It’s February morning in Berlin. “I’m a little out of consciousness,” Christian Petzold explains, a tad frazzled but keen to talk––and Petzold likes to talk. His latest film Afire had premiered the night before and the party had slipped into the wee hours. “There’s Thomas, he was at the party till 6 a.m.,” Petzold explains as his leading man shuffles by, fresh from a round of junkets and looking just a little shellshocked.
That look is one that viewers will soon be familiar with when Afire is released this week. Taking place in a secluded house by the Baltic Sea, it shows Petzold at his most sultry and melodramatic. The drama stars Thomas Schubert as Leon, a writer struggling to follow up on the success of his first novel. He travels with a friend for a summer getaway but becomes infatuated with a woman who shares the house with them.
That look is one that viewers will soon be familiar with when Afire is released this week. Taking place in a secluded house by the Baltic Sea, it shows Petzold at his most sultry and melodramatic. The drama stars Thomas Schubert as Leon, a writer struggling to follow up on the success of his first novel. He travels with a friend for a summer getaway but becomes infatuated with a woman who shares the house with them.
- 7/11/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Afire (2023).In February, Christian Petzold’s new film Afire premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. Set on the Baltic coast of Germany, the story follows novelist Leon (Thomas Schubert), who has escaped the city with his friend Felix (Langston Uibel), intending to put the finishing touches on his second book. Instead, the two become romantically enmeshed with Nadja (Paula Beer), a literary scholar who spends the summer selling ice cream, and the local lifeguard Devid (Enno Trebs). Unlike the others, Leon cannot embrace the season’s lighthearted self-abandonment and wanders sleeplessly through blue nights without darkness. All the while, forest fires blaze in the distance. At first, they only reach the protagonists as rumors, sounds of helicopters, and glowing red skies (the German title of the film means “Red Sky”), until the threat finally encroaches upon the immediate forests.
- 3/13/2023
- MUBI
Few auteurs today have as consistent a track record as German director Christian Petzold, whose enviable output is on display on Mubi this month, hooked to the national release on over 50 screens of his ninth feature, “Undine,” out now from IFC Films. It’s the filmmaker’s second film starring the “Transit” duo of Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer, who won the 2020 Berlin Silver Bear as well as the European Film Award for Best Actress. This time, Petzold twists an ancient mermaid myth into a visually stunning and romantic ecological message movie. After the Berlinale, “Undine” played well in theaters in Germany just under the wire before Covid created a global lockdown.
On a recent IndieWire Zoom from his book-filled office apartment in Berlin, where Petzold completed two pandemic scripts and went on a movie-watching spree as he recovered from Covid-19, he shared some views about how to make entertaining...
On a recent IndieWire Zoom from his book-filled office apartment in Berlin, where Petzold completed two pandemic scripts and went on a movie-watching spree as he recovered from Covid-19, he shared some views about how to make entertaining...
- 6/6/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Few auteurs today have as consistent a track record as German director Christian Petzold, whose enviable output is on display on Mubi this month, hooked to the national release on over 50 screens of his ninth feature, “Undine,” out now from IFC Films. It’s the filmmaker’s second film starring the “Transit” duo of Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer, who won the 2020 Berlin Silver Bear as well as the European Film Award for Best Actress. This time, Petzold twists an ancient mermaid myth into a visually stunning and romantic ecological message movie. After the Berlinale, “Undine” played well in theaters in Germany just under the wire before Covid created a global lockdown.
On a recent IndieWire Zoom from his book-filled office apartment in Berlin, where Petzold completed two pandemic scripts and went on a movie-watching spree as he recovered from Covid-19, he shared some views about how to make entertaining...
On a recent IndieWire Zoom from his book-filled office apartment in Berlin, where Petzold completed two pandemic scripts and went on a movie-watching spree as he recovered from Covid-19, he shared some views about how to make entertaining...
- 6/6/2021
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
Christian Petzold’s Undine (screening virtually in the Main Slate of the New York Film Festival through Wednesday and in London on Monday), starring Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, is built on the legacy of centuries-old tales and myths. Stories need to change in re-telling in order to remain relevant, otherwise they too will turn to sea foam. Petzold knows how to cast a fishnet into the past and deposit the bounty in the present, as he did in Transit, which featured the same two actors, was based on Anna Seghers's 1944 novel, and set in present-day Marseilles.
“If only thou wouldst send away thy soul, then could I love thee” explains the mermaid in Oscar Wilde’s tale of The Fisherman And His Soul, which was published in the collection A House Of Pomegranates in 1891. The subject of the soul is...
“If only thou wouldst send away thy soul, then could I love thee” explains the mermaid in Oscar Wilde’s tale of The Fisherman And His Soul, which was published in the collection A House Of Pomegranates in 1891. The subject of the soul is...
- 10/12/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
We told you. Remember the rules. You didn’t listen. Now we’re Back with an all new batch of guest recommendations featuring Blake Masters, Julien Nitzberg, Floyd Norman, Tuppence Middleton and Blaire Bercy.
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Wild Angels (1966)
Spirits of the Dead (1966)
The Trip (1967)
Mooch Goes To Hollywood (1971)
Stalker (1979)
The Candidate (1972)
The Parallax View (1974)
Network (1976)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Ace In The Hole (1951)
Margin Call (2011)
Death Wish (1974)
Death Wish (2018)
Seconds (1966)
Soylent Green (1973)
Rage (1972)
Assault on Wall Street (2013)
Repo Man (1984)
Elmer Gantry (1960)
The Train (1965)
Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
Strange Brew (1983)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
Easter Parade (1948)
The Band Wagon (1953)
Guys And Dolls (1955)
On The Town (1949)
Casablanca (1942)
The Dirt Gang (1972)
Back To The Future (1985)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)
My Man Godfrey...
Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The Wild Angels (1966)
Spirits of the Dead (1966)
The Trip (1967)
Mooch Goes To Hollywood (1971)
Stalker (1979)
The Candidate (1972)
The Parallax View (1974)
Network (1976)
Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
Ace In The Hole (1951)
Margin Call (2011)
Death Wish (1974)
Death Wish (2018)
Seconds (1966)
Soylent Green (1973)
Rage (1972)
Assault on Wall Street (2013)
Repo Man (1984)
Elmer Gantry (1960)
The Train (1965)
Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)
Strange Brew (1983)
To Have And Have Not (1944)
Singin’ In The Rain (1952)
Easter Parade (1948)
The Band Wagon (1953)
Guys And Dolls (1955)
On The Town (1949)
Casablanca (1942)
The Dirt Gang (1972)
Back To The Future (1985)
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
The Big Sleep (1946)
Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)
My Man Godfrey...
- 8/14/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
In Christian Petzold’s superbly deft drama, a fugitive steals someone else’s identity with deeply disturbing results
Christian Petzold is the film-maker renowned as a modern master of suspense and a poet of Germany’s divided self. Of his recent work, I loved his Stasi thriller Barbara (2012) but put myself in a minority of one by objecting to a serious plot hole in his hugely admired postwar noir Phoenix (2014) – a plot hole that I couldn’t accept was unimportant or some anti-realist stylisation. Well, now I have to admit that Petzold has shown himself to have a flair for just this kind of anti-realism or quasi-realism in his new and rather brilliant film, Transit. Its experimental premise was alienating for me at first, but its mysterious, dreamlike quality began to surround me like mist.
Petzold has adapted a 1944 novel by the anti-fascist German author Anna Seghers about a German...
Christian Petzold is the film-maker renowned as a modern master of suspense and a poet of Germany’s divided self. Of his recent work, I loved his Stasi thriller Barbara (2012) but put myself in a minority of one by objecting to a serious plot hole in his hugely admired postwar noir Phoenix (2014) – a plot hole that I couldn’t accept was unimportant or some anti-realist stylisation. Well, now I have to admit that Petzold has shown himself to have a flair for just this kind of anti-realism or quasi-realism in his new and rather brilliant film, Transit. Its experimental premise was alienating for me at first, but its mysterious, dreamlike quality began to surround me like mist.
Petzold has adapted a 1944 novel by the anti-fascist German author Anna Seghers about a German...
- 8/14/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Franz Rogowski with Paula Beer in Christian Petzold's Transit on Anna Seghers novel: "I read it because of the movie." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second half of my conversation with Franz Rogowski, we discuss the use of voice-over in Transit, breathing with Christian Petzold, his theatre work at the Kammerspiele in Munich, including Elfriede Jelinek's Wut and Toshiki Okada's No Sex and Terrence Malick's film Radegund. Franz told me that he loved Joaquin Phoenix, who just happens to be an actor he resembles in his performance for Jakob Lass's audacious Love Steaks opposite Lana Cooper.
Shot by Petzold's longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, Transit stars Franz Rogowski as Georg, a young man who escaped a concentration camp into present-day Marseille. He travels through France in the hopes to obtain a transit visa and finds himself among refugees and while on a mission to deliver a letter,...
In the second half of my conversation with Franz Rogowski, we discuss the use of voice-over in Transit, breathing with Christian Petzold, his theatre work at the Kammerspiele in Munich, including Elfriede Jelinek's Wut and Toshiki Okada's No Sex and Terrence Malick's film Radegund. Franz told me that he loved Joaquin Phoenix, who just happens to be an actor he resembles in his performance for Jakob Lass's audacious Love Steaks opposite Lana Cooper.
Shot by Petzold's longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, Transit stars Franz Rogowski as Georg, a young man who escaped a concentration camp into present-day Marseille. He travels through France in the hopes to obtain a transit visa and finds himself among refugees and while on a mission to deliver a letter,...
- 3/18/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Christian Petzold in front of a La Dolce Vita poster on Hans Dieter Huesch's lullaby Abendlied, sung by Franz Rogowski in Transit: "It's something about childhood, home, relief, and death." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Christian Petzold's latest, shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, stars Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt, positions Anna Seghers's novel Transit (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp into present-day Marseille. He travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to obtain a transit visa. Like his counterpart, Georg (Rogowski) finds himself among refugees and while on a mission to deliver a letter, discovers a dead writer's unfinished manuscript.
Christian Petzold on Franz Rogowski in Transit: "Georg is a man without any ballast. He is empty. He has nothing." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
There is no place like home to return to,...
Christian Petzold's latest, shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, stars Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt, positions Anna Seghers's novel Transit (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp into present-day Marseille. He travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to obtain a transit visa. Like his counterpart, Georg (Rogowski) finds himself among refugees and while on a mission to deliver a letter, discovers a dead writer's unfinished manuscript.
Christian Petzold on Franz Rogowski in Transit: "Georg is a man without any ballast. He is empty. He has nothing." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
There is no place like home to return to,...
- 3/5/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Christian Petzold’s latest film Transit—his third consecutive period piece, second successive literary adaptation, and first theatrical feature to not star Nina Hoss in quite some time—continues what might be described as the German director’s ongoing European project. It is telling that the title of his 2000 feature The State I Am In, after which last year’s New York retrospective of his work was named, suggests a filmmaker concerned with taking the pulse of a nation. Adapted from Anna Seghers’s 1942 novel of the same name, drawn from the writer’s experience of fleeing to Mexico during World War II, Transit completes Petzold’s self-dubbed “Love in Times of Oppressive Systems” trilogy, comprised of the 1980s spy-melodrama Barbara (2012) and his post-wwii Vertigo-facelift Phoenix (2014). From its first frame, though, one would be forgiven for echoing the enduring refrain of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return (2017)—for though...
- 3/1/2019
- MUBI
Take “Casablanca,” remove all the fun parts, and set it in the present day. It’s not such an odd idea. In Christian Petzold’s “Transit,” it feels eerily natural, and that’s both horrifying and fascinating.
“Transit” stars Franz Rogowski (“Happy End”) as Georg, a man asked to deliver mail to a writer in the midst of a contemporary fascist regime, during a violent purge of immigrants called “Spring Cleaning.” But when Georg arrives with the mail, he discovers the writer, Weidel, is already dead. He killed himself after, as his letters suggest, the rejection of his latest novel and the rejection of his estranged wife.
Georg is then asked to help another, wounded man travel to Marseilles, where that man can reunite with his family and leave the country, but the perilous journey leaves him dead too. With no plan, no friends, and no hope, Georg tries to...
“Transit” stars Franz Rogowski (“Happy End”) as Georg, a man asked to deliver mail to a writer in the midst of a contemporary fascist regime, during a violent purge of immigrants called “Spring Cleaning.” But when Georg arrives with the mail, he discovers the writer, Weidel, is already dead. He killed himself after, as his letters suggest, the rejection of his latest novel and the rejection of his estranged wife.
Georg is then asked to help another, wounded man travel to Marseilles, where that man can reunite with his family and leave the country, but the perilous journey leaves him dead too. With no plan, no friends, and no hope, Georg tries to...
- 3/1/2019
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
by Murtada Elfadl
Transit, opening this weekend in limited release, is the latest from the gifted German director Christian Petzold. It is a haunting modern day adaptation of Anna Seghers 1942 novel "Transit Visa". The film stars Franz Rogowski (Happy End) and Paula Beer as would-be lovers desperate to escape an occupied France. We got a chance to interview Petzold in January when he visited New York for a retrospective of his work by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. When we meet he informs us that he’s been up for more than 24 hours because of a flight delay, so he might struggle to find the words in English. But that's not what happens. There’s a translator but she only chimes in a couple of times in our half hour conversation. Perhaps delirious from no sleep, he’s in the mood to talk.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Transit, opening this weekend in limited release, is the latest from the gifted German director Christian Petzold. It is a haunting modern day adaptation of Anna Seghers 1942 novel "Transit Visa". The film stars Franz Rogowski (Happy End) and Paula Beer as would-be lovers desperate to escape an occupied France. We got a chance to interview Petzold in January when he visited New York for a retrospective of his work by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. When we meet he informs us that he’s been up for more than 24 hours because of a flight delay, so he might struggle to find the words in English. But that's not what happens. There’s a translator but she only chimes in a couple of times in our half hour conversation. Perhaps delirious from no sleep, he’s in the mood to talk.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
- 2/28/2019
- by Murtada Elfadl
- FilmExperience
Those Who Leave: Petzold Collapses Past and Present with Holocaust Redux
Switching things up considerably compared to his previous offerings, German auteur Christian Petzold makes his most daring and ultimately divisive venture to date with Transit, based on a 1942 novel by Anna Seghers. Those expecting a third part in his recent historical saga, marked by lauded successes Barbara (2012) and Phoenix (2014) might be a tad disappointed (especially as this is also Petzold’s first feature sans Nina Hoss in over a decade). Switching to a masculine perspective and mashing the parameters of the original text atop a contemporary yet pointedly undefined European platform in the midst of experiencing another German occupation, it’s a rather discombobulating experience for several reasons—and structurally perhaps best succeeds in presenting the actual condition implied by its title, a state of constant flux, instability, and foreboding.…...
Switching things up considerably compared to his previous offerings, German auteur Christian Petzold makes his most daring and ultimately divisive venture to date with Transit, based on a 1942 novel by Anna Seghers. Those expecting a third part in his recent historical saga, marked by lauded successes Barbara (2012) and Phoenix (2014) might be a tad disappointed (especially as this is also Petzold’s first feature sans Nina Hoss in over a decade). Switching to a masculine perspective and mashing the parameters of the original text atop a contemporary yet pointedly undefined European platform in the midst of experiencing another German occupation, it’s a rather discombobulating experience for several reasons—and structurally perhaps best succeeds in presenting the actual condition implied by its title, a state of constant flux, instability, and foreboding.…...
- 2/28/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Transit Music Box Films Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net by: Harvey Karten Director: Christian Petzold Screenwriter: Christian Petzold, based on the novel by Anna Seghers Cast: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman, Maryam Zaree Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 2/15/19 Opens: March 1, 2019 The first lesson that a teacher gives in introducing […]
The post Transit Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Transit Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 2/21/2019
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Christian Petzold: "Transit is the first movie in 20 years where the main character is a male." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Christian Petzold joined me for a conversation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center when he was in New York for Carte Blanche: Christian Petzold Selects and a sneak preview screening of Transit. He brought up Claude Chabrol's work with Stéphane Audran and Isabelle Huppert. Julia Hummer and Nina Hoss, George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, Alex Brendemühl, a Franz Kafka-like "hell construction" in Anna Seghers' novel and the books of William Burroughs also emerged.
Marie (Paula Beer) with Georg (Franz Rogowski) in Transit
Shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, Transit is Christian Petzold's "first movie in 20 years where the main character is a male" and he found himself "very...
Christian Petzold joined me for a conversation at the Film Society of Lincoln Center when he was in New York for Carte Blanche: Christian Petzold Selects and a sneak preview screening of Transit. He brought up Claude Chabrol's work with Stéphane Audran and Isabelle Huppert. Julia Hummer and Nina Hoss, George Romero's Dawn Of The Dead, Alex Brendemühl, a Franz Kafka-like "hell construction" in Anna Seghers' novel and the books of William Burroughs also emerged.
Marie (Paula Beer) with Georg (Franz Rogowski) in Transit
Shot by his longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm, Transit is Christian Petzold's "first movie in 20 years where the main character is a male" and he found himself "very...
- 2/1/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
While he reached international acclaim with Barbara and Phoenix, Christian Petzold’s filmography is full of rich, enigmatic genre riffs that delight with suspense and emotion. His latest film, Transit, is no different. The story centers on Georg (Franz Rogowski), an escapee of a concentration camp who flees Paris just as the Nazis march in. The film depicts his few weeks in the French port city of Marseille before his final trip out of the continent. Despite the film taking place during the era of the Second World War, Petzold boldly decides to ignore the historical setting, costume- and production-wise, rather having the feel of the present day. Ahead of a March release, the new U.S. trailer has now arrived via Music Box Films.
“Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of Anna Seghers’s World War II-set novel about refugees escaping Nazi-controlled France is a strange, beguiling...
“Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of Anna Seghers’s World War II-set novel about refugees escaping Nazi-controlled France is a strange, beguiling...
- 1/8/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Despite often trafficking in dark themes in his films — his last three films all center around seemingly normal people whose lives are ravaged by corrupt and often evil governments — filmmaker Christian Petzold’s real skill is couching seemingly understandable stories and emotions in thrillingly complex narratives. There are always secrets at the heart of his films, but they are beguiling and unique twists, never shoved into stories for the hell of it, always essential to the entire experience he’s attempting to give to his audience.
A Petzold feature is best enjoyed with the minimum of existing information, which makes the first trailer for his “Transit” such a joy. While “Transit” is based on Anna Seghers’ novel of the same name, knowing what happens in that book — written in 1944, set in 1942 — doesn’t dilute the imaginative power of the film, which Petzold pulls out of time to be, well, timely...
A Petzold feature is best enjoyed with the minimum of existing information, which makes the first trailer for his “Transit” such a joy. While “Transit” is based on Anna Seghers’ novel of the same name, knowing what happens in that book — written in 1944, set in 1942 — doesn’t dilute the imaginative power of the film, which Petzold pulls out of time to be, well, timely...
- 1/8/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Transit star Franz Rogowski on Christian Petzold: "Christian has a deep connection with ghosts. And ghosts keep coming back in his work over the past 20 years." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The Film Society of Lincoln Center Christian Petzold retrospective The State We Are In includes films with actors Nina Hoss, Benno Fürmann and Ronald Zehrfeld, shot by Petzold's longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm.
Franz Rogowski as Georg in Transit: "Yeah, he's stuck. I mean, bureaucratic hell got him."
Harun Farocki's The Interview, along with Nothing Ventured and Petzold's latest, Transit, starring Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt (Main Slate selection of the 56th New York Film Festival), will also screen in the programme.
Transit positions Anna Seghers's novel (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp and travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center Christian Petzold retrospective The State We Are In includes films with actors Nina Hoss, Benno Fürmann and Ronald Zehrfeld, shot by Petzold's longtime cinematographer Hans Fromm.
Franz Rogowski as Georg in Transit: "Yeah, he's stuck. I mean, bureaucratic hell got him."
Harun Farocki's The Interview, along with Nothing Ventured and Petzold's latest, Transit, starring Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer with Barbara Auer, Lilien Batman, Alex Brendemühl, Godehard Giese, Maryam Zaree, and Matthias Brandt (Main Slate selection of the 56th New York Film Festival), will also screen in the programme.
Transit positions Anna Seghers's novel (originally published in 1944) about a young, nameless man who escaped a concentration camp and travels through France in 1942 in the hopes to.
- 11/11/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
A strong showcase of German cinema was on offer at the Toronto Film Festival with a slew of films tackling such timely issues as sexual violence, the plight of refugees, the end of the Soviet Union and Germany’s recent turbulent history.
This year’s selections included works from such prominent names as Werner Herzog, Margarethe von Trotta, Christian Petzold, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Sven Taddicken.
In Herzog and André Singer’s doc “Meeting Gorbachev,” the prolific filmmakers offer a portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, and his lasting impact on world politics.
In “Searching for Ingmar Bergman,” which also unspools in the Tiff Docs sidebar, von Trotta explores the Swedish director’s cinematic legacy.
Von Donnersmarck, who won the foreign-language film Oscar for 2006’s “The Lives of Others,” revisits East Germany in “Never Look Away,” which follows the life of an artist struggling...
This year’s selections included works from such prominent names as Werner Herzog, Margarethe von Trotta, Christian Petzold, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and Sven Taddicken.
In Herzog and André Singer’s doc “Meeting Gorbachev,” the prolific filmmakers offer a portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union, and his lasting impact on world politics.
In “Searching for Ingmar Bergman,” which also unspools in the Tiff Docs sidebar, von Trotta explores the Swedish director’s cinematic legacy.
Von Donnersmarck, who won the foreign-language film Oscar for 2006’s “The Lives of Others,” revisits East Germany in “Never Look Away,” which follows the life of an artist struggling...
- 9/17/2018
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Immigrant drama premiered in Berlin.
Music Box Film has acquired Us rights to Christian Petzold’s immigrant drama Transit ahead of its North American premiere in Toronto in September.
Rising star Franz Rogowski appears opposite Paula Beer in the drama, which premiered at the Berlinale and will screen in the New York Film Festival after its Masters slot in Toronto.
Petzold adapted Transit from Anna Seghers’ Second World War novel of the same name, and relocates the story to an unspecified setting that resembles contemporary France.
The story follows German refugee Georg as he assumes the identity of a recently deceased author,...
Music Box Film has acquired Us rights to Christian Petzold’s immigrant drama Transit ahead of its North American premiere in Toronto in September.
Rising star Franz Rogowski appears opposite Paula Beer in the drama, which premiered at the Berlinale and will screen in the New York Film Festival after its Masters slot in Toronto.
Petzold adapted Transit from Anna Seghers’ Second World War novel of the same name, and relocates the story to an unspecified setting that resembles contemporary France.
The story follows German refugee Georg as he assumes the identity of a recently deceased author,...
- 8/15/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Music Box Films has obtained the U.S. rights to Transit, a Christian Petzold directed feature which has its world premiere at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and will head to Tiff next month before it’s theatrical and home releases in 2019. Starring Franz Rogowsk and Paula Beer, the pic is based on Anna Seghers’ WWII novel of the same title. Set in Marseille just after Germany’s invasion, the story follows Georg (Rogowski), a German refugee who takes on the identity of a recently deceased author, Weidel, whose papers he was carrying as he fled Paris. The deal was negotiated by Music Box Films’ William Schopf and Match Factory’s Thania Dimitrakopoulou.
Grasshopper Film has picked up the rights to Independent Spirit Award-nominated documentary film, Distant Constellation, which will bow at the Metrograph in New York City on November 2 before its digital release early 2019. Directed by Boston native Shevaun Mizrahi,...
Grasshopper Film has picked up the rights to Independent Spirit Award-nominated documentary film, Distant Constellation, which will bow at the Metrograph in New York City on November 2 before its digital release early 2019. Directed by Boston native Shevaun Mizrahi,...
- 8/15/2018
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Music Box Films has acquired U.S. rights to Christian Petzold’s “Transit,” which world-premiered in competition at Berlin and is set to play at the Toronto and New York film festivals.
“Transit,” which stars Franz Rogowski (“In the Aisles”) and Paula Beer (“Frantz”), was adapted from Anna Seghers’ World War II novel of the same name. An examination of modern France, it takes place in Marseilles just after the German invasion and follows Georg, a German refugee who takes on the identity of a recently deceased author, Weidel. Variety called it a film of “piercing emotional acuity.”
A well-established German filmmaker, Petzold also directed “Barbara,” which won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear in 2012; “Phoenix,” which won the Fipresci Prize at San Sebastian; and “Yella.”
“We are great admirers of Christian’s films, and are thrilled to finally be working with him,” said Music Box Films President William Schopf, who...
“Transit,” which stars Franz Rogowski (“In the Aisles”) and Paula Beer (“Frantz”), was adapted from Anna Seghers’ World War II novel of the same name. An examination of modern France, it takes place in Marseilles just after the German invasion and follows Georg, a German refugee who takes on the identity of a recently deceased author, Weidel. Variety called it a film of “piercing emotional acuity.”
A well-established German filmmaker, Petzold also directed “Barbara,” which won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear in 2012; “Phoenix,” which won the Fipresci Prize at San Sebastian; and “Yella.”
“We are great admirers of Christian’s films, and are thrilled to finally be working with him,” said Music Box Films President William Schopf, who...
- 8/15/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Barbara and Phoenix director Christian Petzold returned to Berlinale this year with Transit, without regular muse Nina Hoss for the first time since 2005’s Ghosts. Rather, the drama centers on Georg (Franz Rogowski), an escapee of a concentration camp who flees Paris just as the Nazis march in as the film depicts his few weeks in the French port city of Marseille before his final trip out of the continent. Despite the film taking place during the era of the Second World War, Petzold boldly decides to ignore the historical setting, costume- and production-wise, rather having the feel of the present day.
“Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of Anna Seghers’s World War II-set novel about refugees escaping Nazi-controlled France is a strange, beguiling creation that will be hard to beat in the competition line-up, and ranks as a rare period piece that utterly gets under the skin of contemporary concerns,...
“Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of Anna Seghers’s World War II-set novel about refugees escaping Nazi-controlled France is a strange, beguiling creation that will be hard to beat in the competition line-up, and ranks as a rare period piece that utterly gets under the skin of contemporary concerns,...
- 3/13/2018
- by Zhuo-Ning Su
- The Film Stage
With the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival wrapped, we’ve highlighted our favorite films from the festival. Make sure to stay tuned in the coming months as we learn about distribution news for the titles. Check out our favorites below.
An Elephant Sitting Still (Bo Hu)
The trick to getting the most out of the Berlin Film Festival is to dig deep into its stupendous program spanning 400 films across a multitude of sidebars. Premiering in the Forum section which traditionally favors more experimental/radical forms of filmmaking, Chinese writer/director Bo Hu’s feature debut An Elephant Sitting Still is the work of raw, intimidating talent driven by a creative fury that would likely daunt most competition titles. Unmissable for anyone craving the gritty realism and independent spirit of pre-00’s Chinese cinema. Fair warning: this is decidedly not the feel-good movie of the year. – Zhuo-Ning Su (full review)
Grass (Hong...
An Elephant Sitting Still (Bo Hu)
The trick to getting the most out of the Berlin Film Festival is to dig deep into its stupendous program spanning 400 films across a multitude of sidebars. Premiering in the Forum section which traditionally favors more experimental/radical forms of filmmaking, Chinese writer/director Bo Hu’s feature debut An Elephant Sitting Still is the work of raw, intimidating talent driven by a creative fury that would likely daunt most competition titles. Unmissable for anyone craving the gritty realism and independent spirit of pre-00’s Chinese cinema. Fair warning: this is decidedly not the feel-good movie of the year. – Zhuo-Ning Su (full review)
Grass (Hong...
- 2/27/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
A German, possibly a Jew, is on the run from occupation forces through wartime France in Christian Petzold’s Transit. Is he a hero? This is a difficult question, and one muddied all the more by the German director’s at once bold and simple concept of transposing of Anna Seghers’ novel, written and set during the Second World War, to today’s Marseille—all the while retaining the plotting and references to Germany’s invasive path through France. Stranded in the French port and trying to find a way out of the country, Georg (Franz Rogowski) is mistaken for a dead writer who has been granted a visa to Mexico. Flustered at first, the refugee soon takes advantage of this other identity, but while waiting for his boat to leave Georg is drawn to the son of his dead comrade, a half German, half African boy, as well as...
- 2/25/2018
- MUBI
While he earned acclaimed with Barbara, German director Christian Petzold, well-deservedly, reached a bigger audience with his haunting post-wwii drama Phoenix. He’s now returned with Transit, without regular muse Nina Hoss for the first time since 2005’s Ghosts, instead centering on Georg (Franz Rogowski), an escapee of a concentration camp who flees Paris just as the Nazis march in as the film depicts his few weeks in the French port city of Marseille before his final trip out of the continent. Despite the film taking place during the era of the Second World War, Petzold boldly decides to ignore the historical setting, costume- and production-wise, rather having the feel of the present day.
Following the Berlinale premiere, the first trailer and trio of clips have now arrived, and although sans subtitles, they provide an intriguing first look at Petzold’s feature. “Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of...
Following the Berlinale premiere, the first trailer and trio of clips have now arrived, and although sans subtitles, they provide an intriguing first look at Petzold’s feature. “Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of...
- 2/19/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Migration isn’t just a hot-button issue in the political arena. It’s a hot topic in your local arthouse theater, too. At Berlin’s film festival, the subject is everywhere–from Wolfgang Fischer’s Styx and documentaries like Central Airport Thf–perhaps natural for the capital of a country now home to more than a million recent asylum-seekers from the middle east and Africa.
Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of Anna Seghers’s World War II-set novel about refugees escaping Nazi-controlled France is a strange, beguiling creation that will be hard to beat in the competition line-up, and ranks as a rare period piece that utterly gets under the skin of contemporary concerns. It’s an engrossing, uncanny and somewhat disturbing film, and completes something of a trio of historical melodramas after Barbara and his worldwide hit Phoenix, but develops the themes of those in an adventurous,...
Local boy Christian Petzold’s audacious retelling of Anna Seghers’s World War II-set novel about refugees escaping Nazi-controlled France is a strange, beguiling creation that will be hard to beat in the competition line-up, and ranks as a rare period piece that utterly gets under the skin of contemporary concerns. It’s an engrossing, uncanny and somewhat disturbing film, and completes something of a trio of historical melodramas after Barbara and his worldwide hit Phoenix, but develops the themes of those in an adventurous,...
- 2/18/2018
- by Ed Frankl
- The Film Stage
A man arrives in purgatory, eager to learn his eternal fate. The divine judgement, however, is slow to arrive. The minutes turn to hours, the hours turn to days, and the days begin to blur together in a place where time has no meaning. Eventually, after what feels to him like a hundred years, the man begs for a verdict. “What are you talking about?” comes the reply. “You’ve been in hell since you got here.”
That grim parable is told to Georg (“Happy End” breakout Franz Rogowski) roughly halfway into Christian Petzold’s “Transit,” and yet the poor bastard doesn’t seem to realize that it’s about him. The inscrutable hero of an inscrutable film that unfolds like a remake of “Casablanca” as written by Franz Kafka, Georg has just escaped occupied Paris by the skin of his teeth, stowing away on a train to the port of Marseille.
That grim parable is told to Georg (“Happy End” breakout Franz Rogowski) roughly halfway into Christian Petzold’s “Transit,” and yet the poor bastard doesn’t seem to realize that it’s about him. The inscrutable hero of an inscrutable film that unfolds like a remake of “Casablanca” as written by Franz Kafka, Georg has just escaped occupied Paris by the skin of his teeth, stowing away on a train to the port of Marseille.
- 2/17/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The cinema of German auteur Christian Petzold is populated with ghosts, from his Ghosts trilogy that spans The State I Am In, Ghosts and Yella to his more recent historical films, like Barbara and Phoenix, where people are never what they seem and the past and present feel like they exist almost simultaneously because the issues that the characters in the past struggle with resonate so clearly in the world we live in today.
His latest film, Transit, takes this idea one step further, with Petzold taking the story of the eponymous Anna Seghers novel written and set in 1942 zone libre Marseille but telling it against ...
His latest film, Transit, takes this idea one step further, with Petzold taking the story of the eponymous Anna Seghers novel written and set in 1942 zone libre Marseille but telling it against ...
- 2/17/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The cinema of German auteur Christian Petzold is populated with ghosts, from his Ghosts trilogy that spans The State I Am In, Ghosts and Yella to his more recent historical films, like Barbara and Phoenix, where people are never what they seem and the past and present feel like they exist almost simultaneously because the issues that the characters in the past struggle with resonate so clearly in the world we live in today.
His latest film, Transit, takes this idea one step further, with Petzold taking the story of the eponymous Anna Seghers novel written and set in 1942 zone libre Marseille but telling it against ...
His latest film, Transit, takes this idea one step further, with Petzold taking the story of the eponymous Anna Seghers novel written and set in 1942 zone libre Marseille but telling it against ...
- 2/17/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Below is a strictly personal, unapologetically idiosyncratic list of the twenty films I'm most looking forward to in 2018 and which have so far yet to be seen by any paying audiences. Among those seriously considered but ultimately excluded on the basis that they're more likely to be ready next year are Ad Astra (James Gray), Blessed Virgin (Paul Verhoeven), The Fire Next Time (Mati Diop), Late Spring (Michelangelo Frammartino), the particularly-dynamite-on-paper Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello), Mektoub, My Love: Canto Due (Abdellatif Kechiche) and Motorboats (Yuri Ancarani). I also reluctantly discarded a couple of highly tantalising projects whose status, at the time of writing, was frustratingly unclear, namely Tijuana Bible (Jean-Charles Hue) and the worryingly long-in-gestation You Can't Win (Robinson Devor). Omitted because they're made primarily for TV rather than cinemas: Martin Scorsese's The Irishman (Netflix) and Bruno Dumont's Coincoin and the Extra-Humans (Arté). Finally, Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir: Part I...
- 1/16/2018
- MUBI
This week all eyes will be turned to Sundance, where the next big Oscar player could emerge (don’t forget, “Call Me by Your Name” premiered at Park City one year ago). However, Berlin is looming in the background, and today they’ve added a strong handful of new titles.
Shooting to the top our attention is “Transit,” the new film by Christian Petzold, the filmmaker behind “Barbara” and “Phoenix.” Based on the novel by Anna Seghers, the story is set during WWII and follows a man who has escaped the concentration camps, who is asked to deliver a letter to someone named Weidel in Paris.
Continue reading 2018 Berlin Fest Adds ‘Damsel’ With Robert Pattinson, Christian Petzold’s ‘Transit’ & More at The Playlist.
Shooting to the top our attention is “Transit,” the new film by Christian Petzold, the filmmaker behind “Barbara” and “Phoenix.” Based on the novel by Anna Seghers, the story is set during WWII and follows a man who has escaped the concentration camps, who is asked to deliver a letter to someone named Weidel in Paris.
Continue reading 2018 Berlin Fest Adds ‘Damsel’ With Robert Pattinson, Christian Petzold’s ‘Transit’ & More at The Playlist.
- 1/15/2018
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Christian Petzold, Emily Atef, Lance Daly join Berlinale.
Source: Great Point Media
‘Damsel’
Another ten films have joined the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). Three more have also been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.
Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong - China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.
Joining the main competition are Barbara and Phoenix director Christian Petzold’s new drama Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940. The film stars Frantz breakout Paula Beer.
Also new to competition is David and Nathan Zellner’s Damsel, the western about a Us businessman who travels to join his fiancée...
Source: Great Point Media
‘Damsel’
Another ten films have joined the Competition of the 68th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). Three more have also been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.
Joining the eight Competition films and two Berlinale Special titles are 13 productions from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hong Kong - China, Iran, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Paraguay, People’s Republic of China, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and the USA.
Joining the main competition are Barbara and Phoenix director Christian Petzold’s new drama Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940. The film stars Frantz breakout Paula Beer.
Also new to competition is David and Nathan Zellner’s Damsel, the western about a Us businessman who travels to join his fiancée...
- 1/15/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- ScreenDaily
German filmmaker Christian Petzold has been making features for nearly two decades now, but it wasn’t until his last feature, the 2014 drama “Phoenix,” that he cemented his status as one of the top international directors in the world. Three years later, Petzold is back at work behind the camera for his new movie, “Transit,” and it appears he’ll be dabbling once again in the kind of identity mysteries that made “Phoenix” such a powerhouse.
Read More: Why ‘Phoenix’ Finally Makes Christian Petzold a New Arthouse Auteur
“Transit” is adapted from Anna Seghers‘ World War II novel of the same name. The story concerns a 27-year old German tasked with delivering a letter to a man named Weidel in Paris. He assumes the identity of a refugee named Seidler as he travels to Marseille, but he’s mistaken by the authorities as Weidel himself. It turns out the real Weidel committed suicide,...
Read More: Why ‘Phoenix’ Finally Makes Christian Petzold a New Arthouse Auteur
“Transit” is adapted from Anna Seghers‘ World War II novel of the same name. The story concerns a 27-year old German tasked with delivering a letter to a man named Weidel in Paris. He assumes the identity of a refugee named Seidler as he travels to Marseille, but he’s mistaken by the authorities as Weidel himself. It turns out the real Weidel committed suicide,...
- 6/12/2017
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
We learned last year that Christian Petzold, one of Germany’s great contemporary filmmakers, will follow Phoenix, one of our favorites of 2015, with Transit, based on Anna Seghers‘ World War II-era novel of the same name. Led by Franz Rogowski and Paula Beer, the film is currently shooting in Marseille and the first photos have arrived.
Judging from the first look, it seems like Petzold might have updated the story to the modern day. As we await more details, check out the synopsis of the novel below, courtesy of Amazon for the film we imagine could make its debut on the festival circuit next year:
Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany in 1937, and later a camp in Rouen, the nameless twenty-seven-year-old German narrator of Seghers’s multilayered masterpiece ends up in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he is asked to deliver a letter to...
Judging from the first look, it seems like Petzold might have updated the story to the modern day. As we await more details, check out the synopsis of the novel below, courtesy of Amazon for the film we imagine could make its debut on the festival circuit next year:
Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany in 1937, and later a camp in Rouen, the nameless twenty-seven-year-old German narrator of Seghers’s multilayered masterpiece ends up in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the way he is asked to deliver a letter to...
- 6/11/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Exclusive: German sales agent boards next project from the director of Phoenix [pictured].
The Match Factory has boarded international sales for Christian Petzold’s next feature Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
Paula Beer, who won the best newcomer award at Venice last year for iFrancois Ozon’s Frantz, and Franz Rogowski (Tiger Girl) lead the cast on the film, which will begin a 40-day shoot in Marseilles from mid-May.
Transit will mark the 11th collaboration between Petzold and Berlin-based production company Schramm Film after such films as The State I Am In, Yella, Barbara and Phoenix. Schramm Film is in this year’s Competition with Thomas Arslan’s road movie Bright Lights, which is also handled by The Match Factory.
Transit has received €500,000 funding from the German-French Funding Committee and €350,000 from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Marseille-based Neon is on board as co-producer and Piffl...
The Match Factory has boarded international sales for Christian Petzold’s next feature Transit, a contemporary reworking of Anna Seghers’ 1944 novel about refugees attempting to flee through Marseille after the Nazi invasion of France in 1940.
Paula Beer, who won the best newcomer award at Venice last year for iFrancois Ozon’s Frantz, and Franz Rogowski (Tiger Girl) lead the cast on the film, which will begin a 40-day shoot in Marseilles from mid-May.
Transit will mark the 11th collaboration between Petzold and Berlin-based production company Schramm Film after such films as The State I Am In, Yella, Barbara and Phoenix. Schramm Film is in this year’s Competition with Thomas Arslan’s road movie Bright Lights, which is also handled by The Match Factory.
Transit has received €500,000 funding from the German-French Funding Committee and €350,000 from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Marseille-based Neon is on board as co-producer and Piffl...
- 2/13/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
The write-up on Cineuropa is brief, but the actual occasion is of major note: Christian Petzold, one of Germany’s great contemporary filmmakers, will follow Phoenix, one of last year’s best films, with Transit, a World War II-era drama based on Anna Seghers‘ novel of the same name. Concrete details are essentially non-existent, perhaps excepting the notice that Schramm Film Koerner & Weber and Neon Productions will support the picture. When it shoots and who will join him remains to be seen.
A quick glance at Transit‘s Amazon page will tell us what the book and, one assumes by extension, the picture is about, and so I shamelessly copy that information for you:
Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany in 1937, and later a camp in Rouen, the nameless twenty-seven-year-old German narrator of Seghers’s multilayered masterpiece ends up in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the...
A quick glance at Transit‘s Amazon page will tell us what the book and, one assumes by extension, the picture is about, and so I shamelessly copy that information for you:
Having escaped from a Nazi concentration camp in Germany in 1937, and later a camp in Rouen, the nameless twenty-seven-year-old German narrator of Seghers’s multilayered masterpiece ends up in the dusty seaport of Marseille. Along the...
- 12/5/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
A trifecta of films — “Jerichow,” “Barbara,” and most recently, “Phoenix” — has turned German filmmaker Christian Petzold into an arthouse favorite. And the good news for fans is that his next movie is gearing up, and as always, it sounds promising.
Read More: Guilt And Rubble: 15 Essential Post-War Films
Petzold will direct an adaptation Anna Seghers‘s classic novel, “Transit.” Set at the cusp of WWII after Germany invades France, the story follows a man who escapes a Nazi concentration and flees to Marseilles, where he’s tasked with an assignment that will bring him an intimate understanding of the plight of refugees.
Continue reading ‘Barbara’ & ‘Phoenix’ Director Christian Petzold To Helm Refugee Drama ‘Transit’ at The Playlist.
Read More: Guilt And Rubble: 15 Essential Post-War Films
Petzold will direct an adaptation Anna Seghers‘s classic novel, “Transit.” Set at the cusp of WWII after Germany invades France, the story follows a man who escapes a Nazi concentration and flees to Marseilles, where he’s tasked with an assignment that will bring him an intimate understanding of the plight of refugees.
Continue reading ‘Barbara’ & ‘Phoenix’ Director Christian Petzold To Helm Refugee Drama ‘Transit’ at The Playlist.
- 12/2/2016
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
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