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You might need to be a fan of Carax’s oeuvre to enjoy this act of indulgence but this short autobiography is full of his grandiose whimsy and personal melancholy

Here is a 40-minute autobiographical jeu d’esprit from Leos Carax, the renowned director of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Bad Blood, Holy Motors and Annette; a body of work featuring such stars as Juliette Binoche, Michel Piccoli, Kylie Minogue, Denis Lavant and Adam Driver. First unveiled at Cannes this year, the puckish elusiveness of the piece is announced in the title itself.

C’est Pas Moi, or It’s Not Me, is a cine-collage essay in the manner of Godard, although the audio soundtrack does not quite have that papier-mache roughness that Godard often created. Godard’s voice appears briefly in an answering-machine message to Carax, a fragment that Carax might not have dared include while the great man was still alive.

At its heart, Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard’s unclassifiable transgender Mexican cartel telenovela musical, is a film about transition, transformation and rebirth.

The transformation is not just that of Juan “Manitas” Del Monte, a Mexican drug kingpin who longs to escape a life of violence and death and undergoes gender-affirming surgery to become her true self: the glamorous, vivacious Emilia Pérez. (The magnetic Spanish trans actor Karla Sofía Gascón plays both roles).

Emilia Pérez is also the story of the transmutation of Zoe Saldaña. The Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy star finally gets to inhabit her own skin on the big screen, neither blue nor green, as Rita Moro Castro, an overworked, overlooked defense lawyer closing in on 40 who has spent her career keeping unrepentant cartel slime out of prison. Manitas gives her an offer she can’t refuse: Help me transition, relocate my family and organize my disappearance,...

"The Smile of Speed." Janus Films has unveiled the official US trailer for It's Not Me, the autobiographic self-portrait short documentary film made by Leos Carax. The mastermind French filmmaker premiered this at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and it has played at tons of other fests including NYFF, London, Karlovy Vary. The 41-minute biopic film is a "self-portrait of the director and his oeuvre, revisiting in free-form more than 40 years of the author's filmography." This autobiography takes a look back at all of his films and his work, and examines politics over time and the art-form of cinema. The intro: "For an exhibition, that in the end never took place, the Pompidou Museum asked the filmmaker to reply, in pictures, to the question: Where are you at, Leos Carax? He attempts an answer – full of questions. About himself and 'his' world: I don't know, but if I did,...

Here’s a very welcome surprise before the end of the year: Leos Carax’s stunning cine-memoir It’s Not Me is getting a release this December. Sideshow and Janus Films announced today that the Cannes and NYFF selection will hit theaters in NY and LA as well as arrive on the Criterion Channel and VOD platforms on December 10.

Here’s the synopsis: “French cinema firebrand Leos Carax has spent 40 years making galvanizing movies that float in the beautifully perplexing nether space between reality and artifice, from Boy Meets Girl and The Lovers on the Bridge to Holy Motors and the recent musical Annette. In his new film, he lovingly evokes the aesthetics of Jean-Luc Godard, paying aptly cheeky respect to the late New Wave master, his own career, and cinema itself, rummaging through a century of movies to situate his work within a continuum of the medium. Rather than self-aggrandize,...

“Holy Motors” auteur Leos Carax has been making genre-defying, mind-bending movies for 40 years, since 1984’s “Boy Meets Girl.” Now he’s accomplishing another first: The first day-and-date theatrical/streaming release to take place on the Criterion Channel, courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.

Carax’s latest film “It’s Not Me” will be released December 10 via limited theatrical engagements in New York and Los Angeles while simultaneously streaming on Criterion Channel following a live-stream premiere that day. At the same time, you can purchase “It’s Not Me” on Amazon, Apple, Google Play, and Fandango at Home for $14.99. IndieWire is proud to exclusively debut the trailer and poster for “It’s Not Me” below.

This follows the exclusive streaming premieres on Criterion Channel for “Evil Does Not Exist” and “The Beast.” And it’s unique because Carax has previously indicated his qualms with streaming, even despite the support of Amazon Studios...

It is fitting that for the 30th year of the Geneva International Film Festival, artistic director Anais Emery and her team are going back to the future.

“It was very important to recall the history of the festival but not through a retrospective,” says Emery of the event that takes place in the Swiss city from November 1-10.

”We wanted to renew, to celebrate and underline Giff’s speciality and specificity.”

That means showcasing innovative storytelling delivered via the myriad audiovisual mediums available to creators, from film, TV and web content to installations, virtual reality and extended reality (Xr) works.

Mit der Preisverleihung und dem Screening von Mati Diops „Dahomey“ geht heute Abend die 62. Viennale zu Ende. Schon jetzt konnten die Veranstalter eine erfreuliche Bilanz ziehen.

„The Village Next to Paradise“ wird heute Abend mit dem Wiener Filmpreis ausgezeichnet (Credit: Doris Erben/Freibeuterfilm)

Mo Harawes „The Village Next to Paradise”, der auch auf der Liste der möglichen Filme für eine Nominierung für den European Film Award steht, wird heute Abend zum Abschluss der 62. Viennale mit dem Wiener Filmpreis ausgezeichnet.

In der Jurybegründung heißt es dazu: „Die Jury verleiht den Wiener Filmpreis 2024 an einen Film, dem es mit eindrücklicher Offenheit gelingt, eine Realität zu zeigen, die aus europäischem Blickwinkel häufig abstrakt bleibt – oder in Form von Newsberichten zur Schlagzeile verkürzt wird. In Somalia, und großteils mit lokalem Team und Set-unerfahrenen Schauspieler:innen gedreht, erzählt ‚The Village Next to Paradise‘ zuvorderst vom Alltag einer Familie. Einstellung um Einstellung verschiebt sich unsere Wahrnehmung der mehrschichtigen Verzweigungen,...

Mexico’s official entry to the Oscars, “Sujo,” made a sweep of the 22nd Morelia Int’l Film Festival (Ficm), winning the festival’s Ojo Awards for Best Film, Director and Screenplay.

Co-helmer-scribes Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, whose debut pic “Identifying Features” won a couple of Sundance awards and took the Best International Feature prize at the Gotham Awards in 2021, also snagged the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema with “Sujo,” their sophomore feature, in January.

Hailed by Variety as an “optimistic alternative to violent drug war movies,” the poignant coming-of-age story revolves around the impact of drug cartels on the youth. The tale follows young Sujo (played by Kevin Uriel Aguilar Luna and Juan Jesús Varela) who grows up surrounded by their violence. When his father, a sicario (hired assassin), is killed, he becomes a target but Sujo’s intrepid aunt rescues him.

Sujo’s win caps...

Sujo, Mexico’s Oscar submission, topped the Morelia International Film Festival with three wins across Best Screenplay, Direction and overall Fiction Feature film. It’s a good start to the international film contender, following up its nabbing of the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema.

From filmmakers Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez, the drama centers on the eponymous beloved son of a small-town cartel gunman who narrowly escapes death when his father is murdered. When his aunt takes him in and raises him in the isolated countryside, he must contend with hardship, poverty and the constant peril associated with his identity.

Rondero and Valadez shared the awards for Best Mexican Fiction Feature Film Screenplay, Best Direction of Mexican Fiction Feature Film and Best Mexican Feature Film overall. In September, The Forge acquired the North American rights to the pic, which will hit select theaters beginning Nov.

Eva Mendes admitted in an interview with The Sunday Times that she was “never in love with acting,” so there’s no real urgency to ending her 10-years and counting break from it. The actor has not starred in a feature film since a small supporting role in partner Ryan Gosling‘s 2014 directorial effort “Lost River,” although she lent her voice on a 2021 episode of “Bluey” on ABC Kids.

“I was never in love with acting. I don’t mean this in a self-deprecating way, but I wasn’t a great actress,” Mendes said. “I had my moments when I worked with really great people.”

As far as Mendez sees it, her best acting work came when she was starring opposite Gosling in 2012’s crime drama “The Place Beyond on the Pines” or when he was directing her in “Lost River.” She said: “He gets something out of me that’s never been accessible before.

Gestern Abend hat Eva Sangiorgi im Gartenbaukino Wien die 62. Viennale eröffnet. Das Publikum wurde überrascht mit Leos Carax‘ „C’est pas moi”. Werner Kogler, Bundesminister für Kunst und Kultur, öffentlicher Dienst und Sport, und Stadträtin Veronica Kaup-Hasler sangen das Hohelied auf das Kino als Bollwerk der Menschlichkeit.

Eva Sangiorgi und Veronica Kaup-Hasler (Credit: Viennale/Roland Ferrigato)

Mit dem 42-minütigen, assoziativen Reigen „C’est pas moi“ von Leos Carax, in dem der französische Filmemacher über sein Medium und seine Meister nachdenkt, hat Eva Sangiorgi die 62. Viennale eröffnet. Ansprachen hielten Werner Kogler, Bundesminister für Kunst und Kultur, öffentlicher Dienst und Sport, und Stadträtin Veronica Kaup-Hasler. Beide Politiker unterstrichen mehrmals den wichtigen Stellenwert des Kinos, gerade in Zeiten des Rechtsrucks in vielen Ländern (Österreich mit eingeschlossen). „Bei der Viennale wird das Kino mit großer Leidenschaft als ein Bollwerk der Menschlichkeit gefeiert“, so Kogler und betonte die Wichtigkeit, dass Kino nur mit Freiheit und Finanzierung leben könne.

Bei ihrer Weltpremiere auf dem Filmfest München war die deutsche Vampirserie „Love Sucks“ mit dem Bernd Burgemeister Preis ausgezeichnet worden. Nun wurde sie in den Serien-Wettbewerb des Geneva International Film Festival eingeladen.

Die ZDFneo-Serie „Love Sucks“ feiert auf dem Geneva International Film Festival ihre internationale Premiere (Credit: Zdf/Frank Dicks)

In seiner von 1. bis 10. November stattfindenden 30. Ausgabe zeigt das Geneva International Film Festival laut dem heute veröffentlichten Programm 93 Arbeiten, darunter 44 Filme und 26 Serien. Insgesamt stehen dort elf Weltpremieren, drei internationale Premieren, eine Europapremiere und 54 Schweizer Premieren auf dem Programm.

Ihre internationale Premiere im Rahmen des Serienwettbewerbs wird in Genf die achtteilige Vampirserie „Love Sucks“ (hier unsere Spot-Besprechung) feiern, die bei ihrer Weltpremiere auf dem Filmfest München mit dem Bernd Burgemeister Preis ausgezeichnet worden war. „Love Sucks“, bei der Andreas Prochaska und Lea Becker nach Drehbüchern von Headautor Marc O Seng sowie den weiteren Autoren Julia Penner und Thorsten Wettcke Regie geführt haben,...

Seit Ende September standen Eröffnungs- und Abschlussfilm der diesjährigen Viennale fest. Jetzt wurde das komplette Programm präsentiert.

Viennale-Direktorin Eva Sangiorgi (Credit: Alexi Pelekanos)

Nachdem Viennale-Direktorin Eva Sangiorigi Ende August die ersten Programmpunkte für die von 17. bis 29. Oktober stattfindende Festivalausgabe präsentiert hatte und seit Ende September mit Leos Carax‘ „C’est pas moi“ und Mati Diops „Dahomey“ Eröffnungs- und Abschlussfilm feststehen, hat Sangiorgi jetzt zusammen mit Florian Widegger (Leitung Programm Metro Kinokulturhaus) und Michael Loebenstein (Direktor des Österreichischen Filmmuseums) das komplette Programm der Viennale präsentiert.

Neben den bereits bekannt gegebenen Titeln wie Sean Bakers Cannes-Gewinner „Anora“, Jacques Audiards ebenfalls in Cannes ausgezeichneter „Emilia Pérez“, „Peacock“ von Bernhard Wenger, „Henry Fonda For President“ von Alexander Horwarth, „The Village Next to Paradise“ von Mo Harawe,, „Zwischen uns Gott“ von Rebecca Hirneise, „Bluish“ von Lilith Kraxner und Milena Czernovsky, „Dear Beautiful Beloved“ von Juri Rechinsky, „Dreaming Dogs“ von Elsa Kremser und Levin Peter...

Die Viennale hat heute Eröffnungs- und Abschlussfilm ihrer von 17. bis 29. Oktober stattfindenden Ausgabe bekannt gegeben.

„C’est pas moi“ eröffnet am 17. Oktober die Biennale (Credit: Viennale)

Die Viennale wird am 17. Oktober mit Leos Carax‘ „C’est pas moi“, der in Cannes seine Weltpremiere gefeiert hatte, eröffnet. Das gab das Festival heute bekannt.

„C’est pas moi“ von Leos Carax habe ich als Eröffnungsfilm ausgewählt, weil er sich wunderbar in das kinematografische Universum einfügt, das ich im Programm der Viennale repräsentiert sehen möchte. In der Tat handelt es sich um einen Film, der der Tradition des Autorenkinos Tribut zollt und insbesondere Jean-Luc Godard seine Reverenz erweist. Auf diese Weise ist er verknüpft mit einem zutiefst politischen, forschenden Kino, das sich die Form des Filmemachens selbst zum Gegenstand der Reflexion wählt. Zugleich ist „C’est pas moi“ ein filmisches Selbstbekenntnis, das vermittels der Arbeiten eines großen Auteurs wie Carax persönliche Erinnerungen mit...

Sideshow and Janus Films have scooped up North American rights to Maura Delpero’s acclaimed Italian period drama Vermiglio, winner of the Venice Film Festival’s silver lion grand jury prize.

The film debuted in competition in Venice and received its North American premiere Tuesday night at the Toronto Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus say they will release the title in North American theaters in the coming months.

Vermiglio is a follow-up to Delpero’s well-received 2019 directorial debut Maternal. She wrote, directed and produced the new feature, which is loosely based on her own family history.

“We were deeply moved and impressed by Vermiglio, a new Italian classic that is intimate in scale but epic in scope, unfolding like a memory over four ravishingly shot seasons during the Second World War,” said Sideshow and Janus Films.

The Italian-language movie is named after the small village where it is set, high...

Filmfest Hamburg has unveiled the full programme for its 32nd edition, which is set to open with Louise Courvoisier’s Cannes prize-winner Holy Cow and close with Pedro Almodovar’s Golden Lion-winner The Room Next Door.

French filmmaker Courvoisier will be accompanied by lead actors Clément Faveau and Malwéne Barthelemy at the opening gala on September 26 for the German premiere of her debut feature, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes where it won the Youth Prize. The coming-of-age film will be released by Pandora Film in German cinemas on January 2.

The Filmfest’s new director Malika Rabahallah and...

John Woo movies always have a spark – the legendary Hong Kong director is responsible for some of the greatest (and most bonkers) action ever committed to the screen, in Hard Boiled and Face/Off and The Killer, to name but a few. But we’ve never had a John Woo movie with Sparks – the legendary cult pop duo also known as Ron and Russell Mael, behind such earworms as ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’. Until now, that is. Because, as the filmmaker tells Empire in a major upcoming interview, he’s currently working with the art-pop icons on a very different kind of Woo movie.

“My next project is actually a half-musical,” Woo confirms to Empire. “I’m going to be working with the Sparks Brothers, who wrote the script and songs — we are just starting work on some changes to the script.” While the...

This year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival will feature the most eye-catching list of international superstars it has ever hosted, including A-list actors such as Cate Blanchett and Javier Bardem – who will both receive Donostia career achievement awards, Andrew Garfield, Pamela Anderson, Tilda Swinton and Lupita Nyong’o and filmmakers like local legend Pedro Almodovar – another Donostia award recipient, Adam Elliot, Gia Coppola, Mike Leigh and Walter Salles.

Other international actors who have confirmed they will attend this year’s festival include Monica Bellucci, Jamie Campbell Bower, Johnny Depp, Isabelle Huppert, Noémie Merlant, Ángela Molina, Franco Nero, Charlotte Rampling and Will Sharpe, among others.

Normally, many directors attend San Sebastian with their latest films, but the number of titles from consecrated directors at this year’s festival has increased noticeably. Filmmakers bringing their latest to this year’s festival include Jacques Audiard, Sean Baker, Edward Berger, Leos Carax, Costa-Gavras, Audrey Diwan,...

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation. [Editor’s Note: After Dark is mutating! Check back September 6 for a new format. It’s the same juicy midnight movie bait…with a little extra bite.]

The Pitch: Do the Talking Limousines Know Something We Don’t?

When talking about the state of arthouse movies in the 2020s, I often think about something I call “The ‘Titane’ Phenomenon.” Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or winner is a wildly layered piece of art about trauma, gender, bodily autonomy, and revenge — yet to so many people, the extent of its cultural relevance is the fact...

The Match Factory has boarded international sales on An Urban Allegory, the new short film by Alice Rohrwacher and Jr, ahead of its world premiere at Venice Film Festival, Out of Competition.

The work marks the second collaboration between Italian filmmaker Rohrwacher and French artist and director Jr, after Omelia Contadina which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.

Taking inspiration from Greek Philosopher Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, asking what would happen if one of the prisoners managed to free themselves from their chains and escape from the cave, An Urban Allegory explores what would happen if the prisoner were Jay, a 7-year-old boy.

The film stars Lyna Khoudri, Palme d’Or winning director Leos Carax and Naïm El Kaldaoui in his first role.

The Match Factory has acquired international sales rights for “An Urban Allegory,” a short film by Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher and French artist and director Jr, ahead of its world premiere at Venice Film Festival, where it plays out of competition.

“An Urban Allegory” marks the second collaboration between Rohrwacher, best known for “La Chimera,” “Happy as Lazzaro” and “The Wonders,” and Jr, whose credits include “Faces Places,” “Women Are Heroes,” “Paper and Glue” and “Tehachapi,” after premiering “Omelia Contadina” at Venice Film Festival in 2020.

The film stars César winner for most promising actress Lyna Khoudri, Palme D’Or winner director Leos Carax and Naïm El Kaldaoui in his first role.

According to a press statement, the synopsis is as follows: “In the ‘Allegory of the Cave,’ Plato ponders: What would happen if one of the prisoners managed to free themselves from their chains and escape from the cave? What if that prisoner were Jay,...

Das New York Film Festival hat jetzt die Filme für die Spotlight-Sektion seiner von 27. September bis 14. Oktober stattfindenden 62. Ausgabe bekannt gegeben. Darunter ist auch Pablo Larrains „Maria“, an dem Komplizen Film als Koproduzent beteiligt ist.

In der Spotlight-Sektion des New York Film Festival: „Maria“ mit Angelina Jolie als Maria Callas (Credit: Fremantle)

Neben der bereits bekannt gegebenen US-Premiere von Luca Guadagninos „Queer“ am 6. Oktober hat das New York Film Festival (27. September bis 14. Oktober) jetzt 13 weitere Filme für seine diesjährige Spotlight-Sektion bekannt gegeben. Darunter befindet sich auch Pablo Larrains „Maria“, an dem Komplizen Film als Koproduzent beteiligt ist. Nach Festivalangaben umfasst die Sektion die „bemerkenswertesten Filme des Herbstes“.

Die Filme der Spotlight-Sektion im Überblick:

• „Queer“ (Regie: Luca Guadagnino)

• „Apocalypse in the Tropics” (Regie: Petra Costa)

• „Elton John: Never Too Late”

• „Emilia Pérez” (Regie: Jacques Audiard)

• „The Friend”

• „I’m Still Here” (Regie: Walter Salles)

• „It’s Not Me” (Regie: Leos Carax)

• „Maria...

Film at Lincoln Center unveiled its Spotlight section including Pablo Larraín’s Maria with Angelina Jolie as legendary opera singer Maria Callas in her final days; the North American premieres of Leos Carax’s It’s Not Me; Alex Ross Perry’s Pavements, Andrei Ujică’s Beatles documentary Twst / Things We Said Today and the U.S. premiere of doc Elton John: Never Too Late, with an appearance by the legendary musician.

Jacques Audiard’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Emilia Pérez joins new works by Jacques Audiard, Petra Costa, Jesse Eisenberg, Jean-Luc Godard, Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Jackson, Scott McGehee and David Siegel, Walter Salles, Brett Story and Stephen Maing.

NYFF calls Spotlight a showcase of the fall’s most notable films — a selection of literary adaptations, portraits of musical artists, Cannes award winners, works dealing with political and historical realities, and the final film of Jean-Luc Godard,...

Pablo Larraín’s Venice selection Maria starring Angelina Jolie and TIFF world premiere Elton John: Never Too Late featuring an appearance by John and co-directors R.J. Cutler and David Furnish will receive their US premieres in New York Film Festival’s (NYFF) Spotlight programme.

The section showcases what NYFF programmers regard as the fall season’s most notable films and includes the North American premiere of Alex Ross Perry’s indie rock band documentary and Venice world premiere Pavements, and Twst/Things We Said Today, Andrei Ujică’s archival film about the Beatles’ sold-out 1965 Shea Stadium concert that also gets...

New work from Jacques Audiard, Pablo Larraín, Jesse Eisenberg, R.J. Cutler, Petra Costa, Walter Salles, Leos Carax and more will play in the 62nd New York Film Festival’s Spotlight section, joining the previously announced Spotlight Gala U.S. premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.” The final film by Jean-Luc Godard will also be featured in this section, alongside a documentary about the late French iconoclast.

Audiard’s musical “Emilia Pérez” won the Cannes Jury Prize and Best Actress, shared among stars Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe Saldaña, and will play at this year’s NYFF. Angelina Jolie stars in Larraín’s “Maria” as legendary opera diva Maria Callas in her final days. Eisenberg directed and costars alongside Kieran Culkin in “A Real Pain,” playing cousins who make a pilgrimage to the hometown of their grandmother who survived the Holocaust. “Rumours,” a sci-fi political satire directed by Guy Maddin,...

The 2024 New York Film Festival (September 27-October 14) has added more to its already-buzzy lineup, with the latest selections in its Spotlight section announced today. The NYFF Spotlight gala this year, as previously named, will be the U.S. premiere of Luca Guadagnino’s Venice competition title “Queer.”

But new to the NYFF mix are Alex Ross Perry’s “anti-biodoc” (the festival’s words) “Pavements,” about the iconic indie rock band Pavement. That film also premieres in Venice in the Horizons section. A North American premiere of “Holy Motors” director Leos Carax’s self-reflexive short film collage “It’s Not Me,” which bowed in Cannes, also comes to NYFF this fall. Notably, one more “last film” by Jean-Luc Godard, who died in September 2022, “Scénarios” will play NYFF after screening in Cannes. The New Wave master completed the film the day before he died by assisted suicide. “Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: ‘Phony Wars,...

The 2024 New York Film Festival has announced the lineup for its Spotlight section, including Pablo Larraín’s Maria, starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in her final days, as well as the U.S. premiere of R.J. Cutler and David Furnish’s documentary Elton John: Never Too Late.

The section will also feature the North American premiere of Alex Ross Perry’s anti-biodoc about the rock band Pavement, titled Pavements; Twst/Things We Said Today, Andrei Ujica’s archival film about the Beatles’ 1965 Shea Stadium concert; and Jacques Audiard’s Cannes winner Emilia Pérez.

Additional films in the Spotlight slate include the Jesse Eisenberg-directed A Real Pain, starring Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin as cousins who attempt to reconnect on a pilgrimage to the Polish hometown of their Holocaust survivor grandmother; Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s immersive documentary Union about the day-to-day struggles of the Amazon Labor Union and...

You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Nicole Kidman squat-piss on Zac Efron’s jellyfish sting, or eye-fuck John Cusack from across the room of a no-contact death row prison visit, or Efron dancing to Linda Clifford’s “I Just Wanna Wanna” in clinging tighty-whities in the rain. All of this and more happens in Lee Daniels’ sweaty, swampy Southern Gothic “The Paperboy,” the writer/director’s 2012 follow-up to his Oscar-winning sensation “Precious.” It’s a movie, as Daniels told IndieWire, that “doesn’t get any love.”

Set in 1969, this delirious entertainment follows Matthew McConaughey as a Florida reporter covering inmate Hillary Van Wetter (Cusack), who has been convicted of killing a racist cop. McConaughey hires his brother Jack (Efron) to probe Hillary’s possible innocence. Efron is seduced by the vamping, sex-mad blonde Charlotte Bless (Kidman), a southern-friend Alabama belle in love with Hillary from afar. Violence, madness,...

Much has been said of the overwhelming ingenuity of Jean-Luc Godard’s early films, but less so about just how well the director knew how to work around budgetary limitations. Alphaville, a dystopian sci-fi noir set in an Orwellian world of omnipresent surveillance run by a malevolent artificial intelligence, sounds at first blush like a large-scale work filled with the sort of macro world-building one typically sees in blockbusters. But Godard, working with next to no resources, captures the oppressiveness of totalitarian government through the claustrophobic conditions of repressed citizens. Ordinary Parisian streets and buildings are captured as they are, though in inky shadow, so that a certain kind of present-day dilapidation comes to suggest futuristic social decay.

Godard takes private detective Lemmy Caution and illustrates Alphaville’s themes of social tension and incipient fascism by demolishing the man’s image. Godard secured Eddie Constantine, who had already played Caution...

“The Sporting Image” is the summer 2024 edition of the Notebook Insert, a seasonal supplement on moving-image culture.Illustration by Ivy Johnson.The 1990s were a turbulent decade for Park Chan-wook the director, whose first two films, The Moon Is... the Sun's Dream (1992) and Trio (1997), were unmitigated box-office disasters. But it was also an illustrious decade for Park the film critic, whose writing for Screen, Kino, and Sports Chosun had developed a cult following. Before Joint Security Area (2000) put him on the map as a filmmaker, he was known for his sharp critical insights and dynamic prose. Meanwhile, he worked at the video rental store Movie Village in Seoul, where he initiated hundreds of cinephiles into the work of Leos Carax, Kim Ki-young, and Abel Ferrara. I was twelve when the R-rated Lady Vengeance (2005) came out. I didn’t have the patience to wait until I turned eighteen, so I decided...

With this year’s Olympic Games Opening Ceremony just days away, odd sights and rumors now swirl around Paris.

On Monday, as the French press guessed at surprise performers – with Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa among the names heard often – local cameras caught glimpse of a grand piano, hidden below a tarp, being floated down the Seine. And though Paris 2024 organizers remained tight-lipped about any and all cameo performances, the emblematic waterway itself is set to play a starring role at Friday’s affair.

Running just under four hours, the open-air pageant will play as a nautical cruise, following 85 boats – each carrying an Olympic delegation – on a four-mile parade through the City of Light’s main artery. Setting off from the Pont d’Austerlitz and culminating at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the nautical event will make use of the city’s historical sites and locales, staging twelve living tableaus,...

In a recently published book, L’essai au cinéma – De Chaplin à Godard, Bamchade Pourvali distinguishes between two major types of essay films. In one, thought becomes form—that is, the text precedes the image—as in Chris Marker’s work. And in the other, form becomes thought, with the image preceding the text, as in Jean-Luc Godard’s later work. Leos Carax’s It’s Not Me, screening at the 58th Karlovy Vary Film Festival’s Horizons program, would certainly fall into the latter category—not just because so much of this 40-minute essayistic collage derives from the arsenal of iconic sequences of his own making, but because the film’s narration bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Godard’s for Histoire(s) du Cinema.

The images in It’s Not Me seem to have a life of their own. There’s a sense that Carax’s voiceover...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the latest film from China’s great auteur Jia Zhang-ke, “Caught by the Tides.” The film premiered in competition at Cannes in May 2024.

A love story at heart, “Caught by the Tides” stars Jia’s wife, the longtime actress Zhao Tao, in a story set across 23 years. As with his previous masterpieces “Platform,” “The World,” “A Touch of Sin,” and “Mountains May Depart,” the film is a canvas on which to portray the rapid changes in China this century — a period of explosive economic and technological growth. Zhao is romantically entangled with Li Zhubin against this backdrop, some of which Jia actually shot over the past 23 years. Like his “24 City,” it combines non-fiction and fiction elements. In this case, even clips from Jia’s previous films appear.

Jia is unique in being a Mainland filmmaker deeply committed to exploring life in China today and...

Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired US rights to Caught By The Tides, director Jia Zhang-ke’s entry in last month’s Cannes competition line-up.

The companies said they plan to release the film exclusively in US cinemas “in the coming months.”

Written by Jia and Wan Jiahuan. the Chinese-language film stars Jia’s wife Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin in a love story unfolding over 23 years against the backdrop of China’s explosive growth. The film includes both new material and old footage shot by Jia since the turn of the millennium.

Caught By The Tides is produced by Casper Liang Jiayan,...

“Caught by the Tides,” the contemporary Chinese epic film directed by Jia Zhangke, has been acquired for U.S. release by Sidehow and Janus Films.

The film appeared in main competition in Cannes in May and is an extended look at the romantic destiny of Jia’s perennial heroine, Qiaoqiao over a period of 21 years. On another level, the film is an examination of a country going through profound transformation, mixing individual experiences and turbulent emotional and social changes.

It uses a mixture of old footage shot by Jia over the past century as well as some new. The main cast are Zhao Tao and Li Zhubin.

Variety’s reviewer Jessica Kiang, called the film: “an epic, lyrical drama that is both Chinese master Jia’s career-retrospective reinvention and a defining portrait of modern China.”

Sideshow and Janus Films will release the picture exclusively in U.S. theaters at an...

There’s a classical quality to the imagery of filmmaker Sirius’ dance/narrative hybrid short Morning Interlude, about a young couple reconciling their differences with one another after a long, restless night. It’s a look achieved through the combination of a gripping story of a couple on the edge told through wide, black and white anamorphic photography that captures the incredibly cinematic landscape of an isolated country road adjacent to an empty train track. That amalgam of elements is what caught our eye when we first watched Sirius’ short, but there’s also an unexpected comedic sensibility that grows into the film as it plays out, taking the short into truly unique territory. Dn joined up with Sirius for a discussion on the making of Morning Interlude, talking through everything from the influence of Leos Carax and Denis Lavant to the challenge of subtly blending dance with performance.

I wanted to start with dance,...

Nestled on a quiet street a stone’s throw away from the bustle of Paris’ fifth arrondissement, La Clef cinema, one of the city’s most enduring rep houses, has been saved from closure following a five-year battle involving lawyers, developers, and government officials.

Cinéma Revival, the activist group behind the campaign to save the venue, has purchased the cinema building, which had been put on the market by its previous owner, Caisse d’Epargne banking group. The group bought the building with €2 million raised through an online fundraising campaign. €400,000 was raised from 5000 individual donations with contributors including filmmakers and actors such as David Lynch, Wang Bing, Leos Carax, Céline Sciamma, Sophie Fillières, Agnès Jaoui, and Irène Jacob.

The remaining cash was raised through a series of what the group described to us as “major” cash donations from Pulp Fiction filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and two other anonymous patrons who have asked to remain anonymous.

Over his 40-year filmmaking career, Leos Carax has only released six feature films. Breaking it down further, Carax has only released two films over the past 24 years. So, a new feature from the filmmaker is something to celebrate, especially if you’re a fan of auteur-driven, somewhat experimental storytelling, such as in his new film, “C’est Pas Moi” (aka “It’s Not Me”).

Read More: Summer Movie Preview: 50 Must-See Films To Watch

“It’s Not Me” is a unique film in a filmography that is perhaps more unique than any other modern filmmaker.

Continue reading ‘It’s Not Me’ Teaser: Leos Carax Returns With An Experimental Self-Portrait at The Playlist.

Returning to the Cannes Film Festival after Annette, Leos Carax premiered his 40-minute cinematic self-portrait It’s Not Me. Thankfully snapped up by Sideshow and Janus Films for a North American release, it’ll actually get a French release in a few weeks and now the first trailer has arrived.

With It’s Not Me, Leos Carax is making a self portrait unlike any other. He commented, “Lots of painters have done theirs, of course. I tried to make mine without any mirror. A self-portrait seen from behind. Or, like in a dream dreamed many years ago: how come I can see myself in that mirror, even though my eyes are closed?—and when I check in the mirror, my eyes are indeed closed.”

Savina Petkova said in her review, “It’s Not Me boasts an eclectic visual style, fully embracing various ratios, formats, and stock conditions that come with...

"The Unhoped For." Les Films du Losange in France has revealed a first look trailer (with English text) for the latest unique Leos Carax film titled It's Not Me. This just premiered at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and opens in France this June. The 41-minute biopic short doc film is a "self-portrait of the director and his oeuvre, revisiting in free-form more than 40 years of the author's filmography." This autobiography takes a look back at all of his films and his work, and examines politics over time and the art-form of cinema. The intro: "For an exhibition, that in the end never took place, the Pompidou Museum asked the filmmaker to reply, in pictures, to the question: Where are you at, Leos Carax? He attempts an answer – full of questions. About himself and 'his' world: I don't know, but if I did, I'd reply that..." C'est pas moi or It's Not Me.

The Cannes 2024 market saw a thrilling revival with nine movies — including four movies in the main competition — selling to specialized distributors in domestic deals. However, this wasn’t exactly a return to business as normal: The buyers weren’t stalwarts like A24, or Focus, or IFC. Instead Mubi, Metrograph Pictures, and Sideshow (in partnership with Janus Films) established themselves as major buyers.

Mubi bought three titles in the main competition: “The Girl With the Needle,” “The Substance,” and added North American rights on Andrea Arnold’s “Bird.” (It came to the festival with UK rights.) “The Substance” starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley represents a major swing for the upstart, with one source placing the deal in the low-eight figures.

Sideshow picked up Indian drama “All We Imagine As Light” in the main competition, the animated “Flow” from Un Certain Regard, and “Misericordia” and Leos Carax’s “It’s Not Me,...

Cannes is over, the prizes have been given out at Saturday’s awards ceremony., and buyers have gone home, but the deals haven’t stopped. Some of the buzziest titles ahead of the festival are still are awaiting buyers. This year’s market hasn’t been weighed down by the writers or actors strikes in the same way as last year, meaning companies like A24, Neon, Apple, and more have jumped in on exciting packages of possibly future contenders, while art house, specialized distributors like Sideshow and Janus Films, Mubi, and Metrograph have been especially active.

Below we’re tracking everything that gets acquired throughout the festival and beyond.

Films Acquired After the Festival “Gazer”

Section: Director’s Fortnight

Director: Ryan J. Sloan

Buyer: Metrograph Pictures

Date Acquired: May 29

Cast: Ariella Mastroianni

Buzz: As IndieWire exclusively reported, Metrograph went big on this neo-noir thriller with a unique concept from a...

Headlines read, “Leos Carax Bring Back Baby Annette to the Croisette,” but this is only half the truth. Yes, the legendary puppet makes a comeback in C’est Pas Moi (English: It’s Not Me), his new film in Cannes’ non-competitive Premiere section. While described as a “self-portrait” (and is in fact more of an essay), it was made in response to a prompt posed by Paris’ Pompidou Centre and was supposed to play in an exhibition. The question, supposedly “where are you at, Leos Carax,” was answered with a 41-minute essay. One of the first things to appear onscreen was a concession: “I don’t know,” a seemingly humble opening for a mid-length film shown at the sold-out Debussy hall at Cannes’ Palais du Festival. But this is Leos Carax and we don’t really need his humbleness, do we?

It’s Not Me boasts an eclectic visual style,...

Last year, /Film ranked the 15 best Adam Driver movies, and the number one film on our list was "Annette," the musical written by the unclassifiable band Sparks and directed by "Holy Motors" helmer Leos Carax in his English-language debut. Adam Driver stars in the film as Henry McHenry, a vulgar stand-up comedian who falls in love with an opera singer and fathers a daughter who has an unusual talent, which he promptly begins to exploit for his own gain. "Annette" is a deeply eccentric film, one that certainly isn't for everyone, but Driver is fantastic in the lead role, stretching himself as a performer (his singing voice? Pretty good!) and playing a character who's easy to hate. He's brash, funny, despicable, occasionally ridiculous, and surprisingly emotional, especially in the movie's final scene, where his daughter finally confronts him about his transgressions.

But according to an interview Carax did with Indiewire...

Sideshow and Janus Films scooped up another buzzy title out of Cannes, acquiring It’s Not Me from French auteur Leos Carax (Holy Motors, Annette) for North America.

An autobiographical collage of old and new footage, referencing everything from silent movies and Hollywood Golden Age classics to scenes from his own work and personal home movies, It’s Not Me pays direct homage to the late, great Jean-Luc Godard in its deconstruction of the language of cinema and the treacheries of auto-fiction.

Commenting on his cinematic “self-portrait,” Carax said: “Lots of painters have done theirs, of course. I tried to make mine without any mirror. A self-portrait seen from behind. Or, like in a dream dreamed many years ago: How come I can see myself in that mirror, even though my eyes are closed?—and when I check in the mirror, my eyes are indeed closed.”

It’s Not Me...

Aside from Jean-Luc Godard’s last film, one of the shortest premieres at the Cannes Film Festival that was among our most-anticipated is Leos Carax’s 40-minute cine-memoir It’s Not Me. While our review of the latest from the Holy Motors and Annette director will be coming soon, the first footage has now arrived thanks to a French teaser celebrating both the film and its Cannes premiere––which, of course, featured none other than Baby Annette.

Here’s the synopsis: “The Centre Pompidou had set the film-maker the task of responding to the question: where are you at, Leos Carax? While the exhibition ultimately didn’t go ahead, this medium-length film draws on visual essays and autofiction to serve up an image-rich answer, with the epic Denis Lavant playing Monsieur Merde from Tokyo!. For C’est pas moi, the director plugged back into his faithful crew, harnessing the talents...

A self-portrait and cinematic essay, Leos Carax’s “It’s Not Me” is perhaps the most accurate impression of a late-era Jean-Luc Godard experiment anyone has ever attempted. From Carax’s raspy voiceover to his jaggedly assembled combination of archival footage and absurd original snippets, the 41-minute short probes a variety of personal and political subjects, but it never quite beats with the furious heart and provocative spirit of Godard’s twilight era.

The project was conceived as part of a museum exhibition on Carax for Paris’ Centre Pompidou, but the prompt posed to him in the form of a question — “Where are you at, Leos Carax?” — appears to have led the enigmatic filmmaker on a confounding quest of self-discovery. The exhibit would never come to fruition, but Carax’s inquiry into his work, his lifelong influences and cinema at-large has yielded an occasionally fascinating collage. The film not only ponders Carax’s past,...

After Jean-Luc Godard, Leos Carax is probably the French filmmaker most associated with the term enfant terrible. In some ways, he’s been even more terrible than Godard ever was, adopting a pseudonym (he was born Alex Dupont) as a teenager and bursting onto the scene at age 24 with Boy Meets Girl — Godard made Breathless when he was 30 — which immediately turned him into a major young auteur to be reckoned with.

He followed that up with the powerful, AIDS-inspired Mauvais Sang, and then made The Lovers on the Bridge, a film infamous for being a French Heaven’s Gate that went way over budget and flopped (it’s still a fantastic movie). After that Carax disappeared for a while, then reemerged to make a few shorts, compose pop songs and shoot a new feature every decade, the last one being the Adam Driver-Marion Cotillard starrer, Annette.

His latest work, the medium-length,...

These auteurs are ready for their close-up.

When Quentin Dupieux’s comedy about an ill-fated film set, “The Second Act,” opened the Cannes Film Festival May 14, it will be just one of several movies about filmmaking and filmmakers to touch down on the Croisette. After all, directors Christophe Honoré, Paul Schrader and Josh Mond are among the other prominent filmmakers who are ready to premiere semi-autobiographical stories.

Honoré’s in-competition comedy, “Marcello Mio,” casts Chiara Mastroianni as a version of herself who — after a director compares her to her late father, Marcello Mastroianni — dresses in drag and takes on his identity. Schrader’s in-competition drama, “Oh, Canada,” focuses on a documentary filmmaker (Richard Gere) telling his life story in a doc. Mond’s drama “It Doesn’t Matter” follows two friends chronicling their lives on video. Leos Carax’s 40-minute “C’est pas moi” is partly a self-portrait, with footage from his films and life.

As Cannes Film Festival kicks off, the Paris-based international sales company MK2 Films has revealed it has acquired three films and made substantial investments in new restorations, set against the backdrop of a strong presence at Cannes Classics.

MK2 Films has entered into a collaboration with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation on the global rights (excluding the U.S.) for two films directed by artist Niki de Saint Phalle: “Un Rêve plus long que la nuit” (1976) and “Daddy” (1973). “Un Rêve plus long que la nuit” has been restored in 4K by L’Immagine Ritrovata (Bologna-Paris) under the supervision of Arielle de Saint Phalle and with funding from Dior. It was presented at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, New York Film Festival and the new Los Angeles Festival of Movies. “Daddy” will soon be available in a restored version. MK2 Films described it as a “unique feminist work by one of...