A harrowing tale of trauma, the fragility of memory and culpability, David Robinson-Smith’s Mud Crab seeps into your subconscious and offers you no place to hide from the anger and pain depicted. We follow an unreliable narrator as she recounts the events of a young man’s assault in an Australian coastal town devoid of the typical beauty normally associated with such locations. Inspired by writer/director Robinson-Smith’s own upbringing in a similar town with equally corresponding histories of human degradation and hopelessness, Mud Crab leaves no room for a silver lining or happy ending and instead constricts you with its sombre tones and haunting soundtrack, matching the ruptured memories which lie at the heart of the tale. The real life and narrative transformations in the film, shot over two seasons, are hauntingly real. Ahead of Mud Crab’s premiere on Dn today we spoke to Robinson-Smith about...
- 5/6/2024
- by Sarah Smith
- Directors Notes
French director Claire Denis is set to return to West Africa for her next feature film, an adaptation of late French playwright Bernard-Marie Koltès’s 1980 work Black Battles With Dogs (Combat de nègre et de chiens).
“It’s a play written by a friend of mine a long time ago and directed by Patrice Chéreau on stage in the 80s. He was dying from AIDS and he wanted me to make a film out of it,” Denis told Deadline on the fringes of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra meeting in Qatar.
She is planning to film in either Senegal or Cameroon.
Denis grew up in West Africa and set a number of her early films in the region, such as Chocolat (1988) and Beau Travail (1989). This will be her first major fiction feature shot on the African continent since the 2009 drama White Material, starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee plantation...
“It’s a play written by a friend of mine a long time ago and directed by Patrice Chéreau on stage in the 80s. He was dying from AIDS and he wanted me to make a film out of it,” Denis told Deadline on the fringes of the Doha Film Institute’s Qumra meeting in Qatar.
She is planning to film in either Senegal or Cameroon.
Denis grew up in West Africa and set a number of her early films in the region, such as Chocolat (1988) and Beau Travail (1989). This will be her first major fiction feature shot on the African continent since the 2009 drama White Material, starring Isabelle Huppert as a coffee plantation...
- 3/5/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Claire Denis is gearing up to shoot her next film The Fence [working title], an Africa-set feature that has a completed script.
Speaking to Screen at the Qumra event in Doha, Qatar, Denis said, “The script is finished; I have to do some corrections because I’m not sure about locations until today. One person is missing in the cast, so I might have to rewrite some parts.”
Denis sparsely described the project as “a film with four main characters, three men and a woman.” Three of the four cast members are attached, although Denis would not confirm names.
“It takes place in Africa,...
Speaking to Screen at the Qumra event in Doha, Qatar, Denis said, “The script is finished; I have to do some corrections because I’m not sure about locations until today. One person is missing in the cast, so I might have to rewrite some parts.”
Denis sparsely described the project as “a film with four main characters, three men and a woman.” Three of the four cast members are attached, although Denis would not confirm names.
“It takes place in Africa,...
- 3/5/2024
- ScreenDaily
Denis Lavant, the iconic French actor of Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail” and Leos Carax’ “Holy Motors,” stars in “Redoubt,” the feature debut of rising contemporary artist-turned-director John Skoog.
Currently in post, the black-and-white film is produced by Plattform Produktion, the Goteborg-based banner run by two-time Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Ostlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and Erik Hemmendorff. Skoog previously directed the California-set documentary short “Shadowland” which completed for a Golden Bear at the Berlinale.
“Redoubt” (“Reduit”) is a narrative film that expands on Skoog’s video installation by the same name which won the prestigious Baloise Art Prize in 2014, and is also part of the artist’s exhibition “Walls.”
Lavant’s reclusive character in “Redoubt” is inspired by Karl-Göran Persson, a farmer known as a good samaritan on the verge of madness, who lived near Skoog’s home town Kvidinge during WWII. After receiving a warning by the Swedish...
Currently in post, the black-and-white film is produced by Plattform Produktion, the Goteborg-based banner run by two-time Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Ostlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) and Erik Hemmendorff. Skoog previously directed the California-set documentary short “Shadowland” which completed for a Golden Bear at the Berlinale.
“Redoubt” (“Reduit”) is a narrative film that expands on Skoog’s video installation by the same name which won the prestigious Baloise Art Prize in 2014, and is also part of the artist’s exhibition “Walls.”
Lavant’s reclusive character in “Redoubt” is inspired by Karl-Göran Persson, a farmer known as a good samaritan on the verge of madness, who lived near Skoog’s home town Kvidinge during WWII. After receiving a warning by the Swedish...
- 2/4/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
German actor Franz Rogowski is on the rise after winning Best Actor from the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle for his performance as a toxic bisexual in Ira Sachs’ “Passages.” The “Happy End” breakout actor’s turn also featured in IndieWire’s Critics Poll of the best films and performances of 2023.
That means you shouldn’t ignore his performance in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature “Disco Boy,” winner of the 2023 Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. In this vividly dreamlike postwar drama, Rogowski plays a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Comparisons to Claire Denis’ similarly themed “Beau Travail,” as Ben Croll pointed out in his Berlinale review for IndieWire, are inevitable and apt. After all, there’s a movie that made another unusual European actor — French actor Denis Lavant — an everlasting arthouse favorite.
In “Disco Boy,” following a difficult journey across Europe,...
That means you shouldn’t ignore his performance in Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature “Disco Boy,” winner of the 2023 Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. In this vividly dreamlike postwar drama, Rogowski plays a Belarusian immigrant haunted by his actions as a mercenary in the French Foreign Legion. Comparisons to Claire Denis’ similarly themed “Beau Travail,” as Ben Croll pointed out in his Berlinale review for IndieWire, are inevitable and apt. After all, there’s a movie that made another unusual European actor — French actor Denis Lavant — an everlasting arthouse favorite.
In “Disco Boy,” following a difficult journey across Europe,...
- 12/12/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Among the Copia Final titles in Ventana Sur, the Dominican Republic’s “Tiger” (“Tiguere”) by lauded filmmaker José María Cabral (“Woodpeckers”) casts a harsh light on the machismo culture of the Caribbean nation and by extension, Latin America.
Shot in a lush mountain retreat, “Tiger” is set in a boot camp where families drop off their teenage sons with the hope that they learn to become “real men.” It is led by boot camp head Alberto, who decides that his son Pablo, an aspiring artist, is ready to join the camp. Naturally, Pablo rebels, which leads to some dire consequences.
Drawing from his own personal experience at a similar boot camp and inspiration from such classics as “Beau Travail,” “The Rider” and “Honey Boy,” Cabral co-penned his semi-autobiographical drama with Cuban writers Arturo Arango, Nuri Duarte, Xenia Rivery and Alan González.
“Towards the end of the ’90s, my parents sent...
Shot in a lush mountain retreat, “Tiger” is set in a boot camp where families drop off their teenage sons with the hope that they learn to become “real men.” It is led by boot camp head Alberto, who decides that his son Pablo, an aspiring artist, is ready to join the camp. Naturally, Pablo rebels, which leads to some dire consequences.
Drawing from his own personal experience at a similar boot camp and inspiration from such classics as “Beau Travail,” “The Rider” and “Honey Boy,” Cabral co-penned his semi-autobiographical drama with Cuban writers Arturo Arango, Nuri Duarte, Xenia Rivery and Alan González.
“Towards the end of the ’90s, my parents sent...
- 11/29/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Wim Wenders and Thierry Frémaux signalled their support on Saturday for the Hollywood actors strike as the industrial action hits its 100th day.
“I understand the actors who all want to profit a little more… rather than there being just a dozen big names who have high salaries… while all the others earn nothing or very little,” Wenders told a press conference at the Lumière Film Festival.
The German director is guest of honor at the 15th edition of the festival, spearheaded by double-hatted Cannes Delegate General Frémaux in his role of director of the Institut Lumière in Lyon, preserving the legacy of cinema pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière.
Frémaux seconded Wenders’s words.
“The universal dimension of this strike is perhaps a bit underestimated… France, which has a reputation for struggle and putting up a fight, can also look with admiration at what is happening in Hollywood for something that touches us all,...
“I understand the actors who all want to profit a little more… rather than there being just a dozen big names who have high salaries… while all the others earn nothing or very little,” Wenders told a press conference at the Lumière Film Festival.
The German director is guest of honor at the 15th edition of the festival, spearheaded by double-hatted Cannes Delegate General Frémaux in his role of director of the Institut Lumière in Lyon, preserving the legacy of cinema pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière.
Frémaux seconded Wenders’s words.
“The universal dimension of this strike is perhaps a bit underestimated… France, which has a reputation for struggle and putting up a fight, can also look with admiration at what is happening in Hollywood for something that touches us all,...
- 10/21/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Lyon, France — Four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and “Time Bandits” helmer Terry Gilliam will join a star director-studded lineup at this year’s Lumière Film Festival including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Wim Wenders.
Cuarón is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner.
Gilliam will screen the newly restored version of his 1995 sci-fi thriller “Twelve Monkeys.”
One of Anderson’s latest shorts, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” part of four Roald Dahl adaptations to be released on Netflix later this month, will screen at Lyon’s plush 2,000-seat Auditorium, where he will give a masterclass.
Like other guests, he will not only be introducing a retrospective of his own films but works by others, as part of an ongoing drive by the festival “to strengthen the link between the past and the present of cinema,...
Cuarón is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner.
Gilliam will screen the newly restored version of his 1995 sci-fi thriller “Twelve Monkeys.”
One of Anderson’s latest shorts, “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” part of four Roald Dahl adaptations to be released on Netflix later this month, will screen at Lyon’s plush 2,000-seat Auditorium, where he will give a masterclass.
Like other guests, he will not only be introducing a retrospective of his own films but works by others, as part of an ongoing drive by the festival “to strengthen the link between the past and the present of cinema,...
- 9/19/2023
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
The festival is set to open with Miyazaki’s ‘The Boy And The Heron’ on September 22.
French filmmaker Claire Denis will chair the official selection jury for the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The director of Beau Travail and Stars At Noon will be joined by Chinese actress Fan Bingbing; Colombian producer, moviemaker and writer Cristina Gallego; French photographer Brigitte Lacombe; Hungarian producer Robert Lantos; Spanish actress Vicky Luengo; and German director Christian Petzold.
They will decide the winners of the Golden Shell for best film and Silver Shell for best director, leading performance and supporting performance, and will...
French filmmaker Claire Denis will chair the official selection jury for the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The director of Beau Travail and Stars At Noon will be joined by Chinese actress Fan Bingbing; Colombian producer, moviemaker and writer Cristina Gallego; French photographer Brigitte Lacombe; Hungarian producer Robert Lantos; Spanish actress Vicky Luengo; and German director Christian Petzold.
They will decide the winners of the Golden Shell for best film and Silver Shell for best director, leading performance and supporting performance, and will...
- 9/8/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut feature is a hazily seductive, frequently dreamlike study of life in the French Foreign Legion, fixated on masculine bodies in synchronized and sometimes violently clashing motion. It is also called “Disco Boy.” You almost certainly wouldn’t choose that subject, tone and title for a film if you didn’t want viewers’ minds to immediately wander to “Beau Travail,” Claire Denis’ seminal Foreign Legion cine-ballet, with its climactic solo number set to a thumping Eurodance classic; even if you somehow made that error, you wouldn’t compound it with electro-scored terpsichorean interludes of your own. Choosing homage this direct for a first feature is a brazen move, but notwithstanding its openly derivative qualities, “Disco Boy” doesn’t want for boldness or surprise — Abbruzzese’s hot, fluxional command of sound and image keeps us curious.
One feature of “Disco Boy,” at least, plays as expected: the reliably fragile,...
One feature of “Disco Boy,” at least, plays as expected: the reliably fragile,...
- 8/17/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
“Medusa Deluxe” is here.
Truly unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, it’s a murder mystery set in a hairstyle competition. All of the characters are hairdressers, who have very strong opinions on hairstyles and on who the likely murderer is. Oh and the whole thing is shot like a single take (think “1917”), which adds to the sense that you are actually there, at the scene of the crime.
And while it might be easy to identify some of writer/director Thomas Hardiman’s influences, he is more than happy to run through key texts. There are many different, very strong flavors in “Medusa Deluxe” and they all work incredibly well together.
TheWrap spoke to Hardiman about where the movie came from, why the single-shot aesthetic was so important and why he’d really love to direct a “Where’s Waldo” movie (hint: it has to do with the...
Truly unlike anything you’ve ever seen before, it’s a murder mystery set in a hairstyle competition. All of the characters are hairdressers, who have very strong opinions on hairstyles and on who the likely murderer is. Oh and the whole thing is shot like a single take (think “1917”), which adds to the sense that you are actually there, at the scene of the crime.
And while it might be easy to identify some of writer/director Thomas Hardiman’s influences, he is more than happy to run through key texts. There are many different, very strong flavors in “Medusa Deluxe” and they all work incredibly well together.
TheWrap spoke to Hardiman about where the movie came from, why the single-shot aesthetic was so important and why he’d really love to direct a “Where’s Waldo” movie (hint: it has to do with the...
- 8/11/2023
- by Drew Taylor
- The Wrap
From trans lives to celebrations of drag, queer film pulled no punches as it hit screens in the 90s with a DIY bravura that transformed the movie industry
Queer film exploded like a glitter cannon in the 1990s, sending sparkling product raining down in every direction. Trans lives hit the screen in Orlando and Boys Don’t Cry, alongside dynamic bulletins from the Black queer experience. We had jubilant celebrations of drag with Paris Is Burning and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, provocations from New Queer Cinema in the shape of Poison, Swoon and Edward II; there were auteurist masterpieces and timeless coming-out stories. The Wachowski sisters, Lisa Cholodenko, François Ozon and Bruce Labruce all made their debuts; Pedro Almodóvar and Gus Van Sant went stratospheric. Benefiting from a surge in the fortunes of independent cinema, and a defined focus for anger brought about by Aids activism, queer...
Queer film exploded like a glitter cannon in the 1990s, sending sparkling product raining down in every direction. Trans lives hit the screen in Orlando and Boys Don’t Cry, alongside dynamic bulletins from the Black queer experience. We had jubilant celebrations of drag with Paris Is Burning and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, provocations from New Queer Cinema in the shape of Poison, Swoon and Edward II; there were auteurist masterpieces and timeless coming-out stories. The Wachowski sisters, Lisa Cholodenko, François Ozon and Bruce Labruce all made their debuts; Pedro Almodóvar and Gus Van Sant went stratospheric. Benefiting from a surge in the fortunes of independent cinema, and a defined focus for anger brought about by Aids activism, queer...
- 5/26/2023
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
The start of any month brings with it batches of movies added to streaming services’ libraries. As of this week, Netflix has “Girl, Interrupted,” “Steel Magnolias” and “Traffic,” HBO Max has “Blue Valentine,” “Hustle & Flow” and “Parasite,” and Hulu has “Atonement” and “Boogie Nights.” A handful of newer titles are also premiering digitally. First up is a spellbinding thriller featuring some of Hollywood’s hottest young actors.
The contender to watch this week: “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”
Neon picked up this eco-thriller out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, after which it won raves for its gripping portrait of young DIY environmental activists who band together to destroy oil pipes in West Texas. Based on Andreas Malm‘s nonfiction book of the same name, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” stars Ariela Barer (“Runaways”), Sasha Lane (“American Honey”), Lukas Gage (“The White Lotus”), Marcus Scribner...
The contender to watch this week: “How to Blow Up a Pipeline”
Neon picked up this eco-thriller out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, after which it won raves for its gripping portrait of young DIY environmental activists who band together to destroy oil pipes in West Texas. Based on Andreas Malm‘s nonfiction book of the same name, “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” stars Ariela Barer (“Runaways”), Sasha Lane (“American Honey”), Lukas Gage (“The White Lotus”), Marcus Scribner...
- 5/6/2023
- by Matthew Jacobs
- Gold Derby
In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at Sonic Youth's Incinerate, by Claire Denis. Claire Denis is in the game of deconstruction, both in her films and her sole music video. Often she tackles genres she hasn't dabbled in yet, only to find new angles to explore. Trouble Every Day deconstructs the horror genre, High-life turns science fiction on its head and Let The Sunshine In (Un Beau Soleil Intérieur) is basically "what if a romcom was arthouse-proof". She often explores the inner turmoil of her characters, while also playing around with structure. If her works sound cerebral, it is in fact not: watch a film like Beau Travail, and be...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 4/17/2023
- Screen Anarchy
In 2001, Agnès Godard became the first woman to win the Césare award for Best Cinematography on her own (Marie Perennou shared it with three men in 1997 for her documentary “Microcosmos”). Godard’s prize was for shooting Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail,” the poetic riff on “Billy Budd” that investigates masculinity in the French Foreign Legion.
“I thought it was funny because the film was about all these men,” she said, sitting down for an interview in New York ahead of a new film series of her work. “It was kind of ironic. I was smiling a bit. It wasn’t revenge. But it was funny.” But the milestone moment didn’t generate any headlines. “At the time, nobody mentioned it,” she said.
While the number of female cinematographers worldwide has inched up in recent years, it was a much narrower field when the 71-year-old Godard entered the profession over 30 years ago.
“I thought it was funny because the film was about all these men,” she said, sitting down for an interview in New York ahead of a new film series of her work. “It was kind of ironic. I was smiling a bit. It wasn’t revenge. But it was funny.” But the milestone moment didn’t generate any headlines. “At the time, nobody mentioned it,” she said.
While the number of female cinematographers worldwide has inched up in recent years, it was a much narrower field when the 71-year-old Godard entered the profession over 30 years ago.
- 4/4/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A young Belorussian attempts to make the dangerous trip across the EU to sign up for the French Foreign Legion while a young rebel leader in Niger and his sister attempt to help their people survive the ravages of post-colonialism in wildly uneven Berlinale competitor Disco Boy.
A committed, intensely physical lead performance by German actor Franz Rogowski (recently seen in Ira Sachs’ Passages), luminous cinematography courtesy of ace Dp Helene Louvart, and stirring electronic music by composer Vitalic all come together to make this a sensuous, striking film experience. But, yeesh, that script by director-screenwriter Giacomo Abbruzzese is a mess — a lumpy mix of silly supernatural elements and indigestible arthouse pretension, all garnished with an outright steal from Claire Denis’ infinitely superior 1999 French Foreign Legion-feature Beau Travail. But by all means, you might as well steal from the best.
Rogowski’s Aleksei is first met traveling to Poland from...
A committed, intensely physical lead performance by German actor Franz Rogowski (recently seen in Ira Sachs’ Passages), luminous cinematography courtesy of ace Dp Helene Louvart, and stirring electronic music by composer Vitalic all come together to make this a sensuous, striking film experience. But, yeesh, that script by director-screenwriter Giacomo Abbruzzese is a mess — a lumpy mix of silly supernatural elements and indigestible arthouse pretension, all garnished with an outright steal from Claire Denis’ infinitely superior 1999 French Foreign Legion-feature Beau Travail. But by all means, you might as well steal from the best.
Rogowski’s Aleksei is first met traveling to Poland from...
- 2/19/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Slowly but surely the earlier work of Claire Denis is getting restorations and re-releases, from Beau Travail to L’intrus to No Fear No Die. While we hope Friday Night and US Go Home are in the cards, next up is her 1988 debut Chocolat. Made soon after she worked under Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders, the semi-autobiographical feature is based on her childhood in colonial French Africa as the daughter of a civil servant. Set for a theatrical release starting February 24 from Janus Films, the new 4K digital restoration was supervised and approved by director Claire Denis, made by the laboratory Eclair Classics from the original feature negative. Ahead of the release, a new trailer has now arrived.
Check out the trailer and synopsis below.
France (Mireille Perrier) reminisces about her childhood in Cameroon as her father (François Cluzet) comes and goes on call, which leads to the strengthening of her...
Check out the trailer and synopsis below.
France (Mireille Perrier) reminisces about her childhood in Cameroon as her father (François Cluzet) comes and goes on call, which leads to the strengthening of her...
- 2/8/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
This year’s International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the 16 films selected for its flagship Tiger Competition. Scroll down for the full list.
As always, the competition selection is a global affair, with features from Sweeden to Sri Lanka. The 2023 jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, plus two special jury awards. On the jury are: Alonso Díaz de la Vega, Anisia Uzeyman, Christine Vachon, Lav Diaz, and Sabrina Baracetti.
Running from January 25 to February 5, the fest is set to return for its first full-scale physical edition since the pandemic. The event will open with Munch, an experimental feature biopic of the Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken (Returning Home).
The honorary Robby Müller Award will go to French cinematographer Hélène Louvart. Louvart is best known for her work with Claire Denis, including the 1999 classic Beau Travail. Louvart has also worked with directors such as Wim Wenders,...
As always, the competition selection is a global affair, with features from Sweeden to Sri Lanka. The 2023 jury will grant three prizes: the Tiger Award, plus two special jury awards. On the jury are: Alonso Díaz de la Vega, Anisia Uzeyman, Christine Vachon, Lav Diaz, and Sabrina Baracetti.
Running from January 25 to February 5, the fest is set to return for its first full-scale physical edition since the pandemic. The event will open with Munch, an experimental feature biopic of the Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch by Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken (Returning Home).
The honorary Robby Müller Award will go to French cinematographer Hélène Louvart. Louvart is best known for her work with Claire Denis, including the 1999 classic Beau Travail. Louvart has also worked with directors such as Wim Wenders,...
- 12/19/2022
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Since making her on-screen debut in "Mermaids" at only nine years old, Christina Ricci has grown into one of the most prolific child stars who successfully made the transition into acting throughout adulthood. The seasoned starlet has always been a professional both on screen and off, captivating audiences with her unique look and diverse talent. For many of us, Ricci's most memorable role was her portrayal of Wednesday Addams in director Barry Sonnenfeld's 1991 film "The Addams Family" and his 1993 sequel "Addams Family Values." Donning raven-colored pigtails, a signature black dress, and flat-affect, Ricci became a generation's beloved personification of cartoonist Charles Addams' character. She not only embodied the role but also confidently asserted herself as an asset to the storytelling process by suggesting an alternate ending to the original "The Addams Family" script, a change that would resonate with audiences even decades later.
Killin' It In Show Business
In...
Killin' It In Show Business
In...
- 12/18/2022
- by Marisa Mirabal
- Slash Film
Every director brings a piece of themselves to their work, but this Oscar season has seen films becoming ever more personal. And it’s up to the cinematographer to work with their director to bring those stories to life.
James Gray explores his relationship with his grandfather and a pivotal childhood friendship in Armageddon Time; a young, gay Black man looks for his mother’s approval by joining the Marines in The Inspection, using actual quotes from Elegance Bratton’s mother; and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans shows the early life of a young filmmaker and his family’s influence on his art.
Related Story Golden Globes Film Analysis: Cruise Is Snubbed, Fraser Isn't & A Mixed Bag For Diversity Related Story Steven Spielberg Tells Martin Scorsese Why A Very Private Director Made 'The Fabelmans' & How Laura Dern Convinced David Lynch To Play John Ford Related Story 'Bardo' Brothers: Alejandro González...
James Gray explores his relationship with his grandfather and a pivotal childhood friendship in Armageddon Time; a young, gay Black man looks for his mother’s approval by joining the Marines in The Inspection, using actual quotes from Elegance Bratton’s mother; and Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans shows the early life of a young filmmaker and his family’s influence on his art.
Related Story Golden Globes Film Analysis: Cruise Is Snubbed, Fraser Isn't & A Mixed Bag For Diversity Related Story Steven Spielberg Tells Martin Scorsese Why A Very Private Director Made 'The Fabelmans' & How Laura Dern Convinced David Lynch To Play John Ford Related Story 'Bardo' Brothers: Alejandro González...
- 12/12/2022
- by Ryan Fleming
- Deadline Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has named both Everything Everywhere All at Once and Tár as its best picture for 2022.
On Sunday, the critics association announced its winners for the best films of 2022. Living actor Bill Nighly and Tár star Cate Blanchett were both named best lead performance. This was the first year that Lafca introduced gender-neutral acting categories, including two awards for best lead performance and two for best supporting performance.
Tár took home several awards, including Todd Field being named best director and best screenplay.
The best supporting performance went to Dolly De Leon in Triangle of Sadness and Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo won the best film not in the English language, and Laura Poitras’ All The Beauty And The Bloodshed won the best documentary/nonfiction film.
The best animated movie...
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has named both Everything Everywhere All at Once and Tár as its best picture for 2022.
On Sunday, the critics association announced its winners for the best films of 2022. Living actor Bill Nighly and Tár star Cate Blanchett were both named best lead performance. This was the first year that Lafca introduced gender-neutral acting categories, including two awards for best lead performance and two for best supporting performance.
Tár took home several awards, including Todd Field being named best director and best screenplay.
The best supporting performance went to Dolly De Leon in Triangle of Sadness and Ke Huy Quan in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo won the best film not in the English language, and Laura Poitras’ All The Beauty And The Bloodshed won the best documentary/nonfiction film.
The best animated movie...
- 12/11/2022
- by Carly Thomas
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The French director on being mesmerised by the film Memoria, and her love of Tindersticks, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and the Mediterranean
Born in Paris in 1946 but raised in west Africa, the film director Claire Denis worked as an assistant to film-makers such as Jacques Rivette and Wim Wenders before making her unforgettable debut with Chocolat (1988), a semi-autobiographical film set in Cameroon. Her work is broad-ranging, including fiction and documentary. Highlights include Beau Travail (1999), loosely based on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, and more recently High Life (2018), her first film in English, which starred Robert Pattinson. She has two new films: Both Sides of the Blade, which won the best director prize at the Berlin film festival and is in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema now, and Stars at Noon, joint winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes.
Born in Paris in 1946 but raised in west Africa, the film director Claire Denis worked as an assistant to film-makers such as Jacques Rivette and Wim Wenders before making her unforgettable debut with Chocolat (1988), a semi-autobiographical film set in Cameroon. Her work is broad-ranging, including fiction and documentary. Highlights include Beau Travail (1999), loosely based on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, and more recently High Life (2018), her first film in English, which starred Robert Pattinson. She has two new films: Both Sides of the Blade, which won the best director prize at the Berlin film festival and is in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema now, and Stars at Noon, joint winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes.
- 9/10/2022
- by Sarah Crompton
- The Guardian - Film News
In Morocco, homosexuality is banned and just one in five citizens find gayness “acceptable,” at least according to a 2019 poll. An Elton John concert twelve years ago broke the law, but was personally approved by Morocco’s king. Still, Grindr thrives, and third-largest city, Tangier, has a decades-long tradition as a haven for LGBT+ culture in North Africa.
Morocco thus makes a fitting setting for British sophomore director Fyzal Boulifa’s challenging melodrama “The Damned Don’t Cry,” a loose remake of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Mamma Roma,” which was nominated for the Golden Lion sixty Venice Film Festivals ago. But selectors in this year’s Giornate Degli Autori sidebar program did not place Boulifa’s film out of sentimentality alone. “The Damned Don’t Cry” is excellent, asking tough questions about society and morality without easy answers or neat conclusions. Non-actors populate the cast, performing terrifically, in one of many nods...
Morocco thus makes a fitting setting for British sophomore director Fyzal Boulifa’s challenging melodrama “The Damned Don’t Cry,” a loose remake of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Mamma Roma,” which was nominated for the Golden Lion sixty Venice Film Festivals ago. But selectors in this year’s Giornate Degli Autori sidebar program did not place Boulifa’s film out of sentimentality alone. “The Damned Don’t Cry” is excellent, asking tough questions about society and morality without easy answers or neat conclusions. Non-actors populate the cast, performing terrifically, in one of many nods...
- 9/8/2022
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
Warner Bros. Discovery has had a rough go of it recently. The newly-formed mega corporation’s decision to callously prune HBO Max’s servers of hours of content has led to mountains of bad PR and billions of dollars in market cap losses. Suffice it to say, a jam-packed list of new HBO Max releases for September 2022 would provide some welcome relief for the “House of the House of the Dragon.”
Unfortunately, HBO Max’s new releases this month are uncommonly light. It’s impossible to say whether this is the result of more Wbd meddling or simply some bad scheduling luck but either way it’s not going to make any executives’ seats less warm. There are only a handful of notable originals this month, led by season 2 of the Spanish language comedy Los Espookys on Sept. 16. That is joined by a pair of documentaries, Escape from Kabul on Sept.
Unfortunately, HBO Max’s new releases this month are uncommonly light. It’s impossible to say whether this is the result of more Wbd meddling or simply some bad scheduling luck but either way it’s not going to make any executives’ seats less warm. There are only a handful of notable originals this month, led by season 2 of the Spanish language comedy Los Espookys on Sept. 16. That is joined by a pair of documentaries, Escape from Kabul on Sept.
- 9/1/2022
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
And Then, the Sea Comes Back: Helena Wittmann and Angeliki Papoulia Discuss “Human Flowers of Flesh”
Human Flowers of Flesh (2022).In Helena Wittmann’s first feature, Drift (2017), two women holiday in Sylt, the northernmost island in Germany. Theresa and Josefina return to the port city of Hamburg temporarily and then, across a cut, Theresa appears alone in Antigua. Soon afterward, she sails across the Atlantic, via the Azores, back to Hamburg—but before she sails, Theresa stops at a beach in Antigua, where she gathers shells and dried coral.Within the first ten minutes of Human Flowers of Flesh, Wittmann’s follow-up to Drift, a woman hands another woman a piece of dried coral—“from Antigua,” she says in French. She is not Theresa and the film does not return to Antigua. Ida, played by Angeliki Papoulia, nonetheless shares with Theresa the experience of a trip there, where she came across a shoreline “like the cemetery of a coral reef.”Human Flowers of Flesh shares a...
- 8/29/2022
- MUBI
. The ocean is a source of ongoing fascination to German director Helena Wittmann, whose debut feature, “Drift” was set in a largely dialogue-free realm aboard a boat as a woman charted a course across the North Sea. This time around, the woman in the largely dialogue-free realm aboard a boat is charting a course across the Mediterranean Sea, a visual distinction that may only be detectable to marine professionals and Atlantic Ocean enthusiasts. Irrespective of the conceptual similarities to her debut, “Human Flowers of Flesh ” is a meditative gem powered by images, shot by Wittmann herself, that, on their own terms, make the film worth your time.
Ida (Angeliki Papoulia of “Dogtooth”) is a Greek wanderer with the mien of a woman more at home on the road than in any fixed abode. She carries herself with the resolute, slightly detached energy of someone driven by highly personal motives, coming...
Ida (Angeliki Papoulia of “Dogtooth”) is a Greek wanderer with the mien of a woman more at home on the road than in any fixed abode. She carries herself with the resolute, slightly detached energy of someone driven by highly personal motives, coming...
- 8/7/2022
- by Sophie Monks Kaufman
- Indiewire
Claire Denis may have fallen in love with Margaret Qualley because of her coltish and carefree performance as one of the Manson girls in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, yet I can’t help but suspect that — if only subconsciously — there may be another reason why she decided to cast the young actress in the lead role of “Stars at Noon.”
Like so many of Denis’ films, this sweaty romantic thriller about two white foreigners who fall in love (or at least fuck a lot) against the background of Central American political tensions is a cryptic and carnal search for a way out of purgatory. And like so many of Denis’ films, the incandescent “Stars at Noon” is cut with such jagged atemporality that it often seems set in a space between time, where the past never happened and the future may never come.
In this case, that dislocated...
Like so many of Denis’ films, this sweaty romantic thriller about two white foreigners who fall in love (or at least fuck a lot) against the background of Central American political tensions is a cryptic and carnal search for a way out of purgatory. And like so many of Denis’ films, the incandescent “Stars at Noon” is cut with such jagged atemporality that it often seems set in a space between time, where the past never happened and the future may never come.
In this case, that dislocated...
- 5/25/2022
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Claire Denis has spent over 10 years dreaming of adapting “The Stars at Noon,” but didn’t believe it could happen. In 2020, A24 announced the 1984-set thriller would star Robert Pattinson and Margaret Qualley, marking a reunion between Denis and Pattinson after her ambitious outer space drama “High Life.” Yet after Pattinson exited “Stars” due to production delays on “The Batman” amid the Covid-19 pandemic, Denis was seemingly back at square one.
Enter her latest film, “Fire.” “I thought maybe ‘The Stars at Noon’ would never exist, so maybe this is my last film,” Denis told her friend, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, during a talk at New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, presented by Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center. “I don’t know, it was a weird thing.”
“Fire,” also known as “Both Sides of the Blade” in its original title, was filmed during the lockdown with DIY tactics like...
Enter her latest film, “Fire.” “I thought maybe ‘The Stars at Noon’ would never exist, so maybe this is my last film,” Denis told her friend, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, during a talk at New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, presented by Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center. “I don’t know, it was a weird thing.”
“Fire,” also known as “Both Sides of the Blade” in its original title, was filmed during the lockdown with DIY tactics like...
- 3/7/2022
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHong Sang-soo's The Novelist's Film (2022)The competition slate has been announced for this year's Berlinale, featuring the latest by Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Rithy Panh, Phyllis Nagy, Ulrich Seidl, and more. Find the rest of the lineup here. In an interview with Variety, executive Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian discuss their plans for the festival to be an in-person event. Actor Michel Subor has died at the age of 86. Subor captivated audiences with his performances in films like Jean-Luc Godard's Le petit soldat (1960)—he also was the narrator for François Truffaut's Jules and Jim (1962)—and a number of films by Claire Denis, from Beau travail (1999) and L'intrus (2004) to White Material (2009) and Bastards (2013). We recommend reading Yasmina Price's excellent essay on L'intrus and Subor's distinct historiography as an actor. Recommended VIEWINGThe...
- 1/19/2022
- MUBI
Michel Subor, a French actor who rose to international acclaim for his lead performance in Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 feature “Le Petit Soldat” and his narration for François Truffaut’s 1962 romance “Jules et Jim,” died on Monday in a French hospital following a car accident. He was 86 years old.
News of Subor’s death was shared by director Claire Denis on her Instagram and reported by the daily French newspaper Libération. Subor and Denis had collaborated numerous times over the past decades, with their partnership beginning with Subor’s performance in Denis’ 1999 feature “Beau Travail.”
“Michel Subor, the big little soldier is dead,” Denis wrote. Her words have been translated from French. “Our Bruno, the commander.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Claire Denis (@clairedenis6)
Born Mischa Subotzki in Paris, France on Feb. 2, 1935, Subor was raised by parents who had immigrated from the Soviet Union a few years earlier.
News of Subor’s death was shared by director Claire Denis on her Instagram and reported by the daily French newspaper Libération. Subor and Denis had collaborated numerous times over the past decades, with their partnership beginning with Subor’s performance in Denis’ 1999 feature “Beau Travail.”
“Michel Subor, the big little soldier is dead,” Denis wrote. Her words have been translated from French. “Our Bruno, the commander.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Claire Denis (@clairedenis6)
Born Mischa Subotzki in Paris, France on Feb. 2, 1935, Subor was raised by parents who had immigrated from the Soviet Union a few years earlier.
- 1/18/2022
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
In Panama to shoot “The Stars at Noon,” French auteur Claire Denis spoke at an Iff Panama fest panel about shooting the film in Panama and her hallmark “instinctive” filmmaking.
With her were her two male actors, lead Joe Alwyn (“The Favorite”) and rising Panamanian thesp and former wrestler Nick Romano (“Kimura”), who plays a key secondary role. The panel was moderated by Iff Panama festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron.
Based on the eponymous novel by Denis Johnson, “The Stars at Noon” is set in 1984 Nicaragua during the Sandinista-led revolution as it relates the unlikely romance between an enigmatic Englishman (Alwyn) and a willful American journalist, played by Margaret Qualley who’s just received great reviews for her performance in Netflix series “The Maid.” The two lovers are soon caught up in a perilous web of lies and conspiracies and forced to flee the country.
Qualley, who was supposed to be at the panel,...
With her were her two male actors, lead Joe Alwyn (“The Favorite”) and rising Panamanian thesp and former wrestler Nick Romano (“Kimura”), who plays a key secondary role. The panel was moderated by Iff Panama festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron.
Based on the eponymous novel by Denis Johnson, “The Stars at Noon” is set in 1984 Nicaragua during the Sandinista-led revolution as it relates the unlikely romance between an enigmatic Englishman (Alwyn) and a willful American journalist, played by Margaret Qualley who’s just received great reviews for her performance in Netflix series “The Maid.” The two lovers are soon caught up in a perilous web of lies and conspiracies and forced to flee the country.
Qualley, who was supposed to be at the panel,...
- 12/5/2021
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: BAFTA-nominee Carol Morley (Out Of Blue) is underway in Yorkshire, England, on under-the-radar new feature Typist Artist Pirate King, which will star BAFTA winner Monica Dolan (The Dig), Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire) and BAFTA winner Gina McKee (Phantom Thread).
Metro International has boarded sales on the feature and is launching it this week during the virtual AFM. Oscar winner Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog) is among exec-producers.
Drawing from the extensive archives of forgotten artist Audrey Amiss, the film is a road movie of her life, using real events and actual dialogue from Amiss’s letters and diaries to create an imaginary trip. The film explores the growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for endings and reconciliation.
During research for the feature, The Falling and Dreams Of A Life filmmaker Morley uncovered a...
Metro International has boarded sales on the feature and is launching it this week during the virtual AFM. Oscar winner Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog) is among exec-producers.
Drawing from the extensive archives of forgotten artist Audrey Amiss, the film is a road movie of her life, using real events and actual dialogue from Amiss’s letters and diaries to create an imaginary trip. The film explores the growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for endings and reconciliation.
During research for the feature, The Falling and Dreams Of A Life filmmaker Morley uncovered a...
- 11/4/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: The Souvenir Part II. (Courtesy of A24)NYFF has announced its full main slate, which includes Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta, Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir Part II, Julia Ducournau's Titane, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, and more. A long-gestating epistolary documentary that consists of a dialogue between Jean-Luc Godard and Iranian filmmaker and intellectual Ebrahim Golestan is set to premiere on the international festival circuit. The project consisted of Golestan sending emails with text and no visuals to Godard, who would respond with visuals and aphorisms. Mel Brooks' memoir, My Remarkable Life in Show Business, will be released November 30. The book is said to follow the "peaks and valleys" of Brooks' storied life beginning with his childhood, retold with his signature irreverent humor. Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Andreas Fontana's riveting political thriller Azor,...
- 8/11/2021
- MUBI
Director Rachel Lang follows military couples in Our Men, an intriguing insight into French Foreign Legion life that closed the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight section. Lang herself graduated as Lieutenant from the French army, and served in the Sahel desert in 2017, so it’s fair to say she has more knowledge of this world than many filmmakers.
A dramatic feature with documentary level detail, Our Men focuses on two men of different ranks, and their partners. Nika (Ina Marija Bartaité), who is in her early twenties, leaves Ukraine to join her soldier boyfriend Vlad (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) in Corsica, where he is at a camp. There, she meets Céline (Camille Cottin), an older, sophisticated lawyer who is married to commanding officer Maxime (Louis Garrel). Céline spies an opportunity to recruit a babysitter, and Nika looks after their child while longing for one of her own. Vlad does not share her desire to be a parent,...
A dramatic feature with documentary level detail, Our Men focuses on two men of different ranks, and their partners. Nika (Ina Marija Bartaité), who is in her early twenties, leaves Ukraine to join her soldier boyfriend Vlad (Aleksandr Kuznetsov) in Corsica, where he is at a camp. There, she meets Céline (Camille Cottin), an older, sophisticated lawyer who is married to commanding officer Maxime (Louis Garrel). Céline spies an opportunity to recruit a babysitter, and Nika looks after their child while longing for one of her own. Vlad does not share her desire to be a parent,...
- 7/22/2021
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
Cinema Village
“Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village,” a nine-title selection of films both from and beloved by the great director, is underway with tickets running only $5. Read our interview with Ferrara here.
Film at Lincoln Center
The restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk continues, while Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Prints of Full Metal Jacket and The Shining have showings, while 2001 plays on Dcp; non-Kubrick screenings include Beau Travail and The Right Stuff.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge La Piscine,...
Cinema Village
“Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village,” a nine-title selection of films both from and beloved by the great director, is underway with tickets running only $5. Read our interview with Ferrara here.
Film at Lincoln Center
The restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk continues, while Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Prints of Full Metal Jacket and The Shining have showings, while 2001 plays on Dcp; non-Kubrick screenings include Beau Travail and The Right Stuff.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge La Piscine,...
- 7/2/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge has been given a new 4K restoration, while La Piscine and 8½ continue.
Film at Lincoln Center
As the new restoration of In the Mood for Love continues playing daily, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk begins a week-long run.
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big” has a major weekend with Daughters of the Dust, Beau Travail, The Piano, and Do the Right Thing; meanwhile, 2001 plays on 70mm this Friday.
IFC Center
The restoration of Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls continues.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of John Waters’ Polyester and...
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge has been given a new 4K restoration, while La Piscine and 8½ continue.
Film at Lincoln Center
As the new restoration of In the Mood for Love continues playing daily, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk begins a week-long run.
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big” has a major weekend with Daughters of the Dust, Beau Travail, The Piano, and Do the Right Thing; meanwhile, 2001 plays on 70mm this Friday.
IFC Center
The restoration of Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls continues.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of John Waters’ Polyester and...
- 6/24/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
There is no more delicious agony than the one felt when you’re sitting millimeters from your crush, wondering who’s going to make the first move, or if someone will at all. That unbearable, painful erotic tension is more or less the sustained mood of Oliver Hermanus’ shimmering and sensual military drama “Moffie,” which is Set in 1981 South Africa at the apex of the South African Border War, the film’s story of gay unrequited desire turns out to be a casing for something far more lethal in its marrow.
“Moffie” is Afrikaans slang for “faggot,” and the film, which is based on André Carl van der Merwe’s autobiographical novel of the same name, attempts a bold gesture in reclaiming epithet as an emblem of power. It’s 1981, South Africa, which means it’s not okay to be a “moffie”; effeminacy is a sign of weakness, and being gay is also illegal.
“Moffie” is Afrikaans slang for “faggot,” and the film, which is based on André Carl van der Merwe’s autobiographical novel of the same name, attempts a bold gesture in reclaiming epithet as an emblem of power. It’s 1981, South Africa, which means it’s not okay to be a “moffie”; effeminacy is a sign of weakness, and being gay is also illegal.
- 4/9/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The opening shot is of Katia Golubeva, playing the unnamed Angel of Death, lighting her cigarette as a disembodied voiceover, which still seems to belong to her, says “Your worst enemies are hiding inside, in the shadow, hiding in your heart.” Claire Denis’s 2004 L’intrus is a film of internal threats. It places the inconsolability of self-alienation and the impossibility of ever escaping yourself into fraught relation with the porous borders of the body and refusals of sociality. One of the signatures of Denis’s cinema is her sensualist fixation on bodies, isolated but also integrated into space, offering them as moving surfaces that themselves tell stories and resist the stories imposed on them. Possibly both intruder and intruded upon, Michel Subor as Louis Trebor is the absent heart of L’intrus, his failing body catalyzing the narrative crisis surrounding his travels for a heart transplant. A crisis that is...
- 3/26/2021
- MUBI
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
Superlatives are fatuous, but Mads Mikkelsen’s final dance in Another Round was possibly one of the finest scenes of the year. It is here that Thomas Vinterberg tips his hand: in turns devastating and rambunctious, his latest neither glorifies nor condemns the magic––and sorrows––of day-drinking, but conjures a surprisingly sober study of a midlife crisis, climaxing in this moment of blissful catharsis. As a character-defining moment, it’s up there with Denis Lavant’s pirouettes at the end of Claire Denis’ Beau Travail. – Leonardo G.
Where to Stream: Hulu
Audrey (Helena Coan)
Despite her status as one of the most iconic movie stars in history,...
Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg)
Superlatives are fatuous, but Mads Mikkelsen’s final dance in Another Round was possibly one of the finest scenes of the year. It is here that Thomas Vinterberg tips his hand: in turns devastating and rambunctious, his latest neither glorifies nor condemns the magic––and sorrows––of day-drinking, but conjures a surprisingly sober study of a midlife crisis, climaxing in this moment of blissful catharsis. As a character-defining moment, it’s up there with Denis Lavant’s pirouettes at the end of Claire Denis’ Beau Travail. – Leonardo G.
Where to Stream: Hulu
Audrey (Helena Coan)
Despite her status as one of the most iconic movie stars in history,...
- 3/19/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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No matter how convenient our digital lives are, there’s still something special about physical media — especially when it’s so beautifully and thoughtfully curated by the Criterion Collection.
Each of Criterion’s releases takes an exemplary film, from auteur classic to Hollywood blockbuster and everything in between, and includes a slew of special features — commentary tracks, restored film transfers, essays about its importance in the cinematic pantheon — that help “deepen the viewer’s understanding and appreciation of the art of cinema.”
While there are literally hundreds of important classic and contemporary...
Products featured are independently selected by our editorial team and we may earn a commission from purchases made from our links.
No matter how convenient our digital lives are, there’s still something special about physical media — especially when it’s so beautifully and thoughtfully curated by the Criterion Collection.
Each of Criterion’s releases takes an exemplary film, from auteur classic to Hollywood blockbuster and everything in between, and includes a slew of special features — commentary tracks, restored film transfers, essays about its importance in the cinematic pantheon — that help “deepen the viewer’s understanding and appreciation of the art of cinema.”
While there are literally hundreds of important classic and contemporary...
- 11/5/2020
- by Jean Bentley
- Indiewire
The November 2020 lineup for The Criterion Channel has been unveiled, toplined by a Claire Denis retrospective, including the brand-new restoration of Beau travail, along with Chocolat, No Fear, No Die, Nenette and Boni, Towards Mathilde, 35 Shots of Rum, and White Material.
There will also be a series celebrating 30 years of The Film Foundation, featuring a new interview with Martin Scorsese by Ari Aster, as well as a number of their most essential restorations, including films by Jia Zhangke, Ritwik Ghatak, Luchino Visconti, Shirley Clarke, Med Hondo, and more.
There’s also David Lynch’s new restoration of The Elephant Man, retrospectives dedicated to Ngozi Onwurah, Nadav Lapid, and Terence Nance, a new edition of the series Queersighted titled Queer Fear, featuring a new conversation between series programmer Michael Koresky and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman, and much more.
See the lineup below and learn more on the official site.
There will also be a series celebrating 30 years of The Film Foundation, featuring a new interview with Martin Scorsese by Ari Aster, as well as a number of their most essential restorations, including films by Jia Zhangke, Ritwik Ghatak, Luchino Visconti, Shirley Clarke, Med Hondo, and more.
There’s also David Lynch’s new restoration of The Elephant Man, retrospectives dedicated to Ngozi Onwurah, Nadav Lapid, and Terence Nance, a new edition of the series Queersighted titled Queer Fear, featuring a new conversation between series programmer Michael Koresky and filmmaker and critic Farihah Zaman, and much more.
See the lineup below and learn more on the official site.
- 10/27/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
If we’re to subscribe to the common belief that there’s more bad than good out there in the world, as far as cinema is concerned, then one could make the argument that many middle-of-the-road motion pictures operate as visually-driven information-delivery systems: a means by which filmmakers can bring exposition, jokes, thrills, and ultimately, a resolution to an audience. Claire Denis is not a filmmaker who subscribes to this reductive artistic philosophy.
Read More: ‘Beau Travail’ 4K Restoration Trailer: Claire Denis’ Classic Film Is Getting A Re-Release In September
The word “poet” gets thrown around to describe filmmakers willy-nilly these days, but few have earned the term by virtue of their rhapsodically unconventional visual style as much as Denis has over the course of her remarkable career.
Continue reading The Essentials: The Films Of Claire Denis at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘Beau Travail’ 4K Restoration Trailer: Claire Denis’ Classic Film Is Getting A Re-Release In September
The word “poet” gets thrown around to describe filmmakers willy-nilly these days, but few have earned the term by virtue of their rhapsodically unconventional visual style as much as Denis has over the course of her remarkable career.
Continue reading The Essentials: The Films Of Claire Denis at The Playlist.
- 9/22/2020
- by The Playlist
- The Playlist
The Venice Film Festival, which reinvigorated the fall festival season with a physical event that began on September 2 in Italy, concluded on Saturday with its annual awards ceremony. See the full list of winners and watch the live stream below.
Led by president Cate Blanchett, the jurors for the main competition included Austrian director Veronika Franz, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir”), Italian writer and novelist Nicola Lagioia, German filmmaker Christian Petzold, actor Matt Dillon (“Crash”), and French actress Ludivine Sagnier.
Together, they awarded the festival’s top prizes, including the Golden Lion, which last year went to “Joker” under jury president Lucrecia Martel. This year’s Golden Lion went to “Nomadland,” which received a rapturous reception out of the Toronto International Film Festival as well this week, and looks to be headed straight for Oscar contention.
Meanwhile, in the Orizzonti, or Horizons, section running parallel to the main competition,...
Led by president Cate Blanchett, the jurors for the main competition included Austrian director Veronika Franz, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg (“The Souvenir”), Italian writer and novelist Nicola Lagioia, German filmmaker Christian Petzold, actor Matt Dillon (“Crash”), and French actress Ludivine Sagnier.
Together, they awarded the festival’s top prizes, including the Golden Lion, which last year went to “Joker” under jury president Lucrecia Martel. This year’s Golden Lion went to “Nomadland,” which received a rapturous reception out of the Toronto International Film Festival as well this week, and looks to be headed straight for Oscar contention.
Meanwhile, in the Orizzonti, or Horizons, section running parallel to the main competition,...
- 9/12/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Presiding over Venice Film Festival’s Horizons jury, French filmmaker Claire Denis stopped by the festival and Mastercard’s “Life Through a Different Lens: Contactless Connections” talk on Thursday. The “Beau Travail” helmer addressed the female directors issue head on. “I am not a pioneer. There weren’t many women when I started, I knew there wasn’t going to be a lot of support, but since #MeToo there is this fight to have more of them present, also at festivals. It doesn’t mean that it used to be hard and now it’s oh-so-easy. Making films is difficult for men and for women. But more difficult for women, still.”
Asked about pointers for those who want to embark on a similar career, Denis replied: “Be stubborn. That’s the only thing I know. When you say ‘embark,’ I see someone getting on a boat, crossing the oceans, and...
Asked about pointers for those who want to embark on a similar career, Denis replied: “Be stubborn. That’s the only thing I know. When you say ‘embark,’ I see someone getting on a boat, crossing the oceans, and...
- 9/12/2020
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
The first time I saw Claire Denis' Beau Travail -- at a Cinematheque Ontario screening, which must have been long enough ago that it was before the TIFF Bell Lightbox -- I was convinced throughout, and for quite a while afterwards, that I hated it. Languid, intense, dependent more on movement and musculature than the featherweight rubric of its plot, Beau Travail doesn't so much reward a close reading as outright deny the need for such. Naturally, within a night (or a dream) of its final moments, I realized it was one of the best films I'd ever seen. The story, such as it is, dwells on a battle of wills between three men in the French Foreign Legion, that ancient colonizing force, here stationed...
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- 9/9/2020
- Screen Anarchy
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
One of my most-desired restorations in many years has finally arrived. Claire Denis’s 1999 masterpiece Beau Travail, a Djibouti-set exploration of masculinity, sexuality, isolation, and power structures, will be arriving on The Criterion Collection but first a digital release has landed. Recently undergoing a new 4K digital restoration––supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by director Claire Denis, courtesy of Janus Films––it is simply one of the best films you will ever see, with an all-timer of an ending. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Feels Good Man (Arthur Jones)
A small, harmless frog peacefully existing by the water is...
Beau Travail (Claire Denis)
One of my most-desired restorations in many years has finally arrived. Claire Denis’s 1999 masterpiece Beau Travail, a Djibouti-set exploration of masculinity, sexuality, isolation, and power structures, will be arriving on The Criterion Collection but first a digital release has landed. Recently undergoing a new 4K digital restoration––supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by director Claire Denis, courtesy of Janus Films––it is simply one of the best films you will ever see, with an all-timer of an ending. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: Virtual Cinemas
Feels Good Man (Arthur Jones)
A small, harmless frog peacefully existing by the water is...
- 9/4/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"Careful what you're saying. Backstabbing isn't in the Legion's honor code." Janus Films has revealed a new re-release trailer for an acclaimed French drama titled Beau Travail, one of the early films made by filmmaker Claire Denis. It first premiered in 1999 at both the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals in the fall, then played at the Sundance Film Festival the next year. This film focuses on an ex-Foreign Legion officer as he recalls his once glorious life, leading troops in Djibouti. Criterion explains: "Denis and cinematographer Agnès Godard fold military and masculine codes of honor, colonialism’s legacy, destructive jealousy, and repressed desire into shimmering, hypnotic images that ultimately explode in one of the most startling and unforgettable endings in all of modern cinema." Starring Denis Lavant, Michel Subor, and Grégoire Colin. This 4K digital restoration was supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by director Claire Denis.
- 8/17/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
There was recently a Twitter thread going around asking which director has never made a bad film. Among my picks was Claire Denis, and one of the highlights in a career full of them is certainly the French director’s 1999 masterpiece Beau Travail, a Djibouti-set exploration of masculinity, sexuality, isolation, and power structures. Recently undergoing a new 4K digital restoration––supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by director Claire Denis, courtesy of Janus Films––the film will now arrive in Virtual Cinemas before a Criterion release next month.
Set to debut at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles, Coolidge Corner in Boston, the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, the Salt Lake Film Society in Salt Lake City, and the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, with additional theaters and dates to come, a new trailer and poster have now arrived to get a preview of the stunning restoration.
Set to debut at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, Laemmle Theatres in Los Angeles, Coolidge Corner in Boston, the Music Box Theatre in Chicago, the Salt Lake Film Society in Salt Lake City, and the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville, with additional theaters and dates to come, a new trailer and poster have now arrived to get a preview of the stunning restoration.
- 8/14/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Without a doubt, Claire Denis is one of the best filmmakers working today. Over the decades, she has continuously created some of the most interesting and unique features to grace the big screen, including her most recent film, “High Life,” starring Robert Pattinson. And more than 20 years after one of her greatest films was released, Janus Films is ready to reintroduce the world to “Beau Travail.”
Read More: Claire Denis Is Using Quarantine To Write A Script & Watch Films From Michael Mann, Nagisa Oshima & More
As seen in the new trailer for “Beau Travail,” Denis’ classic film is getting a brand-new 4K restoration that is supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by the director.
Continue reading ‘Beau Travail’ 4K Restoration Trailer: Claire Denis’ Classic Film Is Getting A Re-Release In September at The Playlist.
Read More: Claire Denis Is Using Quarantine To Write A Script & Watch Films From Michael Mann, Nagisa Oshima & More
As seen in the new trailer for “Beau Travail,” Denis’ classic film is getting a brand-new 4K restoration that is supervised by director of photography Agnès Godard and approved by the director.
Continue reading ‘Beau Travail’ 4K Restoration Trailer: Claire Denis’ Classic Film Is Getting A Re-Release In September at The Playlist.
- 8/14/2020
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
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