MK2 Films Sells Koji Fukada’s Venice Competition Film ‘Love Life’ to Key Markets (EXCLUSIVE)

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full industry lineup, which will include keynote conversations with the Italian producer and CEO of Apartment Pictures Lorenzo Mieli and Fionnuala Jamison of MK2 Films.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent “The Worst Person in the World” actor Anders Danielsen Lie and Gard B. Eidsvold (“Wisting”) are set to headline Erik Poppe’s “Quisling.” The film charts the last days of Vidkun Quisling, the former Prime Minister of Norway who was a notorious Nazi collaborator during World War II. The project also comprises a TV series which has been commissioned by TV2. Danielsen Lie will play the priest Peder Olsen who acted as Quisling’s counselor in prison until he was executed on Oct. 24, 1945. Set to start shooting this week, the film is produced by Paradox, SF Studios’ Norwegian production company.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winning film “Triangle of Sadness” has been sold by Coproduction Office to major distributors around the world. “Triangle of Sadness,” which was acquired by Neon for North America at the Cannes Film Festival, just had its North American premiere at Toronto and is playing at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Coproduction Office has now sold the movie worldwide to major distributors. Recent deals have been closed with Stay Golden (China), Edko (Hong Kong), Impact (India), Gaga (Japan), Green Narae (South Korea), Catchplay (Taiwan), TBA Studios (Philippines), Sun (Latin America), Frontrow (Middle East), Forefont (South Africa) and Les Films 26 (French-speaking Africa). 

Emily Longeretta MTV is kicking off its first-ever relationship mystery competition series. “Love at First Lie,” hosted by Tori Spelling, will premiere on MTV in the US and in more than 170 countries around the world on Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 9:30 p.m. The reality show will consist of 12 episodes as the viewers try to figure out who is in real relationships and which pairs are faking it. MTV’s official logline reads, “Power games test their relationships and give insight into who could be telling the truth or lying through their teeth. At the end of each episode, during the Truth Ceremony, the couples must eliminate who they think is lying about their love from the competition. If they guess correctly and kick out liars, they add $25,000 to the prize fund each time. Only one couple can win and take home the entire prize pot, but will they be lovers, or will they be liars?”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami-based international sales agent FiGa Films has swooped on worldwide rights to satirical comedy “Love & Mathematics” by Claudia Sainte-Luce ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival. In February, the busy Sainte-Luce debuted her previous film, “The Realm of God” (“El Reino de Dios”), at the Berlinale. Produced by Christian Kegel of Jaqueca Films, “Love & Mathematics” turns on the ambitions and aspirations of upper-middle-class Mexican society and stars Roberto Quijano, Diana Bovio and Daniela Salinas. Penned by playwright and screenwriter Adriana Pelusi, “Love & Mathematics” marks the first time Sainte-Luce has directed from someone else’s screenplay. This is her fifth feature. Set in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, the wry comedy follows Billy Lozano, who’s suffering from an existential crisis as his glory years in a hit boy band are now past him. In his late 30s and miserable in his marriage, his daily routine consists of taking care of his infant son and tolerating his wife’s annoying lap dog. His life takes a turn when he meets Monica, once an uber fan of the band, who moves in next door. She inspires him to pick up the guitar again and find meaning in life once more.

Harry Styles spit on his costar, Chris Pine. It all started at the Don’t Worry Darling premiere, which has proven to be one of the most dramatic releases in Hollywood.There were people on both sides of the theory arguing for hours with internet detectives finding different angles, and slowing down the footage.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has closed distribution deals for Italy and Greece following the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The Israeli-Ukrainian co-production plays in Venice’s Horizons Extra section, and will have its North American premiere on Sept. 14 at Toronto Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section. Rome-based P.F.A Films Srl will distribute the film in Italy, with a theatrical release planned for April 2023. The company’s recent titles include “Fabian – Going to the Dogs” by Dominik Graf, “The Audition” by Ina Weisse, and “Border” by Abbasi Ali.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Les Films Pelleas, the Paris-based banner behind Mia Hansen-Love’s “One Fine Morning” (pictured), is set to produce Guillaume Senez (“Our Struggles”)’s next project, as well as the feature debut of Anne-Sophie Bailly whose short “The Midwife” is currently playing at Telluride. The Paris-based banner’s roster of completed roster includes Karim Moussaoui’s “L’Effacement,” and Annie Ernaux’s documentary “Les annes Super-8.” “Mona” revolves around around a woman in her 60’s who raised alone her disabled son and is at a point in her life where she aspires to start caring for herself. But when her son is unexpectedly having a baby, Mona finds herself with another heavy responsibility to bear.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Even the most solidly founded of marriages can be strained and shattered by the death of a child. For handsome, wholesome Japanese couple Taeko and Jiro, however, that tragedy shows up all the fault lines that were already in their young relationship, and that’s before living ghosts of the past show up for both partners. Koji Fukada’s “Love Life” unabashedly embraces melodramatic contrivance in its examination of modern middle-class love tested as much by social prejudices as by personal demons; it just does so with such pallid, polite reserve that its sentimentality never becomes transcendently moving. As such, this agreeable but overlong pic finds the Japanese writer-director still struggling to regain the form of his jolting 2016 Cannes prizewinner “Harmonium.”

Grief and guilt are the twin quiet rivers running beneath Koji Fukada’s ambiguously titled Venice competition entry Love Life, a delicately tangled story of generational conflict and the silences that, without being overtly aggressive, can drive people apart. Anyone familiar with the work of Japan’s greatest cinema maestro, Yasuhiro Ozu, will recognize the general territory. It is a space within which tectonic social shifts are disguised under layers of traditional social observance, often involving large meals, and where profound emotions may be — and often must be — contained within a glance.

Julia Roberts and George Clooney gave fans a look into their filming process. The duo revealed a scene in "Ticket to Paradise" involving a single kiss took "like, six months" to film in a recent interview with the New York Times. "Yeah.

The tragedy at the center of “Love Life,” the new film from Japanese director Kōji Fukada which premieres in Competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, does not come to disrupt a perfectly happy family. Cracks are visible in the facade of the life shared by Taeko (Fumino Kimura) and Jiro (Kento Nagayama) even before the fatal accident that claims the life of Keita (Tetta Shimada), her young son from a previous marriage.

Trace Lysette arrives at the premiere of her new film Monica at the 2022 Venice Film Festival on Saturday (September 3) in Venice, Italy.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Ari Folman (“Waltz With Bashir”), Nadav Lapid (“Ahed’s Knee”) and Hagai Levi (“Our Boys”) are among a group of 250 Israeli filmmakers that has signed an open letter to protest against the recently launch of the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund. The Fund, which held its inaugural film festival in the occupied West Bank in July , was founded by Miri Regev, the controversial former culture minister of Israel who was highly criticicized within the local film community for her right-wing views. Regev was believed to have put pressure on the Israel Film Fund to ban films that were critical of Israel from receiving subsidies. The signatories of the public letter said they will not seek funding from, nor cooperate with the Shomron (Samaria/West Bank) Film Fund and have urged the Israeli Academy of Film and Television not to partake in “whitewashing the Occupation” ahead of the Ophir Awards, the country’s version of the Academy Awards, later this month. The filmmakers claim that the Shomron (Samaria) Film Fund has one goal: inviting “Israeli filmmakers to actively participate in whitewashing the Occupation in exchange for financial support and prizes.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Cairo-based film marketing and distribution outfit MAD Solutions has acquired rights for Arab territories to Venice competition entry “Les Miens” (“Our Ties”), directed by French actor and filmmaker of Moroccan descent Roschdy Zem. “Our Ties” is co-written by Zem with actor/director Maïwenn (“Polisse,” “Mon Roi”), who co-stars. Zem is a French cinema fixture, having starred in pics including “Other People’s Children” and directed several films including 2019’s “Persona Non Grata.” “Ties” is a drama about family dynamics centered around a man played by Sami Bouajila whose personality changes radically after he suffers a head injury. Zem plays his TV presenter brother.

Alissa Simon Film Critic By ALISSA SIMON  Actress, producer and musician Trace Lysette, known for her recurring role as Shea on all five seasons of Amazon’s “Transparent,” and for her appearance alongside Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu in “Hustlers,” takes her career to a new level with a heart-rending turn in the title role of Venice competition title “Monica.”  • What drew you to this project? What stuck out to me most are the universal themes. A lot of people can relate to a loved one nearing the end of this physical life. Also, just the fact that families in general go through a lot together. There are strains on relationships, drama, humor, sadness… all of these things. This movie just happens to place a trans woman at the center of it all and we get to see it through her eyes. Which unfortunately is very rare and maybe even unheard of in film.  

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Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent After taking a break from his filmmaking career to preside over the French film promotion org Unifrance, Jean-Paul Salomé has made a big comeback with a pair of films with Oscar-nominated French actor Isabelle Huppert. The latest one, “The Sitting Duck,” is world premiering at Venice in the Horizons section. Adapted from Caroline Michel-Aguirre’s book “La Syndicaliste,” “The Sitting Duck” tells the true story of Maureen Kearney, the head union representative of a French multinational nuclear powerhouse who becomes a whistleblower, denouncing top-secret deals that shook the French nuclear sector. One day, Kearney is found in her home, tied to a chair, the letter “A” carved into her abdomen, and a knife handle inserted into her vagina. Traumatized, she has no memory of the assault. However, after an investigation, the police accused her of staging the attack herself.

Shia LaBeouf plays the title character in this period piece, and his face dominates the promotional material, but the latest film from the ridiculously prolific Abel Ferrara, now into his 70s, is really more of an ensemble with a supporting cast that’s near-unknown outside Italy.