1. Mommy

Mommy is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Xavier Dolan. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,[4] where it won the Jury Prize.[5] The film won nine Canadian Screen Awardsat the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015, including Best Motion Picture [6] and ten Jutra Awards at the 17th Jutra Awards, including Best Film. It was also Best Foreign Film at the 40th César Awards. Mommy was selected as the Canadian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

Cinematography André Turpin

Plot[edit]

The film stars Anne Dorval as Diane Després, a widowed mother who is overwhelmed by the difficulty of raising her troubled, sometimes violent son Steve (Antoine Olivier Pilon) as a single parent. Després then begins to receive assistance and support from her mysterious new neighbour Kyla (Suzanne Clément).[9]

Cast[edit]

Anne Dorval as Diane "Die" Després

Antoine-Olivier Pilon as Steve Després

Suzanne Clément as Kyla

Alexandre Goyette as Patrick

Patrick Huard as Paul Béliveau

Production[edit]

The film was shot in a 1:1 aspect ratio although most modern films are shot in 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 aspect ratios. On the unusual aspect ratio, Xavier Dolan said, "I know a lot of people are saying, 'Oh, 1:1, how pretentious.' But for me, it seems a more humble and private format, a little more fitting to these lives we're diving into. Cinemascope [2.35:1] would have been extremely pretentious and incompatible for Mommy. To try to get in that apartment and film these people in that aspect ratio would have been unseemly."[10]

Xavier Dolan (born 20 March 1989), sometimes credited as Xavier Dolan-Tadros, is a French-Canadian actor and filmmaker.

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Director

Xavier Dolan, September 2009

Dolan attracted international attention with his first feature film, I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère), which he wrote, directed and starred in. The film premiered at the Director's Fortnight program of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and won the Art Cinema Award, the Prix Regards Jeunes and the SACD Prize.[2] I Killed My Mother was subsequently sold to more than 20 countries.[3]

After I Killed My Mother, Dolan directed his second feature film, Heartbeats (Les Amours imaginaires), which was financed privately.[3] The film follows two friends who are infatuated with the same mysterious young man; inevitably, their friendship suffers. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard category at the 63e Festival de Cannes in May 2010 and received a standing ovation,[4] and won the top prize of the Official Competition at the Sydney Film Festival in June.

His third film, Laurence Anyways, was selected to compete in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. Suzanne Clément's performance in the film won the section's award for Best Actress.[5][6]

In May 2012, Dolan announced that his fourth film would be an adaption of  Michel Marc Bouchard's play Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme).[7] It received its world premiere in the main competition section at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2013 and won the FIPRESCI award.

Dolan's 2014 film, Mommy, shared the Jury Prize in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival with Jean-Luc Godard's film Goodbye to Language (Adieu au langage).[8] The Jury president at the 2014 festival was Jane Campion and, upon receiving the award, Dolan stated: "The Piano [Campion's film] was the first film that I

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watched that truly defined who I am … It made me want to write films for beautiful women with soul and will and strength. To even stand on the same stage as you [Campion] is extraordinary."[9]

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan is an upcoming American drama film[10] directed by Xavier Dolan. The film follows John F. Donovan (Kit Harington), an actor whose life and career are turned upside-down when a gossip columnist (Jessica Chastain) exposes his private correspondence with an 11-year-old fan. The film also stars Susan Sarandonas Donovan's mother and Kathy Bates as his manager. It will be his first English-language work.[11]

It was also announced that Dolan would be adapting the play Juste la fin du Monde by Jean-Luc Lagarce to the screen. Titled It's Only the End of the World, the film stars Marion Cotillard, Gaspard Ulliel, Vincent Cassel, Léa Seydoux and Nathalie Baye. Filming commenced in late May 2015. [12]

He was selected to be on the jury for the main competition section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.[13][14]

As director[edit]

2009: I Killed My Mother

2010: Heartbeats

2012: Laurence Anyways

2013: Tom at the Farm

2014: Mommy

2016: It's Only the End of the World

TBA: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan

Dolan at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.

As actor[edit]

1994: Miséricorde (Misery)

1997: Heads or Tails

2001: La forteresse suspendue (The Suspended Fortress)

2006: Miroirs d'Été

2008: Martyrs

2009: Suzie

2009: I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère)

2010: Heartbeats (Les Amours imaginaires)

2010: Good Neighbours

2013: Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme)

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2014: Miraculum

2014: Elephant Song

2. Tangerines Tangerines (Georgian: მანდარინები, Estonian: Mandariinid) is a 2013 Estonian-

Georgian film, directed, produced and written byZaza Urushadze (Georgian film director and screenwriter). The film carries a pacifist message and examines wartime realities regarding the meaning of how to be humane.[2][3] It was filmed in Guria, Georgia.

It has been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards for 2014 which was won by the film Idafrom Poland.[4][5] It was among the five nominated films at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards for best foreign language film.[6]

Plot[edit]

The story takes place during the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia in a rural village in Abkhazia (Georgia) , where Estonian farmers had settled to tend a tangerine orchard. With the start of hostilities, most of the Estonians who lived in the area returned to their homeland. However, two Estonian men, Ivo (Lembit Ulfsak) and Margus (Elmo Nüganen), remain in the village in order to harvest the season’s crop of tangerines. But they get caught in the crossfire between two small bands of warring soldiers. Only two of the fighters survive: Ahmed (Giorgi Nakashidze), a Chechen mercenary on the Abkhazian side, and Niko (Mikheil Meskhi), a Georgian volunteer. Both are badly wounded, but the two Estonian farmers take them in and begin to nurse them back to health.

Although the two warring soldiers vow to kill each other once they recover, Ivo secures a pledge from both of them not to enact any blood vengeance against each other while they remain under his roof. The two agree, though a great deal of tension continues between them as they begin to recover over several days. Slowly, during their recovery, the two begin to see human frailties in each other and start to recognize that some humanity can be recognized in each others wounds and suffering. When a passing jeep with armed Russian soldiers stops at Ivo's village for a surprise inspection, they falsely accuse the recovering Ahmed of being on the other side and decide to execute him on the spot. Niko sees this from the window in Ivo's house and opens fire on the armed soldiers in order to protect Ahmed. In the ensuing fire-fight a stray bullet kills the innocent Margus, and Niko is also killed - after he steps out of the house - by a wounded officer laying on the ground whom Niko believed he had killed. Ahmed then finishes off the wounded officer, but too late to save Niko.[7]

Ivo and Ahmed remain to bury Margus and Niko. At the grave of Niko, Ahmed admits to Ivo that he has come to deeply admire the old man - Ahmed comes to consider Ivo almost as a father figure. The elderly Ivo relates that the burial of Niko lies next to the grave of his own

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son, who died senselessly early in the war. The two part company, with Ahmed confiding to Ivo that he misses his own family. As he waves good-bye to Ivo in the distance, Ahmed begins his trip home on the military jeep on which he first arrived in the village and which Ivo had kept for him while awaiting Ahmed's recovery.

Directed by Zaza Urushadze

Produced by Ivo Felt, Zaza Urushadze

Written by Zaza Urushadze

Starring Lembit Ulfsak, Elmo Nüganen, Mikheil

Meskhi, Giorgi Nakashidze, Raivo Trass

Music by Niaz Diasamidze

Cinematography Rein Kotov

Distributed by Allfilm, Cinema 24,Samuel Goldwyn

Films[1]

Release dates 15 October 2013

Running time 87 minutes

Country Estonia, Georgia

Language Estonian, Russian

Budget 650 000 €

3. Whiplsah

Whiplash is a 2014 American drama film written and directed by Damien Chazelle based on his experiences in the Princeton High School Studio Band.[3] Starring Miles Teller and J. K. Simmons, the film depicts the relationship between an ambitious jazz student (Teller) and an abusive instructor (Simmons). Paul Reiser and Melissa Benoist co-star as the student's father and love interest respectively. The film opened in limited release domestically in the US and Canada on October 10, 2014, gradually expanding to over 500 screens and finally closing after 24 weeks on March 26, 2015. Over this time the film grossed $33.1 million against a production budget of $3.3 million.

Whiplash premiered in competition in the US Dramatic Category at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 16, 2014, as the festival's opening film.[4] Sony Pictures

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Worldwide acquired the international distribution rights.[5] At the 87th Academy Awards,Whiplash won Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Supporting Actor for Simmons, and was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.

Andrew Neiman is a first-year jazz student at the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory in New York. He has been playing drums from a young age and aspires to become one of the greats like Buddy Rich. Famed conductor Terence Fletcher discovers Andrew practicing in the music room late one night and eventually invites him into his studio band as the alternate for core drummer Carl Tanner. Fletcher is abusive toward his students, mocking and insulting them; when the band rehearses the Hank Levy piece "Whiplash" and Andrew struggles to keep his tempo, Fletcher hurls a chair at him, slaps him, and berates him in front of the class.

At a jazz competition, Andrew accidentally misplaces Carl's sheet music; as Carl cannot play without it, Andrew steps in, telling Fletcher that he can perform "Whiplash" from memory. Fletcher promotes him to core drummer. Soon after, Fletcher recruits Ryan Connolly, the core drummer from Andrew's former lower-level class. Ryan is the less talented drummer, but Fletcher promotes him to core, infuriating Andrew. Determined to impress Fletcher, Andrew practices until his hands bleed and breaks up with his girlfriend Nicole, believing she will distract him.

The next day, Fletcher tearfully reveals in class that a talented former student of his, Sean Casey, has died in a car accident. The band rehearses "Caravan", but Ryan struggles with the tempo. Fletcher auditions Andrew, Ryan and Carl for hours while the class waits outside, and finally gives the position to Andrew.

On the way to a jazz competition, Andrew's bus breaks down. Determined to make the performance, he rents a car but arrives late without his drumsticks. After an argument with Fletcher and a tirade against his fellow musicians, Andrew drives back to the car rental office and retrieves the drumsticks. As he speeds back, his car is hit by a truck. He crawls from the wreckage and arrives on stage badly injured. When he struggles to play "Caravan" due to his injuries, Fletcher stops the band midway through the performance to tell Andrew that he is "done". Andrew attacks Fletcher in front of the audience and is subsequently expelled from Shaffer.

Shortly after, Andrew meets with a lawyer representing the parents of Sean Casey. The lawyer explains that Sean Casey actually hanged himself, having suffered anxiety and depression after joining Fletcher's class. Sean's parents want to prevent Fletcher from teaching. Andrew agrees to testify anonymously and Fletcher is fired.

Months later, Andrew has abandoned music and is working in a restaurant while applying to different colleges. He walks past a jazz club and sees Fletcher performing on stage. Fletcher invites him for drinks and explains that he pushes his students beyond the expected so they might achieve greatness. He invites Andrew to perform at

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a festival concert with his band. Andrew agrees and invites Nicole, but she is in a new relationship and declines.

On stage at the jazz festival, Fletcher reveals that he knew Andrew testified against him. He leads the band in a new piece for which Andrew was not given sheet music. Andrew is humiliated and flees the stage, but as Fletcher is addressing the audience, Andrew returns to the drumset and starts playing "Caravan". The rest of the band joins him, surprising Fletcher, who eventually follows suit. Andrew ends the performance with an extravagant drum solo; Fletcher gives him a nod of approval, which Andrew returns, having pleased his teacher at last.

Early on Chazelle gave J. K. Simmons direction that "I want you to take it past what you think the normal limit would be", telling him: "I don't want to see a human being on-screen anymore. I want to see a monster, a gargoyle, an animal." Many of the band members in the movies were real musicians or music students and Chazelle tried to capture real moments of terror from them. However, Chazelle noted that in between takes Simmons was "as sweet as can be" which Chazelle credits for keeping "the shoot from being nightmarish."[6]

The film was shot in 19 days, with a schedule of 14 hours of filming per day.[14][15] Chazelle was involved in a serious car accident in the third week of shooting and was hospitalized with a diagnosis of possible concussion, but he returned to filming the next day to finish the film in time.[14] Despite being set in New York City, the film was filmed in Los Angeles with a few exterior shots filmed in NYC.[15]

J. K. Simmons was praised for his performance, and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Whiplash also won the 87th Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing and the 87th Academy Award for Best Film Editing.[23]

Damien ChazelleDamien Sayre Chazelle (born January 19, 1985) is an American director and screenwriter.[1] He made his directorial debut with the musical Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009). In 2014, he wrote and directed his second feature film Whiplash, based on his award-winning short film Whiplash (2013). The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on receiving 5 Academy Awardnominations, including Best Picture. Chazelle received an individual nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Personal life[edit]

Chazelle was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on January 19, 1985. He is the son of Celia (Martin), a writer and professor, and French-born computer scientist Bernard Chazelle. Filmmaking was his earliest ambition, but he subsequently wanted to be a musician, and struggled to make it as a jazz drummer in high school at Princeton High School. Chazelle has said he had an intense music teacher, who was the inspiration for the character of Terence Fletcher in Chazelle's breakout film, Whiplash. Unlike the film's

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protagonist Andrew Neiman, however, Chazelle stated that he knew instinctively he never had the talent to be a great musician, and after high school, pursued filmmaking again, describing it as his first love.[2] He attended Harvard University where he concentrated in Visual and Environmental Studies.[3]Chazelle studied filmmaking as an undergraduate at Harvard, graduating in 2007.[4] While at Harvard, he met his former wife, filmmaker Jasmine McGlade. She produced his first feature film, the muscial Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench (2009). To this date, they remain remain creative collaborators.

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