On Saturday evening, the Berlin Film Festival awarded the Jury Grand Prize to French director François Ozon’s film “Grace to God” on pedophile scandals in the Catholic Church. The Grand Prix is the second major award of the Berlinale after the Golden Bear. This prize was awarded before a court decision Monday on a possible postponement of the release of the film in France.François Ozon shares the prize with his heroes
“This film tries to break the silence of powerful institutions” on these cases of sexual abuse of children, said François Ozon receiving his reward. “I want to share this award with the free men who inspired me” who “were victims of a pedophile priest,” he added, moved. “Alexandre, François and Pierre-Emmanuel, you are my heroes,” greeted the 51-year-old French director.
“Thanks to God” tells the birth of the association of victims The liberated Word, founded in Lyon in 2015 by former scouts abused by a pedophile priest, Bernard Preynat. In total, the association lists nearly 85 victims of this priest. The film follows three victims, incarnated on the screen by the actors Melvil Poupaud, Denis Ménochet and Swann Arlaud.
The subject is in full relevance in France, while held in early January in Lyon the trial of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon, and five other people for not denouncing pedophile sexual assault in this case, so-called Barbarin case . The judgment is expected on March 7th. Charged with sexual assault since January 2016, Father Preynat could be tried this year.
Track List 01 Je m’en Vais 02 Malamore 03 Istanbul Is Sleeping 04 Shadow People 05 Dreams (L’épée Cover) 06 Last Picture Show (L’épée Cover) 07 Garden of Love 08 Cold Was the Ground 09 (New Song) 10 Salvation 11 I’m Dead 12 Dimanche 13 The Gift 14 Funeral Baby 15 Crank (Beach Bitches Cover) 16 One of Us, One of Us, One of Us 17 Mother Sky (Can Cover) 18 Betty & Johnny 19 Gloria 20 The Train Creep A-Loopin
At the Berlin Film Festival where she presented her documentary “Varda by Agnès”, New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda said she was “slowing down” and “getting ready to say goodbye”. She announced that she would no longer lecture or interview one-on-one.
“I should stop talking about myself, and here I am, I have to prepare to say goodbye, to leave,” said Agnès Varda, at a press conference. “It’s just a matter of slowing down to find the necessary peace,” added the French filmmaker, who was asked if she was saying goodbye to the film.
A movie to say goodbye
His documentary “Varda by Agnès”, is in two parts in the form of a movie lesson. Agnès Varda looks back on her career of more than 60 years. It will be broadcast on March 18th on the television channel Arte in France. She talks about his inspirations and his work, the 20 thcentury in the first pane and from the 2000s in the second period it was more focused on the documentary and visual arts.
Image from the movie “Varda by Agnes” presented at the Berlin Film Festival 2019.
“I’ve done a lot of lectures everywhere, at universities, film schools, all kinds of places, festivals, even small film clubs, and I thought I should do a movie now that’s like a conference, “she explained. This film is “a way to say goodbye, because I do not want to talk about my films anymore”, added the director, stating that “now, she would not accept to lecture anymore” or “to give interviews in head-to-head”.
“Women have conquered the field of cinema”
Agnès Varda, a pioneer woman for her time, returned to her directorial debut in 1954 with her first feature film “La Pointe courte”. “There were very few women directors,” she said. But “when I made this film, what interested me was not to say ‘I’m a female director’, it was to make a radical film,” she said. “Today, it is very important that women not only be directors, but cheffers operators, mixers, sound engineers, editors … Women have gradually conquered the field of cinema”, s’ she is congratulated.
The director of “Cléo de 5 à 7”, who led with actress Cate Blanchett a women’s march for equality at the last Cannes Film Festival, estimated however “half happy” with this operation, that she found “a little too chic cinema”. “It was beautiful women on beautiful stairs with beautiful dresses,” she said. “And it’s less effective sometimes than walking in the street or meeting.”
The new French scene has its roots in various Anglo-Saxon musical influences, be it rock, pop, rap. More and more, there are new artists who bring a folk color to their songs, as in their time Hugues Aufray, Graeme Allwright, Malicorne or Francis Cabrel. Overview of their heirs.
1 Leila and The Koalas – “In the mountains”
Originally from Rennes, the trio Leïla and The Koalas mix Irish and French influences . The texts in both English and French are carried by typically folk and bluegrass arrangements (acoustic guitar, banjo and bass) inspired by the singer’s travels across the Atlantic. The themes are profoundly human, like this hymn to tolerance: “What I am”
And the voices harmonize beautifully, as for example on the sublime ” Everything ” or ” My Pa”. The last album “In the Mountains” was released in 2018 at “Allez là! Productions”. The group is currently on tour , and will come out of our borders to visit Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands.
Pas De Merde 