Beauty Break: Franz Rogowski (Great Freedom)

by Nathaniel R

Franz Rogowski at Cannes for "The Great Freedom" this summer

This morning we learned that Sebastian Meise's Great Freedom, a German language post war drama about a homosexual in prison will be Austria's submission for the Oscars this year (chart updates). The film stars Franz Rogowski who we've loved looking at ever since we first saw him in the amazing continuous shot movie Victoria (2015) and whose career picked up steam after the international acclaim for Transit (2018). 2021 has been a busy year for the German star. The romantic fantasy Undine (2020) was released in June in the US and directly afterwards he spent the next few months at film festivals promoting three new projects: Great Freedom at Cannes in July, Luzifer at Locarno in August, and the Italian film Freaks Out at Venice in early September. 

Photos, some shot by the man himself (who has a fun Instagram account), some from his movies, and some lifted from MNPP (Jason is also a huge fan) are after the jump...

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Locarno Diary #2: Lost men and religiosity

by Elisa Giudici

Heavens Above, a new Serbian film

Locarno has been in, let's say a strange transition period. I first started going when Carlo Chatrian was the Artistic Director (back in 2012). He left for the same position at Berlinale and his successer Lili Hinstin wasn't there long -- under two years which generated a lot of gossip. Giona A Nazzaro is the new director but because of COVID-19 this is his first edition. Maybe I was just lucky or my tastes align more with Nazzaro's than previous directors but this festival started with more energy and verve. (Until now my perception of Locarno was that it held a small number of amazing discoveries diluted in a pull of dull old fashioned auteurial selections.)

I choose today's two movies following my gut instinct and I especially liked how the films were having almost having a dialogue between themselves, despite major differences in tone and setting. Both of them are about the end of the world as known for the male protagonist. Hinterland and Nebesa (Heavens Above) try to describe how men struggle with change and the death of their previous idealogies...

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International Contender: Canada, Germany, Japan, and more...

Since the last posting of this kind we've had six new submissions announced for Oscar's International Feature Film race, bringing the total to 25 thus far. We're tracking both here on the Oscar charts and at letterboxd. (We usually end up around 90 titles but we suspect there will be fewer titles this year due to the pandemic and the resulting cinema chaos.)

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Posterized: Terrence Malick on his 75th Birthday and his new film "Radegund"

We did this Posterized episode five years back but who would have thought that Terrence Malick of all people would need regular "updates" in filmography respective. Until this decade, Malick was like a ghost of the cinema, or perhaps more appropriately the Brigadoon of auteurs, emerging from the ether after long intervals only to vanish again just as quickly. But he's been working non-stop this decade so time's have changed.

To date Malick has made nine films with a tenth nearing completion. The posters and a still from his next project after the jump. How many have you seen? 

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Three can't-miss movies directed by women on the festival circuit

our continuing adventures at TIFF with a little NYFF thrown in.

This year I made a conscious effort to see films directed by women at the Toronto International Film Festival. Nearly half of the films I screened had women behind the camera! Even though a few of them were unsatisfying, a handful were gems so praise be to TIFF that there were so many to choose from. Other festivals haven't been as inclusive. We've already discussed the tragic romance of Mary Shelley, the visually stunning The Breadwinner, the what-were-they-thinking Kings, the confounding but admirably crafted Zama, the dramatic misfire of Euphoria, and Hungary's strange and totally involving Oscar submission On Body and Soul.

I saved the three best for last. If you get a chance to see Western (playing at NYFF September 30th and October 1st), the Austrian costume drama Mademoiselle Paradis, or a hard to describe miracle from Indonesia called The Seen and the Unseen please take it. Unfortunately none currently have US release dates (though Western does apparently have some sort of stateside distribution planned for 2018). We'll take them alphabetically after the jump...

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