By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com

CINEMA GUILD ACQUIRES BÉLA TARR’S “THE TURIN HORSE”

Posted Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 - 1 Comment »
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Winner of the Jury Grand Prix – Silver Bear at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival, “The Turin Horse” may be Béla Tarr’s Last Film

New York, NY, May 31, 2011 — The Cinema Guild announced today the acquisition of U.S. distribution rights to Béla Tarr’s apocalyptic masterpiece “The Turin Horse.” The deal was negotiated by Ryan Krivoshey of The Cinema Guild with Jean-Christophe Simon of Films Boutique. The film will be released theatrically this winter.

On January 3, 1889 in Turin, Italy, Friedrich Nietzsche steps out of the doorway of number six, Via Carlo Albert. Not far from him, the driver of a hansom cab is having trouble with a stubborn horse. Despite all his urging, the horse refuses to move, whereupon the driver loses his patience and takes his whip to it. Nietzsche comes up to the throng and puts an end to the brutal scene, throwing his arms around the horse’s neck, sobbing. His landlord takes him home, where he lies motionless and silent for two days on a divan until he mutters the obligatory last words, and lives for another ten years, silent and demented, cared for by his mother and sisters. Somewhere in the countryside, the driver of the hansom cab lives with his daughter and the horse. Outside, a windstorm rages.

Widely considered one of the most important filmmakers in world cinema, Béla Tarr’s films include “Almanac of the Fall” (1985), “Damnation” (1988), “Sátántangó” (1994), “Werckmeister Harmonies” (2000) and “The Man from London” (2007). He has said “The Turin Horse” (2011) will be his last film.

“Easily one of the most mesmerizing and singular visions ever put on film, ‘The Turin Horse’ is unlike anything else in theaters,” commented Ryan Krivoshey. “We’re honored to be working with Béla Tarr, especially on what will be the release of his last film.”

The Cinema Guild is a distributor of independent, foreign and documentary films. Upcoming releases include Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz’s “The Interrupters,” Cristi Puiu’s “Aurora” and Vadim Jendreyko’s “The Woman with the Five Elephants.”

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Posted in Movie City News, Press Releases | 1 Comment »

One Response to “CINEMA GUILD ACQUIRES BÉLA TARR’S “THE TURIN HORSE””

  1. Liviu Hodor says:
    September 10, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    Thank you for your interesting post I enjoyed reading it

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon