Black Bag

 

Steven Soderbergh: Black Bag (US 2025). Cate Blanchett (Kathryn St. Jean) & Michael Fassbender (George Woodhouse). Pierce Brosnan (Arthur Stieglitz), Naomie Harris (Dr. Zoe Vaughan), Tom Burke (Freddie Smalls), Regé-Jean Page (Col. James Stokes), Marisa Abela (Clarissa Dubose).

Black Bag (titre original) / The Insider (titre français) / Le Sac noir (titre québécois).

    US © 2025 Focus Features. Société de production : Casey Silver Productions. Production : Casey Silver et Gregory Jacobs

    Réalisation : Steven Soderbergh

Scénario : David Koepp

Photographie : Steven Soderbergh (crédité sous le nom de Peter Andrews) – couleur

Décors : Philip Messina

Costumes : Ellen Mirojnick

Musique : David Holmes

Montage : Steven Soderbergh (crédité Mary Ann Bernard)

    Distribution

Cate Blanchett (VF : Isabelle Gardien) : Kathryn St. Jean

Michael Fassbender (VF : Jean-Pierre Michaël) : George Woodhouse

Regé-Jean Page (VF : Eilias Changuel) : le colonel James Stokes

Marisa Abela (VF : Victoria Grosbois) : Clarissa Dubose

Naomie Harris (VF : Annie Milon) : Dr Zoe Vaughan

Pierce Brosnan (VF : Emmanuel Jacomy) : Arthur Stieglitz

Tom Burke (VF : Gilduin Tissier) : Freddie Smalls

Gustaf Skarsgård : Philip Meacham

Orli Shuka : Andrei Kulikov

Kae Alexander : Anna Ko

Ambika Mod : Angela Childs

Alex Magliaro : M. Green

    Loc: – London, England – Zürich, Switzerland. Le tournage débute le 6 mai 2024 à Londres.

    Durée : 94 minutes

    Langue originale : anglais

    Genre : espionnage, thriller

    Sociétés de distribution : Focus Features (États-Unis) ; Universal Pictures (International)

    Dates de sortie :

France : 12 mars 2025 - sous-titres francais : Geraima Le Felletin

États-Unis, Québec : 14 mars 2025

Finlande : 17 avril 2025

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, MK2 Bastille (Côté Beaumarchais), Salle 1, 4 boulevard Beaumarchais Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8

Tagline: "It takes a spy to hunt a spy".

IMDb: "When intelligence agent Kathryn Woodhouse is suspected of betraying the nation, her husband - also a legendary agent - faces the ultimate test of whether to be loyal to his marriage, or his country."

Wikipédia: " George Woodhouse et sa femme Kathryn sont des légendes de l'espionnage. Lorsque Kathryn est soupçonnée de trahison, George est confronté à un dilemme ultime : son mariage ou la loyauté envers son pays. "

AA: Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag is his third collaboration within four years with the scenarist mastermind David Koepp. As is Soderbergh's occasional habit, he is also the cinematographer (credited as his father) and the editor (credited as his mother).

Black Bag is plot-driven. The plot is devilishly ingenious. The film is brilliant, perfect and breathtaking, and the cast is outstanding.

But life is missing.

"Black Bag" is a spy code expression. "It's in the black bag" means that spies keep secrets even from each another. Kathryn and George love each other even though they cannot trust each other.

This reminds me of Federico Fellini's comment on Marcello Mastroianni: "We have a beautiful lifelong friendship that is based on healthy mutual distrust".

Kathryn & George have been compared with the detective duo Nick & Cora Charles (William Powell, Myrna Loy) in the Thin Man series. Notorious (Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman) and North by Northwest (Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint) have been mentioned. But these references help highlight the glaring absence of warmth and tenderness in the Black Bag. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbinder are icy creatures in public and private. They are the official protagonists, yet they are so distanced that they have become shadows of themselves.

Soderbergh makes the amazingly complex plot run smoothly. I would need to see the film again to understand all the implications. The plot is largely built around two dinner sequences. They are among the most curious in the history of the cinema. 

The most impressive sequence for me is the control room with its deadly accurate satellite surveillance powers, followed by a prompt to destroy by drone the car of two Russians on their way in Poland to the Eastern border. Now that the US President is a Russian asset, and the CIA is about to become subordinate to Vladimir Putin's FSB, I wonder what will be left of European security. And American.

I have been a Steven Soderbergh fan since Sex, Lies and Videotape (US 1989). Only later did I catch his feature film debut, the longform music video Yes: 9012 Live (US 1985), the first showcase of his experimental drive. I liked the Elmore Leonard adaptation Out of Sight (US 1998) with George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, still my favourite of the Soderbergh "entertainments" that I have seen. Then came the magnificent thrillers with epic resonance, Erin Brockovich (US 2000) and Traffic (US 2000). I would need to visit a Soderbergh retrospective and check out at least Che 1-2, The Informant!, Contagion, The Laundromat and Kimi.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: PLOT FROM WIKIPEDIA:

The Last Showgirl

Gia Coppola: The Last Showgirl (US 2024). Pamela Anderson as Shelly Gardner in Las Vegas.

La dernière danseuse de cabaret (titre québécois).

    US © 2024 Body of Work. Sociétés de production : Utopia, High Frequency Entertainment, Pinky Promise, Digital Ignition Entertainment et Spark Features. Production : Robert Schwartzman, Natalie Farrey et Gia Coppola. Producteurs exécutifs : Jessamine Burgum, Michael Clofine, Nick Darmstaedter, Kara Durrett, Brandon Thomas Lee, Duncan Montgomery, Alex Orlovsky, Josh Peters, Robina Riccitiello, George Rush, Jack Selby, Kevin Wheeler et Cole Harper. Coproducteur exécutif : Matthew Shire. Coproducteurs : Jennifer Goodridge et Dani Koenigsberg

    Réalisation : Gia Coppola

Scénario : Kate Gersten - based on her stage play Body of Work

Coconcepteur : Rainy Jacobs

Photographie : Autumn Durald Arkapaw – couleur – 2.39:1 – 16 mm

Décors : Natalie Ziering

Costumes : Jacqueline Getty

Musique : Andrew Wyatt

"Shadows of the Night" (D. L. Byron) perf. Pat Benatar. – "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (Jim Steinman) perf. Bonnie Tyler). – "Come and Get Your Love" (Lolly Vegas) perf. Redbone. – Theme song during the end credits, written for the movie: "Beautiful That Way" (Andrew Wyatt, Miley Cyrus, Lykke Li) perf. Miley Cyrus.  

Montage : Blair McClendon et Cam McLauchlin

    Distribution

Pamela Anderson : Shelly Gardner (vf : Malvina Germain), a successful seasoned showgirl

Dave Bautista : Eddie, producer of the revue, Hannah's father

Jamie Lee Curtis : Annette (vf : Véronique Augereau), Shelly's best friend, a cocktail waitress and former showgirl

Patrick Hilgart : Brad

Billie Lourd : Hannah Gardner, Shelly and Eddie's daughter

Jason Schwartzman : the casting director

Kiernan Shipka : Jodie, a showgirl

Brenda Song : Marianne / Mary-Anne, a showgirl

John Clofine : Poker Player

Patrick Hilgart : Brad

Jesse Phillips : Wardrobe Dresser

David Avne : Patron du restaurant (non crédité)

Sean Patrick Bryan : Patron du restaurant (non crédité)

    Loc: Las Vegas, Nevada.

    Durée : 85 min (L'Officiel des Spectacles), 89 min (Wikipédia, IMDb)

    Langue originale : anglais

    Genre : drame

    Sociétés de distribution : Roadside Attractions (États-Unis), Sony Picture (France), September Film (Belgique). 

    Dates de sortie :

Festival premiere : 6 septembre 2024 (Toronto)

Festival international du film de Saint-Sébastien : 26 septembre 2024 : prix spécial du jury

États-Unis : 13 décembre 2024 (sortie limitée), 10 janvier 2025 (sortie nationale)

Finlande : 28 février 2025

France : 12 mars 2025 - Sony - sous-titres francais: Pierre Arson

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, Majestic Bastille, 4 bd Richard-Lenoir, Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8

IMDb: "A seasoned showgirl must plan for her future when her show abruptly closes after a 30-year run."

Wikipédia: " Depuis près de trente ans, Shelley est une showgirl de Las Vegas. Elle est la « pièce maîtresse » d'un spectacle typique de la « ville du péché ». Ses collègues danseuses sont comme une sorte de famille. Mais un jour, Eddie, le régisseur, annonce que le spectacle s'arrêtera définitivement dans deux semaines. Shelley et ses collègues danseuses doivent prendre des décisions pour leur avenir. Âgée de 50 ans, Shelley ne sait rien faire d'autre que de la danse. Très marquée par cette nouvelle, elle va tenter de renouer avec sa fille Hannah qu'elle connaît à peine. Elle va cependant être soutenue par sa meilleure amie Annette, une serveuse exubérante. "

AA: Gia Coppola's The Last Showgirl is a subversively body-positive celebration of femininity caught between glorification and exploitation. 

It belongs to a contemporary trend of women film-makers "reclaiming the gaze" in the traditionally male-monopolized arena of presenting woman as spectacle.

Examples range from Bette Gordon's Variety (US 1983) to Lorene Scafaria's Hustlers (US 2019) and Lucie Borleteau's À mon seul désir (FR 2023). From the male side, sympathetic accounts include Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls (US 1995, first derided, then rehabilitated), Mathieu Amalric's Tournée (FR 2010) and Sean Baker's Anora (US 2024).

In parallel to Westerns featuring ageing gunfighters such as Sam Peckinpah's Ride the High Country / Guns in the Afternoon (US 1962), The Last Showgirl tells about "Showgirls in the Afternoon". It also resembles dramas about boxers past their prime such as John Huston's Fat City (US 1972) or the final entries of the Rocky franchise (US 1990, US 2006).

Shelly Gardner (Pamela Anderson) and her best friend Annette (Jamie Lee Curtis) are super troupers who face facts stoically. It is humiliating to be auditioning again after 30 years in a successful show, but this is not a story of disillusion and disappointment. Shelly is proud of her performances, and she is in good condition, happy about the style and glamour of the show. 

But there is a "best before" date in show business, particularly cruelly for women who are more dependent on their looks. Pamela Anderson's performance is equally daring as Demi Moore's in The Substance (FR 2024). Demi Moore played her part in a mode of utter horror, as a woman destructively lost in illusions of surface youth.

In contrast, Pamela Anderson gives a warm and tender performance. In the heartbreaking world of sex as commodity she has not lost her humanity. She meets her estranged daughter Hannah (Billie Lourd) whom she abandoned as a child. Now Hannah is her mirror, the one who sees her and through her. The show manager Eddie (Dave Bautista) is Hannah's absentee father. Shelly does her best to make up what was broken. What remains is the most important of all: dignity, again in contrast to the horror show of The Substance.

...

I missed the beginning of the movie because of erroneous information in L'Officiel des Spectacles about the duration of the previous film, Armand.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: DATA FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Armand

Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel: Armand (NO 2024). Center: Renate Reinsve (Elizabeth). Background left: Ellen Dorrit Petersen (Sarah), Endre Hellestveit (Anders). Right: Thea Lambrechts Vaulen (Sunna), Øystein Røger (Jarle).

La Convocation.

    NO/SE/DE/NL © 2024 Eye Eye Pictures / Keplerfilm / Prolaps / One Two Films / Zefyr / Film i Väst. P: Andrea Berentsen Ottmar.

    Réalisation : Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Scénario : Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel

Photographie : Pål Ulvik Rokseth (FNF) – couleur — 16 mm

Décors : Mirjam Veske

Costumes : Alva Brosten

Musique : Ella van der Woude

Soundtrack: "Le Cygne", treizième mouvement du Carnaval des animaux (1886) de Camille Saint-Saëns.

Son : Mats Lid Støten — 5.1

Montage : Robert Krantz

    Distribution

Renate Reinsve : Elizabeth

Ellen Dorrit Petersen : Sarah

Thea Lambrechts Vaulen : Sunna

Endre Hellestveit : Anders

Øystein Røger : Jarle

Vera Veljovic : Ajsa

Assad Siddique : Faizal

Patrice Demonière : Emmanuel

    Langue originale : norvégien

    Durée : 118 min

    Genre : Drame

    Société de distribution : Tandem

    Dates de sortie :

Festival premiere: 18 mai 2024 Festival de Cannes : section Un certain regard – 1er Film – Caméra d'Or 2024.

Premiere in Norway: 27 Sep 2024

Premiere in France : 12 mars 2025 (sortie nationale)

Official submission of Norway for Best International Feature Film of the 97th Academy Awards in 2025.

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 40, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er

NB. According to L'Officiel des Spectacles, the duration is 100 min. The actual duration is 118 min.

Wikipédia: " Un après-midi, Elizabeth est appelée à l'école primaire de son fils Armand. Il y a eu un incident entre le garçon de 6 ans et son camarade de classe Jon, du même âge. Lorsqu'elle arrive, Elizabeth découvre que la conversation est menée par l'enseignante inexpérimentée Sunna et que les parents de Jon sont également présents. Le camarade de jeu d'Armand a été retrouvé blessé au visage. Jon en a blâmé Armand et l'a accusé de viles menaces. "

" Mais personne ne sait avec certitude ce qui s'est passé entre les deux garçons. Bientôt, d’autres enseignants participent à la conversation. Armand est accusé d'être un « déviant sexuel » et d'avoir dépassé certaines limites. À mesure que l'après-midi avance, les mères d'Armand et Jon deviennent de plus en plus désespérées et des secrets et mensonges longtemps cachés sont révélés. Il devient de plus en plus difficile de découvrir la vérité. Bientôt, la conversation porte davantage sur les adultes que sur les enfants concernés. "

Cannes 2024: " During one fatal afternoon in an empty elementary school the two mothers of Armand (6) and Jon (6) get into a desperate fight to be believed when one son is accused of crossing boundaries

against the other. All means are used, and soon a blend of madness, desire and obsession arises. Where the truth lies is impossible to know, and soon everything evolves less and less around the children, who we never meet, and more about the adults. "

AA: Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel's feature film debut Armand is an achievement of high intensity. The story of a crisis meeting at a primary school obeys the classical unities of time, place and action.

It belongs to the films about protagonistas ausentes, to quote the title of an inspired retrospective mounted once upon a time at the Cinemateca Portuguesa, composed of films such as Rebecca, which is all about her, although we never see her. At Armand's primary school, children are absent, present only via drawings.

Armand has affinities with Carnage, based on the play by Yasmina Reza, and it belongs to a current trend of school dramas such as The Teachers' Lounge, but draws directly on Ullmann Tøndel's own experience: "I have also worked in a primary school for many years and experienced how we mirror children with their parents, for better or worse. And how all behaviour (from kids or parents) that’s even slightly outside of the norm is almost frowned and paid very close attention to."

Armand is story-driven and performance-driven. It is the story of a crisis meeting, based on an alarming account of something that happened between the 6-year old boys Armand and Jon. Jon is bruised, and Armand is suspected of sexual transgression.

Armand's mother Elizabeth is flabbergasted: why had nobody told before? The details of the account are so far out that she breaks out in Homeric laughter in one of the most unforgettable laughter scenes in the cinema. Her reaction only worsens the situation, and there is talk of involving welfare officers and the police.

Elizabeth as played by the extraordinary Renate Reinsve is a drama queen. At the crisis meeting her presence is at once prominent and vulnerable. To transcend the madness, Ullmann Tøndel breaks from realism in a musical production number for Elizabeth, joining the peculiar "back to the musical" trend in contemporary cinema (see Emilia Pérez). 

During the breaks, the parents of the children and the trio of school representatives have time to reflect upon the absurdity of the charges. The notion of a sexual transgression between 6-year-olds turns out to be a misunderstanding and a case of "a broken telephone". Jon's bruises remain a mystery, but they had appeared before the fatal situation, and Jon's mother Sarah (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) seems to have something to hide. Finally, in pouring rain at the schoolyard, people come to their senses and reconciliation takes place. 

The revelation of the movie is that although Elisabeth is the obvious drama queen, there is an even more formidable drama queen: Sarah. She has the talent and genius of pursuing suspicion and spinning webs of deceit, perhaps even without being fully aware of what she is doing nor of her hidden talent of creating an alternative reality with fake news.

Ullmann Tøndel has a firm vision in the mise-en-scène. Pål Ulvik Rokseth is in charge of the powerful cinematography. Armand is in the end a benign psychological drama, but there are accents of the thriller and even horror in the visual approach. Low angles make the school loom like a Gothic castle, and empty corridors have been lensed like the Overlook Hotel. The opening scenes of Elizabeth racing against the clock on narrow mountain roads instil a sense of urgency, powered by an intense score by Ella van der Woude.

Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel. I look forward for more.

BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK : CANNES 2024 INTERVIEW WITH HALFDAN ULLMANN TØNDEL:

L’Attachement / The Ties That Bind Us

Carine Tardieu: L'Attachement / The Ties That Bind Us (FR/BE 2024). César Botti (Elliott) and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Sandra Ferney). 

The Ties That Bind Us.

    FR/BE © 2024 Karé Productions / France 2 Cinéma / uMedia. – En association avec 6 SOFICA. Production : Antoine Rein, Antoine Gandaubert, Fabrice Goldstein

    Réalisation : Carine Tardieu

Scénario : Carine Tardieu, Agnès Feuvre, Raphaële Moussafir, d'après le roman L'Intimité d'Alice Ferney paru en 2020.

Photographie : Elin Kirschfink, Yann Maritaud – couleurs – 1,85:1

Décors : Pascale Consigny

Effets visuels : Vincent Vacarisas

Musique : Éric Slabiak

Soundtrack selections include: – "Don't Get Me Wrong" (Chrissie Hynde) perf. The Pretenders, 1986. – "Você Abusou" (Antonio Carlos & Jocafi), 1971. – "Ochi tchornye" (Yevhen Hrebinka 1843, Florent Hermann 1884).

Son : Thomas Desjonquères – Dolby Surround 5.1

Montage : Christel Dewynter

    Distribution

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi : Sandra Ferney

Pio Marmaï : Alexandre « Alex » Perthuis

Vimala Pons : Emillia Demetriu, la pédiatre

Raphaël Quenard : David, le père biologique d'Elliott

César Botti : Elliott

Catherine Mouchet : Fanny, la mère de Cécile

Marie-Christine Barrault : la mère de Sandra et Marianne

Florence Muller : Marianne, la sœur de Sandra

Mélissa Barbaud : Cécile, la mère d'Elliott et Lucille

Éric Verdin : l'amant du jeudi de Sandra

Sylviane Duparc : la patiente roumaine

Izia Le Goff : Lucille, à 1 an

Olympe Herviaux Drider : Lucille, à 2 ans

Éric Slabiak : l'un des musiciens

    Loc: Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine, Bretagne). – Librairie La Nuit des Temps, 10 Quai Émile Zola – 71 avenue Aristide Briand – École élémentaire Contour Saint-Aubin, 10 rue Contour Saint-Aubin – Hôpital Sud, 16 boulevard de Bulgarie.

    Durée : 106 minutes

    Langue originale : français (et secondairement roumain)

    Genre : drame

    Budget : 5,5 millions d'euros

    Dates de sortie :

Festival premiere : 3 septembre 2024 Venice Film Festival en compétition dans la catégorie "Orizzonti"

France : 19 février 2025 – société de distribution : Diaphana Distribution (France)

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 13, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er 

Wikipédia: "Il s’agit d’une adaptation du roman L'Intimité d'Alice Ferney paru en 2020. Alors que Carine Tardieu avait déjà lu ce roman qui se trouvait chez elle, c'est Fanny Ardant qui lui a conseillé de le relire dans le but de l'adapter au cinéma."

Synopsis: "Sandra, cinquantenaire célibataire, tient une librairie féministe. Lorsque le couple de l'appartement voisin, Alex et Cécile, doit se rendre à l'hôpital pour l'accouchement de cette dernière, Sandra accepte de s'occuper de leur fils Elliott, âgé de six ans, bien que cette femme ne soit pas très intéressée par les enfants. Des complications surviennent lors de l'accouchement et la mère décède en donnant naissance à une fille prénommée Lucille. Par la suite, Sandra devient de plus en plus une référence féminine importante, non seulement pour le garçon, mais aussi pour le père veuf et pour la petite Lucille."

"Le film est réalisé par Carine Tardieu, qui a également écrit le scénario avec Agnès Feuvre et Raphaële Moussafir. Tardieu a voulu raconter l'histoire d'une femme qui affirme son indépendance affective et dont les certitudes sont ébranlés par une rencontre."

"Le tournage a lieu à Rennes entre fin juin 2023 et début janvier 2024. Tardieu avait déjà collaboré avec la chef opératrice Elin Kirschfink pour Les Jeunes Amants."

"La musique du film est composée par Eric Slabiak, qui a récemment travaillé sur une série de téléfilms. Tardieu avait déjà collaboré avec lui pour Ôtez-moi d'un doute et également pour Les Jeunes Amants."

AA: Carine Tardieu's L'Attachement / The Ties That Bind Us, is true to the title of the Alice Ferney novel on which it is based: L'Intimité.

It is a contemporary family story. The family in question is not traditional or conventional - but then most families in the Western world are no longer traditional. The blended family and the nontraditional family are more common. The main unit in L'Attachement is a blended family (une famille recomposée). The theme has been discussed in recent movies such as Rebecca Zlotowski's Les Enfants des autres (FR 2021), but L'Attachement owes nothing to them.

The film starts with birth. The baby Lucille is born, and her growing up gives the movie a structure, timeline and metronome, expressed in intertitles like "Lucille 1. semaine", "Lucille 16 mois" and "Lucille 2 ans".

It starts with a simultaneous death. The mother Cécile (Mélissa Barbaud) dies at the childbirth. The father Alex (Pio Marmaï) is devastated, but fortunately the neighbour Sandra (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) helps with the now motherless son Elliott (César Botti). Among the nontraditional features is that the biological father is not Alex but a friend called David (Raphaël Quenard). Cécile's mother (Catherine Mouchet) is probably the most devastated of all, but despite syndromes of memory disorder, she becomes a center of gravity.

All in all, the film is a celebration of "life goes on". A working title was "To Life" as in the toast "L'Chaim!"

L'Attachement is also a celebration of the idea "it takes a village to raise a child". No mother is replaceable, but when a mother dies, acceptable substitutes can be found. And when a wife dies, the husband may want to find an acceptable substitute.

Sandra, a single woman, a proudly independent chain-smoker, a writer and a proprietor of the feminist bookstore La Nuit des Temps on Quai Émile Zola, becomes the unlikely temporary foster mother of Elliott. To her own surprise, this comes naturally, and a mutual liking begins instantly.

Sandra invites the gravely disturbed Alex to her home, too, but refuses further attentions from the shattered man. It takes time to recover, and Sandra does not want to be a temporary substitute partner. Soon Alex enters a new marriage, with Emilia (Vimala Pons), but it proves premature, and Sandra is needed once again.

The excellent cast is deeply committed. It is a pleasure to discover in the cast Marie-Christine Barrault as Sandra's mother.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi gives a performance of high emotional intelligence.

In Liebe, Eure Hilde / From Hilde, with Love

Andreas Dresen: In Liebe, Eure Hilde / From Hilde, with Love (DE 2024). Johannes Hegemann (Hans Coppi) and Liv Lisa Fries (Hilde Coppi). – Their last summer is a summer of love in the beautiful countryside of Brandenburg.

Berlin, été 42 / From Hilde, with Love.

    DE © 2024 Pandora Film Produktion. PC: Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg / Arte Straßburg. P: Claudia Steffen, Christoph Friedel, Prof. Regina Ziegler. Commissioning Editors: Cooky Ziesche, Barbara Häbe, Manuel Tanner. EX: Fee Buck, Peter Hartwig, Markus Olpp. Co-P: Andreas Dresen, Andreas Leusink.

    Director: Andreas Dresen

Screenplay: Laila Stieler

Cinematography: Judith Kaufmann – Arri Alexa Mini and Leitz Summilux-C – 2K – colour – 1.66:1

Production Design: Susanne Hopf

Costumes: Birgitt Kilian

Make-Up: Grit Kosse, Uta Spikermann, Monika Münnich

Soundtrack: "La Cucaracha" (trad. originally from Spain, then Mexico, earliest documented mention 1819, possibly Andalusian origin, earliest lyrics mention Moors and Jews during the reconquista)

Sound: Oswald Schwander, Andreas Walther, Ralf Krause – Dolby Surround 5.1

Editing: Jörg Hauschild

Casting Karen Wendland

    With

Liv Lisa Fries (Hilde Coppi)

Johannes Hegemann (Hans Coppi)

Lisa Wagner (Anneliese Kühn)

Alexander Scheer (Priest Harald Poelchau)

Emma Bading (Ina Ender-Lautenschläger)

Sina Martens (Libertas Schulze-Boysen)

Lisa Hrdina (Grete Jäger)

Lena Urzendowsky (Liane Berkowitz)

Hans-Christian Hegewald (Albert Hößler)

Nico Ehrenteit (Harro Schulze-Boysen)

Jacob Keller (Heinrich Scheel)

    Loc: – Berlin – Gross Köris, Krahnepul, Potsdam, Schmergow (Brandenburg). 

    124 min

    Language: German

    Release:

Uraufführung: 17 Feb 2024 Berlin Film Festival

German premiere: 17 Oct 2024

French premiere: 12 March 2025 – sous-titres francais: Thomas Schröter

    Vu samedi, le 15 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 14, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er 

Berlin Film Festival 2024: "Berlin, 1942. The inconspicuous Hilde gradually finds her place in the resistance group which will come to be known as the “Red Orchestra”. Hilde falls in love with Hans, flourishes and, in spite of the constant danger to her life, is happy for a summer. When the Gestapo arrest members of the group in the autumn, the pregnant Hilde is among their number. In prison, she develops unexpected strength, giving birth to her son and keeping the memory of her beloved husband alive."

AA: From Hilde, with Love, released in France as Berlin, été 1942 ("Berlin, Summer 1942"), is the eighth collaboration of the director Andreas Dresen and the screenwriter Laila Stieler who are not afraid to tackle difficult subjects.

The true story of the resistance fighter couple Hans and Hilde Coppi is dramatic in the extreme. They and their entire Rote Kapelle resistance cell were caught by Gestapo and executed at the guillotine at Strafgefängnis Plötzensee. 

Rote Kapelle / The Red Orchestra was a name given by Nazis to the resistance movement that started in 1933 to help Jews. It was not a communist organization, nor led from the USSR, contrary to Nazi claims. It did alert about the forthcoming Operation Barbarossa, and it was an early source of photographic evidence about the Final Solution, as seen in the movie.

Dresen and Stielen tell their story as a flashback puzzle. Before their arrest, Hans and Hilde and their friends experience a summer of love which powers them during their path to death. Hilde gets pregnant, and their son Hans Jr. is born in November 1942 in the Frauengefängnis Barnimstrasse. 

The imagery (the cinematographer: Judith Kaufmann) is based on the extreme contrast of summer camp sunshine and Gestapo prison darkness.

The story of Nazi Europe has been told many times during the last 80 years, and it is no less relevant today. Dresen and Stielen belong to the film-makers who want to bring something new to the way these stories are told. Both were raised in the former GDR where Hans and Hilde Coppi were honoured as heroes, also in a movie by Horst E. Brandt, KLK an PTX – Die Rote Kapelle (DD 1971). 

Dresen and Stielen distance themselves from ideology and drama emphasis. From Hilde, with Love is an ordinary account of an extraordinary destiny. The focus is on psychology, and Liv Lisa Fries in the title role is excellent. 

A week ago I saw Nils Tavernier's La Vie devant moi / The Future Awaits (FR 2025), also a true story about Nazi Europe. Both films share a sans élan approach. They refuse to electrify a tale that is formidable as it is.

In the bande annonce for La Vie devant moi, the protagonist Tauba Birenbaum appears as herself in archival footage shot for Steven Spielberg's Shoah memory project. Her son Guy Birenbaum is a co-screenwriter.

In From Hilde, with Love, the last word is given to Hans Coppi, Jr., Hilde's son who was born in the Gestapo prison, now an esteemed historian.

How to express the inexpressible? Andreas Dresen chooses a sober approach but does not take a step further into a radical style such as Robert Bresson who rejected psychology in his true story of French Resistance, Un condamné à mort s'est échappé.

MORE DATA BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK:

Alfred Dreyfus. Truth and Justice (exhibition at Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme)

Alfred Dreyfus. Vérité et justice. Catalogue d'exposition sous la direction d'Isabelle Cahn et de Philippe Oriol. mahJ - Gallimard, 2025. Hard cover. 195 x 255 mm. 288 pages. Nombre d'illustrations : 250. " L’affaire Dreyfus, qui éclate en 1894 avec l’arrestation d’un officier juif accusé à tort de trahison, demeure l’un des épisodes les plus marquants de l’histoire française. Le présent catalogue explore en profondeur les multiples facettes de cette tragédie judiciaire et humaine. " - " En s’appuyant sur des documents d’archives, des objets personnels et des témoignages, l’ouvrage retrace le parcours d’Alfred Dreyfus, depuis son enfance dans une famille juive alsacienne jusqu’à sa réhabilitation en 1906. Il examine le contexte social et politique de la Belle Époque, marqué par une montée de l’antisémitisme, et révèle les implications de l’Affaire pour la société française. " - " Sont mises en lumière la lutte pour la vérité, menée par des intellectuels et des proches, et les répercussions durables de ce scandale, entre bouleversements politiques, débats sur la justice, et éveil d’une conscience collective face à l’intolérance. Ce récit, profondément ancré dans son époque, dialogue également avec les défis contemporains. "

Exhibition: Alfred Dreyfus. Truth and Justice

March 13 to August 31, 2025

Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ)

Hôtel de Saint-Aignan

71, rue du Temple

75003 Paris

Vernissage visited on 12 March, 2025

Official introduction: Autour de l'exposition « Alfred Dreyfus. Vérité et justice »

"Nearly twenty years after its first exhibition devoted to Alfred Dreyfus, the mahJ is returning to the "Affaire" to recall the major stages of this crucial moment in French history, one of the many consequences of which was the law separating Church and State. The exhibition reveals Dreyfus's relentless fight to bring the truth to light, correcting the image of a man who was a bystander to the conspiracy that led him to spend four years in prison and another seven fighting for his rehabilitation. "

"By showcasing close to 250 archive documents, photographs, film extracts and some sixty works of art - by Jacques-Émile Blanche, Gustave Caillebotte, Eugène Carrière, Émile Gallé, Maximilien Luce, Camille Pissarro, Félix Vallotton and Édouard Vuillard - the exhibition tells the story of the Affair "with" Dreyfus, putting him back at the centre of the story. This new approach corrects the image of a self-effacing Dreyfus. It reveals a tireless fighter for the truth, the author of numerous writings, many of them unpublished and recently brought out of oblivion."

"Alfred Dreyfus was born in 1859 into an Alsatian family marked by the defeat of 1871 and the annexation of Alsace-Moselle. A fervent patriot and graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique, he had a brilliant military career, which was cut short in 1894 when he was unjustly accused of high treason on behalf of Germany, sentenced by a military court, degraded and deported to French Guiana."

"The exhibition unravels the plot hatched by the General Staff and illustrates the virulent anti-Semitism on display at the end of the 19th century. Thanks to the many works on display, it places the affair in the context of the ‘Belle Époque’, and sheds light on some lesser-known aspects of the period: the diversity of Jewish reactions, the ‘birth’ of intellectuals and the ‘rise’ of the Jewish community, and the ‘rise’ of the Jewish movement, the ‘birth’ of intellectuals and the response to anti-Semitism. Dreyfus was pardoned in 1899 and rehabilitated in 1906, but his career was never reconstructed."

"The exhibition provides an insight into the current state of affairs in the Affaire, against a backdrop of renewed anti-Semitism, while Alfred Dreyfus's innocence is still the subject of conspiracy theories."

"This exhibition, which has received exceptional support from the Musée d'Orsay, is based on the rich Dreyfus collection at the mahJ, on loans from institutions - the National Archives, the French National Library, the Army Museum, the Paris Bar Association Museum, the Carnavalet Museum, the Ecole de Nancy Museum, the Maison Zola-Musée Dreyfus in Medan - and from private collections."

AA: In an age of newly rising anti-Semitism, the magnificent exhibition "Alfred Dreyfus. Truth and Jusice" at the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ) is topical both in understanding history and the world today.

The Dreyfus tragedy is a case study of corruption on the highest levels of society, a devious conspiracy that shook the world, hate speech poisoning public opinion, and courage in defending justice. Alfred Dreyfus suffered a prison sentence on Devil's Island in torture-like conditions but never lost his faith in having his reputation cleared. 

Émile Zola became the most prominent public defender of Alfred Dreyfus in his open letter to the President of the Republic Félix Faure titled " J'Accuse... ! ". "The truth is on the march, and nothing shall stop it". The birth of the intellectual had taken place during the Enlightenment. Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert and Diderot risked life and reputation to speak truth to power.  "To think is to think otherwise" was the credo. In the Dreyfus Affair the role of the intellectual powered into mass media. Zola's intention was to be prosecuted for libel, which would give him the platform to provide evidence of the innocence of Dreyfus. 

When Zola was convicted, he went to exile in England from which he returned in 1899. He died in 1902 of carbon monoxide poisoning. Serious testimonies give reason to believe it was murder. Dreyfus was completely exonerated by the Supreme Court in 1906. He was never fully compensated, his health had taken a toll on Devil's Island, and his career never resumed, but he returned to service throughout World War I, as well as his son Pierre who received the Croix de guerre.

The exhibition provides rich material about the Dreyfus family history, his birthplace Mulhouse in Alsace, the French society in the 19th century, and the general atmosphere of anti-Semitism. It is a powerful visual experience ranging from high art (Camille Pissarro) to virulent anti-Semitic propaganda.

I had examined the excellent exhibition catalogue in advance and been surprised to register the absence of cinema. In the exhibition itself, cinema is present. Cinephiles have always been proud of the fact that the first conscious artist of the cinema, Georges Méliès, was a Dreyfusard. Episodes of his series L'Affaire Dreyfus 1-11 (FR 1899) are on display, as well as excerpts from Pathé's Dreyfus series which originally totalled four hours. In the final exhibition space, there is a loop excerpt of Richard Oswald's Dreyfus (DE 1930) with Heinrich George as Émile Zola speaking out at the court. Roman Polanski's masterpiece J'accuse (FR 2019) based on Robert Harris's novel An Officer and a Spy (2013) will be screened during the exposition at the museum.

At the exhibition I learned for the first time about the Dreyfus ban in the cinema. Dreyfus movies were prohibited by law in France in 1915-1950.

Bird (Andrea Arnold 2024)

Andrea Arnold: Bird (GB/FR/DE/US 2024). Franz Rogowski (Bird), Nykiya Adams (Bailey), Barry Keoghan (Bug).

GB/FR/DE/US 2024. Production companies: BBC Film, BFI, Pinky Promise, FirstGen Content, Access Entertainment, House Productions, Ad Vitam, Arte France Cinéma, Ciné+, Canal+. Produced by Andrea Arnold, Lee Groombridge, Juliette Howell, Tessa Ross.

    Directed by Andrea Arnold

Written by Andrea Arnold

Cinematography Robbie Ryan

The soundtrack was scored by British electronic artist Burial. It also features tracks by Fontaines D.C., Sleaford Mods and Coldplay.

Edited by Joe Bini

    Cast

Nykiya Adams as Bailey

Barry Keoghan as Bug, Bailey's father

Franz Rogowski as Bird

Jason Buda as Hunter, Bailey's half-brother

Jasmine Jobson as Peyton, Bailey's mother

Frankie Box as Kayleigh, Bug's fiancée

James Nelson-Joyce as Skate, Peyton's boyfriend

Joanne Matthews as Debs

Sarah Beth Harber as Dionne's Mum

Jason Williamson as Fred

    Principal photography took place in the south of England with filming locations including Gravesend, Dartford, Ashford and Bean, Kent in June 2023. In July 2023 filming took place on the Isle of Sheppey.

    119 min

    Language: English

    Distributed by Ad Vitam Distribution (France), Mubi (United States and United Kingdom)

    Release dates

Festival premiere: 16 May 2024 Cannes

US festival premiere: 30 Aug 2024 Telluride

US+GB premiere: 8 Nov 2024

French premiere: 1 Jan 2025 - distributor: Ad Vitam - sous-titres Emmanuel Denizot

    Vu dimanche, le 9 mars 2025, Cinéma Saint André des Arts : 12, rue Gît-le-Coeur, 75006 Paris, 6e, M° St-Michel, ligne 4

Telluride Film Festival: Made possible by a donation from Elizabeth Redleaf. Larry Gross: "Bailey (Nykiya Adams), a 12-year-old girl, struggles with the pain of managing a dad (Barry Keoghan) fixated on feckless money-making schemes. Bailey’s mom (Jasmine Jobson) has an abusive boyfriend, and her older sibling (Jason Buda) is drifting toward violent crime. She unexpectedly finds relief in Bird, a sexually fluid stranger (Franz Rogowski) with family problems of his own. Writer-director Andrea Arnold, unparalleled in providing us with clear-eyed, compassionate portraits of troubled and restless youth (FISH TANK, AMERICAN HONEY), works again with cinematographer Robbie Ryan to craft a moody, haunting landscape of housing projects and rocky beaches. But she spikes her social realism with transporting moments of magic and comedy. Keoghan is at his high-spirited best, Rogowski plays Bird with an alluring mystery, and Jobson provides BIRD’s emotional center—in much the same way that Bailey somehow keeps her unbalanced family from spinning out." –LG (U.K., 2024, 119m) In person: Andrea Arnold. G/Sat 4PM Q&AQ & A - C/Sun 9PM - H/Mon 3:30PM"

Wikipedia: "Bailey is a twelve year old girl who lives in a run down building with her father, Bug, and half brother, Hunter. One day, Bug announces his engagement to Kayleigh, a woman he has known for three months with their wedding on the following Saturday. Bailey, in shock and frustration, claims she will not attend and storms off."

"Later that day, Hunter tells Bailey he is in a vigilante group with his friends. Intrigued, Bailey follows them and witnesses the group of boys storm into a house and threaten a man with a box cutter. Police are quickly called and Bailey escapes into an empty field where she falls asleep for the night."

"The next morning, she is greeted by a mysterious man who calls himself Bird. She follows him to an apartment complex where he searches for a woman who lived there sometime ago, but has little luck finding her. Bailey leaves after this, but notices Bird on the roof of the building before Bug arrives to take her home and grounds her for being out all night."

"Bailey learns that Bird was looking for his mother who lived in the apartment complex, and that long ago she disappeared when he was a child. Warming to Bird, Bailey suggests her mother, Peyton, could help Bird as she lived in the complex years ago."

"At Peyton’s house, Bailey and Bird inquire about the residents, but are interrupted by the attitude of her live-in boyfriend, Skate. An argument ensues between Bailey and Skate, leading Bailey to film him, with Skate threatening to kill Peyton if Bailey shows the footage to the authorities. Despite this, Peyton is able to remember Bird's father's name. Bailey sends the video to Hunter, promising Bailey he and his group will attack Skate in order to rescue her mother along with her half-siblings."

"Later, Hunter requests Bailey’s assistance in delivering a note to his girlfriend Moon asking that the two run away to Scotland, due to her family’s disapproval of her recently discovered pregnancy. On the way, a crow follows Bailey and helps her slip the note past Moon’s family."

"The next day as Hunter and his friends plan their attack, Bailey takes her half-siblings out for the day to avoid the incident. Bird reappears to help Bailey and the kids to the beach where he attempts to track down his father. When they find his apartment, the man living there denies ever having a son to Bird and Bailey. Later, the man recants his denial and admits to Bird that he was with Bird's mom and they did have a boy, but left shortly after, unable to deal with her poor mental state. Bailey consoles a tearful Bird as the group heads back home."

"Soon after their return, Skate attempts to barge into their house. Peyton is unsuccessful in stopping him, leading to him assaulting her. Bailey attempts to stop him, but Skate knocks her unconscious. Bird re-enters the apartment and also attempts to defend Peyton, but Skate bashes his head in. While recovering, Bailey witnesses Bird transform into a creature with feathers, large wings, and bird-like eyes. He fights Skate again, this time taking him outside, where Bird knocks him unconscious, grabs him with talons and flies off with his body."

"The next morning Bailey discovers that Hunter has left home. She informs Bug and the two run to the train station and discover him alone, devastated that Moon did not follow through with his plans. Bug comforts Hunter, telling him he is too young for parenthood. The three of them ride back home and attend the wedding of Bug and Kayleigh, with Bailey in better spirits about the ceremony. During the reception, Bird shows up unannounced and hugs Bailey goodbye. As he leaves, Bailey's eyes are revealed to be bird-like in the same manner that Bird's eyes were."

AA: Andrea Arnold's Bird is a powerful and original coming-of-age story of a 12-year girl. It reminds me of Beasts of the Southern Wild, Systemsprenger and Scrapper, but it owes nothing to other film-makers, instead springing from Arnold's own passionate interest in the agony of adolescence in Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights and American Honey.

Bird is a drama of a child having to grow up prematurely in circumstances of failed, dysfunctional and violent parents. Nykiya Adams excels as Bailey who finds an unexpected companion in a stranger called Bird (Franz Rogowski), abandoned by his parents, forever seeking a hold in life. In this encounter, Arnold moves into magical realism. The realm of the birds introduces transcendence, a higher perspective, and the superpowers of imagination. The boundary of reality and fantasy is blurred.

Vaterland (in the presence of Barbara Hutt)

Barbara Hutt: Vaterland (FR 2024). Jean-Damien Barbin.

Vaterland : Triptyque d'après Thomas Bernhard

FR 2024. Production : Hamlet Fabrix en collaboration avec Ad Libitum.

Réalisation : Barbara Hutt

Image : Yann Seweryn

Musique, son : Pierre Ragu

Costumes : Bibi Delécraz

Distribution technique : Pierre Ragu (musique), Yann Seweryn (direction artistique)

Principaux artistes : Jean-Damien Barbin, Clémence Lévy, Matthieu Justine, Mathurin Voltz, Zoé Guillemaud, Nicolas Fantoli, Simon Larvaron, Dorian Campagne, Clara Benoît-Casanova, Sébastien Apert, Xavier Blandin, Patrick Georges, Alain Laproye, Pierre Ragu, Barbara Hutt

Durée : 1h36

Langue de tournage : Français

Genre : Drame

    Les Découvertes du St André - Une sélection authentique:

    Date de première mise en salle : 26 février 2025 - distributeur : Cinéma Saint-André des arts

    Vu dimanche, le 9 mars 2025, Cinéma Saint André des Arts : 12, rue Gît-le-Coeur, 75006 Paris, 6e, M° St-Michel, ligne 4

Cinéma Saint André des Arts: " Une plongée dans l’univers subversif de l’auteur autrichien Thomas Bernhard, aux prises avec quelques-uns de ses sujets de prédilection: l’Etat, l’exercice impossible de l’Art … C’est aussi le portrait de « quelqu’un qui écrit », teinté d’une ironie mélancolique. Sous la forme d’un triptyque, Vaterland, rend tangible Thomas Bernhard et son monde. Jean-Damien Barbin, dans un jeu qui rappelle Beckett et Bernhard excelle, avec une kyrielle d’autres acteurs « Bernhardiens  » . "

AA: Barbara Hutt's Vaterland is an experimental trilogy exploring the world of the great Austrian author Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989). It is composed of three independent short films:

I  D'après trois jours

II  Les Célébres

III  Hamlet FabriK

It studies a writer's inner world in a journey in a winter landscape. It offers a satirical vision of a contemporary set of "Les précieuses ridicules" of cultural snobs. Hamlet FabriK is a cross-artistic performance journey in the world of Thomas Bernhard.

I would need to revisit this movie with subtitles to do justice to it.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Michael Morris: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (GB/FR/US 2025) with Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones), Chiwetel Ejiofor (M. Wallaker), Leo Woodall (Roxster).

Bridget Jones : Folle de lui

    GB/FR/US 2025 - sociétés de production : Working Title Films, Studiocanal et Miramax - production : Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner et Jo Wallett - productrices déléguées : Helen Fielding, Amelia Granger et Sarah Jane Wright.

Réalisation : Michael Morris

Scénario : Dan Mazer, Abi Morgan et Helen Fielding, d'après le roman Bridget Jones : Folle de lui de Helen Fielding

Photographie : Suzie Lavelle - format : couleur - 2.35:1

Décors : Kave Quinn

Costumes : Molly Emma Rowe

Musique : Dustin O'Halloran

Soundtrack selections include : "The Sweetest Gift" by Sade ; "Modern Love" by David Bowie ; "What a Wonderful Thing Love Is" by Al Green ; "Mad About the Boy" written by Noël Coward, perf. Dinah Washington ; "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash.

Son : Glenn Freemantle

Montage : Mark Day

    Distribution

Renée Zellweger (VF : Odile Cohen) : Bridget Jones

Hugh Grant (VF : Thibault de Montalembert) : Daniel Cleaver

Emma Thompson (VF : Frédérique Tirmont) : Dr Rawlings

Chiwetel Ejiofor (VF : Frantz Confiac) : M. Wallaker

Leo Woodall (VF : Gauthier Battoue) : Roxster

Colin Firth (VF : Christian Gonon) : Mark Darcy

Jim Broadbent : Colin Jones

Gemma Jones : Pamela Jones

Isla Fisher : Rebecca

Josette Simon (VF : Nicole Dogué) : Talitha

Nico Parker (VF : Olenka Ilunga) : Chloe

Leila Farzad (en) : Nicolette

Sarah Solemani (VF : Stéphanie Hédin) : Miranda

Sally Phillips : Sharon « Shazzer »

Shirley Henderson : Jude

James Callis : Tom

Celia Imrie (VF : Frédérique Cantrel) : Una Alconbury

Ian Midlane (en) : Paul

    Durée 124 minutes

Langue originale : anglais

Genre : comédie romantique

Série Bridget Jones - Bridget Jones Baby (2016) - Bridget Jones : L'Âge de raison (2004) - Le Journal de Bridget Jones (2001)

    Dates de sortie : 

France : 12 février 2025 - Universal

Royaume-Uni, Canada, États-Unis, Finlande : 14 février 2025

    Vu samedi, le 8 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er

Wikipédia : " Bridget Jones : Folle de lui (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy) est un film multinational réalisé par Michael Morris et sorti en 2025. Il s'agit d'une adaptation du roman du même nom de Helen Fielding publié en 2013. C'est le 4e film mettant en scène le personnage de Bridget Jones incarné par Renée Zellweger. "

" Bridget Jones, maintenant mère de Billy et Mabel, se prépare à sortir pour la première fois depuis des lustres. En attendant l’arrivée de Daniel Cleaver, qui fait du baby-sitting, Bridget décide presque de rester à la maison. Cependant, elle assiste à la célébration de la vie de son défunt mari, Mark Darcy, qui a été tué quatre ans plus tôt lors d’une mission humanitaire au Soudan. Elle passe la soirée tortueuse à accepter ses condoléances et à subir des pressions pour recommencer à sortir avec quelqu’un. "

AA: A joyous atmosphere fills the sold-out cinema already before the beginning of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, starring Renée Zellweger again as the humoristic heroine of the best-selling novel series by Helen Fielding. The feeling of fun only grows during the screening. Comedy is the most difficult genre, the most merciless. The film-makers know what they are doing, and they are not merely repeating a tried (or tired) recipe.

"Annie Had a Baby" was a 1958 hit song by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, a sequel to "Work With Me Annie". The lyrics went: "Annie had a baby, can't work no more / Every time she start to working / She had to stop to walk the baby 'cross the floor". "Now I know I know Annie understood / That's what's happens when the game gets good".

Not this time. Bridget Jones is a single mother in a chaotic household of two children, Billy and Mabel, but after three years of widowhood, it's time to reassert womanhood. 

The film celebrates the fact that a woman's sexuality only grows after the days of youth. Motherhood brings a new perspective and depth to everything, not least in love life. 

Renée Zellweger is a great comedienne. She has soul, poetry and magic. I think about Marilyn Monroe and Charles Chaplin. Bridget Jones always lands in the most stupid and embarrassing situations, but she never loses her inner dignity. A lesson first displayed in the cinema by Max Linder.

La Vie devant moi / The Future Awaits

Nils Tavernier: La Vie devant moi / The Future Awaits (FR 2025) with Guillaume Gallienne (Moshe Zylbersztejn, le père), Violette Guillon (Tauba Zylbersztejn), Adeline d'Hermy (Rywka, la mère).

  

Wikipédia l'encyclopédie libre :

    FR 2025 - sociétés de production : Apollo Films Production / Echo Studio Production / Federation Studios Production / Bonne Pioche Cinéma Production

Réalisation : Nils Tavernier

Scénario : Nils Tavernier, Guy Birenbaum, Laurent Bertoni

Photographie : Vincent Gallot

Décors : Mathieu Menut

Costumes : Alice Cambournac

Musique : Baptiste Colleu, Pierre Colleu

Montage : Thomas Beard

    Distribution

Guillaume Gallienne : Moshe Zylbersztejn, le père

Violette Guillon : Tauba Zylbersztejn

Adeline d'Hermy : Rywka, la mère

Sandrine Bonnaire : Rose, l'épouse Dinanceau

Laurent Bateau : Désiré

Rod Paradot : Alfred

Claude Mathieu : Marta

Bernard Le Coq : le médecin hôpital

Xavier Mathieu : le médecin débarras

Éric Savin : Propriétaire appartement

    Durée : 93 minutes

    Langue originale : français

    Genre : drame biographique et historique

    Date de sortie : France : 26 février 2025 - Apollo Films

    Vu samedi, le 8 mars, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er

Wikipédia: " La Vie devant moi est un film français coécrit et réalisé par Nils Tavernier et sorti en 2025. Il raconte la vie à Paris sous l'Occupation entre 1942 et 1944 de Tauba Zylbersztejn (1928-2009), alors adolescente. "

Synopsis : " Après avoir échappé à la rafle du Vél d’Hiv au matin du 16 juillet 1942, la jeune Tauba Zylbersztejn et ses parents, juifs polonais, trouvent refuge dans une chambre de bonne au cœur de Paris au 209 rue Saint-Maur dans le 10e arrondissement. Durant deux ans, à de rares exceptions près, la famille n’en sortira plus. Mais comment vivre confinés à trois dans six mètres carrés avec la crainte terrifiante d’être découverts à chaque instant ? "

Autour du film : " La vie de Tauba Zylbersztejn a précédemment fait l'objet d'un documentaire de Ruth Zylberman, Les enfants du 209 rue Saint-Maur Paris Xe, diffusé sur Arte en 2018, et d'un livre du même nom publié en 2020 aux éditions du Seuil. Tauba Zylbersztejn est l'épouse du résistant Robert Birenbaum et la mère de l'écrivain Guy Birenbaum, coscénariste du film. La bande-annonce du film, mise en ligne le 9 janvier 2025, s’ouvre sur un extrait vidéo d'un entretien avec Tauba Zylbersztejn réalisé en 1997. Il s'inscrit dans le cadre de la collecte initiée par le réalisateur américain Steven Spielberg et la Fondation Shoah visant à recueillir les témoignages des rescapés de la Shoah. La sortie du film s'accompagne de celle d'un roman du même nom écrit par Guy Birenbaum aux éditions Flammarion. "

AA: Nils Tavernier's La Vie devant moi is a true story of a Polish family of survivors of the Vel d'Hiv razzia in the 10th arrondissement of Paris.  It has been the subject of interviews, books and documentary films.

An important Jewish community flourished around the rue Saint-Maur and the rue du Faubourg-du-Temple before the Nazi occupation. 

The Zylbersztejn family is saved by Rose (Sandrine Bonnaire). Over 765 days they hide in a maid's room in the attic. A visit to the toilet is a daily suspense thriller. The father hurts his leg and has to be hospitalized to avoid gangrene.

The movie is a coming-of-age story of the daughter of the family, Tauba Zylberstejn (Violette Guillon), in a parallel to The Diary of Anne Frank, but different in many profound ways. Tauba got married with the resistance fighter Robert Birenbaum, and their son Guy Birenbaum is a co-screenwriter of La Vie devant moi.

Tauba discovers a way to access the rooftop via the toilet ceiling window. There she takes clandestine survey treks of the surroundings, a bit like Lieutenant Fontaine in Un condamné à mort s'est échappé. But Tauba has a 360° vision of the Paris skyline. The wind of freedom in the suffocating custody. There is a visual affinity to the George Stevens film adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank, in which a recurrent motif is of the birds in the sky. 

Because the true story is extraordinary, the selected approach is ordinary, sans brio, sans panache. 

Rafaat einy ll sama / Les Filles du Nil / The Brink of Dreams

Nada Riyadh & Ayman El Amir: // رفعت عيني للسما // Rafaat einy ll sama / Les Filles du Nil / The Brink of Dreams (DK/FR/EG/SA/QA 2024)

// رفعت عيني للسما // [I Raised My Eyes to the Sky]

Égypte | France | Danemark | Qatar | Arabie Saoudite 2024. Production : Ayman El Amir, Nada Riyadh, Marc Irmer, Claire Chassagne

    Un film de : Nada Riyadh & Ayman El Amir

Scénario : Ayman El Amir, Nada Riyadh

Image : Dina El Zeneiny, Ahmed Ismail, Ayman El Amir - Couleur 

Musique : Ahmad El Sawy

Son : Moustafa Shaaban, Lama Sawaya

Montage : Véronique Lagoarde-Ségot, Ahmed Magdy Morsy, Ayman El Amir, Nada Riyadh

Avec : Majda Masoud, Haidi Sameh , Monika Youssef 

    1h42 

    Documentaire | VO : arabe | VOSTFR | VISA 158.021

    Festival premiere : Cannes 2024 La Semaine de la critique - Œil d'or 2024

    Sortie en France : 5 mars 2025 - Dulac Distribution

    Vu samedi, le 8 mars 2025, Majestic Bastille, 4 bd Richard-Lenoir, Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8

Dulac Distribution Synopsis : " Dans un village du sud de l’Égypte, un groupe de jeunes filles coptes se rebelle en formant une troupe de théâtre de rue. Rêvant de devenir comédiennes, danseuses et chanteuses, Les Filles du Nil suit le voyage de ces jeunes femmes en quête de liberté. "

Cannes 2024 La Semaine de la critique: "In a remote village in southern Egypt, a group of girls rebel by forming an all-female street theater troupe. They dream of becoming actresses, dancers and singers, challenging their families and villagers with their unexpected performances. Shot over four years, The Brink of Dreams follows them from childhood to womanhood, facing the most crucial choices of their lives."

Cannes 2024 La Semaine de la critique: About Rafaat einy ll sama by Ava Cahen: "The heroines’ rebellious nature bleeds into the film. Our heart goes out to this group of girls who, together, find empowerment through theatre."

Nada Riyadh & Ayman El Amir’s interview

"In The Brink of Dreams we are confronted by a group of young women who try to build a community of their own, and who are bound to endure an internal struggle between living authentically and adhering to the status quo, a challenge that many face when they don't fit into preconceived standards. The protagonists find themselves on a voyage of self-discovery, one that reveals as much about them as it does about the long-standing traditions that have fuelled the culture of their lovely but stagnant village, but also about the world that exists beyond its borders."

"In that particular context, Barsha village turns into a relevant microcosm, not only for Egyptian society, but for life at large. What is fascinating about these teenage girls is their unawareness and utter disregard of the familial, societal, religious, and economic restrictions, while the camera holds in the edges of its frame the fear and restrictions those girls refuse to acknowledge. It is something that is unique to that age when a person believes in their dreams so faithfully that their belief transcends their reality. But as girls grow up, frustrations, doubts and desires start to creep into the centre of the frame, forcing them to search for their own identity."

"In this coming-of-age story, we focus on these girls, who emanate strength, resilience, intelligence, courage, and love for each other. In our modern culture, that tends to fetishize youthful naivety, to pretend that life goes in a linear movement from the open innocence of youth to jaded experience, the girls' story counters that fetish. Delving into their lives reveals the complexity of becoming a woman in zeitgeist societies. A mixture of larger-than-life dreams, reality checks, guilt and longing for childhood moments. The film aesthetics has to imitate that intricate journey by transcending genre and form. This allows us to explore the border between tragedy and freedom, control and submission, truth and lies, and the limitations and power of cinema."

IMDb: "This documentary chronicles the lives of a group of young Egyptian girls from a very conservative small village in Upper Egypt who formed an all-female acting troupe despite family rejection." 

remonsabry-05238 (IMDb 27 May, 2024): "In Upper Egypt, being a woman of a different religion than the majority is like a triple suffering and challenge in itself - Upper Egypt is neglected, Egyptian women struggle to reach even close to half equality, and Christians in Egypt struggle to at least have a place to worship. In the midst of all this, a film from the heart of Upper Egypt comes to win the first award for an Egyptian film at the Cannes Film Festival."

AA: Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir's The Brink of Dreams / Les Filles du Nil was the most important of the seven films I saw during my weekend cinema marathon which was also a trip around the world (China - Iceland - Egypt - France - Britain - Austria).

It was not the best made, it was the least polished, but in its heart is something unique and all-important.

The performances of the Barsha Village Theatre Troupe are a fresh and original reminder of the true meaning of theatre as the birthplace of community and society just like the theatre of ancient Greece.

This theatre of the young girls whom we witness growing into young women during four years is full of a life force, joy, honesty and irreverence, challenging outdated customs and conventions. It is a glorious celebration of the spoken word like in Classical Antiquity.

The young women are marginalized in multiple ways, but their spirit of freedom cannot be ignored.

I believe this is the first film I have seen that is set in the culture of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the second largest religion in Egypt. A joyous Coptic wedding celebration is one of the highlights of this unforgettable movie.

Ljósbrot / When the Light Breaks

Rúnar Rúnarsson: Ljósbrot / When the Light Breaks (IS 2024). Elín Hall (Una) and Katla Njálsdóttir (Klara). Sunset on the North Atlantic in front of Reykjavik.

Fiche technique (Wikipédia):

Titre français : When the Light Breaks

    IS/NL/HR/FR 2024. Production : Heather Millard, Rúnar Rúnarsson

Réalisation : Rúnar Rúnarsson

Scénario : Rúnar Rúnarsson

Photographie : Sophia Olsson - 16 mm - Format : couleur — 2,39:1

Décors : Hulda Helgadóttir

Costumes : Helga Rós. V. Hannam

Musique : Jóhann Jóhannsson

Son : Pétur Einarsson, Ranko Paukovic, Ivan Zelic, Björn Viktorsson — son 5.1

Montage : Andri Steinn Guðjónsson

    Distribution

Elín Hall : Una

Mikael Kaaber : Gunni

Katla Njálsdóttir : Klara

Ágúst Wigum : Bassi

Gunnar Hrafn Kristjánsson : Siggi

Baldur Einarsson : Diddi

    Langue originale : Islandais

    Genre : drame

    Durée : 103 minutes (Wikipédia) / 82 minutes (L'Officiel des Spectacles)

    Dates de sortie :

Festival premiere : 15 mai 2024 (Festival de Cannes) - en compétition dans la section Un certain regard — film d'ouverture.

Premiere in Iceland : 28 Aug 2024

Sortie nationale en France : 19 février 2025 - société de distribution : Jour2fête (France) - sous-titres n.c.

    Vu samedi, le 8 mars 2025, Majestic Bastille, 4 bd Richard-Lenoir, Paris 75011, 11e, M° Bastille, Lignes 1, 5, 8 - version 82 minutes

Wikipedia: "When the Light Breaks (Icelandic: Ljósbrot, lit. 'Refraction') is a 2024 drama film by Rúnar Rúnarsson. The film depicts a young woman grieving for her first love's death during one summer day."

"It was selected as the opening film for the Un Certain Regard selection of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 15 May 2024."

"The film's events take place over a single day in Iceland. It opens with Diddi and Una in the early stage of a relationship. They go from an ocean outlook to Diddi's house that he shares with mutual friend Gunni. They talk in bed . Diddi leaves early; Una, hearing Gunni come home, sneaks out. Jóhann Jóhannsson's requiem, "Odi et Amo" (Latin for "I Love and I Hate") plays, as an extended sequence of lights in the dark is revealed to be lighting in a road tunnel which is engulfed in an enormous fireball."

"Later that morning, Una and Gunni meet at the arts college where they and Diddi study. Una has not heard about the tunnel disaster - the worst in Iceland's history - and then comforts Gunni as he reveals Diddi may have been in the tunnel at the time. The group of friends gather at a Red Cross centre, where they learn Diddi has died."

"Una leaves, unable to process. After a brief reconciliation with her father, she rejoins the friends at a bar, where she meets Klara, Diddi's girlfriend. Klara reveals to Una that Diddi had said she was a lesbian, but Una reveals she is pansexual. She says her last relationship was with a man. A private conversation between Una and Gunni confirms that Una and Diddi were having a covert affair, but Diddi had told Gunni. Una confesses she resents Klara as Diddi's public girlfriend, while she must simply be the grieving friend as their relationship was covert."

"The country, meanwhile, has fallen into national mourning for the tragedy. The friends go to an impromptu service of mourning at Hallgrímskirkja, Iceland's largest church. When Klara and Una leave the service for a cigarette, Klara disparages the performance art the friends were creating, but Una is able to show her how it reveals other perspectives."

"They then go to one of their houses and have a tear-filled party. As the party ends, Una and Klara stand on either side of a glass door, their reflections merging. The film ends with them lying close together in bed. The film references the opening sequence by again playing "Odi et Amo" as a sequence of lights on water are revealed to be reflection of the setting sun on the ocean."

Production: "When the Light Breaks is a co-production between Iceland, the Netherlands, Croatia and France. Heather Millard produced the film for Compass Films with Rúnar Rúnarsson's company Halibut, in co-production with Revolver Amsterdam, MP Film Production, Eaux Vives Productions and Jour2Fête."

AA: Rúnar Rúnarsson's Ljósbrot / When the Light Breaks is a powerful, elegiac tale of Trauerarbeit - processing the infinite sorrow after the death of a loved one - which becomes also a part of a national mourning in a catastrophe. 

Ljósbrot has been created in terms of the light of Iceland, starting from sunrise and ending in sunset. A mighty memorial takes place at the Hallgrímskirkja, a concert is arranged at the Harpa concert hall, and a key musical element is Jóhann Jóhannson's composition to "Odi et amo" ("I hate and I love") by Catullus.

When Gunni dies in the tunnel catastrophe, he is in transition between relationships. His new companion Una finds herself in a doubly shocking position, and she proceeds to settle the situation with Klara, the previous companion.

Shot by Sophia Olsson, the film is highly expressive.

In a memorable shot, Klara is behind a glass wall, and Una's reflection merges with her. We might remember Persona, but Ljósbrot is quite different.

In the finale, there is a high angle tracking shot from a moving vehicle which registers glowing red spots on a turbulent surface. I am reminded of Claude Monet, both "Impression, soleil levant" and Views of the Thames. I think this must be Iceland's glowing volcanic lava. But it turns out to be the bright red reflections of the setting sun on the North Atlantic Ocean before Reykjavik.

The vivid and tender feel of the 16 mm cinematography is combined with the transcendent breadth of the scope frame.

Gouzhen / Black Dog

Guan Hu: 狗陣 / Gou zhen / Black Dog (CN 2024). Eddie Peng (Lang, ex-convict) and Xin the dog. The actor and the dog developed such a strong bond that Eddie Peng adopted Xin after the filming. A saga of two outcasts in the Gobi Desert in the middle of an epic structural transformation.

Mostly from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

    Traditional Chinese:  狗陣 / Simplified Chinese:  狗阵 / Hanyu Pinyin:  Gou zhen.

    CN 2024. PC: The Seventh Art Pictures. Produced by Zhu Wenjiu.

Directed by Guan Hu

Written by Guan Hu, Ge Rui, Wu Bing

Photographed by  Weizhe Gao - 35 mm - colour - 2.47:1

Action choreographed by  Xiaojie Fu

Music by Breton Vivian

    Cast

Eddie Peng as Lang, a former convict

Tong Liya as Grape, a circus performer in whom Lang takes romantic interest

Jia Zhangke as Uncle Yao, who leads the canine round-up efforts

Zhou You as Nie Shili

Xiaoguang Hu as Butcher Hu

Zhang Yi as Group leader

Xin the dog

    106 min (Cannes) / 110 min (GB, FR, Wikipedia) / 116 min (IMDb)

    Language  Mandarin (IMDb) / Langue de tournage : Cantonais (Wikipédia)

    Box office $4.6 million

    Release dates:

18 May 2024 (Cannes) - Un Certain Regard Award

25 July 2024 (Singapore)

5 March 2025 sortie en France - Distributeur : Memento Distribution - sous-titres n.c.

    Vu samedi, le 8 mars 2025, UGC Ciné Cité Les Halles, Salle 2, Pl. de la Rotonde Forum des Halles, accès Porte du Jour, M° Les Halles, Ligne 4, Paris 1er 

Data from Wikipedia: "Black Dog is a 2024 Chinese drama film directed by Guan Hu, starring Eddie Peng and Tong Liya. The film had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 2024, where it won the Un Certain Regard prize."

Premise: "Former stunt motorcyclist Lang returns to his hometown on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert, where he was a local celebrity prior to his imprisonment. Now residing with his father, Lang must avoid the spiteful local gangster "Butcher Hu", who aims to exact revenge on Lang for his role in his nephew's death. Lang decides to seek the bounty placed on a wild dog as part of a larger program to remove unwanted animals in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and eventually strikes up an unlikely friendship with the canine."

Plot: "A bus flips over on the outskirts of the Gobi Desert on a road that is occupied by countless wild dogs. One of the passengers is former stunt motorcyclist and musician Lang, a local celebrity before going to prison for manslaughter a decade ago. As Lang returns home on parole, he sees that the town is no longer what it used to be. Many residents have left, leaving a large population of stray dogs. Lang's band has disbanded. Lang's father owns a zoo that is out of business and suffers from health problems due to alcoholism. Lang's sister is struggling financially elsewhere and has been unable to visit home for a long time."

"A bounty is placed on a black dog that has been biting people, as part of a larger program to remove stray or unregistered animals in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and to renovate the town for future business developments. Lang pursues the bounty but returns defeated and bitten. He joins the local dog-capturing team led by Uncle Yao, but develops compassion for the dogs. He gets into conflicts with the team members but Uncle Yao forgives him every time. The team catches the black dog, and Lang is tasked with transporting it, but strong winds leave them stranded in the wild overnight. He huddles with the dog in the cold and then gets bitten again. He is helped by a travelling circus group coming into town, including Grape, a dancer with whom he becomes close. Lang develops rabies symptoms and spends time quarantining with the black dog, before adopting it from Uncle Yao."

"Snake farmer "Butcher Hu" harasses Lang several times to seek revenge for his nephew's death ten years ago. Lang's father's health deteriorates and he is admitted to the hospital, where he asks Lang to pull the plug. Later, Lang drinks with Grape and hears her complain about life and marriage. As he rides home drunk with his dog, he gets captured by Butcher Hu's gang. He escapes captivity during an earthquake but is unable to locate the black dog anywhere. When he visits Butcher Hu's snake farm, he finds Butcher Hu bitten by a venomous snake and saves him. Butcher Hu thanks Lang, explains that the dog has run away, and offers to reconcile. Lang eventually finds the black dog in critical condition at a dog racing venue out of town. Back home, the black dog dies but posthumously fathers a puppy with another stray dog."

"The whole town travels to the desert to see the solar eclipse, while the animals from the zoo are freed and roam the streets of the empty town. Grape is seen leaving on a long-distance bus instead of travelling with the circus. On the night of the Olympics opening ceremony, Lang shares a final drink with his father in the hospital and pulls the plug. Lang leaves town and rides off in the desert with the puppy."

Production: "Guan Hu sought to tell the story of ordinary people left behind by the rapid economic development in China and cast actors who could bring a sense of realism to the project."

"Eddie Peng established such a strong bond with Xin, the dog featured in the film, that he adopted the dog after filming had wrapped."

AA: Guan Hu's Black Dog is a powerful, violent action thriller with an epic subtext - the structural transformation of the Gobi Desert.

Lang the ex-convict returns to his hometown, only to witness everything rapidly disappearing. Buildings are being demolished. Most people have left, including his sister. Father is in hospital on his deathbed and asks Lang to cut the life support. Lang promises to take care of his father's circus whose inhabitants include a grey wolf and a Manchurian tiger (Siberian tiger / Amur tiger).

People have abandoned their dogs, and proliferating stray dog packs now stampede the desert, endangering traffic. The round-up campaign is led by Uncle Yao (played by the director Jia Zhangke), and the animals are being captured by the gang of Butcher Hu. The most fearsome dog, Xin, is extremely vicious and dangerous and infects Lang with rabies. After Lang has recovered, they become friends. Lang becomes also close with a touring circus group and its dancer Grape (Tong Liya).

Memorable scenes include the town inhabitants witnessing the solar eclipse in the desert and celebrating the 2008 Olympic Games opening ceremony in front of an temporary outdoors screen.

The Gobi Desert is a mighty setting for the existential drama. Scorching heat waves vibrate the atmosphere. The wind gathers a tremendous force, and the rumble fills the air. Tumbleweeds careen in the desert.

Endless freight cars keep a-rolling on the desert tracks, the sirens of the steam engines wailing in the distance.

All this has been caught in glorious scope on 35 mm by the cinematographer Xiaojie Fu.

L'Art " dégénéré " (2025 exhibition Musée Picasso Paris)

Cover art: George Grosz: Metropolis. 1916-1917. Huile sur toile 100 x 102 cm. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Art dégénéré. Le procès de l'art moderne - Catalogue d'exposition. EK198134. " À travers des reproductions d'oeuvres emblématiques, comme celles de Wassily Kandinsky, Otto Dix, Paul Klee ou Max Beckmann, et des archives rares, le catalogue retrace l'histoire de l'exposition de propagande « Entartete Kunst », organisée à Munich en 1937, qui rassemblait plus de 600 oeuvres des avant-gardes artistiques dans une scénographie volontairement dégradante. Il s'attarde sur l'utilisation du concept de « dégénérescence », issu du XIXe siècle, devenu un outil central de l'idéologie raciste et antisémite du national-socialisme, et son impact sur l'histoire de l'art. - Le catalogue offre une analyse détaillée des contextes politiques et culturels ayant conduit à la confiscation de plus de 20 000 oeuvres d'art, parmi lesquelles celles de Marc Chagall, Vincent Van Gogh et Pablo Picasso, considéré comme un symbole de « l'artiste dégénéré ». Il examine également le commerce international de ces oeuvres spoliées, en s'intéressant particulièrement au rôle joué par la France. - Richement illustré et documenté, cet ouvrage propose une lecture approfondie des enjeux de l'exposition et restitue les trajectoires des oeuvres persécutées. Il met également en perspective les mécanismes de propagande et de spoliation culturelle, tout en interrogeant leurs résonances contemporaines. " - 39 € - Nombre de pages 256 - Dimensions 25 x 17 cm - Made in France - Nombre d'illustrations 200. Musée national Picasso-Paris. Courant artistique XXème. Référence EK198134. EAN 9782711881345. Format du livre Broché sans Rabat. Éditeur Rmngp + Musée Picasso. Diffuseur, distributeur Editions Flammarion. Musée de conservation: Paris - Musée Picasso

L'art " dégénéré " : Le procès de l'art moderne sous le nazisme.

Du 18 février au 25 mai 2025

57 Œuvres de 37 artistes différents - 32 Collections - 30 Œuvres issues de la collection du Musée

Commissariat d'exposition: Johan Popelard, chef du département de la conservation et des collections du Musée national Picasso-Paris - François Dareau, chargé de recherches au Musée national Picasso-Paris

Musée national Picasso-Paris ; 5 rue de Thorigny, 75003 Paris

Ouvert de 9h30 à 18h du mardi au dimanche. Fermé le lundi, le 1er janvier, le 1er mai et le 25 décembre

Visited on Friday, 7 March 2024.

Official introduction: " Le Musée national Picasso-Paris présente du 18 février au 25 mai 2025, sa nouvelle exposition temporaire : « L’art « dégénéré » : Le procès de l’art moderne sous le nazisme ». Première exposition en France consacrée à l’Art dit « dégénéré », elle explore et met en perspective l’attaque méthodique du régime nazi contre l’art moderne et la place qu’occupe Pablo Picasso, archétype de l’artiste « dégénéré » dans cette histoire. "

" « L’art « dégénéré » : le procès de l’art moderne sous le nazisme. » étudie en particulier l’exposition de propagande « Entartete Kunst » (Art dégénéré), organisée en 1937 à Munich, montrant plus de 700 œuvres d’une centaine d’artistes, représentants des différents courants de l’art moderne, d’Otto Dix à Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, de Vassily Kandinsky à Emil Nolde, de Paul Klee à Max Beckmann, dans une mise en scène conçue pour provoquer le dégoût du visiteur. "

" Point culminant d’une série d’expositions infamantes mises en place dans plusieurs musées dès 1933 (Dresde, Mannheim, Karlsruhe…) pour dénoncer les avant-gardes artistiques comme une menace à la « pureté » allemande, « Entartete Kunst » s’inscrit dans le contexte d’une « purge » méthodique des collections allemandes. Plus de 20 000 œuvres, parmi lesquelles celles de Vincent Van Gogh, Marc Chagall ou de Pablo Picasso, désigné comme artiste « dégénéré » dès les années 1920 aussi bien en France, qu’en Allemagne, sont ainsi retirées, vendues ou détruites.Au centre de cette histoire, le terme de « dégénérescence», émergeant au cours du XIXe siècle dans différentes disciplines (histoire naturelle, médecine, anthropologie, histoire de l’art…) jusqu’à sa cristallisation au cœur de la « vision du monde » national-socialiste, sert de vecteur au déploiement des théories racistes et antisémites au sein de l’histoire de l’art. "

AA: In the deeply moving opening sequence of Never Look Away / Werk ohne Autor (DE 2019, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck), inspired by Gerhard Richter, the future artist as a child visits one of the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibitions mounted by the NSDAP in Nazi Germany. 

The accurate title of those touring exhibitions was Entartete "Kunst". The inspired and visionary exhibition at the Picasso Museum switches the quotation marks to read L'Art " dégénéré ". 

To be included in those exhibitions - in the company of Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, George Grosz, Marc Chagall, Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, Emil Nolde, Oskar Kokoschka, Juan Gris, Jankel Adler, Otto Dix, Joachim Ringelnatz, Otto Freundlich and many others - became a badge of honour. The list of artists banned by the Nazis reads like a who's who of the canon of modern art.

The magnificent exhibition gives a lot of food to thought. The exhibition catalogue is of the highest order. The illustrations are wonderful but look pale in comparison with the paintings themselves.