Proust’s little “bande de filles” was nothing like this. Nor is Ousmane Sembene’s classic film “Black Girl” like this, except for the silence displayed by the protagonists of the two films as they deal with life’s offerings. Nor does this have the depth of “La Vie d’Adele, Chapitre 1” although it ends in a way that invites the viewer to want to see what the next chapter offers.
What I saw was the story of a poor black girl in one of the banlieus (the ‘hood) of Paris trying to find a way out of her dead end life. But I never saw the working her mind or the depth of her character. I saw she had an intuition about life, was fearless, kind, and determined. Does intelligence count? We must wait for the next chapter to find out how she succeeds if she indeed does. I don’t know if the director has the answer to this. And I wonder if the way out is through a person or through her own innate resources which I never did see. And this is where I take exception to the film. She failed school, never seemed to care, played American (??) football but seemed to have no attachment to the game or the players
Who is the director-writer Céline Sciamma? She’s a very talented white girl who went to La Femis, the French film school some regard as elitist. Her previous two films, deal with female sexual ambiguity (“Tomboy”, “Water Lilies”) and are very authentic, moving and valuable films worth watching more than once.
When I see films like “Sister” by Ursula Meier, or even “ Two Days, One Night” by the Dardenne Brothers whom I love, even while I enjoy the films – as I did this one (except for certain moments when I wanted to laugh, e.g., when she wears the blond wig and red dress to deliver drugs at a white party) -- I am aware that I am watching depictions of working class people in dramas directed by bourgeois filmmakers. And when I hear the vulgar loud-mouth dishing of girl-gangs I am not fooled into thinking it is clever repartee when I know it is foul and crude. And today, with the issues of immigrants and second and third generations of non-integrated minorities, this is a sensitive area. Having seen the “nouvelle vibe” films of Rachid Djajdani whose film “Hold Back” won the Fipresci Prize in Directors Fortnight in 2012 or “Brooklyn” by Pascal Tessaud, I am even more sensitized to authenticity.
I don’t think this shows the French black reality in the suburbs. It looks more like a white view of the U.S. urban black ‘hood. When I grew up blacks barely existed in our thoughts or imagination. I was white and Jewish living in a non-Jewish, white (bigoted) working class neighborhood. There I absorbed the prevailing view of the Mexicans who lived on the other side of the tracks. They were all considered “pachucos”. And I longed to join the girl gangs who had fights like the little bande de filles in this movie; they carried switch blade knives, razors in their big hair and pulled the earrings out of the pierced ears. The two fights in this movie were just like I imagined the fights and were like those male-imagined “catfights” in the Aip prison movies or of the bar-girls in western movies of that era. Something in this movie has the same scent of inauthenticity. I realize I am projecting my own girlhood longing to join the bande de filles onto Céline, and perhaps it’s pure projection, but it feels as if she is attracted to them for reasons other than storytelling. The story is ok but the telling is faulty.
That said, I am very glad Strand is releasing “Girlhood”, and I hope it creates some Wom, just as I hoped “Dear White People” would. It did well, grossing more than $4 million. I hope this film does as well, though being French, the most I can hope is that it reaches the $1 million box office level. When I saw “Dear White People” last year in Sundance, I kept quiet because my thought was, that if that is what black students at the universities are preoccupied with today, then I pity the future of America. And I did not believe for a minute that such overriding preoccupations were real. However, it did quite well and I hope this one does too, although I believe that I am watching stereoptypes. What are these people’s serious thoughts; where are their depths of feelings?
When I grew up and met real Mexicans, I saw none of the stereotypical behavior I was told to beware of. Even when I met gang members, there was no romantic element at all, only a degradation of humanity caused by the unrelenting prejudice of society’s impersonalization.
I loved the French review of this film by Régis Dubois, who has a blog very well-respected by black community in France.
For those interested in going into such films in greater depth, see the films of Carrénard,Maldhé, Zadi,Zouhani, May,Djajdani or Tessaud. Check out what is playing at the Festival Cinébanlieue or Les Pépites du Cinéma. These show the truth about what is happening in the minds of “these people”.
Girlhood (Bande de Filles) is being sold by Films Distribution
Strand Releasing will release it in the U.S.
Other territories sold are:
Brazil--Imovision
Denmark--Reel Pictures Aps, Peripher
France-Oct 22, 2014-Pyramide Distribution
Norway--As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Slovenia--Demiurg
Sweden--Folkets Bio
U.S.--Strand Releasing
Writer/director Céline Sciamma’s look at a group of black high school students living in the tough banlieues of Paris is grounded by newcomer Karidja Touré. "Girlhood," is scheduled to open in New York on January 30, 2015 with a national roll out to follow.
Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood, shy Marieme (Karidja Touré) starts a new life after falling in with a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her style, drops out of school and starts stealing to be accepted into the gang. When her home situation becomes unbearable, Marieme seeks solace in an older man who promises her money and protection. Realizing this sort of lifestyle will never result in the freedom and independence she truly desires, she finally decides to take matters into her own hands.
French director/writer Céline Sciamma’s debut feature, “Water Lilies”, catapulted her as one of France’s most fresh and notable women directors, garnering her a César nomination for Best First Feature as well as the prestigious Prix Louis Deluc for Best First Feature awarded by the French Film Critics. Her second film, “Tomboy”, won the Teddy Jury Award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. This is Ms. Sciamma’s third feature film.
This film has great credentials, having debuted in Cannes 2014 Directors Fortnight, gone on to Toronto - Tiff 2014 Contemporary World Cinema and
Stockholm Iff 2014 - Competition (Best Film, Best Cinematography) and Sundance World Dramatic Competition 2015.
Critics loved it too.
“Celine Sciamma’s ‘Girlhood’ is one of the best coming of age movies in years.” — Eric Kohn, Indiewire...
What I saw was the story of a poor black girl in one of the banlieus (the ‘hood) of Paris trying to find a way out of her dead end life. But I never saw the working her mind or the depth of her character. I saw she had an intuition about life, was fearless, kind, and determined. Does intelligence count? We must wait for the next chapter to find out how she succeeds if she indeed does. I don’t know if the director has the answer to this. And I wonder if the way out is through a person or through her own innate resources which I never did see. And this is where I take exception to the film. She failed school, never seemed to care, played American (??) football but seemed to have no attachment to the game or the players
Who is the director-writer Céline Sciamma? She’s a very talented white girl who went to La Femis, the French film school some regard as elitist. Her previous two films, deal with female sexual ambiguity (“Tomboy”, “Water Lilies”) and are very authentic, moving and valuable films worth watching more than once.
When I see films like “Sister” by Ursula Meier, or even “ Two Days, One Night” by the Dardenne Brothers whom I love, even while I enjoy the films – as I did this one (except for certain moments when I wanted to laugh, e.g., when she wears the blond wig and red dress to deliver drugs at a white party) -- I am aware that I am watching depictions of working class people in dramas directed by bourgeois filmmakers. And when I hear the vulgar loud-mouth dishing of girl-gangs I am not fooled into thinking it is clever repartee when I know it is foul and crude. And today, with the issues of immigrants and second and third generations of non-integrated minorities, this is a sensitive area. Having seen the “nouvelle vibe” films of Rachid Djajdani whose film “Hold Back” won the Fipresci Prize in Directors Fortnight in 2012 or “Brooklyn” by Pascal Tessaud, I am even more sensitized to authenticity.
I don’t think this shows the French black reality in the suburbs. It looks more like a white view of the U.S. urban black ‘hood. When I grew up blacks barely existed in our thoughts or imagination. I was white and Jewish living in a non-Jewish, white (bigoted) working class neighborhood. There I absorbed the prevailing view of the Mexicans who lived on the other side of the tracks. They were all considered “pachucos”. And I longed to join the girl gangs who had fights like the little bande de filles in this movie; they carried switch blade knives, razors in their big hair and pulled the earrings out of the pierced ears. The two fights in this movie were just like I imagined the fights and were like those male-imagined “catfights” in the Aip prison movies or of the bar-girls in western movies of that era. Something in this movie has the same scent of inauthenticity. I realize I am projecting my own girlhood longing to join the bande de filles onto Céline, and perhaps it’s pure projection, but it feels as if she is attracted to them for reasons other than storytelling. The story is ok but the telling is faulty.
That said, I am very glad Strand is releasing “Girlhood”, and I hope it creates some Wom, just as I hoped “Dear White People” would. It did well, grossing more than $4 million. I hope this film does as well, though being French, the most I can hope is that it reaches the $1 million box office level. When I saw “Dear White People” last year in Sundance, I kept quiet because my thought was, that if that is what black students at the universities are preoccupied with today, then I pity the future of America. And I did not believe for a minute that such overriding preoccupations were real. However, it did quite well and I hope this one does too, although I believe that I am watching stereoptypes. What are these people’s serious thoughts; where are their depths of feelings?
When I grew up and met real Mexicans, I saw none of the stereotypical behavior I was told to beware of. Even when I met gang members, there was no romantic element at all, only a degradation of humanity caused by the unrelenting prejudice of society’s impersonalization.
I loved the French review of this film by Régis Dubois, who has a blog very well-respected by black community in France.
For those interested in going into such films in greater depth, see the films of Carrénard,Maldhé, Zadi,Zouhani, May,Djajdani or Tessaud. Check out what is playing at the Festival Cinébanlieue or Les Pépites du Cinéma. These show the truth about what is happening in the minds of “these people”.
Girlhood (Bande de Filles) is being sold by Films Distribution
Strand Releasing will release it in the U.S.
Other territories sold are:
Brazil--Imovision
Denmark--Reel Pictures Aps, Peripher
France-Oct 22, 2014-Pyramide Distribution
Norway--As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Slovenia--Demiurg
Sweden--Folkets Bio
U.S.--Strand Releasing
Writer/director Céline Sciamma’s look at a group of black high school students living in the tough banlieues of Paris is grounded by newcomer Karidja Touré. "Girlhood," is scheduled to open in New York on January 30, 2015 with a national roll out to follow.
Fed up with her abusive family situation, lack of school prospects and the “boys’ law” in the neighborhood, shy Marieme (Karidja Touré) starts a new life after falling in with a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her style, drops out of school and starts stealing to be accepted into the gang. When her home situation becomes unbearable, Marieme seeks solace in an older man who promises her money and protection. Realizing this sort of lifestyle will never result in the freedom and independence she truly desires, she finally decides to take matters into her own hands.
French director/writer Céline Sciamma’s debut feature, “Water Lilies”, catapulted her as one of France’s most fresh and notable women directors, garnering her a César nomination for Best First Feature as well as the prestigious Prix Louis Deluc for Best First Feature awarded by the French Film Critics. Her second film, “Tomboy”, won the Teddy Jury Award at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. This is Ms. Sciamma’s third feature film.
This film has great credentials, having debuted in Cannes 2014 Directors Fortnight, gone on to Toronto - Tiff 2014 Contemporary World Cinema and
Stockholm Iff 2014 - Competition (Best Film, Best Cinematography) and Sundance World Dramatic Competition 2015.
Critics loved it too.
“Celine Sciamma’s ‘Girlhood’ is one of the best coming of age movies in years.” — Eric Kohn, Indiewire...
- 1/25/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
On December 17, El Dia de St. Lazaro, something extraordinary happened! Equivalent to the “Fall of the Wall”, President Barak Obama simultaneously with Raul Castro of Cuba announced that diplomatic relations between our two countries was being restored; the last of the Cuban Five imprisoned for 15 years in the U.S. for spying (on Cuban terrorists based in Miami) would be returned to Cuba in exchange for Alan Gross (imprisoned for 5 years for bringing Cuba forbidden internet technology), and an unnamed CIA agent incarcerated for 20 years, along with other Cuban political prisoners; And that this would be the first step in finally normalizing relations between Cuba and the U.S.A.
Read More: Sydney Levine's First Impression at the 2014 Havana Film Festival
As my friends and I were driving from Trinidad to visit a sugar plantation which was the basis for the Cuban wealth of the 19th century, we got a message that in one hour Raul Castro would make the formal announcement and President Obama’s address would also be broadcast.
As we entered the former plantation home, now a restaurant, we heard the singing and jubilation coming from the bar and immediately joined in as the only Americans to share the joy; the Scotch (not rum) was flowing and the dancing and singing continued until the address came on the television.
I realized that in my 15 years of coming to Cuba, this was the moment I had been waiting for. We watched Raul Castro explain, and we watched President Obama explain, and as I watched the faces of the beautiful Cuban people as they listened, some with tears and others with smiles, all with great intensity, I understood the meaning of “rapprochement”. We turned toward each other in pure happiness and felt ourselves united after 55 years of separation.
This is The Place and I am here.
We knew when the Mercosur Heads of State were gathered under tight security at the Hotel Nacional during the first days of the festival that something was afoot. We heard that not only were they planning a possible counter boycott of U.S. in their upcoming May meeting, shutting out U.S. from attending, but the Hotel Nacional’s guest roster included the name of an American who was negotiating something much bigger.
Some speak of the idealism behind this long-wished-for move of U.S.; others speak of the economic necessity. Looking back at my most incredible year of traveling around Latin America, I understand that with the new expansion of the Panama Canal enabling the huge Chinese container ships to pass through, the most convenient next-stop-port for them is Havana. And from Havana, the most convenient port is not Cartagena or Cali in Colombia but New Orleans! And so we may see the rapprochement bring back the glorious days when music and adventure were equated with the Louisiana-Cuban connection. My hope is that the values held so dear in Cuba spread to U.S. and that we Americans don’t spread our U.S. arrogance when we land on the shores of the country which has managed 55 years with no help from us.
There is still more to this tale of reunion, but I am sworn to secrecy for the moment. But you will read it in papers other than this blog. Thirteen months of secret negotiations took place in Canada with the help of the Pope. At a wonderful dinner at a newly opened up Cuban-Russian restaurant on the Malecon, “Nostrovia”, our friend the restaurant owner, Rolando Almirante, whom we know as a documentary filmmaker and host of a weekly Cuban TV show, introduced us to a Canadian and an American both of whom had been involved with the long negotiations. Together we toasted the event with vodka.
To return to the Hotel Nacional and the festival:
Exceptionally quiet for those political reasons, it was also quiet because but there was none of the active debating over the new Law of Cinema which so excitedly animated the festival here last year. There was a low-key conference about the law of cinema and audiovisual culture held by the Cuban Association of Cinema Press with Fipresci and other invited guests to discuss and express opinions about whether most countries by now have a law of cinema, whether developing countries are planning on establishing a law of cinema, whether a law of cinema is necessary for a country aspiring to a higher level of culture for its population, and in what way would a law contribute to the development of production and to the appreciation of cinema. But you do not see everyone gathering in groups to discuss these ideas as they did last year.
Some of last year’s top filmmakers – producers like Ivonne Cotorruelo and Claudia Calvino are so busy preparing their next coproductions that they have no time for such discussions. Others shrug and resignedly express Cuban forbearance as usual.
I asked my friends what is the status of the law being established here in Cuba where only one law of cinema exists, which is the establishment of Icaic, the government institute that determines everything about film behind closed doors. Their answer was “Nothing”. Nothing has changed since last year. Discussions are continuing, and there will be a law established, but not yet…and so I learned that once the first big step is taken here, the next steps are very slow to follow.
So here is what happened on Day 3, December 7 of the my festival:
Our friend Pascal Tessaud whose short from France “City of Lights” brought him to Los Angeles several years ago, had a screening of his new film “Brooklyn”. Its premiere screening here (It premiered in Cannes’ Acid section earlier this year) was to an odd audience of older people. No doubt they were expecting a film about “Brooklyn” (which used to be the name of a bar in Central Havana) but instead got a film about a young Afro-Swiss rapper-girl named “Brooklyn” who enters the rap scene of Paris, made up of Arabs and Africans.
“Afronorteamericano” films were also spotlighted with Oscar Micheaux’s “Assassination in Harlem” (1935), “Within our Gates” (1920), “Body and Soul” (1926) starring Paul Robeson, “Underworld” (1937), “Swing” (1938), and Spencer William’s “The Blood of Jesus” (1941).
Also showing were North American documentaries “Citizen Koch”, “The Notorious Mr. Bout”, “The Overnighters”, and an homage to filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans” 2003, “Arbitrage” 2012, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” 2002, “Why We Fight” 2006, Emmy Award winning “Reagan” 2011 and 2012’s “The House I Live In” about the war against drugs which along with “Why We Fight” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance) and a retrospective of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. Trinidad & Tobago’s annual showcase featured “Creole Soup” from Guadalupe and “Legends of Ska” by American DJ and ska specialist Brad Klein. And of course there was the latest crop of new films from Latin America and the newest films from Cuba, and much, much more.
Today Benecio del Toro, a regular at this festival, won the Coral of Honor for his role as “Che” in Steven Soderbergh’s movies and for his role as the narcotraffiker, Pablo Escobar in the NBC miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story” and here now, as Escobar in “Escobar: Paradise Lost” directed by the Italian Andrea Di Stefano. For Benecio, Cuba is “a dream come true”.
Day 4, December 8.
There seems to be a trend toward films about children. The prize winning film “Conducta” and Cuba’s submission for Academy Award Nomination as Best Foreign Language Film has already won awards around the world including The Coral for Best Picture and Best Actor here in Havana. This young boy loses every government protection because of his family’s dysfunctions and yet he maintains the spirit of survival and transcendence. Another story from Argentina, Poland and Colombia, France and Germany, “Refugiado” directed by Diego Lerman, also deals with a child who returns home from a birthday party to find his mother unconscious on the floor. The mother then flees seeking a safe place for them and he experiences fear in all the formerly secure places he has known. “Gente de Bien” a Colombia-France coproduction directed by Franco Lolli also explores the world of a young boy, abandoned by his mother and placed in the disheveled home of his impecunious father, who is taken in by a teacher who means well but whose family refuses to accept him. This little kid reaches his limit when his dog dies; but thrown back to his caring if off-kilter father, you get the feeling he too will be all right after all.
A couple of new gay films showed: Cuba’s “Vestido de Novia” was so crowded I could not get near it. Lines around blocks and blocks to get into the 1,000 seat theater were incredible proof of how much Cubans love cinema. Winner of last year’s prize for a work-in-progress, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress) will soon be on the festival circuit. Two years ago, at Guadalajara’s coproduction market “Cuatro Lunas” by Sergio Tovar Velarde was being pitched. A sort of primer on gayness, four stories tell the tale of 1) discovery of one’s gayness, 2) first gay love, 3) first gay betrayal of love and 4) love at a mature stage of life. Producer Fernando … hung out with us a bit as we all come from L.A. and have friends in common.
What – aside from the new rapprochement between Cuba and U.S.A. – is “good for the Jews”? A wonderful film from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, “Mr. Kaplan” directed by Alvaro Brechner and produced by my most helpful friend Mariana Secco, and my German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner (Isa: Memento) brought a new understanding for the good and the bad in our recent history. Almost a comedy and almost a tragedy, the film’s resolution served to transform our propensity to see and judge in black and white.
Read More: Sydney Levine's First Impression at the 2014 Havana Film Festival
As my friends and I were driving from Trinidad to visit a sugar plantation which was the basis for the Cuban wealth of the 19th century, we got a message that in one hour Raul Castro would make the formal announcement and President Obama’s address would also be broadcast.
As we entered the former plantation home, now a restaurant, we heard the singing and jubilation coming from the bar and immediately joined in as the only Americans to share the joy; the Scotch (not rum) was flowing and the dancing and singing continued until the address came on the television.
I realized that in my 15 years of coming to Cuba, this was the moment I had been waiting for. We watched Raul Castro explain, and we watched President Obama explain, and as I watched the faces of the beautiful Cuban people as they listened, some with tears and others with smiles, all with great intensity, I understood the meaning of “rapprochement”. We turned toward each other in pure happiness and felt ourselves united after 55 years of separation.
This is The Place and I am here.
We knew when the Mercosur Heads of State were gathered under tight security at the Hotel Nacional during the first days of the festival that something was afoot. We heard that not only were they planning a possible counter boycott of U.S. in their upcoming May meeting, shutting out U.S. from attending, but the Hotel Nacional’s guest roster included the name of an American who was negotiating something much bigger.
Some speak of the idealism behind this long-wished-for move of U.S.; others speak of the economic necessity. Looking back at my most incredible year of traveling around Latin America, I understand that with the new expansion of the Panama Canal enabling the huge Chinese container ships to pass through, the most convenient next-stop-port for them is Havana. And from Havana, the most convenient port is not Cartagena or Cali in Colombia but New Orleans! And so we may see the rapprochement bring back the glorious days when music and adventure were equated with the Louisiana-Cuban connection. My hope is that the values held so dear in Cuba spread to U.S. and that we Americans don’t spread our U.S. arrogance when we land on the shores of the country which has managed 55 years with no help from us.
There is still more to this tale of reunion, but I am sworn to secrecy for the moment. But you will read it in papers other than this blog. Thirteen months of secret negotiations took place in Canada with the help of the Pope. At a wonderful dinner at a newly opened up Cuban-Russian restaurant on the Malecon, “Nostrovia”, our friend the restaurant owner, Rolando Almirante, whom we know as a documentary filmmaker and host of a weekly Cuban TV show, introduced us to a Canadian and an American both of whom had been involved with the long negotiations. Together we toasted the event with vodka.
To return to the Hotel Nacional and the festival:
Exceptionally quiet for those political reasons, it was also quiet because but there was none of the active debating over the new Law of Cinema which so excitedly animated the festival here last year. There was a low-key conference about the law of cinema and audiovisual culture held by the Cuban Association of Cinema Press with Fipresci and other invited guests to discuss and express opinions about whether most countries by now have a law of cinema, whether developing countries are planning on establishing a law of cinema, whether a law of cinema is necessary for a country aspiring to a higher level of culture for its population, and in what way would a law contribute to the development of production and to the appreciation of cinema. But you do not see everyone gathering in groups to discuss these ideas as they did last year.
Some of last year’s top filmmakers – producers like Ivonne Cotorruelo and Claudia Calvino are so busy preparing their next coproductions that they have no time for such discussions. Others shrug and resignedly express Cuban forbearance as usual.
I asked my friends what is the status of the law being established here in Cuba where only one law of cinema exists, which is the establishment of Icaic, the government institute that determines everything about film behind closed doors. Their answer was “Nothing”. Nothing has changed since last year. Discussions are continuing, and there will be a law established, but not yet…and so I learned that once the first big step is taken here, the next steps are very slow to follow.
So here is what happened on Day 3, December 7 of the my festival:
Our friend Pascal Tessaud whose short from France “City of Lights” brought him to Los Angeles several years ago, had a screening of his new film “Brooklyn”. Its premiere screening here (It premiered in Cannes’ Acid section earlier this year) was to an odd audience of older people. No doubt they were expecting a film about “Brooklyn” (which used to be the name of a bar in Central Havana) but instead got a film about a young Afro-Swiss rapper-girl named “Brooklyn” who enters the rap scene of Paris, made up of Arabs and Africans.
“Afronorteamericano” films were also spotlighted with Oscar Micheaux’s “Assassination in Harlem” (1935), “Within our Gates” (1920), “Body and Soul” (1926) starring Paul Robeson, “Underworld” (1937), “Swing” (1938), and Spencer William’s “The Blood of Jesus” (1941).
Also showing were North American documentaries “Citizen Koch”, “The Notorious Mr. Bout”, “The Overnighters”, and an homage to filmmaker, Eugene Jarecki (“Capturing the Friedmans” 2003, “Arbitrage” 2012, “The Trials of Henry Kissinger” 2002, “Why We Fight” 2006, Emmy Award winning “Reagan” 2011 and 2012’s “The House I Live In” about the war against drugs which along with “Why We Fight” won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary at Sundance) and a retrospective of Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. Trinidad & Tobago’s annual showcase featured “Creole Soup” from Guadalupe and “Legends of Ska” by American DJ and ska specialist Brad Klein. And of course there was the latest crop of new films from Latin America and the newest films from Cuba, and much, much more.
Today Benecio del Toro, a regular at this festival, won the Coral of Honor for his role as “Che” in Steven Soderbergh’s movies and for his role as the narcotraffiker, Pablo Escobar in the NBC miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story” and here now, as Escobar in “Escobar: Paradise Lost” directed by the Italian Andrea Di Stefano. For Benecio, Cuba is “a dream come true”.
Day 4, December 8.
There seems to be a trend toward films about children. The prize winning film “Conducta” and Cuba’s submission for Academy Award Nomination as Best Foreign Language Film has already won awards around the world including The Coral for Best Picture and Best Actor here in Havana. This young boy loses every government protection because of his family’s dysfunctions and yet he maintains the spirit of survival and transcendence. Another story from Argentina, Poland and Colombia, France and Germany, “Refugiado” directed by Diego Lerman, also deals with a child who returns home from a birthday party to find his mother unconscious on the floor. The mother then flees seeking a safe place for them and he experiences fear in all the formerly secure places he has known. “Gente de Bien” a Colombia-France coproduction directed by Franco Lolli also explores the world of a young boy, abandoned by his mother and placed in the disheveled home of his impecunious father, who is taken in by a teacher who means well but whose family refuses to accept him. This little kid reaches his limit when his dog dies; but thrown back to his caring if off-kilter father, you get the feeling he too will be all right after all.
A couple of new gay films showed: Cuba’s “Vestido de Novia” was so crowded I could not get near it. Lines around blocks and blocks to get into the 1,000 seat theater were incredible proof of how much Cubans love cinema. Winner of last year’s prize for a work-in-progress, “Vestido de Novia” (“Wedding Dress) will soon be on the festival circuit. Two years ago, at Guadalajara’s coproduction market “Cuatro Lunas” by Sergio Tovar Velarde was being pitched. A sort of primer on gayness, four stories tell the tale of 1) discovery of one’s gayness, 2) first gay love, 3) first gay betrayal of love and 4) love at a mature stage of life. Producer Fernando … hung out with us a bit as we all come from L.A. and have friends in common.
What – aside from the new rapprochement between Cuba and U.S.A. – is “good for the Jews”? A wonderful film from Uruguay, Spain and Germany, “Mr. Kaplan” directed by Alvaro Brechner and produced by my most helpful friend Mariana Secco, and my German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner (Isa: Memento) brought a new understanding for the good and the bad in our recent history. Almost a comedy and almost a tragedy, the film’s resolution served to transform our propensity to see and judge in black and white.
- 12/27/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
My days were filled with back-to-back meetings and so I could only watch films on the Friday and Saturday before leaving Cannes on Sunday May 24 for other parts of France. However, I did find time for the private screening of our friend and apartment-mate Cyril Morin’s second film, The Hackers, and our friend Pascal Tessaud’s debut feature in Acid, Brooklyn.
The other films I caught are below. For me the unifying theme of all was the discrepancy between those who have and those who have not. Whether it is money or a higher status in society or other sources of power to tyrannize the weaker.
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #2: Palme d’Or Winner 'Winter Sleep'
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #3: Timbuktu
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #4: Mr. Turner
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #5: Two Days, One Night
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #6: Amour Fou
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #7: Brooklyn...
The other films I caught are below. For me the unifying theme of all was the discrepancy between those who have and those who have not. Whether it is money or a higher status in society or other sources of power to tyrannize the weaker.
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #2: Palme d’Or Winner 'Winter Sleep'
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #3: Timbuktu
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #4: Mr. Turner
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #5: Two Days, One Night
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #6: Amour Fou
Cannes 2014 What I Saw #7: Brooklyn...
- 6/1/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Written about here before Cannes, Brooklyn which screened in Acid, the newest sidebar to the Cannes Film Festival was the first feature by French filmmaker Pascal Tessaud. His films are part of France’s “New Vibe” film movement, films made by those filmmakers living in the “banlieux” or suburbs, that is the Arab, African immigrant neighborhoods of Paris.
The story focuses on Coralie ( Kt Gorique), who runs away from Switzerland. She arrives in Paris to test her luck in Hip Hop music. She’s hired as a cook in a local association of the Parisian suburb Saint-Denis. Coralie meets Issa ( Rafal Uchiwa ), the rising star of the hood.
KT Gorique, the lead character won the world championship of freestyle of the End Of The Weak in New York, she is the first female to have won this competition in its 11 years of existence. Here is a video of her performing, which inspired Pascal to contact her about his film. You can see a clip from that performance Here
Not only is her talent in rap and slam prize-winning, but as an actress, she seems like the grown-up version of Hush-puppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Brooklyn ’s director, Pascal Tessaud, recreates a cooperative vision by which the disenfranchised youth living in Paris’ African and Arab projects is able to transcend the constraints to which society seems to have relegated them. The power of rap and slam brings consciousness to a level of political engagement. How can one succeed? As an individual overcoming the difficulties of substandard living or as part of a larger movement, in a collective achievement?
The film is continuing to create a very French urban genre which in fact might be part of a larger movement. It is a fascinating look at the cross cultures of the 99%. This French subset shows the intelligence and the seriousness of rap a la Francais...it gives the universal music of rap an intellectual spin only the French can create.
The entire film was improvised after a workshop of one month in the city of Saint-Denis (a sort of French Bronx) just outside of Paris. The realism thus portrayed is not enacted. You can see Cassavetes’ influence in this totally modern view of Hip Hop as rappers improvise their parts in the same style that John Cassavetes used in Shadows. In addition the beat-makers Khulibaï and DJ Dusty created original music for the film and helped Pascal produce his first Hip Hop beat, which is included in the film.
Tessaud considers this sort of filmmaking the legacy of a little known but seminal filmmaker he wrote a book about, Paul Carpita who made films in the 1950s in Marseilles and died in 2009. Ken Loach in his preface to a 2009 book of interviews with Carpita, claimed: "Since the censorship of his work, Paul Carpita led a modest existence. Ultimate proof, if necessary, of his integrity. It is finally time for us to recognize him as a hero."
He says, "Rachid Djaïdani (Rengaine akaHold Back) is my first supporter and said that Brooklyn is now part of the brotherhood ofDonoma and Rengaine (Hold Back)!”
In conclusion, each of these seven films is concerned with the power of the individual facing a society whose injustice seems so immense that the very idea of resistance is subversive and yet, when action against the injustice is taken, the strength of the human soul, acting in concert with others, shines.
The story focuses on Coralie ( Kt Gorique), who runs away from Switzerland. She arrives in Paris to test her luck in Hip Hop music. She’s hired as a cook in a local association of the Parisian suburb Saint-Denis. Coralie meets Issa ( Rafal Uchiwa ), the rising star of the hood.
KT Gorique, the lead character won the world championship of freestyle of the End Of The Weak in New York, she is the first female to have won this competition in its 11 years of existence. Here is a video of her performing, which inspired Pascal to contact her about his film. You can see a clip from that performance Here
Not only is her talent in rap and slam prize-winning, but as an actress, she seems like the grown-up version of Hush-puppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild.
Brooklyn ’s director, Pascal Tessaud, recreates a cooperative vision by which the disenfranchised youth living in Paris’ African and Arab projects is able to transcend the constraints to which society seems to have relegated them. The power of rap and slam brings consciousness to a level of political engagement. How can one succeed? As an individual overcoming the difficulties of substandard living or as part of a larger movement, in a collective achievement?
The film is continuing to create a very French urban genre which in fact might be part of a larger movement. It is a fascinating look at the cross cultures of the 99%. This French subset shows the intelligence and the seriousness of rap a la Francais...it gives the universal music of rap an intellectual spin only the French can create.
The entire film was improvised after a workshop of one month in the city of Saint-Denis (a sort of French Bronx) just outside of Paris. The realism thus portrayed is not enacted. You can see Cassavetes’ influence in this totally modern view of Hip Hop as rappers improvise their parts in the same style that John Cassavetes used in Shadows. In addition the beat-makers Khulibaï and DJ Dusty created original music for the film and helped Pascal produce his first Hip Hop beat, which is included in the film.
Tessaud considers this sort of filmmaking the legacy of a little known but seminal filmmaker he wrote a book about, Paul Carpita who made films in the 1950s in Marseilles and died in 2009. Ken Loach in his preface to a 2009 book of interviews with Carpita, claimed: "Since the censorship of his work, Paul Carpita led a modest existence. Ultimate proof, if necessary, of his integrity. It is finally time for us to recognize him as a hero."
He says, "Rachid Djaïdani (Rengaine akaHold Back) is my first supporter and said that Brooklyn is now part of the brotherhood ofDonoma and Rengaine (Hold Back)!”
In conclusion, each of these seven films is concerned with the power of the individual facing a society whose injustice seems so immense that the very idea of resistance is subversive and yet, when action against the injustice is taken, the strength of the human soul, acting in concert with others, shines.
- 5/31/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Cannes - An insider’s portrait of life on the streets in the multi-racial housing projects on the northern fringes of Paris, Brooklyn belongs to that rare cinematic subgenre: the French hip-hop drama. The writer-director Pascal Tessaud grew up in this tough neighborhood and previously made music videos for local rap groups. His debut feature delivers plenty of energy and some decent performances, but feels too slight and domestic to travel far. Further festivals, especially those with music sidebars, would be a good platform for Brooklyn. Francophone territories and TV stations are also obvious target markets. But while the universal
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- 5/27/2014
- by Stephen Dalton
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Brooklyn is one of a small selection of films which have been chosen for Acid, the newest sidebar to the Cannes Film Festival. Actually Acid has been around for 19 years and has been showcasing films in Cannes since 1993. It is an association of film directors who has been promoting the cinema distribution of independent films and encouraging debates between the authors and the audiences. The strength of Acid is its founding principle : the support given by filmmakers to other filmmakers, French or international. It screens nine feature films, fiction and documentary, chosen by Acid filmmakers among hundreds of works from all around the world. It is a sort of Slamdance. Its address in Cannes is La Malmaison 47, boulevard de la Croisette.
The filmmaker, Pascal Tessaud, enchanted me with his short La Ville Lumiere which he showed at Colcoa two years ago where it won a prize. It also won Best International Short Film Award at Reelworld Film Festival in Toronto. His films are part of France’s “New Vibe”, films made by those filmmakers living in the “banlieux” or suburbs, that is the Arab, African immigrant neighborhoods of Paris.
I have not seen the film yet, but Pascal has made me aware of these films which he calls part of the “New Vibe” group of filmmakers; Donoma being the best known. He considers this sort of filmmaking the legacy of a little known but seminal filmmaker he wrote a book about, Paul Carpita who made films in the 1950s in Marseilles and died in 2009. Ken Loach in his preface to a 2009 book of interviews with Carpita, claimed: "Since the censorship of his work, Paul Carpita led a modest existence. Ultimate proof, if necessary, of his integrity. It is finally time for us to recognise him as a hero."
The story focuses on Coralie (Kt Gorique), who runs away from Switzerland. She arrives in Paris to test her luck in Hip Hop music.
She’s hired as a cook in a local association of the Parisian suburb Saint-Denis. Coralie meets Issa (Rafal Uchiwa), the rising star of the hood…
KT Gorique, the lead character won the world championship of freestyle of the End Of The Weak in New York, she is the first female to have won this competition in 11 years !!
Here is a video of her performing, which inspired Pascal to contact her about his film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9wZDAQon3g
The entire film was made with rappers improvising their part in the same style than John Cassavetes used in Shadows. The director hosted a workshop to teach his cast the fundamentals of acting over a month in the city of Saint-Denis (a sort of French Bronx). There is no jazz scene here, it's Hip Hop. In addition the beat-makers Khulibaï and DJ Dusty created original music for the film and helped Pascal produce his first Hip Hop beat, which is included in the film.
The filmmaker, Pascal Tessaud, enchanted me with his short La Ville Lumiere which he showed at Colcoa two years ago where it won a prize. It also won Best International Short Film Award at Reelworld Film Festival in Toronto. His films are part of France’s “New Vibe”, films made by those filmmakers living in the “banlieux” or suburbs, that is the Arab, African immigrant neighborhoods of Paris.
I have not seen the film yet, but Pascal has made me aware of these films which he calls part of the “New Vibe” group of filmmakers; Donoma being the best known. He considers this sort of filmmaking the legacy of a little known but seminal filmmaker he wrote a book about, Paul Carpita who made films in the 1950s in Marseilles and died in 2009. Ken Loach in his preface to a 2009 book of interviews with Carpita, claimed: "Since the censorship of his work, Paul Carpita led a modest existence. Ultimate proof, if necessary, of his integrity. It is finally time for us to recognise him as a hero."
The story focuses on Coralie (Kt Gorique), who runs away from Switzerland. She arrives in Paris to test her luck in Hip Hop music.
She’s hired as a cook in a local association of the Parisian suburb Saint-Denis. Coralie meets Issa (Rafal Uchiwa), the rising star of the hood…
KT Gorique, the lead character won the world championship of freestyle of the End Of The Weak in New York, she is the first female to have won this competition in 11 years !!
Here is a video of her performing, which inspired Pascal to contact her about his film
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9wZDAQon3g
The entire film was made with rappers improvising their part in the same style than John Cassavetes used in Shadows. The director hosted a workshop to teach his cast the fundamentals of acting over a month in the city of Saint-Denis (a sort of French Bronx). There is no jazz scene here, it's Hip Hop. In addition the beat-makers Khulibaï and DJ Dusty created original music for the film and helped Pascal produce his first Hip Hop beat, which is included in the film.
- 5/1/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Cannes Film Festival's lineup of films include the Competition titles of several legendary auteurs such as Jean-Luc Godard, David Cronenberg, The Dardenne Brothers, Atom Egoyan, Mike Leigh, and Ken Loach. In the Un Certain Regard section, the highly anticipated film by actor-turned-director Ryan Gosling. Those in the business will be happy to find Alison Thompson in her new company, Sunray Films, selling Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner. Two films out of 18 in Competition are by women, but across all sections there are 15 women directors. Further in Competition, three films are from Canada; two are from U.S. one film is from Latin America (Argentina); one is from Japan; one from Turkey; one from Russia and the rest are European.
Opening Night Film :
Grace of Monaco (Producer: Stone Angels/ U.S. The Weinstein Company) from France by Olivier Dahan
In Competition
Clouds of Sils Maria (Isa: MK2/ U.S. Distribution: IFC Films) from France/ Gremany/ Switzerland by Olivier Assayas
Saint Laurent (Isa: EuropaCorp) from France by Bertrand Bonello
Winter's Sleep aka Kis uykusu (Producer: Zeynofilm ) from Turkey by Nuri Bilge Ceylan who has a great website.
Maps to the Stars (Isa: Entertainment One) from Canada by David Cronenberg
Two Days, One Night (Isa: Wild Bunch/ U.S. Distribution: IFC Films) from Belgium and France by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Mommy (Isa: Seville International) from Canada by Xavier Dolan
The Captive (Isa: Entertainment One) from Canada by Atom Egoyan. You can watch the trailer here.
Goodbye to Language aka Adieu au Langage (Isa: Wild Bunch) from France by Jean-Luc Godard
The Search (Isa: Wild Bunch/ U.S. Distribution: Worldview Entertainment) from France by Michel Hazanavivius
The Homesman (Isa: Europacorp) from U.S. by Tommy Lee Jones
Still the Water (Isa: MK2) from Japan and France by Naomi Kawase ♀
Mr. Turner (Isa: Sunray Films/ U.S. Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics) from U.K. by Mike Leigh. Sunray Films is Alison Thompson's new company and she brought the film over from her former employer Focus Features International when they left the international sales business.
Jimmy's Hall (Isa: Wild Bunch) from Ireland and U.K. by Ken Loach
Foxcatcher (Isa: Panorama Media/ U.S. Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics) from U.S. by Bennett Miller
Le Meraviglie (Isa: The Match Factory) from Italy, Switzerland and Germany by Alice Rohrwacher ♀
Timbuktu (Isa: Le Pacte) from France by Abderrahmane Sissako
Wild Tales (Isa: Film Factory Entertainment/ U.S. Distribution: Palmera International) from Argentina by Damian Szifron
Leviathan (Isa: Pyramide International) from Russia by Andrey Zvyagintsev
Un Certain Regard
Party Girl (Isa: Pyramide International) from France by Marie Amachoukeli ♀ , Claire Burger ♀ , Samuel Theis
Jauja (Isa: Ndm) from Argentina by Lisandro Alonso
The Blue Room (Isa: Alfama Films) from France by Mathieu Amalric
Misunderstood aka Incompresa aka L'Incomprise (Production: Paradis Films) from Italy by Asia Argento ♀
Titli (Isa: Westend Films) from India by Kanu Behl
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (Isa: Myriad Pictures/ U.S. Distribution: The Weinstein Company) from U.S. by Ned Benson
Bird People (Isa: Films Distribution) from France by Pascale Ferran ♀
Lost River (Isa: Sierra/Affinity) from U.S. by Ryan Gosling
Amour Fou (Isa: Coproduction Office Paris) from Austria by Jessica Hausner ♀
Charlie's Country (Isa: Visit Films) from Australia by Rolf de Heer
Snow in Paradise (Isa: The Match Factory) from U.K. by Andrew Hulme
A Girl at My Door (Isa: Cj Entertainment) from So. Korea by July Jung ♀
Xenia (Isa: Pyramide International) from Greece by Panos Koutras
Run (Isa: Bac) from France by Philippe Lacote
Turist from Sweden and Norway by Ruben Ostlund
Beautiful Youth aka Hermosa Juventud (Producer: Fresdeval Films) by Jaime Rosales
Fantasia by Wang Chao
The Salt of the Earth (Isa: Le Pacte) from Germany and Brazil by Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Away From His Absence (Isa: Bizibi) from Israel by Karen Yedaya ♀
Out of Competition
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dreamworks Animation) from the U.S. by Dean Deblois
Coming Home aka Gui Lai (Isa: Wild Bunch) from China by Zhang Yimou
Special Screenings
Bridges of Sarajevo (Les Ponts de Sarajevo) from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Germany, and France
Red Army from the U.S. and Russia by Gabe Polsky
Maidan (Isa: Atoms & Void Bv) from Belarus by Segei Loznitsa
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait from Syria by Ossama Mohammed
Cartoonists - Foot Soldiers Of Democracy from France by Stephanie Valloatto
Directors' Fortnight
Opening Film: Girlhood aka Bande De Files (Isa: Films Distribution) from France by Céline Sciamma
Closing Film: Pride (Isa:Pathe International) from the U.K. by Matthew Warchus
Features
Alleluia (Isa:snd- Groupe M6) from Belgium and France by Fabrice Du Welz
Catch Me Daddy (Isa: Altitude Film Sales) from the U.K. by Daniel Wolfe
Next To Her aka At Li La Yla (Isa: Films Boutique) from Israel by Asaf Korman
Cold In July (Isa: Memento Films International) from the U.S. by Jim Mickle
Fighters aka Les Combattants (ISa: Bac Films) from France by Thomas Cailley
Gett — The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem (Isa: Films Distribution) from France, Germany, Israel by Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz
The Tale of Princess Kaguya aka Kaguya-Hime No Monogatari (Isa: Wild Bunch) from Japan by Isao Takahata
Eat Your Bones aka Mange Tes Morts (Isa:Capricci Films) from France by Jean-Charles Hue
A Hard Day aka Kkeut-Kka-Ji-Kan-Da (Isa: Showbox/Mediaples, Inc.) from South Korea by Seong-Hun Kim
National Gallery (Isa: Doc & Film International) from France by Frederick Wiseman
Queen And Country (Isa: Le Pacte) from the U.K. and Ireland by John Boorman
Sheltered aka Refugiado (Isa: Backup Media Films) from Argentina, France, Poland, and Colombia by Diego Lerman
These Final Hours (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/Nightmares) from Australia by Zach Hilditch
Tu Dors Nicole (Isa: Seville International) from Canada by Stéphane Lafleur
Whiplash (Isa:Sierra /Affinity) from the U.S. by Damien Chazelle
Special Screening
P'tit Quinquin by Bruno Dumont
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Tobe Hooper (4K restoration)
Acid Program
Brooklyn (Produced by Les Enfants de la Dalle) from France by Pascal Tessaud
The Way Out aka Cesta Ven (Produced by Cinema de Facto) from France and the Czech Republic by Petr Vaclav
Challat of Tunis aka Le Challat the Tunis (Produced by Cinetelefilms ) from Tunisia and France by Kaouther Ben Hania
The Girls and the River aka La Fille et le Fleuve (Produced by 31 Juin Films) from France by Aurélia Georges
Mercuriales (Produced by Kazak Productions) from France by Virgil Vernier
New Territories (Produced by Paraiso Production Difussion) from France by Fabianny Deschamps
Insecure aka Qui Vive (Isa: Udi- Urban Distribution International ) from France by Marianne Tardieu
The Rules of the Game aka Les Regles du Jeu (Isa: Doc & Film International) from France by Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard
Spartacus & Cassandra (Produced by Morgane Productions) from France by Ioanis Nuguet
Critics' Week
Opening Night: Faire: L'Amour (Fla) from France by Djinn Carrénard
Closing Nigh: Hippocrates aka Hippocrate (Isa: Le Pacte) from France by Thomas Lilti
Features
Darker Than Midnight aka Piu' Buio di Mezzanotte (Isa: Rai Trade) from Italy by Sebastiano Riso
Gente de Bien (Isa: Versatile) from Colombia and France by Franco Lolli
Hope (Isa: Pyramide International) from France by Boris Lojkine
It Follows (Isa: Visit Films) from the U.S. by David Robert Mitchell
Self Made aka Boreg (Isa: Westend Films) from Israel by Shira Geffen
The Tribe aka Plemya (Isa: Alpha Violet) from Ukraine by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
When Animals Dream aka Nar Dyrene Drommer (Produced by Gaumont) from Denmark by Jonas Alexander Arnby
Critics' Week: Special Screenings
Breathe aka Respire (Produced by Gaumont) from France by Mélanie Laurent
The Kindergarten Teacher aka Haganenet Teacher aka (Isa: Le Pacte) from Israel by Nadav Lapid...
Opening Night Film :
Grace of Monaco (Producer: Stone Angels/ U.S. The Weinstein Company) from France by Olivier Dahan
In Competition
Clouds of Sils Maria (Isa: MK2/ U.S. Distribution: IFC Films) from France/ Gremany/ Switzerland by Olivier Assayas
Saint Laurent (Isa: EuropaCorp) from France by Bertrand Bonello
Winter's Sleep aka Kis uykusu (Producer: Zeynofilm ) from Turkey by Nuri Bilge Ceylan who has a great website.
Maps to the Stars (Isa: Entertainment One) from Canada by David Cronenberg
Two Days, One Night (Isa: Wild Bunch/ U.S. Distribution: IFC Films) from Belgium and France by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Mommy (Isa: Seville International) from Canada by Xavier Dolan
The Captive (Isa: Entertainment One) from Canada by Atom Egoyan. You can watch the trailer here.
Goodbye to Language aka Adieu au Langage (Isa: Wild Bunch) from France by Jean-Luc Godard
The Search (Isa: Wild Bunch/ U.S. Distribution: Worldview Entertainment) from France by Michel Hazanavivius
The Homesman (Isa: Europacorp) from U.S. by Tommy Lee Jones
Still the Water (Isa: MK2) from Japan and France by Naomi Kawase ♀
Mr. Turner (Isa: Sunray Films/ U.S. Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics) from U.K. by Mike Leigh. Sunray Films is Alison Thompson's new company and she brought the film over from her former employer Focus Features International when they left the international sales business.
Jimmy's Hall (Isa: Wild Bunch) from Ireland and U.K. by Ken Loach
Foxcatcher (Isa: Panorama Media/ U.S. Distribution: Sony Pictures Classics) from U.S. by Bennett Miller
Le Meraviglie (Isa: The Match Factory) from Italy, Switzerland and Germany by Alice Rohrwacher ♀
Timbuktu (Isa: Le Pacte) from France by Abderrahmane Sissako
Wild Tales (Isa: Film Factory Entertainment/ U.S. Distribution: Palmera International) from Argentina by Damian Szifron
Leviathan (Isa: Pyramide International) from Russia by Andrey Zvyagintsev
Un Certain Regard
Party Girl (Isa: Pyramide International) from France by Marie Amachoukeli ♀ , Claire Burger ♀ , Samuel Theis
Jauja (Isa: Ndm) from Argentina by Lisandro Alonso
The Blue Room (Isa: Alfama Films) from France by Mathieu Amalric
Misunderstood aka Incompresa aka L'Incomprise (Production: Paradis Films) from Italy by Asia Argento ♀
Titli (Isa: Westend Films) from India by Kanu Behl
The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (Isa: Myriad Pictures/ U.S. Distribution: The Weinstein Company) from U.S. by Ned Benson
Bird People (Isa: Films Distribution) from France by Pascale Ferran ♀
Lost River (Isa: Sierra/Affinity) from U.S. by Ryan Gosling
Amour Fou (Isa: Coproduction Office Paris) from Austria by Jessica Hausner ♀
Charlie's Country (Isa: Visit Films) from Australia by Rolf de Heer
Snow in Paradise (Isa: The Match Factory) from U.K. by Andrew Hulme
A Girl at My Door (Isa: Cj Entertainment) from So. Korea by July Jung ♀
Xenia (Isa: Pyramide International) from Greece by Panos Koutras
Run (Isa: Bac) from France by Philippe Lacote
Turist from Sweden and Norway by Ruben Ostlund
Beautiful Youth aka Hermosa Juventud (Producer: Fresdeval Films) by Jaime Rosales
Fantasia by Wang Chao
The Salt of the Earth (Isa: Le Pacte) from Germany and Brazil by Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Away From His Absence (Isa: Bizibi) from Israel by Karen Yedaya ♀
Out of Competition
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (Dreamworks Animation) from the U.S. by Dean Deblois
Coming Home aka Gui Lai (Isa: Wild Bunch) from China by Zhang Yimou
Special Screenings
Bridges of Sarajevo (Les Ponts de Sarajevo) from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Germany, and France
Red Army from the U.S. and Russia by Gabe Polsky
Maidan (Isa: Atoms & Void Bv) from Belarus by Segei Loznitsa
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait from Syria by Ossama Mohammed
Cartoonists - Foot Soldiers Of Democracy from France by Stephanie Valloatto
Directors' Fortnight
Opening Film: Girlhood aka Bande De Files (Isa: Films Distribution) from France by Céline Sciamma
Closing Film: Pride (Isa:Pathe International) from the U.K. by Matthew Warchus
Features
Alleluia (Isa:snd- Groupe M6) from Belgium and France by Fabrice Du Welz
Catch Me Daddy (Isa: Altitude Film Sales) from the U.K. by Daniel Wolfe
Next To Her aka At Li La Yla (Isa: Films Boutique) from Israel by Asaf Korman
Cold In July (Isa: Memento Films International) from the U.S. by Jim Mickle
Fighters aka Les Combattants (ISa: Bac Films) from France by Thomas Cailley
Gett — The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem (Isa: Films Distribution) from France, Germany, Israel by Ronit & Shlomi Elkabetz
The Tale of Princess Kaguya aka Kaguya-Hime No Monogatari (Isa: Wild Bunch) from Japan by Isao Takahata
Eat Your Bones aka Mange Tes Morts (Isa:Capricci Films) from France by Jean-Charles Hue
A Hard Day aka Kkeut-Kka-Ji-Kan-Da (Isa: Showbox/Mediaples, Inc.) from South Korea by Seong-Hun Kim
National Gallery (Isa: Doc & Film International) from France by Frederick Wiseman
Queen And Country (Isa: Le Pacte) from the U.K. and Ireland by John Boorman
Sheltered aka Refugiado (Isa: Backup Media Films) from Argentina, France, Poland, and Colombia by Diego Lerman
These Final Hours (Isa: Celluloid Dreams/Nightmares) from Australia by Zach Hilditch
Tu Dors Nicole (Isa: Seville International) from Canada by Stéphane Lafleur
Whiplash (Isa:Sierra /Affinity) from the U.S. by Damien Chazelle
Special Screening
P'tit Quinquin by Bruno Dumont
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre by Tobe Hooper (4K restoration)
Acid Program
Brooklyn (Produced by Les Enfants de la Dalle) from France by Pascal Tessaud
The Way Out aka Cesta Ven (Produced by Cinema de Facto) from France and the Czech Republic by Petr Vaclav
Challat of Tunis aka Le Challat the Tunis (Produced by Cinetelefilms ) from Tunisia and France by Kaouther Ben Hania
The Girls and the River aka La Fille et le Fleuve (Produced by 31 Juin Films) from France by Aurélia Georges
Mercuriales (Produced by Kazak Productions) from France by Virgil Vernier
New Territories (Produced by Paraiso Production Difussion) from France by Fabianny Deschamps
Insecure aka Qui Vive (Isa: Udi- Urban Distribution International ) from France by Marianne Tardieu
The Rules of the Game aka Les Regles du Jeu (Isa: Doc & Film International) from France by Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard
Spartacus & Cassandra (Produced by Morgane Productions) from France by Ioanis Nuguet
Critics' Week
Opening Night: Faire: L'Amour (Fla) from France by Djinn Carrénard
Closing Nigh: Hippocrates aka Hippocrate (Isa: Le Pacte) from France by Thomas Lilti
Features
Darker Than Midnight aka Piu' Buio di Mezzanotte (Isa: Rai Trade) from Italy by Sebastiano Riso
Gente de Bien (Isa: Versatile) from Colombia and France by Franco Lolli
Hope (Isa: Pyramide International) from France by Boris Lojkine
It Follows (Isa: Visit Films) from the U.S. by David Robert Mitchell
Self Made aka Boreg (Isa: Westend Films) from Israel by Shira Geffen
The Tribe aka Plemya (Isa: Alpha Violet) from Ukraine by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy
When Animals Dream aka Nar Dyrene Drommer (Produced by Gaumont) from Denmark by Jonas Alexander Arnby
Critics' Week: Special Screenings
Breathe aka Respire (Produced by Gaumont) from France by Mélanie Laurent
The Kindergarten Teacher aka Haganenet Teacher aka (Isa: Le Pacte) from Israel by Nadav Lapid...
- 4/29/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Col*Coa is winding down, but you can still catch a few stellar films and see the award winners for free Monday, April 22, 2013.
Award Screenings at 6:00 pm: The evening will start with the rerun of two awarded films in the Renoir and Truffaut Theaters at the DGA. Films will be announced on Sunday April 21 on the Col*Coa website, on Facebook, Twitter and on the Col•Coa info line (310) 289 5346. Free admission on a First comes First Served basis. No RSVP needed.
You can stay and also see the Closing Night Films at 8:30 pm at the DGA. Reservations needed. Those are both North American Premieres of two very anticipated French films. The thriller Moebus by Eric Rochant will show for free as will the comedy Like Brothers by Hugo Gélin.
Being among the French filmmakers (and I saw way too few of the films) gave me such a surprising sense of renewal - again because of this upcoming generation. After seeing City of Lights, the short by Pascal Tessaud which preceded the classic Jacques Demy film Bay of Angels starring a platinum blond gambling-addicted Jeanne Moreau in Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo in 1963, we spoke at length about what is called "The New Vibe". City of Lights stars a deeply quiet young man from "les banlieus", the notorious "suburbs" surrounding Paris where the international mix of young (and old) proletariat population is invisible to the rest of France except when the anger erupts into riots. This first generation has the French education but not the money or jobs and it hurts. They have picked up the cameras and with no money are creating films which express their lives in many ways like the new Latin American filmmakers or the new Eastern European filmmakers. Tessaud gave me an entire education in the hour we talked and I will share this in time. For now, aside from his wonderfuly trenchant film which played like a feature, which captured the Paris this young generation recognizes as The City of Lights - dancing, the kitchen of a very upscale restaurant, the dreary streets filled with construction, there is another example of The New Vibe, started by Rachid Djaïdani (a story in himself) the film Hold Back (Rengaine) leads the pack of the 20-some-odd new films of The New Vibe. It is produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles) whose films are too numerous to name but include my favorite The Hedgehog which I wrote about at Col*Coa two years ago, Col*Coa's current Cycling with Moliere, 2002's Respiro and many many others. Hold Back took 9 years to make and most of the team was unpaid. The New Vibe makes films without the aid of the French system of funding; it is more guerilla-style, not New Wave, not Dogma but New Vibe. Hold Back took Cannes by storm when it showed last year in Directors Fortnight and went on to New Directors/ New Films in New York. The classic story of a Catholic and a Muslim who want to marry but whose family objects, this rendition the Juliet has a brother who marches throughout Paris to alert her 39 other brothers that she wants to marry outside her cultural and religious traditions. "This fresh debut mixes fable, plucky social commentary - particularly about France's Arab community - and inventive comic setpieces" (Col*Coa)
Hold Back (Rengaine) (Isa: Pathe) goes beyond the funny but "establishmant" film Intouchable which played here last year. It is the exact opposite of such films as Sister or even Aliyah (Isa: Rezo) which played here this year and also in Directors Fortnight last year. Aliyah is about a young French Jewish man who must make his last drug sale in order to escape his brother's destructive behavior. He escapes by immigrating to Israel. These films are made by filmmakers within the French establishment and describe a proletariat existence which exists in their bourgeois minds. They lack a certain "verite" which can only be captured by one who knows viscerally what such marginal existence is.
At the opposite end of the contemporary spectrum of films today, a real establishment film is You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Alain Renais (you have to be a Renais fan to love it who was so avant-garde in his day). Those old New Wave films one could see here stand out in beautiful contrast to today's New Vibe: Renais' Stavisky or the 1963 film The Fire Within (Le feu follet) by Louis Malle again starring the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. I missed them both to my regret. When I miss a film I always tell myself I can see it when it's released or on DVD or Mubi, but rarely do I get to see it. Instead I can only read about it as here written up by Beth Hanna on Indiewire blog ToH. The Fire Within was part of Wes Anderson's choices, one of the various showcases of Col*Coa. Says Hanna: "Anderson's taste is impeccable: He has selected Louis Malle's 1963 lyrical depression drama The Fire Within." It was made after the classic Elevator to the Gallows (1958) which Miles Davis scored and which also starred the young Jeanne Moreau. She also could be seen her in Col*Coa in the classic 1963 Jacques Demy-directed Bay of Angels.
Col*Coa really offered something for everyone this year. Another of my favorite film genres, the Jewish film, was represented by Aliyah and The Dandelions (Du Vent dans mes mollets) (Isa: Gaumont), Stavisky, and It Happened in St. Tropez (Isa: Pathe), a classic French comedy -- though a bit dark and yet still comedic, about romance, love and marriage switching between generations in a neurotic, comfortably wealthy Jewish family. The Dandelions was, according to my friend Debra Levine, a writer on culture including film and dance, (see her blog artsmeme), "darling, so touching, so well made, so creative ... i really liked it. Went into that rabbit hole of little girls together ... Barbie doll play. Crazy creative play. As looney as kids can be."
Ian Birnie's favorite film was Becoming Traviata. Greg Katchel's favorite originally was Rendez-vous à Kiruna by Anna Novion, but when I saw him later in the festival his favorite was Cycling with Moliere (Alceste a bicyclette) (Isa: Pathe), again produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint and directed by Philippe Le Guay who directed one of my favorites, The Women on the 6th Floor. Greg also liked Three Worlds though it was a bit "schematic" in depicting the clash of different cultures which were also shown in Hold Back.
Of the few films I was able to see, the most interesting was Augustine by Alice Winokur. It is the French response to David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and the British film Hysteria. All three were about the turn of the century concern of psychologists or doctors with female hysteria. This one concerned Jean-Martin Charcot and the neurologist's belief that hysteria was a neurological disease and he used hypnosis to get at its roots, whild in A Dangerous Method it was seen by Freud and Jung as a mental disorder and in Hysteria by Tanya Wexler (Tiff 2011) in which Dr. Mortimer Granville devises the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.
Take a look at Indiewire's own article here for more on Los Angeles's greatest French attraction, the second largest French film festival in the world.
Several American distributors will present their films at Col•Coa before their U.S. release: Kino Lorber – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, co-written and directed by Alain Resnais (Focus on a Filmmaker); Mpi Media – Thérèse, the last film of director/co-writer Claude Miller starring Audrey Tautou; Cohen Media Group – In the House, written and directed by François Ozon and The Attack, co-written and directed by Ziad Doueiri; Distrib Films for two documentaries: Becoming Traviata and The Invisibles; Film Movement for two thrillers: Aliyah and Three Worlds; The Weinstein Company - Populaire.
Below you can see the international sales agents for the current features showing.
11.6 / 11.6 (Isa: Wild Bunch)
Directed by: Philippe Godeau
Written by: Philippe Godeau, Agnès De Sacy
A Few Hours Of Spring / Quelques heures de printemps (Isa: Rezo)
Directed by: Stéphane Brizé ♀
Written by: Stéphane Brizé, Florence Vignon
Cast: Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Perrier
Aliyah/Alyah ✡ (Isa: Rezo, U.S.: Film Movement
Directed by: Élie Wajeman
Written by: Élie Wajeman, Gaëlle Macé
Armed Hands / Mains armées (Isa: Films Distribution)
Directed by: Pierre Jolivet
Written by: Pierre Jolivet, Simon Michaël
Augustine / Augustine (Isa: Kinology, U.S.: Music Box)
Directed by: Alice Winocour ♀
Written by: Alice Winocour
Aya Of Yop City / Aya de Yopougon (Isa: TF1)
Directed by: Clément Oubrerie, Marguerite Abouet ♀
Written by: Marguerite Abouet
Bay Of Angels / La Baie des anges (U.S.: Criterion)
Directed by: Jacques Demy
Written by: Jacques Demy
Becoming Traviata /Traviata et nous (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S. Distrib Films and Cinema Guild)
Directed by: Philippe Béziat
Written by: Philippe Béziat
Cycling With MOLIÈRE / Alceste à bicyclette (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Philippe Le Guay
Written by: Philippe Le Guay, based on an original idea by Fabrice Luchini and Philippe Le Guay
Fly Me To The Moon / Un plan parfait (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Pascal Chaumeil
Written By: Laurent Zeitoun, Yoann Gromb, Philippe Mechelen
Haute Cuisine / Les Saveurs du palais (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: The Weinstein Company)
Directed by: Christian Vincent
Written by: Etienne Comar & Christian Vincent, based on the life of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch
Hidden Beauties / Mille-Feuille (Isa: Other Angle Pictures)
Directed by: Nouri Bouzid
Written by: Nouri Bouzid, Joumène Limam
Hold Back / Rengaine (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Rachid Djaïdani
Written by: Rachid Djaïdani
In The House / Dans la maison (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: François Ozon
Written by: François Ozon
It Happened In Saint-tropez / Des Gens qui s’embrassent (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Danièle Thompson ♀
Written by: Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson
Jappeloup/ Jappeloup (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Christian Duguay
Written by: Guillaume Canet
Le Grand Soir / Le grand soir (Isa: Funny Balloons)
Directed by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Written by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Little Lion / Comme un Lion (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Samuel Collardey
Written by: Catherine Paillé, Nadège Trebal, Samuel Collardey
Moon Man / Jean de la lune (Isa: Le Pacte)
Directed By: Stephan Schesch
Written By: Stephan Schesch, Ralph Martin. Based on the book by: Tomi Ungerer
Populaire / Populaire (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: TWC)
Directed By: Régis Roinsard
Written By: Régis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, Romain Compingt
Rendezvous In Kiruna / Rendez-vous à Kiruna (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Anne Novion ♀
Written by: Olivier Massart, Anne Novion, Pierre Novion
Sons Of The Wind / Les Fils du vent (Isa: Wide)
Directed by: Bruno Le Jean
Written by: Bruno Le Jean
Stavisky / Stavisky (1974) (Isa: StudioCanal)
Directed by: Alain Resnais
Written by: Jorge Semprún
The Attack / L’Attentat
France, Belgium, Lebanon, Qatar, 2013
Directed by: Ziad Doueiri (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
The BRONTË Sisters / Les Soeurs Brontë (Isa: Gaumont, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: André Téchiné
Written by: André Téchiné, Jean Gruault, Pascal Bonitzer
The Dandelions / Du Vent dans mes mollets ✡
Directed By: Carine Tardieu ♀
Written By: Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir, Olivier Beer
The Fire Within / Le Feu Follet (1963) (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Janus Films)
Directed by: Louis Malle
Written by: Louis Malle
The Invisibles / Les Invisibles (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Distrib Films))
Directed By: Sébastien Lifshitz
The Man Who Laughs/ L’Homme qui rit (Isa: EuropaCorps)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Améris
Written by: Jean-Pierre Améris , Guillaume Laurant
THÉRÈSE / Thérèse Desqueyroux (Isa: TF1, U.S.: Mpi)
Directed by: Claude Miller
Written by: Claude Miller, Natalie Carter
Three Worlds / Trois mondes (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Film Movement)
Directed by: Catherine Corsini ♀
Written by: Catherine Corsini, Benoît Graffin
To Our Loves / À nos amours (1983) (U.S. Janus)
Directed By: Maurice Pialat
Written By: Arlette Langmann, Maurice Pialat
True Friends / Amitiés sincères (Isa: Snd Groupe 6)
Directed By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie
Written By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie, Marie-Pierre Huster
Welcome To Argentina / Mariage à Mendoza (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Édouard Deluc
Written By: Anaïs Carpita, Édouard Deluc, Thomas Lilti, Philippe Rebbot
What’S In A Name / Le prénom (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Under The Milky Way)
Directed by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
Written by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet / Vous n’avez encore rien vu (Isa: StudioCanal, U.S.: Kino Lorber)
Directed By: Alain Resnais
Written By: Alain Resnais, Laurent Herbiet...
Award Screenings at 6:00 pm: The evening will start with the rerun of two awarded films in the Renoir and Truffaut Theaters at the DGA. Films will be announced on Sunday April 21 on the Col*Coa website, on Facebook, Twitter and on the Col•Coa info line (310) 289 5346. Free admission on a First comes First Served basis. No RSVP needed.
You can stay and also see the Closing Night Films at 8:30 pm at the DGA. Reservations needed. Those are both North American Premieres of two very anticipated French films. The thriller Moebus by Eric Rochant will show for free as will the comedy Like Brothers by Hugo Gélin.
Being among the French filmmakers (and I saw way too few of the films) gave me such a surprising sense of renewal - again because of this upcoming generation. After seeing City of Lights, the short by Pascal Tessaud which preceded the classic Jacques Demy film Bay of Angels starring a platinum blond gambling-addicted Jeanne Moreau in Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo in 1963, we spoke at length about what is called "The New Vibe". City of Lights stars a deeply quiet young man from "les banlieus", the notorious "suburbs" surrounding Paris where the international mix of young (and old) proletariat population is invisible to the rest of France except when the anger erupts into riots. This first generation has the French education but not the money or jobs and it hurts. They have picked up the cameras and with no money are creating films which express their lives in many ways like the new Latin American filmmakers or the new Eastern European filmmakers. Tessaud gave me an entire education in the hour we talked and I will share this in time. For now, aside from his wonderfuly trenchant film which played like a feature, which captured the Paris this young generation recognizes as The City of Lights - dancing, the kitchen of a very upscale restaurant, the dreary streets filled with construction, there is another example of The New Vibe, started by Rachid Djaïdani (a story in himself) the film Hold Back (Rengaine) leads the pack of the 20-some-odd new films of The New Vibe. It is produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles) whose films are too numerous to name but include my favorite The Hedgehog which I wrote about at Col*Coa two years ago, Col*Coa's current Cycling with Moliere, 2002's Respiro and many many others. Hold Back took 9 years to make and most of the team was unpaid. The New Vibe makes films without the aid of the French system of funding; it is more guerilla-style, not New Wave, not Dogma but New Vibe. Hold Back took Cannes by storm when it showed last year in Directors Fortnight and went on to New Directors/ New Films in New York. The classic story of a Catholic and a Muslim who want to marry but whose family objects, this rendition the Juliet has a brother who marches throughout Paris to alert her 39 other brothers that she wants to marry outside her cultural and religious traditions. "This fresh debut mixes fable, plucky social commentary - particularly about France's Arab community - and inventive comic setpieces" (Col*Coa)
Hold Back (Rengaine) (Isa: Pathe) goes beyond the funny but "establishmant" film Intouchable which played here last year. It is the exact opposite of such films as Sister or even Aliyah (Isa: Rezo) which played here this year and also in Directors Fortnight last year. Aliyah is about a young French Jewish man who must make his last drug sale in order to escape his brother's destructive behavior. He escapes by immigrating to Israel. These films are made by filmmakers within the French establishment and describe a proletariat existence which exists in their bourgeois minds. They lack a certain "verite" which can only be captured by one who knows viscerally what such marginal existence is.
At the opposite end of the contemporary spectrum of films today, a real establishment film is You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Alain Renais (you have to be a Renais fan to love it who was so avant-garde in his day). Those old New Wave films one could see here stand out in beautiful contrast to today's New Vibe: Renais' Stavisky or the 1963 film The Fire Within (Le feu follet) by Louis Malle again starring the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. I missed them both to my regret. When I miss a film I always tell myself I can see it when it's released or on DVD or Mubi, but rarely do I get to see it. Instead I can only read about it as here written up by Beth Hanna on Indiewire blog ToH. The Fire Within was part of Wes Anderson's choices, one of the various showcases of Col*Coa. Says Hanna: "Anderson's taste is impeccable: He has selected Louis Malle's 1963 lyrical depression drama The Fire Within." It was made after the classic Elevator to the Gallows (1958) which Miles Davis scored and which also starred the young Jeanne Moreau. She also could be seen her in Col*Coa in the classic 1963 Jacques Demy-directed Bay of Angels.
Col*Coa really offered something for everyone this year. Another of my favorite film genres, the Jewish film, was represented by Aliyah and The Dandelions (Du Vent dans mes mollets) (Isa: Gaumont), Stavisky, and It Happened in St. Tropez (Isa: Pathe), a classic French comedy -- though a bit dark and yet still comedic, about romance, love and marriage switching between generations in a neurotic, comfortably wealthy Jewish family. The Dandelions was, according to my friend Debra Levine, a writer on culture including film and dance, (see her blog artsmeme), "darling, so touching, so well made, so creative ... i really liked it. Went into that rabbit hole of little girls together ... Barbie doll play. Crazy creative play. As looney as kids can be."
Ian Birnie's favorite film was Becoming Traviata. Greg Katchel's favorite originally was Rendez-vous à Kiruna by Anna Novion, but when I saw him later in the festival his favorite was Cycling with Moliere (Alceste a bicyclette) (Isa: Pathe), again produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint and directed by Philippe Le Guay who directed one of my favorites, The Women on the 6th Floor. Greg also liked Three Worlds though it was a bit "schematic" in depicting the clash of different cultures which were also shown in Hold Back.
Of the few films I was able to see, the most interesting was Augustine by Alice Winokur. It is the French response to David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and the British film Hysteria. All three were about the turn of the century concern of psychologists or doctors with female hysteria. This one concerned Jean-Martin Charcot and the neurologist's belief that hysteria was a neurological disease and he used hypnosis to get at its roots, whild in A Dangerous Method it was seen by Freud and Jung as a mental disorder and in Hysteria by Tanya Wexler (Tiff 2011) in which Dr. Mortimer Granville devises the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.
Take a look at Indiewire's own article here for more on Los Angeles's greatest French attraction, the second largest French film festival in the world.
Several American distributors will present their films at Col•Coa before their U.S. release: Kino Lorber – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, co-written and directed by Alain Resnais (Focus on a Filmmaker); Mpi Media – Thérèse, the last film of director/co-writer Claude Miller starring Audrey Tautou; Cohen Media Group – In the House, written and directed by François Ozon and The Attack, co-written and directed by Ziad Doueiri; Distrib Films for two documentaries: Becoming Traviata and The Invisibles; Film Movement for two thrillers: Aliyah and Three Worlds; The Weinstein Company - Populaire.
Below you can see the international sales agents for the current features showing.
11.6 / 11.6 (Isa: Wild Bunch)
Directed by: Philippe Godeau
Written by: Philippe Godeau, Agnès De Sacy
A Few Hours Of Spring / Quelques heures de printemps (Isa: Rezo)
Directed by: Stéphane Brizé ♀
Written by: Stéphane Brizé, Florence Vignon
Cast: Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Perrier
Aliyah/Alyah ✡ (Isa: Rezo, U.S.: Film Movement
Directed by: Élie Wajeman
Written by: Élie Wajeman, Gaëlle Macé
Armed Hands / Mains armées (Isa: Films Distribution)
Directed by: Pierre Jolivet
Written by: Pierre Jolivet, Simon Michaël
Augustine / Augustine (Isa: Kinology, U.S.: Music Box)
Directed by: Alice Winocour ♀
Written by: Alice Winocour
Aya Of Yop City / Aya de Yopougon (Isa: TF1)
Directed by: Clément Oubrerie, Marguerite Abouet ♀
Written by: Marguerite Abouet
Bay Of Angels / La Baie des anges (U.S.: Criterion)
Directed by: Jacques Demy
Written by: Jacques Demy
Becoming Traviata /Traviata et nous (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S. Distrib Films and Cinema Guild)
Directed by: Philippe Béziat
Written by: Philippe Béziat
Cycling With MOLIÈRE / Alceste à bicyclette (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Philippe Le Guay
Written by: Philippe Le Guay, based on an original idea by Fabrice Luchini and Philippe Le Guay
Fly Me To The Moon / Un plan parfait (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Pascal Chaumeil
Written By: Laurent Zeitoun, Yoann Gromb, Philippe Mechelen
Haute Cuisine / Les Saveurs du palais (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: The Weinstein Company)
Directed by: Christian Vincent
Written by: Etienne Comar & Christian Vincent, based on the life of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch
Hidden Beauties / Mille-Feuille (Isa: Other Angle Pictures)
Directed by: Nouri Bouzid
Written by: Nouri Bouzid, Joumène Limam
Hold Back / Rengaine (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Rachid Djaïdani
Written by: Rachid Djaïdani
In The House / Dans la maison (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: François Ozon
Written by: François Ozon
It Happened In Saint-tropez / Des Gens qui s’embrassent (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Danièle Thompson ♀
Written by: Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson
Jappeloup/ Jappeloup (Isa: Pathe)
Directed by: Christian Duguay
Written by: Guillaume Canet
Le Grand Soir / Le grand soir (Isa: Funny Balloons)
Directed by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Written by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern
Little Lion / Comme un Lion (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Samuel Collardey
Written by: Catherine Paillé, Nadège Trebal, Samuel Collardey
Moon Man / Jean de la lune (Isa: Le Pacte)
Directed By: Stephan Schesch
Written By: Stephan Schesch, Ralph Martin. Based on the book by: Tomi Ungerer
Populaire / Populaire (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: TWC)
Directed By: Régis Roinsard
Written By: Régis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, Romain Compingt
Rendezvous In Kiruna / Rendez-vous à Kiruna (Isa: Pyramide)
Directed by: Anne Novion ♀
Written by: Olivier Massart, Anne Novion, Pierre Novion
Sons Of The Wind / Les Fils du vent (Isa: Wide)
Directed by: Bruno Le Jean
Written by: Bruno Le Jean
Stavisky / Stavisky (1974) (Isa: StudioCanal)
Directed by: Alain Resnais
Written by: Jorge Semprún
The Attack / L’Attentat
France, Belgium, Lebanon, Qatar, 2013
Directed by: Ziad Doueiri (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
The BRONTË Sisters / Les Soeurs Brontë (Isa: Gaumont, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)
Directed by: André Téchiné
Written by: André Téchiné, Jean Gruault, Pascal Bonitzer
The Dandelions / Du Vent dans mes mollets ✡
Directed By: Carine Tardieu ♀
Written By: Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir, Olivier Beer
The Fire Within / Le Feu Follet (1963) (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Janus Films)
Directed by: Louis Malle
Written by: Louis Malle
The Invisibles / Les Invisibles (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Distrib Films))
Directed By: Sébastien Lifshitz
The Man Who Laughs/ L’Homme qui rit (Isa: EuropaCorps)
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Améris
Written by: Jean-Pierre Améris , Guillaume Laurant
THÉRÈSE / Thérèse Desqueyroux (Isa: TF1, U.S.: Mpi)
Directed by: Claude Miller
Written by: Claude Miller, Natalie Carter
Three Worlds / Trois mondes (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Film Movement)
Directed by: Catherine Corsini ♀
Written by: Catherine Corsini, Benoît Graffin
To Our Loves / À nos amours (1983) (U.S. Janus)
Directed By: Maurice Pialat
Written By: Arlette Langmann, Maurice Pialat
True Friends / Amitiés sincères (Isa: Snd Groupe 6)
Directed By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie
Written By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie, Marie-Pierre Huster
Welcome To Argentina / Mariage à Mendoza (Isa: Kinology)
Directed By: Édouard Deluc
Written By: Anaïs Carpita, Édouard Deluc, Thomas Lilti, Philippe Rebbot
What’S In A Name / Le prénom (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Under The Milky Way)
Directed by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
Written by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte
You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet / Vous n’avez encore rien vu (Isa: StudioCanal, U.S.: Kino Lorber)
Directed By: Alain Resnais
Written By: Alain Resnais, Laurent Herbiet...
- 4/20/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
One week prior to the March 26th announcement of the full line up of films in competition for the Col•Coa Awards 2013, the annual French film festival in Hollywood reveals a little more of its program for the 17th edition, taking place from April 15-22 in the Directors Guild of America complex.
International Premiere Of Duo Nakache/Toledano’S New Film At Col•Coa
One year after the success of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s The Intouchables at Col•Coa (Col•Coa Audience Award, Col•Coa Lafca Critics Award 2012), they produced the new short film Clean, directed by Benjamin Bouhana,
starring Laurent Lafitte, which will open the festival and the short films competition on April 15.
Line Up Confirmed For The Col•Coa Short Film Award 2013 Competition
Nineteen new short films will compete for the Col•Coa Awards:
505G, written and directed by Jérémy Azencott
75 Canaries, written and directed by Philippe Prouff
À la française, co-written and co-directed by Morrigane Boyer, Julien Hazebroucq, Ren-Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu, William Lorton
Clay, written and directed by Michaël Guerraz
Just Before Losing Everything, written and directed by from Xavier Legrand
Bella B., written and directed by Jan-Luck Levasseur
Bet She’an, written and directed by Julien Soler
Bad Toys II, written and directed by Daniel Brunet et Nicolas Douste
Clean, co-written and co-directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
Come What May, co-written and co-directed by Maxime Feyers et Mathieu Bergeron
Fragments of a standstill trip, written and directed by Lionel Mougin
Fuck U.K., written and directed by Benoît Forgeard
The Inn, written and directed by Izú Troin
The Lizards, written and directed by Vincent Mariette
Kiki of Montparnasse, written and directed by Amélie Harrault
My Sweetheart, written and directed by Daniel Metge
Leaving, written and directed by Joanna Lurie
Time 2 Split, written and directed by Fabrice Bracq
City of Light, written and directed Pascal Tessaud
Col•Coa.doc: French Documentary In The Spotlight In Hollywood
Three films will round up the documentary section at Col•Coa 2013:
- The Sons of Wind (Les Fils du Vent) directed by Bruno Le Blanc, produced by Les Films du Veyrier. The documentary about the followers or spiritual sons of guitarist Django Reinhardt will be presented at Col•Coa as a North American Premiere.
- Becoming Traviata (La Traviata et nous) written and directed by Philippe Béziat, produced by Les Films Pelléas. A mise en scene look at the modern staging of Verdi’s opera La Traviata in Aix-en-Provence with internationally acclaimed soprano Natalie Dessay will be showing at Col•Coa as a four-month tour of Natalie Dessay starts in the U.S. Distrib Films will distribute the film in the U.S..
- The Invisibles (Les Invisibles) directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, produced by Zadig Films. Taking home the Best Documentary César for 2013, eight months after its official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, The Invisibles traces the evolution of French society from the post-war years to the present from the perspective of homosexual men and women. It will be presented as a U.S. Premiere at Col•Coa. It will be released in the U.S. afterwards by Distrib Films.
These three films will be in competition along side 28 feature films for the Col•Coa Awards 2013.
From April 15 to April 22, 2013, will be the 17th edition of Col•Coa « A Week Of French Film Premieres In Hollywood » in the prestigious theaters of the Directors Guild of America.
Col•Coa was created by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guils of America West, and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem). Col•Coa is also supported by France’s Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (L’Arp), the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles, the Cnc and Unifrance.
For more information: www.colcoa.org...
International Premiere Of Duo Nakache/Toledano’S New Film At Col•Coa
One year after the success of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s The Intouchables at Col•Coa (Col•Coa Audience Award, Col•Coa Lafca Critics Award 2012), they produced the new short film Clean, directed by Benjamin Bouhana,
starring Laurent Lafitte, which will open the festival and the short films competition on April 15.
Line Up Confirmed For The Col•Coa Short Film Award 2013 Competition
Nineteen new short films will compete for the Col•Coa Awards:
505G, written and directed by Jérémy Azencott
75 Canaries, written and directed by Philippe Prouff
À la française, co-written and co-directed by Morrigane Boyer, Julien Hazebroucq, Ren-Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu, William Lorton
Clay, written and directed by Michaël Guerraz
Just Before Losing Everything, written and directed by from Xavier Legrand
Bella B., written and directed by Jan-Luck Levasseur
Bet She’an, written and directed by Julien Soler
Bad Toys II, written and directed by Daniel Brunet et Nicolas Douste
Clean, co-written and co-directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano
Come What May, co-written and co-directed by Maxime Feyers et Mathieu Bergeron
Fragments of a standstill trip, written and directed by Lionel Mougin
Fuck U.K., written and directed by Benoît Forgeard
The Inn, written and directed by Izú Troin
The Lizards, written and directed by Vincent Mariette
Kiki of Montparnasse, written and directed by Amélie Harrault
My Sweetheart, written and directed by Daniel Metge
Leaving, written and directed by Joanna Lurie
Time 2 Split, written and directed by Fabrice Bracq
City of Light, written and directed Pascal Tessaud
Col•Coa.doc: French Documentary In The Spotlight In Hollywood
Three films will round up the documentary section at Col•Coa 2013:
- The Sons of Wind (Les Fils du Vent) directed by Bruno Le Blanc, produced by Les Films du Veyrier. The documentary about the followers or spiritual sons of guitarist Django Reinhardt will be presented at Col•Coa as a North American Premiere.
- Becoming Traviata (La Traviata et nous) written and directed by Philippe Béziat, produced by Les Films Pelléas. A mise en scene look at the modern staging of Verdi’s opera La Traviata in Aix-en-Provence with internationally acclaimed soprano Natalie Dessay will be showing at Col•Coa as a four-month tour of Natalie Dessay starts in the U.S. Distrib Films will distribute the film in the U.S..
- The Invisibles (Les Invisibles) directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, produced by Zadig Films. Taking home the Best Documentary César for 2013, eight months after its official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, The Invisibles traces the evolution of French society from the post-war years to the present from the perspective of homosexual men and women. It will be presented as a U.S. Premiere at Col•Coa. It will be released in the U.S. afterwards by Distrib Films.
These three films will be in competition along side 28 feature films for the Col•Coa Awards 2013.
From April 15 to April 22, 2013, will be the 17th edition of Col•Coa « A Week Of French Film Premieres In Hollywood » in the prestigious theaters of the Directors Guild of America.
Col•Coa was created by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guils of America West, and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem). Col•Coa is also supported by France’s Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (L’Arp), the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles, the Cnc and Unifrance.
For more information: www.colcoa.org...
- 3/18/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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