The suffering of people in this film is staggering, but so is their resilience.
A project initially scheduled for a 2023 shoot has finally been greenlit, with Cineuropa confirming that Meryem Benm’Barek has been filming her sophomore feature since midway point last month. Behind the Palm Trees stars Sara Giraudeau and Driss Ramdi in leading roles, with strong support from Carole Bouquet, Olivier Rabourdin, Rachel O’Meara, and Nadia Kounda. Benm’Barek’s debut feature Sofia was a 2018 Cannes Un Certain Regard selection – winning the Best Screenplay in the section. Production is taking place in Tangier and Benm’Barek has re-teamed with her cinematographer Son Doan. A project was part of the 2022 Atlas Workshops in Marrakech, Tessalit Productions’ Jean Bréhat is producing.… Read the rest
One of my favorite films of Fantastic Fest 2024 was this taut piece of single-take cinema from France. An already high teen visits his dealer hoping to score the latest designer drug. But before he can get to the , he picks up a panicked woman on the side of the road. The cinematic fever dream that follows is like falling into utter chaos. MadS may tell a familiar story but it does so with ferocious energy and style, making everything old horrific again. I can’t elaborate much more than that as to plotting. Suffice to say this type of story will be familiar to almost anyone who hasn’t been hiding out in a horde-proof bunker for the last ten years. Use of the single-take…
With the streaming premiere of V/H/S/Beyond coming up this Friday we were fortunate to spend a moment speaking Kate Siegel, director of the segment, the sci-fi horror short Stowaway. We were joined by their lead actress and a multi-hyphanite herself, Alanah Pearce. Watch as I yammer on with two ladies who know their stuff, who are massively more learned, intelligent and professional than I am. You know that feeling when you’re speaking with someone and you think, I could learn an awful lot from this person? Yeah, these two gave me that feeling. Kate speaks about why now was the time to make her directorial debut, what her influences were when making this short (avoiding one that would give away the ending – no spoilers!), the…
While big studio sci-fi films seemingly struggle while trying to manage too many expectations, obligations and money, the indie sector of the same genre is definitely on the rise. The Becomers, the latest outing from Zach Clark, the director known for Modern Love Is Automatic (2009), White Reindeer (2013) and Little Sister (2016), which premiered at last year’s Fantasia Film Festival, is another example of a modest budget turned into creative fun. An alien from a distant dying planet lands in the middle of Illinois and body snatches their way through it in search of their lover who reached the Earth in a different pod. The first body, the one of an unlucky hunter, doesn’t last long before our protagonist bumps into a woman (Isabel Alamin)…
For Stephen King’s Constant Readers, adaptations of his novels or short stories into film, TV movies, cable/streaming miniseries, or comics are almost as plentiful as King’s prolific output over the last 50 years. His first published novel, Carrie, became an “overnight” sensation when Brian DePalma’s 1976 big-screen adaptation became a hit with audiences and critics alike. King’s second published novel, Salem’s Lot, solidified his burgeoning status as the horror genre’s latest, possibly greatest, practitioner. It also led to Tobe Hooper’s (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) masterful adaptation in 1979, though this time on network TV, spaced out across two separate nights. While additional adaptations of King’s prodigious output have followed at record speed, they’ve generally remained one-and-dones (as in one adaptation per source novel or story)….
Good Golly, It’s Dali: Dupieux Dreams Surreal in Distinctive Biopic
It seems surrealism’s pioneer Salvador Dali is experiencing something of a culturally concentric resurgence as a cinematic subject, granted his most appropriately thematic rendering yet in Quentin Dupieux’s Daaaaaali!, the second feature this year from the idiosyncratic director, who is also kinda sorta delivering his first biopic. Arriving shortly after Mary Harron’s shockingly stilted Daliland, featuring Ben Kingsley as the iconic artist, Dupieux formulates his own expectedly original rendering, presenting something more along the lines of Portrait of an Artist as a Difficult Man. Much like Todd Haynes did with Bob Dylan, a revolving door of actors portray Dali, sometimes switching freely in scenes dealing with carefree anachronisms regarding his life and work.… Read the rest
An interview with the director and stars of A Different Man.
Premiering at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, It’s What’s Inside seemed to come a bit out of nowhere. Despite its prime positioning in the Midnight section during the first weekend of the fest, the high-concept thriller features no big stars and no huge special effects. It popped off the screen in a big way, […]
The post It’s What’s Inside Director Greg Jardin on Manifesting Anxiety, Giallo Lighting, and the Road to Success first appeared on The Film Stage.
A down on his luck stand-up finds himself in a void world, hovering precariously between life and death. It is in this void that our hero, Jack, must discern how he ended up face down on his bathroom floor and find a way out before it’s too late. The indie dramedy Me, Myself & The Void is out now on VOD from Echobend Pictures. The feature was directed by Timothy Hautekiet from a script he co-wrote with Nik Oldershaw. We have a clip to share with you tonight. In the clip Jack and Chris are in the process of trying to figure out what has happened to Jack and why he is lying on the floor of his bathroom back in the real world. …