MWFF 2018: Curtis

CURTIZ

WORLD COMPETITION

Montreal World Film Festival / FFM

Hungary / 2018 / black & white  / 93 min.

This film won the Grand Prize of the Americas (Best Film) at the Montreal World Film festival 2018 Closing Ceremony. See all the winners here.

Those interested in the history of cinema, and especially in the production of the iconic American classic CASABLANCA, will especially appreciate this Hungarian production about the famous director MIchael Curtiz, an eccentric and talented director and a winner of an Oscar. The film is largely inspired by his life. It details all the intriguing twists and turns in the creation of CASABLANCA, all political, Warld War II implications and intrigues that affect the production of the film, as well as his personal life and his relationship with his daughter Kitty.

When he leaves Europe for America, Michael Curtiz leaves his family behind in Budapest. He worries about his sister and tries to get her to the USA by all means, but there are many obstacles. In Hollywood, Curtiz is powerful, arrogant and preparing to shoot CASABLANCA with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. But it is 1942, and the United States is getting ready for World War II. While the director is struggling with production problems, his abandoned daughter Kitty appears on the set and confronts him. The meeting with his daughter and the conflicts that arise directly influence Curtiz's creative resolution of CASABLANCA's ending, thus gelling together his great iconic masterpiece.

In CURTIZ, Rick's famous cafe and the piano featured in CASABLANCA film were faithfully reproduced for the filming purposes.

SYNOPSES

1942. America is on the edge of war. Hungarian-born film director Michael Curtiz, under government pressure, gets a chance to influence public opinion about war, thus gaining international recognition by directing a new propaganda film: Casablanca. It does not comeat the best time though. Curtiz is working on helping his Jewish sister emigrate from Hungary before the Nazis get to her also, his daughter appears on set with the purpose of getting answers why Curtiz had abandoned her as a child. Can Curtiz overcome his famously arrogant and cynical personality? What sacrifices make a man a patriot in a foreign country, a good brother and an honest father at the same time? What should his main character, Rick, choose in the end of Casablanca?

Left to right: actress Evelin Dobos (Kitty), screenwriter Zsuzanna Bak,
producers Judit Romwalter and Claudia Sumeghuy, and actress Lili Bordan

PRODUCTION TEAM

Director: Tamas Yvan Topolánszky.

Script: Zsuzsanna Bak, Tamás Yvan Topolánszky.

Photography: Zoltán Dévényu.

Editor: Eszter Bodoky.

Music: Gábor Subicz.

Cast: Ferenc Lengyel, Evelin Dobos, Declan Hannigan, Yan Feldman, Rafael Feldman, Lili Bordan, Caroline Boulton, Scott Alexander Young.

Producers: Claudia Süneghy, Halluci-Nation Ltd., Budapest (Hongrie), cell.: +36 302 488 239, sumeghy.claudiabernadett@gmail.com / SPARK, Camera and Lighting Ltd., Budapest (Hongrie), judit@sparks.hu.

For more information on the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

MWFF 2018: In This Land Nobody Knew How to Cry

IN THIS LAND NOBODY KNEW HOW TO CRY

WORLD COMPETITION

Montreal World Film Festival / FFM
Greece, France / 2018 / 90 min. / English subtitles

The acclaimed Greek director Giorgos Panousopoulos returns after 14 years hiatus back to the cinematographic scene with his eighth feature film In This Land Nobody Knew How to Cry, for which he also wrote the screenplay. Although at a first glance it might appear that this film is only an off-beat comedy, it actually examines some fundamental issues how our modern world functions, and presents a viable alternative established by a small Greek island inhabitants, deeply based on historical traditions.

It was filmed exclusively on the idyllic island of Ikaria, which is well known for the exceptionally high life expectancy of its inhabitants and their relaxed philosophy of life. It becomes a setting for the imaginary island of Armenaki where people declared NO to money, banks, the usual monetary way of living, and establish their own simple system of paying taxes, solving disputes, educating theur children, and conducting the everyday life duties and transactions. The film introduces the Greek perspective, the way of thinking, and how it has been altered before and after the financial crisis. The islanders cope remarkably well within their simple rules, and their own understanding as what represents abundance, happiness, love and freedom. Their lifestyle is both remarkable and very seductive. 

The film tells a story of a European official, Felix (Serge Requet-Barville), who arrives to the island with the sole purpose of examining the island's "investment opportunities”. He is accompanied by his assistant Aura (Margarita Panousopoulou). There, he falls in love with an enigmatic widow Chrysa (Foteini Tsakiri), while Aura meets Vitorio (Babis Chatzidakis), the island's school teacher. A transformation takes place as the island has a magical ability to change people's lives.

SYNOPSES:

Something magical happens when a French member of the European Parliament and a young Greek economist come to Armenaki, a small Aegean island, to report on its investment potential. They are entranced by the subversive charm of a place without banks or even money, where there are no cars, streets, or rooms to let. In different ways, both visitors will allow themselves to be drawn into the island’s vortex of love. Giorgos Panousopoulos.

For more information on the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

MWFF 2018: The Etruscan Smile

THE ETRUSCAN SMILE

WORLD COMPETITION

Montreal World Film Festival / FFM
Switzerland, Germany, UK, USA / 107 min. / English & French subtitles

This film won the Special Grand Prix of the Jury at the Montreal World Film festival 2018 Closing Ceremony. See all the winners here.

The film is based on a bestselling novel by the Spanish economist and author José Luis Sampedro La sonrisa etrusca written in 1985. It was shot across two continents, with filming taking place on location in the iconic city of San Francisco as well as in Scotland's breath-taking Hebridean coast.

The Etruscan Smile is a remarkable film that deals with many modern men issues, especially how the big city life with its technically advanced but somewhat sterile, nature deprived ways that foster avant-guard theories and trends that tend to lead even to child-rearing or culinary disasters. It brings into focus the traditional ways of life values, the immediacy of feelings, freedoms, creativity, the family closeness and love. The open vistas and the ocean, the roaring waves and grass grazing sheep, become the cornerstone on which to recapture the basic human instincts and values, and to feel deeply at home. This is essentially the central message of the film.

The film has a number of interesting plot twists, as well as humour. The actor's acting is superb, and the intriguing story will not leave the audience indifferent. In fact, it is very easy to get involved with the reality that the film portrays, and even to start examining one's own life's circumstances and values.

Also, the technical aspects of the film are remarkable, as well as its photographic aspects. I highly recommend this film.

SYNOPSES

Due to a health problem, Rory, a gruff old man, reluctantly leaves his isolated island of Scotland to go to his son's home in San Francisco for medical treatment. His life takes on a new meaning when he meets his grandson with whom he develops a real bond.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Directors: Mihal Brezis, Oded  Binnun.

Script: Michael McGowan, Sarah Belwood, Michal Lali Kagan.

Photography: Javier Aguirresarobe.

Editing: Roberto Silvi.

Cast: Brian Cox, Rosanna Arquette, Thora Birch, JJ Feild.

Production / Sales: Arthur Cohn, Arthur Cohn Production,

Gellerstrasse 18, 4052 Bâle (Suisse), tél. : +41 613121242,

acohn@bluewin.ch

FILM TRAILER

For more information on the festival visit the Montreal World Film Festival's website.

FIFA 2018: L'Homme de l'isle

L'HOMME DE L'ISLE

Documentary

Official Competition Art FIFA 2018

Director: BRUNO BOULIANNE

72 minutes | Québec, Canada | 2017

RELEASE date in Quebec City and Montreal - March 23, 2018.

With this film, Bruno Boulianne brings into focus St. Lawrence River, specifically its Isle aux Oies and Isle aux Grues, which are actually two ends of the same long and narrow island in the middle of the river. He presents a skilled hunter Gilles Gagné, a living incarnation of the place where he lives and where he practices his hunting guide profession in close connection with the elements, history and the islands' memory.

For thirty years, Gilles Gagné had guided the world renown Quebec painter Jean-Paul Riopelle (October 7, 1923 – March 12, 2002) to the most spectacular goose hunts. More than an accomplice of hunting, he became an ally to some of Riopelle's artistic creations, being a witness of the passing time. Now, in the film, he hunts on similar trails with another French Canadian visual artist Marc Séguin.

Marc Séguin and Gilles Gagné (right) 

The film elaborates how the geese hunting trips of Gilles Gagné with Jean-Paul Riopelle had contributed to the artist's imagery. The brutal act of shooting, the geese blood and death had especially found an expression in the Reopelle's monumental work Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg, a legacy piece, which he began in his studio on Île-aux-Oies in November 1992 after learning of the death in Paris of his former close companion, the American painter Joan Mitchel. The work was displayed in full at the MNBAQ (Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec - Quebec Museum of Fine Art) exhibition between January 29, 2014 - January 3, 2016.

Gilles Gagné in front of Riopelle's Tribute to Rosa Luxemburg

In addition to artistic allusions and art connections, the film presents Quebec regional nature and also an ethnographic study of the life on the island, featuring even a local Pierrot costume festival. The island's  inhabitants French also differs from the standard or Montreal French, not only in pronunciation but also in some vocabulary. For the Anglophone viewers, even those who speak French, future English subtitles would be helpful.

The photography aspect of the film is quite stunning. The orchestration of the nature camera shots, sounds, and the dance-like movement of the birds and branches form a visual and auditory symphony that is hypnotic and induces an almost meditative state.

Click on images to enlarge them.

The film might be of great interest to hunters and could be promoted in hunting clubs across the continent. On the other hand, it might create too great an interest, many wanting to coming to hunt on the island where the geese population is drastically diminishing and is no longer plentiful even for the local hunters.

CREATIVE TEAM

Les Films du 3 mars

With participation of GILLES GAGNÉ, MARC SÉGUIN, GINA VÉZINA

Editing: VINCENT GUIGNARD

Photography: ALEX MARGINEANU, FRANÇOIS VINCELETTE

Sound: STÉPHANE BARSALOU, MÉLANIE GAUTHIER

Sound Director MARTIN ALLARD, SIMON GERVAIS

Audio mixing: SERGE BOIVIN

Director, Script and Producer BRUNO BOULIANNE

FILM TRAILER on Vimeo

https://vimeo.com/252349740

For more information and FIFA film festival and scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

Gilles Gagné hunting

RIDM 2017: Opening Film

Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM)

20^th Edition
November 9 - 19, 2017

Opening Film

24 Davids
WORLD PREMIERE

CANADA-QUEBEC / 2017 / 133 min. / French, English, Spanish, Twi / S.T. English and French

This film is an essay by Céline Baril filmed on three continents. It will have its world premiere on Thursday, November 9, during the Opening night of the RIDM festival, in the Alumni Auditorium (H-110) at Concordia University (by invitation only). The filmmaker will be in attendance, following a public screening during the festival’s first weekend.

For more than two decades, Céline Baril has been one of the original voices in Quebec’s film industry. The cinematic essay is her favoured medium. She has travelled the world and met members of many different cultures in her quest to create a humane, critical portrait of the world today.

24 Davids is a road movie that travels to three continents for 24 inspiring encounters. All 24 men the audience meet are very different from one another except that they all have the same name David. They also all reflect on major issues facing the world, and express their desire to work for a change. 

All Davids in the film are young men who are either concerned how the universe is made or are struggling to make this world better. There is a constant juxtaposition between the theoretical discussion of cosmology issues in a prestigious academic environment as opposed to the realities in less affluent and the third world countries, their real day-to-day struggles, the awareness that the world has to be made a better place for people and the solutions they offer. The film renders a strange perspective of a major disconnect between those two totally different worlds, the theoretical academic and the real one. 

24 Davids is produced by Colette Loumède at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Its cinema release is slated for February 2, 2018.

FILM TRAILER on Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/224206494

For more information, visit the Montreal International Documentary Film Festival (RIDM) website.

FNC 2017: Old Czech Legends

OLD CZECH LEGENDS

Staré povesti ceské

LES INCORTOUNABLES

ANIMATION

CZECHOSLOVAKIA | 91 MINUTES | 1953| Czech with English Subtitles 

The Czeck film Director Jiří Trnka is renown as the great master of puppet making and puppet animation. His contribution to that special art form is quite significant. Because of his influence in animation, he was called "the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe".

For his Old Czech Legends, Trnka chose six classic Czech folktales, more specifically, historical legends that were put into a literary form in 1984 by the writer Alois Jirásek in his book with the same Czech title as Trnka's film.

Trnka is careful to vary the tales' tone and tempo, transforming long forgoten heroes of national legends into living characters, incarnated by his very unique puppets he designed and made himself. Trnka’s work is equally impressive for his innovative editing, lighting, and sound. He was a winner of many international film award, raising the bar for the future puppet animators and influencing their work, even of the Quay Brothers. 

The film represent a unique opportunity to become acquainted with the work of a master puppeteer Jiří Trnka, and to get to experience his way of transmitting a narrative through his animated puppets.

FNC OFFICIAL SYNOPSES

"The lives of the earliest inhabitants of the historic land of Bohemia, recounted in a series of six stop-motion animation segments. Released in 1953, this film by the Czech director breathes humanity and empathy into the folk tales behind the heroes and legends of Czechoslovakia. Inspired by the book Ancient Bohemian Legends by Alois Jirásek, Old Czech Legends is proof not just of Trnka’s outstanding artistry and puppeteering talent, but also his amazingly inventive use of cinematic language."

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

FNC 2017: Salyut-7

SALYUT-7

Салют-7

TEMPS Ø

CANADIAN PREMIERE

RUSSIA | 119 MINUTES | 2017 | Russian with English Subtitles

The film is based on real events that took place at the height of the Cold War in 1985. In February 1985, the Soviet Flight Control Center (MCC) lost control of their Salyut-7 orbital station that has been unmanned for half a year. The station only had a short time before falling to Earth, causing the death of many people if it hit a populated area and especially a large city.

The Americans are concerned it would fall on the US territoriality and that some nuclear weapons might be aboard. The USSR authorities, in turn, fear that the destruction of the Salyut-7 will put the country outside the space race, and that the US will take advantage of the situation, steal the station and learn its scientific secrets. To prevent this from happening, two astronauts are sent into space, the commander of the ship Vladimir Fedorov (actor Vladimir Vdovichenkov) and the flight engineer Viktor Alyokhin (actor Pavel Derevyanko). For the first time in history, they will have to attempt a manual docking with an uncontrolled object and then find and fix the problems on Salyut-7.

The scenario is based on real events - the mission of Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Victor Savinykh. The names of the real people in this space drama film are changed to emphasize that it is not a documentary but an artistic interpretation of it. Details and action portrayed are dynamic and dramatic and keep viewers in suspense. The visual design and acting are very strong. The amount of problems the two astronauts face, the way they deal with them, their space walk, and their camaraderie are quite inspiring and impressive.

FNC OFFICIAL SYNPOSES

“In space, no one can hear you repair a Soyuz. This Russian blockbuster dramatizes one of the unsung heroic moments in the history of the space race.

True story: on February 11, 1985, Salyut-7 went quiet. The crown jewel of Soviet space technology was at risk of crashing to Earth with disastrous consequences. With the Cold War at its peak — on Earth and in space, in science and in politics — the situation was a complicated one. Two cosmonauts are sent on an apparently impossible mission to repair the craft and save the motherland’s honour. Can they do it ?”

DIRECTOR: Klim Shipenko

SCREENWRITER: Aleksey Chupov

ACTORS: Vladimir Vdovchenko, Pavel Derevyanko, Aleksandr Samoilenko, Lyubov Aksyonova, Ilya Andryukov 

FILM TRAILER

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.

FNC 2017: Après coup

APRÈS COUP
FOCUS QUEBEC / CANADA

IN COMPETITION
WORLD PREMIER

CANADA | 94 MINUTES | 2017 | French with English Subtitles

The film is about a family in distress after a tragic accident that happened to their daughter's friend. Especially affected is the father who assumes a full personal responsibility for what had happened, though he did not cause the accident. In his mind, all is about the timing and him asking the girl to go home after the afternoon spent with his daughter playing. He becomes obsessed with his personal guilt to the extent he is not able to carry on with his regular daily responsibilities. This affects his professional and family life and his relationship with his wife and daughter. His wife forces him to see a psychiatrist. Yet the medication he is prescribed and that is supposed to help him has no effect on him and  after a while he refuses to take it. Threatened with by his wife that he will have to move out if he does not do anything about his condition that is destructive to her and their daughter, he finally unwillingly and reluctantly goes to see a psychologist.

This film introduces to the audience two techniques used by some psychologists to help their clients to overcome the post traumatic stress and guilt. This information might prove useful for some viewers as it reveals methods that could alleviate either their personal or their loved ones issues.

- The first technique is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy. This method has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma and many other mental and emotional problems.

- The second technique is IADC (Induced After-Death Communication) Therapy which helps to heal deep sadness and guild associated with the death of a family member, a friend, or a loved one.

The film could most likely be used by the qualified psychologists as an additional tool to help introduce their clients to these techniques. It is sensitively enacted by the cast and illustrates how a family's harmony could be re-established after conflicts, shocks or traumas that a family member or members had endured.

FNC OFFICIAL TRAILER

"When his daughter’s best friend is killed in an accident, a father undergoes psychotherapy to cope with the emotional fallout. Family man Marc grapples with the post-traumatic stress that ensues when he witnesses his daughter’s best friend being fatally struck by a car just after leaving his house. Haunted by the images, torturing himself with blame, he agrees to undergo psychotherapy — a treatment that proves harrowing. Backed as always by his favourite lead (Laurent Lucas), Mitrani dissects the insidiousness of guilt as well as the unsuspected possibilities of survival."

PRODUCTION TEAM

DIRECTOR: Noël Mitrani

SCREENWRITER: Noël Mitrani

^{ACTORS: Laurent Lucas, Laurence Dauphinais, Mohsen El Gharbi, Pascale Bussières, Natacha Mitrani}

PRODUCER: Gapian Films

FILM TRAILER

SCREENING

THURSDAY OCTOBER 12, 2017

Program #241, 13:00, Cineplex Odeon Quartier SALLE 17

For more informations about the FNC, the program, film scheduling and various venues visit the FNC festival's website.