she ' s lost control ( film )
she’s lost control — video lookbook from she' s lost control on vimeo .
she’s lost control – marquardt’s first feature film – was by all means a collaborative effort .
brooke bloom in she' s lost control. (photo credit: courtesy )
“she’s lost control” opens today, march 20th at made in ny media center by ifp .
but the biggest problem with she' s lost control is the lack of thematic drive ...
after watching the film, she’s lost control at the jerusalem film festival and speaking to its director and screenwriter, anja marquardt, it became clear that her film about sex isn’t at all about sex .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing she' s lost control near you .
she' s lost control
is a quiet triumph, a true herald of a distinctive and necessary voice in cinema .
there are no featured audience reviews yet. click the link below to see what others say about she' s lost control !
i caught up with director anja marquardt and co - star marc menchaca at sxsw, where she’s lost control had its north american premiere .
with some shrewd and swift twists and turns, she' s lost control [... ] is part women' s picture, part sex thriller .
she is unique! ... she has this extraordinary combination of incredible control and simultaneous freedom .
brooke bloom and anja marquardt, “she’s lost control” from the opening minutes of “she’s lost control, ” it’s clear that newcomer anja marquardt’s portrait of a sex surrogate in new york city will take its subject matter seriously, using a studied manner that gives the material fresh context. with brooke bloom’s central performance giving the movie its dramatic anchor, “she’s lost control” strikes a fascinating mood between slow - building angst and cold remove not unlike the joy division song that provides the film’s title. an under - the - radar entry in berlin, “she’s lost control” is poised to receive more attention for both bloom and marquardt at sxsw, where it will make its u. s. debut next month .
though she' s still in high school, she' s got a bright future .
am astutely cold and compelling psychological drama with sex at its core, writer / director anja marquardt’s debut film she’s lost control is an unglossy and taut film that reflects the emotional tension within its central character, a behavioral psychologist specialising in sexual surrogacy .
also competing in the section is “she’s lost control, ” an american film about a sexual surrogate who falls for one of her clients, and brazilian director fellipe barbosa’s upcoming - of - age tale “casa grande. ”
the good news: donations made to she' s lost control are tax - deductible! however, not through this kickstarter campaign, but through our fiscal sponsor .
if you' re a us - tax payer and interested in making a tax - deductible donation for the purposes of she' s lost control, click here .
with some shrewd and swift twists and turns, she’s lost control— about a new york city sex therapist / graduate student and her twisted client—is part women’s picture, part sex thriller and all the underbelly of the sessions, where a wonderful helen hunt fixed her client. but where the sessions was sensual and deeply restorative and went in a single direction, she’s lost control sometimes seems to lose track of itself: perfect for a film about therapy and control issues .
“she’s lost control, ” anja marquardt’s chilly portrait of a behavioral psychologist who works as a sexual surrogate, is so studiedly bleak it will pour ice water on anyone’s fantasies of earning a living as an erotic healer .
from the opening minutes of “she’s lost control, ” it’s clear that anja marquardt ’s portrait of a sex surrogate in new york city will take its subject matter seriously, using a studied manner that gives the material fresh context. with brooke bloom ’s central performance giving the movie its dramatic anchor, “she’s lost control” strikes a fascinating mood between slow - building angst and cold remove not unlike the joy division song that provides its title .
a picture credit and a listing of film credits on march 20 with a review of “she’s lost control, ” using information from a publicist, misidentified the distributor of the movie. it is monument releasing, not visit films .
she' s lost control
sustains a mood of deepening alienation, but the attitude of the movie is too detached for it to be emotionally gripping, and its ending is botched .
stewart, he says ,
is creating the film with me. she' s inventing the mood of the film, she' s inventing the pace of the film — i' m helping her fine - tune it but she follows me, and i follow her .
how will it play? an under - the - radar entry at the berlin film festival, “she’s lost control” is poised to receive more attention at the sxsw film festival, and while theatrical prospects are limited, its ostensibly salacious hook should give it a leg up in ancillary markets .
as an executive producer on she' s lost control you' ll have the rare opportunity to witness first - hand the making of an independent feature film from start to finish. and when it' s time to celebrate - - walk the red carpet with us !
* * * note: even after this kickstarter ends, you can still support she' s lost control by making a tax - deductible donation here. thank you so much! ! * * *
' she’s lost control' is an unsettling indie by first - time writer - director anja marquardt which simply doesn’t settle the many issues it raises. this is a good thing, for it teases you out of thought both during and after the film .
rowling has said that petunia' s name may have come from a character in a public information film that she saw when she was a child .
“as bresson said, every film gets made at least three times: script, shoot, edit, ” said marquardt. “in the case of she’s lost control, i would say we went in with a fairly solid script, but allowed for things to unfold organically. ”
spain’s ’it’s now of never’ and argentina’s ‘no kids’ to be relocated to germany .
ted geoghegan’s mohawk is a survival - of - the - fittest film that’s charged with a thunderous urgency .
anja marquardt' s striking debut feature ,
she' s lost control ,
depicts the slow unraveling of behavioral psychology student and sex surrogate rhona (a remarkable brooke bloom) as she attempts to navigate the clinical intimacies with her clients. simultaneously, she' s trying to finish her graduate degree, fend off family troubles and cope with an apartment that' s a near - slum .
after the second wizarding war she had two grandchildren. she died sometime before 2020 .
she’s lost control is the debut feature of writer / director anja marquardt. originally from germany, marquardt came to new york to get her mfa at nyu’s tisch school of the arts. inspired by an article she read on the use of robots for elder care in japan, marquardt began researching this concept of simulated intimacy and touch, and her research expanded to the topic of surrogate partner therapy. she’s lost control tells the story of a young woman living in new york who earns a living through sexual surrogacy while getting her degree in psychology .
too often, she' s lost control hazily drifts from scene to scene, invested in examining the exhausted topic of what happens when a sex professional finds that the rigid boundary between work and off - duty pleasure has become uncomfortably porous .
“she’s lost control” may share certain thematic elements with 2012’s “ the sessions, ” but marquardt mercifully and mindfully sidesteps sensationalism here, drawing out powerful naturalistic performances from both her leads. striking a delicate balance between clinical precision and emotional sensitivity, the film’s stark aesthetic frequently waxes poetic to delve into the psychology of intimacy and isolation in the big city .
h2n: have either of you seen spike jonze’s film her? i know it’s in a different vein. .
needless to say, ronah’s state of self - assurance is a guise she wears well, even as the movie questions whether her attempts to help others confront their insecurities reflect a state of denial about her own issues. the spell is only broken in the movie’s final minutes, when one twist too many pushes the plot too far. even so, “she’s lost control” shrewdly avoids judgement of its character except to insinuate that she hasn’t fully considered the ramifications of her actions until it’s too late. having established that her version of sex therapy exists in “a safe place” early on, “she’s lost control” ends with the haunting suggestion that such a sanctuary doesn’t exist .
a 3 - d omnibus film collaborated on by three korean filmmakers will open this year’s jeonju international film festival, its organizers announced last week .
all of the above, and once the film is completed we' ll send you a limited edition, pre - release dvd of she' s lost control. complemented by a limited edition storyboard print of a scene from the movie, signed by the artist and the director. and: you' ll get an official thank you in the end credits of the film !
first, she' s off to new orleans to film the fox action picture
underwater ,
in which she' ll play the leader of a crew trapped beneath the ocean .
ronah, fiercely independent and in her 30s, works as a surrogate partner in nyc, teaching her patients the very thing they fear most — to be intimate. a cross between pop - cultural thriller and art house independent, she’s lost control is a film about professional intimacy and the way we connect to other people .
she' s lost control is a sponsored project of fractured atlas, a 501 (c) 3 non - profit arts service organization. donations are tax - deductible to the extent permitted by law. you will be provided with a tax receipt by fractured atlas .
before this outburst, the camera follows ronah around the streets of manhattan, whose architecture reflects her loneliness. “she’s lost control” sustains a mood of deepening alienation, but the attitude of the movie is too detached for it to be emotionally gripping, and its ending is botched .
ronah, fiercely independent and in her 30s, works as a surrogate partner in nyc, teaching her patients the very thing they fear most - - to be intimate. a cross between pop - cultural thriller and art house independent, she' s lost control is a film about professional intimacy and the way we connect to other people. set in a world that most of us aren' t familiar with, we follow ronah as she carefully maintains a clear boundary between her professional intimacy and her own feelings. when she starts working with a new patient, johnny, that line begins to blur. and ronah' s world begins to unravel. she' s lost control is the first feature film by anja marquardt. academy award nominee, oren moverman (the messenger, rampart) is executive producing .
twenty years later, joel schumacher' s film is a classic for all the wrong reasons .
even the stuff that she does when she' s typing — she' s acting ,
says assayas, who filmed stewart' s texting replies in close - up, a tete - a - tete with a ghost in the machine .
marquardt: i’m from berlin originally and i’ve always loved bringing people together on my films. i’d been talking with martin frühmorgen of rotor film for quite a while, and he had done some amazing sound on one of my short films. they came onboard as post - production partners for she’s lost control, and helped me finish the film for the berlin international film festival. they’re an amazing sound facility that anyone in new york with a great project should check out .
anja marquardt’s debut feature, she’s lost control, covers thematic and emotional terrain similar to the sessions, ben lewin’s 2012 drama about the complex relationship between a man with intimacy issues and the sex surrogate who tries to help him. but whereas lewin approached the knotty subject matter with a light touch and a hearty but never - vulgar sense of humor, marquardt’s film takes a more clinical approach as it turns the focus mostly on the surrogate herself .
we couldn' t do this without you, and to show our appreciation, we have lined up some great gifts in return for your generosity. all of our rewards are designed to give you a window into the world of she' s lost control, so they' re connected either to the film itself or the people working on it .
how will we use these funds? every dollar we raise in this campaign will go directly into making she' s lost control. with the funds we' re already raised, it means that: if we reach our goal of $ 50, 000, we can go into production !
( she’s lost control world premiered at the 2014 berlinale. it also screened at the 2014 sxsw film festival, and will have its new york premiere at new directors / new films 2014, the first screening which is on saturday march 29th. visit the film’s facebook page for more information. note: susanna locascio worked on the film as 2nd ad but rather than being a conflict of interest, we felt this would contribute to a more illuminating conversation here, which, after reading said conversation, we feel strongly that you will agree. )
“it was interesting especially to see how different groups of people reacted to the film. at berlin [ international film festival 2014 ] where the film premiered, it was an older audience, and people had very different feelings about the subject matter than in south korea at a film festival with a much younger demographic, ” she said .
it' s no coincidence that as stewart has come into her power as a critically acclaimed indie star, she' s also turned to directing, reaching inward for artistic inspiration. her first short film, a 17 - minute meditation on love and loneliness, was inspired by the poetry she' d been writing for years, processing past experiences and lost loves .
still, even in los angeles she' ll occasionally find a new spot where no one cares that she' s, well, kristen stewart .
mexican director jorge perez solorzano’s perpetual sadness (la tirisia) was named best film at the 55th thessaloniki international film festival (oct 31 - nov 9) winning the golden alexander .
once it becomes evident where she’s lost control is headed, the film becomes vastly less interesting—marquardt hasn’t thought of a unique take on this predictable scenario, she’s merely done an expert job of disguising it. still, the first half does function as a impressive showcase for her formal chops, as well as for bloom’s gorgeously empathetic performance. the actor doles out clues to ronah’s psyche in the most naturalistic way imaginable, while marquardt keeps her moving around so briskly that it’s hard to draw simplistic conclusions; they make a superb team, and the movie feels, for a while, as if it could go practically anywhere. menchaca, by contrast, never succeeds in making johnny more than a sullen cipher at the mercy of an increasingly threadbare script. a climactic moment of violence, likewise, seems obligatory, not inevitable. what she’s lost control really loses is steam, because it’s never particularly invested in its outcome, or even in forward motion. when the mystery’s gone, so is the inspiration .
as its title implies, “she’s lost control” tracks the gradual breakdown of its heroine (brooke bloom), a grad student working as a sexual surrogate in new york. a hundred eighty degrees away from the sentimentality of the similarly themed “the sessions, ” anja marquardt’s debut feature favors cold, clinical compositions, often showing characters from behind; this [ … ]
by virtue of its premise, “she’s lost control” calls to mind certain obvious precedents, but maintains a unique tone. it’s almost too easy to recognize that the quasi - romance at the center of marquardt’s story contains elements of “the sessions” without the excessive sentimentalism, while its vision of professional sexuality suggests “the girlfriend experience” minus the sleaze factor. but marquardt aims more precisely for a character study in which the themes quietly percolate through her subject’s disposition .
boundaries are meant to be broken in “she’s lost control, ” the remarkably sure - footed debut from writer - director anja marquardt. centering on a psychology grad student (brooke bloom) working as a sex surrogate in new york, the film appropriately opens with the eradication of the fourth wall: “i know you pay me for my time, but you can’t control how i feel, ” ronah (bloom) says, her big eyes gazing directly into the camera. by the time we circle back to the conversation in full, it’s revealed that she’s addressing johnny (marc menchaca), a particularly guarded and volatile client who threatens to tip the balance of ronah’s personal and professional life .
marquardt said she was looking for a way to write about this experience when she came across this particular field of therapy .
writer - director anja marquardt ’s austerely elegant first feature is a chilly psychological stroll through the minefield of other people’s emotional damage, with a title that doubles as a plot spoiler as to where the protagonist is headed – even if the film, by contrast, remains tightly wound. while it’s acted with naturalistic intensity by a committed cast, she’s lost control will be too glacial and distancing for most tastes. but the story of a behavioral psychologist specializing in sexual surrogacy provides insight into intriguing characters for whom professional intimacy supplants personal relationships .
she’s lost control raises a lot of genuinely thought - provoking questions, and marquardt’s austere style allows us to draw our own conclusions from what she presents on screen. that makes it even more of a shame that marquardt doesn’t entirely trust her own material and feels the need to puff up her film with relatively artificial conflict that generally comes off as sops to screenwriting conventions. it’s not enough, for instance, that ronah seems emotionally isolated from her family; marquardt also needs to have her mother disappear, leaving her brother in a perpetually panicked state. and then there’s that washing machine in her apartment, which leads to a payoff in the form of a conveniently timed lawsuit that adds insult to injury for the sake of by - the - book third - act conflict. turns out, it’s not only ronah who eventually loses control of her emotions, but the film itself that loses control of the most interesting and provocative threads of its vision .
the sxsw narrative directors eligible for this year’s prize are sarah - violet bliss for fort tilden, kat candler for hellion, leigh janiak for honeymoon, leah meyerhoff for i believe in unicorns, jen mcgowan for kelly & cal, gillian robespierre for obvious child, anja marquardt for she’s lost control, liz tuccillo for take care, and jocelyn towne for we will never have paris .
the title does give things away just a little, but the film is subtly unsettling and shot to reflect a rather bleak new york life. it is at heart a rather cold and perhaps inaccessible film, but there is much to admire in marquardt’s control and precision as well as a well sustained lead performance by lead actress brooke bloom. after premiering in berlin the film screened at sxsw .
marquardt leaves too much intentional ambiguity for her film to fall victim to predictability .
efa, the rotterdam film festival and french srf directors guild step up campaign .
in a world of increasing layers between people, intimacy is perhaps the most elusive ingredient of human interaction. a person can either take the plunge and emotionally connect with their os or, in the case of she’s lost control, psychotherapists can refer patients to sex surrogates. engaging in that line of work, nyc - based ronah puts to use her considerable psych - studies experience, as well as her natural solicitous warmth, to engage in close but professional relationships. until, that is, she meets johnny, and her already fraying control dissolves the thin line between professional and personal intimacy. first - time feature director anja marquardt, however, never loses control, delivering a stylish, deeply unnerving, and profound film on an intangible modern issue .
at its simplest, she’s lost control is a tale of girl meets boy (where “boy” is the lead’s latest client, johnny, played by marc menchaca), and at its potential worst, just another attempt to probe the line between sex and self though the figure of the sex worker. while some of these tropes remain, marquardt leaves too much intentional ambiguity for her film to fall victim to predictability. beginning with the protagonist speaking directly to the camera (“yes, you pay me for my time [ … ] but you can’t control how i feel”), marquardt uses this unconventional open to coyly lay out her film’s themes while still, as the unsettling climax proves, playing the final hand close to her chest .
marquardt demonstrates a sure hand and deft control over the film' s icy tone. desaturated cinematography lends to the effect, and the result is a disquieting and chilling rumination on modern sex, love and relationships that leaves the audience with no easy answers .
when sophie calle’s lover dumped her by email, she turned life into art. fisun güner on a woman who
british pop singer petula clark talks about some of the lessons she' s learned from working in show business .
making a first feature - - it' s a massive challenge! shooting she' s lost control in the ultra - low budget range, it gives us a lot of freedom creatively. we have a first - rate camera and equipment package (arri alexa) already in place, free of charge. and we have a highly professional crew that' s ready to go. we' ve received generous support from the german consulate general in nyc and will do some post - production in berlin, with the fantastic team at rotor film .
movie news, screening invitations and reviews from the world of independent film and beyond .
“we had to recast the film twice with the lead characters, ” said marquardt .
i have always been fascinated by individuals who live on the peripheries of society, be it by circumstance or choice. ronah, the protagonist of she' s lost control, wrestles with her own inability to open up and trust the people in her life. at the same time, she feels compelled to make an impact in her patients' lives. intimacy is one of the hardest things to learn in life and it is becoming increasingly challenging in our modern, technologically - driven society. ultimately, she' s lost control is a story about compassion and reaching out to other human beings. i am very excited to be making my first feature film. and i' m very excited to share it with you. it' s difficult for me to step out in the open and to ask for funding in this manner, but i feel this is a timely and relevant story. i hope that you will be part of it .
... and the many other expenses so that everyone can do their job! the list is (seemingly) endless! because our overall production budget is very small and we' re determined to make she' s lost control for the least amount possible, please know: every dollar counts. as we' re moving forward, we' ll share regular updates with you. and when the film is completed and it' s time for the official festival premiere, you will be the first to know !
the ministry of magic threatened to expel harry, thinking he had done the magic himself. [ 6 ] then in 1993, her sister - in - law marge visited. when marge cruelly insulted harry' s parents, harry accidentally lost control of his magic, which caused her to blow her up like a balloon. vernon insisted harry return her to how she was, but was refused when harry informed him that she deserved what she got. the accidental magic reversal squad later fixed her and modified her memory [ 7 ], ensuring that she remembered nothing of her negative experience with magic .
when harry' s hogwarts letter arrived in 1991, she supported her husband' s decision to keep the truth from harry. they constantly tried to burn or rip up the letters, but they found that nothing was helping to stop the letters coming to harry, so petunia and the rest of the family moved to different places in an effort to outrun this wizarding post, until finally they were tracked down by rubeus hagrid. when hagrid forced the issue of harry' s origin, petunia lost control and let loose all of the resentment she' d held in about lily' s life .
am: yeah, there is the city, and windows and walls sort of play a role visually. and to differentiate between ronah’s interaction with her clients and interaction in her own personal life, there’s definitely a tension going on. the moments between johnny and her, and also the other two clients, are more intimate, and it’s often handheld. she’s freer in the way she uses her own space than she is in say, the therapist’s office, where it’s more contained .
the viewer is initially dropped into scenes with little to no context, contributing to the uneasy, unmoored sensation that mimics the characters' wayward journeys. the cinematic style and themes of urban alienation reflect almost a 1970s thriller quality, though the execution is decidedly modern .
she' s lost control
is a quiet triumph, a true herald of a distinctive and necessary voice in cinema .
world sales on the film, which debuted at cannes, are handled by alpha violet .
award - image post - production up to euros 70. 000 - to the film :
in 1985 actor jan rubes tells peter gzowski about his role in the hollywood film witness .
she is also portrayed to be very obsessive and a neat - freak, as she constantly kept her house clean, even to the point of cleaning the kitchen worktop surfaces before bed. she was not fond of animals either, particularly in 1993, when she flinches at the sight of marge' s dog ripper slobbering on her kitchen floor. she also appears to dislike owls, as she become terrified when a large number of owls come to deliver harry his hogwarts acceptance letter .
maclaine plays harriet lauler, an affluent dame who lives by herself in a beautiful colonial in the town of bristol, where she once led her own advertising agency. harriet possessed talent and drive, and still does, but she suffers from what the film calls “obsessive - compulsive personality disorder, ” which means that she has to control the world around her and do every last thing her way. she has alienated everyone she’s ever known; at one point, a man calls her hateful, and the camera inches down to show us that he’s wearing a priest’s collar. but the way a movie like “the last word” works, this is all our cue to see that, deep down, harriet is nurturing a heart of gold .
she says that the sessions, a film about sexual surrogacy that came out 2012, actually helped in introducing the concept of surrogate - partner therapy to the world .
she stopped and looked back. for a moment harry had the strangest feeling that she wanted to say something to him: she gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech
come swim
premiered in january at the sundance film festival, where stewart was amused by the journalists who attempted to sleuth out which of her famous exes the film was about .
in its engrossing first act, “she’s lost control” proceeds with a straightforward depiction of ronah’s process through glimpses of her interactions with various clients as well as her monotonous employer. while he provides the intellectual framework for her endeavors, it’s the physical strategies she applies to each session that initially create the impression of a productive endeavor: as she convinces one man to explore an isolated part of her body, gaze into her eyes for several seconds at a time, or gently coaxes another to remove his shirt, ronah maintains a clinical disposition that gives these initial scenes the aura of a documentary. then she meets johnny (marc menchaca), an anxiety - riddled, alcoholic doctor whose restrained demeanor echoes her own, and things get complicated .
. that is, if the film maker can raise $ 50, 000 from fan donations .
, the film has raised $ 11, 633 so far. in order to make a contribution
to marquardt, ronah was the manifestation of the most extreme end of professional intimacy. “of course you could say she’s a sex worker, which she is, but it’s not the same thing as having sex for money because the transaction isn’t the same. ”
next for stewart is a lizzie borden biopic she shot opposite chloe sevigny as the infamous hatchet woman, and a jt leroy film in which she' ll play savannah knoop, the woman who posed publicly as the literary sensation later revealed to be a hoax .
as its title implies, “she’s lost control” tracks the gradual breakdown of its heroine (brooke bloom), a grad student working as a sexual surrogate in new york. a hundred eighty degrees away from the sentimentality of the similarly themed “the sessions, ” anja marquardt’s debut feature favors cold, clinical compositions, often showing characters from behind; this austerity, while mirroring the clients’ intimacy issues, also creates an uncomfortable tension with bloom’s open, hopeful expressions. whether marquardt’s radically distanced style reflects a purely aesthetic choice or an attempt to downplay sensationalism, the absence of warmth may chill potential audience response .
back to one podcast: keith poulson on developing as an actor in the ny indie film scene .
production: an slc film, rotor film production. produced by anja marquardt, kiara c. jones, mollye asher. executive producers, oren moverman, dax phelan, scott ryan, james su .
in making she' s lost control, we will experience the inevitable challenges of the filmmaking process. on every film set, there are many elements that aren' t entirely predictable. equipment could malfunction or weather conditions could force us to adjust our shooting schedule. one of the biggest challenges in shooting a feature film on such a modest budget - - we can' t go
over budget
. we won' t be able to add countless shooting days to our schedule, and we won' t be able to re - shoot a scene unless it' s absolutely necessary. however, all of our talented crew members are enthusiastic problem - solvers and have a lot of experience working on film sets of this size. and shooting with a small crew will allow us to move quickly. our fantastic team is 100% committed to meeting all the challenges that may arise and producing a quality film .
am: i think it’s a real balance between men and women who respond to the film strongly. which is great, because i always wanted to make a film that has a reach that transcends any gender stereotyping. i’m happy to see that that works .
in the center of the recent tribeca film festival scandal surrounding his film vaxxed: from cover - up to controversy stands andrew wakefield, discredited and stripped of his medical license... see full summary »
stewart' s also game for a third collaboration. she does, after all, sport a permanent memento of their work together in the form of the tattoo she dreamed up for her
clouds of sils maria
character, which she had etched onto her own forearm before
personal shopper .
petunia frequently referred to witches and wizards as
freaks
. however, never did she forget that harry was her sister' s son. she begrudgingly gave him room and board for sixteen years because she knew that her home was the only place that he could be safe from the hands of voldemort .
you want to be part of the team? become an associate producer and join cast and crew for the official wrap party in nyc. spend a day in the editing room and be the first to see she' s lost control at a rough cut screening in berlin or nyc. you' ll receive an official on - screen associate producer credit on all copies of the film around the world. includes 5 signed limited edition dvds, a bound copy of the script and a print of the official festival poster. (sorry, travel and housing not provided! )
( president), lebanese / canadian toronto programmer rasha salti, serbian film critic miroljub vučković, polish era new horizons film festival artistic director joanna lapinska and greek / german producer thanassis karathanos (twentytwenty vision) .
reviewed at eccles theatre, sundance film festival, january 24, 2017. running time: 108 min .
rufus wainwright tells cbc' s midday what it was like to sign a u. s. record deal .
“every relationship must end. ” this bitter but truthful observation is made by ronah (brooke bloom) midway through anja marquardt’s debut feature, she’s lost control. though decidedly anti - hallmark in tone, ronah’s proclamation isn’t one of pessimism, but an attempt at forcing a realistic outlook—as if through speaking this statement, her own emotional stakes will be lessened. as a sex surrogate who works with men (all notably white and good looking, from the luxurious - haired never - nude to a nebbishly hip introvert) who have “sustained problems with intimacy, ” ronah uses such talking cures to structure her own life. but soon the woman’s grip on her interior life begins to weaken, and, to riff on patsy cline’s great ballad to broken hearts, she falls into enigmatic pieces .
filmmaker: in conducting your research, does physical abuse factor into these therapeutic sessions (the film touches on it toward the end of the film)? there’s always a sense of “we are two strangers alone in a room and this could potentially be a dangerous situation. ”
after accidentally od - ing on sedatives and red wine (or did she kind of mean to do it ?), harriet takes the action that launches the movie into its orbit of ha - ha cute - ville: she decides that she wants to have her newspaper obituary written… right now. while she’s still healthy and hale. she marches into the offices of the bristol gazette, a struggling daily she helped to keep afloat with her advertising, and is introduced to anne sherman (amanda seyfried), the paper’s obituary writer. it’s a ridiculous mission, and these two have nothing in common, which means that within moments their quibbling / affectionate may - december buddy mentorship has been totally established .
an interview with writer / director boots riley about his incendiary new film ,
sorry to bother you .
although the circumstances of the work' s creation were largely fortuitous, calle cannot claim to have been a complete ingénue when it came to art. her father, an oncologist, was an avid collector of conceptual art, and she has always said that the reason she became an artist was that she wanted to seduce him .
but more about the patient in a moment. for a long time, she’s lost control simply follows the mundane day - to - day activities of ronah (brooke bloom), a young woman who tells anyone who asks what she does that she’s working on her master’s degree in behavioral psychology. which is true, but it gradually becomes clear that she also has some sort of sideline involving therapy, talking exclusively with men. marquardt structures the movie in brief, uninflected snippets of conversation and activity, placing equal emphasis (or lack thereof) on everything we see: a scene in which ronah asks a man to swab his mouth and sign a contract is followed by a scene in which she deals with a leak in her shower, or just a shot of her walking briskly down a new york street. gradually, the nature of her profession becomes clear, and she begins to take a special interest in her newest patient, johnny (marc menchaca), who flinches whenever he’s touched, and regards ronah with a daunting mixture of hostility and hope. before long, she’s spying on him at the hospital where he works as an anesthesiologist, and wincing when he shows affection to a female colleague. other aspects of her personal life start spiraling downward as well .
zachary galler ’s camera frequently trails the actors from behind, finding odd framing angles that are both intimate and detached. textured sound, nick carew' s fluid editing and economic use of simon taufique ’s pensive music also contribute to give the small - scale film an assured consistency of tone .
this coldness – reflected in ronah’s bare apartment, stiff camera shots often from behind, and cool colors – is palpable and unnerving, largely because it is contrasted with ronah’s cheerful expressions and the assumingly emotional subject matter of the film .
this year’s jeonju international film festival runs from may 1 - 10 at various venues in the city. for tickets and information, visit www. jiff. or. kr .
in a deleted scene in harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 1, petunia is seen looking very solemn, standing in the middle of the empty living room at privet drive. harry walks down the stairs and stops when he sees her. she says that she has lived in this house for twenty years, and now she' s expected to leave in one night. harry explains how they will torture her, and stop at nothing. petunia replies that she knows what they are capable of, that night at godric' s hollow, harry didn' t just lose a mother, petunia lost a sister. after which, she hurries out the door. this is very likely what petunia was going to say in the book, but chose not to .
since petunia' s sister, lily, was a muggle - born witch, both girls must have a wizarding ancestry, however distantly. this means that petunia was still related to wizards, even if she pretended she did not have a sister .
harriet wants anne to write an obit that makes her sound like god’s gift to humanity. to do that, anne has to observe harriet acting like a good samaritan, has to see her communing with her family, and needs a “wild card” — that special defining quality that lends a person’s life distinction. so harriet does the following wacky things. she looks for a poor, lost inner - city child to rehabilitate, and finds her in brenda (annjewel lee dixon), an f - bomb - dropping nine - year - old angelic urchin with rasta braids who the movie treats like a dancing mascot. she goes to visit the daughter she hasn’t seen in 20 years (anne heche), who turns out to be a chip off the old control freak .
other works in the exhibition show calle submitting her will to that of others in ritualised game - playing. auster gives her a list of things to do in new york in order to make the city a nicer, brighter place: she keeps a note of the quota of smiles given and smiles received. on the turning of her tarot cards, a clairvoyant instructs her to travel to a small french town and delight in the people she meets and the coincidences she observes. she asks strangers in the bronx to lead her to a place of their choosing in their run - down neighbourhood .
i like being in control and i like losing control ,
she says .
following the rules of others is restful. a way not to have to think - to be trapped in a game and to follow it .
filmmaker: speaking of that intense physical confrontation toward the end of the film, it takes place in darkness, only lit by the light cast from a nearby bathroom. it’s a very different choice from the considerable usage of invasive, blinding afternoon sunlight peering in to darkened rooms seen throughout the film .
they were extremely vain, materialistic, and preoccupied with status. they gave dudley everything he wanted, allowing him to rule the house. conversely, they kept strict control over harry; he performed the chores, cooked the meals (or at least breakfast), and spent time otherwise locked in the cupboard under the stairs. after harry re - entered the wizarding world, petunia and vernon' s control over him diminished .
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filmmaker: as you mentioned, the film premiered at the berlinale in 2014 and i first saw the film soon at last year’s new directors / new films festival here in new york. after touring the festival circuit for the first time, have there been any experiences along the way that really stood out ?
from left: park jeong - min, sohn soo - hyeon and lee david, who star in ryu seung - wan, kim tae - yong and han ji - seung’s omnibus film “mad sad bad, ” this year’s opener for the jeonju international film festival, pose for a photo during a press conference in seoul on thursday. (cj e & m; )
the songwriter talks to the cbc' s barbara amiel about america' s young people and his own goals as a performer .
in 2014, when i interviewed uma thurman with childlike glee, she linked the reception of “batman & robin” to audiences’ unwillingness to accept superhero stories that don’t revel in hyper - masculine aesthetics. whether or not thurman’s analysis holds weight, she waxed poetic about the evolution of queer sensibilities in a way that i’ll never forget. thurman resisted applying the word “camp” to “batman & robin, ” and she’s right. true camp has a certain self - awareness that this film distinctly lacks. it’s just a bloated, silly circus designed to produce toys and flashy marketing tie - ins and a best - selling soundtrack featuring jewel, the smashing pumpkins and r. kelly. that doesn’t mean it’s not also a fun relic of hollywood’s evolving blockbuster culture .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
overall, i enjoyed the film, even if, at times, it felt like watching an accident in extremely slow motion .
anja marquardt feels the need to puff up her film with relatively artificial conflict that generally comes off as sops to screenwriting conventions .
golden alexander: theo angelopoulos award to the best film la tirisia (perpetual sadness) by jorge perez solano (mexico) .
in making a film about intimacy, marquardt required a specific kind of actor, and actor chemistry, which made casting difficult .
with some basic knowledge of the subject matter in mind, audiences really connected to the film in different ways, said marquardt .
marnie just graduated from college, drinks likes she' s still in school, and is looking for a temporary job but a permanent boyfriend. she loves a guy who doesn' t love her (?), ping - pongs... see full summary »
i think that for one moment she trembled on the verge of wishing harry luck; that she almost acknowledged that her loathing of his world, and of him, was born out of jealousy. but she couldn’t do it; years of pretending that ‘normal’ was best had hardened her too much .
jiff celebrates its 15th edition this year with 181 films from 44 countries, including 40 world and 50 asian premieres. the annual film festival held in jeonju, north jeolla province, is one of the biggest asian film festivals and a supporter of independent and experimental film projects in korea. it is also known for introducing unconventional works by up - and - coming filmmakers around the world .
the first half functions as an impressive showcase for marquardt' s formal chops, as well as for bloom' s gorgeously empathetic performance .
bound copy of the script _ _ _ _ get your own signed copy of the screenplay! also includes a private link to see the film and behind - the - scenes materials, in addition to an official thank you in the end credits of the film .
marquardt explained that the difficulties in making the film only added to the final result, and did not detract from the filming experience .
marquardt never buries her symbolic subtext very deep, what with a woman who freezes her eggs and a man who ensures that his patients feel nothing. she presents a tightly wound, lonesome heroine whose only promise of intimacy (sex) must be compartmentalized and intellectualized. ronah’s loss of control brings neither catharsis nor liberation, either to the character or to the film. marquardt includes indie helmer lodge kerrigan in her end - credits acknowledgments and her film owes an obvious debt to his unsettling aesthetic. but where kerrigan pushes his minimalism to extremes, marquardt naturalizes it, paradoxically lessening any sense of what has been left out of the emotional equation .
mark menchaca co - stars as rhona' s most problematic client, johnny, and his brooding brutishness speaks to an inner torment on the cusp of violently breaking the surface. bloom does fine, subtle work here, as a woman constantly keeping her emotions tamped down, without any outlet. though she expends much effort to keep things under control, external forces prove difficult to overcome, and the workplace hazards grow more and more dangerous as she falls deeper down the rabbit hole .
anja marquardt: we’ve had some people say, “it’s a suspense drama. ” and other others said, “no, it’s a thriller, ” or “it’s a psychodrama, ” so it’s definitely somewhere in that range. i think tonally it’s its own thing, and leads audiences, hopefully, to where they didn’t expect to go, but i think it’s also not that easily classifiable. i feel like drama is not quite…
she 's lost control is a 2014 american dark drama film written and directed by anja marquardt in her directorial debut , nominated for two film independent spirit awards . the film stars brooke bloom as ronah , a sexual surrogate whose professional intimacy with her male clients has begun to take over her personal life . the film had its world premiere at the 2014 berlin international film festival in february where it won the forum section 's top prize , the cicae international confederation of art cinemas award , being called a " masterpiece " by the jury . one month later , she 's lost control had its north american premiere at the sxsw film festival , followed by a new york premiere at the new directors/new films festival at film society of lincoln center and moma , where it was described as a " stylish , deeply unnerving , and profound film on an intangible modern issue . " the film was released theatrically in the u.s. by monument releasing on march 20 , 2015 , was released theatrically in germany may 14 , 2015 , and was released theatrically in france july 23 , 2015 . 
she's lost control is a 2014 american dark drama film written and directed by anja marquardt in her directorial debut, nominated for two film independent spirit awards. the film stars brooke bloom as ronah, a sexual surrogate whose professional intimacy with her male clients has begun to take over her personal life. the film had its world premiere at the 2014 berlin international film festival in february where it won the forum section's top prize, the cicae international confederation of art cinemas award, being called a " masterpiece " by the jury. one month later, she's lost control had its north american premiere at the sxsw film festival, followed by a new york premiere at the new directors/new films festival at film society of lincoln center and moma, where it was described as a " stylish, deeply unnerving, and profound film on an intangible modern issue. " the film was released theatrically in the u.s. by monument releasing on march 20, 2015, was released theatrically in germany may 14, 2015, and was released theatrically in france july 23, 2015.
she's lost control is a 2014 american dark drama film written and directed by anja marquardt in her directorial debut, nominated for two film independent spirit awards. the film stars brooke bloom as ronah, a sexual surrogate whose professional intimacy with her male clients has begun to take over her personal life. the film had its world premiere at the 2014 berlin international film festival in february where it won the forum section's top prize, the cicae international confederation of art cinemas award, being called a " masterpiece " by the jury. one month later, she's lost control had its north american premiere at the sxsw film festival, followed by a new york premiere at the new directors/new films festival at film society of lincoln center and moma, where it was described as a " stylish, deeply unnerving, and profound film on an intangible modern issue. " the film was released theatrically in the u.s. by monument releasing on march 20, 2015, was released theatrically in germany may 14, 2015, and was released theatrically in france july 23, 2015.