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Théodore Pellerin is mesmerizing as Simon, a gifted drag queen coming into his own in Montreal’s lively performance scene. Writer-director Sophie Dupuis, collaborating once more with Pellerin, crafts a tender portrait of her protagonist navigating rocky relationships.

We meet Simon delighting audiences with his alter-ego Glory Gore, gliding gracefully across the stage. But challenges await off-stage as he falls for the charming yet volatile Olivier, played by Félix Maritaud with nuanced flair. Just as this new romance takes flight, Simon’s estranged mother Claire, an opera diva, promises a reconnection that proves bittersweet at best.

Dupuis follows her character’s emotional odyssey with empathy and care. Through vivid choreography and costumes, she brings us straight into Simon’s dazzling world of drag while keeping us invested in the messier matters of the heart. Pellerin excels at conveying his character’s vulnerability, radiating warmth even in Simon’s darkest moments of doubt.

With “Solo,” the story of a young drag performer navigating a volatile new relationship, Sophie Dupuis delivers a film every bit as mesmerizing as her main character. Affectionately chronicling the drag world, as well as what happens to its inhabitants when the make-up comes off, the writer-director delivers a visually arresting and emotionally involving story that mercifully pivots more on broader familial and romantic conflicts than the ultraspecific cultural ones of its setting. Nevertheless fully rendering its protagonist’s personal and artistic crises, “Solo” both honors and transcends its subject matter in its widely evocative, deeply affecting character study — while also happening to have an absolutely banging soundtrack.

Théodore Pellerin leads as Simon, the ambitious ingenue among a tight-knit group of drag performers. After a performance of Abba’s “Voulez-Vous” to a rhapsodic crowd, he meets Olivier (Félix Maritaud), a fellow queen who’s slightly older but no less ambitious — and instantly drawn to Simon.

Solo Image: Music Box Films Drag reveals as much as it conceals. A wig, some heels, a pair of lashes, and a bold lip can be as much a revelation as a refuge. In Sophie Dupuis’ glittering character portrait, Solo, a young performer using his drag artistry to build himself...

SoloImage: Music Box Films

Drag reveals as much as it conceals. A wig, some heels, a pair of lashes, and a bold lip can be as much a revelation as a refuge. In Sophie Dupuis’ glittering character portrait, Solo, a young performer using his drag artistry to build himself up...

Before Simon (Théodore Pellerin) struts out on stage every night in his drag regalia, he prepares backstage by lip-syncing to Chaka Khan’s “I’m Every Woman.” His persona, Glory Gore, isn’t fully formed at this point — she’s only been half-painted into existence — but when Chaka belts out the lyrics to her signature anthem, something physically shifts within Simon as he begins to inhabit the words and the woman inside him alike. Although the other drag queens roll their eyes and tease Simon for always playing the same song each night, it’s not long before everyone joins him for a communal singalong that speaks to the uniquely queer connection these queens have bonded through.

Yet “Solo” isn’t so much about belonging as it is the desperate need to belong, and it’s this pain that Simon is forced to work through when his life twists into...

A searing historical drama set in mid-19th century Bologna, and a TIFF award winning coming-of-age story open in limited release. The fascination with female conductors continues in doc Maestra. Netflix starts a small run with Richard Linklater comedy Hit Man. A24’s I Saw TV Glow is steady on under 400 screens. Evil Does Not Exist from Sideshow/Janus Films pops up to 138 runs.

Marco Bellocchio’s Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara, which premiered at Cannes a year ago (see Deadline review) opens in NYC at Film at Lincoln Center and the Quad Cinema, expanding to LA and top 10 markets next week. Based on the true story of a six-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna abducted in 1858 by the all-powerful Catholic Church and its menacing grand inquisitor in the city after a former housekeeper’s dubious claim to have secretly baptized him as a baby.

He was rushed secretly to...

French Canadian director Sophie Dupuis’ third feature, “Solo,” saunters past the usual questions of queer identity and acceptance we often see onscreen.

Instead, her film starring 26-year-old muse Théodore Pellerin dances headlong into the suffocating effects of toxic love, via an art form that’s all about liberation: drag.

The Toronto Film Festival premiere opens with a gorgeous, sinewy rising star of the Montreal drag scene (Pellerin) twirling across the stage to Abba’s “Voulez-Vous,” while the screen goes from black to neon shades of purple. As the scene bleeds into a montage of Simon, now out of drag and dancing under the club lights, the world of “Solo” widens to his fellow queens, his sister Maude (Alice Moreault), and a newbie performer who catches his eye, Oliver (Félix Maritaud). And, for a brief moment, it appears that the carefree Simon is destined to have it all: a passionate romance with the recent French arrival,...

Ever since seeing his stellar performance in Philippe Lesage’s Genesis, it’s been great to see Théodore Pellerin expand his resume with films by Eliza Hittman and Ari Aster. One of his most acclaimed films yet has now arrived with Sophie Dupuis’ Solo, which premiered at TIFF last fall while also picking up the award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Picked up by Music Box Films, it’ll now arrive in New York at IFC Center on May 24 and in Los Angeles at Laemmle Glendale on May 31. Ahead of the release, the new U.S. trailer has arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Simon (Théodore Pellerin) is a rising star in Montreal’s drag scene performing lively disco pop numbers weekly at his local club. Friendly with his fellow drag queens and supported by his sister, who delights in designing increasingly elaborate and beautiful costumes for his act, Simon vibrates...

"You should come to my show." Music Box Films has unveiled the official trailer for a Canadian indie drama titled Solo, the latest creation from Quebecois filmmaker Sophie Dupuis. This is currently set to open in US theaters starting this May, after originally premiering at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival. It also showed at the Oslo/Fusion International Film Festival last fall and a few other fests. An electrifying love story quickly develops when a rising star in the Montreal drag queen scene meets his club's newest performer, but how long can the couple sustain an artistic double act when the solo spotlight beckons? Featuring a star-making performance by Théodore Pellerin along with Félix Maritaud. "Beautifully charting the highs and lows of falling in love and finding oneself in one's art, writer and director Sophie Dupuis' Solo is a passionate feat of character-driven storytelling and visual extravagance, celebrating the drag world...

Twisted queer-drag romance drama “Solo” has the makings of “Passages” meets “Priscilla Queen of the Desert.”

Written and directed by Sophie Dupuis, “Solo” stars Théodore Pellerin and Félix Maritaud as two drag performers whose love affair threatens both of their careers. The feature won Best Canadian Film at TIFF 2023, and is distributed by Music Box Films.

“Solo” is described as “an electrifying love story” that “quickly develops when a rising star in the Montreal drag queen scene meets his club’s newest performer.” Its logline asks: “How long can the couple sustain an artistic double act when the solo spotlight beckons?”

Pellerin plays Simon, a rising star in Montreal’s drag scene best known for performing lively disco pop numbers weekly at his local club. But when he meets new club recruit Oliver (Maritaud), a creative collaboration begins to flow alongside their flourishing romance…that is, until Oliver’s seemingly...

Music Box Films has acquired U.S. distribution rights to “Solo,” Sophie Dupuis’s queer love story of two rising drag performers starring Théodore Pellerin (“Beau Is Afraid) and Félix Maritaud (“120 Bpm”).

The edgy film — which is repped by Snd and premiered at Toronto where it won best Canadian film — follows Simon, a rising star of Montreal drag queen scene, who falls in love with Olivier, the new recruit at the bar where he performs. While Simon believes he is experiencing an electrifying love story with Olivier, a toxic dynamic develops between them. At the same time, Simon’s mother, a famous opera singer, returns to work in the country after 15 years of absence. Fascinated by her, Simon persists in trying to create a bond with her, but in vain. Weakened by the failure of these two impossible relationships, Simon must learn how to find the love he deserves from within.

Some 600 French art and entertainment world figures have signed a “counter-petition” decrying moves to defend iconic actor Gérard Depardieu in the face of multiple accusations of sexual assault and one of rape.

The petition described a recent open letter in support of Depardieu, signed by 56 cinema world celebrities, and French President Emmanuel Macron’s public defense of the actor on a talkshow before Christmas as a slap in the face for all victims of sexual violence.

“It is the sinister and perfect illustration of the world which refuses to let things change,” read the letter posted on the site of investigative news website Mediapart on Friday.

“It is the reversal of roles where the executioner places himself as a victim, with the help of his friends. As always in cases of gender-based and sexual violence against women, the ‘presumption...

The art of drag provides the opportunity to find yourself. That may sound odd considering the objective is typically to make yourself look like somebody else, but that transformation has a magical way of discovering something within yourself you never ever knew was there. Few films understand the power of drag like Sophie Dupuis's "Solo," a radiant and intimate story of queer life and a celebration of the queer community's connection to the art of drag.

Simon owns Montréal nightlife. He's garnered a reputation as one of the premier drag queens of the city, impressing with a tantalizing combination of a tight lipsync, fierce dance moves, and gorgeous fashion-forward outfits, made specially for Simon by his sister. When Simon transforms into Glory Gore, she's unstoppable; in complete command of the stage and audience -- people just can't get enough, cheering her name and soaking in every second of her fiery performances.

Quebec director Sophie Dupuis has found her voice.

So says Theodore Pellerin, the Boy Erased and Beau is Afraid actor who has starred front and center in Dupuis’s three movies to date, Solo being her latest after Chien de Garde (Family First) and Souterrain (Underground).

And she has solid promise to follow Denis Villeneuve and the late Jean-Marc Vallée as one of the top creative voices out of French-speaking Quebec after a coveted gala world premiere on the first weekend of Toronto Film Festival.

“Theodore told me, ‘I think for the first time you were talking about yourself,’ because he knows me and could say that,” Dupuis told The Hollywood Reporter after Pellerin, a close friend and frequent collaborator, read the script for Solo, her gender-bending queer romance drama.

The stylish French language indie has Dupuis’ signature energy and verve onscreen as Pellerin plays Simon, a rising star in the Montreal drag queen scene,...

“Solo,” a stylish queer romance drama directed by Canadian helmer Sophie Dupuis has been boarded by Snd, the film arm of France’s second biggest commercial network M6.

“Solo” is headlined by two up-and-coming talent, Theodore Pellerin and Felix Maritaud (“Bpm (Beats per Minute)”). Snd will launch sales on the project at Cannes Film Market.

The edgy film follows Simon, a rising star of Montreal drag queen scene who is simultaneously facing the disappointment of two impossible loves — one of a passionate but destructive crush with Oliver, and the other of a cold and distant relationship with his mother Claire, who has returned home after a 15-year absence.

“Solo” reteams Dupuis with the production banner Bravo Charlie, which produced her first two critically acclaimed films, “Underground” and “Family First.” Dupuis’s previous film “Underground” was nominated for four Canadian Screen Awards, and won two prizes at Namur International Film Festival.

Drag

Quebecois filmmaker Sophie Dupuis reteams with her muse Théodore Pellerin for her third feature film — a drag queen drama set in the Montreal backdrop that was filmed in February last year. Produced by Bravo Charlie’s Étienne Hansez, the film features supporting players in French thesp Félix Maritaud and veteran actress Anne-Marie Cadieux. Dupuis has rocked the boat with her previous features in Chien de garde (2017) andSouterrain (2020) and has yet to hit an A-list film fest premiere. This might change with this colorful portrait.

Gist: Simon (Pellerin), is a rising star in the world of drag queens.…...

Goran Stolevski’s debut feature You Won’t Be Alone is Australia’s official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Produced by Causeway Films’ Kristina Ceyton and Samantha Jennings, the supernatural horror, set in 19th century Macedonia, stars Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud and Sara Klimoska. It first premiered at […]

The post ‘You Won’t Be Alone’ Australia’s submission for Best International Feature Film Oscar appeared first on If Magazine.

Cinema is such a costly medium that directors have little chance to experiment between features. It’s not like music or painting — relatively low-cost art forms whose practitioners can try new techniques in the secret obscurity of their studios until their bold ideas are ready to be shared. Making movies takes a crew, and equipment, and actors; all of that takes money, which in turn obliges directors to do their R&d in public, on projects that critics can and do hold up to unfair scrutiny.

A few workarounds exist, including commercials and music videos, through which such film artists as David Lynch, Sofia Coppola and Wes Anderson have refined their craft, but if they’re not careful, taking such gigs can look like selling out. This brings us to Gaspar Noé’s 2019 oddity “Lux Æterna,” which is not a film in the conventional sense but a work-for-hire gone awry — although in Noé’s case,...

A film set for a movie about witchcraft takes a psychedelic turn in the official trailer for Lux Æterna, the latest film from Gaspar Noé (Climax).

Written and directed by Gaspar Noé (Climax), Lux Æterna stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Béatrice Dalle, Abbey Lee, Karl Glusman, Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull, and Félix Maritaud.

Yellow Veil Pictures will release the film in New York on May 6th and in Los Angeles on May 13th, followed by a wider theatrical release.

Below, you can check out the trailer for Lux Æterna, and go Here to catch up on our Indie Horror Month 2022 features!

Synopsis: Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg are on a film set telling stories about witches. Technical problems and psychotic outbreaks gradually plunge the shoot into chaos.

[Note: The trailer below contains flashing light that may affect those with photosensitivity epilepsy.]



The post Indie Horror Month 2022: Watch the Trailer for Gaspar Noé’s Lux ÆTERNA appeared first on Daily Dead.

Lux Aeterna Trailer — Gaspar Noé‘s Lux Aeterna (2019) movie trailer has been released by Yellow Veil Pictures. The Lux Aeterna trailer stars Béatrice Dalle, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Abbey Lee, Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull, Clara Deshayes, and Félix Maritaud. Crew Gaspar Noé wrote the screenplay for Lux Aeterna. Jerome Pesnel conducted the film editing for the film. Benoît [...]

Continue reading: Lux Aeterna (2019) Movie Trailer: Béatrice Dalle & Charlotte Gainsbourg’s Witch Tales Become Real in Gaspar Noé’s Film...

The season of Gaspar Noé is upon us. Following Climax, the director’s next two films are now set for back-to-back U.S. releases. Vortex, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival last year, will arrive at the end of the month with the goal to bring you to tears. Then just a week later, his medium-length film Lux Æterna, which also premiered at Cannes (but back in 2019), will arrive in the U.S. beginning at NYC’s Metrograph.

Ahead of the release, the new trailer has arrived for the film that stars Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg on a film set, telling stories about witches. Technical problems and psychotic outbreaks gradually plunge the shoot into chaos, with a cast also including Abbey Lee, Karl Glusman, Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull, and Félix Maritaud.

Watch below.

Lux Æterna opens on May 6 at Metrograph and on May 13 in LA and will expand.

The post U.

"A modern day witch incineration." Yellow Veil Pictures has released a new trailer for this trippy, strange Gasper Noé film Lux Æterna, which is a medium-length feature running only 51 minutes in total. This first premiered in 2019 at the Cannes Film Festival, and Noé's other new film Vortex premiered in 2021 and is also being released in the US this year. Two new Noe films in one year! Two actresses, Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg, are on a film set telling stories about witches - but that's not all. This one gets super crazy (as with most Noe films) in the second half once things to get weird on the set. The cast includes Abbey Lee, Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull, Clara Deshayes, and Félix Maritaud. I did not care for this film when I saw it at Cannes, but Noé fans may flip for it. Or at least find it peculiar enough to enjoy.

“The closing moments of Lux Æterna are such a disturbing outburst of light, color, and 3-D illusions they might make even stereoscopic auteur Ken Jacobs avert his eyes.”– Eric Kohn, IndieWire

Lux ÆTERNA opens in New York on May 6 and LA on May 13, with a National Rollout to Follow.

Here’s a new trailer:

Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg are on a film set telling stories about witches. Technical problems and psychotic outbreaks gradually plunge the shoot into chaos.

Written & Directed By: Gaspar Noé

Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Béatrice Dalle, Abbey Lee (The Neon Demon), Karl Glusman (Love), Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull (Climax) & Félix Maritaud

The post New Trailer Released for Gaspar Noé’s Psychedelic Freakout Lux ÆTERNA Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Béatrice Dalle – Set For Release in May appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.

The month of March will finish with a total box office gross of around 575-580 million, and more than half of that came from The Batman. That practically ties March with last July for the third best month since the beginning of the pandemic (after last October and December), but, beside the Dark Knight, it had little new content, save the late-in-the-month release (3/25) of the Channing Tatum\Sandra Bullock adventure/rom-com, The Lost City, to support it. Most of March's backup bucks came from February’s holdovers. While the month of April lacks a mega-release a la The Batman, it has what March did not, which is a steady supply of solid titles coming out pretty much every week. A few big franchise releases are in store, including new Harry Potter and Sonic the Hedgehog films, and first up is Morbius, the newest entry in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (or...

Noomi Rapace stars as “Bosilka” in director Goran Stolevski’s You Won’T Be Alone, a Focus Features release. Credit: Branko Starcevic / Focus Features

Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, You Won’T Be Alone follows a young girl who is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit. Curious about life as a human, the young witch accidentally kills a peasant in the nearby village and then takes her victim’s shape to live life in her skin. Her curiosity ignited, she continues to wield this horrific power in order to understand what it means to be human.

Focus Features will release You Won’T Be Alone in theaters on April 1, 2022.

An official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, the film stars Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud, Sara Klimoska.

From visionary director Goran Stolevski, watch the brand new trailer.

"Think you're fooling anyone? Dressed in corpses?" Focus Features has revealed a second trailer for the supernatural horror film You Won't Be Alone. This just premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January, and opens in theaters in April. The film is a strange, supernatural horror set in an 1800s isolated Macedonian mountain village. "A young girl is taken from her mother and transformed into a witch by an ancient, shape-shifting spirit. Left to wander feral, the young witch beholds the natural world with curiosity and wonder. After inadvertently killing a villager and assuming her body, she continues to inhabit different people, living among the villagers for years, observing and mimicking their behavior until the ancient spirit returns, bringing them full circle." Noomi Rapace stars, joined by Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud, and Sara Klimoska. I watched this at Sundance and couldn't stand it, a mess of...

Yellow Veil Pictures Has Acquired All North American Rights For Gaspar Noé’s Lux Aeterna. The Saint Laurent Commissioned Film Stars Famed Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg and Béatrice Dalle, Theatrical Release Planned For Later This Year

Yellow Veil Pictures announced today that they have acquired all North American rights to Gaspar Noe’s Lux ÆTERNA and are planning a theatrical release in May, followed later in the year by a full digital and collector’s edition home video release. The film made its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and was later selected for the Tribeca Film Festival prior to cancellation due to the pandemic.

Lux ÆTERNA takes place backstage of a French film production, often utilizing split-screens to follow two characters at once. Charlotte Gainsbourg, acting as herself, plays the film’s — and the film-within-a-film’s — leading role of an actress taking on the role of a witch burned...

Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired all North American rights to Gaspar Noé’s new meta movie “Lux Aeterna.” The studio is planning a theatrical release for the film this spring. “Lux Aeterna” made its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and was later selected for the Tribeca Film Festival prior to its cancellation due to the pandemic.

“Lux Aeterna” unfolds backstage at a French film production and is stylistically daring, in the manner of many of Noé’s movies. It’s shot documentary style and frequently deploys split-screens to follow two characters at once. In a metafictional twist, Charlotte Gainsbourg, acting as herself, plays the film’s — and the film-within-a-film’s — leading role of an actress taking on the role of a witch burned at the stake while French actress Beatrice Dalle, playing a version of herself as well, assumes the on-screen role of director. Slowly the set descends into aggressive chaos,...

You Won’t Be Alone

Treading the waters of short film filmmaking for almost a decade has culminated into the type of big leagues grand entrance that dreams are made of. Australian/Macedonian filmmaker Goran Stolevski‘s feature debut was backed by Focus Features from the getgo. You Won’t Be Alone features an international cast comprised of an international cast of Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud and Sara Klimoska and was produced by The Babadook and The Nightingale producers Kristina Ceyton and Sam Jennings. Filmed in backwoods of Serbia back in December of 2020, Stolevski teamed with Blue Bayou Cinematographer Matthew Chuang – and worth noting – both have already re-teamed on (current filming) sophomore project titled Of An Age.…...

"Am I the devil?" Focus Features has unveiled the first trailer for supernatural horror thriller You Won't Be Alone, from filmmaker Goran Stolevski. This one will be premiering at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival coming up in January, before opening in theaters in April next year. The film is a supernatural horror set in an 1800s isolated Macedonian mountain village. The Sundance synopsis explains better what's going on: "A young girl is taken from her mother and transformed into a witch by an ancient, shape-shifting spirit. Left to wander feral, the young witch beholds the natural world with curiosity and wonder. After inadvertently killing a villager and assuming her body, she continues to inhabit different people, living among the villagers for years, observing and mimicking their behavior until the ancient spirit returns, bringing them full circle." Noomi Rapace stars, joined by Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud, and Sara Klimoska.

Cranking out a ton of short films for over a decade, Australian/Macedonian filmmaker Goran Stolevski saw his 2018 short Would You Look at Her win the Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction at Sundance. Fast forward to 2020, and the filmmaker is backed by Focus Features and the producers for The Babadook and The Nightingale for a project featuring Noomi Rapace, Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta, Félix Maritaud and Sara Klimoska. Filmed in Serbia, the supernatural horror You Won’t Be Alone was just dated by Focus with a January 28th date.

Gist: Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, the film follows a young girl who is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit.…...

The Unkind: "This November, they awaken evil.

Six friends vacationing at a historic mansion release an ancient witch from her slumber, awakening her centuries old thirst for blood.

Tommaso Basili, Taylor Skeens, Corey T. Stewart, Sherine Mazzulli, and Fred Papa star in The Unkind, on VOD platforms November 30 from Wild Eye Releasing."

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Phantom Fun-world: "Jonestown Films has some exciting news about its next horror movie! From director Tory Jones and Executive Producer, Chris Gierowski comes the next greatest amusement park horror movie, Phantom Fun-World!

After meeting its initial Indiegogo crowdfunding goal of $15k in a matter of days, Phantom Fun-World has been climbing the ranks to be one of the most popular film campaigns on the site. Currently, it is almost up to $40k with a little over a week to go.

“We want to take this film to the next level, and we want you along for the ride.

Focus Features is planning a moderate release of You Won’t Be Alone on Friday, January 28, 2022 domestically in theaters.

Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, the film follows a young girl who is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit. Curious about life as a human, the young witch accidentally kills a peasant in the nearby village and then takes her victim’s shape to live life in her skin. Her curiosity ignited, she continues to wield this horrific power in order to understand what it means to be human. The witch will be played by different actors and the film will include an old Macedonian dialect.

The film is directed and written by Goran Stolevski. It stars Noomi Rapace (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), BAFTA-winner Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert (Ratched), Carloto Cotta (Tabu), Félix Maritaud (Sauvage) and...

Social drama revolves around an 11-year-old boy living in a mobile home with his mother on the edge of the woods.

France tv distribution has boarded sales on French director Fabienne Berthaud’s upcoming social drama Little Man Tom and Sylvie Audcoeur’s psychological thriller An Ordinary Mother, starring Karin Viard.

The film and TV sales division of French state broadcaster will introduce both titles to the market at the upcoming EFM (March 1-5).

Little Man Tom is the fifth feature of writer and director Berthaud and follows her 2019 Mongolia-set drama A Bigger World.

It is adapted from the 2017 novel...

Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo), Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta (Tabu) and Félix Maritaud (Sauvage) are among the cast of writer-director Goran Stolevski’s You Won’t Be Alone, which recently wrapped filming in Serbia.

Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, the supernatural horror follows a young witch who is left to go feral in the woods.

Curious about life as a human, she accidentally kills a peasant in the village, then takes her shape to see what life is like in her skin. This ignites her deep-seated curiosity to experience life inside the bodies of others.

The film marks the debut feature for Macedonian-Australian Stolevski, following on from 25 shorts, including Would You Look At Her, winner of Best International Short Film at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Macedonian actress Sara Klimoska, who starred in that project, also reunites with Stolevski for You Won’t Be Alone.

Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “You Won’t Be Alone,” a supernatural horror film that stars “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” actress Noomi Rapace and that just completed filming in Serbia.

“You Won’t Be Alone” is produced by the team that was behind “The Babadook,” and the film is directed by Australian/Macedonian writer and director Goran Stolevski in his feature film debut.

Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, “You Won’t Be Alone” follows a young witch who is left to go feral in the woods. Curious about life as a human, she accidentally kills a peasant in the village, then takes her shape to see what life is like in her skin. This ignites her deep-seated curiosity to experience life inside the bodies of others.

Co-starring in “You Won’t Be Alone” are Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert, Carloto Cotta,...

Exclusive: Focus Features has pre-bought world rights to under-the-radar supernatural-horror You Won’t Be Alone, which will star Noomi Rapace (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo), BAFTA-winner Anamaria Marinca, Alice Englert (Ratched), Carloto Cotta (Tabu), Félix Maritaud (Sauvage) and Sara Klimoska (Milcho Manchevski’s Willow).

Filming has just wrapped in Serbia on the English-language feature which is being made by The Babadook and The Nightingale producer Kristina Ceyton and Cargo producer Sam Jennings.

Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, pic follows a young witch who is left to go feral in the woods. Curious about life as a human, she accidentally kills a peasant in the village, then takes her shape to see what life is like in her skin. This ignites her deep-seated curiosity to experience life inside the bodies of others. The witch will be played by different actors.

The...

With the coronavirus pandemic causing TIFF to go online and reduce their line-up, this year’s Short Cuts programme has been whittled down to 35 films across 5 programmes, a reduction of more than a third compared to last year’s 55 films and 8 programmes. Despite these limitations, programmers Jason Anderson and Lisa Haller have put together a strong lineup for 2020 that should hold more than a few surprises for those willing to check out this year’s lineup.

Having seen most of what this year has to offer, here are 10 films that stand out in a slim but competitive field of short filmmaking. For more coverage from the festival, check out our preview of the most-anticipated features and read our forthcoming reviews here.

4 North A (Jordan Canning, Howie Shia)

(Screening in TIFF Short Cuts Programme 01)

A collaboration between filmmakers Jordan Canning and Howie Shia, 4 North A shows a woman consumed by memories...

The first images from Stephan Streker brand new feature and promo reels for films bearing the names of Kaouther Ben Hania, Rachel Lang and Franka Potente are all set to be unveiled. The international sales division of Parisian group Bac Films will be wagering on seven tantalising titles at the Cannes Film Festival’s Online Marché du Film (unspooling 22-26 June). Most notably joining the line-up is The Enemy, by Belgium’s Stephan Streker,, on which filming wrapped shortly ahead of the health crisis and whose first images are set to be unveiled. Starring in the cast are Belgium’s Jérémie Renier and French actors Alma Jodorowsky, Emmanuelle Bercot and Félix Maritaud, with the story centring around prominent politician Louis Durieux who is accused of killing his wife after she’s...

Stars: Vanessa Paradis, Nicolas Maury, Kate Moran, Jonathan Genet, Félix Maritaud, Khaled Alouach, Noé Hernández, Thibault Servière, Bertrand Mandico, Bastien Waultier, Romane Bohringer, Dourane Fall, Jules Ritmanic | Written by Yann Gonzalez, Cristiano Mangione | Directed by Yann Gonzalez

Knife+Heart (Un couteau dans le cœur) is a French 80s cinematic throwback directed by Yann Gonzalez. The film is set during 1979 in Paris and follows Anna (Vanessa Paradis) a gay porn producer who is recovering from heartbreak with romantic partner Lois (Kate Moran) when a mysterious killer begins to pick off Anne’s male talent one by one.

Variety describes Yann Gonzalez film as “unabashedly queer”, and you could not argue against a single letter in that description. Knife+Heart is incessantly provocative, too much at times, from its neon-lit opening to its apathetic climax. A stylish satirical feature that finds any form of over theatricality intensifies such and indulges to a sickly humorous extent.

For its tenth session, the Brussels regional investment fund is backing the new movie by the Belgian director, which is currently being shot shrouded in the utmost secrecy. For its second session of 2019, the screen.brussels fund has accepted 12 projects, seven of which are being fully funded in Belgium. Among the projects are five features, three TV series, two documentary series, one webseries and one batch of short films. One of the features being supported is the new film by Stephan Streker. Much like he did in A Wedding, the Brussels-born director is taking on a news story that hit the headlines in his home country – hence the utmost secrecy surrounding the shoot. What we do know is that the cast includes Belgian actor Jérémie Renier, Alma Jodorowsky, actress-director Emmanuelle Bercot and Félix Maritaud. The movie, which will supposedly be entitled Enfant Terrible, is being produced by Daylight...

Ever since Gaspar Noé cranked up his ambition with “Enter the Void” 10 years ago, the filmmaker has divided audiences with unruly, disorienting filmmaking techniques. Frames blink in and out, cameras float and speed through unexpected spaces, and neon palettes pulsate. His recent spate of movies often yield overwhelming experiences closer to the visceral terrain of avant-garde cinema than the narrative traditions he roots within the mayhem. His style can be a mixed bag of visual provocations, but his showmanship remains admirable for its bold swings each time out.

It’s hard to imagine that Noé could serve any master other than himself, and it comes as no great surprise that his recent assignment to make a 15-minute commercial for Yves Saint Laurent went awry when Noé turned it into his own weird thing: “Lux Æterna,” a 50-minute psychedelic mockumentary about a film shoot gone wrong, distills Noé’s talents to a more palatable serving size.

In the opening scene of “Sauvage/Wild,” a routine check-up turns suspect when a doctor offers to relieve his patient’s tension down below. After a hurried hand job, money changes hands, revealing the true nature of the interaction. Before parting, the customer asks for a kiss. “Next time,” replies Léo, (though his name is rarely mentioned), embodied with a balance of rough-around-the-edges swagger and childlike vulnerability by Félix Maritaud (“Bpm”). Aside from one night snuggled up to a lonely old man, this is one of the mildest interactions in the film.

Léo’s days are comprised of one sordid, desperate chapter after the next, with very little respite. He follows around a fellow hustler like a puppy dog, and the man returns his affections with a punch to the face. Léo’s health is deteriorating, some rough clients stiff him, and he’s happiest when he’s smoking meth.

You’re looking for real intimacy and you couldn’t pick a worse place to find it. Not if you’re the gay male hustler driving the plot of Sauvage/Wild, the raw and riveting debut feature from French writer-director Camille Vidal-Naquet.

“My name is whatever you want it to be,” this unnamed, unwashed wild child tells the tricks who use him as a piece of meat. He gets paid for it, after all. In interviews, Vidal-Naquet refers to this achingly vulnerable soul as Leo. And yet the homeless Leo,...

There have been quite a few high-quality American films about male prostitution, from John Schlesinger’s Oscar-winning “Midnight Cowboy” to Gus Van Sant’s “My Own Private Idaho” and Gregg Araki’s “Mysterious Skin,” and from France there has been Patrice Chéreau’s “L’Homme blessé,” and several films from André Téchiné, most notably “J’embrasse pas,” which translates as “I Don’t Kiss.”

Camille Vidal-Naquet’s first feature “Sauvage/Wild” is very much in the Téchiné tradition of “J’embrasse pas,” and the subject of kissing or not kissing is actually central to the narrative. What’s most impressive about this film is the intricacy of Naquet’s screenplay, which plays out in a series of subtly mirroring episodes that follow the life of Leo, a 22-year-old street kid played by Félix Maritaud, who made an impression on screen in “Bpm (Beats Per Minute)” and carries this movie almost singlehandedly.

Leo (Félix Maritaud) never counts his money after he’s with a client. The gay sex worker at the center of Camille Vidal-Naquet’s film Sauvage/Wild is, honestly, happy to be there. Drifting from client to client and from place to place, the homeless hustler has one constant that is quickly disappearing: his unrequited feelings for fellow hustler (though “gay 4 pay”), Ahd (Éric Bernard). Leo’s intense yearning for human connection and affection, mixed with his somewhat paradoxical disinclination to be “kept” in a (facile) domestic situation, and ailing body but unrelenting spirit, are reminiscent of Giulietta Masina in Federico Fellini’s Nights […]...

Leo (Félix Maritaud) never counts his money after he’s with a client. The gay sex worker at the center of Camille Vidal-Naquet’s film Sauvage/Wild is, honestly, happy to be there. Drifting from client to client and from place to place, the homeless hustler has one constant that is quickly disappearing: his unrequited feelings for fellow hustler (though “gay 4 pay”), Ahd (Éric Bernard). Leo’s intense yearning for human connection and affection, mixed with his somewhat paradoxical disinclination to be “kept” in a (facile) domestic situation, and ailing body but unrelenting spirit, are reminiscent of Giulietta Masina in Federico Fellini’s Nights […]...

There have been any number of films about lonely men who fall in love with a prostitute, but Camille Vidal-Naquet’s raw and visceral “Sauvage / Wild” is the rare film about a prostitute who falls in love with another man. But Leo can’t afford to be stingy with his affections; he’s driven by an insatiable and undiscriminating desire for intimacy.

An untethered 22-year-old sex worker who lives on the streets of Strasbourg, and is ferally embodied by Félix Maritaud (who played a supporting role in the bracing “Bpm”), Leo doesn’t care about money or moving up in the world, nor does he resent his clients the way that some of his fellow sex workers do. In fact, he seems to lack any natural ability to separate feeling from fucking, and he needs as much from his johns as his johns need from him. When Leo offers to...

SauvageNew Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf) returns to the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art for its 48th edition, and once again proves that for New Yorkers it’s the key festival to discover an exciting new crop of young filmmakers, most of them presenting debut or second features. The program includes some movies previously covered on Notebook: Sofia Bohdanowicz’s Ms Slavic 7, Peter Parlow’s The Plagiarists, and Mark Jenkin’s Bait (Berlin Film Festival premieres), Andrea Bussmann’s Fausto (Locarno Festival), Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s Manta Ray (Venice), Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load (Directors' Fortnight), and Eva Torbisch’s All Is Good (Locarno). While diverse, overall, this year’s slate is thoughtful and yet agile, with films that invite both risk and ambiguity.Not since Agnès Varda’s Vagabond (1985) has there been a film in which the main character drifts into willful dissolution with as...

Sauvage/Wild opens with a gay hustler in a doctor’s office. As he discusses his ill health—his cough, his odd stomach pains—the camera, like the examiner’s hands, passes carefully over the bruises on his ribcage, his abdomen, down over his groin. Such frank corporeality is familiar from other gay films which seek to expose and honor the wounds society inscribes onto vulnerable bodies—Sauvage’s star, Félix Maritaud, played one of the Act Up members in 120 Bpm—but then the scene shifts gears, becoming not quite a parody, but certainly an affectionate meta-joke on the ways in which the serious-minded and erotic prerogatives of queer cinema elide into each other.

It’s the wittiest moment in a film which frequently falls back on contrived, conventional storytelling at odds its with its body-and-soul immersion into the physical and emotional toll of life on the game. One is...