News

Canadian actor and filmmaker Xavier Dolan will be joined on this year’s Un Certain Regard Jury by French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps, and American film critic and writer Todd McCarthy.

The jury will be in charge of awarding prizes for the Un Certain Regard sidebar. This year, 18 films have been selected, including eight first features. The 2023 Un Certain Regard top prize went to director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How to Have Sex. When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Un Certain Regard section on May 15.

A self-taught filmmaker, Dolan made his feature directorial debut at 19 with I Killed My Mother, an adaptation of his own short story, which was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards. He followed up that film with the 2010 romantic drama Heartbeats, which brought him into the Un Certain Regard section...

Actress Vicky Krieps and filmmaker Maimouna Doucoure are among the jury members for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.

Also joining are Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir, and American film critic and writer Todd McCarthy.

Xavier Dolan was announced as jury president earlier this year.

The quintet will watch 18 films as part of the Un Certain Regard selection, including eight debut films.

Last year’s Un Certain Regard jury, headed by John C. Reilly, awarded six prizes including the main award to Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex.

This year’s Un Certain Regard...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

2024 Sundance Film Festival

Through Sunday, one can experience the 2024 Sundance Film Festival from the comfort of their own home, if it’s in the United States. Having seen over 50 titles in the lineup, in terms of films with tickets still available I can highly recommend Good One, Between the Temples, Tendaberry, Black Box Diaries, Ibelin, Kneecap, Didi, Brief History of a Family, Porcelain War, Sugarcane, Sujo, Seeking Mavis Beacon, Skywalkers: A Love Story, Union, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, and Realm of Satan. – Jordan R.

Where to Stream: Official Site (through Sunday only)

Amanda (Carolina Cavalli)

Sofia Coppola’s eighth feature doesn’t hit theaters for another few months, but you’d be forgiven if you thought it was actually Amanda, writer-director Carolina Cavalli’s darkly humorous,...

After the huge success of Fool Me Once, Netflix have commissioned two more Harlan Coben adaptations, here are the details.

The Harlan Coben thriller is quickly becoming its own subgenre. So far, ten of his high-octane, twisty novels have made their way to the screen. Amongst the highlights, Tell No One was adapted into a terrific French film of the same name in 2006, directed by Guillaume Canet and starring Francois Cluzet and Kristen Scott Thomas.

On television, The Five, Safe, Innocent, Just One Look, No Second Chance, The Stranger, The Woods, Gone For Good, Stay Close, Hold Me Tight and – most recently – Fool Me Once have all been adapted variously for Channel 5 and Netflix.

It’s thanks to the huge success of Fool Me Once, which landed on Netflix over Christmas and stars Michelle Keegan, that the streaming service are pressing ahead with two more Coben adaptations, Deadline has revealed.

Exclusive: Shooting has wrapped on Went Up the Hill, the psychological ghost story starring Cannes award winner Vicky Krieps and Stranger Things actor Dacre Montgomery.

Above is a first look at the Samuel Van Grinsven flick, which is headed for next week’s AFM via Bankside Films. Buyers in LA will be presented with a promo reel, with Bankside repping international sales and co-repping North American rights with CAA Media Finance.

The film was shot on location in New Zealand and was the latest collaboration between London-based Bankside and Causeway Films following their partnership on Danny & Michael Philippou’s Talk to Me, which is nearing $100M at the global box office. We first told you about it last year.

Went Up the Hill stars Montgomery as Jack and Krieps as Jill. Abandoned as a child, Jack ventures to remote New Zealand to attend the funeral of his estranged mother and there meets her grieving widow,...

Vicky Krieps is no ordinary actress. Paul Thomas Anderson knew that when he hired her to stand up to Daniel Day-Lewis in 2017’s “Phantom Thread.” After that breakout role, the Luxembourg-born actress was inundated with Hollywood offers. She chose to keep herself grounded with her German husband and two children (now 8 and 12) in Berlin, turning down the studio films — and a lot of potential paydays — that came her way. She never took on a Hollywood agent. Casting agents got the message, and she has been sent more quality fare ever since.

“I remember people saying I was stupid,” she told IndieWire during a recent interview, sitting on the lobby stairs in a quiet corner of the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. Her indie Western, directed by and co-starring Viggo Mortensen, “The Dead Don’t Hurt,” was on offer at the annual festival.

“It was like a poison. I could feel people going,...

The Beatles‘ cheesiest songs tended to be about love. At least the band knew how to change it up a bit most of the time. Thankfully, they grew out of writing about love all the time halfway through the 1960s. Here is a list of 10 of The Beatles’ cheesiest love songs.

The Beatles | Mirrorpix/Getty Images 10. ‘Misery’

“Misery” is one of The Beatles’ most miserable songs but is also one of their cheesiest. It’s an almost too-depressing breakup song where the speaker is talking about losing the love of their life. The corniest lyric in the tune is: “Send her back to me/ ‘Cause everyone can see/ Without her, I will be/ In misery.”

9. ‘P.S. I Love You’

The cheese in “P.S. I Love You” is in the title. The lyrics in the opening verse are so gooey that they get stuck in our teeth: “As I write this letter,...

Paul McCartney claims a few “stocking fillers” are in his massive catalog. In other words, he doesn’t believe that they are the “main Christmas present.” Here are the songs the former Beatle considers throwaways.

Paul McCartney | Harry Durrant/ Getty Images Paul McCartney claims a couple of songs in his and Wings’ catalog are ‘filler’

In his book, The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul explained that he thinks his and Wings’ song “Let ‘Em In” is a “stocking filler.” That’s how he thinks of some of his songs. “It’s a fun little item, but it’s not your main Christmas present,” he wrote.

Paul said he can get perfectionist about things and think, “This is just not one of my grand pieces.” Then, he’ll get a “bit down” on those songs. For instance, he remembers being very down about his song “Bip Bop.”

Paul used to think,...

The Beatles wrote some of the most famous love songs ever. They were masters of romantic tunes and devised new ways of telling love stories. Some are about someone loving another. Others are more vulnerable and aching for affection. Here are 10 of the best Beatles love songs.

The Beatles | Keystone-France/Getty Images 1. ‘Ask Me Why’

The lyrics of “Ask Me Why” are so incredibly romantic. In the song, one person is singing to another about how glad they are that they found love together. The person is even moved to tears. There will be no more sadness because the other person loves them. John Lennon sings, “Now you’re mine, my happiness still makes me cry/ And in time, you’ll understand the reason why/ If I cry, it’s not because I’m sad/ But you’re the only love that I’ve ever had.”

2. ‘Do You Want to...

Paul McCartney rarely says anything negative about The Beatles and the band’s songs. He has said slightly negative statements about specific pieces, but it’s not usually a mean or biting comment. With that being said, he disliked a few Beatles songs, even if it can be hard to tell.

Here are 5 Beatles songs disliked by Paul McCartney ‘She Said She Said’ Paul McCartney and George Harrison | Edward Wing/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

“She Said She Said” is a favorite song for many Beatles fans, but Paul McCartney doesn’t share the same attachment. However, it may have to do with the story behind the song rather than the track itself. “She Said She Said” is based on an acid trip that George Harrison and John Lennon embarked on with actor Peter Fonda.

Rumor is that Paul got into an argument with the band over being teased for not taking acid.

Tl;Dr:

John Lennon didn’t remember how The Beatles’ “Hold Me Tight” came together.John was not a fan of the track and he said he never cared about it.Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ “Hold Me Tight” “was a failed attempt at a single.” The Beatles’ John Lennon, George Harrison, Paul McCartney | Keystone Features/Getty Images

John Lennon dismissed The Beatles‘ “Hold Me Tight” from the album With the Beatles. He didn’t care about the track one way or the other. Subsequently, Paul McCartney revealed “Hold Me Tight” was supposed to be a single but it didn’t make the cut.

John Lennon didn’t totally remember how The Beatles’ ‘Hold Me Tight’ came together and he didn’t care about it

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. During the interview, John was asked about “Hold Me Tight.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSKing Lear.Jean-Luc Godard, groundbreaking French-Swiss filmmaker across six decades, died last week at age 91. In the week since, a number of tributes have been shared: among them, Blair McClendon in n+1, J. Hoberman in The Nation, Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, and Richard Hell in Screen Slate. Alternatively, you can find a 2002 essay on Godard by filmmaker and theorist Peter Wollen on Verso's blog, watch a 1988 conversation between Godard and critic Serge Daney, or read this list Godard contributed to the British film journal Afterimage in 1970. Shadow and Act founder Tambay Obenson is fundraising to launch Akoroko, a new platform devoted to African film and television. The platform intends to combine film journalism with “consultation, cataloging, and curated film streaming.”Two posters (below) for the 61st New York Film Festival feature photographs taken by Nan Goldin.

By Abe Friedtanzer

Actress Vicky Krieps, who was introduced to American audiences in a big way in a performance that should have earned her an Oscar nomination for Phantom Thread, is getting a lot of work lately. She had a prominent role in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old and stars in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight, which is now playing in theaters. Most notably, she tied for the best performance prize in the 'Un Certain Regard' section at Cannes this summer for Corsage. It's a movie she both conceived of and executive produced, and now it's become Austria’s official Oscar entry.

Krieps plays Elisabeth, the Empress of Austria in 1878. The popular royal figurehead is turning forty, and she’s also watching her life slip away as her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister), relegates her to uninteresting duties that don’t serve any true purpose...

After Ever Happy, the fourth installment of the popular After romance/drama franchise, will gross circa 1.1 million since its release last Wednesday on 1,085 screens. From Fathom Events, this was the top film in the domestic marketplace Sept. 7-8 for a two-day run before dipping to 200+ screens this weekend. Vertical Entertainment will pick up the film’s U.S. theatrical starting September 16.

After Ever Happy opened in Canada Aug 26 (non-Fathom), grossing an estimated 695,000 to date — for a total 1.8 million cume in North America.

This weekend open is a 22 bump over 2021’s After We Fell, the third film based on the ‘After’ book series by Anna Todd and driven by a fan base that calls themselves the Afternators. The first two installments were After (2019) and After We Collided (2020). The fifth film, After Everything, just wrapped production with release date Tbd.

Directed by Castille Landon with screenplay by Sharon Soboil, After Even...

Disney has both the #1 and #2 film this weekend, exactly one year after last achieving that. Sony did it two weeks ago with “The Invitation” and “Bullet Train,” but it is something the House of Mouse did regularly in years when they were the dominant studio for theatrical releases.

Their lead this weekend is more of a default situation than last September when holdover weekends of “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” and “Free Guy” held the top two spots. The latter was a Fox-produced title distributed by Disney. This year, both “Barbarian” (also out of Fox) and “Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva” (from Fox Star India) placed as two titles that might not normally be associated with the Burbank studio.

This is likely to be the rock bottom weekend, possibly for years to come. Total grosses amounted to 43 million, second worst for 2022 (1/28-30 lower). That’s only 31 percent of 2019’s post-Labor Day weekend gross.

The Story of Film: A New Generation opens at two dozen theaters this weekend — Laemmle Royal in LA, Museum of the Moving Image in NY, Music Box Theatre in Chicago and Brattle in Cambridge. It’s a mix of arthouses, cinematheques, museums and even a few multiplexes for Mark Cousins’ follow-up to his 15-hour, 2011 opus The Story Of Film: An Odyssey. (This one clocks a relatively brief three hours.)

Several theaters are programming repertory series with the release, “which we feel will elevate its profile and continue the conversation,” said Kyle Westphal, head of theatrical sales for Music Box Films, the distributor for both installments.

A New Generation debuted at Cannes to strong reviews, Deadline’s here. Now, Westphal said, the first film, only available in standard definition, has been remastered in HD and both works will be released in a Blu-ray box set. The earlier work, which essentially played...

The narrative action of Mathieu Amalric’s latest directorial feature, Hold Me Tight, adapted from a play which was never staged, takes place in a kind of suspended timeline. One day Clarisse (Vicky Krieps) wakes up, gets dressed, and goes for a drive. In voiceover we hear that she has left her two children and husband and bears, it seems, no intention of returning. We see the family that has been left behind as they adjust to her sudden departure: the kids act out, the husband hides his panic, and they eventually begin settling into their new life.

But it dawns on us early (perhaps too early) that we aren’t getting the full story. Through Amalric’s unconventional structure that leaps through a fuzzy timeline and from fantasy to reality—and through a growing disconnect between what our narrator tells us and what we see—it becomes apparent that something darker,...

The woman offscreen at the start of Mathieu Amalric’s “Hold Me Tight” is examining a matrix of face-down Polaroids, turning them over and getting frustrated at what she’s not finding. Or perhaps not remembering?

Her name is Clarisse (Vicky Krieps), and she’s next shown quietly gathering some things in the pinched light of a bluish-orange dawn and slipping out of a house that still holds a sleeping husband, son and daughter. Her actions feel purposeful, but also anguished, maybe even desperate.

The act of leaving — and the prospect of leaving behind — is at the heart of Amalric’s emotional mystery which, as its fragments and enigmas unfold, isn’t necessarily a journey for viewers to solve but rather a state of mind to experience and understand: the bewitchingly poignant story of a woman’s fertile, possibly perilous, coping mechanism.

Also Read:

‘The Worst Ones,’ Vicky Krieps Win...

The gauzy blues and burnt oranges that make up the complementary color palette of Mathieu Amalric’s “Hold Me Tight” stand in stark contrast to one another, highlighting their differences while contributing to a sense of visual harmony. Orange safety vests pop against a bright blue sky, cobalt ink is written into a tangerine notebook, and a rust-colored 1978 AMC Pacer streaks through the blue-gray light of dawn. By definition, complementary colors are directly opposite one another on the color wheel, and when combined, cancel each other out to make white or black. In Amalric’s carefully constructed vision of a mother’s complicated separation from her family, two complementary and opposing versions of reality coexist alongside one another like puzzle pieces, working together to tell a single story.

The narrative threads seem connected at first, but as the film plays out they slowly begin to unravel. Clarisse (Vicky Krieps) is married with two children,...

There are few actors working today with the level of emotional intuitiveness of Vicky Krieps. Whenever she emerges onto a screen you innately feel exactly the emotion she is inhabiting in her character––whether that’s a woman rapidly aging on a beach in Old or a young waitress becoming romantically enthralled with an intimidating fashion designer in Phantom Thread. Every Krieps performance demands attention, and she’s been kind enough to offer a smorgasbord these past few years.

Krieps has spoken about feeling a bit lost after her breakout performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 film that paired her with Daniel Day-Lewis, but if it took her a few years to again find footing and sense of self in front of the camera, it was well worth the wait. After delivering an impressive lineup of performances in 2021 (among them M. Night Shyamalan’s best film in years and Mia Hansen-Løve...

Eight years after delivering his Oscar-nominated film “Timbuktu,” Abderrahmane Sissako is set to make his anticipated directorial comeback with “The Perfumed Hill.” Gaumont is representing in international markets and will introduce it to buyers at at Toronto. The French studio will also distribute the film in France, while Cohen Media Group will release it in the U.S.

Re-teaming Sissako with his “Timbuktu” co-writer Kessen Tall, “The Perfumed Hill” is a romance drama set between China’s tea hills, the Ivory Coast and Cape Verde. It stars Nina Melo (“Girlhood”), Han Chang (“Little Big Women”) and Ke-Xi Wu (“Nina Wu”).

The movie follows the journey of Joice, who leaves the Ivory Coast to start a new life in Guangzhou, China, after saying “no” on her wedding day. She finds a job at a tea boutique owned by Cai, a Chinese man, in the vibrant region of Guangzhou, known as the “Chocolate City.

Hold Me Tight (Serre moi fort) Kino Lorber Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Mathieu Amalric Screenwriter: Mathieu Amalric based on the play Je reviens de loin by Claudine Galea Cast: Vicky Krieps, Arieh Worthalter Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 8/16/22 Opens: September 9, 2022 One of the […]

The post Hold Me Tight Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Mathieu Amalric’s penetrating Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), based on the play Je Reviens De Loin by Claudine Galéa, begins cryptically with a woman, Clarisse, turning over polaroids of her family life displayed on a table in a kind of makeshift memory game. “I’m sick of being little,” says one of her two children. Daughter Lucie (Juliette Benveniste) wants a piano, son Paul (Aurèle Grzesik) wants a treehouse. What could her husband Marc (Arieh Worthalter) want?

Shot by (César Award winner for Xavier Giannoli’s Lost Illusions) Christophe Beaucarne (Amalric’s The Blue Room and Lumière winner for Barbara) the film is tinged in shades of coral - from the tablecloth to Clarisse’s fluffy sweater, to the rust and...

Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort) star Vicky Krieps on Mathieu Amalric: “I am not him, yet I am almost his alter ego as well.”

When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) she was on holiday in Italy. We discussed her role in Mathieu Amalric’s penetrating Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), which is based on Claudine Galéa’s play Je Reviens De Loin.

Vicky can soon be seen playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (screening in the Main Slate of the 60th New York Film Festival and produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) and as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi project for 2023, Sisi & I,...

After perusing our massive, 60-film, two-part fall preview, there shouldn’t be too many surprises on our first monthly highlights of the season. While September is often thought of as prelude to awards-season favorites, there are also a number of stellar, smaller-scale offerings we hope don’t get lost in the cracks––including a rather strong honorable mentions list to follow. Check out our picks below.

12. Petrov’s Flu (Kirill Serebrennikov; Sept. 23)

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov has been invited to back-to-back Cannes, premiering Petrov’s Flu last year and Tchaikovsky’s Wife this year. The former is finally getting a U.S. release, and Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Petrov’s Flu opens on a stuffy commute—a Moscow bus in the early years of post-Soviet Russia. The eponymous protagonist is already bent over a handrail, stricken with his affliction. The mood is fevered, almost circus-like, the lighting like pea soup. In a moment of madness,...

After a fairly quiet summer––outside of a few gems––the fall movie season is near and there’s much to anticipate. As we do each year, after highlighting the best films offered thus far, we’ve set out to provide an overview of the titles that should be on your radar––and while some dates will certainly shift and some films added, it’s quite a promising lineup.

Featuring 40 films, the below preview includes both the best we’ve already seen (with full reviews where available) and the anticipated with (mostly) confirmed release dates over the next four months. A good amount will premiere over the next few weeks at Telluride, Venice, TIFF, and NYFF, so check back for our reviews.

The Cathedral (Ricky D’Ambrose; Sept. 2)

What makes the fabric of our upbringing? The memories we’ll reflect on after those years have passed are often not what we...

Mathieu Amalric on the coat worn by Shirley Knight in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rain People and the one on Vicky Krieps: “That’s the reference. I told that to Caroline Spieth, the costume person.”

Mathieu Amalric’s terrific Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), based on the play Je Reviens De Loin by Claudine Galéa, shot by Christophe Beaucarne and starring Vicky Krieps and Arieh Worthalter was a highlight of the 74th Cannes Film Festival and New York’s 27th edition of Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. In the first instalment with Mathieu we discussed his films on John Zorn, thoughts on Robert Musil, Thomas Bernhard, Jerry Lewis, and going to Rome to film with Nanni Moretti Il Sol Dell'avvenire.

Mathieu Amalric (Je Reviens De Loin by Claudine Galéa) with Anne-Katrin Titze on Vicky Krieps as Clarisse: “As you said, she does the film. Her character is the projectionist,...

Now seemingly a regular fixture at the Cannes Film Festival, before this year’s Corsage and More Than Ever, Vicky Krieps debuted Bergman Island and Hold Me Tight there last year. The lattermost film, directed by international cinema icon Mathieu Amalric, arrives in U.S. theaters (courtesy Kino Lorber) next month and the new trailer has landed.

Adapted from a stage play by Claudine Galéa, the film follows Clarisse, a mother coping with great emotional upheaval, and Arieh Worthalter (Girl) as Marc, the husband she leaves behind. Krieps’ character is a woman on the run from her family for reasons that aren’t immediately clear, alternating between scenes of Clarisse’s road trip and of Marc as he cares for their two children, Paul, and Lucie, a pianist prodigy.

See the trailer below.

Hold Me Tight opens on September 9.

The post Vicky Krieps is on the Run in U.S.

Surprise endings aren’t just reserved for M. Night Shyamalan films, you know. Sometimes, a seemingly straightforward family drama can keep the twists and turns going until the very final moments, which is something that is key to the new film, “Hold Me Tight.”

As seen in the new trailer for “Hold Me Tight,” from director Mathieu Amalric, the film follows the story of Camille (Vicky Krieps), who abandons her family for an adventurous life on the road.

Continue reading ‘Hold Me Tight’ Trailer: Vicky Krieps Stars In Mathieu Amalric’s Twisty Family Drama at The Playlist.

IFC Films has nabbed North American rights to “Corsage,” Marie Kreutzer’s bold costume drama starring Vicky Krieps as the Empress Elisabeth of Austria known as Sissi.

Represented in international markets by MK2 Films, the movie world premiered at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and earned unanimous praise. It’s so far one of the most acclaimed films playing at the Cannes Film Festival and was circled by several other distributors. IFC Films also just scooped North American rights to Cristian Mungiu’s “R.M.N.,” another Cannes film, ahead of its world premiere at the festival.

“Corsage” centers on Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The monarch is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends, but in 1877, “Sissi” – as she is known – celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset tighter and tighter. While Elisabeth’s role has been reduced against her wishes to purely performative,...

Vicky Krieps should be up for Best Actress at Cannes this year. But as usual, festival programmers have slotted one of the best films at Cannes, Marie Kreutzer’s irreverently feminist Austrian royal drama “Corsage,” in Un Certain Regard.

Krieps’ time will come. Ever since she broke out in 2017 opposite Daniel Day Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread,” the Luxembourg actress has been making up for lost time, shooting one role after another, with no regard for making smart career choices, she told me at Cannes. “My choice always comes from my heart, which is why it doesn’t seem like a career choice, ever.”

Mia Hansen-Love’s “Bergman Island,” starring Krieps and Tim Roth as a fractious married couple, made a small arthouse splash last year after debuting at Cannes, while Mathieu Amalric’s Cannes title “Hold Me Tight” is finally coming out in North America this fall.

Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage,” which premieres in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, has debuted its first clip exclusively with Variety (below). MK2 Films is handling international sales. Ad Vitam will distribute the film in France.

“Corsage” stars Vicky Krieps, who broke out in the Oscar nominated “Phantom Thread.” Last year, she starred in Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Bergman Island,” which was in competition in Cannes, and was nominated for a César for Mathieu Amalric’s “Hold Me Tight.” She will soon be seen in Pathe’s big budget two-part movie “The Three Musketeers.”

“Corsage” centers on Empress Elisabeth of Austria. The monarch is idolized for her beauty and renowned for inspiring fashion trends, but in 1877, “Sissi” – as she is known – celebrates her 40th birthday and must fight to maintain her public image by lacing her corset tighter and tighter. While Elisabeth’s role has been reduced...

The European edition of the non-profit script development programme will take place virtually from April 7-1.

The Writers Lab (Twl), the script development programme for women and non-binary writers over 40, has unveiled the participants for its first European edition.

The non-profit initiative will run virtually from April 7-10, and is designed to discover an intersectional range of diverse new voices in the film sector. The successful participants will be connected with leading screenwriters and producers in the industry. 17 writers from 13 countries have been selected.

Scroll down for the full list of participants

Mentors and guests include directors Susanne Bier (The Night Manager...

Mathieu Amalric with Anne-Katrin Titze on a link between Robert Musil’s The Man Without Qualities, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Peter Sellers: “Somebody that is there, that didn’t ask anything and that puts the world in disorder.”

Mathieu Amalric’s terrific Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), starring Vicky Krieps and Arieh Worthalter was a highlight of the 74th Cannes Film Festival and New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. He just premiered Zorn III (2018 - 2022) in Cinéma du réel at the Centre Pompidou and this weekend he will be in Hamburg on stage with Barbara Hannigan to perform Zorn’s The Song of Songs (written for Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson). Then Mathieu is off to Rome to star in Nanni Moretti’s Il Sol Dell'Avvenire.

Barbara Hannigan and John Zorn in Mathieu Amalric’s Zorn III (2018 - 2022)

In the first of my series...

Deal closed at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema market.

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Mathieu Amalric’s Cannes 2021 family drama Hold Me Tight starring Vicky Krieps.

Krieps plays a woman coping with great emotional upheaval while Arieh Worthalter is her abandoned husband struggling to take care of the children while his wife flees the family for unknown reasons. Hold Me Tight is adapted from Claudine Galea’s stage play.

Laetitia Gonzalez and Yaël Fogiel produced with Olivier Pere. Les Films du Poisson produced with co-production partners Gaumont, Arte France Cinéma and Lupa Film.

The film enjoyed a prestige festival run that encompassed Rotterdam,...

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Mathieu Amalric’s “Hold Me Tight,” an engrossing family drama starring “Phantom Thread” actor Vicky Krieps. Co-produced and sold by Gaumont, the movie world premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Adapted from Claudine Galea’s stage play, “Hold Me Tight” follows Clarisse (Krieps), a mother who has abandoned her family for mysterious reasons and is coping with great emotional upheaval. The movie alternates between Clarisse’s adventures on the road and scenes of her husband Marc (Arieh Worthalter) struggling to care for their children at home.

Laetitia Gonzalez and Yaël Fogiel at Les Films du Poisson produced the movie with Gaumont, Arte France Cinéma and Lupa Film serving as co-producers.

Following Cannes, the movie went on to play at Rotterdam and Busan, as well as earned a pair of Cesar nominations for Krieps and best adapted screenplay for Amalric. Krieps...

Emilie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) with Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) in Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s lively Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs)

My first interaction with Anaïs In Love (Les Amours d'Anaïs) director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet was when I sent in a question during Unifrance’s 10 Talents To Watch in 2022 panel in Paris: “Which film you saw did you particularly like in 2021?” Her response included Leos Carax’s Annette (seen at Cannes), Bruno Dumont's France, starring Léa Seydoux, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World, and Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (another highlight of New York’s Rendez-Vous with French Cinema).

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet with Anne-Katrin Titze on Marguerite Duras and Alain Robbe-Grillet: “It mattered to me that the film was situated in this universe, this world of literature.”

Anaïs (Anaïs Demoustier) is always late, wears red lipstick to go with floral dresses, and carries her bike up many flights...

This year’s ceremony was uncharacteristically devoid of controversy after politically-charged editions in 2020 and 2021.

Xavier Giannoli’s costume drama Lost Illusions was the big winner at the 47th Cesar awards of France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences on Friday evening (25), winning best film, adapted screenplay, costume and supporting actor among others.

The adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s19th-century novel premiered in competition at Venice last year. It was the frontrunner at the nomination stage, making it into 15 of the 24 César categories.

The other big winner of the evening was Leos Carax’s English-language musical Annette. Carax won best director,...

Indie Sales has boarded Philippe Van Leeuw’s “The Wall,” an English-language film headlined by rising star Vicky Krieps and set on the border of Mexico and Arizona.

“The Wall” follows Jessica Comley (Krieps), a committed and zealous border patrol agent who one day loses control and kills a harmless migrant in front of three witnesses: her colleague, who tries to cover the crime, and a Native American man with his grandson.

Van Leeuw is a Belgian filmmaker known for his politically-minded films, including “Insyriated,” which won the Berlinale audience award in 2017, as well as “The Day God Walked Away” which earned San Sebastian festival’s New Director Award in 2009. With “The Wall,” Van Leew said he wanted to portray “today’s America.”

Indie Sales is handling global rights on the anticipated feature and will launch it at the European Film Market.

“We’re proud to work with a director whose talent has been proven,...

Presenting two films at Rotterdam Film Festival this year, his sixth feature as a director “Hold Me Tight” and musical comedy “Tralala” by his regular collaborators Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu, Mathieu Amalric admitted he found it hard to shake off the role of a singer-songwriter in search of the Virgin Mary.

“It might have been the first time I didn’t want to leave my character. I didn’t cut my hair for a long time, I kept my beard. I was like [a cross between] Jesus and Jim Morrison. I have never felt that gorgeous before!,” he said during an online conversation with festival director Vanja Kaludjercic.

But the film also marked a turning point in his life, as he decided to take a longer break from acting following the shoot.

“After ‘Tralala,’ I couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. Everything was dark. There was this extraordinary project with Noémie Lvovsky,...

Ceremony for awards voted on by 4,363 members of the César academy will take place on February 25.

Xavier Giannoli’s literary adaptation Lost Illusions is the frontrunner in the nomination stage of the 47th edition of France’s César awards, followed by Leos Carax’s Annette and Valérie Lemercier’s Aline.

France’s Academy of Cinema and Arts and Sciences unveiled the nomination list online on Wednesday morning (January 26), ahead of the ceremony scheduled to take place on February 25.

Giannoli’s adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s eponymous 19th-century novel, which premiered in competition at Venice last year, was nominated in...

Xavier Giannoli’s sprawling period piece “Lost Illusions,” Valerie Lemercier’s Celine Dion biopic “Aline” and Leos Carax’s musical romance “Annette” with Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver are leading the race at France’s 47th Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars.

Other top Cesar contenders include Cedric Jimenez’s action-packed cop drama “Bac Nord,” Catherine Corsini’s social drama “La fracture,” Yann Gozlan’s thriller Boite noire,” Jacques Audiard’s contemporary love drama “Paris, 13th District” and Arthur Harari’s WW2-set “Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle.”

Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion-winning “Happening” and Julia Ducournau’s Cannes’ Palme d’Or-winning “Titane” earned four nods each.

Vying for 15 Cesar Awards, “Lost Illusions” is a big-budget adaptation of Honoré de Balzac’s masterpiece starring Benjamin Voisin (“Summer of 85”), Cecile de France (“The Young Pope”), Vincent Lacoste (“Victoria”), Xavier Dolan and Jeanne Balibar (“Les Miserables”) all of whom earned nominations.

Answering the SunInternational Film Festival Rotterdam have announced the full lineup for their "scaled-down" 51st edition, which will take place online between January 26 — February 6. As part of a full, nationwide lockdown, cinemas will remain closed in the Netherlands until at least 14 January. Tiger COMPETITIONAchrome (Maria Ignatenko)The Cloud Messenger (Rahat Mahajan)The Child (Marguerite de Hillerin/Félix Dutilloy-Liégeois)Eami (Paz Encina)Excess Will Save Us (Morgane Dziurla-Petit)Kafka for Kids (Roee Rosen)Malintzin 17 (Mara Polgovsky/Eugenio Polgovsky)Met mes (Sam de Jong)The Plains (David Easteal)Proyecto Fantasma (Roberto Doveris)Le rêve et la radio (Renaud Després-Larose/Ana Tapia Rousiouk)Silver Bird and Rainbow Fish (Lei Lei)To Love Again (Gao Linyang)Yamabuki (Juichiro Yamasaki)Big Screen COMPETITIONAssault (Adilkhan Yerzhanov)Broadway (Christos Massalas)Third Grade (Jacques Doillon)Daryn’s Gym (Brett Michael Innes)Drifting Petals (Clara Law)The Harbour (Rajeev Ravi)The Island (Anca Damian)Kung Fu Zohra (Mabrouk El Mechri...

Running Jan. 14-Feb. 14, this year’s MyFrenchFilmFestival, an online fest organized by France’s film-tv promotional body UniFrance, will mark its 12th edition with a more diversified slate and a greater international push.

Showcasing festival gems, animated crowd-pleasers and outré genre fare – all subtitled in 15 languages – the 13 features and 17 shorts of this year’s selection will reach home viewers via 70 partner platforms as well on MyFrenchFilmFestival.com, where all the shorts will be available to screen free of charge.

Though ranging in presentational style from horror-comedy to bittersweet drama, the 10 films in this year’s feature competition often share similar thematic through lines, with nearly half of them looking at youth struggles from one angle or another. While Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma’s werewolf thriller “Teddy” tackles late teen growing pains through a more genre prism, Kamir Aïnouz’s “Honey Cigar” does so as a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale; when exploring young adult malaise,...

Southern Spain’s annual showcase of standout recent European auteur cinema, the Seville European Film Festival, wrapped its 18th edition Saturday, Nov. 13 with a slew of prizes scattered among its various contenders, with the top prize, the Giraldillo de Oro, going to Sebastian Meise’s “Great Freedom” and its lead, Franz Rogowski, nabbing the best actor award. The Andalusian screenwriters association, Asecan, also chose the drama as the best film in the festival’s official selection.

Set in post-war Germany, “Great Freedom” has been racking up rave reviews and prizes across the festival circuit, starting with its Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize and most recently in Athens and Sarajevo where it topped their awards. In it, Hans, played by Rogowski, is imprisoned repeatedly for being gay. The only constant in his life is his cellmate, Viktor, a convicted murderer, with whom his initial repulsion turns to something akin to love.

The Seville European Film Festival, a key gateway into Spain for recent European movies, celebrates its 18th edition honoring German-Spanish actor-director Daniel Brühl.

Confronting film’s post-covid recovery challenges, the festival is also strengthening its commitment to the industry.

Seville, which runs Nov. 5-13, will grant Brühl the City of Seville 2021 award and screen the Spanish premiere of his directorial debut, Beta-sold comedy thriller “Next Door,” as part of the festival’s Official Section.

French actress Emmanuelle Béart (“8 Women”) will also receive a City of Seville 2020 award as she was unable to travel to last year’s edition due to pandemic restrictions.

Seville’s figures – 225 films, 90 Spanish premieres, six competitive sections, more than 500 guests and around thirty parallel activities – confirm the event’s solidity and projection as a major cultural gathering in Spain and a reference for the European industry.

As part of the festival’s industry growth, Seville...

The European Arthouse Cinema Day, an initiative aimed at promoting European films and moviegoing, will be hosting its sixth edition with ambassadors including Oscar-nominated Hungarian director Ildikó Enyedi (“The Story of My Wife”) and Italian actor Valeria Golino (“The Morning Show”).

Organized by the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas (Cicae) in partnership with Europa Cinemas, the event has involved hundreds of cinemas in more than 40 countries as well as film promotion orgs and right holders including distributors and sales agents. Last year, over 700 cinemas in 44 countries registered.

The lineup will comprise European classics and premieres of new films, as well as masterclasses, special guests, programmes for young audiences and exhibitions. All cinemas have access to common promotional materials created specially for the day.

Besides Enyedi and Golino, the other ambassadors of this upcoming edition include Spanish filmmaker Jonás Trueba (“La reconquista”) and actor-turned-director Mathieu Amalric (“Hold Me Tight”); they will...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Cinemateca Brasileira. (WikiCommons)A devastating fire hit the Cinemateca Brasileira on July 29 and has left significant damage to the longest-running cinema institution in Brazil. In response, the workers of Cinemateca Brasileira have shared a statement regarding the continual mistreatment of facilities and staff by the government: "Without workers archives can not be preserved!" After facing unexpected budget cuts, microcinema No Evil Eye Cinema has announced a fundraising call for action and is seeking grants, foundational support, and other funding opportunities to sustain their programming and educational programs. On the Score podcast last week, composer Carter Burwell stated that "[Ethan Coen] just didn’t want to make movies anymore," in response to a question about Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth. This may mean the Coens are done working as a directing duo,...

A mother suddenly finds herself far, far away from her husband and children in Hold Me Tight (Serre moi fort), a gorgeously shot memory piece from French actor-director Mathieu Amalric. Though probably most famous for his acting turns as the Bond baddie in Quantum of Solace, a man with locked-in syndrome in Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and a host of wild-haired French intellectuals in other art house hits, Amalric has an esteemed second career as a director in his own right. He even scored a coveted Cannes competition spot with his swirling 2010 feature, On Tour, set in the ...

A mother suddenly finds herself far, far away from her husband and children in Hold Me Tight (Serre moi fort), a gorgeously shot memory piece from French actor-director Mathieu Amalric. Though probably most famous for his acting turns as the Bond baddie in Quantum of Solace, a man with locked-in syndrome in Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and a host of wild-haired French intellectuals in other arthouse hits, Amalric has an esteemed second career as a director in his own right. He even scored a coveted Cannes competition spot with his swirling 2010 feature, On Tour, set in the American ...