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On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation. [Editor’s Note: After Dark is mutating! Check back September 6 for a new format. It’s the same juicy midnight movie bait…with a little extra bite.]

The Pitch: Do the Talking Limousines Know Something We Don’t?

When talking about the state of arthouse movies in the 2020s, I often think about something I call “The ‘Titane’ Phenomenon.” Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner is a wildly layered piece of art about trauma, gender, bodily autonomy, and revenge — yet to so many people, the extent of its cultural relevance is the fact...

Mia Hansen-Løve’s bittersweet 2022 release, starring Léa Seydoux as a woman coping with the failing mind of her father, joins a select group of films exploring this most tender of ​life ​role reversals, from The Savages to Eat Drink Man Woman

French director Mia Hansen-Løve has a knack for making unimpeachably delicate films about emotionally clobbering rites of passage. She has navigated death, divorce and traumatic adolescence with a softness that never quite turns to mush. Her most recent film, One Fine Morning – now available to stream on Mubi – takes the same approach to that strangest and most tender of life reversals, when children become their parents’ carers. Following a Parisian single mother (a never-better Léa Seydoux) as she reckons with the complications of steering her elderly, partially sighted father through the national care home system, from grappling with his dementia to redistributing his book collection, it’s quietly devastating,...

Nothing beats a good car chase in a movie. These wacky stunts are a hallmark of modern Hollywood blockbusters, but they've been around since silent films. Nowadays, car-centric flicks conjure images of "The Fast & Furious" and "Mad Max" franchises. However, action doesn't always have to be the focus.

Cars playing an integral part in developing a main character always hold more weight for me than a gonzo chase scene. We see a sense of isolation from society in movies like "Taxi Driver" and "Drive." Meanwhile, in John Carpenter's 1983 horror, "Christine," the auto becomes a ruthless death machine. The Stephen King adaptation makes for a clever metaphor about bullying, acceptance, and toxic masculinity in teens.

It would be unfair to say that a car movie can't be enjoyed without the profound social commentary of a Martin Scorsese film or the brooding touches of Nicolas Winding Refn. Sometimes, we crave high-octane...

Story of a troubled family aims for the higher registers of horror, but for all the jump scares doesn’t quite make it

This low-budget work by British director Ben Charles Edwards is a bit all over the place, despite its restricted use of locations. It revolves around an unhappy American family in an isolated house where things go bump in the night, leaving youngest child Michael extremely worried about what’s under his bed. Unfortunately, dad Richard (Nicholas Tucci) is too busy going off on business trips to help, and Michael’s big sister Donna (Page Ruth) has her own things going on, including getting drunk and hating on frosty Coral (Camilla Rutherford), formerly the live-in nanny but now pregnant with Richard’s child and about to become Michael and Donna’s stepmother.

Coral certainly doesn’t make it easy for the kids to bond with her, given her propensity to use a creepy,...

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Fear is the universal language. Terror is, as we have sadly seen so often, a global phenomenon. And monsters inhabit every crevice of this small world, from the deepest recesses of the South Pacific to the most remote peaks of the North Pole. So it should hardly be a surprise that horror films are and have been a component of cinema in just about every country that embraced the art form. Along with love, fear is the most profound human emotion, and any art — especially filmmaking — is the way in which we express those feelings to the rest of the world.

While the U.S., Canada and the U.K. (along with other primarily English-language nations like Australia and New Zealand) have produced healthy shares of the world’s catalog of horror movies, there is a vast, deep, diverse library of genre output that...

If one needs a span longer than Joan of Arc’s actual life to watch every film made on it, one should be confident in calling Jacques Rivette’s two-part Joan the Maid–first half subtitled The Battles, second half The Prisons–the very finest. However many years it’s been since I’ve done so myself, though, the effects of watching it make counter-arguments hard to even entertain. Another intimate, Rivettian portrait of shadowy societies that’s nevertheless inscribed on the epic scale of a war film, anchored by a Sandrine Bonnaire performance both tactile and otherworldly, and never flagging despite running through history told many times over, it is so great that, as with much of his filmography, a proper restoration seemed forever unlikely.

In a major turn, Cohen Media Group have salvaged the nearly six-hour project and will debut it at New York’s Quad Cinema on...

Actress worked with Georges Franju, Luis Buñuel, Andrzej Zulawski, Jacques Rivette, Leo Carax, Olivier Assayas and Mia Hansen-Løve.

Tributes have been paid to French actress Edith Scob, who has died in Paris at the age of 81.

Scob made her big screen breakthrough in Georges Franju’s 1960 cult horror classic Eyes Without A Face and then worked in later years with the likes of Leo Carax and Olivier Assayas.

France’s Minister of Culture Franck Riester said Scob had a “magnetic presence that flooded every one of her films.”

French cinema promotional and export body Unifrance added on Twitter: “81 years...

This story about the last decade of the Cannes Film Festival first appeared in TheWrap’s Cannes magazine.

In the 10 years that TheWrap has been going to Cannes, exactly 198 films have screened in the main competition. So we assembled our own Cannes jury, made up of the writers who have reviewed the festival’s films for us over the last decade, to pick TheWrap’s Top 10, 2009-2018.

The participants were Ben Croll, Alonso Duralde, Eric Kohn, Steve Pond and Sasha Stone, and here are the results of their votes. By the way, three of our Top 10 — The Tree of Life,Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Livesand Amour — won the Palme d’Or.

1. “Melancholia” — Lars von Trier, 2011

Searching for answers, waiting for miracles–these seem to be the themes of many of the best films at the Cannes Film Festival. And Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” is certainly one of the best.

Raúl Ruiz frequently remarked that he was the perfect person to adapt Marcel Proust’s vast set of novels Remembrance of Things Past (or, more literally, In Search of Lost Time) to the screen because, having reached the end of reading the entire work, he instantly forgot it all. He was joking, of course, but his jest disguised a serious method. The only way to convey Proust on screen, in Ruiz’s opinion, was to approach it not as a literal condensation of multiple characters and events, but as a psychic swirl of half-remembered, half-forgotten fragments and impressions—full of uncanny superimpositions and metamorphoses. “‘The best way to adapt something for film,” he summed up, “is to dream it.” Ruiz’s dreaming was always accompanied by extensive, meandering, seemingly eccentric research. In the case of Time Regained, he plunged (as he revealed in a splendid, lengthy interview with Jacinto Lageira...

Denis Lavant rotates the Alamo cube on Astor Place in New York: "Chaplin, burlesque, Buster Keaton, masque, Commedia dell'arte - it's the same." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Denis Lavant, Leos Carax's M Merde in Tokyo! and so much more in Holy Motors (with Edith Scob as Céline), Alex in Carax's debut film Boy Meets Girl, and opposite Juliette Binoche in Mauvais Sang (Bad Blood) and The Lovers On The Bridge (Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf), speaks about the creation of his most famous character and time with cinematographer Caroline Champetier in Paris before going to Tokyo. He gives background on the role he plays in Emmanuel Bourdieu's Louis-Ferdinand Céline and tries to come to grips with his relationship to tourist guest cats back home.

Denis Lavant goes into his special language that has become one of the most unforgettable personas in cinema when I ask him where M Merde came...

It’s a given that their Main Slate — the fresh, the recently buzzed-about, the mysterious, the anticipated — will be the New York Film Festival’s primary point of attraction for both media coverage and ticket sales. But while a rather fine lineup is, to these eyes, deserving of such treatment, the festival’s latest Revivals section — i.e. “important works from renowned filmmakers that have been digitally remastered, restored, and preserved with the assistance of generous partners,” per their press release — is in a whole other class, one titanic name after another granted a representation that these particular works have so long lacked.

The list speaks for itself, even (or especially) if you’re more likely to recognize a director than title. Included therein are films by Andrei Tarkovsky (The Sacrifice), Hou Hsiao-hsien (Daughter of the Nile, a personal favorite), Pedro Costa (Casa de Lava; trailer here), Jean-Luc Godard (the rarely seen,...

Mia Hansen-Løve’s portrait of the travails of a middle-aged philosophy teacher is a plum acting vehicle for Isabelle Huppert It steers clear of crazy, extraordinary events to instead offer insights into how real people live and cope. The professor must dip into her subject matter to make sense of her life, and comes up sane. Folks expecting a feel-good satire about ‘goofy’ women can make do with Sally Field in Hello, My Name is Doris. Mia and Isabelle do well here.

Things to Come (2016)

Blu-ray

Mpi Media Group

2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 102 min. / L’avenir / Street Date May 9, 2017 / 19.08

Starring: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob, Sarah Le Picard, Solal Forte, Elise Lhomeau, Lionel Dray-Rabotnik.

Cinematography: Denis Lenoir

Film Editor: Marion Monnier

Produced by Charles Gillibert

Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve

French actress Isabelle Huppert had a great year in 2016, what with her Oscar nomination for Elle, a...

Sometimes a movie is simply too good for just one special edition… Savant reached out to nab a British Region B import of Georges Franju’s horror masterpiece, to sample its enticing extras. And this also gives me the chance to ramble on with more thoughts about this 1959 show that inspired a score of copycats.

Eyes Without a Face (Bfi — U.K.)

Region B Blu-ray + Pal DVD

Bfi

1959 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / The Horror Chamber of

Dr. Faustus, House of Dr. Rasanoff, Occhi senza volto / Street Date August 24, 2015 / presently £10.99

Starring: Pierre Brasseur, Edith Scob, Alida Valli, Francois Guérin,

Béatrice Altariba, Juliette Mayniel

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Production Designer: Auguste Capelier

Special Effects: Charles-Henri Assola

Film Editor: Gilbert Natot

Original Music: Maurice Jarre

Written by Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Pierre Gascar, Claude Sautet from a novel by Jean Redon

Produced by Jules Borkon

Directed by Georges Franju

Savant has reviewed Eyes Without a Face twice,...

Isabelle Huppert is stirring Oscar talk (and she damn well should) for the potent provocation of her acting in Elle, directed by Dutch wildman Paul Verhoeven. But to see her in Things to Come, as a character who is the polar opposite of the powerhouse she plays in that story of rape and revenge, is to cement Huppert's reputation as one of the best actresses on the planet. Written and directed by Mia Hansen-Love (Eden), the film gives the legendary French star the role of Nathalie, a Paris philosophy professor whose academic husband,...

And now we’ve arrived at the end of the calendar year. As the final push for year-end viewing continues at a furious pace, some of the last unknown films of 2016 will finally make their way to audiences. To help focus your viewing choices, here is a list of films opening throughout the coming weeks, separated into categories of wide and limited runs. (Synopses are provided by festivals and distributors.)

If you’re interested in what still might be in a theater near you, check out our November Release Guide. For those curious what 2017 might bring, you can also visit our calendar page, which has releases through the beginning of the new year.

Happy watching!

Week of December 2 Wide

Incarnate

Director: Brad Peyton

Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Carice van Houten, Catalina Sandino Moreno, David Mazouz, John Pirruccello, Keir O’Donnell, Matthew Nable

Synopsis: A scientist with the ability to enter the...

Things To Come (L’avenir) Sundance Selects Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B Director: Mia Hansen-Løve Written by: Mia Hansen-Løve Cast: Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob, Sarah Le Picard, Solal Forte Screened at: Digital Arts, NYC, 11/9/16 Opens: December 2, 2016 When did you ever hear this in any film you’ve seen: “So long as we desire, we can do without happiness.” Here’s a statement that hardly axiomatic, one that might come from the mind of a philosopher or one who teaches philosophy. Generally, in materialistic societies we desire quite a lot, yet Buddhists warn us that desire is the source of pain. But Nathalie Chazeaux (Isabelle [ Read More ]

The post Things to Come Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that “The Monster” boasts (at least) one of the year’s best performances, but it does. In fact, that revelation arrives with as much of a jolt as any of the film’s immaculately-timed jump scares, which writer-director Bryan Bertino (“The Strangers”) unleashes with the discretion of a master and the patience of a monk. Like any great twist, it hides in plain sight from the start, and like any great twist, it reveals itself with maximum impact, delivering the chilly kind of shudder that doesn’t shake off with the closing credits.

Zoe Kazan plays Kathy, a ferocious alcoholic who looks at her bright young daughter as though the little girl were nothing but a symptom of the particularly stubborn hangover that she’s been trying to shake for the better part of a decade. Less of a mother to Lizzy (Ella Ballentine...

Director Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come (L’Avenir) is one of two dramas starring Isabelle Huppert to come to the New York Film Festival this year (the second is the very different Elle). It is Huppert’s undeniably riveting persona upon which Things to Come rests, as the film teases out her character’s complex strength and vulnerability into a fascinating character portrait of a woman on the edge of a changing life.

Huppert is Nathalie Chazeaux, a philosophy teacher in Paris married to Heinz (André Marcon), with two teenage children. Nathalie divides her time between teaching her classes, writing philosophical essays and textbooks, and taking care of her mother Yvette (Edith Scob), a depressive constantly threatening to commit suicide. Nathalie also has a warm relationship with her children and her former student Fabien (Roman Kolinka), a brilliant young intellectual and anarchist. But things begin to fall apart when...

With Things to Come, the great Mia Hansen-Løve is earning some of her best reviews in years, and, along with Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, it represents a banner year for her star, Isabelle Huppert. As is (fortunately0 to be expected of a meditative, lovingly shot French drama, the film’s been given U.S. distribution courtesy of Sundance Selects — and with it arriving at the end of this year, there is now a trailer.

Whatever the preview sells you, trust us when we say Things to Come is worth anticipation. As was written in our review from earlier this year, “While Hansen-Løve certainly deserves credit for writing such a compelling character, it’s difficult to imagine anyone realizing Nathalie as consummately as Huppert, who, even by her exceptionally high standards, pulls off a superlative performance. Having been so steadfast in her certainty, Nathalie experiences her world’s collapse by degrees,...

"You act like everything's the same. What planet are you on?" IFC has unveiled an official Us trailer for the film Things to Come, the latest from French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve (read my interview with her here). This is also the other great Isabelle Huppert film this year, along with Paul Verhoeven's Elle (which Jeremy raved about at Fantastic Fest). This film has been playing the festival circuit since premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in February, and we already posted the UK trailer for it a few months ago. The full cast includes André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, and Edith Scob. The film follows a woman who experiences a few major shakeups in her life, including a divorce and the birth of a grandchild. It's a very philosophical but enjoyable film (there's a cute cat in it!), as expected from Mia Hansen-Løve. In theaters later this year. Here's the...

Fans of the always impeccable Isabelle Huppert are in for a double dose of cinematic treats this fall. The actress will be in the awards season race with Paul Verhoeven‘s acclaimed, button-pushing “Elle,” and she also leads Mia Hansen-Løve‘s low-key “Things To Come,” which now has a new domestic trailer.

Read More: Mia Hansen-Love Talks ‘Eden,’ Daft Punk, French Disco & Her Next Film ‘The Future’

Co-starring André Marcon, Roman Kolinka and Edith Scob, this gentle drama follows Nathalie, a philosophy teacher who must reassess her life when her husband suddenly leaves her for another woman.

Continue reading Isabelle Huppert Faces The Future In New Trailer For Mia Hansen-Løve’s ‘Things To Come’ at The Playlist.

Here’s the first footage from the Mia Hansøn-Love-directed Things To Come, which plays the New York Film Festival this week after stops at Toronto and Berlin, where Hanson-Love won best director. IFC opens the film December 2. Huppert plays a philosophy teacher with a seemingly settled existence, juggling a rich life of the mind with the day-to-day demands of career and family (including frequent visits to her drama queen mother, played by Édith Scob). The comes the…...

It’s never a good idea to take public transportation home from a funeral, but sexagenarian philosophy professor Nathalie Chazeaux (Isabelle Huppert) insists on learning that lesson the hard way. Crumpled against the window of a bus as it groans its way through the streets of Paris, Nathalie begins to cry. The teenage girl sitting in the seat across from her eyeballs the scene like she’s resisting the urge to Instagram it, like she has no idea that it’s only a matter of time before we’re all the woman crying on the bus. That’s when Nathalie spies Heinz (Andre Marcon), still technically her husband, walking around town with the young woman who recently inspired him to walk out on his wife of 25 years.

Sometimes, life is subtle — sometimes, it’s so in your face that you just have to laugh. And that’s exactly what Nathalie does,...

An unusual concoction, this 1963 Georges Franju picture, which goes about its business as if the nouvelle vague never existed, among other things. An homage to the 1915 Louis Feuillade serial about an almost super-powered crime fighter who nonetheless has a fairly arduous time bringing the main evildoes to justice (the defining paradox of such serials, I suppose), it honors Feuillade as a surrealist precursor by introducing (or at least we believe we haven't seen him before) the title character as something out of a Max Ernst collage. Having warned the banker villain Favraux that unless he atones for his murderous deeds at midnight he'll be punished, Judex shows up at Favraux's costume party, the eyes of his bird mask more magnificently accusing than any of the others. He produces what seems to be a flock of doves with his bare hands. And soon Favraux collapses. Dead? No. Drugged. It's all part...

French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve, best known for tales of youth Eden and Goodbye First Love, teams up with iconic actress Isabelle Huppert for Things To Come, a quietly affecting story about a bourgeois middle-aged philosophy teacher and the big changes in her life. Set mostly in the Sarkozy era of domestic reform and government reshuffling, Huppert portrays Nathalie with a subtle wit and optimism, an attitude seemingly inherent from another time entirely. Married to Heinz (André Marcon), a fellow philosophy teacher, and with two grown children, Nathalie is content with life, the relationship to her students and her side work in publishing. She even takes her time with her increasingly difficult and ailing mother Yvette (legendary Edith Scob) in stride. This is not say she...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

John Waters, a big fan of Isabelle Huppert, star of Valley Of Love, Elle and Things To Come Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Cristian Mungiu's (Beyond The Hills and 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days)Graduation (Bacalaureat) with Adrian Titieni, Maria-Victoria Dragus, Lia Bugnar and Malina Manovici; Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake, starring Dave Johns and Hayley Squires; Isabelle Huppert in Paul Verhoeven's Elle and Mia Hansen-Løve's (Goodbye First Love and Eden) Things To Come (L’Avenir) are four early highlights of the 54th New York Film Festival.

In Elle, shot by Stéphane Fontaine (Jacques Audiard's A Prophet and Rust And Bone written by Thomas Bidegain), Anne Consigny, Laurent Lafitte, Judith Magre, and Charles Berling make up a smashing ensemble cast. Things to Come features Edith Scob, André Marcon, and Roman Kolinka with costumes by Rachèle Raoult (Jalil Lespert's Yves Saint Laurent and Léos Carax's Holy Motors) filmed...

Isabelle Huppert stars on stage in Phaedra(s) and films - Elle and Things to Come Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Guillaume Nicloux's bewitching Valley Of Love star Isabelle Huppert in 2013 presented Abuse Of Weakness with Catherine Breillat at the New York Film Festival. This year she has two films - Paul Verhoeven's Elle with Laurent Lafitte and Anne Consigny, based on the novel by Philippe Djian with a screenplay by David Birke, and also Mia Hansen-Løve's Things To Come (L’Avenir) with André Marcon and Edith Scob.

Isabelle Huppert in Phaedra(s)

In 2014, Isabelle Huppert performed on stage with Cate Blanchett and Elizabeth Debicki in New York during the Lincoln Center Festival in the Sydney Theater Company production of Jean Genet's The Maids, directed by Benedict Andrews at City Center.

This year she will star in Phaedra(s), directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski with text composed of excerpts...

The 2016 New York Film Festival line-up has arrived, and as usual for the festival, it’s an amazing slate of films. Along with the previously announced The 13th, 20th Century Women, and The Lost City of Z, there’s two of our Sundance favorites, Manchester By the Sea and Certain Women, as well as the top films of Cannes: Elle, Paterson, Personal Shopper, Graduation, Julieta, I, Daniel Blake, Aquarius, Neruda, Sieranevada, Toni Erdmann, and Staying Vertical. As for other highlights, the latest films from Hong Sang-soo, Barry Jenkins, and Matías Piñeiro will also screen.

Check it out below, including our reviews where available.

The 13th (Opening Night, previously announced)

Directed by Ava DuVernay

USA, 2016

World Premiere

The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,...

"To think... I've found my freedom." The official UK trailer for the new Mia Hansen-Løve film has debuted. Titled Things to Come, or L'avenir in French, the film stars Isabelle Huppert as a philosophy teacher dealing with various trials and tribulations later in her life, with her husband and children. The full cast includes André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, and Edith Scob. The film first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won a Silver Bear for Best Director, which was excellent because Mia Hansen-Løve is a very talented filmmaker. I interviewed her in Berlin, as I'm a huge fan of her past work as well, and wanted to talk with her about her films - read that here. This is a very philosophical film that will make you think deeply about life and where it all leads, all thanks to the always brilliant mind of Mia Hansen-Løve. Enjoy. Here's the...

Mubi has partnered with New York's Film Society of Lincoln center to bring online audiences part of their February series, "Friends with Benefits: An Anthology of Four New American Filmmakers," programmed by Dennis Lim and Dan Sullivan. In less than a decade of activity, the four friends and polymorphously promiscuous collaborators Gabriel Abrantes, Alexander Carver, Benjamin Crotty, and Daniel Schmidt have made some of the most ravishing and least classifiable films in recent memory—and established themselves as a school of filmmaking unlike any other. These uncompromising young visionaries share a penchant for provocation, a taste for transgression, and a host of strategies and obsessions all their own. At once lyrical and perverse, by turns hilarious and delirious, their films obliterate distinctions—between high- and low-brow, between sensual and cerebral, between art cinema and the avant-garde—while remaining sharply attuned to the byproducts of globalization and the fluctuations of post-internet pop culture.

In the third Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Terence Davies's Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion with Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine, Catherine Bailey, Jodhi May, Emma Bell and Duncan Duff; Mia Hansen-Løve's outstanding Things to Come with Isabelle Huppert, Andre Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and Sarah Le Picard; and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's serial killer thriller (and comedy) Creepy with Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi, Teruyuki Kagawa, Haruna Kawaguchi and Masahiro Higashide. Plus: Trailers and a clip. » - David Hudson...

In the third Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Terence Davies's Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion with Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle, Keith Carradine, Catherine Bailey, Jodhi May, Emma Bell and Duncan Duff; Mia Hansen-Løve's outstanding Things to Come with Isabelle Huppert, Andre Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and Sarah Le Picard; and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's serial killer thriller (and comedy) Creepy with Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi, Teruyuki Kagawa, Haruna Kawaguchi and Masahiro Higashide. Plus: Trailers and a clip. » - David Hudson...

Mia Hansen-Løve's films have always demonstrated a maturity of insight beyond her years, which she’s applied to her observations on people her own age or younger. Now 35, with her fifth feature "L’Avenir" ("Things To Come") she’s looking ahead of herself for the first time, and to the experience of a middle-aged woman suddenly forced to reappraise her life. Also for the first time, the director has at her disposal an actress of considerable experience and talent, Isabelle Huppert. This pair are perfectly matched, with both director and actress favoring a no-nonsense, matter-of-fact approach to their work, usually with scant recourse to cliché or histrionics. And the result is a superb portrait of a woman whose response to what many would regard as a crisis is not just refreshing, but rather inspiring. Huppert is Nathalie, a philosophy teacher with a husband of 25 years, two children, a sickly...

The Berlin International Film Festival is now underway, and one of the movies we're eager to see is Mia Hansen-Løve's latest, "L'avenir (Things To Come)." The filmmaker has a compelling storytelling voice, her last feature "Eden" is a Playlist fave, and now we have a reason to brush up on our French, as the first international trailer has landed (via Cinemaldito). Read More: Interview: Mia Hanson-Løve Talks 'Eden,' Daft Punk, French Disco And Her Next Film 'The Future' Starring Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and Sarah Le Picard, the film follows a fifty-year-old philosophy teacher grappling with the death of her mother, getting fired from her job, and a husband who is cheating on her. Here's the official synopsis from Berlin.  Nathalie teaches philosophy at a high school in Paris. She is passionate about her job and particularly enjoys passing on the pleasure of thinking.

After crafting one of the finest films of last year, it’s safe to say expectations are high for Mia Hansen-Løve‘s Things to Come, particularly considering she’s teaming with one of the finest actresses in cinema, Isabelle Huppert. Shifting away from capturing youth in Eden, her latest drama follows a woman who must figure out life after her husband leaves.

Set to premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival this weekend, its first pair of clips have now arrived, each of which seem to have come from an early portion of the film — so if you’re concerned about getting spoiled, fear not. Ahead of our review, check out the clips below (and see one with subtitles here), along with new images and the official Berlin description for the film also starring André Marcon, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob, and Sarah Le Picard.

Update: See the first trailer below.

Things to Come

Director: Mia Hansen-Løve

Writer: Mia Hansen-Løve

With four features under her belt, French director Mia Hansen-Løve has become a prolific auteur, following the success of titles such as The Father of My Children (2009), Goodbye First Love (2011) and Eden (2014). For her latest feature, she’s tapped Isabelle Huppert to star in Things to Come (formerly known as L’avenir), where in the prolific actress stars as Nathalie, a philosophy professor who has been married for years to a man in the same profession. One day, her husband announces his love for a younger woman and his plans to move in her with, while Nathalie’s mother dies in the same timeframe. Love’s intention, as indicated by the original title, was an ironic commentary about a woman forced to start a new, unexpected life while heading into her last decades. Of note, Huppert starred as Love’s mother...

As if new films from the Coens and Jeff Nichols weren’t enough, the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has further expanded their line-up, adding some of our most-anticipated films of the year. Mia Hansen-Løve, following up her incredible, sadly overlooked drama Eden, will premiere the Isabelle Huppert-led Things to Come, while Thomas Vinterberg, Lav Diaz, André Téchiné, and many more will stop by with their new features. Check out the new additions below, followed by some previously announced films, notably John Michael McDonagh‘s War on Everyone.

Competition

Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)

Portugal

By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)

With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova

World premiere

Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)

Iran

By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)

With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol

International premiere

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary

Italy / France

By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...

Following last month's announcement that Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's Hail, Caesar! would be opening its 66th edition (February 11 through 21), the Berlinale then added five more titles to the Competition lineup. Today, the festival adds nine more. Among them: Mia Hansen-Løve's Things to Come with Isabelle Huppert, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and André Marcon; Lav Diaz's A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery; Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune with Trine Dyrholm; Danis Tanović's Death in Sarajevo; and André Téchiné's Being 17 with Sandrine Kiberlain. » - David Hudson...

Following last month's announcement that Joel Coen and Ethan Coen's Hail, Caesar! would be opening its 66th edition (February 11 through 21), the Berlinale then added five more titles to the Competition lineup. Today, the festival adds nine more. Among them: Mia Hansen-Løve's Things to Come with Isabelle Huppert, Roman Kolinka, Edith Scob and André Marcon; Lav Diaz's A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery; Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune with Trine Dyrholm; Danis Tanović's Death in Sarajevo; and André Téchiné's Being 17 with Sandrine Kiberlain. » - David Hudson...

New titles from Thomas Vinterberg, Mia Hansen-Løve, Danis Tanovic, Lav Diaz and Gianfranco Rosi among line-up.Scroll down for full list

Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has added nine titles to its Competition line-up, bringing the current total to 14 (the full Competition programme will be announced soon, according to the fest).

The new additions include The Commune, marking the first time Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt, Far From The Madding Crowd) has been in Competition at Berlin since Submarino in 2010. The film centres on a Danish commune in the 1970s and will be released in Denmark this weekend (Jan 14).

French director Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden) has been selected with her drama Things to Come, starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman embarking on a new life after her husband leaves her for another woman. The film will world premiere at Berlin.

Another world premiere will be documentary Fire at Sea, capturing life on...

Halloween doesn’t have to be over once the last trick-or-treater has crept back into the shadows of the night. You may still be possessed by the spirit of the holiday and in desperate need of some real scares. In an effort to address that need and help you find a choice that goes beyond the usual iconography of the season, I’ve picked three titles that may not immediately jump to mind when it comes to autumn-tinged chills and terror. They are not self-consciously seasonal choices, like John Carpenter’s Halloween or Michael Dougherty’s 2007 anthology Trick ‘R Treat, both excellent choices for cinematic fear on the pumpkin circuit. Two of them rely more on mood, creeping dread, an insinuating style and, dare I say, even a poetic approach to storytelling than the usual Samhain-appropriate fare. And one has an inexplicably bad reputation in the halls of conventional wisdom,...

Special Mention: Werckmeister Harmonies

Directed by Bela Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky

Written by László Krasznahorkai and Bela Tarr

2000, Hungary / Italy / Germany

Genre: Emotional Horror

Bela Tarr is a filmmaker whose work is a highly acquired taste, but as a metaphysical horror story, Werckmeister Harmonies is an utter masterpiece that should appeal to most cinephiles. The film title refers to the 17th-century German organist-composer Andreas Werckmeister, esteemed for his influential structure and harmony of music. Harmonies is strung together like a magnificent symphony working on the viewer’s emotions over long stretches of time even when the viewer is unaware of what’s going on. Attempting to make sense of Tarr’s movies in strict narrative terms is not the best way to go about watching his films; but regardless if you come away understanding Harmonies or not, you won’t soon forget the film. Harmonies is a technical triumph, shot...

Here we are at what is a surprisingly modern list. At the beginning of this, I didn’t expect to see so much cultural impact coming from films so recently made, but that’s the way it goes. The films that define the horror genre aren’t necessarily the scariest or the most expensive or even the best. The films that define the genre point to a movement – movies that changed the game and influenced all the films after it. Movies that transcend the horror genre. Movies that broke the mold and changed the way horror can be created.

10. El laberinto del fauno (2006)

English Language Title: Pan’s Labyrinth

Directed by: Gullermo del Toro

It’s more a dark fantasy film than a horror film, but it would be tough to make a list of 50 of those. Plus, it has enough graphic, nightmarish images to push it over the threshold.

Exclusive: Drama starring Isabelle Huppert due to shoot this June.

Les Films du Losange has taken on sales of Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things to Come (L’Avenir), starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman embarking on a new life after her husband leaves her for another woman.

“We’ll kick off sales at Cannes on the back of the script. The film is due to shoot in Paris in June,” said Les Films du Losange head of sales Agathe Valentin.

Huppert stars as Nathalie, a settled philosophy teacher who has been married for years to Heinz, with whom she has two grown-up children. They stay together out of habit and common intellectual pursuits – he also teaches philosophy — rather than for love.

But one day Heinz announces he has fallen for another woman and moves out. At the same time, Nathalie’s possessive, time-consuming mother passes away. As the summer holidays loom, Nathalie is staring...

Top 100 horror movies of all time: Chicago Film Critics' choices (photo: Sigourney Weaver and Alien creature show us that life is less horrific if you don't hold grudges) See previous post: A look at the Chicago Film Critics Association's Scariest Movies Ever Made. Below is the list of the Chicago Film Critics's Top 100 Horror Movies of All Time, including their directors and key cast members. Note: this list was first published in October 2006. (See also: Fay Wray, Lee Patrick, and Mary Philbin among the "Top Ten Scream Queens.") 1. Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock; with Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, Martin Balsam. 2. The Exorcist (1973) William Friedkin; with Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow (and the voice of Mercedes McCambridge). 3. Halloween (1978) John Carpenter; with Jamie Lee Curtis, Donald Pleasence, Tony Moran. 4. Alien (1979) Ridley Scott; with Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt. 5. Night of the Living Dead (1968) George A. Romero; with Marilyn Eastman,...

30. Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)

Directed by: Jan Švankmajer

We’ve already seen two films from Jan Švankmajeron the list, but this elaborate movie about a number of separate, but connected people takes the cake. Conspirators of Pleasure follows six people, each with their own incredibly unsettling fetish. A letter carrier ingests dough balls every night before bed. A clerk is obsessed with a new anchor and creates a machine that pleasure him while he watches her. That anchorwoman has an odd obsession with live carp. One customer of the clerk’s practice paper mâché voodoo with a chicken costume and a doll resembling his neighbor. The neighbor has a doll of him that she brutalizes. Finally, the anchormwoman’s husband rubs homemade contraptions to rub all over his body. Conspirators could simply be a character study that, while still strange, would not be nearly as creepy. Švankmajer’s known for his animation and puppetry,...

Here we are at what is a surprisingly modern list. At the beginning of this, I didn’t expect to see so much cultural impact coming from films so recently made, but that’s the way it goes. The films that define the horror genre aren’t necessarily the scariest or the most expensive or even the best. The films that define the genre point to a movement – movies that changed the game and influenced all the films after it. Movies that transcend the horror genre. Movies that broke the mold and changed the way horror can be created.

10. El laberinto del fauno (2006)

English Language Title: Pan’s Labyrinth

Directed by: Gullermo del Toro

It’s more a dark fantasy film than a horror film, but it would be tough to make a list of 50 of those. Plus, it has enough graphic, nightmarish images to push it over the threshold.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Criterion has released a true oddity: a French horror film from 1960 by director Georges Franju titled Eyes Without a Face. The B&W film was notable in its day for being a rare excursion into a genre that most New Wave French filmmakers had studiously avoided. The intriguing plot centers on Dr. Genessier (Pierre Brasseur), a notable plastic surgeon who is pioneering breakthrough methods of reconstructing the faces of people who have suffered grievous injuries and disfigurements. On the surface, Genessier follows the norms of traditional medical research: publishing papers and giving lectures relating to his findings. However, the painstaking process of getting formal acceptance and  approval of new medical theories is not for him. He has an urgent need to pursue his theories outside of accepted medical practices. His daughter Christiana (Edit Scob) was severely injured in a car crash that he was responsible for. Wracked by guilt,...

The Tfh Grab Bag! kicks off at Trailers from Hell, with director Brian Trenchard-Smith introducing Leos Carax's neon mystery tour through Paris, "Holy Motors," with a shape-shifting Denis Lavant at its center.Dream logic rules the day in Leos Carax’ multi-layered film in which a mysterious man is shepherded about Paris in a stretch limo where he assumes a different disguise at each stop. Released to enormous critical acclaim in 2012, the film stars Lavant with legendary french actors Edith Scob (Eyes Without a Face) as the limo driver and Michel Piccoli (La Grande Bouffe) as her occasional consort.

‘Cahiers du Cinéma’ Top Ten Films of 2013: Gay erotic thriller ‘Stranger by the Lake,’ Girls Gone Wild thriller ‘Spring Breakers’ are top picks (image: ‘Stranger by the Lake’ poster) We’ve begun updating our posts featuring end-of-the-year awards season winners and nominees, in addition to various Top Ten lists. So, below you’ll find the top ten films of 2013 according to the iconic French magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, which announced its selections in late November. Now, what was Cahiers du Cinéma‘s top movie of 2013? The answer is Alain Guiraudie’s gay erotic thriller Stranger by the Lake / L’inconnu du lac, about a young man (Pierre de Ladonchamps) who falls in lust with a suspected murderer (Christophe Paou). Back in the spring, Stranger by the Lake won the Queer Palm at the Cannes Film Festival. ‘Cahiers du Cinéma’ top ten list: Several curious picks The Cahiers du Cinéma...