Anthony Chen had a very busy year in 2023, coming up with two films, “The Breaking Ice” and “Drift”, with the second one, which we will deal with in this article, being a rather unique experience for him, considering it was shot in Greece, France and Liberia and is his English-language debut.
“Drift“ is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival
With memories still fresh from a war that forced her to leave Liberia, Jacqueline is trying to survive in a Greek Island, with her circumstances, though, being similar to a stray dog, as a rather eloquent shot in the beginning of the movie highlights. She eats what she can find, occasionally just bags of sugar, is sleeping on the beach and is washing what she can of her clothes in the sea, while roaming around without any particular goal or hope. Flashbacks in her past portray a totally different life, of...
“Drift“ is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival
With memories still fresh from a war that forced her to leave Liberia, Jacqueline is trying to survive in a Greek Island, with her circumstances, though, being similar to a stray dog, as a rather eloquent shot in the beginning of the movie highlights. She eats what she can find, occasionally just bags of sugar, is sleeping on the beach and is washing what she can of her clothes in the sea, while roaming around without any particular goal or hope. Flashbacks in her past portray a totally different life, of...
- 11/11/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The same piercing intimacy and absence of sentimentality that Singaporean director Anthony Chen brought to the beautifully observed Ilo Ilo — winner of Cannes’ 2013 Camera d’Or for best first feature — makes affecting drama of a displaced West African woman’s struggle to survive in the wake of unimaginable tragedy in Drift. Carried by Cynthia Erivo’s haunted performance as a refugee jolted into total retreat from the world on a Greek island, this sensitive character study also allows for cracks of light as she slowly reopens herself to the possibility of bonding with a lonely American tour guide played by Alia Shawkat.
Adapted from Alexander Maksik’s 2013 novel A Marker to Measure Drift by the author and Susanne Farrell, the film opens with the eloquent image of footprints in the sand being slowly washed away at a shoreline. They belong to Jacqueline (Erivo), about whom we initially know nothing beyond...
Adapted from Alexander Maksik’s 2013 novel A Marker to Measure Drift by the author and Susanne Farrell, the film opens with the eloquent image of footprints in the sand being slowly washed away at a shoreline. They belong to Jacqueline (Erivo), about whom we initially know nothing beyond...
- 1/22/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Utopia releases the film in limited theaters on Friday, February 9, with expansion to follow.
There are few shots in “Drift” which don’t feature Cynthia Erivo’s Jacqueline — a Liberian woman educated in England, who ends up stranded in Greece — and the film is all the better for it. The third feature by Singaporean director Anthony Chen (“Ilo Ilo”), from a script by Susanne Farrell and Alexander Maksik (the latter of whom wrote the novel on which it was based), the movie skillfully bides its time over 90 minutes before revealing anything at all about its protagonist, or how she ended up wandering a tourist destination, like a spirit without purpose. By tethering itself to Erivo’s layered performance, as a woman who carries the weight of her past on her shoulders, “Drift”
Jacqueline appears to be a...
There are few shots in “Drift” which don’t feature Cynthia Erivo’s Jacqueline — a Liberian woman educated in England, who ends up stranded in Greece — and the film is all the better for it. The third feature by Singaporean director Anthony Chen (“Ilo Ilo”), from a script by Susanne Farrell and Alexander Maksik (the latter of whom wrote the novel on which it was based), the movie skillfully bides its time over 90 minutes before revealing anything at all about its protagonist, or how she ended up wandering a tourist destination, like a spirit without purpose. By tethering itself to Erivo’s layered performance, as a woman who carries the weight of her past on her shoulders, “Drift”
Jacqueline appears to be a...
- 1/22/2023
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Indiewire
We know the traumatized need the sense of safety to properly heal. But does art about trauma benefit from feeling safe?
That’s the nagging question that comes close to undermining the effect of “Drift,” the title referring to the unmoored state of mind in a homeless survivor of war-ravaged Liberia wandering the coastal edges of a blithely touristy Greece. Her portrayer Cynthia Erivo, however, is only ever a magnetic anchor in “Ilo Ilo” filmmaker Anthony Chen’s quietly compassionate if ultimately predictable drama.
Adapted from the 2013 novel “A Marker to Measure Drift” by Alexander Maksik (also a credited co-screenwriter with Susanne Farrell), the film follows refugee Jacqueline (Erivo), who in the beginning we see cadging food (or just sugar packets) from vacated tables at restaurants, staring at the rippling sea for long stretches and sleeping in a cave on a makeshift mattress made from plastic bags of sand. As...
That’s the nagging question that comes close to undermining the effect of “Drift,” the title referring to the unmoored state of mind in a homeless survivor of war-ravaged Liberia wandering the coastal edges of a blithely touristy Greece. Her portrayer Cynthia Erivo, however, is only ever a magnetic anchor in “Ilo Ilo” filmmaker Anthony Chen’s quietly compassionate if ultimately predictable drama.
Adapted from the 2013 novel “A Marker to Measure Drift” by Alexander Maksik (also a credited co-screenwriter with Susanne Farrell), the film follows refugee Jacqueline (Erivo), who in the beginning we see cadging food (or just sugar packets) from vacated tables at restaurants, staring at the rippling sea for long stretches and sleeping in a cave on a makeshift mattress made from plastic bags of sand. As...
- 1/22/2023
- by Robert Abele
- The Wrap
Click here to read the full article.
For those who haven’t been schooled in the roster of Catholic saints, Assisi boasts just one household name, the oft-cited, world-famous Francis. In her latest portrait of a real-life woman, after Nico, 1988, and Miss Marx, filmmaker Susanna Nicchiarelli invites us to consider another saint from that Italian town, Clare (Chiara in Italian). She was Francis’ follower, friend, and, in this telling, his occasional foe, taking his questioning of convention a crucial step further, in the name of female autonomy. She’s played by Margherita Mazzucco (Elena Greco in the series My Brilliant Friend) with compassion, ferocious intelligence and a bit of song-and-dance pizazz, 13th century style. Because yes, Chiara is a musical of sorts.
Even as Nicchiarelli, her design team and Dp Crystel Fournier evoke an ancient world, this earnest yet playful take on Clare, the first woman to author a set of monastic guidelines,...
For those who haven’t been schooled in the roster of Catholic saints, Assisi boasts just one household name, the oft-cited, world-famous Francis. In her latest portrait of a real-life woman, after Nico, 1988, and Miss Marx, filmmaker Susanna Nicchiarelli invites us to consider another saint from that Italian town, Clare (Chiara in Italian). She was Francis’ follower, friend, and, in this telling, his occasional foe, taking his questioning of convention a crucial step further, in the name of female autonomy. She’s played by Margherita Mazzucco (Elena Greco in the series My Brilliant Friend) with compassion, ferocious intelligence and a bit of song-and-dance pizazz, 13th century style. Because yes, Chiara is a musical of sorts.
Even as Nicchiarelli, her design team and Dp Crystel Fournier evoke an ancient world, this earnest yet playful take on Clare, the first woman to author a set of monastic guidelines,...
- 9/9/2022
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The European Film Awards, Europe’s biggest awards celebration, revealed its major winners during a mostly virtual ceremony on Saturday, December 11. The night was originally slated for an in-person event, but concerns about the Omicron variant moved festivities online. The powerful Bosnian wartime drama “Quo Vadis, Aida?” took home the top prize for Best Film, with its director Jasmila Žbanić and lead actress Jasna Đuričić also winning Best Director and Actress respectively. “Flee,” from Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen, also won in two categories — Documentary and Animated Feature.
The awards ceremony was hosted by German actor Annabelle Mandeng. The hybrid event saw nominees, presenters, and winners participating in a mixture of live, virtual, and pre-recorded formats.
“Quo Vadis, Aida” tells the story of the Srebrenica genocide, during which Serbian troops sent 8,372 Bosniak men and boys to their deaths in July 1995. The powerful story is told through the eyes of Aida,...
The awards ceremony was hosted by German actor Annabelle Mandeng. The hybrid event saw nominees, presenters, and winners participating in a mixture of live, virtual, and pre-recorded formats.
“Quo Vadis, Aida” tells the story of the Srebrenica genocide, during which Serbian troops sent 8,372 Bosniak men and boys to their deaths in July 1995. The powerful story is told through the eyes of Aida,...
- 12/11/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Bosnian war drama also wins best director and best actress.
Jasmila Žbanić’s Quo Vadis, Aida? won three prizes including best film at this year’s European Film Awards, which went ahead as a hybrid event in Berlin tonight (Dec 11).
Žbanić was also named best director by the European Film Academy’s (Efa) 4,200-strong membership, whilst the film’s star Jasna Đuričić won best actress.
In her acceptance speech, Žbanić dedicated her award to “the women of Srebrenica and mothers who taught us how to turn destruction into love. I hope it will encourage more female solidarity, female stories, female perspective in film,...
Jasmila Žbanić’s Quo Vadis, Aida? won three prizes including best film at this year’s European Film Awards, which went ahead as a hybrid event in Berlin tonight (Dec 11).
Žbanić was also named best director by the European Film Academy’s (Efa) 4,200-strong membership, whilst the film’s star Jasna Đuričić won best actress.
In her acceptance speech, Žbanić dedicated her award to “the women of Srebrenica and mothers who taught us how to turn destruction into love. I hope it will encourage more female solidarity, female stories, female perspective in film,...
- 12/11/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The film will receive the awards for best cinematography and best original score at the ceremony in December.
Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom has won two prizes at the European Film Awards, among the eight winners that have been unveiled ahead of the ceremony on December 11.
An eight-member jury met in Berlin to choose the winners in the categories of cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, make-up and hair, original score, sound and visual effects. All were chosen from the feature film selection of 53 films.
The winners will be honoured at the ceremony in Berlin on December 11.
Scroll down for...
Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom has won two prizes at the European Film Awards, among the eight winners that have been unveiled ahead of the ceremony on December 11.
An eight-member jury met in Berlin to choose the winners in the categories of cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, make-up and hair, original score, sound and visual effects. All were chosen from the feature film selection of 53 films.
The winners will be honoured at the ceremony in Berlin on December 11.
Scroll down for...
- 11/17/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
‘Great Freedom’ Review: A Gay Convict Bides His Time for Change in This Terrific German Prison Drama
Like a scene of the 1969 moon landing seen on a prison TV late in “Great Freedom” — “I thought it would be more exciting,” muses one inmate — seismic change seems less spectacular when charted against the everyday grind of life behind bars in this gripping, tender-hearted prison drama from Austrian director Sebastian Meise. That extends to another historical milestone from the same summer: the West German authorities’ easing of Paragraph 175, by which men had hitherto been imprisoned for homosexual acts. Following the decades leading up to this change through the eyes of one repeat offender, Meise’s film is an exquisite marriage of personal, political and sensual storytelling, its narrative and temporal drift tightened by another performance of quietly piercing vulnerability from Franz Rogowski.
“Great Freedom” arrives a full 10 years after Meise’s first fiction feature, the complex, controversial family drama “Still Life,” and duly confirms all the poised promise of...
“Great Freedom” arrives a full 10 years after Meise’s first fiction feature, the complex, controversial family drama “Still Life,” and duly confirms all the poised promise of...
- 7/26/2021
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The unspoken and often ineffable syzygy between sisters sharing in a mutual trauma is one rife for cinematic inquiry, from the films of Ingmar Bergman to Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” and even “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” Cathy Brady’s “Wildfire” is set in a fractious Ireland where the gulf between estranged siblings Kelly (Nika McGuigan) and Lauren (Nora-Jane Noone) is as wide and blurry as the void between the North and the South post-Brexit. While the film at first establishes a political framework with a blistering montage of current events in the UK, “Wildfire” shifts into a more personal tale about women shouldering psychic damage, and coming together to reckon with the past. While occasionally veering into melodrama, . And the film itself becomes all the more tragic once, by the closing credits, it’s revealed star McGuigan, who gives a chilling and complex performance, died from cancer...
- 9/17/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
There are troubles of the familial kind at the center of “Wildfire,” writer-director Cathy Brady’s gloomy debut feature set in a border town of Northern Ireland. Then there are “The Troubles,” the decades-long conflict between the region’s unionists and nationalists, the aftermath of which gives Brady’s straightforward and overstretched story its faint backdrop. Throughout, the filmmaker braids her thematic strands together, with the two sisters leading her yarn reconciling with their traumatic past that has been entangled with the province’s thorny history in more ways than one. But Brady’s ambition to marry the sociopolitical with the intimately personal doesn’t really lead to a convincing emotional payoff, despite her assured style and two powerhouse performances by Nora-Jane Noone and Nika McGuigan as the siblings.
In the role of Kelly, a long-missing woman who mysteriously turns up at her childhood town two years after her disappearance,...
In the role of Kelly, a long-missing woman who mysteriously turns up at her childhood town two years after her disappearance,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
Halfway through Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Adèle Haenel turns to Noémie Merlant: “Do you think all lovers feel they’re inventing something?” Haenel’s Héloïse and Merlant’s Marianne have just become lovers: the question comes moments after their lips first met in a secluded stretch of the windswept 18th century French coast they’re stranded in. Heloise is a bride-to-be, waiting to be palmed off by her blue-blooded mother (Valeria Golino) to some affluent suitor in Milan. And Marianne is the painter hired to finish her portrait, which will be used to seal the deal. Merlant does not answer Haenel, but Sciamma lets the question carom off Héloïse’s scarcely furbished mansion, and resurface in a final heart to heart, with the young women now in bed, whispering in the dead of night. It’s the last they’ll ever share. They both know it.
- 12/19/2019
- MUBI
Great Point boards sales on Ireland and Northern Ireland-set project.
Nora-Jane Noone and Nika McGuigan will lead the cast of Wildfire, the debut feature of Irish filmmaker Cathy Brady.
The project is being produced by Tempesta Films’ Carlo Cresto-Dina, Cowboy Films’ Charles Steel and Samson Films’ David Collins.
The film follows two sisters who grew up on the fractious Irish border. When one of them, who has been missing, finally returns home, the intense bond with her sister is reignited. Together they unearth their mother’s past but uncovered secrets and resentments which have been buried deep threaten to overwhelm them.
Nora-Jane Noone and Nika McGuigan will lead the cast of Wildfire, the debut feature of Irish filmmaker Cathy Brady.
The project is being produced by Tempesta Films’ Carlo Cresto-Dina, Cowboy Films’ Charles Steel and Samson Films’ David Collins.
The film follows two sisters who grew up on the fractious Irish border. When one of them, who has been missing, finally returns home, the intense bond with her sister is reignited. Together they unearth their mother’s past but uncovered secrets and resentments which have been buried deep threaten to overwhelm them.
- 10/19/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Susanna Nicchiarelli on Trine Dyrholm, the star of Thomas Vinterberg's Festen and The Commune: "I wanted to work with her because she's one of my favourite actresses." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation with Nico, 1988 director/screenwriter Susanna Nicchiarelli at The Roxy Hotel, we discuss how Trine Dyrholm worked on the character, going into the studio to record Nico's songs, the look from costume designers Francesca Vecchi and Roberta Vecchi, and Nico's sense of irony.
Trine Dyrholm will be on this year's Venice International Film Festival jury, headed by Guillermo del Toro along with Nicole Garcia, Taika Waititi, Naomi Watts, Sylvia Chang, Christoph Waltz, Paolo Genovese, and Malgorzata Szumowska.
Susanna Nicchiarelli on Trine Dyrholm the singer: "We took Nico's songs and went in the studio, she sang them and the character came out of there with the body language." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Dyrholm as...
In the second half of my conversation with Nico, 1988 director/screenwriter Susanna Nicchiarelli at The Roxy Hotel, we discuss how Trine Dyrholm worked on the character, going into the studio to record Nico's songs, the look from costume designers Francesca Vecchi and Roberta Vecchi, and Nico's sense of irony.
Trine Dyrholm will be on this year's Venice International Film Festival jury, headed by Guillermo del Toro along with Nicole Garcia, Taika Waititi, Naomi Watts, Sylvia Chang, Christoph Waltz, Paolo Genovese, and Malgorzata Szumowska.
Susanna Nicchiarelli on Trine Dyrholm the singer: "We took Nico's songs and went in the studio, she sang them and the character came out of there with the body language." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Dyrholm as...
- 8/2/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Milk of SorrowIs there such a thing as a female gaze? It’s an almost perversely complicated question. On one hand, no doubt women’s desire has its own unique manifestations. On the other, the gaze implies the mind, and the idea of a “female brain” inevitably leads to some unpleasant associations. Should we then let the question be?Don’t expect the current retrospective on view at New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center and dedicated to the female gaze—highlighting the work of women cinematographers—to be able to answer it in any definitive way. Yet some of its most fascinating films suggest that women cinematographers—and filmmakers—are able to transmit the idea, and the disconcerting sensation of always questioning gender and the expectations it entails into thrilling cinematic experiences. Among these, the pairings where both filmmaker and cinematographer are female prove particularly striking.Take...
- 8/1/2018
- MUBI
The film is the directorial debut of ‘Dreaming Of Joseph Lees’ screenwriter Catherine Linstrum.
Emilia Jones and George MacKay are starring in supernatural thriller Nuclear, which is currently shooting in Wales.
The Ffilm Cymru Wales and BFI-backed project is from debut director Catherine Linstrum, whose previous work as a screenwriter includes California Dreamin’ and Dreaming Of Joseph Lees. Her short films include Nadger, which was a Bafta Cymru Award-winner.
The film was developed and is being produced through the second edition of Ffilm Cymru Wales’s low-budget Cinematic scheme, which is financed by the BFI, using National Lottery funding,...
Emilia Jones and George MacKay are starring in supernatural thriller Nuclear, which is currently shooting in Wales.
The Ffilm Cymru Wales and BFI-backed project is from debut director Catherine Linstrum, whose previous work as a screenwriter includes California Dreamin’ and Dreaming Of Joseph Lees. Her short films include Nadger, which was a Bafta Cymru Award-winner.
The film was developed and is being produced through the second edition of Ffilm Cymru Wales’s low-budget Cinematic scheme, which is financed by the BFI, using National Lottery funding,...
- 5/12/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Susanna Nicchiarelli on Nico's relationship with Alain Delon: "I don't mention him because I don't mention any of the men she was with except Jim Morrison. I think people's lives are much more complex than what movies usually tell us, especially biopics." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Nico, 1988, a highlight of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Best Film Horizons Award winner at the Venice Film Festival, stars Trine Dyrholm as Christa Päffgen. "This is Berlin, my darling, it's burning," says a mother to her daughter. The child is to become Andy Warhol and Velvet Underground icon Nico.
Susanna Nicchiarelli's extraordinary film, shot by Crystel Fournier is not about those most famous years (which flash onto the screen in snippets of archival footage), nor, with the exception of a few flashbacks, about her war time and postwar German childhood. In Nico, 1988 the focus is on 1986 and the following years when she...
Nico, 1988, a highlight of the Tribeca Film Festival and the Best Film Horizons Award winner at the Venice Film Festival, stars Trine Dyrholm as Christa Päffgen. "This is Berlin, my darling, it's burning," says a mother to her daughter. The child is to become Andy Warhol and Velvet Underground icon Nico.
Susanna Nicchiarelli's extraordinary film, shot by Crystel Fournier is not about those most famous years (which flash onto the screen in snippets of archival footage), nor, with the exception of a few flashbacks, about her war time and postwar German childhood. In Nico, 1988 the focus is on 1986 and the following years when she...
- 5/3/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A little girl stands on the outskirts of Berlin and watches from a distance as orange fire melts the city into a shapeless candied glow. Twenty years later, she reappears as a blonde chanteuse in Andy Warhol’s New York City, her stage name attached to one of the most influential records in the history of popular music. Twenty years after that, she sits in a Manchester radio station, patchy and strung out and shutting down any questions about her stint with The Velvet Underground — she’ll be dead in two years, but it looks as if she’s already decomposing.
The first 90 seconds of Susanna Nicchiarelli’s gloomy and grounded biopic visit all three of these periods (though the rest of it is almost exclusively set in the last one), “Nico, 1988” introducing its subject as someone who can’t extricate her present from her past. Several decades into a tortured and compelling solo career,...
The first 90 seconds of Susanna Nicchiarelli’s gloomy and grounded biopic visit all three of these periods (though the rest of it is almost exclusively set in the last one), “Nico, 1988” introducing its subject as someone who can’t extricate her present from her past. Several decades into a tortured and compelling solo career,...
- 4/20/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
As new Academy president John Bailey opens up about what he plans to do in his new job, we read the tea leaves. He faces an unusually tumultuous time, as the Academy confronts multiple challenges, from the industry’s transition to digital, and pressures from ABC to increase viewership of the Oscar show, to the need to raise more funding to build the troubled $400 million Academy Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Here are Bailey’s main concerns. So far, he seems more than up to meeting this new assignment.
1. Will the Academy change its diversity outreach?
No. As someone who has long hired men and women of different ethnic, socio- economic, and racial backgrounds, Bailey supports Academy CEO Hudson’s outreach imperative via the A2020 program which is designed to double the Academy’s diverse membership by 2020. He’s proud of such Academy efforts as the Academy Gold internship program,...
Here are Bailey’s main concerns. So far, he seems more than up to meeting this new assignment.
1. Will the Academy change its diversity outreach?
No. As someone who has long hired men and women of different ethnic, socio- economic, and racial backgrounds, Bailey supports Academy CEO Hudson’s outreach imperative via the A2020 program which is designed to double the Academy’s diverse membership by 2020. He’s proud of such Academy efforts as the Academy Gold internship program,...
- 8/15/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
As new Academy president John Bailey opens up about what he plans to do in his new job, we read the tea leaves. He faces an unusually tumultuous time, as the Academy confronts multiple challenges, from the industry’s transition to digital, and pressures from ABC to increase viewership of the Oscar show, to the need to raise more funding to build the troubled $400 million Academy Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Here are Bailey’s main concerns. So far, he seems more than up to meeting this new assignment.
1. Will the Academy change its diversity outreach?
No. As someone who has long hired men and women of different ethnic, socio- economic, and racial backgrounds, Bailey supports Academy CEO Hudson’s outreach imperative via the A2020 program which is designed to double the Academy’s diverse membership by 2020. He’s proud of such Academy efforts as the Academy Gold internship program,...
Here are Bailey’s main concerns. So far, he seems more than up to meeting this new assignment.
1. Will the Academy change its diversity outreach?
No. As someone who has long hired men and women of different ethnic, socio- economic, and racial backgrounds, Bailey supports Academy CEO Hudson’s outreach imperative via the A2020 program which is designed to double the Academy’s diverse membership by 2020. He’s proud of such Academy efforts as the Academy Gold internship program,...
- 8/15/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Can’t afford to pack your bags and embark on a vacation adventure in an exotic foreign land? No problem, just travel vicariously at the multiplex. Many different genre films have more than a bit of “travelogue” in them (one of the staples of “golden age” moviegoing was the double feature with several short subjects: cartoons, newsreels, comedy “two-reelers”, and the travelogue, sandwiched between the main films). One type of story often set in “faraway places’ is the “rom-com”. Oh, and a frequent star of such flicks is this film’s leading lady, Diane Lane (Under The Tuscan Sun, Nights In Rodanthe). Yes, we’re talking about Superman’s Earth mum (we’ll see her again in the role soon in Justice League). These stories and many other recent Lane films concern her character re-discovering love and desire, usually after a long-standing relationship has gone “phhfft”. Now she’s on...
- 6/2/2017
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
While You Were Peeping: Godet’s Elegy Brimming with Belabored Emotion
With his sophomore directorial effort, Fabienne Godet’s A Place on Earth (Une place sur la Terre) once again places Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde in the midst of a doomed romantic entanglement. Surprisingly, the generally comedic thespian excels at these melancholy, brooding types, as evidenced by recent stints in Jean-Pierre Ameris’ Romantics Anonymous (2010) and Benoit Jacquot’s Three Hearts (2014). As an uninspired photographer, Poelvoorde’s equally forlorn here, though he’s on the less dramatic end of the comparable occupationally challenged protagonist featured in Godet’s first feature, Burnt Out (2005). However, the film’s dramatic conflict inevitably ends up feeling a bit forced, the emotionally unstable natures of its romantic leads vaguely administered, which casts an extemporaneous pallor over the script that should leave us feeling as devastated as the roiling soundtrack and sweeping visuals urge.
A struggling photographer,...
With his sophomore directorial effort, Fabienne Godet’s A Place on Earth (Une place sur la Terre) once again places Belgian actor Benoît Poelvoorde in the midst of a doomed romantic entanglement. Surprisingly, the generally comedic thespian excels at these melancholy, brooding types, as evidenced by recent stints in Jean-Pierre Ameris’ Romantics Anonymous (2010) and Benoit Jacquot’s Three Hearts (2014). As an uninspired photographer, Poelvoorde’s equally forlorn here, though he’s on the less dramatic end of the comparable occupationally challenged protagonist featured in Godet’s first feature, Burnt Out (2005). However, the film’s dramatic conflict inevitably ends up feeling a bit forced, the emotionally unstable natures of its romantic leads vaguely administered, which casts an extemporaneous pallor over the script that should leave us feeling as devastated as the roiling soundtrack and sweeping visuals urge.
A struggling photographer,...
- 2/12/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Sales company unveils new films by Donzelli, Sfar, Odoul and Garrel at Paris Rendez-vous.
Wild Bunch will kick off sales on nine new French titles at this year’s Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris (Jan 15-19), many of which will be completed in time for a potential Cannes slot, including an incestuous love story by Valérie Donzelli and First World War drama by Damien Odoul.
The company will also show first images of several previously announced productions including Jacques Audiard’s untitled drama revolving around Sri Lankan immigrants in Paris, which it is co-selling with Celluloid Dreams, and Julie Delpy’s France-set romance Lolo, in which she stars as a chic Parisian sophisticate who falls for a geeky It expert played by Dany Boon.
There will also be a promo-reel for Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Years (aka Three Memories of Childhood), revisiting the childhood of Paul Dédalus, the protagonist in his 1997 film My Sex Lifewho...
Wild Bunch will kick off sales on nine new French titles at this year’s Rendez-vous with French Cinema in Paris (Jan 15-19), many of which will be completed in time for a potential Cannes slot, including an incestuous love story by Valérie Donzelli and First World War drama by Damien Odoul.
The company will also show first images of several previously announced productions including Jacques Audiard’s untitled drama revolving around Sri Lankan immigrants in Paris, which it is co-selling with Celluloid Dreams, and Julie Delpy’s France-set romance Lolo, in which she stars as a chic Parisian sophisticate who falls for a geeky It expert played by Dany Boon.
There will also be a promo-reel for Arnaud Desplechin’s My Golden Years (aka Three Memories of Childhood), revisiting the childhood of Paul Dédalus, the protagonist in his 1997 film My Sex Lifewho...
- 1/14/2015
- ScreenDaily
The most talked-about film of 2014 so far has been Richard Linklater’s opus of adolescence, Boyhood. Unfortunately, the buzz surrounding it could have a negative effect on Girlhood, which despite its titular commonality, is a very different beast of a film. Bold and beautiful, filled with pain and pleasure, and featuring a throbbing soundtrack and propulsive energy, Celine Sciamma’s drama has also been a festival darling.
Unlike Boyhood, which focuses on the coming-of-age of a blonde white boy who is aimless and filled with angst, Girlhood is about a black teenage girl in France, fighting with her own identity and yearning to break free. It is an invigorating slice of life that feels much more specific, urgent and relatable, and it may even be finer than Boyhood.
Sciamma’s drama focuses on Marieme (Karidja Touré), a shy schoolgirl who initially has more boyish interests. (In the film’s rather radical opening scene,...
Unlike Boyhood, which focuses on the coming-of-age of a blonde white boy who is aimless and filled with angst, Girlhood is about a black teenage girl in France, fighting with her own identity and yearning to break free. It is an invigorating slice of life that feels much more specific, urgent and relatable, and it may even be finer than Boyhood.
Sciamma’s drama focuses on Marieme (Karidja Touré), a shy schoolgirl who initially has more boyish interests. (In the film’s rather radical opening scene,...
- 9/24/2014
- by Jordan Adler
- We Got This Covered
Visually Striking Canadian-French Production 'Dreams of Dust' Is An Understated Tale of Grief & Hope
The minimalist, beautifully photographed, Canadian-French production Dreams of Dust (Reves De Poussiere) was a Grand Jury nominee at 2007’s Sundance film festival. The film, directed by French filmmaker Laurent Salgues – his impressive feature debut - won prizes at Spain’s 2007’s Tarifa, France’s 2006’s Amiens and Belgium’s Namur film festivals. It’s not a film for everyone. It’s one of those laconic narratives that permeate into your psyche and gain your appreciation for days after watching it. The splendid cinematography by Crystel Fournier showcasing the film’s wind-swept motifs is so striking that it’s almost like viewing a piece of art. Dreams of Dust takes place in the West...
- 4/24/2014
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
The minimalist, beautifully photographed, Canadian-French production Dreams of Dust (Reves De Poussiere) was a Grand Jury nominee at 2007’s Sundance film festival. The film, directed by French filmmaker Laurent Salgues – his impressive feature debut - won prizes at Spain’s 2007’s Tarifa, France’s 2006’s Amiens and Belgium’s Namur film festivals. It’s not a film for everyone. It’s one of those laconic narratives that permeate into your psyche and gain your appreciation for days after watching it. The splendid cinematography by Crystel Fournier showcasing the film’s wind-swept motifs is so striking that it’s almost like...
- 6/20/2012
- by Vanessa Martinez
- ShadowAndAct
"A sensitive portrait of childhood just before pubescence — when bodies and identities are still fluid — Tomboy astutely explores the freedom, however brief, of being untethered to the highly rule-bound world of gender codes." Melissa Anderson in the Voice: "The second movie by writer-director Céline Sciamma, Tomboy is expansive and relaxed, a marked contrast to her debut, the promising but overdetermined and airless Water Lilies (2007), which centered on the erupting desires of a trio of 15-year-old girls. Sciamma shows a real gift for capturing kids at play, an arena that is simultaneously anarchic and regimented. She and her cinematographer, Crystel Fournier, film the August afternoons devoted to truth or dare, capture the flag, soccer, and water fights as their own otherworldly time zone — idyllic, adult-free hours when hierarchies are formed, toppled, and reconfigured."
"Laure [Zoé Heran] is ten years old, thin as a twig — possibly thinner — and tentative about moving to a new place with her family,...
"Laure [Zoé Heran] is ten years old, thin as a twig — possibly thinner — and tentative about moving to a new place with her family,...
- 11/17/2011
- MUBI
Tomboy
Written and directed by Céline Sciamma
2011, France
Gwyneth Paltrow sported a fake moustache in Shakespeare in Love and Hilary Swank stuffed a sock down her jeans for Boys Don’t Cry. For Laure, the young heroine of Tomboy, it’s a tub of Play-Doh that helps prolong her dream of being one of the boys – at least for the summer.
Laure (Zoé Héran) has recently moved to a new neighbourhood, with her pregnant mum (Sophie Cattani), dad (Mathieu Demy) and younger sister Jeanne (Malonn Lévana). With her short hair, baggy T-shirts and lack of interest in dolls, Laure could pass for a boy. So when one of the local kids Lisa (Jeanne Disson) makes that assumption, Laure is quick to assume the identity of Michael.
Building a compelling drama around what she calls “the story of a lie”, writer/director Céline Sciamma once again shows that she’s well...
Written and directed by Céline Sciamma
2011, France
Gwyneth Paltrow sported a fake moustache in Shakespeare in Love and Hilary Swank stuffed a sock down her jeans for Boys Don’t Cry. For Laure, the young heroine of Tomboy, it’s a tub of Play-Doh that helps prolong her dream of being one of the boys – at least for the summer.
Laure (Zoé Héran) has recently moved to a new neighbourhood, with her pregnant mum (Sophie Cattani), dad (Mathieu Demy) and younger sister Jeanne (Malonn Lévana). With her short hair, baggy T-shirts and lack of interest in dolls, Laure could pass for a boy. So when one of the local kids Lisa (Jeanne Disson) makes that assumption, Laure is quick to assume the identity of Michael.
Building a compelling drama around what she calls “the story of a lie”, writer/director Céline Sciamma once again shows that she’s well...
- 9/16/2011
- by Susannah
- SoundOnSight
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