CONTENTS Page 3 4-7
Editorial Mary Magdalene One of the best-known stories is given a different viewpoint with the tale of Jesus Christ, seen through the eyes of the woman whose sins he forgave.
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The Leisure Seeker A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey in the old faithful RV they call The Leisure Seeker.
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Let The Sunshine In Isabelle, Parisian artist, divorced mother, is looking for love, true love at last.
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My Golden Days Paul is preparing to leave Tajikistan and thinking back on his adolescent years, his childhood, his mother’s madness, the parties, the trip to the USSR where he lost his virginity, the the friend who betrayed him and the love of his life.
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Interview with Paolo Taviani. Director of “Rainbow – A Private Affair” which was screened at last month’s Cinema Made In Italy at Ciné Lumière, South Kensington.
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FilmFest Follower: Tribeca. A look at the films that were screened at the festival.
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Poster: My Golden Days Mary Magdalene
PHOTO CREDITS: UNIVERSAL PICTURES INTERNATIONAL: 1,4,6,7,32. SONY PICTURES: 8,10,11, CURZON ARTIFICIAL EYE: 12,14,15 MAGNOLIA PICTURES: 16,18,19,31
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We would like to thank the following for their assistance in providing publicity and images for the contents of this magazine. Clare Leach & Fabrice Ouakinine @ premiercomms.com Hannah Farr @ Curzon.com
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EDITORIAL MbM magazine celebrates its 60th issue, we are 5 years old today. We launched online on May 8, 2013 with the cover feature review of the delightfully romantic French film “Populaire” and Deborah François adorned our cover. There was a Q & A with Romain Duris, Deborah François, as well as the film’s director Regis Roinsard.
Within the 32 pages was FilmFest Follower and a look at the Cannes Film Festival and its prestigious programme which included Paolo Sorrentino’s masterpiece “The Great Beauty.” Additional film reviews of “Mud” screening at Sundance London and a review of the documentary “Gazzara” plus Arthouse Ambiance which took you into one the most luxurious cinemas in London – The Electric, Notting Hill. In this anniversary issue there are reviews of “Mary Magdalene,” “Let the Sunshine In,” and “My Golden Days.” FilmFest Follower runs through the film programme of the Tribeca Film Festival. Plus, there is an interview with the director of “Rainbow – A Private Affair, Paolo Taviani, a remarkable man, as was the film, which was screened as part of the recent Cinema Made in Italy season of films at Ciné Lumière, South Kensington.
Enjoy the read
Brian Mills Magazine Editor
Paul Ridler Magazine Designer
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MARY MAGDALENE Directed by Garth Davis Starring: Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Tahar Rahim. I’ll be with you until the end. - Mary
Set in the Holy Land in the first century and starring Rooney Mara in the titular role, Mary Magdalene is an impressive film about the most misunderstood figure in the history of Christianity about the young woman who knew what she wanted from life and was not afraid to take her own destiny. We are introduced to Mary as she battles with feelings of alienation and intense anxiety about her own faith. She is unwilling to marry a man chosen for her by her brother Daniel (Denis Menochet), she is accused of bringing shame onto the family by daring to go against her brother’s choice, but when she meets Jesus of Nazareth (Joaquin Phoenix), a man believed to be the true prophet all of Judea has been waiting for, Mary decides to leave home and joins Jesus and his followers on their journey to Jerusalem. Mary soon finds herself deeply taken by Jesus and his beliefs and is guided by him to teach the women they meet on the way to the Holy City. When Garth Davis read the script, he was so emotionally moved by it, and was compelled to bring this story to the screen and was shocked that it had never been told before as it was such a meditation of love and wanted to bring this message to the world. Mary Magdalene is a spiritual film, and Davis, who directed Lion, which was about a young man and his real family and losing them when he was only five-years-old, it seems Davis is building a reputation as a highly respected filmmaker involving original and quality narratives. As the project had been worked on for about four years before it came to Davis and writers had done a lot of research on it. The story is based on the gospel of Mark and Mary. When it came to casting the role of Mary, Rooney Mara was the one actress that Davis wanted for Mary. She has this other worldliness about her. She is so authentic and believable and has all the qualities that Mary had to bring out the spiritual connectedness and humanity in her love and realism. For Garth Davis, it was Rooney straight from the beginning, she is such a unique actress. 4
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Having worked with Rooney Mara on Lion and now Mary Magdalene, Garth Davis will be directing her again in A House in the Sky, which is about a young journalist played by Mara, who gets captured in Somalia and held captive for more than a year. The film is currently in pre-production. He couldn’t think of anyone else to play Jesus than Joaquin Phoenix, as someone humane and divine, and there is something very complicated in Joaquin. He is such a brilliant actor and so emotionally sensitive in his work; all qualities that would make a compelling Jesus. The location of the shoot was originally planned to be Israel but when they visited the Holy Land it was too built-up and there was not enough desert area to be found. Therefore, they shot in Sicily, Italy for Mary’s hometown and found all the elements they needed, plus the mountains were similar to Israel. All-in-all, it was a perfect location as a backdrop for a film that is mesmerizingly inspirational. Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix previously acted together in Her and will also be co-starring in the soon to be seen Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot. Joaquin plays John Callahan, a former alcoholic who after a life-changing accident, discovers the healing power of art, willing his injured hands into drawing hilarious and often controversial cartoons which bring him a new lease of life. Rooney plays his girlfriend Annu.
Joaquin and Rooney are in real life, in a relationship. Both are also close friends with Casey Affleck, who co-starred with Rooney in Ghost Story and with Joaquin in To Die For, directed by Gus Van Sant Playing the Messiah was a role that required some rigorous research, there were lots of conflicting material, but as Joaquin says it is a character that you are playing, and you have to make it about a man. What made Jesus’s death such a sacrifice is that he didn’t want to die. This was a man who wanted to continue the experience of living, just as we all do. So, it was important for Joaquin to find those human qualities.
It is fitting for the director, Garth Davis, to sum up the beautiful poignant message of this film: In witnessing his death, and his resurrection, she unearths a spiritual truth, and that truth is that the kingdom is within us and that true liberation and freedom can only come from unconditional love. Amen.
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Jesus (Joachin Phoenix) in Mary Magdalene.
Mary (Rooney Mara) in Mary Magdalene. 6
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Judas (Tahar Rahim) and Mary (Rooney Mara) in Mary Magdalene
Mary (Rooney Mara in Mary Magdalene.
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THE LEISURE SEEKER Directed by Paolo Virzi Starring: Helen Mirren, Donald Sutherland, Christian McKay. Prose that is poetry is Hemingway’s secret. People have confused his simplicity… - John Spencer
One of the few films that has as its protagonist a sufferer of the debilitating Alzheimer’s Disease, which emotionally resonated with me as my brother died from it. There are moments when the sufferer forgets the most obvious things like the name of one of his family, as John does in this compelling drama when he calls his grandson ‘Boy’ because he can’t remember his name. It is one of many such incidents when memory fails the victim. John (Donald Sutherland) and Ella (Helen Mirren) are aware of their impending entrance into nursing homes, so they decide to leave their troubles behind them and take one last trip together in their family Winnebago, named The Leisure Seeker. They have lived together for more than fifty years and are now in their eighties. Ella suffers from cancer but has decided to stop further treatment. This is to be the last adventure together – a vacation of rediscovery. The only destination on the couple’s bucket list is to see Ernest Hemingway’s home, so they clamber into their old family trailer and head on down to Key West, Florida. Ella is a vigilant co-pilot, as John steers their ’78 Leisure Seeker RV along the forgotten roads of Route 66 toward Disneyland in search of a past they’re having a hard time remembering. Yet, Ella is determined to prove that, when it comes to life, a person can go back for a secondlook, for a little extra time, even when everyone says you can’t. The couple find their lives even more endearing as the miles ahead become smiles as they reflect in the rear-view mirror of their life together. And Ella continues to remind John of that life by showing him a slideshow of family pictures. The burden falls on Ella as John needs her to be his nursemaid, student, best friend, lover…and his memory.
The journey comes with humour too as when John and Ella fight off two boys playing criminals by bringing a gun to a knife fight before 8
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warning the boys to finish school. Along the route, secrets from years together boil over due to John’s dementia and ugly secrets are revealed. Ella retaliates hilariously by dumping him off without ceremony at a seedy nursing home before heading back to the RV. But, like every other trial the couple face, she knows life without John is not worth living and picks him back up to continue towards Key West When the couple have a row over a past love interest of Ella’s, John wears his jealously well. Ultimately, we have here a darkly observant tale, told with humour, affection and irony. A trip through the ghost towns, deserted trailer parks, forgotten tourist attractions, giant roadside icons, and crumbling back roads of America. It is the story of Ella and John, the people they encounter, the problems they overcome, the experiences they lived, the love they share, and their courage to take back the end of their own lives. Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are perfectly cast as the leads.
DAME HELEN MIRREN: Appropriately for a Dame, she has played Queen Elizabeth II. The titular role in “The Queen” and in “The Audience.” Other real-life characters: Alma Reville in “Hitchcock” and Hedda Hopper in “Trumbo. She will also be seen as Sarah Winchester in “Winchester.” DONALD SUTHERLAND: He has had a rich variety of roles of high standing: “Mash,” “Klute,” “Don’t Look Now,” “The Day of the Locust,” “1900,” “The Eagle Has Landed,” “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” and “Ordinary People.” “The Leisure Seeker” has been his best film since then and it is mainly because of the charisma between him and his co-star Helen Mirren. PAOLO VIRZI: Director of “The Leisure Seeker.” “Crazy Love” is a film which Virzi helmed and is also about a journey and an adventure. Two women escape from a psychiatric facility in Tuscany. Stars: Valeri Bruni Tedeschi. What we have with “The Leisure Seeker” is a combination of parts coming together in a theme that all can relate to: getting old but told with humour and love.
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John (Donald Sutherland) in The Leisure Seeker.
John (Donald Sutherland) and Ella (Helen Mirren) in The Leisure Seeker. 10
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Ella (Helen Mirren) and John (Donald Sutherland) in The Leisure Seeker.
Ella (Helen Mirren) and John (Donald Sutherland) in The Leisure Seeker.
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LET THE SUNSHINE IN Directed by Claire Denis Starring: Juliette Binoche, Xavier Beauvois, Josiane Balasko, Gerard Dépardieu. I went back with him and I thought I was happy, that I was so lucky, that my life was extraordinary! The next day, I realized it was the opposite. - Isabelle
Juliette Binoche is Isabelle and she finds romantic love is a curse, but she can’t stop looking for it as she has it bad. She is an artist caught up in a series of unsatisfying affairs with a banker, an actor, and an ex-husband. An additional problem for her is that she doesn’t know what she wants. Isabelle is a self-possessed woman struggling to see how close she can allow herself to get to certain men. But though Claire Denis is a fine director and is quite enamoured with her film, it keeps its distance from the audience and it is a failing that is never resolved and leaves one with an uncomfortable cinematic experience. Denis made one of the greatest films of all-time: Beau Travail, an extraordinarily beautiful film creating a dark tension that underlies the magnificent cinematography of Agnes Godard, whose visual style contrasts vividly with the graceful training rituals of the young soldiers. The film starred Denis Lavant, one of France’s finest actors as a sergeant-major whose rank and power are threatened by the bravery and heroism of a recruit. The superlative of ‘masterpiece’ was attached to the film but Let The Sunshine In is well below par and misfires on too many levels to be memorable. At the recent New York Film Festival, Claire Denis elaborated on the film and her way of working. It was a film that took place in my life, a present like a joy. I was offered by a producer to do that film and we did it fast and we didn’t wait for money. Juliette Binoche wanted to be in the film. So, as soon as we get enough to start shooting, we did it. It really happened like that. About Gerard Dépardieu. I was so terrified when Gerard told us it is in one day. It came in one evening. He said I would love to do this, do it in one day as I’m tired and I start freaking out.
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There was like seven pages of monologue, but I thought this is the end of the film and I have to jump, I cannot refuse, and we did it. We edited it on a Sunday, sixteen minutes. I told Guy (Leconte) the editor. I told him, I can’t imagine it shorter. I can’t imagine we can make a four-minute cut out of this. It’s this or nothing. Then I came up with the idea with the credits on it, but we could keep it long. He (Gerard Dépardieu) is a fantastic actor, with such presence and charisma, even when we only made two takes, I was hypnotised, mesmerised by him. For me, this sequence with Gerard Dépardieu who plays a fortune teller who advises Isabelle to “let in”, is the highlight of the film. Claire Denis began working as an assistant director with three of cinema greats: Wim Wenders, Costa-Gavras, and Jim Jarmusch which led to her directing her first feature in 1988, Chocolat about a French woman’s remembrance of her youth in Cameroon, and her mother’s relationship with an African houseboy toward whom she feels an attraction. It anticipates themes of Denis’s future work – alienation from society, sensual psychological disturbances.
It was really Beau Travail, ten years later, that firmly established her as one of the top French film directors. The unforgettable ending of the film when the ostracized soldier dances alone as if his life depended on it, and as the previous sequence had shown, it does, because we have seen him contemplating suicide. Juliette Binoche stars in Denis’s next film High Life with Robert Pattinson, Mia Goth and Lars Eidinger. The story takes place beyond the solar system in a future that seems like the present and is about a group of criminals who accept a mission in space to become the subject of a human reproduction experiment. They find themselves in the most unimaginable situation after a storm of cosmic rays hit the ship.
Once again Claire Denis tackles an unexpected storyline for us to look forward to with great expectations. It is most likely that High Life will be ready in May to premiere at Cannes and perhaps in Un Certain Regard section. We will not know until the programme is announced in a few weeks’ time.
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Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) in Let The Sunshine In.
Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) in Let The Sunshine In. 14
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Fortune Teller (Gerard DĂŠpardieu) in Let The Sunshine In.
Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) in Let The Sunshine In.
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MY GOLDEN DAYS Directed by Arnaud Desplechin Starring: Quentin Dolmaire, Lou Roy-Lecollinet, Mathieu Amalric. Dinara Drukarova One day, I gave away my identity. Now, somewhere in the world I have a double - Paul (adult) Mathieu Amalric reprises the role of Paul Dedalus from Desplechin’s My Sex Life…Or How I Got into an Argument, in My Golden Days the character’s original story. Paul, now an anthropologist, prepares to leave Tajikistan and reflects on his life. He has a series of flashbacks that unfold in three episodes, newcomer Quentin Dolmaire portrays Paul as an adolescent. The first includes his childhood in Roubaix, his mother’s attacks of madness and his father’s alienating depression. He next remembers his trip to the USSR, where a clandestine mission led him to offer up his own identity to a young Russian, who he considers a phantom twin for the remainder of his life. He remembers himself as nineteen in Roubaix, his sister Delphine, his cousin Bob, the parties with Penelope, Mehdi and Kovalki, the friend who was to betray him. He remembers University life in Paris, most of all, he remembers Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet), a beautiful, rude, haughty soul and the love of his life. Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander has been Arnaud Desplechin’s greatest influence and he says has accompanied him all his life. La Vie des Morts is a complete rip-off of that film. I stole everything from Fanny and Alexander. It’s a film that never stops nourishing me – both the theatrical and TV versions. The whole principle of generational stories comes from there. I watched that film and it allowed me to make films myself. No question about it. Of course, among the most beautiful Bergman films I would count Summer with Monika. Wild Strawberries is one of the most beautiful films in the world. But I have a special attachment to Fanny and Alexander, given also the age I saw it and also because I’m French and the film was a French co-production. I saw Fanny and Alexander and then I became a director. 16
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There is a beautifully romantic scene in the museum in which Paul compares the Hubert Robert painting to Esther. The idea of projecting the loved one onto a painting is an act of a poet and must be one of the most beautiful love declarations in French cinema. How did Desplechin write that text in the screenplay and how did he direct his two young actors who kept saying that people don’t talk like that in real life? I don’t do rehearsals. So, we don’t work on the text, we work on other texts. For that one, he was a little young honestly… And there were also all those mythological references. So, I had to teach him who Nausicaa and Actaeon were, and I didn’t want to crush him with those because that wasn’t the question. I was more interested in seeing the colours of his emotions and how he takes up Esther’s challenge. Also, his fear of speaking, of expressing himself with words. When he begins his tirade, he says to himself: “I may not be able to pull this off.” There is also this question of “Will I be able to describe? Will I be able to compare what is not comparable? So Quentin practiced this text a lot with the first AD to know it by heart. That’s extremely important. It’s something I learned from Mathieu, to really know your text like the back of your hand. And sounds a bit idiotic and humble as the actor’s work because of course you have to know your text. But really, to know it like the back of your hand. To really be able to say in one way then in reverse, begin saying in the middle, from the end, to know it like you only knew that. And that’s the kind of work that reminds me of My Sex Life because it was a nightmare to get Mathieu to learn all those articles. And then Mathieu had two monologues as well, so it was the same work with Quentin to really master the text. Only memorization.
When you succeed that – which is a pretty long process – you can begin to work on the seduction, the pleasure, on the vanity also, when Esther says: “You’re a smooth talker.” Quentin’s exquisite response is: “Not bad.” So, he’s successfully performed the task. And it moved me also because Hubert Robert was Stendhal’s favourite painter and I thought the film had a very Stendhalian colour. Esther’s arrival at the party is electrifying magnificent and reminiscent of Kim Novak’s presence in Hitchcock’s Vertigo. Esther (Roy-Lecollinet) didn’t dance. She is a more melancholic girl. She’d just had a difficult year at high school and she was 17, so she didn’t want to dance. And I was telling her “ If you don’t dance at 17, when are you going to dance? So we had dancing lessons, we did the choreography of the dance and all that. But she was still a little embarrassed, so I told her “Dance like me and that’ll do it” and it happened progressively. And on the day of the shoot, I had planned the shot and everything but suddenly her face called me and I said to Irina (Lubtchansky, the cinematographer) “Hand me the camera please, and I went for it. And I had to hurry to get her face, to move close with the camera on my shoulder. I had asked Quentin to play right next to me, so I panned to him afterward and he had the most devastating look of the film on his face. When he looks at that girl, she exists so much and he exists so little. And the camera goes back to Esther still dancing and again rushes to her face. So on the one hand, there is a preparation process and on the other, this idea of allowing yourself to be affected by the actor’s performance so that they come and ruin all of the cautious planning you might have done, that they shatter it with their sheer presence.”
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Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet) in My Golden Days.
Paul (Quentin Dolmare) and Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet) in My Golden Days.
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Paul (Quentin Dolmare) and Esther (Lou Roy-Lecollinet) in My Golden Days
Paul as adult (Mathieu Amalric) in My Golden Days.
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PAOLO TAVIANI Interview The following interview took place at the Cine Lumiere, South Kensington, London on Wednesday 7th March 2018 during the Cinema Made in Italy film season and prior to a screening of “Rainbow: A Private Affair,” directed by Paolo & Vittorio Taviani. Brian Mills: Milton is a tragic hero who feels that the war is happening inside his head is even worse than he could ever fight. There is a duality of Milton’s purpose that grips you of trying to save his friend Giorgio, while also endeavouring to discover if he had a relationship with Fulvia, the girl who Milton loves?
Paolo Taviani: I hone in on the core truth of the film. The film is a love story, when we were told that it is a story about the Resistance, we said: No. it is a story that happens during the Resistance. This young guy goes to fight against the Fascists and brings with him the craziness of his love, and that love is actually stronger than what is going on around him and in a way is lived as a guilt feeling because his jealously is locked-in to what is around him. There is a famous text we are all taught at school from a book where the main hero is crazed by the battlefield. It is a very old story from Ancient Greece. So, I don’t actually invent anything here, but I spin it in a different way. Sometimes this story has been presented in horrible stuff, sometimes in excellent stuff.
Brian Mills: What I also love about the film was the crossing of genres: it’s a thriller, it’s a romance, very deeply so, and it is a war story as well so, the thing is that the character of Fulvia, was Milton’s love. I love the scene when they were dancing, the song, which is of course
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in the English title of the film: rainbow, is Judy Garland’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”. When you got to writing the film, the screenplay, did you have a song in mind that gave you that or what inspired you by Judy Garland’s number?
Paolo Taviani: It was in Fenoglio’s book. It was specified that that was the track. The Garland’s record arrived in Italy 1936-37. By then it was frowned upon to listen to American music. By ’41 it was actually prohibited. Fenoglio himself was an anglophile and translated books into Italian. So, he thought that that would add a bit of detail. The story would progress a lot by using that.
Brian Mills: When it actually comes to doing the screenplay, making the film and choosing the characters. Did you write any particular character with an actor in mind; for example, Luca: I want Luca Marinelli to play Milton? Did you want Valentina to play Fulvia? How do go about casting your film?
Paolo Taviani: By and large I don’t write a script with someone in mind. Because time goes by and certain actors are not available. We knew who Fulvia was going to be because she had a small part in a previous movie: “Wondrous Boccaccio.” Our producer suggested Luca who was quite a character, and we didn’t know who he was. But they watched his previous movies and by and large he played the part of a gangster, someone nasty. So, we weren’t sure he if could play that, so theN we were given a lifetime award for our present career and at that ceremony Luca was there and what was really striking was instead of having A girlfriend, lover, wife, he had his grandmother with him and we said that’s it! He didn’t care what other people thought, but we knew then that he was going to be able to portray a depth of passion.
Brian Mills: Why did you want to make films and what filmmakers inspired you?
Paolo Taviani: Rossellini. When we saw “Paisan” there were three people in the room, the cinema, I was sixteen and Vittorio was eighteen and we came out and we said we are going to make movies. And the beauty was that when we received the first award in Cannes it was Roberto Rossellini who gave it to us.
Brian Mills: Grazie, Paolo.
With that the interview ended but like “Rainbow: A Private Affair” it will not be forgotten.
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FILMFEST FOLLOWER
TRIBECA
April 18th- 29th 2018
CENTERPIECE ZOE Directed by Drake Doremus Starring: Lea Seydoux, Ewan McGregor, Christina Aguilera, Rashida Jones. In a future world where cutting-edge technologies can simulate the high of true love, two colleagues at a revolutionary research lab yearn for a connection that’s real.
U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION ALL ABOUT NINA Directed by Eva Vives Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Sonoya Mizuno. Nina Geld is a bracingly funny and blisteringly provocative stand-up comedian whose career is taking off but whose personal life is nearcomplete disaster.
DIANE Directed by Kent Jones Starring: Jake Lacy, Mary Kay Place. No Plot Given
DUCK BUTTER Directed by Miguel Arteta Starring: Alia Shawkat, Laia Costa. Two women, who are dissatisfied with the dishonesty they see in dating and relationships, decide to make a pact to spend 24 hours together hoping to find a new way to create intimacy.
GHOSTBOX COWBOY Directed by John Maringouin Starring: David Zeliner, Robert Longstreet. A washed up Texas entrepreneur moves to China to peddle a mysterious box. 22
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LITTLE WOODS Directed by Nia DaCosta Starring: Tessa Thompson, Lily James, James Bridge Dale. A modern Western that tells the story of two sisters, Ollie and Deb, who are driven to work outside the law to better their lives.
MAINE Directed by Matthew Brown Starring: Pete Burris, Laia Costa, Thomas Mann, Yossie Mulyadi. No Plot Given.
MAPPLETHORPE Directed by Ondi Timoner Starring: Matt Smith, Marianne Rendon. A look at the life of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death in 1989.
SONG of BACK and NECK Directed by Paul Lieberstein Starring: Paul Feig, Rosemarie DeWitt, Nora Kirkpatrick. No Plot Given
STATE LIKE SLEEP Directed by Meredith Danluck Starring: Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Katharine Waterston. A woman grapples with the consequences of her celebrity husband’s double life after he commits suicide.
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION BLOWIN’ UP Directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal Looks at sex work, prostitution and human trafficking through the lens of our nation’s first human trafficking intervention court in Queens, New York.
ISLAND OF THE HUNGRY GHOSTS Directed by Gabrielle Brady Millions of crabs’ journey across Australia’s Christmas Island in one of the planets largest land migrations.
THE MAN WHO STOLE BANKSY Directed by Marco Proserpio Featuring: Iggy Pop, Stephan Kezler, Sami Zarour www.moviesbymills.com
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MOMENTUM GENERATION Directed by Jeff & Michael Zimbalist A group of teenagers in Hawaii enter the world of professional competitive surfing in the 1990s and rise to super stardom.
NO GREATER LAW Directed by Tom Dumican In the rugged American West, a patriarch of a faith healing family fights to protect the right to deny his children medical care while an investigation into child death closes in on him.
THE RACHEL DIVIDE Directed by Laura Brownson Rachel Dolezal becomes a social phenomenon when she passes herself off as an African American and becomes the head of her local N.A.B.C.P. Chapter.
TANZANIA TRANSIT Directed by Jeroen Van Vetzen On a train crossing Tanzania, a riding microcosm of East African Society, we follow three main characters, reflecting on the strength to survive.
UNITED SKATES Directed by Tina Brown & Dyana Winkler When America’s last standing roller rinks are threatened with closure, a community of thousands battle in a racially charged environment to save an underground subculture.
WHEN LAMBS BECOME LIONS Directed by Jon Kasbe A second-generation ivory poacher takes umbrage at the efforts to crack down on hunting elephants.
YELLOW IS FORBIDDEN Directed by Pietra Brettkelly Featuring: Guo Pei, Wendi Murdoch, Philip Treacy A brave designer chases the dream to be crowned haute couture, but she come from China, the land of knock offs and production lines. Will her Cinderella story end at the Met Ball?
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION DRY MARTINA Directed by Che Sandoval Starring: Antonella Costa, Patricio Contreros Martina was a famous singer in Argentina during the late 90s, who’s become completely frigid and disenchanted with love. The arrival of a so-called sister, alongside her attractive boyfriend, compel Martina to go to Chile with one objective in mind: getting back her libido.
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LEMONADE Directed by Ioana Uricaru Starring: Malina Manovici, Dylan Smith Mara, a young Romanian woman, has just moved to the US with Dragos, her 9-year-old son, marrying Daniel, an American she had met only a few months earlier.
THE NIGHT EATS THE WORLD Directed by Dominique Rocher Starring: Anders Danielsen, Golshifteh Farahani, Denis Lavant Based on the French novel by Pit Agarmen.
OBEY Directed by Jamie Jones Starring: Marcus Rutherford, Sophie Kennedy Clark As London slides towards a time of violent social unrest, on the estates of East London, a young man’s life is torn apart by a love for a girl in a different place.
THE PARTY’S JUST BEGINNING Directed by Karen Gillan Starring: Karen Gillan, Lee Pace, Matthew Beard When Lucy’s best friend takes her own life, she has to deal with the stress of the situation.
SMUGGLING HENDRIX Directed by Marios Piperides Starring: Adam Bousdouros, Vicky Papadopoulou Yiannis, a faded musician who is about to leave Cyprus for a better life abroad, sees his plans turned upside down when his dog runs away and crosses the Buffer Zone that separates the “Greek South” from the “Turkish North”.
SUNDAY’S ILLNESS Directed by Ramon Salazar Starring: Barbara Lennie, Susi Sanchez At a reception at her villa, Anabel meets Chiara, the daughter she left some thirty years ago. Chiara asks if she can spend ten days together with her.
SPOTLIGHT NARRATIVE ALL THESE SMALL MOMENTS Directed by Melissa B. Miller Starring: Molly Ringwald, Harley Quinn Smith A teenage boy’s infatuation with a woman he sees on the bus further complicates his adolescence.
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BACK ROADS Directed by Alex Pettyfer. Starring: Jennifer Morrison, Alex Pettyfer A young man stuck in Pennsylvania Backwoods caring for his three younger sisters after the shooting death of his father.
BLUE NIGHT Directed by Fabien Constant Starring: Renee Zellweger, Sarah Jessica Parker A singer in New York gets a grim diagnosis that puts her life and dreams in perspective.
DISOBEDIENCE Directed by Sebastian Lelio Starring: Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz A woman returns to the community that shunned her for her attraction to a childhood friend. Once back, their passions reignite as they explore the boundaries of faith and sexuality.
JONATHAN Directed by Bill Oliver Starring: Ansel Elgort, Patricia Clarkson Jonathan leaves the office everyday at noon. When he gets home, he goes to sleep. Every morning he wakes up and there is a breakfast prepared for him, along with a video telling him about the second part of his day.
MARY SHELLEY Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour Starring: Elle Fanning, Maisie Williams, Stephen Dillane The love affair between poet Percy Shelley and eighteen year old Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, which resulted in Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein. `
THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST Directed by Desiree Akhaven Starring: Chloe Grace Moretz, Quinn Shephard, Jennifer Ehle In 1993, a teenage girl is forced into a gay conversion therapy centre by her conservative guardians.
THE SEAGULL Directed by Michael Mayer Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Elisabeth Moss, Annette Bening An aging actress named Irina Arkadina pays summer visits to her brother Pjotr Nikolayevich Sorin and her son Konstantin on a country estate.
STOCKHOLM Directed by Robert Budreau Starring: Noomi Rapace, Mark Strong, Ethan Hawke. The strange story of the infamous 1973 hostage crisis in Stockholm. 26
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SPOTLIGHT DOCUMENTARY THE BLEEDING EDGE Directed by Kirby Dick A look at the unforeseen consequences of advanced technological devices used in the medical field.
GENERAL MAGIC Directed by Sarah Kerruish, Matt Maude A documentary about a business that Forbes described as the ‘Greatest dead company in Silicon Valley’.
HOUSE TWO Directed by Michael Epstein A look at the investigation of two U.S. Marines who killed 24 unarmed Iraqi men, women and children in 2005.
HOWARD Directed by Don Hahn The story of songwriter Hoard Ashman who penned the lyrics for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, before he died of AIDS.
MCQUEEN Directed by Ian Bonhote Alexander McQueen’s rags-to-riches story is a modern-day fairy tale, laced with the gothic.
ROLL RED ROLL Directed by Nancy Scwartzman In a small-town Ohio at a press season football party. A horrible incident took place and it transpired caught national attention and resulted in the sentencing of the key offenders.
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO: CODA Directed by Stephen Nomura Schible A portrait of the genius music composer: Ryuichi Sakamoto.
SAY HER NAME: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SANDRA BLAND Directed by Kate Davis & David Heibroner An investigation into what happened to activist Sandra Bland, who died in police custody.
STUDIO 54 Directed by Matt Tyrnauer Featuring: Steve Rubell, Ian Schrager Studio 54 was the epi centre of 70s hedonism – a place that not only refined the nightclub but also came to symbolize and entire era.
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TINY SHOULDERS, RETHINKING BARBIE Directed by Andrea Blaugrund Nevins Featuring: Gloria Steinem In her 59 years, Barbie has become a fashion icon, a lightning rod and a target for feminists.
VIEWPOINTS DEAD WOMEN WALKING Directed by Hagar Ben-Asher Starring: Lynn Collins, Dale Dickey A group of women on Death Row face their final moments.
HOME + AWAY Directed by Matthew Ogens The students at an El Paso High School.
JELLYFISH Directed by James Gardner Starring: Liv Hill, Sinead Matthews A young carer discovers an unlikely talent for stand-up comedy.
M Directed by Sara Forestier Starring: Sara Forestier, Redouanne Harjane, Jean-Pierre Leaud Lila and Mo meet at a bus stop. Lila has a paralyzing speech impediment. Mo is chatty and exuberant. Lila is preparing for her exams. Mo illegally races cars for a living. Opposites attract, and they fall in love.
THE PROPOSAL Directed by Jill Macid An artist fights to make the archives of Mexico’s most famous architect available to the public.
SATAN & ADAM Directed by Scott Balcerek & V. Scott Balcerek Chronicles the unlikely pairing of legendary one-man Sterling “Mr Satan” Magee and harmonica master Adam Glasgow. Shot over 20 years, the film showcases one of the greatest blues duos you probably never got the chance to see.
WE THE ANIMALS Directed by Jeremiah Zagar Starring: Raul Castillo, Jeremiah Zagar Manny, Joel and Jonah tear through childhood and push against the volatile love of their parents. 28
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WHITE TIDE: THE LEGEND OF CULEBRA Directed by Theo Love A desperate man goes on a buried treasure hunt for $2 million worth of cocaine.
MIDNIGHT BRAID Directed by Mitzi Peirone Starring: Madeleine Brewer, Sarah Hay Scott Two women decide to rob their wealthy psychiatric friend who lives in the fantasy world they created as children.
THE DARK Directed by Ben Howling & Yolanda Ramke Starring: Martin Freeman, Anthony Hayes A post-apocalyptic thriller and an emotional story of a father trying to save his child at all costs.
YOU SHALL NOT SLEEP Directed by Gustavo Hernandez Starring: Eva de Dominici, Natalia de Molina In an abandoned psychiatric hospital, a theatre group experiments with insomnia for the preparation of a stage play.
SPECIAL SCREENINGS BATHTUBS OVER BROADWAY Directed by Dava Whisenant The film follows Steve Young on his quest to find all he can about vintage record albums, unseen footage, composers and performers. A toe-tapping documentary.
BLUE NOTE RECORDS Directed Sophie Huber Featuring: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter About the famous American jazz record label.
EVERY ACT OF LIFE Directed by Jeff Kaufman Starring: Meryl Streep, Bryan Cranston, Christine Baranski The life of Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally. 60 years of ground-breaking plays and musicals.
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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ANDRE Directed by Kate Novack From the segregated American South to the fashion capitals of the world, operatic fashion editor Andre Leon Talley’s life and career are on full display.
NETIZENS Directed by Cynthia Lowen Starring: Elisabeth Aultman, Carrie Goldberg A group of women dedicate their lives to stopping the online harassment of women.
NIGERIAN PRINCE Directed by Faraday Okoro Starring: Antonio J Bell, Chinaza Uche After being sent to Nigeria against his will, a stubborn Nigerian-American joins forces with an internet scammer to return to U.S.A.
TO DUST Directed by Shawn Snyder Starring: Ceza Rohrig, Sammy Voit A Hasidic cantor in Upstate New York, distraught by the untimely death of his wife, struggles to find religious solace.
UNBANNED: THE LEGEND OF AJ1 Directed by Dexter Deboree Starring: Air Jordan 1 The dynamic life of AJ1 from its unlikely origins to its role in disrupting NBA rules.
WOMAN WALKS AHEAD Directed by Susanna White Starring: Sam Rockwell, Jessica Chastain Catharine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples’ struggle over the rights to their land.
CLOSING NIGHT THE FOURTH ESTATE Directed by Liz Garbus. Documentary. For the journalists at the New York Times, the election of Donald Trump presented a once-in-a-generation challenge in how the press would cover a president who has declared the majority of the nation’s major news outlets “the enemy of the people.”
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