As the new crop of 2023 festival favorites roll out, Focus Features presents A Thousand And One in over 900 carefully curated theaters, testing the appetite for specialty fare at a challenging moment.
Short film and video director A.V. Rockwell’s feature-length debut stars Teyana Taylor as free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing New York City. Reviews are stellar, see Deadline’s. The winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize is at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 82% with auds. The fest called it “an elegant ode to the terribly beautiful power of family as an anchor in an ever-changing world, making us into who we are in ways we can only haltingly understand.”
This film, like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in...
Short film and video director A.V. Rockwell’s feature-length debut stars Teyana Taylor as free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and each other, mother and son set out to reclaim their sense of home, identity, and stability in a rapidly changing New York City. Reviews are stellar, see Deadline’s. The winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize is at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 82% with auds. The fest called it “an elegant ode to the terribly beautiful power of family as an anchor in an ever-changing world, making us into who we are in ways we can only haltingly understand.”
This film, like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in...
- 3/31/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Agnès Godard films the opening sequence of her fifth collaboration (following four features and a short) with writer-director Ursula Meier, The Line (La Ligne), in static slow motion: Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) hits her mother (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), who falls and collides against the keys of her own piano, rendering her deaf in the impacted ear. A restraining order charges the eldest daughter not to come within 200 meters of her mother—an invisible boundary she immediately ignores with abrasive attempts to make amends until her younger sister paints a literal perimeter around the house. Margaret hovers at a little hill at one end […]
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/31/2023
- by A.E. Hunt
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Agnès Godard films the opening sequence of her fifth collaboration (following four features and a short) with writer-director Ursula Meier, The Line (La Ligne), in static slow motion: Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) hits her mother (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), who falls and collides against the keys of her own piano, rendering her deaf in the impacted ear. A restraining order charges the eldest daughter not to come within 200 meters of her mother—an invisible boundary she immediately ignores with abrasive attempts to make amends until her younger sister paints a literal perimeter around the house. Margaret hovers at a little hill at one end […]
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Search for Images is a Search That Can Last Forever”: Agnès Godard on The Line and Nenétte et Boni first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/31/2023
- by A.E. Hunt
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The relationship drama premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale.
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
- 3/28/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Memento International has closed major sales on Ursula Meier’s Berlin contender “The Line,” and “Boy from Heaven” by Tarik Saleh, the Swedish-Egyptian helmer of “The Nile Hilton Incident.”
A religious and political thriller, “Boy From Heaven” is set in Cairo at a Koranic school following the collapse of a grand imam which marks the start of a ruthless battle for influence.
The movie is headlined by Tawfeek Barhom and Fares Fares, who previously starred in “The Nile Hilton Incident.” Saleh’s Stockholm-based outfit Atmo is producing the movie with Memento.
Memento International has sold the film to Benelux (Cineart), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Greece (Cinobo), Hungary (Vertigo) and Middle East (Falcon). Other territories in negotiation. Memento Distribution will release in France.
The company has also sold “The Line,” Ursula Meier’s drama which is in main competition at the Berlin Film Festival, to a raft of territories,...
A religious and political thriller, “Boy From Heaven” is set in Cairo at a Koranic school following the collapse of a grand imam which marks the start of a ruthless battle for influence.
The movie is headlined by Tawfeek Barhom and Fares Fares, who previously starred in “The Nile Hilton Incident.” Saleh’s Stockholm-based outfit Atmo is producing the movie with Memento.
Memento International has sold the film to Benelux (Cineart), Spain (La Aventura), Italy (Movies Inspired), Greece (Cinobo), Hungary (Vertigo) and Middle East (Falcon). Other territories in negotiation. Memento Distribution will release in France.
The company has also sold “The Line,” Ursula Meier’s drama which is in main competition at the Berlin Film Festival, to a raft of territories,...
- 2/14/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
When developing films like 2008’s “Home” and 2012’s “Sister,” French-Swiss director Ursula Meier began by focusing on geography, imaging what stories may spring from a forgotten stretch of highway or how a remote mountaintop might shape the lives of those living upon it. But when she began work on “The Line,” which premiered on Friday at the Berlin Film Festival, the filmmaker had a different terrain in mind.
“The setting for this film would be the character’s body,” Meier tells Variety. “I wanted to follow a series of old scars that would retrace a troubled past, so that landscape would be the body itself and the story would be one of violence.”
Indeed, violence was what drew Meier and the film’s co-writer and lead actor Stéphanie Blanchoud to the project. “We wanted to examine a violent woman,” Meier says. “The project really started from a shared observation that...
“The setting for this film would be the character’s body,” Meier tells Variety. “I wanted to follow a series of old scars that would retrace a troubled past, so that landscape would be the body itself and the story would be one of violence.”
Indeed, violence was what drew Meier and the film’s co-writer and lead actor Stéphanie Blanchoud to the project. “We wanted to examine a violent woman,” Meier says. “The project really started from a shared observation that...
- 2/13/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Violence and motherhood make for an unusual combination in Ursula Meier’s Berlin Film Festival competition title The Line (La Ligne). Set in remote present-day Switzerland, it stars actor-singer-playwright Stéphanie Blanchoud as Margaret, whose anger towards her mother Christina (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) frequently turns physical. While she’s a grown woman, there’s something primal and childlike about Margaret’s visceral fury that suggests a disorder that’s never named.
It also points to problems in her past. These become apparent as a restraining order is filed against her, and as Christina rants about the youth she lost when she had a child so young. Christina has since had two other daughters: Louise (India Hair), now heavily pregnant, and sensitive schoolgirl Marion (newcomer Elli Spagnolo), whose way of rebelling against her bohemian, self-centered mother is to turn to religion.
It’s an arresting story of familial disharmony that’s distinctive both visually and thematically.
It also points to problems in her past. These become apparent as a restraining order is filed against her, and as Christina rants about the youth she lost when she had a child so young. Christina has since had two other daughters: Louise (India Hair), now heavily pregnant, and sensitive schoolgirl Marion (newcomer Elli Spagnolo), whose way of rebelling against her bohemian, self-centered mother is to turn to religion.
It’s an arresting story of familial disharmony that’s distinctive both visually and thematically.
- 2/11/2022
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
At the risk of over-generalizing about gender, a great many man-made movies build to climactic scenes of violence, whereas Ursula Meier’s “The Line” begins with a knock-down-drag-out fight and then spends the rest of its running time exploring the consequences.
That opening brawl is a doozy — a mother-daughter showdown that leaves 35-year-old Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) with a nasty scar above her left eye and 50-something Christina (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) deaf in one ear — though the confrontation itself happens largely in our heads. We see a vase, sheet music and what looks like an entire record collection smashing against a wall. Then we see Margaret chasing her mom around a baby grand piano, a slow-motion slap and Christina’s face slamming hard against the ivory keys. Later, we will learn what triggered this altercation, but in the moment, the younger of the two women looks positively homicidal, as if she...
That opening brawl is a doozy — a mother-daughter showdown that leaves 35-year-old Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) with a nasty scar above her left eye and 50-something Christina (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) deaf in one ear — though the confrontation itself happens largely in our heads. We see a vase, sheet music and what looks like an entire record collection smashing against a wall. Then we see Margaret chasing her mom around a baby grand piano, a slow-motion slap and Christina’s face slamming hard against the ivory keys. Later, we will learn what triggered this altercation, but in the moment, the younger of the two women looks positively homicidal, as if she...
- 2/11/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Stéphanie Blanchoud and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi impress in Ursula Meier’s stark, well-written tale of malignant domestic resentment
The line is there to be crossed in this engrossing, unnerving but unexpectedly sympathetic drama of family dysfunction from French-Swiss film-maker Ursula Meier who made her memorable debut back in 2008 with the eco-parable Home, starring a particularly intransigent Isabelle Huppert. Meier has a knack of creating overwhelming mothers: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is on very imperious and distrait form as Christina, a former classical concert pianist who abandoned her career for her family and never let her three daughters forget it – finally becoming a demanding music teacher who also appears to have taken her oldest child as a pupil. This is Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) who is a talented pop musician, singer and guitarist with a thriving local following.
Maybe Margaret owes some of her success to her impossible mother and maybe she doesn’t. But...
The line is there to be crossed in this engrossing, unnerving but unexpectedly sympathetic drama of family dysfunction from French-Swiss film-maker Ursula Meier who made her memorable debut back in 2008 with the eco-parable Home, starring a particularly intransigent Isabelle Huppert. Meier has a knack of creating overwhelming mothers: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi is on very imperious and distrait form as Christina, a former classical concert pianist who abandoned her career for her family and never let her three daughters forget it – finally becoming a demanding music teacher who also appears to have taken her oldest child as a pupil. This is Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud) who is a talented pop musician, singer and guitarist with a thriving local following.
Maybe Margaret owes some of her success to her impossible mother and maybe she doesn’t. But...
- 2/11/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...
- 1/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20) revealed its Competition line-up on Wednesday, scroll down for the full list.
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.
This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.
South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.
The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...
- 1/19/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.
Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.
The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.
The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.
- 1/19/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
La ligne
Excluding her docu features, Ursula Meier is now at the three feature film mark with La ligne (The Line) – a project that began lensing in Switzerland around this time last year. Co-written by Stéphanie Blanchoud, Antoine Jaccoud and Meier (with additional help from Robin Campillo and Nathalie Najem), this stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, India Hair, Benjamin Biolay and Blanchoud as Margaret — this reunites the filmmaker with with her cinematographer Agnès Godard. Meier moves from shipwrecked family in 2008’s Home to disproportionately supporting one’s sibling in 2012’s L’enfant d’en haut to a film that pokes the family tree with a stick.…...
Excluding her docu features, Ursula Meier is now at the three feature film mark with La ligne (The Line) – a project that began lensing in Switzerland around this time last year. Co-written by Stéphanie Blanchoud, Antoine Jaccoud and Meier (with additional help from Robin Campillo and Nathalie Najem), this stars Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, India Hair, Benjamin Biolay and Blanchoud as Margaret — this reunites the filmmaker with with her cinematographer Agnès Godard. Meier moves from shipwrecked family in 2008’s Home to disproportionately supporting one’s sibling in 2012’s L’enfant d’en haut to a film that pokes the family tree with a stick.…...
- 1/11/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
New projects by Claire Denis and Asghar Farhadi, the first fiction feature by Alice Diop and a documentary by Régis Sauder will also be co-produced by the cinema branch of the Franco-German channel. The second selection committee for 2020 of Arte France Cinéma (headed by Olivier Père) has chosen to engage in co-production and in pre-buying on five projects. Standing out among them is La Ligne, which will be the third fiction feature from Franco-Swiss director Ursula Meier following Home (Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2008) and Sister (Silver Bear special prize winner at the 2012 Berlinale). For the record, the filmmaker also presented in the Panorama section of the 2018 Berlinale the TV fiction Shock Waves – Diary of My Mind. Written by Ursula Meier together with Stéphanie Blanchoud (who will also be playing the lead role) in collaboration with Antoine Jaccoud and with the participation of Robin Campillo...
When you’ve seen enough Nordic Noir style series you tend to see certain formulas to the stories. Public Enemy is one that definitely feels familiar, but instead of familiarity breeding content, this time it offers an engrossing experience.
When federal police investigator Chloe Muller (Stéphanie Blanchoud) is given the task to protect Guy Beranger (Angelo Bison) a convicted child murderer, she begrudgingly takes the case. Released on parole to the Vielsart Abbey, it isn’t long before there is a public outcry from the nearby village. Matters are made worse when a local child is murdered, and he automatically the prime suspect. But is all as it seems?
Bringing together a male and female police duo seems to be a favourite of Nordic Noir series, and for the most part it works well. One of my favourite variations is The Bridge/The Tunnel because of the engaging characters. With Public Enemy,...
When federal police investigator Chloe Muller (Stéphanie Blanchoud) is given the task to protect Guy Beranger (Angelo Bison) a convicted child murderer, she begrudgingly takes the case. Released on parole to the Vielsart Abbey, it isn’t long before there is a public outcry from the nearby village. Matters are made worse when a local child is murdered, and he automatically the prime suspect. But is all as it seems?
Bringing together a male and female police duo seems to be a favourite of Nordic Noir series, and for the most part it works well. One of my favourite variations is The Bridge/The Tunnel because of the engaging characters. With Public Enemy,...
- 7/21/2017
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
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