Exclusive: Take a trip inside historic Parisian art museum the Louvre as it re-opens following an unprecedented four-month closure with new short film Rusted Caravaggios, which comes from Egyptian-American filmmaker Sam Abbas.
Based in Paris during the lockdown, Abbas, whose credits include features Alia’s Birth and The Wedding, jumped at the opportunity to film inside the iconic venue when a rare opportunity presented itself at the re-opening, when minimal numbers of people were allowed back in the famously busy attraction, which houses artworks including The Mona Lisa. It shutdown back in March due to France’s sweeping lockdown to curb the coronavirus spread.
“During the lockdown I began to study the work of Caravaggio. His art, his history, his philosophy, everything about him. After an unprecedented closure of the Louvre I was ecstatic to be able to attend the first public visit allowed,” said Abbas. “This is an experience...
Based in Paris during the lockdown, Abbas, whose credits include features Alia’s Birth and The Wedding, jumped at the opportunity to film inside the iconic venue when a rare opportunity presented itself at the re-opening, when minimal numbers of people were allowed back in the famously busy attraction, which houses artworks including The Mona Lisa. It shutdown back in March due to France’s sweeping lockdown to curb the coronavirus spread.
“During the lockdown I began to study the work of Caravaggio. His art, his history, his philosophy, everything about him. After an unprecedented closure of the Louvre I was ecstatic to be able to attend the first public visit allowed,” said Abbas. “This is an experience...
- 7/13/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Toronto-bowed “Savages,” the kinetic, taut political thriller from Vivendi’s Canal Plus, imagines a French Obama – Idder Chaouch, of Algerian descent, played by a stately Roschdy Zem – poised in Paris to rule France as its first Maghrebi president.
If he survives an assassination attempt.
Yet, created and co-written by novelist Sabri Louatah and cineast Rebecca Zlotowski, who also directs, the six-part limited series kicks off, in a total declaration of intentions, 250 miles south in the dowdy city of Saint-Étienne.
From a slow sweep establishing shot, it’s a motley, downbeat mix of high-rise council apartment blocks and hills. Cut to two sisters, Dounia and Rabia Nerrouche, in a car, running through the guest list for the wedding of Slim, Dounia’s youngest.
“Arab, Arab, Arab! Mekloufi, Arab. Sahraoui, Arab. Benboudaud, big fat Arab! All Arabs: Are you serious?” asks Rabia in semi-mock disgust, using a more derogatory word in French for “Arab.
If he survives an assassination attempt.
Yet, created and co-written by novelist Sabri Louatah and cineast Rebecca Zlotowski, who also directs, the six-part limited series kicks off, in a total declaration of intentions, 250 miles south in the dowdy city of Saint-Étienne.
From a slow sweep establishing shot, it’s a motley, downbeat mix of high-rise council apartment blocks and hills. Cut to two sisters, Dounia and Rabia Nerrouche, in a car, running through the guest list for the wedding of Slim, Dounia’s youngest.
“Arab, Arab, Arab! Mekloufi, Arab. Sahraoui, Arab. Benboudaud, big fat Arab! All Arabs: Are you serious?” asks Rabia in semi-mock disgust, using a more derogatory word in French for “Arab.
- 9/11/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
The German star’s new directorial effort is the sequel to Class Reunion 1.0. Best known to international audiences for playing Sergeant Hugo Stiglitz in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, German actor-filmmaker Til Schweiger, who in his native country enjoys superstardom status, finished shooting his new directorial effort last week. Entitled Class Reunion 2.0 - The Wedding, the new comedy is a sequel to his movie Class Reunion 1.0 - The Incredible Journey of the Silver Backs, which attracted more than 1.1 million viewers in 2018. As a reminder, Schweiger also directed last year’s box-office flop Head Full of Honey, an English-language remake of his German-language film of the same name from 2014. Class Reunion 2.0 will follow the main characters from Class Reunion 1.0 as they face a series of new challenges. Shortly after the class reunion, the lives of Thomas (Til Schweiger himself), Nils (Samuel Finzi) and Andreas (Milan Peschel),...
Opening and closing films also announced for Czech festival, which takes place June 28-July 6.
Bart Freundlich’s After The Wedding will open the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) and honour its star, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, with the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.
The director and Moore’s co-star Billy Crudup will also attend the festival which runs in the Czech Republic from June 28-July 6.
After The Wedding premiered at Sundance earlier this year and is being released in the Us by Sony Pictures Classics on August 9.
Nisha Ganatra’s Late Night starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling,...
Bart Freundlich’s After The Wedding will open the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff) and honour its star, Oscar-winner Julianne Moore, with the Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.
The director and Moore’s co-star Billy Crudup will also attend the festival which runs in the Czech Republic from June 28-July 6.
After The Wedding premiered at Sundance earlier this year and is being released in the Us by Sony Pictures Classics on August 9.
Nisha Ganatra’s Late Night starring Emma Thompson and Mindy Kaling,...
- 6/11/2019
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Apparently, Friends From College has been canceled by Netflix, meaning it won't be returning for a third season anytime soon. Womp, womp.
The dark comedy follows a seriously f*cked up group of adult friends as they navigate life together in New York City. Although the characters are ones you love to hate, rather than straight-up love, the news that we won't get resolutions to relationships between Ethan (Keegan-Michael Key) and Sam (Annie Parisse), as well as Ethan and Lisa (Cobie Smulders), the latter of whom appears to be pregnant with her ex-husband's baby in the season two finale, "The Wedding," is a bummer. The last episode of the second season is full of other cliffhangers regarding the fate of Lisa and Nick's relationship, as well as whether or not Ethan will return to Sam after ditching her and their romantic trip to Paris so he can accompany Lisa to the gynecologist.
The dark comedy follows a seriously f*cked up group of adult friends as they navigate life together in New York City. Although the characters are ones you love to hate, rather than straight-up love, the news that we won't get resolutions to relationships between Ethan (Keegan-Michael Key) and Sam (Annie Parisse), as well as Ethan and Lisa (Cobie Smulders), the latter of whom appears to be pregnant with her ex-husband's baby in the season two finale, "The Wedding," is a bummer. The last episode of the second season is full of other cliffhangers regarding the fate of Lisa and Nick's relationship, as well as whether or not Ethan will return to Sam after ditching her and their romantic trip to Paris so he can accompany Lisa to the gynecologist.
- 2/24/2019
- by Quinn Keaney
- Popsugar.com
Two considerations need to exist side by side when discussing “The Wedding,” the debut feature of Egyptian-American multihyphenate Sam Abbas. One involves the film itself, a dull slice of Lower Manhattan mumblecore about a heterosexual New York couple fitfully planning their wedding until she discovers his gay dalliance. The other, getting the lion’s share of attention, is focused on Abbas’ company ArabQ Films, which apparently is incorporated in Egypt, but given its mission to produce queer-themed movies, can only operate virtually in the country’s increasingly authoritarian and state-sanctioned, virulently homophobic polity. How the company can function, and whether the films it produces can properly be categorized as Egyptian (doubtful), are questions that must be raised in tandem with any treatment of “The Wedding” itself, now on a tiny release in New York and unlikely to get much traction elsewhere.
The film’s lack of originality goes beyond its...
The film’s lack of originality goes beyond its...
- 12/18/2018
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
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