The Girl And The Spider Photo: Beauvoir Films The Girl And The Spider, All4, on demand
We featured this when it was available on Mubi last year, but now you can watch it without subscription on Channel 4’s free streaming service. Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher have a distinctive style that's all of their own, making tensions spring up from what have previously appeared to be the most benign of environments. Their follow up to their equally quirky The Strange Little Cat centres on Lisa (Liliane Amuat) who is preparing to move from the place she shares with Mara (Henriette Confurius) and Markus (Ivan Georgiev) and into a new one where she will live alone. A real spider will make its presence felt across this web of relationships but the mood is dominated by the desire for connections that ebbs and flows over the course of a couple of days.
We featured this when it was available on Mubi last year, but now you can watch it without subscription on Channel 4’s free streaming service. Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher have a distinctive style that's all of their own, making tensions spring up from what have previously appeared to be the most benign of environments. Their follow up to their equally quirky The Strange Little Cat centres on Lisa (Liliane Amuat) who is preparing to move from the place she shares with Mara (Henriette Confurius) and Markus (Ivan Georgiev) and into a new one where she will live alone. A real spider will make its presence felt across this web of relationships but the mood is dominated by the desire for connections that ebbs and flows over the course of a couple of days.
- 6/26/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2022, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
It occurred to me in 2022 that the films of Steven Spielberg have been there my entire life. I watched the three Indiana Jones films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jaws, among others, on nearly every sick day. The opening of Jurassic Park on June 9, 1993, was a major event on my calendar as a 13-year-old. So was the opening of Schindler’s List later that year.
This lifetime of Spielberg-ia culminated in two key events in 2022. The first was seeing E.T. on the big screen over the summer with my 12-year-old son, during its recent re-release. I’ve seen E.T. countless times over the years, but at the cinema, it was a revelation. And my goodness: the final chunk is as emotionally overwhelming to me as a...
It occurred to me in 2022 that the films of Steven Spielberg have been there my entire life. I watched the three Indiana Jones films, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jaws, among others, on nearly every sick day. The opening of Jurassic Park on June 9, 1993, was a major event on my calendar as a 13-year-old. So was the opening of Schindler’s List later that year.
This lifetime of Spielberg-ia culminated in two key events in 2022. The first was seeing E.T. on the big screen over the summer with my 12-year-old son, during its recent re-release. I’ve seen E.T. countless times over the years, but at the cinema, it was a revelation. And my goodness: the final chunk is as emotionally overwhelming to me as a...
- 12/30/2022
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Shiva Baby (2020) Emma Seligman's Bottoms now has a cast, which includes Shiva Baby star Rachel Sennott, Havana Rose Liu, Ayo Edebiri, and former NFL player Marshawn Lynch. Written by Seligman and Sennott, the film is a high school sex comedy about "two unpopular queer girls in their senior year who start a fight club to try to impress and hook up with cheerleaders." Michel Bouquet, the prolific French film and theater actor, has died at 96. Early in his film career, Bouquet narrated Alain Resnais' Night and Fog (1955), then went on to appear in films by François Truffaut, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Deray, and many more. Among his later performances was the role of the tiular painter in Gilles Bourdos's Renoir (2013). Submissions are now open for "The Video Essay," the annual collaborative section of...
- 4/13/2022
- MUBI
Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher's The Girl and the Spider is Mubi Go's Film of the Week in the US for April 8, 2022.Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Ramon ZÜRCHER: A disaster film as a psychological chamber play.Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theater? Why is it your favorite?Silvan ZÜRCHER: The Lido cinema in Biel (Switzerland). It isn't particularly beautiful, but we worked there as ushers in our school days and watched a lot of films. I still remember many of the films I have seen back then very vividly. I also like the relation between screen size and auditorium there. And furthermore, the view to the screen is never disturbed by large people sitting in front of you.Ramon: I also...
- 4/8/2022
- MUBI
Revisiting last year's introduction when putting together 2021's favorites, it is with a shock to realize how little has changed in the wildly disrupted world of cinema under the shroud of the pandemic. The urge to copy-and-paste the whole shebang is quite tempting indeed.What can we say about this year, 2021? We got a little more used to long-term instability. Cinemas and festivals re-opened, only for some to close again. We, like many, ventured carefully out into the world to finally see films again with audiences, all kinds: nervous ones, uproarious ones, spartan ones, and delighted ones. It was an experience both anxious and joyous. We also doubled down on the challenges, but also the pleasures, of home viewing: of virtual cinemas and virtual festivals, of straight to streaming premieres, of trying to capture a social joy in semi-isolation by connecting with others over experiences shared and disparate.The long...
- 12/27/2021
- MUBI
Established in the 1950s by André Bazin, Joseph-Marie Lo Duca, and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, France’s Cahiers du cinéma has recently gone through major changes this year, with their staff quitting en masse to protest new ownership. The heralded magazine, however, has soldiered on and returned last year. They are now back with their favorite films of 2021.
Topping the list is Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, a film that premiered in 2019, came out in the U.S. in 2020, and finally arrived in France this year. Over half the list features Cannes selections, including Leos Carax’s Annette, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Memoria.
There’s also the requisite entry that hasn’t traveled far beyond France, Guillaume Brac’s À l’abordage aka All Hands on Deck, as well as my personal favorite 2022 U.S. release thus far: Silvan and Ramon Zürcher’s The Girl and the Spider.
See the full list below.
Topping the list is Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, a film that premiered in 2019, came out in the U.S. in 2020, and finally arrived in France this year. Over half the list features Cannes selections, including Leos Carax’s Annette, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Memoria.
There’s also the requisite entry that hasn’t traveled far beyond France, Guillaume Brac’s À l’abordage aka All Hands on Deck, as well as my personal favorite 2022 U.S. release thus far: Silvan and Ramon Zürcher’s The Girl and the Spider.
See the full list below.
- 11/29/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
After opening the Venice Film Festival and continuing on to the New York Film Festival, Oscar winner Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers from Sony Pictures Classics will have a red-carpet premiere at this year’s AFI Fest at the Tcl Chinese Theatre on Saturday, Nov. 13.
In the movie, two women, Janis and Ana, played respectively by Penelope Cruz and Milena Smit, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way. Cruz won the Volpi...
In the movie, two women, Janis and Ana, played respectively by Penelope Cruz and Milena Smit, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn’t regret it and she is exultant. The other, Ana, an adolescent, is scared, repentant and traumatized. Janis tries to encourage her while they move like sleepwalkers along the hospital corridors. The few words they exchange in these hours will create a very close link between the two, which by chance develops and complicates, and changes their lives in a decisive way. Cruz won the Volpi...
- 10/13/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Films include Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’ and Blerta Basholli’s ‘Hive’.
More films than ever before are eligible for this year’s European Film Awards’ feature film and documentary film selection, with 40 feature films and 15 documentary films, and further feature film titles to be revealed in September.
Titles in the feature film selection include Blerta Basholli’s Sundance hit Hive and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. The latter is eligible despite being listed as a film of US origin. The European Film Academy (Efa) told Screen this was because the film reaches the number of points in...
More films than ever before are eligible for this year’s European Film Awards’ feature film and documentary film selection, with 40 feature films and 15 documentary films, and further feature film titles to be revealed in September.
Titles in the feature film selection include Blerta Basholli’s Sundance hit Hive and Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. The latter is eligible despite being listed as a film of US origin. The European Film Academy (Efa) told Screen this was because the film reaches the number of points in...
- 8/24/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Bruno Dumont’s France, starring Léa Seydoux will screen in the Main Slate of the 59th New York Film Festival Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Film at Lincoln Center has announced that Cannes Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau’s Titane, Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II, Bruno Dumont’s France, Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco, Mia Hansen-Løve's Bergman Island, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher’s The Girl And the Spider, Rebecca Hall’s Passing, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, and Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, and Alice Rohrwacher’s Futura will be among the Main Slate selections of the 59th New York Film Festival.
Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island stars Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
These highlights join the Opening Night, Centerpiece, and Closing Night selections Joel Coen’s The Tragedy Of Macbeth, Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, and Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers.
Film at Lincoln Center has announced that Cannes Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau’s Titane, Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir Part II, Bruno Dumont’s France, Michelangelo Frammartino’s Il Buco, Mia Hansen-Løve's Bergman Island, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher’s The Girl And the Spider, Rebecca Hall’s Passing, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, and Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, and Alice Rohrwacher’s Futura will be among the Main Slate selections of the 59th New York Film Festival.
Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island stars Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
These highlights join the Opening Night, Centerpiece, and Closing Night selections Joel Coen’s The Tragedy Of Macbeth, Jane Campion’s The Power Of The Dog, and Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers.
- 8/10/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Toronto Film Festival Adds Docs and Midnight Titles Including ‘Titane,’ ‘Attica’ and ‘Neptune Frost’
The Toronto International Film Festival announced which films will fill the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, and Wavelength sections at this year’s edition of the event, which runs from Sept. 9-18. The festival also added new titles to the Special Presentation and Contemporary World Cinema programs.
Opening TIFF Docs is the world premiere of “Attica” by Stanley Nelson, which tells the story of the 1971 Attica prison riot. Coming about as a result of the prisoners’ fight for more humane living conditions and lasting for five days, it remains the deadliest prison rebellion in U.S. history.
Wavelengths will open with “Neptune Frost” from directors and married couple Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman. The film is billed a sci-fi musical romance between an intersex hacker and a coltan miner that will follow the “virtual marvel born as a result of their union.” This marks the North American premiere of the film,...
Opening TIFF Docs is the world premiere of “Attica” by Stanley Nelson, which tells the story of the 1971 Attica prison riot. Coming about as a result of the prisoners’ fight for more humane living conditions and lasting for five days, it remains the deadliest prison rebellion in U.S. history.
Wavelengths will open with “Neptune Frost” from directors and married couple Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman. The film is billed a sci-fi musical romance between an intersex hacker and a coltan miner that will follow the “virtual marvel born as a result of their union.” This marks the North American premiere of the film,...
- 8/4/2021
- by Selome Hailu
- Variety Film + TV
BenedictionThe lineup has been unveiled for the 2021 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which will take place over 10 days (September 9-18) both in-person and physically in Toronto, and digitally across Canada. Wavelengths - FEATURESFutura (Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher)The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)Neptune Frost (Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman)A Night of Knowing Nothing (Payal Kapadia)Ste. Anne (Rhayne Vermette)The Tsugua Diaries (Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes)Wavelengths - SHORTSThe Capacity for Adequate Anger (Vika Kirchenbauer)Dear Chantal (Querida Chantal) (Nicolás Pereda)earthearthearth (Daïchi Saïto)Inner Outer Space (Laida Lertxundi)Polycephaly in D (Michael Robinson)“The red filter is withdrawn.” (Minjung Kim)Train Again (Peter Tscherkassky)Midnight Madness After Blue (Dirty Paradise) (Bertrand Mandico)Dashcam (Rob Savage)Saloum (Jean Luc Herbulot)Titane (Julia Ducournau)You Are Not My Mother (Kate Dolan)Zalava (Arsalan Amiri)TIFF DOCSAttica (Stanley Nelson)Beba (Rebeca Huntt)Becoming Cousteau...
- 8/4/2021
- MUBI
Titles include a new film from ‘Host’ director Rob Savage.
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has added 35 feature titles to its line-up for 2021, predominantly across the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths strands.
The new titles include 11 world premieres, consisting of eight in TIFF Docs and three in Midnight Madness.
Titles in the latter include Dashcam, the new film from Rob Savage, director of 2020 pandemic horror hit Host. Savage was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2013.
Also in the Midnight Madness section is Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother, inspired by the mythology of the Changeling, which...
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has added 35 feature titles to its line-up for 2021, predominantly across the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness and Wavelengths strands.
The new titles include 11 world premieres, consisting of eight in TIFF Docs and three in Midnight Madness.
Titles in the latter include Dashcam, the new film from Rob Savage, director of 2020 pandemic horror hit Host. Savage was named a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2013.
Also in the Midnight Madness section is Kate Dolan’s You Are Not My Mother, inspired by the mythology of the Changeling, which...
- 8/4/2021
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
New nonfiction films from directors Liz Garbus, Stanley Nelson, and E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the TIFF Docs program, TIFF organizers announced on Wednesday.
Nelson’s documentary “Attica” will serve as the opening-night film in the section, while other docs at the festival will include Garbus’ “Becoming Cousteau,” Barry Avrich’s “Oscar Peterson: Black + White,” Penny Lane’s “Listening to Kenny G” and Vasarhelyi and Chin’s “Rescue.”
The festival’s Midnight Madness section will open with the Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Titane,” by Julia Ducournau, while TIFF has also added three Special Presentations films that also premiered in Cannes: Nadav Lapid’s “Ahed’s Knee,” Bruno Dumont’s “France” and Ari Folman’s “Where Is Anne Frank?”
In the Contemporary World Cinema section, additions include Juho Kuosmanen’s “Compartment No. 6” and Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s “The Gravedigger’s Wife.
Nelson’s documentary “Attica” will serve as the opening-night film in the section, while other docs at the festival will include Garbus’ “Becoming Cousteau,” Barry Avrich’s “Oscar Peterson: Black + White,” Penny Lane’s “Listening to Kenny G” and Vasarhelyi and Chin’s “Rescue.”
The festival’s Midnight Madness section will open with the Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Titane,” by Julia Ducournau, while TIFF has also added three Special Presentations films that also premiered in Cannes: Nadav Lapid’s “Ahed’s Knee,” Bruno Dumont’s “France” and Ari Folman’s “Where Is Anne Frank?”
In the Contemporary World Cinema section, additions include Juho Kuosmanen’s “Compartment No. 6” and Khadar Ayderus Ahmed’s “The Gravedigger’s Wife.
- 8/4/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
Toronto International Film Festival announced its section of TIFF Docs presented by A&e IndieFilms, Wavelengths and Midnight Madness sections, and confirmed additions to the Special Presentation and Contemporary World Cinema programs of the fest.
“We’re so proud to present the films selected for the popular programmes TIFF Docs, Wavelengths and Midnight Madness,” stated Joana Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head. “Always provocative, exhilarating and engaging, this year’s offerings are guaranteed to thrill Festival audiences.”
“As an audience-first film festival, mesmerizing film lovers with boundary-pushing stories is pivotal,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head. “It’s exciting that even in this exceptional time in our industry, we’re able to bring such thought-provoking selections to these coveted TIFF programmes.”
Of note today in the lineup is the international premiere of National Geographic’s documentary Becoming Cousteau from two-time Oscar-nominated and two-time Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus (The Farm, Angola USA,...
“We’re so proud to present the films selected for the popular programmes TIFF Docs, Wavelengths and Midnight Madness,” stated Joana Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head. “Always provocative, exhilarating and engaging, this year’s offerings are guaranteed to thrill Festival audiences.”
“As an audience-first film festival, mesmerizing film lovers with boundary-pushing stories is pivotal,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head. “It’s exciting that even in this exceptional time in our industry, we’re able to bring such thought-provoking selections to these coveted TIFF programmes.”
Of note today in the lineup is the international premiere of National Geographic’s documentary Becoming Cousteau from two-time Oscar-nominated and two-time Emmy-winning director Liz Garbus (The Farm, Angola USA,...
- 8/4/2021
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Eight years on from their landmark debut The Strange Little Cat (2013), Swiss brothers Ramon and Silvan Zürcher have made their long-awaited return with The Girl and the Spider, the second in a planned trilogy of films about human connection and the slippery nature of kinship. A genuinely sui generis work, The Strange Little Cat announced a singular worldview in which cinematic time and space are made to enfold and reanimate the messiness of everyday life. In The Girl and the Spider, the Zürchers apply this philosophy to a slightly larger story: set mostly in two apartments over two days (in contrast to the The Strange Little Cat’s one apartment-one day scenario), the film follows a pair of roommates, Mara (Henriette Confurius) and Lisa (Liliane Amuat), as the latter moves out of their shared apartment and into a new flat across town.From this threadbare setup, the Zürchers fashion an...
- 3/26/2021
- MUBI
Distributor negotiated deal with Cercamon.
Cinema Guild has picked up North American rights to Berlin Encounters double prize-winner The Girl And The Spider.
Ramon Zürcher was named best director for the German-language film about friends and flatmates whose lives are thrown into disarray when one of them decides to move out.
Emerging talents Henriette Confurius and Liliane Amuat lead the ensemble cast and the film also won the Fipresci prize.
Silvan Zürcher wrote and produced The Girl And The Spider, the second film in the Swiss brothers’ trilogy about human bonding.
They previously worked on 2013 Berlinale premiere The Strange Little Cat.
Cinema Guild has picked up North American rights to Berlin Encounters double prize-winner The Girl And The Spider.
Ramon Zürcher was named best director for the German-language film about friends and flatmates whose lives are thrown into disarray when one of them decides to move out.
Emerging talents Henriette Confurius and Liliane Amuat lead the ensemble cast and the film also won the Fipresci prize.
Silvan Zürcher wrote and produced The Girl And The Spider, the second film in the Swiss brothers’ trilogy about human bonding.
They previously worked on 2013 Berlinale premiere The Strange Little Cat.
- 3/22/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Cinema Guild has acquired North American rights to Ramon Zürcher and Silvan Zürcher’s “The Girl and the Spider,” which world premiered at the Berlinale in the Encounters section, and won best director.
“The Girl and the Spider” was co-written and directed by Ramon Zürcher, and written and produced by Silvan Zürcher. It marks the Swiss brothers’ follow-up to their critically acclaimed feature debut “The Strange Little Cat,” which won the Fipresci prize at Berlin in 2013.
Like “The Strange Little Cat,” “The Girl and the Spider” explores human togetherness, the need for closeness and the pain of separation through the story of two roommates. The film revolves around Lisa (Liliane Amuat), who is moving out of the apartment she shared with Mara (Henriette Confurius), and is set within the two apartments, the one Lisa and Mara shared and the new one Lisa is moving into.
“We had high hopes for...
“The Girl and the Spider” was co-written and directed by Ramon Zürcher, and written and produced by Silvan Zürcher. It marks the Swiss brothers’ follow-up to their critically acclaimed feature debut “The Strange Little Cat,” which won the Fipresci prize at Berlin in 2013.
Like “The Strange Little Cat,” “The Girl and the Spider” explores human togetherness, the need for closeness and the pain of separation through the story of two roommates. The film revolves around Lisa (Liliane Amuat), who is moving out of the apartment she shared with Mara (Henriette Confurius), and is set within the two apartments, the one Lisa and Mara shared and the new one Lisa is moving into.
“We had high hopes for...
- 3/22/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Of all the locations one could possibly choose to stage modern relationship movies, cramped apartments surely rank as just about the least cinematic option. But that hasn’t stopped Swiss helmer Ramon Zürcher (“The Strange Little Cat”) from willingly embracing such boxy, where-to-place-the-camera confines yet again for his second feature, “The Girl and the Spider,” or from concocting clever ways to use such spaces to reveal the inner lives of his characters. Zürcher’s movies are like prisms, capturing the things people do when they think no one’s watching … and when they desperately wish they were.
His latest, co-directed with twin brother Silvan (a producer on “Cat” but a full-blown creative partner here), is all about the feelings that arise — more often implied rather than articulated in words — when Lisa (Liliane Amuat) abandons her roommates to rent her own flat. Amid all the commotion of the move, Mara (Henriette Confurius...
His latest, co-directed with twin brother Silvan (a producer on “Cat” but a full-blown creative partner here), is all about the feelings that arise — more often implied rather than articulated in words — when Lisa (Liliane Amuat) abandons her roommates to rent her own flat. Amid all the commotion of the move, Mara (Henriette Confurius...
- 3/15/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Relationships mix, simmer and boil in the cauldron of domestic spaces in the films of Ramon Zürcher, who follows up his 2013 film The Strange Little Cat with this second film in what is intended to be a trilogy about "human togetherness", this time co-directed and co-written by his twin brother Silvan, stepping up from his previous producer's role.
The shifting of emotions is matched by a physical restructuring of apartments as Lisa (Liliane Amuat) prepares to move out of the place she shares with Mara (Henriette Confurius) and Markus (Ivan Georgiev) and into a new one - a place where she will live independently - the camera watching the interplay not just between the three of them but a wide ensemble cast, who come and go over the course of a couple of days.
The Zürchers have a keen eye for the tensions of the everyday and a potential for acts of.
The shifting of emotions is matched by a physical restructuring of apartments as Lisa (Liliane Amuat) prepares to move out of the place she shares with Mara (Henriette Confurius) and Markus (Ivan Georgiev) and into a new one - a place where she will live independently - the camera watching the interplay not just between the three of them but a wide ensemble cast, who come and go over the course of a couple of days.
The Zürchers have a keen eye for the tensions of the everyday and a potential for acts of.
- 3/11/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
With a two-part structure featuring an online press and industry component that’s just concluded, followed by physical screenings this summer, the Berlin International Film Festival is unveiling a selection of the year’s finest films. Along with our extensive coverage of the festival (with a few reviews still to come), we’ve asked our Berlinale contributors to share their personal favorites. Check out their lists below, with links to coverage where available.
Ed Frankl
Memory Box
1. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
2. Memory Box (Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige)
3. Brother’s Keeper (Ferit Karahan)
4. Ballad of a White Cow (Behtash Sanaeeha & Maryam Moghaddam)
5. Ninjababy (Yngvild Sve Flikke)
Honorable Mentions: The Fam, Language Lessons, Natural Light, Taste, and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
Leonardo Goi
Taste
1. Taste (Lê Bảo)
2. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
3. The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova)
4. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
5. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude...
Ed Frankl
Memory Box
1. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
2. Memory Box (Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige)
3. Brother’s Keeper (Ferit Karahan)
4. Ballad of a White Cow (Behtash Sanaeeha & Maryam Moghaddam)
5. Ninjababy (Yngvild Sve Flikke)
Honorable Mentions: The Fam, Language Lessons, Natural Light, Taste, and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
Leonardo Goi
Taste
1. Taste (Lê Bảo)
2. Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
3. The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova)
4. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
5. Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Radu Jude...
- 3/10/2021
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn,” a modern day satire from Romanian director Radu Jude, won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlinale, or the Berlin International Film Festival.
“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” tells the story of a school teacher who finds her reputation under threat after her personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet, with her refusing to give into pressure from parents to step down. The film challenges the ideas of hypocrisy and prejudice in our society. The jury for the festival said it had the “rare and essential quality lasting art work.”
“It captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence,” the jury wrote. “It does so by provoking the spirit of our time, by slapping it, by challenging it to a duel.
“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” tells the story of a school teacher who finds her reputation under threat after her personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet, with her refusing to give into pressure from parents to step down. The film challenges the ideas of hypocrisy and prejudice in our society. The jury for the festival said it had the “rare and essential quality lasting art work.”
“It captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence,” the jury wrote. “It does so by provoking the spirit of our time, by slapping it, by challenging it to a duel.
- 3/5/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
The online edition of the two-part Berlin International Film Festival has now concluded, and the jury has announced their winners. Leading the pack taking home the Golden Bear was Romanian director Radu Jude’s new film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, while Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy took home the Silver Bear for Grand Jury Prize.
Rory O’Connor said in our review of Jude’s film, “As his old compatriots dabble in as far flung places as comic noirs (The Whistlers) and über-dense period symposiums (Malmkrog), it’s interesting that Radu Jude has lately emerged as the most contemporary minded of Romania’s great generation of filmmakers. Even when dabbling in the past his films are intrinsically linked to the here and now. In attempting to address the current moment, his latest, titled Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, is amongst the first of what can...
Rory O’Connor said in our review of Jude’s film, “As his old compatriots dabble in as far flung places as comic noirs (The Whistlers) and über-dense period symposiums (Malmkrog), it’s interesting that Radu Jude has lately emerged as the most contemporary minded of Romania’s great generation of filmmakers. Even when dabbling in the past his films are intrinsically linked to the here and now. In attempting to address the current moment, his latest, titled Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, is amongst the first of what can...
- 3/5/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The winners for the virtual 2021 Berlin International Film Festival have been revealed, and Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s satire “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” received the Golden Bear for best film. The competition jury celebrated the film as “a rare and essential quality of a lasting art work,” adding in a statement, “It captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence.”
This year’s Berlinale competition jury was made up of six former winners of the festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear: “There is No Evil” director Mohammad Rasoulof, “Synonyms” filmmaker Nadav Lapid, “Touch Me Not” helmer Adina Pintilie, “On Body and Soul” director Ildiko Enyedi, “Fire at Sea” filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, and “Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams” director Jasmila Zbanic.
The Silver Bear...
This year’s Berlinale competition jury was made up of six former winners of the festival’s top prize, the Golden Bear: “There is No Evil” director Mohammad Rasoulof, “Synonyms” filmmaker Nadav Lapid, “Touch Me Not” helmer Adina Pintilie, “On Body and Soul” director Ildiko Enyedi, “Fire at Sea” filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, and “Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams” director Jasmila Zbanic.
The Silver Bear...
- 3/5/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
Romanian director Radu Jude’s irreverent contemporary satire “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” has won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear for best film.
The jury said the film has that “rare and essential quality of a lasting art work. It captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence.”
Hungary’s Dénes Nagy won the Silver Bear for best director for World War II drama “Natural Light.” The jury said of the film: “Appalling and beautifully shot, mesmerising images, remarkable direction and a masterful control of every aspect of the craft of filmmaking, a narration that transcends its historical context. A portrait of war in which the observant gaze of the director reminds us again of the need to choose between passivity and taking individual responsibility.
The jury said the film has that “rare and essential quality of a lasting art work. It captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence.”
Hungary’s Dénes Nagy won the Silver Bear for best director for World War II drama “Natural Light.” The jury said of the film: “Appalling and beautifully shot, mesmerising images, remarkable direction and a masterful control of every aspect of the craft of filmmaking, a narration that transcends its historical context. A portrait of war in which the observant gaze of the director reminds us again of the need to choose between passivity and taking individual responsibility.
- 3/5/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Maren Eggert and Lilla Kizlinger win first ever gender-neutral acting awards.
The Golden Bear for best film at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival has been won by Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The social satire was shot in Romania during the summer of 2020 during a lull in the pandemic, and stars Katia Pascariu as a school teacher who finds her career and reputation on the line after a personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet. Heretic Outreach handles sales.
Romanian filmmaker Jude was last in competition at the...
The Golden Bear for best film at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival has been won by Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The social satire was shot in Romania during the summer of 2020 during a lull in the pandemic, and stars Katia Pascariu as a school teacher who finds her career and reputation on the line after a personal sex tape is leaked onto the Internet. Heretic Outreach handles sales.
Romanian filmmaker Jude was last in competition at the...
- 3/5/2021
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Updated Writethru: The Berlin Film Festival revealed its 2021 awards in a virtual presentation this afternoon with Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn scooping the top prize Golden Bear. Also among winners are debut filmmaker Dénes Nagy who took the Silver Bear for Best Director with Natural Light. Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man brought star Maren Eggert the Best Leading Performance honor while Maria Speth’s documentary Mr Bachmann And His Class was crowned with the Silver Bear Jury Prize, and the Grand Jury Prize went to Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy (see the full list below).
The winners were unveiled following five days of a virtual industry event that included the European Film Market and the competition films being made available only to delegates and the main jury from March 1-5. Berlin intends to run an audience-focused festival in June, when films will...
The winners were unveiled following five days of a virtual industry event that included the European Film Market and the competition films being made available only to delegates and the main jury from March 1-5. Berlin intends to run an audience-focused festival in June, when films will...
- 3/5/2021
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
This year’s Berlin International Film Festival will look a bit different this year, with a virtual edition taking place March 1-5 for industry and press, then a public, in-person edition kicking off in June.
The complete lineup has now been unveiled, including Céline Sciamma’s highly-anticipated Portrait of a Lady on Fire follow-up Petite Maman, a surprise new Hong Sang-soo feature, the latest work from Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, along with new projects by Radu Jude, Xavier Beauvois, Dominik Graf, Pietro Marcello, Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher, and more.
Check out each section below.
Competition Tiles
“Albatros” (Drift Away)
France
by Xavier Beauvois
with Jérémie Renier, Marie-Julie Maille, Victor Belmondo
“Babardeală cu buclucsau porno balamuc” (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)
Romania/Luxemburg/Croatia/Czech Republic
by Radu Jude
with Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Mălai
“Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde” (Fabian – Going to the Dogs)
Germany
by Dominik Graf
with Tom Schilling,...
The complete lineup has now been unveiled, including Céline Sciamma’s highly-anticipated Portrait of a Lady on Fire follow-up Petite Maman, a surprise new Hong Sang-soo feature, the latest work from Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, along with new projects by Radu Jude, Xavier Beauvois, Dominik Graf, Pietro Marcello, Ramon Zürcher & Silvan Zürcher, and more.
Check out each section below.
Competition Tiles
“Albatros” (Drift Away)
France
by Xavier Beauvois
with Jérémie Renier, Marie-Julie Maille, Victor Belmondo
“Babardeală cu buclucsau porno balamuc” (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)
Romania/Luxemburg/Croatia/Czech Republic
by Radu Jude
with Katia Pascariu, Claudia Ieremia, Olimpia Mălai
“Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde” (Fabian – Going to the Dogs)
Germany
by Dominik Graf
with Tom Schilling,...
- 2/11/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
New features from ‘Thunder Road’ director Jim Cummings and Denis Cote among line-up.
The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the features that will comprise its Encounters and Panorama strands, which will first be seen at the industry-focused, online-only event from March 1-5.
Panorama will include 19 titles, of which 16 are world premieres, while Encounters includes 12 features, all world premieres.
Like other strands that have been slimmed down for this year’s first virtual edition, Panorama is nearly half of the 36 titles that were selected last year. However, the Encounters competition, now in its second year, is just three titles fewer...
The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled the features that will comprise its Encounters and Panorama strands, which will first be seen at the industry-focused, online-only event from March 1-5.
Panorama will include 19 titles, of which 16 are world premieres, while Encounters includes 12 features, all world premieres.
Like other strands that have been slimmed down for this year’s first virtual edition, Panorama is nearly half of the 36 titles that were selected last year. However, the Encounters competition, now in its second year, is just three titles fewer...
- 2/10/2021
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Film Festival has revealed 12 titles from 16 countries that will compete in the festival’s Encounters strand, including Denis Côté’s “Social Hygiene” from Canada, Alice Diop’s “We” from France, and Fern Silva’s “Rock Bottom Riser” from the U.S.
The selections also take in “As I Want” (Egypt/France/Norway/Palestine) by Samaher Alqadi; “Azor” (Switzerland/France/Argentina) by Andreas Fontana; “The Beta Test” (U.S./U.K.) by Jim Cummings, Pj McCabe; and “Bloodsuckers (Germany) by Julian Radlmaier.
Also competing will be “The Girl and the Spider” (Switzerland) by Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher; “District Terminal” (Iran/Germany) by Bardia Yadegari, Ehsan Mirhosseini; “Moon, 66 Questions” (Greece/France) by Jacqueline Lentzou; “The Scary of Sixty-First” (U.S.) by Dasha Nekrasova; and “Taste” (Vietnam/Singapore/France/Thailand/Germany/Taiwan) by Lê Bảo.
The Encounters strand supports new or innovative voices in cinema. A jury will choose winners for best film,...
The selections also take in “As I Want” (Egypt/France/Norway/Palestine) by Samaher Alqadi; “Azor” (Switzerland/France/Argentina) by Andreas Fontana; “The Beta Test” (U.S./U.K.) by Jim Cummings, Pj McCabe; and “Bloodsuckers (Germany) by Julian Radlmaier.
Also competing will be “The Girl and the Spider” (Switzerland) by Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher; “District Terminal” (Iran/Germany) by Bardia Yadegari, Ehsan Mirhosseini; “Moon, 66 Questions” (Greece/France) by Jacqueline Lentzou; “The Scary of Sixty-First” (U.S.) by Dasha Nekrasova; and “Taste” (Vietnam/Singapore/France/Thailand/Germany/Taiwan) by Lê Bảo.
The Encounters strand supports new or innovative voices in cinema. A jury will choose winners for best film,...
- 2/10/2021
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Day 3 of this year’s Berlinale announcements contain the line-ups for Encounters, Panorama and Perspektive Deutsches Kino. Check back in tomorrow for the Competition program.
Encounters was first introduced at last year’s festival to support new voices in cinema. A three-member jury will award Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award during the industry event in March, with the prizes handed out physically at the summer event.
The selection consists of 12 titles from 16 countries, including seven debuts. Scroll down for the full list.
Over in Panorama, there are 19 titles including 14 world premieres. Several titles arrive from Sundance such as Prano Bailey-Bond’s UK feature Censor and Ronny Trocker’s Human Factors.
Perspektive Deutsches Kino will again present new views on German cinema, with six titles, all of which are world premieres. The full lists are below.
This week so far has seen the Generation, Retrospective, Forum, Forum Expanded and Shorts programs announced.
Encounters was first introduced at last year’s festival to support new voices in cinema. A three-member jury will award Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award during the industry event in March, with the prizes handed out physically at the summer event.
The selection consists of 12 titles from 16 countries, including seven debuts. Scroll down for the full list.
Over in Panorama, there are 19 titles including 14 world premieres. Several titles arrive from Sundance such as Prano Bailey-Bond’s UK feature Censor and Ronny Trocker’s Human Factors.
Perspektive Deutsches Kino will again present new views on German cinema, with six titles, all of which are world premieres. The full lists are below.
This week so far has seen the Generation, Retrospective, Forum, Forum Expanded and Shorts programs announced.
- 2/10/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
The Girl and the Spider
Produced by Aline Schmid, Adrian Blaser
Directed by Ramon Zürcher
Written by Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher
Starring: Henriette Confurius, Liliane Amuat, Ursina Lardi, Flurin Giger, André M. Hennicke, Ivan Georgiev, Dagna Litzenberger Vinet, Lea Draeger, Sabine Timoteo, Birte Schnöink
Cinematographer: Alexander Haßkerl
Release Date/Prediction: Berlinale 2021 would be a logical repeat.
…...
Produced by Aline Schmid, Adrian Blaser
Directed by Ramon Zürcher
Written by Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher
Starring: Henriette Confurius, Liliane Amuat, Ursina Lardi, Flurin Giger, André M. Hennicke, Ivan Georgiev, Dagna Litzenberger Vinet, Lea Draeger, Sabine Timoteo, Birte Schnöink
Cinematographer: Alexander Haßkerl
Release Date/Prediction: Berlinale 2021 would be a logical repeat.
…...
- 1/7/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Das Mädchen und die Spinne
Swiss director Ramon Zürcher at last returns with sophomore feature, Das Mädchen und die Spinne (The Girl and the Spider), a full seven years after his fantastic German-language debut The Strange Little Cat in 2013. Once again working with co-writer twin brother Silvan Zürcher and Dp Alexander Hasskerl, their latest is produced by Aline Schmid and Adrian Blaser. The cast consists of Henriette Confurious, Liliane Amaut, Ursina Lardi, Sabine Timoteo, Andre M. Hennicke, and Flurin Giger.…...
Swiss director Ramon Zürcher at last returns with sophomore feature, Das Mädchen und die Spinne (The Girl and the Spider), a full seven years after his fantastic German-language debut The Strange Little Cat in 2013. Once again working with co-writer twin brother Silvan Zürcher and Dp Alexander Hasskerl, their latest is produced by Aline Schmid and Adrian Blaser. The cast consists of Henriette Confurious, Liliane Amaut, Ursina Lardi, Sabine Timoteo, Andre M. Hennicke, and Flurin Giger.…...
- 1/3/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
This was a busy year at Tiff, where I was a juror for Fipresci, helping to award a prize for best premiere in the Discovery section. Not only did this mean that some other films had to take a back burner—sadly, I did not see Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge—but my writing time was a bit compromised as well. Better late than never? That is for you, Gentle Reader, to decide.Austerlitz (Sergei Loznitsa, Germany)So basic in the telling—a record of several days’ worth of visitors mostly to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienberg, Germany—Austerlitz is a film that in many ways exemplifies the critical theory of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin. What is the net effect for humanity when, faced with the drive to remember the unfathomable, we employ the grossly inadequate tools at our disposal?Austerlitz takes its name from W. G. Sebald’s final novel.
- 9/20/2016
- MUBI
Part of our continuing partnership with the online film journal cléo, which guest programs a film to watch on Mubi in the United States. In conjunction, we'll be hosting an exclusive article by one of their contributors. This month Eleni Deacon writes on Ramon Zürcher's debut feature The Strange Little Cat.Every home has its own weekend feeling. The way the breakfast-time light hits a specific patch of the kitchen floor. The sounds of siblings alternately joking then bugging each other. A sleepy quiet that sinks into the afternoon. The Strange Little Cat, Ramon Zürcher's slice-of-life debut feature, tracks a cozy Saturday at the home of a tight-knit German family. With two grown children visiting from out of town, their mother prepares for a group dinner later that night. The details of the day are routine: grocery shopping, listless cigarette breaks, a game of Connect Four. But while...
- 10/19/2015
- by Eleni Deacon
- MUBI
They’re responsible for landing some of the best in unwanted, rejected yet critically acclaimed festival winning titles all during the eleventh hour. As was the case with Ramon Zürcher’s The Strange Little Cat, Denis Côté’s career best in Vic + Flo Saw a Bear and Ben Rivers & Ben Russell’s A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness, they’ve now saved a piece of Norwegian cinema from continually bumping into the wall. Winner of several awards including the Screenwriting Award for World Cinema at Sundance ’14, IndieWIRE reports that Eskil Vogt’s Blind has been picked up for release and will likely find a slot for sometime this year.
Gist: This focuses on Ellen (Ellen Dorrit Pettersen), a woman contending with the loss of vision. In trying to navigate a world without sight, she spends her days attempting to reconstruct the visual world as she once knew it. In...
Gist: This focuses on Ellen (Ellen Dorrit Pettersen), a woman contending with the loss of vision. In trying to navigate a world without sight, she spends her days attempting to reconstruct the visual world as she once knew it. In...
- 4/7/2015
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Museum of Modern Art Department of Film Curator Jytte Jensen Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
As the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art's 44th edition of New Directors/New Films is taking place, New York City and the film world has lost a champion of filmmakers. MoMA Department of Film Curator and longtime selection committee member Jytte Jensen died on Monday, due to cancer, at the age of 65.
When I spoke with Jytte before the 2014 New Directors/New Films kicked off, we had an informative discussion on Switzerland's Ramon Zürcher's family drama The Strange Little Cat, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson's saga-infused Of Horses And Men, Jenny Slate's performance in Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child, Jessica Oreck's The Vanquishing Of The Witch Baba Yaga, Talal Derki's Syrian documentary Return To Homs and the connection with Hubert Sauper's Sudan doc We Come As Friends...
As the Film Society of Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art's 44th edition of New Directors/New Films is taking place, New York City and the film world has lost a champion of filmmakers. MoMA Department of Film Curator and longtime selection committee member Jytte Jensen died on Monday, due to cancer, at the age of 65.
When I spoke with Jytte before the 2014 New Directors/New Films kicked off, we had an informative discussion on Switzerland's Ramon Zürcher's family drama The Strange Little Cat, Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson's saga-infused Of Horses And Men, Jenny Slate's performance in Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child, Jessica Oreck's The Vanquishing Of The Witch Baba Yaga, Talal Derki's Syrian documentary Return To Homs and the connection with Hubert Sauper's Sudan doc We Come As Friends...
- 3/25/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Ramon Zürcher’s student project turned festival darling debut is an odd, wholly original work that bears little resemblance to anything of recent memory. Essentially a non-narrative dinner party film about the physical beauty of our relationships with the spaces, beings and objects that make up the environments of our daily lives, Zürcher’s melancholic ballet of apartment maneuvering is strangely mesmerizing. Children are children, teens are teens, animals act as they will, objects are animated by those around, and parents reflect, fearing the years are slipping away, leading the old into the darkness and the young to pessimistic enlightenment. Born from a film school workshop presided over by slow cinema legend Béla Tarr and inspired by Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, The Strange Little Cat resembles neither, transcending the doom and gloom of his mentor and source material for something vibrantly new.
If there is a protagonist in Zürcher’s production,...
If there is a protagonist in Zürcher’s production,...
- 1/13/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
#20. The Skeleton Twins
#19. Obvious Child
#18. A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness
#17. Wild
#16. 112 Weddings
#15. The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga
#14. Tales of the Grim Sleep
#13. The Boxtrolls
#12. Enemy
#11. The Guest
#10. The Lego Movie
Despite my love of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, nothing could prepare me for the sheer joy projecting from every pixel, effortless kineticism that carries the raucous narrative, nor the surprising intellectualism that serve as the building blocks of the entire film. Writer/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have performed a cinematic miracle in bringing a beloved inexpressive children’s toy to life with more vivacious wit than the vast majority of films release this year, animated or not.
#9. The Strange Little Cat
Ramon Zürcher’s student project turned festival darling debut is an odd, wholly original work that bears little resemblance to anything on this list. Essentially a non-narrative dinner party film about...
#19. Obvious Child
#18. A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness
#17. Wild
#16. 112 Weddings
#15. The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga
#14. Tales of the Grim Sleep
#13. The Boxtrolls
#12. Enemy
#11. The Guest
#10. The Lego Movie
Despite my love of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, nothing could prepare me for the sheer joy projecting from every pixel, effortless kineticism that carries the raucous narrative, nor the surprising intellectualism that serve as the building blocks of the entire film. Writer/directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have performed a cinematic miracle in bringing a beloved inexpressive children’s toy to life with more vivacious wit than the vast majority of films release this year, animated or not.
#9. The Strange Little Cat
Ramon Zürcher’s student project turned festival darling debut is an odd, wholly original work that bears little resemblance to anything on this list. Essentially a non-narrative dinner party film about...
- 1/6/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Senses of Cinema has posted the results of its 2014 World Poll and among the many other best-of-2014 lists we've gathered today is Reverse Shot's. #1 is Richard Linklater's Boyhood, followed by Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake, Tsai Ming-liang's Stray Dogs, Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language, James Gray's The Immigrant, Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez's Manakamana, Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, Joaquim Pinto's What Now? Remind Me, Ramon Zürcher's The Strange Little Cat, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne's Two Days, One Night and Sergei Loznitsa's Maidan. » - David Hudson...
- 1/6/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Senses of Cinema has posted the results of its 2014 World Poll and among the many other best-of-2014 lists we've gathered today is Reverse Shot's. #1 is Richard Linklater's Boyhood, followed by Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake, Tsai Ming-liang's Stray Dogs, Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language, James Gray's The Immigrant, Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez's Manakamana, Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, Joaquim Pinto's What Now? Remind Me, Ramon Zürcher's The Strange Little Cat, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne's Two Days, One Night and Sergei Loznitsa's Maidan. » - David Hudson...
- 1/6/2015
- Keyframe
We here at Sound On Sight like to release our list as late as possible in the year. The way I look at it, the list is meant to represent what our writers have watched and championed throughout the year, and so we allow our writers until the 28th of December to submit votes for their 15 favourite films in the hope of coming up with a list that truly represents the wide spectrum of movies we cover year-round. This late in the game, it is safe to assume that just about every other website has released their top picks, but we believe our list holds value, if only because it is comprised of over 50 hardcore cinephiles worldwide. That said, since our writers are spread out across the globe, it makes it difficult for a movie like Inherent Vice (which was released in only two North American cities during 2014 itself) to crack our year-end list.
- 12/28/2014
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
1. Frank
Those of us who care about movie posters often complain about “big head” posters from Hollywood studios, but the design for Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank is the ne plus ultra of big head posters: a poster for a film about a big head. The head in question is the papier-mâché noggin worn by Michael Fassbender’s title character, which was inspired by the nearly identical prop worn by Chris Sievey, a.k.a. Frank Sidebottom, the nasal-voiced troubadour from Timperley, Manchester, who famously covered the Sex Pistols (“Anarchy in Timperley”) and had his moment of cult fame in the 80s. The poster for Frank, designed by an as-yet uncredited designer at P+A studio (the anonymity seems apt) subverts the chief function of the big head poster by not showing us the film’s star. To me it’s a thing of beauty (my affection for Frank Sidebottom and...
Those of us who care about movie posters often complain about “big head” posters from Hollywood studios, but the design for Lenny Abrahamson’s Frank is the ne plus ultra of big head posters: a poster for a film about a big head. The head in question is the papier-mâché noggin worn by Michael Fassbender’s title character, which was inspired by the nearly identical prop worn by Chris Sievey, a.k.a. Frank Sidebottom, the nasal-voiced troubadour from Timperley, Manchester, who famously covered the Sex Pistols (“Anarchy in Timperley”) and had his moment of cult fame in the 80s. The poster for Frank, designed by an as-yet uncredited designer at P+A studio (the anonymity seems apt) subverts the chief function of the big head poster by not showing us the film’s star. To me it’s a thing of beauty (my affection for Frank Sidebottom and...
- 12/15/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
In a Word: Pulchritude
Buried in Cannes’ most unassuming and roundly ignored sidebar, Acid (an acronym for what translates to “The Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema”), Ramon Zürcher’s Berlin-preemed debut The Strange Little Cat was among the most assured, original, and moving films to screen on the Croisette’s 2013 batch, a feat all the more remarkable in that the picture was made by a film student. The project is bound to carry some intrigue for anyone aware of the fact that the idea for the film originated from a seminar session conducted by Béla Tarr, yet the story behind that will have to be reserved for the film’s Q&A sessions, as the decidedly un-Tarr-esque film feels nothing like the Hungarian master’s cinema – nor that of pretty much anyone else.
Contained almost entirely in the domain of a cramped German apartment, the film could be...
Buried in Cannes’ most unassuming and roundly ignored sidebar, Acid (an acronym for what translates to “The Association for the Distribution of Independent Cinema”), Ramon Zürcher’s Berlin-preemed debut The Strange Little Cat was among the most assured, original, and moving films to screen on the Croisette’s 2013 batch, a feat all the more remarkable in that the picture was made by a film student. The project is bound to carry some intrigue for anyone aware of the fact that the idea for the film originated from a seminar session conducted by Béla Tarr, yet the story behind that will have to be reserved for the film’s Q&A sessions, as the decidedly un-Tarr-esque film feels nothing like the Hungarian master’s cinema – nor that of pretty much anyone else.
Contained almost entirely in the domain of a cramped German apartment, the film could be...
- 8/1/2014
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
Ramon Zürcher's ode to tension and release squeezes Jacques Tati-style preoccupations into the space of a tiny apartment. Compression and strain moves the one character apparently unbothered by any of it: the eponymous cat, an orange tabby who sleeps, paws and purrs his way around the domestic grind. In a way Ramon Zürcher positions the cat as the central figure of the film—not only the one which connects the others and stands outside their drama but also, in an important sense, the one whose perspective we’re encouraged to adopt. The Strange Little Cat has been described as the world seen through feline eyes, and that seems as good as description of what’s going on here as any: it accounts for how utterly strange even the most ordinary household objects and actions suddenly appear. Our rituals and social contracts are incomprehensible to our cats, who doubtless...
- 8/1/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Ramon Zürcher's ode to tension and release squeezes Jacques Tati-style preoccupations into the space of a tiny apartment. Compression and strain moves the one character apparently unbothered by any of it: the eponymous cat, an orange tabby who sleeps, paws and purrs his way around the domestic grind. In a way Ramon Zürcher positions the cat as the central figure of the film—not only the one which connects the others and stands outside their drama but also, in an important sense, the one whose perspective we’re encouraged to adopt. The Strange Little Cat has been described as the world seen through feline eyes, and that seems as good as description of what’s going on here as any: it accounts for how utterly strange even the most ordinary household objects and actions suddenly appear. Our rituals and social contracts are incomprehensible to our cats, who doubtless...
- 8/1/2014
- Keyframe
While cinema acts as a temporal artifice like no other medium out there, films that capture the absolute spark of a moment -- the Nowness of a breath or a look -- for all to experience at a further moment, are few and far between. Seizing the utterly uncanny and uplifting sense of life not merely observed, but experienced and felt on the most nuanced and beautiful of levels, Ramon Zürcher's debut feature (his thesis film at the dffb [Berlin School] in Germany) The Strange Little Cat is most assuredly one of these "Now Wave" films. At a succinct 72 minutes this beguiling look into one family's Saturday is, despite such a length, actually ponderous and airy by nature. Its minimalist aesthetic vividly stands at...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 7/31/2014
- Screen Anarchy
For this correspondent’s money, the film to beat so far in 2014 is Swiss filmmaker Ramon Zürcher’s The Strange Little Cat (Das merkwürdige Kätzchen), a dazzlingly low-key schematic diagram of a single day’s ebb and flow in a German apartment. Zürcher cracks the space open like a dollhouse, but his exacting frames don’t create drama; rather, each individual component — a kettle, a ball, a clock, the nominal tabby, a regularly screaming child or any of the extended family members shuffling in and out of Zürcher’s rooms — invites the viewer’s attention as they often repeatedly intersect. Between narrative scenes, Zürcher stops for montages […]...
- 7/31/2014
- by Steve Macfarlane
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
For this correspondent’s money, the film to beat so far in 2014 is Swiss filmmaker Ramon Zürcher’s The Strange Little Cat (Das merkwürdige Kätzchen), a dazzlingly low-key schematic diagram of a single day’s ebb and flow in a German apartment. Zürcher cracks the space open like a dollhouse, but his exacting frames don’t create drama; rather, each individual component — a kettle, a ball, a clock, the nominal tabby, a regularly screaming child or any of the extended family members shuffling in and out of Zürcher’s rooms — invites the viewer’s attention as they often repeatedly intersect. Between narrative scenes, Zürcher stops for montages […]...
- 7/31/2014
- by Steve Macfarlane
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The words "student film" can strike terror in the bravest of hearts, but fear not The Strange Little Cat.
Made by filmmaker Ramon Zürcher while he was still attending the German Film and Television Academy, this odd little wonder captures the delicate textures and shadowy half-secrets of family life, mapping them out in a mosaic of fragmented dialogue and half-poetic, half-prosaic images.
A brother and sister (Luk Pfaff and Anjorka Strechel) have come home to their family's Berlin flat for a visit. Their much younger sister Clara (Mia Kasalo), a self-possessed elf, practices her nascent writing skills by drawing up a shopping list; an uncle (Armin Marewski) shows up to fix the washing machine; their mother (Jenny Schily) busies herself about the kitchen, re...
Made by filmmaker Ramon Zürcher while he was still attending the German Film and Television Academy, this odd little wonder captures the delicate textures and shadowy half-secrets of family life, mapping them out in a mosaic of fragmented dialogue and half-poetic, half-prosaic images.
A brother and sister (Luk Pfaff and Anjorka Strechel) have come home to their family's Berlin flat for a visit. Their much younger sister Clara (Mia Kasalo), a self-possessed elf, practices her nascent writing skills by drawing up a shopping list; an uncle (Armin Marewski) shows up to fix the washing machine; their mother (Jenny Schily) busies herself about the kitchen, re...
- 7/30/2014
- Village Voice
Just prior to its one week stint over at the FilmLinc in August, TheWrap reports that Fandor have put The Strange Little Cat in their sandbox. Ramon Zürcher’s dramedy has been a favorite of ours on the site — will receive a day & date release on August 1st.
Gist: Siblings Karin and Simon return home to visit their parents and younger sister and to help prepare dinner for their extended family. Events unfold leisurely, but with plenty of underlying and unstated tensions inevitable in a flat overstuffed with a mother, father, children, grandmother and cat. The eponymous ginger feline offers consolation and possibly the film’s point of view.
Worth Noting: The little 72 minute film that could moved from the Berlin Film Fest in 2013 to the Acid section in Cannes, then Tiff, AFI Film Fest and New Directors/New Films in 2014.
Do We Care?: Our Blake Williams found some...
Gist: Siblings Karin and Simon return home to visit their parents and younger sister and to help prepare dinner for their extended family. Events unfold leisurely, but with plenty of underlying and unstated tensions inevitable in a flat overstuffed with a mother, father, children, grandmother and cat. The eponymous ginger feline offers consolation and possibly the film’s point of view.
Worth Noting: The little 72 minute film that could moved from the Berlin Film Fest in 2013 to the Acid section in Cannes, then Tiff, AFI Film Fest and New Directors/New Films in 2014.
Do We Care?: Our Blake Williams found some...
- 7/22/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
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