A mood of heightened melodrama gives way to something strangely enchanting in Petite Solange, the story of a 13-year-old girl coming to terms with the shattering notion that her parents’ love (and for that matter anyone’s) might not last. The director is Axelle Ropert, a French critic, actor, writer, and filmmaker whose career has pivoted between the genre films she and her partner, Serge Bozon, have collaborated on and her own body of work behind the camera. That personal side to her oeuvre has always tended more toward the familial and the bittersweet, just as it has proven Ropert a keen proponent of the Tolstoyan idea that happy families are only intriguing when torn apart.
Petite Solange centers around the unlikely named Maserati clan: a happy family and one ripe for the tearing. Newcomer Jade Springer gives an excellent performance as the eponymous teen, a young woman who finds...
Petite Solange centers around the unlikely named Maserati clan: a happy family and one ripe for the tearing. Newcomer Jade Springer gives an excellent performance as the eponymous teen, a young woman who finds...
- 8/11/2021
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
After the Covid-19 pandemic forced last year’s in-person festivities and competition to be cancelled, the Cannes Film Festival will be returning in full force this year, running from July 6 until July 17. The top prize there is the coveted Palme d’Or, and this will be the first time it’s awarded since 2019 when Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” claimed it. That film would go on to win the Oscar for Best Picture, becoming the first to claim both prizes since “Marty” did it in 1955. This year’s jury will be headed by Oscar winner Spike Lee, who won the Grand Prix in 2018 for “BlacKkKlansman,” which went on to win him the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
The track record of a filmmaker at Cannes can sometimes offer tea leaves as to who might be in a good position to take the Palme. Eight of the entries this year come from...
The track record of a filmmaker at Cannes can sometimes offer tea leaves as to who might be in a good position to take the Palme. Eight of the entries this year come from...
- 6/13/2021
- by Charles Bright
- Gold Derby
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Museum of the Moving Image
“No Joke: Absurd Comedy as Political Reality” commences with Xavier: Renegade Angel, Starship Troopers and more.
“See It Big! Ghost Stories” continues.
The Greek feature Electra plays this Sunday.
Film at Lincoln Center
Restorations of Le Professeur and Sergei Parajanov shorts play as part of the 57th New York Film Festival’s final weekend.
Museum of the Moving Image
“No Joke: Absurd Comedy as Political Reality” commences with Xavier: Renegade Angel, Starship Troopers and more.
“See It Big! Ghost Stories” continues.
The Greek feature Electra plays this Sunday.
Film at Lincoln Center
Restorations of Le Professeur and Sergei Parajanov shorts play as part of the 57th New York Film Festival’s final weekend.
- 10/10/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Four years after first being announced, two and a half years since Amazon came on board to distribute the feature, and nearly two years since it reportedly got its third starry leading lady, Leos Carax’s long-gestating and oft-delayed romantic musical “Annette” appears to finally be coming to fruition. Variety reports that the Adam Driver-starring feature is being officially revived and is eyeing a summer start date.
The film will now be produced by Charles Gilbert’s CG Cinema — best known stateside for Olivier Assayas’ Kristen Stewart-starring “Personal Shopper” — and will start shooting this August. Amazon is still expected to release the film in the U.S.
The film is billed as a musical drama about a stand-up comedian whose opera singer wife is deceased. He finds himself alone with his two-year-old daughter who has a surprising gift. While there’s no word yet who will fill the film’s key female lead,...
The film will now be produced by Charles Gilbert’s CG Cinema — best known stateside for Olivier Assayas’ Kristen Stewart-starring “Personal Shopper” — and will start shooting this August. Amazon is still expected to release the film in the U.S.
The film is billed as a musical drama about a stand-up comedian whose opera singer wife is deceased. He finds himself alone with his two-year-old daughter who has a surprising gift. While there’s no word yet who will fill the film’s key female lead,...
- 5/15/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
New projects directed by auteurs from France, Italy, China and the UK take slots 5 to 1 in our most anticipated foreign films of 2020.
#5. Annette – Leos Carax
Running into delays thanks to lead actor Adam Driver’s commitment to Star Wars, 2020 looks to be the year we’ll finally have a new film from Leos Carax with the musical Annette, who hasn’t been on hand since 2012’s Holy Motors (which was also Carax’s first feature following 1999’s Pola X). Sporting a soundtrack developed with Sparks and a cast which will also feature Michelle Williams, the Amazon Studios production will be Carax’s first musical and English language film.…...
#5. Annette – Leos Carax
Running into delays thanks to lead actor Adam Driver’s commitment to Star Wars, 2020 looks to be the year we’ll finally have a new film from Leos Carax with the musical Annette, who hasn’t been on hand since 2012’s Holy Motors (which was also Carax’s first feature following 1999’s Pola X). Sporting a soundtrack developed with Sparks and a cast which will also feature Michelle Williams, the Amazon Studios production will be Carax’s first musical and English language film.…...
- 1/11/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The French movie star of French movie stars turns 75 today. She's won two prizes at Cannes, two at Berlinale, and two at the Césars (with 12 additional nominations) in her career that's been as lustrous as the famous golden hair. Catherine Deneuve hasn't been as celebrated in recent years as Isabelle Huppert (who is 10 years younger) but her list of classics, hits, and indelible experiments is long: Belle de Jour (BAFTA nomination), The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, The Young Girls of Rochefort, Repulsion, Mississippi Mermaid, Tristana, Donkey Skin, The Hunger, The Metro (César win), Indochine, East/West, Pola X, Dancer in the Dark, 8 Women, and Kings and Queen among them.
The last eight years have been quiet but it wasn't so long ago that the one-two-three punch of voice work in the Oscar-nominated Persepolis (2007 -- she voiced both the French & English versions), an amazing performance in Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale...
The last eight years have been quiet but it wasn't so long ago that the one-two-three punch of voice work in the Oscar-nominated Persepolis (2007 -- she voiced both the French & English versions), an amazing performance in Arnaud Desplechin's A Christmas Tale...
- 10/22/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Michelle Williams may soon be joining French filmmaker Leos Carax’s upcoming English-language drama “Annette,” taking a role that had originally gone to Rooney Mara before the actress dropped out. Williams’ deal is still being negotiated, despite reports to the contrary, so it’s too early to say whether she and Carax will get to collaborate for the first time, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Adam Driver will star in the lead role.
Read More: Rihanna Will Not Star in Leos Carax Pop Star Drama ‘Annette’; Was It Too Good to Be True?
“Annette” marks Carax’s English-language debut and his first film since 2012’s “Holy Motors,” which has been named by IndieWire as one of the best films of the century so far. The film is a musical drama about a stand-up comedian whose opera singer wife is deceased. He finds himself alone with his...
Read More: Rihanna Will Not Star in Leos Carax Pop Star Drama ‘Annette’; Was It Too Good to Be True?
“Annette” marks Carax’s English-language debut and his first film since 2012’s “Holy Motors,” which has been named by IndieWire as one of the best films of the century so far. The film is a musical drama about a stand-up comedian whose opera singer wife is deceased. He finds himself alone with his...
- 6/1/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Hot off the critical and awards season success of Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea,” Amazon is continuing to ink major production deals with some of the art house world’s biggest stars, from newly-minted Oscar winner Barry Jenkins to the the delightfully original Leos Carax — and that’s just the start. Amazon’s relationship with creators also includes a number of television heavy-hitters, including Amy Sherman-Palladino and Matthew Weiner, but the keen eye they’ve turned on filmmakers is the one to watch.
Still, there is much work to be done. While Amazon has had major success working with filmmaker and showrunner Jill Soloway — and its latest batch of pilots includes a standout from “Gilmore Girls” alum Sherman-Palladino — the list of filmmakers who recently signed on to produce features with the studio is woefully lacking when it comes to female talents. If you can grab a Yorgos Lanthimos,...
Still, there is much work to be done. While Amazon has had major success working with filmmaker and showrunner Jill Soloway — and its latest batch of pilots includes a standout from “Gilmore Girls” alum Sherman-Palladino — the list of filmmakers who recently signed on to produce features with the studio is woefully lacking when it comes to female talents. If you can grab a Yorgos Lanthimos,...
- 3/28/2017
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
We Are The Flesh (Tenemos la carne)
Blu-ray
2017 / Color / 1:85 widescreen – though the aspect ratio changes at the director’s whim/110 min. / Street Date February 28, 2017
Starring: Noe Hernandez, María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel.
Cinematography: Yollótl Alvarado
Film Editor: Yibran Asuad and Emiliano Rocha Minter
Written by Emiliano Rocha Minter
Produced by Julio Chavezmontes and Moisés Cosío
Directed by Emiliano Rocha Minter
Teetering on that thin edge between the ludicrous and the even more ludicrous, Emiliano Rocha Minter’s We Are The Flesh is a spittle-flecked, willfully deranged vision of life in a post-apocalyptic Mexico. Since its release in 2016, Minter’s movie, adrift in bodily fluids and overwrought speechifying, has been turning both heads and stomachs at film festivals across Europe.
An unconvincing mix of Living Theatre provocations and Eraserhead-like tableaus of bursting placentas and the drip, drip, drip of menstrual blood, Minter’s movie announces itself with the...
Blu-ray
2017 / Color / 1:85 widescreen – though the aspect ratio changes at the director’s whim/110 min. / Street Date February 28, 2017
Starring: Noe Hernandez, María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel.
Cinematography: Yollótl Alvarado
Film Editor: Yibran Asuad and Emiliano Rocha Minter
Written by Emiliano Rocha Minter
Produced by Julio Chavezmontes and Moisés Cosío
Directed by Emiliano Rocha Minter
Teetering on that thin edge between the ludicrous and the even more ludicrous, Emiliano Rocha Minter’s We Are The Flesh is a spittle-flecked, willfully deranged vision of life in a post-apocalyptic Mexico. Since its release in 2016, Minter’s movie, adrift in bodily fluids and overwrought speechifying, has been turning both heads and stomachs at film festivals across Europe.
An unconvincing mix of Living Theatre provocations and Eraserhead-like tableaus of bursting placentas and the drip, drip, drip of menstrual blood, Minter’s movie announces itself with the...
- 3/7/2017
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
The enigmatic French filmmaker Leos Carax started young, unveiling his idiosyncratic, imaginative debut, Boy Meets Girl, when he was all of 23. But in three decades since, he’s only completed four more features: the romanticized noir riff Mauvais Sang; The Lovers On The Bridge, which was at one point the most expensive film ever made in France; the dark Herman Melville adaptation Pola X; and the unclassifiable meta-whatsit Holy Motors. Fans have learned long ago not to trust reports on new projects.
Partly that’s because Carax movies (even the ones that get made) often sound too good to be true. Case in point: Annette, the English-language musical that director has been readying for the last couple of years, with a song by the art-pop duo Sparks. But as noted by The Playlist and confirmed by Variety, the project is now ready to go, with Adam Driver and Rooney ...
Partly that’s because Carax movies (even the ones that get made) often sound too good to be true. Case in point: Annette, the English-language musical that director has been readying for the last couple of years, with a song by the art-pop duo Sparks. But as noted by The Playlist and confirmed by Variety, the project is now ready to go, with Adam Driver and Rooney ...
- 11/4/2016
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
Acclaimed French director Leos Carax’s last film “Holy Motors” is one of the most acclaimed films of the young century. It premiered at Cannes in 2012 and won the Award of the Youth, and garnered universally positive notices upon release in the United States. It most recently placed at number 16 on the BBC’s recent list of the 21st century’s greatest films with Drew McWeeny writing that it’s “an act of grief designed as an expression of love.” Now, Carax returns with “Annette,” a new music drama starring Rooney Mara (“Carol”) and Adam Driver (“Paterson”).
Read More: New Classic: Leos Carax’s ‘Holy Motors’
According to Variety, the film follows the rise and fall of a love affair and will reunite the “Holy Motors” crew. It will be Carax’s first English-language debut, and will be produced by Paris-based Arena Films, Swiss company Vega, Japan’s Eurospace and Belgium’s Wrong Men.
Read More: New Classic: Leos Carax’s ‘Holy Motors’
According to Variety, the film follows the rise and fall of a love affair and will reunite the “Holy Motors” crew. It will be Carax’s first English-language debut, and will be produced by Paris-based Arena Films, Swiss company Vega, Japan’s Eurospace and Belgium’s Wrong Men.
- 11/4/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
In 2015, Brady Corbet’s debut film “The Childhood of a Leader,” starring Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, and Robert Pattinson, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to great acclaim, eventually wining Best Debut and Best Director at the festival. Last month, IFC Films released the film in theaters and VOD, but now its dynamic orchestral score can finally be heard in its entirely on Spotify. Legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker composed the score, making it the second film score he’s made after Léos Carax’s 1999 film “Pola X.” Listen to it in its entirety below.
Read More: ‘The Childhood Of A Leader’ Review: Brady Corbet’s Directorial Debut Is An Enthralling Mind-f*ck
Scott Walker began his career as a 60s pop star before becoming an avant-garde artist in the 21st century. He first released music as a member of The Walker Brothers, a group that achieved great success in the United Kingdom,...
Read More: ‘The Childhood Of A Leader’ Review: Brady Corbet’s Directorial Debut Is An Enthralling Mind-f*ck
Scott Walker began his career as a 60s pop star before becoming an avant-garde artist in the 21st century. He first released music as a member of The Walker Brothers, a group that achieved great success in the United Kingdom,...
- 8/19/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Scott Walker’s score for The Childhood Of A Leader (only his second, after Pola X) is a work of dark, twisted genius, skin-crawling and bombastic in equal measure, and first-time director Brady Corbet does his damnedest trying to mount a movie to deserve it. And, mirabile dictu, he eventually pulls it off with the epilogue, a left turn into dystopian nightmare, titled “A New Era.” If only for a few minutes, The Childhood Of A Leader becomes its own film, a tour of the printing presses, paternoster elevators, and mazes of power that ends with a convulsive blur of bodies crowding in a public square. A viewer can’t help but think, “What took so long?”
Most of The Childhood Of A Leader is set in the aftermath of World War I at a dilapidated French manor house, shrouded in greenish medieval fog. Taking inspiration from the Jean-Paul Sartre...
Most of The Childhood Of A Leader is set in the aftermath of World War I at a dilapidated French manor house, shrouded in greenish medieval fog. Taking inspiration from the Jean-Paul Sartre...
- 7/21/2016
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
If Brady Corbet‘s The Childhood of a Leader hadn’t received plenty of early praise as a forceful, confident directorial debut from a perpetually interesting young actor, my eye would still be fixed on it for one reason: composer Scott Walker. The press-shy, not-exactly-prolific musician has a fanbase as narrow as it is dedicated — David Bowie may have been first and foremost among them, often considering him a North Star; just hear his reaction to a birthday wish for some idea — and his one contribution to film-scoring, on Leos Carax’s Pola X, is among the best anybody has produced in the last 20 years.
Though a recent convert, I consider myself among said fanbase, and so: whatever I come to make of it, The Childhood of a Leader earns credit for giving us a new, of-the-same-name Scott Walker album on August 19, ahead of which there’s now a very brief preview.
Though a recent convert, I consider myself among said fanbase, and so: whatever I come to make of it, The Childhood of a Leader earns credit for giving us a new, of-the-same-name Scott Walker album on August 19, ahead of which there’s now a very brief preview.
- 7/5/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Mauvais sang is playing April 2 - May 1 and Mr. X, a Vision of Leos Carax April 3 - May 3, 2016 in the United States.When lighting cigarettes, characters in Mauvais sang (1986) never shield the flame from wind. The smoke doesn't dissipate, but slithers away in tendrils. The air hangs, heated by an overpassing Halley's Comet that turns the cobblestone streets into a fire-walk. The male characters conduct their business shirtless, sometimes wrestling with a homoeroticism more Greek than closeted. A city-wide suicide spree, exacerbated but maybe not caused by the AIDS-like retrovirus "Stbo", leaves alive only thieves, fare-hoppers, vandals, gangsters. They inhabit Jean-Pierre Melville's exsanguinated Paris, designed as a hermetic MGM backlot. Red leaks down the walls. Holed up in an old butcher's shop, three thieves plan their last big score: stealing a serum to Stbo. The money will allow...
- 3/30/2016
- by Mike Opal
- MUBI
With it being 13 years between Leos Carax‘s Pola X and his next feature film, the dazzling Holy Motors (one of the best of the decade thus far), we’re not exactly holding our breath for his follow-up. However, earlier this year we learned that things we moving forward on musical project involving Ron and Russell Mael‘s band Sparks. It’s said to avoid traditional “Broadway, razzmatazz” stylings, instead favoring an all-music approach “where sometimes the story is being progressed through dialogue that’s done in a hyper-stylized, sung/spoken way,” and we now, finally, have another update.
According to the reputable French magazine Les Inrockuptibles, Adam Driver and Rooney Mara are circling the English-language musical comedy, which will also feature the return of Holy Motors cinematographer Caroline Champetier. Said to be in the early stages of financing (attempting to secure a budget of around 10 to 12 million Euros), both...
According to the reputable French magazine Les Inrockuptibles, Adam Driver and Rooney Mara are circling the English-language musical comedy, which will also feature the return of Holy Motors cinematographer Caroline Champetier. Said to be in the early stages of financing (attempting to secure a budget of around 10 to 12 million Euros), both...
- 12/3/2015
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Qui aime les films français ?
If you do and you live in St. Louis, you’re in luck! The Seventh Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series begins March 13th. The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the early 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema. The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations.
This year features recent restorations of eight works, including an extended director’s cut of Patrice Chéreau’s historical epic Queen Margot a New York-set film noir (Two Men In Manhattan) by crime-film maestro Jean-Pierre Melville, who also co-stars; a short feature (“A Day in the Country”) by Jean Renoir, on a double bill with the 2006 restoration of his masterpiece, The Rules Of The Game, and the...
If you do and you live in St. Louis, you’re in luck! The Seventh Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series begins March 13th. The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the early 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema. The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations.
This year features recent restorations of eight works, including an extended director’s cut of Patrice Chéreau’s historical epic Queen Margot a New York-set film noir (Two Men In Manhattan) by crime-film maestro Jean-Pierre Melville, who also co-stars; a short feature (“A Day in the Country”) by Jean Renoir, on a double bill with the 2006 restoration of his masterpiece, The Rules Of The Game, and the...
- 3/4/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Perhaps we can thank the critical success of his 2012 masterwork, Holy Motors for the resurgence of interest in the early works of Leos Carax, including not only a new documentary about the enigmatic filmmaker, but restorations and notable Blu-ray transfers of his first two titles, Boy Meets Girl (1984) and Mauvais Sang (1986) from Carlotta Films.
The introduction of Carax’s onscreen alter ego Denis Lavant, present in each of his five titles except for 1999’s troubled Pola X, feels very much like a loving homage of the Nouvelle Vague mixed with sublimation of melancholy emptiness in 1980s excess and the hollow virtues of young adulthood. In comparison to his other titles, Boy Meets Girl does feel very much like Carax’s first film, an artist figuring out his emotional resonance, his stylistic fascinations, a title that, in look and style feels strangely similar to David Lynch’s first film, Eraserhead (1977), another...
The introduction of Carax’s onscreen alter ego Denis Lavant, present in each of his five titles except for 1999’s troubled Pola X, feels very much like a loving homage of the Nouvelle Vague mixed with sublimation of melancholy emptiness in 1980s excess and the hollow virtues of young adulthood. In comparison to his other titles, Boy Meets Girl does feel very much like Carax’s first film, an artist figuring out his emotional resonance, his stylistic fascinations, a title that, in look and style feels strangely similar to David Lynch’s first film, Eraserhead (1977), another...
- 12/2/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
International co-production and co-production markets around the globe will not be the same now following the news that the internationally respected German producer-distributor Karl Baumgartner has died at the age of 65.
Known affectionately by friends and colleagues alike as ¨Baumi¨, Baumgartner hailed from the South Tyrol, but was ¨ at home¨ in different countries and cultures, working with film-makers on projects located in some of the seemingly most inaccessible or logistically nightmarish parts of the planet.
Hearing him recount the making of Bakhtiar Khudojnazarov’s Luna Papa at one of the countless co-production panels with his tales of the shooting being stopped by floods washing the set away, the outbreak of civil war and being evacuated by the Red Cross floods, one often wondered whether he purposely looked for such challenges.
Not to speak of the challenge of putting such delicate and time-consuming co-production structures together involving tried-and-tested production partners, public funders and broadcasters from across Europe and beyond...
Known affectionately by friends and colleagues alike as ¨Baumi¨, Baumgartner hailed from the South Tyrol, but was ¨ at home¨ in different countries and cultures, working with film-makers on projects located in some of the seemingly most inaccessible or logistically nightmarish parts of the planet.
Hearing him recount the making of Bakhtiar Khudojnazarov’s Luna Papa at one of the countless co-production panels with his tales of the shooting being stopped by floods washing the set away, the outbreak of civil war and being evacuated by the Red Cross floods, one often wondered whether he purposely looked for such challenges.
Not to speak of the challenge of putting such delicate and time-consuming co-production structures together involving tried-and-tested production partners, public funders and broadcasters from across Europe and beyond...
- 3/19/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
The 2014 Sundance Film Festival is right around the corner, and the Sundance Institute has released the full line-up for the competition films that will be premiering!
This year there were 12,218 total submissions, and 117 films were accepted from 37 countries around the world. It looks like there's a lot of good selection of films this year.
The Sundance Film Festival 2014 runs from January 16th to the 26th, and the GeekTyrant team will be there to cover as many movies as we possibly can.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The 16 films in this section are world premieres and, unless otherwise noted, are from the U.S.
“Camp X-Ray” — Directed and written by Peter Sattler. A young female guard at Guantanamo Bay forms an unlikely friendship with one of the detainees. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Payman Maadi, Lane Garrison, J.J. Soria, John Carroll Lynch.
“Cold in July” — Directed by Jim Mickle, written by Nick Damici.
This year there were 12,218 total submissions, and 117 films were accepted from 37 countries around the world. It looks like there's a lot of good selection of films this year.
The Sundance Film Festival 2014 runs from January 16th to the 26th, and the GeekTyrant team will be there to cover as many movies as we possibly can.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The 16 films in this section are world premieres and, unless otherwise noted, are from the U.S.
“Camp X-Ray” — Directed and written by Peter Sattler. A young female guard at Guantanamo Bay forms an unlikely friendship with one of the detainees. Cast: Kristen Stewart, Payman Maadi, Lane Garrison, J.J. Soria, John Carroll Lynch.
“Cold in July” — Directed by Jim Mickle, written by Nick Damici.
- 12/5/2013
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
While the U.S. Documentary Competition is generally known for it’s politically charged intensity, the World Cinema Documentary Competition tends to be a little more well rounded. Rather than bluntly educating and strongly suggesting, the imports are often more observational in their approach, asking us to engage and form our own opinions on the subjects, or often the cultures, presented. Think last year’s Best Director Award winner The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear by Tinatin Gurchiani, or Qi Zhao’s Fallen City as prime examples, but let’s not forget there are also films of social urgency, such as Jehane Noujaim’s The Square, which just made the Oscar docu short list this week. This year’s programme looks no less diverse.
Possibly the biggest name on the list, Hubert Sauper returns with his hotly anticipated doc We Come as Friends (see above picture), his first feature since...
Possibly the biggest name on the list, Hubert Sauper returns with his hotly anticipated doc We Come as Friends (see above picture), his first feature since...
- 12/5/2013
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
The 15th Mumbai Film Festival (Mff) presented by Reliance Entertainment and organized by the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (Mami) scheduled between 17th-24th October is all set to showcase the best of contemporary French cinema and welcome artists for the 6th edition of the Rendez-vous with French Cinema co-organized with The French Embassy in India, Institut Français en Inde and Unifrance films.
As part of the festival highlights, Costa Gavras will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening ceremony in the presence of His Excellency Mr François Richier, Ambassador of France to India who will grace us with his presence especially for this occasion. Among others, Nathalie Baye, jury member of the international section, Mahamat Saleh Haroun, director of the film “Grigris”, Guillaume Brac, director of the film “Tonnerre” (Competition) and Leos Carax, well known film maker who will be conducting a masters class.
The special section “Rendez-vous...
As part of the festival highlights, Costa Gavras will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award during the opening ceremony in the presence of His Excellency Mr François Richier, Ambassador of France to India who will grace us with his presence especially for this occasion. Among others, Nathalie Baye, jury member of the international section, Mahamat Saleh Haroun, director of the film “Grigris”, Guillaume Brac, director of the film “Tonnerre” (Competition) and Leos Carax, well known film maker who will be conducting a masters class.
The special section “Rendez-vous...
- 10/18/2013
- by Pooja Rao
- Bollyspice
Catherine Deneuve: 2013 European Film Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Catherine Deneuve has been named the recipient of the the European Film Academy’s 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award for her "outstanding body of work." And outstanding it is. Yesterday, I posted an article about Dirk Bogarde (Victim, Death in Venice, Despair), one of the rare performers anywhere on the planet to have consistently worked with world-class international filmmakers. The Paris-born Catherine Deneuve, who turns 70 next October 22, is another one of those lucky actors. (Photo: Catherine Deneuve at the Potiche premiere at the 2010 Venice Film Festival.) Deneuve’s directors have included an eclectic and prestigious list of filmmakers from various countries. Those include Belle de Jour and Tristana‘s Luis Buñuel; Le Sauvage and La Vie de Château‘s Jean-Paul Rappenau; The Hunger‘s Tony Scott; Un Flic‘s Jean-Pierre Melville; The Mississippi Mermaid and The Last Metro‘s François Truffaut...
- 9/25/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The Toronto International Film Festival is about to launch a retrospective celebrating the work of Holy Motors director Leos Carax, arguably the most important, or at least interesting, working French director. The director's triumphant return to the cinema with Holy Motors last year after a 13 year absence from feature filmmaking is indeed a cause for celebration, and a perfect opportunity to revisit his singular career. The Tiff retro will include all 5 of Carax's feature films: Boy Meets Girl, Mauvais Sang, Les Amants du Pont Neuf, Pola X and Holy Motors.Over the last 30 years, Carax has made only 5 features, along with a couple of shorts, music videos and some cameo appearances in other directors' films -- Jean-Luc Godard's King Lear (1987), Lituanian...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/5/2013
- Screen Anarchy
I had so many different ideas with which to celebrate today that I didn't manage to get any of them done. It's a typical problem when you have more ideas than time and when indefatigable ambition meets easily exhaustable execution. So herewith... a few off the cuff Lists celebrating actresses that work primarily outside of the English language that are every bit as good and sometimes a whole lot better than their American/English/Aussie counterparts who get the bulk of attention in the global market.
The gold standard here is always Deneuve. "Catherine Deneuve"... go ahead, sound it out. The name itself just reverberates with glamour but the razzle dazzle of her international celebrity is hardly the reason she's the gold standard. She's also got a filmography that would be the envy of any actor who cares about cinema beyond their own image and though she'll turn 70 this fall,...
The gold standard here is always Deneuve. "Catherine Deneuve"... go ahead, sound it out. The name itself just reverberates with glamour but the razzle dazzle of her international celebrity is hardly the reason she's the gold standard. She's also got a filmography that would be the envy of any actor who cares about cinema beyond their own image and though she'll turn 70 this fall,...
- 3/9/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Holy Motors; Looper; ParaNorman; House at the End of the Street; Now is Good
What the hell is Holy Motors (2012, Artificial Eye, 18) all about? Leos Carax's first feature film for more than a decade (following the commercial failure of Pola X) is a breathtakingly barking affair involving chimpanzees, aliens, computer graphics, talking limousines, false noses, Kylie Minogue channelling Jean Seberg and Eva Mendes being kidnapped by a familiar troll named Merde. "It's so weird!" breathes an incidental character ecstatically, and he's not kidding.
At the centre of it all is the mesmerising Denis Lavant, a fiery angel and existential artist who travels from location to location adopting quixotic personas (twisted beggar woman, scarred hitman, dying uncle, angry father) and performing real-life vignettes amid the great circus of screen life. From the earliest chronophotographic images of bodies in motion to virtual sex in mo-cap suits, Carax hurtles helter skelter through an urgent history of cinema,...
What the hell is Holy Motors (2012, Artificial Eye, 18) all about? Leos Carax's first feature film for more than a decade (following the commercial failure of Pola X) is a breathtakingly barking affair involving chimpanzees, aliens, computer graphics, talking limousines, false noses, Kylie Minogue channelling Jean Seberg and Eva Mendes being kidnapped by a familiar troll named Merde. "It's so weird!" breathes an incidental character ecstatically, and he's not kidding.
At the centre of it all is the mesmerising Denis Lavant, a fiery angel and existential artist who travels from location to location adopting quixotic personas (twisted beggar woman, scarred hitman, dying uncle, angry father) and performing real-life vignettes amid the great circus of screen life. From the earliest chronophotographic images of bodies in motion to virtual sex in mo-cap suits, Carax hurtles helter skelter through an urgent history of cinema,...
- 1/27/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Looking over the results from the Indiewire year-end poll, retirement or long absences played into a handful of the eventual high vote-getters. Leos Carax, who claimed the Best Film and Best Director crowns, took off 13 years between making "Pola X," his last feature-length film and this year's sensation, "Holy Motors." For a short time, it appeared that Joaquin Phoenix had sworn off all future film roles before returning triumphantly as Freddie Quell in "The Master." Even Whit Stillman's "Damsels in Distress," the writer/director's first return to screens in almost a decade and a half, garnered recognition in multiple categories. Life can intervene with a career for any number of reasons: loss of passion for the craft, the rise of health conerns or a desire to eliminate the pitfalls of public life. But sometimes, a few years away from a production environment is the much-needed rejuvenation needed to come back with renewed.
- 1/4/2013
- by Steve Greene
- Indiewire
I wonder...
Juliette Binoche in 'Lovers on the Bridge'
Guilliame Depardieu (Rip) in "Pola X"
...will all this top ten film critic affection for Leos Carax's Holy Motors redirect anyone to his earlier work? He's not prolific which makes maintaining one's reputation for brilliance easy but makes winning or maintaining a fanbase difficult.
Consider this a public service announcement. Do not under any circumstances miss Lovers on the Bridge or Pola X should you have a chance to see them. They're nearly as weird as Holy Motors and possibly even more magical. (Fwiw Pola X is my favorite from his filmography)...
Juliette Binoche in 'Lovers on the Bridge'
Guilliame Depardieu (Rip) in "Pola X"
...will all this top ten film critic affection for Leos Carax's Holy Motors redirect anyone to his earlier work? He's not prolific which makes maintaining one's reputation for brilliance easy but makes winning or maintaining a fanbase difficult.
Consider this a public service announcement. Do not under any circumstances miss Lovers on the Bridge or Pola X should you have a chance to see them. They're nearly as weird as Holy Motors and possibly even more magical. (Fwiw Pola X is my favorite from his filmography)...
- 1/2/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
5. Amour – Dir. Michael Haneke (Austria)
Winner of the Palme D’or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the second for auteur Michael Haneke, much mention has been made about this being Haneke’s warmest, most human film. I agree that the film is quite moving, giving us two cinematic legends at their late career best, Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant (who came out of retirement to do the film), and a moving supporting performance from Haneke favorite, Isabelle Huppert. However, I don’t really agree with classifying this as a warm or even human picture. Haneke’s glacially cold gaze doesn’t warm up at all here, simply showing us a final act of kindness born just as much out of pragmatic selfishness as it could be out of love. This is an unflinching look at the cruelty of life and nature, and those desperately looking for evidence of Haneke losing...
Winner of the Palme D’or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, the second for auteur Michael Haneke, much mention has been made about this being Haneke’s warmest, most human film. I agree that the film is quite moving, giving us two cinematic legends at their late career best, Emmanuelle Riva and Jean-Louis Trintignant (who came out of retirement to do the film), and a moving supporting performance from Haneke favorite, Isabelle Huppert. However, I don’t really agree with classifying this as a warm or even human picture. Haneke’s glacially cold gaze doesn’t warm up at all here, simply showing us a final act of kindness born just as much out of pragmatic selfishness as it could be out of love. This is an unflinching look at the cruelty of life and nature, and those desperately looking for evidence of Haneke losing...
- 12/31/2012
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
#10: The Cabin in the Woods (107 points)
Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard
Directed by Drew Goddard
USA, 2012
Like Scream, it’s a self-aware slasher film, but where Scream was happy simply to turn the genre’s bloody glove inside out and examine the stitching, The Cabin in the Woods has more complicated ambitions. If Scream is a bloody glove turned inside out, then The Cabin in the Woods is a Russian nesting doll described by H. P. Lovecraft and carved by M. C. Escher. Like Hitchcock’s Psycho and Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, The Cabin of the Woods isn’t just about killing, it is about watching (and filming) killing. Our sympathies are torn between the victims being watched and the watchers, including an action sequence modelled loosely on the Psycho car burial. What is perhaps most horrifying is that the watchers are almost bored, like a...
Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard
Directed by Drew Goddard
USA, 2012
Like Scream, it’s a self-aware slasher film, but where Scream was happy simply to turn the genre’s bloody glove inside out and examine the stitching, The Cabin in the Woods has more complicated ambitions. If Scream is a bloody glove turned inside out, then The Cabin in the Woods is a Russian nesting doll described by H. P. Lovecraft and carved by M. C. Escher. Like Hitchcock’s Psycho and Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, The Cabin of the Woods isn’t just about killing, it is about watching (and filming) killing. Our sympathies are torn between the victims being watched and the watchers, including an action sequence modelled loosely on the Psycho car burial. What is perhaps most horrifying is that the watchers are almost bored, like a...
- 12/29/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Honor Roll is a daily series running throughout December that features new or previously published interviews, profiles and first-person stories of some of the year's most notable cinematic voices. Today, we're re-running an interview with Leos Carax, whose "Holy Motors" recently topped Indiewire's Critics Poll as the best film of 2012. Leos Carax doesn't like to make eye contact. Typically hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, the soft-spoken French director is notoriously unkind to the interview process. But Carax, who burst onto the arthouse scene with his inventive '80s cinematic wonders "Boy Meets Girl" and "Mauvais Sang," then followed them with the batty romance "Lovers on the Bridge" and the Melville adaptation "Pola X," has created enough energized cinema to prove he's got plenty to say. The latest example is Carax's "Holy Motors," the Cannes competition feature that has been...
- 12/27/2012
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
[This review was first published after the film's Cannes premiere.] The word "bonkers" was used with abandon along the Croisette when it came to describing Leos Carax’s fifth film (his first full-length feature since 1999’s "Pola X") and "Holy Motors"’ reception at the critics’ screening and official Competition unveiling was so enthusiastic many were convinced it might pull off the Palme d’Or upset over Michael Haneke’s "Amour." In the end, the jury couldn’t resist "Amour," perhaps finding "Holy Motors" too baffling and possibly even too inconsequential. But "bonkers" is an apt description for the film, which is equal parts delirious and pretentious. Carax wasn’t in the mood to shed light on its meanings at the official Cannes press conference (his only spoken-word appearance at the festival), wanting viewers to decipher it for themselves. He makes an...
- 11/2/2012
- by Matt Mueller
- Thompson on Hollywood
This year’s 50th anniversary edition of the New York Film Festival conserved many of the signature tenets that have earned it a prestigious reputation, while also continuing its recent (and at times unfortunate) marketing-driven expansion into mainstream territory. A provocative, eclectic selection of American and international movies — some from auteurs, some unheralded — accompanied choice restorations of classics, as well as star-driven, often sub-par fare meant to raise the festival’s industry profile with premieres and red carpet events. With the defining tenure of programming director Richard Pena now over, will the festival be able to adequately replace his discriminating, often daring taste? Will it even try? Here’s some of the high & low points of this year’s edition – you can also read my “Gala Tribute” selection reviews for: ‘Life of Pi,’ ‘Not Fade Away,’ and ‘Flight’.
Heaven’s Gate:
New York Film Festival ’12 advertisements to the contrary, it...
Heaven’s Gate:
New York Film Festival ’12 advertisements to the contrary, it...
- 10/25/2012
- by Ryan Brown
- IONCINEMA.com
We're not sure if it's the best movie of the year, but it's certainly the weirdest.
Well, the domestic trailer for Holy Motors has arrived online, and we're not sure what we've seen exactly. Part musical, part drama, part comedy, and entirely unique, when Holy Motors debuted at the Cannes Film Festival director Leos Carax (Pola X) would only reveal to the Village Voice that the movie is "about a man and the experience of being alive." Ooookay.
What Holy Motors is about defies a typical plot summary. We can tell you that Eva Mendes plays a model in the movie, and Kylie Minogue sings in it, and French actor Denis Lavant plays a variety of strange characters, seemingly on purpose, in what critics from all over the world are calling "the best movie of the year."
more unusual trailers
Saturdays 10:00a Et / 7:00a Pt
Next Showing:
Link...
Well, the domestic trailer for Holy Motors has arrived online, and we're not sure what we've seen exactly. Part musical, part drama, part comedy, and entirely unique, when Holy Motors debuted at the Cannes Film Festival director Leos Carax (Pola X) would only reveal to the Village Voice that the movie is "about a man and the experience of being alive." Ooookay.
What Holy Motors is about defies a typical plot summary. We can tell you that Eva Mendes plays a model in the movie, and Kylie Minogue sings in it, and French actor Denis Lavant plays a variety of strange characters, seemingly on purpose, in what critics from all over the world are calling "the best movie of the year."
more unusual trailers
Saturdays 10:00a Et / 7:00a Pt
Next Showing:
Link...
- 10/22/2012
- by Ryan Gowland
- Reelzchannel.com
“The social web can’t exist until you are your real self online,” said Sheryl Sandberg on Charlie Rose last year. “I have to be ‘me’, and you have to be ‘Charlie Rose,’” the Facebook COO told the talk show host.
“It’s me” — that single line appearing late in Leos Carax’s Holy Motors unexpectedly devastated me at the film’s Cannes premiere, and perhaps its memory is what’s causing me to recall Sandberg’s statement, which is certainly in line with similar comments by her boss, Mark Zuckerberg. In an age in which online platforms offer the possibility for anyone to craft for themselves a variety of personas, Zuckerberg paradoxically argues that we will move towards a single “true self,” one that finds its fullest representation through social media sharing.
Whether or not you agree with Zuckerberg, it’s hard to disagree that one of the great...
“It’s me” — that single line appearing late in Leos Carax’s Holy Motors unexpectedly devastated me at the film’s Cannes premiere, and perhaps its memory is what’s causing me to recall Sandberg’s statement, which is certainly in line with similar comments by her boss, Mark Zuckerberg. In an age in which online platforms offer the possibility for anyone to craft for themselves a variety of personas, Zuckerberg paradoxically argues that we will move towards a single “true self,” one that finds its fullest representation through social media sharing.
Whether or not you agree with Zuckerberg, it’s hard to disagree that one of the great...
- 10/22/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
I love weird, ambiguous cinema. I love pushing the envelope to the furthest limits that motion pictures can handle. I love the bizarre and the unique and the original. Holy Motors looks like it is all of those things at the same time. The latest film from French director Leos Carax (Pola X, Tokyo!) is heaping the praise from critics across the world. The movie stars Denis Lavant, Kylie Minogue, and Eva Mendes. It was in contention for the Palm D'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival...
- 10/22/2012
- by Alex Maidy
- JoBlo.com
Limousine movie sets. Raging erections. The theme from “Godzilla.” Eva Mendes’ armpits. Cross-dressing. Motion-capture cunnilingus. Mystical garages. Monkey marriages. Accordions. Disappointed fathers. Kylie Minogue. Murderous doppelgangers. Comedy. Tragedy. “Holy Motors.” To say more, and to actively engage in conversation about Leos Carax‘s “Holy Motors,” reeks a bit of dancing about architecture. One doesn’t simply pontificate on the multiple meanings of this admirably obtuse picture, Carax’s first since 1999’s “Pola X.” “Holy Motors” is alive, bristling with emotion, mischief and calamity. You don’t watch the film, it merely happens. We thank a higher power that, this Friday, something like “Holy Motors” will unfold many times a day for several hundreds of viewers. That is, should they choose to accompany Carax on his body-hopping adventure. The very first...
- 10/18/2012
- by Gabe Toro
- The Playlist
Leos Carax doesn't like to make eye contact. Typically hidden behind a pair of sunglasses, the soft-spoken French director is notoriously unkind to the interview process. But Carax, who burst onto the arthouse scene with his inventive '80s cinematic wonders "Boy Meets Girl" and "Mauvais Sang," then followed them with the batty romance "Lovers on the Bridge" and the Melville adaptation "Pola X," has created enough energized cinema to prove he's got plenty to say. The latest example is Carax's "Holy Motors," the Cannes competition feature that has been making the rounds on the festival circuit and recently landed at the New York Film Festival. Re-teaming with "Lovers on the Bridge" star Denis Lavant, Carax tells the bizarre story of a chameleonesque man who plays dozens of characters in the span of a single day -- from the creepy sewer creature Lavant originally played in Carax's contribution to the.
- 10/15/2012
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Above: A rack focus in Bullitt.
Trespassers Will Be Eaten
Perhaps a less eye-grabbing, but still “driving” title for this third Mubi soundtrack mix should be Shifting Gears...as such, it’s a free-falling, propulsive survey of scores focusing on the thriller in all of its manifestations: detective procedurals, bank heists, neo-noirs, spy films, psychodramas, giallos, chases, races, and sci-fi mind-games. Featured also are a few composers better known for their more famous musical projects. Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s metallic, rhythmic score for Rumble Fish, gamely taunts the self-conscious black and white street theatre of Francis Ford Coppola's film. So-called fifth Beatle, producer George Martin’s funky Shaft-influenced Live and Let Die score ushers in a more leisurely 70s-era James Bond, as incarnated by Roger Moore. Epic crooner visionary Scott Walker’s fatally romantic melodies for Leos Carax’s inventively faithful Melville adaptation Pola X is remarkably subdued and lush.
Trespassers Will Be Eaten
Perhaps a less eye-grabbing, but still “driving” title for this third Mubi soundtrack mix should be Shifting Gears...as such, it’s a free-falling, propulsive survey of scores focusing on the thriller in all of its manifestations: detective procedurals, bank heists, neo-noirs, spy films, psychodramas, giallos, chases, races, and sci-fi mind-games. Featured also are a few composers better known for their more famous musical projects. Police drummer Stewart Copeland’s metallic, rhythmic score for Rumble Fish, gamely taunts the self-conscious black and white street theatre of Francis Ford Coppola's film. So-called fifth Beatle, producer George Martin’s funky Shaft-influenced Live and Let Die score ushers in a more leisurely 70s-era James Bond, as incarnated by Roger Moore. Epic crooner visionary Scott Walker’s fatally romantic melodies for Leos Carax’s inventively faithful Melville adaptation Pola X is remarkably subdued and lush.
- 10/15/2012
- by Paul Clipson
- MUBI
New York Film Festival - Léos Carax on Holy Motors, Sally Potter on Ginger & Rosa and Javier Rebollo
Our latest report from the New York Film Festival sees Holy Motors director Léos Carax say thank you to Henry James, Sally Potter provide visual clues with the cast of Ginger And Rosa and The Dead Man And Being Happy director Javier Rebollo discuss archiving images.
Holy Motors
Holy Motors - which follows a man on his shadowy journey from one life to the next - gives thanks to Claire Denis, Georges Franju and Henry James. The last one might puzzle you, but after all, Carax's 1999 film Pola X was based on Herman Melville's Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities. Maybe it isn't the author at all, and the dedication goes to Henry James Ford, Mr "Motor Man." Let one of the most intriguing day trips into our eros and psyche begin!
Anne-Katrin Titze: Thank you for a wonderful film about life. I have a question...
Holy Motors
Holy Motors - which follows a man on his shadowy journey from one life to the next - gives thanks to Claire Denis, Georges Franju and Henry James. The last one might puzzle you, but after all, Carax's 1999 film Pola X was based on Herman Melville's Pierre: Or, The Ambiguities. Maybe it isn't the author at all, and the dedication goes to Henry James Ford, Mr "Motor Man." Let one of the most intriguing day trips into our eros and psyche begin!
Anne-Katrin Titze: Thank you for a wonderful film about life. I have a question...
- 10/11/2012
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Strong ticket sales is welcome news for cinema chains, and marks a benchmark for Joseph Gordon-Levitt in lead role
The winner
Just when it looked as if September was going to go by without a single film opening above £2m, Looper arrives to kick some much-needed life into a sickly UK box office. Its three-day gross of £2.43m is hardly record-shattering, but following a run of films opening around or under £1m – Killing Them Softly, The Sweeney, Dredd, Lawless, Anna Karenina – it is welcome news for the nation's cinema chains. It's also a new benchmark for Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a lead role. Premium Rush recently debuted with a disappointing £115,000 from 159 cinemas. Last November, 50/50, co-starring Seth Rogen, kicked off with £410,000 from 228 venues. In 2009, (500) Days of Summer began its run with £1.24m, including £383,000 in previews. Debuts of films such as Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, where Gordon-Levitt is not the lead actor,...
The winner
Just when it looked as if September was going to go by without a single film opening above £2m, Looper arrives to kick some much-needed life into a sickly UK box office. Its three-day gross of £2.43m is hardly record-shattering, but following a run of films opening around or under £1m – Killing Them Softly, The Sweeney, Dredd, Lawless, Anna Karenina – it is welcome news for the nation's cinema chains. It's also a new benchmark for Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a lead role. Premium Rush recently debuted with a disappointing £115,000 from 159 cinemas. Last November, 50/50, co-starring Seth Rogen, kicked off with £410,000 from 228 venues. In 2009, (500) Days of Summer began its run with £1.24m, including £383,000 in previews. Debuts of films such as Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, where Gordon-Levitt is not the lead actor,...
- 10/2/2012
- by Charles Gant
- The Guardian - Film News
Some may find it deeply irritating, but Leos Carax's dreamlike and richly allusive movie is destined to become a classic
Now 51, the French enfant terrible emeritus Leos Carax is an immensely talented and highly self-conscious filmmaker who has made a mere five features in the past 28 years. His nom de plume (or as he might put it, using a term popular once among the Nouvelle Vague directors he admired, nom de caméra stylo) is an anagram of the first two parts of his real name, Alex Oscar Dupont, and the title of his last film, Pola X, made in 1999, has a similarly solipsistic origin. Pola X is an acronym derived from the French title of Herman Melville's novel Pierre; or, the Ambiguities, which Melville wrote to cope with the failure of Moby-Dick. Carax transposed it from 19th-century New England to late-20th-century France because he saw parallels between...
Now 51, the French enfant terrible emeritus Leos Carax is an immensely talented and highly self-conscious filmmaker who has made a mere five features in the past 28 years. His nom de plume (or as he might put it, using a term popular once among the Nouvelle Vague directors he admired, nom de caméra stylo) is an anagram of the first two parts of his real name, Alex Oscar Dupont, and the title of his last film, Pola X, made in 1999, has a similarly solipsistic origin. Pola X is an acronym derived from the French title of Herman Melville's novel Pierre; or, the Ambiguities, which Melville wrote to cope with the failure of Moby-Dick. Carax transposed it from 19th-century New England to late-20th-century France because he saw parallels between...
- 9/29/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
The surrealist sci-fi movie, starring Kylie Minogue, is already being described as the best film of 2012. Its reclusive director explains why he made it
Leos Carax stands alone outside the London hotel, smoking cigarettes with grim resolve and dearly wishing he were somewhere else or someone else, whatever comes easier. His coat collar is turned up. His eyes dart nervously behind prescription shades. He warns me that he has nothing to say, he hates doing interviews, he feels like a fraud. Driving to Cannes for the premiere of his latest film, Carax was hit by a lorry and forced off the road. It was a miracle he wasn't killed; by rights he should be dead. The thought makes him wistful and he very nearly smiles.
Perhaps it's the fate of all enfants-terribles to burn too brightly and then wink out. Carax is a case in point; a prodigiously talented little...
Leos Carax stands alone outside the London hotel, smoking cigarettes with grim resolve and dearly wishing he were somewhere else or someone else, whatever comes easier. His coat collar is turned up. His eyes dart nervously behind prescription shades. He warns me that he has nothing to say, he hates doing interviews, he feels like a fraud. Driving to Cannes for the premiere of his latest film, Carax was hit by a lorry and forced off the road. It was a miracle he wasn't killed; by rights he should be dead. The thought makes him wistful and he very nearly smiles.
Perhaps it's the fate of all enfants-terribles to burn too brightly and then wink out. Carax is a case in point; a prodigiously talented little...
- 9/28/2012
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
A gorgeous furry teacup of a film, Leos Carax's first feature in 13 years is a gripping surrealist odyssey that makes most other films look very buttoned-up
The French film-maker Leos Carax, director of Les Amants du Pont Neuf and Pola X, has made his first feature in 13 years, and it is a bizarre surrealist odyssey whose magic ingredient is comedy. This is a gorgeous furry teacup of a film, preposterous and filled with secrets; it is itself one big secret. Holy Motors is simultaneously immersive and alienating. The audience is forever being encouraged to forget about narrative sense and slip into a warm bath of unreason, but persistently jolted back out of it with non-sequiturs, accordion interludes, gags and unexpected chimps.
There is something very mad about this film, consumed with a ferociously eccentric need to let no windmill go untilted-at. When so many film-makers are content with what...
The French film-maker Leos Carax, director of Les Amants du Pont Neuf and Pola X, has made his first feature in 13 years, and it is a bizarre surrealist odyssey whose magic ingredient is comedy. This is a gorgeous furry teacup of a film, preposterous and filled with secrets; it is itself one big secret. Holy Motors is simultaneously immersive and alienating. The audience is forever being encouraged to forget about narrative sense and slip into a warm bath of unreason, but persistently jolted back out of it with non-sequiturs, accordion interludes, gags and unexpected chimps.
There is something very mad about this film, consumed with a ferociously eccentric need to let no windmill go untilted-at. When so many film-makers are content with what...
- 9/28/2012
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★★ A directorial maverick in the truest sense, French filmmaker Leos Carax returns this year with the much-hyped Holy Motors (2012), his first solo feature since 1999's Pola X. Once again reuniting with his muse, the chameleon-like character actor Denis Lavant, Carax has created a film of such visionary scope, such off-the-wall humour and such surreal brilliance, that only an auteur of Michael Haneke's stature could stand between himself and the 2012 Palme d'Or - an accolade which, in another year, Carax may well have won.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 9/26/2012
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Holy Motors
Directed by Leos Carax
Written by Leos Carax
France/Germany, 2012
If you’ve never heard of Leos Carax, Holy Motors might not be the best way to make the French director’s acquaintance - or maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t matter much at all. Having not produced a feature-length film since 1999′s Pola X, Carax’s latest is an oddly euphoric plunge into madness and the bizarre. It stirs the imagination unlike any other film this year, and is likely to take the cake in regards to producing the zaniest, most absurdly loopy film-going experience in recent memory. Too cool for the likes of Nanni Moretti (President of this year’s Cannes jury), the film was met with both high praise and waives of bewilderment at Cannes, signifying that Carax is indeed back.
There’s hardly anything to compare the film with, as it co-exists as both...
Directed by Leos Carax
Written by Leos Carax
France/Germany, 2012
If you’ve never heard of Leos Carax, Holy Motors might not be the best way to make the French director’s acquaintance - or maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t matter much at all. Having not produced a feature-length film since 1999′s Pola X, Carax’s latest is an oddly euphoric plunge into madness and the bizarre. It stirs the imagination unlike any other film this year, and is likely to take the cake in regards to producing the zaniest, most absurdly loopy film-going experience in recent memory. Too cool for the likes of Nanni Moretti (President of this year’s Cannes jury), the film was met with both high praise and waives of bewilderment at Cannes, signifying that Carax is indeed back.
There’s hardly anything to compare the film with, as it co-exists as both...
- 9/23/2012
- by Ty Landis
- SoundOnSight
From The Master to Holy Motors, this autumn promises to be a strong season for director-led cinema. But who are the auteurs that are exciting us in 2012?
1 - Paul Thomas Anderson
Though he's released only five films over a 16-year career, Paul Thomas Anderson has risen from promising young whiz-kid to Hollywood royalty with barely a bump along the way. As the scope of his work has tightened – from the sprawling ensembles of Boogie Nights and Magnolia through the intimate duologue of Punch-Drunk Love to the all-consuming solipsism of There Will Be Blood – so his dedication to his craft has intensified, with his disdain for PR and celebrity marking him out as the most devout film-maker of his generation (as well as the owner of one of Wikipedia's most glitz-free "personal life" sections). His upcoming film The Master, a controversial look at the birth of a cult not entirely dissimilar to the Church of Scientology,...
1 - Paul Thomas Anderson
Though he's released only five films over a 16-year career, Paul Thomas Anderson has risen from promising young whiz-kid to Hollywood royalty with barely a bump along the way. As the scope of his work has tightened – from the sprawling ensembles of Boogie Nights and Magnolia through the intimate duologue of Punch-Drunk Love to the all-consuming solipsism of There Will Be Blood – so his dedication to his craft has intensified, with his disdain for PR and celebrity marking him out as the most devout film-maker of his generation (as well as the owner of one of Wikipedia's most glitz-free "personal life" sections). His upcoming film The Master, a controversial look at the birth of a cult not entirely dissimilar to the Church of Scientology,...
- 8/31/2012
- by Gwilym Mumford, Ali Catterall, Damon Wise, Charlie Lyne
- The Guardian - Film News
At this year's Festival del Film Locarno in Switzerland, festival members will get a chance to talk to French director Leos Carax and watch his five feature films in honor of his Pardo d'onore Swisscom. "Boy Meets Girl," "Bad Blood" (1986), "The Lovers on the Bridge" (1991), "Pola X" (1999), and "Holy Motors" (2012) will join "Tokyo!" for which Carax contributed the segment "Merde" (2008) in. On the day after the award ceremony, the audience will be invited to pose questions to the filmmaker. The festival's artistic director, Olivier Père, said he is "greatly honored to invite one of world cinema's greatest creatives to Locarno." Carax first made headlines at the age of 23 for his 1984 film "Boy Meets Girl," which won the Award of the Youth at the Cannes Festival. His latest film "Holy Motors," which stars the likes of Eva Mendes and Kylie Minogue,...
- 6/21/2012
- by Srimathi Sridhar and Nigel M. Smith
- Indiewire
The fine folks at Film School Rejects shared the trailer for Leos Carax's latest Holy Motors, and as expected it looks bizarre and amazing. The filmmaker directed a segment for anthology film Tokyo! alongside Michel Gondry and Bong Joon-ho in 2008, but his last feature was the Herman Melville, incest-inspired tale Pola X in 1999. All we know judging from the trailer for Holy Motors is that it looks potentially Martyrs-esque violent, stars Kylie Minogue, and — according to Fsr — features a fully erect, naked man who eats Eva Mendes' hair (ok, that part isn't in the trailer, but we're really curious). The official synopsis tells us a bit more about the story, centering on a "shadowy character" who darts between multiple parallel lives...
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- 5/29/2012
- by Alison Nastasi
- Movies.com
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