As Asia’s premier film festival, Busan offers a comprehensive look at the latest cinematic gems from the vast continent, including the often neglected region of Central Asia. Hailing from Kyrgyzstan, writer/director Bekzat Pirmatov’s feature debut Aurora is an at times profoundly strange, at times simply profound postmodern parable. It marks the arrival of a potent new voice and deserves to be included in any festival lineup – Asian or beyond.
The episodically-structured film begins with an extended prologue: a newsreel informs us of a sanatorium called “Aurora,” a relic from the Soviet era tucked away in the mountains. We proceed to meet a middle-aged lady at a bar in said lakeside resort/institution who starts a rather silly argument with the bartender over the way he addresses her. The incident is followed by another, seemingly unrelated one in the restaurant next door, where a veteran TV presenter is...
The episodically-structured film begins with an extended prologue: a newsreel informs us of a sanatorium called “Aurora,” a relic from the Soviet era tucked away in the mountains. We proceed to meet a middle-aged lady at a bar in said lakeside resort/institution who starts a rather silly argument with the bartender over the way he addresses her. The incident is followed by another, seemingly unrelated one in the restaurant next door, where a veteran TV presenter is...
- 10/7/2018
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
If Colton Underwood proposes at the end of The Bachelor season 23, it's likely they'll move in together before tying the knot. But where would they move? Well, we don't know where the woman lives yet, but we can tell you where he's from. Colton grew up in Washington, Il, which is about two and a half hours southwest of Chicago. However, now he lives in Denver - you may remember his hometown date on The Bachelorette where he brought Becca Kufrin to Aurora to meet his family. Colton often travels outside of Colorado to visit with kids and learn more about cystic fibrosis as part of the Colton Underwood Legacy Foundation he founded. But he seems to be close with his family, so fingers crossed the woman he ends up with likes the Centennial State!
- 9/19/2018
- by Caitlyn Fitzpatrick
- Popsugar.com
Best known as the kid from an English coal-mining town who wanted to dance, one-time “Billy Elliot” star Jamie Bell has grown rugged with age. In director Tim Sutton’s dark, bruise-inducingly poetic “Donnybrook,” he plays Jarhead Earl, a former U.S. Marine who’s stuck in comparably grim economic circumstances. Eighteen long years have turned the actor’s once-angelic features tough. Disappearing into the role, instead of beaming with hope and possibility, his face reveals a man who’s seen rock bottom. He’s a fighter in the most literal sense — a scrappy, slightly runty pugilist who knows no other way to escape his trailer-park existence than to go up against the county’s most dangerous thugs in the death match that gives this haunting, slow-burn thriller its name.
Actually, the Donnybrook might be a death match. Even by the end of the film, one can’t be too sure what the well-kept secret is,...
Actually, the Donnybrook might be a death match. Even by the end of the film, one can’t be too sure what the well-kept secret is,...
- 9/7/2018
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
South Korean filmmaker Jero Yun’s “Beautiful Days” has been announced as the opening title of the Busan International Film Festival, Korea’s biggest film festival.
Starring Lee Na-young, “Beautiful Days” depicts the story of a woman who abandons her husband and child to escape North Korea for a better life abroad. Martial arts drama, “Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy,” by Hong Kong’s Yuen Woo-ping will close the festival.
“‘Beautiful Days’ sees the dissolution and restoration of a family, and also that its subject is very timely,” said festival director Jay Jeon.
For its twenty third edition, the Busan film festival has selected 323 films from 79 countries. That includes 115 world premieres and 25 international premieres.
The festival’s Gala Presentation section screens only three films this year. They are world premieres of Stanley Kwan’s “First Night Nerves” and Zhang Lu’s “Ode to the Goose,” and Tsukamoto Shinya’s “Killing.
Starring Lee Na-young, “Beautiful Days” depicts the story of a woman who abandons her husband and child to escape North Korea for a better life abroad. Martial arts drama, “Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy,” by Hong Kong’s Yuen Woo-ping will close the festival.
“‘Beautiful Days’ sees the dissolution and restoration of a family, and also that its subject is very timely,” said festival director Jay Jeon.
For its twenty third edition, the Busan film festival has selected 323 films from 79 countries. That includes 115 world premieres and 25 international premieres.
The festival’s Gala Presentation section screens only three films this year. They are world premieres of Stanley Kwan’s “First Night Nerves” and Zhang Lu’s “Ode to the Goose,” and Tsukamoto Shinya’s “Killing.
- 9/4/2018
- by Sonia Kil
- Variety Film + TV
“Aurora,” the upcoming horror thriller from director Yam Laranas, isn’t going to help you sleep easy: it’s the story of a perilous search for bodies after a shipwreck off a forgotten island. But the dead have their own agenda.
Laranas, who once made this excellent video for TheWrap about how to create a great horror movie, puts all his skills to work on “Aurora.” Shot in Batanes, the remote northernmost island of the Philippines, about 200 miles from Taiwan, provides the setting for a young woman (Anne Curtis) to receive a harrowing proposition.
Watch the trailer above.
Also Read: How to Make a Horror Movie (Video)
Here’s the film’s logline:
The passenger ship Aurora mysteriously collides into the rocky sea threatening an entire island and a young woman and her sister’s lives who must survive to stay alive by finding missing dead bodies for a bounty…...
Laranas, who once made this excellent video for TheWrap about how to create a great horror movie, puts all his skills to work on “Aurora.” Shot in Batanes, the remote northernmost island of the Philippines, about 200 miles from Taiwan, provides the setting for a young woman (Anne Curtis) to receive a harrowing proposition.
Watch the trailer above.
Also Read: How to Make a Horror Movie (Video)
Here’s the film’s logline:
The passenger ship Aurora mysteriously collides into the rocky sea threatening an entire island and a young woman and her sister’s lives who must survive to stay alive by finding missing dead bodies for a bounty…...
- 8/20/2018
- by Tim Molloy
- The Wrap
Completed films will also screen at the New Nordic Films Market, including ‘X&Y’.
Haugesund’s New Nordic Films Market has confirmed the 24 completed films that will screen during the event, as well as the 16 works in progress projects that will be presented.
“We are proud to present a programme that reflects high quality, with a strong and exciting line up from new and emerging talents,” said Gyda Myklebust, programme director for New Nordic Films.
Completed films screening in the market include Anna Odell’s hotly anticipated X&Y; the second of three Utoya-related films this year, Carl Javer’s Reconstructing Utoya...
Haugesund’s New Nordic Films Market has confirmed the 24 completed films that will screen during the event, as well as the 16 works in progress projects that will be presented.
“We are proud to present a programme that reflects high quality, with a strong and exciting line up from new and emerging talents,” said Gyda Myklebust, programme director for New Nordic Films.
Completed films screening in the market include Anna Odell’s hotly anticipated X&Y; the second of three Utoya-related films this year, Carl Javer’s Reconstructing Utoya...
- 8/10/2018
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
- 6/5/2018
- by Kelsey Garcia
- Popsugar.com
South Korea’s leading movie studio, Cj Entertainment, is developing 10 film projects in Hollywood. Two of them, North American versions of “Miss Granny” and “Hide and Seek,” are set to start production this year.
Cj Entertainment, part of the Cj E&M conglomerate that also owns TV channels and TV production companies, confirmed the details in emails with Variety on Monday. Production expansion outside creative, but crowded, Korea also matches the internationalization of its Cj-cgv exhibition chain, which is now one of the world’s top five.
“We’re proceeding with our global productions as planned. There will be more projects added to the lineup, including both remakes and originals,” spokesperson Yoon In-ho told Variety. Cj has previously indicated production budgets of up to $35 million for its U.S. pictures.
3Pas Studio is currently attaching cast for its Spanish-language remake of 2014 romantic comedy “Miss Granny,” Cj’s most successful international franchise to date.
Cj Entertainment, part of the Cj E&M conglomerate that also owns TV channels and TV production companies, confirmed the details in emails with Variety on Monday. Production expansion outside creative, but crowded, Korea also matches the internationalization of its Cj-cgv exhibition chain, which is now one of the world’s top five.
“We’re proceeding with our global productions as planned. There will be more projects added to the lineup, including both remakes and originals,” spokesperson Yoon In-ho told Variety. Cj has previously indicated production budgets of up to $35 million for its U.S. pictures.
3Pas Studio is currently attaching cast for its Spanish-language remake of 2014 romantic comedy “Miss Granny,” Cj’s most successful international franchise to date.
- 6/5/2018
- by Sonia Kil
- Variety Film + TV
It’s a family affair on the set of Disney’s Maleficent 2!
Angelina Jolie made her return to acting earlier this month when production began on Maleficent 2 with her kids joining her on the London family friendly set.
Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara 13, Shiloh, 12, and 9-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne are all on set with their famous mom and continuing their school work in a designated trailer.
Elle Fanning, who is returning as Princess Aurora, broke the news on her Instagram that she had reunited with Jolie after the 2014 movie raked in more than more than $750 million worldwide.
It's bring...
Angelina Jolie made her return to acting earlier this month when production began on Maleficent 2 with her kids joining her on the London family friendly set.
Maddox, 16, Pax, 14, Zahara 13, Shiloh, 12, and 9-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne are all on set with their famous mom and continuing their school work in a designated trailer.
Elle Fanning, who is returning as Princess Aurora, broke the news on her Instagram that she had reunited with Jolie after the 2014 movie raked in more than more than $750 million worldwide.
It's bring...
- 5/31/2018
- by Ale Russian
- PEOPLE.com
Angelina Jolie is putting on those famous horns again.
The 42-year-old actress, director and activist is officially in London filming Maleficent 2 — the sequel to her blockbuster 2014 movie that raked in more than more than $750 million worldwide and earned praise for Jolie.
Jolie is joined by Elle Fanning, who is reprising her role as Princess Aurora, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The legendary actress is joining the film as Queen Ingrith, setting up some epic scenes between her and Jolie’s dark fairy, Maleficent. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ed Skrein and Harris Dickinson are also joining the film, while Oscar nominee Lesley Manville reprises...
The 42-year-old actress, director and activist is officially in London filming Maleficent 2 — the sequel to her blockbuster 2014 movie that raked in more than more than $750 million worldwide and earned praise for Jolie.
Jolie is joined by Elle Fanning, who is reprising her role as Princess Aurora, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The legendary actress is joining the film as Queen Ingrith, setting up some epic scenes between her and Jolie’s dark fairy, Maleficent. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ed Skrein and Harris Dickinson are also joining the film, while Oscar nominee Lesley Manville reprises...
- 5/29/2018
- by Ale Russian
- PEOPLE.com
As you probably know, Deadpool 2‘s main purpose is to introduce the X-Force to moviegoing audiences before the militant mutant super-team gets their own spinoff, which is set to go before the cameras later this year. You might have missed a subtle visual joke in the sequel, however, which teases another X-Men-related superhero group from the pages of Marvel Comics. Specifically, Alpha Flight – the Canadian team of costumed heroes.
If you look at the advertisement on top of Dopinder’s cab during Deadpool 2, you can see that it concerns an airline company which promises “cheap flights, last-minute deals and travel insurance.” Its name? Alpha Flight, in a hilarious nod to the comic book team of the same name.
For those unfamiliar, Alpha Flight were created by X-Men legends Chris Claremont and John Byrne in 1979. Initially just a part of Wolverine’s backstory – he was a member of...
If you look at the advertisement on top of Dopinder’s cab during Deadpool 2, you can see that it concerns an airline company which promises “cheap flights, last-minute deals and travel insurance.” Its name? Alpha Flight, in a hilarious nod to the comic book team of the same name.
For those unfamiliar, Alpha Flight were created by X-Men legends Chris Claremont and John Byrne in 1979. Initially just a part of Wolverine’s backstory – he was a member of...
- 5/22/2018
- by Christian Bone
- We Got This Covered
Filmmaker Drake Doremus has been on our radars for several years now, ever since the release of his 2011 film “Like Crazy,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Since then, Doremus has released several films that have been very well-received by critics. And his next project is lining up to be something we’re going to want to keep our eyes on.
Now comes reports that Doremus is lining up his next film, a romantic drama called “Aurora.” He’s teaming up with the Korean production company, Cj Entertainment, that released the amazing films “The Handmaiden” and “Snowpiercer.” “Aurora” tells the story of a widower that lives in alone in Iceland, 25 years after his wife’s death.
Now comes reports that Doremus is lining up his next film, a romantic drama called “Aurora.” He’s teaming up with the Korean production company, Cj Entertainment, that released the amazing films “The Handmaiden” and “Snowpiercer.” “Aurora” tells the story of a widower that lives in alone in Iceland, 25 years after his wife’s death.
- 5/9/2018
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Like Crazy director Drake Doremus is to direct romantic-drama Aurora for Korean production and distribution powerhouse Cj Entertainment, I can reveal.
The Handmaiden and Snowpiercer backer Cj, which is ramping up its multi-territory production slate, is developing, producing and financing the movie, which is being scripted by Salvador Paskowitz, co-writer of The Age of Adaline.
The project, currently in development, is described to me as a “sweeping romantic drama with a supernatural elements.” It follows a widower who, 25 years after his wife’s death, continues to live alone in Iceland. When a young man comes into his life with a mysterious connection to his past the two develop an uneasy relationship, causing them to question their identities and their past lives.
Producing for Cj Entertainment will be Tae-sung Jeong, CEO of Cj Entertainment, Francis Chung, VP of Global Co-Productions and Head of U.S. Production as well as director Doremus.
The Handmaiden and Snowpiercer backer Cj, which is ramping up its multi-territory production slate, is developing, producing and financing the movie, which is being scripted by Salvador Paskowitz, co-writer of The Age of Adaline.
The project, currently in development, is described to me as a “sweeping romantic drama with a supernatural elements.” It follows a widower who, 25 years after his wife’s death, continues to live alone in Iceland. When a young man comes into his life with a mysterious connection to his past the two develop an uneasy relationship, causing them to question their identities and their past lives.
Producing for Cj Entertainment will be Tae-sung Jeong, CEO of Cj Entertainment, Francis Chung, VP of Global Co-Productions and Head of U.S. Production as well as director Doremus.
- 5/9/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Jack Nicholson may be known more for his leading roles, but he just won Gold Derby’s poll of Best Supporting Actor Oscar winners of the 1980s. Nicholson has been voted your favorite Best Supporting Actor of that decade, for his performance as retired astronaut Garrett Breedlove in James L. Brooks‘ Best Picture winner “Terms of Endearment” (1983).
SEEMeryl Streep (‘Sophie’s Choice’) is clear choice for top Best Actress Oscar winner of 1980s [Poll Results]
Nicholson won with 19% of the vote, narrowly beating several beloved performances. Denzel Washington (“Glory”) came in second place with 16%, followed by Sean Connery (“The Untouchables”) and Kevin Kline (“A Fish Called Wanda”) at 15% each. Timothy Hutton (“Ordinary People”) finished out the top five at 13%.
Beyond this five there was a drop-off, with Michael Caine (“Hannah and Her Sisters”) netting 7%, Louis Gossett Jr. (“An Officer and a Gentleman”) and Haing S. Ngor (“The Killing Fields”) at 5% each and...
SEEMeryl Streep (‘Sophie’s Choice’) is clear choice for top Best Actress Oscar winner of 1980s [Poll Results]
Nicholson won with 19% of the vote, narrowly beating several beloved performances. Denzel Washington (“Glory”) came in second place with 16%, followed by Sean Connery (“The Untouchables”) and Kevin Kline (“A Fish Called Wanda”) at 15% each. Timothy Hutton (“Ordinary People”) finished out the top five at 13%.
Beyond this five there was a drop-off, with Michael Caine (“Hannah and Her Sisters”) netting 7%, Louis Gossett Jr. (“An Officer and a Gentleman”) and Haing S. Ngor (“The Killing Fields”) at 5% each and...
- 4/23/2018
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
Like the other acting winners of the 1980s, the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor went to big stars and character actors alike. The ’80s featured big-name winners like Jack Nicholson, Kevin Kline, Sean Connery and Michael Caine alongside hardworking veterans like John Gielgud, Louis Gossett Jr. and Don Ameche. The Academy also rewarded emerging talent, like Timothy Hutton, Haing S. Ngor and the now double-champ Denzel Washington.
So who is your favorite Best Supporting Actor winner of the 1980s? Look back on each performance and be sure to vote in our poll below.
Timothy Hutton, “Ordinary People” (1980) — Hutton came out of the gate strong with his heartbreaking performance in Best Picture winner “Ordinary People.” Hutton plays Conrad Jarrett, a teenager wracked with guilt after his brother is killed in a boating accident. Hutton is clearly the lead of the film, but at age 20, the studio may have felt it fairer...
So who is your favorite Best Supporting Actor winner of the 1980s? Look back on each performance and be sure to vote in our poll below.
Timothy Hutton, “Ordinary People” (1980) — Hutton came out of the gate strong with his heartbreaking performance in Best Picture winner “Ordinary People.” Hutton plays Conrad Jarrett, a teenager wracked with guilt after his brother is killed in a boating accident. Hutton is clearly the lead of the film, but at age 20, the studio may have felt it fairer...
- 3/24/2018
- by Kevin Jacobsen
- Gold Derby
There have been a lot of lists about the best films of the 21st century. IndieWire has been digging through the last two decades one genre at a time; meanwhile, the New York Times’ top movie critics provided their own takes. J. Hoberman, the longtime Village Voice film critic who now works as a freelancer, decided to join the fray. Here’s his take, also available at his site, and republished here with permission.
People have been asking me, so I thought I might as well join (or crash) the party initiated by the New York Times and put in my two cents regarding the 25 Best Films of the 21st Century (so far). I don’t see “everything” anymore and I haven’t been to Cannes since 2011.
There is some overlap but this is not the same as the proposed 21-film syllabus of 21st Century cinema included in my book “Film After Film.” Those were all in their way pedagogical choices. Begging the question of what “best” means, these are all movies that I really like, that I’m happy to see multiple times, that are strongly of their moment and that I think will stand the test of time.
My single “best” film-object is followed by a list of 11 filmmakers and one academic production company (in order of “best-ness”) responsible for two or more “best films,” these followed by another eight individual movies (again in order) and finally four more tentatively advanced films (these alphabetical). I’m sure I’m forgetting some but that’s the nature of the beast.
Christian Marclay: “The Clock”
Lars von Trier: “Dogville” & “Melancholia” (and none of his others)
Hou Hsiao Hsien: “The Assassin” & “Flight of the Red Balloon”
Jean-Luc Godard: “In Praise of Love” & “Goodbye to Language”
David Cronenberg: “Spider,” “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises,” & “A Dangerous Method”
David Lynch: “Mulholland Drive” & “Inland Empire”
Ken Jacobs: “Seeking the Monkey King,” “The Guests” (and more)
Cristi Puiu: “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” & “Aurora”
Chantal Akerman: “No Home Movie” & “La Captive” (assuming that 2000 is part of the 21st Century)
Paul Thomas Anderson: “The Master” & “There Will Be Blood”
Kathryn Bigelow: “The Hurt Locker” & “Zero Dark Thirty”
Alfonso Cuarón: “Gravity” & “Children of Men”
Sensory Ethnology Lab: “Leviathan,” “Manakamana,” & “People’s Park”
“The Strange Case of Angelica” — Manoel de Oliviera
“Corpus Callosum” — Michael Snow
“West of the Tracks” — Wang Bing
“Carlos” — Olivier Assayas
“Che” — Steven Soderbergh
“Ten” — Abbas Kariostami
“Russian Ark” — Aleksandr Sokurov
“The World” — Jia Zhangke
“Citizenfour” — Laura Poitras
“Day Night Day Night” — Julia Loktev
“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” — Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“Wall-e” — Andrew Stanton
Related stories'Transformers: The Last Knight' Review: Here's the Most Ridiculous Hollywood Movie of the Year'En El Séptimo Dia' Review: Jim McKay's First Movie in a Decade is the Summer's Surprise Crowdpleaser'All Eyez on Me' Review: Tupac Shakur's Complicated Life Deserves More Than This Sprawling Biopic...
People have been asking me, so I thought I might as well join (or crash) the party initiated by the New York Times and put in my two cents regarding the 25 Best Films of the 21st Century (so far). I don’t see “everything” anymore and I haven’t been to Cannes since 2011.
There is some overlap but this is not the same as the proposed 21-film syllabus of 21st Century cinema included in my book “Film After Film.” Those were all in their way pedagogical choices. Begging the question of what “best” means, these are all movies that I really like, that I’m happy to see multiple times, that are strongly of their moment and that I think will stand the test of time.
My single “best” film-object is followed by a list of 11 filmmakers and one academic production company (in order of “best-ness”) responsible for two or more “best films,” these followed by another eight individual movies (again in order) and finally four more tentatively advanced films (these alphabetical). I’m sure I’m forgetting some but that’s the nature of the beast.
Christian Marclay: “The Clock”
Lars von Trier: “Dogville” & “Melancholia” (and none of his others)
Hou Hsiao Hsien: “The Assassin” & “Flight of the Red Balloon”
Jean-Luc Godard: “In Praise of Love” & “Goodbye to Language”
David Cronenberg: “Spider,” “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises,” & “A Dangerous Method”
David Lynch: “Mulholland Drive” & “Inland Empire”
Ken Jacobs: “Seeking the Monkey King,” “The Guests” (and more)
Cristi Puiu: “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” & “Aurora”
Chantal Akerman: “No Home Movie” & “La Captive” (assuming that 2000 is part of the 21st Century)
Paul Thomas Anderson: “The Master” & “There Will Be Blood”
Kathryn Bigelow: “The Hurt Locker” & “Zero Dark Thirty”
Alfonso Cuarón: “Gravity” & “Children of Men”
Sensory Ethnology Lab: “Leviathan,” “Manakamana,” & “People’s Park”
“The Strange Case of Angelica” — Manoel de Oliviera
“Corpus Callosum” — Michael Snow
“West of the Tracks” — Wang Bing
“Carlos” — Olivier Assayas
“Che” — Steven Soderbergh
“Ten” — Abbas Kariostami
“Russian Ark” — Aleksandr Sokurov
“The World” — Jia Zhangke
“Citizenfour” — Laura Poitras
“Day Night Day Night” — Julia Loktev
“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” — Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“Wall-e” — Andrew Stanton
Related stories'Transformers: The Last Knight' Review: Here's the Most Ridiculous Hollywood Movie of the Year'En El Séptimo Dia' Review: Jim McKay's First Movie in a Decade is the Summer's Surprise Crowdpleaser'All Eyez on Me' Review: Tupac Shakur's Complicated Life Deserves More Than This Sprawling Biopic...
- 6/20/2017
- by J. Hoberman
- Indiewire
Cristi Puiu. Photo by Alexi Pelekanos, courtesy of the ViennaleSieranevada, Cristi Puiu's latest fictional feature film is not only a fictional film, it is a film about fiction. It is about the fictions and lies we escape to in order to live on. Moreover, it is about the impotence when realizing that we are living in this net of fictions and lies. When asked about his viewing habits the Romanian director loves to stress that he prefers documentary to fictional cinema. Many of those who have written about Puiu focus on the so-called documentary qualities of his cinema, meaning his kind of realism, the way his camera and editing does not interfere too much with the action. Such observations are arguable to say the least because for Puiu, who has made some documentaries inspired by Raymond Depardon like 25.12.1995, București, Gara de Nord (1996) or 13 - 19 iulie 1998, Craiova, Azilul de batrani...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
Though still without a U.S. distributor — as far as we can tell — Cristi Puiu‘s Sieranevada was something of a cause célèbre at Cannes, at least among those who even started tapping into it. Perhaps being the most Romanian of Romanian films hampers its appeal a smidge; but if you, like I, are absorbed by just about everything these films can do right — those furtive glances! those muted Eastern European colors! — this looks like manna from Heaven.
A new, French-subtitled preview, however brief, is a good showcase of these qualities, in no small part because you probably won’t be able to follow much of anything else. Let’s get excited! As our review said last month, “For this critic’s money, of the several excellent filmmakers to emerge from the Romanian New Wave, Cristi Puiu ranks as the most formidable. After kicking off his career in 2001 with the outstanding Stuff and Dough,...
A new, French-subtitled preview, however brief, is a good showcase of these qualities, in no small part because you probably won’t be able to follow much of anything else. Let’s get excited! As our review said last month, “For this critic’s money, of the several excellent filmmakers to emerge from the Romanian New Wave, Cristi Puiu ranks as the most formidable. After kicking off his career in 2001 with the outstanding Stuff and Dough,...
- 6/23/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Mubi is showing Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny (2003) May 14 - June 13, 2016 in the UK.And I know that I won’t ever change’Cause we’ve been friendsThrough rain or shineFor such a long, long time— Gordon Lightfoot, “Beautiful” Autumn’s leaving and winter’s comingI think that I’ll be moving alongI’ve got to leave her and find anotherI’ve got to sing my heart’s true song— Jackson C. Frank, “Milk and Honey”Never mind length, feel the width. At just less than 90 minutes, The Brown Bunny is small enough for its many minutiae to grow big, sink deep, burn permanent imprints on the brain. Not a great deal happens in Vincent Gallo’s second feature. Motorcycle racer Bud Clay (Gallo) drives a van from New Hampshire, where he’s just failed to win a race, to Los Angeles, where he hopes to rekindle the seemingly...
- 5/19/2016
- MUBI
Exclusive: German comedy Toni Erdmann is attracting buyers following a strong critical reception.
Buyers are stampeding to acquire Maren Ade’s comedy Toni Erdmann – one of the few German films to screen in Competition in Cannes in recent years – following a rapturous reception and glowing reviews.
Pim Hermeling’s September Films has snapped up Benelux rights, while Haut et Court is already on board for France and Filmcoopi Zurich has Switzerland.
Last night, Sony Pictures Classics swooped on North American and Latin American rights.
Sales agent The Match Factory anticipates further details on the comedy, which recorded the highest score to date on Screen International’s jury grid.
It has been seven years since Ade’s Berlin Silver Bear winner Everyone Else, an edgy relationship drama that scored distribution in more than 20 countries. Her third feature, Toni Erdmann, is another in-depth character study about a music teacher who tries to correct the over-serious nature of his career-focused...
Buyers are stampeding to acquire Maren Ade’s comedy Toni Erdmann – one of the few German films to screen in Competition in Cannes in recent years – following a rapturous reception and glowing reviews.
Pim Hermeling’s September Films has snapped up Benelux rights, while Haut et Court is already on board for France and Filmcoopi Zurich has Switzerland.
Last night, Sony Pictures Classics swooped on North American and Latin American rights.
Sales agent The Match Factory anticipates further details on the comedy, which recorded the highest score to date on Screen International’s jury grid.
It has been seven years since Ade’s Berlin Silver Bear winner Everyone Else, an edgy relationship drama that scored distribution in more than 20 countries. Her third feature, Toni Erdmann, is another in-depth character study about a music teacher who tries to correct the over-serious nature of his career-focused...
- 5/16/2016
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
For this critic’s money, of the several excellent filmmakers to emerge from the Romanian New Wave, Cristi Puiu ranks as the most formidable. After kicking off his career in 2001 with the outstanding Stuff and Dough, a small-scale but expertly modulated road/drug-deal movie, Puiu made two bona fide masterpieces back to back: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and Aurora. While his newest dramatic feature, Sieranevada, may fall just short of M-word classification by not reaching the same level of radical invention as its two predecessors, it is nonetheless another proud entry in Puiu’s stellar filmography.
Unlike Aurora, which was largely made up of silences, observing its solitary everyman protagonist as he wandered around before and after committing a quadruple murder, the dialogue in Sieranevada rushes forth in a stupefying torrent that begins as soon as the opening credits finish and is sustained almost without cease until the film’s closing image.
Unlike Aurora, which was largely made up of silences, observing its solitary everyman protagonist as he wandered around before and after committing a quadruple murder, the dialogue in Sieranevada rushes forth in a stupefying torrent that begins as soon as the opening credits finish and is sustained almost without cease until the film’s closing image.
- 5/12/2016
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- The Film Stage
The Death of Mr Lazarescu director Cristi Puiu has created an intense argument-filled study of a family crammed into a single apartment for a funeral service
Cristi Puiu is the Romanian director whose movies The Death of Mr Lazarescu and Aurora are mordant, sometimes bleakly funny anatomies of his homeland, revealing through long, deadpan dialogue sequences the way ordinary life is lived: a world where people still suffer the same privation, bureaucracy and corruption that was supposedly banished with the death of Ceausescu in 1989.
His new film is enigmatically entitled Sieranevada: the director says that this is an arbitrary nonsense, a joke about movie names which change according to the countries they are shown in. Maybe Sieranevada refers to an emotional desert or maybe it is his equivalent of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Make of it what you will.
Related: Café Society review – Woody Allen's amiable,...
Cristi Puiu is the Romanian director whose movies The Death of Mr Lazarescu and Aurora are mordant, sometimes bleakly funny anatomies of his homeland, revealing through long, deadpan dialogue sequences the way ordinary life is lived: a world where people still suffer the same privation, bureaucracy and corruption that was supposedly banished with the death of Ceausescu in 1989.
His new film is enigmatically entitled Sieranevada: the director says that this is an arbitrary nonsense, a joke about movie names which change according to the countries they are shown in. Maybe Sieranevada refers to an emotional desert or maybe it is his equivalent of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Make of it what you will.
Related: Café Society review – Woody Allen's amiable,...
- 5/12/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Cruel Intentions: Sitaru Aims to Provoke with Abortion Drama
Director Adrian Sitaru makes his most galling effort yet with his fourth film, Illegitimate, a social drama engaging two hot-button taboo topics all rolled up into one unsightly experience. At its core, the film is an abortion drama, which automatically places the title in an arena with the hailed juggernaut of the New Romanian Wave, 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which famously netted Cristian Mungiu the Palme d’Or. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison since this rudimentary scenario aims to convey nagging intergenerational discord by complicating the issue of abortion as the result of incest. Unfortunately, the end result is as visually putrid as its subject matter is repugnant, never necessitating the narrative extremities which it assumes will shock or unnerve.
While enjoying a family meal with his grown children, widower Victor Anghelescu (Adrien Titieni), an aging obstetrician, gets...
Director Adrian Sitaru makes his most galling effort yet with his fourth film, Illegitimate, a social drama engaging two hot-button taboo topics all rolled up into one unsightly experience. At its core, the film is an abortion drama, which automatically places the title in an arena with the hailed juggernaut of the New Romanian Wave, 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days, which famously netted Cristian Mungiu the Palme d’Or. It’s perhaps an unfair comparison since this rudimentary scenario aims to convey nagging intergenerational discord by complicating the issue of abortion as the result of incest. Unfortunately, the end result is as visually putrid as its subject matter is repugnant, never necessitating the narrative extremities which it assumes will shock or unnerve.
While enjoying a family meal with his grown children, widower Victor Anghelescu (Adrien Titieni), an aging obstetrician, gets...
- 2/19/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Sierra-Nevada
Director: Cristi Puiu
Writer: Cristi Puiu
Romanian New Wave master Cristi Puiu, has been almost absent from the cinema scene, whose memorable sophomore effort, 2005’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu won the Un Certain Regard award and became one of the signature titles of that film movement. His less celebrated but equally assured follow-up was 2010’s incredibly bleak Aurora. Since then, he quietly unleashed a terrific 2013 feature Three Exercises of Interpretation, which was one of the best films we saw that year, but it sadly is still without distribution. At the tail end of 2013, Puiu announced two projects in development, the first being Sierra-Nevada. The project received funding from Eurimages and completed filming in March of 2015. The film concerns “a commemoration that never gets to take place,” as Puiu describes it, and its characters escape into fiction when overwhelmed by a grief they cannot understand. Inspired by Aurel Rau’s poem The Agathirsoi.
Director: Cristi Puiu
Writer: Cristi Puiu
Romanian New Wave master Cristi Puiu, has been almost absent from the cinema scene, whose memorable sophomore effort, 2005’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu won the Un Certain Regard award and became one of the signature titles of that film movement. His less celebrated but equally assured follow-up was 2010’s incredibly bleak Aurora. Since then, he quietly unleashed a terrific 2013 feature Three Exercises of Interpretation, which was one of the best films we saw that year, but it sadly is still without distribution. At the tail end of 2013, Puiu announced two projects in development, the first being Sierra-Nevada. The project received funding from Eurimages and completed filming in March of 2015. The film concerns “a commemoration that never gets to take place,” as Puiu describes it, and its characters escape into fiction when overwhelmed by a grief they cannot understand. Inspired by Aurel Rau’s poem The Agathirsoi.
- 1/13/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Punjab-set drama Fourth Direction to premiere in Un Certain Regard.
Elle Driver has picked up Indian director Gurvinder Singh’s tense Punjab-set drama Fourth Direction (Chauthi Koot) ahead of its premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
Set in the Indian state of the Punjab at the height of the separatist Sikh uprising in the early 1980s, the film captures the atmosphere of fear and paranoia of the period and the impact of the violence on ordinary people.
Singh intertwines two loosely connect incidents, an attempt by two Hindu friends to get to the city of Amritsar, home to one of the holiest shrines in the Sikh religion, and a farmer who is told to put-down his barking dog.
It is a second feature for Singh after his debut picture Alms for a Blind Horse, which premiered in Venice in 2011.
Elle Driver has strong links with India’s independent film scene, having previously...
Elle Driver has picked up Indian director Gurvinder Singh’s tense Punjab-set drama Fourth Direction (Chauthi Koot) ahead of its premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.
Set in the Indian state of the Punjab at the height of the separatist Sikh uprising in the early 1980s, the film captures the atmosphere of fear and paranoia of the period and the impact of the violence on ordinary people.
Singh intertwines two loosely connect incidents, an attempt by two Hindu friends to get to the city of Amritsar, home to one of the holiest shrines in the Sikh religion, and a farmer who is told to put-down his barking dog.
It is a second feature for Singh after his debut picture Alms for a Blind Horse, which premiered in Venice in 2011.
Elle Driver has strong links with India’s independent film scene, having previously...
- 5/11/2015
- ScreenDaily
Sierra-Nevada
Director: Cristi Puiu // Writer: Cristi Puiu
Not much has been heard lately from Romanian New Wave master Cristi Puiu, whose memorable sophomore effort, 2005’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu won the Un Certain Regard award and became one of the signature titles of that film movement. His less celebrated but equally assured follow-up was 2010’s incredibly bleak Aurora. Since then, he quietly unleashed a terrific 2013 feature Three Exercises of Interpretation, which was one of the best films we saw that year, but it sadly is still without distribution. At the tail end of 2013, Puiu announced two projects in development, the first being Sierra-Nevada. A shoot had been scheduled for late that year for a 2014 premiere, but it was only recently announced that the project had recently received the funding it had been hoping for from Eurimages. The film concerns “a commemoration that never gets to take place,” as Puiu describes it,...
Director: Cristi Puiu // Writer: Cristi Puiu
Not much has been heard lately from Romanian New Wave master Cristi Puiu, whose memorable sophomore effort, 2005’s The Death of Mr. Lazarescu won the Un Certain Regard award and became one of the signature titles of that film movement. His less celebrated but equally assured follow-up was 2010’s incredibly bleak Aurora. Since then, he quietly unleashed a terrific 2013 feature Three Exercises of Interpretation, which was one of the best films we saw that year, but it sadly is still without distribution. At the tail end of 2013, Puiu announced two projects in development, the first being Sierra-Nevada. A shoot had been scheduled for late that year for a 2014 premiere, but it was only recently announced that the project had recently received the funding it had been hoping for from Eurimages. The film concerns “a commemoration that never gets to take place,” as Puiu describes it,...
- 1/8/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Dealing with the some of the darkest shades of the human experience, Alejandro Fernández Almendras’ “To Kill a Man” (Matar a un Hombre) is an unsettling character study about an individual that leaves life as a passive man to get revenge on a man that has been harassing his family. It’s been almost a year since the film premier at the Sundance Film Festival, and during this year it has earned numerous awards from Rotterdam to Cartagena and everywhere in between. Now, Fernandez Almendras latest work, which will be distributed in the U.S. by Film Movement, is Chile’s Official Oscar Submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Award.
“To Kill a Man” is not only another outstanding example of the great films coming out of the South American country, but is also a thought-provoking work that explores crime and its consequences. Director Alejandro Fernandez Almendras recently sat down with us to discuss his intriguing film and what pushes a man over the edge.
Read the review Here
Aguilar: How was the idea for “To Kill a Man” born? Was it your interest in the nature of crime or was it something else that set in motion the creation of this project?
Alejandro: The origin of the story is sort of funny. I was inspired by a Chilean TV series called “Mea Culpa”, which is a sort of a true crime docudrama. The cases were very intriguing but the reenactments were incredibly cheesy. The format was very funny. During the reenactments, the characters would suddenly freeze, sort of like a corny version of a tableau vivant. Then smoke would appear out of nowhere and from behind the smoke a presenter or narrator would appear and say something like, “This morning was his last time.” He would say it in this ridiculously serious tone [Laughs].
Aguilar: Sort of like “The Twilight Zone”
Alejandro: Yes, but this was terrible [Laughs]. However, the cases were actually really good. They were very interesting. For some reason a phrase that the protagonist in a particular episode said stuck with me. I never saw that episode of the show after the original release about 7 or 8 years ago, but I was certain that the character had said this phrase. In my mind this show probably blended with other information. Recently, a magazine in Chile announced that they were going to publish an article on the actual case from this particular episode. When I heard about this I looked for this episode again and I finally found it. After watching it I realize that I had constructed this film based on a phrase that I thought the character in this show had said, but he never did! [Laughs].
The case is very similar to what’s on the film. In the show when they ask the character “If this events would happen again, would you commit this crime again?” In my mind, I could have sworn his answer was, “No, you don’t know what it means to kill a man” and in reality the character just says “ No, is not worth it,” {Laughs]. That’s how it started, but I just found out I was wrong recently. I was never really interested in finding out if that was what he had actually said or what was the truth about this case. This just served for me to think about what would happen to a regular person in this situation if he/she commits this crime.
I think that cinema is not always about delivering an answer. It’s more about putting myself in a situation and trying to understand how would I behave in that situation. That’s what interests me.
Aguilar: The film starts as a very familiar, everyday type of story and then it evolves into this transformative experience for the protagonist.
Alejandro : Exactly. For example, the scene that involves the car alarm going off came to me from something very familiar. I knew the location and I knew I wanted to shoot there because I like this particular look that these housing projects have. Then I put myself in the character’s place and thought, “If I’m trying to get someone to come downstairs, I’m not coming directly towards the place because then he would see me. I have to wait for him to turn around and follow him up the stairs, but if that happens then I will probably not reach him until he is almost back in his house. That wouldn’t work. I have to think of how to make the “victim” come towards me by getting his attention.” At this point I thought about the one thing that always makes people, including myself, come out of their house to see what’s happening, and that is the car alarm.
In the film we see our protagonist hiding behind the car, but in real life he would have had to be face down on the ground not to be seen. Daniel, the actor had to lay on his stomach not to be seen and this wasn’t working for the rest of the scene. We decided to alter reality in order to make it work [Laughs]. In cinema we can lie a little bit and change reality.
Aguilar: Tell me about this duality that’s at the center of “To Kill a Man.” The division between the victim and the executer is blurred through the protagonist’s actions.
Alejandro: The more I think about he film it becomes more difficult to see who the victim is. There was a moment when I thought I knew who this character was as a person. For most of the film we empathize with him, we suffer with him. We even think about doing the same thing he does, but after he kills a man it’s harder to be on his side. I had trouble during editing because I couldn’t find the right tone for what happens after the murder.
Then, I watched one of those shows on Investigation Discovery - which is a channel I like a lot – in which a girl killed her boyfriend because he was violent and abused her. The interesting part was how strange her behavior was. She stabbed him multiple times, and though she knew he was dead, she returned the next day to make sure he was dead. It was crazy. From that point on I felt my character had crossed a threshold and, just like with the girl in this true crime show, it was impossible to follow him in a logical manner anymore. The film had to become sort of a dream, or better said, a nightmare. From this point on the editing became much more ethereal, less grounded on reality.
Aguilar: Is he the victim or the perpetrator?
Alejandro: I see him as both. He goes from being a victim to becoming the perpetrator. I’ve notice that the film is more shocking for people from more developed countries like the Netherlands or countries in Scandinavia where they have highest standards of living. In this countries prisons are truly seen as places that help people reintegrate into society. In my film the protagonist takes justice into his own hands, which is a politically complex act because it’s something sort of protofascist. His actions are justifiable in his mind, but they really have no justification. He is very intuitive to this notion but not in a moral or ethical way, it’s physical. His actions are on the border between being justifiable and being the worst crime of all.
Aguilar: In a sense justifying his crime is the worst thing one can do
Alejandro: Yes, if societies worked this way every time you got robbed on the street you could pull out your shotgun and shoot the criminal. That’s much more terrible.
Aguilar: Would you say everyone is capable of committing such a crime?
Alejandro: This character is the in the middle of the spectrum between those who would jump at the chance and the last person capable or killing somebody. In on side there are those who would do it without remorse and on other side there are those, like me, who would never do it. I would probably just move to another neighborhood. In Chile there are other cases similar to this, at least two more that I know of. In one, a man killed his neighbor because this neighbor would threaten his family, very similar to what happens in the film. He continued disturbing the family until this man shot him. When this story appeared on the news, people online would voice their opinions and many of them would say, “I know that crazy man. He lived across the street and he would threaten our family as well, so I understand why this man killed him. We just moved to another city.”
In a sense other people also wanted to kill this man, but none of them were taken over the edge, except for the one man that actually killed him. Not everyone is capable of doing something like this, but most people understand his reasoning behind it. Other people would comment, “I was very close to killing him myself” or “I knew someone would end up killing that disturbed man.” Yet, this people didn’t do it.
Aguilar: There had to be something that pushed this person over the edge, something that separated him from those who wouldn’t do it and turn him into someone capable of killing.
Alejandro: Absolutely, in Jorge’s case this happens when he loses his family’s support.
Aguilar: I feel like it also has to do with the pressure he feels to be the protector. His family expects him to defend them and be this archetypal male that won’t let anyone push him around.
Alejandro: When his own family shuts him out for not being “man enough” to do something drastic about the situation, that’s what tips the scale. That’s what turns him into something else. His own family abandons him, judges him, and considers him a coward, and he feels like he needs to prove himself.
Aguilar: He is expected to do something to defeat this villain that’s harassing them, but is it unthinkable for them to give up and just move to another city?
Alejandro: Besides the fact that it could be practically difficult for some people to move to a different house, what plays a big part as well is the fact that people don’t want to accept defeat. The thought process is more like, “This is my territory, I’m not moving from here.” Recently a Chilean critic interpreted the film in a very interesting way, he wrote that the first time Jorge resorts to violence is when he grabs the shotgun to protect the property he works at.
It’s interesting that we think police exists to protect people. In reality the police as we know it appeared after the Industrial Revolution when business owners needed to protect their factories and other private property. That’s when police as an institution appeared. Jorge feels like he must defend that property. The fact that his family doesn’t move to a different house has to do with this instinct to protect what’s “theirs.”
Aguilar: I also think that Jorge feels like justice has failed him. The corrupt and indifferent bureaucracy has failed him. Do you think this story would work the same in other parts of the world where people have more trust in their institutions?
Alejandro: The only places in the world where I’ve felt like people didn’t fully understand it were those I mentioned before, which have higher standards of living and less corruption. In countries like Japan, in which 80% of homicide cases are solved, it probably wouldn’t make much sense either. Impunity is not such a familiar concept in these places, but there only a few places like these in the world. In the U.S. people seem to understand it very well. In Miami a woman said to me during the Q&A, “I would have killed that man in the first five minutes of the movie. Why did he take so long to kill him?” [Laughs].
In France people also understood what I was trying to say. Unfortunately the idea that police is not impartial and that it can be bought is something very familiar in many places around the world. In Russia people evidently understood it. Russians are very familiar with what corruption is and some people there were angry with Jorge for not taking justice into his own hands sooner. Obviously, all over Latin America people related to this story, it’s much more common than what it should be. This feeling that justice doesn’t exist for you but only for those with money is sadly very common.
Aguilar: The visual style of the film is almost impersonal. It’s very realist and it’s beautifully done, but it almost feels like you didn’t want to get emotionally close to this man. We are looking at him from afar in a solemn manner.
Alejandro: I fell that was the only way to not pollute the film with any judgment towards the character. There are two handheld shots at the beginning of the film. One is when Jorge gets robbed outside his house and the other when his son gets shot. These represent instances in which he is the victim. Then there are two other moments in which he is clearly the perpetrator. One is when he chases the man in the woods with his shotgun and the other when he kidnaps his victim.
We have to note that this film is politically dangerous. If I formally accentuate a feeling of empathy with this character I lose the distance that I need to question him and his actions. This is very important. Having this distance allows the audience to create their own judgment. I didn’t want to label him as a hero or a villain through my images. If I would have gotten closer to this man I might have empathize with him. I didn’t want that. In the Dardenne Brothers’ films, you always loves their characters regardless of what they do because the way they make their films forces you to follow the characters all the time. You end up siding with them even if what they do is bad, like with Rosetta who almost drowns her best friend. Since we are so close to the character all the time, we are tempted to condone or justify her actions.
If I was trying to make more of a genre film in which this political issues are not approached in a serious manner and the spectacle was the most important thing, then in that case I would make a film that’s less about restraint and more visceral. In this case I wanted to keep that distance because I still don’t feel like I know who this character is. Because of this distance I can form a more complex opinion of him, one that is not only driven by emotion.
Aguilar: At the end of the film we are not sure of the consequences Jorge will face in terms of what his family will think of him or how society will perceive his actions.
Alejandro: I feel like leaving some questions unanswered allows me to explore just this part of the story. If I wanted to understand what happens after I would have to dive in even further, but I think that his family wouldn’t understand what he did. Even if they did understand that he did it for them, they wouldn’t allow him to return to the family.
Aguilar: He has crossed a line and he can’t come back
Alejandro : Exactly, and I feel that this line was crossed before he actually committed the crime through all the circumstances around him. His family won’t say, “You killed him, you did good!” It might be the opposite. I picture his wife telling him, “You are so dumb for doing that. Why didn’t you just scare him? “ Or “Nobody asked you to do it.” He is going to be the villain no matter what. They might understand it as, “He did it for us, but what he did was still wrong.”
Aguilar: Is there a way for Jorge to redeem himself?
Alejandro: No because he made this decision on his own. If this had been a mutual decision between him and his wife or between him and his son, then he would have some support from his family. But he did it by himself. I’m very interested in crime as a disassociation of reality. There is a Romanian film called “ Aurora” by Cristi Puiu, which is three hours long, and is about a man that murders four people. In the end it’s very clear that crime is a consequence of the isolation this character experiences.
Aguilar: It’s difficult to see crime in such a pragmatic manner. We usually have very emotional reactions to criminal acts. Finding a specific reason for it is not easy.
Alejandro: Crime is definitely not a normal state in human beings. Even during the worst moments in World War II, soldiers would train at least for about two weeks because you can’t just teach a man how to use weapons. You have to teach him to obey orders, which is a way to place the guilt on the institution. Is not you who is killing people, it’s the institution through you. You have to disassociate yourself from your conscience in order to be able to do terrible things.
In this types of situations like in the army or a in a gang, people do terrible things as part of a group and they justify it as doing something for their country or their partners. Jorge is alone. However, even if you find comfort in justifying these acts through something else, they still damage you. Many soldiers come back from war very damaged emotionally.
Aguilar: Like we were discussing before, the act of taking another person’s life is a line that once crossed can’t be uncrossed or taken back.
Alejandro: Thankfully most people haven’t and will not cross this line, but films cross this line often and without consequences. My film doesn’t use over-the-top violence, but it brings you closer to the violence we experience everyday day. I would say the most violent scene in my film is when the villain harasses the young girl. Most of us will never know what being in a war is, but we all know what being humiliated or being afraid feels like.
I’ve been robbed in several occasions and I felt that way. In the great scale of things being robbed is nothing compared to the violence other people experience, but it’s very personal. Some films show too much violence without any emotional context, I wanted to show less but give it more recognizable emotion.
Aguilar: With such a thought-provoking and morally challenging story, how difficult was it to find the right actors to play these parts?
Alejandro: The actors that play the two protagonists, Jorge and Kalule, are theater actors. I chose Daniel Candia, who plays Jorge, because he is a very particular actor in Chilean cinema. He is not the typically handsome guy. He is very real and I believe everything he does on screen. Coincidentally, he used to work in a forest and he knew how to cut down a tree. This knowledge also helped me understand how to direct him.
On the other hand, I chose Daniel Antivilo to play Kalule because he is a very tall man. He has a deep voice, and is very imposing. I knew it had to be him. I also knew that he would be on screen for a brief period of time because this wasn’t his story. I needed someone that just by looking at him a couple times could produce fear or make people uncomfortable. He captured that very well even though he is a really charming man in real life.
When I met him I told him, “We are going to have a barbeque at my house. All the other actors will be there and I want you to behave like Kalule in front of them to see if you can pull it off.” He arrived pretending to be the character and he annoyed everyone. He was insufferable [Laughs]. He broke several plates and he searched my entire house looking for liquor while playing this character. It was horrible but he proved he could do it. [Laughs]
Aguilar: This has been an incredible year for you and the film. First winning at Sundance, then Rotterdam, Cartagena, among many others. Did all the success catch you by surprise?
Alejandro: It’s been a great year. I never thought the film would be so well received because it’s a very rough and dark film. Some people have even told me that after watching it they’ve had nightmares. What’s more surprising to me is the fact that it has won different awards from Best Actor, to Best Screenplay, to Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, and even Audience Awards. This shows me that people like it for different reasons. I didn’t expect this because my first film did very well in festivals and my second film didn’t do well at all.
I love my second film but it didn’t connect with other people. However, I feel like I’m still working in the same way even if the theme and the situations are different. I’m true to the way I like to make films but you never know if people will respond. We were lucky, we were about to submit the film to the Berlinale, but they wanted to see the final version of the film on a Dcp and we finished the film the week before Sundance. Berlin didn’t get to see it in the best quality and then Sundance wanted us to confirm because they needed to announce the lineup. We said no to Berlin. Maybe if the film had premiered in Berlin nothing would have happened and it would have been just another film. We won at Sundance and then we sold the film to many territories in the Berlinale market. After that we won in Rotterdam, in Cartagena, in Miami, and many other festivals.
Aguilar: And now the film is the Chilean Oscar submission
Alejandro: This has been great for the film. We got great reviews in Chile probably because it’s very different to other films being made in Chile. This is a film about real people, about the working class in a small town. It’s not the typical Chilean film about a certain economic or social class. “ To Kill a Man” is different. Whatever happens now is out of our hands...
“To Kill a Man” is not only another outstanding example of the great films coming out of the South American country, but is also a thought-provoking work that explores crime and its consequences. Director Alejandro Fernandez Almendras recently sat down with us to discuss his intriguing film and what pushes a man over the edge.
Read the review Here
Aguilar: How was the idea for “To Kill a Man” born? Was it your interest in the nature of crime or was it something else that set in motion the creation of this project?
Alejandro: The origin of the story is sort of funny. I was inspired by a Chilean TV series called “Mea Culpa”, which is a sort of a true crime docudrama. The cases were very intriguing but the reenactments were incredibly cheesy. The format was very funny. During the reenactments, the characters would suddenly freeze, sort of like a corny version of a tableau vivant. Then smoke would appear out of nowhere and from behind the smoke a presenter or narrator would appear and say something like, “This morning was his last time.” He would say it in this ridiculously serious tone [Laughs].
Aguilar: Sort of like “The Twilight Zone”
Alejandro: Yes, but this was terrible [Laughs]. However, the cases were actually really good. They were very interesting. For some reason a phrase that the protagonist in a particular episode said stuck with me. I never saw that episode of the show after the original release about 7 or 8 years ago, but I was certain that the character had said this phrase. In my mind this show probably blended with other information. Recently, a magazine in Chile announced that they were going to publish an article on the actual case from this particular episode. When I heard about this I looked for this episode again and I finally found it. After watching it I realize that I had constructed this film based on a phrase that I thought the character in this show had said, but he never did! [Laughs].
The case is very similar to what’s on the film. In the show when they ask the character “If this events would happen again, would you commit this crime again?” In my mind, I could have sworn his answer was, “No, you don’t know what it means to kill a man” and in reality the character just says “ No, is not worth it,” {Laughs]. That’s how it started, but I just found out I was wrong recently. I was never really interested in finding out if that was what he had actually said or what was the truth about this case. This just served for me to think about what would happen to a regular person in this situation if he/she commits this crime.
I think that cinema is not always about delivering an answer. It’s more about putting myself in a situation and trying to understand how would I behave in that situation. That’s what interests me.
Aguilar: The film starts as a very familiar, everyday type of story and then it evolves into this transformative experience for the protagonist.
Alejandro : Exactly. For example, the scene that involves the car alarm going off came to me from something very familiar. I knew the location and I knew I wanted to shoot there because I like this particular look that these housing projects have. Then I put myself in the character’s place and thought, “If I’m trying to get someone to come downstairs, I’m not coming directly towards the place because then he would see me. I have to wait for him to turn around and follow him up the stairs, but if that happens then I will probably not reach him until he is almost back in his house. That wouldn’t work. I have to think of how to make the “victim” come towards me by getting his attention.” At this point I thought about the one thing that always makes people, including myself, come out of their house to see what’s happening, and that is the car alarm.
In the film we see our protagonist hiding behind the car, but in real life he would have had to be face down on the ground not to be seen. Daniel, the actor had to lay on his stomach not to be seen and this wasn’t working for the rest of the scene. We decided to alter reality in order to make it work [Laughs]. In cinema we can lie a little bit and change reality.
Aguilar: Tell me about this duality that’s at the center of “To Kill a Man.” The division between the victim and the executer is blurred through the protagonist’s actions.
Alejandro: The more I think about he film it becomes more difficult to see who the victim is. There was a moment when I thought I knew who this character was as a person. For most of the film we empathize with him, we suffer with him. We even think about doing the same thing he does, but after he kills a man it’s harder to be on his side. I had trouble during editing because I couldn’t find the right tone for what happens after the murder.
Then, I watched one of those shows on Investigation Discovery - which is a channel I like a lot – in which a girl killed her boyfriend because he was violent and abused her. The interesting part was how strange her behavior was. She stabbed him multiple times, and though she knew he was dead, she returned the next day to make sure he was dead. It was crazy. From that point on I felt my character had crossed a threshold and, just like with the girl in this true crime show, it was impossible to follow him in a logical manner anymore. The film had to become sort of a dream, or better said, a nightmare. From this point on the editing became much more ethereal, less grounded on reality.
Aguilar: Is he the victim or the perpetrator?
Alejandro: I see him as both. He goes from being a victim to becoming the perpetrator. I’ve notice that the film is more shocking for people from more developed countries like the Netherlands or countries in Scandinavia where they have highest standards of living. In this countries prisons are truly seen as places that help people reintegrate into society. In my film the protagonist takes justice into his own hands, which is a politically complex act because it’s something sort of protofascist. His actions are justifiable in his mind, but they really have no justification. He is very intuitive to this notion but not in a moral or ethical way, it’s physical. His actions are on the border between being justifiable and being the worst crime of all.
Aguilar: In a sense justifying his crime is the worst thing one can do
Alejandro: Yes, if societies worked this way every time you got robbed on the street you could pull out your shotgun and shoot the criminal. That’s much more terrible.
Aguilar: Would you say everyone is capable of committing such a crime?
Alejandro: This character is the in the middle of the spectrum between those who would jump at the chance and the last person capable or killing somebody. In on side there are those who would do it without remorse and on other side there are those, like me, who would never do it. I would probably just move to another neighborhood. In Chile there are other cases similar to this, at least two more that I know of. In one, a man killed his neighbor because this neighbor would threaten his family, very similar to what happens in the film. He continued disturbing the family until this man shot him. When this story appeared on the news, people online would voice their opinions and many of them would say, “I know that crazy man. He lived across the street and he would threaten our family as well, so I understand why this man killed him. We just moved to another city.”
In a sense other people also wanted to kill this man, but none of them were taken over the edge, except for the one man that actually killed him. Not everyone is capable of doing something like this, but most people understand his reasoning behind it. Other people would comment, “I was very close to killing him myself” or “I knew someone would end up killing that disturbed man.” Yet, this people didn’t do it.
Aguilar: There had to be something that pushed this person over the edge, something that separated him from those who wouldn’t do it and turn him into someone capable of killing.
Alejandro: Absolutely, in Jorge’s case this happens when he loses his family’s support.
Aguilar: I feel like it also has to do with the pressure he feels to be the protector. His family expects him to defend them and be this archetypal male that won’t let anyone push him around.
Alejandro: When his own family shuts him out for not being “man enough” to do something drastic about the situation, that’s what tips the scale. That’s what turns him into something else. His own family abandons him, judges him, and considers him a coward, and he feels like he needs to prove himself.
Aguilar: He is expected to do something to defeat this villain that’s harassing them, but is it unthinkable for them to give up and just move to another city?
Alejandro: Besides the fact that it could be practically difficult for some people to move to a different house, what plays a big part as well is the fact that people don’t want to accept defeat. The thought process is more like, “This is my territory, I’m not moving from here.” Recently a Chilean critic interpreted the film in a very interesting way, he wrote that the first time Jorge resorts to violence is when he grabs the shotgun to protect the property he works at.
It’s interesting that we think police exists to protect people. In reality the police as we know it appeared after the Industrial Revolution when business owners needed to protect their factories and other private property. That’s when police as an institution appeared. Jorge feels like he must defend that property. The fact that his family doesn’t move to a different house has to do with this instinct to protect what’s “theirs.”
Aguilar: I also think that Jorge feels like justice has failed him. The corrupt and indifferent bureaucracy has failed him. Do you think this story would work the same in other parts of the world where people have more trust in their institutions?
Alejandro: The only places in the world where I’ve felt like people didn’t fully understand it were those I mentioned before, which have higher standards of living and less corruption. In countries like Japan, in which 80% of homicide cases are solved, it probably wouldn’t make much sense either. Impunity is not such a familiar concept in these places, but there only a few places like these in the world. In the U.S. people seem to understand it very well. In Miami a woman said to me during the Q&A, “I would have killed that man in the first five minutes of the movie. Why did he take so long to kill him?” [Laughs].
In France people also understood what I was trying to say. Unfortunately the idea that police is not impartial and that it can be bought is something very familiar in many places around the world. In Russia people evidently understood it. Russians are very familiar with what corruption is and some people there were angry with Jorge for not taking justice into his own hands sooner. Obviously, all over Latin America people related to this story, it’s much more common than what it should be. This feeling that justice doesn’t exist for you but only for those with money is sadly very common.
Aguilar: The visual style of the film is almost impersonal. It’s very realist and it’s beautifully done, but it almost feels like you didn’t want to get emotionally close to this man. We are looking at him from afar in a solemn manner.
Alejandro: I fell that was the only way to not pollute the film with any judgment towards the character. There are two handheld shots at the beginning of the film. One is when Jorge gets robbed outside his house and the other when his son gets shot. These represent instances in which he is the victim. Then there are two other moments in which he is clearly the perpetrator. One is when he chases the man in the woods with his shotgun and the other when he kidnaps his victim.
We have to note that this film is politically dangerous. If I formally accentuate a feeling of empathy with this character I lose the distance that I need to question him and his actions. This is very important. Having this distance allows the audience to create their own judgment. I didn’t want to label him as a hero or a villain through my images. If I would have gotten closer to this man I might have empathize with him. I didn’t want that. In the Dardenne Brothers’ films, you always loves their characters regardless of what they do because the way they make their films forces you to follow the characters all the time. You end up siding with them even if what they do is bad, like with Rosetta who almost drowns her best friend. Since we are so close to the character all the time, we are tempted to condone or justify her actions.
If I was trying to make more of a genre film in which this political issues are not approached in a serious manner and the spectacle was the most important thing, then in that case I would make a film that’s less about restraint and more visceral. In this case I wanted to keep that distance because I still don’t feel like I know who this character is. Because of this distance I can form a more complex opinion of him, one that is not only driven by emotion.
Aguilar: At the end of the film we are not sure of the consequences Jorge will face in terms of what his family will think of him or how society will perceive his actions.
Alejandro: I feel like leaving some questions unanswered allows me to explore just this part of the story. If I wanted to understand what happens after I would have to dive in even further, but I think that his family wouldn’t understand what he did. Even if they did understand that he did it for them, they wouldn’t allow him to return to the family.
Aguilar: He has crossed a line and he can’t come back
Alejandro : Exactly, and I feel that this line was crossed before he actually committed the crime through all the circumstances around him. His family won’t say, “You killed him, you did good!” It might be the opposite. I picture his wife telling him, “You are so dumb for doing that. Why didn’t you just scare him? “ Or “Nobody asked you to do it.” He is going to be the villain no matter what. They might understand it as, “He did it for us, but what he did was still wrong.”
Aguilar: Is there a way for Jorge to redeem himself?
Alejandro: No because he made this decision on his own. If this had been a mutual decision between him and his wife or between him and his son, then he would have some support from his family. But he did it by himself. I’m very interested in crime as a disassociation of reality. There is a Romanian film called “ Aurora” by Cristi Puiu, which is three hours long, and is about a man that murders four people. In the end it’s very clear that crime is a consequence of the isolation this character experiences.
Aguilar: It’s difficult to see crime in such a pragmatic manner. We usually have very emotional reactions to criminal acts. Finding a specific reason for it is not easy.
Alejandro: Crime is definitely not a normal state in human beings. Even during the worst moments in World War II, soldiers would train at least for about two weeks because you can’t just teach a man how to use weapons. You have to teach him to obey orders, which is a way to place the guilt on the institution. Is not you who is killing people, it’s the institution through you. You have to disassociate yourself from your conscience in order to be able to do terrible things.
In this types of situations like in the army or a in a gang, people do terrible things as part of a group and they justify it as doing something for their country or their partners. Jorge is alone. However, even if you find comfort in justifying these acts through something else, they still damage you. Many soldiers come back from war very damaged emotionally.
Aguilar: Like we were discussing before, the act of taking another person’s life is a line that once crossed can’t be uncrossed or taken back.
Alejandro: Thankfully most people haven’t and will not cross this line, but films cross this line often and without consequences. My film doesn’t use over-the-top violence, but it brings you closer to the violence we experience everyday day. I would say the most violent scene in my film is when the villain harasses the young girl. Most of us will never know what being in a war is, but we all know what being humiliated or being afraid feels like.
I’ve been robbed in several occasions and I felt that way. In the great scale of things being robbed is nothing compared to the violence other people experience, but it’s very personal. Some films show too much violence without any emotional context, I wanted to show less but give it more recognizable emotion.
Aguilar: With such a thought-provoking and morally challenging story, how difficult was it to find the right actors to play these parts?
Alejandro: The actors that play the two protagonists, Jorge and Kalule, are theater actors. I chose Daniel Candia, who plays Jorge, because he is a very particular actor in Chilean cinema. He is not the typically handsome guy. He is very real and I believe everything he does on screen. Coincidentally, he used to work in a forest and he knew how to cut down a tree. This knowledge also helped me understand how to direct him.
On the other hand, I chose Daniel Antivilo to play Kalule because he is a very tall man. He has a deep voice, and is very imposing. I knew it had to be him. I also knew that he would be on screen for a brief period of time because this wasn’t his story. I needed someone that just by looking at him a couple times could produce fear or make people uncomfortable. He captured that very well even though he is a really charming man in real life.
When I met him I told him, “We are going to have a barbeque at my house. All the other actors will be there and I want you to behave like Kalule in front of them to see if you can pull it off.” He arrived pretending to be the character and he annoyed everyone. He was insufferable [Laughs]. He broke several plates and he searched my entire house looking for liquor while playing this character. It was horrible but he proved he could do it. [Laughs]
Aguilar: This has been an incredible year for you and the film. First winning at Sundance, then Rotterdam, Cartagena, among many others. Did all the success catch you by surprise?
Alejandro: It’s been a great year. I never thought the film would be so well received because it’s a very rough and dark film. Some people have even told me that after watching it they’ve had nightmares. What’s more surprising to me is the fact that it has won different awards from Best Actor, to Best Screenplay, to Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, and even Audience Awards. This shows me that people like it for different reasons. I didn’t expect this because my first film did very well in festivals and my second film didn’t do well at all.
I love my second film but it didn’t connect with other people. However, I feel like I’m still working in the same way even if the theme and the situations are different. I’m true to the way I like to make films but you never know if people will respond. We were lucky, we were about to submit the film to the Berlinale, but they wanted to see the final version of the film on a Dcp and we finished the film the week before Sundance. Berlin didn’t get to see it in the best quality and then Sundance wanted us to confirm because they needed to announce the lineup. We said no to Berlin. Maybe if the film had premiered in Berlin nothing would have happened and it would have been just another film. We won at Sundance and then we sold the film to many territories in the Berlinale market. After that we won in Rotterdam, in Cartagena, in Miami, and many other festivals.
Aguilar: And now the film is the Chilean Oscar submission
Alejandro: This has been great for the film. We got great reviews in Chile probably because it’s very different to other films being made in Chile. This is a film about real people, about the working class in a small town. It’s not the typical Chilean film about a certain economic or social class. “ To Kill a Man” is different. Whatever happens now is out of our hands...
- 12/9/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Retrospective to include films from Danis Tanovic, Cristi Puiu, Mira Fornay and more.
A total of 50 films are to make up the retrospective Eastern Promises: Autobiography of Eastern Europe at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 19-27).
The line-up includes movies produced since 2000 in the countries that lived under Soviet influence after the Second World War and include some that were never released theatrically in Spain.
Several directors of films in the retrospective will attend the festival to present their works including Sarunas Bartas (Lithuania), Kristina Buožytė (Lithuania), Marian Crisan (Romania), Mira Fornay (Slovakia), Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Anna Viduleja (Latvia).
A book will be published to accompany the retrospective with contributions from journalists and critics across Europe.
The titles are:
Kruh In Mleko / Bread And Milk
Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia) 2001
A modern classic of Slovenian cinema, the tale of a man who went out for bread and milk and lost himself to alcohol...
A total of 50 films are to make up the retrospective Eastern Promises: Autobiography of Eastern Europe at the 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 19-27).
The line-up includes movies produced since 2000 in the countries that lived under Soviet influence after the Second World War and include some that were never released theatrically in Spain.
Several directors of films in the retrospective will attend the festival to present their works including Sarunas Bartas (Lithuania), Kristina Buožytė (Lithuania), Marian Crisan (Romania), Mira Fornay (Slovakia), Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic), Malgorzata Szumowska (Poland) and Anna Viduleja (Latvia).
A book will be published to accompany the retrospective with contributions from journalists and critics across Europe.
The titles are:
Kruh In Mleko / Bread And Milk
Jan Cvitkovic (Slovenia) 2001
A modern classic of Slovenian cinema, the tale of a man who went out for bread and milk and lost himself to alcohol...
- 8/8/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Sierra-Nevada
Director: Cristi Puiu
Writer: Cristi Puiu
Producers: Mandragora’s Anca Puiu and Slot Machine’s Marianne Slot
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: No word yet, but we expect a recognizable face or two.
We might be haphazardly reaping the benefits of Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu shooting in opposite years, and for that we are thankful. It would appear we’ve got another two decades worth of annual films coming our way form both Romanian masterworkers, and contrary to what we might have believed earlier in the year, development on The Manor House was set aside for Sierra-Nevada instead. Would this make it three for three when we include his experimental ‘Three Exercises of Interpretation project.
Gist: Inspired by Romanian Aurel Rau’s poem The Agathirsoi, this is about a family reunion and in the words of the filmmaker “a commemoration that never gets to take place…where...
Director: Cristi Puiu
Writer: Cristi Puiu
Producers: Mandragora’s Anca Puiu and Slot Machine’s Marianne Slot
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: No word yet, but we expect a recognizable face or two.
We might be haphazardly reaping the benefits of Cristi Puiu and Cristian Mungiu shooting in opposite years, and for that we are thankful. It would appear we’ve got another two decades worth of annual films coming our way form both Romanian masterworkers, and contrary to what we might have believed earlier in the year, development on The Manor House was set aside for Sierra-Nevada instead. Would this make it three for three when we include his experimental ‘Three Exercises of Interpretation project.
Gist: Inspired by Romanian Aurel Rau’s poem The Agathirsoi, this is about a family reunion and in the words of the filmmaker “a commemoration that never gets to take place…where...
- 3/7/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
We’re not sure if Ryan Krivoshey’s The Cinema Guild intends to supply snacks or bathrooms breaks during its 2014 theatrical run, but the great news is Filipino New Wave filmmaker Lav Diaz’s Cannes (Un Certain Regard) and Tiff preemed Norte, The End of History, an experimental adaptation that digs into crime and politics of the Philippines.
Gist: A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his country’s never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a simple man who finds life in prison more tolerable when something mysterious and strange starts happening to him.
Worth Noting: Diaz was among the filmmakers invited to participate in Venice 70: Future Reloaded.
Do We Care?: We snubbed it at Cannes because of its length (250 minutes), but patiently waited for it to show in North America for its eventual Tiff screening,...
Gist: A man is wrongly jailed for murder while the real killer roams free. The murderer is an intellectual frustrated with his country’s never-ending cycle of betrayal and apathy. The convict is a simple man who finds life in prison more tolerable when something mysterious and strange starts happening to him.
Worth Noting: Diaz was among the filmmakers invited to participate in Venice 70: Future Reloaded.
Do We Care?: We snubbed it at Cannes because of its length (250 minutes), but patiently waited for it to show in North America for its eventual Tiff screening,...
- 9/25/2013
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
★★★☆☆ A follow-up to the acclaimed The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), Cristi Puiu's Aurora (2010) took three years from its premiere in Cannes to reach UK shores. With a runtime of over three hours and a characteristically languid approach, there's no surprise it's taken this opaque Romanian portrait of a killer so long to surface. An upturned murder mystery where the murderer is known but his motives and deliberations remain guarded, Aurora sees Puiu star as Viorel, the film's straight-faced protagonist. A recently divorced father of two, Viorel lives a secluded life on the outskirts of Bucharest in a dilapidated flat.
Viorel's an engineer at a small factory and spends his days evading any form of human contact. At night he wanders across the desolate train tracks and factory courtyards of the city's rundown industrial sector, spying on the same family. However, this painstakingly natural portrait ultimately concludes in a startlingly methodical series of murders.
Viorel's an engineer at a small factory and spends his days evading any form of human contact. At night he wanders across the desolate train tracks and factory courtyards of the city's rundown industrial sector, spying on the same family. However, this painstakingly natural portrait ultimately concludes in a startlingly methodical series of murders.
- 5/27/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Romania's arthouse films have won respect worldwide, but their lack of popularity among domestic audiences spells danger
Any new wave in cinema is duty-bound to make surprise its mission, cocking a snook at tradition and shuffling conventions. The one that broke in 2005 got off to a good start: hailing from Romania, a filmic backwater compared to Russia and Poland. Kicking off with Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu – the whispered hit of Cannes that year – this revolution had ready-made class: it was aesthetically rigorous; serious-minded yet buoyed by a mordant sense of humour; it scraped its truths from the dingy fabric of everyday life, often covered in the residue of 42 years of communism.
Corneliu Porumboiu, Cristian Mungiu and Radu Muntean all followed up in this vein in the second half of the noughties, with pure festival-bait that was still clocking up awards this year when the drama Child's...
Any new wave in cinema is duty-bound to make surprise its mission, cocking a snook at tradition and shuffling conventions. The one that broke in 2005 got off to a good start: hailing from Romania, a filmic backwater compared to Russia and Poland. Kicking off with Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu – the whispered hit of Cannes that year – this revolution had ready-made class: it was aesthetically rigorous; serious-minded yet buoyed by a mordant sense of humour; it scraped its truths from the dingy fabric of everyday life, often covered in the residue of 42 years of communism.
Corneliu Porumboiu, Cristian Mungiu and Radu Muntean all followed up in this vein in the second half of the noughties, with pure festival-bait that was still clocking up awards this year when the drama Child's...
- 3/12/2013
- by Phil Hoad
- The Guardian - Film News
Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mister Lazarescu (2005), an unflinchingly honest 150-minute account of the last hours of an elderly alcoholic widower shuffled around in what passes for the Romanian health service, is one of the most memorable movies about the aftermath of that spiritual and social Chernobyl that is post-Soviet eastern Europe. Like Lazarescu, Aurora belongs to a sequence of six tales set in a depressed contemporary Bucharest and dedicated to one of Puiu's mentors, Eric Rohmer. It too takes place over a 24-hour period, is half an hour longer than the earlier film and features the director as Viorel, a passive-aggressive, near-catatonic metallurgist progressing around Bucharest, seemingly putting his house in order but in fact preparing to kill several members of his family.
It's more disturbing than shocking, and both depressing and compressing in the way it uses long takes to confine us in constricting domestic and official...
It's more disturbing than shocking, and both depressing and compressing in the way it uses long takes to confine us in constricting domestic and official...
- 11/19/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Another week, another box-office record smashed by Sam Mendes’ Skyfall. The twenty-third Bond became the fastest movie ever to take £50million after it amassed a grand total of £53million in just ten days. It’s now only a few million shy of The Dark Knight Rises total Box Office haul and looks odds on to become the highest grossing film of the year. It took a whopping £16million this past week and is absolutely streets ahead of Madagascar 3 which remains in second place with a solid and yet comparatively meagre £2.8million weekly haul. It really is astonishing just how popular Skyfall is proving to be. Everyone expected it to do well but to outshine mega-blockbuster franchise juggernauts like Avengers and Batman is really quite something. Turns out there’s life in the old tux-wearing dog yet.
A surprise success from this past weekend is the critically savaged Silent Hill...
A surprise success from this past weekend is the critically savaged Silent Hill...
- 11/11/2012
- by Rob Keeling
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Argo | Alps | My Brother The Devil | East End Babylon | Aurora | Grassroots | Here Comes The Boom | Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan | The Sapphires | People Like Us | Love Bite
Argo (15)
(Ben Affleck, 2012, Us) Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, 120 mins
Affleck's rehabilitation is complete thanks to this unlikely-but-true collision of Hollywood sci-fi and Iranian politics. It looks and feels like a lost 1970s thriller, with perfect retro styling and slow-burning tension, all nicely undercut by a CIA agent's crazy plan to use a Star Wars knock-off to spirit Americans out of revolutionary Tehran. A fake 70s thriller about a fake 70s sci-fi, based on a real story – what's not to like?
Alps (15)
(Giorgos Lanthimos, 2011, Gre) Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, 93 mins
More audacious but coolly deadpan oddness from the Dogtooth director, this time following a secretive group who provide a surreal service for grieving relatives. The world's a stage, Lanthimos hints,...
Argo (15)
(Ben Affleck, 2012, Us) Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, 120 mins
Affleck's rehabilitation is complete thanks to this unlikely-but-true collision of Hollywood sci-fi and Iranian politics. It looks and feels like a lost 1970s thriller, with perfect retro styling and slow-burning tension, all nicely undercut by a CIA agent's crazy plan to use a Star Wars knock-off to spirit Americans out of revolutionary Tehran. A fake 70s thriller about a fake 70s sci-fi, based on a real story – what's not to like?
Alps (15)
(Giorgos Lanthimos, 2011, Gre) Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, 93 mins
More audacious but coolly deadpan oddness from the Dogtooth director, this time following a secretive group who provide a surreal service for grieving relatives. The world's a stage, Lanthimos hints,...
- 11/10/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
A Romanian cinema linchpin returns with a daunting existential drama
Six years ago, Cristi Puiu made a film that came to be regarded as a jewel of the Romanian new wave: The Death of Mr Lazarescu, a tragicomedy showing an old man's final hours in hospital. Now Puiu has returned with a substantial new feature film – first shown at Cannes two years ago – entitled Aurora, and by substantial I mean dauntingly long: a little over three hours. This is a formidable, enigmatic piece of work in many ways; with control and technique deployed with absolute confidence.
It is an opaque existential drama, and Puiu himself stars as Viorel, a middle-aged guy who is apparently at the end of his tether, having endured humiliations at work and at home. And now he has got a gun. Viorel's accumulating Weltschmerz finds expression in this slo-mo 180-minute explosion: I found myself thinking of...
Six years ago, Cristi Puiu made a film that came to be regarded as a jewel of the Romanian new wave: The Death of Mr Lazarescu, a tragicomedy showing an old man's final hours in hospital. Now Puiu has returned with a substantial new feature film – first shown at Cannes two years ago – entitled Aurora, and by substantial I mean dauntingly long: a little over three hours. This is a formidable, enigmatic piece of work in many ways; with control and technique deployed with absolute confidence.
It is an opaque existential drama, and Puiu himself stars as Viorel, a middle-aged guy who is apparently at the end of his tether, having endured humiliations at work and at home. And now he has got a gun. Viorel's accumulating Weltschmerz finds expression in this slo-mo 180-minute explosion: I found myself thinking of...
- 11/9/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★☆☆ Cast out onto the festival scrapheap following its divisive 2010 Cannes debut, Cristi Puiu's three-hour Romanian drama Aurora (2010) makes its way to UK cinemas this week thanks New Wave Films. Its mammoth runtime will likely put off many, but those prepared for a slow-paced study on the drama of the everyday - dappled with sporadic flourishes of violence - should come away satisfied by this clinical dissection of humankind's murderous inclinations. Though never quite reaching the same existentialist zenith of some of his highly regarded contemporaries, Puiu has nevertheless constructed a drama of significant heft and impact.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 11/8/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The Master | Rust And Bone | Keep The Lights On | Excision | Fun Size | Call Me Kuchu | Silent Hill: Revelation | Tempest | For A Good Time, Call … | Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana | The Rocky Horror Picture Show | The Shining
The Master (12)
(Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012, Us) Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Jesse Plemons. 144 mins
Anderson has now entered that realm where everything he does is expected to be a masterpiece. This certainly feels like one. Like There Will Be Blood, it explores a big subject (a Scientology-like cult) via two contrasting men: Hoffman as the Hubbard-ish leader; Phoenix as a drunken, damaged drifter. Those expecting a straightforward story – tough. You're getting a "masterpiece".
Rust And Bone (15)
(Jacques Audiard, 2012, Fra/Bel) Marion Cotillard, Armand Verdure. 123 mins
As he did with A Prophet, Audiard makes us care so much about his characters we'll follow them anywhere. This time it's a study of physical and mental frailty,...
The Master (12)
(Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012, Us) Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Laura Dern, Jesse Plemons. 144 mins
Anderson has now entered that realm where everything he does is expected to be a masterpiece. This certainly feels like one. Like There Will Be Blood, it explores a big subject (a Scientology-like cult) via two contrasting men: Hoffman as the Hubbard-ish leader; Phoenix as a drunken, damaged drifter. Those expecting a straightforward story – tough. You're getting a "masterpiece".
Rust And Bone (15)
(Jacques Audiard, 2012, Fra/Bel) Marion Cotillard, Armand Verdure. 123 mins
As he did with A Prophet, Audiard makes us care so much about his characters we'll follow them anywhere. This time it's a study of physical and mental frailty,...
- 11/3/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Out of the Bedroom & Into the Streets: Jude’s Latest a Bitter Drama of Cyclical Misery
Now at the end of a decade in existence, the Romanian New Wave has another veritable name to add to its annals with Radu Jude, whose excellent third feature film, Everybody In Our Family, rounds the festival circuit, and hopefully will enjoy a reputation that rivals the works of Muntean and Mungiu. A day-in-the-life of kitchen sink miserablism, this uncomfortable little domestic drama is an irresistibly well acted venture that pulls you in quick and keeps you enthralled to its final few minutes. With a plot that sounds like it very easily could veer into camp black comedy, Jude’s film keeps a level of dead seriousness that laces those laughs with a discomforting edge.
Marius (Serban Pavlu) is a divorced dentist in his late thirties. He wakes up one morning in the middle of his apartment,...
Now at the end of a decade in existence, the Romanian New Wave has another veritable name to add to its annals with Radu Jude, whose excellent third feature film, Everybody In Our Family, rounds the festival circuit, and hopefully will enjoy a reputation that rivals the works of Muntean and Mungiu. A day-in-the-life of kitchen sink miserablism, this uncomfortable little domestic drama is an irresistibly well acted venture that pulls you in quick and keeps you enthralled to its final few minutes. With a plot that sounds like it very easily could veer into camp black comedy, Jude’s film keeps a level of dead seriousness that laces those laughs with a discomforting edge.
Marius (Serban Pavlu) is a divorced dentist in his late thirties. He wakes up one morning in the middle of his apartment,...
- 11/2/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Even as Reverse Shot carries on working its way through the Spielberg oeuvre for the second time — the latest entry comes from Eric Hynes: "His cinema telescopes and microscopes, making big what's small, and near what's far, and always making you feel — both physically and emotionally — the ingenious contraption at work. Rarely has his marriage of form and feeling worked as fluidly and guilelessly as it did in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, a film of colossal ambition that plays as intimate, of heart-thumping sensations that register as cosmic, of wondrous spectacle that in the end just sings" — the new Film Quarterly features Jonathan Rosenbaum on what more than a few believe to be Spielberg's best work: "A.I. is a film about having been programmed emotionally — something that the cinema does to us all, and a subject that my first book, Moving Places, attempted to explore. This is one reason why,...
- 3/27/2012
- MUBI
I've only just now caught wind of a one-time-only event that took place in the Port of Tallinn last Thursday, 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero, via Alison Nastasi at Movies.com: "An international collective of directors… contributed their shorts to the single 35mm film anthology that was screened for an audience one time — as part of Estonia's 2011 European Capital of Culture celebration — and then burned to the ground (along with the screen itself). Why, exactly? The project's website describes it as 'flying in the face of the cynicism of marketing, production, business operators, and the moral majority … dedicated to preserving freedom of thought in cinema.'" The roster of participating directors and artists is pretty impressive:
Brian Yuzna (USA), Michael Glawogger (Austria), Aku Louhimies (Finland), Ken Jacobs (USA), Gustav Deutsch (Austria), Tom Tykwer (Germany), Mark Boswell (USA), Malcolm Le Grice (UK), Aki Kaurismäki (Finland), Bruce McClure (UK), Mika Taanila...
Brian Yuzna (USA), Michael Glawogger (Austria), Aku Louhimies (Finland), Ken Jacobs (USA), Gustav Deutsch (Austria), Tom Tykwer (Germany), Mark Boswell (USA), Malcolm Le Grice (UK), Aki Kaurismäki (Finland), Bruce McClure (UK), Mika Taanila...
- 12/27/2011
- MUBI
The 56th Corona Cork Film Festival is commencing this Sunday 6th and running until Sunday the 13th of November, is the longest running festival of its kind and promises attendees a wide range of feature films, shorts, documentaries and animations. The festival will also be focusing in collaboration with the Romanian Cultural Institute of London on short films of Romania, a country which has come to the fore of the film world in recent years with directors like Cristi Puiu (Aurora, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu) and Adrian Sitaru (Best Intentions, Hooked)...
- 11/2/2011
- IFTN
This notable Romanian film does not merely rely on the strong script but a bravura acting performance of the entire cast. The flawless performances of each player in the film are astounding. The viewer begins to feel that these are real people–such is the effect of the film.
No Romanian film that this writer has seen has been as honest, as gripping, and as well crafted as Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr Lazarescu. It bolsters the credibility of Romanian cinema, which has traditionally lagged behind the rich cinematic products of the former Ussr (e.g., Tarkovsky, Paradjanov, Kozintsev), of Hungary (e.g., Fabri, Szabo), of Poland (e.g., Kieslowski, Wajda) and even of the former Czechoslovakia (e.g., Forman, Kadar, Trnka).
For the Romanian viewer, this movie could touch a raw nerve that relates to the true state of Romanian hospitals, the attitudes of their medical staff...
No Romanian film that this writer has seen has been as honest, as gripping, and as well crafted as Cristi Puiu’s The Death of Mr Lazarescu. It bolsters the credibility of Romanian cinema, which has traditionally lagged behind the rich cinematic products of the former Ussr (e.g., Tarkovsky, Paradjanov, Kozintsev), of Hungary (e.g., Fabri, Szabo), of Poland (e.g., Kieslowski, Wajda) and even of the former Czechoslovakia (e.g., Forman, Kadar, Trnka).
For the Romanian viewer, this movie could touch a raw nerve that relates to the true state of Romanian hospitals, the attitudes of their medical staff...
- 9/21/2011
- by Jugu Abraham
- DearCinema.com
While several countries are still deliberating which film will represent them for the upcoming Foreign Films category at the Oscars, the Romanian National Center for Cinematography have announced their pic in Marian Crisan's Morgen. Scripted by Crisan and featuring Yalcin Yilmaz and Andras Hathazi, is about a man, Nelu (Hathazi), who lives near Romanian-Hungarian border, who works as a supermarket security guard and who just likes fishing. One day, though, he meets an illegal Kurdish immigrant and he has to decide whether to help him pass the border or not. Morgen grabbed four awards at last year Locarno Film Festival: Special Jury Prize, Third Prize of the Junior Jury Awards, Eucumenical Prize and Ficc/Iffs Prize. Crisan’s film also received Best Director and Best Actor (ex aequo - Andras Hathazi and Yilmaz Yalcin) at Thessaloniki Film Festival, while at the 3rd edition of CinEast festival, Morgen won The...
- 8/17/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
#10. Of Gods and Men - Xavier Beauvois (February 25th) Select sequences are almost worthy of comparison to Bresson, including head monk Lambert Wilson's conflicted hike into nature, or the monks' final, close-up filled suppertime farewell. The film needed a more ruthless editor, however -- many scenes come across as mundane and unnecessary. Could easily be an hour shorter, and better for it. #9. Le Quattro Volte - Michelangelo Frammartino (March 30th) A film that proves that the protagonist of a film need not be a human being, or even be animate. At times, however, its resistance to traditional storytelling fells more like a cop-out than a radicalism. The possibility of an inanimate object being a fully realized character is never fully explored. Still, an absorbing and unusual two hours in the movie theatre. #8. The Sleeping Beauty - Catherine Breillat (Rendez-Vous with French Cinema (Fslc) Perverse, bizarre, sexy, funny, provocative. In other words,...
- 7/5/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
"Ah, the pungent odor, the fermented esprit, the sulfurous insanity of the New York Asian Film Fest!" exclaims Michael Atkinson, introducing his overview of the lineup in the Voice. "It's a new year for the city's favorite attack of the imported-irrational, and as always, the jejune state of the late-spring/early-summer box office gets a shot in the ass. The pulp is especially ripe this year, particularly from Japan, where manga-ness seems to have gone from a national pastime to a mass psychosis."
For R Emmet Sweeney, writing for TCM, "most of the revelations in this year's slate came in the Nyaff sidebar, Sea of Revenge: New Korean Thrillers, so I'll focus there." Michael J Anderson splits the difference, concentrating on Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!! and Na Hong-jin's The Chaser (image above). Time Out New York's got a slide of "titles worth cutting class for." Cinespect's Ryan Wells picks...
For R Emmet Sweeney, writing for TCM, "most of the revelations in this year's slate came in the Nyaff sidebar, Sea of Revenge: New Korean Thrillers, so I'll focus there." Michael J Anderson splits the difference, concentrating on Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!! and Na Hong-jin's The Chaser (image above). Time Out New York's got a slide of "titles worth cutting class for." Cinespect's Ryan Wells picks...
- 6/30/2011
- MUBI
Azazel Jacobs's "Terri" is the criticWIRE pick of the week heading into this holiday weekend. Following two straight weeks of documentaries ("Conan O'Brien Can't Stop" and "Page One: A Year Inside The New York Times") topping iW's weekly chart, the 2011 Sundance Film Festival alum edged out the likes of Cristi Puiu's "Aurora" and Nick Tomnay's "The Perfect Host," both of which also open this week. Poignant, unexpected and quietly ...
- 6/29/2011
- Indiewire
We see plenty of premeditated murders in the movies, but the emphasis tends to be more on the murder and less on the premeditation, for the obvious reason that cinema is more accommodating of action than thought. Motives may be established, but they don’t necessarily encompass the wholeness of the perpetrator’s complicated psyche or the deliberate, banal build-up to the crime. Over a difficult three-hour sprawl, Cristi Puiu’s Aurora fully explores the time before and after a killer strikes, and it has the cumulative effect of making what passes for a “motive” seem absurdly simplistic. As played ...
- 6/29/2011
- avclub.com
A slow burn thriller taken to the extreme, Cristi Puiu's "Aurora" continues the Romanian writer-director's obsession with time as his main narrative device. Whereas Puiu previously applied a patient, naturalistic approach to the final day of a dying man in 2005's "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," his new three-hour opus studies a dead man walking: Stepping in front of the camera, Puiu plays a weary, isolated divorcee named Viorel, whose ...
- 6/28/2011
- Indiewire
See the movie trailer, images and the poster for Aurora, starring Cristi Puiu, Clara Voda and Catrinel Dumitrescu. The Cinema Guild-distributed drama opens June 29th at the IFC Center in New York before rolling out nationwide. Cristi Puiu, director of the critically-acclaimed The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, helms and writes the film. Aurora is a murder mystery turned on its head – where the mystery’s not the culprit, but the motive. Inside a non-descript apartment kitchen, a man and a woman discuss the inconsistencies in Little Red Riding Hood, their voices hushed, mindful of waking the little girl sleeping in the next room. Behind a line of abandoned trailers, on the outskirts of Bucharest, the same man waits for something or someone to arrive. At a metallurgical factory, he collects two hand-made firing pins secretly prepared by a coworker.
- 6/8/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
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