After his epic undertaking of rethinking Irma Vep for a new generation, Olivier Assayas premiered the small-scale Suspended Time at Berlinale earlier this year, but now the French director is back to working on a bigger canvas. He’s unveiled his next project, an adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s The Wizard of the Kremlin, with quite a cast.
Paul Dano, his Irma Vep lead Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, Zach Galifianakis, and Tom Sturridge will star in the film, co-written by Assayas and Emmanuel Carrère. Here’s the synopsis: “The story opens in Russia, in the early 1990’s, in the aftermath of the Ussr’s collapse. In a new world that promises freedom and flirts with chaos, a young artist-turned-tv producer, Vadim Baranov, unexpectedly becomes the spin doctor of a promising member of the Fsb (ex-Kgb), Vladimir Putin. Working at the heart of Russian power, Baranov blurs truth with lies,...
Paul Dano, his Irma Vep lead Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, Zach Galifianakis, and Tom Sturridge will star in the film, co-written by Assayas and Emmanuel Carrère. Here’s the synopsis: “The story opens in Russia, in the early 1990’s, in the aftermath of the Ussr’s collapse. In a new world that promises freedom and flirts with chaos, a young artist-turned-tv producer, Vadim Baranov, unexpectedly becomes the spin doctor of a promising member of the Fsb (ex-Kgb), Vladimir Putin. Working at the heart of Russian power, Baranov blurs truth with lies,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander, Jude Law, Zach Galifianakis and Tom Sturridge team up in Olivier Assayas’ political thriller “The Wizard of the Kremlin”, based on Giuliano da Empoli’s bestseller by the same name.
Produced by Olivier Delbosc’s banner Curiosa Films and Gaumont – who last partnered on Cannes prizewinning “The Taste of Things” — “The Wizard of the Kremlin” is one of the hottest packages launching at the Cannes Film Market where Alexis Cassanet, Gaumont’s EVP international sales and distribution, is kicking off pre-sales.
“The Wizard of the Kremlin” is co-written by Assayas and Emmanuel Carrère, whose novel “Limonov” has been adapted for the big screen by Kirill Serebrennikov and will premiere in official selection at Cannes.
The story opens in Russia, in the early 1990’s, in the aftermath of the Ussr’s collapse. In a new world that promises freedom and flirts with chaos, a young artist-turned-tv producer,...
Produced by Olivier Delbosc’s banner Curiosa Films and Gaumont – who last partnered on Cannes prizewinning “The Taste of Things” — “The Wizard of the Kremlin” is one of the hottest packages launching at the Cannes Film Market where Alexis Cassanet, Gaumont’s EVP international sales and distribution, is kicking off pre-sales.
“The Wizard of the Kremlin” is co-written by Assayas and Emmanuel Carrère, whose novel “Limonov” has been adapted for the big screen by Kirill Serebrennikov and will premiere in official selection at Cannes.
The story opens in Russia, in the early 1990’s, in the aftermath of the Ussr’s collapse. In a new world that promises freedom and flirts with chaos, a young artist-turned-tv producer,...
- 5/17/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Natalie Portman has joined the voice cast for French director Ugo Bienvenu’s upcoming animated feature Arco about a boy who uses rainbows to travel through time and his adventures as he gets stuck in the wrong era.
Portman is also producing with Sophie Mas under their joint Paris and New York banner MountainA with Félix de Givry at Paris-based Remembers.
Taking its cue from the fantasy premise that rainbows are time machines, the movie revolves around 10 year old rainbow-child Arco, who lives in the distant future, 2932.
His maiden journey in his multi-colored suit does not go to plan. He loses control and veers off course to land in a near future, 2075, where Iris, a girl the same age as Arco, witnesses his fall and then makes it her mission to get him home.
Arco
Arco is the first feature for Bienvenu after short films Maman and L’entretien and comic books.
Portman is also producing with Sophie Mas under their joint Paris and New York banner MountainA with Félix de Givry at Paris-based Remembers.
Taking its cue from the fantasy premise that rainbows are time machines, the movie revolves around 10 year old rainbow-child Arco, who lives in the distant future, 2932.
His maiden journey in his multi-colored suit does not go to plan. He loses control and veers off course to land in a near future, 2075, where Iris, a girl the same age as Arco, witnesses his fall and then makes it her mission to get him home.
Arco
Arco is the first feature for Bienvenu after short films Maman and L’entretien and comic books.
- 5/13/2024
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Two new Australian films, both enjoying their world premiere, are among the first titles confirmed to play at the Sydney Film Festival in June.
“In Vitro,” a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a remote cattle farm in the near future, hails from directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith (“Beast”) and stars Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”).
With “The Pool,” director Ian Darling (“The Final Quarter”) paints a cinematic portrait of a year in the life of the iconic Bondi Icebergs, the pool and the people who cherish it.
They will be joined by New Zealand actor Rachel House (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who makes her feature directorial debut with “The Mountain,” which centers on three children discovering friendship’s healing power through the spirit of adventure as they trek through spectacular New Zealand landscapes. It is executive produced by Taika Waititi and will be eligible for Sydney’s recently announced First Nations Award,...
“In Vitro,” a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a remote cattle farm in the near future, hails from directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith (“Beast”) and stars Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”).
With “The Pool,” director Ian Darling (“The Final Quarter”) paints a cinematic portrait of a year in the life of the iconic Bondi Icebergs, the pool and the people who cherish it.
They will be joined by New Zealand actor Rachel House (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who makes her feature directorial debut with “The Mountain,” which centers on three children discovering friendship’s healing power through the spirit of adventure as they trek through spectacular New Zealand landscapes. It is executive produced by Taika Waititi and will be eligible for Sydney’s recently announced First Nations Award,...
- 4/2/2024
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
After two weeks of new cinema, the Berlin Film Festival comes to a close this Sunday, February 25, with its annual awards ceremony. This year’s event marks one of change, as festival artistic director Carlo Chatrian, at his post since 2018, steps down to make way for Tricia Tuttle, who will take over for next year’s outing.
This year’s Berlinale has already stirred plenty of buzz for films like Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina,” a drama set in a New York City kitchen and starring Rooney Mara, and Tim Mielants’ opener “Small Things Like These,” starring likely Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Both films are eligible for awards, along with “Timbuktu” director Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea,” “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” plus Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance hit “A Different Man,” and many more.
This year’s Berlinale has already stirred plenty of buzz for films like Alonso Ruizpalacios’s “La Cocina,” a drama set in a New York City kitchen and starring Rooney Mara, and Tim Mielants’ opener “Small Things Like These,” starring likely Oscar winner Cillian Murphy. Both films are eligible for awards, along with “Timbuktu” director Abderrahmane Sissako’s “Black Tea,” “Goodnight Mommy” filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s “The Devil’s Bath,” “The Guilty” director Gustav Möller’s “Sons,” Olivier Assayas’ “Suspended Time,” plus Aaron Schimberg’s Sundance hit “A Different Man,” and many more.
- 2/24/2024
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The awards ceremony for the 74th Berlin International Film Festival kicks off Saturday night, where this year’s jury, headed by 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o, will hand out the coveted Gold and Silver Bears.
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...
Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s Iranian drama My Favourite Cake is being given good odds for an award this year. The drama, about a 70-year-old widow and her tentative attempts at romance with an age-appropriate taxi driver, was a critical fave. A win for the film would also send a political message after the Iranian government banned the directors from attending Berlin. If the jury picks out Cake for the Golden Bear it would be the third time in 10 years —following Jafar Panahi’s Taxi (2015) and There Is No Evil (2020) from Mohammad Rasoulof —that Berlin has given its top honor to Iranian directors in absentia. World sales for My...
- 2/23/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Playtime has had a busy EFM, where it’s locked a raft of major deals on “The Devil’s Bath,” a period psychological thriller in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
“The Devil’s Bath” is directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the Austrian filmmaking duo behind “Goodnight Mommy.”
Set in rural Austria in 1750, “The Devil’s Bath” stars Anja Plaschg, the up-and-coming singer and composer known as Soap & Skin. Plaschg plays Agnes, a young married woman who feels oppressed in her husband’s world, which is devoid of emotions and limited to chores and expectations. A pious and highly sensitive woman, Agnes falls into a deep depression, before committing a shocking act of violence that she sees as the only way out of her inner prison.
“The Devil’s Bath” has been bought by Klockworx (Japan), Cine Canibal (Latin America), Russian World Vision (Cis excluding Ukraine), September Films (Benelux), Movies Inspired (Italy...
“The Devil’s Bath” is directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the Austrian filmmaking duo behind “Goodnight Mommy.”
Set in rural Austria in 1750, “The Devil’s Bath” stars Anja Plaschg, the up-and-coming singer and composer known as Soap & Skin. Plaschg plays Agnes, a young married woman who feels oppressed in her husband’s world, which is devoid of emotions and limited to chores and expectations. A pious and highly sensitive woman, Agnes falls into a deep depression, before committing a shocking act of violence that she sees as the only way out of her inner prison.
“The Devil’s Bath” has been bought by Klockworx (Japan), Cine Canibal (Latin America), Russian World Vision (Cis excluding Ukraine), September Films (Benelux), Movies Inspired (Italy...
- 2/19/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Iranian tragicomedy My Favourite Cake has taken the early lead on Screen international’ s 2024 Berlin competition jury grid, with scores for seven titles now in.
The latest from Iranian duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha follows a 70-year-old woman who breaks out of her solitary routine by trying to invigorate her love life. It scored a strong 3.1 average, including three fours (excellent) from Ahmed Shawkey (Egypt’s filfan.com), Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) and Screen’s own critic.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Currently in joint second on the grid with...
The latest from Iranian duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha follows a 70-year-old woman who breaks out of her solitary routine by trying to invigorate her love life. It scored a strong 3.1 average, including three fours (excellent) from Ahmed Shawkey (Egypt’s filfan.com), Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) and Screen’s own critic.
Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.
Currently in joint second on the grid with...
- 2/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
Olivier Assayas, the celebrated French director of “Clouds of Sils Maria” and “Irma Vep,” is making his Berlinale competition debut this year with “Suspended Time,” his most personal film to date.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the movie’s premiere at the Berlinale, Assayas says the film retells his experience during the lockdown and is based on his personal diary.
“When I was writing this diary, I felt that despite my anxieties and doubts or fears, it was an idyllic period, to be confined in the countryside,” he says. “It was a time where we believed in a form of utopia and as soon as society got back in action, it dissolved.”
Narrated by Assayas and woven with archival material, the comedy stars Vincent Macaigne as the director’s alter-ego, Paul, a well-known filmmaker who is confined with his music journalist brother Etienne (Micha Lescot) and their girlfriends Morgane (Nine d’Urso...
Speaking to Variety ahead of the movie’s premiere at the Berlinale, Assayas says the film retells his experience during the lockdown and is based on his personal diary.
“When I was writing this diary, I felt that despite my anxieties and doubts or fears, it was an idyllic period, to be confined in the countryside,” he says. “It was a time where we believed in a form of utopia and as soon as society got back in action, it dissolved.”
Narrated by Assayas and woven with archival material, the comedy stars Vincent Macaigne as the director’s alter-ego, Paul, a well-known filmmaker who is confined with his music journalist brother Etienne (Micha Lescot) and their girlfriends Morgane (Nine d’Urso...
- 2/18/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Playtime has locked down key deals on Olivier Assayas’ Competition title Suspended Time.
The Covid-era comedy drama has sold to Adso Films in Spain, I Wonder in Italy, Triart in Sweden, Leopardo Filmes in Portugal, Hooray in Taiwan and Vertigo Media in Hungary. Ad Vitam will release the film at home in France.
Vincent Macaigne, Micha Lescot, Nora Hamzawi and Nine d’Urso star in the film which portrays a quartet who spend the lockdown together as a sense of disturbing strangeness invades their lives.
Producers are Curiosa Films and Vortex Sutra.
Is the Berlinale eyeing a move from Potsdamer Platz?...
The Covid-era comedy drama has sold to Adso Films in Spain, I Wonder in Italy, Triart in Sweden, Leopardo Filmes in Portugal, Hooray in Taiwan and Vertigo Media in Hungary. Ad Vitam will release the film at home in France.
Vincent Macaigne, Micha Lescot, Nora Hamzawi and Nine d’Urso star in the film which portrays a quartet who spend the lockdown together as a sense of disturbing strangeness invades their lives.
Producers are Curiosa Films and Vortex Sutra.
Is the Berlinale eyeing a move from Potsdamer Platz?...
- 2/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
In the first major on-site deal at EFM, Sony has swooped on worldwide rights to the Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell fantasy romance A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.
Kogonada, who worked with Farrell on After Yang, will direct from a screenplay by Seth Reiss in California this spring. The deal reportedly closed in the $50m range.
Plot details remain under wraps beyond the logline issued by financier 30West and parent company and producer Imperative Entertainment referencing an “imaginative tale of two strangers and the extraordinary emotional journey that connects them”.
The hope is the transaction will trigger more sales on...
Kogonada, who worked with Farrell on After Yang, will direct from a screenplay by Seth Reiss in California this spring. The deal reportedly closed in the $50m range.
Plot details remain under wraps beyond the logline issued by financier 30West and parent company and producer Imperative Entertainment referencing an “imaginative tale of two strangers and the extraordinary emotional journey that connects them”.
The hope is the transaction will trigger more sales on...
- 2/18/2024
- ScreenDaily
The memes won’t let you forget, but 2019 was half a decade ago. That was also the year Olivier Assayas’ Wasp Network––an odd return to the realm of his TV series Carlos, and subsequently picked up by Narcos-era Netflix––premiered at the Venice Film Festival. That was Assayas’ last feature, making the intervening period (Irma Vep for HBO aside) the longest dry patch of his 38-year career. The dexterous director returns this week to the Berlinale with the aptly titled Suspended Time, a personal essay wrapped up in an effortless comedy that shows no signs whatsoever of long gestation.
Naturally, it’s all the better for it. Appearing as both leading man and (not for the first time) director surrogate, Vincent Macaigne stars as Paul, a filmmaker surviving the summer of 2020 with his music-journalist brother Ettienne (Micha Lescot) and their new partners, Morgane and Carole, in the agreeable surrounds of their childhood home.
Naturally, it’s all the better for it. Appearing as both leading man and (not for the first time) director surrogate, Vincent Macaigne stars as Paul, a filmmaker surviving the summer of 2020 with his music-journalist brother Ettienne (Micha Lescot) and their new partners, Morgane and Carole, in the agreeable surrounds of their childhood home.
- 2/17/2024
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
By virtue of the shared experiences it speaks to, Suspended Time may be writer-director Olivier Assayas’s most universally relatable film to date. Sure, few people own homes in charming villages in rural France, but almost everyone on the planet went through some version of lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic. People variably learned recipes, thought up new projects, sought out online therapy, went on long, unusually silent walks, contemplated their pasts, grandstanded about the dangers of a virus, treated said grandstanding as excessive hysteria, and got frustrated with the people they were in insolation with.
Those are the events of Suspended Time in a nutshell—a window into the strange life we all lived, the memory of which we largely seem to have discarded like a spoiled sourdough starter. Missing from the above description, though, is the way Assayas augments the ethereal quality of life in isolation with a sophisticated...
Those are the events of Suspended Time in a nutshell—a window into the strange life we all lived, the memory of which we largely seem to have discarded like a spoiled sourdough starter. Missing from the above description, though, is the way Assayas augments the ethereal quality of life in isolation with a sophisticated...
- 2/17/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Between Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion,” the terrible quarantine “Purge” ripoff “Songbird,” and Doug Liman’s inert Covid heist movie “Locked Down”, movies have tried — and usually failed — in depicting the everyday horrors and quirks of the pandemic. Admittedly, turning the absence of interaction and drama into good cinema is an unenviable challenge. Olivier Assayas is the latest to try and, unfortunately, the latest to largely fail.
Set in April 2020, “Suspended Time” follows Paul (Vincent Macaigne) a frustrated filmmaker confined to his late parents’ picturesque country house with his wife Morgane (Nine d’Urso), his short-tempered brother Etienne (Micha Lescot), and Etienne’s wife Carole (Nora Hamzawi). In the very first scene, Paul receives an Amazon package like it’s radioactive material — it’s just a pair of socks — as a confounded Etienne asks why it all need be such a choreography. Paul explains that the virus can...
Set in April 2020, “Suspended Time” follows Paul (Vincent Macaigne) a frustrated filmmaker confined to his late parents’ picturesque country house with his wife Morgane (Nine d’Urso), his short-tempered brother Etienne (Micha Lescot), and Etienne’s wife Carole (Nora Hamzawi). In the very first scene, Paul receives an Amazon package like it’s radioactive material — it’s just a pair of socks — as a confounded Etienne asks why it all need be such a choreography. Paul explains that the virus can...
- 2/17/2024
- by Adam Solomons
- Indiewire
Playtime (“Son of Saul”) is reteaming with celebrated French directors François Ozon (“By the Grace of God”) and sister duo Delphine and Muriel Coulin (“17 Girls”) on their respective upcoming films, “When Fall Is Coming” and “The Quiet Son.”
“When Fall is Coming” marks Ozon’s follow up to “The Crime Is Mine.” The film stars Hélène Vincent (“The Specials”), Josiane Balasko (“Back to Mom’s”), Ludivine Sagnier (“Lupin”) and Pierre Lottin (“Notre-Dame on Fire”).
The film tells the story of Michelle, who is enjoying a peaceful retirement in a charming Burgundy village near her longtime friend Marie-Claude. She eagerly anticipates her grandson Lucas spending the school vacation with her, but things don’t go as planned. Feeling lonely, Michelle loses her sense of purpose, until Marie-Claude’s son gets out of prison.
The film is self-produced by Ozon through his vehicle Foz. Diaphana Distribution will release it in France.
“When Fall is Coming” marks Ozon’s follow up to “The Crime Is Mine.” The film stars Hélène Vincent (“The Specials”), Josiane Balasko (“Back to Mom’s”), Ludivine Sagnier (“Lupin”) and Pierre Lottin (“Notre-Dame on Fire”).
The film tells the story of Michelle, who is enjoying a peaceful retirement in a charming Burgundy village near her longtime friend Marie-Claude. She eagerly anticipates her grandson Lucas spending the school vacation with her, but things don’t go as planned. Feeling lonely, Michelle loses her sense of purpose, until Marie-Claude’s son gets out of prison.
The film is self-produced by Ozon through his vehicle Foz. Diaphana Distribution will release it in France.
- 1/31/2024
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
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