Barratier’s Paris 36 hits screens in Berlin and Vienna
This week, German viewers are able to enjoy a rather European line-up, featuring films from the UK, Spain and Austria.
New German-language releases include three documentaries. Jochen Hick’s German title East/West - Sex & Politics looks at the situation of the gay community in a now modern and affluent Moscow, where the country’s still precarious democracy can be measured by its treatment of minorities. The film is produced and distributed by Hamburg-based Galeria Alaska.
The other German documentary on the programme – Mario Schneider’s Heinz und Fred – centres on a father and son with a passion for scrap metal (released by 42film).
While Austrian documentaries continue to compete for audiences at festivals and in local theatres (including Erwin Wagenhofer’s latest anti-globalisation film, Let's Make Money, released in Austria on October 31; and Constantin Wulff’s Into The World, which was crowned Best German-language Documentary at Duisburg and was launched in Austria last week), German cinemas are hosting Georg Misch’s A Road to Mecca - The Journey of Muhammad Asad. The film retraces the life of the thinker, diplomat and adventurer Leopold Weiss, an Austrian-Hungarian Jew who converted to Islam (distributed by mindjazz pictures-Arsenal).
Narrative films include Julio Medem’s Spanish title Chaotic Ana, featuring Charlotte Rampling (distributed by Prokino). European co-productions also abound: Ken Loach’s German/Italian/UK film, It's a Free World [+see also:
trailer
film profile], is being released by Neue Visionen; Ben Hopkins’ German/UK drama The Market [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Piffl; and Christophe Barratier’s French/German comedy Paris 36 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by leading distributor Constantin.
Constantin are co-ordinating a simultaneous release of the latter film in Austrian theatres. The musical comedy (German title: Paris, Paris - Monsieur Pigoil auf dem Weg zum Glück) stars internationally-recognised actors Gérard Jugnot (protagonist in Barratier’s The Chorus [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Kad Merad (star of recent hit Welcome to the Sticks [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).
Other new European titles hitting Austrian screens today include Marco Kreuzpaintner’s German fantasy film Krabat [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Daniel Brühl (distributed by Centfox); and Lucia Puenzo’s French/Spanish/Argentinean co-production XXY [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (distributed by Polyfilm).
(Translated from French)
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