Liz Braun – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

THE DISAPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE – Review by Liz Braun

November 11, 2023 Liz Braun Dakota Johnson, documentary, nicole newnham, sexual revolution, Shere Hite, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, The Hite Report

Honest, intimate and immediately controversial, the best-seller from feminist Shere Hite challenged the accepted wisdom about female sexuality; using thousands of questionnaires for her research, Hite wrote about women and orgasm, masturbation and innumerable other things that were not talked about at the time. The Hite Report sold 20 million copies and was translated into 19 languages, but was also considered dangerous in some quarters; the notion that female orgasm was possible without any help from a penis was a particular hurdle for about 50 percent of the population.

SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT November 2023: Samy Burch, Screenwriter, MAY DECEMBER

October 30, 2023November 9, 2023 Liz Braun alex mechanik, casting director, May December, samy burch, screenwwriter, spotlight, Todd Haynes

One of the most serendipitous pairings in the film world this year is screenwriter Samy Burch and director Todd Haynes. If you’re thinking “Samy who?,” you’re not alone — Burch is best-known as a casting director, and she appears to have come out of nowhere with the superb screenplay for May December, the new Todd Haynes movie starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. In fact, Burch is also a writer/director. The May December story was co-written by Burch and Alex Mechanik, a fellow filmmaker who happens to be her husband.

Reviews

NO ACCIDENT – Review by Liz Braun

October 6, 2023October 7, 2023 Liz Braun 2017, Charlottesville, Christopher Cantwell, civil lawsuit, HBO documentary, Karen Dunn, Kristi Jacobson, Matthew Heimback, No Accident, Richard Spencer, Roberta Kaplan, Unite the Right

No Accident is a shocking film. The HBO documentary from director Kristi Jacobson examines the legal aftermath of the 2017 white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one woman died and dozens were injured. Domestic terrorism and right wing extremism are on the rise. No Accident should be shown in schools — children need to see what it means to stand up to hate.

SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT October 2023: Sandra Huller, Actress of the Year

October 1, 2023September 30, 2023 Liz Braun afternoon of a fall, basel theater, cannes, Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts, Sandra Hüller, Sisi & I, The Zone of Interest, TIFF, Toni Erdmann

In a bit of casting kismet, two of the biggest films this year star the same actor: Sandra Huller. Huller was dubbed the “Queen of Cannes” last May after director Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest took both the runner-up Grand Prize of the Festival and the FIPRESCI honors. Huller, 45, stars in the courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall as a woman on trial for her husband’s murder. The film is a carefully structured moral conundrum about truth and perception, and all of it hinges on Huller’s performance . In The Zone of Interest, a Holocaust film unlike any other, she plays Hedwig Hoss, a homemaker enjoying the upward mobility that comes with being the wife of the Commandant of Auschwitz. What Huller does here is understated and difficult to describe, but the specificity in her work is such that you will swear you know what the character smells like.

Festivals Reviews

NORTH STAR (TIFF 2023) – Review by Liz Braun

September 20, 2023September 20, 2023 Liz Braun emily beecham, John Micklethwait, kristin scott thomas, North Star, scarlett johansson, sienna miller, TIFF 2023

Dame Kristin Scott Thomas makes her feature directorial debut with North Star, a family tale about love and loss with a great cast. A lesser cast and better writing would have improved matters, but never mind. The plot revolves around the reunion of three sisters who are gathering at the family home for their mother’s third marriage. Mom (Scott Thomas) has been twice married and twice widowed, a detail from Scott Thomas’ own life. As a child, the filmmaker lost her father and her stepfather — both armed forces pilots — within six years.

Festivals Reviews

RU (TIFF 2023) – Review by Liz Braun

September 19, 2023September 19, 2023 Liz Braun canadian films., Charles-Olivier Michaud, Chloe Djandji, Jacques Davidts, Jean-Francois Lord, Kim Thuy, Ru, TIFF 2023, vietnam refugee

Kim Thuy came to Canada as one of the million “boat people” fleeing Vietnam in the late 1970s after Communist victory in the war. Thuy wrote of her experiences in Ru, a 2009 bestselling memoir that was eventually translated into 30 languages and won her a slew of awards all over the world. One person who championed the book was TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, who represented the book at the 2015 edition of Canada Reads, an annual battle-of-the books event broadcast nationally by the country’s public broadcaster, the CBC. It seems fitting that the superb film version of Ru had its world premiere at TIFF 2023.

Festivals Interviews

Kim Thuy on RU (TIFF 2023) – Liz Braun interviews

September 19, 2023September 19, 2023 Liz Braun canadian films., Charles-Olivier Michaud, Chloe Djandji, Jacques Davidts, Jean-Francois Lord, Kim Thuy, Ru, TIFF 2023, vietnam refugee

Award-winning Canadian author Kim Thuy recently had the experience of seeing her best-selling novel, Ru, transformed into a film of the same name. She watched along with TIFF audiences who were present at the world premiere. Ru is Thuy’s own story about coming to Canada in childhood as one of the “boat people” who fled Vietnam in the ‘70s after the fall of Saigon. The vignettes and closely observed moments in her memoir are captured and woven together into a beautiful film from director/writer Charles-Olivier Michaud, co-writer Jacques Davidts and cinematographer Jean-Francois Lord.

Festivals Interviews

KITTY GREEN on THE ROYAL HOTEL (TIFF 2023) – Liz Braun interviews

September 18, 2023September 22, 2023 Liz Braun australian films, Hotel Coolgardie, Jessica Henwick, julia garner, kitty green, Michael Latham, Oscar Redding, The Royal Hotel, TIFF 2023

Australian filmmaker Kitty Green delves into the war between men and women in The Royal Hotel, a film about two young backpackers who take barmaid jobs in a mining area in Australia’s isolated outback. How they fare in an environment drenched in testosterone and alcohol is an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller about gender dynamics. Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick star in The Royal Hotel as the tourists who take pub jobs to top up their holiday fund. The Royal Hotel is about systemic issues, says Green, “about drinking culture and women feeling threatened in certain spaces.

Festivals Interviews

Justine Triet on ANATOMY OF A FALL (TIFF 2023) – Liz Braun Interviews

September 18, 2023October 8, 2023 Liz Braun Anatomy of a Fall, Arthur Harari, Justin Triet, Samuel Theis, Sandra Hüller, TIFF 2023

Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall is a riveting courtroom drama about guilt and innocence and what’s involved in trying to get at the truth. It’s a decidedly feminist film, and the beauty of its construction is an exquisite ambiguity that never falters. Triet said that viewers of the movie draw their own conclusion as to whether Huller’s character is guilty or innocent.

Festivals Interviews

Monia Chokri and Magalie Lepine Blondeau on The Nature of Love (TIFF 2023) – Liz Braun interviews

September 18, 2023September 20, 2023 Liz Braun Magalie Lépine Blondeau, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Simple comme Sylvain, the nature of love, TIFF 2023

Writer/director Monia Chokri and her lead actress Magalie Lepine Blondeau, speak about wanting The Nature of Love to help debunk all the fantasies about love and romance women are fed from childhood. There are a half-dozen sex scenes in The Nature of Love, “And each has to be different. I wanted to make it like an action scene,” said Chokri. “It has to be something to push the narrative. if there’s only the intention of sex, it’s not interesting to me.”

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