Friday, December 6
HIGHLIGHT
AMOUR FOU
From the Cannes debut of 2001’s Lovely Rita, Austrian director Jessica Hausner has made her mark on within the international filmmaking community, embraced by critics and audiences alike. While her eagerly anticipated 2019 Palme d’Or nominee, Little Joe, opens nationally this Friday, Film Movement Plus invites cineastes to screen Hausner’s previous effort, 2014’s AMOUR FOU.
In this acclaimed period drama, Heinrich is a young poet in Romantic Era Berlin –forever under-appreciated and melancholy — who determines his best way out of despair is to end it all, so he sets about finding a woman to join him in his predetermined departure. Recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, the well-off but unremarkable Henrietta, fascinated by Heinrich’s controversial “The Marquise of O,” finds his offer intriguing, if a bit strange. And yet, she agrees to navigate the uncharted journey towards a suicide pact with him, at once awkward and enlightening for them both. Rather than a declaration of passionate devotion, AMOUR FOU — inspired by the actual suicide in 1811 of Heinrich von Kleist and Henrietta Vogel — goes against expectations to become a wry and curious denunciation of dying for love.
Additionally, fans of Hausner’s work can partake of her 2015 short OIDA for the musical duo Attwenger in which she captures the key to a good music video: movement.
“Hausner reveals her strongest work yet, a droll, romantic exploration of sorts that manages to expertly blend her unique tone with exquisite
digital compositions.”
— Nicolas Bell, Ioncinema
Friday, December 13
PREMIERE
THE MAD ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB
Those looking to laugh this holiday season need not look any further than THE MAD ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB, a slapstick tour-de-force nominated for Best Foreign Film at the 1974 Golden Globes. The hilarious French farce, which recently received a stunning 4K digital restoration, makes its North American streaming premiere on Film Movement Plus.
In THE MAD ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB, a cult classic riot of frantic disguises and mistaken identities Victor Pivert (Louis de Funès), a blustering, bigoted French factory owner, finds himself taken hostage by Mohammed Larbi Slimane (Claude Giraud), an Arab rebel leader. The two dress up as rabbis as they try to elude not only assassins from Slimane’s country, but also the police, who think Pivert is a murderer. Pivert ends up posing as Rabbi Jacob, a beloved figure who’s returned to France for his first visit after 30 years in the United States. Adding to the confusion are Pivert’s dentist-wife, who thinks her husband is leaving her for another woman, their daughter, who’s about to get married, and a Parisian neighborhood filled with people eager to celebrate the return of Rabbi Jacob (Marcel Dario).
A hodgepodge of plot twists and slapstick shenanigans culminating in a chaotic, fun climax, THE MAD ADVENTURES OF RABBI JACOB was a showcase for de Funès, one of the most popular French comic actors of the era. Helmed by French filmmaker Gerard Oury, who co-wrote a 1958 film that Barbra Streisand later adapted for The Mirror Has Two Faces, the film was nominated for “Best Foreign Film” at the 1974 Golden Globe Awards.
“The funniest picture of the year!”
— National Board of Review [1978]
Friday, December 20
PREMIERES
HARMONIA & AN ISRAELI LOVE STORY (HANNUKAH)
Kick off this year’s Festival of Lights (12/22-30) with two powerful Israeli dramas, both making their streaming premieres on Film Movement Plus. Winner of multiple awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival, HARMONIA, an international festival favorite, is amultigenerational, culture-hopping orchestra melodrama from filmmaker Ori Sivan, one of the creators of the Israeli series “In Therapy”. AN ISRAELI LOVE STORY is a poignant period drama based on the true story of a passionate romance between a theater director and the son of Israel’s president from Palme d’Or-nominated Director Dan Wolman (Valley of Strength).
The biblical story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar comes to present-day in HARMONIA, winner of the Lia Van Leer Award for Films About Jewish Heritage at the Jerusalem International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Alsace Festival of Israeli Cinema. Abraham (Alon Aboutboul), the conductor of the Jerusalem Philharmonic Orchestra, is married to Sarah the company’s principal harpist (Tali Sharon). Though they share a passion for the arts, the fact that Sarah has been unable to have children has become a point of tension in the marriage. The couple’s relationship takes an unexpected turn when a French horn player, Hagar (Yana Yossef), is accepted into the company. After striking up a friendship with Sarah, Hagar offers to be a surrogate for the couple, a gesture that leads to unforeseen consequences.
“««««”
— Barry Paris, Pittsburgh-Post Gazette
Based on the true story of the love affair between theater director Pnina Gary and Eli Ben-Zvi, the son of Israel’s second president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, AN ISRAELI LOVE STORY is adapted from the solo autobiographical play written by Gary. The year is 1947. Eighteen-year-old Margalit (Adi Bielski) is an aspiring actress from northern Israel. One day, while traveling to see a play in Haifa she meets Eli (Avrahim Aviv Alush, The Women’s Balcony), a passionate kibbutznik devoted to his work in the Palmach, Israel’s pre-state underground army. After another chance encounter, the two begin a romance. Margalit moves onto Eli’s kibbutz, and they set a date for their wedding, but Israel’s harsh reality intervenes.
“A thrilling and impressive cinematic experience.”
— Marat Parkhomovsky, Cinematheque
— Marat Parkhomovsky, Cinematheque
Friday, December 27
PREMIERE
THE REFLECTING SKIN (DIRECTOR PHILIP RIDLEY’S BIRTHDAY)
As multi-hyphenate director/artist/novelist/
An instant cult classic when it premiered to sold out screenings at Cannes in 1990, THE REFLECTING SKIN is a darkly humorous, nightmarish vision of the American dream. As mysterious deaths plague a small prairie town in 1950s Idaho, eight year-old Seth (Jeremy Cooper) comes to believe that Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan), the reclusive English widow living next door, is a vampire, stealing the souls of his neighborhood friends one by one. Seth’s worst nightmares come true when his older brother Cameron (returns home from military service and falls in love with the widow. Could he be her next victim?
Featuring luminous cinematography by Oscar®-nominee Dick Pope (Mr. Turner, The Illusionist, Secrets & Lies), THE REFLECTING SKIN, winner of a Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival, marked the haunting directorial debut of Philip Ridley and has been celebrated as “stunningly beautiful…a Gothic masterpiece,” by Rowan Righelato of The Guardian.
“Eerie, unsettling…an amazing film.”
— Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
“Touches primal forces that most filmmakers can’t even imagine.”
— LA Weekly
“Like a vivid dream, you’ll have a difficult time forgetting it.”
— Steve Davis, Austin Chronicle
“Haunting…hypnotic…
— Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
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 (Shoplifters); 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.
