Quick, silly and lent weight only by the costume department’s copious wigs and furs, “The Crime Is Mine” finds tireless French auteur François Ozon in the playful period pastiche mode of “Potiche” and “8 Women.” It’s a film less about any frenetic onscreen shenanigans as it is about its own mood board of sartorial and cinematic reference points — Jean Renoir, Billy Wilder, some vintage Chanel — and as such it slips down as fizzily and forgettably as a bottle of off-brand sparkling wine. This story of an aspiring stage star standing trial for a top impresario’s murder (and making the most of her moment in the tabloid flashbulbs) may be based on a nearly 90-year-old play, but for those versed more in Hollywood and Broadway than in French theater, Ozon’s adaptation resembles a kind of diva fanfic: What if Roxie Hart went up against Norma Desmond, except in rollicking 1930s Paris?...
- 12/24/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The Silencing Movie Review: A Gripping Resurgence & Unraveling Mysteries In The Heart Of Echo Falls!
The Silencing Movie Review Rating:
Star Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Annabelle Wallis, Zahn McClarnon, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Zahn McClarnon, Melanie Scrofano
Director: Robin Pront
Producer: Cybill Lui Eppich
Writer: Micah Ranum
The Silencing Movie Review Out! (Picture Credit: IMDb)
What’s Good: Pront skillfully blends familiar tropes into a satisfying mystery horror-thriller. The film captures the wilderness through Manuel Dacosse’s cinematography, enhanced by Brooke and Will Blair’s ominous score. Coster-Waldau’s portrayal adds depth, creating a foreboding atmosphere.
What’s Bad: While the film touches on social issues, particularly in northern Minnesota, it may come off as somewhat tokenistic. Despite this, the compelling tone and eerie presence of a masked figure in mist-shrouded forests contribute to the film’s overall appeal.
Loo Break: A suitable “Loo break” in the middle of this intense narrative could be after Rayburn rescues Molly from the sanctuary and keeps her safe overnight in an unused spike trap.
Star Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Annabelle Wallis, Zahn McClarnon, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Zahn McClarnon, Melanie Scrofano
Director: Robin Pront
Producer: Cybill Lui Eppich
Writer: Micah Ranum
The Silencing Movie Review Out! (Picture Credit: IMDb)
What’s Good: Pront skillfully blends familiar tropes into a satisfying mystery horror-thriller. The film captures the wilderness through Manuel Dacosse’s cinematography, enhanced by Brooke and Will Blair’s ominous score. Coster-Waldau’s portrayal adds depth, creating a foreboding atmosphere.
What’s Bad: While the film touches on social issues, particularly in northern Minnesota, it may come off as somewhat tokenistic. Despite this, the compelling tone and eerie presence of a masked figure in mist-shrouded forests contribute to the film’s overall appeal.
Loo Break: A suitable “Loo break” in the middle of this intense narrative could be after Rayburn rescues Molly from the sanctuary and keeps her safe overnight in an unused spike trap.
- 12/13/2023
- by Hari P N
- KoiMoi
Music Box Films has dropped the trailer for “The Crime Is Mine,” François Ozon’s screwball comedy set in 1930s Paris starring Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Rebecca Marder and Isabelle Huppert.
A showbiz caper with a feminist edge in the vein of Ozon’s “8 Women” and “Potiche,” “The Crime Is Mine” will open in New York on Dec. 25, followed by Los Angeles and a national expansion.
Tereszkiewicz, who won a César award for best newcomer for her performance in “Forever Young,” stars as a struggling actress, Madeleine, who lives with her best friend, Pauline (Marder), an unemployed lawyer, in a cramped flat. Opportunity knocks after a lascivious theatrical producer who made an inappropriate advance toward Madeleine turns up dead. Madeleine admits to the crime and is acquitted on the grounds of self-defense — and in result becomes a star, as well as a feminist icon.
“The Crime Is Mine” was freely adapted...
A showbiz caper with a feminist edge in the vein of Ozon’s “8 Women” and “Potiche,” “The Crime Is Mine” will open in New York on Dec. 25, followed by Los Angeles and a national expansion.
Tereszkiewicz, who won a César award for best newcomer for her performance in “Forever Young,” stars as a struggling actress, Madeleine, who lives with her best friend, Pauline (Marder), an unemployed lawyer, in a cramped flat. Opportunity knocks after a lascivious theatrical producer who made an inappropriate advance toward Madeleine turns up dead. Madeleine admits to the crime and is acquitted on the grounds of self-defense — and in result becomes a star, as well as a feminist icon.
“The Crime Is Mine” was freely adapted...
- 11/1/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
In 2008, French politician Simone Veil became only the sixth woman ever inducted into the Académie Française, an august institution tasked with the regulation of the French language. As a newly minted “immortal” — the unofficial name given to the Académie’s 40 members — she was presented with a sword that bore three engravings: the motto of France, that of Europe (“Unis dans le diversité“) and her Auschwitz prisoner number, which remained tattooed on her arm until her death in 2017. The sword glints briefly in Olivier Dahan’s “Simone: Woman of the Century” and though its symbolism is apt for such a crusading figure, it also reflects the film’s shortcomings: this is a reverential, ceremonial biopic content merely to inscribe Veil’s achievements across the surface of history, ornamenting a remarkable legacy, rather than exploring it.
Dahan works to the same fragmentary, triumph-and-tragedy template he employed in “La Vie en Rose,” for...
Dahan works to the same fragmentary, triumph-and-tragedy template he employed in “La Vie en Rose,” for...
- 8/14/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
“The Crime Is Mine,” the new star-studded film by revered French director Francois Ozon, has been boarded by a raft of major distributors in key markets.
Represented by Playtime, the crowd-pleasing comedy had its world premiere on the opening night of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris and drew laughter throughout the screening, along with a long ovation.
Lushly lensed in an idealized Paris of the 1930s, “The Crime Is Mine” brings together a sprawling cast, led by a pair of up-and-coming actors, Nadia Tereszkiewicz (“Forever Young”) and Rebecca Marder (“Simone”), alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, André Dussolier, Dany Boon and Félix Lefebvre.
“The Crime Is Mine” has been acquired for Canada (Sphere Films), Spain (Caramel), Italy (Bim), Greece (Filmtrade), Germany (Welkino), Austria (Filmladen) Benelux (September Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), Hungary (Vertigo), Baltics, Cis (A-One), Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic), Romania (Independenta Film) and Former Yugoslavia (McF).
Playtime scored these deals after...
Represented by Playtime, the crowd-pleasing comedy had its world premiere on the opening night of the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris and drew laughter throughout the screening, along with a long ovation.
Lushly lensed in an idealized Paris of the 1930s, “The Crime Is Mine” brings together a sprawling cast, led by a pair of up-and-coming actors, Nadia Tereszkiewicz (“Forever Young”) and Rebecca Marder (“Simone”), alongside Isabelle Huppert, Fabrice Luchini, André Dussolier, Dany Boon and Félix Lefebvre.
“The Crime Is Mine” has been acquired for Canada (Sphere Films), Spain (Caramel), Italy (Bim), Greece (Filmtrade), Germany (Welkino), Austria (Filmladen) Benelux (September Films), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Bulgaria (Cinelibri), Hungary (Vertigo), Baltics, Cis (A-One), Ukraine (Arthouse Traffic), Romania (Independenta Film) and Former Yugoslavia (McF).
Playtime scored these deals after...
- 1/13/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Peter (Denis Ménochet) is a famous filmmaker living in Cologne, Germany in the 1970s. He lives in a beautiful, colorful apartment with his assistant Karl (Stefan Crepon), a tall, thin, mustachioed man who dutifully does everything asked of him, all while never saying a word. Peter is hard at work on his next script — or not so hard, as he seems to spend most of his time lounging around, drinking, and listening to music while Karl types away. While his professional life is extremely successful, his personal life is far less so. There's an emptiness eating away at his soul — despite having it all, he has nobody to share it with. That might change, however, when a gorgeous young man appears at his door, at the request of his friend, who might finally make Peter's life bearable.
If this all sounds a bit familiar to you, then you're onto something.
If this all sounds a bit familiar to you, then you're onto something.
- 10/24/2022
- by Barry Levitt
- Slash Film
Peter Von Kant
Having recently crossed off the name of Sophie Marceau on his working with great French actresses bingo card with his last film (Tout s’est bien passé), his latest project, which began filming earlier last year, features the iconic Isabelle Adjani and the participation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder protégé Hanna Schygulla. Selected as the opening film for the next edition of the Berlin Intl. Film Festival, François Ozon makes a rare entry into biopic and film about a film genre and reteams with his By the Grace of God cinematographer Manuel Dacosse.
Gist: An adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, the character of Petra von Kant is instead a male character (played by Denis Menochet).…...
Having recently crossed off the name of Sophie Marceau on his working with great French actresses bingo card with his last film (Tout s’est bien passé), his latest project, which began filming earlier last year, features the iconic Isabelle Adjani and the participation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder protégé Hanna Schygulla. Selected as the opening film for the next edition of the Berlin Intl. Film Festival, François Ozon makes a rare entry into biopic and film about a film genre and reteams with his By the Grace of God cinematographer Manuel Dacosse.
Gist: An adaptation of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, the character of Petra von Kant is instead a male character (played by Denis Menochet).…...
- 1/14/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
"What do you feel for me?" Altered Innocence has debuted the US trailer for the Belgian film Adoration, which originally premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2019, and also stopped by L'Étrange, Sitges, and Fantastic Fest that year. This is the final film of Fabrice du Welz's "Ardennes trilogy", following Calvaire (2004) and Alleluia (2014). The film follows shy 12-year old Paul who lives near a psychiatric institute. After an encounter with a young patient there, the troubled yet beautiful Gloria, he becomes infatuated and vows to protect her. Insisting doctors are holding her hostage for an inheritance the two escape and wreak havoc across the French countryside. Described as "a potent combination of violent thriller and romantic sexual awakening, du Welz masterfully captures the teenage intensity of 'amour fou' pairing perfectly with Manuel Dacosse's sumptuous 16mm photography." With Thomas Gioria & Fantine Harduin as Paul & Gloria, Benoît Poelvoorde, Anaël Snoek,...
- 5/7/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Altered Innocence has picked up U.S. rights to Fabrice du Welz’s dark contemporary fairytale “Adoration,” which premiered at Locarno Film Festival. A release is planned for summer.
“Adoration” combines a violent thriller with a romantic sexual awakening story, capturing the teenage intensity of “amour fou.” It features rising stars Thomas Gioria (“Custody”) and Fantine Harduin (Michael Haneke’s “Happy End”). The film is the finale to the director’s Ardennes trilogy, following “Calvaire” and “Alleluia.”
As well as Locarno, the film played at leading genre festivals such as Fantastic Fest and Sitges, where it won the Special Prize of the Jury, and Rotterdam.
The film follows shy 12-year-old Paul who lives near a psychiatric institute. After an encounter with a patient there, the troubled yet beautiful Gloria, he becomes infatuated and vows to protect her. Insisting the doctors are holding her hostage for an inheritance, the two escape...
“Adoration” combines a violent thriller with a romantic sexual awakening story, capturing the teenage intensity of “amour fou.” It features rising stars Thomas Gioria (“Custody”) and Fantine Harduin (Michael Haneke’s “Happy End”). The film is the finale to the director’s Ardennes trilogy, following “Calvaire” and “Alleluia.”
As well as Locarno, the film played at leading genre festivals such as Fantastic Fest and Sitges, where it won the Special Prize of the Jury, and Rotterdam.
The film follows shy 12-year-old Paul who lives near a psychiatric institute. After an encounter with a patient there, the troubled yet beautiful Gloria, he becomes infatuated and vows to protect her. Insisting the doctors are holding her hostage for an inheritance, the two escape...
- 1/20/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Cannes Jury Prize winner is also France’s submission to the Oscars this year.
Ladj Ly’s debut feature and Cannes Jury Prize winner Les Misérables, revolving around social tensions in a tough Paris suburb, is the frontrunner in the 25th edition of France’s Lumière awards this year, with seven nominations.
The awards which are voted on by some 130 international correspondents hailing from 40 countries are France’s equivalent of the Golden Globes.
Les Misérables has been nominated for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, first film and twice in the best new actor section for two of its cast members,...
Ladj Ly’s debut feature and Cannes Jury Prize winner Les Misérables, revolving around social tensions in a tough Paris suburb, is the frontrunner in the 25th edition of France’s Lumière awards this year, with seven nominations.
The awards which are voted on by some 130 international correspondents hailing from 40 countries are France’s equivalent of the Golden Globes.
Les Misérables has been nominated for best film, director, screenplay, cinematography, first film and twice in the best new actor section for two of its cast members,...
- 12/3/2019
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
François Ozon on By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu): “It was important to show the complexity of all these characters.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
François Ozon’s timely and relevant By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu), shot by Manuel Dacosse (Jean-François Richet’s The Emperor Of Paris) edited by Laure Gardette, and costumes by Pascaline Chavanne, stars Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud with Aurélia Petit, Josiane Balasko, Éric Caravaca, Martine Erhel, François Marthouret, Bernard Verley, Amélie Daure, Hélène Vincent, Max Libert, Nicolas Bauwens, Zuri François, Timi-Joy Marbot, and Zéli Marbot.
Alexandre Guérin (Melvil Poupaud) and François Debord (Denis Ménochet) with Gilles Perret (Éric Caravaca)
In the second half of my in-depth conversation with the director/screenwriter we discuss the complexity of the characters who are struggling to come to grips with memories from the past and the importance of the flashbacks in telling the story.
François Ozon’s timely and relevant By The Grace Of God (Grâce À Dieu), shot by Manuel Dacosse (Jean-François Richet’s The Emperor Of Paris) edited by Laure Gardette, and costumes by Pascaline Chavanne, stars Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud with Aurélia Petit, Josiane Balasko, Éric Caravaca, Martine Erhel, François Marthouret, Bernard Verley, Amélie Daure, Hélène Vincent, Max Libert, Nicolas Bauwens, Zuri François, Timi-Joy Marbot, and Zéli Marbot.
Alexandre Guérin (Melvil Poupaud) and François Debord (Denis Ménochet) with Gilles Perret (Éric Caravaca)
In the second half of my in-depth conversation with the director/screenwriter we discuss the complexity of the characters who are struggling to come to grips with memories from the past and the importance of the flashbacks in telling the story.
- 10/25/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The newest thriller from directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Let the Corpses Tan – also known by its French title Laissez bronzer les cadavres – now has its first U.S. trailer just ahead of its late-summer domestic release. After its initial premiere at the Locarno Film Festival, Let the Corpses Tan went on to screen at a handful of prestigious festivals around the world – including Toronto International (where we reviewed), Sitges, London, and the AFI Fest. Having directed Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, Cattet and Forzani have shown their dominance and hyper-stylization within the thriller genre – and now they’re bringing their expertise to the barren countryside in their neo-western Let the Corpses Tan.
The film tells the story of a gang of thieves who, after smuggling 500 pounds of gold, run into trouble when faced against complications from a pair of locals and police officers.
The film tells the story of a gang of thieves who, after smuggling 500 pounds of gold, run into trouble when faced against complications from a pair of locals and police officers.
- 5/31/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Having plunged as deep as their knives could go into the long-dead corpse of the giallo genre in Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani now forge a kind of hybrid of the spaghetti Westerns and Italian crime films of the late ’60s, stripping out nearly all story and keeping the sublime transfixion on material iconography and brute behaviour. Adapted from Jean-Patrick Manchette’s lean debut novel from 1971 (co-written by Jean-Pierre Bastid, who, like Manchette, was also immersed in genre cinema), Let the Corpses Tan opens with target practice shooting up neo-expressionist paintings, introducing the two groups (artists and gangsters) hiding atop a Corsican redoubt. After a whip-fast gold heist along the coast (executed by Cattet and Forzani with a fiercely staccato musical precision) attracts the local police, the mixed-class gang holes up in the sun-baked ruins to fight first against the law and,...
- 9/10/2017
- MUBI
IndieWire reached out to the filmmakers whose films (and TV shows!) are premiering at the Cannes Film Festival to find out what cameras they used and, more importantly, why they were the right tools to create their projects.
Read More: Cannes 2017 – 22 Films We Can’t Wait to See at This Year’s Festival
Before we dive into the details, here’s three big trends that we saw in their answers:
1. Shooting on film continues its comeback around the globe.
2. Arri continues its digital dominance in the narrative feature film space. We saw this at Sundance as well: Increasingly, smaller productions with the need to be flexible and mobile are turning to the small-bodied Alexa Mini.
3. Filmmakers are applying unique techniques to create different looks. From the Safdie Brothers adapting the 2-perf method of the old spaghetti westerns, to “Wonderstruck” mirroring the shooting style of the ’20s and ’70s, to Sean Baker...
Read More: Cannes 2017 – 22 Films We Can’t Wait to See at This Year’s Festival
Before we dive into the details, here’s three big trends that we saw in their answers:
1. Shooting on film continues its comeback around the globe.
2. Arri continues its digital dominance in the narrative feature film space. We saw this at Sundance as well: Increasingly, smaller productions with the need to be flexible and mobile are turning to the small-bodied Alexa Mini.
3. Filmmakers are applying unique techniques to create different looks. From the Safdie Brothers adapting the 2-perf method of the old spaghetti westerns, to “Wonderstruck” mirroring the shooting style of the ’20s and ’70s, to Sean Baker...
- 5/17/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani's The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears (2013) is showing February 4 - March 6 and Dario Argento's Deep Red (1975) is showing February 5 - March 7, 2017 in the United Kingdom in the double feature Giallo/Meta Giallo.“I know it when I see it.” Like film noir, the giallo is one of those genres as easy to pin down as it is difficult to define. More often than not, what constitutes a giallo rests on a given film’s balance of emblematic imagery and an archetypal storyline, while other factors like tone, score, and setting will also play a part in its classification. Arguably no filmmaker has had a more stylish and deftly rigorous hand in establishing these defining traits than Dario Argento. And his 1975 film, Deep Red (Profondo Rosso), is perhaps as good as it gets,...
- 2/26/2017
- MUBI
The Sundance 2017 juries and audiences unveiled their picks on Saturday night.
In the grand jury prizes, Macon Blair’s I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore claimed the Us dramatic award and Dina by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini won U.S. documentary.
Tarik Saleh’s The Nile Hilton Incident won world dramatic and Last Men In Aleppo by Feras Fayyad and Steen Johannessen prevailed in the world documentary category.
In the audience awards, Matt Ruski’s Crown Heights and Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral were the favourites in the Us dramatic and documentary strands.
World cinema selections I Dream In Another Language by Ernesto Contreras and Joe Piscatella’s Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower emerged victorious in the dramatic and documentary sections.
“This has been one of the wildest, wackiest and most rewarding festivals in recent memory,” said festival director John Cooper. “From a new government to the independently organised Women’s March On Main...
In the grand jury prizes, Macon Blair’s I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore claimed the Us dramatic award and Dina by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini won U.S. documentary.
Tarik Saleh’s The Nile Hilton Incident won world dramatic and Last Men In Aleppo by Feras Fayyad and Steen Johannessen prevailed in the world documentary category.
In the audience awards, Matt Ruski’s Crown Heights and Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral were the favourites in the Us dramatic and documentary strands.
World cinema selections I Dream In Another Language by Ernesto Contreras and Joe Piscatella’s Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower emerged victorious in the dramatic and documentary sections.
“This has been one of the wildest, wackiest and most rewarding festivals in recent memory,” said festival director John Cooper. “From a new government to the independently organised Women’s March On Main...
- 1/29/2017
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:
Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:
Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...
- 1/29/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Our 22 Favorite Movies Directed by Women in 2016Looking to support great female-directed films? Start here.
Over the years, we’ve heard from our readers that one of the most important things we can do is to help you discover movies that may have slipped by mainstream audiences. And often just as important, our readers ask that we highlight voices that are in the minority in Hollywood. While we’re known for not taking ourselves very seriously, we take this part of our work seriously. Because as many studies have shown, there are some voices that aren’t as well-represented as others. Them’s the facts.
Beyond that, our team has a passion for seeking out and celebrating films directed by women. This is where we often find, as you’re about to see in this list, some of the most unique and interesting stories in the whole of cinema. Another thing we hear often from readers is...
Over the years, we’ve heard from our readers that one of the most important things we can do is to help you discover movies that may have slipped by mainstream audiences. And often just as important, our readers ask that we highlight voices that are in the minority in Hollywood. While we’re known for not taking ourselves very seriously, we take this part of our work seriously. Because as many studies have shown, there are some voices that aren’t as well-represented as others. Them’s the facts.
Beyond that, our team has a passion for seeking out and celebrating films directed by women. This is where we often find, as you’re about to see in this list, some of the most unique and interesting stories in the whole of cinema. Another thing we hear often from readers is...
- 1/18/2017
- by Film School Rejects
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Evolution is *visually* stunning. A cinematic bite of nautical opulence that dances under the midnight glow of inquisitive genre exploration. Writer/Director Lucile Hadzihalilovic boasts a healthy dose of creative curiosity by pushing artistic boundaries, never conforming to narrative structures that have blueprinted so many films before. There’s zero hand-holding here, as a much larger story is ignored to pose a smaller, more contained sci-fi conundrum. This might drive some audiences mad, but others will bask in the renegade nature of a film unbeholden to rigid architecture – for better or worse.
Hadzihalilovic takes us to a small coastal town where we meet a boy named Nicholas (Max Brebant) and his undefined community. He lives with his mother, and there are seemingly no men to be found. All the boys his age are whisked away to hospital rooms, where they’re given an injection and monitored. At night, all the mothers congregate without their kin.
Hadzihalilovic takes us to a small coastal town where we meet a boy named Nicholas (Max Brebant) and his undefined community. He lives with his mother, and there are seemingly no men to be found. All the boys his age are whisked away to hospital rooms, where they’re given an injection and monitored. At night, all the mothers congregate without their kin.
- 11/28/2016
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
Some movies revel in mysteries so well that they don’t require solutions. French director Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s “Evolution” provides an ideal example. Ten-year-old Nicolas (Max Brebant) spends his days in an isolated seaside hospital, along with several other children, all of whom are subjected to an alarming medical process. His mother, and the other women who tend to the boys, obscure the reasons behind the confined setting. When Nicolas spies on them after dark, he gets no closer to answers — but the puzzle pieces gradually congeal into a pileup of transgressive sexuality, body horror and strange laboratory experiments. Nicolas doesn’t put it all together, but as he learns to look harder, he takes action against the ominous events around him. It’s the year’s wildest coming of age story.
Buried in the Vanguard section of the Toronto International Film Festival last year, “Evolution” defies simple categorization. Hadzihalilovic...
Buried in the Vanguard section of the Toronto International Film Festival last year, “Evolution” defies simple categorization. Hadzihalilovic...
- 11/24/2016
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
As we slowly near the end of the year, more and more films are not only vying for the attention of critics and awards voters alike, but even the smallest of pictures are hoping to find some sort of foothold with audiences, no matter how niche the group may actually be. That’s exactly the case for director Lucile Hadzihalilovic and her newest and arguably best film, Evolution.
Despite having IFC and their side brand IFC Midnight behind their release both in theaters and eventually on VOD (likely where this film will garner it’s widest audience), Evolution is an absolutely superb drama but one that is so singular it verges on the mysteriously esoteric. The film tells the story of Nicolas (Max Brebant), who lives in a seaside village whose only inhabitants are pre-teen boys and adult women. However, their modest lives are upended when a young boy washes...
Despite having IFC and their side brand IFC Midnight behind their release both in theaters and eventually on VOD (likely where this film will garner it’s widest audience), Evolution is an absolutely superb drama but one that is so singular it verges on the mysteriously esoteric. The film tells the story of Nicolas (Max Brebant), who lives in a seaside village whose only inhabitants are pre-teen boys and adult women. However, their modest lives are upended when a young boy washes...
- 11/23/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Laissez Bronzer Les Cadavres
Director: Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet
Writers: Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet
Last year, we had included this new project from ‘neo-giallists’ Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet, the Belgian duo behind such loving fetish genre items such as Amer (2009) and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013). They’re working on a film noir project, an adaptation of author Jean-Patrick Manchette’s 1971 novel, Laissez Bronzer Les Cadavres (translated as Let the Bodies Sunbathe). In early October this year, the duo received financial support from Wallimage, but there hasn’t been an update on the project since. Their last feature unexpectedly popped up in the Locarno line-up in 2013, so we’re choosing to assume they’re somewhere along in the process. However, it seems as if we can expect the film to be re-titled following the Wallimage announcement, where the project was simply listed as a film noir approached from a fetishist angle.
Director: Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet
Writers: Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet
Last year, we had included this new project from ‘neo-giallists’ Bruno Forzani & Helene Cattet, the Belgian duo behind such loving fetish genre items such as Amer (2009) and The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears (2013). They’re working on a film noir project, an adaptation of author Jean-Patrick Manchette’s 1971 novel, Laissez Bronzer Les Cadavres (translated as Let the Bodies Sunbathe). In early October this year, the duo received financial support from Wallimage, but there hasn’t been an update on the project since. Their last feature unexpectedly popped up in the Locarno line-up in 2013, so we’re choosing to assume they’re somewhere along in the process. However, it seems as if we can expect the film to be re-titled following the Wallimage announcement, where the project was simply listed as a film noir approached from a fetishist angle.
- 1/15/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
As always, a number of deserving film festival entries are stragglers in need of distribution or funneled away by buyers to be released in the following year. One of the downsides of attending a number of film fests is seeing great cinema sometimes plopped unceremoniously into a limited theatrical (or even VOD) release over a year later without any traction. And if a film happened to receive a cold shoulder at a prestigious venue like Cannes the chances of convincing audiences otherwise is a difficult feat.
Happily, all but two titles from this list currently have Us distribution (and with a little luck, someone will eventually get around to snapping those up, too). A thankful shout out to the following distributors is in order, with Strand Releasing responsible for three of the titles, while Kino Lorber, Sundance Selects, Drafthouse, A24, and Alchemy make up the others. Until then, here’s...
Happily, all but two titles from this list currently have Us distribution (and with a little luck, someone will eventually get around to snapping those up, too). A thankful shout out to the following distributors is in order, with Strand Releasing responsible for three of the titles, while Kino Lorber, Sundance Selects, Drafthouse, A24, and Alchemy make up the others. Until then, here’s...
- 12/21/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
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
Laszlo Nemes wins best director for Son of Saul; Mediterranea wins best first film.
The Stockholm International Film Festival awarded its Bronze Horse award for best film to Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs.
The jury – comprised of producer Mimmi Spång, director Peter Grönlund, director Christian Zübert, director Di Phan Dang, and director Arab Nasser – said the film was an “aesthetic masterpiece, a film that innovatively uses all cinematic components to move freely between present, past, dream and imagination. With this tightly woven family drama, the director gradually patches together our broken inner places and makes us visible to ourselves – and to each other.”
The other prize winners were:
Best first film: Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano
Best director: László Nemes, Son of Saul
Best script: Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour, Mustang
Best cinematography: Manuel Dacosse, Evolution
Best actress: Julija Steponaityte, The Summer of Sangaile
Best actor: Koudous Seihon, Mediterranea
Best...
The Stockholm International Film Festival awarded its Bronze Horse award for best film to Joachim Trier’s Louder Than Bombs.
The jury – comprised of producer Mimmi Spång, director Peter Grönlund, director Christian Zübert, director Di Phan Dang, and director Arab Nasser – said the film was an “aesthetic masterpiece, a film that innovatively uses all cinematic components to move freely between present, past, dream and imagination. With this tightly woven family drama, the director gradually patches together our broken inner places and makes us visible to ourselves – and to each other.”
The other prize winners were:
Best first film: Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano
Best director: László Nemes, Son of Saul
Best script: Deniz Gamze Ergüven and Alice Winocour, Mustang
Best cinematography: Manuel Dacosse, Evolution
Best actress: Julija Steponaityte, The Summer of Sangaile
Best actor: Koudous Seihon, Mediterranea
Best...
- 11/22/2015
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Evolution
Written by Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Alanté Kavaïté
Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic
France, 2014
It is difficult to discuss Evolution without giving away a lot of its surprises. Needless-to-say, Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s masterful film (only her second in a decade) is disturbing, beautiful and restrained. Mysterious from beginning to end, the film challenges and intrigues, reaching down inside to grab hold of something within us all that is ancient and primordial, engaging on a level that exists within not only a collective imagination but our collective biology. As the tide of revelation comes in, new details are revealed, yet when it recedes it takes something else with it. So the audience is left to keep afloat in a cloudy brine of opaque truths making for a claustrophobic experience with no easy way out.
On a strange island, Nicolas (Max Brebant) lives with a group of other young boys overseen by a watchful group of androgynous women.
Written by Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Alanté Kavaïté
Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic
France, 2014
It is difficult to discuss Evolution without giving away a lot of its surprises. Needless-to-say, Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s masterful film (only her second in a decade) is disturbing, beautiful and restrained. Mysterious from beginning to end, the film challenges and intrigues, reaching down inside to grab hold of something within us all that is ancient and primordial, engaging on a level that exists within not only a collective imagination but our collective biology. As the tide of revelation comes in, new details are revealed, yet when it recedes it takes something else with it. So the audience is left to keep afloat in a cloudy brine of opaque truths making for a claustrophobic experience with no easy way out.
On a strange island, Nicolas (Max Brebant) lives with a group of other young boys overseen by a watchful group of androgynous women.
- 10/18/2015
- by Liam Dunn
- SoundOnSight
After premiering in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Belgian auteur Fabrice du Welz’s excellent fourth feature Alleluia went on to play in the esteemed Vanguard lineup in the Toronto International Film Festival before nabbing Best Actor and Actress awards at Fantastic Fest for superb performances from Laurent Lucas and Lola Duenas. Although this didn’t translate into notable box office profit for Us distributor Music Box Films (released in mid-July for a limited theatrical run, the title didn’t crack ten grand in its paltry five week run), du Welz’s beautiful cult-classic in the making will eventually secure a greater following. A recent Blu-ray re-release of Criterion Collection’s presentation of the 1969 Leonard Kastle film, The Honeymoon Killers, based on the same romantic killing spree, should funnel some attention to it, as well as du Welz’s break into English language in 2016 with his next title.
- 10/14/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Evolution wins special jury prize; Joachim Lafosse’s The White Knights wins Silver Shell.Scroll down for full list of winners
Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Sparrows has won the Golden Shell for best film at the 63rd San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 18-26).
Runarsson’s second film, following Volcano (2011), follows 16-year-old Ari, who has to leave his mother’s home in Reykjavik and move back to his former hometown in the isolated Westfjords of Iceland where he navigates a rocky relationship with his father.
Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s surreal horror film Evolution picked up the Special Jury Prize. The French director’s first feature in more than a decade follows a young boy living in a mysterious, isolated seaside clinic who uncovers the sinister purposes of his keepers.
The film also saw Manu Dacosse pick up the Jury Prize for best cinematography.
The Silver Shell for best director went to Joachim Lafosse for The White...
Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Sparrows has won the Golden Shell for best film at the 63rd San Sebastian International Film Festival (Sept 18-26).
Runarsson’s second film, following Volcano (2011), follows 16-year-old Ari, who has to leave his mother’s home in Reykjavik and move back to his former hometown in the isolated Westfjords of Iceland where he navigates a rocky relationship with his father.
Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s surreal horror film Evolution picked up the Special Jury Prize. The French director’s first feature in more than a decade follows a young boy living in a mysterious, isolated seaside clinic who uncovers the sinister purposes of his keepers.
The film also saw Manu Dacosse pick up the Jury Prize for best cinematography.
The Silver Shell for best director went to Joachim Lafosse for The White...
- 9/26/2015
- ScreenDaily
Runar Runarsson's Nordic coming-of-age tale Sparrows landed the San Sebastian International Film Festival's Golden Shell Saturday night at a gala ceremony. Widely-acclaimed shorts director Runarsson’s second feature film is set in northern Iceland during the nightless days of summer and impressed the jury chaired by Danish actress Paprika Steen. The prize ceremony stood out for its even sprinkling of awards amongst the films, with no film other than Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Evolution earning more than one category. The French-Belgian-Spanish co-production won a special jury prize, as well as the best photography award for Manu Dacosse’s work.
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- 9/26/2015
- by Pamela Rolfe
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alchemy acquires French film Evolution Alchemy, which is already set to break into the horror game with Rob Zombie’s upcoming 31, has announced today they’ve secured the North American distribution rights to the upcoming Evolution. Directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic and filmed by renowned cinematographer Manu Dacosse (The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears), the film…
The post Alchemy Acquires Distribution for French Film Evolution appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.
The post Alchemy Acquires Distribution for French Film Evolution appeared first on Shock Till You Drop.
- 8/13/2015
- by Spencer Perry
- shocktillyoudrop.com
In the Mood For Love: Du Welz Returns With Gloriously Dark Rendering of Insatiable Passion
His first film since 2008’s underappreciated Vinyan, Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz debuts the second installment in his proposed Ardennes trilogy, Alleluia. His 2004 directorial debut, Calvaire (aka The Ordeal) depicted a rather hellacious account of a singer whose car breaks down in the middle of the woods, stranding him in the midst of a very strange and terrifying rural community. Here, Du Welz bases his latest madness on the true account of serial killing couple Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, a case that famously inspired the 1969 film The Honeymoon Killers and 1996’s Deep Crimson, amongst others. But Du Welz hardly unveils a simple account of unhinged, obsessive love. His is a demonic hymnal of passion, a darkly droll exercise in the delusory notion of love as an unhealthy obsession told with aggressive flourish. But...
His first film since 2008’s underappreciated Vinyan, Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz debuts the second installment in his proposed Ardennes trilogy, Alleluia. His 2004 directorial debut, Calvaire (aka The Ordeal) depicted a rather hellacious account of a singer whose car breaks down in the middle of the woods, stranding him in the midst of a very strange and terrifying rural community. Here, Du Welz bases his latest madness on the true account of serial killing couple Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, a case that famously inspired the 1969 film The Honeymoon Killers and 1996’s Deep Crimson, amongst others. But Du Welz hardly unveils a simple account of unhinged, obsessive love. His is a demonic hymnal of passion, a darkly droll exercise in the delusory notion of love as an unhealthy obsession told with aggressive flourish. But...
- 7/13/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A Woman in Trouble and a Man in Need: Forzani & Cattet Return Prove a Force to Reckon With
Directing duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani follow-up up their 2009 debut Amer with another hit from the giallo pipe, The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, a visual masterpiece that will confuse, confound, and hypnotize you as it’s one of the most visually extravagant explorations of the gaudy and grotesque ever committed to film. Certain to be rejected by mainstream sensibilities, Cattet and Forzani go beyond just another stylistic homage to create a creepshow that actually surpasses its predecessors with its expert level of artistic and technical prowess.
The plot seems to be transparently simple, yet spurts into a labyrinthine odyssey of revolving tangents and alternate perspectives that make it seem anything but. Dan Kristensen (Klaus Tange), a Danish man living in Brussels, returns to his art nouveau apartment from...
Directing duo Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani follow-up up their 2009 debut Amer with another hit from the giallo pipe, The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, a visual masterpiece that will confuse, confound, and hypnotize you as it’s one of the most visually extravagant explorations of the gaudy and grotesque ever committed to film. Certain to be rejected by mainstream sensibilities, Cattet and Forzani go beyond just another stylistic homage to create a creepshow that actually surpasses its predecessors with its expert level of artistic and technical prowess.
The plot seems to be transparently simple, yet spurts into a labyrinthine odyssey of revolving tangents and alternate perspectives that make it seem anything but. Dan Kristensen (Klaus Tange), a Danish man living in Brussels, returns to his art nouveau apartment from...
- 8/29/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears
Written and directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
Belgium/France/Luxembourg, 2013
Directing duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s debut feature Amer explored a young woman’s sexual awakening using traditional giallo tropes. An exercise in formalism, it treated giallo as pure aesthetic: a cinematic language with the potential to go beyond its usual generic applications. The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, reportedly 11 years in the making, represents another stage in the development of this idea. More familiar yet more oblique, it plunges us into a surreal world where giallo is the only code of understanding, eschewing narrative in favour of startling images, symbols and style.
The premise, however, is a conventional one. Dan Kristensen (Klaus Tange) returns home from a business trip to find his wife missing and the door locked from the inside. Seeking help from his neighbours,...
Written and directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
Belgium/France/Luxembourg, 2013
Directing duo Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s debut feature Amer explored a young woman’s sexual awakening using traditional giallo tropes. An exercise in formalism, it treated giallo as pure aesthetic: a cinematic language with the potential to go beyond its usual generic applications. The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears, reportedly 11 years in the making, represents another stage in the development of this idea. More familiar yet more oblique, it plunges us into a surreal world where giallo is the only code of understanding, eschewing narrative in favour of startling images, symbols and style.
The premise, however, is a conventional one. Dan Kristensen (Klaus Tange) returns home from a business trip to find his wife missing and the door locked from the inside. Seeking help from his neighbours,...
- 2/22/2014
- by Rob Dickie
- SoundOnSight
Saturday, October 10
One of the complaints raised at the special Fangoria 30th-anniversary panel at Spain’s Sitges international film fest (see last report here and go here for the fest’s official site) was the lack of Italian contributions to the current cinematic fright scene. The gruesome 1980s are long gone, where goremeisters such as the late Lucio Fulci ruled the scene. Italian horror directors find it nearly impossible to get their films financed these days, while the master, Dario Argento, appears to have lost his mojo (Mother Of Tears bombed in most territories, and advance buzz on Giallo remains dire).
“It’s very difficult to get horror movies made in Italy, which is why I moved to Bucharest,” says former Fango scribe Loris Curci, who graduated to producing movies in recent years. His efforts include the Ken Foree Croatian/Catalan/American zombie flick Zone Of The Dead, a Sitges premiere,...
One of the complaints raised at the special Fangoria 30th-anniversary panel at Spain’s Sitges international film fest (see last report here and go here for the fest’s official site) was the lack of Italian contributions to the current cinematic fright scene. The gruesome 1980s are long gone, where goremeisters such as the late Lucio Fulci ruled the scene. Italian horror directors find it nearly impossible to get their films financed these days, while the master, Dario Argento, appears to have lost his mojo (Mother Of Tears bombed in most territories, and advance buzz on Giallo remains dire).
“It’s very difficult to get horror movies made in Italy, which is why I moved to Bucharest,” says former Fango scribe Loris Curci, who graduated to producing movies in recent years. His efforts include the Ken Foree Croatian/Catalan/American zombie flick Zone Of The Dead, a Sitges premiere,...
- 10/14/2009
- by no-reply@fangoria.com (Tony Timpone)
- Fangoria
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