Noticias

Prolific German director Jo Baier has officially signed on to write and direct the thriller “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes,” about an aging Nazi war criminal on the run from prosecution.

The film, produced by Berlin-based Films In Motion in co-production with Banijay’s Nl Film in Amsterdam, tells the haunting story of a former Nazi SS death camp guard who tries to evade prosecution by U.S. authorities. In the face of death, he finds himself falling ever deeper into a nightmare that exceeds his worst fears.

“Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes” is set to star Matthias Habich (“Narcissus and Goldmund”) as the former SS henchman and Herbert Knaup (“Sarah Kohr”) as the Nazi hunter on his trail. Also attached is Silke Bodenbender (“One Day We’ll Tell Each Other Everything”).

Speaking to Variety, Baier says the dark historical aspect of the tale in particular piqued his interest.

German distributor Der Filmverleih in Stuttgart has boarded Berlin-based Films in Motion’s World War II trilogy penned by American writer J. Frank James.

The films, in various stages of development, include “The Face,” produced with Leipzig-based Departures Film and starring Ludwig Trepte (“Deutschland 86”). The story turns on a traumatized Jewish survivor and an army deserter posing as a priest who are bonded together into a friendship while reconstructing a bombed out church. Markus Imboden (“The Foster Boy”) is set to direct.

In “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes,” directed by veteran helmer Jo Baier and produced with Amsterdam-based Nl Film and Hupe Film in Cologne, a former SS concentration camp guard in danger of being apprehended for his brutal past faces horrors beyond his imagination. Herbert Knaup and Matthias Habich star in the haunting drama.

“Bones of the Wise Men,” currently in development, is set in the...

The film is directed by Switzerland’s Peter Luisi, whose other credits include The Sandman and Streaker.

Munich-based sales outfit Global Screen has picked up worldwide distribution rights to drama Princess ahead of its market premiere at the Pre-Cannes Screenings event (June 21-25).

The film is written and directed by Switzerland’s Peter Luisi, whose other credits include The Sandman and Streaker, and stars Matthias Habich, Johanna Bantzer, Fabian Krüger, Anne Haug and Lia Hahne.

Set in 1985, it revolves around Joseph, an alcoholic man who lives alone and neglected in a rundown two-family house. When his younger sister, a single-parent,...

Amsterdam-based Nl Film and Hupe Film in Cologne have boarded Jo Baier’s upcoming Nazi war criminal horror thriller “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes.”

The companies join co-producers Films in Motion (Fim), the Berlin-based shingle run by American producer René Asch, and Angelika Mohr’s Morefilms in Munich, which is also handling world sales.

German thesps Herbert Knaup and Matthias Habich topline the supernatural thriller, which follows a former SS concentration camp guard, played by Habich, desperately trying to avoid capture by a Nazi hunter (Knaup). Seeking to avoid capture, the old Nazi assumes an unlikely identity and hides in the most improbable place.

Budgeted at €2.5 million ($2.7 million), “Life Through a Dead Man’s Eyes” is set to go into preproduction later this year.

The award-winning Baier (“Henry of Navarre”) will direct the German-Dutch co-production from a script by American screenwriter J. Frank James.

“We’re thankful for...

German-language adaptation set for February 2020 release.

Global Screen has picked up worldwide distribution rights to Lassie Come Home, a German-language production that is set for release by Warner Bros. in February 2020.

Pre-sales will now begin on the new adaptation of the celebrated Eric Knight novel, whose canine character was first brought to the big screen more than 75 years ago.

Henning Ferber is producing the new adaptation through his Lch Film Ug outfit in co-production with Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany, Suedstern Film, and Traumfabrik Babelsberg.

Hanno Olderdissen will direct from a script by Jane Ainscough. The cast includes Nico Marischka...

Caroline Link’s wonderful, woefully obscure Best Foreign Film winner is an entertaining story of the perils of wartime emigration. It hits hard right now, with our own immigration crackdown underway. A Jewish family smartly escapes Nazi Germany at the 11th hour, only to find themselves imprisoned in detention camps by the British — who ironically consider them dangerous enemy aliens. The show is a glorious growing-up tale for a German tot transplanted to Kenya, and becomes an edgy romantic story when the mother repurposes her amorous needs to help rescue her family.

Nowhere in Africa

Blu-ray

Kino Lorber / Zeitgeist

20019 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 141 min. / Nirgendwo in Afrika / Street Date February 27, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 34.95

Starring Merab Ninidze, Juliane Köhler, Lea Kurka, Karoline Eckertz, Sidede Onyulo, Matthias Habich, Herbert Knaup

Cinematography Gernot Roll

Production Designer Susann Bieling, Uwe Szielasko

Film Editor Patricia Rommel

Original Music Niki Reiser, Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock

Written by Caroline...

Following its debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Vertical Entertainment has debuted the first trailer for the upcoming thriller Berlin Syndrome, which is slated for theatrical release on May 26. This new thriller stars Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies, Lights Out & Max Riemelt (Sense8), is directed by Cate Shortland (Lore), written by Shaun Grant (The Snowtown Murders), and based on the novel by Melanie Joosten. This new thriller could very well be one of the breakout indie hits this summer, if it finds the right audience.

While holidaying in Berlin, Australian photographer, Clare (Teresa Palmer), meets Andi (Max Riemelt), a charismatic local man and there is an instant attraction between them. A night of passion ensues. But what initially appears to be the start of a romance, takes an unexpected and sinister turn when Clare wakes the following morning to discover Andi has left for work and locked her in his apartment.

"There's nowhere for me to go..." Vertical Entertainment has premiered an official Us trailer for the indie thriller Berlin Syndrome, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film is a dramatic thriller about an Australian woman visiting Berlin who ends up locked in an apartment unable to get out after she hooks up with a German guy she meets in the city. Max Riemelt stars, along with the talented Australian actress Teresa Palmer. The cast includes Lucie Aron, and Matthias Habich. The premise is kind of a metaphor for relationships and being emotionally trapped, but it's also a nerve-wracking thriller that is sometimes uncomfortable to watch. No one wants to be locked anywhere, but this is especially scary. Here's the official Us trailer (+ intl. poster) for Cate Shortland's Berlin Syndrome, direct from YouTube: While holidaying in Berlin, Australian photojournalist, Clare meets Andi, a charismatic local man...

Five years after her unconventional Nazi drama “Lore,” Cate Shortland is back with “Berlin Syndrome.” Vertical Entertainment has released a new trailer for the thriller starring Teresa Palmer, which first premiered at Sundance in January. Watch below.

Read More: ‘Berlin Syndrome’ Review: Teresa Palmer Elevates Cate Shortland’s Creepy Captivity Thriller — Sundance 2017

Here’s the synopsis: “Australian tourist Clare (Palmer) travels to Berlin to photograph East German architecture and meets Andi (Max Riemelt), a handsome but brooding schoolteacher. After a brief erotic fling, Clare tries to leave, but Andi isn’t ready to let go. She soon finds herself held prisoner in his locked apartment, cut off from the outside world. As her ordeal unfolds, Clare cycles between reasoning with her captor, surrendering to his obsessions, and plotting her escape.”

Read More: Sundance 2017: Netflix, Vertical Acquire ‘Berlin Syndrome’

Matthias Habich and Lucie Aron co-star in the film, for which...

"I wish I could stay..." The first official trailer for Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland's thriller Berlin Syndrome has arrived online. This film premiered at Sundance Film Festival this year in the World Competition section, and it's kind of a dramatic suspense-thriller about an Australian tourist visiting Berlin. She meets a guy and goes home with him, but wakes up and discovers she's trapped inside his apartment, and can't get out at all. It gets a bit crazy at that point, as she tries to figure out what's going. Max Riemelt stars, along with Teresa Palmerv. The cast includes Lucie Aron, and Matthias Habich. This is a very powerful trailer, I'm impressed. It's a good film, but a bit weird as you can see from the footage. Take a look. Here's the first international trailer for Cate Shortland's Berlin Syndrome, direct from YouTube: While holidaying in Berlin, Australian photojournalist,...

'Downfall' movie: Bruno Ganz as Adolf Hitler 'Downfall' movie: Overlong and overwrought World War II drama lifted by several memorable performances Oliver Hirschbiegel's German box office hit Downfall / Der Untergang is a generally engrossing psychological-historical drama whose emotional charge is diluted by excessive length, an overabundance of characters, and a tendency to emphasize the more obvious aspects of the narrative. Several key performances – including Bruno Ganz's now iconic Adolf Hitler – help to lift Downfall above the level of myriad other World War II movies. Nazi Germany literally goes under In Downfall, which by the end of 2004 had been seen by more than 4.5 million German moviegoers, Nazi Germany is about to lose the war. In his underground bunker, Adolf Hitler (Bruno Ganz) grows increasingly out of touch with reality as he sees his dream of Deutschland über alles go kaput. Some of those under his command are equally incapable of thinking coherently.

Berlinale Special is a program you might compare to Toronto's Gala Presentations—high profile movies a shade or two too populist for any other section of the festival. Lined up this year are world premieres such as Anton Corbijn's Life, with Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Joel Edgerton and Ben Kingsley; Margarethe von Trotta's Die abhandene Welt (The Misplaced World), with Katja Riemann, Barbara Sukowa, Matthias Habich and Gunnar Moeller; and Simon Curtis's Woman in Gold, with Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Brühl. The program also features the new film by Ermanno Olmi. » - David Hudson...

Berlinale Special is a program you might compare to Toronto's Gala Presentations—high profile movies a shade or two too populist for any other section of the festival. Lined up this year are world premieres such as Anton Corbijn's Life, with Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan, Joel Edgerton and Ben Kingsley; Margarethe von Trotta's Die abhandene Welt (The Misplaced World), with Katja Riemann, Barbara Sukowa, Matthias Habich and Gunnar Moeller; and Simon Curtis's Woman in Gold, with Helen Mirren, Ryan Reynolds and Daniel Brühl. The program also features the new film by Ermanno Olmi. » - David Hudson...

The Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren, and Anton Corbijn’s Life, starring Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan, to world premiere at Berlinale.

The 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 5-15) is to host the world premieres of Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren; Life, starring Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan; and Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain.

The films form part of the Berlinale Special Galas line-up, which will also include the international premiere of awards contender Selma and the European premiere of Bill Pohland’s Love & Mercy, starring John Cusack

Based on a true story, Woman In Gold is directed by Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn) and stars Mirren as Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, who takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.

The UK-us co-production, which also stars Ryan Reynolds (Captives) and Daniel Brühl (Rush), is produced by Origin Pictures, BBC Films and The...

A flurry of press releases from the Berlinale today, and the one you may find most interesting isn't the newsiest. You already knew that the Retrospective, The Red Dream Factory, will be featuring Eisenstein's October (Oktjabr, 1928), but today's announcement has details on the new restoration and the presentation on February 10: "Conducted by Frank Strobel, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform the original score as composed by Edmund Meisel."

The second release of the day reveals that 12 titles have been added to the lineup of the Berlinale Special program, in addition to the six previously announced (here and here). Seems we can assume the first three events will be happening on Potsdamer Platz:

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the film journal Positif: Volker Schlöndorff's Der Fangschuss (Le coup de grâce, 1975) with Matthias Habich, Margarethe von Trotta, Rüdiger Kirschtein, Mathieu Carrière and Valeska Gert.

The European premiere of...

One word to describe this film: excellent! This film about a secular-minded Jewish family leaving Germany and finding home in Kenya during the Second World War had made me gone through all kinds of emotions. In fact, who would have thought that a "family" film can efficiently warm your heart?

By 1937, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nsdap), has been ruling Germany as a dictator since 1933. Obviously, his political party openly and aggressively promoted hatred towards Jewish people. Hence, the growing fear within the German Jewish community at that time. Because he sees something worse coming for the Jews, Walter Redlich (Merab Ninidze), a former lawyer, writes a letter from Kenya to his wife, Jettel (Juliane Köhler), and their daughter Regina (Lea Kurka as the young/Karoline Eckertz as the older) who are both still living in Breslau, Germany. Besides, in his letter, Walter convinces...

Toronto International Film Festival

BARCELONA, Spain -- With Sex and Lucia and The Lovers of the Arctic Circle, Spanish director Julio Medem firmly established his own dreamy, winding plots, suffused with philosophical themes and spiced with a liberal dose of sex. Medem's work is not to everyone's taste, but his new film, Chaotic Ana, is carried by imagination and the force of a strong cast. It should do well in Spanish-speaking territories and in art houses elsewhere. The film screens in the Toronto International Film Festival.

"Ana" tells the story of a young Spanish woman from age 18 to 22. Under hypnosis, she is convinced that her life is the continuation of four other women's lives, all of whom died tragically at age 22. The audience is asked to believe this is her "chaos" -- and the reason she is given to nasty turns when confronted with images that remind her of these women. If the audience does not take the film too literally and indulges Medem's idea that Ana is basically tormented by demons, then they can enjoy the action more.

Ana, played by Medem's new muse Manuela Velles, is transported from her home on the hippy Spanish island of Ibiza to an artists' commune in Madrid by mother figure Justine (Charlotte Rampling). She falls for a disturbed Arab named Said (Nicolas Cazale), then undergoes hypnosis to confront her "other women." Ana ends up on a boat bound for New York and finally travels through Arizona with her dashing hypnotist (Asier Newman).

The plot veers annoyingly from one scene to another with little explanation. But the film is far more interesting when you know that Ana was inspired by Medem's own sister, who died tragically in a traffic crash. He wrote the film as a form of tribute to her.

Indeed, the Ana character becomes a feminist hero, struggling against the aggression of man. This theme is carried off with a marvelous ending when Ana wreaks glorious revenge on U.S. political ambitions abroad, symbolized by an obnoxious American politician.

Velles, whose previous experience was one television advertisement, carries the film, showing a maturity way beyond her years. She is not daunted by a cast that includes the likes of Rampling, Matthias Habich (The Downfall) and Lluis Homar (Bad Education). Velles might lack the sex appeal of a Penelope Cruz or a Paz Vega, but she offers much promise.

The real charm of this film is that it keeps the viewer guessing what strange turn it will take. Or indeed, what it is all about. It is a little long at nearly two hours but never seems plodding.

CHAOTIC ANA

Sogecine/Alicia Produce

Credits:

Screenwriter-director: Julio Medem

Executive producers: Simon de Santiago, Enrique Lopez Lavigne, Koldo Zuazua, Julio Medem

Director of photography: Mario Montero

Music: Jocelyn Pool

Costume designer: Estibaliz Markiegi

Co-producer: Sebastian Alvarez

Art director: Montse Sanz

Editor: Polo Aledo

Cast:

Ana: Manuela Velles

Justine: Charlotte Rampling

Linda: Bebe Rebulledo

Anglo: Asier Newman

Said: Nicolas Cazale

Lucas: Raul Pena

Mister Halcon: Gerrit Graham

Klaus: Matthias Habich

Ismael: Lluis Homar

Running time -- 156 minutes

No MPAA rating...

MADRID -- Spanish director Julio Medem on Tuesday unveiled the details of his next feature, Chaotic Ana, which will start shooting Feb. 13 with a budget of €5 million ($6 million). The film stars newcomer Manuela Velles in the title role, with a cast rounded out by Charlotte Rampling, Spanish pop star Bebe, Lluis Homar, Matthias Habich and Gerrit Graham. The co-production between Sogecine and Medem's own label Alicia Produces, with the collaboration of Volcano Films, will shoot 11 weeks in New York, Arizona, Madrid, Ibiza and the Canary Islands. "Ana" tells the tale of a young woman approaching her 22nd birthday who feels her life is the continuation of the lives of women who lived before her, all of whom died at 22. Oscar-nominated composer Alberto Iglesias will compose the original score, with Mario Montero heading photography and Montse Sanz acting as artistic director.