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A huge-sized title and James Baldwin's human stare resting atop makes up this poster for Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro
African-American activist and writer James Baldwin was a sensitive, intelligent, enormously eloquent man, whose expressions on racism in America still resound today.
I Am Not Your Negro is written, co-produced and directed by Raoul Peck (Haitian Corner (1987)). It is based on Baldwin's unfinished, 30-page novel manuscript entitled Remember This House.
Presented as a documentary essay, the film shows us three central friends of Baldwin; Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, who were all assassinated for their racial and civil rights activism. Sharply and with a ripe sense of grief their time is portrayed, and straight lines are drawn from this era to the current police murders and Black Lives Matter movement. It is a bitter, bordering on hatefully poisonous image of the US as a morally bankrupt wonderland of the white, which is painted here.
Many aspects are missing in the personal perspective on Baldwin, due to racism being the defining trait in everything in I Am Not Your Negro.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 1 mil. $
Box office: 9.6 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 9.6 times its cost)
[I Am Not Your Negro premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. The film opened #24 to a 686k $ first weekend in 43 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 313 theaters (different weekends), grossing 7.1 mil. $ (74 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 480k $ (5 %) and the Netherlands with 214k $ (2.2 %). The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to O.J.: Made in America. It also won a BAFTA, a César award and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, among many other honors. The-Numbers.com assert that the film additionally made in excess of 2.6 mil. $ on the domestic home video market alone. Peck returned with The Young Karl Marx (2017). I Am Not Your Negro is certified fresh at 99 % with an 8.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Three large young women sit awkwardly on a gym bench on this poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Hope
Melanie is an overweight teenage girl who is sent away to a camp for girls like herself for a time to alter her lifestyle.
Paradise: Hope is written by Veronika Franz (Kern (2012, documentary)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It is the 3rd film in the pair's Paradise trilogy, also consisting of Paradise: Love (2012) and Paradise: Faith (2012). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.
We follow Melanie's camp stay, which Seidl investigates without much of a direction with the added label 'Hope', which also doesn't seem to say much about the characters here. They are young; yes, hopeful; perhaps. - But we never learn where they end up. There are still fine and unusual scenes in Paradise: Hope, but it is the weakest in the trilogy and fundamentally it is missing something.
= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.25 times its cost)
[Paradise: Hope premiered 8 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in Austria. The film opened #75 to a 2k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, spreading to 3 theaters but unable to gain a higher rank, grossing 6k $ (1.3 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 189k $ (41.4 %), Austria with 168k $ (36.8 %) and Spain with 44k $ (9.6 %). If made on a realistic 1.8 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. Seidl returned with In the Basement/Im Keller (2014, documentary). Melanie Lenz (Paradise: Love (2012)), who plays Melanie, did not return to the screen after the film. Paradise: Hope is fresh at 88 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A woman in front of a crucifix exposes her butt on this curious poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Faith
Marianne is a deeply religious Catholic cancer ward nurse, and in her off time she walks outside with her sculpture of the Virgin Mary. When her invalid Muslim husband returns home, sparks between the two erupt.
Paradise: Faith is written by Veronika Franz (Safari (2016)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It is the 2nd film in the pair's Paradise trilogy, which also consists of Paradise: Love (2012) and Paradise: Hope (2013). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.
It is presents a peculiar and original as well as a completely straight-lined and understandable narrative with impressively authentic performances, made in Seidl's signature docu-style. Especially Maria Hofstätter (Orkester (2021)) in the unembarrassed lead as Marianne, a fascinating and inspiring character, because she lifts her faith so actively, going out to confront her fellow (sad, miserable) Austrian countrymen with it. Her conflict with her husband has depth and nuances: Are we here witnesses to a rare artistic reflection of the cultural clash between Muslims and the West? Is Marianne's mission hopeless, pointless? Or meaningful and reputable?
Paradise: Faith lets the questions stand open until the last scene, SPOILER in which Seidl's own assessment of Catholicism as a judgmental, restrictive kind of sadomasochism seems to take over, - which at best does not fully cover it, and at worst is an unfair rejection.
= Uncertain but likely a mega-flop (projected return of 0.34 times its cost)
[Paradise: Faith premiered 30 August (Venice Film Festival) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place from September - November 2011 in Vienna, Austria. The film opened #95 to a 2k $ first weekend in North America, where it never ranked higher and grossed 6k $ (1 % of the total gross). Its biggest markets were Austria with 295k $ (47.7 %), Germany with 226k $ (36.6 %) and Spain with 48k $ (7.8 %). If made on a realistic 1.8 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a mega-flop. The film won a European Film award, among other honors. Seidl returned with Paradise: Hope (2013). Hofstätter returned in Braunschlag (2012, TV-series) and theatrically in Paradise: Hope. Paradise: Faith is fresh at 73 % with a 6.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
European women enjoy drinks, the ocean and local male attention on this poster for Ulrich Seidl's Paradise: Love
Our plus-sized, love-starved heroine leaves her teenage daughter back in their home in Austria to go on a solo vacation to Africa, where the local men simply adore the middle-aged European woman "as they are!" - Or do they now also...?
Paradise: Love is written by Veronika Franz (Import Export (2007)) and great Austrian filmmaker, co-writer/producer/director Ulrich Seidl (Models (1999)). It it the first film in his Paradise trilogy, also comprised by Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012) and Paradise: Hope/Paradies: Hoffnung (2013). The title is a literal translation of the original German title.
Seidl's film about female sex tourism ultimately becomes a reflection of the fundamentally unjust layout of the world, - both as it has become arranged by man but also how it is handed to each one of us from God's or nature's hands. Watching Paradise: Love, I also couldn't help but wonder what might have been different if the film had looked into male sex tourism instead of female.
Margarete Tiesel (Sargnagel - Der Film (2021)) is without vanity and fear in her lead performance, and Seidl (and cinematographers Edward Lachman (Carol (2015)) and Wolfgang Thaler (Toulouse (2018, TV movie))) capture a lot of absurd comedy with their visual mastering and eye for images, so that the film in periods is also pretty funny. It is also tender, sad, though-provoking and remarkably empathetic. If any of the individuals in the story are to be judged, that job is obviously left up to us.
Paradise: Love is an outstanding film with a couple of scenes that last a really long time, but which in doing so reveal something about the relations between the people involved, which is only possible due to their length. Something about the flux of exploitation in unnatural romantic relations.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Reportedly 3.6 mil. €, approximately 3.8 mil. $
Box office: 1.7 mil. $
= Mega-flop (returned 0.44 times its cost)
[Paradise: Love premiered 18 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place from October 2009 - September 2010 in Austria and Kenya, back-to-back with the other two films in the trilogy. They were initially planned to be one film but the length and other factors made Seidl realize that they should be released as three films. The film opened #84 to a 6k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #78 and in 4 theaters, grossing 24k $ (1.4 % of the total gross). The film's 3 biggest markets were Germany with 698k $ (41.1 %), Austria with 448k $ (26.4 %) and Spain with 165k $ (9.7 %). The film lost the Palme d'Or to Amour. It was also nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Seidl returned with Paradise: Faith/Paradies: Glaube (2012). Tiesel returned in 2 TV and a short credit prior to her theatrical return in Das Pferd auf dem Balkon (2012). Paradise: Love is certified fresh at 78 % with a 6.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A simple yet striking image of a loving embrace on a public bathroom floor makes up this titillating poster for Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher
A middle-aged Parisian piano teacher gets courted by a juicy younger student of hers, which activates her perversions and her labored psyche.
The Piano Teacher is written and directed by great German-born Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)), adapting Der Klaverspielerin (1983) by Elfriede Jelinek (Die Kinder der Toten (1995)). The original French title translates to 'the pianist'.
It is a tragic character study and a story of a romance that evades fulfillment. Haneke elevates a serious drama with powerful photography (by Christian Berger (Ludwig II (2012))) and contrasting, at times underpinning and at times beautiful music (piano sonatas by Franz Schubert) and astoundingly uninhibited, flawless acting by Isabelle Huppert (Mama Weed/La Daronne (2020)) as well as Benoît Magimel (Lola (2019)) and Annie Girardot (Ursule et Gelu (1974)) as the student and the teacher's mother, respectively.
The film is strong and typical for Haneke in its conclusion. The Piano Teacher may give increased understanding and sympathy for the strange and sometimes wounded perverts out there, while it shows us one exponent of these same perverts as psychically unbalanced, dysfunctional and miserable.
[The Piano Teacher premiered 14 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 131 minutes. 13 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place from August - October 2000 in Vienna, Austria. The film opened #54 to a 29k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #44 and in 19 theaters, grossing 1 mil. $ (10.4 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 3.3 mil. $ (34.4 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and then came Germany with 881k $ (9.2 %). The film was nominated for a BAFTA, won 1/2 César award nominations and the Jury Grand Prize at Cannes, and two other awards there (it lost the Palme d'Or to The Son's Room), also winning 1/3 European Film award nominations. Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Haneke returned with Time of the Wolf/Le Temps du Loup (2003). Huppert returned in 8 Women/8 Femmes (2002). The Piano Teacher is fresh at 73 % with a 7.0/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A recording of a loading site for boats make up this mysterious, curiosity-sparking poster for Michael Haneke's Happy End
A young girl moves in with her father and his big family, after her mother has been poisoned.
Happy End is written and directed by great German-born Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke (The Seventh Continent/Der Siebente Kontinent (1989)).
Haneke is back in sober, unsentimental top shape here with this potent drama, which is a continuation of the story of the old man and his daughter who we met in his Amour (2012).
Fantine Harduin (Fanny's Journey/Le Voyage de Fanny (2016)) is brilliant and disturbing as the girl; Jean-Louis Trintignant (Z (1969)) is just as inimitable as the suicidal grandfather.
The ending loses a bit of the subtlety that otherwise esteems the film: The party is too white, and the racism that is showcased was already outlined in the masterly dog bite scene. - But this cannot overshadow that Happy End is a sublime, though-provoking, relevant film and a very handsome (possible) end for the European master's long career.
Cost: Reportedly 12,034,009 €, approximately 13.3 mil. $
Box office: 2.6 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.19 times its cost)
[Happy End premiered 22 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 107 minutes At least 21 companies and support bodies cooperated in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place from July - August 2016 in France and in London, UK. The film opened #35 to a 23k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it never attained a higher position although it widened to 20 theaters, grossing 301k $ (11.6 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 563k $ (21.7 %). 2nd biggest was Netherlands with 337k $ (13 %), and North America was the 3rd biggest. The film lost the Palme d'Or to The Square and was also nominated for 2 European Film awards, among other honors. Haneke seems to have retired after the release of the film. Isabelle Huppert (Mama Weed/La Daronne (2020)) returned in Mrs. Hyde/Madame Hyde (2017); Trintignant returned in The Best Years of a Life/Les Plus Belles Années d'une Vie (2019); and Mathieu Kassovitz (La Haine (1995)) in Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017). Happy End is fresh at 70 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A woman with pronounced makeup lures from the inside of a Persian-style carpet on this poster for Ali Abbasi's Holy Spider
An Islamic fundamentalist serial killer is at large in the Iranian city Marshhad in 2000-01, and a female journalist travels there to investigate the matter and probe the police's lack of progress in the case.
Holy Spider is written by Afshin Kamran Bahrami, 'story supervisor' Jonas Wagner and great Iranian-Danish filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Ali Abbasi (Shelley (2016)). It is based on the actual case of Saeed Hanaei, who killed 16 prostitutes in Marshhad.
It is a horrific watch and may well make you feel physically unwell at its conclusion, as it should be, but it is also an illuminating, captivating, important and angry film, a film incensed at the misogynistic constraints of repression, abuse and ongoing blood sacrifice that is the shadow side of Iran's Islamist regime, still very much jarring and painful to observe today, as scores of people, including teenagers, are murdered by the state to uphold a fundamentalist system of Islamic repression where women are second-grade citizens and culture and freedom of expression are largely banned.
Not often do we come to ponder the cruel, dangerous and unpleasant life as a street prostitute in a country such as Iran, but in this very well-produced film we do. Martin Dirkov's (Enforcement/Shorta (2020)) sparse, eerie score heightens the feeling of urban dissolution and palpable danger.
The film is no traditional thriller, no whodunit, no procedural, and also not a film that wallows in gory excesses. It also doesn't shrink away from the horrific acts of murder and the chilling disposal of the bodies. Mehdi Bajestani (Whisper (2018, TV-series)) is incredibly convincing as the religious nut murderer. The context of Iran however seems to remove some of the guilt from the man's shoulders: Of course there is a prostitute slayer in Iran, one comes to think, and I'm sure there have been others since him also. In a country so centered on eradication of anything impure to Islamic standards, it isn't really all that strange as an occurrence.
The same line of thought haunts the protagonist, the female journalist sublimely portrayed by Zar Amir-Ebrahimi (Morgen Sind Wir Frei (2019)) as a very brave, intelligent and yet inevitably victimized individual, who tries to fight the overwhelmingly patriarchal, male chauvinist system. Forouzan Jamshidnejad (Mitra (2021)) is powerful as Saeed's wife, and Mesbah Taleb is heart-breaking as their oldest child, 14 year-old Ali, who is pushed towards embracing and embellishing his father's murders by the people around him.
This spider's web is only half-way spun by the homicidal spider himself. The other part is constructed by the society around him. In the words of Abbasi, it is described as Iran's serial killer society.
That regrettably still stands. And Holy Spider is a very powerful call out for its downfall.
[Holy Spider premiered 22 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 117 minutes. 21 companies and support bodies collaborated in the financing and production of the film. The shooting was impossible in Iran and also, it turned out, in Turkey. Shooting eventually took place from May-June 2021 in Jordan. The film has so far only 2 recorded markets at Box Office Mojo: France with 635k $ and Hungary with 2k $. The film has furthermore so far sold 23k tickets in Denmark, coming to around 360k $. The film has primarily screened at film festivals so far, but is set to release in Netherlands, Canada, Turkey, Germany and Sweden in coming months. It has already been chosen as Denmark's entry to the 2023 Oscars. The film won the Best Actress award at Cannes. Iran's regime has indirectly threatened the filmmakers and cast by calling the film 'insulting' and comparing it the Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988). Abbasi returns with The Last of Us (2023, TV-series) and does not have his theatrical return announced yet. Bajestani does not have his next gig announced yet; Amir-Ebrahumi returned in Les Survivants (2022). Holy Spider is fresh at 86 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A man and a woman from different cultures, standing together in a Japanese garden make up this poster for Doris Dörrie's Cherry Blossoms
When an aging married couple learn that the man, Rudi, is terminally ill with cancer, his wife hides the fact from him and arranges a visit to their two children in Germany. Her wish for them to travel to their son in Japan is wholly rejected by Rudi, - until the wife's sudden passing.
Cherry Blossoms is written and directed by Doris Dörrie (Der Erste Walzer (1978)).
The story develops with increasing emotional depth during Rudi's time in Japan, and Elmar Wepper (Der Fischer und Seine Frau (2005)) and Aya Irizuki (Cherry Blossoms and Demons/Kirschblüten & Dämonen (2019)) as Rudi and Yu excel. The film handles sorrow and death in a way, which can't but lead the audience to ponder over his or her own journey towards this end, - and the end for one's loved ones.
The poignant and at times amusing aspects of Rudi's journey are partially impaired by a few minor issues: The title is questionable as to its relevance for the story, and the credit sequence is poorly designed. The image quality throughout the film seems to come from digital technology and is a bit amateurish in craftsmanship and feel. These are minor side notes. The biggest drawback for Cherry Blossoms is that the central couple's three adult children are so uniformly horrible; narrow-minded, selfish and insensitive. - Why are they all like this? This feels a bit film school-like in its simplicity.
[Cherry Blossoms premiered 11 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 127 minutes. Shooting took place from March - April 2007 in Germany, including in Berlin, and in Japan, including in Tokyo. The film opened #71 to a 3k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it peaked at #67 and in 8 theaters (different weeks), grossing 104k $ (0.8 % of the total gross). The 3 biggest markets were Germany with 10.1 mil. $ (78.9 %), Switzerland with 763k $ (6 %) and Austria with 457k $ (3.6 %). The film did not get a general release in Japan. If made on a likely 3 mil. $ budget, the film would rank as a big hit. It was nominated for a European Film award and won 3/6 German Film award nominations, among other honors. Dörrie returned withDie Friseuse (2010). Wepper returned in 7 TV credits prior to his theatrical return in Dreiviertelmond (2011); Irizuki in Greetings from Fukushima/Grüsse aus Fukushima (2016). Cherry Blossoms is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
