thunderbolt is a 1929 american pre-code proto-noir film which tells the story of a criminal , facing execution , who wants to kill the man in the next cell for being in love with his girlfriend .

the movie was adapted by herman j. mankiewicz , joseph l. mankiewicz ( titles ) and josef von sternberg from the story by charles furthman and jules furthman .

it was directed by sternberg .

bancroft was nominated for the academy award for best actor .

thunderbolt ( 1929 film )

thunderbolt : fay wray and george bancroft star in the 1929 gangster film directed by josef von sternberg . ( ucla film & television archive )
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thunderbolt ( 1929 ) - - ( movie clip ) don ' t you . . .
was , in 1929 ) , but it was the first german sound film . th
mon 2 sep 1929 - the sydney morning herald ( nsw : 1842 - 1954 ) page 8 - new films .
thunderbolt .
the sydney morning herald ( nsw : 1842 - 1954 ) , mon 2 sep 1929 , page 8 - new films .
thunderbolt .
claire johnston , “sternberg’s thunderbolt ” , focus on film no . 2 , 1970 , p . 54 .
woman in the moon ( 1929 , germ . ) ( aka frau im mond )
diary of a lost girl ( 1929 , germ . ) ( aka tagebuch einer verlorenen )
pandora ' s box ( 1929 , germ . ) ( aka die büchse der pandora )
un chien andalou ( 1929 , fr . ) ( aka an andalusian dog ) ( short )
survival status : prints exist in the ucla film and television archive film archive [ two 35mm positives ] .
white hell of pitz palu ( 1929 , germ . ) ( aka die weiße holle vom piz palü )
a criminal known as thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution . into the next cell is placed bob moran , an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with thunderbolt ' s girl . thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young moran for romancing his girl .
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thunderbolt is a 1929 american pre - code proto - noir film which tells the story of a criminal , facing execution , who wants to kill the man in the next cell for being in love with his girlfriend . it stars george bancroft , fay wray , richard arlen , tully marshall and eugenie besserer .
a criminal known as thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution . into the next cell is placed bob morgan , an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with thunderbolt ' s girl , without knowing of their relationship . thunderbolt hopes to stave off the execution long enough to kill young morgan for romancing his girl .
in his 21 june 1929 new york times review , mordaunt hall described thunderbolt as “a musical comedy plot striving to masquerade as a drama” . its deliberately conceived absurdist structure anticipates the final act of dennis potter’s 1978 teleplay for the series pennies from heaven .
a criminal known as thunderbolt is imprisoned and facing execution . into the next cell is placed bob moran , an innocent man who has been framed and who is in love with thunderbolt ' s girl . . . . see full summary »
josef von sternberg directs with camera movement constrained by early - talkie sound recording , brassy ritzy ( fay wray ) not buckling under pressure from cop william l . thorne , asking after her old gangster boyfriend and threatening her new one ( richard arlen ) , in thunderbolt , 1929 . >
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backstage at a harlem night club ritzy ( fay wray ) has just told her fugitive boyfriend ( george bancroft , title character ) shes going straight and wants out , hes more concerned he might have a rival , until the cops show up , in thunderbolt , 1929 , directed by josef von sternberg .
backstage at a harlem night club ritzy ( fay wray ) has just told her fugitive boyfriend ( george bancroft , title character ) shes going straight and wants out , hes more concerned he might have a rival , until the cops show up , in thunderbolt , 1929 , directed by josef von sternberg . >
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every film that has ever been nominated for an academy award in any category . enjoy !
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janet bergstrom and cecilia cenciarelli summarize their research on von sternberg’s lost film the sea gull .
founded in 1999 , senses of cinema is one of the first online film journals of its kind and has set the standard for professional , high quality film - related content on the internet .
{ { cite news urltoken | title = new films .
thunderbolt .
| newspaper = [ [ the sydney morning herald ] ] | issue = 28 , 599 | location = new south wales , australia | date = 2 september 1929 | accessdate = 10 july 2018 | page = 8 | via = national library of australia } }
thunderbolt has suffered neglect in comparison to underworld . both films share common features such as the noble gangster dying for his friends and due to his kindness to animals : bull weed gives milk to a kitten while thunderbolt befriends a dog that leads to his capture . but thunderbolt undermines superficial sentimentalities derived from the earlier film by emphasising comic undertones such as the eponymous character playing doggy games before he attempts to murder bob . death row is really a vaudeville venue with thunderbolt teaching his pet dog to “play dead” before his execution ( 9 ) . but sentimentality may actually conceal deep masochistic desires . this will not be the last occasion von sternberg subverts genre conventions , utilising a particular type of masochistic performance technique he also mentions in his autobiography ( 10 ) .
a growing source of silent era film information . this listing is from the progressive silent film list by carl bennett . copyright © 1999 - 2018 by carl bennett and the silent era company . all rights reserved .
another unbelievable film from someone who is quickly becoming one of my very favorite directors , with sound design from 1929 ( holy shit ) that ' s as dense and creative as anything this side of francis ford coppola , and a performance from george bancroft that proves he ' s von sternberg ' s male dietrich .
) . despite his limited acting range , george bancroft carries the film almost singlehandedly , although his delivery is so slow that you soon become convinced that the film is being played at half its intended speed . today ,
serving as proof that josef von sternberg did make fine films before the blue angel , thunderbolt is a bizarre gangster picture which is as much a romance as a thriller .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
the film gets long during its lengthy scenes , especially after the more interesting technical methods cease . it’s decent instead of interesting .
: the “director’s cut” was released in argentina during the 1920s , with spanish intertitles and inserts made at ufa . a collector acquired a print . ( once more we have a collector to thank for saving film history . ) when the argentine film archive (
this josef von sternberg underworld melodrama ( which he did just before he went to germany and made the blue angel ) was filmed as a silent and released in that form in some places , but sound was added after the film was completed , and it was more generally released as a talkie . george bancroft is the gang leader known as thunderbolt ; fay wray is his gun moll , ritzy ; richard arlen is the bank clerk who knew her before she took up with thunderbolt , and wants to marry her . bancroft was such a genial , large - spirited actor that he makes thunderbolt likable even while he ' s framing the bank clerk for murder . the two men wind up facing each other in opposite cells on…
this list collects every film from the starting list that became they shoot pictures don ' t they ' s 1000 greatest films . this…
see , for example , s . m . eisenstein , v . i . pudovkin , and g . v . alexandrov , “a statement” , film sound : theory and practice , ed . elisabeth weis and john belton , columbia university press , new york , 1985 , pp . 83 - 5 ; v . i . pudovkin , “asynchronism as a principle of sound film” , film sound : theory and practice , pp . 86 - 91 ; lucy fischer , “ enthusiasm : from kino - eye to radio - eye” , film sound : theory and practice , pp . 247 - 264 .
) , but she also bears a resemblance—perhaps deliberately enhanced through costuming and make - up—to barbara steele and other horror - film heroines of the 1960s .
unfortunately , there’s a lot of flash in the screenplay . in terms of plotting , thunderbolt is exquisite . the first half of the film operates without a protagonist . all of the films scenes are long , but those first forty - five minutes play even longer due to the passage of time ( a couple months ) . there’s the initial setup , with fay wray and richard arlen as young lovers who get picked up by the police . it seems wray’s got an infamous paramour , played by george bancroft ( as the titular thunderbolt , a moniker describing his lethal right ) . there’s some stuff with wray and bancroft , then a very pre - code scene with wray staying with arlen and mother eugenie besserer , and finally the development into the second half of the film .
thunderbolt also uses sound expressionistically whether it originates from the sewing machine of a mother ( eugenie besserer ) , worried about a son fired from his bank job due to police pressure , or the sinister squeaking sounds from a dog’s cat ball toy that thunderbolt squeezes in his last hours on death row as he considers his revenge on bob . when thunderbolt hits someone in the black cat , a drum roll accompanies their slide to the floor . a crashing cymbal instantly synchronises with the final fall as the victim reaches the floor . although part two naturally lacks the impressive camera mobility of part one’s nightclub sequence , the limitation of space does not prevent the appearance of innovative sound techniques complementing those heard earlier . both parts complement and counterpoint each other .
following a violent incident leading to the cessation of the music , entertainment resumes with a black torch singer singing a blues song , “daddy won’t you please come home” , the lines articulating later feelings of romantic despair thunderbolt and ritzy will later experience . the nightclub sequence ends with the police raiding the club armed with tommy - guns , appearing little different from the gangsters they seek . as the lights go off , the police appear in the entrance lit in german expressionist / pre - film noir lighting . but thunderbolt escapes off - screen . the off - screen sound techniques used in the black cat nightclub scenes anticipate those later used in the death row sequence .
thunderbolt has some excellent use of sound . it’s a very early talky and i’m hesitant to say any of its uses were innovative , because the word suggests others picked up on the techniques and developed them . most of thunderbolt ‘s singular sound designs didn’t show up again in hollywood cinema for over twenty years . the way von sternberg uses on camera singers , showcasing them as a performance for the characters to watch , not for the audience to see , doesn’t resemble any of the ostensibly similar scenes in the 1930s . the overall sound design–the street scenes , the edits–resembles german film a lot more than american ; there’s a particular lack of flash to von sternberg’s tone .
thunderbolt foolishly tries to rehabilitate its protagonist ( and inevitably , i suppose ) . it just goes about it in the worse way possible . it removes the agency from the character , making his salvation a passive event . instead of being interesting , it’s de facto .
according to harold truscott , a focus on film reader from yorkshire , who saw both versions , the silent differed from the sound version by re - staging the positions of actors in certain scenes : “bancroft’s movements in the cell were different in the two films , he stood differently against the bars in the silent version . i should say , also , that the silent version was a good deal more powerful than the talkie . bancroft’s work in the cell was tremendous , but it lost some of its power in the talkie . ” his comments are similar to comparisons made between silent and sound versions of alfred hitchcock’s blackmail ( 1929 ) . see focus on film no . 5 , 1970 , p . 16 .
tony williams is professor and area head of film studies in the department of english at southern illinois university , carbondale . a frequent contributor to cteq annotations on film , he has recently published the second edition of larry cohen : the radical allegories of an american filmmaker . the second edition of hearths of darkness : the family in the american horror film is scheduled for december 2014 . the second edition of the cinema of george romero and an edited collection of essays , postcolonialism , diaspora , and alternative histories : the cinema of evans chan , will appear in 2015 .
josef von sternberg , one of the few internationally admired american directors , achieved his greatest success with his one german film . sternberg emigrated to the u . s . from austria in 1908 , and after a decade of apprenticeship in the film industry during which the “von” was added to his name by an image - minded producer , he gained wide critical acclaim with his first directorial effort ,
static but superb gangster film - it was von sternberg ' s first talkie . before the director found a muse in marlene dietrich he made three superb films with burly george bancroft who here plays the notorious gangster , thunderbolt . the film is a love triangle between the gangster , his moll ( fay wray ) and the young man ( richard arlen ) she is in love with . caught and imprisoned he frames her lover on a bank robbery charge and both men get to face each other in cells . superbly acted by bancroft who predictably plays it tough but shows the man ' s vulnerable side in his interactions with the girl , a dog and the mother of his rival . he has…
i’m not convinced that the film is quite the masterpiece that some claim , but it is a major item in powell’s oeuvre nonetheless , and i felt privileged to have seen it in ideal conditions .
the second half of the film , with bancroft on death row , is where thunderbolt starts to pick up . the character–going into the second half–is already supposed to be somewhat endearing , because he cared for a stray instead of promptly murdering arlen ( and , presumably , besserer ) . the second half doesn’t try to rehabilitate him . instead , it’s a goofy prison movie with bancroft as the gangster ( who we never actually see commit any crimes in the running time ) . there’s some decent stuff , a few good scenes here and there ; really , it’s about bancroft all of a sudden becoming the film’s lead . his performance is occasionally shaky , but it doesn’t matter . he commands the screen .
proof that for a few brief moments after the sound cinema singularity , it was possible for anti - naturalism to exist . the best film of the 1920s is a talkie . death to silent cinema !
ron mottram , “american sound films , 1926 - 1930” , film sound : theory and practice , p . 226 . he also notes the use of space in the death row sequence , dividing the cells with off - screen voices of prisoners from the unified world of the prison separated from the outside world . neither camera mobility nor creative use of mise en scène are absent from this early sound film .
, had elevated expressionism to the sound film and opened up new possibilities for its presentation . however , only von sternberg , and later orson welles , had the technical virtuosity and artistic integrity to continue the
the film is also interesting visually . with its use of high contrast black and white photography and omnipresent shadows , the film presages the film noir thriller . the one sequence of particular interest is the one in which the principal baddie , lang , ascends the staircase to confront his rival . the noirish lighting transforms the staircase into a spider ' s web in which lang becomes enmeshed and incapable of carrying out his deadly plan . the same visual motif recurs in the prison scenes , but this time lang and his rival are both caught , like flies in a spider ' s web , awaiting a cruel end .
metropolis has been reconstructed many times since the 1960s . in 2001 , the murnau foundation presented a digital restoration of the film supervised by martin koerber in collaboration with enno patalas . in this version , which is available on dvd ( transit film , kino international ) about 30 minutes of the original material are missing . in 2003 - 2005 enno patalas and anna bohn together with a team at the university of the arts in berlin created a “study edition” version in which the missing footage was represented by bits of gray leader . for the first time the full length of the film was reconstructed with help from the the original music score .
the expressionistic , shadow - laden environments are beautifully atmospheric , especially the decadent atmosphere of the cabaret stage and dressing rooms . these are meticulously crafted frames that achieve visual depth by shooting highlighted and backlit subjects through shadowy foreground scenery . the expressionist visuals are so dramatically well presented that the film can be pretty well understood without any semantic input from the sound track . in fact it may be better to watch the film without subtitles enabled .
in
thunderbolt ,
an audible production featuring george bancroft , there is a queer idea of humor , that of portraying what the producers esteem to be the lighter side of the death cell . the greater part of this production is of scenes in an aisle of barred cells , with a privileged . . . view full article in timesmachine »
the film was shot cheaply in a salzburg studio , using garish , modernist settings against black backgrounds . these create a labyrinthine , floating space that avoids seeming stage - bound . ( hein heckroth , the production designer , had previously worked on several powell films , including the red shoes and the tales of hoffman . ) i was reminded of hans - jürgen syberberg’s parsifal ( 1982 ) , which looks somewhat less original in the light of powell’s film .
the print shown was a privately held technicolor original from the era , in nearly mint condition . ( the british film institute has a print as well . ) the sparse subtitles written by powell himself were added for this screening .
, which was released in german and english language versions and which ranks with the greatest films of all time . the film marked a transition for von sternberg from his earlier harsh realism to his subsequent baudelairian obsession with feminine ambiguity and erotic v
i ' m not as crazy about the beginning of this film ( though , as one can expect , the scene in the speakeasy is as good as they come in sternberg ) , but once it reaches the jail cell , thunderbolt instantly becomes top tier . this is perhaps the most literal of the films i ' ve seen from sternberg so far , insofar as the metaphorical cage that houses the characters ' fragile , complicated sense of masculinity becomes material for the majority of the picture . it ' s a shame that sternberg and bancroft only did three films together ; they seem like a match made in cinematic heaven
still stands today as one of the stellar expressions in film history . the story charts the tragic downfall of an older german professor as a result of his ruinous infatuation with a lower class cabaret singer . the novel on which the script is based ,
writing a few months after the director’s death , she praises andrew sarris for re - evaluating the non - dietrich films but added that further reassessment suffers from the vagaries of distribution especially concerning access to the director’s first sound film then released on 16mm . despite gaylyn studlar’s examination of the von sternberg - dietrich collaboration , few detailed explorations exist of the director’s other films ( 2 ) . good copies of thunderbolt can be found only in the u . c . l . a . and m . o . m . a archives , while poor quality bootleg copies circulate on dvd and vhs . the silent version , made for general release in cinemas not equipped for sound , is unobtainable ( 3 ) .
( sometimes with only gray leader onscreen ) . the editors determined the duration of each scene by a critical comparison of the remaining film materials with the music score and other source materials . this dvd edition was released in a limited edition available to educational and research facilities . for information see
) . this scrupulous version includes the original score , a lot of production material , and the complete script by thea von harbou . it’s a model of how digital formats can assist documentation of film history . the dvd incorporates production stills and intertitles from the missing scenes , and presents each scene
the following day was the formal ceremony : thomas’ farewell speech in the university auditorium , a converted chapel . thomas and other professors , garbed in robes and caps , filed in and thomas took the floor to present his talk , “of feedback and phasmids : a farewell to film studies . ” he offered both an oblique account of his institutional political battles and a broader account of trends in film theory across the last three decades . he wove clips from master and commander into his talk , which sometimes bolstered a comparison between his tough - minded handling of the program and captain jack’s nautical tactics .
thunderbolt was josef von sternberg ' s first american talking picture . george bancroft , a von sternberg regular ( despite frequents clashes between the two men ) , plays a death row inmate who may be on the eve of eternity , but who has still one more murder on his mind . he plans to kill the young lover ( richard arlen ) of his former girl friend ( fay wray ) ; fortuitously the lover is incarcerated in the same prison where bancroft awaits the chair .
von sternberg regarded the arrival of sound technology as challenging . he also saw it as another way to stimulate audience imagination : “to be correctly and effectively used , sound had to bring to the image a quality other than what the lens included , a quality out of the range of the image . sound had to counterpoint or compensate the image , add to it – not subtract from it . ” ( 5 ) his attempt to put sound in its appropriate relationship to the image remained unnoticed except by his fellow director ludwig berger who congratulated von sternberg on making “the first rounded out and artistically elaborated sound film” ( 6 ) . thunderbolt does have its share of stilted dialogue and problems associated with the new technology . but these minor flaws should not prevent modern viewers from appreciating the innovative nature of the creative solutions von sternberg used for this new form ( 7 ) .
, a violent attack on imperial germany , written in 1905 by heinrich mann ( brother of thomas mann ) . von sternberg was to make vast alterations translating the novel , which had been an old abandoned project of g . w . pabst , to the screen , including the elimination of the last third of the novel . later when there was public criticism for those changes ( in germany ) and when , for complex political reason , ufa tried to dissociate its film from the radical leftist , mann , the author replied simply , “had i been more mature ( when i wrote it ) , i would have developed the character of professor unrath more humanly , as in the film . ”
the dog outwits the kidnappers at first appears to be a sort of sequel ( as it is described in the program ) , since it stars the same dog ( blair ) who had played rover , and again there is a kidnapped baby . it’s not really a sequel , though , since cecil hepworth , who had played the father in the earlier film , here appears as the kidnapper , and the dog is not named rover . the new film is more fantastical than the original , since the dog races after the car in which the child is abducted and rather than fetching its master , effects the rescue itself by driving the car back home when the villain leaves his victim unattended !
isual imagery . what causes this film to transcend the trivial genre of bourgeois male corrupted by bohemian female is the subtly conceived role of lola - lola . . the directness of dietrich , contrasting well with the elaborateness of jannings , established the ground for her magnetic appeal . her impassive , even sometimes sympathetic , innocence renders the fate of the professor into true tragedy .
it was a terrific two days for us , not least for witnessing the great admiration and devotion that his colleagues and students displayed . they even edited , in secret , a book in homage to him ( left ) . thomas has not only reshaped our sense of how film works , but his dedication to media education has created a generation of lively and original young scholars .
there were plenty of other revelations . we got the reconstructed prite ( was it the first really modern soviet film ? ) , a bit of an original kuleshov experiment in constructive editing , and a tantalizing fragment from the female journalist ( 1927 ) , with a surprisingly pensive hohlova as a modern - day reporter . sasha ( 1930 ) , directed by hohlova herself , was a sympathetic portrait of a pregnant woman . an educational film called forty hearts ( 1930 ) explained the need to electrify the soviet countryside and was brightened by faux - naïve animation . timur and his crew ( 1942 ) , with some of the charm of a nancy drew movie , showed young pioneers helping on the home front ; it unexpectedly centered on a girl’s devotion to her military father .
in the 1960s and 1970s , it was common to say that eisenstein and vertov were the most experimental soviet directors , while the others were more conventional . then we realized that in films like arsenal ( 1928 ) , dovzhenko had his own wild ways . then we discovered the feks team , kozintsev and trauberg , and the bold montage of the new babylon ( 1929 ) . a closer look at pudovkin , particularly his early sound films like a simple case ( 1932 ) and deserter ( 1933 ) , revealed that he too was no timid soul when it came to daring cutting and image / sound juxtapositions . but surely their mentor kuleshov , admirer of hollywood continuity and proponent of the simplest sorts of constructive editing , played things safe ?
cast : george bancroft [ ‘thunderbolt’ jim lang ] , fay wray [ ‘ritzy’ mary ] , richard arlen [ bob morgan ] , tully marshall [ the warden ] , eugenie besserer [ mrs . morgan ] , james spottswood [ snapper o’shea ] , fred kohler [ ‘bad’ al friedberg ] , mike donlin [ kentucky sampson ] , e . h . calvert [ district attorney mckay ] , george irving [ mr . corwin ] , robert elliott [ the prison chaplain ] , s . s . stewart [ negro convict ] , william l . thorne [ police inspector ] , elmer ballard , king tut
the film belongs to the late period of powell’s career , after the controversial peeping tom had made it impossible for him to work within the mainstream film industry . it was produced by norman foster —though not the norman foster who directed journey into fear and several of the charlie chan and mr . moto films . this norman foster was an opera singer whose stage career was cut short by a dispute with herbert von karajan . his widow , sybille nabel - foster , explained this and described how foster produced and starred in two television adaptations , herzog blaubarts burg and die lustigen weiber von windsor ( 1966 ) . foster had originally approached ingmar bergman to direct the former , but when that proved impossible , powell stepped in—and probably a good thing , too . it was definitely his kind of project .
thomas is also an old friend , a big influence on our work ever since his days at brighton film review and monogram , and a generous host when we were visiting london in the 1970s and early 1980s to work on our book , the classical hollywood cinema . he kindly published kristin’s lubitsch book in the amsterdam series . i wrote a little tribute essay for his sixtieth birthday festschrift , available in english here .
critical comment on the film is frequently divided between its so - called dream - like nature and its sordid realism . what is actually achieved is a brilliant synthesis of expressionism and artistic detail to bring about a realism of the imagination of memory . the expressive power arising from von sternberg’s control of the cinematic environment to its last detail results in effects even more strongly felt than those of pabst . siegfried kracauer , commenting on
both jannings and dietrich give superb performances . jannings’s highly gestural presentation , derived from his silent movie experience , leads effectively to the dramatic gestures of the clown in the final scenes . dietrich’s performance , by contrast , is a brilliantly natural presentation of the reflexively amoral and passionate aesthete . he embodies the neuroses of civilisation ; she represents the innocence of the pagan . there is nothing cruel about lola - lola , but she can’t help being who she is and she embodies her own signature song : “falling in love again” . this first sound - film performance of dietrich was never surpassed for its mixture of uncompromising and unfathomable femininity . overall , the dialogue and character attitudes are , despite the expressionistic tones in the film , very natural – they reflect an openness in the filmmaking of those days that would soon be curtailed by the hays code .
the melodrama soon kicks in ( bancroft , from prison , frames arlen and arlen ends up on death row and there’s conflict ) and the film can’t narratively recover from it . there are still some decent scenes , some excellent shots from von sternberg , and bancroft maintains . arlen , on the other hand , is silly and awful . it’s a bit of a surprise too , because he was fine during the first half .
kt : one of the high points of the week for me was michael powell’s 1964 film of béla bartók’s short opera bluebeard’s castle . it was made for german television and shown in bologna as herzog blaubarts burg . unfortunately it was programmed opposite the screening of fragments from kuleshov’s gay canary , but powell’s post - peeping tom films are so difficult to see that i made the difficult choice and gave up hope of seeing the entire kuleshov retrospective .
in 1991 thomas left the university of east anglia to form a film department at the university of amsterdam . many members of the university looked askance at the study of cinema , but he grew his program spectacularly . a department with scarcely half a dozen faculty members expanded to sixty staff members and 1400 students . the range of study is now immense , from classical cinema and dutch moviegoing in the silent era to theorizing about contemporary digital media .
as nabel - foster explained , after its initial screening on german television , herzog blaubarts burg has been shown seldom because of rights complications with the bartók estate . non - commercial screenings have occurred on public television in the u . s . and australia , but basically the film is off - limits until the copyright expires in 2015 , seventy years after the composer’s death . nabel - foster has been providently preparing for a dvd release , gathering the original materials .
josef von sternberg has suffered perhaps more than any other director from the vagaries of film criticism ; on the one hand he has been seen as a mannered , self - indulgent stylist with a trivial and dehumanized vision of the world , and on the other as a cult figure largely associated with the mystique of marlene dietrich , with whom he made seven films , beginning in the blue angel in 1930 and ending with the devil is a woman in 1935 . ( 1 )
a viewing copy will not be forthcoming immediately , given the restoration task , but sooner or later we will have a good approximation of the fullest version of one of the half - dozen most famous silent movies . getting news like this while among archive professionals is one of the unique pleasures of cinema ritrovato . ( special thanks to dr . bohn for clarification on several points and to enterprising film historian casper tybjerg , who helped me get a copy of the die zeit issue . )
although lucy fischer notes that directors such as von sternberg often used sound with “less auditory sensitivity” in shutting off sound when “characters moved from one space to another” , she loses sight of the fact that this may involve the deliberate elimination of off - screen sound to increase tension . fischer , “ applause : the visual and acoustic landscape” , film sound : theory and practice , p . 239 . hitchcock uses the same technique when alice enters the phone booth in the sound version of blackmail .
one of the biggest surprises was news of dokhunda ( 1936 ) , an ethnographically based fiction set in tazhikistan . although the film is lost , nikolai has reconstructed its plan , revealing that kuleshov adopted a strange preproduction method . he prepared “living storyboards , ” photos of the cast enacting the scenes . he then drew and scratched on them , creating busy , nervous backgrounds or changing the figures’ features and hair styles—kuleshov as pre - warhol scribbler , or a graffiti artist tagging his own images .
there looks to be no world outside of the moment and bancroft is usually at the forefront of this . von sterberg subverts sentimental motifs which , alongside the irony , seems so strangely out of place for a film that came out in the sound - period of the 20 ' s . music and dialogue acts in unity with one another working intangibly to exemplify emotions . every aspect compliments and brings the elements together . fuck , this is perfect , i ' m at a loss for words .
the interaction of the body with props occurs with a special flair in young partisans . a bolshevik partisan tells some children how a boy saved his life in a german - occupied town ( this flashback was directed by igor savchenko and functions as a short film on its own . ) having learned their lesson , the kids gather in their schoolroom and under the teacher’s eye draw a map of the partisans’ camp . but when nazi soldiers burst in , the teacher flips the blackboard over ; now all we see is algebra .
nikolai has also finished a dvd edition of prite that exemplifies what he calls hyperkino , a way of annotating and comparing a film’s images , texts , and supplementary materials for instant access . another project involves the yevgenii bauer classic , the king of paris ( 1917 ) , which kuleshov completed . we haven’t had the intertitles for this , however , but now nikolai has discovered them , and they will go on the dvd version that is being completed . for more information on these projects and dokhunda , go to urltoken .
wrong again . just as we must reevaluate the other master soviet directors ( even in their purportedly safe stalinist projects ) , so too does kuleshov deserve a fresh look . he got this thanks to yuri tsivian , who with the help of ekatarina hohlova ( right ; granddaughter of kuleshov and his main actress aleksandra hohlova ) and nikolai izvolov , mounted a superb retrospective . it ranged from kuleshov’s first solo effort , engineer prite’s project ( 1918 ) to his final film , the short feature young partisans ( 1942 - 3 , never released ) .
kt : there were several programs of silent shorts , which i could only sample , as they tended to play opposite the kuleshov films . as usual , the bologna program included selections of short films from 100 years ago , so we were treated to numerous films from 1908 . i was particularly pleased to see the dog outwits the kidnappers , directed by lewin fitzhamon , who had made rescued by rover two years earlier . that film had been so fabulously successful that it had actually been shot three times as the negatives wore out from the striking of huge numbers of release prints .
( 1930 ) , his most famous film , director josef von sternberg came to grips with the challenges of early sound cinema with this offbeat gangster melodrama . the problems posed by the early sound recording equipment defeated many a filmmaker in the late 20s , early 30s , but von sternberg fully embraced the opportunities afforded by this new cinematic development to enhance the movie - going experience . the sound highlights include a scene in a busy harlem nightspot , in which swinging cabaret numbers add greatly to the seedy atmosphere , and the later sequences in the prison , where convicts sing in chorus to counterpoint the horror of their predicament .
the great consoler reminds us of the popularity of o . henry in the soviet union , both among readers and the russian formalist literary theorists , who were fascinated by his flagrant , playful artifice . ( boris eikhenbaum’s essay on the writer is one of the most brilliant pieces of literary analysis i know . ) even though kuleshov must denounce porter for reconciling the masses to their misery under capitalism , the zest of the embedded film and the unique architecture of the overall project pay tribute to another entertainer who did not forgo experimentation . and kuleshov’s image of a writer in prison probably had aesopian significance for artists in the era of socialist realism .
kuleshov , like eisenstein , gained his fame for his ideas on editing and sound montage , but both men were deeply interested in performance . kuleshov’s idea that the film actor should become an angular mannequin carries on the impulse of meyerhold’s biomechanics , and he anticipated cgi software in suggesting that human action could be plotted on a three - dimensional grid . still , kuleshov usually gives his figures a fluid dynamism that doesn’t seem mechanical . the three narrative registers of the great consoler are delineated largely through acting : naturalistic and slowly paced in the prison scenes , rigid and posed in the shopgirl romance , and broad and eccentric in the embedded silent movie .
icknamed thunderbolt , jim lang is a hardened gangster who is hotly pursued by the police for a series of crimes that include robbery and murder . he risks capture by confronting his girlfriend ritzy in a harlem nightclub . she has made up her mind to leave him , but he has no intention of letting her go . when he learns that ritzy has moved in with her new boyfriend , a respectable young man named bob morgan , lang decides to settle the matter man - to - man with his rival . before he can reach bob ' s apartment , the crook is caught by the police and soon ends up on death - row , having been convicted of murder . lang ' s cronies successfully frame bob for an armed bank robbery and it isn ' t long before bob is occupying a cell opposite lang ' s . ritzy pleads with lang to confess to having framed bob so that he can evade the electric chair . lang is unrepentant and relishes the fact that his rival will share the same fate as him . . .
a pressbook for this film calls it
a story of a hard - fighting man who lives outside the law in the hidden places of the negro district .
quoting director josef von sternberg on casting for the harlem scenes , the pressbook continues ,
we were fortunate that los angeles has a miniature harlem of its own in its central avenue district . a thorough search gave us scores of negroes who have really lived in harlem . harlem , which extends from 125th to 140th streets , new york , brings heart - beats of southern plantations to metropolitan civilization . sensation - seeking broadwayites make these cafs possible , coming to dance shoulder - to - shoulder with habitues of this black metropolis to the beat of staccato jazz .
references : afi - f2 n . f2 . 5703 ; everson - detective p . 110 ; katchmer - eighty pp . 10 , 12 ; limbacher - feature p . 251 ; parish - gangster pp . 33 , 392 - 393 , 400 ; ryall - blackmail p . 10 ; sarris - sternberg pp . 8 , 16 , 23 - 24 ; sklar - movie p . 179 ; vermilye - twenties p . 186 : website - afi ; website - imdb .
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jermaine fowler and omari hardwick of sorry to bother you take us back in time to the worst jobs of their careers .
want to share imdb ' s rating on your own site ? use the html below .
a poor factory worker , employed by a wealthy uncle , falls in love with a beautiful heiress but his happiness and promising future are jeopardized by a previous affair with a coworker he impregnated .
a blue - collar worker on new york ' s depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide .
boisterous gangster kingpin bull weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze , but complications arise when he falls for weed ' s girlfriend .
in late 19th century vienna , lena smith , a naive peasant girl from hungary , has a child by a corrupt young cavalry officer , and goes to work his house as a servant , hiding the truth from . . . see full summary »
stopped in mexico by u . s . immigration , georges iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen .
a former imperial russian general and cousin of the czar ends up in hollywood as an extra in a movie directed by a former revolutionary .
the blue angel is a sleazy bar and the local boys go there to see lola who is the dancer . the teacher goes there to confront his students only to fall for the dancer .
the story is set in the seamy soho section of london , where burglar basher bill shares bed and board with his sluttish girlfriend annie . as wicked as they come , bill softens when he meets virtuous salvation army lass elizabeth .
joan and magdalen are the daughters of a fisherman . magdalen leaves her fiancé , peter , to run off to the big city . joan and peter marry . magdalen ' s return years later causes trouble for the . . . see full summary »
jeanne eagels plays the bored and restless leslie crosbie who turns to another man , geoffrey hammond ( herbert marshall ) for attention when neglected by her husband robert ( reginald owen ) . . . . see full summary »
' s only oscar nominated performance , though nominations were not official that year .
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movies and tv shows are certified fresh with a steady tomatometer of 75 % or higher after a set amount of reviews ( 80 for wide - release movies , 40 for limited - release movies , 20 for tv shows ) , including 5 reviews from top critics .
there is nothing edifying about this production , and it is hardly an entertainment .
george bancroft received best actor oscar nomination for this crime movie directed by von sternberg .
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at west point , 1857 , in the conceit of wally kline and . . .
father barry ( karl malden ) with a fiery sermon in the hold . . .
just the top of the
yankee doodle boy
number from george . . .
blob , the ( 1958 ) - - ( movie clip ) do . . .
jobless vin ( steve mcqueen ) blows his stake at the saloon , . . .
this is how they did it , the transition in which the . . .
2010 ( 1984 )  ( movie clip ) my god , . . .
12 angry men ( 1957 ) - - ( movie clip ) . . .
wounded zack ( gene evans ) and sidekick
short round
. . .
in the town for which the movie is named , sheriff shaw . . .
cop dave ( joe partridge ) puzzles over a series of women . . .
blinding plot speed as hildy ( pat o ' brien ) , who really is . . .
still from the opening scene , lord henry ( george sanders ) . . .
the movie debut of albert finney , at work in the raleigh . . .
backstage at a harlem night club ritzy ( fay wray ) has just . . .
leonard maltin classic movie guide , copyright 2005 , 2010 . used by arrangement with penguin group ( usa ) inc .
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a reconfiguration of underworld for the arrival of sound , so its poetry can echo on to auden (
in the prison of his days / teach the free man how to praise
) . a feline eye opens josef von sternberg ' s camera , prowling across an ankle - level row of sweethearts at night until spotting the pert moll ( fay wray ) and the bank teller ( richard arlen ) intertwined on a park bench . a police matter ,
don ' t get ritzy with me , you ritzy ,
her dream is to be
regular people
far from the gangster ( george bancroft ) . the black cat nightclub has slanted picket - fence décor and the beginnings of the innovative tessitura ( a stuttering maitre d ' side by side with theresa harris doing a torchy
daddy , won ' t you please come…
arguably the most ravishing use of sound ever , designing contrast between anti - naturalistic rapture and adorned artifice , subverting dramaturgy towards a sense of masochistic anguish , senseless pride giving way to an ontological death drive . shadows and music , a monumental performance , underlying comic tones as its matter drifts in between genres , an absolute masterpiece .
what a quirky movie . it ' s maybe the earliest dramedy i ' ve seen .
being in love with her is apt to cause you a lot of trouble , young man .
just before he traveled to germany to make the blue angel with marlene dietrich , josef von sternberg directed this , his first talkie , for paramount . filled with eccentric characters , unrestrained overacting , and off - kilter line readings , this is as much an absurdist comedy as it is an underworld melodrama . ( take the nervous warden , who frets when bancroft knocks a fellow death - row prisoner ' s block off .
listen , doc . you ' ve just got to see that this man lives ,
he says , adding ,
do something . i ' ve got to execute him tonight .
) it also features the kind of overlapping dialogue that would become robert altman ' s trademark decades later , proving just how far von sternberg was ahead of the curve .


every thing will be fine is a 2015 german drama film directed by wim wenders , written by bjørn olaf johannessen and produced in 3d .

it is wenders ’ first full-length dramatic feature in seven years .

the film stars james franco , charlotte gainsbourg , rachel mcadams and marie-josée croze .

it premiered out of competition on february 10 , 2015 at the 65th berlin international film festival .

the film made its north american premiere at the toronto international film festival on september 11 , 2015 .

it was released in the united states in a limited release and through video on demand on december 4 , 2015 by ifc films

every thing will be fine

unusual for a drama of this scale , every thing will be fine will be shot in 3d .
' every thing will be fine ' premiere - 65th berlinale internati . . .
germany - ' every thing will be fine ' photocall - 65th berlinal . . .
every thing will be fine : unemotional drama has plenty of insufficiencies add to . . .
charlotte gainsbourg attends the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the . . .
wim wenders attend the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th . . .
wim wenders and donata wenders attend the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere . . .
actor james franco attends the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th . . .
marie josee croze attends the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th . . .
wim wenders’s every thing will be fine follows writer tomas ( james franco , right ) after a tragic accident .
every thing will be fine premiered at the berlin film festival 2015 , here’s an interview with marie - josée croze .
looking for movie tickets ? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing every thing will be fine near you .
charlotte gainsbourg ( kate ) and james franco ( tomas ) deal with grief and guilt in every thing will be fine .
the film
every thing will be fine
is released in germany on april 2 and on april 22 in france .
hanway is handling worldwide rights on everything will be fine and will be preselling the title in cannes next week .
marie - jose croze ( ann ) and james franco ( tomas ) in wim wenders ' film every thing will be fine .
“every thing will be fine” premiered this week at the berlin international film festival . it is currently seeking u . s . distribution .
with every thing will be fine , [ wim ] wenders has proved that using 3d need not be confined to documentary filmmaking , but that it can be absolutely vital to drama .
every thing will be fine played at the camerimage international film festival and , courtesy of ifc , will begin its u . s . theatrical run on december 4 .
families can talk about the kind of violence in every thing will be fine . does violence that ' s not overtly depicted still have an impact ?
every thing will be fine – 25 . 04 . 2015 18 : 00 @ filmtheater am friedrichshain | ask helmut – best time out in berlin .
toronto — actor james franco is in montreal this week to begin work on every thing will be fine , the latest feature film by german director wim wenders .
united kingdom «every thing will be fine» in the uk has no theatrical release date . dvd and blu - ray release date is not available at this time .
an audi car arrives as wim wenders and donata wenders attend the ' every thing will . . .
wim wenders says he wanted to film the low - key every thing will be fine in 3d because “i realized you could look into the soul” of each character .
remains one of the most sensual experiments in that format . his reasons for sticking with it in every thing will be fine , however , are not immediately apparent .
forget the explosions and effects . wim wenders uses 3d to give characters in natural settings an unforeseen presence in his new film
every thing will be fine .
london — james franco has boarded wim wenders ’ 3d pic “everything will be fine . ”
wim wenders attend the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palace on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
charlotte gainsbourg attends the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palace on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
something is off with “every thing will be fine . ” even for a movie about a writer detached from his emotions , it’s ponderous , like a lucid dream gone bad .
actor james franco attends the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palace on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
marie josee croze attends the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palace on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
movie review : wim wenders gets hyperreal and surreal in every thing . . .
with backing from producers in no less than five countries and director of the gravitas of wim wenders - not to mention a solid cast - you ' d think every thing will be fine would be more impressive than it turns out to be .
update : rachel mcadams has joined the cast of wim wenders ’ “every thing will be fine , ” the german director’s new 3 - d drama also starring james franco and charlotte gainsbourg .
wim wenders and donata wenders attend the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palace on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
london – james franco has signed to star in director wim wenders ’ 3d project everything will be fine .
every thing will be fine also stars british actress charlotte gainsbourg , who starred opposite kirsten dunst in lars von trier’s 2011 drama melancholia , and montreal’s marie - josée croze ( the barbarian invasions ) .
' every thing will be fine ' was exactly the right type of story to experiment with this new intimate 3d storytelling , because the characters are going through so much emotionally ,
wenders explained .
[ us ] every thing will be fine ( 2015 ) after he kills a child in a car accident , a distinguished writer struggles for years to come to terms with his life and feelings of guilt .
every thing will be fine is downright strange . some of the visual choices really feel like conscious decisions to do something interesting with the format , but the strain is palpable and the subject matter is handled embarrassingly .
an audi car arrives as wim wenders and donata wenders attend the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palace on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
[ us ] every thing will be fine ( 2015 ) after he kills a child in a car accident , a distinguished writer struggles for years to come to terms with his life and feelings of guilt . : netflixbestof
berlin , germany , february 10th , 2015 : film director wim wenders , james franco , charlotte gainsbourg and marie - josée croze attend at press conference of film every thing will be fine 65th berlin international film festival .
toronto – charlotte gainsbourg and marie - josee croze have jumped on board director wim wenders ’ 3d project everything will be fine .
berlin - - canadian actress sarah polley has joined the cast of wim wenders ’ new film , everything will be fine , a family drama to be shot in 3d .
the montreal shoot will be followed by a break , and resume in winter 2014 .
every thing will be fine
was filmed in 3d . in a discussion before the premiere at the berlinale , wenders pointed out that directors mostly use 3d for effects and tricks in hollywood films , neglecting the many other possibilities offered by the technique .
every thing will be fine screens at kino cinemas , melbourne on november 22 ; sydney ' s palace norton street on november 24 ; melbourne ' s westgarth palace on november 25 and palace barracks , brisbane , on november 27 as part of the german film festival .
every thing will be fine
radiates this great peace and serenity , reminding of the director ' s earlier powerful images . it gives the impression that wenders now knows exactly what can be achieved with a simple plot and no longer constantly needs to remind his audience that speed and complexity embroils all stories nowadays .
early reviews for every thing will be fine were decidedly mixed , especially among american film trade publications such as variety and the hollywood reporter . wenders views their trouble with his latest work as a sign of the film biz’s extreme bias against new ways of exploring established formats .
producer gian piero ringel , actors robert naylor , james franco , director wim wenders and actress lilah fitzgerald ( front ) attend the ' every thing will be fine ' premiere during the 65th berlinale international film festival at berlinale palace on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
every thing will be fine centres on a struggling writer called tomas , played by james franco , who is driving home through falling snow when he hits a sled bearing two small boys as it careers down a roadside snow bank . one boy is unhurt ; the other is killed .
wenders is expected to deliver everything will be fine by the end of the year , making a premiere likely for the berlin international film festival in february .
with
every thing will be fine ,
which opens in germany ' s cinemas on thursday ( 02 . 04 . 2015 ) , wenders gave up this approach . regaining faith in the power of images , he came back to the simpler plots of his initial works of fiction .
earlier : principal photography has begun in montreal on wim wenders’ latest , “every thing will be fine , ” starring james franco , charlotte gainsbourg and marie - josee croze ( “the diving bell and the butterfly” ) . like wenders’ sublime oscar - nominated documentary “pina , ” the film will be in 3 - d . it centers on a writer whose emotional life collapses following a traumatic car accident .
screenwriter bjorn olaf johannessen , producer gian piero ringel and actors robert naylor , marie josee croze , director wim wenders and actors charlotte gainsbourg and james franco attend the ' every thing will be fine ' photocall during the 65th berlinale international film festival at grand hyatt hotel on february 10 , 2015 in berlin , germany .
the actors and the german director , who will be awarded the honorary golden bear for his lifetime achievement .
there’s something amiss in the opening moments of “ every thing will be fine . ” set to a mildly spooky strings - and - piano piece by alexandre desplat , the sequence suggests an old - fashioned murder mystery to such a degree that when the film’s title finally fades in , it feels like a false promise .
every little thing will be fine continues wenders’s fascination with 3d , which he began exploring in his visually stunning dance documentary pina . here , he takes the format further , defying the blueprint of hollywood blockbusters by using 3d not for a wham - bam action barrage , but for a slow - boiling , existential rumination on emotional scars that can only be healed by the passage of time .
“we can only try to believe that there’s meaning to this , ” murmurs charlotte gainsbourg midway through “every thing will be fine” — voicing viewers’ thoughts for the first and only time in wim wenders’ labored , lumbering melodrama . an inglorious return to narrative filmmaking for the german master , this protracted study in grief and forgiveness does [ … ]
ifc films has acquired u . s . rights to wim wenders’ “ everything will be fine , ” which stars james franco , charlotte gainsbourg , rachel mcadams and marie - josee croze .
united states distributed by ifc «every thing will be fine» in the united states theaters released on december 4 , 2015 and has grossed over $ 9k worldwide ; dvd and blu - ray release date was set for june 7 , 2016 . netflix dvd by mail rental date set for june 7 , 2016 . redbox rental date is not announced .
every thing will be fine was mostly not well received by critics . it holds a 17 % rotten rating on review aggregator website rotten tomatoes , based on 18 reviews , with an average rating of 4 . 3 / 10 . metacritic computed a rating of 34 out of 100 , based on five critics’ reviews , meaning “generally unfavorable reviews” . ( wikipedia )
no matter what : every thing will be fine because everything is possible and everything is fine . we have to accept life as it is , we don’t decide . we only have to decide on how we handle a crisis . it’s about the way we handle things , we have to take them the best way we can , and then everything will be fine . what happens to tomas is horrible , and he transforms this moment into art . that inspires him and he becomes more famous with the book about that big event in his life . i think that we have to embrace life with all the difficult things we have to endure .
the storyline in
every thing will be fine
is quite simple : a writer named tomas hits and kills a child in a car accident on a winter road in canada . tomas is not to blame for the accident , yet the tragic events trigger a crisis in the life of the author . he questions himself as a human being and even as an artist .
the opening and closing sequences of
every thing will be fine ,
the first fiction feature from german director wim wenders in almost a decade , are among the most masterful he’s created , and over the course of his long career he’s created quite a few such scenes … and , more to the point , quite a few such whole films . but bear with me .
this is the official trailer for the movie every thing will be fine man up : urltoken masterminds : urltoken yo filmbuddy ! abonneer je nu gratis voor film trailers , movie reviews en updates ! urltoken is the official trailer for the movie rio i love you . man up : urltoken masterminds : urltoken yo filmbuddy ! abonneer je nu gratis voor film trailers , movie reviews en updates ! urltoken
it will also be selling the updated version of bernardo bertolucci ’s the last emperor 3d to buyers after it unspools as a cannes special .
wenders put his — or , at least , his producers’ — money where his mouth is by shooting his latest feature , every thing will be fine , mostly in oka , with a few scenes in montreal . starring james franco , charlotte gainsbourg , rachel mcadams and marie - josée croze , the 3d drama tells the story of a handful of characters coping with the after - effects of a tragedy over 14 years .
ifc films has acquired u . s . rights to wim wenders’ “everything will be fine , ” which stars james franco , charlotte gainsbourg , rachel mcadams and marie - josee croze . the 3d drama will make its north american premiere at the toronto international film festival in the masters section . ifc films will release the film on dec . 4 . wenders directed from [ … ]
while it may sound like one of the platitudes that james franco ‘s character is accused of delivering at one point , the title of wim wenders ‘ new film “ every thing will be fine ” contains a clue to its approach and it’s in that space between “every” and “thing . ” this is very much a film about things —not objects , not any particular thing , but things . characters wonder how things are going . they worry things are not working out . they ask how things are with each other . they wish they could make things better . they lament the fact they want different things . and when they have no other recourse to explain events , they blame things for doing what things do : happening .
“it wasn’t me who chose the story , it chose me“ , says wim wenders : ‘every thing will be fine’ came to me in an unexpected way , in the form of a screenplay in the mail , sent to me by bjørn olaf johannessen . “ the german director had met the young norwegian screenwriter during the sundance script lab where johannessen’s screenplay “nowhere man“ had received the top prize from the jury chaired by wenders . impressed by the originality of his idea , the clarity of its structure , the quality of the dialogues and the natural simplicity , he encouraged the young author to send him his next screenplay . in fact , johannessen did this three years later , and wenders liked this first draft of “every thing will be fine“ so much that together with his producer gian - piero ringel they decided to option the script and to start its development already during the postproduction on “pina“ .
since the script was written by the norwegian bjorn olaf johannessen , one suspects the answer is that it’s actually norway , but the film , a five - way co - pro shot in quebec and norway , brings out the cultural nationalist in me . i don’t think canada is a better place than anywhere else , i just think it is a place . every thing will be fine is located in some 3 - d la - la land .
“and i cast rachel mcadams because of that incredibly positive energy that she exudes in every role . ”
london — james franco has boarded wim wenders’ 3d pic “everything will be fine . ” franco will play tomas , a writer who accidentally causes the death of a child and spends the next 12 years examining the effect of the tragedy on his life and that of kate , the child’s mother . wenders said the film was [ … ]
the film will be released in germany and canada in 2014 , via warner bros . and mongrel media , respectively ; no word yet on a stateside release .
the 3d drama will make its north american premiere at the toronto international film festival in the masters section . ifc films will release the film on dec . 4 .
so perhaps every thing will be fine is supposed to be the director’s back - to - basics movie , putting him in the mode of the ’50s hollywood dramas ( see : alexandre desplat’s throwback score ) that haunted his early german films like dreams—and maybe wenders has just depleted whatever basics he could go back to . there are exactly two interesting things about every thing will be fine . the first is the use of 3 - d as a stand - in for the rapturous use of color in classic melodramas ; it works for the first 10 or so minutes , which are set in the dead of winter . then the viewer realizes that all of the ideas wenders has cooked up for 3 - d involve falling snow , and that the rest of the movie is set in the spring , summer , and fall seasons of an 11 - year period , and mostly consists of awkwardly staged conversations with a 2 - to - 1 ratio of heavy pauses to actual dialogue , occasionally spruced up with a reflection or a barely motivated vertigo - style dolly - zoom .
this would be an easy film to mock . johannessen’s script is often leaden while wenders’s style is unfashionably unflashy , the pace only just this side of ponderous . but the picture has sincerity on its side , as well as the nagging eeriness of a score ( by alexandre desplat ) that verges on the herrmann - esque . and while it’s tasteful , even unadventurous , every thing will be fine isn’t too timid to address the restorative effect of trauma on creativity . “your books from before the accident weren’t as good , ” someone tells tomas in one of several authentic “ouch” moments .
tomas eldan , the canadian novelist played by james franco in wim wenders’ lame 3 - d melodrama every thing will be fine , always looks like he’s ready to zonk out for a nap . as a matter of fact , he’s introduced waking up from one , in an ice shack that doubles as his writing room , and he moves through every subsequent scene as though he were searching for a light switch on the way to the bathroom . is it too perfect that when the movie finally perks up , which is in its last 20 or so minutes , it’s in a scene where tomas drinks a cup of coffee ? or that its muffled climax has him discovering that an intruder has pissed all over his bed ? every thing will be fine , ostensibly about a writer who realizes his dreams on the back of someone else’s nightmare , resembles nothing more than the story of one man’s decade - long quest to get some quality zzzz s . it probably couldn’t ask for a more fitting star than franco , who has eyes like the headlamps of a beat - up old corvette stingray , stuck halfway between open and closed .
this is all pitched in a very earnest key , but it’s not necessarily rooted in reality — or so i like to think . if the case should be otherwise , every thing will be fine is as lugubrious as that space separating the first two words of its title . as one who feels little excuse to defend wenders , however — e . g . his sincere , meant - to - be - awe - inspiring until the end of the world is far and away the best “comedy” i’ve seen in theaters this year — i say with no small amount of confidence that this , however clunky , is ( mostly ) meant to be taken much in the same way we should process douglas sirk or nicholas ray . change the muted blues and greys to bright reds and yellows , and the continuation of a tradition might be clearer .
it’s possible that “every thing will be fine” is understated to a fault , that excavating its deeper meanings is deliberately impeded rather than enabled by its gently casual vibe . a laughably wooden leading turn from franco isn’t anything to voice disappointment in these days , but the extent to which his monotonous laziness infects the rest of the picture suggests catastrophically low expectations on his director’s part . indeed , while the measure of a filmmaker can often be the performances she elicits from younger cast members , it has to be said here that those by robert naylor as 17 - year - old christopher and lilah fitzgerald as ann’s daughter mina are shockingly flat — was it that uninspiring to perform opposite franco ?
after he completed pina , his much lauded 3 - d documentary about choreographer pina bausch , german director wim wenders became a vocal defender of the technology , arguing it could revolutionize an intimate drama as much as it had a dance film . and so , we are treated to the bizarre international co - production every thing will be fine , a small but taut drama in which the beautiful physical details jumping off the screen only serve to emphasize an ill - defined setting and major insufficiencies in the script and performances .
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every thing will be fine , based on an original script by the norwegian bjørn olaf johannessen , tells the story of tomas ( james franco ) , a writer who loses control of his life after a car accident . even though he is not directly at fault , his relationship with his girlfriend breaks down because of this event and his life and work suddenly set off in a completely new direction . the film follows tomas over a period of 12 years and tells an intimate story of guilt and the search for forgiveness .
“every thing will be fine” is far from a perfect film . but wenders is trying to do new things within the confines of a pretty standard european art - film scenario , and the viewer can see he’s not approaching the material as though it’s rote ; he’s really trying to use the camera to get through the feelings of loss the characters suffer . wenders is also the author of a book of essays called “emotion pictures , ” and he once again brings some honor to that concept with this flawed but intriguing work .
“we can only try to believe that there’s meaning to this , ” murmurs charlotte gainsbourg midway through “every thing will be fine” — voicing viewers’ thoughts for the first and only time in wim wenders ’ labored , lumbering melodrama . an inglorious return to narrative filmmaking for the german master , this protracted study in grief and forgiveness does little to suggest his time hasn’t been better spent making documentaries for the past seven years . imprisoning james franco in the role of an emotionally constipated writer taking 10 years to process a fatal car accident , “fine” is unlikely to arouse much empathy from auds , who may instead spend most of the running time wondering why wenders chose to dramatize these dingy proceedings in advanced 3d . despite this arthouse novelty and a name cast , the conviction of the title will not be shared by distributors .
every thing will be fine is wenders ' first fiction film in a decade ; even if it is a failed experiment , he is at least striking out into new territory . the fact that other serious film - makers have largely avoided 3d frustrates him .
when we started to prepare this film four years ago , i was convinced it was going to be one of many by the time it came out ,
he says .
i was convinced . maybe it is the bad reputation 3d gathered , all those roller - coaster effects , so they think ' oh , it ' s going to ruin my story because everybody thinks this will be an effects - driven movie ' .
but this , he believes , is the future . we just have to learn to work with it .
gian - piero ringel will produce through his and wenders’ neue road movies . production will begin in montreal on aug . 15 . the screenplay is by norwegian writer bjorn - olaf johannessen .
as soon as he finished pina , he says , he knew he had to bring that perceptive power to fiction .
it is almost mathematical . one camera sees one thing ; two cameras , it ' s almost like they see two by two , that ' s four . they quadruple it . i wanted those cameras to work like a magnifying glass , to use that for a story .
it took another five years , during which he made the oscar - nominated 2014 documentary the salt of the earth , until he came to berlin film festival with every thing will be fine , a drama of grief and loss made in seamless , gimmick - free 3d .
one day , driving aimlessly around the outskirts of town after a trivial domestic quarrel , a writer named tomas accidentally hits and kills a child . will he be able to move on ?
hanway films reps the film in international markets , and will introduce it to buyers at cannes .
gian - piero ringel will produce the 3d movie through his and wenders’ production banner neue road movies .
set in quebec , every thing will be fine starts with an accident , in which tomas’ wood - paneled jeep wagoneer strikes and kills a toddler on a snowy rural road . in the years that follow , he goes through the usual stages of burnout protagonism ( including the most important one : holing up in a motel room full of empty liquor bottles ) , eventually emerging as the acclaimed author of this is a room and assorted other books whose titles and covers resemble the lit - fic parodies from listen up philip . finally , just as tomas has settled into a cozy life with a family of his own in , yes , a glass house , the now - teenage brother of the boy shows up to collect what’s due , accusing him of using a tragedy in which he played a brief but pivotal role for a bookshelf’s worth of creative inspiration , pinpointing how even seemingly innocuous passages in tomas’ fiction trace back to that fateful evening . at this point , a reader might think that all of this sounds like a decent set - up for , say , an arthouse suspense flick about bourgeois mores , à la michael haneke . it is , but every thing will be fine isn’t that film .
every thing will be fine is the story of the author tomas eldan . one day a car accident transforms his life . even though he is not directly to blame for this tragedy , it still causes his relationship with his girlfriend to break apart . tomas falls into a deep hole . he seeks retreat in his writing and tries to start his own family with a new love . the film looks at tomas’ attempt to give his life meaning again and recounts his search for forgiveness . it is not time alone that heals wounds but the courage to face up to things and to forgive . especially oneself .
wenders is keeping details of everything will be fine under wraps , but the plot - - from a script by norwegian screenwriter bjørn olaf johannessen - - is believed to focus on a german magician who disappears in the wilds of rural norway . gian - piero ringel , who produced wenders’ 3d dance documentary pina , is also on board .
in the 3d film , the actor will play a writer who accidentally causes the death of a child .
“every thing will be fine” unfolds by means of an elliptical timeframe ; frequent fades conclude scenes at incongruous junctures ; dialogue exchanges seem designed primarily to retain an opaque air rather than further character . on a better day this might have recalled atom egoyan at his peak — the wintry setting and the latent traumas sparked by an extraordinary incident certainly bring “the sweet hereafter” to mind . but the creative choices of wenders and co . have resulted here in a work that sadly invites derision . guffaws rang out at several points in the first press screening at the berlin international film festival , which also concluded with a damningly tokenistic applause .
directed by wim wenders , with james franco , marie - josée croze , rachel mcadams and charlotte gainsbourg . every thing will be fine , based on an original script by the norwegian bjørn olaf johannessen , tells the story of tomas ( james franco ) , a writer who loses control of his life after a car accident . even though he is not directly at fault , his relationship with his girlfriend breaks down because of this event and his life and work suddenly set off in a completely new direction . the film follows tomas over a period of 12 years and tells an intimate story of guilt and the search for forgiveness .
coming from many other veteran auteurs , a film as tone - deaf and structurally haphazard as “every thing will be fine” — no explanation is given , incidentally , for the title’s irksome spacing — would sound an alarming career alert . coming from wenders , freshly oscar - nominated for his gleaming , gorgeous sebastiao salgado tribute “the salt of the earth , ” this unfortunate diversion merely suggests that the creative instincts and impulses that once yielded the marvelous likes of “paris , texas” and “wings of desire” have shifted permanently to the realm of nonfiction ; after all , 2008’s oddly conceived meta - thriller “palermo shooting” likewise found him firing on precious few cylinders .
basically the story of a man forced to finally see the injustice around him . riley’s movie is designed to do the same thing to you . …
“i am convinced that the medium of 3d will be able to open up an entirely new dimension of emotional closeness to our story and its protagonists , ” said wenders , who made the acclaimed 2011 documentary pina in 3d .
region : region 2 ( this dvd may not be viewable outside europe . read more about dvd formats . )
netherlands released , pal / region 2 dvd : languages : english ( dolby digital 5 . 1 ) , french ( dolby digital 5 . 1 ) , dutch ( subtitles ) , french ( subtitles ) , widescreen ( 1 . 78 : 1 ) , special features : interactive menu , scene access , synopsis : while driving aimlessly after a quarrel with his girlfriend , a writer accidentally runs over and kills a child . the accident and its aftermath deeply traumatizes him . over the next 12 years , he struggles to make sense of what happened and continue on with life , but when he looks in the mirror , he sees a murderer . . . . every thing will be fine
in theory , i agree with you . and in practice , “every thing will be fine” wears a certain preciosity on its sleeve , starting with the title , with its deliberately broken “everything , ” oy . one might suspect the new sincerity in action , except that wenders has always been a one - hundred percent sincere filmmaker , whether creating such acute stories of existential anxiety as “ the american friend , ” luminous , mysticism - laden parables of love like “ wings of desire , ” or atrociously soft - headed meditations on being a man out of time , as in his dire 2008 “palermo shooting , ” his most recent fiction feature and not a particularly good omen for this one .
of course ! tragedy is a catharsis , it’s like the big bang for me . every tragedy brings you something positive . the opposite of life is stillness , so tragedy also means life for me . human beings are always afraid of what will change and what will be different . painful moments in our lives bring us more strength and knowledge , and , sometimes , we decide to change our ways because of something that feels like a tragedy . change is life , so i’m not afraid of changing .
based on an original script by norwegian bjørn olaf johannessen , wim wenders tells the story of the author tomas ( james franco ) in every thing will be fine . one day a car accident transforms his life . even though he is not directly to blame for this tragedy , it still causes his relationship with his girlfriend to break apart . tomas falls into a deep hole . he seeks retreat in his writing and tries to start his own family with a new love . the film looks at tomas’ attempt to give his life meaning again and recounts his search for forgiveness . it is not time alone that heals wounds but the courage to face up to things and to forgive . especially oneself .
it is fair to say that every thing will be fine was not well received , even in wenders ' home town . he says he was attracted to the script by bjorn olaf johannessen – it was originally set in johannessen ' s native norway , but is now relocated to quebec – because he liked its narrative construction . slices of story , played out in roughly real time , are cut from a time frame spanning 14 years ; it is up to the viewer to guess what has happened in between . critics and audiences found these plot omissions , oddly timed fades and opaque dialogue frustrating at best , laughable at worst . even the all - star cast was seen as collectively working below par .
tomas’ situation worsens considerably when , driving in a blinding blizzard , he runs over the young son of illustrator and single mother kate ( charlotte gainsbourg ) , at least managing to save the boy’s older brother christopher ( jack fulton ) . kate , a melancholic , god - fearing soul , is distraught but ultimately bears her son’s accidental killer no ill will ; tomas , on the other hand , finds it harder to forgive himself , leaving sara and going into a psychological tailspin that culminates in an idle suicide attempt . thus is the stage set for a decade - spanning survey of emotional catharsis and self - confrontation , effectively dropping in on tomas every few years to check if everything ( or , indeed , every thing ) is fine yet .
mcadams will take the role of franco’s writer character’s girlfriend , a role which once had director - actress sarah polley attached .
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parents need to know that every thing will be fine is a relationship drama that stars well - known actors james franco and rachel mcadams but is unlikely to appeal to younger audiences . the movie not only revolves around a heavy theme - - the death of an unknown child in a car accident - - but it ' s contemplative and plays out across many years in a way that most teens will likely find tedious . there ' s quite a bit of substance use - - to the point of a character ' s suicide attempt - - as well as some drinking by a not - quite - legal - adult . there ' s also a scary moment when someone is trapped during a freak accident at a local fair . families who do see the film together may want to discuss healthy and unhealthy ways to handle grief and tragedy .
a three - hankie weepie that harks back in its melodramatic rhythms and constantly moves forward ( or so it at least thinks ) with its use of digital 3d , every thing will be fine , wim wenders ‘ first narrative feature since palermo shooting , is always flirting with being a white elephant . it would only require , say , two more bad scenes — more bizarre choices with regard to the performances , more bits of dialogue that get to the heart of a character’s grief with the grace of a drunk lumberjack , or at least fewer pretty images — to teeter into chaos . and this is what ultimately makes the picture most worthwhile : even those moments that raise the eyebrows sky - high still have a weird integrity and determination skating under the surface .
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production began mid - august in montreal and wrapped mid - september but they will return in january / february to shoot the winter scenes .
wim wenders ' fascination with 3d cinematography began with his acclaimed documentary pina about dancer pina bausch , and continued in the multiple - director omnibus cathedrals of culture last year . perhaps no one outside of james cameron has intuited the potential of 3d as well as the german director , and it was high time to try out these technical advances in a piece of dramatic fiction . but unfortunately , the awkwardly titled every thing will be fine seems more like a showcase for expressive camerawork pushing the limits of cinematography than anything else . actors the caliber of james franco and charlotte gainsbourg get the short end of the stick in this angst - ridden drama about a writer who is tormented by the accidental death of a child . there is dramatic tension here , but all things considered , this ranks as a puzzling failure .
in the past decade , the director of the
buena vista social club
rather focused on making documentary films , the most recent one being
the salt of the earth .
now wim wenders is back with a new fiction film , and his fans will be delighted .
perhaps the most incongruous scene of all , though , is that in which tomas walks mina home from school one day , along a rural river path . their conversation revolves around a word tomas had brought to mina’s attention at an earlier point that is overused and literally meaningless in everyday conversation . on first inspection that word seems to be “like , ” for mina seems to make a point of , like , saying it as often as she , like , can . but upon reflection , the word could also be “fine” — the go - to adjective that encompasses all our emotional states , whether fraught , joyous or even bereft . indeed , a fine film !
“i chose the actors for being able to play their parts in an utterly minimalistic way , ” he said . “i knew the 3d cameras would see every little exaggeration , and that they would see more than any camera ever before . so these actors had to become these people . they weren’t allowed to play them — they had to be them .
poetic feature films like
wings of desire
and
paris , texas
are on every film student ' s must - see list and established wim wenders as one of the greats of cinema .
wim wenders loves montreal . if our city had its own equivalent of the i ( heart ) ny t - shirt , he would be rocking it .
that notion might make you gag , and could have very well soured the project much further if every thing will be fine wasn’t so consistency a pleasure to observe . it would stand as a well - measured work of directing in two dimensions — the recurring assemblage of shots and cuts to build tension , dread , and portent , and the ability to separate those close - but - distinct feelings , is terrific in and of itself — but the union of wenders , cinematographer benoît debe , and stereographer joséphine derobe produces images that range from accomplished ( speaking for the most essential aspects of image - making ) to outright beautiful . the 3d is impressive as a showcase , more so as a supplement to drama : the way it brings so many of the close - ups into an almost - direct contact ; the emphasizing of an actor’s numerous facial tics ; the enhancement of atmosphere in correlation to the clear - as - day emotions dictating the drama .
wenders has a history of employing exceptional cinematographers ( such as robby müller ) , and here gets fine work from benoit debie , whose glowing landscapes and interiors contribute at least as much as the script .
desplat who recently received his seventh and eighth academy award nomination for his music for the grand budapest hotel and the imitation game also has scored the drama suffragette starring carey mulligan & meryl streep , which will be released later this year . the composer’s upcoming projects also include matteo garrone’s the tale of tales and roman polanski’s d .
for one , it takes almost the entire movie to introduce a lone demitasse of dramatic tension ( i . e . , the set - up described in the above paragraph ) , and then , it more or less spits it out on the floor . every thing will be fine is a critic’s worst nightmare , which is to say that it’s really goddamn boring—the kind of boring that is tough to write about , and which inevitably threatens to bring out everyone’s inner hack , cycling through synonyms to keep the prose lively ( “dull , ” “tedious , ” “stultifying , ” etc . ) , all the while fighting the urge to just start nitpicking things that might be endearing in a better film . ( sure , no two members of the cast here have the same accent , but neither does anyone in the scarlet empress . ) why ? wenders ( paris , texas ; wings of desire ) used to be one of the hippest and most cosmopolitan filmmakers around , a director of road trips and existential metaphors that twirled out into long passages of poetic observation . but somewhere around the 1990s , his fiction films started to get soft and fat , distended by cameos and travel - guide backdrops—the kind of stuff that had spun his best films , but now lacked a motor of ambition .
the admirable craziness — the sort that doesn’t announce itself or use that quality to pervert every individual moment — doesn’t necessarily subside , and thus neither does my affection . wenders and co . have created something at once unidentifiable and part of a long cinematic tradition , which speaks to me as a sign that it , no matter the initially poor reception , will have time to grow .
every thing will be fine follows tomas ( james franco ) , an aspiring writer whose life is irrevocably changed one winter day after he accidentally strikes two young brothers who are sledding , and only one of the boys survives . tomas , who was out driving that day after a disagreement with his then - girlfriend , sara ( rachel mcadams ) , breaks things off with her . eventually , he writes a best - seller and enters a serious relationship with grounded single mother ann ( marie - josee croze ) , a literary editor at tomas ' publishing house - - but he never forgets the accident and even checks in on the grieving mother ( charlotte gainsbourg ) who lost her son under his car . more than a decade after the accident , the surviving son , christopher ( robert naylor ) , now a mature teen , begins to stalk tomas in hopes of connecting with the man who showed him such compassion , even while being responsible for his brother ' s death .
tragedy is random and unavoidable , and overcoming it can be slow , painful , and all - consuming . positive message about how creativity can flourish after grief .
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rules weren’t meant to be broken when it comes to tv episode lengths , but these 10 examples — introduced on the very good tv podcast — are clear exceptions .
jeremy thomas ' u . k . - based sales and finance banner hanway films will handle international sales and tout wenders ' vision to buyers at the upcoming marche du film .
franco bears all this with sleepy good grace and doesn’t overdo the brooding , despite playing a man who has never met a window out of which he didn’t want to stare pensively . gainsbourg isn’t given much to do ; most of it is so over - familiar that there seems every danger she will react to the loss of her child by decamping to a woodland cabin to perform a self - clitoridectomy à la antichrist .
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the actress and director both love the genre , but as they told indiewire , they also knew it needed to be retrofitted to tell the true story of catherine weldon and sitting bull .
this is an intimate drama where the action takes place in living rooms , offices , cafes and cars . when there is an explosive incident , it tends to be shunted off - screen . the closest that the use of 3d comes to the spectacular is the shot of a kitchen curtain fluttering in the foreground , revealing autumnal fields stretching into the distance as far as the earth will allow .
new copyright filters in the eu : platforms like youtube have to filter uploads by users for copyright infringements . critics fear the end of memes and say this will destroy the internet as we know it .