News

Zeitgeist Films and Kino Lorber have acquired all US rights to Ido Fluk’s German drama Koln 75 from Bankside Films.

Zeitgeist will release the film theatrically in New York this autumn with a national rollout to follow.

Premiered at this year’s Berlinale, the film tells the real life story of jazz pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 concert in Cologne and the teenage promoter who organised the event, which resulted in the best-selling solo album in jazz history.

Mala Emde, John Magaro and Michael Chernus star for writer-director Fluk. Sol Bondy and Fred Burle produced, with Oren Moverman, Lillian Lasalle,...

Exclusive: Zeitgeist Films, in association with Kino Lorber, has acquired from Bankside Films all U.S. rights to Ido Fluk’s Köln 75, which tells the inside story behind Keith Jarrett’s fabled record-breaking 1975 concert in Cologne, Germany.

Zeitgeist Films will release the film theatrically at the IFC Center in New York this fall with a national rollout to follow.

Starring Mala Emde, John Magaro, and Michael Chernus, the film received four Lola Award nominations in Germany including Best Picture and has crossed one million dollars at the German box office with more than 100,000 admissions.

The film sold to multiple territories following its Special Gala premiere at the 2025 Berlinale in February and is scheduled to open internationally in the coming months.

Keith Jarrett’s legendary performance in January 1975 nearly didn’t happen. Based on a true story, Köln 75 follows how the concert was conceived and orchestrated by the efforts...

Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 unfolds the night when an 18-year-old promoter named Vera Brandes risked everything to bring Keith Jarrett’s improvised solo concert to life at the Cologne Opera House in January 1975. Directed and written by Fluk, the film stars John Magaro as the moody, perfectionist Jarrett; Mala Emde and Susanne Wolff as Vera in youth and midlife, respectively; Michael Chernus as the wry jazz critic Michael Watts; and Alexander Scheer as Ecm founder Manfred Eicher.

At once a coming-of-age comedy, a backstage drama, and a self-aware historical pageant, the film weaves voice-over commentary into its storytelling, reminding us that sometimes the scaffold matters as much as the masterpiece it supports.

What feels vital here is the collision of spontaneous artistry and resourceful spirit—two forces that almost let the show be canceled. As jazz fascinates me for its leap into the unknown, Köln 75 feels like a...

Last week, the Library of Congress unveiled the 2025 additions to its National Recording Registry, which aims to collect recordings deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically important.” If you were Elton John, Steve Miller, Celine Dion, or the estate of the late Helen Reddy, you were probably thrilled. But one man, apparently, was not.

On last Friday’s episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, the comedian and commentator made headlines with his much-awaited — and now much parsed, praised, or pummeled — recap of his and pal Kid Rock’s visit to the...

Gold Derby's top news stories for April 9, 2025.

National Recording Registry adds Amy Winehouse, Elton John, Tracy Chapman, Hamilton, and more

The National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress has selected 25 new recordings for preservation, including albums by Miles Davis, Elton John, Tracy Chapman, and Mary J. Blige, plus Brian Eno's Windows 95 startup chime, the Minecraft video game score, and the original cast recording of Hamilton. Here's the full list:

“Aloha ‘Oe” — Hawaiian Quintette (1913) (single) “Sweet Georgia Brown” — Brother Bones & His Shadows (1949) (single) “Happy Trails” — Roy Rogers and Dale Evans (1952) (single) Radio Broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series — Chuck Thompson (1960) Harry Urata Field Recordings (1960-1980) Hello Dummy! — Don Rickles (1968) (album) Chicago Transit Authority — Chicago (1969) (album) Bitches Brew — Miles Davis (1970) (album) “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin’” — Charley Pride (1971) (single) “I Am Woman” — Helen Reddy (1972) (single) “El Rey” — Vicente Fernandez (1973) (single) Goodbye Yellow Brick Road — Elton John (1973) (album) “Before the...

More than 30 years ago, Microsoft commissioned Brian Eno to create the now-iconic Windows 95 reboot chime. Now, the meticulously created “Microsoft Sound” is among this year’s selection of 25 “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” pieces of recorded music archived into the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

Other 2025 inductions include classic albums like Tracy Chapman’s self-titled debut, Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, the Hamilton original cast recording, and Mary J. Blige’s My Life.

Celine Dion’s Titanic anthem “My Heart Will Go On,” Charley Pride’s “Kiss an Angel Good Mornin,'” Vicente Fernandez’s ranchera song “El Rey,” and Chuck Thompson’s radio broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series have also been added. See the full list below and take a look at the Library of Congress’ full registry here.

In a 1996 interview with SFGate,...

The Library of Congress announced its 2025 selections for the National Recording Registry, an eclectic list that ranges from Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” album, the cast recording of Hamilton, the Microsoft Windows reboot chime and “Minecraft: Volume Alpha.”

Also on the list: Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Tracy Chapman’s 1988 debut album, Celine Dion’s 1997 single “My Heart Will Go On” from Titanic, and Roy Rogers and Dale Evans’ classic “Happy Trails.”

The recordings were selected as “audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time,” based on their “cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage,” according to the Library of Congress.

“These are the sounds of America – our wide-ranging history and culture. The National Recording Registry is our evolving nation’s playlist,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said in a statement. The library adds 25 new entrants each year.

The public nominated more...

Oscar contenders September 5 and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Andreas Dresen’s historic drama From Hilde, With Love are the frontrunners for this year’s German Film Awards, also called the Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the Oscars.

September 5, Tim Fehlbaum’s real-life thriller based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, picked up 10 nominations, including for best film and best director, as well as a supporting actress nom for Leonie Benesch, who plays a translator for the U.S. television network broadcasting the attacks live to the world.

Second and third in the running are Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love, which picked up seven Lola nominations, including for best film and best director, with Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig right behind with six.

Rasoulof’s depiction of an Iranian family torn apart by conflicting loyalties to an increasingly oppressive Tehran regime,...

On January 24, 1975, Keith Jarrett gave a solo piano performance at the Opera House in Cologne, Germany. The concert lasted a little over an hour, it was entirely improvised, and it was recorded and turned into a double album, “The Köln Concert,” released later that year. It became the best-selling solo album in jazz history, as well as the best-selling piano album. And when you listen to it you can hear why.

The 1970s were a piano-man age. Think Billy Joel and Elton John, and also Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock and Jan Hammer and Jarrett. There are Keith Jarrett albums that have more pyrotechnical dazzle than “The Köln Concert”. But “The Köln Concert,” for all its joyful tumult, exudes a vibe that’s very much of its mellowed-out era. It’s exultant but soothing. At times it evokes the pastoral moods that would make the New Age pianist George Winston so popular,...

2025 is shaping up to be a significant year in the life of Berlin-based production company One Two Films, run by Sol Bondy and Fred Burle.

The pair produced Ido Fluk’s well-received jazz tale Köln 75, which world premiered over the weekend as a Berlinale Special.

Burle also co-produced Ira Sach’s Peter Hujar’s Day, starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall, which had its international premiere at the Berlinale following its debut at Sundance last month.

They followArmandfrom Norwegian filmmaker Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard last May winning the Camera d’Or for best debut feature,...

by Elisa Giudici

Three more reviews for you from the 75th edition of the Berlin Film Festival, all of them successful films, too.

KÖLN 75 by Ido Fluk (Belgium/Poland/Germany)

The word that best describes this film is energetic. While it firmly belongs to a well-trodden genre, Köln 75 immediately stands out for the sheer force and irresistible vitality of its young protagonist. That energy pulses through this fast-paced, sharp-witted musical biopic, which engages directly with its audience, frequently breaking the fourth wall to recount a remarkable yet nearly unthinkable chapter of 1970s music history.

The film centers on the legendary Köln Concert, Keith Jarrett’s solo performance that would later become an iconic album. What makes the story feel so fresh, though, is its unexpected perspective...

Paris, May 1968, becomes more than a backdrop in “The Safe House” (“La cache”), Swiss filmmaker Lionel Baier’s latest. It’s an adaptation of Christophe Boltanski’s Prix Femina winning novel, “La cache,” produced by Bande à Part Films and co-produced with Red Lion, Les Films du Poisson, Rts Radio Télévision Suisse and Srg Ssr, making it a French, Swiss and Luxembourgish co-production. The comedy-drama, which debuts in competition at Berlinale, sees Baier observe an eccentric family.

The ensemble cast features Dominique Reymond as the Grandmother, the late Michel Blanc as Père-Grand, the Grandfather, William Lebghil as the Great Uncle and Aurélien Gabrielli as Little Uncle. Liliane Rovère portrays Hinterland, while Adrien Barazzone and Larisa Faber play the boy’s father and mother, respectively, with Ethan Chimienti as the aforementioned boy. Gilles Privat also joins the ensemble in a key supporting role.

Baier’s film opens with a line from...

Keith Jarrett’s 1975 double album, The Köln Concert, recorded at the Cologne Opera House earlier that year, sold over four million copies. If you flipped through the album stacks of just about anyone who considered themselves a collector of cool vinyl in the ‘70s, you were likely to come across the famous black-and-white cover shot of the American jazz pianist, eyes closed, hunched over the keys. The live recording of improvised solo piano composition is music to lose yourself in, swirling and transporting, spiritual and transcendent. Jarrett plays with intense feeling, which makes his free-flowing keyboard magic unexpectedly moving.

Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 tells the story of how the landmark concert threatened to fall apart, right up until a half-hour before the 11 p.m. show was scheduled to start. John Magaro is terrific as Jarrett, a once-in-a-generation talent who was sleep-deprived, suffering from acute back pain and disdainful of the...

In 1975, Vera Brandes, then an 18-year-old student and part-time promoter, organized a concert for Keith Jarrett in Cologne, a recording of which became “The Köln Concert,” the best-selling solo jazz album ever.

Half a century later, director Ido Fluk is in Berlin premiering “Köln 75” about the woman behind this monumental moment in jazz history. One that, ironically, Jarrett has no desire to revive. Fluk speaks to Variety about the fun film – starring John Magaro, recently seen in “September 5,” as Keith Jarrett and rising German star Mala Emde as Vera Brandes – and why it was important “to give Vera the attention, the limelight that she deserves.”

How did the project germinate?

I read a story somewhere in which Vera was mentioned. And I was like: “That’s kind of interesting: she really made this happen, and she’s not getting much attention for it.” I thought it would make a really interesting film.

John Magaro is the kind of actor you discover, like a personal secret. Maybe he first caught your eye in The Big Short, as the geeky stand out among a pack of slick, self-interested traders; grabbed you as Yael Stone’s dreamy prison pen pal in Orange Is the New Black love story, or won you over as Arthur, in Celine Song’s Past Lives, as the husband on the outside looking in as his wife Nora (Greta Lee) reunites and rekindles with her childhood friend from Korea. I first spotted him playing a New Jersey drummer desperate to make it big in David Chase’s Not Fade Away (2012), but my come-to-Magaro moment was his performance as Cookie in Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow. His quietly devastating depiction of male friendship and quiet yearning was the on-screen standout of 2019.

More recently, Magaro has been getting attention for Oscar contender September 5, where he plays a U.

Germany’s film industry may have been hit hard by the economic slowdown, resulting in an overall gloomy outlook, but it’s still celebrating the biggest number ever of local films and co-productions at this year’s Berlinale and looking forward to a diverse lineup of 2025 releases, among them a number of high-profile sequels.

Compounding the sector’s overall predicament was the collapse of the federal government in November, forcing snap elections scheduled for Feb. 23. The political crisis left an ambitious reform of the country’s federal film funding system only partially implemented and a matter to be tackled by the next government.

The industry nevertheless welcomed the current government’s last-minute extension and increase of two key funding incentives in December that has ensured planning security for producers, studio operators and production service providers.

In the meantime, the local film community is cheering the strong showing of German titles at the Berlin Film Festival.

When she was 16, Mala Emde liked to hang out in jazz bars and talk to strange men.

“I was a weird teenager,” says the German actress, now 28. “I think I was just scared of everything people my age were doing. There was something comforting for me in going to a jazz bar and talking to older, more experienced people about this music I knew nothing about.”

These days, when it comes to jazz, Emde can hold her own. In Köln 75, which has its world premiere on Feb.16 at the Berlin Film Festival as part of the Berlinale Special lineup, she plays the real-life Vera Brandes, another weird teenager with a taste for jazz bars. At 18, Brandes organized a concert in Cologne for jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. The recording of Jarrett’s totally improvised performance became the best-selling solo jazz album of all time and the best-selling piano recording ever.

The...

Fifty years ago today, 18-year-old Vera Brandes organized a concert for jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in Cologne, West Germany, which went on to make music history: a recording of the concert became the best-selling solo jazz album ever as well as the best-selling piano recording ever. Now director Ido Fluk and producers Sol Bondy and Fred Burle from One Two Films have made a film, titled “Köln 75,” that dramatizes the events leading up to the concert, with its world premiere to be held at the Berlinale next month. Variety spoke to Brandes about her memories of the night. Bankside is handling the international sales on the film, whose poster is exclusively revealed below.

“Köln 75” starts with Brandes meeting Ronnie Scott, a British jazz musician and owner of a London jazz club. Scott asks Brandes to arrange some concerts for him in Germany and so, from that chance encounter,...

Ahead of the Berlinale 2025 taking place February 13-23, they’ve unveiled their lineups for Berlinale Special, Panorama, Generation and Forum sections. Highlights include confirmation of Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 alongside Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day, Ancestral Visions of the Future from This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, a documentary on the making of Shoah, a new Jacob Elordi-led series from Justin Kurzel, and more.

See the lineup below via Deadline and check back for the competition lineup next week.

Berlinale Special

Ancestral Visions of the Future

by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese | with Siphiwe Nzima, Sobo Bernard, Zaman Mathejane, Mochesane Edwin Kotsoane, Rehauhetsoe Ernest Kotsoane

France / Lesotho / Germany / Saudi Arabia 2025

Berlinale Special | World premiere | Documentary form

A poetic allegory of the filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother. Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery,...

Aussie filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s series adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacob Elordi, will screen at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North was among several titles added to Berlin’s lineup this morning.

The festival describes the series as a “riveting new Australian drama” about a WWII hero haunted by his past. The show will screen as a Berlinale Special Gala. Also in Specials strand is The Thing with Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The pic screens at Berlin following a debut bow at Sundance and is from filmmaker Dylan Southern. The pic is an adaption of Max Porter’s novel about a grieving father wrestling with the sudden death of his wife while also raising their young children. As previously reported, Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 will also screen. Scroll down...

The Berlin Film Festival forges a new path next year with the first year under new artistic director Tricia Tuttle, who succeeds Carlo Chatrian and brings a background as a journalist and curator to the annual German showcase. This year’s festival runs February 13-23, and also in new positions this year are Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stütz, both serving as co-directors of programming.

With bigger announcements to come, the Berlinale unveiled its first wave of titles across the Panorama and Berlinale Special gala lineups on Tuesday. As previously announced, Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” is opening this coming 75th edition. Filmmakers getting a boost from today’s announcement include Denis Côté, Michel Gondry, and Ira Sachs, all bringing new films to the festival.

In the Berlinale Special lineup, German director Jan-Ole Gerster debuts the neo-noir thriller “Islands,” starring Sam Riley and Stacy Martin. Per the festival synopsis, in the film,...

Michel Gondry and Ira Sachs are among the headline filmmakers set to debut new feature works within the sidebar competitions at next year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The German festival announced the pair this afternoon as part of its first crop of confirmed titles.

Gondry will screen Maya, Give Me a Title in Berlin’s Generation sidebar. The festival’s website describes the film as Gondry’s “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.”

Also set for the Generation competition is Our Wildest Days (I Agries Meres Mas) by Greek filmmaker Vasilis Kekatos who is best known for his 2019 short film The Distance Between Us and the Sky, which won the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. He also created the popular Greek series Milky Way.

Related:...

The Belin Film Festival has unveiled its Panorama lineup, including new works by Denis Côté, Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry and Shatara Michelle Ford, among others.

Sachs’ movie, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” stars Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. Set for an international premiere in Berlin, the film portrays a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, set against the backdrop of the New York art scene of the time.

Côté’s film, “Paul,” is a documentary about a man struggling with depression and social anxiety who found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title” is described by the festival as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” It features the voice of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” star Pierre Niney.

Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,...

John Magaro, Kate Dickie and Jason Isaacs will be heading to the chilly streets of Berlin. The Berlin Film Festival unveiled the first gala screenings for its 2025 edition, which runs Feb. 13-23.

Islands, the new feature from German director Jan-Ole Gerster (Lara, A Coffee in Berlin), is among the gala highlights. The thriller stars British actor Sam Riley (Control, Maleficent) as a once-promising tennis professional now working as a tennis coach for holidaymakers on a resort island, filling his time with alcohol and brief affairs. Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing, and Dylan Torrell co-star.

Köln 75 from director Ido Fluk, follows the true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert, considered by many to be the greatest solo concert in music history. German actress Mala Emde play Fluk with John Magaro, Michael Chernus and Alexander Scheer co-starring.

UK sales outfit Bankside Films has unveiled a first look image of Mala Emde in the role of Vera Brandes in Ido Fluk’s The Girl From Köln, as well as a slew of key deals on the film as the company heads into the European Film Market (EFM).

The feature, currently in post-production, tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one formidable German teenager, Vera Brandes, was instrumental in its creation. Bankside will be showing a sales promo to buyers at the EFM.

Exclusive: New indie film financier Mizzel Media is launching in Cannes with what we understand to be a healthy six-figure investment in feature The Girl From Köln, the next film from Holy Spider and The Tale outfit One Two Films.

The movie, which is due to shoot later this year, will star Mala Emde (And Tomorrow The Entire World) and John Magaro (Past Lives) in the lead roles.

Bankside is handling world sales in Cannes on the project, which will tell the little-known backstory of how a maverick German teenager named Vera Brandes was instrumental in the creation of the best-selling solo piano record of all time, U.S. pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert. Ido Fluk (The Ticket) directs from his own script.

The investment is U.S. outfit Mizzel’s first to date. The New York-based company is run by producer and veteran manager Lillian Lasalle, whose clients...

Ahmad Jamal, the pianist and band leader who helped pioneer the influential style that would come to be called cool jazz, died Sunday of prostate cancer at his home in Ashley Falls, Mass. He was 92.

His death was announced by his daughter Sumayah Jamal.

“All my inspiration comes from Ahmad Jamal,” trumpeter Miles Davis once famously said, just one of many musical icons and jazz devotees who credit Jamal with impacting the direction of the form away from the speed and busyness of bebop toward a more spare approach.

Jamal often described his playing style by saying he honored the spaces between the notes, a less-is-more approach that in the 1950s was initially dismissed by critics as superficial cocktail lounge music.

The record-buying public disagreed, and Jamal’s 1958 album At the Pershing: But Not for Me spent an unprecedented two years on Billboard’s album chart. The freeform, relaxed but...

I have been tracking producer Sol Bondy since 2016 when co-production The Happiest Day in the Life of Ölli Mäki won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prize and the European Film Award for Best Debut. He and Fred Burle have been developing The Girl from Köln (aka Köln 75) with writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection The Ticket since 2019. "This project has been very close to our hearts in the last few years and we're very excited with the way it's been shaped so far," said Bondy, a Variety Producer to Watch in 2018. "It's been such a joy working with Ido on this exciting story and we're thrilled to have put an amazing team together," added Burle, Brazilian born producer who was just made a partner in One Two Films, alongside co-founders Sol Bondy and Christoph Lange. Burle joined One Two in January 2017, having graduated from the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) the previous year. He has previously worked as a film critic, at The Match Factory, and as curator of the inaugural dffb film festival. One Two Films has produced and co-produced award-winning films such as Holy Spider (Read my blog about it here), Vadim Perelman's Persian Lessons (Read my blog about it here), Jennifer Fox's Sundance breakout The Tale, Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop and Juho Kuosmanen's The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.Other titles in the pipeline include Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson's dark comedy Northern Comfort, which premieres in SXSW later this month, Annemarie Jacir's survival drama The Oblivion Theory, Sarah Arnold's debut feature Wild Encounters and Michiel ten Horn's romantic comedy Any Other Night. In Berlin this year it was announced that Bankside would be The Girl from Köln's international sales agent and was launching sales. Alamode Film already has German-speaking territories and is a coproducer, who have very recently secured funding through the Fff, the local fund in Bavaria. It is in early pre-production and will shoot this year in Poland and Germany. The Girl from Köln tells the little-known story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975, at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. With Polish Film Institute backing, Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska (Ida, Cold War) of Extreme Emotions is co-producing along with Annegret Weitkämper-Krug of Germany's Gretchenfilm (Seneca). Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman (Love & Mercy, Bad Education) serves as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk's previous feature, The Ticket. The Tale writer-director Jennifer Fox also serves as executive producer. Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green executive produce for Bankside. It stars Mala Emde (Skin Deep, And Tomorrow the Entire World) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (Past Lives) as Jarrett. Magaro was also in Cannes last year with Kelly Reichardt's competition title Showing Up.Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush), Ulrich Tukur (The Life of Others), Susanne Wolff (Sisi & I, Styx), Jördis Triebel (Dark), Jan Bülow (Lindenberg) and Marie-Lou Sellem (Tar, Exit Marrakesh). The NYU-graduate Fluk was dubbed "a talent to watch" by Variety following his feature debut Never Too Late, the first crowd-sourced Israeli film ever made. His American debut, the Tribeca competition selection, The Ticket, starred Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman. Upcoming projects include 24 Hours in June, a retelling of the final day in the life of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, to be produced by Academy Award winner James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain) and Joe Pirro (Driveways). Fluk is repped by Amotz Zakai, Amy Schiffman, and Kegan Schell at Echo Lake Entertainment. He is also created the recently-announced HBO series Empty Mansions for Fremantle with director Joe Wright (Atonement, Darkest Hour) attached to direct the pilot. "From the moment I heard Vera's story, about how as a high school teenager she organized one of the greatest concerts in history, I knew her story had to be told," said Fluk. "We were immediately exhilarated by Vera Brandes' remarkable female empowerment story. Her strength, courage and sheer belief in herself and the music of Keith Jarrett will entertain and inspire audiences around the world," added Kelliher.

Germany’s Mala Emde and US actor John Magaro are set to star.

UK sales outfit Bankside Films has boarded worldwide sales on director Ido Fluk’s feature Köln 75, that tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one maverick German teenager was instrumental in its creation.

The film meets teenager Vera Brandes while she is still in high school and starts producing and promoting music concerts in Cologne, and risks everything to put on what will become Jarrett’s legendary show.

German star of...

Alamode to co-produce Ido Fluk’s jazz feature ’Köln 75’

Munich-based distributor Alamode Film is set to make its first foray into production as a co-producer of Köln 75 with Holy Spider’s German producer One Two Films.

The feature by New-York-based Israeli filmmaker Ido Fluk centres on Vera Brandes who staged jazz musician Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert in 1975 at the tender age of 17.

She has subsequently run her own record label and become an award-winning music producer as well as one of the world’s leading authorities on music medicine research.

Speaking exclusively to Screen Daily at Holy Spider...

Alamode to co-produce Ido Fluk’s jazz feature ’Köln 75’

Munich-based distributor Alamode Film is set to make its first foray into production as a co-producer of Köln 75 with Holy Spider’s German producer One Two Films.

The feature, by New-York-based Israeli filmmaker Ido Fluk, centres on Vera Brandes who staged jazz musician Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert in 1975 at the tender age of 17.

Since then, she has subsequently run her own record label and become an award-winning music producer as well as one of the world’s leading authorities on music medicine research.

Speaking exclusively to Screen Daily at...

Berlin-based One Two Films, in Cannes this week with Ali Abbasi’s competition title “Holy Spider,” is prepping a new feature from writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection “The Ticket.”

“Köln 75” tells the true story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975 and at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. It stars Mala Emde (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (“First Cow”) as Jarrett. Magaro is also in Cannes with Kelly Reichardt’s competition title “Showing Up.”

Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska of Extreme Emotions will co-produce, with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman serving as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk’s previous feature, “The Ticket.”

Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (“Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush”), Ulrich Tukur (“The Life of Others”), Susanne Wolff...

Chick Corea, an American jazz pioneer, composer, keyboardist and bandleader, died Tuesday, according to a post on his Facebook page. He was 79. The Facebook statement says Corea died from “a rare form of cancer which was only discovered very recently.”

Corea was the fourth-most-nominated artist in the history of the Grammys, with 65 nominations, winning 23 times. He also earned three Latin Grammy Awards, the most of any artist in the Best Instrumental Album category.

From straight-ahead to avant-garde, bebop to fusion, children’s songs to chamber music, along with some far-reaching forays into symphonic works, Corea had an astonishing number of musical bases in his illustrious career.

His compositions “Spain,” “500 Miles High,” “La Fiesta,” “Armando’s Rhumba” and “Windows” are jazz standards. He was a member of Miles Davis’ band in the late 1960s, participating in the birth of jazz fusion. Corea played on several classic Davis albums, including Bitches Brew,...

He’s revered for shooting Ways of Seeing with John Berger, but Mike Dibb has made films about all the giants of culture – as well as Wimbledon tennis balls. He looks back on a dazzling career

This morning, like most mornings, Mike Dibb is sitting in his conservatory. “It’s where I spend many, many, many hours,” he says. “And it’s very nice, because I look out into a little garden.” There is a desk, a painting by an old friend, and a vine that twists up the back wall. He’s speaking via Zoom from west London and it feels strange to see this documentary-maker on screen. Over the course of more than five decades, Dibb has rarely ventured in front of the camera. Instead, he’s the voice off-screen, the steady hand steering the story.

A retrospective of Dibb’s work is about to begin online, courtesy...

Jazz is a web. Because of the genre’s inherently collaborative, often mix-and-match nature, singling out a supporting player we like on a given record might lead us to dozens of other sessions featuring that same artist in various contexts. Or we might pick up a certain current in the music that crops up elsewhere, unifying albums that seemed to have little else in common. In 2020, when connection of any kind was scarce, these sorts of musical hyperlinks seemed all the more precious, a way to map and marvel at...

Back in 2018, when jazz fans heard that a previously unreleased John Coltrane album was set to come out, they immediately zeroed in on the date.

The fact that the tapes dated from 1963, right in the middle of the saxophonist’s most celebrated period, signaled that this was a major find. The same applies to Just Coolin’, a never-before-released album from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers that’s due out in April from Blue Note: Its recording date of March 1959, just a couple of months after the release of...

When we talk about rock, we talk about bands: Zeppelin, the Who, the Stones. But when we talk about jazz, we tend to talk about individuals: Miles, Monk, Coltrane. On some level, that makes sense: If the song is the primary mode of rock expression, the solo is generally the way you make your mark in jazz. Whether you’re considering Coleman Hawkins, Louis Armstrong, Freddie Hubbard, or the colossal, now-retired Sonny Rollins, it was when they stepped out front and said their piece that they truly embodied their legendary status.

The ultimate goal of Birding With Charles was always to bring people together to marvel at the wonderful world of birds. In the spring, a very stoned Valee stood in awe of the majestic creatures as he learned how to use binoculars. As the summer ended, Doja Cat remixed her viral hit “Moo!” into “Bitch, I’m a Bird.” Then on a brisk November morning, Jeff Goldblum decided to come to Central Park to partake in the serene world of birdwatching. Throughout the day, Jeff saw cardinals, blue jays, and...

It’s fascinating to watch mainstream audiences fall in love with Jon Batiste on a nightly basis as the bandleader of “The Late Show.”

At 32, Stephen Colbert’s congenial foil — an adroit pianist equally agile and equally playful on melodica and organ — is known for his eclectic crossover compositions which juxtapose pop, gospel and the R&b of his Louisiana youth with an adventurously spritely and subtly avant-garde brand of sonorous jazz.

It is the latter, something Batiste calls “melodious atonality,” that flows through his newest album, “Anatomy of Angels: Live at the Village Vanguard.” Recorded during a six-night Vanguard residency in the fall of 2018, “Anatomy of Angels” has Batiste summoning the ghosts of heroes and old friends (friend-trumpeter Roy Hargrove who passed last autumn) with no edits or retakes. “It’s a snapshot of live art,” said Batiste.

Variety caught up with Batiste on a humid July afternoon in Manhattan.

The recording academy has announced another performer who will take the stage at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards on February 10: none other than Diana Ross. The legendary singer turns 75 this year, and she’ll be celebrating that diamond birthday with what the academy says is “sure to be an unforgettable Grammy moment,” but would you believe that the career the Grammys are celebrating doesn’t actually include a single Grammy win?

Ross’s career has spanned decades and includes 59 albums and 91 singles. For that she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys in 2013, but she never won any of her 12 competitive nominations, even though she contended for classics like “Baby Love” and “Stop in the Name of Love” with her group The Supremes, and then “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Touch Me in the Morning” and “Endless Love” as a solo artist. Her most recent nomination was...

If you’re going by the bare facts alone, Jazz in Detroit / Strata Concert Gallery / 46 Selden is strictly for Charles Mingus completists. Unlike, say, John Coltrane’s recently unearthed Lost Album, Jazz in Detroit doesn’t date from a pivotal period in the leader’s career, feature an iconic lineup or introduce a wealth of unfamiliar repertoire.

But what looks marginal on paper turns out to be sheer joy coming out of the speakers, thanks in large part to Mingus’ lesser-known yet enormously gifted sidemen: tenor saxophonist John Stubblefield, trumpeter Joe Gardner,...

New York’s Hudson River valley has a long history as a haven for artists either fleeing the exhausting grind of New York City or seeking to the area’s natural beauty. It’s where Bob Dylan retreated for an extended retreat following his (possibly exaggerated) motorcycle crash in 1966, it’s where Van Morrison conceived of Moondance, and it’s currently home to — among others — jazz musicians Jack DeJohnette (drums), John Scofield (guitar), John Medeski (keyboards, of Medeski, Martin and Wood) and Larry Grenadier (bass), who formed the newly-organized collective Hudson. People is pleased to premiere their version of Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay,...

In an effort to discover and support a next-generation of voices in front of and behind the camera, the BBC is embarking on a series of initiatives including training programs and an Lgbt project curated by Sherlock co-creator Mark Gatiss. Queers has been written by a group of up-and-upcoming Lgbt writers for BBC Four. There are eight 15-minute monologues (penned by Keith Jarrett, Jon Bradfield, Gareth McLean, Matthew Baldwin, Michael Dennis, Jackie Clune, Brian Fillis…...

Many consider Dmitri Shostakovich the greatest composer of the 20th century. Born September 25, 1906, he might not have lived past his teens if he hadn't been talented. During the famines of the Revolutionary period in Russia, Alexander Glazunov, director of the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Conservatory, arranged for the poor and malnourished Shostakovich's food ration to be increased. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, his graduation exercise for Maximilian Steinberg's composition course at the Conservatory, was completed in 1925 at age 19 and was an immediate success worldwide. He was The Party's poster boy; his Second and Third Symphonies unabashedly subtitled, respectively, "To October". (celebrating the Revolution) and "The First of May". (International Workers' Day).

His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...

[Editor’s Note: Our own Scott Drebit hosted panels last weekend at the sixth annual Calgary Horror Con. At the three-day event, Scott caught up with Ari Lehman, the first actor to ever play Jason Voorhees, to discuss his years in the ’80s New York City music scene, performing onstage in Africa, and singing and playing the keytar in his punk rock/heavy metal band First Jason.]

Congratulations on melting everyone’s faces off Friday night with your solo performance as First Jason.

Ari Lehman: Thank you! That’s why we’re there, to melt faces, to melt brains. That’s kind of you to say. I love playing First Jason’s songs on the electric keytar; it has a certain kind of sound, it’s very loud. But usually I have the emotional and musical support of my bandmates; my drummer, whose name ironically is Bass Amp, and our guitarist, Eddie Machete—they give me so much support, and it just makes me feel great having them there. So I felt that it came off well; but it was an adjustment. The audience was so receptive and it was a great experience for me, too, playing that way.

I was there with my niece, and I knew of the band, but I assumed it was just you.

Today being international jazz day, there will be much celebrating of the greatness of its history. I’ve done that in the past; it is a great history. But it is not all back in historical times; jazz lives, and evolves, and continues to be great. Yet how many lists of the greatest jazz albums include anything from the current century?

That they do not is no indictment of them; only sixteen percent of the years when recorded jazz has existed (not counting the present year yet) are in the twenty-first century, after all, and some prefer to bestow the label of greatness after more perspective has been achieved than sixteen (or fewer, for newer releases) years.

Nonetheless, if people are to respect jazz as a living art form, a look back at the best of its more recent releases seems worthwhile. Here’s one man’s “baker’s dozen...

Music and Sex: Scenes from a life - A novel in progress (first chapter here). Warning: more highly graphic Tmi.

A weekend of fruitless fretting almost led Walter to agree that Martial had the right idea and the show should go on with no guitarist, and with just Walter on keyboards, but really all he'd come up with for sure was a new band name -- The Living Section, for the Wednesday arts portion of The New York Times. The other guys all agreed that was an improvement. However, he couldn't bring himself to propose to them what, in his head, he had dubbed the Martial Plan.

The thing about the band was, it had to be fit in between all the stuff that going to college was actually about, such as attending classes. So on Monday, it was back to the usual schedule, which meant one of his favorite...

Yes, there's a big disparity in the lengths of these reviews. It's not intended to slight albums 2-4; they all gave me great joy, and, I am sure, will continue to. But the scope of the first box set here is vastly broader, and thus each ensemble featured on it requires explanation. And of course I assume you're familiar with the styles of Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Keith Jarrett.

1. William Parker: Wood Flute Songs (Aum Fidelity)

Eight discs proving that Parker is not only the supreme bassist of the current avant jazz world, he is also a fine and prolific composer and leads some of the scene's greatest bands, most notably on these 2006-2012 concert recordings his quartet with alto saxophonist Rob Brown, trumpeter Lewis "Flip" Barnes, and drummer Hamid Drake, who are at the core of every band featured here.

That quartet is captured at peak form...

To characterize the BBC’s Adam Curtis as a documentary filmmaker is correct as far as it goes, but it’s a bit like describing Keith Jarrett as a mere piano player: There’s that, but so much more. Considered by the likes of Errol Morris and Walter Murch to be one of the most fascinating film­makers operating in the world today, Curtis is hardly a documentarian at all. He’s more like a wildly heterodox, extravagantly assured, occasionally quite loopy and often self-ironizing history lecturer. Both a new-model essayist (his work layers meandering narration over found footage) and a new-model paranoid (often finding at the centers of power not nefarious behavior so much as rank incompetence), Curtis has spent two decades cutting the endless BBC film archive into a series of brainy, free-associative mash-up meditations on the course of empire. And has done so with not just the...

William Friedkin's restored 70s film Sorcerer and a space-loving father and son are the talk of the Venice film festival

Jonás and the wail

Alfonso Cuarón wrote the rapturously received opening-night film Gravity with his son, Jonás. There's a scene in the movie that involves Sandra Bullock desperately scanning her space radio to transmit a distress signal but only picking up a conversation with a stranger who identifies himself as Aningaaq. Gravity leaves this conversation dangling as a mystery, but at the opening-night party, Cuarón told me that this voice was in fact a real Inuit man whom his son had met while making a documentary in Greenland. The scene so intrigued that Jonas was inspired to make a short film about the other side of that conversation, shot from the Inuit's point of view, in Greenland. Bullock even provided her voiceover for it. The seven-minute short, called Aningaaq,...