Apples is a 2020 internationally co-produced drama film directed and produced by Christos Nikou in his directorial debut, from a screenplay by Nikou and Stavros Raptis. The film stars Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovassili, Aggeliki Papoulia, Spyros Pavlakis, Jakob Cedergren, and Reni Pittaki. It follows a man who, after waking up with no memory of his past, enrolls in a support group for people with amnesia. As he begins to remember things about his life, he starts to wonder if he really wants to know the truth about what happened to him. Apples was shot in Athens, Greece over the course
Five Movies To Watch When You’re Done With “Apples”...
Five Movies To Watch When You’re Done With “Apples”...
- 7/12/2022
- by A.E. Oats
- TVovermind.com
A24 is going animated whimsical with Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Neon opens Beba, Cohen Media Group presents Apples, IFC Midnight Flux Gourmet and Abramorama a documentary The Human Trial in limited release at arthouse cinemas.
These venues have been doing a bit better, slowly luring Covid-spooked key older demos back into the theater-going habit, attracting some younger viewers (and playing big franchise movies because they have to). Greg Laemmle, CEO of Laemmle Theatres, understands recovery takes time, especially with independent distributors spending less on marketing. That’s why he counts more than ever on reviews to attract an audience.
“Our theatres have been open for over a year since the 13-month shutdown, and every week we present an array of smaller foreign-language films, documentaries, and indie features. Distributors aren’t advertising in print like they did pre-pandemic. But if you look in the LA Times every day, you...
These venues have been doing a bit better, slowly luring Covid-spooked key older demos back into the theater-going habit, attracting some younger viewers (and playing big franchise movies because they have to). Greg Laemmle, CEO of Laemmle Theatres, understands recovery takes time, especially with independent distributors spending less on marketing. That’s why he counts more than ever on reviews to attract an audience.
“Our theatres have been open for over a year since the 13-month shutdown, and every week we present an array of smaller foreign-language films, documentaries, and indie features. Distributors aren’t advertising in print like they did pre-pandemic. But if you look in the LA Times every day, you...
- 6/24/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
When it premiered at the Venice Film Festival all the way back in 2020, Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou had the unlikeliest movie of the moment with his debut feature “Apples.” The film, produced long before Covid-19 upended the world, dealt with a fictional pandemic in which a mysterious illness causes amnesia. There’s droll comedy and poignant drama alike as protagonist Aris (Aris Servetalis) begins a guided program to recover what he’s lost: his memory.
Continue reading ‘Apples’: Director Christos Nikou On The ‘Melancholic Smile’ Of His Movie While Teasing ‘Fingernails’ With Jessie Buckley & Producer Cate Blanchett [Interview] at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Apples’: Director Christos Nikou On The ‘Melancholic Smile’ Of His Movie While Teasing ‘Fingernails’ With Jessie Buckley & Producer Cate Blanchett [Interview] at The Playlist.
- 6/24/2022
- by Marshall Shaffer
- The Playlist
Apples (Mila) Cohen Media Group Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Christos Nikou Screenwriter: Christos Nikou, Stavros Raptis Cast: Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovasili, Anna Kalaitzidou, Argiris Bakirtzis Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, Opens: June 24, 2022 Imagine that your memories suddenly disappear and you can create a new […]
The post Apples Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Apples Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 6/19/2022
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
The debut film by Yorgos Gousis won prizes for best film first-time director, screenplay and actress.
Newcomer Yorgos Gousis’s Magnetic Fields and Grigoris Karantinakis’ second film Smyrna have dominated the 2022 Iris film awards of the Hellenic Film Academy.
Magnetic Fields won for best film, first- time director, screenplay and best actress prizes, while Smyrna was awarded the trophies for best cinematography, production design and costume design.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Magnetic Fields is a road movie about a man and a woman who have met by chance on a boat and decide to stick together...
Newcomer Yorgos Gousis’s Magnetic Fields and Grigoris Karantinakis’ second film Smyrna have dominated the 2022 Iris film awards of the Hellenic Film Academy.
Magnetic Fields won for best film, first- time director, screenplay and best actress prizes, while Smyrna was awarded the trophies for best cinematography, production design and costume design.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Magnetic Fields is a road movie about a man and a woman who have met by chance on a boat and decide to stick together...
- 6/15/2022
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
"What a tragic story." Cohen Media Group has revealed their official trailer for this indie Greek comedy called Apples, which originally premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival a few years back. We posted a promo trailer then and reviewed it out of Venice (it's superb!) but now that it's finally landing in theaters in the US, we're happy to feature it again. After a pandemic causes people to develop sudden amnesia, a man is enrolled in a recovery program designed to create new memories. The film evokes profound questions: "Are we the sum of the images we compile and display of ourselves, or are we something richer, and deeper?" Apples stars Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovassili, Anna Kalaitzidou, Argyris Bakirtzis, & Kostas Laskos. It's a very bleak film but so creative and captivating, highly recommend catching it when it opens. Here's the new official US trailer (+ poster) for Christos Nikou's Apples,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Deals close for Australia, France, Latin America and others.
LA-based Pinnacle Peak Pictures has struck a raft of territory sales on Man Of God, the Greek box office champion about the life of St. Nektarios of Aegina that has held on to the number one slot for four weeks and drawn more than 270,000 admissions.
VP of international sales Ron Gell has licensed rights to Heritage for Australia and New Zealand, Saje for France, California Filmes for pan Latin America, Dutch Channels for Netherlands, and McF for former Yugoslavia.
Gell and his team previously licensed Yelena Popovic’s Moscow International Film...
LA-based Pinnacle Peak Pictures has struck a raft of territory sales on Man Of God, the Greek box office champion about the life of St. Nektarios of Aegina that has held on to the number one slot for four weeks and drawn more than 270,000 admissions.
VP of international sales Ron Gell has licensed rights to Heritage for Australia and New Zealand, Saje for France, California Filmes for pan Latin America, Dutch Channels for Netherlands, and McF for former Yugoslavia.
Gell and his team previously licensed Yelena Popovic’s Moscow International Film...
- 9/30/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Yelena Popovic shot film under Covid protocols in Greece last summer.
Moscow International Film Festival audience award winner Man Of God will open theatrically in Russia via Rocket Releasing and in Greece through Feelgood Entertainment on August 26, Pinnacle Peak Pictures VP of international sales Ron Gell announced on Thursday (May 20).
Gell is in active talks with independent theatrical distributors throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and deals are pending.
Yelena Popovic directed the film, which shot under Covid protocols in Greece last summer and will premiere at the 15th Los Angeles Green Film festival running May 22 and 23.
Hellenic Academy...
Moscow International Film Festival audience award winner Man Of God will open theatrically in Russia via Rocket Releasing and in Greece through Feelgood Entertainment on August 26, Pinnacle Peak Pictures VP of international sales Ron Gell announced on Thursday (May 20).
Gell is in active talks with independent theatrical distributors throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, and Latin America and deals are pending.
Yelena Popovic directed the film, which shot under Covid protocols in Greece last summer and will premiere at the 15th Los Angeles Green Film festival running May 22 and 23.
Hellenic Academy...
- 5/20/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
A worldwide amnesia pandemic takes hold in the striking debut feature from Christos Nikou, a former collaborator of fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos
This quietly satirical and unexpectedly moving debut feature from director and co-writer Christos Nikou, who cut his teeth as an assistant director on Dogtooth, was Greece’s entry for the international feature Oscar at the recent 93rd Academy Awards. A tale of epidemic memory loss, grief and possible new beginnings, it’s a deadpan tragicomedy that mixes the playful and the poignant in a manner as tasty as a spitter – the bittersweet apples treasured by cidermakers as the perfect fuel for fermentation.
Straight-faced Aris Servetalis cuts a mournful figure, his physical presence invoking the joint spectres of Daniel Day-Lewis and Charlie Chaplin. As an outbreak of amnesia rolls across his homeland, his bewildered character, Aris, finds himself unable to remember his name, his occupation or his address.
This quietly satirical and unexpectedly moving debut feature from director and co-writer Christos Nikou, who cut his teeth as an assistant director on Dogtooth, was Greece’s entry for the international feature Oscar at the recent 93rd Academy Awards. A tale of epidemic memory loss, grief and possible new beginnings, it’s a deadpan tragicomedy that mixes the playful and the poignant in a manner as tasty as a spitter – the bittersweet apples treasured by cidermakers as the perfect fuel for fermentation.
Straight-faced Aris Servetalis cuts a mournful figure, his physical presence invoking the joint spectres of Daniel Day-Lewis and Charlie Chaplin. As an outbreak of amnesia rolls across his homeland, his bewildered character, Aris, finds himself unable to remember his name, his occupation or his address.
- 5/9/2021
- by Mark Kermode Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Christos Nikou’s black comedy about a plague of forgetfulness is intriguingly absurd but not as memorable as it thinks it is
Here is an enigmatically quirky Greek film about identity and memory, much talked about and talked up on the festival circuit. It’s the work of debut feature film-maker Christos Nikou, who cut his teeth as second assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos’s pioneeringly weird Dogtooth in 2009 – that seductive film whose bizarre stylings ushered in an entire Greek new wave of cine-absurdism. This is a movie in that recognisable style, and I incidentally think the Greek auteurs really have brought absurdism back in ways not seen the first wave of Beckett, Ionescu and Nf Simpson in the theatre.
Apples is intriguingly deadpan and sometimes funny, though I couldn’t help feeling that it is also contrived, and even a bit flippant in a middleweight-arthouse mode, not quite as...
Here is an enigmatically quirky Greek film about identity and memory, much talked about and talked up on the festival circuit. It’s the work of debut feature film-maker Christos Nikou, who cut his teeth as second assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos’s pioneeringly weird Dogtooth in 2009 – that seductive film whose bizarre stylings ushered in an entire Greek new wave of cine-absurdism. This is a movie in that recognisable style, and I incidentally think the Greek auteurs really have brought absurdism back in ways not seen the first wave of Beckett, Ionescu and Nf Simpson in the theatre.
Apples is intriguingly deadpan and sometimes funny, though I couldn’t help feeling that it is also contrived, and even a bit flippant in a middleweight-arthouse mode, not quite as...
- 5/6/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Celebrating its 50th anniversary edition this year, New Directors/New Films annually brings together the most promising new filmmaking voices. The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have now announced the lineup for this year’s slate, taking place April 28 – May 8 via virtual cinema, with in-person screenings extending through May 13 at Flc. The festival will also include a free retrospective looking back at previously selected work by Lee Chang-dong, Charles Burnett, Chantal Akerman, Christopher Nolan and more.
Check out the lineup below, along with links to reviews where available.
50th New Directors/New Films
Opening Night
El Planeta
Amalia Ulman, 2021, Spain, 80m
English and Spanish with English subtitles
With unforced deadpan humor, writer-director-star Amalia Ulman presents a captivating portrait in miniature of a mother and daughter barely scraping by in Spain’s northwestern seaside town Gijón. Whether shoplifting, trying to get out of paying for an extravagant meal,...
Check out the lineup below, along with links to reviews where available.
50th New Directors/New Films
Opening Night
El Planeta
Amalia Ulman, 2021, Spain, 80m
English and Spanish with English subtitles
With unforced deadpan humor, writer-director-star Amalia Ulman presents a captivating portrait in miniature of a mother and daughter barely scraping by in Spain’s northwestern seaside town Gijón. Whether shoplifting, trying to get out of paying for an extravagant meal,...
- 4/1/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This year’s edition saw the triumph of Christos Nikou’s Apples, crowned Best Film, and Tadhg O’Sullivan’s To the Moon, which scooped Best Irish Feature. It’s a wrap for the 2021 edition of the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival, one of Ireland’s most prestigious film events. This year, the festival was held online from 3-14 March. Yesterday, the gathering was brought to a close with a screening of Rachel Carey’s black comedy Deadly Cuts. This year’s edition saw the triumph of Christos Nikou’s Apples, crowned Best Film, and Tadhg O’Sullivan’s To the Moon, which pocketed the Award for Best Irish Feature. Nikou’s film, premiered in the Orizzonti strand of the Venice Film Festival last year, is set amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia and follows the middle-aged Aris (played by Aris Servetalis), who finds himself enrolled in a...
Greek director Christos Nikou worked as second assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth and, if his debut feature is anything to go by, he shares a cool sensibility with his compatriot, although this film has a stronger sense of underlying warmth for humanity. Set in what appears to be a present day not very different from our own, although considerably more analogue, this is a place where we learn there is a pandemic of memory loss. The film opens with a rhythmic thud accompanying the sort of still life beats from anyone's day... until we realise the thumping is not coming from a score but from Aris (Aris Servetalis), who is banging his head against a wall. It's an image that, while setting the mood, doesn't make a lot of sense in the moment but that comes to echo through a film that unfolds in deliberately elliptical fashion.
Later that day,...
Later that day,...
- 2/22/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Over the last five years, the Academy has made it increasingly easier for more voters to participate in the phase-one Best International Feature Film Oscar nominating committee, never more than during this pandemic year, when online viewing made it possible for all members to watch the movies, as long as they notched the minimum number of 12 assigned features.
With Oscar deadlines pushed back by two months, the Academy rules required that countries submit motion pictures that were released theatrically between October 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. This year’s expanded shortlist of 15 (just like the documentary branch) will be revealed on February 9, 2021, with no executive committee saves, due to the pandemic.
Last year saw 91 contenders, and this year’s number is close. Marking a change, the Academy is vetting the submissions before announcing the final list of eligible contenders in late January. Eligible films are being added to the Academy portal (also available...
With Oscar deadlines pushed back by two months, the Academy rules required that countries submit motion pictures that were released theatrically between October 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. This year’s expanded shortlist of 15 (just like the documentary branch) will be revealed on February 9, 2021, with no executive committee saves, due to the pandemic.
Last year saw 91 contenders, and this year’s number is close. Marking a change, the Academy is vetting the submissions before announcing the final list of eligible contenders in late January. Eligible films are being added to the Academy portal (also available...
- 1/25/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Over the last five years, the Academy has made it increasingly easier for more voters to participate in the phase-one Best International Feature Film Oscar nominating committee, never more than during this pandemic year, when online viewing made it possible for all members to watch the movies, as long as they notched the minimum number of 12 assigned features.
With Oscar deadlines pushed back by two months, the Academy rules required that countries submit motion pictures that were released theatrically between October 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. This year’s expanded shortlist of 15 (just like the documentary branch) will be revealed on February 9, 2021, with no executive committee saves, due to the pandemic.
Last year saw 91 contenders, and this year’s number is close. Marking a change, the Academy is vetting the submissions before announcing the final list of eligible contenders in late January. Eligible films are being added to the Academy portal (also available...
With Oscar deadlines pushed back by two months, the Academy rules required that countries submit motion pictures that were released theatrically between October 1, 2019 and December 31, 2020. This year’s expanded shortlist of 15 (just like the documentary branch) will be revealed on February 9, 2021, with no executive committee saves, due to the pandemic.
Last year saw 91 contenders, and this year’s number is close. Marking a change, the Academy is vetting the submissions before announcing the final list of eligible contenders in late January. Eligible films are being added to the Academy portal (also available...
- 1/25/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou marks his directorial debut with “Apples,” an accidentally timely pandemic movie that captured imaginations at the Venice Film Festival, where it opened the respected Orrizonti section, and has since gone on to represent Greece in the international feature film Oscar race.
The film wasn’t actually shot during the Covid-19 crisis, but follows a man (Aris Servetalis) struggling to recover his memory amid a pandemic that causes widespread amnesia. Doctors at a special rehabilitation clinic present a list of tasks ranging from the mundane to the downright bizarre that may trigger his memory — all of which must be carefully documented with a Polaroid camera.
The film’s Lido bow in September — which, by most accounts, increasingly feels like a small miracle given the ongoing Covid-19 situation in Europe — marks the only time Nikou was able to watch “Apples” with audiences.
“I haven’t gone to any...
The film wasn’t actually shot during the Covid-19 crisis, but follows a man (Aris Servetalis) struggling to recover his memory amid a pandemic that causes widespread amnesia. Doctors at a special rehabilitation clinic present a list of tasks ranging from the mundane to the downright bizarre that may trigger his memory — all of which must be carefully documented with a Polaroid camera.
The film’s Lido bow in September — which, by most accounts, increasingly feels like a small miracle given the ongoing Covid-19 situation in Europe — marks the only time Nikou was able to watch “Apples” with audiences.
“I haven’t gone to any...
- 1/22/2021
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Greek dramedy Apples was one of the buzz films of last year’s depleted festival circuit, debuting in Venice where it opened the festival’s Horizons section. It’s now Greece’s entry into this year’s International Feature Oscar race.
Six years in the making, the prescient movie is set amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia and follows a middle-aged man who finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities.
Director Christos Nikou, who was snapped up for representation by CAA earlier this summer, was inspired by the allegorical novels Blindness and 1984, and the movies of Charlie Kaufman, as well as his own personal loss, when developing the timely project.
“I have always been fascinated by movies that create new worlds. The Truman Show is the film that made me want to be a filmmaker,” Nikou says during his film...
Six years in the making, the prescient movie is set amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia and follows a middle-aged man who finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities.
Director Christos Nikou, who was snapped up for representation by CAA earlier this summer, was inspired by the allegorical novels Blindness and 1984, and the movies of Charlie Kaufman, as well as his own personal loss, when developing the timely project.
“I have always been fascinated by movies that create new worlds. The Truman Show is the film that made me want to be a filmmaker,” Nikou says during his film...
- 1/9/2021
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The drama is directed by Mexico’s Fernandez Valadez
Mexican director Fernanda Valadez’s Identifying Features has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos for best film at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) which took place entirely online from November 5-15. The award is a cash prize of £15,000.
The Mexico–Spain co-production previously won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Award at Sundance earlier this year followed by more trophies at San Sebastian, Zurich and Morelia. The film is about on a mother searching for her missing son who tried to emigrate illegally to the US. Alpha Violet handles world sales.
Mexican director Fernanda Valadez’s Identifying Features has won the Golden Alexander-Theo Angelopoulos for best film at Greece’s Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) which took place entirely online from November 5-15. The award is a cash prize of £15,000.
The Mexico–Spain co-production previously won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Award at Sundance earlier this year followed by more trophies at San Sebastian, Zurich and Morelia. The film is about on a mother searching for her missing son who tried to emigrate illegally to the US. Alpha Violet handles world sales.
- 11/16/2020
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
“Identifying Features,” Fernanda Valadez’s searing abduction drama set along the U.S.-Mexico border, was awarded the Golden Alexander for best feature film at the 61st Thessaloniki Film Festival.
The awards were announced Monday at the conclusion of the Greek fest’s digital edition, which ran Nov. 5-15. Valadez’s feature debut, which was a double award winner in the World Cinema dramatic competition in Sundance, follows the extraordinary ordeal of a woman who sets out in search of her teenage son two months after he left their village to find work in the U.S.
“In a cruel world of heartbreaks, tragedy and survival, a story of an unexpected bond is born,” the international jury said in its decision. “The film stands as a reminder of the limitless space artistic expression can take.”
Greek director Georgis Grigorakis took home the Silver Alexander Special Jury Award for his feature debut,...
The awards were announced Monday at the conclusion of the Greek fest’s digital edition, which ran Nov. 5-15. Valadez’s feature debut, which was a double award winner in the World Cinema dramatic competition in Sundance, follows the extraordinary ordeal of a woman who sets out in search of her teenage son two months after he left their village to find work in the U.S.
“In a cruel world of heartbreaks, tragedy and survival, a story of an unexpected bond is born,” the international jury said in its decision. “The film stands as a reminder of the limitless space artistic expression can take.”
Greek director Georgis Grigorakis took home the Silver Alexander Special Jury Award for his feature debut,...
- 11/16/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Cate Blanchett and her team at Dirty Films are coming on board as executive producers on the Christos Nikou-directed Apples, the film which opened Venice Orizzonti section to strong reviews and was also a selection of Telluride and TIFF and is a potential for the Greece’s choice for Best International Feature Film.
Blanchett, Andrew Upton, and Coco Francini of Dirty Films are now exec producers of the pandemic-set film, which is now playing all the festivals. While most of those festivals were virtual, Venice was the exception and Blanchett discovered the film while she presided over the jury of the Golden Lion section, and took time to see the film in the Orizzonti section. She formed a new creative collaboration with the film and Nikou, who made his debut as director after working as Ad for filmmakers including Richard Linklater and Yorgot Lanthimos.
“Apples is an unforgettable,...
Blanchett, Andrew Upton, and Coco Francini of Dirty Films are now exec producers of the pandemic-set film, which is now playing all the festivals. While most of those festivals were virtual, Venice was the exception and Blanchett discovered the film while she presided over the jury of the Golden Lion section, and took time to see the film in the Orizzonti section. She formed a new creative collaboration with the film and Nikou, who made his debut as director after working as Ad for filmmakers including Richard Linklater and Yorgot Lanthimos.
“Apples is an unforgettable,...
- 10/12/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Christos Nikou was there at the start of the Greek Weird Wave as the assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark comedy Dogtooth (2009), the movie that launched the absurdist cinema movement partly inspired by the chaos in Greece triggered by the global financial crisis. More than a decade later, Nikou is adding his own twist to the movement with his assured directorial debut.
Apples is an oddball fable — Nikou cites Spike Jonze, Leos Carax, and Charlie Kaufman as influences — set in an entirely analog world where a new pandemic is causing widespread amnesia. A morose man (Aris Servetalis) is discovered ...
Apples is an oddball fable — Nikou cites Spike Jonze, Leos Carax, and Charlie Kaufman as influences — set in an entirely analog world where a new pandemic is causing widespread amnesia. A morose man (Aris Servetalis) is discovered ...
- 9/12/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Christos Nikou was there at the start of the Greek Weird Wave as the assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos’ dark comedy Dogtooth (2009), the movie that launched the absurdist cinema movement partly inspired by the chaos in Greece triggered by the global financial crisis. More than a decade later, Nikou is adding his own twist to the movement with his assured directorial debut.
Apples is an oddball fable — Nikou cites Spike Jonze, Leos Carax, and Charlie Kaufman as influences — set in an entirely analog world where a new pandemic is causing widespread amnesia. A morose man (Aris Servetalis) is discovered ...
Apples is an oddball fable — Nikou cites Spike Jonze, Leos Carax, and Charlie Kaufman as influences — set in an entirely analog world where a new pandemic is causing widespread amnesia. A morose man (Aris Servetalis) is discovered ...
- 9/12/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Venice Film Festival hit Apples has scored more European distribution deals for Paris-based Alpha Violet.
Deals have closed with Lucky Red (Italy), Filmfreak (Netherlands), Fivia McF (Ex-Yugoslavia), New Horizon (Poland) and Filmladen (Austria).
Andrea Occhipinti, CEO, Lucky Red told us: “We were very impressed by Apples. It’s a strong and original film. We are happy to have a new author with Lucky Red; Christos Nikou will certainly make his way onto the international scene.”
The Greek dramedy, which was six years in the making, has already sold to Curzon for the UK and Ireland, Madman for Australia and Feelgood for Greece. CAA is repping U.S.
Also playing today in Toronto’s TIFF Selects program today, the film is set amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia and follows a middle-aged man who finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities.
Deals have closed with Lucky Red (Italy), Filmfreak (Netherlands), Fivia McF (Ex-Yugoslavia), New Horizon (Poland) and Filmladen (Austria).
Andrea Occhipinti, CEO, Lucky Red told us: “We were very impressed by Apples. It’s a strong and original film. We are happy to have a new author with Lucky Red; Christos Nikou will certainly make his way onto the international scene.”
The Greek dramedy, which was six years in the making, has already sold to Curzon for the UK and Ireland, Madman for Australia and Feelgood for Greece. CAA is repping U.S.
Also playing today in Toronto’s TIFF Selects program today, the film is set amidst a worldwide pandemic that causes sudden amnesia and follows a middle-aged man who finds himself enrolled in a recovery program designed to help unclaimed patients build new identities.
- 9/9/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Apples is set in a world where digital technology seems not to exist, yet the psychic imprint of the digital age hangs heavy over first-time director Christos Nikou’s sparse absurdist dramedy. In an alternate-universe Greece, people are falling victim to a pandemic of sudden-onset Memento syndrome: total, crippling amnesia that befalls ordinary adults seemingly at random, necessitating elaborate state-run medical programs for the mnemonically impaired. Of particular concern to such programs are “unclaimed” amnesiacs, patients who fail to be identified by friends or family members and thus become wards of the state, who must be gradually rehabilitated into society and construct new identities from scratch.
One such unlucky victim of sudden identity loss is Aris (Aris Servetalis), a thirtysomething man who boards a bus in Athens one day only to forget where he’s going or where he came from, along with seemingly every other important detail about his life.
One such unlucky victim of sudden identity loss is Aris (Aris Servetalis), a thirtysomething man who boards a bus in Athens one day only to forget where he’s going or where he came from, along with seemingly every other important detail about his life.
- 9/9/2020
- by Eli Friedberg
- The Film Stage
Christos Nikou couldn’t have anticipated the almost unrecognizable world into which he would be releasing his debut feature, “Apples,” but it’s a testament to the strength of this lonely and aloof tragicomedy’s central allegory that it adapts so well to our pear-shaped times. as reality aligns with the speculative world Nikou imagined.
Tipped to play the fall-fest trifecta of Telluride, Venice and Toronto, “Apples” takes place amid what sounds suspiciously like a pandemic — an unexplained spike in sudden, seemingly irreversible amnesia cases — although the scientists and media are predictably unclear about what’s happening. This isn’t the near future but a sort of eerily simplified recent past, a nostalgically analog civilization before cell phones and social media, when human connections had to be forged the old-fashioned way. Something is selectively wiping people’s memories, although in certain cases, it can be a blessing to forget, like...
Tipped to play the fall-fest trifecta of Telluride, Venice and Toronto, “Apples” takes place amid what sounds suspiciously like a pandemic — an unexplained spike in sudden, seemingly irreversible amnesia cases — although the scientists and media are predictably unclear about what’s happening. This isn’t the near future but a sort of eerily simplified recent past, a nostalgically analog civilization before cell phones and social media, when human connections had to be forged the old-fashioned way. Something is selectively wiping people’s memories, although in certain cases, it can be a blessing to forget, like...
- 9/2/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Christos Nikou’s feature debut opened Venice Horizons today.
Greek director Christos Nikou, whose debut feature Apples opened Venice’s Horizons today and is already shaping up as one of the buzz films of the festival, has revealed details of his next project.
Nikou is now planning an English-language feature, with a working title of Fingernails, which he and his writing partner Stavros Raptis are working on alongside UK playwright Sam Steiner.
“It is about love and the difficulty of people falling in love,” Nikou said. A first draft of the script is almost completed.
Nikou was signed up by...
Greek director Christos Nikou, whose debut feature Apples opened Venice’s Horizons today and is already shaping up as one of the buzz films of the festival, has revealed details of his next project.
Nikou is now planning an English-language feature, with a working title of Fingernails, which he and his writing partner Stavros Raptis are working on alongside UK playwright Sam Steiner.
“It is about love and the difficulty of people falling in love,” Nikou said. A first draft of the script is almost completed.
Nikou was signed up by...
- 9/2/2020
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
After more than six month of struggle for the film industry, this morning saw the first major movie event return as Venice staged its first press screenings for opening film Lacci and Greek drama Apples.
What a difference a year makes. Last year’s screenings of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth were largely full. Today’s screenings were sparsely attended with plenty of empty seats, a strange sight on the first day of the usually packed festival. It wasn’t only the social distancing measures. Attendance looks to be significantly down. I would say my screening of Apples was a tenth full at best. The late morning screenings were busier than those at 8.30am, and it should be noted that the screening of Italian competition film Lacci was always going to be busier than the Horizons opener, but reports are that Lacci was also far from 50% capacity.
Our temperatures were...
What a difference a year makes. Last year’s screenings of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s The Truth were largely full. Today’s screenings were sparsely attended with plenty of empty seats, a strange sight on the first day of the usually packed festival. It wasn’t only the social distancing measures. Attendance looks to be significantly down. I would say my screening of Apples was a tenth full at best. The late morning screenings were busier than those at 8.30am, and it should be noted that the screening of Italian competition film Lacci was always going to be busier than the Horizons opener, but reports are that Lacci was also far from 50% capacity.
Our temperatures were...
- 9/2/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Curzon Artificial Eye has acquired distribution rights in the U.K. and Ireland for “Apples,” the feature directorial debut of Greece’s Christos Nikou, which opens the Horizons section of the 77th Venice Film Festival on Sep. 2. Madman Entertainment has also scooped up rights for Australia and New Zealand.
The film, which was also selected to play in the cancelled Telluride Film Festival, is produced by Iraklis Mavroeidis, Angelo Venetis, Aris Dagios and Nikos Smpiliris of Greece’s Boo Productions and Mariusz Włodarski of Poland’s Lava Films. Alpha Violet is handling international sales of the film, while U.S. sales rights are going through CAA.
“Apples” is the story of a solitary man (Aris Servetalis) who falls victim to an unexplained pandemic that causes sudden amnesia. When he decides to take part in an experimental treatment to create new memories, he meets a woman (Sofia Georgovasili) undergoing the same therapy,...
The film, which was also selected to play in the cancelled Telluride Film Festival, is produced by Iraklis Mavroeidis, Angelo Venetis, Aris Dagios and Nikos Smpiliris of Greece’s Boo Productions and Mariusz Włodarski of Poland’s Lava Films. Alpha Violet is handling international sales of the film, while U.S. sales rights are going through CAA.
“Apples” is the story of a solitary man (Aris Servetalis) who falls victim to an unexplained pandemic that causes sudden amnesia. When he decides to take part in an experimental treatment to create new memories, he meets a woman (Sofia Georgovasili) undergoing the same therapy,...
- 9/1/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
"You can make a new beginning." An early festival promo trailer has debuted for a funky Greek film titled Apples, made by a protégé of Yorgos Lanthimos. This is premiering at the Venice Film Festival next month, which is why they're releasing this trailer to build buzz. After a pandemic causes people to develop sudden amnesia, a man is enrolled in a recovery program designed to create new memories. Much like how The Lobster explores modern relationships, Apples explores memory. Asking questions like: Do we remember what we have experienced or what we have chosen to remember? Can we forget the things that hurt us? In the end, are we simply just the sum of all those things we don't forget? The film stars Aris Servetalis, Sofia Georgovassili, Anna Kalaitzidou, Argyris Bakirtzis, and Kostas Laskos. It has that very odd, offbeat vibe like in Lanthimos' early films Dogtooth and Alps.
- 8/27/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The mysteries of memory and identity course through Apples, the feature debut of Greek director Christos Nikou, which will open the Orizzonti (Horizons) section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival.
In the film’s official trailer (see below), we are introduced to Aris (Aris Servetalis), who falls victim to a strange pandemic that causes amnesia. Aris, known by his identification number 14842, is enrolled in a recovery program that requires him to record experiences on cassette tape, and with a Polaroid camera in an effort to create new memories and rebuild his identity.
Judging by the trailer, Nikou taps into ...
In the film’s official trailer (see below), we are introduced to Aris (Aris Servetalis), who falls victim to a strange pandemic that causes amnesia. Aris, known by his identification number 14842, is enrolled in a recovery program that requires him to record experiences on cassette tape, and with a Polaroid camera in an effort to create new memories and rebuild his identity.
Judging by the trailer, Nikou taps into ...
- 8/27/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The mysteries of memory and identity course through Apples, the feature debut of Greek director Christos Nikou, which will open the Orizzonti (Horizons) section of the 77th Venice International Film Festival.
In the film’s official trailer (see below), we are introduced to Aris (Aris Servetalis), who falls victim to a strange pandemic that causes amnesia. Aris, known by his identification number 14842, is enrolled in a recovery program that requires him to record experiences on cassette tape, and with a Polaroid camera in an effort to create new memories and rebuild his identity.
Judging by the trailer, Nikou taps into ...
In the film’s official trailer (see below), we are introduced to Aris (Aris Servetalis), who falls victim to a strange pandemic that causes amnesia. Aris, known by his identification number 14842, is enrolled in a recovery program that requires him to record experiences on cassette tape, and with a Polaroid camera in an effort to create new memories and rebuild his identity.
Judging by the trailer, Nikou taps into ...
- 8/27/2020
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ career has long displayed a morbid fascination for the contours of the body, mind, and spirit, in all their ugliness. Well before “Dogtooth” shook the international film scene and “The Favourite” won Olivia Colman an Oscar, the Greek filmmaker made his debut with “Kinetta.” While this head-scratching puzzle box may at times feel like a sketchpad draft for his films to come, it nevertheless exerts a hypnotic power that makes it easy to see why Lanthimos quickly became a director to watch.
More from IndieWireNetflix Puts 10 Educational Documentaries on YouTube for FreeThe NBA Is Developing a Streaming Service with Microsoft
Most of Lanthimos’ movies include self-flagellation of some sort, whether the literal acts of torture inflicted by the women of “The Favourite” on themselves,...
Yorgos Lanthimos’ career has long displayed a morbid fascination for the contours of the body, mind, and spirit, in all their ugliness. Well before “Dogtooth” shook the international film scene and “The Favourite” won Olivia Colman an Oscar, the Greek filmmaker made his debut with “Kinetta.” While this head-scratching puzzle box may at times feel like a sketchpad draft for his films to come, it nevertheless exerts a hypnotic power that makes it easy to see why Lanthimos quickly became a director to watch.
More from IndieWireNetflix Puts 10 Educational Documentaries on YouTube for FreeThe NBA Is Developing a Streaming Service with Microsoft
Most of Lanthimos’ movies include self-flagellation of some sort, whether the literal acts of torture inflicted by the women of “The Favourite” on themselves,...
- 4/17/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Pure Flix/Quality Flix has picked up international sales rights to religious drama “Man of God,” starring Mickey Rourke, Aris Servetalis and Alexander Petrov.
The rights are for sale at the Berlin Film Festival. “Man of God,” directed and written by Yelena Popovic. Producers are Alexandros Potter and Yelena Popovic through their company Simeon Entertainment and Kostas Lambropoulos through his company View Master Films.
Ron Gell of Pure Flix/Quality Flix, said, “This is a big film with award-winning talent. It’s exciting to be involved with this great script and we are confident that Yelena Popovic will deliver a wonderful film by year’s end. This is a story everyone can relate to, of humility, inspiration and devotion.”
“Man of God” centers on St. Nektarios of Aegina, a Greek Orthodox saint who was a priest of the common people during the 19th Century, who was stripped of his church...
The rights are for sale at the Berlin Film Festival. “Man of God,” directed and written by Yelena Popovic. Producers are Alexandros Potter and Yelena Popovic through their company Simeon Entertainment and Kostas Lambropoulos through his company View Master Films.
Ron Gell of Pure Flix/Quality Flix, said, “This is a big film with award-winning talent. It’s exciting to be involved with this great script and we are confident that Yelena Popovic will deliver a wonderful film by year’s end. This is a story everyone can relate to, of humility, inspiration and devotion.”
“Man of God” centers on St. Nektarios of Aegina, a Greek Orthodox saint who was a priest of the common people during the 19th Century, who was stripped of his church...
- 2/22/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Apples
Christos Nikou makes his directorial debut with Apples, produced by Marius Wlodarski, Angelos Venetis and Iraklis Mavroidis and Aris Dagios. The title stars Aris Servetalis and Babis Makidris (the director of 2012’s L and 2018’s Pity). Nikou served as as assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth and Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (2013). His short debut Km was released in 2012.
Gist: Co-written by Stavros Raptis, Apples focuses on Aris, a thirty-something solitary man afflicted by an unexplained surge of amnesia which seems to be sweeping the city.…...
Christos Nikou makes his directorial debut with Apples, produced by Marius Wlodarski, Angelos Venetis and Iraklis Mavroidis and Aris Dagios. The title stars Aris Servetalis and Babis Makidris (the director of 2012’s L and 2018’s Pity). Nikou served as as assistant director on Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth and Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight (2013). His short debut Km was released in 2012.
Gist: Co-written by Stavros Raptis, Apples focuses on Aris, a thirty-something solitary man afflicted by an unexplained surge of amnesia which seems to be sweeping the city.…...
- 12/31/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Paris-based sales agent Alpha Violet has acquired world rights for “Apples,” the feature directorial debut of Greek filmmaker Christos Nikou. The company and the director will present a teaser of the offbeat dramedy this week at the Mercato Internazionale Audiovisivo (Mia) in Rome.
“Apples” is the story of Aris, a solitary man in his late thirties, who becomes a victim of an unexplained surge of amnesia in his city and is forced to confront his condition through an experimental new treatment that creates new memories for patients. During treatment he meets a woman undergoing similar memory loss therapy, and their budding relationship makes Aris reconsider his actions and embark on a new direction in his life.
“‘Apples,’ an allegorical and somehow funny story, is in its core an effort to explore how our memory functions and how this affects us. How emotions affect our memory, and especially how our memory is affected by technology,...
“Apples” is the story of Aris, a solitary man in his late thirties, who becomes a victim of an unexplained surge of amnesia in his city and is forced to confront his condition through an experimental new treatment that creates new memories for patients. During treatment he meets a woman undergoing similar memory loss therapy, and their budding relationship makes Aris reconsider his actions and embark on a new direction in his life.
“‘Apples,’ an allegorical and somehow funny story, is in its core an effort to explore how our memory functions and how this affects us. How emotions affect our memory, and especially how our memory is affected by technology,...
- 10/15/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
For all of his seemingly out-there ideas and distinctive obsessions, Oscar-nominated Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos is one of world cinema’s most consistent creators. Even in his earliest solo feature, the hard-to-find “Kinetta,” Lanthimos’ unique aesthetic and worldview takes center stage. In the 2005 feature, bound for a U.S. release after all these years, Lanthimos’ panache for building out disturbing self-contained worlds that are bound by their own wild logic and weirdo rules is clear.
Though the film screened at various festivals in 2005 and 2006, it was never released stateside. Thanks to New York’s Museum of the Moving Image, the film will finally be available to American audiences, care of an upcoming run at the Queens institution. The film stars Aris Servetalis, Evangelia Randou, and Costas Xikominos.
Per the film’s official synopsis: “In a desolate Greek resort town, three tenuously connected people are motivated by mysterious impulses. A plain-clothes...
Though the film screened at various festivals in 2005 and 2006, it was never released stateside. Thanks to New York’s Museum of the Moving Image, the film will finally be available to American audiences, care of an upcoming run at the Queens institution. The film stars Aris Servetalis, Evangelia Randou, and Costas Xikominos.
Per the film’s official synopsis: “In a desolate Greek resort town, three tenuously connected people are motivated by mysterious impulses. A plain-clothes...
- 10/14/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Babis Makridis’ film expected to be Greek Oscars entry.
The Greek-Polish co-production Pity, an existential drama by Babis Makridis, was crowned best film at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy (Helfiac) awards on Tuesday evening (April 23).
Steve Krikris’ debut feature The Waiter won four awards, whilst Her Job by Nikos Labot, and Angelos Frantzis’ Still River won three each, including best director for Frantzis and best first film for Her Job.
Pity arrived at the awards after appearing at festivals including Sundance, Rotterdam, Odessa (best film and direction), Valetta (best director) and Montenegro (best film). It also won best sound for...
The Greek-Polish co-production Pity, an existential drama by Babis Makridis, was crowned best film at the Iris Hellenic Film Academy (Helfiac) awards on Tuesday evening (April 23).
Steve Krikris’ debut feature The Waiter won four awards, whilst Her Job by Nikos Labot, and Angelos Frantzis’ Still River won three each, including best director for Frantzis and best first film for Her Job.
Pity arrived at the awards after appearing at festivals including Sundance, Rotterdam, Odessa (best film and direction), Valetta (best director) and Montenegro (best film). It also won best sound for...
- 4/25/2019
- by Alexis Grivas
- ScreenDaily
The Greek weird wave meets The Postman Always Rings Twice in The Waiter, a minimalist, darkly deadpan neo-noir from debuting writer-director Steve Krikris. With scant dialogue and an offbeat brand of humor, the film follows a lonely Athens server caught up in a fatal love triangle that throws his well-ordered life into disarray. Competently made, with crisp wide-screen cinematography and an economic sense of storytelling, this subtly promising first feature has toured a handful of European festivals (Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Luxembourg) and deserves more exposure abroad.
The opening reel, which follows humdrum café employee Renos (Aris Servetalis) in his daily routine of serving ...
The opening reel, which follows humdrum café employee Renos (Aris Servetalis) in his daily routine of serving ...
- 3/22/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Greek weird wave meets The Postman Always Rings Twice in The Waiter, a minimalist, darkly deadpan neo-noir from debuting writer-director Steve Krikris. With scant dialogue and an offbeat brand of humor, the film follows a lonely Athens server caught up in a fatal love triangle that throws his well-ordered life into disarray. Competently made, with crisp wide-screen cinematography and an economic sense of storytelling, this subtly promising first feature has toured a handful of European festivals (Thessaloniki, Istanbul, Luxembourg) and deserves more exposure abroad.
The opening reel, which follows humdrum café employee Renos (Aris Servetalis) in his daily routine of serving ...
The opening reel, which follows humdrum café employee Renos (Aris Servetalis) in his daily routine of serving ...
- 3/22/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
“How much pleasure did you take as a kid, Lasher said, in imagining yourself dead?”
“Never mind as a kid,” Grappa said. “I still do it all the time. Whenever I’m upset over something, I imagine all my friends, relatives and colleagues gathered at my bier. They are very, very sorry they weren't nicer to me while I lived. Self-pity is something I've worked very hard to maintain. Why abandon it just because you grow up? Self-pity is something that children are very good at, which must mean it is natural and important. Imagining yourself dead is the cheapest, sleaziest, most satisfying form of childish self-pity. How sad and remorseful and guilty all those people are, standing by your great bronze coffin. They can't even look each other in the eye because they know that the death of this decent and compassionate man is the result of a conspiracy they all took part in.
“Never mind as a kid,” Grappa said. “I still do it all the time. Whenever I’m upset over something, I imagine all my friends, relatives and colleagues gathered at my bier. They are very, very sorry they weren't nicer to me while I lived. Self-pity is something I've worked very hard to maintain. Why abandon it just because you grow up? Self-pity is something that children are very good at, which must mean it is natural and important. Imagining yourself dead is the cheapest, sleaziest, most satisfying form of childish self-pity. How sad and remorseful and guilty all those people are, standing by your great bronze coffin. They can't even look each other in the eye because they know that the death of this decent and compassionate man is the result of a conspiracy they all took part in.
- 2/2/2018
- MUBI
Pioneering Greek director Giorgos Lanthimos' festival favourite Alps (Alpeis, 2011), the controversial filmmaker's follow-up to the Oscar-nominated, cult smash Dogtooth (2009), is another weird and wonderful exploration of human psychology, and stars Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis and Johnny Vekris. To celebrate the eagerly anticipated DVD release of Alps on Monday 11 March, courtesy of UK distributor Artificial Eye, we have Three copies of the film to offer to our world cinema-loving followers. This is an exclusive competition for our Facebook and Twitter fans, so if you haven't already, 'Like' us at facebook.com/CineVueUK or follow us @CineVue before answering the question below.
Read more »...
Read more »...
- 3/8/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Argo | Alps | My Brother The Devil | East End Babylon | Aurora | Grassroots | Here Comes The Boom | Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan | The Sapphires | People Like Us | Love Bite
Argo (15)
(Ben Affleck, 2012, Us) Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, 120 mins
Affleck's rehabilitation is complete thanks to this unlikely-but-true collision of Hollywood sci-fi and Iranian politics. It looks and feels like a lost 1970s thriller, with perfect retro styling and slow-burning tension, all nicely undercut by a CIA agent's crazy plan to use a Star Wars knock-off to spirit Americans out of revolutionary Tehran. A fake 70s thriller about a fake 70s sci-fi, based on a real story – what's not to like?
Alps (15)
(Giorgos Lanthimos, 2011, Gre) Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, 93 mins
More audacious but coolly deadpan oddness from the Dogtooth director, this time following a secretive group who provide a surreal service for grieving relatives. The world's a stage, Lanthimos hints,...
Argo (15)
(Ben Affleck, 2012, Us) Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, 120 mins
Affleck's rehabilitation is complete thanks to this unlikely-but-true collision of Hollywood sci-fi and Iranian politics. It looks and feels like a lost 1970s thriller, with perfect retro styling and slow-burning tension, all nicely undercut by a CIA agent's crazy plan to use a Star Wars knock-off to spirit Americans out of revolutionary Tehran. A fake 70s thriller about a fake 70s sci-fi, based on a real story – what's not to like?
Alps (15)
(Giorgos Lanthimos, 2011, Gre) Stavros Psyllakis, Aris Servetalis, 93 mins
More audacious but coolly deadpan oddness from the Dogtooth director, this time following a secretive group who provide a surreal service for grieving relatives. The world's a stage, Lanthimos hints,...
- 11/10/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
The movie's unnamed protagonist (Aris Servetalis) is separated from his family, and lives in his car. His children join him for weekly drives, and on his birthday his whole family crowd in to watch him blow out the candles on his cake. The man works in his car too, as a professional driver. Allusions are drawn to the kind of underworld jobs that are usually cool in movies - his driving gloves lead someone to liken him to a professional killer, and he does regular pick-ups of merchandise for a mysterious buyer, complete with elaborate passwords. But he is anything but cool and, true to the film's absurdist bent, the merchandise he's collecting isn't money or drugs, but instead honey. [Continued ...]...
- 8/7/2012
- QuietEarth.us
Yorgos Lanthimos’s Alps, like his previous Academy-Award nominated critical favorite Dogtooth, is a movie that feels like a puzzle. Not an Inception or Lost-style puzzle where answers to mysteries are teased and delivered with thunderous revelation. Alps is a quiet, restrained work of artistry that’s cryptic in its approach to detail, ambiguous in its construction of characters, and deliberately distanced in its psychological, emotional, and visual landscape. Lanthimos and co-screenwriter Efthymis Filippou have once again created a film whose idiosyncratic microcosm is manifested through short scenes that reveal brief and often puzzling bits of information until those bits gradually accumulate into a more full understanding of what the hell is going on. Lanthimos’s films require a significant amount of work from the viewer, and should be credited for it. Alps opens with a striking image of a gymnast (Ariane Labed) performing rhythmic dance to a classical composition who is then verbally abused by her...
- 7/10/2012
- by Landon Palmer
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Alps (Alpies) Kino Lorber Films Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten Grade: B- Director: Yorgos Lanthimos Screenwriter: Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou Cast: Aggeliki Papoulia, Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris, Ariane Labed, Stavros Psillakis, Efthijmis Filippou, Maria Kirozi Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 6/18/12 Opens: July 13, 2012 Yorgos Lanthimos is in his element with “Alps,” his previous work, “Dogtooth” (“Kynodontas”)” taking root with a crazy father’s creating an insane world for his teen family, prohibiting their leaving the estate and teaching them only what he believes is important. For the teens, escape from a fantasy into reality is a goal. By contrast, for some residents of “Alps,” escape into fantasy and [ Read More ]...
- 6/22/2012
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Director: Giorgos Lanthimos Writers: Giorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou Starring: Aris Servetalis, Johnny Vekris, Ariane Labed, Aggeliki Papoulia, Stavros Psyllakis People sometimes do very strange things to cope with the loss of a loved one; for example, in writer-director Giorgos Lanthimos' Alps they hire an actor from a highly skilled collective to temporarily assume the role of the deceased. The collective goes by the name Alps. Why? Well, Mont Blanc (Aris Servetalis) -- the de facto leader of the Alps -- explains that while the majestic European mountain range is irreplaceable, the individual mountains of the Alps can seamlessly replace any other mountain in the world. Sure the Alps mountain may not resemble the one that it is replacing; but as part of the Alps, it possesses the innate ability to convince you otherwise. Similarly, Mont Blanc's team of actors may not look like the deceased person, but they utilize...
- 6/13/2012
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
by Vadim Rizov
Alps begins with a rhythmic gymnast (Ariane Lebed) facing off against her coach (Johnny Berkis). She wants Euro-trashy club music to soundtrack her ribbon-twirling; he insists on the deadly backing of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana” (its opening movement, "O Fortuna," is a staple of movie trailers). The bulky trainer threatens to break her arm the next time he questions her musical judgment. "You aren't ready for pop," he tonelessly declares.
Is writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos ready for pop? [Listen to our podcast.] Alps, his follow-up to the extreme dark comedy of 2009's Dogtooth, shares several quasi-joke touchstones with its predecessor: violence against women, incest and psychological terrorization, all committed with blank disaffection. Both films take place in a budgetary universe far from Hollywood, but that doesn't mean Alps' characters or creator disdain it. "Who's your favorite actor?" a paramedic asks a girl who has been badly injured. "Jude Law?" Celebrity...
Alps begins with a rhythmic gymnast (Ariane Lebed) facing off against her coach (Johnny Berkis). She wants Euro-trashy club music to soundtrack her ribbon-twirling; he insists on the deadly backing of Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana” (its opening movement, "O Fortuna," is a staple of movie trailers). The bulky trainer threatens to break her arm the next time he questions her musical judgment. "You aren't ready for pop," he tonelessly declares.
Is writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos ready for pop? [Listen to our podcast.] Alps, his follow-up to the extreme dark comedy of 2009's Dogtooth, shares several quasi-joke touchstones with its predecessor: violence against women, incest and psychological terrorization, all committed with blank disaffection. Both films take place in a budgetary universe far from Hollywood, but that doesn't mean Alps' characters or creator disdain it. "Who's your favorite actor?" a paramedic asks a girl who has been badly injured. "Jude Law?" Celebrity...
- 2/22/2012
- GreenCine Daily
Joel Edgerton, Wish You Were Here World Cinema Dramatic Competition 4 Suns / Czech Republic (Director/screenwriter: Bohdan Sláma) — Immature Fogi attempts to straighten up and accept his responsibilities as a new husband and father, as well as role model to his troubled son from a previous relationship, but finds himself unable to change his nature, leaving him to watch haplessly as his family begins to crumble. Cast: Jaroslav Plesl, Ana Geislerová, Karel Roden, Klára Melíšková. World Premiere About the Pink Sky / Japan (Director/screenwriter: Keiichi Kobayashi) — A high school girl finds a wallet full of money and tracks down its owner, leading to unexpected consequences for the girl and her friends. Cast: Ai Ikeda, Ena Koshino, Reiko Fujiwara, Tsubasa Takayama. International Premiere Can / Turkey (Director/screenwriter: Rasit Celikezer) — A young married couple live happily in Istanbul, but their decision to illegally procure a child threatens their future together. Cast: Selen Ucer,...
- 12/2/2011
- by Steve Montgomery
- Alt Film Guide
“Valley of Saints”, a love story set in Kashmir is all set to compete for the top award in the World Dramatics category of Sundance Film Festival 2012. The film, directed by an American filmmaker Musa Sayeed, had earlier won Film Independent and Sloan Foundation Producer’s Grant for the same films.
“Valley of Saints” is about a Kashmiri boatman Gulzar, who plans to run away from the war and poverty surrounding his village in Kashmir with his best friend, but a beautiful young woman researching the dying lake leads him to contemplate a different future. Sundance Film Festival announced its competition line up on November 30, 2011. Here is the complete lineup:- U.S. Dramatic Competition The world premieres of 16 American narrative feature films.
Beasts of the Southern Wild / U.S.A. (Director: Benh Zeitlin, Screenwriters: Benh Zeitlin, Lucy Alibar) — Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna rerun from the grave, and...
“Valley of Saints” is about a Kashmiri boatman Gulzar, who plans to run away from the war and poverty surrounding his village in Kashmir with his best friend, but a beautiful young woman researching the dying lake leads him to contemplate a different future. Sundance Film Festival announced its competition line up on November 30, 2011. Here is the complete lineup:- U.S. Dramatic Competition The world premieres of 16 American narrative feature films.
Beasts of the Southern Wild / U.S.A. (Director: Benh Zeitlin, Screenwriters: Benh Zeitlin, Lucy Alibar) — Waters gonna rise up, wild animals gonna rerun from the grave, and...
- 12/1/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
For Ellen, Luv, and the other competition films have been announced for the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival is “a film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States…the festival is the premier showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers.” For the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, “110 feature-length films were selected, representing 31 countries and 44 first-time filmmakers, including 26 in competition. These films were selected from 4,042 feature-length film submissions composed of 2,059 U.S. and 1,983 international feature-length films. 88 films at the Festival will be world premieres.”
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival will run from January 19, 2011 to January 29, 2011 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
The full listing of the competition films in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival are below.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The world premieres of 16 American narrative feature films.
The 2012 Sundance Film Festival will run from January 19, 2011 to January 29, 2011 in Park City, Salt Lake City, Ogden and Sundance, Utah.
The full listing of the competition films in the 2011 Sundance Film Festival are below.
U.S. Dramatic Competition
The world premieres of 16 American narrative feature films.
- 12/1/2011
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
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