“Paradise” and “Bent” Available During March on Film Movement Plus SVOD Platform
The Two gay Geeks received the following information via email form our friend Michael Krauss at Foundry Communications. Two films caught my attention because they concern the events around the Holocaust.
One is Paradise, a Black and White film of pre-war decadence and the impact war has on people and relationships.
The other is a film set in pre-war Germany and the oppression of the LGBT community (although it was not known as such at the time) by those seeking power.
Both films premiere on Film Movement SVOD Platform in March.
Paradise
Premieres March 1st
Olga (Julia Vysotskaya) is a beautiful Russian countess and member of the French Resistance; Jules (Philippe Duquesne) is a French-Nazi collaborator who is assigned to investigate her case; and Helmut (Christian Clauss) is a handsome, high-ranking, yet naive German SS officer who once fell madly in love with Olga and meets her again when she is shipped to a concentration camp. While they recount their stories, the film drifts between the bloody end of World War II and the gilded, halcyon days when their destinies first crossed. Victim, bystander, or monster – director Andrei Konchalovsky collapses these identities, offering a new perspective on the Holocaust. Shot in stunning black and white, the film depicts the morally complex choices that one must make during dark times in search of PARADISE – a look at the past and its lessons for the present.
The latest film by the renowned Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky (SHY PEOPLE, RUNAWAY TRAIN, TANGO & CASH, THE POSTMAN’S WHITE NIGHTS), PARADISE premiered at the 2016 Venice International Film Festival, where he won the Silver Lion for Best Director and where the film was nominated for a Golden Lion for Best Film. From there, it won awards at the Chicago, Gijon and San Francisco Jewish Film Festivals, in addition to being Russia’s official submission to the 89th Academy Awards® for Best Foreign Language Film; it was shortlisted.
Bent
Premieres March 8th
Set amidst the decadence and terror of pre-war Germany, BENT is a harrowing yet inspirational tale of struggle against oppression, based on the landmark play by Martin Sherman. A chance encounter at a Berlin nightclub exposes Max (Clive Owen) and his partner Rudy (Brian Webber) as homosexuals during the “Night of the Long Knives” purge. After two years on the run, they are captured and put on a train to Dachau, where Rudy is savagely beaten to death. Inside the camp, Max finds the will to survive through the help of a fellow prisoner, Horst (Lothaire Bluteau), and the two men develop an unbreakable bond.
Winner of the Prix de la jeunesse (Award of the Youth) at Cannes Critics’ Week in 1997, BENT, which has been digitally restored for optimal viewing, was also nominated “Outstanding Film” at the GLAAD Media Awards, and captured the Best Feature Award at the Torino International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Oscar® nominee Clive Owen (Closer, Children of Men, Sin City, “The Knick”), Oscar®-nominee Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Gods and Monsters), Lothaire Bluteau (“Vikings,” “The Tudors,” Black Robe), Mick Jagger (The Man from Elysian Fields, Freejack) and Brian Webber star, with cameos from Emmy®-nominee Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (“Game of Thrones”), Paul Bettany (Solo: A Star Wars Story, Avengers: Infinity War, Captain America: Civil War), Jude Law and Rachel Weisz.
About Film Movement Plus
FILM MOVEMENT PLUS opens up a world of provocative, compelling and award-winning films from Film Movement’s singular library. Priced at $5.99 per month with a free 14-day trial, the SVOD subscription service, currently available on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire, Android TV, mobile (iOS and Android), and Chromecast, offers consumers immediate access to 250 festival favorite feature films and 100 short films, including: THEEB, the 2016 Academy Award® nominee for Best Foreign Film; AFTER THE STORM, a powerful family drama from 2018 Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda; HUMAN CAPITAL, a political thriller from Paolo Virzi (The Leisure Seeker) that was Italy’s Best Foreign Film submission for the 87th
Academy Awards® and MY LOVE, DON’T CROSS THAT RIVER, an unforgettable documentary about true love that transcends generations and cultures and is South Korea’s most successful film of all time. Classics from the Film Movement catalog include Bille August’s PELLE THE CONQUEROR, an Academy Award® winner for Best Foreign Language Film in 1996 and much more.
About Film Movement
Founded in 2002 as one of the first-ever subscription film services with its DVD-of-the-Month club, Film Movement is now a North American distributor of award-winning independent and foreign films based in New York City. It has released more than 250 feature films and shorts culled from prestigious film festivals worldwide. Film Movement’s theatrical releases include American independent films, documentaries, and foreign art house titles. Its catalog includes titles by directors such as Hirokazu Kore-eda, Maren Ade, Jessica Hausner, Andrei Konchalovsky, Andrzej Wajda, Diane Kurys, Ciro Guerra and Melanie Laurent. In 2015, Film Movement launched its reissue label Film Movement Classics, featuring new restorations released
theatrically as well as on Blu-ray and DVD, including films by such noted directors as Eric Rohmer, Peter Greenaway, Bille August, Marleen Gorris, Takeshi Kitano, Arturo Ripstein, Sergio Corbucci and Ettore Scola. For more information, please visit www.filmmovement.com.
