There's nothing subtle about the cold open that kicks off Apples Never Fall, Peacock's adaptation of Liane Moriarty's bestselling novel. As the chorus of "Unsecret" by Buried rings out, warning listeners of "secrets buried in the backyard," Joy Delaney (Annette Bening) rides her bicycle to the grocery store, where she grabs a bright, red apple and softly tosses it in the air like a tennis ball. Seconds later, Joy's bike lies in the middle of the street, blood dripping from the frame. Joy is nowhere to be seen, but her purchases — apparently, she filled her basket with a dozen loose apples and nothing else — are strewn about the road, forming a makeshift halo around the bloodied bike.
- 3/13/2024
- by Claire Spellberg Lustig
- Primetimer
This article contains spoilers for Succession season 4 episode 4.
Siobhan “Shiv” Roy certainly isn’t cut out to be a mother, but she’s going to be one anyway. In the opening moments of the latest episode of Succession, entitled “Honeymoon States,” Shiv takes a call from her doctor. Setting aside the totally wild fact that Shiv calls her doctor by her first name — who does that?! — Dr. Hubbard, er, Sharon, delivers some news to her patient. A recent test returned with a “good result” and “everything looks healthy,” she says. The conversation only lasts a minute or so, but it leaves viewers with so many questions. Shiv is having a baby? When? How? With whom?! And what’s an amniocentesis?
Let’s start with that last question. Given the Roy family’s proclivity to rabidly seek out the absolute best medical care at every point in time, it’s unsurprising...
Siobhan “Shiv” Roy certainly isn’t cut out to be a mother, but she’s going to be one anyway. In the opening moments of the latest episode of Succession, entitled “Honeymoon States,” Shiv takes a call from her doctor. Setting aside the totally wild fact that Shiv calls her doctor by her first name — who does that?! — Dr. Hubbard, er, Sharon, delivers some news to her patient. A recent test returned with a “good result” and “everything looks healthy,” she says. The conversation only lasts a minute or so, but it leaves viewers with so many questions. Shiv is having a baby? When? How? With whom?! And what’s an amniocentesis?
Let’s start with that last question. Given the Roy family’s proclivity to rabidly seek out the absolute best medical care at every point in time, it’s unsurprising...
- 4/18/2023
- by Alec Bojalad
- Den of Geek
“Do you want to know a secret,” the Beatles asked in an early hit. But one of them never promised not to tell. The Beatles’ private breakup became public when Paul McCartney issued a press release on April 10, 1970, saying he no longer saw himself working with the band or writing with John Lennon.
Much like the Beatles’ single “We Can Work It Out” was structured around a verse call to a middle-eight response, McCartney’s announcement was formatted as a Q&a and didn’t include a chorus.
Q: “Is this album a rest away from the Beatles or the start of a solo career?”
Paul: “Time will tell. Being a solo album means it’s ‘the start of a solo career’…and not being done with the Beatles means it’s just a rest. So it’s both.”
Q: “Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due...
Much like the Beatles’ single “We Can Work It Out” was structured around a verse call to a middle-eight response, McCartney’s announcement was formatted as a Q&a and didn’t include a chorus.
Q: “Is this album a rest away from the Beatles or the start of a solo career?”
Paul: “Time will tell. Being a solo album means it’s ‘the start of a solo career’…and not being done with the Beatles means it’s just a rest. So it’s both.”
Q: “Is your break with the Beatles temporary or permanent, due...
- 4/10/2020
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
Fifteen years ago, Frances Quinlan was a first-year art student in Maryland who listened to a lot of strange, singular folk songwriters like Joanna Newsom, Jeff Mangum, and Kimya Dawson. Unlike most people her age with the same artists on the playlists in their heads, she was also writing memorable songs of her own. In time she moved to Philadelphia and formed a blazingly intense indie rock band, Hop Along, which worked its way up to national acclaim and a devoted live audience with 2015’s Painted Shut and 2018’s Bark Your Head Off,...
- 3/30/2020
- by Simon Vozick-Levinson
- Rollingstone.com
Each month, the editors and critics at Rolling Stone will compile a list of our favorite new albums. January’s picks include pop blockbusters (Halsey, Kesha, Selena Gomez), hip-hop trailblazers (the late Mac Miller, 070 Shake), indie gems (Torres, Frances Quinlan, Destroyer) and much more. You can find all of our recent album reviews here.
Halsey, Manic
Manic is Halsey’s raw autobiographical portrait of the artist as a young mess, craving her share of love and tenderness in a hostile world. Yet Halsey’s Ashley Frangipane is a mess who...
Halsey, Manic
Manic is Halsey’s raw autobiographical portrait of the artist as a young mess, craving her share of love and tenderness in a hostile world. Yet Halsey’s Ashley Frangipane is a mess who...
- 2/3/2020
- by Jon Dolan, Simon Vozick-Levinson, Jonathan Bernstein, Brittany Spanos, Jon Blistein, Kory Grow, Will Hermes, Rob Sheffield and Danny Schwartz
- Rollingstone.com
Sir John is an odd fellow.
He couldn't decide if he wanted to take on the challenge of being the new pope on The New Pope Season 1 Episode 2 and danced around Voiello and the other cardinals (and Sofia) as he decided what to do.
One thing that might be hindering him is a big secret that only one other cardinal knows.
But it may be the key to convincing Sir John to take the post.
Not even Sir John's longtime butler, Duillo, knows the secret, but Cardinal Spalletta divulged the tease (though not the secret) so that Duillo would help with the efforts to get Sir John to take the big chair.
Whatever this secret is, it's clear that Sir John isn't aware that anyone knows about it.
John Malkovich does a superb job playing the mysterious and odd Sir John.
View Slideshow: 31 Couples Who Inspired Each Other's Inner Comedian...
He couldn't decide if he wanted to take on the challenge of being the new pope on The New Pope Season 1 Episode 2 and danced around Voiello and the other cardinals (and Sofia) as he decided what to do.
One thing that might be hindering him is a big secret that only one other cardinal knows.
But it may be the key to convincing Sir John to take the post.
Not even Sir John's longtime butler, Duillo, knows the secret, but Cardinal Spalletta divulged the tease (though not the secret) so that Duillo would help with the efforts to get Sir John to take the big chair.
Whatever this secret is, it's clear that Sir John isn't aware that anyone knows about it.
John Malkovich does a superb job playing the mysterious and odd Sir John.
View Slideshow: 31 Couples Who Inspired Each Other's Inner Comedian...
- 1/21/2020
- by Lisa Babick
- TVfanatic
Did Ziva get her happy ending?
On NCIS Season 17 Episode 10, an explosive turn of events found the NCIS back in the presumed dead agent's orbit.
With danger lurking in the shadows, Ziva asked the team to help her with the one thing she said she would need to take care of before returning to her family.
With lives on the line, Gibbs had to make a decision about who worked the mission.
Finally, a new villain emerged that threatened to shake up the dynamics of the NCIS.
Watch NCIS Season 17 Episode 10 Online
Use the video above to watch NCIS online right here via TV Fanatic.
Catch up on all your favorite shows and reviews and join in the conversations with other fanatics who love TV as much as you.
View Slideshow: 27 Characters Who Have a Secret and Can Keep It...
On NCIS Season 17 Episode 10, an explosive turn of events found the NCIS back in the presumed dead agent's orbit.
With danger lurking in the shadows, Ziva asked the team to help her with the one thing she said she would need to take care of before returning to her family.
With lives on the line, Gibbs had to make a decision about who worked the mission.
Finally, a new villain emerged that threatened to shake up the dynamics of the NCIS.
Watch NCIS Season 17 Episode 10 Online
Use the video above to watch NCIS online right here via TV Fanatic.
Catch up on all your favorite shows and reviews and join in the conversations with other fanatics who love TV as much as you.
View Slideshow: 27 Characters Who Have a Secret and Can Keep It...
- 12/18/2019
- by Paul Dailly
- TVfanatic
Cécile de France stars in Étienne Comar's Django Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
On the opening night of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York, Cécile de France who stars with Reda Kateb (as Django Reinhardt) in Étienne Comar's Django, spoke with me about costume designer Pascaline Chavanne, Man Ray's muse Lee Miller as the inspiration for her character, Lauren Bacall, Edward Hopper and Claude Miller's Un Secret.
Reda Kateb plays Django Reinhardt Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Django, based on the novel by Alexis Salatko, chronicles a crucial time period in world-famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt's life and simultaneously sheds light on the hypocrisy and contradictions at the core of Nazi policies. Admired for his musical genius, Reinhard, because of his Romani background, also was a target of the regime. In 1943, Django was a star in Paris and received an invitation by Goebbels to come play in Berlin.
On the opening night of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York, Cécile de France who stars with Reda Kateb (as Django Reinhardt) in Étienne Comar's Django, spoke with me about costume designer Pascaline Chavanne, Man Ray's muse Lee Miller as the inspiration for her character, Lauren Bacall, Edward Hopper and Claude Miller's Un Secret.
Reda Kateb plays Django Reinhardt Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Django, based on the novel by Alexis Salatko, chronicles a crucial time period in world-famous jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt's life and simultaneously sheds light on the hypocrisy and contradictions at the core of Nazi policies. Admired for his musical genius, Reinhard, because of his Romani background, also was a target of the regime. In 1943, Django was a star in Paris and received an invitation by Goebbels to come play in Berlin.
- 3/3/2017
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The final feature from the recently passed French director Claude Miller (A Secret, Alias Betty) is a blandly handsome adaptation of François Mauriac's bitter 1927 novel Thérèse Desqueyroux—previously filmed 50 years ago, with Amour's Emmanuelle Riva in the title role. Here, it's Audrey Tautou, sullenly shaking off her pixie-cute Amélie whimsy and climbing into the bell jar as a dispassionate Jazz Age aristocrat suffocated by her fiscally beneficial marriage to narrow-minded, provincial landowner Bernard (Gilles Lellouche), brother of her best friend, Anne (Anaïs Demoustier). Unenergetically paced and too tasteful by half, the film tries to get into the troubled yet enlightened headspace of pouty, chain-smoking T...
- 8/21/2013
- Village Voice
"Therese Desqueyroux," the closing night selection of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, is not the nuanced period drama it should be but is rather more like a banal, pseudo-thoughtful and monotonous episode of "Masterpiece Theater." Co-adapted by director Claude Miller ("A Secret," "Class Trip"), the latest adaptation of Francois Mauriac's acclaimed novel reduces the titular heroine's story to a troubled individual's struggle to retain her autonomy as a member of her oppressive husband’s family. The phrase, "For the family" is bludgeoned into viewers' heads to the point where it's very easy to ignore the fact that Therese (Audrey Tautou) is anything more than just a proto-desperate housewife. In fact, she's a fatalist because she's also an atheist, a complex concept that Miller sets up but doesn't follow through on. Ultimately Miller's Therese rebels against her boorish husband Bernard (Gilles Lellouche) and his insensitive family simply because she needs to do.
- 8/19/2013
- by Simon Abrams
- The Playlist
Sagnier had acted since infancy and was touted as 'the new Bardot'. Yet nine years ago, when her big moment came, she shunned it. The French actor talks about staying grounded, her latest film Love Crime – and why she's now finally ready for her breakthrough movie
It is a chill December day when I meet Ludivine Sagnier at her local cafe, in a grungy neck of eastern Paris. No press minders or lavish hotel suite for Ms Sagnier. I'm sitting inside, fretting that I must have the wrong venue, when I spot her through the greasy window. She has her wool hat pulled low; she's sucking on a cigarette, stamping her feet to keep warm. She might be an office worker on lunch break or a student idling between lectures. Sometimes the lack of a statement can be the most eloquent statement of all.
Nearly a decade ago, Sagnier arrived at a crossroads.
It is a chill December day when I meet Ludivine Sagnier at her local cafe, in a grungy neck of eastern Paris. No press minders or lavish hotel suite for Ms Sagnier. I'm sitting inside, fretting that I must have the wrong venue, when I spot her through the greasy window. She has her wool hat pulled low; she's sucking on a cigarette, stamping her feet to keep warm. She might be an office worker on lunch break or a student idling between lectures. Sometimes the lack of a statement can be the most eloquent statement of all.
Nearly a decade ago, Sagnier arrived at a crossroads.
- 12/7/2012
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
"Therese Desqueyroux," the closing night selection for this year's main competition lineup at the Cannes Film Festival, is not the nuanced period drama it should be but rather a banal, pseudo-thoughtful and monotonous episode of "Masterpiece Theater." Co-adapted by director Claude Miller ("A Secret," "Class Trip"), the latest adaptation of Francois Mauriac's acclaimed novel reduces the titular heroine's story to a troubled individual's struggle to remain autonomous as a member of her oppressive husband’s family. The phrase, "For the family" is bludgeoned into viewers' heads to the point where it's very easy to ignore the fact that Therese (Audrey Tautou) is more than just a proto-desperate housewife. In fact, she's a fatalist because she's also an atheist, a complex concept that Miller sets up but doesn't follow through on.
Ultimately, Miller's Therese rebels against her boorish husband Bernard (Gilles Lellouche) and his insensitive family simply because she needs to do something--anything,...
Ultimately, Miller's Therese rebels against her boorish husband Bernard (Gilles Lellouche) and his insensitive family simply because she needs to do something--anything,...
- 5/26/2012
- by Simon Abrams
- The Playlist
French film director and close associate of François Truffaut
The film director Claude Miller, who has died aged 70 after a long illness, was continually dogged by comparisons to his friend and mentor François Truffaut. Hardly a review of his films failed to mention Truffaut in some way or another. This came about for various reasons. Miller was Truffaut's production manager on several occasions and made subtle references to the older director's work in many of his own films, almost always mentioning him in interviews. He had a small role in Truffaut's L'Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child, 1970) and adapted La Petite Voleuse (The Little Thief, 1988) from a 30-page screenplay that Truffaut had written a few years before his death.
When Truffaut was once asked whether he had started a school of directors, he denied it. "These people are more influenced by other directors than myself. If Claude Miller has points in common with me,...
The film director Claude Miller, who has died aged 70 after a long illness, was continually dogged by comparisons to his friend and mentor François Truffaut. Hardly a review of his films failed to mention Truffaut in some way or another. This came about for various reasons. Miller was Truffaut's production manager on several occasions and made subtle references to the older director's work in many of his own films, almost always mentioning him in interviews. He had a small role in Truffaut's L'Enfant Sauvage (The Wild Child, 1970) and adapted La Petite Voleuse (The Little Thief, 1988) from a 30-page screenplay that Truffaut had written a few years before his death.
When Truffaut was once asked whether he had started a school of directors, he denied it. "These people are more influenced by other directors than myself. If Claude Miller has points in common with me,...
- 4/6/2012
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
"French film director, producer and screenwriter Claude Miller, whose works include The Best Way to Walk [Le meilleur facon de marcher, 1976] and Class Trip [La classe de neige, 1998], has died aged 70," reports the Afp. "'A sad day, Claude Miller is dead,' tweeted the Cannes Film Festival, at which Miller was awarded the special jury prize in 1998 for Class Trip. Among other renowed works by the filmmaker are La Petite Voleuse (The Little Thief [1988]) which starred Charlotte Gainsbourg; Garde a Vue (Custody) in 1981; and Mortelle Randonnee (Mortal Circuit) in 1983."
Just a couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Rosenbaum posted his 1994 review of The Accompanist (1992): "Miller started out promisingly as an assistant to some key French filmmakers during the 60s, including Robert Bresson (Au hasard Balthazar), Jacques Demy (Les demoiselles de Rochefort), and Jean-Luc Godard (Weekend). He then served as production manager or production supervisor on Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her and La chinoise and no...
Just a couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Rosenbaum posted his 1994 review of The Accompanist (1992): "Miller started out promisingly as an assistant to some key French filmmakers during the 60s, including Robert Bresson (Au hasard Balthazar), Jacques Demy (Les demoiselles de Rochefort), and Jean-Luc Godard (Weekend). He then served as production manager or production supervisor on Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her and La chinoise and no...
- 4/5/2012
- MUBI
Film-maker best known for film starring a young Charlotte Gainsbourg as a teenage serial thief has died
The French film director Claude Miller, best known for L'Effrontée and La Petite Voleuse, both featuring a young Charlotte Gainsbourg, has died aged 70.
Before becoming a director himself, Miller worked for a number of noted new wave directors: he acted as assistant director on Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar, Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, and Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend, before becoming production manager for a string of films by François Truffaut, including Bed and Board, Day for Night and The Story of Adele H.
With Truffaut's encouragement, Miller moved into a higher profile role, making his directorial debut in 1976 with The Best Way to Walk. His first significant success, however, was the multi-award-winning police procedural thriller Garde à Vue, with Lino Ventura and Michel Serrault.
In the mid-80s, Miller...
The French film director Claude Miller, best known for L'Effrontée and La Petite Voleuse, both featuring a young Charlotte Gainsbourg, has died aged 70.
Before becoming a director himself, Miller worked for a number of noted new wave directors: he acted as assistant director on Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar, Jacques Demy's Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, and Jean-Luc Godard's Weekend, before becoming production manager for a string of films by François Truffaut, including Bed and Board, Day for Night and The Story of Adele H.
With Truffaut's encouragement, Miller moved into a higher profile role, making his directorial debut in 1976 with The Best Way to Walk. His first significant success, however, was the multi-award-winning police procedural thriller Garde à Vue, with Lino Ventura and Michel Serrault.
In the mid-80s, Miller...
- 4/5/2012
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
To celebrate the release of Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon’s new film Hereafter, in cinemas 28th January, Warner Bros. Pictures and HeyUGuys are offering two lucky winners the chance to get their hands on a Clint Eastwood definitive DVD collection box-set.
Oscar® winner Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting,” “Invictus”) stars in “Hereafter,” directed by Academy Award® winner Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) from a screenplay by two time Oscar® nominee Peter Morgan (“Frost/Nixon,” “The Queen”).
“Hereafter” tells the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. Matt Damon stars as George, a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie (Cécile de France), a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren), a London schoolboy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers.
Oscar® winner Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting,” “Invictus”) stars in “Hereafter,” directed by Academy Award® winner Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) from a screenplay by two time Oscar® nominee Peter Morgan (“Frost/Nixon,” “The Queen”).
“Hereafter” tells the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. Matt Damon stars as George, a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife. On the other side of the world, Marie (Cécile de France), a French journalist, has a near-death experience that shakes her reality. And when Marcus (Frankie/George McLaren), a London schoolboy, loses the person closest to him, he desperately needs answers.
- 1/26/2011
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Though it slipped past us somehow the 2011 Berlin Film Festival released the first block of titles from their Panorama section yesterday and there are some very familiar names in there, among them Ryoo Seung-Wan's The Unjust, Jorge Padilha's Elite Squad 2, Angelique Bosio's The Advocate For Fagdom and Hugo Olsson's The Black Power Mixtape - all of which have received coverage here in the pages of Twitch. You want the complete list? Here it is:
Panorama Main Programme + Panorama Special Bu-dang-geo-rae (The Unjust) by Seung-wan Ryoo, Republic of Koreawith Jung-min Hwang, Seung-bum Ryoo, Hae-jin Yoo Chang-Pi-Hae (Ashamed) by Soo-hyun Kim, Republic of Koreawith Hyo-jin Kim, Kkobbi Kim Dance Town by Kyu-hwan Jeon, Republic of Koreawith Mir-an Ra, Seong-tae Oh The Devil's Double by Lee Tamahori, Belgiumwith Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier Dirty Girl by Abe Sylvia, USAwith Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, Dwight Yoakam, Mary Steenburgen, Jeremy Dozier...
Panorama Main Programme + Panorama Special Bu-dang-geo-rae (The Unjust) by Seung-wan Ryoo, Republic of Koreawith Jung-min Hwang, Seung-bum Ryoo, Hae-jin Yoo Chang-Pi-Hae (Ashamed) by Soo-hyun Kim, Republic of Koreawith Hyo-jin Kim, Kkobbi Kim Dance Town by Kyu-hwan Jeon, Republic of Koreawith Mir-an Ra, Seong-tae Oh The Devil's Double by Lee Tamahori, Belgiumwith Dominic Cooper, Ludivine Sagnier Dirty Girl by Abe Sylvia, USAwith Juno Temple, Milla Jovovich, William H. Macy, Dwight Yoakam, Mary Steenburgen, Jeremy Dozier...
- 1/4/2011
- Screen Anarchy
Warner Bros. have just sent us the new UK poster for Matt Damon’s new movie, Hereafter which sees him back together with director, Clint Eastwood. They most recently worked together on Invictus which didnt do that well in the Us but I really enjoyed.
Hereafter also stars Cécile de France (“A Secret”) as Marie, and twins Frankie and George McLaren. The international cast also includes Jay Mohr (“Street Kings,” TV’s “Gary Unmarried”), Bryce Dallas Howard (“Eclipse,” “Spider-Man 3”), Marthe Keller, Thierry Neuvic and Derek Jacobi.
Synopsis: Oscar® winner Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting,” “Invictus”) stars in “Hereafter,” directed by Academy Award® winner Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) from a screenplay by two time Oscar® nominee Peter Morgan (“Frost/Nixon,” “The Queen”).
“Hereafter” tells the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. Matt Damon stars as George, a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife.
Hereafter also stars Cécile de France (“A Secret”) as Marie, and twins Frankie and George McLaren. The international cast also includes Jay Mohr (“Street Kings,” TV’s “Gary Unmarried”), Bryce Dallas Howard (“Eclipse,” “Spider-Man 3”), Marthe Keller, Thierry Neuvic and Derek Jacobi.
Synopsis: Oscar® winner Matt Damon (“Good Will Hunting,” “Invictus”) stars in “Hereafter,” directed by Academy Award® winner Clint Eastwood (“Million Dollar Baby,” “Unforgiven”) from a screenplay by two time Oscar® nominee Peter Morgan (“Frost/Nixon,” “The Queen”).
“Hereafter” tells the story of three people who are haunted by mortality in different ways. Matt Damon stars as George, a blue-collar American who has a special connection to the afterlife.
- 11/26/2010
- by David Sztypuljak
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
The Nw Film Center along with the Institute for Judaic Studies brings you the 17th Annual Portland Jewish Film Festival.
The big film this year might just be another chance to see Waltz with Bashir on the big screen. Some feel this was the best animated film of 2008 … yes, even better than Wall-e. Others think it was the top documentary.
Here’s a complete list of films … each is single admission.
April 16 Thur 7 Pm
Max, Minsky And Me
Germany 2007
Director: Anna Justice
Nelly, a precocious 12-year-old, lives in Berlin with her German Christian dad and American Jewish mom, who is very eager for Nelly to crack down on her bat mitzvah studies. But her twin obsessions—astronomy and her distant fantasy heartthrob, 16-year-old Edouard, Prince of Luxembourg and fellow stargazer—occupy all of her time. Nor is she much interested in the simple-minded girls’ basketball team, which fills the lives of her schoolmates.
The big film this year might just be another chance to see Waltz with Bashir on the big screen. Some feel this was the best animated film of 2008 … yes, even better than Wall-e. Others think it was the top documentary.
Here’s a complete list of films … each is single admission.
April 16 Thur 7 Pm
Max, Minsky And Me
Germany 2007
Director: Anna Justice
Nelly, a precocious 12-year-old, lives in Berlin with her German Christian dad and American Jewish mom, who is very eager for Nelly to crack down on her bat mitzvah studies. But her twin obsessions—astronomy and her distant fantasy heartthrob, 16-year-old Edouard, Prince of Luxembourg and fellow stargazer—occupy all of her time. Nor is she much interested in the simple-minded girls’ basketball team, which fills the lives of her schoolmates.
- 4/2/2009
- by Jeff Bayer
- The Scorecard Review
The trio of New York Times critics (Manohla Dargis, A.O. Scott and Stephen Holden) have weighed in with their own nominations for the year's best in movies with their selections for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Original and Adapted Screenplays. Quickly glancing through the list I see Manohla Dargis loved Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York (at least the acting) and is the only one that gave The Dark Knight any love. Thankfully Slumdog Millionaire wasn't "nominated" for anything other than a lone Adapted Screenplay notice from A.O. Scott. Happy-Go-Lucky saw plenty of attention and believe it or not, there isn't one film all three could agree on for Best Picture with Wall-e and Happy-Go-Lucky being the front-runners as they were mentioned twice - Dargis was the main reason for this as her selections didn't show up on either Stephen Holden or A.
- 1/3/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Claude Miller’s A Secret is a solid, satisfying drama about the consequences of barely-guised desire set against the dangerous political background of Nazi-occupied France. Based on Philippe Grimbert’s autobiographical novel, A Secret constructs its revelations through enspirited premonitions and layered flashbacks, interestingly rendered in full color while the present day is shot in black and white; a cinematic inversion of the norm that works quite successfully, as if to say (by way of color) that there is more life in the past than there will ever be in the present. In other words, the colorful secrets of the past have leached the vitality out of the present.
Scrawny François (Valentin Vigourt) was born a four-pound baby who, despite vitamin B injections, has never physically developed into any form of noticeable strength. His imagination is strong, however. He imagines a stronger older brother who defrays the frustrated disappointment of...
Scrawny François (Valentin Vigourt) was born a four-pound baby who, despite vitamin B injections, has never physically developed into any form of noticeable strength. His imagination is strong, however. He imagines a stronger older brother who defrays the frustrated disappointment of...
- 11/4/2008
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
I first saw veteran French director Claude Miller's "A Secret" at a film festival last year. I was underwhelmed. I saw it again a few weeks ago, and was more impressed, although still bothered by its shameless sentimentality.
Based on true events, it tells of secrets harbored by a French Jewish family torn asunder by sexual passion and the Holocaust.
The cast is first-rate, with pixie-haired Cécile de France - playing an athletic, head-turning mother - as the centerpiece.
She is backed by Patrick Bruel as her husband; Julie Depardieu (Gerard's sister...
Based on true events, it tells of secrets harbored by a French Jewish family torn asunder by sexual passion and the Holocaust.
The cast is first-rate, with pixie-haired Cécile de France - playing an athletic, head-turning mother - as the centerpiece.
She is backed by Patrick Bruel as her husband; Julie Depardieu (Gerard's sister...
- 9/5/2008
- by By V.A. MUSETTO
- NYPost.com
There's a bold bit of linkage between the historical and the personal in A Secret, Claude Miller's adaptation of Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel about growing up in a French Jewish family in the decades after World War II. The film is narrated by Mattieu Amalric, speaking as an adult looking back on his childhood with his attractive, athletic, aristocratic parents Cécile de France and Patrick Bruel. Amalric describes how he had an imaginary brother that his parents knew nothing about, and how in his head he'd built his parents up as the heroes of a romantic epic—with him being their happy ending. While Amalric is reminiscing, Miller cuts to a montage of Nazi rallies. The message: Just as the Nazis concocted the myth of Aryan supremacy to excuse their nefarious rise, so Amalric's family ignores its ghosts to justify a life of privilege. A Secret jumps back and.
- 9/4/2008
- by Noel Murray
- avclub.com
By Neil Pedley
This week's trip to the multiplex offers a jaunt around the globe where, amongst other things, there's a case of mistaken ethnicity in Boston, Nic Cage gets another wig fitted in Thailand, there's whimsy and surrealism in Scotland and Matthew McConaughey is right at home in Malibu, where he might finally have found something he does well, maybe.
"August Evening"
Strained emotional bonds and the transitory nature of the life of an illegal immigrant provide the backdrop for Chris Eska's quietly affecting family drama that stars Pedro Castaneda as an aging farmhand who loses his job at a chicken farm in a sleepy Texas town, forcing he and his devoted daughter-in-law (Veronica Loren) to relocate to San Antonio to stay with his older children and the grandchildren he never knew he had. As Alison Willmore pointed out in last week's Lunchbox, Castaneda is a first-time actor...
This week's trip to the multiplex offers a jaunt around the globe where, amongst other things, there's a case of mistaken ethnicity in Boston, Nic Cage gets another wig fitted in Thailand, there's whimsy and surrealism in Scotland and Matthew McConaughey is right at home in Malibu, where he might finally have found something he does well, maybe.
"August Evening"
Strained emotional bonds and the transitory nature of the life of an illegal immigrant provide the backdrop for Chris Eska's quietly affecting family drama that stars Pedro Castaneda as an aging farmhand who loses his job at a chicken farm in a sleepy Texas town, forcing he and his devoted daughter-in-law (Veronica Loren) to relocate to San Antonio to stay with his older children and the grandchildren he never knew he had. As Alison Willmore pointed out in last week's Lunchbox, Castaneda is a first-time actor...
- 9/1/2008
- by Neil Pedley
- ifc.com
A Secret
Strand Releasing
One of Claude Miller's most personal films to date, A Secret also is among the strongest in a 40-year career that yielded the memorable 1981 crime drama Under Suspicion.
Adapted by Miller and Natalie Carter from the Philippe Grimbert autobiographical novel, this stirring period portrait of a French family harboring a dark past takes familiar subject matter and casts it in a provocative setting.
It also has in leads Cecile De France, Ludivine Sagnier and Julie Depardieu three of the today's top French actresses -- Depardieu won a Caesar Award for her supporting performance -- making it a smart U.S. acquisition for Strand Releasing. Secret recently screened at the City of Lights, City of Angels festival.
Set primarily during the 1950s, the film is seen through the eyes of Francois Grimbert, a gawky, introverted 14-year-old who has always felt like a disappointment to his gregarious, athletic father (Patrick Bruel) and beautiful, former swim champ mother (De France).
There turns out to be justification for his deep-seated feelings of inadequacy, as Francois uncovers uncomfortable truths about his parents' lives as a young Jewish couple living in France during the Occupation.
To reveal anything more wouldn't be fair to this intriguing study in guilt and forgiveness, and the personal choices made that would reverberate throughout subsequent generations.
Incorporating a beautifully shot, clever color schematic, Miller, himself a child of the Holocaust, shifts effortlessly between three distinct time periods, while the exceptionally cast performers (also including "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's" Mathieu Amalric as the adult Francois) imbue their generously written roles with both a palpable passion and a heartbreaking vulnerability.
One of Claude Miller's most personal films to date, A Secret also is among the strongest in a 40-year career that yielded the memorable 1981 crime drama Under Suspicion.
Adapted by Miller and Natalie Carter from the Philippe Grimbert autobiographical novel, this stirring period portrait of a French family harboring a dark past takes familiar subject matter and casts it in a provocative setting.
It also has in leads Cecile De France, Ludivine Sagnier and Julie Depardieu three of the today's top French actresses -- Depardieu won a Caesar Award for her supporting performance -- making it a smart U.S. acquisition for Strand Releasing. Secret recently screened at the City of Lights, City of Angels festival.
Set primarily during the 1950s, the film is seen through the eyes of Francois Grimbert, a gawky, introverted 14-year-old who has always felt like a disappointment to his gregarious, athletic father (Patrick Bruel) and beautiful, former swim champ mother (De France).
There turns out to be justification for his deep-seated feelings of inadequacy, as Francois uncovers uncomfortable truths about his parents' lives as a young Jewish couple living in France during the Occupation.
To reveal anything more wouldn't be fair to this intriguing study in guilt and forgiveness, and the personal choices made that would reverberate throughout subsequent generations.
Incorporating a beautifully shot, clever color schematic, Miller, himself a child of the Holocaust, shifts effortlessly between three distinct time periods, while the exceptionally cast performers (also including "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly's" Mathieu Amalric as the adult Francois) imbue their generously written roles with both a palpable passion and a heartbreaking vulnerability.
- 4/22/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cannes eyes 'Blueberry,' 'Zodiac' for prime slots
PARIS -- Months of conjecture surrounding the Festival de Cannes lineup will come to an end Thursday as organizers unveil the festival's 2007 lineup.
Wong Kar Wai's "My Blueberry Nights", which the Weinstein Co. will release in the U.S., looks as if it will be completed in time to fill the high-profile opening-night slot May 16, while David Fincher's "Zodiac", a Paramount Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures co-production, is rumored as the festival closer on May 27.
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse", Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Thirteen", James Gray's "We Own the Night" and the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" are locked, and Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart" is set to premiere May 21 in Cannes.
The U.S.-heavy lineup awaits final confirmation on front-runner "Paranoid Park" by fest veteran Gus Van Sant.
Michael Moore will most likely be making it back to the Croisette with his health care documentary "Sicko", following the director's Palme d'Or win in 2004 for "Fahrenheit 9/11." Paulo Morelli's "City of Men" (the sequel to Fernando Meirelles' "City of God") and Harmony Korine's "Mister Lonely" also are anticipated.
As usual, the French are taking their time to secure festival slots, but it looks as if the black-and-white animated film "Persepolis" will be a contender. Claude Miller's "Un Secret" and Alain Corneau's "Le deuxieme souffle" are still in the running, and U.S. director Julian Schnabel's French production "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is poised to ring on the Croisette.
Although originally rumored as a possible Gallic addition to the In Competition section, Cedric Klapisch's "Paris" won't be finished in time to screen at the fest.
Wong Kar Wai's "My Blueberry Nights", which the Weinstein Co. will release in the U.S., looks as if it will be completed in time to fill the high-profile opening-night slot May 16, while David Fincher's "Zodiac", a Paramount Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures co-production, is rumored as the festival closer on May 27.
Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's "Grindhouse", Steven Soderbergh's "Ocean's Thirteen", James Gray's "We Own the Night" and the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" are locked, and Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart" is set to premiere May 21 in Cannes.
The U.S.-heavy lineup awaits final confirmation on front-runner "Paranoid Park" by fest veteran Gus Van Sant.
Michael Moore will most likely be making it back to the Croisette with his health care documentary "Sicko", following the director's Palme d'Or win in 2004 for "Fahrenheit 9/11." Paulo Morelli's "City of Men" (the sequel to Fernando Meirelles' "City of God") and Harmony Korine's "Mister Lonely" also are anticipated.
As usual, the French are taking their time to secure festival slots, but it looks as if the black-and-white animated film "Persepolis" will be a contender. Claude Miller's "Un Secret" and Alain Corneau's "Le deuxieme souffle" are still in the running, and U.S. director Julian Schnabel's French production "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is poised to ring on the Croisette.
Although originally rumored as a possible Gallic addition to the In Competition section, Cedric Klapisch's "Paris" won't be finished in time to screen at the fest.
- 4/19/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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