CONTENTS Page 3 Page 4-11
Editorial Water and Sugar A look at the life and work of Italian cinematographer, Carlo Di Palma.
Page 12-15
Wind River An FBI agent teams with a town’s veteran game tracker to investigate a murder on a Native American Reservation.
Page 16-19
Journey Through French Cinema Bertrand Tavernier’s personal journey through French Cinema from films he enjoyed as a boy to his own early career told through top creative figures.
Page 20-23
The Odyssey Highly influential and a fearlessly ambitious pioneer, Jacques Cousteau’s aquatic adventure covers roughly thirty years of an unarguably rich in achievements life.
Page 24-30
FilmFest Follower – Toronto
Page 31
Extras – DVD – Their Finest
Page 32
Poster: Water and Sugar
PHOTO CREDITS: CineFinance: 1,4,6,7,8,10,11,32 Falkun Films: 1,4,6,7,8,10,11,32 STX ENTERTAINMENT: 12,14,15 STUDIO CANAL: 16,18,19 ALTITUDE FILM ENTERTAINMENT: 20,22,23
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We would like to thank the following. Faduma Mohammed @premiercomms.com Marine Monnier @premiercomms.com
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EDITORIAL The train of thought arriving on platform one is the Dreamland Express for discerning cinemagoers and filmmakers. For the first time, this month’s cover feature review looks at a documentary which is a tribute to the art of cinematography and one such master of his craft – Carlo Di Palma. It is a cinematic homage by Di Palma’s widow, Adriana Chiesa, and the film: Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life, shows how he managed to convey the feelings of characters through the eye of the lens and the photographer’s palette of vibrant colours. The film had a limited theatrical release but will be available on DVD towards the end of the year. As mentioned last month, we are into the film festival seasons; Venice is on now, Toronto is this month and you will find its exciting programme inside, and as I write this, I reflect on this year’s 61st British Film Institute’s London Film Festival programme which was launched this morning. The festival runs from 4-5 October and in a packed auditorium of filmmakers and film critics at the Odeon Leicester Square, we were shown clips of the festival’s films. Opening with Andy Serkis’s Breathe and closing with Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Sandwiched between these films are a wide range of features which will whet most cinephile’s appetite. Here is a sample of what to expect from the bulging programme: Battle of the Sexes, Downsizing, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Shape of Water, You Were Never Really Here, The Florida Project, On Chesil Beach, Redoubtable, Wonderstruck, Happy End, Lean On Pete, Loveless, Columbus, Faces Places, April’s Daughter, Racer And The Jailbird, My Generation, Lucky, The Rider, Filmworker, Manifesto and Loving Vincent. The November issue of MbM will be a special London Film Festival edition. In this current issue, as always, there are the regular features and film reviews.
Enjoy the read.
Brian Mills Magazine Editor
Paul Ridler Magazine Designer
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WATER AND SUGAR: CARLO DI PALMA, THE COLOURS OF LIFE Directed by Fariborz Kamkari Featuring: Adriana Chiesa, Wim Wenders, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Lina Wertmuller, Ettore Scola, Alec Baldwin, Woody Allen. He had a great great eye for composition, a great flair for colour, instinctively knew what to do. Whatever he did, looked good. – Woody Allen Carlo’s earliest memories of life was colour because his mother was a flower seller, so he grew up with a natural eye for the beauty of the colours of life. He gained his experience as a camera operator on Italian films, influenced by his father who was a camera operator himself. In 1942, Carlo worked on his first film Romanzo di un giovane povero as a camera operator, but his next was as a focus puller on Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, an Italian classic and a rich experience for Carlo. After the war, there was a great sense of solidarity and that led to a certain kind of cinema. - Ken Loach
It was in 1957 that Carlo Di Palma got his first job as a cinematographer on Di Agostino’s Lauta Mancia. Seven years later he was the director of photography on Michelangelo Antonioni’s Red Desert, the director’s first coloured film, and it was enriched by Carlo’s sense of colour when from the smoky industrial chimneys, it moves to Monica Vitti bathed against a sensuous red background I had to eliminate certain colours and add others to ensure everything had its own will. – Carlo In Blow-Up, again by Antonioni, Carlo explored colours in a film about a cameraman played by David Hemmings. Even in a film which was basically shot inside a photographer’s studio, Di Palma brought out both the character and his model through his own lens. His talent was a blessing and his admirers and collaborators soon were queueing up to pay tribute to his talents and methodology. 4
Carlo was one of these extraordinary greats, we’d say today, who represent continuity. - Bernardo Bertolucci Carlo was attentive to these atmospheres because colour and photography must contain the atmosphere, the soul of the story. Ettore Scola The great great great cinematographers give you a little gift. They remind you it’s an art. We all are here to make art. - Alec Baldwin This treasured documentary compiled by Carlo Di Palma’s widow, Adriana Chiesa, embraces her husband’s exceptional talent as one of the greatest cinematographers of all-time. It also highlights the importance of the collaboration between a film’s director and his director of photography. Woody Allen embraced that and with Carlo took that sense of European Cinema to America. They worked together on Hannah and Her Sisters, Radio Days, September, Alice, Shadows and Fog, Husbands and Wives, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Bullets Over Broadway, Don’t Drink the Water (TV Movie), Mighty Aphrodite, Everyone Says I Love You, Deconstructing Harry. They developed a bond of friendship that Allen has stated was unlike any he had ever known. When working together, they lunched and had dinner every day during the shoot. There is a beautiful travelling shot he devised for the restaurant quarrel scene in Hannah and Her Sisters. In addition to this, look at the intensity of the close-ups of the actors as they seem to look into the very soul of the character being played.
He had the ability to work with whatever light was available. His maxim was la luce, la luce, la luce (light, light, light). Though Di Palma worked many years in New York, he remained intensely Italian, an artisan, a term that includes the word art. There is a beautiful richness of hearing all the comments from directors and admirers: Woody Allen, Ken Loach, Nikita Mikhalkov, Mira Nair, and many more. The other thing the documentary aspires too, particularly to cineastes, is showing the importance of the relationship between the director and the cinematographer as aforementioned. Dating back to Orson Welles and Greg Toland – Citizen Kane, but also Haskell Wexler, an Oscar-winning cinematographer, whose long and illustrious career is a virtual catalogue of 20th century-classics, collaborating with world-class filmmakers as Elia Kazan, America America, Milos Forman, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, George Lucas, as visual consultant on American Graffiti, Hal Ashby on Bound For Glory and Coming Home, Francis Ford Coppola, The Conversation, and Mike Nichols, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Like Di Palma, Emmanuel Lubezki is a visual voyeur and has been the chosen DP on five of Terrence Malick’s films, a director who gives precedence on the cinematic splendour of telling a film’s story, and in so doing the Mexican cinematographer has been paramount. He started working with Malick on The New World, and followed with The Tree of Life, To The Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Song to Song. For an aspiring cameraman studying the craft of the trade, Lubezki is a perfect example of a master craftsman and a great place to start. Vittorio Storaro has worked with three major film directors: Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola and Woody Allen. For Bertolucci: The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and Little Buddha. 5
Woody Allen and Carlo Di Palma in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life.
Woody Allen and Carlo Di Palma in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life. 6
Bernardo Bertolucci and Carlo Di Palma in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life.
Woody Allen and Carlo Di Palma in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life.
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For Francis Ford Coppola: Apocalypse Now and One From The Heart, the latter probably one of the most underrated films of all-time regarding its visual originality. Apocalypse Now won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Woody Allen always chooses the best of DPS and for Café Society and his latest film, Wonder Wheel, which has just completed, Storaro is the cinematographer. Sven Nkyvist undoubtedly formed the longest working relationship between director of photography and film director when he was the mainstay of the crew on the films of Ingmar Bergman – all memorable movies: Sawdust & Tinsel The Virgin Spring
Through A Glass Darkly Winter Light The Silence All These Women Persona Hour of the Wolf Shame Cries & Whispers Scenes From A Marriage Face to Face The Serpent’s egg Autumn Sonata Fanny & Alexander
Carlo Di Palma
Fifteen films in total, and of those two won him Academy Awards for Best Cinematography: Cries & Whispers and Fanny & Alexander. While Woody Allen first worked with Sven on a segment called Oedipus Wrecks from the omnibus movie, New York Stories. Allen and Nkyvist teamed-up again with him on Crimes & Misdemeanors and Celebrity. Ingmar Bergman also had Gunnar Fischer to call-on and the pair merged their skills on Port of Call, Thirst, Summer Interlude, Waiting Women, Summer With Monika, Smiles of a Summer Night, Wild Strawberries; which won Best Film at the 1958 Berlin Film Festival, The Magician, The Devil’s Eye and the classic masterpiece – The Seventh Seal. One film which stands the test of time for being one of the most beautiful films ever shot is Elvira Madigan, directed by Bo Widerberg, and photographed by Jorgen Persson. I originally saw this magnificent work of art at the Paris Pullman cinema in London’s South Kensington and was then, and still am, in awe of its visually stunning beauty. Widerberg and Persson paired up once more for the luscious Adalen 31. In both these films Widerberg showed his artistic influence from the great French artists, particularly Renoir, because it is like watching a moving gallery of the world’s 8
finest painters and being treated to a therapeutic experience that is totally unmatchable. The Godfather, and Parts 2 & 3, directed by Francis Ford Coppola had Gordon Willis as their DP. Willis was one of America’s most talented craftsman. Savour his genius by how he used colour in these movies and how he worked with Woody Allen in monochrome. Allen & Willis were a team for eight films, from Allen’s first Annie Hall, and then on Interiors, Manhattan, Stardust Memories, A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy, Zelig, Broadway Danny Rose, and The Purple Rose of Cairo. John Toll worked with numerous directors and in almost as many genres, but the one he worked twice with was Cameron Crowe: Almost Famous and Vanilla Sky. It is interesting to note if last year’s Best winner – Linus Sandgren for La La Land and if bond with its director Damien Chazelle on his Man, now in pre-production, and starring Ryan Armstrong.
Cinematography Oscar it will form a future next film The First Gosling as Neil
Joel & Ethan Coen first employed the already legendary Roger Deakins on Barton Fink and have since utilised his expertise in a further eleven movies of various genres: The Hudsucker Proxy, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? The Man Who Wasn’t There, Intolerable Cruelty, The Lady Killers, No Country For Old Men, A Serious Man, True Grit and Hail, Caesar! It is a partnership that is almost certain to continue.
What these examples show is how important to many directors a first -rate cinematographer is to them, for first and foremost a movie is a visual medium but what Carlo Di Palma brought to movies was more than just shooting images, he used colour like no other filmmaker – telling you about the character via the colours he chose – through the background he shot them against, for Carlo realized one very important factor and that was movies are about emotion, the way we feel about the images we are seeing and that is how he used his cinematic art to convey that. Look at the image of Monica Vitti from Red Desert, it speaks loudly about her character without her uttering any dialogue – that was Di Palma’s genius.
This brilliant documentary is a must-see for all students of film and genuine film aficionados. Thank you, Adriana, for gathering all these nostalgic nuggets to honour the memory of your husband. Please make sure that you stay in your seats until the end of the credits, you will see why. The film will be released on DVD on October 9th. Ciao Carlo.
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Michael Caine and Barbara Hershey (Hannah and Her Sisters) in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life.
Carlo Di Palma and Woody Allen in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life. 10
Mia Farrow (Alice) in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life.
Monica Vitti (Red Desert) in Water And Sugar: Carlo Di Palma – Colours of Life. 11
WIND RIVER Directed by Taylor Sheridan Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Julia Jones, Jon Bernthal, Graham Greene, Kelsey Asbille. Families were forced here, stuck here for a century, that’s knowing silence, it’s the only thing that hasn’t been taken away from them. - Corey Lambert A young Native American girl is frantically running barefoot in the middle of the night under a crisp, full moon, which heightens and spotlights the tension of the girl. Who is the girl running from? We don’t know, not yet, but we do know as we watch and see her slide and slip and fall in the snow-covered ground, that she is escaping from the ominous threat of being killed. We revisit this scene later, when her body is discovered by Corey Lambert, a skilled hunter and tracker, who we first see killing a trio of wolves that had been preying on sheep. The frozen body of the dead girl he recognised to be Natalie, the best friend of his own teenage daughter, who died mysteriously a few years earlier. The circumstances are eerily similar to that of his own daughter. Natalie, like Cory’s daughter, was Native American, which causes the tribal police to get involved in the investigation, led by Ben (Graham Greene) who then calls in the FBI for help, which arrives in the form of agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen). The story was inspired by, in part, by the real Wind River, a Native American reservation populated by Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes. Cory and Jane must work together to solve the mystery.
See what they send us, says the Sheriff, referring to Jane, recognizing how little concern the feds have of Indian affairs. But Jane is anything but typical. She may be unprepared for the freezing cold; she has to borrow snow gear from the closet of Cory’s late daughter. What she shows to the people is the kind of warmth and attention they rarely receive. The final act packs the explosive action that we have come to expect of Taylor Sheridan, featuring an incredibly intense standoff that doesn’t unfold as you might expect.
TAYLOR SHERIDAN (Director) Wind River is Taylor’s second feature movie as a director, his first being Vile. He is mainly an actor, so, how does he find it being behind the camera? It was cool, because I had actors of this calibre, I could concentrate on the camera. Conversations we had about character was really easy. 12
The hard part is moving the machine, in trying to keep your vision in your brain, trying to make a day. It’s daunting but rewarding.
JEREMY RENNER It’s a lonely desert less area. The film is much more about the human condition and laws of nature and going toe-to-toe with that sort of thing. You have to be open to whatever is in front of you. Jeremy has appeared in many feature films including franchises: The Avengers and Mission Impossible but there are two films which raised the bar for him and received critical acclaim and were applauded by MbM. The first was Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. It is an intense portrayal of elite soldiers who have one of the most dangerous jobs in the world: disarming bombs in the heat of combat. When renegade Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) takes command of a highly trained bomb disposal unit, he frequently risks the lives of himself and those around him with his suicidal methods and a complete disregard for danger. Caught in the middle are his subordinates Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) who can only watch as their leader descends further into an addiction, an addiction to war. The other major film in Jeremy Renner’s filmography is Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival. When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team led by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) are brought together to investigate. As nations struggle to coordinate a response, mankind teeters on the vege of global war, leaving Banks and the team in a race against time for answers – and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity’s very existence. Scientist Ian Donelly (Jeremy Renner) accompanies Dr Banks to determine of their mysterious visitation. Jeremy Renner is currently filming Tag, about a small group of former classmates who organise an elaborate annual game of Tag that means some of them will have to travel all over the country.
ELIZABETH OLSEN Three major films in her filmography worth noting and recommending: Martha Mercy May Marlene. Haunted by painful memories and increasing paranoia, a damaged woman, struggles to re-assimilate with her family after leaving an abusive cult. Kill Your Dreams. A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of The Beat Generation. I Saw the Light. The story of the Country & Western singer Hank Williams, who in his brief life created one of greatest bodies of work in American music. The film chronicles his rise to fame and his tragic effect on his health and personal life. As for Wind River, its strength in its leading players and ambitious directing.
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Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) in Wind River.
Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) in Wind River. 14
Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) and Martin (Gil Birmingham) in Wind River.
Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) in Wind River. 15
A JOURNEY THROUGH FRENCH CINEMA Directed by Bertrand Tavenier Documentary Imagine you’re at the Movies, Gabin is totally linked to Renoir, Duvivier, Prevert, who imposed characters at the time that were unusual. I felt I was seeing another type of cinema. - Bertrand Tavenier In Lyon is where the house stood in which Tavernier grew up. Here at the age of six, he suffered from tuberculosis but it was also the year that he fell under the spell of cinema, and particularly Jacques Becker. Through clips from his films, he explains the mastery and influence of Becker’s work and a wonderful example from Casque d’Or, when Simone Signoret enters a dance-hall differently than everybody else. Tavernier’s passion for films and certain directors reminded me of my own introduction to French Cinema, and what an introduction! It was 1956 and I saw The Wages of Fear. The stars and the film’s director were unknown to me at the time: Yves Montand and Charles Vanel, and HenriGeorges Clouzot, but not for long. Mario (Montand) a Corsican, lives in a rathole of South American town and to get out of it, takes a job of driving a deadly cargo of nitroglycerine without the equipment that would make it safe. He is one of four men hired by an oil company for $2000 each to explode out the pipeline and put out the blaze. The oil well is 300 miles away. The other three truckers are a Frenchman: M.Jo (Charles Vanel), an Italian: Luigi (Folco Lulli) and a German: Bimba (Peter Van Eyck). Four lives in two trucks. What you are watching is a force of human experience in a film that was the most tensed-filled film ever made. For all manner of obstacles are tossed in the way of the trucks as they move slowly through the bumpy mountain pass. Each truck is primed to blow as falling rocks or yawning potholes promise instant death. How far will they go to get their wages? In the same year I saw another French film, and another Clouzot: Diabolique (The Fiends). Set in a French school for boys; the headmaster’ wife (Vera Clouzot) and mistress (Simone Signoret) conspire to murder him. It is a frightening film that literally has you
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screaming. An unforgettable scene has the supposedly murdered teacher, open-eyed an emerging from a bath of water and slowly taking out an eye, causing a row of girls sitting behind me to scream! Although Tavenier does not mention Clouzot, I can totally relate to this documentary and thoroughly recommend it and hope that it will inspire you and get you to watch some wonderful French films. From Clouzot’s masterpiece, The Wages of Fear it led me to these treasured films:
Amelie Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet Beau Travail Directed by Clare Denis Breathless Directed by Jean-Luc Godard Chacon son Cinema (33 directors) Claire’s Knee Directed by Éric Rohmer Day for Night Directed by François Truffaut Faces Places Directed by Agnès Varda The First Day of the Rest of Your Life Directed by
Rémi Bezançon
Forbidden Games Directed by René Clément Frantz Directed by François Ozon The Girl on the Bridge Directed by Patrice Leconte Innocence Directed Lucile Hadzihalilovic Irreplaceable Directed by Thomas Lilti Jules and Jim Directed by François Truffaut Un Homme et Une Femme Directed by Claude Lelouch Mon Ange Directed by Serge Frydman Paris, J’Taime (20 directors) Les Petits Mouchoirs Directed by Guillaume Canet Redoubtable Directed by Michel Hazanavicius The Umbrellas of Cherbourg Directed by Jacques Demy Untouchable Directed by Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledan The Young Girls of Rochefort Directed by Jacques Demy As Bertrand Tavenier waxed eloquence about his admiration for the great actors, actresses, directors in French Cinema, I could but not cinematically concur. Magnifique, Bertrand. Thank you for making this documentary. Merci.
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Bertrand Tavernier in Journey Through French Cinema.
Bertrand Tavernier in Journey Through French Cinema. 18
Bertrand Tavernier and Crew in Journey Through French cinema.
: Thierry FrĂŠmaux and Bertrand Tavernier in Journey Through French Cinema. 19
THE ODYSSEY Directed by Jérôme Salle Starring: Lambert Wilson, Pierre Niney, Audrey Tautou. When you’re underwater, you’re totally weightless. Below you, increasingly deep blue, an entire world to be discovered - Jacques Cousteau Fittingly, the stars of this film are the underwater creatures and the superb cinematography of Matias Boucard. Right from the aerial opening sequences, you are intrigued and inveigled to explore the world that Jacques Cousteau is so passionate about, even though we soon discover that he is really lubricating his own ego. However, we are first introduced to Cousteau’s son, Phillipe (Pierre Niney) piloting a sea-plane which suddenly gets out of control, crashing into the sea and him trying desperately to open the hatch of the craft but failing to do so. From then the film flashbacks to him as a child with his brother playing with his father, Jacques Cousteau (Lambert Wilson) and his mother played by Audrey Tautou). The film begins in 1948, in Var, where Lieutenant Jacques Cousteau, who has just invented a diving suit allowing its wearer to breathe underwater, is with his wife, Simone, and their children, Phillipe and Jean-Michel, sharing with them the joy of diving beneath the ocean’s surface, the admiration of the stars and his dreams of expeditions into the mysterious life of the deep blue sea that covers such a vast portion of the planet. These dreams soon become reality, following his decision to leave the navy, purchase and renovate a boat called Calypso, made possible by the financial support of Simone who sells all her family jewellery to buy the boat, plus Jacques receiving support of the French Institute of Petroleum who provide fuel for the ship in exchange for rock samples from the Gulf of Oman, a zone infested with sharks and as hot as the fires of hell. In addition, he has the loyal support of a passionate crew. Soon, Cousteau begins to make a series of compromises opening the way for offshore drilling which would lead to his leaving his children in a French boarding school an ‘abandonment’ that Phillipe struggles to live with. Years soon fly by and Cousteau’s fame grows along with his ego. A major part of this is due to co-directing The Silent World, which won the 1966 Palme d’Or, with Louis Malle. Later Phillipe joins his father on the Red Sea and participates in his father’s film shoots. But Cousteau soon begins to change and we see the other side of his 20
character. He signs a contract to direct twelve movies for U.S. Television. The story shifts to the man doing the exploring, the character of Cousteau himself, as he becomes more self-obsessed and selfish. He turns to projectors and money, writing screenplays of his voyages, cheating on his wife and becoming totally disinterested in ecology. This attitude drives Philippe away and leads him to part with his father in Cape Town in 1968. It is this parting which causes the film to struggle to rise to surface again, because our emotions are with the integrity of Philippe rather than his father. Let us look then a little deeper at the stars in this film. LAMBERT WILSON (Jacques Cousteau) Parisian born, Lambert has appeared in over seventy feature films; highlighted in The Matrix Revolutions in 2003, playing the role of Merovingian and The Lazarus Project as Avery. The film that really lifted his career more than any other came in 2010, Of Gods and Men, winner of the Cannes Grand Prix. Under threat by fundamentalist terrorists, a group of Trappist monks stationed with an impoverished Algerian community must decide whether to leave or stay. Lambert player the head monk, Christian. 2014 saw him as Valery Pierpont in a French romantic comedy 5 to 7, in which his wife can only see her lover between the hours of 5 to 7. PIERRE NINEY (Phillipe Cousteau) Began his acting career at the age of eleven and joined the ComedieFrancaise troupe on October 16, 2010, when he was only twenty-one, which made him the youngest resident of the troupe. In 2010 he got a small role as Ludo, a kitchen worker in a small chocolate factory, in Jean-Pierre Amaris’s incurably romantic Romantics Anonymous, which starred Benoit Poelvoorde and Isabelle Carre. 2014, Pierre had the title role of the famous French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who became Dior’s fashion house’s creative director after Dior’s death. But the film that really allowed Niney’s talent to blossom was last year’s Frantz, directed by Francois Ozon. A beautifully poetic experience, graceful and gripping with Pierre as the mysterious young Frenchman Adrien, who lays flowers on the grave of a soldier, while watched by the fiancé of the dead man. AUDREY TAUTOU (Simone Cousteau) Came to everyone’s attention, critics and cinemagoers alike, in 2001 in Amelie as Amelie Poulain, an innocent and naïve girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and finds love along the way. In A Very Long Engagement, she played a young woman searching for her fiancé who disappeared from the trenches of the Somme during World War One. But topping even these performances was her part as Chloe in Mood Indigo who falls sick and needs to be surrounded by fresh flowers to feel better. So, of these leading players in The Odyssey, which one stands out as giving the most unforgettable performance? It would have to be Pierre Niney as Phillipe Cousteau, for he commands your attention in every scene he is in. It is a shame that the film cannot match his brilliance.
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Simone (Audrey Tautou) in The Odyssey.
The first encounter with sharks in The Odyssey. 22
Simone (Audrey Tautou) and Jacques Cousteau (Lambert Wilson) in The Odyssey.
Jacques Cousteau (Lambert Wilson) in The Odyssey. 23
FILMFEST FOLLOWER TORONTO September 7th-17th 2017 BATTLE OF THE SEXES Directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris Starring Emma Stone, Steve Carell. Based in the true story behind the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
BPM Directed by Robin Campillo Starring: Nathaniel Perez, Biscayaet. Following the people fighting against the indifference that exits toward Aids.
THE BREADWINNER Directed by Nora Twomey Starring: Sara Chaudey, Laura Sadiq. A headstrong girl disguises herself as a boy to help provide for her family.
BREATHE Directed by Andy Serkis Starring: Andrew Garfield, Claire Foy. Following an adventurous man whose life takes a turn after he is diagnosed with polio.
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Directed by Luca Guardagnino Starring: Arnie Hammer, Timothee Chalamet. An American-Italian falls in love with an American who is living with his family while she studies and the two share an unforgettable summer.
THE CATCHER WAS A SPY Directed by Ben Lewin Starring: Mark Strong, Paul Rudd Major league baseball player Moe Berg leads a double life while working for the Office of Strategic Services.
CATCH THE WIND Directed by Gael Morel Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire, Lubina Azabel. A factory worker has her life turned upside down after she follows her employer to Morocco.
C’EST LA VIE Directed by Olivier Narache & Eric Toledano Starring: Suzanne Clement, Gilles Lellouche. A hectic wedding party held in an 18th century French castle comes together with the help of the behind-the-scenes staff.
THE CURRENT WAR Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Starring: Tom Holland, Katharine Waterston, Benedict Cumberbatch. Thomas Edison and George Washington compete to create a sustainable system for Americans. 24
THE DARKEST HOUR Directed by Joe Wright Starring: Lily James, Gary Oldman, Ben Mendelsohn. Winston Churchill’s first days as Prime Minister and his choice to negotiate a peace with Nazi Germany and stand and fight.
A FANTASTIC WOMAN Directed by Sebastian Lelio Starring: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes. A woman named Marina is reeling after the death of her boyfriend.
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL Directed by Paul McGuigan Starring: Jamie Bell, Vanessa Redgrave, Annette Bening. A fresh-faced actor and a Hollywood leading lady spark up a romance.
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER Directed by Angelina Jolie Starring: Sareum Srey Moch. Cambodian author and human rights activist Loung Ung recounts the horrors she experienced under Khmer Rouge.
THE GUARDIANS Directed by Sari Kandreasy Starring: Anton Rampuscinyv During the Cold War, an organisation called ‘Patriot‘created a superhero squad which included members of multiple Soviet Republics.
THE HUNGRY Directed by Bornilia Chatterjee Starring: Naseerjee Shah, Tishca Chopra. Adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus set in contemporary New Delhi.
I, TONYA Directed by Craig Gillespie Starring: Margot Robbie, Sebastian Stan, McKenna Grace. Tells the story of Tonya Harding’s rise through the ranks of competitive ice skating.
KINGS Directed by Deniz Gamze Eacuven Starring: Daniel Craig, Halle Berry. A small-town family living in South Central following the verdict on the Rodney King trial.
LONG TIME RUNNING Directed by Jennifer Baichwal & Nicholas de Pencier Starring: Gord Downie, Paul Langlois. The tragically hip are followed during the lead up and through to the end of the legendary 2016 tour.
MARY SHELLEY Directed by Haifar Al-Mansour Starring: Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams, Stephen Dillane. Documents the love affair of Mary Shelley, who would go on to write ‘Frankenstein’ and fall in love with the poet Percy Shelley.
THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US Directed by Hany Abu-Assad Starring: Idris Elba, Kate Winslet. Two strangers must work together to stay alive after their plane crashes on a remote snow-covered mountain.
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MUDBOUND Directed by Dee Rees Starring: Garrett Hedlund, Carey Mulligan. Two friends return home from World War 2 to work on a farm in rural Mississippi and face racism and the struggles of adjusting to life after the war.
NOVITATE Directed by Margaret Betts Starring: Liana Liberato, Diane Ageon. A young woman training to be a nun, struggles with issues of faith, the changing church, and sexuality.
OMERTA Directed by Hansal Mehta Starring: Rajkummar Rao. A recounting of infamous British-born terrorist Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh who kidnapped and murdered Wall Street journalist Daniel Pearl.
THE PRICE OF SUCCESS Directed by Teddy Lussi-Modeste Starring: Tahar Rahim, Roschdy Zem. A comedian struggles to keep a solid relationship with his family once his career begins to take off.
PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN Directed by Angela Robinson Starring: Luke Evans, Rebecca Hall. The true story of the man who created Wonder Woman.
THE RIDER Directed by Chloe Zhao Starring: Brady Jandreau, Tim Jandreau. A cowboy searching for a new identity in Middle America, suffers a near fatal head injury.
A SEASON IN FRANCE Directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun Starring: Sandrine Bonnaire, Eriq Ebouansy. An African high school teacher flees his war-torn country for France, where he falls in love with a Frenchwoman who offers room for him and his family.
THE SHAPE OF WATER Directed by Guillermo Del Toro Starring: Michael Shannon, Sally Hawkins. Two co-workers discover a secret classified experiment while working in a high-security laboratory.
SHEIKH JACKSON Directed by Amr Salama Starring: Basma, Alimad El-Fishawi An Islamic cleric has a crisis of faith when he hears that Michael Jackson has died.
THE SQUARE Directed by Reuben Otslund Starring: Claes Bang, Elisabeth Moss. A poignant satirical drama reflecting our times.
STRONGER Directed by David Gordon Green Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Tatiana Maslany. A victim of the Boston Marathon bombing struggles with losing his legs.
SUBMERGENCE Directed by Wim Wenders Starring: James McAvoy, Alicia Vikander. Two people remember spending a Christmas together in France while one is diving to the ocean floor and the other is being held by Jhadist fighters. 26
THELMA Directed by Joachim Trier Starring: Eili Harboe, Okay Kaya. A woman begins to fall in love, only to discover that she has fantastic powers.
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Directed by Martin McDonagh Starring: Francis McDormand, Abby Cornish, Woody Harrelson. Months after her daughter’s murder no culprit to show for it, a mother puts up three billboards calling out the chief of police.
VICTORIA AND ABDUL Directed by Stephen Frears Starring: Olivia Williams, Judi Dench, Michael Gambon. Queen Victoria strikes up a friendship with a young Indian clerk.
THE WIFE Directed by Bjorn Runge Starring: Harry Lloyd, Glenn Close, Christian Slater. A writer decides to leave her husband while on a trip to receive a prestigious award.
WOMAN WALKS AHEAD Directed by Susanna White Starring: Jessica Chastain, Sam Rockwell, Clarian Hinds. The story of a portrait painter from 1890 Brooklyn travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull.
HANNAH Directed by Andrea Pallaoro Starring: Charlotte Rampling, Andrea Wilms. No Plot given.
INSYRIATED Directed by Phillipe Van Leeuw Starring: Hiam Abbass. A mother attempts to keep her family safe as war rages and a sniper lies in wait outside her home.
LIFE AND NOTHING MORE Directed by Abbas Kiarostami Starring: Farkad Kheradmand. A director and his son return to a region damaged by the Guilan earthquake.
LONGING Directed by Savi Gabison Starring: Ella Armony, Shri Avivi. A middle-aged Israeli bachelor is faced with re-evaluating his life choices.
MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS Directed by Mouly Surya Starring: Rama Adi, Garlin Nugroho. Marlina lives quietly in Sumba until one day a man, Namka Markus and his gang tries to rob her house and she kills him.
MOTORHEAD Directed by Vicente Amorim Starring: Carla Salle, Pablo Sanablo. A wild and weird allegorical thriller.
ON BODY AND SOUL Directed by Ildiko Enyedi Starring: Geza Morcsanyi. Story based around the duality of sleeping and waking, mind and matter.
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SERGIO AND SERGEI Directed by Ernesto Daranas Starring: Ron Perlman, A.J. Buckley. A Russian cosmonaut is stranded on the Mie Space Station during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
THE BIG BAD FOX Directed by Patrick Imbirt & Benjamin Renner Animation. A fox thinks it’s a chicken, a rabbit thinks it’s a stork and a duck thinks it’s Father Christmas!
THE INSULT Directed by Ziad Doueiri Starring: Adel Kram. An insult gets blown out of all proportions.
THE JOURNEY Directed by Nick Hamm Starring: Timothy Spall, Coln Meaney. Sin Fein leader and Democratic leader are forced to travel together.
THE LODGERS Directed by Brian O’Malley Starring: David Bradley, Eugene Simon. Anglo-Irish twins Rachel and Edward share a strange existence.
THE NUMBER Directed by Khalo Matabane Starring: Presley Chweneyagae. A prison gang leader has misgivings.
THE ROYAL HIBISCUS HOTEL Directed by Ishaya Baros Starring: Zainai Balagon. London Chef visits Nigeria and struggles with her matchmaking mother.
THE DAY AFTER Directed by Sang-Soo Hong Starring: Yonhee Cho, Ki Joabang. The memories of the woman who Bangwan left, weigh down on him.
FACES PLACES Directed by Agnes Varda Starring Agnes Varda, JR. Agnes Varda and photographer muralist JR journey through rural France and form an unlikely friendship.
FIRST REFORMED Directed by Paul Schrader Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Ethan Hawke. An ex-military chaplain wrecked by grief over the death of his son.
HAPPY END Directed by Michael Haneke Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant. A drama about a family with the European refuge crisis as the background.
LOVELESS Directed by Andrey Zvyaggintsev Starring: Yanina Hope, Aleksey Rozin. A couple going through a divorce must team up to find their son who has disappeared during one of their bitter arguments. 28
THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE Directed by Aki Kaurismaki Starring: Kati Outinen, Ville Virtanen. A poker playing restauranteur and former travelling salesman befriends a group of refugees.
THE THIRD MURDER Directed by Hiro Koreeda Starring: Masaharu Fukuyama. Mikuma has a criminal record dating back many years and has now confessed to a new charge.
THE LEISURE SEEKER Directed by Paolo Visi Starring: Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland. A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey in the old RV they call The Leisure Seeker.
THE FLORIDA PROJECT Directed by Sean Baker Starring: Willem Dafoe, Brooklyn Prince. 6-year-old Moonie courts mischief and adventure with her ragtail playmates.
FOXTROT Directed by Samuel Maoz Starring: Lior Ashkenazi, Sarah Adler. A troubled family face the facts when something goes terribly wrong at their son’s desolate military post.
I LOVE YOU, DADDY Directed by Louis C.K. Starring: Pamela Adlon, Rose Byrne, Louis C.K. Shot on 35mm in black & white. The movie was filmed entirely in secret.
IN THE FADE Directed by Faith Akin Starring: Diane Kruger, Denis Moschitto. Katya’s life collapses after the death of her husband and son in a bomb attack. After the time of mourning and injustice, here comes the time of revenge.
THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos Starring: Nicole Kidman, Alicia Silverstone, Colin Farrell. A charismatic surgeon is forced to make an unthinkable sacrifice after his life starts to fall apart.
LEAN ON PETE Directed by Andrew Haigh Starring: Travis Fimmel, Chloe Sevigny. The film follows fifteen-year-old Charley Tompson. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school he can attend for more than part of the year.
MOLLY’S GAME Directed by Aaron Sorkin Starring: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba. True story of an Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high stakes poker game and became an FBI target.
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ON CHESIL BEACH Directed by Dominic Cooke Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Emily Watson. A drama set in the early 1960s and centred on a young couple on their honeymoon.
RACER AND THE JAILBIRD Directed by Michael R.Roskom Starring: Matthias Schoenaerts, Adele Exarchopoulos. A tragic love story between a high-flying gangster and a young racing driver with very upper-class roots.
REDOUBTABLE Directed by Michel Hazanavicius Starring: Louis Garrel, Stacy Martin, Berenice Bejo. During the making of one of his films, French film director Jean-Luc Godard falls in love with 17-year-old actress Anne Wiazemsky and later marries her.
UNICORN STORE Directed by Brie Larson Starring: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson. A woman named Kit receives a mysterious invitation that would awaken her childhood dreams.
ANGELS WEAR WHITE Directed by Vivien Qu Starring: Le Geng, Ke Shi In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. A teenager, working in reception that night, is the only witness.
APRIL’S DAUGHTER Directed by Michel Franco Starring: Emma Suarez, Ana Vakeria Becerril. Valeria is 17 and pregnant. She lives with her half-sister, Clara, in Puerto Vallarta. She has not wanted her long absent mother, April, to find out about her pregnancy.
SAMMY DAVIS JR: I’VE GOTTA ME Directed by Sam Pollard Documentary. A star-studded roster of interviewees (including Jerry Lewis, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal) pay tribute to the legendry, multi-talented song and danceman.
BORG/McENROE Directed by Janus Metz Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Sverrir Gudnason. The story of the epic rivalry between Swedish tennis legend Bjorn Borg and the brash American John McEnroe.
GAGA: FIVE FOOT TWO A Documentary which goes behind the scenes with Pop provocateur Lady Gaga as she releases a bold new album and prepares for her Super Bowl half-time Show.
LADY BIRD Directed by Greta Gerwig. Starring: Saoirse Ronan. A rebellious young woman (Saoirse Ronan) navigates the pressures and constraints of Catholic School and life in Sacramento in Greta Gerwig’s solo directional debut. 30
EXTRAS DVD OF THE MONTH THEIR FINEST Directed by Lone Scherfig Starring: Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin, Bill Nighy.
1940, London, the Blitz. With the country’s morale at stake, inexperienced screenwriter, Catrin (Gemma Arterton) and a makeshift cast and crew, work under fire to lift the country’s flagging spirits and inspire America to join the war. Alongside fellow screenwriter, Buckley (Sam Claflin) and a gloriously egotistical actor, Ambrose (Bill Nighy) they set off to make a film that will warm the hearts of a nation. Their Finest is a witty, romantic and powerful portrayal of a young woman finding her voice amidst the mayhem of war…and the movies! Read the review in the November 2016 issue(43) of Movies by Mills at moveisbymills.com
SPECIAL FEATURES Audio Commentary with Director Lone Scherfig. Flickers of Hope: The Making of Their Finest. 31
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