News

Christian Petzold’s new drama Miroirs No. 3 has struck a North American distribution deal with Metrograph Pictures just ahead of its production start in Germany.

Marking the fourth feature collaboration for the renowned German filmmaker and actress Paula Beer, the film will be released next year. The Match Factory negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers and is handling worldwide sales.

Miroirs No. 3 centers on the aspiring pianist, Laura (Beer), whose life is upended when she is in a car crash with her boyfriend who is killed. Laura subsequently wanders into the house and life of a family of strangers, who offer to take care of her, but their motivations turn out to not be as simple as they first appear.

Also starring Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt and Enno Trebs, the film is produced by Schramm Film Koerner Weber Kaiser, in co-production with Zdf and Arte. Its financiers included Filmförderungsanstalt,...

"Why is she worried?" "Because of the forest fires." The Match Factory has revealed the first promo trailer for the German romantic drama Afire, the latest movie made by acclaimed German filmmaker Christian Petzold. He is best known for his films Jerichow, Barbara, Phoenix, Transit, and Undine previously, and his latest is also premiering at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival starting this week (hence the new trailer). Afire, also known as Roter Himmel (or Red Sky) in Germany, is about a group of friends staying at a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire. It's obviously a love story about Paula Beer, as it seems every single guy in this trailer is madly in love with her. Natürlich. The main cast also includes Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt. Another earnest romantic film about the power of love from Petzold.

Undine (Paula Beer) is a freelance urban development expert who regularly lectures on Berlin’s architecture and its relationship to that city’s troubled past. She also has a secret: She’s the Undine of European myth, a mermaid–water spirit whose own trouble necessarily involves facilitating the death of any man who betrays her love. In “Undine,” the latest from acclaimed German director Christian Petzold, that gendered myth and Berlin’s historical collective trauma become inextricably linked in mutual heartbreak.

We meet Undine as she confronts one of those men, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz). He’s breaking up with her and would like a clean exit. Tearfully, she informs him that he has to die in a very sorry-i-don’t-make-the-rules manner. He walks away, never having bought into her story. But before Undine can carry out her mythology-bound task, Christoph (Franz Rogowski) walks into the picture, flirting.

He’s an industrial diver,...

As Academy voters plow through some 90 submissions for Best International Feature, there’s a little-seen entry that’s a must-see: “My Little Sister,” starring award-winning German actress Nina Hoss in an incendiary performance as a woman fighting for her brother’s life.

The film’s low profile was all but inevitable: It debuted at the 2020 Berlinale, the film festival that got in just under the wire before Covid created a global lockdown. “It was a beautiful opening night,” said Hoss. “I didn’t know what would happen to the film. We waited. We brought it out [in October] in Berlin under hygienic regulations. We had a little cinema tour through places in Germany. Then we had lockdown again.” Watching “My Little Sister” during its brief theatrical run, Hoss said she was struck by how many scenes featured hospitals and face masks.

Written and directed by documentary filmmakers Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond,...

As Academy voters plow through some 90 submissions for Best International Feature, there’s a little-seen entry that’s a must-see: “My Little Sister,” starring award-winning German actress Nina Hoss in an incendiary performance as a woman fighting for her brother’s life.

The film’s low profile was all but inevitable: It debuted at the 2020 Berlinale, the film festival that got in just under the wire before Covid created a global lockdown. “It was a beautiful opening night,” said Hoss. “I didn’t know what would happen to the film. We waited. We brought it out [in October] in Berlin under hygienic regulations. We had a little cinema tour through places in Germany. Then we had lockdown again.” Watching “My Little Sister” during its brief theatrical run, Hoss said she was struck by how many scenes featured hospitals and face masks.

Written and directed by documentary filmmakers Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond,...

Exclusive: We hear that the Gabrielle Union Agc Studios movie The Perfect Find has landed at Netflix and that Jezebel filmmaker Numa Perrier is attached to direct the feature adaptation of the Tia Williams bestseller.

Previously announced, Union stars and will also produce The Perfect Find via her production company I’ll Have Another, which Agc is financing and producing. The Bring It On and Breaking In star plays Jenna Jones, a woman hopeful that her new job in beauty journalism will rep a fresh start in her life. She soon learns that her new boss, Darcy, is her frenemy. Jenna starts a relationship with the company’s videographer, Eric, and things get complicated when she learns he’s Darcy’s son.

Leigh Davenport adapted Williams’ book. Jeff Morrone, Tommy Oliver and Codie Elaine Oliver of Confluential Films are also producing. Agc’s Stuart Ford and Glendon Palmer are EPs...

Exclusive: German sales agent boards next project from the director of Phoenix [pictured].

The Match Factory has boarded international sales for Christian Petzold’s next feature Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.

Paula Beer, who won the best newcomer award at Venice last year for iFrancois Ozon’s Frantz, and Franz Rogowski (Tiger Girl) lead the cast on the film, which will begin a 40-day shoot in Marseilles from mid-May.

Transit will mark the 11th collaboration between Petzold and Berlin-based production company Schramm Film after such films as The State I Am In, Yella, Barbara and Phoenix. Schramm Film is in this year’s Competition with Thomas Arslan’s road movie Bright Lights, which is also handled by The Match Factory.

Transit has received €500,000 funding from the German-French Funding Committee and €350,000 from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Marseille-based Neon is on board as co-producer and Piffl...

A trifecta of films — “Jerichow,” “Barbara,” and most recently, “Phoenix” — has turned German filmmaker Christian Petzold into an arthouse favorite. And the good news for fans is that his next movie is gearing up, and as always, it sounds promising.

Read More: Guilt And Rubble: 15 Essential Post-War Films

Petzold will direct an adaptation Anna Seghers‘s classic novel, “Transit.” Set at the cusp of WWII after Germany invades France, the story follows a man who escapes a Nazi concentration and flees to Marseilles, where he’s tasked with an assignment that will bring him an intimate understanding of the plight of refugees.

Continue reading ‘Barbara’ & ‘Phoenix’ Director Christian Petzold To Helm Refugee Drama ‘Transit’ at The Playlist.

“Speak low, darling speak low”, the Kurt Weill/ Ogden Nash song as sung first by himself and finally by Nelly, the protagonist of this film, played by Nina Hoss, is the thematic refrain that weaves through this deeply moving movie entitled “Phoenix”.

Kurt Weill sings “Speak Low” from 1948’s “One Touch of Venus” by Odgen Nash and S.J. Perelman starring Ava Gardne.

Arising from the ashes of Auschwitz and Berlin, a ghost of a woman returns to claim her inheritance and her husband if he is still alive. Aided by Lene, a Jewish attorney and c a kindred spirit from her past, who escaped the Shoah by fleeing to London and Nelly who experienced it to the farthest reaches of horror, together might start anew in Israel; Lene has already found the apartment for them there.

Nelly’s face, destroyed and then reconstructed after she was shot and left for dead, makes her unrecognizable. She seeks and finds her husband who tries to make this woman into the Nelly he knew. She knows but he does not. A fleeting reminiscence of Almodovar’s movie here, “ The Skin I Live In ” where a renowned plastic surgeon reconstructs the face of his wife upon someone he has abducted, so Johnny tries to remake his wife but holds back his near falling in love with what he believes to be his own creation.

This film is rife with references. If you recall “One Touch of Venus” whence cometh this Kurt Weill song, the statue of Venus comes alive when kissed. In “Phoenix” as well, the Jewish former cabaret singer returns to life when she finds the beloved husband she left behind but remembered every day as her reason for living through the camps.

However, his kiss is a Judas kiss as this dark story unfolds to the point where she sings “Speak low”. This is a complex, Hitchcockian tale of a nation’s tragedy and a woman’s search for answers which builds toward an unforgettable, heart-stopping climax. Again a reference, this time to “ Vertigo” where the switching of women strikes a chord.

See Nina Hoss singing here .

The classic, 2014 Academy Award winning “Ida” by Pawel Pawlikowski’s also pairs two women together in their search for post-war answers in Poland. Ida finds her own way as her aunt – and Lene as well – in Lene’s words “feel more drawn to our dead than to the living.”

For all these points of reference and comparison which came to my mind as I watched “Phoenix” with bated breath, this film is unique in expressing how these survivors attempt to rebuild their lives which have been horribly broken by death, suffering and loss.

Christian Petzold directed Nina Hoss previously in “Barbara” and “Jerichow” along with her screen-husband Johnny (Ronald Zehrfeld) a gorgeous actor able to charm and curse simultaneously. We hate him but we also love him. Ronald Zehrfeld says, “…when Johnny sees Nelly in front of him, you think, Ok, now he has to recognize her! But either he doesn’t trust his feelings or doesn’t allow himself to feel these emotions. Because ‘It’s impossible! She’s dead! And I won’t allow myself to fee this because my future depends on me passing her off as my wife. ‘ For him, it’s clear that, if he ever wants to breathe again, feel himself again or make music again, then he has to get out of Germany. And that’s possible only with Nell’s help – with the help of Nelly’s imposter, as he sees her. And on the other hand there are his feelings of guilt ….”

The rapport of the director with his actors is apparent in the patient unfolding of both characters with their traumas, their hopes, their guilt as they try to process the horrors they have survived.

Nina plays a woman who is vulnerable and fragile at the same time as she is defiant and stubborn. In the throes still of trauma of surviving the concentration camp and being shot in the face which must be reconstructed, without a vocabulary to describe all she has experienced, she seeks her husband in the burnt-out city of Berlin. She feels that only he can bring her back to life. In her search to find him, she finds herself again and tells her only friend Lene, ‘Johnny made me back into Nelly. Sometimes I get really jealous of myself – of how happy I was.

Interview with Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss by Nikolay Nikitin, hosted by the Goethe Institut in Toronto during its international debut at Tiff 2014 is here.

Aside from “The Third Man” which takes place in postwar Vienna and the 2012 film by Australian Cate Shortland, “ Lore”, and “Ida” which actually takes place in the 60s, there are not many outstanding films about what happened in Germany (and Austria) after the war.

“Phoenix” is an instant classic which will withstand the judgement of time. We’ll see if it is the German submission for Academy Award nomination, a well-deserved accolade. It could well win the Oscar for this year’s Best Foreign Language Film.

The film has played in the 2014 film festivals of Toronto, Vancouver, London, Romeand Seattle.

Sundance Selects opened “Phoenix” on July 24 in New York. It will open in L.A. on Friday, July 31 and then rolls out nationwide. International sales agent, The Match Factory, has licensed the film

Argentina - Alfa Films S.A

Australia - Madman Entertai

Austria - Stadtkino-Filmv

Benelux - A-Film Benelux

Brazil - Imovision

Canada - Films We Like

Canada - Eyesteelfilm

Denmark - Camera Film A/S

Finland - Future Film Oy/

France - Diaphana

Germany - Piffl Medien Gm

Germany - The Match Facto

Greece - Seven Films

Hungary - Cirko Film Kft.

Italy - Bim Distribuzio

Japan - New Select Co.

Latin Ameri- Palmera Interna

Norway - Arthaus

Poland - Aurora Films

Portugal - Leopardo Filmes

Slovenia - Demiurg

Spain - Golem Distribuc

Sweden - Folkets Bio

Switzerlan - Look Now! Filmd

Taiwan - Swallow Wings F

Turkey - Calinos Films

U.K. - Soda Pictures

U.S. - IFCFilms/ Sundance Selects...

As German culture continues to grapple with WWII and its echoes, so does German cinema, and at the forefront of Deutschland’s new wave of filmmaking, and arguably world cinema on a whole, is Christian Petzold. The young filmmaker broke out on an international level with his powerful 2008 feature "Jerichow," and his equally engrossing 2012 effort, "Barbara," only further cemented that reputation. Now the director has returned with "Phoenix," and the first U.S. trailer has arrived. Read More: The 25 Best Films Of 2015 That We've Already Seen The movie made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and stars Petzold’s frequent collaborator and current muse, Nina Hoss, who starred in both aforementioned dramas, as well as 2007's "Yella." Here's the official synopsis. It’s kind of a high concept film, but it sounds bold and intriguing. Set after the Second World War, Phoenix tells the story of.

The German actress sang at Glastonbury and acted alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman in his final film. It seems America may soon decide Hoss is boss…

Nina Hoss is at that juncture where years of acclaim could tip her over into outright fame. She is two months off 40 and can bank on the admiration of international arthouse audiences, who have seen her in a run of disquieting thrillers by Christian Petzold. These include Yella, for which she won the best actress prize at the Berlin film festival in 2007; Jerichow (2008), a German take on The Postman Always Rings Twice; and Barbara (2012), an enigmatic portrait of life under the Gdr. She also collaborated last year with Manic Street Preachers on the song “Europa Geht Durch Mich”, produced by her partner, Alex Silva. She even went on the road with the band, performing at Glastonbury. “I had my wellies,” she tells me.

She recently...

With the Toronto International Film Festival continuing apace, we in the outside world are beginning to get more tantalizing glimpses of the critical winners (and losers). In the winning category, the critics seem to enjoy Phoenix, a so-called Hitchcockian thriller set in post-World War II Berlin. The film concerns a concentration camp victim searching for her husband and discovering more than she bargained for. Today, the first trailer hit the web and it certainly makes Phoenix look intriguing.

The film stars Nina Hoss as Nelly, a woman who managed to survive interment at a concentration camp and returns to East Berlin in search of the husband and the life that she left behind. She’s forced to undergo reconstructive surgery to repair part of her face damaged by a bullet wound, meaning that she only bares a small resemblance to her former self. This is traded on in the trailer,...

If you've been paying attention to world cinema at all, Christian Petzold is likely a name known to you. The filmmaker broke out in a big way with his 2008 feature "Jerichow," and his powerful 2012 effort "Barbara" only cemented his reputation. Now the director is back with "Phoenix," and the first trailer has arrived. Set to make its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the movie stars frequent collaborator Nina Hoss, who also featured in the aforementioned films, as well as 2007's "Yella". Here's the official synopsis: Set after the Second World War, Phoenix tells the story of Nelly, a disfigured Holocaust survivor (Nina Hoss). Unrecognizable after facial reconstruction surgery, Nelly returns to find out if her husband (Ronald Zehrfeld) has betrayed her or loves her. There's no U.S. distribution for the movie just yet. Watch the international trailer below.

Phoenix

Director: Christian Petzold

Writer: Christian Petzold

Producers: Schramm Film Koerner & Weber

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

Cast: Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf, Uwe Preuss

One of the best films of 2012 happened to be Christian Petzold’s film Barbara starring the exquisite Nina Hoss. Petzold has been steadily churning out remarkable work in feature films since his 2000 debut The State I Am In (and for several years prior in television). While Hoss has headlined a few of his works (Yella, Jerichow ), the Berlin premiered Barbara finally seemed to command the attention he’s deserved (he won the Director Silver Bear), and he’s back again with Hoss in tow for another period piece, Phoenix (which also reunites him with Ronald Zehrfeld).

Gist: While Barbara was set in the German Democratic Republic of the early 1980s, Phoenix goes back to the post-Second World War era, focusing on a woman who has survived the Holocaust.

The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule opening night reception at MoMA's Terrace 5 Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and independent film critic Anke Leweke have organised The Berlin School: Films from the Berliner Schule at MoMA, running from November 20 through December 06, 2013. Some of the filmmakers participating in this impressive program are Angela Schanelec with Orly and Mein langsames Leben (Passing Summer), Ulrich Köhler with Bungalow and Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness). Actor Nina Hoss will present with Christian Petzold, Barbara and Jerichow and with Thomas Arslan, Gold.

Arslan will also present two of his earlier films Geschwister (Brothers And Sisters) and Im Schatten (In The Shadows).

Also appearing in post-screening discussions are Benjamin Heisenberg with his cinematographer Reinhold Vorschneider for Der Räuber (The Robber) and Christoph Hochhäusler, director of Falscher Bekenner (I Am Guilty...

11. Zama – Dir. Lucretia Martel

Why This Makes Top 10: At number eleven we have Argentinean filmmaker Lucretia Martel’s latest film, her first since 2008’s The Headless Woman (a film that critics were slow to warm to, but ended up being on many a best end of year list in 2008/2009). Previous titles include her stunning debut, 2001’s La Cienega, along with 2004’s The Holy Girl. Her latest is a period piece based on the novel by Antonio de Benedetto and will be produced by Lita Stantic, El Deseo (the Almodovar Bros’ company), as well as a still to be named French producer. Martel is one of the most prolific names to come out the New Argentinean Wave and this looks to be a massively mounted period piece we’re eager to get a look at.

The Gist: Written in 1956, Zama is an existential novel about Don Diego de Zama, a...

With Barbara, German auteur Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow) delivers one of 2012′s better character studies, a tense and sparing Cold War-era drama about a female doctor (Petzold muse Nina Hoss) who’s relegated to a hospital near the Baltic Sea after trying to leave the German Democratic Republic. It’s 1980, and the movie effortlessly conveys the period in all its stark unease. Honored at the 62nd Berlinale and serving as Germany’s official Foreign-Language entry for the 85th Academy Awards, Barbara sees its eponymous heroine grapple with the restraints of politics and her own fears in a manner as mysterious as it …...

Though maybe a bit too stiff and straight-laced, "Barbara" is a frequently subtle, moderately interesting character study set in a grievous East Germany during the 1980s. What are especially nice are the painstaking ways that director Christian Petzold ("Jerichow," "Dreileben: Beats Being Dead") avoids obvious nods to the time period -- forget drenching the film in some kind of filter as a signifier (a la the once-abused-now-Instagram-friendly sepiatone), the filmmaker even refuses simple explanatory title cards and instead dresses the environment appropriately, offering hints of the current year in the background set pieces and radio programs. This kind of understated nature runs the entire feature; in fact, one of the most intriguing aspects of "Barbara" is the lack of narrative hand-holding, with the lead's main intent remaining a mystery for a good chunk of the movie. There are no twists to spoil, but admittedly, much of the film's...

The 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival has just been voted Best Film Festival Ever!……..maybe……if it hasn’t it should because this year’s fest has provided a breathtaking variety of docs, dramas, foreign flix, comedies, shorts, and….you name it!

Sliff.s main venues are the the Hi-Pointe Theatre, Tivoli Theatre, Plaza Frontenac Cinema, Webster University.s Winifred Moore Auditorium, Washington University.s Brown Hall Auditorium and the Wildey Theatre in Edwardsville, Il

The entire schedule for the 21st Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival be found Here.

http://cinemastlouis.org/sliff-2012

Here is what will be screening at The 21st Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival today, Friday, November 16th

Alter Egos

Alter Egos plays at 5:00pm at the Tivoli Theatre – Read The Wamg Review By Dana Jung Here

In the alternative world of Ârdizes an important mission with he discovers his...

Above: Nina Hoss (far left) as the titular lead in Barbara, directed by Christian Petzold (right).

Christian Petzold's Barbara was one of the standout films at Toronto, where I wrote a brief note on it:

...set in East Germany in 1980, [Barbara] finds a female doctor recently released from incarceration having to doubly-navigate the world by both dodging the suspicions of all those around her in her new provincial assignment and at the same time turn her own suspicions on those who could be her neighbors, peers, friends or even lovers. In other words: living in a police state, you are as suspect to the state as others are to you, and you to them. This comes out nicely, if a bit too neatly, too schematically, in Barbara, where ostensibly conventions of the thriller and of the romance overlap: “Am I attracted to him?” becomes, or is, “Do I trust him?...

Though maybe a bit too stiff and straight-laced, "Barbara" is a frequently subtle, moderately interesting character study set in a grievous East Germany during the 1980s. What are especially nice are the painstaking ways that director Christian Petzold ("Jerichow," "Dreileben: Beats Being Dead") avoids obvious nods to the time period -- forget drenching the film in some kind of filter as a signifier (a la the once-abused-now-Instagram-friendly sepiatone), the filmmaker even refuses simple explanatory title cards and instead dresses the environment appropriately, offering hints of the current year in the background set pieces and radio programs. This kind of understated nature runs the entire feature; in fact, one of the most intriguing aspects of "Barbara" is the lack of narrative hand-holding, with the lead's main intent remaining a mystery for a good chunk of the movie. There are no twists to spoil, but admittedly, much of the film's...

The globe-trotting section of this year’s Contemporary World Cinema programme has your Sundance (in a pair of excellent titles in Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere and James Ponsoldt’s Smashed) and has select items from several sections from this year’s Cannes ranging from Pablo Stoll Ward’s 3, Yousry Nasrallah’s After the Battle, Aida Begic’s Children of Sarajevo, Catherine Corsini’s Three Worlds, Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Love, and they must see In The Fog a masterwork from Sergei Loznitsa and will be padded by world premiere items such as Annemarie Jacir’s When I Saw You, Lenny Abrahamson’s What Richard Did and Sion Sono’s The Land of Hope (see pic above). Here’s the entire list of items that make up this year’s section:

3 Pablo Stoll Ward, Uruguay/Germany/Argentina North American Premiere For Rodolfo (Humberto de Vargas), life at home feels empty and cold,...

Of all directors working in Germany today, Christian Petzold has the surest hand and, while, after just one viewing, it's too early to stake a claim for Barbara as his best film yet, it is, in many ways, a culmination of his stylistic progression towards a classic yet vividly contemporary cinematic language. Referencing influences in interviews — like many directors who can afford the time, Petzold likes to screen films for his cast in the weeks of rehearsal before shooting begins — he's been citing quite a few of late from both Golden Age and New Hollywood. The ghost of Marnie moves through Yella (2007) in the way a camera follows a woman up a set of stairs. Jerichow (2008) transposes The Postman Always Rings Twice from the oppressive shadows of film noir to a sun-drenched summer in present-day Germany. Of the three films that comprise Dreileben (2011), Petzold's Beats Being Dead is the one...

Nina Hoss in Christian Petzold's Barbara

"An additional ten world premieres will be screening in the Competition program of the Berlinale 2012," the festival's announced today:

Aujourd'hui

France/Senegal

By Alain Gomis (L'Afrance, Andalucia)

With Saül Williams, Aïssa Maïga, Djolof M'bengue

"What goes on inside the head of a man who knows he has only 24 hours to live?" begins a report from the Afp. "Franco-Senegalese director Alain Gomis takes viewers through this final day."

Barbara

Germany

By Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow, Dreileben)

With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld

The synopsis from The Match Factory: "East Germany. Barbara has requested a departure permit. It is the summer of 1978. She is a physician and is transferred, for disciplinary reasons, to a small hospital far away from everything in a provincial backwater. Her lover, a foreign trade employee at Mannesmann that she met on a spring night in East Berlin, is working on her escape.

The 2012 Berlinale has announced ten additional films as part of its Competition lineup, including Billy Bob Thornton's "Jayne Mansfield's Car." In addition, Angelina Jolie's directorial debut "In the Land of Blood and Honey" will screen as a Berlinale Special screening. The ten films announced today join the ten announced in December and the opening night film "Farewell My Queen" from Benoit Jacquot to round out the festival's competition slate. The ten competition titles announced today: "Aujourd´hui" France/Senegal By Alain Gomis (L´Afrance, Andalucia) With Saül Williams, Aïssa Maïga, Djolof M'bengue World premiere "Barbara Germany" By Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow, Dreileben) With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld World premiere "Cesare deve morire" (Caesar Must Die) Italy By Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (Padre padrone, La notte di San...

Beats Being Dead (Dreileben – Etwas Besseres als den Tod)

Written by Christian Petzold

Directed by Christian Petzold

Germany, 2011

Part of a triptych of films all revolving around a similar incident, Christian Petzold’s Beats Being Dead not only begins the loose Dreileben trilogy, but also picks up where the director left off with his own work.

Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) is studying to be a doctor while working as a nurse at an isolated clinic. Quiet and tentative, Johannes is infatuated when he runs into Ana (Luna Mijovic), a temperamental, impetuous maid. As their fledgling romance blossoms, a dangerous killer escapes from the mental ward of the hospital. In their sparsely populated area and against a backdrop of pervasive police sirens, Johannes and Ana navigate newfound feelings.

As with 2008’s Jerichow, director Petzold tells a tightly contained narrative that exudes more sexual tension than pure sexuality. A member of the “Berlin...

The 49th New York Film Festival has announced their Masterworks and Special Anniversary screenings that will show between the festival’s seventeen days, September 30th – October 16th. The Masterworks program and the festival’s additional programming will provide audiences with exciting opportunities to explore new film-making styles and storytelling events. To learn more about the Masterworks and Anniversary films, please check out below for full synopsis and details.

Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings

Masterworks: The Gold Rush

Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes, and with added narration and musical score, The Gold Rush will be presented in a new restoration of the original, silent 1925 version. In this frequently terrifying and always unpredictable universe of...

Benno Furmann Scales A Slippery Slope

By

Alex Simon

German actor Benno Furmann was born in Berlin-Kreuzberg in 1972, cutting his acting chops on two high-profile German miniseries in his late teens, and then moved to the States shortly thereafter to study acting at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute in New York. After appearing in high-profile titles such as Richard Loncraine's My House in Umbria, the Oscar-nominated Ww I drama Merry Christmas, the Wachowski brothers' Speed Racer, and Christian Petzold's Jerichow, Benno Feurmann's star is further on the rise with the U.S. release of North Face, director Philipp Stoelzl's harrowing drama about two moutaineers (Furmann and Florian Lukas) in 1936 attempting to scale Switzerland's foreboding Eiger moutain, with the Nazi propaganda machine prodding them on what is seemingly a suicide mission for the glory of the Fatherland. Winner of the 2009 German Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay, the film co-stars Johanna Wokalek,...

Maria Heiskanen in Everlasting Moments European Film Awards 2009 – Nominations: Part I Among the eligible films and performers that failed to nab a mention were Giovanna Mezzogiorno for Vincere, Audrey Tautou for Coco Before Chanel, Maren Ade’s Everyone Else, Ulrich Tukur for The White Ribbon, Martina Gedeck for The Baader Meinhof Complex, and Michael Fassbender for Fish Tank. Also, Christian Petzold’s Jerichow, Nina Hoss for Jerichow, Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments, Maria Heiskanen for Everlasting Moments, Corneliu Porumboiu’s Police, Adjective, Andrzej Wajda’s Sweet Rush, and Philippe Lioret’s Welcome. Now, the curious thing about the European Film Awards is that the awards’ timing and eligibility rules (some of which have varied throughout the years) make many of the nominations seem like old news. Indeed, [...]...

• Fish Tank, Everyone Else, Dogtooth, Police Adjective, A Prophet and White Ribbon are just a half a dozen titles among the 48 films that have a shot at being nominated among several categories for 22nd The European Film Awards. Among those that mysteriously didn't make the list are a pair of films that played at Cannes in Romania's Tales From the Golden Age and France's The Father of My Children. The way it works is, 2000 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the different award categories which will be announced on the 7th of November with the winners announced on the 12th of December. Here is the complete list below. 33 Scenes From Life Poland / Germany, 96 min Written & directed by Ma½goÊka Szumowska Produced by Raimond Goebel & Karl Baumgartner Broken Embraces Spain, 129 min Written & directed by: Pedro Almodóvar Produced by: Agustín Almodóvar Everyone Else Germany, 119 min

...

Directed by Esther Gronenborn

Written by Christian Limmer & Sönke Lars Neuwöhner

Featuring Benno Fürmann, Alexandra Maria Lara

Review by Hal MacDermot

A lonely forest at twilight, the haunting sound of a piano, a young girl walks alone, she looks back perhaps to see if she’s being followed. Will she find a wolf? No, but she will find a farmhouse full of dead bodies with their heads smashed in. Kaifeck Murder is a beautifully shot horror/thriller/fairy tale with fine performances from Benno Fürmann (Jerichow, Mutant Chronicles) and Alexandra Maria Lara, (Control & Youth Without Youth). The film draws inspiration from the true life unsolved murder of 6 people in small German village back in 1922. This is a story of superstition and community in the vein of the original Wicker Man, or even Neil Jordan’s gothic horror fairy tale “The Company of Wolves.” Don’t expect a slash fest, but...

Year: 2009

Directors: Esther Gronenborn

Writers: Christian Limmer & Sönke Lars Neuwöhner

IMDb: link

Trailer: link

Review by: Hal MacDermot

Rating: 7.8 out of 10

A lonely forest at twilight, the haunting sound of a piano, a young girl walks alone, she looks back perhaps to see if she’s being followed. Will she find a wolf? No, but she will find a farmhouse full of dead bodies with their heads smashed in. Kaifeck Murder is a beautifully shot horror/thriller/fairy tale with fine performances from Benno Fürmann (Jerichow, Mutant Chronicles) and Alexandra Maria Lara, (Control & Youth Without Youth). The film draws inspiration from the true life unsolved murder of 6 people in small German village back in 1922. This is a story of superstition and community in the vein of the original Wicker Man, or even Neil Jordan’s gothic horror fairy tale “The Company of Wolves.” Don’t expect a slash fest, but...

Let's hear it for Nina Hoss. The German ac tress impressed with her work in "Yella" and "Jerichow," both of which received releases here.

Now Hoss is back with another fine performance, in "A Woman in Berlin," written and directed by Max Faberbock.

This time she's a 30-year-old woman, known only as Anonyma, living in Berlin as the Red Army conquers it in 1945.

The Nazi troops may be out of the way, but the women of Berlin aren't

necessarily celebrating. The Russians have decided any female they come upon is fair game,...

Jerichow

Directed by: Christian Petzold

Cast: Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer

Running Time: 1 hr 30 mins

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: June 26, 2009

Plot: Thomas (Fürmann) returns home after his mother passes away but finds he can’t escape his creditors. Broke and unemployed, he helps Ali (Sözer) out of a jam and earns his trust. Then he sees Laura (Hoss), Ali’s wife and falls in lust with her. Though she’s attracted to Thomas, she refuses to leave her husband, creating an unstable love triangle.

Who’s It For? Viewers with patience, who enjoy slow paced foreign films.

Expectations: The film was described as a thriller so I was expecting something exciting.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Benno Fürmann as Thomas: A man of few words and fewer expressions, Thomas plays a passive role in his own life. After being dishonorably discharged from the army, he has neither money nor a job.

'The Postman Always Rings Twice," James M. Cain's pulp novel about a drifter who gets it on hot and heavy with a young woman married to an older guy, has served filmmakers well.

There are two well-known American versions, one in 1946 (starring John Garfield and Lana Turner) and the other in 1981 (with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange doing it on the kitchen table).

In 1943, Italian master Luchino Visconti revisted the story in "Ossessione"; there's even an Asian variation,...

Christian Petzold’s subtle genre exercise Jerichow explores the ever-shifting relationship between a hunky German ex-soldier, his jealous immigrant boss, and the boss’ hot wife. Benno Fürmann plays the soldier, a stoic paragon of German manhood (with some shady dealings in his past) who helps neighbor Hilmi Sözer when the latter drunkenly drives his car into a river. Sözer, a self-made man with a soft heart and a hot head, offers Fürmann a job driving him around the countryside to restock and collect money from his chain of vendor carts. But Fürmann risks his livelihood ...

• After a crazy year where they brought six or seven titles to Cannes (including Tulpan, Waltz with Bashir) in various competition categories, this year The Match Factory bring only a pair of titles in Ajami and Kinatay. Nonetheless, they also bring along their batch of well-performing films from Berlin. They aren't a production company, but highly selective sales company that work with producer's from all over the world. And that is why I'm including them in this producer's patch series. Update: they just included Aktan Arym Kubat’s next feature The Light to their stable. Contact High by Michael Glawogger - Completed The Dust Of Time by Theo Angelopoulos - Completed Ajami by Scandar Copti - Completed Dorfpunks by Lars Jessen - Completed Germany 09 (Deutschland 09) by Fatih Akin - CompletedGIGANTE by Adrián Biniez - Completed Kinatay by Brillante Mendoza - Completed The Milk Of Sorrow by Claudia Llosa -

...

"Jerichow" review  By Steve Ramos, Writer   Cruel, cool 'Jerichow' is a suspense drama equal to a Raymond Chandler novel     Instead of the sprawling Los Angeles backdrop of "Double Indemnity,"  German filmmaker Christian Petzold sets his cool, cruel film noir in a sparsely populated, economically devastated region of Northeastern Germany near the North Sea. This may sound like an odd setting for a movie type deeply connected with urban settings but "Jerichow," named after a small German town in the area, has the rich characters, deeply-felt passions and climactic surprises equal to anything from a Raymond Chandler or James M. Cain novel.   Opening in NY Friday, Jerichow, Petzold's suspenseful follow-up to last year's Yella, will expand to select U.S. cities throughout the summer. "Jerichow' may lack the profile of the numerous Hollywood blockbusters flooding theaters but it's hard to imagine a better thriller this summer.   Much of...

Cruel, cool 'Jerichow' is a suspense drama equal to a Raymond Chandler novel Instead of the sprawling Los Angeles backdrop of "Double Indemnity," German filmmaker Christian Petzold sets his cool, cruel film noir in a sparsely populated, economically devastated region of Northeastern Germany near the North Sea. This may sound like an odd setting for a movie type deeply connected with urban settings but "Jerichow," named after a small German town in the area, has the rich characters, deeply-felt passions and climactic surprises equal to anything from a Raymond Chandler or James M. Cain novel. Opening in NY Friday, Jerichow, Petzold's suspenseful follow-up to last year's Yella, will expand to select U.S. cities throughout the summer. "Jerichow' may lack the profile of the numerous Hollywood blockbusters flooding theaters but it's hard to imagine a better thriller this summer.

Cruel, cool 'Jerichow' is a suspense drama equal to a Raymond Chandler novel Instead of the sprawling Los Angeles backdrop of "Double Indemnity," German filmmaker Christian Petzold sets his cool, cruel film noir in a sparsely populated, economically devastated region of Northeastern Germany near the North Sea. This may sound like an odd setting for a movie type deeply connected with urban settings but "Jerichow," named after a small German town in the area, has the rich characters, deeply-felt passions and climactic surprises equal to anything from a Raymond Chandler or James M. Cain novel. Opening in NY Friday, Jerichow, Petzold's suspenseful follow-up to last year's Yella, will expand to select U.S. cities throughout the summer. "Jerichow' may lack the profile of the numerous Hollywood blockbusters flooding theaters but it's hard to imagine a better thriller this summer.

Your guide to what's new in theaters this week: Offbeat foreign fare compliments star-studded domestic offerings, alongside some intriguing and inventive docs.

Download this in audio form (MP3: 08:58 minutes, 12.3 Mb) Subscribe to the In Theaters podcast: [Xml] [iTunes]

"Anaglyph Tom (Tom With Puffy Cheeks)"

Forty years after "Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son," his groundbreaking interpretation of Thomas Edison's turn-of-the-century short, experimentalist and paracinema pioneer Ken Jacobs returns to Edison's original print, this time with a mind to work his singular magic in gloriously vibrant 3-D. Employing digital technology to isolate actors and images and intermingle the themes of his 1969 film with present day footage of the economic crisis, Jacobs orchestrates a cinematic ballet where the past and the present literally dance together before our eyes.

Opens in New York.

"Angels and Demons"

Despite the fact that some viewers who turned out to see Ron Howard's lumbering, talk-heavy 2006 blockbuster...

We're all for getting out in the summertime, but there might not be anything more refreshing than cooling off in a movie theater... or seeing a movie in the comfort of your air-conditioned home on demand, on DVD, or online... or better yet catching a classic on the big screen at a nearby repertory theater. With literally hundreds of films to choose from this summer, we humbly present this guide to the season's most exciting offerings.

May 1

"Eldorado"

The Cast: Bouli Lanners, Fabrice Adde, Philippe Nahon, Didier Toupy, Franise Chichy

Director: Bouli Lanners

Fest Cred: Cannes, Warsaw, Glasgow, Palm Springs,

The Gist: When Elie (Adde), a hapless young thief attempts to rob Yvan (Lanners), a 40-year-old car dealer, the two form a unlikely friendship that leads to a road trip across Belgium in this slight comedy that won the Best European Film at the Director's Fortnight at Cannes last year.

"Jerichow" is helmed and written by Christian Petzold, an multiple award-winning director. His credits include 2003's "Wolfsburg," Gespenster of 2005 and "Yella," a winner of the Fermina-Film-Prize and the Silver Berlin Bear awards at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. "Jerichow," a nominee of the Golden Lion Award at last year's Venice Film Festival, stars Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer, André M. Hennicke, Claudia Geisler, Marie Gruber and Knut Berger. The film sees release release at the Film Forum in New York City as well as the Laemble in Los Angeles on May 15th. See more images About the film: Jerichow, a small town in northeastern Germany, an impoverished region where few jobs are to be had, an area of crisscrossing highways, deep forests, and cliffs that fall sharply into the sea, is the setting for an unfolding drama of three people who find themselves at a fortuitous crossroads. Following his mother’s death,...

"Jerichow" is helmed and written by Christian Petzold, an multiple award-winning director. His credits include 2003's "Wolfsburg," Gespenster of 2005 and "Yella," a winner of the Fermina-Film-Prize and the Silver Berlin Bear awards at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. "Jerichow," a nominee of the Golden Lion Award at last year's Venice Film Festival, stars Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer, André M. Hennicke, Claudia Geisler, Marie Gruber and Knut Berger. The film sees release release at the Film Forum in New York City as well as the Laemble in Los Angeles on May 15th.

"Jerichow" is helmed and written by Christian Petzold, an multiple award-winning director. His credits include 2003's "Wolfsburg," Gespenster of 2005 and "Yella," a winner of the Fermina-Film-Prize and the Silver Berlin Bear awards at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. "Jerichow," a nominee of the Golden Lion Award at last year's Venice Film Festival, stars Benno Fürmann, Nina Hoss, Hilmi Sözer, André M. Hennicke, Claudia Geisler, Marie Gruber and Knut Berger. The film sees release release at the Film Forum in New York City as well as the Laemble in Los Angeles on May 15th.

German Film Academy Awards - Lola 2009 2009 German Film Academy Award nominations: March 13, 2009 2009 German Film Academy Award winners: Berlin, April 24, 2009 (”*” denotes the winner in each category) John Rabe, starring Ulrich Tukur. Best film The Baader Meinhof Complex, director Uli Edel Chiko, director Ozgur Yildirim A Year Ago in Winter, director Caroline Link Jerichow, director Christian Petzold * John Rabe, director Florian Gallenberger Cloud 9, director Andreas Dresen Silver Lola: A Year Ago in Winter Bronze Lola: Cloud 9 Best Documentary Lenin kam nur bis Ludenscheid, director Andre Schafer * NoBody’s Perfect, director Niko von Glasow Best Children or youth film Lilly the Witch, director Stefan Ruzowitzky * Nothing Else Matters, director Julia von Heinz Best Director * Andreas Dresen for Cloud 9 Uli Edel for The Baader Meinhof Complex Florian Gallenberger for John Rabe Christian Petzold for Jerichow Best Actress Anne Maria [...]...

Chicago – The third week of the 12th Annual EU Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center is nearly upon us and we’re back to give you an idea of what to expect in the second half of arguably the best fest in the Windy City. We feature great new films from Ireland, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Belgium.

The first half of EU 2009 (which you can read about here and here) produced some excellent films including Ireland’s “Kisses,” Denmark’s “Worlds Apart,” and France’s “Shall We Kiss?” There’s nothing that we’ve seen that’s quite as notable as “Kisses” or “Worlds Apart,” the two best of the fest through week three, but there is a quartet of films well worth seeing this weekend. Get your calendar out and take notes.

You’re going to be busy on Saturday with a dark trio of quality films - Denmarks “Fear Me Not,...

Berlin – "John Rabe," an historic biopic about the German business man who saved 200,000 Chinese civilians from the Nanking massacre, is the front runner for this year's German Film Awards – or Lolas – with seven nominations.

The film's nominations include best film, best director for Florian Gallenberger and a best actor for star Ulrich Tukur as Rabe.

Steve Buscemi also picked up a nomination as best supporting actor for his role as an idealistic American doctor who helps Rabe. It was one of the few Lola nominations ever given to a non-German actor.

Uli Edel's Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated terrorist drama "The Baader Meinhof Complex" picked up four Lola noms, including best film and best actress for Johanna Wokalek.

"Chiko," a gangster movie by first time director Ozgur Yildirim, surprised many by also nabbing a best film nom along with ones for Yildirim's screenplay, for lead actor Denis Moschitto and for editor Sebastian Thumler.

The 14th edition of Berlin & Beyond (B&B), the Bay Area’s annual week-long festival of new films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland, will take place at the Castro Theater from January 15 to 21, 2009. I walked into the festival’s press conference hoping to find three particular films in the line-up—Christian Petzold’s Jerichow, Götz Spielmann’s Revanche and Uli Edel’s The Baader Meinhof Complex. I’m happy to say that two of my three wishes came true.

The one that didn’t, The Baader Meinhof Complex, seemed like such an obvious choice for this year’s B&B. It’s Germany’s 2008 Oscar submission and was just nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film. Festival Director Ingrid Eggers explained that B&B tried hard to secure the film, but regrettably couldn’t make it happen. The movie depicts the 1960s/1970s German terrorist group Raf...

• Doc and foreign film specialist The Cinema Guild seem to be Christian Petzold's best way to get into the U.S. market. After releasing the German filmmaker's Yella, the distrib has picked up his latest film which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. IndieWIRE reports that Jerichow will open theatrically early in the year. Off the beaten path of life, three people stumble into a fateful encounter. Thomas, young and strong, has been dishonorably discharged from the army. Ali, an affable Turkish businessman, has seen some hard times but now his primary concern is making sure the employees of his snack-bars don’t cheat on him. Laura, an attractive woman with a dark past, seems to find refuge in the shadows of her marriage to Ali.Thomas, Ali, and Laura keep an eye on each other and keep their secrets to themselves. They want love but also security.

...