What’s in the movies: Austrian empress Sisi, Paul Lee’s latest role, Cannes laureate and other February films

In February, the heroes of rental films, on the eve of formidable changes, strive to preserve, if not their way of life, then loyalty to their values. From February 2 Corset, directed by Marie Kreutzer One of the most attractive figures in Austrian history, Elizabeth of Bavaria, the wife of Emperor Franz Joseph I, was no less popular among cinematographers than among her subjects. Almost two dozen films were shot about Sisi, praising her charm, resilience in family troubles and liberal views. The most famous of them is Ernst Marishka’s trilogy with the participation of Romy Schneider. Marie Kreutzer’s new film has collected quite a collection of awards: the prize for the best performance in the competition program “Special View” of the Cannes International Film Festival, and the prize for the best actress of the European Film Academy, the prize for the best film of the London Film Festival, etc. And, obviously, it is the most original appeal to the image of the Austrian empress thanks to a non-standard approach to the historical genre. The authors of the picture deliberately leave the white threads of modernity, which sewed the fabric of their imperial history. They constantly force the characters to behave contrary to the viewer’s perception of those times. At the same time, the game of conventionality only exacerbates the drama of the story about a woman for whose outlook and emotional impulses the corset of the era turned out to be too tight. The film was presented to the Ukrainian audience for the first time as part of the Kyiv Critics’ Week. “Knock on the Door”, directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The well-known director of deep-thinking thrillers made a film adaptation of the 2018 novel by the American writer Paul Tremblay “The Cabin at the Edge of the World”, which earned recognition from critics and readers. A married gay couple with their daughter spends their vacation in a house lost in the thick of the forest. The loneliness of the heroes is disturbed by four unknown people, who announce that this family is called to save the world from impending doom – to postpone the apocalypse, you only need to sacrifice one of its members. Quite naturally, the couple decides that homophobic psychopaths have visited them, who, as usual, imagine themselves to be the cleaners of civilization, and are determined to fight them back. Meanwhile, the television program is filled with news about hurricanes and earthquakes so powerful that it is difficult to consider them just another consequence of climate change. From February 9, “Alcarras”, directed by Carla Simon Spanish director, whose film “Summer 1993”, released in 2017, received the award for the best debut at the Berlin Film Festival and the jury prize as the best film of the international competition at the Odessa Film Festival. With her second film, Simone already won the main award of the Berlinale, “Golden Bear”. The action unfolds in the Catalan village that gave the name to the film. Alcarras is personified by his characters, peach farmers whose age-old industry is apparently about to end when the landowner decides to go solar. Thanks to masterful dramaturgy and excellent performance by non-professional actors recruited from local residents, Clara Simon creates a gallery of expressive images of villagers, some of whom stubbornly strive to preserve their way of life, while others are ready for inevitable changes. “What’s the point of love?”, director Shekhar Kapur Famous for his film about the famous British queen “Elizabeth”, the Indian director made a film in which the vicissitudes of a romantic comedy suggest a conflict with traditional family values ​​of modern ideas about marriage. The film tells the story of a young British woman, a cinematographer (Lily James) and a doctor (Shazad Latif), whose childhood friendship is put to an unexpected test. The hero’s parents, Pakistanis, oblige him to go to his historical homeland and marry the girl they find for him. His girlfriend, expressing sincere sympathy for such an unusual solution to a matrimonial issue these days and intrigued at the same time, decides to make a film about his wedding odyssey and go with him to Pakistan. The screenwriter of the film, Jemima Goldsmith-Khan, presented her own impressions of her stay in Pakistan in the story. From February 16 “Empire on Fire”, directed by Clovis Kornijak. The film tells the story of an elderly Parisian woman recovering from the loss of her father and the multi-million fortune he left her. And she realizes that these fortunes make those around her, even the closest people, obsessive intriguers. Trying to defend not so much her money as her human dignity, the heroine hires a private detective to fight back against her friends and family with the help of this stranger. The dramatic collisions of this struggle for inheritance reflect the financial crisis of the late 1920s, on the eve of which the action begins. The film was adapted from the second novel of the trilogy “Children of Disaster” by the famous writer, laureate of the Goncourt Prize, Pierre Lemaître. A rather loud film adaptation of the first novel “See you up there” by Albert Dupontel in 2017 about the difficulties of adaptation of veterans was also released in Ukraine. From February 22, “Mirny-21”, directed by Akhtem Seitablayev. The new military drama from the director of “Khaitarma” and “Cyborgs” is dedicated to one of the first episodes of the Russian-Ukrainian war, known as the siege of the Luhansk border base. The action begins in the first days of the disturbing summer of 2014, a few weeks after the first attacks on the Ukrainian border guards, attacks that were perceived by many as nothing more than silly antics of aunts who got hold of assault rifles. However, some of the officers understand that these incidents are related to the dramatic events in Crimea, and are ready to organize resistance to the pro-Russian militants who surrounded the base. The film was supposed to be released in May of last year, but the premiere was delayed due to the large-scale invasion of Russia. The role in the picture was the last for Pavel Lee, who died in March in Irpen, where he participated in the evacuation of the civilian population. Read also: What’s in the cinema: the main Ukrainian film of the year, Spielberg’s autobiography, the roaring twenties and other films of January



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