Foreign Language Films

[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

Read more

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

Read more

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

Read more

 [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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

Film Movement is bringing Eran Riklis’s “The Human Resources Manager,” to the US with plans for a theatrical release in March of 2011. The film, “Human Resources Manager” was the winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival and is Israel’s foreign film submission for the Academy Award.

Read more