Alice Diop’s Saint Omer brings the French filmmaker into the realm of fiction for the first time, but preserves her documentary respect for the evidence of the audience’s eyes. A sober, pared-down courtroom drama, Saint Omer initially makes little effort to comment on its action, at times feeling more like presentation than representation. The unadorned quality of the film can be laborious, particularly in the early stretches of the trial that’s at the center of the story, but Diop earns the effort she asks of her audience, methodically allowing a strange, intangible, but nevertheless palpable mix of emotions to emerge from the situation itself.
It’s certainly a choice, and the expression of an ethos, that Diop keeps the viewer locked in to repeating pairs of alternating camera angles for significant portions of the trial. We see the defendant, Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a Senegalese immigrant and...
It’s certainly a choice, and the expression of an ethos, that Diop keeps the viewer locked in to repeating pairs of alternating camera angles for significant portions of the trial. We see the defendant, Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a Senegalese immigrant and...
- 3/25/2024
- by Pat Brown
- Slant Magazine
Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Saint Omer,” the French film narrative debut of documentary maker Alice Diop, based on a real trial that she had observed. Currently in select theaters, see local listings.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Centered on a murder trial that focuses on Rama (Kayiije Kagame), a literature professor who wants to write about Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), who is about to be judged in court for drowning her toddler daughter in the ocean. As the trial proceeds, Rama increases her own anxiety about being newly pregnant and the relationship with her mother … Laurence and Rama are both in France through roots in African Senegal, and that circumstance unite the two characters together.
”Saint Omer” is currently in select theaters. See local listings. Featuring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit and Xavier Maly. Screenplay by Alice Diop, Amrita David and Marie N’Diaye. Directed by Alice Diop.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Centered on a murder trial that focuses on Rama (Kayiije Kagame), a literature professor who wants to write about Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), who is about to be judged in court for drowning her toddler daughter in the ocean. As the trial proceeds, Rama increases her own anxiety about being newly pregnant and the relationship with her mother … Laurence and Rama are both in France through roots in African Senegal, and that circumstance unite the two characters together.
”Saint Omer” is currently in select theaters. See local listings. Featuring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit and Xavier Maly. Screenplay by Alice Diop, Amrita David and Marie N’Diaye. Directed by Alice Diop.
- 1/26/2023
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The central aspect of French filmmaker Alice Diop's fiction-feature debut, Saint Omer, is an unfathomable crime: A mother left her 15-month-old daughter on a beach to be swept out to sea, resulting in her death. It is inspired by a real case that made headlines in France and abroad, the trial for which the director actually attended. While the film is interested in the woman who committed the act, it primarily follows a character in Diop's observer position, and its driving question is not, as it might've been in other projects, "How does one make any sense of senseless tragedy?" Instead, Saint Omer asks, "What if an unfathomable crime isn't so unfathomable after all?" It is a heavy line of thinking that leads to no easy answers, but which Diop follows anyway, with enveloping, patient intent. Viewers willing to give it the same, almost spellbound focus the protagonist gives...
- 1/19/2023
- by Alexander Harrison
- ScreenRant
Shudder and IFC Midnight are launching microbudget Skinamarink on a not-so-micro 629 screens, giving the viral horror pic a major push after a well-received premiere back at Fantasia-fest that just kept snowballing with strong reviews and social media love.
“I was over the moon. For a horror filmmaker in Canada, [Fantasia] is like getting a Cannes screening,” says first-time filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball about the leadup to this weekend’s buzzy specialty opening. He shot the 15k feature at his parents’ home in Edmonton, Canada.
In it, two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. “I’d had a nightmare when I was little. I was in my parents’ house, my parents were missing, and there was a monster. And lots of people have shared this exact same dream,” Ball tells Deadline.
“I was over the moon. For a horror filmmaker in Canada, [Fantasia] is like getting a Cannes screening,” says first-time filmmaker Kyle Edward Ball about the leadup to this weekend’s buzzy specialty opening. He shot the 15k feature at his parents’ home in Edmonton, Canada.
In it, two children wake up in the middle of the night to find their father is missing and all the windows and doors in their home have vanished. “I’d had a nightmare when I was little. I was in my parents’ house, my parents were missing, and there was a monster. And lots of people have shared this exact same dream,” Ball tells Deadline.
- 1/13/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Saint Omer Trailer — Alice Diop‘s Saint Omer (2022) movie trailer has been released by Super Ltd. The Saint Omer trailer stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit, and Xavier Maly. Crew Amrita David, Alice Diop, and Marie Ndiaye wrote the screenplay for Saint Omer. Plot Synopsis Saint Omer‘s plot synopsis: “Saint Omer court of law. [...]
Continue reading: Saint Omer (2022) Movie Trailer: A Murder Case Shakes a Young Novelist’s Convictions in Alice Diop’s Film...
Continue reading: Saint Omer (2022) Movie Trailer: A Murder Case Shakes a Young Novelist’s Convictions in Alice Diop’s Film...
- 12/6/2022
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
"Sorcery was the only logical conclusion." Super Ltd has revealed the official US trailer for the acclaimed French drama Saint Omer, which first premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival this fall a few months ago. It won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at that fest, before going on to screen at the Toronto, New York, London, Busan, Hamptons, Ghent, and Chicago Film Festivals. The fictional film follows Rama, a novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly at the Saint-Omer Criminal Court to use her story to write a modern-day adaptation of the ancient myth of "Medea", but things don't go as expected. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama's convictions. Starring Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit, and Xavier Maly. While many critics are fans of this film, I did not like it much at all. It's excruciatingly dry and dull,...
- 12/6/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Country’s selectors hoping to end 30-year barren streak since last Oscar win.
France is hoping to break a 30-year barren streak and has selected Alice Diop’s Saint Omer to represent the country in the best international feature film category for the 95th Academy Awards.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
The film was announced by the Cnc on Friday evening (September 23) after a day of deliberations by a recently revamped selection committee who chose it from a shortlist of titles that also included Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, Eric Gravel’s Full Time,...
France is hoping to break a 30-year barren streak and has selected Alice Diop’s Saint Omer to represent the country in the best international feature film category for the 95th Academy Awards.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
The film was announced by the Cnc on Friday evening (September 23) after a day of deliberations by a recently revamped selection committee who chose it from a shortlist of titles that also included Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning, Alice Winocour’s Paris Memories, Eric Gravel’s Full Time,...
- 9/23/2022
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Click here to read the full article.
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired the U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s Saint Omer after a bow at Venice.
The film picked up the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, played in Toronto and is headed to a U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival. Super plans to release the film theatrically.
Diop co-wrote her debut fiction feature alongside Amrita David and Marie Ndiaye. Saint Omer stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit.
The courtroom drama allowed Diop to make her first narrative feature with Saint Omer. The film follows Rama (Kagame), a pregnant young novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old baby by leaving her on a beach to be swept away by the tide.
Rama arrives in the northern French town of Saint Omer,...
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired the U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s Saint Omer after a bow at Venice.
The film picked up the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, played in Toronto and is headed to a U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival. Super plans to release the film theatrically.
Diop co-wrote her debut fiction feature alongside Amrita David and Marie Ndiaye. Saint Omer stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit.
The courtroom drama allowed Diop to make her first narrative feature with Saint Omer. The film follows Rama (Kagame), a pregnant young novelist who attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Malanda), a Senegalese woman accused of murdering her 15-month-old baby by leaving her on a beach to be swept away by the tide.
Rama arrives in the northern French town of Saint Omer,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” has scored U.S. distribution with Neon’s boutique label Super after making its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where it won two major competition awards.
Super will release the film in theaters, following its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival and screening at the BFI London Film Festival, both in October. “Saint Omer” won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature at Venice; it also played at TIFF earlier this month, making it one of only four films to compete at NYFF, TIFF and Venice.
“Saint Omer” is the first narrative feature from Diop, the documentary filmmaker of “We,” “La Permanence” and “La Mort de Danton.” Inspired by a true story, the film revolves around the trial of Laurence Coly, a Senagalese woman accused of killing...
Super will release the film in theaters, following its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival and screening at the BFI London Film Festival, both in October. “Saint Omer” won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature at Venice; it also played at TIFF earlier this month, making it one of only four films to compete at NYFF, TIFF and Venice.
“Saint Omer” is the first narrative feature from Diop, the documentary filmmaker of “We,” “La Permanence” and “La Mort de Danton.” Inspired by a true story, the film revolves around the trial of Laurence Coly, a Senagalese woman accused of killing...
- 9/16/2022
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Neon’s boutique label Super has secured U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s acclaimed drama Saint Omer, following its world premiere earlier this month at the Venice Film Festival, where the film won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, as well as the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future Award for Best Debut Feature.
Inspired by a true story, Saint Omer is billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth. The film follows the novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
One of just four films selected to competition this year at the Venice,...
Inspired by a true story, Saint Omer is billed as a contemporary version of the Medea myth. The film follows the novelist Rama (Kayije Kagame) as she attends the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), a young woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her to the rising tide on a beach in northern France. As the trial continues, the words of the accused and witness testimonies will shake Rama’s convictions and call into question our own judgment.
One of just four films selected to competition this year at the Venice,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
US premiere set for New York Film Festival.
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired US rights to Alice Diop’s Venice Silver Lion winner and Toronto selection Saint Omer, one of five films shortlisted for France’s international feature film Oscar submission.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
Diop’s fiction feature debut is inspired by a true story and plays on the Medea mythology about the mother who kills her child. It follows Rama, a young novellist researching her next book, who reflects on her relationship with her mother as she attends the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.
Neon’s boutique label Super has acquired US rights to Alice Diop’s Venice Silver Lion winner and Toronto selection Saint Omer, one of five films shortlisted for France’s international feature film Oscar submission.
‘Saint Omer’: Venice Review
Diop’s fiction feature debut is inspired by a true story and plays on the Medea mythology about the mother who kills her child. It follows Rama, a young novellist researching her next book, who reflects on her relationship with her mother as she attends the trial of a woman accused of infanticide.
- 9/16/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Super, the boutique distribution label from Neon, has acquired U.S. rights to Alice Diop’s “Saint Omer” after it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize in Venice along with the Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future award.
“Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the New York Film Festival and play the BFI London Festival. Neon plans a theatrical release.
“Saint Omer” is Diop’s debut fiction feature, which she co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, and it stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit. Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral of Srab Films produced alongside Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo Hauts-de-France.
Inspired by a true story, “Saint Omer” revolves around Rama, a young novelist who attends the trial of a women who is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach.
“Saint Omer” was recently shortlisted for France’s submission to the Academy Awards and will premiere at the New York Film Festival and play the BFI London Festival. Neon plans a theatrical release.
“Saint Omer” is Diop’s debut fiction feature, which she co-wrote with Amrita David and Marie NDiaye, and it stars Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville and Aurélia Petit. Toufik Ayadi and Christophe Barral of Srab Films produced alongside Arte France Cinéma and Pictanovo Hauts-de-France.
Inspired by a true story, “Saint Omer” revolves around Rama, a young novelist who attends the trial of a women who is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter by abandoning her on a beach.
- 9/16/2022
- by Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
The Film Circuit begins with Telluride, a small but perfect film festival in the mountains of Colorado as simultaneously Venice unfurls the films that will soon be released in the wonderful arthouse cinemas of Europe, followed closely by Toronto whose films foretell the coming year’s Oscars nominees. It is a very exciting time to be on the festival circuit.
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
- 9/10/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
In 2016, in the courtroom of Saint-Omer, a small, untouristed town off a D-road between Calais and Lille, the trial took place of a young Senegalese Frenchwoman accused of murdering her baby: an act so utterly antithetical to accepted ideas of motherhood and womanhood that it is inescapably considered the “worst of all possible crimes.” The woman, a PhD student with a reported genius Iq and a flair for flamboyantly intellectual French, confessed but claimed sorcery as the real culprit. It’s the kind of true story that presents an obvious opportunity for a sensitive social drama given to sober, sorrowfully objective observations about the perilous, tumbling vortex of class, gender, ethnic and cultural issues in which it plays out. “Saint Omer,” the deceptively austere, extraordinarily multifaceted fiction debut from documentarian Alice Diop, is not that film.
Instead, positioned on a mesmerizingly steady axis stretching, as though along a fascinated gaze,...
Instead, positioned on a mesmerizingly steady axis stretching, as though along a fascinated gaze,...
- 9/7/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Click here to read the full article.
The details of the case are grim. On a chilly November day in 2013, Fabienne Kanou surrendered her 15-month-old daughter, Adélaïde, to the sea. She chose the shores of Berck-sur-Mer because of its linguistic proximity to impurity: “Berck” sounded like “Beurk,” the French word for “yuck.”
Later, when asked by police for her motive, Kanou replied cryptically, “It was simpler that way.” During her trial in 2016, she attributed her actions to malevolent forces. Nothing in her story made sense, she said. “Even a stupid person would not do what I did.”
Kanou’s case enraptured France for its peculiarity and harshness. The woman was a graduate student with a genius level Iq. White media outlets chronicling the trial liked to note her eloquence; they could not, it seems, reconcile Kanou’s race and rhetorical prowess, her calm presentation and horrifying action. Alice Diop’s...
The details of the case are grim. On a chilly November day in 2013, Fabienne Kanou surrendered her 15-month-old daughter, Adélaïde, to the sea. She chose the shores of Berck-sur-Mer because of its linguistic proximity to impurity: “Berck” sounded like “Beurk,” the French word for “yuck.”
Later, when asked by police for her motive, Kanou replied cryptically, “It was simpler that way.” During her trial in 2016, she attributed her actions to malevolent forces. Nothing in her story made sense, she said. “Even a stupid person would not do what I did.”
Kanou’s case enraptured France for its peculiarity and harshness. The woman was a graduate student with a genius level Iq. White media outlets chronicling the trial liked to note her eloquence; they could not, it seems, reconcile Kanou’s race and rhetorical prowess, her calm presentation and horrifying action. Alice Diop’s...
- 9/7/2022
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
★★☆☆☆ Director Jean-Marc Moutout returns to the BFI London Film Festival with Early One Morning (2011) - starring Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Valérie Dréville and Xavier Beauvois - as he continues his exploration of the insular and alienating world of executive business and showcases a similar degree of visual panache and assured direction.
Darroussin plays Paul Wertret, a long serving account manager for a major French bank, who specialises in corporate contracts. However, his years of dedication to the company now appear meaningless, as his new boss has taken it upon himself to demote Paul as part of a cost-cutting measure undertaken to escape the current recession that continues to cripple the banking industry. As a man who lives solely for his work, Paul struggles to deal with this dejection, and on one calm spring morning he arrives at the office and manifests his repressed fury with the most dramatic and devastating action.
Darroussin's performance as Paul,...
Darroussin plays Paul Wertret, a long serving account manager for a major French bank, who specialises in corporate contracts. However, his years of dedication to the company now appear meaningless, as his new boss has taken it upon himself to demote Paul as part of a cost-cutting measure undertaken to escape the current recession that continues to cripple the banking industry. As a man who lives solely for his work, Paul struggles to deal with this dejection, and on one calm spring morning he arrives at the office and manifests his repressed fury with the most dramatic and devastating action.
Darroussin's performance as Paul,...
- 10/15/2011
- by Daniel Green
- CineVue
Early One Morning / De Bon Matin
Writer/Director: Jean-Marc Moutout
2010, France / Belgium
Are work-related problems driving you over the edge? Just minutes into Jean-Marc Moutout’s Early One Morning, a middle-aged businessman starts his day by coolly gunning down a couple of colleagues. As the killer waits quietly in his office, Moutout spends the next 90 minutes explaining what drove him to this shocking act of violence.
With its focus on the ongoing banking crisis and workplace stress, Early One Morning could have been conceived as a scathing satire or a pitch-black comedy. Instead Moutout, who also made the workplace drama Work Hard, Play Hard (2003), has taken the serious approach. What follows is a sad, thought-provoking but never mawkish story about the unravelling life of middle-aged bank executive Paul Wertret (superbly played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin).
The film begins with Paul’s meticulous preparations for what will be his final morning at Bicf in Annecy,...
Writer/Director: Jean-Marc Moutout
2010, France / Belgium
Are work-related problems driving you over the edge? Just minutes into Jean-Marc Moutout’s Early One Morning, a middle-aged businessman starts his day by coolly gunning down a couple of colleagues. As the killer waits quietly in his office, Moutout spends the next 90 minutes explaining what drove him to this shocking act of violence.
With its focus on the ongoing banking crisis and workplace stress, Early One Morning could have been conceived as a scathing satire or a pitch-black comedy. Instead Moutout, who also made the workplace drama Work Hard, Play Hard (2003), has taken the serious approach. What follows is a sad, thought-provoking but never mawkish story about the unravelling life of middle-aged bank executive Paul Wertret (superbly played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin).
The film begins with Paul’s meticulous preparations for what will be his final morning at Bicf in Annecy,...
- 10/10/2011
- by Susannah
- SoundOnSight
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