Screenplay News and Reviews
In a year when festivals will hope for the return of audiences, industry and some sense of normalcy,
Screen rounds up key contenders vying for the attention of programmers from France, Benelux, Nordics, Italy, Germany, Spain, Central and Eastern Europe, and Russia. ( denotes film previously appeared in Screen’s 2020 list)
Annette
Dir. Leos Carax
Carax’s long-awaited Los Angeles-set musical comedy co-stars Marion Cotillard and Adam Driver as an opera singer and a stand-up comedian, who are parents to a baby girl with a special gift. It is based on a screenplay by fraternal pop and rock duo Ron and Russell Mael, founding frontmen of cult band Sparks. Hopes are high that Carax’s first feature in nine years will premiere at Cannes. The director was last at the festival in competition with
The Racer review – Tour de France takes the tablets Cath Clarke
In 1998, a doping scandal rocked the Tour de France when a team masseur was caught with a pharmacy of banned substances in the boot of his car before the first stage in Ireland. The incident is the inspiration for this solid, workmanlike Irish drama with a strong performance from Belgian actor Louis Talpe as Dom Chabol, a fictional Belgian cyclist looking down the barrel of retirement at 38; he just can’t imagine life beyond cycling. And like most of the peloton, he’s doping; everybody’s doing it.
Talpe looks every bit the pro cyclist, lean and light, not a pinch of fat on him. And he plays Chabol with a charisma-free dullness that’s convincing for a sportsman with tunnel vision, blocking out everything non bike-related. The details of life on the cycling circuit feel well-researched, too by director Kieron J Walsh, though his script, co-written with Ciaran Cassidy, goes heavy on exposition
Movie Reviews: Deadly gangster priests and a boatload of MDMA Pixie stars Colm Meaney; plus Wolfwalkers, The Racer; and Kajillionaire
Wolfwalkers is another triumph for Cartoon Saloon
Sat, 12 Dec, 2020 - 08:00
Declan Burke
Set in 15th century Ireland, Wolfwalkers (PG) opens in the English garrison of Kilkenny, where young Robyn Goodfellowe (voiced by Honor Kneafsey) has ambitions of following in the footsteps of her father, Bill (Sean Bean), to become a wolf-killer in the service of the Lord Protector (Simon McBurney). When Robyn sneaks out into the surrounding forest, however, she meets the feral Mebh Óg (Eva Whittaker), a young girl with the magical power of transforming herself into a wolf. This latest offering from Cartoon Saloon (Song of the Sea, The Secret of Kells), Wolfwalkers is another epic animation steeped in Irish history that employs a blend of angular, hand-drawn animation and a more impressionistic style akin to the mystical elements of the original Wa
The Last Days of Peter Bergmann) and Kieron J. Walsh with Blinder Films’ Katie Holly (
Vita & Virginia, Love & Friendship,
Citadel) and Yvonne Donohoe (
Extra Ordinary,
Striking Out) producing. Jesus Gonzalez-Elvira of Calach Films co-produces along with Caviar Films’ Robin Kerremans and Dimitri Verbeeck. The film was shot in Ireland and Luxembourg.
The film is supported by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Film Fund Luxembourg, Eurimages, Screen Flanders, the BAI Sound & Vision Fund and RTE. Kinepolis Film Distribution (KFD) will release the film in the Benelux territory.
IFTN journalist Nathan Griffin spoke with Kieron J. Walsh ahead of the film’s opening weekend release.