The event was due to take place on March 5-15.
The 22nd Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, due to take place March 5-15, has been postponed due to the coronavirus crisis it was announced today.
The decision was reached after two days of consultations between the festival organisers, headed by the president of the board, cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis and the Culture Ministry which oversees the event.
French director/reporter Raymond Depardon, set to receive one of the honorary awards at the festival, cancelled his trip to Thessaloniki because of his concerns over the virus, as did a member of the international jury.
The 22nd Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, due to take place March 5-15, has been postponed due to the coronavirus crisis it was announced today.
The decision was reached after two days of consultations between the festival organisers, headed by the president of the board, cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis and the Culture Ministry which oversees the event.
French director/reporter Raymond Depardon, set to receive one of the honorary awards at the festival, cancelled his trip to Thessaloniki because of his concerns over the virus, as did a member of the international jury.
- 3/2/2020
- by 307¦Alexis Grivas¦39¦
- ScreenDaily
Too edgy for the mainstream, Martin Sherman’s influential play is nevertheless transformed into an admirable, well-crafted show. In Hitler’s Berlin of 1934, being gay means death, or a living death in a ‘protective custody’ camp. Clive Owen, Lothaire Bluteau and Brian Webber find themselves on the way to Dachau, a new Circle of Hell. Yet even in a forced labor camp, the human spirit prevails. The British-made picture features Ian McKellen, Mick Jagger, and several other notable stars in their salad days.
Bent
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1997 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date January 8, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Lothaire Bluteau, Clive Owen, Mick Jagger, Brian Webber, Jude Law, Ian McKellen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Rupert Graves, Rachel Weisz, Paul Bettany.
Cinematography: Giorgos Arvanitis
Film Editor: Isabelle Lorente
Original Music: Philip Glass
Written by Martin Sherman from his play.
Produced by Dixie Linder, Michael Solinger
Directed by Sean Mathias
We learned early on that the...
Bent
Blu-ray
Film Movement Classics
1997 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date January 8, 2019 / 39.95
Starring: Lothaire Bluteau, Clive Owen, Mick Jagger, Brian Webber, Jude Law, Ian McKellen, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Rupert Graves, Rachel Weisz, Paul Bettany.
Cinematography: Giorgos Arvanitis
Film Editor: Isabelle Lorente
Original Music: Philip Glass
Written by Martin Sherman from his play.
Produced by Dixie Linder, Michael Solinger
Directed by Sean Mathias
We learned early on that the...
- 1/12/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Hedi won best film, while Matt Johnson won best director for Operation Avalanche.
The Tunisian-French-Belgian co-production Hedi by Mohamed Ben Attia has won the best film award, the Golden Athena, at the 22nd Athens International Film Festival (September 22-October 2).
The film was co-produced by Tanit Films, Nomadis Images and the Dardenne brothers production outlet Les Films du Fleuve.
Majd Mastoura stars in the lead role as a young man who tries to break loose from his dominant mother and some of Tunisia’s more conservative social norms.
The film debuted at Berlin Film Festival 2016, winning the best first film award and a best actor prize for Mastoura.
The Aiff awards were decided by a five-member international jury presided over by the BFI programmes curator Nicola Gallani. The jury included German film critic Julia Teichmann (Film Dienst), French producer Sylvia Perel and her compatriot film critic Bernard Nave (Jeune Cinema).
Matt Johnson won the best director trophy for [link...
The Tunisian-French-Belgian co-production Hedi by Mohamed Ben Attia has won the best film award, the Golden Athena, at the 22nd Athens International Film Festival (September 22-October 2).
The film was co-produced by Tanit Films, Nomadis Images and the Dardenne brothers production outlet Les Films du Fleuve.
Majd Mastoura stars in the lead role as a young man who tries to break loose from his dominant mother and some of Tunisia’s more conservative social norms.
The film debuted at Berlin Film Festival 2016, winning the best first film award and a best actor prize for Mastoura.
The Aiff awards were decided by a five-member international jury presided over by the BFI programmes curator Nicola Gallani. The jury included German film critic Julia Teichmann (Film Dienst), French producer Sylvia Perel and her compatriot film critic Bernard Nave (Jeune Cinema).
Matt Johnson won the best director trophy for [link...
- 10/3/2016
- by alexisgrivas@yahoo.com (Alexis Grivas)
- ScreenDaily
Theodoros AngelopoulosSo consistent was the vision of Theodoros Angelopoulos that nearly any of his films could stand as a leading representative work. When viewing all 13 of his features within a condensed period of time—an extraordinary opportunity to be offered by New York's Museum of the Moving Image July 8 - 24—one sees just how exceptional Angelopoulos’ filmography is, and how each title is an emblematic entry in the late Greek director’s catalog of persistent themes, tonal frequencies, plot points, and, perhaps most indelibly, sheer visual boldness.Landscape in the Mist (1988)IMAGESIt is in this last regard that Angelopoulos instantly and emphatically impresses. His cinema is punctuated by a remarkable succession of single images that linger long after the film has concluded, often retaining in the viewer’s consciousness more than an overall story or specific characters. Silhouetted bodies on a fog-shrouded border fence in Eternity and a Day (1998); a...
- 7/7/2016
- MUBI
Mirjana Karanovic’s A Good Wife wins best first film; audience award goes to Iciar Bollain’s The Olive Tree.
The 14th edition of the Brussels Film Festival closed with the Golden Iris award going to Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, with a prize of €10,000 to distributor September Film. The film also won best screenplay and the Rtbf Vt Prize of best film.
The jury was comprised of Flemish actress Natali Broods, Italian director Emanuele Crialese, Belgian actor Pierre Dherte, Dutch actor Derek De Lint and Croatian director Ivona Juka.
The White Iris award for best first film in competition went to A Good Wife by Mirjana Karanovic.
The jury award went to Callback by Carles Torras; best photography went to Giorgos Arvanitis for Blind Sun; the Cineruopa award went to Pikadero by Ben Sharrock; Ups cinephile award went to Suntan by Argyris Papadimitropoulos.
The audience award went to The Olive Tree by Iciar Bollain, which also won...
The 14th edition of the Brussels Film Festival closed with the Golden Iris award going to Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann, with a prize of €10,000 to distributor September Film. The film also won best screenplay and the Rtbf Vt Prize of best film.
The jury was comprised of Flemish actress Natali Broods, Italian director Emanuele Crialese, Belgian actor Pierre Dherte, Dutch actor Derek De Lint and Croatian director Ivona Juka.
The White Iris award for best first film in competition went to A Good Wife by Mirjana Karanovic.
The jury award went to Callback by Carles Torras; best photography went to Giorgos Arvanitis for Blind Sun; the Cineruopa award went to Pikadero by Ben Sharrock; Ups cinephile award went to Suntan by Argyris Papadimitropoulos.
The audience award went to The Olive Tree by Iciar Bollain, which also won...
- 6/27/2016
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Two days after we tragically, absurdly lost Theo Angelopoulos to a motorcycle accident late last month, Ecm Records posted a remembrance I've come across just today, thanks to a pointer from Robert Koehler. In a text Angelopoulos contributed to the collection Horizons Touched: The Music of Ecm, he wrote, "There are moments when you hear a piece of music, have a chance conversation with someone or read a text and you get the unexpected feeling of communication at a deeper level, of a common language. In Eleni Karaindrou, I found a musical language which seemed to come into being at the same time as the images in my films. Sounds that were mine before they were born. This is why the way we collaborate has — or at least I think it has — its special characteristics."
Ecm founder Manfred Eicher said in a 1990 interview, "Angelopoulos looks at things in silence. His sense of time,...
Ecm founder Manfred Eicher said in a 1990 interview, "Angelopoulos looks at things in silence. His sense of time,...
- 2/21/2012
- MUBI
Film director with a magisterial style who excelled at historical and political allegories
The Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos, who has died aged 76 in a road accident, was an epic poet of the cinema, creating allegories of 20th-century Greek history and politics. He redefined the slow pan, the long take and tracking shots, of which he was a master. His stately, magisterial style and languidly unfolding narratives require some (ultimately rewarding) effort on the part of the spectator. "The sequence shot offers, as far as I'm concerned, much more freedom," Angelopoulos explained. "By refusing to cut in the middle, I invite the spectator to better analyse the image I show him, and to focus, time and again, on the elements that he feels are the most significant in it."
Angelopoulos was born in Athens, where he studied law. After military service, he went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne but...
The Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos, who has died aged 76 in a road accident, was an epic poet of the cinema, creating allegories of 20th-century Greek history and politics. He redefined the slow pan, the long take and tracking shots, of which he was a master. His stately, magisterial style and languidly unfolding narratives require some (ultimately rewarding) effort on the part of the spectator. "The sequence shot offers, as far as I'm concerned, much more freedom," Angelopoulos explained. "By refusing to cut in the middle, I invite the spectator to better analyse the image I show him, and to focus, time and again, on the elements that he feels are the most significant in it."
Angelopoulos was born in Athens, where he studied law. After military service, he went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne but...
- 1/26/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
To Vlemma Tou Odyssea / Ulysses' Gaze (1995) Direction: Theo Angelopoulos Cast: Harvey Keitel, Erland Josephson, Maia Morgenstern, Thanasis Vengos, Giorgos Mihalakopoulos Screenplay: Theo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra, Petros Markaris, Giorgio Silvagni Harvey Keitel, Ulysses' Gaze Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos' 1995 effort To Vlemma tou Odyssea / Ulysses' Gaze is the first of that director's four films that I have seen that is not unequivocally a great work of art. Although there are arguments that can be made in favor of that claim, the film's 173-minute running time is much too long, especially considering that Ulysses' Gaze is the least poetic of the aforementioned four films. (For the record, the others are Landscape in the Mist, Eternity and a Day, and Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow.) Of course, I'm not saying that Ulysses' Gaze is a bad film or that it lacks Angelopoulos' trademark visual poesy. On the other hand, the film lacks several important...
- 1/25/2012
- by Dan Schneider
- Alt Film Guide
Sad news is arriving this afternoon from Greece, as legendary filmmaker Theo Angelopolous was struck by a motorcycle on the set of his latest film and has died of his injuries at the age of 77. Filmmaking wasn't the first career chosen by the director, who studied law and later attended the Sorbonne before finally studying film at the Idhec (Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies). Over the course of his carrer, Angelopoulos directed only thirteen feature length films, but a handful of them are regarded as some of the finest ever made. Angelopoulos' films are known for their meditative (and sometimes, equally elaborate) long takes, beautiful cinematography courtesy of his long collaborator Giorgos Arvanitis, and a meditative storytelling style that didn't make him a box office favorite, but earned him the adoration of cinephiles worldwide. His work has been honored by film festivals across the globe, with his utterly lovely "Landscape In The.
- 1/24/2012
- The Playlist
Laure Charpentier's melodrama follows a charismatic young girl on a steamy ride through the lesbian underworld of 60s Paris
This week sees the beginning of the 25th London Lesbian and Gay film festival, an event that has always seemed to me to have a completely admirable emphasis on mischief, enjoyment and fun. And perhaps no film in this year's festival exemplifies this like the extraordinary lesbian crime melodrama Gigola, set in 60s Paris criminal underworld, adapted and directed by Laure Charpentier from her own novels.
Gigola has some highbrow credentials. It features big acting names like Thierry Lhermitte and Almodóvar stalwart Marisa Paredes and is shot by Theo Angelopoulos's cinematographer, Yorgos Arvanitis – but it really is a fantastically naughty, silly and enjoyable film: uncompromisingly camp in its seriousness and high passion, and one of the very few movies that could be called "pulp" cinema. It's steamy, saucy, racy...
This week sees the beginning of the 25th London Lesbian and Gay film festival, an event that has always seemed to me to have a completely admirable emphasis on mischief, enjoyment and fun. And perhaps no film in this year's festival exemplifies this like the extraordinary lesbian crime melodrama Gigola, set in 60s Paris criminal underworld, adapted and directed by Laure Charpentier from her own novels.
Gigola has some highbrow credentials. It features big acting names like Thierry Lhermitte and Almodóvar stalwart Marisa Paredes and is shot by Theo Angelopoulos's cinematographer, Yorgos Arvanitis – but it really is a fantastically naughty, silly and enjoyable film: uncompromisingly camp in its seriousness and high passion, and one of the very few movies that could be called "pulp" cinema. It's steamy, saucy, racy...
- 3/30/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Screened
Rotterdam International Film Festival
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- "Anatomie de l'enfer" is a film about sex that is not intended to be sexy. Directed by Catherine Breillat ("Romance") and featuring porn star Rocco Siffredi in a dramatic role, it's an investigation into the nature of misogyny. By putting her female character through a number of willing sexual humiliations at the hands (and more) of Siffredi, Breillat tries to show that misogyny is deeply rooted in the psyche of every man.
The numerous sex scenes with which Breillat makes her point are graphic and unpleasant. They certainly succeed as detailed examinations of misogynistic behavior, and the mentally -- but not sexually -- provocative nature of her argument should lead to some debate about the subject. But the explicit content of these scenes will mean that few people will likely see the film outside of festivals and some European countries. "Anatomie" had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
The film starts when the Girl (Amira Casar) meets the Guy (Siffredi) in a bar. He saves her from suicide, and she invites him to take part in a sexual experiment as a result. As the Guy is homosexual and has no interest in women, she feels that he is a perfect "control specimen" for her attempt to show that underneath it all, every man is a misogynist. Over the course of four nights, she allows him to perform a number of sexual indignities on her. He penetrates her with objects and degrades her. A final scene sees the Guy clarifying his misogynistic feelings to a lout in a bar, therefore proving the Girl's argument correct.
In "Anatomie", Breillat puts forth the argument that all men hate women because they think that they dissipate and take away their power. Men defend themselves against this, Breillat says, by humiliating women. The point is very well made but suffers from a cold academicism that renders the characters simple ciphers for Breillat's ideas. Her reductive approach to her characters -- by refusing to name them, for instance -- lessens the power of her argument as they have none of the foibles and contradictions of real people. This means that it's too easy to dismiss the whole film as an artificial construct, something that diminishes its impact.
Cinematically, Breillat has made some interesting decisions. The story would naturally suggest a grunge aesthetic, but Breillat does the opposite, using subtle lighting and often framing the Girl like a Manet painting. The Guy's voice-over is delivered in a female voice -- Breillat's own -- giving rise to all kinds of psychological interpretations. The sex scenes are messy, standing as the exact opposites to the scrubbed-clean images of pornography.
Some of the imagery in "Anatomie" -- shots of a rolling ocean, for instance -- pushes it precariously close to '70s art-porn. But the literary dialogue, possibly lifted from Breillat's own source novel "Pornocratie", keeps things sufficiently intelligent. Sex is often depicted in films but rarely examined by filmmakers. However flawed, Breillat's uncompromising attempt to do so here should be applauded.
Anatomie De L'Enfer
Flach Films and CB Films present, with the participation of Canal Plus and Le Center National de la Cinematographie
Credits:
Director: Catherine Breillat
Screenwriter: Catherine Breillat, from her novel "Pornocratie"
Producer: Jean-Francois Lepetit
Directors of photography: Yorgos Arvanitis, Guillaume Schiffman, Miguel Malheiros, Susana Gomes
Sound: Carlos Pinto, Filipe Goncalves
Production designers: Pedrosa Santos, Jean-Marie Milon, Paula Szabo, Pedro Garcia
Costume designers: Valerie Guegan, Betty Martins, Catherine Meillan, Sanine Schlumberger
Editors: Pascale Chavance, Frederic Barbe
Cast:
The Girl: Amira Casar
The Guy: Rocco Siffredi
Wateland Lovers: Alexandre Belin, Manuel Taglang
Barfly: Jacques Monge
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Rotterdam International Film Festival
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- "Anatomie de l'enfer" is a film about sex that is not intended to be sexy. Directed by Catherine Breillat ("Romance") and featuring porn star Rocco Siffredi in a dramatic role, it's an investigation into the nature of misogyny. By putting her female character through a number of willing sexual humiliations at the hands (and more) of Siffredi, Breillat tries to show that misogyny is deeply rooted in the psyche of every man.
The numerous sex scenes with which Breillat makes her point are graphic and unpleasant. They certainly succeed as detailed examinations of misogynistic behavior, and the mentally -- but not sexually -- provocative nature of her argument should lead to some debate about the subject. But the explicit content of these scenes will mean that few people will likely see the film outside of festivals and some European countries. "Anatomie" had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
The film starts when the Girl (Amira Casar) meets the Guy (Siffredi) in a bar. He saves her from suicide, and she invites him to take part in a sexual experiment as a result. As the Guy is homosexual and has no interest in women, she feels that he is a perfect "control specimen" for her attempt to show that underneath it all, every man is a misogynist. Over the course of four nights, she allows him to perform a number of sexual indignities on her. He penetrates her with objects and degrades her. A final scene sees the Guy clarifying his misogynistic feelings to a lout in a bar, therefore proving the Girl's argument correct.
In "Anatomie", Breillat puts forth the argument that all men hate women because they think that they dissipate and take away their power. Men defend themselves against this, Breillat says, by humiliating women. The point is very well made but suffers from a cold academicism that renders the characters simple ciphers for Breillat's ideas. Her reductive approach to her characters -- by refusing to name them, for instance -- lessens the power of her argument as they have none of the foibles and contradictions of real people. This means that it's too easy to dismiss the whole film as an artificial construct, something that diminishes its impact.
Cinematically, Breillat has made some interesting decisions. The story would naturally suggest a grunge aesthetic, but Breillat does the opposite, using subtle lighting and often framing the Girl like a Manet painting. The Guy's voice-over is delivered in a female voice -- Breillat's own -- giving rise to all kinds of psychological interpretations. The sex scenes are messy, standing as the exact opposites to the scrubbed-clean images of pornography.
Some of the imagery in "Anatomie" -- shots of a rolling ocean, for instance -- pushes it precariously close to '70s art-porn. But the literary dialogue, possibly lifted from Breillat's own source novel "Pornocratie", keeps things sufficiently intelligent. Sex is often depicted in films but rarely examined by filmmakers. However flawed, Breillat's uncompromising attempt to do so here should be applauded.
Anatomie De L'Enfer
Flach Films and CB Films present, with the participation of Canal Plus and Le Center National de la Cinematographie
Credits:
Director: Catherine Breillat
Screenwriter: Catherine Breillat, from her novel "Pornocratie"
Producer: Jean-Francois Lepetit
Directors of photography: Yorgos Arvanitis, Guillaume Schiffman, Miguel Malheiros, Susana Gomes
Sound: Carlos Pinto, Filipe Goncalves
Production designers: Pedrosa Santos, Jean-Marie Milon, Paula Szabo, Pedro Garcia
Costume designers: Valerie Guegan, Betty Martins, Catherine Meillan, Sanine Schlumberger
Editors: Pascale Chavance, Frederic Barbe
Cast:
The Girl: Amira Casar
The Guy: Rocco Siffredi
Wateland Lovers: Alexandre Belin, Manuel Taglang
Barfly: Jacques Monge
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Screened
Rotterdam International Film Festival
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- "Anatomie de l'enfer" is a film about sex that is not intended to be sexy. Directed by Catherine Breillat ("Romance") and featuring porn star Rocco Siffredi in a dramatic role, it's an investigation into the nature of misogyny. By putting her female character through a number of willing sexual humiliations at the hands (and more) of Siffredi, Breillat tries to show that misogyny is deeply rooted in the psyche of every man.
The numerous sex scenes with which Breillat makes her point are graphic and unpleasant. They certainly succeed as detailed examinations of misogynistic behavior, and the mentally -- but not sexually -- provocative nature of her argument should lead to some debate about the subject. But the explicit content of these scenes will mean that few people will likely see the film outside of festivals and some European countries. "Anatomie" had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
The film starts when the Girl (Amira Casar) meets the Guy (Siffredi) in a bar. He saves her from suicide, and she invites him to take part in a sexual experiment as a result. As the Guy is homosexual and has no interest in women, she feels that he is a perfect "control specimen" for her attempt to show that underneath it all, every man is a misogynist. Over the course of four nights, she allows him to perform a number of sexual indignities on her. He penetrates her with objects and degrades her. A final scene sees the Guy clarifying his misogynistic feelings to a lout in a bar, therefore proving the Girl's argument correct.
In "Anatomie", Breillat puts forth the argument that all men hate women because they think that they dissipate and take away their power. Men defend themselves against this, Breillat says, by humiliating women. The point is very well made but suffers from a cold academicism that renders the characters simple ciphers for Breillat's ideas. Her reductive approach to her characters -- by refusing to name them, for instance -- lessens the power of her argument as they have none of the foibles and contradictions of real people. This means that it's too easy to dismiss the whole film as an artificial construct, something that diminishes its impact.
Cinematically, Breillat has made some interesting decisions. The story would naturally suggest a grunge aesthetic, but Breillat does the opposite, using subtle lighting and often framing the Girl like a Manet painting. The Guy's voice-over is delivered in a female voice -- Breillat's own -- giving rise to all kinds of psychological interpretations. The sex scenes are messy, standing as the exact opposites to the scrubbed-clean images of pornography.
Some of the imagery in "Anatomie" -- shots of a rolling ocean, for instance -- pushes it precariously close to '70s art-porn. But the literary dialogue, possibly lifted from Breillat's own source novel "Pornocratie", keeps things sufficiently intelligent. Sex is often depicted in films but rarely examined by filmmakers. However flawed, Breillat's uncompromising attempt to do so here should be applauded.
Anatomie De L'Enfer
Flach Films and CB Films present, with the participation of Canal Plus and Le Center National de la Cinematographie
Credits:
Director: Catherine Breillat
Screenwriter: Catherine Breillat, from her novel "Pornocratie"
Producer: Jean-Francois Lepetit
Directors of photography: Yorgos Arvanitis, Guillaume Schiffman, Miguel Malheiros, Susana Gomes
Sound: Carlos Pinto, Filipe Goncalves
Production designers: Pedrosa Santos, Jean-Marie Milon, Paula Szabo, Pedro Garcia
Costume designers: Valerie Guegan, Betty Martins, Catherine Meillan, Sanine Schlumberger
Editors: Pascale Chavance, Frederic Barbe
Cast:
The Girl: Amira Casar
The Guy: Rocco Siffredi
Wateland Lovers: Alexandre Belin, Manuel Taglang
Barfly: Jacques Monge
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Rotterdam International Film Festival
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands -- "Anatomie de l'enfer" is a film about sex that is not intended to be sexy. Directed by Catherine Breillat ("Romance") and featuring porn star Rocco Siffredi in a dramatic role, it's an investigation into the nature of misogyny. By putting her female character through a number of willing sexual humiliations at the hands (and more) of Siffredi, Breillat tries to show that misogyny is deeply rooted in the psyche of every man.
The numerous sex scenes with which Breillat makes her point are graphic and unpleasant. They certainly succeed as detailed examinations of misogynistic behavior, and the mentally -- but not sexually -- provocative nature of her argument should lead to some debate about the subject. But the explicit content of these scenes will mean that few people will likely see the film outside of festivals and some European countries. "Anatomie" had its world premiere at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.
The film starts when the Girl (Amira Casar) meets the Guy (Siffredi) in a bar. He saves her from suicide, and she invites him to take part in a sexual experiment as a result. As the Guy is homosexual and has no interest in women, she feels that he is a perfect "control specimen" for her attempt to show that underneath it all, every man is a misogynist. Over the course of four nights, she allows him to perform a number of sexual indignities on her. He penetrates her with objects and degrades her. A final scene sees the Guy clarifying his misogynistic feelings to a lout in a bar, therefore proving the Girl's argument correct.
In "Anatomie", Breillat puts forth the argument that all men hate women because they think that they dissipate and take away their power. Men defend themselves against this, Breillat says, by humiliating women. The point is very well made but suffers from a cold academicism that renders the characters simple ciphers for Breillat's ideas. Her reductive approach to her characters -- by refusing to name them, for instance -- lessens the power of her argument as they have none of the foibles and contradictions of real people. This means that it's too easy to dismiss the whole film as an artificial construct, something that diminishes its impact.
Cinematically, Breillat has made some interesting decisions. The story would naturally suggest a grunge aesthetic, but Breillat does the opposite, using subtle lighting and often framing the Girl like a Manet painting. The Guy's voice-over is delivered in a female voice -- Breillat's own -- giving rise to all kinds of psychological interpretations. The sex scenes are messy, standing as the exact opposites to the scrubbed-clean images of pornography.
Some of the imagery in "Anatomie" -- shots of a rolling ocean, for instance -- pushes it precariously close to '70s art-porn. But the literary dialogue, possibly lifted from Breillat's own source novel "Pornocratie", keeps things sufficiently intelligent. Sex is often depicted in films but rarely examined by filmmakers. However flawed, Breillat's uncompromising attempt to do so here should be applauded.
Anatomie De L'Enfer
Flach Films and CB Films present, with the participation of Canal Plus and Le Center National de la Cinematographie
Credits:
Director: Catherine Breillat
Screenwriter: Catherine Breillat, from her novel "Pornocratie"
Producer: Jean-Francois Lepetit
Directors of photography: Yorgos Arvanitis, Guillaume Schiffman, Miguel Malheiros, Susana Gomes
Sound: Carlos Pinto, Filipe Goncalves
Production designers: Pedrosa Santos, Jean-Marie Milon, Paula Szabo, Pedro Garcia
Costume designers: Valerie Guegan, Betty Martins, Catherine Meillan, Sanine Schlumberger
Editors: Pascale Chavance, Frederic Barbe
Cast:
The Girl: Amira Casar
The Guy: Rocco Siffredi
Wateland Lovers: Alexandre Belin, Manuel Taglang
Barfly: Jacques Monge
Running time -- 87 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/10/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
French-Romanian director Radu Mihaileanu's film is the second Holocaust-themed comedy to hit U.S. screens this year and, improbably, the second that works. Like its predecessor "Life Is Beautiful", "Train of Life" will turn off some audience members because of its whimsical take on one of the 20th century's greatest horrors. But there's no denying the film's skillfulness in employing Jewish humor, both gentle and broad, to make its points.
Winner of the Audience Award at Sundance, the film recently delighted audiences during its East Coast premiere at the Nantucket Film Festival. It will be released theatrically this year by Paramount Classics.
Resembling a fable told by Sholem Aleichem, the film centers on the inhabitants of an Eastern European village in 1941, who devise a novel way to escape deportation or murder at the hands of oncoming hordes of German soldiers. Their solution, proposed ironically by village fool Shlomo (Lionel Abelanski), is to fake their deportation by using a counterfeit train and having villagers enact the roles of Nazis and victims. The train will wind its way through the countryside until the villagers reach the "promised land."
Their comic preparations include gussying up a dilapidated train, learning to speak German without Yiddish accents, forging documents and having village tailors make authentic-looking German uniforms. Eventually, they leave the village and endure a series of adventures with German soldiers, Communists and traveling Gypsies. Complications, of course, ensue: The villager playing the role of chief Nazi begins to take his role too seriously; resistance fighters pursue the train, unaware of its riders' true identities, etc. There is even romance among younger villagers, though one girl's father won't consider allowing his daughter to become involved with the "son of a Nazi."
Although the film's whimsy quotient is sometimes a bit too high for comfort, director-screenwriter Mihaileanu does a remarkable job making it all work, somehow managing to put forth the comedy without trivializing his subject. The fact that it does not take place in a concentration camp makes it somewhat easier to take than Roberto Benigni's film, which made some uncomfortable. Here, the blending of humor (which sometimes verges on slapstick) and tragedy is handled more skillfully, and the film's ending, which will not be revealed here, goes a long way toward making more palatable all that precedes it.
The performances are excellent, with particularly sterling work from Abelanski as Shlomo, Rufus as the butcher who takes to his Nazi role all too well and Clement Harari as the ever-flustered chief rabbi. The production design and visual look manage to evoke a lost chapter of Jewish history in wonderfully authentic style, and Goran Bregovic's klezmer-flavored music adds further to the period atmosphere.
TRAIN OF LIFE
Paramount Classics
Noe Prods. and Raphael Films
Director-screenwriter: Radu Mihaileanu
Producers: Frederique Dumas, Marc Baschet, Cedomir Kolar, Ludi Boeken, Eric Dussart
Directors of photography: Yorgos Arvanitis, Laurent Daillarnd
Editor: Monique Rysselinck
Original music: Goran Bregovic
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shlomo: Lionel Abelanski
Mordechai: Rufus
Le Rabbi: Clement Harari
Yossi: Michael Muller
Yankele: Bruno Abraham-Kremer
Esther: Agathe De La Fontaine
Schmecht: Johan Leysen
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Winner of the Audience Award at Sundance, the film recently delighted audiences during its East Coast premiere at the Nantucket Film Festival. It will be released theatrically this year by Paramount Classics.
Resembling a fable told by Sholem Aleichem, the film centers on the inhabitants of an Eastern European village in 1941, who devise a novel way to escape deportation or murder at the hands of oncoming hordes of German soldiers. Their solution, proposed ironically by village fool Shlomo (Lionel Abelanski), is to fake their deportation by using a counterfeit train and having villagers enact the roles of Nazis and victims. The train will wind its way through the countryside until the villagers reach the "promised land."
Their comic preparations include gussying up a dilapidated train, learning to speak German without Yiddish accents, forging documents and having village tailors make authentic-looking German uniforms. Eventually, they leave the village and endure a series of adventures with German soldiers, Communists and traveling Gypsies. Complications, of course, ensue: The villager playing the role of chief Nazi begins to take his role too seriously; resistance fighters pursue the train, unaware of its riders' true identities, etc. There is even romance among younger villagers, though one girl's father won't consider allowing his daughter to become involved with the "son of a Nazi."
Although the film's whimsy quotient is sometimes a bit too high for comfort, director-screenwriter Mihaileanu does a remarkable job making it all work, somehow managing to put forth the comedy without trivializing his subject. The fact that it does not take place in a concentration camp makes it somewhat easier to take than Roberto Benigni's film, which made some uncomfortable. Here, the blending of humor (which sometimes verges on slapstick) and tragedy is handled more skillfully, and the film's ending, which will not be revealed here, goes a long way toward making more palatable all that precedes it.
The performances are excellent, with particularly sterling work from Abelanski as Shlomo, Rufus as the butcher who takes to his Nazi role all too well and Clement Harari as the ever-flustered chief rabbi. The production design and visual look manage to evoke a lost chapter of Jewish history in wonderfully authentic style, and Goran Bregovic's klezmer-flavored music adds further to the period atmosphere.
TRAIN OF LIFE
Paramount Classics
Noe Prods. and Raphael Films
Director-screenwriter: Radu Mihaileanu
Producers: Frederique Dumas, Marc Baschet, Cedomir Kolar, Ludi Boeken, Eric Dussart
Directors of photography: Yorgos Arvanitis, Laurent Daillarnd
Editor: Monique Rysselinck
Original music: Goran Bregovic
Color/stereo
Cast:
Shlomo: Lionel Abelanski
Mordechai: Rufus
Le Rabbi: Clement Harari
Yossi: Michael Muller
Yankele: Bruno Abraham-Kremer
Esther: Agathe De La Fontaine
Schmecht: Johan Leysen
Running time -- 103 minutes
No MPAA rating...
TOKYO -- Based on Max Frisch's best-seller ''Homo Faber'' (retitled ''Voyager'' for worldwide release), this seminal novel had been a property of Paramount Pictures ever since its appearance on the best-seller lists back in 1957. But when it was recently dropped, apparently on the supposition that its incest theme was too difficult to film, the book was immediately picked up by German director Volker Schloendorff.
Now one of the finalists in the ''Felix'' European Film Awards, ''Voyager'' also happens to be Schloendorff's best film since ''The Tin Drum'' (1977).
American playwright Sam Shepard plays 50-year-old Walter Faber, a self-made man who views himself as an architect of his own fortunes. As sketched by Frisch, he's a recognizable type of modern intellectual who stubbornly believes that he can control his own destiny, even when confronted by one unnerving coincidence after another while on an odyssey half-way around the world. Add to this the moral dilemma of a man unsuspectingly having an affair with his own daughter, and you have a provocative updating of Sophocles' ''Oedipus Rex'' theme.
Schloendorff, however, introduces two changes into the plot: He switches Faber's nationality and discards the stigma of his protagonist condemned to die of cancer.
So Walter Faber is an American engineer, instead of a Swiss one, who cruises the world in the employ of Unesco to inspect dams and construction sites.
Considering today's propensity for globetrotting, it doesn't really make much difference in the long run which nationality he is. But to strip Faber completely of moral responsibility by eliminating the cancer issue weakens the ending considerably.
Shot in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico, France, Italy and Greece -- in addition to a trip across the Atlantic on an ocean liner --
''Voyager'' -- screened here as part of the Tokyo International Film Festival -- gets off to a strong start by depicting a crash-landing of the then new Super-Constellation aircraft in the Mexican desert. It's Faber's first brush with death, which in turn introduces the first coincidence that is about to change his life.
On the flight, he has met by chance a German passenger who turns out to be the brother of a long-lost friend of pre-World War II days. Since the friend had married the woman Faber once loved but abandoned for a career, the engineer decides to join his new companion on a journey to a plantation outpost in the South American jungle, where they discover that the friend and brother has committed suicide.
Back in New York, Faber decides to return to Europe by way of an ocean liner. This triggers the second coincidence: a chance meeting with a girl named Sabeth (Julie Delpy), who fascinates him and later turns out to be his daughter by the woman he once loved. Since the girl is on her way back from a student sojourn in the United States to rejoin her mother, Hanna (Barbara Sukowa), in Greece, the focus of the film hereafter is a conscious spiritual reworking of the Oedipus theme.
Shepard gives an even and convincing performance as the tired intellectual searching for a new meaning to his life. But it's young French actress Delpy -- a discovery of Jean-Luc Godard in his recent ''Lear'' adaptation -- who steals the show as the seductively carefree Sabeth.
German actress Sukowa as Hanna also offers an effective cameo, although her performance is unfortunately limited by its brevity. Otherwise, she well might have tied a lot of loose knots together to underscore the reasons why Frisch was fascinated by the modern-day plot possibilities offered by a timeless Sophoclean tragedy in the first place.
VOYAGER
(Germany-France-Greece)
Bioskop Film (Munich), in co-production with Action Film (Paris) and STEFI 2/Hellas Video (Athens)
Producer Eberhard Junkersdorf
Co-producer Klaus Hellwig
Director Volker Schloendorff
Screenplay Volker Schloendorff, Rudy Wurlitzer
Based on the novel by Max Frisch
Directors of photography Yorgos Arvanitis, Pierre L'Homme
Art director Nicos Perakis
Costumes Barbara Baum
Music Stanley Myers
Editor Dagmar Hirtz
Color/Black and white
Starring: Sam Shepard, Julie Delpy, Barbara Sukowa, Dieter Kirchlechner, Traci Lind, Deborah-Lee Furness, August Zirner
Running time -- 117 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Now one of the finalists in the ''Felix'' European Film Awards, ''Voyager'' also happens to be Schloendorff's best film since ''The Tin Drum'' (1977).
American playwright Sam Shepard plays 50-year-old Walter Faber, a self-made man who views himself as an architect of his own fortunes. As sketched by Frisch, he's a recognizable type of modern intellectual who stubbornly believes that he can control his own destiny, even when confronted by one unnerving coincidence after another while on an odyssey half-way around the world. Add to this the moral dilemma of a man unsuspectingly having an affair with his own daughter, and you have a provocative updating of Sophocles' ''Oedipus Rex'' theme.
Schloendorff, however, introduces two changes into the plot: He switches Faber's nationality and discards the stigma of his protagonist condemned to die of cancer.
So Walter Faber is an American engineer, instead of a Swiss one, who cruises the world in the employ of Unesco to inspect dams and construction sites.
Considering today's propensity for globetrotting, it doesn't really make much difference in the long run which nationality he is. But to strip Faber completely of moral responsibility by eliminating the cancer issue weakens the ending considerably.
Shot in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico, France, Italy and Greece -- in addition to a trip across the Atlantic on an ocean liner --
''Voyager'' -- screened here as part of the Tokyo International Film Festival -- gets off to a strong start by depicting a crash-landing of the then new Super-Constellation aircraft in the Mexican desert. It's Faber's first brush with death, which in turn introduces the first coincidence that is about to change his life.
On the flight, he has met by chance a German passenger who turns out to be the brother of a long-lost friend of pre-World War II days. Since the friend had married the woman Faber once loved but abandoned for a career, the engineer decides to join his new companion on a journey to a plantation outpost in the South American jungle, where they discover that the friend and brother has committed suicide.
Back in New York, Faber decides to return to Europe by way of an ocean liner. This triggers the second coincidence: a chance meeting with a girl named Sabeth (Julie Delpy), who fascinates him and later turns out to be his daughter by the woman he once loved. Since the girl is on her way back from a student sojourn in the United States to rejoin her mother, Hanna (Barbara Sukowa), in Greece, the focus of the film hereafter is a conscious spiritual reworking of the Oedipus theme.
Shepard gives an even and convincing performance as the tired intellectual searching for a new meaning to his life. But it's young French actress Delpy -- a discovery of Jean-Luc Godard in his recent ''Lear'' adaptation -- who steals the show as the seductively carefree Sabeth.
German actress Sukowa as Hanna also offers an effective cameo, although her performance is unfortunately limited by its brevity. Otherwise, she well might have tied a lot of loose knots together to underscore the reasons why Frisch was fascinated by the modern-day plot possibilities offered by a timeless Sophoclean tragedy in the first place.
VOYAGER
(Germany-France-Greece)
Bioskop Film (Munich), in co-production with Action Film (Paris) and STEFI 2/Hellas Video (Athens)
Producer Eberhard Junkersdorf
Co-producer Klaus Hellwig
Director Volker Schloendorff
Screenplay Volker Schloendorff, Rudy Wurlitzer
Based on the novel by Max Frisch
Directors of photography Yorgos Arvanitis, Pierre L'Homme
Art director Nicos Perakis
Costumes Barbara Baum
Music Stanley Myers
Editor Dagmar Hirtz
Color/Black and white
Starring: Sam Shepard, Julie Delpy, Barbara Sukowa, Dieter Kirchlechner, Traci Lind, Deborah-Lee Furness, August Zirner
Running time -- 117 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 10/3/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
CANNES -- Typical of many films at the festival here, Theo Angelopoulos' ''Le Pas Suspendu de la Cigogne'' (The Suspended Step of the Stork) is relentlessly arty, downbeat, political and slow, a motion picture with virtually no motion and virtually no future in U.S. cinemas. Even with the names of Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau attached, prospects are slight of finding many outside.
The premise of the film is intriguing: a TV news reporter (Gregory Karr), covering the plight of refugees living in ghettos in a Greek border town, sees a nameless man (Mastroianni) working in a potato patch he suspects could be a high-ranking Greek politician who vanished 10 years earlier under mysterious circumstances.
Thus begins some sleuthing to discover whether or not the reporter's hunch is right and, if so, why the man decided to bolt, not only from the public eye and his esteemed position as a political golden boy but also from his wife, played by Moreau.
Angelopoulos, obviously fascinated with his subject and characters, takes his time in covering the ground, filling much of the footage with the slow camera pans while the actors take slow walks, give slow reactions, look at each other with slow stares and make slow moves to a conclusion that seems interminable in arriving. Deep it may be; static it is.
Mastroianni, a performer who gives impact to any film in which he appears, is of only limited help in adding spirit here, mainly because -- despite the first billing -- he has only limited time on camera, not appearing except at a shadowy distance until approximately 70 minutes into the proceedings. Instead, the camera rarely leaves Karr who, for the most part, is limp and uninteresting as the supposedly hot-shot reporter.
Anyone pulled to ''Cigogne'' by hopes of seeing a crackling, or even sentimental, reunion of Mastroianni and Moreau as co-stars are also doomed to disappointment. They share no scenes throughout, coming together long enough for just one stare. Moreau, called on to do little but bleakly walk through snow-covered streets while recalling the past in a forlorn fashion, is nevertheless effective in adding the only real punch the film possesses. For Mastroianni, now one of the best character stars in films today, ''Cigogne'' is a minor turn, demanding little from him except his presence.
The only other role of significance is done by Dora Chrysikou as a Greek girl separated from her long-time fiance by political barriers. Also attracted to Karr, she stares at him a great deal, he stares back and they make occasional slow walks to his bedroom.
Technical credits are good. Cinematography by Yorgos Arvanitis and Andreas Sinanos effectivly gives an added chill to the grim Greek locale where the film is set, and their pictures are further enhanced by Mikes Karapiperis' production design, equally somber as the script by Angelopoulos, Tonio Guerra and Petros Markaris requires.
For the record, the title refers to a stance taken twice in the film, once by a Colonel (Ilias Logothetis), once by Karr, simulating the look of a stork with one leg suspended in air, ready to step. In this case, the step could be fatal. It occurs on a bridge at the Greek-Turkey border where a ''no trespassing'' line has been drawn. Anytime one of those suspended legs comes down on the wrong side of the line, a soldier is waiting, rifle in hand, ready to execute the trespasser.
The film had a number of walk outs during the press screening, while others shouted an enthusiastic ''bravo!'' at the conclusion. A man to my left audibly dozed throughout.
LE PAS SUSPENDU DE LA CIGOGNE (THE SUSPENDED STEP OF THE STORK)
(French-Greek-Swiss-Italian)
Director Theo Angelopoulos
Screenplay Theo Angelopoulos, Tonio Guerra,
Petros Markaris
Cinematography Yorgos Arvanitis,
Andreas Sinanos
Production design Mikes Karapiperis
Costumes Giorgos Patsas
Music Helena Karaindrou
Editing Giannis Tsitsopoulos
Producers Bruno Pesery, Theo Angelopoulos
Co-producers Ruth Waldburger, Angelo Rizzoli
Color
Cast:
The refugee Marcello Mastroianni
The woman Jeanne Moreau
The reporter Gregory Karr
The girl Dora Chrysikou
The ColonelIlias Logothetis
Running time -- 145 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
The premise of the film is intriguing: a TV news reporter (Gregory Karr), covering the plight of refugees living in ghettos in a Greek border town, sees a nameless man (Mastroianni) working in a potato patch he suspects could be a high-ranking Greek politician who vanished 10 years earlier under mysterious circumstances.
Thus begins some sleuthing to discover whether or not the reporter's hunch is right and, if so, why the man decided to bolt, not only from the public eye and his esteemed position as a political golden boy but also from his wife, played by Moreau.
Angelopoulos, obviously fascinated with his subject and characters, takes his time in covering the ground, filling much of the footage with the slow camera pans while the actors take slow walks, give slow reactions, look at each other with slow stares and make slow moves to a conclusion that seems interminable in arriving. Deep it may be; static it is.
Mastroianni, a performer who gives impact to any film in which he appears, is of only limited help in adding spirit here, mainly because -- despite the first billing -- he has only limited time on camera, not appearing except at a shadowy distance until approximately 70 minutes into the proceedings. Instead, the camera rarely leaves Karr who, for the most part, is limp and uninteresting as the supposedly hot-shot reporter.
Anyone pulled to ''Cigogne'' by hopes of seeing a crackling, or even sentimental, reunion of Mastroianni and Moreau as co-stars are also doomed to disappointment. They share no scenes throughout, coming together long enough for just one stare. Moreau, called on to do little but bleakly walk through snow-covered streets while recalling the past in a forlorn fashion, is nevertheless effective in adding the only real punch the film possesses. For Mastroianni, now one of the best character stars in films today, ''Cigogne'' is a minor turn, demanding little from him except his presence.
The only other role of significance is done by Dora Chrysikou as a Greek girl separated from her long-time fiance by political barriers. Also attracted to Karr, she stares at him a great deal, he stares back and they make occasional slow walks to his bedroom.
Technical credits are good. Cinematography by Yorgos Arvanitis and Andreas Sinanos effectivly gives an added chill to the grim Greek locale where the film is set, and their pictures are further enhanced by Mikes Karapiperis' production design, equally somber as the script by Angelopoulos, Tonio Guerra and Petros Markaris requires.
For the record, the title refers to a stance taken twice in the film, once by a Colonel (Ilias Logothetis), once by Karr, simulating the look of a stork with one leg suspended in air, ready to step. In this case, the step could be fatal. It occurs on a bridge at the Greek-Turkey border where a ''no trespassing'' line has been drawn. Anytime one of those suspended legs comes down on the wrong side of the line, a soldier is waiting, rifle in hand, ready to execute the trespasser.
The film had a number of walk outs during the press screening, while others shouted an enthusiastic ''bravo!'' at the conclusion. A man to my left audibly dozed throughout.
LE PAS SUSPENDU DE LA CIGOGNE (THE SUSPENDED STEP OF THE STORK)
(French-Greek-Swiss-Italian)
Director Theo Angelopoulos
Screenplay Theo Angelopoulos, Tonio Guerra,
Petros Markaris
Cinematography Yorgos Arvanitis,
Andreas Sinanos
Production design Mikes Karapiperis
Costumes Giorgos Patsas
Music Helena Karaindrou
Editing Giannis Tsitsopoulos
Producers Bruno Pesery, Theo Angelopoulos
Co-producers Ruth Waldburger, Angelo Rizzoli
Color
Cast:
The refugee Marcello Mastroianni
The woman Jeanne Moreau
The reporter Gregory Karr
The girl Dora Chrysikou
The ColonelIlias Logothetis
Running time -- 145 minutes
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 5/21/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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