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Erik Barmack’s “Fusion,” Sally Wainwright’s “Riot Women” and epic fantasy “War of the Kingdoms” feature as potential highlights at the Series Mania Forum’s first Buyers Upfront, whose lineup was announced Tuesday by Series Mania founder and director general Laurence Herszberg.

Kicking off with a Beta Brunch on March 24, the Buyers Upfront also features latest series from Ard, Zdf Studios, Mediawan, Sidus, Beta Film, Slot Machine, REinvent and Bande à Part Films – making for a mouthwatering prospect.

The Upfront also underscores two trends: a move into English-language production which has larger U.S. streamer sales prospects; an increasingly attractive financing model, at least for selectively produced foreign-language shows, based on tying down partners and pre-sales among local broadcasters in Europe rather than waiting for currently highly challenging U.S. deal with a streamer.

Part of producer-distributor Erik Barmack’s drive at Wild Sheep Content into “top talent from smaller countries,...

No streaming service does a director retrospective like the Criterion Channel, and March offers two masters at opposite ends of exposure. On one side is Michael Mann, whose work from Thief through Collateral (minus The Keep) is given a spotlight; on the other is Alain Guiraudie, who (in advance of Misericordia opening on March 21) has five films arriving. (2001’s duet of That Old Dream That Moves and Sunshine for the Scoundrels have perhaps never streamed in the U.S. before.) Meanwhile, three noirs from Douglas Sirk are programmed alongside a Lee Chang-dong retrospective that features three new restorations.

Showcases will be staged for Dogme 95, Best Supporting Actor winners, and French Poetic Relaism. Welles’ The Trial gets a Criterion Edition alongside Demon Pond; Horace Ové’s newly restored Pressure makes a streaming premiere alongside spruced-up copies of Amadeus, Love Is the Devil, Port of Shadows, and Burning an Illusion, as...

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier has been admitted to a care center to receive treatment for Parkinson’s disease, his production company Zentropa Entertainment confirms.

In a statement posted to the official Zentropa Instagram, producer Louise Vesth wrote (roughly translated from Danish): “Lars is currently in a care center that can provide him with the treatment and care his condition requires. It’s a complement to his own private accommodation. Lars is doing well under the circumstances.”

von Trier went public with his diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease in August 2022. At the time, Zentropa said he was being treated to complete Riget Exodus (which translates to The Kingdom: Exodus), the third and final installment of his supernatural series.

A provocative auteur, von Trier has also (deservedly) received backlash for some of his public statements. In 2011, he was banned from Cannes for seven years after saying he “sympathized” with Hitler.

Controversial filmmaker Lars Von Trier has reportedly secured financing from the Danish film fund and will be able to move forward with a new film titled, “After.” The update comes to us from French news outlet Agence France-Presse’s report (via Bfmtv) confirming that the Danish Film Institute has granted the film 1.3 million kroner and would likely mean he’ll be shooting that project in Denmark.

Continue reading Lars Von Trier Movie ‘After’ About “About Death & The Afterlife” Moving Forward After Funding Update at The Playlist.

It has been a full couple of weeks for Robert Eggers. Nosferatu, his Gothic remake of the 1922 classic, is leading the box office with $156 million so far. A few days ago, cinephiles got word that he's staying in the Universal monster motif with Werwulf coming next. (No relation with the foible-ridden "Dark Universe.")

Now comes the announcement that the cerebral moviemaker is going to make a sequel to the 1986 cult classic Labyrinth. The film starred the wit and whimsy of Jim Henson, who created a compelling story and fascinating puppets for a fantasy world featuring Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie.

Eggers signed on to direct and co-write with his creative partner Sjón, with whom he collaborated on The Northman. Variety reported Chris and Eleanor Columbus are slated to produce the film with Lisa Henson. Also along for the ride is Jim's son, Brian Henson, who will be executive producing.

ComicBook.com...

Thanks to Robert Eggers' vampire film "Nosferatu" and Coralie Fargeat's "The Substance," horror had a surprisingly strong showing at the 2025 Oscar nominations. But instead of resting on his laurels and high-fiving Bill Skarsgård for delivering a gruesomely fresh take on the horror icon Count Orlok, Eggers has already set his sights on a new movie, the excellently-named 13th century werewolf tale "Werwulf." Oh, and if that wasn't enough to keep him working for a while, Deadline reports that he's also now closed a deal with TriStar pictures to co-write and direct a sequel to "Labyrinth." 

The original 1986 "Labyrinth" is a marvel. The Jim Henson movie rolls out amazing sights and sounds as it tells us about Sarah's (Jennifer Connelly) quest to retrieve her brother (Toby Froud) from the clutches of Jareth the Goblin King. It's a creature fest, musical, fantasy film, and a bona fide classic -- and since Eggers...

Willem Dafoe believes one of his most controversial films is simply misunderstood. In an interview with The Louis Theroux Podcast, the Nosferatu actor opened up about the legacy of Antichrist, the 2009 film written and directed by Lars von Trier and co-starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Dafoe and Gainsbourg play an unnamed couple haunted by the death of their son, who retreat to their cabin in the woods in an attempt to grieve and repair their troubled marriage. The man begins having strange visions, while the woman's behavior becomes increasingly violent and sexual in nature. The film is infamous for one particularly graphic scene involving a delicate part of the human anatomy.

Debate about whether the film is misogynistic or subversively feminist began as soon as Antichrist made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival. Dafoe thinks it's the latter. He told Theroux:

"I think it gets misidentified because of some of its extremeness.

The Brutalist, Brady Corbet's highly anticipated epic tale of a brilliant architect's post-war journey to America, isn't just one of the most critically praised films of the year and a Best Picture hopeful, it is a movie that features something audiences have rarely seen in the last 42 years. It occurs roughly halfway through the film's 215-minute runtime: a 15-minute-long intermission that allows the audience to get up from their seats, take a bathroom break, or perhaps just stretch their legs. Almost no movies released in the United States have included an intermission since the release of Gandhi in 1982. Since then, there have been a few outliers, including Dancer in the Dark in 2000, Gods and Generals in 2003, and most recently the Roadshow version of Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, which received a brief one-week theatrical run at the end of 2015. Given the potential award-season success of The Brutalist, mixed...

The following contains spoilers for The End, in theaters now.

Director Joshua Oppenheimer’s debut narrative film The End demands the word “peculiar.” The story of a family living in an underground bunker following some global cataclysm, The End explores gender and family dynamics with subtle grace. It also chronicles the declining mental health of a handful of remaining humans who have witnessed the near-extinction of their species. And it’s a musical.

The End is the strangest movie of 2024. It also announces Oppenheimer, previously best known as a documentarian, as a narrative director with no shortage of ambition or resolve. Even if The End doesn’t totally work as a movie, the sheer amount of artistic determination on display here will inspire some viewers to forgive its flaws.

The End Is a Movie That Doesn't Hesitate to Take Risks No One Has Seen a Musical Like This One

Not...

Brady Corbet took the 2024 Venice Film Festival — and the nascent Oscar season — by storm with his three-and-a-half hour epic “The Brutalist,” starring Adrien Brody. With the exception of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” it’s one of the longer films to be in serious Academy Awards contention in recent memory.

But unlike “Flower Moon,” which clocks in just shy of the Corbet film’s 3:35 runtime, “The Brutalist” at least comes with an intermission. And while Scorsese didn’t want one in his film, Corbet clarified the intermission was an intentional choice on his part along with co-writer Mona Fastvold — and not the result of any outside pressure.

“It was always scripted, the intermission,” Corbet told IndieWire on the red carpet of the 2024 Gotham Awards on December 2. “It’s funny, it’s gotten more attention in a way than we expected it to. I personally have a...

Lol Crawley, Dp on Brady Corbet’s acclaimed Oscar contender The Brutalist, will receive the 2025 Robby Müller Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in January.

The honor, named for the late legendary Dutch cinematographer of Paris, Texas, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark and Mystery Train, is presented annually to an “an image maker who has created an authentic, credible and emotionally striking visual language.”

Crawley will attend IFFR in January to give a talk on his work as well as present a screening of The Brutalist, which will celebrate its Dutch premiere at the festival.

Crawley, a BAFTA and Independent Spirt Award nominee, lensed Corbet’s previous features, Vox Lux (2018) and The Childhood of a Leader (2015), and is known for his work on such features as Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years (2015), Antonio Campos’ The Devil All The Time (2020), and Noah Baumbach’s White Noise (2022).

The Brutalist...

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

Bam

A series of “silent” movies includes films by Tati, Miguel Gomes, and Chaplin.

Film at Lincoln Center

The new 4K restoration of Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors continues.

Museum of the Moving Image

The Seventh Victim and The Fog play on Friday; a Godzilla series gets underway; The Indian in the Cupboard plays on 35mm Saturday and Sunday.

Metrograph

Rio Bravo, Funny Games, Insomnia, Kung Fu Hustle, The Outfit, and The Good, the Bad, the Weird show on 35mm; My Crazy Uncle (or Aunt), Insomnia, and Crush the Strong, Help the Weak begin.

Roxy Cinema

Dancer in the Dark and Scream play on 35mm, while Suspiria and Without You I’m Nothing also screen.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive retrospective of Portuguese cinema continues, while the films of Mohammad Reza Aslani screen.

IFC Center

4K restorations...

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

Bam

Films by Warren Beatty, Mike Judge, and more play in Facing the Future; the restoration of I Heard it Through the Grapevine screens.

Roxy Cinema

Gummo, Love Streams, and Dancer in the Dark play on 35mm, while Francis Ford Coppola’s Tetro screens screens on Saturday and a 16mm puppet program shows Sunday.

Museum of Modern Art

A massive retrospective of Portuguese cinema begins, featuring films by Paulo Rocha and Manoel de Oliveira, among many others.

Museum of the Moving Image

A highlight of the 1969 Directors’ Fortnight includes prints of Oshima’s Death By Hanging and Garrel’s The Virgin’s Bed; a Frank Oz retrospective continues.

Anthology Film Archives

Dreyer’s Ordet plays in “Essential Cinema.”

IFC Center

The black-and-white restoration of Johnny Mnemonic plays, as does a 40th-anniversary restoration of Paris, Texas and Bennett Miller’s The Cruise; The Company of Wolves,...

"Joker 2," or "Joker: Folie à Deux" as absolutely nobody calls it, is finally here! And the results ... are mixed (although you can read our pretty positive review right here). For the sequel to his billion dollar hit "Joker," director Todd Phillips has made a film that deliberately sets out to interrogate the audience of the first film. "Oh, you liked Arthur Fleck?" Phillips is asking here. "Why??" In theory, this is a fascinating idea. I'm all for sequels that try to deconstruct and re-contextualize what came before. On top of that, "Joker 2" is a musical! All of this sounds great on paper.

Unfortunately, the film is a bit of a slog. It's so joyless and dour that watching it begins to feel like a chore. On top of that, Phillips seems genuinely afraid of embracing the musical aspect of the movie — which makes you wonder why the hell...

Exclusive: Oscar-nominated singer-songwriter Björk previewed her manifesto from her new movie Cornucopia at Climate Week today.

The 16x Grammy nominee and Cannes Film Festival-winning actress is the creative director on the feature which is in post. The Cornucopia concert was filmed live in Lisbon, Portugal, and it illustrates the singer’s activism to address the climate crisis. Most recently, she collaborated with Rosalía on a song titled “Oral” and dedicated 100% of the proceeds to fund a series of legal actions aimed at combating intensive farm fishing. Level Forward shared the news today at their Soho House More to Talk About Residency.

Cornucopia is produced by Snowstorm, S101, Level Forward and Foobar.

The singer told Deadline, in her own words the following about the project:

“it is an emergency

in order to survive as a species we need to define our utopia

the Paris climate accord is a modern utopia impossible...

Joker: Folie à Deux is the upcoming sequel to 2019's Joker, a smash hit Batman spinoff starring Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill wretch who becomes Gotham City's clown prince of crime. In Folie à Deux, he'll meet Harley Quinn, the love of his life, and together they will make beautiful, demented music.

Although director Todd Phillips has gone back and forth on whether Folie à Deux is actually a musical or not, there will definitely be singing in it. Pop star Lady Gaga is playing Harley Quinn, after all, and you don't let a set of pipes like those go to waste. Gaga is even releasing a companion album for the movie called Harlequin, to come out on September 27. She dropped a snippet of one song, "The Joker," on social media:

There’s always a Joker. #FiguresDuFou #Louvre #JokerMovie pic.twitter.com/bEYHE59p40

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga...

Catherine Deneuve will preside over the 50th edition of the Cesar Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars.

As part of her honorary role as president of this milestone edition, Deneuve will be delivering the opening speech at the ceremony. The gala event will take place on Feb. 28 at the Olympia concert hall and will be broadcast on French pay TV group Canal+, a media partner of the Cesar Awards.

“Who better than an extraordinary actress to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Césars? Thanks to exceptional talent, a unique career and timeless grace, Catherine Deneuve embodies the very essence of the seventh art,” said the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma.

The French star, whose career spans nearly seven decades, has starred in a raft of iconic films directed by some of the world’s most revered filmmakers, from Luis Buñuel (“Belle de jour”) to François Truffaut (“Le Dernier Metro...

Margaret Menegoz, the producer of world-famous auteurs such as Michael Haneke and Wim Wenders, has died at the age of 83.

Menegoz was celebrated for her leadership of Les Films du Losange, an acclaimed production and distribution company which she ran for 46 years with an iron fist, guided by her passion for independent filmmaking and new voices.

Born in Hungary in 1941, during WW2, Menegoz grew up in Germany and ventured into the film industry after meeting her husband, Robert Menegoz, and traveled the world with him to shoot documentaries. She joined Les Films du Losange in 1975 and started as an assistant for revered directors Eric Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder who had co-founded the company in 1962. She quickly rose through the ranks and became manager of the company.

Under her helm, Les Films du Losange won an Oscar, three Palmes d’Or at Cannes. The company built a library of about 100 prestige films,...

The 62nd edition of the New York Film Festival will kick off with RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Nickel Boys.”

Film at Lincoln Center made the announcement early Monday and notably didn’t specify a premiere designation for the film, perhaps an indication that “Nickel Boys” will have its world premiere at another festival such as the Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, or Venice Film Festival.

“What an absolute honor for ‘Nickel Boys’ to open the 62nd New York Film Festival… a daydream really, for the crew, the cast, and team who’ve committed so wholeheartedly to its vision,” Ross said in a statement. The filmmaker’s debut documentary, “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” was previously screened at the 2018 edition of New Directors/New Films at New York City’s Lincoln Center. Ross called his debut feature...

Famously press shy, but often going an extra mile in order to shock, Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier has been a mischievous and frustrating spirit who tormented arthouse audiences as much as he teased them. But the provocateur-in-chief is now too established to still be considered an enfant terrible.

Von Trier’s 40 years in the film business are now to be celebrated by South Korea’s leading cinema chain Cj-cgv in a two-week retrospective that kicks off on July 10.

The multiplex giant is dedicating 15 of its art-house screens nationwide to playing 12 von Trier titles, including his debut feature, 1984-release “The Elements of Crime.” The film was part of his so-called “trauma trilogy” and was followed by “Epidemic” and “Europa.”

The showcase will continue with his 1996 Cannes Grand Jury prize-winner “Breaking the Waves” and “Idiots,” an emblem of his Dogma 95 back-to-basics filmmaking manifesto, and “Dancer in the Dark,” which won von...

Upper Austria, 1750. A middle-aged woman holding a baby stands at the mouth of a waterfall that seems to stretch all the way up to heaven on a cascade of white foam. What happens next won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone familiar with the rest of Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz’s captivatingly bleak — and religiously familicidal — body of work: She lobs the child over the edge, with no discernible expression on her face as the little bundle plummets out of sight.

From there, the woman immediately reports herself to the local authorities. The next time we see her, she’s on public display in a local forest, her decapitated head resting in an iron cage next to her corpse. This morbid exhibit is complete with an illustrated plaque that’s meant to serve as a warning for those who would dare to trespass against God. It doesn’t.

Civil War is an extremely powerful, effective movie that thrusts you into the middle of an American civil war seen through the eyes of a war photographer. It’s brutal. It’s extraordinarily violent. The sound design is bordering on abusive. And if you watch it in IMAX you can reasonably expect to leave the theater with more than a little motion sickness. It is, however, excellent, with great performances from Kirsten Dunst as the older, jaded photographer and Cailee Spaeny as the reckless youngster new to the game. So see it. But we’d be very surprised if you decide to rush back for a second viewing.

Here’s our celebration of the wonderful, must-see movies where once is quite enough, thank you very much.

Hereditary

To no one’s surprise, Ari Aster’s harrowing debut immediately makes the top of this list. You might think the early, shocking...

Denis Villeneuve's new hit film "Dune: Part Two" sees the rise of a villain not glimpsed in "Dune: Part One." In the film, the evil Baron Vladimir Harkonnen (Stellan Skarsgård), having lost faith in his nephew Rabban (Dave Bautista) and his ability to exterminate the Fremen on Arrakis, turns to his far more sociopathic, aggressive nephew Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler), a young man with no remorse and a murderous streak a mile wide. A large section of "Dune: Part Two" is devoted to describing Feyd's horrible evil, with several Bene Gesserit witches noting that he can only be controlled through flattery and sexuality, not conscience. Feyd is a violent, walking id, and the film ultimately culminates in a knife fight between him and the Messianic Paul Atreaides (Timothée Chalamet).

In David Lynch's eccentric 1984 "Dune" adaptation, rock star Sting played Feyd, and there is a notorious scene wherein Sting emerges from a bizarre,...

Joker: Folie à Deux director Todd Phillips shared a few Valentine’s Day special images featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga on his Instagram. Phillips shared a total of three images depicting the demented romance between Joker and Harley Quinn. Fans are very excited to see the pair, especially after Phoenix’s performance in the previous film and Gaga’s addition after her impressive roles in A Star is Born and House of Gucci.

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix in Joker: Folie à Deux

Phillips confirmed the release date of the film as October 4, 2024. Interestingly, the critical reception of the first film, Joker, was polarizing, but audiences were more accepting of the film. It went on to gross $1.079 billion at the global box office.

Fans React to Weird Romantic Pics of Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker and Lady Gaga’s Harley Quinn

Lady Gaga and Joaquin Phoenix’s new photo from...

Spoiler Alert: The following interview reveals plot points.

Exclusive: Babylon Berlin star Liv Lisa Fries recently sat down with us to discuss powerful and timely Berlin Film Festival Competition entry From Hilde, With Love, which debuts at the festival this coming weekend.

Andreas Dresen’s affecting and pared back film, set in Berlin during the Second World War, charts the little known story of Hilde and Hans Coppi, a young couple who courageously become members of an anti-Nazi group known as The Red Orchestra (Die Rote Kapelle). The two spend a summer together until they get caught by the Gestapo and Hilde is imprisoned, eight months pregnant.

Fries gives a memorable performance as Hilde. In the above first footage from the movie, she and co-star Johannes Hegemmann discuss an act of resistance for the first time. Pandora Film produces from a script by Laila Stieler. Beta Cinema handles sales.

Director...

Peter Garde, European film financing vet and frequent collaborator of filmmakers like Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, has died aged 67 in Fakse, Denmark, after a long battle with cancer. Garde’s wife, Nanna, confirmed the news to Deadline alongside his close associates, Peter Aalbæk Jensen and Anders Kjærhauge.

Garde began his education in finance in the small town of Store Heddinge in Denmark, where he was a student set to become a banker. He ultimately went on to start his own financial exchange company.

After the success of Lars Von Trier’s Breaking The Waves, Garde was convinced by his close friend producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen to join Zentropa and help manage all the money that was pouring into the studio, which ultimately became the beginning of Garde’s long career with Lars Von Trier and Zentropa Studios’ films. He joined the company in 1997.

Garde was responsible for piecing...

French cinema icon Catherine Deneuve has begun filming in Japan of “Spirit World,” a fantasy-drama film directed by Singapore’s Eric Khoo.

Deneuve portrays a singer who dies suddenly while on tour in Japan. But her spirit lives on and she embarks on a journey to find humanity in the after-world.

The project was revealed by the city government of Takasaki, an ancient town on Honshu Island between Tokyo and Kyoto, where production began over the weekend. Work is expected to continue for 10 days, before moving to other locations.

“I’m happy that a movie starring Deneuve is filmed in Takasaki. I’d like to cooperate in the filming,” said city mayor, Tomioka Kenji.

The film is understood to be based on an original screenplay. It is structured as a three-way production involving companies from Singapore, Japan and France and with financial support from authorities in Singapore. The producers are...

Martin Scorsese, known for his cinematic expertise, participates in a TikTok movie bracket challenge and chooses 2001: A Space Odyssey as his preferred film. Despite Western genre films inspiring Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese surprises viewers by not choosing The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly in the bracket challenge. The final face-off sees a contrast between 2001: A Space Odyssey and Parasite, with Scorsese ultimately choosing the former as the winner, highlighting the influence of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece.

Martin Scorsese goes to TikTok to take on the movie bracket challenge. This year, Scorsese directed the historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon, which is currently in theaters. Standing at 3 hours and 26 minutes long, Killers of the Flower Moon is getting rave reviews from critics and audiences, and is expected to do well in the awards season this fall.

The octogenarian director now participates in the TikTok movie bracket challenge,...

Keeping it in the family is very much a Hollywood tradition at this point, and in the 21st century acting families are still thriving. Whether it be Cuba Gooding Jr.’s son Mason joining the cast of the last two Scream movies, Lily-Rose Depp leading The Idol, Maya Hawke becoming a fan favorite in Stranger Things, or Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory) roaming the bridge of the Enterprise in Star Trek, there’s always a new generation of nepo babies lurching from crib to screen.

But one man is overwhelmingly leading the pack in terms of famous male offspring these days. A man who could conceivably consider the Kardashians his Warios. And that’s Stellan Skarsgård.

A Swedish gentleman well into his 70s with an effortlessly friendly demeanour and a soothingly craggy face, Skarsgård now has eight children, and it’s a solid bet that if you see the name...

Legendary Swedish star Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting, Mamma Mia!, Nymphomaniac) will be honored with the Leopard Club Award, a lifetime achievement honor, at this year’s Locarno International Film Festival.

Skarsgard will receive the prize on Aug. 4 at a ceremony at Locarno’s Piazza Grande and will take part in an audience Q&a on Aug. 5. In his honor, Locarno will screen Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg (1990), Kjell Grede’s period drama in which Skarsgard plays Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews during the final months of World War II. The festival will also screen What Remains, Ran Huang’s crime drama, co-written by his partner Megan Everett-Skarsgard, which features Skarsgard and one of his actor sons, Gustaf (Vikings, Oppenheimer). Huang and the Skarsgards will attend the Locarno screenings.

The 72-year-old has successfully balanced a career as a European art house star. He has made...

Mubi has released a new trailer for the 25th anniversary 4K restoration of Lars von Trier‘s dark comedy The Idiots. The only film that von Trier made under the Dogme 95 “Vow of Chastity”, The Idiots centers on a commune in the Danish suburbs where members aim to disrupt wider “bourgeoisie” society by pretending to have mental and physical ailments in public. It is the second film in von Trier’s Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by Breaking the Waves and followed by Dancer in the Dark. The Idiots will open theatrically at […]

The post Trailer Watch: 25th Anniversary 4K Restoration of Lars von Trier’s The Idiots first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Mubi has released a new trailer for the 25th anniversary 4K restoration of Lars von Trier‘s dark comedy The Idiots. The only film that von Trier made under the Dogme 95 “Vow of Chastity”, The Idiots centers on a commune in the Danish suburbs where members aim to disrupt wider “bourgeoisie” society by pretending to have mental and physical ailments in public. It is the second film in von Trier’s Golden Heart Trilogy, preceded by Breaking the Waves and followed by Dancer in the Dark. The Idiots will open theatrically at […]

The post Trailer Watch: 25th Anniversary 4K Restoration of Lars von Trier’s The Idiots first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Lars von Trier founded the Dogme 95 movement alongside Thomas Vinterberg in the 1990s as a stripped-down, chaste approach to filmmaking — chaste, at least, on visual terms, as there is never anything chaste about a movie from the director of “Breaking the Waves,” “Antichrist,” and “The House That Jack Built.”

But in reality, von Trier only actually made one movie that adhered to Dogme 95’s criteria: including all shooting done on location, no props or sets brought in, diegetic sound and natural light only, and no credits for the filmmaker. That film was 1998’s Danish comedy-drama “The Idiots,” which upon release at the Cannes Film Festival provoked a firestorm of fiercely divided reactions for its fictionalized treatment of disability. Now, independent film distributor and streaming platform Mubi will re-release the film, restored and uncut, on June 16 theatrically at the Metrograph before it hits streaming on July 7. Watch the trailer for the new restoration,...

Clockwise from far left: The Passion Of The Christ (20th Century Fox), The Revenant (20th Century Fox), American History X (New Line Cinema), The Human Centipede (First Sequence) (IFC Films), Sophie’s Choice (Shout! Factory)Graphic: AVClub

When it comes to movie night, we all have guilty pleasures or beloved classics...

Mubi has acquired 11 films by Lars von Trier for North America, including the director’s Dogme 95 entry The Idiots. It will release a new uncut 4K restoration of the film June 16 theatrically timed to its 25th anniversary, followed by an exclusive streaming release.

Other titles, most newly restored, include Dogville (2003), The Five Obstructions (2003), Manderlay (2005), The Boss of it All (2006), Breaking the Waves (1996), the Europa Trilogy, Antichrist (2009) and Dancer in the Dark (2000). Some are streaming on Mubi now, others will roll out on through September 2025.

Mubi acquired new restorations of von Trier series, The Kingdom Seasons 1 and 2, along with its latest season, The Kingdom Exodus in 2022.

TrustNordisk brokered the deal with Mubi.

The Idiots, which premiered at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, was made under the Dogme 95 school started by von Trier and other Danish filmmakers. It centers on a commune, whose members aim to disrupt...

Broadway and film star Joel Grey and John Kander, composer of Cabaret, Chicago and more, will receive the 2023 Special Tony Awards for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre.

Grey was the original Amos Hart in the 1996 Chicago and the original Emcee in Cabaret on Broadway, for which he won a Tony Award. He later received an Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA for his performance in the film adaptation. Kander, who co-wrote those legendary musicals with the late lyricist Fred Ebb, is currently represented on Broadway with the musical New York, New York.

“We are immensely thrilled to honor two legends in their own rights. John Kander has composed the soundtrack to all of our lives – meeting us in every decade – creating unforgettable scores for Cabaret, Chicago, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and his current Broadway hit New York, New York,” said Charlotte St. Martin, president of the Broadway League.

“As a legendary actor and director,...

The producer of ‘Women at War’ and ‘Dancer in the Dark’ will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award

French producer Marianne Slot, known for her collaborations with Lars von Trier, will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award at the 76th Locarno Film Festival (August 2-12).

After working with Von Trier on his 1995 film Breaking the Waves, she became his French producer. Throughout her career Slot has worked with international directors and producers including Lucrecia Martel, Lisandro Alonso, Naomi Kawase, Sergei Loznitsa and Benedikt Erlingsson, specialising in auteur features.

In 1993, she set up her production company Slot Machine in Paris.

Slot will be...

The black and white poster depicts Deneuve on the set of Alain Cavalier’s 1868 romance Heartbeat.

Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the poster for its 76th edition (May 16-27) which honours French actor Catherine Deneuve.

The black and white poster depicts Deneuve on the set of Alain Cavalier’s 1968 romance Heartbeat which shot on Pampelonne beach, near France’s Saint-Tropez.

In the film, Deneuve plays a 25-year-old woman caught between the luxury of being a mistress and the love of a man her own age. The festival likened the character’s heart, which beats “frantically, hurriedly, passionately”, to that of...

In Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s “Pirate Jenny” from “The Threepenny Opera,” a peasant hotel maid avenges herself for the cruelty she suffers from her fellow townspeople by imagining a pirate ship that sweeps into town, flattening the village and everyone in it. So, of course, the Danish king of saintly put-upon martyrs, Lars von Trier, found this material suitable for making a film every bit as alienating to the audience as the works of Brecht: 2003’s “Dogville.” Von Trier also centered his film around a blockbuster movie star, whose under-a-bell-jar image he set upon to deconstruct: Nicole Kidman.

Freshly off her Best Actress Oscar win for “The Hours” and also out of her messily public but oddly inscrutable divorce from Tom Cruise, Kidman flew to rural Trollhättan in Sweden to get on a soundstage with a truly there-are-no-words-amazing cast: Paul Bettany, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson, Stellan Skarsgård,...

Udo Kier's real-life World War II history confirms that he was the perfect casting choice for Hunters season 2's Hitler. Treading the same path as its predecessor, Hunters season 2 coasts on intriguing historical references, relentless violence, and the strength of its solid cast. Using Hunters season 1's Nazi-hunting themed storyline as its foundation, it sets out to raise the stakes for its titular team by introducing Adolf Hitler as the new villain.

After a season-long cat-and-mouse game between Hitler and the hunters, Hunters season 2 ends on a satisfying note, where the German dictator gets captured and sent to prison. While Hunters' revenge-fantasy take on alternate history is arguably a little too ambitious, it shows deep sincerity towards the real-world sufferings of World War victims, especially in season 2. One major casting choice made for Hunters season 2 plays a crucial role in further nailing down the show's earnestness towards its underlying themes.

Horror movie deaths are expected, like Mia Goth's character going on a rampage in Pearl. But when someone passes away in a drama or action film, it's surprising and heartbreaking. These moments often happen halfway through the film, allowing the story to take a more somber tone. Other times, they happen in the final scene, which is a tough but memorable way to conclude the story.

From Carl's sweet wife Ellie passing away in Up to Selma Ježková's tragic end in Dancer in the Dark, Redditors are discussing the most upsetting and melancholy deaths in movies from the past few decades.

Jenny Curran

Forrest Gump is considered one of Tom Hanks's best movies and his portrayal of the main character has never been forgotten. The film also includes an emotional death when Jenny Curran passes away. One Redditor wrote, "Poor Forrest. His monologue at her grave, starting,...

This review originally ran September 2, 2022, in conjunction with the miniseries’ premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Lars von Trier’s “The Kingdom Exodus” warrants comparison with David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks: The Return” for multiple parallels between the two: Both are peak prestige TV with indelible auteurist hallmarks, returning for their third seasons after a quarter-century hiatus. Both invoke the supernatural, concoct elaborate lore and boast captivated cult-like followings.

Though the Danish “Kingdom” is of course much lesser known, its first two seasons did make enough of a cultural impact through international theatrical runs to spawn a Stephen King–created American remake, “Kingdom Hospital.”

“Kingdom Exodus,” making its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, gets much more meta. In the cold open, Karen (Bodil Jørgensen) watches von Trier’s signoff from the previous season’s finale on TV. Frustrated by the series’ loose ends, she heads to bed and...

What a world we could live in if only we allowed the innocence of children to run it.

My 11-year-old daughter Sophia is just learning about the scope of movies. You would assume the child of an entertainment writer and Oscar enthusiast might be well-versed in the styles of Akira Kurosawa and Steven Spielberg. Instead, she’s currently enamored with the world of horror movies, with the “Scream” franchise standing as her most vital consumption.

She’s only been to a handful of industry screenings, one of which was Pixar’s “Coco” (2017), which gave the two of us the memorable moment in which I was weeping intensely as Miguel sang to his beloved grandmother after returning to the real world. Then, with a dead silent New York audience, not knowing how to use her “inside voice,” she shouted, “Are you crying?” The crowd erupted in laughter.

Now, living in Los Angeles for over a year,...

It's no hyperbole to call Mia Goth's performance in Ti West's new film "Pearl" one of the best of the year. As the title character, Goth is equal parts gentle hayseed, desperate dreamer, sexually repressed young person, and deeply cracked psychopath. It's a broad, yet totally believable performance. The film climaxes with an extended, uncut monologue that Goth directs toward an absent husband, and her heart spills onto the floor over how disappointing her life has become. It's scary and it's heartbreaking.

"Pearl" is the second part of a three-film cycle that began with "X" back in February. "X" was set in 1978, and featured Goth in a dual role of the aspiring adult actress Maxine and the very elderly Pearl who was moved by lust to murder. "Pearl" flashes back to 1918, when the title character was a young woman on the very same farm, and how she first began killing.

Mia Goth may not have a film school degree, but she’s well-versed in her cinematic influences.

The “X” actress made her film debut in Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” in 2013 and now lands her first screenwriting credit with “X” prequel film “Pearl,” in theaters September 16. To portray the titular teen dreaming of stardom, while hiding slasher tendencies, Goth looked towards Björk in “Dancer in the Dark” and Bette Davis in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” as inspirations.

Pearl and West also drew from Michael Fassbender’s extended monologue from “Hunger,” directed by Steve McQueen, for a particularly taxing scene. But the scariest part of playing Pearl proved to be the loftiness by which Goth and co-writer/director Ti West set out to capture her breaking point, rather than her bloody outbursts.

“I was really terrified to shoot [the monologue], because I never went to film school,” Goth told W Magazine. “I...

Following the world premiere of “My Neighbor Adolf” on the Piazza Grande in Locarno, Beta Cinema has sold the dark comedy to Vendetta Films, which will bring the Udo Kier and David Hayman starrer to cinemas across Australia and New Zealand in the first quarter of next year.

Prior to Locarno, Beta Cinema sold the film to Hungary (Cinetel) and Switzerland (Praesens Film), while deals for North America (Cohen Media Group), U.K. and Ireland (Signature Entertainment), Italy (I Wonder), South Korea (Lumix Media) and Japan (Tohokushinsha Film) had been revealed before.

The film is set in Colombia in 1960, just a few days after the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was caught by Mossad agents in Argentina. Polsky, played by Hayman, is a lonely and grumpy old man, living in the remote Colombian countryside. He is a survivor of the Holocaust. He spends his days playing chess and tending his beloved rosebushes.

Appearing via video, the director was in good spirits.

Danish director Lars von Trier has hinted he will keep working despite his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease, which he said made him have “a rotten time” while shooting Exodus, the third season of his series The Kingdom.

Appearing via video link at the Venice press conference for the show, von Trier provided an update on his condition, which he announced last month through his Zentropa producer Louise Vesth. His limbs and lower lip were shaking – a common symptom of Parkinson’s – but his speech was clear.

“I think I’m doing good,...

Catherine Deneuve has no regrets. Though the French icon has worked with everyone from Buñuel to Bjork, she doesn’t dwell on the decades she’s spent on screen. And, at 78, she’s certainly not thinking of retirement.

“I’m not at all ready to draw up a career assessment,” says Deneuve during an interview at the sleek, four-star Hotel Gabriel in Paris’ Saint-Germain des Près — her go-to place for the rare interviews she gives. “I’m very focused on the present, a little on the past and even on the near-future.”

But it’s her legacy of indelible performances that’s on the menu during the interview, which is being conducted as Deneuve prepares to be celebrated at the Venice Film Festival with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Sophisticated as ever and sporting a plunging neckline that exposes her black tulle lingerie, Deneuve feels conflicted about the honor.

Season 3 of ’The Kingdom Exodus’ set to premiere at Venice Film Festival.

Danish director Lars von Trier has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, his producer has confirmed.

A statement from Louise Vesth of Zentropa said von Trier was “in good spirits” and receiving treatment in the run-up to the Venice world premiere of The Kingdom Exodus (Riget), Season 3 of his series that debuted in 1994.

“In agreement with Lars von Trier we want to inform you that Lars was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease just before the summer holidays,” the statement said.

“In order to avoid any speculation about his...

Danish director, who won Palme d’Or for Dancer in the Dark, said to be ‘in good spirits’

Lars von Trier, the acclaimed and controversial Danish director, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, his production company has announced.

In a statement released on Monday, Zentropa – which von Trier co-founded in 1992 with producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen – said the director is in “good spirits and is being treated for his symptoms” while he completes the upcoming final season of his TV trilogy series.