German culture minister Claudia Roth is readying a major revision to Germany’s Film Law (the Ffg).
The German film industry has proposed fundamental changes to the country’s funding system.
The proposals come as German culture minister Claudia Roth and her Bkm ministry prepare for a major revision to Germany’s Film Law (the Ffg) which will come into effect from January 2025.
Earlier this year, Roth called for a fundamental reform of Germany’s €370m film funding system, saying that profound changes in the film landscape since the advent of the streamers, declining admissions and too much bureaucracy made far-reaching alterations necessary.
The German film industry has proposed fundamental changes to the country’s funding system.
The proposals come as German culture minister Claudia Roth and her Bkm ministry prepare for a major revision to Germany’s Film Law (the Ffg) which will come into effect from January 2025.
Earlier this year, Roth called for a fundamental reform of Germany’s €370m film funding system, saying that profound changes in the film landscape since the advent of the streamers, declining admissions and too much bureaucracy made far-reaching alterations necessary.
- 6/30/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria was the big winner at this year’s German Film Awards, taking home six statuettes from its seven nominations including the Golden Lolas for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Lead Actor.
Schipper’s one-shot thriller set during a breathless night on the streets of Berlin also picked up Lolas for the Spanish actress Laia Costa, the title character, and the Danish cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen.
Victoria premiered in the Berlinale’s main competition last February where Grøvlen received a Silver Bear, was released in German cinemas on 11 June and is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.
The Silver Lola for Best Film was awarded by the members of the German Film Academy to Edward Berger’s social-realist drama Jack, with the Bronze Lola going to Johannes Naber’s black comedy Age Of Cannibals which deservedly also received the Lola for Best Screenplay for the searing dialogues by the author Stefan Weigl.
Both...
Schipper’s one-shot thriller set during a breathless night on the streets of Berlin also picked up Lolas for the Spanish actress Laia Costa, the title character, and the Danish cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen.
Victoria premiered in the Berlinale’s main competition last February where Grøvlen received a Silver Bear, was released in German cinemas on 11 June and is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.
The Silver Lola for Best Film was awarded by the members of the German Film Academy to Edward Berger’s social-realist drama Jack, with the Bronze Lola going to Johannes Naber’s black comedy Age Of Cannibals which deservedly also received the Lola for Best Screenplay for the searing dialogues by the author Stefan Weigl.
Both...
- 6/22/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Sundance Film Festival
PARK CITY -- German writer-director Jan Schutte's "Love Comes Lately" is based on three short stories by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, but you would swear they derive from a much duller author. The slow-paced and often melancholy film contains none of the verve and vitality of Singer's stories. Schutte has taken on a salutary goal -- to make a film about aging characters that neither mocks nor pities them. Yet one longs for the wit and wisdom of Singer's own distinctive voice.
As it is, "Love Comes Lately" will probably get relegated to Jewish film festivals and ancillary markets.
Otto Tausig plays Max Kohn, an elderly Austrian-Jewish writer, perhaps a notch or two below the prestige of Singer but not lacking in awards or literary credentials, living a comfortable though somewhat anxious final years in his adopted Manhattan. He pecks away daily at his manual typewriter, suffers from nightmares involving sexual inadequacy yet has a longtime girlfriend (Rhea Pearlman), who pesters him with her paranoid jealousies over imagined infidelities. Or are they imagined?
A slim story covering his swing through New England by train to deliver a couple of university lectures -- where he surprises himself at one stop by bedding a long-ago student turned professor (Barbara Hershey) -- gets interrupted by two other stories he is supposedly writing and editing. These stories feature alter egos also played by Tausig.
Each is a tale of thwarted romances. Unaccountably, younger women keep flinging themselves at this octogenarian. Must be literary groupies.
The first one is a little bizarre involving a horny, crippled motel maid (Elizabeth Pena), a crazed hotel manager, a murder and another pushy widow (Caroline Aaron), who is left dangling. The second is a more complete story albeit a tragic one involving a lonely recently widowed woman (Tovah Feldshuh), who briefly comes on to the astonished neighbor.
The three-part film feels insubstantial and sketchy at every turn. About all that Schutte achieves is a decent understanding of the inner life of his central character, of Max's fantasies, fears, longings and despair. Everyone else seems like projections of that inner life but not part of any real life at all.
LOVE COMES LATELY
A Zero West production in co-production with Zero Fiction Film, Dor Film
Credits:
Writer/director: Jan Schutte
Based on stories by: Isaac Bashevis Singer
Producers: Martin Hagemann, Kai Kunnemann
Executive producers: W. Wilder Knight III, Alex Gibney
Director of photography: Edward Klosinski, Chris Squires
Production/costume designer: Amanda Ford
Music: Henning Lohner
Editors: Katja Dringenberg, Renate Merck
Cast:
Max Kohn: Otto Tausig
Riesle: Rhea Pearlman
Ethel: Tovah Feldshuh
Rosalie: Barbara Hershey
Esperanza: Elizabeth Pena
Running time -- 86 minutes
No MPAA rating...
PARK CITY -- German writer-director Jan Schutte's "Love Comes Lately" is based on three short stories by Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, but you would swear they derive from a much duller author. The slow-paced and often melancholy film contains none of the verve and vitality of Singer's stories. Schutte has taken on a salutary goal -- to make a film about aging characters that neither mocks nor pities them. Yet one longs for the wit and wisdom of Singer's own distinctive voice.
As it is, "Love Comes Lately" will probably get relegated to Jewish film festivals and ancillary markets.
Otto Tausig plays Max Kohn, an elderly Austrian-Jewish writer, perhaps a notch or two below the prestige of Singer but not lacking in awards or literary credentials, living a comfortable though somewhat anxious final years in his adopted Manhattan. He pecks away daily at his manual typewriter, suffers from nightmares involving sexual inadequacy yet has a longtime girlfriend (Rhea Pearlman), who pesters him with her paranoid jealousies over imagined infidelities. Or are they imagined?
A slim story covering his swing through New England by train to deliver a couple of university lectures -- where he surprises himself at one stop by bedding a long-ago student turned professor (Barbara Hershey) -- gets interrupted by two other stories he is supposedly writing and editing. These stories feature alter egos also played by Tausig.
Each is a tale of thwarted romances. Unaccountably, younger women keep flinging themselves at this octogenarian. Must be literary groupies.
The first one is a little bizarre involving a horny, crippled motel maid (Elizabeth Pena), a crazed hotel manager, a murder and another pushy widow (Caroline Aaron), who is left dangling. The second is a more complete story albeit a tragic one involving a lonely recently widowed woman (Tovah Feldshuh), who briefly comes on to the astonished neighbor.
The three-part film feels insubstantial and sketchy at every turn. About all that Schutte achieves is a decent understanding of the inner life of his central character, of Max's fantasies, fears, longings and despair. Everyone else seems like projections of that inner life but not part of any real life at all.
LOVE COMES LATELY
A Zero West production in co-production with Zero Fiction Film, Dor Film
Credits:
Writer/director: Jan Schutte
Based on stories by: Isaac Bashevis Singer
Producers: Martin Hagemann, Kai Kunnemann
Executive producers: W. Wilder Knight III, Alex Gibney
Director of photography: Edward Klosinski, Chris Squires
Production/costume designer: Amanda Ford
Music: Henning Lohner
Editors: Katja Dringenberg, Renate Merck
Cast:
Max Kohn: Otto Tausig
Riesle: Rhea Pearlman
Ethel: Tovah Feldshuh
Rosalie: Barbara Hershey
Esperanza: Elizabeth Pena
Running time -- 86 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/26/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
NEW YORK -- Sony Pictures Classics has picked up all North American rights to The Children of Huang Shi, a fact-based war drama filmed in China starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh.
Roger Spottiswoode's feature, which wrapped three months of shooting Friday in Shanghai, tells the story of a British reporter (Rhys Meyers) in China during the country's invasion by Japan in 1937. He rescues 60 war orphans by leading them on a thousand-mile journey to a village near the end of China's Great Wall with the help of a local political leader (Chow), an aristocrat (Yeoh) and the nurse he falls in love with (Mitchell).
Children was written by James MacManus and Jane Hawksley. The film is tentatively set for release in the fourth quarter.
Arthur Cohn and Wieland Schulz-Keil produced the film with Peter Loehr of Beijing's Ming Prods., Jonathan Shteinman of Sydney's Bluewater Pictures and Martin Hagemann of Berlin's Zero Fiction.
Roger Spottiswoode's feature, which wrapped three months of shooting Friday in Shanghai, tells the story of a British reporter (Rhys Meyers) in China during the country's invasion by Japan in 1937. He rescues 60 war orphans by leading them on a thousand-mile journey to a village near the end of China's Great Wall with the help of a local political leader (Chow), an aristocrat (Yeoh) and the nurse he falls in love with (Mitchell).
Children was written by James MacManus and Jane Hawksley. The film is tentatively set for release in the fourth quarter.
Arthur Cohn and Wieland Schulz-Keil produced the film with Peter Loehr of Beijing's Ming Prods., Jonathan Shteinman of Sydney's Bluewater Pictures and Martin Hagemann of Berlin's Zero Fiction.
- 2/20/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This review was written for the festival screening of "Fay Grim".PARK CITY -- A story of literature, international intrigue and family loyalty, Hal Hartley's "Fay Grim" exists somewhere between The Marx Brothers and an espionage thriller. A sequel -- something rare in the indie world -- to his 1998 hit "Henry Fool", the film stars Parker Posey in the kind of strong and quirky role that has made her the darling of Sundance. This is definitely not a mainstream item, but it could attract an audience ready for something completely different.
A Hartley film is like an inside joke -- if you get it, it's funny; if not, you will probably come away scratching your head. His films are more about atmosphere, characters (usually eccentrics), snappy dialogue and outlandish plots. "Fay Grim" is no exception.
Since the first film eight years ago, Fay's idiot savant husband Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) has been on the lam from the law; her brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), a Nobel Prize-winning garbage man/poet from Woodside, Queens, N.Y., is incarcerated for helping Henry escape; and her 14-year-old son Ned (Liam Aiken) has been expelled from school for bringing in pornography.
It turns out that Henry's handwritten confessional filling seven or eight notebooks, the subject of the first film, is really encoded revelations he wrote for the CIA. Threatening to unhinge the balance of power in the world, the notebooks become the subject of an international hunt ranging from New York to Paris to Istanbul and thrust Fay into the midst of terrorist activity.
Hartley obviously loves the Grim family and uses them as a prism to look at some of the mayhem in the world today. When CIA agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) tricks Fay into going to Paris to retrieve Henry's papers, she learns quickly how to handle herself in dangerous situations. She is smart but unsophisticated -- a representative American -- and becomes the target for all sorts of feelings about the U.S. But much of the time, the characters seem more comical than threatening.
Among the people Fay encounters are a Russian flight attendant (Elina Lowensohn), who was Henry's lover, a beautiful British spy with a bum leg (Saffron Burrows) and a bumbling French operative (Harold Schrott). All roads lead to a real live Afghani terrorist (Anatole Taubman), Henry's best friend, who is keeping him in captivity, perhaps for his own good.
It doesn't all quite add up, and even Hartley admits there are some holes in the plot. He seems more interested in testing Fay in situations, watching her grow and teaching some life lessons along the way. Fortunately, Posey, who has worked with Hartley three times before, is an actress who can pull off this kind of material that borders on the absurd but has a deep reservoir of human emotion. In fact, the whole cast, headed by Goldblum, Urbaniak and Lowensohn, seems to be in on the joke.
Working in HD for the first time, Hartley brings some interesting off-kilter camera angles and stylistic touches to the film, like flashing words on the screen to spell out how Fay is putting ideas together in her head. On a small budget, cinematographer Sarah Cawley Cabiya makes international locations like the Bosphorous and Turkish streets look big.
"Fay Grim" is the kind of film you might not get at first (or ever), but the next morning you might find that something about it has embedded itself in your consciousness. That's Hartley's subversive sense of humor at work.
FAY GRIM
Magnolia Pictures
HDNet Films presents a Possible Films production in association with This Is That and Zero Fiction, with the support of Mediaboard Berlin Brandenburg
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Hal Hartley
Producers: Hal Hartley, Michael S. Ryan, Martin Hagemann, Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente
Executive producers: Ted Hope, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban
Director of photography: Sarah Cawley Cabiya
Production designer: Richard Sylvarnes
Costume designers: Anette Guther, Daniela Selig
Cast:
Fay Grim: Parker Posey
Fulbright: Jeff Goldblum
Simon Grim: James Urbaniak
Juliet: Saffron Burrows
Ned Grim: Liam Aiken
Bebe: Elina Lowensohn
Carl Fogg: Leo Fitzpatrick
Angus James: Chuck Montgomery
Henry Fool: Thomas Jay Ryan
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A Hartley film is like an inside joke -- if you get it, it's funny; if not, you will probably come away scratching your head. His films are more about atmosphere, characters (usually eccentrics), snappy dialogue and outlandish plots. "Fay Grim" is no exception.
Since the first film eight years ago, Fay's idiot savant husband Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) has been on the lam from the law; her brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), a Nobel Prize-winning garbage man/poet from Woodside, Queens, N.Y., is incarcerated for helping Henry escape; and her 14-year-old son Ned (Liam Aiken) has been expelled from school for bringing in pornography.
It turns out that Henry's handwritten confessional filling seven or eight notebooks, the subject of the first film, is really encoded revelations he wrote for the CIA. Threatening to unhinge the balance of power in the world, the notebooks become the subject of an international hunt ranging from New York to Paris to Istanbul and thrust Fay into the midst of terrorist activity.
Hartley obviously loves the Grim family and uses them as a prism to look at some of the mayhem in the world today. When CIA agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) tricks Fay into going to Paris to retrieve Henry's papers, she learns quickly how to handle herself in dangerous situations. She is smart but unsophisticated -- a representative American -- and becomes the target for all sorts of feelings about the U.S. But much of the time, the characters seem more comical than threatening.
Among the people Fay encounters are a Russian flight attendant (Elina Lowensohn), who was Henry's lover, a beautiful British spy with a bum leg (Saffron Burrows) and a bumbling French operative (Harold Schrott). All roads lead to a real live Afghani terrorist (Anatole Taubman), Henry's best friend, who is keeping him in captivity, perhaps for his own good.
It doesn't all quite add up, and even Hartley admits there are some holes in the plot. He seems more interested in testing Fay in situations, watching her grow and teaching some life lessons along the way. Fortunately, Posey, who has worked with Hartley three times before, is an actress who can pull off this kind of material that borders on the absurd but has a deep reservoir of human emotion. In fact, the whole cast, headed by Goldblum, Urbaniak and Lowensohn, seems to be in on the joke.
Working in HD for the first time, Hartley brings some interesting off-kilter camera angles and stylistic touches to the film, like flashing words on the screen to spell out how Fay is putting ideas together in her head. On a small budget, cinematographer Sarah Cawley Cabiya makes international locations like the Bosphorous and Turkish streets look big.
"Fay Grim" is the kind of film you might not get at first (or ever), but the next morning you might find that something about it has embedded itself in your consciousness. That's Hartley's subversive sense of humor at work.
FAY GRIM
Magnolia Pictures
HDNet Films presents a Possible Films production in association with This Is That and Zero Fiction, with the support of Mediaboard Berlin Brandenburg
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Hal Hartley
Producers: Hal Hartley, Michael S. Ryan, Martin Hagemann, Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente
Executive producers: Ted Hope, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban
Director of photography: Sarah Cawley Cabiya
Production designer: Richard Sylvarnes
Costume designers: Anette Guther, Daniela Selig
Cast:
Fay Grim: Parker Posey
Fulbright: Jeff Goldblum
Simon Grim: James Urbaniak
Juliet: Saffron Burrows
Ned Grim: Liam Aiken
Bebe: Elina Lowensohn
Carl Fogg: Leo Fitzpatrick
Angus James: Chuck Montgomery
Henry Fool: Thomas Jay Ryan
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
PARK CITY -- A story of literature, international intrigue and family loyalty, Hal Hartley's "Fay Grim" exists somewhere between the Marx Brothers and an espionage thriller. A sequel -- something rare in the indie world -- to his 1998 hit "Henry Fool", the film stars Parker Posey in the kind of strong and quirky role that has made her the darling of Sundance. This is definitely not a mainstream item, but it could attract an audience ready for something completely different.
A Hartley film is like an inside joke -- if you get it, it's funny; if not, you will probably come away scratching your head. His films are more about atmosphere, characters (usually eccentrics), snappy dialogue and outlandish plots. "Fay Grim" is no exception.
Since the first film eight years ago, Fay's idiot savant husband Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) has been on the lam from the law; her brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), a Nobel Prize-winning garbage man/poet from Woodside, Queens, N.Y., is incarcerated for helping Henry escape; and her 14-year-old son Ned (Liam Aiken) has been expelled from school for bringing in pornography.
It turns out that Henry's handwritten confessional filling seven or eight notebooks, the subject of the first film, is really encoded revelations he wrote for the CIA. Threatening to unhinge the balance of power in the world, the notebooks become the subject of an international hunt ranging from New York to Paris to Istanbul and thrust Fay into the midst of terrorist activity.
Hartley obviously loves the Grim family and uses them as a prism to look at some of the mayhem in the world today. When CIA agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) tricks Fay into going to Paris to retrieve Henry's papers, she learns quickly how to handle herself in dangerous situations. She is smart but unsophisticated -- a representative American -- and becomes the target for all sorts of feelings about the U.S. But much of the time, the characters seem more comical than threatening.
Among the people Fay encounters are a Russian flight attendant (Elina Lowensohn), who was Henry's lover, a beautiful British spy with a bum leg (Saffron Burrows) and a bumbling French operative (Harold Schrott). All roads lead to a real live Afghani terrorist (Anatole Taubman), Henry's best friend, who is keeping him in captivity, perhaps for his own good.
It doesn't all quite add up, and even Hartley admits there are some holes in the plot. He seems more interested in testing Fay in situations, watching her grow and teaching some life lessons along the way. Fortunately, Posey, who has worked with Hartley three times before, is an actress who can pull off this kind of material that borders on the absurd but has a deep reservoir of human emotion. In fact, the whole cast, headed by Goldblum, Urbaniak and Lowensohn, seems to be in on the joke.
Working in HD for the first time, Hartley brings some interesting off-kilter camera angles and stylistic touches to the film, like flashing words on the screen to spell out how Fay is putting ideas together in her head. On a small budget, cinematographer Sarah Cawley Cabiya makes international locations like the Bosphorous and Turkish streets look big.
"Fay Grim" is the kind of film you might not get at first (or ever), but the next morning you might find that something about it has embedded itself in your consciousness. That's Hartley's subversive sense of humor at work.
FAY GRIM
Magnolia Pictures
HDNet Films presents a Possible Films production in association with This Is That and Zero Fiction, with the support of Mediaboard Berlin Brandenburg
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Hal Hartley
Producers: Hal Hartley, Michael S. Ryan, Martin Hagemann, Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente
Executive producers: Ted Hope, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban
Director of photography: Sarah Cawley Cabiya
Production designer: Richard Sylvarnes
Costume designers: Anette Guther, Daniela Selig
Cast:
Fay Grim: Parker Posey
Fulbright: Jeff Goldblum
Simon Grim: James Urbaniak
Juliet: Saffron Burrows
Ned Grim: Liam Aiken
Bebe: Elina Lowensohn
Carl Fogg: Leo Fitzpatrick
Angus James: Chuck Montgomery
Henry Fool: Thomas Jay Ryan
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
A Hartley film is like an inside joke -- if you get it, it's funny; if not, you will probably come away scratching your head. His films are more about atmosphere, characters (usually eccentrics), snappy dialogue and outlandish plots. "Fay Grim" is no exception.
Since the first film eight years ago, Fay's idiot savant husband Henry Fool (Thomas Jay Ryan) has been on the lam from the law; her brother, Simon (James Urbaniak), a Nobel Prize-winning garbage man/poet from Woodside, Queens, N.Y., is incarcerated for helping Henry escape; and her 14-year-old son Ned (Liam Aiken) has been expelled from school for bringing in pornography.
It turns out that Henry's handwritten confessional filling seven or eight notebooks, the subject of the first film, is really encoded revelations he wrote for the CIA. Threatening to unhinge the balance of power in the world, the notebooks become the subject of an international hunt ranging from New York to Paris to Istanbul and thrust Fay into the midst of terrorist activity.
Hartley obviously loves the Grim family and uses them as a prism to look at some of the mayhem in the world today. When CIA agent Fulbright (Jeff Goldblum) tricks Fay into going to Paris to retrieve Henry's papers, she learns quickly how to handle herself in dangerous situations. She is smart but unsophisticated -- a representative American -- and becomes the target for all sorts of feelings about the U.S. But much of the time, the characters seem more comical than threatening.
Among the people Fay encounters are a Russian flight attendant (Elina Lowensohn), who was Henry's lover, a beautiful British spy with a bum leg (Saffron Burrows) and a bumbling French operative (Harold Schrott). All roads lead to a real live Afghani terrorist (Anatole Taubman), Henry's best friend, who is keeping him in captivity, perhaps for his own good.
It doesn't all quite add up, and even Hartley admits there are some holes in the plot. He seems more interested in testing Fay in situations, watching her grow and teaching some life lessons along the way. Fortunately, Posey, who has worked with Hartley three times before, is an actress who can pull off this kind of material that borders on the absurd but has a deep reservoir of human emotion. In fact, the whole cast, headed by Goldblum, Urbaniak and Lowensohn, seems to be in on the joke.
Working in HD for the first time, Hartley brings some interesting off-kilter camera angles and stylistic touches to the film, like flashing words on the screen to spell out how Fay is putting ideas together in her head. On a small budget, cinematographer Sarah Cawley Cabiya makes international locations like the Bosphorous and Turkish streets look big.
"Fay Grim" is the kind of film you might not get at first (or ever), but the next morning you might find that something about it has embedded itself in your consciousness. That's Hartley's subversive sense of humor at work.
FAY GRIM
Magnolia Pictures
HDNet Films presents a Possible Films production in association with This Is That and Zero Fiction, with the support of Mediaboard Berlin Brandenburg
Credits:
Screenwriter-director-editor: Hal Hartley
Producers: Hal Hartley, Michael S. Ryan, Martin Hagemann, Jason Kliot, Joana Vicente
Executive producers: Ted Hope, Todd Wagner, Mark Cuban
Director of photography: Sarah Cawley Cabiya
Production designer: Richard Sylvarnes
Costume designers: Anette Guther, Daniela Selig
Cast:
Fay Grim: Parker Posey
Fulbright: Jeff Goldblum
Simon Grim: James Urbaniak
Juliet: Saffron Burrows
Ned Grim: Liam Aiken
Bebe: Elina Lowensohn
Carl Fogg: Leo Fitzpatrick
Angus James: Chuck Montgomery
Henry Fool: Thomas Jay Ryan
Running time -- 118 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 1/25/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Russian filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov's pictures, widely acclaimed on the festival circuit, are beautiful, but they easily fulfill the cliched description of Godard's movies -- they're like watching paint dry.
This visual portrait of a dying old woman and her devoted son is a series of static images minus any significant content and dragged out for an interminable 73 minutes. Although scheduled for a commercial release this winter, only the most die-hard intellectual will give it any attention. The film was recently showcased at the New York Film Festival.
Inspired, the production notes tell us, by Russian folk tales and the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, the film presents a nearly mystical and timeless image of mother and son. Filmed in sepia tones with the use of mirrors that produce slightly distorted images, the picture consists of a series of stationary scenes in which the son carries the old woman through an empty village, reads letters to her, comforts her through her illness, etc.
There are also endless shots of the landscape, with an emphasis on wind-battered cornfields. The soundtrack consists mainly of wind, thunder and piano.
Although visually arresting, "Mother and Son" is an arduous experience that only the most patient cineaste will endure willingly.
MOTHER AND SON
International Film Circuit
Director Aleksandr Sokurov
Producer Thomas Kufus
Screenplay Yuri Arabov
Executive producers Katrin Schlosser,
Martin Hagemann, Alexander Golutva
Photography Alexei Fyodorov
Editor Leda Semyonova
Music Mikhail Glinka,
Otmar Nussio, Giuseppe Verdi
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mother Gudrun Geyer
Son Alexei Ananishnov
Running time -- 73 minutes
No MPAA rating...
This visual portrait of a dying old woman and her devoted son is a series of static images minus any significant content and dragged out for an interminable 73 minutes. Although scheduled for a commercial release this winter, only the most die-hard intellectual will give it any attention. The film was recently showcased at the New York Film Festival.
Inspired, the production notes tell us, by Russian folk tales and the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, the film presents a nearly mystical and timeless image of mother and son. Filmed in sepia tones with the use of mirrors that produce slightly distorted images, the picture consists of a series of stationary scenes in which the son carries the old woman through an empty village, reads letters to her, comforts her through her illness, etc.
There are also endless shots of the landscape, with an emphasis on wind-battered cornfields. The soundtrack consists mainly of wind, thunder and piano.
Although visually arresting, "Mother and Son" is an arduous experience that only the most patient cineaste will endure willingly.
MOTHER AND SON
International Film Circuit
Director Aleksandr Sokurov
Producer Thomas Kufus
Screenplay Yuri Arabov
Executive producers Katrin Schlosser,
Martin Hagemann, Alexander Golutva
Photography Alexei Fyodorov
Editor Leda Semyonova
Music Mikhail Glinka,
Otmar Nussio, Giuseppe Verdi
Color/stereo
Cast:
Mother Gudrun Geyer
Son Alexei Ananishnov
Running time -- 73 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/1/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A fine lead-in to The Los Angeles Yiddish Film Festival -- which starts Saturday at Laemmle's Music Hall and Encino Town Center cinemas -- "A Tickle in the Heart" is a first-rate documentary about the Epstein brothers, American klezmer musicians who together and individually have had remarkable careers. The German production -- in English and Yiddish with English subtitles -- will delight its target audience as well as discerning gentile viewers.
The third feature in Laemmle's Jewish Cinema Series at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills, "A Tickle in the Heart" continues indefinitely with Saturday-Sunday morning screenings at the Sunset 5. Directed by Swiss documentarian Stefan Schwietert, the generally upbeat profile of the three Epstein brothers -- Max, Willie and Julie -- includes many performances of joyous and sentimental Yiddish music and is superbly filmed in black and white.
Now living in a retirement community in Tamarac, Fla., the Epsteins were once a quartet (one brother passed away) and they played countless weddings and bar mitzvahs in New York circa the 1950s-70s. Born to Polish immigrants living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the brothers were encouraged to become musicians.
With oldest Max on clarinet ("I play the way I would tell a story"), Willie on trumpet and Julie on drums, the Epsteins are joined on stage and in the recording studio by a piano player and bassist.
Using cinema verite, the filmmakers revel in the soulful, festive atmosphere of concerts and group gatherings, and successfully capture the personalities and lifestyles of the aging-but-amazingly-active Epsteins. There's not much material that's unrelated to klezmer and there's nary a sour note played by the three leads except for flashes of temper and stubbornness.
For the brothers, playing klezmer music is both a vocation and avocation. On the road in Germany, New York and Florida, the Epsteins ride a lot of trains and win over diverse audiences, including a wonderful sing-along sequence with a reluctant crowd unfamiliar with Yiddish songs.
It may be a "lazy man's business," but the group only makes hundreds of dollars a gig and only recently began recording their music. The constant social interaction and central role they play in a proud culture, however, are more than enough rewards for a lifetime of bringing happiness to strangers, even when they themselves have no idea why non-Jewish people find their music so invigorating and vital.
A TICKLE IN THE HEART
Kino International
zero film
Neapel Film
Director Stefan Schwietert
Producers Edward Rosenstein,
Martin Hagemann, Thomas Kufus
Director of photography Robert Richman
Editor Arpad Bondy
Music The Epstein Brothers
Black and white/stereo
With: Max Epstein, Willie Epstein Julie Epstein, Peter Solokow, Pat Merola
Running time -- 84 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The third feature in Laemmle's Jewish Cinema Series at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills, "A Tickle in the Heart" continues indefinitely with Saturday-Sunday morning screenings at the Sunset 5. Directed by Swiss documentarian Stefan Schwietert, the generally upbeat profile of the three Epstein brothers -- Max, Willie and Julie -- includes many performances of joyous and sentimental Yiddish music and is superbly filmed in black and white.
Now living in a retirement community in Tamarac, Fla., the Epsteins were once a quartet (one brother passed away) and they played countless weddings and bar mitzvahs in New York circa the 1950s-70s. Born to Polish immigrants living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the brothers were encouraged to become musicians.
With oldest Max on clarinet ("I play the way I would tell a story"), Willie on trumpet and Julie on drums, the Epsteins are joined on stage and in the recording studio by a piano player and bassist.
Using cinema verite, the filmmakers revel in the soulful, festive atmosphere of concerts and group gatherings, and successfully capture the personalities and lifestyles of the aging-but-amazingly-active Epsteins. There's not much material that's unrelated to klezmer and there's nary a sour note played by the three leads except for flashes of temper and stubbornness.
For the brothers, playing klezmer music is both a vocation and avocation. On the road in Germany, New York and Florida, the Epsteins ride a lot of trains and win over diverse audiences, including a wonderful sing-along sequence with a reluctant crowd unfamiliar with Yiddish songs.
It may be a "lazy man's business," but the group only makes hundreds of dollars a gig and only recently began recording their music. The constant social interaction and central role they play in a proud culture, however, are more than enough rewards for a lifetime of bringing happiness to strangers, even when they themselves have no idea why non-Jewish people find their music so invigorating and vital.
A TICKLE IN THE HEART
Kino International
zero film
Neapel Film
Director Stefan Schwietert
Producers Edward Rosenstein,
Martin Hagemann, Thomas Kufus
Director of photography Robert Richman
Editor Arpad Bondy
Music The Epstein Brothers
Black and white/stereo
With: Max Epstein, Willie Epstein Julie Epstein, Peter Solokow, Pat Merola
Running time -- 84 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 6/16/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
WHISPERING PAGES
(Russia/Germany)
This is cold, dark, depressing cinema as only a few Russian directors can create. It's ''Whispering Pages'' by Alexander Sokurov, recognized as the only legitimate heir to the late Andrei Tarkovsky. This tedious film will appeal only to a few brave festgoers and committed cineastes.
''Whispering Pages'' chronicles a midnight visit to the brooding streets, caverns and apartments of St. Petersburg of the past century, principally as sketched in Dostoyevsky's ''Notes from the Underground'' and ''Crime and Punishment.''
As is common in Sokurov's cinema, camera movements are almost painfully slow, protagonists appear to be rooted to the ground and only dim rays of light illuminate the characters much of the time. Raskolnikov's well-known confession scene from ''Crime and Punishment, '' which occurs toward the end of the film, brings to ''Whispering Pages'' a bit of needed meaning and depth. It's one of the few literary segments worth waiting for.
''TICHIE STRANICY'' (WHISPERING PAGES) (Russia/Germany). Eskomfilm, Syktyvkar, North Foundation (St. Petersburg), Zero-Film (Berlin)
Producers: Vladimir Fotiev, Martin Hagemann, Thomas Kufus. Director/Screenwriter: Alexander Sokurov. Photography: Alexander Burov. Cast: Alexander Cherednik (Hero), Elisaveta Koroleva (Girl), Sergei Barkovsky (Civil Servant).
77 mins, black-and-white, color
LAW OF COURAGE
(Italy)
Alessandro di Robilant's ''Law of Courage'' is another in an ongoing series of Italian anti-Mafia films based on fact. As a detailed tele-feature, its purpose is to inform. And although the message is wrapped in the guise of a fast-paced political thriller, the market is still television with a possible spinoff at international festivals.
This is the story of Sicilian district attorney Rosario Livatino, the ''boy judge'' (''Il Giudice Richter''), who was assassinated in 1991 for investigating killings ordered by warring Mafia families in the provinces.
The screenplay in turn is based on a book by Nando Della Chiesa, the son of the general murdered by the Mafia in 1982. And it opens with an actual speech given by Livatino in 1984 titled ''The Role of the Judge in a Changing Society, '' the apparent reason why he was murdered.
Giulio Scarpati portrays without sentimentality the determined district attorney who lived by a moral code, one who also knew he was marked for death by the Mafia. Unfortunately, the musical score doesn't let us forget this either.
''IL GIUDICE RAGAZZINO'' (LAW OF COURAGE) (Italy). RCS Films & TV, RAI 2
(Rome)
Director: Alessandro Di Robilant. Screenwriters: Andrea Purgatori, Ugo Pirro, based on a book by Nando Dalla Ciesa. Photography: David Scott. Cast: Giulio Scarpati (Rosario Livatino), Sabrina Ferilli (Angela Guarnera).
92 mins, color
SOMETHING FISHY
(France)
The bright side of this quirky hard-boiled detective story by Tonie Marshall is anti-heroine Anemone, who carries the story effortlessly despite dips and turns in the narrative.
''Something Fishy'' is a Gallic cross between Peter Falk's seedy Columbo and Raymond Chandler's stubborn travel-by-night private eyes.
The weak side of the ledger is three stories in one. First, we're introduced to Maxime's (Anemone) AC/DC male/female relations, then her renewed acquaintance with a long-neglected 17-year-old son and finally to a portrait of a tired and vulnerable detective caught in the middle of a murder case that leads right to the door of Maxime's ex-husband, a crooked real estate dealer. The meat of the film is found in the third segment.
This second feature of Marshall -- the daughter of American director William Marshall and French actress Micheline Presle -- confirms she's a promising directorial talent. Presle herself makes a commanding cameo appearance as the distraught widow of the murdered man.
''PAS TRES CATHOLIQUE'' (SOMETHING FISHY) (France). Les Productions du 3eme Etage (Paris), AB Films, M6 Films, Planetes et Compagnie.
Producer: Michel Propper, Frederic Bourboulon. Director/Screenwriter: Tonie Marshall. Photography: Dominique Chapius. Cast: Anenome (Maxime), Gregoire Colin (Baptiste).
100 mins, color
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
(Russia/Germany)
This is cold, dark, depressing cinema as only a few Russian directors can create. It's ''Whispering Pages'' by Alexander Sokurov, recognized as the only legitimate heir to the late Andrei Tarkovsky. This tedious film will appeal only to a few brave festgoers and committed cineastes.
''Whispering Pages'' chronicles a midnight visit to the brooding streets, caverns and apartments of St. Petersburg of the past century, principally as sketched in Dostoyevsky's ''Notes from the Underground'' and ''Crime and Punishment.''
As is common in Sokurov's cinema, camera movements are almost painfully slow, protagonists appear to be rooted to the ground and only dim rays of light illuminate the characters much of the time. Raskolnikov's well-known confession scene from ''Crime and Punishment, '' which occurs toward the end of the film, brings to ''Whispering Pages'' a bit of needed meaning and depth. It's one of the few literary segments worth waiting for.
''TICHIE STRANICY'' (WHISPERING PAGES) (Russia/Germany). Eskomfilm, Syktyvkar, North Foundation (St. Petersburg), Zero-Film (Berlin)
Producers: Vladimir Fotiev, Martin Hagemann, Thomas Kufus. Director/Screenwriter: Alexander Sokurov. Photography: Alexander Burov. Cast: Alexander Cherednik (Hero), Elisaveta Koroleva (Girl), Sergei Barkovsky (Civil Servant).
77 mins, black-and-white, color
LAW OF COURAGE
(Italy)
Alessandro di Robilant's ''Law of Courage'' is another in an ongoing series of Italian anti-Mafia films based on fact. As a detailed tele-feature, its purpose is to inform. And although the message is wrapped in the guise of a fast-paced political thriller, the market is still television with a possible spinoff at international festivals.
This is the story of Sicilian district attorney Rosario Livatino, the ''boy judge'' (''Il Giudice Richter''), who was assassinated in 1991 for investigating killings ordered by warring Mafia families in the provinces.
The screenplay in turn is based on a book by Nando Della Chiesa, the son of the general murdered by the Mafia in 1982. And it opens with an actual speech given by Livatino in 1984 titled ''The Role of the Judge in a Changing Society, '' the apparent reason why he was murdered.
Giulio Scarpati portrays without sentimentality the determined district attorney who lived by a moral code, one who also knew he was marked for death by the Mafia. Unfortunately, the musical score doesn't let us forget this either.
''IL GIUDICE RAGAZZINO'' (LAW OF COURAGE) (Italy). RCS Films & TV, RAI 2
(Rome)
Director: Alessandro Di Robilant. Screenwriters: Andrea Purgatori, Ugo Pirro, based on a book by Nando Dalla Ciesa. Photography: David Scott. Cast: Giulio Scarpati (Rosario Livatino), Sabrina Ferilli (Angela Guarnera).
92 mins, color
SOMETHING FISHY
(France)
The bright side of this quirky hard-boiled detective story by Tonie Marshall is anti-heroine Anemone, who carries the story effortlessly despite dips and turns in the narrative.
''Something Fishy'' is a Gallic cross between Peter Falk's seedy Columbo and Raymond Chandler's stubborn travel-by-night private eyes.
The weak side of the ledger is three stories in one. First, we're introduced to Maxime's (Anemone) AC/DC male/female relations, then her renewed acquaintance with a long-neglected 17-year-old son and finally to a portrait of a tired and vulnerable detective caught in the middle of a murder case that leads right to the door of Maxime's ex-husband, a crooked real estate dealer. The meat of the film is found in the third segment.
This second feature of Marshall -- the daughter of American director William Marshall and French actress Micheline Presle -- confirms she's a promising directorial talent. Presle herself makes a commanding cameo appearance as the distraught widow of the murdered man.
''PAS TRES CATHOLIQUE'' (SOMETHING FISHY) (France). Les Productions du 3eme Etage (Paris), AB Films, M6 Films, Planetes et Compagnie.
Producer: Michel Propper, Frederic Bourboulon. Director/Screenwriter: Tonie Marshall. Photography: Dominique Chapius. Cast: Anenome (Maxime), Gregoire Colin (Baptiste).
100 mins, color
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 2/14/1994
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.