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| Tribeca Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze on Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton’s .Diane von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge: “It’s great! It’s about fashion but not only. It’s super New York based.” |
They All Came Out To Montreux, Oliver Murray’s fantastic tribute to Montreux Jazz Festival founder Claude Nobs (with remembrances from Quincy Jones, Keith Richards, John McLaughlin, Questlove, Carlos Santana, Roger Glover of Deep Purple, Herbie Hancock, Elvis Costello, and performances by Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack, Carole King, Muddy Waters, Etta James, David Bowie, Van Morrison, James Brown, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, Buddy Guy, Miles Davis, Prince. Sting, Wyclef Jean, Jack White, Santana, Gilberto Gil); Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s The Devil's Bath (Des Teufels Bad) starring Anja Plaschg (who is also the composer as Soap&Skin), shot by Martin Gschlacht (Silver Bear winner in the 2024 Berlin Film Festival); Dana Flor’s Ani DiFranco film, 1-800-ON-HER-OWN; David Hinton’s Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger with Martin Scorsese as our guide; Vinko Tomicic’s The Dog Thief; Yasemin Samdereli’s Samia, and Mo Harawe's The Village Next To Paradise all came up in my Spring Studios rooftop terrace conversation with Tribeca Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer the evening before the Opening Night Gala screening of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton’s Diane Von Furstenberg: Woman In Charge.
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| They All Came Out To Montreux director Oliver Murray with 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze |
Last year when Frédéric and I met on the rooftop of Spring Studios, the day before the 22nd edition of the Tribeca Festival launched with Nenad Cicin-Sain’s Kiss The Future, Canadian wildfires had reached New York City.
Anne-Katrin Titze: This morning I spoke with the director Oliver Murray about his Montreux film, They All Came Out To Montreux, which will have its world première here in Tribeca this week!
Frédéric Boyer: There’s a film and a series. The film is great and it’s also great for me, because it’s about an artistic director. His name is Claude Nobs and you see this guy with his bike in Montreux. He was born in Montreux, did the festival for 45 years [1967 - 2012].
AKT: And he was a chef, who studied cooking in Basel!
FB: Yes! This is extraordinary, the life of this guy! This is why people love Montreux. It’s different now.
AKT: I’ve been to Montreux, but never to the festival. More of a pilgrimage for Nabokov.
FB: That’s a good reason.
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| Frédéric Boyer on They All Came Out To Montreux: “The film is great and it’s also great for me, because it’s about an artistic director.” |
AKT: And I think Richard Strauss composed in the Montreux Palace Hotel. It’s a beautiful place.
FB: Yes!
AKT: My favourite edit, and I mentioned this to Oliver this morning, is when Ella Fitzgerald sings “Give me the simple life” and right after we see Claude Nobs arriving on water skies from the lake! Here’s the simple life for you!
FB: Yes, simple life, beautiful life. I think it’s a beautiful film. Did you see some films [from Tribeca] already?
AKT: A saw only a few. I saw The Devil’s Bath, which I liked.
FB: It’s fine. It’s by Veronika Franz, she’s Austrian. It’s nice, compared to what she did before with Goodnight, Mommy. This one was in Berlin this year.
AKT: I know, and it was long planned. When I spoke with her and her co-director Severin Fiala about Goodnight Mommy, and I asked them about future projects, they mentioned exactly this story of the Devil’s Bath.
FB: Oh, that’s interesting!
AKT: It’s in the feature. They were doing research about historical reports of women who were told by the religious belief system at the time [the late 18th century in Upper Austria], that if they killed someone, they would still be able to confess and go to heaven. If they committed suicide they wouldn’t. And many women, feeling desperate and trapped, took this to heart. That’s why there were all these cases of women killing mainly children, who were innocent and without sin, and then went straightaway to confess, because they thought this was the safest path.
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| David Hinton’s Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger: “It’s very good.” |
FB: Wow, this is much more interesting!
AKT: That’s the basis of their film. That’s what they were telling me.
FB: She’s great! I like her a lot.
AKT: I found it fascinating. I made it one of my festival highlights. I also saw Dana Flor’s Ani DiFranco film [1-800-ON-HER-OWN], which I thought was interesting. I am looking forward to the Powell/Pressburger Documentary [David Hinton’s Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger]!
FB: It’s very good.
AKT: What about the opening night film on Diane von Furstenberg [Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge, Directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Trish Dalton]?
FB: It’s great! It’s about fashion but not only. It’s super New York based.
AKT: I met Furstenberg together with Charlotte Rampling once at a tea she was hosting [for Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years].
FB: Wow! Whoa!
AKT: I have a picture of the two of them at the Plaza Athénée.
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| Made In England: The Films Of Powell & Pressburger has Martin Scorsese as our guide |
FB: Fantastique!
AKT: I am looking forward to seeing the documentary. What else in Tribeca this year should I not miss?
FB: There is a film in the documentary competition from Chile, which I think is extraordinary. It’s called Pirópolis [directed by Nicolás Molina], it’s a documentary about a fire in Chile. It’s really one of the most impressive films about fire, by the way by some firemen coming from France trying to fight the fire.
AKT: Wildfire [the previous year, the Tribeca cocktails on the roof were under a bright orange sky from the Canadian wildfires]?
FB: Yes, wildfire. It’s the only Chilean film here. What else did I like? There’s a film from Uruguay, which should not be missed because it’s great. It’s called The Dog Thief [directed by Vinko Tomicic].
AKT: I am always concerned with animals in films …
FB: Me too.
AKT: There’s nothing to be scared about in this one?
FB: No! I love animals and can tell you I will never recommend a film where something happens [to an animal].
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| 23rd Tribeca Festival - De Niro Con on the wall of Spring Studios Photo: Anne Katrin Titze |
AKT: Thank you! That’s good to know. I think I saw your cat in Paris once on Zoom.
FB: Yes, exactly. I love animals. The film is about the relationship of a young guy who is a shoe shiner and an older guy, Alfredo Castro, who is the most famous actor in Chile. He’s in all the Pablo Larraín films. And the film is great. It was shot in La Paz [Bolivia].
Then there is Samia [directed by Yasemin Samdereli], it’s by a Kurdish filmmaker living in Germany. She did a film supported by the Olympic Games about the girl from Somalia who was running, who participated in the Olympic Games in Beijing in the Nineties. They called her “the runner without shoes.” It’s really something. It’s a biopic, well-done, all Somalian language, a total African film MK2 is selling. There was another Somalian film in Un Certain Regard in Cannes [Mo Harawe's The Village Next to Paradise]. So the film was not in Cannes, but it’s really, really good.
Coming up - Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala on The Devil's Bath and Oliver Murray with music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman on They All Came Out To Montreux.
The World Premiere of They All Came Out To Montreux will take place on Friday, June 7 at 5:30pm with a post-screening Q&A with Oliver Murray - Village East by Angelika. Additional screenings are on Saturday, June 8 at 8:45pm - AMC 19th Street East 6 and Wednesday, June 12 at 2:00pm - Village East by Angelika.
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| Canadian wildfires triggered an Air Quality Alert for NYC on Tuesday, June 6, 2023 Photo: Anne Katrin Titze |
The International Premiere of The Devil's Bath is on Saturday, June 9 at 9:00pm with a post-screening Q&A by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala - Village East by Angelika. Additional screenings on Sunday, June 9 at 9:00pm - AMC 19th St. East 6; Thursday, June 13 at 9:15pm - AMC 19th St. East 6 - The Devil’s Bath will open at IFC Center in New York on Friday, June 21 and will arrive on Shudder starting Friday, June 28.
The Tribeca Festival runs through Sunday, June 16.
