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Where would you go for something you love? What limits would you cross? What morals would you break? Would you give up your fun for it? Your youth? And your ego? More than that, would you give up your life?

“From here on out, life will only be volcanoes, volcanoes, volcanoes,” says Maurice Krafft to his wife and equally wild Katia Krafft (pioneering French volcanologists). Maybe a little less, for she didn’t want to ride a river of lava and wasn’t boating on a lake of sulphuric acid, unlike Maurice. Their love was finally complete and official. They were now married, not only to each other but also to volcanoes. Two movies, countless photos, and hours of footage, yet we actually don’t know how they met or how they chose to be volcanologists, heck, I can barely say it. Some blame a cafe, some hold the bench responsible,...

Well, it seems as though we’ve arrived at another end-of-the-year inspirational true-life sports story award contender. Last year it was The Boys In The Boat and The Iron Claw. And both of them have an Olympic connection to this new film (the latter just touched on the gold in its first act). But that’s where the comparisons end as this story happened less than twenty years ago. Oh, and the “biggie”, is that this film concerns a young (mostly high school-age) African-American woman. Now her coach plays a big role here, though it is in support of her journey. But the biggest difference is that that journey doesn’t end with the medal ceremony, all wrapped up nicely with the star-spangled ribbon. No, she forges ahead due to her courage, skills, and determination fueled by The Fire Within.

The film begins with a flashback to a few years...

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2024, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

As the decade crosses its halfway point, I can already sense the hastily assembled lists soon appearing, attempting to provide definitive word on the best in cinema over the last five years. I’d rather heed the wisdom of the great J. Rosenbaum and give some distance, but in the spirit of annual year-end extravaganza, I’ll join the crowd in looking back at least the last twelve months of releases. A peculiar year in I saw almost half the films on my list upon their festival premieres in 2023––and furthermore, my top three picks haven’t shifted since January. The eleven preceding months thankfully brought no shortage of illuminating experiences as detailed in my top 15 picks, including a few of the most noteworthy studio offerings failing...

Few weekends annually are less certain indices of future grosses than the one before Christmas. That said, a combined $97 million for the openings of two new family-oriented titles set theaters up for a healthy holiday season.

“Sonic the Hedgehog 3” (Paramount) was the clear winner with $62 million, with “Mufasa: The Lion King” (Disney) second with $35 million. This is the first time two films on this pre-holiday date have debuted at $35 million or more, and with higher ticket prices today a factor, the best overall since 2011.

The weekend also saw the start of New York/Los Angeles platform runs of two significant awards contenders. New York Film Critics’ Best Film winner “The Brutalist” (A24) despite an over three and a half hour running time averaged nearly $67,000 in four theaters, while Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film “The Room Next Door” (Sony Pictures Classics) started with $107,000 in six.

Pre-Christmas weekends more often...

Brooke Shields became a star and attracted mild controversy in this show, director Louis Malle’s first American production. Co-writer & producer Polly Platt and cinematographer Sven Nykvist collaborated on Malle’s fascinating look at life in a New Orleans brothel early in the 20th century. Prostitute Susan Sarandon raises two children in the upscale bawdy house, and art photographer Keith Carradine becomes an artist in residence. It’s a non-moralizing portrait of a bygone lifestyle. The handsome remastered release co-stars Diana Scarwid and Barbara Steele — and comes with a new interview with Brooke Shields.

Pretty Baby

Blu-ray

Viavision [Imprint] 174

1978 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 109 min. / Street Date November 4, 2022 / Available from / £

Starring: Susan Sarandon, Keith Carradine, Brooke Shields, Frances Faye, Antonio Fargas, Gerrit Graham, Matthew Anton, Mae Mercer, Diana Scarwid, Barbara Steele.

Cinematography: Sven Nykvist

Production Designer: Trevor Williams

Costume Supervisor: Mina Mittelman

Film Editor: Suzanne Fenn, supervisor Suzanne Baron

Music adapted by Jerry Wexler,...

Werner Herzog is the writer and director of nearly 80 films, not including the countless others that live inside his head. The brain’s astonishing capacity for such ideas – among many other things – is the subject of the German auteur’s latest documentary, “Theater of Thought,” which premiered at Telluride and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Herzog stopped by TheWrap and Shutterstock’s Interview and Portrait Studio at TIFF to discuss what he learned during the filmmaking process and more.

“There was always a deep fascination about what goes on in our minds: what makes us love, fall in love, hatred, language, architecture, our ideas, our movies, everything,” Herzog told Sharon Waxman, Editor and CEO of TheWrap. “And it’s all created in our brains.”

Also Read:

‘Corsage’ Star Vicky Krieps on Playing a ‘Princess Imprisoned in the Image of Being a Woman’ (Video)

Though Herzog considers himself a...

Werner Herzog’s career entered a renaissance when most directors his age slow down. After 2005’s “Grizzly Man” turned his distinctive Bavarian accent into a pop culture phenomenon, the director previously best known for German New Wave entries “Fitzcarraldo” and “Aguirre, Wrath of God” was suddenly both fodder for internet memes galore and a Hollywood actor playing villains in “The Mandalorian” and “Jack Reacher” (not to mention his voicework on multiple episodes of “The Simpsons”). Yet none of these strange twists got in the way of his main career as a filmmaker. “I’m plowing ahead,” he said in a conversation with IndieWire over Zoom this month.

Herzog turns 80 on September 5, when he’ll be attending the Telluride Film Festival, where one of the main venues bears his name. He assumed some kind of celebration was in the works. “I have no clue what to expect there,” he said, “but I’ll face it.

Portugal’s documentary festival runs October 6-15.

A new short film from Argentian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel will open the 20th edition of Portuguese documentary festival, Doclisboa.

North Terminal will have its Portuguese premiere on October 6 and play simultaneously at both Cinema São Jorge in Lisbon and Cinema Trindade in Porto.

The Headless Woman director made the documentary during the pandemic and it follows singer Julieta Laso meeting up with various Argentine artists in the Salta region.

Martel’s last feature film Zama premiered in competition at Cannes 2017 and won best film at Argentina’s Academy Awards.

Closing the festival on...

Wider availability of vintage footage and a race to relevance has inspired several film-makers to pursue similar subjects

Currently on an extended release in theatres and already earning itself awards buzz, Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s breathtaking documentary about the relationship and career shared by French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, is the surprise independent hit of the summer. But Dosa is not the only director to be inspired by the extraordinary daring of the Kraffts.

In 2016 Werner Herzog released his documentary Into the Inferno, which sparingly included clips from preserved reels out of the couple’s extensive collection. The meat of that film followed present-day volcano expert Clive Oppenheimer, now tapped for a scientific adviser role on Fire of Love, which draws more heavily on the Krafft archive in its all-vintage-filmstrip format of storytelling. In Dosa’s film, the most intrepid home movies ever made gain fresh vitality...

The documentary festival will include 38 world premieres.

The UK’s Sheffield DocFest (June 23-28) has unveiled its 2022 line-up, including the world premiere of Werner Herzog’s The Fire Within: Requiem For Katia And Maurice Krafft.

The documentary festival will host 38 world premieres, 22 international premieres and 11 European premieres.

The Fire Within, which is written, narrated and directed by Herzog, will feature in DocFest’s Memories strand. It chronicles the French volcanologists who died in a volcanic eruption on Japan’s Mount Uzen in 1991, leaving an archive of more than 200 hours of footage that makes up the film.

Herzog previously explored the...

Portuguese helmer João Pedro Rodrigues returned to Cannes this year with his new film “Will-o’-the-Wisp” (“Fogo Fátuo”), which screened in Directors’ Fortnight and is his first feature since the well-received 2016 madcap journey of self-discovery, “The Ornithologist.”

The film begins in 2069, with Prince Alfredo on his deathbed, who begins to reminisce about his childhood spent in the King’s Pine Grove in Leiria, near Lisbon, which was devastated in the 2017 forest fires. Behind him we see Jose Conrado Roza’s enigmatic 18th century painting “The Wedding Masquerade,” featuring exotic, dwarfish figures with black skin and a character suffering from a skin disease, at a wedding ceremony.

After the forest fire the young Alfredo decides to join the volunteer fire brigade where he falls in love with a Black fireman, Afonso.

Rodrigues calls the film a “musical fantasy.” The homoerotically charged film establishes metaphorical links between the tall erect pine trees and the male member,...

This article contains spoilers for Stranger Things season 4.

The Stranger Things expanded universe, which is comprised of several standalone novels and comics, has some understandable inconsistencies that arise from having disconnected writers working in different media. Most of these are minor or at least can be written off as inconsequential if the television show is given canon precedence. But Eleven’s flashbacks in season 4 completely upend many ideas that prequel readers had about the activities of Dr. Brenner and the subjects of his experiments — in particular, the role of the one known as Six.

Six happens to be the title of a four issue comic series by Jody Houser that released in 2019, just before Stranger Things season 3 dropped on Netflix. It tells the story of Francine, who, because of her uncontrolled ability to see into the future, is recruited into the secret government program run by Dr. Martin Brenner at Hawkins National Laboratory.

After working at quite a steady clip the last few decades, the usually intrepid 79-year-old Werner Herzog has had a rightfully quiet pandemic. We’ve now finally learned what he’s been working on as news has arrived of his next documentary.

The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft, backed by Abacus Media Rights, tells the story of the French volcanologists, which were not only brought up in Herzog’s previous film Into the Inferno––his 2016 collaboration with volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer––but are also the subjects of this year’s Sundance sensation Fire of Love.

Herzog’s film, which he of course narrates, pulls from the over 200 hours of footage the duo left behind following their death in 1991 at the base of a volcanic explosion. It’ll certainly be interesting to contrast Herzog’s take on the tale after Sara Dosa’s documentary, which features voiceover narration...

Feature documentary “The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft,” directed by German filmmaker Werner Herzog and distributed by Abacus Media Rights, has been acquired by Arte for France and Germany.

In addition, ahead of its official launch at MipTV in Cannes, Amr has pre-sold the feature, about French volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft, to BBC Storyville for the U.K., Dr in Denmark, Svt in Sweden and Nrk in Norway.

Written, directed and narrated by Herzog, “The Fire Within” pays homage to the Kraffts, who left an archive of more than 200 hours of footage.

Herzog has produced, written and directed more than 60 narrative and documentary feature films, including “Grizzly Man,” “Invincible,” “Encounters at the End of the World” and “Cave of Forgotten Dreams.” He was named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009.

The film is produced by Brian Leith Productions, Bonne Pioche and Titan Films.

The oscillation between the calm of this being one story among many, merely one link in a long chain of lives, and the very concrete, time-stamped search for identity by the heroine is beautifully constructed in Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World (Verdens Verste Menneske), co-written with longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt.

The two have teamed up to present at Film at Lincoln Center Joachim Trier: The Oslo Trilogy and nine films selected by them to screen, including Martin Scorsese’s The Age Of Innocence; John Hughes’s The Breakfast Club; Agnès Varda’s Cléo From 5 To 7; Alain Resnais’ Hiroshima Mon Amour; Arnaud Desplechin’s My Sex Life… or How I Got Into An Argument, and George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story....

With it being seven years since his last live-action film, 2014’s The Grand Budapast Hotel, Wes Anderson is hard at work. Following a Cannes premiere, The French Dispatch finally arrives in limited theaters on October 22 followed by a wide release the following week, and he’s already shooting his next film (recently revealed to have the title Asteroid City) outside of Madrid with Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Rupert Friend, Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Hope Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, Tony Revolori, and Matt Dillon.

As is the case with all of his work, Wes Anderson synthesizes cinema history in his own specific language and for The French Dispatch he has provided a list of influences. As revealed in a promotional book sent to The Flim Stage and styled after the film’s magazine, 32 films are listed that “provided inspiration to the filmmakers,...

Above: 1962 poster for The Human Condition III: A Soldier’s Prayer.The extraordinary German graphic designer Hans Hillmann (1925–2014) should need no introduction to readers of this column: I’ve written about him on a number of occasions and anyone who loves movie poster design should know his name. For a long time, however, it has been hard to find a lot of his work online, certainly not all in one place. For a while I had entertained the idea of trying to collect images of every single movie poster he ever designed and ranking them from best to least-best. But I knew that even if I could gather together his more than 160 posters that I would tie myself in knots trying to put them in any kind of order.Thankfully author and publisher Jens Müller has done half of the work for me. Müller had first met Hillmann when he curated...

Above: English-language festival poster for There Are Not Thirty-Six Ways of Showing a Man Getting on a Horse. Design by Marcelo Granero.So another nine months have gone by since I last did one of these round-ups. As I’ve been doing for many years, I have tallied up the most popular posters featured on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram (previously Tumblr). The biggest surprise, not least to its designer, was the popularity of a festival poster for an experimental Argentinian film There Are Not Thirty-Six Ways of Showing a Man Getting on a Horse which has racked up some 2,335 likes to date and was the third most popular design I posted in the whole of 2020 (after the two Parasite posters that topped my last round-up). When I say it’s surprising it’s because film recognition tends to play a big part in the popularity of posts,...

Hou Hsiao-Hsien is considered one of the greatest Asian filmmakers of all time. However, his beginning lies in the world of cheesy comedy movies, starting with his 1980 debut “Cute Girl”, a tendency only cut off by the success of his first mature work, “The Boys From Fengkuei”. Even with the critical acclaim of the film, and the subsequent “A Summer At Grandpa’s”, he was not internationally applauded until a highly autobiographical film changed the path of his career. “A Time To Live And A Time To Die” is still considered one of the greatest coming-of-age movies from Asia.

“A Time to Live and a Time to Die” is streaming on Mubi

The movie opens with Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s narration to the audience: a statement that confirms the film as a retelling of his own childhood and youth. The audience follows Ah-Ha (Hou’s childhood nickname) and his family comprising of a multitude of siblings,...

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has announced director-screenwriter Hou Hsiao-Hsien and songwriter Harry Belafonte as recipients of this year’s career achievement awards, and Norman Lloyd as the recipient of its legacy award.

“In light of the challenges that 2020 has presented, we are particularly thrilled to be expressing our profound admiration this year for our esteemed honorees,” said Lafca president Claudia Puig. “In addition to our two brilliant career achievement winners, it’s an honor to create an award worthy of an inspirational figure in time for his 106th birthday.”

A leading figure in Taiwanese cinema, Hsiao-Hsien has received several international prizes, including the Golden Lion at 1989’s Venice International Film Festival for “A City of Sadness,” and selected best director for “The Assassin” at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015. He has written and directed a slew of films, including “A Time to Live and a Time to Die,...

Iconic Taiwan auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien will be presented with a lifetime achievement honor at the upcoming Golden Horse Awards.

The executive committee of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, organizers of the annual prize ceremony, said Monday that their decision to reward Hou was a unanimous one. They said it recognizes his “distinguished accomplishment in cinematic aesthetics and his dedication to passing on the heritage of cinematic arts.” The award will be presented at the 57th edition of the Golden Horse Film Awards, on Nov. 21.

Hou founded the Golden Horse Film Academy in 2009, aiming to cultivate a young generation of filmmakers in Taiwan.

The internationally-acclaimed filmmaker began his career in 1973 as a script supervisor, growing in to roles such as scriptwriter and assistant director before making his debut as a film director with the romantic comedy “Cute Girl” in 1980. Hou then went on to become a leading figure of the...

Goldfinch Studios has inked deals with U.K. indie producer Cowboy Cosmonaut Films and with British writer, director, and producer Tom Paton. Goldfinch has a cluster of operations spanning finance, production, facilities, post-production, and VFX, and will provide Cowboy Cosmonaut and Paton with development and production support.

Cowboy Cosmonaut is run by producers Ashley Holberry and Gavin C. Mehrtens, who were previously at Working Title Films. The initial slate of projects that Goldfinch will support includes Stephen Johnson’s “The Fire Within,” starring Hero Fiennes Tiffin (“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”), Sophie Kennedy Clark (“Philomena”) and James Cosmo (“Highlander”).

“Our partnership allows us to tell the sort of stories that we ourselves want to see on the screen – inspiring, diverse and commercial,” Mehrtens and Holberry said in a statement. “As young and hungry producers, we hope to bring a unique perspective to the U.K. and international production landscapes.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

78/52 (Alexandre Philippe)

There’s been documentaries that analyze entire cinematic movements, directors, actors, writers, specific films, and more aspects of filmmaking, but it’s rare to see a feature film devoted to a single scene. With 78/52, if the clunky title addition didn’t tell you already, it explores the infamous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho with exacting precision and depth. Featuring interviews with Jamie Lee Curtis, Guillermo del Toro,...

Into the InfernoThe lineup for the 2016 Telluride Film Festival (September 2nd - 5th) have been announced:Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, Us)The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography (Errol Morris, Us)Bleed For This (Ben Younger, Us)California Typewriter (Doug Nichol, Us)Chasing Trane (John Scheinfeld, Us)The End of Eden (Angus Macqueen, UK)Finding Oscar (Ryan Suffern, Us)Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi, Italy/France)Frantz (François Ozon, France)Gentleman Rissient (Benoît Jacquot, Pascal Mérigeau, Guy Seligmann, France)Graduation (Cristian Mungiu, Romania/France/Belgium)Into the Inferno (Werner Herzog, UK/Austria)The Ivory Game (Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani, Austria/Us)La La Land (Damien Chazelle, Us)Lost in Paris (d. Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, France/Belgium)Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan, Us)Maudie (Aisling Walsh, Canada/Ireland)Men: A Love Story (Mimi Chakarova, Us)Moonlight (Barry Jenkins, Us)My Journey through French Cinema (Bertrand Tavernier, France)Neruda (Pablo Larraín,...

On the Return to Montauk set with Volker Schlöndorff, Nina Hoss (his Barefoot Contessa), and Bronagh Gallagher at Lincoln Center Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Konrad Wolf’s I Was Nineteen (Ich War Neunzehn) co-written with Wolfgang Kohlhaase; Marlen Khutsiev’s It Was In May (Byl Mesyats May) starring Pyotr Todorovskiy; Louis Malle's The Fire Within (Le Feu Follet) based on the novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle with Maurice Ronet, Jeanne Moreau and Alexandra Stewart; Joseph Mankiewicz’s The Barefoot Contessa starring Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart; Jean-Pierre Melville's Les Enfants Terribles, adapted from Jean Cocteau’s novel with Nicole Stéphane and Édouard Dermit; and Fritz Lang's Spies (Spione) featuring Rudolf Klein-Rogge and Gerda Maurus, are the six films selected by Volker Schlöndorff as Guest Director of the 43rd Telluride Film Festival.

Michael Curtiz's The Breaking Point was one of Alexander Payne's picks in 2009 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Alexander Payne,...

Kenneth Lonergan’s Sundance hit, Denis Villeneuve’s Venice selection, and Pablo Larrain’s acclaimed Chilean biopic are among select titles heading to Colorado this weekend.

The 43rd edition of the Telluride Film Festival includes Clint Eastwood’s Tom Hanks starrer Sully, Barry Jenkins’ anticipated triptych Moonlight and Maren Ade’s Cannes triumph Toni Erdmann.

Joining them are Aisling Walsh’s Maudie, Gianfranco Rosi’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Fire At Sea, Damien Chazelle’s Venice opener La La Land and also from the Lido, Rama Burshtein’s Through The Wall.

Telluride runs from September 2-5. The main slate line-up appears below.

Arrival (Denis Villeneuve, Us, 2016)The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography (Errol Morris, Us 2016)Bleed For This (Ben Younger, Us, 2016)California Typewriter (Doug Nichol, Us, 2016)Chasing Trane (John Scheinfeld, Us, 2016)The End Of Eden (Angus Macqueen, UK, 2016)Finding Oscar (Ryan Suffern, Us, 2016)Fire At Sea (Gianfranco Rosi, Italy-France, 2016)Frantz ([link...

Buoyed by its worldwide premiere at the ongoing Venice Film Festival – early reviews are praising the musical as an audacious, deeply romantic feature – Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash follow-up La La Land has booked its place at Telluride 2016.

The picture, one that stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in central roles, is one of the many soon-to-be-released features to be locked in for the imminent film festival, joining the ranks alongside Manchester By the Sea, Moonlight, Things to Come, Bleed For This and Clint Eastwood’s airborne thriller Sully. It is, without question, a fairly stacked lineup, which only has us all the more excited for the onset of the Toronto International Film Festival later this month.

But over the coming weekend, it is Telluride that will take center stage. Similar to La La Land, today’s unveiling confirms a second festival appearance for Denis Villeneuve’s intriguing sci-fi pic Arrival.

One of the last question marks of the early fall film festival onslaught was Telluride Film Festival, who announces their line-up just a day before the event kicks off. Today now brings the slate for the 43rd edition of the festival, which runs from Friday through Monday.

Featuring the world premiere of Clint Eastwood‘s Sully, there’s also the Venice favorites La La Land and Arrival, as well as past festival highlights and some highly-anticipated dramas headed to Tiff, including Manchester By the Sea, Moonlight, Things to Come, Bleed For This, Toni Erdmann, Una, Neruda, and more. Check out the line-up below, along with links to our reviews where available.

Line-Up

Arrival (d. Denis Villeneuve, U.S., 2016)

The B-side: Elsa Dorfman’S Portrait Photography (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2016)

Bleed For This (d. Ben Younger, U.S., 2016)

California Typewriter (d. Doug Nichol, U.S., 2016)

Chasing Trane (d. John Scheinfeld,...

The Telluride Film Festival has announced its lineup for the 2016 edition, which begins Friday. As usual, the exclusive Labor Day weekend gathering of industry insiders and midwestern movie buffs will offer a sneak peak at highly anticipated fall films, including several awards season hopefuls, alongside several favorites from the festival circuit, smaller discoveries and classic films.

Damien Chazelle’s vibrant ode to musicals of the past, “La La Land,” will head to Telluride fresh from the Lionsgate release’s successful opening night slot at the Venice Film Festival, while another Venice premiere, Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi “Arrival,” comes to Telluride courtesy of Paramount alongside a special tribute to star Amy Adams. Another tributee, Casey Affleck, will be in town with Sundance hit “Manchester By the Sea,” which Amazon famously acquired at the Park City gathering for a hefty price tag.

Read More: ‘Manchester By The Sea’ Trailer: Discover Why Kenneth Lonergan...

Nigerian metropolis Lagos is the focus of the eighth City To City showcase at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) as top brass anoint two international Rising Stars.

Tiff’s latest line-up announcement also featured extra selections in Galas and Special Presentations, among them Walter Hill’s (Re)Assignment, Philippe Falardeau’s The Bleeder, David Leveaux’ The Exception (pictured), Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake and Terry George’s drama The Promise.

A vibrant crop of Contemporary World Cinema entries includes Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius, Danis Tanović’s Death In Sarajevo, Marie Noëlle’s Marie Curie, The Courage Of Knowledge and Akin Omotoso’s Vaya.

Hirokazu Kore-eda brings After The Storm to the Masters showcase, alongside Marco Bellocchio’s Sweet Dreams, Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta, Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, Gianfranco Rosi’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Fire At Sea and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Once Again.

Rounding out the...

Nigerian capital Lagos is the focus of the eighth City To City showcase at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) as top brass anoint two international Rising Stars.

Tiff’s latest line-up announcement also featured extra selections in Galas and Special Presentations, among them Walter Hill’s (Re)Assignment, Philippe Falardeau’s The Bleeder, David Leveaux’ The Exception (pictured), Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winner I, Daniel Blake and Terry George’s drama The Promise.

A vibrant crop of Contemporary World Cinema entries includes Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Aquarius, Danis Tanović’s Death In Sarajevo, Marie Noëlle’s Marie Curie, The Courage Of Knowledge and Akin Omotoso’s Vaya.

Hirokazu Kore-eda brings After The Storm to the Masters showcase, alongside Marco Bellocchio’s Sweet Dreams, Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta, Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation, Gianfranco Rosi’s Berlin Golden Bear winner Fire At Sea and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Once Again.

Rounding out the...

Dear Danny,

What do we gain from a film festival? As I fly back home, what am I taking away? Memories we made together, yes, work we accomplished, yes, and from the films: is there something different we get out of seeing them the way we did? Something we would not have found at home? What films will stay with us? We can guess but not know for certain. What from those films is now part of us, if anything? I think there are more questions than I’m asking, and multiple answers to each, but during this year’s Berlinale I contemplated in a strictly personal way, “what happens to me at film festivals?” I’m moved a little bit here and there, I learn something occasionally, I recognize beauty I would have otherwise not seen, but what else?

I grew up an only child, and retreated into cinema at a young age,...

Louder Than Bombs

Director: Joachim Trier // Writers: Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt

With only two features under his belt, Norwegian director Joachim Trier remains at the forefront of notable upcoming directors, his 2006 debut Reprise snagging him Best Director at its Karlovy Vary premiere, beginning a notable festival circuit tour before snagging Us distribution. In 2011, Trier reunited with screenwriter Eskil Vogt for an adaptation of Pierre Drieu La Rochelle’s novel Le feu follet, relocated to Norway and titled Oslo, August 31st, which also starred lead Anders Danielson Lie (check out our video interview with the filmmaker). Trier’s latest, Louder Than Bombs, is an international coproduction and his English language debut, a project announcing its leads Isabelle Huppert, Jesse Eisenberg and Gabriel Byrne back in 2013 when filming was supposed to take place in New York that fall. Initially unable to secure complete funding, the project was temporarily shelved, but would thankfully...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Feb. 4, 2014

Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, the 1962 drama-romance Jules and Jim charts, over twenty-five years, the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession.

The legendary François Truffaut (The 400 Blows) directs, and Jeanne Moreau (La Notte) stars as the alluring and willful Catherine, whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’s Oskar Werner) and Jim (The Fire Within’s Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating romantic triangles.

An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty, and the fortitude of love, the classic Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash a half-century ago and remains every bit as audacious and entrancing today.

Presented in French with English subtitles, Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo of Jules and Jim includes the following features:

• New 2K digital restoration,...

Riffing on Terek Puckett’s terrific list of director/actor collaborations, I wanted to look at some of those equally impressive leading ladies who served as muses for their directors. I strived to look for collaborations that may not have been as obviously canonical, but whose effects on cinema were no less compelling. Categorizing a film’s lead is potentially tricky, but one of the criteria I always use is Anthony Hopkins’s performance in Silence of the Lambs, a film in which he is considered a lead but appears only briefly; his character is an integral part of the story.

The criteria for this article is as follows: The director & actor team must have worked together at least 3 times with the actor in a major role in each feature film, resulting in a minimum of 2 must-see films.

One of the primary trends for the frequency of collaboration is the...

Col*Coa is winding down, but you can still catch a few stellar films and see the award winners for free Monday, April 22, 2013.

Award Screenings at 6:00 pm: The evening will start with the rerun of two awarded films in the Renoir and Truffaut Theaters at the DGA. Films will be announced on Sunday April 21 on the Col*Coa website, on Facebook, Twitter and on the Col•Coa info line (310) 289 5346. Free admission on a First comes First Served basis. No RSVP needed.

You can stay and also see the Closing Night Films at 8:30 pm at the DGA. Reservations needed. Those are both North American Premieres of two very anticipated French films. The thriller Moebus by Eric Rochant will show for free as will the comedy Like Brothers by Hugo Gélin.

Being among the French filmmakers (and I saw way too few of the films) gave me such a surprising sense of renewal - again because of this upcoming generation. After seeing City of Lights, the short by Pascal Tessaud which preceded the classic Jacques Demy film Bay of Angels starring a platinum blond gambling-addicted Jeanne Moreau in Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo in 1963, we spoke at length about what is called "The New Vibe". City of Lights stars a deeply quiet young man from "les banlieus", the notorious "suburbs" surrounding Paris where the international mix of young (and old) proletariat population is invisible to the rest of France except when the anger erupts into riots. This first generation has the French education but not the money or jobs and it hurts. They have picked up the cameras and with no money are creating films which express their lives in many ways like the new Latin American filmmakers or the new Eastern European filmmakers. Tessaud gave me an entire education in the hour we talked and I will share this in time. For now, aside from his wonderfuly trenchant film which played like a feature, which captured the Paris this young generation recognizes as The City of Lights - dancing, the kitchen of a very upscale restaurant, the dreary streets filled with construction, there is another example of The New Vibe, started by Rachid Djaïdani (a story in himself) the film Hold Back (Rengaine) leads the pack of the 20-some-odd new films of The New Vibe. It is produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint (Les Films des Tournelles) whose films are too numerous to name but include my favorite The Hedgehog which I wrote about at Col*Coa two years ago, Col*Coa's current Cycling with Moliere, 2002's Respiro and many many others. Hold Back took 9 years to make and most of the team was unpaid. The New Vibe makes films without the aid of the French system of funding; it is more guerilla-style, not New Wave, not Dogma but New Vibe. Hold Back took Cannes by storm when it showed last year in Directors Fortnight and went on to New Directors/ New Films in New York. The classic story of a Catholic and a Muslim who want to marry but whose family objects, this rendition the Juliet has a brother who marches throughout Paris to alert her 39 other brothers that she wants to marry outside her cultural and religious traditions. "This fresh debut mixes fable, plucky social commentary - particularly about France's Arab community - and inventive comic setpieces" (Col*Coa)

Hold Back (Rengaine) (Isa: Pathe) goes beyond the funny but "establishmant" film Intouchable which played here last year. It is the exact opposite of such films as Sister or even Aliyah (Isa: Rezo) which played here this year and also in Directors Fortnight last year. Aliyah is about a young French Jewish man who must make his last drug sale in order to escape his brother's destructive behavior. He escapes by immigrating to Israel. These films are made by filmmakers within the French establishment and describe a proletariat existence which exists in their bourgeois minds. They lack a certain "verite" which can only be captured by one who knows viscerally what such marginal existence is.

At the opposite end of the contemporary spectrum of films today, a real establishment film is You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet by Alain Renais (you have to be a Renais fan to love it who was so avant-garde in his day). Those old New Wave films one could see here stand out in beautiful contrast to today's New Vibe: Renais' Stavisky or the 1963 film The Fire Within (Le feu follet) by Louis Malle again starring the beautiful Jeanne Moreau. I missed them both to my regret. When I miss a film I always tell myself I can see it when it's released or on DVD or Mubi, but rarely do I get to see it. Instead I can only read about it as here written up by Beth Hanna on Indiewire blog ToH. The Fire Within was part of Wes Anderson's choices, one of the various showcases of Col*Coa. Says Hanna: "Anderson's taste is impeccable: He has selected Louis Malle's 1963 lyrical depression drama The Fire Within." It was made after the classic Elevator to the Gallows (1958) which Miles Davis scored and which also starred the young Jeanne Moreau. She also could be seen her in Col*Coa in the classic 1963 Jacques Demy-directed Bay of Angels.

Col*Coa really offered something for everyone this year. Another of my favorite film genres, the Jewish film, was represented by Aliyah and The Dandelions (Du Vent dans mes mollets) (Isa: Gaumont), Stavisky, and It Happened in St. Tropez (Isa: Pathe), a classic French comedy -- though a bit dark and yet still comedic, about romance, love and marriage switching between generations in a neurotic, comfortably wealthy Jewish family. The Dandelions was, according to my friend Debra Levine, a writer on culture including film and dance, (see her blog artsmeme), "darling, so touching, so well made, so creative ... i really liked it. Went into that rabbit hole of little girls together ... Barbie doll play. Crazy creative play. As looney as kids can be."

Ian Birnie's favorite film was Becoming Traviata. Greg Katchel's favorite originally was Rendez-vous à Kiruna by Anna Novion, but when I saw him later in the festival his favorite was Cycling with Moliere (Alceste a bicyclette) (Isa: Pathe), again produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint and directed by Philippe Le Guay who directed one of my favorites, The Women on the 6th Floor. Greg also liked Three Worlds though it was a bit "schematic" in depicting the clash of different cultures which were also shown in Hold Back.

Of the few films I was able to see, the most interesting was Augustine by Alice Winokur. It is the French response to David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method and the British film Hysteria. All three were about the turn of the century concern of psychologists or doctors with female hysteria. This one concerned Jean-Martin Charcot and the neurologist's belief that hysteria was a neurological disease and he used hypnosis to get at its roots, whild in A Dangerous Method it was seen by Freud and Jung as a mental disorder and in Hysteria by Tanya Wexler (Tiff 2011) in which Dr. Mortimer Granville devises the invention of the first vibrator in the name of medical science.

Take a look at Indiewire's own article here for more on Los Angeles's greatest French attraction, the second largest French film festival in the world.

Several American distributors will present their films at Col•Coa before their U.S. release: Kino Lorber – You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, co-written and directed by Alain Resnais (Focus on a Filmmaker); Mpi Media – Thérèse, the last film of director/co-writer Claude Miller starring Audrey Tautou; Cohen Media Group – In the House, written and directed by François Ozon and The Attack, co-written and directed by Ziad Doueiri; Distrib Films for two documentaries: Becoming Traviata and The Invisibles; Film Movement for two thrillers: Aliyah and Three Worlds; The Weinstein Company - Populaire.

Below you can see the international sales agents for the current features showing.

11.6 / 11.6 (Isa: Wild Bunch)

Directed by: Philippe Godeau

Written by: Philippe Godeau, Agnès De Sacy

A Few Hours Of Spring / Quelques heures de printemps (Isa: Rezo)

Directed by: Stéphane Brizé ♀

Written by: Stéphane Brizé, Florence Vignon

Cast: Vincent Lindon, Hélène Vincent, Emmanuelle Seigner, Olivier Perrier

Aliyah/Alyah ✡ (Isa: Rezo, U.S.: Film Movement

Directed by: Élie Wajeman

Written by: Élie Wajeman, Gaëlle Macé

Armed Hands / Mains armées (Isa: Films Distribution)

Directed by: Pierre Jolivet

Written by: Pierre Jolivet, Simon Michaël

Augustine / Augustine (Isa: Kinology, U.S.: Music Box)

Directed by: Alice Winocour ♀

Written by: Alice Winocour

Aya Of Yop City / Aya de Yopougon (Isa: TF1)

Directed by: Clément Oubrerie, Marguerite Abouet ♀

Written by: Marguerite Abouet

Bay Of Angels / La Baie des anges (U.S.: Criterion)

Directed by: Jacques Demy

Written by: Jacques Demy

Becoming Traviata /Traviata et nous (Isa: Films Boutique, U.S. Distrib Films and Cinema Guild)

Directed by: Philippe Béziat

Written by: Philippe Béziat

Cycling With MOLIÈRE / Alceste à bicyclette (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Philippe Le Guay

Written by: Philippe Le Guay, based on an original idea by Fabrice Luchini and Philippe Le Guay

Fly Me To The Moon / Un plan parfait (Isa: Kinology)

Directed By: Pascal Chaumeil

Written By: Laurent Zeitoun, Yoann Gromb, Philippe Mechelen

Haute Cuisine / Les Saveurs du palais (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: The Weinstein Company)

Directed by: Christian Vincent

Written by: Etienne Comar & Christian Vincent, based on the life of Danièle Mazet-Delpeuch

Hidden Beauties / Mille-Feuille (Isa: Other Angle Pictures)

Directed by: Nouri Bouzid

Written by: Nouri Bouzid, Joumène Limam

Hold Back / Rengaine (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Rachid Djaïdani

Written by: Rachid Djaïdani

In The House / Dans la maison (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)

Directed by: François Ozon

Written by: François Ozon

It Happened In Saint-tropez / Des Gens qui s’embrassent (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Danièle Thompson ♀

Written by: Danièle Thompson, Christopher Thompson

Jappeloup/ Jappeloup (Isa: Pathe)

Directed by: Christian Duguay

Written by: Guillaume Canet

Le Grand Soir / Le grand soir (Isa: Funny Balloons)

Directed by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern

Written by: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Kervern

Little Lion / Comme un Lion (Isa: Pyramide)

Directed by: Samuel Collardey

Written by: Catherine Paillé, Nadège Trebal, Samuel Collardey

Moon Man / Jean de la lune (Isa: Le Pacte)

Directed By: Stephan Schesch

Written By: Stephan Schesch, Ralph Martin. Based on the book by: Tomi Ungerer

Populaire / Populaire (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: TWC)

Directed By: Régis Roinsard

Written By: Régis Roinsard, Daniel Presley, Romain Compingt

Rendezvous In Kiruna / Rendez-vous à Kiruna (Isa: Pyramide)

Directed by: Anne Novion ♀

Written by: Olivier Massart, Anne Novion, Pierre Novion

Sons Of The Wind / Les Fils du vent (Isa: Wide)

Directed by: Bruno Le Jean

Written by: Bruno Le Jean

Stavisky / Stavisky (1974) (Isa: StudioCanal)

Directed by: Alain Resnais

Written by: Jorge Semprún

The Attack / L’Attentat

France, Belgium, Lebanon, Qatar, 2013

Directed by: Ziad Doueiri (Isa: Wild Bunch, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)

The BRONTË Sisters / Les Soeurs Brontë (Isa: Gaumont, U.S.: Cohen Media Group)

Directed by: André Téchiné

Written by: André Téchiné, Jean Gruault, Pascal Bonitzer

The Dandelions / Du Vent dans mes mollets ✡

Directed By: Carine Tardieu ♀

Written By: Carine Tardieu, Raphaële Moussafir, Olivier Beer

The Fire Within / Le Feu Follet (1963) (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Janus Films)

Directed by: Louis Malle

Written by: Louis Malle

The Invisibles / Les Invisibles (Isa: Doc & Film, U.S. Distrib Films))

Directed By: Sébastien Lifshitz

The Man Who Laughs/ L’Homme qui rit (Isa: EuropaCorps)

Directed by: Jean-Pierre Améris

Written by: Jean-Pierre Améris , Guillaume Laurant

THÉRÈSE / Thérèse Desqueyroux (Isa: TF1, U.S.: Mpi)

Directed by: Claude Miller

Written by: Claude Miller, Natalie Carter

Three Worlds / Trois mondes (Isa: Pyramide, U.S.: Film Movement)

Directed by: Catherine Corsini ♀

Written by: Catherine Corsini, Benoît Graffin

To Our Loves / À nos amours (1983) (U.S. Janus)

Directed By: Maurice Pialat

Written By: Arlette Langmann, Maurice Pialat

True Friends / Amitiés sincères (Isa: Snd Groupe 6)

Directed By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie

Written By: Stéphan Archinard, François Prévôt-Leygonie, Marie-Pierre Huster

Welcome To Argentina / Mariage à Mendoza (Isa: Kinology)

Directed By: Édouard Deluc

Written By: Anaïs Carpita, Édouard Deluc, Thomas Lilti, Philippe Rebbot

What’S In A Name / Le prénom (Isa: Pathe, U.S. Under The Milky Way)

Directed by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte

Written by: Alexandre de La Patellière, Matthieu Delaporte

You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet / Vous n’avez encore rien vu (Isa: StudioCanal, U.S.: Kino Lorber)

Directed By: Alain Resnais

Written By: Alain Resnais, Laurent Herbiet...

This is one of my favorite L.A. Events!! The 17th annual City of Lights, City of Angels (4/15-22) will feature a bevy of homages, classics, restorations and retrospectives of renowned French filmmakers. The festival is also inaugurating its first producer focus, highlighting two films of the honoree during festival week.

Carte Blanche To An American Filmmaker: Wes Anderson

Col•Coa has given director Wes Anderson carte blanche to program one of his favorite French films in the 2013 Classics series. He chose The Fire Within (1963), directed by Louis Malle and starring Maurice Ronet & Jeanne Moreau (Col•Coa Classics presented in Association with Janus Films and L’Institut Francais). Anderson is the writer-director of Moonrise Kingdom, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Rushmore.

- Focus On A Producer: Anne-dominique Toussaint (New)

The Producer Anne-Dominique Toussaint will inaugurate a new rendez vous at Col•Coa entitled Focus On A Producer. On April 20, following the presentation of two recent films produced by Les Films des Tournelles , a discussion with the audience will shed light on the producer’s role in French cinema and France’s financing system.

- Focus On A Filmmaker : Alain Resnais

Col•Coa will honor director Alain Resnais with a special presentation of Stavisky (1974) starring Jean-Paul Belondo, in association with L’Institut FRANÇAIS, as well as a premiere of his new film You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet which will be released in May in the Us.

A panel will revisit the work of the French master, widely regarded as one of the greats of world cinema. (Col•Coa Classics + West Coast Premiere of You Ain’T Seen Nothin’ Yet).

- Homage To Maurice Pialat

Col•Coa will honor writer-director Maurice Pialat on the 10th anniversary of his death, with the screening of To Our Loves (1983) starring Sandrine Bonnaire, in association with L’Institut Francais (Colcoa Classics)

- North American Premiere Of The Restored Version Of Bay Of Angels (50thAnniversary)

Col•Coa will present the digitally restored Bay Of Angels (1963) in partnership of the Franco-American Cultural Fund (Facf). Written and directed by Jacques Demy and starring Jeanne Moreau and Claude Mann, this seldom-seen classic will be presented in association with Ciné-Tamaris and Janus Films to celebrate its 50th anniversary (Col•Coa Classics).

- 35th Anniversary Of The Bronte Sisters

Special 35th anniversary presentation of The Bronte Sisters written and directed by Andre Techiné and starring Isabelle Huppert, Isabelle Adjani & Marie-France Pisier, in association with the Cohen Media Group before its numeric release in the Us (Col•Coa Classics).

The 17th line-up of films in competition for the Col·Coa Awards, will be announced on March 26, 2013.

Col•Coa was created by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guils of America West, and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem). Col•Coa is also supported by France’s Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (L’Arp), the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles, the Cnc and Unifrance.

For more information, please contact:

In Paris, Vanessa Jerrom (vanessajerrom@wanadoo.fr)

In Los Angeles, Cathy Mouton (camouton@pacbell.net)...

New Delhi, Dec 29: Bollywood celebrities are "angry" and "ashamed" following the death Saturday of the 23-year-old Delhi gang-rape victim in a Singapore hospital, where she had been airlifted for treatment. Her fight for life must not be forgotten and India needs to "wake up", they said.

Several film celebrities took to Twitter to express their anguish over the young woman's 13 days of struggle, and the ensuing protests across the nation. The fire within each person, they said, must continue to rage until change happens.

Here's what they tweeted:

Abhishek Bachchan: I have always been a very proud Indian. Today, we should.

#30: Cloud Atlas

Directed by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski

Written by Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowski

Cloud Atlas is essentially a patchwork of narratives thematically linked with minor coincidences and recurring symbolism. With six stories spanning several centuries, Cloud Atlas explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future. As a parable of how we are all connected, each protagonist in Cloud Atlas wrestles with some form of oppression, based on either gender, age, race, sexual orientation, genetics and so on. In 1850, a young American lawyer sailing on a ship through the South Pacific is slowly being poisoned by a doctor who wants the treasure of gold he is hiding. In the 1930s, an inspiring composer follows his dreams while recounting his journey via love letters to his gay lover. A journalistic potboiler set...

Starting July 13th and running through September 2nd, prepare yourself to be transported to a summer vacation in France. All you have to do is check in at Tiff Cinematheque (350 King Street West, Toronto).

The 41-film sabbatical will make take you to popular and renowned destinations that include Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou (1965), Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), and Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937).

We’ll even be making stops at more remote, recherché locations, such as Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore (1973) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969).

Remember to pack lightly, re-schedule accordingly, and prepare for the ultimate staycation. Bon voyage!

Screenings include:

La Grand Illusion (1937)

Friday July 13 at 6:00 Pm

Sunday July 22 at 7:30 Pm

117 minutes

Heralded as “one of the fifty best films in the history of cinema” by Time Out Film Guide, Jean Renoir...

(Oslo, August 31st is being distributed by Strand Releasing. It opens Friday in NYC at the IFC Center.)

Joachim Trier’s follow-up to his much-loved 2006 debut, Reprise, begins with an audio montage of voices sharing their memories of the titular city: “I remember taking the first dip in the Oslo fjord on the first of May.” “I don’t remember Oslo as such, its people I remember.” “We moved to the city. We felt extremely mature.’” On the screen, stationary shots of empty city streets are followed by home movies—children at play, friends enjoying each other’s company—then back to the streets as they fill with daytime bustle. Meanwhile, the voices continue: “I remember hours on trams, buses, the metro, walking along endless roads to some mythical party where you never knew whether you were invited or not.” “I remember how free I felt the first time I came to Oslo.

This is a reprint of of our review from the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

It hasn't been a good one for the disaffected on the Croisette today. Lars Von Trier kicked things off with his Earth-destroying examination of the depths of depression in "Melancholia," and this afternoon, Joachim Trier unveiled his sophomore feature film "Oslo, August 31st." Delivered with more nuance than Von Trier, containing the sensitivity missed in that provocateur's film and powered by a strong lead performance by Anders Danielsen Lie, who is nearly every frame, "Oslo, August 31st" still succumbs to a romantically tragic conclusion that can't help but feel a little cliche.

Based very loosely on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle’s “Le feu follet” (which Louis Malle sourced for his 1963 film of the same name) the film opens with a gorgeous, elegiac montage of scenes from Oslo, with a voice over poetically describing the memories and moments...

Ever since I first wrote about the work of Sam Smith, back in 2009, I have been wanting to work with him in my capacity (in my other life) as the design director for Zeitgeist Films. In the two and a half years since then, Sam Smith has become one of the most sought-after designers on the independent film circuit with his refreshingly simple, witty and indelibly striking hand-drawn designs (it doesn’t hurt that he also has a great knowledge of both film history and the history of movie poster design). A few months ago I finally got the chance when we decided that we wanted something out of the ordinary to promote our new release of Andrey Zvyagintsev's Elena.

Zvyagintsev’s dark and beautiful film premiered at Cannes last year where it won the Special Jury Prize. For our release this May (it opens next week in the U.

Breathing

The Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Museum of Modern Art have announced the first seven titles lined up for the 2012 New Directors/New Films Festival, running March 21 through April 1. And, with descriptions from the Fslc and MoMA, they are:

Breathing (Atmen, 2011). "The remarkably assured directorial debut from veteran Austrian actor Karl Markovics (The Counterfeiters) creates a slipstream between the perilousness of youth and the inevitability of death. Roman (Thomas Schubert) is an inmate at a juvenile detention center whose last hope of parole rests on his ability to hold down a job as a morgue assistant. Remorse, horror and ultimately a glimmer of illumination are cultivated through his work and his attempts to connect with a life hanging in the balance. Breathing is a Kino Lorber release." See the Cannes roundup.

Crulic: The Path to Beyond (2011). "When Claudiu Crulic, a young Romanian in Poland, is arrested for...

Joachim Trier's film is based on the same 1931 French novel by Pierre-Eugène Drieu la Rochelle (the complex intellectual and Nazi sympathiser who committed suicide in 1945) that inspired Louis Malle's first fully accomplished film, Le feu follet. Malle's 30-year-old alcoholic upper-class hero revisits his life and old friends before committing suicide in Paris. In Oslo, August 31st, the Norwegian central character, Anders, is a drug addict from a similar background who makes his quietus after a day in the national capital. It's a cold, detached, very Scandinavian film, neither as sharp nor as oddly exhilarating as Malle's.

DramaWorld cinemaPhilip French

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A superb Norwegian film about a junkie spending a day outside the rehab centre, ballasted by an excellent central performance

An intelligent and resonant work from Norwegian director Joachim Trier, a movie that yields up its meanings and implications slowly. It is loosely based on Pierre Drieu La Rochelle's 1931 novel Le Feu Follet, filmed before by Louis Malle. This is one day in the life of Anders, played by Anders Danielsen Lie; he is a thirtysomething heroin addict in a rehab centre outside Oslo. He appears to have made progress and has just been permitted an evening outside the unit followed by a whole day on his own in the city. But the film begins with a grim revelation about Anders's state of mind: is this the first day of the rest of his life? Or are these his final 24 hours; is he a dead man walking? Danielsen Lie...

David here, reporting from the final week of the London Film Festival. If there's one name guaranteed to grab my attention, it's...

The sight of Madonna's name heading up movie credits is a slightly surreal one, and it's difficult to imagine the icon standing behind a camera, and so W.E.'s worst foible is an understandable one from such a deified person. Re-edited after a poor reception at previous festivals, there is a fair deal to admire here, but all those flashbulbs must have gone to her head, because the photography is stuffed with dramatically posed shots, as if its being filmed with a still camera. Yet it's in the camera work that the film digs up shards of emotional truth amongst the narrative cliches, suggesting that Madonna might prove a worthwhile director. When the camera moves, it does so with a defiant tactility, a visual sense alive with feeling and clarity.

Montreal’s Festival Du Nouveau Cinéma kicks off next week and as always, the festival brings a stellar lineup. We here at Sound On Sight are lucky enough to cover many of the other film festivals around the world which means many of us have already seen some of the great films included in this year’s program. Below is a list of ten films that come highly recommended from our staff. I’ll be posting a list of our ten most anticipated films soon, as well as we will have daily coverage, so make sure to bookmark our site.

10 -Oslo August 31st

Directed by Joachim Trier

Oslo, like Louis Malle’s acclaimed Le Feu Follet/The Fire Within (1963), is based on a novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. Trier’s challenge here is to make the Norwegian capital come alive in the same way that Paris did in Malle’s film.

Oslo, August 31st

Directed by Joachim Trier

Screenplay by Joachim Trier

Norway, 2011

“I always thought happy people were morons,” says Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie), the hero of Joachim Trier’s witty but inevitably rather downbeat drama, Oslo, August 31st. No one could accuse Anders of being a moron, but after months holed up in a clinic, this 34-year-old drug addict definitely isn’t cured. When he leaves the scene of a one-night stand, Anders has what you might call a dry run at suicide – immersing himself in a lake with a large rock. Neither of these episodes leads us to believe that his future looks bright.

Oslo, like Louis Malle’s acclaimed Le Feu Follet/The Fire Within (1963), is based on a novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle. Trier’s challenge here is to make the Norwegian capital come alive in the same way that Paris did in Malle’s film.

After ten days of watching nearly 70 films and conducting a handful of interviews, the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival has concluded. While we just hit our three-year anniversary, it was actually my fifth year at the festival and it remains one of my favorite experiences of the year. While it is more straight-to-business than something like Sundance, the breadth of films available is stunning.

We covered as much as possible from upcoming major releases to indies that may never get distribution here in the Us. I’ve rounded up everything below, starting off with our top favorites. Note that I didn’t include Nicolas Winding Refn‘s Drive since it is now in wide release, but it surely would have made the top 10 and you can read our review here. Click the titles of films to check out our full reviews.

The Best

50/50 (Jonathan Levine)

Drawing from a dark time in his own life,...