Science fiction has such flexibility and breadth as a genre that it should come to no surprise that so many popular sci-fi movies get released worldwide year after year. With so many sci-fi projects crowding the cinema and various streaming services, it's easy to miss some hidden gems in the genre that don't enjoy the same publicized fanfare. This oversight affects even the most critically acclaimed sci-fi movies which, despite the buzz, don't always get the general audience awareness they truly deserve.
From indie darlings to foreign films that don't receive major attention during their international distribution, there are plenty of overlooked sci-fi movies. For the purposes of this list, we've narrowed it down to movies that have scored exceptionally high with critics' scores on Rotten Tomatoes, but don't seem to have the wider viewership or recognition, even among sci-fi fans. Here are some near-perfect sci-fi movies that you might...
From indie darlings to foreign films that don't receive major attention during their international distribution, there are plenty of overlooked sci-fi movies. For the purposes of this list, we've narrowed it down to movies that have scored exceptionally high with critics' scores on Rotten Tomatoes, but don't seem to have the wider viewership or recognition, even among sci-fi fans. Here are some near-perfect sci-fi movies that you might...
- 4/21/2024
- by Samuel Stone
- Slash Film
As Russia’s war in Ukraine approaches its second anniversary, leading Russian director Aleksey German Jr., is currently giving “Air,” his state-funded WWII thriller, a commercial release in Russian cinemas.
With ferocious action and cruel detail, “Air” has been called out for being a patriotic film. It depicts the struggles of a group of female pilots to be allowed to fight alongside male colleagues on the Russo-German front lines in 1943-44. Grudgingly, they are given their chance. While many die along the way, those that survive buck the established patriarchy and gain the recognition they crave – as heroes and professional killers.
Variety spoke with German Jr. at the recent Festival of Young Cinema in Macau, which was only the second festival to play the film following its premiere in Tokyo late last year.
German Jr. makes no apology for his stance on the current war, but says that excluding Russian...
With ferocious action and cruel detail, “Air” has been called out for being a patriotic film. It depicts the struggles of a group of female pilots to be allowed to fight alongside male colleagues on the Russo-German front lines in 1943-44. Grudgingly, they are given their chance. While many die along the way, those that survive buck the established patriarchy and gain the recognition they crave – as heroes and professional killers.
Variety spoke with German Jr. at the recent Festival of Young Cinema in Macau, which was only the second festival to play the film following its premiere in Tokyo late last year.
German Jr. makes no apology for his stance on the current war, but says that excluding Russian...
- 1/16/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Violent story of a man’s doomed efforts to settle back into family life after a shady trip abroad is dynamic but despairing
This movie from western Ukraine is one of the strangest and fiercest I have seen in a while: dynamic and yet despairing. It does not allude to Russia’s war on Ukraine, but perhaps that conflict is there subtextually, in the sense of tribal loyalty, community tradition and the distinct, almost occult pull towards the west. There is something of Aleksey German or Sergey Loznitsa here, and its lead character is like a more watchful and subdued, though no less violent, version of someone that Emir Kusturica would dream up.
The setting is Bukovina, in the eastern Carpathian mountains bordering Romania. Oleksandr Yatsentyuk plays Leonid, nicknamed Pamfir (“Stone”), a guy who has just come home from a job in Poland; he makes passionate love to his wife...
This movie from western Ukraine is one of the strangest and fiercest I have seen in a while: dynamic and yet despairing. It does not allude to Russia’s war on Ukraine, but perhaps that conflict is there subtextually, in the sense of tribal loyalty, community tradition and the distinct, almost occult pull towards the west. There is something of Aleksey German or Sergey Loznitsa here, and its lead character is like a more watchful and subdued, though no less violent, version of someone that Emir Kusturica would dream up.
The setting is Bukovina, in the eastern Carpathian mountains bordering Romania. Oleksandr Yatsentyuk plays Leonid, nicknamed Pamfir (“Stone”), a guy who has just come home from a job in Poland; he makes passionate love to his wife...
- 5/3/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film at Lincoln Center
NYFF Revivals concludes with restorations of Edward Yang’s A Confucian Confusion, Beirut the Encounter, Canyon Passage, and Black God, White Devil.
Film Forum
Isabelle Huppert, maybe our greatest actress, is celebrated in a retrospective with work by Godard and Chabrol; Breathless continues, while Wallace and Gromit shows on Sunday.
Japan Society
Mamoru Oshii’s legendary Angel’s Egg screens on Friday.
Roxy Cinema
Weyes Blood presents Possession, An American Werewolf in London, Virginia Woolf, and Hardcore on 35mm, as well as Funeral Parade of Roses and Rebecca; Band of Outsiders and a print of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence also screen.
Anthology Film Archives
Alexei German’s Khrustalyov, My Car! has a revival run; a retrospective of Colombian filmmaker Luis Ospina continues.
IFC Center
Guy Maddin (who we spoke to here) presents a restoration of his...
Film at Lincoln Center
NYFF Revivals concludes with restorations of Edward Yang’s A Confucian Confusion, Beirut the Encounter, Canyon Passage, and Black God, White Devil.
Film Forum
Isabelle Huppert, maybe our greatest actress, is celebrated in a retrospective with work by Godard and Chabrol; Breathless continues, while Wallace and Gromit shows on Sunday.
Japan Society
Mamoru Oshii’s legendary Angel’s Egg screens on Friday.
Roxy Cinema
Weyes Blood presents Possession, An American Werewolf in London, Virginia Woolf, and Hardcore on 35mm, as well as Funeral Parade of Roses and Rebecca; Band of Outsiders and a print of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence also screen.
Anthology Film Archives
Alexei German’s Khrustalyov, My Car! has a revival run; a retrospective of Colombian filmmaker Luis Ospina continues.
IFC Center
Guy Maddin (who we spoke to here) presents a restoration of his...
- 10/13/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
We sat down with director Kantemir Balagov at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival following the premiere of his sophomore film Beanpole in Un Certain Regard. The director speaks of the process of re-creating post-wwii Leningrad as well as the process of casting unknown lead roles. Although Balagov didn’t concoct his film as a direct homage, we discussed noted influences on the construction of the narrative, including Aleksey German and Larisa Shepitko. While Balagov doesn’t provide any exact details of future projects, he plans on his next film being a contemporary narrative after his two period pieces, which includes his 1999 set debut Closeness (Tesnota).…...
- 2/10/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
While markets such as Afm and the recent Key Buyers Event in Moscow aim to develop the worldwide sales potential of Russian cinema, the Russian branch of Fipresci, the international film critics’ federation, came up with a sure-fire idea to bring media attention to the diversity of Russian production, its varied genres, directions and aesthetics.
From Nov. 11-13, the second Fipresci colloquium on Russian cinema will bring together journalists from a range of international publications, film festival curators, film scholars and members of the Russian film industry. Held under the auspices of the bi-annual St. Petersburg Cultural Forum, the event will take place at the legendary Lenfilm Studio complex in St. Petersburg, the studio that gave the world Grigory Kozintsev, Ilya Averbakh and Aleksey German, as well as Aleksandr Sokurov, who still produces his work there.
Colloquium participants (including this writer) will have the opportunity to tour the building and its historic costume collection,...
From Nov. 11-13, the second Fipresci colloquium on Russian cinema will bring together journalists from a range of international publications, film festival curators, film scholars and members of the Russian film industry. Held under the auspices of the bi-annual St. Petersburg Cultural Forum, the event will take place at the legendary Lenfilm Studio complex in St. Petersburg, the studio that gave the world Grigory Kozintsev, Ilya Averbakh and Aleksey German, as well as Aleksandr Sokurov, who still produces his work there.
Colloquium participants (including this writer) will have the opportunity to tour the building and its historic costume collection,...
- 11/8/2019
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic’s upcoming drama about a family trapped in war-torn Srebrenica, Polish director Agnieszka Holland’s postwar film chronicling the rise and fall of a mysterious Czech healer, and Luxembourg helmer Jacques Molitor’s tale of a wealthy and bloodthirsty clan of wine-growing lycanthropes are among the projects taking part in this year’s Venice Gap-Financing Market.
The 6th edition of the market section, which runs during the Venice Film Festival from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, presents 51 international projects in the final stages of development and funding, including 28 feature films and documentaries.
Among the projects selected for the market, part of the Venice Production Bridge program, is Zbanic’s tentatively titled European co-production “Quo Vadis Aida.” In the film, the director of the Golden Bear-winning “Grbavica” revisits the horrors of the Bosnian War in a story about a family trapped in Srebrenica during the city’s occupation by Serb forces.
The 6th edition of the market section, which runs during the Venice Film Festival from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, presents 51 international projects in the final stages of development and funding, including 28 feature films and documentaries.
Among the projects selected for the market, part of the Venice Production Bridge program, is Zbanic’s tentatively titled European co-production “Quo Vadis Aida.” In the film, the director of the Golden Bear-winning “Grbavica” revisits the horrors of the Bosnian War in a story about a family trapped in Srebrenica during the city’s occupation by Serb forces.
- 8/30/2019
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The maturing Russian market was boosted by basketball drama Three Seconds this year.
At the end of every year, Russia’s box office is given a sizeable boost by the release of the biggest local film of that year in the late December holiday period. This happened to spectacular effect at the end of 2017 when Three Seconds (also known as Going Vertical) appeared in Russian cinemas on December 28.
The film, which celebrates Russia’s triumph against the Us basketball team at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, stayed on screens well into 2018 and turned into one of the biggest local successes of all time,...
At the end of every year, Russia’s box office is given a sizeable boost by the release of the biggest local film of that year in the late December holiday period. This happened to spectacular effect at the end of 2017 when Three Seconds (also known as Going Vertical) appeared in Russian cinemas on December 28.
The film, which celebrates Russia’s triumph against the Us basketball team at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, stayed on screens well into 2018 and turned into one of the biggest local successes of all time,...
- 12/19/2018
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
‘Phantom Thread’ actress Krieps will play an academic who falls in love with a married diplomat.
Paris-based Pyramide International has boarded sales on Danielle Arbid’s new film Passion Simple, starring Vicky Krieps as a French academic who falls passionately in love with a married Russian diplomat.
Russian stage and screen star Danila Kozlovsky, recently seen in Aleksey German’s drama Dovlatov and BBC series McMafia, co-stars as the elusive Russian lover.
Multilingual Luxembourgish actress Krieps, who shot to stardom internationally on the back of her performance opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread, plays a 42-year-old lecturer and researcher who...
Paris-based Pyramide International has boarded sales on Danielle Arbid’s new film Passion Simple, starring Vicky Krieps as a French academic who falls passionately in love with a married Russian diplomat.
Russian stage and screen star Danila Kozlovsky, recently seen in Aleksey German’s drama Dovlatov and BBC series McMafia, co-stars as the elusive Russian lover.
Multilingual Luxembourgish actress Krieps, who shot to stardom internationally on the back of her performance opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread, plays a 42-year-old lecturer and researcher who...
- 5/10/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Dovlatov
Director: Aleksey German Jr.
Writer: Aleksey German Jr., Katherine Dovlatov
Since helping to complete his father’s posthumous opus Hard to Be a God, Russian director Aleksey German Jr.
Continue reading...
Director: Aleksey German Jr.
Writer: Aleksey German Jr., Katherine Dovlatov
Since helping to complete his father’s posthumous opus Hard to Be a God, Russian director Aleksey German Jr.
Continue reading...
- 1/6/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The prize offers editorial coverage during the winning film’s life-cycle.
The 15th edition of Tallinn’s Baltic Event Co-Production Market saw Screen International’s Best Pitch award being presented to Luxembourg-based producer Marion Guth of a_BAHN for UK artist filmmaker Vicki Thornton’s hybrid docu-fiction (N)Ostalgia.
a_BAHN currently has the UK’s Roastbeef Production and Norway’s Oya Films supporting the project about a remote Soviet ghost town on the edge of the Arctic Circle and its transformation into a tourist spectacle.
The Best Pitch Award - which is decided on by the co-production market’s participants and offers editorial coverage during the film’s life-cycle - was presented in the past to such projects as Finnish filmmaker Petri Kotwica’s suspense drama Rat King; Russian director Alexei German Jr.’s Under Electric Clouds; and the first pan-Baltic fiction co-production Seneca’s Day by Kristijonas Vildziunas.
Guth had also...
The 15th edition of Tallinn’s Baltic Event Co-Production Market saw Screen International’s Best Pitch award being presented to Luxembourg-based producer Marion Guth of a_BAHN for UK artist filmmaker Vicki Thornton’s hybrid docu-fiction (N)Ostalgia.
a_BAHN currently has the UK’s Roastbeef Production and Norway’s Oya Films supporting the project about a remote Soviet ghost town on the edge of the Arctic Circle and its transformation into a tourist spectacle.
The Best Pitch Award - which is decided on by the co-production market’s participants and offers editorial coverage during the film’s life-cycle - was presented in the past to such projects as Finnish filmmaker Petri Kotwica’s suspense drama Rat King; Russian director Alexei German Jr.’s Under Electric Clouds; and the first pan-Baltic fiction co-production Seneca’s Day by Kristijonas Vildziunas.
Guth had also...
- 11/24/2016
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Diving into the hundreds of new theatrical releases, including large chunks of grueling, gluttonous marathons through world cinema’s greatest offerings from a variety of film festivals, and coming to a reasonable list of selections demonstrating what one deems to be ‘the best,’ remains an utterly self-involved, sometimes fruitless tradition. Who, after all, can rightly determine what is indeed ‘best’ in an art form where one person’s trash is another’s treasure? Personally, I prefer to compile a list of ‘favorite’ things, items which remain meaningless unless you put stock in its author’s general tastes.
Amidst the incessant jabbering of awards season exaggeration, it’s difficult not to be swayed by the most topical, most shiny and brand new theatrical releases courting awards voters (which is why I felt it necessary to see Inarritu’s new film twice). Nearly half of my selections appeared on my mid-year list of favored theatrical releases,...
Amidst the incessant jabbering of awards season exaggeration, it’s difficult not to be swayed by the most topical, most shiny and brand new theatrical releases courting awards voters (which is why I felt it necessary to see Inarritu’s new film twice). Nearly half of my selections appeared on my mid-year list of favored theatrical releases,...
- 12/14/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A Corner of Heaven
Written by Zhang Miaoyan and Roelof Jan Minneboo
Directed by Zhang Miaoyan
China/France 2014
China’s interior is a treasure trove of landscapes that cinema has barely begun to tap. Shot in a bleak black and white, and comfortable moving from beautiful lyricism to impoverished realism, A Corner of Heaven comes across as a muddied blend of Béla Tarr, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Alexei German.
Zhang Miaoyan, while not especially prolific (A Corner of Heaven is just his third feature film), is establishing a reputation for beautiful cinematography, a slow approach to cinema, and thoughtfulness present beyond every shot. Taking a story Zhang heard in the news, A Corner of Heaven meanders through a simple plot: In a small rural area in central China by the Yellow River, a woman abandons her two children and their elderly grandfather, vanishing from their lives without a trace. Her son,...
Written by Zhang Miaoyan and Roelof Jan Minneboo
Directed by Zhang Miaoyan
China/France 2014
China’s interior is a treasure trove of landscapes that cinema has barely begun to tap. Shot in a bleak black and white, and comfortable moving from beautiful lyricism to impoverished realism, A Corner of Heaven comes across as a muddied blend of Béla Tarr, Andrei Tarkovsky, and Alexei German.
Zhang Miaoyan, while not especially prolific (A Corner of Heaven is just his third feature film), is establishing a reputation for beautiful cinematography, a slow approach to cinema, and thoughtfulness present beyond every shot. Taking a story Zhang heard in the news, A Corner of Heaven meanders through a simple plot: In a small rural area in central China by the Yellow River, a woman abandons her two children and their elderly grandfather, vanishing from their lives without a trace. Her son,...
- 8/21/2015
- by Josh Hamm
- SoundOnSight
A slo-mo kaleidoscope of medieval squalor, fear and pandemonium, Alexei German’s three-hour epic isn’t easy to watch, but it is awe-inspiring in its own monumentally mad way
The past is another planet – they do things differently there. This monochrome dream-epic of medieval cruelty and squalor is a non-sci-fi sci-fi; a monumental, and monumentally mad film that the Russian film-maker Alexei German began working on around 15 years ago. It was completed by his son, Alexei German Jr, after the director’s death in 2013. If ever a movie deserved the title folie de grandeur it is this, placed before audiences on a take-it-or-leave-it basis: maniacally vehement and strange, a slo-mo kaleidoscope of chaos and also a relentless prose poem of fear, featuring three hours’ worth of non-sequitur dialogue, where each line is an imagist stab with nothing to do what has just been said.
What on earth does it mean?...
The past is another planet – they do things differently there. This monochrome dream-epic of medieval cruelty and squalor is a non-sci-fi sci-fi; a monumental, and monumentally mad film that the Russian film-maker Alexei German began working on around 15 years ago. It was completed by his son, Alexei German Jr, after the director’s death in 2013. If ever a movie deserved the title folie de grandeur it is this, placed before audiences on a take-it-or-leave-it basis: maniacally vehement and strange, a slo-mo kaleidoscope of chaos and also a relentless prose poem of fear, featuring three hours’ worth of non-sequitur dialogue, where each line is an imagist stab with nothing to do what has just been said.
What on earth does it mean?...
- 8/6/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
A slo-mo kaleidoscope of medieval squalor, fear and pandemonium, Alexei German’s three-hour epic isn’t easy to watch, but it is awe-inspiring in its own monumentally mad way
The past is another planet – they do things differently there. This monochrome dream-epic of medieval cruelty and squalor is a non-sci-fi sci-fi; a monumental, and monumentally mad film that the Russian film-maker Alexei German began working on around 15 years ago. It was completed by his son, Alexei German Jr, after the director’s death in 2013. If ever a movie deserved the title folie de grandeur it is this, placed before audiences on a take-it-or-leave-it basis: maniacally vehement and strange, a slo-mo kaleidoscope of chaos and also a relentless prose poem of fear, featuring three hours’ worth of non-sequitur dialogue, where each line is an imagist stab with nothing to do what has just been said.
What on earth does it mean?...
The past is another planet – they do things differently there. This monochrome dream-epic of medieval cruelty and squalor is a non-sci-fi sci-fi; a monumental, and monumentally mad film that the Russian film-maker Alexei German began working on around 15 years ago. It was completed by his son, Alexei German Jr, after the director’s death in 2013. If ever a movie deserved the title folie de grandeur it is this, placed before audiences on a take-it-or-leave-it basis: maniacally vehement and strange, a slo-mo kaleidoscope of chaos and also a relentless prose poem of fear, featuring three hours’ worth of non-sequitur dialogue, where each line is an imagist stab with nothing to do what has just been said.
What on earth does it mean?...
- 8/6/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
With the first half of 2015 officially coming to a close, it’s time for our mid-year list of best theatrical releases. As seems to be the trend, a bulk of these titles were selections premiering in the late fall circuit of 2014, a move sometimes granting offbeat art-house selections a bit more breathing room (though not always). Here’s a glance at what represents the best of the year thus far, including two directorial debuts, one posthumous work, and one studio feature:
10. The Salt of the Earth – Dir. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Premiering at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, German auteur Wim Wenders explores the prolific career of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, here with the help of his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado serving as co-director. Known for capturing catastrophic events in striking fashion, the documentary finds the artist in search of something positive after decades documenting human nature at its worst.
10. The Salt of the Earth – Dir. Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Premiering at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, German auteur Wim Wenders explores the prolific career of Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, here with the help of his son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado serving as co-director. Known for capturing catastrophic events in striking fashion, the documentary finds the artist in search of something positive after decades documenting human nature at its worst.
- 7/6/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
★★★☆☆ Filming for Berlinale competition offering Under Electric Clouds (2015) began in 2011 before director Aleksey German Jr. put the production on hiatus so he could finish his late father's final film, Hard to Be a God (2012). Having never experienced enlightenment, the alien planet of Hard to Be a God was caught in an interminable medieval state of rampant disease and squelching bodily discharges. This idea of a society suffering from a sense of cultural inertia forms the thematic backbone of German Jr.'s latest, a densely layered and somewhat over-egged opprobrium of contemporary Russia and the spiritual despondency of an entire generation in effective stasis.
- 2/10/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Sundance 2015
Our crew is hard at work covering the Sundance Film Festival. Here is the first batch of review with more to come.
‘The D Train’ promises a fun, twisty ride Sundance 2015: ‘A Walk in the Woods’ will have you running for the exits Sundance 2015: ‘Slow West’ is a tense and thoughtful revisionist western Sundance 2015: ‘Princess’ is one of Sundance’s best Sundance 2015: Maybe the dingos should eat ‘Strangerland’ Sundance 2015: Ben Mendelsohn is the jackpot in otherwise middling ‘Mississippi Grind’ Sundance 2015: ‘Me & Earl & the Dying Girl’ an emotional, honest and hilarious experience Sundance 2015: ‘The End of the Tour’ a quiet, affecting primer on the life of David Foster Wallace Sundance 2015: ‘Cop Car’ is an instant Americana genre film classic Sundance 2015: ‘Girlhood’ rivals Linklater’s opus Sundance 2015: ‘Knock Knock’ sees Eli Roth and Keanu Reeves offer camp glory Sundance 2015: ‘Eden...
Our crew is hard at work covering the Sundance Film Festival. Here is the first batch of review with more to come.
‘The D Train’ promises a fun, twisty ride Sundance 2015: ‘A Walk in the Woods’ will have you running for the exits Sundance 2015: ‘Slow West’ is a tense and thoughtful revisionist western Sundance 2015: ‘Princess’ is one of Sundance’s best Sundance 2015: Maybe the dingos should eat ‘Strangerland’ Sundance 2015: Ben Mendelsohn is the jackpot in otherwise middling ‘Mississippi Grind’ Sundance 2015: ‘Me & Earl & the Dying Girl’ an emotional, honest and hilarious experience Sundance 2015: ‘The End of the Tour’ a quiet, affecting primer on the life of David Foster Wallace Sundance 2015: ‘Cop Car’ is an instant Americana genre film classic Sundance 2015: ‘Girlhood’ rivals Linklater’s opus Sundance 2015: ‘Knock Knock’ sees Eli Roth and Keanu Reeves offer camp glory Sundance 2015: ‘Eden...
- 1/31/2015
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Hard to Be a God
Written by Aleksey German and Svetlana Karmalita from the novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Directed by Aleksey German
Russia, 2013
“The scholar is not the enemy. The enemy is the scholar who doubts.”
Aleksey German’s Hard to Be a God is in the running for the most disgusting films I’ve ever seen. The film produces an enormously affecting, intricately detailed, and thoroughly realized visceral nightmare, one that never wanes or becomes numbing over its three-hour runtime but instead accumulates into an at-times overwhelming journey into a world run by a phantom regime of hedonist ignorance and reactionary cruelty. Built upon a twist on science fiction that probes fascinating questions about politics, morality, and the myth of the arc of human progress, Hard to Be a God uses this genre framework as a platform to manifest a carnival of depravity and filth. Decades in the making,...
Written by Aleksey German and Svetlana Karmalita from the novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Directed by Aleksey German
Russia, 2013
“The scholar is not the enemy. The enemy is the scholar who doubts.”
Aleksey German’s Hard to Be a God is in the running for the most disgusting films I’ve ever seen. The film produces an enormously affecting, intricately detailed, and thoroughly realized visceral nightmare, one that never wanes or becomes numbing over its three-hour runtime but instead accumulates into an at-times overwhelming journey into a world run by a phantom regime of hedonist ignorance and reactionary cruelty. Built upon a twist on science fiction that probes fascinating questions about politics, morality, and the myth of the arc of human progress, Hard to Be a God uses this genre framework as a platform to manifest a carnival of depravity and filth. Decades in the making,...
- 1/28/2015
- by Landon Palmer
- SoundOnSight
How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2014?
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
- 1/5/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Nicole Brenez, Alain Guiraudie, Darezhan Omirbayev, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones, Joshua Oppenheimer, Aaron Cutler, Sean Baker, Lois Patiño, Diego Lerer, Denis Côte and Gabe Klinger are just a few of the many who have contributed best-of-2014 lists to Otros Cines. Roger Koza's counted the ballots and the top three are Pedro Costa's Horse Money, Jean-Luc Godard's Adieu au langage, Lisandro Alonso's Jauja, Sergei Loznitsa's Maidan and Aleksey German's Hard to be a God. Meantime, FiveThirtyEight has surveyed 30 national publications and found that—no surprise here—Richard Linklater's Boyhood is the clear favorite. » - David Hudson...
- 12/27/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Nicole Brenez, Alain Guiraudie, Darezhan Omirbayev, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Kent Jones, Joshua Oppenheimer, Aaron Cutler, Sean Baker, Lois Patiño, Diego Lerer, Denis Côte and Gabe Klinger are just a few of the many who have contributed best-of-2014 lists to Otros Cines. Roger Koza's counted the ballots and the top three are Pedro Costa's Horse Money, Jean-Luc Godard's Adieu au langage, Lisandro Alonso's Jauja, Sergei Loznitsa's Maidan and Aleksey German's Hard to be a God. Meantime, FiveThirtyEight has surveyed 30 national publications and found that—no surprise here—Richard Linklater's Boyhood is the clear favorite. » - David Hudson...
- 12/27/2014
- Keyframe
Producers from Finland, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Poland and Russia picked up awards at this year’s 13th Baltic Event co-production market (Nov 24-28) in Tallinn.
Finnish comedy Impaled Rektum by feature debutants Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio was awarded the Screen International Best Pitch Award.
The €1.4m production about a young loser trying to overcome his stage fright and other fears by leading the worst heavy band of Finland, Impaled Rektum, to the hottest metal festival in Norway, will be produced by Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho of Helsinki-based Making Movies Oy.
This is the second time that Nordberg and Aho have received Screen’s Best Pitch Award after having previously been selected with Petri Kotwica’s Rat King which then went on to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Other past winners of the award include Alexei German’s Under Electric Clouds, which is understood to be premiering at a major international film festival soon, and...
Finnish comedy Impaled Rektum by feature debutants Jukka Vidgren and Juuso Laatio was awarded the Screen International Best Pitch Award.
The €1.4m production about a young loser trying to overcome his stage fright and other fears by leading the worst heavy band of Finland, Impaled Rektum, to the hottest metal festival in Norway, will be produced by Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho of Helsinki-based Making Movies Oy.
This is the second time that Nordberg and Aho have received Screen’s Best Pitch Award after having previously been selected with Petri Kotwica’s Rat King which then went on to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Other past winners of the award include Alexei German’s Under Electric Clouds, which is understood to be premiering at a major international film festival soon, and...
- 11/28/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Usually with film reviews, the critic or reviewer has a mandate to give a reasoned or perhaps educated opinion on the qualities of the film they are writing about. Points covered are things like ccharacterization plot mechanics, style, music and cinematography. The reviewer weighs these against their expectations plus their knowledge of what constitutes a successful film and compares it to the contemporary tastes of the time while also placing it within the context of cinema history. Occasionally though, a film comes along that defies all attempts to categorize it and challenges the audience to not enjoy it or even like it, but to endure its myriad horrors for its entire duration. Hard to be a God is one such film.
Hard to be a God takes place on Arkanar, a planet close to Earth which is developmentally 800 years behind, with the human population still living in medieval squalor. A...
Hard to be a God takes place on Arkanar, a planet close to Earth which is developmentally 800 years behind, with the human population still living in medieval squalor. A...
- 10/20/2014
- by Liam Dunn
- We Got This Covered
★★★★☆Engaging with a near-three-hour sci-fi set entirely within the bedraggled medieval milieu of a distant planet is a daunting proposition, especially one forged under the singular direction of renowned Russian filmmaker Aleksey German. Hard to Be a God (2013) is a cinematic behemoth, an unshakable monochrome nightmare of squelching bodily discharges that inhabits a world so noxious you can almost smell the pungent deterioration of humanity as it spews forth from the screen. German died of heart failure whilst Hard to be a God was still in post-production and it's with thanks to his wife Svetlana Karmalita and son Aleksey Jr. that we're able to appreciate German's work posthumously.
- 10/8/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
From October 8 to 19, the 43rd edition of the Festival du nouveau cinéma will run. This year’s lineup of 380 films (152 features and 228 shorts from 55 countries) includes 40 world premieres, 51 North American premieres and 41 Canadian premieres. The festival opens with the English language debut of Philippe Falardeau, The Good Lie and closes with the feature documentary The Salt of the Earth co-directed by Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado.
Always balancing the best of local and world cinema, this year’s line-up features favourites of the festival circuit including a number of key world premieres. Some key releases include, Félix and Meira (winner of best Canadian feature at Tiff), Adieu au langage (Jean- Luc Godard), Horse Money (Pedro Costa), Hard to Be a God (Aleksey German), Jauja (Lisandro Alonso), Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg), P’tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont), Wild (Jean-Marc Vallee), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour...
Always balancing the best of local and world cinema, this year’s line-up features favourites of the festival circuit including a number of key world premieres. Some key releases include, Félix and Meira (winner of best Canadian feature at Tiff), Adieu au langage (Jean- Luc Godard), Horse Money (Pedro Costa), Hard to Be a God (Aleksey German), Jauja (Lisandro Alonso), Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg), P’tit Quinquin (Bruno Dumont), Wild (Jean-Marc Vallee), A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (Ana Lily Amirpour...
- 9/23/2014
- by Justine Smith
- SoundOnSight
Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida received the Skoda Film Prize for Best Film at Wiesbaden’s goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, which ended with the awards ceremony on Tuesday evening (April 15).
Ida, which had taken the prize for Best Narrative Film a day before at the Sarasota Film Festival in the Us, was released by Arsenal Film on 26 prints in German cinemas last Thursday (April 10) after opening goEast the previous evening.
The International Jury, headed by German-born producer Jan Harlan and including Russian actor Ivan Shvedoff, Ukrainian producer Dmytro Tiazhlov and Georgian film-maker Nana Ekvtimishvili and Hungarian film critic Ivan Forgacs, praised “a precise screenplay and the outstanding direction” of Pawlikowski’s Polish-language debut.
On announcing the winner, Harlan said that the whole jury was ¨agreed¨ and ¨elated¨ about giving the top honour to Pawlikowski’s film which includes a cash prize of € 10,000 for the producers.
Opus Film’s Ewa Puszczynska, the film’s...
Ida, which had taken the prize for Best Narrative Film a day before at the Sarasota Film Festival in the Us, was released by Arsenal Film on 26 prints in German cinemas last Thursday (April 10) after opening goEast the previous evening.
The International Jury, headed by German-born producer Jan Harlan and including Russian actor Ivan Shvedoff, Ukrainian producer Dmytro Tiazhlov and Georgian film-maker Nana Ekvtimishvili and Hungarian film critic Ivan Forgacs, praised “a precise screenplay and the outstanding direction” of Pawlikowski’s Polish-language debut.
On announcing the winner, Harlan said that the whole jury was ¨agreed¨ and ¨elated¨ about giving the top honour to Pawlikowski’s film which includes a cash prize of € 10,000 for the producers.
Opus Film’s Ewa Puszczynska, the film’s...
- 4/16/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Aleksei Yuryevich German's Hard To Be A God feels like an artefact from another time, a striking black and white exercise seemingly dropped from another world. Which is appropriate, really, given that it's about life on another world. Based on a novel by the Strugatsky Brothers - also responsible for the source material behind Tarkovsky's Stalker - German's final film premiered posthumously this year in Rotterdam, where they described it like this:The planet Arkanar looks like a medieval hell ruled by totalitarian evil. A messenger from Earth has a mission to introduce humanitarian ideas, unaware that they don't always work. A stunning black-and-white fresco of a world that lost its chance to be saved. A farewell from one of the greatest Russian filmmakers.Alexei German, who...
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- 2/24/2014
- Screen Anarchy
(Persevere, even though it's sometimes hard to be an audience...) Every year it's a delicate game of pick-and-choose when the International Film Festival Rotterdam reveals its roster. With almost 400 titles to choose from, all you can see is bound to be a small sample. But when I spotted Alexei German's Hard To Be A God (Trudno Byt' Bogom), my interest piqued: a three hour long Russian science fiction film, twelve years in the making, six of which were for the actual shooting? On top of that, the film is an adaptation of a book by the Strugatski brothers, on whose work Tarkovsky's Stalker was based. Reviews from the Rome Festival proclaimed the film to be incomprehensible yet gorgeous, so I went to see it...
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[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/4/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Like its sprawling host city, the 43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam's gargantuan scale hampers assessment and comprehension, let alone pithy overview. Ascending the 600-foot Euromast on the edge of the center affords an impressive, confusing vista of urban development apparently stretching all the way across the flatlands to the horizon. A careful survey of the Iffr catalogue, meanwhile, yields with a tally of 216 new (2013/2014) films running an hour or more, with at least an equal number of shorter works, plus many installations, special events and so on. The only way to make sense of it all is to plunge in and hope for the best — a comment that also applies to the most talked-about single element of the program at its halfway mark: Alexei German's "Hard To Be a God" ("Trudno byt' bogom"), a 177-minute Russian monochrome claustrophobic-epic of quasi-medievalist sci-fi. Over a decade in the actual making, having...
- 1/29/2014
- by Neil Young
- Indiewire
Producers from Lithuania, Romania, Denmark and Finland were the recipients of five awards presented at the Baltic Event’s Co-Production Market (Nov 26-29).
This year’s Screen International Best Pitch Award went to Lithuanian producer Uljana Kim of Vilnius-based Studio Uljana Kim who was pitching Kristijonas Vildžiūnas’s fourth feature Seneca’s Day which is set to be the first co-production between the three Baltic states.
The €1.48m drama, which also has France’s Philippe Avril attached as a co-producer via his Strasbourg-based company Unlimited, has already received development support from the Lithuanian Film Centre and Media.
Previous winners of the Screen International award, which follows the winning project editorially from development into production and subsequent distribution, includes Petri Kotwica’s Rat King, Alexei German Jr.’s Under Electric Clouds and Jaak Kilmi’s The Hoppers.
Cannes Producers Network
Cannes’ Producers Network gave two free accreditations for its 2014 edition to two promising young producers, the Baltic...
This year’s Screen International Best Pitch Award went to Lithuanian producer Uljana Kim of Vilnius-based Studio Uljana Kim who was pitching Kristijonas Vildžiūnas’s fourth feature Seneca’s Day which is set to be the first co-production between the three Baltic states.
The €1.48m drama, which also has France’s Philippe Avril attached as a co-producer via his Strasbourg-based company Unlimited, has already received development support from the Lithuanian Film Centre and Media.
Previous winners of the Screen International award, which follows the winning project editorially from development into production and subsequent distribution, includes Petri Kotwica’s Rat King, Alexei German Jr.’s Under Electric Clouds and Jaak Kilmi’s The Hoppers.
Cannes Producers Network
Cannes’ Producers Network gave two free accreditations for its 2014 edition to two promising young producers, the Baltic...
- 12/2/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
The Rome Film Festival to award its first posthumous award to the Russian filmmaker, who died in February.
The 8th Rome Film Festival (Nov 8-17) is to present its Lifetime Achievement Award to the family of Russian filmmaker Aleksei Yuryevich German, who died in February aged 74.
The director, who was based in Saint Petersburg, was informed of the award late last year, so as to accompany the release of his new film Hard To Be a God (Trudno byt’ bogom).
The award will be accepted by Svetlana Karmalita, the director’s widow, partner in all of his most personal projects and screenwriter for the filmmaker’s last two features, along with their son Aleksei A. German, who won the Silver Lion at the 2008 Venice Film Festival for Paper Soldier.
Following the ceremony, the world premiere of Hard To Be a God will be screened. Described as a “philosophical science-fiction epic”, the film was inspired by the 1964 cult...
The 8th Rome Film Festival (Nov 8-17) is to present its Lifetime Achievement Award to the family of Russian filmmaker Aleksei Yuryevich German, who died in February aged 74.
The director, who was based in Saint Petersburg, was informed of the award late last year, so as to accompany the release of his new film Hard To Be a God (Trudno byt’ bogom).
The award will be accepted by Svetlana Karmalita, the director’s widow, partner in all of his most personal projects and screenwriter for the filmmaker’s last two features, along with their son Aleksei A. German, who won the Silver Lion at the 2008 Venice Film Festival for Paper Soldier.
Following the ceremony, the world premiere of Hard To Be a God will be screened. Described as a “philosophical science-fiction epic”, the film was inspired by the 1964 cult...
- 10/8/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The Venice International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 70th edition.
Official Competition
Es-Stouh (Merzak Allouache, Algeria/France)
L'Intrepido (Gianna Amelio, Italy)
Miss Violence (Alexandros Avranas, Greece)
Via Castellana Bandiera (Emma Dante, Italy/Switzerland/France)
Tom à la ferme (Xavier Dolan, Canada/France)
Child of God (James Franco, USA)
Philomena (Stephen Frears, UK)
La Jalousie (Philippe Garrel, France)
The Zero Theorem (Terry Gilliam, UK/USA)
Ana Arabia (Amos Gitai, Israel/France)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, UK/USA)
Joe (David Gordon Green, USA)
The Police Officer's Wife (Philip Gröning, Germany)
Parkland (Peter Landesman, USA)
The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld (Errol Morris, USA)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
Sacro Gra (Gianfranco Rosi, Italy)
Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, Chinese Taipei/France)
Out Of Competition
Space Pirate Captain Harlock (Shinji Aramaki, Japan)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, USA)
Summer '82 — When Zappa Came to Siciliy (Salvo Cuccia,...
Official Competition
Es-Stouh (Merzak Allouache, Algeria/France)
L'Intrepido (Gianna Amelio, Italy)
Miss Violence (Alexandros Avranas, Greece)
Via Castellana Bandiera (Emma Dante, Italy/Switzerland/France)
Tom à la ferme (Xavier Dolan, Canada/France)
Child of God (James Franco, USA)
Philomena (Stephen Frears, UK)
La Jalousie (Philippe Garrel, France)
The Zero Theorem (Terry Gilliam, UK/USA)
Ana Arabia (Amos Gitai, Israel/France)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, UK/USA)
Joe (David Gordon Green, USA)
The Police Officer's Wife (Philip Gröning, Germany)
Parkland (Peter Landesman, USA)
The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld (Errol Morris, USA)
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
Sacro Gra (Gianfranco Rosi, Italy)
Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, Chinese Taipei/France)
Out Of Competition
Space Pirate Captain Harlock (Shinji Aramaki, Japan)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, USA)
Summer '82 — When Zappa Came to Siciliy (Salvo Cuccia,...
- 7/26/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Following the announcement that came earlier this week, launching yet another hugely impressive line-up at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the respective line-up has now been announced for what is in some ways its European counterpart, the 2013 Venice Film Festival.
The announcement shows that the two will continue to have a number of films overlapping, including Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (the Opening Night Film in Venice), Peter Landesman’s Parkland, Stephen Frears’ Philomena, and more. But it also brings with its news of where a number of films will be making their debut, including Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem; the latest film from Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises; James Franco’s Child of God; Lee Sang-il’s Yurusarezaru Mono, the Japanese remake of Unforgiven; and Steven Knight’s Locke, led by Tom Hardy, and shot in one take.
In Competition
Es-Stouh – Merzak Alloucache (Algeria, France, 94’) L’Intrepido – Gianni Amelio (Italy,...
The announcement shows that the two will continue to have a number of films overlapping, including Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity (the Opening Night Film in Venice), Peter Landesman’s Parkland, Stephen Frears’ Philomena, and more. But it also brings with its news of where a number of films will be making their debut, including Terry Gilliam’s The Zero Theorem; the latest film from Hayao Miyazaki, The Wind Rises; James Franco’s Child of God; Lee Sang-il’s Yurusarezaru Mono, the Japanese remake of Unforgiven; and Steven Knight’s Locke, led by Tom Hardy, and shot in one take.
In Competition
Es-Stouh – Merzak Alloucache (Algeria, France, 94’) L’Intrepido – Gianni Amelio (Italy,...
- 7/26/2013
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
You’ll be hard pressed to make a more exciting discovery than Criterion’s digital transfer of Frantisek Vlacil’s 1967 Czech classic, Marketa Lazarova. Voted the best Czech film of all time by a 1998 panel of Czech critics, the film had been unavailable for Western consumption (beyond rare art house screenings) until late 2007 when UK studio Second Run released a Region 2 copy. After a 2011 restoration from Universal Production Partners, the Us now has access to a gloriously restored digital transfer, a phenomenal presentation of what stands as one of the world’s cinematic wonders, a densely structured unique experience of cinema as visual poetry.
While the narrative outline seems succinctly evident, especially considering Vlacil’s attempts to retain the essence of the famed novel upon which it’s based by announcing quick summaries via title cards as before a set amount of chapters, the glorious immersion of sight and sound...
While the narrative outline seems succinctly evident, especially considering Vlacil’s attempts to retain the essence of the famed novel upon which it’s based by announcing quick summaries via title cards as before a set amount of chapters, the glorious immersion of sight and sound...
- 6/11/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Welcome back to my ongoing coverage of the Melbourne Cinematheque's fantastic program for 2013. Here, I will be reviewing the first film each season (month). This month I took a look at Trial of the Road (1971), the first of the films from Russian director Aleksey German. For the month of February I introduced one of Keisuke Kinoshita's works which can be found here. I hope you saw at least something from this series! Running from March 6-20, Aleksey German's retrospective of shocking and eye opening films that centre on the condemnation of the censored past of the Soviet Union display an uncanny filmmaking ability unlike anything at the time. Mixing hyper-surrealism and undefined characters that can never be identified as good or bad, all...
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[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 3/7/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Soviet and Russian film director whose reputation is based on only four films, all of them masterpieces
Aleksei German, who has died of heart failure aged 74, was among the very last in a generation of film directors victimised by the Soviet Union's draconian attitude to the arts. As a result, since 1968 German had made only six films, one of them co-directed and one uncompleted at his death. Three of them were shelved for several years, and Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998), seven years in the making, was repeatedly bailed out by French money. German's reputation is based on only four films, all of them masterpieces.
Gradually, after the fall of communism in Russia, German's films were screened at cinematheques and festivals in the west. Khrustalyov, My Car!, the only one of his works that was not banned, provoked a mass walkout by critics at the 1998 Cannes film festival. According to the Hollywood Reporter,...
Aleksei German, who has died of heart failure aged 74, was among the very last in a generation of film directors victimised by the Soviet Union's draconian attitude to the arts. As a result, since 1968 German had made only six films, one of them co-directed and one uncompleted at his death. Three of them were shelved for several years, and Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998), seven years in the making, was repeatedly bailed out by French money. German's reputation is based on only four films, all of them masterpieces.
Gradually, after the fall of communism in Russia, German's films were screened at cinematheques and festivals in the west. Khrustalyov, My Car!, the only one of his works that was not banned, provoked a mass walkout by critics at the 1998 Cannes film festival. According to the Hollywood Reporter,...
- 2/26/2013
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
St.Petersburg, Russia — Alexei German, a Russian film director best known for his works offering a bitter view of life in the Soviet Union under dictator Josef Stalin, died Thursday, his son said.
German, 74, died of heart failure at a hospital in his hometown, St. Petersburg, his son, Alexei German Jr., said in a blog post.
German came to prominence internationally for his 1983 production "My Friend Ivan Lapshin" about a police investigator battling a criminal gang. Censors blocked the film's release for two years because of its realistic depiction of Soviet life in the wake of the Stalinist terror of the late 1930s.
The release of the film heralded the era of reforms launched by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and was aired on Soviet television in 1986 to much clamor and public debate.
The production of "Khrustalyov, My Car," a grotesque narrative centered on Stalin's final days, endured multiple delays due to Russia's post-Soviet economic meltdown.
German, 74, died of heart failure at a hospital in his hometown, St. Petersburg, his son, Alexei German Jr., said in a blog post.
German came to prominence internationally for his 1983 production "My Friend Ivan Lapshin" about a police investigator battling a criminal gang. Censors blocked the film's release for two years because of its realistic depiction of Soviet life in the wake of the Stalinist terror of the late 1930s.
The release of the film heralded the era of reforms launched by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and was aired on Soviet television in 1986 to much clamor and public debate.
The production of "Khrustalyov, My Car," a grotesque narrative centered on Stalin's final days, endured multiple delays due to Russia's post-Soviet economic meltdown.
- 2/21/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Michael Haneke, Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant
on the set of Amour
It's been a couple of weeks since the French magazine Premiere posted "Cannes 2012: Le buzzomètre," a list of over 30 films, each of which were assigned a numerical probability of its making the lineup at Cannes this year. Speculation has only grown hotter, of course, with an official announcement slated for April 19; Critics' Week and the Directors' Fortnight will follow on April 23 and 24, respectively. "Paris is rife with rumors about who will make it," reports Fabien Lemercier at Cineuropa. "Several films by 'big fish' have not been seen yet, and many who have already shown their film are eagerly awaiting news."
A few days ago, a French blog pulled an April Fools' Day prank that thoroughly ticked off Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux. The blog claimed to have seen the full lineup, "briefly published on the official Cannes Film Festival...
on the set of Amour
It's been a couple of weeks since the French magazine Premiere posted "Cannes 2012: Le buzzomètre," a list of over 30 films, each of which were assigned a numerical probability of its making the lineup at Cannes this year. Speculation has only grown hotter, of course, with an official announcement slated for April 19; Critics' Week and the Directors' Fortnight will follow on April 23 and 24, respectively. "Paris is rife with rumors about who will make it," reports Fabien Lemercier at Cineuropa. "Several films by 'big fish' have not been seen yet, and many who have already shown their film are eagerly awaiting news."
A few days ago, a French blog pulled an April Fools' Day prank that thoroughly ticked off Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux. The blog claimed to have seen the full lineup, "briefly published on the official Cannes Film Festival...
- 4/5/2012
- MUBI
Above and below: Khrustalyov, My Car!.
The joke about Aleksei German was always that he was great but only Russians liked him. Several years ago, I invited a non-Russian-speaker to a screening of Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998) at Brooklyn's Bam cinema. Ten minutes into the screening, an odd thing happened. I felt the urge to tell my companion to stop reading the subtitles.
The following scene prompted me: A middle-aged housekeeper opens the curtains and spikes her morning tea with cognac; someone polishes a shoe and talks about a veterinarian prone to lethargic sleep; a woman with a yoghurt facial scolds a senile lady for using a walker and, moments later, for taking a large kielbasa into bed with her. The old woman claims to be defenseless against sexual fantasies. Some words are misheard; a grocery receipt is scrutinized; a winter coat is sniffed in search of mothballs, two doll-like Jewish...
The joke about Aleksei German was always that he was great but only Russians liked him. Several years ago, I invited a non-Russian-speaker to a screening of Khrustalyov, My Car! (1998) at Brooklyn's Bam cinema. Ten minutes into the screening, an odd thing happened. I felt the urge to tell my companion to stop reading the subtitles.
The following scene prompted me: A middle-aged housekeeper opens the curtains and spikes her morning tea with cognac; someone polishes a shoe and talks about a veterinarian prone to lethargic sleep; a woman with a yoghurt facial scolds a senile lady for using a walker and, moments later, for taking a large kielbasa into bed with her. The old woman claims to be defenseless against sexual fantasies. Some words are misheard; a grocery receipt is scrutinized; a winter coat is sniffed in search of mothballs, two doll-like Jewish...
- 3/17/2012
- MUBI
Popular Russian film star and entertainer who brought a light touch to the Soviet era
After Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's "cult of personality" at the 20th party congress in February 1956, political and cultural life in the Soviet Union underwent many changes. One of the first films to benefit from "the thaw" was Eldar Ryazanov's musical-comedy Carnival Night (1956), starring Lyudmila Gurchenko, who has died of cardiac arrest aged 75.
The 21-year-old Gurchenko herself attracted a cult of personality with her sparkling performance as an enthusiastic member of a Soviet youth group (Komsomol) who is planning a fun-filled New Year's Eve celebration at the "house of culture". She is pitted against a pompous middle-aged bureaucrat who wants to make the occasion serious and educational by inserting communist slogans into the show. Tired of socialist realist films, which were required to glorify the revolution and the power of the collective, audiences...
After Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin's "cult of personality" at the 20th party congress in February 1956, political and cultural life in the Soviet Union underwent many changes. One of the first films to benefit from "the thaw" was Eldar Ryazanov's musical-comedy Carnival Night (1956), starring Lyudmila Gurchenko, who has died of cardiac arrest aged 75.
The 21-year-old Gurchenko herself attracted a cult of personality with her sparkling performance as an enthusiastic member of a Soviet youth group (Komsomol) who is planning a fun-filled New Year's Eve celebration at the "house of culture". She is pitted against a pompous middle-aged bureaucrat who wants to make the occasion serious and educational by inserting communist slogans into the show. Tired of socialist realist films, which were required to glorify the revolution and the power of the collective, audiences...
- 4/3/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Itar-tass is reporting that the renowned Soviet and Russian actress Lyudmila Gurchenko has died in Moscow at the age of 75: "She played her best roles in Alexei German's Twenty Days Without War, Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky's Sibiriada, Nikita Mikhalkov's Five Evenings, Eldar Ryazanov's The Railway Station for Two, Pyotr Todorovsky's Mechanic Gavrilov's Beloved Woman, and Roman Balayan's Flights in Dreams and Reality."
As her Wikipedia entry has it, she "achieved overnight fame and celebrity status at 21 after she starred in young Eldar Ryazanov's 1956 directorial debut, musical Carnival Night. The film was enormously popular and made Lyudmila famous overnight. Throughout the next two years she toured the entire country with her Carnival Night-inspired musical numbers, attracting crowds of fans. The Soviet cultural establishment, however, deemed her style too western and too out of line with Soviet standards." But she made a roaring comeback, eventually receiving the...
As her Wikipedia entry has it, she "achieved overnight fame and celebrity status at 21 after she starred in young Eldar Ryazanov's 1956 directorial debut, musical Carnival Night. The film was enormously popular and made Lyudmila famous overnight. Throughout the next two years she toured the entire country with her Carnival Night-inspired musical numbers, attracting crowds of fans. The Soviet cultural establishment, however, deemed her style too western and too out of line with Soviet standards." But she made a roaring comeback, eventually receiving the...
- 4/3/2011
- MUBI
Moscow -- The international film forum, which was held from May 2 to 5 in St. Petersburg to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, is to be turned into an international film festival as of next year, organizers said at the closing press conference on Wednesday.
"Representatives of all five Hollywood majors who were participating in the forum backed the idea of a fully-fledged international film festival in St Petersburg," said Alla Manilova, the city's vice governor and head of the forum's organizing committee, adding that U.S. producer Andrew G. Vajna, who also attended the forum, was also in favor of the idea and promised support.
The forum's program director Andrei Plakhov said that the new festival is most likely to have a more general focus than just war cinema, which was the main theme of this year's forum, but the details are still to be worked out.
"Representatives of all five Hollywood majors who were participating in the forum backed the idea of a fully-fledged international film festival in St Petersburg," said Alla Manilova, the city's vice governor and head of the forum's organizing committee, adding that U.S. producer Andrew G. Vajna, who also attended the forum, was also in favor of the idea and promised support.
The forum's program director Andrei Plakhov said that the new festival is most likely to have a more general focus than just war cinema, which was the main theme of this year's forum, but the details are still to be worked out.
- 5/6/2010
- by By Vladimir Kozlov
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Moscow – To celebrate the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II, the government of St Petersburg is launching an international film forum, scheduled to be held in Russia's "cultural capital" from May 2 through 5.
The event's organizers said that the mission of the forum, which is to feature screenings, retrospectives, photography exhibitions, round-table discussions and conferences focused on war-themed cinema, is "to use the language of cinema to discuss issues of peace in the world and the improvement of relations between different generations and different cultures."
With renowned Russian film director Alexei German as the forum's president, the event is to feature the premieres of Florian Gallenberger's "John Rabe," Lancelot von Naso's "Ceasefire" and several recent Russian features.
Among the forum's guests are expected to be directors Fyodor Bondarchuk and Alexander Sokurov, actor Antonio Banderas, producer Andrew G. Vajna, actress Melanie Griffith and head of Twentieth Century Fox Cis Hans-Bodo Mueller.
The event's organizers said that the mission of the forum, which is to feature screenings, retrospectives, photography exhibitions, round-table discussions and conferences focused on war-themed cinema, is "to use the language of cinema to discuss issues of peace in the world and the improvement of relations between different generations and different cultures."
With renowned Russian film director Alexei German as the forum's president, the event is to feature the premieres of Florian Gallenberger's "John Rabe," Lancelot von Naso's "Ceasefire" and several recent Russian features.
Among the forum's guests are expected to be directors Fyodor Bondarchuk and Alexander Sokurov, actor Antonio Banderas, producer Andrew G. Vajna, actress Melanie Griffith and head of Twentieth Century Fox Cis Hans-Bodo Mueller.
- 4/28/2010
- by By Vladimir Kozlov
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Venice Film Festival has announced it's 2009 line-up this week, showing off the films that will make-up it's 66th annual fest. The significance of this announcement is in the fact that Venice, which takes place from September 2 to September 12, shares a lot of premieres with the Toronto Film Festival. And it takes place the week before, as Toronto doesn't get underway until September 10th. Audiences in Venice will be treated to the premieres of films such as Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Michael Moore's financial crisis documentary Capitalism: A Love Story, Joe Dante's The Hole, Steven Soderbergh's espionage comedy The Informant and Grant Heslov's The Men Who Stare at Goats before their potential Toronto debuts. Also notable is the premiere of John Hillcoat's post-apocalyptic thriller The Road, which is at the top of our watch-list. See below for a full listing of films for this year's Venice...
- 7/31/2009
- by Neil Miller
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The 66th edition of the Venice Film Festival lineup includes the main festival plus the sidebar which will be playing films like Yannick Dahan's gangster zombie flick The Horde.
In competition we have the long awaited scifi awesomeness from Jaco Van Dormael, Mr. Nobody and Shinya Tsukamoto's trfiecta Tetsuo the Bulletman.
Out of competition has [Rec] 2 and the Midnight section has Nicolas Refn's long awaited Valhalla Rising which was actually made before Bronson.
Man I wish I could go! Anyone want to cover the fest for us? Use the contact link at the bottom of the page. We'd be happy to do cross-posted reviews.
Full list after the break.
66Th Annual Venice Film Festival Lineup
Competition
"36 vues du Pic Saint Loup," Jacques Rivette (France)
"Accident," Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)
"Baaria," Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) – Opening Film
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog (U.S.)
"Between Two Worlds,...
In competition we have the long awaited scifi awesomeness from Jaco Van Dormael, Mr. Nobody and Shinya Tsukamoto's trfiecta Tetsuo the Bulletman.
Out of competition has [Rec] 2 and the Midnight section has Nicolas Refn's long awaited Valhalla Rising which was actually made before Bronson.
Man I wish I could go! Anyone want to cover the fest for us? Use the contact link at the bottom of the page. We'd be happy to do cross-posted reviews.
Full list after the break.
66Th Annual Venice Film Festival Lineup
Competition
"36 vues du Pic Saint Loup," Jacques Rivette (France)
"Accident," Cheang Pou-Soi (China-Hong Kong)
"Baaria," Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy) – Opening Film
"Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans," Werner Herzog (U.S.)
"Between Two Worlds,...
- 7/30/2009
- QuietEarth.us
Rome -- Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" will headline a 24-film competition lineup at September's Venice Film Festival, which is heavy on first and second films from up-and-coming directors.
The lineup includes five U.S. films, four each from Italy and France, four from Asia, two from the Middle East -- with all 23 films named Thursday as world premieres.
A 24th surprise competition pic to be announced during the fest would also be a world premiere, officials said. The fest will feature 71 world premieres.
"We are very pleased and very honored to announce this lineup," Venice artistic director Marco Mueller said in a briefing Thursday, where Fatih Akin's comedy "Soul Kitchen"; "Accident," a thriller from China's Cheang Pou; and "A Single Man," a drama from Tom Ford starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, were revealed as part of the lineup.
All told, the fest will feature 16 first works and nine second works.
The lineup includes five U.S. films, four each from Italy and France, four from Asia, two from the Middle East -- with all 23 films named Thursday as world premieres.
A 24th surprise competition pic to be announced during the fest would also be a world premiere, officials said. The fest will feature 71 world premieres.
"We are very pleased and very honored to announce this lineup," Venice artistic director Marco Mueller said in a briefing Thursday, where Fatih Akin's comedy "Soul Kitchen"; "Accident," a thriller from China's Cheang Pou; and "A Single Man," a drama from Tom Ford starring Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, were revealed as part of the lineup.
All told, the fest will feature 16 first works and nine second works.
- 7/30/2009
- by By Eric J. Lyman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
James Cameron in Los Angeles with 70Mm prints of "Aliens" and "The Abyss"?!?! The Dardenne brothers in New York for a career retrospective?!?! The instant cult classic "The Room" with Tommy Wiseau live in Austin?!?! Be still my heart. There's something for all tastes this summer on the West Coast, the East Coast and as you'll notice, the Third Coast on our calendar of the must-see events on the repertory theater circuit in May, June and July. And don't miss our look at the indie films that are hitting theaters or headed to online, VOD or DVD premiere this summer.
Anthology Film Archives
With the New York Polish Film Festival (May 6-10) and first-runs of the docs "Ice People" (May 1-7) and "Audience of One" (May 8-14) and Ken Jacobs' reinvention of his 1969 work "Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son" with the 3D "Anaglyph Tom" (May 15-21) taking up the Anthology's screens,...
Anthology Film Archives
With the New York Polish Film Festival (May 6-10) and first-runs of the docs "Ice People" (May 1-7) and "Audience of One" (May 8-14) and Ken Jacobs' reinvention of his 1969 work "Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son" with the 3D "Anaglyph Tom" (May 15-21) taking up the Anthology's screens,...
- 5/5/2009
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
- Sticking to their usual habit of importing the Sundance film festival to the east coast side, the New Directors/New Films 2009 edition will be bookmarked by opening film selection Amreeka from first time filmmaker Cherien Dabis and ending it off with the impressive sophomore feature from Lee Daniels. Along with Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire (I'd be curious to see what distribution company "label" is shown before the film), the event will showcase many New York based filmmakers and some excellent quality affair in Sophie Barthes Cold Souls, So Yong Kim's 2nd film Treeless Mountain and a doc film that has surprisingly been unbought in Ondi Timone's We Live in Public. The 39th edition which runs March 25th to April 5th grabbed films dating back to Tiff and Venice of last year. Here is the list of selected titles. $9.99, dir. Tatia Rosenthal (Israel/Australia) Amreeka, dir.
- 2/13/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
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