What's On
Dreams
The third installment in the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy is another rich, absorbing tale. 17-year-old Johanne writes a confessional about her flirtation with a (female) teacher. But the writing is too good to stay private...
Riefenstahl
This fascinating documentary is a complex, sad portrait of Adolf Hitler's favourite filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, whose 1938 film Olympia is deemed a masterpiece in some circles, and who spent her last half century disowning her Nazi sympathies.
Afire
Christian Petzold (Transit; Phoenix) returns with this multilayered, serio-comic portrait of a sulky writer struggling with his novel at a friend's summer cottage. An impending deadline guarantees he'll be miserable but not that he'll get any work done.
Image: © Marco Krüger-Schramm
Other People's Children
The luminous Virginie Efira (Madeleine Collins) stars in this affecting portrait of a teacher whose biological clock is ticking. Rachel falls in love with Ali (Roschdy Zem), but their relationship is complicated by his four-year-old daughter Leila.
Blue Horse Opera
Rick Maddocks' visionary song cycle fuses indie, folk, classical music and dance, drawing inspiration from the climate emergency and the cinematic landscapes of spaghetti westerns. Followed by Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown, starring Lee van Cleef.
Two of Us
This French love story is as tense and edgy as a thriller. Nina (Barbara Sukowa) has the apartment adjacent to Madeleine's, which is convenient: the women have been secret lovers for decades. Then a stroke renders Madeleine paralyzed, and Nina is bereft.
George Garzone Live
Saxophone giant George Garzone celebrates free jazz with the help of the explosive Jerry Steinhilber Trio. Their set will be followed by a screening of Tom Surgal's documentary, Fire Music, featuring John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor.
Image: © Lee Tanner, The Jazz Image
Breathless
In anticipation of Richard Linklater's extremely cool Nouvelle Vague (VIFF's opening gala), this is an opportune moment to revisit Godard's iconic debut feature, a criminal romance about a petty criminal (Jean-Paul Belmondo) on the lam with Jean Seberg.
