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
After the cinematic doldrums of January, February brings surprisingly packed, varied offerings, from Oscar-contending international features to biographical documentaries of legendary film artists to some electrifying genre outings. Check out my picks to see below, and catch up with our Sundance coverage ahead of our Berlinale reviews here.
16. The Monk and the Gun (Pawo Choyning Dorji; Feb. 9)
Returning after his Oscar-nominated directorial debut Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Ifsn Advocate Award-shortlisted The Monk and the Gun premiered at Telluride and TIFF to much acclaim and will now be released this month. Selected by Bhutan as their Oscar entry, the heartwarming film is about an American in search of a long-lost, vintage gun in Bhutan as the country’s launching a democracy.
15. Ennio (Giuseppe Tornatore; Feb. 9)
The film world lost perhaps its most legendary musician when Ennio Morricone died at the age of 91 in July 2020. Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore,...
16. The Monk and the Gun (Pawo Choyning Dorji; Feb. 9)
Returning after his Oscar-nominated directorial debut Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Pawo Choyning Dorji’s Ifsn Advocate Award-shortlisted The Monk and the Gun premiered at Telluride and TIFF to much acclaim and will now be released this month. Selected by Bhutan as their Oscar entry, the heartwarming film is about an American in search of a long-lost, vintage gun in Bhutan as the country’s launching a democracy.
15. Ennio (Giuseppe Tornatore; Feb. 9)
The film world lost perhaps its most legendary musician when Ennio Morricone died at the age of 91 in July 2020. Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore,...
- 2/1/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Experimental French filmmaker Bertrand Mandico isn’t for everyone — i.e. an acquired taste whose visions push boundaries of cinematic expression — but he’s achieved something of a cult fandom over the last three decades. After last pairing with the director on 2022’s “After Blue” and 2017’s uninhibited Venice winner “The Wild Boys” — Cahiers du Cinéma’s top film of 2018 — the distributor Altered Innocence again teams with Mandico on another provocation. His 2023 Cannes premiere “She Is Conann,” nominated for the Queer Palm before going on to play at other festivals including Locarno, is an acid-trip transgressive riff on the Conan the Barbarian myth. IndieWire shares the trailer here.
Influences on the film include Tony Scott’s “The Hunger,” the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Liliana Cavani’s “The Night Porter,” and Fellini’s “Satyricon.” Throw Ken Russell in there for good measure, with profane images in “She Is Conann” reminiscent of “The Devils.
Influences on the film include Tony Scott’s “The Hunger,” the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Liliana Cavani’s “The Night Porter,” and Fellini’s “Satyricon.” Throw Ken Russell in there for good measure, with profane images in “She Is Conann” reminiscent of “The Devils.
- 1/4/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Altered Innocence has picked up North American rights to Bertrand Mandico’s gory, transgressive fantasy movie “Conann,” which had its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight and will soon be making its way to Locarno Film Festival. Kinology is handling world sales.
The film will tour at film festivals throughout the fall and be released theatrically next year.
Following different iterations of the ruthless Connan the Barbarian, the film also stars Elina Löwensohn in canine prosthetics as Rainer, Conann’s spiritual guide.
In the film, guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, still has a muzzle, but here he is called Rainer, and has the breasts and the voice of a woman, wears a studded black leather jacket, and a flash camera fit for the paparazzi. Talking to us from the great beyond, he details the successive reincarnations of Conann the Barbarian, a bloodthirsty Amazon from ancient times.
“A visceral and impulsive queer illusionist,...
The film will tour at film festivals throughout the fall and be released theatrically next year.
Following different iterations of the ruthless Connan the Barbarian, the film also stars Elina Löwensohn in canine prosthetics as Rainer, Conann’s spiritual guide.
In the film, guardian of the underworld, Cerberus, still has a muzzle, but here he is called Rainer, and has the breasts and the voice of a woman, wears a studded black leather jacket, and a flash camera fit for the paparazzi. Talking to us from the great beyond, he details the successive reincarnations of Conann the Barbarian, a bloodthirsty Amazon from ancient times.
“A visceral and impulsive queer illusionist,...
- 7/6/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Following The Wild Boys and After Blue, Conann marks the third feature-length project from prolific shorts filmmaker Bertrand Mandico. Many are still not convinced long-form fits his intense and imaginative style, but what’s certain is that Conann makes one heck of a watch. Part of the self-contained cosmos of Mandico’s explosive vision, this new film is a provocative tale of endurance and self-discovery inspired by the fantasy character Conan the Barbarian (or the Cimmerian). Mandico takes the figure of a sword and sorcery hero––obviously interested in his pulp magazine origins––and fashions a timeless, iterative narrative of phantasmagoric fluidity… and glitter.
Conann is framed by a first-person narration, that of Rainer the hellhound (Elina Löwensohn in impressive dog-faced costume), who roams the netherworld and is suspiciously attracted to the main protagonist, however antagonistic he may appear. But the hero is Conann, a queer rendition of an otherwise masculine symbol,...
Conann is framed by a first-person narration, that of Rainer the hellhound (Elina Löwensohn in impressive dog-faced costume), who roams the netherworld and is suspiciously attracted to the main protagonist, however antagonistic he may appear. But the hero is Conann, a queer rendition of an otherwise masculine symbol,...
- 5/30/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- The Film Stage
Tl;Dr:
Paul McCartney used the word “pataphysical” in The Beatles’ Abbey Road because he likes surrealism. He learned about the word through a friend who was a notable writer. The Beatles’ Abbey Road was a huge hit in the United States and the United Kingdom. Paul McCartney | Keystone-France / Contributor
Paul McCartney put the word “pataphysical” in a song from The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Notably, the phrase has comedic origins. Subsequently, Paul explained why he used the word.
Paul McCartney used a word in The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ because he loves surrealism
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed his friendship with countercultural author Barry Miles. Miles was interested in a surrealist movement called Pataphysics, a spoof of science.
“Miles and I often used to talk about the ‘Pataphysical Society,” he said. “So I put that in one of the Beatles songs, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer:’ ‘Joan was quizzical,...
Paul McCartney used the word “pataphysical” in The Beatles’ Abbey Road because he likes surrealism. He learned about the word through a friend who was a notable writer. The Beatles’ Abbey Road was a huge hit in the United States and the United Kingdom. Paul McCartney | Keystone-France / Contributor
Paul McCartney put the word “pataphysical” in a song from The Beatles’ Abbey Road. Notably, the phrase has comedic origins. Subsequently, Paul explained why he used the word.
Paul McCartney used a word in The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ because he loves surrealism
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed his friendship with countercultural author Barry Miles. Miles was interested in a surrealist movement called Pataphysics, a spoof of science.
“Miles and I often used to talk about the ‘Pataphysical Society,” he said. “So I put that in one of the Beatles songs, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer:’ ‘Joan was quizzical,...
- 5/13/2023
- by Matthew Trzcinski
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
When it comes to musical legends and icons, the industry is in no short supply. Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, and Madonna are just a few of the artists who have dominated charts and hearts over the years.
Duran Duran performs on stage during the Times Square New Year’s Eve 2023 Celebration | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Nick Rhodes, a member of Duran Duran, shared that the “best” piece of advice he received from a fellow musician came from the one-and-only Mick Jagger.
Nick Rhodes opened up about the ‘best’ advice Duran Duran once received from the iconic Mick Jagger
Andy Cohen, a well-known TV host, has a bit of a way when it comes to getting celebrities to talk. In an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Cohen asked Rhodes, “What was the best advice you received from a fellow musician?”
Without hesitation, Rhodes responded, “stick together.” Cohen, sitting...
Duran Duran performs on stage during the Times Square New Year’s Eve 2023 Celebration | Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
Nick Rhodes, a member of Duran Duran, shared that the “best” piece of advice he received from a fellow musician came from the one-and-only Mick Jagger.
Nick Rhodes opened up about the ‘best’ advice Duran Duran once received from the iconic Mick Jagger
Andy Cohen, a well-known TV host, has a bit of a way when it comes to getting celebrities to talk. In an episode of Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, Cohen asked Rhodes, “What was the best advice you received from a fellow musician?”
Without hesitation, Rhodes responded, “stick together.” Cohen, sitting...
- 1/29/2023
- by Ashley Swallow
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
Her name is Roxy, but the village girls call her Toxic. With peroxide-blond hair and the Lolita-like naiveté of a vintage sexploitation-movie heroine, Roxy wanders through a post-apocalyptic world as unfamiliar to us as it is to her — for we have all stepped into the parallel dimension that is underground filmmaker Bertrand Mandico’s erotic imagination. Welcome to the dirty paradise of “After Blue.”
Humans have poisoned Earth and fled to a new planet, which they’ve dubbed After Blue. Screens and machines have since been banished, making way for a kind of old-world mysticism of sparkling dust, psychedelic lights and occult symbols — like a third eye, superimposed over the pubic triangle of the most enlightened. Operating in the mode of Polish porno-surrealist Walerian Borowczyk, Mandico creates sensual mood trips using only practical effects (this one could be the “Barbarella”-style sci-fi film-within-a-film being produced in Mandico’s 2018 meta-textual short...
Humans have poisoned Earth and fled to a new planet, which they’ve dubbed After Blue. Screens and machines have since been banished, making way for a kind of old-world mysticism of sparkling dust, psychedelic lights and occult symbols — like a third eye, superimposed over the pubic triangle of the most enlightened. Operating in the mode of Polish porno-surrealist Walerian Borowczyk, Mandico creates sensual mood trips using only practical effects (this one could be the “Barbarella”-style sci-fi film-within-a-film being produced in Mandico’s 2018 meta-textual short...
- 6/3/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
A voice introduces us to the future: “You are in space,” it says, “...the Earth was sick and rotten.” Bertrand Mandico’s second feature, the comedy-western-fantasy After Blue (Dirty Paradise), is named after a post-Earth home to humanity. This other planet, After Blue, located in another solar system, offers anyone with ovaries—anyone without them dies choked by their own hairs—the hope of a redemption. “If everything is to be done, nothing is to be done again,” declares a sign in the natural wilderness: strict and arbitrary rules are established to “strike the evil at its roots,” as one of the surviving women state. At best phantasmagorical, the dream of a humanity free of evil—through its systematic eradication of one gender—produces distortions where community becomes authoritarian, and purification, commanded.One day on an excursion outside her community, Roxy (Paola Luna) discovers buried in the sand a female...
- 6/2/2022
- MUBI
In the not-so-distant future, on a planet far, far away, a mother and daughter travel across a hostile landscape with one mission and one mission only: to kill Kate Bush.
Don’t worry, it’s not beloved 1980s singer-songwriter Kate Bush, but a once-dormant evil Polish woman named Katajena Bushovsky now spreading violence and hatred. This is the quest at the center of Bertrand Mandico’s new film “After Blue (Dirty Paradise).”
The film’s title comes from its setting: “After Blue (Dirty Paradise)” is an acid space western set on the planet that comes after Earth, and it is indeed a dirty paradise, though more the former than the latter. After Blue is populated only by women, or so we’re informed, and they hoped to start society anew with greater peace and prosperity. No screens, no machines (though there are guns).
Also Read:
‘Stranger Things’ Catapults Kate Bush...
Don’t worry, it’s not beloved 1980s singer-songwriter Kate Bush, but a once-dormant evil Polish woman named Katajena Bushovsky now spreading violence and hatred. This is the quest at the center of Bertrand Mandico’s new film “After Blue (Dirty Paradise).”
The film’s title comes from its setting: “After Blue (Dirty Paradise)” is an acid space western set on the planet that comes after Earth, and it is indeed a dirty paradise, though more the former than the latter. After Blue is populated only by women, or so we’re informed, and they hoped to start society anew with greater peace and prosperity. No screens, no machines (though there are guns).
Also Read:
‘Stranger Things’ Catapults Kate Bush...
- 6/2/2022
- by Fran Hoepfner
- The Wrap
The long-awaited return of beloved auteurs, new discoveries, decades-in-the-works passion projects, festival winners, and beyond are among June’s major offerings. Check out our picks for what to see below.
15. Watcher (Chloe Okuno; June 3)
Slipping back into a genre she knows well, Maika Monroe leads Chloe Okuno’s Watcher, a slow-burn thriller with a sense of paranoia seeping into every frame. Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his Sundance review, “Ever since It Follows, the 2014 horror movie about a spectral grim reaper stalking a teenage girl, Maika Monroe has become her generation’s avatar of fear and paranoia. Throughout her filmography, she boasts an inner world of melancholy that begins in a delicate register and then multiplies into a feverish anguish the farther her characters tumble down their own rabbit holes. It’s the kind of psychological spiraling that gives oxygen to director Chloe Okuno’s feature debut, Watcher, a chamber piece...
15. Watcher (Chloe Okuno; June 3)
Slipping back into a genre she knows well, Maika Monroe leads Chloe Okuno’s Watcher, a slow-burn thriller with a sense of paranoia seeping into every frame. Jake Kring-Schreifels said in his Sundance review, “Ever since It Follows, the 2014 horror movie about a spectral grim reaper stalking a teenage girl, Maika Monroe has become her generation’s avatar of fear and paranoia. Throughout her filmography, she boasts an inner world of melancholy that begins in a delicate register and then multiplies into a feverish anguish the farther her characters tumble down their own rabbit holes. It’s the kind of psychological spiraling that gives oxygen to director Chloe Okuno’s feature debut, Watcher, a chamber piece...
- 6/1/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Taste of a Toxic Paradise: Mandico Casts a Dark Spell with Broody Sci-Fi
Through a variety of short films, music videos (including several for M83), and his 2017 feature film, The Wild Boys, Bertrand Mandico fills a transgressive void in his dazzling mutations of arthouse queer aesthetics. Pushing boundaries of sexuality and gender through narrative themes and visual metaphors, his sophomore film After Blue is revisionist Western masquerading as vintage sci-fi, like hallucinogenic Heinlein meets femme-centric Ballard. An ambitious palette dwindles into a trance-inducing odyssey through a strange world’s poisonous hinterlands, where trippy vibes are broken up only by odd jabs of titillation and unfurling desires.…...
Through a variety of short films, music videos (including several for M83), and his 2017 feature film, The Wild Boys, Bertrand Mandico fills a transgressive void in his dazzling mutations of arthouse queer aesthetics. Pushing boundaries of sexuality and gender through narrative themes and visual metaphors, his sophomore film After Blue is revisionist Western masquerading as vintage sci-fi, like hallucinogenic Heinlein meets femme-centric Ballard. An ambitious palette dwindles into a trance-inducing odyssey through a strange world’s poisonous hinterlands, where trippy vibes are broken up only by odd jabs of titillation and unfurling desires.…...
- 5/31/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In a faraway future, on a wild and untamed female inhabited planet called After Blue, a lonely teenager named Roxy (Paula Luna) unknowingly releases a mystical, dangerous, and sensual assassin from her prison.
Roxy and her mother Zora (Elina Löwensohn) are held accountable, banished from their community, and forced to track down the murderer named Kate Bush. Haunted by the spirits of her murdered friends, Roxy sets out on a long and strange journey across the supranatural territories of this filthy paradise.
The newest vision from Bertand Mandico (The Wild Boys) plays like a lesbian El Topo (in space!) with stunning 35mm in-camera practical effects, otherworldly set pieces, and a dazzling score by Pierre Desprats.
In t...
Roxy and her mother Zora (Elina Löwensohn) are held accountable, banished from their community, and forced to track down the murderer named Kate Bush. Haunted by the spirits of her murdered friends, Roxy sets out on a long and strange journey across the supranatural territories of this filthy paradise.
The newest vision from Bertand Mandico (The Wild Boys) plays like a lesbian El Topo (in space!) with stunning 35mm in-camera practical effects, otherworldly set pieces, and a dazzling score by Pierre Desprats.
In t...
- 4/25/2022
- QuietEarth.us
"When she gets here, you'll have to shoot her." Altered Innocence has revealed the US trailer for a French sci-fi film called After Blue (Dirty Paradise), which first premiered at the 2021 Locarno Film Festival. It also played at the Toronto Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, Beyond Fest, and Busan. Everything about it sounds mesmerizing. A chimeric future on After Blue, a planet in another galaxy, a virgin planet where only women can survive in the midst of harmless flora & fauna. The story follows a punitive expedition to the planet. “Seductive, ethereal, bizarre... A kaleidoscopic fantasy warped through the lens of a 1970s sci-fi Western, After Blue is a synthetic siren song for the freaks of the future and the past," one review states. The PR folks add: "the newest vision from Bertrand Mandico (The Wild Boys) plays like a lesbian El Topo (in space!) with stunning 35mm in-camera practical effects, otherworldly set pieces,...
- 4/24/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
After his delirious, vividly strange debut The Wild Boys, Bertrand Mandico is back with After Blue (Dirty Paradise), which premiered at Locarno Film Festival last year and will now arrive in U.S. theaters starting June 3. Set in a faraway future, on a wild and untamed female inhabited planet called After Blue, the queer sci-fi fantasy romance follows a lonely teenager named Roxy who unknowingly releases a mystical, dangerous, and sensual assassin from her prison. Roxy and her mother Zora (Elina Löwensohn) are held accountable, banished from their community, and forced to track the murderer named Kate Bush down. Haunted by the spirits of her murdered friends, Roxy starts a long journey pacing the supernatural territories of this filthy paradise. Ahead of the release, the new U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Leonardo Goi said in his review, “In the post-apocalyptic nightmare of After Blue, humanity—or what’s left...
Leonardo Goi said in his review, “In the post-apocalyptic nightmare of After Blue, humanity—or what’s left...
- 4/21/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
French helmer Bertrand Mandico has achieved a cult following for his gender-bending sensorial surrealist visions, with more than 20 short films and two feature films completed to date.
His first feature, “The Wild Boys,” about five wealthy adolescent boys sent to a tropical island, all played by actresses, premiered in Venice. It won the Louis-Delluc 2018 prize for best first film and topped Cahiers du Cinéma’s 2018 list of Top 10 films.
His sophomore feature “After Blue (Dirty Paradise),” is a sci-fi western, again primarily with a female cast, including Mandico’s fetish actress Elina Löwensohn. It had its world premiere at Locarno in 2021, where it won the Fipresci prize, followed by its North American premiere in Toronto’s Midnight Madness sidebar, and U.S. premiere in the Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Film. It won the Special Jury Prize at Sitges.
The helmer is now completing post-production on his third feature,...
His first feature, “The Wild Boys,” about five wealthy adolescent boys sent to a tropical island, all played by actresses, premiered in Venice. It won the Louis-Delluc 2018 prize for best first film and topped Cahiers du Cinéma’s 2018 list of Top 10 films.
His sophomore feature “After Blue (Dirty Paradise),” is a sci-fi western, again primarily with a female cast, including Mandico’s fetish actress Elina Löwensohn. It had its world premiere at Locarno in 2021, where it won the Fipresci prize, followed by its North American premiere in Toronto’s Midnight Madness sidebar, and U.S. premiere in the Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Film. It won the Special Jury Prize at Sitges.
The helmer is now completing post-production on his third feature,...
- 1/13/2022
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
‘After Blue’ Review: Erotic Lesbian Acid Trip Is Like ‘The Love Witch’ Set on Planet ‘Annihiliation’
If you unearthed a glittery demon with one hairy arm who awakened your deepest desires from the third eye between her legs, what lengths would you travel to find her again? This, and plenty more completely insane scenarios, are among the many posed in Bertrand Mandico’s seductive, ethereal, and bizarre epic “After Blue,” aptly subtitled “Dirty Paradise.”
Set on a fantasy planet where only women can survive the harsh climate, the adventure follows a mother and daughter on a grueling journey to find and kill the evil “Kate Bush,” rumored to be death herself. One part “Annihilation” and one part “The Love Witch,” and cast under the veneer of a sadistic “The NeverEnding Story,” the film
The fantastical fable is narrated by Roxy (Paula-Luna Breitenfelder), a petulant teenager with a bleached-blonde mullet, who stares blankly into the camera in conversation with a mysterious disembodied voice. “The Earth was sick,...
Set on a fantasy planet where only women can survive the harsh climate, the adventure follows a mother and daughter on a grueling journey to find and kill the evil “Kate Bush,” rumored to be death herself. One part “Annihilation” and one part “The Love Witch,” and cast under the veneer of a sadistic “The NeverEnding Story,” the film
The fantastical fable is narrated by Roxy (Paula-Luna Breitenfelder), a petulant teenager with a bleached-blonde mullet, who stares blankly into the camera in conversation with a mysterious disembodied voice. “The Earth was sick,...
- 10/7/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Altered Innocence has picked up North American rights to Bertrand Mandico’s sophomore feature film “After Blue (Dirty Paradise),” which just had its world premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. The film will make its North American premiere at Toronto Film Festival in the Midnight Madness sidebar, and the U.S. premiere will be held at Fantastic Fest.
The film takes place on the planet After Blue, where teenager Roxy unwittingly frees a dangerous criminal buried in the sand. Roxy and her mother Zora (Elina Löwensohn) are deemed responsible, exiled from their community, and sentenced to track down the killer. They start a long journey pacing the supranatural territories of their filthy paradise.
The deal was negotiated between Frank Jaffe from Altered Innocence and Grégoire Melin from Kinology.
Jaffe commented: “Beyond the fact that Bertrand Mandico’s ‘The Wild Boys’ (Les garçons sauvages) was the film that launched the theatrical arm of Altered Innocence,...
The film takes place on the planet After Blue, where teenager Roxy unwittingly frees a dangerous criminal buried in the sand. Roxy and her mother Zora (Elina Löwensohn) are deemed responsible, exiled from their community, and sentenced to track down the killer. They start a long journey pacing the supranatural territories of their filthy paradise.
The deal was negotiated between Frank Jaffe from Altered Innocence and Grégoire Melin from Kinology.
Jaffe commented: “Beyond the fact that Bertrand Mandico’s ‘The Wild Boys’ (Les garçons sauvages) was the film that launched the theatrical arm of Altered Innocence,...
- 8/12/2021
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
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 a clean slate in which everything—and everyone—can be reinvented, and every norm challenged.
At its heart is Roxy (Paula Luna Breitenfelder), a teenage girl living with her mother Zora (Elina Löwensohn...
At its heart is Roxy (Paula Luna Breitenfelder), a teenage girl living with her mother Zora (Elina Löwensohn...
- 8/10/2021
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
The Locarno Film Festival, long known as a safe haven for indie cinema, is taking a turn into genre territory while remaining true to
its origins.
“People know what the mission is for Locarno,” says the fest’s new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, referring to the prestige of the event — the 74th edition runs Aug. 4-14 — that is known worldwide as a festival of discovery.
But Nazzaro, an Italian film critic and former chief of the Venice Critics’ Week, now intends “to broaden the moral imagination of this mission,” as he puts it, by digging deeper into genre cinema, and “also into the [festival’s] relationship with the U.S. studios and what people would consider as [pure] entertainment.”
Significantly, this year’s Locarno opener is Netflix Original “Beckett,” a thriller toplining John David Washington as an American tourist who becomes the target of a political assassination while vacationing in Greece, and...
its origins.
“People know what the mission is for Locarno,” says the fest’s new artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro, referring to the prestige of the event — the 74th edition runs Aug. 4-14 — that is known worldwide as a festival of discovery.
But Nazzaro, an Italian film critic and former chief of the Venice Critics’ Week, now intends “to broaden the moral imagination of this mission,” as he puts it, by digging deeper into genre cinema, and “also into the [festival’s] relationship with the U.S. studios and what people would consider as [pure] entertainment.”
Significantly, this year’s Locarno opener is Netflix Original “Beckett,” a thriller toplining John David Washington as an American tourist who becomes the target of a political assassination while vacationing in Greece, and...
- 8/3/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Year after year a site par excellence for the most innovative premieres—in that respect an antithesis to the ensuing fall circuit—the Locarno Film Festival returns triumphant next month. Their 2021 lineup, per usual, mixes iconic names with complete unknowns and, admittedly, a head-scratcher or two. Abel Ferrara’s much-anticipated Zeros and Ones, sure. Gaspar Noé’s Vortex—makes sense. A new film from The Wild Boys director Bertrand Mandico? Great! But Shawn Levy and a Jennifer Hudson Aretha Franklin biopic?
However, new festival head Giona A. Nazzaro sees it as part of a steady influx, telling Variety “A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time. That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films.” By that metric it’s more inclusive than almost any other major competition on the European circuit.
However, new festival head Giona A. Nazzaro sees it as part of a steady influx, telling Variety “A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time. That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films.” By that metric it’s more inclusive than almost any other major competition on the European circuit.
- 7/1/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Locarno Film Festival has unveiled a promising lineup combining edgy new works by established auteurs such as Abel Ferrara alongside plenty of potential discoveries by emerging helmers and global newcomers for its upcoming 74th edition.
It will be the first one under new Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro, the former Venice Critics’ Week chief who is steering the Swiss fest known as an international incubator and indie cinema temple on a more audience-friendly course.
“A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time” Nazzaro told Variety. “That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films,” he added.
As usual the bulk of Locarno’s crowdpleasers will launch from the Swiss lakeside town’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande square which is Europe’s largest outdoor venue and this year has been approved...
It will be the first one under new Artistic Director Giona A. Nazzaro, the former Venice Critics’ Week chief who is steering the Swiss fest known as an international incubator and indie cinema temple on a more audience-friendly course.
“A festival can be quite highbrow and also entertaining at the same time” Nazzaro told Variety. “That is why for this year’s lineup we have selected several comedies and also some genre movies, as well as straightforward auteur films,” he added.
As usual the bulk of Locarno’s crowdpleasers will launch from the Swiss lakeside town’s 8,000-seat Piazza Grande square which is Europe’s largest outdoor venue and this year has been approved...
- 7/1/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
We can thank the limitations of the past year as it relates to filmmaking for an increased output of small-scale features as directors weren’t able to bring together large crews safely. Although many full-fledged productions got put on hold, there seems to be a plethora of anthology films in which filmmakers shared their visions of the pandemic experience, from Homemade to Erēmīta (Anthologies) to the forthcoming Cannes premiere The Year of the Everlasting Storm. Now, another notable one has been announced that is taking a different approach.
The prolific Japanese master Sion Sono, Bacurau co-director Kleber Mendonça Filho, Evolution helmer Lucile Hadzihalilovic, The Wild Boys director Bertrand Mandico, and the duo of Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani (Let the Corpses Tan) have teamed together for a film that features five poetic visions of sexual ecstasy.
With the title of Shining Sex, Screen Daily reports it is part of the...
The prolific Japanese master Sion Sono, Bacurau co-director Kleber Mendonça Filho, Evolution helmer Lucile Hadzihalilovic, The Wild Boys director Bertrand Mandico, and the duo of Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani (Let the Corpses Tan) have teamed together for a film that features five poetic visions of sexual ecstasy.
With the title of Shining Sex, Screen Daily reports it is part of the...
- 6/16/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The newest season of The Crown takes place primarily in the Eighties, and it’s packed with music from the era, including Diana Ross’ “Upside Down,” David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” Billy Joel’s “Uptown Girl,” and Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”
In an early episode, a lonely Princess Diana roller-skates around Buckingham Palace while listening to Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” on a Walkman. It’s a great sequence that seems fictional, but there’s evidence that she did actually skate around royal properties. “It’s...
In an early episode, a lonely Princess Diana roller-skates around Buckingham Palace while listening to Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” on a Walkman. It’s a great sequence that seems fictional, but there’s evidence that she did actually skate around royal properties. “It’s...
- 11/17/2020
- by Andy Greene
- Rollingstone.com
Looking to heat up your summer from the air-conditioned confines of your own home? Shudder has you covered this June with an eclectic set of horror films both old and new, including the Mark Patton documentary Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses, the horror anthology Scare Package, and much more!
Below, you can check out the full list of titles coming to Shudder in the Us this June, and be sure to visit Shudder's website to learn more about the streaming service and their scary good lineup!
"Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street
Some have called it the 'gayest horror movie ever made,' but for Mark Patton, the star of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, it was anything but a dream come true. 30 years after its initial release, Patton sets the record straight about the controversial sequel...
Below, you can check out the full list of titles coming to Shudder in the Us this June, and be sure to visit Shudder's website to learn more about the streaming service and their scary good lineup!
"Scream, Queen! My Nightmare On Elm Street
Some have called it the 'gayest horror movie ever made,' but for Mark Patton, the star of A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, it was anything but a dream come true. 30 years after its initial release, Patton sets the record straight about the controversial sequel...
- 5/26/2020
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
The cult film VOD platform Spamflix has launched a new worldwide app, available now for mobile and smart TV compatible. Via the app users can browse, rent and stream from the full catalog, which includes a wide range of feature and short films from around the globe.
Visit spamflix.com/app.do for more information, or available directly on Google Play and the Apple Store.
Spamflix was founded in 2018 by Markus Duffner, a project manager at the Locarno Film Festival and Julia Duarte, former producer of São Paulo International Film Festival. Called ‘Netflix for Cult Film Fans’ by Geek Spin the bulk of Spamflix’s library consists of hard to find and lesser-seen genre titles, many of which garnered acclaim on the festival circuit only to land without significant distribution.
A treasure trove for cult film enthusiasts that has a specialty focus on black comedy and adult animation, the new...
Visit spamflix.com/app.do for more information, or available directly on Google Play and the Apple Store.
Spamflix was founded in 2018 by Markus Duffner, a project manager at the Locarno Film Festival and Julia Duarte, former producer of São Paulo International Film Festival. Called ‘Netflix for Cult Film Fans’ by Geek Spin the bulk of Spamflix’s library consists of hard to find and lesser-seen genre titles, many of which garnered acclaim on the festival circuit only to land without significant distribution.
A treasure trove for cult film enthusiasts that has a specialty focus on black comedy and adult animation, the new...
- 5/14/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Daniel Hendler, Vimala Pons, Melvil Poupaud, Sergi López, Françoise Lebrun and Eric Caravaca star in the cast of this Maneki Films production sold by Playtime. Santiago Mitre has now commenced filming in France on his 4th feature film (his first French-language work) Petite Fleur. This talented Argentine filmmaker previously made a name for himself by way of The Student (Special Jury Award in Locarno 2011) and Paulina (Cannes’ Critics’ Week’s Grand Prix in 2015), not forgetting The Summit. Starring in the cast of his new opus, we find Uruguay’s Daniel Hendler, France’s Vimala Pons, her fellow countryman Melvil Poupaud and Spanish actor Sergi López, not to mention Françoise Lebrun (The Mother and the...
Paradis sale
French director Bertrand Mandico was the breakout hit of 2018 when Cahier du Cinema named his directorial debut The Wild Boys the best film of the year (he premiered the film in the 2017 Venice Film Festival Critics’ Week). Previously lauded as an experimental filmmakers of a variety of short and medium length films (not to mention some M83 music videos), Mandico has reunited with actress Elina Lowensohn (who headlined his debut) for his sophomore film, the fantasy feature Paradis sale (After Blue), which will also star Polish actress Agata Buzek, Camille Rutherford, Anais Thomas, Claire Duburcq, Vimala Pons, Pauline Lorillard (also of The Wild Boys) and newcomer Paula Luna Breitenfelder.…...
French director Bertrand Mandico was the breakout hit of 2018 when Cahier du Cinema named his directorial debut The Wild Boys the best film of the year (he premiered the film in the 2017 Venice Film Festival Critics’ Week). Previously lauded as an experimental filmmakers of a variety of short and medium length films (not to mention some M83 music videos), Mandico has reunited with actress Elina Lowensohn (who headlined his debut) for his sophomore film, the fantasy feature Paradis sale (After Blue), which will also star Polish actress Agata Buzek, Camille Rutherford, Anais Thomas, Claire Duburcq, Vimala Pons, Pauline Lorillard (also of The Wild Boys) and newcomer Paula Luna Breitenfelder.…...
- 1/3/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The evolving landscape of the moving image, especially this last decade, has been the subject of endless discussions which we predict will only amplify in the decade(s) to come. Capping off the 2010s, France’s esteemed publication Cahiers du cinéma have now unveiled their best of the decade list and it will surely further ignite the conversation of how we define cinema.
Topping their list is David Lynch’s 18-hour masterwork Twin Peaks: The Return, which fittingly is getting an epic new home video release before the decade comes to a close. The endlessly inventive Holy Motors, Leos Carax’s only film of the ‘10s, came in at the number two spot, while Bruno Dumont’s eccentric 3.5-hour murder mystery of sorts, Li’l Quinquin, is number three.
If one has been paying attention to their yearly best-of lists then the rest shouldn’t be much of a surprise,...
Topping their list is David Lynch’s 18-hour masterwork Twin Peaks: The Return, which fittingly is getting an epic new home video release before the decade comes to a close. The endlessly inventive Holy Motors, Leos Carax’s only film of the ‘10s, came in at the number two spot, while Bruno Dumont’s eccentric 3.5-hour murder mystery of sorts, Li’l Quinquin, is number three.
If one has been paying attention to their yearly best-of lists then the rest shouldn’t be much of a surprise,...
- 12/6/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Elina Löwensohn, Paula Luna Breitenfelder, Vimala Pons, Agata Buzek, Pauline Lorillard and Camille Rutherford star. An Ecce Films production sold by Kinology. On 12 November 2019 will begin the seven-week shoot for After Blue, the second feature from Bertrand Mandico after The Wild Boys. The cast includes the American actress of Romanian origins Elina Löwensohn, the young Paula Luna Breitenfelder (in her first on-screen appearance), Vimala Pons,...
- 10/17/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Diane Rouxel, Jalil Lespert, Olivier Gourmet and Finnegan Oldfield are among the cast of this Diligence Films production, which will be distributed in France by Ad Vitam and sold by Kinology. The first clapperboard will slam on 30 September for Les Dévorants (lit. “The All-consuming”), the second feature by Naël Marandin, who made a splash with She Walks (2016). With this film, Marandin continues exploring a type of fiction strongly rooted in reality, as he plunges into the world of animal farming, where the livestock market and local agricultural policies become an arena for power relations and desire to come to the fore. The cast includes Diane Rouxel, Jalil Lespert (César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2001 for Human Resources, giving...
If you're looking to camp out on your couch instead of under the stars, Shudder has plenty of horror movies to keep you entertained in the air-conditioned comforts of your own home this month, with Phantom of the Paradise, Knife+Heart, Boar, Hagazussa, The Exorcist, and more horror films joining the streaming service's eclectic lineup (which also includes a new podcast Queer Horror curated collection this month).
You can check out the full list of titles coming to Shudder in the Us this month below, and visit Shudder online to learn more about the streaming service.
"Things get wild this month, starting off with the Shudder exclusive big bad pig pic, Boar; a Pride Month collection headlined by the streaming premiere of Knife+Heart; our latest original podcast, Visitations with Elijah Wood & Daniel Noah; a tour through some of our favorite sub-genres with Sam Zimmerman’s Shudder Guides videos, and new additions...
You can check out the full list of titles coming to Shudder in the Us this month below, and visit Shudder online to learn more about the streaming service.
"Things get wild this month, starting off with the Shudder exclusive big bad pig pic, Boar; a Pride Month collection headlined by the streaming premiere of Knife+Heart; our latest original podcast, Visitations with Elijah Wood & Daniel Noah; a tour through some of our favorite sub-genres with Sam Zimmerman’s Shudder Guides videos, and new additions...
- 6/7/2019
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
If, at this point in this season, you’re tired of hearing the same handful of titles bandied about in the awards conversation, the prizes given out by the International Cinephile Society should come as a tonic. Voted on by a globe-spanning group of over 100 film critics, scholars, programmers and industry professionals, they can be counted on to zig where even the most broad-minded critics’ groups zag, often singling out films widely ignored by other precursors.
Case in point: The big winner in this year’s Ics awards was a Spanish-language auteur work, but it wasn’t “Roma” — Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar frontrunner received only the cinematography prize. Instead, it was “Zama,” a nightmarishly atmospheric colonial drama from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, that ruled the roost with wins for Best Picture, Director, Non-English Language Film and Actor for leading man Daniel Giménez Cacho.
A favorite of critics on the festival...
Case in point: The big winner in this year’s Ics awards was a Spanish-language auteur work, but it wasn’t “Roma” — Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar frontrunner received only the cinematography prize. Instead, it was “Zama,” a nightmarishly atmospheric colonial drama from Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel, that ruled the roost with wins for Best Picture, Director, Non-English Language Film and Actor for leading man Daniel Giménez Cacho.
A favorite of critics on the festival...
- 2/4/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Lumières are the Golden Globes of France.
A mixed bag of nominations for the 24th edition of France’s Lumière awards was unveiled in Paris on Monday (Dec 17).
Jacques Audiard’s Us-set, English-language The Sisters Brothers, period comedy-drama Mademoiselle de Jonquières, adoption drama Pupille and Venice-winning relationship drama Custody came out as the front-runners with four nominations each.
Following with three nominations each were Alex Lutz’s comedy-drama Guy, about a man who discovers he is the illegitimate son of a fading variety star and decides to follow him on tour; comedy The Trouble With You, sexual abuse drama Little Tickles,...
A mixed bag of nominations for the 24th edition of France’s Lumière awards was unveiled in Paris on Monday (Dec 17).
Jacques Audiard’s Us-set, English-language The Sisters Brothers, period comedy-drama Mademoiselle de Jonquières, adoption drama Pupille and Venice-winning relationship drama Custody came out as the front-runners with four nominations each.
Following with three nominations each were Alex Lutz’s comedy-drama Guy, about a man who discovers he is the illegitimate son of a fading variety star and decides to follow him on tour; comedy The Trouble With You, sexual abuse drama Little Tickles,...
- 12/17/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Year-end top 10 lists for films are a peculiar thing. Since these are judged subjectively by the writer (or publication), each top 10 can vary wildly from the last. There are people like John Waters, who puts a French musical with metal songs as his #1 or a French publication talking about “The Wild Boys” as the greatest film of the year. But then you have publications like Time, who are well respected but inevitably play it safe.
Continue reading Time Magazine’s Top 10 Films Of 2018 Shows Love For ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ & Mister Rogers at The Playlist.
Continue reading Time Magazine’s Top 10 Films Of 2018 Shows Love For ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ & Mister Rogers at The Playlist.
- 12/5/2018
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
As the end of 2018 rapidly approaches, it’s that time of year where some of the biggest names in film criticism release their top 10 lists. One of those lists that we always try to highlight is that of France’s Cahiers du cinéma. However, since the publication’s list focuses on films released in Franche in 2018, there are some projects that you probably won’t see on many other year-end lists.
First, you’ll notice that films like “Phantom Thread,” “The Post,” and “On the Beach at Night Alone” are all on the 2018 list, despite being released last year in the Us.
Continue reading Cahiers du Cinéma Top 10 Of 2018 Honors Lars von Trier’s Latest As Well As French Film ‘The Wild Boys’ at The Playlist.
First, you’ll notice that films like “Phantom Thread,” “The Post,” and “On the Beach at Night Alone” are all on the 2018 list, despite being released last year in the Us.
Continue reading Cahiers du Cinéma Top 10 Of 2018 Honors Lars von Trier’s Latest As Well As French Film ‘The Wild Boys’ at The Playlist.
- 12/4/2018
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Legendary French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma has released its official list of the 10 best films of 2018, and per usual it’s a surprising mix of American films and international favorites. The group chooses from films released over the last 12 months in France, which is why Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread” and Steven Spielberg’s “The Post” are included despite appearing on U.S. critics’ lists in 2017.
Topping the 2018 Cahiers du Cinéma top 10 is “The Wild Boys,” from writer-director Bertrand Mandico. The film is Mandico’s feature directorial debut and centers around five young boys — all played by women — who band together to overthrow their repressive captain aboard a haunted sailboat. Bruno Dumont’s four-part limited series “Coincoin and the Extra-Humans” landed in the number two position. Cahiers du Cinéma has blurred the line between film and television in the past, naming David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return...
Topping the 2018 Cahiers du Cinéma top 10 is “The Wild Boys,” from writer-director Bertrand Mandico. The film is Mandico’s feature directorial debut and centers around five young boys — all played by women — who band together to overthrow their repressive captain aboard a haunted sailboat. Bruno Dumont’s four-part limited series “Coincoin and the Extra-Humans” landed in the number two position. Cahiers du Cinéma has blurred the line between film and television in the past, naming David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return...
- 12/3/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Established in the 1950s by André Bazin, Joseph-Marie Lo Duca, and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, France’s Cahiers du cinéma has long been a bastion for quality film criticism. Year after year their rundown of the top films usually ignites a response, but their 2018 edition plays it a little more safe.
Their editors’ top 10 features a few films that got a release in the U.S. last year, but France this year as well as some awaiting a U.S. release. Topping the list is Bertrand Mandico’s gloriously trippy, gender fluid fantasy The Wild Boys, while Lee Chang-dong’s Burning and Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built also made the cut.
Check out the list below via their latest issue, also including links to coverage where available.
1. The Wild Boys (Bertrand Mandico)
2. Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (Bruno Dumont)
3. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
5. Paul Sanchez est revenu!
Their editors’ top 10 features a few films that got a release in the U.S. last year, but France this year as well as some awaiting a U.S. release. Topping the list is Bertrand Mandico’s gloriously trippy, gender fluid fantasy The Wild Boys, while Lee Chang-dong’s Burning and Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built also made the cut.
Check out the list below via their latest issue, also including links to coverage where available.
1. The Wild Boys (Bertrand Mandico)
2. Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (Bruno Dumont)
3. Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson)
4. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
5. Paul Sanchez est revenu!
- 12/3/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the BombNEWSPablo Ferro, the renowned title designer of Dr. Strangelove, Beetlejuice, Stop Making Sense, and many more, has died at the age of 83. Harrison Smith of the Washington Post has written an expansive obituary and informative summation of Ferro's signature style. Following the closing of FilmStruck, the Criterion Collection has announced that it will be launching the Criterion Channel as "a freestanding service," wholly owned and operated by Criterion, in spring of 2019. Read the full press statement, including details on how to sign up, here. Recommended VIEWINGPeter Jackson attempts to resurrect history, via colorizing and dubbing, in the trailer for his forthcoming Wwi documentary, They Shall Not Grow Old.An official trailer for Aleksei German's Khrustalyov, My Car! highlights its morbid humor and stunning style.
- 11/21/2018
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAnnette Michelson, one of the foremost film scholars and illuminating minds on the avant-garde, has sadly left us at the age of 96. Artforum offers a thoughtful remembrance, including a round-up of links to Michelson's Artforum contributions.French philosopher and cultural theorist Paul Virilio passed earlier this month. Scholar McKenzie Wark has penned a lovingly thorough of the man and his works for Frieze.Recommended VIEWINGIn the event of Criterion Collection's new release of Terrence Malick's masterpiece, The Tree of Life (which includes a new cut of the film!), they have shared a special feature which offers rare insights into the ethereal cosmological imagery and special effects. Watch it here.An evocative, even minimal trailer for Her Smell, Alex Ross Perry's and Elizabeth Moss' joint exploration of a unhinged '90s rockstar is here.
- 9/25/2018
- MUBI
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Bertrand Mandico's The Wild Boys (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from September 14 – October 14, 2018 as a Special Discovery.“I’m sick to death of this self. I want another.”—Orlando, Virginia Woolf, 1928Bertrand Mandico’s The Wild Boys depicts a metamorphosis from male to female, set against a landscape of gender fluidity. Upon a cursory glance, Mandico’s cinema seems to exist to be deconstructed. Like his short films, his first feature occupies an epicene world that collapses the binaries of biological sex and gender, extrapolating a dilemma described in Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” which addresses men’s creation and spectatorship of images of women on film. In The Wild Boys, Mandico complicates the spectatorship of biological sex in that the titular boys are all played by women.
- 9/14/2018
- MUBI
Bertrand Mandico's The Wild Boys (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing September 14 – October 14, 2018 as a Special Discovery.French director Bertrand Mandico shared with us the films he thought about before, during, and after making his feature debut, The Wild Boys:ISLANDSThe Saga of AnatahanMatango: Attack of the Mushroom People: The island and its fauna and flora, the mushroom-men, the sinking. A sublime film.Lord Jim: The tempest sequence in the opening and the cowardice of Lord Jim—an amazing film.A High Wind in Jamaica: For the confusion of the captain played by Antony Quinn, the phlegm of James Coburn and the beauty of his young crew.The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Lewis John Carlino, 1976): For the erotic figure of the Captain (Kris Kristofferson) and its clique of violent boys.Remorques: A romantic and captivating film with sequences...
- 9/13/2018
- MUBI
“Let the Corpses Tan” tells you right away what it’s about. It’s about painting with bullets. And what a beautiful picture it makes.
The third film from directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani is, like their previous works “Amer” and “The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears,” a reinvigoration of cult European filmmaking. The so-called “Eurosleaze” works of sensuality and violence that are sometimes celebrated, and sometimes rudely dismissed. The filmmakers seem to find within these allegedly outdated genres a fantastic inspiration, and they use iconic color timing, bold camera angles, and vibrant music to get away with telling stories so shocking, they probably wouldn’t be acceptable otherwise.
“Let the Corpses Tan” is a brusque about-face from their first two Giallo-inspired killer thrillers. It’s a dense shootout of a movie, incorporating elements of the spaghetti western, the ultraviolent grindhouse, and a surreal rumination on art itself.
The third film from directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani is, like their previous works “Amer” and “The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears,” a reinvigoration of cult European filmmaking. The so-called “Eurosleaze” works of sensuality and violence that are sometimes celebrated, and sometimes rudely dismissed. The filmmakers seem to find within these allegedly outdated genres a fantastic inspiration, and they use iconic color timing, bold camera angles, and vibrant music to get away with telling stories so shocking, they probably wouldn’t be acceptable otherwise.
“Let the Corpses Tan” is a brusque about-face from their first two Giallo-inspired killer thrillers. It’s a dense shootout of a movie, incorporating elements of the spaghetti western, the ultraviolent grindhouse, and a surreal rumination on art itself.
- 8/31/2018
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
It is always a suspect decision to call a film “indescribable,” at least when assessing it as a whole. Certain aspects may and often do elude one’s ability to comprehend on a moment by moment basis, but in general a movie, especially one which adheres to a set narrative, can be summed up purely in terms of subject matter, theme, and so on. It might not necessarily be the case that there is nothing new under the sun, but it is quite difficult, at least at this point in the evolution of art, to create a narrative consisting of totally uncharted territory.
With that said, is The Wild Boy indescribable? On the most fundamental level, the directorial debut feature of Bertrand Mandico is certainly not: its structure and central conflict is more-or-less a direct cross between the rebellious coming-of-age story and the sea adventure. But it would be equally...
With that said, is The Wild Boy indescribable? On the most fundamental level, the directorial debut feature of Bertrand Mandico is certainly not: its structure and central conflict is more-or-less a direct cross between the rebellious coming-of-age story and the sea adventure. But it would be equally...
- 8/24/2018
- by Ryan Swen
- The Film Stage
One of the more bizarre, surreal, and fascinating releases of this year is The Wild Boys, a film that follows five young boys (all played by young women) who are forced to board a boat where the captain will train them to not be so rebellious and violent…by any means necessary. Today, we have a […]
The post Exclusive The Wild Boys Clip is a Surreal Nightmare Come to Life appeared first on Dread Central.
The post Exclusive The Wild Boys Clip is a Surreal Nightmare Come to Life appeared first on Dread Central.
- 8/23/2018
- by Jonathan Barkan
- DreadCentral.com
Since its launch in 2012, the Sarajevo Film Festival’s Kinoscope sidebar has presented challenging, experimental and genre-bending titles from around the globe.
This year’s lineup includes an eclectic showcase of feature and documentary works from mostly young directors, half of them women, including Nicolas Pesce’s U.S. thriller “Piercing”; Dominga Sotomayor’s “Too Late to Die Young”; Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s “Let the Corpses Tan”; and Gustav Möller’s Danish thriller “The Guilty,” this year’s opening film.
Kinoscope programmers Alessandro Raja and Mathilde Henrot sat down with Variety to discuss the section and this year’s lineup.
Q: Half of your films are by female filmmakers. Is there a conscious effort on your part to present works by women?
Henrot: It’s a conscious selection which doesn’t require too much effort. Since the beginning of Kinoscope we’ve always chosen to have a balanced...
This year’s lineup includes an eclectic showcase of feature and documentary works from mostly young directors, half of them women, including Nicolas Pesce’s U.S. thriller “Piercing”; Dominga Sotomayor’s “Too Late to Die Young”; Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s “Let the Corpses Tan”; and Gustav Möller’s Danish thriller “The Guilty,” this year’s opening film.
Kinoscope programmers Alessandro Raja and Mathilde Henrot sat down with Variety to discuss the section and this year’s lineup.
Q: Half of your films are by female filmmakers. Is there a conscious effort on your part to present works by women?
Henrot: It’s a conscious selection which doesn’t require too much effort. Since the beginning of Kinoscope we’ve always chosen to have a balanced...
- 8/17/2018
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The theme is simple here: four albums with guitars galore — solo and in tandem; loaded with effects and stripped to pure tone; in settings where you least expect them, but always in flight.
Circles Around the Sun, Let It Wander (Rhino)
This tripping-instrumental quartet was certified authentic psychedelia before they ever appeared on record — by no less than the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. Guitarist Neal Casal of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood started Circles Around the Sun with keyboard player Adam MacDougall (another member of the Brotherhood), bassist Dan...
Circles Around the Sun, Let It Wander (Rhino)
This tripping-instrumental quartet was certified authentic psychedelia before they ever appeared on record — by no less than the surviving members of the Grateful Dead. Guitarist Neal Casal of the Chris Robinson Brotherhood started Circles Around the Sun with keyboard player Adam MacDougall (another member of the Brotherhood), bassist Dan...
- 8/14/2018
- by David Fricke
- Rollingstone.com
The Sarajevo Film Festival kicked off Friday with Polish drama “Cold War,” marking a return to the city for Oscar-winning director Pawel Pawlikowski.
Pawlikowski, who won the best director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his film about star-crossed lovers in 1950s Europe, said he was especially delighted to have his film open the festival. “I have been in love with Sarajevo for a long time – haunted by it,” he said, adding that he became enamored of the city after seeing Emir Kusturica’s 1981 film “Do You Remember Dolly Bell?”
During the opening ceremony, festival director Mirsad Purivata presented Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan with an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo for his “extraordinary contribution to the art of film.” “This is great honor for me, really, and I accept it with my heart,” Ceylan said.
The festival is showcasing his cinematic and photographic works, including his 2014 Palme d’Or winner “Winter Sleep,...
Pawlikowski, who won the best director prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for his film about star-crossed lovers in 1950s Europe, said he was especially delighted to have his film open the festival. “I have been in love with Sarajevo for a long time – haunted by it,” he said, adding that he became enamored of the city after seeing Emir Kusturica’s 1981 film “Do You Remember Dolly Bell?”
During the opening ceremony, festival director Mirsad Purivata presented Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan with an Honorary Heart of Sarajevo for his “extraordinary contribution to the art of film.” “This is great honor for me, really, and I accept it with my heart,” Ceylan said.
The festival is showcasing his cinematic and photographic works, including his 2014 Palme d’Or winner “Winter Sleep,...
- 8/11/2018
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
As the summer comes to a close, it seems as though most distributors–especially on the indie side–were holding onto their gems before the busy fall festival slate as a number of the year’s best films arrive this month. If we’re being honest, though, our most-anticipated film won’t actually get a theatrical release, but will instead arrive on The Criterion Collection with Terrence Malick’s extended edition of The Tree of Life. However for this feature, we’ll stick to those films one will be able to see in theaters, so without further adieu, here are the 15 films we recommend this month.
Matinees to See: Nico, 1988 (8/1), Christopher Robin (8/3), A Prayer Before Dawn (8/10), Buybust (8/10), Summer of ’84 (8/10), Crazy Rich Asians (8/15), Juliet, Naked (8/17), Memoir of War (8/17), Notes on an Appearance (8/17), We the Animals (8/17), The Wife (8/17), The Night is Short, Walk On Girl (8/21), What Keeps You Alive (8/24), Papillon (8/24), The Happytime Murders...
Matinees to See: Nico, 1988 (8/1), Christopher Robin (8/3), A Prayer Before Dawn (8/10), Buybust (8/10), Summer of ’84 (8/10), Crazy Rich Asians (8/15), Juliet, Naked (8/17), Memoir of War (8/17), Notes on an Appearance (8/17), We the Animals (8/17), The Wife (8/17), The Night is Short, Walk On Girl (8/21), What Keeps You Alive (8/24), Papillon (8/24), The Happytime Murders...
- 7/31/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"Not so clever now, Captain?" What do we have here? Lgbtq distributor Altered Innocence has debuted an official trailer for a very intriguing, edgy, erotic new art house film titled The Wild Boys, from Bertrand Mandico making his feature debut. The film is about five adolescent boys punished to go aboard a "haunted, dilapidated sailboat" where they're about to prepare for mutiny against the Captain, until they discover their destination. "Their port of call is a supernatural island with luxuriant vegetation and bewitching powers." The twist is that the five boys are all played by actresses, and it's about them discovering themselves. "Shot in gorgeous 16mm and brimming with eroticism, gender-fluidity, and humor, The Wild Boys will take you on journey you won’t soon forget." It's also similar in look and feel to films made by Guy maddin. I really don't know how else to describe this or what else to say,...
- 7/30/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
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