Watch the work of the directors featured in our Modern Masters season on SBS World Movies this month (Lanthimos, Sorrentino, Almodovar and Ray Lawrence), as well as other films by modern master filmmakers now streaming on SBS On Demand.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
MA15+
UK, USA, Ireland, 2017
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Mystery
Language: English
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Starring: Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Barry Keoghan, Alicia Silverstone, Bill Camp
What's it about?
Dr. Steven Murphy (Farrell) is a renowned cardiovascular surgeon who presides over a spotless household with his wife (Kidman) and two children (played by Rafey Cassidy and Sunny Suljic). Lurking at the margins of his idyllic suburban existence is Martin (Keoghan), a fatherless teen who insinuates himself into the doctor's life in gradually unsettling ways. From Yorgos Lanthimos, acclaimed writer-director of Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Favourite.
[link title="'The Killing of a Sacred Deer' review: Masterfully Orchestrated, Extremely Discomforting" url="node/135633"]
Youth
MA
UK, Italy, France, Switzerland, 2015
Genre: Drama
Language: German, Spanish, English
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Michael Caine, Paul Dano, Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda
What's it about?
Two lifelong friends ponder retirement while vacationing in a luxury Swiss Alps lodge. While Fred (Caine) has no plans to resume his musical career despite the urging of his loving daughter Lena (Weisz), Mick (Keitel) is intent on finishing the screenplay for what may be his last important film for his muse Brenda (Fonda). And where will inspiration lead their younger friend Jimmy (Dano), an actor grasping to make sense of his next performance? From Paolo Sorrentino, director of The Young Pope and The Great Beauty.
Lantana
M
Australia, 2001
Genre: Drama, Mystery
Language: English
Director: Ray Lawrence
Starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Kerry Armstrong, Vince Colosimo, Barbara Hershey, Glenn Robbins, Geoffrey Rush
What's it about?
A psychiatrist (Hershey) fears her husband (Rush) to be the married man with whom one of her male clients is having an affair. Meanwhile, a female client (Armstrong) suspects her husband (LaPaglia), a detective, is also being unfaithful. When the psychiatrist goes missing, the detective is put on the case and soon uncovers a tangled web of intrigue and deceit.
[link title="Lantana Review: A landmark Australian film (David and Margaret, 2001)" url="node/3489"]
Julieta
M
Spain, 2016
Genre: Drama, Romance
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Emma Suárez, Darío Grandinetti, Michelle Jenner, Priscilla Delgado
What's it about?
Julieta (Suárez) is a middle-aged woman living in Madrid with her boyfriend Lorenzo (Grandinetti). Both are going to move to Portugal when she casually runs into Bea (Michelle Jenner), former best friend of her estranged daughter Antia, who reveals that Antia is living in Switzerland, married, and with three children. Shaken by the first news she’s heard about her daughter in 12 years, Julieta cancels the journey to Portugal and moves to the apartment where she used to live with Antia, in the hope that her daughter will send her a letter.
[link title="Cannes: Pedro Almodovar talks about Panama Papers, 'Julieta', and Hollywood's 'diabolical sexism'" url="node/65968"]
Transit
M
France, Germany, 2018
Genre: Drama
Language: German, French
Director: Christian Petzold
Starring: Franz Rogowski, Paula Beer, Godehard Giese, Lilien Batman
What's it about?
In an attempt to flee Nazi-occupied France, Georg assumes the identity of a dead author but soon finds himself stuck in Marseilles, where he falls in love with Maria, a young woman searching for her missing husband. From Christian Petzold, writer-director of Phoenix and Barbara.
The Piano
M
New Zealand, 1993
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Jane Campion
Starring: Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill
What's it about?
Ada (Hunter), mute since birth, her nine year old daughter (Paquin), and her piano arrive to an arranged marriage in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand. Of all her belongings her husband refuses to transport the piano and it is left behind on the beach. Unable to bear its certain destruction, Ada strikes a bargain with an illiterate tattooed neighbour (Keitel). She may earn her piano back if she allows him to do certain things while she play’s – one black key for every lesson. The arrangement draws all three deeper and deeper into a complex emotional bond.
Mammoth
M
Sweden, Germany, Denmark, 2000
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Lukas Moodysson
Starring: Michelle Williams, Gael García Bernal, Marife Necesito, Sophie Nyweide
What's it about?
Bored of his web design job, Leo (Bernal) takes a trip to Thailand in an attempt to radically change his life. Back in New York, his wife (Williams) and daughter find their relationship with their live-in Filipino maid (Necesito) changing around them. At the same time, in the Philippines, the maid's family struggles to deal with her absence. Nominated for the Golden Bear at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, from acclaimed director Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love, Lilya 4-Ever and Together).
Down By Law
M
USA, 1986
Genre: Comedy, Cult
Language: English
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Ellen Barkin, Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits, John Lurie
What's it about?
A DJ (Waits), a pimp (Lurie) and an Italian tourist (Benigni) are arrested on the same night in New Orleans and thrown in to a cell together. The trio manages to break out of jail and find themselves hopelessly lost in the Louisiana Bayou. After days of fighting and squabbling, they chance upon a small café run by another recent immigrant from Italy. One of them immediately falls in love with the beautiful Italian and wants to stay on.
Eternity
M
Belgium, France, 2016
Genre: Drama, Romance
Language: Spanish, French
Director: Tran Anh Hung
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Berenice Bejo, Mélanie Laurent, Jeremie Renier
What's it about?
Valentine (Tautou) is twenty years old when she marries her beloved Jules. Ecstatic to be united, the two are further delighted to bear many children. However, bliss is not lasting, and tragedy befalls the couple, leaving the family scarred by the fragility of existence. In the years that follow, joy is reinstated with new romances, marriages and births. With the introduction of each new generation, one thing remains consistent: the unavoidable cycle of passion, love, turbulence and sorrow. From Tran Anh Hung, director of Cyclo and The Scent of Green Papaya.
Camille Claudel 1915
M
France, 2013
Genre: Biography, Drama
Language: French
Director: Bruno Dumont
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent, Armelle Leroy-Rolland, Robert Leroy, Marion Keller
What's it about?
Winter, 1915. Confined by her family to an asylum in the South of France – where she will never sculpt again – the chronicle of Camille Claudel’s (Binoche) reclusive life, as she waits for a visit from her brother, Paul Claudel (Vincent).
The Skin I Live In
MA15+
Spain, 2011
Genre: Drama
Language: Spanish
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet
What's it about?
Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After 12 years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed a further three things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. From legendary director Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk To Her), this film won the 2012 BAFTA award for Best Film Not in the English Language.
Source: The Skin I Live In
12 Years a Slave
MA15+
USA, 2013
Genre: Drama
Language: English
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti, Brad Pitt
What's it about?
In the years before the Civil War, Solomon Northup (Ejiofor), a free Black man from upstate New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. Subjected to the cruelty of one malevolent owner (Fassbender), he also finds unexpected kindness from another, as he struggles to survive and maintain some of his dignity. In the 12th year of the disheartening ordeal, a chance meeting with an abolitionist from Canada (Pitt) changes Solomon's life forever. Winner of Best Picture at the 2013 Academy Awards.
[link title="12 Years a Slave: Interviews with Steve McQueen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender" url="node/13892"]
Source: SBS Movies
