Angel Heart: Sauvaire Serves Savior Complex in Ems Thriller
“It’s easier with wings than without,” was the tagline for Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire, which could easily have been borrowed for Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s fourth feature, Asphalt City. Based on the 2008 novel by Shannon Burke, Ben Mac Brown and Ryan King, both making their screenwriting debut, make the rookie mistake of not trusting their audience well enough to discern its key themes and motifs. Filled with fascinating characters and a handful of intense altercations, it’s a pity to see such a promising character study of how good intentions often lead to dark consequences hobbled significantly by such discernible handholding.…...
“It’s easier with wings than without,” was the tagline for Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire, which could easily have been borrowed for Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s fourth feature, Asphalt City. Based on the 2008 novel by Shannon Burke, Ben Mac Brown and Ryan King, both making their screenwriting debut, make the rookie mistake of not trusting their audience well enough to discern its key themes and motifs. Filled with fascinating characters and a handful of intense altercations, it’s a pity to see such a promising character study of how good intentions often lead to dark consequences hobbled significantly by such discernible handholding.…...
- 3/29/2024
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
After Blue (Bertrand Mandico)
In the post-apocalyptic nightmare of After Blue, humanity—or what’s left of it—roams a former paradise turned wasteland. The Armageddon that wrecked the Earth in some undetermined past left no machines behind, no screens, and, perhaps most conspicuously, no men. In the distant planet the human race fled to, and which writer-director Bertrand Mandico’s film is named after, “they were the first to die,” we’re warned early on: “their hairs grew inside them, and killed them.” As it was for its predecessor, The Wild Boys, After Blue is suffused in a feverish ecstasy, that wild excitement that comes from a watching one world crumble and another jutting into being from scratch, a vision of...
After Blue (Bertrand Mandico)
In the post-apocalyptic nightmare of After Blue, humanity—or what’s left of it—roams a former paradise turned wasteland. The Armageddon that wrecked the Earth in some undetermined past left no machines behind, no screens, and, perhaps most conspicuously, no men. In the distant planet the human race fled to, and which writer-director Bertrand Mandico’s film is named after, “they were the first to die,” we’re warned early on: “their hairs grew inside them, and killed them.” As it was for its predecessor, The Wild Boys, After Blue is suffused in a feverish ecstasy, that wild excitement that comes from a watching one world crumble and another jutting into being from scratch, a vision of...
- 3/22/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Finally, the end is in sight. The 96th Academy Awards are just around the corner on March 10 after six months of film festivals, critics’ honors and major awards. So, it’s the perfect time of offer up some fun Oscar facts and tidbits of awards long past as well as the present.
It’s hard to escape all the news reports and late-night pundits discussing the fact that the nominees for President this year are elderly. Joe Biden is 82; Donald Trump is 77 but will be 78 by the time of the election. Let’s face it, Washington, D.C. has become “No District for Old Men.”
But do you know which best director Oscar nominee is in his 80s? Martin Scorsese. He’s 81 and still on the top of his game earning his 10th nomination for best director for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” But instead of being a punchline on late night TV,...
It’s hard to escape all the news reports and late-night pundits discussing the fact that the nominees for President this year are elderly. Joe Biden is 82; Donald Trump is 77 but will be 78 by the time of the election. Let’s face it, Washington, D.C. has become “No District for Old Men.”
But do you know which best director Oscar nominee is in his 80s? Martin Scorsese. He’s 81 and still on the top of his game earning his 10th nomination for best director for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” But instead of being a punchline on late night TV,...
- 3/4/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with film producer Christine Hartland about My Smash Media – the online resource that aims to turn new talent into market savvy content creators and make it easier for them to connect with decision-makers; and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life”, which include:
Angel Heart (1987) Betty Blue (1986) Wings Of Desire (1987)
“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.
Powered by RedCircle...
Angel Heart (1987) Betty Blue (1986) Wings Of Desire (1987)
“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.
Powered by RedCircle...
- 2/27/2024
- by Stuart Wright
- Nerdly
Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which is nominated for best international feature film at the Oscars, has smashed the all-time global box office record set by the German director’s previous films. While it has yet to be released in all territories, “Perfect Days” has amassed a worldwide box office total of $24.3 million as of Feb. 18, according to Comscore.
Among his previous films, “Paris, Texas” earned $2.26 million, “Wings of Desire” took $3.5 million, “Pina” took $18.7 million, and “Buena Vista Social Club” grossed $23.1 million, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.
“Perfect Days” premiered in competition at Cannes Film Festival where Koji Yakusho, who plays a restroom cleaner in Tokyo, won the best actor prize. The Match Factory sold the film to all territories worldwide.
Neon released the film in the U.S. on Feb. 7, earning $497,787 after its second weekend. “Perfect Days” opened in Germany on Dec. 21 through Dcm with 3.6 million Euros ($3.87 million) so far.
Among his previous films, “Paris, Texas” earned $2.26 million, “Wings of Desire” took $3.5 million, “Pina” took $18.7 million, and “Buena Vista Social Club” grossed $23.1 million, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.
“Perfect Days” premiered in competition at Cannes Film Festival where Koji Yakusho, who plays a restroom cleaner in Tokyo, won the best actor prize. The Match Factory sold the film to all territories worldwide.
Neon released the film in the U.S. on Feb. 7, earning $497,787 after its second weekend. “Perfect Days” opened in Germany on Dec. 21 through Dcm with 3.6 million Euros ($3.87 million) so far.
- 2/20/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The foundation of German director Wim Wenders has struck a deal with sales agent Salaud Morisset to handle theatrical, festival and non-commercial distribution rights for his catalog of 25 films for all unsold territories worldwide.
Wenders’ latest film, “Perfect Days,” is nominated for the international Oscar.
The deal with Wim Wenders Stiftung covers 17 feature films, four feature documentaries and seven short films, including “Kings of the Road” (1976), “The American Friend” (1977), “Paris, Texas” (1984), “Wings of Desire” (1987) and “Buena Vista Social Club” (1999).
Commercial rights to the Wenders catalog are handled by Hanway Films, a lifetime partner of Wenders and the foundation.
Salaud Morisset, which is led by François Morisset, will work with the director’s foundation to “ensure the sustained relevance and preservation of [his] body of work while reaching a global audience,” the company stated. “The company plans to approach each territory with a specific strategy, actively working on special screening series and retrospectives.
Wenders’ latest film, “Perfect Days,” is nominated for the international Oscar.
The deal with Wim Wenders Stiftung covers 17 feature films, four feature documentaries and seven short films, including “Kings of the Road” (1976), “The American Friend” (1977), “Paris, Texas” (1984), “Wings of Desire” (1987) and “Buena Vista Social Club” (1999).
Commercial rights to the Wenders catalog are handled by Hanway Films, a lifetime partner of Wenders and the foundation.
Salaud Morisset, which is led by François Morisset, will work with the director’s foundation to “ensure the sustained relevance and preservation of [his] body of work while reaching a global audience,” the company stated. “The company plans to approach each territory with a specific strategy, actively working on special screening series and retrospectives.
- 2/18/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Noted Hollywood publicist Mickey Cottrell passed away on January 1, 2024, at the age of 79. He was known throughout the 1990s for his advocacy of independent film, his knowledge of queer history, and his wild blowout parties. He promoted films like Jonatha Couette's "Tarnation," Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire," and Philip Noyce's "Dead Calm," as well as "Weekend," "Querelle," and "Earth Girls Are Easy."
Cottrell was so well-liked in the industry, and such an outsize character, that he would occasionally appear in films. In fact, he has several dozen acting credits to his name, many of them in indie queer films. He played a corpse in John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus," a barfly in "The Fluffer," and a mincing French aristocrat in league with demons in "Hellraiser: Bloodline." He was also the one who got to say "Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!" in Tim Burton's "Ed Wood." His first acting...
Cottrell was so well-liked in the industry, and such an outsize character, that he would occasionally appear in films. In fact, he has several dozen acting credits to his name, many of them in indie queer films. He played a corpse in John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus," a barfly in "The Fluffer," and a mincing French aristocrat in league with demons in "Hellraiser: Bloodline." He was also the one who got to say "Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!" in Tim Burton's "Ed Wood." His first acting...
- 2/7/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
You may know Kōji Yakusho as the oyster-slurping mystery man from the noodle-Western extraordinaire Tampopo (1985). Perhaps you remember him as the depressed suburbanite who ballroom dances his blues away in the international feel-good hit Shall We Dance? (1996). He’s the reformed felon in the Cannes-winning character study The Eel (1997), a former muse to filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa in the late Nineties and early aughts, the familiar face who graced Hollywood fare like Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and Babel (2006), and — if you’ve followed his 40-plus years as a major figure in...
- 2/7/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
The big surprise on the runway of Yohji Yamamoto’s Fall Winter 2024 men’s collection in Paris was the appearance of Wim Wenders. The 78-year-old German filmmaker, currently enjoying box office success in Europe with Perfect Days, walked the runway wearing classic pieces in the fashion house’s style of layering and varying lengths.
Yamamoto’s connection to Wenders dates back to 1989, when the director of Wings of Desire made a documentary about the founder of the Japanese brand called Notebook on Cities and Clothes.
“We became close like brothers a long time ago. We share the same memory from when we were very young — the Tokyo and Berlin bombings,” the fashion designer stressed backstage at the event inside Yamamoto’s European headquarters on Rue Saint-Martin, in the heart of Les Halles.
The soundtrack featured famous songs such as Radiohead’s “Creep,” Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and Johnny Cash’s “The Little Drummer Boy,...
Yamamoto’s connection to Wenders dates back to 1989, when the director of Wings of Desire made a documentary about the founder of the Japanese brand called Notebook on Cities and Clothes.
“We became close like brothers a long time ago. We share the same memory from when we were very young — the Tokyo and Berlin bombings,” the fashion designer stressed backstage at the event inside Yamamoto’s European headquarters on Rue Saint-Martin, in the heart of Les Halles.
The soundtrack featured famous songs such as Radiohead’s “Creep,” Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and Johnny Cash’s “The Little Drummer Boy,...
- 1/21/2024
- by Pino Gagliardi
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
We’re happy to report that after five days, all of our New Years Resolutions are still intact. Except for the one about doing 20 minutes of yoga in the morning. Impossible. And the one about not eating the entire bag of potato chips in one sitting. Yeah, nah. Oh! We also didn’t stop doomscrolling, smoking or clipping our toenails at the gym. But other than that? Perfectly on track. And while there are still two long months of awards season left to endure enjoy, the New Year has brought a bountiful crop of Don’t-Miss Indies.
The Lady Bird Diaries
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: Hulu
Director: Dawn Porter
Why We’re Excited: Acclaimed documentarian Dawn Porter’s moving new documentary offers a singular vantage point on of the most important administrations in US history, based on 123 hours of former First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson’s own audio diaries.
The Lady Bird Diaries
When You Can Watch: Now
Where You Can Watch: Hulu
Director: Dawn Porter
Why We’re Excited: Acclaimed documentarian Dawn Porter’s moving new documentary offers a singular vantage point on of the most important administrations in US history, based on 123 hours of former First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson’s own audio diaries.
- 1/5/2024
- by Su Fang Tham
- Film Independent News & More
‘Perfect Days’ to Kick Off Wim Wenders Retrospective From American Cinematheque and Neon (Exclusive)
The American Cinematheque has programmed a retrospective to celebrate the work of three-time Oscar nominee Wim Wenders ahead of the Feb. 7 nationwide release of his latest film “Perfect Days,” Neon announced.
The retrospective screenings and in-person Q&As will begin on Jan. 11 at the Aero Theatre with a double feature of “Perfect Days” and “Tokyo-Ga” at 7:30 p.m. There will be a Q&a segment with the director in between the films. Tickets will go on sale on Thursday on the American Cinematheque website.
Shortlisted for best international film, “Perfect Days” is the Japanese submission for the 2024 Oscars. The film was awarded the prize of the ecumenial jury and the best actor award for Koji Yakusho at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Yakusho also executive produces the film, with Koji Yanai, Wenders and co-writer Takuma Takasaki producing it. Prior to its nationwide release, the film was released in limited theaters on Nov.
The retrospective screenings and in-person Q&As will begin on Jan. 11 at the Aero Theatre with a double feature of “Perfect Days” and “Tokyo-Ga” at 7:30 p.m. There will be a Q&a segment with the director in between the films. Tickets will go on sale on Thursday on the American Cinematheque website.
Shortlisted for best international film, “Perfect Days” is the Japanese submission for the 2024 Oscars. The film was awarded the prize of the ecumenial jury and the best actor award for Koji Yakusho at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Yakusho also executive produces the film, with Koji Yanai, Wenders and co-writer Takuma Takasaki producing it. Prior to its nationwide release, the film was released in limited theaters on Nov.
- 1/4/2024
- by Caroline Brew
- Variety Film + TV
Mickey Cottrell, a veteran publicist for independent films known as a champion of filmmakers and actors, died Monday at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, his sister Suzy Cottrell confirmed. He was 79.
Cottrell had returned to Los Angeles in 2019 after living with his sister in Arkansas while he recovered from a stroke he suffered in 2016.
His sister remembered him on Facebook, writing, “My adorable, fun, critical, foodie, particular, brilliant, loving brother passed on to the next life early on New Year’s Day. He was smiling when he died. Mickey Cottrell will be missed by many.”
A fixture at film festivals, he was remembered by friends on Facebook as a generous and sassy raconteur, a devoted mentor, the “life of the party” who threw star-studded Sundance parties in the 1990s and an expert on gay Hollywood history.
Cottrell also acted in numerous small roles over the years, including turns...
Cottrell had returned to Los Angeles in 2019 after living with his sister in Arkansas while he recovered from a stroke he suffered in 2016.
His sister remembered him on Facebook, writing, “My adorable, fun, critical, foodie, particular, brilliant, loving brother passed on to the next life early on New Year’s Day. He was smiling when he died. Mickey Cottrell will be missed by many.”
A fixture at film festivals, he was remembered by friends on Facebook as a generous and sassy raconteur, a devoted mentor, the “life of the party” who threw star-studded Sundance parties in the 1990s and an expert on gay Hollywood history.
Cottrell also acted in numerous small roles over the years, including turns...
- 1/2/2024
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
Brad Silberling's 1998 romance "City of Angels," a remake of Wim Wenders' indispensable 1987 film "Wings of Desire," stars Nicolas Cage as an immortal angel named Seth who gently breezes around Los Angeles, unseen by the people who live there. He appears to people only when they die, accompanying them to the afterworld. Observing humans as if they are an ineffable alien species, Seth becomes particularly enamored of an ambitious and compassionate young doctor named Maggie Rice. Seth finds that he might be experiencing love for the first time, and becomes visible to Dr. Rice, courting her and asking her deep questions about what it means to be human. Seth eventually chooses to transform into a human, sacrificing his immortality in order to be with his beloved.
What both Wenders and Silberling communicate with aplomb is how inhuman angels are. They live among humans but only interact when the humans die.
What both Wenders and Silberling communicate with aplomb is how inhuman angels are. They live among humans but only interact when the humans die.
- 12/31/2023
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
A meditation on the work of German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, Wim Wenders’ concise, spare 3D documentary Anselm allows us to spend time in the presence of the artist and man. Both born in 1945, Wenders and Kiefer share much of the same DNA as creators who tackle the history of a divided country traumatized and silenced. For Wenders, a global filmmaker whose other new picture this year, the fantastic Perfect Days, was made in Japan, Anselm is a thoughtful, contemplative return to some of the themes explored in his seminal Wings of Desire.
Anselm gravitates between past and present, the result splitting the difference between the kind of experimental film one might find at TIFF Wavelengths––a slow meditation on landscape, surfaces, space, and performative moments––and a quick biographical sketch produced for an art museum retrospective. Shot by Franz Lustig in 6K 3D, the film deserves to be...
Anselm gravitates between past and present, the result splitting the difference between the kind of experimental film one might find at TIFF Wavelengths––a slow meditation on landscape, surfaces, space, and performative moments––and a quick biographical sketch produced for an art museum retrospective. Shot by Franz Lustig in 6K 3D, the film deserves to be...
- 12/7/2023
- by John Fink
- The Film Stage
Mick Harvey on The Boys Next Door with Tracy Pew, Phill Calvert, Rowland S Howard and Nick Cave, and the group name change before going to London: “We had some discussions and we came up with The Birthday Party.”
In the first instalment with Mick Harvey we started out discussing his appearance in Wim Wenders’ Wings Of Desire as a member of Bad Seeds and Crime and the City Solution; Wenders’ latest films, Anselm (Anselm - Das Rauschen der Zeit on Anselm Kiefer) and Perfect Days (Japan’s Oscar submission); Pj Harvey, and Mick’s take on translating and recording four albums of Serge Gainsbourg songs in English, and Jane Birkin (performing at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York).
Mick Harvey with Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze on William Friedkin’s The Birthday Party film (screenplay by Harold Pinter) and the name change: “We thought, yeah, that’s good.
In the first instalment with Mick Harvey we started out discussing his appearance in Wim Wenders’ Wings Of Desire as a member of Bad Seeds and Crime and the City Solution; Wenders’ latest films, Anselm (Anselm - Das Rauschen der Zeit on Anselm Kiefer) and Perfect Days (Japan’s Oscar submission); Pj Harvey, and Mick’s take on translating and recording four albums of Serge Gainsbourg songs in English, and Jane Birkin (performing at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York).
Mick Harvey with Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze on William Friedkin’s The Birthday Party film (screenplay by Harold Pinter) and the name change: “We thought, yeah, that’s good.
- 11/1/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
This year’s AFI Fest is back in full glory, featuring a rich lineup of critical favorites plus a slate of five films curated by guest artistic director Greta Gerwig, whose latest film, “Barbie” has grossed $1.4 billion.
Returning to Hollywood’s Tcl Chinese Theatre and screening films from October 25-29, the event will feature Gerwig’s curated list of films: “All That Jazz,” “An American in Paris,” “A Matter of Life and Death,” “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Wings of Desire.” AFI Fest will also screen the U.S. premiere of “Lee,” starring Academy Award-winner Kate Winslet, who is a producer on the project as well. The biopic follows the life of Lee Miller, a wartime photographer who documented the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, London Blitz and liberation of Paris during WW II.
“I think AFI Fest and all film festivals are monuments to the inspirational power of film, the healing restorative power of film,...
Returning to Hollywood’s Tcl Chinese Theatre and screening films from October 25-29, the event will feature Gerwig’s curated list of films: “All That Jazz,” “An American in Paris,” “A Matter of Life and Death,” “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Wings of Desire.” AFI Fest will also screen the U.S. premiere of “Lee,” starring Academy Award-winner Kate Winslet, who is a producer on the project as well. The biopic follows the life of Lee Miller, a wartime photographer who documented the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, London Blitz and liberation of Paris during WW II.
“I think AFI Fest and all film festivals are monuments to the inspirational power of film, the healing restorative power of film,...
- 10/25/2023
- by Karen Idelson
- Variety Film + TV
Wim Wenders has had a very good year, earning strong reviews out of Cannes for “Perfect Days” before the film was selected as Japan’s official Oscar submission. But despite his recent success, the “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire” director is deeply concerned about cinema’s future.
In a press conference at the Lumiere Film Festival (via Variety), Wenders expressed his support for the recently concluded Writers Guild of America strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. He explained that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to art that can only be avoided by keeping humans involved in the creative process.
“Actors and screenwriters are afraid of becoming obsolete,” Wenders said. “With AI everything gets done very fast. You give three ideas and a few ideas and the next day you have a new script that many studio executives will want to use because that’s what they wanted. For...
In a press conference at the Lumiere Film Festival (via Variety), Wenders expressed his support for the recently concluded Writers Guild of America strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. He explained that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to art that can only be avoided by keeping humans involved in the creative process.
“Actors and screenwriters are afraid of becoming obsolete,” Wenders said. “With AI everything gets done very fast. You give three ideas and a few ideas and the next day you have a new script that many studio executives will want to use because that’s what they wanted. For...
- 10/21/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
US premiere of Kate Winslet starrer Lee added to selection.
AFI Fest guest artistic director Greta Gerwig has revealed her five selections ahead of the Hollywood event running October 25-29.
Gerwig, whose Barbie ranks as the highest global release of the year to date on $1.43bn, has curated All That Jazz, An American In Paris, A Matter Of Life And Death, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and Wings Of Desire.
Separately the festival announced on Tuesday that it has set an October 28 US premiere for Ellen Kuras’ Lee starring Kate Winslet as Lee Miller, the model turned war correspondent whose images of the Blitz,...
AFI Fest guest artistic director Greta Gerwig has revealed her five selections ahead of the Hollywood event running October 25-29.
Gerwig, whose Barbie ranks as the highest global release of the year to date on $1.43bn, has curated All That Jazz, An American In Paris, A Matter Of Life And Death, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and Wings Of Desire.
Separately the festival announced on Tuesday that it has set an October 28 US premiere for Ellen Kuras’ Lee starring Kate Winslet as Lee Miller, the model turned war correspondent whose images of the Blitz,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
In months leading up to her billion-dollar Mattel success “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig famously revealed some of the film influences behind her work. Now, the practice is set to continue in her role as guest artistic director for the 2023 AFI Fest, which takes place in Los Angeles Oct. 25–29.
The Oscar-nominated writer-director revealed Tuesday the five films that are going to be part of her specially curated festival sidebar: Tim Burton’s “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz,” Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s “A Matter of Life and Death,” Vincente Minnelli’s “An American in Paris” and Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire.”
Gerwig will introduce select films herself, notably “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” which screens at the Tcl Chinese Theatre on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m., two months after the death of its star and cowriter Paul Reubens.
Additionally, AFI Fest has added a few new titles to the lineup,...
The Oscar-nominated writer-director revealed Tuesday the five films that are going to be part of her specially curated festival sidebar: Tim Burton’s “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz,” Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s “A Matter of Life and Death,” Vincente Minnelli’s “An American in Paris” and Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire.”
Gerwig will introduce select films herself, notably “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” which screens at the Tcl Chinese Theatre on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m., two months after the death of its star and cowriter Paul Reubens.
Additionally, AFI Fest has added a few new titles to the lineup,...
- 10/10/2023
- by Jason Clark
- The Wrap
Writer-director Eddie Alcazar has undoubtedly infused Divinity with a distinctive look—so much so that the story’s attempt at an excoriation of spectacle and empty pleasure comes off as little more than a reluctant swipe. The style, dialed up from minute one, grows monotonous, all the more so since the film treats substance as an afterthought.
Divinity is a science-fiction tale of the cautionary, finger-wagging variety. In what seems like an alternate version of the 1990s, an aging, laughably naïve scientist (Scott Bakula) aspires to better the world and take the place of God by developing an immortality drug. But the man dies before he can begin testing on humans, and his son, Jaxxon (Stephen Dorff), takes over the family business. Displaying none of his father’s qualms when it comes to harvesting fetal tissue, Jaxxon puts the drug on the market. And as promised by a salvo of pornographic TV commercials,...
Divinity is a science-fiction tale of the cautionary, finger-wagging variety. In what seems like an alternate version of the 1990s, an aging, laughably naïve scientist (Scott Bakula) aspires to better the world and take the place of God by developing an immortality drug. But the man dies before he can begin testing on humans, and his son, Jaxxon (Stephen Dorff), takes over the family business. Displaying none of his father’s qualms when it comes to harvesting fetal tissue, Jaxxon puts the drug on the market. And as promised by a salvo of pornographic TV commercials,...
- 10/8/2023
- by William Repass
- Slant Magazine
The Barbie phenomenon is spreading to AFI Fest.
Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote the billion dollar blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has been tapped to serve as guest artistic director of the Los Angeles-based festival. In the role, Gerwig will curate a number of films to add to the festival lineup and will be on hand to present one or more of those films depending on her schedule. Filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ava DuVernay, David Lynch and Agnès Varda have held the role in previous festivals.
On Oct. 10, AFI revealed the list of films Gerwig has selected. Those five films include Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz starring Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange and Ann Reinking, Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris starring Gene Kelly, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death, Tim Burton’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure starring the...
Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote the billion dollar blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has been tapped to serve as guest artistic director of the Los Angeles-based festival. In the role, Gerwig will curate a number of films to add to the festival lineup and will be on hand to present one or more of those films depending on her schedule. Filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ava DuVernay, David Lynch and Agnès Varda have held the role in previous festivals.
On Oct. 10, AFI revealed the list of films Gerwig has selected. Those five films include Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz starring Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange and Ann Reinking, Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris starring Gene Kelly, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death, Tim Burton’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure starring the...
- 10/2/2023
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The 61st New York Film Festival kicks off Sept. 29 with Todd Haynes’ drama “May December” starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. Sofia Coppola’s well-received Venice hit “Priscilla” about Priscilla Presley is the fest’s Centerpiece. Michael Mann’s biopic “Ferrari” with Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz the closing night feature while Bradley Cooper’s portrait of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein “Maestro,” which had a seven-minute standing ovation in Venice, is the festival’s spotlight gala. Other films screening include Yorgos Lanthimos “Poor Things,” which won the Golden Lion and best actress for Emma Stone at Venice, as well as Andrew Haigh’s “All of us Strangers” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”
A director came into his own 50 years ago at the New York Film Festival: Martin Scorsese. He’s of cinema’s greatest directors, who has made such landmark films as ‘Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” Goodfellas,...
A director came into his own 50 years ago at the New York Film Festival: Martin Scorsese. He’s of cinema’s greatest directors, who has made such landmark films as ‘Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” Goodfellas,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSMe and You and Everyone We Know.The Writers Guild of America reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and have voted to end the strike as of 12:01 a.m. Pt this morning. A summary of the agreement is available here. Before the details were released, the WGA negotiating committee had this to say in a statement: "We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership." The WGA has also encouraged their members to support SAG-AFTRA's ongoing picket line.A new novel from Miranda July is due out in May of next year: All Fours follows an artist in the throes of a midlife crisis and a messy divorce. While driving...
- 9/27/2023
- MUBI
It’s the year of color/black-and-white hybrid films, led by such Best Cinematography Oscar contenders shot on Kodak film as “Oppenheimer” (Universal), “Poor Things” (Searchlight), “Asteroid City” (Focus Features), and “Maestro” (Netflix). In addition, there are two other contenders of interest: “The Zone of Interest” (A24) contains a series of striking monochromatic moments, while the black-and-white “El Conde” (Netflix) offers a lone color sequence.
They are part of a great stylistic tradition of intermingling color and black-and-white to evoke heightened states of mind in such films as “The Wizard of Oz,” “A Matter of Life and Death,” “Bonjour Tristesse,” “Wings of Desire,” “JFK,” “Natural Born Killers,” and “Pleasantville.” It can be real or imaginary, but the aesthetic differences help drive the narratives.
By contrast, “A Haunting in Venice” (20th Century), shot by Kenneth Branaugh’s go-to cinematographer, Haris Zambarloukos, utilizes conventional black-and-white flashbacks to recap a mysterious murder. This...
They are part of a great stylistic tradition of intermingling color and black-and-white to evoke heightened states of mind in such films as “The Wizard of Oz,” “A Matter of Life and Death,” “Bonjour Tristesse,” “Wings of Desire,” “JFK,” “Natural Born Killers,” and “Pleasantville.” It can be real or imaginary, but the aesthetic differences help drive the narratives.
By contrast, “A Haunting in Venice” (20th Century), shot by Kenneth Branaugh’s go-to cinematographer, Haris Zambarloukos, utilizes conventional black-and-white flashbacks to recap a mysterious murder. This...
- 9/21/2023
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days suggests a kind of cinematic spring cleaning for the filmmaker. Gone are the elaborate concepts and freighted iconography of The American Friend and Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, not to mention of the vastly less impactful fictional films that he’s released in the intervening years. Wenders aims for simplicity here, following a middle-aged man, Hirayama (Yakusho Kôji), as he goes about his day cleaning Tokyo’s toilets, taking pictures of trees, listening to American rock, reading classic literature, and savoring the humble sources of day-to-day affirmation that we tend to take for granted.
Hirayama’s humility is the gauntlet that Wenders has thrown down for himself. Perfect Days wants to be an invitingly human movie that homes in intensely on the little moments of a man’s life so as to unearth universal truths. There’s a bit of Vittorio de Sica’s...
Hirayama’s humility is the gauntlet that Wenders has thrown down for himself. Perfect Days wants to be an invitingly human movie that homes in intensely on the little moments of a man’s life so as to unearth universal truths. There’s a bit of Vittorio de Sica’s...
- 9/8/2023
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
An early scene in the small-scale and adventurous Tuesday reveals that Zora, the single mom played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, knows how to bargain. That’s good, because soon she’ll be bargaining with Death. And it’s especially good to see this gifted actor channel her brilliant knack for comic neurosis into dark, weird territory that’s steeped in grief and its seven stages.
Daina O. Pusić, a London-based writer-director who hails from Croatia, takes a courageous leap into allegory and performance-based animation with her first feature-length film. Tuesday, named for Zora’s dying teenage daughter (Lola Petticrew), is a straightforward, uncluttered fusion of mother-child drama and magic realism. In what is essentially a three-hander, Death is a world-weary macaw who can shrink and grow effortlessly, an outstanding VFX creation voiced with engaging seriousness and heart by Arinzé Kene (I’m Your Woman).
With a nod to the indelible modern classic Wings of Desire,...
Daina O. Pusić, a London-based writer-director who hails from Croatia, takes a courageous leap into allegory and performance-based animation with her first feature-length film. Tuesday, named for Zora’s dying teenage daughter (Lola Petticrew), is a straightforward, uncluttered fusion of mother-child drama and magic realism. In what is essentially a three-hander, Death is a world-weary macaw who can shrink and grow effortlessly, an outstanding VFX creation voiced with engaging seriousness and heart by Arinzé Kene (I’m Your Woman).
With a nod to the indelible modern classic Wings of Desire,...
- 9/7/2023
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Marks the first time Japan has submitted a film by a non-Japanese director.
Japan has submitted Perfect Days by German filmmaker Wim Wenders for the best international feature film category at the 96th Academy Awards.
It represents the first time that Japan has selected a non-Japanese director in more than 70 years of submissions to the Oscars.
The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan chose the title from eight features, which is understood to have included strong contender The Boy And The Heron, likely the last feature of iconic animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, whose Spirited Away won best animated feature at...
Japan has submitted Perfect Days by German filmmaker Wim Wenders for the best international feature film category at the 96th Academy Awards.
It represents the first time that Japan has selected a non-Japanese director in more than 70 years of submissions to the Oscars.
The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan chose the title from eight features, which is understood to have included strong contender The Boy And The Heron, likely the last feature of iconic animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, whose Spirited Away won best animated feature at...
- 9/4/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
One of the pleasures of Telluride is watching a master auteur accept the Silver Medallion. Telluride Executive Director Julie Huntsinger was shocked to discover that in the 50 years of the festival, no Silver Medallion was ever awarded to German filmmaker Wim Wenders. So this year, he brought his two Cannes selections, 3D documentary “Anselm” (Sideshow and Janus) and Competition title “Perfect Days” (Neon), whose star Koji Yakusho (“Shall We Dance?”) won Best Actor at Cannes. Despite its German director, Japan has chosen to submit the film for the Oscar.
At Thursday night’s first tribute, Werner Herzog dug into his pocket to fish out the Silver Medallion, and placed it around his old friend’s neck. “The same time several years ago Tom Luddy put this on my neck,” said Herzog. “I kept thinking, ‘this is an injustice if you hadn’t received this medallion in 1978, and 1981, and 1995, and 2015.’ Because...
At Thursday night’s first tribute, Werner Herzog dug into his pocket to fish out the Silver Medallion, and placed it around his old friend’s neck. “The same time several years ago Tom Luddy put this on my neck,” said Herzog. “I kept thinking, ‘this is an injustice if you hadn’t received this medallion in 1978, and 1981, and 1995, and 2015.’ Because...
- 9/3/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The bread and butter of film festivals is the unveiling of new movies. And in the case of the major festivals taking place in the late summer and early fall — Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York — the selections offer a preview of potential Oscar nominees and winners. Remember the eight-minute standing ovation Brendan Fraser received last year at Venice for “The Whale”? It kicked off his comeback and journey to a best Oscar win this year.
And with the 50th annual Telluride Film Festival kicking off August 31 at in the picturesque Colorado mountain burg, let’s take the cinematic time machine back 1993 when the fest was a mere 20 years old. John Boorman of “Deliverance” and “Hope and Glory” fame was the guest director of the festival. Jennifer Jason Leigh, then just 31 and whose latest film was Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” was honored with a tribute as was socialist British director Ken Loach,...
And with the 50th annual Telluride Film Festival kicking off August 31 at in the picturesque Colorado mountain burg, let’s take the cinematic time machine back 1993 when the fest was a mere 20 years old. John Boorman of “Deliverance” and “Hope and Glory” fame was the guest director of the festival. Jennifer Jason Leigh, then just 31 and whose latest film was Robert Altman’s “Short Cuts,” was honored with a tribute as was socialist British director Ken Loach,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Nicolas Cage is comparing Superman to the stuff of angels.
The actor, who was infamously supposed to play Superman in the shelved Tim Burton film “Superman Lives,” recently revealed to USA Today that the 1998 romance film “City of Angels” was a taste of what Cage’s take on Clark Kent would have been.
Cage portrayed a fallen angel who begins a love affair with a mortal woman (Meg Ryan) in the English-language remake of German director Wim Wenders’ 1987 classic “Wings of Desire.”
“If you really wanted to know what I was going do with that character, look at my performance in ‘City of Angels,'” Cage said. “I was supposed [to play] Clark Kent after that [in ‘Superman Lives’], and I was already developing this alien otherness playing this angel. That is a perfect example of the tonality you would’ve gotten for Kal-El and for Clark Kent: Clark would’ve been a little more...
The actor, who was infamously supposed to play Superman in the shelved Tim Burton film “Superman Lives,” recently revealed to USA Today that the 1998 romance film “City of Angels” was a taste of what Cage’s take on Clark Kent would have been.
Cage portrayed a fallen angel who begins a love affair with a mortal woman (Meg Ryan) in the English-language remake of German director Wim Wenders’ 1987 classic “Wings of Desire.”
“If you really wanted to know what I was going do with that character, look at my performance in ‘City of Angels,'” Cage said. “I was supposed [to play] Clark Kent after that [in ‘Superman Lives’], and I was already developing this alien otherness playing this angel. That is a perfect example of the tonality you would’ve gotten for Kal-El and for Clark Kent: Clark would’ve been a little more...
- 7/28/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
The 15th Lumiere festival will run from October 14-22, 2023 and the Mifc classic film market from October 17-20.
Wim Wenders will receive the 15th annual Lumiere Award at Lyon’s Lumiere Festival in October, a week-long event celebrating heritage films and modern masters headed by Cannes’ Thierry Fremaux.
The German auteur is fresh off a double feature at May’s Cannes Film Festival with Special Screening 3D portrait of Anselm Kiefer Anselm and Perfect Days that premiered In Competition, scooped a best actor prize for its star Koji Yakusho and sold out worldwide via The Match Factory.
Wenders, an emblematic figure of New German Cinema,...
Wim Wenders will receive the 15th annual Lumiere Award at Lyon’s Lumiere Festival in October, a week-long event celebrating heritage films and modern masters headed by Cannes’ Thierry Fremaux.
The German auteur is fresh off a double feature at May’s Cannes Film Festival with Special Screening 3D portrait of Anselm Kiefer Anselm and Perfect Days that premiered In Competition, scooped a best actor prize for its star Koji Yakusho and sold out worldwide via The Match Factory.
Wenders, an emblematic figure of New German Cinema,...
- 6/13/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
German director Wim Wenders will be feted with France’s prestigious Lumière Award at the 15th edition of the classic film-focused Lumière Festival in Lyon, running October 14-22.
He follows in the footsteps of Catherine Deneuve, Pedro Almodóvar, Jane Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion, the Dardenne brothers, as well as Clint Eastwood, the first recipient, and Tim Burton, as the 2022 laureate.
The Lumière Film Festival and the Lumière Award were launched in 2009 by twin-hatted Cannes Film Festival Delegate General Thierry Frémaux, in his other role as director of the Institut Lumière in Lyon.
“An emblematic figure of the revival of European cinema at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, he is the director of Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, a man who has pursued his trajectory as an artist and has just achieved a smashing double triumph with his two most recent films, Anselm and Perfect Days,” the...
He follows in the footsteps of Catherine Deneuve, Pedro Almodóvar, Jane Fonda, Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion, the Dardenne brothers, as well as Clint Eastwood, the first recipient, and Tim Burton, as the 2022 laureate.
The Lumière Film Festival and the Lumière Award were launched in 2009 by twin-hatted Cannes Film Festival Delegate General Thierry Frémaux, in his other role as director of the Institut Lumière in Lyon.
“An emblematic figure of the revival of European cinema at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s, he is the director of Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, a man who has pursued his trajectory as an artist and has just achieved a smashing double triumph with his two most recent films, Anselm and Perfect Days,” the...
- 6/12/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
German filmmaking legend Wim Wenders will head up this year’s competition jury for the Tokyo International Film Festival, organizers announced on Monday.
Wenders is currently riding high — and his long-running artistic connections to Japan are more apparent than ever. The director’s most recent feature, Perfect Days, recently premiered at Cannes in competition and was widely hailed as his finest fiction film in years. An intimate character study following a middle-aged Tokyo man who has pared his life down to a routine of service and small pleasures, it won Cannes best actor prize for its inimitable lead, veteran Japanese character actor Koji Yakusho. The Hollywood Reporter‘s critic summed the film up as simply, “ineffably lovely.”
Over a 55-year career in film, Wenders, now 77, has won many of world cinema’s highest honors, including the Golden Lion for The State of Things at the Venice Film Festival (1982); the Palme...
Wenders is currently riding high — and his long-running artistic connections to Japan are more apparent than ever. The director’s most recent feature, Perfect Days, recently premiered at Cannes in competition and was widely hailed as his finest fiction film in years. An intimate character study following a middle-aged Tokyo man who has pared his life down to a routine of service and small pleasures, it won Cannes best actor prize for its inimitable lead, veteran Japanese character actor Koji Yakusho. The Hollywood Reporter‘s critic summed the film up as simply, “ineffably lovely.”
Over a 55-year career in film, Wenders, now 77, has won many of world cinema’s highest honors, including the Golden Lion for The State of Things at the Venice Film Festival (1982); the Palme...
- 6/12/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Festival also set to host a retrospective of filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu.
German filmmaker Wim Wenders is to preside over the international competition jury of Tokyo International Film Festival, where he will also host a retrospective of influential Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu.
It will mark the first time Wenders has attended the festival since 2011, when his documentary Pina screened in the festival’s special screening section.
Wenders is known for features The State of Things, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1982; Paris, Texas, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1984; and Wings Of Desire, for which he...
German filmmaker Wim Wenders is to preside over the international competition jury of Tokyo International Film Festival, where he will also host a retrospective of influential Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu.
It will mark the first time Wenders has attended the festival since 2011, when his documentary Pina screened in the festival’s special screening section.
Wenders is known for features The State of Things, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1982; Paris, Texas, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1984; and Wings Of Desire, for which he...
- 6/12/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Everyone knows that famous Lou Reed song that goes, "Oh it's such a perfect day! I'm glad I spend it with you..." This timeless classic tune is where this film's title Perfect Days is from, but it's also an important part of the film - it's one of songs that Hirayama listens to a few times while at home or driving around in his little van. Perfect Days is one of the latest narrative feature films created by iconic German filmmaker Wim Wenders, a passion project that he has been working on for years. It just premiered in the Main Competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, and the wonderful Japanese actor Kōji Yakusho won the Best Actor prize at the end of the festival. It's without a doubt one of my favorite films from Cannes, and Yakusho absolutely deserves this award. The film reminds me in many ways of Jim Jarmusch's Paterson,...
- 5/29/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Wim Wenders is back, and he’s brought Lou Reed (still dead) with him. It’s not that Wenders hasn’t been making films. He has. It’s just that the only good ones have been documentaries, and there’s an appetite for the Wenders of the ’70s and ’80s who thoughtfully crafted some of the best fiction films ever made in Wings of Desire, The American Friend, and Paris, Texas, to name but a few.
Alas, as a 77-year-old living legend he has earned a pass. As many passes as he wants, actually. But here no pass is needed. With Perfect Days, a passion project he’s wanted to make for decades, Wenders has constructed a daydream of minimalist living (which I don’t mean fashionably) and humanist perspective that has more legs than his past five fiction films combined.
It follows Hirayama (a transcendently even Koji Yakusho) through his daily routine––simple,...
Alas, as a 77-year-old living legend he has earned a pass. As many passes as he wants, actually. But here no pass is needed. With Perfect Days, a passion project he’s wanted to make for decades, Wenders has constructed a daydream of minimalist living (which I don’t mean fashionably) and humanist perspective that has more legs than his past five fiction films combined.
It follows Hirayama (a transcendently even Koji Yakusho) through his daily routine––simple,...
- 5/28/2023
- by Luke Hicks
- The Film Stage
A third Wings of Desire centering on the angels that watch over us, is not in the cards, German director Wim Wenders said today at the Cannes press conference for his latest in competition title at the fest, Perfect Days.
“I don’t think I would go back to the idea of angels, if anything this comes pretty close,” Wenders said about Perfect Days.
Wings of Desire, which won Wim Wenders best director in 1987 at Cannes, and its 1993 sequel, Faraway, So Close!, which won him the Grand Jury Prize, explore the lives of angels who opt to lose their immortal wings and fall to Earth, tending to problems on the ground. The first installment took place in a divided Berlin with the Wall, while the sequel was set in the unified German capital.
“My angels forever disappeared in the sky,” said Wenders referring to the franchise’s late actors Peter Falk and Bruno Ganz.
“I don’t think I would go back to the idea of angels, if anything this comes pretty close,” Wenders said about Perfect Days.
Wings of Desire, which won Wim Wenders best director in 1987 at Cannes, and its 1993 sequel, Faraway, So Close!, which won him the Grand Jury Prize, explore the lives of angels who opt to lose their immortal wings and fall to Earth, tending to problems on the ground. The first installment took place in a divided Berlin with the Wall, while the sequel was set in the unified German capital.
“My angels forever disappeared in the sky,” said Wenders referring to the franchise’s late actors Peter Falk and Bruno Ganz.
- 5/26/2023
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
A notable year for the New German Cinema filmmaker with two (or three if you include Chambre 999) films in Cannes with docu item (you need 3D glasses) Anslem (a Special Screenings selection) and a proper return into fiction with the shot-in-Japan and off-the-radar Perfect Days. Wim Wenders’ most notable Cannes legacy will always be with Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987) for which he won the Best Director Award.
Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books.…...
Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books.…...
- 5/26/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Neon is nearing a deal for North American rights to Cannes competition entry Perfect Days from The Match Factory in a deal pegged in the mid-to-high six figures.
The parties declined to comment.
Wim Wenders’ well-received Japan-set movie debuted today on the Croisette. The official synopsis for the movie reads: Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
Starring are Koji Yakusho (Babel), newcomer Arisa Nakano, Tokio Emoto (Norwegian Wood), Yumi Aso (Carnation), Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura (Adrift in Tokyo), Aoi Yamada (Netflix series First Love) and veteran actor and dancer Min Tanaka (The Twilight Samurai).
Related: Cannes Film Festival 2023: All...
The parties declined to comment.
Wim Wenders’ well-received Japan-set movie debuted today on the Croisette. The official synopsis for the movie reads: Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
Starring are Koji Yakusho (Babel), newcomer Arisa Nakano, Tokio Emoto (Norwegian Wood), Yumi Aso (Carnation), Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura (Adrift in Tokyo), Aoi Yamada (Netflix series First Love) and veteran actor and dancer Min Tanaka (The Twilight Samurai).
Related: Cannes Film Festival 2023: All...
- 5/25/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman and Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Before you ask, yes, Lou Reed’s rock standard “Perfect Day” does indeed make an appearance in Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days”: on the protagonist’s stereo as suitably ideal sunlight pours into his small, neat Tokyo apartment, before swarming the soundtrack as we head out into the city on a calm weekend afternoon. If that sounds a little obvious, basic even, said protagonist Hirayama — a mellow, soft-spoken toilet cleaner beautifully played by Kōji Yakusho — would probably agree with a shrug. He’s into simple pleasures, not deep cuts. His solitary life is built around the things that make him happy and the work that keeps him solvent. He’s not inclined to wonder what other people make of it. Wenders’ film, in turn, is sincere and unassuming, and owns its sentimentality with good humor.
“Perfect Days” finds its maker in bracing, uncomplicated form: It hasn’t the ecstatic spiritualist...
“Perfect Days” finds its maker in bracing, uncomplicated form: It hasn’t the ecstatic spiritualist...
- 5/25/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin-based distributor Dcm has landed the Wim Wenders’ Cannes double pack, securing rights in Germany for both of the Wenders films screening in Cannes: the competition title Perfect Days and the 3D documentary Anselm, which is a festival special screening.
The 77-year-old German filmmaking legend, director of Wings of Desire and 1984 Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas, is pulling double duty at this year’s festival. His Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days follows a Tokyo toilet cleaner — played by Koji Yakusho — as he goes about his job in some of the city’s most spectacularly designed public facilities. The documentary Anselm, a 3D profile of the German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, is billed as a companion piece to his arthouse hit Pina, a 3D look at legendary German dance theater pioneer Pina Bausch, from 2011.
“We are delighted to enter into a long-term collaboration with Wim Wenders and his team from Road Movies,...
The 77-year-old German filmmaking legend, director of Wings of Desire and 1984 Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas, is pulling double duty at this year’s festival. His Tokyo-set drama Perfect Days follows a Tokyo toilet cleaner — played by Koji Yakusho — as he goes about his job in some of the city’s most spectacularly designed public facilities. The documentary Anselm, a 3D profile of the German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, is billed as a companion piece to his arthouse hit Pina, a 3D look at legendary German dance theater pioneer Pina Bausch, from 2011.
“We are delighted to enter into a long-term collaboration with Wim Wenders and his team from Road Movies,...
- 5/23/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days” is a hot property in Cannes, and it’s yet to even premiere.
Several buyers are currently circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from master filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competition on Thursday. Sources tell Variety that interested parties so far include Utopia, Mubi, Sideshow and Janus Films and Sony Pictures Classics.
Wenders’ “Perfect Days” follows Tokyo toilet cleaner Hirayama, who seems content with his simple life. Outside of his everyday routine, he enjoys his passion for books and, in particular, for music. Over the course of the film, a series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
“Memoirs of a Geisha” star Koji Yakusho — whom some critics have tipped as a contender for Cannes’ best actor prize on Saturday — leads the cast as Hirayama. He also co-starred in “Babel,” a film that was honored by the Cannes Film Festival and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Several buyers are currently circling the Japan-set, music-infused title from master filmmaker Wenders, which bows in competition on Thursday. Sources tell Variety that interested parties so far include Utopia, Mubi, Sideshow and Janus Films and Sony Pictures Classics.
Wenders’ “Perfect Days” follows Tokyo toilet cleaner Hirayama, who seems content with his simple life. Outside of his everyday routine, he enjoys his passion for books and, in particular, for music. Over the course of the film, a series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
“Memoirs of a Geisha” star Koji Yakusho — whom some critics have tipped as a contender for Cannes’ best actor prize on Saturday — leads the cast as Hirayama. He also co-starred in “Babel,” a film that was honored by the Cannes Film Festival and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
- 5/23/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Variety has been given a sneak peek of the trailer (below) for Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which world premieres in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.
The film is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. It follows Hirayama, who seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
Koji Yakusho leads the cast. In 2005, he co-starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards. In the following year, he co-starred in “Babel,” a film that was honored by the Cannes Film Festival and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Along with his international success, Yakusho has...
The film is a deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. It follows Hirayama, who seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
Koji Yakusho leads the cast. In 2005, he co-starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” which was nominated for six Academy Awards. In the following year, he co-starred in “Babel,” a film that was honored by the Cannes Film Festival and earned Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
Along with his international success, Yakusho has...
- 5/20/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
German director is in Cannes with two films in official selection.
Legendary German director Wim Wenders has revealed further details of his next project, The Secrets Of Places, a 3D feature doc about Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
“He (Zumthor) is the architect’s architect. If you ever ask one of the great ones who would you be in another life, the answer is inevitable: I would love to be Peter Zumthor. It is also in 3D because architecture needs it,” Wenders commented.
The German director has a teaser of the new project, which is being made through his company Road Movies...
Legendary German director Wim Wenders has revealed further details of his next project, The Secrets Of Places, a 3D feature doc about Swiss architect Peter Zumthor.
“He (Zumthor) is the architect’s architect. If you ever ask one of the great ones who would you be in another life, the answer is inevitable: I would love to be Peter Zumthor. It is also in 3D because architecture needs it,” Wenders commented.
The German director has a teaser of the new project, which is being made through his company Road Movies...
- 5/20/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Director who won Palme d’Or for Paris, Texas and has two films at Cannes this year bemoans lack of new stories in mainstream film
Wim Wenders, the revered German director who has two major premieres at Cannes this year, has spoken of his “disappointment” at the dominance of mainstream remakes and “repetitive” film franchises.
“It makes me nauseous,” said Wenders, now 77, who is best-known for dramas Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987), as well as music documentary Buena Vista Social Club (1999).
Wim Wenders, the revered German director who has two major premieres at Cannes this year, has spoken of his “disappointment” at the dominance of mainstream remakes and “repetitive” film franchises.
“It makes me nauseous,” said Wenders, now 77, who is best-known for dramas Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987), as well as music documentary Buena Vista Social Club (1999).
- 5/18/2023
- by Vanessa Thorpe in Cannes
- The Guardian - Film News
Though he is still mostly known for his lyrical, America-set road movie Paris, Texas, which won the Palme d’Or in 1984, Germany’s Wim Wenders does most of his best work when he’s back on home turf. The Berlin Wall, for example, provided the backdrop for his 1987 masterpiece Wings of Desire, in which philosophical angels roamed a divided city that was still trying to reckon with the shame of the Second World War. His new documentary, Anselm, is ostensibly the biography of a fellow artist, but it doesn’t take too much imagination to read it as a veiled autobiography, in that its subject isn’t so much a person as the way that life experience and intelligence combine to create art.
In that respect, Wenders’ film, a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival, will not do much to generate a whole new audience for artist Anselm Kiefer...
In that respect, Wenders’ film, a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival, will not do much to generate a whole new audience for artist Anselm Kiefer...
- 5/17/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
The grand theme of Wings of Desire, Wim Wenders’s fantasy of angels in Berlin before the end of the Cold War, is storytelling in all its forms as a coping mechanism of the human race. Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and his more objective but similarly empathetic cohort, Cassiel (Otto Sander), whose wings are only fleetingly shown, regularly swap tales of the small behaviors and interactions they’ve witnessed after traversing the skies and streets to hear “only what is spiritual in people’s minds.”
Among those observed are an elderly poet, Homer (Curt Bois), wandering the sites of his vanished haunts from the pre-Nazi era, wondering why “an epic of peace” has never been sung; Peter Falk, playing some eternal version of himself, arriving to shoot a film and provide a good measure of American soul and humor to Berliners and angels alike; and waitress turned trapeze artist Marion preparing...
Among those observed are an elderly poet, Homer (Curt Bois), wandering the sites of his vanished haunts from the pre-Nazi era, wondering why “an epic of peace” has never been sung; Peter Falk, playing some eternal version of himself, arriving to shoot a film and provide a good measure of American soul and humor to Berliners and angels alike; and waitress turned trapeze artist Marion preparing...
- 5/10/2023
- by Bill Weber
- Slant Magazine
Exclusive: The Match Factory will be handling world sales on Wim Wenders’ Japan-set Cannes Competition entry Perfect Days.
The film reunites three-time Oscar nominee Wenders with Cannes, where he has debuted 12 movies and previously won the Palme d’Or for Paris, Texas.
The official synopsis reads: “Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.” Above is a first look image of the film.
Starring are Koji Yakusho (Babel), newcomer Arisa Nakano, Tokio Emoto (Norwegian Wood), Yumi Aso (Carnation), Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura (Adrift in Tokyo), Aoi Yamada (Netflix series First Love) and veteran actor and dancer...
The film reunites three-time Oscar nominee Wenders with Cannes, where he has debuted 12 movies and previously won the Palme d’Or for Paris, Texas.
The official synopsis reads: “Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.” Above is a first look image of the film.
Starring are Koji Yakusho (Babel), newcomer Arisa Nakano, Tokio Emoto (Norwegian Wood), Yumi Aso (Carnation), Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura (Adrift in Tokyo), Aoi Yamada (Netflix series First Love) and veteran actor and dancer...
- 4/14/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Ashley Avis To Helm ‘City Of Angels’ Romance Based On Wim Wenders’ ‘Wings Of Desire’ For Warner Bros
Exclusive: Filmmaker Ashley Avis (Black Beauty) has been tapped to write and direct the romance City of Angels, based on Wim Wenders’ 1987 classic City of Angels, for Warner Bros, Atlas Entertainment and Perez Pictures.
This reimagining of Wenders’ romantic fantasy, which won him the Cannes Film Festival’s prize for Best Director, will follow the journey of a guardian angel who falls in love with a mortal man, a lonely jazz musician in Manhattan she is tasked to guide. It’s the second remake titled City of Angels to emerge from Warner Bros on the heels of Brad Silberling’s 1998 film, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, which grossed over $198M worldwide.
Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven produced that pic and will also produce the new take alongside Rebecca Steel Roven Oakley, as well as Paul Perez (Warner Bros/HBO Max’s Father...
This reimagining of Wenders’ romantic fantasy, which won him the Cannes Film Festival’s prize for Best Director, will follow the journey of a guardian angel who falls in love with a mortal man, a lonely jazz musician in Manhattan she is tasked to guide. It’s the second remake titled City of Angels to emerge from Warner Bros on the heels of Brad Silberling’s 1998 film, starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, which grossed over $198M worldwide.
Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven produced that pic and will also produce the new take alongside Rebecca Steel Roven Oakley, as well as Paul Perez (Warner Bros/HBO Max’s Father...
- 4/13/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
The 76th Cannes Film Festival unveiled its 2023 official selection Thursday morning in Paris, delivering the usual mix of festival regulars and exciting new filmmaking voices. The latest films from Cannes mainstays like Ken Loach, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Todd Haynes, Nanni Moretti and Wes Anderson were included in the selection, as expected. But Cannes also maintained its reputation as the preeminent discoverer of new cinematic talent with the inclusion of newcomers like Senegalese director Ramata Toulaye Sy, whose debut feature Banel & Adama landed in the main competition, and the very first Mongolian film to be invited to the festival, If Only I Could Hibernate, by Zoljargal Purevdash, screening in Un Certain Regard.
There was one less familiar aspect to the 2023 program announcement, though: A couple of filmmakers were included twice.
German filmmaking legend Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas), still going strong at the age of 77, will be doing double duty...
There was one less familiar aspect to the 2023 program announcement, though: A couple of filmmakers were included twice.
German filmmaking legend Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas), still going strong at the age of 77, will be doing double duty...
- 4/13/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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