TRAILERS OF THE BERLINALE

BERLINALE 2020: Having punched above its weight for many years but now firmly established as one of the global festival calendar's major events, the Berlin Film Festival, otherwise known as Berlinale, celebrates its 70th birthday in 2020. Established in 1951 under the guiding principle, "A Showcase for the Free World", the Berlinale has a two-tiered focus - the Programming strands, which include the iconic 'Competition' line-up as well as such focussed sidebars as Generations, Panorama, Encounters, Perspektive Deutsches Kino and Homage; and, the Commercial arm, led by the sales frenzy that is the European Film Market (EFM).

The Berlinale and EFM have become gateway events for the very latest releases from Europe and beyond. Each year, first-look trailers arrive that announce major new works... 

BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ  (Dir: Burhan Qurbani, starring Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król and Annabelle Mandeng; Germany / Netherlands; 183 mins)
From the Program: Francis has survived his escape from Africa. In Berlin he gets to know Hasenheide park, the city’s clubs and its streets. His pal Reinhold becomes an adversary. Mieze brings both happiness and tragedy. Döblin’s classic as a dark present-day odyssey.

THE ROADS NOT TAKEN (Dir: Sally Potter, starring Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek and Laura Linney; United Kingdom; 85 mins)
From the Program: Twenty-four hours in the life of Leo, a mentally impaired New York resident. A day that for him is characterised by hallucinatory trips into various parallel lives. At his side is his daughter Molly, who worries about him and loves him.

THE INTRUDER (El Prófugo; Dir: Natalia Meta, starring Érica Rivas, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Daniel Hendler, Cecilia Roth and Guillermo Arengo; Argentina / Mexico; 94 mins) 
From the Program: After a traumatic experience, Inés develops a sleep disorder and is haunted by violent nightmares. Do the characters who populate her dreams want to take possession of her body?

PINOCCHIO (Dir: Matteo Garrone, starring Roberto Benigni, Federico Ielapi, Rocco Papaleo, Massimo Ceccherini and Marine Vacth; Italy / France / United Kingdom; 124 mins)
From the Program: A faithful adaptation of the well-known story of Pinocchio, to which Matteo Garrone has added a unique visionary dimension. Pinocchio’s world is simultaneously real and fantastic – this is an Italy redolent of the earth, the sea and the farmyard.

LAST AND FIRST MEN (Dir: Johann Johannson, narrated by Tilda Swinton; Iceland; 70 mins)
From the Program: The concrete brutalism of Yugoslavian war memorials, Tilda Swinton’s voice and the music of Jóhann Jóhannsson are the protagonists of this visionary total work of art by the Icelandic composer and filmmaker, who died in 2018 when he was only 48.

TROUBLE WITH BEING BORN (Dir: Sandra Wollner, starring Lena Watson, Dominik Warta, Ingrid Burkhard and Jana McKinnon; Austria / Germany; 94 mins)
From the Program: Ten-year-old Elli is an android. She loves the man she calls “Daddy” and is the vessel for his memories, which mean nothing to her, but everything to him. A formally dense and provocative invitation into the realm of virtual and psychological reality.

SA-NYANG-EUI-SI-GAN (Time to Hunt; Dir: Sung-hyun Yoon, starring Lee Je-hoon, Ahn Jae-hong, Choi Woo-shik, Park Jeong-min and Park Hae-soo; Republic of Korea; 134 mins)
From the Program: After three years in prison, Jun-seok convinces his mates to rob a casino. The heist succeeds, but then the young gangsters themselves become the hunted. An action-packed, dystopian thriller set in a post-capitalist South Korea of the near future.

BERLINALE 2020 runs February 20-March 1 at several sites in Berlin. Full ticket and session details can be found at the event's official website.

HYPERLINKS BOASTS BIG SCREEN WEB-CONTENT IN FIRST YEAR OF INTERNET-FOCUSSED FEST.

A new inner-city film event that sells itself as a “multi-day exploration of digital pasts, presents and futures” is certain to add further fuel to the increasingly complex debate as to what constitutes ‘contemporary cinema’.

Hyperlinks is the latest progressive programming initiative from the Sydney film collective Static Vision and explores the artistry, aesthetics and thematic elements that are central to the new digital age of storytelling. Over three days, the new wave celebration will screen 13 features and nine shorts at the Pink Flamingo Cinema in the inner-west arts hub of Marrickville.

Somewhat ironically, the event kicks off with a retrospective session featuring Olivier Assayas’ visionary 2002 cyber-thriller Demonlover, starring Connie Nielsen, Chloe Sevigny and Gina Gershon. A prescient vision of dark-web insidiousness and interactive sex and violence, it was hailed by Variety upon release as, “a moody and intriguing corporate thriller [that] eventually spins off into uncharted realms of cyberhell.”

The remainder of the program is drawn from the vast digital landscape that lords of modern society (YouTube, facebook, Twitter, et al), finding compulsive narratives in collage works, clip packages and intimate documentation of ground-breaking personalities and fantastic technologies. These include:

A SELF-INDUCED HALLUCINATION (Dir: Dan Schoenbrun; USA, 74 mins). A breakdown of the Slenderman mythology and the grip that the creepy pasta meme held over a generation of impressionable YouTube users.

SEARCHING EVA (Dir: Pia Hellenthal; Germany, 84 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. Eva oscillates between her real life as an anarchic vagabond, social marginal figure and feminist sex worker and the life of her Internet persona, iconised as the leading figure of the authentic.

AIDOL (Dir: Lawrence Lek; U.K., 83 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. A fading songstress, Diva, enlists and aspiring A.I. songwriter to mount a comeback performance at the 2065 eSports Olympic finale.

TOURISM (Dir: Daisuke Miyazaki; Japan, 77 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. Two Japanese micro-influencers must deal with missing phones, rooftop noise gigs and a sudden dance sequence when a trip to Singapore leads to them getting lost amongst the urban sprawl.

L.A. TEA TIME (Dir: Sophie Bedard Marcotte; Canada, 82 mins) AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE. Combining elements of video installation art and first-person documentary making, Marcotte’s ‘quasi-doc’ track a desperate filmmaker’s journey to meet her creative icon, Miranda July.

The Hyperlinks shorts roster further enhances the paradigm-shifting nature of modern film technology and its ability to invent and enhance fresh directions in narrative structure. Of the short film program, seek out In Event of Moon Disaster (Dir: Francesca Panetta and Halsey Burgund; USA, 6 mins), a deep-fake take on a Nixon contingency speech; A Room with a Coconut View (Dir: Tulapop Saejareon; Thailand, 28 mins), a study of Thailand’s past and present through a hotel resort’s AI system; and, Watching the Pain of Others (Dir: Chloe Galibert-Laine; France, 31 mins), a challenge to the traditional documentary form in its study of online conspiracy theorising.

HYPERLINKS: A STATIC VISION FESTIVAL will screen February 21-23 at Pink Flamingo Cinema, 18-24 Sydney Street Marrickville. Session and ticketing details can be found at the official website.

TRAILER PARK: FIVE OF THE BEST FROM SXSW

It is the cutting-edge cool of festival cinema, so when SXSW anoints a new film with a premiere slot, all industry eyes focus in. With the 2019 event about to shutter in Austin, Texas, we take a look a five films (apart from Jordan Peele’s Us, which had heat before heading west) that emerged from the fest with major buzz…

BOOKSMART (US | 102 mins | Annapurna Pictures) Dir: Olivia Wilde; Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams, Will Forte, Lisa Kudrow, Jason Sudeikis.
From the program: Told from a wildly original, fresh and modern perspective, Booksmart is an unfiltered comedy about high school friendships and the bonds we create that last a lifetime. Capturing the spirit of our times, the film is a coming of age story for a new generation.
Critics said: “In this year’s class of first-time feature directors, Wilde handily earns the title of Most Likely to Succeed.” - Variety

LONG SHOT (US | 120 mins | Summit Entertainment) Dir: Jonathan Levine; Cast: Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Andy Serkis, June Diane Raphael, Ravi Patel and Alexander Skarsgård.
From the program: An ambitious diplomat with a spotless reputation and a hard-partying journalist hilariously redefine “international relations” as they try to keep their red-hot romance under wraps.
Critics said: “A rom-com with a political edge that will be one of this year's most beloved crowdpleasers.” – RogerEbert.com

I AM RICHARD PRYOR (US | 92 mins | Paramount Network) Dir: Jesse James Miller; Cast: Richard Pryor.
From the program: I Am Richard Pryor tells the life story of the legendary performer and iconic social satirist, who transcended race and social barriers by delivering his honest irreverent and biting humor to America’s stages and living rooms until his death at 65.
Critics said: “Jesse James Miller's biographical documentary is a conventional but fascinating portrait of the self-destructive comic great.” – Variety

ONE MAN DIES A MILLION TIMES (Russia | 92 mins ) Dir: Jessica Oreck; Cast: Alyssa Lozovskaya, Maksim Blinov, Vladimir Koshevoy, Alena Artemova, Konstantin Malyshev, Andrey Emelyanov, Alexei Yuferev.
From the program: Set in the future, a story about seeds and genetic diversity, about growth and decay, about love and war, and about hunger of all kinds.
Critics said: “Transports viewers to another time and place, much in the manner of Aleksey German’s immersive masterworks…it is a rather fascinating and undeniably ambitious work of cinema.” – J.B. Spins

THE ART OF SELF-DEFENSE (US | 104 mins | Bleeker Street) Dir: Riley Stearns; Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Nivola, Imogen Poots.
From the program: Jesse Eisenberg plays a man who is attacked on the street and enlists in a local dojo, led by a charismatic Sensei (Alessandro Nivola), in an effort to learn how to defend himself.
Critics said: “Manages to clarify the filmmaker's intriguing vision by stuffing it into a remarkably unnerving character study.” – Indiewire.

FESTIVAL DE CANNES 2018: TRAILER COMPILE

The 2018 Cannes Film Festival is in its final stages, the red carpet and barricades set to be garaged after the event wraps up on May 19. The programme strands and marketplace have offered first-look trailers for films that promise to be some of the most anticipated international releases of the next 12 months...

IN COMPETITION:

Film: BLACKkKLANSMAN (Focus Features | USA | 128 mins)
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Topher Grace. 

Film: NETEMO SAMETOMO (ASAKO I & II) (Bitters End Distribution | Japan | 119 mins)
Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | Stars: Masahiro Higashide, Erika Karata, Sairi Itô.

Film: ZIMNA WOJNA (COLD WAR) (Kino Swiat, Poland, Amazon Studios USA | Poland | 84 mins)
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski | Stars: Joanna Kulig, Tomasz Kot, Borys Szyc.

Film: UNDER THE SILVER LAKE (A24 | USA | 139 mins)
Dir: David Robert Mitchell | Stars: Andrew Garfield, Riley Keogh.

UN CERTAIN REGARD:

Film: GIRL (Cinimien | The Netherlands | 100 mins)
Dir: Lukas Dhont | Stars: Valentijn Dhaenens.

Film: GUEULE D'ANGEL (ANGEL FACE) (Mars Distribution | France | 108 mins)
Director: Vanessa Filho | Stars: Marion Cotillard, Alban Lenoir, Ayline Aksoy-Etaix.

OUT OF COMPETITION:

Film: GONGJAK (THE SPY GONE NORTH) (CJ Entertainment | South Korea | 141 mins)
Director: Jong-bin Yoon | Stars: Jung-min Hwang, Sung-min Lee, Jin-Woong Cho.

LA SEMAINE DE LA CRITIQUE:

Film: FUGA (FUGUE) (Kino Swiat | Poland | 100 mins)
Director: Agnieszka Smoczyńska | Stars: Gabriela Muskala, Lukasz Simlat, Malgorzata Buczkowska. 

Film: THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT ( IFC Films | Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden | 155 mins)
Director: Lars von Trier | Stars: Matt Dillon, Brono Ganz, Uma Thurman.

QUINZAINE DES REALISATEURS:

Film: CLIMAX (Wild Bunch | France | 95 mins)
Director: Gaspar Noé | Stars: Sofia Boutella, Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub.

Film: PETRA ( Wanda Vision SA | Spain )
Director: Jaime Rosales | Stars: Bárbara Lennie, Alex Brendemühl, Joan Botey.

LIVE! Conférence de Presse - Festival de Cannes 2017

Pierre Lescure, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, present the Official Selection of the 70th Festival de Cannes Press Conference on April, 13th 2017 at 11:00 am.

ANALYSIS / ANDREI TARKOVSKY - POETIC HARMONY

The seven features from Russian cinematic legend Andrei Tarkovsky are examined in an in-depth video essay, featuring some of his most acclaimed sequences (Channel Criswell).

OSCARS 2017 / REVELATIONS FROM THE NOMINEES

OSCARS 2017: Nominees from the acting and directing categories reveal the untold stories of how their films, characters and personal journeys came to fruition (Entertainment Weekly)

MAKING OF... / THE 'CHEST-BURSTER' SEQUENCE IN ALIEN

In honour of the late John Hurt, we revisit the genesis of Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic Alien and the infamous 'chest-burster' that would become one of the most celebrated deaths in cinema history (CineFix).

TRAILER / THE ASSIGNMENT

Legendary action movie auteur Walter Hill (The Driver; The Warriors; 48 Hours) delivers the ultra-violent pulpish pleasures in his female assassin shoot-'em-up, The Assignment (aka Tomboy), starring Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver.

TRAILER / PLANETARIUM

Festival screenings and brief arthouse seasons in French-speaking territories led to a divided critical response for Rebecca Zlotowski's Planetarium, a rich amalgam of supernatural drama and showbusiness satire starring Natalie Portman and Lily Rose-Depp; US/UK/Australian release dates still to be confirmed.