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Breaking the Ice Review Video — Breaking the Ice (2022) Video Movie Review, a movie directed and written by Clara Stern, and starring Alina Schaller, Judith Altenberger, Wolfgang Bock, Pia Herzegger, and Tobias Samuel Resch. Plot Synopsis Breaking the Ice‘s plot synopsis: “Breaking The Ice, a film that explores what happens when someone with a very [...]

Continue reading: Video Movie Review: Breaking The Ice (2022): An Absorbing Movie that Works Best when its Scenes are off the Ice...

From the very first shots in Clara Stern’s Breaking The Ice (a highlight of the 21st edition of the Tribeca Film Festival) we are seized under the fast-moving spell of the Dragons, a Viennese women’s ice hockey team. Mira (Alina Schaller), the protagonist whose journey the film follows most closely, is the captain. Her family owns a vineyard where she works together with her mother and grandfather (Wolfgang Böck), whose dementia begins to creep into the fibre of everything.

The armour-like uniforms of the sport when shed in the locker room of the Dragons reveal an array of very different women. One of them, Theresa (Judith Altenberger), newly joined the team and from the start it is clear that not-yet-definable sparks are flying between her and Mira. Dynamics shift when one day Mira’s brother Paul (Tobias Samuel...

Clara Stern on Paul (Tobias Samuel Resch) on the bridge chasing after Theresa (Judith Altenberger) and Mira (Alina Schaller) in Breaking the Ice recalling François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim: “I noticed it while editing that we did that.” Photo: Johannes Hoss

Clara Stern’s Breaking The Ice, shot by Johannes Hoss with a score by Benedikt Palier and edited by Matthias Writze, stars Judith Altenberger Alina Schaller Tobias Samuel Resch, Pia Hierzegger (Peter Hengl’s Family Dinner), and Wolfgang Böck. It will be screened later this month in OutfestLA. The director discussed why she has a “big fascination with professional athletes,” her work with the composer and cinematographer, seeing in the editing a resemblance to a scene in François Truffaut’s Jules Et Jim, her Vienna Film Academy connection to Michael Haneke, Barbara Albert, Jessica Hausner, and Marie Kreutzer, where the Dragons come from, and a phone call to her grandmother.

Breaking the Ice Review — Breaking the Ice (2022) Film Review from the 21st Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Clara Stern and starring Alina Schaller, Judith Altenberger, Wolfgang Bock, Pia Herzegger and Tobias Samuel Resch. Conventional sports movies have become mundane and are commonplace in American cinema. No matter how [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Breaking The Ice: Romantic Sports Drama is Better When it’s Off the Ice [Tribeca 2022]...

A minor but affecting character study about buried family trauma, Clara Stern’s feature-length narrative debut “Breaking the Ice” works well as both a sports drama — focusing on an Austrian minor-league women’s hockey team — and a romantic drama. While perhaps too contained within its protagonist’s point of view, Stern’s film is nevertheless an impressive debut.

Read More: Tribeca 2022 Festival Preview: 24 Films & TV Series To Watch

The film follows a mid-20s hockey player, Mira (Alina Schaller), as she goes about trying to balance her athletic career with her duties at her family’s vineyard.

Continue reading ‘Breaking the Ice’ Review: Clara Stern’s Ice Hockey Drama Is A Focused But Minor Character Study [Tribeca] at The Playlist.

Clara Stern’s debut feature “Breaking the Ice,” a drama about the blossoming love between ice-hockey player Mira and her new teammate Theresa, has debuted its trailer. The film will have its world premiere Saturday in the Viewpoints section of the Tribeca Film Festival. Julien Razafindranaly at Films Boutique is handling world sales.

The Austrian film follows on from Stern’s prize-winning short film “Mathias,” about a transgender man’s struggle to find his place in the world. “Mathias” screened at more than 30 festivals, and won best short film at Diagonale – Festival of Austrian Film in 2017, and the Austrian Academy Award for best short film in 2018.

Frédéric Boyer, Tribeca’s artistic director, commented: “She brings that same sensitivity to ‘Breaking the Ice,’ a film that explores what happens when someone with a very rigid approach to life meets their freewheeling opposite.”

Alina Schaller stars as Mira, the heir to an...

Films Boutique has acquired four films set to world premiere at Cannes, including Albert Serra (“The Death of Louis Xiv”)’s “Pacifiction” which will compete in the 75th edition’s Official Selection.

The Berlin-based international sales banner has also acquired rising Morrocan helmer Maryam Touzani (“Adam”)’s “The Blue Caftan” and Costa Rican director Ariel Escalante Meza’s “Domingo and the Mist” which will both play in Un Certain Regard; as well as Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues (“The Ornithologist”)’s “Will-o’-The-Wisp,” set for Directors’ Fortnight.

“Pacifiction” stars Cesar-winning French actor Benoit Magimel (“Peaceful”) as a calculating French government official working in the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. While investigating on a mysterious submarine, he navigates the high end ’establishment,’ and mingles with locals in underground venues.

Serra was last in Cannes with his 2019 feature film “Liberté” which won the jury prize at Un Certain Regard.”‘Pacifiction’ is a...