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‘once in a lifetime’ (‘les heritiers’): film review.

French students confront the Holocaust in Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar's docudrama

By Jordan Mintzer

Jordan Mintzer

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Once in a Lifetime Still - H 2014

A Stand and Deliver -style inspirational drama where students from the rough Paris suburbs find their lives upended by memories of the Holocaust, Once in a Lifetime ( Les Heritiers ) is a well-intentioned, occasionally moving but far too loosely helmed effort from French producer-director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar ( Bowling ). Based on a true story, the film features a few undeniably powerful moments – particularly when an Auschwitz survivor tells his tale to a classroom – yet never develops into a veritable narrative, with direction that lacks any real sense of vision.

Released fairly wide at home, Lifetime could score box office points for its timeliness , including scenes of young French Muslims coming face to face with the atrocities of WWII. But its failure to build a sustainable dramatic arc will hinder appeal overseas, where the movie might attract some attention at Jewish and Francophone festivals.

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Set at the Lycee Leon Blum in the working-class banlieue of Creteil, the script – co-written by 21-year-old Adhmed Drame , who also plays one of the lead roles – was inspired by Anne Angles , a motivational history teacher who forced her unruly class of juniors to participate in the annual Concours national de la Resistance et de la Deportation ( National Contest of Resistance and Deportation ). Required to hand in a creative project on the theme of “Children and Teenagers under the Nazi Regime,” the group of mixed students – many of Islamic faith – gradually learned to overcome their prejudices, banding together in the name of tolerance and remembrance.

That’s pretty much how things play out in Mention-Schaar’s unfocused and anticlimactic recreation, which often takes the guise of a TV docudrama, making one wish that a camera crew had been recording things as they actually happened in the past. Instead, the filmmakers give us lots of shapeless sequences meant to convey the kind of fly-on-the-wall realism found in Laurent Cantet ’s The Class , with a cast of rowdy but likeable pupils – headed by the charming Malik (Drame) and the volatile Melanie ( Noemie Merlant ) – curbing their anti-Semitism at the hands of their dedicated professor (played by Robert Guediguian regular Ariane Ascaride ).

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Subplots involving puppy loves, schoolyard grudges, Jewish neighbors and a recent Muslim convert ( Mohamed Seddiki ) are tossed into the mix but never fully developed, even if the performances tend to be convincing all around. But Mention-Schaar and regular DP Myriam Vinocour rely way too much on multiple cameras and handheld coverage to capture events, resulting in a movie that never displays a true point of view as it tries to tackles themes that merit more substantial treatment.

Needless to say, there are two sequences that make Lifetime memorable, and will surely get the waterworks flowing among audience members. The first involves a visit to Paris’ Shoah Memorial, where the class studies evidence of the Nazi genocide, including photos of French children deported to the concentration camps. The second features survivor Leon Zyguel , who movingly speaks about the ordeals he faced as a 15-year-old deportee to Auschwitz. It’s a scene that’s rendered simply and effectively, with the director cutting between Zyguel’s monologue and the teary reactions of the students, revealing how the Holocaust still resonates on faces far removed from its horrors.

Production companies: Loma Nasha Films, Vendredi Film, TF1 Droits Audiovisuels, UGC, France 2 Cinema, Orange Studio Cast: Ariane Ascaride, Ahmed Drame, Noemie Merlant, Genevieve Mnich, Stephane Bak Director: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar Screenwriter: Ahmed Drame, Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar Producer: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar, Pierre Kubel Executive producer: Pascal Ralite Director of photography: Myriam Vinocour Production designer: Anne-Charlotte Vimont Costume designer: Isabelle Mathieu Editor: Benoit Quinon Casting directors: Marie-France Michel, Christophe Istier Sales: TF1 International

No rating, 105 minutes

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Once in a Lifetime

Time Out says

Why this documentary on the Cosmos, New York’s glamorous but short-lived (1971--1985) soccer team, is getting a theatrical release is puzzling. Alternating talking-head testimonies and vintage footage of skinny men in short shorts, and backed by wall-to-wall 1970s tunes, the colorful but flimsy Once in a Lifetime comes across like a VH1 foray into the wide world of sports.

Directors Paul Crowder and John Dower describe the Cosmos as the folly of music execs Nesuhi and Ahmet Ertegun (who had more luck running Atlantic Records) and deep-pocketed Warner Communications CEO Steve Ross. But few remember them as soccer visionaries now, because the squad was identified primarily with one man: Pel.

Alas, Pel declined to be interviewed, leaving a void that’s almost filled by Giorgio Chinaglia, a controversial, flamboyant Italian striker who constantly tried to upstage his Brazilian teammate and whose company ran the Cosmos after Warner pulled out. Chinaglia now looks vaguely like Tony Soprano and is portrayed by Crowder and Dower as a Machiavellian don, one of the many cheesy touches that dot the movie; slo-mo Pel goals are set to opera, The Ride of the Valkyries booms when German sweeper Franz “Der Kaiser” Beckenbauer is introduced. The Cosmos may have been hugely successful for a few years, but this doc’s skin-deep approach unwittingly illustrates soccer’s continuing struggle in the U.S. (Opens Fri; Angelika.) — Elisabeth Vincentelli

Release Details

• Duration: 105 mins

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Once In A Lifetime Review

19 May 2006

NaN minutes

Once In A Lifetime

In footballing parlance, if a manager is shorn of his two most significant stars and still conjures an awesome performance, he’s acknowledged as having “done well” (sorry, “done good”). Here, helmers Crowder and Dower have exceeded such perfunctory plaudits. They have, in fact, “done well good”, constructing a fascinating film that focuses on Steve Ross’ soccer obsession, and his achievement in bringing the world’s most famous player to a nation that thinks football is something akin to armoured rugby, all without securing contributions from the two main protagonists.

Deprived of Ross by the Reaper and of Pelé by his contribution to another film, the directors have proven tireless in their quest for primary sources, twisting and turning their interviewees to create a remarkably candid documentary.

This really is a film of two halves, the first kicking off with an exploration of why the game has failed to take root in the US before delving into the humble origins of the North American Soccer League — the scenes punctured by snazzy ’70s graphics — while the second concentrates more on the personalities involved in its major franchise. The tone is uneven, but the juicy gossip and rambunctious behaviour ensure this, unlike many actual games, holds the audience for the full 90 minutes.

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Once in a lifetime, les héritiers.

Directed by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar

Based on a true story. In Léon Blum high school in Créteil (France), a history teacher decides to have her weakest 10th grade class take a national history competition. This will change them.

Ariane Ascaride Ahmed Dramé Noémie Merlant Geneviève Mnich Stéphane Bak Wendy Nieto Aïmen Derriachi Mohamed Seddiki Adrien Hurdubae Alicia Dadoun Naomi Amarger Amine Lansari Thomas Bénéteau Xavier Maly Léon Zyguel Lionel Cecilio Khadim Sylla Clara Choï Yume Nanbu Abdel-Akim Mebtouche Gabriel Beaudet Gladys Cohen Samia Sassi Jassem Mougari Christian Drillaud Simone Veil Rachid Moura

Director Director

Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar

Producers Producers

Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar Pierre Kubel

Writers Writers

Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar Ahmed Dramé

Casting Casting

Christophe Istier Marie-France Michel

Editor Editor

Benoît Quinon

Cinematography Cinematography

Myriam Vinocour

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Christian Sonderegger Zazie Carcedo

Production Design Production Design

Anne-Charlotte Vimont

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Stéphane Bidault

Composer Composer

Ludovico Einaudi

Sound Sound

Dominique Levert Élisabeth Paquotte Christophe Vingtrinier

Costume Design Costume Design

Isabelle Mathieu

Makeup Makeup

Valérie Théry-Hamel

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

French Italian

Releases by Date

07 oct 2014, 13 apr 2015, 26 sep 2015, 17 jun 2016, 03 dec 2014, 07 jan 2015, 09 apr 2015, 30 apr 2015, 15 may 2015, 18 jun 2015, 05 nov 2015, 06 nov 2015, 27 jan 2016, 31 mar 2016, 06 aug 2016, 22 sep 2016, 21 oct 2016, 11 may 2017, 01 apr 2015, 05 jan 2017, 31 jul 2021, releases by country.

• Premiere Festival du Film Francophone de Namur
• Digital VOD
• Physical DVD & Blu-Ray
• Premiere Cologne Conference - International Film and TV Festival
• Theatrical 6
• Theatrical Κ
• Physical DVD
• Theatrical 16
• Premiere G Festival du Film Français au Japon

Netherlands

• TV RTP 2

Switzerland

• Theatrical 8
• Premiere Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival

105 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Sarah ★★

Noémie Merlant playing a teenager here is the new Florence Pugh as 12 year old Amy March

Review by 🎬_Pim_🎬 ★★

Watched this with my French-class at a cinema, and I really didn’t like it. Just a boring movie where not much interesting happens tbh. It wasn’t unique whatsoever and just nothing special. Happy that it ended. It’s not a bad film but I just really did NOT enjoy it. Not gonna write a full review either. 38/100 First-time watches 2024 ranked HERE>>

Review by esthershawty ★★★½

pk vous detestez ce film ? c est un film sans pretention emouvant avec des petits humains je comprends pas pk vous etes aigris a dire qu on s ennuie la verite vous avez rien compris

Review by Javi Blanco ★★★½

Esta realmente bien la crítica al racismo estructural por parte de Francia y muchos de sus conciudadanos; no obstante, a lo largo del filme tienden a olvidarse de realizar una más amplia contextualización de los personajes en su más íntimo ambiente. La banda sonora no está muy bien pensada, además.

Aun así, en general, resulta un guión muy emotivo que, sin pretender ser nada del otro mundo, llega al corazón.

Review by lilieslou ★★★½

i’m just a sucker for movies about the power of education and the bond between a group of misfits and their role model teacher

Review by eman ★★★★

maybe I cried

Review by Maud 🎧 ★★★

Version française de écrire pour exister

Review by maneleeo ★★½

A sweet film about taking chances on those who apparently didn't deserve them. As violence and disrespect flew over their minds, but one professor decides to challenge them and show them they can be better. Something very french, that doesn't always seem like it was fully developed.

Review by Ken Rudolph ★★★★½

[Watched at a film festival under the unimaginative title of "Once in a Lifetime."]

Mme Gueguen is a high school history teacher faced with an unruly class of misfits in contemporary urban France. To try to involve her underachievers, she invites the class to participate in a national scholastic contest about children caught up in the Holocaust. Most of her classroom had never even heard of the Holocaust, initially regarding "genocide" as what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians today. But in this based on a true story film, the teacher (a magnificent performance by Ariane Ascaride) managed to reach these kids.

This emotionally devastating and heartening film joins a handful of other films about a great teacher making…

Review by pacomcaballero ★★★½ 4

Otra historia de docencia, esta vez basada en hechos reales. Lo realmente interesante y emocionante es el tema abordado sobre el Holocausto, el resto un poco más banal.

Review by Manon୨୧⋆˚. ★★★★★

première fois que j’ai pas chialé en le re-regardant, et pourtant, c’était pas gagné. Il est toujours merveilleux cependant.<3

Review by footderue ★★★

je pensais que ça serait une reprise française nul comme dhab mais non c'était hyper intéressant

Enfaîte je réitère, javais le nez bouché et peu trop bu, ça ma troublé. C'était pas nul nul mais jai menti c'était pas super intéressant🤭 Pardonnez moi population, je ne suis que votre petit frère après tout.

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Once in a Lifetime review – Harry Enfield is a legit hit in Hollywood satire

Young Vic, London Playing a studio mogul at the dawn of the talkies, Enfield makes an assured theatre debut but this production puts visual bravura before verbal precision

H arry Enfield, as we know from the word-mangling Stavros and the cash-flashing Loadsamoney , has the capacity to create characters who stamp themselves on the national consciousness. Making his theatrical debut as the studio boss in Once in a Lifetime, Moss Hart and George S Kaufman’s 1930 satire on Hollywood, he proves he can also go the distance. Where David Suchet in the 1979 and 2005 revivals played Herman Glogauer as an avuncular monster, Enfield gives us a shuffling oldster who knows that his power lies in his position. His performance is one of the brighter features in a production by Richard Jones that puts visual bravura before verbal precision.

I still have a soft spot for the play. Long before Singin’ in the Rain , it pinned down the frantic absurdity of a movie industry coping with the coming of talkies. Its three main characters are, in fact, a small-time vaudeville act who head west to set up an elocution school to teach stars of the silents how to speak. The basic joke is that George, the slow-witted straight man, comes out on top by parroting Variety-speak or by blurting out uncomfortable truths. In the topsy turvy world of Hollywood, suggest Hart and Kaufman, what counts is survival of the dumbest.

The play is clearly Broadway’s revenge on its upstart rival, but the delight lies in the detail. Glogauer, justifying a hasty decision, proclaims: “That’s the way we do things here – no time spent on thinking.” An ignored scriptwriter announces that he is “one of a shipment of 16 playwrights” transported from New York. But it is typical of Jones’s production that a joke about the incarcerated dramatists is sacrificed to a visual gag showing two women wedged in a doorway. Even the trials of the despairing writer are upstaged by a running gag about a bungling receptionist who mistakes a stapler for a telephone and dips her pen in a cream puff. Hyemi Shin’s design, whisking us through editing suites and viewing theatres, also distracts us from the fact that this is a verbal comedy.

Some of the performances hit the right note. Enfield, wistfully recalling the time when “even if you turned out a good picture, you made money”, reminds us that a rapidly changing industry was in the hands of old men. John Marquez as George has the right mooncalf innocence and helpless infatuation with a talentless ingenue.

Claudie Blakley also lends his old vaudeville partner, May, the laconic style of a lady who instinctively cracks wise: when George announces that he won’t marry his adored Susan until she’s carved out a career, Blakley wanly observes: “That’s all right, then.” But too many of the minor characters are treated as Gogolian grotesques, reminding us of Jones’s production of The Government Inspector . Lucy Cohu, a good actor, is so busy uttering sidelong remarks as a star-columnist that she is often incomprehensible. Amanda Lawrence is also encouraged to do too much funny business as the nerve-racked receptionist. At one point, Enfield’s harassed Glogauer says that he can’t go anywhere in the studio because “everyone tries to act at me”. Watching Jones’s over-busy production, I began to understand how he felt.

• At the Young Vic , London, until 14 January. Box office: 020-7922 2922.
• Harry Enfield

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Once in a Lifetime

A feel-good movie about a woman who gets her shot at 15 minutes of fame, and in the process learns some lessons about life, "Once in a Lifetime" has all the right elements to make it a box office success in Scandinavia. But its future in other countries is less predictable because much of its appeal hangs on local angles.

By Gunnar Rehlin

Gunnar Rehlin

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A feel-good movie about a woman who gets her shot at 15 minutes of fame, and in the process learns some lessons about life, “Once in a Lifetime” has all the right elements to make it a box office success in Scandinavia. But its future in other countries is less predictable because much of its appeal hangs on local angles.

Main character is Mona (Helena Bergstrom), a personal assistant to wheelchair-bound David (Jonas Karlsson), who suffers from cerebral palsy. Mona’s husband, Bosse (Thomas Hanzon), is unemployed and spends most of his time at home; her brother (Bjorn Kjellman) is a transvestite, who calls himself Candy Darling and has AIDS.

Mona is obsessed with pop music and has named her four daughters after the Swedish singers Carola, Lena Ph, Kicki and Anna Book. At night, she sits alone in the kitchen, writing lyrics for imaginary songs. David, who spends a lot of his time composing music with the help of a computer, lets Mona hear a tune he’s written. Although David forbids her to use the tune, Mona steals the disc and puts on a performance at home, matching her lyrics to David’s tune. Secretly, Bosse mails a tape of her performance to the jury selecting songs for Sweden’s entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Popular on Variety

In Scandinavia, and especially in Sweden, the Eurovision Song Contest is immensely popular, attracting huge TV ratings. (This year, close to half of Sweden’s population watched the finale.) So, for local audiences, pic deals with a phenomenon that is entirely believable: Participants become instant celebrities and are often forgotten a year later, when new hopefuls arrive.

The collaboration between Swedish scripter Jonas Gardell and Danish helmer Susanne Bier, who works in both Denmark (“The One and Only”) and Sweden, is fruitful. Gardell has a sharp pen, and Bier carefully nurtures the comedic and dramatic sides of the story. Visually, the movie jumps back and forth between two extremes: The Stockholm suburb where Mona lives is depicted realistically, whereas everything in Candy Darling’s world is brightly colored.

Most of the local in-jokes, like the names of Mona’s kids and the appearance of real-life Swedish celebs playing themselves, will be lost on non-Scandi auds. But the theme of the story is universal, and, as always in Bier’s films, performances are excellent. Bergstrom once again proves she can be good beyond the pics of her director husband, Colin Nutley. Karlsson gives depth and dignity to David, Hanzon is fine as Mona’s common husband, and Kjellman avoids tipping his character into parody. Tech credits are fine. And the song is truly catchy.

Denmark-Sweden

• Production: A Sonet Film release (in Sweden) of a Nordisk Film Production (Denmark)/SVT Drama (Sweden) production, in association with Sonet Film and TV2 Denmark. (International sales: Trust Film Sales, Denmark.) Produced by Thomas Heinesen. Directed by Susanne Bier.
• Crew: Screenplay, Jonas Gardell. Camera (color), Morten Soborg; editors, Pernille Bech Christensen, Mogens H. Christiansen; music, Jesper Winge Leisner; art director, Gert Wibe; costume designer, Kajsa Hede; sound (Dolby), Bo Persson, Per Streit Jensen. Reviewed at Rigoletto, Stockholm, Oct. 27, 2000. Running time: 108 MIN.
• With: Mona - Helena Bergstrom David - Jonas Karlsson Bosse - Thomas Hanzon Candy Darling - Bjorn Kjellman Producer - Johan Ulveson Studio Hostess - Katarina Ewerlof Sabine - Regina Lund TV Host - Lasse Kroner With: Goran Forsmark, Lisa Olsen, Jessica Andersson, Amanda Rasmuson, Sandra Kassman. (Swedish dialogue)

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Once In A Lifetime review

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New York in the sweltering summer of 1977. Serial killer "Son of Sam" is on the loose, widespread looting and violence follow a blackout... And the likes of Henry Kissinger and Mick Jagger join crowds of over 70,000 at the Giants Stadium to watch the New York Cosmos, a soccer team whose legendary line-up included Pelé, Franz Beckenbauer and Carlos Alberto.

Co-directed by Brits Paul Crowder and John Dower, this absorbing doc charts the swift rise and fall of a club purchased by media titan Steve Ross, head of Warner Communications, who aspired to turn soccer into a major American sport. Alongside archive footie footage and a vintage soundtrack, the filmmakers make intelligent use of lively interviews with former Cosmos personnel to vividly capture that brief era when, finally, the US 'got' soccer. And its sex, excesses and ludicrous perms.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

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Once in a Lifetime

Millions adored Daphne Fields, for she shared their passion, their pain, their joy, and their sorrow. America's most popular novelist remained a closed book. She hides many secrets. The husb... Read all Millions adored Daphne Fields, for she shared their passion, their pain, their joy, and their sorrow. America's most popular novelist remained a closed book. She hides many secrets. The husband and daughter she lost in a fire. The son who barely survived it and would be deaf fore... Read all Millions adored Daphne Fields, for she shared their passion, their pain, their joy, and their sorrow. America's most popular novelist remained a closed book. She hides many secrets. The husband and daughter she lost in a fire. The son who barely survived it and would be deaf forever. The victories, the defeats, the challenges of facing life as a woman alone and helpin... Read all

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• Trivia Although they never appeared on-screen together, Barry Bostwick (Dr. Dane) and Rex Smith (Jeffrey Fields) have an unusual thing in common: they both played Danny Zuko in the original Broadway production of "Grease".

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The “Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity” of Cannes Darling Anora

By David Canfield

In Sean Baker ’s film Anora, Mikey Madison lets out a scream so loud, so funny, and yet so terrifyingly guttural that it evokes the 25-year-old’s many already iconic screen shrieks—most poignantly as Pamela Adlon ’s yearning teenage daughter in the lauded FX series Better Things. Most climatically in the finale of Quentin Tarantino ’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood (when her Manson killer is torched by Leonardo DiCaprio ’s flamethrower in a pool). And most fittingly in Scream, delivering on her big death scene. Her range across these projects may have a common pitch, but otherwise, the characters—and portrayals—couldn’t be more different.

Baker ( Red Rocket, The Florida Project ) has handed Madison her first adult lead role in Anora, and the performance is revelatory—fearless in its jagged humanity and piercing in its emotional layers. The film’s wrenching last scene adds profound context to everything that came before. “She just showed a wide range—that she could get crazy, but also really funny, with lots of attitude,” Baker says of what drew him to Madison. He wrote Anora specifically for her. The character, a sex worker in Brooklyn who impulsively marries a Russian billionaire’s 21-year-old son, Ivan ( Mark Eydelshteyn ), marks a natural extension of Baker’s cinematic subjects—those operating on the rougher edges of American life, scraping by for a marginally better tomorrow. Anora—or Ani, as she prefers to go by—fits into this lineage. Madison’s unsentimental, sharply comic approach to the role seems like a match made in Baker heaven.

“I quickly learned that she’s an awesome cinephile with very similar tastes, and so it was really meant to be,” Baker says. “I mean, her favorite film is Possession. I have a huge poster of Possession on my wall.”

We’re sitting on a Croisette terrace in Cannes, the afternoon after Anora ’s sensational Cannes Film Festival 2024 premiere. Madison sits beside Baker, admittedly a little overwhelmed after many hours of adoring attention and photographs and sound bites. As she chimes in, you see that shared sensibility in action. “I have a poster as well,” she assures. Then Baker: “She gave me a Candy poster recently. What is that from, 1970?” Madison doesn’t skip a beat: “No, ’68. ’68, yeah.”

Such creative alignment drove Anora and their collaboration. “It was required for this sort of movie because we’re going to places that wouldn’t be expected by mainstream Hollywood,” Baker says. “She knew my style.”

Mark Eydelshteyn with Mikey Madison in Anora.

Madison had never been offered a role without auditioning until Anora. The minute she left her first meeting with Baker, she couldn’t get Ani out of her head. She worked intensively with a dialect coach, refining a thick Coney Island accent. She read books that Baker loaned her on sex work. She completed extensive dance training, crucial for Ani’s scenes in the club where she performs for men, but also for Madison to key into her overall physicality. “It really affected the way that I moved, the way that I walked, the way that I felt,” she tells me. “I talked to multiple consultants, sex workers, read memoirs, anything that I could do. I went to strip clubs and watched women in Los Angeles.” She stops herself with a slight smile. “That sounds creepy.”

Baker shakes his head. “The preparation was incredible,” he says. She responds, “I wanted to completely know this character; obviously to have room to discover more, but without any question that could be left unanswered by myself as an actor.” And yet she remained an incredibly present acting partner. Eydelshteyn came into Anora nervous: He’d auditioned in English for the first time, and occasionally struggled with the dynamic between Ivan and Ani. “She was always helping me and asking me: ‘Is it comfortable for you? Is it okay for you? How can I help you?’” Eydelshteyn says. “From our first meeting it was like, ‘Okay, we are scared together.’”

For the movie’s first scene, an immersion into a standard night for Ani in the strip club, Baker ran cameras live for 10 minutes and asked Madison to mingle with Ani’s colleagues and clients in the scene without saying any specific dialogue. She improvised expertly, but more importantly, wove in expositional details without missing a beat. “The mechanics of what it’s like to be a lap dancer—she knew it so well that she was able to give me all of that information that was needed without it [being] scripted,” Baker says. This was especially important since the director came into Anora hoping to “remove the stigma” around sex work, with plans to continue covering the subject in future films.

Another bravura scene—the movie’s turning point, really—comes later, as the reality of Ani and Ivan’s marriage abruptly comes into focus. Ivan runs away, realizing he’s in over his head when his father’s Russian-Armenian employees show up to undo the union—leaving Ani under their bumbling supervision. Eydelshteyn plays the scene with a hilarious, sudden skittishness. “It’s a funny role like this because it’s [Mark],” says Yura Borisov, who plays Igor, the nicest of the fixer crew. Borisov had just made another film with Eydelshteyn when he was cast in Anora, and recommended him for the part. “That’s why me and Mark are here now, thanks to Cannes,” he says with a laugh. “And here we are again.”

With Ivan gone, the scene focuses on Ani’s predicament as Igor, his associate Garnick ( Vache Tovmasyan ), and their boss Toros ( Karren Karagulian ) try to restrain her—calmly. That does not go well. Ani fights and smashes, and yes, screams for help. Madison goes gloriously unleashed.

At one point, she kicks Garnick through a glass table. Ivan’s mansion is promptly trashed. “Sean texted me the night before they shot the fight—he said, ‘It’s a different [scene] now, it’s a little bit more violent,’” says Karagulian, a longtime Baker collaborator. “I was very nervous because there were 11 pages of dialogue for me: ‘How am I going to do this?’ Then [Baker] said, ‘I’m changing things.’” You feel that liveness in the scene’s escalating, screwball-coded tension. “He’s redoing everything and it’s happening in the moment,” says Tovmasyan. “It’s like he’s painting it.”

Borisov, Karagulian, and Tovmasyan ratchet up the comedy even as they’re working—improvising, in fact—between Russian, Armenian, and English. “Especially when we say something in Russian or Armenian. I hope [audiences] felt the humor,” Karagulian says. Baker credits much of that energy to what they found on the day. When Garnick gets brutally table-smashed, for instance, Baker and Madison knew the perfect punch line and said it to each other at the same time (no spoilers here!). And while they were using a stunt coordinator, the cast was committed to playing out their own stunts. It took over a week to film.

“It had to be very calculated and choreographed,” Baker says. But it evolved so much on the day, says Madison, because “we just didn’t expect how real it would feel. It’s written on a page, and we’re walking through it, but then Garnick is actually chasing me and dragging me. I’m fighting with all my strength—it’s very intense to do something like that.”

“And quite disturbing to hear that bone-chilling scream echo through the house,” Baker adds.

The Anora team on Cannes opening night.

Neon is set to release Anora later this year, and based on the rapturous reviews, an awards campaign feels likely. The first test will be whether it picks up anything at this weekend’s prize ceremony in Cannes. “Playing in competition, seriously, it’s just like having a dream come true twice,” Baker says, referencing Anora coming on the heels of Red Rocket ’s own competition launch.

Madison had seen Baker’s Tangerine five times coming into Anora. She’d completed multiple viewings of his other features, The Florida Project and Red Rocket, too. She felt the enormity of the project and ran with it. That much is evident onscreen. On the last day of filming, when all was said and done, “I was very sad,” she says. “It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And I don’t know how many more relationships I’ll have with a director like that. I just didn’t want it to end.”

Baker warmly disagrees once more, expressing hope they’ll work together again. But either way, he sees a bright future ahead. “She’s going to have a million opportunities with incredible directors, incredible experiences,” Baker says. “I know that now.”

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'Cradle of Deception' Review: Holly Deveaux's strong character takes center stage in Lifetime flick

Contains spoilers for Lifetime's 'Cradle of Deception'

KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA: Lifetime's latest thriller, ' Cradle of Deception ', dives headfirst into the emotional turmoil and dark secrets surrounding fertility clinics. The film follows the harrowing journey of a widowed single mother, Erin Treadwell (Holly Deveaux), thrust into a desperate race against time.

Her newborn child is diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder, and a compatible bone marrow donor is their only hope. Fueled by a mother's fierce love, she embarks on a quest to find a match. However, this search leads her down a chilling path, uncovering a labyrinth of lies and deceit.

As she digs deeper, the trail leads right back to the very fertility clinic that facilitated her conception. Can she expose the truth before it's too late? ' Cradle of Deception ' promises a suspenseful exploration of trust, betrayal, and the unwavering strength of a mother's love. 

'Cradle of Deception' is a gripping tale of desperation and dangerous secrets

'Cradle of Deception' is a riveting Lifetime movie that masterfully intertwines emotional depth with suspenseful intrigue. The film follows Erin Treadwell, played with poignant authenticity by Holly Deveaux, whose joy turns to despair upon learning her newborn suffers from a rare genetic disorder requiring a bone marrow transplant.

This dire situation propels Erin into a desperate search for a donor, leading her to uncover shocking truths about a fertility clinic and a close friend's husband, thereby putting her life at risk. The strength of 'Cradle of Deception' lies in its compelling storyline, which expertly balances heart-wrenching personal drama with thrilling mystery. Deveaux's performance is a standout, imbuing Erin with a raw, relatable resilience that captivates viewers from start to finish.

The supporting cast also delivers strong performances, adding depth and complexity to the narrative. The film's production values are top-notch, with captivating locations that enhance the suspense and aesthetic appeal.

Each scene is beautifully shot, making the audience feel immersed in Erin's tumultuous journey. The pacing keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, blending moments of intense emotion with unexpected twists. Overall, 'Cradle of Deception' is a must-watch, offering a perfect mix of emotional resonance and gripping suspense that will leave audiences both moved and enthralled.

Holly Deveaux captivates as Erin Treadwell in 'Cradle of Deception'

In 'Cradle of Deception,' Holly Deveaux shines brilliantly as Erin Treadwell, delivering a performance that is both nuanced and compelling. As Erin, Deveaux brings a palpable sense of depth and vulnerability, skillfully navigating the complexities of her character's emotional journey. Her portrayal is marked by a keen attention to detail, allowing the audience to empathize deeply with Erin's struggles and triumphs.

Deveaux's Erin is a character marked by resilience and determination, facing the challenges thrown her way with a blend of grace and grit. The authenticity she brings to the role is evident in every scene, whether she is dealing with moments of intense drama or more subtle, introspective beats. This ability to convey a wide range of emotions with such precision is a testament to Deveaux's talent and dedication to her craft.

Moreover, Deveaux's chemistry with her co-stars adds an additional layer of realism to the narrative, making Erin Treadwell a character that is not only believable but also incredibly relatable. Her performance in 'Cradle of Deception' is a standout, showcasing her ability to elevate the material and leave a lasting impression on the audience. Holly Deveaux's Erin Treadwell is a testament to her skill as an actress and a highlight of the film.

'Cradle of Deception' is available for streaming on Lifetime.

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Megalopolis – A Lifetime Dream | Review

• May 22, 2024

MOVIE REVIEWS

Cannes 2024

Megalopolis directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Human, all too human. It had been more than a decade since Francis Ford Coppola completed a film (his last was Twixt in 2011). And for decades, he had been nurturing, thinking about, and working on the enormous project that is Megalopolis , which has finally arrived at Cannes 77 and is in the main competition. All too human, because after the long wait, some people at the press screening grumbled during the closing credits, even booed, and because once the embargo lifted, what made the most noise were, inevitably and sadly, the numbers. Those on Rotten Tomatoes, with approval ratings plummeting. We still look at cinema with percentages, with value judgments, with reporting, adhering to the master taste. Coppola comes from another time and another world. From New Hollywood, he has forged himself as an auteur who pursues the epic and the greatness of an art—not a product—that can continuously break boundaries, go beyond, redefine horizons. Self-producing and self-promoting for over forty years, as he does now. Only with the calculated risk (the certainty?) of self-sabotage.

Megalopolis is a utopia that Adam Driver ‘s protagonist, Caesar Catilina (a name that is a condensation of divergent forces), wants to shape to redesign from top to bottom the dissolute metropolis he inhabits, a New York that here takes the name New Rome, the empire dying under the blows of conspiracies and personal, egotistical dominions, blind to the future. But there is no present without preserving the future, says Caesar. And it’s all too easy to read in this the parable of Coppola himself up to this point—probably terminal, at the age of 85—of his relationship with cinema and the weight, the role he has attributed to it all his life. As the city plunges into vice, into the unbridled licentiousness of customs, and Mayor Frank Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito) fights as best he can to confirm his precarious position, Caesar arms himself with a new material, a discovery that questions even physics, the laws of space and time. Plastic, luminous, perhaps born from the mind or the desire of the heart, the megalon has an architecture that can expand from small to colossal and in its continuous infinitesimal recomposition can redefine and replace organic tissues, giving life to what should be dead.

Above all, the great power of the megalon is to stop time, which Caesar nails while he detonates buildings to be rethought or when on the edge of a skyscraper (the Chrysler Building?) he experiences extreme vertigo preventing his body from falling. To practice it, it seems the key is in expressing deep love. It is indeed when Caesar meets and falls in love with Julia Cicero (Nathalie Emmanuel) that the power is restored and strengthened. As if to say that Coppola has tried to stop the time of cinema to prevent its end by concentrating everything good (benevolent, maybe) it still has to offer. To remake One from the Heart  as a dream long a lifetime, combining the ambition of the epic and a great family saga (Julia Cicero is the daughter of the nemesis, Mayor Frank Cicero, as in Shakespeare, and the internal family conflicts recall The Godfather , but also a bit of Succession ) with the unashamed ambition to produce an uncontrolled mess, the precipitate of a comedy and the broadsides of messy CGI, the drifts of an unreadable narrative that speaks in declamatory tones, aphorisms, quotations (especially from Marcus Aurelius). Because there is no point in giving the viewer a finished product, again, consumed and relaunchable for spin-offs, serial versions, and video games.

It’s all there, on the screen, to watch with wide eyes and maybe even regurgitate. The hyper-saturated orange of the sky and the clouds rushing by in a world that doesn’t exist, à la Gondry, and the rain of meteors (fragments of a Soviet satellite mistakenly falling on this Roman empire) that projects terrified and dying bodies onto skyscrapers but in a dancing pose, remind us that cinema images can give substance to dreams that come true and dissolve instantly only in the unconscious, in sleep with closed eyes. Art creation does this. It invents, cloaks, moves, stuns, surprises. Drapes of wonder, abrasions, electric stabs.

And what greater surprise than a gesture, a moment so sensational within the film that as viewers we are led to directly question the images, a subversive and new act, perhaps even already past (because at the limit of the impractical, impossible, and who knows if for this reason it will never be seen outside the Cannes frame), apex of extreme astonishment, and of which we hope as many people as possible can experience. A moving encounter with History, a point of no return. Cinema that lives again luminous and numinous, for a moment, a rayon vert on the blind line of sunset. Before it’s too late, in the faintness of habit. Time, stop!

Andrea Giangaspero

Birdmen Magazine , May 19, 2024

• More: Adam Driver , Cannes 2024 , Francis Ford Coppola , Megalopolis (2024) , Movie reviews

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Emilia Pérez: A Unique Blend of Crime and Musical Drama | Review

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“The Neapolitan who lives in the psychology of the miracle,” the director who becomes Odysseus: around Parthenope, mortally wounding himself…

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Who Was Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, Really?

In “Once Upon a Time,” Elizabeth Beller examines the life and death of the woman who was best known for marrying John F. Kennedy Jr.

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By Louis Bayard

Louis Bayard’s novels include “Jackie & Me” and the forthcoming “The Wildes.”

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ONCE UPON A TIME: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, by Elizabeth Beller

One of the many reasons to wish that Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy were alive and well is that, without too much urging, she might have formed a sorority with Meghan Markle. They could have talked about what it’s like to be a woman thrust into a brutal family dynasty and a Hobbesian press ecosystem. Maybe they would have exchanged tips for dodging paparazzi. Maybe, over enough drinks, they would have asked each other if their husbands were worth all the trouble.

Sadly, we can only come at Bessette-Kennedy now through intermediaries. And none of them could be more ardent in their mission than Elizabeth Beller, whose unironically titled biography, “Once Upon a Time,” aims to make John F. Kennedy Jr.’s wife the princess she was meant to be. Squeezing bright memories from dozens of Bessette-Kennedy’s friends, acquaintances and family members, Beller lays down a yellow-brick road from her subject’s middle-class White Plains childhood to her tony Greenwich adolescence to her convivial semesters at Boston University to her V.I.P. sales job at Calvin Klein in New York.

Beller is there, too, when America’s most famous bachelor wandered in for a fitting. Boy and girl, helpless in their beauty, gazed upon each other. Boy asked for girl’s number. There followed “a haze of sultry dinners, dancing and walks.” But John F. Kennedy Jr. was in no hurry to settle down. He was on-and-off-dating a temperamental Hollywood actress, and even when he and Bessette-Kennedy did become an item, he didn’t introduce her to his mother, who then died before he could.

Their Georgia wedding was lovely, but the marriage was troubled. John’s energies were drawn away by the launch of George, his doomed magazine. His gregarious wife was a prisoner in her own home, thanks to an unhinged tabloid press. “If I don’t leave the house before 8 a.m.,” she told a friend, “they’re waiting for me. Every morning. They chase me down the street.”

The couple grew distant. They got into arguments. They went to couples therapy. But “Once Upon a Time” wants us to know that, through it all, they were meant to be. “They would love hard and they would fight hard,” one friend said, “but they were very much a couple.”

“They were soul mates,” Beller quotes George Plimpton as saying.

And through it all, apparently, Bessette-Kennedy never stopped being a golden girl. We’re told over and again how gorgeous and elegant she was, how smart and funny and kind. She loved kids, dogs, cats, old people. She had “abundant gifts to share.” She was “wild and vivid in a cautious and pale world.” She was “a revelation.”

The only remaining question: Why is this exercise in heroine worship emerging a full quarter-century after her death? Beller argues that Bessette-Kennedy’s legacy until now has been shaped by men, and she probably means one man in particular. Edward Klein’s 2003 pot-stirrer, “The Kennedy Curse,” helped cement the tabloid image of her as a difficult cokehead who showed up two hours late to her own wedding, severed a nerve in her husband’s wrist, fooled around with other men and, in one redolent phrase, snorted up with “a gaggle of gay fashionistas.”

Beller rebuts each charge as it comes, but with all respect to her advocacy, she seems to be litigating a case that has long since been settled out of court or, more poignantly, forgotten. What lingers, I fear, for anyone tasked with remembering Bessette-Kennedy’s name, is her haunting end: borne down in a Piper Saratoga six-seater piloted by her husband, with her sister at her side.

Ironic and fitting, then, that in recreating that fatal journey, Beller’s prose sparks to life. “They were flying through a darkness akin to that of a sensory-deprivation chamber, surface and sky indistinguishable. Only when John began to make multiple turns, climbing then descending, turning and descending again, might the sisters have noticed that it had been 20 minutes since they had seen the nebulous mainland lights, glimmering yet opaque.”

ONCE UPON A TIME : The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy | By Elizabeth Beller | Gallery | 352 pp. | $29.99

Explore More in Books

Want to know about the best books to read and the latest news start here..

An assault led to Chanel Miller’s best seller, “Know My Name,” but she had wanted to write children’s books since the second grade. She’s done that now  with “Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All.”

When Reese Witherspoon is making selections for her book club , she wants books by women, with women at the center of the action who save themselves.

The Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro, who died on May 14 , specialized in exacting short stories that were novelistic in scope , spanning decades with intimacy and precision.

“The Light Eaters,” a new book by Zoë Schlanger, looks at how plants sense the world  and the agency they have in their own lives.

Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

Blumhouse Bringing the ‘My Bloody Valentine’ Franchise Back to Life [Exclusive]

Released in 1981, the original Canadian slasher classic My Bloody Valentine spawned a Hollywood remake ( My Bloody Valentine 3D ) in 2009, but it’s now been 15 years since we’ve heard a peep from the franchise about a sadistic and bloodthirsty miner with a pick(axe) to grind. But as “The Ballad of Harry Warden” once told us, it’s a curse that will live on and on…

And the My Bloody Valentine franchise does indeed plan to live on, as Bloody Disgusting has exclusively learned that Blumhouse is developing a brand new My Bloody Valentine movie.

Stay tuned for more information as we learn it.

My Bloody Valentine is one of those franchises that never was, with both the original movie and the 2009 remake failing to spawn follow-up movies. That’s despite Lionsgate’s My Bloody Valentine 3D scaring up $100 million at the worldwide box office, and the original becoming a classic that horror fans enjoy watching every time the calendar flips to February 14.

George Mihalka directed the original 1981 movie. In the film, “ A decades-old folk tale surrounding a deranged murderer killing those who celebrate Valentine’s Day turns out to be true to legend when a group defies the killer’s order and people start turning up dead.” 

Directed by Patrick Lussier, the 3D remake follows a similar storyline. “ Tom returns to his hometown on the tenth anniversary of the Valentine’s night massacre that claimed the lives of 22 people. Instead of a homecoming, Tom finds himself suspected of committing the murders, and it seems like his old flame is the only one that believes he’s innocent.”

“In this little town when the 14th comes ’round, there’s a silence and fear in the air…”

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

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‘infernal’ trailer – heavy metal horror movie loads up on creatures and gore.

Director Eric Mathis of Grime House Films and Drake Teer of Teer/Mathis Productions have unleashed the trailer for their upcoming horror movie INfernal , said to be a “thrilling, heavy metal-infused Faustian tale.” The team promises to deliver a “unique blend of horror, metal music, and monstrous mayhem that will leave audiences on the edge of their seats.”

Having wrapped production, INfernal is now in its final stages, and the team has launched a finishing funds campaign on Indiegogo. At this time, they are 63% of the way to their goal.

INfernal follows the story of four friends – two of whom are undead and one a pig demon from hell – as they race against time to outsmart the Devil himself after a summoning ritual goes disastrously wrong. In a desperate fight to save their souls, these friends must navigate a nightmarish landscape filled with heavy metal fury and demonic terror in order to find “the metal blade, the only thing that can send the devil back to hell!

Eric Mathis previews, “I really wanted this film to be different and unlike anything else people are making right now. I wanted to combine heavy metal and horror but also have a great story with awesome characters that were well developed and that you actually care about. The film is almost like an over-the-top adventure like The Goonies with all of the elements of horror and some outrageous comedy that I really think audiences are going to like. It is not just another low budget indie film, the production value, the acting, the special FX, and the story are really pro level and elevated. INfernal really looks and plays like we spent 10 times what we actually spent on this. We are all very proud of what we accomplished.”

The cast for INfernal includes Courtney Gains ( Children of the Corn ), Pancho Moler (Rob Zombie’s 31 and 3 from Hell ), Sky Elobar ( The Greasy Strangler ), and Mark Torgl ( The Toxic Avenger ), with Clint Hummel as The Devil himself.

“INfernal stands out with its jaw-dropping special effects, crafted by the legendary Joe Castro , known for his groundbreaking work in indie horror,” the team also tells Bloody Disgusting.

You can support INfernal over on Indiegogo now.

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