PREMIERE
ULYSSES AND MONA
Celebrate the January 4th birthday of French Indie auteur Sébastien Betbeder (2 Autumns, 3 Winters and Nights with Theodore) with the U.S. streaming premiere of ULYSSES AND MONA, a deadpan road-trip dramedy.
Ulysses (Éric Cantona, Looking for Eric) is a 55-year-old contemporary artist who ran away from his family and ended his career four years earlier. Now, he spends his days in seclusion hitting tennis balls or listening to horror movies soundtracks. Mona (Manal Issa, Nocturana, Parisienne) is a 20-year-old art student. Between nude drawing workshops and boring theory classes, her life couldn’t be more uneventful. But everything changes when Mona decides to meet Ulysses. After a failed first attempt and some misfortune, both set out on a journey that will change their lives forever.
“A sweet yet restrained comedy…recalls the work of Sofia Coppola
and Alexander Payne.”
– Christian Gallichio, The Playlist
“Completely offbeat yet emotionally effective”
— Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter
Friday, January 10
PREMIERES
THE DEMONS & GENÈSE
Originally a documentary filmmaker, director Phillipe Lesage moved into narrative features with 2010’s Copenhague: A Love Story. His next two features, THE DEMONS (2015) and GENÈSE (2018), are two poignant and powerful, Montreal-set coming-of-age dramas that are loosely connected.
The stark fears of childhood are laid bare beneath the comfortable surface of a Montreal suburb in Lesage’s THE DEMONS. While the city is in the throes of a string of kidnappings targeting young boys, ten-year-old Félix (Edouard Tremblay-Grenier) is finishing his school year in the seemingly quiet suburb where he lives. A sensitive boy with a vivid imagination, Felix is afraid of everything. Little by little, his imaginary demons begin to mirror those of the truly disturbing world around him.
“Easily one of the best Canadian films of the year”
— Adrian Mack, The Georgia Straight
“Fevered imagination and nightmarish reality brush shoulders to disconcerting effect…[an] extraordinary examination of childhood fears festering in broad suburban daylight.”
— Guy Lodge, Variety
In GENÈSE, three teenagers encounter the turmoil of love and youth. While the charismatic Guillaume (Théodore Pellerin) wrestles with his sexual identity at boarding school, his older half-sister Charlotte (Noée Abita) navigates an adult world filled with casual cruelty. Separately, Félix (Édouard Tremblay-Grenier) meets his first girlfriend while away at summer camp. At a time when others are conforming, these three individuals stand their ground and assert their right to love and be free. Lesage and his young actors depict the aches of becoming oneself with nuance, honesty, and compassion, and the result is one of the most beautiful coming-of-age stories in years in this Official Selection at Locarno, named as one of Canada’s Top 10 Films of 2018 at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“Highly original… Philippe Lesage takes chances,
and succeeds with boldly original form and narrative.”
— Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times
“One of the best films of the year.”
— Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail
“Exciting and heartbreaking, like a true first love”
— Boyd van Hoeij, The Hollywood Reporter
Thursday, January 16
PREMIERES
MyFrenchFilmFestival.com
Returning for a second year on Film Movement Plus, MyFrenchFilmFestival.com seeks to bring a new generation French filmmakers to cineastes the world over. From January 6 through February 16, 2020, movie lovers will have the opportunity to stream 10 new French feature films with a Film Movement Plus subscription – one of the only SVOD platforms in North America to be running the international fest.
Not a Film Movement Plus subscriber yet? You can still take part in MyFrenchFilmFestival.com with 10 French short films available for FREE unlimited streaming; just visit filmovementplus.com and join in the global viewing event!
After viewing all the festival selections, film lovers will then have the opportunity to go to myfrenchfilmfestival.com, create a login and cast votes for the Lacoste Audience Awards, helping to recognize some of the most talented young filmmakers on the international stage today!
For more information, go to: https://www.
Friday, January 31
PREMIERE
NEVER EVER
Film Movement Plus celebrates filmmaker Benôit Jacquot’s birthday (2/5) with the U.S. streaming premiere of NEVER EVER, a haunting drama based on Don Dellilo’s novella “The Body Artist”‘
An Official Selection of the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals, NEVER EVER swirls around a self-centered filmmaker (Mathieu Amalric) who, while attending a museum retrospective of his work, wanders into an adjoining gallery and becomes mesmerized by a beautiful young performance artist (Julia Roy). The two fall madly in love and embark on a wild and delirious affair. Living together in Rey’s secluded seaside estate, the lovers believe they have found eternal bliss. Months later, Rey dies in a tragic accident, leaving Laura alone in the house by herself… or so she thinks.
“Amour fou meets the tradition of the haunted house narrative”
— Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily
About FILM MOVEMENT PLUS
FILM MOVEMENT PLUS (www.filmmovementplus.com) opens up a world of provocative, compelling and award-winning films from Film Movement’s singular library. Priced at $5.99 per month with a free 14-day trial, the SVOD subscription service, currently available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android TV, mobile (iOS and Android), and Chromecast, offers consumers immediate access to over 300 festival favorite feature films and 100 short films, including: THEEB, the 2016 Academy Award® nominee for Best Foreign Film; AFTER THE STORM, a powerful family drama from 2018 Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda; HUMAN CAPITAL, a political thriller from Paolo Virzi (The Leisure Seeker) that was Italy’s Best Foreign Film submission for the 87th Academy Awards® and MY LOVE, DON’T CROSS THAT RIVER, an unforgettable documentary about true love that transcends generations and cultures and is South Korea’s most successful film of all time. Classics from the Film Movement catalog include Bille August’s PELLE THE CONQUEROR, an Academy Award® winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996 and much more.
