It was the worst of times, it was the most underwhelming of times, etc. I, too, have noticed some startling quantity of voices decrying 2017 as a subpar year in cinema, and the standard instinct is to put oneself into that classic defensive posture: look harder, look deeper, treasures appear. And sure. Still: the millstone of fatigue nearly any right-thinking person’s wearing nowadays starts seeping into this most reflective of mediums. The going got tough, escapes got deferred.
I won’t use headline-making events to bind 2017’s cinematic and real-world paths because 1) cast a pebble across your Twitter feed and voila; 2) we have different eyes, so who could think we ever saw the same thing? Only with my particular year (long story; who doesn’t have one nowadays) in sharper focus do I now understand that almost everything contained herein was a conduit for further consideration, the individual and collective...
I won’t use headline-making events to bind 2017’s cinematic and real-world paths because 1) cast a pebble across your Twitter feed and voila; 2) we have different eyes, so who could think we ever saw the same thing? Only with my particular year (long story; who doesn’t have one nowadays) in sharper focus do I now understand that almost everything contained herein was a conduit for further consideration, the individual and collective...
- 1/4/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
As 2017 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our hands on the titles that may have slipped under the radar or simply gone unseen. With the proliferation of streaming options, it’s thankfully easier than ever to play catch-up, and to assist with the process, we’re bringing you a rundown of the best titles of the year available to watch.
Curated from the Best Films of 2017 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up on. This is far from a be-all, end-all year-end feature (that will come at the end of the year), but rather something that will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to seek out notable, perhaps underseen, titles from the year.
Note that we’re going by U.
Curated from the Best Films of 2017 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up on. This is far from a be-all, end-all year-end feature (that will come at the end of the year), but rather something that will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to seek out notable, perhaps underseen, titles from the year.
Note that we’re going by U.
- 10/25/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash)
That there’s a fair chance you’ve never seen Daughters of the Dust — full disclosure: I am among these people — should be taken as a failure of distribution and exposure, not the film’s quality and impact. There’s also a fair chance that the closest you’ve really come to Julie Dash‘s 1991 film is Beyoncé’s Lemonade, which paid a direct visual tribute that,...
Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash)
That there’s a fair chance you’ve never seen Daughters of the Dust — full disclosure: I am among these people — should be taken as a failure of distribution and exposure, not the film’s quality and impact. There’s also a fair chance that the closest you’ve really come to Julie Dash‘s 1991 film is Beyoncé’s Lemonade, which paid a direct visual tribute that,...
- 6/16/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
Like the majority of Lars von Trier films, from the first moments of Antichrist, one will be able to discern if it’s an experience they want to proceed with. For those will to endure its specific unpleasantness, there’s a poetic, affecting exploration of despair at its center. Chaos reigns, indeed. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: FilmStruck
Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
Last year marked...
Antichrist (Lars von Trier)
Like the majority of Lars von Trier films, from the first moments of Antichrist, one will be able to discern if it’s an experience they want to proceed with. For those will to endure its specific unpleasantness, there’s a poetic, affecting exploration of despair at its center. Chaos reigns, indeed. – Jordan R.
Where to Stream: FilmStruck
Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly)
Last year marked...
- 4/21/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Chicago – From March 3rd to the 30th, the 20th Chicago European Union Film Festival (Ceuff) of 2017 will unfurl at the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago. The Opening Night Film is from Malta – and their emerging film industry – and it’s entitled “20,000 Reasons,” directed by Jameson Cucciardi. For more information, including a complete schedule of films, click here.
This is the largest festival in the nation showcasing films of the European Union nations, and this edition of Ceuff presents Chicago premieres of 62 new feature films, representing all 28 European Union nations. Included in the festival are new and daring work by some of Europe’s most renowned directors, including: Olivier Assayas (“Personal Shopper”); the Dardennes brothers (“The Unknown Girl”); Doris Dörrie (“Greetings from Fukushima”); Bruno Dumont (“Slack Bay”); Eugène Green (“The Son of Joseph”); Szabolcs Hajdu (“It’s Not the Time of My Life”); Joachim Lafosse (“After Love”); Sergei Loznitsa (“Austerlitz...
This is the largest festival in the nation showcasing films of the European Union nations, and this edition of Ceuff presents Chicago premieres of 62 new feature films, representing all 28 European Union nations. Included in the festival are new and daring work by some of Europe’s most renowned directors, including: Olivier Assayas (“Personal Shopper”); the Dardennes brothers (“The Unknown Girl”); Doris Dörrie (“Greetings from Fukushima”); Bruno Dumont (“Slack Bay”); Eugène Green (“The Son of Joseph”); Szabolcs Hajdu (“It’s Not the Time of My Life”); Joachim Lafosse (“After Love”); Sergei Loznitsa (“Austerlitz...
- 3/3/2017
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
2017 may have just begun, but it already has its first superlative motion picture release. And no, sadly, it’s not the thirty-seventh (give or take) entry in the Underworld franchise. Instead, it comes from the art film world, and specifically one of world cinema’s most interesting directors working today.
After a little over a decade of finding niche pockets of support in niche pockets of film intellectual circles, 2014 gave director Eugene Green one of his most successful outings. The superlative La Sapienza in many ways introduced the auteur to a much broader selection of cineastes, and with actor Fabrizio Rongione once again by his side Green has made yet another skeletal, beautifully crafted drama.
Entitled The Son Of Joseph, Green’s film riffs on the nativity story, telling the story of a Parisian teen by the name of Vincent (Victor Ezenfis). Living with his single mother Marie, a nurse played by Natacha Regnier,...
After a little over a decade of finding niche pockets of support in niche pockets of film intellectual circles, 2014 gave director Eugene Green one of his most successful outings. The superlative La Sapienza in many ways introduced the auteur to a much broader selection of cineastes, and with actor Fabrizio Rongione once again by his side Green has made yet another skeletal, beautifully crafted drama.
Entitled The Son Of Joseph, Green’s film riffs on the nativity story, telling the story of a Parisian teen by the name of Vincent (Victor Ezenfis). Living with his single mother Marie, a nurse played by Natacha Regnier,...
- 1/15/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Father Figure: Eugene Green’s Amusing Nature vs. Nurture Satire of the Holy Family
With his sixth feature film, Son of Joseph, New York born French-language art-house auteur Eugene Green gets the closest to mainstream we’ve yet to see in a droll familial parody utilizing artistic and religious motifs.
Continue reading...
With his sixth feature film, Son of Joseph, New York born French-language art-house auteur Eugene Green gets the closest to mainstream we’ve yet to see in a droll familial parody utilizing artistic and religious motifs.
Continue reading...
- 1/12/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
We’re introduced to the protagonist of Son of Joseph as he silently observes the tortured of a trapped rat. Two of his schoolmates jab thin steel pins at the frightened rodent. “Try to poke one of its eyes out” one urges. “I can’t, he’s too clever,” the other replies. Our hero promptly leaves, finding himself to have more in common with the rat than his supposed friends.
If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Eugène Green you have a weird road ahead of you. He’s an American-born French filmmaker with a tendency towards brain numbingly glacial pacing, intentionally monotone performances, compositions static to the point of fossilization and characters who generally end scenes by gazing blankly into the lens. His style is definitely an acquired taste, catering for those with reservoirs of patience and the ability to tolerate some pretty artsy fartsy filmmaking.
Our lonely...
If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Eugène Green you have a weird road ahead of you. He’s an American-born French filmmaker with a tendency towards brain numbingly glacial pacing, intentionally monotone performances, compositions static to the point of fossilization and characters who generally end scenes by gazing blankly into the lens. His style is definitely an acquired taste, catering for those with reservoirs of patience and the ability to tolerate some pretty artsy fartsy filmmaking.
Our lonely...
- 1/12/2017
- by David James
- We Got This Covered
While the idea of an entire movie about people getting killed for saying its title isn’t the easiest sell, “The Bye Bye Man” rises above those low expectations. The husband and wife team of director Stacy Title and screenwriter Jonathan Penner (“The Last Supper,” “Let The Devil Wear Black”) don’t break any rules, but they still manage to deliver an effective genre effort.
After a suburban husband goes on a rifling killing spree in the Pantone-colored past, we meet modern day Elliott (Douglas Smith) and Sasha (Cressida Bonas) as they sign a lease on a dilapidated brick dwelling big enough to contain their enormous love. It’s a fixer upper, and though they wonder why it’s so affordable, they’re too thrilled by the prospect of playing house to care. They find a stockpile of antique furniture down in the basement, and a few scary basement things happen,...
After a suburban husband goes on a rifling killing spree in the Pantone-colored past, we meet modern day Elliott (Douglas Smith) and Sasha (Cressida Bonas) as they sign a lease on a dilapidated brick dwelling big enough to contain their enormous love. It’s a fixer upper, and though they wonder why it’s so affordable, they’re too thrilled by the prospect of playing house to care. They find a stockpile of antique furniture down in the basement, and a few scary basement things happen,...
- 1/12/2017
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
One of the great eccentrics of contemporary film, Eugène Green only began making movies in his mid-50s, after a career as an educator and specialist in baroque theater. Since releasing his debut, Toutes Les Nuits (2001), the writer-director has gone on to create a distinct and unusual body of work, influenced by baroque and medieval forms, fascinated by the power of language, and marked by a droll formalist sensibility and humor that brings to mind Robert Bresson. Green’s latest, The Son Of Joseph, is arguably his most accessible film to date, an offbeat modern-day fable that riffs on Christian imagery and modern life through the story of a sullen French teenager (Victor Ezenfis) who goes in search of his supposed biological father, an insensitive and philandering book publisher (Mathieu Amalric).
An American expat who has been a naturalized French citizen since the 1970s, Green now speaks English with a...
An American expat who has been a naturalized French citizen since the 1970s, Green now speaks English with a...
- 1/12/2017
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
The films of eccentric French writer-director Eugène Green aren’t for every taste—they’re deliberate, declamatory, highly formalized, anti-modern. But those willing to tune into his peculiar wavelength will discover an artist with a sense of humor and a rare mix of sincerity and irony, looking for lost meaning in a busy world. The Son Of Joseph is his most accessible movie to date, though only in terms of narrative: a comedy, almost a farce, about a sulky teenager who goes looking for his supposed biological father, directed in Green’s signature offbeat, Robert Bresson-esque deadpan. The closest thing to his work in American film would be something along the lines of Whit Stillman’s Damsels In Distress or Hal Hartley’s Henry Fool and Ned Rifle (the latter even shares a central theme with The Son Of Joseph), though Green’s films are even less realistic than...
- 1/12/2017
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
The story of a hunky high school senior who discovers an oil-guzzling sea beast (think “Sesame Street” meets the Kraken), and then knots its tentacles around the chassis of his custom jalopy in a perverse attempt to pimp his ride, “Monster Trucks” seems like such an impossibly stupid idea for a movie that it’s easy to forget how it derives from a rather proud history of Hollywood entertainment. After all, there have been any number of studio spectacles about a young boy, or a teenage boy, or — in this case — an obviously grown-ass man doing a hilarious job of pretending to be a teenage boy — whose frustrated small town existence is turned upside down when he befriends a strange and unexpectedly sweet creature that teaches him about growing up or whatever. “Monster Trucks,” however aimless and confused it may be, rolls down a road paved by verified hits like “E.T.,...
- 1/11/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Too heavy-handed and clumsy to land with a real knockout punch, Annie J. Howell and Lisa Robinson’s second feature benefits immensely from the quietly moving work of its lead, Besty Brandt. The former “Breaking Bad” star is the eponymous Claire of Howell and Robinson’s “Claire in Motion,” a film about the messier aspects of grief and loss that shines only when it pulls back from its worrying tendency to hit themes so firmly on the head its a wonder they don’t start bleeding.
“Be careful,” Claire whispers to her husband Paul (Chris Beetem) as he slips out of their home to partake in his apparent favorite past time — a solo survivalist hiking trip into the woods, during which he’ll tote the bare minimum of supplies and only eat what he can find and hunt — an understandable sentiment made all the more crucial by her mention of Paul’s previous dizzy spells.
“Be careful,” Claire whispers to her husband Paul (Chris Beetem) as he slips out of their home to partake in his apparent favorite past time — a solo survivalist hiking trip into the woods, during which he’ll tote the bare minimum of supplies and only eat what he can find and hunt — an understandable sentiment made all the more crucial by her mention of Paul’s previous dizzy spells.
- 1/10/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Leading curated streaming platform Mubi has announced today the launch of its brand new “Discoveries” series, featuring new films each month that have been hand-picked straight from the international film festival circuit, streaming exclusively on Mubi. The new series is intended to spotlight the work of acclaimed and established directors as well as some of the most talented emerging filmmakers from around the world.
Of the new series, Mubi’s Director of Content Daniel Kasman commented, “Countless wonderful and inspiring films made all over the world are seen only at select film festivals, unfairly left undistributed and inaccessible to most audiences. So it is with great pleasure that we’re launching Mubi’s Discoveries series, a programming initiative through which we will introduce these essential, previously unavailable but extraordinary works of international cinema to the largest possible audience.”
The first film in the Discoveries series will be Damien Manivel’s “Le Parc,...
Of the new series, Mubi’s Director of Content Daniel Kasman commented, “Countless wonderful and inspiring films made all over the world are seen only at select film festivals, unfairly left undistributed and inaccessible to most audiences. So it is with great pleasure that we’re launching Mubi’s Discoveries series, a programming initiative through which we will introduce these essential, previously unavailable but extraordinary works of international cinema to the largest possible audience.”
The first film in the Discoveries series will be Damien Manivel’s “Le Parc,...
- 1/9/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
American-born French director Eugène Green is known as a practitioner of the Baroque theater technique, in particular his ability to translate that tradition into cinematic form. If that sounds like a hard sell, you’ve never seen a Eugene Green movie.
Despite their cerebral foundations (long pauses, stilted line reading), Green’s movies are characterized by dry humor and emotion that creeps into richly conceived stories. Using classic art as his backdrop, Green reshapes it into engaging new forms. “The Portuguese Nun” was a humorous look at an attempt to adapt a 17th century novel, and his marvelous “La Sapienza” followed the relatable plight of a modern architect against the backdrop of post-Renaissance architecture. Both movies manage to transform their topics into storytelling devices with unexpected twists.
With “Son of Joseph,” Green uses a 17th century biblical painting by Carvaggio to animate the contemporary tale of an angsty teen searching...
Despite their cerebral foundations (long pauses, stilted line reading), Green’s movies are characterized by dry humor and emotion that creeps into richly conceived stories. Using classic art as his backdrop, Green reshapes it into engaging new forms. “The Portuguese Nun” was a humorous look at an attempt to adapt a 17th century novel, and his marvelous “La Sapienza” followed the relatable plight of a modern architect against the backdrop of post-Renaissance architecture. Both movies manage to transform their topics into storytelling devices with unexpected twists.
With “Son of Joseph,” Green uses a 17th century biblical painting by Carvaggio to animate the contemporary tale of an angsty teen searching...
- 1/9/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
“You are nothing but rotting meat,” the grinning hermit declares from deep within the bowels of the cavernous hideout he’s made for himself in post-apocalyptic Mexico. His name is Mariano (“Miss Bala” star Noé Hernandez), his face is twisted into a demonic gnarl of primitive desire, and he’s ready to prove his point with depravities so vile they make Gaspar Noé and the rest of the world’s reigning shock auteurs look prudish by comparison.
Unfolding like a Nuevo Cine Mexicano response to “Saló,” Emiliano Rocha Minter’s “We Are the Flesh” takes the defining tropes of his country’s contemporary filmmaking, liberates them from the burden of narrative logic, and stretches them across the screen like Hannibal Lecter hanging a victim by the flaps of his skin. Whereas “Heli,” “Battle of Heaven,” and other recent Mexican breakouts have told stories that were punctuated with acts of extreme barbarity and sexual violence,...
Unfolding like a Nuevo Cine Mexicano response to “Saló,” Emiliano Rocha Minter’s “We Are the Flesh” takes the defining tropes of his country’s contemporary filmmaking, liberates them from the burden of narrative logic, and stretches them across the screen like Hannibal Lecter hanging a victim by the flaps of his skin. Whereas “Heli,” “Battle of Heaven,” and other recent Mexican breakouts have told stories that were punctuated with acts of extreme barbarity and sexual violence,...
- 1/9/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The incapability of many to consider 2016, now a week dead, as anything other than “teh worst year evar” gives yours truly an inclination to run positive and say, with no insincerity, that it offered one of the best collection of films I’ve encountered in some time — better yet, speaking not for quantity so much as the breadth and plurality of options. A good litmus test: group your bottom five with your five honorable mentions and ask, “Would this have made a proper top ten?” The answer to this year, perhaps more than any other I’ve been making countdowns, firmly leaned towards an affirmative, in no small part because it’s futile to consider one individual work — among nine-to-fourteen other works of such utter individuality — as inherently superior to another. This isn’t even to account for those that slip just out of reach: Paterson, The Bfg, De Palma,...
- 1/6/2017
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Eugène Green’s The Portuguese Nun was a gentle comic gem and his new film about a lonely boy is lovable in exactly the same way
Eugène Green is an international treasure: an American-born French film-maker who, like Manoel De Oliveira, absorbs the stylised, rarefied elegance of classical theatre and brings it to movies about the present day. The Portuguese Nun (2009) was a gem of gentle comedy, and his new drama, The Son of Joseph, has the same droll innocence and lovability. With its carefully controlled, decelerated dialogue, it is weirdly moving in just the same way. Again, it has something of Rivette or Rohmer, and like Ozu (or Wes Anderson), he uses that most eccentric technique – direct sightlines into camera.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) is a lonely teenage boy, alienated from his peers. We first see him walking away when a couple of charmless schoolfriends start tormenting a rat in a cage.
Eugène Green is an international treasure: an American-born French film-maker who, like Manoel De Oliveira, absorbs the stylised, rarefied elegance of classical theatre and brings it to movies about the present day. The Portuguese Nun (2009) was a gem of gentle comedy, and his new drama, The Son of Joseph, has the same droll innocence and lovability. With its carefully controlled, decelerated dialogue, it is weirdly moving in just the same way. Again, it has something of Rivette or Rohmer, and like Ozu (or Wes Anderson), he uses that most eccentric technique – direct sightlines into camera.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) is a lonely teenage boy, alienated from his peers. We first see him walking away when a couple of charmless schoolfriends start tormenting a rat in a cage.
- 12/15/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
NEWSEnd of the year "tops" and "best ofs" are starting to appear online—well before many critics have seen many of the year's important films, we may add—and our favorite so far is Sight & Sound's poll for the best films of 2016. Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann deservedly tops the list, and aside from a few outliers (American Honey, Evolution), it looks pretty good from where we're sitting. Also just published are the the year's best movies as chosen by The New York Times: Manohla Dargis tops her list with Chantal Akerman's No Home Movie and A.O. Scott fetes Moonlight.The film world is just beginning to wrap 2016, and already we're looking at the next year: the Sundance Film Festival has begun announcing it selections, which we're gathering (and updating) here.Recommended VIEWINGWe may all have too much to watch (or so it seems), but here is something very...
- 12/7/2016
- MUBI
Following up his overlooked La Sapienza, director Eugène Green is back with The Son of Joseph, which after coming to Berlin, Nyff, and more, will arrive in U.S. theaters early next year. Led by Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros, Kino Lorber has released the U.S. trailer for the Dardennes-produced film, which has a distinct sense of humor and energy — seemingly not to far off from Amalric’s recent film My Golden Days.
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled, farcically funny fable of an...
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled, farcically funny fable of an...
- 12/1/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With so many movies coming out each week and premiering at festivals across the year, it’s inevitable that some will be forgotten. Especially on the foreign film scene, it can be difficult for those movies to grab the attention necessary not just to land U.S. distribution, but to make any kind of stateside wave. But Kino Lorber are hoping they can find a crowd for “The Son Of Joseph,” a film we called “genuine, generous and joyful” when we saw it in Berlin back in February.
Continue reading New U.S. Trailer For The Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Produced ‘The Son Of Joseph’ Starring Mathieu Amalric at The Playlist.
Continue reading New U.S. Trailer For The Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne Produced ‘The Son Of Joseph’ Starring Mathieu Amalric at The Playlist.
- 11/28/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Aquarius at The Paris Theatre in New York Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The day after the Us premiere at the New York Film Festival of Kleber Mendonça Filho's fiery Aquarius, Sônia Braga spoke with me up at Lincoln Center on the magic in the film, reading the script, Clara's hair, Bette Davis in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, forming tribes and the influence her mother, Maria Braga Jaci Campos, had on her costumes when she starred with William Hurt and Raúl Juliá in Héctor Babenco's Kiss Of The Spider Woman. With the festival in full swing, Eugène Green, director of Son Of Joseph (Le Fils De Joseph) crossed our path, Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan slunk by and Kent Jones waved hello.
Sônia Braga: "… when I read the screenplay, I went to another dimension where I found Clara." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Clara (Braga), a music critic,...
The day after the Us premiere at the New York Film Festival of Kleber Mendonça Filho's fiery Aquarius, Sônia Braga spoke with me up at Lincoln Center on the magic in the film, reading the script, Clara's hair, Bette Davis in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve, Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, forming tribes and the influence her mother, Maria Braga Jaci Campos, had on her costumes when she starred with William Hurt and Raúl Juliá in Héctor Babenco's Kiss Of The Spider Woman. With the festival in full swing, Eugène Green, director of Son Of Joseph (Le Fils De Joseph) crossed our path, Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan slunk by and Kent Jones waved hello.
Sônia Braga: "… when I read the screenplay, I went to another dimension where I found Clara." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Clara (Braga), a music critic,...
- 10/17/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Eugène Green with Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius star Sônia Braga Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, who have their film The Unknown Girl (La Fille Inconnue) screening in this year's New York Film Festival and are the co-producers for Cristian Mungiu's Graduation (Bacalaureat), also co-produced Eugène Green's Son Of Joseph (Le Fils De Joseph) starring Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Maria de Medeiros and Mathieu Amalric.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) Marie (Natacha Regnier) Joseph (Fabrizio Rongione): "I like Balthazar very much, but since my childhood I've always liked donkeys."
Following my conversation with Sônia Braga on her Oscar worthy performance in Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius, we ran into Eugène Green whom I was meeting to discuss his film up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He spoke with me about Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert with Monica Vitti, Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar,...
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, who have their film The Unknown Girl (La Fille Inconnue) screening in this year's New York Film Festival and are the co-producers for Cristian Mungiu's Graduation (Bacalaureat), also co-produced Eugène Green's Son Of Joseph (Le Fils De Joseph) starring Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Maria de Medeiros and Mathieu Amalric.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) Marie (Natacha Regnier) Joseph (Fabrizio Rongione): "I like Balthazar very much, but since my childhood I've always liked donkeys."
Following my conversation with Sônia Braga on her Oscar worthy performance in Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius, we ran into Eugène Green whom I was meeting to discuss his film up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He spoke with me about Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert with Monica Vitti, Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar,...
- 10/13/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The powers that be at the Film Society Of Lincoln Center announced on Tuesday the 25 films to screen as the main slate of the 54th New York Film Festival, set to run from September 30–October 16.
The typically robust roster features the latest work from Pablo Larrain, Ken Loach, Kenneth Lonergan, Paul Verhoeven, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Maren Ade.
“The cinema is so many things at once,” said Nyff director and selection committee chair Kent Jones.
“And when I look at the films in this year’s selection, I’m aware of the fact that it is a form of response. The Dardenne Brothers, Ken Loach, Cristian Mungiu, Gianfranco Rosi, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Ava DuVernay are sounding alarms, while Jim Jarmusch, Kenneth Lonergan, Barry Jenkins, Maren Ade, Olivier Assayas, James Gray, and Mike Mills are fixed on internal landscapes, proclaiming the urgency of self-realization.
“I also see in this year’s lineup a bounty of vital work from...
The typically robust roster features the latest work from Pablo Larrain, Ken Loach, Kenneth Lonergan, Paul Verhoeven, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Maren Ade.
“The cinema is so many things at once,” said Nyff director and selection committee chair Kent Jones.
“And when I look at the films in this year’s selection, I’m aware of the fact that it is a form of response. The Dardenne Brothers, Ken Loach, Cristian Mungiu, Gianfranco Rosi, Kleber Mendonça Filho, and Ava DuVernay are sounding alarms, while Jim Jarmusch, Kenneth Lonergan, Barry Jenkins, Maren Ade, Olivier Assayas, James Gray, and Mike Mills are fixed on internal landscapes, proclaiming the urgency of self-realization.
“I also see in this year’s lineup a bounty of vital work from...
- 8/9/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The 2016 New York Film Festival line-up has arrived, and as usual for the festival, it’s an amazing slate of films. Along with the previously announced The 13th, 20th Century Women, and The Lost City of Z, there’s two of our Sundance favorites, Manchester By the Sea and Certain Women, as well as the top films of Cannes: Elle, Paterson, Personal Shopper, Graduation, Julieta, I, Daniel Blake, Aquarius, Neruda, Sieranevada, Toni Erdmann, and Staying Vertical. As for other highlights, the latest films from Hong Sang-soo, Barry Jenkins, and Matías Piñeiro will also screen.
Check it out below, including our reviews where available.
The 13th (Opening Night, previously announced)
Directed by Ava DuVernay
USA, 2016
World Premiere
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,...
Check it out below, including our reviews where available.
The 13th (Opening Night, previously announced)
Directed by Ava DuVernay
USA, 2016
World Premiere
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,...
- 8/9/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It was only a few days ago when we shared the first images from Le Fils de Joseph, the latest drama Eugène Green, his follow-up to La Sapienza, which was sadly overlooked last year — at least in the United States. Led by Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros, we now have the first trailer for the drama. While it is without any subtitles yet, that isn’t a problem when it comes to witnessing more vibrant cinematography from the director.
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled,...
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled,...
- 3/28/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
There are few better ways to predict the Cannes lineup than looking up whatever Wild Bunch are soon putting out. The French production outfit earns as much attention as anyone around mid-May, and there are at least two in-development titles that have caught our attention — though you wouldn’t necessarily expect that they have the same people working behind the scenes.
They are The Red Turtle, a co-production with Studio Ghibli directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, and Blood Father, a thriller directed by Jean-François Richet that stars Mel Gibson, William H. Macy, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, and Erin Moriarty (The Kings of Summer, Jessica Jones), among others. Then there’s Le Fils de Joseph, from Eugène Green — whose La Sapienza was one of my ten favorite movies from last year — and starring Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros...
They are The Red Turtle, a co-production with Studio Ghibli directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, and Blood Father, a thriller directed by Jean-François Richet that stars Mel Gibson, William H. Macy, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, and Erin Moriarty (The Kings of Summer, Jessica Jones), among others. Then there’s Le Fils de Joseph, from Eugène Green — whose La Sapienza was one of my ten favorite movies from last year — and starring Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros...
- 3/22/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
"Details bore me," declares Mathieu Amalric's Oscar more than once in Eugène Green's witty formalist triumph "Le Fils De Joseph" ("Son of Joseph"), unapologetically excusing his inability to remember the names of his three children. Not only does his deadpan-casual-hilarious delivery immediately declare him the villain of the piece, in being an outright rejection of the film's preoccupation with all things paternal, it also puts him on the outside of Green's fabulously minute approach which takes the phrase "God is in the detail" to new heights of literalism. Shot through with an intensely pleasurable intellectual playfulness, this is the American-born French director's most accomplished and surprising film to date, boasting his trademark thoughtfulness and precision, yet also being almost puppyishly easy to love. Read More: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2016 Drollery is easy to achieve if you don't care too much about the...
- 2/22/2016
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
In today's Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Eugène Green's Le Fils de Joseph with Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Mathieu Amalric and Maria de Medeiros; Wang Bing's Ta'ang, a documentary on refugees crossing the border from Myanmar into China; Yang Chao's years-in-the-making Crosscurrent with Qin Hao, Xin Zhi Lei, Wu Lipeng, Wang Hongwei and Jiang Hualin; and Rafi Pitts's Soy Nero with Johnny Ortiz, Rory Cochrane, Aml Ameen, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Michael Harney. » - David Hudson...
- 2/16/2016
- Keyframe
In today's Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Eugène Green's Le Fils de Joseph with Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Mathieu Amalric and Maria de Medeiros; Wang Bing's Ta'ang, a documentary on refugees crossing the border from Myanmar into China; Yang Chao's years-in-the-making Crosscurrent with Qin Hao, Xin Zhi Lei, Wu Lipeng, Wang Hongwei and Jiang Hualin; and Rafi Pitts's Soy Nero with Johnny Ortiz, Rory Cochrane, Aml Ameen, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Michael Harney. » - David Hudson...
- 2/16/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Director: Eugène Green
Writer: Eugène Green
American born French director Eugène Green usually premieres his films at Locarno, though despite critical acclaim many fail to get considerable attention in the Us (of note, his last film 2014’s La Sapienza, also starring Belgian Fabrizio Rongione, was distributed by Kino Lorber). His latest film, Le fils de Joseph (Joseph’s Son), is described by the director as having allusions to the Bible whilst meanwhile being a topical narrative wrapped up in elements of film noir. And it boasts an incredibly prolific cast. The story revolves around a young man (Ezenfis) who lives with his mother (Régnier). Having never known his father, he heads off to look for him. He finds a cynical and Machiavellian man (Amalric) who works as a publisher in Paris. After he attempts to kill him, he will then find filial love thanks to his uncle (Rongione).
Cast: Mathieu Amalric,...
Writer: Eugène Green
American born French director Eugène Green usually premieres his films at Locarno, though despite critical acclaim many fail to get considerable attention in the Us (of note, his last film 2014’s La Sapienza, also starring Belgian Fabrizio Rongione, was distributed by Kino Lorber). His latest film, Le fils de Joseph (Joseph’s Son), is described by the director as having allusions to the Bible whilst meanwhile being a topical narrative wrapped up in elements of film noir. And it boasts an incredibly prolific cast. The story revolves around a young man (Ezenfis) who lives with his mother (Régnier). Having never known his father, he heads off to look for him. He finds a cynical and Machiavellian man (Amalric) who works as a publisher in Paris. After he attempts to kill him, he will then find filial love thanks to his uncle (Rongione).
Cast: Mathieu Amalric,...
- 1/5/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In today's roundup of news and views: A rare video interview with Anthony Mann, the return of a distinguished film journal, a clip from an erotic movie edited by Orson Welles, words of grizzled wisdom from John Waters, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raúl Ruiz, the guy who is definitely not Thomas Pynchon in Inherent Vice, Quentin Tarantino's ambitious plans for the release of The Hateful Eight—and Eugène Green is now shooting Le fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione, Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier and Dominique Blanc. » - David Hudson...
- 6/8/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: A rare video interview with Anthony Mann, the return of a distinguished film journal, a clip from an erotic movie edited by Orson Welles, words of grizzled wisdom from John Waters, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raúl Ruiz, the guy who is definitely not Thomas Pynchon in Inherent Vice, Quentin Tarantino's ambitious plans for the release of The Hateful Eight—and Eugène Green is now shooting Le fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione, Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier and Dominique Blanc. » - David Hudson...
- 6/8/2015
- Keyframe
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