Bernard-Henri Lévy presented Glory To The Heroes at the United Nations
In the second instalment with Bernard-Henri Lévy, the director of Glory To The Heroes, The Will To See and Slava Ukraini, all co-directed with Marc Roussel and with Gilles Hertzog as special advisor, we discussed the past informing the present and the urgent need to not drop the case for support of Ukraine by going back to show the reality of war again “without any special effects, without any Hollywoodisation, with little editing.”
Bernard-Henri Lévy: “My problem, my default probably, is that I have memory. Because I love history, I reflect about history …”
It is the summer of 2023 and the first images in Glory To The Heroes remind us of the deluge. They are from the city of Kherson in June, a town under water, because the nearby Kakhovka dam was blown up...
In the second instalment with Bernard-Henri Lévy, the director of Glory To The Heroes, The Will To See and Slava Ukraini, all co-directed with Marc Roussel and with Gilles Hertzog as special advisor, we discussed the past informing the present and the urgent need to not drop the case for support of Ukraine by going back to show the reality of war again “without any special effects, without any Hollywoodisation, with little editing.”
Bernard-Henri Lévy: “My problem, my default probably, is that I have memory. Because I love history, I reflect about history …”
It is the summer of 2023 and the first images in Glory To The Heroes remind us of the deluge. They are from the city of Kherson in June, a town under water, because the nearby Kakhovka dam was blown up...
- 12/8/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Bernard-Henri Lévy on Glory To The Heroes and Slava Ukraini composer Slava Vakarchuk: “He’s not only the Ukrainian Bono or the Ukrainian Sting - he’s of course that - but he is also one of the embodiments of the soul of Ukraine.”
From not in Paris, Bernard-Henri Lévy joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on Glory To The Heroes (L'Ukraine Au Cœur), as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held a press conference in Brussels, briefing the media on the Foreign Ministers meeting, which started with announcing their continued support for Ukraine.
Bernard-Henri Lévy with Anne-Katrin Titze on the summer of 2023 filmic diary Glory To The Heroes: “The point of view of a writer and a philosopher who traveled to the frontline.”
“In homage to a lost generation of Ukrainians who died so that Ukraine will live” reads the dedication in Bernard-Henri Lévy’s third volume,...
From not in Paris, Bernard-Henri Lévy joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on Glory To The Heroes (L'Ukraine Au Cœur), as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg held a press conference in Brussels, briefing the media on the Foreign Ministers meeting, which started with announcing their continued support for Ukraine.
Bernard-Henri Lévy with Anne-Katrin Titze on the summer of 2023 filmic diary Glory To The Heroes: “The point of view of a writer and a philosopher who traveled to the frontline.”
“In homage to a lost generation of Ukrainians who died so that Ukraine will live” reads the dedication in Bernard-Henri Lévy’s third volume,...
- 12/6/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
“In homage to a lost generation of Ukrainians who died so that Ukraine will live” reads the dedication in Bernard-Henri Lévy’s third volume, Glory To The Heroes (L'Ukraine Au Cœur), again co-directed with Marc Roussel, produced by Emily Hamilton, and with Gilles Hertzog as special advisor. Following The Will To See (Une Autre Idée Du Monde) and Slava Ukraini, this documentary also chronicles the war in the shape of a filmic diary. The score at the start by Slava Vakarchuk is reminiscent of a whistling Western tune, simultaneously hopeful, melancholic, and foreboding.
It is the summer of 2023 and the first images remind us of the deluge. They are from the city of Kherson in June, a town under water, because the nearby Kakhovka dam was blown up on the sixth of that month by the Russian military, committing urbicide and ecocide. Lévy calls it the “Flooded Earth...
It is the summer of 2023 and the first images remind us of the deluge. They are from the city of Kherson in June, a town under water, because the nearby Kakhovka dam was blown up on the sixth of that month by the Russian military, committing urbicide and ecocide. Lévy calls it the “Flooded Earth...
- 12/4/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"Your first mission is to come back safe." Cohen Media Group has revealed an official US trailer for another Ukraine war documentary film titled Glory to the Heroes, which will be showing in very limited theaters this December. Directed by Bernard-Henri Lévy, and co-directed by Marc Roussel, this film is a follow-up "sequel" doc to their other film called Slava Ukraini, which opened in theaters in May 2023 earlier this year. That one already opened in the summer, and Bhl decided to return to Ukraine in June to continue filming more. After Russia destroyed the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, he had to go back inside of Ukraine. Another haunting look at what is happening there. Lévy has brought to the world a film that, now more than ever, is a painful reminder that this war is our war and it's time for the West to urgently give Ukraine everything it needs to win.
- 11/19/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Olivier Dahan: “I didn’t want to make a film about Simone Veil as we know her in France.”
Simone: Woman Of The Century director, writer, editor Olivier Dahan (La Vie En Rose with Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf and Grace de Monaco with Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly) is no stranger to depicting influential women. His all-embracing portrait of Simone Veil stars Elsa Zylberstein as Veil from 1968 till 2006, and Rebecca Marder (Arnaud Desplechin’s Tromperie and François Ozon’s Mon Crime) from 1942 through 1967.
Olivier Dahan with Anne-Katrin Titze on young people not knowing Simone Veil, Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, and László Nemes’s Son Of Saul: “I was really trying to connect with those young people and this woman, of course.”
In Bernard-Henri Lévy’s homage to Simone Veil he writes: “The world, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard said a century ago,...
Simone: Woman Of The Century director, writer, editor Olivier Dahan (La Vie En Rose with Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf and Grace de Monaco with Nicole Kidman as Grace Kelly) is no stranger to depicting influential women. His all-embracing portrait of Simone Veil stars Elsa Zylberstein as Veil from 1968 till 2006, and Rebecca Marder (Arnaud Desplechin’s Tromperie and François Ozon’s Mon Crime) from 1942 through 1967.
Olivier Dahan with Anne-Katrin Titze on young people not knowing Simone Veil, Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, and László Nemes’s Son Of Saul: “I was really trying to connect with those young people and this woman, of course.”
In Bernard-Henri Lévy’s homage to Simone Veil he writes: “The world, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard said a century ago,...
- 9/8/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In Bernard-Henri Lévy’s homage to Simone Veil he writes: “The world, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard said a century ago, could be reduced to a series of copyrights. Einstein’s relativity. Descartes’s doubt. Bergson’s laughter. Dante’s hell. Today: Simone Veil’s Europe.” Olivier Dahan’s all-embracing portrait, Simone: Woman of the Century, stars Elsa Zylberstein as Veil from 1968 till 2006, and Rebecca Marder (Arnaud Desplechin’s Tromperie and François Ozon’s Mon Crime) from 1942 through 1967.
Auschwitz survivor, Health Minister of France, magistrate, mother, member of the Constitutional Council, advocate for the rights of women and prison reform, and the first President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil’s importance for the 20th and 21st century cannot be overstated. Director, writer, editor...
Auschwitz survivor, Health Minister of France, magistrate, mother, member of the Constitutional Council, advocate for the rights of women and prison reform, and the first President of the European Parliament, Simone Veil’s importance for the 20th and 21st century cannot be overstated. Director, writer, editor...
- 8/16/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
TheWrap took home four first-place Southern California Journalism Awards at the Los Angeles Press Club’s 65th annual awards ceremony held Sunday at L.A.’s Millennium Biltmore Hotel.
Sharon Waxman, TheWrap’s founder and editor-in-chief, won the Entertainment Feature on Film category with her story about the HFPA’s failure to meet its reform goal and the embarrassing ouster of one of its members in her story, “Golden Globes Falls Short of 300 Voter Goal by 101, Expels Reformist Member Frank Rousseau for Falsifying Stories (Exclusive).
The category’s nominees included GQ and Variety, as well as TheWrap’s Andi Ortiz, who was nominated for her oral history of the cult that has grown around Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” since its 1993 release, “How ‘Hocus Pocus’ Went From Box Office Bomb to Disney’s Halloween Darling.“
Reporter Sharon Knolle was nominated for two awards and won in both categories. In the Entertainment Feature on TV/Radio,...
Sharon Waxman, TheWrap’s founder and editor-in-chief, won the Entertainment Feature on Film category with her story about the HFPA’s failure to meet its reform goal and the embarrassing ouster of one of its members in her story, “Golden Globes Falls Short of 300 Voter Goal by 101, Expels Reformist Member Frank Rousseau for Falsifying Stories (Exclusive).
The category’s nominees included GQ and Variety, as well as TheWrap’s Andi Ortiz, who was nominated for her oral history of the cult that has grown around Disney’s “Hocus Pocus” since its 1993 release, “How ‘Hocus Pocus’ Went From Box Office Bomb to Disney’s Halloween Darling.“
Reporter Sharon Knolle was nominated for two awards and won in both categories. In the Entertainment Feature on TV/Radio,...
- 6/26/2023
- by Rosemary Rossi
- The Wrap
The Hollywood Reporter was named best website at the 65th annual SoCal Journalism Awards, which were handed out Sunday night at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
THR was recognized by the Los Angeles Press Club in several other categories as well, including features, photos, social media and commentary. A list of THR’s first-place wins follows.
Website, Traditional News Organization
The Hollywood Reporter Staff, The Hollywood Reporter
Feature Film/TV, over 1,000 words
Gary Baum, “The Many Lives and Dying Words of Aesop Aquarian”
Best Use of Social Media to Enhance and/or Cover a Story by a Group
Ryan Fish, Christy Piña, Nekesa Moody, Tiffany Taylor, Neha Joy, Jason Bass, “Blackfamous Roundtable”
Portrait Photo, Entertainment
Ash Barhamand, Jenny Sargent, Peter B. Cury, Erik Tanner, “The Riddle of Paul Dano”
Entertainment Photo
Ash Barhamand, Kayla Landrum, Peter B. Cury, Jingna Zhang, “Michelle Yeoh”
Entertainment Commentary on TV/Film
Lovia Gyarkye,...
THR was recognized by the Los Angeles Press Club in several other categories as well, including features, photos, social media and commentary. A list of THR’s first-place wins follows.
Website, Traditional News Organization
The Hollywood Reporter Staff, The Hollywood Reporter
Feature Film/TV, over 1,000 words
Gary Baum, “The Many Lives and Dying Words of Aesop Aquarian”
Best Use of Social Media to Enhance and/or Cover a Story by a Group
Ryan Fish, Christy Piña, Nekesa Moody, Tiffany Taylor, Neha Joy, Jason Bass, “Blackfamous Roundtable”
Portrait Photo, Entertainment
Ash Barhamand, Jenny Sargent, Peter B. Cury, Erik Tanner, “The Riddle of Paul Dano”
Entertainment Photo
Ash Barhamand, Kayla Landrum, Peter B. Cury, Jingna Zhang, “Michelle Yeoh”
Entertainment Commentary on TV/Film
Lovia Gyarkye,...
- 6/26/2023
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bernard-Henri Lévy with Sergiy Kyslytsya (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine and Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations) and Nicolas de Rivière (Ambassador Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations) with Ukrainian soldiers at the Slava Ukraini première Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second instalment with Bernard-Henri Lévy we discuss war films, including Rémy Ourdan’s The Siege, André Malraux’s Espoir: Sierra de Teruel, and Terre d’Espagne by Joris Ivens; Chernobyl, quoting a line by Emmanuelle Riva in Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour, screenplay by Marguerite Duras, and chapters five, nine, and twelve of Slava Ukraini, co-directed with Marc Roussel (produced by François Margolin with associate producer Emily Hamilton and advisor Gilles Hertzog).
Bernard-Henri Lévy with Nicolas de Rivière and Sergiy Kyslytsya at the United Nations Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
At the United Nations in New York inside the Eocsoc Chamber on the evening of May 4, Nicolas de Rivière,...
In the second instalment with Bernard-Henri Lévy we discuss war films, including Rémy Ourdan’s The Siege, André Malraux’s Espoir: Sierra de Teruel, and Terre d’Espagne by Joris Ivens; Chernobyl, quoting a line by Emmanuelle Riva in Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour, screenplay by Marguerite Duras, and chapters five, nine, and twelve of Slava Ukraini, co-directed with Marc Roussel (produced by François Margolin with associate producer Emily Hamilton and advisor Gilles Hertzog).
Bernard-Henri Lévy with Nicolas de Rivière and Sergiy Kyslytsya at the United Nations Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
At the United Nations in New York inside the Eocsoc Chamber on the evening of May 4, Nicolas de Rivière,...
- 5/8/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Polarizing French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy embedded with Ukrainian defenders for revealing and damning new documentary
In the fall of 2022, Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s most famous and polarizing public intellectuals, traveled to Ukraine for a series of visits along the fault lines of the Russian invasion. He witnessed bombed-out apartment buildings in Kyiv, where he had once met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and where civilians were still liable to be awakened in the night by Russian blasts. He accompanied miners deep into the earth in Pavlograd, toured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, joined the Ukrainian navy on a patrol outside Odesa, met with commanders of an international legion in a nondescript room whose only decoration was, inexplicably, a Big Mouth Billy Bass.
Such is the collage of lasting images captured in Slava Ukraini (“Glory to Ukraine”), Lévy’s documentary filmed over 10 trips to the country: devastating, resilient, admirable,...
In the fall of 2022, Bernard-Henri Lévy, one of France’s most famous and polarizing public intellectuals, traveled to Ukraine for a series of visits along the fault lines of the Russian invasion. He witnessed bombed-out apartment buildings in Kyiv, where he had once met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and where civilians were still liable to be awakened in the night by Russian blasts. He accompanied miners deep into the earth in Pavlograd, toured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, joined the Ukrainian navy on a patrol outside Odesa, met with commanders of an international legion in a nondescript room whose only decoration was, inexplicably, a Big Mouth Billy Bass.
Such is the collage of lasting images captured in Slava Ukraini (“Glory to Ukraine”), Lévy’s documentary filmed over 10 trips to the country: devastating, resilient, admirable,...
- 5/6/2023
- by Adrian Horton
- The Guardian - Film News
A sleek theater from Look Dine-In Cinemas opened this weekend in NYC (or reopened at the former Landmark) on West 57th Street. With wood, windows and well-stocked bar, it’s the face of exhibition that wants to grab moviegoers and keep them.
The look is midcentury modern. Each Look location — there are 12 — “is customized. But this is our design aesthetic. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but lot of it … looks like my home,” CEO Brian Schultz told Deadline. “I’m trying to really get a comfortable feeling. You have to sweat these details.”
The theater on the Hudson River in the Durst Organization’s Bjarke Ingels-designed Via 57 West building opens with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; Super Mario Bros.; Evil Dead Rise; Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret; Love Again; and Polite Society on the marquee. Schultz, founder and former CEO of Studio Movie Grill, aims...
The look is midcentury modern. Each Look location — there are 12 — “is customized. But this is our design aesthetic. I’m embarrassed to admit this, but lot of it … looks like my home,” CEO Brian Schultz told Deadline. “I’m trying to really get a comfortable feeling. You have to sweat these details.”
The theater on the Hudson River in the Durst Organization’s Bjarke Ingels-designed Via 57 West building opens with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3; Super Mario Bros.; Evil Dead Rise; Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret; Love Again; and Polite Society on the marquee. Schultz, founder and former CEO of Studio Movie Grill, aims...
- 5/5/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Bernard-Henri Lévy on a young girl in Slava Ukraini saying she read Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers and Queen Margot: “She lived in a bunker, a basement, underground. The only thing which kept her connected was a book, literature.”
Last year when I spoke with Bernard-Henri Lévy on The Will To See (Une Autre Idée Du Monde), co-directed with Marc Roussel, he moved up our scheduled time to meet so we could watch the final French presidential debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. When we met last week for a conversation on Slava Ukraini, again co-directed with Marc Roussel (produced by François Margolin with associate producer Emily Hamilton and advisor Gilles Hertzog) it was the afternoon of President Joe Biden’s early morning announcement that he will be running for re-election, and four days before Roy Wood Jr. (executive producer of Cj Hunt’s documentary The Neutral Ground...
Last year when I spoke with Bernard-Henri Lévy on The Will To See (Une Autre Idée Du Monde), co-directed with Marc Roussel, he moved up our scheduled time to meet so we could watch the final French presidential debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. When we met last week for a conversation on Slava Ukraini, again co-directed with Marc Roussel (produced by François Margolin with associate producer Emily Hamilton and advisor Gilles Hertzog) it was the afternoon of President Joe Biden’s early morning announcement that he will be running for re-election, and four days before Roy Wood Jr. (executive producer of Cj Hunt’s documentary The Neutral Ground...
- 5/1/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"When is this war going to end?" Cohen Media has revealed an official trailer for a documentary film titled Slava Ukraini, made by the French doc filmmaker Bernard-Henri Lévy. The term "Slava Ukraini!" has been Ukraine's motto ever since the war broke out last year, translating directly to "Glory to Ukraine!" This film is about their military fighting back. One year after the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, director / philosopher Bhl takes us to the heart of the combat through this war diary made during the second half of 2022. From Kharkiv and Bakhmut to Kherson, in the aftermath of the city's liberation, this documentary bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the front, and portraits of its civilians, and shares with us the struggle of the Ukrainian people. Featuring music composed by Slava Vakarchuk. This looks more like a news story than a film,...
- 4/21/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Cohen Media Group (Cmg) has acquired US rights to the feature documentary Slava Ukraini, co-directed by French philosopher and activist Bernard-Henri Lévy.
The doc will open in select theaters on May 3 before moving to digital/VOD platforms on May 5.
Lévy co-directed the pic with Marc Roussel (The Will to See). The philosopher has been traveling throughout Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Slava Ukraini follows Lévy on the ground during the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, through to the Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2022, until the aftermath of the liberation of Kherson at the end of 2022.
The synopsis reads: Lévy and his team move all around the country, embedded with the Ukrainian special forces, filming Bakhmut, Lyman, Izium, and Kharkiv; standing in solidarity with the citizens of Kyiv during attacks on civilian infrastructure; showing the evacuation of civilians in Donbas; following the heroes in action near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant,...
The doc will open in select theaters on May 3 before moving to digital/VOD platforms on May 5.
Lévy co-directed the pic with Marc Roussel (The Will to See). The philosopher has been traveling throughout Ukraine since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Slava Ukraini follows Lévy on the ground during the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, through to the Ukrainian counteroffensive in September 2022, until the aftermath of the liberation of Kherson at the end of 2022.
The synopsis reads: Lévy and his team move all around the country, embedded with the Ukrainian special forces, filming Bakhmut, Lyman, Izium, and Kharkiv; standing in solidarity with the citizens of Kyiv during attacks on civilian infrastructure; showing the evacuation of civilians in Donbas; following the heroes in action near Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant,...
- 4/4/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Cohen Media Group has picked up all U.S. rights to Slava Ukraini, a new documentary on the war in Ukraine by famed French philosopher, activist and filmmaker Bernard-Henri Lévy.
Slava Ukraini will bow in select theaters on May 3 and go out nationwide on digital and VOD platforms May 5. Lévy will attend several screenings, including the May 3 premiere at the Quad Cinema in New York, a May 4 screening at the United Nations, and a May 6 screening at the Landmark Westwood in Los Angeles.
The film follows Lévy on the ground in Ukraine from the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The war diary documents first-hand the Ukrainian counteroffensive from September 2022 through to the liberation of Kherson at the end of 2022. Embedded with the Ukrainian special forces, Lévy and his team were able to film from the heart of the war zone in key battlegrounds in Bakhmut, Lyman, Izium, and Kharkiv.
Slava Ukraini will bow in select theaters on May 3 and go out nationwide on digital and VOD platforms May 5. Lévy will attend several screenings, including the May 3 premiere at the Quad Cinema in New York, a May 4 screening at the United Nations, and a May 6 screening at the Landmark Westwood in Los Angeles.
The film follows Lévy on the ground in Ukraine from the first days of Russia’s full-scale invasion. The war diary documents first-hand the Ukrainian counteroffensive from September 2022 through to the liberation of Kherson at the end of 2022. Embedded with the Ukrainian special forces, Lévy and his team were able to film from the heart of the war zone in key battlegrounds in Bakhmut, Lyman, Izium, and Kharkiv.
- 4/4/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: France tv distribution has boarded international sales on French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy and director-photographer Marc Roussel’s documentary Slava Ukraini and will launch the title at the EFM.
The film documents the situation in Ukraine in the final months of 2022 as Russia’s brutal invasion of the country ground on.
Arp Sélection will theatrically release the feature doc in France on February 22, just two days before the first anniversary of the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
Slava Ukraini visits the conflict’s hotspots through a war diary documenting trips to Kharkiv in the frontline region of the Donbas as well as the strategic Black Sea-Dnieper River port of Kherson, in the aftermath of the city’s liberation on November 11, 2022.
It bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the frontline and portraits of civilians, and shares the struggle of the Ukrainian people.
The film documents the situation in Ukraine in the final months of 2022 as Russia’s brutal invasion of the country ground on.
Arp Sélection will theatrically release the feature doc in France on February 22, just two days before the first anniversary of the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
Slava Ukraini visits the conflict’s hotspots through a war diary documenting trips to Kharkiv in the frontline region of the Donbas as well as the strategic Black Sea-Dnieper River port of Kherson, in the aftermath of the city’s liberation on November 11, 2022.
It bears witness to the ravages of war through the testimonies of soldiers, chronicles of the frontline and portraits of civilians, and shares the struggle of the Ukrainian people.
- 2/14/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Studio brass wowed theater owners this week with Maverick: Top Gun, Avatar: The Way of Water and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse among other tentpoles. But they were also clear at the just-wrapped CinemaCon that a reviving box office requires a wide breadth of content.
“If we narrow what we bring to theaters, our audience will get smaller,” said Jim Orr, head of domestic theatrical distribution for Universal Pictures. “We need an industry that creates and impacts culture every single weekend [with] personal stories, original ideas,” he said — a sentiment that echoed across the four-day confab in Las Vegas.
Universal, short on superheroes, got plenty of traction with Jurassic World Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru and Halloween Ends and films like She Said and Nope. Its specialty distributor, Focus Features, promised to win back elusive older demos with Downton Abbey: A New Era, and showcased a slate including Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,...
“If we narrow what we bring to theaters, our audience will get smaller,” said Jim Orr, head of domestic theatrical distribution for Universal Pictures. “We need an industry that creates and impacts culture every single weekend [with] personal stories, original ideas,” he said — a sentiment that echoed across the four-day confab in Las Vegas.
Universal, short on superheroes, got plenty of traction with Jurassic World Dominion, Minions: The Rise of Gru and Halloween Ends and films like She Said and Nope. Its specialty distributor, Focus Features, promised to win back elusive older demos with Downton Abbey: A New Era, and showcased a slate including Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,...
- 4/29/2022
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Volodymyr Zelensky meets with Bernard-Henri Lévy just days before he is elected President of Ukraine Photo: Yann Revol, courtesy Cohen Media Group
Bernard-Henri Lévy on Wednesday, April 20 moved up our scheduled time to meet from 3:00pm (New York time) to 2:30pm so he could watch from the start the final French presidential debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. The election is today, Sunday April 24.
In The Will To See (Une Autre Idée Du Monde), co-directed with Marc Roussel, produced by Kristina Larsen, and executive produced by Emily Hamilton, Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us up close to many of the never-ending crises around the world.
Bernard-Henri Lévy: “I was in Ukraine a few days ago. Before that I was in the area of Odessa, Mykolaiv, I continue to go.” Photo: Cohen Media Group
This must-see documentary, shot by Olivier Jacquin and Roussel is dedicated to Paris Match Managing...
Bernard-Henri Lévy on Wednesday, April 20 moved up our scheduled time to meet from 3:00pm (New York time) to 2:30pm so he could watch from the start the final French presidential debate between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. The election is today, Sunday April 24.
In The Will To See (Une Autre Idée Du Monde), co-directed with Marc Roussel, produced by Kristina Larsen, and executive produced by Emily Hamilton, Bernard-Henri Lévy takes us up close to many of the never-ending crises around the world.
Bernard-Henri Lévy: “I was in Ukraine a few days ago. Before that I was in the area of Odessa, Mykolaiv, I continue to go.” Photo: Cohen Media Group
This must-see documentary, shot by Olivier Jacquin and Roussel is dedicated to Paris Match Managing...
- 4/24/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Theatrical release set for April 29.
Cohen Media Group has picked up all US rights from Gaumont to Bernard-Henri Lévy’s documentary The Will To See documenting humanitarian crises across the world including Ukraine.
The French filmmaker and philosopher travelled to global hotspots and spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky prior to the war with Russia. The feature came about in 2020 when Lévy was sent by international newspapers to bear witness and report from countries around the world where citizens are struggling to live through war and large-scale acts of violence.
He also visited Nigeria, Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan, Somalia, Bangladesh,...
Cohen Media Group has picked up all US rights from Gaumont to Bernard-Henri Lévy’s documentary The Will To See documenting humanitarian crises across the world including Ukraine.
The French filmmaker and philosopher travelled to global hotspots and spoke to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky prior to the war with Russia. The feature came about in 2020 when Lévy was sent by international newspapers to bear witness and report from countries around the world where citizens are struggling to live through war and large-scale acts of violence.
He also visited Nigeria, Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan, Somalia, Bangladesh,...
- 4/8/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Director and producer Miloslav Šmídmajer, whose documentary “Milan Kundera – From Joy to Insignificance” features in the Work in Progress section of the Ji.hlava Film Festival this week, has lined-up multiple new projects, he tells Variety.
Šmídmajer’s upcoming films include Czech-Ukrainian-Slovakian co-production “The Man Who Stood in the Way,” about one man who challenged Leonid Brezhnev when the Soviets occupied Czechoslovakia. It is ready to be shot next year.
Also in the works is an adaptation of Zdeněk Hanka’s “North of 65” (“Severně od 65”), a dramatic story of two medics whose dispute affects a whole mission in the Canadian far north. “We have approached a skilled British screenwriter and we are aiming for an international co-production,” says Šmídmajer.
Šmídmajer is ready to direct “Swan,” about a “guy who has really bad luck and it’s just getting worse,” and will also produce Karel Žalud’s documentary focusing on Czech invention S.
Šmídmajer’s upcoming films include Czech-Ukrainian-Slovakian co-production “The Man Who Stood in the Way,” about one man who challenged Leonid Brezhnev when the Soviets occupied Czechoslovakia. It is ready to be shot next year.
Also in the works is an adaptation of Zdeněk Hanka’s “North of 65” (“Severně od 65”), a dramatic story of two medics whose dispute affects a whole mission in the Canadian far north. “We have approached a skilled British screenwriter and we are aiming for an international co-production,” says Šmídmajer.
Šmídmajer is ready to direct “Swan,” about a “guy who has really bad luck and it’s just getting worse,” and will also produce Karel Žalud’s documentary focusing on Czech invention S.
- 10/27/2020
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Nineteen French feature films, including minority coproductions, will screen at the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival, which runs Sept. 2-12. There are also four short films produced by France, and six French VR productions.
Nicole Garcia will represent France in the Official Competition with “Lovers,” her ninth feature film. She will be joined in the section by Amos Gitaï, whose film “Laila in Haifa” is a majority-French coproduction.
In addition to those movies, six films majority produced or coproduced by France will be showcased at the festival. They include Quentin Dupieux’s “Mandibules,” presented out of competition, and “Princesse Europe” by Camille Lotteau, to be shown in a special screening. The competitive Orizzonti section features four majority-French films.
“Honey Cigar” plays in Giornate degli Autori, a sidebar event.
Majority-French Feature Films in Venice
“Lovers”
Section: In Competition
Director: Nicole Garcia
Cast: Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney, Benoît Magimel
Sales:...
Nicole Garcia will represent France in the Official Competition with “Lovers,” her ninth feature film. She will be joined in the section by Amos Gitaï, whose film “Laila in Haifa” is a majority-French coproduction.
In addition to those movies, six films majority produced or coproduced by France will be showcased at the festival. They include Quentin Dupieux’s “Mandibules,” presented out of competition, and “Princesse Europe” by Camille Lotteau, to be shown in a special screening. The competitive Orizzonti section features four majority-French films.
“Honey Cigar” plays in Giornate degli Autori, a sidebar event.
Majority-French Feature Films in Venice
“Lovers”
Section: In Competition
Director: Nicole Garcia
Cast: Stacy Martin, Pierre Niney, Benoît Magimel
Sales:...
- 8/27/2020
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Exclusive: Tel Aviv-based festival will open with world premiere of Before My Feet Touch the Ground.
Docaviv, Israel’s top documentary festival, has finalised the selection for its 19th edition (May 11-20).
The Tel Aviv-based event will kick off with the world premiere of Daphni Leef’s Israeli documentary Before My Feet Touch The Ground (pictured), about a film student who became the leader of a popular protest movement.
13 Israeli films have been selected to compete in the Docaviv Isreali film competition, 11 of which are world premieres.
They are competing for the best Israeli film award worth $19,000 (Nis 70,000), the largest prize for documentary filmmaking offered anywhere in Israel.
For the first time, a Fipresci jury will also award a best director award.
The competition will feature work by David Deri, Doron Galezer and Ruth Yuval (The Ancestral Sin), Daniel Sivan (The Patriot), and Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander and Tamir Elterman (Muhi).
International competition
11 films have been selected for the...
Docaviv, Israel’s top documentary festival, has finalised the selection for its 19th edition (May 11-20).
The Tel Aviv-based event will kick off with the world premiere of Daphni Leef’s Israeli documentary Before My Feet Touch The Ground (pictured), about a film student who became the leader of a popular protest movement.
13 Israeli films have been selected to compete in the Docaviv Isreali film competition, 11 of which are world premieres.
They are competing for the best Israeli film award worth $19,000 (Nis 70,000), the largest prize for documentary filmmaking offered anywhere in Israel.
For the first time, a Fipresci jury will also award a best director award.
The competition will feature work by David Deri, Doron Galezer and Ruth Yuval (The Ancestral Sin), Daniel Sivan (The Patriot), and Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander and Tamir Elterman (Muhi).
International competition
11 films have been selected for the...
- 4/19/2017
- by orlando.parfitt@screendaily.com (Orlando Parfitt)
- ScreenDaily
New initiatives at Cph:dox include Britdoc’s Good Pitch event, a cultural summit and tech innovation pitches at Propeller Springboard.
Cph:dox has awarded its Dox:award to Last Men in Aleppo, directed by Feras Fayyad and co-directed by Steen Johannessen.
The jury said the film, about volunteers in the war-torn Syrian city, is “a film whose devastating emotional immediacy plunges us into a Shakespearean tragedy of a people striving to retain their humanity in the face of impossible realities.”
The film previously won the grand jury prize in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary competition.
Special mentions went to Gray House by Austin Lynch and Matthew Booth and The John Dalli Mystery by Jeppe Rønde.
The F:act Award, for a film involving in-depth journalistic investigation, went to Reber Dosky’s Radio Kobani, about a young woman’s struggle to run a local radio station in war-torn northern Syria.
A special mention went to Trophy by Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau...
Cph:dox has awarded its Dox:award to Last Men in Aleppo, directed by Feras Fayyad and co-directed by Steen Johannessen.
The jury said the film, about volunteers in the war-torn Syrian city, is “a film whose devastating emotional immediacy plunges us into a Shakespearean tragedy of a people striving to retain their humanity in the face of impossible realities.”
The film previously won the grand jury prize in Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary competition.
Special mentions went to Gray House by Austin Lynch and Matthew Booth and The John Dalli Mystery by Jeppe Rønde.
The F:act Award, for a film involving in-depth journalistic investigation, went to Reber Dosky’s Radio Kobani, about a young woman’s struggle to run a local radio station in war-torn northern Syria.
A special mention went to Trophy by Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau...
- 3/25/2017
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Syria doc Last Men In Aleppo will open the Copenhagen documentary festival.
Cph:dox has announced the full programme for its first spring edition (March 16-26), boasting 200 films including 75 world premieres.
The festival will open with Last Men In Aleppo [pictured], which was directed by Firas Fayyad and co-directed by Steen Johannessen.
Other highlights include a new cultural summit Cph:meetings – about the political and social role of art in society; a Vr cinema; a new children’s programme; a new science section; a focus on the rise of populism; and an 11-film programme curated by musician Anohni.
Themes to be explored include the rise of populism and a “talk show” about the alternative facts of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon.
The children’s programme will include titles such as Obscure about kids with Ptsd; Childhood about a Norwegian kindergarten in the forest, and a film about Chinese children whose parents are in prison, Waiting For The...
Cph:dox has announced the full programme for its first spring edition (March 16-26), boasting 200 films including 75 world premieres.
The festival will open with Last Men In Aleppo [pictured], which was directed by Firas Fayyad and co-directed by Steen Johannessen.
Other highlights include a new cultural summit Cph:meetings – about the political and social role of art in society; a Vr cinema; a new children’s programme; a new science section; a focus on the rise of populism; and an 11-film programme curated by musician Anohni.
Themes to be explored include the rise of populism and a “talk show” about the alternative facts of Donald Trump and Steve Bannon.
The children’s programme will include titles such as Obscure about kids with Ptsd; Childhood about a Norwegian kindergarten in the forest, and a film about Chinese children whose parents are in prison, Waiting For The...
- 3/1/2017
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Radu Jude’s Scarred Hearts among titles; In Focus strand also revealed.
Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) has unveiled its competition and in focus titles ahead of the launch of its 22nd edition next month.
The eight features in competition include two world premieres: Ivan Marinović’s debut The Black Pin; and Lukas Valenta Rinner’s A Decent Woman.
The Black Pin, from Montenegro director Marinovic, centres on a priest who finds himself at odds with the other inhabitants of his small, rural parish when he opposes a large property sale. Serbian Vladimir Vasiljević is co-producing.
Austrian filmmaker Rinner, whose Parabellum won the special jury prize at Jeonju and was up for Rotterdam’s Tiger Award in 2015, returns with A Decent Woman, the story of a housemaid working in an exclusive gated community on the outskirts of Buenos Aires who embarks on a journey of sexual liberation at a nudist swingers club.
After winning...
Sarajevo Film Festival (Aug 12-20) has unveiled its competition and in focus titles ahead of the launch of its 22nd edition next month.
The eight features in competition include two world premieres: Ivan Marinović’s debut The Black Pin; and Lukas Valenta Rinner’s A Decent Woman.
The Black Pin, from Montenegro director Marinovic, centres on a priest who finds himself at odds with the other inhabitants of his small, rural parish when he opposes a large property sale. Serbian Vladimir Vasiljević is co-producing.
Austrian filmmaker Rinner, whose Parabellum won the special jury prize at Jeonju and was up for Rotterdam’s Tiger Award in 2015, returns with A Decent Woman, the story of a housemaid working in an exclusive gated community on the outskirts of Buenos Aires who embarks on a journey of sexual liberation at a nudist swingers club.
After winning...
- 7/20/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The French philosopher talks about his new film, Peshmerga, which follows the Kurds fighting Isis, and gives his thoughts on Brexit and the crisis of democracy
We are meeting to discuss Peshmerga, a new documentary film about the Kurdish men and women fighting Isis in northern Iraq. But it seems wrong, in this of all weeks, not to take the opportunity to ask the most visible and controversial French philosopher of his generation about the current state of the world: the global turbulence that encompasses jihadism, mass transmigration, Kim Jong-un’s missiles, Black Lives Matter, Brexit and the weather. What’s it all about, Bernard-Henri Lévy?
Related: Peshmerga review – an intellectually gripping tribute to Kurdish fighters battling Isis
Continue reading...
We are meeting to discuss Peshmerga, a new documentary film about the Kurdish men and women fighting Isis in northern Iraq. But it seems wrong, in this of all weeks, not to take the opportunity to ask the most visible and controversial French philosopher of his generation about the current state of the world: the global turbulence that encompasses jihadism, mass transmigration, Kim Jong-un’s missiles, Black Lives Matter, Brexit and the weather. What’s it all about, Bernard-Henri Lévy?
Related: Peshmerga review – an intellectually gripping tribute to Kurdish fighters battling Isis
Continue reading...
- 7/14/2016
- by Richard Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
Bernard-Henri Lévy travels into Iraq to document the Kurdish forces taking on Isis – and praises their commitment to equality as well as their bravery
Veteran French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy was granted a late entry in the official Cannes selection with his absorbing and very well photographed documentary tribute to the peshmerga, the fighting force of the Kurds, battling to establish the state of Kurdistan across the existing states of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey - and now the west’s newest best friends, our allies in the fight against Isis, or Daesh. Lévy’s film is here to remind us that Isis is not simply being fought by the cynics Assad or Putin.
Lévy and his crew travel with the peshmerga northwest along enemy lines – though never behind these lines, in enemy territory – across Iraq towards the Sinjar mountains, the site of a brutal Isis massacre in 2014. There is some gripping and scary battle footage,...
Veteran French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy was granted a late entry in the official Cannes selection with his absorbing and very well photographed documentary tribute to the peshmerga, the fighting force of the Kurds, battling to establish the state of Kurdistan across the existing states of Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey - and now the west’s newest best friends, our allies in the fight against Isis, or Daesh. Lévy’s film is here to remind us that Isis is not simply being fought by the cynics Assad or Putin.
Lévy and his crew travel with the peshmerga northwest along enemy lines – though never behind these lines, in enemy territory – across Iraq towards the Sinjar mountains, the site of a brutal Isis massacre in 2014. There is some gripping and scary battle footage,...
- 5/20/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The French documentary from director Bernard-Henri Lévy follows Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival official selection has had a last minute addition in the form of Peshmerga.
The film will play in special screenings on Friday (May 20) at 3pm, with the possibility of a second screenings on Saturday (May 21) depending on demand.
Bernard-Henri Lévy directs the documentary about Kurdish Peshmerga fighter, the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Lévy is a noted French political thinker and writer, his works include the play Hotel Europe, which Danis Tanovic adapted for his Berlin Silver Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo.
In the film, the director travelled 1000km along the Iraqi frontier filming the war-ravaged landscaped rarely seen by the wider world.
This year’s Cannes Film Festival official selection has had a last minute addition in the form of Peshmerga.
The film will play in special screenings on Friday (May 20) at 3pm, with the possibility of a second screenings on Saturday (May 21) depending on demand.
Bernard-Henri Lévy directs the documentary about Kurdish Peshmerga fighter, the military forces of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Lévy is a noted French political thinker and writer, his works include the play Hotel Europe, which Danis Tanovic adapted for his Berlin Silver Bear-winning Death In Sarajevo.
In the film, the director travelled 1000km along the Iraqi frontier filming the war-ravaged landscaped rarely seen by the wider world.
- 5/16/2016
- ScreenDaily
Cannes Film Festival organizers said today that director Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Peshmerga has been added to the Official Selection. The documentary about the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters will get a Special Screening on Friday at the Salle Bazin. The French film, which festival officials say they “have just discovered,” offers a close-up look at the fighting force that is among the Kurdish groups battling Isis in Iraq. With a small team in tow, Lévy traveled 1,000 km along the…...
- 5/16/2016
- Deadline
When the newly revamped New York Times Magazine asked the famously prolix (but personally reticent) Karl Ove Knausgaard, the author of a 3,500-page confessional six-book series called My Struggle, to undertake a road trip through Canada and the U.S., it enlisted him in a noble tradition: the foreign writer grappling with America via that most American of journeys, the road trip. How does his long and divisive report, part one of which will appear in this Sunday’s print issue, compare to those of his predecessors? Below, we compare and contrast.Game Plan Democracy in America, by Alexis de Tocqueville, 1835: The great French intellectual is commissioned by the king of France to visit and report on the American penitentiary system—which he does. But then he uses it as a platform to go a little off-message—meditating for two volumes on the evolution of democracy. American Vertigo, by Bernard-Henri Lévy,...
- 2/27/2015
- by Boris Kachka
- Vulture
In his film The Oath of Tobruk, the French writer charts his role in persuading Sarkozy to back the Libyan revolt
As a French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy is a creature perfectly unimaginable in Anglo-Saxon culture. In true Gallic style the philosopher is as famous for his luxuriant steel-grey mane, handmade black suits and crisp white shirts (invariably unbuttoned to reveal startling acreages of tanned flesh) as his prolific literary output and ferocious critiques of socialism.
In all, he is a figure many Britons find quite hard to take seriously; to tell the truth, there are even those in France who find him, despite his undoubted intellect, arrogant and pretentious.
Yet, by his own account – an account that has received no challenge – it was this philosopher who, in March 2011, persuaded the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy to recognise the leaders of the emerging Libyan opposition. And it was Sarkozy, straight...
As a French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy is a creature perfectly unimaginable in Anglo-Saxon culture. In true Gallic style the philosopher is as famous for his luxuriant steel-grey mane, handmade black suits and crisp white shirts (invariably unbuttoned to reveal startling acreages of tanned flesh) as his prolific literary output and ferocious critiques of socialism.
In all, he is a figure many Britons find quite hard to take seriously; to tell the truth, there are even those in France who find him, despite his undoubted intellect, arrogant and pretentious.
Yet, by his own account – an account that has received no challenge – it was this philosopher who, in March 2011, persuaded the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy to recognise the leaders of the emerging Libyan opposition. And it was Sarkozy, straight...
- 5/25/2012
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
It's all about R Patz today, as Cosmopolis takes a bow on the Croisette
9.22am: Bonjour! It's a lovely morning in London, but let's hot-tail it to the south of France, where the critics are streaming out of Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg's adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel. And I can see the smiles from here.
9.23am:
Blown away by Cosmopolis at Cannes. A film of cool, diamond brilliance. Perfectly fitted, a tale for the times. Note to jurors: this one
— Xan Brooks (@XanBrooks) May 25, 2012
Enjoyed Cosmopolis; odd and funny
— Damon Wise (@yo_damo) May 25, 2012
Cronenberg's Cosmopolis talky but terrific, with a steely, sinuous turn from Pattinson. Chillingly current too. #cannes
— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) May 25, 2012
Themes of Cannes 2012: white stretch limos, A-listers pissing, dead dogs, financial crisis, Twilight actors, Matthew McConaughey...
— Charles Gant (@charlesgant) May 25, 2012
Of Pattinson, Xan reckons:
@alexneedham74 Perfect as tragicomic billionaire vampire. Plus Mathieu Amalric as phantom pie-thrower,...
9.22am: Bonjour! It's a lovely morning in London, but let's hot-tail it to the south of France, where the critics are streaming out of Cosmopolis, David Cronenberg's adaptation of the Don DeLillo novel. And I can see the smiles from here.
9.23am:
Blown away by Cosmopolis at Cannes. A film of cool, diamond brilliance. Perfectly fitted, a tale for the times. Note to jurors: this one
— Xan Brooks (@XanBrooks) May 25, 2012
Enjoyed Cosmopolis; odd and funny
— Damon Wise (@yo_damo) May 25, 2012
Cronenberg's Cosmopolis talky but terrific, with a steely, sinuous turn from Pattinson. Chillingly current too. #cannes
— Robbie Collin (@robbiereviews) May 25, 2012
Themes of Cannes 2012: white stretch limos, A-listers pissing, dead dogs, financial crisis, Twilight actors, Matthew McConaughey...
— Charles Gant (@charlesgant) May 25, 2012
Of Pattinson, Xan reckons:
@alexneedham74 Perfect as tragicomic billionaire vampire. Plus Mathieu Amalric as phantom pie-thrower,...
- 5/25/2012
- by Catherine Shoard
- The Guardian - Film News
Always one to wrestle his films into the popular conversation, Weinstein Co. co-chairman Harvey Weinstein has been indulging his activist streak at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. On the heels of acquiring U.S. rights to the Osama bin Laden takedown project “Code Name: Geronimo,” which may see a release in the lead-up to the presidential election, Weinstein has picked up U.S. rights to Bernard-Henri Lévy’s documentary about the Libyan uprising, “The Oath of Tobruk.” Levy’s film documents the revolution in Libya as well as the international military and popular support that eventually led to the downfall of Muammar Gaddafi. Weinstein explicitly hopes to turn the film into a rallying cry for other Middle Eastern countries revolting against authoritarian leadership, namely Syria. At the same time, it’s as if he is building his own version of an ad campaign for Obama’s re-election bid that will unspool at multiplexes through.
- 5/18/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
Mammuth star is the honourable descendent of Parisian pugs from Lino Ventura to Vincent Cassel
We can all agree that this has been a terrible few weeks for French masculinity – thanks not only to the off-duty actions of former Imf chief and alleged "rutting chimpanzee" Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but also to the moronic, insulting rationalisations offered de haut en bas by highly placed apologists such as Bernard-Henri Lévy and Jack Lang, who've sounded like scheming bourgeois misogynists from some mid-period Claude Chabrol movie.
Before this grotesque episode, Dsk had always reminded me of the great burly, barrel-chested, ugly-beautiful stars of French gangster movies; you could just imagine him blackmailing Lino Ventura, whom he strongly resembles (all the more so in handcuffs) or beating up Yves Montand in some Pigalle pissoir.
Luckily, we can still turn to Gérard Depardieu to redeem this fine tradition of Gallic movie sex symbols resembling bison who've...
We can all agree that this has been a terrible few weeks for French masculinity – thanks not only to the off-duty actions of former Imf chief and alleged "rutting chimpanzee" Dominique Strauss-Kahn, but also to the moronic, insulting rationalisations offered de haut en bas by highly placed apologists such as Bernard-Henri Lévy and Jack Lang, who've sounded like scheming bourgeois misogynists from some mid-period Claude Chabrol movie.
Before this grotesque episode, Dsk had always reminded me of the great burly, barrel-chested, ugly-beautiful stars of French gangster movies; you could just imagine him blackmailing Lino Ventura, whom he strongly resembles (all the more so in handcuffs) or beating up Yves Montand in some Pigalle pissoir.
Luckily, we can still turn to Gérard Depardieu to redeem this fine tradition of Gallic movie sex symbols resembling bison who've...
- 5/27/2011
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former Imf chief now accused of rape, first met Barack and Michelle Obama at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009. The resulting photo, uncovered by New York magazine, says it all.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
The Daily Beast's Coverage of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn Affair
"The Arrest and the Political Fallout," Christopher Dickey
The arrest has thrown French politics into chaos, and the Imf selected former U.S. Treasury executive John Lipsky to serve as its acting director. Christopher Dickey reports on the reaction in Paris, and how the arrest transformed the French presidential race overnight.
"The Timeline of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Weekend," Christopher Dickey
The disgraced economist allegedly called the hotel receptionist from his suite and asked her to join him for a drink the night before he was accused of assaulting a maid. Christopher Dickey...
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
The Daily Beast's Coverage of the Dominique Strauss-Kahn Affair
"The Arrest and the Political Fallout," Christopher Dickey
The arrest has thrown French politics into chaos, and the Imf selected former U.S. Treasury executive John Lipsky to serve as its acting director. Christopher Dickey reports on the reaction in Paris, and how the arrest transformed the French presidential race overnight.
"The Timeline of Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Weekend," Christopher Dickey
The disgraced economist allegedly called the hotel receptionist from his suite and asked her to join him for a drink the night before he was accused of assaulting a maid. Christopher Dickey...
- 5/26/2011
- by The Daily Beast
- The Daily Beast
French journalist Nina Sutton grew up in a country and time when women were routinely fondled. That history may help explain why France is still reluctant to condemn Dominique Strauss-Kahn, she writes.
When I first joined Le Matin in 1977, the editor in chief was in the habit of appearing suddenly behind a female journalist and grabbing her breasts with both hands while making some lewd comment or depositing a kiss on her neck. It was exasperating, it was humiliating but, I am ashamed to admit it today, it was also somewhat flattering.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
He was in his 40s, tall, and good-looking. To be thus targeted by his lustful eye and hands was a kind of a distinction, however distasteful the gesture was. And most of us felt compelled to find a witty repartee while trying to wriggle out of his clutches.
When I first joined Le Matin in 1977, the editor in chief was in the habit of appearing suddenly behind a female journalist and grabbing her breasts with both hands while making some lewd comment or depositing a kiss on her neck. It was exasperating, it was humiliating but, I am ashamed to admit it today, it was also somewhat flattering.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
He was in his 40s, tall, and good-looking. To be thus targeted by his lustful eye and hands was a kind of a distinction, however distasteful the gesture was. And most of us felt compelled to find a witty repartee while trying to wriggle out of his clutches.
- 5/25/2011
- by Nina Sutton
- The Daily Beast
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is the man many French citizens hoped would rid them of the despised President Nicolas Sarkozy. Paris-based writer Nina Sutton describes the despair of those Dsk supporters-and their suspicions that he may have gotten caught in a honey trap. Plus, Bernard-Henri Lévy defends Strauss-Kahn, and the latest news updates on Dsk.
Why did I wake up feeling so nauseated and dirty this morning? Why am I still so distraught at midday? Why do so many of my friends echo that feeling when calling on my American experience to try and make sense of the images that we sat watching over and over all evening yesterday? And why did those images seem so violent to us, when American cop shows have become our daily fodder on French television?
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
One answer is obvious. Yesterday, we...
Why did I wake up feeling so nauseated and dirty this morning? Why am I still so distraught at midday? Why do so many of my friends echo that feeling when calling on my American experience to try and make sense of the images that we sat watching over and over all evening yesterday? And why did those images seem so violent to us, when American cop shows have become our daily fodder on French television?
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
One answer is obvious. Yesterday, we...
- 5/18/2011
- by Nina Sutton
- The Daily Beast
No one knows if the Imf director is guilty of sexual assault-and by dragging him through the mud, politicians and the press are committing gross acts of injustice, says French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy.
Monday morning.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
I do not know what actually happened Saturday, the day before yesterday, in the room of the now famous Hotel Sofitel in New York.
I do not know-no one knows, because there have been no leaks regarding the declarations of the man in question-if Dominique Strauss-Kahn was guilty of the acts he is accused of committing there, or if, at the time, as was stated, he was having lunch with his daughter.
I do not know-but, on the other hand, it would be nice to know, and without delay-how a chambermaid could have walked in alone, contrary to the habitual...
Monday morning.
Related story on The Daily Beast: Dominique Strauss-Kahn's Life in Jail at Rikers Island
I do not know what actually happened Saturday, the day before yesterday, in the room of the now famous Hotel Sofitel in New York.
I do not know-no one knows, because there have been no leaks regarding the declarations of the man in question-if Dominique Strauss-Kahn was guilty of the acts he is accused of committing there, or if, at the time, as was stated, he was having lunch with his daughter.
I do not know-but, on the other hand, it would be nice to know, and without delay-how a chambermaid could have walked in alone, contrary to the habitual...
- 5/16/2011
- by Bernard-Henri Levy
- The Daily Beast
Free on a $1 million bail and under house arrest in Manhattan, ex-imf head Dominique Strauss-Kahn is seeking "crisis management" advice from a team staffed by ex CIA officers. Read the latest updates below. Plus:
Cheryl Thomas says Strauss-Kahn's case is already a victory for the U.S. legal system. Mansfield Frazier to Strauss-Kahn: Don't flee prison. Dsk arrest leaves his French supporters in despair, Paris-based writer Nina Sutton reports. "Money, women, and my Jewishness," Dsk said were his liabilities with French voters. "Yes, I love women, so what?" Michelle Goldberg on the narcissists defending Strauss-Kahn. Bernard-Henri Lévy defends his friend: Don't assume he's guilty! (Plus, read Laila Lalami's satire of Lévy's column here.) Former TV producer Joe Halderman, who was also jailed at Rikers Island after he pleaded guilty to blackmailing David Letterman, describes the Imf chief's new life under lockdown. The Dish's Andrew Sullivan on the false moral certainty of defending Strauss-Kahn.
Cheryl Thomas says Strauss-Kahn's case is already a victory for the U.S. legal system. Mansfield Frazier to Strauss-Kahn: Don't flee prison. Dsk arrest leaves his French supporters in despair, Paris-based writer Nina Sutton reports. "Money, women, and my Jewishness," Dsk said were his liabilities with French voters. "Yes, I love women, so what?" Michelle Goldberg on the narcissists defending Strauss-Kahn. Bernard-Henri Lévy defends his friend: Don't assume he's guilty! (Plus, read Laila Lalami's satire of Lévy's column here.) Former TV producer Joe Halderman, who was also jailed at Rikers Island after he pleaded guilty to blackmailing David Letterman, describes the Imf chief's new life under lockdown. The Dish's Andrew Sullivan on the false moral certainty of defending Strauss-Kahn.
- 5/16/2011
- by The Daily Beast
- The Daily Beast
The apologists for the film director, like those for Raoul Moat, are guilty of putting loyalty before humanity
Time to move on. Roman Polanski is free and his detractors are duly convicted, as the French writer Agnès Poirier ruled, of hysteria, prurience and "rampant moral McCarthyism". As if that were not enough encouragement to conclude almost a year's discussion of his fate, the vacancy for a controversial criminal was promptly filled by the late sociopath, Raoul Moat.
It enlivened the argument, in Moat's case, that many of his supporters are, themselves, so wildly unappealing. It would have been hard to disagree with the prime minister's rebuke to Facebook fans, had not his own contribution – "full stop, end of story" – so closely echoed the style of the "Moat you legend!" page. What next, one wonders, from the great orator – "simples"? Perhaps Cameron's very intervention explains why "Moaty" was soon being commemorated...
Time to move on. Roman Polanski is free and his detractors are duly convicted, as the French writer Agnès Poirier ruled, of hysteria, prurience and "rampant moral McCarthyism". As if that were not enough encouragement to conclude almost a year's discussion of his fate, the vacancy for a controversial criminal was promptly filled by the late sociopath, Raoul Moat.
It enlivened the argument, in Moat's case, that many of his supporters are, themselves, so wildly unappealing. It would have been hard to disagree with the prime minister's rebuke to Facebook fans, had not his own contribution – "full stop, end of story" – so closely echoed the style of the "Moat you legend!" page. What next, one wonders, from the great orator – "simples"? Perhaps Cameron's very intervention explains why "Moaty" was soon being commemorated...
- 7/19/2010
- by Catherine Bennett
- The Guardian - Film News
• Film-maker says he only wants to be 'treated fairly'
• Authorities want to serve him on platter to media, he claims
Oscar-winning film-maker Roman Polanski has broken his silence to criticise America for seeking his extradition on an under-age sex case that dates back 33 years.
In an emotive open letter, published in France and entitled, I Can Remain Silent No Longer, the director, who is under house arrest in Switzerland, says he is only seeking to be "treated fairly".
He accuses the Us of wanting to serve him "on a platter" to the media. "I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not going to try to ask you to pity my lot in life. I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else," he writes.
The case against Polanski, 76, whose films include The Pianist, Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, dates back to...
• Authorities want to serve him on platter to media, he claims
Oscar-winning film-maker Roman Polanski has broken his silence to criticise America for seeking his extradition on an under-age sex case that dates back 33 years.
In an emotive open letter, published in France and entitled, I Can Remain Silent No Longer, the director, who is under house arrest in Switzerland, says he is only seeking to be "treated fairly".
He accuses the Us of wanting to serve him "on a platter" to the media. "I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not going to try to ask you to pity my lot in life. I ask only to be treated fairly like anyone else," he writes.
The case against Polanski, 76, whose films include The Pianist, Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown, dates back to...
- 5/4/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
Roman Polanski has written a 900-word open letter criticising the Us authorities for seeking his extradition and saying he was "justified" in fleeing the Us. The 76-year-old is currently under house arrest in his chalet in Gstaad, with bail set at 3m (£2.5m). He is wanted by Us authorities for fleeing trial in 1978, after having plead guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl and spending 42 days in a Californian prison. The letter, entitled 'I Can Remain Silent no Longer', is being circulated in France by his friend, the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, according to The Guardian. Polanksi claims that he has served his sentence and that he was betrayed by the judge (more)...
- 5/4/2010
- by By Michael Simon
- Digital Spy
From Wikipedia/Image provided by Film Servis Festival Karlovy Vary.Roman Polanski has written an op-ed for Bernard-Henri Lévy’s La Règle du Jeu—the Internet’s leading Jean Renior-themed newspaper?—titled “I Can Remain Silent No Longer,” in which he lists a number of topics about which he can no longer remain silent “in the hope that Switzerland will recognize that there are no grounds for extradition.” The director is currently under house arrest in Gstaad, Switzerland. U.S. authorities have been working since December of last year—when Polanksi first traveled from his home in France to Switzerland for a film festival—to extradite him to United States, where he will be sentenced for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, a charge (stemming from his 1977 arrest for having sex with a 13-year-old girl) to which he plead guilty.
- 5/3/2010
- Vanity Fair
Director Roman Polanski ("The Tenant") has released a press statement through his Paris-based associate Bernard-Henri Lévy, director of the French magazine La Règle du Jeu.
"...Throughout my seven months since September 26, 2009, the date of my arrest at Zurich Airport, where I had landed with a view to receiving a lifetime award for my work from the representative of the Swiss Minister of Culture, I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum.
"I wanted the legal authorities of Switzerland and the United States, as well as my lawyers, to do their work without any polemics on my part. I have decided to break my silence in order to address myself directly to you without any intermediaries and in my own words.
"I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not...
"...Throughout my seven months since September 26, 2009, the date of my arrest at Zurich Airport, where I had landed with a view to receiving a lifetime award for my work from the representative of the Swiss Minister of Culture, I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments to a bare minimum.
"I wanted the legal authorities of Switzerland and the United States, as well as my lawyers, to do their work without any polemics on my part. I have decided to break my silence in order to address myself directly to you without any intermediaries and in my own words.
"I have had my share of dramas and joys, as we all have, and I am not...
- 5/3/2010
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
It’s been all quiet on the Polanski front for a bit. Sure he’s had an excellent new film released, The Ghost, but there’s been no word from the man himself about his on going legal battle to avoid being extradited to face 33-year old criminal charges for unlawful sex with a minor.
Polanski was arrested on 26 September last year in Switzerland after going there to receive a lifetime achievement award. Weirder still, Polanski has had a chalet in the country for years. Yesterday, his friend, the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy released a statement on behalf of his pal. Polanski announced:
“I can remain silent no longer because the request for my extradition addressed to the Swiss authorities is founded on a lie.”
The 76-year old auteur went on to criticise the California courts for their vindictive attitude. He does sound rather angry and bitter:
“I can no longer...
Polanski was arrested on 26 September last year in Switzerland after going there to receive a lifetime achievement award. Weirder still, Polanski has had a chalet in the country for years. Yesterday, his friend, the philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy released a statement on behalf of his pal. Polanski announced:
“I can remain silent no longer because the request for my extradition addressed to the Swiss authorities is founded on a lie.”
The 76-year old auteur went on to criticise the California courts for their vindictive attitude. He does sound rather angry and bitter:
“I can no longer...
- 5/3/2010
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
Roman Polanski, 76, the Oscar-winning director currently under house arrest in Switzerland, has issued a statement circulated by his friend Bernard-Henri Lévy, publisher of the French film magazine La Règle du Jeu. In his statement, Polanski accuses Los Angeles district attorney Steve Cooley, currently "campaigning for election," of seeking publicity at his expense. [Roman Polanski's full statement.] Polanski adds that he has spent time in Switzerland for the last three decades without being harassed by Swiss authorities, but that the screening of Marina Zenovich’s documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which called into question the ethics and efficacy of the Los Angeles judicial system, triggered the La district attorney’s office to suddenly decide to demand his arrest and extradition. Back in [...]...
- 5/3/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
On Sunday Roman Polanski stated that "he can remain silent no longer" over his still-unresolved rape case, now 33 years old, and distributed a statement to the media. Actually his old friend Bernard-Henri Lévy sent around the 908-word statement, reports the NYT. Polanski has been under house arrest at his home in Gstaad, Switzerland, where the authorities have to determine whether or not to extradite the filmmaker to the United States to face sentencing in an L.A. Court, something he has been avoiding for three decades. He was arrested entering Switzerland for a tribute on September 26. “I can remain silent no longer because the request for my extradition addressed to the Swiss authorities is founded on a lie,” writes Polanski, who blames Marina Zenovich's ...
- 5/3/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
Film director Roman Polanski today broke his silence first the time about his Swiss arrest and pending extradition back to Los Angeles. He released this statement to the news media through his Paris friend and author Bernard-Henri Lévy, director of the French magazine La Règle du Jeu: Throughout my seven months since September 26, 2009, the date of my arrest at Zurich Airport, where I had landed with a view to receiving a lifetime award for my work from the representative of the Swiss Minister of Culture, I have refrained from making any public statements and have requested my lawyers to confine their comments [...]...
- 5/2/2010
- by Nikki Finke
- Deadline Hollywood
Yes, the Roman Polanski saga rumbles on…
In a very recent move, the notorious filmmaker has written to French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy to thank him for his support and asked the letter be made public. In it, Polanski writes:
“I would like every one of them to know how heartening it is, when one is locked up in a cell, to hear this murmur of human voices and of solidarity in the morning post. In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation.”
Since his arrest on decades old charges of rape on 26th September last year, Polanski has spent time in a Zurich prison, before posting bail. He is currently under house arrest in Gstaad, where he has a holiday home. The authorities and legal wheels are still in motion for his extradition to the Us.
In a very recent move, the notorious filmmaker has written to French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy to thank him for his support and asked the letter be made public. In it, Polanski writes:
“I would like every one of them to know how heartening it is, when one is locked up in a cell, to hear this murmur of human voices and of solidarity in the morning post. In the darkest moments, each of their notes has been a source of comfort and hope, and they continue to be so in my current situation.”
Since his arrest on decades old charges of rape on 26th September last year, Polanski has spent time in a Zurich prison, before posting bail. He is currently under house arrest in Gstaad, where he has a holiday home. The authorities and legal wheels are still in motion for his extradition to the Us.
- 1/4/2010
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
Roman Polanski is under house arrest, spending the holidays with his family at his ski chalet while waiting to hear about his fate. He posted at the website of French philosopher pal Bernard Henri-Levy this public response to the cards and letters he’s received: My dear Bernard-Henri Lévy, what you have said in the Swiss press is true — I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages of support and sympathy I have received in Winterthur prison, and that I continue to receive here, in my chalet in Gstaad, where I am spending the holidays with my wife and my children. These messages have come from my neighbours, from people all over Switzerland, and from beyond Switzerland — from across the world. I would like …...
- 12/29/2009
- Thompson on Hollywood
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