Code Unknown
Written and directed by Michael Haneke
France/Germany/Romania, 2000
Michael Haneke’s Code Unknown, the director’s 2000 follow-up to his brilliant 1997 film Funny Games, opens on group of deaf children playing sign-language charades. It’s an oddly provocative opening, in that it instantly leaves one to speculate where such a scene is heading, and yet is curiously soon forgotten as the film proper begins, only to be recalled again at the very end of the movie. While this may appear as an arbitrary insertion of an apparently irrelevant parenthesis, there proves to be more to the inclusion than one could initially gather when the scene is first presented. It would indeed be impossible to understand its full significance until the film concludes, for like these children attempting to guess the phrase or word mimicked by another, Code Unknown is itself about figuring out behavior, trying to deduce and...
Written and directed by Michael Haneke
France/Germany/Romania, 2000
Michael Haneke’s Code Unknown, the director’s 2000 follow-up to his brilliant 1997 film Funny Games, opens on group of deaf children playing sign-language charades. It’s an oddly provocative opening, in that it instantly leaves one to speculate where such a scene is heading, and yet is curiously soon forgotten as the film proper begins, only to be recalled again at the very end of the movie. While this may appear as an arbitrary insertion of an apparently irrelevant parenthesis, there proves to be more to the inclusion than one could initially gather when the scene is first presented. It would indeed be impossible to understand its full significance until the film concludes, for like these children attempting to guess the phrase or word mimicked by another, Code Unknown is itself about figuring out behavior, trying to deduce and...
- 11/12/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Over the past two decades, Austrian auteur Michael Haneke has grown into one of the most formidable cinematic titans currently working today. Winning five awards for his six times competing at Cannes (including Palme d’Or wins in 2009 and 2012), several of his prominent early titles tend to be overlooked in broad discussions concerning the filmmaker’s continued observation of humankind’s increasing inability to communicate.
A purveyor of social maladies, usually within an isolated microcosm, Criterion’s restoration of his first French production, 2000’s Code Unknown, is a perfect opportunity to revisit a prescient example of greater cultural shifts and conflicts to come. Although contemporary audiences might be tempted to lump this early title from Haneke into a movement of cinema from this particular decade wherein interconnected vignettes became a popular format, this compilation of one shot, single-takes is beyond comparison with the glut of busy-bodied melodramas eventually running this composition tactic into the ground.
A purveyor of social maladies, usually within an isolated microcosm, Criterion’s restoration of his first French production, 2000’s Code Unknown, is a perfect opportunity to revisit a prescient example of greater cultural shifts and conflicts to come. Although contemporary audiences might be tempted to lump this early title from Haneke into a movement of cinema from this particular decade wherein interconnected vignettes became a popular format, this compilation of one shot, single-takes is beyond comparison with the glut of busy-bodied melodramas eventually running this composition tactic into the ground.
- 11/10/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Are you getting restless about all these halfway posts? We're almost done. The Power of List compels me. There's one more halfway post to go that's basically 'The Oscar Charts are Updated!' as the coding problem I mentioned is fixed and the updates are happening behind the scenes as you read this. We must get all this halfway business behind us by Saturday morning so that we can ape out all weekend with Andy Serkis & Co and start this second half of the year off right.
Herewith...
The Greatest Performances Of 2014's First Half
Best Leading Actress: Keira Knightley does her most relaxed and fluid work ever in Begin Again as a musician at a crossroads, never letting any one aspect of the character's situation pigeonhole her emotional responses; Agata Kulesza is an abrasive and evasive presence in her first scenes in Ida as a cynical woman who is...
Herewith...
The Greatest Performances Of 2014's First Half
Best Leading Actress: Keira Knightley does her most relaxed and fluid work ever in Begin Again as a musician at a crossroads, never letting any one aspect of the character's situation pigeonhole her emotional responses; Agata Kulesza is an abrasive and evasive presence in her first scenes in Ida as a cynical woman who is...
- 7/10/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Chicago – Parents often feel responsible for their child’s reprehensible actions or despicable behavior. They may feel it reflects poorly on their own character and will go out of their way to fix a situation, make it all better. Certainly not all parents, but definitely the mother we meet in “Child’s Pose,” a Romanian film from last year that is finally getting released here in the States.
It’s a fascinating film centered on a controlling and manipulative mother who will confound audiences with her own questionable behavior and blunt demeanor, leaving them to ponder whether or not her concern and emotional responses are genuine or come from a place of self-preservation.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
We meet the sixty something Cornelia (Luminita Gheoeghiu) at her birthday party, surrounded by her husband and a collection of Eastern European bourgeoisie. We learn this affluent woman is a successful theatrical set designer and architect...
It’s a fascinating film centered on a controlling and manipulative mother who will confound audiences with her own questionable behavior and blunt demeanor, leaving them to ponder whether or not her concern and emotional responses are genuine or come from a place of self-preservation.
Rating: 4.5/5.0
We meet the sixty something Cornelia (Luminita Gheoeghiu) at her birthday party, surrounded by her husband and a collection of Eastern European bourgeoisie. We learn this affluent woman is a successful theatrical set designer and architect...
- 4/27/2014
- by [email protected] (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Child’s Pose
Directed by Calin Peter Netzer
Romania, 2013
Continuing in the tradition of recent dominant cinematic mothers, ranging from Hye-ja Kim in Joon-ho Bong’s Mother to Jacki Weaver in David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom, Luminita Gheorghiu casts an impressively controlling maternal shadow in Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose as Cornelia Keneres.
When Cornelia’s son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) strikes and kills a child with his car, Cornelia sees the tragedy as an opportunity to steer her son’s life in the opposite direction of what she believes to be wayward and away from her.
Child’s Pose has several of the trademarks of the films of Netzer’s Romanian peers, making up what many refer to as a Romanian New Wave: long takes, class and bureaucratic commentary, abrupt cuts from scene to scene. It’s Netzer’s anxious camera, constantly panning, tilting, and zooming, that sets it apart.
Directed by Calin Peter Netzer
Romania, 2013
Continuing in the tradition of recent dominant cinematic mothers, ranging from Hye-ja Kim in Joon-ho Bong’s Mother to Jacki Weaver in David Michôd’s Animal Kingdom, Luminita Gheorghiu casts an impressively controlling maternal shadow in Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose as Cornelia Keneres.
When Cornelia’s son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) strikes and kills a child with his car, Cornelia sees the tragedy as an opportunity to steer her son’s life in the opposite direction of what she believes to be wayward and away from her.
Child’s Pose has several of the trademarks of the films of Netzer’s Romanian peers, making up what many refer to as a Romanian New Wave: long takes, class and bureaucratic commentary, abrupt cuts from scene to scene. It’s Netzer’s anxious camera, constantly panning, tilting, and zooming, that sets it apart.
- 4/12/2014
- by Neal Dhand
- SoundOnSight
The Austin Film Society will begin a series this weekend spotlighting the best in New Romanian Cinema with Child's Pose, which won the Golden Bear for best film at last year's Berlin Film Festival. The film stars Luminita Gheorghiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days) and plays tonight and again Sunday afternoon at the Marchesa.
Meanwhile, Richard Linklater's incredible Jewels In The Wasteland series continues this week with Godard's Every Man For Himself on Wednesday night. Linklater will introduce the film and lead an audience discussion after the screening.
On Monday night, Tiger Tail In Blue is screening at the Marchesa thanks to Afs. Local filmmaker Andrew Bujalski will moderate a post-film Skype Q&A with director and lead actor Frank Ross. The indie film was nominated for a Gotham Award for "Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You" and we're lucky to have a theater to bring movies like this to town.
- 3/28/2014
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
One of the great pleasures of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, aside from its generally friendly atmosphere, and awesome local tipple Becherovka, is that its timing and the breadth of its selection gives us the chance to catch up with films we, for one reason or another, missed at festivals previously. And so it was last year with Calin Peter Netzer's "Child's Pose," a film that didn't make it onto our radar in advance at all, but then snuck up and took the Golden Bear at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, while we were probably, statistically speaking, in the next theater over watching a James Franco movie. But while we're immensely impressed by the central performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (a towering actress of the Romanian New Wave, with "The Death of Mr Lazarescu" and two Cristian Mungiu titles "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and "Beyond the Hills" among her many credits...
- 2/20/2014
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
More than a year after winning the Golden Bear at last year’s Berlinale, Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose, a Romanian domestic drama that covers class and motherly impulses, is finally receiving a U.S. release, opening today at New York’s Film Forum and spreading to L.A. by week’s end. The latest entry in the ever-burgeoning Romanian New Wave, which has given us everything from Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills to Radu Muntean’s Tuesday, After Christmas, Child’s Pose zeros in on wealthy Bucharest native Cornelia Keneres (Luminita Gheorghiu) and her family, paying particular attention to her connection to her grown son, Barbu […]...
- 2/19/2014
- by R. Kurt Osenlund
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
More than a year after winning the Golden Bear at last year’s Berlinale, Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose, a Romanian domestic drama that covers class and motherly impulses, is finally receiving a U.S. release, opening today at New York’s Film Forum and spreading to L.A. by week’s end. The latest entry in the ever-burgeoning Romanian New Wave, which has given us everything from Cristian Mungiu’s Beyond the Hills to Radu Muntean’s Tuesday, After Christmas, Child’s Pose zeros in on wealthy Bucharest native Cornelia Keneres (Luminita Gheorghiu) and her family, paying particular attention to her connection to her grown son, Barbu […]...
- 2/19/2014
- by R. Kurt Osenlund
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
From Hitchcock's "Psycho" to Siegel and McGehee's "The Deep End," cinema loves its messed up mother-son relationships. But rarely are they handled with the mastery of Calin Peter Netzer's tale of smotherly love "Child's Pose," Romania's 2014 Oscar entry and also one of the country's strongest films in a surprising, prosperous New Wave of films by Cristian Mungiu and Cristi Puiu. Add Netzer to that list. Luminita Gheorghiu plays Cornelia, a wealthy, weathered, swilling matriarch who manipulates her entire family. Especially her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) who, after a hit-and-run, is about to undergo criminal prosecution for the manslaughter of a child. All wringing hands and cold calculation, Gheorghiu's is the sort of iconic performance that would get more plaudits if this weren't such a crowded year of other iconic performances. She has worked with Puiu and Mungiu before, as well as Michael Haneke, and once again slips into the...
- 2/18/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Winner of a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and Romania's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film for this year's Oscar, Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose is a riveting family drama spiked with some sharp social commentary that is inherent in the Romanian New Wave. Veteran Romanian actress Luminita Gheorghiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, The Death of Mr. Lazarescue) gives a remarkable performance as Neli (Cornelia), a well-connected Romanian upper-class professional whose resolve as a mother of a deadbeat son, Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) gets tested.The film opens with Neli's extravagant birthday dinner with many important government officials attending. She tells her sister that Barbu is not only not showing up for the party, but told her to 'go suck a cock,'...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/18/2014
- Screen Anarchy
Ah, the Romanians — sometimes it seems like no one else is bothering to make movies for grown-ups anymore. Those of us with an abiding New Wave-y interest in human warts and tragic truth-telling have known, since 2005's The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, to look to the Carpathians for dependable relief from the contemporary movie dosage of forever-teen faces and digitized pseudo-excitement. With Child's Pose, the Romanian tide enters its Cassavetes phase, where the thin ice of haute bourgeoisie life cracks and opens wide.
Classically, we've got a character study under pressure, with R-wave earth goddess Luminita Gheorghiu at its center. Her Cornelia is a retired Bucharest architect/über-mom, aging into a moneyed loneliness with an ineffectual husband and a s...
Classically, we've got a character study under pressure, with R-wave earth goddess Luminita Gheorghiu at its center. Her Cornelia is a retired Bucharest architect/über-mom, aging into a moneyed loneliness with an ineffectual husband and a s...
- 2/18/2014
- Village Voice
★★★★★A worthy winner of Berlin's Golden Bear and a strong contender for Best Foreign Language Film at next year's Academy Awards, Child's Pose (2013) provides a fascinating insight into Romania's affluent society and ubiquitous corruption. Calin Peter Netzer focuses on one middle-class family and the troubled relationship of a domineering mother Cornelia and her privileged son Barbu. The film opens with Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) chain-smoking and bemoaning the lack of contact with Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache). She's about to hit sixty and he - for reason's unknown - is refusing to attend his mother's birthday celebration.
- 12/16/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Child's Pose is an astonishing Romanian gem that deserved more of a cinema outing, unlike James Franco's attempt to put the vice back into Cruising
The ever narrowing window between the theatrical and DVD release dates of smaller-scale arthouse films is a bittersweet blessing. Viewers in multiplex-only regions get to access them before the critical conversation has cooled entirely, though the sadder flip-side is that their life in cinemas is increasingly brief. Viewed on any size of screen, however, Calin Peter Netzer's astonishing Child's Pose (Studiocanal, 15) – released theatrically only last month – is among the year's most essential films.
There's been a recent critical tendency to elevate indiscriminately just about any product of the so-called Romanian new wave to masterwork status, no matter how dour or protracted, which is perhaps why even discerning audiences were hesitant to see this diamond-hard domestic thriller – a deserved Golden Bear winner at the Berlin film festival.
The ever narrowing window between the theatrical and DVD release dates of smaller-scale arthouse films is a bittersweet blessing. Viewers in multiplex-only regions get to access them before the critical conversation has cooled entirely, though the sadder flip-side is that their life in cinemas is increasingly brief. Viewed on any size of screen, however, Calin Peter Netzer's astonishing Child's Pose (Studiocanal, 15) – released theatrically only last month – is among the year's most essential films.
There's been a recent critical tendency to elevate indiscriminately just about any product of the so-called Romanian new wave to masterwork status, no matter how dour or protracted, which is perhaps why even discerning audiences were hesitant to see this diamond-hard domestic thriller – a deserved Golden Bear winner at the Berlin film festival.
- 12/15/2013
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
To mark the release of Child’s Pose on DVD 16th December, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away.
Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Child’S Pose is a touching film about how we can suffocate our children with maternal love, and on the marks that parents leave on their offspring’s personalities. Written and directed by Calin Peter Netzer, the film is also a portrayal of contemporary high-class Romania, and the low-level corruption and trading of influence within the core social institutions. The film stars Luminita Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu), Bogdan Dumitrache (Traffic), Ilinca Goia and Nataşa Raab (Amen).
Cornelia (Gheorghiu), an elegant and well-connected woman at the pinnacle of society, hides a dark secret. She has an estranged son, Barbu (Dumitrache), who seems determined to keep his life as private as possible. Far from the prying eyes of his aristocratic mother,...
Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, Child’S Pose is a touching film about how we can suffocate our children with maternal love, and on the marks that parents leave on their offspring’s personalities. Written and directed by Calin Peter Netzer, the film is also a portrayal of contemporary high-class Romania, and the low-level corruption and trading of influence within the core social institutions. The film stars Luminita Gheorghiu (The Death of Mr Lazarescu), Bogdan Dumitrache (Traffic), Ilinca Goia and Nataşa Raab (Amen).
Cornelia (Gheorghiu), an elegant and well-connected woman at the pinnacle of society, hides a dark secret. She has an estranged son, Barbu (Dumitrache), who seems determined to keep his life as private as possible. Far from the prying eyes of his aristocratic mother,...
- 12/13/2013
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Decadence, violence, love and space – Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw shares his fantasy award nomination list for 2013
• The 2012 Braddies
Awards season is now upon us and here, as every year, is my personal fantasy award nomination list for 2013, whimsically called the Braddies, which covers the period running from the beginning of the calendar year to the present. There are 10 nominations in eight categories: film, director, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, screenplay and documentary.
The reader is invited to nominate the winner in the comments section below, and perhaps to note omissions and evidence that the list betrays suggestions of sociocultural bias.
I like to think that these awards will one day evolve into an actual ceremony with chrome-and-glass statuettes, sponsorship from Sky Atlantic and a televised evening presided over by Dara Ó Briain or Mariella Frostrup. But until then, it exists in a world of fantasy only. And so,...
• The 2012 Braddies
Awards season is now upon us and here, as every year, is my personal fantasy award nomination list for 2013, whimsically called the Braddies, which covers the period running from the beginning of the calendar year to the present. There are 10 nominations in eight categories: film, director, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress, screenplay and documentary.
The reader is invited to nominate the winner in the comments section below, and perhaps to note omissions and evidence that the list betrays suggestions of sociocultural bias.
I like to think that these awards will one day evolve into an actual ceremony with chrome-and-glass statuettes, sponsorship from Sky Atlantic and a televised evening presided over by Dara Ó Briain or Mariella Frostrup. But until then, it exists in a world of fantasy only. And so,...
- 12/6/2013
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Among all the national Oscar ® submissions for consideration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will nominate 5 on January 16, 2014 to compete for Best Foreign Language Film. One of those five films will receive the Oscar ® for Best Non-English-feature at the Oscar ® Awards March 2, 2014 in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards
At this point (and I have not seen all the films yet), I predict the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar going to The Great Beauty,Child’s Pose or Gloria. Those are three of my four favorites thus far. The Past, while worthy most likely will not repeat Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar 2011 win for A Separation.
Child’s Pose
I am amazed to see that no Romanian film ever even made it to the 5 Nominations level and yet their films are internationally acclaimed and Child’s Pose carries on the tradition of great filmmaking that Romania has established in recent years. A scathing indictment of the complacent bourgeois nouveau riche classes in Romania, this film leaves no doubt in our mind of how far one can go to protect a really ugly new society. The very strength of the film may make it too “high-brow” for the Academy, although it did award another “high-brow” movie when the Oscar went to Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation in 2011, but at that time, there were political motivations as well for awarding the Oscar to a dissident Iranian. If Child’s Pose does not receive a nomination however, I will attribute that to my aforesaid judgement.
Child’s Pose producer Ada Solomon gave a speech at the Berlinale Awards Ceremony Closing Night where the film won The Golden Bear, which deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. ( Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose , good in the vein of A Separation, went head to head in Berlin with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways and so it could again for the Oscar. The two older women were both great.
By the way, Gloria was produced by Fabula , the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced Academy Award winner in 2012 No as well as Crystal Fairy by Sebastian Silva.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
Regarding Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, one of my three favorites, it is masterful how Asghar Farhadi can take a simple domestic drama – divorce, remarriage, children, step-parents – and based on one simple miss-step (a white lie in A Separation and a forwarding of emails in The Past), he weaves a surprising and suspenseful web whose strands the audience only unravels after it has fully and seemingly effortlessly played itself out.
When I saw A Separation, the Iranian exoticism initially carried it forward, and it was only at its final note played that I realized a simple lie and a few misstatements caused the greatest grief for the most innocent player of the family’s drama. The daughter was left to suffer from the well-meaning white lies of adults and that was the ensuing tragedy of the film. In this film (The Past), it is the daughter who must bear the responsibility when things get complicated.
The story goes thus: Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)'s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad's efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past, and the highly charged revelations affecting every character in Mr. Farhadi's complex screenplay unfold with his trademark nuance. Once again he showcases his gifts as a masterful storyteller and director who elicits riveting performances from his cast.
The Past, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 20, 2013. After playing Cannes, it went on to play at Telluride, Toronto and AFI Film Festivals.
Not only did The Past win the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Best Actress (Bérénice Béjo), but Asghar Farhadi’s previous film A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. For that reason alone, I do not think it will win the Award this year even if it makes it to the 5 top nominated films.
41 year-old writer-director Asghar Farhadi graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Tehran University in 1998. He had won the Berlin Film Festival' Golden Bear for Best Director for About Elly. The Past is his sixth feature.
Argentinian-born and Paris-based actress Bérénice Béjo was last seen in her Academy nominated role as Peppy Miller in Best Picture Oscar winner The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Following her César-nominated breakout role in Gérard Jugnot's Most Promising Young Actress, Béjo made her American feature film debut in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Béjo is currently in production on director Michel Hazanavicius' new film, The Search.
One of French cinema's young rising stars, Tahar Rahim is best known to U.S. audiences for his indelible performance in Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, for which he won both Best Actor and Best Male Newcomer Césars, as well as the European Film Award for Best Actor.
See SydneysBuzz Review of The Past .
I won’t reiterate my love for the inspirational and awesome film The Great Beauty because you can read about that in my Interview with Paulo Sorrentino the Director of The Great Beauty and for the fabulously self-affirming Gloria which you can read in my Interview with Sebastian Lelio Director of 'Gloria' and Star Paulina Garcia .
Below you can list of rights sold to all these four great films. Note who are the smart distributors buying these art films so that when you make such a film, you will know who will be watching. And for more rights to more films, buy the Rights Roundup Reports by SydneysBuzz for each great festival and market Here.
The Past
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated | Running time: 130 min.
French and Persian with English subtitles
International sales by Memento sold to
Australia-Madman Entertainment
Canada-Métropole Films Distribution
Canada-Mongrel Media Inc.
Denmark-Angel Films A/S
Finland-Cinema Mondo
France-Canal +
France-Memento Films Distribution
Germany-Camino Filmverleih Gmbh
Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited
Israel-Lev Films (Shani Films)
Italy-Bim Distribuzione
Korea (South)-Cac Entertainment
Netherlands-Cinéart Nl
Norway-Arthaus
Poland-Kino Swiat
Serbia-Soul Food Distribution
Sweden-Folkets Bio
Switzerland-Frenetic Films
Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc.
Turkey-Mars Production
U.K.-Curzon Film World/ Artificial Eye
U.S. – Spc/ Airlines – Penny Black Media
Child’s Pose
Zeitgeist Films is handling the U.S. theatrical release of Child’s Pose by Calin Peter Netzer. The film will open at Film Forum in New York on February 19, and at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles on February 21. A national release will follow.
Golden Bear winner at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, Calin Peter Netzer’s sharply crafted Child’s Pose pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (12:08 East of Bucharest; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Beyond the Hills; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the role for which Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded her the Best Supporting Actress award) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash.
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated. / Running time: 112 min.
Romanian with English subtitles
International sales by Beta Cinema sold to
Australia - Palace Films
Brazil - Imovision
Denmark - Camera Film A/S
Germany - Beta Cinema
Germany - X Verleih Ag
Greece - Seven Films
Italy - Teodora Film
So. Korea - Mediaday
Mexico - Cinemas Nueva Era
Netherlands - Contact Film
Norway - Film&Kino
Norway - Tour De Force As
Poland - Aurora Films
Poland - Transatlantyk Festival
Portugal - Alambique
Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk)
Spain - Golem Distribución
Switzerland - Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films Co.,Ltd.
Turkey - Mor Film
The Great Beauty
140 minutes
Italian with English subtitles
International sales agent Pathe sold to
Australia Palace Films
Brazil Mares Filmes Ltda.
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Denmark Camera Film A/S
France Canal +
Germany Dcm
Hong Kong Edko Films Ltd
Netherlands Abc - Cinemien
Norway As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Russia A-One Films
Slovak Republic Film Europe (Sk)
Switzerland Pathe Films Ag
U.K. Curzon Film World
Gloria
104 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
International sales agent Funny Balloons sold to
Australia Rialto Distribution (Australia)
Austria Thimfilm Gmbh
Brazil Imovision
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Colombia Babilla Cine
France Funny Balloons
Germany Alamode Film
Greece Strada Films
Israel New Cinema Ltd.
Italy Lucky Red
Japan Respect
Korea (South) Pancinema
Netherlands Wild Bunch Benelux
Portugal Alambique
Sweden Atlantic Film Ab
Switzerland Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Turkey Bir Film
U.K. Network
U.S. Roadside Attractions...
Read more about all the 76 Best Foreign Language Film Submission for the 2014 Academy Awards
At this point (and I have not seen all the films yet), I predict the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar going to The Great Beauty,Child’s Pose or Gloria. Those are three of my four favorites thus far. The Past, while worthy most likely will not repeat Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar 2011 win for A Separation.
Child’s Pose
I am amazed to see that no Romanian film ever even made it to the 5 Nominations level and yet their films are internationally acclaimed and Child’s Pose carries on the tradition of great filmmaking that Romania has established in recent years. A scathing indictment of the complacent bourgeois nouveau riche classes in Romania, this film leaves no doubt in our mind of how far one can go to protect a really ugly new society. The very strength of the film may make it too “high-brow” for the Academy, although it did award another “high-brow” movie when the Oscar went to Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation in 2011, but at that time, there were political motivations as well for awarding the Oscar to a dissident Iranian. If Child’s Pose does not receive a nomination however, I will attribute that to my aforesaid judgement.
Child’s Pose producer Ada Solomon gave a speech at the Berlinale Awards Ceremony Closing Night where the film won The Golden Bear, which deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. ( Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose , good in the vein of A Separation, went head to head in Berlin with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways and so it could again for the Oscar. The two older women were both great.
By the way, Gloria was produced by Fabula , the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced Academy Award winner in 2012 No as well as Crystal Fairy by Sebastian Silva.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
Regarding Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, one of my three favorites, it is masterful how Asghar Farhadi can take a simple domestic drama – divorce, remarriage, children, step-parents – and based on one simple miss-step (a white lie in A Separation and a forwarding of emails in The Past), he weaves a surprising and suspenseful web whose strands the audience only unravels after it has fully and seemingly effortlessly played itself out.
When I saw A Separation, the Iranian exoticism initially carried it forward, and it was only at its final note played that I realized a simple lie and a few misstatements caused the greatest grief for the most innocent player of the family’s drama. The daughter was left to suffer from the well-meaning white lies of adults and that was the ensuing tragedy of the film. In this film (The Past), it is the daughter who must bear the responsibility when things get complicated.
The story goes thus: Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)'s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad's efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past, and the highly charged revelations affecting every character in Mr. Farhadi's complex screenplay unfold with his trademark nuance. Once again he showcases his gifts as a masterful storyteller and director who elicits riveting performances from his cast.
The Past, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 20, 2013. After playing Cannes, it went on to play at Telluride, Toronto and AFI Film Festivals.
Not only did The Past win the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Best Actress (Bérénice Béjo), but Asghar Farhadi’s previous film A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. For that reason alone, I do not think it will win the Award this year even if it makes it to the 5 top nominated films.
41 year-old writer-director Asghar Farhadi graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Tehran University in 1998. He had won the Berlin Film Festival' Golden Bear for Best Director for About Elly. The Past is his sixth feature.
Argentinian-born and Paris-based actress Bérénice Béjo was last seen in her Academy nominated role as Peppy Miller in Best Picture Oscar winner The Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Following her César-nominated breakout role in Gérard Jugnot's Most Promising Young Actress, Béjo made her American feature film debut in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Béjo is currently in production on director Michel Hazanavicius' new film, The Search.
One of French cinema's young rising stars, Tahar Rahim is best known to U.S. audiences for his indelible performance in Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, for which he won both Best Actor and Best Male Newcomer Césars, as well as the European Film Award for Best Actor.
See SydneysBuzz Review of The Past .
I won’t reiterate my love for the inspirational and awesome film The Great Beauty because you can read about that in my Interview with Paulo Sorrentino the Director of The Great Beauty and for the fabulously self-affirming Gloria which you can read in my Interview with Sebastian Lelio Director of 'Gloria' and Star Paulina Garcia .
Below you can list of rights sold to all these four great films. Note who are the smart distributors buying these art films so that when you make such a film, you will know who will be watching. And for more rights to more films, buy the Rights Roundup Reports by SydneysBuzz for each great festival and market Here.
The Past
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated | Running time: 130 min.
French and Persian with English subtitles
International sales by Memento sold to
Australia-Madman Entertainment
Canada-Métropole Films Distribution
Canada-Mongrel Media Inc.
Denmark-Angel Films A/S
Finland-Cinema Mondo
France-Canal +
France-Memento Films Distribution
Germany-Camino Filmverleih Gmbh
Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited
Israel-Lev Films (Shani Films)
Italy-Bim Distribuzione
Korea (South)-Cac Entertainment
Netherlands-Cinéart Nl
Norway-Arthaus
Poland-Kino Swiat
Serbia-Soul Food Distribution
Sweden-Folkets Bio
Switzerland-Frenetic Films
Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc.
Turkey-Mars Production
U.K.-Curzon Film World/ Artificial Eye
U.S. – Spc/ Airlines – Penny Black Media
Child’s Pose
Zeitgeist Films is handling the U.S. theatrical release of Child’s Pose by Calin Peter Netzer. The film will open at Film Forum in New York on February 19, and at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles on February 21. A national release will follow.
Golden Bear winner at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, Calin Peter Netzer’s sharply crafted Child’s Pose pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (12:08 East of Bucharest; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Beyond the Hills; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the role for which Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded her the Best Supporting Actress award) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash.
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated. / Running time: 112 min.
Romanian with English subtitles
International sales by Beta Cinema sold to
Australia - Palace Films
Brazil - Imovision
Denmark - Camera Film A/S
Germany - Beta Cinema
Germany - X Verleih Ag
Greece - Seven Films
Italy - Teodora Film
So. Korea - Mediaday
Mexico - Cinemas Nueva Era
Netherlands - Contact Film
Norway - Film&Kino
Norway - Tour De Force As
Poland - Aurora Films
Poland - Transatlantyk Festival
Portugal - Alambique
Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk)
Spain - Golem Distribución
Switzerland - Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films Co.,Ltd.
Turkey - Mor Film
The Great Beauty
140 minutes
Italian with English subtitles
International sales agent Pathe sold to
Australia Palace Films
Brazil Mares Filmes Ltda.
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Denmark Camera Film A/S
France Canal +
Germany Dcm
Hong Kong Edko Films Ltd
Netherlands Abc - Cinemien
Norway As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Russia A-One Films
Slovak Republic Film Europe (Sk)
Switzerland Pathe Films Ag
U.K. Curzon Film World
Gloria
104 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
International sales agent Funny Balloons sold to
Australia Rialto Distribution (Australia)
Austria Thimfilm Gmbh
Brazil Imovision
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Colombia Babilla Cine
France Funny Balloons
Germany Alamode Film
Greece Strada Films
Israel New Cinema Ltd.
Italy Lucky Red
Japan Respect
Korea (South) Pancinema
Netherlands Wild Bunch Benelux
Portugal Alambique
Sweden Atlantic Film Ab
Switzerland Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Turkey Bir Film
U.K. Network
U.S. Roadside Attractions...
- 11/16/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Among all the national Oscar ® submissions for consideration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will nominate 5 on January 16, 2014 to compete for Best Foreign Language Film. One of those five films will receive the Oscar ® for Best Non-English-feature at the Oscar ® Awards March 2, 2014 in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.
At this point (and I have not seen all the films yet), I predict the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar going to The Great Beauty,Child’s Pose or Gloria. Those are three of my four favorites thus far. The Past, while worthy most likely will not repeat Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar 2011 win for A Separation.
Child’s Pose
I am amazed to see that no Romanian film ever even made it to the 5 Nominations level and yet their films are internationally acclaimed and Child’s Pose carries on the tradition of great filmmaking that Romania has established in recent years. A scathing indictment of the complacent bourgeois nouveau riche classes in Romania, this film leaves no doubt in our mind of how far one can go to protect a really ugly new society. The very strength of the film may make it too “high-brow” for the Academy, although it did award another “high-brow” movie when the Oscar went to Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation in 2011, but at that time, there were political motivations as well for awarding the Oscar to a dissident Iranian. If Child’s Pose does not receive a nomination however, I will attribute that to my aforesaid judgement.
Child’s Pose producer Ada Solomon gave a speech at the Berlinale Awards Ceremony Closing Night where the film won The Golden Bear, which deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. ( Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose , good in the vein of A Separation, went head to head in Berlin with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways and so it could again for the Oscar. The two older women were both great.
By the way, Gloria was produced by Fabula , the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced Academy Award winner in 2012No as well as Crystal Fairy by Sebastian Silva.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
Regarding Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, one of my three favorites, it is masterful how Asghar Farhadi can take a simple domestic drama – divorce, remarriage, children, step-parents – and based on one simple miss-step (a white lie in A Separation and a forwarding of emails in The Past), he weaves a surprising and suspenseful web whose strands the audience only unravels after it has fully and seemingly effortlessly played itself out.
When I saw A Separation, the Iranian exoticism initially carried it forward, and it was only at its final note played that I realized a simple lie and a few misstatements caused the greatest grief for the most innocent player of the family’s drama. The daughter was left to suffer from the well-meaning white lies of adults and that was the ensuing tragedy of the film. In this film (The Past), it is the daughter who must bear the responsibility when things get complicated.
The story goes thus: Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)'s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad's efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past, and the highly charged revelations affecting every character in Mr. Farhadi's complex screenplay unfold with his trademark nuance. Once again he showcases his gifts as a masterful storyteller and director who elicits riveting performances from his cast.
The Past, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 20, 2013. After playing Cannes, it went on to play at Telluride, Toronto and AFI Film Festivals.
Not only did The Past win the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Best Actress (Bérénice Béjo), but Asghar Farhadi’s previous film A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. For that reason alone, I do not think it will win the Award this year even if it makes it to the 5 top nominated films.
41 year-old writer-director Asghar Farhadi graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Tehran University in 1998. He had won the Berlin Film Festival' Golden Bear for Best Director for About Elly. The Past is his sixth feature.
Argentinian-born and Paris-based actress Bérénice Béjo was last seen in her Academy nominated role as Peppy Miller in Best Picture Oscar winnerThe Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Following her César-nominated breakout role in Gérard Jugnot's Most Promising Young Actress, Béjo made her American feature film debut in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Béjo is currently in production on director Michel Hazanavicius' new film, The Search.
One of French cinema's young rising stars, Tahar Rahim is best known to U.S. audiences for his indelible performance in Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, for which he won both Best Actor and Best Male Newcomer Césars, as well as the European Film Award for Best Actor.
See SydneysBuzz Review of The Past .
I won’t reiterate my love for the inspirational and awesome film A Great Beauty because you can read about that in my Interview with Paulo Sorrentino the Director of The Great Beauty and for the fabulously self-affirming Gloria which you can read in my Interview with Sebastian Lelio Director of 'Gloria' and Star Paulina Garcia .
Below you can list of rights sold to all these four great films. Note who are the smart distributors buying these art films so that when you make such a film, you will know who will be watching. And for more rights to more films, buy the Rights Roundup Reports by SydneysBuzz for each great festival and market Here.
The Past
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated | Running time: 130 min.
French and Persian with English subtitles
International sales by Memento sold to
Australia-Madman Entertainment
Canada-Métropole Films Distribution
Canada-Mongrel Media Inc.
Denmark-Angel Films A/S
Finland-Cinema Mondo
France-Canal +
France-Memento Films Distribution
Germany-Camino Filmverleih Gmbh
Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited
Israel-Lev Films (Shani Films)
Italy-Bim Distribuzione
Korea (South)-Cac Entertainment
Netherlands-Cinéart Nl
Norway-Arthaus
Poland-Kino Swiat
Serbia-Soul Food Distribution
Sweden-Folkets Bio
Switzerland-Frenetic Films
Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc.
Turkey-Mars Production
U.K.-Curzon Film World/ Artificial Eye
U.S. – Spc/ Airlines – Penny Black Media
Child’s Pose
Zeitgeist Films is handling the U.S. theatrical release of Child’s Pose by Calin Peter Netzer. The film will open at Film Forum in New York on February 19, and at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles on February 21. A national release will follow.
Golden Bear winner at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, Calin Peter Netzer’s sharply crafted Child’s Pose pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (12:08 East of Bucharest; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Beyond the Hills; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the role for which Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded her the Best Supporting Actress award) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash.
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated. / Running time: 112 min.
Romanian with English subtitles
International sales by Beta Cinema sold to
Australia - Palace Films
Brazil - Imovision
Denmark - Camera Film A/S
Germany - Beta Cinema
Germany - X Verleih Ag
Greece - Seven Films
Italy - Teodora Film
So. Korea - Mediaday
Mexico - Cinemas Nueva Era
Netherlands - Contact Film
Norway - Film&Kino
Norway - Tour De Force As
Poland - Aurora Films
Poland - Transatlantyk Festival
Portugal - Alambique
Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk)
Spain - Golem Distribución
Switzerland - Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films Co.,Ltd.
Turkey - Mor Film
The Great Beauty
140 minutes
Italian with English subtitles
International sales agent Pathe sold to
Australia Palace Films
Brazil Mares Filmes Ltda.
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Denmark Camera Film A/S
France Canal +
Germany Dcm
Hong Kong Edko Films Ltd
Netherlands Abc - Cinemien
Norway As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Russia A-One Films
Slovak Republic Film Europe (Sk)
Switzerland Pathe Films Ag
U.K. Curzon Film World
Gloria
104 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
International sales agent Funny Balloons sold to
Australia Rialto Distribution (Australia)
Austria Thimfilm Gmbh
Brazil Imovision
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Colombia Babilla Cine
France Funny Balloons
Germany Alamode Film
Greece Strada Films
Israel New Cinema Ltd.
Italy Lucky Red
Japan Respect
Korea (South) Pancinema
Netherlands Wild Bunch Benelux
Portugal Alambique
Sweden Atlantic Film Ab
Switzerland Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Turkey Bir Film
U.K. Network
U.S. Roadside Attractions...
At this point (and I have not seen all the films yet), I predict the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar going to The Great Beauty,Child’s Pose or Gloria. Those are three of my four favorites thus far. The Past, while worthy most likely will not repeat Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar 2011 win for A Separation.
Child’s Pose
I am amazed to see that no Romanian film ever even made it to the 5 Nominations level and yet their films are internationally acclaimed and Child’s Pose carries on the tradition of great filmmaking that Romania has established in recent years. A scathing indictment of the complacent bourgeois nouveau riche classes in Romania, this film leaves no doubt in our mind of how far one can go to protect a really ugly new society. The very strength of the film may make it too “high-brow” for the Academy, although it did award another “high-brow” movie when the Oscar went to Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation in 2011, but at that time, there were political motivations as well for awarding the Oscar to a dissident Iranian. If Child’s Pose does not receive a nomination however, I will attribute that to my aforesaid judgement.
Child’s Pose producer Ada Solomon gave a speech at the Berlinale Awards Ceremony Closing Night where the film won The Golden Bear, which deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. ( Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose , good in the vein of A Separation, went head to head in Berlin with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways and so it could again for the Oscar. The two older women were both great.
By the way, Gloria was produced by Fabula , the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced Academy Award winner in 2012No as well as Crystal Fairy by Sebastian Silva.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
Regarding Asghar Farhadi’s The Past, one of my three favorites, it is masterful how Asghar Farhadi can take a simple domestic drama – divorce, remarriage, children, step-parents – and based on one simple miss-step (a white lie in A Separation and a forwarding of emails in The Past), he weaves a surprising and suspenseful web whose strands the audience only unravels after it has fully and seemingly effortlessly played itself out.
When I saw A Separation, the Iranian exoticism initially carried it forward, and it was only at its final note played that I realized a simple lie and a few misstatements caused the greatest grief for the most innocent player of the family’s drama. The daughter was left to suffer from the well-meaning white lies of adults and that was the ensuing tragedy of the film. In this film (The Past), it is the daughter who must bear the responsibility when things get complicated.
The story goes thus: Following a four year separation, Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his estranged French wife Marie (Bérénice Bejo)'s request, in order to finalize their divorce procedure so she can marry her new boyfriend Samir (Tahar Rahim). During his tense brief stay, Ahmad discovers the conflicting nature of Marie's relationship with her teenage daughter Lucie (Pauline Burlet). Ahmad's efforts to improve this relationship soon unveil a secret from their past, and the highly charged revelations affecting every character in Mr. Farhadi's complex screenplay unfold with his trademark nuance. Once again he showcases his gifts as a masterful storyteller and director who elicits riveting performances from his cast.
The Past, written and directed by Asghar Farhadi and starring Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim and Ali Mosaffa opens in New York and Los Angeles on December 20, 2013. After playing Cannes, it went on to play at Telluride, Toronto and AFI Film Festivals.
Not only did The Past win the Cannes Film Festival Prize for Best Actress (Bérénice Béjo), but Asghar Farhadi’s previous film A Separation won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011. For that reason alone, I do not think it will win the Award this year even if it makes it to the 5 top nominated films.
41 year-old writer-director Asghar Farhadi graduated with a Master’s Degree in Film Direction from Tehran University in 1998. He had won the Berlin Film Festival' Golden Bear for Best Director for About Elly. The Past is his sixth feature.
Argentinian-born and Paris-based actress Bérénice Béjo was last seen in her Academy nominated role as Peppy Miller in Best Picture Oscar winnerThe Artist directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Following her César-nominated breakout role in Gérard Jugnot's Most Promising Young Actress, Béjo made her American feature film debut in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger. Béjo is currently in production on director Michel Hazanavicius' new film, The Search.
One of French cinema's young rising stars, Tahar Rahim is best known to U.S. audiences for his indelible performance in Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, for which he won both Best Actor and Best Male Newcomer Césars, as well as the European Film Award for Best Actor.
See SydneysBuzz Review of The Past .
I won’t reiterate my love for the inspirational and awesome film A Great Beauty because you can read about that in my Interview with Paulo Sorrentino the Director of The Great Beauty and for the fabulously self-affirming Gloria which you can read in my Interview with Sebastian Lelio Director of 'Gloria' and Star Paulina Garcia .
Below you can list of rights sold to all these four great films. Note who are the smart distributors buying these art films so that when you make such a film, you will know who will be watching. And for more rights to more films, buy the Rights Roundup Reports by SydneysBuzz for each great festival and market Here.
The Past
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated | Running time: 130 min.
French and Persian with English subtitles
International sales by Memento sold to
Australia-Madman Entertainment
Canada-Métropole Films Distribution
Canada-Mongrel Media Inc.
Denmark-Angel Films A/S
Finland-Cinema Mondo
France-Canal +
France-Memento Films Distribution
Germany-Camino Filmverleih Gmbh
Hong Kong (China)-Golden Scene Company Limited
Israel-Lev Films (Shani Films)
Italy-Bim Distribuzione
Korea (South)-Cac Entertainment
Netherlands-Cinéart Nl
Norway-Arthaus
Poland-Kino Swiat
Serbia-Soul Food Distribution
Sweden-Folkets Bio
Switzerland-Frenetic Films
Taiwan-Maison Motion, Inc.
Turkey-Mars Production
U.K.-Curzon Film World/ Artificial Eye
U.S. – Spc/ Airlines – Penny Black Media
Child’s Pose
Zeitgeist Films is handling the U.S. theatrical release of Child’s Pose by Calin Peter Netzer. The film will open at Film Forum in New York on February 19, and at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles on February 21. A national release will follow.
Golden Bear winner at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, Calin Peter Netzer’s sharply crafted Child’s Pose pivots on a riveting performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (12:08 East of Bucharest; 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; Beyond the Hills; The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, the role for which Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded her the Best Supporting Actress award) as a steely, well-to-do Bucharest architect determined to keep her 30-something deadbeat son out of jail after a deadly car crash.
MPAA Rating: Not yet rated. / Running time: 112 min.
Romanian with English subtitles
International sales by Beta Cinema sold to
Australia - Palace Films
Brazil - Imovision
Denmark - Camera Film A/S
Germany - Beta Cinema
Germany - X Verleih Ag
Greece - Seven Films
Italy - Teodora Film
So. Korea - Mediaday
Mexico - Cinemas Nueva Era
Netherlands - Contact Film
Norway - Film&Kino
Norway - Tour De Force As
Poland - Aurora Films
Poland - Transatlantyk Festival
Portugal - Alambique
Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk)
Spain - Golem Distribución
Switzerland - Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films Co.,Ltd.
Turkey - Mor Film
The Great Beauty
140 minutes
Italian with English subtitles
International sales agent Pathe sold to
Australia Palace Films
Brazil Mares Filmes Ltda.
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Denmark Camera Film A/S
France Canal +
Germany Dcm
Hong Kong Edko Films Ltd
Netherlands Abc - Cinemien
Norway As Fidalgo Film Distribution
Russia A-One Films
Slovak Republic Film Europe (Sk)
Switzerland Pathe Films Ag
U.K. Curzon Film World
Gloria
104 minutes
Spanish with English subtitles
International sales agent Funny Balloons sold to
Australia Rialto Distribution (Australia)
Austria Thimfilm Gmbh
Brazil Imovision
Canada Métropole Films Distribution
Colombia Babilla Cine
France Funny Balloons
Germany Alamode Film
Greece Strada Films
Israel New Cinema Ltd.
Italy Lucky Red
Japan Respect
Korea (South) Pancinema
Netherlands Wild Bunch Benelux
Portugal Alambique
Sweden Atlantic Film Ab
Switzerland Filmcoopi Zurich Ag
Turkey Bir Film
U.K. Network
U.S. Roadside Attractions...
- 11/14/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Blue Is The Warmest Colour, Blancanieves and The Great Beauty head up the list of films nominated for Best Picture at this year's European Film Awards, with the winners due to be announced at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin on December 7. It's the first year that the event will include a comedy award, with Pedro Almodóvar's I'm So Excited the front runner.
The full set of nominations is as follows:
Best European Film Blue Is The Warmest Colour Blancanieves The Best Offer The Great Beauty The Broken Circle Breakdown Oh Boy!
Best European Comedy I'm So Excited Love Is All You Need The Priest's Children Welcome Mr President!
Best European Director Pablo Berger, Blancanieves Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue Is The Warmest Colour François Ozon, In The House Paolo Sorrentino, The Great Beauty Giuseppe Tornatore, The Best Offer Felix Van Groeningen, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Best European Actress Veerle Batens,...
The full set of nominations is as follows:
Best European Film Blue Is The Warmest Colour Blancanieves The Best Offer The Great Beauty The Broken Circle Breakdown Oh Boy!
Best European Comedy I'm So Excited Love Is All You Need The Priest's Children Welcome Mr President!
Best European Director Pablo Berger, Blancanieves Abdellatif Kechiche, Blue Is The Warmest Colour François Ozon, In The House Paolo Sorrentino, The Great Beauty Giuseppe Tornatore, The Best Offer Felix Van Groeningen, The Broken Circle Breakdown
Best European Actress Veerle Batens,...
- 11/10/2013
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Broken Circle Breakdown, The Great Beauty and Adele: Chapters 1 & 2 among nominees.
The nominations for the 26th European Film Awards have been announced at the Seville European Film Festival.
More than 2,900 European Film Academy members will now vote for the winners who will be presented during the awards ceremony on Dec 7 in Berlin.
Nominated are:
European Film 2013
The Best Offer
Italy, 130 min
Written & Directed By: Giuseppe Tornatore
Produced By: Isabella Cocuzza & Arturo Paglia
Blancanieves
Spain/France, 104 min
Written & Directed By: Pablo Berger
Produced By: Ibon Cormenzana, Jérôme Vidal & Pablo Berger
The Broken Circle Breakdown
Belgium, 100 min
Directed By: Felix van Groeningen
Written By: Carl Joos & Felix van Groeningen
Produced By: Dirk Impens
La Grande Bellezza
The Great Beauty
Italy/France, 140 min
Directed By: Paolo Sorrentino
Written By: Paolo Sorrentino & Umberto Contarello
Produced By: Nicola Giuliano & Francesca Cima
Oh Boy!
Germany, 83 min
Written & Directed By: Jan Ole Gerster
Produced By: Marcos Kantis & Alexander Wadouh
La Vie D’Adele:...
The nominations for the 26th European Film Awards have been announced at the Seville European Film Festival.
More than 2,900 European Film Academy members will now vote for the winners who will be presented during the awards ceremony on Dec 7 in Berlin.
Nominated are:
European Film 2013
The Best Offer
Italy, 130 min
Written & Directed By: Giuseppe Tornatore
Produced By: Isabella Cocuzza & Arturo Paglia
Blancanieves
Spain/France, 104 min
Written & Directed By: Pablo Berger
Produced By: Ibon Cormenzana, Jérôme Vidal & Pablo Berger
The Broken Circle Breakdown
Belgium, 100 min
Directed By: Felix van Groeningen
Written By: Carl Joos & Felix van Groeningen
Produced By: Dirk Impens
La Grande Bellezza
The Great Beauty
Italy/France, 140 min
Directed By: Paolo Sorrentino
Written By: Paolo Sorrentino & Umberto Contarello
Produced By: Nicola Giuliano & Francesca Cima
Oh Boy!
Germany, 83 min
Written & Directed By: Jan Ole Gerster
Produced By: Marcos Kantis & Alexander Wadouh
La Vie D’Adele:...
- 11/9/2013
- by [email protected] (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Short Term 12 | Philomena | Thor: The Dark World | Milius | Gloria | Nosferatu The Vampyre | Drinking Buddies | Cutie And The Boxer | Child's Pose | The Nun | The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia | A Nightmare On Elm Stret
Short Term 12 (15)
(Destin Cretton, 2013, Us) Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield, Rami Malek. 97 mins
A film that makes you care about people who care about people, this compact indie doesn't have to look hard for drama in a foster care home, whose young workers need help as much as the damaged teens in their charge. The storylines are a little convenient, but it's an emotional watch, and Larson is outstanding.
Philomena (12A)
(Stephen Frears, 2013, UK/Us/Fra) Judi Dench, Steve Coogan. 98 mins
Faith issues, "human interest" and even buddy comedy blend smoothly in this true-life tale of a retired Irish woman's search for her adult son, aided by a sceptical English hack.
Short Term 12 (15)
(Destin Cretton, 2013, Us) Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield, Rami Malek. 97 mins
A film that makes you care about people who care about people, this compact indie doesn't have to look hard for drama in a foster care home, whose young workers need help as much as the damaged teens in their charge. The storylines are a little convenient, but it's an emotional watch, and Larson is outstanding.
Philomena (12A)
(Stephen Frears, 2013, UK/Us/Fra) Judi Dench, Steve Coogan. 98 mins
Faith issues, "human interest" and even buddy comedy blend smoothly in this true-life tale of a retired Irish woman's search for her adult son, aided by a sceptical English hack.
- 11/2/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
★★★★☆Winner of the prestigious Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Festival, Călin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose (2013) carries on the fine social realist work of fellow contemporary Romanian directors Cristian Mungiu and Cristi Puiu in capturing a country increasingly uncomfortable in its own skin. Featuring one of the year's best performances - female or otherwise - from the immeasurably talented Luminita Gheorghiu, Child's Pose locks you into its complex tale of emotional (and familial) blackmail from the very beginning, whilst never feeling the need to descend into out-and-out melodramatic.
- 10/31/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Having won the Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival – and has since been put forward as Romania’s submission for the Academy Awards, Child’s Pose is certainly a film that demands much attention, and we had the great pleasure of speaking to the director Calin Peter Netzer.
The film, which is out in cinemas on November 1 – tells the story of a complex, dysfunctional relationship between Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) and her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) that comes to a head when the latter kills a young boy in a car accident. Peter Netzer discusses his decision to leave the aforementioned crash out of the movie, his delight at winning the Golden Bear, and the current state of the Romanian film industry…
The film is based around this one pivotal moment – the car crash. Yet we don’t see it, I was wondering about your decision to leave that out of the film?...
The film, which is out in cinemas on November 1 – tells the story of a complex, dysfunctional relationship between Cornelia (Luminita Gheorghiu) and her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) that comes to a head when the latter kills a young boy in a car accident. Peter Netzer discusses his decision to leave the aforementioned crash out of the movie, his delight at winning the Golden Bear, and the current state of the Romanian film industry…
The film is based around this one pivotal moment – the car crash. Yet we don’t see it, I was wondering about your decision to leave that out of the film?...
- 10/31/2013
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
I've been spending a great deal of time thinking about Sandra Bullock in Gravity lately. It's only natural when an actress is headlining an unqualified blockbuster that I'd do that but some of the time spent making like a contemplative Rodin-statue is my disconnect with the performance. I didn't love it or dislike it. I fall right in the middle. She's up to the task but no more or less.... to me. It doesn't remotely feel like an actor's movie to me -- though in all honesty I actually expected it to be given its one character focus. As a result I've been rather at a loss for explaining all the performance raves that have flown 'round ever since. And I've been stubbornly reluctant to concede that she was an Oscar lock. [Updated Best Actress chart]
My disconnect was aggravated by the fact that on the day it premiered and the explosion of "give her a second Oscar!
My disconnect was aggravated by the fact that on the day it premiered and the explosion of "give her a second Oscar!
- 10/20/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Ever since the turn of the millennium, Romanian cinema has been on something of a dramatic rise, as this New Wave of critically acclaimed pictures continue to compel audiences across the world, with a distinctly minimalist style of filmmaking, often picking up on severe, naturalistic themes. The latest in the long line of poignant and bleak productions is Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose, which took home the prestigious Golden Bear Award at Berlin Film Festival. No pressure, then.
We delve into the life of Cornelia Kerenes (Luminita Gheorghiu), a socialite who finds her life turned upside down when she discovers her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) has been involved in a car accident. Though fearing the worst – it soon transpires that Barbu was in fact the perpetrator and not the victim – as he accidentally ran over a young boy, who tragically died in the event. Cornelia is left devastated...
We delve into the life of Cornelia Kerenes (Luminita Gheorghiu), a socialite who finds her life turned upside down when she discovers her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) has been involved in a car accident. Though fearing the worst – it soon transpires that Barbu was in fact the perpetrator and not the victim – as he accidentally ran over a young boy, who tragically died in the event. Cornelia is left devastated...
- 10/16/2013
- by Stefan Pape
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
★★★★☆ Winner of the coveted Golden Bear prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival and now picked up for UK distribution, Romanian director Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose (2013) is a raw and unflinching drama, smothered by the unconditional love of a mother. Despite her privileged lifestyle and obvious material wealth, 60-year-old Cornelia's (Luminita Gheorghiu) life is far from cheerful. The one thing she longs for more than anything else in the world is for her thirtysomething, despondent and insular son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) to reciprocate the unreserved affection she has for him - which is easier said then done.
The pair hardly speak, something Cornelia blames on his girlfriend, Carmen (Ilinca Goia), who fails to live up to her standards, and whom Cornelia wholeheartedly believes is the sole reason for her son's withdrawn demeanour. However, when Barbu is involved in a tragic car accident, killing a small child in the process,...
The pair hardly speak, something Cornelia blames on his girlfriend, Carmen (Ilinca Goia), who fails to live up to her standards, and whom Cornelia wholeheartedly believes is the sole reason for her son's withdrawn demeanour. However, when Barbu is involved in a tragic car accident, killing a small child in the process,...
- 10/9/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Naturally ever since its Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear win and with stops in Karlovy Vary, Tiff and Nyff, Calin Peter Netzer’s third directorial outing has been the toast of the fest circuit and once again affirms Romanian has a major exporter of gold standard dramas. Variety reports that Zeitgeist has landed the rights to Romanian’s Foreign Oscar contender Child’s Pose with set plans to release the film at the Film Forum on February 19th.
Gist: Sixty-year-old Cornelia is a well-off architect who continues to dote on her adult son Barbu. For his part, Barbu is trying his best to free himself from the influence of his domineering, manipulative mother; he needs his independence. He leaves home and moves in with his girlfriend, whom his demanding mother doesn’t approve of. But when a tragedy occurs, Barbu’s mother comes to his aid and is willing to do anything to help him…...
Gist: Sixty-year-old Cornelia is a well-off architect who continues to dote on her adult son Barbu. For his part, Barbu is trying his best to free himself from the influence of his domineering, manipulative mother; he needs his independence. He leaves home and moves in with his girlfriend, whom his demanding mother doesn’t approve of. But when a tragedy occurs, Barbu’s mother comes to his aid and is willing to do anything to help him…...
- 10/2/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Luminita Gheorghiu as Cornelia in Child's Pose Two welcome features of San Sebastian Film Festival this year have been the presence of strong female characters and interesting roles for older actors - frequently in the same film, from the Romanian drama Child's Pose to British comedy drama Le Week-End and Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity.
All three feature performances by women that could easily be considered award worthy. Luminita Gheorghiu is intensely moving in Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose, which won the Golden Bear and Fipresci critics prizes in Berlin earlier this year. She plays Cornelia a domineering mother, who occupies the same sort of position, thanks to money, in modern Romania as the party elite did during the Communist era.
She wants to control everything in her orbit - in particular, her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) - which means she's not beyond trying to wreck his relationship, even pumping his maid for information.
All three feature performances by women that could easily be considered award worthy. Luminita Gheorghiu is intensely moving in Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose, which won the Golden Bear and Fipresci critics prizes in Berlin earlier this year. She plays Cornelia a domineering mother, who occupies the same sort of position, thanks to money, in modern Romania as the party elite did during the Communist era.
She wants to control everything in her orbit - in particular, her son Barbu (Bogdan Dumitrache) - which means she's not beyond trying to wreck his relationship, even pumping his maid for information.
- 9/25/2013
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Child’s Pose
Written by Calin Peter Netzer and Raxvan Radulescu
Directed by Calin Peter Netzer
Romania, 2013
If we learned anything from Jacki Weaver’s character in Animal Kingdom, it’s that you should never underestimate a man’s mother. Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose continues the Romanian cinematic renaissance most often associated with Cristian Mungiu, another director whose films unflinchingly task modern Romania’s conservative dogma. Mungiu’s recent films, this year’s Beyond the Hills and 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, position female protagonists as national symbols of struggle, the consequence of either religious or political polemics. Netzer’s film is similarly critical of his country’s social hierarchies, though the lens through which he dissects is slightly more inverted: rather than looking at the oppressed population, his institutional critique comes via the disproportionately well-connected, wealthy bourgeoisie upper class. Featuring a powerfully nuanced performance by Luminita Gheorghiu as a palm-greasing matriarch,...
Written by Calin Peter Netzer and Raxvan Radulescu
Directed by Calin Peter Netzer
Romania, 2013
If we learned anything from Jacki Weaver’s character in Animal Kingdom, it’s that you should never underestimate a man’s mother. Calin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose continues the Romanian cinematic renaissance most often associated with Cristian Mungiu, another director whose films unflinchingly task modern Romania’s conservative dogma. Mungiu’s recent films, this year’s Beyond the Hills and 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, position female protagonists as national symbols of struggle, the consequence of either religious or political polemics. Netzer’s film is similarly critical of his country’s social hierarchies, though the lens through which he dissects is slightly more inverted: rather than looking at the oppressed population, his institutional critique comes via the disproportionately well-connected, wealthy bourgeoisie upper class. Featuring a powerfully nuanced performance by Luminita Gheorghiu as a palm-greasing matriarch,...
- 9/15/2013
- by John Oursler
- SoundOnSight
I have officially begun tracking the Oscar submissions for the Best Foreign Language category at the 2014 Oscars as Greece, Hungary, Nepal and Romania have officially submitted the first four films for this year's race. We already know one of the year's most talked about films and festival stand out after Cannes, Blue is the Warmest Color, won't be eligible for the Foreign Language race due to release requirements as the film won't hit French cinemas until after the submission date cut-off. Yet, it seems a lesbian drama will find its way into contention. Director Subarna Thapa's Soongava: Dance of the Orchids is Nepal's official selection and it stars Deeya Maskey, Nisha Adhikari, Saugat Malla, Bashundara Bhusal and Nirmal Nisar. I've included the trailer to the right and the synopsis from the Palm Springs Film Festival below. Beautiful Diya is a young girl who dreams of becoming a professional Nepalese dancer,...
- 8/26/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Soon we'll be inundated with Foreign Film Oscar Submission news but for now news from three countries to get us started. The Oscar Charts will be up this weekend for this always diverse and exciting (if you're paying attention) category. [Thanks to Daniel, Yonatan and A.D. for the tips]
S#x Acts
Israel
Israel has been on a hot streak with Oscar with four nominations in the past six years so news of the Ophir Awards is always important. This narrows the field for which film will be their official submission since they go with the Ophir winner. Seven films are in the running for their Best Picture (The Ophir).
The frontrunner is Bethlehem (12 nominations) a drama about the Arab- Israel conflict which focuses on three characters: An Israeli secret services agent, his teenage Palestinian informant and the informant's older brother, a commander of the Al Aqsa Martyr's brigade. Other nominees include S#x Acts, a drama about a...
S#x Acts
Israel
Israel has been on a hot streak with Oscar with four nominations in the past six years so news of the Ophir Awards is always important. This narrows the field for which film will be their official submission since they go with the Ophir winner. Seven films are in the running for their Best Picture (The Ophir).
The frontrunner is Bethlehem (12 nominations) a drama about the Arab- Israel conflict which focuses on three characters: An Israeli secret services agent, his teenage Palestinian informant and the informant's older brother, a commander of the Al Aqsa Martyr's brigade. Other nominees include S#x Acts, a drama about a...
- 8/14/2013
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Romania’s ‘Child’s Pose’ Tapped For Foreign Language Oscar Spot Berlin Golden Bear winner Child’s Pose has been selected as the Romanian entry for the Foreign Language Oscar. Călin Peter Netzer’s family drama was chosen unanimously by the national jury, Film News Europe reported. The movie took both Berlin’s top prize and the Fipresci award in February and was released in Romania on March 8 to record-breaking box office. It is now the most successful local film in more than a decade and is still screening. Germany’s Beta Cinema has international rights and has almost sold out across the world (there is no U.S. distributor yet). Luminita Gheorghiu stars in the Parada Film production playing a woman trying to save her son from prison. Gheorghiu also starred in two recent Romanian submissions for the Foreign Language Oscar, both directed by Cristian Mungiu. The 2007 drama 4 Months,...
- 7/31/2013
- by NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor
- Deadline TV
Moscow – Romania has announced its nomination for the best foreign language category in next year's 86th Academy Awards. Calin Peter Netzer's powerful family drama Child's Pose -- which won this year's Berlinale top prize, the Golden Bear, and the critics' FIPRESCi award -- was the unanimous choice of the national Oscar nominating committee. Photos: THR's Portraits of Berlin Film Festival Stars and Filmmakers The announcement -- possibly the first for the best foreign language category -- will pitch the film against scores of others from around the world that will compete at the awards, scheduled for March 2, 2014. Starring Luminita Gheorghiu as an overbearing
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- 7/30/2013
- by Nick Holdsworth
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
One of the great pleasures of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, aside from its generally friendly atmosphere, and awesome local tipple Becherovka, is that its timing and the breadth of its selection gives us the chance to catch up with films we, for one reason or another, missed at festivals previously. And so it was with Calin Peter Netzer's "Child's Pose," a film that didn't make it onto our radar in advance at all, but then snuck up and took the Golden Bear at this year's Berlinale, while we were probably, statistically speaking, in the next theater over watching a James Franco movie. But while were immensely impressed by the central performance by Luminita Gheorghiu (a towering actress of the Romanian New Wave, with "The Death of Mr Lazarescu" and two Cristian Mungiu titles "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and "Beyond the Hills" among her many credits), the film itself...
- 7/6/2013
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
The debut feature of India’s Anand Gandhi adds to prizes won in Dubai and Tokyo.
This year’s Transilvania International Film Festival (Tiff) came to a close at the weekend in Cluj-Napoca with the awarding of the main prize, the Transilvania Trophy, to Indian feature debutant Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus.
The Competition Jury - comprising directors Cristi Puiu and György Pálfi, UK producer Lynda Myles, German actress Franziska Petri and Tribeca’s Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer - said Ship Of Theseus was evidence of “a new major talent of world cinema”.
The film’s also won the Best Cinematography Award for the work of DoP Pankaj Kumar.
Both prizes were accepted in Cluj on their behalf by the film’s Hungarian sound designer Gabor Erdelyi who spoke about the shoot as being a life-changing experience.
Fortissimo Films is handling international sales.
The Best Directing Award went to Japan’s Rikiya Imaizumi for I Catch...
This year’s Transilvania International Film Festival (Tiff) came to a close at the weekend in Cluj-Napoca with the awarding of the main prize, the Transilvania Trophy, to Indian feature debutant Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus.
The Competition Jury - comprising directors Cristi Puiu and György Pálfi, UK producer Lynda Myles, German actress Franziska Petri and Tribeca’s Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer - said Ship Of Theseus was evidence of “a new major talent of world cinema”.
The film’s also won the Best Cinematography Award for the work of DoP Pankaj Kumar.
Both prizes were accepted in Cluj on their behalf by the film’s Hungarian sound designer Gabor Erdelyi who spoke about the shoot as being a life-changing experience.
Fortissimo Films is handling international sales.
The Best Directing Award went to Japan’s Rikiya Imaizumi for I Catch...
- 6/10/2013
- by [email protected] (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Title: Child’s Pose Director: Calin Peter Netzer Starring: Vlad Ivanov, Florin Zamfirescu, Luminita Gheorghiu, Bogdan Dumitrache. The Romanian drama directed by Calin Peter Netzer premiered in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival where it well-deservedly won the Golden Bear. ‘Child’s pose’ isn’t just a powerful tale of corruption and guilt in modern Romania. It’s an in-depth analysis of a pathological relationship between a 32 year-old son, Barbu, and his domineering mother, Cornelia Kerenes. The Yiddish-like-mater sees a chance to regain control over her adult son, by using her connections to try and stop Barbu from going to jail, when he faces manslaughter charges for reckless driving. The movie [ Read More ]
The post Child’s Pose Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Child’s Pose Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 5/10/2013
- by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
- ShockYa
Two low-budget films, one from Romania and the other from Bosnia, take top prizes for portrayals of post-communist life
Eastern European film-makers basked in the limelight at the weekend after two low-budget pictures snapped up the top prizes at Berlin's international film festival.
The Berlinale's first prize, the Golden Bear, was awarded to a quasi-documentary-style Romanian film, Pozitia Copilului, or Child's Pose, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, a standard-bearer for the critically acclaimed new wave of film-making in his country. Starring Luminita Gheorghiu in a fearsome performance, the film tells the story of a mother's desperate and often illegal attempts to save her son from prosecution after he knocks down and kills an impoverished teenager.
Netzer said it reflected the "moral malaise of Romania's corruption-ridden middle classes". It also fitted the festival's penchant for delivering contemporary social drama with a strong political message.
The Bosnian documentary drama An Episode in...
Eastern European film-makers basked in the limelight at the weekend after two low-budget pictures snapped up the top prizes at Berlin's international film festival.
The Berlinale's first prize, the Golden Bear, was awarded to a quasi-documentary-style Romanian film, Pozitia Copilului, or Child's Pose, directed by Calin Peter Netzer, a standard-bearer for the critically acclaimed new wave of film-making in his country. Starring Luminita Gheorghiu in a fearsome performance, the film tells the story of a mother's desperate and often illegal attempts to save her son from prosecution after he knocks down and kills an impoverished teenager.
Netzer said it reflected the "moral malaise of Romania's corruption-ridden middle classes". It also fitted the festival's penchant for delivering contemporary social drama with a strong political message.
The Bosnian documentary drama An Episode in...
- 2/18/2013
- by Kate Connolly
- The Guardian - Film News
Calin Peter Netzer‘s psychological drama Child’s Pose won the Golden Bear at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, and we’re here to congratulate Netzer and his team! Straight from Romania comes this pretty intense story of “quasi-pathological relationship” of a wealthy mother who uses her connections to try and stop her son from going to jail. Head inside to find the trailer and more details about the movie! Calin Peter Netzer directed the movie from a script he co-wrote with Razvan Radulescu, which is actually a tale of corruption and guilt in modern Romania. Luminita Gheorghiu stars as the above mentioned mother – rich and...
- 2/17/2013
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
This year's Berlinale top winner: Romanian drama Child's Pose The 2013 Berlin Film Festival's top prize, the Golden Bear, was handed out at a ceremony earlier this evening. The winner was Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose / Pozitia copilului, co-written by Netzer and Razvan Radulescu. The Romanian drama depicts the travails of a rich, controlling mother's efforts to buy freedom for her selfish son, who, in a traffic accident, has killed a child from a poor family. Little regard is shown for the victim's family, while local authorities (much like those elsewhere, for that matter) are all too eager to side with the wealthy and powerful. (Pictured above: Los Angeles Film Critics Association 2006 Best Supporting Actress winner Luminita Gheorghiu in the Romanian drama Child's Pose.) In Child's Pose, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu's co-star Luminita Gheorghiu plays the domineering mother, Bogdan Dumitrache is her submissive son, while 4 Months, 3 Weeks and...
- 2/17/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Berlin — A Romanian drama that centers on a woman's effort to cover up her son's responsibility for an accident in which a boy is fatally injured won the Berlin film festival's top Golden Bear award on Saturday.
"Child's Pose," directed by Calin Peter Netzer, emerged as the winner from a field of 19 films that included a strong eastern European contingent this year – the 63rd edition of the event, the first of the year's major European film festivals. Netzer said he was "a little bit speechless" at the award.
The tale of corruption and guilt depicts the efforts of an upper-class mother, played by Luminita Gheorghiu, to bribe witnesses to give false statements and keep her son – the driver, who was speeding at the time of the accident – out of prison.
"This is about a ... pathological relationship between mother and son," he told reporters later. "The rest is really just a backdrop,...
"Child's Pose," directed by Calin Peter Netzer, emerged as the winner from a field of 19 films that included a strong eastern European contingent this year – the 63rd edition of the event, the first of the year's major European film festivals. Netzer said he was "a little bit speechless" at the award.
The tale of corruption and guilt depicts the efforts of an upper-class mother, played by Luminita Gheorghiu, to bribe witnesses to give false statements and keep her son – the driver, who was speeding at the time of the accident – out of prison.
"This is about a ... pathological relationship between mother and son," he told reporters later. "The rest is really just a backdrop,...
- 2/16/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
Berlin – The Romanian tragicomedy Child's Pose from director Calin Peter Netzer has won the Berlin Golden Bear, the best film prize, at this year's Berlin International Film Festival. Berlin 2013: 'The Broken Circle Breakdown' Wins Best European Film The crowd-pleasing feature won critical praise following its world premiere in Berlin, particularly for veteran Romanian actress Luminita Gheorghiu, who gives an astounding performance as a domineering mother from Romania's elite who sees a chance to regain control over her adult son when he faces manslaughter charges for reckless driving. Child's Pose has been a strong seller for Beta Cinema
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- 2/16/2013
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Berlin - X Verleih has acquired all German-language rights to the Romanian drama Child's Pose from sales group Beta Film. It will release the feature from director Calin Peter Netzer in Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland. Beta also closed multiple other territory deals for Child's Play, including for France, the Benelux countries, Greece and Taiwan. Child's Pose was well-received in its world premiere in Competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, in particular for the performance of Luminita Gheorghiu playing a domineering mother who sees a chance to regain control over her adult son when he faces manslaughter
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- 2/16/2013
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Romanian drama Child's Pose (Pozitia Copilului) has won the Golden Bear for best picture at the Berlin Film Festival.
Calin Peter Netzer's film stars Luminita Gheorghiu as an overbearing mother who tries to use her position in society to help her son dodge jail after he kills a child while speeding.
The Grandy Jury Prize Silver Bear went to Bosnian drama An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker (Epizoda u životu berača željeza), directed by Danis Tanović. The film's star Nazif Mujić - a 'non-actor' who plays a version of himself in the film about living on the fringes of Bosnian society - also picked up the Silver Bear for acting. The actress Silver Bear went to Paulina Garcia for her role as an isolated divorcee in Chilean drama Gloria, directed by Sebastian Lelo.
David Gordon Green's Prince Avalanche - a gently comic bromance with an environmental.
Calin Peter Netzer's film stars Luminita Gheorghiu as an overbearing mother who tries to use her position in society to help her son dodge jail after he kills a child while speeding.
The Grandy Jury Prize Silver Bear went to Bosnian drama An Episode In The Life Of An Iron Picker (Epizoda u životu berača željeza), directed by Danis Tanović. The film's star Nazif Mujić - a 'non-actor' who plays a version of himself in the film about living on the fringes of Bosnian society - also picked up the Silver Bear for acting. The actress Silver Bear went to Paulina Garcia for her role as an isolated divorcee in Chilean drama Gloria, directed by Sebastian Lelo.
David Gordon Green's Prince Avalanche - a gently comic bromance with an environmental.
- 2/16/2013
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Berlin -- Powerful actresses have been the key to unlocking this year’s Berlinale Competition. Directors seem to have discovered the value of maturity and been anxious to explore the female face and psyche as they age, gracefully or otherwise. Complexly motivated, intriguing female performers helped raise the profile of the films they appeared in and the front-runner at festival midpoint is, by critical consensus, Pauline Garcia, who is strongly tipped to win best actress kudos for the Chilean film Gloria. But another contender might be Romanian actress Luminita Gheorghiu as the domineering mother in Child’s Pose -- not to mention an
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- 2/13/2013
- by Deborah Young
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The director: Cristian Mungiu (Romanian, 44 years old) The talent: A number of first-time actresses pepper the cast list of Mungiu's latest, including his two leads, Cosmina Stratan and Cristina Flutur. Keen followers of the Romanian New Wave may recognize (if not necessarily be able to name) the odd face in support, including a number of bit players from "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." The biggest name here, relatively speaking? Luminita Gheorghiu, who won an La Critics' award a few years back for "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu." Mungiu wrote and produced the film himself. It's interesting, however, to...
- 5/8/2012
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
Nice surprise came via email today. Not one, not two, but three links to trailers for Aurora, a film that we listed in our number 5 spot for the most anticipated films for 2010. Cristi Puiu's second installment in 'six stories from the outskirts of Bucharest' stars Clara Voda, Luminita Gheorghiu, Gelu Colceag, Lucian Ifrim, Gheorghe Ifrim and Puiu in the lead with a character contemplating his options. - Nice surprise came via email today. Not one, not two, but three links to trailers for Aurora, a film that we listed in our number 5 spot for the most anticipated films for 2010. Cristi Puiu's second installment in 'six stories from the outskirts of Bucharest' stars Clara Voda, Luminita Gheorghiu, Gelu Colceag, Lucian Ifrim, Gheorghe Ifrim and Puiu in the lead with a character contemplating his options. Most probably headed to Cannes where The Death of Mr. Lazarescu received wide acclaim,...
- 3/5/2010
- IONCINEMA.com
- Quick Links Letters From Iwo Jima The Queen Children of Men The Los Angeles Critics Association picked their winners for 2006, and like the previously announced picks by the National Board of Review, it appears that this yearâ.s clear fav is Letters From Iwo Jima. Also amongst the populist vote was The Queen â. it picked up a no brainer best actress win for Helen Mirren, but also gave best supporting actor to Michael Sheen who did a great job at playing Tony Blair and a best screenplay for Peter Morgan â. who manages to captivate the audiencesâ. attention from first act to last fade out. Some other worthy mentions that may not be the consensus with other associations are the nods to the production value for the upcoming Children of Men and a big cred goes to L.A Critics for having the balls to pick Sacha Baron Cohen
- 12/11/2006
- IONCINEMA.com
LA Critics Pick 'Letter from Iwo Jima'; New York Favors 'United 93'
Is there a favorite emerging? After picking up the National Board of Review's top honor, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was also named Best Picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday. Though the Japanese-language World War II drama nabbed the group's biggest award (and Eastwood was the runner-up for director honors), overall the LA critics favored The Queen, which took home four awards, including Best Actress for Helen Mirren and Supporting Actor for Michael Sheen, as well as screenplay and score honors; the Queen Elizabeth II drama was also the runner-up for Best Picture. The Best Actor award was a split decision, going to both Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland and, in a bit of a surprise, Sasha Baron Cohen for the hit comedy Borat. Other major awards included United 93's Paul Greengrass for Best Director, Luminita Gheorghiu for Best Supporting Actress for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Lives of Others for Best Foreign Language Film, Happy Feet for Best Animated Film and An Inconvenient Truth for Best Documentary.
UPDATE: The New York Film Critics Circle voted on their awards Monday morning, giving their top honor to September 11th verite drama United 93 and Best Director to Martin Scorsese for The Departed. Racking up yet even more wins were the now-ubiquitous Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Helen Mirren (The Queen), taking home their third Best Actor and Actress awards thus far; The Queen was also honored with the screenplay award. Supporting awards went to former child star Jackie Earle Haley for his role as a pedophile in Little Children, and star-in-the-making Jennifer Hudson for her scene-stealing turn in Dreamgirls. Other major awards included Army of Shadows for Foreign Language Film (the 1969 Jean-Pierre Melville film received its first US release just this year), Happy Feet for Animated Film, Deliver Us from Evil for Non-Fiction Film, Pan's Labyrinth for Cinematography, and Half Nelson for Best First Film. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
UPDATE: The New York Film Critics Circle voted on their awards Monday morning, giving their top honor to September 11th verite drama United 93 and Best Director to Martin Scorsese for The Departed. Racking up yet even more wins were the now-ubiquitous Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Helen Mirren (The Queen), taking home their third Best Actor and Actress awards thus far; The Queen was also honored with the screenplay award. Supporting awards went to former child star Jackie Earle Haley for his role as a pedophile in Little Children, and star-in-the-making Jennifer Hudson for her scene-stealing turn in Dreamgirls. Other major awards included Army of Shadows for Foreign Language Film (the 1969 Jean-Pierre Melville film received its first US release just this year), Happy Feet for Animated Film, Deliver Us from Evil for Non-Fiction Film, Pan's Labyrinth for Cinematography, and Half Nelson for Best First Film. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
- 12/11/2006
- WENN
LA Critics Pick 'Letter from Iwo Jima'
Is there a favorite emerging? After picking up the National Board of Review's top honor, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was also named Best Picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday. Though the Japanese-language World War II drama nabbed the group's biggest award (and Eastwood was the runner-up for director honors), overall the LA critics favored The Queen, which took home four awards, including Best Actress for Helen Mirren and Supporting Actor for Michael Sheen, as well as screenplay and score honors; the Queen Elizabeth II drama was also the runner-up for Best Picture. The Best Actor award was a split decision, going to both Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland and, in a bit of a surprise, Sasha Baron Cohen for the hit comedy Borat. Other major awards included United 93's Paul Greengrass for Best Director, Luminita Gheorghiu for Best Supporting Actress for The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, The Lives of Others for Best Foreign Language Film, Happy Feet for Best Animated Film and An Inconvenient Truth for Best Documentary. --Mark Englehart, IMDb staff...
- 12/8/2006
- WENN
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