News

The Empire.The recent release of Bruno Dumont’s The Empire (2024), an absurdist space opera focalized around the inhabitants of a small fishing village in northern France, confirms that the past decade inaugurated a distinct period in the French director’s career. With their unblinking treatment of spiritual subject matter, Dumont’s first two features, La Vie de Jésus (1997) and L’humanité (1999), led many to declare him an heir to Robert Bresson. And while the outsized violence of his next film, Twentynine Palms (2003), drew worries that Dumont might be succumbing to a “tendency to the willfully transgressive,” as James Quandt wrote in his polemic against the New French Extremity, his subsequent work undercut such charges: Flanders (2006) and Hadewijch (2009), both unsparing but more restrained, returned to more familiar terrain, with the latter even featuring a direct homage to the swamp-water conclusion of Bresson’s Mouchette (1967). The appearance of Li’l Quinquin in 2014, however,...

Martin Scorsese is producing a feature length documentary about the late Pope Francis and the educational movement founded by the Pope prior to his passing.

The film, titled “Aldeas — A New Story,” was developed in collaboration with Francis’ Scholas Occurrentes, and it features Scorsese in conversation with His Holiness upon Scorsese’s return to his hometown in Sicily, and it also features the Pope’s final in-depth, on-camera interview, which was conducted exclusively for the film.

The film will focus specifically on a cinema initiative called “Aldeas,” which has the purpose of bringing together film production with education and community building. The program allows participants to create scripted short films celebrating their identities, histories, and values, and the documentary goes behind the scenes in the making of these short films. Indonesia, The Gambia, and Italy were the first countries to participate in the Aldeas initiative, and the shorts made for...

Is Andrew Garfield shutting the door on reprising his Spider-Man role? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

Andrew Garfield isn’t shutting the door on Spider-Man, but he’s not exactly swinging back in either, not unless things get weird. And not the kind of world that’s just alternate timelines or multiverse cameos. He’s talking offbeat, unexpected, creatively strange. The type of returns that flips the script instead of just revisiting it.

From Controversial Reboot to Cult Favorite

Garfield stepped into the red-and-blue suit for The Amazing Spider-Man back in 2012, which was a reboot that had big shoes to fill after fans had grown fond of Tobey Maguire’s web-slinging charm.

Despite the initial resistance, the film turned out to be a commercial win, pulling in $758 million worldwide, and critics and audiences gave it a respectable nod. He returned for a second round, but it wasn’t until No Way Home...

Andrew Garfield has finally addressed his potential return as Spider-Man. Garfield first suited up as the character in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, which was controversial upon release as fans had grown attached to Tobey Maguire’s portrayal of the character. Still, the film was a financial hit — it grossed $758 million against a $230 million budget — and it earned solid scores of 71% from critics and 77% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. Garfield suited up in the sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, before reprising the role in Spider-Man: No Way Home alongside Maguire and new Spider-Man actor, Tom Holland. During a recent interview at the Abu Dhabi Comic Con, Garfield was asked what it would take to get him to return as Spider-Man, and he proved his one condition to all fans in attendance:

"I would love to play the character again in some capacity, but I think it would have to be very weird.

This combo of streamers has a wide range of faith-based titles to enjoy at a great price.

Whether its Easter weekend, or Christmas and other winter holidays are approaching, having a way to watch religious TV shows and movies is very important for viewers of faith. Religious titles can provide comfort from a hectic outside world, and serve as a reminder of the things in life that really matter.

To that end, The Streamable has put together a bundle of three services that will let you watch religious titles at a price of only $25 per month. Check out our self-made budget bundle below and see if it’s what you’re looking for!

What’s the best budget streaming bundle for watching religious shows and movies?

Hallmark+

Prime Video

Peacock

Hallmark+

This bundle starts with Hallmark+, whose catalog is positively stuffed heartwarming romances and tales of love and peace. Everyone...

Martin Scorsese has never gone more than four years without releasing a movie, and it’s unlikely that will ever be the case. His planned Frank Sinatra biopic and The Life of Jesus are postponed indefinitely, but his next movie could be lined up at Disney. Considering how close Scorsese tends to release his movies, we do have to wonder: what’s next? But it’s not just us – it’s Marty himself.

Martin Scorsese, who is one of many of the Movie Brats in their 80s, knows that time is limited. But what will he have going for him in the near future? Speaking with USA Today, the director said, “I don’t know what’s next; I’ve got to get going here…I have some reading to do.” Since we do know that Scorsese’s next movie will star Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson (yeah…...

Veteran filmmaker Martin Scorsese has been mulling over a bunch of potential next movie projects since finishing up “Killers of The Flower Moon”, and the latest one, “Home,” is set to see him reunite with his modern muse, Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Revenant”).

Continue reading ‘Home’: Martin Scorsese & Leonardo DiCaprio Reuniting For Marilynne Robinson Adaptation At Apple at The Playlist.

Bruno Dumont, the director of The Empire with Anne-Katrin Titze on fairy tales: “You know the Queen and Fabrice Luchini's character certainly come from that imaginary world of the marvelous.”

In Bruno Dumont’s ingenious The Empire, starring Fabrice Luchini as Belzébuth (clad in Emil Jannings’ skullcap straight out of Fw Murnau’s Faust) and Camille Cottin as The Queen, the forces of Good and Evil, aka the Ones and the Zeros, descend or, respectively, ascend on a small coastal village in Northern France to take over humans and fight their larger-than-earth battles. The reason is 'the Wain,' a demon child born there to unleash unheard-of destructive forces if not stopped. Freddie (cast with a perfectly sunny little baby) not coincidentally shares his name with the protagonist of Dumont’s very first feature film, The Life Of Jesus. As on a Möbius strip, opposites intertwine in this realistic...

One of the greatest sports films of all time, crafted by the legendary duo of Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, lands on a new streaming home. Subscribers can now watch the acclaimed biographical drama, Raging Bull, on Amazon Prime Video.

Prime Video is the most recent streamer to acquire Raging Bull. The film is also available for fans on the free-to-watch streaming service, Tubi, and via Hulu. It's also the latest Scorsese-De Niro classic to become available on streaming after the beloved Taxi Driver debuted in January.

Related52 Years Later, Martin Scorsese & Robert De Niro's First Gangster Movie Is Still Perfect in Every Way

Martin Scorsese's first film with Robert De Niro is an underrated masterpiece of the crime genre.

Released in 1980, Raging Bull continues to be mentioned among the best sports biopics ever. The film sees De Niro portray former middleweight boxing champion Jake Lamotta, chronicling...

Martin Scorsese may be executive producing the buzzy “Cape Fear” series adaptation, but the auteur is actually looking to get wet with a different seaside project: a Hawaii-set true crime mob drama starring Dwayne Johnson.

Deadline first reported the yet-untitled film. IndieWire can confirm from a source close to the project that Johnson and his frequent collaborator Emily Blunt approached Scorsese with the feature, who then brought in actor/producer Leonardo DiCaprio. The script is being commissioned by Nick Bilton, who produced HBO documentary “The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley.”

The drama is set to star Johnson as a real-life aspiring mob boss who battled rival crime clans to control the Hawaiian islands in the 1960s. Scorsese, Johnson, Blunt, DiCaprio, and Bilton will all executive produce, along with Dany Garcia, Lisa Frechette, and Rick Yorn.

Blunt and Johnson have worked together on “Jungle Cruise” and will co-star in...

One of Martin Scorsese’s longest-gestating projects has another shot at seeing the light of day.

IndieWire has learned that 20th Century Studios is developing a film adaptation of Erik Larson’s “The Devil in the White City,” with Scorsese in talks to direct and frequent collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio in talks to star.

First published in 2004, “The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America” tells the story of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, following ambitious architect Daniel H. Burnham and the murders of serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes that took place during the event.

No script is currently ready, but Scorsese and DiCaprio should be deeply familiar with the material given how much time they’ve spent circling it over the past decade.

DiCaprio acquired the rights to the book in 2010 and began developing a film adaptation at Paramount, with Scorsese...

Andrew Garfield addresses potentially playing Jesus in Martin Scorsese's new movie, saying "You can’t just keep waiting for Scorsese to call." The legendary director is best known for operating within the gangster genre with Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, Gangs of New York, The Departed, and The Irishman. However, he has also frequently explored religion throughout his career with the religious epics The Last Temptation of Christ, Kundun, and Silence – the last of which starred Andrew Garfield.

Within his illustrious filmography, Scorsese's religious epics tend to be less popular than his gangster films, despite being equally as masterful. His 1988 epic, The Last Temptation of Christ, was quite controversial for retelling the life of Christ in human rather than divine terms. It ended up being a modest box office success that grossed over $33 million on a $7 million budget. One of his lesser-known films, 1997's Kundun, offered an account of the...

At 86, Ridley Scott is on the cusp of releasing one of the biggest films of his career — “Gladiator II” — and already has at least two additional projects lined up for 2025, a reteam with Paul Mescal and a Bee Gees biopic. With no signs of slowing down.

He’s not the only Hollywood veteran who’s still making movies: Martin Scorsese, who turned 82 this year, made one of the best films of his career with “Killers of the Flower Moon” while Clint Eastwood (94) has what might be his final film, “Juror #2” in theaters now.

Here are 15 directors over 80 who are still busy making movies.

Photo credit: Getty Images Martin Scorsese, 82

The prolific director of “Goodfellas,” and “The Departed” was Oscar-nominated again for his 2023 historic epic, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and is now developing two films: “The Life of Jesus” and a movie about Frank Sinatra. He also returned to documentaries...

Nicole Kidman took a dig at Martin Scorsese when she hinted that the legendary director doesn’t make films with strong female characters. It has been a criticism that was leveled against Scorsese a few other times. Meryl Streep echoed the same sentiments earlier in 2011 when she shared that she would like to see Scorsese interested in a female character once in a while.

Nicole Kidman with Harris Dickinson in Babygirl | Credits: A24

However, the whole drama brings up another interesting perspective about female directors. Kidman had pledged to work with more female directors since 2017 and fans can safely say that she kept her word. In a truly iconic moment, Spider-Man actress Kirsten Dunst once told her fellow actresses that they had to start looking for women-led projects.

Kirsten Dunst’s Take On Female Directors Gain Relevance Amid Nicole Kidman-Martin Scorsese Drama Kirsten Dunst in The Power of the Dog...

While Martin Scorsese had fun exploring the criminal underbelly of New York City through the eyes of powerful men, Nicole Kidman always had the best female representation in her films. From Eyes Wide Shut to Dogville, every Kidman film has been about the complex layers that shroud a woman and the societal expectations she rallies against, whether as a witch (Practical Magic) or a submissive (Babygirl).

Nicole Kidman in Dogville [Credit: Lionsgate, Columbia Pictures]

Martin Scorsese, on the other hand, has been busy celebrating the shades of grey where the men of crime operate in the seedy streets of Brooklyn, Vegas, or Manhattan. Renowned as one of the greatest directors of gangster films over the decades, it is rare for Scorsese to paint a picture where a female arc takes precedence over the male in his films.

It is only fair for an actress like Nicole Kidman to air out that...

Martin Scorsese has quite a few projects percolating at the moment. There's The Wager, based on the David Grann book The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder, with Leonardo DiCaprio expected to star. There's also a proposed Frank Sinatra biopic, and a film about the life of Jesus Christ the former of which may or may not still be in the works. And then there's Home, an adaptation of Pulitzer prize-winning author Marilynne Robinson's 2008 novel of the same name.

The director first spoke about the project in 2023, indicating at the time he'd written a script with Tr and In the Bedroom writer-director Todd Field, along with Kent Jones, the filmmaker behind Diane and Hitchcock/Truffaut. Scorsese mentioned Home again in a new interview with The Canadian Press in November 2024, saying there was a "very strong possibility" it would be his next film, but that a "scheduling issue" might prevent it from happening.

Martin Scorsese teases multiple story ideas for his next movie as he approaches turning 82 years of age. From the 1970s to the present day, Scorsese is the director of movies such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street and, at 81 years old, he delivered one of the finest films of his career in Killers of the Flower Moon. Over the past year, Scorsese has been exploring several options for his next movie, including an adaptation of The Life of Jesus, a book by Shsaku End.

During a recent interview with the Associated Press discussing his new docudrama series, Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints, the director teased multiple story ideas for his next movie. Asked if The Life of Jesus would be his next film, Scorsese said, "It's an option," and went on to tease two more ideas an adaptation of Marilynne Robinson's Home...

With it now being three years since Killers of the Flower Moon wrapped and one year since its release, Martin Scorsese has been away from a proper film set for some time. As the director prepares for his 82nd birthday this weekend, he has once again confirmed plans for his next features.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Scorsese revealed that his Shūsaku Endō adaptation The Life of Jesus is now just “an option” as he’s “still working on it.” However, he added there’s a “very strong possibility of me doing a film version of Marilynne Robinson’s Home, but that’s a scheduling issue.” With a script by Todd Field, here’s the synopsis of the companion novel to Robinson’s Pulitzer-winner Gilead:

The Reverend Boughton’s hell-raising son, Jack, has come home after twenty years away. Artful and devious in his youth, now an alcoholic...

Martin Scorsese is expanding his music documentary empire to include The Beatles.

Disney+ feature “Beatles ’64” is directed by David Tedeschi, with Scorsese producing. The film centers on the iconic British band’s first visit to America, which began the stateside phenomenon of Beatlemania.

The official synopsis reads: “On February 7, 1964, The Beatles arrived in New York City to unprecedented excitement and hysteria. From the instant they landed at Kennedy Airport, met by thousands of fans, Beatlemania swept New York and the entire country. Their thrilling debut performance on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ captivated more than 73 million viewers, the most watched television event of its time. ‘Beatles ’64’ presents the spectacle, but also tells a more intimate behind the scenes story, capturing the camaraderie of John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they experienced unimaginable fame.”

“Beatles ’64” includes never-before-seen footage, which was filmed by pioneering documentarians Albert and David Maysles. The clips were restored...

Martin Scorsese's latest documentary centered around The Beatles has officially set its release date for Disney+.

Per Deadline, Beatles '64, which follows The Beatles' first trip to America, will land on Disney+ on Nov. 29. David Tedeschi directed the upcoming documentary, with Scorsese serving as producer alongside Margaret Bodde, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Sean Ono Lennon, Jonathan Clyde, and Mikaela Beardsley. Jeff Jones and Rick Yorn serve as executive producers on the project. Beatles '64 will document the band's first trip to America, including never-before-seen footage, restored in 4k. The documentary will feature brand-new interviews with McCartney and Starr, as well as interviews with fans who experienced The Beatles' incredible rise to the top of the music industry.

Related Martin Scorsese Addresses Possible Retirement After Upcoming Jesus and Sinatra Films

Legendary director Martin Scorsese explains if he will continue his filmmaking career after his planned Frank Sinatra biopic and The Life of Jesus.

Despite closing in on his 82nd birthday in November, revered Hollywood filmmaker Martin Scorsese insists his days behind the camera are far from over. The Oscar-winning director claims he has "no intention" of retiring after The Life of Jesus and his upcoming Frank Sinatra biopic.

Speaking with World of Reel, Scorsese clarified his future when asked about his plans at the National Museum of Cinema, where he was honored on Oct. 7. According to Scorsese, he's hoping he has enough "strength and money" to finish his Jesus and Sinatra movies and wants to continue working until he's no longer able. I have no intention of retiring, Scorsese said. The film about Frank Sinatra is only postponed while the one about Jesus I am working on. I hope God gives me the strength and money to finish them."

Related Taxi Driver Writer Reveals His Problem With Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon...

Martin Scorsese addresses the retirement rumors after his two films stalled production. Scorsese is the legendary director behind movies like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street, and at 81 years old, recently delivered one of the best films of his career in Killers of the Flower Moon. Shortly after, Scorsese had two more movies in development The Life of Jesus and a Frank Sinatra biopic, both of which were recently postponed, leading to speculation that Scorsese might retire.

Now, shortly after his two planned films were postponed, the legendary director has addressed the rumors that he might retire. During a press conference at the Museum of Cinema in Turin, Italy (via The Hollywood Reporter), Scorsese debunked rumors of his retirement, saying that he has more movies to make and hopes he has the strength to continue working. Read his full response below:

I'm not saying goodbye to cinema at all.

Martin Scorsese has refuted rumours that he’s set to retire following the delay of two upcoming films: quite the opposite, in fact.

A couple of weeks ago we covered a report which stated that both of Martin Scorsese’s upcoming planned feature films appeared to have hit delays. The legendary filmmaker released Killers Of The Flower Moon in late 2023 and in the wake of that project, announced he would be tackling a film about the life of Jesus, along with a Frank Sinatra biopic.

Both projects were said to be smaller undertakings than the epic productions that have become Scorsese’s trademark over the years.

However, in late September it was announced that both projects were on hold. No reason was disclosed at the time. Because both projects were suspended, that led to unfounded speculation from some quarters that the 81 year old filmmaker was in poor health. Yet Martin...

When news broke that Martin Scorsese’s next two planned films — a Frank Sinatra biopic and a religious drama, “The Life of Jesus” — were being postponed, unfounded rumors started swirling that the great filmmaker was retiring. After all, Scorsese is nearly 82 years old, and may be ready to slow down after working nonstop for over 50 years.

But during an appearance in Turin, Italy on Monday night, Scorsese put those rumors to rest. “I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all,” he said, per The Hollywood Reporter, during a press conference at the Museum of Cinema, where he’s set to receive the museum’s Stella della Mole award. “I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them.”

Last month, Variety reported that production on the two films, which were expected to shoot back-to-back starting this fall, had stalled. Scorsese is...

Martin Scorsese is far from even thinking about retiring.

The auteur seemingly addressed rumors of him slowing down following the Variety report that his two previously announced projects, “The Life of Jesus” and a Frank Sinatra biopic, have both been shelved.

Scorsese instead unveiled a new documentary about marine archaeology during the 2024 Turin Film Festival, via The Hollywood Reporter, and said that he will still be a tentpole of cinema for as long as he is on this earth.

“I’m not saying goodbye to cinema at all,” Scorsese said. “I still have more films to make, and I hope God gives me the strength to make them.”

“The Life of Jesus” was confirmed in January 2024, with Scorsese telling The Los Angeles Times that he co-wrote the adaptation of “Silence” author Shūsaku Endō’s novel with critic and filmmaker Kent Jones. At the time, the project was set to film...

After Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio's next movie collaboration was set to be a homerun, yet recent news hints that the movie may never happen, just like another Scorsese collab. From movies like Goodfellas to The Departed, Martin Scorsese has become the type of director where audiences anticipate their next project. Whatever it is Scorsese has planned, there is a good chance it will be a hit. However, despite his success, Scorsese is just as susceptible to development issues as any other director. Therefore, some of his best ideas may never hit the big screen.

One particularly exciting idea that Scorsese revealed during an interview with Variety was a biopic about Frank Sinatra. Sinatra was a beloved and well-known singer throughout the mid-20th century, who originated songs such as My Way, Fly Me To The Moon, and That's Life. Notably, Scorsese already had...

Martin Scorsese was set to film two movies back to back, but they have since been postponed. Scorsese is one of the most acclaimed and influential filmmakers of all time, and he just earned his tenth Academy Award nomination for Best Director for 2023's Killers of the Flower Moon. His following two films were set to be passion projects the director had been working on for a while, a Frank Sinatra biopic and an adaptation of Shsaku Ends 1973 novel The Life of Jesus. Both projects seem to have hit a major roadblock.

According to Variety, Scorsese was planning to film The Life of Jesus and Frank Sinatra biopics back to back starting this year, but both projects have since been delayed indefinitely. The Life of Jesus, which was supposed to be filmed first, would delve into Christ as a divine figure and human. The Life of Jesus was set to...

Our deepest condolences to everyone geared up to see Andrew Garfield take a crack at the Lord and Savior. According to Variety, Martin Scorsese's bluntly-named biblical epic The Life Of Jesus has been indefinitely postponed, along with his planned Frank Sinatra biopic. Both were set to go into production back-to-back this year.

After bagging 10 Oscar nominations for last year's monumental three-plus-hour epic Killers Of The Flower Moon, you'd be forgiven for thinking that when Martin Scorsese wants to make a movie, that movie just gets made. But after revealing plans for religious picture The Life Of Jesus last year, and then the realisation of a long-planned Frank Sinatra biopic with Leonardo DiCaprio earlier this year, Marty's hopes to shoot both projects back-to-back have been put on hold. Per Variety's reporting, neither project will be setting cameras rolling in 2024 any more, and new production plans are yet to be confirmed.

Having already made one ripping biblical yarn in the shape of The Last Temptation Of Christ, Scorsese had hoped to acquiesce to the Pope's call for more Christianity centred art with an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō’s 1973 novel The Life Of Jesus. This would've been Scorsese's second Endō adaptation following 2016's Silence, with...

Martin Scorsese was planning to tackle films about Jesus Christ and Frank Sinatra, but according to reports, both have seen their shoot dates scrapped.

Last we heard, Martin Scorsese was set to have a busy few months towards the end of this year. The filmmaker was set to follow up last year’s Killers Of The Flower Moon with a project tentatively titled The Life Of Jesus Christ. The biblical figure is one that Scorsese has explored in film before in 1988’s The Last Temptation Of Christ. According to reports that surfaced earlier this summer, the project was set to go before cameras some time around October with Andrew Garfield rumoured to be in the title role.

Other details that popped up suggested that the film was being made outside the studio system and would shoot in Italy, Israel and Egypt. The story was to be based on the book...

A Martin Scorsese movie is always something to look forward to, but Variety reports that his next two projects have unfortunately been delayed. Martin Scorsese planned to shoot two movies back-to-back this year, including The Life of Jesus, based on Shūsaku Endō’s 1973 novel, and a biopic about Frank Sinatra.

Variety’s report states that both these projects have been postponed, with neither to be filmed this year. The Life of Jesus was expected to be up first, although there’s been nothing officially announced regarding the cast. That said, Andrew Garfield, who starred in Scorsese’s Silence, was rumoured to be eyeing the film. The project is still in development, with Scorsese hoping to shoot the film in Israel, Italy, and Egypt. Earlier this year, the director said he was still figuring it out. “I’m contemplating it right now,” Scorsese said. “What kind of film I’m not quite sure,...

Martin Scorsese, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind some of cinema’s most iconic works, had planned to begin shooting two highly anticipated films back-to-back this year. One was a biblical epic, “The Life of Jesus,” based on Shūsaku Endō’s 1973 novel, and the other was a biopic about legendary singer Frank Sinatra. However, Variety has learned that both projects have been postponed, and neither will be filmed this year.

Scorsese’s “The Life of Jesus” was expected to be the first of the two projects to go into production. Although no official cast has been announced, one source with direct knowledge tells Variety the film is still in development. Scorsese is committed to making the movie about the Christian leader, which he is reportedly financing independently. He took a similar approach to his 2016 epic drama “Silence,” also adapted from an Endō novel. The filmmaker hoped to shoot in Israel, Italy, and Egypt,...

Martin Scorsese will reunite with Andrew Garfield for his next feature, The Life Of Jesus: more on the new project here.

Martin Scorsese had promised to get back out making movies quickly once he was done with his promotional and awards work on Killers Of The Flower Moon, and he’s set to be keeping his word. As had been strongly suggested, he’s going to be making a film about Jesus Christ next, that appears to be going by the title The Life Of Jesus.

The film will reteam Martin Scorsese with Andrew Garfield, with whom he made the movie Silence. The plan, as previously discussed, is for this to be a much slimmer film in terms of runtime that Scorsese’s last couple of outings. A running time of less than 90 minutes has been talked about.

We also know that the plan is for the film to...

Out of the many movies you could imagine emerging from the mind of French auteur Bruno Dumont, a Star Wars parody was probably somewhere at the bottom of the list.

And yet it’s been some time since the Cannes Grand Jury Prize laureate, who broke out in the late 90s with viscerally stylized, hard-hitting works of Gallic realism like The Life of Jesus and Humanity, has strayed far from his gritty roots towards a brand of accentuated arthouse satire.

His latest effort, the sci-fi farce The Empire (L’Empire), definitely fits the latter mold, although it’s loaded with enough VFX, light saber battles, spacecrafts and prophecies to give George Lucas a run for his money. That is, if Lucas decided to set the next Star Wars in a sleepy northern French city, used a local mechanic to play one of the leads and tossed in a few flagrant sex scenes,...

Hengameh Panahi, the French-Iranian producer and sales agent who founded Celluloid Dreams and was a pivotal figure in bringing works from such auteurs as Jacques Audiard, Jafar Panahi (no relation), François Ozon, Marjane Satrapi and Todd Haynes to the world, has died. She was 67.

Viviana Andriani, a press attaché who had worked with Panahi for many years, confirmed Thursday that Panahi died on November 5 after battling a long illness.

Celluloid Dreams, which Panahi launched in 1985, was a groundbreaking sales and production company that helped build the global market for international arthouse films. Over the course of three decades, Paris-based Celluloid helped package and sell more than 800 films, including the first works from François Ozon (See The Sea), Gaspar Noé (I Stand Alone), Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and Bruno Dumont (The Life of Jesus), among many others.

Alongside many European talents, Panahi, who was born in Iran but moved to Europe aged...

Groundbreaking French-Iranian sales agent and producer Hengameh Panahi, who represented a myriad of renowned Cannes and Venice prize-winning auteur directors, has died at the age of 67.

Paris-based press attaché Viviana Andriani, who handled press campaigns for a number of Panahi’s films, announced the news in a short communiqué.

She said Panahi had died on November 5 after bravely battling a long illness.

Panahi was a force to be reckoned with on the international film industry circuit, who launched dozens of renowned arthouse directors at the beginning of their careers and accompanied them as they won awards and fame.

Born in Iran, Panahi was sent to Belgium to complete her education as teenager.

She got her first big break in the film industry as head of international at Brussels-based animation studio Graphoui.

In an early sign of her flare for scouting promising talent, Panahi connected with John Lasseter and Tim Burton...

Even in the grittier, more dourly ascetic, first films that he made in the 90s, Bruno Dumont has always wrestled with Big Picture questions about human nature, spirituality, and the conditions of reality within the context of French history and nationhood. In La vie de Jésus (1997), Dumont’s debut, an unemployed and mentally-ill teenager is a Christ figure whose corruption assumes sexual and violent extremes, and over a decade later, in 2009’s Hadewijch, a freakishly devout young Catholic woman, an avatar for the eponymous 13th century mystic and poet, becomes involved with Islamic fundamentalists. These mystical aggrandizements of the French working class, the everyday bourgeoisie, and the immigrant communities that to this day remain a point of political contention in France, go hand in hand with Dumont’s later portraits of martyrous historical figures who loom large in the French imaginary—think Camille Claudel and Joan of Arc (Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc...

A Cannes Film Festival staple, Bruno Dumont returns to the competition for a fourth time with a media satire that was clearly for acquired tastes. Slack Bay (Ma Loute) was his last time in comp, and excluding his mini-series P’tit Quinquin which shored up at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2014, he is best known for Camera d’Or winning La vie de Jésus (Directors’ Fortnight) 1999’s L’humanité (Grand Prix and a double Best Performance prize for his non-professional actors) and 2006’s Flandres.

Another film that is yay or nay on our panel, we’ve found high scores of 4 from several critics and complete dismal from the rest.…...

Lise Leplat Prudhomme as Joan of Arc. Bruno Dumont: 'It may seem anachronistic to choose a young girl but it makes the audience confront their own preconceptions and to go deeper' Photo: Unifrance As a director and as a person Bruno Dumont - whose film Joan Of Arc reaches UK streaming services this week - has lightened up considerably since the austere days of Humanity and Flanders, which both scooped the Cannes Film Festival’s grand prix awards in 1999 and 2006 respectively. Although he has been invited more than eight times to take part in the Festival’s various sections frequently he receives a rough ride from the critics and the public while his admirers will defend him to the hilt.

He directed his first feature film at the age of 38: The Life Of Jesus (1996), which was shot in his home town of Bailleul, near Lille. It was much acclaimed in the Director's Fortnight,...

On a Half Clear Morning

No doubt about it — Bruno Dumont’s been busier than ever. While 2019 saw the restoration of his 1997 debut The Life of Jesus and his 1999 follow-up Humanite with their inclusion in the Criterion Collection, we also saw the theatrical release of his Coincoin and the Extra Humans stateside, while his second installment in his Joan of Arc reiteration, Joan of Arc, took home a prize following its premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard. Two decades prior, Dumont would average a new project once every two to three years, but he’s been more prolific than ever, already filming his latest, On a Half Clear Morning (Par ce demi-clair matin) starring Léa Seydoux, Benoit Magimel, Blanche Gardin, and produced by Rachid Bouchareb and Jean Brehat while David Chambille is lensing.…...

E.T. Clone Home: Dumont Gets Delirious in Sci-Fi Themed Series Sequel

Ever the nonconformist, French auteur Bruno Dumont seems to be in the midst of an exceptional renaissance. Just as his first two films (1997’s The Life of Jesus and 1999’s Humanite), have been re-released and restored courtesy of Criterion Collection this year, Dumont returned to Cannes in Un Certain Regard with his musical-themed continuation of French icon Joan of Arc while his 2018 Locarno premed Coincoin and the Extra-Humans reaches a theatrical release. However, the juxtaposition between his early and current works is pronounced considering Dumont made a name for himself in austerity, working with non-professionals mired in gloomy narratives which felt more like documentaries.…...

French director Bruno Dumont is set to receive the Locarno Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Pardo d'onore Manor. He will accept the prize at the famed outdoor Swiss cinema, the Piazza Grande, on Aug. 4 with the world premiere of his new miniseries Coincoin et les z'inhumains, a comedic police caper about an extraterrestrial discovery.

Dumont was born in Bailleul in the French part of Flanders. His two-decades-long career has produced numerous controversial and thought-provoking films that explore the existence of evil or mystery in everyday life. 

His first film, The Life of Jesus (1997), earned him ...

French director Bruno Dumont is set to receive the Locarno Festival's lifetime achievement award, the Pardo d'onore Manor. He will accept the prize at the famed outdoor Swiss cinema, the Piazza Grande, on Aug. 4 with the world premiere of his new miniseries Coincoin et les z'inhumains, a comedic police caper about an extraterrestrial discovery.

Dumont was born in Bailleul in the French part of Flanders. His two-decades-long career has produced numerous controversial and thought-provoking films that explore the existence of evil or mystery in everyday life. 

His first film, The Life of Jesus (1997), earned him ...

If you thought the sudden move of French director Burno Dumont from austere drama to increasingly wacky comedy in the TV miniseries P'tit Quinquin and last year’s farce Slack Bay was a shock, prepare yourself for Jeannette, an electro-musical dance film on the adolescent life of Joan of Arc. Opening with little Jeannette (Lise Leplat Prudhomme) humming prayers to herself along the river Meuse (in fact, Dumont re-locates the story to his beloved northern France), suddenly the music swells, she belts one out—”there is nothing, there is never anything, but perdition!”—and ends it all with a handspring and splits. “Why do you do that?” asks a passing child, but the answer is obvious: lonesome, poor, in love with charity and full of doubts, Jeannette bounds with childhood’s pent up energy and calls forth her questions, protests and passion in bodily, soulful fervor. With this beginning, Dumont...

Maverick French director Bruno Dumont returns after Slack Bay with this baffling, deliberately disconcerting musical that won’t have your toes tapping

One of the Cannes film festival’s favourite aging enfant terribles, especially since Lars Von Trier seems to be still banned for life, Bruno Dumont returns to the Croisette this year with his latest assiette de wackitude, Jeannette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc. Hopefully, distributors outside of France will see sense and drop the formality of the subtitle and just rename this Jeanette! – because it is, of all things, a musical about young Jeanne d’Arc and everyone knows musicals are better with exclamation points.

Having dipped a toe into more commercial waters with his last two outing – miniseries Li’l Quinquin and the star-led feature Slack Bay, both black but broad comedies – Dumont returns to more familiar sombre, avant-garde territory with this adaptation of a play...

Love them or hate them, the films of Bruno Dumont never cease to confound.

For a long time the 59-year-old auteur was known for his uncompromising – and uncompromisingly bleak – early works like The Life of Jesus and Humanité, which featured amateur actors and were set in the darkest corners of northern France.

Then the director switched gears about five years ago with the Juliette Binoche-starrer Camille Claudel 1915, following that up with the surprisingly hilarious TV mini-series, Lil’ Quinquin. After another stab at comedy with Slack Bay, which played in competition last year, Dumont is back at the...

Exclusive: Hiam Abbass leads Berlin Panorama winner.

New York distributor Film Movement has acquired Us rights to Belgian director Philippe Van Leeuw’s Berlin Panorama Audience Award-winner In Syria.

Films Boutique represents international rights to the film formerly known as Insyriated and screens it in Cannes tomorrow (May 18) and on Monday (May 22).

Israeli-Palestinian actor Hiam Abbass plays a mother of three who turns her home into a safe house for family and neighbours as Syria’s civil war rages outside.

As bombs fall in the street, snipers turn nearby courtyards into death traps and burglars loot hard-won belongings, maintaining a routine indoors becomes a matter of life and death over the course of one day.

The cast includes Diamand Bou Abboud and Juliette Navis.

Film Movement celebrates its 15th anniversary this year and president Michael E. Rosenberg is in Cannes to scout for acquisitions. The company plans a theatrical release this winter.

“In Syria is a powerful...

Ma Loute

Director: Bruno Dumont

Writer: Bruno Dumont

After making his first foray into television with 2014’s wonderfully strange Li’l Quinquin (read review), Bruno Dumont returns to another dark comedy vehicle with Ma Loute (Slack Bay), a period piece set in the summer of 1910. The disappearance of tourists lead two inspectors to explore a seaside resort in Pas de Calais, where two very different families have managed to become wrapped up in these strange circumstances. Dumont reunites with Juliette Binoche, who last starred in his 2013 Camille Claudel, 1915, and she’s joined notably by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Fabrice Luchini (who won Best Actor in Venice 2015 for L’hermine).

Cast: Juliette Binoche, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Fabrice Luchini, Jean-Luc Vincent

Production Co./Producer: 3B Productions’ Jean Bréhat (Li’l Quinquin).

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Memento Films (international).

Release Date: Dumont has appeared at Cannes five times, winning a special mention for...

Bruno Dumont is famed for making relentlessly grim films that show the savage side of humanity. So why has he shot a knockabout comedy about a buffoonish cop? The French director explains how P’tit Quinquin came about – and why he has no regrets about casting a gardener who refused to learn his lines

I’m a little apprehensive about telling Bruno Dumont how funny I found his new film P’tit Quinquin. I half-expect him to bristle like Joe Pesci in GoodFellas: “Funny how? You think I’m here to amuse you?” After all, the French writer-director is legendary for the severity of his films and of his own sometimes taciturn manner. His work – from his 1997 debut La Vie de Jésus to the harrowing artist biopic Camille Claudel 1915 – characteristically portrays the bleaker corners of the human condition in a filmic language that can be dauntingly austere. The...

Life of Quinquin: Dumont’s Foray into Miniseries Format Filled with His Brand of Peculiar Humor

Provocative auteur Bruno Dumont lets loose his comedic side with a four part miniseries, Li’l Quinquin, shown as one long piece at the Cannes Film Festival. While it apparently will be released in English speaking territories in the same fashion, its purposeful structure does make it seem better served to be viewed in more than one sitting, where its bizarre weirdness has a better chance of really sinking in. But one has to remember that we’re talking about Dumont here, the director who grapples with existential ennui usually through the lens of religious discord or the bleak isolation of rural settings. So the project is indeed the most comedic offering of the director’s oeuvre, following last year’s captivating look at sculptor Camille Claudel starring Juliette Binoche. Yet it’s not...