1. art and entertainment
2. movies and tv
3. movies

BERLIN
D A ILY
№4
FEB. 8, 2015
THR.COM/BERLIN
Czech Film Center D4 020815.indd 1
2/3/15 6:16 PM
AMBI Distribution - 9454 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 208 - Beverly Hills, CA 90212 Tel. +1 310 274 2000 www.ambidistribution.com
AMBI D4 020815.indd 1
2/4/15 4:26 PM
FEBRUARY 8, 2015
THR.COM/BERLIN
TODAY
BERLIN
WEATHER
AND HIGH 37° F
TEMPS
3° C
BE R L IN
№4
TOMORROW
41° F
5° C
Prince Albert
Launches
Bobsledding Pic
SPC Takes
13 Minutes for
North America
Natalie Portman signed
autographs before the
Feb. 7 screening of the doc
she executive produced,
The Seventh Fire.
By Pamela McClintock
By Georg Szalai
P
S
rince Albert II, the
reigning monarch of
Monaco, is turning his
attention to the big screen.
Production and sales company Aldamisa announced
Feb. 7 that it is making Royal
Ice, which will recount the trials and tribulations the prince,
then the heir apparent to the
throne, faced in assembling
Monaco’s first bobsledding
ony Pictures Classics
has acquired North
American and Latin
American rights to Hitler
assassination film 13 Minutes
from Beta Cinema.
Directed by Oliver
Hirschbiegel (Academy Award
nominee Downfall), it is playing out of competition at the
Berlin Film Festival.
The movie is about the reallife Georg Elser, who assembled
a bomb in order to assassinate
Adolf Hitler, but missed him by
13 minutes.
13 Minutes stars Christian
Friedel (The White Ribbon),
Katharina Schuttler (Generation
War) and Johann von Bulow
(Labyrinth of Lies) and is
produced by Lucky Bird
Pictures in co-production
with SWR, ARD Degeto, BR,
WDR, ARTE, Delphi Medien
and Philipp film production. Producers are Boris
Ausserer, Lucky Bird’s Oliver
Schundler and Delphi’s Fred
Breinersdorfer.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Kurylenko
Boards
Duelo
By Pamela McClintock
O
lga Kurylenko (Quantum
of Solace, November
Man) is joining Spanish
actor Jordi Molla (Ant-Man,
In the Heart of the Sea) in the
thriller Duelo.
Molla will direct the film
with Italian helmer Giuseppe
Ferlito (it marks the duo’s
English-language feature
directorial debut). Myriad
Pictures announced the
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
WILL CHINA’S CENSORSHIP
CRACKDOWN EXTEND TO MOVIES?
After weeks of increased regulation aimed at foreign television shows streaming online,
sources say Chinese regulators soon will be targeting Hollywood titles By Clifford Coonan
Kurylenko
C
hina will dramatically step up its crackdown on web content to include censorship
of feature films streamed online in a raft
of tough new rules that until now mostly had been
aimed at overseas TV dramas.
Until late last year, online video sites largely
were self-censoring, but the government is cracking
down hard on pornography, violence or anything
that might challenge the authority of the ruling
Communist Party, and Hollywood movies are the
next target of the campaign.
“We are only in the first quarter of this game,”
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_news1,2D.indd 1
said an industry source at the Berlin International
Film Festival. “The government is planning to
extend the censorship rules to include movies next,
after imposing restrictions on TV dramas.”
China is the world’s second-biggest film market,
and Hollywood studios have started reaping profits
from selling content to sites such as Youku Tudou,
Baidu’s iQIYI, Sohu.com and Tencent. But negotiating its regulatory environment can be tricky, and
censorship of movies online would make the market
more challenging.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
1
2/7/15 11:17 AM
theREPORT
HEAT INDEX
ANDREW HAIGH
The British director is getting rave
reviews for his competition entry
45 Years, starring Charlotte
Rampling and Tom Courtenay as a
long-married couple.
NICOLE KIDMAN
The star of the poorly received Queen of
the Desert continues her recent spate of
festival disappointments that includes the
2014 Cannes flop Grace of Monaco and
2013 Toronto dud The Railway Man.
know your dealmaker
JA M E S D . S T E R N
Kurylenko
China
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1
C O N T I N U ED F R O M PA G E 1
project at the European Film
Market in Berlin.
Billed as a psychological
mystery in the vein of Misery
and The Shining, Duelo tells the
story of Irina (Kurylenko), a
famous actress whose fiance
and best-selling horror novelist, Adriano, was viciously
attacked and fell into a coma.
Years later, Irina is in
Budapest to begin production on a movie when she finds
herself trapped in a horrifying
game of cat and mouse with
her fiance’s attacker. When a
mysterious stranger reaches
out to help her escape, she
quickly finds out that nothing
is as it seems.
Picturesque partners Guy
Moshe and Matthew G. Zamias
are producing Duelo alongside
Olga Segura.
“We are so pleased to be
working with this creative
team,” said Myriad president
Kirk D’Amico in a statement.
“Jordi and Giuseppe have a
strong and frightening vision
for this film. We are also looking forward to working with
Olga Kurylenko, who is such
an international star.”
Kurylenko, who is serving
on the jury awarding the prize
for the best first feature at the
Berlinale this year, is repped
by CAA.
“It probably wouldn’t be a huge in regulating the digital distribution of video content,
problem if some scenes of sex
including movies.
or violence were cut,” said one
“They’ve started now with teleleading U.S. sales agent, “but if
vision shows; movies are on the
scenes started to be rearranged,
horizon,” Ganis tells THR.
or there were other wholesale
In September, SAPPRFT
changes, watch out.”
announced it must OK all forThere are fears that increased
eign TV shows before they can
censorship also could encourbe posted on video sites, and
age more piracy, and could give
producers must present the
domestic movies, which have
whole season for approval
to go through the censorbefore it can be screened.
ship process very early on,
The TV rules mean
an advantage.
shows like Game of Thrones,
“The government wants
Ganis
The Newsroom and Band of
to make sure it has overBrothers could face delays
sight over all content that
of up to nine months
is shown online, and it
before being broadcast.
was always obvious that
Jean Prewitt, president
they would extend the
Prewitt
and CEO of the Independent
crackdown on TV dramas to
Film & Television Alliance,
features,” said the source.
says the size of China’s massive
Last week there were reports
market makes it “essential” for
that the rules had been extended
the success of the independent
to include Hong Kong TV shows.
film and TV industries. “China
April 1 is a key date, as that is
has not yet eliminated historiwhen the new rules come into
cal barriers for imported films,
play, and more details about
but television opportunities have
the restrictions are expected to
existed,” says Prewitt. “Any steps
emerge in the coming weeks.
to create new barriers through
Marc Ganis, whose Jiaflix outfit
censorship or other regulations
has teamed with the China Movie
seriously threaten the ability of
Channel’s streaming movie
independents to access distriwebsite M1905 to stream interbution opportunities. IFTA
national feature films, confirms
that China’s State Administration strongly advocates that all trade
barriers be eliminated includof Press, Publication, Radio,
ing expanded and unwarranted
Film and Television (SAPPRFT)
censorship regulations.”
likely will become more active
CHAIRMAN-CEO, ENDGAME
ENTERTAINMENT
Stern and the producers of the Julianne
Moore-Ellen Page drama Freeheld waited
until Berlin to show U.S. buyers footage
of the film, sparking a bidding war among
the likes of Focus Features, Sony Pictures
Classics and Netflix. Stern stayed up all
night Feb. 6 helping to close a sevenfigure deal with Lionsgate.
MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD …
•Paramount’s animated film
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge
Out of Water earned an estimated $15.1 million at the U.S. box
office on Friday and looked set for
a $52 million debut weekend.
• Robert Zemeckis will direct Brad
Pitt in a romantic thriller for
Paramount and New Regency.
• Rosie O’Donnell will leave ABC
talk show The View next week.
Bobsledding
C O N T I N U ED F R O M PA G E 1
team, given his father Prince Rainier’s disapproval. Aldamisa is launching the project this week to foreign buyers at Berlin’s European
Film Market.
“This is the first royal fairy tale which tells the true story of a sitting
monarch, where the human drive for achievement becomes a battle
with one’s own limits, amplified by the constraints of royal duties,”
Aldamisa co-chairman Sergei Bespalov said in a statement.
Royal Ice is based on a story by Albert and Mark Thomas, a member
of the original Monaco bobsledding team who is writing the adapted
screenplay. Casting is currently underway, with an eye to start production in November.
“It’s a very unique and personal story,” said Albert in a statement.
A dedicated sportsman, Albert formed a Monaco national bobsledding team in 1986 and competed in five straight Olympic games from
Calgary in 1988 through Salt Lake City in 2002.
Aldamisa will handle the film internationally, as well as finance
and produce. Producers are Bespalov, Thomas, Alexey Petrukhin, John
Bernard and Oleg Boyko. Alexander Zanzer will serve as an executive producer and diplomatic consultant.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_news1,2D.indd 2
Prince Albert (far right) prepared
for a practice run at the 1988
Winter Olympics in Calgary. His
team finished 25th.
2
2/7/15 11:20 AM
HBO D4 020815.indd 1
2/3/15 6:36 PM
theReport
berlinale in brief
Exclusive
First Look
Cunningham Replaces
Roth in Childhood
Game of Thrones star
Liam Cunningham has
replaced Tim Roth
in The Childhood
of a Leader, also
starring Robert
Cunningham
Pattinson, Berenice
Bejo and Stacy Martin. The
film, which has started shooting in Hungary, is the directorial
debut from actor Brady Corbet
and is inspired by the childhood experiences of early
20th century dictators.
New Europe Film Sales
Sells Crumbs to U.S.
Get ready to see a very un-Bond-like Pierce Brosnan (center) as he takes on the role of a narcotics designer in Urge, about a group of friends who go on an
island getaway where they do a drug that makes them unable to control their impulses. Fortitude International is shopping the film, now in post, at EFM.
Wasikowska’s
Bovary Sells in
Key Markets
The Last King
By Pamela McClintock
M
ia Wasikowska’s Madame Bovary has
found a home in numerous foreign
markets, including France and Italy.
Radiant Films International president-CEO
Mimi Steinbauer revealed the deals at Berlin’s
European Film Market.
Directed by Sophie Barthes, Madame Bovary
had its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto
Film Festival and quickly landed a U.S. home
with Alchemy, formerly known as Millennium
Entertainment. Felipe Marino adapted the screenplay with Barthes from the Gustave Flaubert novel.
Paul Giamatti, Rhys Ifans and Ezra Miller also star.
Radiant has sold Bovary to Jour2Fete in France,
Paco Pictures in Italy, A-Film in Benelux, Svensk
Filmindustri in Scandinavia and NOSLusomundo
Audiovisuais in Portugal. Other deals closed
include Latin America, South Korea,
Turkey and Iceland. Radiant
previously announced that Warner
Bros. Germany had acquired
German-speaking rights to the
Wasikowska
movie, while A Company Filmed
Entertainment bought Eastern
Europe, Russia and Vietnam.
“Madame Bovary is a
beautiful film with terrific
performances across the
board,” said Steinbauer in a
statement. “We’re delighted
that our buyers have
responded with such enthusiasm to the project.”
Club Is Headed to
France, U.K.
Last King goes
to Germany
By Georg Szalai
T
rustNordisk has sold Norwegian actiondrama The Last King to Koch Media for
Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Set in the Middle Ages, the film focuses on
two Norwegian warriors who must bring the last
remaining heir to the throne to safety.
Directed by Nils Gaup (Pathfinder), Last King
stars Jakob Oftebro (Kon-Tiki), Kristofer Hivju (Game
of Thrones), Thorbjorn Harr (Vikings) and Pal Sverre
Hagen (Kon-Tiki).
The deal was negotiated between Susan Wendt,
head of sales at TrustNordisk, and Silke Wilfinger,
director of acquisition and TV sales at Koch. “We
feel this title will become another strong adventure movie in the vein of Arn, Valhalla Rising and
Flukt,” said Wilfinger in a statement.
Last King is produced by Stein B. Kvae and Finn
Gjerdrum for Paradox Film 3 AS and co-produced
by Nordisk Film, Newgrange Pictures and
Proton Cinema+Theatre, with support from the
Norwegian Film Institute, the Irish Film Board
and Eurimages.
The Hollywood Reporter
D4_berlin_p3C.indd 4
Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based
sales outlet New Europe Film Sales
has sold Miguel Llanso’s SpanishEthiopian postapocalyptic sci-fi
film Crumbs to IndiePix for the U.S.
Crumbs tells the story of Candy, a
strange-looking scrap collector,
who embarks on a surreal epic
journey through a postapocalyptic
Ethiopian landscape.
Chilean director Pablo Larrain’s
Berlin competition entry The Club
has sold to Wild Bunch for France
and to Network Releasing for the
U.K. Funny Balloons struck the two
deals ahead of the film’s official
screening in competition on Feb. 9.
The drama is about four priests
who live together in a secluded
house in a small seaside town
in Chile under the watchful eye
of a nun, who serves as their
female caretaker.
Nordic Indie Takes Cruz,
Meadows Titles
NonStop Entertainment has
announced a smorgasbord of acquisitions
for the Scandinavian
and Baltic markets.
The Swedish indie
Cruz
distributor has jumped
aboard Ma Ma, produced
by and starring Penelope Cruz,
Shane Meadows’ This Is England
’90 and BDSM drama The Duke of
Burgundy by Peter Strickland,
alongside X+Y, Dear White
People, Devil’s Knot and Abel
Ferrara’s Pasolini.
4
2/7/15 7:49 PM
INCAA D4 020815.indd 1
2/6/15 5:41 PM
theReport
one of the “technical advisers” offered to take
him on a job so he could experience a heist
first-hand. He declined: “There’s no money in
bank robbery. I know that sounds strange but
if it goes well, you get maybe €20,000. And
you need at least four guys: a driver, a guy at
the door, two guys inside. So after the split,
you’ve got €5,000.” The adviser also gave the
director tips on how to reduce his prison sentence if caught, including taking drugs before
a job, “so you are under the influence, and not
as criminally culpable.”
While Schipper says his favorite heist films
are Dog Day Afternoon and Heat, he insists
real bank robberies, not movies, were his
references for Victoria. “It’s like that quote
from Francis Ford Coppola about Apocalypse
Now: This isn’t a film about Vietnam, this is
Vietnam,” he says. “This is not a film about a
Sebastian Schipper’s meticulously planned heist thriller Victoria eschews edits
bank robbery. This is a bank robbery.”
without resorting to any Birdman-esque digital trickery By Scott Roxborough
Schipper and his team planned out the
movement of every scene but left the blocking
ictoria, Sebastian Schipper’s bank-heist- another friend. And I got to thinking that
to the whims of the cameraman, “who worked
gone-bad competition entry, is 2 hours there are a lot of heist films but few, very few,
like a war reporter, running alongside,”
that give you the feel of what the experience
and 20 minutes long and features 22
says Schipper, and the dialogue to the
is to rob a bank. That’s where I got the
locations. And it was shot in a single take.
actors, including Frederick Lau, Laia
idea to shoot the whole thing — one
But unlike current Oscar contender Birdman,
Costa and Franz Rogowski, who improhour before the robbery and one hour
which used digital sleight of hand to achieve
vised all their lines.
afterwards — in a single take.”
the impression of one take, Schipper’s film
Schipper
They did three complete takes of the
With the help of a Cannon C300
employs no such trickery.
film. “It was three days of shooting, three
portable digital camera, Schipper set about
“I’d been writing another film, when I
making his heist movie as realistic as possible. takes and we’re done,” says Schipper. “It was
started to fantasize about what it would be
an experience unlike anything I’ve ever had
Reaching out “to a friend of a friend of a
like to rob a bank,” says Schipper. “I thought
before on a film and unlike any I’m ever likely
friend,” he found a group of real-life bank
I’d do the job with [friend and fellow directo have again.”
robbers to show him the ropes. At one point
tor] Tom Tykwer, who produced Victoria, and
Victoria premiered in
competition Feb. 7. Read
the review on page 20.
How to Rob a Bank in One Take
V
anthony Bourdain’s Bone
goes to hyde park int’l
By Pamela McClintock
A
nthony Bourdain once again
is on the move — or rather,
the film adaptation of his
first novel, the noir thriller Bone
in the Throat, is.
Ashok Amritraj’s Hyde Park
International has boarded the
indie project and is shopping
it to foreign buyers at Berlin’s
European Film Market. Ed
Westwick (Gossip Girl) and Tom
Bourdain
Wilkinson (Selma) star in the
film, which makes its world
premiere in the narrative feature
section of the upcoming South
by Southwest Film Conference
and Festival.
The story revolves around a
young, ambitious chef who, while
trying to focus on getting ahead
in his career, gets pulled into the
East End London mob by his
uncle. He has to work quickly
to undo his uncle’s mess, while
staying alive and out of jail.
Rupert Graves, Vanessa Kirby, John
Hannah, Steve Mackintosh and
Andy Nyman also star.
Graham Henman directed from
an adapted script he wrote with
Mark Townsend.
Gersh is repping domestic
rights to Bone in the Throat.
Producers are Nick Thurlow,
Lenny Beckerman and Maggie
Monteith, with Bourdain, Jamie
Donaldson and Ron Perlman executive producing.
1
The Hollywood Reporter
D4_berlin_p4C.indd 6
lights, camera, skype
2
1 A film crew braved the rain to shoot
dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s
segment of Berlin, I Love You. The
segment is about the long-distance
relationship between Ai and his son Ai
Lao, who has lived in Berlin since
August. The 6-year-old loves Berlin,
especially the clean air, a contrast to
heavily polluted Beijing, says his mother,
Wang Fen, who scripted the film.
2 Claus Clausen directed the segment on
location while Ai, who is not permitted to
leave Beijing, Skyped in. “It’s a new
challenge shooting a film like this,” says
Clausen. “It’s been great to share the
vision of Weiwei and his family.”
6
2/7/15 8:01 PM
Film Commission Poland D4 020815.indd 1
2/3/15 6:00 PM
EXECUTIVE SUITE
SENIOR VP SALES, FILMNATION
Tara Erer
The sales agent discusses
Michael Keaton’s next project,
selling Imitation Game in the
Middle East and working in a
male-dominated industry
By Pamela McClintock • Photo by Fabrizio Maltese
I
N ON LY SI X Y E A R S, F I L M NAT ION H A S
become the go-to home for specialty
projects commanding both awards attention and international box-office success,
including Oscar best picture winner The
King’s Speech and current best picture
nominee The Imitation Game. Tara Erer, 29,
plays a key role in convincing international
distributors to buy FilmNation titles as
senior vp sales.
At Berlin this year, FilmNation is launching in-house title The Founder, a biopic of
McDonald’s mogul Ray Kroc starring Michael
Keaton, and Endgame Entertainment and
Conde Nast Entertainment’s Army of One,
the upcoming Larry Charles comedy starring Nicolas Cage as the real-life Colorado
construction worker who tried to hunt down
Osama bin Laden. The international sales,
production and financing company’s slate
also includes Terrence Malick’s Knight of
Cups, which has its premiere here Feb. 8 in
competition, while the company will show
foreign buyers the first footage of Truth, starring Robert Redford as Dan Rather and Cate
Blanchett as Rather’s disgraced producer
Mary Mapes.
Based in New York, the Turkish Erer has a
unique perspective on the international film
sector thanks to her upbringing in Istanbul
(her parents own a chain of boutiques there).
Erer met FilmNation founder and CEO Glen
Basner when they both worked for Harvey
Weinstein and has been at FilmNation from
the outset. She’s known she’s wanted to work
in the movie business since she was 13, when
an English teacher told her she should write
screenplays. Erer sat down with THR to discuss taking on McDonald’s, what works well
internationally and why she loves working
for Basner.
Will The Founder be a tough sell overseas?
We don’t see it as a story of just McDonald’s,
but along the lines of The Social Network. It’s
a story about one man’s journey of achieving
success at a time when you had to take big
risks. He sees into the future and, in order to
make it big, he had to break some rules. And
everybody knows McDonald’s. It will appeal to
everyone. We were rushing to close Michael’s
deal, which we’ve done. We are hoping to start
“People like watching
heartwarming stories about
characters that win at the
end of the day,” says Erer,
photographed Feb. 3 at the
FilmNation office at the
Marriott hotel in Berlin.
shooting at the end of May. It would be presumptuous to talk about The Founder’s awards
chances, but it will be ready for 2016.
THR has reported that McDonald’s won’t try to
block the biopic, even though it doesn’t paint the
most flattering picture of Ray Kroc.
Several buyers have already told me that
helps. No one wants a legal battle.
Are you worried that Army of One will be sensitive
politically in the wake of The Interview?
No. It’s not about bin Laden. It’s about this
unbelievable guy, Gary Faulkner. There is
something so charming and naive about him.
He’s a fascinating character. And Nic Cage is
going back to his comedic roots, a la Raising
Arizona and Moonstruck. I’ve already been
having a blast selling it.
I understand there isn’t a complete script, but
what’s known as a “scriptment.” Is that correct?
They will do a lot of writing during the shoot.
What are some of your favorite war stories?
There was a big territory that didn’t want The
King’s Speech; they wanted another one of our
films. I can’t say which one. But I insisted they
buy King’s Speech, and it became the most
successful film of all time in that territory for
that distributor.
Being from Istanbul must give you insight into the
region. What is working well in the Middle East in
terms of English-language films?
They love action movies. But The Imitation
Game is doing insane business in many countries, including Oman, Lebanon and Kuwait.
It’s No. 2 or No. 3 on their lineup. It is very
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_ES_taraD.indd 1
tough for foreign films to beat local product,
so that is an amazing result.
Are you surprised?
No, because The King’s Speech did well there
… although there was some resistance at first
to The Imitation Game. This one had a tougher
subject matter on paper.
Is that because Alan Turing, the real-life character
played by Benedict Cumberbatch, was gay? Did the
film have to be cut for Middle Eastern audiences?
No, because there wasn’t anything except that
he was gay.
FilmNation was selling Chris Rock’s Top Five
internationally before Paramount scooped up
worldwide rights to the comedy. The movie has
underperformed domestically. How do you think it
will do overseas?
There are certain territories where it will
work, mainly English-language markets. It
will probably have more value on TV and
home video.
Do black films still have a tough time overseas?
Top Five is a very specific kind of comedy,
period. Overall, I think we’re seeing change.
The Butler did crazy business overseas
[$60 million]. And 12 Years a Slave made
far more overseas than it did domestically
[$131 million versus $56.7 million]. It will be
interesting to see what Selma does.
Men dominate the foreign sales business. Is it
tough being a female in that environment?
If you prove you have control and you understand their business, no. The moment you get
their respect, it’s easy.
8
2/7/15 2:50 AM
Estonia Film Institute D4 020815.indd 1
1/30/15 3:22 PM
SPECIAL FEATURE
‘FILM
SHOULD BE
FREE FROM
POLITICAL
PRESSURE’
Aleksey German discusses his Berlinale competition entry
Under Electric Clouds, the challenges facing Russia today and
emerging from the shadow of his director father
BY NICK HOLDSWORTH
A
L EK SEY GER M A N GR EW U P T H E
son of one of the Soviet Union’s
most notable directors, Aleksey
Sr., who died in 2013. In 2004,
Aleksey Jr. was anointed Discovery of
the Year by Russia’s national film awards,
Nika, for his first film, The Last Train. A
black-and-white study of futility and death
set on the Eastern Front during World
War II, the film sparked controversy by
focusing on a “good German” — a conscripted doctor and officer who comforts
a dying Russian girl in her last moments.
German’s latest feature, Under Electric
Clouds, in competition at the Berlinale this
year, is an episodic, surreal drama that
examines the paradoxes of living in contemporary Russia. The married 38-year-old
director, who splits his time between Moscow
and Saint Petersburg, spoke to THR about
how he has evolved as a filmmaker and how
he yearns for a cinema that lives up to the
standards of Russian literature.
Under Electric Clouds
What artistic developments do you feel you’ve
undergone in the decade since your first feature,
The Last Train, was released?
In many ways I’ve changed my approach to
cinematic language — to image and drama
— and radically changed image structure in
terms of composition and color. I’m trying to
find a balance between an organic approach
for Russian audiences and something accessible for viewers from other countries;
something that does not look like a caricature
for Russians, but that is not too disorientating
for foreigners. It is not always easy to strike
that balance. I’m seeking the approach so
brilliantly achieved by Russian literature in
the 20th century.
How did growing up the son of a famous director
affect your own creative path?
My father, as a creative man, was a model of
professional integrity and set the standard for
seeking cinematic truth. For my father, conditions never mattered; he always tried to talk
about what was important to him at the time.
And he was never afraid that someone would
not like it. I think this approach is correct.
Creatively, of course, he influenced me.
This is the first time you’ve had a film in
competition in Berlin, though other international
festivals, including Venice and Tallinn, have
featured your work. What does the Berlinale
premiere mean to you?
It has been a long and difficult road. Almost
six years; there were many obstacles. I can
hardly believe we’re done. The Berlin premiere shows that, apparently, we have passed
that part of the difficult journey.
To what extent does Under
Electric Clouds carry
forward ideas explored in
your earlier works?
For me it has always been
important to talk about a
person in their time. About
individuals during their era;
about shifting tides, premonitions, the inertia of history
that distorts people’s fate.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_fea_russia_L_B.indd 1
Our new film is about a new time — actually,
it is about the future — but all the same the
focus is on the coexistence of man and time.
Nothing has changed in my attitude to the
core issues of the Russian intelligentsia, which
have persisted over centuries: the relationship
between freedom and the lack of it and, in the
widest sense of the word, the value of it as it
confronts the consciousness of our intelligentsia and middle class, in what is now called the
consumer society. And, of course, the question
of choosing a way of life for our country.
Russian films are headline news now: Andrei
Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan won a Golden Globe
and is nominated for a foreign-language Oscar.
Is post-Soviet Russian film
coming of age?
BY THE NUMBERS
There is still a long way to
go. So far, the most successful contemporary Russian
Feature films directed
films largely focus on deep
provincial life. Leviathan is a
Silver Lion in Venice for
very good movie. But Russia
Bumazhnyy Soldat (2008)
is a country of big cities; of
incredible contrasts; of huge
Russian Nika awards including
new neighborhoods. That
Discovery of the Year in 2004
doesn’t mean there are no
5
1
3
10
2/7/15 1:56 AM
5
EAST EUROPEAN PICS
NOT TO MISS AT EFM
“The more
Russian cinema
returns to the
traditions of our
literature, the
better,” says
German.
problems. There are. But I believe that the
future of Russian cinema can be found in an
attempt to address the country in all its complexity, just as, for example, Tolstoy, once did.
His heroes are people with completely different lives. The more Russian cinema returns to
the traditions of our literature, the better.
AP PHOTO/JOEL RYAN
Under Electric Clouds is a Russian-UkrainianPolish co-production with money from both
Russian and Ukrainian state film agencies. Given
the current political tensions between Moscow
and Kiev, were you under any conflicting pressures
from those sources while making the film?
Our position is that film should be completely
free from political pressure and intrigue,
territorial issues and human relations. Of
course, shooting this film cooperatively, at
a time of war, is uncomfortable for many.
There are people on both sides who will manically seek to accuse directors of treachery.
Unfortunately, nothing can be done about
that. So far, there has been no direct pressure.
We’ll see. The film has not yet been released.
▼ Body (Poland)
Screening in the main competition and EFM
market, Body (repped by Memento Films
International) is the new thriller from top
Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska
(Elles, In the Name Of). Starring Janusz
Gajos, Maja Ostaszewska and Justyna
Suwala, it is a contemporary crime story
set in Poland that weaves together the
stories of a criminal prosecutor, his anorexic
daughter and her therapist, who claims to
be able to communicate with the dead. The
Polish Film Institute dubbed the storyline,
“three radically different approaches to
body and soul.”
Daniel’s World (Czech Republic)
This Panorama documentary from Veronika
Liskova examines the challenges faced
by a young gay college student who is
an admitted pedophile. Director Liskova
met with more than 20 pedophiles before
deciding to examine Daniel, who is
remarkably open about urges he doesn’t
fully understand.
Luxembourg (Ukraine)
Ukrainian director Myroslav Slaboshpytsky
will present this project, which is still at
the script stage, to potential financiers
at EFM. Set in Chernobyl, site of Europe’s
worst nuclear reactor accident in 1986,
the relationship drama about a troubled
policeman will be shot entirely on location
within the still radioactive exclusion
zone, which covers a territory the size of
Luxembourg. The film scored the highest
number of points in the second round of art
house pitches in the most recent Ukrainian
State Film Agency project submissions.
The Summer of Sangaile (Lithuania)
This Panorama entry from director Alante
Kavaite stars Julija Steponaityte as a
young girl who develops an unexpectedly
intimate friendship during a summer in the
countryside. Steponaityte plays Sangaile,
an introverted 17-year-old obsessed with
stunt planes who meets — and falls for —
the outgoing Auste (Aiste Dirziute) at an
air show. THR called the film, which won
Sundance’s World Cinema Drama award in
January, “an appealingly simple, poetically
conceived teen coming-of-age tale that
pivots on the slow-burning romance
between two girls.”
No Comment (Russia)
This debut from director Artem Tembikov
traces the steps Islamic terrorists take to
groom a young German and send him to
fight in Chechnya. Based on a true story,
it is produced by actor Yevgeny Mironov,
who played a Russian soldier who converts
to Islam whilst imprisoned for 10 years
by Afghan Mujahideen in the 1995 film
Musulmanin. No Comment is repped at EFM
by Moscow’s Intercinema Agency.
Polish thriller
Body screens in
competition.
What’s your next project? And what themes
do you wish to explore?
We would love to shoot a movie about the
great Russian writer Sergey Dovlatov, who
lived in Leningrad until the late 1970s, when
he was forced to emigrate. The film would
also be about his friends, for example, the
poet and Nobel Prize winner Joseph Brodsky,
about their youth, trying to become writers in the USSR during deeply unhappy
times. About Leningrad at that time. About
Soviet art of the ’70s. And about the joy
of being young, which endures despite all
other difficulties.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_fea_russia_L_B.indd 2
11
2/7/15 1:56 AM
SPECIAL FEATURE
SEOUL SEARCHING
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
China’s hot as ever, but thanks to crossover hits and a multiplex boom, the South Korean
film sector has set its sights on its neighbors to the south BY LEE HYO-WON
W
limited to selling local titles during internahen 20 Once Again became
tional film markets, they now are investing
the highest-grossing South
in new content and distribution strategies to
Korea-China co-producfind ways to expand beyond Korea’s saturated
tion in China in January
domestic market.
($55.7 million as of Jan. 29), South Korean
“Many of our biggest titles are now simulentertainment giant CJ E&M immediately
taneously released across Asia, and we have
announced plans to create localized versions
to act fast for seasonal openings, since many
of the comedy throughout Southeast Asia.
Asian countries celebrate the same holidays,”
Just a few days before, the romantic
says Soojin Jung, vp international business at
comedy Let Hoi Decide, a film that CJ
Seoul-based distributor Showbox/
co-produced with Vietnam’s Chanh
Mediaplex, which is unveiling the
Phuong Films, earned $4.7 milILLUSTRATION BY
period actioner Gangnam Blues
lion (as of Jan. 28) to become the
Rafael
at the European Film Market (it
highest-grossing film of all time
Alvarez
already has opened in most of the
in Vietnam.
13 Asian countries to which it was
South Korean filmmakers have
presold). The company also has high hopes
heavily targeted China’s explosively expandfor Detective K: Secret of the Lost Island, a
ing market in recent years — but many
sequel to the successful 2011 costume advenalso have eyed Southeast Asia’s booming
ture Detective K: Secret of the Virtuous Widow,
young population. Indeed, insiders say that
which is set to hit screens in half a dozen
Southeast Asia currently resembles Korea
Asian territories, including Vietnam and
back in the 1990s, when it experienced the
Indonesia, for the Lunar New Year holiday
rapid emergence of homespun blockbusters
later in February.
and multiplex cinemas before becoming the
The widening distribution channels in
global powerhouse it is today.
Southeast Asia are a direct result of changing
If Korean filmmakers previously had been
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_fea_korea_B.indd 1
demographics throughout the region. Since
2006, the South Korean movie chain CGV
has opened 22 multiplexes that now account
for more than half of Vietnam’s box-office
revenue. Lotte, a conglomerate with headquarters in Korea and Japan, follows close
behind with 16 cinemas. Vietnam has a population of 90 million, of which 60 percent are
35 and under — a considerably higher number
than Korea’s rapidly aging population of 50
million. CGV plans to open at least seven
more theaters by the end of 2015, pulling up
the total number of cinemas in Vietnam to
almost 100.
In Myanmar, CGV operates six screens
that grab 15 percent of the country’s box
office. While there are only about 70 screens
nationwide, which earned barely $9 million in
2013, insiders see strong potential: Myanmar
has a population of more than 50 million,
with a median age of about 29, and the local
film market slowly is opening up after years of
heavy censorship and funding shortages.
“With Myanmar opening up its economy,
foreign investment has increased explosively
to forecast a 7 percent economic growth by
12
2/7/15 3:24 AM
Contents Panda D4 020815.indd 1
1/30/15 4:02 PM
SPECIAL FEATURE
‘UNDERGROUND
LAIR? BABES IN
LEATHER? DONE’
The author of a new book about
North Korea discusses the Interview
controversy and how Kim Jong-il
patterned himself after a James Bond
villain BY PATRICK BRZESKI
I
n their day, South
’80s. And we know from
Korean screen
Shin Sang-ok’s accounts
siren Choi Eun-hee
that he loved James
and her ex-husband,
Bond movies and pretty
the famed director Shin
much took them to be
Sang-ok, were among
docudramas.
the most celebrated film
figures their nation had
We tend to imagine
ever known. But in 1978,
James Bond villains as
the two were duped into
being inspired exagtraveling to Hong Kong,
gerations of real-life
seized by North Korean
dictators or terrorists.
dictator Kim Jong-il’s
Are you saying it
henchmen and smugworked the other way
gled all the away
around?
to the DPRK’s
Yeah, it sounds
state studios
ridiculous to
in Pyongyang.
think that he
They spent the
watched Bond
Fischer
better part of the
films and thought
next decade making prothat he was seeing how
paganda movies against
countries actually do
their will.
covert operations, but
This surreal episode
as soon as he took conin Korean history is
trol, North Korea started
the subject of Paul
kidnapping people,
Fischer’s new book, A
trying to plant bombs
Kim Jong-il Production:
on planes and doing all
The Extraordinary True
these dramatic, highStory of a Kidnapped
risk, Bond-like things.
Filmmaker, His Star
And actually he did have
Actress, and a Young
the underground lair,
Dictator’s Rise to Power
the team of bodyguard
(Flatiron Books).
girls in leather and wore
THR spoke with
the jumpsuits, parkas,
Fischer about the
high-heeled shoes and
inspiration Kim Jong-il
signature glasses. So did
took from Bond villains
he watch Bond films and
(he was a huge fan), how
say, “Hmm, I could do
Americans are portrayed
this Bond villain thing. …
on DPRK movie screens
Underground lair? Babes
and what ordinary North
in leather? Done.”
Koreans would feel while
watching The Interview.
What were the movies
produced by the Kim
What role has
regime actually like?
Hollywood storytelling
Interestingly, North
played in North Korean
Korean filmmaking went
history?
the exact opposite direcIt’s difficult to determine
tion from Hollywood.
these things precisely.
Whereas stories of indiBut it’s striking how
a lot of Kim’s official
biography and the
cult of the Kim regime
— which Kim Jong-il
carefully oversaw — has
an archetypal, three-act
storytelling quality to
it. It’s straight out of
Joseph Campbell’s The
Hero With a Thousand
Faces, which is universal, but was also a very
big deal in Hollywood
movies of the 1970s and
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_fea_korea_B.indd 2
14
vidual human achievement and overcoming
the odds are the big
ideal in our culture, that
doesn’t exist in North
Korean cinema. It’s all
about the collective
revolutionary struggle.
Young girls and women
were often Kim Jong-il’s
protagonists, which
is quite different from
the classic Hollywood
mode. They’re quite
melodramatic and brutally violent. They’re very
different from Hollywood
films and, generally,
unwatchably bad.
With North Korea’s
outrage over The
Interview’s portrayal of
Kim Jong-un in mind,
how are Westerners
depicted in Kim Jongil’s cinema?
It’s certainly a case of
the pot calling the kettle
black. In North Korean
cinema, there are films
about domestic issues
and films about foreign
imperialism. In the
latter, Americans are
always portrayed as
grotesque, hook-nosed,
scheming villains who
give kids AIDS or something horrendous.
Why did The Interview
set them off so much?
The issue with The
Actress Choi
and director Shin
were kidnapped
by North Korea.
Interview was twopronged. First, it wasn’t
just North Korea that
the film was ridiculing; it
was actually their young
leader, Kim Jong-un,
which is very taboo.
Only people who are
specially approved by
the state are allowed to
paint, take photographs
or make mosaics of
the leader. Second, it’s
a comedy. Being portrayed as scheming and
dangerous, that’s all fine
— they take it almost as
a compliment. But making crass fun of them is
a very touchy thing in
a society dictated by
the Confucian values of
self-respect, pride, saving face and patriarchal
authority.
What role does movie
culture play in North
Korea today?
Sometime in the early to
mid-1990s, VHS players
started making their
way into North Korea
on the black market, as
the Chinese across the
border started getting
rid of them to acquire
DVD players. Foreign
movies obviously proved
hugely popular because
they offered a glimpse of
the outside world, which
came as a revelation.
But there was also a
weird element: Because
they were mostly getting tapes or DVDs that
people in remote rural
China didn’t want to
see, they were usually
10 to 15 years behind.
In the mid-1990s, they
were watching movies
that gave a 1980s or late
’70s view of the world
— and they had little
to no way of knowing
how things might have
changed since.
BOOK: COURTESY OF MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS. FISCHER: COURTESY OF SUBJECT. EUN-HEE: TIM CLARY/COPYRIGHT BETTMANN/CORBIS/AP IMAGES.
Khoo
2018,” says CGV representative Kim Dae-hee.
Indonesia, on the other hand, had a giant
film industry until the Asian financial crisis
in the 1990s cut the number of screens from
more than 2,000 to about 780 today. “But the
future is bright,” says Yoon Ha, a researcher
at the Korean Film Council, noting that
Indonesia — the world’s fourth-most-populated country, at 250 million — enjoys a GDP
growth rate of 5 percent to 6 percent. “Once
there is capital inflow and a reinforcement of
infrastructure, prospects are quite positive.”
Infrastructure growth not only means
more films get distributed, it also translates
into more opportunity for co-productions.
Among the 160 titles released per year in
Vietnam, fewer than 20 are homegrown. But
these account for about 20 percent of the
market share, with many scoring higher than
Hollywood films. CJ thus saw more reason
to take part in local ventures. Three Girls,
another CJ co-production with Vietnamese
partners, will be released in the first half of
2015, while a number of other local remakes
of popular Korean films also are in development. “We are aiming to distribute at least
10 films and produce two to three local films
every year,” says CJ CEO Taesung Jung.
CJ also is developing local productions in
Indonesia. “Because a lot of Indonesian films
are religious or educational in nature, we want
to introduce new genres — art house films
with international appeal and big-budget
projects,” says Mike Im, senior vp international sales and distribution at CJ.
Opportunities also are increasing in
countries where censorship restrictions are
starting to ease up. Korean indie-film stars
Kkobbi Kim and Choi Woo-shik have been
cast in Singapore’s first erotic film, In the
Room, directed by Eric Khoo. “Singapore’s
film industry is tiny but is considered an
important gateway to the Southeast Asian
market, particularly in terms of investments,
funding and other business opportunities,”
says the Korean Film Council’s Woody Kim.
Partnerships also are being forged at
governmental levels. In 2013, Korea and
Indonesia signed a memorandum of understanding to promote exchanges between
the two countries’ film sectors. Last year,
the state-backed Korean Academy of Film
Arts hosted workshops in Indonesia and
Vietnam. These exchanges helped launch the
Association of Indonesian Film Producers,
which since has signed cooperative treaties with the Producers Guild of Korea. In
November, the third annual Film Leaders
Incubator was held in Yangon, Myanmar, and
extended invitations to aspiring filmmakers
from Korea and the 10 member countries of
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Says Oh Seok-geun, director of the Busan
Film Commission, the Korean co-organizer of
the conference: “Korea’s goal is to provide an
opportunity for exchange, to create a cooperative system between the film industries of
Korea and Southeast Asia.”
2/7/15 3:24 AM
Lithuanian Film Centre D4 020815.indd 1
2/4/15 2:34 PM
CMG D4 020815.indd 1
1/27/15 11:25 AM
R E V I E WS
Queen of the Desert
Nicole Kidman stars as British adventurer Gertrude Bell in Werner Herzog’s epic, which is
fatally lacking in both passion and psychological complexity BY DAVID ROONEY
W
ER N ER
Herzog’s first
narrative
feature in six
years, Queen
of the Desert has no scarcity of
the quixotic German auteur’s
key themes. Tracing the life of
British explorer Gertrude Bell,
whose unique understanding of
Bedouin cultures helped reshape
the Arab world in the early 1900s,
this is the story of a woman
penetrating the boundaries of
nature as a refuge from the
constricting conventions of
society, the rigidity of colonialism
and the cruelties of the human
heart. Like so many Herzogian
protagonists, she loses herself in
a solitude that mirrors her state
of mind. So why are all those
tired camels onscreen not the
only ones groaning?
Mainly it’s because despite the
director’s mission to liberate the
poetry in his material by excavating what he has described as
“ecstatic truth,” this is a literal,
rather flat epic that keeps telling
us in voiceovers of its spiritual
dimension, without generating
much evidence of it. The brief but
significant appearances of Robert
Pattinson as T.E. Lawrence aside,
the film seems less likely to draw
comparison to David Lean’s
classic foray into the desert than
to a dated breed of 1980s romantic bio-drama, begging to be
redubbed Out of Arabia.
Trekking across dunes, saltcrusted plains and rocky terrain
for much of the duration, Nicole
‘NEW GERMAN’
GREATS
THR critics pick favorites
from an influential
generation of directors
The Enigma of
Kaspar Hauser
Kidman and
Franco find love
and adventure
in the desert.
Kidman shows no sign of having
spent an hour in the sun or gone a
day without moisturizer. But she
carries the film more than competently, even if she never quite
sheds her movie-star baggage.
From the start, however,
Herzog bangs us over the head
with evidence that Gertrude is a
Modern Woman, introducing her
on the family estate in England
spouting such anachronistic
dialogue as “I feel so domesticated.” Despite Bell’s many
hats — adventurer, historian,
THE ENIGMA OF
KASPAR HAUSER (1974)
Based on a true story,
Werner Herzog’s piercingly
sad study of alienation
follows what happened to
the eponymous young man,
found near Nuremberg in
1828 after having seemingly
spent his entire childhood
locked alone in a cellar.
Bruno S., a homeless street
musician when he was cast,
is heartbreaking in the title
role. — LESLIE FELPERIN
ALI: FEAR EATS
THE SOUL (1974)
Enfant terrible Rainer
Werner Fassbinder’s
homage to Douglas Sirk’s All
That Heaven Allows is one
of his most powerful works.
The love story between a
Moroccan immigrant and
a 60-year-old German
woman is a testament to
the director’s capacity for
tenderness and a damning
portrait of local intolerance.
— JORDAN MINTZER
diarist, photographer, archaeologist and political liaison — the
film banalizes her story into a
life of wanderlust shaped less by
cross-cultural fascination than
by twin heartbreaks that provide
melodramatic bookends. And the
crippling blunder from which it
never fully recovers is the miscasting of a very wooden James
Franco as Henry Cadogan, the
Tehran embassy diplomat who
becomes her first tragic romance.
Much of the film unfolds as an
episodic series of expeditions,
THE LOST HONOR OF
KATHARINA BLUM (1975)
Margarethe Von Trotta
directed this Heinrich Boll
adaptation (whose subtitle
is “How Violence Develops
and Where It Can Lead”) with
husband Volker Schlondorff.
The film, about an innocent
housekeeper destroyed by
the press, is a complex take
on a woman struggling in a
man’s world, and has all the
hallmarks of the filmmaker’s
later work. — BOYD VAN HOEIJ
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_revs_queen-E.indd 17
during which conflicts are no
sooner suggested than Gertrude
is charming her way out of sticky
situations with Turkish military,
nomadic warriors and cultured
sheiks. “The deeper we immerse
ourselves into the desert, the
more everything seems like a
dream,” she says, in one of many
variations on the same theme.
But the action is less dreamlike
than prosaic, despite spectacular
scenery and Klaus Badelt’s swelling symphonic score.
Among the more entertaining
interludes is her time spent at an
archaeological dig with Lawrence.
And while Pattinson in Arab
headgear takes some getting used
to, the easy camaraderie in his
scenes with Kidman is appealing. A more dramatic shift occurs
after Gertrude inadvertently
casts her spell over Major Charles
Doughty-Wylie (Damian Lewis),
the unhappily married British
Consul General in Damascus. But
while he wears down her resistance and she pines for him alone
in the desert, fate intervenes
again as the war escalates.
While cinematographer Peter
Zeitlinger’s wide-screen visuals have a bland handsomeness,
Queen of the Desert is a pedestrian
retelling of an extraordinary life,
more often starchy than stirring.
Competition
Cast Nicole Kidman,
James Franco, Damian Lewis,
Robert Pattinson
Director Werner Herzog
127 minutes
THE AMERICAN
FRIEND (1977)
In his freewheeling
adaptation of Ripley’s Game
by Patricia Highsmith, Wim
Wenders cemented New
German cinema’s kinship
with both vintage film noir
and the young radicals of the
New Hollywood generation.
John Cassavetes turned
down the role of psycho
killer Tom Ripley, so the
director cast Dennis Hopper
instead. — STEPHEN DALTON
THE TIN DRUM (1979)
The most successful export
of New German cinema,
Volker Schlondorff’s
uncompromising adaptation
of Gunter Grass’ novel
centers on a man who
witnesses the Nazi era from
a pint-sized perspective. It
was the first German winner
of the foreign-language
Oscar, and the first German
movie to snag a Palme d’Or
(shared with Apocalypse
Now). — NEIL YOUNG
17
2/7/15 4:13 PM
Reviews
Seydoux (right) sees
Lindon as her way out of
the servants’ quarters.
Diary of a Chambermaid
The third time’s not exactly the charm in Benoit Jacquot’s well-performed but underwhelming
adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s classic turn-of-the-century novel by jordan mintzer
p
rol i f ic F r ench
auteur Benoit Jacquot
always has had an eye
for beautiful young women in
sticky situations, whether it’s the
pregnant hotel worker in A Single
Girl, the bourgeois studentturned-bandit in A Tout de Suite
or Marie Antoinette’s beloved,
exploited lectrice in Farewell, My
Queen. So it perhaps comes as no
surprise that the writer-director
would take a stab at adapting
Octave Mirbeau’s 1900 novel
Diary of a Chambermaid, which
previously has been brought to
the screen by the likes of Jean
Renoir and Luis Bunuel. Talk
about tough acts to follow.
Sticking more closely to the
original text than his predecessors, Jacquot opts for a rather
classically helmed version that
starts off promisingly with its
various jibes at upper-class
hypocrisy, before fizzling out in a
third act that lacks the necessary
emotional flair. Like its ravishing
heroine, doomed to a long life
of domestic subservience — and
played here by a charming and
compelling Lea Seydoux — this
Chambermaid has its bodice
strapped on a tad too tightly
to please.
While Renoir’s 1946 English-
language version turned
Mirbeau’s story into a feisty love
quadrangle with a somewhat
happy ending, Bunuel’s 1964
update was scaled-down and
sinister, though not that surreal
compared to his other movies.
Jacquot and co-writer Helene
Zimmer have chosen here to be
extremely faithful to the book’s
damning portrayal of life among
the haute-bourgeoisie, surrounding their beloved young servant
with a cast of rich old hags, perverts, racists and potential killers.
But the narrative’s downtrodden
trajectory, which goes from bad
to worse to hopeless, doesn’t
allow for much of a denouement,
and the movie slides into a grueling pessimism.
Things start off promisingly — for the viewer, that is
— when the stunning, overtly
devious Celestine (Seydoux)
lands a job in Normandy at
the home of Madame Lanlaire
(Clotilde Mollet) and her husband, Monsieur Lanlaire (Herve
Pierre). But before she can
even button up her uniform,
Celestine finds herself subjected
to the ridiculous and nagging
whims of Madame, while doing
her best to stave off the endless
groping of Monsieur, who seems
to have an unquenchable lust
for chambermaids.
Yet Celestine is not one to give
in easily, and tries at first to laugh
off the Lanlaires’ antics, mumbling insults as she serves dinner
and scrubs down the chamber
pots. Meanwhile, she soon warms
up to her neighbors and fellow servants, including Joseph
(Vincent Lindon), a gardener and
horse-buggy driver who answers
every inquiry with an unintelligible grunt, while doing mysterious
things at night in his work shed.
The early scenes, which also
flash back to reveal Celestine’s
previous employments, are filled
with playful energy and a dark
sense of humor, allowing Seydoux
to shine in a number of sexually
themed gags — one involving a
bourgeoise’s hidden dildo and
another where she unintentionally shags one of her employers
(Vincent Lacoste) to death, blood
dripping from her lips in a sort of
turn-of-the-century Gone Girl.
Yet as the story progresses,
the tragedy of Celestine’s life
becomes increasingly apparent, while her fight against an
unbendable class system feels
like a battle that’s long been lost.
“We must really have servitude
in our blood,” she says early on, a
The Hollywood Reporter
D4_revs_chamber-C.indd 18
sentiment that seems to be borne
out when a Parisian Madame
offers her work in a brothel, leading to a scene that finds Celestine
sitting in a cafe and considering
the offer, tears silently streaming
down her cheek.
As much as these moments
suggest potential throughout the
first reels, the film slows down
in its midsection and finale,
concentrating on Celestine’s
growing dependence on Joseph,
whom she sees as her ticket out
of forced servility. Their relationship is neither appealing nor
very interesting, even if Joseph’s
anti-Semitic rants (the book was
written at the time of the Dreyfus
affair) and his possible involvement in the brutal murder of a
local girl are subplots that were
perhaps worth fleshing out.
If Chambermaid lacks the dramatic push to carry it through to
the end, Seydoux’s performance
remains robust and engaging
throughout, though her character doesn’t have the emotional
drive of the servant she played
in Farewell, My Queen, a film
that seemed to be doing some
of the same things as this one
— but doing them better. Other
turns are solid, though the various class caricatures never feel
like anything more than walking Honore Daumier sketches,
which most likely is how Mirbeau
preferred them.
Tech credits are highly polished in an almost academic
manner, with Jacquot and DP
Romain Winding showing less
of the handheld verve that was
on display in Queen, while the
score by Bruno Coulais (Coraline)
jumps between flashes of lightness and wickedness. Production
design by Katia Wyszkop (Saint
Laurent) re-creates the wealthy
but utterly dreary Norman mansion where Celestine is confined
throughout much of the film — a
huge stone house filled with massive armoires, silver trinkets and
family portraits, but one with no
real exit.
Competition
Cast Lea Seydoux, Vincent Lindon,
Herve Pierre, Clotilde Mollet,
Vincent Lacoste
Director Benoit Jacquot
95 minutes
18
2/7/15 5:24 PM
European Film Promotion
[email protected]
www.shooting-stars.eu
© H A N N E S C A S PA R
Lithuania
© SAARA SALAMA
© VYTENIS
KRISCIUNAS
Switzerland
Sven Schelker
© TOMEK BOGUT
Finland
Emmi Parviainen
Participating
EFP
Member
Organisations
British Council,
Danish Film Institute,
EYE International/
The Netherlands,
Finnish Film
Foundation, German
Films, Icelandic
Film Centre,
ICAA/Spain, Irish
Film Board,
Lithuanian Film
Centre, Swiss Films.
© JENS KOCH
© BERNARDO DORAL
Ireland
Moe Dunford
Spain
Natalia de Molina
© ANDERS CLAUSEN
© ÍRIS BJÖRK
Germany
Jannis Niewöhner
Honoured with the
European Shooting
Stars Award donated
by TESIRO
Denmark
Joachim Fjelstrup
Iceland
Hera Hilmar
© MARC DE GROOT
Introduced at the
Berlin International
Film Festival
February 7 — 9
The Netherlands
Abbey Hoes
shooting-stars.eu
With the support of
© C A P T U R E T H E S P I R I T. C O . U K
Shooting Stars
are Europe’s best
up-and-coming
actors, selected
annually by an
international jury.
European Shooting Stars
Main Partner
Automobile Partner
Third Partner
United Kingdom
Maisie Williams
Event Partners
Special Thanks
EFP is supported by
medienboard
Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH
EFP D4 020815.indd 1
1/26/15 11:26 AM
Reviews
Queen of Earth
Elisabeth Moss electrifies in this
intriguing but frustrating cinematic
muddle from rising indie name
Alex Ross Perry by stephen farber
A
l ex ross per ry is not a sh a m ed
to flaunt his literary and cinematic
influences. His last film, Listen Up
Philip, was indebted to the fiction and persona of Philip Roth. His new movie, Queen of
Earth, recalls several other films about the
intense, tormented relationship of two female
friends. Perry probably needs to shed some of
these influences to become a truly first-rate
filmmaker, but Queen is in some ways more
intriguing than the overrated Philip.
For one thing, this new movie offers a bigger
and juicier role for Elisabeth Moss, the Mad
Men star who had a supporting part in Philip.
The film opens on a close-up of Moss as she
is being dumped by her unfaithful boyfriend
(Kentucker Audley). Her angry, agonized
reaction seizes our attention. Throughout the
film, Moss traverses an astonishing range of
emotions, from bliss to complete mental disintegration. She is fascinating to watch even
when the film turns into a head-scratcher.
After that opening scene, Moss’ Catherine
retreats to a lakeside house to recuperate with
best mate Ginny (Katherine Waterston). The
two women have a long-standing friendship
that obviously has not been without conflict.
As they alternately comfort and criticize each
Moss plays a
woman on the
verge in Perry’s
film about female
friendship.
other, the film keeps jumping back to a vacation they spent a year ago when Catherine
brought her ex-lover and Ginny was beginning
a flirtation with a neighbor (Patrick Fugit).
The flashbacks suggest that there were always
glimmers of tension between the two, while
the present-day scenes lay bare their rapidly
fracturing friendship, with Catherine teetering on the brink of madness.
The scenes of conflict between two women
in a confined setting recall Robert Altman’s
3 Women and even Ingmar Bergman’s classic Persona. Perry is not yet at the level of
those directors (to put it mildly), but he does
work well with the actresses. Waterston, who
recently had a vivid role in Paul Thomas
Anderson’s Inherent Vice, gives a compelling
and convincing performance. But it’s Moss
From left: Costa,
Lau and Rogowski
get up to no good.
Victoria
Sebastian Schipper’s competition entry is an audacious heist
thriller shot in real time in a single take on the streets of Berlin
f
by stephen dalton
i l m ed i n a si ngl e
mobile shot lasting more
than two hours, director
Sebastian Schipper’s competition
entry Victoria is a dazzling experiment which largely pays off.
Rising Catalan star Laia Costa
plays the eponymous heroine, a
young Spanish exile looking for
thrills in Berlin. She soon finds
herself out of her depth. Barely
an hour after meeting on the
street, a gang of criminals enlist
Victoria to help them commit an
armed bank robbery in a chaotic
haze of booze and drugs. What
could possibly go wrong?
Padding out a 12-page script
with improvised dialogue,
Victoria takes a while to emerge
Forum
Cast Elisabeth Moss, Katherine Waterston,
Patrick Fugit, Kentucker Audley
Writer-Director Alex Ross Perry
90 minutes
from its fuzzy-headed, freewheeling first act. But it repays our
patience when it shifts gears from
talk-heavy Eurodrama to heartracing, adrenaline-pumped heist
thriller. With one foot in the indie
margins and another in the multi­
plex mainstream, commercial
prospects could be healthy.
Victoria dances among the
strobe-blasted bodies of a techno
club in Berlin. With dawn
approaching, she leaves for work
at a cafe, but runs into Sonne
(Frederick Lau) and his pals
Boxer (Franz Rogowski), Blinker
(Burak Yigit) and Fuss (Max
Mauff). Falling into flirtatious
conversation, Victoria joins the
boys to drink and smoke weed.
Unfolding in real time, the
conversation initially feels
random, but builds to a prearranged meeting with gangster
Andi (Andre Hennicke), who
makes an offer they can’t refuse.
Boxer owes Andi a favor from
their shared time in jail, so now
The Hollywood Reporter
D4_revs_queen+victoria-C.indd 20
who confirms that she is developing into one
of our boldest young performers.
Still, the script doesn’t always provide a
deep enough understanding of Catherine.
There are hints that she had a traumatic
relationship with her father, but Perry isn’t
yet a gifted enough writer to fill in the complexities of those ties. He does deserve credit,
however, for making the most of a minuscule
budget, with an effective visual evocation of
the isolated setting and a haunting score by
Keegan De Witt.
he must repay him by robbing a
bank. The heist goes smoothly,
but the aftermath is a crescendo
of mistakes and disasters.
Costa gives a committed
performance, sacrificing some
of her pixie-ish fashion-model
beauty to sweaty, spittle-flecked
realism. An emerging force in
German cinema and television,
25-year-old Lau is no pinup but
he radiates a cocksure charisma
reminiscent of a young Brando.
Victoria is not the first movie
with a single-shot conceit, but
many previous examples have
used visual sleight of hand,
from Rope to Birdman. Even if
Schipper’s thriller essentially is
one long technical stunt, it’s a
bravura experiment and a kinetic,
frenetic roller-coaster ride.
Competition
Cast Laia Costa, Frederick Lau,
Franz Rogowski
Director Sebastian Schipper
140 minutes
20
2/7/15 12:38 PM
Cinema Vault D1 020515.indd 1
2/4/15 12:52 PM
Reviews
market
title
The Taking of
Tiger Mountain
In Tsui Hark’s actioner, a
People’s Liberation Army soldier
infiltrates a clan of bandits
T
by clarence tsui
su i H a r k’s The Tak ing of Tiger
Mountain — based on a 1957 novel
about a communist soldier’s battle of
wits with bandits during the Chinese Civil
War in the late 1940s — is a straightforward
spectacle motored by high-octane action
sequences featuring simplistic heroes and grotesque villains. Amid the blinding visuals and
ear-splitting firepower, Tsui’s adaptation stays
very close to the simplistic moral binary that
shaped its source material — hardly a surprise,
as the director counts among his backers the
August First Film Studio, the Chinese military’s moviemaking unit.
Tiger Mountain revolves around a good
guy trying to destroy a criminal clan from
within, though the film indeed is more about
an artillery-fueled assault than tactical mind
games. The reliance on pomp and bluster
seems to have worked in China, as the film
(released mostly in 3D in the country) secured
$51.1 million at the box office during its first
Military leader Lin
does his best to
take down a group
of thieves.
five days of domestic release.
Tiger Mountain originally was merely a
section in Tracks in the Snowy Forest, a novel
based on a real-life Chinese Red Army platoon’s missions in Manchuria after the end of
World War II. The central character is Yang
Ziyong (Zhang Hanyu), a surveillance officer
who volunteers to infiltrate a gang of outlaws exerting regional control from a heavily
had dinner with Chinese director
Xie Jin [Hibiscus Town]. He asked
me whether I was interested in
making a film in China, and I said
yes. And then he asked me what
kind of subject I was interested in
making a movie about. I blurted
out I wanted to remake Taking
Tiger Mountain by Strategy.
(Laughs.) Then everyone at
the table laughed, because we
didn’t know whether or not it
was just a whim.
director q&a
Tsui Hark
The Hong Kong auteur, 64, on remaking
one of his favorite films and why he hopes it gets
remade again in 40 years by k aren chu
You saw the original Tiger
Mountain in New York in
the ’70s when you were a
film student. Did it make an
immediate impression on you?
The movie felt very fresh. There
had never been such subject
matter in Chinese cinema —
about bandits and soldiers. And
it was based on a true story set in
a particular time and place, when
most of the stories in Chinese
cinema about the military were
fictional. It left a deep impression
on me. And the movie was
very entertaining. The original
Peking opera version of Taking
Tiger Mountain by Strategy
was presented in a theatrical
manner, and it had a strong
entertainment value.
When did you know you wanted
to remake the film?
There was a meeting of the
greater Chinese directors that
took place in Hong Kong in the
1980s, and after the meeting, I
How do you think Western
audiences will react to the film?
Tiger Mountain has been shown in
the Chinese communities in North
America, and it was very meaningful to me. Decades had passed
[since the original]. Many of my
friends living in North America
have sent me their reactions to the
film and this moved me. Suddenly,
it was like I went back in time to
the 1970s in New York. I hope
some young people, like me then,
who are students or interested
in film, would make another The
Taking of Tiger Mountain in 40
years’ time. It would become a
cycle.
The Hollywood Reporter
D4_revs_tiger+q&a-D.indd 22
fortified castle. Having found his way into the
den and worked his way up the gang’s hierarchy, Yang is pitted against a monstrous leader
named Hawk (Tony Leung Ka-fai).
It’s a shame the script doesn’t provide
Zhang, one of the best actors working in
China today, with a more complex character
to play. The possibilities on display in the
first part of the film — with the character
registering as a kind of unseemly rogue in a
well-regimented military unit — are never
seen through. Instead, the character becomes
a one-dimensional stereotype just like his unit
commander (Lin Gengxin), the nerdy and
self-sacrificial boy-soldier (Chen Xiao) and
the angelic nurse (Tong Liya).
Interestingly, Tiger Mountain also is a
showcase for a modern Hong Kong/Chinese
artist’s struggle to navigate and negotiate
creative freedoms within the confines of
the establishment. This is manifested most
explicitly in director Tsui referencing his
own experience with the awkward, 2014-set
sequences bookending the film: A Chinese
university graduate named Jimmy (Han
Geng) is seen watching, mesmerized, the
1970 film Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy
in New York, and then elects to head back
home to northeast China — where Tiger
Mountain takes place — and “reimagine” his
own version of an incredible, over-the-top
final showdown between Yang and Hawk.
In effect, Jimmy’s wild fantasy take on the
tale, tacked on to the end of the film as a
10-minute coda, is very much the sort of
movie Tsui ideally would have wanted to
make — but, in today’s China, couldn’t.
Sales Distribution Workshop
Cast Zhang Hanyu, Tony Leung Ka-fai,
Lin Gengxin
Director Tsui Hark
141 minutes
22
2/7/15 2:43 PM
Jena Malone
J a n e t M ct e e r
a film by
Mitchell lichtenstein
A PIERPOLINE FILMS PRODUCTION · A FILM BY MITCHELL LICHTENSTEIN “ANGELICA”
JENA MALONE · JANET McTEER · ED STOPPARD · TOVAH FELDSHUH · CASTING KERRY BARDEN AND PAUL SCHNEE
UK CASTING KELLY VALENTINE HENDRY CDG AND VICTOR JENKINS CDG · MUSIC ZBIGNIEW PREISNER · EDITORS ANDREW HAFITZ AND LEE PERCY, A.C.E.
COSTUME DESIGNER RITA RYACK · PRODUCTION DESIGNER LUCIANA ARRIGHI · DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY DICK POPE, B.S.C. · BASED ON THE NOVEL BY ARTHUR PHILLIPS
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MAGNONYMOUS · CO-PRODUCER RICHARD LORMAND · PRODUCED BY MITCHELL LICHTENSTEIN
PRODUCED BY JOYCE PIERPOLINE, p.g.a. · WRITTEN FOR THE SCREEN AND DIRECTED BY MITCHELL LICHTENSTEIN
FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE CULT FAVORITE
TEETH
berlinale screenings
feb 7 - 13:30 - cinestar 3 (press/industry) - feb 7 - 21:30 - zoo palast 1 (premiere)
feb 8 - 12:30 - cinemaxx 7
feb 9 - 13:10 - cinemaxx 4 (market) - feb 9 - 22:00 - zoo palast 2
feb 10 - 14:00 - cinemaxx 11 (market) - feb 12 - 11:00 - cinemaxx 6 (market)
feb 14 - 20:00 - cinemaxx 7
sALEs InqUIRIEs: jOyCE pIERpOLInE - [email protected]
Pierpoline D3 020715.indd 1
2/5/15 10:40 AM
Reviews
From left: Sliman, Valantina Abu
Oqsa and Metwasi manage to find
humor amid Mideast strife.
Tough Love
Cult filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim’s latest is a campy yet
compelling docudrama about a victim of sexual abuse who
later became a karate champ and pimp by jordan mintzer
A
Love, Theft and Other
Entanglements
A car thief finds himself caught up in Israeli-Palestinian
politics in a pleasantly stylish comedy that doesn’t go
quite far enough by deborah young
p
a l e st i n i a n com edy m a i n ly h a s been iden t i f ied
with the surreal cinema of Elia Suleiman. Love, Theft and
Other Entanglements introduces Muayad Alayan, who may
now join Suleiman. Shot in black-and-white with flashes of French
New Wave, it’s a fine-looking picture that doesn’t hang together
well. Struggling to maintain its tone and generate sympathy for
the protagonist, the movie still may click in the Middle East with
viewers willing to accept undemonized Israeli characters.
While poking fun at an Israeli soldier who becomes the
Palestinian hero’s accidental hostage is an original idea, Alayan
handles it too delicately, and neither Riyad Sliman, who plays the
kvetching Private Avi Cohen, nor Sami Metwasi as the frustrated
thief Mousa, dares to take his role to laugh-out-loud levels.
The action is set around Jerusalem, where negotiations are in
progress for a hostage exchange: scores of Palestinians for one
Israeli soldier. Meanwhile, young car thief Mousa, an incorrigible
rogue with no morals, is in love with the married Manal (Maya Abu
Alhayyat), whose husband doesn’t know his daughter is in fact
Mousa’s. The car Mousa steals this time comes with some extra
baggage; only after the Palestinian militia comes after him does he
realize there’s an Israeli soldier in there, alive and complaining.
Mousa plans to emigrate to Europe but needs $5,000 to do so. He
can’t sell the car parts now that everybody is looking for the VW
Passat, and there’s the problem of what to do with the soldier in
the trunk. Mousa brushes off an offer to become a collaborator for
the Israelis because he’s afraid the mafia-like Palestinian militia
will kill him. At the same time, the Israelis have him over a barrel
because they can track him through his cell phone and blackmail
him with compromising pictures of him and Manal in bed.
It’s hard to see where the story is going as it circles around this
situation, which had room to be funnier. Still, there’s an original
voice here that will keep interest high in the director’s future
work. The quality of the lensing is apparent, and a stylish score by
Nathan Daems rescues many scenes with its unexpected jazziness.
Panorama
Cast Sami Metwasi, Maya Abu Alhayyat, Riyad Sliman
Director Muayad Alayan
93 minutes
ger m a n pi m p w i t h a
penchant for violence. A
prostitute with a heart
of gold. A demented mother.
Lots of depressing sex scenes
set in dreary working-class
apartments.
If these seem like the key
ingredients of a Rainer Werner
Fassbinder movie, they’re in fact
part of a true story that inspired
the latest docudrama from prolific Berlin-based filmmaker and
gay activist Rosa von Praunheim
(Rent Boys). Based on the harrowing life of Andreas Marquardt, a
victim of sexual abuse who grew
into a karate champ, prosperous
hustler, federal prisoner and,
eventually, martial-arts instructor and author, the film jumps
between present-day interviews
and kitschy flashbacks shot in
black-and-white, revealing a man
who overcame trauma through
therapy and his own two fists.
Love should play well with the
filmmaker’s local fan base and
cult followings abroad, with continued gigs on the international
fest circuit.
Adapted by the director and
writers Nico Woche and Jurgen
Leme from Marquardt’s 2006
autobiography, the film begins
with its subject speaking candidly about his past, before
jumping into dramatized recreations where young Andreas,
aka Andy (Hanno Koffler), is
raised by a single mother (Katy
Karrenbauer) after his abusive
father is kicked out of the house.
But rather than finding solace
in the arms of Mutter, Andy lands
between the legs of a perverted
Mommie Dearest who forces him
into an incestuous relationship —
one which von Praunheim hardly
shies away from, capturing sexual
acts from the boy’s POV as his
mom strips down for him, plays
with his genitals or, in one rather
unbearable sequence, lubricates a
dildo like she’s spreading icing on
a tray of cupcakes.
To say Andy had an unhappy
childhood is more than an understatement, and he soon grows up
The Hollywood Reporter
D4_revs_love+toughlove-D.indd 24
Koffler (left) plays the real-life Marquardt, whose
troubled life is the subject of Tough Love.
to become a fierce fighter and
street enforcer, eventually setting
up shop as a pimp in what he
would call his personal “I Hate
Women” campaign. Yet despite
his outward loathing of the opposite sex, one woman pops into his
life with the possibility of changing it: 16-year-old secretary,
Marion (Luise Heyer), who soon
falls in love with Andy, only to
become one of his streetwalkers.
Much of the film’s midsection
depicts the push-and-pull between
pimp and prostitute, and in that
sense recalls Fassbinder’s Love Is
Colder than Death, especially with
its stark, colorless imagery (by
Nicolai Zorn and Elfi Mikesch)
and faux theatrical backdrops.
Some of these scenes veer into
camp, especially when Mom pops
back into the picture, but stars
Koffler (Free Fall) and Heyer
(Jack) offer convincing, intensely
physical performances, playing
two self-punishing people finding
their way toward true love.
If the last act is less visceral as
it follows Andy’s quest for psychological aid, Tough Love works as a
portrait of a man who was able to
channel his rage into a lucrative,
if highly questionable, existence.
It’s obviously not easy for sexually abused kids to surpass their
childhood suffering, and in that
sense, Marquardt — who now
runs karate schools for inner-city
youths — can be seen as a hero,
and one who still kicks ass.
Panorama
Cast Hanno Koffler, Luise Heyer,
Katy Karrenbauer
Director Rosa von Praunheim
89 minutes
24
2/7/15 3:34 PM
Rebel Movies D1 020515.indd 1
1/30/15 12:51 PM
Reviews
Djedouani’s Jesus
(center) is put on trial.
Story of Judas
I
Judas Iscariot gets fully rehabilitated in
Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche’s pleasingly nonconformist
retelling of the Biblical story by deborah young
n t h e f r ench f i l m story
of Judas (Histoire de Judas),
the title character is not
the arch-traitor of history but
Jesus’ closest friend and loving
disciple, ready to do anything to
protect him. Written, directed
and produced by French-Algerian
filmmaker Rabah AmeurZaimeche, who plays Judas
Iscariot with rough-and-ready
passion, it’s a fascinating reworking of an oft-told tale, given more
realism by being shot in natural
desert landscapes and amid
ancient ruins. The overall tone is
extremely respectful, but it’s easy
to imagine that its deviation from
church orthodoxy will alienate
a certain part of the audience,
while attracting another segment.
The film walks a thin line
between the stylization of its
stark desert locations and a
tendency to slip into theatricality.
Scenes like Jesus’ fake trial by the
headachy Pontius Pilate are so
arty they undercut empathy and
involvement with the characters.
On the other hand, there are
moments when the sheer beauty
of the Biblical story bursts forth,
as in the mysterious story of the
woman who sells all she has to
buy an expensive perfume to pour
over the hair and beard of Jesus
(Nabil Djedouani). In another
affecting scene, Jesus stops the
Pharisees from stoning a sinful
woman by suggesting that he who
is without sin should cast the first
stone. As familiar as this story is,
it is made fresh by the uncanny
understatement of Djedouani’s
half-hidden performance, played
from under a head shawl and
behind scraggly hair.
The low-key dignity and
authoritativeness of Jesus of
Nazareth draw crowds, and the
Jewish and Roman authorities
start to wonder whether he represents a danger to their power.
Well aware of this, the cunning
Judas makes practical arrangements with some strong-armed
goons to protect him.
It’s a far cry from Harvey
Keitel’s much-maligned performance as the tormented
Judas in Martin Scorsese’s The
Last Temptation of Christ or
Carl Anderson’s in Jesus Christ
Love & Mercy
Paul Dano and John Cusack play
Brian Wilson at different
ages in this moving pop biopic
A
by john defore
deeply sat isf y i ng pop biopic
whose subject’s bifurcated creative
life lends itself to an unconventional
structure, Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy spends
time with Brian Wilson both while his mental
illness was a storm gathering on the Beach
Boys’ horizon and years later, as he attempted
to break free from a doctor who was trying
to control his life. Balancing the emotionally
involving drama in that later story with the
thrilling musical creation in the earlier one,
the picture would be exciting even if all it
offered was the vision of Paul Dano’s Wilson
guiding musicians through the creation of the
album Pet Sounds; but as the older Wilson,
John Cusack gives one of his best performances to date, its effectiveness limited only
by a lack of resemblance to the songwriter.
Superb editing by Dino Jonsater clicks
back and forth between the mid-’60s and the
point in the ’80s when Wilson met Melinda
Dano’s Wilson struggles to balance his music
and his mental well-being.
Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), the woman
who would become his second wife, at a car
dealership where she’s a salesperson. Clearly
taken with her at first sight, he makes some
uncomfortable emotional revelations before
she even knows the older man flirting with her
used to be a Beach Boy. Before he can ask her
out, aggressively chatty Eugene Landy (Paul
Giamatti), who we’ll later learn is Wilson’s
personal physician and legal guardian, whisks
him away. When the two do start dating,
Landy is there either in person or by proxy, in
the form of a “bodyguard” who reports back
The Hollywood Reporter
D4_revs_judas+lovemercyC.indd 26
Superstar, yet curiously all three
films give Judas a central role in
the Passion story and show him as
a far more positive character than
does standard Gospel lore.
Ameur-Zaimeche’s screenplay
suggests that the traitor story
was the fabrication of a vindictive scribe wronged by Judas. For
some reason never made clear,
Judas is incensed to find a young
man taking notes as Jesus speaks.
In a terse exchange, the Lord tells
him to “do what he is going to do,
and do it quickly.” Judas takes
this as a green light to burn the
scribe’s manuscripts, while the
Gospel reports it as a prediction
of his betrayal of Christ.
Visually, there is a strong
physicality to the windswept rock
formations and Mediterranean
colors. Cinematographer Irina
Lubtchansky captures a spectacular landscape of palm trees
and antiquity rising out of sands,
while she gives a painterly quality
to the interiors lit by flamelight.
Forum
Cast Nabil Djedouani, Mohamed
Aroussi, Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche
Writer-Director
Rabah Ameur-Zaimeche
99 minutes
to him. Banks is as alert as an animal sensing
predators when Landy summons her to his
office to explain his role in Wilson’s recovery,
the importance of the medications he prescribes and his need for her to report to him
on their time together.
As Wilson falls in love with Ledbetter,
Landy sees the threat and pushes her out of
his life. Screenwriters Oren Moverman and
Michael Alan Lerner distill the complicated
timeline in which courts removed Wilson
from Landy’s custody; since this film views
Ledbetter as the catalyst for Wilson’s recovery
(they married in 1995), it emphasizes her role
in gathering evidence of Landy’s misconduct.
Unlike most music biographies, this one
has no interest in showing its hero performing
for adoring crowds. It understands Wilson’s
desire to “play the studio,” making perfect
records instead of living off the energy of an
audience. And it never needs to explain how
well suited the anxieties that crippled the man
were to the artist’s particular gifts.
Berlinale Special Gala
Cast Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks,
Paul Giamatti
Director Bill Pohlad // 120 minutes
26
2/7/15 3:57 PM
DRAMA
SERIES
DAYS
9–10 FEB 2015
at the european Film market and
the Berlinale Co-produCtion market
9
MonDAY, 9 FEB
HouSE oF REpRESEntAtIvES
9:45 official opening*
10:45–11:45 Jordskott Case study
GRopIuS MIRRoR
10:45–11:45 the american View on
european series Content and Vice Versa
eFm panel in collaboration with C21
16:00 –17:00 ready to take off?
high-end drama series made in Germany
eFm industry debate hosted by iFa & Film- and
medienstiftung nrW, in collaboration with
the hollywood reporter
10
tuESDAY, 10 FEB
HouSE oF REpRESEntAtIvES
10:00 –13:00 Copro series pitching*
MARtIn-GRopIuS-BAu
9:00 –19:00 market screenings
in addition, Berlinale special
programme shows selected episodes
of the newest series and Berlinale talents
hosts various drama series panels on
monday and tuesday, Feb 9 –10.
* by invitation only
MARtIn-GRopIuS-BAu
11:00–19:00 market screenings
www.efm-berlinale.de
EFM 2015_DSD_THR_245x330_RZ.indd 1
EFM D4 020815.indd 1
02.02.15 17:14
2/3/15 3:09 PM
EFM SCREENING GUIDE
2015
TODAY
9:00 Astragal, CineStar 4,
97 mins., France, Alfama
Films; Darker Than Night,
CineStar 5, 110 mins., Mexico/
Spain, 6 Sales; Moomins on
the Riviera, Kino Arsenal 2, 77
mins., Finland/France, Indie
Sales; On Any Sunday — The
Next Chapter, CinemaxX 8, 95
mins., Austria/USA, Red Bull
Media House; The End of the
Tour, CinemaxX 4, 106 mins.,
USA, Fortitude International;
The Goob, CinemaxX Studio
11, 86 mins., UK, The Bureau
Sales; The Messenger,
CinemaxX Studio 17, 97 mins.,
UK, Cinema Management
Group (CMG); TOOKEN,
CinemaxX Studio 19, 80 mins.,
USA, Highland Film Group;
Waste Land, CinemaxX 3,
97 mins., Belgium, Be for
Films; Reversal, CinemaxX 1,
79mins., USA, Content
9:30 Accused, CinemaxX
Studio 12, 97 mins.,
Netherlands/Belgium/
Sweden, Fortissimo Films;
Being Evel, Zoo Palast 3,
100 mins., USA, HēLō; BIS,
CineStar 7, 101 mins., France
EuropaCorp; Entertainment,
CineStar 1, 98 mins., USA,
Epic Pictures Group; Isao
Takahata and His Tale of the
Princess Kaguya, CinemaxX
2, 86 mins., Japan, Wild
Bunch; Kick It, Marriott 1, 103
mins., Norway, Attraction
Distribution; Mar, CinemaxX
6, 60 mins., Chile/Argentina,
New Europe Film Sales;
Messi, CinemaxX Studio 14,
97 mins., Spain, Film Factory
Entertainment; Posthumous,
Parliament Studio, 94 mins.,
USA/Germany, Bleiberg
Entertainment; Prince,
CinemaxX Studio 15, 78
mins., Netherlands, Mongrel
International; Seymour: An
Introduction, MGB-Kino, 81
mins., USA, HanWay Films; For
Some Inexplicable Reason, CinemaxX Studio 18, 96 mins.,
Hungary, Alpha Violet
9:45 Bill, CineStar 6, 94 mins.,
UK, Independent; Easy Sex,
Sad Movies, CinemaxX Studio
16, 90 mins., Spain/Argentina
Filmax International; Women
He’s Undressed
— by invitation only, dffbKino, 99 mins., Australia,
Hollywood Classics
10:00 Phoenix, Zoo Palast 2,
98 mins., Germany, The
Match Factory; The Tree,
Zoo Palast Club A, 90 mins.,
SloveniaMonoo
10:15 Chloe and Theo,
CinemaxX 5, 77 mins., USA,
Spotlight Pictures
10:30 Maiko: Dancing Child,
CinemaxX Studio 19, 70
mins., Norway, Wide/Wide
House; Open Cage, CinemaxX
Studio 11, 70 mins., Serbia,
ETM Production; Set Fire
to the Stars, Kino Arsenal
2, 97 mins., UK, The Works;
The Diary of an Old Man,
CinemaxX 9, 82 mins., Canada
Séville International; The
Summer of Sangaile, Kino
Arsenal 1, 88 mins., Lithuania/
France/Netherlands,
Films Distribution
10:40 Extraordinary Tales,
CinemaxX Studio 13, 73 mins.,
Luxembourg/Spain/USA/
Belgium, Bac Films; Wicked
Flying Monkeys 3D, CinemaxX
3, 80 mins., Mexico/India,
Filmsharks International;
Unexpected, CineStar 4, 86 mins., USA, Visit Films
10:45 Between Friends,
CinemaxX Studio 17,
98 mins., South Africa,
AAA Entertainment
10:50 Gloria! The Price
of Fame, CinemaxX 4, 123
mins., Mexico, 6 Sales;
Hungry Hearts, Zoo Palast
4, 113 mins., Italy, Radiant
Films International
11:00 Ben Zaken, CinemaxX 6,
90 mins., Israel, Patra Spanou
Film Marketing & Consulting;
Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs
and the New South Africa,
CinemaxX Studio 15, 84 mins.,
USA, Ginzberg Productions;
Warsaw 44, Marriott 2, 122
mins., Poland, Artist View
Entertainment
11:05 Winter, MGB-Kino, 95
Rai Com’s
Leopardi
mins., UK, Genesis Film Sales
Doc & Film International
11:15 Key House Mirror,
CineStar 1, 95 mins., Denmark,
TrustNordisk; Until I Lose My
Breath, CinemaxX Studio 14,
94 mins., Turkey/Germany,
Prolog Film
12:00 Men Show Movies &
Women Their Breasts, Zoo
Palast 2, 80 mins., Germany,
missingFILMs
11:20 108 Demon-Kings,
CineStar 2, 110 mins., France,
EuropaCorp; Girls’ Night
Out, CinemaxX Studio 18, 100
mins., Spain. DeAPlaneta
12:10 The Face of an Angel,
Kino Arsenal 2, 100 mins., UK,
WestEnd Films
11:30 Breaking Through,
Zoo Palast 5, 98 mins., USA,
Voltage Pictures; Eva and
Leon, CinemaxX Studio 16,
75 mins., France, Pyramide
International; Hope Bridge,
Marriott 1, 90 mins., USA, Pure
Flix/Quality Flix; Sleeping
With Other People, CineStar
IMAX, 101 mins., USA, IM
Global; The Nightmare,
CineStar 6, 90 mins., USA,
Content; Umrika, CinemaxX 2,
100 mins., India, Beta Cinema
12:30 Discount, CinemaxX
Studio 15, 105 mins., France,
Other Angle Pictures; Petting
Zoo, CineStar 4, 93 mins.,
Germany/Greece/USA, The
Match Factory; Princess,
CinemaxX Studio 17, 92 mins.,
Israel, The Yellow Affair; The
Diary of a Teenage Girl,
CinemaxX 1, 102 mins., USA, K5
International
12:45 Boulevard, Zoo Palast 4
89 mins., USA, Inception Film
Partners; Home Sweet Home,
MGB-Kino, 97 mins., France,
SND – Groupe M6
11:40 The Photographer,
dffb-Kino, 112 mins., Poland,
Kosmos Film Sp.z.o.o
11:45 Honey Night,
CinemaxX Studio 11, 89 mins.,
Macedonia/Slovenia/Czech
Republic, Kaval Film; We
Are Still Here, CinemaxX 5,
85 mins., USA, MPI Media
Group; Zouzou, CinemaxX
Studio 19, 81 mins., France,
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_screeningguideA.indd 1
12:05 El Americano: The
Movie 3D, CinemaxX 3, 90
mins., Mexico/USA, Filmsharks
International; Last Days in the
Desert, CinemaxX Studio 13,
100 mins., USA, HanWay Films
12:50 Knock Knock,
CinemaxX 9, 96 mins., USA,
Voltage Pictures
13:00 Absence, CineStar 1,
87 mins., Brazil/Chile/France,
Mundial; Ninja Hunter,
CineStar 6, 101 mins., Japan
Shochiku; The Eichmann
Show, CineStar 5, 96 mins.,
UK, Content; Welcome to the
Club, CinemaxX Studio 14, 87
mins., Germany, New Morning
Films; When Marnie Was
There, CinemaxX 4, 103 mins.,
Japan, Wild Bunch
13:10 A Cup of Life, Marriott 1,
111 mins., Japan, Kadokawa
Corporation; Dreams
Rewired, CinemaxX Studio 19,
88 mins., Austria/Germany/
UK, AMOUR FOU Vienna
GmbH; Happy, CinemaxX
Studio 18, 100 mins., France,
Wide/Wide House
13:15 Chic!, CinemaxX 2,
103 mins., France,
Studiocanal; Confetti
Harvest, CinemaxX Studio
16, 94 mins., Netherlands/
Belgium, Mountain Road
Entertainment Group
13:20 Electricity, CinemaxX
Studio 11, 96 mins., UK,
4Square Films; Leopardi,
CineStar IMAX, 145 mins., Italy,
Rai Com
13:30 Violence, CinemaxX 6,
78 mins., Colombia/Mexico
13:45 Dragon Nest Warriors’
Dawn, CineStar 2, 84 mins.,
USA/China, All Rights
Entertainment; Best of
28
2/7/15 2:20 AM
Krawkoska D4 020815.indd 1
1/30/15 11:12 AM
EFM2015 SCREENING SCHEDULE
February 9th 18:30 Zoo Palast 1 (Panorama Premiere)
February 10th 15:30 CinemaxX 7 (Panorama)
office: RITZ CARLTON, SUITE 839
The Exchange D4 020815.indd 1
Partials 1 D4 020815.indd 1
for more info: [email protected]
February 9th 09:30 CinemaxX 19
for an appointment: [email protected]
2/6/15 3:25 PM
2/7/15 11:37 AM
EFM SCREENING GUIDE
2015
Enemies, dffb-Kino, 87 mins.,
USA, Magnolia Pictures
13:50 Near Death
Experience, CinemaxX
Studio 13, 87 mins., France,
Funny Balloons
13:55 Papers in the
Wind, Kino Arsenal 2,
100 mins., Argentina
Filmsharks International
14:00 Concrete Love — The
Bohm Family, Zoo Palast 2, 88
mins., Germany/Switzerland,
Lichtblick Film GmbH
14:10 Spooks: The
Greater Good, CineStar 4,
104 mins., UK, Altitude Film
Sales; The Misfits Club,
CinemaxX Studio 17, 100 mins.,
Spain, DeAPlaneta
14:30 A Blast, CinemaxX
Studio 14, 83 mins., Greece/
Germany/Netherlands,
Greek Film Centre; Black
and White: The Dawn of
Justice, MGB-Kino, 126
mins., Taiwan, Ablaze Image;
Life According to Nino,
CinemaxX Studio 12, 81
mins., Netherlands/Belgium,
Attraction Distribution
14:45 Homesick, CineStar
1, 102 mins., Norway,
TrustNordisk; Sam Klemke’s
Time Machine, CinemaxX
Studio 19, 90 mins., Australia,
Visit Films
14:55 Metamorphosis,
CinemaxX Studio 18, 104 mins.,
Russia, Intercinema Agency
15:00 Big Match, CinemaxX
Studio 11, 112 mins., South
Korea, United Pictures;
HomeSick, CinemaxX 10, 98
mins., Germany, Wide/Wide
House; Return to Sender,
Zoo Palast 5, 101 mins.,
USA, Voltage Pictures; The
Hoarder, CinemaxX Studio
16, 85 mins., UK, Genesis
Film Sales
Germany, Fortissimo
Films; Dessau Dancers
— The Incredible Story
of Breakdance in East
Germany, dffb-Kino, 90 mins.,
Germany, ARRI Worldsales;
Kid Kulafu, Zoo Palast Club B,
110 mins., Philippines, TEN17P;
The Passion of Augustine,
CineStar 6, 103 mins., Canada,
Séville International; Women,
Zoo Palast 3, 90 mins., USA
Rucksack Productions
15:45 Manglehorn,
CineStar IMAX, 97 mins.,
USA, WestEnd Films
15:25 Oriana …, CineStar 2,
110 mins., Italy, Rai Com
15:30 Atlantic., CinemaxX
Studio 13, 94 mins.,
Netherlands/Belgium/
16:10 The Hallow, CineStar
4, 95 mins., USA, Altitude
Film Sales
Prophet, CinemaxX Studio
12, 85 mins., USA/Lebanon/
France, Wild Bunch
16:30 Innocent Killers,
CinemaxX Studio 19, 95 mins.,
Spain, Filmax International;
Results, CinemaxX Studio
16, 105 mins., USA, Magnolia
Pictures; Son of Mine,
Marriott 2, 102 mins.,
Netherlands, Bind
17:50 Mazar-e Sharif,
CinemaxX Studio 14, 100
mins., Iran, Soureh Cinema
Organization; The Forbidden
Room, CinemaxX 1, 130 mins.,
Canada, Mongrel International
16:45 Il nome del figlio,
CineStar 1, 94 mins., Italy,
Films Distribution; The Lasa
& Zabala Case, CinemaxX
Studio 18, 101 mins., Spain,
Imagina International Sales
15:40 Austria — Above and
Below, Kino Arsenal 2, 104
mins., Austria, Red Film Sales
16:00 Angels of Revolution,
CinemaxX Studio 17 113 mins.,
Russia, Antipode Sales &
Distribution; La La La
at Rock Bottom, CinemaxX
Studio 14, 103 mins., Japan,
Gaga Corporation; The Smell
of Us, CinemaxX Studio 12,
88 mins., France/Belgium,
Wild Bunch
15:15 The Siren of Faso
Fani, CinemaxX 6, 89 mins.,
France/Burkina/Germany/
Qatar, Cinedoc Films; We
Were Young, CinemaxX 2, 100
mins., France, Gaumont
16:15 Who Am I — No System
Is Safe, Zoo Palast 2, 105
mins., Germany, TrustNordisk
17:00 Dora or The Sexual
Neuroses of Our Parents,
CinemaxX 4, 90 mins.,
Switzerland/Germany, Wide/
Wide House; Murder in Pacot,
CinemaxX Studio 15, 130
mins., France/Haiti/Norway,
Doc & Film International; The
Grump, CinemaxX Studio 11
105 mins., Finland/Iceland,
The Yellow Affair
17:10 Witchcrafts, dffbKino, 78 mins., Spain/
Brazil, Latido Films; Zurich,
CinemaxX Studio 13, 89 mins.,
Netherlands/Germany/
Belgium, Beta Cinema
Kars Film’s
Snow Pirates
17:15 Before I Disappear,
MGB-Kino, 98 mins., UK/USA
Electric Entertainment; Here
Is Harold, CinemaxX 2, 88
mins., Norway/Sweden,
TrustNordisk; Sidetracked,
CineStar 2, 103 mins., Spain
Film Factory Entertainment;
Twenty-Eight Nights and a
Poem, CinemaxX 6, 120 mins.,
Lebanon/France; Peach, Zoo
Palast Club A, 86 mins.,
Bolivia/Argentina, Árbol
Cine Organico
17:20 Take Me to the River,
CineStar 6, 84 mins., USA
Cinetic Media
17:25 Champs. Kino Arsenal 2,
91 mins., USA, The Works
17:30 Ride, CineStar IMAX, 93
mins., USA, 6 Sales
17:45 Kahlil Gibran’s The
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_screeningguideA.indd 2
18:00 Dark Horse, CineStar
4, 86 mins., UK, Protagonist
Pictures; Soaked in Bleach,
CinemaxX Studio 17, 87 mins.,
USA, VMI Worldwide
18:30 Gentle, CineStar 5, 98
mins., Vietnam, Oration Films;
You’re Ugly Too, CinemaxX
Studio 19, 81 mins., Ireland,
Picture Tree International;
Snow Pirates, CinemaxX 10,
83 mins., Turkey, Kars Film;
Citizenfour, CinemaxX Studio
16, 114 mins,USA/Germany
Praxis Films Inc.
18:45 La Tierra Roja,
CinemaxX Studio 18, 105 mins.,
Belgium/Argentina/Brazil,
Latido Films; Margarita With
a Straw, CineStar 1, 100 mins.,
India Wide/Wide House;
Anomalous, dffb-Kino, 100
mins., Spain, Númerica Films
18:50 Iraqi Odyssey,
CinemaxX Studio 11, 163 mins.,
Switzerland/Germany/Iraq/
United Arab Emirates,
Autlook Filmsales
19:00 The Farewell
Party, CinemaxX Studio 13,
93 mins., Israel, Beta Cinema,
The Magic Brush, CinemaxX
2, 87 mins., China, All Rights
Entertainment; Underdog
Kids 3D, CineStar 6, 95
mins., USA, American
Cinema International
19:30 45 Years, CineStar 4, 93
mins., UK, The Match Factory;
French Dolls, CinemaxX
Studio 12, 95 mins., France/
Belgium, Wild Bunch
19:45 Hand Gestures,
CinemaxX 6, 77 mins., Italy
21:30 End of Winter, CinemaxX
6, 103 mins., South Korea, Lotte
Entertainment
30
2/7/15 2:20 AM
Creative Content D4 020815.indd 1
2/3/15 12:38 PM
LA PLAGE ROYALE
PRIVATE MEMBERS CLUB AND BESPOKE EVENT SPACE
AU FESTIVAL DE CANNES 13-21 MAY 2015
ARE YOU PLANNING TO HOST AN EVENT THIS CANNES FILM FESTIVAL?
ARE YOU SEARCHING FOR THE PERFECT VENUE?
La Plage Royale is a stylish and effortlessly sophisticated event space for hire with 500sqm covered area and
250sqm of outside terrace, La Plage Royale is equipped with comprehensive light and sound and a professional
and experienced team on site to fully cater to your events individual needs.
To discuss sponsorship opportunities, availabilities for events or to apply for membership call:
JOJO DYE TEL: +44 (0) 7768 986115 | EMAIL: [email protected]
JJD Publicity D2 020615.indd 1
Partials 2 D4 020815.indd 1
2/4/15 1:38 PM
2/7/15 11:37 AM
8 Decades of The Hollywood Reporter
The most glamorous and memorable moments from a storied history
In 1999,
Franco Became
a Freak
W
H EN A 21-Y E A R- OL D
Franco (right) with his
Freaks co-stars Jason
Segel and Linda
Cardellini in 1999.
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
D4_endpages_franco_L.indd 1
32
NBC/COURTESY OF EVERETT COLLECTION
James Franco arrived at
the casting call for NBC’s
1980s-set teen drama
Freaks and Geeks in 1999, he was just what
show creator Paul Feig had been looking
for. Feig had loosely based all of the show’s
characters on people he had encountered
during his time at Chippewa Valley High
School in Clinton, Mich., and Franco
strongly resembled the real-life inspiration
behind Daniel Desario, Freaks’ charismatic burnout. “Franco came in and I was
like, ‘Oh my God, he looks like that guy!’ ”
Feig tells THR. “I immediately perked up
and thought, ‘He’s great.’ Then he started
reading and I was like, ‘This is great,
too.’ ” Though low viewership caused the
series to be canceled after just one season,
Freaks earned rave reviews (THR called
it “the most sensitive, touching and, yes,
humorous look at the joys and pains of
adolescence since The Wonder Years”),
scored an Emmy for casting and reached
cult status in later years. Franco, now 36,
since has earned an Oscar nomination (for
2010’s 127 Hours) and has reteamed with
Freaks co-star Seth Rogen on multiple
projects (Pineapple Express, This Is the End
and most recently The Interview). Fifteen
years after the show’s end, Feig, 52, admits
seeing the actor become a household
name makes him proud: “It’s like getting
your kids to do really well.” Franco has
three films in Berlin this year: Werner
Herzog’s competition entry Queen of the
Desert; I Am Michael, screening Feb. 9 in
the Panorama section; and Wim Wenders’
3D Every Thing Will Be Fine, screening
Feb. 10. — MEENA JANG
2/7/15 1:51 AM
CDB15_AF_AD THR 245x330 EFM 08FEV_2.pdf
1
03/02/15
12:38
C
M
Y
CM
MY
CY
CMY
K
Cinema do Brasil D4 020815.indd 1
2/3/15 6:23 PM
Our quest for perfection.
PanoMaticInverse
PanoMaticInverse. The visual art of watchmaking. Unusual design and technical sophistication come together in the characteristic Panorama Date
and the perfectly formed duplex swan-neck fine adjustment. The dial side reveals the rhythmic pulse of the fine art of German watchmaking. Further
enhanced by self-winding, this model is a comfortable companion for everyday life.
Glashutte D3 020715.indd 1
GO_Berlinale_245x330mm_ENG.indd
1
2/3/1511:28:02
3:36 PM
23.01.2015