Bertrand Bonello with Anne-Katrin Titze on Romy Schneider’s face in Coma, the camera test by Henri-Georges Clouzot for his unfinished film L’enfer (Inferno): “I was trying to find an image that you could dream of when you’re a young girl.”
Bertrand Bonello’s prophetic Coma (with a haunting score by the director/screenwriter), starring Louise Labèque (of Zombi Child) as the adolescent and Julia Faure as the title character Patricia Coma, was filmed in France during the Covid pandemic lockdown. We hear the voices of Gaspard Ulliel (Yves Saint Laurent in Bonello’s Saint Laurent), Anaïs Demoustier, Laetitia Casta, Louis Garrel, and Vincent Lacoste as the dollhouse figures. We see Romy Schneider’s face in a camera test for Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished Inferno (L’Enfer) and meet a woman in the forest portrayed by Bonnie Banane.
Young girl (Louise Labèque) with Sharon doll in Coma
Theorists Gilles Deleuze,...
Bertrand Bonello’s prophetic Coma (with a haunting score by the director/screenwriter), starring Louise Labèque (of Zombi Child) as the adolescent and Julia Faure as the title character Patricia Coma, was filmed in France during the Covid pandemic lockdown. We hear the voices of Gaspard Ulliel (Yves Saint Laurent in Bonello’s Saint Laurent), Anaïs Demoustier, Laetitia Casta, Louis Garrel, and Vincent Lacoste as the dollhouse figures. We see Romy Schneider’s face in a camera test for Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished Inferno (L’Enfer) and meet a woman in the forest portrayed by Bonnie Banane.
Young girl (Louise Labèque) with Sharon doll in Coma
Theorists Gilles Deleuze,...
- 5/27/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Beast.She was there on harder terms than any one; she was there as a consequence of things suffered, one way and another, in the interval of years, and she remembered him very much as she was remembered—only a good deal better.So says John Marcher of May Bartram in Henry James’s novella The Beast in the Jungle (1903). Everything coalesces for John and May to reconnect on an October afternoon, having met years prior. Their meeting again is “the sequel of something of which he had lost at the beginning.” What follows is a strained dalliance, never physically realized. John is transfixed by May’s knowledge of his “secret,” the feeling of an imminent doom that has tailed him his entire life. Something awaits him, like a beast in the jungle. And May—only May, whose illness brings her closer and closer to her own death—knows what it is.
- 5/3/2024
- MUBI
No secret that we love The Beast. But it’s perhaps not even the best Bertrand Bonello film released in 2024. For more than two years I’ve been a major advocate of his lockdown horror Coma (at one point flying to another country to screen it), during which time the film’s struggled to achieve American distribution––a baffling, embarrassing oversight corrected by Film Movement, who are releasing this masterpiece-of-sorts at New York’s Roxy Cinema (where you can see House of Tolerance this weekend) on May 17, with other cities to follow. There’s now a trailer.
As David Katz said in his review from 2022’s Berlinale, “Coma is anything but a navel-gazing work, and more one of imaginative empathy. It is not Being Bertrand Bonello, but addressed to and concerning a person of a far-removed generation and gender: his teenage daughter Anna. Some amusing early interactions with pop culture,...
As David Katz said in his review from 2022’s Berlinale, “Coma is anything but a navel-gazing work, and more one of imaginative empathy. It is not Being Bertrand Bonello, but addressed to and concerning a person of a far-removed generation and gender: his teenage daughter Anna. Some amusing early interactions with pop culture,...
- 4/18/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
French director Bertrand Bonello is rightly back in the imaginations of U.S. cinephiles, as his new film “The Beast” is now playing stateside. The time-hopping sci-fi romantic drama starring Léa Seydoux and George MacKay as would-be lovers across centuries had the biggest opening weekend yet for distributor Sideshow/Janus Films earlier this month. Now, Bertrand Bonello’s previously undistributed 2022 film “Coma” is finally joining “The Beast” at theaters beginning in May from Film Movement. Watch the trailer for “Coma,” an IndieWire exclusive, below.
Combining live-action and animation, “Coma” centers on a teenage girl in lockdown amid a global health crisis (cough cough) who develops a disturbing relationship with a YouTuber. The cast features Louise Labèque, Julia Faure, Gaspard Ulliel, Laetitia Casta, Vincent Lacoste, Louis Garrel, and Anaïs Demoustier. This was the last film Ulliel worked on before he died in January 2022 after a skiing accident. Ulliel was meant to...
Combining live-action and animation, “Coma” centers on a teenage girl in lockdown amid a global health crisis (cough cough) who develops a disturbing relationship with a YouTuber. The cast features Louise Labèque, Julia Faure, Gaspard Ulliel, Laetitia Casta, Vincent Lacoste, Louis Garrel, and Anaïs Demoustier. This was the last film Ulliel worked on before he died in January 2022 after a skiing accident. Ulliel was meant to...
- 4/18/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Every time I’ve seen The Beast there comes some point where I think Bertrand Bonello is the world’s greatest under-60 filmmaker. Not quite a new stance for me (declaring Saint Laurent the best movie of the 2010s was a lonely battle), but it’s exactly this accumulation of films through years and years of appreciation that makes his newest film’s climax so powerful, so cascading in its effects, so potent in the question of who’s even treating images and montage in service of such heady narrative frameworks and sharp-tuned performances. If I confess unique bias, having worked on Bonello’s films in the distribution realm––the theatrical and home-video release of Nocturama, the digital debut of Ingrid Caven: Music and Voice, and producing a vinyl LP of his original soundtracks––it means I’ve also seen a shift in perception, from cult figure to major figure of world cinema.
- 4/4/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Cinephiles will have plenty to celebrate this April with the next slate of additions to the Criterion Channel. The boutique distributor, which recently announced its June 2024 Blu-ray releases, has unveiled its new streaming lineup highlighted by an eclectic mix of classic films and modern arthouse hits.
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
Students of Hollywood history will be treated to the “Peak Noir: 1950” collection, which features 17 noir films from the landmark film year from directors including Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston.
New Hollywood maverick William Friedkin will also be celebrated when five of his most beloved movies, including “Sorcerer” and “The Exorcist,” come to the channel in April.
Criterion will offer the streaming premiere of Wim Wenders’ 3D art documentary “Anselm,” which will be accompanied by the “Wim Wenders’ Adventures in Moviegoing” collection, which sees the director curating a selection of films from around the world that have influenced his careers.
Contemporary cinema is also well represented,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello has been on the scene since the late ’90s and has been a staple at Cannes since his second feature film, “The Pornographer,” won the Fipresci prize in 2001. But his career arguably started picking up a second wind around 2014 with “Saint Laurent,” and it’s kind of been nothing but up since then with many acclaimed films under his belt, including “Nocturama” (2016) and “Zombi Child” (2019).
Continue reading ‘The Beast’ Trailer: Léa Seydoux & George MacKay Star In Bertrand Bonello Sci-Fi Romance at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Beast’ Trailer: Léa Seydoux & George MacKay Star In Bertrand Bonello Sci-Fi Romance at The Playlist.
- 1/31/2024
- by Edward Davis
- The Playlist
The Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the 10 cinema figures who will participate in its In Conversation With program at its 20th edition running from November 24 to December 2.
They comprise Australian actor Simon Baker, French director Bertrand Bonello, U.S. actor Willem Dafoe, Indian filmmaker and producer Anurag Kashyap; Japanese director Naomi Kawase; Danish-u.S. actor and director Viggo Mortensen; U.K. actor Tilda Swinton; and Russian director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi, who will receive the festival’s honorary Étoile d’or prize this year, will also participate in the program.
Baker’s was seen most recently in Toronto title Limbo and Tribeca 2022 selection Blaze, with early features including L.A. Confidential (1997), David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and J. C. Chandor’s Margin Call (2011), followed by hit series The Mentalist (2008–2015).
Bensaïdi’s first feature A Thousand Months world premiered...
They comprise Australian actor Simon Baker, French director Bertrand Bonello, U.S. actor Willem Dafoe, Indian filmmaker and producer Anurag Kashyap; Japanese director Naomi Kawase; Danish-u.S. actor and director Viggo Mortensen; U.K. actor Tilda Swinton; and Russian director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev.
Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi, who will receive the festival’s honorary Étoile d’or prize this year, will also participate in the program.
Baker’s was seen most recently in Toronto title Limbo and Tribeca 2022 selection Blaze, with early features including L.A. Confidential (1997), David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and J. C. Chandor’s Margin Call (2011), followed by hit series The Mentalist (2008–2015).
Bensaïdi’s first feature A Thousand Months world premiered...
- 11/7/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Another year, another “strange time” for festivals. And yet, despite a pair of on-going strikes and an entertainment world that seems hellbent on remaining in flux, as the air turns chillier, it’s still time for the laurels to come out, and there are plenty of new films to get excited about seeing soon.
This year’s fall festival season includes new films from Hayao Miyazaki, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Ellen Kurras, Yorgos Lanthimos, Errol Morris, Pablo Larraín, Kitty Green, Andrew Haigh, Harmony Korine, and Anna Kendrick, and that’s only the start. There are films about everything from vampiric dictators to (actual) dicks, dumb money to stupid dreams, true stories of courage to fake stories of Nicolas Cage invading people’s minds, at least one very big suit, and so very much more.
And while a handful of films have opted to skip out on the festivals, like the...
This year’s fall festival season includes new films from Hayao Miyazaki, Michael Mann, David Fincher, Ellen Kurras, Yorgos Lanthimos, Errol Morris, Pablo Larraín, Kitty Green, Andrew Haigh, Harmony Korine, and Anna Kendrick, and that’s only the start. There are films about everything from vampiric dictators to (actual) dicks, dumb money to stupid dreams, true stories of courage to fake stories of Nicolas Cage invading people’s minds, at least one very big suit, and so very much more.
And while a handful of films have opted to skip out on the festivals, like the...
- 8/29/2023
- by Kate Erbland, Ryan Lattanzio and David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Roxy Cinema
The 35mm print of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo we presented last weekend has an encore appearance on Saturday afternoon, while prints of two Spielberg sequels (The Lost World and Temple of Doom) play alongside Shadows and Fog, Bloodhounds of Broadway, and My Blueberry Nights.
Anthology Film Archives
“Shopping Worlds” is a cinematic exploration of malls, offering the likes of Jackie Brown, Nocturama, Wiseman’s The Store, Dawn of the Dead, and Akerman’s Golden Eighties.
Museum of the Moving Image
Inception and John Carpenter’s Starman play on 70mm in a new series.
Film Forum
Contempt and Thelma & Louise play in 4K restorations, while the ’50s creature feature Robot Monster play in 3D on Sunday.
Museum of Modern Art
“Views from the Vault” closes with films by Jia Zhangke and more, while “Silent Movie Week” is underway.
Roxy Cinema
The 35mm print of Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo we presented last weekend has an encore appearance on Saturday afternoon, while prints of two Spielberg sequels (The Lost World and Temple of Doom) play alongside Shadows and Fog, Bloodhounds of Broadway, and My Blueberry Nights.
Anthology Film Archives
“Shopping Worlds” is a cinematic exploration of malls, offering the likes of Jackie Brown, Nocturama, Wiseman’s The Store, Dawn of the Dead, and Akerman’s Golden Eighties.
Museum of the Moving Image
Inception and John Carpenter’s Starman play on 70mm in a new series.
Film Forum
Contempt and Thelma & Louise play in 4K restorations, while the ’50s creature feature Robot Monster play in 3D on Sunday.
Museum of Modern Art
“Views from the Vault” closes with films by Jia Zhangke and more, while “Silent Movie Week” is underway.
- 8/4/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Kino Lorber releases the film in theaters on Friday, July 14.
In these turbulent years for cinema, when film festivals can often seem like memorial services for the movies themselves, it doesn’t feel entirely accidental that the most prestigious of them all has developed a recent tendency for opening with movies about the deceased or undead. That none of those movies have been particularly full of life is much harder to explain. The trend began when Cannes 2017 kicked off with Arnaud Desplechin’s evocative but exasperating “Ismael’s Ghosts,” and it continued two years later with the world premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s deader-than-deadpan zombie comedy “The Dead Don’t Die.”
Now, at a moment when cinema seems poised to crawl out of the crypt where it’s been laid to rest in the public imagination — a moment when,...
In these turbulent years for cinema, when film festivals can often seem like memorial services for the movies themselves, it doesn’t feel entirely accidental that the most prestigious of them all has developed a recent tendency for opening with movies about the deceased or undead. That none of those movies have been particularly full of life is much harder to explain. The trend began when Cannes 2017 kicked off with Arnaud Desplechin’s evocative but exasperating “Ismael’s Ghosts,” and it continued two years later with the world premiere of Jim Jarmusch’s deader-than-deadpan zombie comedy “The Dead Don’t Die.”
Now, at a moment when cinema seems poised to crawl out of the crypt where it’s been laid to rest in the public imagination — a moment when,...
- 5/17/2022
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Adhering to what has become a new rite of passage for French filmmakers of a certain pedigree — which is to say, those with the industry clout to get calls returned and favors cashed in on the fly — Bertrand Bonello has gone and made his own pandemic doodle. Like Céline Sciamma, Arnaud Desplechin, and Claire Denis before him, Bonello put a larger-scale project on the back-burner when the lockdowns hit, embraced Covid restrictions — or at least accepted them with a weary Gallic shrug — and dreamed up another bit of socially distanced cinema with few actors, limited sets, and a form wholly dictated by the circumstance of its production.
To this growing (and hopefully soon fading) genre, Bonello offers “Coma,” a hybrid film that differs from the pack in a few notable ways, not least of which by way of tone. Because , making a film in the zeitgeist about the zeitgeist. Of course,...
To this growing (and hopefully soon fading) genre, Bonello offers “Coma,” a hybrid film that differs from the pack in a few notable ways, not least of which by way of tone. Because , making a film in the zeitgeist about the zeitgeist. Of course,...
- 2/14/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
A contemporary cliché that weakly attempts to diagnose what ails us in modern life is the idea of being addled by technology––of our minds and attention spans swamped by screens, content, scrolling. But as the pandemic hit this notion gained a new relevance: it’s not that the virtual realm of content and media was luring us away from our reality––faced with an indefinite lockdown, it had finally become our sole one. Even though this can be poorly rendered by some, it’s the more sensitive and aware artists, such as Bertrand Bonello with his new feature Coma, that remind of the urgency to confront it.
Like the best films on this topic, Coma is anything but a navel-gazing work, and more one of imaginative empathy. It is not Being Bertrand Bonello, but addressed to and concerning a person of a far-removed generation and gender: his teenage daughter Anna.
Like the best films on this topic, Coma is anything but a navel-gazing work, and more one of imaginative empathy. It is not Being Bertrand Bonello, but addressed to and concerning a person of a far-removed generation and gender: his teenage daughter Anna.
- 2/14/2022
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
Few things will have you longing for an end to the pandemic like “Coma,” an experimental lockdown project from French provocateur Bertrand Bonello. If you’re the type to dread being alone with your thoughts, try being locked in a room with Bonello’s: The “Nocturama” director’s ruminations on free will, dreams and the deeper meaning of Michael Jackson’s music will have you longing to fall into a deep sleep, just so you don’t have to listen to it anymore. A project this insular and meandering might have been excusable in the early days of quarantine, but two years’ worth of exemplary work produced during the pandemic make the navel-gazing on display here all the more questionable.
At times “Coma” is closer to an essay film than it is to anything resembling a narrative — down to a narrated letter from Bonello that both opens and closes proceedings...
At times “Coma” is closer to an essay film than it is to anything resembling a narrative — down to a narrated letter from Bonello that both opens and closes proceedings...
- 2/13/2022
- by Michael Nordine
- Variety Film + TV
Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever has acquired “Coma,” the latest film by celebrated French director Bertrand Bonello (“Saint Laurent”). “Coma” will have its world premiere premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Encounters section.
Weaving genre, animation and live action, the stylish movie boasts an exciting cast including Louise Labeque (“Zombi Child”) and Julia Faure (“Camille Rewinds”), with voices by beloved late actor Gaspard Ulliel, as well as Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste.
“Coma” explores online behavior and content consumption through the eyes of a teenage girl who immerses audiences into her dreams and nightmares. Locked in her room, her only relationship to the outside world is virtual. Navigating between dreams and reality, she’s guided by a disturbing and mysterious YouTuber, Patricia Coma.
Bonello’s 10th feature, “Coma” was produced by Les Films du Bélier and My New Picture. Co-producers are Remembers Production, the...
Weaving genre, animation and live action, the stylish movie boasts an exciting cast including Louise Labeque (“Zombi Child”) and Julia Faure (“Camille Rewinds”), with voices by beloved late actor Gaspard Ulliel, as well as Louis Garrel, Laetitia Casta, Anaïs Demoustier and Vincent Lacoste.
“Coma” explores online behavior and content consumption through the eyes of a teenage girl who immerses audiences into her dreams and nightmares. Locked in her room, her only relationship to the outside world is virtual. Navigating between dreams and reality, she’s guided by a disturbing and mysterious YouTuber, Patricia Coma.
Bonello’s 10th feature, “Coma” was produced by Les Films du Bélier and My New Picture. Co-producers are Remembers Production, the...
- 2/2/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have announced B-Sides & Rarities Part II, a second collection of rare and unreleased tracks that the group recorded over the past decade and a half.
The band released their first B-Sides & Rarities compilation in 2005. Since then, he and the Bad Seeds have recorded two more discs’ worth of B-sides and rarities, both released and unheard.
In total, the 27-song B-Sides & Rarities Part II boasts 19 unreleased tracks — compiled by Cave and Bad Seeds member Warren Ellis — including the first recordings of album cuts like “Skeleton Tree,...
The band released their first B-Sides & Rarities compilation in 2005. Since then, he and the Bad Seeds have recorded two more discs’ worth of B-sides and rarities, both released and unheard.
In total, the 27-song B-Sides & Rarities Part II boasts 19 unreleased tracks — compiled by Cave and Bad Seeds member Warren Ellis — including the first recordings of album cuts like “Skeleton Tree,...
- 8/19/2021
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
During the first half of Julia Ducournau’s “Titane,” it’s hard to tell if you’re watching the most fucked up movie ever made about the idea of found family, or the sweetest movie ever made about a serial killer who has sex with a car, poses as the adult version of a local boy who went missing a decade earlier, and then promptly moves in with the kid’s still-grieving father. During the second half, it becomes obvious that it’s both — that somehow it couldn’t be one without the other.
Following the cannibalistic “Raw” with another ravenous film that pushes her fascination with the hunger and malleability of human flesh to even further extremes, Ducournau has made good on the promise of her debut and then some. Whatever you’re willing to take from it, there’s no denying that “Titane” is ; a shimmering aria of...
Following the cannibalistic “Raw” with another ravenous film that pushes her fascination with the hunger and malleability of human flesh to even further extremes, Ducournau has made good on the promise of her debut and then some. Whatever you’re willing to take from it, there’s no denying that “Titane” is ; a shimmering aria of...
- 7/13/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The filmmaker has cast Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel; the next film by Sophie Letourneur and the feature debut by Emmanuelle Nicot will also be co-produced by the French-German channel. Arte France Cinéma’s (headed up by Olivier Père) first selection committee of 2021 has chosen to get involved in three projects as a co-producer and pre-purchaser. Standing out among them is La bête by Bertrand Bonello, which will be the eighth feature by the filmmaker, following The Pornographer (Cannes Critics’ Week in 2001), On War (Directors’ Fortnight 2008), Tiresia (in competition at Cannes in 2003), House of Tolerance (in competition at Cannes in 2011), Saint Laurent (in competition at Cannes in 2014), Nocturama (in competition at Toronto and at San Sebastian in 2016) and Zombi Child (Directors’ Fortnight 2019). Staged by Les Films du Bélier, La bête will boast a cast including Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel, and will tell...
The Criterion Channel’s September 2020 Lineup Includes Sátántangó, Agnès Varda, Albert Brooks & More
As the coronavirus pandemic still rages on, precious few remain skeptical about going to the movies. But while your AMCs and others claim some godlike safety from Covid, there remains a chunk of people still uncomfortable hitting up theaters. To them, we bring you the September 2020 Criterion Channel lineup.
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
It starts off with quite the swath of content too. Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó hits the service on September 1, and its seven-plus hours should take up a large chunk of your day. Coming soon after is a collection of more than a dozen Joan Blondell starrers from the pre-Code era, including Howard Hawks’ The Crowd Roars, three collaborations with Mervyn LeRoy, and Ray Enright & Busby Berkeley’s Dames.
For some stuff released almost a century later, the service also sees the addition of documentary bender Robert Greene. His Actress, Kate Plays Christine, and Bisbee ’17 join soon after. Janicza Bravo, director of Lemon,...
- 8/25/2020
- by Matt Cipolla
- The Film Stage
For decades, Nick Cave has flanked himself at concerts with at least half a dozen members of his band, the Bad Seeds. Dressed in black leisure suits with widely flayed collars, like a gang of 1970s accountants out on the town, they always appeared to have his back — not just by filling his dusky songs with violin and vibraphones, but also emotionally, as he sang about failed romance, grief, and enormity. No matter what he sang, with the Bad Seeds behind him, you knew he would be all right.
In recent years,...
In recent years,...
- 7/24/2020
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
The streaming pool just keeps getting deeper. Joining fellow boutique distributors like Kino Lorber, Film Movement, and Cinema Tropical, Grasshopper Film is now making the jump into the streaming world, armed with the brand-new Projectr, a deeply curated platform that already boasts films from auteurs like Bong Joon Ho, Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo, and Pedro Costa.
“So many of the acclaimed international and American Independent films that cinephiles hunger to see have fallen through the cracks of current Tvod providers,” Grasshopper Film founder Ryan Krivoshey told IndieWire. “With Projectr, we are seeking to remedy that oversight and create an accessible treasure trove for movie lovers. We’ve long contemplated a curated streaming platform — where viewers could immerse themselves in some of the most adventurous, exciting and important independent cinema. During these past months, we’ve realized this is more urgent than ever.”
Available today, Projectr will function as both a...
“So many of the acclaimed international and American Independent films that cinephiles hunger to see have fallen through the cracks of current Tvod providers,” Grasshopper Film founder Ryan Krivoshey told IndieWire. “With Projectr, we are seeking to remedy that oversight and create an accessible treasure trove for movie lovers. We’ve long contemplated a curated streaming platform — where viewers could immerse themselves in some of the most adventurous, exciting and important independent cinema. During these past months, we’ve realized this is more urgent than ever.”
Available today, Projectr will function as both a...
- 6/18/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Thompson on Hollywood
The streaming pool just keeps getting deeper. Joining fellow boutique distributors like Kino Lorber, Film Movement, and Cinema Tropical, Grasshopper Film is now making the jump into the streaming world, armed with the brand-new Projectr, a deeply curated platform that already boasts films from auteurs like Bong Joon Ho, Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo, and Pedro Costa.
“So many of the acclaimed international and American Independent films that cinephiles hunger to see have fallen through the cracks of current Tvod providers,” Grasshopper Film founder Ryan Krivoshey told IndieWire. “With Projectr, we are seeking to remedy that oversight and create an accessible treasure trove for movie lovers. We’ve long contemplated a curated streaming platform — where viewers could immerse themselves in some of the most adventurous, exciting and important independent cinema. During these past months, we’ve realized this is more urgent than ever.”
Available today, Projectr will function as both a...
“So many of the acclaimed international and American Independent films that cinephiles hunger to see have fallen through the cracks of current Tvod providers,” Grasshopper Film founder Ryan Krivoshey told IndieWire. “With Projectr, we are seeking to remedy that oversight and create an accessible treasure trove for movie lovers. We’ve long contemplated a curated streaming platform — where viewers could immerse themselves in some of the most adventurous, exciting and important independent cinema. During these past months, we’ve realized this is more urgent than ever.”
Available today, Projectr will function as both a...
- 6/18/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Zombi Child director Bertrand Bonello on what happened after Jacques Tourneur's I Walked With A Zombie: "And then the Zombi becomes something very different. Like in the trilogy by George Romero.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation with Bertrand Bonello on Zombi Child, shot by Yves Cape (Leos Carax’s Holy Motors) featuring Mackenson Bijou, Louise Labèque, Wislanda Louimat, Katiana Wilfort, Adelé David, Ninon François, Mathilde Riu, and Patrick Boucheron, the director notes the change in the genre from Victor Halperin’s White Zombie to George A Romero’s trilogy in response to my comment about Jacques Tourneur's I Walked With A Zombie.
Bertrand Bonello on Zombi Child: “The construction is very precise.”
The director/screenwriter of Nocturama; Saint Laurent; House Of Tolerance (with Adèle Haenel and Jasmine Trinca); Ingrid Caven: Music And Voice; and Tiresia has included Brian De Palma’s Carrie; Richard Donner’s [film id=19857]The.
In the second half of my conversation with Bertrand Bonello on Zombi Child, shot by Yves Cape (Leos Carax’s Holy Motors) featuring Mackenson Bijou, Louise Labèque, Wislanda Louimat, Katiana Wilfort, Adelé David, Ninon François, Mathilde Riu, and Patrick Boucheron, the director notes the change in the genre from Victor Halperin’s White Zombie to George A Romero’s trilogy in response to my comment about Jacques Tourneur's I Walked With A Zombie.
Bertrand Bonello on Zombi Child: “The construction is very precise.”
The director/screenwriter of Nocturama; Saint Laurent; House Of Tolerance (with Adèle Haenel and Jasmine Trinca); Ingrid Caven: Music And Voice; and Tiresia has included Brian De Palma’s Carrie; Richard Donner’s [film id=19857]The.
- 1/16/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
We don’t want to overwhelm you, but while you’re catching up with our top 50 films of 2019, more cinematic greatness awaits in 2020. Ahead of our 100 most-anticipated films (all of which have yet to premiere), we’re highlighting 40 titles we’ve enjoyed on the festival circuit this last year (and beyond) that either have confirmed 2019 release dates or are awaiting a debut date from its distributor. There’s also a handful of films seeking distribution that we hope will arrive in the next 12 months, which can be seen here.
Les Misérables (Ladj Ly; Jan. 10)
Les Misérables is–incredibly, it should be said–the first feature of Ladj Ly, a 39-year-old Saint Denis native and a product of Kourtrajmé, a short film collective that was set up by Romain Gavrais and Kim Chapiron in 1994. (Gavrais’ artistic fingerprints can be seen all over Ly’s fascination with football jerseys and male tribalism.
Les Misérables (Ladj Ly; Jan. 10)
Les Misérables is–incredibly, it should be said–the first feature of Ladj Ly, a 39-year-old Saint Denis native and a product of Kourtrajmé, a short film collective that was set up by Romain Gavrais and Kim Chapiron in 1994. (Gavrais’ artistic fingerprints can be seen all over Ly’s fascination with football jerseys and male tribalism.
- 1/7/2020
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Madame Claude
Director Sylvie Verheyde returns to the world of the sex worker in her sixth feature, Madame Claude, a Parisian period piece about a 1960s brothel madame. Reuniting with Karole Rocher as the lead, Verheyde rounds out a supporting cast featuring Roschdy Zem, Garance Marillier, Benjamin Biolay, Pierre Deladonchamps, Josephine de la Baume, plus two more Sex Doll cast members, Hafsia Herzi and Paul Hamy. Produced by Florence Gastaud, the title is notably lensed by Leo Hinstin (the Dp on Bonello’s 2016 title Nocturama).…...
Director Sylvie Verheyde returns to the world of the sex worker in her sixth feature, Madame Claude, a Parisian period piece about a 1960s brothel madame. Reuniting with Karole Rocher as the lead, Verheyde rounds out a supporting cast featuring Roschdy Zem, Garance Marillier, Benjamin Biolay, Pierre Deladonchamps, Josephine de la Baume, plus two more Sex Doll cast members, Hafsia Herzi and Paul Hamy. Produced by Florence Gastaud, the title is notably lensed by Leo Hinstin (the Dp on Bonello’s 2016 title Nocturama).…...
- 1/1/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Arthur Rambo
Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet unites with some new collaborators for his eighth feature, Arthur Rambo, produced by Marie-Ange Luciani (of Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys; Bpm) and lensed by Pierre Milon and The Workshop). Cantet recruits Bpm actor Antoine Reinartz, Raw, Nocturama and The Class actor Rabah Nait Oufella and Sofian Khammes (Chouf; The World is Yours) for his leads. Cantet won the Palme d’Or in 2008 for The Class and returned to Cannes in Un Certain Regard as part of the omnibus 7 Days in Havana in 2012 and again to the sidebar in 2017 with his last feature, The Workshop.…...
Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet unites with some new collaborators for his eighth feature, Arthur Rambo, produced by Marie-Ange Luciani (of Robin Campillo’s Eastern Boys; Bpm) and lensed by Pierre Milon and The Workshop). Cantet recruits Bpm actor Antoine Reinartz, Raw, Nocturama and The Class actor Rabah Nait Oufella and Sofian Khammes (Chouf; The World is Yours) for his leads. Cantet won the Palme d’Or in 2008 for The Class and returned to Cannes in Un Certain Regard as part of the omnibus 7 Days in Havana in 2012 and again to the sidebar in 2017 with his last feature, The Workshop.…...
- 1/1/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Bertrand Bonello’s most famous film, “House of Tolerance,” showed his affinity for collapsing the supposed distance between the past and present, proving to his audience we haven’t changed as much as we’d like to think. His last film, the controversial “Nocturama,” a fantasia of terrorism and capitalism intertwined, proved he was unafraid to explore hot button issues using both genre techniques and art film bravado.
Continue reading ‘Zombi Child’: Bertrand Bonello Stylishly Unearths The Colonialist Tensions Of The Zombie Mythos [Nyff Review] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Zombi Child’: Bertrand Bonello Stylishly Unearths The Colonialist Tensions Of The Zombie Mythos [Nyff Review] at The Playlist.
- 10/2/2019
- by Joe Blessing
- The Playlist
Rabah Naït Oufella, Sofian Khammes and Antoine Reinartz lead the cast of this production by Les Films de Pierre, set to be sold by Playtime. As of Monday 9 September, Laurent Cantet – who won Cannes’ 2008 Palme d’Or with The Class - has been filming his 8th fictional cinematographic work, Arthur Rambo, which is billed as a reflection on social networks and the repercussions they have on our lives, told through the story of the rise and fall of a young Maghreb writer whom the whole of Paris goes crazy for. The film will also look into the themes of virtual identity and social division. Standing tall among the various cast members are Rabah Naït Oufella, Sofian Khammes (who was unearthed in Chouf, who later made an impression in Fast Convoy and The World is Yours, and who...
Never one to shy away from audacious conceits, from a Moody Blues needle-drop in a late-19th century Parisian brothel in “House of Pleasures” to the sympathetic treatment of terrorist radicals in “Nocturama,” French director Bertrand Bonello returns with a brow-raising one in “Zombi Child,” a political horror film that bundles the sins of colonialism with those of mischievous boarding-school girls. Alternating between a fact-based case of zombieism in 1962 Haiti and a clique of privileged students in contemporary France, the film brings the legacy of Haitian suffering and hardship to the doorstep of a Legion of Honor school with ties to the Napoleonic age. Though Bonello eventually reveals a more concrete bridge between eras,
Though the story of Clairvius Narcisse is largely considered more legend than fact, he was a real Haitian man who supposedly turned into a zombie in 1962 and rematerialized in 1980 in perfectly normal health. The likely catalyst of his transformation was tetrodotoxin,...
Though the story of Clairvius Narcisse is largely considered more legend than fact, he was a real Haitian man who supposedly turned into a zombie in 1962 and rematerialized in 1980 in perfectly normal health. The likely catalyst of his transformation was tetrodotoxin,...
- 9/7/2019
- by Scott Tobias
- Variety Film + TV
"Can voodoo help me live?" Get a look at an official trailer for Zombi Child, the latest by French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello. It first premiered in the Directors' Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival, and will play at the New York Film Festival. Bonello moves fluidly between 1962 Haiti, where a young man named Clairvius Narcisse (Mackenson Bijou), made into a zombie by his brother, ends up working as a slave in the sugar cane fields, and a girls' boarding school in Paris, where a white teen girl (Louise Labèque) befriends Clairvius' descendant (Wislanda Louimat), who was orphaned in the 2010 Haiti earthquake. These two disparate strands ultimately come together in a film that "evokes Jacques Tourneur more than George Romero, and feverishly dissolves boundaries of time and space as it questions colonialist mythmaking." Also with Katiana Milfort & Adilé David. See below. Here's the official festival trailer (+ poster) for Bertrand Bonello's...
- 9/6/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden to close section.
The world premiere of UK filmmaker Sarah Gavron’s Rocks will open the Toronto International Film festival’s (Tiff) Platform section for strong and distinctive directorial voices.
Closing the programme, now in its fifth year, is the international premiere of Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden, a historical romance drama based loosely on the 1909 novel by Jack London, which will receives its world premiere at Venice.
The roster of 10 features includes four films by women. In addition to Gavron, they are Julie Delpy with genre-bending tale of maternal grief My Zoe , Alice Winocour with Proxima,...
The world premiere of UK filmmaker Sarah Gavron’s Rocks will open the Toronto International Film festival’s (Tiff) Platform section for strong and distinctive directorial voices.
Closing the programme, now in its fifth year, is the international premiere of Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden, a historical romance drama based loosely on the 1909 novel by Jack London, which will receives its world premiere at Venice.
The roster of 10 features includes four films by women. In addition to Gavron, they are Julie Delpy with genre-bending tale of maternal grief My Zoe , Alice Winocour with Proxima,...
- 8/7/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Feature to open in theatres in early 2020
Grasshopper Film has acquired Us rights to former Locarno-best director winner Pedro Costa’s Portuguese drama Vitalina Varela ahead of its world premiere at the upcoming edition of the Swiss festival later this week.
The new feature from the director of Horse Money, Colossal Youth and Casa De Lava – all of which Grasshopper founder and president Ryan Krivoshey has distributed in his career – will go on to screen at other festivals throughout autumn, and will open in theatres in early 2020.
Vitalina Varela tells of the eponymous 55-year old Cape Verdean who arrives in...
Grasshopper Film has acquired Us rights to former Locarno-best director winner Pedro Costa’s Portuguese drama Vitalina Varela ahead of its world premiere at the upcoming edition of the Swiss festival later this week.
The new feature from the director of Horse Money, Colossal Youth and Casa De Lava – all of which Grasshopper founder and president Ryan Krivoshey has distributed in his career – will go on to screen at other festivals throughout autumn, and will open in theatres in early 2020.
Vitalina Varela tells of the eponymous 55-year old Cape Verdean who arrives in...
- 8/5/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Bertrand Bonello’s last film, the terrorism-themed thriller Nocturama, hit headlines as it was released in the wake of Islamic State terror attacks in France. Supposedly it was the reason the film didn’t debut in competition at Cannes that year and with the compelling Directors’ Fortnight premiere Zombi Child, the director has again swerved away from official selection. Where Nocturama pointed to a seething social tension that Bonello believed present in the undercurrent of contemporary France, this is a genre-blending horror satire on the country’s racial divisions that delves into the country’s post-colonial heritage and the myth of Haitian zombie legend.
We open in Haiti in 1962, at the death of Clairvius Narcisse (Mackenson Bijou), a man who comes back to life as a “zombi” (spelled without the ‘e’ to foreground the Haitian etymology), used as slave labor in the hell of the Caribbean nation’s sugar fields.
We open in Haiti in 1962, at the death of Clairvius Narcisse (Mackenson Bijou), a man who comes back to life as a “zombi” (spelled without the ‘e’ to foreground the Haitian etymology), used as slave labor in the hell of the Caribbean nation’s sugar fields.
- 6/10/2019
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critic Leonardo Goi and editor Daniel Kasman.Zombi ChildDear Leo,Your last dispatch pinpointed works of social realist cinema here in Cannes, alongside a quintessential art-house picture. I have no bias for or against any of these idioms, each and all can be used to make a great film, but often at festivals I long for the smarts for entertainment that genre cinema can promise. Genre movies exemplify in the most vivid sense a truism of the art of the cinema, that it relies on the building blocks of cliches, the language and toolkit of conventions and archetypes. Because of this, to expect most movies to do something new or fresh in some ways feels antithetical to the art, founded as it is on iteration and variation on shared popular ideas. To surprise an audience within the confines of expectations...
- 5/21/2019
- MUBI
There are any number of horror films about “voodoo” magic and its colonialist underpinnings — Jacques Tourneur’s 1943 “I Walked with a Zombie” remaining the most formative example — but only Bertrand Bonello’s take on the subject includes an oral presentation on the life and times of Rihanna. It would be foolish to expect anything else from the firebrand director behind “House of Pleasures” and “Nocturama,” whose films see history as less of a forward march than an uneasy churn; his work obfuscates clearly delineated temporalities in order to emphasize that while everyone may live in the present the past is never really dead.
As its title suggests, “Zombi Child” finds Bonello taking that idea to its logical and most literal conclusion. Not only does this time-hopping curio riff on the true-ish story of Clairvius Narcisse, a Haitian man who was said to have been turned into the walking dead, it...
As its title suggests, “Zombi Child” finds Bonello taking that idea to its logical and most literal conclusion. Not only does this time-hopping curio riff on the true-ish story of Clairvius Narcisse, a Haitian man who was said to have been turned into the walking dead, it...
- 5/18/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
One of the best directors working today, Bertrand Bonello continually pushes boundaries in thrilling ways. Following his provocative terrorist thriller Nocturama, he’ll be paying homage to Jacques Tourneur with his next film, Zombi Child, premiering in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight tomorrow. Starting in 1962 in Haiti, it finds a man brought back to the dead, then 55 years later in Paris, we center on a boarding school, with a Haitian girl confesses dark, strange family secrets.
In preparation for shooting, Bonello says he didn’t immerse himself in zombie films, “but Roméro’s films were very much with me. Nevertheless, I did rewatch Jacques Tourneur’s superb I Walked with a Zombie, whose title is the film’s opening dialogue. I found inspiration in photography books, in novels, or anthropological publications, starting with one by a Swiss author, Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, written in the 1950s, in which he gives a...
In preparation for shooting, Bonello says he didn’t immerse himself in zombie films, “but Roméro’s films were very much with me. Nevertheless, I did rewatch Jacques Tourneur’s superb I Walked with a Zombie, whose title is the film’s opening dialogue. I found inspiration in photography books, in novels, or anthropological publications, starting with one by a Swiss author, Alfred Métraux, Voodoo in Haiti, written in the 1950s, in which he gives a...
- 5/16/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Section championing ‘bold directorial visions’ to announce line-up in August.
Director Athina Rachel Tsangari, newly appointed Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian, and film critic Jessica Kiang will serve as the jury for the 2019 Toronto Platform Prize.
The jury will award $20,000 Cad to the best film in the programme, which will present 12 “bold directorial visions” and is named after Jia Zhang-ke’s second feature
“We have been honoured to have had a remarkable list of distinguished filmmakers be a part of Platform ’s jury over the past four years,” said Tiff artistic director and co-head Cameron Bailey. “As we continue to...
Director Athina Rachel Tsangari, newly appointed Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian, and film critic Jessica Kiang will serve as the jury for the 2019 Toronto Platform Prize.
The jury will award $20,000 Cad to the best film in the programme, which will present 12 “bold directorial visions” and is named after Jia Zhang-ke’s second feature
“We have been honoured to have had a remarkable list of distinguished filmmakers be a part of Platform ’s jury over the past four years,” said Tiff artistic director and co-head Cameron Bailey. “As we continue to...
- 5/16/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
French actress and director Valérie Lemercier (Avenue Montaigne) is set to star in ambitious European biopic The Power Of Love (Famous) based on the life of Céline Dion. According to producers, the big-budget (around €23M) French-language project has buy in from Canadian star Dion and will feature her songs.
The film will retrace Dion’s life from the 1960’s to the present day and her relationship with her manager and late husband, René Angélil. The last of 14 children, the Canadian singer became a global superstar in the 1990s, selling more than 200M records, including hit singles The Power Of Love, Think Twice and the iconic theme song to Titanic.
Two-time César winner Lemercier will star as a character based on Dion (but won’t sing her songs). She will also direct the project, which is based on her script. Shoot is due to get underway in France this spring. Sylvain Marcel (Mensonges) will play Angélil.
The film will retrace Dion’s life from the 1960’s to the present day and her relationship with her manager and late husband, René Angélil. The last of 14 children, the Canadian singer became a global superstar in the 1990s, selling more than 200M records, including hit singles The Power Of Love, Think Twice and the iconic theme song to Titanic.
Two-time César winner Lemercier will star as a character based on Dion (but won’t sing her songs). She will also direct the project, which is based on her script. Shoot is due to get underway in France this spring. Sylvain Marcel (Mensonges) will play Angélil.
- 1/30/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Would you believe me if I told you that one of the most transcendent moments in contemporary cinema is soundtracked by the Moody Blues? Nothing against the English arena rock stalwarts, who last year were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but even in the late 1960s, at the absolute height of their powers as progenitors of an eternally (and proudly) unfashionable progressive rock sound, the Moody Blues were anything but cool. Which is to say, then as now, they’re not exactly the first band you’d expect to hear in a movie, let alone a French movie set in an early 20th century brothel. Director Bertrand Bonello used the Moody Blues to spectacular effect in his 2011 masterpiece House of Tolerance, a feverish evocation of fin de siècle Paris in which period perfect detail and flagrant artifice collide in a of slipstream of pre- and postmodern aesthetics.
- 1/21/2019
- MUBI
Zombi Child
Art-house auteur Bertrand Bonello returns with what’s described as a mix between ‘ethnology and fantasy’ for his eighth feature, Zombi Child. Following the controversial and eventually muted release of his formidable 2016 title Nocturama (check out our interview), which provides the perspectives of a group of Parisian youths following a bomb attack in the city, Bonello’s latest has been co-produced and pre-purchased through Arte France Cinema. After winning the Fipresci Prize in Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2001 for his sophomore feature The Pornographer, Bonello became a fixture at the Croisette, premiering in competition with Tiresia (2003), House of Tolerance (2011), and Saint Laurent (2014), while his 2008 On War went to Directors’ Fortnight.…...
Art-house auteur Bertrand Bonello returns with what’s described as a mix between ‘ethnology and fantasy’ for his eighth feature, Zombi Child. Following the controversial and eventually muted release of his formidable 2016 title Nocturama (check out our interview), which provides the perspectives of a group of Parisian youths following a bomb attack in the city, Bonello’s latest has been co-produced and pre-purchased through Arte France Cinema. After winning the Fipresci Prize in Critics’ Week at Cannes in 2001 for his sophomore feature The Pornographer, Bonello became a fixture at the Croisette, premiering in competition with Tiresia (2003), House of Tolerance (2011), and Saint Laurent (2014), while his 2008 On War went to Directors’ Fortnight.…...
- 1/8/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Unless his movie bears striking similarities to real-life atrocities, Bertrand Bonello is hardly a point of focus for international press. Thus word of the French writer-director’s Nocturama follow-up comes shortly before production is expected to commence: he, per Arte, has been preparing Zombi Child, which the supplied synopsis lays out (minus some possible translation snafus) like so:
“On the border of ethnology and fantasy, Bertrand Bonello recounts the destiny of the Haitian Clairvius Narcisse, victim of a voodoo spell that turned him into a zombie. Mixing stories and epochs between Haiti in 1962 and Paris today, between Narcisse, a 15-year-old Haitian girl and her aunt, a voodoo priestess, Bonello places the Haitian zombie, the origins of the cinematographic genre, in its history and dimension.”
And none of which sounds so outside Bonello’s boundaries. Those only familiar with his past three films may seem him as a stately European filmmaker...
“On the border of ethnology and fantasy, Bertrand Bonello recounts the destiny of the Haitian Clairvius Narcisse, victim of a voodoo spell that turned him into a zombie. Mixing stories and epochs between Haiti in 1962 and Paris today, between Narcisse, a 15-year-old Haitian girl and her aunt, a voodoo priestess, Bonello places the Haitian zombie, the origins of the cinematographic genre, in its history and dimension.”
And none of which sounds so outside Bonello’s boundaries. Those only familiar with his past three films may seem him as a stately European filmmaker...
- 9/19/2018
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Grasshopper Film has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the thriller “The Load,” the debut feature from filmmaker Ognjen Glavonića, Variety has learned exclusively.
“The Load,” which debuted at the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival in May, centers on a truck driver hired to deliver a mysterious cargo across a dangerous, war-torn landscape. “The Load” will receive a theatrical release next year, followed by home video and VOD.
The story takes place during the Nato bombing of Serbia in 1999. To transport the mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, the central character must drive through unfamiliar territory and try to make his way in a country scarred by war.
Jessica Kiang said in her review for Variety: “It is in the very banality of this day in the life of a Serbian trucker that this impressive new filmmaker illuminates a painful truth that inculpates more of us than...
“The Load,” which debuted at the Directors Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival in May, centers on a truck driver hired to deliver a mysterious cargo across a dangerous, war-torn landscape. “The Load” will receive a theatrical release next year, followed by home video and VOD.
The story takes place during the Nato bombing of Serbia in 1999. To transport the mysterious load from Kosovo to Belgrade, the central character must drive through unfamiliar territory and try to make his way in a country scarred by war.
Jessica Kiang said in her review for Variety: “It is in the very banality of this day in the life of a Serbian trucker that this impressive new filmmaker illuminates a painful truth that inculpates more of us than...
- 7/17/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
While at Series Mania Festival to present his mini-series “Thanksgiving” in competition, Nicolas Saada sat with Variety to discuss the spy drama which centers on the marriage between a Frenchman and American woman who are keeping secrets from each other.
Written by Saada and Anne-Louise Trividic, “Thanksgiving” was produced by Claude Chelli at Capa Drama, the thriving French banner behind “Versailles” and “Braquo,” for Franco-German network Arte. Newen Distribution is handling international sales on the series.
A former high-profile film critic, Saada previously wrote Frederic Jardin’s “Nuit Blanche,” which was remade into “Sleepless” with Jamie Foxx; and directed two films, “Spy(ies),” a London-set thriller with Guillaume Canet, and most recently “Taj Mahal,” a psychological thriller with Stacy Martin (“Nymphomaniac”) set against the backdrop of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.
What’s the genesis of “Thanksgiving”?
It was Claude Chelli [the boss of Capa Drama] who approached me. He wanted to work with me and...
Written by Saada and Anne-Louise Trividic, “Thanksgiving” was produced by Claude Chelli at Capa Drama, the thriving French banner behind “Versailles” and “Braquo,” for Franco-German network Arte. Newen Distribution is handling international sales on the series.
A former high-profile film critic, Saada previously wrote Frederic Jardin’s “Nuit Blanche,” which was remade into “Sleepless” with Jamie Foxx; and directed two films, “Spy(ies),” a London-set thriller with Guillaume Canet, and most recently “Taj Mahal,” a psychological thriller with Stacy Martin (“Nymphomaniac”) set against the backdrop of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack.
What’s the genesis of “Thanksgiving”?
It was Claude Chelli [the boss of Capa Drama] who approached me. He wanted to work with me and...
- 5/4/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Saint Laurent director Bertrand Bonello will head up this year’s short film and Cinefondation juries.
A Cannes regular, Bonello’s Tiresia was in official competition in 2003, followed by House of Tolerance in 2011 and Saint Laurent in 2014, though 2016’s controversial terrorism film Nocturama premiered in Toronto after Cannes passed on the film.
The Cinefondation selects 15-20 student films each year for its competition. The section was launched in 2000 by past president Gilles Jacob, who still oversees the section.
"This year will be presided by one of the greatest contemporary directors, an iconoclastic and unique artist. And besides his art,...
A Cannes regular, Bonello’s Tiresia was in official competition in 2003, followed by House of Tolerance in 2011 and Saint Laurent in 2014, though 2016’s controversial terrorism film Nocturama premiered in Toronto after Cannes passed on the film.
The Cinefondation selects 15-20 student films each year for its competition. The section was launched in 2000 by past president Gilles Jacob, who still oversees the section.
"This year will be presided by one of the greatest contemporary directors, an iconoclastic and unique artist. And besides his art,...
- 3/9/2018
- by Rhonda Richford
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Nocturama director wants young filmmakers to “shake us up”.
French film director, composer and screenwriter Bertrand Bonello will chair the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury at the 71st Festival de Cannes (8-19 May).
Bonello, who succeeds Cristian Mungiu in the position, has directed seven features and eight short films, including Parisian-set terrorism thriller Nocturama in 2016.
His films Tiresia, House Of Tolerance and Saint Laurent have all screened in Competition at the Festival de Cannes.
Bonello said: “What do we expect from young people, unknown filmmakers and early films? Let them shake us up, let them make us look at what we’re unable to see,...
French film director, composer and screenwriter Bertrand Bonello will chair the Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury at the 71st Festival de Cannes (8-19 May).
Bonello, who succeeds Cristian Mungiu in the position, has directed seven features and eight short films, including Parisian-set terrorism thriller Nocturama in 2016.
His films Tiresia, House Of Tolerance and Saint Laurent have all screened in Competition at the Festival de Cannes.
Bonello said: “What do we expect from young people, unknown filmmakers and early films? Let them shake us up, let them make us look at what we’re unable to see,...
- 3/9/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Author: Linda Marric
Adapted by Stéphane Brizé (The Measure Of A Man, Not Here To Be Loved) from Guy de Maupassant’s seminal 1883 novel of the same name, Une Vie (A Woman’s Life) is a beautifully constructed costume drama, which despite being set in the 19th century, manages to be as fresh and as current as any social drama worth its salt. Staring Judith Chemla in the principal role, A Woman’s Life is able to break out of the rigidity of its time by offering a story which is as gut-wrenching in its storytelling as it is brilliantly relatable in its social realist aesthetic.
Chelma is Joanne, the daughter of wealthy landowners in rural France who until now has lived an idyllic countryside life with her parents, the Baron and Baroness Le Perthuis des Vauds. Not wishing to be separated from them, Joanne agrees to marry Julien de...
Adapted by Stéphane Brizé (The Measure Of A Man, Not Here To Be Loved) from Guy de Maupassant’s seminal 1883 novel of the same name, Une Vie (A Woman’s Life) is a beautifully constructed costume drama, which despite being set in the 19th century, manages to be as fresh and as current as any social drama worth its salt. Staring Judith Chemla in the principal role, A Woman’s Life is able to break out of the rigidity of its time by offering a story which is as gut-wrenching in its storytelling as it is brilliantly relatable in its social realist aesthetic.
Chelma is Joanne, the daughter of wealthy landowners in rural France who until now has lived an idyllic countryside life with her parents, the Baron and Baroness Le Perthuis des Vauds. Not wishing to be separated from them, Joanne agrees to marry Julien de...
- 1/11/2018
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
One of the most electrifying, thrilling, and funny films of the year was Safdies’ Good Time, featuring Robert Pattinson in a career-best performance. While it didn’t exactly ignite the box-office, as the crime drama is now available to stream we hoped it would spur more year-end conversation and that looks to be the case. It’s now topped Film Comment’s best films of 2017, an eclectic list which also includes personal favorite such as A Quiet Passion, Nocturama, Personal Shopper, Dawson City: Frozen Time, Phantom Thread, and more.
In related news, Benny and Josh Safdie have found a new major project. THR reports the duo will remake Walter Hill’s 1982 buddy comedy 48 Hrs., which starred Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. Scripting the project will be Josh Safdie, frequent collaborator Ronald Bronstein, and Jerrod Carmichael. There’s no word yet on casting or how updated the plot will be (the...
In related news, Benny and Josh Safdie have found a new major project. THR reports the duo will remake Walter Hill’s 1982 buddy comedy 48 Hrs., which starred Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte. Scripting the project will be Josh Safdie, frequent collaborator Ronald Bronstein, and Jerrod Carmichael. There’s no word yet on casting or how updated the plot will be (the...
- 12/15/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
John Waters has been called the “Pope of Filth,” the “Sultan of Sleeze,” the “Prince of Puke,” and the “King of Bad Taste.” Naturally, who wouldn’t want to know his favorite films of the year? Known for pushing the envelope over the edge and back again with iconic films like “Cry Baby,” “Pink Flamingoes,” and “Hairspray,” the cult filmmaker is a devoted cinephile with a wide range of interests. Waters always has a few surprises on his yearly top ten list, and 2017 is no exception.
Topping the list is Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver,” a somewhat surprising choice for the fan of all things trashy and grotesque. Making a strong showing in third place is “The Strange Ones,” a psychological thriller and feature debut by Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein. Waters also liked Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck” and Woody Allen’s “Wonder Wheel.”
Read More:John Waters Touts New Indie Theater...
Topping the list is Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver,” a somewhat surprising choice for the fan of all things trashy and grotesque. Making a strong showing in third place is “The Strange Ones,” a psychological thriller and feature debut by Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein. Waters also liked Todd Haynes’ “Wonderstruck” and Woody Allen’s “Wonder Wheel.”
Read More:John Waters Touts New Indie Theater...
- 11/30/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
The onslaught of best-of-the-year lists from guilds and critics groups have only just begun, but one of the few of genuine interest each year comes from a single person: the wonderfully eccentric director John Waters, whose eclectic tastes always includes a mix of the unexpected and underseen.
Topping his list this year is Edgar Wright’s action-romance Baby Driver, which was a bright spot this past summer. Also named is one of the best-directed films of the year—and one that should be getting more love in year-end wrap-ups—Bertrand Bonello’s uncompromising Nocturama. Waters also includes a pair of Amazon Studios releases: Wonderstruck and Wonder Wheel, as well as an early 2018 release we’re looking forward to, The Strange Ones.
Check out the list below courtesy of Chaos Reigns.
1. Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)
2. I, Olga Hepnarová (Tomáš Weinreb & Petr Kazda)
3. The Strange Ones (Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein)
4. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello...
Topping his list this year is Edgar Wright’s action-romance Baby Driver, which was a bright spot this past summer. Also named is one of the best-directed films of the year—and one that should be getting more love in year-end wrap-ups—Bertrand Bonello’s uncompromising Nocturama. Waters also includes a pair of Amazon Studios releases: Wonderstruck and Wonder Wheel, as well as an early 2018 release we’re looking forward to, The Strange Ones.
Check out the list below courtesy of Chaos Reigns.
1. Baby Driver (Edgar Wright)
2. I, Olga Hepnarová (Tomáš Weinreb & Petr Kazda)
3. The Strange Ones (Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein)
4. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello...
- 11/30/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
As 2017 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our hands on the titles that may have slipped under the radar or simply gone unseen. With the proliferation of streaming options, it’s thankfully easier than ever to play catch-up, and to assist with the process, we’re bringing you a rundown of the best titles of the year available to watch.
Curated from the Best Films of 2017 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up on. This is far from a be-all, end-all year-end feature (that will come at the end of the year), but rather something that will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to seek out notable, perhaps underseen, titles from the year.
Note that we’re going by U.
Curated from the Best Films of 2017 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up on. This is far from a be-all, end-all year-end feature (that will come at the end of the year), but rather something that will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to seek out notable, perhaps underseen, titles from the year.
Note that we’re going by U.
- 10/25/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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