Thom Yorke has revealed the sound and themes of his upcoming solo album in a cover story for Crack magazine. The album is reportedly being released by Xl Recordings. It will be the Radiohead frontman’s third proper solo LP, and his first since 2014’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes.
In a wide-ranging Q&A, Yorke described the new record as an anxiety-fueled electronic nightmare of a dystopian world — in other words, a Thom Yorke album. Author J.G. Ballard, avant-garde musician Scott Walker, and the improvisatory live shows of Flying Lotus all came up as influences,...
In a wide-ranging Q&A, Yorke described the new record as an anxiety-fueled electronic nightmare of a dystopian world — in other words, a Thom Yorke album. Author J.G. Ballard, avant-garde musician Scott Walker, and the improvisatory live shows of Flying Lotus all came up as influences,...
- 5/9/2019
- by Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
The Us film-maker on creative burnout, working with Scott Walker and his new film starring Natalie Portman as a messed-up pop star
Having made his first, brazenly ambitious feature at the age of 27, and finding himself compared to the young Orson Welles, American writer-director Brady Corbet is used to being on the receiving end of the brutal P-words – “precocious” and “pretentious”. “Those are things you steel yourself for,” he says. Corbet, now 30, expects strong responses because, as he puts it, his films go for “operatic heights… When people totally hate a movie that I’ve made, I totally understand, and if they love it I also understand.”
In London to promote his second feature, Vox Lux, Corbet – pronounced “Cor-bay” – initially resembles your average indie bro: the regulation backwards baseball cap and fuzzy beard, coupled with a comfortable bulk, suggest a laid-back bar-band drummer. However, we’re absolutely not dealing with another Sundance brat.
Having made his first, brazenly ambitious feature at the age of 27, and finding himself compared to the young Orson Welles, American writer-director Brady Corbet is used to being on the receiving end of the brutal P-words – “precocious” and “pretentious”. “Those are things you steel yourself for,” he says. Corbet, now 30, expects strong responses because, as he puts it, his films go for “operatic heights… When people totally hate a movie that I’ve made, I totally understand, and if they love it I also understand.”
In London to promote his second feature, Vox Lux, Corbet – pronounced “Cor-bay” – initially resembles your average indie bro: the regulation backwards baseball cap and fuzzy beard, coupled with a comfortable bulk, suggest a laid-back bar-band drummer. However, we’re absolutely not dealing with another Sundance brat.
- 5/5/2019
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
Most political observers are familiar with gerrymandering, the practice of redrawing electoral maps to serve the party in power. But the new documentary Slay the Dragon, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, reveals the real-life consequences of the abstract concept, explaining how recent partisan redistricting, particularly a well-funded, organized effort by Republican strategists in the wake of the 2008 elections, connects to everything from the Flint water crisis to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's removal of collective bargaining for public employees to extreme legislation like voter ID laws and North Carolina's bathroom bill to ...
Most political observers are familiar with gerrymandering, the practice of redrawing electoral maps to serve the party in power. But the new documentary Slay the Dragon, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last week, reveals the real-life consequences of the abstract concept, explaining how recent partisan redistricting, particularly a well-funded, organized effort by Republican strategists in the wake of the 2008 elections, connects to everything from the Flint water crisis to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's removal of collective bargaining for public employees to extreme legislation like voter ID laws and North Carolina's bathroom bill to ...
Natalie Portman stars in the thrilling, chilling tale of a teenager who becomes a sensation after a horrific event at her school
A dark star is born in this intriguing if weirdly anticlimactic and undeveloped new film from Brady Corbet. It has a stunning and genuinely disturbing premise, but no equally strong third-act ideas. There certainly isn’t anything like the killer punch of his previous picture and as the pop star herself, Natalie Portman goes into a pretty broad “In Bed With Madonna” routine that doesn’t deliver anything overwhelmingly insightful.
As an actor, Corbet has worked with Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke and Olivier Assayas, and, as a director himself, he found a great deal of their icy elegance and formal provocation in his debut The Childhood of a Leader (2016), working with partner and co-writer Mona Fastvold: an extraordinarily audacious and mysterious study of fascism in its cradle.
A dark star is born in this intriguing if weirdly anticlimactic and undeveloped new film from Brady Corbet. It has a stunning and genuinely disturbing premise, but no equally strong third-act ideas. There certainly isn’t anything like the killer punch of his previous picture and as the pop star herself, Natalie Portman goes into a pretty broad “In Bed With Madonna” routine that doesn’t deliver anything overwhelmingly insightful.
As an actor, Corbet has worked with Lars von Trier, Michael Haneke and Olivier Assayas, and, as a director himself, he found a great deal of their icy elegance and formal provocation in his debut The Childhood of a Leader (2016), working with partner and co-writer Mona Fastvold: an extraordinarily audacious and mysterious study of fascism in its cradle.
- 5/1/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
[Update: A federal judge has sentenced Butina to a term of 18 months.]
In the case of Maria Butina — the Russian national who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for attempting to create a backchannel between Moscow and the Trump administration using the NRA as a conduit — the U.S. government is asking for a prison sentence of 18 months, followed by Butina’s immediate deportation.
The government’s sentencing memo, filed Friday in federal court, offers striking details to support the claim that Butina was not just a naive and ambitious student looking to build up a professional network in Washington, D.C.
It outlines,...
In the case of Maria Butina — the Russian national who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges for attempting to create a backchannel between Moscow and the Trump administration using the NRA as a conduit — the U.S. government is asking for a prison sentence of 18 months, followed by Butina’s immediate deportation.
The government’s sentencing memo, filed Friday in federal court, offers striking details to support the claim that Butina was not just a naive and ambitious student looking to build up a professional network in Washington, D.C.
It outlines,...
- 4/26/2019
- by Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
The music world is saying goodbye to a beloved member. Scott Walker, the famed avant-garde musician and one third of The Walker Brothers, has died, the performer's record label confirmed on Twitter. "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Scott Walker," the label said in a statement. "Scott was 76 years old and is survived by his daughter, Lee, his granddaughter, Emmi-Lee, and his partner Beverly." The cause of his death is unknown at this time. The late singer and bassist, born Noel Scott Engel, was an Ohio native before ultimately living in California with his mother, where he pursued his musical, art and cinematic interests. There, he also met...
- 3/25/2019
- E! Online
Songwriter and producer Scott Walker, the powerful pop singer turned avant-garde adventurist who influenced singers like David Bowie and Thom Yorke, has died at age 76. The death was announced by Walker’s record label 4AD, which released a statement celebrating the musician’s life and work.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Scott Walker,” 4Ad wrote in the statement. “For half a century, the genius of the man born Noel Scott Engel has enriched the lives of thousands, first as one third of The Walker Brothers,...
“It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Scott Walker,” 4Ad wrote in the statement. “For half a century, the genius of the man born Noel Scott Engel has enriched the lives of thousands, first as one third of The Walker Brothers,...
- 3/25/2019
- by Emily Zemler
- Rollingstone.com
Natalie Portman stars as a troubled pop star in the latest film from Brady Corbet.
Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, starring Natalie Portman as a narcissistic, world-famous pop star, is heading to the UK and Ireland with Curzon.
Sierra/Affinity handles sales on the film, which premiered in Venice this year before playing at Toronto and London.
Portman stars alongside Jude Law, who plays her manager. Raffey Cassidy plays the younger incarnation of Portman’s character, who goes through a traumatic event in the first half of the unconventionally structured feature. Stacy Martin and Jennifer Ehle also feature. The film...
Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, starring Natalie Portman as a narcissistic, world-famous pop star, is heading to the UK and Ireland with Curzon.
Sierra/Affinity handles sales on the film, which premiered in Venice this year before playing at Toronto and London.
Portman stars alongside Jude Law, who plays her manager. Raffey Cassidy plays the younger incarnation of Portman’s character, who goes through a traumatic event in the first half of the unconventionally structured feature. Stacy Martin and Jennifer Ehle also feature. The film...
- 12/21/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Pop, and the particular plight of a female pop star, has proven itself to be prime fodder for Oscar-bait feature films this awards season. First, A Star Is Born told a musical love story, set to music written by its star Lady Gaga. Soon, we’ll have Teen Spirit, where Elle Fanning will become the star of an international singing competition, performing preexisting hits by Robyn and Ariana Grande.
But now we have Vox Lux, an ambitious and polarizing story told in two parts and accented by extreme violence. The...
But now we have Vox Lux, an ambitious and polarizing story told in two parts and accented by extreme violence. The...
- 12/20/2018
- by Brittany Spanos
- Rollingstone.com
Director Bradey Cobert’s “Vox Lux” is something of a bone of contention around these parts and arguably Film Twitter as well. Following strong reviews during the film festival circuit, the Natalie Portman-starring movie began taking it in the teeth when a deeper swath of North American critics saw the film. While it’s fresh on Rotten Tomatoes currently, the discourse around the film is polarizing and generally lands on a love/hate relationship with the film.
Continue reading Listen: Stream Full ‘Vox Lux’ Soundtrack Sung By Natalie Portman With Music By Sia & Scott Walker at The Playlist.
Continue reading Listen: Stream Full ‘Vox Lux’ Soundtrack Sung By Natalie Portman With Music By Sia & Scott Walker at The Playlist.
- 12/16/2018
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
“Vox Lux” isn’t a musical, but it certainly is musical. Brady Corbet’s pop-star drama stars Natalie Portman as a singer who’s been compared to everyone from Lady Gaga to Kanye West, though the actual score comes courtesy of Scott Walker (who also worked on Corbet’s “The Childhood of a Leader”) with original songs by Sia. Like the film itself, their collaboration is a memorable mix of catchy beats and dissonant tones — and can now be streamed on Spotify. Listen below.
The film begins with a Columbine-esque school shooting set in 1999, which Celeste (played by Raffey Cassidy as a child and Portman as an adult) survives despite suffering life-threatening injuries. She writes a song about her experience, launching an unexpected career that makes her a global superstar — so much so, in fact, that terrorists eventually carry out a shooting of their own while donning masks made famous...
The film begins with a Columbine-esque school shooting set in 1999, which Celeste (played by Raffey Cassidy as a child and Portman as an adult) survives despite suffering life-threatening injuries. She writes a song about her experience, launching an unexpected career that makes her a global superstar — so much so, in fact, that terrorists eventually carry out a shooting of their own while donning masks made famous...
- 12/15/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Whatever one thinks of Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux, at least in the way we tend to think of movies — one big piece broken down into smaller parts trading places of importance at a moment’s notice — its musical component has marked, well, a point of contention. I have witnessed a debate quite like this year’s other, somewhat-less-rooted-in-terrorism pop-star-being-born story, left to wonder whether the diegetic cues are simply good, are meant to be bad as some sort of commentary on the vapidity of its genre, or are just… you get the idea. Or don’t! I think I know exactly what Corbet is saying with Vox Lux but can’t be certain he has a grip on it, which is part of why the thing isn’t boring for one second.
So while I would suggest seeing the film for oneself, I will say that its soundtrack is...
So while I would suggest seeing the film for oneself, I will say that its soundtrack is...
- 12/14/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Maria Butina pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to a conspiracy charge, under a provision of the legal code sometimes referred to as “espionage lite.” The “statement of facts” released with her plea describe Butina’s efforts to “establish unofficial lines of communication with Americans having power and influence over U.S. politics… for the benefit of the Russian Federation.” The document tracks closely with the facts Rolling Stone laid out in an April expose of Russian efforts to infiltrate the NRA and influence the Trump campaign.
According to the filing,...
According to the filing,...
- 12/13/2018
- by Tim Dickinson
- Rollingstone.com
The movie scores of 2018 have been as eclectic as the movies themselves, with any list of the year’s best forced to hop between the pep of “Paddington 2,” the swoons of “If Beale Street Could Talk,” the bloody tumult of “Mandy,” and the regal triumph of “Black Panther.” Yes, for the first time in forever, the score for a Marvel movie was worthy of being discussed alongside work from the likes of Jonny Greenwood and Justin Hurwitz. In fact, there was too much great work this year to celebrate all of it, especially in under-the-radar films like “Mary Shelley” (Amelia Warner), “Nostalgia” (Laurent Eyquem), and “Madeline’s Madeline” (Caroline Shaw). And while attention is too seldom paid to the original music in foreign films, the likes of “Burning” (Mowg) and “Capernaum” (Khaled Mouzanar) boasted indelibly evocative scores, as well.
2018 also featured a number of memorable soundtracks full of original...
2018 also featured a number of memorable soundtracks full of original...
- 12/7/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Some movies are made to be challenging. From top to bottom, they’re meant to not be easy viewing. There’s nothing wrong with that. There just has to be a method for the madness. In the case of Brady Corbet’s sophomore outing Vox Lux, however, that never fully seems to be the case. There’s ambition for days, but it never feels like it amounts to too much. It’s a whole lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Surface level critiques and satire may pique your interest initially, but they can’t sustain for two hours. Despite some solid acting, this never manages to be anything other than a letdown. The film is a drama about the bizarre reasoning for a pop star to have found her success. Spanning about 18 years, it starts in 1999 and finishes in 2017. In the 90’s section, Celeste (Raffey Cassidy as the child...
- 12/7/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Three months have passed since that fleeting, anonymous New York Times op-ed from a Trump staffer claiming that she or he was busy trying to save us from the president’s agenda and “his worst inclinations.” The piece was largely useless, but it was entertaining. Conservatives who have remained silent about Republican disenfranchisement were inspired, in their own way, to defend voting rights.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-ca), the House Majority Leader, declared in a letter to the Times that the writer was “thwarting the wishes of the legitimately elected president from within the executive branch.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-ca), the House Majority Leader, declared in a letter to the Times that the writer was “thwarting the wishes of the legitimately elected president from within the executive branch.
- 12/5/2018
- by Jamil Smith
- Rollingstone.com
Washington — On November 7th, the morning after the 2018 midterm elections, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee sat in a hotel in the other Washington, the swampy one, red-eyed from a string of late-night TV appearances, picking at a plate of eggs and rehashing the huge night his party just had, its best showing in 36 years.
As the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, Inslee had spent much of the year traveling the country to stump and raise money for various candidates. The hustle paid off: Democrats flipped seven governorships, including high-profile victories in Nevada,...
As the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, Inslee had spent much of the year traveling the country to stump and raise money for various candidates. The hustle paid off: Democrats flipped seven governorships, including high-profile victories in Nevada,...
- 12/3/2018
- by Andy Kroll
- Rollingstone.com
In 2015, Brady Corbet released The Childhood of a Leader, a flawed and somewhat immature movie but arguably one of the most bombastic directorial debuts of recent years. Now we have Vox Lux, his deliriously incendiary follow-up, a film about a teenage girl who survives a shooting and becomes a national symbol of hope only to later descend into dissolute pop-stardom.
It’s pleasing to note that the actor-turned-director seems to have forgone none of Childhood‘s aesthetic swagger and misanthropic bite in the process of making his second feature. He has, however, significantly fine-tuned his nose for satire in that time and what we have as a result is not only a thrilling examination of fame and violence in the 21st century and how the two are intrinsically linked, it might also be 2018’s most blistering cinematic provocation this side of Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built...
It’s pleasing to note that the actor-turned-director seems to have forgone none of Childhood‘s aesthetic swagger and misanthropic bite in the process of making his second feature. He has, however, significantly fine-tuned his nose for satire in that time and what we have as a result is not only a thrilling examination of fame and violence in the 21st century and how the two are intrinsically linked, it might also be 2018’s most blistering cinematic provocation this side of Lars von Trier’s The House That Jack Built...
- 9/15/2018
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Updated with Neon confirmation: Neon has confirmed Deadline’s earlier scoop that it has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Vox Lux, the Natalie Portman movie directed by Brady Corbet that world premiered last week at the Toronto Film Festival. See the official release below the original story.
Previous, Monday Pm: On Monday morning, Mike Fleming, Jr. broke the news that the Brady Corbet-directed Vox Lux starring Natalie Portman was edging towards closing a deal with Neon. The film premiered Sept. 7 at the Elgin Theatre and became one the buzziest acquisition titles at the Toronto Film Festival and Neon has closed the deal.
In the film, Portman stars as a female pop star who survives a school shooting and becomes famous writing and performing a tribute song to the victims but evolves into a broken woman. Jude Law also stars as the pop star’s manager while Raffey Cassidy plays the singer as a teenager.
Previous, Monday Pm: On Monday morning, Mike Fleming, Jr. broke the news that the Brady Corbet-directed Vox Lux starring Natalie Portman was edging towards closing a deal with Neon. The film premiered Sept. 7 at the Elgin Theatre and became one the buzziest acquisition titles at the Toronto Film Festival and Neon has closed the deal.
In the film, Portman stars as a female pop star who survives a school shooting and becomes famous writing and performing a tribute song to the victims but evolves into a broken woman. Jude Law also stars as the pop star’s manager while Raffey Cassidy plays the singer as a teenager.
- 9/12/2018
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
Neon has acquired the rights to “Vox Lux,” the drama starring Natalie Portman that debuted to a very warm reception at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival last week.
As exclusively reported by TheWrap, “Vox Lux” was written and directed by Brady Corbet. The film stars Portman alongside Jude Law and Stacy Martin and follows two sisters who survive a violent tragedy in 1999 and after they compose and perform a song about the experience, launch successful music careers. Eighteen years later, Portman’s character is a mother struggling to navigate her career amid scandals when she’s faced with another act of violence.
The film features original songs by Sia with an original score by Scott Walker.
Also Read: Toronto 2018: Here's Every Movie Sold So Far, From 'Wild Rose' to 'Stan & Ollie'
Bold Films’ and Andrew Lauren Productions (Alp) financed the film. It was produced by Bold’s Michel Litvak,...
As exclusively reported by TheWrap, “Vox Lux” was written and directed by Brady Corbet. The film stars Portman alongside Jude Law and Stacy Martin and follows two sisters who survive a violent tragedy in 1999 and after they compose and perform a song about the experience, launch successful music careers. Eighteen years later, Portman’s character is a mother struggling to navigate her career amid scandals when she’s faced with another act of violence.
The film features original songs by Sia with an original score by Scott Walker.
Also Read: Toronto 2018: Here's Every Movie Sold So Far, From 'Wild Rose' to 'Stan & Ollie'
Bold Films’ and Andrew Lauren Productions (Alp) financed the film. It was produced by Bold’s Michel Litvak,...
- 9/11/2018
- by Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
Neon has landed Brady Corbet’s “Vox Lux,” a drama about a troubled pop diva that’s drawing some serious awards buzz for star Natalie Portman. The film premiered to largely favorable reviews at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Several studios were interested in nabbing the project.
It is possible that the indie studio could push “Vox Lux” into theaters this year in order to qualify for Oscars, something it did to great success with “I Tonya,” another Toronto acquisition that went on to score an Academy Award for Allison Janney.
“Vox Lux” fits in with Neon’s strategy of partnering with younger, edgier auteurs. The film is only the second feature for Corbet, who previously directed “The Childhood of a Leader.” Previous Neon releases include “Colossal,” “Beach Rats,” and “Ingrid Goes West.” The studio had an arthouse breakout with “Three Identical Strangers,” a documentary about triplets separated...
It is possible that the indie studio could push “Vox Lux” into theaters this year in order to qualify for Oscars, something it did to great success with “I Tonya,” another Toronto acquisition that went on to score an Academy Award for Allison Janney.
“Vox Lux” fits in with Neon’s strategy of partnering with younger, edgier auteurs. The film is only the second feature for Corbet, who previously directed “The Childhood of a Leader.” Previous Neon releases include “Colossal,” “Beach Rats,” and “Ingrid Goes West.” The studio had an arthouse breakout with “Three Identical Strangers,” a documentary about triplets separated...
- 9/11/2018
- by Brent Lang and Ramin Setoodeh
- Variety Film + TV
It’s easy to bemoan the majority of trailers for giving away too much or, upon seeing the film, ending up with something far different than what was marketed. However, a few times a year, a trailer works on its own terms; as an impressive piece of editing in its own right and/or as the ideal tease for an highly-anticipated film. We’ve selected our 20 favorites from the last year, ranging from some of 2017’s biggest films to the best in arthouse and foreign films to a handful of surprises.
Check them out below and let us know which trailers you were most impressed with in 2016.
20. The Lost City of Z
A late contender to the list, this brief preview for The Lost of City of Z was perfect tease for James Gray‘s period epic. Giving us our first glimpse at Darius Khondji‘s stunning, shot-on-35mm visuals,...
Check them out below and let us know which trailers you were most impressed with in 2016.
20. The Lost City of Z
A late contender to the list, this brief preview for The Lost of City of Z was perfect tease for James Gray‘s period epic. Giving us our first glimpse at Darius Khondji‘s stunning, shot-on-35mm visuals,...
- 1/2/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Like a divine consolation for our collective heartache, the world was gifted with an absurd volume of beautiful new things to listen to in 2016. But epochal new albums from the likes of Radiohead, Anohni, Frank Ocean, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, and the sisters Knowles (to name just a few) only told a small part of the story, as much of the year’s best new music was Trojan horse-ed into our lives via the movies.
The Best of 2016: IndieWire’s Year in Review Bible
Conner4Real wrote pop songs as catchy and profound as anything by The Weeknd, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling exchanged a series of bittersweet ballads, and a Polynesian princess followed her voice over the horizon. But it was the instrumental pieces that cut the deepest, as many of the best new films were proudly inextricable from their scores. “Moonlight” and “La La Land,” currently dominating the awards circuit,...
The Best of 2016: IndieWire’s Year in Review Bible
Conner4Real wrote pop songs as catchy and profound as anything by The Weeknd, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling exchanged a series of bittersweet ballads, and a Polynesian princess followed her voice over the horizon. But it was the instrumental pieces that cut the deepest, as many of the best new films were proudly inextricable from their scores. “Moonlight” and “La La Land,” currently dominating the awards circuit,...
- 12/19/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
It’ll be hard for me to read, hear, type, or say the title of Pablo Larraín‘s new film without hearing ’60s-era Scott Walker and a charging backing band, but most have been kind enough for me to think Jackie can stand on its own. Most of the praise for his Natalie Portman-led biopic of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy has concerned its lack of resemblance to the typical story-of-a-great-figure mold, critics having noted its formal boldness. You’ll get a taste of that in the first preview, which Fox Searchlight have released in advance of its December opening.
If one would like to preserve surprise and instead get a more subjective sense of Jackie‘s greatness, read our review. As we said, “It’s one of three films to be released by the prolific director in 2016 (alongside El Club and Neruda), as well as his first to be...
If one would like to preserve surprise and instead get a more subjective sense of Jackie‘s greatness, read our review. As we said, “It’s one of three films to be released by the prolific director in 2016 (alongside El Club and Neruda), as well as his first to be...
- 10/5/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Paul Walker was still filming the seventh installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise when he died. To finish the film, his brothers Caleb Walker and Cody Walker stepped in - doubling for the actor in critical scenes to help finish his storyline. Now, nearly three years later, the Walker brothers say that experience helped them grieve their loss. "We got to understand more about Paul, and what he was all about," Caleb told Cameron Mathison in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "We had to share Paul with a lot of people, in a weird way. He was gone a lot,...
- 9/16/2016
- by Dave Quinn, @NineDaves
- PEOPLE.com
Paul Walker was still filming the seventh installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise when he died. To finish the film, his brothers Caleb Walker and Cody Walker stepped in - doubling for the actor in critical scenes to help finish his storyline. Now, nearly three years later, the Walker brothers say that experience helped them grieve their loss. "We got to understand more about Paul, and what he was all about," Caleb told Cameron Mathison in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. "We had to share Paul with a lot of people, in a weird way. He was gone a lot,...
- 9/16/2016
- by Dave Quinn, @NineDaves
- PEOPLE.com
NEWSMost exciting for us this week is the news that the Cannes Un Certain Regard prizewinner this year, Juho Kuosmanen's wonderful debut film The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki, will be having its North American premiere in the Discovery section of the Toronto International Film Festival. Mubi is distributing the film theatrically and digitally in the United States and United Kingdom.Recommended VIEWINGCourtesy of the Criterion Collection, excerpts of Ingrid Bergman's home movies, which include Alfred Hitchcock, made around the time of their collaboration on Spellbound. With the full lineup of the Toronto International Film Festival announced and the autumn film season nearly upon us, wonderful trailers have been released in an overwhelming deluge. Here are some of the highlights:The much-anticipated restoration and re-release of Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust.Hong Sang-soo's Yourself and Yours, which gets a typically wacky trailer.Bertrand Bonello's Nocturama,...
- 8/24/2016
- MUBI
In 2015, Brady Corbet’s debut film “The Childhood of a Leader,” starring Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, and Robert Pattinson, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival to great acclaim, eventually wining Best Debut and Best Director at the festival. Last month, IFC Films released the film in theaters and VOD, but now its dynamic orchestral score can finally be heard in its entirely on Spotify. Legendary singer-songwriter Scott Walker composed the score, making it the second film score he’s made after Léos Carax’s 1999 film “Pola X.” Listen to it in its entirety below.
Read More: ‘The Childhood Of A Leader’ Review: Brady Corbet’s Directorial Debut Is An Enthralling Mind-f*ck
Scott Walker began his career as a 60s pop star before becoming an avant-garde artist in the 21st century. He first released music as a member of The Walker Brothers, a group that achieved great success in the United Kingdom,...
Read More: ‘The Childhood Of A Leader’ Review: Brady Corbet’s Directorial Debut Is An Enthralling Mind-f*ck
Scott Walker began his career as a 60s pop star before becoming an avant-garde artist in the 21st century. He first released music as a member of The Walker Brothers, a group that achieved great success in the United Kingdom,...
- 8/19/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Cinematic wankery at its most puerile. Two hours of the sun setting revealing that this is why it gets dark at night would not have been more pointless. I’m “biast” (pro): nothing
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
The Childhood of a Leader is would-be deep cinematic wankery at its most puerile. This is a two-hour-long attempt to construct a metaphor that ends at a place where it steps back and smugly makes a “shocking” pronouncement of something so concretely literal that it is, well, literally the fact of the matter that everyone already knows. If actor turned director (and screenwriter, with Mona Fastvold) Brady Corbet had, with his feature debut, given us 120 minutes of the sun setting and then boldly concluded that this is why it gets dark at night, he would not have been more obvious and inevitable and pointless.
I’m “biast” (con): nothing
(what is this about? see my critic’s minifesto)
The Childhood of a Leader is would-be deep cinematic wankery at its most puerile. This is a two-hour-long attempt to construct a metaphor that ends at a place where it steps back and smugly makes a “shocking” pronouncement of something so concretely literal that it is, well, literally the fact of the matter that everyone already knows. If actor turned director (and screenwriter, with Mona Fastvold) Brady Corbet had, with his feature debut, given us 120 minutes of the sun setting and then boldly concluded that this is why it gets dark at night, he would not have been more obvious and inevitable and pointless.
- 8/19/2016
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
Whether you found Brady Corbet‘s The Childhood of a Leader a bold, thrilling view of latent European fascism or a formless exercise that fails to reach any notable point, we all probably came away with one common impression: the score is wild. Such an adjective is to be expected of its composer, Scott Walker, who’s primarily known for nightmarish, complex compositions that one can still enjoy as a forceful piece of music.
Consider that a) Walker’s only produced a handful of albums in the last twenty years and b) his only other contribution to film-soundtracking might be something of a masterpiece, and The Childhood of a Leader‘s score constitutes something of an event — in my own mind, at least. On this front, the full album does not disappoint. For as much as it’s been dubbed Hermann-esque, and as often as that does feel applicable, the thing,...
Consider that a) Walker’s only produced a handful of albums in the last twenty years and b) his only other contribution to film-soundtracking might be something of a masterpiece, and The Childhood of a Leader‘s score constitutes something of an event — in my own mind, at least. On this front, the full album does not disappoint. For as much as it’s been dubbed Hermann-esque, and as often as that does feel applicable, the thing,...
- 8/19/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Brady Corbet’s directorial debut takes a chilling look at the DNA of a megalomaniac. He explains why it couldn’t be more timely in the age of Trump
The Childhood of a Leader, Brady Corbet’s film about the roots of a fascist megalomaniac, is loud. The orchestral score, by 1960s pop crooner-turned-avant garde hero Scott Walker, bludgeons you so hard it’s as if the sound levels have been hijacked. In actual fact they were. “We mixed it purposefully outside of the Dolby standard; it’s about 5% louder than is generally allowed,” says the 27-year-old director. “The Dolby guy came in to master it and I was like, ‘Cool, thanks a lot!’ Then he left and I was like, ‘Ok, turn it up!’ I like extremes. Growing up, I liked opera and I liked Fugazi. I liked anybody who gets to the end of the show and their knuckles are bleeding.
The Childhood of a Leader, Brady Corbet’s film about the roots of a fascist megalomaniac, is loud. The orchestral score, by 1960s pop crooner-turned-avant garde hero Scott Walker, bludgeons you so hard it’s as if the sound levels have been hijacked. In actual fact they were. “We mixed it purposefully outside of the Dolby standard; it’s about 5% louder than is generally allowed,” says the 27-year-old director. “The Dolby guy came in to master it and I was like, ‘Cool, thanks a lot!’ Then he left and I was like, ‘Ok, turn it up!’ I like extremes. Growing up, I liked opera and I liked Fugazi. I liked anybody who gets to the end of the show and their knuckles are bleeding.
- 8/15/2016
- by Alex Godfrey
- The Guardian - Film News
If actor-turned-director Brady Corbet’s post-World-War-i saga, The Childhood of a Leader, did little more than send American readers to Jean-Paul Sartre’s lesser known short story of the same name, one would be thanking the cinematic gods for its appearance.
The final story in his Sartre’s 1939 collection, The Wall, “The Childhood of a Leader” chronicles the life of Lucien from his rebellious potty training days as a lovely, long-haired tot, son of a rich industrialist, to his transformation into anti-Semitic murderer. There goes Holden Caulfield but for the grace of God.
When we first meet Lucien, with his lustrous blond curls and attired in a blue angel’s costume, he is mistaken by his mother’s consorts as a girl.
“What’s your name? Jacqueline, Lucienne, Margot?”
The embarrassed boy blushes and sets the record right, but “[h]e was no longer quite sure about not being a little...
The final story in his Sartre’s 1939 collection, The Wall, “The Childhood of a Leader” chronicles the life of Lucien from his rebellious potty training days as a lovely, long-haired tot, son of a rich industrialist, to his transformation into anti-Semitic murderer. There goes Holden Caulfield but for the grace of God.
When we first meet Lucien, with his lustrous blond curls and attired in a blue angel’s costume, he is mistaken by his mother’s consorts as a girl.
“What’s your name? Jacqueline, Lucienne, Margot?”
The embarrassed boy blushes and sets the record right, but “[h]e was no longer quite sure about not being a little...
- 8/14/2016
- by Brandon Judell
- www.culturecatch.com
Scott Walker’s score for The Childhood Of A Leader (only his second, after Pola X) is a work of dark, twisted genius, skin-crawling and bombastic in equal measure, and first-time director Brady Corbet does his damnedest trying to mount a movie to deserve it. And, mirabile dictu, he eventually pulls it off with the epilogue, a left turn into dystopian nightmare, titled “A New Era.” If only for a few minutes, The Childhood Of A Leader becomes its own film, a tour of the printing presses, paternoster elevators, and mazes of power that ends with a convulsive blur of bodies crowding in a public square. A viewer can’t help but think, “What took so long?”
Most of The Childhood Of A Leader is set in the aftermath of World War I at a dilapidated French manor house, shrouded in greenish medieval fog. Taking inspiration from the Jean-Paul Sartre...
Most of The Childhood Of A Leader is set in the aftermath of World War I at a dilapidated French manor house, shrouded in greenish medieval fog. Taking inspiration from the Jean-Paul Sartre...
- 7/21/2016
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
First-time directors who swing for the fences with bold debut films can strike out hard, but actor-turned-director Brady Corbet’s “The Childhood of a Leader” is connecting in a big way.
The period drama premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where Corbet took home the awards for Best Debut Feature and Best Director, and is being released Friday through IFC Films’ Sundance Selects label. Corbet co-wrote the screenplay for the film with his partner Mona Fastvold.
Read More: ‘The Childhood Of A Leader’ Review: Brady Corbet’s Directorial Debut Is An Enthralling Mind-f*ck
A dark, post-World War I tale about the seven-year-old son of an American diplomat in France, the film’s largely European cast includes Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”), Liam Cunningham (“Game of Thrones”) and Stacy Martin (“Nymphomaniac”). Robert Pattinson has a small but deceptively important role in the movie, which focuses on the young, manipulative...
The period drama premiered at last year’s Venice Film Festival, where Corbet took home the awards for Best Debut Feature and Best Director, and is being released Friday through IFC Films’ Sundance Selects label. Corbet co-wrote the screenplay for the film with his partner Mona Fastvold.
Read More: ‘The Childhood Of A Leader’ Review: Brady Corbet’s Directorial Debut Is An Enthralling Mind-f*ck
A dark, post-World War I tale about the seven-year-old son of an American diplomat in France, the film’s largely European cast includes Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”), Liam Cunningham (“Game of Thrones”) and Stacy Martin (“Nymphomaniac”). Robert Pattinson has a small but deceptively important role in the movie, which focuses on the young, manipulative...
- 7/21/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
The Childhood of a Leader opens not on the angelic face of its sociopathic protagonist Prescott (Tom Sweet), but on real footage of the events that shape him. Bone-rattling music plays over silent films of the events surrounding the aftermath of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, introducing the viewer to the film’s background and the formation of its protagonist’s identity. Prescott will be affected by these events, even if he does not play a part in them – his is a world of uncertainty, repression, and repressed violence, the perfect breeding ground for a fascist leader.
Brady Corbet’s feature film debut tells of a formative period in Prescott’s life. The son of an American diplomat and his globally educated wife (Liam Cunningham and Bérénice Bejo), he lives with his parents and a few servants in a rundown villa in a village outside of Paris.
Brady Corbet’s feature film debut tells of a formative period in Prescott’s life. The son of an American diplomat and his globally educated wife (Liam Cunningham and Bérénice Bejo), he lives with his parents and a few servants in a rundown villa in a village outside of Paris.
- 7/17/2016
- by Lauren Humphries-Brooks
- We Got This Covered
If Brady Corbet‘s The Childhood of a Leader hadn’t received plenty of early praise as a forceful, confident directorial debut from a perpetually interesting young actor, my eye would still be fixed on it for one reason: composer Scott Walker. The press-shy, not-exactly-prolific musician has a fanbase as narrow as it is dedicated — David Bowie may have been first and foremost among them, often considering him a North Star; just hear his reaction to a birthday wish for some idea — and his one contribution to film-scoring, on Leos Carax’s Pola X, is among the best anybody has produced in the last 20 years.
Though a recent convert, I consider myself among said fanbase, and so: whatever I come to make of it, The Childhood of a Leader earns credit for giving us a new, of-the-same-name Scott Walker album on August 19, ahead of which there’s now a very brief preview.
Though a recent convert, I consider myself among said fanbase, and so: whatever I come to make of it, The Childhood of a Leader earns credit for giving us a new, of-the-same-name Scott Walker album on August 19, ahead of which there’s now a very brief preview.
- 7/5/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Actor Brady Corbet is making his transition to the other side of the camera with his directorial debut The Childhood of a Leader, based on a screenplay he penned with writer Mona Fastvold. Corbet has assembled quite the cast for this blend of drama, horror, and mystery, with Robert Pattinson, Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, and newcomer Tom Sweet. With 45 Years cinematographer Lol Crawley and an original score by Scott Walker, all the pieces are in line for an impressive debut.
Demonstrating its filmic grain under an unsettling orchestral score and one messed up family dynamic, this new U.S. trailer suggests Corbet has a strong visual eye for the unflinching and a real promise in the director’s chair. We said in our review, “For all its showiness, Childhood remains fluid and subtle in depicting the uncomfortable side of family relationships – thus nailing the central point of Jean-Paul Sartre...
Demonstrating its filmic grain under an unsettling orchestral score and one messed up family dynamic, this new U.S. trailer suggests Corbet has a strong visual eye for the unflinching and a real promise in the director’s chair. We said in our review, “For all its showiness, Childhood remains fluid and subtle in depicting the uncomfortable side of family relationships – thus nailing the central point of Jean-Paul Sartre...
- 6/29/2016
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
A 27-year-old dude from Scottsdale, Arizona, Brady Corbet has somehow become the go-to guy for major European auteurs in need of a young American who can pick up what they’re putting down. We may never fully understand how he parlayed a one-episode cameo on “The King of Queens” and a recurring appearance in the fifth season of “24” into a series of brilliant collaborations with titans of international cinema like Michael Haneke (“Funny Games”) and Lars von Trier (“Melancholia”), but it’s clear why Corbet might have a special appreciation for how public figures are often seen through the lens of their beginnings. With his unusually accomplished directorial debut “Childhood of a Leader,” Corbet delivers a strange and startling film that reflects the unique trajectory of his career, as well as the influence of the iconoclastic directors with whom he’s already worked.
The first strains of Scott Walker’s panicky score slice into the soundtrack like Penderecki having a heart attack, the strings cutting into archival footage of World War I troops marching in formation. The opening titles are draped in terror, and they steel audiences for an ominous origin story on par with the horrors presaged by “Max” or “The Omen.” And on that promise, Corbet delivers — albeit it in his own elliptical, psychically tormented, and increasingly hypnotic way.
“The Childhood of a Leader” tells the story of a young American boy (Tom Sweet) coming of age in a snowbound pocket of rural France circa 1918. His young yet severe mother (“The Artist” star Bérénice Bejo) is fed up with her son from the start, and takes out most of her frustration on the various employees who rear the boy for her by proxy. The child’s father (Liam Cunningham, who “Game of Thrones” fans will better recognize by the name of Davos Seaworth), is an assistant on President Wilson’s staff, and is often away in Versailles working on the peace treaty that would ultimately end the war. On the rare evenings during which he returns home, the boy’s father is sometimes accompanied by a widower politician played by Robert Pattinson (a glorified cameo during which he willfully melts into the musty furnishings of Corbet’s sets).
The film seldom ventures outside of the boy’s house, pushing deeper and deeper into the opaque void of its protagonist’s malleable young mind. Corbet’s doggedly anti-dramatic script (co-written by his partner, Mona Fastvold) stakes the boy’s future on a debate between nature vs. nurture in which neither side ever seems to earn a clear advantage. Sweet, whose character is outwardly defined by a blank expression and a head of flowing blond hair (he’s often confused for a girl), delivers a tense performance that often feels modeled after his director’s seething turns in “Simon Killer” and “Funny Games.” You almost never know what the kid is thinking, but it’s telling that his moments of paranoid anxiety are by far his most visceral — an early nightmare sequence suggests that Corbet has a natural talent for eerie visual abstractions.
Read More: Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold Talk Moody Sundance Discovery ‘The Sleepwalker’
He also has a natural talent for the strain of winking, comically exaggerated gravitas that makes it tempting to suspect that hyper-severe auteurs like Haneke and von Trier are actually just taking the piss. Ostentatiously divided into five sections (an overture, three ‘Tantrums,’ and a coda), and refusing to speak the boy’s name until late in the film (so that viewers might tie themselves into knots trying to work out which fascist leader the kid will grow up to become), “The Childhood of a Leader” pits the intensity of its context against the banality of its incident.
The first two Tantrums are all portent and no plot; the most exciting thing that happens is when the boy paws at the breast of his pretty young French tutor (“Nymphomaniac” ingenue Stacy Martin). There’s much talk of language skills, and fluency becomes its own kind of power, but how that factors into Corbet’s grand design is no better explicated than the fact that Sweet’s character is exclusively raised by hired help, or the tidbit that his dad had been hoping for a daughter. And yet, the raw anxiety of Corbet’s vision only grows more palpable as Sweet retreats further from our understanding; by the time the film reveals itself to be more of a mind-fuck than a historical drama, you’re too rattled to feel tricked.
On one hand, the indelibly disorienting final scene feels like a hit from behind; on the other, it feels as though the film has been building to it from the start. Either way, “The Childhood of a Leader” leaves behind a squall of unanswered questions that linger in the mind long after it squelches to a finish. Is this a story about the merits of Freudian psychology, or its limitations? Is it about the making of a monster, or is its distance meant to mock the thinking that sociopaths can be so easily explained? Early in the first Tantrum, Pattinson’s character lifts a quote that novelist John Fowles would ultimately coin in regards to the Holocaust: “That was the tragedy. Not that one man has the courage to be evil, but that so many have not the courage to be good.” Other than Corbet’s promise, that sentiment may be the film’s one clear takeaway: Whether born or raised, leaders are only as powerful as the people who neglect to stop them.
Grade: B+
“The Childhood of a Leader” plays at BAMcinemaFest on June 23rd. It opens in theaters and on VOD on July 22nd.
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Related storiesReview: Ti West's 'In A Valley Of Violence' Is A Western 'John Wick,' But Mostly Shoots Blanks12 Must-See Films at BAMCinemaFest 2016'The Childhood of a Leader' Trailer: Robert Pattinson Toplines Brady Corbet's Period Directorial Debut...
The first strains of Scott Walker’s panicky score slice into the soundtrack like Penderecki having a heart attack, the strings cutting into archival footage of World War I troops marching in formation. The opening titles are draped in terror, and they steel audiences for an ominous origin story on par with the horrors presaged by “Max” or “The Omen.” And on that promise, Corbet delivers — albeit it in his own elliptical, psychically tormented, and increasingly hypnotic way.
“The Childhood of a Leader” tells the story of a young American boy (Tom Sweet) coming of age in a snowbound pocket of rural France circa 1918. His young yet severe mother (“The Artist” star Bérénice Bejo) is fed up with her son from the start, and takes out most of her frustration on the various employees who rear the boy for her by proxy. The child’s father (Liam Cunningham, who “Game of Thrones” fans will better recognize by the name of Davos Seaworth), is an assistant on President Wilson’s staff, and is often away in Versailles working on the peace treaty that would ultimately end the war. On the rare evenings during which he returns home, the boy’s father is sometimes accompanied by a widower politician played by Robert Pattinson (a glorified cameo during which he willfully melts into the musty furnishings of Corbet’s sets).
The film seldom ventures outside of the boy’s house, pushing deeper and deeper into the opaque void of its protagonist’s malleable young mind. Corbet’s doggedly anti-dramatic script (co-written by his partner, Mona Fastvold) stakes the boy’s future on a debate between nature vs. nurture in which neither side ever seems to earn a clear advantage. Sweet, whose character is outwardly defined by a blank expression and a head of flowing blond hair (he’s often confused for a girl), delivers a tense performance that often feels modeled after his director’s seething turns in “Simon Killer” and “Funny Games.” You almost never know what the kid is thinking, but it’s telling that his moments of paranoid anxiety are by far his most visceral — an early nightmare sequence suggests that Corbet has a natural talent for eerie visual abstractions.
Read More: Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold Talk Moody Sundance Discovery ‘The Sleepwalker’
He also has a natural talent for the strain of winking, comically exaggerated gravitas that makes it tempting to suspect that hyper-severe auteurs like Haneke and von Trier are actually just taking the piss. Ostentatiously divided into five sections (an overture, three ‘Tantrums,’ and a coda), and refusing to speak the boy’s name until late in the film (so that viewers might tie themselves into knots trying to work out which fascist leader the kid will grow up to become), “The Childhood of a Leader” pits the intensity of its context against the banality of its incident.
The first two Tantrums are all portent and no plot; the most exciting thing that happens is when the boy paws at the breast of his pretty young French tutor (“Nymphomaniac” ingenue Stacy Martin). There’s much talk of language skills, and fluency becomes its own kind of power, but how that factors into Corbet’s grand design is no better explicated than the fact that Sweet’s character is exclusively raised by hired help, or the tidbit that his dad had been hoping for a daughter. And yet, the raw anxiety of Corbet’s vision only grows more palpable as Sweet retreats further from our understanding; by the time the film reveals itself to be more of a mind-fuck than a historical drama, you’re too rattled to feel tricked.
On one hand, the indelibly disorienting final scene feels like a hit from behind; on the other, it feels as though the film has been building to it from the start. Either way, “The Childhood of a Leader” leaves behind a squall of unanswered questions that linger in the mind long after it squelches to a finish. Is this a story about the merits of Freudian psychology, or its limitations? Is it about the making of a monster, or is its distance meant to mock the thinking that sociopaths can be so easily explained? Early in the first Tantrum, Pattinson’s character lifts a quote that novelist John Fowles would ultimately coin in regards to the Holocaust: “That was the tragedy. Not that one man has the courage to be evil, but that so many have not the courage to be good.” Other than Corbet’s promise, that sentiment may be the film’s one clear takeaway: Whether born or raised, leaders are only as powerful as the people who neglect to stop them.
Grade: B+
“The Childhood of a Leader” plays at BAMcinemaFest on June 23rd. It opens in theaters and on VOD on July 22nd.
Get the latest Box Office news! Sign up for our Box Office newsletter here.
Related storiesReview: Ti West's 'In A Valley Of Violence' Is A Western 'John Wick,' But Mostly Shoots Blanks12 Must-See Films at BAMCinemaFest 2016'The Childhood of a Leader' Trailer: Robert Pattinson Toplines Brady Corbet's Period Directorial Debut...
- 6/14/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
He can be seen in films from Michael Haneke, Lars von Trier, Olivier Assayas, Mia Hansen-Løve, Noah Baumbach, Bertrand Bonello, Ruben Östlund, and more, but Brady Corbet finally got on the other side of the camera for his feature debut, The Childhood of a Leader. With a top-notch cast featuring Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, Yolande Moreau, Robert Pattinson, and Tom Sweet, it’s been mostly quiet regarding the post-wwi drama since its Venice premiere last fall, but now a new trailer has landed along with news it’ll play at BAMcinemaFest next month.
We said in our review, “The feature debut from young actor turned screenwriter-director Brady Corbet, The Childhood of a Leader is an ambitious choice for a first project — a period piece tying together the post-wwi political climate and the upbringing of a child in a chateau outside Paris. The film, premiering in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival,...
We said in our review, “The feature debut from young actor turned screenwriter-director Brady Corbet, The Childhood of a Leader is an ambitious choice for a first project — a period piece tying together the post-wwi political climate and the upbringing of a child in a chateau outside Paris. The film, premiering in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival,...
- 5/16/2016
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) closes its 45th edition on Saturday February 6th with a screening of "The Childhood of a Leader." It promises to be a spectacular musical finale: the film music by American singer-songwriter Scott Walker will be played live during the screening of the film in de Doelen by Codarts Symphony Orchestra, led by Mark Warman. The orchestra will also have a special line-up just for this event, featuring a number of guest musicians from England who performed on the original soundtrack. Like last year, following the screening of the film, the festival will close in style with the Closing Party by Warsteiner.
In "The Childhood of a Leader," an American family relocate to the French countryside at the end of World War I, where the father is involved in drawing up the Treaty of Versailles. His wife, a pious Christian, is struggling with the eruptions of rage from their rebellious young son, whose deliberate outbursts are starting to hint at a monster in the making. The cast of this debut film by actor Brady Corbet features Robert Pattinson ("Maps to the Stars"), Stacy Martin ("Nymphomaniac"), Bérénice Bejo ("The Artist" ) and Liam Cunningham ("Game of Thrones" ).
Iffr festival director Bero Beyer: “'The Childhood of a Leader' is an ambitious feature film debut from actor Brady Corbet. Supported by a stellar cast, he has created a fascinating historical psychodrama about a young boy, representing the whole of Europe after World War I. The film is embellished by a magnificent orchestral soundtrack from Scott Walker, who has adapted the music specially for this screening. The unique combination of a complete symphony orchestra with a poignant feature film on our European history as a closing event at Iffr is truly exceptional. We are extremely grateful and happy to be able to participate in this incredible co-creation by offering this event a large podium, and by welcoming the international cast and crew to Rotterdam.”
Neil Wallace, program director de Doelen: “De Doelen has previously undertaken several live to screen projects with an orchestra, but this spectacular, overwhelming score for Scott Walker’s amplified symphony orchestra under Mark Warman will ensure this event is a real happening. All of my colleagues in de Doelen are looking forward immensely to this very special cooperation.”
Wilma Franchimon, chair of the board of Codarts: “Codarts’s vision, ‘Talents become artists!’, was never more applicable than to this project. This is a great opportunity for Codarts students to work together and to learn from a fantastic project in which film, theatre and music are brought together. We are very proud that the students are being given this opportunity by Iffr.”
The closing night of Iffr 2016 is being realized in cooperation with Protagonist Pictures, de Doelen and Codarts Symphony Orchestra, and is made possible thanks to the Municipality of Rotterdam and Rotterdam Festivals.
For four decades, Iffr has proudly developed and presented auteur cinema by helping filmmakers reach the broadest possible audiences. The festival is known around the world for its individual, innovative programming, with particular attention to talented new filmmakers. Quality films from all over the world are presented in Rotterdam to a large, international audience with the aim of inspiring and broadening horizons.
In "The Childhood of a Leader," an American family relocate to the French countryside at the end of World War I, where the father is involved in drawing up the Treaty of Versailles. His wife, a pious Christian, is struggling with the eruptions of rage from their rebellious young son, whose deliberate outbursts are starting to hint at a monster in the making. The cast of this debut film by actor Brady Corbet features Robert Pattinson ("Maps to the Stars"), Stacy Martin ("Nymphomaniac"), Bérénice Bejo ("The Artist" ) and Liam Cunningham ("Game of Thrones" ).
Iffr festival director Bero Beyer: “'The Childhood of a Leader' is an ambitious feature film debut from actor Brady Corbet. Supported by a stellar cast, he has created a fascinating historical psychodrama about a young boy, representing the whole of Europe after World War I. The film is embellished by a magnificent orchestral soundtrack from Scott Walker, who has adapted the music specially for this screening. The unique combination of a complete symphony orchestra with a poignant feature film on our European history as a closing event at Iffr is truly exceptional. We are extremely grateful and happy to be able to participate in this incredible co-creation by offering this event a large podium, and by welcoming the international cast and crew to Rotterdam.”
Neil Wallace, program director de Doelen: “De Doelen has previously undertaken several live to screen projects with an orchestra, but this spectacular, overwhelming score for Scott Walker’s amplified symphony orchestra under Mark Warman will ensure this event is a real happening. All of my colleagues in de Doelen are looking forward immensely to this very special cooperation.”
Wilma Franchimon, chair of the board of Codarts: “Codarts’s vision, ‘Talents become artists!’, was never more applicable than to this project. This is a great opportunity for Codarts students to work together and to learn from a fantastic project in which film, theatre and music are brought together. We are very proud that the students are being given this opportunity by Iffr.”
The closing night of Iffr 2016 is being realized in cooperation with Protagonist Pictures, de Doelen and Codarts Symphony Orchestra, and is made possible thanks to the Municipality of Rotterdam and Rotterdam Festivals.
For four decades, Iffr has proudly developed and presented auteur cinema by helping filmmakers reach the broadest possible audiences. The festival is known around the world for its individual, innovative programming, with particular attention to talented new filmmakers. Quality films from all over the world are presented in Rotterdam to a large, international audience with the aim of inspiring and broadening horizons.
- 12/27/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is set to withdraw from the presidential race on Monday night, according to media reports. Walker is scheduled to hold a press conference in Madison, Wisconsin, at 6 p.m. Et to announce his exit from the race. Once considered a frontrunner for the Gop nomination, a series of missteps and the rise of outsiders like Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson, have taken a toll. Add to that a lackluster performance in last week’s Gop debate in Simi Valley, California, and his candidacy sank. See video: Scott Walker Announces 2016 Presidential Bid A CNN/Orc poll...
- 9/21/2015
- by Itay Hod
- The Wrap
'Eye of the Tiger' band Survivor. Infamous radical Christian county clerk Kim Davis, far-right U.S. presidential candidate Mike Huckabee sued by 'Eye of the Tiger' band Survivor The band Survivor, whose song “Eye of the Tiger” underlined the critical dud (but box office hit) Rocky III back in 1982, has filed a $1.2 million lawsuit against radical Christian Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis and fellow radical Christian and U.S. Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. Without previous authorization, “Eye of the Tiger” was loudly played in the background of the circus show – large wooden crosses and all – staged after Davis' release from jail. She had spent all of five days in prison for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage. Kim Davis Christian rally. Survivor statement Yesterday (Sept. 8, '15), the day of Davis' release, Survivor issued...
- 9/10/2015
- by Marc Th.
- Alt Film Guide
★★★★★ Part of the Orizzonti sidebar at the 72nd Venice Film Festival, actor Brady Corbet's debut feature The Childhood of a Leader (2015) combines an Ibsen-like austere family drama with a cinematic verve that's been sadly lacking on the Lido this year. A pounding orchestral overture (courtesy of the legendary Scott Walker) sets the scene as The Great War draws to a bloody, muddy and exhausted conclusion. It's 1919 and as President Wilson convenes European leaders in Paris to draw up a treaty of reparations and carve once more at the map of Europe, in a small house in the French countryside a seven-year-old boy, Prescott (Tom Sweet), collects stones to sling at parishioners leaving a local church.
It's the first of three tantrums which will divide the film into chapters. The child flees into the darkness, hurts himself and is carried back to his mother (Bérénice Bejo). They return to the...
It's the first of three tantrums which will divide the film into chapters. The child flees into the darkness, hurts himself and is carried back to his mother (Bérénice Bejo). They return to the...
- 9/6/2015
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Right out of the gate I should say that Cemetery Without Crosses is notable for a number of reasons. First off, it's one of the only, if only, French westerns from the 60s and it was directed by Rififi actor Robert Hossein who also starred in the film. Hossein, a huge fan of Italian westerns (who can blame him?), dedicated the film to his friend, Sergio Leone who also makes an appearance in the film and directed one of its better scenes. The film's opening theme is sung by legendary British crooner Scott Walker, so there's that, but I struggle to recommend this Euro western to anyone other than the most die [Continued ...]...
- 8/6/2015
- QuietEarth.us
Filmed during the height of the Euro Western craze of the late 60’s, Robert Hossein’s Cemetery Without Crosses is an obscure gem rejuvenated by Arrow Video. A French production, the title was actor/director Hossein’s first Western, obviously influenced by Sergio Leone, whom the film is dedicated to (Leone was in the midst of production on Once Upon a Time in the West when Hossein was underway with his feature). A simplistic and familiar narrative is enhanced by its inspired set designs and notable production value, featuring a winning score. Existing on the bleak end of the Spaghetti Western spectrum (or perhaps more aptly the ‘Baguette Western,” an Alex Cox coined term Ginette Vincendeau discusses in an included insert essay), it’s an entertaining bit of style over substance, and is an uncommon French entry in otherwise familiar climate. However, as much as Hossein pays homage to Leone,...
- 7/28/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A Spaghetti Western with a French director and star may seem an odd combination, but this is exactly what we get with Cemetery Without Crosses aka The Rope and the Colt. Inspired by the success of the Dollars trilogy and dedicated to Sergio Leone, this is yet another addition to the Arrow Video classic releases.
After a family of Bandits lynches her husband, Maria Caine (Michèle Mercier) turns to old an old friend Manuel (Robert Hossein) to exact her revenge. At first reluctant to help, he finally gives in, donning his black glove and infiltrating the family to force a showdown between them and Caine which may just lead to all of their dooms.
Directed by and starring Robert Hossein, the first thing that makes the Western stand out is the catchy theme song sung by Scott Walker. The lynching this leads into sets up the revenge and leads us to the introduction of Manuel,...
After a family of Bandits lynches her husband, Maria Caine (Michèle Mercier) turns to old an old friend Manuel (Robert Hossein) to exact her revenge. At first reluctant to help, he finally gives in, donning his black glove and infiltrating the family to force a showdown between them and Caine which may just lead to all of their dooms.
Directed by and starring Robert Hossein, the first thing that makes the Western stand out is the catchy theme song sung by Scott Walker. The lynching this leads into sets up the revenge and leads us to the introduction of Manuel,...
- 7/23/2015
- by Paul Metcalf
- Nerdly
The release of Brian Helgeland's crime thriller "Legend," starring Tom Hardy as both halves of the Kray Twins, is set for early September in the UK and so Studio Canal is about to ramp up the promotional blitz for the film.
We had a UK teaser in April set to Roy Orbinson's "Running Scared", and a U.S. trailer last month set to Imagine Dragons' "I'm So Sorry", now comes the full U.K. trailer set to The Walker Brothers' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore".
Tom Hardy stars as both Ronnie and Reggie Kray who ruled East London's underworld with fists, pistols and simple intimidation. Christopher Eccleston, Emily Browning and Taron Egerton's characters all get a bit more screen time in the new clip, but this is predominantly the Hardy and Hardy show.
We had a UK teaser in April set to Roy Orbinson's "Running Scared", and a U.S. trailer last month set to Imagine Dragons' "I'm So Sorry", now comes the full U.K. trailer set to The Walker Brothers' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore".
Tom Hardy stars as both Ronnie and Reggie Kray who ruled East London's underworld with fists, pistols and simple intimidation. Christopher Eccleston, Emily Browning and Taron Egerton's characters all get a bit more screen time in the new clip, but this is predominantly the Hardy and Hardy show.
- 7/16/2015
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Maybe he should have thought this one through. Wisconsin governor and likely Republican presidential contender Scott Walker co-opted "Star Wars Day" via his official Twitter account, and the corny pandering did not go over well with most observers. First, the offending tweet: Hope for Republicans there still is. #MayTheFourthBeWithYou #StarWarsDay @StarWars -Tw pic.twitter.com/DEqTUQE5gA — Scott Walker (@ScottWalker) May 4, 2015 Responses ranged from the virtual throwing of tomatoes ("Booooooooooooooooo," stated one user succinctly) to taking aim at Wilson's clear lack of "Star Wars" knowledge ("You don't even realize that's a quote from two different characters,you giant jackass," wrote another) to the incongruity of his policies with those of the rebellion ("Yes, Luke Skywalker worked tirelessly to eliminate collective bargaining rights," sniped @branniganlynch). Here's a sampling of the Twitter outrage: @dklaming @ScottWalker @starwars this guy needs to be memed into every ill-fitting inspirational quote in films — nut industry fan...
- 5/4/2015
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
Exclusive: Shoot underway on Childhood of a Leader.
Berenice Bejo, Robert Pattinson and Stacy Martin have been joined by Liam Cunningham (Game Of Thrones), Yolande Moreau (Amelie) and Sophie Curtis (Arbitrage) for Brady Corbet’s directorial feature debut The Childhood of A Leader, which is shooting now on location in Hungary.
The film charts the birth of a terrifying ego during the rise of fascism in the early 20thcentury.
Protagonist reps international sales, Wme handles North America.
Corbet, best known for his work as an actor in Melancholia, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Funny Games, co-wrote the script with Mona Fastvold.
The drama is a Unanimous Entertainment and Mact Films production in association with FilmTeam in Hungary. Funding comes from Media House Capital, Bow and Arrow Entertainment, Scope Pictures and Scion Pictures.
Producers are Chris Coen (Funny Games), Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Helena Danielsson (Beyond) and Istvan Major. Ron Curtis, Brian Young, Aaron L. Gilbert, [link...
Berenice Bejo, Robert Pattinson and Stacy Martin have been joined by Liam Cunningham (Game Of Thrones), Yolande Moreau (Amelie) and Sophie Curtis (Arbitrage) for Brady Corbet’s directorial feature debut The Childhood of A Leader, which is shooting now on location in Hungary.
The film charts the birth of a terrifying ego during the rise of fascism in the early 20thcentury.
Protagonist reps international sales, Wme handles North America.
Corbet, best known for his work as an actor in Melancholia, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Funny Games, co-wrote the script with Mona Fastvold.
The drama is a Unanimous Entertainment and Mact Films production in association with FilmTeam in Hungary. Funding comes from Media House Capital, Bow and Arrow Entertainment, Scope Pictures and Scion Pictures.
Producers are Chris Coen (Funny Games), Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Helena Danielsson (Beyond) and Istvan Major. Ron Curtis, Brian Young, Aaron L. Gilbert, [link...
- 2/7/2015
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
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