Jessica and Farrah spend the summer with their mother on Corsica, where both sisters were born. The two adolescents go swimming, have parties and make their first sexual experiences. But the location also brings an old family trauma back to the surface – the three of them left the island 15 years ago under tragic circumstances. Director Catherine Corsini and her wonderful stars imbue the genre of the summer movie with an unusual depth – without forgetting about the holiday feeling.
Seven-year-old Joey lives in Brooklyn. When his mother goes to visit his sick grandmother, older brother Lennie is left to watch Joey. Babysitting ruins the 12-year-old’s plans for the day, so he enlists his friends to play a prank on Joey. They give him a (toy) gun to play with and when it goes off, Lennie plays dead. Thinking he’ll be arrested as a murderer, Joey takes off. With six dollars in his pocket, he heads for Coney Island, where he wanders the beach and goes on the rides … Using a 35mm camera strapped to his body, photographer Morris Engel documents the amusement park from the perspective of his young hero. As Joey rides the carousel, throws a baseball, eats cotton candy, and collects deposit bottles, the filmmakers use the opportunity to proffer up cinematic sketches of Americans at leisure – strolling, flirting, swimming, and sunbathing. As if captured with the wondering eyes of a seven-year-old, Little Fugitive casts an amused and anthropological eye over the people in the crowd in a masterpiece of black-and-white cinematography.
For the 2023 Retrospective, internationally renowned directors, actors, and screenwriters were asked to select their personal coming-of-age favourites.
I think Ruth Orkin’s own words and photographs provide an eloquent introduction to the wonderful film she made with Morris Engel and Raymond Abrashkin [aka Ray Ashley] back in 1953.
Wes Anderson on his selection: “Usually when people in Hollywood direct their first movie it’s because they’ve had experience in other parts of movie-making; scriptwriting, acting, cinematography, editing, assistant director or the theater. And when they sit in the director’s chair for the first time they have a whole experienced crew to back them up. We had only our inexperienced selves. We couldn’t have made the movies if we hadn’t been photographers first”.
Credits:
US 1953, 75 Min., engl. OmU Regie: Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin Kamera: Morris Engel Schnitt: Ruth Orkin, Lester Troob mit: Richard Brewster, Winnifred Cushing, Jay Williams, Will Lee, Charley Moss, Tommy DeCanio, Richie Andrusco
Wim Wenders’ first films were characterised by the theme of movement, and so it is no coincidence that the German filmmaker’s latest fiction feature is reminiscent of that luminous period in his filmography. The life of the mysterious man who cleans public toilets in Tokyo (played by Yakusho Koji) is defined by quotidian movement and observation. The prodigious secret of PERFECTDAYS lies in how it heightens our perception of all the transitional acts that determine his working routine; distraction is forbidden here. Everything indicates that cleaning toilets and urinals is an undesirable task, but in Japan this task appears like an appropriate procedure for a veritable science of cleanliness. And while it seems theoretically implausible that a man with such a job reads Faulkner at night, is a music lover and pays attention to the trees in order to photograph them with the sharpness of a professional, such qualities and passions can be seen as legitimate based on the other characters that appear in the film who duly reveal something of his past. Beauty and wonder are in equilibrium in all the sequences, and sublimely so when the dreams of this man who cleans bathrooms are depicted. (Roger Koza)
Credits:
JP 2023, 124 Min., japan. OmU Regie: Wim Wenders Kamera: Franz Lustig Schnitt: Toni Froschhammer mit: Koji Yakusho, Tokio Emoto, Arisa Nakano, Aoi Yamada, Yumi Aso, Sayuri Ishikawa, Tomokazu Miura as Tomoyama
The French couple Vincent and Olga settled in a small village in the interior of Galicia and lead a tranquil existence as farmers. Despite their friendliness, the local farmers treat the two strangers with suspicion and disdain. When Vincent and Olga refuse to agree to the building of a wind farm, the mood changes completely and the situation in the village escalates. In the beautiful setting of the Galician countryside, Oscar-nominated director Rodrigo Sorogoyen stages a high-tension thriller that is as original as it is gripping – a real blast!
Credits:
As Bestas ES/FR 2022, 137 Min., frz, span. OmU Regie: Rodrigo Sorogoyen Kamera: Alejandro de Pablo Schnitt: Alberto del Campo mit: Denis Menochet, Marina Foïs, Luis Zahera
Face to face: in her new film, Jeanne Herry tackles the sensitive subject of perpetrator/victim encounters. At first glance, Gregoire, Nawelle, Sabine and Chloe have nothing in common – apart from the fact that they are all victims of crime. Now they are voluntarily taking part in a programme in which they meet criminals doing time for their crimes. For both sides, an emotional and difficult journey begins, in which courage, trust and friends are necessary to get past the rancour – and maybe find ways to conquer the shadows of the past.
Credits:
Je verrai toujours vos visages, FR 2023, 118 Min., frz. OmU, Regie: Jeanne Herry, Kamera: Nicolas Loir, mit: Adèle Exarchopoulos, Dali Benssalah, Leïla Bekhti, Birane Ba, Anne Benoît, Elodie Bouchez, MiouMiou, Gilles Lellouche
A pub as a place of division, but also interaction: In his new film, Ken Loach is once again a keen-sighted, warm-hearted seismograph of British society. The Old Oak is the only remaining public place where people in the once thriving North English mining community of Easington can meet. After 30 years of decline, TJ Ballantyne, the landlord, is desperate to save the pub, but with the arrival of Syrian refugees two different realities meet head-on. When TJ makes friends with Yara, a young Syrian woman, the two try to bring the two cultures closer together. For a better future – and for The Old Oak.
Credits:
GB/FR/BE 2023, 113 Min., engl. OmU Regie: Ken Loach Drehbuch: Paul Laverty Kamera: Robbie Ryan Schnitt: Jonathan Morris mit: Dave Turner, Ebla Mari, Debbie Honeywood, Reuben Bainbridge
Beautiful and troubled 20-something Donya, an Afghan translator who used to work with the U.S. government, has trouble sleeping. She lives by herself in Fremont, California, in a building with other Afghan immigrants and often dines alone at a local restaurant watching soap operas. Her routine changes when she’s promoted to writing the fortunes at her job at a fortune cookie factory in the city. As her fortunes are read by strangers throughout the Bay, Donya’s smoldering longing drives her to send a message out to the world, unsure where it will lead.
Shot in black and white, and with warmth and a wry sense of humor, director Babak Jalali has crafted a loving portrait of a young woman haunted by the past but still filled with desire for companionship and connection. Featuring a cast of unforgettable, unique characters, and anchored by a beguiling debut performance from real-life Afghan refugee Anaita Wali Zada, Fremont is an ode to the curious beauty of trying to build a new life in a strange land.
Credits:
US 2023, 91 Min., engl.-farsi–kantonesische OmU Regie & Schnitt: Babak Jalali Kamera: Laura Valladao mit Anaita Wali Zada, Hilda Schmelling, Jeremy Allen White, Avis See-tho
Two mismatched entrepreneurs – egghead innovator Mike Lazaridis and cut-throat businessman Jim Balsillie – joined forces in an endeavour that was to become a worldwide hit in little more than a decade. The device that one of them invented and the other sold was the BlackBerry, an addictive mobile phone that changed the way the world worked, played and communicated. But just as BlackBerry was rising to new peaks, it also started losing its way through the fog of Smartphone wars, management indecision and outside distractions, eventually leading to the breakdown of one of the most successful ventures in the history of the tech and business worlds. In his earlier works (The Dirties, Operation Avalanche), Matt Johnson has proven how irresistible an urge it is for cineastes equipped with a camera to capture on film that which seems incredible, or even impossible. His are the stories of seemingly unremarkable individuals who are tempted to achieve something that nobody else has. Coupled with his own brand of savage humour, Johnson amazes us with this story of two Canadian guys who, in between movie nights, invented the tool that, for better or worse, changed our way of doing pretty much everything.
Credits:
CA 2023, 121 Min., engl. OmU Regie: Matt Johnson Kamera: Jared Raab Schnitt:Curt Lobb mit Jay Baruchel, Glenn Howerton, Matt Johnson, Cary Elwes, Saul Rubinek, Michael Ironside, Rich Sommer, Sungwon Cho, Michelle Giroux, Mark Critch
As elegant and deceptively simple as its title, Tatsunari Ota’s Ishi ga aru, reduces narrative and plot to questions of time, movement, and encounter. The film opens with a nameless woman arriving in a small town, out of seeming nowhere. “Is there anything nice around here?” she asks a local, “Something fascinating?” Her inquiry met with a near-blank stare, she thus drifts, eventually encountering a man skipping stones by the river. Together they pass the afternoon engaged in playful outdoor activities like balancing sticks, stacking stones and more. Finally, they part – their time together curtailed by the inevitable waning daylight – with the unexpected emotional import of their time together left rippling like the water over one of their submerged pebbles. While structured around central characters and narrative in nature, the film invites a form of spectatorship more closely associated with dance or performance art. Throughout, Ota emphasises the physical and emotional exchanges between strangers, as well as between humans and nature. As if in response to the woman’s early query, Ishi ga aru quietly reorients our expectations and understanding of fascination.
Credits:
Ishi ga aru – 石がある Jp 2022, 104 Min., japan. OmU Regie: Tatsunari Ota Kamera: Yuji Fukaya Schnitt: Keiko Okawa mit:An Ogawa, Tsuchi Kanou
“There are no secrets in this house. Do you hear me? … If there are secrets in a house, there is shame in that house.”
Four siblings, a mother torn between care and helplessness, a cursing father and a wet mattress every morning: these are the things that make up quiet young Cáit’s life. Her parents decide it’s best if she spends the summer at the farm of two relatives she has never met. Lush green trees flank the road leading up to their property, a respectful silence pervading their bright, clean house. Here, tenderly looked after by Eibhlín, Cáit finally feels loved and safe. Initial aloofness likewise starts giving way to a deeper bond between her and Seán, with whom she feeds the calves. The mattress stays dry. And yet, in the midst of the scraggly beauty of the Irish countryside, certain secrets seem to linger, which Cáit begins to face with newfound courage and confidence.
Credits:
An Cailín Ciúin IR 2022, 95 Min., gälisch, englische OmU Regie: Colm Bairéad Kamera: Kate McCullough Schnitt: John Murphy mit: Carrie Crowley, Andrew Bennett, Catherine Clinch
Wir verwenden Cookies, um unsere Website und unseren Service zu optimieren.
Funktionale Cookies
Always active
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugang ist unbedingt erforderlich für den rechtmäßigen Zweck, die Nutzung eines bestimmten Dienstes zu ermöglichen, der vom Teilnehmer oder Nutzer ausdrücklich gewünscht wird, oder für den alleinigen Zweck, die Übertragung einer Nachricht über ein elektronisches Kommunikationsnetz durchzuführen.
Vorlieben
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff ist für den rechtmäßigen Zweck der Speicherung von Präferenzen erforderlich, die nicht vom Abonnenten oder Benutzer angefordert wurden.
Statistiken
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff, der ausschließlich zu statistischen Zwecken erfolgt.Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff, der ausschließlich zu anonymen statistischen Zwecken verwendet wird. Ohne eine Vorladung, die freiwillige Zustimmung deines Internetdienstanbieters oder zusätzliche Aufzeichnungen von Dritten können die zu diesem Zweck gespeicherten oder abgerufenen Informationen allein in der Regel nicht dazu verwendet werden, dich zu identifizieren.
Marketing
Die technische Speicherung oder der Zugriff ist erforderlich, um Nutzerprofile zu erstellen, um Werbung zu versenden oder um den Nutzer auf einer Website oder über mehrere Websites hinweg zu ähnlichen Marketingzwecken zu verfolgen.