2017 may have just begun, but it already has its first superlative motion picture release. And no, sadly, it’s not the thirty-seventh (give or take) entry in the Underworld franchise. Instead, it comes from the art film world, and specifically one of world cinema’s most interesting directors working today.
After a little over a decade of finding niche pockets of support in niche pockets of film intellectual circles, 2014 gave director Eugene Green one of his most successful outings. The superlative La Sapienza in many ways introduced the auteur to a much broader selection of cineastes, and with actor Fabrizio Rongione once again by his side Green has made yet another skeletal, beautifully crafted drama.
Entitled The Son Of Joseph, Green’s film riffs on the nativity story, telling the story of a Parisian teen by the name of Vincent (Victor Ezenfis). Living with his single mother Marie, a nurse played by Natacha Regnier,...
After a little over a decade of finding niche pockets of support in niche pockets of film intellectual circles, 2014 gave director Eugene Green one of his most successful outings. The superlative La Sapienza in many ways introduced the auteur to a much broader selection of cineastes, and with actor Fabrizio Rongione once again by his side Green has made yet another skeletal, beautifully crafted drama.
Entitled The Son Of Joseph, Green’s film riffs on the nativity story, telling the story of a Parisian teen by the name of Vincent (Victor Ezenfis). Living with his single mother Marie, a nurse played by Natacha Regnier,...
- 1/15/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
We’re introduced to the protagonist of Son of Joseph as he silently observes the tortured of a trapped rat. Two of his schoolmates jab thin steel pins at the frightened rodent. “Try to poke one of its eyes out” one urges. “I can’t, he’s too clever,” the other replies. Our hero promptly leaves, finding himself to have more in common with the rat than his supposed friends.
If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Eugène Green you have a weird road ahead of you. He’s an American-born French filmmaker with a tendency towards brain numbingly glacial pacing, intentionally monotone performances, compositions static to the point of fossilization and characters who generally end scenes by gazing blankly into the lens. His style is definitely an acquired taste, catering for those with reservoirs of patience and the ability to tolerate some pretty artsy fartsy filmmaking.
Our lonely...
If you’re unfamiliar with the work of Eugène Green you have a weird road ahead of you. He’s an American-born French filmmaker with a tendency towards brain numbingly glacial pacing, intentionally monotone performances, compositions static to the point of fossilization and characters who generally end scenes by gazing blankly into the lens. His style is definitely an acquired taste, catering for those with reservoirs of patience and the ability to tolerate some pretty artsy fartsy filmmaking.
Our lonely...
- 1/12/2017
- by David James
- We Got This Covered
One of the great eccentrics of contemporary film, Eugène Green only began making movies in his mid-50s, after a career as an educator and specialist in baroque theater. Since releasing his debut, Toutes Les Nuits (2001), the writer-director has gone on to create a distinct and unusual body of work, influenced by baroque and medieval forms, fascinated by the power of language, and marked by a droll formalist sensibility and humor that brings to mind Robert Bresson. Green’s latest, The Son Of Joseph, is arguably his most accessible film to date, an offbeat modern-day fable that riffs on Christian imagery and modern life through the story of a sullen French teenager (Victor Ezenfis) who goes in search of his supposed biological father, an insensitive and philandering book publisher (Mathieu Amalric).
An American expat who has been a naturalized French citizen since the 1970s, Green now speaks English with a...
An American expat who has been a naturalized French citizen since the 1970s, Green now speaks English with a...
- 1/12/2017
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
American-born French director Eugène Green is known as a practitioner of the Baroque theater technique, in particular his ability to translate that tradition into cinematic form. If that sounds like a hard sell, you’ve never seen a Eugene Green movie.
Despite their cerebral foundations (long pauses, stilted line reading), Green’s movies are characterized by dry humor and emotion that creeps into richly conceived stories. Using classic art as his backdrop, Green reshapes it into engaging new forms. “The Portuguese Nun” was a humorous look at an attempt to adapt a 17th century novel, and his marvelous “La Sapienza” followed the relatable plight of a modern architect against the backdrop of post-Renaissance architecture. Both movies manage to transform their topics into storytelling devices with unexpected twists.
With “Son of Joseph,” Green uses a 17th century biblical painting by Carvaggio to animate the contemporary tale of an angsty teen searching...
Despite their cerebral foundations (long pauses, stilted line reading), Green’s movies are characterized by dry humor and emotion that creeps into richly conceived stories. Using classic art as his backdrop, Green reshapes it into engaging new forms. “The Portuguese Nun” was a humorous look at an attempt to adapt a 17th century novel, and his marvelous “La Sapienza” followed the relatable plight of a modern architect against the backdrop of post-Renaissance architecture. Both movies manage to transform their topics into storytelling devices with unexpected twists.
With “Son of Joseph,” Green uses a 17th century biblical painting by Carvaggio to animate the contemporary tale of an angsty teen searching...
- 1/9/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The story of a teenager’s quest to find his father is marred by laboured performances
An impossibly mannered performance style, which sees characters declaim their lines flatly, and frequently straight to camera, is a bold directorial decision in the story of Vincent (Victor Ezenfis), a teenager who longs to know his father. Although reminiscent of the line delivery favoured by Yorgos Lanthimos in Dogtooth or Lobster, without the disarming humour of those films the approach just seems arch and rather grating. Biblical symbolism is employed in the chapter headings that divide the story, and in the names – Victor’s saintly single mother is Marie (Natacha Régnier), his surrogate father figure is Joseph (Fabrizio Rongione).
Continue reading...
An impossibly mannered performance style, which sees characters declaim their lines flatly, and frequently straight to camera, is a bold directorial decision in the story of Vincent (Victor Ezenfis), a teenager who longs to know his father. Although reminiscent of the line delivery favoured by Yorgos Lanthimos in Dogtooth or Lobster, without the disarming humour of those films the approach just seems arch and rather grating. Biblical symbolism is employed in the chapter headings that divide the story, and in the names – Victor’s saintly single mother is Marie (Natacha Régnier), his surrogate father figure is Joseph (Fabrizio Rongione).
Continue reading...
- 12/18/2016
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
Eugène Green’s The Portuguese Nun was a gentle comic gem and his new film about a lonely boy is lovable in exactly the same way
Eugène Green is an international treasure: an American-born French film-maker who, like Manoel De Oliveira, absorbs the stylised, rarefied elegance of classical theatre and brings it to movies about the present day. The Portuguese Nun (2009) was a gem of gentle comedy, and his new drama, The Son of Joseph, has the same droll innocence and lovability. With its carefully controlled, decelerated dialogue, it is weirdly moving in just the same way. Again, it has something of Rivette or Rohmer, and like Ozu (or Wes Anderson), he uses that most eccentric technique – direct sightlines into camera.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) is a lonely teenage boy, alienated from his peers. We first see him walking away when a couple of charmless schoolfriends start tormenting a rat in a cage.
Eugène Green is an international treasure: an American-born French film-maker who, like Manoel De Oliveira, absorbs the stylised, rarefied elegance of classical theatre and brings it to movies about the present day. The Portuguese Nun (2009) was a gem of gentle comedy, and his new drama, The Son of Joseph, has the same droll innocence and lovability. With its carefully controlled, decelerated dialogue, it is weirdly moving in just the same way. Again, it has something of Rivette or Rohmer, and like Ozu (or Wes Anderson), he uses that most eccentric technique – direct sightlines into camera.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) is a lonely teenage boy, alienated from his peers. We first see him walking away when a couple of charmless schoolfriends start tormenting a rat in a cage.
- 12/15/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Following up his overlooked La Sapienza, director Eugène Green is back with The Son of Joseph, which after coming to Berlin, Nyff, and more, will arrive in U.S. theaters early next year. Led by Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros, Kino Lorber has released the U.S. trailer for the Dardennes-produced film, which has a distinct sense of humor and energy — seemingly not to far off from Amalric’s recent film My Golden Days.
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled, farcically funny fable of an...
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled, farcically funny fable of an...
- 12/1/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Eugène Green with Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius star Sônia Braga Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, who have their film The Unknown Girl (La Fille Inconnue) screening in this year's New York Film Festival and are the co-producers for Cristian Mungiu's Graduation (Bacalaureat), also co-produced Eugène Green's Son Of Joseph (Le Fils De Joseph) starring Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Maria de Medeiros and Mathieu Amalric.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) Marie (Natacha Regnier) Joseph (Fabrizio Rongione): "I like Balthazar very much, but since my childhood I've always liked donkeys."
Following my conversation with Sônia Braga on her Oscar worthy performance in Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius, we ran into Eugène Green whom I was meeting to discuss his film up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He spoke with me about Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert with Monica Vitti, Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar,...
Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, who have their film The Unknown Girl (La Fille Inconnue) screening in this year's New York Film Festival and are the co-producers for Cristian Mungiu's Graduation (Bacalaureat), also co-produced Eugène Green's Son Of Joseph (Le Fils De Joseph) starring Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Maria de Medeiros and Mathieu Amalric.
Vincent (Victor Ezenfis) Marie (Natacha Regnier) Joseph (Fabrizio Rongione): "I like Balthazar very much, but since my childhood I've always liked donkeys."
Following my conversation with Sônia Braga on her Oscar worthy performance in Kleber Mendonça Filho's Aquarius, we ran into Eugène Green whom I was meeting to discuss his film up at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. He spoke with me about Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert with Monica Vitti, Robert Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar,...
- 10/13/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The 2016 New York Film Festival line-up has arrived, and as usual for the festival, it’s an amazing slate of films. Along with the previously announced The 13th, 20th Century Women, and The Lost City of Z, there’s two of our Sundance favorites, Manchester By the Sea and Certain Women, as well as the top films of Cannes: Elle, Paterson, Personal Shopper, Graduation, Julieta, I, Daniel Blake, Aquarius, Neruda, Sieranevada, Toni Erdmann, and Staying Vertical. As for other highlights, the latest films from Hong Sang-soo, Barry Jenkins, and Matías Piñeiro will also screen.
Check it out below, including our reviews where available.
The 13th (Opening Night, previously announced)
Directed by Ava DuVernay
USA, 2016
World Premiere
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,...
Check it out below, including our reviews where available.
The 13th (Opening Night, previously announced)
Directed by Ava DuVernay
USA, 2016
World Premiere
The title of Ava DuVernay’s extraordinary and galvanizing documentary refers to the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which reads “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,...
- 8/9/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It was only a few days ago when we shared the first images from Le Fils de Joseph, the latest drama Eugène Green, his follow-up to La Sapienza, which was sadly overlooked last year — at least in the United States. Led by Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros, we now have the first trailer for the drama. While it is without any subtitles yet, that isn’t a problem when it comes to witnessing more vibrant cinematography from the director.
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled,...
While at Berlin, Guy Lodge quite liked the film, writing for Variety, “No one behaves quite like a human being in Eugene Green’s “Le Fils de Joseph,” yet a soulful sense of humanity emerges from their heightened declamations anyway. Though it’s still steeped in its maker’s very particular formalities of language and performance, this honey-drizzled,...
- 3/28/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
There are few better ways to predict the Cannes lineup than looking up whatever Wild Bunch are soon putting out. The French production outfit earns as much attention as anyone around mid-May, and there are at least two in-development titles that have caught our attention — though you wouldn’t necessarily expect that they have the same people working behind the scenes.
They are The Red Turtle, a co-production with Studio Ghibli directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, and Blood Father, a thriller directed by Jean-François Richet that stars Mel Gibson, William H. Macy, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, and Erin Moriarty (The Kings of Summer, Jessica Jones), among others. Then there’s Le Fils de Joseph, from Eugène Green — whose La Sapienza was one of my ten favorite movies from last year — and starring Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros...
They are The Red Turtle, a co-production with Studio Ghibli directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit, and Blood Father, a thriller directed by Jean-François Richet that stars Mel Gibson, William H. Macy, Diego Luna, Michael Parks, and Erin Moriarty (The Kings of Summer, Jessica Jones), among others. Then there’s Le Fils de Joseph, from Eugène Green — whose La Sapienza was one of my ten favorite movies from last year — and starring Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione (La Sapienza; Two Days, One Night), Natacha Régnier, Victor Ezenfis, and Maria de Medeiros...
- 3/22/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
★★★★★ Eugène Green's first feature produced with the Dardenne brothers, Le Fils de Joseph could easily be interpreted as a contemporary riff on The Nativity. Divided into five parts, each relating to a passage in The Bible, Le Fils de Joseph follows Vincent (Victor Ezenfis), a young boy who's been lovingly raised by his single mother Marie (Natacha Régnier) yet remains determined to uncover the identity of his absent father. There's an alluring alchemy to the films of French formalist Green, his rigorous adhesion to the conventions of the Baroque theatre somehow combining weighty philosophical ideas with sardonic wit and anchoring it all to serious themes like depression and isolation.
- 2/17/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
In today's Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Eugène Green's Le Fils de Joseph with Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Mathieu Amalric and Maria de Medeiros; Wang Bing's Ta'ang, a documentary on refugees crossing the border from Myanmar into China; Yang Chao's years-in-the-making Crosscurrent with Qin Hao, Xin Zhi Lei, Wu Lipeng, Wang Hongwei and Jiang Hualin; and Rafi Pitts's Soy Nero with Johnny Ortiz, Rory Cochrane, Aml Ameen, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Michael Harney. » - David Hudson...
- 2/16/2016
- Keyframe
In today's Berlinale Diary entry, I offer first impressions of Eugène Green's Le Fils de Joseph with Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier, Fabrizio Rongione, Mathieu Amalric and Maria de Medeiros; Wang Bing's Ta'ang, a documentary on refugees crossing the border from Myanmar into China; Yang Chao's years-in-the-making Crosscurrent with Qin Hao, Xin Zhi Lei, Wu Lipeng, Wang Hongwei and Jiang Hualin; and Rafi Pitts's Soy Nero with Johnny Ortiz, Rory Cochrane, Aml Ameen, Darrell Britt-Gibson and Michael Harney. » - David Hudson...
- 2/16/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Director: Eugène Green
Writer: Eugène Green
American born French director Eugène Green usually premieres his films at Locarno, though despite critical acclaim many fail to get considerable attention in the Us (of note, his last film 2014’s La Sapienza, also starring Belgian Fabrizio Rongione, was distributed by Kino Lorber). His latest film, Le fils de Joseph (Joseph’s Son), is described by the director as having allusions to the Bible whilst meanwhile being a topical narrative wrapped up in elements of film noir. And it boasts an incredibly prolific cast. The story revolves around a young man (Ezenfis) who lives with his mother (Régnier). Having never known his father, he heads off to look for him. He finds a cynical and Machiavellian man (Amalric) who works as a publisher in Paris. After he attempts to kill him, he will then find filial love thanks to his uncle (Rongione).
Cast: Mathieu Amalric,...
Writer: Eugène Green
American born French director Eugène Green usually premieres his films at Locarno, though despite critical acclaim many fail to get considerable attention in the Us (of note, his last film 2014’s La Sapienza, also starring Belgian Fabrizio Rongione, was distributed by Kino Lorber). His latest film, Le fils de Joseph (Joseph’s Son), is described by the director as having allusions to the Bible whilst meanwhile being a topical narrative wrapped up in elements of film noir. And it boasts an incredibly prolific cast. The story revolves around a young man (Ezenfis) who lives with his mother (Régnier). Having never known his father, he heads off to look for him. He finds a cynical and Machiavellian man (Amalric) who works as a publisher in Paris. After he attempts to kill him, he will then find filial love thanks to his uncle (Rongione).
Cast: Mathieu Amalric,...
- 1/5/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In today's roundup of news and views: A rare video interview with Anthony Mann, the return of a distinguished film journal, a clip from an erotic movie edited by Orson Welles, words of grizzled wisdom from John Waters, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raúl Ruiz, the guy who is definitely not Thomas Pynchon in Inherent Vice, Quentin Tarantino's ambitious plans for the release of The Hateful Eight—and Eugène Green is now shooting Le fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione, Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier and Dominique Blanc. » - David Hudson...
- 6/8/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: A rare video interview with Anthony Mann, the return of a distinguished film journal, a clip from an erotic movie edited by Orson Welles, words of grizzled wisdom from John Waters, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raúl Ruiz, the guy who is definitely not Thomas Pynchon in Inherent Vice, Quentin Tarantino's ambitious plans for the release of The Hateful Eight—and Eugène Green is now shooting Le fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione, Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier and Dominique Blanc. » - David Hudson...
- 6/8/2015
- Keyframe
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