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(Release Info London schedule; May 8th, 2019, Cineworld Leicester Square, 5-6 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7NA, UK, 20:00 pm) https://film.list.co.uk/cinema/42944-cineworld-leicester-square-london-wc2h/coming-soon/#times "Beats" It's 1994, a small town in central Scotland. A new legislation effectively outlaws raves or public gatherings around amplified music characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats. Best mates Johnno (Cristian Ortega) and Spanner (Lorn Macdonald) share a deep bond. The first is living with his criminal brother Robert (Brian Ferguson), the other is facing a move to a new town with his family and his potential new stepfather Sergeant Ian Black (Stephen McCole), who happens to be a cop. Now on the cusp of adulthood, life is destined to take them in different directions, Johnno’s family are moving him to a new town and a better life, leaving Spanner behind to face a precarious future. The party is well and truly over. But this summer is going to be different for them, and for the country. In pursuit of adventure and escape, the boys head out on one last night together to an illegal rave. The two friends steal cash from Spanner's older brother and journey into an underworld of anarchy, freedom and collision with the forces of law and order. Under the hazy stewardship of pirate radio DJ D-Man (Ross Mann), the boys journey into an underworld of anarchy, freedom and a full-on collision with the forces of law and order. After "Glasgow Girls’", this is Brian Welsh's second feature set in Scotland. "Beats" is based on Kieran Hurley’s 2012 play of the same name. It's a story about a 15-year-old boy going to a rave at the time 'The Criminal Justice Act' is introduced. The film weavers the personal story of Johnno and Spanner together with the wider socio-political discussion about Scotland in 1994, what 'The Criminal Justice Act' means, and the ideas it represented. This may make it sound dry, but it’s important to mention that this is all done in a way that's both hilarious and profoundly moving. The screenplay is a piece of single-voice narration, telling the story of the time, the place and a journey to a rave using the inner voice of multiple characters; Johnno, Spanner, Robert and Alison (Laura Fraser), Johnno's mum. It has very few actual scenes. It feels authentic and timely and a lot of people recognised themselves in the story. Young people loved the energy of it, but there’s also an intergenerational thing in it too, and a lot of older people connected with it through the character of Allison. Great characters, great scenes, and the right balance between a party’ film and a film that actually has something meaningful to say about this shared cultural moment. Many of the characters in the film are young and idealistic. The sad thing is that this idealism can be fleeting. We all have to fight hard as we get older to try to maintain this idealism. This is one of the ideas of the film. The best thing you can do as a young person is to disobey because without disobedience how can we carve out a new direction, how can we look to the future with hope? The sad thing about disobedience is that when it catches, when it becomes fashionable or cool, it inevitably becomes the mainstream, it’s monetised and sucked into the system. In the film, it’s important to mention that we're coming to this rave at the fag-end of the dance scene. 'The Criminal Justice Act' stamped out the embers of the free-party scene. Since then, dance music culture, along with every other aspect of our lives, has become commercialised. The film itself goes on a varied musical journey from some of the unsophisticated but banging hardcore tracks that the boys would have listened to in their bedroom to these big, profound, mind-expanding tracks from Detroit in the rave. The way a lot of the tracks have this reggae roots vibe. This brings a playful energy and humour to the images and seems to capture the spirit of the boys. When a lot of the raves are kicking off in London in the very early days, Jamaican sound systems would be borrowed and at times the music would borrow this flavour too. Music is integral to the film. Back in the 90s the film makes endless mixtapes and it feels like a chaotic cassette mash-up, with beat-matching and tracks playing over each other. 'The Sub Club' is the spot and 'Optimo' at that time is widely regarded as the best night. First time Jeff Mills played 'The UK' was at 'Pure'. The rave is a pivotal scene in "Beats". It's clear from the outset that in order for the rave to feel real the film has to have a proper rave, with proper music, in a proper venue. And not only that it has to be 'The Rave', an absolute mega stomper, with everyone going nuts. The score feels as if a mixtape has been laid to picture. Put together by 'Keith McIvor', aka 'JD Twitch Of Glasgow’s' long-running 'DJ Duo Optimo', the 30 tracks uses in "Beats" not only help tell Johnno and Spanner’s story but also capture the excitement and adrenaline rush of getting caught up in the thrill of the rave. Drawing on exhaustive musical knowledge and recollections of parties in early-90s Glasgow, the soundtrack takes in big-hitters at the time such as 'The Prodigy', 'Orbital', 'Leftfield' and 'LFO' alongside cult techno tracks by the likes of 'Plastikman', 'Joey Beltram', 'N-Joi' and 'Model 500'. There are key releases from the pioneering Belgian dance label 'R&S', and classic rave anthems from original Dutch heavyweights such as 'Human Resource', 'Phantasia' and 'Inner Light', all of which would have been played at the time at clubs and free parties across 'The UK'. The soundtrack brings together music from the original Detroit techno trio known as 'The Belleville Three', 'Juan Atkins' ('Model 500'), 'Kevin Saunderson' ('Inner City') and 'Derrick May'; via 'Francesco Tristano’s' version of ‘Strings Of Life' as well as 'Motor City' jams from 'Carl Craig' and 'Richie Hawtin'. 'Hawtin’s Plus 8 Labelmate Vapourspace' appears with his celestial epic ‘Gravitational Arch Kf 10’, first released in 1993 and which scores a pivotal scene in the film. 'The Orbital Brothers' have recorded a new version of their rave anthem ‘Belfast’ especially for "Beats. Threaded throughout are tracks from 'Sextant', 'David Cunningham'', John Broadwood', and cavernous dub from 'NYC’s Liquid Liquid'and 'UK' hardcore of 'Kaotic Chemistry And A Homeboy'. The mood is more important than being very strict about historical accuracy with regard to the music, though the majority of music used is of the era. Some music from completely beyond the world of dance music made it in there. Something like ‘Blue River’ by David Cunningham made it. Tracks by 'Carl Craig', 'Model 500' and 'Inner City' feature in the film. There is a deep connection to the music of Detroit here. That's the favourite music/visual moment in the film. It's the closest we've ever seen any film get to truly showing what those moments could be like. At the end of the film you release that everyone else has the same reaction, whether they had grown up in the 90s or the 60s. You come out of the cinema feeling you're actually in the middle of it, in the middle of a big, illegal rave. In the mid-1990s, 'The United Kingdom' was overrun by ravesil, legal parties with heavy beats and an endless supply of drugs. The explosion of the free party scene and the largest counter-cultural youth movement in recent history is happening across 'The UK'. 'The Criminal Justice Bill' introduced by 'The Government' in 1994 criminalised gathering around repetitive beats. This led to massive protests and even more raves. Against that background, "Beats" showcases the unlikely friendship; between teens Spanner and Johnno in a Scottish town. Filmed in black and white, "Beats" finds real poignancy in the bond between these two innocents as they enter a wonderland of rebellion and romance. A heady solidarity is forged in the sweaty bodies, casual encounters and carefree exuberance of youth gathered in the pursuit of a good time. This universal coming of age story of friendship, rebellion and the irresistible power of gathered youth, is set to a soundtrack as eclectic and electrifying as the scene it gave birth to. A wildly entertaining end of an era party that brings a lump to the throat. The film takes place during the mid-1990s’ free-party era, 'Castle Morton', 'Spiral Tribe', and there’s a strong 'Us vs Them' narrative running through the film. It's 25 years ago. But when we looking back at the 60s or 70s as a teenager, that era was pretty cool. We enjoyed fantasising at the revolutionary counter-culture power of 'Woodstock'. We feel the same about 'The M25' parties or 'Castle Morton' and the sense of anarchy, freedom and togetherness these represented. Talking about it now, you still get butterflies and a bit twitchy. You love the music, you love the sense of sheer lawlessness, but mostly you love the people. The film feels like a memory. Something from a scrapbook of your teenage years, an important moment held sacred, almost mythologised. It seems to capture something about entrenched power’s inherent fear of young people and the weird radical possibility of young folk and social outsiders claiming shared space on their own terms, even when that’s just to dance and have a good time. If in and through that they find themselves thinking about how we as a society regard young people, about the importance of togetherness in spite of an individualistic society that alienates us from one another, and about the role of the police in that society, well, that’s even better. You’re left with a love letter to the dying days of the second summer of love.

(Release Info London schedule; March 11th, 2018, Curzon Bloomsbury, 11:00) "The Square" Christian (Claes Bang) is the respected curator of a contemporary art museum, a divorced but devoted father of two who drives an electric car and supports good causes. His next show is 'The Square', an installation which invites passersby to altruism, reminding them of their role as responsible fellow human beings. But sometimes, it's difficult to live up to your own ideals. Christian's foolish response to the theft of his phone drags him into shameful situations. Meanwhile, the museum's PR agency has created an unexpected campaign for 'The Square. The response is overblown and sends Christian, as well as the museum, into an existential crisis. Christian has a lot of different sides to him. He's both idealistic in his words and cynical in his deeds, both powerful and weak, and so on. He's a divorced father of two working in the cultural field, and committed to the existential and social questions raised by 'The Square'. He's convinced that 'The Square', is a ground-breaking idea and truly wants art to bring people new thoughts, but at the same time he's a social chameleon who knows how to play his high-status part at the institution and to navigate the expectations of the sponsors, the visitors and the artists. Christian, faces questions we all face, of taking responsibility, trusting and being trustworthy, behaving morally at an individual level. And when he encounters a dilemma, his individual actions conflict with the moral principles he stands for. Christian will appear as a walking contradiction, just as many of us are. At the end of the film, we must evaluate if he learned his lesson. "The Square" calls for a naturalistic and intimate style of acting. The loving relationship between Christian and his cheerleading daughters forms the emotional core of the film and shows, through concrete images, the idea of a quest for utopia. Indeed, the girls are united in a very efficient collective effort where every one of the individuals performing together plays an equally important part in the achievement. It's also a visual demonstration of the importance of trust to see a 10-year-old girl dive into a salto, trusting that the others will catch her. The cheerleader's focus and joy illustrates the best part of American society, a team player effect resulting from every American's distrust of the State. Christian's journey articulates the two socratic sources of justice; the social contract and the individual ethics. Justice is obeying laws in exchange for others obeying them as well, but more than that, justice is also the state of a well-regulated soul. So the just man will also necessarily be the happy man. This old and seductive idea that doing the right thing, that justice, can buy happiness is not outdated. Researchers in social psychology have observed increased trust in others amongst volunteers with a high degree of social and political interaction, and refer to the phenomenon as the helper's high. Maybe people will laugh at Christian's clumsy and humorously embarrassing actions, and at some other jokes in the film, but maybe also share the idea of justice underlying his journey. In 2008, the first gated community opened in Sweden, a gated residential area that only authorized owners could access, an extreme example of how privileged social groups shut themselves off from their surroundings. It's also one of the many signs of European societies getting more and more individualistic as government debt grows, social benefits shrink, and the gap between rich and poor widened continuously over three decades. Even in Sweden, once the most egalitarian society in the world, rising unemployment and the fear of a decline in status have led individuals to mistrust one another and to mistrust society. A prevailing feeling of political powerlessness has undermined our trust in the State and pushed us to withdraw into ourselves. But is this how we want our societies to develop? The inhibition of our helping behavior when other people are present is known by social psychologists as 'bystander apathy'. Experiments show that the probability of help is inversely proportional to the number of bystanders, because of the diffusion of responsibility that prevails in larger groups although there's also evidence that group cohesiveness can balance out collective indifference. In the 50s, Western society must have had a sense of shared responsibility. This reminds us that at that time, other adults were seen as trustworthy members of a community that could help a child if he ran into trouble, while today's social climate does not seem to strengthen group cohesiveness, nor our trust in society; we now tend to see other adults as a threat to our children. The film's title "The Square" is taken from the name of our project that was first exhibited in the fall of 2014 at 'The Vandalorum Museum'. The exhibition exemplifying the ideal of consensus that should govern society as a whole for the greater good became a permanent installation on the city of Värnamo's central square. If someone is standing in Värnamo's led-light version of 'Square', it's one's duty to act and react if one needs help. 'The Square' is a place of humanitarian values, drawing on the ethics of reciprocity that appears in nearly every religion as well as in 'The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights'. They're endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Most people chose trust people, but then had cold feet when later asked to leave their phones and wallets on the floor of the exhibition. This contradiction illustrates how difficult it to act according to one's principles. "The Square" exaggerates the worst tendencies that one can observe in our day and age, such as the way the media ignores their own responsibility when they reproduce the very problems they are reporting. You can draw parallels to extreme parties, in the US, France or elsewhere, which through provocative, polarizing debate, grabbed the attention of the general public. In Sweden, such a party captured the position as the third largest political party. Tragic irony has turned social media into the best promotion tool around for terror organizations. Everybody knows, but no one has learnt, from the media hysteria leading Europeans to join 'ISIS', or inspiring the killings in Copenhagen a few weeks after Charlie Hebdo was attacked. Some years ago, press ethics would have prevented a newspaper or broadcaster from showing shocking, dubious or manipulated images. But as expenses and jobs were cut and journalists were overwhelmed, media has turned to increasingly sensational images. Now as long as a picture has explosive content, it doesn't matter what the content is. The example of the picture of the drowned boy Aylan is alarming. A single picture suddenly changed the opinion about asylum seekers in many newspapers in Europe and around the world. It showed how strong an impact a good image can have if it's provocative or touching enough to break through the never-ending flood of information and images we're confronted with. The Square" faces the weakness in human nature; when attempting to do the right thing, the hardest part is not to agree on common values, but to actually act according to them. The rise of extreme poverty and the increase in the homeless population in first-world cities presents us with such a dilemma every day. The film is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations. It's an elegant movie, with visual and rhetorical devices to provoke and entertain viewers. Thematically the film moves between topics such as responsibility and trust, rich and poor, power and powerlessness. The growing beliefs in the individual and the declining beliefs in the community. The distrust of the state, in media and in art. "The Square" tries to address this urgent question in a light-hearted, absurdist manner. At the same time the film provides us with exceptional access to the world; there are so many things we haven't actually done ourselves, but we've experienced them in our minds through films. Films can for instance enhance a critical way of thinking about the conventions and what we take for granted.

"R.M.N."     A few days before Christmas, having quit his job in Germany, Matthias (Marin Grigore) returns to his multi-ethnic Transylvanian village. He wishes to involve himself more in the education of his son, Rudi (Mark Edward Blenyesi)), left for too long in the care of his mother, Ana (Macrina Barladeanu), and to rid the boy of the unresolved fears that have taken hold of him. He’s preoccupied with his old father, Otto (Andrei Finti), and also eager to see his ex-lover, Csilla Szabo (Judith State). When a few new workers are hired at the small factory that Csilla manages, the peace of the community is disturbed, underlying fears grip the adults, and frustrations, conflicts and passions erupt through the thin veneer of apparent understanding and calm.   We recall watching a Mel Brooks film in the eighties called "Young Frankenstein". It was already a comedy, but even more for us, since the main character was getting on board a train in New York and getting off that train in Bucharest, which in the film was Transylvania’s capital. Transylvania stands for that place which is at the end of the world and is also the country of vampires and monsters. The story of "R.M.N. takes place a little before the pandemic, during Christmas 2019 and the beginning of 2020, in a small multiethnic village in Transylvania, the most western Romanian province. We go deep into Transylvania’s history but for us, it represents the typical kind of territory that was disputed between two countries and passed from one to another. A bit like Alsace and Lorraine. In this case it’s between Romania and Hungary, or rather the Austro-Hungarian empire. Therefore, there are Romanians and Hungarians living in Transylvania. But they’re not the only inhabitants. Some 700 years ago Saxons were given land there, at the edge of Europe, next to the Carpathians. Therefore, there are also Germans in Transylvania. Most of them left in the 70s when Ceausescu sold them to Western Germany for 5,000 DM per capita. The rest left after the fall of communism. But their houses, fortified churches, cemeteries, and villages with tall fences are still there. And there are also many Roma people in Transylvania.   They first came as slaves or servants some 200 years ago, and many moved into the houses abandoned when the Germans left. With so many ethnicities, Transylvania became a favorite playground for populist or nationalist movements of all kinds. There were street fights with victims in the 90s. Later things calmed down, many people went to work abroad as poverty affected them regardless of ethnicity. Nationalism is refreshed again every now and then, especially before elections. The film is about the situation in Transylvania and about Romanians, Hungarians and Germans sharing the same territory. It's set there but it’s also about Russians and Ukrainians, whites and blacks, Sunni and Shia, rich and poor, even tall and short. Whenever there’s a second person in the room, they will be perceived as being from another tribe and therefore a potential enemy. Languages, religions, flags (and other minor differences for which people kill one another). In the film, Hungarians speak Hungarian, Romanians, Romanian, and Germans speak German, but nevertheless they understand each other. They all speak English since it’s also a story about globalization and its side effects. The most sophisticated characters even speak French. And, of course, the Frenchman speaks English, while the people who came from afar speak their own language which nobody else understands. As a spectator, if you understand all these languages, bravo.   If not, there are subtitles, sometimes they've different colors for different languages, sometimes it will be up to you to figure out who speaks what. The Romanians have a red-yellow-blue flag, the Hungarians in Hungary have a red-white-green flag, but the Hungarians in a couple of Transylvanian counties have a blue and yellow one, the flag of the so called Tinutul Secuiesc, which militates for autonomy. Strangely, for of historical reasons, this county is not on the border with Hungary but somehow in the middle of Romania. Romanians are mostly Orthodox; Hungarians are mostly Catholic while Germans are mostly Lutheran. But it’s not that simple: some Hungarians are Unitarians, some Romanians are Greek-Catholic, some Germans are Calvinist. Therefore, each village has several different churches, and even the bells toll differently. Today, with so many people having gone abroad to work, many of the churches have very few parishioners. The Protestant churches are closed. Still, there's usually somebody in the village who holds the key to the church for whoever wishes to visit. When somebody from the village dies abroad, sometimes thousands of kilometers away, a relative of his will call home, so that the bells in his native village toll for him. These differences might seem minor, and they're certainly complicated to follow. Still, throughout history wars were fought because of such particularities and people killed other people for even smaller differences.   Mioritza is an inspirations for the film. Mioritza is tricky to explain, it’s a national Romanian ballad about three shepherds and their herds. Now these shepherds come from different regions, one has more sheep and he’s richer, so the others simply decide to kill him and take over his herd. His beloved sheep, his faithful dog, and nature in general try to warn him but he believes in destiny: if this is his fate, so be it. There’s even a pattern associated with Mioritza, with Romanian geography and with this mentality about life: it’s called the uphill and downhill rhythm. Matthias faithful dog warns him when danger arises and his sheep care for him maybe more than anybody else. Besides Mioritza, of course, there's the real story: before the pandemic some factory owners in Tinutul Secuiesc considered hiring workers from afar, given that the locals had left to work in Western Europe. Still, the characters of R.M.N. and the relationships between them are fictional, as are the motivations and attitudes of each, and the events of the narrative itself. Another distant source of inspiration is the Rosia Montana story, essentially, it’s the dilemma between giving people jobs mining gold and destroying the environment with cyanide or saving the environment and wonderful landscapes for future generations while the locals live in a continued state of poverty. And then, there are the regular news stories about animals and the side effects of Romania apparently having the biggest population of bears and wolves in Europe.   Traditions mean that people do something because some other people did it before them. In the end, somebody did it originally for some purpose, which very often is to chase away bad omens. You must agree even this explanation has more sense than doing something because it’s the tradition. The film portrays several winter traditions: some people dress in sheep and goat skins and dance, others wear bear skins and are whipped, some dress as the ancestors, the Dacians, sympathized with for opposing the Roman conquest. In some other areas in Romania, men simply wear masks and a huge helmet for the New Year’s Eve..They meet on the first day of the year and they fight each other to death. They don’t even come from different villages: the uphill ones fight the downhill ones, and sometimes some get killed. Don’t judge them: at least it’s fair and square. Not very different from all the sports and competitions which substitute for the same instinct of engaging your tribe against another. One of the most recurrent narrative explaining Romania’s current position among European countries is that we didn’t manage to develop as much as western societies because we're busy fighting the invaders who wished to plunder Europe, and because we kept them busy here in the East, westerners had all the time in the world to develop, and erect their opulent cathedrals.   But there are a lot of other current narratives used to explain the state of the world today, globalization is the new Babel, a sign that the world is coming to an end; when diseases will also become global, the end will follow swiftly, global warming is yet another sign of the imminent ending and soon the over-exploited resources will be exhausted and people will be fighting for survival. For centuries, it's easier to identify the invaders. The locals live in small villages among the forests and as soon as anybody on horseback showed up from the other side of the hill, he was a potential enemy tourism came later. Today, with airplanes, things got more complex. One peculiar stereotype regards the Huns, the Hungarians’ ancestors, arriving on horseback and eating the raw meat they tenderized under their saddles. The stereotype is so common that nobody doubts it. Some 30 years ago, The European Council recommended the use of the term Roma instead of Gypsy, perceived as offensive. Romania tried to oppose the initiative for the confusion it generated between Roma and Romanians but with no success, so the confusion deepened. For Romanians, to be taken as Roma is the greatest offence while westerners perceive our desire to make the distinction as already an inappropriate discriminatory attitude.   "R.M.N." brings into question the dilemmas of today’s society, solidarity VS individualism, tolerance VS selfishness, political correctness VS sincerity. It also brings into question this atavistic need to belong, to identify with one’s ethnic group, with one’s tribe, and to naturally regard others, whether of another ethnic group, another religion, another gender, or another social class, with reservations and suspicion. It's a story about old times, perceived as trustworthy, and present times, perceived as chaotic, about the underhandedness and falsity of a European set of values that are claimed more than they're implemented. It’s a story about intolerance and discrimination, about prejudice, stereotypes, authority, and freedom. It's a story about cowardice and courage, about the individual and the masses, about personal versus collective destiny. It's also a story about survival, about poverty, about fear and a grim future. The film speaks about the effects brought by globalization in a small community rooted in secular traditions, values of bygone times have dissipated, but the access people got now to the internet did not bring updated values but rather burdened them with the difficulty of distinguishing the truth and their personal opinions in today’s informational and moral chaos.   "R.M.N." also tackles the side effects of political correctness: people learned that it is better not to speak up if their opinions differ from the norm of the day, but the political correctness is not a formative process, and it didn’t change opinions profoundly, it just makes people express less what they think. But eventually things cumulate and at some point, they spill out. The story itself associates politically incorrect opinions with particular ethnicity or group, since opinions and actions are always individual, they're not dependent on any group identity but on much more complex factors. Beyond social connotations, it speaks about how our beliefs can shape our choices, about our instincts, irrational urges, and fears, about the animals buried inside us, about the ambiguity of our feelings and actions and the impossibility of ever fully understanding them. There are several recurrent images and visual motifs in the film. If you ever have the patience to watch the film twice, you’ll have something more to discover. Shooting one take per scene no matter how long or complex the scene ismis a statement that profoundly shapes the filmmaking style. You need to stage the situation as believable and as truthful as you can and then record this moment. The rhythm is not coming from editing, but it’s internalized. Ellipses take place only between scenes, the situation unfold in real time, nothing is cut off.   Written by Gregory Mann

https://www.curzonartificialeye.com/paris-13th-district/?gclid=CjwKCAjw_tWRBhAwEiwALxFPoXhVyhhQi-CoCtRLbMF8ji70tH4AUA-JSLU0fRbJdInBOohO0VR7RRoCU_sQAvD_BwE "Paris, 13th District" Paris, 13th District today. Émilie Wong (Lucie Zhang) meets Camille Germain (Makita Samba) who's attracted to Nora Ligier (Noémie Merlant), who crosses the path of Amber Sweet (Jehnny Beth). Three girls and a boy redefine what modern love is. "Paris, 13th District" is foremost a film about youth, but they're no longer teenagers. The four main characters are young adults who already have some life experience, and who are going to meet each other and love one another. They all have a social existence; they aren’t hermits. Three of them are in their thirties and have already dealt with difficulties in finding housing and/or a job, are going through professional crises, and are unable to settle down in their sexuality let alone a relationship. They change their lifestyle while they’ve only just become self-sufficient. This is where they're, like the lost souls in Adrian Tomine’s stories. The character Camille, a young high school teacher, is already disillusioned by the school system. Camille is more grounded in life. We see more of his family. Camille teaches literature and is having a professional crisis. In his relationship with others, he's both charming and insufferable. He’s quick-witted but knows it and likes to hear himself talk. He’s interested in women, his love life, and his freedom. But through blindly pursuing these interests, he ends up getting stuck in his own trap. Emilie, a young French-Chinese woman, is torn between her family’s ambitions for her and her freedom as a young woman. She has just graduated from the prestigious Science Po School, but has decided to make a living through menial jobs (operator in a call center, waitress). She's brilliant but wastes a lot of time fighting against her family’s expectations, pettily provoking them. After spending many years studying at university, Emilie has chosen, deliberately it seems, to let herself flounder from one menial job to the next. Nora is 33. She has come to Paris to go back to school after a painful past with her family. She’s escaped from the provinces and her profession as a real estate agent to go back to school at Paris-Tolbiac University. She’s a woman who doesn’t realize she’s beautiful and intelligent. She thinks she’s boring, but in reality she’s just uncomfortable in her skin. Cam girl Amber will for the first time reach out to the other side of the screen. Amber, who's frank, courageous, and world-wise, will teach her what freedom means in every way possible. Nora will be deeply and ultimately changed by her. Amber, who's only seen through computer and telephone screens and who lives far from Paris, is in fact the most influential character in the story. Turning Nora’s life upside down, through a domino effect she also ends up changing the lives of Camille and Emilie. At the very beginning there's Rohmer’s "My Night At Maud’s", and a film about love discourse, or more exactly, when and how does one speak about love today? In "My Night At Maud’s", two men and a woman, but especially a man and a woman, talk all night long. They speak about everything, themselves, naturally, but also God, Blaise Pascal, the falling snow, provincial life, the charm of young Catholic girls, and so on. In the end, while all the signs of a mutual attraction have been shown and acknowledged, while they should fall into each other’s arms and love one another, they don’t. Why? Because everything has been said and the seduction, eroticism, and love have all been channeled through words alone. Following it up would have been superfluous. To begin with, there are Adrian Tomine’s three graphic novels. We like their brevity, their discreet depth, their characters filled with whimsy and melancholy, the skillful use of ellipsis and finally how they consider each human being to be a small unfathomable abyss. In linking comedy with Tomine’s work, we've a fluctuating story mirroring Tomine’s characters. A discreetly constructed film whose heroes, however, would be constantly talking. How would this situation play out today when we're offered just the opposite? What actually happens in our era of Tinder and sleeping together on the first date? Can there be an amorous discourse in these conditions? Yes, of course, how could we possibly doubt that. But at what moment does it come into play? What are the words and the protocols? That's one of the main narrative threads of "Paris, 13th District". The Olympiades is a neighborhood of high-rises in the middle of Paris’ 13th arrondissement between the rue de Tolbiac and Avenue d’Ivry. This neighborhood came to be through a renovation program that took place in the 1970s hence it's highly visible architectural homogeneity. As a tribute to the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, each tower is named after a city that hosted the Olympic Games, Sapporo. The Olympiades is a very original, exotic, lively neighborhood with an impressive social and cultural blend. The film’s characters live there and cross paths there. The term 'Olympiades' also is a reference to athletic feats, and if you've a bit of a dirty mind, it can also refer to the character's sexual achievements. Tomine’s narratives are concise, close to reality, with characters who are lost and on a quest for something they can’t really define. Further, his drawings are very simple and impactful, they don’t distract from the narrative and seem readymade for cinema, almost like a storyboard. And then, a little like Eric Rohmer, Adrian Tomine is a moralist, at the end of these stories, his characters seem to have learned something about life and themselves. But at what moment does this discourse come into play? What are the words and the protocols? That is one of the main narrative threads of "Paris, 13th District". In the end, it could be said that "Paris, 13th District" is in a way like a contemporary period film. And then, naturally, there's the visual reference to Woody Allen’s "Manhattan". Written by Gregory Mann

PADDY CONSIDINE’S JOURNEYMAN – BRAND NEW TRAILER RELEASED IN THE UK ON 16TH FEBRUARY 2018 Paddy Considine’s second feature JOURNEYMAN will be released by STUDIOCANAL on 16th February 2018. Considine not only wrote and directed the film but also stars alongside Jodie Whittaker (Upcoming Doctor Who), Anthony Welsh (My Brother The Devil), Tony Pitts (War Horse) and Paul Popplewell (’71). Many of the supporting cast make their acting debuts and take on roles that closely mirror their actual professions with appearances from boxers, boxing commentators, nurses and occupational therapists. Journeyman was developed and shot in close collaboration with the boxing community and medical profession. The film is produced by Diarmid Scrimshaw (who also worked with Considine on Dog Altogether and Tyrannosaur) and is financed by Film4, the BFI, Screen Yorkshire, and the Wellcome Trust. Journeyman tells the story of middleweight boxing champion Matty Burton (Paddy Considine). After winning a punishing title defense on points, Matty collapses at home. The journey towards regaining his speech, movement and memory will be the toughest fight he’ll ever face, and the prize could not be greater, for his relationship with his wife Emma (Jodie Whittaker) and baby daughter Mia are on the line… Journeyman is a powerful and beautiful story about loss and, ultimately, triumph. It's about our identity, and how in life we sometimes have to dig deep into our soul to discover who we really are.

Watch the official trailer of Carving A Life (drama romance about a 25 year old woodcarving artist who struggles with haunting memories of his past) , and then watch the film on Amazon in the UK at www.Amazon.co.uk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiiAiFG_fdc

An L.A Crime Saga https://youtu.be/NjJwapfiswQ