Before we ever see a face, closeups of backbones and muscles take over the frame. The body, punished in the pursuit of physical aestheticism, belongs to Nadja (Sarah Grether), a strict ballet teacher. Though her joints ache, she refuses to use a cane. A shot of one of her bleeding toes after a session teaching young girls confirms her masochistic mindset.
From director Isabelle Stever, the provocative, if emotionally inert, German drama “Grand Jeté” — named after a jump in which a ballerina floats midair for an instant — deals with the transgression of the flesh but remains impartial to the actions of its characters, arguing that bodily pleasure and the outcome of said enjoyment don’t abide by the rules of morality.
Stoic to a fault, Nadja lives with a boyfriend whom we only see briefly. One night after visiting her mother, she hangs out with her teenage son Mario (Emil von Schönfels...
From director Isabelle Stever, the provocative, if emotionally inert, German drama “Grand Jeté” — named after a jump in which a ballerina floats midair for an instant — deals with the transgression of the flesh but remains impartial to the actions of its characters, arguing that bodily pleasure and the outcome of said enjoyment don’t abide by the rules of morality.
Stoic to a fault, Nadja lives with a boyfriend whom we only see briefly. One night after visiting her mother, she hangs out with her teenage son Mario (Emil von Schönfels...
- 9/22/2022
- by Carlos Aguilar
- The Wrap
Grand Jeté’s director Isabelle Stever on Sarah Nevada Grether, who studied with John Neumeier and was a member of the Stuttgart Ballet. “It was in a way my desired cast for this role because I was looking for a woman that I cannot immediately put in a drawer …” Photo: Constantin Campean
Isabelle Stever’s emotionally complex Grand Jeté, screenplay by Anna Melikova, based on the novel by Anke Stelling and starring Sarah Nevada Grether with Emil von Schönfels and Susanne Bredehöft had its World Premiere at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Shot by Constantin Campean and co-produced by Olga Dykhovichnaya is a film of exquisite closeups, from well-worn beige T-strap dancing shoes to hairpins taken out for a ritualistic weigh-in.
Isabelle Stever with Anne-Katrin Titze on Chris Marker: “La Jetée is one of the best short films ever made …”
Ballet dancer Nadja (Sarah Nevada Grether) with injuries...
Isabelle Stever’s emotionally complex Grand Jeté, screenplay by Anna Melikova, based on the novel by Anke Stelling and starring Sarah Nevada Grether with Emil von Schönfels and Susanne Bredehöft had its World Premiere at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Shot by Constantin Campean and co-produced by Olga Dykhovichnaya is a film of exquisite closeups, from well-worn beige T-strap dancing shoes to hairpins taken out for a ritualistic weigh-in.
Isabelle Stever with Anne-Katrin Titze on Chris Marker: “La Jetée is one of the best short films ever made …”
Ballet dancer Nadja (Sarah Nevada Grether) with injuries...
- 9/15/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"You don't know anything about maternal feelings." Altered Innocence has debuted an official US trailer for a strange, icky new German film titled Grand Jeté, the latest from indie filmmaker Isabelle Stever. This first premiered at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and it already opened in Germany earlier this month. In order to concentrate on her career, a ballet teacher lives estranged from her young son, who instead is raised by his grandmother. When she meets him again years later when he is a teenager, and she is now working as a dance instructor, an affection develops that goes far beyond maternal love. Described as a "taboo-shattering" romantic drama that earned plenty of controversy when it first premiered (for obvious reasons), you can check it out if you're curious. Or not. It all just seems like an obvious fantasy and "what if" provocation, rather than anything interesting to consider.
- 8/29/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Premiering at Berlinale earlier this year to a controversial response, Isabelle Stever’s Grand Jeté captures a taboo mother-son romance relationship, recalling other daring European dramas like Christophe Honoré’s Ma mère and Bertrand Blier’s Beau Pere. Now picked up by Altered Innocence for a theatrical release beginning in LA on September 20 at Laemmle Royal and coming to VOD on October 25, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the striking trailer.
The film follows Nadja (Sarah Nevada Grether), an aspiring ballerina with the scars to prove it. A masochistic pursuit at her dream career has left her body battered, a map of the tumultuous torture dancers withstand on a daily basis. Working now as a dancing instructor for children, rather than as the dancer she always wanted to be, she decides to visit the adult son she has been estranged from since he was a child. Mario (Emil von Schönfels), raised by his grandmother,...
The film follows Nadja (Sarah Nevada Grether), an aspiring ballerina with the scars to prove it. A masochistic pursuit at her dream career has left her body battered, a map of the tumultuous torture dancers withstand on a daily basis. Working now as a dancing instructor for children, rather than as the dancer she always wanted to be, she decides to visit the adult son she has been estranged from since he was a child. Mario (Emil von Schönfels), raised by his grandmother,...
- 8/26/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Altered Innocence has picked up all U.S. rights to Isabelle Stever’s sixth feature film “Grand Jeté” prior to its premiere on Friday in the Panorama section of Berlinale.
The film stars Sarah Nevada Grether as Nadja, a woman who has estranged herself from her young son in order to be able to concentrate on her ballet career. When she meets the son (played by rising star Emil von Schönfels), who grew up with her mother, again after years at a family party, an affection develops that goes far beyond motherly love. A release is planned for late 2022.
The deal was negotiated between Frank Jaffe from Altered Innocence and Matteo Lovadina from Reel Suspects.
Jaffe commented: “Director Isabelle Stever crafts an intense, but yet very intimate and lyrical film about one woman’s obsession with finding love and tranquility after an intense dancing career with an unlikely companion: her own son.
The film stars Sarah Nevada Grether as Nadja, a woman who has estranged herself from her young son in order to be able to concentrate on her ballet career. When she meets the son (played by rising star Emil von Schönfels), who grew up with her mother, again after years at a family party, an affection develops that goes far beyond motherly love. A release is planned for late 2022.
The deal was negotiated between Frank Jaffe from Altered Innocence and Matteo Lovadina from Reel Suspects.
Jaffe commented: “Director Isabelle Stever crafts an intense, but yet very intimate and lyrical film about one woman’s obsession with finding love and tranquility after an intense dancing career with an unlikely companion: her own son.
- 2/10/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Mother and son drama is based on the 2017 novel Fürsorge (Care) by German novelist Anne Stelling.
Paris-based sales company Reel Suspects has acquired world sales rights to German director Isabelle Stever’s Grand Jeté ahead of its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama section.
Based on the 2017 novel Fürsorge (Care) by German novelist Anne Stelling, it revolves around the incestuous relationship between a dancer and her young adult son.
US, Berlin-based actress and dancer Sarah Nevada Grether makes her big-screen debut as a mother who estranged herself from her young son in order to be able to concentrate on her ballet career.
Paris-based sales company Reel Suspects has acquired world sales rights to German director Isabelle Stever’s Grand Jeté ahead of its world premiere in the Berlinale’s Panorama section.
Based on the 2017 novel Fürsorge (Care) by German novelist Anne Stelling, it revolves around the incestuous relationship between a dancer and her young adult son.
US, Berlin-based actress and dancer Sarah Nevada Grether makes her big-screen debut as a mother who estranged herself from her young son in order to be able to concentrate on her ballet career.
- 1/24/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The program announcements continue for the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival this week, with the full Panorama line-up now confirmed.
Adding to the initial titles unveiled back in April are films including Alain Guiraudie’s Nobody’s Hero, which opens the strand this year.
Also confirmed today were the titles that will participate in the Berlinale Series Market and Co-Pro Series event this year.
Taking part in Berlinale Series Market Selects will be The Fear Index, the upcoming show from Left Bank Pictures that is set to star Josh Hartnett, as well as projects from Keshet, Viaplay and Globo. See the full lists below.
Tomorrow, Berlin chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek will unveil the 2022 Competition line-up at an event that kicks off at 11Am Cet.
Panorama Additions:
Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm
Germany
by Cem Kaya
World premiere / Panorama Dokumente
Baqyt (Happiness)
Kazakhstan
by Askar Uzabayev
with Laura Myrzakhmetova,...
Adding to the initial titles unveiled back in April are films including Alain Guiraudie’s Nobody’s Hero, which opens the strand this year.
Also confirmed today were the titles that will participate in the Berlinale Series Market and Co-Pro Series event this year.
Taking part in Berlinale Series Market Selects will be The Fear Index, the upcoming show from Left Bank Pictures that is set to star Josh Hartnett, as well as projects from Keshet, Viaplay and Globo. See the full lists below.
Tomorrow, Berlin chiefs Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek will unveil the 2022 Competition line-up at an event that kicks off at 11Am Cet.
Panorama Additions:
Aşk, Mark ve Ölüm
Germany
by Cem Kaya
World premiere / Panorama Dokumente
Baqyt (Happiness)
Kazakhstan
by Askar Uzabayev
with Laura Myrzakhmetova,...
- 1/18/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
French auteur Alain Guiraudie’s political drama “Nobody’s Hero” has been set as the opener of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival’s multifaceted Panorama strand, which has announced its full lineup.
The latest feature from Guiraudie, who is best known for his 2016 “Staying Vertical,” takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where a terrorist attack triggers some paranoid dynamics involving a young homeless man, a middle-aged sex worker and her married lover who have taken refuge in a building. The film’s cast comprises actor-director Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Charles Clichet and Doria Tillier.
The ten-title Panorama Dokumente strand, which runs concurrently with the feature films, comprises previously announced transgender-themed doc “Nel Mio Nome” (“Into My Name”) by Italian director and producer Nicolò Bassetti. Elliot Page has come on board as executive producer to support the doc which observes gender transition from a female to a male identity of four characters within a...
The latest feature from Guiraudie, who is best known for his 2016 “Staying Vertical,” takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where a terrorist attack triggers some paranoid dynamics involving a young homeless man, a middle-aged sex worker and her married lover who have taken refuge in a building. The film’s cast comprises actor-director Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Charles Clichet and Doria Tillier.
The ten-title Panorama Dokumente strand, which runs concurrently with the feature films, comprises previously announced transgender-themed doc “Nel Mio Nome” (“Into My Name”) by Italian director and producer Nicolò Bassetti. Elliot Page has come on board as executive producer to support the doc which observes gender transition from a female to a male identity of four characters within a...
- 1/18/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The film is based on Finn-Ole Heinrich’s novel of the same name, and stars teenage actors Emil von Schönfels and Mekyas Mulugeta in the lead roles. Director Ilker Çatak, who in 2015 won the Student Oscar for his short film Fidelity, is currently working on a new feature, Räuberhände. This adaptation of the young-adult fiction novel of the same name by Finn-Ole Heinrich (the script was penned by Heinrich himself and Gabriele Simon) was honoured with the Thomas Strittmatter Prize for Screenwriting in 2018. Endowed with €20,000, in 2017, the award handed out annually by the Mfg Baden-Württemberg went to Nora Fingscheidt’s script for System Crasher, which went on to become the film that won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the 2019 Berlinale. Räuberhände will tell the story of Janik and Samuel, two teenage friends from different family backgrounds. Coming from a “perfect” family, Janick longs for some...
- 10/10/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
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