Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2023, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
It’s been a great year to be a strange little guy. We’ve rolled on from Everything Everywhere All at Once sweeping the Oscars to the auspicious release of Yorgos Lanthimos’ sexy baby drama Poor Things. Our culture’s ever-increasing appetite for horror fueled hype for blockbusters about killer robot girls and homicidal animatronics. Genres were blended and transcended on and off the festival circuit, as major distributors embraced weirdness in films like Bottoms, May December, and the aforementioned Poor Things.
This has also been a year of extremes. In January Skinamarink, a $15,000 indie horror, made $2.1 million at the box office. Every favorite for Best Picture is at least 100 minutes long. Barbenheimer… happened. New heights of camp were achieved on larger scales than ever before. Casting...
It’s been a great year to be a strange little guy. We’ve rolled on from Everything Everywhere All at Once sweeping the Oscars to the auspicious release of Yorgos Lanthimos’ sexy baby drama Poor Things. Our culture’s ever-increasing appetite for horror fueled hype for blockbusters about killer robot girls and homicidal animatronics. Genres were blended and transcended on and off the festival circuit, as major distributors embraced weirdness in films like Bottoms, May December, and the aforementioned Poor Things.
This has also been a year of extremes. In January Skinamarink, a $15,000 indie horror, made $2.1 million at the box office. Every favorite for Best Picture is at least 100 minutes long. Barbenheimer… happened. New heights of camp were achieved on larger scales than ever before. Casting...
- 12/31/2023
- by Lena Wilson
- The Film Stage
With horseback riding comes pleasure, pain, and the kind of purpose that could only be derived from the bond between a woman and a horse. It’s with this in mind that Berlin-based visual artist Ann Oren co-wrote and directed her feature debut “Piaffe,” which is also inspired by the concept of a female centaur, or a woman whose sexual organs are, well, horse-like.
“Piaffe” premiered at the 2022 Locarno International Festival, where it became a critical hit. Co-written by Thais Guisasola, Oren’s “Piaffe” may sound like a surreal drug-induced fantasy: An introverted woman named Eva (Simone Bucio) grows a horse’s tail while foleying sound for a commercial about an equine-inspired drug. Eva becomes part of a Bdsm relationship with a botanist (Sebastian Rudolph) that involves auto-erotic asphyxiation, whipping, and more kinks.
But while Eva is the submissive subject in the relationship, Oren explained to IndieWire that “Piaffe” is...
“Piaffe” premiered at the 2022 Locarno International Festival, where it became a critical hit. Co-written by Thais Guisasola, Oren’s “Piaffe” may sound like a surreal drug-induced fantasy: An introverted woman named Eva (Simone Bucio) grows a horse’s tail while foleying sound for a commercial about an equine-inspired drug. Eva becomes part of a Bdsm relationship with a botanist (Sebastian Rudolph) that involves auto-erotic asphyxiation, whipping, and more kinks.
But while Eva is the submissive subject in the relationship, Oren explained to IndieWire that “Piaffe” is...
- 8/24/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Taking its title from a type of slow trot that is used in dressage, Ann Oren’s narrative debut “Piaffe” both formally mimics this slow progression, while also quite literally being about horses. Or, well, the film is about shy Eva’s (Simone Bucio) burgeoning sexual awakening that happens simultaneously to her developing a horse tail. It’s a setup that might instantly recall Cronenberg-ian body horror, but “Piaffe” isn’t a horror film; far from it.
Continue reading ‘Piaffe’ Review: Ann Oren’s Narrative Debut Is An Odd And Memorable Tail Of Sexual Awakening at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Piaffe’ Review: Ann Oren’s Narrative Debut Is An Odd And Memorable Tail Of Sexual Awakening at The Playlist.
- 8/24/2023
- by Christian Gallichio
- The Playlist
We too often forget than humans are animals. Too many of us have divorced ourselves from the natural world, the world of our, for lack of a better phrasing, animal instincts. We clothe ouselves, eat (usually) with utensils, as if denying this inner part of ourselves in order to survive society. And yet, the animal is in there, waiting to be released. Visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren explores the psychological and physical impact of just such a release of the animal being into a young woman in her haunting film, Piaffe. Eva (Simone Bucio) is awoken by an incessent telephone ring; a commerical producer needs his foley sound now, and Eva's sister Zara (Simon Jaikiriuma Paetau), a foley artist, is nowhere to be found....
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/22/2023
- Screen Anarchy
When singled-out within a purely visual medium, sound becomes intrinsically linked to the theme of obsession: a mystery the eyes can’t see that the protagonist needs to solve. From John Travolta’s Jack Terry unwittingly stumbling into a murder conspiracy when recording foley effects for a slasher flick in Brian De Palma’s Blow Out to Tilda Swinton’s Jessica trying to find the source for the “rumble” that haunts her every waking moment in Memoria, the inability to define a sound’s origin becomes a gripping enigma within a medium that thrives on showing, not telling. Much like De Palma’s film, the latest from visual artist Ann Oren takes as its starting point a recording studio––albeit a makeshift one, set up solely to record the sound effects for a bizarre TV commercial––but follows a much less conventional path to untangle an artist’s growing fixation...
- 8/22/2023
- by Alistair Ryder
- The Film Stage
It’s sometimes described as one of the first images in cinema: a figure atop a horse executing a piaffe, prancing in place. We see it in the zoetropes which preceded the earliest moving pictures, and it’s a recurring motif right through the first half century of film. We see a modern version projected on to a loose piece of cloth at the end of Zara’s Foley room wall, but Zara (Simon(e) Jaikiriuma) is not there. Following a mental breakdown, they have been institutionalised, leaving their sister Eva (Simone Bucio) with the responsibility for finishing their work. The hauntingly silent rider needs accompanying sound.
That Eva’s first attempt is a disaster should come as no surprise. Exploring the room, trying out the assorted shoes, rocks, bits of chain, sand and hay, she delivers only a crude approximation of the proper sounds, in part because she has no real experience of horses.
That Eva’s first attempt is a disaster should come as no surprise. Exploring the room, trying out the assorted shoes, rocks, bits of chain, sand and hay, she delivers only a crude approximation of the proper sounds, in part because she has no real experience of horses.
- 8/11/2023
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Certainly one of the odder films to have played the festival circiut in the past year, the story of a shy woman who finds sexual release and a new identity expression when she grows a horse's tail is at once understated and open. As I wrote in my review when I saw the film at Sitges, this 'tale' might seem off-putting at first, but it has a heart that grows from pleasantly warm to a surrounding fire, as the character explores her newfound freedom of sensuality. Introverted and unqualified, Eva (Simone Bucio) is unexpectedly tasked with foleying the sound for a commercial featuring a horse. As she slowly acclimates to the new job, her obsession with creating the perfect equine sounds grows into something more...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/4/2023
- Screen Anarchy
"Has a gift for both horseplay and foreplay..." Oscilloscope Labs has revealed an official trailer for strange indie film titled Piaffe, made by artist / filmmaker Ann Oren. Opening in US art house theaters this August. This originally premiered at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival last year, and it also played at many other fests including: San Sebastian, Calgary, Hamburg, London, Ghent, Cork, and Denver. Oscilloscope Labs invites you to discover Piaffe, the first feature from award winning visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren. Sensual, tactile, and a carefully constructed exploration of sexual awakening with a keen awareness of the origins of cinema. When her sibling Zara suffers a nervous breakdown, the introvert Eva is forced to take on Zara's job as a Foley artist. Then, a horsetail starts growing out of the back of her body. Simone Bucio stars as Eva, with Sebastian Rudolph, Simon Jaikiriuma Paetau, Björn Melhus, & Lea Draeger.
- 8/3/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
With echoes of Catherine Breillat, Lucille Hadzhihalillovic, and Peter Strickland, “Piaffe” rides a deep tail of sexual awakening.
The feature directorial debut of Berlin-based visual artist Ann Oren, “Piaffe” follows Eva (Simone Bucio), an introverted and unqualified woman who grows a horse’s tail while foleying sound for a commercial about an equine-inspired drug.
Per the synopsis, as Eva acclimates to the new job, her obsession with creating the perfect horse sounds grows into something more tangible. Eva harnesses this new physicality, becoming more confident and empowered, and lures an unassuming botanist into an intriguing game of submission.
“Piaffe” centers on Eva’s sexual awakening through a dominant-submissive relationship and through animal-centric affect. The film is shot on 16mm and originally debuted at the 2022 Locarno International Festival.
Sebastian Rudolph and Simon Jaikiriuma Paetau also star.
“Piaffe” is co-written by director Oren and Thais Guisaola, with Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens, and Fabien Altenried producing.
The feature directorial debut of Berlin-based visual artist Ann Oren, “Piaffe” follows Eva (Simone Bucio), an introverted and unqualified woman who grows a horse’s tail while foleying sound for a commercial about an equine-inspired drug.
Per the synopsis, as Eva acclimates to the new job, her obsession with creating the perfect horse sounds grows into something more tangible. Eva harnesses this new physicality, becoming more confident and empowered, and lures an unassuming botanist into an intriguing game of submission.
“Piaffe” centers on Eva’s sexual awakening through a dominant-submissive relationship and through animal-centric affect. The film is shot on 16mm and originally debuted at the 2022 Locarno International Festival.
Sebastian Rudolph and Simon Jaikiriuma Paetau also star.
“Piaffe” is co-written by director Oren and Thais Guisaola, with Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens, and Fabien Altenried producing.
- 8/3/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
We too often forget than humans are animals. Too many of us have divorced ourselves from the natural world, the world of our, for lack of a better phrasing, animal instincts. We clothe ouselves, eat (usually) with utensils, as if denying this inner part of ourselves in order to survive society. And yet, the animal is in there, waiting to be released. Visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren explores the psychological and physical impact of just such a release of the animal being into a young woman in her haunting film, Piaffe. Eva (Simone Bucio) is awoken by an incessent telephone ring; a commerical producer needs his foley sound now, and Eva's sister Zara (Simon Jaikiriuma Paetau), a foley artist, is nowhere to be found....
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 10/12/2022
- Screen Anarchy
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2022 Locarno Film Festival. Oscilloscope releases the film in select theaters on Friday, August 25.
Using sci-fi to create a sexual allegory is a staple of body horror genre, just ask David Cronenberg. Now, let us introduce the body pleasure genre. No, not porn, but a character-driven drama in which personal and sexual growth synthesise in the name of erotic cinema.
Visual artist Ann Oren’s debut feature “Piaffe” fits this exact mold, following a meek introvert in Berlin who grows a horse’s tail and has a sexual awakening. Oren’s teasing style is the perfect route into the story. Shooting on 16mm, she mounts every scene by slowly, surely feeding in key details. In other words: she has a gift for both horseplay and foreplay.
Eva (Simone Bucio) is tasked with sound designing a commercial for a dubious mood-stabilizing drug after sister,...
Using sci-fi to create a sexual allegory is a staple of body horror genre, just ask David Cronenberg. Now, let us introduce the body pleasure genre. No, not porn, but a character-driven drama in which personal and sexual growth synthesise in the name of erotic cinema.
Visual artist Ann Oren’s debut feature “Piaffe” fits this exact mold, following a meek introvert in Berlin who grows a horse’s tail and has a sexual awakening. Oren’s teasing style is the perfect route into the story. Shooting on 16mm, she mounts every scene by slowly, surely feeding in key details. In other words: she has a gift for both horseplay and foreplay.
Eva (Simone Bucio) is tasked with sound designing a commercial for a dubious mood-stabilizing drug after sister,...
- 8/12/2022
- by Sophie Monks Kaufman
- Indiewire
The first feature by Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren, which is titled “Piaffe,” is launching on Aug. 11 from the Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande.
Described by the director as “a love letter to the less recognized magicians of cinema and a playful celebration of otherness,” this German film is produced by Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried of Berlin-based Schuldenberg Films.
Beijing-based Rediance, as previously announced, has taken international sales.
“When her sibling Zara suffers a nervous breakdown, the introvert Eva is forced to take on Zara’s job as a foley artist. She struggles to create sounds for a commercial featuring a horse, and then a horsetail starts growing out of her body,” reads the synopsis.
“Empowered by her tail, she lures a botanist into an affair through a game of submission.”
“Piaffe” is further described as “a visceral journey into control, gender, and artifice.
Described by the director as “a love letter to the less recognized magicians of cinema and a playful celebration of otherness,” this German film is produced by Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried of Berlin-based Schuldenberg Films.
Beijing-based Rediance, as previously announced, has taken international sales.
“When her sibling Zara suffers a nervous breakdown, the introvert Eva is forced to take on Zara’s job as a foley artist. She struggles to create sounds for a commercial featuring a horse, and then a horsetail starts growing out of her body,” reads the synopsis.
“Empowered by her tail, she lures a botanist into an affair through a game of submission.”
“Piaffe” is further described as “a visceral journey into control, gender, and artifice.
- 8/10/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
German feature will world premiere at Locarno.
Chinese sales agent Rediance has acquired sales rights to Locarno international competition title Piaffe, the first feature by Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren.
The German film, which will receive its world premiere at Locarno in August, is produced by Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried of Berlin-based Schuldenberg Films.
Shot on 16mm, the story follows an introvert foley artist who becomes empowered when a horsetail starts growing out of her body while working on a commercial featuring a horse. Written by Oren and Thais Guisasola, the cast includes Simone Bucio,...
Chinese sales agent Rediance has acquired sales rights to Locarno international competition title Piaffe, the first feature by Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker Ann Oren.
The German film, which will receive its world premiere at Locarno in August, is produced by Kristof Gerega, Sophie Ahrens and Fabian Altenried of Berlin-based Schuldenberg Films.
Shot on 16mm, the story follows an introvert foley artist who becomes empowered when a horsetail starts growing out of her body while working on a commercial featuring a horse. Written by Oren and Thais Guisasola, the cast includes Simone Bucio,...
- 7/6/2022
- by Silvia Wong
- ScreenDaily
The Untamed (aka La región salvaje) is arguably Amat Escalante’s greatest film yet. After dealing with the Mexican drug trade in Heli, Escalante returned with another social drama set in Guanajuato, his hometown. This time, though, there’s a fantastic element without precedent in the director’s filmography. In The Untamed, a young woman (Simone Bucio) maintains a connection with a mysterious creature that helps her reach the “wild region”; however, these encounters, as exciting as they are, have become life-threatening for the girl, since maybe everything that we have always desired, sexually or otherwise, can actually be destructive. Soon, this character ends wounded in a local hospital, where she meets a male nurse (Eden Villavicencio). The Untamed manages to explore such relevant issues in Mexican society...
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[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/1/2018
- Screen Anarchy
Mexican director Amal Escalante mixes naturalism and otherworldly CGI in bravura fashion
The Spanish title of Amat Escalante’s film, La región salvaje, translates as “the Wild Region”, which may refer to somewhere in space, or the riskier shores of human desire, or this Mexican writer-director’s lawless imagination. His last film, 2013’s Heli, about innocents caught up in the drug war, was at once coolly lucid in tone and horrific in content.
The Untamed features a similar combination of rigorous directing style and confrontational imagery, but ventures into far stranger territory. It’s about three working-class people – a young mother, her macho husband and her gay brother – whose lives are transformed when a mysterious woman (Simone Bucio) gets them entangled, and I mean entangled, with her ardent paramour who is, let’s say, not from around these parts. Escalante takes a hothouse hybrid of science-fiction horror and implants it...
The Spanish title of Amat Escalante’s film, La región salvaje, translates as “the Wild Region”, which may refer to somewhere in space, or the riskier shores of human desire, or this Mexican writer-director’s lawless imagination. His last film, 2013’s Heli, about innocents caught up in the drug war, was at once coolly lucid in tone and horrific in content.
The Untamed features a similar combination of rigorous directing style and confrontational imagery, but ventures into far stranger territory. It’s about three working-class people – a young mother, her macho husband and her gay brother – whose lives are transformed when a mysterious woman (Simone Bucio) gets them entangled, and I mean entangled, with her ardent paramour who is, let’s say, not from around these parts. Escalante takes a hothouse hybrid of science-fiction horror and implants it...
- 8/20/2017
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
Review by Matthew Turner
Stars: Ruth Ramos, Simone Bucio, Jesús Meza, Eden Villavicencio, Andrea Peláez, Oscar Escalante, Bernarda Trueba | Written by Amat Escalante, Gibrán Portela | Directed by Amat Escalante
The fourth film from Mexican writer-director Amat Escalante (Heli) mixes social realism and weird sci-fi eroticism to mesmerising effect.
Co-written by Escalante and Gibrán Portela, The Untamed begins with a shot of a meteorite, drifting through space, before abruptly cutting to a young, naked woman (Simone Bucio as Veronica) being pleasured by a tentacled creature in a shed, somewhere in the Mexican countryside. As if that wasn’t already strange enough, she’s also being observed by an older couple (Oscar Escalante and Bernarda Trueba), who appear to be the creature’s guardians.
When Veronica sustains a nasty injury during her encounter, she attends the local hospital, where she befriends first charming, openly gay nurse Fabian (Eden Villavicencio), and later his...
Stars: Ruth Ramos, Simone Bucio, Jesús Meza, Eden Villavicencio, Andrea Peláez, Oscar Escalante, Bernarda Trueba | Written by Amat Escalante, Gibrán Portela | Directed by Amat Escalante
The fourth film from Mexican writer-director Amat Escalante (Heli) mixes social realism and weird sci-fi eroticism to mesmerising effect.
Co-written by Escalante and Gibrán Portela, The Untamed begins with a shot of a meteorite, drifting through space, before abruptly cutting to a young, naked woman (Simone Bucio as Veronica) being pleasured by a tentacled creature in a shed, somewhere in the Mexican countryside. As if that wasn’t already strange enough, she’s also being observed by an older couple (Oscar Escalante and Bernarda Trueba), who appear to be the creature’s guardians.
When Veronica sustains a nasty injury during her encounter, she attends the local hospital, where she befriends first charming, openly gay nurse Fabian (Eden Villavicencio), and later his...
- 8/18/2017
- by Guest
- Nerdly
There are no talking foxes in Amat Escalante’s latest whatist, but chaos still reigns.
And though “La región salvaje” translates literally as “The Wilds,” one struggles to imagine a more fitting title for this surreal erotic thriller than “The Untamed.” The Mexican auteur, who last divided audiences with the punishing “Heli” (for which he won Best Director at Cannes), takes a cue from Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession” in his tentacled pulse-pounder about the pain and pleasure of love in all its forms. This is the kind of experience that might tell you more about yourself as both a viewer and a person than you’re comfortable knowing; it’s also the most alluringly strange movie of the year so far.
It’s frequently beautiful, too, with cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro (who also lensed “Nymphomaniac”) capturing the strange goings on and foggy environs in all their alien glory. “The Untamed...
And though “La región salvaje” translates literally as “The Wilds,” one struggles to imagine a more fitting title for this surreal erotic thriller than “The Untamed.” The Mexican auteur, who last divided audiences with the punishing “Heli” (for which he won Best Director at Cannes), takes a cue from Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession” in his tentacled pulse-pounder about the pain and pleasure of love in all its forms. This is the kind of experience that might tell you more about yourself as both a viewer and a person than you’re comfortable knowing; it’s also the most alluringly strange movie of the year so far.
It’s frequently beautiful, too, with cinematographer Manuel Alberto Claro (who also lensed “Nymphomaniac”) capturing the strange goings on and foggy environs in all their alien glory. “The Untamed...
- 7/20/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
"What's there in the cabin is our primitive side." Strand Releasing has debuted an official trailer for a sexual sci-fi horror film titled The Untamed, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year. It won the Silver Lion award for Best Director, and went on to play Toronto, London, Sitges, Fantastic Fest, and more festivals all over the world. The story is about a couple in a troubled marriage who find a meteorite, and a mysterious creature along with it. "Their lives are turned upside down by the discovery of the creature, which is a source of both pleasure and destruction." Starring Simone Bucio, Kenny Johnston, Jesús Meza, and Ruth Ramos. This looks seriously provocative and trippy, and reminds me a bit of Under the Skin. But the final shot with the weird tentacles makes this look totally nuts. I can't help but say I'm curious. Here's the official...
- 6/28/2017
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Ahead of stopping by Lincoln Center’s Film Comment Selects, the first trailer has arrived for The Untamed, the latest film from Spanish auteur Amat Escalante. While it is in Spanish with no (English) subtitles, the trailer features arresting imagery and a raw, ominous tone as it follows a couple whose lives are shaken when they encounter a mysterious creature. The third feature from Escalante, the film looks to be a harsh exploration of family, horror, and sex.
We said in our review, “The Untamed does that very rare thing in cinema in that it blends mystery, horror and pseudo-reality with a kind of dark subconscious arousal. In this way it recalls the auteur directors previously mentioned here, but also the eerie ethereal science fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. All this might lead you to believe that The Untamed is built on homage, and yet it refuses to be anything but its own thing.
We said in our review, “The Untamed does that very rare thing in cinema in that it blends mystery, horror and pseudo-reality with a kind of dark subconscious arousal. In this way it recalls the auteur directors previously mentioned here, but also the eerie ethereal science fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. All this might lead you to believe that The Untamed is built on homage, and yet it refuses to be anything but its own thing.
- 1/19/2017
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
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