Pope Francis, Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Un chief Ban Ki-Moon will be honored at the upcoming Cinema for Peace gala in Berlin on February 19.
The long-running gala run by the Cinema for Peace Foundation will be accompanied by the inaugural World Forum on the Future Of Democracy, Tech and Humankind.
The latter event will run from February 18 to 19 at the Allianz Forum next to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with the aim of promoting the renewal of democracy and freedom at a time when both are under threat.
The Cinema for Peace Foundation was created in 2008 as an international non-profit organization with the goal to foster change through film. Over the years it has worked with a host of stars including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney.
Clinton and Ban will attend the February 19 gala in person while Pope Francis will be shown receiving his award in a recorded video.
The long-running gala run by the Cinema for Peace Foundation will be accompanied by the inaugural World Forum on the Future Of Democracy, Tech and Humankind.
The latter event will run from February 18 to 19 at the Allianz Forum next to the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with the aim of promoting the renewal of democracy and freedom at a time when both are under threat.
The Cinema for Peace Foundation was created in 2008 as an international non-profit organization with the goal to foster change through film. Over the years it has worked with a host of stars including Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney.
Clinton and Ban will attend the February 19 gala in person while Pope Francis will be shown receiving his award in a recorded video.
- 2/12/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, whose movie “Downfall” was nominated for an Oscar, shot his latest film “The Painter” in only four days. The docu-fiction, which screens Saturday at IDFA, is a collaboration with German artist Albert Oehlen, who is played by Teutonic thesp Ben Becker (“Comedian Harmonists). Now Hirschbiegel and Oehlen are working together on a film about Vincent van Gogh, he tells Variety.
“The Painter,” whose sales rights are being handled by Picture Tree International, follows the artist (Becker) completing a painting for much of its 94-minute run time. Becker creates on camera what Oehlen is doing behind it to show the process of the artist at work.
“It’s a genre-bending film and a first,” says Hirschbiegel, who boarded the project after Oehlen asked him for advice about equipment. “You are watching a painting starting from scratch and being completed. This hasn’t really been done before in film history.
“The Painter,” whose sales rights are being handled by Picture Tree International, follows the artist (Becker) completing a painting for much of its 94-minute run time. Becker creates on camera what Oehlen is doing behind it to show the process of the artist at work.
“It’s a genre-bending film and a first,” says Hirschbiegel, who boarded the project after Oehlen asked him for advice about equipment. “You are watching a painting starting from scratch and being completed. This hasn’t really been done before in film history.
- 11/19/2021
- by Liza Foreman
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin-based Picture Tree International has acquired worldwide rights to docu-fiction “The Painter,” a collaboration between German director Oliver Hirschbiegel, best known for Oscar-nominated “Downfall,” and German artist Albert Oehlen.
The work stars Ben Becker, whose credits include “Brother of Sleep” and “Comedian Harmonists,” and features the voice of Charlotte Rampling. The film is completing postproduction with Pti presenting a first trailer during the Toronto Film Festival’s hybrid market.
The film depicts Oehlen struggling with a painting and pondering the meaning of his creation. Becker impersonates the painter and re-creates a painting that Oehlen himself is creating step by step behind the camera, with the actor improvising the process in front of the camera.
According to a statement, the film “follows the artist as he is struggling and suffering along this process, with us watching in joyful despair, wondering what might happen next, until the white canvas has turned into a finished painting.
The work stars Ben Becker, whose credits include “Brother of Sleep” and “Comedian Harmonists,” and features the voice of Charlotte Rampling. The film is completing postproduction with Pti presenting a first trailer during the Toronto Film Festival’s hybrid market.
The film depicts Oehlen struggling with a painting and pondering the meaning of his creation. Becker impersonates the painter and re-creates a painting that Oehlen himself is creating step by step behind the camera, with the actor improvising the process in front of the camera.
According to a statement, the film “follows the artist as he is struggling and suffering along this process, with us watching in joyful despair, wondering what might happen next, until the white canvas has turned into a finished painting.
- 9/15/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Oehlen is one of the world’s top-selling artists globally.
Picture Tree International has boarded international sales for Oliver Hirschbiegel’s The Painter, with the Downfall director collaborating with visual artist Albert Oehlen on the ’docufiction’ project.
Ben Becker stars and Charlotte Rampling lends her voice to the film. Becker will play Oehlen, improvising and re-creating a painting that Oehlen himself will paint in the background.
The film is currently in post and Picture Tree will present a first trailer during the hybrid market in Toronto.
Hirschbiegel and Oehlen are long-time friends and collaborators who both studied at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Hamburg.
Picture Tree International has boarded international sales for Oliver Hirschbiegel’s The Painter, with the Downfall director collaborating with visual artist Albert Oehlen on the ’docufiction’ project.
Ben Becker stars and Charlotte Rampling lends her voice to the film. Becker will play Oehlen, improvising and re-creating a painting that Oehlen himself will paint in the background.
The film is currently in post and Picture Tree will present a first trailer during the hybrid market in Toronto.
Hirschbiegel and Oehlen are long-time friends and collaborators who both studied at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste Hamburg.
- 8/31/2021
- by Wendy Mitchell
- ScreenDaily
Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor) Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Cast: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl, Cai Cohrs, Oliver Masucci, Ina Weisse, Rainer Bock, Johanna Gastdorf, Jeanette Hain, Hinnerk Schönemann, Florian Bartholomäi,Hans-Uwe Bauer, Jörg Schüttauf, Ben Becker, Lars Eidinger […]
The post Never Look Away Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Never Look Away Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 11/16/2018
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the festival in Out Of Competition berths are Stanley Tucci-directed Final Portrait and Catherine Deneuve drama Sage Femme.
James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z will have its interntional premiere while documentary The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov will have its world premiere.
Among TV world premieres are Amazon’s Patriot and BBC One’s SS-gb.
In total, 18 of the 24 films selected for Competitionwill be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year...
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the festival in Out Of Competition berths are Stanley Tucci-directed Final Portrait and Catherine Deneuve drama Sage Femme.
James Gray’s The Lost City Of Z will have its interntional premiere while documentary The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov will have its world premiere.
Among TV world premieres are Amazon’s Patriot and BBC One’s SS-gb.
In total, 18 of the 24 films selected for Competitionwill be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year...
- 1/20/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Stanley Tucci, Catherine Deneuve dramas join competition; TV dramas and Oleg Sentsov doc set to get world premiere.
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the competition are
18 of the 24 films selected for Competition will be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
The Berlinale Special will present recent works by contemporary filmmakers, documentaries, and extraordinary formats, as well as brand new series from around the world.
Berlinale Special Galas will be held at the Friedrichstadt-Palast and Zoo Palast. Other Special premieres will take place at the Kino International. Moderated discussions will follow the screenings at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year. Audiences...
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalised its competition and Berlinale Special strands.
Joining the competition are
18 of the 24 films selected for Competition will be competing for the Golden and the Silver Bears. 22 of the films will have their world premieres at the festival.
The Berlinale Special will present recent works by contemporary filmmakers, documentaries, and extraordinary formats, as well as brand new series from around the world.
Berlinale Special Galas will be held at the Friedrichstadt-Palast and Zoo Palast. Other Special premieres will take place at the Kino International. Moderated discussions will follow the screenings at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
For the third time, Berlinale Special Series will present a selection of TV series in the official programme. Six German and international productions will have their world premieres at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele this year. Audiences...
- 1/20/2017
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Stealth Media Group’s The Child is being introduced to buyers at the Toronot International Film Festival this month. The film is based on the international best-selling book by Sebastian Fitzek and directed by Zsolt Bacs
Eric Roberts, Ben Becker, Peter Greene and Sunny Mabrey star.
Roberts plays efense attorney Robert Stern who can scarcely believe his eyes when he meets with the mysterious client who has summoned him to a godforsaken industrial park. To his astonishment, the defendant is a ten-year-old boy, a fragile child with a brain tumor who insists that he was a murderer in a former life. Robert's surprise turns to horror when he searches a cellar described by Simon and finds a human skeleton whose skull has been split by an axe. But this is only the beginning. Simon tells him of other victims whose bodies have lain undiscovered for years. Suddenly, the present becomes murderously dangerous as well.
Eric Roberts, Ben Becker, Peter Greene and Sunny Mabrey star.
Roberts plays efense attorney Robert Stern who can scarcely believe his eyes when he meets with the mysterious client who has summoned him to a godforsaken industrial park. To his astonishment, the defendant is a ten-year-old boy, a fragile child with a brain tumor who insists that he was a murderer in a former life. Robert's surprise turns to horror when he searches a cellar described by Simon and finds a human skeleton whose skull has been split by an axe. But this is only the beginning. Simon tells him of other victims whose bodies have lain undiscovered for years. Suddenly, the present becomes murderously dangerous as well.
- 9/10/2012
- shocktillyoudrop.com
Tagline: "I'm Simon - I'm ten years old - I'm a serial killer..." The Child, or Das Kind for Germans, is a psychological thriller set for release this October (Germany only). The film stars Eric Roberts as a lawyer sent to meet a murderous young man, Simon (Christian Traeumer). Simon takes Stern on a tour of the local estate. This visit involves crypts and mummified bodies. And, Stern soon begins to realize that he might have been sent to this isolated locale for murderous reasons. The Child is an English language film that has recently been completed. A trailer is hosted below, but this clip is dialogued in German. Have a laugh as actors Roberts and Peter Greene deliver lines in a foreign language. Distribution in North America has not been secured. And, an English language trailer will be posted once it becomes available. Release Date: October 18th (Theatrical). Director: Zsolt Bács.
- 8/10/2012
- by noreply@blogger.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
Like in several other territories, commercial juggernauts will win it big in 2011. This should be the case for Germany. Til Schweiger, for example, is going to churn out family-oriented Kokowääh (no, that's not a word) and Keinohrhasen 3. As always, comedians are going to try to translate their concert hall fame into tickets, like Tom Gerhardt and Hilmi Sözer, who have teamed up for buddy-cop-com Die Superbullen, or Kurt Krömer, who's trying his luck in a movie called Eine Insel namens Udo - titles you won't have to memorize altogether, as they will hardly be exported to non-German-speaking countries. Pina, in contrast, will be: It's Wim Wenders' bow to the late Pina Bausch, a 3D dance theater experience running out of competition at coming February's Berlinale, dreaded in advance by arthouse purists. Meanwhile, these are some of the most promising German films that do show up on the horizon: #.5 Memory...
- 1/5/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
Opens
Nov. 7
A famously melancholy song, a touch of "Jules and Jim" and the heavy hand of Nazi oppression give the bittersweet "Gloomy Sunday" a haunted feeling. The streets of old Budapest grow uncomfortably quiet and barren as the years go by. The lively cafe at the heart of the story feels like an oasis from the world's troubles, like a much-deglamorized Rick's Cafe from "Casablanca". People eye one another and fall in love as if fully aware of the impending doom.
Long on atmosphere and Old World charm, "Gloomy", directed by co-writer Rolf Schubel, has circulated in various markets since it was completed in 1999. Distributed by Menemsha Films in the United States, "Gloomy" should attract appreciative adult audiences in specialty venues. The film expands nationally next week.
A song known as "Gloomy Sunday" was written in 1935 by two Hungarians. While it became a hit, the tune achieved notoriety when a number of people committed suicide while listening to its melody. Here, in this fictional story, those deaths are seen as a metaphor for the anguish and anxiety caused by a coming war.
The story begins in the present as a wealthy German industrialist arrives at the favorite restaurant of his youth, the Szabo cafe in Budapest, to celebrate his 80th birthday with his wife and friends. As he digs into his favorite dish, he asks the musicians to "play the song -- you know, the famous one." Then as his eyes fall on a black-and-white photo of a strikingly beautiful woman, he suffers a seizure and dies.
Almost immediately, the movie sweeps us into the 1930s. The beauty in the photo is the cafe's manager, Ilona (Erika Marozsan), hired by doting restaurateur Laszlo (Joachim Krol), who has been her lover for several years. Then Andras (Italy's Stefano Dionisi) enters the scene as the cafe's piano player, and he too falls for the dark-haired enchantress. For that matter, most men fall under her spell, including a blond and awkward German salesman named Hans (Ben Becker), who dines there often.
One fateful night, Andras plays a composition he has written for Ilona. It inspires Hans, due to return to Germany the next day, to propose to her. When she gently turns him down, Hans plunges into the Danube, but Laszlo rescues him. It turns out that Laszlo could use the distraction, for the song also inspired Ilona to go home with Andras.
Hans departs, and the remaining three agree to a menage a trois since none wants to lose the love and friendship of the other two. Soon enough, Andras' song gets recorded, and the suicides begin. Clearly, the tune is background music to the impending Holocaust. When the Nazis take over Hungary, Hans, now a colonel, sets up shop, cutting deals with Jewish manufacturers to take over their businesses and later saving Jews from the camps for steep fees.
Marozsan, dazzling enough to make Ilona's spell over men believable, plays her as a woman determined to live life by her own morality as the old culture is rapidly dying around her. Krol's Laszlo, a nonpracticing Jew who now needs Hans' protection, represents that Old World in a sense, yet as a Jew he too is an outsider. Dionisi (who is dubbed into German) makes Andras into tousle-haired, mercurial youth, essentially a weak man in many ways and a hopeless romantic.
The low-key lighting, graceful cinematography and accurate production design help bring the period to life, though a paucity of sets and locations caused by a limited budget do not allow the production crew to do justice to the rich world of old Budapest. A smooth score by Detlef Friedrich Petersen and Rezso Seress beautifully incorporates the title song into the dramatic structure, making it a true "song of love and death," as the film's German title, "Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod", would have it.
GLOOMY SUNDAY
Menemsha Films
A Studio Hamburg Produktion fur Film & Fernsehen, Dom Film, PolyGram Filmproduktion (Germany)/Focus Film (Hungary) production
Credits:
Director: Rolf Schubel
Screenwriter: Ruth Toma, Rolf Schubel
Based on the novel by: Nick Barkow
Producer: Richard Schops
Executive producers: Martin Rohrbeck, Aron Sipos
Director of photography: Edward Klosinski
Production designers: Csaba Stork, Volker Schaefer
Music: Detlef Friedrich Petersen, Rezso Seress
Costume designer: Andrea Flesch
Editor: Ursula Hof
Cast:
Ilona Varnai: Erika Marozsan
Laszlo Szabo: Joachim Krol
Andras Aradi: Stefano Dionisi
Hans Wieck: Ben Becker
Eichbaum: Sebastian Koch
No MPAA rating Running time -- 114 minutes...
Nov. 7
A famously melancholy song, a touch of "Jules and Jim" and the heavy hand of Nazi oppression give the bittersweet "Gloomy Sunday" a haunted feeling. The streets of old Budapest grow uncomfortably quiet and barren as the years go by. The lively cafe at the heart of the story feels like an oasis from the world's troubles, like a much-deglamorized Rick's Cafe from "Casablanca". People eye one another and fall in love as if fully aware of the impending doom.
Long on atmosphere and Old World charm, "Gloomy", directed by co-writer Rolf Schubel, has circulated in various markets since it was completed in 1999. Distributed by Menemsha Films in the United States, "Gloomy" should attract appreciative adult audiences in specialty venues. The film expands nationally next week.
A song known as "Gloomy Sunday" was written in 1935 by two Hungarians. While it became a hit, the tune achieved notoriety when a number of people committed suicide while listening to its melody. Here, in this fictional story, those deaths are seen as a metaphor for the anguish and anxiety caused by a coming war.
The story begins in the present as a wealthy German industrialist arrives at the favorite restaurant of his youth, the Szabo cafe in Budapest, to celebrate his 80th birthday with his wife and friends. As he digs into his favorite dish, he asks the musicians to "play the song -- you know, the famous one." Then as his eyes fall on a black-and-white photo of a strikingly beautiful woman, he suffers a seizure and dies.
Almost immediately, the movie sweeps us into the 1930s. The beauty in the photo is the cafe's manager, Ilona (Erika Marozsan), hired by doting restaurateur Laszlo (Joachim Krol), who has been her lover for several years. Then Andras (Italy's Stefano Dionisi) enters the scene as the cafe's piano player, and he too falls for the dark-haired enchantress. For that matter, most men fall under her spell, including a blond and awkward German salesman named Hans (Ben Becker), who dines there often.
One fateful night, Andras plays a composition he has written for Ilona. It inspires Hans, due to return to Germany the next day, to propose to her. When she gently turns him down, Hans plunges into the Danube, but Laszlo rescues him. It turns out that Laszlo could use the distraction, for the song also inspired Ilona to go home with Andras.
Hans departs, and the remaining three agree to a menage a trois since none wants to lose the love and friendship of the other two. Soon enough, Andras' song gets recorded, and the suicides begin. Clearly, the tune is background music to the impending Holocaust. When the Nazis take over Hungary, Hans, now a colonel, sets up shop, cutting deals with Jewish manufacturers to take over their businesses and later saving Jews from the camps for steep fees.
Marozsan, dazzling enough to make Ilona's spell over men believable, plays her as a woman determined to live life by her own morality as the old culture is rapidly dying around her. Krol's Laszlo, a nonpracticing Jew who now needs Hans' protection, represents that Old World in a sense, yet as a Jew he too is an outsider. Dionisi (who is dubbed into German) makes Andras into tousle-haired, mercurial youth, essentially a weak man in many ways and a hopeless romantic.
The low-key lighting, graceful cinematography and accurate production design help bring the period to life, though a paucity of sets and locations caused by a limited budget do not allow the production crew to do justice to the rich world of old Budapest. A smooth score by Detlef Friedrich Petersen and Rezso Seress beautifully incorporates the title song into the dramatic structure, making it a true "song of love and death," as the film's German title, "Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod", would have it.
GLOOMY SUNDAY
Menemsha Films
A Studio Hamburg Produktion fur Film & Fernsehen, Dom Film, PolyGram Filmproduktion (Germany)/Focus Film (Hungary) production
Credits:
Director: Rolf Schubel
Screenwriter: Ruth Toma, Rolf Schubel
Based on the novel by: Nick Barkow
Producer: Richard Schops
Executive producers: Martin Rohrbeck, Aron Sipos
Director of photography: Edward Klosinski
Production designers: Csaba Stork, Volker Schaefer
Music: Detlef Friedrich Petersen, Rezso Seress
Costume designer: Andrea Flesch
Editor: Ursula Hof
Cast:
Ilona Varnai: Erika Marozsan
Laszlo Szabo: Joachim Krol
Andras Aradi: Stefano Dionisi
Hans Wieck: Ben Becker
Eichbaum: Sebastian Koch
No MPAA rating Running time -- 114 minutes...
Swedish director Jan Troell's first feature film in five years was not a big commercial success in its home country, but if "As White as in Snow" is too long for modern audiences at 158 minutes, one wonders how his earlier acclaimed films like Oscar nominee "The Emigrants" would fare today.
In competition at Montreal and slated for the Nordic Visions sidebar at the Toronto International Film Festival, "White" is a beautifully made period film about Sweden's first aviatrix, who starts around the turn of the 20th century, and concludes with a tragedy, as so often happened in the early decades of aviation. It's a natural for festivals, and like Troell's critically championed "Hamsun", the film could earn a bit of a cult following among airplane bluffs and connoisseurs of so-called "old-fashioned" filmmaking.
Structured around a train trip to a 1922 aviation show in which fearless Elsa Andersson (Amanda Ooms) intends to thrill the crowd with the still new spectacle of parachuting from a plane, "White" does take a little while to gather steam. Troell's attention to detail and poetic approach to the material make it a satisfying journey.
Haunted by the death of her mother when she was a young girl and not about to become a complacent farmer's wife, Elsa has to outmaneuver her father (Bjorn Granath) in order to learn the art of flying. In some ways this is easier than learning about the men who come and go in her life, including a fellow flier (Bjorn Kjellman), a dashing "flying hussar" (Rikard Wolff), her brother (Shanti Roney) and the German (Ben Becker) who hires her to perform stunts.
Ooms is terrific in a performance with the full range of good times and disappointments. The vintage airplanes are showcased with a minimum of special effects, while 70-year-old Troell's cinematography and editing are as good as it gets.
AS WHITE AS IN SNOW
Nordisk Film
Director: Jan Troell
Screenwriters: Jan Troell, Jacques Werup, Karl-Erik Olsson-Snogerod, Jimmy Karlsson
Producer: Lars Hermann
Directors of photography: Jan Troell, Mischa Gavrjusjov
Production designer: Peter Bavman
Editor: Jan Troell
Costume designers: Katja Watkins
Music: Magnus Dahlberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Elsa Andersson: Amanda Ooms
Sven Andersson: Bjorn Granath
Robert Friedman: Rikard Wolff
Erik Magnusson: Bjorn Kjellman
Lars Andersson: Shanti Roney
Running time -- 158 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In competition at Montreal and slated for the Nordic Visions sidebar at the Toronto International Film Festival, "White" is a beautifully made period film about Sweden's first aviatrix, who starts around the turn of the 20th century, and concludes with a tragedy, as so often happened in the early decades of aviation. It's a natural for festivals, and like Troell's critically championed "Hamsun", the film could earn a bit of a cult following among airplane bluffs and connoisseurs of so-called "old-fashioned" filmmaking.
Structured around a train trip to a 1922 aviation show in which fearless Elsa Andersson (Amanda Ooms) intends to thrill the crowd with the still new spectacle of parachuting from a plane, "White" does take a little while to gather steam. Troell's attention to detail and poetic approach to the material make it a satisfying journey.
Haunted by the death of her mother when she was a young girl and not about to become a complacent farmer's wife, Elsa has to outmaneuver her father (Bjorn Granath) in order to learn the art of flying. In some ways this is easier than learning about the men who come and go in her life, including a fellow flier (Bjorn Kjellman), a dashing "flying hussar" (Rikard Wolff), her brother (Shanti Roney) and the German (Ben Becker) who hires her to perform stunts.
Ooms is terrific in a performance with the full range of good times and disappointments. The vintage airplanes are showcased with a minimum of special effects, while 70-year-old Troell's cinematography and editing are as good as it gets.
AS WHITE AS IN SNOW
Nordisk Film
Director: Jan Troell
Screenwriters: Jan Troell, Jacques Werup, Karl-Erik Olsson-Snogerod, Jimmy Karlsson
Producer: Lars Hermann
Directors of photography: Jan Troell, Mischa Gavrjusjov
Production designer: Peter Bavman
Editor: Jan Troell
Costume designers: Katja Watkins
Music: Magnus Dahlberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Elsa Andersson: Amanda Ooms
Sven Andersson: Bjorn Granath
Robert Friedman: Rikard Wolff
Erik Magnusson: Bjorn Kjellman
Lars Andersson: Shanti Roney
Running time -- 158 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Opens
Nov. 7
A famously melancholy song, a touch of "Jules and Jim" and the heavy hand of Nazi oppression give the bittersweet "Gloomy Sunday" a haunted feeling. The streets of old Budapest grow uncomfortably quiet and barren as the years go by. The lively cafe at the heart of the story feels like an oasis from the world's troubles, like a much-deglamorized Rick's Cafe from "Casablanca". People eye one another and fall in love as if fully aware of the impending doom.
Long on atmosphere and Old World charm, "Gloomy", directed by co-writer Rolf Schubel, has circulated in various markets since it was completed in 1999. Distributed by Menemsha Films in the United States, "Gloomy" should attract appreciative adult audiences in specialty venues. The film expands nationally next week.
A song known as "Gloomy Sunday" was written in 1935 by two Hungarians. While it became a hit, the tune achieved notoriety when a number of people committed suicide while listening to its melody. Here, in this fictional story, those deaths are seen as a metaphor for the anguish and anxiety caused by a coming war.
The story begins in the present as a wealthy German industrialist arrives at the favorite restaurant of his youth, the Szabo cafe in Budapest, to celebrate his 80th birthday with his wife and friends. As he digs into his favorite dish, he asks the musicians to "play the song -- you know, the famous one." Then as his eyes fall on a black-and-white photo of a strikingly beautiful woman, he suffers a seizure and dies.
Almost immediately, the movie sweeps us into the 1930s. The beauty in the photo is the cafe's manager, Ilona (Erika Marozsan), hired by doting restaurateur Laszlo (Joachim Krol), who has been her lover for several years. Then Andras (Italy's Stefano Dionisi) enters the scene as the cafe's piano player, and he too falls for the dark-haired enchantress. For that matter, most men fall under her spell, including a blond and awkward German salesman named Hans (Ben Becker), who dines there often.
One fateful night, Andras plays a composition he has written for Ilona. It inspires Hans, due to return to Germany the next day, to propose to her. When she gently turns him down, Hans plunges into the Danube, but Laszlo rescues him. It turns out that Laszlo could use the distraction, for the song also inspired Ilona to go home with Andras.
Hans departs, and the remaining three agree to a menage a trois since none wants to lose the love and friendship of the other two. Soon enough, Andras' song gets recorded, and the suicides begin. Clearly, the tune is background music to the impending Holocaust. When the Nazis take over Hungary, Hans, now a colonel, sets up shop, cutting deals with Jewish manufacturers to take over their businesses and later saving Jews from the camps for steep fees.
Marozsan, dazzling enough to make Ilona's spell over men believable, plays her as a woman determined to live life by her own morality as the old culture is rapidly dying around her. Krol's Laszlo, a nonpracticing Jew who now needs Hans' protection, represents that Old World in a sense, yet as a Jew he too is an outsider. Dionisi (who is dubbed into German) makes Andras into tousle-haired, mercurial youth, essentially a weak man in many ways and a hopeless romantic.
The low-key lighting, graceful cinematography and accurate production design help bring the period to life, though a paucity of sets and locations caused by a limited budget do not allow the production crew to do justice to the rich world of old Budapest. A smooth score by Detlef Friedrich Petersen and Rezso Seress beautifully incorporates the title song into the dramatic structure, making it a true "song of love and death," as the film's German title, "Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod", would have it.
GLOOMY SUNDAY
Menemsha Films
A Studio Hamburg Produktion fur Film & Fernsehen, Dom Film, PolyGram Filmproduktion (Germany)/Focus Film (Hungary) production
Credits:
Director: Rolf Schubel
Screenwriter: Ruth Toma, Rolf Schubel
Based on the novel by: Nick Barkow
Producer: Richard Schops
Executive producers: Martin Rohrbeck, Aron Sipos
Director of photography: Edward Klosinski
Production designers: Csaba Stork, Volker Schaefer
Music: Detlef Friedrich Petersen, Rezso Seress
Costume designer: Andrea Flesch
Editor: Ursula Hof
Cast:
Ilona Varnai: Erika Marozsan
Laszlo Szabo: Joachim Krol
Andras Aradi: Stefano Dionisi
Hans Wieck: Ben Becker
Eichbaum: Sebastian Koch
No MPAA rating Running time -- 114 minutes...
Nov. 7
A famously melancholy song, a touch of "Jules and Jim" and the heavy hand of Nazi oppression give the bittersweet "Gloomy Sunday" a haunted feeling. The streets of old Budapest grow uncomfortably quiet and barren as the years go by. The lively cafe at the heart of the story feels like an oasis from the world's troubles, like a much-deglamorized Rick's Cafe from "Casablanca". People eye one another and fall in love as if fully aware of the impending doom.
Long on atmosphere and Old World charm, "Gloomy", directed by co-writer Rolf Schubel, has circulated in various markets since it was completed in 1999. Distributed by Menemsha Films in the United States, "Gloomy" should attract appreciative adult audiences in specialty venues. The film expands nationally next week.
A song known as "Gloomy Sunday" was written in 1935 by two Hungarians. While it became a hit, the tune achieved notoriety when a number of people committed suicide while listening to its melody. Here, in this fictional story, those deaths are seen as a metaphor for the anguish and anxiety caused by a coming war.
The story begins in the present as a wealthy German industrialist arrives at the favorite restaurant of his youth, the Szabo cafe in Budapest, to celebrate his 80th birthday with his wife and friends. As he digs into his favorite dish, he asks the musicians to "play the song -- you know, the famous one." Then as his eyes fall on a black-and-white photo of a strikingly beautiful woman, he suffers a seizure and dies.
Almost immediately, the movie sweeps us into the 1930s. The beauty in the photo is the cafe's manager, Ilona (Erika Marozsan), hired by doting restaurateur Laszlo (Joachim Krol), who has been her lover for several years. Then Andras (Italy's Stefano Dionisi) enters the scene as the cafe's piano player, and he too falls for the dark-haired enchantress. For that matter, most men fall under her spell, including a blond and awkward German salesman named Hans (Ben Becker), who dines there often.
One fateful night, Andras plays a composition he has written for Ilona. It inspires Hans, due to return to Germany the next day, to propose to her. When she gently turns him down, Hans plunges into the Danube, but Laszlo rescues him. It turns out that Laszlo could use the distraction, for the song also inspired Ilona to go home with Andras.
Hans departs, and the remaining three agree to a menage a trois since none wants to lose the love and friendship of the other two. Soon enough, Andras' song gets recorded, and the suicides begin. Clearly, the tune is background music to the impending Holocaust. When the Nazis take over Hungary, Hans, now a colonel, sets up shop, cutting deals with Jewish manufacturers to take over their businesses and later saving Jews from the camps for steep fees.
Marozsan, dazzling enough to make Ilona's spell over men believable, plays her as a woman determined to live life by her own morality as the old culture is rapidly dying around her. Krol's Laszlo, a nonpracticing Jew who now needs Hans' protection, represents that Old World in a sense, yet as a Jew he too is an outsider. Dionisi (who is dubbed into German) makes Andras into tousle-haired, mercurial youth, essentially a weak man in many ways and a hopeless romantic.
The low-key lighting, graceful cinematography and accurate production design help bring the period to life, though a paucity of sets and locations caused by a limited budget do not allow the production crew to do justice to the rich world of old Budapest. A smooth score by Detlef Friedrich Petersen and Rezso Seress beautifully incorporates the title song into the dramatic structure, making it a true "song of love and death," as the film's German title, "Ein Lied von Liebe und Tod", would have it.
GLOOMY SUNDAY
Menemsha Films
A Studio Hamburg Produktion fur Film & Fernsehen, Dom Film, PolyGram Filmproduktion (Germany)/Focus Film (Hungary) production
Credits:
Director: Rolf Schubel
Screenwriter: Ruth Toma, Rolf Schubel
Based on the novel by: Nick Barkow
Producer: Richard Schops
Executive producers: Martin Rohrbeck, Aron Sipos
Director of photography: Edward Klosinski
Production designers: Csaba Stork, Volker Schaefer
Music: Detlef Friedrich Petersen, Rezso Seress
Costume designer: Andrea Flesch
Editor: Ursula Hof
Cast:
Ilona Varnai: Erika Marozsan
Laszlo Szabo: Joachim Krol
Andras Aradi: Stefano Dionisi
Hans Wieck: Ben Becker
Eichbaum: Sebastian Koch
No MPAA rating Running time -- 114 minutes...
- 11/6/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Swedish director Jan Troell's first feature film in five years was not a big commercial success in its home country, but if "As White as in Snow" is too long for modern audiences at 158 minutes, one wonders how his earlier acclaimed films like Oscar nominee "The Emigrants" would fare today.
In competition at Montreal and slated for the Nordic Visions sidebar at the Toronto International Film Festival, "White" is a beautifully made period film about Sweden's first aviatrix, who starts around the turn of the 20th century, and concludes with a tragedy, as so often happened in the early decades of aviation. It's a natural for festivals, and like Troell's critically championed "Hamsun", the film could earn a bit of a cult following among airplane bluffs and connoisseurs of so-called "old-fashioned" filmmaking.
Structured around a train trip to a 1922 aviation show in which fearless Elsa Andersson (Amanda Ooms) intends to thrill the crowd with the still new spectacle of parachuting from a plane, "White" does take a little while to gather steam. Troell's attention to detail and poetic approach to the material make it a satisfying journey.
Haunted by the death of her mother when she was a young girl and not about to become a complacent farmer's wife, Elsa has to outmaneuver her father (Bjorn Granath) in order to learn the art of flying. In some ways this is easier than learning about the men who come and go in her life, including a fellow flier (Bjorn Kjellman), a dashing "flying hussar" (Rikard Wolff), her brother (Shanti Roney) and the German (Ben Becker) who hires her to perform stunts.
Ooms is terrific in a performance with the full range of good times and disappointments. The vintage airplanes are showcased with a minimum of special effects, while 70-year-old Troell's cinematography and editing are as good as it gets.
AS WHITE AS IN SNOW
Nordisk Film
Director: Jan Troell
Screenwriters: Jan Troell, Jacques Werup, Karl-Erik Olsson-Snogerod, Jimmy Karlsson
Producer: Lars Hermann
Directors of photography: Jan Troell, Mischa Gavrjusjov
Production designer: Peter Bavman
Editor: Jan Troell
Costume designers: Katja Watkins
Music: Magnus Dahlberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Elsa Andersson: Amanda Ooms
Sven Andersson: Bjorn Granath
Robert Friedman: Rikard Wolff
Erik Magnusson: Bjorn Kjellman
Lars Andersson: Shanti Roney
Running time -- 158 minutes
No MPAA rating...
In competition at Montreal and slated for the Nordic Visions sidebar at the Toronto International Film Festival, "White" is a beautifully made period film about Sweden's first aviatrix, who starts around the turn of the 20th century, and concludes with a tragedy, as so often happened in the early decades of aviation. It's a natural for festivals, and like Troell's critically championed "Hamsun", the film could earn a bit of a cult following among airplane bluffs and connoisseurs of so-called "old-fashioned" filmmaking.
Structured around a train trip to a 1922 aviation show in which fearless Elsa Andersson (Amanda Ooms) intends to thrill the crowd with the still new spectacle of parachuting from a plane, "White" does take a little while to gather steam. Troell's attention to detail and poetic approach to the material make it a satisfying journey.
Haunted by the death of her mother when she was a young girl and not about to become a complacent farmer's wife, Elsa has to outmaneuver her father (Bjorn Granath) in order to learn the art of flying. In some ways this is easier than learning about the men who come and go in her life, including a fellow flier (Bjorn Kjellman), a dashing "flying hussar" (Rikard Wolff), her brother (Shanti Roney) and the German (Ben Becker) who hires her to perform stunts.
Ooms is terrific in a performance with the full range of good times and disappointments. The vintage airplanes are showcased with a minimum of special effects, while 70-year-old Troell's cinematography and editing are as good as it gets.
AS WHITE AS IN SNOW
Nordisk Film
Director: Jan Troell
Screenwriters: Jan Troell, Jacques Werup, Karl-Erik Olsson-Snogerod, Jimmy Karlsson
Producer: Lars Hermann
Directors of photography: Jan Troell, Mischa Gavrjusjov
Production designer: Peter Bavman
Editor: Jan Troell
Costume designers: Katja Watkins
Music: Magnus Dahlberg
Color/stereo
Cast:
Elsa Andersson: Amanda Ooms
Sven Andersson: Bjorn Granath
Robert Friedman: Rikard Wolff
Erik Magnusson: Bjorn Kjellman
Lars Andersson: Shanti Roney
Running time -- 158 minutes
No MPAA rating...
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