KINO! German Film Fest 2015 Comes to NYC

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Published on Monday, 02 March 2015 23:13

Written by Renzo Adler

For over 35 years, KINO! has been the name in bringing daring German cinema to NYC. From April 9th to 16th, 2015, KINO! will exhibit ten feature-length German films at Cinema Village (22 E 12th St, New York, NY). Organized by German Films, the national information and advisory center for German cinema abroad, KINO! opens with the East Coast premiere of Tour De Force from director Christian Zübert. Emphasizing the theme of overcoming obstacles, three of the directors are first time filmmakers and four of the films were directed by women.

Films being shown include:

• About a Girl by Mark Monheim
  A bittersweet coming-of-age drama about the 15-year old Charleen, whose obsessively bleak observations and her capacity for scorn seem unlimited. Her trainee-ship at the local mortuary make the dead look happy to her. A failed suicide by hairdryer lands her at the psychologist’s office where she finds unexpected romance in the form of the class nerd.
  
  
• Beltracchi – The Art of Forgery by Arne Birkenstock
  This feature-length documentary follows Wolfgang Beltracchi, a self-taught and by now incarcerated painter who committed arguably the greatest art crime of the post-War era. For almost 40 years, he hoodwinked the art world not by forging pre-existing artworks but rather by producing canvases that he and his wife, Helene, passed off as previously unknown works by a set of 20th-century masters.

• Flights of Fancy by Christian Bach
  Young Simon faces adulthood with an overabundance of choices to make: will he become an architect like his father, how can he get the attention of Verena, an attractive hospital assistant? His biggest priority is sheltering his schizophrenic father from harming himself and the family, while trying to cling to a semblance of normalcy. When his father’s condition worsens, Simon learns that he can help his father and himself by providing a loving stability and accepting the ‘new’ normal for what it is.  Simon is played by actor Jonas Nay who also stars in the TV series DEUTSCHLAND 83 which Sundance TV is premiering this Spring.

• The King’s Surrender by Phillipp Leinemann
  Violent youth gangs and a police force way out of its depth. When a police operation goes awry and two policemen die, the powder keg threatens to ignite as the SWAT team knows only one goal: revenge - irrespective of the law. Everything starts with young Nassim, an immigrant boy trying too hard to belong. THE KING’S SURRENDER won Best Narrative Feature at the Austin Film Festival in 2014.

• The Lies of the Victors by Christoph Hochhäusler
  A riveting political thriller about Fabian Groys, the rising young star of a Berlin-based political news magazine, who discovers a slush fund behind the placement of sick army veterans into industrial waste jobs. The film deftly explores the grey area where investigative journalism meets the murky world of political lobbyists.

• The Pasta Detectives by Neele Leana Vollmar
  Based on a wildly popular German children’s book (available in English in the US as The Spaghetti Detectives), The Pasta Detectives revolves around Rico (10), a self-described “lowly gifted child.” When he meets Oskar, who is quick to say he’s “highly gifted”, life jumps into higher gear for Rico. When a serial child kidnapper, Mr. 2000, takes Oskar, Rico turns detective. Rico must now use his heightened skills of observation and unravel the clues that will rescue his friend.

• Schmitke by Ŝtepán Altrichter
  Julius Schmitke is a fifty-seven-year-old German wind turbine engineer, who travels to the Czech side of the Ore Mountains to fix one of his old models. Ever a believer in the power of engineering and rationality, he finds himself unable to analyze the forces at work. His colleague disappears, strange things happen, and Schmitke starts to "feel" the spirit of the forest around him.

• To Life! by Uwe Janson
  Two German stars face each other in this moving drama, with Hannelore Elsner playing Ruth, a Jewish former cabaret singer and the young, aimless Jonas (Max Riemelt, next season of SENSE8) who drives her to an elder care center. Jonas resembles Viktor, a young man she used to love, and despite many obstacles, they form a deep connection. Ruth gets a new lease on life, while Jonas comes to terms with his own health and mortality.

• Who Am I – No System is Safe by Baran bo Odar
  Who Am I – No System is Safe is a timely cyber thriller from director Baran bo Odar featuring rising star Tom Schilling as Benjamin, a socially awkward nobody who leaps to fame and recognition in the world of underground hacking and, with new-found friends, undertakes a spree of pranks and online criminal acts that have violent and, ultimately, deadly consequences. The director is in pre-production for the action thriller Sleepless Nights starring Jamie Foxx and Michelle Monaghan.

These films go from dizzying highs to despairing lows, all while showing the ingenuity of German filmmakers. KINO continues to bring German cinema at its most exciting.

To learn more, go to: http://www.kinofestivalnyc.com/

KINO!
April 9 - 16, 2015

Cinema Village
22 E 12th St.
New York, NY 10003

Rendez-vous with French Cinema is Back at Film Society

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Published on Thursday, 26 February 2015 10:16

Written by Jack Angstreich

This year’s Rendezvous with French Cinema series at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which runs from March 6th through the 15th, will surely prove as inordinately popular as it has in previous years. The notable directors featured this time around include Benoit Jacquot, André Téchiné, Jean-Paul Civeyrac and Cédric Kahn — certainly an impressive collection of cineastes.

Jacquot’s moving 3 Hearts, the opening night selection, about an unusual romantic triangle involving a tax inspector who falls in love with two sisters, will undoubtedly prove to be one of the most remarkable films in the series. The director displays an enviable confidence in his highly cinematic unfolding of this eccentric, suspenseful narrative, which surprises with a texture of almost novelistic density. Jacquot is invaluably assisted here by the superbly accomplished control over lighting, framing and camera-movement achieved by his cinematographer, Julien Hirsch, as well as with a memorably portentous, original score by Bruno Coulais, but the seamless — and, at times, invigoratingly original — editing and scene-construction seem to be all the director’s own. Equally assured are the characteristically nuanced performances the filmmaker has elicited from his inestimable ensemble of actors, each of whom can be seen at their rare best here: Benoit Poelvoorde, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Chiara Mastroianni, and the eternally glamorous Catherine Deneuve. If the expectations generated by this ambitious work prove perhaps slightly too outsized by the time the narration attains its conclusion, 3 Hearts is nonetheless a consistently absorbing experience (I should add that the use of the digital format here is almost uniformly exquisite).

Also remarkable is the chilling Next Time I'll Aim for the Heart, a dramatization of the events concerning the crimes of Frenchserial killer Franck Neuhart, directed by Cedric Auger, a former writer for Cahiers du Cinéma. The filmmaker displays a striking command of the medium, mesmerizingly evoking, through formal means, the phenomenology of a psychopathic murderer, while resisting any reductive explanation of his acts. Here, too, the cast is superb, featuring Guillaume Canet in the enigmatic lead role, and the lovely Ana Girardot as the protagonist's touchingly hapless young housekeeper and girlfriend. As has become gratifyingly common in commercial features very recently, the adaptation by the cinematographer to the digital format here is perfectly assured.

Fifth Annual Athena Film Fest Celebrates Women in Cinema

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Published on Thursday, 05 February 2015 22:39

Written by Brad Balfour

#ChicagoGirl

As both a patron goddess of cities and of heroes, it is only fitting that Barnard, New York City’s women’s liberal arts college, holds a film festival carrying the name Athena. The Fifth Annual Athena Film Festival (February 5 - 8, 2015) at Barnard College (3009 Broadway, New York, NY) honors extraordinary women in the film industry along with feature length films, documentaries, shorts, and workshops focusing on women and leadership.

Part of the festival’s roundup of cinema is the Athena List, a collection of three to five completed scripts that have yet to be turned into films which have strong roles for women. Basically acting as a “gender conscious cousin” to the Black List, the Athena List aims to create change in the film making landscape, along with the Athena Film Festival Awards, which honors past achievements by women in cinema.

Features and documentaries include:

• #ChicagoGirl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator
  Armed only with a laptop, a smartphone, and her determination, 19-year-old Ala’a Basatneh is contributing to the Syrian revolution from her Chicago bedroom.

• In the Game
  In the Game follows the ups and downs of an Hispanic girls soccer team to reveal the impact that race, class, and gender has on life opportunities.

• Sepideh — Reaching for the Stars
  In a rural village far from Tehran, the night sky glows brilliantly, unimpeded by light pollution, and a teenage girl named Sepideh dreams of becoming an astronomer.

• Vessel
  Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts brings much-needed abortion and contraceptive services to those with no other options.

• Beyond the Lights
  The pressures of fame have superstar singer Noni on the edge, until she meets Kaz, a young cop who works to help her find the courage to develop her own voice and break free to become the artist she was meant to be.

• Difret Hirut
  A 14-year-old girl is abducted on her way home from school for marriage. She bravely grabs a rifle and tries to escape, but ends up shooting her would-be husband. Afterward, a tenacious young lawyer argues that Hirut acted in self-defense.

• Dukhtar
  Dukhtar is a dramatic story of a mother who kidnaps her ten-year-old daughter to save her from the fate of a child bride.

• We Are The Best!
  Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band — despite not having any instruments and being told by everyone that punk is dead.

Athena Film Fest's panels and workshops also look to aim women and aspriing film makers with know how in everything from crowdfunding management to film and television production.

Panels and workshops include:

• Below the Line
  A conversation with several established cinematographers who will talk about the lack of women in their field, and how they broke into the “private club” and became some of the most in-demand names in the game.
  
  
• Master Class on Directing with Gina Prince-Bythewood
  This master class on directing for film features Gina Prince-Bythewood, writer, director, and producer.
  
  
• Master Class on Producing Film — with Cathy Schulman
  Join Academy Award winning producer, Cathy Schulman, President of Mandalay Pictures, for a conversation on producing in Hollywood.
  
  
• Master Class on Producing Television — with Stephanie Laing
  This master class on producing for television features Stephanie Liang, Emmy-award winning producer.

“This year’s awardees epitomize the leadership and ingenuity that women bring to the entertainment industry everyday,” said Kathryn Kolbert, co-founder of the Athena Film Festival and Constance Hess Williams Director for the Athena Center.  “We are excited for the festival to once again bring the Barnard community and campus to life with film and entertainment fans embracing all the festival has to offer.”

To learn more, go to: http://athenafilmfestival.com/

The Fifth Annual Athena Film Festival
February 5 - 8, 2015

Barnard College
3009 Broadway
New York, NY 10027