Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, the celebrated annual series showcasing the variety and vitality of contemporary French filmmaking, returns to the Film Society of Lincoln Center for the 23rd edition, from March 8 to 18, 2018, with 24 diverse films on display.
Oscilloscope Laboratories has dropped the trailer and poster for BEAUTY AND THE DOGS from Tunisian director and screenwriter, Kaouther Ben Hania. The film which world premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival will open theatrically on March 23rd, in NYC at Landmark 57 West; in LA at the Nuart.
When Mariam, a young Tunisian woman, is raped by police officers after leaving a party, she is propelled into a harrowing night in which she must fight for her rights even though justice lies on the side of her tormentors. Employing impressive cinematic techniques and anchored by a tour-de-force performance from newcomer Mariam Al Ferjani, Kaouther Ben Hania’s BEAUTY AND THE DOGS tells an urgent, unapologetic, and important story head-on. A rare, startling film from a female Tunisian director, it’s a striking critique on a repressive society and a forcefully feminist rallying cry.
Director and screenwriter Kaouther Ben Hania was born in Sidi Bouzid (Tunisia). Following film studies at the Ecole des Arts et du Cinéma in Tunis, she studied scriptwriting at La Fémis in Paris. She has a Research Masters in Film and Audiovisual Studies from the Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdAGBnOyGyo
November, the black metal-inspired medieval fantasy and Estonia’s official entry to the 90th Academy Awards, has released the stunning surreal trailer and poster. The film which won the award for Best Cinematography at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival will open theatrically in New York City on February 23rd, and in Los Angeles on March 2nd.
In this tale of love and survival in 19th century Estonia, peasant girl Liina longs for village boy Hans, but Hans is inexplicably infatuated by the visiting German baroness that possesses all that he longs for. For Liina, winning Hans’ requited love proves incredibly complicated in this dark, harsh landscape where spirits, werewolves, plagues, and the devil himself converge, where thievery is rampant, and where souls are highly regarded, but come quite cheap.
With alluring black and white cinematography, director Rainer Sarnet vividly captures these motley lives as they toil to exist – but is existence worth anything if it lacks a soul?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19QZy1YHL50
Here is the the trailer and poster for Los Angeles Overnight, the directorial debut of filmmaker Michael Chrisoulakis which will launch a limited national, theatrical release on March 9 driven by Arena Cinelounge to be followed by a digital release through Freestyle Digital Media on March 20, 2018.
Inspired by the L.A. Modern Noir genre and populated with distinct and dynamic characters, Arielle Brachfeld (Consumption) stars in Los Angeles Overnight as Priscilla, a struggling actress who inherits a bevy of colorful villains after desperation drives her and her gullible boyfriend, a lovelorn mechanic (Azim Rizk, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), to steal big from the Los Angeles underworld. No amount of preparation could ever prepare this actress for a blood-soaked role filled with seedy criminals and “hot loot.” Entirely shot in Los Angeles, the cast is appropriately peppered with titans of the Hollywood scene including Peter Bogdanovich, Sally Kirkland and recent CineAsia Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Lin Shaye.
The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) will introduce the future of cinema to audiences – the Hong Kong premiere of Tsai Ming-Liang’s The Deserted, HTC’s first virtual reality (VR) Chinese language film. World-renowned Taiwanese master TSAI Ming-Liang and Golden Horse Award Best Leading Actor LEE Kang-Sheng will lead the Hong Kong audience through an unparalleled eye-opening VR experience, and share their thoughts and visions of this cinematic innovation in a Master Class.
Winner of the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival with Vive L’amour (1994), TSAI Ming-Liang has established himself as one of contemporary cinema’s most accomplished auteurs. In addition to bringing films into the art world, he has been constantly exploring multi-media and new technology in filmmaking. The Deserted, his debut VR work, is an attempt to break the established dichotomy of traditional cinema, and create an interactive film experience that blurs the lines between reality and creative expression.
The work is an elliptical tale of love, death and memory, starring LEE Kang-Sheng as a man recuperating from an illness in the mountains. Unable to communicate with his late mother or the female ghost next door, his only companion is a lone fish who swims with him in the bathtub. The Deserted offers a dreamlike 3D experience which immerses viewers in the construction of the scenes, and the characters’ personal journeys.
The 55-min piece is a milestone in Chinese language cinema and selected for the first-ever Virtual Reality competition at the Venice Film Festival. It received overwhelming response at the Golden Horse Festival, selling out all 13 sessions within seconds. The Deserted is supported by HTC VIVE, ZOTAC and the Academy of Film of Hong Kong Baptist University.
Here is the new trailer and poster for Lynn Shelton’s Outside In, starring Edie Falco, Jay Duplass, Kaitlyn Dever and Ben Schwartz, and written by Lynn Shelton and Jay Duplass.
The Orchard will release Outside In theatrically on Friday, March 30th, and on all digital platforms on Tuesday, April 3rd. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and will screen at the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival next month.
After serving 20 years for the crime of essentially being in the wrong place at the wrong time, 38-year-old Chris (Jay Duplass) is granted early parole thanks largely to the tireless advocacy of Carol (Edie Falco), his former high-school teacher. As he struggles with the challenges of navigating the modern world as an ex-con, and with a fraught relationship with his brother Ted (Ben Schwartz), Chris ends up confessing his romantic love for Carol — a love that, given her marital status, Carol cannot reciprocate. Or can she? Carol longs for something her husband no longer provides. Meanwhile, Carol’s daughter Hildy (Kaitlyn Dever) befriends Chris, finding a kindred spirit in this awkward, tormented older guy.
A Bond Unbroken. Nguyen Hoang Minh, at his home in My Tho.[/caption]
The moving documentary A Bond Unbroken narrated by Renowned Broadcast Journalist Bob Woodruff which traces the emotional 40-Year journey of Navy SEALs to reunite with their Vietnamese combat interpreter will be released starting February 13, 2018, across digital, On-Demand and DVD via Cinedigm.
In the deadly jungles of Vietnam over 40 years ago, the Navy SEALs forged an enduring bond of friendship with their Vietnamese combat interpreter. Through brutal fire-fights and night-time ambushes, Nguyen Hoang Minh fought as a member of the SEAL platoons in the Mekong Delta and helped keep them alive. Though wounded numerous times, he never backed down or gave up the fight, and the SEALs began to feel that Minh was “one of us.” When the Communists overran Vietnam, Minh could not get out, and the SEALs’ brave comrade was lost to them forever. Or so they thought. Until one Navy lieutenant’s relentless search found him and the SEALs brought him to America for a reunion. A Bond Unbroken captures that remarkable reunion decades in the making, and presents another side of the battle-tough, covert warrior SEALs. Their actions change Minh’s life and dramatically impacted his family and the Vietnamese-American community.
“A Bond Unbroken” is narrated by veteran broadcast journalist Bob Woodruff and features the song “The Great Unknown,” written and performed by three-time Grammy Award® winner Rob Thomas (“Smooth”), who in addition to his solo career is also the lead vocalist for Matchbox Twenty.
“The emotional threads in this story were just so compelling that I knew it needed to be told,” says director Mary Ann Koenig. “We wanted to demonstrate intrinsic parts of the SEAL credo that we had come to understand, those of honor and integrity and fidelity. Along the way it became clear that these SEALs have hearts of gold, and that was an element I didn’t anticipate. Their ongoing efforts to raise money to support their old colleague and his family in Vietnam and to bring him to America for a reunion, have made it a privilege to take the four-year journey and make the world aware of this story.”
Watch Daniel Brühl and Rosamund Pike star in a brand new video clip from the hijacking thriller 7 Days In Entebbe, which opens in select theaters on March 16, 2018.
7 Days In Entebbe directed by José Padilha (“Narcos,” “Elite Squad”) and starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl, Eddie Marsan, Ben Schnetzer, Lior Ashkenazi, and Denis Ménochet, is a gripping thriller inspired by the true events of the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight en route from Tel Aviv to Paris, the film depicts the most daring rescue mission ever attempted.
Lives Well Lived, the award-winning documentary by Sky Bergman that celebrates the incredible wit, wisdom and experiences of people aged 75 to 100 years old, will open on April 20th at the Laemmle Monica Film Center, Town Center in Encino and Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, California; other cities will follow.
Through their intimate memories and inspiring personal histories encompassing over 3000 years of experience, forty people share their secrets and insights to living a meaningful life. These men and women open the vault on their journey into old age through family histories, personal triumph and tragedies, loves and losses – seeing the best and worst of humanity along the way. Their thoughtful perspectives reveal a treasure of life lessons and a reminder of the greatest role models in our own families.
“My inspiration for the Lives Well Lived project was my 103 year old grandmother who enjoyed exercise, making the best lasagna you’ve ever tasted and being with family. She showed me by example, that age is truly just a number. In our society, the elderly are often overlooked and I wanted to bring that generation to the forefront. Our greatest role models are those living full and meaningful lives in their later years. It has been a six-year long labor of love to see this film to fruition: from the first days filming in my grandmother’s kitchen, to the moment of the final edits, it is a great honor to share the stories of the amazing people featured in the film.” – filmmaker Sky Bergman.
Actor/director Lea Thompson’s debut feature The Year of Spectacular Men, which premiered at the 2017 Los Angeles Film Festival has been acquired by MarVista Entertainment for a mid-June 2018 theatrical release date. Thompson directed from a script by daughter Madelyn Deutch and plays a supporting role opposite both Deutch and her other daughter Zoey Deutch (Before I Fall, Why Him?).
In the year after graduating college, Izzy (Madelyn Deutch) struggles to navigate the seemingly incessant failures of adulthood, the reality of a substandard dating pool and a debilitating fear of top-sheets, all in between X-Files marathons. Comically unsuccessful in love over the course the year, including five half-hearted relationships with astoundingly self-centered men, Izzy resigns herself to the support of her mother and sister, who are struggling with their own relationship problems. Seeing herself in them, Izzy gradually gains the confidence to be honest and vulnerable. In a charming feature debut, established comedic actor Lea Thompson directs her real-life daughters Madelyn and Zoey Deutch, creating a palpable sense of intimacy in this story of connectedness and familial love.
“From our inception, MarVista has taken pride in supporting female filmmakers and voices”, said MarVista CEO Fernando Szew. “When the team saw The Year of Spectacular Men , we immediately connected with the authenticity of the story and performances and felt that it is a multilayered film that would have strong appeal across generations. We are honored to be working with such a talented, creative and passionate group of women like Lea, Maddie, and Zoey, who also bring amazing dynamism as an inspiring family.”
For her part, Thompson said, “This has been such a joyous passion project for me and my whole family. We feel incredibly lucky that our vigor and energy for “The Year of Spectacular Men” has been so genuinely matched by MarVista. We can’t wait to release our film with a company who truly believes in and sees the value in telling an authentic millennial woman’s story.”
The Year of Spectacular Men also stars Avan Jogia, Melissa Bolona, Jesse Bradford, Brandon T. Jackson, Cameron Monaghan, Zach Roerig, and Nicholas Braun.
We Have Our Ways[/caption]
This year’s 2018 Portland International Film Festival’s will present two programs of short films by Oregon-based makers highlighting 14 new projects, including films by local movers and shakers like Mark Smith (Two Balloons), Portland film archivist Greg Hamilton (Thou Shall Not Tailgate), Scott Ballard (North & Nowhere), Dawn Jones Redstone (We Have Our Ways), and Sean Whiteman (Bramble On), but also drawing attention to work by emerging talents like Abby Thompson (Lovely Legs), Daniela Repas (Mnemonics), and Nesto (Gut Feeling).
ALANIS[/caption]
The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Cinema Tropical will present the third annual Neighboring Scenes, a 17-film showcase of contemporary Latin American cinema from February 28 to March 4, 2018 at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City.
Opening night is the U.S. premiere of Anahí Berneri’s award-winning Alanis, an unflinching portrait of a young mother eking out a living as a prostitute in Buenos Aires. Unfolding over the course of three days, Berneri’s fifth film explores the challenges of urban life as an immigrant woman, and is anchored by Sofía Gala’s fearless performance.
Closing out the weekend is the world premiere of a new restoration of Pizza, Beer, and Cigarettes (1998), celebrating its 20th anniversary. Bruno Stagnaro and Adrián Caetano’s landmark film, which follows a pair of less than talented thieves, launched the New Argentine Cinema movement and has continued inspiring Latin American filmmakers for generations.
Other highlights in this year’s lineup include such festival favorites as Niles Atallah’s formally daring Rey, which won the Special Jury Prize at Rotterdam; Santiago Mitre’s political thriller The Summit, an Un Certain Regard selection from Cannes, featuring an impressive international cast; and Fellipe Barbosa’s around-the-world travelogue Gabriel and the Mountain, a two-time prizewinner at Cannes Critics’ Week. The festival also features documentaries about Mexican fishermen, showgirls of the ’70s and ’80s, and the colonialist history of Easter Island; adaptations of Dostoevsky (António, One, Two, Three) and Hans Christian Andersen (The Little Match Girl); and a number of debut features including visual artist Adrián Villar Rojas’s The Theater of Disappearance, a cinematic reimagining of his acclaimed Met rooftop installation.