Foreign Language Films

Six films have been selected by the Museum of Modern Art for their 35^th annual exhibition, Kino!, MoMA’s long-running survey of young German filmmakers. 

The films include the award winning tragicomedy OH BOY by Jan Ole Gerster, which had its US-premiere at AFI Fest in November and was shown at Miami International Film Festival in March. OH BOY is nominated in eight categories for the German Film Prize, whose winners are announced on April 26.

The documentary FORGET ME NOT (VERGISS MEIN NICHT by David Sieveking won the Critics’ Week Grand Prize following its world premiere in Locarno, one of Europe’s leading film festivals. FORGET ME NOT is currently nominated for the German Film Prize for Best Feature-length Documentary.

KINO! PROGRAM

MoMA, April 18-24, 2013

FREE FALL (FREIER FALL) by Stephan Lacant – North American premiere

[caption id="attachment_3444" align="alignnone" width="550"]Freier Fall [/caption]

Fiction, color, 100 min, DCP, 2013

Police officer Marc is shaken to the core when he meets a new colleague, Kay, on a training course and begins to develop feelings for him. Torn between his love for his pregnant girlfriend Bettina and the rush of a completely new experience, his life spins increasingly out of control. Opening night film of the Perspective Deutsches Kino program at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Screenings:

Thursday, April 18, 2013, 7:00 p.m., Theater 1 (in the presence of the director)

Friday, April 19, 2013, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2 (in the presence of the director)

 

OH BOY by Jan Ole Gerstner – East Coast premiere

Fiction, black and white, 88 min, DCP, 2012

A humorous, self-deprecating tale about college drop-out Niko. Drifting through Berliin, he prefers to be an observer. But life has a way of catching up with him, as he finds himself losing his girlfriend and his father’s financial support. Everything would be so much easier if he could only find a ‘normal’ cup of coffee.

Screenings:

Saturday, April 20, 2013, 7:30 p.m., Theater 2 (in the presence of the director)

Sunday, April 21, 2013, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2 (in the presence of the director)

 

SILVI by Nico Sommer – North American premiere

Fiction, 97 min, DCP, 2013

Deserted by her husband, Silvi finally realizes that her rather dull marriage has failed. Driven by loneliness, the 47-year-old woman decides to start over again! Anonymous sex, endearments in the dark and deranged lovers push her into emotional chaos of affection, pleasure and borderline experiences. She discovers that finding the right partner poses quite a challenge.

Screenings:

Friday, April 19, 2013, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2 (in the presence of the director)

Sunday, April 21, 2013, 1:00 p.m., Theater 2 (in the presence of the director)

 

FORGET ME NOT (VERGISS MEIN NICHT) by David Sieveking

Documentary, color, 88 min, DCP, 2012

This feature-length documentary centers on the director’s mother succumbing to Alzheimer’s. Created with humor and astonishing candor, this is remarkably unsentimental film, which bravely tackles the fundamental question: will we grow old together? Grand Jury Prize winner at the Locarno Film Festival.

Screenings:

Saturday, April 20, 2013, 1:30 p.m., Theater 2,

Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2

 

KALIFORNIA by Laura Mahlberg – North American premiere

Fiction, color 27 min, DCP, 2013

The pale grey surrounding Pavel’s caravan resembles the life inside of it: the 71-old Russian spends his evenings in a dismal and monotonous way. But then Pavel makes a decision: He picks up the telephone, calls his old friend Jack and starts walking – straight-ahead to California. Kalifornia describes the late effort of an old man to turn his life around and find happiness in the distance.

 

THE REVENANTS (DIE WIEDERGÄNGER) by Andreas Bolm – International premiere

Fiction, color, 62 min, HD Cam, 2013

An ageing hippie couple endures an isolated, ghostly existence in an old country house.
 A boy wanders aimlessly through a forest, building a lair for himself. A ghost story about a never-ending escape from catastrophe, The Revenants is a film about desire, loss and endlessly returning.

Screenings (both films):

Saturday, April 20, 2013, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2, (in the presence of the directors)

Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 4:00 p.m., Theater 2 (in the presence of the directors)

  

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[caption id="attachment_3678" align="alignnone" width="550"]Barbara Sukowa as Hannah Arendt in HANNAH ARENDT a film by Margarethe von Trotta. [/caption]

The German biopic film HANNAH ARENDT, directed by Margarethe von Trotta will open at Film Forum in NYC on May 29 and at The Royal in West LA, Playhouse 7 in Pasadena and Town Center in Encino on June 7, with a national release to follow.

HANNAH ARENDT, an Official Selection at the Toronto International and New York Jewish Film Festivals, Hannah Arendt stars Barbara Sukowa as Hannah Arendt, with co-stars Klaus Pohl as philosopher Martin Heidegger, Nicolas Woodeson as New Yorker editor William Shawn, and two-time Oscar Nominee Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) as novelist Mary McCarthy.

The film is described as a biopic of influential German-Jewish philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt. Arendt’s reporting on the 1961 trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann in The New Yorker—controversial both for her portrayal of Eichmann and the Jewish councils—introduced her now-famous concept of the “Banality of Evil.” Using footage from the actual Eichmann trial and weaving a narrative that spans three countries, von Trotta beautifully turns the often invisible passion for thought into immersive, dramatic cinema.

http://youtu.be/iIUbQR9b1P8

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Love Is All You Need diirected by Oscar Winner Susanne Bier opens May 3, 2013 at Lincoln Plaza and Landmark Sunshine Cinemas in NY

The film, an official selection at Toronto International Film Festival 2012 and Venice International Film Festival 2012, stars Pierce Brosnan, Trine Dyrholm, Molly Blixt Egelind, Sebastian Jessen, Paprika Steen, Kim Bodnia, Christiane Schaumburg-Müller, Micky Skeel Hansen.

In the film, Philip (Brosnan), a well-off Englishman living in Denmark, is a long-time bachelor and single father. Ida (Dyrholm) is an attractive, middle-aged Danish hairdresser who has just conquered cancer only to find her husband in bed with his secretary, Thilde. Their two fates collide at the airport as they embark upon a trip to Italy to attend the wedding of Patrick and Astrid, Phillip’s son and Ida’s daughter.

With warmth, affection and confidence, Susanne Bier has shaken a cocktail of love, loss,absurdity, humor, and delicately drawn characters that will leave only the hardest heart untouched. It is a film about the simple yet profound pains and joys of moving on – and forward – with your life.

 In Danish, English and Italian with English subtitles.

http://youtu.be/v4B02wHam_U

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Bollywood superstarAamir Khan makes his long-awaited return to the big screen, in the mystery thriller TALAASH which opens in theaters worldwide on November 30. The award-winning actor and producer will be joined by not one, but two of India’s most popular actresses – Rani Mukherji and Kareena Kapoor.

TALAASH finds Khan playing an inspector investigating the death of a film star which could be an accident, or a crime. Following the suspicious death of a popular film star who plunged into the waters in his car, Inspector Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) investigates in order to determine whether it was an accident, or a crime. To find the truth in this complex case, he will be forced to confront his past.

The actor starred in and produced 2001’s Lagaan, India’s last motion picture to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Khan’s last film, 2009’s Three Idiots, smashed box office records becoming reportedly the highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all-time in North America. No film since has come close to its record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn5QXaHpKGU

 

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 [caption id="attachment_2902" align="alignnone" width="1020"]Nicolas Maury as Ruben and Carmen Maura as Rachel in LET MY PEOPLE GO! A film by Mikael Buch. A Zeitgeist Films release.[/caption]

The French, Jewish, Gay comedy Let My People Go! is coming to America; the film by Mikael Buch will
open at the Quad Cinema in New York on January 11 and in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal and Town Center on January 18, 2013.  A national release will follow.

Described as, A sweet and hilarious fusion of gay romantic comedy, Jewish family drama and French bedroom farce, Mikael Buch’s Let My People Go! follows the travails and daydreams of the lovelorn Reuben (Regular Lovers’ Nicolas Maury), a French-Jewish gay mailman living in fairytale Finland (where he got his MA in “Comparative Sauna Cultures”) with his gorgeous Nordic boyfriend. But just before Passover, a series of mishaps and a lovers’ quarrel exile the heartbroken Reuben back to Paris and his zany family—including Almodovar goddess Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Volver) as his ditzy mom, and Truffaut regular Jean-François Stévenin as his lothario father.

 

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SIMON AND THE OAKS, the award winning feature film directed by Lisa Ohlin will open in New York at The Paris Theater and in Los Angles at The Landmark on October 12, 2012.  A national release will follow.

Simon and The Oaks, a major commercial success in its native Sweden, has received a record 13 nominations for the 2012 Sweden’s Guldbagge Awards (the local equivalent of the Oscars), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Cinematography.  

An epic drama spanning the years 1939 to 1952, this is the gripping story of Simon (played as the adult by Bill Skarsgaard, son of Stellan, and named by the Berlin Film Festival Jury as one of the Shooting Stars of 2012 for this performance), who grows up in a loving working class family on the outskirts of Gothenburg but always feels out of place. Intellectually gifted, he stubbornly persists in acquiring an education normally reserved for young men of the professional classes, much to the chagrin of his parents who fear that he will become stuck up. He finally convinces his father to send him to an upper-class grammar school, where he meets Isak, the son of a wealthy Jewish bookseller who has fled Nazi persecution in Germany.  Simon is dazzled by the books, art and music he encounters in the home of Isak’s father Ruben (Jan Josef Leifers), which makes Simon long to know more about his own family background. Isak, on the other hand, draws comfort from learning to do something with his hands, helping Simon’s dad (Stefan Godicke) make boats. When Isak faces trouble at home, he is taken in by Simon’s family and the two households slowly merge, connecting in unexpected ways as war rages all over Europe.

SIMON AND THE OAKS is based on the Swedish bestseller of the same name, written by Marianne Fredriksson. It offers a unique depiction of fate, destiny and free will and vividly portrays the situation for Jews in Sweden during World War II.

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Production on the set of the Bollywood action movie “Bbuddha” starring Amitabh Bachchan was brought to a screeching halt, in Mumbai on Tuesday after a political party protested against the use of foreign dancers.

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Pamela Anderson is currently starring in Big Boss, India’s version of Big Brother and reportedly said that she is a fan of Bollywood and would love to re-launch her career there.

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Canadian director Bruce LaBruce’s controversial gay porn horror film LA Zombie, which stars a French porn star as a schizophrenic homeless man who believes he is a cannibalistic ghoul,” and depicts homosexual sex, full-frontal male nudity, and necrophilia, was withdrawn from the Melbourne International Film Festival in July after it failed to get a pass from the Australian Film Classification Board.

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The Indian medical community is upset with producers of the Bollywood film Guzaarish after posters were released showing the lead actress holding a cigarette. Doctors think it is sending a wrong message to the youth on smoking.

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Ethiopia has its first contender for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with (Ateltu) “The Athlete’. Co-directed by Davey Frankel and Rasselas Lakew, the low budget independent film is about Ethiopian barefoot marathon runner, Abeba Bikila who became the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal. Rasselas Lakew, who also wrote the screenplay, plays Abeba Bikila.

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