My Mother (Mia Madre), Nanni Moretti’s latest film, will open the 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival, at the Sultan’s Pool on July 9th, only months after its screening in the official competition at Cannes. The opening ceremony will be attended by John Turturro, who stars in the film.
My Mother tells the story of Margherita, a famous Italian director who, while shooting her new film, has to deal with her lead actor (John Turturro) – an annoying but charming American with a proclivity for exaggeration. In addition to the pressure on the set, she also has to deal with her hospitalized aging mother’s health and with her adolescent daughter. Her brother (Nanni Moretti), is there to support and assist her, but very soon she understands that she cannot separate her personal life from her work on the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-l1oOMmkrgForeign Language Films
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Nanni Moretti’s MY MOTHER Starring John Turturro to Open 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival
My Mother (Mia Madre), Nanni Moretti’s latest film, will open the 32nd Jerusalem Film Festival, at the Sultan’s Pool on July 9th, only months after its screening in the official competition at Cannes. The opening ceremony will be attended by John Turturro, who stars in the film.
My Mother tells the story of Margherita, a famous Italian director who, while shooting her new film, has to deal with her lead actor (John Turturro) – an annoying but charming American with a proclivity for exaggeration. In addition to the pressure on the set, she also has to deal with her hospitalized aging mother’s health and with her adolescent daughter. Her brother (Nanni Moretti), is there to support and assist her, but very soon she understands that she cannot separate her personal life from her work on the film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-l1oOMmkrg
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Hungary Picks Holocaust Drama SON OF SAUL As Foreign Language Oscar Entry
The Holocaust drama SON OF SAUL directed by Laszlo Nemes, has been selected by Hungary as its official entry in the foreign-language film category of the Academy Awards. Son of Saul which won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, was reportedly considered a frontrunner for the Palme d’Or after being named best film in Cannes’ Competition by Fipresci, the International Federation of Film Critics, but instead won the Grand Prix.
October 1944, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Saul Ausländer is a Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando, the group of Jewish prisoners isolated from the camp and forced to assist the Nazis in the machinery of large-scale extermination. While working in one of the crematoriums, Saul discovers the corpse of a boy he takes for his son. As the Sonderkommando plans a rebellion, Saul decides to carry out an impossible task: save the child’s body from the flames, find a rabbi to recite the mourner’s Kaddish and offer the boy a proper burial. [Cannes Film Festival]
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Gay French Drama TOM AT THE FARM To Be Released in U.S. Unrated
The gay French-language drama TOM AT THE FARM directed by Xavier Dolan, will finally be released in the U.S., nearly two years after it premiered at the 2013 Venice Film Festival.
Tom at the Farm, starring Dolan, along with Caleb Landry Jones and Pierre-Yves Cardinal, will be released in theaters and on VOD platforms on August 14, 2015.
“After the sudden death of his lover, Guillaume (Jones), Tom (Dolan) travels from his home in the city to Guillaume’s family’s remote country farm for the funeral. Upon arriving, he’s shocked to find that the family knows nothing of him and was expecting a woman in his place. Tom keeps his identity a secret but soon finds himself increasingly drawn into a twisted, sexually charged game by Guillaume’s aggressive brother (Cardinal), who suspects the truth.”
“It’s hard to say it in a fully modest way, but I was truly puzzled as to how exactly ‘Tom At The Farm’ had never landed distribution in the U.S.,” said Dolan. “To me, it was by far my most accessible film; I mean, it’s a 90-minute psychological thriller, and it’s sort of gory but then very conventional too. I’m obviously psyched that Amplify Releasing has taken ‘Tom’ under their wing. But the topic remains truly relevant — can intolerance and psychological violence ever be dull? — and I’m proud to know the American public will be able to see it. And hopefully, like it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLOJpY6DfAE
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Russian film CHAGALL-MALEVICH Sets US Theatrical Release Date
After having screened at numerous international film festivals including Palm Springs, Montreal, Haifa, Moscow, Busan, and LA Jewish Film Festival, the Russian film CHAGALL-MALEVICH, directed by Alexander Mitta finally sets a U.S. theatrical release date. CHAGALL-MALEVICH will open at Cinema Village in New York on June 12 and at Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills and at Town Center 5 in Encino, CA on June 19.
The artistic and political revolution of early 20th century Russia is mythologized in CHAGALL-MALEVICH, a magical period drama about the uneasy relationship between two artistic geniuses.
Inspired by the memoirs of Marc Chagall and those of his contemporaries, the film blends fact and folklore to evoke the return of the iconic Jewish artist (portrayed by Leonid Bichevin “Cargo 200”) to his childhood home of Vitebsk. Having left behind immense success in Paris, Chagall returns to the Russian empire in 1917 in hope to marry the love of his life Bella Rosenfeld (Kristina Schneidermann); he produces copious paintings and establishes the Academy of Modern Art. A rivalry develops with abstract painter Kazimir Malevich (Anatoliy Belyy), invited to teach at the art school. As Bella rekindles a childhood friendship with military Red Commissar Naum (Semyon Shkalikov), Chagall competes for the affections of his muse and future wife. As the October Revolution sweeps across Russia, historical events intrude on personal struggles and upend the quiet provincial life in Vitebsk.
Brimming with surrealistic imagery from the paintings of Chagall and Malevich (over 140 paintings were used in the film), this sumptuous melodrama marks veteran Russian filmmaker Alexander Mitta’s return after a decade-long hiatus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enaho11_x8Q
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Cannes Award Winning Film THE MEASURE OF A MAN to BE Released in the U.S.
Kino Lorber will release in the U.S. and Canada, Stephane Brizé’s (Mademoiselle Chambon) THE MEASURE OF A MAN, starring Vincent Lindon (Mademoiselle Chambon, Bastards, Friday Night, La Moustache), winner of the Best Actor award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film was directed by Mr. Brizé and co-written by Brizé and Olivier Gorce. This is Stephane Brizé’s sixth feature film.
The film, stars Vincent Lindon as a working-class man struggling with unemployment and then, facing a difficult moral choice as a security guard in a supermarket, Brizé supports his lead with a brilliantly directed cast of non-professional performers playing dramatized versions of themselves.
Kino Lorber, which released Stephane Brizé’s Mademoiselle Chambon in the United States to both critical acclaim and box office success (grossing over $530,000 in theaters alone), is planning to release the film in theatres in the fall of 2015, after prestigious North American festival dates. Home media and digital releases will follow in 2016.
Richard Lorber comments: “Cannes brought us the gift to work again with Stephane Brizé and Vincent Lindon, after our great success with their Mademoiselle Chambon. With THE MEASURE OF A MAN’s hugely deserved Best Actor honor, we’re keen to share this gift with North American audiences. This deeply moving performance and uniquely framed tale delivers a profound new humanistic insight into questions of economic justice.”
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Five Classics by French Director Claude Sautet to Premiere in NYC
Rialto Pictures will release five films, for the first time on DCP, by legendary French director Claude Sautet at New York’s Lincoln Plaza Cinemas the week of June 12-18, 2015.
Claude Sautet (1924-2000), who began his filmmaking career in the early 1950s assisting such directors as Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face) and Jacques Becker (Touchez Pas Au Grisbi), first tasted success with the crime thriller Classe Tous Risques (1960), but was unfairly overlooked as the New Wave directors dominated French cinema.
After spending much of the 1960s as a screenwriter – and earning a reputation as a master “script doctor” – Sautet re-emerged as a director to watch. His collaborations with Austrian-born actress Romy Schneider, leading men Michel Piccoli and Yves Montand, screenwriter Jean-Loup Dabadie, and cinematographer Jean Boffety, yielded romantic, yet haunting, films that embodied the privileges and struggles of the French bourgeoisie following the political upheavals of the 1960s.The series features three of his collaborations with Schneider – Les Choses De La Vie (1970), the policier Max et Les Ferrailleurs (1971), and César and Rosalie (1972) – along with the rarely-seen Vincent, François, Paul and The Others (1974), starring Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, and Gérard Depardieu, and Sautet’s final film, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (1995). All five films will have their U.S. premieres in new DCP format and are not available on Blu-ray or DVD.
LES CHOSES DE LA VIE (1970)
Runtime: 85 minutes
Cast: Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, Léa MassariWinner, Prix Louis Delluc
Nominated, Cannes Film Festival Palme d’OrPierre’s (Michel Piccoli) life flashes before his eyes following a car accident, focusing on his decision to leave his wife (Léa Massari) for a younger woman, Hélène (Romy Schneider).
MAX ET LES FERRAILLEURS (1971)
Runtime: 112 minutes
Cast: Michel Piccoli, Romy Schneider, François Périer, Bernard FressonMax (Michel Piccoli) has only one thing on his mind: putting away criminals. When yet another bunch of professional criminals get away, Max unexpectedly runs into an old army buddy, Abel (Bernard Fresson), who has turned to a life of petty crime with a small band of hoodlums, the “ferrailleurs,” or junkmen, of the title. He hatches a plan to trick the group of amateurs into committing a major crime, using Abel’s girlfriend Lily (Romy Schneider) as unwitting bait.
CÉSAR AND ROSALIE (1972)
Runtime: 111 minutes
Cast: Romy Schneider, Yves Montand, Sami FreyAfter her divorce, Rosalie (Romy Schneider) splits her time between her family and the wealthy César (Yves Montand). When David (Sami Frey), an old flame of Rosalie’s, appears, the two men battle each other for her affections.
VINCENT, FRANÇOIS, PAUL AND THE OTHERS (1974)
Runtime: 114 minutes
Cast: Yves Montand, Michel Piccoli, Serge Reggiani, Gérard DepardieuThree friends, Vincent (Yves Montand), François (Michel Piccoli), and Paul (Serge Reggiani), confront problems in work, love, and money. Sautet presents an all-too-true snapshot of mid-life crises in middle-class France.
NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD (1995)
Runtime: 107 minutes
Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, Michel Serrault, Jean-Hugues AngladeWinner, Prix Louis Delluc
Winner, César Award for Best Actor (Michel Serrault) and Best Director (Claude Sautet)Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) is behind on her rent and saddled with an unemployed and uninterested husband. When she meets Monsieur Arnaud (Michel Serrault), an older and wealthier man, Nelly sees a chance to escape from poverty and loneliness. Arnaud enlists her help with transcribing his memoirs and, as their unconventional relationship blossoms, barely-contained emotions threaten to break free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsWZaftED7A
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Vice and FilmBuff To Release Berlin Film Fest Hit “PRINCE”
FilmBuff in partnership with VICE Media will release in the U.S., PRINCE (PRINS), the feature debut from acclaimed Dutch music video director Sam de Jong. PRINCE first debuted at the 2015 Berlinale, where it received an honorary mention for the coveted Crystal Bear for Best First Feature. Produced by 100% Halal, PRINCE will be available in North America in theaters and all major VOD platforms starting August 14th, 2015.
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Sarah Polley’s STORIES WE TELL Among 4th All-Time Top Ten List of Canadian Films
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) today announced the results of its fourth Canada’s All-Time Top Ten List, an international poll of industry and academics on the most memorable Canadian films. This is the fourth edition of TIFF’s All-Time Top Ten List; previous lists were released in 1984, 1993 and 2004.
“In our 40th year we are celebrating our national cinema by revisiting the list of top Canadian films, with help from our esteemed colleagues in the industry and academia,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO, TIFF. “It is encouraging to see new filmmakers and films establishing themselves on the list alongside the classics.”
“With more than a decade since our last survey, much has changed in Canadian cinema, and in the results of the survey,” said Steve Gravestock, Senior Programmer, TIFF. “Atanarjuat has dethroned the long-standing No. 1 film, Mon once Antoine, and we welcome filmmakers including Guy Maddin, Jean-Claude Lauzon, Sarah Polley and Jean-Marc Vallée to the list for the first time. It’s an exciting group of films indicative of our rich cinematic tradition.”
Canada’s All-Time Top Ten List of Canadian films:
1. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, Zacharias Kunuk (2001)
2. Mon oncle Antoine, Claude Jutra (1971)
3. The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan (1997)
4. Jésus de Montréal, Denys Arcand (1989)
5. Léolo, Jean-Claude Lauzon (1992)
6. Goin’ Down the Road, Don Shebib (1970)
7. Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg (1988)
8. C.R.A.Z.Y., Jean-Marc Vallée (2005)
9. My Winnipeg, Guy Maddin (2007)
10. Stories We Tell, Sarah Polley (2012) (pictured above)/Les Ordres, Michel Brault (1974)
“The Directors Guild of Canada takes pride in shining the spotlight on our national cinema at every opportunity,” said Tim Southam, National President, DGC. “The filmmakers featured here have contributed much to our country’s cultural voice and history. It is inspiring to be able to experience them again with a new generation of viewers.”
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French documentary about Art during the Holocaust, BECAUSE I WAS A PAINTER Sets US Release Date
BECAUSE I WAS A PAINTER, a documentary film by Christophe Cognet, will be released in the US by Cinema Guild. BECAUSE I WAS A PAINTER, an official selection at the Jerusalem Film Festival and other international film festivals, will open at Lincoln Plaza in New York City on April 24. A national release will follow.
In 1945, when the Allies liberated the concentration camps, they discovered thousands of secretly created artworks. These drawings, hidden from the Nazis, offer an unparalleled understanding of life in the camps. Featuring interviews with surviving artists, curators, as well as recently uncovered evidence, this fascinating documentary considers the ability of art to capture, reflect and survive under unimaginable conditions.
BECAUSE I WAS A PAINTER explores a wide range of perspectives, from an artist who grapples with finding beauty in paintings of corpses to Treblinka survivor Samuel Willenberg who believes that the artworks can be nothing but inherently devoid of beauty. In addition to works intended as art, the film contemplates the role of alternative relics such as portraits of Romani victims killed by infamous Nazi physician Josef Mengele and paintings that were recreated years later because originals were lost or destroyed.
The film looks at paintings, drawings, wash drawings, and sculptures held in collections in France, Germany, Israel, Poland, Czech Republic, Belgium and Switzerland. While drifting among these fragments of clandestine images and the vestiges of the camps, BECAUSE I WAS A PAINTER undertakes a sensitive quest amid faces, bodies and landscapes to explore the notion of art—and its preservation—as an atavistic necessity.
http://vimeo.com/116290914
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Italian Mafia film BLACK SOULS Sets April 2015 Release Date in US
The Italian Mafia film BLACK SOULS (ANIME NERE) which wowed audiences at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, opens in NYC on April 10, and Los Angeles on April 23, with a nationwide release to follow.
BLACK SOULS (“Anime Nere”) is described as a gripping morality tale of violence begetting violence in rural Calabria, that takes us on a journey into the dark and sinister world of the real-life mafia (‘Ndrangheta) in Southern Italy.
Based upon the actual events described in Gioacchino Criaco’s novel of the same name, Black Souls vividly brings to life the inevitable tragic consequences when never-ending revenge and vendetta is passed down from generation to generation.
The film focuses in on the Carbone family that consists of three brothers, Luigi (Marco Leonardi) & Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) who are engaged in the family business of international drug trade, and Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) who has remained behind herding goats in their ancestral town of Africo in the remote Aspromonte mountains on the Ionic coast. Luciano’s 20-year old son Leo (Giuseppe Fumo) has little respect for his father’s simple ways and instead idealizes his two Mafioso uncles and their urban lifestyle. When Leo shoots up a local bar owned by a rival family, his reckless actions reignites a longstanding blood feud and sets off a tragic chain of events that violently grinds toward an inevitable bloody showdown for all involved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1LlGKQ92aU
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Russian film CHAGALL-MALEVICH US Release Date Set for June 2015
The Russian film CHAGALL-MALEVICH, directed by Alexander Mitta, will open at Cinema Village in New York on June 12 and at Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills and at Town Center 5 in Encino, CA on June 19.
The artistic and political revolution of early 19th century Russia is mythologized in CHAGALL-MALEVICH, a magical period drama about the uneasy relationship between two artistic geniuses.
Inspired by the memoirs of Marc Chagall and those of his contemporaries, the film blends fact and folklore to evoke the return of the iconic Jewish artist (portrayed by Leonid Bichevin “Cargo 200”) to his childhood home of Vitebsk. Having left behind immense success in Paris, Chagall returns to the Russian empire in 1917 in hope to marry the love of his life Bella Rosenfeld (Kristina Schneidermann); he produces copious paintings and establishes the Academy of Modern Art. A rivalry develops with abstract painter Kazimir Malevich (Anatoliy Belyy), invited to teach at the art school. As Bella rekindles a childhood friendship with military Red Commissar Naum (Semyon Shkalikov), Chagall competes for the affections of his muse and future wife. As the October Revolution sweeps across Russia, historical events intrude on personal struggles and upend the quiet provincial life in Vitebsk.
Brimming with surrealistic imagery from the paintings of Chagall and Malevich (over 140 paintings were used in the film), this sumptuous melodrama marks veteran Russian filmmaker Alexander Mitta’s return after a decade-long hiatus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enaho11_x8Q
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24 DAYS, Based on True events of Kidnapping of a Jewish Man in Paris, Sets US Release Date
24 DAYS, winner of the Lia Award at the 2014 Jerusalem Film Festival and winner of the Audience Award at the 2014 Boston Jewish Film Festival, will open at the Quad Cinema in New York and at the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles, as well as other cities on April 24th. The film will also be available through iTunes on the same day.
Directed and produced by Alexandre Arcady, and based on a memoir written by the victim’s mother, the film chronicles the agonizing 24 days during which Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish cell-phone salesman, was held captive in Paris by a group of African and North African immigrants later known as the “Gang of Barbarians,” while his desperate family was subjected to blackmail. The events of Ilan Halimi’s kidnapping and murder sent shock waves through France and brought into focus the dangerous wave of anti-Semitism that is sweeping through France, a country that is home to Europe’s largest Jewish community.
Friday January 20, 2006, 23-year old Ilan Halimi, targeted solely because he was Jewish, was kidnapped and taken to an apartment in the Bagneux neighborhood of Paris. There, he was held captive and tortured for three weeks before being dumped in a woodlot by his captors. Found motionless and naked by the railroad tracks at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, he wouldn’t survive his ordeal.
In this film, Ruth Halimi, Ilan’s mother, revisits those 24 nightmarish days. 24 days in which she and her ex-husband Didier received nearly 700 calls, ransom demands that never ceased to change, insults, threats, photos of their tortured son… 24 days of anguish for a family waiting in silence and fear, hoping the Police could save their son.
But Police Headquarters didn’t know who was responsible for his kidnapping. No one recognized in time the anti-Semitic hatred of his abductors, or that Ilan would lose his life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg4xo2pYRdI&feature=youtu.be