We All Go a Little Maddin Some TImes

Heads up -- or I suppose in this context great big throbbing forest brains up! Guy Maddin's latest wackadoo movie Rumours, which stars Cate Blanchett, Denis Ménochet, Alicia Vikander, and several other international actors of note, is now available to rent! Click here to do so. It is as I have said several times this year the funniest movie I've watched in 2024 and honestly after last week's election it seems even more meaningful. I think it will land differently, watching it now, than it did back when I was a person who had "hope" inside of me. We'll see because I'm dying to re-watch myself. Here is my Pajiba review of the film from when it screened at NYFF in October. Oh and it's also getting a blu-ray release in January -- pre-order it here if that interests you. This movie might just turn out to be the most prophetic movie of our time which uhhh is terrifying. 

Let's Spread Some Rumours

I don't think I called it this in my review (what, am I supposed to go re-read my review to check?) but I have taken to calling on social media Guy Maddin's new movie Rumours with Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander "the funniest movie of the year" and I mean it -- also I should have said that in my review if I didn't, I could've gotten on the damn poster or trailer or something. I am so bad at this job. Wait what are we talking about? Right, Rumours -- Rumours is out today! Here is a link to my review that I apprently refuse to re-read and here is a link to the film's trailer -- yes the same trailer that does not include my quote that may or may not be in said review. Did you hear that this movie is the funniest movie of the year though? Somebody said that and it's totally true. Go see this thing! Zombies jerk off! Cinema!

The Thunderdome of Maternal Disappointment

Well I did my best to review slash wrestle with Ari Aster's Beau is Afraid, which is out in limited release at the moment and hitting more screens come Friday -- click on over to Pajiba to read my (mostly) non-spoilery thoughts. The first time I watched the movie I was like fuck me, what the hell do I write about that? What the hell even was that? So I went and saw it a second time and after the second time I was like...  fuck me, what the hell do I write about that? What the hell even was that? But I tried! I tried to get some thoughts down proper-like. And if that sounds like I didn't enjoy the experience that's not the case -- the review will make that clear. It's just... it's so, so much, you guys. 

No Disappointment Here

I apologize in advance because I can already tell I'm having one of those days where my brain is all over the map -- I think most people call these "manic episodes" but I ain't most people! Anyway have any of you ever been to Cape Disappointment in Washington state? My boyfriend and I were traversing that area on a trip around the Northwest a decade or so ago and ended up there and were delighted by the name, and (to finally get to my point) I thought about that place whenever I read the title of Ari Aster's next movie was Disappointment Blvd., and that made me happy. Fond memories! But Disappointment Blvd. was not to be -- talk about asking the critics to start licking their poison pens to pun themselves unto unconsciousness -- and so they changed the title to Beau Is Afraid, and today we have the first poster seen above. A24 says they'll drop the trailer on Tuesday. We know very little about what the movie's about -- or at least I do because I purposefully stopped paying attention since I don't need to be sold on an Ari Aster movie at this point. I'm there. I probably won't even watch the trailer. What we do know for sure is that Beau stars an astonishing cast, including Joaquin Phoenix -- several of him, judging by that poster! -- and Parkey Posey and Amy Ryan and Richard Kind and Nathan Lane and Patti Lupone and Denis Ménochet, among others. It's a weird cast and it looks like a weird movie and obviously we cannot f'ing wait. And the poster says April! So we don't have to wait too long! In summation...

Anyone else immediately think of this looking at the #BeauIsAfraid poster or am only I Charlie Kaufman Nerd enough to go right there pic.twitter.com/fizn5WVJ6K

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) January 5, 2023

Put Away Those Bitter Tears

My review of François Ozon's playful re-do of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, titled Peter Von Kant, went up at Pajiba over the weekend -- click here if you missed it. If you only know him from this movie you might not recognize actor Stefan Crepon as he is photographed above because in PVT he's got a gigantic mustache and is very mannered in his hilarious spin...

... on the assistant role (which was played by Irm Hermann in the original film). He also walks away with the entire damn picture, if you ask me. And I don't say that lightly -- Denis Ménochet is terrific in the lead role and Khalil Ben Gharbia (photographed alongside Stefan below) is incredibly sexy in the role of Ménochet's wanton and cruel love interest. But I am Team Karl forever.

The Bitter Tears of September

Finally some news on one of 2022's most anticipated movies of yours truly -- François Ozon's ode to Rainer Werner Fassbinder called Peter Von Kant is getting released here in the US on September 2nd! And we've got a trailer and a big batch of images to share too. I've already talked about this movie a bunch before here on the site, which isn't a surprise given my affection for Ozon and my obsession with Fassbinder. This is my peanut butter meeting chocolate moment! (And if you missed the Warhol-inspired poster I really recommend you check that out.) 

Peter Von Kant, borrowing its title and apparently much of its plot from Fassbinder's classic queer play and film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, stars the great Denis Ménochet as the titular Peter, who here is a man (gasp) and a Fassbinderian film director. From what I gather it's an attempt to look at the director himself through the lens of one of his most self-critical works. I can't say, I haven't seen it! And I haven't read any reviews because I haven't seen it. I'm keeping myself as fresh as I can be until then. I'm not even going to watch this trailer, but maybe you will:

The film will be released in several cities on September 2nd -- namely New York  at the IFC Center, Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal, as well as theaters in San Francisco, Chicago and Seattle. And then it will branch out from there as these art-house movies have a habit of doing. If you'd like to stare at more images from the movie, including more looks at Denis' co-stars Isabelle Adjani, Hannah Schygulla, Khalil Gharbia, Stéphane Crépon, Aminthe Audiard, plus a second Warhol-flavored poster, then you can go ahead and hit the jump right now...

Boys Licking Boys

Whoops I saw this over the weekend, last weekend, and then forgot to post it come Monday -- the first poster for François Ozon's forthcoming Fassbinder-riff called Peter Von Kant has arrived, itself a very obvious riff on Andy Warhol's famous poster art for Querelle, which I'll share down below in case somebody's never seen it before. PVK stars hot French bear Denis Ménochet, Isabelle Adjani, and actual legendary Fassbinder collaborator Hanna Schygulla, and is being sold as a sort of gay-male version of RWF's film The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, just with Ménochet playing a version of Fassbinder himself? I know people have seen and have reviewed the film already since it premiered at the Berlin Film Fest back in February but I have avoided all of that, I just don't want to know until it's sitting in front of me. We need to have things to look forward to! 

You Better Posey

Exciting news today, as a filmmaker as grand delicious as Hereditary and Midsommar filmmaker Ari Aster has decided to work with an actor as grand dame damn amazing as Parker Posey! Weirdly I've only posted about Aster's next film once, way back in November (when Joaquin Phoenix was announced as its star), even though we've gotten other updates since then -- what can I say, it's been a helluva time. Anyway what we do know now is the film is titled Disappointment Blvd and it's described as “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.” There have been scattered rumors it could be a musical, but today's news says nothing about that. What it does say is is that Parker Posey will be co-starring, and that is enough.

While I enjoyed watching Parker Posey slum it up as Dr Smith in the otherwise unremarkable Lost in Space reboot it remains UTTERLY DERANGED to me that nobody has built an entire TV series around her one-of-a-kind genius so we could toss all of the awards at her pic.twitter.com/7payLMs6zM

— Jason Adams (@JAMNPP) July 22, 2021

But there is indeed actually even more! More names in the cast include Stephen McKinley Henderson (you should know him as the sad drama teacher in Lady Bird), , Hayley Squires (recently seen in Ben Wheatley's In the Earth), Michael Gandolfini (son of James, seen playing his pops in The Many Saints of Newark), Zoe Lister-Jones, Amy Ryan (!), Nathan Lane (!!), and Patti LuPone (!!!). Parker Posey and Patti Lupone in one movie? That's some crazy shit. (And those last couple of names definitely seem to hint toward the "musical" thing.) But the name I'm most excited about, besides Posey, is French actor Denis Ménochet, as we are massive Ménochet-stans in this house. You know him from a dozen things but probably first and foremost from the opening scene of Inglourious Basterds. He absolutely rules.

Suspicious of Hard Women

So there came a moment, in the middle of these past three days I spent at home watching movie after movie after movie at the Virtual SXSW fest, when a little bit of news still managed to trickle its way down to me through the other stimuli -- a little bit of news that got from me a huge yelp. French director François Ozon, you know the one, announced he is making a movie called Petra Von Kant that will star Denis Menochet (sen above and yes, I effing love Denis Menochet) as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Isabelle Adjani as "the German director’s muse." This is a lot of information for me to unpack!

Fassbinder wrote The Bitter Tears as a play and then made it into a classic slice of claustrophobic cult cinema in 1973, lengthening the title to The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and giving all-time-best roles to three of his favorite actresses -- Margit Carstensen as Petra, Irm Hermann as the abused servant Marlene, and Hanna Schygulla as the awful ruinous selfish little asshole Karin who comes in and stomps all over Petra's brittle heart. Picking a favorite Fassbinder film makes me want to slice off parts of myself but Petra's very much in contention. But this Ozon project still sounds interesting!

For one, I know that Adjani still works but I personally haven't seen any of her films in twenty-plus years, since the Diabolique remake I think? Oh that's a ghastly thing to admit but it appears to be true. And having been on a kick as of late with her, uhh, unyielding turn in Andrzej Zulawski's 1981 freak-out flick Possession the thought of seeing her shine again is tops. 

For another, this doesn't really sound like a strict remake, or a re-do of the play even, since the other announced actor is playing Fassbinder himself. (And Ménochet is amaaaaaazing casting.) Will this be a "making of" the 1973 movie? A behind-the-scenes thing? If so who is Adjani playing, credited just as "muse" -- could she be playing all of the actresses? How weird will Ozon go with it? The mind reels, honestly. In related news here in a photo from 2017 of Petra's main trio, along with Eva Mattes who played the daughter. Heroes, all.

UPDATE! I have an update now

that I have no idea how to process:

The Variety article leaves out the most fascinating titbit, as the project is actually called PETER VON KANT and there's a gender-switch element to it! This would have me worried with probably any other director (except maybe Christophe Honoré) but if anyone can pull this off...

— Boyd van Hoeij (@filmboyd) March 19, 2021

I am even more confused / intrigued now.

Here is confirmation of the "Peter von Kant" thing though.

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

... you can learn from:

Time To Leave (2005)

Le père: How are things with Sasha?
Romain: Not bad, not great.
We'll probably break up soon.
Le père: Shit. Why?
Romain: Like in all couples,
routine kills desire.

A happy 52 to the director François Ozon today! You know I talk about Ozon a lot here on MNPP but there are a ton of his films, like the one mentioned above, that I haven't actually ever seen, and I only seem to remember this whenever I scan through his IMDb page on occasions like today. I couldn't really stand to gift myself a little film fest of his work, go back and catch things like Potiche and Under the Sand and his first film See the Sea, which a film-maker at a recent dinner I attended was telling me to definitely seek out. Anybody seen it?

I never got around to reviewing Ozon's latest, By the Grace of God, about the Catholic Church abuse scandals as they played out in France -- I was too sidelined with the New York Film Fest when it dropped, but it's very much worth seeking out if and when you get the opportunity. He made a film unlike anything of his that I've seen before, a baton-passing procedural that gains its accumulative power by the sheer breadth of experiences, of lives, affected by those horrors. We see so many people from so many backgrounds mangled by a system's corruption... even though it's about one specific thing (sexual abuse and the church) it's not hard to relate it to the way our world feels in so many ways these days -- faceless bureaucracies with no time for genuine concern. Melvil Poupaud again does great work for Ozon, but it's Denis Ménochet (oh how I love Denis Ménochet) as the angriest and Swann Arlaud as the most fragile and damaged of the men who I found most special.

Pantys 2018 - Actor to Actor #8

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Among many things we're doing this week as part of our "Golden Trousers" awards we're taking a look at our 20 favorite performances of 2018 -- how we're doing this is we randomly selected ten pairs of names from our list and then we're imagining a moment between the two characters chosen. Ten times. You can see our previous ones here but for now here's our eighth random pairing from our 2018 faves...

Antoine (Denis Ménochet) in Custody meets
Annie (Toni Collette) in Hereditary

Annie: I. Am. His. MOTHER.
Antoine: Oui, but I am his father...
Annie: Don't you take that TONE with me.
Antoine: Listen, lady...
Annie: Get that fucking FACE off your FACE, motherfucker.
Actually you know what let me just do that for you.
[walks over, rips his face off]
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Good Morning, World

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Today let us wish our beloved French director François Ozon a happy 51st birthday with this scene of his forever muse Jérémie Renier showering in Double Lover, Ozon's fabulous film that was released here in the US back in February -- here's my review if you missed it. The movie is out on blu-ray and on streaming now so you've no excuse not to watch it - it's sexy and ridiculous, queered up modern day Brian De Palma, and I adore it. Don't be surprised to see it show up on my "Best of 2018" lists.

Anyway Ozon is currently at work on his next inevitable wonderment, called By the Grace of God it's about three adult men deciding whether they will confront the priest who molested them as children, and stars the beautiful Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet (who gave one of my favorite performances this year in Xavier Legrand's film Custody) and Swann Arlaud. Looking forward to that! Now let's hit the jump for more naked Jérémie Renier, in the good right and true spirit of celebrating Ozon and all...

The Thing on the Doorstep

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There is nothing more horrific than uncertainty. At least once the monster steps into daylight you finally know what you're up against. But uncertainty... the tentacled eyeball salads of Lovecraft's fiction thrive on that. Things without a shape, a mist of green panic all about, quivering beneath your very fingernails. There are no Old Ones skulking about in Xavier Legrand's film Custody, which takes place plainly upon our mortal coil and deals forthrightly with the custody battle between a mother, father, and the two kids stuck in between. But the horror of the Uncertain looms, a beastly shadow cast across the smallest of daylight interactions - supper with the grandparents shot like "Saturn Devouring His Son."

Do you know what it is to be truly terrified of someone? Someone you discover to be, too late, irrational and broken - someone big as the sun, a bomb of fire and light falling out of the sky? The way you can never say the right thing but all you can do is try to say the right thing, right thing piled on right thing, all wrong, all poisoned. So you sputter, sob, retreat into yourself. Their love spills into your life like lava, scalding hot, and they hold you close, mania tipping their tongues as they whisper for you to hold on, hold on.

I remember sitting waiting for my father to come pick me up for our bi-monthly weekends together with my gut twisted into knots. He'd disappeared, reappeared, suddenly wanting a relationship out of nowhere. I never knew what horror would await each weekend - how drunk he'd get, how violently he might shake my step-mother around, the sound of footsteps and slaps and lord knows what else drumming on the other side of the door, intensifying, symphonic. The best times were when he didn't bother showing up at all. 

Not that that meant I was safe - he might show up the next morning, the next afternoon; he might show up at any moment like the murderer in a slasher movie standing behind the refrigerator door, the medicine cabinet, a figure of vague limbs and shoulders in the corner when the lights go out. 

And that, my friends, is the horror of uncertainty - the horror of waiting, waiting, for the inevitable, the inescapable. As a ten-year-old kid you're powerless in these situations - the adults tell you you've got to make these relationships work that are never gonna work, and the more they don't work the more convincing it becomes that it's your fault. If only you'd said the right thing. Done the right thing. And then eventually if only you could be the Man. The Protector. If only you could stop the pounding happening in the next room. Stand tall. Be strong. And listen to your father.

Anyway Legrand's film tore through me like a tornado through a trailer park. I once saw a woman run screaming out of a screening of Gregg Araki's film Mysterious Skin and I've told that story ever since with a sort of awe, as if I was jealous that somebody could be that affected by art. That traumatized. Triggered. Custody marks the closest I have ever come. I very nearly had to walk out of the film before it was over, so hard did I literally quake watching Legrand weave his pieces together, choking off the exits. It's a masterfully effective thriller, but a humanist thriller - one that feels, felt to me anyway, profoundly empathetic in its manipulation of emotional violence. This, I weep, is what it was like.