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For decades, the mysterious fate of Jerry Lewis’ unfinished Holocaust film The Day the Clown Cried sparked rumors and intrigue amongst cinema fans and history buffs alike.

Ambitious yet ill-fated, Lewis’ dramatic directorial debut aimed to confront one of humanity’s darkest chapters through an unconventional lens. But what started as a passion project dissolved into chaos, and the world was denied a glimpse of this controversial work in progress.

Now, a new documentary shines a light on the colorful characters and conflicts that derailed the production from within. Directors Michael Lurie and Eric Friedler piece together the jigsaw puzzle through interviews and archival footage, and—mmost remarkably—oover 30 minutes of scenes we expected were long destroyed. Their film From Darkness to Light rescues key elements from obscurity and brings clarity to this submerged cinematic footnote.

Above all, we hear the story directly from Lewis himself in a rare pre-death interview.

For over 15 years, a remake of “The Crow” has been in development with countless directors and stars cycling in and out. A new spin on the stylistically influential comic book movie from 1994 that is mostly remembered for the tragic on-set death of star Brandon Lee would fall apart just as quickly it would generate heat or a star to coalesce in some way. At various points in time actors like Bradley Cooper, Jason Momoa and Luke Evans were attached to prior iterations of the project. All of them went away.

But now, a new version of “The Crow” finally opens wide courtesy of Lionsgate Friday, with Bill Skarsgård as the doomed title character and pop star FKA Twigs as Shelly, his equally doomed fiancée. The story follows these doomed lovers who are murdered, only for Skarsgård’s character to get a chance at revenge by sacrificing himself, traversing the lands...

Eli Roth's 2023 slasher film "Thanksgiving" famously started its life back in 2007 in the form of a fake trailer sandwiched in between Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror" and Quentin Tarantino's "Death Proof," two movies released as a single mega-feature called "Grindhouse." The goal of "Grindhouse" was to recreate the experience of seeing a cheap exploitation double-feature in a run-down New York theater in the early 1980s, complete with film scratches, missing reels, and several previews for upcoming ultra-salacious genre movies. The trailers were all fake at the time, but since 2007, the trailers for "Machete," "Hobo with a Shotgun," and "Thanksgiving" have been made into real movies.

Roth, as the director's fans know, is a voracious cineaste, and has likely spent more time watching movies than most people. He also wears his influences on his sleeve; in the credits for Roth's 2013 cannibal film "The Green Inferno," he includes a list...

October is usually thought of as the prime time for horror, but the best horror movie of 2023 — for that matter, the most deliriously entertaining horror movie since Wes Craven‘s original “Scream” — arrives not for Halloween but for Thanksgiving. It’s a movie horror fans have been eagerly anticipating ever since director Eli Roth created a fake “Thanksgiving” trailer for Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s “Grindhouse” in 2007, and the feature version that Roth and writer Jeff Rendell have extrapolated from that hilarious and gory short is well worth the wait. Their “Thanksgiving” is an ingeniously structured, elegantly composed thrill machine. It’s also a gleeful assault on good taste; it’s what you get when a 1970s or ’80s Canadian tax shelter thriller like “Prom Night” or “My Bloody Valentine” is directed by a true artist.

“Thanksgiving” riffs on dozens of slasher favorites from “Black Christmas” and John Carpenter...

No animals were harmed in the making of Luc Besson’s new thriller, Dogman, but plenty of people get mauled, bitten, robbed and attacked, and one guy has his junk put into a serious vice grip, by a pack of extremely well-trained canines.

That being said, the director’s first film since his 2019 femme-driven assasin flick, Anna, is actually one of his least violent movies to date when it comes to bullets and bodies depicted on screen. If there’s violence, it’s predominantly of the domestic and psychological kind, in a story that follows a young man whose childhood traumas transform him into a very unusual sort of superhero: a paralyzed vigilante who dresses in drag, performs incredible lip-syncs of classic European ballads, and rules over a small, fierce army of obedient pups, as if the Joker and Ace Ventura were somehow merged into a single character. Also, he lives in New Jersey.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

A 35mm-heavy David Cronenberg retro is underway, with Dead Ringers playing Friday and Naked Lunch on Sunday; a print of The Blair Witch Project plays Saturday; on Sunday a 16mm double-bill programmed by J. Hoberman will screen.

Film Forum

A restoration of Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Distant has begun, while Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Diva continues on 35mm and Kiki’s Delivery Service screens this Sunday.

IFC Center

Johnnie To’s The Heroic Trio plays in a restoration as the Gaspar Noé retrospective continues; the new restorations of Inland Empire and Mississippi Masala continue; Mulholland Dr., Perfect Blue, Scanners, and Paprika have late-night showings.

Japan Society

Terror of Yakuza and Untamagiru play in the incredible new series “Okinawa in Focus,” which you can see a trailer for here.

Museum of the Moving Image

The great Dp James Wong Howe...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. On the subject of Metrograph’s “It Happens to Us,” we also encourage donations to local abortion funds, while the theater will be donating 50 of all proceeds from ticket sales towards Naral Pro-Choice America and additional U.S. reproductive rights orgs.

Japan Society

Films by Chris Marker and Nagisa Oshima play in the incredible new series “Okinawa in Focus,” which you can see a trailer for here.

Museum of the Moving Image

The great Dp James Wong Howe is given his dues in a new retrospective, while Coming to America and war films by John Huston and John Ford both screen on Sunday.

Roxy Cinema

2046 screens on 35mm this Sunday, while a print of Wild at Heart shows Friday and Sunday; Friday the 13th Part IV shows on 35mm this Friday.

Metrograph

Emma Myers has curated “It Happens to Us,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. On the subject of Metrograph’s “It Happens to Us,” we also encourage donations to local abortion funds, while the theater will be donating 50 of all proceeds from ticket sales towards Naral Pro-Choice America and additional U.S. reproductive rights orgs.

Metrograph

Emma Myers has curated “It Happens to Us,” a look at stories of abortion on film that begins with work by von Sternberg and William Wyler. With the release of Lux Æterna, Gaspar Noé has curated a series of witches onscreen, while if you’ve ever wanted to see Bulletproof Monk on 35mm we recommend “Hong Kong Goes International“; films by John Waters play in a series on Cookie Mueller.

Film at Lincoln Center

The Hong Sangsoo double-feature series continues.

Anthology Film Archives

Essential Cinema has two of Ozu’s best, There Was a Father and I Was Born,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Anthology Film Archives

Robert Downey Sr’s best-known films—some of the funniest ever made—are showcased in a 35mm series, while Mekas and Méliès screen in Essential Cinema.

Museum of the Moving Image

Five films by Chantal Akerman play in the series “Your Loving Mother.”

Metrograph

“Metrograph Selects” offers Cassavetes and Rivette; while The Man in the Moon screens on Sunday. A new restoration of The Wobblies is also playing.

IFC Center

A Gaspar Noé retrospective is underway; the new restorations of Inland Empire and Mississippi Masala continue; Eraserhead, The Crow, and Re-Animator have late-night showings.

Roxy Cinema

Friday brings prints of Alphabet City and Wild Style, while In the Mood for Love and Love is Colder Than Death screen on 35mm this Saturday.

Film Forum

As the new Nights of Cabiria restoration continues, Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Diva plays on 35mm.

French director Jean-Jacques Beineix made his feature debut with “Diva,” which now lands a 35mm re-release 40 years after first premiering in 1982. Exclusively on IndieWire, watch the trailer for the re-release below.

The neo-noir thriller was an international arthouse sensation, originally playing for over a year in select cinemas. “Diva” won four French Césars including Best First Film, Best Music, Best Sound, and Philippe Rousselot’s cinematography, and launched the cinéma du look movement of punk-inspired French films in the 1980s.

Now, “Diva” will be presented in 35mm at New York City’s Film Forum starting April 29 before expanding nationally to the Los Feliz Theatre in Los Angeles and other major markets. A new trailer edited by William Hohauser announced the 2022 theatrical run.

The film centers on a young postman infatuated with an American opera singer who gets caught up in international espionage when he attempts to circulate a bootleg recording of her performance.

Bruce Tuchman-backed Rialto International has launched a branded on-demand streaming service in Japan, focused on independent film, and housed on Amazon’s Prime Video Channels platform.

Rialto Channel launched in 1999 in New Zealand, where it was initially branded as The Sundance Channel. It established itself as an award-winning and industry-leading indie film destination for over twenty years.

In Japan, the Rialto-branded venue will feature current and iconic independent films. Confirmed content at launch or going forward includes Chloe Zhao’s “The Rider”; an homage to the recently departed director Peter Bogdanovich with “The Last Picture Show”; Brad Pitt and Jason Statham in Guy Richie’s “Snatch”; Michael Caine in “Harry Brown”; Sean Connery in Gus Van Sant’s “Finding Forrester”; Ewan McGregor and actor/director Don Cheadle’s “Miles Ahead”; Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva”; Michelle Williams in Wim Wenders’ “Land of Plenty”; Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law in “Gattaca”; and “8Mm,...

French film director who achieved international fame with the arthouse classics Diva and Betty Blue

No arthouse cinema repertory programme in the 1980s was complete without regular screenings of the chic French thriller Diva (1981). The plot combined opera, murder and corruption, while the visual style had the sort of pizzazz more readily associated with advertising or pop videos. By the end of the same decade, the prospect of a student bedsit that did not have on its walls the poster for the erotic love story Betty Blue (1986) was as unthinkable as one without Pot Noodle and patchouli oil. Both films were directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, who has died aged 75 after a long illness.

Diva concerns Jules (Frédéric Andréi), a postal worker who makes an illegal bootleg tape of an American opera singer (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez) famous for refusing to allow her voice to be recorded. This cassette becomes mixed up...

The director of Diva and Betty Blue was often labelled all flash and nothing else but his finest work showed far much more

During Margaret Thatcher’s reign in the 1980s, British cinema was largely downbeat, caustic, political and oppositionist. But over the Channel in François Mitterrand’s France, the movies were glitzy and flashy, with a sexy if superficial neon sheen: the so-called cinéma du look. No director was more responsible for this than Jean-Jacques Beineix.

He became both famed and mocked for that colossal 1986 hit which launched the smouldering career of its star Beatrice Dalle: Betty Blue, a steamy drama in which an aspiring writer embarks on a passionate, destructive affair with Dalle’s impetuous siren, Betty. It was nominated for best foreign film at the Oscars, the Globes and the Baftas and got nine César nominations. But Betty Blue actually won just one César: the horribly appropriate...

French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, who made waves with stylish works of 1980s cinema including “Diva” and “Betty Blue,” died Thursday at 75.

He died at home in Paris after a long illness, his brother told Le Monde.

Beineix started out as an assistant director to filmmakers including Claude Berri, Rene Clement and Jerry Lewis. After making a short film, he made his feature debut in 1981 with “Diva,” which won the Cesar for best first feature and three more Cesar awards. The story revolves around a young postman infatuated with an American opera singer who gets caught up in an international intrigue when he tries to make a bootleg recording of her performance.

The thriller was one of the most successful French films to play internationally in the 1980s. It ushered in a new style of filmmaking that melded auteur and genre elements, and Luc Besson and Leos Carax also made films...

The 13th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival runs weekends from Aug. 13 through Aug. 29 at Webster and Washington Universities. Courtesy of Cinema St. Louis

The 13th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE, sponsored by the Jane M. & Bruce P. Robert Charitable Foundation, and produced by Cinema St. Louis (Csl) — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s extraordinary cinematic legacy, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The Robert Classic French Film Festival is the first Csl in-person event since the Covid-19 pandemic. The host venues — Washington University on Aug. 13-15 and Webster University on Aug. 20-22 and 27-29 — have not yet determined whether capacity limits or masks will be required. Details will be announced on the Csl website when available.

The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features a quintet of such works: Melvin Van Peebles’ “The Story of a Three-Day Pass,” Diane Kurys’ “Entre Nous,...

The 13th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE, sponsored by the Jane M. & Bruce P. Robert Charitable Foundation, and produced by Cinema St. Louis (Csl) — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s extraordinary cinematic legacy, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The Robert Classic French Film Festival is the first Csl in-person event since the Covid-19 pandemic. The host venues — Washington University on Aug. 13-15 and Webster University on Aug. 20-22 and 27-29 — have not yet determined whether capacity limits or masks will be required. Details will be announced on the Csl website when available.

The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features a quintet of such works: Melvin Van Peebles’ “The Story of a Three-Day Pass,” Diane Kurys’ “Entre Nous,” Joseph Losey’s “Mr. Klein,” Jacques Deray’s “La piscine,” and the extended director’s cut of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Betty Blue.

Reservoir Docs has announced its new project, a feature-length documentary about Oscar-winning cinematographer Philippe Rousselot called “A Look Through His Lens.” The independent international sales company will finance and launch worldwide sales for the film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

“A Look Through His Lens” will cover Rousselot’s life, career and cinematography techniques, which he cultivated as a director of photography for both film and digital formats. Furthermore, it will dive into the impact of his contribution to the Cinema du Look movement and how his use of image and color captivated directors worldwide. In a statement, the filmmakers said their “goal is to create a narrative that is archival and educational in nature that can be accessed for generations to come.” It’s part of Reservoir Doc’s mission to specialize in documentaries about cinema and look at how cinema is a strong reflection of our society.

Mentoring emerging cinematographers has always been a key mission at the EnergaCamerimage International Film Festival and this year’s online version of the event features a score of streaming master classes and seminars that inform and offer insights from top filmmakers and technology experts.

Streaming through the end of 2020 (online.energacamerimage.pl), the talks and teach-ins are, with rare exceptions, accessible without a password or online Camerimage entry card – unlike the usual live format of master classes at the festival, which invariably sell out if you don’t find a seat at least 20 minutes before the start.

One of the buzziest events from the festival, which officially ran Nov. 13-20, is the virtual career masterclass with cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, in which he discusses his remarkable career, leading up to his latest feature, Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

The Netflix drama is built around the sensational political...

Betty Blue (The Criterion Collection) Blu-ray Contest — FilmBook is running a Claudine (The Criterion Collection) contest for one copy of the Oscar-nominated film. Betty Blue, directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix, stars Jean-Hugues Anglade, Béatrice Dalle, Gérard Darmon, Consuelo de Haviland, Clémentine Célarié, Jacques Mathou, Vincent Lindon, Jean-Pierre Bisson, Dominique Pinon, Claude [...]

Continue reading: Contest: Betty Blue (1986) Blu-ray (The Criterion Collection): The Jean-Hugues Anglade & Béatrice Dalle Romance Film...

As the Venice International Film Festival is winding down, the Toronto International Film festival kicks off Sept. 10 and continues through Sept. 19 in a Covid-19 hybrid version with physical screenings and drive-in, digital screenings and virtual red carpets. Whereas Venice is the oldest film festival having begun in 1932, Toronto is relatively new. In fact, it wasn’t even called the Toronto International Film Festival until 1994.

The festival was the brainchild of founders Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van Der Kolk who launched the inaugural Festival of Festivals in 1976. The mandate was to feature the best pics from other film festivals and to attract major Hollywood productions by being one of the most hospitable movie celebrations.

The first edition of the festival didn’t set the world on fire. Guests Jack Nicholson and Julie Christie never made it. The festival had hoped to open with Hal Ashby’s biopic on Woody Guthrie,...

Cinema St. Louis presents the 12th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival which takes place April 10th – 26th 2020. The location this year are both Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E Lockwood Ave) and Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium, Forsyth & Skinker boulevards.

The 12th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE and produced by Cinema St. Louis — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. This year’s featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the 1980s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features a quartet of such works: Diane Kurys’ “Entre Nous,” Joseph Losey’s “Mr. Klein,” Jacqueline Audry’s “Olivia,” and the extended director’s cut of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Betty Blue.”

The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way,...

It’s time to take another look at the famed Cinema du Look auteurs of 1980s and 1990s French cinema, and what better way to begin than revisiting its originator, who burned brightest (and then burnt out) — Jean-Jacques Beineix. Back in 2009, a box-set of Beineix’s six features, which ranged from 1981’s Diva to 2001’s Mortal Transfer allowed for a recuperation, but Criterion digitally restores his iconic juggernaut, 1986’s Betty Blue, to all of its pristine, color saturated glory.

Beineix picked up nine Cesar nods (winning Best Poster) and an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, while introducing the world to the ferociously beautiful Beatrice Dalle, whose own public persona at times lived up to the unpredictable outbursts of her eponymous character—a woman who refused to be tethered to cultural expectations of appropriate feminine behavior despite the privilege of her exceptional beauty.…

Continue reading.

“Sex, Eyes, & Mental Illness”

By Raymond Benson

What made the 1986 French picture, Betty Blue so striking were three things—the explicit sex on display, the mesmerizing eyes of lead actress Béatrice Dalle, and the film’s frank depiction of mental illness and its devastating effect on a relationship.

Director Jean-Jacques Beineix had burst onto the scene with the superb, quirky, and new New Wave crime picture, Diva (1981) that embraced not only the French New Wave of the early 1960s, but the early 1980s pop New Wave of music and visuals that were exploding in all mediums at that time. Diva was a critical and commercial hit with Western audiences, although Beineix’s follow-up, Moon in the Gutter (1983), was not. The filmmaker bounced back, though, with Betty Blue, which received a deserved Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.

Based on a popular French novel by Philippe Djian, the story concerns a...

Nik Powell, the respected UK producer, businessman and former director of the National Film and Television School (Nfts), has died at the age of 69.

A statement published on the Nfts’ website sad that Powell had been receiving treatment for cancer and died this morning (Nov 7) in Oxford surrounded by his family.

Powell was the co-founder of UK video label and production outfit Palace Pictures in 1982 with Stephen Woolley. Through the company, the pair released movies including The Evil Dead, and produced features including a trio of pics with director Neil Jordan: the Oscar-winning 1992 feature The Crying Game with Forest Whitaker and Miranda Richardson, the Oscar-nominated 1986 film Mona Lisa with Bob Hoskins and Cathy Tyson, and 1984 fantasy drama The Company Of Wolves with Angela Lansbury.

Speaking to us this morning, Woolley said that Powell was “a rock to so many people” and a “constant ally”.

“I’m in shock. I...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Catfight (Onur Tukel)

Who knew that one of the year’s most potent representations of America’s addiction to abrasive conflict would be Anne Heche and Sandra Oh beating each other to a pulp? Onur Tukel’s Catfight is an unabashedly silly and political film, but it’s also a funny one, with its two lead actresses literally and figuratively hurling themselves into their roles. Heche and Oh play...

French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Beineix to head jury for Tokyo competition section, which includes five world premieres.

French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Beineix will head the jury of this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff), which has unveiled its 16-strong competition section, including five world premieres.

The jury also includes Spotlight producer Nicole Rocklin, Japanese director Hideyuki Hiayama, Italian actor Valerio Mastandrea and Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung.

World premieres in competition include Japanese director Kiki Suginos’ Snow Woman, Chris Kraus’ The Bloom Of Yesterday (Germany-Austria), Jun Roble Lana’s Die Beautiful (Philippines) and two films from China – Mei Feng’s Mr. No Problem and Roy Szeto’s Shed Skin Papa.

The competition section includes one other Japanese title – Daigo Matsui’s Japanese Girls Never Die (see full competition line-up below).

This year’s Crosscut Asia section is focusing on Indonesia, screening three films by Teddy Soeriaatmadja, along with works from Nia Dinata, Ifa Isfansyah, [link...

Peter Mullan stars as golfing pioneer Tom Morris.

Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) (June 15-26) has announced that the world premiere of Tommy’s Honour will open the 70th edition of the festival on June 15.

Shot entirely on location in Scotland, Tommy’s Honour is based on the true story of golfing pioneer Tom Morris and his turbulent relationship with his son Tommy.

Peter Mullan (Sunshine on Leith, War Horse) and Jack Lowden (War & Peace) take on the roles of father and son and lead a ensemble cast including Ophelia Lovibond (Man Up), Peter Ferdinando (Hyena) and Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) in the role of Alexander Boothby. Key cast are set to be in attendance on opening night.

Director Jason Connery said: “It’s so exciting! I remember standing in the middle of a field in Fife during the shoot and saying to Peter and Jack, Tommy’s Honour might get into the Edinburgh International Film Festival...

Lonely Hearts: Sautet’s Elegant Final Film on Passionate Restraint

Winning Best Director as well as Best Actor for Michel Serrault at the 1995 Cesars, Nelly & Monsieur Arnaud would stand as the final film of director Claude Sautet. The achingly rendered central relationship makes for a curious case study in the deep emotional undercurrents exchanged between two people unable to properly communicate their actual feelings, and as is typical of many Sautet films, it’s a master class of finely attenuated performances. It was the second collaboration of Sautet and the beautiful Emmanuelle Beart (had he lived, she would have taken the muse role occupied by Romy Schneider in his earlier filmography), following 1991’s A Heart in Winter, a title many champion as the director’s masterpiece, and the one that tends to overshadow their second outing.

Nelly (Beart) is in a loveless marriage and has racked up considerable debt supporting her worthless,...

Laurent Durieux was chosen as Telluride’s poster artist. “Laurent Durieux was born in 1970 in Waterloo, 20 km from Brussels in Belgium. Laurent has been an illustrator and a graphic designer for over 20 years,...

Isabella Rossellini to discuss on and off camera sexism in cinema at Cannes’ Women in Motion event; other female-focused Cannes events include #SeeHerNow twitter campaign.

Film-maker and actress Isabella Rossellini will kick off the inaugural edition of the Women in Motion programme in Cannes on Thursday (May 14).

A joint initiative between the festival and its new sponsor the luxury goods group Kering, the new event is aimed at highlighting women’s contribution to the film industry.

Alongside French producer Claudie Ossard, the Italian-American actress will discuss the subject of female representation in the film industry and sexism in cinema, both on screen and behind the scenes.

The Blue Velvet actress is in Cannes this year as the president of the Un Certain Regard jury.

Industry veteran Ossard has produced numerous films over the last 30 years including Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie.

Other speakers at the inaugural edition of Women in Motion will include...

Seann Williams Scott (aka Stifler from American Pie, aka Doug Glatt from Goon) is a cinephile. You might not’ve guessed that, considering his acting choices haven’t been, shall we say, high caliber. Nonetheless, he loves movies, so picking his top five choices is as difficult as picking your favorite food — depending on his mood, the order and selection changes. Recently, he revealed his favorite films with this stipulation, but even then, they seemed a bit out-of-the-ordinary for the Stifmeister. During a Reddit Ama on Wednesday, Scott was asked to name his top five favorite films. At the time, he said these were at the top of his head at the time of the question: 1. The Inheritance, directed by Per Fly 2. Talk to Her, directed by Pedro Almodóvar 3. Betty Blue, directed by Jean-Jacques Beineix 4. Open Hearts, Susanne Bier 5. Chopper, Andrew Dominik Who ...

While 2014 saw the passing of (reluctant) New Wave icon Alain Resnais, there was an intense resurgence of interest in the directorial efforts of Last Year at Marienbad (1961) scribe Alain Robbe-Grillet. Grillet and Resnais would never collaborate again, but it left the screenwriter with his own directorial options, which he used to explore his abstract fetishes in a filmography that would span ten films, many of which never made it to the United States. Kino Lorber’s Redemption label resurrected five rare titles for Blu-ray over the past year, including his 1963 debut L’immortelle and New Wave classic Trans-Europ-Express (1967). But it would be Grillet’s eighth feature that would serve to be his most internationally renowned, the 1983 La Belle Captive, which chanteys its way into Blu-ray this month courtesy of Olive Films. No more cohesive than any of the other puzzling titles in his filmography, the stunning work from DoP Henri Alekan...

Catherine Deneuve: César Award Besst Actress Record-Tier (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'In the Courtyard / Dans la cour') (See previous post: "Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.") Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César nominations to date. Deneuve's nods were for the following movies (year of film's release): Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard / Dans la Cour (2014). Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way / Elle s'en va (2013). François Ozon's Potiche (2010). Nicole Garcia's Place Vendôme (1998). André Téchiné's Thieves / Les voleurs (1996). André Téchiné's My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993). Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). François Dupeyron's Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent trouble (1987). André Téchiné's Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981). François Truffaut's The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980). Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Le sauvage (1975). Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category...

The new issue of cléo features interviews with Sally Potter and Julie Taymor, a profile of Sylvia Schedelbauer and articles on Alexander Payne’s Election, Jonathan Lynn's Clue, Mia Hansen-Løve's Eden, John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps and Jon Hall's Beach Girls and the Monster. Necsus has rolled out its autumn issue with and essay by the late Harun Farocki. In the new journal Kinetophone, we can read about Dario Argento's Opera, Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva, Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Federico Fellini's E la nave va. The new Cineaste is out and Fireflies is preparing its second issue on Abbas Kiarostami and Béla Tarr. » - David Hudson...

The new issue of cléo features interviews with Sally Potter and Julie Taymor, a profile of Sylvia Schedelbauer and articles on Alexander Payne’s Election, Jonathan Lynn's Clue, Mia Hansen-Løve's Eden, John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps and Jon Hall's Beach Girls and the Monster. Necsus has rolled out its autumn issue with and essay by the late Harun Farocki. In the new journal Kinetophone, we can read about Dario Argento's Opera, Jean-Jacques Beineix's Diva, Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo and Federico Fellini's E la nave va. The new Cineaste is out and Fireflies is preparing its second issue on Abbas Kiarostami and Béla Tarr. » - David Hudson...

Co-founders and co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics to receive France’s highest decoration.

Michael Barker and Tom Bernard, co-founders and co-presidents of Sony Pictures Classics, are to be awarded the Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour at a ceremony on Sept 22 in New York.

Over the past 30 years, Barker and Bernard have grown Sony Pictures Classics to become the number one French film distributor in the Us and the honour will recognise their longstanding commitment to promoting French directors including François Truffaut, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Bertrand Blier, Louis Malle and Eric Rohmer.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Laurent Fabius, will bestow the honours on the duo for encouraging French cinema and cultural diplomacy in the Us.

In a statement, Fabius lauded Barker and Bernard for “transporting the essence of France to screens across America… breaking down the barriers of national borders and creating bridges between intellectual and cultural spheres while also enriching a trans-continental cultural...

After a new print screened at the 2014 City of Lights City of Angels Festival earlier this spring, Cohen Media Group has released a digitally remastered Blu-ray of Otar Iosseliani’s 1984 classic yet elusive title, Favorites of the Moon. Awarded the Special Jury Prize at the 41st Venice International Film Festival, the film, along with most of the Georgian filmmaker’s titles, have long been unavailable to U.S. audiences, a shame considering his prolific stature and important body of work that subversively undermines frameworks within the dominant culture he’s navigating as an exiled dissident.

Taking its title from Shakespeare’s Henry IV describing thieves, “Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, favorites of the moon,” Iosseliani expounds on the same motif, casting all of humanity in the shade of the moon, a symbol of disorder, chaos and unrest. In essence, the plot is a roundelay, utilizing a set of...

Some of my favorite movies are about Paris! How I loved “Funny Face” which made me love everything Audrey Hepburn did. How I loved “American in Paris” and Gene Kelly forever after. And the classic French films of Paris, from René Clair’s “The Rooftops of Paris”, “Modigliani of Montparnasse”, “Elevator to the Scaffold” to “Amelie”…oh la la!

Now a new Paris classic is in the making! If only they would change title to reflect the love of Paris transforming a couple of sad victims of their scandalously delicious parents’ love affair into lovers. Kevin Kline, a luminous Kirsten Scott Thomas and a decrepit but spirited Dame Maggie Smith star in a film, to be released September 10, which I only hope will come out with a different title.

Now entitled, “My Old Lady” (what’s that supposed to mean?) Dame Maggie Smith as Mathilde belongs to no one. A free spirit who had a dalliance with no less than …., at 92 she cannot be evicted from the apartment Kevin Kline comes to Paris to sell, an apartment hidden behind walls in Paris we wish we could penetrate and which Kevin Kline, in the character of Mathias Gold, cannot see, so intent is he on selling to procure some filthy lucre. I kept waiting for Kevin to embody his Academy Award winning hilarity in “A Fish Called Wanda”, but he played it straight, an unhappy, intellectual with great talent on the piano, three unpublished novels, three divorces and not a cent in his pocket. Angry, self-righteous Mathias Gold discovers that real-estate and relationships send him into a turmoil that he never imagined.

Adapted for the screen and directed by Israel Horowitz from his 2002 of-Broadway production, “My Old Lady” the property was further developed into a screenplay with Kevin Kline himself who dropped by the playwright’s Greenwich Village residence for intermittent readings as the film script branched out from its theatrical roots.

Dame Maggie Smith read the script and was the first actor to officially sign on to the film version. Israel Horovitz traveled to London to meet with her and she accepted the part amid 25 competing scripts offered to her at the time. Horovitz recalls Smith joking during the meeting that it was the only script in the stack that didn’t end with her character dying. Adds Horovitz: “To my knowledge, it’s the first time Dame Maggie’s done a movie in which she doesn’t wear a wig.”

Produced by the writer-director’s own daughter, the well-known-in-our-circles- from-her-days-at-New Line (and later at Revolution Studios), who began her career as a publicist of Dino De Laurentiis on the film “Blue Velvet” which I happened to foster as the acquisitions executive at Lorimar when we acquired it: Rachael Horovitz (“Moneyball”, HBO’s “Grey Gardens”) and Gary Foster (“The Soloist”, “Sleepless in Seattle”), got the script to Kristin Scott Thomas who immediately signed on to play Mathilde’s confrontational daughter Chloé. The main casting was complete.

Chloé takes the story away from the developing and deepening relationship between Mattias and Mathilde and makes it her own…thus the misplaced title of the movie. It is no longer Mattias and “his old lady” Mathilde’s story but the threesome’s, and what a great story it is.

Complex and compelling, the story of two people who have been destroyed by the same love affair understand each other’s problems better than any fourth party could ever understand, and we, as the fourth party, are given access to their journey towards love…in Paris. Only in Paris could these events unfold with such panache.

The other supporting actors are those veteran French actors you have seen and loved in other Parisian settings. Dominique Pinon as the helpful real-estate agent Lefebre who explains the complex codes of the “viager” system” appears like an old friend to those of us who saw and loved Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva”, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” and “A Very Long Engagement”, “City of Lost Children” and Jeunet’s and Marc Caro’s 1991 film “ Delicatessen”. Noémi Lvovsky, the writer-director-actress who plays Mme. Girard’s physician, actor-director Stéphane Friess (“Welcome to the Sticks”) and the rapacious property developer Francois Roy who wants to buy Mathias’ apartment and turn it into a sleek hotel – as his father tried to do a generation earlier (how French!) -- round out a great supporting cast.

But without Paris, this familiar and yet totally unfamiliar Paris, the film would never have played out with such love. As a Paris habituée of many years, I kept searching for signs to tell me where this apartment was located. Was it a hotel particulière of the Marais?

Here is a little known secret of Paris: It was shot in la Manufature, located in les Gobelins in Paris’s 13th Arrondisement, operated and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. A vast complex comprising several main buildings and a slew of apartments (now used to house government functionaries), la Manufacture is the historical site of tapestry manufacturing for French royalty dating from the 17th century to the present day. Because there is no longer a huge demand for artisan tapestries in France, la Manufacture doubles as an ersatz soundstage for film and television productions, in this case standing in for the more central and tourist trod Marais, where Mme. Girard and Chloé reside. The Girard’s sprawling residence, overlooking a verdant garden came to life. Israel Horovitz and his crew jumped at the opportunity to film there.

He says, “Almost the entire movie was shot inside the compound. At one point in its history, la Manufacture was its own city within the city, with a thousand people living there. We could park our trucks inside the gated compound and shoot in a way we never could in the busy Marais. Finding the apartment we used, with its creaky floors and general disrepair, was really what made the movie possible. It was like having our own little studio.” The film shot in Paris for 24 days in autumn 2013.

At 75, Horovitz -- a veteran playwright who wrote “The Strawberry Statement” which won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival and who collaborated with István Szabó on the 1999 historical drama “Sunshine” about a Jewish family living in Hungary during the turbulent first half of the 20th century –decided to direct this, his first, film as he wrote the screenplay.

How was it working for your father? One might ask Rachael. Her answer: “He was the most prepared director I’ve ever worked with.” She praises Horovitz pére for his professionalism, sense of humor and grace under pressure, each one a boon for the intimate, familial-themed “My Old Lady”. “There is real humanity in this film thanks to those factors, “ she concludes. “Working with a family member is always a pleasure because there is the shorthand of communication you have with very few others.”

Producer Gary Foster also praises Israel Horovitz for his human touch, including his considerable grasp of human nature and conflict. “This movie is at its core about family and how people deal with the many challenges of their lives, “Foster states. “Everyone has harbored secrets at some point. ‘My Old Lady’ examines how people with secrets reveal themselves emotionally in order to locate truth. What’s special about Israel’s craft is how organic and truthful it feels. So much of this movie depends on the actors working with dialogue-rich scenes set inside cramped rooms with little action and no special effects – you have to buy into the dimensionality of these characters. Israel is at his best writing and directing scenes that feel real, al though you were a fly on the wall amid the revealing of this family’s secrets. He’s not afraid of being overly sentimental and open with emotions, and I think that’s hugely valuable.”

I completely agree. This is a marvelous movie, filled with marvels of France and family.

The Jewish side of this film is never touched on, but I must touch on it here because in these days of turmoil over the Jewish state and the state of the Jews living in the Diaspora, those in France are also in fearful flux. But this shows a France at its splendid best today and I think it is because of the love the filmmakers have for the story, the craft and the country. Producer David C. Barrot produced “ Eyes Wide Open” the 2009 Cannes’ Un Certain Regard film that dared open the subject of homosexuality in Jerusalem’s Orthodox community. I cannot speak of the provenance of Daniel Battsek the Executive Producer who between 1985 and 1991, was managing director of Palace Pictures where he was involved in all aspects of marketing, distribution and acquisitions in the U.K. and Ireland. He began his industry career at The Hoyts Film Corporation in Sydney where he quickly rose through the ranks to general manager in Victoria State overseeing distribution.

Battsek was first introduced to Disney in 1991, when he was asked to start up a U.K. Company as part of the worldwide distribution network for Buena Vista International. In 1992, he officially joined The Walt Disney Studios. Battsek was quickly promoted to vice president/managing director where he handled all aspects of theatrical film distribution in the U.K. He was later promoted to vice president, managing director and European acquisitions director of Bvi (U.K.) Limited. His responsibilities also included involvement in the acquisition of distribution rights across numerous territories for such films as “Muriel's Wedding”, “Shine”, “Central Station”, “Kolya”, and “ Ice Storm”. In 1998, he was promoted to senior vice president, Bvi (U.K.) Limited where he oversaw approximately 35 films per year from the Disney, Touchstone and Miramax labels. With his expanding role, Battsek began acquiring and developing British film projects for worldwide distribution. He created the Bvi U.K. Comedy Label which produced four films, likeHigh Heels and Low Lifes,Hope Springs,Calendar Girls, and Kinky Boots.

On 24 July 2005, he was named President of Miramax Films, after Harvey and Bob Weinstein left the company, due to creative and financial differences with Disney exec, Michael Eisner. Since he took control of the company, Miramax released such films asThe Queen,No Country for Old Men or Doubt, refocusing on producing films of high quality but low budget and was instrumental in acquiring, green-lighting or distributing such renowned and award winning films as “Tsotsi” winner of Best Foreign Language Oscar, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, “There will be Blood” among others. On 20 January 2010, Battsek became President of National Geographic Films where he brought in the Oscar-nominated “Restrepo”. He is now President of Cohen Media Group where he plays a key role.

Nor can I speak authoritatively of Producer, Nitsa Benchetrit, and Executive Producers, Raphaël Benoliel, Russ Krasnoff, but I have my suspicions. Certainly the Executive Producer, President and CEO of Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, one of the country’s most important commercial real estate owners/ developers s well as an influential patron, innovator and visionary of culture and the arts, Charles S. Cohen (also founder of The Cohen Media Group in 2008, on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca) in Los Angeles, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, The Lighthouse International Theater, The Public Theater, the Stella Adler Studio and the Film Society of Lincoln Center) is living up to his name.

Even Kevin Kline suddenly seems to land inside this charmed circle of Diaspora Jews whose development and dedication to the finest

arts of the 21 st century must be praised and seen as a flowering of culture today.

While this is in no way a film which may ever be shown in the Jewish film festival circuit, it should be remarked that it is, in its way, a Jewish film because of the credentials of the filmmakers, because of the loving treatment of the neurotic family members and because it shows the natural habituation of people allowed to live in freedom in a society which values life.

I bring all this up in light of the reevaluation occurring today in the worlds of gender and religions and I want to go on record as pointing out that this film is an example of the flowering of culture; this is part of the culmination of centuries of developing a humane, forgiving and civilized way of life.

I say this as I contemplate the state of the world today to remind myself that art, not war, is my choice for my life and I believe the film is an affirmation of life above all.

Chapeau, Hats Off to the team that brought this film to life. Just change the title if you want to attract more people!

Eric Cantona to head the 24th Dinard British Film Festival jury, which will also include actress Star Trek Into Darkness actress Alice Eve, actor Toby Jones and Oscar-winning producer David Parfitt

The Dinard British Film Festival has announced its full line-up of British films and the jury who will judge this year’s competition section.

As well as more than 30 British films being screened from Oct 2-6, programmed by festival director Hussam Hindi for festival president Sylvie Mallet, the festival will celebrate the work of director of photography Phillippe Rousselot and the films of acclaimed actor Toby Jones.

As previously announced, professional footballer-turned-actor Eric Cantona will be the jury president. Jury members from France and the UK include:

Actress Alice EveActor Toby JonesOscar-winning producer David ParfittActor Michael SmileyScreenwriter Natalie CarterDirector Fred CavayéActor Hippolyte Girardot Director/screenwriter Amanda Sthers

The films in competition for the Golden Hitchcock Award, which the jury will consider, include:

Everyone...

Via the internets comes news of The Big Shot Movie Club, “a club for movie fans of all kinds.” The Big Shot Movie Club is Sarah Winshall and Julia Bembenek, and they write on their website:

We will watch and discuss three movies we love every month relevant to a specific theme. The movies we watch will always be available online or at a your local video store. Hopefully, each month our loyal club members will learn about some lost gems and be reminded of their favorite classics as they watch and read and comment along with us.

Coming up on their blog are discussions of Peter Weir’s The Mosquito Coast and Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue, but I’m also excited by some of the byways the blog has already traveled. For example, following a discussion of Kathryn Bigelow’s debut film, The Loveless (“… this world spreads out...

While New Yorkers have plenty of opportunity to see classic films on the big screen, you'll be hard pressed to find a lineup as front to back awesome as the Film Society Of Lincoln Center's "15 For 15: Celebrating Rialto Pictures."

The series honors the reknowned arthouse distribution shingle founded in 1997 that has brought some of the best known (and previously unknown) classics of cinema to American audiences. And the selection here by programmers Scott Foundas, Eric Di Bernardo and Adrienne Halpern represents the breadth and scope of the films Rialto has put their stamp on, ranging from the French New Wave ("Breathless") to film noir ("Rififi") to comedy ("Billy Liar") and more. There is something here for everybody and with the series kicking off tonight, we've got a special prize for some lucky readers.

Courtesy of Film Society Of Lincoln Center, we've got a copy of the excellent Rialto DVD...

DVD Playhouse—February 2012

By Allen Gardner

To Kill A Mockingbird 50th Anniversary Edition (Universal) Robert Mulligan’s film of Harper Lee’s landmark novel pits a liberal-minded lawyer (Gregory Peck) against a small Southern town’s racism when defending a black man (Brock Peters) on trumped-up rape charges. One of the 1960s’ first landmark films, a truly stirring human drama that hits all the right notes and isn’t dated a bit. Robert Duvall makes his screen debut (sans dialogue) as the enigmatic Boo Radley. DVD and Blu-ray double edition. Bonuses: Two feature-length documentaries: Fearful Symmetry and A Conversation with Gregory Peck; Featurettes; Excerpts and film clips from Gregory Peck’s Oscar acceptance speech and AFI Lifetime Achievement Award; Commentary by Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS 2.0 mono.

Outrage: Way Of The Yakuza (Magnolia) After a brief hiatus from his signature oeuvre of Japanese gangster flicks,...

Roughly one hundred years ago on November 18th, 2011 I took questions for the next Q&A and after what was meant to be a short diversion answering the oddly abundant small screen questions I am now answering them. I am many things but I am nothing if not punctual. This is Part one of two as there is much to answer. Tomorrow's edition will actually arrive tomorrow night as it's already written. Yay me!

Just to stretch out the variety a bit I asked y'all to refrain from any questions about legendary actresses this time -- my favorite topic and apparently yours since many of you didn't listen ;) -- so  in this week's column, the men get a little time to shine. Let's go!

Annie: What was your favorite experience of seeing a movie with an audience, where the audience's reaction actually enhanced your viewing?

I've had many screenings like...

Director: Fred Cavayé Writers: Fred Cavayé, Guillaume Lemans Starring: Gilles Lellouche, Roschdy Zem, Gérard Lanvin, Elena Anaya, Mireille Perrier, Claire Perot, Moussa Maaskri Point Blank is a dark, relentless, and stylishly directed new French crime thriller that drops an innocent man into a paranoid world of kidnapping, corruption, hopelessness, and betrayal. Director Fred Cavayé seems equally inspired by the unsettling, claustrophobic world of American film noir and that rich period of French crime films in the eighties and early nineties that gave us masterworks by Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita) and Jean-Jacques Beineix (Diva). Yet for all of its momentum and sheer kinetic energy, the film loses sight of the essentials--character, emotion, and motivation--far too much of the time, resulting in a film that isn’t nearly as thrilling or as suspenseful as it should be. Samuel (Gilles Lellouche) is a nurse’s aide who works in a hospital where...

DVD Playhouse—August 2011

By Allen Gardner

High And Low (Criterion) Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 adaptation of Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom is a multi-layered masterpiece of suspense and one of the best portraits ever of class warfare in post-ww II Japan. Toshiro Mifune stars as a wealthy businessman who finds himself in a moral quandary when his chauffer’s son is kidnapped by ruthless thugs who think the boy is Mifune’s. Beautifully realized on every level. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Commentary by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince; Documentary on film’s production; Interview with Mifune from 1984; Trailers and teaser. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 4.0 surround.

Leon Morin, Priest (Criterion) One of French maestro Jean-Pierre Melville’s rare non-crime-oriented films, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a devoted cleric who is lusted after by the women of a small village in Nazi-occupied France. When Fr. Morin finds himself drawn to a...

Fred Cavayé's new thriller is just as absurd as his last, but moves more freely and enjoyably

Fred Cavayé is the French director who in 2008 made the contrived movie Anything for Her, later remade as The Next Three Days, with Russell Crowe playing the unassuming, regular guy who has to take extreme measures to free his wife from jail after she was wrongly convicted. Both the original and the Hollywood version to me looked strained and odd. Cavayé's new action-thriller À Bout Portant, here entitled Point Blank, is conceived on similar lines, with the same motif of the ordinary guy forced into acts of criminal daring to save his demure and simpering wife, and this movie is probably just as absurd – but it moves more freely and enjoyably. Gilles Lellouche plays Samuel, who, in conventional movie terms, is the antithesis of a tough guy: he is a male nurse,...

DVD Playhouse: May 2011

By

Allen Gardner

Blow Out (Criterion) Brian De Palma’s greatest Hitchcock homage, with a dash of Antonioni thrown in for good measure. John Travolta gives one of his best turns as a sound-effects engineer who unwittingly records a political assassination, then finds himself hunted by a ruthless hitman (John Lithgow, a memorably creepy psycho) after saving the life of the kindly, albeit dim-witted call girl (Nancy Allen, excellent) who was with the deceased. Terrific blend of suspense and very black humor, perhaps De Palma’s finest hour as an auteur. Beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Interviews with De Palma, Allen, cameraman Garrett Brown; Photo gallery; De Palma’s 1967 feature Murder a la Mod; Trailer. Widescreen. Dolby and DTS-hd 2.0 surround.

Kes (Criterion) Ken Loach’s landmark 1970 film is both a heart-rending portrait of adolescence, and a pointed socio-political commentary on life in the North of England.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The comic actor Richard Ayoade has gifted audiences a magnificent debut with this adolescent fable, Submarine. It’s charming and idiosyncratic, managing to be sweet without being sentimental, profound without being whimsical. Perhaps best of all its exploration of a teen’s underground existence is devoid of cliché.

Directed with great confidence and a good eye for character-based quirkiness, of the kind so successfully personified by Ayoade himself, the key to Submarine’s success is building the world of the film around Craig Roberts’ awkward protagonist. It plays like an extension of his character, a character that knows he’s occupying his own story. The structure is lifted from the source novel and the film is self aware like a story written in the first person. Each intertitle – “Prologue”, “Part One”, etc, is accompanied by a dramatic musical cue reflecting the importance Oliver attaches to each set of events.

The Dingle Film Festival (Dff) will welcome international guests this year such as Emmy winning 'Mad Men' writer Lisa Albert; Emmy winning writer of 'The Tracey Ullman Show' Marc Flanagan and recipient of this year's Gregory Peck award, Jean-Jacques Beineix. The festival will launch on March 17th with a screening of Geoff Wonfor's 'We'll Always Have Dingle'.

We have Gaspar Noe who'll next mince elements of porn into a mainstream Nc-17 film, but beating him to the punch-line we find Japanese helmer Sion Sono embarking on a new project that, according to the film's sales agent, promises to include "hard sex scenes". The Afm sold Guilty of Romance will star a little-known unnamed actress, and will obviously become one more example of how the filmmaker behind recent Tiff preemed Cold Fish and Strange Circus continually works with a poetic curriculum that provokes. Gist: Not much to go one here except for what appears to be a sci-fi like template...: this begins on a night that a woman's body, cut in half and otherwise violated and attached to a mannequin, is found in an abandoned building. Worth Noting: Was reading up on Sono's Wiki entry and found that in 1994 Jean-Jacques Beineix and Jackie Bastide used footage of...