With acclaimed roles in Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Sandra Hüller might have had the biggest year of any actress in 2023. The success ensured that many eyes would be on the versatile actress’ next projects, the first of which is set to hit theaters this July.
Frauke Finsterwalder’s “Sisi & I” sees Huller playing a lady-in-waiting to Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary (Susanne Wolff), better known as Sisi, the monarch who famously spent an unprecedented 44 years on the throne. The film, which Finsterwalder co-wrote with Christian Kracht, also stars Georg Friedrich, Stefan Kurt, Sophie Hutter, Anthony Calf, and Angela Winkler.
Per the film’s official synopsis, Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary — known as Sisi (Wolff) —is living in an aristocratic women-only commune in Greece. Countess Irma (Hüller) is sent...
Frauke Finsterwalder’s “Sisi & I” sees Huller playing a lady-in-waiting to Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary (Susanne Wolff), better known as Sisi, the monarch who famously spent an unprecedented 44 years on the throne. The film, which Finsterwalder co-wrote with Christian Kracht, also stars Georg Friedrich, Stefan Kurt, Sophie Hutter, Anthony Calf, and Angela Winkler.
Per the film’s official synopsis, Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary — known as Sisi (Wolff) —is living in an aristocratic women-only commune in Greece. Countess Irma (Hüller) is sent...
- 6/6/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Jessica Hausner on the references to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby: “The idea behind Hotel [starring Franziska Weisz] was to use all those classical horror film elements on purpose, to put them together but to not lift the secret.”
In the second instalment with Jessica Hausner on three of her feature films before her latest, the bewitching Club Zero (European Film Award Best Original Score to Markus Binder), we move the conversation to Hotel, starring Franziska Weisz with Birgit Minichmayr (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon) and Lovely Rita with Barbara Osika as Rita, Wolfgang Kostal and Karina Brandlmayer as her parents, and Peter Fiala as her man of interest. The two films have the costumes, as always, designed by Tanja Hausner, cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, sound design by Erik Mischijew (Maren Ade’s multiple European Film...
In the second instalment with Jessica Hausner on three of her feature films before her latest, the bewitching Club Zero (European Film Award Best Original Score to Markus Binder), we move the conversation to Hotel, starring Franziska Weisz with Birgit Minichmayr (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon) and Lovely Rita with Barbara Osika as Rita, Wolfgang Kostal and Karina Brandlmayer as her parents, and Peter Fiala as her man of interest. The two films have the costumes, as always, designed by Tanja Hausner, cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, sound design by Erik Mischijew (Maren Ade’s multiple European Film...
- 5/11/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Jessica Hausner with Anne-Katrin Titze on Sylvie Testud’s Christine, Léa Seydoux’s Maria, Bruno Todeschini’s Kuno, and Gilette Barbier’s Frau Hartl in Lourdes: “I was thinking about the story of Heidi [by Johanna Spyri].”
In the first installment with Jessica Hausner on three of her feature films before her latest, the bewitching Club Zero (European Film Award Best Original Score to Markus Binder), we start the conversation with Lourdes, costumes, as always, designed by Tanja Hausner, cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, sound design by Erik Mischijew, and production design by Katharina Wöppermann (Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari’s Women Without Men).
Kuno (Bruno Todeschini) with Christine (Sylvie Testud), Frau Hartl (Gilette Barbier) and Cécile (Elina Löwensohn)
Maria (Léa Seydoux), a newcomer to the...
In the first installment with Jessica Hausner on three of her feature films before her latest, the bewitching Club Zero (European Film Award Best Original Score to Markus Binder), we start the conversation with Lourdes, costumes, as always, designed by Tanja Hausner, cinematography by Martin Gschlacht, sound design by Erik Mischijew, and production design by Katharina Wöppermann (Shirin Neshat and Shoja Azari’s Women Without Men).
Kuno (Bruno Todeschini) with Christine (Sylvie Testud), Frau Hartl (Gilette Barbier) and Cécile (Elina Löwensohn)
Maria (Léa Seydoux), a newcomer to the...
- 4/26/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Ms Novak’s (Mia Wasikowska) students Fred (Luke Barker), Ragna (Florence Baker), Helen (Gwen Currant), Elsa (Ksenia Devriendt), and Ben (Samuel D Anderson) in Jessica Hausner’s bewitching Club Zero
In the second installment with Jessica Hausner on Club Zero (co-written with Geraldine Bajard) and scored by Markus Binder (European Film Award winner), starring Mia Wasikowska (as Conscious Eating instructor Ms Novak), we discussed her longtime collaborators, costume designer Tanja Hausner and cinematographer Martin Gschlacht plus Sidse Babett Knudsen and Peter & The Wolf.
Jessica Hausner on using Peter & The Wolf in Club Zero: “It’s a very common fairytale and we found out that it’s really very well known …” Photo: Anne Katrin Titze
The parents of the students are played by Elsa Zylberstein (Simone Veil in Olivier Dahan’s all-embracing portrait Simone: Woman Of The Century) Mathieu Demy, Camilla Rutherford...
In the second installment with Jessica Hausner on Club Zero (co-written with Geraldine Bajard) and scored by Markus Binder (European Film Award winner), starring Mia Wasikowska (as Conscious Eating instructor Ms Novak), we discussed her longtime collaborators, costume designer Tanja Hausner and cinematographer Martin Gschlacht plus Sidse Babett Knudsen and Peter & The Wolf.
Jessica Hausner on using Peter & The Wolf in Club Zero: “It’s a very common fairytale and we found out that it’s really very well known …” Photo: Anne Katrin Titze
The parents of the students are played by Elsa Zylberstein (Simone Veil in Olivier Dahan’s all-embracing portrait Simone: Woman Of The Century) Mathieu Demy, Camilla Rutherford...
- 4/2/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Club Zero director Jessica Hausner with Anne-Katrin Titze (in Batsheva): “I do see the film in connection to a fairy tale. I think in all my films there is a connection to one fairy tale or the other.”
Jessica Hausner’s bewitching Club Zero (co-written with Geraldine Bajard), shot by Martin Gschlacht, scored by Markus Binder (European Film Award winner) with costumes by the ever surprising Tanja Hausner, starts off with students Fred (Luke Barker), Elsa (Ksenia Devriendt), Ragna (Florence Baker), Ben (Samuel D Anderson), Helen (Gwen Currant), Joan (Sade McNichols-Thomas), and Corbinian (Andrei Hozoc), all dressed in gender-neutral pale yellow polo shirts, beige skorts, and purple knee socks, gathering insect-like chairs for a Conscious Eating class, led by recently hired instructor Ms Novak (Mia Wasikowska). Ms Dorset (Sidse Babett Knudsen), the head mistress of this elite and very expensive international boarding school, is well-meaning and oblivious of...
Jessica Hausner’s bewitching Club Zero (co-written with Geraldine Bajard), shot by Martin Gschlacht, scored by Markus Binder (European Film Award winner) with costumes by the ever surprising Tanja Hausner, starts off with students Fred (Luke Barker), Elsa (Ksenia Devriendt), Ragna (Florence Baker), Ben (Samuel D Anderson), Helen (Gwen Currant), Joan (Sade McNichols-Thomas), and Corbinian (Andrei Hozoc), all dressed in gender-neutral pale yellow polo shirts, beige skorts, and purple knee socks, gathering insect-like chairs for a Conscious Eating class, led by recently hired instructor Ms Novak (Mia Wasikowska). Ms Dorset (Sidse Babett Knudsen), the head mistress of this elite and very expensive international boarding school, is well-meaning and oblivious of...
- 3/14/2024
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
As the EFM gets underway Film Movement has snapped up North American rights from The Match Factory to the period dramedy Sisi & I starring current Oscar nominee Sandra Huller.
The Match Factory has also licensed rights in Australia & New Zealand (Palace Entertainment), France (Kinovista), South Korea (Andamiro), Italy (Movies Inspired), Benelux (September Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Ukraine (Traffic Films).
Frauke Finsterwalder’s feature premiered at the Berlinale last year and sees Huller play Countess Irma Grafin, the lady-in-waiting to Empress Elisabeth of Austria played by Susanne Wolff.
Film Movement is planning a theatrical release...
The Match Factory has also licensed rights in Australia & New Zealand (Palace Entertainment), France (Kinovista), South Korea (Andamiro), Italy (Movies Inspired), Benelux (September Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Ukraine (Traffic Films).
Frauke Finsterwalder’s feature premiered at the Berlinale last year and sees Huller play Countess Irma Grafin, the lady-in-waiting to Empress Elisabeth of Austria played by Susanne Wolff.
Film Movement is planning a theatrical release...
- 2/16/2024
- ScreenDaily
Veteran German film and TV executive Dirk Schweitzer has left his position as CEO of producer/distributor Splendid Medien and has taken over as CEO of Mmc Group, the parent company of Cologne’s Mmc Studios.
Björn Siecken, former CFO at Splendid, will join Schweitzer as CFO of Mmc. Nico Roden will stay on as managing director of Mmc Studios, who run the Cologne backlot, and Bastie Griese will remain managing director of production division Mmc Movies, working together with Schweitzer to expand the company’s film and TV operations nationally and internationally.
Former Splendid boss Andreas Klein, son of company founder Albert E. Klein, has returned to run the company as CEO. Schweitzer took over operations at Splendid from Klein in 2020, with Klein continuing as an advisor to the company. Schweizer joined Splendid in 2013 from producer/distributor Tele-München Group, where he was managing director. Before that, he spent 10 years...
Björn Siecken, former CFO at Splendid, will join Schweitzer as CFO of Mmc. Nico Roden will stay on as managing director of Mmc Studios, who run the Cologne backlot, and Bastie Griese will remain managing director of production division Mmc Movies, working together with Schweitzer to expand the company’s film and TV operations nationally and internationally.
Former Splendid boss Andreas Klein, son of company founder Albert E. Klein, has returned to run the company as CEO. Schweitzer took over operations at Splendid from Klein in 2020, with Klein continuing as an advisor to the company. Schweizer joined Splendid in 2013 from producer/distributor Tele-München Group, where he was managing director. Before that, he spent 10 years...
- 2/12/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
On Sandra Hüller’s wall is the first piece of art she ever owned: a photograph she bought from a shop in Munich. “I won’t say its name,” she says archly, “because that would be advertising.” It’s a dynamic, joyous image showing the ensemble cast of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring as staged by Pina Bausch, the German choreographer famous for saying, “Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.” “I just love it,” Hüller says admiringly, turning her head for another look. “These people are all making the same movement, as you can see. But everybody is doing it completely differently. They have the same task, but you can see each personality in the way they’re doing it. I love it so much. It’s like they’re almost flying.” It explains a lot about Hüller and her craft.
The East German-born actress has been a...
The East German-born actress has been a...
- 12/25/2023
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Sandra Hüller doesn’t stand on protocol.
“Oh, it’s you,” she says, slipping quickly into the informal German “Du” when she recognizes me. “Can you give me five minutes? I just have to dump my shopping and make sure the dog’s Ok.”
We’re meeting early at a designer hotel in Cologne, Germany, a spot favored by visiting film crews for its proximity to the train station — just across the street — and its relative anonymity. Hüller, dressed in bell-bottoms and sneakers, a jean jacket thrown over a plain white T-shirt and with no makeup, has the morning off after an outdoor shoot for her next film was canceled due to a thunderstorm. She gets her dog sorted with a walker — more on the dog later — and sits down to talk.
“You have to take me as I am. With my groceries, my dog,” says the 45-year-old German actress,...
“Oh, it’s you,” she says, slipping quickly into the informal German “Du” when she recognizes me. “Can you give me five minutes? I just have to dump my shopping and make sure the dog’s Ok.”
We’re meeting early at a designer hotel in Cologne, Germany, a spot favored by visiting film crews for its proximity to the train station — just across the street — and its relative anonymity. Hüller, dressed in bell-bottoms and sneakers, a jean jacket thrown over a plain white T-shirt and with no makeup, has the morning off after an outdoor shoot for her next film was canceled due to a thunderstorm. She gets her dog sorted with a walker — more on the dog later — and sits down to talk.
“You have to take me as I am. With my groceries, my dog,” says the 45-year-old German actress,...
- 9/1/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Christian Petzold’s Afire and Wim Wenders’ Anselm are among movies on Germany’s longlist for the Best International Film Oscar.
National agency German Films received 12 submissions in the category with an independent jury deciding which film to move forward with on August 22 and 23 in Munich.
The following 12 German films were submitted to German Films by German producers:
Anselm – Das Rauschen Der Zeit (Anselm) von Wim Wenders (Road Movies) Das Lehrerzimmer(The Teachers‘ Lounge) von Ilker Çatak (if… Productions Film) Die Theorie Von Allem (The Theory Of Everything) von Timm Kröger (ma.ja.de Fiction) Ein Ganzes Leben (A Whole Life) von Hans Steinbichler (Tobis Filmproduktion München) Eine Frau (A Woman) von Jeanine Meerapfel (Malena Filmproduktion) Elaha von Milena Aboyan (Kinescope Film) Orphea In Love von Axel Ranisch (Sehr gute Filme) Roter Himmel (Afire) von Christian Petzold (Schramm Film Koerner Weber Kaiser) Sisi & Ich (Sisi & I) von Frauke Finsterwalder...
National agency German Films received 12 submissions in the category with an independent jury deciding which film to move forward with on August 22 and 23 in Munich.
The following 12 German films were submitted to German Films by German producers:
Anselm – Das Rauschen Der Zeit (Anselm) von Wim Wenders (Road Movies) Das Lehrerzimmer(The Teachers‘ Lounge) von Ilker Çatak (if… Productions Film) Die Theorie Von Allem (The Theory Of Everything) von Timm Kröger (ma.ja.de Fiction) Ein Ganzes Leben (A Whole Life) von Hans Steinbichler (Tobis Filmproduktion München) Eine Frau (A Woman) von Jeanine Meerapfel (Malena Filmproduktion) Elaha von Milena Aboyan (Kinescope Film) Orphea In Love von Axel Ranisch (Sehr gute Filme) Roter Himmel (Afire) von Christian Petzold (Schramm Film Koerner Weber Kaiser) Sisi & Ich (Sisi & I) von Frauke Finsterwalder...
- 8/14/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Germany has announced its shortlist for the 2024 Oscars, naming the pool of 12 films from which it will select its official contender in the best international film category for the 96th Academy Awards.
The selection, unveiled by the national promotional body German Films on Monday, includes several critical darlings from this year’s Berlinale, among them the Christian Petzold romantic feature Afire, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury prize; Ilker Çatak’s school drama The Teachers’ Lounge, the big winner at Germany’s national film awards, where it won six trophies, including for best film and best actress for star Leonie Benesch; Milena Aboyan’s Elaha, winner of Berlin’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino sidebar; and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I, a feminist-look at an iconic Austrian Empress and her toxic relationship with her lady-in-waiting.
Perfect Days, the Japan-set drama from three-time German Oscar nominee Wim Wenders — an audience favorite in Cannes,...
The selection, unveiled by the national promotional body German Films on Monday, includes several critical darlings from this year’s Berlinale, among them the Christian Petzold romantic feature Afire, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury prize; Ilker Çatak’s school drama The Teachers’ Lounge, the big winner at Germany’s national film awards, where it won six trophies, including for best film and best actress for star Leonie Benesch; Milena Aboyan’s Elaha, winner of Berlin’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino sidebar; and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I, a feminist-look at an iconic Austrian Empress and her toxic relationship with her lady-in-waiting.
Perfect Days, the Japan-set drama from three-time German Oscar nominee Wim Wenders — an audience favorite in Cannes,...
- 8/14/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Austrian filmmaker (and a supporting player on a slew of recent films) Markus Schleinzer is finally getting back into the director’s chair and he has managed to lasso the actress of the hour in 2023 Cannes Film Festival darling (for Palme d’Or and Grand Prix winning films) Sandra Hüller. Schleinzer and Hüller were recently seen in Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I. Screen Daily reports that The Match Factory is getting on board the new set during the 17th century project for what will be a 2024 summer shoot and the period piece will likely be gunning for a return trip to the Cannes competition where Schleinzer’s debut film Michael premiered in 2011.…...
- 6/1/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Ulrich Seidl on Rimini: “I had images in my head of fog, of empty beaches, closed bars and restaurants, and hotels. All of this wrapped in a beautiful wintry sentimentality and loneliness.”
About a day as beautiful as today that should never fade away sings a row of inhabitants in an Austrian nursing home, holding on to their walkers for dear life. So begins Ulrich Seidl’s heartbreaking Rimini (72nd Berlin International Film Festival), co-written with Veronika Franz (The Lodge and Goodnight Mommy with Severin Fiala), shot by Wolfgang Thaler (Maria Schrader’s Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe), with costumes by Tanja Hausner. Rimini is as close to a musical as the director will probably ever get, conjuring up an eternal return of suffering, memories, and curated forgetting.
Ulrich Seidl with Anne-Katrin Titze on costume designer Tanja Hausner: “We first look into the closets of the performer.”
Seidl exposes in...
About a day as beautiful as today that should never fade away sings a row of inhabitants in an Austrian nursing home, holding on to their walkers for dear life. So begins Ulrich Seidl’s heartbreaking Rimini (72nd Berlin International Film Festival), co-written with Veronika Franz (The Lodge and Goodnight Mommy with Severin Fiala), shot by Wolfgang Thaler (Maria Schrader’s Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe), with costumes by Tanja Hausner. Rimini is as close to a musical as the director will probably ever get, conjuring up an eternal return of suffering, memories, and curated forgetting.
Ulrich Seidl with Anne-Katrin Titze on costume designer Tanja Hausner: “We first look into the closets of the performer.”
Seidl exposes in...
- 3/17/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Nearly 125 years after her assassination, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria — or Sisi to her enduring cultists — continues to inspire a veritable industry of portraiture in Europe: In the last year alone, a novel, two TV series (one of them a glossy Netflix affair) and two feature films have been dedicated to the tightly corseted royal icon. Viewers outside the Continental sphere of Sisi-mania may only have registered one of those films, Marie Kreutzer’s chic, subversive anti-biopic “Corsage,” which might make the second, German director Frauke Finsterwalder’s lush, irreverent “Sisi & I,” seem to them a too-soon spare — coincidentally repeating several tricks from Kreutzer’s anachronistic playbook with its modern feminist inflections, contemporary soundtrack cues and sensational fashions, albeit with plenty of its own panache.
That unfortunate timing, combined with the absence of a Vicky Krieps-style crossover arthouse star, may cost “Sisi & I” some distributor interest outside...
That unfortunate timing, combined with the absence of a Vicky Krieps-style crossover arthouse star, may cost “Sisi & I” some distributor interest outside...
- 3/12/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
German cinema looks set for a major boom this year with a strong lineup of diverse works that span historical dramas, coming-of-age tales, high-octane nostalgia, animation and sci-fi fun.
The Berlin Film Festival is bowing a muscular selection of local titles, among them “Afire,” by Berlinale mainstay Christian Petzold (“Undine”), screening in competition. The films centers on a group of young people staying at a holiday house near the Baltic Sea during a hot, dry summer, exploring volatile emotions that start to sizzle when a wildfire spreads through the surrounding forest.
Likewise vying for the Golden Bear is Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic “Ingeborg Bachmann: Journey Into the Desert,” starring Vicky Krieps (“Corsage”) as the radical Austrian author. The film examines her relationship with Swiss writer Max Frisch and her 1964 journey of self-discovery through the Egyptian desert.
“Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything,” by Emily Atef (“More Than Ever”) and...
The Berlin Film Festival is bowing a muscular selection of local titles, among them “Afire,” by Berlinale mainstay Christian Petzold (“Undine”), screening in competition. The films centers on a group of young people staying at a holiday house near the Baltic Sea during a hot, dry summer, exploring volatile emotions that start to sizzle when a wildfire spreads through the surrounding forest.
Likewise vying for the Golden Bear is Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic “Ingeborg Bachmann: Journey Into the Desert,” starring Vicky Krieps (“Corsage”) as the radical Austrian author. The film examines her relationship with Swiss writer Max Frisch and her 1964 journey of self-discovery through the Egyptian desert.
“Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything,” by Emily Atef (“More Than Ever”) and...
- 2/19/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
September has snapped up films from Sundance and Berlin and some Cannes contenders.
Leading Benelux indie distributor September Films has acquired multiple Sundance and Berlin titles as well as some films likely to feature in Cannes in a buying spree of international festival favourites.
From Berlin it has picked up Christian Petzold’s Golden Bear contender Afire (sold by The Match Factory); And The King Said, What A Fantastic Machine (sold by Heretic and having its European premiere in Berlin’s Generation 14plus and Xavier Legrand’s thriller The Successor (being sold by mK2’s in the European Film Market...
Leading Benelux indie distributor September Films has acquired multiple Sundance and Berlin titles as well as some films likely to feature in Cannes in a buying spree of international festival favourites.
From Berlin it has picked up Christian Petzold’s Golden Bear contender Afire (sold by The Match Factory); And The King Said, What A Fantastic Machine (sold by Heretic and having its European premiere in Berlin’s Generation 14plus and Xavier Legrand’s thriller The Successor (being sold by mK2’s in the European Film Market...
- 2/17/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
Row Pictures is the producer of Emily Atef’s Berlin competition title Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything.
Karsten Stöter’s Germany-based Row Pictures, the producer of Emily Atef’s Berlin competition title Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, has unveiled a slate of features from Natja Brunckhorst, Markus Schleinzer and Eliza Petkova.
Brunckhorst’s second feature, Zwei zu Eins, is set to go into production this summer at locations in Central Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia. It will be co-produced by the Lübeck-based arm of zischlermann filmproduktion with backing from broadcasters Zdf and Arte as well as Mdm, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw and Bkm.
Karsten Stöter’s Germany-based Row Pictures, the producer of Emily Atef’s Berlin competition title Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, has unveiled a slate of features from Natja Brunckhorst, Markus Schleinzer and Eliza Petkova.
Brunckhorst’s second feature, Zwei zu Eins, is set to go into production this summer at locations in Central Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia. It will be co-produced by the Lübeck-based arm of zischlermann filmproduktion with backing from broadcasters Zdf and Arte as well as Mdm, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw and Bkm.
- 2/17/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Cologne-based sales company The Match Factory has expanded and restructured its acquisition and development team.
Former head of sales, Thania Dimitrakopoulou, has been promoted to vice president of acquisitions and sales. Claudia Solano comes on board as senior manager of acquisitions, and Cécile Tollu-Polonowski, a long-time partner with the company, has been appointed as head of development.
Dimitrakopoulou, who joined The Match Factory in 2007, will now be heading up all acquisitions activities and manage the sales team, reporting to Michael Weber, managing director.
Solano joins The Match Factory from the distributor Koch Media in Italy where she worked as sales and acquisitions manager. Solano has held various positions in acquisitions in companies such as Videa and Good Films. During her career, she has introduced several high profile directors to the Italian market, including Xavier Dolan and Yorgos Lanthimos.
The Match Factory has appointed long-standing partner Tollu-Polonowski to lead the development team for the company.
Former head of sales, Thania Dimitrakopoulou, has been promoted to vice president of acquisitions and sales. Claudia Solano comes on board as senior manager of acquisitions, and Cécile Tollu-Polonowski, a long-time partner with the company, has been appointed as head of development.
Dimitrakopoulou, who joined The Match Factory in 2007, will now be heading up all acquisitions activities and manage the sales team, reporting to Michael Weber, managing director.
Solano joins The Match Factory from the distributor Koch Media in Italy where she worked as sales and acquisitions manager. Solano has held various positions in acquisitions in companies such as Videa and Good Films. During her career, she has introduced several high profile directors to the Italian market, including Xavier Dolan and Yorgos Lanthimos.
The Match Factory has appointed long-standing partner Tollu-Polonowski to lead the development team for the company.
- 2/16/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The adventures of Sisi and Franz will continue.
German period drama series Sisi — a reimagining of the historic love story between 19th century Austrian Empress Elisabeth, nicknamed “Sisi,” and her husband, Emperor Franz — has received a third-season order from German network Rtl.
Swiss American actress Dominique Devenport will return as Sisi and Jannik Schümann as Franz for season 3, which Story House Pictures will produce, in collaboration with Beta Film.
Sisi was an out-of-the-gate hit for Rtl, which has success both streaming the show on its Rtl+ platform and broadcasting it on its flagship linear channel in Germany. Beta has sold the series to more than 100 territories worldwide, including to Mediaset in Italy, TF1 in France and Globoplay in Brazil.
In the Rtl series, Empress Elisabeth is depicted as a tomboy who falls, as a princess in Bavaria, head-over-heels in love with the the handsome and powerful Franz, Emperor of Austria.
German period drama series Sisi — a reimagining of the historic love story between 19th century Austrian Empress Elisabeth, nicknamed “Sisi,” and her husband, Emperor Franz — has received a third-season order from German network Rtl.
Swiss American actress Dominique Devenport will return as Sisi and Jannik Schümann as Franz for season 3, which Story House Pictures will produce, in collaboration with Beta Film.
Sisi was an out-of-the-gate hit for Rtl, which has success both streaming the show on its Rtl+ platform and broadcasting it on its flagship linear channel in Germany. Beta has sold the series to more than 100 territories worldwide, including to Mediaset in Italy, TF1 in France and Globoplay in Brazil.
In the Rtl series, Empress Elisabeth is depicted as a tomboy who falls, as a princess in Bavaria, head-over-heels in love with the the handsome and powerful Franz, Emperor of Austria.
- 2/15/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The German sales company’s slate also includes titles by Margarethe von Trotta, Emily Atef, Tatiana Huezo.
The Match Factory has finalised a seven-strong slate of titles playing at the 2023 Berlinale, on which it represents world sales rights.
The company’s lineup includes four titles in Berlin Competition, including German director Christian Petzold’s latest film Afire, about a group of friends in a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire.
The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt and is produced by...
The Match Factory has finalised a seven-strong slate of titles playing at the 2023 Berlinale, on which it represents world sales rights.
The company’s lineup includes four titles in Berlin Competition, including German director Christian Petzold’s latest film Afire, about a group of friends in a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire.
The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt and is produced by...
- 1/23/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
U2 documentary ‘Kiss The Future’ added to Berlinale Special; further Generation titles revealed.
The Berlinale has completed the Panorama section for its 2023 edition with a raft of world premieres including UK thriller Femme, starring George MacKay and Candyman star Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.
The festival, which is set to run from February 16-26, has also revealed fresh titles selected for its Generation competition and the addition of U2 documentary Kiss The Future as a Berlinale Special screening.
The Panorama strand will comprise 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts. Having previously announced several titles, the festival revealed that animated feature The...
The Berlinale has completed the Panorama section for its 2023 edition with a raft of world premieres including UK thriller Femme, starring George MacKay and Candyman star Nathan Stewart-Jarrett.
The festival, which is set to run from February 16-26, has also revealed fresh titles selected for its Generation competition and the addition of U2 documentary Kiss The Future as a Berlinale Special screening.
The Panorama strand will comprise 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts. Having previously announced several titles, the festival revealed that animated feature The...
- 1/18/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday unveiled the final films for its 2023 Panorama section, the Berlinale’s main sidebar.
The 2023 lineup includes several world premieres, including Femme, the debut feature from directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, a drag artist revenge thriller staring 1917 actor George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett; The Beast in the Jungle, from Austrian director Patric Chiha (Brothers of the Night), an adaptation of the Henry James novel, starring Anaïs Demoustier, Tom Mercier and Beatrice Dalle; and Joan Baez I Am A Noise, a documentary on the legendary folk singer, from directors Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky and Maeve O’Boyle.
After Marie Kreutzer’s Oscar contender Corsage, Panorama will get another historic revisionist take on Austrian Empress Elizabeth, aka Sisi, with Sisi & I, a German drama from director Frauke Finsterwalder, featuring Susanne Wolff (The Stranger in Me) as Sisi, and also starring Sandra Hüller, Georg Friedrich,...
The 2023 lineup includes several world premieres, including Femme, the debut feature from directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, a drag artist revenge thriller staring 1917 actor George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett; The Beast in the Jungle, from Austrian director Patric Chiha (Brothers of the Night), an adaptation of the Henry James novel, starring Anaïs Demoustier, Tom Mercier and Beatrice Dalle; and Joan Baez I Am A Noise, a documentary on the legendary folk singer, from directors Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky and Maeve O’Boyle.
After Marie Kreutzer’s Oscar contender Corsage, Panorama will get another historic revisionist take on Austrian Empress Elizabeth, aka Sisi, with Sisi & I, a German drama from director Frauke Finsterwalder, featuring Susanne Wolff (The Stranger in Me) as Sisi, and also starring Sandra Hüller, Georg Friedrich,...
- 1/18/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Sepideh Farsi’s “La Sirène” (“The Siren”) is opening the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand.
The program, which comprises 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts, includes new films by Patric Chiha, İlker Çatak, Frauke Finsterwalder, Maite Alberdi, Milad Alami and Apolline Traoré. They feature a galaxy of well-known protagonists and actors such as Joan Baez, Jafar Panahi, Payman Maadi, George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Fan Bingbing, Sandra Hüller and Susanne Wolff.
Panorama Selections
“After”
by Anthony Lapia | with Louise Chevillotte, Majd Mastoura, Natalia Wiszniewska
France
World premiere | Debut film
“All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White”
by Babatunde Apalowo | with Tope Tedela, Riyo David, Martha Ehinome Orhiere, Uchechika Elumelu, Floyd Anekwe
Nigeria
World premiere | Debut film
“And, Towards Happy Alleys”
by Sreemoyee Singh | with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Soutodeh, Jinous Nazokkar, Farhad Kheradmand, Aida Mohammadkhani
India
World premiere | Debut film | Documentary
“La Bête dans la...
The program, which comprises 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts, includes new films by Patric Chiha, İlker Çatak, Frauke Finsterwalder, Maite Alberdi, Milad Alami and Apolline Traoré. They feature a galaxy of well-known protagonists and actors such as Joan Baez, Jafar Panahi, Payman Maadi, George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Fan Bingbing, Sandra Hüller and Susanne Wolff.
Panorama Selections
“After”
by Anthony Lapia | with Louise Chevillotte, Majd Mastoura, Natalia Wiszniewska
France
World premiere | Debut film
“All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White”
by Babatunde Apalowo | with Tope Tedela, Riyo David, Martha Ehinome Orhiere, Uchechika Elumelu, Floyd Anekwe
Nigeria
World premiere | Debut film
“And, Towards Happy Alleys”
by Sreemoyee Singh | with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Soutodeh, Jinous Nazokkar, Farhad Kheradmand, Aida Mohammadkhani
India
World premiere | Debut film | Documentary
“La Bête dans la...
- 1/18/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
London-set revenge thriller Femme, starring George MacKay and Candyman actor Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, has been selected for the Berlinale’s Panorama strand.
It was among a raft of fresh additions to the festival’s Panorama, Generation and Berlinale Special strands announced on Wednesday.
The picture is co-directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping and is based on their 2021 BAFTA-nominated short film of the same name.
Stewart-Jarrett plays a drag queen whose life is destroyed by a homophobic attack and then plots revenge on one of the perpetrators (MacKay) when he spots him in a gay sauna.
The 21 new Panorama titles also include France-based Austrian director Patric Chiha’s The Beast In The Jungle.
A contemporary adaptation of Henry James’s 1903 novella of the same name, the drama follows a man and woman who frequent a huge nightclub for 25 years in anticipation of a mysterious event.
The cast features Anaïs Demoustier,...
It was among a raft of fresh additions to the festival’s Panorama, Generation and Berlinale Special strands announced on Wednesday.
The picture is co-directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping and is based on their 2021 BAFTA-nominated short film of the same name.
Stewart-Jarrett plays a drag queen whose life is destroyed by a homophobic attack and then plots revenge on one of the perpetrators (MacKay) when he spots him in a gay sauna.
The 21 new Panorama titles also include France-based Austrian director Patric Chiha’s The Beast In The Jungle.
A contemporary adaptation of Henry James’s 1903 novella of the same name, the drama follows a man and woman who frequent a huge nightclub for 25 years in anticipation of a mysterious event.
The cast features Anaïs Demoustier,...
- 1/18/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Sisi & I
Sisi became all the rage with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage but another “Sisi” film was also in the works. Topically we’d love to see how this one measures ups but also expounds on the later years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray. Sandra Hüller, who toplined Frauke Finsterwalder’s first feature-length film Finsterworld (2013) is onboard here as well. Susanne Wolff takes on the Empress role. Principal photography took place in September of 2021 in locations in Bavaria, Vienna, Malta and Switzerland. The German filmmaker first got her start in docu film – apparently this second swim in fiction film was filmed in Super 16 mm film.…...
Sisi became all the rage with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage but another “Sisi” film was also in the works. Topically we’d love to see how this one measures ups but also expounds on the later years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray. Sandra Hüller, who toplined Frauke Finsterwalder’s first feature-length film Finsterworld (2013) is onboard here as well. Susanne Wolff takes on the Empress role. Principal photography took place in September of 2021 in locations in Bavaria, Vienna, Malta and Switzerland. The German filmmaker first got her start in docu film – apparently this second swim in fiction film was filmed in Super 16 mm film.…...
- 1/11/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (a highlight of the 60th New York Film Festival)
When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) last August she was on holiday in Italy. We spoke about her role in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), Corsage (Austria’s Oscar entry), and Bachmann & Frisch. Vicky can now be seen this week playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and in 2023 as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi release for 2023, Sisi & I, starring Sandra Hüller with Susanne Wolff as Sisi.
[imageleft...
When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) last August she was on holiday in Italy. We spoke about her role in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), Corsage (Austria’s Oscar entry), and Bachmann & Frisch. Vicky can now be seen this week playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and in 2023 as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi release for 2023, Sisi & I, starring Sandra Hüller with Susanne Wolff as Sisi.
[imageleft...
- 10/2/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (a highlight of the 60th New York Film Festival)
When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) last August she was on holiday in Italy. We spoke about her role in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), Corsage (Austria’s Oscar entry), and Bachmann & Frisch. Vicky can now be seen this week playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and in 2023 as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi release for 2023, Sisi & I, starring Sandra Hüller with Susanne Wolff as Sisi.
[imageleft...
When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) last August she was on holiday in Italy. We spoke about her role in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), Corsage (Austria’s Oscar entry), and Bachmann & Frisch. Vicky can now be seen this week playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and in 2023 as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi release for 2023, Sisi & I, starring Sandra Hüller with Susanne Wolff as Sisi.
[imageleft...
- 10/2/2022
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort) star Vicky Krieps on Mathieu Amalric: “I am not him, yet I am almost his alter ego as well.”
When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) she was on holiday in Italy. We discussed her role in Mathieu Amalric’s penetrating Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), which is based on Claudine Galéa’s play Je Reviens De Loin.
Vicky can soon be seen playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (screening in the Main Slate of the 60th New York Film Festival and produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) and as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi project for 2023, Sisi & I,...
When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) she was on holiday in Italy. We discussed her role in Mathieu Amalric’s penetrating Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), which is based on Claudine Galéa’s play Je Reviens De Loin.
Vicky can soon be seen playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (screening in the Main Slate of the 60th New York Film Festival and produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) and as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi project for 2023, Sisi & I,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The funds boosted inward investment on film and high-end TV series by a record €740m ($841m) in ’German spend’ last year.
Two of Germany’s leading production incentive programmes boosted inward investment on film and high-end TV series by a record €740m ($841m) in ’German spend’ last year.
The 2021 figure is up on the €715m generated in 2019, despite pandemic-related restrictions on production.
The German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) and German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf) paid out a combined total of €147.4m in 2021, up €62.8m on 2020 and €11.9m more in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, generating an almost five-fold increase in the initial outlay.
Two of Germany’s leading production incentive programmes boosted inward investment on film and high-end TV series by a record €740m ($841m) in ’German spend’ last year.
The 2021 figure is up on the €715m generated in 2019, despite pandemic-related restrictions on production.
The German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) and German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf) paid out a combined total of €147.4m in 2021, up €62.8m on 2020 and €11.9m more in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, generating an almost five-fold increase in the initial outlay.
- 2/18/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit star Carla Juri in her Brooklyn sweatshirt in Iceland, on her role: “I was wondering, they describe her as a bit more difficult. Ha, Ha! I like difficult!”
Carla Juri has had a number of memorable performances since 2013, from David Wnendt’s adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s novel Wetlands to Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, and in 2021 Andy Goddard’s Six Minutes To Midnight and Caroline Link’s adaptation with Anna Brüggemann of Judith Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.
The father Arthur Kemper (Oliver Masucci) reunited with his son Max (Marinus Hohmann), wife Dorothea (Carla Juri), and daughter Anna (Riva Krymalowski)
Carla Juri, Riva Krymalowski, Oliver Masucci (a Joseph Beuys look-alike in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away), and Marinus Hohmann star as the Kemper family, with a terrific ensemble cast, including Ursula Werner,...
Carla Juri has had a number of memorable performances since 2013, from David Wnendt’s adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s novel Wetlands to Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, and in 2021 Andy Goddard’s Six Minutes To Midnight and Caroline Link’s adaptation with Anna Brüggemann of Judith Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.
The father Arthur Kemper (Oliver Masucci) reunited with his son Max (Marinus Hohmann), wife Dorothea (Carla Juri), and daughter Anna (Riva Krymalowski)
Carla Juri, Riva Krymalowski, Oliver Masucci (a Joseph Beuys look-alike in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away), and Marinus Hohmann star as the Kemper family, with a terrific ensemble cast, including Ursula Werner,...
- 5/18/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
With a nod to Robert Donat’s Richard Hannay in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps and an unintended wink to a bus trip in Torn Curtain with Paul Newman and Julie Andrews, Andy Goddard’s Six Minutes To Midnight (co-written with Eddie Izzard and Celyn Jones) conjures up moments from cinema history. Leontine Sagan’s Mädchen in Uniform from 1931 may come to mind and when the German girls at the Augusta-Victoria College are singing in the staircase, The Sound Of Music is in the air.
The tautly wound historical thriller stars Eddie Izzard and Judi Dench with Carla Juri (of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld), Jim Broadbent, Celyn Jones, Maria Dragus (of Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon and Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation), James D’Arcy, David Schofield, and Tijan Marei. Shot crisply by Chris Seager (Goddard’s Set Fire To The Stars,...
The tautly wound historical thriller stars Eddie Izzard and Judi Dench with Carla Juri (of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld), Jim Broadbent, Celyn Jones, Maria Dragus (of Michael Haneke’s White Ribbon and Cristian Mungiu’s Graduation), James D’Arcy, David Schofield, and Tijan Marei. Shot crisply by Chris Seager (Goddard’s Set Fire To The Stars,...
- 3/24/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Andy Goddard on Eddie Izzard’s Thomas Miller, who “is like Robert Donat, being a wrong man being chased.”
The tautly wound historical thriller Six Minutes To Midnight stars Eddie Izzard and Judi Dench with Carla Juri (of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld), Jim Broadbent, Celyn Jones, Maria Dragus, James D’Arcy, David Schofield, and Tijan Marei. Shot crisply by Chris Seager with impeccable costumes by Lucinda Wright, Andy Goddard’s second feature film (co-written with Izzard and Jones) is set ominously at a finishing school in an English seaside town during the summer of 1939, where high-ranking German officials had sent their daughters to learn English.
Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard) with Miss Rocholl (Judi Dench) Photo: courtesy of IFC Films
With a nod to Robert Donat’s Richard Hannay in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps and an unintended wink to a bus trip in Torn Curtain...
The tautly wound historical thriller Six Minutes To Midnight stars Eddie Izzard and Judi Dench with Carla Juri (of Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049 and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld), Jim Broadbent, Celyn Jones, Maria Dragus, James D’Arcy, David Schofield, and Tijan Marei. Shot crisply by Chris Seager with impeccable costumes by Lucinda Wright, Andy Goddard’s second feature film (co-written with Izzard and Jones) is set ominously at a finishing school in an English seaside town during the summer of 1939, where high-ranking German officials had sent their daughters to learn English.
Thomas Miller (Eddie Izzard) with Miss Rocholl (Judi Dench) Photo: courtesy of IFC Films
With a nod to Robert Donat’s Richard Hannay in Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps and an unintended wink to a bus trip in Torn Curtain...
- 3/21/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Barbara Sukowa stars with Martine Chevallier in Filippo Meneghetti’s Two Of Us Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Filippo Meneghetti’s Two Of Us (Deux), (co-written with Malysone Bovorasmy and Florence Vignon), starring Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier with Léa Drucker (Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room), Jérôme Varanfrain, and Augustin Reynes (France’s Oscar submission); Anna Sofie Hartmann’s Giraffe (produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) with Lisa Loven Kongsli, Jakub Gierszal and Christoph Bach; Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room (Ta Fang Jian li De Yun) starring Jin Jing; Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent (El Agente Topo), starring Sergio Chamy (Chile’s Oscar submission), and (Fipresci Encounters winner at the Berlin Film Festival) The Metamorphosis Of Birds (A Metamorfose Dos Pássaros), directed by Catarina Vasconcelos are five highlights of the 49th edition of New Directors/New Films, presented...
Filippo Meneghetti’s Two Of Us (Deux), (co-written with Malysone Bovorasmy and Florence Vignon), starring Barbara Sukowa and Martine Chevallier with Léa Drucker (Mathieu Amalric’s The Blue Room), Jérôme Varanfrain, and Augustin Reynes (France’s Oscar submission); Anna Sofie Hartmann’s Giraffe (produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) with Lisa Loven Kongsli, Jakub Gierszal and Christoph Bach; Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud In Her Room (Ta Fang Jian li De Yun) starring Jin Jing; Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent (El Agente Topo), starring Sergio Chamy (Chile’s Oscar submission), and (Fipresci Encounters winner at the Berlin Film Festival) The Metamorphosis Of Birds (A Metamorfose Dos Pássaros), directed by Catarina Vasconcelos are five highlights of the 49th edition of New Directors/New Films, presented...
- 12/15/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Frauke Finsterwalder to begin shooting period drama in autumn 2020.
German sales outfit The Match Factory is to handle international sales on Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi – Kaiserin Elisabeth (working title), which aims to cast new light on the 19th century Empress of Austria.
It will tell the story of Elisabeth, who was nicknamed Sisi and would go on to become Queen of Hungary, thought the eyes of her lady-in-waiting.
Produced by Munich-based Walker+Worm Film, it will shoot on location in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Morocco from autumn 2020.
Finsterwalder has co-written the screenplay with her husband, the bestselling German author Christian Kracht.
German sales outfit The Match Factory is to handle international sales on Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi – Kaiserin Elisabeth (working title), which aims to cast new light on the 19th century Empress of Austria.
It will tell the story of Elisabeth, who was nicknamed Sisi and would go on to become Queen of Hungary, thought the eyes of her lady-in-waiting.
Produced by Munich-based Walker+Worm Film, it will shoot on location in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Morocco from autumn 2020.
Finsterwalder has co-written the screenplay with her husband, the bestselling German author Christian Kracht.
- 11/5/2019
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
Frauke Finsterwalder to begin shooting period drama in autumn 2020.
The Match Factory is to handle international sales on Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi – Kaiserin Elisabeth (working title), which promises to cast new light on the 19th century Empress of Austria.
Although it will tell the story of Elisabeth, who was nicknamed Sisi and would go on to become Queen of Hungary, the film will be told from the perspective of her lady-in-waiting, Irma.
Produced by Munich-based Walker+Worm Film, it will shoot on location in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Morocco from autumn 2020.
Finsterwalder has co-written the screenplay with her husband, the bestselling author Christian Kracht.
The Match Factory is to handle international sales on Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi – Kaiserin Elisabeth (working title), which promises to cast new light on the 19th century Empress of Austria.
Although it will tell the story of Elisabeth, who was nicknamed Sisi and would go on to become Queen of Hungary, the film will be told from the perspective of her lady-in-waiting, Irma.
Produced by Munich-based Walker+Worm Film, it will shoot on location in Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and Morocco from autumn 2020.
Finsterwalder has co-written the screenplay with her husband, the bestselling author Christian Kracht.
- 11/5/2019
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
Cannes competition title Loveless wins best international film.
Films by Andrey Zvyagintsev, Pedro Pinho and Tom Lass were among the winners at the 35th Filmfest München which came to a close on Saturday evening with a gala awards ceremony before the German premiere of Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest with actor Bill Nighy and producer Stephen Woolley in attendance.
The €50,000 Arri/Osram award for the best international film in the CineMasters sidebar went to Zvyagintsev’s Cannes competition film Loveless which opened in Russian cinemas through Wdssr on June 1 and will be released in Germany by Wild Bunch.
Producers Alexander Rodnyansky and Serguey Melkumov accepted the award in Munich from the hands of the international jury comprising German director Valeska Grisebach (whose latest feature Western premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in May), producer Markus Zimmer, and actress Nastassja Kinski.
This is the second time Zvyagintsev received the Munich award after his previous feature Leviathan had won...
Films by Andrey Zvyagintsev, Pedro Pinho and Tom Lass were among the winners at the 35th Filmfest München which came to a close on Saturday evening with a gala awards ceremony before the German premiere of Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest with actor Bill Nighy and producer Stephen Woolley in attendance.
The €50,000 Arri/Osram award for the best international film in the CineMasters sidebar went to Zvyagintsev’s Cannes competition film Loveless which opened in Russian cinemas through Wdssr on June 1 and will be released in Germany by Wild Bunch.
Producers Alexander Rodnyansky and Serguey Melkumov accepted the award in Munich from the hands of the international jury comprising German director Valeska Grisebach (whose latest feature Western premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in May), producer Markus Zimmer, and actress Nastassja Kinski.
This is the second time Zvyagintsev received the Munich award after his previous feature Leviathan had won...
- 7/3/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek in Maren Ade's Oscar nominated Toni Erdmann
This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Germany's submission for the 89th Academy Awards, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, starring Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek, is one of the five Oscar Best Foreign Language Film nominees.
Martin Zandvliet's Land Of Mine, from Denmark; Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman, from Iran; Bentley Dean and Martin Butler's Tanna, from Australia; and from Sweden, Hannes Holm's A Man Called Ove round out the field. Isabelle Huppert, for Paul Verhoeven's Elle (France's submission), received a Best Lead Actress nomination. Switzerland's My Life As A Courgette, directed by Claude Barras, received a Best Animated Feature nomination.
Sandra Hüller on Ines Conradi: "She should be a boss."
Filming Toni Erdmann in Romania, connecting Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld to King Kong, and what it means...
This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Germany's submission for the 89th Academy Awards, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, starring Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek, is one of the five Oscar Best Foreign Language Film nominees.
Martin Zandvliet's Land Of Mine, from Denmark; Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman, from Iran; Bentley Dean and Martin Butler's Tanna, from Australia; and from Sweden, Hannes Holm's A Man Called Ove round out the field. Isabelle Huppert, for Paul Verhoeven's Elle (France's submission), received a Best Lead Actress nomination. Switzerland's My Life As A Courgette, directed by Claude Barras, received a Best Animated Feature nomination.
Sandra Hüller on Ines Conradi: "She should be a boss."
Filming Toni Erdmann in Romania, connecting Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld to King Kong, and what it means...
- 1/24/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Sandra Hüller with Toni Erdmann director/writer Maren Ade Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Maren Ade has teamed up again with costume designer Gitti Fuchs and editor Heike Parplies of her The Forest For The Trees (Der Wald Vor Lauter Bäumen) and Everyone Else (Alle Anderen) to bring us Germany's Oscar submission Toni Erdmann, starring Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton, meerkats (not from Ang Lee's Life Of Pi), Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, vintage Yves Saint Laurent, and corporate madness came up in my conversation with Maren Ade and Sandra Hüller.
Kent Jones with Maren Ade, Peter Simonischek and Sandra Hüller Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
With a supporting cast including Viktorija Malektorovych, Hadewych Minis, Lucy Russell, Michael Wittenborn, Ingrid Bisu, Thomas Loibl, and Trystan Pütter, Ade gives her characters a chance to rediscover themselves in song and skin-deep encounters of the third or fourth or fifth kind.
Maren Ade has teamed up again with costume designer Gitti Fuchs and editor Heike Parplies of her The Forest For The Trees (Der Wald Vor Lauter Bäumen) and Everyone Else (Alle Anderen) to bring us Germany's Oscar submission Toni Erdmann, starring Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek.
Rainer Maria Rilke, Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton, meerkats (not from Ang Lee's Life Of Pi), Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, vintage Yves Saint Laurent, and corporate madness came up in my conversation with Maren Ade and Sandra Hüller.
Kent Jones with Maren Ade, Peter Simonischek and Sandra Hüller Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
With a supporting cast including Viktorija Malektorovych, Hadewych Minis, Lucy Russell, Michael Wittenborn, Ingrid Bisu, Thomas Loibl, and Trystan Pütter, Ade gives her characters a chance to rediscover themselves in song and skin-deep encounters of the third or fourth or fifth kind.
- 10/26/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Labyrinth Of Lies director Giulio Ricciarelli Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Giulio Ricciarelli's Oscar shortlisted Best Foreign Language Film candidate, Labyrinth Of Lies, stars Alexander Fehling of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds fame, with Johannes Krisch (Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld and Götz Spielmann's Revanche), André Szymanski, Hansi Jochmann, Friederike Becht (Margarethe von Trotta's Hannah Arendt), Johann von Bülow and Mathis Reinhardt, and is dedicated to the late great stage actor, Gert Voss.
"Heimatfilm", Marc Rothemund's Sophie Scholl: The Final Days on the White Rose shot by Martin Langer, Vico Torriani, Caterina Valente and how the costume design of Aenne Plaumann (Goodbye Lenin!), a La Strada poster, design by Manfred Döring and Janina Jaensch were orchestrated by "card players", gender roles in the Fifties, and what's in a title.
Marlene Wondrak (Friederike Becht) with Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling)
Ricciarelli in his debut feature captures a mood of cold-sweat exhilarated revitalisation,...
Giulio Ricciarelli's Oscar shortlisted Best Foreign Language Film candidate, Labyrinth Of Lies, stars Alexander Fehling of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds fame, with Johannes Krisch (Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld and Götz Spielmann's Revanche), André Szymanski, Hansi Jochmann, Friederike Becht (Margarethe von Trotta's Hannah Arendt), Johann von Bülow and Mathis Reinhardt, and is dedicated to the late great stage actor, Gert Voss.
"Heimatfilm", Marc Rothemund's Sophie Scholl: The Final Days on the White Rose shot by Martin Langer, Vico Torriani, Caterina Valente and how the costume design of Aenne Plaumann (Goodbye Lenin!), a La Strada poster, design by Manfred Döring and Janina Jaensch were orchestrated by "card players", gender roles in the Fifties, and what's in a title.
Marlene Wondrak (Friederike Becht) with Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling)
Ricciarelli in his debut feature captures a mood of cold-sweat exhilarated revitalisation,...
- 1/3/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Novelist/screenwriter, Christian Kracht, gives a Paddington hard stare before his conversation on Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas with Daniel Bowles and Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: David Netto
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.
In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...
- 7/24/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Imperium author Christian Kracht, Finsterworld director Frauke Finsterwalder with Anne-Katrin Titze
Into my conversations with Uschi Reich, producer of Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters at the New York Film Festival, The Sleepwalker's Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, director of the upcoming The Childhood Of A Leader, starring Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, Sophie Curtis and Robert Pattinson (who stars with Dane DeHaan and Ben Kingsley in Anton Corbijn's Life), Christian Kracht's novel, Imperium, sailed in.
While reading his South Sea adventure from the age of empire, I envisioned it as a film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the third link to The Master and the Thomas Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice.
Christian Kracht's Imperium: A Fiction Of The South Seas (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) and its star Tom Schilling (from Philipp Kadelbach's Generation...
Into my conversations with Uschi Reich, producer of Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters at the New York Film Festival, The Sleepwalker's Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, director of the upcoming The Childhood Of A Leader, starring Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, Sophie Curtis and Robert Pattinson (who stars with Dane DeHaan and Ben Kingsley in Anton Corbijn's Life), Christian Kracht's novel, Imperium, sailed in.
While reading his South Sea adventure from the age of empire, I envisioned it as a film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the third link to The Master and the Thomas Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice.
Christian Kracht's Imperium: A Fiction Of The South Seas (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) and its star Tom Schilling (from Philipp Kadelbach's Generation...
- 7/13/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The European Film Academy’s (Efa) chairwoman Agnieszka Holland has spoken of a ¨crisis of content¨ in European cinema and called on the continent’s broadcasters to invest more in ambitious TV series.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, the Polish director and Efa chair said: ¨The real crisis of European cinema is one of content.
¨We always have some good movies, but not enough. We have to make better ones, ones that are not just artistic and self-involved, but are searching for an audience.
¨Something which doesn’t help is the weakness of European television in terms of the production of ambitious TV series. We don’t have European stars, but nowadays they can be made by European television and that can be later reflected in the cinema.
“If you have this element [from television], it is then much easier to promote the films in the cinemas.¨
Holland also touched on the issue of EU audiovisual policy ahead of the...
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, the Polish director and Efa chair said: ¨The real crisis of European cinema is one of content.
¨We always have some good movies, but not enough. We have to make better ones, ones that are not just artistic and self-involved, but are searching for an audience.
¨Something which doesn’t help is the weakness of European television in terms of the production of ambitious TV series. We don’t have European stars, but nowadays they can be made by European television and that can be later reflected in the cinema.
“If you have this element [from television], it is then much easier to promote the films in the cinemas.¨
Holland also touched on the issue of EU audiovisual policy ahead of the...
- 4/27/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Beloved Sisters producer Uschi Reich on Dominik Graf at the New York Film Festival: "It was very important for Dominik to work with the language." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters (Die Geliebten Schwestern) starring Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius and Hannah Herzsprung alongside Claudia Messner, Ronald Zehrfeld, Michael Wittenborn, Maja Maranow and Andreas Pietschmann, sharply re-invents the costume drama with an historical fiction centered around the ménage-à-trois love story between writer Friedrich Schiller (Stetter) and the sisters Caroline (Herzsprung) and Charlotte (Confurius) von Lengefeld.
I met up with producer Uschi Reich during the New York Film Festival to discuss her role in bringing the story to the screen. We also discussed Dominik Graf's voice and music, his relationship to Christian Kracht's novel Imperium and Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld film, Caroline Link, the connection between Veit Heiduschka to Michael Haneke and Helge Sasse with Anton Corbijn's...
Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters (Die Geliebten Schwestern) starring Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius and Hannah Herzsprung alongside Claudia Messner, Ronald Zehrfeld, Michael Wittenborn, Maja Maranow and Andreas Pietschmann, sharply re-invents the costume drama with an historical fiction centered around the ménage-à-trois love story between writer Friedrich Schiller (Stetter) and the sisters Caroline (Herzsprung) and Charlotte (Confurius) von Lengefeld.
I met up with producer Uschi Reich during the New York Film Festival to discuss her role in bringing the story to the screen. We also discussed Dominik Graf's voice and music, his relationship to Christian Kracht's novel Imperium and Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld film, Caroline Link, the connection between Veit Heiduschka to Michael Haneke and Helge Sasse with Anton Corbijn's...
- 10/4/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A total of 15 films have been submitted for consideration.
German producers have submitted 15 films for consideration to German Films as the country’s entry for the 87th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
An independent expert jury will decide on Aug 27 which film is to be sent into the race for Germany.
The following titles were submitted:
Home From Home – Chronicle Of A Vision
Edgar Reitz (De/Fr, Erf Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion)
Beloved Sisters
Dominik Graf (Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktion)
Finsterworld
Frauke Finsterwalder (Walker + Worm Film)
Hanna’s Journey
Julia von Heinz (De/Il, 2 Pilots Filmproduction)
Im Weissen Rössl – Wehe Du Singst
Christian Theede (Ziegler Film)
Stations Of The Cross
Dietrich Brüggemann (Ufa Fiction)
Run Boy Run
Pepe Danquart (De/Fr, bittersuess pictures, A Company Filmproduktion, B.A. Produktion, Quinte Film)
The Last Mentsch
Pierre-Henri Salfati (Elsani Film)
Stereo
Maximilian Erlenwein (Frisbeefilms, Kaissar Film, Wild Bunch Germany)
West
Christian Schwochow (zero one film, Terz...
German producers have submitted 15 films for consideration to German Films as the country’s entry for the 87th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
An independent expert jury will decide on Aug 27 which film is to be sent into the race for Germany.
The following titles were submitted:
Home From Home – Chronicle Of A Vision
Edgar Reitz (De/Fr, Erf Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion)
Beloved Sisters
Dominik Graf (Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktion)
Finsterworld
Frauke Finsterwalder (Walker + Worm Film)
Hanna’s Journey
Julia von Heinz (De/Il, 2 Pilots Filmproduction)
Im Weissen Rössl – Wehe Du Singst
Christian Theede (Ziegler Film)
Stations Of The Cross
Dietrich Brüggemann (Ufa Fiction)
Run Boy Run
Pepe Danquart (De/Fr, bittersuess pictures, A Company Filmproduktion, B.A. Produktion, Quinte Film)
The Last Mentsch
Pierre-Henri Salfati (Elsani Film)
Stereo
Maximilian Erlenwein (Frisbeefilms, Kaissar Film, Wild Bunch Germany)
West
Christian Schwochow (zero one film, Terz...
- 8/6/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
A total of 15 films have been submitted for consideration.
German producers have submitted 15 films for consideration to German Films as the country’s entry for the 87th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
An independent expert jury will decide on Aug 27 which film is to be sent into the race for Germany.
The following titles were submitted:
Home From Home – Chronicle Of A Vision
Edgar Reitz (De/Fr, Erf Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion)
Beloved Sisters
Dominik Graf (Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktion)
Finsterworld
Frauke Finsterwalder (Walker + Worm Film)
Hanna’s Journey
Julia von Heinz (De/Il, 2 Pilots Filmproduction)
Im Weissen Rössl – Wehe Du Singst
Christian Theede (Ziegler Film)
Stations Of The Cross
Dietrich Brüggemann (Ufa Fiction)
Run Boy Run
Pepe Danquart (De/Fr, bittersuess pictures, A Company Filmproduktion, B.A. Produktion, Quinte Film)
The Last Mentsch
Pierre-Henri Salfati (Elsani Film)
Stereo
Maximilian Erlenwein (Frisbeefilms, Kaissar Film, Wild Bunch Germany)
West
Christian Schwochow (zero one film, Terz...
German producers have submitted 15 films for consideration to German Films as the country’s entry for the 87th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
An independent expert jury will decide on Aug 27 which film is to be sent into the race for Germany.
The following titles were submitted:
Home From Home – Chronicle Of A Vision
Edgar Reitz (De/Fr, Erf Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion)
Beloved Sisters
Dominik Graf (Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktion)
Finsterworld
Frauke Finsterwalder (Walker + Worm Film)
Hanna’s Journey
Julia von Heinz (De/Il, 2 Pilots Filmproduction)
Im Weissen Rössl – Wehe Du Singst
Christian Theede (Ziegler Film)
Stations Of The Cross
Dietrich Brüggemann (Ufa Fiction)
Run Boy Run
Pepe Danquart (De/Fr, bittersuess pictures, A Company Filmproduktion, B.A. Produktion, Quinte Film)
The Last Mentsch
Pierre-Henri Salfati (Elsani Film)
Stereo
Maximilian Erlenwein (Frisbeefilms, Kaissar Film, Wild Bunch Germany)
West
Christian Schwochow (zero one film, Terz...
- 8/6/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
A Most Wanted Man director Anton Corbijn on Philip Seymour Hoffman getting it right: "When we had done a take and he wasn't sure he didn't want to look at the monitor, he would just listen." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man, with a script by Andrew Bovell, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Nina Hoss (star of Christian Petzold's Barbara) and Grigoriy Dobrygin. Anton and I spoke about his supporting cast: Bernhard Schütz, terrific in Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, Martin Wuttke, Adolf Hitler in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and Herbert Grönemeyer, who played Ian Curtis's doctor in Corbijn's debut feature Control and is the composer for The American and Anton's latest. Homayoun Ershadi, known for his work with Abbas Kiarostami rounds out the superb cast. We also discussed Wim Wenders' The American Friend and the character of Hamburg.
Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man, with a script by Andrew Bovell, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Nina Hoss (star of Christian Petzold's Barbara) and Grigoriy Dobrygin. Anton and I spoke about his supporting cast: Bernhard Schütz, terrific in Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, Martin Wuttke, Adolf Hitler in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and Herbert Grönemeyer, who played Ian Curtis's doctor in Corbijn's debut feature Control and is the composer for The American and Anton's latest. Homayoun Ershadi, known for his work with Abbas Kiarostami rounds out the superb cast. We also discussed Wim Wenders' The American Friend and the character of Hamburg.
- 7/24/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld co-written with Christian Kracht celebrates words of lore as well as colloquial rhythms and structures of non-communication.
In part 2 of my conversation with director Frauke Finsterwalder and co-sreenwriter Christian Kracht on Finsterworld, we go beyond Slavoj Žižek's The Pervert's Guide To Ideology, Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies, Berlin architecture, Joseph Beuys, Kubrick's The Shining, Adorno, the beauty of Margit Carstensen and the legacy of "Gesichtswurst".
Anne-Katrin Titze: Let's talk about Margit Carstensen. Did you take her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder into account when casting her?
Frauke Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht on the legacy of Gesichtswurst: "Also, the image of that sandwich, that's a mutual obsession." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Frauke Finsterwalder: I was thinking of Fassbinder's TV movie Martha (1974). That's the one where she gets abused by Karlheinz Böhm. It wasn't released until much later. They have this abusive relationship and finally she escapes from him and crashes her car.
In part 2 of my conversation with director Frauke Finsterwalder and co-sreenwriter Christian Kracht on Finsterworld, we go beyond Slavoj Žižek's The Pervert's Guide To Ideology, Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies, Berlin architecture, Joseph Beuys, Kubrick's The Shining, Adorno, the beauty of Margit Carstensen and the legacy of "Gesichtswurst".
Anne-Katrin Titze: Let's talk about Margit Carstensen. Did you take her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder into account when casting her?
Frauke Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht on the legacy of Gesichtswurst: "Also, the image of that sandwich, that's a mutual obsession." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Frauke Finsterwalder: I was thinking of Fassbinder's TV movie Martha (1974). That's the one where she gets abused by Karlheinz Böhm. It wasn't released until much later. They have this abusive relationship and finally she escapes from him and crashes her car.
- 6/25/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Finsterworld's Christian Kracht and Frauke Finsterwalder with Anne-Katrin Titze in New York
On a sunny morning on Broadway, high above Houston Street, I met with filmmaker Frauke Finsterwalder and her co-screenwriter, author Christian Kracht, to speak about their intricately constructed Finsterworld. We discussed why the film could only have been written from outside, childhood obsessions allowed to artists, fairy tale houses made of food and Wes Anderson's stylised truth.
Sandra Hüller as Franziska: "Actually, she wants to scream at him 'Can't you say something? I'm wasting my time'."
This is the Germany of the unconscious where Teutonic earth spirits coexist with pedicurist Claude (Michael Maertens), who, in a raspberry colored turtleneck, works foot-magic at a nursing home. Margit Carstensen, the star of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, plays Maria Sandberg, the object of his special affections. In loosely connected strands we meet the different generations of the Sandberg family.
On a sunny morning on Broadway, high above Houston Street, I met with filmmaker Frauke Finsterwalder and her co-screenwriter, author Christian Kracht, to speak about their intricately constructed Finsterworld. We discussed why the film could only have been written from outside, childhood obsessions allowed to artists, fairy tale houses made of food and Wes Anderson's stylised truth.
Sandra Hüller as Franziska: "Actually, she wants to scream at him 'Can't you say something? I'm wasting my time'."
This is the Germany of the unconscious where Teutonic earth spirits coexist with pedicurist Claude (Michael Maertens), who, in a raspberry colored turtleneck, works foot-magic at a nursing home. Margit Carstensen, the star of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, plays Maria Sandberg, the object of his special affections. In loosely connected strands we meet the different generations of the Sandberg family.
- 6/20/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Playing at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Quad Cinema in New York June 13-19 the Kino! Festival Of German Films returns for its 36th year. Once again, the festival continues to offer the best in German cinema produced in the last year. The program features documentaries and narratives that not only focus on the German experience but also on its filmmakers’ points of view on what happens around the world. Quality is always a given with Kino and these wide-ranging stories are no exception. Some revisit the country’s historical past, others travel to distant lands in search of images, and there are also those that feel specific to our time. Here are some highlights of what we've seen so far with some additions to come soon.
For more information on the festival visit Here
West
Dir. Christian Schwochow
In search of a more promising and free life for her and her son, Nelly Sneff (Jördis Triebel) a young East German chemist flees to the more modernized West side. Even though she speaks the same language and is as German as everyone else living in the communal living facilities for refugees, Nelly finds it difficult to adapt to the new system. Ironically, she comes to realize that she is seen as the enemy on this side of the wall. The constant questioning about the whereabouts and affiliation of her Soviet partner, who until now she believed dead, take a toll on her already complex life putting her in a state of paranoia. Her son Alexej (Tristan Göbel), who is bullied at school, befriends a neighbor, Hans ( Alexander Scheer) whose good intentions will put Nelly on the edge. Distrust is at the core of Schwochow’s film that plays as thoughtful answer to films like “The Lives of Others” and “Barbara.” While those examples condemned the system enforced by the Stasi, in “West” the tables are flipped. Nelly feels unsafe, watched, and harassed in a land that was supposed to be against those practices. Triebel's intense performance escalates from hopeful to enraged in a marvelously directed story about an unexamined subject within German history.
Nan Goldin : I Remember Your Face
Dir. Sabine Lidl
In a concisely executed documentary that runs just over 60 minutes, director Sabine Lidl manages to capture the essence of renowned photographer Nal Goldin. Given that her friendships are the inspiration and subjects for her work, the filmmaker follows the eccentric artist as she visits old friends and reminisces about their youth, her failed attempts at seducing attractive gay men, and their role in her career. Her photos are raw and vivid. They shine with colorful nuances that only intimacy can provide. Drunk, naked, and unique people experience sadness and joy in front of her camera. Goldin’s extravagant collections and her turbulent past with drugs and alcohol also make an appearance in this short portrait of a fascinating woman across her beloved Berlin and other European cities.
Art War
Dir. Marco Wilms
While shot by a German filmmaker, the film is very similar to the Academy Awards-nominated film “The Square.” It follows the revolutionary youth of Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that brought down the Mubarak regime. While the aforementioned film tries to depict a holistic picture of the events, the deaths, and the shaky political processes that followed, Wilms decides to focus on the artistic expression that emerged from the movement. Including politically charged rap songs, and more extensively graffiti, the documentary advocates for the youth’s effort to protests by peaceful means. However, it also points at the non-stop attacks by Islamist conservative groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Among their many undertakings, the art on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near the iconic Tahrir Square is of particular importance because it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the carnage. Young Egyptians turned martyrs are immortalized on the city’s walls as constant reminder of an incessant struggle. There are clearly a great number of similarities between the two films, and though this is less achieved in scope, it can definitely work as a complementary piece.
Finsterworld
Dir. Frauke Finsterwalder
With a multi-story concept that scrutinizes modern German society, the tonally eclectic “Finsterworld” provides some vexed assumptions about the country’s history of violence. A high school class is taking a fieldtrip to a concentration camp, Dominik (Leonard Scheicher) and his unofficial girlfriend Natalie (Carla Juri) are enjoying the day despite having to deal with obnoxious spoiled kid Maximilian (Jakub Gierszal). Meanwhile Franziska (Sandra Hüller), an pretentious aspiring filmmaker wants to capture something profound, inevitably her egocentric personality crashes with her loving boyfriend police officer Tom (Ronald Zehrfeld), who is also a closeted “furry.” Then there is Claude (Michael Maertens), a lonely masseur specialized in feet, and his friendship with elderly woman Frau (Margit Carstensen). Lastly, there are the Sandbergs (Corinna Harfouch &Bernhard Schütz), a wealthy couple on the road who encounter a difficult situation. Touching on the subject of German identity having Hitler as only representative figure and being a nation defined by guilt, Finsterwalder’s feature is heavily provocative. It’s strange tone that shifts between absurd comedy and gruesome violence can come across as uncomfortable or even offensive, but there are a handful of brilliant moments that make the film rather compelling.
For more information on the festival visit Here
West
Dir. Christian Schwochow
In search of a more promising and free life for her and her son, Nelly Sneff (Jördis Triebel) a young East German chemist flees to the more modernized West side. Even though she speaks the same language and is as German as everyone else living in the communal living facilities for refugees, Nelly finds it difficult to adapt to the new system. Ironically, she comes to realize that she is seen as the enemy on this side of the wall. The constant questioning about the whereabouts and affiliation of her Soviet partner, who until now she believed dead, take a toll on her already complex life putting her in a state of paranoia. Her son Alexej (Tristan Göbel), who is bullied at school, befriends a neighbor, Hans ( Alexander Scheer) whose good intentions will put Nelly on the edge. Distrust is at the core of Schwochow’s film that plays as thoughtful answer to films like “The Lives of Others” and “Barbara.” While those examples condemned the system enforced by the Stasi, in “West” the tables are flipped. Nelly feels unsafe, watched, and harassed in a land that was supposed to be against those practices. Triebel's intense performance escalates from hopeful to enraged in a marvelously directed story about an unexamined subject within German history.
Nan Goldin : I Remember Your Face
Dir. Sabine Lidl
In a concisely executed documentary that runs just over 60 minutes, director Sabine Lidl manages to capture the essence of renowned photographer Nal Goldin. Given that her friendships are the inspiration and subjects for her work, the filmmaker follows the eccentric artist as she visits old friends and reminisces about their youth, her failed attempts at seducing attractive gay men, and their role in her career. Her photos are raw and vivid. They shine with colorful nuances that only intimacy can provide. Drunk, naked, and unique people experience sadness and joy in front of her camera. Goldin’s extravagant collections and her turbulent past with drugs and alcohol also make an appearance in this short portrait of a fascinating woman across her beloved Berlin and other European cities.
Art War
Dir. Marco Wilms
While shot by a German filmmaker, the film is very similar to the Academy Awards-nominated film “The Square.” It follows the revolutionary youth of Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that brought down the Mubarak regime. While the aforementioned film tries to depict a holistic picture of the events, the deaths, and the shaky political processes that followed, Wilms decides to focus on the artistic expression that emerged from the movement. Including politically charged rap songs, and more extensively graffiti, the documentary advocates for the youth’s effort to protests by peaceful means. However, it also points at the non-stop attacks by Islamist conservative groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Among their many undertakings, the art on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near the iconic Tahrir Square is of particular importance because it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the carnage. Young Egyptians turned martyrs are immortalized on the city’s walls as constant reminder of an incessant struggle. There are clearly a great number of similarities between the two films, and though this is less achieved in scope, it can definitely work as a complementary piece.
Finsterworld
Dir. Frauke Finsterwalder
With a multi-story concept that scrutinizes modern German society, the tonally eclectic “Finsterworld” provides some vexed assumptions about the country’s history of violence. A high school class is taking a fieldtrip to a concentration camp, Dominik (Leonard Scheicher) and his unofficial girlfriend Natalie (Carla Juri) are enjoying the day despite having to deal with obnoxious spoiled kid Maximilian (Jakub Gierszal). Meanwhile Franziska (Sandra Hüller), an pretentious aspiring filmmaker wants to capture something profound, inevitably her egocentric personality crashes with her loving boyfriend police officer Tom (Ronald Zehrfeld), who is also a closeted “furry.” Then there is Claude (Michael Maertens), a lonely masseur specialized in feet, and his friendship with elderly woman Frau (Margit Carstensen). Lastly, there are the Sandbergs (Corinna Harfouch &Bernhard Schütz), a wealthy couple on the road who encounter a difficult situation. Touching on the subject of German identity having Hitler as only representative figure and being a nation defined by guilt, Finsterwalder’s feature is heavily provocative. It’s strange tone that shifts between absurd comedy and gruesome violence can come across as uncomfortable or even offensive, but there are a handful of brilliant moments that make the film rather compelling.
- 6/14/2014
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Sydney's Buzz
Highlights include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Abel Ferrara’s controversial Dsk feature Welcome To New York.
The full line-up of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been revealed this morning by artistic director Chris Fujiwara at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.
This year’s festival, which runs from June 18-29, will comprise 156 features from 47 countries, including 11 world premieres, eight international premieres, seven European premieres and 95 UK premieres.
New titles announced today include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final performances that was first shown at Sundance in January.
Straight from its lively premiere in Cannes is Abel Ferrara’s controversial title Welcome To New York, inspired by the case of former Imf managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, starring Gérard Depardieu, which will receive its UK premiere at Eiff.
Other new titles added to the line-up include [link=nm...
The full line-up of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been revealed this morning by artistic director Chris Fujiwara at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.
This year’s festival, which runs from June 18-29, will comprise 156 features from 47 countries, including 11 world premieres, eight international premieres, seven European premieres and 95 UK premieres.
New titles announced today include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final performances that was first shown at Sundance in January.
Straight from its lively premiere in Cannes is Abel Ferrara’s controversial title Welcome To New York, inspired by the case of former Imf managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, starring Gérard Depardieu, which will receive its UK premiere at Eiff.
Other new titles added to the line-up include [link=nm...
- 5/28/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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