Slate includes Nicolás Herzog’s Elda and the Monsters and Radu Potcoavă Good Guys Go to Heaven.
Italian sales agent The Open Reel is bringing a slate of new films to Cannes market, including Damien Manivel’s The Island.
The Island centres on a group of friends and the events that take place in the last party of the summer. It is produced by Mld Films and stars Damoh Ikhetah and Olga Milshtein.
Manivel’s most recent film Magdala world premiered in Cannes’ Acid section last year. Isadora’s Children (2019) won him the best director prize at Locarno.
The Open...
Italian sales agent The Open Reel is bringing a slate of new films to Cannes market, including Damien Manivel’s The Island.
The Island centres on a group of friends and the events that take place in the last party of the summer. It is produced by Mld Films and stars Damoh Ikhetah and Olga Milshtein.
Manivel’s most recent film Magdala world premiered in Cannes’ Acid section last year. Isadora’s Children (2019) won him the best director prize at Locarno.
The Open...
- 5/15/2023
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
The brother and sister in Arnaud Desplechin’s “Brother and Sister” can’t stand each other. The sister, played by Marion Cotillard, is Alice, a theatre superstar playing to packed houses in an adaptation of James Joyce’s “The Dead.” The brother, played by Melvil Poupaud, is Louis, an award-winning author and poet.
Alice resented it when his fame briefly overtook hers, but there is more to their mutual loathing than that. For mysterious, complicated reasons, they haven’t spoken in 20 years, and when they talk about each other to other people, Alice smiles a smile of pure venom, and Louis explodes in vicious rage. What are they to do, then, when Louis has to return to his hometown of Lille to visit his dying parents? Will he and Alice be forced to confront each other at long last?
It’s a juicy premise, but Desplechin and his co-writer, Julie Peyr,...
Alice resented it when his fame briefly overtook hers, but there is more to their mutual loathing than that. For mysterious, complicated reasons, they haven’t spoken in 20 years, and when they talk about each other to other people, Alice smiles a smile of pure venom, and Louis explodes in vicious rage. What are they to do, then, when Louis has to return to his hometown of Lille to visit his dying parents? Will he and Alice be forced to confront each other at long last?
It’s a juicy premise, but Desplechin and his co-writer, Julie Peyr,...
- 5/21/2022
- by Nicholas Barber
- The Wrap
All is not well with the Vuillard clan and something’s gone rotten in Roubaix. While their matriarch lies ill, treading the line between the here and the hereafter, the paterfamilias is left to contend with his three headstrong children. Though the youngest, who lives a stable married life, more often than not serves as ballast between more electric older siblings, sparks fly when the other two meet — or at least they would, had the eldest daughter not banished her hard-drinking middle brother from the family.
Sound familiar? Sounds, perhaps, like another Arnaud Desplechin film that premiered once upon a time in Cannes (as nearly all his films do)? Sounds about right.
Though the French auteur has always freely recycled themes and plot points (with more than half the characters in his 14 features carrying the surnames Dedalus and Vuillard), “Brother and Sister” seems more like a retread (and a retreat...
Sound familiar? Sounds, perhaps, like another Arnaud Desplechin film that premiered once upon a time in Cannes (as nearly all his films do)? Sounds about right.
Though the French auteur has always freely recycled themes and plot points (with more than half the characters in his 14 features carrying the surnames Dedalus and Vuillard), “Brother and Sister” seems more like a retread (and a retreat...
- 5/20/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
‘Brother and Sister’ Trailer: Arnaud Desplechin Directs Marion Cotillard in Cannes Competition Title
An Arnaud Desplechin film showing up in the Cannes competition lineup is as expected as the changing seasons. An Arnaud Desplechin film starring two titans of French cinema, Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud? Even more welcome. “Brother and Sister” is among the main competition titles heading to this year’s festival, which runs May 17 through May 28. Ahead of the film community’s big return to the Croisette, watch the first trailer for the film, exclusive to IndieWire, below.
In “Brother and Sister,” or “Frère et Soeur” as it’s known in French, Alice (Cotillard) and Louis (Poupaud) are siblings. She is an actress, while he was a teacher and a poet. For the past two decades, Alice has resented him, and they’ve remained estranged for the last 20 years. That is, until their parents become involved in a serious accident, and they are forced to toss blood under the bridge and reconcile anew.
In “Brother and Sister,” or “Frère et Soeur” as it’s known in French, Alice (Cotillard) and Louis (Poupaud) are siblings. She is an actress, while he was a teacher and a poet. For the past two decades, Alice has resented him, and they’ve remained estranged for the last 20 years. That is, until their parents become involved in a serious accident, and they are forced to toss blood under the bridge and reconcile anew.
- 5/9/2022
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Xenix Film has revealed an official trailer for the French indie drama titled Brother and Sister, originally Frère et Soeur in French. This is premiering at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival later this month playing in the Main Competition, before opening in French cinemas. The story revolves around a brother & sister who are nearing their fifties - Alice is an actress, Louis was a teacher and a poet. They no longer speak to one another and have been avoiding each other for over twenty years, but the death of their parents will force them to cross paths. Melvil Poupaud and Marion Cotillard co-star as the titular brother and sister, with Golshifteh Farahani, Cosmina Stratan, Patrick Timsit, Benjamin Siksou, and Max Baissette de Malglaive. This looks like a very emotional story about a family and the challenging dynamics between two siblings that don't like each other. There's no English subtitles available yet,...
- 5/4/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
“When I met you, you were ripe,” says Denis Podalydès’s Philip to his younger mistress (Léa Seydoux) in Arnaud Desplechin’s adaptation with Julie Peyr of Philip Roth’s Deception (Tromperie). She responds: “No, I was rotting on the floor under a tree.”
Arnaud Desplechin’s Frère Et Sœur (Brother And Sister), starring Marion Cotillard, Golshifteh Farahani, Melvil Poupaud, and Cosmina Stratan has been selected to screen in the 75th anniversary edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Arnaud’s Ismael's Ghosts was the 2017 Cannes Opening Night Gala selection and his Philip Roth adaptation Deception was a 2021 highlight.
Arnaud Desplechin with Anne-Katrin Titze on Philip Roth: “He’s as is, he’s absolutely imperfect, selfish as I was saying.”
Desplechin will have had ten world premieres at Cannes: Oh Mercy!; My Golden Days; Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian; A Christmas Tale; Esther Kahn...
Arnaud Desplechin’s Frère Et Sœur (Brother And Sister), starring Marion Cotillard, Golshifteh Farahani, Melvil Poupaud, and Cosmina Stratan has been selected to screen in the 75th anniversary edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Arnaud’s Ismael's Ghosts was the 2017 Cannes Opening Night Gala selection and his Philip Roth adaptation Deception was a 2021 highlight.
Arnaud Desplechin with Anne-Katrin Titze on Philip Roth: “He’s as is, he’s absolutely imperfect, selfish as I was saying.”
Desplechin will have had ten world premieres at Cannes: Oh Mercy!; My Golden Days; Jimmy P: Psychotherapy Of A Plains Indian; A Christmas Tale; Esther Kahn...
- 4/19/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Parallel section devoted to first and second features and shorts by emerging filmmakers will announce selection on June 7.
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu will be the jury president for the 60th edition of Cannes Critics’ Week, which runs July 7-15.
Jury members will comprise French producer Didar Domehri, whose recent credits include Under The Stars Of Paris and Memory House; actress and music artist Camélia Jordana, who was seen recently in Love Affair)s); Swiss, Monaco-based film consultant Michel Merkt, whose recent credits include Benedetta, and Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Mungiu has a long...
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu will be the jury president for the 60th edition of Cannes Critics’ Week, which runs July 7-15.
Jury members will comprise French producer Didar Domehri, whose recent credits include Under The Stars Of Paris and Memory House; actress and music artist Camélia Jordana, who was seen recently in Love Affair)s); Swiss, Monaco-based film consultant Michel Merkt, whose recent credits include Benedetta, and Karel Och, artistic director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Mungiu has a long...
- 6/2/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, a Cannes Palme d’Or winner for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (2007) will chair this year’s jury for Cannes Critics’ Week.
Mungiu’s career has been closely tied to Cannes. His first feature, Occident, premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in 2002 before his follow-up, the Ceaușescu-era abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, took the festival’s top prize in 2007. He won Cannes’ best screenplay honor in 2012 for Beyond the Hills, which also picked up a double award for best actress for the film’s leads Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur. In 2016, he won ...
Mungiu’s career has been closely tied to Cannes. His first feature, Occident, premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in 2002 before his follow-up, the Ceaușescu-era abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, took the festival’s top prize in 2007. He won Cannes’ best screenplay honor in 2012 for Beyond the Hills, which also picked up a double award for best actress for the film’s leads Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur. In 2016, he won ...
Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, a Cannes Palme d’Or winner for 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days (2007) will chair this year’s jury for Cannes Critics’ Week.
Mungiu’s career has been closely tied to Cannes. His first feature, Occident, premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in 2002 before his follow-up, the Ceaușescu-era abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, took the festival’s top prize in 2007. He won Cannes’ best screenplay honor in 2012 for Beyond the Hills, which also picked up a double award for best actress for the film’s leads Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur. In 2016, he won ...
Mungiu’s career has been closely tied to Cannes. His first feature, Occident, premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in 2002 before his follow-up, the Ceaușescu-era abortion drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, took the festival’s top prize in 2007. He won Cannes’ best screenplay honor in 2012 for Beyond the Hills, which also picked up a double award for best actress for the film’s leads Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur. In 2016, he won ...
To the Edge of Sorrow
Michel Spinosa is helming his highest profile project to date with his fifth feature, To the Edge of Sorrow, produced by Sylvie Pialat and director Cristian Mungiu. The title will star Cosmina Stratan, who won Best Actress at Cannes for her role in Mungiu’s 2012 drama Beyond the Hills. Spinosa’s last title was 2014’s Son epouse with Charlotte Gainsbourg, but he may be most recognizable as a director for his 2007 drama Anna M., which featured Isabelle Carre in a Cesar nominated performance. His 1994 directorial debut Emmene-moi competed in Locarno but Spinosa has written several features for director Gilles Bourdos, including Afterwards (2008), Renoir (2012) and Endangered Species (2017).…...
Michel Spinosa is helming his highest profile project to date with his fifth feature, To the Edge of Sorrow, produced by Sylvie Pialat and director Cristian Mungiu. The title will star Cosmina Stratan, who won Best Actress at Cannes for her role in Mungiu’s 2012 drama Beyond the Hills. Spinosa’s last title was 2014’s Son epouse with Charlotte Gainsbourg, but he may be most recognizable as a director for his 2007 drama Anna M., which featured Isabelle Carre in a Cesar nominated performance. His 1994 directorial debut Emmene-moi competed in Locarno but Spinosa has written several features for director Gilles Bourdos, including Afterwards (2008), Renoir (2012) and Endangered Species (2017).…...
- 12/31/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
French producer Sylvie Pialat at Les Films du Worso is teaming up with Palme d’Or winning director Cristian Mungiu on “To the Edge of Sorrow,” a drama based on Holocaust survivor Aharon Appelfeld ‘s book.
“To the Edge of Sorrow” inspired by a true story, follows a intrepid Jewish teenager who managed to escape from the Nazis and found refuge in the mountains where he took part in an organized resistance movement along with other Jewish of diverse backgrounds and generations. The film will be directed by Michel Spinosa (“Enchanted Interlude”). The script of the film was written in collaboration with Valérie Zenatti, Appelfeld’s French translator.
Les Films du Losange, the banner behind Michael Haneke’s films, has taken French rights to the project and is handling international sales. The film is co-produced by Belgian coproducer Patrick Quinet (Artemis) and David Silber from Israeli company Metro Communication.
The...
“To the Edge of Sorrow” inspired by a true story, follows a intrepid Jewish teenager who managed to escape from the Nazis and found refuge in the mountains where he took part in an organized resistance movement along with other Jewish of diverse backgrounds and generations. The film will be directed by Michel Spinosa (“Enchanted Interlude”). The script of the film was written in collaboration with Valérie Zenatti, Appelfeld’s French translator.
Les Films du Losange, the banner behind Michael Haneke’s films, has taken French rights to the project and is handling international sales. The film is co-produced by Belgian coproducer Patrick Quinet (Artemis) and David Silber from Israeli company Metro Communication.
The...
- 5/16/2019
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Hard-hitting film is inspired by real-life scandal about life-threatening hygiene standards in Romanian hospitals.
Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired world rights to emerging Romanian filmmakers Gabi Virginia Sarga and Catalin Rotaru’s debut feature Thou Shalt Not Kill, ahead of its premiere at Warsaw Film Festival (Oct 12-21).
The film is inspired by a real-life scandal in Romania about terrible hygiene standards in the country’s hospitals and the use of substandard, diluted disinfectants to clean operating surgeries.
Rising Romanian actor Alexandru Suciu stars as a young surgeon who starts a solitary fight against a corrupted system after the sudden...
Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired world rights to emerging Romanian filmmakers Gabi Virginia Sarga and Catalin Rotaru’s debut feature Thou Shalt Not Kill, ahead of its premiere at Warsaw Film Festival (Oct 12-21).
The film is inspired by a real-life scandal in Romania about terrible hygiene standards in the country’s hospitals and the use of substandard, diluted disinfectants to clean operating surgeries.
Rising Romanian actor Alexandru Suciu stars as a young surgeon who starts a solitary fight against a corrupted system after the sudden...
- 9/26/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Gwyneth Hughes, writer of the BBC and HBO’s The Girl, has created a feature-length drama about slavery in modern Britain for the BBC.
Doing Money will star Romanian actress Anca Dumitra (Las Fierbinti) and Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech. It tells the story of Ana, a young Romanian woman snatched in broad daylight from a London street, trafficked to Ireland and used as a sex slave in a series of ‘pop up’ brothels. The 90-minute thriller exposes just how big business ‘doing money’ is.
Written by Hughes, who has also written ITV’s forthcoming adaptation of Vanity Fair, and directed by Lynsey Miller (The Boy With The Top Knot), Doing Money is produced by Warner Bros’ Renegade Pictures for BBC Two. It is produced in association with Irish broadcaster Rte, produced by Mike Dormer and exec produced by Alex Cooke and Lucy Richer. It was commissioned by Patrick Holland,...
Doing Money will star Romanian actress Anca Dumitra (Las Fierbinti) and Downton Abbey’s Allen Leech. It tells the story of Ana, a young Romanian woman snatched in broad daylight from a London street, trafficked to Ireland and used as a sex slave in a series of ‘pop up’ brothels. The 90-minute thriller exposes just how big business ‘doing money’ is.
Written by Hughes, who has also written ITV’s forthcoming adaptation of Vanity Fair, and directed by Lynsey Miller (The Boy With The Top Knot), Doing Money is produced by Warner Bros’ Renegade Pictures for BBC Two. It is produced in association with Irish broadcaster Rte, produced by Mike Dormer and exec produced by Alex Cooke and Lucy Richer. It was commissioned by Patrick Holland,...
- 8/31/2018
- by Peter White
- Deadline Film + TV
When an isolated forest ranger rescues a mysterious young woman he finds beaten and unconscious, his long-suppressed emotions surge out of control in Romanian multi-hyphenate Florin Şerban’s third feature “Love 1. Dog.” Set in some indeterminate time during the 20th century, this enigmatic but engrossing drama may look completely different from Şerban’s 2010 Berlinale prize-winner, “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle,” or his 2015 sophomore outing, “Box,” but like these films, “Love 1” has at its core a battle of wills between a male and a female. Further festival travel is likely, with potential longer shelf life as the first of an announced trilogy.
Middle-aged Simion lives rough in a remote cabin built by his grandfather, high on a pine-forested mountain. His only companions are a fierce shepherd-mix dog that he has never bothered to name and a donkey to haul fuel for his fire. As he patrols the woods with his rifle,...
Middle-aged Simion lives rough in a remote cabin built by his grandfather, high on a pine-forested mountain. His only companions are a fierce shepherd-mix dog that he has never bothered to name and a donkey to haul fuel for his fire. As he patrols the woods with his rifle,...
- 8/18/2018
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
May is going to be a good month for fans of the Romanian New Wave, as Cristian Mungiu’s two most recent films are both joining the Criterion Collection. “Graduation” and “Beyond the Hills” will be released alongside new additions “Midnight Cowboy,” “The Other Side of Hope,” and “Moonrise”; “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” and “Au hasard Balthazar,” which have already been released on DVD, are getting Blu-ray upgrades.
“Au hasard Balthazar”
“A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, director Robert Bresson’s ‘Au hasard Balthazar’ follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations outside of his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly.
“Au hasard Balthazar”
“A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, director Robert Bresson’s ‘Au hasard Balthazar’ follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations outside of his understanding. Balthazar, whose life parallels that of his first keeper, Marie, is truly a beast of burden, suffering the sins of humankind. But despite his powerlessness, he accepts his fate nobly.
- 2/16/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Cristian Mungiu on Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux: "The only thing he has doubts about is that it's too clear who throws the stone."
Scenes of delicate opacity haunt Graduation (Bacalaureat). At a police lineup, one of the suspects of an assault is hidden from our view by the back of the head of Eliza, the victim (Maria-Victoria Dragus). From a bus, her father Romeo (Adrian Titieni) sees someone and follows that specter into the night and crosses over to a neighborhood soaked in sounds of invisible people and dogs. In a scene of real horror, Eliza's boyfriend Marius (Rares Andrici) shows himself willing to go a step further.
Maria-Victoria Dragus as Romeo's daughter Eliza
Cristian Mungiu is a Cannes Film Festival favourite - Palme d'Or win for 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days; Best Screenplay for Beyond The Hills and Best Actress honors to Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, and...
Scenes of delicate opacity haunt Graduation (Bacalaureat). At a police lineup, one of the suspects of an assault is hidden from our view by the back of the head of Eliza, the victim (Maria-Victoria Dragus). From a bus, her father Romeo (Adrian Titieni) sees someone and follows that specter into the night and crosses over to a neighborhood soaked in sounds of invisible people and dogs. In a scene of real horror, Eliza's boyfriend Marius (Rares Andrici) shows himself willing to go a step further.
Maria-Victoria Dragus as Romeo's daughter Eliza
Cristian Mungiu is a Cannes Film Festival favourite - Palme d'Or win for 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days; Best Screenplay for Beyond The Hills and Best Actress honors to Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, and...
- 3/28/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Graduation (Bacalaureat) director Cristian Mungiu: "Everything in the film has a real level and a real explanation." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The director of Beyond The Hills, starring Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, and Cannes Palme d'Or winner for 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days, explored his latest film with me when we met for a conversation at the 54th New York Film Festival. Graduation (Bacalaureat), co-produced by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, had its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival where he shared Best Director honors with Olivier Assayas.
Romeo (Adrian Titieni), a doctor in the hospital of a provincial town wishes nothing more urgently than for his daughter Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) to be awarded a scholarship to Cambridge so that she can leave for "civilised" England. All Eliza has to do, is pass the graduation exams with her usual, excellent grades.
Marius (Rares Andrici), Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) and Romeo...
The director of Beyond The Hills, starring Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, and Cannes Palme d'Or winner for 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days, explored his latest film with me when we met for a conversation at the 54th New York Film Festival. Graduation (Bacalaureat), co-produced by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, had its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival where he shared Best Director honors with Olivier Assayas.
Romeo (Adrian Titieni), a doctor in the hospital of a provincial town wishes nothing more urgently than for his daughter Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) to be awarded a scholarship to Cambridge so that she can leave for "civilised" England. All Eliza has to do, is pass the graduation exams with her usual, excellent grades.
Marius (Rares Andrici), Eliza (Maria-Victoria Dragus) and Romeo...
- 2/13/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Scream Factory is decking the halls with horror this December with four new Blu-ray releases of IFC Midnight movies: I Am Not a Serial Killer, Let's Be Evil, The Devil's Dolls, and Shelley.
From Scream Factory: "We are proud to announce that we have Four new IFC Midnight films planned for release on Blu-ray & DVD this Dec!
The Devil’S Dolls - A serial killer's curse unleashes a season of slaughter in the backwoods of Mississippi. According to an ancient Guatemalan tradition, parents teach their children to allay their troubles by giving them handmade "worry dolls" just before bedtime. But when several of these talismans — which once belonged to a notorious mass murderer — find their way into the hands of unsuspecting residents of a small Southern town, it sets off a grisly wave of bloodshed. The latest from Rites of Spring director Padraig Reynolds is a voodoo-slasher shocker bursting with scarily inventive kills.
From Scream Factory: "We are proud to announce that we have Four new IFC Midnight films planned for release on Blu-ray & DVD this Dec!
The Devil’S Dolls - A serial killer's curse unleashes a season of slaughter in the backwoods of Mississippi. According to an ancient Guatemalan tradition, parents teach their children to allay their troubles by giving them handmade "worry dolls" just before bedtime. But when several of these talismans — which once belonged to a notorious mass murderer — find their way into the hands of unsuspecting residents of a small Southern town, it sets off a grisly wave of bloodshed. The latest from Rites of Spring director Padraig Reynolds is a voodoo-slasher shocker bursting with scarily inventive kills.
- 9/21/2016
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
★★★★☆ Ali Abbasi's striking debut Shelley is a Gothic horror that uses degeneration of the body to explore the exploitation of migrant workers and the individualist ideology that accompanies society's growing obsession with 'organic' living. A young Romanian woman, Elena (Cosmina Stratan), arrives in the Danish countryside to work as a housekeeper for Louise (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and Kasper (Peter Christoffersen). She used to be an accountant in Bucharest but has moved to Denmark to save enough money to buy a house for her and her son. Her hosts live deep inside a dense forest, far removed from the amenities of modern life, living a self-sufficient life without electricity or running water.
- 8/26/2016
- by CineVue
- CineVue
Everything starts so innocently that you’d be hard-pressed to realize Ali Abbasi‘s Shelley is a horror film besides the score’s dread-inducing soundscape rising to a deafening level of static. Sure the setting’s weird with Louise (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) and Kasper (Peter Christoffersen) living in the Danish woods without electricity or running water far-removed from civilization, but the world’s fill of eccentrics. They’re actually quite nice, bringing in a new maid (Cosmina Stratan‘s Romanian single mother Elena) with open arms and warm smiles. It takes some getting used to, but the newcomer is quite content after a while. She adjusts to the quiet, regularly calls home to speak with her mother and son, and resigns herself to the prospect of returning after two to three years accumulating salary abroad.
In a moment of bonding Elena and Louise speak about motherhood to reveal the tragedy of the Dane’s past.
In a moment of bonding Elena and Louise speak about motherhood to reveal the tragedy of the Dane’s past.
- 7/28/2016
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
The first trailer has been released for Shelley, the feature directorial debut of Pakistani filmmaker Ali Abbasi and a horror film that looks to be extremely unsettling and unshakeable. It concerns Elena (Cosmina Stratan), a maid who works for an older couple desperate to have a child, but who cannot due to the wife’s (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) inability. As an act of kindness, Elena agrees to bear the child for them. Everything is peachy until things start to go awry for the once-so-seemingly-happy “family.”
Shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best First Feature, Abbasi’s debut has been called “Rosemary’s Baby by way of David Lynch,” an extremely exciting conceptual prospect for fans of true genre fare. The trailer supports this praise, featuring beautiful and disconcerting cinematography with filmic grain and low-light imagery of flickering candles and ominous wood-chopping (never a good...
Shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best First Feature, Abbasi’s debut has been called “Rosemary’s Baby by way of David Lynch,” an extremely exciting conceptual prospect for fans of true genre fare. The trailer supports this praise, featuring beautiful and disconcerting cinematography with filmic grain and low-light imagery of flickering candles and ominous wood-chopping (never a good...
- 7/25/2016
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
Shelley gets a pass for its obvious Rosemary’s Baby poster homage, because Ali Abbasi’s parental nightmare is truly Polanski by way of Danish seclusion. Not to say the first-time filmmaker challenges a genre classic (he doesn’t), but there’s still an approvable amount of raw tension in this demonic tale of baby-mama-drama. Characters are sparse and plotting is sparser, because pregnancy can be scary enough without any genre additives. Health issues, paranoia, constant questioning – women will forever be stronger then men simply because of the motherly task they’re asked embrace. Carrying a baby is one thing, but what if that baby turned against you…in the womb?
Cosmina Stratan stars as Elena, a house maid who one day hopes of returning home to Romania and providing for her son. Her latest employers live in the Danish countryside, where they don’t use electricity, eat meat or...
Cosmina Stratan stars as Elena, a house maid who one day hopes of returning home to Romania and providing for her son. Her latest employers live in the Danish countryside, where they don’t use electricity, eat meat or...
- 7/23/2016
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
"Would you consider carrying my child?" IFC Films has unveiled a trailer for a psychological horror film called Shelley, about a woman who convinces her maid to get pregnant since she can't but there's obviously a dark side to the story. The baby seems to be growing faster than usual and their seems to be a creepy evil something growing inside of her. This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and is playing at Fantasia this month. Starring Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Cosmina Stratan, Peter Christoffersen, Bjorn Andresen, and Marianne Mortensen. There have been a many baby-related horror films (from Rosemary's Baby to Proxy recently to Species II) but this one seems to be particularly unsettling. If you're into this, take a look. Here's the official Us trailer (+ a poster) for Ali Abbasi's Shelley, found direct from YouTube: Louise and Kasper, a Danish couple, live in an isolated villa in...
- 7/18/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
As Cannes approaches, Screen casts its eye back at the winners and losers of 2012 according to our jury of critics.
Screen International’s jury of international critics has long been a strong indicator as to what will take the top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival – and 2012 was no different.
Sharing the Jury Grid’s top spot in 2012 were Cristian Mungiu’s Romanian drama Beyond the Hills and Michael Haneke’s heart-breaking Amour.
Both films scored 3.3 out of 4 and Amour went away with the festival’s coveted Palme d’Or.
Amour was Haneke’s second film to win the Cannes top prize, after 2009’s chilling pre-war drama The White Ribbon.
Beyond the Hills also performed strongly, winning awards for best screenplay and best actress for its two leading ladies Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan. Director Mungiu has another shot at the Palme d’Or this year with Graduation (Bacalaureat).
Tie-breaker
It was a year for ties, with...
Screen International’s jury of international critics has long been a strong indicator as to what will take the top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival – and 2012 was no different.
Sharing the Jury Grid’s top spot in 2012 were Cristian Mungiu’s Romanian drama Beyond the Hills and Michael Haneke’s heart-breaking Amour.
Both films scored 3.3 out of 4 and Amour went away with the festival’s coveted Palme d’Or.
Amour was Haneke’s second film to win the Cannes top prize, after 2009’s chilling pre-war drama The White Ribbon.
Beyond the Hills also performed strongly, winning awards for best screenplay and best actress for its two leading ladies Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan. Director Mungiu has another shot at the Palme d’Or this year with Graduation (Bacalaureat).
Tie-breaker
It was a year for ties, with...
- 5/5/2016
- ScreenDaily
Films include Shepherds and Butchers with Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il.
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself, in a case...
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer who faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself, in a case...
- 1/21/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Films include Shepherds and Butchers, starring Steve Coogan; Don’t Call Me Son from Anna Muylaert; and a documentary about a director and actress who were kidnapped by Kim Jong-il and forced to make films.
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself...
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has completed the selection for this year’s Panorama strand, comprising 51 films from 33 countries. A total of 34 fiction features comprise the main programme and Panorama Special while a further 17 titles will screen in Panorama Dokumente.
A total of 33 films are world premieres, nine are international premieres and nine European premieres. The 30th Teddy Award is also being celebrated with an anniversary series of 17 films.
Notable titles include Shepherds and Butchers from South Africa, which is set toward the end of Apartheid and stars Steve Coogan as a hotshot lawyer faces his biggest test when he agrees to defend a white prison guard who has killed seven black men. What ensues is a charge against the death penalty itself...
- 1/21/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
What makes films about religion so interesting is the way some manage to tread a line between support and criticism, while some are vehemently anti-religion or pro-religion. When all is said and done, it’s up to the audience to decide whether or not the film (or the faith portrayed) is a respectful or perceptive study on faith and the dogmatic principles that may or may not surround it. Not every religious film is uplifting. In fact, there are plenty of non-religious films that do a better job of building viewers’ faith. But that’s another list for another time.
30. Beyond the Hills (2012)
Directed by Cristian Mingiu
Five years after his punishing 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Christian Mingiu delivered an interesting look at a lifelong friendship formed at an orphanage. Beyond the Hills tells the story of two women, based on non-fiction novels by Tatiana Niculescu Bran: Alina (Cristina Flutur) has fled to Germany,...
30. Beyond the Hills (2012)
Directed by Cristian Mingiu
Five years after his punishing 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Christian Mingiu delivered an interesting look at a lifelong friendship formed at an orphanage. Beyond the Hills tells the story of two women, based on non-fiction novels by Tatiana Niculescu Bran: Alina (Cristina Flutur) has fled to Germany,...
- 4/7/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
European Film Promotion (Efp) has unveiled its ten European Shooting Star for 2014, serving as an annual showcase for up-and-coming international acting talent. Check out the names and faces, below. The stars will get a showcase of sorts from February 8-10, at the Berlin International Film Festival 2014.Included in the list are Cosmina Stratan, one of the two Cannes-winning leads of Cristian Mungiu's 2013 Romanian Oscar entry "Beyond the Hills," and Nikola Rakocevic, who stars in this year's Serbian Oscar entry "Circles." Selected as the ten best young European actors are:Danic Curcic (Denmark, "On the Edge")Maria Dragus (Germany, "Summer Outside")Miriam Karlkvist (Italy, "South Is Nothing")Marwan Kenzari (Netherlands, "Wolf")Jakob Oftebro (Norway, "Victoria")Mateusz Kosciukiewicz (Poland, "In the Name Of")Cosmina Stratan (Romania, "Beyond the Hills")Nikola Rakocevic (Serbia, "Circles")Edda Magnason (Sweden, "Waltz for Monica")George MacKay (UK, "For Those in Peril")...
- 12/11/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
The star of How I Live Now and For Those In Peril will be feted at the Berlinale alongside stars of Waltz for Monica, Kon-Tiki and Beyond the Hills among others.
The 10 European Shooting Stars for 2014 have been announced. They are:
Danica Curcic, DenmarkMaria Dragus, GermanyMiriam Karlkvist, ItalyMarwan Kenzari, the NetherlandsJakob Oftebro, NorwayMateusz Kościukewicz, PolandCosmina Stratan, RomaniaNikola Rakocevic, SerbiaEdda Magnason, SwedenGeorge MacKay, UK
Selected from a shortlist of 24 nominating European member countries by European Film Promotion (Efp), the stars will be feted at the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16).
All those selected are introduced to influential casting directors, agents, directors, producers and international media across a weekend of scheduled profile-raising events, which culminate in a ceremony at the Berlinale Palast, where each young actor receives a Shooting Stars award.
The upcoming talent includes UK actor George MacKay, who starred in For Those In Peril, post-apocalyptic drama How I Live Now and Proclaimers musical Sunshine On Leith.
Sweden...
The 10 European Shooting Stars for 2014 have been announced. They are:
Danica Curcic, DenmarkMaria Dragus, GermanyMiriam Karlkvist, ItalyMarwan Kenzari, the NetherlandsJakob Oftebro, NorwayMateusz Kościukewicz, PolandCosmina Stratan, RomaniaNikola Rakocevic, SerbiaEdda Magnason, SwedenGeorge MacKay, UK
Selected from a shortlist of 24 nominating European member countries by European Film Promotion (Efp), the stars will be feted at the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16).
All those selected are introduced to influential casting directors, agents, directors, producers and international media across a weekend of scheduled profile-raising events, which culminate in a ceremony at the Berlinale Palast, where each young actor receives a Shooting Stars award.
The upcoming talent includes UK actor George MacKay, who starred in For Those In Peril, post-apocalyptic drama How I Live Now and Proclaimers musical Sunshine On Leith.
Sweden...
- 12/11/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The star of How I Live Now and For Those In Peril will be feted at the Berlinale alongside stars of Waltz for Monica, Kon-Tiki and Beyond the Hills among others.
The 10 European Shooting Stars for 2014 have been announced. They are:
Danica Curcic, DenmarkMaria Dragus, GermanyMiriam Karlkvist, ItalyMarwan Kenzari, the NetherlandsJakob Oftebro, NorwayMateusz Kościukewicz, PolandCosmina Stratan, RomaniaNikola Rakocevic, SerbiaEdda Magnason, SwedenGeorge MacKay, UK
Selected from a shortlist of 24 nominating European member countries by European Film Promotion (Efp), the stars will be feted at the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16).
All those selected are introduced to influential casting directors, agents, directors, producers and international media across a weekend of scheduled profile-raising events, which culminate in a ceremony at the Berlinale Palast, where each young actor receives a Shooting Stars award.
The upcoming talent includes UK actor George MacKay, who starred in For Those In Peril, post-apocalyptic drama How I Live Now and Proclaimers musical Sunshine On Leith.
Sweden...
The 10 European Shooting Stars for 2014 have been announced. They are:
Danica Curcic, DenmarkMaria Dragus, GermanyMiriam Karlkvist, ItalyMarwan Kenzari, the NetherlandsJakob Oftebro, NorwayMateusz Kościukewicz, PolandCosmina Stratan, RomaniaNikola Rakocevic, SerbiaEdda Magnason, SwedenGeorge MacKay, UK
Selected from a shortlist of 24 nominating European member countries by European Film Promotion (Efp), the stars will be feted at the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16).
All those selected are introduced to influential casting directors, agents, directors, producers and international media across a weekend of scheduled profile-raising events, which culminate in a ceremony at the Berlinale Palast, where each young actor receives a Shooting Stars award.
The upcoming talent includes UK actor George MacKay, who starred in For Those In Peril, post-apocalyptic drama How I Live Now and Proclaimers musical Sunshine On Leith.
Sweden...
- 12/11/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Adèle Exarchopoulos (‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’) and Cate Blanchett (‘Blue Jasmine’): Best Actress tie two years in a row at Los Angeles Film Critics Awards (photo: Léa Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos in ‘Blue Is the Warmest Color’) (See previous post: "James Franco Tattoos, Gold Teeth: Lafca Winners." Another non-Hollywood Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s selection was Best Actress co-winner Adèle Exarchopoulos, cited for her performance as a young woman who falls in love with blue-haired Léa Seydoux in Abdellatif Kechiche’s controversial Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Blue Is the Warmest Color. The lesbian romantic drama also took home the Lafca’s Best Foreign Language Film Award. Blue was also the luckiest color, at least in the Best Actress category: Cate Blanchett was Exarchopoulos’ co-winner, for her performance in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine, in which she plays a character somewhat similar to A Streetcar Named Desire...
- 12/9/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Los Angeles Film Critics Awards winners 2013 (photo: Sandra Bullock in ‘Gravity’) The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca), which has been around since the early ’70s, announced earlier today, December 8, 2013, their list of 2013 winners and runners-up. Although there were a handful of offbeat choices, what’s most surprising is how mainstream were most of the Los Angeles Film Critics’ picks this year — Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity was the top film, with a total of four wins — and that there were no less than three ties, including one for Best Picture: Gravity and Spike Jonze’s Her. See below. (See also: Full list of Boston Society of Film Critics 2013 winners.) Best Picture (tie): Gravity and Her. Best Foreign-Language Film: Blue Is the Warmest Color, directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. Runner-up: The Great Beauty, directed by Paolo Sorrentino. Best Documentary: Stories We Tell, directed by Sarah Polley Runner-up: The Act of Killing,...
- 12/8/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
No; Beyond the Hills; Warm Bodies; Beautiful Creatures; Hitchcock; To the Wonder
A gripping combination of political history and personal intrigue, Pablo Larraín's No (2012, Network, 15) dramatically recounts the campaign to remove General Pinochet from power during the 1988 Chilean referendum. Based on a stage play by Antonio Skármeta, the action centres on René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal), an advertising executive enlisted to sell the "No" campaign to a nation with the slogan "Happiness is coming", to the displeasure of the hard-line politicos who believe he's belittling their cause.
The completion of a thematic trilogy (following Tony Manero and Post Mortem), No benefits from Larraín's bold use of boxy, grainy U-matic video stock, which enables him to blend latterday recreations with authentic archival TV footage. The result is a seamless mix of fact and fiction, brought together through a unifying aesthetic in which the medium perfectly fits the message.
At times...
A gripping combination of political history and personal intrigue, Pablo Larraín's No (2012, Network, 15) dramatically recounts the campaign to remove General Pinochet from power during the 1988 Chilean referendum. Based on a stage play by Antonio Skármeta, the action centres on René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal), an advertising executive enlisted to sell the "No" campaign to a nation with the slogan "Happiness is coming", to the displeasure of the hard-line politicos who believe he's belittling their cause.
The completion of a thematic trilogy (following Tony Manero and Post Mortem), No benefits from Larraín's bold use of boxy, grainy U-matic video stock, which enables him to blend latterday recreations with authentic archival TV footage. The result is a seamless mix of fact and fiction, brought together through a unifying aesthetic in which the medium perfectly fits the message.
At times...
- 6/15/2013
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆ It's been a remarkable decade for Romanian cinema. While Cristi Puiu and Corneliu Porumboiu both delivered impressive works with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) and Police, Adjective (2009) respectively, it was arguably Cristian Mungiu's 2007 Palme d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days that crystallised the movement and defined the Romanian New Wave. The shadow of Nicolae Ceausescu and brutal communist regime is still a key thematic concern for Mungiu but, with Beyond the Hills (2012), he pushes it to the background, focusing his steely gaze on the lost souls struggling to find purpose in new Romania.
Based on two non-fiction books by Tatiana Niculescu, Beyond the Hills follows Alina (Cristina Flutur) as she returns to her hometown to take her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) back to Germany with her. Both women grew up at the same orphanage, where they forged a strong, ambiguous connection. But, while Alina has been away, Voichita has...
Based on two non-fiction books by Tatiana Niculescu, Beyond the Hills follows Alina (Cristina Flutur) as she returns to her hometown to take her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) back to Germany with her. Both women grew up at the same orphanage, where they forged a strong, ambiguous connection. But, while Alina has been away, Voichita has...
- 6/12/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Cannes Film Festival awards: 2013 winners (image: Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, 2013 Cannes Film Festival poster) The 2013 Cannes Film Festival came to a close on Sunday evening. Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue Is the Warmest Color, about the love affair between a woman in her 20s and another in her teens, took home the Palme d’Or. Palme d’Or: Blue Is the Warmest Color / La Vie d’Adèle by Abdellatif Kechiche (Note: the jury made a point of giving the Palme d’Or to Kechiche and the film’s two leading ladies, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux) Grand Prix: Inside Llewyn Davies by Joel and Ethan Coen Jury Prize: Like Father, Like Son by Kore-eda Hirokazu Best Director: Amat Escalante for Heli Best Actress: Bérénice Bejo for Asghar Farhadi’s The Past / Le Passé Best Actor: Bruce Dern for Alexander Payne’s Nebraska Best Screenplay: Jia Zhangke for A Touch of...
- 5/26/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Beyond The Hills is a slow-paced but unnerving movie based on real events that occurred in Romania a decade ago. It’s not a horror film but imagine if Ingmar Bergman had directed The Exorcist and you might get a handle on its tone. There are no spinning heads or levitation but what is most scary about Beyond The Hills is the knowledge that it really happened. It’s an unsubtle indictment of the backwardness of the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church but like many good films, there is more than one way to read the story and the religious and personal experiences of the viewer may shape that interpretation.
The setting for Beyond The Hills is a monastery in a remote Romania mountain village to which twenty-something Alina (Cristina Flutur) has travelled to visit her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan). The two grew up in an orphanage together but Alina...
The setting for Beyond The Hills is a monastery in a remote Romania mountain village to which twenty-something Alina (Cristina Flutur) has travelled to visit her childhood friend Voichita (Cosmina Stratan). The two grew up in an orphanage together but Alina...
- 4/5/2013
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Beyond the Hills
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Written by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, 2012
Dreadful anticipation, the kind that most mainstream horror films strive for and fail to achieve, permeates every second of Beyond the Hills, a new film from Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu. The film, a patient, uneasy drama about the nature and presence of evil set against the backdrop of a small Romanian monastery and its newest member, grows more and more disturbing as its players go to the extremes to banish out the perceived other from their would-be purified community. Though Beyond the Hills has a too-slow first act, on the whole, the film is quietly devastating.
Cosmina Stratan plays Voichiţa, a young woman ensconced in that monastery since leaving an orphanage where she spent her childhood. As Beyond the Hills opens, she picks up her old friend from the orphanage, Alina (Cristina Flutur), so they can live out...
Directed by Cristian Mungiu
Written by Cristian Mungiu
Romania, 2012
Dreadful anticipation, the kind that most mainstream horror films strive for and fail to achieve, permeates every second of Beyond the Hills, a new film from Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu. The film, a patient, uneasy drama about the nature and presence of evil set against the backdrop of a small Romanian monastery and its newest member, grows more and more disturbing as its players go to the extremes to banish out the perceived other from their would-be purified community. Though Beyond the Hills has a too-slow first act, on the whole, the film is quietly devastating.
Cosmina Stratan plays Voichiţa, a young woman ensconced in that monastery since leaving an orphanage where she spent her childhood. As Beyond the Hills opens, she picks up her old friend from the orphanage, Alina (Cristina Flutur), so they can live out...
- 4/5/2013
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
Cristian Mungiu's prize-winning film is a powerful and sombre meditation on faith and friendship in present-day Romania
Eight years ago the appearance of Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu, a stoical, grimly funny story about the ghastly legacy of the Ceausescu regime, won a major prize at Cannes. It was soon followed by Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and seemed to confirm that something remarkable was happening in the Romanian cinema. Now, after a longish wait, Mungiu has made another feature, Beyond the Hills, a painful and exacting picture that confirms his position as a film-maker of the first rank.
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days was set during a single wintry afternoon and evening in 1987 during the rule of Ceausescu and centres around two female students sharing a room in a bleak university dormitory. One is blond, honest, self-sacrificing, the other dark-haired,...
Eight years ago the appearance of Cristi Puiu's The Death of Mr Lazarescu, a stoical, grimly funny story about the ghastly legacy of the Ceausescu regime, won a major prize at Cannes. It was soon followed by Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days, which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and seemed to confirm that something remarkable was happening in the Romanian cinema. Now, after a longish wait, Mungiu has made another feature, Beyond the Hills, a painful and exacting picture that confirms his position as a film-maker of the first rank.
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days was set during a single wintry afternoon and evening in 1987 during the rule of Ceausescu and centres around two female students sharing a room in a bleak university dormitory. One is blond, honest, self-sacrificing, the other dark-haired,...
- 3/19/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Beyond The Hills | The Incredible Burt Wonderstone | The Paperboy | Welcome To The Punch | Shell | The Spirit Of '45 | Red Dawn | Vinyl | Maniac | Michael H. Profession: Director
Beyond The Hills (12A)
(Cristian Mungiu, 2012, Rom) Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur. 152 mins
Romanian patriarchy had a lot to answer for in Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, and it's even more to blame in this powerful convent drama. It starts with a young woman coming to visit her former girlfriend, who's now a nun, but events increasingly spiral out of control, to the extent that romantic frustration is diagnosed as demonic possession… and duly treated.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (15)
(Don Scardino, 2013, Us) Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey. 100 mins
Doing for Vegas-style magic what Blades Of Glory did for figure skating, Carell and co conjure just enough comedy out of a sitting-duck premise, as their cheesy stage act is threatened by Carrey's Blaine-style endurance stunts.
The Paperboy (15)
(Lee Daniels,...
Beyond The Hills (12A)
(Cristian Mungiu, 2012, Rom) Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur. 152 mins
Romanian patriarchy had a lot to answer for in Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, and it's even more to blame in this powerful convent drama. It starts with a young woman coming to visit her former girlfriend, who's now a nun, but events increasingly spiral out of control, to the extent that romantic frustration is diagnosed as demonic possession… and duly treated.
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone (15)
(Don Scardino, 2013, Us) Steve Carell, Steve Buscemi, Jim Carrey. 100 mins
Doing for Vegas-style magic what Blades Of Glory did for figure skating, Carell and co conjure just enough comedy out of a sitting-duck premise, as their cheesy stage act is threatened by Carrey's Blaine-style endurance stunts.
The Paperboy (15)
(Lee Daniels,...
- 3/16/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Stalemate: Mungiu follows up Palme d’Or Winner with Intense Religious Stand-off
Five years have passed since Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s critically acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days hoisted Romania into the World Cinema Big Leagues by winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Winner of the Best Screenplay and Best Actress ex aequo for both lead performances of Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, Beyond the Hills is a heightening of that style to its most intense and harrowing essence – one that has proven to be one of the most divisive films from the so-called Romanian New Wave yet.
Based on a real-life incident, Mungiu’s latest follows a lone young woman into a remote monastery to find her childhood friend and to resettle in Romania. The film opens with a tearful reunion of the two women when Alina (Cristina Flutur) returns from working in Germany.
Five years have passed since Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s critically acclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days hoisted Romania into the World Cinema Big Leagues by winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Winner of the Best Screenplay and Best Actress ex aequo for both lead performances of Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan, Beyond the Hills is a heightening of that style to its most intense and harrowing essence – one that has proven to be one of the most divisive films from the so-called Romanian New Wave yet.
Based on a real-life incident, Mungiu’s latest follows a lone young woman into a remote monastery to find her childhood friend and to resettle in Romania. The film opens with a tearful reunion of the two women when Alina (Cristina Flutur) returns from working in Germany.
- 3/15/2013
- by Moen Mohamed
- IONCINEMA.com
Beyond the Hills
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Doru Ana
Running Time: 2 hrs 30 mins
Rating: Nr
Release Date: March 15, 2013 (Chicago)
Plot: A nun (Stratan) reunites with her friend (Flutur) from a past orphanage, and invites her to stay at the convent, with troublesome results.
Who’S It For? With its pacing and subject matter, this is for people ready for some lengthy cold European drama.
Overall
Beyond the Hills is an emotionally frost-bitten movie of hushed voices and the constant visual of seeing the back of someone’s head, (even though they’re talking) which is a thoughtful cocktail that makes for a compelling image in the beginning. But, this all eventually becomes incredibly starchy as the movie refuses to pick up its pace. Even the performances, which chime better toward the third act when they are put to more constructive purposes, become tired as characters hardly evolve.
Directed by: Cristian Mungiu
Cast: Cosmina Stratan, Cristina Flutur, Doru Ana
Running Time: 2 hrs 30 mins
Rating: Nr
Release Date: March 15, 2013 (Chicago)
Plot: A nun (Stratan) reunites with her friend (Flutur) from a past orphanage, and invites her to stay at the convent, with troublesome results.
Who’S It For? With its pacing and subject matter, this is for people ready for some lengthy cold European drama.
Overall
Beyond the Hills is an emotionally frost-bitten movie of hushed voices and the constant visual of seeing the back of someone’s head, (even though they’re talking) which is a thoughtful cocktail that makes for a compelling image in the beginning. But, this all eventually becomes incredibly starchy as the movie refuses to pick up its pace. Even the performances, which chime better toward the third act when they are put to more constructive purposes, become tired as characters hardly evolve.
- 3/15/2013
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
The chilling story of an exorcism in a Romanian monastery is the backdrop for an anatomy of an exhausted, bewildered society
Cristian Mungiu's eerie drama about two young women in a Romanian monastery – based on the true story from 2005 of a novice being subjected to an exorcism – has arrived in the UK. It is chilling, bizarre and mysterious: a social realist, or maybe social real-time-ist depiction of an unfolding catastrophe stemming from sexual and emotional frustration, irrationality, poverty and fear in the dark heart of central Europe. For me, a repeat viewing refocused the attention and the blame. What seems important a second time is not the authoritarianism and group hysteria of the monastery, but rather the hospital which, through pure bureaucratic weari-ness or inter-institutional complicity, releases a disturbed young woman into the nuns' care. Bewildered, befuddled Romanian society in general is what is culpable: a directionless, hopeless world.
Cristian Mungiu's eerie drama about two young women in a Romanian monastery – based on the true story from 2005 of a novice being subjected to an exorcism – has arrived in the UK. It is chilling, bizarre and mysterious: a social realist, or maybe social real-time-ist depiction of an unfolding catastrophe stemming from sexual and emotional frustration, irrationality, poverty and fear in the dark heart of central Europe. For me, a repeat viewing refocused the attention and the blame. What seems important a second time is not the authoritarianism and group hysteria of the monastery, but rather the hospital which, through pure bureaucratic weari-ness or inter-institutional complicity, releases a disturbed young woman into the nuns' care. Bewildered, befuddled Romanian society in general is what is culpable: a directionless, hopeless world.
- 3/15/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Chicago – There is an excellent 90-minute film hidden somewhere within the two-and-a-half-hour ordeal that is Cristian Mungiu’s “Beyond the Hills.” It’s far from a bad film, and offers many sequences of entrancing power, but simply doesn’t have enough material to justify its sprawling running time. Instead of probing deeper, the picture merely becomes repetitive.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
There’s also a dour sense of inevitability that overtakes the suspense at about the one-hour mark. The final outcome is obvious long before it arrives onscreen, and the same could be said of Mungiu’s previous effort, 2007’s Palme d’Or winner, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and Days.” Yet whereas that brilliant film was fueled by its often excruciating tension, “Hills” unfolds with a ponderously cynical logic. Though Mungiu’s work has brought tremendous global attention to the Romanian film industry, neither film will do the country’s tourism market any favors.
Read...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
There’s also a dour sense of inevitability that overtakes the suspense at about the one-hour mark. The final outcome is obvious long before it arrives onscreen, and the same could be said of Mungiu’s previous effort, 2007’s Palme d’Or winner, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and Days.” Yet whereas that brilliant film was fueled by its often excruciating tension, “Hills” unfolds with a ponderously cynical logic. Though Mungiu’s work has brought tremendous global attention to the Romanian film industry, neither film will do the country’s tourism market any favors.
Read...
- 3/14/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Why They're On Our Radar: Many heads were turned following the announcement of last May's Cannes Film Festival winner for Best Actress where, despite the long list of veteran and established actresses many felt certain would take the prize, the award went to not one, but two actresses who have never before appeared in a film. Cosmina Stratan was working as a TV and print journalist when she came under consideration for one of the leads in Cristian Mungiu's new film "Beyond the Hills," while Cristina Flutur worked as a classical theater actress. Neither worked in film before and suddenly their lives have turned into a whirlwind of press, news, and awards. There was no doubt much anticipation for Mungiu's return to Cannes, as his last trip in 2007 for abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days" famously cemented Romanian's emergence as a major player in contemporary world cinema by taking home a Palme d'Or,...
- 3/14/2013
- by Eric Mattina
- Indiewire
Chicago – Five years after revitalizing the Romanian film industry with his 2007 Palme d’Or winner, “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” filmmaker Cristian Mungiu returned to the Cannes Film Festival with his eagerly awaited follow-up, “Beyond the Hills.” Mungiu won the screenplay prize while his leading ladies, newcomers Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur, each received acting accolades.
Art house audiences in Chicago will have the chance to catch Mungiu’s chilling drama when it opens Friday at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema. The fact-based tale centers on two old friends, Voichita (Stratan) and Alina (Flutur), who reconnect at an isolated monastery that appears to have been frozen in time. Though Alina expects her friend (and former lover) to leave with her, Voichita opts for a life of devout worship with the nuns rather than embrace mortal pleasures. Alina’s enraged acts of rebellion are interpreted by Voichita’s fellow nuns as demonic possession,...
Art house audiences in Chicago will have the chance to catch Mungiu’s chilling drama when it opens Friday at the Landmark Century Centre Cinema. The fact-based tale centers on two old friends, Voichita (Stratan) and Alina (Flutur), who reconnect at an isolated monastery that appears to have been frozen in time. Though Alina expects her friend (and former lover) to leave with her, Voichita opts for a life of devout worship with the nuns rather than embrace mortal pleasures. Alina’s enraged acts of rebellion are interpreted by Voichita’s fellow nuns as demonic possession,...
- 3/12/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Tags: RomaniaBeyond the HillsCosmina StratanCristina FluturIMDb
Beyond the Hills has won several awards at international film festivals since it premiered in 2012, and now it is finally hitting theaters this month in limited cities. The Romanian film from director Cristian Mungiu follows a relationship between two young women who have known each other their entire lives. There is certainly more than a friendship to their involvement, though their relationships with God, the church, and society complicate things for them in the worst ways.
Cristina Flutur plays Alina, who returns to Romania from Germany where she spent five years after fleeing from her orphanage where she met and grew up beside Voichita (Cosmina Stratan). But Voichita has tried to forget their relationship, despite Alina's longing to return to the way they once were, and is now a nun. When she starts to remember what it was like to share what she had with Alina,...
Beyond the Hills has won several awards at international film festivals since it premiered in 2012, and now it is finally hitting theaters this month in limited cities. The Romanian film from director Cristian Mungiu follows a relationship between two young women who have known each other their entire lives. There is certainly more than a friendship to their involvement, though their relationships with God, the church, and society complicate things for them in the worst ways.
Cristina Flutur plays Alina, who returns to Romania from Germany where she spent five years after fleeing from her orphanage where she met and grew up beside Voichita (Cosmina Stratan). But Voichita has tried to forget their relationship, despite Alina's longing to return to the way they once were, and is now a nun. When she starts to remember what it was like to share what she had with Alina,...
- 3/10/2013
- by trishbendix
- AfterEllen.com
Cristian Mungiu's brilliantly slow-to-burn "Beyond the Hills" (which people might start referring to as "the Romanian exorcism movie") opens this weekend, with critics appropriately impressed with the Cannes winner; leads Cristina Flutur and Cosmina Stratan both won Best Actress at the fest last May. In the land of wide releases, Sam Raimi's overstuffed 3-D buffet "Oz the Great and Powerful" is getting middling reviews (Toh! liked it a tad better than the majority). Stylishly twisty Euro-pudding thriller "Dead Man Down," the first English-language film by "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" director Niels Arden Oplev, isn't getting much critical love, even though it's charmingly unpredictable thanks to a pleasing cast led by original Lisbeth Salander Noomi Rapace, Colin Farrell and Isabelle Huppert. "Electrick Children," Rebecca Thomas' coming-of-age tale about a devoutly religious girl who believes rock music has impregnated her, is getting good reviews, while World War II drama.
- 3/8/2013
- by Anne Thompson and Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Christian Mungiu, the leading figure of Romanian New Wave, strikes again with Beyond the Hills. Just like his Palme d'Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which elevated a rather unpleasant subject matter (illegal abortion) into a dizzying, tension-filled masterpiece, here he manages to make something greater out of an exorcism-gone-horribly-wrong story based on a true event. Mungiu again proves to be a gifted storyteller and a great tension builder. He is also masterful at presenting nuanced human interactions. The film takes place in a small remote Romanian monastery in the hills. A young nun named Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) reunites with her childhood friend Alina (Cristina Flutur) from their orphanage days after a long separation. Alina, emotionally stunted of the two, having been...
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- 3/7/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Title: Beyond the Hills Director: Cristian Mungiu Starring: Cristina Flutur, Cosmina Stratan, Valeriu Andriuta Cristian Mungiu is the most well-known figure inside of the Romanian New Wave, and justifiably so. Mungiu is unwilling to compromise with the audience and even with himself, in spite of the subject matter being too difficult to talk about (let alone watch), and his ability to probe the minds and hearts of each and every character makes him a riveting director with enormous potential. In 2007, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days was his second feature film that set Cannes ablaze with his powerful take on Romania’s abortion issue, ultimately winning the prestigious Palme [ Read More ]
The post Beyond the Hills Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Beyond the Hills Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 3/7/2013
- by justin
- ShockYa
Can blind, unquestioning devout faith be just as corrupting as sin? Can love be as all consuming as evil? These are the big, broad themes being explored in Cristian Mungiu's deliberate and somewhat cryptic "Beyond The Hills," a very slow burn drama that finds both religious and emotional obsession crossing paths with tragic and haunting results. Set in an orthodox monastery in rural Romania, the film opens with Voichita (Cosmina Stratan) meeting her friend Alina (Cristina Flutur) at the train station, where the latter dissolves into a torrent of tears after they embrace. It has been a few years since they've seen each other at the orphanage where they were both raised, and after a stint working abroad in Germany, Alina has returned to reunite with Voichita so that they can start a new life together. But Voichita has found a new purpose as a nun at a monastery...
- 3/7/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
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