"You lie all the time to everyone. You scare me." Greenwich Entertainment has revealed a new official US trailer for a French thriller titled Madeleine Collins, starring the wonderfully talented actress Virginie Efira. This one originally premiered at film festivals back in 2021, opening in France later in 2021, though it has taken two more years to finally show up in the US for a proper release. Judith leads a double life: two lovers, two sons in France and one daughter in Switzerland. Entangled in secrets and lies, her lives begin to shatter. Reviews say the film features the "elegance and suspense of Hitchcock." Starring Virginie Efira as the woman with many lives, Jacqueline Bisset, Nadav Lapid, Nathalie Boutefeu, Quim Gutiérrez, and Bruno Salomone. Reviews also say this is a "stunning portrait of a monster," that is "not a mystery but a character study as a mystery." This one looks like it gets intense!
- 6/23/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
A Human Voice: Wiseman Explores Catharsis and Suppression in Tranquil Soliloquy
It’s no secret the Tolstoy household was also unhappy in its own unhappy way thanks to a myriad of diaries, letters, and perhaps the iconic masterworks of the author himself to prove it. The state of Leo and Sophia Tolstoy’s marriage is at the heart of Un Couple from perennial documentarian Frederick Wiseman, who presents a drastic change of pace from his well-researched explorations of events or noted institutions.
Penned by and starring Nathalie Boutefeu (who has appeared in many notable films and is married to celebrated cinematographer Eric Gautier), it’s an hour long one-woman showcase for the actor, presenting the inner turmoil of Sophia through a series of soliloquies culled from her letters to her husband and her diary.…...
It’s no secret the Tolstoy household was also unhappy in its own unhappy way thanks to a myriad of diaries, letters, and perhaps the iconic masterworks of the author himself to prove it. The state of Leo and Sophia Tolstoy’s marriage is at the heart of Un Couple from perennial documentarian Frederick Wiseman, who presents a drastic change of pace from his well-researched explorations of events or noted institutions.
Penned by and starring Nathalie Boutefeu (who has appeared in many notable films and is married to celebrated cinematographer Eric Gautier), it’s an hour long one-woman showcase for the actor, presenting the inner turmoil of Sophia through a series of soliloquies culled from her letters to her husband and her diary.…...
- 11/11/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Veteran filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, now age 92, has worked for decades making critically loved, epic-length documentaries that often reach well beyond the two-, three- and four-hour mark. His subject matter is often institutional, the places of civic and political life: large government agencies (“City Hall”) and small towns, psychiatric hospitals (“Titicut Follies”) and burlesque clubs (“Crazy Horse”), libraries “(“Ex Libris”) and Neiman-Marcus (“The Store”).
So it might come as a surprise to learn that his latest, the intense, sorrowful “A Couple” is neither a documentary nor much longer than an hour.
“A Couple” stars French actress Nathalie Boutefeu as Sophia Tolstoy, a writer and the wife of legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, one half of literary history’s most infamously unhappy marriage. Tolstoy was her husband’s secretary and manuscript copyist, a diarist and the mother to their 13 children. Here Boutefeu (who co-wrote the screenplay with Wiseman) delivers a stunning solo...
So it might come as a surprise to learn that his latest, the intense, sorrowful “A Couple” is neither a documentary nor much longer than an hour.
“A Couple” stars French actress Nathalie Boutefeu as Sophia Tolstoy, a writer and the wife of legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, one half of literary history’s most infamously unhappy marriage. Tolstoy was her husband’s secretary and manuscript copyist, a diarist and the mother to their 13 children. Here Boutefeu (who co-wrote the screenplay with Wiseman) delivers a stunning solo...
- 11/11/2022
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
Frederick Wisman has been making movies since 1967. Now, 55 years later, he’s directed his first narrative fiction film ever shot on location. A Couple stars Nathalie Boutefeu as Sophia Tolstaya, the only actor in the 64-minute film from its 92-year-old director. It’s a methodical piece by Wiseman, shot on the small island of Belle-Île, close to the filmmaker’s home in Paris. He follows Tolstaya around a lush garden and on a deserted beach, focused on the words she’s speaking to Leo Tolstoy and the thoughts coming into her head. It’s ruminative, slight, and washes over its audience—much like Wiseman’s other, non-fiction films.
The director has been prolific in the last five decades, releasing a new film nearly every year, beloved by critics. Wiseman trades preparation for perception, placing his camera in front of his subjects without judgment or interference. This hour-long film is far...
The director has been prolific in the last five decades, releasing a new film nearly every year, beloved by critics. Wiseman trades preparation for perception, placing his camera in front of his subjects without judgment or interference. This hour-long film is far...
- 11/11/2022
- by Michael Frank
- The Film Stage
For a filmmaker who’s trained his camera on institutions as disparate as mental asylums, public libraries, and university campuses, no subject seems to have exerted a more lasting fascination on Frederick Wiseman than the human face. A Couple, the nonagenarian’s latest, is no exception. Whatever else it may be, the film is first and foremost a portrait of a visage: Sophia Tolstoy’s. Played by Nathalie Boutefeu, she’s A Couple’s protagonist and sole performer, and Wiseman follows her as she swans into an Eden-like garden, pausing every so often to address her husband Leo, an invisible and mute presence standing somewhere behind the camera and haunting every frame. Less a conversation proper than a series of monologues, star-cum-co-writer Boutefeu recites excerpts she and Wiseman stitched together from Sophia’s diaries and the letters the eponymous couple exchanged through the years. Both engrossing and vitriolic, A Couple...
- 11/10/2022
- MUBI
Frustrated by her marriage, Sophia Tolstoy addresses her husband Leo in a series of letters that veer from bitter to defiant to pleading. Delivered by the French performer Nathalie Boutefeu, the letters and diary entries detail years of resentment and misunderstandings. A Couple marks a rare turn to narrative filmmaking by Frederick Wiseman, one of the world’s great documentarians. Shot over 17 days by Wiseman’s longtime collaborator John Davey—largely on Belle Ile, an island off the coast of Brittany—the film sets Sophia’s turmoil against the plants and animals that form a seaside garden. Wiseman spoke with Filmmaker before a screening […]
The post “The Natural World Is a Savage Place”: Frederick Wiseman on A Couple first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Natural World Is a Savage Place”: Frederick Wiseman on A Couple first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 11/10/2022
- by Daniel Eagan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Frustrated by her marriage, Sophia Tolstoy addresses her husband Leo in a series of letters that veer from bitter to defiant to pleading. Delivered by the French performer Nathalie Boutefeu, the letters and diary entries detail years of resentment and misunderstandings. A Couple marks a rare turn to narrative filmmaking by Frederick Wiseman, one of the world’s great documentarians. Shot over 17 days by Wiseman’s longtime collaborator John Davey—largely on Belle Ile, an island off the coast of Brittany—the film sets Sophia’s turmoil against the plants and animals that form a seaside garden. Wiseman spoke with Filmmaker before a screening […]
The post “The Natural World Is a Savage Place”: Frederick Wiseman on A Couple first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Natural World Is a Savage Place”: Frederick Wiseman on A Couple first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 11/10/2022
- by Daniel Eagan
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
"Your power crushed my life and my personality as well." Film Forum in NYC has revealed a trailer for the first narrative film from acclaimed doc filmmaker Frederick Wiseman. It's called A Couple, also known as just Un Couple in French, and it's not really a film - a 63 minute chamber piece. A Couple follows a long term relationship between a man and a woman. The man is Leo Tolstoy. The woman is his wife, Sophia. It's nothing more than an hour of a woman reading letters and dairies written by Sophia, his young wife, who he didn't seem to love. French actress Nathalie Boutefeu portrays Sophia as a "determined, loving, angry woman who recognizes the limitations of long-term marriage to a man of world-renown." Which is to say that she didn't really understand that she was married to someone who didn't really care about her. It premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival,...
- 9/28/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Frederick Wiseman is in his sixth decade as a giant of the documentary film world. But for his first film after emerging from the pandemic, the 92-year-old filmmaker was ready to try something new. While he is best known for his lengthy documentaries such as “Public Housing” and “Belfast, Maine” that meticulously capture portraits of institutions and communities, the director’s latest endeavor is a fictional film with a running time that barely exceeds 60 minutes.
“A Couple,” which premiered in competition at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, is a dramatization of the marriage between “War and Peace” author Leo Tolstoy and his wife, Sophia Tolstoy. Sophia takes center stage in Wiseman’s film, which unfolds in a series of monologues based on her letters and diary entries. Nathalie Boutefeu plays Sophia in the film, which seeks to recontextualize the Tolstoys’ marriage and explore the sacrifices that she made to support her husband’s writing career.
“A Couple,” which premiered in competition at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, is a dramatization of the marriage between “War and Peace” author Leo Tolstoy and his wife, Sophia Tolstoy. Sophia takes center stage in Wiseman’s film, which unfolds in a series of monologues based on her letters and diary entries. Nathalie Boutefeu plays Sophia in the film, which seeks to recontextualize the Tolstoys’ marriage and explore the sacrifices that she made to support her husband’s writing career.
- 9/27/2022
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
The Film Circuit begins with Telluride, a small but perfect film festival in the mountains of Colorado as simultaneously Venice unfurls the films that will soon be released in the wonderful arthouse cinemas of Europe, followed closely by Toronto whose films foretell the coming year’s Oscars nominees. It is a very exciting time to be on the festival circuit.
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
And simultaneously with these great screenings are sidebars, panel discussions, workshops, master classes and all around great networking for filmmakers around the world.
Venezia 79 Competition
Il Signore Delle Formiche
Director Gianni Amelio
Main Cast Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Leonardo Maltese, Sara Serraiocco / Italy / 134’
The Whale
Director Darren Aronofsky
Main Cast Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Samantha Morton, Ty Simpkins / USA / 117’
White Noise
Director Noah Baumbach
Main Cast Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Jodie Turner-Smith, André L. Benjamin and Lars Eidinger / USA / 136’
L’IMMENSITÀ
Director Emanuele Crialese
Main Cast Penélope Cruz, Luana Giuliani, Vincenzo Amato, Patrizio Francioni / Italy, France / 97’
Saint Omer
Director Alice Diop
Main Cast Kayije Kagame, Guslagie Malanda, Valérie Dréville, Aurélia Petit / France / 123’
Blonde
Director Andrew Dominik
Main Cast Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel, Julianne Nicholson, Lily Fisher / USA / 166’
TÁR
Director Todd Field
Main Cast Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, Mark Strong / USA / 158’
Love Life
Director Kôji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Bardo, Falsa CRÓNICA De Unas Cuantas Verdades
Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Main Cast Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Iker Sanchez Solano, Andrés Almeida, Francisco Rubio / Mexico / 174’
Athena
Director Romain Gavras
Main Cast Dali Benssalah, Sami Slimane, Anthony Bajon, Ouassini Embarek, Alexis Manenti / France / 97’
Bones And All
Director Luca Guadagnino
Main Cast Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, Jessica Harper, David Gordon Green, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jake Horowitz / USA / 130’
The Eternal Daughter
Director Joanna Hogg
Main Cast Tilda Swinton, Joseph Mydell, Carly-Sophia Davies / UK, USA / 96’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi, Amir Aghaee / Iran / 126’
The Banshees Of Inisherin
Director Martin McDonagh
Main Cast Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Kerry Condon, Barry Keoghan / Ireland, UK, USA / 109’
Argentina, 1985
Director Santiago Mitre
Main Cast Ricardo Darín, Peter Lanzani, Alejandra Flechner, Norman Briski / Argentina, USA / 140’
Chiara
Director Susanna Nicchiarelli
Main Cast Margherita Mazzucco, Andrea Carpenzano, Carlotta Natoli, Paola Tiziana Cruciani, Luigi Lo Cascio / Italy, Belgium / 106’
Monica
Director Andrea Pallaoro
Main Cast Trace Lysette, Patricia Clarkson, Adriana Barraza, Emily Browning, Joshua Close / USA, Italy / 113’
Khers Nist (No Bears)
Director Jafar Panahi
Main Cast Jafar Panahi, Naser Hashemi, Vahid Mobaseri, Bakhtiar Panjeei, Mina Kavani, Reza Heydari / Iran / 107’
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed
Director Laura Poitras
USA / 117’
Un Couple
Director Frederick Wiseman
Main Cast Nathalie Boutefeu / France, USA / 64’
The Son
Director Florian Zeller
Main Cast Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Anthony Hopkins, Hugh Quarshie / UK / 124’
Les Miens
Director Roschdy Zem
Main Cast Sami Bouajila, Roschdy Zem, Meriem Serbah, Maïwenn, Rachid Bouchareb, Abel Jafrei, Nina Zem / France / 85’
Les Enfants Des Autres
Director Rebecca Zlotowski
Main Cast Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Callie Ferreira / France / 104’
Toronto is in spite of itself in a civilized sort of way in competition for the premieres with Venice, though the sequential festivals are serving different constituencies. Still, The Whale, for example is premiering in Venice and then traveling to TIFF.
TIFF Gala Presentations:
The Whale directed by Darren Aronofsky, produced and to be distributed in U.S. and actng as international sales agent A24.
TIFF says: “Brendan Fraser gives a career-defining performance in Darren Aronofsky’s arrestingly intimate drama about a reclusive English professor struggling with personal relationships and self-acceptance, adapted from the stage play by Samuel D. Hunter.”
Alice, Darling by Mary Nighy
Also playing are Alice, Darling (Mary Nighy) in which Anna Kendrick captures the anxious psychology of a woman in an abusive relationship as her friends try to reconnect with her while on a cottage getaway.
Black Ice(Hubert Davis) about Black hockey players facing systemic racism in the sport.
The Greatest Beer Run Ever (Peter Farrelly) about man’s story of leaving New York in 1967 to bring beer to his childhood buddies in the Army while they are fighting in Vietnam. An Apple TV+ production.
Butcher’s Crossing (Gabe Polsky) is a frontier epic about an Ivy League drop-out as he travels to the Colorado wilderness, where he joins a team of buffalo hunters on a journey that puts his life and sanity at risk. Based on the highly acclaimed novel by John Williams. Isa Altitude
The Hummingbird (Francesca Archibugi)Hunt (Jung-jae Lee)A Jazzman’s Blues (Tyler Perry)Kacchey Limbu (Shubham Yogi)Moving On (Paul Weitz)Paris Memories (Alice Winocour)Prisoner’s Daughter (Catherine Hardwicke)Raymond & Ray (Rodrigo García)Roost (Amy Redford)Sidney (Reginald Hudlin)The Son (Florian Zeller)The Swimmers (Sally El Hosaini)What’s Love Got to Do With It? (Shekhar Kapur)The Woman King(Gina Prince-Bythewood)
Special PRESENTATIONSAllelujah (Sir Richard Eyre)All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Blueback (Robert Connolly)The Blue Caftan (Maryam Touzani)Broker (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Brother (Clement Virgo)Bros (Nicholas Stoller)Catherine Called Birdy (Lena Dunham)Causeway (Lila Neugebauer)Chevalier (Stephen Williams)Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)Devotion (Jd Dillard)Driving (Madeleine Christian Carion)El Suplente (Diego Lerman)Empire of Light...
- 9/10/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
A Couple (2022).Few titles on my way to the Lido had me as intrigued as A Couple. Pre-premiere headlines had billed it 92-year-old Frederick Wiseman’s first foray into fiction. It isn’t. Ten years back, in The Last Letter (2002), the documentary maven followed Comédie Française’s icon Catherine Samie as she recited a missive from a chapter in Vasily Grossman’s novel Life and Fate (1980), an account of life in a Ukrainian ghetto fallen to the Nazis as told by a Jewish mother to her son. A Couple also pivots on another letter, this one read by Sophia Tolstoy to her husband, Leo. Wiseman, now with over forty documentaries to his name, has long cemented himself as the doyen of American cinéma vérité. His works—fly-on-the-wall excursions into American institutions and the people who orbit around them—have an almost reverential appreciation for faces, on which his camera focuses as they spill out words,...
- 9/5/2022
- MUBI
This year’s Venice Film Festival competition has not been short on bloat. Todd Field, Noah Baumbach, and Alejandro G. Iñárritu all turned in sprawling works that stretched up to and beyond the 150-minute mark. Once upon a time this was the territory of Fredrick Wiseman, whose four previous films took their bows here—the shortest of which arrived at a relatively paltry 143 minutes. This year Wiseman returns with A Couple, a fiction film running a sprightly 62. How about that?
Some viewers, I wager, would trade every second for another five minutes in his City Hall or New York Public Library; but you’d be callous to deny him. A Couple is, indeed, about a couple. It’s drawn from Sophia Tolstoy’s diaries and letters, many written about her husband with whom she shared an infamously fraught—or, by today’s standards, borderline abusive—marriage. Behind that veneer is...
Some viewers, I wager, would trade every second for another five minutes in his City Hall or New York Public Library; but you’d be callous to deny him. A Couple is, indeed, about a couple. It’s drawn from Sophia Tolstoy’s diaries and letters, many written about her husband with whom she shared an infamously fraught—or, by today’s standards, borderline abusive—marriage. Behind that veneer is...
- 9/3/2022
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Click here to read the full article.
Actor Nathalie Boutefeu perambulates around an exquisite garden in full bloom, reciting a monologue in French she cowrote with her director, the words drawn from writings by Sophia Tolstoy, the wife of novelist Leo Tolstoy (whose own letters are also quoted here). The result is an expressive and moving portrait of a tempestuous marriage, one told with elan that feels rich in feeling even if its entire budget probably wouldn’t have covered the cost of croissants on an average film shoot in France.
That bald description might suggest it’s a quirky programming choice for the main competition at the Venice Film Festival unless you knew that the film’s co-writer and director is 92-year-old Frederick Wiseman, the American-born auteur who lives mainly in France now and has directed nearly 50 films in a storied career. There’s something typically puckish and surprising that at this late,...
Actor Nathalie Boutefeu perambulates around an exquisite garden in full bloom, reciting a monologue in French she cowrote with her director, the words drawn from writings by Sophia Tolstoy, the wife of novelist Leo Tolstoy (whose own letters are also quoted here). The result is an expressive and moving portrait of a tempestuous marriage, one told with elan that feels rich in feeling even if its entire budget probably wouldn’t have covered the cost of croissants on an average film shoot in France.
That bald description might suggest it’s a quirky programming choice for the main competition at the Venice Film Festival unless you knew that the film’s co-writer and director is 92-year-old Frederick Wiseman, the American-born auteur who lives mainly in France now and has directed nearly 50 films in a storied career. There’s something typically puckish and surprising that at this late,...
- 9/3/2022
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
by Cláudio Alves
Day 3 at the Venice Film festival finds a nonfiction master dipping his foot into the murky waters of fictionalized narrative. Frederick Wiseman's A Couple purports to dramatize the correspondence between Leo Tolstoy and his wife, starring Nathalie Boutefeu, working from a script made from documented letters. Elsewhere in the official competition, Luca Guadagnino helms Bones & All, a cannibal romance starring Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell. Finally, Romain Gavras brings Athena to the festivities, working alongside Ladj Ly, who co-wrote the film.
As we wait for these movies to become more readily available, let's consider their directors' previous works, including an ode to museums, a fashionable short, and a Scarface revision…...
Day 3 at the Venice Film festival finds a nonfiction master dipping his foot into the murky waters of fictionalized narrative. Frederick Wiseman's A Couple purports to dramatize the correspondence between Leo Tolstoy and his wife, starring Nathalie Boutefeu, working from a script made from documented letters. Elsewhere in the official competition, Luca Guadagnino helms Bones & All, a cannibal romance starring Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell. Finally, Romain Gavras brings Athena to the festivities, working alongside Ladj Ly, who co-wrote the film.
As we wait for these movies to become more readily available, let's consider their directors' previous works, including an ode to museums, a fashionable short, and a Scarface revision…...
- 9/3/2022
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Frederick Wiseman, a voracious reader, doesn’t watch television. In fact, he’d never really gotten through a whole series until recently, when he watched HBO’s “The Wire.”
“I don’t know why, but it was interesting,” he tells Variety drily.
Every couple of years, the 92-year-old master documentarian behind such seminal films as “Titicut Follies” and “Juvenile Court” has churned out a sprawling documentary fixated on a microcosm of society or some sort of social issue, but when the pandemic paused those efforts for two and a half years, it’s Wiseman’s literary proclivities that drew him to Sofia Tolstoy’s writing for his new fiction film “Un Couple,” which premiered Friday in Venice’s Competition section.
Wiseman and sometimes collaborator, the French actor and writer Nathalie Boutefeu, were brainstorming small-scale projects that could be made in pandemic-proof conditions, when they landed on the diaries of Leo Tolstoy...
“I don’t know why, but it was interesting,” he tells Variety drily.
Every couple of years, the 92-year-old master documentarian behind such seminal films as “Titicut Follies” and “Juvenile Court” has churned out a sprawling documentary fixated on a microcosm of society or some sort of social issue, but when the pandemic paused those efforts for two and a half years, it’s Wiseman’s literary proclivities that drew him to Sofia Tolstoy’s writing for his new fiction film “Un Couple,” which premiered Friday in Venice’s Competition section.
Wiseman and sometimes collaborator, the French actor and writer Nathalie Boutefeu, were brainstorming small-scale projects that could be made in pandemic-proof conditions, when they landed on the diaries of Leo Tolstoy...
- 9/3/2022
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
While watching Frederick Wiseman’s “Un Couple” — the legendary documentarian’s first fictional drama— a different literary giant comes to mind besides the ones whose mercurial marriage is depicted on screen. The film’s fickle love recalls a verse from Latin poet Catullus, undoubtedly familiar to anyone who studied the language in school: “what a woman says to her ardent lover should be written in wind and running water.”
The woman in question in “Un Couple” is Sophia Tolstoy, wife of legendary Russian novelist Leo, as embodied in the film by French actress Nathalie Boutefeu.
Continue reading ‘Un Couple’ Review: Frederick Wiseman’s Stylistic Exercise Is Pleasant, Albeit Plain [Venice] at The Playlist.
The woman in question in “Un Couple” is Sophia Tolstoy, wife of legendary Russian novelist Leo, as embodied in the film by French actress Nathalie Boutefeu.
Continue reading ‘Un Couple’ Review: Frederick Wiseman’s Stylistic Exercise Is Pleasant, Albeit Plain [Venice] at The Playlist.
- 9/2/2022
- by Marshall Shaffer
- The Playlist
There are two clear themes that have emerged by now at this year’s Venice Film Festival: one is the concept of the lost soul and the other is the sometimes perilous consequence of letting big-name directors cut loose on their dream projects. At 92, Frederick Wiseman has earned the right to do whatever he wants, but anyone getting over-excited about the prospect of this, his fiction debut, ought to know that Un Couple a) isn’t strictly fiction at all, and b) is very much of a piece with his famously unhurried longform documentaries.
The lost soul in his Venice Competition film is Leo Tolstoy’s wife Sophia, played by French actress Nathalie Boutefeu reading a text assembled from various letters between her and her famous literary husband. Aside from Sophia’s hairstyle and dress, there aren’t really any clues to period,...
The lost soul in his Venice Competition film is Leo Tolstoy’s wife Sophia, played by French actress Nathalie Boutefeu reading a text assembled from various letters between her and her famous literary husband. Aside from Sophia’s hairstyle and dress, there aren’t really any clues to period,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
At the age of 92, Frederick Wiseman, the creator of long documentaries, has made a short fiction feature. This begs the question of whether his “A Couple” marks a break from a style established over nearly 60 years, or whether it is a continuation in every way, bar genre technicalities. Wiseman is known for his unobtrusive long takes, naturalistic observations, meticulous focus, and gentle humanism. Faith and patience is required of the viewer as he uses a method comparable to mosaic-building to, piece by piece, assemble a bigger picture of people, places, or institutions.
“’A Couple’ follows a long-term relationship between a man and a woman,” reads the film’s logline. This concept is distilled down into episodes of monologue assembled from diary entries by Sophia Tolstoy, wife of the legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Their relationship is entirely constructed through her eyes, with his part in things conveyed through the impression...
“’A Couple’ follows a long-term relationship between a man and a woman,” reads the film’s logline. This concept is distilled down into episodes of monologue assembled from diary entries by Sophia Tolstoy, wife of the legendary Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Their relationship is entirely constructed through her eyes, with his part in things conveyed through the impression...
- 9/2/2022
- by Sophie Monks Kaufman
- Indiewire
Venice film festival: Nathalie Boutefou is superb as Sofia, the author’s wife, assistant and rival, in a shrewd character study
At just 64 minutes, this is a very modestly proportioned film from veteran documentary film-maker Frederick Wiseman, whose works generally run at epic length. And in fact A Couple is very different to his habitual output: it’s a belletristic homage to the most famously unhappy marriage in literary history; an intimate, pared-down chamber piece about Sofia Tolstoy, wife of Leo. The indefinite article in the title is misleading. This is the couple: a legendary relationship.
Sofia is played by Nathalie Boutefeu, who addresses the camera in a series of yearning monologues which have been adapted from her diaries and letters. It is a thoroughly intelligent production, a film festival event that could not exist in the rough-and-tumble of regular movie distribution but will I hope find a home on streaming services.
At just 64 minutes, this is a very modestly proportioned film from veteran documentary film-maker Frederick Wiseman, whose works generally run at epic length. And in fact A Couple is very different to his habitual output: it’s a belletristic homage to the most famously unhappy marriage in literary history; an intimate, pared-down chamber piece about Sofia Tolstoy, wife of Leo. The indefinite article in the title is misleading. This is the couple: a legendary relationship.
Sofia is played by Nathalie Boutefeu, who addresses the camera in a series of yearning monologues which have been adapted from her diaries and letters. It is a thoroughly intelligent production, a film festival event that could not exist in the rough-and-tumble of regular movie distribution but will I hope find a home on streaming services.
- 9/2/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Six decades into a career of over 40 films, the last thing you might request of a new feature from 92-year-old documentarian Frederick Wiseman is that it surprise us. Yet after a run of expansive, richly process-oriented observations of mostly American institutions and communities, his new film, “A Couple,” upends expectations of his work in what feels an almost mirthfully perverse number of ways. For starters, it’s laser-focused on just one person, not a heaving collective of human labor and activity. It’s short — very much so, in fact, barely stretching past an hour. Also, lest we be burying the lede, it’s not a documentary. Wiseman’s first ever narrative feature sees him collaborating with French actor-writer Nathalie Boutefeu on a biopic of sorts: a portrait of Leo Tolstoy’s anguished wife Sophia, dramatizing her marital dissatisfaction and psychic pain with with a lyrical, literate ear.
For viewers going in with that knowledge,...
For viewers going in with that knowledge,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
After highlighting 40 titles confirmed to hit theaters this fall, we now turn our attention to the festival-bound films either without distribution or a release date. Looking over Venice, Toronto, and New York Film Festival selections, we’ve rounded up 20––most of which we’ll be checking out over the next few weeks––we can’t wait to see.
Check out our 20 most-anticipated festival premieres below, and return for our reviews.
A Cooler Climate (James Ivory and Giles Gardner; NYFF)
After debuting at NYFF’s third edition in 1965 with the Merchant-Ivory production Shakespeare Wallah, James Ivory returns this year for a world premiere. A Cooler Climate, co-directed with Giles Gardner, finds the filmmaker poetically revisiting a formative trip to Afghanistan through self-shot film he recovered. Featuring music by Alexandre Desplat and clocking in at 75 minutes, we’re curious what the 94-year-old Oscar winner has cooked up. – Jordan R.
A Compassionate Spy...
Check out our 20 most-anticipated festival premieres below, and return for our reviews.
A Cooler Climate (James Ivory and Giles Gardner; NYFF)
After debuting at NYFF’s third edition in 1965 with the Merchant-Ivory production Shakespeare Wallah, James Ivory returns this year for a world premiere. A Cooler Climate, co-directed with Giles Gardner, finds the filmmaker poetically revisiting a formative trip to Afghanistan through self-shot film he recovered. Featuring music by Alexandre Desplat and clocking in at 75 minutes, we’re curious what the 94-year-old Oscar winner has cooked up. – Jordan R.
A Compassionate Spy...
- 8/30/2022
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
We can only exclaim that the fall festivals “are back!” so many times before it ceases to be true, but in the case of the 2022 season, we’re still working well within the confines of rock-solid logic. The fall festivals are back! After unspooling as all-virtual affairs, truncated in-person gatherings, or some combination of the two over the last two years, the biggest fall festivals — Venice, Telluride, the Toronto International Film Festival, and the New York Film Festival — are all launching full-scale in-person events in the coming weeks.
And what a bevy of new films do they have to show off. This year’s fall festival season includes new films from Steven Spielberg, Frederick Wiseman, Laura Poitras, Martin McDonagh, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Andrew Dominik, Sarah Polley, Lena Dunham, Luca Guadagnino, Sam Mendes, Joanna Hogg, Chinonye Chukwu, Jafar Panahi, Todd Field, Darren Aronofsky, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Noah Baumbach, and that’s only the start.
And what a bevy of new films do they have to show off. This year’s fall festival season includes new films from Steven Spielberg, Frederick Wiseman, Laura Poitras, Martin McDonagh, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Andrew Dominik, Sarah Polley, Lena Dunham, Luca Guadagnino, Sam Mendes, Joanna Hogg, Chinonye Chukwu, Jafar Panahi, Todd Field, Darren Aronofsky, Gina Prince-Bythewood, and Noah Baumbach, and that’s only the start.
- 8/29/2022
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Frederick Wiseman has been directing acclaimed documentaries for almost 60 years. His camera has tracked vast institutional forces as far-reaching as the mental hospital in 1967’s seminal “Titicut Follies” to more recent and equally intricate portraits of Jackson Heights, small-town Indiana, and the New York Public Library. With that record, it’s no surprise that when the Venice International Film Festival announced its 2022 lineup with Wiseman’s new film “A Couple” in competition, many assumed that it was another non-fiction project.
“That’s good,” Wiseman said in a recent phone interview with IndieWire from his home in Paris. He was eager to catch people off-guard. “You know that old bromide of Emerson, ‘Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds’? I don’t see why I need to be only categorized as a documentary filmmaker.”
Now he’s setting the record straight: “A Couple” is the rare Wiseman project that was entirely staged.
“That’s good,” Wiseman said in a recent phone interview with IndieWire from his home in Paris. He was eager to catch people off-guard. “You know that old bromide of Emerson, ‘Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds’? I don’t see why I need to be only categorized as a documentary filmmaker.”
Now he’s setting the record straight: “A Couple” is the rare Wiseman project that was entirely staged.
- 8/22/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Judith (Virginie Efira) with little Ninon (Loïse Benguerel) in Antoine Barraud’s mysterious Madeleine Collins
Antoine Barraud’s Madeleine Collins, written in collaboration with Héléna Klotz, starring Virginie Efira, Quim Gutiérrez, Bruno Salomone with Jacqueline Bisset, François Rostain, Loïse Benguerel, Thomas Gioria, Théo Deroo, Nadav Lapid, Nathalie Boutefeu, Mona Walravens, Frank Onana, and Valérie Donzelli is a highlight of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and the Glasgow Film Festival.
Antoine Barraud with Anne-Katrin Titze on Maurice Pialat filming his son for Le garçu: “He said when you direct a child, it’s actually the child directing you.”
Before Antoine arrived in New York, we discussed casting Bertrand Bonello and Barbet Schroeder, the long tradition of having women’s names as film titles, novels and plays to name just a few. In Antoine Barraud’s Portrait Of The Artist, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo loomed large and we explore the unconscious mind of...
Antoine Barraud’s Madeleine Collins, written in collaboration with Héléna Klotz, starring Virginie Efira, Quim Gutiérrez, Bruno Salomone with Jacqueline Bisset, François Rostain, Loïse Benguerel, Thomas Gioria, Théo Deroo, Nadav Lapid, Nathalie Boutefeu, Mona Walravens, Frank Onana, and Valérie Donzelli is a highlight of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema and the Glasgow Film Festival.
Antoine Barraud with Anne-Katrin Titze on Maurice Pialat filming his son for Le garçu: “He said when you direct a child, it’s actually the child directing you.”
Before Antoine arrived in New York, we discussed casting Bertrand Bonello and Barbet Schroeder, the long tradition of having women’s names as film titles, novels and plays to name just a few. In Antoine Barraud’s Portrait Of The Artist, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo loomed large and we explore the unconscious mind of...
- 3/7/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival has come to a close and we have a list of award winners, including Big Bad Wolves and Curse of Chucky:
Montreal – Thursday August 8th, 2013 - After Tuesday night’s sold-out screening of the Canadian premiere of The World’S End, presented by director Edgar Wright and actor Nick Frost, the Fantasia International Film Festival can confirm record attendance numbers this year, boasting more than 125,000 festival-goers for its 17th edition, surpassing last year’s record of 109,000 (a 15% increase). Over the course of its three-week film marathon, it presented over 131 features from 31 countries and more than 220 shorts from across the globe.
Fantasia’s 2013 edition opened with the North American Premiere of Takashi Miike’s Shield Of Straw and closed with the Canadian Premiere of Edgar Wright’s The World’S End. A lifetime achievement award was given to Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski. World...
Montreal – Thursday August 8th, 2013 - After Tuesday night’s sold-out screening of the Canadian premiere of The World’S End, presented by director Edgar Wright and actor Nick Frost, the Fantasia International Film Festival can confirm record attendance numbers this year, boasting more than 125,000 festival-goers for its 17th edition, surpassing last year’s record of 109,000 (a 15% increase). Over the course of its three-week film marathon, it presented over 131 features from 31 countries and more than 220 shorts from across the globe.
Fantasia’s 2013 edition opened with the North American Premiere of Takashi Miike’s Shield Of Straw and closed with the Canadian Premiere of Edgar Wright’s The World’S End. A lifetime achievement award was given to Polish filmmaker Andrzej Zulawski. World...
- 8/8/2013
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Revenge horror Big Bad Wolves has won the best film prize at the Fantasia International Film Festival, which has revealed record attendance figures for its 17th edition.
Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s Big Bad Wolves picked up the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film.
A statement from the jury said: “With elements of horror, crime thriller, revenge drama, and wicked black comedy, Big Bad Wolves takes genre-bending to bold new levels. This sense of originality, along with its subversive political subtext, assured visual style, and impeccable ensemble cast, is what separates the film from the rest of the pack.”
Directing duo Keshales and Papushado also picked up the award for best screenplay. The Ucm-produced film tells the story of a series of brutal murders, and how they impact on the lives of a vigilante police detective, the main suspect and the father of a victim.
Metrodome Distribution previously secured all UK rights from 6 Sales while Magnet...
Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s Big Bad Wolves picked up the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film.
A statement from the jury said: “With elements of horror, crime thriller, revenge drama, and wicked black comedy, Big Bad Wolves takes genre-bending to bold new levels. This sense of originality, along with its subversive political subtext, assured visual style, and impeccable ensemble cast, is what separates the film from the rest of the pack.”
Directing duo Keshales and Papushado also picked up the award for best screenplay. The Ucm-produced film tells the story of a series of brutal murders, and how they impact on the lives of a vigilante police detective, the main suspect and the father of a victim.
Metrodome Distribution previously secured all UK rights from 6 Sales while Magnet...
- 8/8/2013
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Les gouffres (English title: The Sinkholes)
Written by Antoine Barraud
Directed by Antoine Barraud
France, 2012
*What follows is a review of one half of a review of Fantasia’ special screening of not one but two of up and coming French filmmaker’s Antoine Barraud short films, Monstre numéro deux (36 min) and Les gouffres (62 min). This article discusses Les gouffres.
New filmmakers can count their blessings when, for their first few projects, they succeed in attracting top notch talent to help add some gravitas and legitimacy to their endeavor. Relative newcomer Frenchman Antoine Barraud, one of few filmmakers of his native country with an affinity with genre fair, made a name for himself with two inparticular, both of which were shown in a single screening at this year’s Fantasia. For one of those two projects, Les gouffres, he managed to hire one of the greatest actors working today, Mathieu Amalric.
Written by Antoine Barraud
Directed by Antoine Barraud
France, 2012
*What follows is a review of one half of a review of Fantasia’ special screening of not one but two of up and coming French filmmaker’s Antoine Barraud short films, Monstre numéro deux (36 min) and Les gouffres (62 min). This article discusses Les gouffres.
New filmmakers can count their blessings when, for their first few projects, they succeed in attracting top notch talent to help add some gravitas and legitimacy to their endeavor. Relative newcomer Frenchman Antoine Barraud, one of few filmmakers of his native country with an affinity with genre fair, made a name for himself with two inparticular, both of which were shown in a single screening at this year’s Fantasia. For one of those two projects, Les gouffres, he managed to hire one of the greatest actors working today, Mathieu Amalric.
- 7/28/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
Monster numéro deux
Written by Antoine Barraud
Directed by Antoine Barraud
France, 2008
*What follows is a review of one half of a review of Fantasia’s special screening of not one but two of up and coming French filmmaker’s Antoine Barraud short films, Monstre numéro deux (36 min) and Les gouffres (62 min). This article discusses Monstre numéro deux.
Looking back at the past five years or so, the sub-genre of vampire films has inspired a countless amount of filmmakers and studios to take a crack at telling stories about those haunting creatures of the night. Not that prior to 2008 such cinematic experiences were a rarity per say, but the Twilight franchise (the first installment released in ’08) unquestionably gave the genre a shot in the arm. Interestingly enough, Antoine Barraud, one of France’s few writer-directors working within genre cinema, made his own vampire flick in the same year as the first Twilight picture,...
Written by Antoine Barraud
Directed by Antoine Barraud
France, 2008
*What follows is a review of one half of a review of Fantasia’s special screening of not one but two of up and coming French filmmaker’s Antoine Barraud short films, Monstre numéro deux (36 min) and Les gouffres (62 min). This article discusses Monstre numéro deux.
Looking back at the past five years or so, the sub-genre of vampire films has inspired a countless amount of filmmakers and studios to take a crack at telling stories about those haunting creatures of the night. Not that prior to 2008 such cinematic experiences were a rarity per say, but the Twilight franchise (the first installment released in ’08) unquestionably gave the genre a shot in the arm. Interestingly enough, Antoine Barraud, one of France’s few writer-directors working within genre cinema, made his own vampire flick in the same year as the first Twilight picture,...
- 7/28/2013
- by Edgar Chaput
- SoundOnSight
"Port Djema" is a pseudo-existentialist journey into the dangerous conflict of a civil war in a small West African state, but it never becomes engaging, never touches the audience and, as an existentialist exercise, it comes several decades too late.
The story is about a French doctor named Pierre (Jean-Yves Dubois) who travels to war-torn Port Djema after the death of his friend -- a doctor who was probably killed by rebels. Everyone warns him about going too far into rebel territory, which he, of course, does. There, he experiences the horrors of war and returns empty-handed.
Eric Heumann, who just won the Silver Bear for best director at this year's Berlin festival, makes his directorial debut after producing 13 films, including "Indochine" and "Le Regard d'Ulysse" for Theo Angelopoulos films. In an pretentious attempt to seem artsy, Heumann focuses on scenes in which Pierre does little but arrive, sit around, walk around and leave. In fact, that pretty much makes up the bulk of the movie.
The dialogue is rare and usually empty of content, and Dubois' apathetic acting consists largely of walking around with his hands in his pockets.
The only engaging actor is Nathalie Boutefeu as the photographer Alice, whose face commands the screen for the few brief scenes she is in.
Production values are rather modest.
PORT DJEMA
Roissey Films
A Paradis Films production
of an Eric Heumann film
Director Eric Heumann
Producer Marc Soustras
Co-producer Theo Angelopoulos
Writers Eric Heumann, Jacques Lebas
Director of photography Yorgos Arvanitis
Production designers Danka Semenowicz,
Yves Bernard
Editor Isabelle Dedieu
Music Sanjay Mishra
Costume designer Valerie Delafosse
Color
Cast:
Pierre Jean-Yves Dubois
Alice Nathalie Boutefeu
Delbos Christophe Odent
Ousman Edouard Montoute
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
The story is about a French doctor named Pierre (Jean-Yves Dubois) who travels to war-torn Port Djema after the death of his friend -- a doctor who was probably killed by rebels. Everyone warns him about going too far into rebel territory, which he, of course, does. There, he experiences the horrors of war and returns empty-handed.
Eric Heumann, who just won the Silver Bear for best director at this year's Berlin festival, makes his directorial debut after producing 13 films, including "Indochine" and "Le Regard d'Ulysse" for Theo Angelopoulos films. In an pretentious attempt to seem artsy, Heumann focuses on scenes in which Pierre does little but arrive, sit around, walk around and leave. In fact, that pretty much makes up the bulk of the movie.
The dialogue is rare and usually empty of content, and Dubois' apathetic acting consists largely of walking around with his hands in his pockets.
The only engaging actor is Nathalie Boutefeu as the photographer Alice, whose face commands the screen for the few brief scenes she is in.
Production values are rather modest.
PORT DJEMA
Roissey Films
A Paradis Films production
of an Eric Heumann film
Director Eric Heumann
Producer Marc Soustras
Co-producer Theo Angelopoulos
Writers Eric Heumann, Jacques Lebas
Director of photography Yorgos Arvanitis
Production designers Danka Semenowicz,
Yves Bernard
Editor Isabelle Dedieu
Music Sanjay Mishra
Costume designer Valerie Delafosse
Color
Cast:
Pierre Jean-Yves Dubois
Alice Nathalie Boutefeu
Delbos Christophe Odent
Ousman Edouard Montoute
Running time -- 95 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/26/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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