News

"We will unravel the mystery of the Male Masters...!" Samuel Goldwyn Films has debuted a new official Us trailer for the French animated film titled Dilili In Paris, which won France's major César Award for Best Animated Film last year. This premiered at the Annecy Film Festival last summer, and is finally arriving in the Us after a year of playing at other festivals all around the world. The film is animated in a distinct style without any shading, only solid colors and certain tracing elements in the characters. In Belle Époque Paris, accompanied by a young scooter deliveryman, little Kanak Dilili investigates mysterious kidnappings of girls. Featuring the voices of Prunelle Charles-Ambron, Enzo Ratsito, and Natalie Dessay as Emma Calvé in the original, French-language version. Though it will also be released with an English dub in the Us (as heard in this trailer). This reminds me a bit of Midnight in Paris,...

In today’s film news roundup, J.K. Simmons’ “I’m Not Here” and French animated movie “Dilili in Paris” get releases and Andrea Friedman nabs a film role.

Acquisitions

Gravitas Ventures has acquired worldwide rights to the J.K. Simmons drama “I’m Not Here” for a March 8 release, Variety has learned exclusively.

The film also stars Sebastian Stan, Maika Monroe, Mandy Moore, and Max Greenfield. It’s directed by Michelle Schumacher, who wrote the film alongside Tony Cummings.

Simmons portrays a man haunted by his past as every object in his home, every sound he hears, reminds him of a specific event in his life as he attempts to move past the pain and forgive his trespassers, and more importantly, forgive himself.

Schumacher said, “Tony and I wanted to explore the idea of understanding one’s life by connecting the dots of meaningful events and viewing them through the lens of quantum mechanics.

Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired U.S. rights to Michel Ocelot’s animated Dilili in Paris, which is part of Sgf’s plan to expand into distributing more family entertainment films. A 2019 theatrical release is in the works.

Dilili centers on a young girl who becomes caught up in a mystery plot that will take her through the upper reaches and lower depths of Belle Époque-era Paris. In the course of her investigation, she visits incredible places and encounters a series of extraordinary characters, each providing her with clues that will help in her quest to save the women of Paris. Prunelle Charles-Ambron, Enzo Ratsito and Natalie Dessay voice the cast.

Ocelot, whose credits include the animated Kirikou and the Sorceress, Princes and Princesses and Azur & Asmar: The Princes’ Quest, wrote and directed Dilili, which opened the 2018 Annecy animation festival, bowed in French theaters last fall and was nominated for a César Award.

In the wake of the terrible attacks in Paris, I found myself listening to a lot of French music and thinking about the Leonard Bernstein quote going around on Facebook: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." This list came to seem like my natural response. A very small response, I know. This list is chronological and leaves off people I should probably include. The forty [note: now forty-one] composers listed below are merely a start.

Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...

After the sumptuous promise of the rousing La Traviata (The Strayed Woman) operatic music filling the senses, the second thought that springs to mind when beginning to watch this docu-opera is, why is Pierre from Channel 4’s creepy The Returned taking time out from harbouring zombies to masquerading as a theatre/opera director? It throws you just for a second; is it actually a fictional recreation on offer?

The truth is, French actor Jean-François Sivadier has more strings to his bow, and film director Philippe Béziat’s intriguing (but equally frustrating) behind-the-scenes look at getting a production of Verdi’s famous opera off the ground is in fact directed by Sivadier who has a list of theatre credits as a ‘metteur en scène’ (stage director) for at least three other operas.

The story of La Traviata (in three acts) – originally named Violetta after the lead character (played by Met...

The summer heats up as The Metropolitan Opera and Ncm Fathom Events once again present the fifth year of Summer HD Encores, a series of encore performances from the groundbreaking Live in HD series, in nearly 400 select U.S. cinemas nationwide including five theaters in St. Louis.

The Summer HD Encore series has one event remaining:

Verdi’s “La Traviata” - July 17

Natalie Dessay stars as Verdi’s most beloved heroine in Willy Decker’s stunning production, first seen at The Met in 2010. Matthew Polenzani is her lover, Alfredo, and Dimitri Hvorostovsky sings his stern father, Germont. Met Principal Conductor Fabio Luisi is on the podium. Fabio Luisi conducts.

This performance was originally transmitted live on Saturday, April 14, 2012.

Running times are approximate, and theaters are subject to change.

Tickets for The Met: Live in HD Summer 2013 Encores, are available at www.FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices.

The...

"A great singer, chandeliers, champagne, and costumes—we see this at a distance," Jean-François Sivadier says deep into Becoming Traviata, a spare and ravishing doc that positions viewers in the rehearsal room in the weeks leading up to his minimalist production of Verdi's La Traviata. Sivadier is encouraging his star, Natalie Dessay, before a gutsy, scraping-out-the-soul performance of "È Strano" on a stage stripped of the usual operatic extravagance. His vision—shared by the film's director, Philippe Béziat—is of that distance obliterated, of arias and singers and feelings laid bare. Dessay, as much a trouper as she is a brilliant vocalist, puts her head in her hands and then digs deep, pulling from herself a bruised and gorgeous l...

Director Philippe Béziat brings La Traviata to the screen with Jean-François Sivadier’s Aix-en-Provence production, broken down to its essence, with an intimate portrait of the fiery soprano Natalie Dessay. There are no elaborate sets here, no ornate costuming, powdered faces or lipstick, with the beauty of Becoming Traviata resting in Béziat’s ability to lay bare the creative process while preserving the emotive power of Dessay’s magnificent voice, as well as the story of Verdi’s classic nineteenth century opera. Becoming Traviata is a beautiful documentary that begins with shots of an outdoor theater, the gathering of patrons, a rainy day, and stage craftsmen at work. We move inside, greeted by a stark studio that will soon come to life with the voice of Ms. Dessay as Violetta, our doomed courtesan. Dessay’s frenetic movements cause dizziness, her voice creating a heightened emotional state that leaves one in a joyful paralysis of sorts.

Becoming Traviata is not La Traviata, nor should it be. It isn’t a concert documentary. It is about the creation of a single instance of the opera, specifically the 2011 production at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, directed by Jean-François Sivadier and starring Natalie Dessay. A documentary about the creation of a work of art can capture a handful of its greatest moments, but cannot replicate the impact of experiencing the work itself. The film’s director, Philippe Béziat, understands this. Rather than try to capture every facet of this production from start to finish Becoming Traviata focuses on Dessay’s transformation into the protagonist, the courtesan Violetta Valéry. All of this might seem a little much for someone who isn’t entirely familiar with opera in general, or La Traviata in particular. That’s fair, and this film will certainly be more immediately appealing to cognoscenti. Yet Béziat has not made a film solely for its built-in audience...

The Emmy® and Peabody award-winning “The Met: Live in HD” series is concluding it’s seventh season. Featuring 12 live operas from the Metropolitan Opera’s over the 2012-13 season, the final one is the broadcast of Handel’s Giulio Cesare. It will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 11:00 Am Et in the St. Louis area.

Wamg invites you to enter to win tickets to see Handel’s Giulio Cesare. We have one pair of tickets – Good For Two – to this event. Tickets are good at the AMC Chesterfield 14 and will be mailed.

To Qualify:

1. You Must Be In The St. Louis Area On Saturday.

2. Send Your Full Name To michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com .

3. Winners Will Be Chosen Through A Random Drawing Of Qualifying Contestants. No Purchase Necessary.

Handel’s Giulio Cesare - New Production

Saturday, April 27, 2013 (12:00Pm Et / 9:00Am Pt)

Expected Running Time:...

If you’re an opera fan, you might really get a kick out of documentary “Becoming Traviata.” The trailer for the film has been released, and from what I can tell about the documentary, it seems like it’ll give fans an up-close look at what it takes to put on a magnificent performance of one of Verdi’s great works. Check it out below the post! “Becoming Traviata,” distributed by Distrib Films, is directed by Philippe Béziat and stars Natalie Dessay, Jean-Francois Sivadier, Louis Langrée. The film will premiere at Film Forum in New York May 15 and in Los Angeles May 24. Go to Distrib Film’s page on “Becoming Traviata” and [ Read More ]

The post Trailer For Becoming Traviata Gives Inside Look At Staging Opera appeared first on Shockya.com.

One week prior to the March 26th announcement of the full line up of films in competition for the Col•Coa Awards 2013, the annual French film festival in Hollywood reveals a little more of its program for the 17th edition, taking place from April 15-22 in the Directors Guild of America complex.

International Premiere Of Duo Nakache/Toledano’S New Film At Col•Coa

One year after the success of Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s The Intouchables at Col•Coa (Col•Coa Audience Award, Col•Coa Lafca Critics Award 2012), they produced the new short film Clean, directed by Benjamin Bouhana,

starring Laurent Lafitte, which will open the festival and the short films competition on April 15.

Line Up Confirmed For The Col•Coa Short Film Award 2013 Competition

Nineteen new short films will compete for the Col•Coa Awards:

505G, written and directed by Jérémy Azencott

75 Canaries, written and directed by Philippe Prouff

À la française, co-written and co-directed by Morrigane Boyer, Julien Hazebroucq, Ren-Hsien Hsu, Emmanuelle Leleu, William Lorton

Clay, written and directed by Michaël Guerraz

Just Before Losing Everything, written and directed by from Xavier Legrand

Bella B., written and directed by Jan-Luck Levasseur

Bet She’an, written and directed by Julien Soler

Bad Toys II, written and directed by Daniel Brunet et Nicolas Douste

Clean, co-written and co-directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano

Come What May, co-written and co-directed by Maxime Feyers et Mathieu Bergeron

Fragments of a standstill trip, written and directed by Lionel Mougin

Fuck U.K., written and directed by Benoît Forgeard

The Inn, written and directed by Izú Troin

The Lizards, written and directed by Vincent Mariette

Kiki of Montparnasse, written and directed by Amélie Harrault

My Sweetheart, written and directed by Daniel Metge

Leaving, written and directed by Joanna Lurie

Time 2 Split, written and directed by Fabrice Bracq

City of Light, written and directed Pascal Tessaud

Col•Coa.doc: French Documentary In The Spotlight In Hollywood

Three films will round up the documentary section at Col•Coa 2013:

- The Sons of Wind (Les Fils du Vent) directed by Bruno Le Blanc, produced by Les Films du Veyrier. The documentary about the followers or spiritual sons of guitarist Django Reinhardt will be presented at Col•Coa as a North American Premiere.

- Becoming Traviata (La Traviata et nous) written and directed by Philippe Béziat, produced by Les Films Pelléas. A mise en scene look at the modern staging of Verdi’s opera La Traviata in Aix-en-Provence with internationally acclaimed soprano Natalie Dessay will be showing at Col•Coa as a four-month tour of Natalie Dessay starts in the U.S. Distrib Films will distribute the film in the U.S..

- The Invisibles (Les Invisibles) directed by Sébastien Lifshitz, produced by Zadig Films. Taking home the Best Documentary César for 2013, eight months after its official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, The Invisibles traces the evolution of French society from the post-war years to the present from the perspective of homosexual men and women. It will be presented as a U.S. Premiere at Col•Coa. It will be released in the U.S. afterwards by Distrib Films.

These three films will be in competition along side 28 feature films for the Col•Coa Awards 2013.

From April 15 to April 22, 2013, will be the 17th edition of Col•Coa « A Week Of French Film Premieres In Hollywood » in the prestigious theaters of the Directors Guild of America.

Col•Coa was created by the Franco-American Cultural Fund, a unique collaborative effort of the Directors Guild of America, the Motion Picture Association, the Writers Guils of America West, and France’s Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (Sacem). Col•Coa is also supported by France’s Society of Authors, Directors and Producers (L’Arp), the Film and TV Office of the French Embassy in Los Angeles, the Cnc and Unifrance.

For more information: www.colcoa.org...

As we head into March, the Emmy® and Peabody award-winning “The Met: Live in HD” series is in full swing in U.S. cinemas for a seventh season featuring 12 live operas from the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012-13 season.

The next one is the broadcast of Wagner’s Parsifal. It will be presented live for only one day on Saturday, March 2, 2013 at 11:00 Am Et in the St. Louis area.

Wamg invites you to enter to win tickets to see Parsifal This Saturday! We have one pair of tickets – Good For Two – to this event. Tickets are good at the AMC Chesterfield 14 and will be mailed.

To Qualify:

1. You Must Be In The St. Louis Area On Saturday.

2. Send Your Full Name To michelle@wearemoviegeeks.com .

3. Winners Will Be Chosen Through A Random Drawing Of Qualifying Contestants. No Purchase Necessary.

“The Met has assembled about the best Parsifal cast available today…...

The 55th Grammy Awards have arrived, and music's biggest night promises a ton of trophies, and hopefully some great live performances by today's hottest acts. Who has the best record of 2012? How about the year's best new artist? Stick with Zap2it throughout the night, as we continue updating the list of this year's winners!

All of the award categories are below, with the winners in bold.

Record of the Year"Lonely Boy" by The Black Keys"Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)" by Kelly Clarkson"We Are Young" by Fun., featuring Janelle Monáe"Somebody That I Used To Know" by Gotye, featuring Kimbra"Thinkin Bout You" by Frank Ocean"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift

Album of the Year"El Camino" by The Black Keys"Some Nights" by Fun."Babel" by Mumford & Sons"Channel Orange" by Frank Ocean"Blunderbuss" by Jack White

Song of the Year...

There is a section of features in this year’s New York Film Festival entitled “On the Arts.” The focus is music and performance, spread across widely distant genres. Becoming Traviata, a documentary about Natalie Dessay’s first production of the opera in France, doesn’t have much of its soundtrack in common with Punk in Africa. This diversity of subject continues outside of the official “On the Arts” section and into the shorts programs, where there are a handful of truly celebratory films about artists and their work. (Perhaps they should have somehow been jointly packaged with the features.) A Brief History of John Baldessari, A Story for the Modlins, and Up the Valley and Beyond bridge the gap between cinema and the still arts of painting, sculpture, and photography. They’re a motley bunch, two of them charismatic documentaries and the third an eccentric mini-biopic. Yet they have in common a playful sense of style...

You could count me as enthusiastic for this year’s initial New York Film Festival lineup — no, I won’t even bother listing all the auteurs — so hats off to Lincoln Center for making it all the better. In unveiling their Masterworks, Cinema Reflected, On the Arts, and Special Events selection, it’s become evident that 2012 will bring forth a glut of outside-the-lines works.

The most notable of these would be an 8k Lawrence of Arabia restoration; a documentary “preview” from Oliver Stone; Odd Man Out, the follow-up to 2008′s excellent Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired; the acclaimed Kubrick documentary, Room 237; something about Ingmar Bergman & Liv Ullmann; and even The Princess Bride. Talk about something for everybody.

Read the list below:

Masterworks

Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean, 1962, UK/USA)

The screen’s greatest epic returns in a magnificent 8K restoration. A Sony Pictures Repertory release.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand,...

Getty The Bolshoi at the reopening celebration.

Moscow – The curtain at Russia’s Bolshoi Theater opened for the first time in over six years Friday as the country’s beau monde gathered for the storied hall’s grand re-opening after massive restoration.

“The Bolshoi is one of our greatest national brands,” a tuxedo-clad President Dmitry Medvedev said as he welcomed guests to the invitation-only event. Politicians, billionaires, artists and officials walked the red carpet flanked by an honor guard to...

Booing -- an honored tradition you might have thought had disappeared at the Metropolitan Opera as finally as the echoes of bravos past -- is back. Luc Bondy's new Tosca reaped sustained hoots when the director joined the opening night cast at the curtain call a few weeks ago. Mary Zimmerman was resoundingly catcalled as she stepped out to link arms with Natalie Dessay after unveiling last year's La Sonnambula mangling. Not to mention last week's yowling after Daniele Gatti's Aida conducting. No, I'm not about to make a case for booing, though in theory I'm not against it. I sometimes think it's well deserved. What keeps me from supporting it as a response as worthy in certain situations as are applause and the epidemic standing ovation is that often those who've earned the boos...

The Metropolitan Opera presents a free open dress rehearsal on February 27 of Mary Zimmerman's new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula, starring Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Fl?rez. The third in a series of open rehearsals this season supported by Agnes Varis, a managing director of the Met's Board of Directors, and her husband, Karl Leichtman, the dress rehearsal begins Friday, February 27 at 11:00 am; the doors will open at 10:00am.

Natalie Dessay and Juan Diego Fl?rez, who created a sensation last season in La Fille du R?giment, star in a new production of Bellini's La Sonnambula opening March 2, directed by Mary Zimmerman and conducted by Evelino Pid?. Dessay takes the role of the sleepwalker Amina, with Fl?rez as her betrothed Elvino, and Michele Pertusi as the Count who almost ruins their wedding. Performances run through April 3, with Barry Banks singing Elvino at the final performance. Zimmerman returns with the creative team that collaborated on her hit production of Lucia di Lammermoor, which opened the 2007-08 season: Daniel Ostling, set designer; Mara Blumenfeld, costume designer; T.J. Gerckens, lighting designer; and Daniel Pelzig, choreographer.