Martin Scorsese was presented with the Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on Tuesday evening, with old friend German director Wim Wenders paying a warm personal tribute to the director.
19.02.2024 - 20:25 / variety.com
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic At age 17, there are only so many ways a high school student can flee a suffocating life. Bullied by her fellow students, Fanny (Lilith Grasmug) tried to commit suicide — or so she says — but fortunately, that didn’t work. Now, this shy, self-questioning and clearly troubled teen is counting on a foreign exchange program to make a fresh start, escaping to Leipzig, Germany, to get away from the mean girls back home in Strasbourg, France.
“Party Girl” co-director Claire Burger’s third feature, “Langue Étrangère,” splits its time between the two cities. The first half takes place in Leipzig, where Fanny forms an intense intellectual and erotic connection with her German pen pal, Lena (Josefa Heinsius). Fanny’s host is practically hostile when this uninvited foreigner first shows up, but that’s before a disarmingly candid (and frequently dishonest) Fanny starts to share stories invented to earn sympathy.
By the second half, when activist-minded Lena comes to visit her in France, the two girls are practically inseparable, encouraging one another’s rebellion in increasingly dangerous ways. By the third act, what began as a teenage crush has snowballed into an alarming flirtation with the black bloc protest movement. Translated into English, the double-meaning of the film’s title — “Foreign Tongue” — takes on a more overtly sexual connotation, one that could prove misleading if marketed under that name.
Martin Scorsese was presented with the Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on Tuesday evening, with old friend German director Wim Wenders paying a warm personal tribute to the director.
Jack Sweeney is ready to go to-to-toe with Taylor Swift over the whole jet tracking debacle.
Holly Jones Simmering teen angst meets social awareness in “Red Flags,” an Atresplayer Original created by award-winning author and playwright Nando López, whose novel “The Age of Anger” was previously adapted for television by Lucía Carballal (“Locked Up”) and backed by The Mediapro Studio (“The Head”) and Atresmedia TV (“Money Heist”). The project features within the second annual Next From Spain Sessions part of the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Series Market, providing a first look at anticipated Spanish-language programming from industry heavy hitters that include the series producers Atresmedia TV and Zeta Studios.
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A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.
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