When we first meet French figurative painter Apolonia Sokol, she’s getting ready for her 26th birthday. Her face is reflected in both the bathroom mirror where she’s cutting her bangs and in the camera of Danish filmmaker Lea Glob.
It’s this exact kind of fun house-twisting, telephone-style portrait of the artist that makes up most of the frustratingly oblique documentary “Apolonia, Apolonia.” Although Glob aims for an intimate portrait, her zoom is almost too close, her narration too navel-gazingly shallow, which results in a doc that often remains distant and distorted through these multiple lenses.
The women first met three years earlier when Glob was assigned to make a filmed “portrait of a person.” She’d heard of Apolonia’s storied, Bohemian upbringing inside her parents’ underground theatre in Paris. Apolonia first turns the camera on Glob, who blushes instantly. When the filmmaker turns her camera back on Apolonia,...
It’s this exact kind of fun house-twisting, telephone-style portrait of the artist that makes up most of the frustratingly oblique documentary “Apolonia, Apolonia.” Although Glob aims for an intimate portrait, her zoom is almost too close, her narration too navel-gazingly shallow, which results in a doc that often remains distant and distorted through these multiple lenses.
The women first met three years earlier when Glob was assigned to make a filmed “portrait of a person.” She’d heard of Apolonia’s storied, Bohemian upbringing inside her parents’ underground theatre in Paris. Apolonia first turns the camera on Glob, who blushes instantly. When the filmmaker turns her camera back on Apolonia,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Marya E. Gates
- Indiewire
Slalom (Cannes 2020 Label) and La fille qu’on appelle a television film (that we mislabeled) to be released in the fall (via Arte) filmmaker Charlène Favier looks to be headed into the Femen movement territory. Cnc (via Cineuropa) have awarded the advance coin receipts to the next feature film for the French filmmaker. To be produced Rectangle’s Édouard Weil and Alice Girard and 2.4.7. Films, Oxana could move into production as early as this year. This could be a big deal for the actress who takes on the spirit of the fighter.
Oksana Shachko ended her life in 2018 in Montrouge.…...
Oksana Shachko ended her life in 2018 in Montrouge.…...
- 7/17/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Recently graduated from the Beaux-Arts de Paris, French painter Apolonia Sokol heads to the U.S. in pursuit of the bigger picture. She finds it, after a fashion, as a wealthy collector commissions her to churn out 10 canvases a month. It’s an industrial approach to art that docmaker Lea Glob views skeptically: “Why only buy the art when it’s so much cheaper to buy the artist?” she asks. In a less cynical way, however, Glob’s unusual, compelling new film “Apolonia, Apolonia” invests grandly in Sokol herself, making the artist a kind of living installation that Glob’s camera intimately observes over the course of 13 years. Sokol’s paintings, slightly distorted large-scale portraits of human subjects in eerie states of repose, are striking, but never quite as intriguing as their restless, endlessly self-doubting creator.
As a portrait of the artist as a young woman, then, “Apolonia, Apolonia” is already layered and substantial,...
As a portrait of the artist as a young woman, then, “Apolonia, Apolonia” is already layered and substantial,...
- 11/14/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has unveiled its 2015 line-up which includes films representing 54 countries, 23 world premieres and 53 U.S. premieres. The U.S. premiere of Niki Caro’s McFarland USA will close out the 30th fest. Based on the 1987 true story and starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello, the film follows novice runners from McFarland, an economically challenged town in California’s farm-rich Central Valley, as they give their all to build a cross-country team under the direction of Coach Jim White (Costner), a newcomer to their predominantly Latino high school. The unlikely band of runners overcomes the odds to forge not only a championship cross-country team but an enduring legacy as well.
The festival runs from January 27-February 7.
Below is the list of World and U.S. Premiere films followed by the list of titles by sidebar categories.
World Premieres
A Better You, USA
Directed by Matt Walsh
Cast: Brian Huskey,...
The festival runs from January 27-February 7.
Below is the list of World and U.S. Premiere films followed by the list of titles by sidebar categories.
World Premieres
A Better You, USA
Directed by Matt Walsh
Cast: Brian Huskey,...
- 1/8/2015
- by The Deadline Team
- Deadline
A self-acknowledged "showcase for Academy Award frontrunners," the Santa Barbara International Film Festival is often overlooked for the actual films that earn it festival status. An amalgamation of international discoveries and ’merica’s circuit highlights, the Sbiff curates a week of best-of-the-best to pair with their star-praising. The 2015 edition offers another expansive selection, bookended by two films that aren’t on any radars just yet. Sbiff will open with "Desert Dancer," producer Richard Raymond’s directorial debut. Starring Reece Ritchie and Frieda Pinto, the drama follows a group of friends who wave off the harsh political climate of Iran’s 2009 presidential election in favor of forming a dance team, picking up moves from Michael Jackson, Gene Kelly and Rudolf Nureyev thanks to the magic of YouTube. The festival will close with "McFarland, USA," starring Kevin Costner and Maria Bello. Telling the 1987 true story of a Latino high school’s underdog cross-country team,...
- 1/8/2015
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
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