On Saturday night, spoken-word poet Amanda Gorman took the stage at New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall with classical cellist Jan Vogler for a thrilling night of cross-disciplinary art.
Gorman, who made her name performing one of her poems at President Joe Biden‘s inaugural in Washington, D.C., might not seem like a tight fit with the works of Bach, who composed his cello suites in 18th Century Germany.
But Gorman and Vogler found a way to have their disparate arts speak in a dialogue with each other.
Gorman performed her works “An Ode We Owe,” “Fugue,” “New Day’s Lyric” and “The Hill We Climb” in between performances by Vogler of Bach’s Cello Suites No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5.
In an inspired finale, Gorman recited an energetic poem while Vogler played a final suite simultaneously.
It was a stimulating evening showing the possibilities of art when convention...
Gorman, who made her name performing one of her poems at President Joe Biden‘s inaugural in Washington, D.C., might not seem like a tight fit with the works of Bach, who composed his cello suites in 18th Century Germany.
But Gorman and Vogler found a way to have their disparate arts speak in a dialogue with each other.
Gorman performed her works “An Ode We Owe,” “Fugue,” “New Day’s Lyric” and “The Hill We Climb” in between performances by Vogler of Bach’s Cello Suites No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5.
In an inspired finale, Gorman recited an energetic poem while Vogler played a final suite simultaneously.
It was a stimulating evening showing the possibilities of art when convention...
- 2/20/2024
- by Erik Meers
- Uinterview
Squid have shared a new single called “Fugue (Bin Song),” an outtake from the sessions of their recent sophomore album O Monolith.
After implementing it into their live performances over the past few years, Squid recorded “Fugue (Bin Song)” in spring 2022 as they were making O Monolith alongside their longtime collaborator Dan Carey at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio. After its initial iteration didn’t make the cut on the record, Tortoise’s John McEntire re-mixed and edited the tune in late 2023, resulting in the version we hear today.
At nearly five and a half minutes, “Fugue” is a wandering jam that draws from elements of dance punk, post rock, and noise pop. You can hear a bit of McEntire’s influence as the song culminates into a furious coda, almost like “TNT” with a lot more shredding. Stream it below.
Get Squid Tickets Here
Squid will also be...
After implementing it into their live performances over the past few years, Squid recorded “Fugue (Bin Song)” in spring 2022 as they were making O Monolith alongside their longtime collaborator Dan Carey at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio. After its initial iteration didn’t make the cut on the record, Tortoise’s John McEntire re-mixed and edited the tune in late 2023, resulting in the version we hear today.
At nearly five and a half minutes, “Fugue” is a wandering jam that draws from elements of dance punk, post rock, and noise pop. You can hear a bit of McEntire’s influence as the song culminates into a furious coda, almost like “TNT” with a lot more shredding. Stream it below.
Get Squid Tickets Here
Squid will also be...
- 1/24/2024
- by Abby Jones
- Consequence - Music
Rivalry, jealousy, loneliness, disappointment and betrayal are experiences that nearly every student must go through in order to grow. Gabriela Muskala’s feature debut The Clowns uses these subjects to create a compelling coming of age drama with a twist. Being a successful actress herself, the Polish director gets the best out of her actors, giving them the chance to depict the turbulent reality of drama school in their first appearance on the big screen.
The story centres on students from a Faculty of Acting who are supposed to make a graduation film. They are very excited to learn that they will be working with Gajda (Oskar Hamerski), a director notoriously famous for his extreme acting methods, whose task introduces biblical and Polish romanticism characters into their mundane life. The students need to portray Cain, who kills his brother Abel out of jealousy because God preferred...
The story centres on students from a Faculty of Acting who are supposed to make a graduation film. They are very excited to learn that they will be working with Gajda (Oskar Hamerski), a director notoriously famous for his extreme acting methods, whose task introduces biblical and Polish romanticism characters into their mundane life. The students need to portray Cain, who kills his brother Abel out of jealousy because God preferred...
- 10/14/2023
- by Marija Lukarevska
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Clowns stands as a successful debut in the career of Polish director Gabriela Muskała, who distinguished herself in the film Fugue (2018), both as a screenwriter and as an actress. There is a distinct blend of electrifying fiction and real-life events, and it's evident that her work in this instance is deeply tied to a sense of personal involvement. This is exemplified by her collaboration with students from the Łódź Film School, who attempt to subvert the traditional coming-of-age paradigm by employing a broad spectrum of of classical texts.
The group of drama students learns during their acting classes that the prodigy-director, Gajda (Oskar Hamerski), freshly returned from Cannes, intends to hold auditions for his upcoming project. The unusual nature of the film takes shape during the audition and selection process, as two pairs of actors are chosen to portray the roles of Cain and Abel, as well as Balladyna.
The group of drama students learns during their acting classes that the prodigy-director, Gajda (Oskar Hamerski), freshly returned from Cannes, intends to hold auditions for his upcoming project. The unusual nature of the film takes shape during the audition and selection process, as two pairs of actors are chosen to portray the roles of Cain and Abel, as well as Balladyna.
- 10/13/2023
- by Dalesia Cozorici
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Warsaw Film Festival sets out to spotlight a slew of new local releases, from “Anxiety” by Sławomir Fabicki – Oscar-nominated for his short “A Man Thing” – to this year’s opener “Song of Goats” by Andrzej Jakimowski.
The latter, featuring “Eo” star Mateusz Kościukiewicz and set in Greece, will show characters living close to an active volcano, exploring the question of how “each of us is responsible for maintaining our fragile heritage,” says the director.
“We are witnessing a war in a neighboring country [Ukraine], threats from a barbarian empire and rapidly growing populism that is devastating politics. It’s a dreadfully worrying mixture.”
As Poland braces for parliamentary elections on Oct. 15 and the controversy over Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” refuses to die down, emotions run high.
“What happened went beyond the accepted framework. There was no shortage of absurdity, like the attempt to force cinema managers to screen propaganda material before the film,...
The latter, featuring “Eo” star Mateusz Kościukiewicz and set in Greece, will show characters living close to an active volcano, exploring the question of how “each of us is responsible for maintaining our fragile heritage,” says the director.
“We are witnessing a war in a neighboring country [Ukraine], threats from a barbarian empire and rapidly growing populism that is devastating politics. It’s a dreadfully worrying mixture.”
As Poland braces for parliamentary elections on Oct. 15 and the controversy over Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border” refuses to die down, emotions run high.
“What happened went beyond the accepted framework. There was no shortage of absurdity, like the attempt to force cinema managers to screen propaganda material before the film,...
- 10/5/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Hedge Funds into Festivals: Future Frames — Generation Next of European Cinema at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2023Can U.S. companies be viewing international film festivals in a new light that foretells a new source of financing for the festivals which are facing the same cutbacks as all other cultural initiatives as post-Covid inflation and arming big wars take the lion’s share of capital?
Sydney Levine
Published in
SydneysBuzz The Blog
·5 min read·4 days ago
Three important new players are eyeing ten emerging European film directors as they launch their careers in the film industry at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the 8th edition of Future Frames — Generation Next of European Cinema organized by the European Film Promotion and Kviff. The selected participants, chosen among film students and graduates, will showcase their films to the festival audience and engage in an intensive program that will introduce them to the film industry and media in a way that goes beyond the borders of Europe.
The final 10, chosen by Kviff’s artistic director Karel Och and his team of programmers follow a two-part schedule, starting with an online pre-program of pitching training and industry meetings. During the festival, Efp introduces the young directors and their films to the public, film industry and press. The three-day on-site event running from 2 July is rounded off by this year’s mentor, the acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska who will provide an exclusive private master class for the young filmmakers.
*** click here for more information about you might be selected ***
The new financing infusion comes from future-seeing U.S.- and U.K.-based bigtime cultural business for this year’s Future Frames program
A new partnership with leading multi-national lottery operator Allwyn as well as U.S.-based talent agency UTA and management company Range Media Partners will provide feedback and guidance to the filmmakers. One participant will ultimately be selected who will receive a special scholarship sponsored by Allwyn to go to Los Angeles and learn from the best in the film industry.
UTA’s partnership with the Karlovy Vary Film Festival may be explained in part by the agency’s partner Rena Ronson. The first woman to run an independent financing, packaging and sales department at an agency as sole head, she now co-heads UTA Independent Film Group. In reading her in-depth interview with Screen International, readers will learn what gives Rena her special international view of film, something sorely lacking in most U.S. major players.
U.S. based venture capital as invested in Range Media Partners is also aiming outward from the U.S. The largest startup in Hollywood’s talent representation sector in years, Rmp was launched in late summer 2020 during the Covid pandemic. Its founders and partners, two former agents from CAA, Peter Micelli and Jack Whigham, have an ambitious vision for the management, production and business development side of the industry. With financial backing coming former Wall Street hedge funder Steven A. Cohen’ who reached a $1.2 billion settlement of insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2013, his private equity firm, Point72, has been a valued advisor but has no day-to-day role in running the agency. Their combined vision sees going beyond classic booking roles in TV shows and movies into the empire-building of business development and venture capital investments. Range Media now has nearly 150 staffers thanks to the financial backing from Point72 and it has expanded quickly through another partnership with A+E Networks that gives it a boost in content production and distribution.
Agnieszka Smoczyńska
In an exclusive master class entitled “How to make your first movie“, Agnieszka Smoczyńska will talk about her experiences and encourage the young directors to follow their ideas and go their own ways. Smoczyńska will present her highly-acclaimed first feature film, The Lure, a mixture of musical and horror film.
Agnieszka Smoczyńska debuted in 2015 with The Lure– genre-bending, horror-musical mashup which won awards around the world, at dozens of international festivals, including Sundance Film Festival Porto, Sofia, Montreal, Vilnius. The Lure is a part of the prestigious Criterion Collection and was theatrically released in US via Janus Film. Her second feature film Fugue premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week. In 2023, it was released in US theaters. In 2022, her English-language debut, The Silent Twins starring Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. Smoczyńska took part in the European Cinema: Ten Women Filmmakers to Watch program. She was also a winner of the Global Filmmaking Award sponsored by the Sundance Institute. In 2022 she was among five directors to watch at Cannes Film Festival.
About Allwyn
Announced as a main partner of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in April 2023, Allwyn, a leading multi-national lottery operator, will support the Future Frames initiative for three years. As a main partner of Kviff, Allwyn will host the Allwyn Future Frames Lounge on site and bring the ten emerging European talents together with industry leaders, including overseas talent agency UTA and management company Range Media Partners.
“We look forward to welcoming all the talented directors to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this year, selected as part of the Future Frames initiative. We are also very much looking forward to welcoming one of the ten directors on the newly established scholarship to Hollywood, introduced this year in partnership with UTA and Range Media. Changing lives is core to our mission and we are very pleased to be affording talented directors the opportunity to work with the very best in the film industry,” said Pavel Turek, Allwyn’s Chief Officer of Global Brand, Corporate Communication, and Csr.
This year’s group not only has experience in festivals, but the 10 also includes two award winners such as Germany’s Sophia Mocorrea who won the Short Film Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival and received a Special Mention at this year’s Berlinale with her film The Kidnapping of the Bride in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section. The Netherlands’ Joris Tobé’s Frantic Attempts won the Knf Award for Best Graduation Project at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2022. Other films from this year’s Berlinale include The Shift by Denmark’s Amalie Maria Nielsen (Generation Kplus) and Spain’s Christian Avilés’ Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays(Berlinale Shorts). Heart Fruit by Kim Allamand celebrated its world premiere in the Pardi Di Domani section at the Locarno Film Festival last year.
For more details of the selected 10, click here.
Also chosen are Czech Republic’s Anna Izabela Wowra for Stuck Together, Italy’s Giulia Regini for Cut From the Same Cow, Lithuania’s Rinaldas Tomaševičius for 15, Portugal’s Inês Pedrosa e Melo for Home, Revised, Slovak Republic’s Monika Mahútová for Standing Still and Switzerland’s Kim Allamand for Heart Fruit.
MoviesInternational FilmFilm FestivalsWomen In FilmFilm Financing...
Sydney Levine
Published in
SydneysBuzz The Blog
·5 min read·4 days ago
Three important new players are eyeing ten emerging European film directors as they launch their careers in the film industry at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the 8th edition of Future Frames — Generation Next of European Cinema organized by the European Film Promotion and Kviff. The selected participants, chosen among film students and graduates, will showcase their films to the festival audience and engage in an intensive program that will introduce them to the film industry and media in a way that goes beyond the borders of Europe.
The final 10, chosen by Kviff’s artistic director Karel Och and his team of programmers follow a two-part schedule, starting with an online pre-program of pitching training and industry meetings. During the festival, Efp introduces the young directors and their films to the public, film industry and press. The three-day on-site event running from 2 July is rounded off by this year’s mentor, the acclaimed Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska who will provide an exclusive private master class for the young filmmakers.
*** click here for more information about you might be selected ***
The new financing infusion comes from future-seeing U.S.- and U.K.-based bigtime cultural business for this year’s Future Frames program
A new partnership with leading multi-national lottery operator Allwyn as well as U.S.-based talent agency UTA and management company Range Media Partners will provide feedback and guidance to the filmmakers. One participant will ultimately be selected who will receive a special scholarship sponsored by Allwyn to go to Los Angeles and learn from the best in the film industry.
UTA’s partnership with the Karlovy Vary Film Festival may be explained in part by the agency’s partner Rena Ronson. The first woman to run an independent financing, packaging and sales department at an agency as sole head, she now co-heads UTA Independent Film Group. In reading her in-depth interview with Screen International, readers will learn what gives Rena her special international view of film, something sorely lacking in most U.S. major players.
U.S. based venture capital as invested in Range Media Partners is also aiming outward from the U.S. The largest startup in Hollywood’s talent representation sector in years, Rmp was launched in late summer 2020 during the Covid pandemic. Its founders and partners, two former agents from CAA, Peter Micelli and Jack Whigham, have an ambitious vision for the management, production and business development side of the industry. With financial backing coming former Wall Street hedge funder Steven A. Cohen’ who reached a $1.2 billion settlement of insider trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2013, his private equity firm, Point72, has been a valued advisor but has no day-to-day role in running the agency. Their combined vision sees going beyond classic booking roles in TV shows and movies into the empire-building of business development and venture capital investments. Range Media now has nearly 150 staffers thanks to the financial backing from Point72 and it has expanded quickly through another partnership with A+E Networks that gives it a boost in content production and distribution.
Agnieszka Smoczyńska
In an exclusive master class entitled “How to make your first movie“, Agnieszka Smoczyńska will talk about her experiences and encourage the young directors to follow their ideas and go their own ways. Smoczyńska will present her highly-acclaimed first feature film, The Lure, a mixture of musical and horror film.
Agnieszka Smoczyńska debuted in 2015 with The Lure– genre-bending, horror-musical mashup which won awards around the world, at dozens of international festivals, including Sundance Film Festival Porto, Sofia, Montreal, Vilnius. The Lure is a part of the prestigious Criterion Collection and was theatrically released in US via Janus Film. Her second feature film Fugue premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week. In 2023, it was released in US theaters. In 2022, her English-language debut, The Silent Twins starring Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. Smoczyńska took part in the European Cinema: Ten Women Filmmakers to Watch program. She was also a winner of the Global Filmmaking Award sponsored by the Sundance Institute. In 2022 she was among five directors to watch at Cannes Film Festival.
About Allwyn
Announced as a main partner of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in April 2023, Allwyn, a leading multi-national lottery operator, will support the Future Frames initiative for three years. As a main partner of Kviff, Allwyn will host the Allwyn Future Frames Lounge on site and bring the ten emerging European talents together with industry leaders, including overseas talent agency UTA and management company Range Media Partners.
“We look forward to welcoming all the talented directors to the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival this year, selected as part of the Future Frames initiative. We are also very much looking forward to welcoming one of the ten directors on the newly established scholarship to Hollywood, introduced this year in partnership with UTA and Range Media. Changing lives is core to our mission and we are very pleased to be affording talented directors the opportunity to work with the very best in the film industry,” said Pavel Turek, Allwyn’s Chief Officer of Global Brand, Corporate Communication, and Csr.
This year’s group not only has experience in festivals, but the 10 also includes two award winners such as Germany’s Sophia Mocorrea who won the Short Film Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival and received a Special Mention at this year’s Berlinale with her film The Kidnapping of the Bride in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section. The Netherlands’ Joris Tobé’s Frantic Attempts won the Knf Award for Best Graduation Project at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2022. Other films from this year’s Berlinale include The Shift by Denmark’s Amalie Maria Nielsen (Generation Kplus) and Spain’s Christian Avilés’ Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays(Berlinale Shorts). Heart Fruit by Kim Allamand celebrated its world premiere in the Pardi Di Domani section at the Locarno Film Festival last year.
For more details of the selected 10, click here.
Also chosen are Czech Republic’s Anna Izabela Wowra for Stuck Together, Italy’s Giulia Regini for Cut From the Same Cow, Lithuania’s Rinaldas Tomaševičius for 15, Portugal’s Inês Pedrosa e Melo for Home, Revised, Slovak Republic’s Monika Mahútová for Standing Still and Switzerland’s Kim Allamand for Heart Fruit.
MoviesInternational FilmFilm FestivalsWomen In FilmFilm Financing...
- 7/10/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
New Project
Update: The title of Vannuccini’s sequel to “Commedia” has been changed to “Things and Other Things.”
Riccardo Vannuccini has set a sequel to his feature “Commedia.” Titled “Tarzan,” the project will see him again team up with “This England” star Greta Bellamacina, with whom he starred in “Commedia.”
The duo will reprise their roles as Rocco and Irene, this time in a post-industrial landscape. Manolo Cinti is on board as Dp. “Tarzan,” which begins shooting in Italy this November, is co-produced by Artestudio in Rome and Sulk Youth in the U.K.
“Commedia” is set to be released on Prime Video in the U.K. and U.S. this month.
“Our heroes have managed to mysteriously escape from where they were – but where were they?” says Vannuccini. “They are busy doing nothing, making small acts, to leave imaginative traces of their passage, imagined signs of being in the world.
Update: The title of Vannuccini’s sequel to “Commedia” has been changed to “Things and Other Things.”
Riccardo Vannuccini has set a sequel to his feature “Commedia.” Titled “Tarzan,” the project will see him again team up with “This England” star Greta Bellamacina, with whom he starred in “Commedia.”
The duo will reprise their roles as Rocco and Irene, this time in a post-industrial landscape. Manolo Cinti is on board as Dp. “Tarzan,” which begins shooting in Italy this November, is co-produced by Artestudio in Rome and Sulk Youth in the U.K.
“Commedia” is set to be released on Prime Video in the U.K. and U.S. this month.
“Our heroes have managed to mysteriously escape from where they were – but where were they?” says Vannuccini. “They are busy doing nothing, making small acts, to leave imaginative traces of their passage, imagined signs of being in the world.
- 6/20/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Warning: contains spoilers for Endeavour Series 1 – 9.
Endeavour’s blend of long-form storytelling and case-of-the-week thrills means that rewarding character moments are dotted throughout its ingenious murder mysteries. Its very best episodes strike a fine balance between the two. Satisfying puzzles, diverting investigations that make the most of the period setting, and enjoyable guest stars are one thing, but Endeavour’s success also lies in the simultaneous development of characters and relationships that have come to mean a great deal to fans over the years.
The 10 episodes below, listed in (an entirely subjective) order of greatness, achieve all of that. They could easily have been joined by half a dozen more – cases could certainly be made for ‘Sway’, ‘Harvest’, ‘Fugue’ and pilot episode ‘Overture’, to name just a few – from the 36 films totalling over 50 hours of drama from creator Russell Lewis and Mammoth Screen. If you find this selection wide of the mark,...
Endeavour’s blend of long-form storytelling and case-of-the-week thrills means that rewarding character moments are dotted throughout its ingenious murder mysteries. Its very best episodes strike a fine balance between the two. Satisfying puzzles, diverting investigations that make the most of the period setting, and enjoyable guest stars are one thing, but Endeavour’s success also lies in the simultaneous development of characters and relationships that have come to mean a great deal to fans over the years.
The 10 episodes below, listed in (an entirely subjective) order of greatness, achieve all of that. They could easily have been joined by half a dozen more – cases could certainly be made for ‘Sway’, ‘Harvest’, ‘Fugue’ and pilot episode ‘Overture’, to name just a few – from the 36 films totalling over 50 hours of drama from creator Russell Lewis and Mammoth Screen. If you find this selection wide of the mark,...
- 3/21/2023
- by Louisa Mellor
- Den of Geek
Staring into the Known: Smoczyńska Offers Low-key, Uncompromising Sophomore Feature
Surely not the follow up effort audiences might have had in mind from the creator of 2015’s mermaid horror musical The Lure, perhaps – and yet Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s Fugue is striking in its understated and discomforting in its elegance. The story of a woman resurfacing from the darkness of a Warsaw underground tunnel with no memory of her previous life as a wife and mother in the Lower Silesia region of Poland, Fugue will surely frustrate those looking for the same extravagance that made with her Sundance hit debut The Lure (read review).…...
Surely not the follow up effort audiences might have had in mind from the creator of 2015’s mermaid horror musical The Lure, perhaps – and yet Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s Fugue is striking in its understated and discomforting in its elegance. The story of a woman resurfacing from the darkness of a Warsaw underground tunnel with no memory of her previous life as a wife and mother in the Lower Silesia region of Poland, Fugue will surely frustrate those looking for the same extravagance that made with her Sundance hit debut The Lure (read review).…...
- 3/6/2023
- by Tommaso Tocci
- IONCINEMA.com
Alicja suffers from memory loss and has rebuilt her own free spirited way of life. Two years later, she returns to her former family to assume against her will her role as wife, mother and daughter. Her estranged husband and son do not recognize this woman who looks familiar and yet behaves like a stranger. Feelings of alienation, love and revelations rekindle her interior flame. Agnieszka Smoczynska's Fugue, her follow-up to her breakout film Lure, has finally found its way to U.S. cinemas this month. After four long years Fugue will start out next Friday, March 10th in Los Angeles and end the month in New York on the 31st. No word from its distributor Dekanalog if they plan to expand to other...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/3/2023
- Screen Anarchy
Paris-based Petit Film has boarded “Hot Spot” by Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska.
The story, set in the near future, follows a disillusioned private eye Djonny, called to investigate a murder at a refugee camp. But he becomes increasingly unstable as he confronts a cyber witch who gradually takes control of his life.
Smoczyńska’s previous film, Cannes premiere “The Silent Twins” – based on the lives of June and Jennifer Gibbons – earned Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance a BIFA [British Independent Film Award] for Best Joint Lead Performance.
“Agnieszka’s work does not derive from, or resemble, any existing films. That’s the first and foremost reason why I would not miss the chance to participate in one of them,” says producer Jean des Forêts, also behind Julia Ducournau’s “Raw” and Lucile Hadžihalilović’s English-language debut “Earwig.”
“Last year the opportunity arose and I seized it immediately. The project brings together a nice band...
The story, set in the near future, follows a disillusioned private eye Djonny, called to investigate a murder at a refugee camp. But he becomes increasingly unstable as he confronts a cyber witch who gradually takes control of his life.
Smoczyńska’s previous film, Cannes premiere “The Silent Twins” – based on the lives of June and Jennifer Gibbons – earned Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance a BIFA [British Independent Film Award] for Best Joint Lead Performance.
“Agnieszka’s work does not derive from, or resemble, any existing films. That’s the first and foremost reason why I would not miss the chance to participate in one of them,” says producer Jean des Forêts, also behind Julia Ducournau’s “Raw” and Lucile Hadžihalilović’s English-language debut “Earwig.”
“Last year the opportunity arose and I seized it immediately. The project brings together a nice band...
- 2/19/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Handel’s keyboard suites have remained strangers to most concert pianists. Seong-Jin Cho hopes that his latest album for Deutsche Grammophon will shed new light on some of the most heartfelt of all Baroque music. Out today, The Handel Project contains three of the 28-year-old South Korean pianist’s favourite suites from Handel’s first collection of Suites de pièces pour le clavecin. These are coupled with Brahms’s virtuosic Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, which Cho believes to be “the best variations that have ever been written”.
The artist was drawn to Handel’s keyboard suites after years of immersion in music from later periods. Having fallen in love with their wealth of musical ideas and wide-ranging melodic invention, Cho listened to recordings of the works on harpsichord, the instrument for which they were conceived, and refined his finger technique in order to give different tone...
The artist was drawn to Handel’s keyboard suites after years of immersion in music from later periods. Having fallen in love with their wealth of musical ideas and wide-ranging melodic invention, Cho listened to recordings of the works on harpsichord, the instrument for which they were conceived, and refined his finger technique in order to give different tone...
- 2/4/2023
- by Music Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Music
Sistas With(out) Voices: Smoczynska Revisits Case Study of Antisocial Twins
Poland’s Agnieszka Smoczynska makes her English language debut with third feature The Silent Twins, based on British journalist Marjorie Wallace’s 1986 expose on June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical Welsh twin girls whose dysfunctional development led to a spate of crime and eventual indefinite incarceration. In a tale where foreignness plays a key part in lack of understanding, since the Gibbons family were of West Indian descent, Smoczynska doesn’t seem entirely inappropriate as a figure removed from either culture.
Based on her previous two films, there are intersecting similarities, such as the fantastical mermaid sisters of her celebrated debut The Lure (2015) and a woman suffering from memory loss struggling to accept the family who’s reclaimed her in 2018’s Fugue (read review).…...
Poland’s Agnieszka Smoczynska makes her English language debut with third feature The Silent Twins, based on British journalist Marjorie Wallace’s 1986 expose on June and Jennifer Gibbons, identical Welsh twin girls whose dysfunctional development led to a spate of crime and eventual indefinite incarceration. In a tale where foreignness plays a key part in lack of understanding, since the Gibbons family were of West Indian descent, Smoczynska doesn’t seem entirely inappropriate as a figure removed from either culture.
Based on her previous two films, there are intersecting similarities, such as the fantastical mermaid sisters of her celebrated debut The Lure (2015) and a woman suffering from memory loss struggling to accept the family who’s reclaimed her in 2018’s Fugue (read review).…...
- 9/16/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A tale of two sisters and two halves, The Silent Twins, directed by celebrated Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczynska from Andrea Seigel’s adaptation of Marjorie Wallace’s 1986 book of the same name, centers on two real-life identical twins, June and Jennifer Gibbons, their uniquely idiosyncratic, imagination-rich lives, and their life-and personality-altering experiences inside oppressive educational and psychiatric institutions that repeatedly attempted to “rehabilitate” them into fully conforming British citizens. Both a cautionary tale and, in its limited way, a celebration of perseverance against a racist-tinged bureaucratic system that treated Afro-Caribbean immigrants, like the Gibbons family, as lesser than their melanin-challenged peers, The Silent Twins falters, sometimes badly, if not...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/15/2022
- Screen Anarchy
The 18th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) is paying tribute to Chile’s most internationally renowned and arguably hardest working actor, the peripatetic Alfredo Castro who will attend Sanfic’s inauguration Aug. 14 to receive his lifetime achievement award and kick off a retrospective of his films.
Also a playwright and theater director, Castro has worked across Europe and Latin America, acting in French, Spanish, Portuguese and a number of accents and dialects from Latin America, including neutral Spanish. “I haven’t worked in English but I certainly hope to one day,” he says. Meanwhile, he has won a boatload of awards from festivals and award events across the world.
Yet, he would also be high up the order of figures who have helped shape Chile’s post-Pinochet film, theater and now TV scene into one of the most vibrant, surprising and constantly questioning of any country in Latin America.
Also a playwright and theater director, Castro has worked across Europe and Latin America, acting in French, Spanish, Portuguese and a number of accents and dialects from Latin America, including neutral Spanish. “I haven’t worked in English but I certainly hope to one day,” he says. Meanwhile, he has won a boatload of awards from festivals and award events across the world.
Yet, he would also be high up the order of figures who have helped shape Chile’s post-Pinochet film, theater and now TV scene into one of the most vibrant, surprising and constantly questioning of any country in Latin America.
- 8/11/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Denmark’s Jonas Alexander Arnby, France’s Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, and Poland’s Agnieszka Smoczyńska are among up-and-coming directors from across Europe whose latest projects will be presented at the 11th Coproduction Village of Les Arcs Film Festival.
This edition of Les Arcs Coproduction Village will showcase a total of 22 European projects spanning 19 countries. The forum is meant to help filmmakers and producers find sales agents, distributors, as well as co-production and financial partners.
A rising polish director, Smoczyńska, will present her English-language debut, “Silent Twins” about sibling who have spent 14 years in a high-security psychiatric hospital and have developed a unique way of communicating. The film will be produced by Madants. Smoczyńska previously directed a short in the omnibus horror film, “The Field Guide To Evil,” and the film “Fugue” which world premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week.
Gagnol and Felicioli, the directors pair behind the Oscar-nominated animated...
This edition of Les Arcs Coproduction Village will showcase a total of 22 European projects spanning 19 countries. The forum is meant to help filmmakers and producers find sales agents, distributors, as well as co-production and financial partners.
A rising polish director, Smoczyńska, will present her English-language debut, “Silent Twins” about sibling who have spent 14 years in a high-security psychiatric hospital and have developed a unique way of communicating. The film will be produced by Madants. Smoczyńska previously directed a short in the omnibus horror film, “The Field Guide To Evil,” and the film “Fugue” which world premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week.
Gagnol and Felicioli, the directors pair behind the Oscar-nominated animated...
- 12/14/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's Fugue (2018), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from April 12 – May 11, 2019 in Mubi's The New Auteurs strand.Most people would empathize with a woman who lost her memory, but what if she preferred not to regain it? Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s second feature, Fugue,is a pronounced psychological exploration of trauma and personal choice of what not to be. Intertwined with dreams and fantasy sequences, the film reinvents the notion of (female) agency with the freedom of merging worlds, similar to the etherealness of Fugue’s genre-bending predecessor, The Lure (2016). In her astonishing debut, Smoczyńska weaved a universe of myth and social reality by presenting man-eating mermaids and their institutional bind to a performance cabaret. This time around, her sophomore feature is more self-contained and introspective, while eluding simple psychological diagnosis. The story...
- 4/15/2019
- MUBI
Featuring eight segments of horror based on frightening folklore from countries around the world, The Field Guide to Evil is coming to theaters and VOD on March 29th, and you can now watch the new trailer for the eclectic horror anthology.
Read the official press release for additional details on The Field Guide to Evil, check here to read Heather Wixson's SXSW interview with some of the filmmakers behind the new movie, and you can get an idea of what to expect in the new trailer below.
Press Release: New York, NY --- Tuesday, February 19, 2019 --- On March 29th, the terrifying new horror anthology The Field Guide To Evil will be released to theaters across America and all digital platforms. A new poster and trailer for the film debut today at fieldguidetoevil.com.
In Field Guide, eight of the most exciting new voices in international horror were asked to...
Read the official press release for additional details on The Field Guide to Evil, check here to read Heather Wixson's SXSW interview with some of the filmmakers behind the new movie, and you can get an idea of what to expect in the new trailer below.
Press Release: New York, NY --- Tuesday, February 19, 2019 --- On March 29th, the terrifying new horror anthology The Field Guide To Evil will be released to theaters across America and all digital platforms. A new poster and trailer for the film debut today at fieldguidetoevil.com.
In Field Guide, eight of the most exciting new voices in international horror were asked to...
- 2/19/2019
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
First Cut Lab director Matthieu Darras is teaming up with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (Fdcp) and the Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy (Bekraf).
First Cut Lab director Matthieu Darras is teaming up with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (Fdcp) and the Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy (Bekraf) to launch two new film labs for project development and editing consultancy.
The two labs, which are aimed at local directors, scriptwriters and producers, will each last around one week, starting with an editing consultancy programme and followed by a project development workshop. They will also feature masterclasses open to larger audiences.
First Cut Lab director Matthieu Darras is teaming up with the Film Development Council of the Philippines (Fdcp) and the Indonesian Agency for Creative Economy (Bekraf) to launch two new film labs for project development and editing consultancy.
The two labs, which are aimed at local directors, scriptwriters and producers, will each last around one week, starting with an editing consultancy programme and followed by a project development workshop. They will also feature masterclasses open to larger audiences.
- 2/9/2019
- by Liz Shackleton
- ScreenDaily
AFI Fest isn’t thought of as an acquisition festival, as most of its offerings are either world premieres about to enter awards season or high-profile selections from Cannes and Venice. Explore the program a bit, however, and you’ll discover any number of under-the-radar titles that have yet to find a home. That’s unsurprising, given how crowded the fall festival season has been, but dealmakers should seek out these worthy titles before it’s too late.
“Amateurs”
Gabriela Pichler’s debut as writer-director, the youth-in-revolt dramedy “Eat Sleep Die,” never got a theatrical release. That was a shame, and it’d be just as much of a disappointment if her follow-up met the same fate. Working from an appropriately zany premise — a small Swedish town attempts to woo a German superstore company into opening a new location via a promotional video — Pichler delivers clever scenarios and a surprising...
“Amateurs”
Gabriela Pichler’s debut as writer-director, the youth-in-revolt dramedy “Eat Sleep Die,” never got a theatrical release. That was a shame, and it’d be just as much of a disappointment if her follow-up met the same fate. Working from an appropriately zany premise — a small Swedish town attempts to woo a German superstore company into opening a new location via a promotional video — Pichler delivers clever scenarios and a surprising...
- 11/19/2018
- by Michael Nordine, Eric Kohn and David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
In the moody psychodrama “Fugue,” competing in the Polish films section at EnergaCamerimage, Agnieszka Smoczyńska explores memory loss and its devastating impact on family in her follow-up to “The Lure.” Utterly unlike her debut, which was a colorful, musical fantasy focused on mermaids, “Fugue” is a study in perception and emotion in which the lead and co-writer, Gabriela Muskala, is suddenly discovered wandering and returned to her family two years after disappearing.
What did you learn from your research into the woman who had gone through this actual breakdown?
It was a very strong experience. I was particularly struck by the fact that Maria never really came back from that “other world.” She was talking to us normally, she seemed to remember everything, and yet she seemed somehow suspended between two worlds: the real here and now and the one that wasn’t “real,” the one of her memories.
How...
What did you learn from your research into the woman who had gone through this actual breakdown?
It was a very strong experience. I was particularly struck by the fact that Maria never really came back from that “other world.” She was talking to us normally, she seemed to remember everything, and yet she seemed somehow suspended between two worlds: the real here and now and the one that wasn’t “real,” the one of her memories.
How...
- 11/13/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Fantastic Fest has made two last-minute additions to its robust lineup of genre films. Richard Shepard’s horror-thriller The Perfection starring Girls alum Allison Williams and Dear White People star Logan Browning will make its World Premiere at the fest, and Fugue directed by Agnieszka Smoczynska is set to make its North American Premiere. Fantastic Fest kicks off Sept. 20 and continues through Sept. 27.
Deadline exclusively reported the casting of Williams and Browning in The Perfection last year. The film follows former cello prodigy (Williams) as she seeks out both her mentor (Steven Weber) and his new star pupil (Browning) with enigmatic — and twisted — intent. Shepard, Williams and Browning are set to attend the fest.
Smoczynska’s Fugue stars Polish actress Gabriela Muskala and follows a woman who is trying to reconnect with her family after being lost in a fugue state for several years. The film marks the follow-up to...
Deadline exclusively reported the casting of Williams and Browning in The Perfection last year. The film follows former cello prodigy (Williams) as she seeks out both her mentor (Steven Weber) and his new star pupil (Browning) with enigmatic — and twisted — intent. Shepard, Williams and Browning are set to attend the fest.
Smoczynska’s Fugue stars Polish actress Gabriela Muskala and follows a woman who is trying to reconnect with her family after being lost in a fugue state for several years. The film marks the follow-up to...
- 9/17/2018
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Paris-based sales agents Alpha Violet has announced that Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s second feature “Fugue,” playing at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, has sold to Canada, China, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania and the Czech Republic.
The sales company has two other films at the festival: Natalia Garagiola’s Venice Audience Award winner “Hunting Season” and Berlin Golden Bear nominee “Dovlatov” from Alexey German Jr.
In the film, an anonymous woman stumbles across train tracks and into a crowded station with no idea who she is, and no emotional attachments. Only when she is featured on a TV talk show years later is her family finally able to contact and bring her back.
However, when reintroduced to her parents, husband and young child she is not only unable to remember them, but fairly sure she doesn’t want her old life back. She is a new person and these...
The sales company has two other films at the festival: Natalia Garagiola’s Venice Audience Award winner “Hunting Season” and Berlin Golden Bear nominee “Dovlatov” from Alexey German Jr.
In the film, an anonymous woman stumbles across train tracks and into a crowded station with no idea who she is, and no emotional attachments. Only when she is featured on a TV talk show years later is her family finally able to contact and bring her back.
However, when reintroduced to her parents, husband and young child she is not only unable to remember them, but fairly sure she doesn’t want her old life back. She is a new person and these...
- 7/7/2018
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Agnieszka Smoczynska, director of the strange, brilliant cannibal mermaid musical The Lure, has a new film: Fugue. This thriller focuses on a woman with amnesia who would be perfectly happy to never remember her old life. Watch the Fugue trailer below. Fugue Trailer It’s hard to tell what’s going on here based on this trailer, so here’s a […]
The post ‘Fugue’ Trailer: A New Thriller from the Director of ‘The Lure’ appeared first on /Film.
The post ‘Fugue’ Trailer: A New Thriller from the Director of ‘The Lure’ appeared first on /Film.
- 5/17/2018
- by Chris Evangelista
- Slash Film
After two years away, a woman emerges from the wilderness with a drastically different identity, with tics and recollections of her former self flashing only intermittently through, like glitches in an otherwise complete new entity. That’s the story of the protagonist in “Fugue,” an anxious, storm-brewing melodrama from Polish director Agnieszka Smoczyńska, though it could as easily describe its gifted director’s reemergence: Gravely composed and played in an aptly atonal minor key, it’s the last follow-up we could have expected to “The Lure,” the deranged adult mermaid musical with which Smoczyńska conspicuously debuted in 2016. Some will be disappointed by the lack of fishy flash and fancy in “Fugue,” but its controlled expansiveness of tone, psychology and camera mark its helmer — invaluably aided by writer-star Gabriela Muskała — as a stylist of considerable, unpredictable finesse. She could go anywhere from here; festival selectors, distributors and audiences would be wise to follow.
- 5/16/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Arriving in the wake of her beloved goth mermaid extravaganza, “The Lure,” Agnieszka Smoczynska’s disappointingly unadventurous second feature begins much the same way as her first. A mysterious woman surfaces from the underground darkness of modern Poland, grabbing our attention as she stumbles into society. But where the twin sirens in Smoczynska’s debut emerged from a fairy tale, the lost and confused heroine of “Fugue” materializes from the shadows of an unaccountable two-year absence. Her name — she thinks — is Alicja (screenwriter Gabriela Muskala), and the camera follows her as she walks out of a Warsaw subway tunnel in an atomic blonde trench coat, climbs onto the busy platform, and casually pees all over the floor.
Memory loss is one of the oldest plot devices in the world, which makes it ripe for some kind of reinvention. The opening minutes of “Fugue” not only suggest that we’re in...
Memory loss is one of the oldest plot devices in the world, which makes it ripe for some kind of reinvention. The opening minutes of “Fugue” not only suggest that we’re in...
- 5/15/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Polish director Agnieszka Smoczynska left a lasting impression with her debut feature, the dark fairy tale about singing mermaids The Lure (review). Now the director is back with her second feature and it looks just as dark and alluring as her debut without the fantastic elements.
Fugue is written and stars Gabriela Muskala as Alicja, a woman who suffers from memory loss who has run off and created a new life for herself as a free spirit.
After two years in the wild she returns home and tries to re-assimilate herself into her old life as wife and mother but it's not an easy process for either her or her family.
I enjoyed The Lure but found it a bit messy...
Fugue is written and stars Gabriela Muskala as Alicja, a woman who suffers from memory loss who has run off and created a new life for herself as a free spirit.
After two years in the wild she returns home and tries to re-assimilate herself into her old life as wife and mother but it's not an easy process for either her or her family.
I enjoyed The Lure but found it a bit messy...
- 5/11/2018
- QuietEarth.us
"I really don't care who I was, I'm sorry." Screen Daily has released the first festival trailer for a surreal Polish film titled Fugue, which is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend in the Critics' Week sidebar. Fugue is the latest feature from director Agnieszka Smoczyńska, who last made the cult hit The Lure - a musical about mermaids. The film is about Alicja - a woman who has no memory and no knowledge about how she lost it. When her family finds her, she is forced to fit into the roles of a mother, daughter and wife, surrounded by what seem to be complete strangers. It's described as a story about a woman who comes to regret motherhood. The cast includes Gabriela Muskała and Łukasz Simlat. This looks mesmerizing and emotionally intense, dealing with some heavy topics (as is usual for Polish cinema). Have a look below.
- 5/11/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Agnieszka Smoczynska’s sophmore feature is about a woman who comes to regret motherhood.
Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer for Fugue, the latest film from director Agnieszka Smoczynska which premieres in Critics’ Week at Cannes.
Smoczynska’s follow up to 2015 mermaid horror musical The Lure is about a woman who has experienced prolonged memory loss. When she comes to reunite with her family, the idea of motherhood is no longer an appealing one.
As announced by Screen last year, Alpha Violet handles sales on the project, which will premiere on May 15 at the Miramar.
Don’t miss another story,...
Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer for Fugue, the latest film from director Agnieszka Smoczynska which premieres in Critics’ Week at Cannes.
Smoczynska’s follow up to 2015 mermaid horror musical The Lure is about a woman who has experienced prolonged memory loss. When she comes to reunite with her family, the idea of motherhood is no longer an appealing one.
As announced by Screen last year, Alpha Violet handles sales on the project, which will premiere on May 15 at the Miramar.
Don’t miss another story,...
- 5/11/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
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