Made before the Charlie Hebdo attacks, this look inside the Paris offices of Radio France already seems like a remnant of a more innocent age
Nicolas Philibert is a film-maker with hall-of-fame status for the 2002 documentary Étre et avoir (To Be and To Have), his wonderful study of a primary school, and Nénette (2010), a vision of an ageing orangutan and its heartwrenchingly prison-like existence in a zoo. This latest film, made in 2013, is a pleasant, undemanding, rather Wiseman-lite study of a day in the life of Radio France, with all its producers, announcers, editors and tech people placidly busying themselves about their work.
It’s engaging, but without the power and point of Philibert’s earlier work, and today’s historical perspective means that the film’s blandly untroubled atmosphere feels a bit irrelevant. This is very much a pre-Je Suis Charlie Paris, and the professionals here operate in what...
Nicolas Philibert is a film-maker with hall-of-fame status for the 2002 documentary Étre et avoir (To Be and To Have), his wonderful study of a primary school, and Nénette (2010), a vision of an ageing orangutan and its heartwrenchingly prison-like existence in a zoo. This latest film, made in 2013, is a pleasant, undemanding, rather Wiseman-lite study of a day in the life of Radio France, with all its producers, announcers, editors and tech people placidly busying themselves about their work.
It’s engaging, but without the power and point of Philibert’s earlier work, and today’s historical perspective means that the film’s blandly untroubled atmosphere feels a bit irrelevant. This is very much a pre-Je Suis Charlie Paris, and the professionals here operate in what...
- 1/22/2015
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Troll Hunter; The Borrowers; Arrietty; The Big Picture; Project Nim; Attenberg
If trolls turn to stone when exposed to sunlight, would a powerful Uv lamp have exactly the same effect? Can "rapid calcification" really be the scientific explanation behind the magic of fairy tale and folklore? And, most importantly, if trolls can smell the blood of a Christian man, can they also smell the blood of a Muslim?
Just when it seemed that the well-worn "found footage" gag had finally run its course (did anyone really want to see yet another Blair Witch rip-off?) along comes André Ovredal's marvellously sprightly Norwegian oddity Troll Hunter (2010, Momentum, 15) to breathe unexpected new life into the apparently moribund genre.
Following a spate of livestock mutilations, a group of student film-makers sets off in search of a suspected poacher and stumbles upon a secret network of government-controlled troll hunters. Brilliantly, these down-to-earth daredevils are just...
If trolls turn to stone when exposed to sunlight, would a powerful Uv lamp have exactly the same effect? Can "rapid calcification" really be the scientific explanation behind the magic of fairy tale and folklore? And, most importantly, if trolls can smell the blood of a Christian man, can they also smell the blood of a Muslim?
Just when it seemed that the well-worn "found footage" gag had finally run its course (did anyone really want to see yet another Blair Witch rip-off?) along comes André Ovredal's marvellously sprightly Norwegian oddity Troll Hunter (2010, Momentum, 15) to breathe unexpected new life into the apparently moribund genre.
Following a spate of livestock mutilations, a group of student film-makers sets off in search of a suspected poacher and stumbles upon a secret network of government-controlled troll hunters. Brilliantly, these down-to-earth daredevils are just...
- 1/8/2012
- by Mark Kermode
- The Guardian - Film News
The Rise of the Planet of the Apes blockbuster reboot is out next week. To celebrate, we revisit the strange and complicated history of primate films – and ask whether we've lost our enthusiasm for simians on celluloid
"Monkeys," said the Hollywood mogul Arthur P Jacobs, "make good movies. They always have." Such certainty was earned: Jacobs produced the first Planet of the Apes film in 1968 – the same year as another chimpy classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. So immediate was Planet's success ($33m from a budget of $5m) that Jacobs knocked out four sequels before his sudden death in 1973. Once unleashed, the Apes were unstoppable, spawning two TV shows, a comic book, a tonne of merchandising, a remake and a reboot, which is out next week.
Since cinema began, apes have been in on the action – evidence, says Variety's Stephen Gaydos, of the movies' debt to the carnival: "Primates were always an integral part of showbiz,...
"Monkeys," said the Hollywood mogul Arthur P Jacobs, "make good movies. They always have." Such certainty was earned: Jacobs produced the first Planet of the Apes film in 1968 – the same year as another chimpy classic, 2001: A Space Odyssey. So immediate was Planet's success ($33m from a budget of $5m) that Jacobs knocked out four sequels before his sudden death in 1973. Once unleashed, the Apes were unstoppable, spawning two TV shows, a comic book, a tonne of merchandising, a remake and a reboot, which is out next week.
Since cinema began, apes have been in on the action – evidence, says Variety's Stephen Gaydos, of the movies' debt to the carnival: "Primates were always an integral part of showbiz,...
- 8/4/2011
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
The Nicolas Philibert Collection
Last Monday (27th June), a box set was released that contains four brilliant cinematic works. No, it wasn’t the much anticipated Pirates of the Caribbean ‘Quadrilogy’, rushed to DVD before the movie has had time to fail at the cinema. It was in fact a collection of films by French documentary maker Nicolas Philibert. And what wonderful films they are!
I can’t admit to knowing anything about Monsieur Philibert before watching these films but I can certainly say that I now want to see more. I set about choosing which of the four to watch first and somewhat predictably settled on the feature I was most familiar with (i.e. the most recent one that has had at least some press coverage); Nénette.
Nénette (2010)
At 70 minutes, Nénette is the shortest in the collection, but that isn’t to say it is lacking in any area other than length.
Last Monday (27th June), a box set was released that contains four brilliant cinematic works. No, it wasn’t the much anticipated Pirates of the Caribbean ‘Quadrilogy’, rushed to DVD before the movie has had time to fail at the cinema. It was in fact a collection of films by French documentary maker Nicolas Philibert. And what wonderful films they are!
I can’t admit to knowing anything about Monsieur Philibert before watching these films but I can certainly say that I now want to see more. I set about choosing which of the four to watch first and somewhat predictably settled on the feature I was most familiar with (i.e. the most recent one that has had at least some press coverage); Nénette.
Nénette (2010)
At 70 minutes, Nénette is the shortest in the collection, but that isn’t to say it is lacking in any area other than length.
- 7/9/2011
- Shadowlocked
The Nicolas Philibert Collection, released on 27 June, brings together a collection of remarkable works by the acclaimed documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert. To mark its release we have one to give away.
This box set brings Included in the set are: Nénette: Born in the jungles of Borneo forty years ago, Nénette the orangutan is now the most senior inhabitant of the world’s oldest zoo. In this awe-inspiring, tender and funny film, we observe Nénette’s daily life and eavesdrop on the conversations of her many visitors. Étre et Avoir: This charming and intimate portrait of a single-class primary school in rural France and its inspirational teacher offers a touching and absorbing look at the heart of a village community. La Ville Louvre: This spellbinding behind the scenes look at the world’s greatest art museum reveals a secret world of private chambers, miles of underground passages and...
This box set brings Included in the set are: Nénette: Born in the jungles of Borneo forty years ago, Nénette the orangutan is now the most senior inhabitant of the world’s oldest zoo. In this awe-inspiring, tender and funny film, we observe Nénette’s daily life and eavesdrop on the conversations of her many visitors. Étre et Avoir: This charming and intimate portrait of a single-class primary school in rural France and its inspirational teacher offers a touching and absorbing look at the heart of a village community. La Ville Louvre: This spellbinding behind the scenes look at the world’s greatest art museum reveals a secret world of private chambers, miles of underground passages and...
- 6/22/2011
- by Competitons
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The passion and humour of Philibert's documentary films gently restore your faith in the world
Fans of great documentaries owe a huge debt to the French TV station Canal+. For it was they who bankrolled the career of Nicolas Philibert, chronicler of everything from tortoises to teachers to taxidermists, some of whose back catalogue can now be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home.
Philibert came to public attention this side of the channel nine years ago, after winning an Oscar nomination for Être et Avoir, about a teacher in an Auvergne school managing to stay calm while wrangling a dozen children aged four to 11. Its compassion, humour and lurching flashes of tragedy proved irresistible, and the film found distribution in 40 countries. It proved so popular, in fact, that the teacher, and some of the children's parents, launched an unsuccessful lawsuit in pursuit of a bigger slice of the profits.
Fans of great documentaries owe a huge debt to the French TV station Canal+. For it was they who bankrolled the career of Nicolas Philibert, chronicler of everything from tortoises to teachers to taxidermists, some of whose back catalogue can now be enjoyed in the comfort of your own home.
Philibert came to public attention this side of the channel nine years ago, after winning an Oscar nomination for Être et Avoir, about a teacher in an Auvergne school managing to stay calm while wrangling a dozen children aged four to 11. Its compassion, humour and lurching flashes of tragedy proved irresistible, and the film found distribution in 40 countries. It proved so popular, in fact, that the teacher, and some of the children's parents, launched an unsuccessful lawsuit in pursuit of a bigger slice of the profits.
- 6/17/2011
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Kino International proudly announces the DVD release of five films by celebrated French documentarian Nicolas Philibert.
Last year’s critically-acclaimed Nénette (along with the short subject Night Falls on the Menagerie) and Animals & More Animals come to DVD in a splendid two-disc set priced at $39.95. This DVD is available for prebook on April 26, 2011, and the street date is May 24.
The other three titles, Louvre City (1990), In the Land of the Deaf (1992), and Every Little Thing (1997) are available as individual DVDs, each priced at $24.95. Each DVD is available for pre-book on April 26, 2011, and the street date is May 24.
NÉNETTE (2010) and Animals & More Animals (1996) 2-disc Set
Nénette (2010) - Disc One
“Outstanding. Hypnotically captures the peculiar life of a 40-year-old orangutan living in a Paris zoo.” – J.S. Marcus, The Wall Street Journal
“Remarkable!” – Sight & Sound
Born in the jungles of Borneo, Nénette is a 40-year-old orangutan – and the oldest (and most popular...
Last year’s critically-acclaimed Nénette (along with the short subject Night Falls on the Menagerie) and Animals & More Animals come to DVD in a splendid two-disc set priced at $39.95. This DVD is available for prebook on April 26, 2011, and the street date is May 24.
The other three titles, Louvre City (1990), In the Land of the Deaf (1992), and Every Little Thing (1997) are available as individual DVDs, each priced at $24.95. Each DVD is available for pre-book on April 26, 2011, and the street date is May 24.
NÉNETTE (2010) and Animals & More Animals (1996) 2-disc Set
Nénette (2010) - Disc One
“Outstanding. Hypnotically captures the peculiar life of a 40-year-old orangutan living in a Paris zoo.” – J.S. Marcus, The Wall Street Journal
“Remarkable!” – Sight & Sound
Born in the jungles of Borneo, Nénette is a 40-year-old orangutan – and the oldest (and most popular...
- 3/30/2011
- by Melissa Howland
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
On May 24, Kino Lorber will release French documentarian Nicolas Philibert’s movie Nénette, about a 40-year-old orangutan who has lived most of her long life in a French zoo, on a two-disc DVD set.
A 40-year-old orangutan takes center stage in Nénette.
Born in the jungles of Borneo, Nénette is the oldest (and most beloved) inhabitant at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. She is a mother of four and has survived three mates, and she bonds only with a few select keepers. Filmmaker Philibert (To Be And To Have) follows the everyday lives Nénette and her fellow apes as they exist behind bars at the zoo. Humans don’t make any appearances in the film—we only see the faces of some of Nénette’s half-million annual visitors as occasional reflections in the glass, though we do hear their recorded comments and conversations alongside interviews with the zoo keepers.
A 40-year-old orangutan takes center stage in Nénette.
Born in the jungles of Borneo, Nénette is the oldest (and most beloved) inhabitant at the Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes in Paris. She is a mother of four and has survived three mates, and she bonds only with a few select keepers. Filmmaker Philibert (To Be And To Have) follows the everyday lives Nénette and her fellow apes as they exist behind bars at the zoo. Humans don’t make any appearances in the film—we only see the faces of some of Nénette’s half-million annual visitors as occasional reflections in the glass, though we do hear their recorded comments and conversations alongside interviews with the zoo keepers.
- 3/11/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
The Fighter (15)
(David O Russell, 2010, Us) Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Mickey O'Keefe. 116 mins
Just when America needed a tale of blue-collar dreams, hard-up families coming together and a Hero with Heart, along comes this bracing boxing drama. What distinguishes it from Rocky and co is that it's based on a real boxer ("Irish" Micky Ward), and there's not much boxing in it. The emphasis is on Wahlberg's colourfully unhelpful family, particularly his formidable mother (Leo) and crack-addicted brother (Bale). There's so much big acting going on, our quiet contender can't compete, but hey, he's got Heart.
Rabbit Hole (12A)
(John Cameron Mitchell, 2010, Us) Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest. 91 mins
A couple's marriage reaches breaking point after their son's death in an everyday trauma-drama that's carefully handled. Nothing too depressing, hysterical, boring or serious, but it's still emotional, and Kidman has never been better.
Brighton Rock (15)
(Rowan Joffe,...
(David O Russell, 2010, Us) Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo, Mickey O'Keefe. 116 mins
Just when America needed a tale of blue-collar dreams, hard-up families coming together and a Hero with Heart, along comes this bracing boxing drama. What distinguishes it from Rocky and co is that it's based on a real boxer ("Irish" Micky Ward), and there's not much boxing in it. The emphasis is on Wahlberg's colourfully unhelpful family, particularly his formidable mother (Leo) and crack-addicted brother (Bale). There's so much big acting going on, our quiet contender can't compete, but hey, he's got Heart.
Rabbit Hole (12A)
(John Cameron Mitchell, 2010, Us) Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest. 91 mins
A couple's marriage reaches breaking point after their son's death in an everyday trauma-drama that's carefully handled. Nothing too depressing, hysterical, boring or serious, but it's still emotional, and Kidman has never been better.
Brighton Rock (15)
(Rowan Joffe,...
- 2/5/2011
- by The guide
- The Guardian - Film News
The Être et Avoir director is back with a new film: a beautiful and revealing documentary about a zoo-dwelling ape, says Peter Bradshaw
It's impossible to watch Nicolas Philibert's new film without a Darwinian frisson of anxiety, and an animal-liberationist spasm of rage. Nénette is a 40-year-old female orangutan in a Parisian zoo: she has been kept here almost all her life. Philibert's camera is trained solely on her, and some other ape companions – humans are not shown, but we hear the chattering voices of zoo visitors and the thoughtful voices of various naturalists and experts. Our gaze is kept on Nénette's face. She is watching us, while we are watching her. Nénette looks clinically depressed. As Philibert shows us a close-up of her eyes, full of sadness and pain, it seems just too obvious to say that Nénette seems human. Perhaps it is that we are ape-like.
It's impossible to watch Nicolas Philibert's new film without a Darwinian frisson of anxiety, and an animal-liberationist spasm of rage. Nénette is a 40-year-old female orangutan in a Parisian zoo: she has been kept here almost all her life. Philibert's camera is trained solely on her, and some other ape companions – humans are not shown, but we hear the chattering voices of zoo visitors and the thoughtful voices of various naturalists and experts. Our gaze is kept on Nénette's face. She is watching us, while we are watching her. Nénette looks clinically depressed. As Philibert shows us a close-up of her eyes, full of sadness and pain, it seems just too obvious to say that Nénette seems human. Perhaps it is that we are ape-like.
- 2/4/2011
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
An elderly orangutan is the star of Etre et Avoir director Nicolas Philibert's new documentary. But the real action is going on outside the cage, he tells Catherine Shoard
The star of Nicolas Philibert's new film picks sceptically at her lettuce. From behind lavish lashes, she regards the crowd below, auburn hair flaming in the sunlight. Her director waves and smiles. After a pause, she advances, and, with a poise that bespeaks 38 years in the public eye, slowly runs her tongue, big as bacon, over the glass. Politesse dispensed, it's back to her tyre for a scratch.
We're in Paris's Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes, beside the Seine, off the Boulevard St Germain, on a perishing morning. Outside, in pens whose size testifies to the place's age (built in 1794), an ostrich hammers at the frost. A yak snorts. Doleful? Or just cold?
Philibert, 60, smiles and shrugs and hops gently from foot to foot,...
The star of Nicolas Philibert's new film picks sceptically at her lettuce. From behind lavish lashes, she regards the crowd below, auburn hair flaming in the sunlight. Her director waves and smiles. After a pause, she advances, and, with a poise that bespeaks 38 years in the public eye, slowly runs her tongue, big as bacon, over the glass. Politesse dispensed, it's back to her tyre for a scratch.
We're in Paris's Ménagerie du Jardin des Plantes, beside the Seine, off the Boulevard St Germain, on a perishing morning. Outside, in pens whose size testifies to the place's age (built in 1794), an ostrich hammers at the frost. A yak snorts. Doleful? Or just cold?
Philibert, 60, smiles and shrugs and hops gently from foot to foot,...
- 1/28/2011
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Summary: For all its imposing conjecture, this zoo documentary fails to address the bleak reality of its subject, a 40-year-old orangutan.
If you ever wanted to watch the orangutans in the Jardin des Plantes Exotiques zoo in Paris for a solid 70 minutes, I can save you a plane trip. Documentarian Nicolas Philibert trains his camera on the faces of these wearily lumbering creatures while the voices of visitors, employees and experts expound on the past, present and future of a particularly storied giant, the 40-year-old Nénette.
Screen Frontpage
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If you ever wanted to watch the orangutans in the Jardin des Plantes Exotiques zoo in Paris for a solid 70 minutes, I can save you a plane trip. Documentarian Nicolas Philibert trains his camera on the faces of these wearily lumbering creatures while the voices of visitors, employees and experts expound on the past, present and future of a particularly storied giant, the 40-year-old Nénette.
Screen Frontpage
read more...
- 12/21/2010
- by Benny Gammerman
- Filmology
Apart from the classic auteurs in the Special Presentations section, the 39th Festival du nouveau cinéma will be filled to the gills in new works from across the globe. I view the extremely popular film festival as sort of a B-side for film festival circuit items that generally find a spot in a major film fest such as Cannes and afterwards would normally fall through the cracks. Think the Nyff's much wilder, Canadian cousin. Over 295 films - this includes shorts, fiction and documentary, animation, retrospectives, tributes, professional panels, outdoor interactive installations, the festival which takes place between the 13th to the 24th of October, furiously promotes not only world talent, but local French Canadian filmmakers. Among the notable titles, we have Michelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro volte, Olivier Assayas' Carlos and Alex de la Iglesia's The Last Circus and Wang Bing will be in town for a Master Class for Venice-winning The Ditch.
- 9/28/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
The Edinburgh film festival aims to surprise. But in order to do that, it needs less Toy Story, less iffy Britcoms, less big name documentarians, and a little more clout
For the last couple of years, ever since the UK Film Council offered it a substantial grant linked to a change in the way it presented itself, the Edinburgh film festival has constantly referred to itself as a festival of "discovery" – in contrast, presumably, to the London film festival, which perhaps considers itself a festival of "celebrity".
But what does this mean in practice? All film festivals, by definition, enable people to "discover" films they may not yet know about or have forgotten; their stock-in-trade, however specialist, is a mix of pre-release previews, archive retrievals – and squads of that odd beast known as the "festival film", the submerged nine-tenths of the film production world that gets only one or two screenings in its lifetime,...
For the last couple of years, ever since the UK Film Council offered it a substantial grant linked to a change in the way it presented itself, the Edinburgh film festival has constantly referred to itself as a festival of "discovery" – in contrast, presumably, to the London film festival, which perhaps considers itself a festival of "celebrity".
But what does this mean in practice? All film festivals, by definition, enable people to "discover" films they may not yet know about or have forgotten; their stock-in-trade, however specialist, is a mix of pre-release previews, archive retrievals – and squads of that odd beast known as the "festival film", the submerged nine-tenths of the film production world that gets only one or two screenings in its lifetime,...
- 6/21/2010
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Two highly-anticipated second feature films from U.S. underground filmmakers will be making their World Premieres all the way over at the 64th annual Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will run for twelve days on June 16-27. The films are Rona Mark’s The Crab and Zach Clark’s Vacation!.
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
The Crab, which screens on June 21, is the touching story of a verbally abusive man born with two enormous, mutant-like hands; while Vacation!, which screens on June 20, tracks four urban gals let loose in a sunny seaside resort down South.
Both Mark and Clark previously screened their debut features at Eiff. Mark’s Strange Girls screened there in 2008 and Clark’s Modern Love Is Automatic screened in 2009. Both films also ended up as runners-up in Bad Lit’s annual Movie of the Year award, again Strange Girls in 2008 and Modern Love in 2009. Sadly, these two masterpieces are still unavailable on...
- 6/4/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
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