What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 24th February 2022.

The 72nd annual Berlin International Film Festival (aka the Berlinale) took place from 10th to 20th February in person. The festival opened with Francois Ozon's drama film 'Peter Von Kant'. Isabelle Huppert was awarded Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement on 15th February at the Berlinale Palast award ceremony. Her film by Laurent Lariviere, 'A propos de Joan' was also screened.

The awards were presented on 16th February, with those winners being :-

* The Golden Bear for Best Film was presented to 'Alcarras' Directed and Co-Written by Carla Simon. This Spanish and Italian Co-Produced film is set and was filmed near Alcarras, Catalonia, featuring non-professional actors speaking Catalan language. The plot concerns a family drama about the disappearance of traditional peach-harvesting activities to a planned solar farm bringing the members of one family to a stand-off. World Premier screening.

* The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize was awarded to 'The Novelist's Film' Directed, Written, photographed, edited and scored by Hong Sang-soo. This South Korean black and white drama film is described as the film that, 'celebrates the beauty of chance encounters, while talking about the importance of authenticity in the dishonest world of cinema'. World Premier screening.

* The Silver Bear Jury Prize was presented to 'Robe of Gems' from Mexico, Argentina and the US and Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by Natalia Lopez Gallardo. World Premier screening.

* The Silver Bear for Best Director was awarded to Claire Denis from France for 'Both Sides of the Blade'. World Premier screening.

* The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance was presented to Meltem Kaptan for 'Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush' from Germany and France. World Premier screening.

* The Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance was awarded to Laura Basuki for 'Before, Now & Then' from Indonesia. World Premier screening.

* The Silver Bear for Best Screenplay was presented to Laila Stieler for 'Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush' from Germany and France.

* The Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution was awarded to Rithy Panh and Sarit Mang for 'Everything Will Be OK' from France and Cambodia. World Premier screening. 

* Special Mention was made to Michael Koch for 'A Piece of Sky' from Germany and Switzerland. World Premier screening.

You can visit the official website, for all the news and the winners in the other competition sections as announced on 16th February, plus a whole lot more besides, at : https://www.berlinale.de/

Turning back to this weeks current releases, we launch with another adaptation of a famed 1897 play in which all too self-conscious to woo Roxanne himself, wordsmith Cyrano de Bergerac helps young Christian nab her heart through love letters. Next up is a Kosovan film about a woman whose husband has been missing since the war in Kosovo, and so she sets up her own small business to provide for her kids, but as she fights against a patriarchal society that does not support her, she faces a crucial decision. This is followed by a film about the legendary rock band Foo Fighters who move into an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history to record their much anticipated 10th album, but there are supernatural forces at work that might just prevent them from doing so. Then we turn to a documentary offering charting the story of 30-year-old climber Tom Ballard who disappeared on one of the Himalayas' most deadly mountains, Nanga Parbat, in February 2019; before closing out the week with a Japanese anime about a single mother and her eleven-year-old daughter with nothing in common except living together on a boat at the port, and a miracle that occurs when their secret is revealed.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the five latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week.

'CYRANO' (Rated M) -  this musical romantic drama film is Directed by Joe Wright and with a Screenplay by Erica Schmidt, based on Schmidt's 2018 stage musical of the same name, itself based on the 1897 Edmond Rostand play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. Joe Wright is the British Director and Producer whose previous film making credits take in 'Pride & Prejudice' in 2005, 'Atonement' in 2007, 'The Soloist' in 2009, 'Hannah' in 2011, 'Anna Karenina' in 2012, 'Pan' in 2015 and 'Darkest Hour' in 2017. The film saw its World Premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in early September last year, is scheduled for a wide cinema release in the US, the UK and here in Australia from this week onwards, cost US$30M to produce and has garnered generally positive critical reviews. 

The film tells the story of Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) as he pines for the affections of the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett), who has fallen in love with another man named Christian de Neuvillette (Kelvin Harrison Jnr.). Though Cyrano understands that his social status and physical appearance will forever keep him apart from his love, he offers his skills as a gifted poet to Christian in an effort to bring him and Roxanne together once and for all. Also starring Ben Mendelsohn, 'Cyrano' has so far picked up six award wins and another forty-six nominations, many of which are still pending an outcome at the time of writing.

'HIVE' (Rated M) - is an Albanian-Kosovan drama film Written and Directed by Blerta Basholli in her Directorial debut. It saw its World Premier at the Sundance Film Festival at the end of January 2021 and became the first film in Sundance history to win all three main awards – the Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and the Directing Award – in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. It was selected as the Kosovan entry for the Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards. The film is based on the true story of a woman Fahrije (Yllka Gashi), whose husband has been missing since the war in Kosovo. Along with their grief, her family is struggling financially. In order to provide for them she launches a small agricultural business selling her own pepper and eggplant relish and honey, but in the traditional patriarchal village where she lives, her ambition and efforts to empower herself and other women are not seen as positive things. She struggles not only to keep her family afloat but also against a hostile community who is rooting for her to fail. Released in the US in early November last year and this week here in Australia, the film has garnered positive critical acclaim. 

'STUDIO 666' (Rated R18+) - this supernatural horror comedy film is Directed by B.J. McDonnell and is based on a story by Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters fame. The film marks the first to feature the Foo Fighters that is not a documentary, as the band were previously the subject of 2011's 'Foo Fighters : Back and Forth' and 2014's 'Foo Fighters : Sonic Highways'. Grohl stars in the film alongside his Foo Fighters bandmates Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, and Rami Jaffee as they struggle to record their tenth album at an Encino mansion, with band frontman Dave Grohl forced to battle the supernatural forces within the house that threaten the completion of their album, and the lives of his fellow bandmates. 'Studio 666' is released in the US this week too.

'THE LAST MOUNTAIN' (Rated M) - the unforgettable story of the thirty-year-old climber Tom Ballard who disappeared on the so-called killer mountain, Nanga Parbat in Pakistan in February 2019. Directed by Chris Terrill, here he explores the life of British mountaineer Tom Ballard who died while attempting to climb Nanga Parbat with Italy’s 42-year-old Daniele Nardi. They both perished while attempting to scale Nanga Parbat in winter. Ballard was the son of world-famous mountaineer Alison Hargreaves, reputed to be one of the greatest female climbers of all times who died on K2 in 1995. Their compelling lives are explored here using intimate family archive footage and interviewing those left behind to tell the unforgettable story of Tom and his family. The film gets a limited showing in selected cinemas from this week. 

'FORTUNE FAVOURS LADY NIKUKO' (Rated M) - is a Japanese anime film based on the novel of the same name by Kanako Nishi, and is Directed by Ayumu Watanabe. Here, Nikuko (voiced by Shinobu Otake) is a brash, happy-go-lucky passionate woman in an otherwise sleepy seaport town in northern Japan. She’s also the single mother of eleven-year-old Kikuko (Cocomi), who is her opposite in many ways. Kikuko is a string-bean of a young girl, thoughtful, quietly curious, and methodical in how she approaches life in this small seaside town. Nikuko embarrasses Kikuko as any mother to a preteen would, but Nikuko’s bold spirit makes her especially well-known in a town where Kikuko herself wants nothing more than to simply blend in. As Kikuko navigates the everyday social dramas of middle school, enhanced with touches of magical realism from her ever-present imagination, a shocking revelation from the past threatens to upend the pair’s fragile relationship. The film was released in its native Japan in mid-June last year and has picked up two award wins and three nominations so far. 

With five new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-