- Screen Daily has gathered some more details on the upcoming financing slate for the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein Film Fund. The Ffhsh is a film funding entity that provides subsidies for both features and TV productions that promise high-quality content as well as showcasing the states of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein. As we reported yesterday, the institution has funneled $1.26 million into Fatih Akin’s upcoming comedy Soul Kitchen. That represents the largest single contribution of a $4.8 million initiative to fund new films by local auteurs Tom Tykwer (left), Hans Weingartner (center), and Akin (right). Also included in the allocation is funding for international co-productions helmed by France’s Eleonore Faucher (A Common Thread), Norway's Sara Johnsen (Kissed by Winter) and Poland's Radek Wegrzyn, the lone fresh face of the bunch. Details are scarce on the various projects. Along with the Akin’s comedy, Wegrzyn will be mining for laughs with Father, Son
- 6/11/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Reclaim Your Brain
San Sebastian Film Festival
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- The theme of Reclaim Your Brain is how crass TV is corrupting the minds of the masses. But the movie's very own lack of subtlety undermines its message. German director Hans Weingartner, whose last feature The Edukators did well in the Art House market across Europe, fails to engage from the start. The two main characters are not well-constructed and some plot lines do not seem credible. The crudeness of the film may limit its appeal to German-speaking markets.
TV producer Rainer (Moritz Bleibtreu) got to the top by making vulgar programs such as one in which contestants compete to make a master race. Then the mysterious Pegah (Elsa Schultz Gambar) smashes into his car in revenge for her grandfather's suicide, caused by one of Rainer's shows. Suddenly Rainer is inspired to make intelligent programs. When they fail, he sets off with Pegah to uncover a conspiracy surrounding the rigging of audience figures to ensure the masses are fed only trash TV.
The film's struggles come largely in the area of poorly developed main characters. An opening sequence of cocaine-snorting Rainer speeding through traffic in his sports car plays out a tired cliche. And character of the beautiful Pegah is sketchy in the extreme.
Weingartner and co-writer Katherine Held throw in a series of improbable plot turns. When Rainer is confronted by Pegah, the explanation of her grandfather's suicide seems unlikely. Rainer's decision to jeopardize a highly successful career to save the nation's brains is equally improbable.
But when the pair pull off their "revolution," Germans suddenly immerse themselves in high culture. This works well as comedy: Scenes of Germans throw awaying their TVs and meeting to discuss poetry -- captured by TV news bulletins -- amuse. When Rainer's gang subvert the TV ratings system, Weingartner plays this for laughs well.
The unlikely star of Reclaim Your Brain is Milan Peschel, who plays the conspiracy-obsessed oddball Philip. Peschel can do both zany and shy convincingly. But Philip's decision to throw his lot in with two strangers to embark on a TV revolution doesn't ring true.
This movie might succeed as a comedy romp in its native land, but the jokes may be too direct and culturally specific for the film to travel much beyond home.
RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN
Kahunna films GmbH with coop99 Filmproduktion GmbH
Credits:
Director: Hans Weingartner
Writers: Katherine Held, Hans Weingartner
Producters: Hans Weingartner, Antonin Svoboda
Director of photography: Christine A. Maier
Production designer: Udo Kramer
Music: Adam Ilhan, Andreas Wodraschke
Costume designer: Thomas Olah
Editing: Andreas Wodraschke
Cast:
Rainer: Moritz Bleibtreu
Pegah: Elsa Schultz Gambard
Philip: Milan Peschel
Maiwald: Gregor Bloeb
Anna: Simone Hanselmann
Running time -- 129 minutes
No MPAA rating...
SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain -- The theme of Reclaim Your Brain is how crass TV is corrupting the minds of the masses. But the movie's very own lack of subtlety undermines its message. German director Hans Weingartner, whose last feature The Edukators did well in the Art House market across Europe, fails to engage from the start. The two main characters are not well-constructed and some plot lines do not seem credible. The crudeness of the film may limit its appeal to German-speaking markets.
TV producer Rainer (Moritz Bleibtreu) got to the top by making vulgar programs such as one in which contestants compete to make a master race. Then the mysterious Pegah (Elsa Schultz Gambar) smashes into his car in revenge for her grandfather's suicide, caused by one of Rainer's shows. Suddenly Rainer is inspired to make intelligent programs. When they fail, he sets off with Pegah to uncover a conspiracy surrounding the rigging of audience figures to ensure the masses are fed only trash TV.
The film's struggles come largely in the area of poorly developed main characters. An opening sequence of cocaine-snorting Rainer speeding through traffic in his sports car plays out a tired cliche. And character of the beautiful Pegah is sketchy in the extreme.
Weingartner and co-writer Katherine Held throw in a series of improbable plot turns. When Rainer is confronted by Pegah, the explanation of her grandfather's suicide seems unlikely. Rainer's decision to jeopardize a highly successful career to save the nation's brains is equally improbable.
But when the pair pull off their "revolution," Germans suddenly immerse themselves in high culture. This works well as comedy: Scenes of Germans throw awaying their TVs and meeting to discuss poetry -- captured by TV news bulletins -- amuse. When Rainer's gang subvert the TV ratings system, Weingartner plays this for laughs well.
The unlikely star of Reclaim Your Brain is Milan Peschel, who plays the conspiracy-obsessed oddball Philip. Peschel can do both zany and shy convincingly. But Philip's decision to throw his lot in with two strangers to embark on a TV revolution doesn't ring true.
This movie might succeed as a comedy romp in its native land, but the jokes may be too direct and culturally specific for the film to travel much beyond home.
RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN
Kahunna films GmbH with coop99 Filmproduktion GmbH
Credits:
Director: Hans Weingartner
Writers: Katherine Held, Hans Weingartner
Producters: Hans Weingartner, Antonin Svoboda
Director of photography: Christine A. Maier
Production designer: Udo Kramer
Music: Adam Ilhan, Andreas Wodraschke
Costume designer: Thomas Olah
Editing: Andreas Wodraschke
Cast:
Rainer: Moritz Bleibtreu
Pegah: Elsa Schultz Gambard
Philip: Milan Peschel
Maiwald: Gregor Bloeb
Anna: Simone Hanselmann
Running time -- 129 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 12/13/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Weingartner, Mantovani team for 'Nanny'
San Sebastian, Spain -- Austrian director Hans Weingartner, in San Sebastian with his competition entry Reclaim Your Brain, is teaming with City of God screenwriter Braulio Mantovani for his next project, Nanny.
Nanny revolves around two women who leave their families in South America to become domestic servants in the U.S. As with Weingartner's previous two films -- Brain and The Edukators -- it is an undisguised attack on the abuses of modern capitalism.
"It looks at the perversion of the system, where rich countries have to import love and caring (for their children) from the Third World," Weingartner told The Hollywood Reporter. "How these women are forced to leave their own families to go and provide for the rich."
Weingartner made his name on the international film scene with his second feature, Edukators, which debuted in Cannes and went on to win several awards, including the German Film Critics prize for best film. Palmer West and Jonah Smith of production outfit Thousand Worlds have picked up the U.S.
Nanny revolves around two women who leave their families in South America to become domestic servants in the U.S. As with Weingartner's previous two films -- Brain and The Edukators -- it is an undisguised attack on the abuses of modern capitalism.
"It looks at the perversion of the system, where rich countries have to import love and caring (for their children) from the Third World," Weingartner told The Hollywood Reporter. "How these women are forced to leave their own families to go and provide for the rich."
Weingartner made his name on the international film scene with his second feature, Edukators, which debuted in Cannes and went on to win several awards, including the German Film Critics prize for best film. Palmer West and Jonah Smith of production outfit Thousand Worlds have picked up the U.S.
- 9/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Tense times as Toronto fest gets under way
More Toronto fest news
TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival is likely to be a highly charged poker game, with plenty of wild cards in play.
A possible actors strike next summer could dry up indie slates. Distributors still are absorbing films that they acquired during January's unexpected buyer frenzy at the Sundance Film Festival. New distributors with deep pockets are entering the market. And few, if any, Oscar contenders have emerged so far, adding to the pressure for the fall awards hopefuls to deliver the goods.
All these factors could impact the annual north-of-the-border festival.
"The mood is panic", TIFF director Noah Cowan said Wednesday on the eve of the festival. "There are a lot of important movies that people are eager to see."
He estimated that this year's lineup contains about 40 movies with Oscar potential, plus 10 likely candidates for U.S. acquisition and another 10 prestige titles likely to find international buyers.
Although Cowan and TIFF Sales and Industry Office head Giulia Filippelli take pains to insist that Toronto isn't a market, the fest is making itself more buyer-friendly. Last year's debut of 15 extra buyers-only screenings has been replaced with an extra 31 "priority press screenings." Only buyers and a select number of media members with a soon-to-be-coveted "P" on their badges are allowed in these showings until 15 minutes before they start, when the gates are opened for all press and industry who can be accommodated.
The extra screenings, which average four a day, would appear to be a compromise with critics who felt the extra buyers-only screenings were too insular and exclusionary, while providing a top-tier alternative for line-dreading buyers jumping from theater to theater for select titles.
Films on the list include Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor", Paolo Barzman's "Emotional Arithmetic" and Hans Weingartner's "Reclaim Your Brain", plus several others that already have domestic distribution. Filippelli said that these are additional screenings beyond the usual number, so no one is being shut out. Her other initiatives include a detailed list of all available rights by territory.
Many buyers are downplaying the list of available titles at Toronto, but some of the same buyers also bemoan the lack of available good titles in advance of this year's Sundance before big checks began flying for foreign films with no stars. "A lot of films that were overpriced at Sundance haven't been released, so a lot of people haven't drunk the Kool-Aid," Red Envelope Entertainment head Bahman Naraghi said.
TORONTO -- The Toronto International Film Festival is likely to be a highly charged poker game, with plenty of wild cards in play.
A possible actors strike next summer could dry up indie slates. Distributors still are absorbing films that they acquired during January's unexpected buyer frenzy at the Sundance Film Festival. New distributors with deep pockets are entering the market. And few, if any, Oscar contenders have emerged so far, adding to the pressure for the fall awards hopefuls to deliver the goods.
All these factors could impact the annual north-of-the-border festival.
"The mood is panic", TIFF director Noah Cowan said Wednesday on the eve of the festival. "There are a lot of important movies that people are eager to see."
He estimated that this year's lineup contains about 40 movies with Oscar potential, plus 10 likely candidates for U.S. acquisition and another 10 prestige titles likely to find international buyers.
Although Cowan and TIFF Sales and Industry Office head Giulia Filippelli take pains to insist that Toronto isn't a market, the fest is making itself more buyer-friendly. Last year's debut of 15 extra buyers-only screenings has been replaced with an extra 31 "priority press screenings." Only buyers and a select number of media members with a soon-to-be-coveted "P" on their badges are allowed in these showings until 15 minutes before they start, when the gates are opened for all press and industry who can be accommodated.
The extra screenings, which average four a day, would appear to be a compromise with critics who felt the extra buyers-only screenings were too insular and exclusionary, while providing a top-tier alternative for line-dreading buyers jumping from theater to theater for select titles.
Films on the list include Tom McCarthy's "The Visitor", Paolo Barzman's "Emotional Arithmetic" and Hans Weingartner's "Reclaim Your Brain", plus several others that already have domestic distribution. Filippelli said that these are additional screenings beyond the usual number, so no one is being shut out. Her other initiatives include a detailed list of all available rights by territory.
Many buyers are downplaying the list of available titles at Toronto, but some of the same buyers also bemoan the lack of available good titles in advance of this year's Sundance before big checks began flying for foreign films with no stars. "A lot of films that were overpriced at Sundance haven't been released, so a lot of people haven't drunk the Kool-Aid," Red Envelope Entertainment head Bahman Naraghi said.
- 9/6/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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