In Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things,” 19th-century scientist Baxter (Willem Dafoe) restores Bella (Emma Stone) to life with the brain of her unborn child — and the surreal visual design reflects her wild imagination as she progresses from infant to liberated woman.
To achieve that, the director instructed production designers James Price (“Paddington 2” art director) and Shona Heath (a collaborator of fashion photographer Tim Walker making her film debut) to create a fantastical world that was a throwback to the old-school style of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus,” with miniatures, painted backdrops, and rear screen projection (high-tech LED screens created the oceans and skies).
“My experience in film is zero,” Heath said in an on-set interview in the video above, “so this wouldn’t be standing if it wasn’t for James.”
What they conjured — to Arts Director Guild- and Academy Award-nominated success — was a retro-futuristic fantasy influenced by...
To achieve that, the director instructed production designers James Price (“Paddington 2” art director) and Shona Heath (a collaborator of fashion photographer Tim Walker making her film debut) to create a fantastical world that was a throwback to the old-school style of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s “Black Narcissus,” with miniatures, painted backdrops, and rear screen projection (high-tech LED screens created the oceans and skies).
“My experience in film is zero,” Heath said in an on-set interview in the video above, “so this wouldn’t be standing if it wasn’t for James.”
What they conjured — to Arts Director Guild- and Academy Award-nominated success — was a retro-futuristic fantasy influenced by...
- 2/5/2024
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Good news for those who wish to know what their Twitter feed’s jacking off to: the Criterion Channel are launching an erotic thriller series that includes De Palma’s Dressed to Kill and Body Double, the Wachowskis’ Bound, and so many other movies to stir up that ceaseless, fruitless “why do movies have sex scenes?” discourse. (Better or worse than middle-age film critics implying they have a hard-on? I’m so indignant at being forced to choose.) Similarly lurid, if not a bit more frightening, is a David Lynch retro that includes the Criterion editions of Lost Highway and Inland Empire (about which I spoke to Lynch last year), a series of shorts, and a one-month-only engagement for Dune, a film that should be there in perpetuity.
Retrospectives of Harold Lloyd, Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, and shorts by Fanta Régina Nacro round out the big debuts,...
Retrospectives of Harold Lloyd, Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, and shorts by Fanta Régina Nacro round out the big debuts,...
- 3/20/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After perusing our massive, 60-film, two-part fall preview, there shouldn’t be too many surprises on our first monthly highlights of the season. While September is often thought of as prelude to awards-season favorites, there are also a number of stellar, smaller-scale offerings we hope don’t get lost in the cracks––including a rather strong honorable mentions list to follow. Check out our picks below.
12. Petrov’s Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov; Sept. 23)
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been invited to back-to-back Cannes, premiering Petrov’s Flu last year and Tchaikovsky’s Wife this year. The former is finally getting a U.S. release, and Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Petrov’s Flu opens on a stuffy commute—a Moscow bus in the early years of post-Soviet Russia. The eponymous protagonist is already bent over a handrail, stricken with his affliction. The mood is fevered, almost circus-like, the lighting like pea soup. In a moment of madness,...
12. Petrov’s Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov; Sept. 23)
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been invited to back-to-back Cannes, premiering Petrov’s Flu last year and Tchaikovsky’s Wife this year. The former is finally getting a U.S. release, and Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Petrov’s Flu opens on a stuffy commute—a Moscow bus in the early years of post-Soviet Russia. The eponymous protagonist is already bent over a handrail, stricken with his affliction. The mood is fevered, almost circus-like, the lighting like pea soup. In a moment of madness,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been invited to back-to-back Cannes for his latest work, premiering Petrov’s Flu last year and Tchaikovsky’s Wife this year. The former is now finally getting a U.S. release this September, courtesy of Strand Releasing, and a new trailer has now arrived.
A deadpan, hallucinatory romp through post-Soviet Russia, see the film’s synopsis: “With the city in the throes of a flu epidemic, the Petrov family struggles through yet another day in a country where the past is never past, the present is a booze-fueled, icy fever dream of violence and tenderness, and where, beneath the layers of the ordinary, things turn out to be quite extraordinary. Part science fiction, mystery and dark comedy, this Cannes Film Festival entry is a unique hybrid of genres.”
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Petrov’s Flu opens on a stuffy commute—a Moscow bus in the early years of post-Soviet Russia.
A deadpan, hallucinatory romp through post-Soviet Russia, see the film’s synopsis: “With the city in the throes of a flu epidemic, the Petrov family struggles through yet another day in a country where the past is never past, the present is a booze-fueled, icy fever dream of violence and tenderness, and where, beneath the layers of the ordinary, things turn out to be quite extraordinary. Part science fiction, mystery and dark comedy, this Cannes Film Festival entry is a unique hybrid of genres.”
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Petrov’s Flu opens on a stuffy commute—a Moscow bus in the early years of post-Soviet Russia.
- 8/7/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Now in its 11th edition, the Museum of the Moving Image’s First Look festival brings together a varied, eclectic lineup of cinema from all corners of the world––including a number of films still seeking distribution, making the series perhaps one of your only chances to see these works on the big screen.
With the five-day festival kicking off Wednesday, March 16, we’ve gathered seven essential films to check out. Beginning this Friday, March 11, MoMI will also present Second Look, which looks back at selections from the past decade of the festival.
Babi Yar. Context (Sergei Loznitsa)
One of two new archival documentaries from Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa screening at First Look, Babi Yar. Context revisits the horrific September 1941 massacre of 33,771 Jews that took place outside Kyiv. Casting an unflinching eye in its assembly of footage, the Cannes prizewinner examines factors leading up to the atrocity as Nazis took...
With the five-day festival kicking off Wednesday, March 16, we’ve gathered seven essential films to check out. Beginning this Friday, March 11, MoMI will also present Second Look, which looks back at selections from the past decade of the festival.
Babi Yar. Context (Sergei Loznitsa)
One of two new archival documentaries from Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa screening at First Look, Babi Yar. Context revisits the horrific September 1941 massacre of 33,771 Jews that took place outside Kyiv. Casting an unflinching eye in its assembly of footage, the Cannes prizewinner examines factors leading up to the atrocity as Nazis took...
- 3/10/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Movie theaters are reopening and audiences are creeping back, but that’s only part of the story. As with last year’s shocking changes to the media landscape, no amount of shutdowns and shifting distribution paradigms could stop movies from getting out there, whether they came to small VOD entities or the biggest streaming platforms. And while the “movies versus TV” debate rages on, the cinema one hasn’t.
This year’s release calendar has been so loaded with feature-length wonders, many of which push the boundaries of art form, that even as we head straight into the belly of the “awards season” beast, our usual edict remains intact: Anyone who thinks this has been a bad year for movies simply hasn’t seen enough of them. And there are only more goodies to come.
Our list of the best movies of the year so far follows the same basic rules: In order to qualify,...
This year’s release calendar has been so loaded with feature-length wonders, many of which push the boundaries of art form, that even as we head straight into the belly of the “awards season” beast, our usual edict remains intact: Anyone who thinks this has been a bad year for movies simply hasn’t seen enough of them. And there are only more goodies to come.
Our list of the best movies of the year so far follows the same basic rules: In order to qualify,...
- 11/2/2021
- by Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich and Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
Cinema Village
“Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village,” a nine-title selection of films both from and beloved by the great director, is underway with tickets running only $5. Read our interview with Ferrara here.
Film at Lincoln Center
The restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk continues, while Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Prints of Full Metal Jacket and The Shining have showings, while 2001 plays on Dcp; non-Kubrick screenings include Beau Travail and The Right Stuff.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge La Piscine,...
Cinema Village
“Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village,” a nine-title selection of films both from and beloved by the great director, is underway with tickets running only $5. Read our interview with Ferrara here.
Film at Lincoln Center
The restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk continues, while Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Prints of Full Metal Jacket and The Shining have showings, while 2001 plays on Dcp; non-Kubrick screenings include Beau Travail and The Right Stuff.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge La Piscine,...
- 7/2/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Swedish director Roy Andersson is back with another tragicomic, vignette-based look at the absurd theater of life and death. “About Endlessness” first world-premiered at the Venice Film Festival back in the fall of 2019, where it won Andersson the Silver Lion for Best Director. Now, it is set for a release in theaters and on demand on April 30 from Magnolia Pictures.
The latest film from the revered and much-decorated director of “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence,” “You, the Living,” and “Songs From the Second Floor,” “About Endlessness” weaves together multiple, visually arresting segments to construct a larger narrative about mankind’s lack of awareness. This one is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality.
We wander, dreamlike, guided by a female voice, who occupies the role of Scheherazade from “Arabian Nights,” guiding us from one skit to another along the periphery of a war.
The latest film from the revered and much-decorated director of “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence,” “You, the Living,” and “Songs From the Second Floor,” “About Endlessness” weaves together multiple, visually arresting segments to construct a larger narrative about mankind’s lack of awareness. This one is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality.
We wander, dreamlike, guided by a female voice, who occupies the role of Scheherazade from “Arabian Nights,” guiding us from one skit to another along the periphery of a war.
- 3/4/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
"Our process is so strange." Curzon's Artificial Eye has unveiled an official trailer for a cinema documentary titled Being a Human Person, profiling and examining the life and career of acclaimed, beloved, spunky Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson. If you've never seen his films, you must watch them. A deeply moving documentary from Grammy-nominated director Fred Scott, Being a Human Person explores the life and work of Swedish auteur Roy Andersson - director of films including A Pigeon Sat on a Bench Reflecting on Existence, A Swedish Love Story, Songs from the Second Floor, and You, the Living. His final film, titled About Endlessness, premiered last year and is (supposedly) Andersson's final work. For now. This enjoyable doc examines his career and what makes him so unique (and his filmmaking process), and for those who've never been able to understand him, this might be the perfect insight into his mind and his art.
- 10/9/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Swedish director was due to take part in a festival retrospective.
Swedish director Roy Andersson has been forced to cancel his appearance at the Berlinale “due to health issues”.
The 76-year-old filmmaker was due to take part in retrospective programme On Transmission, which is marking the 70th edition of the festival.
Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian called on seven directors - whose films have shaped the festival - to select a fellow filmmaker. Both would screen their films before sitting down for an on-stage discussion.
Andersson was due to attend on Wednesday (Feb 26) with his 1970 feature A Swedish Love Story,...
Swedish director Roy Andersson has been forced to cancel his appearance at the Berlinale “due to health issues”.
The 76-year-old filmmaker was due to take part in retrospective programme On Transmission, which is marking the 70th edition of the festival.
Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian called on seven directors - whose films have shaped the festival - to select a fellow filmmaker. Both would screen their films before sitting down for an on-stage discussion.
Andersson was due to attend on Wednesday (Feb 26) with his 1970 feature A Swedish Love Story,...
- 2/23/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Director Roy Andersson, who has won Venice Film Festival’s Silver Lion for best director, delivered his latest film, “About Endlessness,” much quicker than usual. The typically deliberate Swedish filmmaker is known for taking long breaks between projects – including one 25-year stretch he spent directing commercials. Since his 2000 comeback, “Songs from the Second Floor,” he’s averaged a film every seven years. He broke that record this year, delivering his follow-up to 2014’s Golden Lion winner “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence” two years faster than usual. “You are more skilled, more mature, and you know how to work better,” he explained to Variety. “But I don’t think I can work any faster than now. It will always take me at least three years to make a feature, so I think I’ll keep the same distance between works.”
How do you think “About Endlessness” differs from your previous work?...
How do you think “About Endlessness” differs from your previous work?...
- 9/7/2019
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
There’s something amusingly dry about the idea of a 76-minute film called “About Endlessness,” but Roy Andersson isn’t joking. Well, he isn’t only joking.
A Swedish renegade whose pointillistic dioramas of the human condition are pieced together with drollness in much the same way as George Seurat’s landscapes were painted with dots, Andersson has always been amused by the sheer absurdity of life on Earth. His films laugh at the perversities of existence, the purgatorial likes of “Songs from the Second Floor” and “You, the Living” comprised of dark comic vignettes in which the banal and the epic go together hand-in-hand. A huge crowd lines up to see a little girl ritualistically shoved off a cliff. Hundreds of people — stretching as far back as the eye can see — flee from a war zone, but all of them are weighed down by the baggage they refuse to leave behind.
A Swedish renegade whose pointillistic dioramas of the human condition are pieced together with drollness in much the same way as George Seurat’s landscapes were painted with dots, Andersson has always been amused by the sheer absurdity of life on Earth. His films laugh at the perversities of existence, the purgatorial likes of “Songs from the Second Floor” and “You, the Living” comprised of dark comic vignettes in which the banal and the epic go together hand-in-hand. A huge crowd lines up to see a little girl ritualistically shoved off a cliff. Hundreds of people — stretching as far back as the eye can see — flee from a war zone, but all of them are weighed down by the baggage they refuse to leave behind.
- 9/3/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
If A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence was billed as the final part of Roy Andersson’s trilogy on being human, along with Songs From the Second Floor and You, the Living, what might one call About Endlessness (Om Det Oandliga)? Arriving five years later, this episodic black comedy is very much in the vein of the Swedish director’s earlier work: light, glancing, absurdist, sometimes pungent and sometimes brooding. The famous dreamlike lighting and mise-en-scene are always perfect in capturing human foibles. But the offbeat sense of humor that characterized the trilogy is less evident than ever.
Coming to ...
Coming to ...
If A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence was billed as the final part of Roy Andersson’s trilogy on being human, along with Songs From the Second Floor and You, the Living, what might one call About Endlessness (Om Det Oandliga)? Arriving five years later, this episodic black comedy is very much in the vein of the Swedish director’s earlier work: light, glancing, absurdist, sometimes pungent and sometimes brooding. The famous dreamlike lighting and mise-en-scene are always perfect in capturing human foibles. But the offbeat sense of humor that characterized the trilogy is less evident than ever.
Coming to ...
Coming to ...
Swedish director Roy Andersson is back with another tragicomic, vignette-based look at the absurd theater of life and death. Take a look at the first trailer for “About Endlessness,” exclusive to IndieWire, below. It’s set to make its world premiere at the 2019 Venice Film Festival on September 3.
The latest film from the director of “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence,” “You, the Living,” and “Songs From the Second Floor,” “About Endlessness” weaves together multiple, visually arresting segments to construct a larger narrative about mankind’s lack of awareness.
A Tiff synopsis for the film, which is awaiting U.S. distribution, says: “His somnambulant characters float ghostlike through the detailed landscapes he and his teams construct — afraid to engage with one another or lost in grief, confusion, and metaphysical angst — with scenes often culminating in absurdist, awkward humor. These vignettes document our lack of awareness. We reduce...
The latest film from the director of “A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence,” “You, the Living,” and “Songs From the Second Floor,” “About Endlessness” weaves together multiple, visually arresting segments to construct a larger narrative about mankind’s lack of awareness.
A Tiff synopsis for the film, which is awaiting U.S. distribution, says: “His somnambulant characters float ghostlike through the detailed landscapes he and his teams construct — afraid to engage with one another or lost in grief, confusion, and metaphysical angst — with scenes often culminating in absurdist, awkward humor. These vignettes document our lack of awareness. We reduce...
- 9/2/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
About Endlessness
With his celebrated Living trilogy behind him (which took fourteen years to complete), Swedish auteur uses his favored vignette formatting to tackle One Thousand and One Nights with his latest, About Endlessness. Previously, Andersson competed in Berlin at the beginning of his career with 1970’s A Swedish Love Story, but became a prominent auteur of note following the succession of Songs from the Second Floor (2000), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, followed up by 2007’s You, the Living (programmed in Un Certain Regard), and 2014’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, which took home the Golden Lion out of Venice.…...
With his celebrated Living trilogy behind him (which took fourteen years to complete), Swedish auteur uses his favored vignette formatting to tackle One Thousand and One Nights with his latest, About Endlessness. Previously, Andersson competed in Berlin at the beginning of his career with 1970’s A Swedish Love Story, but became a prominent auteur of note following the succession of Songs from the Second Floor (2000), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, followed up by 2007’s You, the Living (programmed in Un Certain Regard), and 2014’s A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, which took home the Golden Lion out of Venice.…...
- 1/8/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Archer’s Mark and Studio 24 pitching feature-length documentary at Idfa’s Forum next week.
Archer’s Mark and Studio 24 are collaborating on a feature-length documentary exploring the life and work of acclaimed Swedish auteur Roy Andersson.
Fred Scott will direct Being A Human Person and has been working on the film for the past two years, gaining unprecedented access to Andersson on the set of his sixth and final feature film, About Endlessness.
Mike Brett, Steve Jamison and Jo-Jo Ellison, the team behind BAFTA-nominated Notes On Blindness, produce for Archer’s Mark. Andersson’s longtime collaborators, Pernilla Sandström and Johan Carlsson,...
Archer’s Mark and Studio 24 are collaborating on a feature-length documentary exploring the life and work of acclaimed Swedish auteur Roy Andersson.
Fred Scott will direct Being A Human Person and has been working on the film for the past two years, gaining unprecedented access to Andersson on the set of his sixth and final feature film, About Endlessness.
Mike Brett, Steve Jamison and Jo-Jo Ellison, the team behind BAFTA-nominated Notes On Blindness, produce for Archer’s Mark. Andersson’s longtime collaborators, Pernilla Sandström and Johan Carlsson,...
- 11/14/2018
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Earlier this year, the IndieWire staff counted down our favorite English-language movie scenes of the 21st century. Now that due attention has been paid to Llewyn Davis’ heartbreaking audition, Daniel Plainview’s heartless approach to milkshakes, and several more of the most unforgettable moments in recent memory, it’s time to broaden our horizons.
It’s a big world out there, but great cinema has the power to bring it a little closer together. From an accordion jam session led by Denis Lavant, to an intimate slow dance in a small Parisian bar, these passages are too perfect for anything to get lost in translation.
These are our picks for the 25 best foreign-language film scenes of the 21st century.
25. “Holy Motors” (Entracte)
Midway through Leos Carax’s surreal and beautiful look at a man (Denis Lavant) who undergoes a series of disguises over the course of a very strange night,...
It’s a big world out there, but great cinema has the power to bring it a little closer together. From an accordion jam session led by Denis Lavant, to an intimate slow dance in a small Parisian bar, these passages are too perfect for anything to get lost in translation.
These are our picks for the 25 best foreign-language film scenes of the 21st century.
25. “Holy Motors” (Entracte)
Midway through Leos Carax’s surreal and beautiful look at a man (Denis Lavant) who undergoes a series of disguises over the course of a very strange night,...
- 5/18/2018
- by David Ehrlich, Kate Erbland, Eric Kohn, Zack Sharf, Anne Thompson, Jenna Marotta, Jude Dry and Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Magnolia Pictures has picked up U.S. rights to Swedish comedy-drama A Pigeon Sat On A Branch Reflecting On Existence, the latest from helmer Roy Andersson (A Swedish Love Story). The deadpan, absurdist comedy marks the third installment in Andersson’s “Living” trilogy after his 2000 film Sånger från andra våningen (Songs From The Second Floor) and 2007’s Du levande (You, The Living). In it, two traveling salesmen peddling novelty items wander through a series of darkly comic vignettes on their way to a shop called “Party.” Andersson took home the Golden Lion at Venice with A Pigeon…, which will be presented by Darren Aronofsky and Alejandro González Iñárritu when Magnolia opens it next year.
“We were swept away by the humor, beauty, and sheer originality of this film,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “For admirers of Roy Andersson, a new film from him is a true cinematic gift. For people...
“We were swept away by the humor, beauty, and sheer originality of this film,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “For admirers of Roy Andersson, a new film from him is a true cinematic gift. For people...
- 10/14/2014
- by Jen Yamato
- Deadline
COLOGNE, Germany -- Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, picked up 600,000 ($726,000) in production financing from European film funding body Euroimages, the group announced Thursday. The adaptation of Patrick Sueskind's best-selling novel, which stars Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman and Ben Whishaw, will start filming this summer in France and Germany. Euroimages, which backs European co-productions, also ponied up 500,000 ($605,000) for Du Levande, the upcoming feature from Swedish helmer Roy Andersson (Songs from the Second Floor); 480,000 ($581,000) for Gene Astaire from Belgium director Alain Berliner; 450,000 ($545,000) for Chamelle from director Marion Haensel (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea); and 450,000 for Portovero from Swiss filmmaker Daniel Schmid (The Last Days of Switzerland).
- 6/30/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film critic Roger Ebert has organized a festival to celebrate the most underrated films of all time -- as decided by him. The list of maligned movies includes Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Woody Allen's 1996 musical, Everyone Says I Love You, and Nosferatu -- the original Dracula horror movie from 1922. This week's festival in Chicago also features more recent flicks with several European entries such as The Girl On The Bridge (France, 1999), Songs From The Second Floor (Sweden, 2000) and A Simple Plan (America, 1998). Outspoken Ebert, a film critic on the Chicago Tribune newspaper, will introduce all the films alongside actors Bill Paxton and 2001 star Keir Dullea, and 2001 author Arthur C. Clark, in a live link-up. A festival spokesman says the project "focuses on films, genres and formats that Ebert believes deserve wider attention."...
- 4/23/2001
- WENN
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