Georgian director Elene Naveriani’s late-coming-of-age, female empowerment drama Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry topped the prizes at the Swiss Film Awards in Zurich over the weekend.
The drama, which world premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year, revolves around an independent-minded, single woman in her 40s in a small Georgian village, who faces a personal crossroads when she unexpectedly falls in love.
The feature won Best Feature Film, as well as Best Screenplay and for Best Screenplay for Naveriani and for Best Film Editing for Aurora Franco Vögeli.
The Swiss-Georgian co-production was produced by Thomas Reichlin, Ketie Danelia and Bettina Brokemper for Alva Film in Switzerland and Takes Film in Georgia.
Pierre Monnard’s clandestine fight club drama Bisons also won three prizes: Best Film Score for Nicolas Rabaeus, Best Cinematography for Joseph Areddy and Best Actor for Karim Barras.
Swiss-French Barras will also soon be seen in period drama Winter Palace,...
The drama, which world premiered in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year, revolves around an independent-minded, single woman in her 40s in a small Georgian village, who faces a personal crossroads when she unexpectedly falls in love.
The feature won Best Feature Film, as well as Best Screenplay and for Best Screenplay for Naveriani and for Best Film Editing for Aurora Franco Vögeli.
The Swiss-Georgian co-production was produced by Thomas Reichlin, Ketie Danelia and Bettina Brokemper for Alva Film in Switzerland and Takes Film in Georgia.
Pierre Monnard’s clandestine fight club drama Bisons also won three prizes: Best Film Score for Nicolas Rabaeus, Best Cinematography for Joseph Areddy and Best Actor for Karim Barras.
Swiss-French Barras will also soon be seen in period drama Winter Palace,...
- 3/25/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
The Berlin Film Festival kicked off its 74th edition February 15 with the opening-night world premiere screening of Small Things Like These, the Irish drama starring Oscar-nominated Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy. It started 10 days of debuts including for movies starring Rooney Mara, Isabelle Huppert, Gael García Bernal, Kristen Stewart and more.
This year’s Competition lineup features films from a swath of international filmmakers including Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Hong Sangsoo, Bruno Dumont and Abderrahmane Sissako.
The Berlinale runs through February 25.
Keep checking back below as Deadline reviews the best and buzziest movies of the festival. Click on the titles to read the full reviews.
Another End ‘Another End’
Section: Competition
Director: Piero Messina
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Renate Reinsve, Bérénice Bejo, Olivia Williams, Pal Aron
Deadline’s takeaway: The script, while ambitious, is laden with philosophical musings that often feel detached from the emotional core of the story. Another End...
This year’s Competition lineup features films from a swath of international filmmakers including Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Hong Sangsoo, Bruno Dumont and Abderrahmane Sissako.
The Berlinale runs through February 25.
Keep checking back below as Deadline reviews the best and buzziest movies of the festival. Click on the titles to read the full reviews.
Another End ‘Another End’
Section: Competition
Director: Piero Messina
Cast: Gael García Bernal, Renate Reinsve, Bérénice Bejo, Olivia Williams, Pal Aron
Deadline’s takeaway: The script, while ambitious, is laden with philosophical musings that often feel detached from the emotional core of the story. Another End...
- 2/24/2024
- by Stephanie Bunbury, Damon Wise, Pete Hammond and Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
There is a sense of a running gag in Hors du Temps (renamed Suspended Time for the English-language market). In his complex, autofictional 2022 TV series Irma Vep, Olivier Assayas cast as the director of a film called Irma Vep — a film he had, in fact, made in real life 20 years earlier — the actor Vincent Macaigne, who cheekily developed a version of Assayas that not only picked up on his distinctively reedy voice, but also nobbled his quirky irritability and sensitivities.
That character was called Rene, but he was not a million miles from Paul, the character Macaigne plays in this account of two brothers confined with their partners for the duration of the Covid lockdown. They have returned to the house where they lived as boys and where they have rarely returned since: a vine-covered cottage in a picturesque hamlet. It is a glorious summer, just like the remembered summers of childhood.
That character was called Rene, but he was not a million miles from Paul, the character Macaigne plays in this account of two brothers confined with their partners for the duration of the Covid lockdown. They have returned to the house where they lived as boys and where they have rarely returned since: a vine-covered cottage in a picturesque hamlet. It is a glorious summer, just like the remembered summers of childhood.
- 2/18/2024
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
If any part of you has been curious as to how French filmmaker Olivier Assayas spent the early days of the global pandemic, along comes “Suspended Time” to answer your question, with very much the answer you might expect: pretty comfortably, thanks for asking. Alternating a thinly fictionalised portrait of the artist isolating at his family’s country home with fully autobiographical narration by the director himself, this mildly amusing but vastly indulgent bagatelle feels a tardy entry in the first wave of lockdown cinema — too late to feel fresh, but still too soon to have accumulated much meaningful perspective on an experience we all remember too well. Assayas devotees will take some pleasure in its formal fillips and self-references. Others need not apply.
At its most interesting — and quietly gossipy, if you are so minded — “Suspended Time” could be read as a reply work of sorts to “Bergman Island,...
At its most interesting — and quietly gossipy, if you are so minded — “Suspended Time” could be read as a reply work of sorts to “Bergman Island,...
- 2/17/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The memes won’t let you forget, but 2019 was half a decade ago. That was also the year Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network––an odd return to the realm of his TV series Carlos, and subsequently picked up by Narcos-era Netflix––premiered at the Venice Film Festival. That was Assayas’ last feature, making the intervening period (Irma Vep for HBO aside) the longest dry patch of his 38-year career. The dexterous director returns this week to the Berlinale with the aptly titled Suspended Time, a personal essay wrapped up in an effortless comedy that shows no signs whatsoever of long gestation.
Naturally, it’s all the better for it. Appearing as both leading man and (not for the first time) director surrogate, Vincent Macaigne stars as Paul, a filmmaker surviving the summer of 2020 with his music-journalist brother Ettienne (Micha Lescot) and their new partners, Morgane and Carole, in the agreeable surrounds of their childhood home.
Naturally, it’s all the better for it. Appearing as both leading man and (not for the first time) director surrogate, Vincent Macaigne stars as Paul, a filmmaker surviving the summer of 2020 with his music-journalist brother Ettienne (Micha Lescot) and their new partners, Morgane and Carole, in the agreeable surrounds of their childhood home.
- 2/17/2024
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
By virtue of the shared experiences it speaks to, Suspended Time may be writer-director Olivier Assayas’s most universally relatable film to date. Sure, few people own homes in charming villages in rural France, but almost everyone on the planet went through some version of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. People variably learned recipes, thought up new projects, sought out online therapy, went on long, unusually silent walks, contemplated their pasts, grandstanded about the dangers of a virus, treated said grandstanding as excessive hysteria, and got frustrated with the people they were in insolation with.
Those are the events of Suspended Time in a nutshell—a window into the strange life we all lived, the memory of which we largely seem to have discarded like a spoiled sourdough starter. Missing from the above description, though, is the way Assayas augments the ethereal quality of life in isolation with a sophisticated...
Those are the events of Suspended Time in a nutshell—a window into the strange life we all lived, the memory of which we largely seem to have discarded like a spoiled sourdough starter. Missing from the above description, though, is the way Assayas augments the ethereal quality of life in isolation with a sophisticated...
- 2/17/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
No two words can strike fear into the heart of a critic quite like “Covid movie,” and yet with a director as accomplished as Olivier Assayas it seemed reasonable to hold out hope of something more than the low-key cringe humor of a neurotic germaphobe obsessing about masks and social distancing and possible grocery contamination. Sadly, that’s a big part of what you get in the tedious Suspended Time (Hors du Temps). Most of us would never think our experience in the early, anxious days of pandemic lockdown was of much interest to anyone outside our social pod, but filmmakers keep making that mistake. They need to stop.
Perhaps Assayas was so caught up in the meta film industry satire of his spry reimagining of Irma Vep for HBO that he couldn’t resist casting Vincent Macaigne again as another version of himself. Macaigne is mildly amusing as a film director named Paul,...
Perhaps Assayas was so caught up in the meta film industry satire of his spry reimagining of Irma Vep for HBO that he couldn’t resist casting Vincent Macaigne again as another version of himself. Macaigne is mildly amusing as a film director named Paul,...
- 2/17/2024
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Unifrance and Film at Lincoln Center have unveiled the lineup for the 29th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, a festival celebrating contemporary French film running from Feb. 29-March 10.
Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom” will screen as the 2024 Opening Night Selection in its New York premiere. The film, which was nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, tells the story of an infection that mutates humans into animal hybrids.
“It is a great honor to open this year’s edition with the French critical and box-office hit ‘The Animal Kingdom’ with director Thomas Cailley in attendance,” said Daniela Elstner, executive director of Unifrance.
Elstner continued, “This remarkable film along with this year’s selection is a great example of the vitality and diversity of French cinema today. A mix of new and established filmmakers together with the stellar presence of actress Marion Cotillard indeed make for a rich 29th edition of this year’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.
Thomas Cailley’s “The Animal Kingdom” will screen as the 2024 Opening Night Selection in its New York premiere. The film, which was nominated for 12 Cesar Awards, tells the story of an infection that mutates humans into animal hybrids.
“It is a great honor to open this year’s edition with the French critical and box-office hit ‘The Animal Kingdom’ with director Thomas Cailley in attendance,” said Daniela Elstner, executive director of Unifrance.
Elstner continued, “This remarkable film along with this year’s selection is a great example of the vitality and diversity of French cinema today. A mix of new and established filmmakers together with the stellar presence of actress Marion Cotillard indeed make for a rich 29th edition of this year’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.
- 1/25/2024
- by Jaden Thompson
- Variety Film + TV
There’s an irony to the title “No Love Lost”: that the gaping hole left in a lover’s wake can still shape a person’s whole existence. In short, there’s plenty lost. Erwan Le Duc (“The Bare Necessity”) writes and directs the 2023 Cannes Critics Week closing film that was billed by the festival as a “bittersweet comedy about paternity and filiation with a poetic and off-beat angle,” and delivers on most fronts.
Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart stars as Étienne, a hopeful football player who has a whirlwind romance à la “Up” with protester Valérie (Mercedes Dassy) in the first five minutes of the feature. The duo have an immediate connection after both evading the police at a demonstration, but their fearless young love (they’re in their very early twenties) soon becomes more complicated once Valérie discovers she’s pregnant. A wordless montage captures their love story up until...
Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart stars as Étienne, a hopeful football player who has a whirlwind romance à la “Up” with protester Valérie (Mercedes Dassy) in the first five minutes of the feature. The duo have an immediate connection after both evading the police at a demonstration, but their fearless young love (they’re in their very early twenties) soon becomes more complicated once Valérie discovers she’s pregnant. A wordless montage captures their love story up until...
- 5/25/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Paris-based Playtime has unveiled a strong Cannes film market sales slate, which includes competition titles “About Dry Grasses” and “Homecoming.”
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
“About Dry Grasses” is by Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who won the Palme d’Or in 2014 for “Winter Sleep.” The film follows Samet, a young art teacher, who is finishing his fourth year of compulsory service in a remote village in Anatolia. After a turn of events he can hardly make sense of, he loses his hopes of escaping the grim life he seems to be stuck in, and hopes that his encounter with fellow teacher Nuray will help him overcome his angst. Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar and Musab Ekici are among the cast.
“Homecoming,” by French director Catherine Corsini who won the 2021 Queer Palm for “The Divide,” follows Khédidja, who minds a wealthy Parisian family’s children for a summer in Corsica. She brings along her own two...
- 5/2/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
La fille de son père
For his sophomore feature (which received some Fondation Gan coin), Erwan Le Duc moves his narrative around following the displacement of the family nucleus. Production took place in June of last year in the city of Paris and in Portugal on La fille de son père — a project that sees Le Duc reteam with Maud Wyler and lassoed Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart to topline with supports perfs from Céleste Brunnquell, Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford. In a nutshell this sounds like a drama about small fissures and attempting to heal past wounds in the present.…...
For his sophomore feature (which received some Fondation Gan coin), Erwan Le Duc moves his narrative around following the displacement of the family nucleus. Production took place in June of last year in the city of Paris and in Portugal on La fille de son père — a project that sees Le Duc reteam with Maud Wyler and lassoed Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart to topline with supports perfs from Céleste Brunnquell, Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford. In a nutshell this sounds like a drama about small fissures and attempting to heal past wounds in the present.…...
- 1/12/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
La petite
There is an off-chance that we’ll be getting a double dose of Guillaume Nicloux in ’23. Currently working on Dans la peau de Blanche Houellebecq, Nicloux’s La petite is already set with a domestic September release this year. Filming on this drama began in August of last year around the region of Bordeaux and Ghent. The trio of Fabrice Luchini, Mara Taquin and Maud Wyler lead the project which in a nutshell is about a sixty-something father who goes to meet a fierce and indomitable young Flemish woman. This is based on Fanny Chesnel’s novel Le berceau and also features the work of cinematographer Yves Cape.…...
There is an off-chance that we’ll be getting a double dose of Guillaume Nicloux in ’23. Currently working on Dans la peau de Blanche Houellebecq, Nicloux’s La petite is already set with a domestic September release this year. Filming on this drama began in August of last year around the region of Bordeaux and Ghent. The trio of Fabrice Luchini, Mara Taquin and Maud Wyler lead the project which in a nutshell is about a sixty-something father who goes to meet a fierce and indomitable young Flemish woman. This is based on Fanny Chesnel’s novel Le berceau and also features the work of cinematographer Yves Cape.…...
- 1/11/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Paris-based sales company is hosting several market premieres at Rendez-Vous.
Paris-based sales company The Party has acquired Happy! (working title), Pascal Plisson’s upcoming documentary about children with disabilities who chase their dreams despite the obstacles they face.
Writer and filmmaker Plisson’s doc On The Way To School was a box office success in France with 1.4 million admissions and sold to 18 countries worldwide in addition to winning the best documentary award at the Cesars in 2014. He is also behind recent docs Grand Jour, released in 2015, and Gogo in 2019 about a 94 year-old woman attending school in Kenya.
With Happy!, Plisson...
Paris-based sales company The Party has acquired Happy! (working title), Pascal Plisson’s upcoming documentary about children with disabilities who chase their dreams despite the obstacles they face.
Writer and filmmaker Plisson’s doc On The Way To School was a box office success in France with 1.4 million admissions and sold to 18 countries worldwide in addition to winning the best documentary award at the Cesars in 2014. He is also behind recent docs Grand Jour, released in 2015, and Gogo in 2019 about a 94 year-old woman attending school in Kenya.
With Happy!, Plisson...
- 1/10/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
As we patiently wait for La Tour to drop, the uncategorizable Guillaume Nicloux is currently mounting La petite – a tragi-drama project that will see veteran Fabrice Luchini reunite with Alice and the Mayor co-star Maud Wyler and young thesp Mara Taquin. Originally titled Le berceau, production begins next month.
This tells the tale of Joseph, who learns that his son and his companion have just perished in an accident. They were expecting a child via a surrogate mother in Belgium.…...
This tells the tale of Joseph, who learns that his son and his companion have just perished in an accident. They were expecting a child via a surrogate mother in Belgium.…...
- 7/25/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Erwan Le Duc will be reuniting with his The Bare Necessity actress Maud Wyler and has set Nahuel Pérez-Biscayart Bpm (Beats per Minute) as the patriarch parenting newbie Céleste Brunnquell in his sophomore film – which began production last week. Also starring Mercedes Dassy, Alexandre Steiger and Camille Rutherford, La fille de son père will eventually move to Portugal after the Paris and Metz. Produced by Domino Films’ Alexis Dulguerian and Stéphanie Bermann. The project was awarded the Prix à la Création de la Fondation Gan in 2021.
Etienne was barely twenty years old when he fell in love with Valérie, and hardly more when their daughter Rosa was born.…...
Etienne was barely twenty years old when he fell in love with Valérie, and hardly more when their daughter Rosa was born.…...
- 6/11/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
It’s been over a century since anyone’s adapted Wilkie Collins’ underrated “The New Magdalen” for the screen, and while Aurélia Georges’ cleverly modified version doesn’t resolve the novel’s inability to account for the protagonist’s mastery at disguising her working-class origins, its handsome imagery and Sabine Azéma’s adroit interpretation as the duped wealthy widow make “Secret Name” an attractive prospect for costume drama fans. The novel played on Victorian-era anxieties of class corruption with its story of a former prostitute assuming a dead high-bred woman’s identity only to discover that she wasn’t dead after all, but since subverting the social order no longer carries the same level of apprehension it did back then, the film foregrounds the ethical ramifications of impersonation and identity.
Georges (“The Girl and the River”) and her co-writer Maud Ameline seamlessly shift Collins’ action from the Franco-Prussian War to the First World War,...
Georges (“The Girl and the River”) and her co-writer Maud Ameline seamlessly shift Collins’ action from the Franco-Prussian War to the First World War,...
- 8/16/2021
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
La Place d’une autre Review — La Place d’une autre (2021) Film Review from the 74th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a film directed by Aurelia Georges, and starring Lyna Khoudri, Sabine Azema, Maud Wyler, Laurent Poitrenaux, Jacques Bachelier, Amelie Belohradsky, Agnes Bourgeois, Olivier Broche, Bruno Dreyfurst, Sarah Gendrot-Krauss, Jacques Bruckmann, Marie Hattermann, Naton Goetz, [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: LA Place D’Une Autre: An Excellent, Well Acted Story of Mistaken Identity [Locarno 2021]...
Continue reading: Film Review: LA Place D’Une Autre: An Excellent, Well Acted Story of Mistaken Identity [Locarno 2021]...
- 8/12/2021
- Film-Book
La Place d’une autre Review — La Place d’une autre (2021) Film Review from the 74th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a film directed by Aurelia Georges, and starring Lyna Khoudri, Sabine Azema, Maud Wyler, Laurent Poitrenaux, Jacques Bachelier, Amelie Belohradsky, Agnes Bourgeois, Olivier Broche, Bruno Dreyfurst, Sarah Gendrot-Krauss, Jacques Bruckmann, Marie Hattermann, Naton Goetz, [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: LA Place D’Une Autre: An Excellent, Well Acted Story of Mistaken Identity [Locarno 2021]...
Continue reading: Film Review: LA Place D’Une Autre: An Excellent, Well Acted Story of Mistaken Identity [Locarno 2021]...
- 8/12/2021
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
When period costumes appear in contemporary French cinema, one can almost always be sure that there will be some kind of criticism of the aristocracy or the bourgeoisie – this is the case, for example, in Bruno Dumont's mocking, misanthropic Slack Bay, or in Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, in which Céline Sciamma a love that is forbidden not only because of gender but also because of social status. For Aurélia Georges, going back to 1914 in Secret Name is not only a pretext for a story about class emancipation, but, above all, female emancipation.
The First World War has just broken out and sex worker Nelie (Lyna Khoudri) decides to abandon her current life and go to the front as a nurse. There, when an opportunity arises, she takes over the identity of the badly injured Rose (Maud Wyler), who comes from a good home. By impersonating her,...
The First World War has just broken out and sex worker Nelie (Lyna Khoudri) decides to abandon her current life and go to the front as a nurse. There, when an opportunity arises, she takes over the identity of the badly injured Rose (Maud Wyler), who comes from a good home. By impersonating her,...
- 8/10/2021
- by Mateusz Tarwacki
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
La Place d’une autre (The Place of Another)
Director Aurélia Georges promises to be a breakout in 2021 with her third project La Place d’une autre (The Place of Another), produced by Olivier Père of Arte France Cinema and Emmanuel Barraux of 31 Juin Films. The projects stars Lyna Khoudri (Cesar Winner for Most Promising Newcomer in 2020 for Papicha) , Sabine Azema, Maud Wyler and Laurent Poitrenaux. The film is a loose adaptation of the Wilkie Collins novel The New Magdalen, penned by Georges and Maud Ameline. Georges competed in the Acid lineup with her 2007 debut L’Homme qui marche, where she returned with sophomore feature La fille at le fleuve in 2014.…...
Director Aurélia Georges promises to be a breakout in 2021 with her third project La Place d’une autre (The Place of Another), produced by Olivier Père of Arte France Cinema and Emmanuel Barraux of 31 Juin Films. The projects stars Lyna Khoudri (Cesar Winner for Most Promising Newcomer in 2020 for Papicha) , Sabine Azema, Maud Wyler and Laurent Poitrenaux. The film is a loose adaptation of the Wilkie Collins novel The New Magdalen, penned by Georges and Maud Ameline. Georges competed in the Acid lineup with her 2007 debut L’Homme qui marche, where she returned with sophomore feature La fille at le fleuve in 2014.…...
- 1/4/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The cast also includes Sabine Azéma, Maud Wyler and Laurent Poitrenaux. Produced by 31 Juin Films, this third feature from the director will be sold by Pyramide. Three more weeks of filming for Aurélia Georges’ La place d’une autre, the third feature from the director, after L'Homme qui marche (selected in the Acid competition in Cannes in 2007) and La fille et le fleuve (2014). The cast includes Lyna Khoudri, Sabine Azéma (winner of the Best Actress César award in 1985 and 1987 and nominated four other times), Maud Wyler (very well received in The Bare Necessity and a stand out in Alice and the Mayor) and Laurent Poitrenaux. Very freely...
- 11/19/2020
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
A perfectly charmant way to, as the song has it, forget about your worries and your strife for 100 airy minutes, writer-director Erwan le Duc’s “The Bare Necessity” is a breezy little sweetheart of a debut, that threatens to give the rather ominous description “quirky French romantic comedy” a good name. In its dappled countryside sunlight, even the most ostensibly twee elements — a bumbling local police force; a nudist colony; a historical reenactment society; an eccentric rural family with a matriarch whose radio show is dedicated to the breathy discussion of, what else, l’amour — are treated with an amiably deadpan affection that is infectious without ever becoming ingratiating.
“Love Is Real” is the title of the radio phone-in hosted by Thérèse Perdrix (Fanny Ardant) during which she offers callers husky words of advice and encouragement in pursuing their various romantic follies. She is unaware, however, that the show is...
“Love Is Real” is the title of the radio phone-in hosted by Thérèse Perdrix (Fanny Ardant) during which she offers callers husky words of advice and encouragement in pursuing their various romantic follies. She is unaware, however, that the show is...
- 5/27/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Sophomore director Nicolas Pariser follows his politically engaged debut, “The Great Game,” with an even deeper plunge into the disconnect between political theory and the workings of government in the unmistakably French “Alice and the Mayor.” Deeply influenced by Eric Rohmer in the way it aspires to use philosophical dialogue to reveal something about the people behind the talk, Pariser unfortunately tips the conversation scales far into tilt, resulting in a movie so enamored by its self-perception of cleverness that even policy wonks will find it hard to muster enthusiasm. Aside from the pleasures of watching Fabrice Luchini and the winningly fresh-faced Anaïs Demoustier, there’s little to attract interest, especially outside the Republic.
Longtime politico Paul Théraneau (Luchini) is proud of his track record as mayor of Lyon, but he’s lost a sense of intellectual engagement. To kick-start the cerebral juices, his staff hire Alice Heimann (Demoustier), a...
Longtime politico Paul Théraneau (Luchini) is proud of his track record as mayor of Lyon, but he’s lost a sense of intellectual engagement. To kick-start the cerebral juices, his staff hire Alice Heimann (Demoustier), a...
- 5/20/2019
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
★★★☆☆ There's a quiet movement happening among young French cinephiles in 2013. Films such as Justine Triet's La Bataille de Solférino and Antonin Peretjatko's La Fille du 14 Julliet come from a new generation of filmmakers, often working like repertory companies with their friends, making dynamic, fresh works that actively engage with the struggles of contemporary France. Multi-hyphenate Vincent Macaigne, serving almost as an unofficial figurehead for the group, stars in Sébastian Betbeder's 2 Autumns, 3 Winters (2013), a sprightly, cineliterate comedy announcing itself as the movement's Annie Hall.
2 Autumns, 3 Winters is structured into multiple short chapters mixing explanatory soliloquies with more straightforward dramatic scenes that play almost like vignettes. The aforementioned Macaigne plays Arman, a 33-year-old art school graduate who, deciding he needs a change in his life, starts jogging in a local park. One Saturday he meets Amélie (Maud Wyler) and quickly becomes obsessed with her. Consequently, events inevitably conspire to bring them together.
2 Autumns, 3 Winters is structured into multiple short chapters mixing explanatory soliloquies with more straightforward dramatic scenes that play almost like vignettes. The aforementioned Macaigne plays Arman, a 33-year-old art school graduate who, deciding he needs a change in his life, starts jogging in a local park. One Saturday he meets Amélie (Maud Wyler) and quickly becomes obsessed with her. Consequently, events inevitably conspire to bring them together.
- 10/12/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The Film:
From the opening scene I knew I was going to enjoy High Lane (Vertige). The cinematography in the picture is gorgeous, and elevate this horror-thriller a notch on the kick ass movie ladder. Director Abel Ferry creates a tense atmosphere that is both engaging and disorienting.
The flick follows climbers Loïc (Johan Libéreau), Guillaume (Raphaël Lenglet), Fred (Nicolas Giraud), Karine (Maud Wyler), and the very beautiful Chloé (Fanny Valette) as they decide to brave a trail up high in the mountains that is closed because it is in disrepair. Of course this doesn’t stop these young hotshots from ignoring the warnings. It doesn’t take long for things to go wrong. After avoiding a near fatal accident, and realizing they could be trapped on the mountain until they can find another route down, they start falling into various booby traps, and soon realize that they are not alone.
From the opening scene I knew I was going to enjoy High Lane (Vertige). The cinematography in the picture is gorgeous, and elevate this horror-thriller a notch on the kick ass movie ladder. Director Abel Ferry creates a tense atmosphere that is both engaging and disorienting.
The flick follows climbers Loïc (Johan Libéreau), Guillaume (Raphaël Lenglet), Fred (Nicolas Giraud), Karine (Maud Wyler), and the very beautiful Chloé (Fanny Valette) as they decide to brave a trail up high in the mountains that is closed because it is in disrepair. Of course this doesn’t stop these young hotshots from ignoring the warnings. It doesn’t take long for things to go wrong. After avoiding a near fatal accident, and realizing they could be trapped on the mountain until they can find another route down, they start falling into various booby traps, and soon realize that they are not alone.
- 2/22/2011
- by Donny Broussard
- Killer Films
There are several horror titles releasing on DVD and Blu-Ray today. The most notable releases for Tuesday, February 8th include Wes Craven's poorly received My Soul to Take, a chilling production from France titled High Lane, Anchor Bay Entertainment's I Spit on Your Grave and finally, Paranormal Activity 2. This last title has already confirmed a sequel, with High Lane standing out amongst these titles. High Lane promises double terror from terrific heights and from socially isolated cannibals. Have a look at each of the titles below, with special features attached to each (if available).
High Lane
A synopsis...
"A group of friends on vacation decide to venture onto a trail high up in the mountains that has been closed for repairs. The climb proves more perilous than planned. Especially as they soon realize that they're not alone. This adventure will turn into a nightmare."
Release Date: February 8th,...
High Lane
A synopsis...
"A group of friends on vacation decide to venture onto a trail high up in the mountains that has been closed for repairs. The climb proves more perilous than planned. Especially as they soon realize that they're not alone. This adventure will turn into a nightmare."
Release Date: February 8th,...
- 2/9/2011
- by Remove28DaysLaterAnalysisThis@gmail.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
IFC released High Lane on VOD late last year and now has announced the street date for the French thriller. The flick will drop on DVD on February 8th but no specs have been announced yet. The foreign slasher is directed by Abel Ferry from a script by Johanne Bernard and Louis-Paul Desanges and stars Fanny Valette, Johan Libéreau, Raphaël Lenglet, Nicolas Giraud, Maud Wyler, and Justin Blanckaert. Synopsis:
Towering heights and beautiful vistas turn into a haunting mindtrip in Abel Ferry’s gripping French scarefest that will definitely make you think twice about your next mountain climbing trip. In the film, a group of friends on vacation in Eastern Europe embark on an ambitious mountain expedition along a trail that they discover – way too late – is closed for repair. The thrill of this foolish challenge quickly turns sour as it becomes clear that not only is the path a...
Towering heights and beautiful vistas turn into a haunting mindtrip in Abel Ferry’s gripping French scarefest that will definitely make you think twice about your next mountain climbing trip. In the film, a group of friends on vacation in Eastern Europe embark on an ambitious mountain expedition along a trail that they discover – way too late – is closed for repair. The thrill of this foolish challenge quickly turns sour as it becomes clear that not only is the path a...
- 1/26/2011
- by brians
- GeekTyrant
Film: ‘Vertigo’; Cast: Fanny Valette, Johan Libereau, Raphael Lenglet, Nicolas Giraud, Maud Wyler, Justin Blanckaert; Director: Abel Ferry; Ratings: * 1/2
What makes a thriller or horror film worth a watch is minute attention to detail. Since usually the story is implausible in the first place, this attention to plot, characters etc adds to its believability with the viewer. Sadly, ‘Vertigo’ fails in this simple, cardinal rule.
Five friends on a mountain climbing vacation, survive the vagaries of nature and accidents that plague their climb, only to be at the mercy of someone who seems to be hunting them for no apparent reason.
First of all the basic story itself is confusing..
What makes a thriller or horror film worth a watch is minute attention to detail. Since usually the story is implausible in the first place, this attention to plot, characters etc adds to its believability with the viewer. Sadly, ‘Vertigo’ fails in this simple, cardinal rule.
Five friends on a mountain climbing vacation, survive the vagaries of nature and accidents that plague their climb, only to be at the mercy of someone who seems to be hunting them for no apparent reason.
First of all the basic story itself is confusing..
- 8/27/2010
- by realbollywood
- RealBollywood.com
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