"We can help you... and we need your help." Metrograph has unveiled the official US trailer for Last and First Men, an experimental documentary made by the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. This initially premiered at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival just before the pandemic took over, and has been waiting to be released ever since. It's the only feature film directed by iconic Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who made this before he died in 2018. Featuring narration by Tilda Swinton. This feature is a repackaged version of the video Jóhannsson made for his concerts, inspired by Dutch photographer Jan Kempenaers' 2010 art book "Spomenik" about these oddly shaped war monuments. It was shot on 16mm B&w film by the Norwegian cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen. The Tilda narration is based on text from Olaf Stapledon's book "Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future". I flipped for this...
- 12/1/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
With his scores for Arrival, Sicario, and Mandy, Jóhann Jóhannsson was shaping up to be one of the leading composers of this young century thus far. Sadly, his life was cut short in 2018 and, as a towering final work, he left behind his sole directorial effort, Last and First Men. Narrated by Tilda Swinton with 16mm black and white cinematography, the film captures an apocalyptic future two billion years from now. Following a premiere at Berlinale last year, the film was picked up by Metrograph Pictures for a theatrical and digital release beginning next week and now we’re pleased to debut the exclusive U.S. trailer.
Ed Frankl said in his review, “If any film composer of the last decade defined the period best, it might’ve been Jóhann Jóhannsson, whose synthy, epic tones captured the turbulent, globalized environment of the new century. His work with Denis Villeneuve turned him into a Hollywood name,...
Ed Frankl said in his review, “If any film composer of the last decade defined the period best, it might’ve been Jóhann Jóhannsson, whose synthy, epic tones captured the turbulent, globalized environment of the new century. His work with Denis Villeneuve turned him into a Hollywood name,...
- 11/30/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
One of the most important contributions that science fiction has made to the broader genre of speculative and philosophical literature, Olaf Stapledon's 1930 novel has long been considered unfilmable. Its epic scope, charting a future history of humanity across two billion years and many different biological iterations, proved too much for even the boldest directors to take on, whilst the intimacy of its central story - communications sent by a member of a dying race to today's Earth - was difficult to dramatise. By eschewing the epic in favour of a pared down, black and white minimalist approach, Iceland's Jóhann Jóhannsson has created something that successfully captures the spirit of the book whilst feeling like a memorial to humanity.
Jóhannsson is best known as a composer and the score that echoes through Last And First Men carries much of the weight of its narrative. Combined with slowly shifting images of stone.
Jóhannsson is best known as a composer and the score that echoes through Last And First Men carries much of the weight of its narrative. Combined with slowly shifting images of stone.
- 7/2/2020
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Benjamin Ree’s “The Painter and the Thief,” Jóhann Johánsson’s “Last and First Men,” Oliver Hermanus’ “Moffie” and Amanda Kernell’s “Charter” are some of the titles announced for the upcoming 10th Atlàntida Film Fest, the largest online film festival in Europe, organized by Spain’s Filmin platform.
The event will take a double format –one on-site in Palma de Mallorca from July 27 to Aug. 2, and another longer online version from July 27 through Aug. 27.
Mainly focused on Europe, final selection will see about 95 titles online –including TV series,– and 4o titles will be screened in theaters in Mallorca, where the Atlàntida Film Fest has been taking place for the past five years.
Benjamin Ree’s “The Painter and the Thief” will open the festival. Premiered in Sundance this year, it won the world cinema documentary special jury prize for creative storytelling. Neon-distributed, it is “a stranger-than-fiction friendship story in...
The event will take a double format –one on-site in Palma de Mallorca from July 27 to Aug. 2, and another longer online version from July 27 through Aug. 27.
Mainly focused on Europe, final selection will see about 95 titles online –including TV series,– and 4o titles will be screened in theaters in Mallorca, where the Atlàntida Film Fest has been taking place for the past five years.
Benjamin Ree’s “The Painter and the Thief” will open the festival. Premiered in Sundance this year, it won the world cinema documentary special jury prize for creative storytelling. Neon-distributed, it is “a stranger-than-fiction friendship story in...
- 6/23/2020
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Narrated by Tilda Swinton, ‘Last And First Men’ debuted at the Berlinale earlier this year.
BFI Distribution has secured UK and Ireland rights to Last And First Men, directed by late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, in a deal with Films Boutique.
The fiction-documentary hybrid, narrated by Tilda Swinton, was completed posthumously following the death of the Arrival and Sicario composer in 2018.
As cinemas remain closed in the UK due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Last And First Men will launch on streaming platform BFI Player on July 30 and will be made available to other digital platforms as a transactional title.
The...
BFI Distribution has secured UK and Ireland rights to Last And First Men, directed by late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, in a deal with Films Boutique.
The fiction-documentary hybrid, narrated by Tilda Swinton, was completed posthumously following the death of the Arrival and Sicario composer in 2018.
As cinemas remain closed in the UK due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Last And First Men will launch on streaming platform BFI Player on July 30 and will be made available to other digital platforms as a transactional title.
The...
- 6/18/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
In “Last and First Men,” Tilda Swinton is the literal voice of the future: a disembodied narrator from the hyper-evolved “eighteenth species” of humanity, calmly but desolately reaching out to us from a world some way past 2,000,000,000 A.D. Given that we always suspected as much about Tilda Swinton, it’s a comforting choice: the one expected, knowably strange detail in an otherwise amorphous, disorienting sci-fi meditation. The last and first film directed by the late, revered Iceland composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, “Last and First Men” is loosely adapted from British author Olaf Stapledon’s influential 1930 novel of the same title, though its expansive, era-leaping narrative has been refashioned as a ravishing 70-minute audiovisual essay on human mortality, extinction and legacy — all the more poignant for being its maker’s final creative statement.
Ostensibly a narrative fiction but easier to pitch and program as an experimental multimedia piece or quasi-documentary, Jóhannsson...
Ostensibly a narrative fiction but easier to pitch and program as an experimental multimedia piece or quasi-documentary, Jóhannsson...
- 3/7/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
If any film composer of the last decade defined the period best, it might’ve been Jóhann Jóhannsson, whose synthy, epic tones captured the turbulent, globalized environment of the new century. His work with Denis Villeneuve turned him into a Hollywood name, but the Icelandic instrumentalist was also a musician in his own right who toured the world and released his own records. I’m writing in the past tense, of course, because Jóhannsson died in 2018, though not before he completed his final work, an installation with orchestra combining film and music–with narration by Tilda Swinton–from where this extraordinary cinematic odyssey emerges in its apparently intended final form. Its vision of an apocalyptic extinction inevitably garners interpretations as something of an epitaph to his life and career.
Just as Jóhannsson’s music seems to fit sweeping, epic cinema, so was the inspiration behind the 80-minute tone poem Last and First Men.
Just as Jóhannsson’s music seems to fit sweeping, epic cinema, so was the inspiration behind the 80-minute tone poem Last and First Men.
- 2/27/2020
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
Last and First Men is a film directed by the late Icelandic musician / composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, who passed away in 2018.
The project is inspired by Olaf Stapledon's 1930 sci-fi novel "Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future", and also on Dutch photographer Jan Kempenaers' 2010 art book "Spomenik".
The film features narration by Tilda Swinton.
Synopsis:
Two billion years ahead of us, a future race of humans finds itself on the verge of extinction. Almost all that is left in the world are lone and surreal monuments, beaming their messa...
The project is inspired by Olaf Stapledon's 1930 sci-fi novel "Last and First Men: A Story of the Near and Far Future", and also on Dutch photographer Jan Kempenaers' 2010 art book "Spomenik".
The film features narration by Tilda Swinton.
Synopsis:
Two billion years ahead of us, a future race of humans finds itself on the verge of extinction. Almost all that is left in the world are lone and surreal monuments, beaming their messa...
- 2/24/2020
- QuietEarth.us
Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique expands their slate for the upcoming Berlin Film Festival with global sales rights on “Last and First Men,” from the late Icelandic-born filmmaker-composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, which will world premiere in the Berlinale Special section.
With narration by Tilda Swinton, “Last and First Men” juxtaposes a science-fiction story written in 1930 by Olaf Stapledon, and a haunting musical score with filmed images of the “Spomenik,” futuristic, abstract stone monuments erected during the communist era in the former Yugoslav republics. The narrator describes the life and society of a dying race of humans, while taking us through a landscape of surreal and phantasmagorical monuments filmed in 16mm black and white.
The deal was negotiated between producer Thor Sigurjonsson of Zik Zak Film and Films Boutique’s COO Gabor Greiner.
Sigurjonsson said: “Jóhann Jóhannsson first discussed this project with me back in 2012 when he was about to embark on...
With narration by Tilda Swinton, “Last and First Men” juxtaposes a science-fiction story written in 1930 by Olaf Stapledon, and a haunting musical score with filmed images of the “Spomenik,” futuristic, abstract stone monuments erected during the communist era in the former Yugoslav republics. The narrator describes the life and society of a dying race of humans, while taking us through a landscape of surreal and phantasmagorical monuments filmed in 16mm black and white.
The deal was negotiated between producer Thor Sigurjonsson of Zik Zak Film and Films Boutique’s COO Gabor Greiner.
Sigurjonsson said: “Jóhann Jóhannsson first discussed this project with me back in 2012 when he was about to embark on...
- 2/6/2020
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
The late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson is set to return posthumously at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival with the world premiere of a project he directed himself, “Last and First Men,” narrated by Tilda Swinton. The movie is one of several titles announced for Berlinale 2020 ahead of the full lineup reveal later this month. Additional titles heading to Berlin in February include Matteo Garrone’s “Pinocchio,” Nanette Burstein’s “Hillary,” Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan,” and Jia Zhang-ke’s “Swimming Out Till The Sea Turns Blue.” Television projects from Jason Segal and Damien Chazelle will also be screened in the Berlinale Series program.
Jóhannsson scored back to back Oscar nominations for Best Original Score in 2015 and 2016 thanks to his music for “The Theory of Everything” and “Sicario.” The latter was one of several collaborations between Jóhannsson and Denis Villeneuve. Jóhannsson’s other score credits include Villeneuve’s “Prisoners” and “Arrival,” plus “Mandy” and “The Mercy.
Jóhannsson scored back to back Oscar nominations for Best Original Score in 2015 and 2016 thanks to his music for “The Theory of Everything” and “Sicario.” The latter was one of several collaborations between Jóhannsson and Denis Villeneuve. Jóhannsson’s other score credits include Villeneuve’s “Prisoners” and “Arrival,” plus “Mandy” and “The Mercy.
- 1/14/2020
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Other titles include Jia Zhang-ke and Jóhann Jóhannsson documentaries, and Hulu’s Hilary Clinton docuseries.
The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 20-Mar 1) has unveiled the first batch of titles for its Berlinale Special strand.
Among the new films is the world premiere of Andrew Levitas’ Minamata, which stars Johnny Depp as Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith. HanWay is handling sales on the project, with Hiroyuki Sanada, Minami and Bill Nighy co-starring.
Another world premiere is Agnieszka Holland’s Charlatan, which tells the true story of healer Jan Mikolasek, played by Czech star Ivan Trojan.
The section also includes world...
The Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 20-Mar 1) has unveiled the first batch of titles for its Berlinale Special strand.
Among the new films is the world premiere of Andrew Levitas’ Minamata, which stars Johnny Depp as Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith. HanWay is handling sales on the project, with Hiroyuki Sanada, Minami and Bill Nighy co-starring.
Another world premiere is Agnieszka Holland’s Charlatan, which tells the true story of healer Jan Mikolasek, played by Czech star Ivan Trojan.
The section also includes world...
- 1/14/2020
- by 1101184¦Orlando Parfitt¦38¦
- ScreenDaily
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