the midterm election congressional candidates came to a thundering close, would he have doubled down on all the unsupported charges Trump made?
Alexis Bloom, who directed the new documentary Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, which Magnolia will release Dec. 7 and which will eventually air on A&E, considers the question a moment before responding. "I don't know. Only Roger could answer that," she says. "But the one thing we do ...
Alexis Bloom, who directed the new documentary Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, which Magnolia will release Dec. 7 and which will eventually air on A&E, considers the question a moment before responding. "I don't know. Only Roger could answer that," she says. "But the one thing we do ...
- 11/9/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
"Roger knew what fear could do." Magnolia Pictures has debuted an official trailer for a new documentary titled Divide & Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, which premiered at the New York & Toronto Film Festivals this fall. The doc film is a career-spanning look at the person behind the rise of propaganda station Fox News, a vile man named Roger Ailes. Bloom charts the rise and fall of Ailes interviewing both allies and enemies, creating a compelling film that "is vital to understanding the power broker who will be studied for generations to come." The film traces how Ailes repeatedly used his power to sexually coerce women. If he was denied, he didn't hesitate to block their professional advancement, send a private investigator, or smear her in the press. As much as I don't want to hear about him, this seems like the correct way to tell his story. Official trailer...
- 11/8/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Was former Fox News chief Roger Ailes a genius, a monster or both? That’s a question posed by the new documentary “Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes.”
“It’s easy to make somebody into a monster. It’s hard to see that you’re on that path too,” says former Fox News personality Glenn Beck in the first trailer for the film.
Directed by Alexis Bloom and executive produced by Alex Gibney, the doc tells the life story of Ailes, from coaching Richard Nixon as a media advisor to his sexual harassment scandal at Fox News prior to his death. The film describes him as a Shakespearean figure who was “more important than America,” who “was profoundly paranoid” and who used power and manipulation as tools to build his media empire and shape a nation.
Also Read: 'Rbg' and 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?'...
“It’s easy to make somebody into a monster. It’s hard to see that you’re on that path too,” says former Fox News personality Glenn Beck in the first trailer for the film.
Directed by Alexis Bloom and executive produced by Alex Gibney, the doc tells the life story of Ailes, from coaching Richard Nixon as a media advisor to his sexual harassment scandal at Fox News prior to his death. The film describes him as a Shakespearean figure who was “more important than America,” who “was profoundly paranoid” and who used power and manipulation as tools to build his media empire and shape a nation.
Also Read: 'Rbg' and 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?'...
- 11/8/2018
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
In June, a mere five months before the American Film Institute’s 32nd annual film festival, Michael Lumpkin took over the reins from fest director Jacqueline Lyanga, who exited after eight years at the helm.
Despite the short turnaround time, Lumpkin, already head of the AFI Docs festival in Washington, D.C., was determined to make this year’s Los Angeles-based fest a diverse mix of cinema with a focus on new auteurs, international filmmakers, the best work from 2018’s earlier festivals and, of course, potential Oscar players. He didn’t disappoint.
From 4,000-plus submissions, the fest will screen 83 features, four episodic shows and 47 shorts for a grand total of 134 titles from 45 countries. Selected films are dispersed into eight categories that include galas, world cinema and cinema legacy.
The festival — which kicks off Nov. 8 at Tcl Chinese Theatre — boasts five world premieres: Susanne Bier’s “Bird Box,” Mimi Leder’s...
Despite the short turnaround time, Lumpkin, already head of the AFI Docs festival in Washington, D.C., was determined to make this year’s Los Angeles-based fest a diverse mix of cinema with a focus on new auteurs, international filmmakers, the best work from 2018’s earlier festivals and, of course, potential Oscar players. He didn’t disappoint.
From 4,000-plus submissions, the fest will screen 83 features, four episodic shows and 47 shorts for a grand total of 134 titles from 45 countries. Selected films are dispersed into eight categories that include galas, world cinema and cinema legacy.
The festival — which kicks off Nov. 8 at Tcl Chinese Theatre — boasts five world premieres: Susanne Bier’s “Bird Box,” Mimi Leder’s...
- 11/8/2018
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Sales outfit also adds
London-based sales company Kew Media Distribution has added a host of titles to its American Film Market (Afm) slate on the eve of the event in Santa Monica, La.
They include Mr Nelson: On The North Side, Michael J. Kirk’s documentary about music icon Prince. The film tells the story of how, in a mixed race neighbourhood during the Civil Rights movement, Prince found security, musical opportunities and encouragement at a local community centre called The Way.
Chuck D, Macy Gray and Chaka Khan feature in the film, which is being produced by Daniel D’or and Michael J.
London-based sales company Kew Media Distribution has added a host of titles to its American Film Market (Afm) slate on the eve of the event in Santa Monica, La.
They include Mr Nelson: On The North Side, Michael J. Kirk’s documentary about music icon Prince. The film tells the story of how, in a mixed race neighbourhood during the Civil Rights movement, Prince found security, musical opportunities and encouragement at a local community centre called The Way.
Chuck D, Macy Gray and Chaka Khan feature in the film, which is being produced by Daniel D’or and Michael J.
- 10/29/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
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