Saint omer trial#
Saint omer series#

Diop, who attended the actual trial on which the story is based, spoke of how she came to shoot the courtroom scenes. She also preserves, through a seamless meld of fiction and nonfiction, the contours and complexities of a terrible true story.”Īlso for The Times, Emily Zemler spoke to Diop and Malanda. The film is in theaters now.įor The Times, Justin Chang wrote, “This supremely intelligent and haunting movie, a major prizewinner at last year’s Venice International Film Festival and a shortlisted Oscar contender for best international feature, is very much an attempt to reckon with and with actions often branded with the cliché of ‘unthinkable.’ With remarkable stealth and concentration, Diop rewires the generic circuitry of the courtroom drama, avoiding its natural inclination toward sensationalism and grandstanding. In the film, based on a real case, Rama (Kayije Kagame), a novelist, observes the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a Senegalese immigrant accused of killing her infant daughter. The fiction feature debut from acclaimed documentary filmmaker Alice Diop, “Saint Omer” is France’s entry for the international feature Oscar. The event is sold out, but there is a waitlist. 15 at 2220 Arts + Archives, and this is an all-too-rare chance to see the film in a theater, in a new 2K restoration. Set in a small town, the film tells the story of two young girls who embark on a seemingly unlikely romance. Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson was all of 28 when he made his debut in 1998 with “Show Me Love,” a lively and emotionally resonant story that earned the praise of no less than Ingmar Bergman. Unfortunately, Ayoade has only directed one film since, 2013’s “The Double,” starring Eisenberg in a dual role.

The 2010 feature debut as writer and director from Richard Ayoade, the film is a delightfully melancholy coming-of-age comedy starring Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige and Sally Hawkins. Curated by Jesse Eisenberg, who will give a pre-recorded introduction, the American Cinematheque presents “Submarine” in 35-millimeter, Jan.

Saint omer series#

(A special alert for a 35-millimeter screening of the Joan Didion adaptation “Play It as It Lays.”) The series looks to be a celebration of Varda’s inventiveness and imagination, but also the endless inspiration to be found in Los Angeles. The series is based around three films made by Agnès Varda in Los Angeles - “Lions Love (… and Lies),” “Mur murs” and “Documenteur” - and places them in conversation with films such as “Model Shop” (directed by Varda’s husband, Jacques Demy), Penelope Spheeris’ “The Decline of Western Civilization,” Bill Norton’s “Cisco Pike,” Ulysses Jenkins’ “Remnants of the Watts Festival” and more. The Academy Museum opens a new series this weekend with “Enter the VardaVerse: Los Angeles Countercultures 1968-1981,” which runs through the end of February. Announcing Alice Diop as a major new voice in world cinema, her film was selected to represent France at the 2023 Academy Awards with very good reason.You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.Įnter the VardaVerse at the Academy. Inspired by true events, SAINT OMER is an arresting and profound film of constantly shifting layers at once a tense courtroom drama, an inquiry into female agency, and a provocative examination of myth. At work on a modern-day adaptation of Medea, Rama plans to incorporate Laurence’s story into her new novel, but the case affects her in unexpected ways and she soon begins to unravel over complex childhood memories and increasing uncertainty over her own impending motherhood… Rama (played with restrained intensity by remarkable discovery Kayije Kagame), a successful Parisian journalist and author, has travelled to the coastal town of Saint-Omer to document the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), a well-educated young Senegalese Frenchwoman who is accused of abandoning her 15-month-old daughter on a beach at high tide.